I wrote this a while ago, but I figured I might as well post it. Don't worry, these get better as they go along. I guess it's a three-shot.
By the way, I don't own Bleach. I'd sell my house to own Ichigo, though.
It came from nowhere. In a split second Ichigo was flat on the floor, his head throbbing in pain. This, however, did not stop Ichigo from immediately getting to his feet in a rage. "Dad, what the hell?" In retaliation, he planted his size twelve Converses right in Isshin's face.
"Daddy was just trying to say hello," Isshin complained, holding his nose. It could have been broken.
"Yeah, well you didn't have to punch me in the head!" Ichigo hissed, rubbing the forming lump underneath his bright orange hair. "What do you want?"
"Daddy wanted to tell you that he's taking Karin and Yuzu to a spa for some father-daughter time."
"Yeah, whatever, have fun." The infamous scowl appeared on his face, and he sat down on the couch and turned on the tv.
"We'll be back tomorrow morning. Don't bother Rukia-chan. Ladies need to be treated with respect you know." Isshin got a whimsical look in his eye. "Ah, Rukia-chan reminds me of Masaki. Your mother was such a lady."
Ichigo laughed out loud. Rukia. A lady. She was so far from being a lady that she was possibly a man. That thought made Ichigo chuckle again. Not only that, Rukia was nothing like his mother.
"OH, MASAKI, OUR ONLY SON HAS FORSAKEN YOU!" Isshin wailed, kneeling before the gigantic poster of his wife plastered on the wall. "HE DOESN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH OF A LADY YOU WERE!"
"Hey Beardo, shut up!" Karin had walked into the room, carrying her overnight bag. "I'm already upset. I'm only going to this stupid spa because Yuzu wants me to."
Yuzu herself entered the room, her eyes bright with anticipation. "Come on, Karin, it'll be fun!"
"That's the spirit, Yuzu, Daddy's so happy!" In the blink of an eye, Isshin was finished crying and was now leading Yuzu out the door. "Bye, Onii-chan! I'm taking Bostov!" Yuzu called. Kon looked thrilled. A spa filled with beautiful women…
Karin sighed. "See you later, Ichi-nii." She followed them out the door.
Finally, Ichigo was alone. That had given him a headache, and his head already hurt from the whack his father had given him earlier. He went into the kitchen and grabbed some chips. Ichigo then returned to the couch and grabbed the remote, flipping channels until something caught his eye. Night of the Robotic Zombies. Perfect.
He had been watching for only five minutes when he felt something strange. Rukia was leaning on the back of the couch, looking at the tv over his shoulder. Ichigo could feel her breath on his neck, and he could smell her scent.
He told himself that he was only uncomfortable because she was in his bubble.
"What are you watching, Ichigo?" she asked, leaning over him further to get a chip from the bag. She smelled like vanilla and lilac.
"Night of the Robotic Zombies. Look, Rukia, if you're going to watch the movie, come sit down, otherwise, go away."
"What's the matter with me standing right here?" Rukia asked, in the mood to annoy him. Slowly and deliberately, she reached for another chip.
"Don't be a bitch." Ichigo held the bag out of her reach, forcing her to come around the couch to get one.
"Oh, so now I'm a bitch," Rukia said loudly, plopping herself down next to him. Ichigo was all too aware of how her leg lightly touched his. Rukia grabbed the bag of chips from Ichigo and started munching down. "What is this movie about?"
Ichigo sighed, annoyed, and tried not to think about her leg. "The zombies go around at night when people are sleeping and implant microchips into their brains. The microchips force the people murder against their will, and eventually turn them into zombies themselves."
"That sounds stupid," Rukia said through a mouthful of chips.
"I don't know, Rukia, this movie might be too scary for you," he said with a smirk. "Maybe we should turn it to that stupid bunny cartoon you always watch."
"For your information," Rukia spat out, getting right in Ichigo's face, "Chappy the Bunny doesn't come on on Saturday nights. And, there is NO WAY a moving picture could scare me. I am a shinigami. I fight Hollows. No zombie could even make me blink." Rukia suddenly seemed to realize just how close her face was to Ichigo's, and sat back down in embarrassment.
"Okay," Ichigo laughed, "but don't go crying to me."
The two of them watched the rest of the movie in silence. A couple of times, during the murder scenes, Rukia would grab hold of Ichigo's arm, much to Ichigo's dismay. He made no move to remove her arm, but during those times he had no clue what his name was, much less what was going on in the movie.
Ichigo snuck a peek at Rukia a couple times and found her eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Sometimes she would whimper so softly that Ichigo wasn't sure if he heard her or not, and sometimes she would cover her eyes with her hands and peek through her fingers.
When the movie was finally over, Rukia got off the couch and stretched. "That was pretty good." She kept her hands in fists in order to mask their shaking.
"Are you sure you weren't scared?" Ichigo asked skeptically.
Seeing her fists start to shake, Rukia punched him in the stomach. Hard.
Ichigo kneeled over in pain. "Rukia, what the hell?!"
"Th-That is for underestimating me. I'm Rukia Kuchiki. Rukia Kuchiki. That stupid movie didn't even faze me." She stuck out her tongue. "Nyahh!" Rukia then ran to the bedroom that she shared with Ichigo's sisters.
Ichigo shook his head, and walked, grumbling the whole way, to his room.
In her room, Rukia tried keeping busy. She brought out some of her romance manga and got lost in kisses and scandal. She raided Yuzu's pajama drawer. She played Karin's videogames. All of these were fun, but they were a diversion—Rukia was afraid to sleep. She could have stayed that way, if it hadn't started to rain. She could have just romanced and videogamed her way through the night if the power hadn't gone out.
Of course, Rukia didn't know anything about storms knocking out electricity. All she knew was that the zombies were out to get her. Fumbling in the dark for her zanpakuto, Rukia frantically looked around the dark room, only seeing zombie shadows. She was unable to find what she was looking for, and would not stay in that room any longer. Rukia dashed out of her room and into Ichigo's, planning on spending the night in the safety of her closet.
Just as she quietly opened the closet door, a voice nearly made her jump out of her skin. "Rukia?"
Rukia could faintly see the shadow of Ichigo sitting up in bed. She stared at him in silence, and his shadow seemed to stare back at her. Finally, Ichigo sighed, and Rukia heard the rustling of covers. "Get in."
Dumbfounded but swearing she heard a zombie, Rukia made no objections and climbed into his bed. After making it clear that if he tried anything weird she would kick his ass, Rukia drifted off to sleep.
Ichigo told himself that this meant nothing. After all, he slept with his sisters when they were scared or had nightmares, how was this any different? He was just acting on brotherly instinct. But in her sleep, Rukia drifted towards warmth, which just happened to be Ichigo.
His heart began to beat faster as Rukia cuddled close. He couldn't see her, but he could imagine her long dark eyelashes resting on her pale face. He could feel her raven hair burning holes through his shirt. He could hear her slow, shallow breathing and the occasional snore. The vanilla and lilac that was Rukia wafted teasingly towards him.
He told himself that he didn't move because Rukia would wake up and be thoroughly pissed. Surprisingly, part of him actually wondered whether he was in denial.
It would be a long night.