Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Dunk. CRACK.
Well, Ichigo mused in his head. The first sound that actually sounds different for the past 2 hours.
Kurosaki Ichigo. Was bored. He bounced the tennis ball on the walls and ceiling from his lazy position on the bed, until the ball flew out the window. Ichigo sat up and yawned. He looked over to the alarm clock on the left of his bed and groaned, lying back down with a flop, covering his eyes with his hands.
It was 2:39 am. And Kurosaki Ichigo could not go to sleep. Why? Because a certain black haired girl kept coming into his mind. Her dances and songs would just randomly flutter into his head, distracting him and taunting his sleepy demeanor.
"Bitch…" he muttered. He removed the hands from his eyes and rested his forearm against his forehead.
Why?! Why must she enter my head every 5 seconds?! He thought angrily. He sighed loudly and turned onto his side. Fine, I exaggerated. Every 2 seconds. He just lay there, staring at the alarm clock with distaste. He sat up and decided to strum his guitar and tune it softly so the other occupants of his house wouldn't wake up. He began to play random tunes and write down some notes that sounded good, but still, the image of that perfectionist just kept popping into his head.
Ichigo threw his guitar to the ground, the strings and hollow cavity making a strange strangled cry of some sort. He tossed his body back onto the bed and stared up again. His cheeks tinged red when he remembered her performance at the Hitachi Geisha Tea House. His eyes widened when he immediately realized his face warmed up at the thought of her. He closed his eyes and started to hit himself.
STUPID! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! He screamed mentally at himself. For the rest of the night, he had a sleepless fun adventure with his mind.
"Hey! This is not the weekend anymore! It's Monday, wake up!" Yoruichi called out. She wore soccer shorts and a singlet tee, her hair tied up and tamed by a cap, a black whistle hanging at her neck. The rest of the students that were dressed in their usual blue and white uniform groaned. They had to run 5 laps around the grass soccer field. Rukia, who was leading, was far ahead of everyone, and on her 2nd lap. Yoruichi was running with her, surprised that a student could actually run at the same pace as the PE teacher, Shihouin Yoruichi. Of course, Ichigo was an exception when he was bothered, and right now, he was bothered. He ran alongside Rukia who wasn't breaking a sweat.
"Oi, Kurosaki," Yoruichi called. Ichigo glanced at Yoruichi who was slightly ahead of him.
"Nani?" he asked, annoyed. Yoruichi winked at him.
"Have fun with Kuchiki," she sang as she started to run off course and towards the PE staffroom. Ichigo cursed under his breath and caught up with Rukia, running side by side with her. Damn, she could run.
"Eh?" she questioned, suddenly puzzled as to why Ichigo was suddenly there and not Yoruichi. "Ichigo-san, ohayou!" she cheered. Ichigo didn't know why, but that one statement and bubbly smile, made his heart skip a beat, his cheeks heat a tad bit. He looked away.
"Yea yea, whatever," he mumbled. Rukia smiled and continued to sprint at her usual pace. On around the 4th lap, Ichigo glanced at her in the corner of his eye. He was beginning to tire and he had the most massive stitch in his side. His head began to spin while sweat dripped down into his shirt creases from time to time. Rukia… where was Kuchiki Rukia? 5 metres ahead of him, an even level of breathing, sweat-less, and tireless. And she was running at the speed of probably 40km/h.
After finishing their 5th lap, Ichigo dropped to the grass and proceeded to take in deep breaths of much needed air. After a minute or so of breathing, he looked over to his left at how the perfect princess was going. Rage boiled in his stomach when he saw that she wasn't tired at all. She wasn't sweaty either. Heck, she was breathing as if she didn't just run a whole 5 laps of a bloody huge soccer field. She just sat on the bench in the gym calmly, watching the class run through the doors of the gym.
The whistle blew loudly in all their ears, signaling Yoruichi-san was. Not. Happy.
"What the hell was that?!" she began to yell with her cat like fangs protruding from her mouth in a snarl. "It takes you more than half the lesson to run five laps?! Pathetic!" The class looked down in shame, scolded by the teacher like this always. "Next time, I want you all to run at the same pace as Kurosaki and Kuchiki over here, got it?!"
"Yes…"
"Yes who?!"
"Yes Shihouin-san…"
"Good. Now let's play a quick game of Dodgeball to wind this up." Groans were heard all over the gym except from Ichigo who was too busy glaring and Rukia who was just standing there, smiling. Ichigo rolled his eyes and quickly got assorted into a group unexpectedly when Yoruichi dragged his arm and dumped him onto Ishida's side.
"Quick game of Dodgeball, 30 students, 15 on each team, and the division line is the half line right here," Yoruichi yelled clearly, stamping her foot onto the line that divided the whole gym in half. "Last person standing, is clearly not a wimp!" she yelled. The class sweat-dropped. She blew into her whistle, running/skipping to the sidelines. "START!"
A frenzied panic went among the students when they tried to find out who had the ball. Ichigo readied himself on the frontlines, scanning the crowd to see where Rukia on the opposite team was. He didn't have to search any further when he saw Rukia suddenly appeared from in the middle of her team, her body bent and swift, like a basketball player shoving through and shooting the ball straight at Ichigo. He ducked, too close for comfort when the ball just combed his hair and breezed by his shirt and hit Renji in the face.
"I'm sorry!" Rukia exclaimed. Ichigo took that as a distraction and grabbed the ball, shooting it straight at her. Ichigo's eyes widened when he saw her expression of worry somehow flicker into a face of paranoia, hate, and weariness as she eyed the ball in the corner of her eye. She jumped up, making a slam dunk kind of figure as she caught the ball that flew 1 metre up from everybody's head. Ichigo sweat-dropped and blushed as he felt the whole gym's eyes staring at him.
Kurosaki Ichigo. Never ever made a mistake like that. He never gave anyone a chance to catch his ball, and he never got out in Dodgeball. No, in Dodgeball, he was king. He could throw the ball and he could dodge the ball. And yet, his ball that was aimed down below was thrown carelessly up high, and caught nonetheless. He grumbled to himself as he sat down on the sidelines for the first time, his eyes trained on one and only one raven-haired beauty.
He watched as one by one, the opposite team to Rukia went down. Kunieda Ryou put up quite a fight, but she too, was struck down. Now with 15 safe people on Rukia's team, they were divided in half again. And then again. And again. And again.
Everyone wasn't surprised when they found Rukia the last person standing. They all clapped and cheered as she smiled and blushed prettily, walking back to the benches the class was sitting on. Ichigo remained speechless as she sat next to him and tied her hair up in a messy ponytail, wiping the sweat off her face bluntly. She wasn't even sweating that much. God. What was with this girl?
"Played ball plenty of times before?" Ichigo asked her quietly. She looked at him and smiled gently, a small pink tinting his cheeks as she did so. He slapped himself mentally and looked away, listening to her response.
"I have many relatives I play with at home, so Dodge ball is definitely crucial to learn with all the little children running around in the house," she laughed lightly. Ichigo just shrugged.
"I only got 2 younger sisters and some cousins, but they ain't really kids."
"Ah."
"Alright, tomorrow, I hope you're aware that your first two periods are cancelled because the juniors are doin' some shit, right?" Yoruichi grinned. The class glanced at each other and nodded warily.
"Yea...."
"Guess what you're doin in that time?" she said proudly. They looked around to see if anyone had an idea.
"No…"
"Double period of PE!!! Yay!!!!!" she squealed. The whole class groaned while some fainted. "And, on the plus side, your PE is at third period too. So there's 3 periods of PE!" Now all students fainted. Yoruichi growled and kicked at some of the bodies.
"Get up, it ain't that bad, ya lazy ass holes." Rukia just smiled and laughed kindly at the class while Ichigo that was sitting next to her just rolled his eyes. Renji and Ikkaku nudged each other and sent looks over to Ichigo's way. They snickered and laughed, gaining Ichigo's attention.
"What are you dumbshits laughin' about?!" Ichigo snapped. They cracked up, earning a kick from Ichigo. He stalked away on his tall, lean legs and glared at the black haired girl, every once in a while. As he left to the change rooms, Orihime smiled and asked her a particular question Rukia did not hesitate in answering.
"Kuchiki-san, do you have any younger siblings at home?" Rukia laughed and shook her head.
"No, in fact, I am the youngest person in the Kuchiki family! The other members of the Kuchiki family are respectable elders," she replied kindly.
God dammit. She was good. The first period of PE was to assess you on your acrobatic skills. Easy enough. Of course, Ichigo was the king of everything. Easy as that.
Looked like the king however, was forced to step down. The whole class was too amazed to even pick up their fallen apparatus from the floor as they watched the gymnastic goddess perform her tricks that captured everyone in her spell, her beauty, and her unending talent accompanied with the soft pop music directing her moves. And to think, this was on-the-spot choreography that included dancing, flying, flipping, stretching, and all such things that just made the class speechless. Toshiro whistled low. He looked over to Ichigo and smirked, as he realized said boy was actually close to drooling. He might as well drool with the eyes he's been training on her. He and the others were not stupid. Ichigo was falling in love with her. His denial was just abnormally strong and came in the form of pretense 'Hate'.
He smirked and nudged Ikkaku. He jerked out of his stupor and looked towards the direction Toshiro was smirking at. He snickered at the sight and laughed. He caught the attention of Renji and Yumichika, and they both gave a smirk of some sort that required all their face muscles not to laugh.
"Lover boy!" Renji called out loudly. Ichigo immediately turned around, falling for the trick. The guys cracked up loudly, making him blush wildly. Luckily, the class was too busy being distracted by the perfect performance. He went over and tackled them all, causing the 5 of them to fall down onto the gym mats.
When they heard clapping and whistling, they all raised their heads to look at the scene. It appeared Kuchiki Rukia had finished her performance.
She looked left and was confused to see so many people crowding around her at once.
"That was amazing!"
"Where do you learn this?!"
"Kuchiki-san, you're the best!"
"You really are perfect, aren't you!?"
That last comment did it. That really set the fire off in Ichigo. He stopped listening to the shower of compliments that rained upon her and walked over to his side of the gym doing stretches and such, not really bothering to participate with the class activities. He groaned and closed off his ears when he heard even Yoruichi compliment her. So what if she could do gym and run really well and play dodge ball and maintain her stamina?! Ichigo bet she couldn't play proper sport games.
Oh fuck.
Come on, did she really have to be good at everything?!
Basketball
Rukia's team – 38
Ichigo's team – 12
Soccer
Rukia's team – 16
Ichigo's team – 2
Volleyball
Rukia's team – 37
Ichigo's team - 25
Ichigo collapsed on the ground from all the continuous games the class had been playing. God damn little ms. Perfect.
He'd show her. Oh, he'd show her. He looked over to the girl that was haunting his mind and cursed silently as she smiled at her cheering teammates, her light sheen of sweat making her skin glisten in the light of the gymnasium. He blushed lightly when she made eye contact at him and smiled, waving lightly. He scoffed and turned around on his spot. He glanced back as disappointment settled in his stomach when she looked away to talk to Orihime and Momo.
Ichigo-san?"
Crap. Ichigo stood up from the bush he was crouching in and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He had just been caught practically stalking Rukia. She blinked at him innocently.
"What were you doing behind that bush, Ichigo-san?"
"Err…" Ichigo looked around as he tried to think of an excuse. He looked down and saw his wallet had fallen out of his pocket.
Think fast.
"Oh! There it is! Sorry bout that, Rukia, I was tryin' to find my wallet," he said confidently, tossing it up with one hand while scratching the back of his head with the other. She cocked her head to the side.
"So you dropped it 27 streets ago while I was on my way home? In every bush?"
Fuck.
"Uh… Yea… the pest kept dropping out…" he chuckled nervously. God dammit, she wasn't gonna believe that! A silence hung in the air for a moment, before she smiled with her eyes closed, and head tilted to the side.
"Ok!"
Does she really have to be that cute? -
WHOA WHOA WHOA ROMEO! WHERE'S THIS COMING FROM?! His mind screamed after its little comment. Ichigo looked down to the ground and kicked a few rocks here and there, a little red creeping into his cheek colour.
"Do you, uh… want me to… walk you home?" he asked. She smiled at him and nodded.
"Ok. Are you sure it won't be much of a bother though?" she asked gently, just to make sure. Ichigo nodded furiously, the red in his cheeks brightening.
God dammit, what the fuck is wrong with you Ichigo Kurosaki.
"So…" Ichigo began, trying to make a bit of conversation.
"Yes?" the girl at his side nonchalantly replied.
"Uh, you live around here?" Smooth Kurosaki, what the hell's it to you?!
"Yes, I do. Quite close actually." Ichigo nodded and looked around to avoid looking at her.
What was happening to him?! Why was he blushing, why was he nervous and why oh why did he call her cute?! No way in hell would he fall in love with her. Nah, it's not love. More like a tiny little attraction towards-
Ok, stuff that.
Kurosaki Ichigo was falling in love with little Ms. Perfect.
He shook his head and sighed. So much for hating her. He shook his head again, this time with more vigor.
No way Kurosaki, he thought angrily. You aren't gonna fall in love with her. At all. You hate her. She's trying to be perfect. No one is. Remember? You thought she was perfect, but all good things come to an end. He nodded, satisfied with the nervousness and blushing gone. Good.
He glanced left to look at her, and noticed there was a park there, right beside her. He watched the park for a few more moments before recognizing it. His eyes widened, immediately stinging with the burning sensation that begged to be released. Hot, wet tears just waiting to be shed hung dangerously close to his eyelashes, blurring his vision and replacing them with empty memories that are never to be relived.
"Ichigo! Hurry up, we have to go now!"
He slowly walked to the small playground that was deserted in the setting sun's light. His hand unconsciously rose up, trying to reach out and maybe, just maybe, he could relive that one memory, just a bit older with an older but still beautiful woman. Rukia's voice reached deaf ears as she tried to call out to the young man, trying to break him out of his stupor that was leaving him crying.
"A little longer mom!"
He stood in the centre of the playground, his hand slowly and painfully caressing the swing set. The strong metal poles, the rusting chains, the black rubbery leather seats, the imaginary wafting scent of frangipani and vanilla mixed with a hint of strawberry. He closed his eyes, tears now trailing down his cheeks and onto his abandoned schoolbag that lay at his feet, released from the tight grip that held it moments ago. The wind ruffled him slightly, making him shiver as he remembered so long ago.
When she was still alive.
"Ichigo!"
He smiled faintly in pain. He could still hear her voice, clear as day. He could smell her, a sharp hit to his senses.
Rukia stood behind him, her skirt and hair waving in the wind, her eyes a mysterious blue-purple, that held sadness for the poor boy. She knew that look, that pose, this setting. After all… what are you to do, when you witnessed the death of a young boy's mother?
Author's Note -
T.T
I fail as being a fanfiction author. I just practically ABANDONED this story and Hollow!!
*wails*
I have gotten so lazy, and lately no inspiration at all has got me to continue them! But I won't give up, I will still continue to write the two stories, and more to come! It's just that I have a really bad habit of getting new ideas and starting new fanfics, so as soon as Hollow and A Flaw in the Glass are finished, there is more to come! Here are the summaries so as to not make you guys wait too long. Heheh... Sorry so much for being lazy! I shall try HARDER this time now to update Hollow :)
Nani - What
Ohayou - Morning
(Summaries may change)
Dance with Me -
Of course, reluctantly attending a rich person's birthday party has you in a sour mood, especially when you're attending by force. You'd think, after this party, I bet nothing would have changed, and I'd probably just hate this one night of my life. But This one night, changed my whole life. -IchiRuki-
He's hers, She's yours, You're Mine -
Her hand left his own the moment he tried to console her, confront her. She began to walk past him when he grabbed for her. He missed. He stood there and watched as she walked away with tears. What could he do? There was nothing to be done. He couldn't do anything. She was gone. It was over. -IchiRuki- temporary RenRuki / IchiHime
You + Me + Him -
Normally, family relatives don't follow you everywhere you go with your love. First dates, Weddings, Honeymoons, New houses, New lives, yeah, that thing. No matter how protective they are, they just don't. It's against the law of the kids and parents law book. So what happens when a certain older brother in law decides to break every single one of them? -IchiRuki-