Dropped Guard
Ichigo kneeled on the ground, panting. He and Rukia had been training for hours now. Rukia thought Ichigo needed to learn to use kido, and she, as usual, wouldn't take no for an answer. Ichigo was tired of having these spells blow up in his face, literally. Ichigo tried to argue with Rukia, like in the old days. Renji didn't know how to use kido that well, why should he have to. But, like in the old days, Ichigo lost the arguments with Rukia. She said to stop using Renji's weaknesses as an excuse. If he really wanted to become as powerful as he could, he needed to master the weaknesses of his enemies and his friends. Yep, she was right… as always.
"Hey, Rukia, can we take a break?" Ichigo groaned.
"Did you take a break when training to save me from execution?" Rukia retorted.
"Of course not!"
"Then why now?" Rukia said, giggling at how easy it was to get Ichigo worked up.
"I don't have the same drive as I did back then."
"What drive is that?"
"Saving you. What else?"
Rukia rolled her eyes, but inside those words touched her heart. I meant so much to her that she meant that much to Ichigo. She'd never admit it, but she had been just as miserable as he had been while his powers were gone. Sure, being promoted to fukutaicho was great, but no promotion or any amount of extra Chappies she could buy with the pay raise could fill the gap Ichigo had left. A gap even larger than that left by Kaien.
"Yea, yea. Whatever, idiot."
"You think I'm joking?" Ichigo asked, seriously now. His demeanor threw off Rukia.
"Of course not, Ichigo. I-I-"
"Don't worry about it. Hey, let's just practice sword technique for a while, okay?"
"Sword technique? Hah! Do you think I was lazing off in Soul Society? I'd like to see you catch me off guard, idi-"
Rukia was silenced by Ichigo's lips pressing against hers. Rukia's eyes widened for a moment, before they melted shut. Rukia's arms were about to wrap around Ichigo's neck when he pulled back. Rukia stared at him, pouting. Her pout turned to a glare when Ichigo flicked her forehead.
"What the heck, Ichigo!"
"Will you look at that, Rukia, I caught you with your guard down," Ichigo smirked.
"Well you know what?"
"What?"
"I really don't mind being defenseless sometimes, because I know you would always protect me," Rukia said, as she hugged Ichigo closely. Ichigo returned the embrace.
"Then let's start training again."
"Why?" Rukia whined.
"Because I'm already looking forward to taking advantage of your next opening."