Author's Note: So uh, I know this chapter isn't that long but I wanted to update as soon as I can because I know people are waiting so long just for me to prove that this story's alive, so yeah.
I really, really wanted to prolong and add more scenes at first, but I know it would take like, weeks for me to actually continue from where I left off and I know you guys would prefer a faster update rather than a longer chapter. I've just been too busy lately. You know, with pandemic and college and all that jazz.
This story's like, my first IR multi chap story so I'll try to complete this although I'm not sure when it would be finished hahaha. Please be patient with me.
P.S PLEASE STOP sending reviews on other stories of mine with "update Tempest" because God I don't want to feel annoyed about it. I know how you guys feel, but that's disrespecting my other stories. Keep the review of Tempest in this story, feel free to drop more than one review if you want to as well! Writing this down here because not just one or two people have done that, I even got an inbox about it when I updated my other story once. I will continue this story but please don't rush me every time I update other writings.
Enjoy!
The whole supermarket was bustling with life. There were sounds of beeping from barcode sensors and the rotating wheels of trolleys while people walked around the shelves, checking for things they wanted or needed to buy. It was another normal, busy Friday.
Ichigo parked his car anywhere empty in the nearest parking lot area. He waited for his roommate to get off too before he turned off the engine, putting the key inside his pocket once she got out. They both walked towards the store and the sliding door opened automatically.
Rukia fumbled her jeans before taking out a piece of paper from her pocket, determination sparkled in her eyes as she read her list for her companion to hear. "Alright, Ichigo. First off, let's go to the jam sect- Oi!" Her words were cut off by Ichigo blatantly ignoring her and decided to storm off on his own, taking out one of a bunch of trolleys and walked ahead.
Rukia begrudgingly followed him, "What, did you already make a list on your own?" She grumbled in a tone full of innermost betrayal.
Ichigo snorted, "Look here, midget. I've been cooking each time my family came to visit. I know what to buy by heart."
"I thought you said you were coming here to accompany me for my groceries." Rukia countered, reciting his past words.
"I distinctly remembered that I said I needed to buy some stuff too so I'll just come along," Ichigo interjected, "and the only thing you're buying is probably waffles or bread since it's the only thing you can actually make."
Rukia gaped, "How rude! I can make other things too if I want," she defended confidently. "I'm just too busy to make them!"
Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Right, I'm sure you can make scrambled eggs if you put your mind to it. You even managed to overcook pasta until it was unbitable."
Then Rukia kicked him in the shin because he deserved it.
"Ow- what the hell, Rukia?!"
In which Rukia didn't counter with anything more than a huff, then walked ahead of him as if to prove her own point.
Ichigo growled but relented, following her anyway to the jam section. She looked so absorbed choosing between two different brands that the orange haired thought she might not realize he was right behind her. That thought dispersed, however, when she turned her head towards him.
She displayed two sets of different jams, "Ichigo, which one do you prefer – strawberry or chocolate flavored?"
"Strawberry." The man flatly replied.
Rukia gasped, "You cannibal!" She accused with a pointed finger in her fake, high-pitched voice.
"You know my name means 'the one who protects' so don't even get me started with that," Ichigo warned, annoyance palpably painted on his face.
Rukia snickered, "So sensitive," but she decided not to press further and walked ahead towards the bread shelves. Before she can raise her arm to get the thing she wanted, Ichigo had taken the liberty and extended his hand towards her usual brand. Rukia raised an eyebrow towards him, questioning his action.
Ichigo smirked, "The shelf was too high and you know it." He said it in-matter-of-factly.
Rukia would have declared him as a jerk if she had the chance to, yet Ichigo had already pushed the trolley towards the vegetable section.
The rest of their activities were self-explanatory. Rukia bought groceries for the rest of the week and Ichigo bought ingredients for his family's stopover. Honestly speaking, she was a bit antsy on their visit, considering Karin had met her and she did not explain anything when they went out with the girls.
At first, Rukia had not imagined making her existence known to the family at all. She already had a plan to hang out for the day in Momo's place, then maybe study in the library until Ichigo gave her the okay to go back. What she did not expect was the moment she told Ichigo to message her once his family head back, he only raised an eyebrow in confusion as if she was not comprehending the situation at all.
"What do you mean? You're also meeting them, obviously."
Rukia paused, "what?"
"Why do you think I told you about my family's condition when I brought you to the skating rink? My lousy dad heard about you from Rangiku and insisted he should meet you. I told you about it just in case you wondered why my mom didn't come as well."
Oh.
"Then your sisters-"
"Are coming as well," Ichigo interjected, "but don't worry, they will be too busy taking care of my dad to layout questions for you." He shrugged leisurely before went back to reading his book, laying his head on the sofa and not heeding Rukia's inner turmoil any attention.
Rukia sighed at the memory. The moment when she explained the whole situation and canceled her plans with Momo was not pretty. She suffered two earful hours regarding the fangirl's imagination and her so-called IchiRuki theories.
"Whatever my dad tells you, don't listen to any of them."
Rukia blinked, looking at her roommate to see the nervous stance he was in. That was rare. Both his hands were inside his pockets while he avoided her stare, obviously starting the topic in a very awkward manner.
She smirked, "Why, afraid I might expose your misbehavior? I'm sure your daddy would not mind a little mischief."
Ichigo spluttered, "God damn it, Rukia. That wasn't what I meant!" He growled in palpable aggression.
"Come off it," she rolled her eyes, "I've met one of your sisters and by far, I would say your family does not live up to your asshole behavior. Your father wouldn't coincidentally do anything worse than our first spite encounter now, wouldn't he?"
"No, not that," Ichigo cleared his throat, "my dad can be kind of… Eccentric. Anyway, whatever he's going to say, or ask, just ignore all of it."
Rukia was about to ask what he meant when the cashier totaled all their purchases, ending the conversation then and there. They spent the rest of the shopping as soon as they could because Rukia insisted it would be rude if they knocked and no one was inside the dorm. Ichigo has gotten used to Rukia and her habit on making sure she was earlier than the promised time, so he only followed along because it was quicker than outsmarting her when she was relentless.
He had gotten used to that certain habit of her, mostly.
It was the peak of his irritation, though, when Rukia was pacing back and forth in an uncomposed manner for the past twenty minutes they arrived inside the dorm. She was starting to get to him.
"You might want to tone down with the pacing. The anxiety is downright affecting my mood."
"Nobody told you to be so sensitive about everything," Rukia countered, but slowing down anyway, "you said they're going to arrive by ten, but now I'm positive being late is one of your family traditions."
"Or maybe my family doesn't control the traffic," Ichigo scoffed, "and why are you so nervous about it, anyway?"
Rukia huffed, "If you used that dumb brain of yours to memorize, Ichigo, you would remember that I met Karin when we had girl's day out and Karin knew I crashed your date with Inoue." She continued. "It's downright fishy I'm your dorm mate to top it off."
Ichigo didn't know what actually ticked her more, the fact rumors were going to escalate or that rumor was about her relationship with him.
He noticed that Rukia was utterly uncomfortable with rumors. The first time he distinctly recognized the clues was the time Rukia would start pointing out once their friends started asking questions about them. Then, she would start asking for more space between them if the fangirls were getting noisy. What confirmed his suspicions were, however, the time he caught Rukia frowning when confronted by the fangirls at his birthday party.
Her whole body was screaming uncomfortable, but the worst part was seeing Rukia unconsciously rubbing her palms as she contemplated a way to get out of the situation. The only times she usually did that were the moments thunder strike in their place and she was trying to calm herself down. It was unsettling that the confrontation actually indicated that particular habitual behavior of hers.
Rather than uncomfortable, that habit showed more signs that she was afraid.
That was why Ichigo couldn't stand by the sidelines. Seeing her in that position led Ichigo to finally dove into the conversation and broke them off before everything turned worse.
"Ichigo?"
His train of thought broke down when Rukia called out his name. Catching back on his tracks, he blinked before eyeing his roommate with a raised eyebrow, "What?"
"There are people knocking on the doors and I'm pretty sure it's your family," Rukia mused, "just thought it would be more appropriate if you actually welcome them yourself."
Ichigo paused before sighing. He scratched his hair before standing, "Fine," he gruffly said as he reluctantly headed towards the door.
Before opening the door, Ichigo turned around to his roommate, eyes wandering around before clearing his throat in attempt to make his voice clearer. "I'm saying this again for the last time, but be prepared. And don't answer anything my dad asks you." He emphasized and without giving a chance for Rukia to retort, he opened the door.
Rukia expected herself to politely greet the twins and Ichigo's father, but all of her expectations were thrown out of the window the second the door was opened – a tall figure was actually marching forwards as if attacking a robber. Ichigo, as if he already expected this kind of event, had himself hidden by the door so he didn't face the rowdy greeting; causing the figure to fell down flat on the floor with nothing to grasp on.
"ICHIIIIGOOO! What actually took you that long to open a simple door, huh?!"
"Maybe I wasn't excited to get my body smashed to the ground," Ichigo regarded before letting his sister to get inside too.
As expected, Karin was there. Next to her was an orange haired girl with a beaming smile as she looked at her.
Karin looked taken aback, "Rukia?" She frowned, "Why are you-?"
Rukia chuckled nervously, "I'm the roommate. Nice to meet you again, Karin."
"Oh, so your name is Rukia!" The orange haired girl beamed. "My name is Yuzu. I'm Karin-chan's fraternal twin sister," she introduced before pointing towards the newly arrived man, "the one who fell is our dad, Kurosaki Isshin. It's nice to meet you!"
The girl named Yuzu was very polite and seemed very different from the other family members. She seemed uncharacteristically cheerful and friendly, unlike the other two Kurosaki. However, she seemed used to fix all the needed courtesy others disregarded and complemented the family perfectly.
"Hello, Yuzu," Rukia smiled, "my name is Kuchiki Rukia. It is nice to meet you too."
"I heard his dormmate was a girl, but I didn't expect it was you," Karin commented. "No wonder Ichi-nii seemed close with you that time."
"Oh, that wasn't the valid reason," Rukia waved the accusation off, "he was weird that day."
"Hey, I heard that!" Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows. "I wasn't being weird."
"You were," Rukia rolled her eyes, "the one who should've suffered Momo's speech that day was you."
"OHH! Is this Ichigo's roommate?" Isshin recovered from his fall rather quickly as he stood up and eyed Rukia from head to toe. "You seem befitting to join our family! What do you think of joining us for lunch, third daughter?"
Rukia blinked. Did she really just heard him call her third daughter?
"Shut the hell up, old man!" Ichigo was very swift to attack, but Isshin was fast enough to evade his punch.
Ignoring the bickering as if it was something very common on their family, the twins decided to avert their attention wholly towards the newfound dormmate of their brother.
"I heard so much about you from Rangiku and she was right," something glinted in Yuzu's eyes, "you do seem close with my brother, and I see you've met Karin-chan as well!"
"Oh," Rukia's smile dropped, "I did meet Karin before, um," She hesitated, not wanting to explain it wrong and sound eerily suspicious for her first impression.
"I met her the day Rangiku forgot about our promised day," Karin decided to fill in casually, "I told you about it before, Yuzu."
"Oh, that day," Yuzu recalled with a finger placed on her chin, "wasn't that the day Hitsugaya-kun looked for you because you left your soccer ball at his place?"
Karin frowned, "That's–"
Rukia blinked, "By Hitsugaya, do you mean Hitsugaya Toshiro?" She interfered upon hearing the name.
Karin turned to her, "You know him?" She inquired; tone more surprised rather than suspicious.
"He's the one who won a full scholarship in genetics, right?" Rukia mentioned. "I met him since we aimed for the same Karakura University scholarship last year." Despite his young age, Hitsugaya Toshiro managed to skip high school and admitted early to college. "He was impressive."
By his prestigious educational background, he received many invitations from universities all across Japan. He could have gone to Tokyo University if he wanted to, considering he had received a personal invitation from the professor there – but he decided to apply to Karakura due to personal circumstance, apparently.
"Oh, if you're a good friend of Toshiro as well, you're practically family to us!" Yuzu exclaimed excitedly.
"Oh no, I'm not that close with him," Rukia defended before a misunderstanding ensued. "We just met and talked once in a while, but that's it. I didn't even know he knew Rangiku or Karin until now."
"We should definitely have dinner together, then." Yuzu invited. "Along with Toshiro-kun and Rangiku, maybe with Tatsuki-san as well!"
"You're missing out in life if you haven't tried out Yuzu's homecooked meals," Karin agreed. "her recipes are the absolute bomb."
Rukia laughed, "I definitely wouldn't refuse the offer then."
The three girls hit it off pretty quickly after that. Over lunch, Rukia learned from their conversations that Karin was close friends with Toshiro ever since back in high school, hence the reason they knew Rangiku as well. Rukia noticed the faint blush on Karin's face when she asked about the reason Toshiro rejected going to Tokyo, but she decided not to question it.
"His grandmother was sickly and there was no one to take care of her," Yuzu filled in. "Well, that was the main reason – he considered other things as well and decided Karakura was the best choice to study in."
After that, the twins asked Rukia if they were able to tour the University building with her. Apparently, Ichigo refused to guide them to see his building.
"I'd love to, but I'm not that familiar with the medical building myself," Rukia apologetically answered. "I'm from law major, you see,"
"Oh, I'd love to see yours too, Rukia-chan!" Yuzu beamed. "Maybe you can show us around your building then."
"We're planning to study in Karakura University as well," Karin sheepishly smiled, "but we won't force you if you don't want to show us around."
"No, I'd be glad to help you both," Rukia said.
"I smell a 'but' coming."
Well, how was Rukia supposed to explain that she didn't want Ichigo to think she was trying to gain his sisters' attention?
She looked at her dormmate in an attempt to ask for his permission, which resulted in him giving her a shrug, "I would come along but I'd be too busy handling this old man, so you can just show them around."
Okay, so that wasn't a no.
Rukia took a deep breath, "Well girls," she grinned, "seems like we're going to have fun on our own."
Author's Note: Sooo, reviews would be appreciated :D