Spoilers for chapter 195. As in heavy spoilers. You've been warned.
Anyway, I couldn't resist writing this when I just finished this chapter, my fangirlishness was just about to exploit. Thanks everyone for the lovely reviews! They make my day.
This probably will become an AU after chap 196. Oh, well.
Bittersweet
By: Nekare
Second Intentions
When Ichigo sees Rukia again, he stares at her for a moment, eyes wide as her gaze rests upon him, the quiet smile he always liked (a guilty pleasure) upon her lips. He stares at her, and a minute later he finally recovers the ability to move his numb limbs. Ichigo walks swiftly as he gets closer to her and hugs her.
Then there's laughter from her lips and brightness in her eyes, and he can at last let out the breath he's been holding since what it feels like forever. She hugs back for a moment before he realizes what he's doing and lets her go; concentrating on her tiny form instead of the catcalls Yumichika and Ikkaku are doing, because frankly, there's only so much embarrassment a guy can take.
Ichigo lifts a hand to his hair, messing it to mask both his annoyance (at the loud poor excuses of shinigami at his back) and his excitement (at having the girl who put his life backwards back).
"Hi." Extra points go to him for not stuttering, his usual confidence back after a week of silent self-pity. She smirks, and he smirks back to show her he hasn't changed that much, after all.
"I've missed you, you know? Even when you don't really deserve it." Rukia says it with a shrug, but he can see she means it. She had always been one for second meanings.
He knows better than to says what's on his mind, remembering just who is behind them. So he says 'I missed you too' in his own way. "Yeah, I know."
"Is the lovey-dovey exchange over then? Good, now we could try and go back to work." Ichigo turns to find Renji looking at him in an annoyed way, arms crossed against his chest. Brotherly jealousy, he can tell. Blackmail material, his mind says.
The moment passed, and Ichigo is so relieved that he teases Renji just for the fun of it, bantering over nothing for the whole day, through a shinigami reunion that really should be more serious than what it is; but fighting is safe ground, something he's used to, so he laughs at Yumichika's hairstyle, at Ikkaku's baldness and at Toushirou's (Captain Hitsugaya, the boy reminds him icily) shortness (Rukia's the only girl he teases, so he leaves Matsumoto alone); because he really can't help but feel all giddy inside at the thought of Rukia fighting besides him once again.
And when he opens his closet door that night to find her there as he'd expected (hoped), he yells at her, telling her that she can't possibly expect to find a shelter under his roof again, not when she doesn't have a reason anymore. She yells back, but he knows she understands what he truly means.
Because Rukia had always been one to understand second meanings too.