Hey people! I'm SOOOO SORRYYYYYY I didn't uptade sooner, I hope you can forgive me, school won't give me a second to breathe under that fuckin pile of work,, argggh! Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this new chap!

Disclaimer: I do not (and will never) own Bleach.

Together Alone

Chapter 6: What happened last night…?

The line to enter Forever Midnight was quite long. The guards had already turned a kid who was hopelessly trying to get in. Finally, a few minutes later, it was Rukia and Ichigo's turn.

"You can go," said the man after analyzing Ichigo up and down.

The orange-head was about to enter, Rukia right behind him, when the guard stopped them with his muscular arm.

"Wait. You're actually telling me she's 21?" he coldly said, looking down at the midget.

Rukia frowned and scowled deeply. 'Great, another jerk who thinks I'm a kid. I'm over eighty years of life dammit!'

On the other side, Ichigo had a hard time controlling his laugh.

Biting the inside of his cheek not to laugh, he took out Rukia's –fake- ID and showed it to the black man.

"Mm…." said the big guy with a frown. "Ok, you can go."

Ichigo was about to finally enter when he heard Rukia's voice behind. "Excuse me, sir, but why 21 years old?"

Ichigo almost hit his forehead with his hand. The man was already suspicious about them, no need to make it even worse!

"This is the minimum age to be drinking in U.S.A. Learn more about the country before you move in, young lady," responded the guard harshly.

Rukia blinked a few times before Ichigo quickly grabbed her wrist and brought her inside the club.

'I knew it,' thought Ichigo. 'Again with Urahara's stupid arrangement.'

In the nightclub, the music was extremely loud. It was dark except the bar and dance floor where red, green and purple lights were ricocheted every where. The place was already full of people. Certain were dancing to the rhythm of the music while others were sitting on couches or chairs, talking, kissing, laughing, drinking… It was a real nightclub.

Ichigo never liked these kinds of places. He wasn't thrilled to be here, even if it was for a mission. Keigo had tried for the past year to drag him along with their fake ID, but he never thought, really never, he would enter one under the required age, Kuchiki Rukia right next to him.

"So," started Ichigo. "Who's the guy again?"

Rukia took her soul pager out of her purse. Luckily it looked like a normal cell phone or it would have been impossible to take it out.

"A young man. He is 23, blond hair. His name is Jeffrey Fox. He's-"

Rukia was cut by another beep. The music covered it mostly, loud enough so the two shinigamis could hear it. Rukia immediately checked, her eyebrows making one thin line above her eyes as she analyze what was happening.

"What's wrong?" asked Ichigo. He just hated to wait for her answer.

"There's someone else here. I mean, other than Fox and the enemy. It's another person. He…" She pressed buttons on her 'phone'. "He wasn't here when Soul Society took their data, so we don't know anything about him… Or her. But there is someone else with high reiatsu, now. And here."

Ichigo couldn't do anything else than to listen and look at Rukia. What more could he do? Save the Jeffrey guy? Can't, too risky. Stop the enemy? Can't, too imprudent. At least that's what Soul Society said. He absolutely hated it.

Ichigo growled in frustration as someone bumped into him. It was a black-haired man, dressed up in dark colors. He didn't stop to apologize and continued his way to the bar counter.

But something stopped Ichigo from yelling at the man: a sensation. When they came in contact, he felt a…vibe. It ran from the guy and into Ichigo's pure source. It was incomprehensible for a simple human. It was powerful, unique. It was reiatsu.

Ichigo suddenly widened his eyes. "Rukia!" he took the small woman by the arm. "That guy, who just hit me, he has high spiritual pressure. I felt it."

He stared at her as she concentrated and fought back a frown. He hated to be useless in times like this. 'I'm gonna have to get better at this sensing reiatsu thing…' he reminded himself for later.

Rukia looked back at him and nodded. "It's him," she affirmed. "We got to check on both now so, let's just find this Jeffrey Fox."

Because of Rukia's shortness, Ichigo led the way through the crowd of dancing people, his partner right behind.

Once they reached a decent place to continue their talking, Ichigo elbowed Rukia slightly on her shoulder. "The person who bumped into me earlier is drinking at the counter," he advised. "Can you locate that…Fox boy?"

"I feel his spiritual pressure… It's coming from behind," said Rukia, turning around.

Ichigo followed her gaze and saw a curtain in the back of the club. They walked to it and looked up at the 'VIP' sign right above the entrance.

"Ichigo," said Rukia as she turned to him. "Does this means we can't enter?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Not sure, but that's not stopping me."

With that, he entered the dark place, Rukia still following.

He was surprised when nobody stopped them from going into the zone, but as soon as he noticed an intense smell planning in the room, he understood the club's real meaning of VIP.

'Drugs. Obviously,' realized Ichigo.

The two kept walking, deeper and deeper in the darkness. Until they found red spots, lighting up couple of couches, and approximately a dozen of person.

Most of them were either kissing or making out, either dozing off loosely. Couples of empty syringes and suspicious white powder were abandoned on the small table of glass in the middle.

Rukia glanced at Ichigo. The girl didn't quite understand what was going on in there, but she decided to leave it to Ichigo. The young man was frowning, looking over all the strange people.

Rukia jumped slightly when someone got up and walked to them. "Hey… You guys want to fly to could 9 with us... ?" the guy asked in an extremely slow voice that told Ichigo he was far gone.

Rukia felt Ichigo's arm extend in front of her, almost…protectively as the weird person got closer to them, revealing his face.

"No. Just get back on you couch. We don't want any of your crap," harshly responded Ichigo.

The man put both his hands in front of him. "Woaah… geez, relax man. Just trying to…be nice here," he spoke with the same lost voice.

As the dude got back to his comfy seat, Ichigo turned to Rukia and saw that she had her eyes widen.

"What's wrong," he asked her.

Rukia looked back at him and dragged him away from the group.

"Didn't you notice it? It was Fox!"

It was Ichigo's turn to widen his eyes. It was true, now that he thought about it: the hair, the look, the age… It was him for sure.

"Great, now we got a junkie to protect," grumbled Ichigo.

"A what?" asked Rukia, confused.

Kurosaki shook his head. "Never mind."

Suddenly, Rukia tensed next to him. Ichigo was about to ask her what was wrong when he felt something.

He was there.

The two shinigamis exchanged a look and nodded their heads in agreement.

They walked out of the weird place and got back in the animated, noisy club.

A shocking view appeared to them when they saw their other target, talking to someone else. Someone, dressed in black, with a hood.

A black hood… Him.

"He is talking to that man!" Rukia exclaimed, turning her back to the enemy.

Ichigo swallowed hard, anger growing inside him as he stared at the hooded man. He couldn't see his face, but he was able to notice the reiatsu guy's expression. And he seemed…mad. Really mad, and hurt.

"Ichigo!" screamed Rukia to bring his attention, hitting his stomach slightly with her tiny fist.

"Sorry," apologized Ichigo as he blinked.

The young man thought for a second before speaking. "We'll just stay here and if the enemy drags someone outside… We'll interfere."

Rukia didn't respond but you could tell she was worried by the look in her eyes.

Minutes passed. Ichigo and Rukia were sitting, somewhere in the club not too far from the VIP room or the bar. An hour passed, and the man with high reiatsu left the nightclub. But surprisingly, the killer did not. He stood at the counter, only sitting alone.

Another 30 minutes passed when someone got out of the VIP zone. Jeffrey Fox. He was heading for the bar, a huge smile on his face. The killer slowly and darkly turned his head toward his prey. Rukia immediately advised Ichigo with a panicking voice.

"Ichigo! He's going right in the lion's grip, we have to do something!"

Ichigo stood up from his seat and rapidly walked to Fox. This was one of those times where your brain only catches the very first idea that crosses your mind. It isn't always the best of the plans.

"Hey man! Sorry 'bout earlier…" started the orange-haired too much fake-enthusiastic as he stepped in front of Fox.

The guy immediately laughed. "Man, don't worry 'bout it! Hey you and your girl come with me! We'll have a drink!"

"Huh…Okay," responded Ichigo with an unsure fake smile.

But Jeffrey didn't notice. He was probably too dopey so he dragged them to the bar, a huge expression of total fun printed on his face.

Rukia was without words. What was Ichigo doing? She didn't really know, but one thing was sure: it was working.

Ichigo turned for a second, sending her a glare that says something like 'Shit' or 'Help'. Rukia sighed desperately.

Fox ordered several drinks and gave them to both Japanese. "Here you go!" exclaimed the blond man happily. "Welcome to Forever Midnight, my new friends!"

He raised his small glass full of strong liquid and yelled, "TO FRIENDSHIP! AND TO FUN!" Three cling were heard when the glasses made contact.

'God help me,' thought Ichigo as alcohol made its way down his throat.

I I I I

A headache. A hard, painful, master headache. That's the only thing Ichigo Kurosaki felt as he woke up slowly, the sun heating his bare arm through the window.

Groaning, he rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand, painfully opening his hazel eyes.

The first thing he noticed was that he was in the apartment. Only, it was upside down. It took him a few moments to understand he was upside down, his legs on the bed and his arms and head resting on the floor.

Ichigo got up from the mattress –or the floor- and growled, stretching his numb members with difficulty.

He then searched for Rukia, finding her in her own bed, all mixed up in the covers.

"Rukia…" he whined not too loudly as he yawned, pressing on the girl's back with his fingers. "Wake up…"

Rukia let out a discontent sound and started to move slowly. After a couple of seconds, her eyes were half open, her butt sitting on the comfortable surface and her hands rubbing desperately her forehead.

"Wha… What happened?" she spoke as her loud voice filled her head intensely in a ringing. "What's with that damn knocking in my head…"

Ichigo, who didn't had the strength to stay on his feet any longer, sat next to Rukia heavily. "I think we have a hangover," he said with an exhausted voice.

Rukia groaned. "A hangover? So we were…drunk?"

Ichigo nodded. "I still got the alcohol breath… God, I can't even remember what happened last night." Rukia approved with a nod. "The only thing that comes into my mind is laughing. Oh and a song."

"Me too, strangely," said Rukia before she abruptly realized something, the shock on her face as her eyes grew bigger. "Wait. If we were drunk, what happened to Fox and the other target?!" she almost screamed in panic.

She immediately jumped off the bed and ran to her soul pager, pressing millions of buttons almost faster than the wind.

Ichigo's heart stopped beating as Rukia made her research. If someone died last night, it was over. Everything. An innocent life, the mission, their honour, his life… It would all be reduced into dust.

Ichigo got kicked out of his thoughts when Rukia made a giant sigh, full of relief. "It's okay. They are all alive. And the enemy is gone, well, for now…"

She sat back on the bed next to Ichigo and hit the mattress. "Damn it. We were too irresponsible. Anyone could have easily died while we were drinking our ass off! It was a disrespectable behaviour, we far crossed the line."

Ichigo kept silent. He didn't exactly know what to say. She was right. They were too irresponsible last night. Someone could have actually died! And it would be his fault. He passed so close to not be able to protect them… He would make sure it doesn't happen ever again.

"I knew I didn't deserve that kind of mission…" Ichigo hear Rukia said in a heavy voice.

The orange-haired looked at her. "Rukia, don't say that. You are stronger and smarter than most shinigami. You deserve this post and this mission. It was my idea to go drinking with Fox. I'm the one to blame for this."

Rukia opened her mouth to reply when her violet eyes caught something behind Ichigo. It was a small object, resting on the top of the desk.

"What's that?" asked the young woman, pointing the unknown thing.

Ichigo turned around to see a video camera on top of the drawers. He walked to it and Rukia joined him, looking at the strange machine now in Ichigo's hands. "It's a video camera," responded Ichigo. "We must've bought it last night… Hey, there's a record. Maybe we'll see what happened last night when we were on another planet."

"It…conserves what we do?" asked Rukia, incredulous. "How can it do that?"

Ichigo sighed. Sometimes he forgot how little Rukia knew about human technology. "I'll show you."

With that, he bought Rukia along with him on her bed and pressed the 'play' button. Rukia jumped slightly as images of her and Ichigo appeared on the screen.

"What's this stuff Ichiiiiiii?" yelled Rukia with a happy expression on her face.

"Just speak, you'll see!" responded the male shinigami.

Rukia's cheeks were red from the alcohol and her lips curved into a large smile. "Okay! Hey we're going back to that night club now! I want to dance!"

Kurosaki gulped as Kuchiki's eyes were large, both staring at the passing images.

We could see Rukia at the nightclub, standing next to the DJ's spot.

"Hey you, music man! Can you do a special request?"

"Sure, what's your muz?" said the man with hundreds of piercing, a hand on his earphones. Rukia got closer to him and whispered something to the weirdo. The guy laughed. "Whatever you want, sweetheart."

Ichigo gritted his teeth silently. He choose the right song on his electronic gadget; Movin, by Takacha. The music started with a high beat, before the lyrics was heard across the club, getting everyone's attention.

Maketakunai shi!
Nakitakunai shi!
Warattetai kara!
Movin! Movin!

Rukia screamed happily to the music and every dancer on the floor made the same. "PARTY!" yelled the raven-haired girl as she started dancing intensely along with the others.

Rukia's cheeks were redder by the second. She couldn't believe herself for doing such a stupid thing! She was on a mission for God's sake!

"Movin! Movin!" sang loudly the drunk Rukia and Ichigo.

It was mostly partying and –embarrassing- dancing for several minutes and Ichigo couldn't stand it anymore.

"I can't watch this any longer. I'm gonna take a shower, I stink," said the teenage as he gave the camera to Rukia. But the lieutenant knew she needed to…check something. She felt it, oddly.

"Wait Ichigo! Hum, can…can you do fast play on this thing?"

The boy narrowed his eyes at her and responded, "Yeah, it's this button." He pointed to right arrow. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing."

Ichigo looked at her suspiciously before closing the bathroom's door, "Okay…"

Rukia got back on the video as the water was running in the other room. She pressed the fast play button and waited until the 'party' was over and another scenery was playing. She pressed play.

The camera has been put on the desk by Ichigo, and you could now see the young man, sleeping, sometimes even snoring, on his bed and Rukia, rolling on hers.

"Hahaha, this is fun…" the girl on the tape laughed quietly at her own little game. "Hey Ichigo, you're awake?"

But the only response was silence. Rukia lifted her small head and rose slowly from the furniture. Her expression was no longer happy, she seemed…thoughtful. She got closer to the boy's bed and rested her forearms on the edge, staring at Ichigo's sleeping form.

"Ichigo… Do you hear me?"

Again, silence. The shinigami was really asleep.

"There's…something I wanted to tell you. But I never got the chance to- no, that's no true. I never got the guts to tell you… Since the Fullbring thing." She took a deep breath. "Hum, I know I'm not the perfect woman figure. You know, a woman is supposed to be…nice, kind and emotional. Kind of like Inoue, but I can't be those thing around you. And I don't know why dammit! Why am I always so…rough and mean with you? I guess it's to bury my real emotions because, what I wanted to tell you is that… I missed you, Ichigo. More than you'll ever know. And I hate myself for not being able to just say it to you because it's the truth. And, I never apologized for leaving you these 17 months… I thought it was for the best, you could live your human life now. But, somehow I still felt like I abandoned you, and I'm so, so sorry for it Ichigo…" her voice broke at the end and her head fell down a little. After a few seconds, she lifted it again, her eyes shining. "I hope you can forgive me someday because… I need you Ichigo. I just can't do it without you anymore… I'm sorry…"

Rukia passed the back of her finger tenderly on Ichigo's cheek and brought her face closer, until her lips, replacing the touch of her finger, gave his cheek a delicate kiss.

"Goodnight, Ichigo."

Rukia stood frozen as the raven-haired drunk girl on the tape got back to her own bed and drifted asleep. The lieutenant pressed pause on the machine. She still couldn't believe what she had said on that video. What she had revealed. It was something so…buried inside her that it was hard to hear it, like that, like everything was fine. But it wasn't fine. Rukia didn't know how she felt anymore… And what if Ichigo saw that? It would be the end of the world.

Rukia forced herself to jump out of her trance and searched several minutes until she found how to delete the damn record.

Why had she said all of that last night anyways? Oh that's right, the alcohol. At that moment, she swear she'd never touch a single gout of this liquid again. Hell, she even kissed Ichigo on the cheek! It had to be the alcohol! It just couldn't be…her own feelings, is it?

Rukia jumped when the bathroom door opened, a half wet Ichigo getting out of the steamy room. "So, what else is on the tape?" asked the boy, looking for a simple t-shirt to wear today.

Rukia coughed silently and turned her eyes away from Ichigo's bare, muscular back. "Oh hum, nothing important… Just other crap of dancing and all…"

"God," said Ichigo as he put a gray t-shirt. "Please erase that thing before I throw it outside the window."

"Done," responded Rukia, heading for the kitchen to get some water, or at least that's the excuse she will tell herself.

It just had to be the alcohol… It couldn't be…her own feelings, right?

Fiew, done! I'm feeling kind of…depressed lately, I hope you still liked it. Please review! |Death and Berry|