Don't leave me
"Don't...leave...me… Rukia" The rubble under his body crackled as he moved.
She could hear his breathing coming out irrhythmically. Her heart sunk as the faint noises of his movement behind her told her that she's going to lose her best friend. Her sob stifled by her teeth digging into her lower lip. She can't face him and his battered face anymore. There is nothing left of the familiar features. It's all bloody, bruised and gaping wounds. And blood. Lots and lots of blood.
"Renji, I have to find…" she formed words, finally.
His tired arms circled around her slender body and her trembling body shuddered violently.
"...don't leave... me..." his periodic heavy breathing scorched the skin of her back through her clothes. The hold he had on her was weak, wobbly, and barely effective.
She squinted her eyes shut, a pair of tear drops rolled down her cheeks as she tried to muffle a cry. "... Ichigo..." she muttered then looked at the distance. "I have to find… him…"
She could feel his dying reiatsu, slowly fading away into emptiness. She moved.
"Rukia..." Renji's forehead moved a little. She felt his blood that streamed ceaselessly down his head trailed towards her neck then down her throat. "Please... don't leave… "
"I'm not going to leave you Renji..." She could hear the resolve in her voice is sounding so fake.
She touched the arms that encircled her reassuringly and tried again, "Renji... I'm not going to leave you."
He is dying.
His breathing has started slowing down already. She slowly pulled away from the hold he had on her then turned around to face him, his face fell on her neck.
"Renji..." she wrapped her arms around his middle at an attempt to keep him from falling on the concrete rubble underneath her feet, face first.
He loved the feel of having her next to him. For so many years he wondered it would be like. And at the end of his life he finally realised it was much better than his imagination.
He too knows he is dying. Her slender tiny hands gently pulled him straight into a sitting position. He could barely see anything through the curtain of blood that has blinded his vision. But he could feel her next to him.
Slowly she sat down next to him, pulled his one arm around her shoulder.
All he could manage to do with his remaining strength is to continue breathing. Even that, he doesn't know how long he's be able to keep up.
She stood up, pulling him up in the process. But she struggled to keep steady on her feet. For a tiny girl like her, this is an unbelievable strength.
His huge weight isn't easy to carry. Yet she crouched slightly while gritting her teeth determinedly. "I will take you with me Renji." She declared before flash stepping.
Renji felt the short flights, the weightlessness and more importantly, her warmth. His own is leaving quicker than he anticipated. He managed to take another breathe.
"Ichigo" her tiny voice called out towards the broken body of an orange haired boy lying on the war torn rubble of soul society.
She couldn't see him move. She managed to land on her feet even with the whole of Renji's weight on her. She placed Renji next to a boulder as gently as she could. He laid, motionless and she was finally next to Ichigo.
"Ichigo..." streaming tears flowed down her cheeks as she grabbed his shoulder and jerked him. "Ichigo... talk to me."
He didn't move. She could see nothing but blood and wounds on him. The orange colour of his hair was mixed with dark red blood, dirty mud and faded concrete dust.
"Ichigo..." she let out a hiccup.
His hand twitched a little. Her eyes widen. "Ichigo, open your eyes, it's me ..."
"Rukia..." his broken voice was still understandable.
She gasped and fell on him with her arms around him. "Thank god...Thank god... I'm so happy… You're alive Ichigo... you're still alive" she let out all the tears she had ever possessed on his broken body.
"Ru...kia..." he muttered again.
She pulled away and sat up, looking down at his face with a wet smile. His hand reached for her face. Her eyes widen.
"Ichigo…" her large violet eyes watched in panic as the boy lay dying. Half of his being has been poisoned as the Quincy blood in him has been bleached out when he sacrificed himself to end the war that ravaged soul society for the last few months.
His hand trembled, before he could reach for her face it dropped and she caught it.
"Ichigo..." with both hands she pulled his hand towards her cheek and pressed it down. The tears sipped down her cheek into his palm.
"Rukia… you're... okay... I'm...glad..." his voice was fainter than she hoped and a horror sunk inside her stomach.
"Ichigo… no..." she leaned forward and grabbed his face with both hands. "You're not going to die on me Ichigo... you're not... I will not let you…"
He body suddenly started convulsing. She sat back with eyes large in fear.
"Ichigo...no..." her whole being was being devoured by the fear, the emptiness and the horror she felt at that exact moment. It cannot possibly be expressed but merely crying anymore. She sat and watched with her fear-struck violet eyes as his broken body ceaselessly twisted and contorted, it could break any moment now. She could do nothing, absolutely nothing.
Finally, he stilled and laid limply. She forgot to breathe. "Ichigo... don't leave me... Ichigo..." she jumped on him and pulled him close to her, while continuously chanting... "don't leave me Ichigo... don't leave me..."
Renji opened his one good eye and took in the scenario for a long moment before blinking in slow motion. She should've left him at the rubble where she found him. He should've let her leave him behind. He didn't need to witness this.
"Don't leave me..." she wailed with all her might, "Ichigo..."
If he could he would've sighed, but he could barely breathe. Left alone under the shade of the big boulder, he turned around and closed his eyes.
Don't leave me Rukia.
With a slight smirk on his lips he thought, Irony. And before long the darkness consumed his consciousness.
...
A random one-shot out of nowhere. I guess this is what you call a drabble? Not sure. Hmm. It's easy for me to make them suffer as I don't really feel that much attachment to them. Maybe writing more often about them would change the way i feel about them. But I do feel for Renji. He's always at the sideline. Anywhoo... I hope it was worth the read.