Community: Autumnwrite
Challenge: 24/50 (write 50 stories using 50 prompts in 48 hours)
Prompt: #39 Haunting suspicion
Pairing: IchiRuki
Beta Reader: Lover of Stories 24
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Haunted
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She's a ghost, Ichigo thinks, She's a ghost. There isn't anything else he immediately decides on when he sees the girl for the first time. Her skin is pale, a pale that frightens him for a moment before he realizes that she is another apparition he sees daily, and her hair is too dark.
She's a walking corpse and she's in his room.
"Get out." He refrains from punching her because his sister is about to open the door. "Now."
She slowly turns her head, her vacant eyes staring at him, and then she raises an eyebrow.
"Who are you telling to leave?" she finally speaks, the door still frozen between being open and left alone.
"You," he growls, irritated by her arrogant tone and held up nose, as though he is below her. Clenching his hand, he punches her in the stomach and sends her flying into a wall. His sister will just have to deal with watching him destroy something she can't see.
"Boy," she coughs as she crawls out of the crater her body has created, "you have a lot to learn before you can even think of touching me again."
"Yeah?" He dashes to her wounded figure, ready to attack again, but she disappears, a bird in flight, and re-appears standing with her back touching his.
"You're too slow," she mocks and she has him tied up on the floor a few seconds later.
Bending down to her knees, she jerks his head up by his hair and stares into his eyes. There is an angry look in them, one of a wild animal, and she lets out a low chuckle.
"All right." She releases his head, letting it bang into the floor. "For the moment, I'll go."
A few seconds after she is gone, Yuzu opens the door.
-x-
Ichigo eats lunch on the school's roof the next day, hardly paying attention to the words that are said around him as he stares distractedly into the distance. He still doesn't understand the girl's odd actions and words, the reason why she was even in his room in the first place.
As he stares down at the area where the girls usually eat, he notices a blurry figure in the trees. A flash of black and white, colours washed out.
It couldn't be, but he sees a glimpse of pasty skin and knows it has to be her.
Leaving the roof suddenly, Ichigo runs down the stairs and out to the school grounds.
"What do you want with me?" he challenges her to come out of hiding.
"You?" She appears in front of him, smirking. "So arrogant, what makes you think that I'm here for you?"
He tries to calm down but can't quite manage to. Instead, he punches at her again.
This time she dodges.
"If things don't go your way, you punch? And you do it to your elders too?" She clucks her tongue and, before he knows it, he's flying through the air. "Really, attacking me."
"Like you're special yourself." He wipes the blood off his jaw and crouches, ready to pounce.
"What, want to face me again?" She laughs before turning around. "I'll fight you when you get stronger."
He misses the downcast eyes and small frown she has on her face as she says those words. He also misses the quiet mumble of, "You were stronger than me before."
-x-
"Hello," she blinks in surprise when she notices his still figure standing beside her. His hands are clenched and his face is in a surprised yet angry scowl.
"What are you doing in my closet?" he asks, his voice a little high from the shock of finding a teenage girl in his room.
"Oh? Well, it's my bedroom now." She pats a bag at her feet, taking out a toothbrush. "Is it already time to sleep?"
"…" He stares at her for a moment before shouting, "GET OUT OF MY BEDROOM, YOU…PERVERT."
"Me? The pervert?" She laughs, a coarse sound. "And what does that make you, with all those dirty magazines under your bed?"
"How—no, actually, who cares about that." Picking her up by the scruff of her neck, he marches to his door. "I'm getting rid of you now."
"Brave words, though I doubt you'll get very far." A hand is placed on his and he winces at the force behind it. Looking at the girl's face, he notices it soften. "I…I—"
"Ichigo!" his sister yells and he momentarily relaxes his hold.
He isn't surprised to find out she's escaped from his hands again.
What does surprise him is the empty feeling he gets at not seeing her in front of him.
-x-
He slowly gets used to having the girl watching him. It doesn't matter where he is or what he's doing, be it in a classroom or helping in the clinic. At all times, he feels her presence somewhere nearby.
Always watching but never speaking. She has never finished what she was going to say earlier and it just leaves him questions that aren't answered.
Who are you? Why are you following me? Why just me? Why can't you leave?
Most importantly, Why is your presence comforting? Why don't I fear you?
Why do I want you to stay?
-x-
"I'm hungry," she announces and he stares at her. By this time, he's just letting her do what she wishes. There's no point in getting rid of a ghost that will end up returning soon enough.
"What do you expect me to do about it? You're not our guest!" he snorts at her indignant face before going back to reading his book.
"Did you just refuse to get me food?" She twitches slightly when he ignores her. "Go get me some dinner!" she growls, grabbing his book.
Or at least, she tries to. Ichigo dodges her attack, holding the book above her short body, and taunts her.
"Try to grab it now, shorty," he mocks, grinning as she jumps in an attempt to grab the book, "Too bad about your height."
She jumps one last time before standing in front of him, arms crossed and a glare in her eyes.
"What can you do about your height anyways?" He laughs at her.
"You're an idiot, you know that?" she replies, kicking him right where it hurts. Releasing the book, he doubles over in pain.
"Ah, wisdom before brawn," she crows, standing over his curled-up figure. Suddenly, fingers snatch at her right ankle and she goes tumbling down too.
"WHY YOU, THAT HURT!" she shouts at him, rubbing her nose as she has landed on her face.
"YOU HIT ME FIRST. AND THAT HURTS EVEN MORE," he yells back.
"THAT'S IT. I'VE HAD IT WITH BEING NICE."
"Oh, so you were nice? You—" He pauses, thinking, and then looks back at her, the anger gone from his face. "Your name."
"What about it?" She raises an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden change of heart.
"You never told me your name. What is it?" There is something in him that is waiting impatiently for the answer, a part of him that is like a ghost himself. Her name is a key to revealing that part, he knows instinctively, but it will only tell him so much.
She freezes at his question, a pained look flashing across her face for a second before the usual passive façade returns.
"You know it already," she replies cryptically, getting up. "I'm not hungry anymore."
With that, she disappears, leaving him alone in the room with yet another question.
-x-
The rain is pouring, she notices, slowly and coolly. The clouds are grey, a blanket covering the sky, and the air is refreshing. The earth is being replenished and revived, ready to live through another period of harsh sun and baking heat.
"What are you staring at?" Ichigo asks, coming into the room. He drops his bag on the floor before walking to her side.
"The rain," she replies, her voice calm even though her heart is beatingbeatingbeating because he is close (too close, not close enough) and she can feel the warmth radiating off him. He's a sun that she draws to whenever she feels too cold and it hurts to not be able to do that again.
Unnoticeably, she steps a little closer to him before moving further away. It won't do to fail now, not when she's been working so hard at acting indifferent.
If (when) he remembers, it will have to be on his own. She knows that—it is a part of the agreement—but she wants to just shake his head until he realizes who she is again.
"The rain?" he questions, looking out the window. "It's rather boring and depressing."
"No." She glances at his face. "It's actually very revealing. It shows things that you can't normally see."
"Like what?" he scoffs.
"You'll see." She gives a mysterious smile.
Confused and annoyed, he snorts. "Right. Whatever. Come down while you can—they are out and you can eat now." He turns away and leaves, her eyes following his figure and her ears listening to him walk down the steps.
His words remind her of a different place and a different time, of a boy that is like him and yet not like him.
Looking out the window again, she muses, "It's true what they say about the rain. It brings back memories that are rather left forgotten."
"Hungry, right?"
"Stop mocking me. I know you're eating that apple just to annoy me."
"Jealous? Deal with it."
"…"
"Though, I suppose no one's home so if you wanted to eat…"
-x-
"Why are you here?" he asks after a month of being followed, both in reality and in his dreams. At night, she'd appear in the black void of his mind, angry, happy, laughing and crying. She'd be doing all sorts of things and he is tired of wondering, of wondering why it feels natural to be teasing her and disturbing to see her disappear in front of his eyes.
"I…" She looks at him then, her eyes a jagged glass. "I thought that you'd remember by now."
"Well, I don't."
"You're an idiot."
He starts to argue back but freezes at her next words.
"After all, you thought that this would bring me closer to you."
"What?" A question with a million different meanings but one desire, tell me. Tell me why I've changed since meeting you but feel as though I'm just discovering another side of me. Tell me why it feels as though you've left me and just returned, why it seems as though I know you. Tell me.
"You…You always do things like this. Selfish things and making that plan to get me to come back—that was the worst thing you could have ever done. Idiot. I know you don't consider the consequences, that you just jump into things." She glares at him. "Can't you ever think things out?"
"I…" For once, he is at a loss for words. She looks as though she's waiting for something, but he doesn't know what she wants.
"Oh well, whatever," she says with a shrug of her shoulders, looking disappointed, "I guess it's best for me to go back. You're boring to follow."
His chest tightens—why?—and he grabs her wrist before she can leave.
"Hey, you're an idiot too, you know?" She scoffs at that but he continues anyways, "Spending all this time here—why don't you just stay a little longer. It's not like it'll hurt you."
"Oh? I could be spending my time doing more interesting things. Why should I stay here for you?"
"I still have some questions left unanswered," he bluntly states, not putting the stirring he feels into words. It's not anything that he can name anyways, just something from days gone by and memories long forgotten.
"Oh." She looks at the floor, her eyebrows furrowed, before snorting. "You never had a way with words. Seems like I still need to teach you some manners."
"Do you even have any, Rukia?" Her name slips off his tongue and he wonders how he knows it.
She doesn't look surprised or anything. Instead, she just replies, "Of course I don't, idiot. I have to spend my time with you."
It's a simple answer, a start, but he's fine with that. He's always liked simple things.
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A/N: My first IchiRuki. I hope Ichigo is in character. *is worried* I also hope my idea is clear, about Rukia being brought back and Ichigo losing his memories.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
Review!