Hello! I'm Neko, and my sister Rae is up in her room playing on her DS. Er, nevermind, words in italics are hers^^. Hi. We've decided to do a collaborative series of oneshots for the Ichigo/Rukia pairing, so everything's going to be disconnected.

If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments (and requests) they are always welcome. Just hit the review button at the end of the page. If you hate the story, please explain why and we'll be happy to take your thoughts into consideration.

We do not own the characters or Bleach though I wish I owned Toushiro (cries in corner) I'm sure most of us do. Though Ichimaru is hotter by a landslide. (whispers) She's delusional, but we'll let her dream. We are making no money off of this and since I don't want to write this everytime I post something, it applies for all one-shots posted. Unless we say we own an OC or something.

Enjoy!

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Ichigo hated the rain. It wasn't exactly a secret to everyone that he despised it, though the true reason for his hate was something no one truly understood. To him it represented his weakness, his faults and failures. It always seemed to drive his loved ones away.

First, his mother died protecting him. Then Rukia left to go to her execution, also protecting him. Both life changing events occurred on rainy nights.

So, once he managed to convince Rukia to be his, he never let her out of the house on rainy nights. His worst fear was that she would disappear on him one day. And going out in the rain would just be inviting fate to take her away from him permanently.

Irrational as it was, Ichigo couldn't bring himself to let Rukia run to the corner grocery store to get some milk for dinner. It was supposed to start raining soon.

She was angry because she needed to get the milk, but he wasn't letting her out and wasn't saying why. She yelled, calling him a stupid strawberry, saying that she could take care of herself just fine, she'd have her limited edition Chappy umbrella to protect her. He wasn't going to let fate have another shot at her though.

She was his, and he protected those he cared for. As his wife of 2 years, Rukia was his most cherished person, the one who drove the rain in his heart away. He'd spent 5 years trying to convince her to care for him, then the last 2 years making sure she stayed. He wasn't about to lose her to fate because she wanted to go walk to the store when it was raining.

He couldn't admit his fear of the rain to her though. Knowing Rukia, she'd never let him live it down, and would bring it up whenever she wanted to get a dig in. And when you plan to have a long mortal life and eternity in the afterlife with someone, that kind of thing was something to be kept under wraps and hidden far away from them.

As such, Ichigo refused to listen to her arguments about how unreasonable he was being. After an hour of trying to convince him, Rukia gave a final huff and stalked out of the living room. Ichigo knew that ignoring her in favor of Hamlet probably wasn't the best idea if he wanted to avoid sleeping on the couch, but if he ignored her then she couldn't convince him to let her outside. He could hear the rain start up outside, creating a quiet symphony against the window glass.

The sudden slamming of a door had him bolting up off the couch he'd been lounging on. Dropping the book onto the ground he ran to the entry way. Glancing down, he noticed Rukia's boots missing. She'd deliberately ignored him and left. It was some goddamn MILK!!!

Shucking his slippers off, he grabbed his own shoes. After tying the strings into a quick knot, he opened the door and ran down the hallway of the apartment building. Ignoring the elevator Ichigo took the stairs two at a time down the three flights.

Reaching the bottom, he glanced around the lobby hoping to see Rukia waiting for him. Surely she realized he would come after her. After his look around yielded no results, Ichigo tore out of the building into the now pouring rain. Skidding to a stop he turned to the left. He ran as fast as his human legs could carry him, knowing the store she'd be going too.

Damn, why couldn't that girl just do what he asked. It's not like she'd die if she didn't have milk for one freaking day. He saw her just ahead, about to cross the street. Sprinting for all he was worth, he caught up to her as she was stepping into the crosswalk. Pulling her back, he about had a heart attack as a car that had been going down the street what was obviously over the speed limit, drove through the red light.

It went right over the spot Rukia would have been if he hadn't grabbed onto her, splashing them both with muddy water, along with several other pedestrians who had been staring at them.

" And now you know why I didn't want you to go out. You're always getting into trouble."

Rukia, being the even-tempered, lovely wife she was, answered with a kick to the shin, turning around to walk back home. Ichigo glanced one more time at the spot where she'd almost been hit.

" I really hate the rain."