Name: Shadows In The Night
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Angst/Drama/Action/Adventure
Pairings: Rukia/Ichigo
Summary: Rukia is pregnant. The only problem is, this pregnancy is banned by the Soul Society. Now, in order to save Rukia and his child, Ichigo is forced to hide them, running away from everything he's ever known and loved.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters.Thanks to CrystalRaindrop007 for Beta'ing!
Shadows In The Night — I
Ichigo woke to retching sounds coming from his bathroom. Sighing sleepily, he pulled himself from his warm bed and walked, barefoot, across the freezing January floor to the bathroom door, which he nudged open with his elbow. He saw Rukia sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, having just finished throwing up any traces of everything she had eaten in the last twenty-four hours. She was shivering badly, and her teeth were chattering. Her two piece Bunny pajamas hung loosely around her small frame as she gasped for breath.
"Hey, you OK?" Ichigo asked, leaning down beside her and placing his hand on her shoulder. She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself and clenching her teeth hard in attempt to stop their chattering.
"Let's get you back to bed," Ichigo said, helping her to her feet. She leaned heavily on him as he led her out of the bathroom, flushing the toilet and turning out the light on the way out of the bedroom.
"I-Ichigo, I d-don't . . ."
But before she could finished her sentence, she leaned over and threw up all over the floor. Ichigo, rather than being annoyed like he was when she usually did something like this, was concerned. Sure, Rukia had been sick several times in the time she had spent in the living world, but never this bad.
"Rukia, you should see my dad," Ichigo said, bending down beside her on the floor. She just nodded, leaning her head against his chest, breathing deeply. Ichigo felt her forehead, which wasn't even slightly warm. Which made him worry more. He seemed to worry a lot more than usual since they had started going out fourteen months ago. Needless to say, their relationship had expanded further than just dating, which didn't please several people.
Ten minutes later, after helping Rukia into a loose shirt and sweatpants of his own, as all her pajamas were dirty, Ichigo walked downstairs to see his little sisters, now fourteen, sitting at the kitchen table. (A/N: Them being 14 makes Ichigo 19)
"Morning, Ichigo!" Yuzu said happily, waving her cooking spoon around.
"Morning, Yuzu. Do you know where dad is?" Ichigo asked, picking up a piece of toast and chewing on it.
"Yeah, he's in the living room. Where's Rukia this morning?"
"Um ... she's not feeling well," Ichigo answered simply, walking into the living room to find his dad sitting on the couch. "Dad? Rukia's sick, could you take a look at her?"
In the three years since Ichigo had first met Rukia, much had changed. After getting back from the Soul Society, Rukia and Ichigo had decided it wasn't healthy for Rukia to be living in his closet. So they had decided to just tell Yuzu what he and Rukia were: Shinigami. They only had to tell Yuzu, because Karin already knew, and as it turned out, his dad did, too. Everyone took it better than expected. Yuzu was surprised, and showed it, Karin was surprised that they were actually telling her, and his dad . . . well, he was the same as always.
"Sick?" Isshin asked, turning around.
"Uh, yeah. She's throwing up, but she doesn't seem to have a fever. I'm a little worried, because she can't even walk in a straight line," Ichigo said, running a hand through his hair.
"OK, let's go take a look," Isshin said, pulling himself from his position on the couch. He followed the anxious Ichigo up the stairs and into the room that Rukia and Ichigo shared. Everyone had decided it would be better than Yuzu, Karin and Rukia sharing. Seeing as how Ichigo and his father had to work for hours just to get two beds into the room. Three just wasn't going to happen. It also made sense since Rukia and Ichigo were . . . Involved.
Ichigo opened the door to his room and walked inside, leading his dad over to his bed, which Rukia was laying on because her own bed had become the victim of nausea.
Rukia was curled into a tiny ball, Ichigo's blankets pulled tightly around her. She was sleeping, her black hair half-covering her face. Ichigo walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching over and shaking her gently. She opened her eyes and looked around, closing them again quickly against the light.
"My dad's going to take a look at you. You just have to be awake for a few minutes, then you can go back to sleep," Ichigo promised, helping her sit up against his pillows. Isshin smiled and walked over, sitting beside Ichigo and Rukia.
"What are your symptoms?" he asked gently, pulling out a thermometer from his coat pocket. He walked into Ichigo's bathroom and rinsed it with alcohal before sticking it in Rukia's mouth. She talked around it.
"Nausea, h-headache, and I'm s-so tired," Rukia said, shivering. She wrapped her arms around herself. Ichigo pulled the extra blanket from the floor of the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, rubbing her arm in attempt to warm her.
The thermometer beeped and Isshin took it from her mouth.
"Well, you don't have a fever. Rukia, would you mind if I took some blood to run a few tests on?"
Rukia shook her head. Isshin nodded and walked out of the room to get the stuff he would need, saying he would be right back.
Ichigo turned to Rukia.
"Are you feeling any better?" he asked, not really expecting a positive answer. Rukia shook her head and leaned back into Ichigo's chest, burying her face in the crook of his arm.
Five minutes later, Isshin was back and ready to take a blood sample. Rukia hated needles, as Ichigo had found out when she needed a shot after stepping on a rusty nail. He held her hand as his father took the blood he would need. Isshin then slipped the needle from her skin, pressing a cotten ball to the wound. He had Ichigo hold it in place while he put a band aid over it.
"Ichigo, let her sleep for now. I'm gonna go run those tests. Also, you need to call the school and tell them that Rukia won't be in today, and you . . ." Isshin cut himself off, looking questioningly at his son. Ichigo shook his head.
"I want to stay here," he said.
"OK. Well, I should be done in a few hours."
Ichigo nodded. His dad left the room.
"You should sleep now," Ichigo said, helping Rukia lay back down. She nodded, leaning back into the thick pillows with a happy sigh.
Ichigo walked out of the room and down the stairs to phone the school. Yuzu and Karin had already left on their bus. Ichigo was glad it was his last year. He would have finished a year ago, but a whole two hundred and ninety-nine days in the Soul Society helping with some Hollow/Shinigami war had totally wrecked his school life. So now, he was forced into school an extra year.
Bummer.
Two hours later, Isshin walked into the living room to find it empty. Looking for Ichigo, he began roaming the house, and finally found him in his room, sitting at Rukia's side. She was awake, and they were talking in low voices.
"Ichigo, can I have a word?" Isshin asked, breaking into their conversation. Ichigo nodded and stood up, walking out into the hall with his dad.
"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked, worried. "It's nothing serious, right?"
"Depends."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, are you talking life-altering serious, or life and death serious?"
"Uh . . ."
"Never mind," his dad said. He looked Ichigo in the eye. And Ichigo made a mental note to figure out why his dad looked to serious. He hadn't looked that way since the day that Ichigo had told him about his and Rukia's being Shinigami. "Ichigo, this is serious!"
"That was what I was asking!" Ichigo said. He reached behind him and pulled his door closed, then turned back to his dad.
"No, Ichigo, this is more than serious." Isshin ran a hand through his hair, sighing deeply.
"What. Is. It?" Ichigo asked sternly. He was worried. What if Rukia was going to die or something?
"Rukia's . . ."
Ichigo growled as his dad stopped talking.
"Rukia's pregnant."
Ichigo didn't speak. He just stood there with his mouth hanging open in disbelief.
"Y-you are kidding, right?" Ichigo said, finally finding his voice. But he already knew from the look on his dad's face that he was dead serious.
"Ichigo, why didn't you use protection?" Isshin asked. "This is going to change your lives, you do know this right? This is big. No, huge. This isn't something that's going to go away overnight. This will change your whole life."
"I know, dad. Believe me, I know," Ichigo said, running a hand through his hair. He was beyond words. Pregnant? But how? They had used protection. There was no logical reason that it should have been happening! He could fight Hollows, he could train under a manic man that wore sandals that could have been used for boat docks, and he could face a Shinigami Captain, but a baby? How the hell was he going to pull that one off?
His more logical side, which rarely showed itself, began to shine through.
"First, I should tell Rukia. We'll go from there," Ichigo said, breathing in deeply. He looked at his father. "Um . . . Can I do it alone?"
"Sure. I'll be back in twenty minutes. I expect you to have told her by then. If you haven't, I will. Then I want some answers, clear?"
Ichigo nodded numbly and walked back inside his room. He found Rukia sitting in the bed, the window open and her head stuck out of it. The gentle wind was blowing her hair all around.
"Rukia?" Ichigo said softly, trying not to startle her too much. She turned around, her eyes wide for a second. She then relaxed.
"Ichigo, what did your dad say?" Rukia asked, concern showing clearly in her eyes.
"W-well . . ." Ichigo ran a hand through his hair and walked over to the bed, sitting down beside Rukia. She turned around to face him, her knees coming up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them, looking at Ichigo expectantly.
He figured it would be best to just say it. Putting it off wasn't going to help at all.
"Rukia, you're pregnant."
Rukia looked shocked. Her eyes grew wide and her voice was shaky.
"B-but . . . n-no, it can't be . . ."
Ichigo put a hand on her shoulder. What if she decided she didn't want the baby? If that was what Rukia truly wanted, he couldn't do anything to stop her. She knew about abortion; she had been in the living world long enough to learn that. He looked down at the floor, his eyes going misty. He had only known about the baby for five minutes, but he already felt that, if Rukia were to . . .
No, he told himself, he couldn't think like that. Not until he knew for sure what Rukia wanted.
"You don't want the baby, huh?" Ichigo asked, not meeting her eyes, for his own were beginning to fill with tears.
"I-it's not that I don't want it . . . It's . . . " Rukia stopped talking, her own eyes falling to the floor. Taking a deep breath, she gathered all of her courage to speak. "The Soul Society won't allow it. A Shinigami and a human having a child together, that is."
"Why the hell not?" Ichigo yelled.
"Because the baby's power would be uncontrollable. The power of a Shinigami and the power of a human with high spiritual awareness, and a baby being born between the two is unthinkable. There would be no limit to the child's power," Rukia explained, her own tears showing now.
"Well, to heck with them. Rukia, look at me," Ichigo said firmly, reaching a hand out. He gently lifted Rukia's face so his eyes met her own. "Do you want this baby?"
Rukia didn't answer at first. Tears continued to roll unnoticed down her face. Finally, she answered with a small nod.
"Then we'll run away. Together. We'll go somewhere where they can't find us," Ichigo said, his eyes backing the confidence in his voice.
"But Ichigo, they w-will find us," Rukia said, her tears falling faster.
"Then I will fight them. No one will take this baby from us, understand?"
Ichigo didn't know where the confidence was coming from. He didn't understand the burning fire in his heart to protect the baby. His heart was telling him he would do anything for it, while his head was telling him there would be no way he could. His heart was telling him he could, but his head was telling him he shouldn't.
"But Ichigo-" Rukia started. She looked into his eyes, and the strength of his resolve almost scared her.
"No, Rukia. Listen, I love you, and I will do anything for you and our baby. If that means we have to run, so be it. I won't just sit back and let them kill our baby."
Rukia nodded, looking back down at the bed she was sitting on. Ichigo lifted her face once again, but this time he kissed her gently, smiling when he pulled back. Rukia wiped her tears away.
"We have to go now. If I'm pregnant, then I think I'm probably about two months in. The Soul Society will start picking up the life force of the baby soon. They can sense it like I can sense you," Rukia said, standing to her feet. Ichigo stood with her. "Ichigo, you'll have to change into a Shinigami."
"My dad is going to be back in about five minutes. Do we need to grab anything before we go?" Ichigo asked, picking Rukia up in his arms after turning into a Shinigami. "And what do I do about my body?"
"Your father will know what happened. He'll take care of it. And no, we will not need anything. We just need to go now."
Ichigo nodded and jumped out of the window.
"I need to contact Renji. He'll be able to help us. He'll also know where we can hide out for a while," Rukia said. Ichigo nodded.
"How do we contact him?"
"When we were children, we were the only ones with spiritual power, so we made a way to tell if the other was in trouble. If he feels a strong blast of my spiritual power, he should know something is wrong. I just hope he remembers it after all this time."
Ichigo watched as Rukia closed her eyes. She was a lot better at controlling her spiritual power than him, and could it without a second thought. But she would be releasing a large amount of power, so it would be harder than normal. After a few seconds, she smiled up at Ichigo and nodded.
"Where do we go until he finds us?" Ichigo asked, still running.
"I'm sure Urahara would let us stay with him for a bit," Rukia replied.
"Wouldn't that be the first place they look for us, though?" Ichigo asked, altering his course.
"Renji will come soon," Rukia whispered confidently, burying her face in Ichigo's chest. He nodded and began the short journey to the Urahara Shop. Yoruichi would probably be there, too, as well as Jinta and Ururu.
Ichigo stopped ten minutes later. He was standing outside Urahara's shop, a now sleeping Rukia in his arms. He rapped on the door a couple times with his fist, trying to work around the obstacle in his arms.
Urahara walked to the door. Ichigo was surprised that Jinta and Ururu weren't outside cleaning, but he didn't comment.
"We need somewhere to stay for a day or so," Ichigo said. "Can we come in quickly? No one can see us." Ichigo looked around nervously as he said this.
"Come on in. Then, you can tell me what's going on."
Urahara led them inside. He was in one of his serious moods, which Ichigo didn't see too often. at all..
Soon, Rukia was settled onto a big blanket, still sleeping, while Ichigo was offered coffee. Then, the questioning began.
"Rukia's pregnant," Ichigo replied simply, hoping Urahara knew the reasons why this would cause problems, because he didn't remember everything Rukia had told him.
"That's not good. Rukia told you what would happen?" Urahara asked, even more serious now.
"Yeah, she did. Renji will hopefully be here soon. Rukia contacted him. Maybe he can help us," Ichigo said, taking a deep drink of the coffee.
"How long have you known?" Urahara asked, not even glancing at his own mug.
"Just today. Rukia was really sick this morning, so I asked my dad to look at her. No one even knows we are gone. I have another question, too. Rukia was a little too sick this morning for it to just be morning sickness. Could it have something to do with the baby's spiritual strength?"
"Could be, unless she just caught a cold or something. Ichigo, you know the Soul Society won't just let this go when the child is born, right?" Urahara asked, concern in his eyes.
"Would they really kill the baby if they knew?"
"Yes. That or let Rukia go through the pregnancy in jail, then runs tests on the baby."
This thought looked like it bothered Urahara more than it would normally. Ichigo saw pain in his eyes as he spoke the words.
"Did they . . . did they ever do something to you?" Ichigo asked, not sure if he should have.
"Not to me, no. But to Yoruichi," Urahara said, smiling sadly. "Might as well tell you. You need to know what could happen to Rukia and the baby. I am sure Yoruichi wouldn't mind me telling, either. It's still a touchy subject for her, but she's better about it now."
Urahara took a few deep breaths before starting his story.
"It all started about fifty years ago. Yoruichi was in the human world, in a Gigai because her powers had been diminished, and she was waiting for them to recover. She . . . well, she got pregnant against her will. Soul Society came after her, and she was caught. She gave birth to the baby when she was only seven and a half months pregnant." Now, Urahara looked angry. "They could have easily saved the baby, but they decided to run tests on it instead. The baby was premature, so without the proper care, he died within two days. Yoruichi wasn't even allowed to see him. She couldn't even name him, because she didn't know the gender until months later."
"Did she decide on a name?" Ichigo asked softly.
"She named him Diasuke," Urahara answered.
"I won't let that happen to Rukia. I can't," Ichigo said firmly, his eyes drifting toward Rukia, who was curled into a small ball under a large quilt.
Neither Urahara or Ichigo spoke for a while. Finally, Urahara stood up, turning to the clock. He was surprised to see that it was about nightfall.
"You should get some sleep. Once Renji arrives, there won't be much sleep for you. Not until the baby's born. You'll be busy."
And with that, Urahara walked out of the room, shutting off the light on his way out.
Ichigo sighed and crawled under the blanket beside Rukia, wrapping his arms around her. He wasn't tired, but he did need the sleep.
Urahara sat up all night, waiting for Renji. He knew that if Renji knew Rukia was in trouble, he would be there quickly.
Finally, around three in the morning, a small tap on the door brought Urahara from his thoughts. He quickly sat up and walked to the door, opening it and letting the red haired Shinigami inside. Renji looked worried.
"What's happened? I followed Rukia's Spirit Force here," he said urgently.
"Everyone's fine for now. I'll let Ichigo explain." Urahara led Renji into the room where Ichigo and Rukia were sleeping. After quickly waking Ichigo, he let Renji inside.
Ichigo sat up, not sure where he was at first. Then the events of the past came flowing back to him. He looked up to see Renji.
"Thank God you're here. We need help," Ichigo said, standing to his feet. Rukia rolled over, apparently missing Ichigo's warm body.
"With what? Ichigo, what's wrong? It's been ten years since Rukia last contacted me like that." Renji was really worried by now.
"We need somewhere to hide from the Soul Society," Ichigo replied.
"Why?"
"Because Rukia's pregnant."
Renji didn't understand at first, but then it dawned on him. He sat down on the ground, Ichigo following suit. He looked stunned, and even more deeply worried, if that was possible.
"Oh, God, you mean . . ."
"Their going to be after us, Renji. We knew we could trust you. Can you help us?" Ichigo pleaded.
"Yeah. I can help. I know somewhere you can stay. Soul Society hasn't detected the baby's presence yet. But it's only a matter of time. Sooner, I would think, rather than later."
Ichigo nodded, standing back to his feet. He turned around to look out the window.
"It's been twelve hours. Twelve hours, and my life has been changed in too many ways to count. I'm on the run from the Soul Society to save my baby's life, and I'm going to be a father, for God's sake. I . . . I don't know how Rukia is handling it. If we get caught, she's the one who is going to be worse off." Ichigo faced Renji again. Determination was set on his face.
"We should go," Renji said gently. Ichigo nodded, and, reaching down, he picked the sleeping Rukia up in his arms. Then he and Renji jumped out the window. As they ran, no one looked out their windows. No one saw them, for they were just a shadow in the night.
Well, should I continue, or should I just try and hide all evidence that I ever even tried?
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