Disclaimer : Yeah, I own Bleach. That's why I'm writing fanfictions… No really, Kubo Tite owns Bleach.
A Birthday to Remember - Chapter 4 - Unexpected
"Damn that Ichigo…" Rukia murmured to herself as she walked out the front door of the Kurosaki residence. It was getting pretty late now and it was raining—no, it was pouring. She wondered where Ichigo had gone to; she was actually worried about him! Rukia snorted and opened up Ichigo's umbrella as she started down the street, in search of Ichigo. She should've let him keep his damn umbrella! She shuddered as the wind blew and looked down at her clothing; she had forgotten to put on a jacket. "Great," Rukia cursed as she continued her search.
As the rain fell harder than ever, Ichigo cursed under his breath. Was this what he got for lying to Rukia? He scowled and started to dash down the street. With the rain in his eyes, he couldn't see much. Still, it came to a surprise that he would bump into someone…
"Arrgghhhh!" Rukia screamed as someone pushed her to the ground, she felt the umbrella loosen from her grip.
Ichigo looked down at the ground, seeing a small, raven haired girl at his feet. "I'm so sorry," he said apologetically as he offered the girl a hand. As the girl looked up, he saw her eyes widen in surprise. Ichigo himself, yelled in shock and sprang backwards, "R-Rukia?! What the hell?"
"IDIOT," Rukia screamed as she picked herself up off the floor. "What do you mean what the hell? I'm supposed to be the one asking that! Are you blind or something?!"
"What!?" Ichigo yelled back, "You came out of nowhere, it's not my fault!"
"What? So it's my fault now, is it?" Rukia retorted.
"Yeah, it is!"
"Maybe if you weren't so incapable of seeing things…"
"Maybe if you weren't so short, I'd have seen you!"
"Oh!" Rukia scoffed as her face heated up in rage, "YOU BASTARD!"
"Hostile midget!" Ichigo yelled back.
Rukia blinked at Ichigo's latest insult; he had taken it one step too far…
Ichigo waited for Rukia's comeback, after a few seconds, his face broke into a large smirk, "What? Run out of insults already? Man, I thought you were better than th--" He stopped as Rukia suddenly threw herself at him, attempting to tackle him.
"YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET THAT!" Rukia screamed as she flung herself at Ichigo.
Ichigo yelled in shock as he wrestled and struggled with Rukia in an attempt to stay upright. "AHH! GET OFF ME! OI!" Ichigo yelled as he staggered around like a drunk, he was beginning to loose his balance.
"Oh, shit," Rukia cursed as she felt Ichigo start to loose balance, "Alright, ALRIGHT. Just stay sti- HEY! ICHI- OH HELL NAW! AHHHHH!"
Ichigo had finally lost his footing and he tumbled onto the floor….taking Rukia along with him. They somehow found themselves in an awkward position with Rukia lying on top of Ichigo and their legs in a tangled mess.
Rukia gasped and stared down at Ichigo, she wanted to yell at him but she couldn't string the words together in her brain, all she could do was look into his chocolate brown eyes. Rukia felt her cheeks burn.
Ichigo was in shock as he stared back up at Rukia. He wanted to yell at her to get off him, but he felt that his brain was dead. The only thing that he could think of was how beautiful Rukia looked…
As lightning flashed and thunder sounded in the near distance, the two death gods were finally brought back to their senses. It was only then that they realised that it was still raining and that they were both drenched from the rain.
"You. Are. An. Idiot." Rukia screeched as she quickly detangled her limbs from his and scrambled up. She was grateful for the fact that it was dark, or else Ichigo might've seen her blush…
"What? Don't I get an apology? You're the one that knocked me onto the ground! Stupid midget…Now I'm all wet…" Ichigo said, gritting his teeth. He could not believe he just called this midget beautiful just a minute ago…
"Can it, Strawberry, you were drenched from head to toe from walking in the rain before you even saw me," Rukia retorted as she walked over her/Ichigo's discarded umbrella and picked it up. She spared a glance at Ichigo and raised an eye-brow when she saw that he was still on the ground. "Hey, why the hell are you still on the ground? If you're trying to imitate a hobo, you're doing a pretty good job."
Ichigo bolted up into a sitting position and glared at Rukia. "If I must remind you, you're currently living in my house. Wouldn't that make you more of a hobo? Or at the very lease; a free-loader?" Ichigo then stood up and walked over to Rukia where he crouched under his umbrella. "Oh, and give my back my umbrella."
Rukia's face darkened, "You have no right to speak to a Kuchiki like that! You-"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Ichigo sighed as he, once again, grabbed the umbrella out of Rukia's hands and started to walk back to his house.
"Hey! Ichigo! What the hell? I'm not finished with this conversation! Don't whatever me!" Rukia fumed. She felt the umbrella slip out of her hands, but she didn't protest about that. "ICHIGO! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?! OI! ICHIGO." This carrot top was really getting on her nerves right now…
Ichigo ignored his companion and focused his attention to the dark sky above. He wanted to see the moon, shining through all those dark clouds, it brought back memories of his mum. He could hear Rukia still ranting on about something, but he continued to ignore her. Ichigo scanned the sky; there was no sign of the moon, not today anyway. He sighed and a troubled expression crossed his face for a brief moment.
Rukia had noticed that Ichigo was troubled by something. She was just about to yell at him for ignoring her, but she would let it slide this time. Rukia hated to see her friend down; she wanted to reassure him, to tell him that everything would be ok. But she couldn't find the right words, so she did the second thing that popped into her mind. She gripped his free hand in her small, delicate ones, a small smile played on her lips.
Ichigo was startled at this sudden contact; he looked down at Rukia and noted the smile on her face. He grinned in response, even though she probably wouldn't see it. He quickened his pace so that he was sort of dragging her along by the hand, "Come on, let's hurry home for dinner."
"You mean your home," Rukia corrected as she tried to keep up with Ichigo.
"You've a place in my house too, you know," Ichigo drawled. "Yuzu and Karin regard you as the sister they never had and dad… Well, dad…" Ichigo struggled for the right words. "Dad really…likes you too. Actually, 'like' is an understatement."
Rukia grinned, the Kurosaki household felt so much more like home than the Kuchiki mansion back in Soul Society.
Ichigo continued on, "So anyway, think of my house as your second home."
"Yeah, I will…" Rukia replied, which was half a lie, considering she never regarded the Kuchiki mansion as 'home.'
The two walked in a comfortable silence until Rukia remembered something…"Hey Ichigo, what happened to that Chappy marathon…?"
Ichigo slapped himself mentally, "Well…uhh…what are you talking about? Didn't it air?"
Rukia narrowed her eyes, "How do you know it didn't air?"
"What?" Ichigo spluttered, "I didn't! I mean, I didn't know it didn't air. I was just guessing. Haha," Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Liar."
"What?! I wasn't lying!"
"Stop lying!"
"I wasn't lying! You're just…paranoid or something!"
Rukia reached up and slapped Ichigo across the forehead, "I am not paranoid, you just wanted to get rid of me this afternoon.You stupid carrot top."
"I didn't want to get rid of you," Ichigo muttered.
Rukia sneezed, she was tired, cold and not really in the mood to argue. "Whatever. I'll get you back some other day…"
"You're not coming down with the cold are you?" Ichigo asked, he was pleased that Rukia had finally dropped the topic of Chappy. He needed to think about how he could weasel out of this one…
"I dunno, why do you care?"
"Because…midget, if you get sick, I have to take care of you and besides…" Ichigo trailed away and finished by murmuring something about making him worried. Rukia smirked and they continued to walk.
When they finally reached the Kurosaki household, Ichigo stopped at the front door. What were they gonna tell Isshin? He was late for dinner, Rukia was with him, and they were both soaked from the rain… Why had Rukia been walking around the streets in the first place?
"Rukia, why were you walking around earlier, and in this weather too…" Ichigo asked as he turned to face her.
Rukia blinked and looked away "Ahh. Well… becauseiwasworr-"
She was cut off when the front door slammed open to reveal a weeping Isshin. "Ahh! Ichigooo! Rukiaaa-chaaan! HORRAY, YOU'RE ALRIGHT!" Then Isshin caught the sight of the two teens holding hands, he grinned manically. "ICHIGO'S FINALLY DECLARED HIS LOVE FOR RUKIA-CHAN!" he bellowed. "Daddy is so happy!"
A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated in a long time…and that this was a crap chapter. I couldn't think of that much fluffy stuff…
I've got a full week of exams next week, so please don't be disappointed if theres no update next week either.
And thanks for the reviews, everyone.