Chapter One

I wake in darkness, many voices piling in my head. They all build up, until I can't stand it any longer. "Rukia, Rukia, Rukia" they moan. Sobbing, I try to find something, anything that will stop the tormenting. Suddenly, I see a little girl in a pink dress. She smiles sweetly, only to fade away.

"Ichigo!" I scream as the dark devours me.

"Ahh!" I find myself in bed, screaming from my nightmare.

"Wait, What? Ouch, Dammit! What's wrong?" I almost laugh. That clumsy moron. Well, he's MY clumsy moron.

"Oh, I'm fine. It was just-" I find myself unable to finish, as I start to cry. He envelopes me in his arms, holding me against his chest.

"Shh, shh," he says. "It's alright." As I calm down, he asks what happened, for he knew it was another nightmare. I lay next to him, assuring him I was fine, that he could go back to sleep. However, I did not sleep that night.

Morning came, and I heard him wake from upstairs. Luckily his family was out of town, we had the Kurosaki house to ourselves. "Rukia? Where are you?"

"Down here," I reply from the kitchen. I make eggs, his favorite. After all, he deserves them from the previous night.

"Eggs? Thanks. What's the occasion?" He starts to worry, like he had forgotten something important. Ichigo, you'll die of worry someday.

"No occasion, I just love you," I kiss his cheek. "Oh, and I invited Inoue over for breakfast, so you might want to put some pants on." He examines himself in his boxer shorts, and then runs upstairs to change. The doorbell rings, and I get up to answer it.

Inoue stands there, wearing her usual but carrying a huge basket of homemade bread with bean paste. "Um, hello Orihime. Oh, you shouldn't have." Really.

"Oh no, I just had to! It's my new recipe and I need someone else's opinion on it!" Even at this hour of the morning she was as peppy as ever.

"Hey, Orihime." Ichigo startles me; it seems he had been there for a minute now. I see he has put on sleep pants and a t-shirt. I roll my eyes. Oh, Ichigo. "Come on in, Rukia made eggs."

"Oh I just love eggs! Thanks Onii – Chan!" she skips in and sits down next to Ichigo. I sigh to myself. Poor girl, she still loves Ichigo, though she knows that we've been dating half of a year. Well, I can't change her thoughts. She just better not try to make a move on him.

I serve the eggs; two to Inoue, four to Ichigo. I sit down across from him without any eggs. "Eh?" Ichigo questions, his mouth full. "You aren't eating?" I reply I am not hungry, though I was famished and we had no more eggs.

"Onii – Chan, you have to eat! Here, take one of my eggs," I refuse, but she won't give up. "Hey, you should have some of my new bean paste on some bread!" I don't want her to feel bad, so I accept. I see a disgusted look on Ichigo's face as I try her cooking, which only Matsumoto enjoys. Surprisingly, it was wonderful. I had two pieces smothered in the brown sauce.

"Ichigo, you should try this, it's really good," I give him some, and he reluctantly tries it. His face loses color, and he leaves the room saying he has to use the restroom. A minute later, he comes back, telling Inoue it was wonderful. After she leaves, he is furious.

"Just because you had to try it, doesn't mean I had to!" He claimed to still taste it and tries to wipe his tongue.

"Well, I liked it so I thought you might," I pouted. I knew his weaknesses. He couldn't see me sad. I apologized blaming it on Kon, who has been on his nerves lately. He locked Kon in the bathroom before Inoue came. "Wise choice," I laughed.

Suddenly, I felt sick. I ran to the bathroom and by the time I came out, I felt terrible. "Are you okay?" Ichigo was worrying again. Assuring him I was fine, I ran into the bathroom again, something was up. Then, I realized something.

"I-Ichigo," I stuttered. "How many days ago was your birthday?" He had two weeks, and asked why. That's when I gave him his 'present'. I threw on some outdoor clothes and ran outside. The drugstore came into view, where I asked for pregnancy tests. I couldn't bring them back without Ichigo knowing, so I used the bathroom at the store. I tried them all, they all came out positive. I ran home crying into Ichigo's arms.

"What happened? What's wrong?" We sat on the couch and he held my face up to his. I was so scared; I didn't know what to do. I started by calming down, as I saw his worry lines bulge from his face.

"I'm pregnant," I choked out, before running upstairs and throwing myself to the bed. He ran after me with questions, sympathy, and worry.

"It's MINE? But when?" He asked as he remembered. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Rukia. I didn't know. What will we do? I'm in high school! What do we tell Byakuya?!? Oh, this is bad." Poor Ichigo. Suffering for my mistakes. Well I won't make him worry more than I have to.

"It's my fault. I don't know what to do. But I'm glad it was you. I think this has to do with my dream last night. I saw a young girl smiling but then-" I didn't want to finish, how she got swallowed by evil. "Well, it happened. I think I know what we should do."

"What? Anything you want!" He felt terrible. But I felt worse.

"We should tell Inoue."