Time to answer some reviews! XD Feel free to skip this part.
AW183: Thanks! Sorry about the short chapters... I've been working on making the chapters that I post longer overall, but since this is a series of drabbles, and I have to do 100 of them, they'll probably stay pretty short. I'm going to keep writing about the future, yeah. This one is quite a bit later on though… I'm saving their wedding for later ;D
agoodcupoftea: Thanks for my first really proper review! Also, thanks for the pointers, and I might call on your services another time ^_^
WolfCat2: Okay, you can have the two cookies *gives cookies* XD
lilyrosa143: Good to know I can bring some fangirling into people's lives, haha. Sorry about all the HitsuRuki… Yeah, I don't really know where it came from. I don't follow the anime either, so I wouldn't know, but I doubt it, as people generally call it a crack pairing. I agree with your point about Napolian complexes, but that's not totally it. They both have ice-type zanpakutou, they're short, and Hitsugaya is really similar to Ichigo, given the chance. He can be hot-headed but he's still caring, albeit in a roundabout way. To be honest, I hated it when I first heard about it, but after reading this amazing fic called Choices and Consequences by Abarai Starsha, it started to grow on me. Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm also saving the 'stopped the rain' for a later chapter.
Woo! All done… Now, on to the actual story….
"Don't stress,
That's dumb,
I'm here, and it's nice to be alive.
Chill out,
It's alright,
Kiss me, it's nice to be alive."
-Ball Park Music, "It's nice to be alive"
"Hey, Ichigo."
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember the first time we saw them all smiling together?"
"How could I not? It was one of the best days of my life."
Renji was over that day, playing with the twins. Kaien had stolen his head-cloth thing, and was doing god knows what with it. The newly-appointed captain was attempting to get it back, but Kagami was pulling on his hair, making it pretty much impossible. After a while, he gave up, plonking himself down on the ground, while Ichigo laughed at him being so hopeless. I'm not sure why we had all gotten together. I had only recently gotten out of hospital, so maybe that was it. Having twins was the hardest thing I've ever done, to be strictly honest. I would rather fight an Espada again than have to do that. The twins had also been a little unhealthy afterward, as was I, so we were there for a month or two.
I suppose it was the shinigami influence coming through. I'd never had to stay in a gigai for so long, and maybe it affected them. Either way, I felt so horrible for being a burden on Ichigo. He had to constantly reassure me that he accepted that I'd be a dead weight when we got married. I think I hit him after that. But, overall, having them was worth it. To see them playing like this just made my soul soar.
Nii-sama walked out of the kitchen, carrying a cup of tea. He hadn't appeared to have made any for anyone else, but that was okay. Normally I'd be annoyed, but I think he was a little frustrated that we didn't name Kaien after him instead.
There was a knock on the front door, and Uryu and Orihime walked in, the Quincy carrying Hana, their little girl who was only a few months older than the twins. Orihime came and sat on the floor next to me, and began to happily blabber about something, of which I paid no attention to.
It was a nice feeling watching everyone. No matter the hardships we had all suffered, the challenges we had all faced, here we were, all smiling together. Kagami was laughing hysterically as Renji tickled her, Kaien was rolling around with Hana, and Nii-sama was smiling quietly in the corner, thinking that no-one would notice it, I'm sure. I moved to sit on the couch, smiling myself. Ichigo came and sat next to me, planting a quick kiss on my lips as he did.
"You know what?"
"Mm?"
"It's nice to be alive."
I laughed quietly. How ironic he said that, considering how many times he had almost died. Then again, I couldn't count how many times he had saved my life. So in a way, I guess it was nice. Wasn't that what I had just been thinking?
TT_TT I really need to work on my endings…. Sorry it's short. As you probably worked out, Kaien and Kagami are Ichi and Rukia's twin boy and girl. I can image Rukia naming her little boy Kaien, and Kagami means 'mirror,' which suits a twin.
One more 'future' topic to go… It will be a bit longer than most of them. The only clue I'm going to give you is the song 'The Other Side' by Evanescence. There are some little hints in there ;D After that, I'm going to start doing some other pairings. The first will be a GinRan AU. For the people who don't want to read the other pairings, whenever I do one of them, I'll do a double update so you can skip them. I'm also going to do a request for whoever gets the 20th review, if I can get that far!
On the subject of Evanescence…. OMFG I went to their concert last night! So freaking amazing! Amy has such a great stage presence. I was literally one person from the very front :3
Please review!