That Girl in My Closet
Chapter 1: Food for Her
Ichigo quickly walked up to the front door of his tow story house and held the door opened as a short raven-haired girl walked under his arm and walked in.
"Thanks," she casually said as she dropped her backpack on the couch, plopping down onto the soft fabric and stretching her arms and legs. Karin was at a soccer game and Yuzu was on a field trip until late so the house was pretty much empty for the rest of the day.
"It's so rare that I can actually enjoy the living room! Bring me a drink." Rukia commanded as her hand searched for the remote. Little did she know that Ichigo hated being ordered around.
"Get it your damn self." He said as he walked up the stairs to his room, his backpack leaning off his shoulders.
"Whatever. Don't need to get so pissed." She said, getting up and leaving her state of serenity. The truth of the situation is that Ichigo had a reputation to maintain, being ordered around by a tick wasn't part of it.
After a few minutes passed he came back downstairs, only to have a pillow smack him across his head and send him crashing into the wall.
"What the shit was that for?!"
Rukia leaked out her devilish grin as she stared at him from the couch, her large heads peeking from behind the couch.
"For being rude."
"What?! I'm not rude! Where is this coming from?!" he questioned, pointing at her as if to blame her for something.
"All I asked for was a drink and you resorted to a monkey-like state of mannerism. No wonder you don't have a girlfriend."
"What?! You could have gotten it yourself! And I don't need a girlfriend! Thank God you didn't draw a crappy picture to show me!"
"Actually, I did. See!" she revealed as she presented her masterpiece.
A tree with an orange top was yelling at some rabbit with black hair and throwing bricks at her.
Ichigo could only look in disgust, his eyes straining to decipher what the petite had drawn.
"What the hell?! A tree throwing bricks?" he said.
"No! That's a monkey throwing juice boxes! Can't you see?!" she countered.
"Maybe if you didn't draw pictures with your feet people could tell what it is!"
"I don't draw with my feet! I need them to shove up your ass!"
"Yeah, if you could reach me from their you little garden gnome!"
But she could, and but his butt wasn't damaged, he tried to dodge at her incoming foot and his rear made it but his crouch wasn't as lucky. The second she realized what happened she found Ichigo lying on the ground, holding himself and biting his lip to hold in the pain.
"Ichigo! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" she apologized, trying to think of what she could do to help him.
"I'll get some ice!" she declared, running to the freezer.
"Please……..no ice…….no ice……." He murmured, his pleas not able to reach her ears."
She knelt down next to him, placing her hand with the bag of ice closer to him, blushing at how close it was to his……jewels.
"Maybe you should put it the ice on." She suggested.
"I don't need ice you little goblin! I need new nuts!" he yelled out.
She kicked him again, but this time in the ribs, all her regret disappearing.
"What the hell?! You already injured me!"
"Yeah, but you called me a goblin. So I kicked you."
"You are a little goblin! A sesame seed!" he yelled out once more, and yet again he was kicked once more.
"Stop calling me names!" she yelled out.
"Hell no, hobbit!" He was attacked again.
"OW! Dammit! You little pixie!" But this time no kick.
"Pixies are kinda cute….." she said to herself, looking up at the roof as if imagining herself as a pixie.
Ichigo decided to use this time to crawl away while she was stuck in her fantasy world. This was going to be the last time he let her kick him! Rukia finally snapped out of her daze and walked over to him.
"Pathetic! You are like a monkey. Just like in my picture!" Rukia taunted, showing off her picture once more.
"What monkey? All I see is a tree throwing bricks!"
"That's you as a monkey, throwing juice boxes!"
"Hell no! That's a god damn tree with an orange top to it! And that rabbit looks like a baseball glove!" Ichigo said as he began to slowly recover from the horrible pain.
Rukia had finally snapped. "Fuck it Ichigo. Whatever." The picture fell from her hand as she quietly walked away and climbed the stairs, slamming the door to his own room. He just stood there, watching in confusion as he heard her crawl into the closet.
Despite not knowing what he did he couldn't help but feel some guilt but knew it was pointless to do anything right now. He relaxed himself on the couch and turned on the television but he couldn't enjoy it. He just flipped through the channels until he finally abandoned the remote and just fell to sleep.
Karin had woke him up.
"Rukia….." he whispered.
"Rukia….isn't that the girl in your class?" Karin asked as she began to smile. "Dreaming about a girl Ichigo?"
"No……" Looking for a way to change the subject, he asked about dinner as he noticed the darkness outside the window. Karin had told him their father was at a late meeting and that they should just order something.
"How about some Chinese? Yuzu said she already ate on the field trip." Karin mentioned as Ichigo rose from the couch and grabbed the phone. Karin looked in surprise as Ichigo kept ordering more and more food.
"Ichigo……how much do you eat? I couldn't eat one third of what you ordered."
"………I'm hungry." He lied.
The doorbell rang later and he paid for the delivery.
"Here Karin. I'm going to eat in my room." He said, handing her her food from the order.
"I still can't believe you're going to eat all that." She said.
Little did she know but that food wasn't just for him. He walked up the stairs and opened the door, seeing how empty his room was. Placing the box of food on the floor he knocked on the closet door.
"Rukia…….it's time to eat."
No answer.
"Rukia…..come on. Dinner."
No answer.
"Don't tell me you're still mad."
A voice suddenly emerged from the closet.
"Yes. I'm still mad." She said, her voice still as stern as it was at the fight.
"Rukia……I don't know what I did……..how can I apologize?"
No answer.
Ichigo was about to burst into anger until he remembered some of the fight.
"I'm sorry about making fun of your picture." He grinned as she opened the closet the door.
"How dare you think I'm so immature as to overreact to a picture! That's not what it's about!" she fussed.
Ichigo would have usually yelled at her or called her a name but decided to slowly calm himself down and talk.
"Please Rukia……tell me what is it. If I'm did something, then I'm sorry."
Rukia was about to yell but stopped, shocked that he so calmly asked for the answer instead of arguing.
"It's just…….you could be a bit more nicer to me. I hate coming home and fighting like that, than we never figure out what's wrong and just start yelling again." She quietly said as she rubbed her arm, her head bent towards the ground.
"I see. Then I'm sorry Rukia." Ichigo apologized. "I'll try harder next time."
"Me too…." She said.
The awkward silence afterward was slowly killing them as they stood there, hiding their flustered faces from each other.
"So……you wanna eat dinner or something?" he swiftly asked, almost hoping she didn't noticed.
"Dinner?" she asked, her eyes widening up. She had forgotten all about that.
"Yeah, we ordered Chinese. You can grab whatever what you want. I'll just eat what's left." Ichigo said as she quickly fixed her plate and ran back into the closet.
"You can eat out here. I'll just lock the door." He suggested.
"But wouldn't it be strange that you eat out in the kitchen but lock the door to your room?" she asked.
"I'll just eat in here then." He said as he fixed his plate and sat down on the floor, watching Rukia slowly make her way out of the closet.
"Thank you Ichigo." She said.
"For what?"
"For caring. You remembered to get me dinner, offered to eat with me, apologized for something you didn't know about and ordered my favorite food." She said.
"It's nothing." He calmly said. "This is your home after all."
