Chapter: Thoughts

Shalan's Brilliant: NO! I'm just kidding don't throw anything at me! …ducks… anyways… something a wee bit lemony… not really but you might have a slightly lemon-like taste in your mouth… tee hee anyways! Keep the reviews coming and I'll keep updating!

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Ichigo felt soft fingers on his skin when he woke the next morning. He didn't open his eyes and simply waited to see what the hands were going to do. Her fingers gingerly traced his collarbone a few times then became more bold and traced their way down to his chest, delicately drawing paths down his stomach. Her lips brushed his lightly and he knew that she was getting curious, not that she would ever tell him that while he was awake. He felt his loins tighten and closed his eyes tighter trying to block it out. Her hands combed down his body to the v of his navel, one finger following the path of the etched muscles but as her fingers reached the band of his pants she drew away, as her hand was moving his hand took hers. His eyes locked into hers as her breath caught in her throat, had he been awake the whole time?

"It's okay…" his voice was barely a hoarse whisper as he pulled her hand back and pressed her palm flat against his navel. She felt her face flush as his hand guided hers lower towards the semi-erect member beneath his sweatpants. She kept her eyes locked into his as her palm glided along the hardened flesh underneath the fabric. His eyes nearly rolled back into his head as she took her own liberty, her fingers slipping into the band of his pants. However, like a crab, she retreated back from him and pulled her hands up against her chest. She had gone too far. He groaned lightly as he sat up, turning his back to her, Jesus, her being curious was about make him loose it.

"S…sorry…" he heard her choke from behind him as he strained to control himself. He wanted her so badly just that little bit of contact made his entire body react wildly.

"It's… nothing…" he put his hands to his face, then felt a cool hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry…" his hazel eyes were soft as she moved over to sit next to him.

"No reason… I…" she hung her head slightly and Ichigo reached over, caressing the side of her face gently. Rukia leaned into his palm with a soft sigh. "I shouldn't have…" her blue eyes met his amber and she leaned forward, resting her head on his shoulder.

"It's alright… really… I don't know what came over me…" he lied, looking away from her.

"You're lying Kurosaki… I can always tell…" He looked down at her and she smiled up at him. "Thank you for it…" Her lips met his and his eyes did roll back into his head. His arms wrapped, rather painfully, around her small body and pulled her tightly against his. His left arm, ached slightly as he lifted it, bringing her lips closer to his. She groaned lightly as he left rough kisses down her neck. A feeling she had only felt once or twice before suddenly erupted in her belly again. The tingling heat that built up in her stomach. "Please stop…" She whispered through punctured breaths.

"I can't…" his amber eyes were dark with lust, she knew that look, it was the same look that the other had had in his eyes. "I don't want to…" he whispered to her, bringing her lips back to his. She moaned lightly as his hand slid down her body, his palm brushing her breast lightly. His lips caressed every scar on her face and neck, his hand pulled up her hand and he kissed the scar there as well.

"Please…" she trembled, she didn't know what this feeling was… but for some reason it scared her, it made her want to be far away from Ichigo… she hated it… because she associated it with sex… and she hated sex… because of him… Ichigo broke away and stood up with his back to her.

"I'm sorry…" He said before his hand grabbed his cane and he shuffled into his bathroom.

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Ichigo's family came and went the next week but the only thing he could think about was Rukia and where she was. After the incident the morning of Christmas she had bowed out the door while he watched. He had laughed with his sisters and his father… but it was Rukia he wanted.

He made his way painfully towards the door, wearing his suit pants and a button down shirt, his pea coat pulled over his suit jacket, he had to go in to work… Toshiro had asked him. The detective made his way painfully down the stairs, his body throbbing with pain so bad that he thought he would cry, not something he usually did.

When he arrived at the police station Toshiro looked up and gasp, "Ichigo! If you were still so badly injured why the fuck did you come?" The white haired man rushed to Ichigo's side, helping him into the soft chair nearby.

"I'm not that badly injured!" He panted and Toshiro folded his arms.

"Yeah… and I'm the queen of England…"

"You're not good looking enough…" Ichigo told him and Toshiro rolled his eyes.

"I can't believe you actually came down here!" Toshiro threw his hands up in the air. "Is there anything that can stop you from working?" The white haired young man was angry and Ichigo could tell… but it was his fault for telling him to come in…

"Nope… Listen… it's halfway through January… I think I can come back to work…" Ichigo told him.

"What's that?" Toshiro pointed at Ichigo's cane.

"I use it to walk…"

"Then you're not well enough to work… go home and get some more rest… didn't the doctors tell you to not do anything too strenuous?" Toshiro questioned and Ichigo hung his head, standing up rather painfully and walking out. "I'll call you if we need you!" Toshiro shouted after him. Ichigo slammed his fist into the hallway wall and walked off. Toshiro sighed. "YOU BETTER NOT HAVE BROKEN THE PLASTER!" He shouted after him.

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Ichigo shuffled through his house and walked over to the box on his dresser. He leaned the cane against the oak and picked up the box, slowly shuffling himself across to the bed. He sat down with a painful grunt and opened the box.

Inside were letters, pictures, a piece of lace… and several other things… all things he had kept from being overseas. Then there it was, all the way at the bottom, a small black box. It had been bought cheap when he was in Asia for a time and he had brought it home, not knowing its worth. He opened the little box and the item inside sparkled in his eyes. It was a silver ring, with nine diamonds set in it. Three princess cut diamonds were set up above the others, the middle one being the largest and set slightly above the others, three on either side were set a little further down in the silver… he had bought it as a trinket for his sister, but on a whim he had taken it to a jeweler to have it reset for her, in a smaller ring, that was when the jeweler had told him, the diamonds set in it weren't man made diamonds… they were diamonds that had been dug out of the mines in Africa. Ichigo had blinked, not realizing that without knowing it, he had made an expensive investment for little to nothing.

When he had asked how much it was worth the answer that he was given was not one that he expected. The jeweler told him that the diamonds themselves were worth, all together, nearly a million dollars… at the time… now the ring was worth more. However… Ichigo had kept it, for some reason or another, and he now knew what he was going to do with it. He took it out of the box and slipped it onto a chain around his neck, from now on he would carry it with him.

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"Sarah… could you get me…" She stopped and stared. Her brother sat at her desk again. "BYAKUYA!" She jumped into his arms.

"I heard about what happened to you!" He wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"I know… isn't it horrible! I mean! To loose a client like that!" She shook her head.

"Not that…" Byakuya frowned down at her and she looked up into his eyes.

"Nothing happened other than that Byakuya…" She looked up at him again.

"Oh really… you wanna explain this then?" Byakuya tossed her a newspaper from a few months before. It was the picture of her talking about what had happened at the grocer. "I want you to stay away from him."

"No problem… he'll probably never see me again anyways…" but some how, her saying this made her sad… why did it make her sad?

"Good, if you do happen to encounter him… do not speak to him again… do you understand me?" Byakuya said sternly and she nodded.

"You wanna get some dinner?" She looked up at him but her eyes were sad… she missed hearing his voice.

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He hummed in his sleep. She would always remember that, it was rather flat and tuneless… but it was comforting and rather lulling. He had slept there all night with her in his arms… how uncomfortable it must have been for him! Everything she did was an endangerment to him. It was like… just because she was around him he would get hurt… she didn't know why but she was a curse to him.

Or was he a curse to her? She wondered this as she lay in bed. She wondered what had happened to her… since she had met him… she had felt something… something was stirring inside her… and that something wasn't anything good.

He just wanted sex. That was what she had decided. She hated sex… it was the worse thing that God had ever given the humans the ability to do. It was rough and ugly to her, it was a horrible thing that caused pain. Of course men would take advantage of it, because it didn't hurt them… they could get pleasure out of any woman… they didn't care about whether the woman was comfortable or not.

So why did she want him to touch her? She couldn't get past this undeniable fact, the day that she had broken her own limits was also the day that she realized that she wanted him… to touch her.

But sex is ugly… she shuddered, he would be like the other, he would be rough and uncaring. He had already shown that through his shattering of her personal space through those kisses he had place on her neck.

It was that time that made her skin tingle. Those kisses still tingled on her neck and shoulder, and she didn't like it… she hated it in fact… but for some reason they stayed there like oil on ones skin.

He made her feel things she'd never felt before. He could make her feel sad, happy and angry all at the same time. She had never felt such a mixed set of emotions. But he could also make her moan like she never had before… those kisses.

Kisses. His kisses drove her up the wall, building the foreign feeling up inside her. It was beyond the warmth that she had gotten when she kissed Kaien… it was much more powerful… but she couldn't identify it.

Those dreams. She had never had dreams quite like that. Most people have normal dreams… she usually had dreams about her family and unfortunately, the dreams of her rape… but sometimes she would dream about orange hair and amber eyes, those beautiful amber eyes that drifted through her mind. It was from those dreams that she would wake up covered in sweat, tangled in her sheets, a burning flame built up within her belly.

His eyes. Those eyes… she couldn't get them out of her head… he had the eyes of a god, the most beautiful eyes that she had ever seen, even Kaien's eyes couldn't match up to the exotic ocher of Ichigo Kurosaki's eyes.

His body… oh how her fingers longed to drag themselves across his body again… she shuddered slightly, but he was built better than the other, his body was beautiful to her, if beautiful was a good word… she remember the time she had walked in on him. Jesus… seeing him in all his glory was something that she hadn't expected… but for some reason it had built the blaze a little higher.

His attitude, he was so weird about things… he was lazy and rather sloppy but when it came to his work he was sharp and calculating. The way he handle that gun away simply amazing and she wasn't used to it. The look in those stunning eyes… that deadly gleam that sent fear down her spine.

Why was she thinking about him so much? She buried her face into her pillow and tried to think about something other than the detective with the sexy smirk. His accent rang in her ears and she thought she was going to gouge her eyes out.

I'm falling for him.

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Ichigo stumbled through the store, he was definitely doing better now, on Valentine's Day he was going out to the store to buy something for his dinner, however he paused as he walked in. He saw that familiar saunter, the sashay that he recognized all too well. He got the feeling that he was glad he had two guns with him. He followed her silently then walked back through, deciding to wait until she walked out to talk to her.

He heard someone stumbled and turned around. "Damn you Ichigo…" He heard her mutter under her breath. Something dropped and again. "Damn it! Ichigo it's all your FAULT!" She kicked the can and walked out then froze, looking over at the detective that stood in front of her. "Ichigo…" she breathed. She hadn't seen him in nearly a month and a half… yet here he was in front of her… why? She believed it was fate.

"What did I do?" He lifted an eyebrow. "Can I get a ride?" He smiled at her, she was surprised to see him still with his cane.

"Can't you walk?" She asked him softly and he shook his head.

"All the way to my apartment?" He motioned the cane in the direction of his apartment. "And why should I have to waste money on a taxi when I have you within my grasp?" He smiled at her and she frowned.

"So what do I look like now, your personal taxi service?" She asked as they got into her car. But secretly she was pleased that he wanted her to take him home. She didn't know why but she was happy that he relied on her for something.

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He helped her out of the car as they laughed, he felt the hair on the back of his neck tingle and he heard a click. Why? Why was it always with her!? "GET BEHIND ME!" He shouted and shoved her back, pulling out the two guns, one from his shoulder holster and the other from his hip and his jacket whipped in the air as he dropped on one knee as gunfire rained down on them.

"There you are…" He muttered and fired up at the shooter, he heard a yelp and the gun fire stopped. "STAY HERE!" He jumped up the ladder and dragged himself up and took off after the injured gunner. 'I have to protect her…' He keep going despite the cover fire from apparently another shooter. 'I will protect her…' her face flashed through his mind and he pulled his arms up, firing as he ran towards the gunner. A bullet ripped through his chest, near the wound from before and another tore through the muscles in his left thigh but he simply kept going as another scraped his cheek and shoulder.

"I'M GOING TO PROTECT HER!" He released both clips and easily put in another set and jumped over the side of the building at the two retreating backs.

"May god have mercy on your SOULS!" The detective suddenly took a blow to the chest with a baseball bat and he fell backwards, the guns scuttling across the ground.

"Good… now we've got you…" A gun was pointed at his face and he felt his eyes darken… he had failed… how could he have failed. Then gunshots rang in his ears. 'RUKIA!' he felt tears well up in his eyes.

'Looks like… I never did get to ask her…' his eyes dimmed further and his breathing became shallow but not before he saw it. He saw a bullet zoom above him and the man's grey matter came out the back of his head. More gun fire and everything went black in his world.

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Yeah… poor Ichigo… so is the orange haired lunk every going to stop getting injured? Have I killed him this time? Am I really that cruel?

YES!

Shalan