Rukia, on reading the script to episode where Riruka (A/N- I could not believe it) takes her . . . .
"What! Oh my God, now the idiot bunny-eared bitch-skank who is always flashing her panties defeats me?! What the hell! Why do I even train to be a shinigami if I am going to be so pathetic?" She rushes up to Ichigo who is facing her sitting backwards on his desk chair.
"Of course they stick me with the girl, because there is no way they'd let me defeat a MAN, because somehow that's just not possible, right? No matter how many hundred years I've trained for & how much riatsu I can command, if it's a man, I will instantly fall back helpless. And now they are not even letting me beat the chicks?! What the hell!" Rukia is grabbing Ichigo's collar and leaning him over his desk by this time, on her tiptoes as she yells in his face.
"Dammit, Rukia, I'm NOT the one who wrote this!" Ichigo yells defensively.
"Who the hell wants to see her fucking herpes-infected cunt anyways!" She dropped Ichigo's shirt and started pacing his bedroom.
"Ah, Rukia, I think that herpes is on the mouth not on ... uh," Ichigo trailed off as Rukia stared at him with a frozen glare.
"Are you taking her side!?" She spat out.
"No, uh, no I uh," Ichigo blanched as she began to stalk towards him menacingly.
"I killed the Ninth Espada! The Ninth fucking Espada! I have literally lived through hell and back again in the Rukongai, taken shit backwards and forwards from Nii-sama, been deserted by everyone I ever loved, been completely underestimated just to climb my way back up tooth and nail and this is what I get?! Another slap in the face!" She threw the script to the floor and spun around to glare at the corner with her arms crossed.
"I'm sorry, Rukia. This sucks balls. Tite threw you under the bus AGAIN just to create some lame drama. But, something you just said, 'deserted by everyone you ever loved.' I just want to make sure you remember, I didn't desert you, Rukia."
His earnest eyes bore holes into her back. She looked at him over her shoulder, out of the corner of her eye for several beats and then quickly looked away. "I know that you idio-"
"No! Rukia . . . " he grabbed her elbow and turned her towards him. "I want you to KNOW that I WILL NEVER desert you." He said vehemently, and locked her in place with his eyes. "And whenever you need ANYTHING, I want to be the first person you come to! Understand?!"
She stared at him with her eyes wide and her mouth open. Ichigo pushed her chin up to close her mouth and smiled softly.
"Rukia, I know that you are a very independent woman, but I also know you have gone though a whole lot of shit in your life. Please let me be the one to help you carry your burdens," he entreated, looking deeply into her eyes. "I can't stand the thought of you being in any more trouble alone. After all, you know that I love you so much that the idea of you being without me is physically painful for me."
"What! What are you saying so suddenly!" Rukia backs away from him wide-eyed. "Ichigo, you are not thinking properly, you are probably hungry or something -"
"I know exactly what I am saying Rukia!" He spits out, his brow wrinkling.
"I love you, Rukia. I am sorry that I never told you about it, it just never seemed to be the right time or place, or, I don't know; but I want to be the one who is there for you. I know about how you were left alone to make your own way in the world when you were a young child, and how Renji deserted you in the academy, and that it was so hard living with Byakuya's coldness. I want to make you feel love, warmth, happiness. I want to be your family, Rukia!
Rukia looked at him with her eyes wide. At this time in his life, he appeared much too old to be a teenager. His glowing amber eyes regarded her earnestly. Suddenly, she noticed the way his golden skin was darker than when they had first met, and the way scars decorated his exposed hands and forearms, reminders of the many terrible battles he had waged despite his tender years. Looking into his face, she could see his forehead seemed to already be telling the tale of his hard-won experience.
"Ichigo, how many times have you almost died now? Isn't all of this because I failed at my duty to protect you on the day that we met? Aren't you always getting into trouble because of me?" She wrinkled her brows at him, her eyes starting to glisten wetly, "I am a walking disaster and have brought you nothing but bad luck. You should hate me, or at least try your best to stay away from me-"
Ichigo was firmly shaking his head with his lips clamped together, "No, no Rukia, no - I always knew that you would not believe me, or that you would try to do something weird, and that's partly why I never told you. But this time I will not stand for you to put yourself down like this. You are the one who awakened my power, the one who changed my whole world! You are the only one who can get me out of my stupid depressed funks and get me moving again! Recently, I have realized something, Rukia, you not only changed my world; you are my whole world. Living without you for those two years was making me crazy; it is impossible for me to be happy without having you as a part of my life. Rukia, I am begging you," he literally fell to his knees in front of her, "Please don't leave me alone again! I can't handle being without you anymore-"
"But, how?" Rukia's chest was heaving and she was beginning to feel light-headed, looking at him there before her. "I can hardly believe you when you tell me that you love me, and then to think of the impossible obstacles that our love would have to face-" her eyelids fell. A tear ran unnoticed from the end of her dark fringe of eyelashes.
Ichigo reached up and caught her tear halfway down her flushed cheek, marveling at the dewy softness of her ivory skin.
"Rukia," he said slowly as if savoring her name. Her eyes flicked open wide to his, unprepared at how much closer they were. They stared into each other's eyes, not able to let go. "You know me. You know what happens when you talk to me about 'obstacles'. As far as this subject is concerned, 'all your opinions are [still] rejected!'"
Rukia let out a little half-sob half-hysterical giggle, and a few more tears leaked out, her blue-amethyst eyes like dark pools that Ichigo found himself lost in. He cupped her wet face with his hands.
"I will always come for you, I will always be there for you, and I will not be losing you ever again! Do you hear me, Rukia?!"
"H-h-hai!" She said with another giggle and pushed herself forward to kiss him hard. She pulled back to look at his lidded, passionate eyes again. "I l-love you, Ichigo," she breathed fervently. He covered her mouth with his own again, insatiably devouring her lips. They embraced each other as their own lifeline, knowing that nothing, death included, would be able to separate them.