It was a warm, beautiful, sunny afternoon when Captain Kurosaki of the 13th division had been assigned a 2 week mission. Two weeks... 14 days.. 336 hours of not being home.

It wasn't the not being home part that was so difficult. Ichigo had gone on missions plenty of times before. The problem was his wife, his vice captain... Rukia. While he knew that if he mentioned his worry to her, she'd probably just brush it off- even if she were worried herself- it just wasn't in his or her best interest to go on a 2 week long mission when she was eight- bordering nine- months pregnant, her due date only a matter of weeks away.

And so, after some solid convincing, Ichigo had gotten Rukia to stay at the Kuchiki manor with her brother for those two weeks. The idea of Rukia being all alone in "that big, empty house, with all those stairs" was one that bothered Ichigo greatly. And while it annoyed Rukia that he babied her so, if this would ease his mind a bit and allow him to focus when he went away for those 2 weeks, then she would oblige.

And so, Rukia had moved into her old bedroom in the Kuchiki manor, and Ichigo went off on his mission with several other foot soldiers from his squad without (too much) worry. If anyone would take care of Rukia in this delicate condition, it was Byakuya.

Byakuya, meanwhile, had become incredibly protective of Rukia. Perhaps it was the great trusting decision Ichigo had made to leave his pregnant wife in his hands- though that was something the 6th captain would never admit- that made him want to take extra care of her- as if being his adopted baby sister wasn't enough. So as it was, Byakuya hired (forced?) a special someone to look after Rukia and wait on her hand and foot when he couldn't.

Someone who he could trust. Someone who knew Rukia personally, and who she would feel more comfortable with.

That being his vice captain, Renji Abarai.

It wasn't so bad at first, Renji decided. Even pregnant and so far along, Rukia wasn't a difficult person to get along with. But there were one or two times.. like, when she'd woken him up with a phone call at 2 in the morning demanding cold noodles, and couldn't be made to understand that NOBODY capable of making cold noodles would be awake at 2 AM! Or when she'd asked him to take her to the market, and had teared up when the counter man told her that they'd sold out of red bean paste! Who was this girl, and where was Rukia? Crying because of bean paste?

Still, Renji could deal. Until, about 7 more days until Ichigo's due return, it happened.

It was 3 AM, and pitch dark outside, when Renji heard hard knocking on his door. He mumbled in his sleep, groaned, and rolled over. Just as he dozed off again, the door opened. And then a pillow went POW! into his face, repeatedly, over and over again as he heard an annoying little voice, "Wake up! Wake up right now Renji!"

Finally, he groaned, rolling onto his back and sitting up, he squinted in the dark, his face crumpling in annoyance, "-Rukia?...What are you DOING here...!?"

There stood Rukia, wearing a long, powder blue robe, her arms folded across her chest with an unhappy pout. "I want creamsicle juice."

This was too much.

Renji stared at her for a single moment, before flopping back down and pulling the cover over his head. "Go away, tell me tomorrow when the sun is actually up. I don't even know what creamsicle juice is.."

Rukia glared hatefully down at him before reaching and yanking the cover clean off of him. Renji yelped and jumped up, "Damn it, Rukia! Can't I have five seconds of peace without you demanding something?!"

"It's not my fault!" Rukia screeched her reply. A vein throbbed on Renji's forehead, "Then who's is it?!"

"The baby likes it!" she yelled back, "Why can't you just do this for me? It'll only take 5 minutes! Ichigo would have been up and gotten it for me already!"

"Ok, well, I'm not Ichigo!"

Uh-oh. Any more sharp scoldings that were about to roll off Renji's tongue disappeared when he saw Rukia's eyes grow shiny and wet as she stared at him, her bottom lip trembling slightly as she looked away.

...Maybe mentioning her currently MIA husband wasn't such a good idea. Renji sighed, scratching his head, "...Can you at least tell me what creamsicle juice is?"

Rukia rubbed her eye with the back of her hand fiercely, "-It's- it's creamsicle juice.. I don't know. That's what it is."

"What do you mean?! Are you sure you didn't just dream this up!?" Renji said, growing annoyed again. Rukia was now sitting at the foot of the bed, probably tired from standing for so long. "I don't know, whenever I ask Ichigo for it he gets it for me, so I've never seen where or how he gets it!"

"Ok, you know what.." Renji reached over to his nightstand, grabbing his cell phone, he dialed Ichigo's number.

~flashback~

"You have my number right?" Ichigo stated as he set down Rukia's bag that contained her things for the next two weeks.

Renji nodded, "Yeah,"

"Don't call unless its an emergency," Ichigo warned. Renji rolled his eyes, wandering off to find his captain. Ichigo turned to Rukia, who stood there staring at him quietly. "..Except you, call whenever you want to,"

She only nodded, not wanting to say anything in fear she might cry. Pregnancy hormones really were too much sometimes. Ichigo smiled lightly as he reached over and kissed her forehead, "Try to stay pregnant just until I get back okay?"

~end flashback~

This was as good as an emergency right? Renji dialed the number, waiting impatiently as it rang for a few moments. But at long last, Ichigo's tired voice picked up the other end. "Hello? Renji? Why're you calling at this hour? Is Rukia-"

"Your wife," Renji interrupted, glaring at the girl sitting and looking at him expectantly at the foot of the bed, "Is sitting in my room refusing to leave me alone. What's it take, huh?"

"You mean she's fine?" Now Ichigo's voice was the one sounding annoyed, "If she's okay why then are you calling me? I told you, emergencies only-!"

Meanwhile, Rukia had moved over to Renji, "Did he pick up? Let me talk to him!"

"Hold on," Renji pressed the speaker phone, so that Ichigo's voice could be heard by both of them. "Go ahead,"

"Ichigo!" Rukia crowed, "Renji's being a butt face!"

"Hey!"

"So? Sound pretty normal to me," Ichigo replied, by now far used to Rukia waking him up in the dead of the night, "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I want creamsicle juice," Rukia explained, glaring at Renji, "Renji says he doesn't know what it is. He's so useless!"

"Oh, that." the gentle voice Ichigo was using with his wife became normal and annoyed as he said spoke to Renji, "Renji, listen. It's just milk, orange juice and 3 spoons of sugar,"

"What?" Renji's face crumpled in disgust at the thought of such a concoction, "Ew. That's really disgusting." he looked at Rukia, "You've been drinking that for how long? I feel bad for your kid."

"Okay, you know what?!" Rukia's voice grew loud and shrill in annoyance as she grabbed the phone from her red haired servant, her tone growing desperate, "-Ichigo, please come back. Please come back."

"I wish I could, honey," there was that gentle, babying voice again that made Renji roll his eyes, "I'm sorry for leaving you like this, just try to bear with it okay? It's only a few more days,"

Her eyes had become watery again as she silently handed back the phone to Renji, unable to answer her husband as she stood, saying in a watery voice to her red-haired friend, "Bring the creamsicle juice to my room." and walked away, closing the door behind her.

"..She left?" Ichigo questioned.

"Yeah," Renji sighed, taking the phone off speaker and holding it to his ear again. "...How can you deal with her being like that? I can't stand much more of this, and it's only been a week. And for you it's been what? 8 months? How are you even functioning?"

"Don't talk about her like that." Ichigo's voice was indignant, "Look... I know it can be hard, especially when she's waking you up in the middle of the night, but.. just try to think about what she's going through. Her due date is so close, and she's been irritable, what with all of the back aches and the baby kicking her constantly and the swollen feet and-"

"Get to the point!"

"The point," Ichigo now sounded annoyed once again, "Is that she's 8 months pregnant, Renji. She's carrying a baby inside of her, and that is a feeling that we will never, ever understand. The least you can do to make her feel a little bit comfortable is mix orange juice with milk and give it to her when she asks for it."

Renji was quiet for a moment, before groaning aloud. "Fine..."

~Five minutes later~

Rukia, who was lying in her bed, opened her eyes when she heard a knock at the door. When she opened it, there was no butler Renji in sight, but a small stand with a glass of the infamous creamsicle juice sitting there, along with a note. Rukia picked it up, reading it curiously.

Rukia-

Sorry for being a butt face. Here's your godforsaken creamsicle juice. Please don't wake me up again okay? At least for tonight?

-Renji

Rukia smiled.