This was actually kind of fun once I got the idea for it. I hope you guys like it!
To the reviewer who offered to beta read for me: you can't put email addresses in reviews. Pm me if you're reading this.
I dedicate this to my camp counselor, Stacey, because she made our cabin have a pow-wow and I will never forget the night I spilled almost all my secrets to people I barely knew. (They all live in another state though so it's all good.) Stacey's also a really good friend so if you ever meet someone named Stacey tell them Grace says, Hi! Ok, now, on with the story!
6) Get up in the middle of the night to get you drink because you couldn't sleep
23) Doesn't think less of you when you cry and offers his shoulder
"Ichigo! Dinner's ready!" Karin called her older brother down for dinner.
"I'll be down in a second!" Ichigo yelled back. Then he turned to the raven haired girl curled up on his bed reading a horror novel. She gasped. Her eyes widened and her body tensed up. Rukia was scaring herself silly with that book. Ichigo had to admit, it was kind of funny. She was a soul reaper after all.
"Oi, Rukia!" She didn't look up from her scary book. "Rukia!" He went over and touched her shoulder. Rukia jumped up in surprise.
"What?"
"I'm going to go eat. I'll bring something up for you if I can, ok? And stop reading the stupid book. You'll give yourself nightmares." She nodded and quickly returned to her novel.
---
"Rukia? Rukia, I brought you some dinner…" Ichigo trailed off. Where is she? He thought to himself. He peeked behind her closet door.
"Rukia…" Wham! Ichigo was greeted with a solid kick to the face.
"You'll never get me, zombies!" Rukia yelled and jumped out of the closet onto Ichigo's bed.
"Rukia! What the hell are you doing?" Rukia was huddled in the far corner of the room. Then, seeing it was Ichigo, she let out a sigh. An apologetic smile spread across her face.
"I thought you were a zombie…" She said in a soft voice. Then she regained her natural posture and stated matter-of-factly, "Zombies will sneak in to your house at night and eat your brains if you're not careful." Rukia had such a serious look on her face it was hard for Ichigo not to laugh.
"There are no such things as zombies, baka."
"Yes, there are! They ate this poor family in the book! See?" She shoved the novel in his face. Ichigo sighed and pushed the book away.
"Look, I'm tired. We'll argue about this in the morning." Then Ichigo pushed her off the bed, took his shirt off, and slid under the covers. (1) "Good night." And he turned off the lights leaving the frightened girl in the dark.
"Ichigo…" He grunted. "Do you think maybe, just for tonight, we could leave the lights on?"
"No, go to sleep." He moaned sleepily. Rukia gripped her book tightly and slowly walked backwards towards her closet. She was too scared to turn around and she ended up hitting the wall. She hopped in the closet and swiftly shut the door.
Snuggled under the covers with her head buried in the pillow she couldn't get the images of the zombies out of her mind. Rukia kept imagining the poor people being attacked and having their brains eaten. Tree branches scraped against the window. The small shinigami pressed her face into her pillow harder.
"Ichigo!" She squealed. He woke up and switched on the lights.
"What? What's going on?" Poor Ichigo was expecting a hollow attack. He slowly shuffled over to the closet and opened the door. There was not a happy look on his face.
"There's something outside! I heard it scratch against the window! It's going to eat me!" Rukia whisper-shouted (2) with urgency.
"Nothing is going to eat you, Rukia." But that didn't satisfy her.
"Just go check. Please?" Rukia looked up at him with large eyes and stuck out her lower lip. Ichigo rolled his eyes.
"Fine. But then you're going to bed, right?" She nodded happily. He walked over to the window. After looking both ways and checking to make sure it was still locked he was allowed to go back to sleep.
Rukia had been lying down quietly for about ten minutes when she realized something very important. She was thirsty. She was about to climb out of her closet when she remembered the zombies. They might be waiting out in the hall to snatch her when she left the room. She'd better get Ichigo to do it.
"Ichigo…" He didn't respond. "Ichigo." Still, no response. "Ichigo!" A loud groan followed her yell.
"What now?" Ichigo asked from his bed.
"I'm thirsty…" Rukia said through the door.
"So go get some water!" He told her.
"But Ichigo! The zombies!" There was silence for a few moments. Then socked feet could be heard shuffling down the hall. The feet returned a few moments later and their owner opened the closet door. Ichigo shoved the glass towards her and shut the door again. There was a loud noise as he collapsed on the bed.
Rukia downed her water and tried to go to sleep.
(3) "Rawr! I am going to eat your brains!" Five zombies lurched towards a woman. She screamed and started running. A man jumped in front of her and tried to fight off the zombies but he was no match for the horrible un-dead creatures. Within seconds his brain had been consumed. They continued their chase after the woman. Once the zombies finally got a hold on her they sliced her neck open with their sharp nails. Rukia tried to scream and one of them looked at her with its blood red eyes. It started in her direction and...
Rukia's eyes flew open. She was sweaty and breathing heavy. She shook her head and tried to erase the images. Rukia closed her eyes again but the zombies kept coming back. The poor girl was terrified.
"Ichigo! Ichigo, wake up!" He wasn't going to get up though. Ichigo was done hearing about these stupid zombies. Rukia could be so hard to live with sometimes.
"Ichigo!" Rukia whined again but he still didn't get up. Finally, Rukia took a deep breath, slowly slid open her door, and bolted as fast as she could across the room to Ichigo's bed.
"What the hell are you doing!" Ichigo shoved her out of the bed. Of course, he hadn't really meant to send her flying as he did. He just got a little startled. Having a girl jump in your bed can do that. Rukia shot across the room again and wrapped her arms around Ichigo.
"They're going to get us, Ichigo! The zombies are going to eat our brains!" Ichigo felt something wet on his pillow. A couple tears had escaped Rukia's eyes. He hadn't realized she was so scared and he noticed she had said 'our brains'. She was concerned for him too.
"It's all right, midget. The zombies aren't going to get you." He put an arm around her and scooted over so she could put her head on the pillow too. Rukia snuggled closer to him. Ichigo had a few thoughts about having Rukia share his bed but tiredness brushed them away. And he thought living with Rukia was hard before…
Sorry I kind of bent the rules. (I do that a lot. Have you noticed?) Is it still okay? If I think of something else for number 23 I'll do it but I had a really hard time thinking of things to make Rukia cry. R&V!
(1) Was I the only one who had fun imagining that scene?
(2) Whisper-shouts are when you shout but it's in a whisper. Make sense? Sorry, it's kind of hard to explain…
(3) Feel free to skip over that italicized part. I didn't like writing it and all you need to know is that Rukia has a nightmare about the zombies.
