Untitled

Rukia knew she was pregnant almost instantly after it happened. She debated about it, but eventually decided against telling Ichigo. After all, she told herself, what good would it do? Telling him would serve no purpose but to give him one more thing to worry about when fighting Hollows.

So things went on as usual. Unfortunately, however, the two people involved were Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia, so, of course, nothing could stay peaceful for long.

The night Rukia had decided to tell him, she was about to enter her third month of pregnancy.

"Ichigo, I…We need to talk," she said. He nodded and sat up, indicating that she had his attention. And then the damn beeper went off.

He watched her for a moment, unsure of whether or not she was going to continue. Rukia sighed then said, "Come on. Let's get this over with."

The hollow they had been assigned was smarter than most. It managed to stab Rukia in the stomach before Ichigo could kill it. When she woke up, she was in Urahara's shop, and Ichigo was leaning over her and staring at her stomach.

She struggled to sit up, finally managing it with Ichigo's help. The look on his face worried her. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Ichigo shook his head mutely. "Alright then," Rukia muttered, reaching up and using Ichigo's shoulder for a support as she rose shakily to her feet. When she began to walk towards Urahara's bathroom, Ichigo moved to support her, but she waved him off. "I'm fine," she said. So instead of him, she used the wall, wincing slightly with each step.

Her progress was slow, but she finally reached the bathroom. The first thing she saw was her reflection in the mirror, which caused her to gasp. She looked terrible. Several gashes marred her face and arms, most of them still healing. If her face was that bad, she couldn't imagine what the rest of her looked like. Unconsciously, her hand went to her stomach. When she realized what she had just done, she remembered. The baby. She had been stabbed in the stomach.

Rukia felt sick. She rushed to the toilet and quickly emptied her stomach of its contents. She was vaguely aware of someone holding her hair away from her face and rubbing small circles on her back as she retched. Then a familiar hand offered her a glass of water. She took it and drank, the coolness of the liquid soothing as it slid its way down her burning throat. She stood too quickly and the room spun, causing her to sway. Ichigo caught her, and she groaned as the spinning caused another onslaught of nausea. Fortunately, however, this one subsided quickly.

Ichigo stared down at her, concern evident on his features. "You alright?" he asked gently.

"Yeah." Rukia laughed weakly. "Some shinigami I am. Look at me. I can't even walk straight."

Ichigo was not amused. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"Tell you what?" Feigned innocence was not going to work, judging by the glare Ichigo was giving her. "Oh. That. I—I just—I didn't want you to worry. You--" she took a shuddering breath. "You had enough to deal with."

His eyes softened. "Rukia, you should have told me," he said softly. "Maybe then I could have done something about it…I could have protected you."

Rukia's eyes widened at the implication of his words and she felt her knees give out. A prickling sensation in her eyes alerted her of tears threatening to fall. She suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of loss and her body began to tremble forcefully.

Ichigo knelt beside her and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. "None of this is your fault, do you hear me? You were doing what you thought was best."

The rational part of Rukia's mind knew this, and knew that what had happened would spare her from a lot of extra burden and stress, but the other part, the part that was madly in love with her unborn child, told her that she should have told Ichigo; that if she had, none of this would have happened. And currently, the irrational side of her was winning the internal war she was fighting with herself.

Ichigo understood this and pulled her closer to him until she was finally sitting on his lap. She broke down completely then, sobs wracking her small frame while Ichigo did his best to steady and comfort her, stroking her hair and making small shushing sounds.

When her cries finally subsided, she looked up at him. "Are you angry with me?"

"Of course I'm not. I just wish that you didn't have to go through all of this, that's all.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. And she knew at that moment that everything somehow work out for the best. But while Rukia knew that she would never forget the child she almost had, it was enough for her to know that Ichigo was still there and would remain so.

Author's Note: So there's no title. I absolutely COULD not think of anything that would go with this particular piece. I had it as "Stream of Consciousness: Bleach" in my spiral, but for some reason, I figured that would look excruciatingly dumb when posted.

So I sort of ran out of steam there towards the end, and I feel like Ichigo and Rukia were both WAY out of character, or at least she was for the small amount of the anime that I've seen (up to episode 70). I dunno. I personally didn't really like the way this one turned out, but I'm also a hyper-critical perfectionist. If I've ever reviewed you, you might know what I'm talking about xD. Anyways, it served its purpose. So please review, flames, criticisms, whatever. I'll take anything I can get. This is also my first little ficlet, by the way, so if there's anything that the more veteran writers want to tell me about, please, please, please do. Cheers, everyone!

Whisper