Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters! Thanks to CrystalRaindrop007 for Beta'ing!
Before the rain . . . there is always darkness. — Me
Before The Rain — III
Rukia smiled as she looked out her window the next morning. A thick blanket of beautiful, glimmering, white snow covered the ground. Her eyes glowed happily as she jumped from her thick green quilt and quickly threw off her nightclothes, pulling on an outfit much like the one she had worn the previous day, except her red sweater was thicker and she wore warm, black leggings under her jean skirt.
After pulling on her warm winter boots, she clambered down the stairs and grabbed a piece of toast before running out of the house.
She wanted to go to the stable. For two reasons, mainly. To ride Morning Glory through the fresh snow, and to see Ichigo.
She got to do the latter first, as he greeted her with a snowball to the back.
Shrieking, she turned around, frantically wiping the snow from her neck. He was leaning against the door to the barn, grinning, his arms crossed over his chest. He still wore that half-scowl, but she didn't care as she glared at him playfully.
"Yo!" he said happily, pulling himself from the doorway and walking out to her.
"What are you so happy about?" she asked, sneezing.
Ichigo handed her a tissue and she accepted it gratefully.
"Seeing someone besides the stinky horses this morning," Ichigo replied.
Rukia laughed quietly as she bent down in the snow, picking up a handful of the soft, white powder and forming it into a ball. Ichigo understood what she was going to do right away and tried to hide behind the barn door. But the show hit him straight in the face; Rukia was fast.
"This means war!" Ichigo cried, bending down and picking up snow in his bare hand. Rukia squealed as the snowball hit her in the back, and soon it was a full-out war.
Soon, they were both completely showered in snow and were laying right outside the barn. Rukia was panting for breath, and Ichigo was just staring at her, his eyebrows raised.
"You cold?" he asked, sitting up and pulling one of his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arm around it loosely.
"A little," Rukia replied, sitting up beside him and smiling as she stuck her bright pink hands into her skirt pockets.
Ichigo shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. She gasped in surprise, but then snuggled into the warmth of his wool coat. He smiled and leaned back against the barn wall, wrapping his arms around himself as he watched Rukia pick up a blade of grass that was sticking up through the snow. She turned to him and smiled, a happy glint in her eye as she pressed it between her thumbs and then blew on it.
Ichigo was surprised to hear the loud sound that emitted from the grass as she blew on it.
"Woah! What was that?" he asked.
Rukia's smile only grew as she blew on it again, then said, "Well, I guess it's like a harmonica. I can't make different sounds with it, but my mom taught me to do this when I was just three. It took me forever to get it right, though," Rukia said, handing the grass blade to Ichigo. He took it from her hand and pressed it between his own two thumbs, blowing on it.
Nothing happened.
Rukia grinned and showed him how to do it right, but he still couldn't get it to make any sound.
"The hell are you doin' with that slave?"
Both Rukia and Ichigo turned around fast to see Renji leaning up against the snow-covered railing to the stable. Ichigo quickly stood to his feet, Rukia following him.
"Stop calling him a slave!" Rukia said, glaring at Renji.
He sighed, rolling his eyes at her.
"Whatever. What are you two doing? Back to work, Stable boy," Renji said, smirking.
Ichigo nodded, glaring at Renji, but walked back inside quickly.
"Rukia, come with me," Renji pushed, motioning for her to follow him. She nodded hesitantly and began climbing over the fence when she remembered that she was still wearing Ichigo's coat.
"Be right back!" she said, running back into the barn.
Rukia found Ichigo already cleaning out one of the horse stalls. She walked inside and took his coat off, handing it to him. He shook his head, still smiling.
"Nah. I don't need it. You're cold, you use it. Just come by tomorrow to give it back, OK?"
Rukia smiled and nodded, putting the coat back on over her red sweater again and hugging it tightly to her as she breathed in the scent. He had a unique scent, like nothing she had smelled before. She let her violet eyes wander upward and meet with his own intense brown ones.
"Sorry about Renji. He's not usually like this . . ." she said, looking down at the ground. Ichigo shrugged.
"He seems like a jerk," Ichigo said. Rukia elbowed him, letting her eyes linger on him for a minute before leaning up on her tip-toes and kissing him quickly on the cheek before bouncing away.
"Thanks for letting me borrow your coat!" she said happily as she ran out of the stable, her cheeks bright red from what she had just done.
As he watched her run out, Ichigo pressed his bare hand to his cheek where she had just kissed him, smiling like an idiot.
"Does that belong to the slave?" Renji asked, pointing to the coat. Rukia glared at him.
"I said, stop calling him that! He has a name," she pointed out, still glaring at him as she knocked the snow off of her shoes then sat down on the ground to pull off said shoes. They were soaking wet and covered in mud and snow. After peeling off her socks and dumping them in a nearby laundry basket, she began climbing the stairs to her room, Renji on her heels.
"So, does it belong to him?"
"Yeah. So what?"
"Why are you wearing a slave coat?"
"Because I was cold and he noticed. He let me borrow it until tomorrow," she said, smiling a little as she bounced up the stairs. Renji followed her at a slower pace.
"Rukia, I really don't think it's a good idea for you to be spending so much time around that stable boy-"
"Ichigo."
"Huh?"
"His name's Ichigo, Renji," Rukia said, slightly annoyed.
"Whatever," Renji said, not really hearing her. He waved it off with his hand and Rukia fumed. "Will you please stop hanging out with that slave?"
Rukia stopped in her tracks. She turned around and glared at Renji. If looks could kill, Renji would probably be six feet under right now. Rukia said, "Renji, I swear, if you don't stop calling Ichigo 'slave' I will personally make sure you will never have kids, understand?"
Renji, who was fearing for his manhood, nodded and Rukia walked the rest of the way up to her room and slammed the door behind her.
"Moody little . . ."
Renji continued mumbling under his breath as he walked down the stairs.
Rukia pulled off the coat and gently laid it on her bed before sitting down beside it and pulling out her drawing pad.
She was stuck in the house until the current storm stopped, which could be a while. As soon as she and Renji had started walking back to the castle, the snow had began pouring down. Rukia was glad for the extra coat, and had hugged it tightly to herself as they walked back. Once they had entered the castle, Byakuya had said that Renji would have to stay int he castle until the storm stopped.
Kicking her feet back and forth, she laid down on her stomach on her bed. Her legs were kicking back and forth in the air as she chewed on the edge of her pencil, wondering what to draw.
Smiling, she turned the pencil around and began scribbling on the paper.
"Rukia, Kuchiki-sama wants to speak to you," Renji said, pushing open Rukia's door.
Rukia nodded and climbed out of her bed, hiding her drawing pad under her pillow and skipping happily out of the door. Renji was still standing in her doorway as she walked down the stairs, heading for the living room where her brother always talked with her. Curious as to what she had been drawing, Renji found himself walking inside her bedroom and over to her bed.
He reached down and touched the pillow, as if not sure he was supposed to look. Which, he probably wasn't, seeing as she had covered it.
But curiosity got the better of him and as he lifted the pillow off of the drawing pad, he gasped.
The drawing wasn't just good, it was beautiful. Renji's mouth fell open as he stared at the drawing that couldn't possibly be hers. It wasn't those stupid bunny scribblings she usually did; it was a beautiful background of a sun setting and the river with the wind blowing grass everywhere. He recognized it as her special place.
And then he notices the two figures in the corner. One is her, in a beautiful white dress and the second is a figure he doesn't recognize at first, but then the bright orange hair gives it away. In the picture, they aren't touching each other, but instead, they are simply facing each other, and she is smiling.
Renji didn't know she could draw like that; and her coloring was perfect. It was a beautiful picture. But it was incomplete. The left side of the picture was not finished and the figures of Rukia and Ichigo were not completely colored, as wasn't the grass.
Putting it back under the pillow, Renji quickly walked from the room.
How did she draw like that?
Rukia entered the living room and sat down across from her brother. He just stared at her for a second before speaking.
"Rukia . . . you do realize that your sixteenth birthday is in six weeks, correct?"
Rukia nodded, not speaking.
"And, in following Kuchiki tradition, you will be married on the eve of your birthday."
Rukia gasped, her mouth hanging open as she stared at her brother. He continued,
"If you do not choose a proper husband within the next four weeks, one will be chosen for you among the royal princes and honorable men. Do you have anyone in mind?"
Rukia, still shocked, shook her head.
"Very well. Think on it. If you have not chosen by the end of December, it will be chosen for you so you may be married on January thirteenth."
The next morning the snow had stopped falling, and Byakuya was accompanying his sister out for a morning ride.
When they arrived at the stable, they saw Ichigo up on the roof, without a shirt, tearing off old boards and putting on new ones that didn't leak.
The stable was a large area fenced in for training and breaking the horses. The wooden railings were steady and fun to climb on, and surrounded the barn in two large circles. The closest one was nearly fifty feet from the barn, the wooden railings going in a twenty foot wide circle. The second joined its railing with the first, and its outside railing was nearly fifteen feet out. Inside the two circles was a large practice area.
Besides the barn, inside the stable, there was a large supply shed where tools were kept, because everything horse related was inside the warm, hay filled barn.
Byakuya spoke up to Ichigo.
"Kurosaki."
Ichigo nearly fell off the roof with surprise. But once he had gained his composure he quickly pulled his shirt back on, and wiping sweat from his face, he jumped to the ground and bowed before them quickly before speaking.
"Kuchiki-sama, Rukia, good morning. I suppose you are here to ride?"
Rukia nodded happily, gripping the stable railing in her hand as Byakuya nodded, too. Ichigo walked inside the barn, coming out a second later with Morning Glory. He quickly helped Rukia up and then turned back to Byakuya.
"Kuchiki-sama, which horse would you like to ride?"
"Senbonzakura," Byakuya replied simply. Ichigo nodded and walked back inside, then came back out with Byakuya's horse.
As they rode out of the stable, Rukia called back,
"Thanks, Ichigo!"
He just smiled and nodded, going back to his work.
"No! Leave my mommy alone! Please!"
Nine-year-old Ichigo yelled and cried as the two older men held him still. He kicked and screamed, trying to reach his mother, who was being held by one older man. She wasn't fighting against the man, though; she was standing completely still as she watched Ichigo fight to try and help her.
"Ichigo, please, take care of Yuzu and Karin," she said quietly, smiling sadly as the man hauled her away from her son.
"No!" Ichigo screamed, not caring when the tears began to roll down his face. Breaking free, he fell forward onto the ground but quickly pulled himself up and began to run across the soft, dirt ground. Tears coursing down his face, he ran after his mother.
Then, the gunshot was heard.
Ichigo screamed and fell to the ground, watching as his mother fell also, her beautiful white dress now soaked through with her red blood.
Ichigo awoke in a cold sweat. Turning over in the hay loft that he slept inside of, he buried his face in the hay, but was unable to erase the dream. He hated waking up to this every morning. He hated seeing over and over again how he had caused his mother to die. He hated watching her death over and over again.
But every single night, he would fall to sleep knowing that he would awake soon to reality that was plagued in darkness and bad memories. Sitting up in his bed, he put his head in his hands and allowed himself to remember the rest of the story.
He hadn't cared who was watching him. He'd cried and screamed out into the night air. His voice pierced the darkness as the men caught up with him again and grabbed him, hauling him off and throwing him into the waiting stall.
Curling up into a corner, he cried all night for his mom. But when morning came, he dried his tears and stood tall and strong, ready to face whatever these men did to him.
But when the man came into his stall and looked him over, Ichigo became scared. The man, who said he was called Aizen Sosuke, turned around to the guards and said,
"I'll take him for five gold pieces."
After the deal was made, Ichigo was taken roughly by the arm and hauled out of the stall.
After that, he was worked harder than he ever remembered. He was called a slave and forced to sleep outside with the animals. During the day, he worked in the field with the older men. It was hard, dirty work, but he did everything he was told, for if he misbehaved, his father and sisters would be punished, just like his mom. They didn't work with him, no, they worked elsewhere, the girls inside a castle and his father doing harder work, but they would be punished. And he knew it.
The only way that the men who owned him got him to work and behave was to threaten his family. And he had made one slip-up . . . just one . . . and his mom had been killed. Ripped from his life and from the life of his family.
He couldn't . . . no, wouldn't let that happen to his sisters and father. He would have to take the work, the beatings and the insults thrown at him. He would have to endure them for his family's sake. And he would live.
When he turned sixteen, he was taken from Aizen Sosuke's grasp and was sold to another man, Byakuya Kuchiki. The man that had picked him up was nice; he was always smiling and wore a funky hat and sandals. He told Ichigo everything he should and shouldn't do. He should call his master Kuchiki-sama, he shouldn't get into fights, he should act proper whenever Byakuya Kuchiki was around, and he shouldn't complain about any work given to him.
But then he met her.
Then . . . he met Rukia.
Ichigo dried his tears and stood to his feet, climbing out of his loft and dropping to the hard, wooden floor beneath him. He smiled as he got ready for the day. It was way to early, but he wanted to be there and already done with part of the days work when Rukia arrived, because she had promised that he could come riding with her.
That was what he looked forward to every day; seeing Rukia. She would come by every morning and ride. After she was done riding, she would always stay a while and talk to him. Sometimes she stayed all day.
In the two weeks since he had been working in the stable, he had talked more than he had in the last five years. He had tried just listening at first, but soon Rukia's happy persnality began to affect him and he was talking with her daily. But he hadn't told her anything about his mother yet.
"You can tell me when you're ready," she had said.
And he had just smiled and leaned against the cold snow again.
Rukia hummed to herself as she walked along.
It had been a week and a half since her brother had told her about her having to get married, and she hadn't thought it much. Who would she marry? She would rather have a choice than to be forced into a marriage where she didn't love the man, but there was no one she wanted to marry. Her knight in shining armour hadn't come yet.
Maybe he would drop into her life right in time.
"Oy, Rukia!"
Rukia smiled as she looked up to see Ichigo sitting up on top of the roof of the barn. He was grinning, though his permanent scowl was still in place. It made him look somewhat . . . cute.
"You said we'd go ridin' today!"
Ichigo began climbing down the roof, but as he was about to jump off the edge like he usually did, he slipped on the slick roof and flew off the edge and into a pile of freshly fallen snow.
Rukia laughed as she helped him up.
"Now it's even; I've helped you up twice, and you've helped me twice," she said.
"I guess so, huh? Now, let's go riding!"
Rukia giggled as she followed Ichigo inside.
Then again, maybe her prince had already fallen into her life. One never knew . . .
Well, what do you think? I personally am having a ball writing this! It's soo fun! So you can hate it if you want, but I'm not going to stop writing!
Please Review!