A/n: I've been stuck in a rut for Bleach writing… But you don't really support a ship, if you don't write a ship. So I'll just sip on my Dr. Pepper and see what I come up with. And every Bleach author has to have their mandatory "Ichigo Rukia in the rain" scene, so I may as well cut to the chase and have that as my first story… But :wiggles eyebrows: I'm not writing the story from Ichigo or Rukia's POV!!
FYI: I don't do sentimental well… . This is my first attempt at not totally silly.
Dedication: to lewis. She is the biggest weird-o of them all.
Disclaimer: If I owned Bleach, there would be no Bleach to own.
Oo0oO
Orihime marched up and down the isles of the local grocery store, her mood somber and her head down turned. She threw food into the swinging red hand basket, not really minding what it was. It was at times like this that food was especially important to her. The weather outside, matched, and was the cause of her solemn and subdued mood.
The rain came down in the regular drone, blocking out all sounds. Cars slid by invisibly and unnoticed, their spinning wheels and waves in the water drowned out by the rain that caused their sound. It was only the pitter-patter of the rain that Inoue now heard, on one endless loop. Even the people in the store were quiet and subdued, their own spirits left at door, submerged in the watery graveyard outside.
Oo0oO
"Can we now!!" Rukia begged, jumping up and down in front of Ichigo. "Please, please, please, please!!"
Ichigo grunted, and pushed the smaller girl out of his path toward the kitchen. Rukia hopped backwards on one foot and continued on her beseeching.
"Pwease!!" She asked, in her best Chappy voice, which Ichigo grudgingly had to admit was very good, annoying as it was. "I just got back!"
"I said no and I mean no." Ichigo huffed as he tried fruitlessly to get around the puppy dog face of the girl in front of him. It was to no avail of course. The girl was like the solid walls of the Seireitei if she wanted to. And now was one of those inconvenient times that she chose to be stubborn.
Rukia glared at him, her purple eyes glinting with malice that Ichigo didn't want to play part to. They stood in their silent eye war in the hallway for a good ten minutes before Ichigo finally looked up at the ceiling, rolling his eyes and sighing.
"Why do I torture myself like this? I know she's going to win anyway. She's a Kuchiki after all…"
Rukia kept her glaring eyes on him, a smile on the verge of a snarl forming on her petite face.
"Maybe after dinner!" Ichigo shook his head. "For now, I am hungry. We've kept Yuzu waiting for long enough at it is."
Rukia smiled as Ichigo pushed her aside and continued up the hallway grumbling under his breath. She trotted by Ichigo's side, one of her minute steps too undersized to keep up with Ichigo's vast strides. She stuck her tongue out at him and he looked down at her, a skeptical look on his usually scowling face.
"Your dad's going to have a heyday." She pulled down her lower eyelid and wagged her tongue before running forward to the kitchen. Ichigo huffed and ran after her.
"It's all her fault!" He yelled ahead as Rukia passed through the swinging door. Plastered on his face was a blithe smile.
Oo0oO
But there was one bright thread that kept Orihime tied to the world: Kurosaki-kun. Every time she saw a flash of orange, or anything orange in general, her mind would double time it into thinking about her obsession. He was her uninformed pillar of support; her oblivious tether to life. He was her sunshine on a rainy days and her sunbeam on sunny ones. If she was blue, one glimpse or remembrance of him would paint her world a spectrum of colors.
But now the world was a bleak and rainy prison, full of strife she couldn't hope to overcome. She had been partial, dare she say it, in love, with Kurosaki-kun from the moment she had seen him. And that one peek hadn't stopped there. Their closely knit relationship through their mutual friend Tatsuki had quickly developed until they hung out even when Tatsuki wasn't around. It was any girl's dream. To be good friend with the guy that she had feelings for, but not in the awkward best friend situation. She had just been growing comfortable with her position when the short-tempered and high spirited girl, Kuchiki Rukia fell into Kurosaki-kun's lap.
It wasn't that Orihime didn't like the raven haired girl. To the contrary, she more than liked the girl, and she considered Kuchiki-san one of her closest friends. They had similar tastes in everything and had enjoyable times when they were together. Kuchiki-san made Orihime laugh and actually put up with the weird food tastes that Orihime preferred.
No, what bothered Orihime was how fast Kuchiki-san had taken over Kurosaki-kun's life. She knew now how Kurosaki-kun had grown attached to her so fast: she had given him her Shinigami powers to save his family, but at the time it seemed that Kurosaki-kun had taken to the "new girl" all too quickly. When she finally found out the reason for Kurosaki-kun's bond with Kuchiki-san, her soul soared for a time and her hope was momentarily rekindled. But when Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san kept talking, Orihime felt further and further out of the loop. It wasn't long before Kuchiki-san, not Tatsuki was Kurosaki-kun's best friend, making Orihime apprehensive about things to come. Though he had known her for so much longer, Kurosaki-kun still called Orihime by her last name. Kuchiki-san, to Kurosaki-kun, had never been "Kuchiki."
Orihime handed over a wad of folded bills and dropped a few coins onto the counter as payment for her overflowing basket of food. As she grabbed the bags and her still-wet umbrella, she thought.
"Kuchiki-san isn't back yet and Kurosaki-kun seems a bit out of it." She held the umbrella over her head and stepped out into the black night. "I hope for the sake of Kurosaki-kun that she comes back soon. But for my sake, I… I… I don't know. Rukia is one of my closest friends, but she seems to be unconsciously pulling Kurosaki-kun toward her and in the process she is yanking out my heart."
Orihime smiled sadly and continued walking down the water logged path before her.
"Kuchiki-san really is amazing. In her absence the stoic Kurosaki-kun falters. But with one smile from her, his entire life is put back on track. They seem to do everything together."
Orihime sighed.
"It's no wonder that Kurosaki-kun misses her. I do too I suppose. That's just the magic of Kuchiki-san." Orihime hurried on her way, anxious to get out of the raging storm. But a thought struck her and she halted.
"Orihime!" She thought as the rain struck her umbrella. "What are you thinking? This is the perfect opportunity for you! Kuchiki-san is gone and Kurosaki-kun is hurting. Isn't this the best time to go to him? To help him through his hard time?"
But as the thought ran through her head, Orihime shook it away. She wouldn't use Kurosaki-kun's disguised grief as a stepping stool toward his affection. If she wanted it, she would have to earn it the hard way.
"But still," Orihime assured herself. "It wouldn't hurt if I just walked by his house. Maybe it will help me out of the black mood that I've fallen into."
Oo0oO
Ichigo groaned and leaned in his wooden chair back on two legs to stretch out his bulging stomach. He had eaten his share of food and some of Rukia's and was now nursing an overly full stomach and a bruise formed from a jab to the ribs by Rukia when he had reached onto her plate to partake of some of her food.
Rukia, across the table, gave him the "you-are-the-cause-of-your-own-suffering" look, and a self-righteous and slightly haughty smirk. Her own plate was licked clean of Yuzu's fine cooking and traditional rainy day meal. The other three members of Ichigo's family had already conked out on the floor seconds after laying down in sugar induced comas and wouldn't wake for some time. Ichigo and Rukia had had a bit of an eating contest, ending in Ichigo's win and Rukia's smirk as he rubbed uncomfortably at his swollen stomach.
"I've eaten more! And I've had worse!" Ichigo told her before she could spit out some condescending remark about how little food he could consume. "Chad and I had an all you can eat shrimp contest and I ate over 150 shrimp."
"Did you loose that one too?" Rukia sneered, smiling.
"Yes." Ichigo remarked, but then comprehension flashed over his face. "Hey? What do you mean "too"? I beat you fare and square!!"
But Rukia wasn't listening as she stood up, cackling. She loaded the little girls' plates onto her own and placed them in the sink to be washed later.
"Well?" Rukia asked, hands on hips as she turned around to face him. "Can we now?"
Ichigo, who had been picking his ear, looked up at her. "Huh?"
"You promised that we could go out in the rain after dinner." She reminded him, in a tone that suggested that he was the world's biggest idiot.
"Hold your horses!" Ichigo jumped up from his chair, an act he regretted when his stomach let out a wild grumble, protesting the sudden move. He ignored it and continued. "I said that I would think about it. Plus, I'm nursing a bloated stomach." He patted it to emphasize his point.
Rukia tutted. "Funny, I would have taken you for stronger. You only beat me because you managed to snag the last dumpling and you don't see me complaining."
"Hey!" Ichigo rebuffed. "You spend a lot of time with Inoue! You must be used to eating a ton of food! Now that I mention it, you are a bottomless pit."
"So you're saying that I could have beaten you if there had been more food?"
Ichigo growled. "I don't know why I put up with you. Now leave me. My stomach hurts."
Rukia grinned. "Didn't you say that you had had it worse before? Baby." She stated as she began walking toward the kitchen door.
Ichigo heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. "Wait. You win. Whatever. I'll come outside with you, but just for a while."
Oo0oO
Her long orange hair was already drenched with the rain, even under the umbrella. The blue pins that held her bangs back, sagged with the added weight and subconsciously she could hear one of her five protectors grumbling about the conditions he was being forced to work in. The detour she took to pass by Kurosaki-kun's house was longer that her originally planned walk home, but she took it, regardless of the weather outside.
"Why am I going this way?" Orihime asked herself. "It was only a while ago that a single memory of him would pull me out of what ever problem I was in."
But then it came to her. "All my memories that I've been pulling from… they all have Kuchiki in them. Not that that's particularly bad, but before she came, my memories of Kurosaki-kun were of him and only him. Then, he seemed, at least to me, to treat me like I was a princess like my name implies."
Orihime sobered. "All I am right now is dead weight. I can't do much and I end up causing so many problems for everyone else around me: Sado-kun, Ishida-kun, Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, Tatsuki, all of them. I can't pull from the old memories; they're just too old and overused."
Oo0oO
Ichigo pivoted on one leg of the wooden chair that he had dragged outside with him. Rukia had run ahead and was already prancing around out in the downpour. He couldn't help but smile as he watched. It was almost like seeing a little kid with a new toy. It was an experience that was common, but uniquely its own.
"You act like there's no such thing as rain in the Soul Society." Ichigo yelled over the din of the rain.
Rukia paused in mid spin and turned to face him, a look of pure delight on her round face. Her thin hair was plastered down around her chin and her ears poked out from under it.
"It does rain there, but it's not the same there. It's so much more real here. It sinks into your skin and you feel acutely alive. It's… something you can't explain in words. It's just something you have to experience for yourself."
Ichigo nodded. He looked down at his palms, grinning stupidly to himself. It was one of those times that there was nothing to smile about, but he found himself doing so still the same. Rukia was back, and as wussy as it made him seem, he was glad she was back.
"I don't see why you like the rain so much…" Ichigo yelled out to her.
Rukia stopped her outlandish rain dance and turned to face him.
"But Ichigo," she said, perplexed. "I hate the rain."
To say Ichigo was merely befuddled would be the understatement of the year. His face, usually scowling, went paper blank and his eyebrows dug farther down his face as he tried to figure out Rukia's cryptic message. He glanced up at her, thinking maybe she was just pulling his leg, but her face was stoic and serious, the epitome of a Kuchiki, though she was not blood related.
"You hate the rain?" He asked, shaking his head as if maybe the reasoning would fall into place if he mixed it up.
He noticed, but didn't fight when she pulled him out of his kitchen chair and dragged him into the rain. It bounced off his skin like rice, not nearly as hard as he had thought. The water over ran his bare feet and began to drench the cuffs of his jeans. His naturally spiky hair fell down into a plastered chunk on his head, which was an accomplishment, seeing as how his head full of spikes seemed to withstand every challenge nature threw at it. Rukia stood next to him, quiet for a moment, her hand still in his. It was a moment before she began.
"Too many bad things have happened in the rain." She started. "A dear friend of mine was murdered in the rain.'
Ichigo was cold from his head to his feet, but his hand that held Rukia's was warm.
"That sucks." Ichigo murmured. He was starting to feel the hypnotic pulse of the rain.
"You don't know the half of it." Rukia agreed darkly. She dropped Ichigo's hand, rather quickly once she realized that she still held it.
Ichigo blinked, surprised at the sudden lack of warmth. He turned to her. She was standing in the rain, her face turned towards the heavens, letting the rain fall down on her, emerging her fully the tears from the sky. Her eyes were closed, and her face looked so peaceful, that Ichigo hated to interrupt her meditation.
"If you hate the rain so much, why were you so keen to get out here?" Ichigo asked, turning his own face to the sky.
"I told you," Rukia whispered, her face still to the down coming rain. "The rain here is different than the rain in the Soul Society. There, it almost seems to slip through you. Here, the rain makes you feel like you actually exist. If some good memories existed in this rain…"
Rukia turned her head to him, opened her eyes, and smiled. "I feel that I could grow to love the rain again."
Ichigo turned to her and put his hands in his pockets. "You Kuchiki's have weird ideas about the world." He grinned.
Rukia smiled. "Kuchiki's have weird ideas about everything to you…" She countered.
"I thought you were supposed to be a royal family or something." Ichigo shot right back.
"We are!" Rukia urged.
"Well with the way you turned out, I find that hard to believe. What did they teach you that was remotely 'royal.'" Ichigo used air quotes around the final word.
Rukia scoffed at his dorky use of air quotes. "They taught me how to dance!" She stated, incredulously, suddenly anxious to defend her family.
"You?" Ichigo asked, "Dance?"
"Remarkable as it sounds, yes, I do dance." When Ichigo laughed she glared at him. "Like you could dance." She muttered. "Ballroom, Tango, Cha-Cha, River, Waltz."
"River dancing?" Ichigo bit back a guffaw. "RIVER DANCING! What did the Kuchiki's teach you!"
Rukia snarled, grabbed his hands and began counting. "One, two, three. One, two, three…"
Oo0oO
The humdrum grey and black rain continued falling, cloaking the world in a blanket of black. The only light came from the artificial lights of the humming street lamps, though the comforting noise they produced was drowned out by the hubbub of the rain. Orihime was all on her own, walking down the walled road. A car passed by, but the waves fell short of her feet, wetting her toes a bit and sending them retreating further into her sandals. Bags of food in one hand and her black umbrella in the other, she trotted down the road, anxious to see Kurosaki-kun's house, a sight she hoped would lift her from the melancholy pit she had fallen into.
She rounded the corner to the sight of a figure, lit only by the single bare bulb outside the Kurosaki clinic. She couldn't discern who it was yet, but as it was thrown into light as she neared.
The first thing she realized as she got closer was that it was not one, but two figures. The next thing she noticed was that the two were dancing. Not gracefully and not closely, but dancing still the same. She thought that it would be fun to dance in the rain and envied the two that had the ability.
But as she drew nearer, she came to see that the taller of the two had orange hair. And that shade of orange… it could only be Kurosaki-kun. And that person, the girl that was a head and half shorter than him could only be one person. Only one person could light the smile that Kurosaki-kun had on his face. And that person, was clumsily slow dancing with him in the rain. Kuchiki.
Orihime watched, stock still for a few minutes, while Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san made their rounds in the giant puddle that the street had become. The made circles, swaying back and forth; Kurosaki-kun, most of the time, swayed a different way than Kuchiki. Every time he did so or stepped on her foot, Kuchiki would karate chop his head and the two of them would smile when Kurosaki-kun made some snappy one-line about how wussy she was. Orihime watched in a trance as Kuchiki was thrown into a dip Kurosaki-kun, and a look of surprise crossed her face. As she came back up she gave him a sharp reprimand for surprising her and Kurosaki-kun rolled his eyes.
Then, Orihime slunk away, tears adding to the rain rolling down her face. There was just something about watching the two of them that made her feel like she was part of a different world. Kuchiki and Kurosaki were in their world and Orihime was very much left out of it. And it was a place she was never going to be able to break into. Not they were floating on top of the world and she was drowning in the rain.
Oo0oO
"I give you up as hopeless," Rukia announced after he stepped on her foot for what seemed like the millionth time. "I will have a toe the size of a watermelon before you learn how to dance."
"Well," Ichigo shrugged, "Next time it rains, why don't you teach me some more?"
Rukia grinned. "Deal."
Oo0oO
Just as a note, "Hime" means princess in Japanese. So since her name is "oriHIME" she has the word princess in her name… Just in case you didn't know…
Tell me what you think. I read back over it and I realized that it didn't flow all that well, but you know how that goes.