"You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars." – Gary Allan.
It all started in a weird way.
Funnily enough everything about her seemed to start in a weird way.
Apparently the hollows were increasing in Karakura town and they needed someone who knew the zone and a good fighter so they could help the substitute Shinigami with the hard work. That's how Renji and Rukia ended up paying a visit to Ichigo.
They found him fighting against an abnormally huge hollow and Renji, the show off, decided to slice the goddamn monster with a single strike. At first, Rukia noticed, Ichigo was confused but when he realized who was saving his sorry ass he smiled, that weird but handsome smile that came naturally to him.
Rukia would never forget that smile.
"Rukia!" He said when she stood in front of him, the glint is his eyes couldn't be mistaken; he was happy to see her. "What are you doing here?"
"We heard that you were a useless case against hollows" she said "and we came to help."
She was expecting a snarky reply; she didn't expect him to lift his eyes from her to look at Renji with a smirk.
"Useless case?" Ichigo asked him.
Renji shrugged and smiled at the orange haired human.
"Kuchiki-taichou's words."
"Figures." Ichigo said.
It was then when she noticed.
They were looking at each other like… brothers? Rukia couldn't figure it out but that wasn't the face of simple comrades, or fellow shinigamis, they were looking at each other like friends.
Close friends.
Rukia didn't know when that happened.
As expected Rukia decided to sleep in Ichigo's closet, she would never tell him but it was her favorite spot in the human world. The second one was the pet's shop where she could play with the bunnies and the cute little animals. Renji sighed and said that he would be staying at Urahara's place. Rukia told him jokingly to be careful of the perverted old mad hatter and Renji told her to be careful of the hormonal carrot top. Ichigo kicked him right in the left shin.
Everything was normal until that.
Later that night Rukia fell asleep quickly. She wasn't expecting to feel so at home but that was the way things were she supposed. She, as always, dreamed about several things, most of her dreams were a blur and she didn't remember them in the morning.
Unfortunately, a hollow alarm interrupted her night. Without even changing to something more comfortable she jumped out of the closet just to find Ichigo already in his Shinigami form ready to go and fight.
"Oi! Keep sleeping" he told her with a smirk "Renji is already on his way, we'll take care of this."
And he was gone.
Rukia wondered as she took a seat in Ichigo's bed when exactly did he and Renji became the new substitute team. Frowning, she decided to take Ichigo's advice and keep sleeping it wouldn't be healthy to worry about it too much.
It wasn't like if they were leaving her out of the team… right?
She dreamed again but this time red and orange was the only thing she could discern in her blurry dreams.
"Don't you just love it?" Chizuru asked at lunchtime "it's such a beautiful bromance!"
Rukia tried to ignore her, really. She didn't dislike the girl but she was too focused on her lunch, which was prepared by Ichigo, she was starving. You wouldn't expect less after being in the same classroom for two hours pretending to learn useless things.
"What are you talking about?" Arisawa asked; surprised by the fact that for the first time in her whole life Chizuru was talking about men. Could you really blame her?
"About the Kurosaki brothers of course!"
She caught Rukia's attention immediately but she didn't show it of course.
"Just look at them! They spend most of their time together, there must be some sort of secret romance affair going between them!"
Tatsuki snorted.
"Fuck Chizuru, not even Ichigo is safe from your perverted eyes?! They are obviously just friends."
The redhead crossed her arms indignantly; as if suggesting that she didn't recognize true love when it was right in front of her was the biggest insult she had ever received. It probably was.
"Fine." She said "then tell me when was the last time that Ichigo was that close to someone?"
Tatsuki didn't expect that. She blinked several times trying to come with an argument; fortunately for her Inoue was close.
"What about Kuchiki-san" Orihime asked "they still spend a lot of time together."
At this, every single girl in the group looked at Rukia and the raven haired girl couldn't help the feeling of déjà vu. Seriously? Were they going to ask about her relationship with Ichigo again?
"Oh! My dear and elegant Kuchiki-san!" Chizuru said dramatically "did that orange haired beast decided to leave you to go and chase other interests?!"
Rukia tilted her head.
She didn't know how to tell them that she and Renji were in fact childhood friends and that she was completely sure that Ichigo would never leave her. She couldn't tell them because then they would start asking questions, but as she turned in her seat of the cafeteria to look at the two idiots who were talking and arguing and laughing again she wondered if by any chance they were starting to get closer to each other.
Closer than what she has ever been with them.
She looked at the group of girls again and flashed them with her school girl smile.
"Not at all!" she said.
She thanked her acting skills because she was pretty sure that they couldn't see the insecurity behind her eyes.
She wanted to call their attention.
She wasn't being clingy she just didn't like to be ignored.
Rukia didn't even know when these two started to get along; according to Renji it was all because of her but he didn't give any details, between incoherent babbling and a blushing face he assured her that she didn't need to know, after all it was a good thing that her two closest friends could get along so easily, right?
She didn't think so.
First of all; her two closest friends?! Did those two suddenly decided that they were her two closest friends out of nowhere? Well, she had other news; they weren't. She had lots of other friends who were really close too! For example, there was this guy… or that girl… they knew her inside out too…
Fine, the carrot top and the pineapple head were her two best friends.
But hey! Can you blame her?! She had spent most of her life with Renji surviving childhood and looking for food in one of the worst places around Rukongai and that is definitely something that bonds you for life, sort of.
Ichigo was a completely different matter altogether. She saved him and then she twisted his life irrevocably… yet, he insisted that she had given him what he most desired; the power to protect, according to him she made the rain stop, she gave him a purpose. He told her all of this the night before he came back to the human world when she tried to thank him but he didn't want to hear her.
According to him he was the one who should thank her.
Well, they were idiots… idiots that were having too much fun together, because while Rukia was thinking all of this they were training in an abandoned field in the outskirts of Karakura and she was there, drinking juice and watching them.
She was getting bored.
They were using Bankai and taunting each other, Rukia frowned, she hadn't recover yet at least not so much so her abilities with her zanpaktou were limited. She didn't want to admit it but she felt a little bit jealous…
She frowned deeper; she was a Kuchiki for Christ sake she couldn't feel jealous!
Sighing she decided that she had enough; she was going to go home take a bath and watch Chappy the rabbit. After all these mixed feelings were probably because she was tired; fighting hollows, classes and dealing with perverts like Keigo and Kon was too much.
She stood up and left without saying a word to them.
They didn't notice her leaving.
By the time they got home she pretended to be asleep… in Ichigo's bed, because if they were going to be assholes and ignore her and train together she was at least going to annoy the hell out of both of them. Well, Renji was really going to be annoyed when he realized how she "accidentally" broke his glasses. In her defense, he had lots of them.
She heard when Ichigo entered the room and she fought the urge to smile when she felt his eyes on her.
"Oi! Renji!" he yelled, YELLED! Didn't he notice that she was sleeping?! Disrespectful bastard "want to go hollow hunting tonight?!"
Rukia wanted to gasp.
"You sure?!" she heard Renji yelled back "didn't you say you have an exam or something important tomorrow and that you wanted to rest?!"
That was true; Ichigo would always complain about how hollow hunting wouldn't leave him enough time to study, or eat, or sleep… stupid human boy with stupid human necessities.
"It doesn't matter…" the carrot top said while leaving the room "I won't be using my bed tonight anyways."
They left the house challenging each other about who could kill more hollows.
Rukia threw the pillow towards the closed door.
Gays.
There couldn't be any other explanation.
Ichigo and Renji were gays.
Rukia nodded at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, pleased with her understanding. It all made sense; the way they would see each other, the smiles, the fighting and of course the training. Rukia nodded again, it couldn't be anything else. Now that she thought about it she had never seen Renji interested in anyone, and she doubted that Ichigo held romantic feelings for any of his friends or classmates.
Rukia now understood why Inoue's attributes didn't seem to call the attention of the orange haired teenager and why Renji didn't have dates.
She smiled, these were great news she didn't know what they were expecting to tell her!
She made her way back to Ichigo's room; since his sisters and his father weren't at home right now she could go around freely. She found the door opened and without inhibitions she walked inside ignoring the two boys who were arguing about something useless, as always. She supposed that it was part of their repressed lust for each other; it wasn't normal for two people to fight so much.
She was looking through the closet for her pajamas, since they weren't attracted to girls she thought that she could dress in front of them without problems… apparently they didn't think so.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" They yelled at the same time.
Rukia turned around to look at them. Their faces were red and their eyes were widened.
"Looking for my pajamas…?" she said/asked confused. Why they were making a scandal?!
"PUT SOMETHING ON!" Renji yelled at her and covered his eyes. Ichigo on the other side threw her one of his shirts.
Rukia caught the shirt and looked down at her body. She was wearing just a white towel; she just came out of the shower after all. What was their problem?!
Then it hit her.
They were blushing because of her, they were covering their eyes because her body was wrapped only in a white towel… they were blushing because they were hormonal teenagers in front of an almost naked female.
They were not gays.
They were silly and stupid virgins!
With red cheeks she left the room to get changed.
She was angry.
Scratch that, she was royally pissed.
She wanted to be mad at them, she wanted to yell and punch them. They wouldn't let her fight against hollows, they wouldn't invite her to train and they wouldn't give explanations about their relationship. Perhaps Chizuru's theory about their bromance was correct.
She looked up at the sky, it was already late at night but not even the cool breeze would let her calm down.
She didn't want to admit it.
She was jealous.
Kuchiki Rukia was jealous, Nii-sama would've been so disappointed, no he wouldn't perhaps he would tell her that those two idiots did not deserve her undivided attention. She sighed; if they were going to be the new substitute team she was getting in the way.
Getting back to Soul Society suddenly sounded like a good idea.
"You smell delicious sweetheart." She heard someone saying behind her.
She turned around immediately only to find out that she was face to face with a hollow. Was she so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't feel his presence?!
"You are a Shinigami aren't you?" the disgusting creature asked.
Rukia didn't answer instead she jumped as far as she could from the creature. She still wasn't in conditions to leave her gigai but that didn't stop her from using kidou unfortunately before she could even open her mouth to say the incantation a second hollow appeared right behind her and hit her with his tail. She crashed with an ugly "thud" against a nearby wall, even if it wasn't her real body she had to admit that a broken rib was painful as hell.
"You should leave her to me! I found her first!" one of the monsters yelled
"Sorry but the pretty little girl looks tasty."
Great, just what she needed; two idiotic creatures fighting to see who the fuck was going to eat her. Apparently they didn't need to argue a lot because she noticed how the two beasts turned to look at her ready to charge at her. She started to think about every single spell and every single movement that she could do to avoid the imminent pain.
It was useless; the stupid gigai wouldn't let her move at all with a broken rib. If she were to die she would reborn as a human and she would go straight to Urahara's place to give him hell for giving her dysfunctional gigais all the goddamn time.
The monsters jumped ready to eat her and she closed her eyes on instinct.
The pain never came.
"Sorry losers but the pretty little girl is not alone."
Renji was right in front of her and with a single swing of Zabimaru one of the two hollows was completely gone.
Rukia frowned.
"Getsuga tenshou!" She heard the so familiar voice of Ichigo yelled and the second hollow was gone.
"What exactly were you thinking?!" the orange haired teenager asked her angrily.
"You could've called us!" Renji said standing next to him and looking down at her.
"I can take care of myself!" she said glaring fiercely at them and trying to ignore the pain that she felt with every single breath.
Ichigo snorted.
"Yeah, right that's obvious." He said "how many broken ribs do you have anyways?"
She was shaking; pure fury was invading her system. It was enough, she felt useless, she felt replaced, she felt so so so godman mad! But the worst feeling ever was jealousy, she wanted to kill them and to kick them, not exactly in that order but still. They were to blame after all; all these useless, stupid and troublesome feelings were their fault, their fucking fault!
She didn't notice when tears started to roll down her cheeks.
"Are you…?" Renji tried to ask but she wouldn't let them talk.
"ASSHOLES!" She yelled, it wasn't the best way to start but she had their whole attention now "Do you really think that I cannot take care of myself?! Well, I fucking can because in case you're forgetting I grew up in Inuzuri just like you stupid monkey!"
"I…" Renji tried to say but she wasn't finished yet.
"And you!" she said glaring at Ichigo "just because I let you fight on your own before it doesn't mean that I'm useless! You two met just a few weeks ago and suddenly the carrot top and the pineapple head are leaving me aside and I hate both of you because of that! I hate it! I hate you! I… I… I WANT YOU TO STOP YOUR BROMANCE RIGHT NOW!"
When her rant was over she expected them to yell at her or at least to say something but nothing like that happened, instead Ichigo sighed and kneeled to pick Rukia bridal style, she didn't move. She was breathing heavily and it hurt a whole lot.
"What…?"
"It'll hurt more if you keep talking like that just shut up." He said and started to walk with her in his arms. Renji walked alongside him.
"I told this idiot that you were acting weird for a reason…" Renji said with a smirk "so we decided to wait until you were ready to tell us."
Rukia blinked.
"I didn't expect you to be jealous…" Ichigo said "Seriously? Bromance? Where did you get that idea from?"
"Chi…" no, she wouldn't tell them about it. She shook her head.
Renji sighed this time.
"We didn't let you fight with hollows because you haven't recovered yet." The redhead said "who would say that you were going to be so eager to kick hollow's ass?"
Ichigo chuckled.
"Don't worry midget, next time you'll be the one kicking ass."
"Promise?" she asked frowning.
"Promise." Both of them said.
"After all…" Ichigo said "we're a team right?"
Rukia smiled at both of them.
Yes, they were a team.
The end.