A/N: Here's a new one-shot by me. This idea was originally a drabble, but I finished it.
Disclaimer: Bleach is not mine, and is written by Kubo Tite. Rated Teen for mild adult themes, character death. Being terribly tired, I can't help but question if the characters seem OOC, but that's for you to decide.
She felt the presence of a hand on hers, squeezing tightly. She looked to see the only distinguishable image of orange, and hear a loud voice.
"Rukia, hold on- please!" She didn't need to think to know instinctively that it was Ichigo that was holding her tightly, calling out for her to stay with him.
"Rukia, you can't go! Stay with me-"
"I-Ich…go…" She muttered, feeling the bitter taste of blood in her mouth.
"Rukia! Hold on, stay with me!" Ichigo said, gripping onto her even tighter. He was shaking, make her body tremble.
"Let... Me pass…m- heart to… you." She said. It took her a moment to say everything, pausing after every bit of pain that went through her body.
"Don't talk like that, Rukia! You'll be staying here, with Inoue, Ishida, Chad, Renji, Byakuya… you'll stay here with me." Ichigo muttered, seeing Rukia wasn't even going to fight anymore. He didn't want her in pain any more, but he couldn't let her die. It was his fault she was in this state, covered in her own blood from her wounds.
"I'm… happy… you're-here. Thank-you…Ichi…" Rukia tried to smile, but it only looked like a grimace.
She had no feeling now- it was much more pleasant than having the feel of the hole in her body where the sword pierced her anymore.
She could not see anything, not knowing if her eyelids were closed or not. The noise of battle began to jumble together, somehow creating the erratic beats of her heart.
"Rukia, no! You can't thank me!" Ichigo could see her eyes lose focus and glaze over. She attempted to breathe some more, but no air could go into her damaged lungs.
"I…go." She gurgled out one last time, not knowing if he was still there, holding her frail form.
"Rukia…" He muttered. He wrapped his arms around her body gently, like her body would then crumble if he held any tighter. He looked to see her eyes slowly close as he leaned closer. He placed a soft kiss on her cheek, avoiding the cut right below her left eye.
He stayed in that position, holding the limp figure, staring down at her serene face.
His friends stood behind him, staying silent as they watch him brush a stray strand of hair off her face. Several of the shinigami came, alarmed to see him holding her, doing nothing but holding her hand in front of him. The winds in Hueco Mundo rustled her matted hair, but she still looked peaceful in his arms.
She was gone.
She was dead.
He wanted her back, wanting to see her eyes again.
Both of them felt cold.
- - -
"Ichi-nii, are you okay?" Yuzu's eyes shown worry.
"Ah, I'm fine." Ichigo assured her, giving a pained smile.
He shut the door behind him, staring into empty space in his room. It was deathly silent like every night, even Kon was quieter.
Ichigo laid down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He knew everyone was worrying about him, being like this since then.
But they weren't thinking about Rukia.
"Good night, Nee-san…" Kon always said that at night, before falling asleep. Ichigo wondered if she would answer either way.
Ichigo's eyes closed as his mind turned blank, falling asleep.
He opened his eyes to see a bright light. He shielded his eyes from the harsh light, waiting until his eyes fully adjusted. The image sooner became clearer to him, figuring where he was.
A field of wild grass spread across to the horizon, growing high up to his knees. Flower of yellow and purple grew in patches across the field, swaying in the wind as the large clouds rolled by.
Ichigo could only stand there, looking at his surroundings.
He finally noticed a botch of black along with a figure sitting on the ground, not far from him.
He said no words, as his feet moved towards the figure.
He could see the pale skin of the back of the arms, and a sliver of the back that wasn't covered by white and the raven tendrils.
He noticed the figure stand up from the position from the grass, but still did not turn toward him. He could distinguish a white dress that followed the bend with the grass from the wid. The arms disappeared to hold in front of the figure, out of his sight.
He could see the figure was small, almost fragile. His pace quickened slightly.
He was within reach now, but his feet froze and rooted to the ground. He stared once more, now seeing the arms were folded. His throat was shut as he could only stare.
Rukia turned to finally face Ichigo. He looked to see her face smooth with no worry or stress lines, not covered in blood and cuts. Her eyes were gleaming, quite different from the dull and glazed stare he last saw her with.
She looked alive.
''Ichigo." She said, giving him a confident smile. Ichigo opened his mouth, desperately wanting to say it. Her name.
"Rukia." He said. The moment her name escaped his lips, he stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders. His hands trembled, his senses over-loading by feeling her warm skin.
"Yes?" She only smirked at him, but he saw her eyes looked rather joyful.
"…" He opened his mouth, but closed it again- speechless. She raised her eyebrow at him, looking at his still figure as she continued staring in to amber eyes.
"Fool. You never seem to change, even when I had kicked some sense into you already before." She scolded.
"What are you talking about?" Ichigo glared down at her, still wanting to ask a million questions. She looked over across the field towards the now setting sun. Ichigo followed her gaze, and noticed the darkening sky.
"The sun was just in the middle of the sky…" He muttered. He looked back at the shinigami-no, she was no longer a shinigami- and noticed she was staring back at him. He could see her mouth in a line, her eyes piercing him with a slightly pained look he had seen very rarely.
"Ichigo…" She whispered.
"W-what?" Ichigo stuttered. Her eyes softened, but he could still see the pain.
"Please don't be like this." Her voice was even soft, surprising Ichigo- but then he froze when he registered her words.
"Wait, Rukia-!" His hands searched for her shoulders and searched for something in her eyes, but saw nothing.
"You don't want to be pathetic like you are now- step up and look forward to another sunlit day." She explained, resting her hands over his. Her hands were warm like they had always been when he touched them- if only by accident that their hands would touch, her skin always sent a shock throughout his body.
"Sunlit?" Ichigo muttered, when he automatically turned towards the splice of the sun that was increasingly disappearing.
"See you later, Ichigo." Rukia said, her voice sounding distant. Ichigo tried to turn and look back at her, but all he saw was the ceiling of his bedroom, followed by the light of dawn coming through his window.
He had woken up.
He was distracted all day, thinking about that dream.
That dream of her. It seemed so realistic, like it was another one of their own moments- albeit a different scenery than what they've had before. Maybe if he searched every field on Earth, he'd find her just lying in the middle of one of them, peacefully sleeping.
'But it was only a dream.' He reminded himself.
But he could still feel her warm touch on his skin, like before.
- - -
Before
"Rukia, you can't go out there!'
"You cannot order me around, Ichigo! Besides, how can you stop me? You're the one on the ground bleeding from a dozen wounds."
"So? I can still beat you with the cuts!" A snatch of the other's arms, a few moments of struggle and curses, and the two fell down onto the floor of the 4th division tent.
"Ichigo! What the hell is your problem?!" She screeched from underneath him, trying to escape his strong grasp.
"What the hell is your problem? Do you have a death wish?" He yelled from above her. She stopped fighting, knowing she wouldn't win against him with brute force. She snarled at him, surprising him.
"I should be asking you the same thing! You're the one that had a hole the size of his blocky head in your chest! How do you think that made Ishida and Inoue feel, seeing you hanged by the neck? How it made us feel, feeling what happened and watching from the outside? " Her voice trembled.
"R-Rukia…?" Ichigo mumbled, seeing her serious face. He looked away, not wanting to meet the intense eyes. "Sorry about that…"
"Sorry? That's all you have to say? If Inoue has to save me from death after I go out there, would you accept 'Sorry about that'?" She argued. He closed his eyes, trying not to imagine the thought of her in the same state he was, when he could have saved her from it. If he couldn't keep her from fighting with those powerful espada, he could do nothing if she was pierced through her body again- or worse.
"No." He muttered.
"No, what?" Rukia questioned.
"I won't let you!" He retorted, his voice growing louder. "I-I won't let you leave me, for what could be forever if you die out there!" His voice was now shaking as he turned back to her and stared into the great depths of her pupils. Rukia laid there frozen at his statement, staring back to see despair in his own eyes.
"Ichigo…" He felt her fingertips brush against his skin, and he released her wrist. The hand breezed up his rough and bandaged arm and across his chest. It stopped over where his left breast was under all the medical tape, and lingered in the spot.
"I won't leave you forever. Time will pass, but I'll be back." She whispered. He had only heard her voice so soft a few times before, his heart beating hard in his ribcage. The tension felt unbearable as silence thickened the air, waiting for Ichigo to answer. He took his free hand and grasped Rukia's own that was still by his heart. He squeezed her hand as he leaned forward and grasped her lips with his own.
She laid there, frozen in surprise at his sporadic move. Rukia was still in shock as Ichigo bit her lower lip, begging. She quickly melted into the embrace, answering his imploring. They were locked for what seemed like a hour, until releasing the other for air a minute later.
Ichigo loved the sensation that was running all the way to his toes. He wanted to kiss Rukia even more, but then the pain of open wounds finally struck him. He tried his best not to collapse on Rukia, but she saw what was happening and pushed him down next to her back on his covers.
"You shouldn't have been that reckless. They'll have to re-do those bandages now." She scolded. His eyes clenched at the pain. "You have to calm down now."
"Rukia, are you leaving…?" Ichigo asked once again, the question that had started their whole argument.
"Ah, they ordered me to." She answered anyway, even though he knew the answer did not change.
"Don't do anything stupid, or you'll regret it when I save you." He muttered, a small smirk dancing on his face.
"Oh? What are you going to do, chain me to your closet and keep a leash on me when I can go out?" She fancied. Ichigo choked at her dirty implications, as she just stared with a confused face.
"I'll be worse than Byakuya, that's for sure." He answered with a slight warning with his mocking tone.
"I hope for your sake he doesn't hear that." She gave a small smile as she stood up from her spot right next to him.
"Later, Ichigo. I'll probably see you even before your wounds have actually healed." She gave a small wave.
"If I have to." He returned the remark, but still smiled. He watched as her undersized figure walked away quickly to aid in the battle.
He brought his hand to touched his chest, where her own had lay.
Those promises would soon break.
- - -
"You're already going to bed? No teenager goes to bed early in the night on a Saturday!" Kurosaki Isshin pointed his index finger at Ichigo like he was accusing him.
"What, I'm exhausted. A lot of school work on a Saturday, I had to finish a project." Ichigo muttered, trying to ignore his father.
"So? Can't you stay up and play with Yuzu and Karin for a little while?" Isshin suggested.
"They're out with friends." Ichigo answered. He continued his way up the stairs to the second floor of the Kurosaki home.
"M-m-matte, maybe you'd like a father-to-son talk!" The vein in Ichigo's head bulged as his father raced up right behind him.
"Shut the hell up already." Ichigo swore, looking over at his father. His father started rambling on as he opened his bedroom door.
"Let's see, which one should I talk about- use protection, don't drink, incest is illegal- ah! My son, no matter what life throws at you, you must move on and live!" His sentence ended bluntly as Ichigo slammed his door shut.
"Jeez…!" He muttered, locking the door behind him. He trudged to his bed, waiting to feel the soft mattress. He fell onto his bed, not wasting to go under the covers, and closed his eyes.
He laid in wake for a while, not tired enough to fall asleep.
"Dammit…" He muttered, turning towards the open window over his bed. Like she was coming back from doing whatever she did at night, whether doing patrol for hollow with Renji or just sitting somewhere quiet, collecting her thoughts.
His thoughts wandered off for a while before he fell asleep.
The next moment he heard a crackle, and opened his eyes again. His eyes adjusted immediately to the dawning sun, but the immense heat was bothering his eyes.
There laid a fire on bare earth. Around were the fields once again, like last time. Ichigo looked around but did not see Rukia.
"Ichigo." Her voice called. He immediately turned around, spotting her. She wore the same white dress, nothing in her appearance changed from last time. She walked over, intending to sit on the log across from him. His hand grabbed hers, and brought her to over to him, but she refused to sit. "No, I'll sit where I want." She said in her defiant voice, almost like a child refusing to eat their vegetables.
Nonetheless, he released her hand and sent her a half-hearted glare.
"That face looks better than your dopey one, you know." She commented.
"What?" He looked over the fire at her. She held a serious face again.
"I know how you are, Ichigo- after something terrible happens, you act like a beaten puppy, and wear a face that shows all of the weaknesses you always kept under the surface. It's ridiculous to wear such a face-"
"So what?!" He cut her off. He realized he even sounded like a abused pup- hurt and trembling. "No one is exploiting my weaknesses even though I've shown them on my face-"
"No one needs to, you're abusing yourself. How much longer do you plan on doing this?" She cut him off, staring at him. He turned away, not wanting to meet her gaze. She sighed, and stood up from the log. The fire continued snapping as she walked around it to Ichigo. Her hands breezed over his arms as they roamed over his body, stopping at his jaw. Ichigo noticed her intimidating stare was gone, and her face was serene.
"Stop being like this, Ichigo." She said. Both remained silent as Ichigo finally stared back at her.
"Rukia." His arms wound around her small waist and pulled her closer to him.
"What?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him. He smirked at her confused face and leaned forward, claiming her lips. They felt warm, just like before.
Rukia didn't hesitate this time to melt in his arms as he stood up from the log, bringing her away from the fire. He continued pulling her, bringing them into the middle of the field. He released his grip on her lips and blew on her neck, making her shiver.
"Ichigo…" She mumbled, trembling as Ichigo planted kisses along her jaw. Ichigo brought his head up from her neck and looked up into the sky. The sun was now in the middle, hours before dusk. He looked back at Rukia, wounding his arms around her again. They stood there for a minute before Rukia began to squirm around, getting impatient. Ichigo pulled her down to the grass below with a soft thud, and continued planting all the kisses he dreamed of before.
And there they embraced each other.
-
The sun was now setting as the two lay in peace on the ground. Neither was tired, but Ichigo couldn't help but close his eyes.
"Rukia, what is with this field? And the fire?" He questioned after a moment. Rukia gave a side-long glance at him where she laid with her head resting on his out-stretched arm.
"Ask yourself." She said. He lifted his head to look at her, but she gave him no other reply.
"The sun is almost over the horizon…" Ichigo muttered. The sun was setting in front of them, but the question that it was actually setting in the west was doubtful. Ichigo would have to ask himself that also.
"Then I guess this is a heart-felt goodbye." Rukia muttered.
"You've read way too many manga… Wait, goodbye?" Ichigo sat up in an instant, looking at Rukia as she was forced to also sit up. She hesitated for a quick moment before answering.
"Ichigo you shouldn't be seeing me anymore." She explained, looking pained to tell him.
"Why, am I supposed to leave you forever?" He demanded. "You pass on your heart, because you'll never see them again?" Rukia shook her head. She remained silent as she stared at the upset Ichigo.
"Ichigo, passing your heart to someone means you'll never be gone from them." Rukia said. Her hand gently lay on his chest, like she had done before.
"As long as you pass your own heart to a nakama, nothing is gone. So please Ichigo- don't die alone. Pass your heart onto your nakama, family, or whoever is important in your life that is there." She smiled up at him.
"Rukia…" Ichigo mumbled, not knowing what to say.
"If it makes you happier, I won't say goodbye." Rukia reasoned. She understood how he didn't like to say something final like 'goodbye'.
"Later, Rukia." He muttered.
"Later, Ichigo." She gave him a soft smile. Ichigo leaned forward and planted one last kiss, closing his eyes. A second later, he couldn't feel her soft lips and or body anymore, and opened his eyes to see his bedroom.
Waking up again.
- - -
After
"Ichigo, why don't you come with us to the bar now that we're old enough to drink?" oleigo asked. Everyone looked over at him, wondering if he was actually going to agree. Ichigo had refused every sort of advance for a long time, only three in the group sadly knew why.
"Sure." Ichigo shrugged his shoulders.
"R-really?" Keigo asked, shocked.
"Yeah, sure." Ichigo answered.
"Great, Ichigo is finally going to join us!" Mizuiro cheered, looking up from his phone.
"You seem to be in a more… happier mood, Kurosaki." Ishida commented as the group walked down the streets from the university.
"Yeah… I guess." Ichigo muttered.
"You're more like your old self, Ichigo." Chad commented, a small smile playing on his face.
"Thanks, Chad." Ichigo said. The four nakama were in the back as the others were conversing in the front.
"Did something happen, Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue asked. Ichigo shook his head.
"It doesn't matter if something happened or not, Kurosaki is actually joining in a group activity after so long." Ishida stated, adjusting he glasses.
"Yeah." Chad agreed. Inoue nodded. All three understood, so the conversation ended.
After a night of celebrating and drinking, Ichigo arrived in his small apartment. He silently thanked he had no morning classes the next hours so he could sleep. He took off his jacket and tossed it to the floor, too exhausted and drunk to properly put it away.
He wasted no time to jump into bed, his eyes already close to sleep.
He knew he wouldn't dream of Rukia, nor would he dream of her for a while.
He didn't need to anymore.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed!
If you're slightly confused about the settings, Ichigo is dreaming so technically it's all about him. That's why Rukia doesn't answer his question on the fire and field herself.