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DEATH, STRAWBERRY, AND HAPPILY EVER AFTER
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***
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Kurosaki Yuzu
I'm the innocent one, but I knew a lot of secrets.
I was the quiet, innocent sister. People assumed I didn't know a lot of things, but I was aware of certain things that others were not aware of. Things I would never admit to knowing. One – I swore my teddy bear was alive. No one would believe me though, and I had no reason to tell anyone about that. They would take her away and subject my stuffed animal to crazy scientific tests. I wasn't going to let that happen.
Growing up, I also knew that Rukia dreamt about my brother. The nature of those dreams, I wasn't quite sure of. But sometimes I would wake up in the night and hear Rukia muttering Ichi-nii's name. Sometimes it wouldn't be incoherent mutters, but… a moan, or a dragged breath. Some other words attached included, "Stop." Or, "Baka." One time I thought I heard, "Go home." That one confused me; Rukia lived with us after all.
Another secret I had was that the marriage wasn't planned either. I had heard Rukia and Ichigo fighting about that.
Apparently, he was planning to spend the rest of his life with her (which I will admit, had me so excited! I liked Rukia-chan very much, so why not have her stay forever?), but she didn't believe him (and why, I wondered? My brother was almost always honest! And he wouldn't joke around about married stuff! He never joked around with girls – it was kind of his…'thing' as daddy put it). He told her that – as in him not being honest - was 'bullshit' (ahem, excuse my brother for such language-) and she was making excuses. Long story short, my brother got what he wanted. He always does; he is the kind of guy who gets what he wants because he's stubborn and never gives up.
Rukia's pregnancy shortly after the honeymoon wasn't planned either. No one but my father, Ichi-nii, and I, saw how terrible it was; the 'morning' sickness seemed to carry on through the entirety of the day; she couldn't keep any food down. And it was weird that this sickness started three months after they found out she was pregnant. Rukia had made some joke about this being worse than death, but Ichi-nii was worried she was going to lose the baby. He was worried about a lot of things. So worried that one day he had to pick her up from the bathroom floor and stick an I.V. into her.
"Stop that, I'm okay," she said, trying to swat his hand away.
My brother glared back. "Just let me take care of you!" He grabbed her dainty wrist and showed her how thin she had become. "You're supposed to gain weight, not lose."
She frowned at him, but didn't fight back as she usually did. And that's when he really knew she had grown that weak.
The following night my brother revealed to me: "I wonder if I ruined her life." He was vulnerable and alone in the kitchen, looking years older than his actual age when the shadows hit his face. He pressed the cup of coffee to his lips and sipped.
I felt like my heart was crying, weeping. My eyes watered. I don't like seeing my brother in any type of pain, and especially that type. Terrified pain. "What do you mean?" I took a seat beside him and listened. I was always good at listening, even though I couldn't fix the problem.
"I don't want anything to happen to her. And you see how sick she is. She's tough, I know she's tough, but… I'm human and…"
I had to cut my brother off. "She's still happy, Ichi-nii. Even though she's bed-stricken, she was going through those magazines and picking out cribs and clothes and all of that baby stuff. She's excited. She's super excited. I'm excited!" I felt my face smile ear to ear, thinking back on the few days. "We were talking about names too, for boys and for girls." And then I stopped. "She's happy Ichi-nii. It will be okay, you'll see."
I really knew that she was still happy, despite the physical complications, whatever it was. A bit of 'worse-than-death' sickness* wouldn't rob her of that happiness. I was assured. So, I gave him the warmest, softest smile that I could muster and in return, he smiled back. I guess my brother saw what I was seeing, or at least a glimpse enough to ease his worries. "I'm still working on different foods that will agree with her stomach. So far she can eat strawberry ice cream without throwing it up."
His smile morphed to a grin, and I think it was the strawberry part that had him. Finally Ichi-nii said, "You're right, everything will be okay." And ever since then, that was his attitude. He had her, Rukia-chan, and everything from then on will be just fine.
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* My mom was ultra sick, aka 'worse than death sick' when she was pregnant with me. We don't know why I was such a problem (and I was still a big problem in the first year of my life), we can kind of assume there are complications of a shinigami mating with a human. Ha ha