Little Loud Voice
"…Tell him…"
"No."
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"No!"
"I don't really like him all that much seeing as he was the one who stopped the snow and started the rain…"
"No Shiryaku!"
The female spirit continued as if she didn't hear her. "…there was even a point at which weather hadn't seemed to exist, and my world seemed like a void…but he was also the one to stop it. And the sun came out with the snow after that."
"Leave me alone. I already apologized for that."
"Even Zangetsu doesn't smell as bad or bite like that snake and baboon. And you have to admit that he hasn't made you half as sad as that nue has."
Rukia growled as she jumped over the fence to get as far away as she could from the offending human.
"Next time I'll show him how much I can't handle an arrancar! I defeated the 10th flippin Espada for crying out loud! And its riatsu was nothing to speak of!...I'll just slap a couple bindings and tie his ass to a tree or something." She didn't know why she was upset really, since she'd still have her share of hollows. Maybe it had been the fact that after she'd arrived and was about to engage it, he rushed in and told her to keep back…he didn't even try to show off like Ishida did for Orihime, or allow her to try, and only help if needed like Sado did. And now Shiryaku had resumed her argument of his feelings for her being the reason for his stubbornness.
"Stop changing the topic."
"He has four girls after him! What, do you think it would be better to just add one more seeing as two of them are well liked by so many other guys?" frustration at this constant argument was beginning to wear her down, and she'd started shouting aloud. Thankfully, seeing as she was coming from the park, there were many trees around to hide who she was if someone did hear here, and was unlikely that anyone was around to hear her anyway.
"I only count 2. who are the rest?"
She sighed. She didn't really want to continue this conversation, but she was going to be damned if she was going to let Shiryaku win this argument.
"Orihime, Tatsuki, Nell."
"Can you really count Nell? Seeing as she's a child most of the time…"
She really had nothing to say against that.
"You haven't told me the last."
If Shiryaku could have seen Rukia's face, she was sure she would be a ridiculous shade of pink right now.
It seemed that she didn't realize she said 4 instead of 3.
"Some kid in his class. A nobody." She mumbled.
Quite frankly, she wouldn't really know, since Rukia could limit what she experienced of the outside world, so she let that mistake slide.
"Ahh…but he didn't let those girls sleep in his closet."
"He had no choice there."
"He calls you by your given name and-"
"Nell and Tatsuki"
Ignoring the fact that she'd been interrupted she continued. "He risked his life to save you."
"Orihime."
"He quarrels with you on a daily basis."
"How's that showing love?"
"So you admit that it's love then?"
She gritted her teeth and ignored the silly interpretation.
"He didn't kill your brother or Renji and allowed you to remain in Soul Society of your own violation."
"He doesn't kill anyone. They die on their own if they don't find good help afterwards, that's all."
"What about the fact that he always blushes when you have to touch him to heal him?"
That statement definitely gave her pause. "Nani?"
"Or that he trained for and achieved bankai for you, or that he first used his new found power with the vaizard to protect you.
"He always wants to protect everyone."
"Or that he felt more guilty about leaving you more than everyone else when he disappeared with the vaizard…or maybe that the reason he didn't wait for you and Renji when going into Hueco Mundo was so you wouldn't get in trouble, and was hesitant for you to leave when you all finally reached Las Noches."
"He was worried for everyone."
"What about the fact that he never tells anyone that he kills the hollows?"
"Huh?"
"Everyone else would. Even Renji. But when your friends assume it's you who purified it, he says not a word."
She had no comeback for this, since she really hadn't realized it before; so she just got pissed off.
"Stop it Shiryaku! Why do you torment me?" she shouted, seemingly at nothing, "I have polished your blade after every battle, and trained harder now than I did in the academy…so why? Please leave me be."
"Not until you admit it!" Shiryaku started singing the stupid little rhyme that one of Karin's friends used to sing just to annoy her. "Rukia and Ichigo sitting in a tree…K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
After a while, Rukia finally had reached her limit.
"FINE! You want me to confess?" she had stopped and stuck her zanpuktou in the ground, glaring at it furiously. "I love the stupid idiot! I love him from the top of his obnoxiously bright head through the length of his ridiculously powerful body. But that doesn't change a thing does it?! Because he will still try and protect me, just as everyone else does, and still put his life on the line uncaringly since he doesn't seem to realize that he's not invincible!"
Shiryaku didn't say a word. Rukia thought that she'd finally been able to shut the annoying spirit up…until she turned at the sound of a twig snapping behind her.
"Oh Shit…"
The one and only substitute shinigami stood behind her, not a few feet behind her, blushing so much, he resembled his namesake (strawberry).
"I- uh…came to say…ahh…gomen-nassai…"
the both of them stood facing each other silently.
"I…ilikeyoutoo." He said in one shot, and then blushed a darker shade of red.
If Rukia was anyone else, she would have blushed deeply, but she was a Kuchiki; and living for fifty years with Byakuya had taught her how to hide such emotions.
In the background, unbeknownst to their owners, Zangetsu and Shiryaku ran over their strategy once more.
"They've finally admit it."
"But their just standing there!" Shiryaku argued.
"Youth."
"I still can't believe they're just standing there. Tell him to kiss her or something."
"They will work within their own time."
"Emotionally immature idiots."
"Hmm." Agreed Zangetsu, though he was thoroughly grateful this girl stopped the rain.