A/N – yea I don't even...I'm pulling an all nighter. This takes place between Ichigo getting his powers back and the whole Nazi Quincy shit.
Ichigo Kurosaki, age 17, flopped down on his bed, not bothering to change into pajamas. He sighed, thinking of everything that had happened recently...Rukia had saved him, yet again. The whole soul society had saved him. And then...the image of the midget shinigami's back disappearing into Senkaimon passed through his mind. She had left without saying goodbye, he mulled over in his mind.
Deep in his thoughts it took Ichigo a few minutes to notice – he rolled over and came face to face with the girl of his dreams (and nightmare, sometimes). Rukia was sound asleep, her pale face bright and gray in the moonlight streaming in from the window. Ichigo stared at her studying her cute bobbed haircut, her thin form, her eyelashes, the way her lips parted as she breathed softly in her slee- He sat straight up, his mind was...was being inappropriate, frankly. Rukia was a friend, nothing more.
"Oi, shorty," he nudged Rukia's arm softly. She groaned softly and opened her eyes, looking rather pissy.
"What?" she growled, still half asleep, propping herself up on one elbow.
"Get off my bed, go to the girls' room. You shouldn't be in here," he whispered sharply, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Yuzu and Karin's room," she paused, yawning cutely, "is being renovated remember? Besides, Isshin said I could..."
Right...so much had gone on with that Fullbringer stuff and he had forgotten. Wait!
"Why are you even here? I thought you went back!" Ichigo inquired, getting a little noisier.
"I didn't get to talk to you...Juushirou-taishou said I should come back and catch up with you but...you weren't here. And I got tired," she informed him in a soft, tired voice.
"Sleep in the closet," he commanded her, pointing violently at it.
"The extra futon and your dirty clothes are taking up too much room in there...and Kon misbehaved so...I may have taped him to the wall," she informed Ichigo in a matter-of-fact-duh-stupid way. It was ridiculous how this girl could say the strangest thing with the cutest face. It was also strange to Ichigo's poor brain how one second she could make his blood boil but he always needed to see her.
"Whatever!" he exclaimed, defeated. He turned his back to her and flopped back down, trying to fall asleep.
He waited and waited... The clock ticked patiently on the wall. Tick tock, tick tock, tick- he growled, finding himself counting the tocks and ticks. Sleep was not going to come to him, not tonight...Softly snoring behind him, breathing against his back was a certain tiny shinigami. She seemed to have no worries being with him. Most girls wouldn't dare...oh Gods if Byakuya knew about this – he was dead.
He sat up, making an angry sound and scratching at his spikey orange hair. "I can't do this!" he yelled, slamming his feet to his floor and taking two small bounds to the closet. He threw open the door to fin the site of Kon, trying to scream for help, taped to the back of the closet. That girl...
Aforementioned girl sat awake, staring blankly at him. "What are you doing?"
"Sleeping on the floor," Ichigo informed her gruffly, pulling a futon from the closet.
"Why?" Rukia tilted her head curiously and he felt his heart leap.
"Because girls shouldn't sleep in the same bed as guys," he told her, repeating what he had always heard his father say to Yuzu and Karin(except Isshin's was followed by "Unless its daddy~!").
"Kisuke said it is okay if the girl and guy like each other..." she looked down and then up, confused. "You don't like me?"
Oh dear lords...That sad, dejected look...and that damned Hat N' Clogs. "Rukia..." he sighed, sitting on the bed beside her and placing a large hand on her head, messing up her hair. "Idiot," he told her, smiling at her.
"Hey! You're the idiot!" she protested, hitting him in the arm. They both looked at each other and laughed.
Neither of them fell asleep until four in the morning. They stayed up all night, chatting and catching up, swapping stories about Orihime, Chad, Hanataro, Matsumoto, and all the others.
Kisuke Urahara grinned, taking a picture of the two, curled up asleep next to each other, face-to-face, fingers entertwined in a sign of friendship and maybe more (though both were a little slow to realize more). "Byakuya is going to love this..." he laughed evilly. Yoruichi stared at him, sighing with concern over the man's mental health. She glanced in the window, thinking of herself and Kisuke when they were like that. She smiled, wishing the couple the best of luck, before turning and following her lover.