AUTHOR'S NOTES: I am back!

You Are My Love

by: Kuchiki Yazumi 09

_Chapter Three: Savior 2x!_

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That night, Isshin decided to have a party for Rukia's new official membership in his Coffee Shop. They were very happy except a certain orange-haired guy. He soon, tired of the party he was watching, left the scene and Rukia saw him. She followed him inside his house, in their living room and saw him sitting on their couch. She decided to approach him. She sat next to him and didn't say anything.

But Ichigo looked at her differently. "What do you want?" he asked, obviously annoyed that this girl sat next to him.

"Nothing." Rukia replied. She looked at him seriously and kindly. "Why did you left? Maybe, you're not happy that I passed your training huh?" she asked.

Ichigo scoffed. "It's good that you know. I guess you're laughing at me now deep inside of you that you defeated me." He said with a mocking tone.

"No I'm not. That's not true." Rukia paused; choosing the right words to say to made him feel at ease. "And don't think that you've been defeated because there's no battle that happened between us in the first place." She explained firmly.

Ichigo was startled by her words. Her voice was very gentle.

"I just want you to forget what I said about you. I'm sorry about that. I want to be friends with you. I think you're kind enough for that." she said as she stood up; walking out of the living room without another word.

Ichigo followed her with his eyes as she disappeared at the door back to the Coffee shop.

She wants to be friends with me? She's weird. He thought.

After the party, Rukia was on her way home and Isshin asked Ichigo to walk Rukia up to the Bus Station again but he rode on his motorcycle and stormed off. Isshin sighed at Ichigo's stubbornness and apologized to Rukia about it. Rukia just smiled and decided to get going.

"Rukia, please take care." Rangiku said.

Rukia smiled. "I will."

Ichigo remembered Rukia's words from earlier. And he realized something. His eyes widened and he immediately turned around his motorcycle to go back.

Rukia was walking in a dark alleyway. It was the only way to the Bus Station. She walked faster when some suspicious guys looked at her. She noticed that the guys followed her until one of them stepped in front of her.

"Hi there miss. You're very beautiful." A guy with brown hair and black eyes said as he looked at Rukia with a sinister grin.

Rukia's face hardened.

"Would you like to go with us?" Another said as he grabbed Rukia's wrist.

"Hey! Get away from me!" Rukia yelled as she punched the guy in his stomach.

"Ow!" The said guy said as he winced. "You're kinda brave huh? Let's see if your courage can help you with this." he said as he revealed a knife from his pocket and cut Rukia's right arm.

A stream of blood rushed out of her right arm, flowing faster than expected. Rukia clutched her injured arm close to her.

"Y-you monsters…" she managed to say.

"You're comin' with us whether you like it or not!" The first guy yelled at her. He was ready to slap Rukia when a rough hand held him up tightly.

"You cowards… I am the one you need to deal with!" Rukia's savior yelled.

"Who are you?" One of the guys asked.

"I'm her friend!" the savior yelled again as he punched the one he was speaking to, the one he was holding the arm with.

The man stepped back and the two teens were cornered by them. There were seven of them. Too many. And they were cornered.

"I-Ichigo…" Rukia managed to say. She was standing behind him. Well, Ichigo placed himself in front of her to say the least.

"Are you alright?" he asked, not looking at her.

"Yeah, I am." She said, hiding her injured arm.

"Sagatteru." Ichigo said calmly.

She was still hiding her arm but Ichigo caught sight of it.

"Be careful, Ichigo." Rukia whispered.

Meanwhile, Ichigo fought the men with ease. These kinds of situations were common for him since he was always being bullied by students in his past school because of his different color of hair, so there was no problem.

He was able to fend them off. With no injuries, bruises, or gashes at all, Ichigo made his way to Rukia.

"Hey, you alright?" he asked.

Rukia was breathing heavily because there was a lot of blood coming out of her arm. She was losing her strength too. But, she didn't want to admit it to Ichigo so she nodded.

"I'm fine, thank you for saving me."

Ichigo then remembered her injured arm.

"Let me see it." he said.

"What?" Rukia turned to him confused.

"I said let me see it. Your arm." He said, more firmly this time.

"Why?" Rukia asked again.

Ichigo looked at her annoyingly. "Arrgghh! Don't be stubborn midget! Just let me take a look at it!" he said as he grabbed her hidden right arm.

He saw that the blood continuously rushed out of her arm.

"Are you crazy? You will lose a lot of blood! What do you think you were doing?" he yelled at her.

Rukia didn't answer. She didn't even retort about what he had just called her. He looked at her. He sighed. He pulled off a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped up Rukia's injury. Rukia was shocked at his sudden action. She looked at Ichigo while he was doing what he was doing.

Ichigo… he's really kind… indeed…

When it was done, Ichigo looked at her.

"It's dangerous at night in here. Would you like me to accompany you home with my motorcycle?" he offered.

Huh? Is he serious?

Rukia didn't know how to answer.

Ichigo sighed. "Don't be so picky now. Come on." He said as he dragged Rukia's left arm towards his motorcycle.

Rukia sighed as she let him dragged her.

Upon arriving at the Kuchiki Household, Rukia get off Ichigo's motorcycle. Ichigo brought up the engine again and readied to leave when he felt Rukia's hand touched his wrist. He turned to look at her.

"What?" he asked.

"Thanks." Rukia said as she smiled.

Ichigo's face felt warm and looked red for a moment. Thank goodness it was dark already. She couldn't see that blush.

"Don't mention it. I need to go home now." he said.

"Okay. Be careful. See you tomorrow." Rukia replied, her smile still present.

"I will." He said as he stormed off.

"He's good." She whispered as she decided to go inside the house.

"Sis! What's with your arm?" Momo asked in worry as she walked closer towards her sister.

"Um… well…"

[Blah… Blah… Blah…]

"EH?" Momo reacted.

"Shh! You're gonna wake Mom up!" Rukia said as she tried to shut her sister up. "If she heard about this, she will be worried."

"Of course she will." Momo sighed. "Good thing, he arrived to save you." She said with a wide smile.

Rukia returned the smile of her own. "Yeah."

"Oh sis. How was the last day training?" the young Kuchiki asked.

"Well… I am now an official member of the Coffee Shop!" Rukia said happily.

"Really? That's great! Congratulations! You're really wonderful nee-chan!"

"Thanks Momo. Tomorrow is my first day for work. So, I need you to focus on your studies. Okay?"

"Hai! I promise I'll do my best!" she replied cheerfully.

Rukia giggled. "Good."

Next morning, Rukia left for work earlier because she knew that Ichigo, Rangiku and Toushirou would be in school and they will be arriving home at 2 PM. But, she wasn't able to catch up to them because they left much earlier.

She saw Isshin sitting on one of the stool at the counter. He looked up to her and greeted her with a smile.

"Good morning Rukia-chan."

"Good morning, Isshin-san." Rukia said with a bow. She straightened up and noticed Isshin's well-groomed attire. And it's obvious that he was waiting for her.

"Um… sir, are you going somewhere?" she asked.

"Yes, I am waiting for you. Will you open up the Coffee Shop for me at 8AM? I need to go somewhere again today. It's about work." He explained.

"Sure sir. Leave it to me." She answered.

"Okay, I'll take my leave now then." He said, as he walked towards the door. "Ganbatte ne."

"Thank you sir. I will." She replied.

Rukia sat on the stool and waited for the right time to open the Coffee shop.

As the clock struck at 8AM, Rukia opened up the shop and waited for customers. After a few moments, two people walked up to the counter.

"Good morning, ma'am, sir, May I take your orders?" Rukia asked politely at the customers.

"Two Coffee please." The older man replied. By his appearance, Rukia have guessed that this man was in his early 40s. He was with a little cute girl with ponytailed yellow hair. She looks like 13 years of age.

"I want coffee with sugar daddy!" the girl said as she giggled.

Her father smiled at her and smiled at Rukia also. "Miss, please add sugar in each." He said.

"Right away sir." Rukia replied. She started to make the Coffee and gave it to the waiting customers.

She looked at them carefully while they were drinking her own made Coffee. She saw them smiled at each other.

It looks like they love the coffee. Thank goodness. She thought in relief.

"Miss, excuse me. What's your name?" the man later asked her.

"I'm Kuchiki Rukia sir." She replied.

"Rukia, you're really good at this. It's delicious. I'm coming back here just to drink your coffee." The man complimented, smiling at her.

Rukia blushed. "T-thank you sir."

"That's right nee-chan! My name's Kumiko. Nice to meet you!" the energetic young girl said as she grinned widely at Rukia.

Rukia smiled. "Thank you and nice to meet you too, Kumiko-chan."

And the father and daughter left Rukia with a smile on her face and happiness in her heart.

"Dad? What's wrong?" Ichigo asked over the phone. His dad called him in school and luckily, it was still lunch time. They were in the rooftop, eating their lunch.

"I need to remind you about something." Isshin said.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked again.

"When you reached home, asked Rukia-chan to come with you to buy new stuff for the Coffee Shop. Our ingredients were running off so we need replacements." His father explained.

"Eh? Why did Rukia need to come with me?"

"Rukia needs to so she can choose what to buy herself. It's her own coffee after all. Don't be stubborn Ichigo."

"But Dad, I…"

"I need to go now Ichigo. See you later. Bye." And he hung up.

"Dad, Wait!"

Ichigo sighed and flipped down his phone.

"What is it?" Rangiku asked from across him.

"Dad asked me to ask Rukia to come with me for shopping later after school."

"Hmm… why it seems to me that you didn't like the idea?"

"Because I didn't."

"Ichigo, why do you hate Rukia so much?" Rangiku asked seriously.

"I don't hate her. It's just that…" he sighed. "I don't know. Maybe, it's what they called the first impression. We started in a bad way you know."

Rangiku understand what he was talking about.

"Ichigo, you need to understand Rukia too. She is a good person. It seems to you that she is strong but, she's a lot of fragile too, in the inside. She's been through a lot." she whispered the last sentence, but Ichigo heard her.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked curiously.

Rangiku sighed. "It's nothing." She looked up at him. "Just try to get to know her. You'll see." She said as the bell rang.

"It's time for class. Come on." She said.

Ichigo sighed for the second [A/C: or third?] time of the day.

Rangiku and Ichigo arrived at the Coffee Shop without Toushirou because he walked Momo home again. He always did that. It seemed that they were more than friends. They just didn't know that they were acting like that.

Well, anyways, the two cousins saw Rukia on the stool in the counter reading while there were no customers yet.

"Welcome home, Ran. Ichigo." Rukia greeted them.

"Hi Rukia!" Rangiku replied cheerfully. "Rukia, Ichigo and you have a date!" Ran spoke up again.

Ichigo's head perked up while Rukia was shocked.

"Eh?" she managed to say.

Rangiku laughed. Ichigo moved closer to the two ladies and gave Ran a not-so-rough push behind her back.

"Ichigo! That hurts!" Rangiku pouted.

"Ran, don't say unimaginable things."

"But Uncle asked you to…"

"What? Isshin-san said that?" Rukia asked in disbelief.

"Don't listen to her. Dad just asked me if you can come with me for shopping. You need to come so you can choose the ingredients you like since you're the one who's making the coffee." Ichigo explained calmly.

Rukia nodded. "Okay. When will we go?"

"Now, so hurry up and come on."

"What? Oh, okay." She just said as Ichigo walked ahead of her. She followed him but not before Rangiku hold her back for a sec.

"Rukia, take care." She smiled.

"Okay Ran. I will." Rukia smiled back at her.

Rangiku looked at them as they sped off using Ichigo's motorcycle with Rukia behind him.

She sighed. I hope those two be friends soon.

On their way, Ichigo and Rukia didn't say much to each other. Ichigo continued to drive while Rukia was behind him, holding on at the rail behind her. Suddenly, there was a truck sped in front of them and Ichigo turned left at the corner rapidly, causing Rukia to wrap her arms around his waist. Ichigo tensed at the sudden touch.

Rukia then realized what had happened and immediately removed her arms from Ichigo's waist and said, "S-sorry about that."

Ichigo didn't say anything.

Soon, they finally arrived at the market. There were so many people. Ichigo looked at his wrist watch.

We're running out of time. It's already four. We need to finish here by 6pm. It's that stupid teacher's fault. He thought.

He turned to Rukia who had just removed her helmet.

"Hey, you." He called out.

Rukia felt a vein popped out of her forehead. "My name's not 'hey'!" she yelled at him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever midget."

"Don't call me 'midget'!"

"Just shut up! Anyways, we need to split up. Let's just meet up here at 5:30." He said.

Rukia crossed her arms against her chest.

Ichigo sighed. "Here's your budget." He said as he handed her money. Rukia reached for it and Ichigo left when she got it.

"What's with that guy? Last night, he's so cool and then the next day, it seems like nothing happened." Rukia murmured annoyingly. "I don't understand him."

She sighed and decided to let him go by himself. She wandered around the market for some interesting things. And she stayed like that for almost an hour and a half.

After shopping, she decided to go back to the spot where she would meet Ichigo to go home. On her way, she saw the men from last night again. She took a step backward and made a run for it. But, unluckily, the said men saw her and recognized her and so they ran after her.

Ichigo was waiting patiently for his 'companion' who was not yet to come.

It's already 5:45 PM. What happened to her?Ichigo thought and sighed again. Maybe I should search for her. Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

And so he put his shopping bags under the seat of his motorcycle, locked it and set off, searching for a certain raven-haired midget.

Rukia continued to run. As she turned around the corner, she stopped and gasped.

Oh no, dead end! Not again! She thought in panic. She turned around to look at the men behind her.

"There's no way you could get out of here this time little missy." The one Rukia had punched said. "Now, you'll going to pay on what you've done to me last night." He said as he walked towards her.

Rukia kept on backing away with her eyes wide, tears pooling in her eyes.

Please… help… anyone…

And as if the heaven heard her cries, a kicked was received by the one in front of Rukia. He stumbled at the trash garbage.

Rukia looked at her savior. Who was it this time? Well, it's pretty obvious.

"Hey you guys! You miss me?" Rukia's savior, Ichigo asked, with a smirked present on his face.

"You again?" the other one Ichigo punched last night asked. "Come on guys! It's time for revenge!" he said.

"Oh really? Let's see about that." Ichigo said, taking a fighting stance.

"Ichigo…"

"Rukia, step back." Ichigo told her seriously.

Rukia was startled, but she complied nonetheless. While watching him fighting, Rukia had thought something.

This is the first time he called me by my name. And not just a name, he called me by my given name.

She sighed and looked at him, and felt the tears in her eyes come again.

After a few minutes, Ichigo defeated the men again and this time, he made sure that they were not coming back. He threatened them all right.

He walked towards Rukia who was sitting on the ground. He knelt in front of her.

"You okay?" Ichigo asked gently.

Rukia didn't say anything. She just let the tears dropped from her eyes. She sobbed quietly.

Ichigo panicked. He didn't know what to do. There was a girl crying in front of him. He didn't know how to calm her.

I'm not good at this stuff…

"H-hey! What's wrong? Are you hurt? Say something!" Ichigo said.

"No, I'm fine." she managed to say.

"If that's true then why are you crying?"

Rukia's tears didn't seem to stop. "It's just… I thought it'll be over. I thought… I will die right then and there. And then you came." She explained. "I'm really afraid."

Ichigo's face softened. He pulled Rukia into his embrace.

Rukia was startled by his sudden action.

"Don't worry. Everything will be alright from now on. I'll never leave you anymore. I'll protect you… from now on. I promise." He softly whispered to her while caressing her back.

"I-Ichigo…"

Ichigo pulled away and looked straight at her pretty violet eyes. He found her beautiful because of her eyes. He caressed her cheeks with his right hand and wiped away her tears.

"Don't cry now, 'kay?" he asked her as he smiled.

Rukia didn't know what to say so she just smiled back and nodded.

"Let's go home." He said as he helped her up.

"Alright. Let's go."

Thank you so much. Kurosaki Ichigo.

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-END OF CHAPTER THREE-

ENGLISH TRANSLATION FOR JAPANESE WORDS/PHRASES:

Sagatteru – step back

ganbatte ne – do your best

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Oh my gosh! I just finished this chapter! I'm sorry about the fight scene. I really sucked at writing them but I can imagined them perfectly. Maybe because there's a lot in my mind lately. Oh, but, I'm really happy for your support.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

I'll wait…

Preview for the Next Chapter:

Rukia's singing and playing the piano? How cute! Woah! And Ichigo and Rukia get to know each other more!

[There were three songs will be used next chapter and I love those songs…

The first one is the theme song of this fanfiction. I think you know the song very well.]

-Chapter Four: Be Friends!-