A/N: Hey :) I know it's a little late but here is the new chapter. And thank you very much for the nice comments and for adding my story to your favorit-list/ following it. Like always I appreciate any kinds of reviews. Hope you'll enjoy.
Rukia
The way you are.
The next time I met her was five weeks later. I gave up the thought of meeting her again the day we've met. For me it was totally unrealistic to see someone you just met once in your life again just by coincidence in a city like Karakura.
So I didn't really expect her to ever walk up in my life again, like she did before. But I kind of happened to hope it anyway.
"See you tomorrow, Kurosaki-kun", Inoue waved at me, her smile bright on her face, as bubbly as ever. "I'm going to make cookies today. I'll bring you some if you want tomorrow. Or I can come by, so you don't have to wait all night!"
I lifted my left hand to slightly wave back, barely repressing a sigh. Annoyed and tired as I was, not really in the mood to deal with her. But the glare Tatsuki threw at my way as she patiently stood beside me, waving Inoue good-bye, burning a hole in my skull I better did not say anything too harsh to the overly excited auburn haired girl.
"Thanks Inoue but I'm not really into cookies", I said. My voice low and tired. "See ya." Before she could say anything else I turned on my heels and went the opposite direction as her. Tatsuki just a few steps behind me.
"You love cookies. No need to be so rude to her", she said, rolling her eyes at me in annoyance as I looked at her.
"I wasn't rude. Actually I was nice, give me some credit." Sighing I ran a hand through my hair. Don't get me wrong I liked Inoue. She was one of my friends and a really nice girl. Always helping where she could. It was the fact that she was my friend and would be only that -a friend as long as I lived- that annoyed me. Not her being my friend, just her being my friend who had a crush on me, a really huge and bad one. She never told me but honestly she didn't have to, though.
"Maybe you should try and go out with her on a date or something", Tatsuki suggested.
I groaned. "Don't! Just don't Tatsuki! I don't need you too to babble about how I should give it a go. I am not interested so deal with it."
She shot me a glare. "I know that!" A spent sigh came from her. "I just promised her to talk to you, ask you about your feelings for her. My job's done hereby. Sorry."
"She's your best friend."
"Yeah, she is. But she has to realize you both don't fit. Not the way she wants to anyway."
This was a topic I didn't want do discuss. So I said nothing and let an awkward silence settle in between us. Which, I preferred more than talking about girls with my childhood friend. No need here for that.
"See you tomorrow Ichigo." She waved as we reached her house and walked away.
With a heavy sigh I pushed the door open and stepped into the house as I reached my home. It was already late afternoon but I could still hear my father shuffling in the clinic next door.
"I'm home!" No answer from my sisters.
"Boy? Get me some of the O-Blood please!" I groaned annoyed as the voice of Dad waved over to me. Actually, the only thing I wanted to do today, on a Friday, was to lie down and sleep through the weekend. Or sleep through my whole life. Wouldn't make any difference. Shuffling into the clinic I glanced through the room and noticed that no one was in the waiting area. Grabbing some blood from the huge refrigerator I made my way back.
And there she was. Sitting on a bed in my father's clinic. Her legs swinging over the edge, her tiny hands securely placed on each side of her. Everything downcast. I was perplexed to see her here, to say the last. It wasn't the first time I helped my father to run his clinic. Since I realized with the innocent age of eight that I wanted to become a doctor, just like my stupid Dad, I always took the chance to help out and learn some things from him. And even if I wouldn't ever tell him, he was good in these things. Helping people.
But I've never seen her here. And I would remember if, wouldn't I? Since Dad and she looked like they knew each other for years.
I dropped the blood I was supposed to bring on the little table right beside her bed. It had to be for her, because she was the last patient for the day. Patiently, I waited until my father was done with hooking an IV into her small hand and connecting the blood to her. He carefully placed her legs onto the bed and commanded her to lie down and to take it easy. She rolled her eyes at him and gave him a disapproving look.
"I can handle this shit", she said. Her voice drooped from annoyance.
Dad laughed his stupid laugh. "I know, munchkin."
"Don't call me that."
He put a pout on his lips and had this stupid look on his face that he always put on when trying to be cute and innocent. I don't need to say it never worked on somebody. "You'll let this one to an old man, won't you?" He ruffled her black hair, smiling softly at her with that kind of fondness in his eyes he normally held just for my younger twin sisters. Then he left. And I was alone with her. Her eyes lingered on the retreating form of my old goat Dad for a little while, before she let a soft sigh escape her lips, closing her eyes and resting her head back on the white pillow. She still didn't recognize my presence, so I cleared my throat and said a simple "Hi".
The look on her face was surprised as her eyes shot open, locking on me. But the moment she recognized me, a mocking smile placed itself on her face.
"The thief!" A soft laugh escaped her lips. "I knew I would see your stupid face again some day. Never thought so soon."
She really had the hang out of pushing my buttons. "I'm not a thief, you annoying shrimp!"
"I'm calling you a thief and claim your face stupid and all you have to say is about not being a thief?"
I felt my face heating up and prayed to some maybe-possibly-probably not existing God that my face wasn't as red as it felt. Or if it was, she didn't notice. Now that she mentioned it, my face wasn't stupid. And even if it were, I am not the one who had to look at it every day. So be it.
"Don't", she exclaimed. "It does make you sympathetic. Ichigo."
I don't know why, but my heart made a sudden leap in my chest. It some what pushed my mood, that she actually remembered my name.
"It's not fair, that you know my name but I not yours." I tell her.
A grin, spread on her face. "I've never asked you to tell me. But you seemed so overly eager to spill it."
"Then I'll just go with shockingly-short-dwarf." Now it was my turn to flash her an arrogant grin. As I watched her expression change it grew just wider. It faded the moment she kicked me in the knee. "Fuck!", I cried. "You crazy? You littleā¦" Unfortunately I have to admit that it really did hurt. Damn that little crazy bitch. How could she be that fast? And much more important, that strong? She looked so breakable, fragile even. So small.
"Don't call me that."
"Then tell me your fucking name, shockingly-short-dwarf!"
She rolled her eyes at me. Pure annoyance was in her face. But there was that tiny soft smile on her lips too. It made myself smile at her.
"It's Kuchiki Rukia. Moron."
And so simple, without announcement and without drums, Kuchiki Rukia came into my life.
If anyone had asked her what kind of person she is Rukia would've shrugged. She would cast her eyes down and look to the left side like if she were trying to remember something. Something she forgot a long time ago but belonged to her like the blood in her veins. Her eyebrows would pull together and her lips clench.
"I am who I am", she would say. "And that's good."
She would say it with some kind of finality and most wouldn't dare ask further. And most wouldn't understand what she meant with those words. In the way she said them. With the look on her face.
If anyone had asked me what kind of person Rukia is I wouldn't ponder long about that question. I would've looked in the distance like trying to see something far away but not really seeing.
"Rukia is the strongest person I know", I said once to my childhood friend Tatsuki after she asked that question. I was so sure I did know her. Better than myself. "She's honest and old in her way. Wise. But still a child."
If anyone would ask me today what kind of person Rukia is I wouldn't say anything like that anymore. Because I know her better than myself and back then I didn't know anything. Nothing at all.
"Rukia is Rukia and that's good", I would answer. Because if someone wants to say the truth about Rukia and the way she acted, the way she was, that is the only honest and true answer they can give. Rukia was not just strong and honest and old and wise and still a child. She wasn't anything of these things. She was everything of these things. And more and less in her own way. So imperfectly perfect. Rukia was Rukia. And that was more than good. It was everything, because she was. And 'nothing' is contained in everything. Rukia knew it back then. I know it now.
tbc.
