Thanks to xXxMiserableLoveFairyxXx for betaing this.
Disclaimer- I don't own Bleach.
There's a guy around my age who always brings forth attention to himself, not on purpose it's always because of his hair. It's orange, peoples' eyes naturally draw onto him but he doesn't like the attention. A lot of girls think that his hair makes him look like a bad boy and that image makes him attractive to the female population even more. They try to flirt with him unsuccessfully when we're working.
I and Ichigo Kurosaki work part time at the same restaurant. But I know that Ichigo doesn't try to have a certain image, he just naturally has a scowl on his face and spiky hair that's naturally unruly that tells people to stay away from him, though the female population takes that hint completely differently.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" A high school girl with light brown hair and wearing a really tight school uniform was asking Ichigo in a flirtatious tone.
Ichigo knows he can't say anything bad to the customers, no matter how much he'd like to tell them in ten different languages to leave him alone.
"No." As always he answers them rather coldly. I could tell standing only a few tables away from his serving table that he hated the female customers.
"Then can I have your number?" She was persistent. Sometimes I was sorry for him, but I did have to admit, sometimes it was entertaining to watch him.
"Sorry, we're not allowed to give our personal information to the customers." He turns to walk away; she grabs his hand and slips him a piece of paper.
"Well here is mine, call me if you want have fun." She winks at him and gets up to pay. Ichigo walks away casually with me on his heels. He heads into the kitchen and the piece of paper ends in the trash like usual. We walk to the dish area to start washing the dishes, standing side by side so close, I look up to his six feet frame. It's not easy with my height being less than five feet.
I smirk with the intentions of teasing him while rinsing a plate, "That's the second time today Ichigo. And she was cuter than the one from earlier."
Looking with hazel eyes into my violet ones, he growls lowly in irritation, "It's not funny Rukia; they're all shallow."
"Then tell them that you have a girlfriend," I suggest, still continuing to wash the same plate.
"I can't, because I don't have one Rukia. You seem to forget this. And if they demand to see her or her picture, what will I do then?" He asked as he scrubbed another plate with the soapy sponge.
"Then there must be someone you like?" I inquire.
"..." He moves on to the bowls.
This is too much fun, he does have someone he likes, and I stop what I'm doing and start ruffling his hair. He flusters and tells me to stop; his face is blushing beet red.
"Who is it Ichigo? You can tell your best friend, come on." I ask him innocently, still smirking.
"I won't tell you because I haven't even told her I like her." He doesn't look me in the eye but his face is still blushing. "And stop messing with my hair!" He swats off my hand.
"Really? Why? I'm sure she feels the same way. You should tell her as soon as possible." I tell him excitedly, I want to try to help him with his love life because maybe he needs someone to encourage him.
"I can't," he says it sadly, his face donning an impassive look going back to the task of washing dishes his eyes on the task and continues to reveal why, "Because she already has a boyfriend."
I'm shocked but then I smile and spray water on him from the water hose, laughing. He cursed and tried to grab the hose from my hands.
"Oh, I'm sorry, my hand slipped, it must have been your depressing look." I say sarcastically, he stares at me in disbelief, I continue my tirade, "since when have you given up Ichigo? They're not married and at this age people break up frequently. You shouldn't give up without letting her know your feelings Ichigo." I finish softly, hoping I made my point.
He smiles enigmatically at me, stating calmly, "You may be right Rukia; I don't want to burden her with a confession when she has so much going on already. Besides, I'm happy just being by her side as a friend." A sad smile but it doesn't hide the pain of his unrequited love.
"You're really brave, Ichigo. Valuing friendship over your feelings, that's something very few can do." I say sincerely, he opens his mouth as if to say something but I yelp when I look at my watch, cutting him off.
"What's wrong?" he asks me worriedly, he is done with his share of the dishes and dries his hands with a towel.
"I have to go and meet my chemistry lab partner to finish our report. Arghh...Ichigo I'm sorry I have to leave early, are you going to be okay?" I was begging for him to say yes so I could go off.
"Yeah, you don't have to beg" he grins, "I'll tell the boss. See ya tomorrow."
"Thanks Ichigo, I owe you one." Taking my apron off on the way to the locker room, I turn back to him and wave my hand.
Ichigo helped me out a lot besides work, he helped me with my course work as well since he was in his last year of college and I was in my third. It was common for us to hang out after work or in school, we never thought of ourselves as co-workers, always as friends.
ooOOooOOoo
We get customers once in a while who put unsanitary or inedible things in the served food to get out of paying for it. Usually if they're caught in the act we threaten them report them to the police if they dare to hike a free meal again, sometimes they score a free meal. No matter how much of a fraud the customer is, they never selectively insult us except for this one day.
Ichigo was being picked on because of his appearance especially by a prejudiced middle aged salary man.
"Look what you did you idiot. You ruined an expensive Italian jacket with your shitty food." A middle aged salary man is yelling at Ichigo because he accidentally spilled sauce on him. The man's face was turning into different shades of red in anger.
Even though Ichigo had dropped the sauce bowl far from the man, it must have splattered his coat nonetheless. He was trying to calm the man down, but to no avail because the man was getting angrier calling him names like "punk" or "delinquent."
At this point I've had enough, I stomped to the table, grab a bottle of soy sauce and threw its contents at the man. "Since you insisted on getting it cleaned, I want to make sure that there will be a stain, sir. And there are no delinquents here except for you, trying to get out of paying for his food and get money for this cheap 500 yen jacket." I tell him in a condescending but calm tone.
The man just stares at me in his stupor, Mr. Urahara comes just in time, "Kuchiki- -san what are you doing?" he asks me aghast, looking at the customer's jacket. The customer gets even angrier and is about to continue his tirade, but Urahara continues.
"You know soy sauce doesn't leave a stain, you should've used ketchup." He smiles at me and then turns to the customer.
The angry customer points his finger at our manager, "You! What kind of punks does this restaurant hire? I'm going to file a report against you and make sure this place closes down."
"Sir, if I may say so myself, I saw the whole thing, Ichigo and Rukia did nothing wrong. You purposely put a small stain on your jacket; the sauce Ichigo dropped didn't even come near you. I'd advise you to go away from here before I file a complaint against you for trying to get a free dinner. I think your dinner bill cancels out the dry cleaning bill, no?" Urahara talked calmly with a devious smile playing on his lips that promised to carry out his threat. The man was speechless, puffing in anger when he couldn't say anything back, grabbing his stuff he practically ran out of the restaurant.
Urahara turned to us and smiled, "Don't take matters into your own hands next time Rukia-san. Now get back to work."
"Thank you Urahara san, I just got angry when he kept on going calling Ichigo names." I tried to explain my impulsiveness.
"I understand Rukia-san that you were trying to protect your friend, but you also could have been in trouble. Now, get back to work." He said as went back to his office.
In the locker room, I could tell Ichigo was still bothered by what had happened earlier. I went up to him and smiled, "You didn't do anything wrong Ichigo, forget about it already. He shouldn't have called you names, the bastard." I clenched my fists remembering the way he talked to Ichigo.
He looked at me with an agitated expression, but his voice was quiet and soft, "It's not that Rukia, I don't mind the name calling. It's just that you were the first person to come defend me; no one's done that for me because they usually agree with the other person. Even the people who know me don't defend me to the point of losing their jobs like you did."
I slapped him on the back in irritation, "Idiot! Stop feeling sorry for yourself, anyone of your friends will defend you any day. Don't think that you're alone suffering; share your burdens if you can't carry them anymore!"
The orange haired boy smiled at me looked at me for a few moments, blushing he put his arms around me suddenly in a hug, he whispered, "Thank you, Rukia." I patted his back.
"Anytime fool," I let out softly.
ooOOooOOooOOoo
"You want to go for a drink after work today Rukia?" We worked the early shift today, so had plenty of time after work to hang out. Ichigo and I were in the prep area of the kitchen cutting vegetables, the last task before getting off work.
"Sorry Ichigo I have plans already" I replied apologetically.
"Ah its okay, I should've known." He tried to hide his disappointment under a smile.
By the lockers, I was taking off my apron and I heard my phone buzz indicating the receiving of a text. I read it and my happy mood goes down the sewer, it's the fourth time the guy I'm seeing had our plans cancelled and as always, I'm to know of it at the last moment. I sigh, not noticing Ichigo coming into the locker room.
"What's wrong?" He asks proceeding to his locker.
"Nothing. Just that I thought I was going eat dinner at the new French restaurant today, but the jerk I was supposed to go with cancelled at the last minute." I answer him casually but slamming my locker in anger.
Ichigo looked at me with an understanding look in his eyes. Then his face brightened, "Why don't you come with me tonight to blow some steam off."
ooOOooOOoo
That's how I found myself in a bar that was owned by one of Ichigo's friends and it wasn't too crowded yet. I and Ichigo were sitting at a table in the corner because he noticed that I needed to wallow in some self pity away from the crowd. But I soon got over it, I was laughing along with Ichigo at the corniest jokes, I must be getting drunk.
I was curious about Ichigo's love life, it was almost a month ago that he told me about the girl he liked. He looked so vulnerable then, admitting his unrequited love, which is why I didn't want to pry into and just waited for him to be comfortable to talk to me about it.
Looking at him with all the seriousness I could muster, I asked him, "When did you start liking her?"
"Ever since I saw her." He took a sip of his beer, putting it down and looked at me.
This guy, he was so vague, I'm going to have to play 20 questions with him to get any answers.
"Where did you see her?" I asked him calmly.
"At school, when it was the first day of classes." Oh, so she went to the same college as us, maybe there's a chance I've seen her.
"Do you talk to her a lot?" I inquired, picking up my beer bottle to take a sip but I found it empty. I frowned in annoyance, I promptly ordered another.
"Yeah, we're really good friends." He was looking at me intently, like he was trying to tell me something. Maybe he was trying to tell me I already knew the girl, we had a lot of mutual friends that were girls.
"Did you know she had a boyfriend when you started to like her?"
"No, It wouldn't have made a difference because I still would've liked her, I like her now." he stated.
"Oh. Is it hard for you to be around her?" My voice was soft; it would've been to hard for him to be around a girl he liked while she liked another.
"Sometimes, especially when her boyfriend hurts her, and she just takes all of his shit. But it makes me happy to be anything in her life a friend or an acquaintance." Though he was trying to be confident, he couldn't disguise the slight hurt in voice, he kept his face down staring at his beer bottle.
It didn't really narrow my list down within our friends because almost all of them had boyfriends. I thought that if I could find out who it was, then I could help him. Maybe I still can, my face suddenly brightens at an idea, "Ichigo, you said her boyfriend hurts her, that's an unhealthy relationship. Why don't you tell her to break up with him, I'll go with you to tell her, so you won't be alone."
He chuckled mysteriously, "No he doesn't hurt her physically Rukia. He doesn't appreciate her or all the effort she puts into their relationship."
"What? That's just as bad Ichigo. She's going to be hurt if she keeps going out with a guy like that. You're such a great guy, she'd happier with you." I try to convince him.
"We can't make someone's decisions for them, we can't decide who's good or bad for them. For now I can only be her support when she's hurt. If I try to force my feelings on her while I'm telling her that her boyfriend is a jerk would look bad on my part." He explained.
I stopped from ranting on, because he was right, the girl would have to realize it on her own and hopefully soon. Love is blind; we often don't see the faults of our partner because we love them so much. On the other hand, I couldn't help feel sad for Ichigo, it made me sad to see him like this. I'll do the same for him, as a good friend, when he's ready to move, help him through it now and later. We ended this conversation shortly after I found myself getting irritated, because it made me jealous of the unknown girl who couldn't love Ichigo back, the one who loved her unconditionally, selflessly and courageously. It was because I wanted to be loved like that even if a little, but I'd been dealt my hand already by fate and could never have a love as pure as his.
We left the bar around one in the morning; I was so drunk I thought I was going to pass out in the bar. Thankfully, Ichigo took me home; he had to support me all the way by putting his arm around my shoulder and putting mine around his waist.
Ichigo was not drunk, but he was in a playful mood, "Next time you're only allowed to drink soda because your tiny body can't handle five beers and two shots."
"Shut up," I slurred and was getting a little depressed, "It's because today was bad, we were celebrating your unrequited love. Are we bad people Ichigo, is that why we can't be happy?" I looked into his hazel eyes that showed surprise momentarily, before twinkling.
"Of course we are, otherwise we wouldn't have so much fun tonight. Didn't you forget about everything tonight when we were supposed to depressed?" he asked hopefully, bending down to meet my gaze.
I smiled gently and cupped his cheek, "Yeah, we are really bad people, we should've cried all night; but we went and forgot our worries."
He smiled, we held each other's gaze I couldn't look away because there was something about his face, an expression I couldn't make out. It was like he was trying to tell me a secret telepathically. The honking of the cars caused us to jump and pay attention to our surroundings.
Ichigo dropped me off at my apartment; I asked him if he would stay with me tonight.
"I might need help throwing up tonight." I said jokingly, but he probably knew that I couldn't be alone. He smiled back simply, "The trains have probably stopped running by now anyways."
We fell asleep as soon as we hit the bed. I woke up to find him with his arms around me, cradling me protectively.
ooOOooOOoo
I didn't go to work today, calling out in preference of staying in bed. I know my eyes were probably red and puffy from crying all night. The sun rays were peering through the blinds that were half opened and hitting me directly on my face making my eyes squint. Walking to bathroom I stretched, putting my arms over my head, I felt much better after crying and finally moving on.
Around noon I heard knocking on my door, I thought over who could it be. Abandoning my bowl of cereal I went to door and opened it warily. I saw patches of orange peeking out from under the hat and hugged him tightly, "Ichigo!"
He embraced me back, rubbing my back softly and just standing there, quietly calming the storm inside me. He finally disengaged himself from the long hug; looking at me with a sympathetic face he led me inside my apartment.
Finally regaining my composure and feeling slightly uncomfortable because I probably made Ichigo worried. He or no one didn't know why I had called out from work, he probably thought I was sick and so came to check on me.
"Are you doing okay Rukia?" his gentle voice startled me, I knew he wasn't inquiring just about my health. He was looking right into my eyes standing very close, ready to catch me.
"Y-yeah could be better. Do you want something to drink?" I asked him after a few moments, breaking our gazes I moved away to open the fridge. I took out a couple of beers without waiting for a response from him.
"You can tell me, Rukia if you can't hold it in. I saw you guys together and saw him countless other times as well."
"You knew? Well, it doesn't make a difference, he didn't really love me otherwise he wouldn't have told me to keep our relationship a secret. It was only so he could get into more girls' pants." I said bitterly and laughing at the irony, because when I got into a relationship with him he was secretly seeing another girl at the same time, I only found out later.
"I'm sorry, Rukia. I should've told you that I had seen him a couple of times with other girls going to a love hotel." He was apologizing for something he didn't need to. He moved closer to me and took one of the bottles out of my hands and opened it handing it back to me.
"It doesn't matter, Ichigo. You always supported me; you made me feel better whenever he cancelled, when I needed a shoulder. I didn't have to say anything to you to be comforted. And I really appreciate that." I wasn't crying but the bit of hurt was still in my voice. I'd already wasted a night crying over him, this self moping was becoming a joke. I took a gulp of the sour liquid, welcoming the slight burning it caused in my throat.
Ichigo led me to the couch and put my head in his lap running his fingers through my hair. His stroking was calming me down more than the alcohol could, my breathing became rhythmic. Before I fell asleep, I heard him whisper, "I told you I'd be your support when the time came." Then he kissed me lightly on the cheek.
Maybe I knew deep in my heart that he liked me but didn't want to confront my feelings, because I valued his friendship at the time. And he knew that it was his friendship that I needed the most at the time and he gladly offered it to me selflessly.
oOoOoOo
I woke up with a smile on my face and looked at my lover lying beside me. It was a hot month, so we were only covered in sheets. I yawned and tried to yank the sheets off him to cover myself to go to the bathroom.
But as soon as I tried, I was pulled back into the bed and showered with kisses from one sleepy boyfriend.
"Ichigo!" I yelped, "I have to go to classes now. You might be on vacation from med school, but I still have couple more weeks of classes to go." I told him in a weak voice while trying to push his face from me, unsuccessfully.
He was still sleepy but conscious enough to hold me close and not let go, I relented in the end.
'I am glad I fell in love with you Ichigo,' and as if he was reading my thoughts, he hugged me tighter and I smiled into his chest.
I was finally content.
I hope it wasn't too vague, I tried to just show instead of write the emotions out. Let me know ur thoughts on the story, thank you.