IchiRuki – Memories from the past

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this one-shoot; they all belong to Tite Kubo.

Pairings: IchiRuki

"Ichigo, wake up now! It's already early afternoon!" Rukia Kuchiki, Ichigo's Shinigami friend, slam open the door to his room and called for him to get up.

The only problem was that the room were empty and Ichigo nowhere to be found. The window was open and the curtains blew slowly back and forth from the wind that came in through the window.

"Ichigo?" Rukia looked around the room for any clues that would show her where Ichigo had gone.

"Nee-san, you're back! I have missed…" Rukia stomped on Kon before he had come so close that he could hug her boobies. (This was something he always tried to do.)

"Kon, where's Ichigo?"

Kon stood up and ran towards the bed. "Out."

"What do you mean with 'out'? Did he tell you where he went?"

"Of course not! He never says anything to me…" Kon mumbled, crossed his arms and looked sour.

"Alright, I get it. I will have to search for him myself then I guess." Rukia sighed, jumped out through the window and called back to Kon: "Stay here and guard the house!"

"As Nee-san orders!" Kon answered and laid his teddy bear left arm on his head.

Rukia felt a little worried of leaving Kon, Ichigo's father and sisters alone unprotected but she wouldn't be gone for a long time.

At least she hoped so.

"It's not alike Ichigo to just disappear like that without telling anyone… Did something happen that little time I was away?" Rukia asked herself and tried to search for Ichigo's Reiatsu, without finding it.

Apparently he hided it. He had been very good at doing that by now and that irritated her. A lot.

"Hello mum. It's me, Ichigo, your son. How are you today? I miss you so much. It's so many things I want to tell you and so much I want you to see. I wanted you to see me grow up; get out school, my marriage, your grandchildren… But now that's too late." Tears rolled down Ichigo's cheeks but he quickly stroked them away.

He stood in front of his mother's grave on his knees. The sun shined from a cloudless sky and the birds sung from the trees in the woods behind his mother's grave.

He took out a rose from his pocket and laid it on the grave next to some other flowers that laid there. He looked at the rose a long time before he lifted his hand and stroked his mother's gravestone gently. The tears build up in his eyes again, but this time he let them come out and pour down his cheeks.

"I love you mum…" Ichigo whispered and kissed the gravestone.

A hand lay down on his right shoulder and squeezed it gently, as if the person that stood behind him wanted to tell him that everything was fine. That nothing was his fault.

Ichigo laid his hand over the hand on his shoulder. Like that they stood for a long time while the birds contained to sing in the trees and the wind blew in their hair.

"How long have you been here?" Ichigo asked.

"From the start", Rukia answered. "Don't blame yourself, Ichigo. It wasn't your fault. I know that your mother isn't angry on you for not helping her that night. You were too young to be able to do anything."

"That's so easy for you to say, Rukia. You weren't there that night! You didn't wake up next to your dead mother! You weren't there and tried to wake her up even though you knew she was dead!" Ichigo screamed and begun to cry loudly. His whole body shook and his fists were tightly closed.

"Shh, Ichigo. I'm here, calm down." Rukia walked around Ichigo, bent down on her knees and laid her arms around Ichigo. "Calm down now, Ichigo. Everything is alright."

Rukia cradled Ichigo back and forth slowly while she laid her head in Ichigo's hair. She mumbled on a melody that came up in her mind.

Slowly, slowly Ichigo stopped shake and the tears came lesser and lesser until they completely stopped. Ichigo pulled Rukia away a little bit from him so he could stroke away the last tears with his arm. He looked up at Rukia with red and sad eyes.

"S…sorry, Rukia… I didn't mean to lose my control like that…"

Rukia smiled for the first time that day and gave Ichigo another hug. "Ichigo, it's just normal to act like that. I'm not angry."

"Oh… Thanks, Rukia. Thank you for everything. You're a really good friend, you know that?" Ichigo smiled back at Rukia and stroked her hair. "Let's go back home."

"Sounds good with me, Ichigo." Rukia turned around and begin to walk down the hill with Ichigo walking next to her.

She looked at Ichigo before she took his hand in her and smiled up at him. Ichigo looked at Rukia with a surprised expression in his face.

"Rukia…" he whispered.

They continued to walk in silence with their hands attached to each others. No one of them did know it, but Ichigo's mother's spirit looked after them from her gravestone where they walked hand in hand. In her face a smile could be seen before she disappeared.

Sandra Magnusson 2010/01/18

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