So, although IchiRuki is my otp and forever will be, it's been a while I haven't actually read anything about them and there's the fact I have never written anything related to mah pretty babies. So this one is for Tumblr prompt - winter. Actually, it turned out a little bigger than I expected, but well, I hope you all like it! :)
Ah, a quick reminder that English is not my first language, so forgive me for my mistakes.
The cold had never been a problem to Kuchiki Rukia, which meant that the winter would never freeze her. After all, she's cold and snow herself. But the loneliness and the melancholy of that particular season had always affected her.
And there was something about the winter of those 17 months she spent locked in Sereitei and away from Karakura Town that had left her frozen inside. And even after all was said and done, when Ywach was gone and he and the others had gone back to his mundane life, she still felt kind of cold.
It has been a year she hasn't seen him. And it was really fucking cold.
Rukia doesn't know actually why she had not followed him through the Senkaimon to his world and why she still prevents herself from going to visit him and his family. Karin and Yuzu must be bigger now and way smarter than their thickheaded brother. Their father probably is still the same and she hoped he was, Rukia has always been very fond of him.
He probably was in his first year of college and she is happy for him. Rukia just wanted to tell him herself.
And when the snow is falling and the winds of winter are freezing her bones, she longed to talk to him. She really wanted to hear his voice, he's her best friend, for fuck's sake! Her partner in crime, her ride or die, the one who could actually make this cold go away.
Rukia knows she had decided to stay, it was not his fault. She decided to stay because her life was actually there, in Seireitei and he deserved a normal life — that's what Rukia has always believed and he knows that. So she stayed behind and started to train harder than before so she could become the next Captain of the 13th Division. In all honesty, she did want to continue the legacy of Ukitake and Kaien, Rukia wanted to guide those people under her command.
But she also wanted to be with him.
Why the hell didn't she follow him? Why the hell didn't he ask her to go with him? Why the goddamn fuck did she tell him he should go, so he could still have the life he should have, and that she should stay?
Those 17 months were one of the hardest, with summer or winter.
She heard from Renji that Inoue finally got to go out on a date with him and that did not sit well with Rukia. It left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she was somewhat happy for her friend.
But did he enjoy it? How did he feel? What was he thinking? She really wanted to know, like the old times. Maybe he wouldn't tell her, but Rukia knew that just a look into his eyes would tell her everything. That's how they are. And she's pretty sure that if he walked through the doors of the Kuchiki mansion (in this goddamn cold) right now, she would still know him. Like, really know him.
Rukia had no words for the hell they were — just friends, best friends? Lovers? Something that transcends the ordinary idea of lovers? Soulmates?
She did not care. She just wanted to see him, give him a quick hug and then kick him, hear his voice, tell him that it doesn't matter who he was hooking up with, she'd always be by his side because Rukia had lived a long and lonely life after death and he was the one who changed everything.
The only thing she was sure it was that there have always had some unmistakable glint in her eyes when she looked at him and Rukia is a closed person, but he would forever break through her walls, baring her soul.
It was fucking cold, the winter was unforgiving this year and she missed him.
To hell this idiocy of mine, stop being a goddamn coward, Rukia.
"Byakuya-ni-sama, I'll be off for two or three days, but don't need to worry about me", Rukia walks into her brother's office and says, absentminded while reading some reports. She has made her decision, but Kuchiki Rukia does not neglect work.
"I don't that will be necessary, Rukia", comes the deep voice of her brother.
"What— why—"
And she stops midsentence and dead on her tracks. Her eyes widen and her heart actually skips a lot of beats.
"Ichigo."
"Yo, midget", he smirks and suddenly, Rukia could not hear the wild winds of winter.
"Well, as I'm sure I'm not needed here, I'll let you both talk in private", Byakuya says with his usual stern demeanor.
Rukia is speechless (and for the record, she is never speechless) and barely pays attention to her brother's departure. He's here. Why are you here?
"Because I was a dumbass a year ago", he mumbles with his everyday frown. She had missed that too. But the fact he basically had read her mind didn't go unnoticed by her. "I shoulda stayed with you."
She blinks and swallows hard. Rukia wanted to hear that so badly a year go. Heck, she still wanted to hear that, but her instinct to protect him always kicks in and always will if they ever meet again in another life. "No, you shouldn't have. Ywach's words were not meant to be taken lightly, you moron."
Is it weird that she missed calling him a moron?
"You're unbelievable. I don't see your sorry ass in a whole fucking year and the first thing you call me is moron?", he was fuming and she sneered.
"Haa… did you expect me to jump right to your skinny arms?", she raised an eyebrow, mocking him all the while.
"Hey! My arms are not skinny anymore!", he poked her head really hard.
And then Rukia kicked him. Just like she wanted. But Ichigo was Ichigo and he didn't even let her savor the moment, their moments of the good old days — he grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer. It was so easy for him to tower over her, especially when he catches her off guard, both things never ceased to make her feel somewhat fragile and protected at the same time. It made no sense in her head.
Then he muttered, "I was a dumbass. I really was."
And she responded in the same tone, "Me too."
Rukia knew she already had the distinct spark in her eyes that only Ichigo was able to spurt out of her. It has been a year and he still does the same thing to her, he's still completely effective against her — the smirk, the softness in his eyes, his unquestionable handsome features.
Those 17 months were the worst of my life, I'm sure of it. The worst winter, I was cold all the time.
But Rukia is stupid sometimes and always so so worried about him and she suspects she forever will. So she blurts, "Inoue is better for you."
Hurt dances in his eyes and a twist of his mouth scream to her how disappointed he was. But Ichigo never backs down, no, not Ichigo. Just a look into his eyes and expression and Rukia knows why he was there. After all, she had said before and will say it again — they know each other so well that it seems almost some kind of witchcraft someone cast on them in another life.
He pulls her closer, really close, and one hand is around her waist and she's trapped, almost giving in—
"I don't want to be with Inoue", his tone is final, certain.
Then Rukia whispers with a trembling voice as if she doesn't believe a word that was flying out of her mouth, "Inoue can give you so much more."
"I don't want whatever she can give me."
Ichigo leans in her brother's desk behind him and they were almost on the same height. He was too tall and she was too short, so she rarely had the chance to be that close to his face to the point of drowning in his brown eyes, see clearly how he had marks from frowning so much and his well-shaped mouth.
He looked frantically at her, orbs moving fast, piercing her own big eyes, expecting some reaction from her.
I don't want to be cold anymore. I wanna go home.
"That'd never work. I'm literally a ghost, stupid boy. And you have an entire life ahead of you. Why waste your life with someone who's already dead?", she starts stumbling over her words and her expression was pleading for him to understand, it almost pitiful, full of the longing of a whole freaking year. "Besides, what about Yhwach? I know I'm assuming you'd be happy with this predicament, but—"
Now he was truly close, looking at her lips, seeming to not listen to a word that was leaving her mouth; deciding, in the end, to swallow her pleas and doubts, "Then I'll fight him again and again and again."
Ichigo mumbled in her mouth and then she comes undone when he rests his hand in the back of her neck, his lips meeting hers. They had never kissed before, but somethings stirs inside her, some old memory and then she's not frozen anymore. Any argument she had, dies in her throat, dies with her gasp and with her eyes closing ever so slowly, dies with Ichigo flushing her body to his, locking and embracing her, with the intensity of a year apart.
She finds usage for her hands, resting one on his back — feeling the muscles, the spine, everything — and the other gripping his shirt with all the longing she had inside her. Then she had no idea how, didn't even see it coming, but his tongue found hers and he tilts her head slightly, kissing with all the fierceness he possessed and Rukia caught her breath. With every nip of her lip and any tease of his tongue, he's asking her to choose him.
Asking her to stay with him.
Like she had any control when it comes to Ichigo. So her answer overflows with every bite on his lips, with her hands running up and down his back, with the soft moan she let it slip.
They part an eternity later so Ichigo could rest his forehead on hers, both panting for breath and she had never felt warmer in her life — no cold and lonely winter is able to break her now. He whispers again, his mouth brushing against hers, "You don't want it to work, Rukia?"
She closes her eyes and mutters, "I don't want you to die, Ichigo. Everything I did from the moment we met was to make sure you wouldn't die."
"Please, Rukia", a kiss, "It was really hard—", another kiss, "to keep up with the speed of the world on those 17 months", a tug on her lips, "Don't do that to me again."
"Ichigo—", she whimpers.
"Let me stay. Please, midget."
Another kiss.
"Are you trying to convince me by kissing me?", she scoffed.
He decided to leave her lips and trail her jawline with slow-dive kisses, then basically purred in her ear, "I don't know, is it working?"
She could feel his smirk. Bastard.
Rukia rested her head on his temple and whispered with the affection she normally keeps to herself, "I want you to stay."
He stops kissing her and holds her tight in his arms, resting his head on her shoulder. "I missed you, you know? It was raining too much already", he says in a strange strained voice.
She answers with one of her own, but with sincerity, "Me too. The winter was almost unbearable, Ichigo."
He moves away just enough to look at her and then has the audacity to grin at her face after so many confessions, "So… is that an order, Captain Kuchiki?"
"I'm still not a Captain, Ichigo!"
"But you will be, so might as well start training", he shot her his lopsided smile that always lets her wondering how someone was not able to fall for it. She did, but no way in hell she would tell him.
She puts her hand in her chin and actually considers his suggestion, Ichigo just laughed. "Mmm, from that point of view, I guess you're right", then she arches an eyebrow and says in a mocking tone, "That's a first, huh."
Ichigo presses his lips in a thin line and she was almost sure there is a vein pulsing in his forehead, "Oe, you damn shorty—"
Before he finally snaps, she dives in and steals another breathtaking kiss and decides that she loved to hear him gasp. In the end, he had convinced her and she knew danger would always be lurking around, hunting them, trying to tear them apart, to sever their red thread, but Ichigo said he'd fight over and over again. So she'd do the same, over and over again.
"Just shut up and stay, Kurosaki."
Winter will never freeze her again.