Hug is the Best Medicine

Setting: Karakura Town

Disclaimer: Bleach and its characters are owned by Kubo.

Rukia was tired. She has been slaying hollows and been sent to countless missions both in soul society and in the human world for the past month. She was thankful for being entrusted such difficult tasks and happy that she get to hone her fighting skills. But still...it was just too damned tiring and stressful.

One day, as she stared at the slowly vanishing figure of a high level hollow she has just slain and the adrenaline rush was slowly slipping away, she felt so tired as if she has just run a marathon around seiretei 10 times. With shoulders slumped and arms swaying lifelessly on her sides, she sighed "finally". Her lavender eyes were almost hidden by her half closed lids and her lips were curved down into a permanent frown.

With a walk that would equal that of a turtle in a race with a snail, she made her way upwards. She was about to open the sekaimon gate to soul society when a group of young boys caught her attention. She lazily stared at the group playing basketball and as she was about to avert her gaze from them, her eyes involuntarily focused on the orange ball that looked really familiar.

She struggled to think through her half conscious brain. Through her hazy vision the basketball turned into a round lump of orange hair before it grew a nose, deep amber eyes and a scowl. Yes, the basketball was scowling at her.

This made her leg kick into the air involuntarily. "I missed kicking the idiot" she said to no one in particular.

She then turned and looked around as if to check if someone heard her, only to realize that she was still in mid-air, in Karakura Town, so obviously, no one was around aside from a flock of passing pigeons.

As the kids dribbled the ball, she could imagine the ball was Ichigo's head hitting the ground again and again only to bounce up again and again. This made her frowning lips curved upward into a noticeable smile.

"Stupid strawberry" she muttered.

She then turned to the hell butterfly hovering in front of her "I'll go home later" she said. The hell butterfly seemed to understand and it flew away and disappeared.

Without even thinking, her body drifted unconsciously in the direction of the Kurosaki household. And as she reached Ichigo's room on the second floor, she stopped, peered into the empty room then drifted silently inside. Her feet landed quietly on to the wooden floor with her hair bouncing lightly.

She let the familiar smell envelope her. She closed her eyes and let the familiar feeling calm her. And as she opened her eyes, she found herself face to face with Ichigo - or at least, Ichigo's chest. She tilted her head upward to see his face. Looking at his scowling face in person made her chuckle. She remembered his head bouncing up and down like a ball.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Nothing"

"It doesn't look like nothing to me"

Rukia was too tired to argue, so she turned away from him and sat on the edge of his bed.

Ichigo was surprised to not hear her retort. He carefully studied her and noticed how her glittering lavender eyes were now lifeless orbs staring into nothingness. And how her usually proud stance was now slumped and sagged. And to top it all, she emitted a stay-away-from-me-and-shut-up aura.

And just then he knew what he had to do. A modest blush crept on to his cheeks before he bowed and picked up her left hand. He carefully stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, feeling her soft skin, before he moved his hand to hold her forearm. The feeling of touching her increased the blood through his face making him blush even more.

Rukia just looked at him curiously, though it was not evident in her features because the only emotion she could manage to display now was tiredness.

Ichigo noticed that Rukia's full attention was on him. He knew his face was now beat red and his arms were trembling with excitement and embarrassment. "Better get on with this" he thought. He tightened his grip on her to equal that of his resolve. Then everything happened in a few seconds. He forcefully pulled her towards him, making her stand up from her sitting position. The sudden pull caught her by surprise so her weak legs were not able to support her. Her body lifelessly fell onto his chest and into his arms. He carefully and shyly placed his arms around her and settled his hands on her upper back. He slowly caressed and tapped her back as if comforting a person that was crying.

Through all this drama, Rukia's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Her slumped shoulders tensed up and her lifeless arms stiffened with her hands balling into a fist. Her heart beat that seemed nonexistent a few moments ago was not madly beating like a drum in a tune of a rock song. She felt blood rushed through her face and her temperature increased.

It took her slowly functioning brain a good minute to process what has just happened and what was happening. Rukia forced his mouth to shut but found her jaw dropping down again. But as she felt Ichigo's hand slowly caressing her back with a rhythm, her racing heart calmed down and her breathing stabilized. Just then, she felt a month's worth of stress lifted from her shoulders. And a month's worth of tiredness slowly dissolving into oblivion.

She let herself be lulled into contentment. She brought her arms around his waist which settled on his lower back. She closed her eyes, slowly rubbed her face against his cotton shirt and inhaled to take in his scent, before burying her face on his chest with a smile.

Ichigo felt her calm down and he smiled. He didn't know what made him hug her, but somehow he knew that Rukia Kuchiki is tired and she needed a hug. He then closed his eyes and rested his cheeks against her head. He held her closer and tightened his embrace.

A/N: This is just a short fic made by very tired person. _