Story: What Friends Are For
Summary: Do you honestly believe you can fool us by saying your fine?! We're your friends, Ichigo! We can easily tell that your not fine, just by looking at you. -The Ichigo that I know wouldn't let his personal doubts or failures, or fears drag him down. The Ichigo that I know; that all of us know, would do whatever he had to just to prove to himself that he could do whatever those doubts told him he couldn't. That's the Ichigo that I know.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach...

Rukia and Ichigo had just defeated a group of hollows, however, due to his recklessness, Ichigo had gotten injured. Rukia fortunately managed to defeat them without a problem, and had just finished tending to the wound on his arm. Orihime, Chad, and Uryu arrived shortly after. They'd ran off to take care of some other opposing hollows, and had apparently defeated their share.

"Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san!" called Orihime.

"Oi, guys." Ichigo looked up at them. "You finished already?"

"Of course, those guys were nothing!" Orihime replied, abnormally cheerful. "Ishida-kun and Sado-kun were able to take them out with only a few blows.

"I see." said Ichigo, giving a small smile. "That's good."

Chad stood, silent as always, when Uryu glanced down at Ichigo.

"What about you two?" he questioned, pushing up his glasses.

"I would've done fine by myself, but this idiot!" Rukia scolded, then looked Ichigo directly in the eye. "That was reckless! You could've seriously gotten hurt. Why would you hesitate like that?!"

Ichigo's eyes momentarily darted to the side. He said nothing, but she knew what he was thinking.

Rukia tightened her lips. "Do you really think I'm that weak? That I could be taken down that easily? By stopping and hesitating, you instantly gave that hollow the opportunity to attack. You're lucky I'm able to use kidou, before it could do any real damage, otherwise, you might've been dead right now!"

Ichigo gazed away, his bangs shadowing his eyes. "Sorry..."

Rukia sighed, agitated. Even though she didn't like it when he got reckless, what she hated even more was when he got all depressed and started blaming himself.

"You've been acting really different lately." she said simply. "What's up with you?"

Ichigo said nothing, not completely sure how to put it. It wasn't just the fact that he didn't know how to say it that stopped him, he didn't want to be a burden to them either.

"It's nothing..." he lied. The truth was it was something. He'd been having a lot of doubts lately about his strength. He was beginning to wonder if he really did have the power to do all that people said he could. Everyone, and that meant every single one of his allies looked up to him, almost as if he was some sort of hero. He knew he wasn't, for he'd continuously failed at so many things. When people thanked him, he couldn't help but feel some bitterness down deep.

Rukia clenched her fist, hitting him with enough force to let her irritation be known. Uryu and Orihime's eyes widened, as she let out a small gasp. Chad even showed a sign that he was taken by surprise, but over all, he remained straight faced, not that he could help that.

"The hell it isn't!" Rukia retorted, her clenched fists now trembling at her side. "Do you honestly believe you can fool us by saying your fine?! We're your friends, Ichigo! We can easily tell that your not fine, just by looking at you. The look on your face says it all."

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo questioned, calmly. "I always look like this."

"Don't play dumb with me." Rukia told him. "You know what I mean. The Ichigo that I know wouldn't let his personal doubts or failures, or fears drag him down. The Ichigo that I know; that all of us know, would do whatever he had to just to prove to himself that he could do whatever those doubts told him he couldn't. That's the Ichigo that I know!"

Ichigo said nothing, but stared at her with more emotion in his expression, than he'd shown in a long time. Uryu sighed.

"She's right, Kurosaki." he agreed, casually pushing up his glasses. "Though you may be reckless at times, I have to admit that you have something that makes you different from everyone else. No matter who, or what, tries to gets in your way, you always stand up for what you see is right. Knowing you, you would even go against the entire town, and soul society, just to achieve your goal. That's something that very few people could even begin to do. We were all attracted to you because of that. You're the only one I can acknowledge as a rival, not because you're a soul reaper and I'm a quincy, but because I know you're strong, and will only continue to get stronger. That's who Kurosaki Ichigo is."

Ichigo gazed around at them in disbelief. Chad grunted, nodding to show him that he felt the same way.

"That's right." said Orihime, holding up a finger. "We all believe in you, Kurosaki-kun."

Out of nowhere, Rukia suddenly hit him on head, startling him. "We'd better not ever have to explain this again, or I'll make sure to give you a whacking a hundred times worse than that. You got that?"

Ichigo clutched his head where she'd hit him.

"You know, you didn't have to hit so hard..." Ichigo grumbled. "Anyway, thanks guys."

"There's no need to thank us." Chad said simply. "We're friends, remember?"

Ichigo smiled. "Oh yeah, right."

Ishida smirked pushing up his glasses once more. Rukia sighed in relief, Orihime smiled brightly.

Yep, they were friends, and that's what friends are for.

A/N: What did you think? Review.