Hi again! This is my second update in 2 days, so if you haven't read the first one, go back a chapter!
I am so excited for the next chapter. I think I've given enough hints about what has happened for everyone to figure it out, but the next chapter, it'll all be laid out! I expect the next chapter will be the longest yet!
However, this chapter is angsty. Ichigo gets seriously pissed off. It's so much fun to write an angry Ichigo!
So please enjoy, and some reviews would be lovely!
I love you all!
"Uryuu, I really think you should."
"But Orihime, I wouldn't know –"
"Uryuu, Ichigo was and still is, our friend. He probably needs some down time with his male friends. Maybe, you can find out why he left, and help him." Orihime smiled as her dark haired son wrapped himself around her legs.
"Mummy, Ayame won't give me my toy!"
"Now, now, Tsubaki, you've got to share."
"But Muuuuuummmm!"
"Tsubaki, do as your mother says. It Ayame's turn now, it'll be your turn next."
"Yes, Daddy." The pair could hear their daughter giggle as their son ran to play with her.
Uryuu sighed. "I know. But no-one knows why those two argued. It was always almost as if they lived in their own little bubble. And it wasn't like Ichigo to just simply… up and leave. Not like that. It must have been some argument, if he could stay away for all those years. I guess we all figured that it was that argument they had that night, but that voicemail… he deliberately skimmed over her name. And then Rukia just kinda –"
"Closed up. I know. No-one could help her. After all, her best friend just upped and left, telling no-one, and leaving nothing behind. She just turned into… she was… it was like she had no soul, and simply a zombie. But she was still here, surrounded by us. Ichigo had no-one."
"By choice, Orihime. He left. He left us all, by choice."
"Something must've have been very very wrong for him to just leave without coming to any of us."
Uryuu sighed. His wife was right. "I'll call the guys."
Uryuu called the guys and arranged to meet them at Chad's apartment. It was a one bedroom place, but smaller and cosier than Ichigo's, and far more homely.
"So, why did you call us here, four eyes?"
"Oh, shut it, Renji. Why do you think I called you here?"
"Ichigo, I guess?" Chad asked.
Uryuu nodded. "Yeah. Since he's been back, things have changed. But what I want to know is why he came back and why he left."
Renji sighed. "I can't pretend to know the answer to those, but Byakuya's making them get married." Renji facepalmed. "Shit. I said I wouldn't tell anyone."
"Married?!" Uryuu was stunned. Even Chad's jaw fell open in shock.
"Ah. Ichigo dumped this girl on me, but she's really weird. So I was going to take her back to Ichigo's place, but Rukia was there. She got all possessive as shit, telling me to keep Nel – that's the weird girl – away from 'her strawberry'." Renji used his fingers as quotation marks. "Ichigo didn't seem to mind. Instead, he hugged her."
It was Uryuu's turn to facepalm this time. "Married? Really?" He sighed and took a swig of the tea Chad had made for him. "Is that what all this was about?"
"This is what we know." Chad spoke up. "Ichigo and Rukia were never apart. Then they have some kind of ballistic argument to the point Ichigo just leaves, leaving Rukia distraught and it obviously affected Ichigo because in the voice mail he left us, he refused to say her name. Ichigo comes back after seven years, and Rukia is wearing Masaki's ring."
Renji interrupted. "I told you I would know that ring anywhere. I remember Masaki saying that when Ichigo was old enough, that ring would be his to give to the girl he loved more than anything… whoa, what the fuck?!"
Chad continued. "We know that Ichigo left straight from Rukia's house, because Isshin and the girls said he never went back to theirs afterwards. But back to the ring. Rukia had the ring that Ichigo was supposed to give to the girl he loved?"
"It would make sense for Rukia to have the ring, I suppose. But back, then, I never thought they were more than friends. Even if they did hold hands all the time. If they weren't holding hands, Rukia would find Ichigo and grab his hand, but they never did anything more than that."
"Okay, so what we can gather is that Ichigo gave Rukia the ring meant for the girl he loved. Did he propose?"
"That's normally what you'd do with that kind of ring, but I never heard anything about it."
"Okay, so maybe, he just proposed to her that night, seeing as they'd been close, maybe he'd figured they should just get married but she said no, and he couldn't take it and just left?"
"Or that's not even close. Che. You guys are worse than the girls for gossip. And if you're going to gossip about me, don't do it when you've invited me round and leave the window open." Ichigo's voice was incredulous.
"Ichigo!"
"Ichigo, I apologise, please come in, old friend."
"Thanks Chad."
Chad made his newest guest some tea and they all returned to the living area. Ichigo chuckled. He actually found it quite amusing how much his friends wanted to know about what happened. Sure they were getting there, but it was still so far off it was unreal. "Rukia really didn't say anything, after I left, huh?"
Uryuu straightened his glasses. "No. The most we could get out of her was that you'd 'had a stupid fight, like always'."
"Psh, like always. Of course, it was like always." Ichigo mumbled under his breath.
"What was the fight about?"
Ichigo shook his head. "It's funny, because it doesn't even matter now. We were kids and neither of us were mature enough to handle what it was all about." Ichigo shrugged.
"Damn it, Ichigo. You're just as evasive as she's always been about the topic! We. Are. Your. Friends. Why can't you tell us?"
Ichigo took a sip of tea. Renji would've got him all riled up back in his younger days talking like that, but now, Ichigo just felt old. He could ignore Renji.
"What do you know?"
"Just what I said. That you'd fought. Rukia said nothing more on the matter."
"Actually, she did say you'd told her you'd leave, but that she thought you meant, leave her house and go back home. Not 'I'm going to skip town and not tell anyone'."
Ichigo nodded. He appeared so calm that his friends were beginning to worry. But eventually, he told them his side. "Rukia, I can't believe, even then… no, it doesn't matter. Rukia knew I was leaving. My words left no room for any other interpretation. I said that night that I would leave this town. She replied with 'You should go' and I did. Then she had the gall to make a big fucking deal of it? Stupid midget." Ichigo was silently fuming. He figured Rukia would've at least told them that much. Damn Rukia and her fucking pride. Damn her and her desperation to hide us. Clearly, I was an embarrassment to her. Well, joke's on her, they're marrying her to me anyway.
The other three men in the room were shocked. Considering how you never saw one without the other, for one to say they were leaving and the other to tell them that they should go, it seemed so out of character for them.
"Ichigo." It was Chad who spoke. "You telling Rukia you're going to leave town and her telling you that you should, doesn't sound like an argument."
Ichigo couldn't help the sarcasm, even though he knew Chad meant nothing by his statement. "No shit, Sherlock." He sighed and apologised. "Look, I knew midget bitch for 2 years. Two years and she fucking took my life and turned it upside-fucking-down. Mum had died less than a year before she came to our school, as you damn well better remember. Now. Because you are all so fucking persistent, I am going to tell you the whole god damn story. You will all sit and listen with no interruptions. I will not repeat myself. You will tell no-one of the things you hear about why I left, and why I returned. There are events in this story that you will not repeat to anyone. I should not be fucking telling you about them, but if I don't, the story just will not make any sense. So shut up and listen, because after you hear this, I am going to find that lying midget and tear her a new one. I'm not waiting around for your bloody questions. They can wait. I am this fucking close to not even fucking marrying her. Fuck Byakuya and what I owe him. It isn't enough to put up with a midget for life who scares you all fucking stupid. If she had just told you all that she knew I was leaving, you guys might have just left me the fuck alone."
Chad, Renji and Uryuu gaped as they could not find the words to argue back, so they sat back and waited.