Rukia woke up as her alarm started buzzing uncontrollably next to her. Turning it off with a slap from her hand, she sat up to see Yume sleeping peacefully next to her in their big bed. A thin eyebrow rose up at this.
She never sleeps longer then me…
"Obaachan," she whispered as she slightly shook her shoulder.
The older woman slightly steered before looking over her shoulder to see a worried look on her granddaughter's face. "What's wrong, dear?"
"Obaachan, are you okay?" she asked.
Yume took in a deep breath before turning over onto her back. After settling into her new position, she weakly smiled at Rukia. "I'm fine. Just tired today, that's all."
But that didn't help much to lessen her worry. "You want me to get you anything?"
"No, I'll be alright," she said before looking passed her to check the time. "Oh my, it's already so late. Don't you have to take Takeshi to the doctor's today?"
Rukia shook her head. "Ichigo can take him since he doesn't have school today. I can stay here if you're not feeling well."
"Nonsense," she replied without missing a beat, "I'm fine. Go before Takeshi-kun starts making a fuss." Before Rukia could say anything back, she slowly got up and started pushing her off the bed. "Go. That'll make me feel better."
Reluctantly, Rukia got off the bed and changed out of her pajamas and into something more outdoorsy. After another push from Yume, she left the room to finish getting ready: brushing her teeth, waking Ichigo, waking Takeshi, etc. After finishing her other tasks, she quickly returned to their bedroom to kneel down in front of Yume who was lying on the bed again. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Yume lightly chuckled as she patted her granddaughter on the head. "You're too young to worry so much. I'll be fine so just go."
"Okay. I have me phone with me so call me if you need anything."
Yume nodded lightly before leaning up to press a light kiss on Rukia's forehead. "I'll see you soon, my little Rukia."
There was a slight pause as Rukia was about to question her grandmother's words when she heard Ichigo calling for her downstairs. With one last look, Rukia stood up to leave.
Yume only watched on with calm eyes as her granddaughter finally left the room. Letting out a sigh, she looked to the side and smiled sadly at the picture on the nightstand. It was taken many years ago when she and her husband first got Rukia. The bright smiles in that picture were something she knew she would never forget.
"Take good care of my granddaughter, Ichigo," she deeply sighed as she closed her eyes to get some peaceful rest.
"You've been frowning all day. Is something wrong?" Ichigo asked as he pushed the stroller down the street.
Rukia sighed as she walked next to him. "It's just that obaachan was acting weird this morning."
"She wasn't awake when I was downstairs," he nodded.
"And she was saying some weird stuff before I left," she added but shook her head to get rid of the weird feeling that was crawling up her chest. "I'm sure it's nothing, right?"
Ichigo looked down at her worried eyes, but didn't have the courage to lie to them. "We'll see what's wrong when we get home."
It was a decent response. "Yeah." She looked down to see Takeshi asleep in the stroller, exhausted after the long trip to the doctors. She smiled sweetly at him. "I'm sure as soon as she sees Takeshi, she'll be alright."
"As long as he doesn't start crying again." Ichigo smiled as his eyes strayed down to his son for a bit. "He hates everyone except his family members."
Rukia chuckled lightly as they came up to the house that they knew so well. As Rukia lifted Takeshi into her arms, Ichigo folded the stroller as they entered the house. "Tadaima," she softly called out.
But instead of being greeted by the usual bunch of happy people, a small sniffling noise came from the living room. Confused, they both made their way to the sound—after putting the stroller away—to see Yuzu crying softly while Karin was trying her best to comfort her.
"What's going on?" Ichigo frowned.
Both looked up but when Yuzu saw Rukia she just started crying harder so Karin answered instead. "Ichi-nii…Rukia-nee…" she started, but stopped when her throat suddenly became dry.
Rukia gently handed the sleeping baby to Ichigo as she approached the sisters. "What's wrong? You can tell us."
Karin looked down as Yuzu's cries got louder. "Karakura…General Hospital," she whispered.
The frown deepened. "What?"
"Yume-obaasan…"
Violet eyes widened in sudden realization. She gapped at them in disbelief as she started to choke up. "O-Obaachan…She's at the hospital?"
No longer trusting her voice Karin merely nodded.
"Why?" Ichigo asked. But not waiting for an answer Rukia jumped up and ran out of the house. "Rukia!" he called out but she ignored him. Quickly handing Yuzu the baby, he ran after her. "Wait!" He finally caught up to her, stopping her with a firm grip on her arm. "Stop running. We can the—" his words died off as he noticed the distress look on her face.
"Obaachan," she choked, face thoroughly wet with tears that suddenly started to fall. "She's…she might be…"
"Calm down," he told her, although he knew it would go on deaf ears. "You can't go by yourself in this state. Let's catch a cab, okay?"
She bluntly nodded as she allowed him to lead her. They half walked and half jogged until they could catch a cab to take them to the hospital. It was crazy to think that while they were at a children's clinic on the other side of town, Yume was taken to the General Hospital for who knew what reasons. Rukia was heaving like she had ran a marathon and nothing was calming down her nerves, not even Ichigo's comforting hand.
The passing scenery didn't register in her mind. In fact, nothing was really making sense to her. Why would Yume suddenly get sick when she seemed perfectly fine the day before? Tears sprang up even more when Rukia thought about how much her grandmother must have been hiding her pain so nobody would notice. And she had been too busy with the baby to have figured this out sooner.
The moment the cab stopped in front of the hospital, she didn't wait to make sure Ichigo paid the driver but instead just ran out, rushing to the emergency room.
Straight?
Left?
Right?
Rukia looked around, not sure which way to go. She couldn't even read the signs with her head all messed up.
"Rukia!" Ichigo ran up to her. "I thought I told you not to—"
"I don't know where to go," she whimpered as she looked up at him with hopeless eyes. "Ichigo, where do I go? Where's obaachan?"
A lump formed in his throat as Ichigo saw the helpless look. "Wait," he whispered as he pulled out his phone and called his father. Rukia watched as he quietly asked where Yume was. He quickly hung up when he got his answer before grabbing her hand and running down the hall to their left.
It felt like they were running around in a maze, but Rukia didn't care. She knew Ichigo would take her to her grandmother without getting lost. They passed room after room, doctors after patients as they continued to run to where her biggest fear lied.
They skidded to a halt when they noticed Isshin talking to someone in front of a closed door. Ichigo could tell the other man was Uryuu's father, Ishida Ryuuken, the Chief of Medicine. None of them said anything as Isshin looked up when he noticed their presence. But the look he was giving them showed no surprise.
It was sorrowful.
Tears started to fall again as Rukia took a shaking step forward. "Ku-Kurosaki-san?"
Isshin looked at her before closing his eyes to sigh. Then, he slowly shook his head as he looked up to stare at the room behind him.
Rukia's eyes immediately darted over to the said room and through the blinds of the window she noticed a figure lying calmly on the bed with a long piece of white cloth covering her entire body.
"O.." she started but her voice started to choke and her vision was becoming blurry. "Oba…Obaachan…"
Ichigo looked down, unsure of how to deal with seeing Yume like that.
Dead.
Just like his mother.
He cringed at the thought. But he was suddenly pulled out of it when he felt Rukia's hand leaving his grip as she took wobbly steps toward the door. "Rukia," he softly called out to her but she didn't respond.
"Obaachan," she said again, but this time louder.
"Rukia, stop." He grabbed her arm and tried to hold her back but she pushed him away as she continued to mumble out for her grandmother. He looked up to ask help from his father, who stepped forward and stood in front of the door.
"Rukia-chan, I don't think you should go in right now—"
"Obaachan!" Rukia shouted trying to push pass him.
"Rukia!" Ichigo grabbed her and dragged her away from the door. "Listen to me. Wait until you calm down—"
"OBAACHAN!"
Ichigo bit his lower lip as he held her back, ignoring the pain whenever she punched and kicked him in hopes of reaching for her grandmother. He shoved her tear-stained face against his chest and held her tightly against him. "Rukia—"
"LET ME GO!" she screamed, "I NEED TO GET TO HER!"
"RUKIA!" he screamed this time, grabbing both sides of her face to force her focus on him. The look she gave him broke his heart. "Calm down. Please."
But the woman shook her head as more tears pulled out. "Obaachan," she whimpered, "I want her back."
"I'm sorry…"
"Ichigo, please," she choked as her throat started to close up, "Obaachan—"
But he quickly stopped her as he pulled her face back into his chest, allowing her to freely cry out her heart at the lost of the most important person who saved her from her unhappy childhood in the orphanage. And the one person who accepted her back when she left her unhappy life with her foster family.
Ichigo allowed Rukia to curse, scream and cry at the loss of such a beautiful person.
"Rukia," Ichigo softly called out as he opened the door to the room she had used to share with her grandmother.
The said woman was curled up into a ball on her bed, back facing him, not even acknowledging him as he entered without permission.
Feeling the depressing aura around her, he walked over until he was sitting behind her. He lifted his hand and was about to place it on her shoulder but thought better of it and retracted his arm. The two remained quiet, not daring to move as time ticked by. Ichigo looked over at the bedside table where pictures of Yume were still situated up.
Staring at her happy expression in the picture, Ichigo knew what he had to do.
"Rukia," he started, "You know Yume-san wouldn't want you to be like this."
"…" she still didn't respond.
The orange head sighed. "Takeshi is looking for you." This time Rukia slightly flinched. He got it as a sign that she was listening so he continued. "Yume-san wouldn't be happy with you if you decided to ignore our child."
He then heard her breathing starting to increase, obviously close to tears. Sighing once again, he peered out the window to see the rain pounding against the glass. It's been several days since Yume's funeral and it's been raining ever since then. It was almost crying the tears Rukia wasn't able to let out. She'd been in a zombie-like state ever since Yume passed away that even her skin felt cold. The gloomy atmosphere did nothing to help Rukia get better that it was starting to affect Takeshi.
With his young mother locking herself in her room, barely eating or sleeping, he was being deprived of his mother's love. The baby cried and wouldn't accept anyone's comforts besides that of his father. But Ichigo knew that he wasn't Rukia, which was distressing to the baby. So he had to do something before both Rukia and Takeshi got sick.
"Rukia…please. If not for me then for Takeshi's sake please come out and eat something," he pleaded.
He waited what seemed like forever until he heard her tiny, weak voice. "Ichigo…"
He thanked Yume up above for getting through to her. "Yeah?"
"How did you get over your mother's death?"
It was an unexpected question that completely floored him. Ichigo remained still in his spot, unable to say anything back.
"How did you do it?" she continued, "Because I really need help…"
Clearing his throat, Ichigo sat at the edge of the bed and stared at his hands. Horrible flashbacks were running through his minds of those dreadful days. "I…I don't know."
"…Hmm," she merely sighed.
"But…I think—" Ichigo swallowed the lump in his throat as he tried to summon all his courage to answer her. "I think I was finally able to do it…because I knew 'kachan wouldn't have wanted me to kill myself because of it. And even if I succeeded, I knew she wouldn't have been happy to see me in the afterlife so quickly." He unconsciously smiled at the thought.
Rukia made a noise close to a snort.
He stared at her for a second before finally mustering the courage to lie behind her thin body and wrap an arm around her waist. "Please come back to us."
At the feeling of his warm embrace, Rukia felt something she thought she had lost the moment her grandmother had died.
Life.
"Ichigo," she whimpered before turning around. Without showing her face, she quickly buried herself into his chest, crying out the tears she's been holding for days. "It hurts."
"I know," he said as he held her tightly. "I know, but you have to be strong. You're a mother now."
"B-but," she stuttered through her pain, "But I miss her!"
"Me too. We all do." He pulled back a little to finally see her pale face for what seems like days. He leaned forward and placed a warm kiss on her forehead. "But no matter how much we miss her, she won't come back. So the only thing we can do is live our lives the way she would have wanted us to. So please…come back to me."
Rukia sobbed freely as she clung onto him, afraid she might lose her sanity if she was to let go. And Ichigo allowed her, happy to know that he was bringing some sort of comfort to the distraught woman.
"I'm scared," she whimpered.
"I know," he replied.
"Stay with me?"
"Always."
A/N: Unnecessary tearjerker huh? But I had to add it because it was included in the sequel. I really didn't want to kill Yume off but I had not choice. T.T
I really don't have much to say in here. Yume passed away and Rukia is suffering because of it. But Ichigo-her knight in shiny black armor-comes and helps her through it. Personally, I like the part about him talking about his mother because it shows how much he trusts her with his feelings. They are getting closer and I can't wait to finish this story!
Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!
Preview for next chapter:
Ichigo and Rukia takes Takeshi to an event at the twin's school but suddenly comes across some drama (A/N: Not that great of a chapter but I have my reasons for including this, which you guys will find out later)
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