Her Guardian Angel
Chapter 1
"You've gotta be shittin' me."
"That's Orihime, my sister."
Brown eyes widened as the woman came running straight at him, her long red hair matted against her face and neck, her blue hoodie drenched and clinging to every existent curve on her body, and her eyes, oh her eyes were bright and... frightened? She didn't seem to notice him though, as she glanced behind her to look out for something, or probably someone, before she ran face first into his chest.
She started, a loud gasp escaping her lips as she looked up from his chest. Blue flower hairpins that were supposed to keep the bangs out of her face were misplaced, causing some strands to stick between her eyes. Wide eyes stared at him for a moment before the woman spoke up between ragged breaths.
"H-Help me, p-please!"
Ichigo was about to turn to Sora when he heard other footsteps nearing them both. Five men in black leather jackets and some sort of animal tattooed onto the side of their necks stopped short as they saw the trembling woman clutching the lapels of his jacket. One of them held out a hand towards Ichigo, his lips in a straight line before he spoke up, voice gruff as if it hadn't been used in years.
"Save us some trouble and give us that girl."
Orihime tightened her hold onto Ichigo's jacket, her knuckles turning white. The sharp edges of the flash-drive in her right fist dug into her palm but she didn't care. She berated herself when she heard the man she had run into grunted and felt him uncurl her fingers from his jacket. She shouldn't have suddenly asked the person to help, she knew that, but she had no choice. When she had jumped out of the window she thought of nothing else but to find someone, anyone other than those five men –and more of them whom worked under Tsukishima- to ask for help. When she saw his bright orange hair from a distance, it hadn't occurred to her that he might have been one of Tsukishima's men who were out to get her. When she had crashed into him, she wasn't mistaken about the hard muzzles of the guns he was carrying underneath that jacket he was wearing. She stepped back a few, dreading the worst to come when he suddenly grabbed her wrist and shoved her to stand behind him.
Ichigo was livid. It wasn't for the fact that the woman whom ran into him clutched at his jacket and suddenly asked for help. No, it was the fact that Sora didn't even tell him that his supposedly sister was a fully grown woman whom in fact, looked utterly unlike the ghost. And her hard head had bumped into his chest, pushing the guns beneath his jacket to dig painfully against his ribs. If it wasn't because of his pride, he would've cried out loud when she even managed to bust his gunshot wound.
Also...
He looked up from the woman's face to the five men standing before them. Obviously, they were after Orihime. He didn't know why, but judging from the way Sora was looking at him, he knew what had to be done. So he grabbed the woman's wrist, told her to hide behind him and decided that his busted wound had to wait for a while.
"What problem do you have with her?"
Ichigo's voice filled the short silence. The man who held out his hand tried to form an assuring smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes and poorly disguised.
"That girl there..." he crooked a finger towards Orihime, whom in returned clutched the back of Ichigo's jacket. "... she ran away from work and ... how should I say it... ah, this is so embarrassing but... one of her frequent clients is coming to see her and he's really worried about Orihime-chan."
Orihime's brows furrowed as she heard the man, and she tiptoed to whisper in Ichigo's ear. "I-I don't know what he's talking about."
Ignoring the lady behind him, Ichigo put his hand in his pockets, chin tilting upwards a bit.
"Prostitution is against the laws," He felt Orihime loosening her grip and he knew she was staring wide-eyed at him, but he had to know why these guys were after her to determine whether they were thugs or if she really had done something wrong."...you guys could get arrested for selling this girl. I don't see another reason why you guys should run after her, unless your boss is running a brothel for business and this girl here is a runaway escort. That or either you guys have another important business."
The man who had initiated the conversation let his hand fall to his side as he contemplated of another strategy to get Ichigo give Orihime to them without arousing suspicion. One of his comrades stepped up behind him and whispered a suggestion to him. He grimaced. No, they should not pull out their guns just yet. He somehow knew who the orange-haired man was; he was a cop and he didn't want to take any chances. He had made that mistake once, when he was a newbie; he nearly got Tsukishima and the others arrested, and his right arm had been taken from him as a punishment. It hadn't been pretty then, and it wouldn't be pretty now either.
"No, sir. Not prostitution."
Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "Then why the chase? What about that tattoo on your neck? You a part of the yakuza?"
Another man stepped up; he had a scar under his chin. "Listen here, punk. We've got no time chattin' around here, that girl took somethin' from our boss and we want it back. So why don't cha-"
A hand stopped him, it was the tallest of them all. A perfect row of white teeth flashed as he gave Ichigo a grin and motioned towards Orihime. That man, Ichigo noticed, was the only one who didn't have a tattoo on his pale neck.
"Sorry 'bout that. It's just that our boss lost something very important and Orihime-chan's holding it in her hands right now. Right, Orihime-chan?"
The man didn't wait for Orihime to answer when he stepped towards Ichigo, holding out a hand.
"We're just here to take it back from her. So if you don't mind, please let us take it from her hands."
Ichigo was about to protest when Orihime stepped around him and uncurled her fists to reveal empty palms. His brown eyes caught the way the tall man's eyes widen slightly, and the way the muscle around his jaw clenched. He watched from the sidelines as the man turned expertly-disguised surprised eyes to stare into her grey ones. For a moment, something akin to amazement fluttered in Ichigo's stomach as he watched her clench her jaw and even though he knew she was frightened –for some unknown reason- she still had that courage in her gaze.
She was being brave despite the fact that she was shaking all over, and Ichigo felt the first signs of recognition for this stranger.
The man with the scar cursed under his breath and walked up to Orihime. If it wasn't for her pride, she would've stepped back when the man closed in on her.
"Where is it, woman?" He nearly hissed at Orihime, whom was silently praying so that they still had the conscience not to rip her clothes off just to find the flash-drive which she tucked snugly into the side of her bra. They were, after all, in the middle of the cemetery.
She opened her mouth to answer when the scarred man grabbed the front of her blue hoodie. A second later, long fingers wrapped themselves around the man's wrist and squeezed it just enough to set her free.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Ichigo spoke up as he stepped in front of the wide-eyed Orihime, and he unzipped his jacket. Five pairs of eyes, including a pair of grey ones dropped to the police badge fastened on the right side of his belt. Never in her life had Orihime felt relieved. So this orange-haired man could be trusted. And the fact that he was a cop made things all the more better. She just felt like Sora was somewhere above them, watching her.
The tallest man, who was also the most composed of all of the five men combined together smiled apologetically and backed away.
"Sorry for being rude just now, it seems that we've got the wrong person, sir. Hey, Gengen, apologize to Orihime-chan."
The scarred man, now known as Gengen cursed between clenched teeth before he grudgingly bowed slightly to apologize to Orihime. If she wasn't so shaken she would've admired the Gengen guy for still having the decency to be polite, if little. All five men disappeared almost instantly after that, and the rain had already slowed down to a drizzle, the sky already dark.
Orihime was left staring at Ichigo's back when she suddenly remembered about his help.
"Th-Thank you, sir."
He was silent for a few seconds before he looked at her over his shoulder. Her breath got stuck in her throat as she noticed his brown eyes. They were brown. And beautiful; she noted belatedly. Orihime wanted to slap herself for even thinking about that at such a wrong time but she couldn't help staring at him, her jaw slack.
"Where is it?"
His sudden deep voice startled her, and she blinked as he turned around to face her, hands in pockets, his opened jacket revealing the muzzles of two guns peeking from beneath it.
"S-Sorry?"
He let out a sigh as he walked closer to her, making her to look up at him. "When I saw those tattoos, it suddenly came to me..." He jabbed a thumb towards the general path the five men had taken when they left them two before he continued, "Those were Tsukishima's men."
Orihime gasped.
"You know him?"
"It's still in investigation and- hey, I'm not supposed to tell you any of this."
Silence stretched between them when Orihime remained staring at him, when she spoke up.
"Oh."
He could feel the beginning of a headache coming. "What 'Oh'? So, where is it?"
Confusion was evident on Orihime's face as she frowned. "Where's what?"
"I know you're hiding it... whatever it is."
Full knowing what Ichigo meant, Orihime put a hand over her chest. She looked around, and tiptoed to whisper close to his ear.
"I trust you, Police-san, but I think it's not safe here."
He nearly missed that because the moment she whispered into his ear, he didn't know what turned his ears warm. Either it was her warm breath tickling his earlobe, or her warm breasts –despite her wet clothes- plastered against his lean chest.
The moment she pulled back, the warmth evaporated, as well as the ghost of Sora Inoue.
"Let's go then."
He stopped at the red light, and shifted the gear to neutral as he kept a foot on the brake pedal. He casted a sideways glance at the woman sitting on the passenger seat; her damp hair was beginning to dry and curl at the ends, and she had fixed her hairpins properly to avoid her wet bangs from covering her forehead. She was staring at a small device in her hands, which she had pulled from under her shirt.
When she had lifted the hem of her hoodie and stuck a hand inside her shirt, his eyes about bugged out of their sockets. Even for a grown man, he just couldn't pretend that he didn't see her flat stomach and her navel. He had whipped his head the other way, cursing out loud. She had cocked her head at him, a confused expression plastered on her face as she pulled out a flash-drive.
He had barked at her to quickly strap herself to the passenger seat with the seat belt and sit quietly in that seat until they reach his apartment. She promised to keep quiet and sat obediently in her seat. Not that she had anywhere to go anyway. But for good measure, he had fastened the seatbelt for her seeing that her hands had been trembling. Maybe she was still shaken from her encounter with those men and with that in mind; he had drove away from the cemetery. And true to her words, she kept quiet since then, occasionally looking out towards the window and staring the flash-drive in her cool fingers.
"Did you skip school to get that flash-drive?"
He didn't plan to ask her that, but he couldn't help but notice that she looked young. Almost as young as Yuzu and Karin. It kind of surprised himself that he even took the time to notice the lady, whom was looking at him with a blank expression on her face. Ichigo Kurosaki was never one to really observe people, since that kind of job wasn't his expertise –it had always been Kyouraku's job to figure people out- and also he wasn't really keen on observing others unless if it involves planning a strategy to bring down criminals and illegal organizations. But that day, when he had no one else next to him but the drenched lady who had ran into him along with other troubles and accidentally busting his healing wound in the process, he just couldn't help but to observe her quietly as he drove to his apartment.
The woman, or girl, or lady or... whatever she was, suddenly laughed softly.
"No, I just got fired from my job."
The red light turned green, and Ichigo shifted to the first gear and stepped on the gas. As he stepped on the clutch to shift to second gear, he lifted a brow to glance at her.
"Job?"
She really didn't look like the type to be working as an office worker, or any white-collar ranks in that matter.
"I was a Maths teacher at Miyashita High... but I just got fired three days ago..."
Ichigo nodded slowly, the information sinking into him. She really didn't look like a white-collar worker, or even a blue-collar worker... or any coloured collar there is. He kept silent, trying to figure out how does a High School teacher got anything to do with Tsukishima. Just as he was about to turn into a junction to the apartment building he was staying at, his brown eyes caught the eyes of Sora Inoue sitting at the back seat. Surprised, he cursed and the tires screeched as his car ventured off-course for a few dangerous seconds, nearly taking out a sidewalk tree.
"What the hell are you doing here!"
Sora put a hand over his chest. "Really Ichigo-kun, drive carefully. You have my sister there. And you just cursed in front of a lady."
Gritting his teeth, he ignored Orihime's gasp. "Damn it." He muttered again as he noticed that the lady was looking at him with wide eyes.
"Police-san, who are you talking to?"
Ichigo grunted in reply, and as they neared his apartment, he jabbed a thumb behind his seat.
"That ghost behind me." He didn't tell her it was her brother, whom had made him promise not to tell Orihime.
Orihime blinked. "You can see ghosts?"
Finding a parking spot, Ichigo manoeuvred the car to fit nicely into the parking box. Turning off the ignition, he twisted his body a bit to undo the seat belt. Once he was done, he turned to undo her side of seat belt to get his mind off Sora's smiling eyes. He didn't know why, but that ghost seemed to know something that he didn't, and it bothered him because Sora's eyes seemed very human to him and very alive. Ignoring Orihime's embarrassed protests, he finally undid the belt and he leaned back into his seat to quell down the pain shooting up from his abdomen. They stayed in the car for a while, and Ichigo answered Orihime's question with a quiet 'yes.'
He looked up into the rear view mirror and Sora was still there, smiling at him. Ichigo scowled.
"Don't do that again, you surprised me."
Sora smiled apologetically, and again, Ichigo was reminded that Orihime –who was staring at him- and Sora looked nothing alike. He turned to Orihime, and she blushed a faint pink when she was caught staring at him. His scowl still in place, he opened his door and told her to follow him to talk about that flash-drive she had been holding. Sora disappeared suddenly again, much to Ichigo's relief. Being watched by a ghost was never his cup of tea in the first place.
"She did what?"
Tsukishima snapped the book his hands shut, a collective intake of breath following his action. The five men in front of him lowered their gazes to stare at the floor as their boss stood up from his leather seat. The tallest of them all lifted his face to talk to Tsukishima.
"We don't know how sir, but she found a cop and when we searched her she didn't have it with her."
A small smile lifted the corners of his mouth as Tsukishima turned to a bookshelf. He brought up a hand to trace his fingertips along the edge of a book, as he spoke up, addressing the tallest man.
"What did that cop look like, Gin?"
The addresses man gave a grin of his own. "Tall, orange hair."
A mirthless laugh escaped Tsukishima's lips. "Isn't this just dandy, right Gin? That guy seems to have an attachment to all of those you've worked with. First King Barragan, and who was it before me?"
Gin opened his narrow blue eyes. "He was Aizen-san."
The laughter stopped, and his smile fell as he turned to his favourite henchman. "Do you think he would get me after this too?"
Gin replied with his foxy grin.
"Not this time, sir."
"Come in."
Nodding to herself, Orihime joined the orange-haired police into his apartment. She stood in the doorway and watched him as he peeled off his drenched jacket, tossing it into the washing machine. Heat crept up her neck to her cheeks when she saw the sinewy muscles of his biceps flex as he moved to unfasten the holster holding his guns. The guns and his badge made a dull thump as Ichigo placed them on the kitchen counter top, oblivious to the way Orihime was trying not to gape at him.
She grew up with her brother, but while Sora was not lanky, he wasn't strongly built either. And even though Ichigo still had his shirt on, it didn't change the fact that the way the wet clothing stuck to his lean body spelled T.R.O.U.B.L.E if she didn't drag her gaze somewhere. Her eyes grew wide when she noticed the blood seeping through his wet grey T-shirt, and gasped when he lifted the hem to reveal his bandaged torso. He turned to her, not even flinching when he tossed his shirt over his shoulder. If Orihime wasn't so surprised to see his gunshot wound, she would've been impressed that he managed to throw away his shirt squarely into the opened washing machine.
Ichigo raised a brow as he turned to her. "What's wrong?"
With all thoughts on how nice his body looked even with bandages wrapped around him thrown out of her mind, she dragged her eyes to meet his, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "You're... b-bleeding."
As if it was the most natural thing in the world to have an opened wound on his abdomen, Ichigo scratched the back of his neck as he took his cell phone to punch some numbers.
"Oh, this? I got shot about three days ago."
As he sent a message to Rukia to 'come to my apartment NOW!', Ichigo placed his phone back onto the counter top.
"D-Did I do that... to you?"
He managed to swallow down a sarcastic answer when he saw her eyes, brimming with tears. She did cause his wound to open, but she had been scared. For the umpteenth time that day, Ichigo decided he should be nice to the trembling girl.
"No, you didn't..." He looked her up, noting that her clothes were still wet, and there was already a small puddle from where she stood in the doorway.
She was still clutching the flash-drive in a small hand, and when she opened her palm to hand the device to him, it suddenly became clear to him that her fingers were pale and trembling. The image of her trying to fasten the seatbelt with her trembling hands flashed for a moment and realization dawned on him. She had been cold, and she was probably freezing, seeing that her lips were pale and her teeth were chattering.
He took the drive from her and when his hands brushed against her cold fingers, he motioned towards the small guest bathroom.
"I have hot water in there, rinse yourself."
She gave him a wobbly smile, a dust of blush on her cheeks. "B-But I d-don't have anything to wear, Police-san."
"Right. Wait here a minute."
He disappeared into a room, his probably, and came out shortly with a pair of light green shorts and a black T-shirt. She smiled at him gratefully and he nodded towards the bathroom.
"Wear those. Tell me if you're still cold, I have jerseys here."
She wanted to thank him, but her stomach suddenly chose that time to growl. Despite himself, Ichigo couldn't help his chuckle when she disappeared into the bathroom, a shy smile on her face.
His cell phone dinged as it received a reply message from Rukia. 'What for?' it said, and Ichigo told her to just come, and bring Ishida with her.
Rukia replied shortly after he sent the message, and he cursed when she replied the message with 'Yeah, whatever mister Grumpy.'
"Damn midget." He said through gritted teeth, and his eyes fell to the puddle of water from where Orihime had been standing and took a wash cloth to wipe the spot dry before he himself retired into his bedroom to change out of his damp jeans.
Once he changed into a pair of grey sweatpants, Ichigo gathered his first aid kit from atop his bedside table and carefully settled down onto the edge of his bathroom countertop, letting the warm water run from the faucet.
He hissed as he unwounded the bandages covering his lower torso, revealing the opened wound. As he did with past injuries, Ichigo held a clean small towel under the running water and wiped away the blood smeared around the injured area. He gritted his teeth to refrain from groaning when he dabbed alcohol on it, and reached for a fresh batch of gauze and bandages to wrap his abdomen.
"Son of a bitch." He cursed through gritted teeth as he wrapped the bandage around himself, applying pressure to the wound.
"You shouldn't swear so much, you know."
Ichigo ignored the familiar voice hovering above him as he fastened the end of the bandage. He carefully stood up and with a scowl; he looked above him to see Sora sticking his head out from the ceiling.
"I'm injured, okay. And stop sneaking up on me like that, it give me the creeps."
As if realizing his bandaged torso and the ruined bandages from before in the trashcan, Sora made an 'o' with his mouth.
"You're injured, Ichigo-kun."
Ichigo rolled his eyes when Sora stated the obvious, and washed his hands as Sora descended from the ceiling to sit on the counter top next to the sink.
"Thank you, for saving Orihime just now."
Ichigo shrugged, and fished out a bottle of painkillers from the cabinet above the sink and downed two tablets. He then took out a fresh small towel from a drawer, wet the towel with warm water and started to wipe his arms and neck.
"I gave you my word, didn't I? Besides," Ichigo placed the towel aside and stuck his head under the water to wash his head. He came up for air and dried his head with the end of the previous small towel. "She knows Tsukishima, and we've been investigating that guy for months now. Maybe she can give us a lead..."
He stopped drying his head and turned to Sora. "Are you connected to Tsukishima?"
Sora sighed. "Truth to be told, I-"
Somebody was banging on his door, and as Ichigo came to answer it while pulling on a white T-shirt, Sora disappeared immediately. The banging got louder as he stepped out of his bedroom. With a scowl, he swung the front door open. Rukia stood just outside his door, Ishida and Renji standing behind her. She had her arms crossed and a foot tapped impatiently.
"What took you so long?"
Ichigo cracked his knuckles as Rukia and the other two men walked past him, and he could feel his temper flaring as she purposely stepped on his foot to get through.
"You didn't need to bang the door, midget."
Rukia waved his insult away and seated herself on the armrest of the single couch in the living room, facing the television. Ishida pushed his glasses up his nose bridge, and took a seat on the couch while Renji raided Ichigo's small kitchen to find something to snack on. From inside the kitchen Renji called out to Ichigo.
"Why did you call us here, anyway?"
Ichigo crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the kitchen doorframe.
"Firstly, I thought I called for Rukia and Ishida only. And there's something I need you to take a look at, Ishida."
As he said that, Ichigo went to his kitchen and came back to the living room to toss the device to Ishida who caught it easily. Rukia watched as Ishida held up the flash-drive, a brow raised.
"What's that?"
Renji came to join Rukia on the couch and tossed a bottle of mineral water to Ichigo. He caught it easily.
"That's what you call a flash-drive, midget."
"I know that, Ichigo. What I mean is, what's with that thumb-drive?"
Renji took a long swig of his beer and motioned towards Ishida. "Probably something important?"
"You called me here just to open this thumb-drive? Don't tell me you don't know how to do it yourself, Kurosaki?"
The orange-head nearly flung his unopened bottle of water at Ishida's head but he decided it wasn't worth it.
"Haven't you noticed that I haven't explained yet why I called you here? And I wonder why they call you a genius, Ishida."
The response he got was a glare from Ishida. Rukia sighed irritably.
"Just get on with it, Ichigo."
Ichigo ignored Ishida's glare –for now- and jabbed a thumb towards the flash-drive the man was holding. For a fleeting moment, he realized that the guest bathroom was silent, and Orihime was still in there.
"Remember Tsukishima?"
Ishida crossed a leg over the other and nodded. "That pub manager that we've been investigating on?"
Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, that one. I think we might get a lead by opening that thumb-drive you have there. I just got it from someone who's probably known him longer than us, and I didn't open it myself because there might be some password or somethin'."
Rukia seemed interested as she stood up. "Seriously? But how do you know it's a lead? Forget that, just from where in the hell did you get that? You know that Tsukishima's gotten off the hook every single time and how do you know this is going to be any different?"
Ichigo smirked and took a long swig of his water. Just as he lowered the bottle from his lips, Orihime chose that time to step out from the bathroom.
The moment he laid his eyes on her, it became too late for him to stop the water in his mouth from spraying everywhere.
A/N: As I said, I'm on a roll right now. So here you have it, the first chapter. Hope you guys like it. Oh, and I know this might be too late, but I just watched the 4th movie and I nearly cried with happiness at the IchiHime moment. And also the ending, oh, the ending was SUPERB! I cracked out loud when I read disappointed comments from the IchiRuki fans. I'm not an IchiRuki hater, but I just don't like Ichigo and Rukia together either. Ahahaha! I'm sorry, I'm just too excited. Who can blame me, ne? Okay, hope you have a nice day and thank you for reading. :D
Hugs and kisses!
