2.
A sombre silence hung over the Kurosaki household. The living room would have been pitch black were it not for the warm glow of lights around the Christmas tree which stood on silent vigil in the corner of the room.
Ichigo sat up straight, unable to relax. Rukia had fallen asleep long ago and now lay sprawled over his lap like a kitten. Normally he would have been happy at this moment, Hell he's be overjoyed, but he just couldn't smile.
Not now.
Ichigo stayed up all night, staring out the widow, watching the orange glow of sunrise to faze in through the window. As soon as morning came he gingerly placed Rukia to the side and got up. He laid the sleeping shinigami girl down on the couch and placed a soft pillow under her head before leaving the room.
He headed straight for the infirmary out the back of the house and stood over the resting girl. She seemed familiar somehow, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then again Ichigo had never been good at recognising faces.
The girl was only young, probably still in primary school. She didn't look any older than his own sisters, Yuzu and Karin. She looked so calm, so at peace in her sleep. Light blonde locks swept down over her forehead and around her porcelain white cheeks. She reminded Ichigo of Yuzu and that only made him feel worse. He began to contemplate just what he would do if his own sisters had been in an accident.
The though forced a whimper out of him and it was that single utterance in the otherwise noiseless home that woke the girl from slumber. Her eyelids quivered, then slowly opened revealing soft brown eyes. Her pupils rolled around dazedly for a moment before settling upon the mysterious boy standing watch over her.
Her eyes widened and a shrill scream escaped her. She tried to scramble away from him but only launched herself off the bed and slamming into the floor with a loud thud. In an instant Rukia came rushing in from the other room to check up on the commotion and that only made the girl scream again.
Ichigo stepped forward casually and held his hands out in an offering of peace, "Hey, hey calm down! Shh! You're safe here; we're not going to hurt you-"
"Get away from me!" she cried, scuttling across the floor on all fours and shutting herself inside a medicine cupboard.
"Please come out of there," Ichigo pleaded, "I'm...Well I'm kind of a doctor."
"NO!" the girl snapped back, the sound muffled by the cupboard door.
Ichigo rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of the handle. It wasn't hard to wrestle the door open but in that instant he was met with a fierce slap to the face which sent him stumbling back into Rukia and knocking them both down to the floor.
The girl crawled out and tried to run away but her legs gave out on her and she toppled like a felled tree.
The young adults caught her and tried to calm her down but she kept on resisting.
"No, no no! Don't touch me! Get away! I don't wanna die!"
Ichigo froze. He sagged back onto his knees and just sat there, eyes wide. Rukia tried her best to stop the little girl from squirming but she too felt a surprisingly powerful slap and was rocked back onto her ass. The girl propped herself up against the bed and stood up on shaking legs.
"You!" she snarled, pointing an accusing finger at the two, "I remember you!"
"You do?" Rukia cocked her head to the side like a puppy.
"How could I forget?" the girl screamed, "You tried to kill me! Now you're trying to finish me off! You're both sick! How dare you try and- Ah" She fell down onto one knee and leaned heavily against the bed.
Rukia and Ichigo both shared uneasy glances. Who the hell was this girl? And what was that she said about trying to kill her?
…
The ball dropped. Rukia's face drained of colour and she slowly turned to Ichigo again with a look of utter dread.
"What?" the fiery-haired youth asked calmly.
"Ichigo...It's her!" Rukia whispered harshly, "It's that girl from the pet store!"
"WHAT?" he said...Not so calmly.
"I'm sure it's her," Rukia continued, "Who else could it be?"
"Anyone but her!" Ichigo yelled, not really understanding the concept of inside voices or the fact that the girl in question was sitting only a few metres away.
"What are you doing?" The girl asked dazedly, her head slowly rocking forward as if it were too heavy to keep up, "Are you choosing your next victims already?"
The two had pretty much ignored that, still too engrossed in their own conversation. "It can't be her!" Ichigo yelled, softer now but still too loudly.
"Well how about we find out?"
"How?"
"Simple!" Rukia beamed. She whirled around to face the girl and with a perfect smile she stated matter-of-factly, "I kill kittens."
The little girl's face went a few shades paler, then it went bright red. Then she disappeared in a blur of movement and appeared before Rukia, tackling her and wrapping her tiny hands around her throat.
"You bitch! How dare you kill the innocent little kitties? I'll kill you! I'll make you suffer their pain!"
As Rukia was weakly throttled she glanced over to Ichigo and nodded. It was her, no doubt. Ichigo quickly ran up behind her and lifted the girl off of her opponent and held her back form rushing in for another attack.
"Come on, stop acting like a child." he requested feebly. There was little chance of that happening, he knew but he just felt it had to be said.
"Let go of me you creep! I wanna see my mum and dad! Where did you take them?"
"They're..." Ichigo struggled to find the words.
"At the hospital." Rukia decided to find them for him. He shot her a glare but Rukia let it roll of her back and continued, "There was a car accident last night. You mum and dad are in the hospital and since there wasn't enough room we decided to take care of you. We aren't trying to hurt you or anything so please calm down."
For a moment the girl was handling it well, then the tears came. "Let me see them! I have to see them!"
"How?" Ichigo inquired, "It's not like we can walk there and my dad isn't here to give us a lift so-"
"I'll drive!"
"Huh?"
Rukia smiled warmly as she repeated herself, "I said I'll drive."
"You can drive?"
"Of course I can!" she huffed defensively. "Are you saying women can't drive?"
"No, no it's not that. It's just...Well weren't you like my age when you died?"
"Wha-" The pet store girl tried to interject, only to be interrupted herself. Ichigo leaned down over her and signalled for quiet.
"I'll explain another time." He then whirled back around to face Rukia, "And another thing, did they even have cars when you were alive?"
"No, but all third seats or higher in the Gotei 13 have been required to take a driving test every ten years ever since 1950."
"Why?" Ichigo said with a sweat-drop sliding down his face.
"Just in case, obviously."
"But you can all fly! You can use shunpo! What possible use is there for driving a car?"
"I can use my skills right now if we stop arguing!" Rukia snarled.
"Ok, ok fine. Let's go."
Ichigo turned to the pet store girl who had never looked more confused and/or terrified in her entire life. She stared blankly at the two and shook her head, "What...What drugs have you been taking? You can't drive if you're intoxicated!"
"Sure you can," Ichigo muttered, pushing the young girl along, "you just can't drive well."
And so they dragged the girl into Isshin's work car, stuffing her in the back seat while Ichigo sat in the front passenger seat and Rukia, in the driver's chair which was so big it made her look like a toddler pretending to drive. The seatbelt was way too large and rather than cross her chest it wrapped around her chin.
For the next twelve minutes Rukia adjusted the seat, the seatbelt, the mirrors and then just sat there as if she was unsure what to do next.
"Well?" Ichigo goaded, "What are you doing? Start the car."
"Uh...Yeah, in a minute." Her lack of confidence wasn't encouraging at all.
Ichigo frowned, "Don't tell me you forgot how to drive!"
"No, I haven't forgotten! It's just been about nine years since I last got in a car. I'm sort of...Overwhelmed with memories-"
"What drugs have you been taking?" The menace in the back seat cried.
"So how do you shinigami actually go on these driver's tests anyway?"
Rukia didn't even look at him as she groaned, "You don't want to know."
"Well actually-"
"You don't want to know!" Rukia floored it. If it were a Delorean the car might have disappeared and travelled through time before it even got out of the driveway. Instead it jetted across the road and swerved onto the front lawn of the house across the street. It wheeled around just before crashing through the front window and then Rukia put the pedal to the medal and raced off across the footpath.
"SLOW DOWN! USE THE BRAKES!" Ichigo squealed desperately as he was thrown around in his seat, feeling like a crash test dummy. "You just ran through a red light! You just ran through a pedestrian crossing! You just...You missed the road! This is a shopping centre!"
"Stop! Stop, for the love of god please stop!" The pet store girl added to Ichigo's cried creating a pure cacophony inside the car and a thunderous roar from the over-worked engine outside. There was black exhaust spewing out the back in thick blanketing clouds. The tyres screeched as Rukia rounded corners without applying the brake at all.
Soon enough they arrived outside the hospital. The car came to such a sudden stop that the pet store girl was thrown from her seat and rolled into the front with her face squashed up against the windscreen. Ichigo had somehow been turned upside down and now sat on his head with one leg out the side window and the other curled around his torso between his arms which had become tied together in the process.
Rukia seemed entirely unaffected by the wild ride. Not even a hair had been messed up throughout the cross country detour. She giggled and scratched the back of her head, appearing a little too proud considering the insurmountable cost of damage she had caused. She took notice of Ichigo's current state and clapped like a little kid.
"Wow, that's a cool pose Ichigo!"
Ichigo just rolled his eyes, "I'm so sick of hearing that..."
Wasn't that fun? Now how about you get into the holiday spirit and review? Studies have shown that gift-giving has positive physical and neurological side effects so come on! Review!