Till Death
Chapter 2: A Shinigami's Work and an Older Brother's Wish
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Here's a thing that Ichigo does not yet know: This will become a trend in their relationship. Maybe if he had known that, he wouldn't have set the precedent but oh well, here we are.
Ichigo follows Rukia into the courtyard and tries not to break a tooth when she frustrates him to the point of grinding his teeth.
"So you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?"
And as the strange girl explains what the fuck is going on, Ichigo can't help but feel an odd sense of deja vu, like he's heard this all before.
God she's bossy.
He closes his eyes and breathes.
"So, since you were so eager to take my powers, I need you to do my job while they return over time."
"I'm a highschool student, this isn't some kind of work-study thing where I can just be a grim reaper. I'm busy!"
"Well, that's too fucking bad, Ichigo."
Their voices are raising and colour rises up his neck as he feels eyes on them. He knows how this is gonna look. Him, the big mixed thug with the angry eyes cornering the sweet, baby-faced new girl. Rukia's got him in a social trap with no way out.
"I'm not doing this." He says with finality, shoving his hands into his pockets and turning his back to her.
"Oh yes you are." She follows, arms like knives.
"You can't make me."
"Watch me."
Years of karate practice with Tatsuki have not prepared him for the speed that she uses to grab his wrist and pin his arm behind his back. He yelps, tears beading at the corners of his eyes.
"Wow, this must be really embarrassing for you."
The bell rings and students come flooding out into the courtyard. With them comes relief from Rukia's twist hold, she keeps her hand wrapped around his wrist.
"Ichigo, where did you go?" Tatsuki is first to spot them.
Her eyes narrow and dart to their joined hands. Rukia titters.
"Oh, Ichigo was just showing me where everything is."
He rolls his eyes. She's laying it on thick.
Tatsuki's suspicion doesn't let up. He isn't surprised. Out of everyone in Karakura, he's known her the longest. He'd be more alarmed if he were privy to the thoughts currently running through her head.
He's seventeen, he had to start noticing girls sometime, she shouldn't be shocked.
Tatsuki is nothing if not a good friend so she waves them off and turns away before either can see her smirk.
As soon as she's out of earshot Rukia yanks on his arm so hard that he swears it dislocates. She pulls him out of sight of the student exodus.
"You listen to me and you listen good. You and this town are my responsibility. I never shirk my responsibilities. Ergo, you will do as I say or I will make your life a living hell. And I'm not so sure about the living part."
"What, you'd kill me?"
"I would if it weren't against my orders."
Bullshit.
But the look in her eyes makes him unsure.
Rukia withdraws something from her pocket. It's a red fingerless glove with a flaming skull emblazoned on the back. She pulls it on and the red leather creaks as her hand flexes. There is something ominous in her face. Like a viper, she strikes. She slaps him in the face so hard that he has an out of body experience.
Literally.
He suddenly discovers that his body is on the ground, three feet to his left.
Rukia seems pleased with herself. Ichigo is less than.
He screams.
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There are many lessons that Rukia will impart to him over the course of their acquaintance, but this one is the most important.
The skittering noise of six sharp legs, the screams and cries of a little spirit boy, the cool calculating gaze of an impartial observer.
Ichigo hates her in this moment. He hates her like he's hated no one else. Like he's hated nothing but the cruelty that took his mother from him. She stares at him impassively, waiting, while a soul screams for help. She checks him. She stops him. She will not let him save him.
This is extortion of the highest order. This is blackmail and bribery and horrendous in its impartiality.
She taunts him with his own words. "That boy is a complete stranger, isn't he?" And you don't want to be responsible for the souls and lives of strangers.
But he's right there.
"Leave him be," she commands and he grows roots. "For a shinigami, all spirits in this world are equal. You can't get involved just because they're nearby and need help. Who are you to decide who is and is not worth saving? You save them all, or you save none of them. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes, even sacrifice your own life. That is the duty of a shinigami. What's it going to be?"
He hates her. He hates her so much.
He saves the boy.
He did it because he wanted to. He did.
Later, Ichigo sits on his bed, trying to read. It's a hot september night. The festering fury in his gut has turned to stone and weighs him down. He feels as if he'll sink through his bed, straight to hell.
Is this his life now? Being stalked by some tiny woman, hellbent on bossing him around?
(For the record: yes.)
The worst part is, on some level he knows she's right.
Ichigo Kurosaki does not understand Rukia Kuchiki yet. He does not know how much it all matters, can have no concept of protection, starvation, life and death. Not the way she does.
This one day will shape his entire worldview. Ichigo is a protector at heart. He has done everything in his power to shield his sisters, especially Karin-
But suddenly the world is bigger. And he is responsible for the souls that inhabit it. "'You save all of them or none of them' huh?" He sighs and a slow smile blooms. "Guess it's gonna be a busy year."
Ring ring ring.
"What the-"
"Ichigo!" His closet door slides open and Rukia bursts from its depths.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"No time, we've got orders."
"Orders?!"
"Get down!"
A cold hand on his chin and a shove. A giant, scaly arm misses him by inches. There she goes, saving his life again.
.
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Rukia was not expecting this. The anger she feels at herself is dwarfed for a few hours by her own practicality, but in the dark isolation of a stranger's closet, she has the time to think.
She always does this. She never looks before she leaps. She's always getting ahead of herself, doing whatever fool thing comes to mind. 'Why are you like this?' She grumbles to herself. She never learns. Her duty as a shinigami is to defend the living, place them above her own life… but the human boy was right, that's not what she was thinking when she placed herself between him and the jaws of death. It was instinct.
Stabbing him was calculated though.
She'd decided to give him half her powers, temporarily. Instead, an approximate most-of-them had been sucked right into him.
Rukia flexes her fingers and feels the reiatsu coursing through them. She's weak. She probably shouldn't leave the gigai. She wonders if she can still do kido? Maybe she should find herself a weapon, if today is any indication.
Ring ring ring
Well, no time like the present for a test drive.
"Ichigo!"
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She finds that she can't fly. Not surprising, but still very frustrating. This probably has a lot to do with the gigai. Its lung capacity is truly horrendous and where have all her muscles gone? Pathetic.
Ichigo carries her the rest of the way to Inoue's.
Rukia's gratified to know that she hasn't lost her wits and instincts at least.
They fight for and against Inoue's brother. Poor Orihime takes it all in better stride than expected, but then again, she's a unique young woman.
As Sora vacillates between feral and sane, Rukia holds and defends her in turn. She discovers that she can do very basic kido when she pins the hollow's arms behind his back, long enough for him to confess to a higher power controlling him.
That night Rukia sees a different side of Ichigo, the side she'd glimpsed on the night they met: the older brother, the protector. She knew it. Now if she could just teach him to expand that sphere, she'd make a shinigami of him yet.
She needs to prepare him, if she's right about what's coming. Inoue's brother was being controlled by a powerful hollow. This does not bode well for Karakura town, not with her sidelined and an inexperienced teenaged boy left as its protector.
"Kuchiki-san?" Orihime's voice wobbles as she addresses her. Rukia snaps out of her revery. She should put the mask back on. She should smile and gleam with innocence. But she doesn't have the energy.
"Yes Inoue? What is it?" She tries to make her voice kind, but from the look on Ichigo's face she must miss the mark. He lays Tatsuki's prone form on a bed of pillows and returns to their circle.
Tears brim and eyes turn downcast. She feels bad, but doesn't know how to fix it. "Could you… um…"
Ichigo lays a hand on the girl's trembling shoulder and tries to soothe her.
"Will you stay with us tonight?" Rukia doesn't know who looks more surprised, her or Ichigo. "I would feel a lot safer if you stayed. Please?"
How could she say no to that face?
Rukia steps over Tatsuki's sleeping form. Orihime's been kind enough to loan her a T-shirt that dwarfs Rukia like a dress. Were Tatsuki awake, she'd be getting an eye-full, but the girl sleeps like a rock.
"We should move to the kitchen if we want to talk." Orihime says quietly.
Rukia looks at the glass of water that she just brought from the kitchen and closes her eyes in defeat.
"Okay." She shrugs.
Once they're settled, she decides to be direct. "I'm Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper in charge of protecting Karakura."
"I figured you weren't really a new student. I've seen enough anime to know that the mysterious new student who shows up in the middle of the year is almost always a demon or something." Orihime says matter-of-factly.
"What's anime?" Rukia says.
"You know, cartoons?" Orihime says.
Rukia nods, still mystified.
"You know, like Chappy the Rabbit?" Orihime says.
Rukia tilts her head. Orihime pads off to another room and returns with a lunch box. On it is a set of colourfully drawn characters, particularly a rabbit giving a thumbs up. Rukia gently takes it from Orihime and presses her face against the bunny.
"Amazing." Rukia nods with actual understanding this time.
"There's a television show too if you'd like to watch."
Orihime leads her to the couch and searches through her old VHS tapes. When she finds the correct one she holds it over her head in triumph. "This was my favourite show!"
After a few episodes and mutual squeals of excitement at the cuteness, Rukia comes away with a new love and they settle into a companionable silence.
"So, you're from somewhere really different than here?" Orihime says.
"It's different enough for a culture shock, I guess." Rukia says.
Orihime's digging through the cupboards with purpose. She pulls out a box of brown crackers, a bag of white cylinders, and a bar of chocolate.
"Do they have s'mores where you come from?" Orihime says.
"I beg your pardon?" Rukia says, eyes glued to the TV.
"You are gonna love these. I usually love making them with red bean paste and pocky, but I don't have those ingredients." She says.
"Okay." Rukia says, because she doesn't really know how to respond to that.
She hears the 'tic-tic-tic' of Orihime turning the stove on and turns her head in the direction of the flame. Orihime pushes one of the white cylinders onto a chopstick and holds it over the flame. It must be some kind of sausage.
"Oh no!" Orihime says as the white thing catches fire.
Rukia jumps up from where she's sitting to help. Orihime just blows it out with a quick breath. She shoots Rukia a reassuring smile. Rukia makes the decision to stay with Orihime so long as the girl is dealing with something dangerous like fire.
She cooks it a little longer then pokes it. It bounces to her satisfaction.
Rukia leans against the counter and watches as Orihime arranges the crackers and a piece of chocolate. She then presses the white thing between the arrangement she's made and pulls it off the stick with the aid of the crackers.
It looks sticky and smells sweet.
Orihime offers it to Rukia, "Here. Try."
Rukia doesn't really trust Orihime's cooking, but she doesn't want to be rude to her host. With a barely concealed wince, she takes a bite.
It's crumbly and sticky and sweet. Rukia struggles to maintain its structural integrity long enough to eat it. Instead, she gets crumbs on her shirt and white goo stuck to her fingers. She sucks them when she's done.
Orihime is back at the stove, roasting another white thing.
"Good?" She says with a smile.
"What are these white things?" Rukia says, checking the bag.
"Marshmallows. They're really good with curry." Orihime says.
Rukia texts Ichigo, We need marshmallows.
He replies with, ? okay?
Orihime makes two more each and then sits on the floor in front of the TV. Rukia lies on her belly with a pillow under her chest and the bag of marshmallows in one hand.
It's the time of night when it doesn't matter how interesting the thing you're watching is, you can't bring yourself to fully pay attention. So, this is what true exhaustion feels like. Rukia stretches her toes. Were she human, her body would be covered in bruises. Like Orihime's. Rukia eyes the bloom of purple and green on the other girl's calf and eats a solemn marshmallow.
"Do you have a family, Rukia-chan?" Orihime says.
"I lost my sister Hisana when I was a baby, I don't even remember her." Rukia says. This is uncharacteristic of her, to speak without thinking. She hasn't been so rash in years.
She's making eye contact with the rug that she's picking lint from. Orihime covers Rukia's hand with her own.
"That must have been awful." Orihime says.
Rukia shrugs in forced nonchalance.
"She married my older brother and they adopted me." Rukia says.
"So, it all turned out well then?" Orihime says.
"I guess you could say that." Rukia says, rolling onto her side to stare at the wall.
Orihime doesn't question further. Rukia can hear her bite into a s'more.
"It really isn't the same without the coating of bean paste." Orihime sighs.
Rukia can't help but feel like that isn't the real reason for her melancholy.
Later, they've returned to Orihime's bedroom. Rukia lifts Tatsuki up and onto the bed. She's glad to have enough strength for that at least. She takes her former place on the pile of extra pillows.
"Tatsuki's so good, always watching out for me." Orihime says, looking over at the dozing girl, "Do you have anyone in your life who watches out for you like that?" Orihime immediately begins to chastise herself for the implication. "Not that you need someone to watch out for you Kuchiki-san! I mean, you're so strong and everything. And I suppose for now you have Kurosaki-kun, until your powers return, that is, I-"
"I had someone like that once." Rukia sighs. It's been a long time since anyone asked her how she felt about anything. It's been so long since she had a confidante. But why this silly human girl? Perhaps because she's so strong. Who, after what she'd just been through, could stay up talking and making a stranger laugh? "I miss him sometimes, but we went our separate ways."
Orihime looks so sad as she says this.
"Don't worry about me. I'm alright. I'm always alright."
It's almost dawn when Orihime finally cries. "He was a good older brother."
And Rukia, who knows nothing of good older brothers, hugs her and pats her head as if she understands.
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That night, Ichigo dreams. Buildings tower sideways, the sky is clear and blue. A woman in white stands five blocks above him. She regards him with a cold stare but remains silent. He does not know her name but with every fiber of his being, he knows that he should.
It starts to snow.
a/n: As always we're dying (ha) to know what you guys think!