A/N: This took some time to update. I apologize. I was into These Days so forgive me. This is named after the song, "Come Back Down," by Lifehouse. Yes, another Lifehouse. What are you going to do? Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Nada.

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Chapter 3: Come Back Down

"Rukia? Rukia, honey? Come on. You've locked yourself away for days now. You have to come out today. You have a book signing. You can't skip this. So many people are waiting to see you!" Momo said sweetly from behind Rukia's bedroom door.

Meanwhile, Rukia had her covers over her head as she listened to the constant knocking. There originally were constant phone calls until she shut her phone off; apparently that just caused them to come in person.

"Oh thank god you're here. She hasn't said one word," Momo said to her arriving friends.

"Rukia? How ya doing, hun? Can you let us in?" Rangiku asked wiggling the door handle. "Come on. I have a surprise for you," she said trying to persuade her. "And it's not any sort of outfit this time since you obviously aren't in love with clothes as much as I am."

Rukia rolled her eyes under the covers. Rangiku had excellent taste in fashion; she had to admit; she did have her own fashion industry, but sometimes she just couldn't wear everything that woman gave her.

"Rukia! Open up! I swear you'll like this surprise!" Rangiku yelled again.

"Oh my god! If I let you in for a little bit, will you leave me the hell alone?!" Rukia blurted out in frustration.

"Ah! And the beautiful maiden speaks!" Rangiku praised through the door.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Rukia said, dragging herself out of bed, revealing her purple bunny short-shorts and a purple tank top. She opened the door. "Come in," she said lacking enthusiasm.

She opened the door and immediately brightened up. "Orihime?!"

The strawberry blonde girl was smiling from ear to ear as she held her arms open for a hug. "Rukia!"

"Ah!" Rukia screeched before almost tackling her best friend. She hadn't seen her in three years. After high school, she was accepted for an over-seas internship as a reporter. While she was there, they gave her a job and she had a steady career there ever since.

"I can't believe it! I had no idea you were coming!" she yelled, pulling away to see her face.

"I wanted to surprise you! Plus I'm focusing more on the celebrity gossip area in journalism, so I'm moving over here." she responded with a smile causing another shriek from her raven haired friend.

Rangiku ran over and yanked up the blinds of the window, revealing the powerful sun. Momo pulled the sheets all the way open on the bed to avoid Rukia burying herself in them again.

"Now," Orihime started; her face getting serious. She grabbed her hand and sat her down on the side of the bed while the other two stood a few feet away in support. "Tell us what's going on."

Rukia sighed as her newfound happiness began to expire. She turned to the two standing woman. "You play a dirty game, you two," she said with a glare. Then she smirked, "Touché."

She took a deep breath. "I ran into Ichigo at Ishida's party," she said looking down at her lap.

Orihime's eyes grew wide. "And you actually- talked?"

"Yeah. I tried to run away, but I ran into a waiter and fell and broke a glass, oh god it was just a disaster," she said burying her face in her hands.

"Then what happened?!" Rangiku said hastily, causing the three to look at her in suspicion. "What?" she said in defense. "I can sense the drama. It pulls me in."

Momo shook her head. "Keep going."

"Right," Rukia said looking away from her and moving on. "Well he held his hand down and helped me up. But the weird part was- he was smiling; a real smile though; not one of those crappy things you give just to ease things over."

Orihime smiled. "He smiled? I haven't seen him smile in years. I heard he took a year off. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe he changed," Orihime began to reason.

"There's more though," Rukia added. "He was dragged off and then I- well, I ran out of there. I took off to the dock," she said almost feeling guilty for some reason.

Rangiku laughed slightly. "I could have guessed that."

Momo nudged Rangiku with her elbow. "Let her finish."

Rukia took another deep breath. "Well to make things short, he found me. He asked me why I kept running from him- I asked him why he came back. Then he asked why I avoided him even before he took off for a year and I said there was too much history between us. This made us argue more, I told him I was afraid of him and tried to get out of there and then he stopped me."

"Don't stop now!" Rangiku yelled almost falling over from the suspense. Momo reached over and steadied her.

Rukia raised an eyebrow at her friend and turned to Orihime, who said in a soft tone, "Continue."

"He grabbed my wrist and asked why. But his eyes- wow his eyes," she said leaning back and daydreaming of his eyes staring into her soul.

"What were they like?" Momo asked starting to get like Rangiku.

Rukia continued to stare off like she could see them. "They were so pure of sadness. It's almost like he wanted to know why just so he could fix it. Everything I saw brought me back to when, well when," she drifted off and looked back to her lap.

"When what?!" Momo yelled, causing Rangiku to look at her with surprise. She chuckled and gave her a pat on the back. She then looked back at Rukia and gave her a look of expectancy.

"Is my life just one big soap opera to you two?" she asked sarcastically.

Orihime giggled, "Just give them what they want."

Rukia sighed. "It brought me back to when he used to love me."

The two women standing seemed to have melted into a puddle as their faces showed awe. "That's- so romantic," Rangiku said holding back tears. Momo nodded eagerly n agreement as she bit her lip. The two flew to her and gave her a group hug and Orihime just joined in.

"Okay, okay. I get it. Give me some air now girls," Rukia said under the pile.

They backed away slightly. Momo wiped an eye, "So then what?" she said with a sniff.

"I said I didn't want to feel the pain again," she said softly looking at her hands on her lap.

"Aw!" Rangiku broke out with tear filled eyes. The two women began to hug her again, but Rukia shot out her arms.

"No! It's okay. Really," she said with a begging smile. They backed away as Orihime put her hand over Rukia's.

"You ran again, didn't you?" she asked with sad eyes. Rukia just nodded with a sad frown.

"And this is where I am now. I can't go out there," Rukia said, pointing towards the window.

"No you can't!" Rangiku yelled in agreement. "You're emotionally unstable. The press loves this kind of stuff. Right, Orihime?"

"Of course. If we weren't such good friends, I'd be writing all of this down," she said with a joking smile.

"See. We have to keep you away from any sort of endangerment," Rangiku added going over and pulling down the blinds she had just pulled up.

"And with this kind of emotional entanglement your fans are just going to have to suffer. You wrote them their favorite stories! They should already feel grateful!" Momo said pushing Rukia to lie down on her bed and quickly threw the sheets over top of her.

Orihime stayed back slightly observing with a smile.

"Wait! What do you mean? I can't just let them down," Rukia said, faintly confused about her friends hasty movements.

Rangiku brought over a box of tissues near the bed. "Sure you can! They've been waiting for months to see you but you're in way too big a funk to see them!"

Rukia looked at the box of tissues and something hit her. "No, no, no, no, no! I am not in that big a funk! And who am I to keep fans that have been looking forward to see me waiting? I'm going to that damn book signing and you can't stop me!" she yelled throwing the blankets off her and running to her bathroom where they heard the shower start thirty seconds after the door was slammed.

Orihime smiled at them in victory. "Told you it would work. Nice job guys."

The other two women chuckled and went to open the shades again as they waited to accompany their friend to her event.

"Kurosaki, what do you plan on accomplishing by coming here? Seriously. It's obvious she doesn't want to see you," Ishida said trying to keep up to his friend's amazing pace.

"You know me. I'm stubborn. Besides, I've finally realized what I had all those years ago. All I want is for her to be in my life. I'm not asking for anything other than friendship," he said looking at the stores as he passed by. He had on a black beanie and black sunglasses with his red hoodie and jeans.

Ishida shook his head. "Rukia is just as stubborn as you. The odds of her even looking your way are terrible. After everything that happened between you two, even asking for the two of you to be okay with each other is pushing it," Ishida reasoned, still trying to catch up behind him. He was wearing a blue baseball cap to go with a black sweater. They were about to go into a public area with no protection from fans; they needed to blend in.

"I'm ready to try," Ichigo said opening the door and walking in. He suddenly had a flashback.

He opened the door; more like flew through the door; and looked around frantically. He looked around the restaurant for her and once he found her at a table he ran to her.

"You actually said 'yes' to going out with him?" he asked grabbing her arm. She was in the middle of saying the specials, but once she was grabbed by the arm she jumped and turned to him.

He was dripping wet and wearing his bathing suit. The water strode down his well toned body and for a second she was too distracted to see his scowling face or realize how pissed she should be. She shook her head. "Ichigo!" she hissed from the side of her mouth. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I came to ask you a question. Now answer it," he said scowling even more.

"Ichigo, I'm working. And from what I can tell, you're supposed to be working too. People could be drowning right now. Get out of here," she said in annoyance and disbelief before turning back to the table.

"I'm not leaving without an answer," he said crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly.

There was a huge crowd in what looked like a line. "Damn, we're late. This is going to take forever."

Ishida raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Well you're so persistent in trying. I guess this will really test you."

"Screw you man," Ichigo growled as he took his place in the crowd holding a book to his side.

Ishida shook his head and laughed to himself. He started to walk around the book store. It was pretty huge, he had to admit. He made his way upstairs and roamed around; passing the children's section and then seeing a young woman leaning on the railing with a notebook and holding a pen to her lips as she thought what to write.

He smiled with intrigue and began to make his way over to her. He casually leaned on the railing with his forearms. "Fan?"

She jumped in surprise and ended up throwing the pen down off the second floor; hitting a teenage girl who looked around frantically to see where it came from.

"Sorry!" Orihime yelled apologetically down to the girl. She turned to Ishida. "You scared me to death!"

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't-" he said hesitantly, feeling extremely awkward at the moment.

She immediately broke out giggling hysterically. His mouth dropped slowly and then smoothly turned into a smile.

"So what did you ask me?" she asked turning to face him more. She was smiling completely now with a sparkle in her eye that made Ishida somewhat speechless for a moment.

"I- uh- asked if you were a fan of her," he said nodding his head down to the first floor towards Miss Kuchiki.

"Well I'm a big fan, but I'm not here for that. I'm doing a column on the book signing. All work; no play," she said with a sigh.

He smiled as he got more comfortable on the railing. "Well if you're a fan I could get you a meeting with Rukia. She's a close friend of mine."

Orihime opened her mouth and began to chuckle. "Oh really? And how do you know Rukia?"

He smirked. "Childhood friend."

She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Okay. Well it was nice talking to you," she said cheerily before turning to walk away.

"Hey! Wait," Ishida yelled and ran in front of her. "Did I say something wrong?" he asked with worry.

"Well you're trying to flirt with me by lying. I rather not waste my time," she said still smirking.

"Lying? What makes you think I'm lying?" he asked with a frown.

"Because I know for a fact you weren't childhood friends with Rukia," she said getting defensive.

"Orihime! Momo and I are going to get some lunch. Want anything?" Rangiku yelled from the stairs.

Ishida looked at the woman on the stairs and then back at Orihime. "Orihime?" he asked with surprise feeling a sudden weight on his chest.

Orihime looked suspiciously at him.

"Is that you, Ishida? What are you doing here?" Rangiku asked with interest.

Orihime's eyes widened. "Uryuu?" she asked softly before reaching up and taking off the baseball cap that hid a good portion of his face.

"I- haven't seen you in years," he said softly with wide eyes.

She then smiled from ear to ear and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly; leaving him too surprised to react and stood for a moment with his arms in midair before moving to hold her in return.

They pulled apart and she was giggling. "I couldn't recognize you and all you had on was a hat," she said hitting herself in the head.

He chuckled, "Hey, I couldn't recognize you and you didn't even have anything deceiving on." They stopped laughing and stared into each other's eyes for a moment.

"You look so different. You look good," Ishida began, but then caught himself. "Not that you didn't look good back then! You looked beautiful! It's just now you look even more beautiful- I mean you look great!" he said beginning to blush.

She giggled and looked down to hide a blush.

"Um, lunch?" Rangiku felt awkward witnessing the flirtatious reunion.

Orihime looked at her. "Why don't you let Uryuu and I go and get it?"

She raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Whatever you say, Orihime," she said retreating back down the stairs.

Orihime turned back to Ishida with a smile. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Yeah," he said softly due to being too captivated by her. She noticed this and quickly slammed his hat back on his head, knocking him back to reality.

"Come on," she said, giggling from startling him. She grabbed his hand in hers casually and dragged him to the stairs, which he complied to.

Ichigo was a couple of people away in line from being in front. He started to get nervous. He had it all planned out, but the butterflies that filled his gut were making him go mad.

Staring right back in the face,
a memory can't be erased.
I know, because I tried.

He took another step forward. 'Almost there,' he thought, beginning to breathe heavily.

"I'm not leaving without an answer," he said crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly.

Start to feel the emptiness
and everything I'm gonna miss.
I know that I can't hide.

She growled slightly. "I'm sorry, can you excuse me for one second," she said with a fake sweetness to the table. She grabbed his elbow and yanked him away to a corner where no one could see them.

"What's your problem, Kurosaki?!" Rukia asked furiously.

All this time is passing by
I think it's time to just move on

He continued to scowl. "You're going out with Mister School-President-who-has-a-stick-up-his-ass?!"

"Oh, I didn't know that was his name. Thanks for the information, Ichigo," she said beginning to walk away. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back; receiving a glare from her when she was back in position.

When you come back down,
if you land on your feet,
I hope you find a way
to make it back to me

"I'm not even going out with him! He asked me to the dance, Ichigo! I said, 'yes.' What's the big deal?" she asked incredulously.

"He's a scum bag!" he yelled, not holding it back.

"And why do you care if I go with a 'scum bag'?!"

"Because I care about you, you idiot! You deserve better!" he yelled with a frown.

When you come around,
I'll be there for you.
Don't have to be alone
with what you're going through.

"And who is better, Ichigo?" she said; her yelling dieing down from his last statement.

He opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't and closed his mouth; speechless. Her violet eyes were now softer than before as they searched his amber. He took a deep swallow.

"Since you weren't going to ask me, why shouldn't I have said 'yes'?" she said softly.

Start to breathe and fake a smile,
it's all the same after a while.
I know that you are tired.

His face lost its hard demeanor as he stared straight back at her. "If I asked you, would you?"

She slowly smiled sweetly up at him. "I would have a long time ago."

Carrying the ones you lost,
a picture frame with all the thoughts
I know you hold inside.

That seemed like so long ago to him and it was only until recently that he realized that he had everything back then. He didn't need anything else. But fate took place; and everything good in his world started to rot. Not because it had to, but because he let it.

I hope that you can find your way back
To the place where you belong

He blinked his eyes a few times and then noticed he was next. He walked up and placed the book down on the table. She took it without looking up. "Who do I make this out to?" she asked opening up to the cover page.

When you come back down,
if you land on your feet,
I hope you find a way
to make it back to me.

She read the words over and over until the words were echoing in her head. "If I asked you, would you?" She let out a breath and then looked up. He was obviously trying to blend in, but she saw his vibrant hair peaking through the beanie. And although his strong amber eyes were hidden under the sunglasses, she knew he was staring intently at her.

When you come around,
I'll be there for you.
Don't have to be alone
with what you're going through.

She frowned and looked straight where she thought his eyes were. "I would have a long time ago," she finished, but added, "But not anymore."

She looked around him. "Next please," she said, avoiding his stare.

"I'm not leaving without a chance to talk to you," he said in a soft tone, placing his palms down on the table and leaning closer.

You're coming back down
You said you feel lost - can I help you find it?
When you come around
From time to time, we all are blinded

"We already did that and do you remember how that turned out? Not very good, Ichigo," she said in irritation.

"Well then you don't have to talk; just listen," he pushed. She just shook her head continuously.

You're coming back down
You don't have to tell me what you're feeling,
I know what you're going through.
I won't be the one who lets go of you.

He reached up and pulled his glasses off. "Rukia," he said softly staring back into her violets. "Please?" he said in a begging, soft tone.

She saw that hopeful look; that look in his eyes that had totally vanished after the incident; that look that showed he was in fact human. She sighed and broke the gaze, looking down at the still open book where the words still haunted her.

I think it's time to just move on

The look in his eyes gave her the feeling that he wasn't the same boy that let her walk out of his life without a care. He was different; yet he was the same; the same as the boy she first fell in love with those many years ago.

When you come back down,
if you land on your feet,
I hope you find a way
to make it back to me.

"I should be done in twenty minutes," she said quietly.

He smiled and put the sunglasses back on. "Can I still have my book signed?" he asked with a smirk.

When you come around,
I'll be there for you.
Don't have to be alone
with what you're going through.

She glared at him, but bent her head down to start writing; trying to hide the smile on her face. She wrote and gave it back to him.

"To Moron?!" he read out loud after he walked a few steps away.

"Next!" Rukia yelled causing the crowd to move.

When you come back down,
if you land on your feet,
I hope you find a way
to make it back to me.

When you come around,
I'll be there for you.
Don't have to be alone
with what you're going through.

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And that was chapter 3. Sorry it took awhile. But I finally got it to you! Yay! So tell me what you think. Later