Don't own Bleach. Boo.
To a certain reviewer who said "She better win!" How could you even say that? This is a HitsuRuki fic! Not HitsuNobody and RukiDickhead fic. Pish posh!
But oh! An action scene! The fight's a little anti-climactic, but I guess everything has a reason. And I hope everything I pictured in my head comes across clearly. Oh well…
Also, 'these are thoughts' "This is speaking" and duh, this is normal narration. Just throwing it out there.
"Love And…"
CH 4: Love and Quests: for love and for revenge
The crowd of onlookers waited nervously for the fight to start. What would happen to Rukia? Sure, she had been promoted to vice-captaincy of her division, but recently she was just like Daisuke…
Rukia's friends and all the captains and other vice-captains knew, of course, that Rukia was more than capable of taking care of herself. She did acquire her bankai, after all. What could Daisuke do to her?
"Fight!" cried Ukitake.
Daisuke let out a yell and charged Rukia, his sword extended straight out in front of him with both hands wrapped around it.
Hitsugaya and Byakuya gasped. 'What kind of opening move is that? He looks like he aims to kill her!'
Rukia, however, reacted more calmly. She slipped out of the way of Daisuke's blade before it could pierce her and caught it in her own sword's sheath. Daisuke's face was the picture of surprise, even more so when Rukia used Shirayuki's sheath to twist his sword out of his hands. Rukia swung her sheath so Daisuke's sword went flying away from them.
Daisuke looked like a fish with his big round eyes and gaping mouth. He could only listen to the clatter of his sword hitting the ground and stare at the girl who was going to beat him up. Rukia smirked.
"I'll only say this once," she said, "the name's RUKIA!"
"AGH!"
Rukia had stomped on Daisuke's foot while sheathing her sword. The boy's natural reaction betrayed him—as he cried and bent down to try and assuage the pain in his foot, Rukia's fist flew towards his face (now at a more reachable distance for her) and hit him square in the nose.
CRACK!
Daisuke fell over unconscious with a very busted nose.
The crowd was silent.
"Yeah! GO RUKA!" bellowed Ichigo and Renji.
Rukia looked over to her friends and grinned. The rest of her spectators, especially the ones from the 13th, burst into cheers.
Ukitake smiled and called out "You still have a little over nine minutes left!"
"I knew it was going to be over too quickly." Rukia sauntered over to her friends.
"Seriously, is ten minutes even necessary?" Hitsugaya smiled. 'I want to hug her…' he thought, 'but would she be ok with that? And I'm not really the kind of guy to be so touchy feely—besides those two times when we first started really talking…'
"Well," she winked, "a good lady should try to be generous." She looked over at the unconscious Daisuke. "Even with the hopeless cases." Rukia knew the outcome of her fight with that Tokugawa rat, nevertheless she was so happy! 'If I hugged him right now…but I did just beat up one of his subordinates…' Rukia dissuaded herself from initiating physical contact.
"Hmm…I guess I should feel bad for him since he is part of my squad…" the young man sarcastically trailed off.
Rukia giggled, but before she could continue their conversation she was pulled away and into a hug by Orihime, who was chattering excitedly.
"You know you don't feel bad," Matsumoto came up and elbowed him.
"I know, I know." Hitsugaya sighed. "Someone needed to show him that he needs to be more serious about his training and work as a soul reaper."
"Weeeeell…" Matsumoto whispered. "I figured it's more like you don't feel bad because he was fighting for a chance to marry the girl you like…"
"WHAT!?!" Hitsugaya yelled. He had come to terms with his feelings (sort of), but it's not like he wanted it known through out Soul Society. He glanced over at Byakuya who was congratulating his sister. The elder Kuchiki left, probably to try and find a stronger less foolish man to try and beat Rukia.
"Don't worry! I doubt Byakuya or anyone else heard." The blonde vice-captain waved him off. "You should talk to her about how you feel."
Hitsugaya gave a "hmph!" and said "I don't think I need your advice." He watched Rukia laugh along with her friends.
Matsumoto and him watched her high-five Ichigo. "Rukia's a tough girl and probably won't lose to any of those rich guys her brother gets to fight her," she began, "But, eventually someone else might come along and win her heart."
"I know you're my captain and I'm your vice-captain, but you're like a little brother to me," Matsumoto sighed. "Please don't wait too long to talk to Rukia. My woman's intuition tells me she'd probably be really happy to know you're interested in her."
Matsumoto made her way to the growing circle of people congratulating Rukia on such a fast win. "HEY, RUKIA!" she bellowed, diving into the crowd. "Way to go, girl!"
'Okay,' Hitsugaya looked up to the sky and made an oath to himself. 'I won't fight her like any of the other guys…she deserves someone who'd rather be with her by winning her heart and getting to know her than beating her on the battlefield.' He looked over at the crowd surrounding the object of his affections. Rukia was now being lifted up over their shoulders crying "Wait! Wait! This is too much! It's not like I defeated some high-ranking fighter!"
'I am going to try to get her to fall for me! And when the time is right, I'll tell her exactly how I feel.' The white-haired teen made his way over to join his friends. 'I think I love you, Rukia.'
---------------------------Aw! So sweet! I'd rather have someone try to be with my through wining my heart instead of trying to beat me up too, Toushiro Hitsugaya! Time elapse!-----------------------------
By the time Daisuke woke up, the sun was beginning to set.
"Ugh!" he groaned. "What happened?" He sat up and clutched his head. He felt a lump of bandages where his nose should be. "Ah! My nose!"
"Oh! You're awake!" a cheerful voice said.
Daisuke looked over and saw an attendant from the 4th division. He realized then that he was lying in a bed in the 4th division infirmary instead of the 13th division training grounds and claiming that Kuchiki girl for his bride.
"My nose! My face!" he cried out to the attendant. "What happened to them?" He was much too distraught to notice that said attendant was cute. What use was a pretty girl when his face was in such a horrid condition?
"You don't remember?" the girl asked incredulously. "Wow, Vice-captain Kuchiki must have hit you pretty hard if the pieces of your broken face did damage to your brain…"
Suddenly, it all came back to Daisuke—arriving at 13th's training grounds, greeting Byakuya and his sister, his sister's cute friend with the boobs…and his very fast and humiliating defeat.
"…I mean, WHAM! What a punch!" the girl giggled. "Boy, you were lucky you were unconscious! Everyone kept cheering for Vice-captain Kuchiki and laughing and pointing at you…"
"…up…"
"…before anyone could attempt to write 'loser' on your forehead, Captain Unohana had us move you over here and fix up your face…"
"I said SHUT UP!" Daisuke cried.
"Geez, sore loser much?" the chatty attendant complained. "Why can't you be cool like Vice-captain Kuchiki? She's a noble like you but I hear from some guys in the 13th that she's pretty cool."
"Be quiet about that woman!" Daisuke crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. He was glaring at nothing in particular. 'Ridiculous! A man as great as me being defeated by a woman that tiny and delicate-looking! What will my family say? What will my friends think? What will the ladies think of me? My face! How could anyone be so evil?' Daisuke glared at nothing in particular while that annoying attendant of his went to work tidying up the other beds that were in the room. 'I need to get my honor back!'
"You! Woman!" the disgraceful noble barked. "Where is Yukina Kuchiki?"
"Hmm?" she turned towards him with a raised eyebrow and a sarcastic attitude. "Now you want me to talk?"
"Whatever! Just tell me where she is!"
"Well, they should still be celebrating over at the 13th division barracks. And it's actually Rukia Kuchiki. How can you try to marry someone without knowing their proper first name?"
"Whatever, woman!" And with that, Daisuke took off for the 13th division.
When he got to the alleged party, Rukia was sitting there on the porch of the barracks next to that tight-ass captain of his…and they were suspiciously close! He could not forgive this! Wounding his face was an unforgivable sin, and to top it all off, the noble woman he was supposed to marry ditched him for that Hitsugaya! How could she? Hitsugaya was of no important social status (if you ignored the fact that he was a captain) and he was from the Rukon Districts! The Rukon Districts! Poor! He was poor! It didn't matter that as a captain he had one of the best paid positions in the entire Gotei 13*…he was of a poor background!
"Poor!" shrieked Daisuke. He stomped over to the gathering of friends and pointed an accusing finger at his captain. "Poor!"
Everyone was completely startled by the disgruntled noble. Hitsugaya stood up. "I am your captain! What is the meaning of this, Tokugawa?"
Daisuke turned to Rukia and continued his pointing and screaming. "You! My face! My precious face!"
"Yes, now it matches your personality just fine," Rukia drawled.
"Nah, I think it still needs a black eye or two…" Ichigo sneered.
If Daisuke wasn't so consumed with his unjustified rage ('cause he's just a big jerk acting like a big baby), he would have realized that he was smack in the middle of a group of people scowling at him. But consumed by rage he was, so he continued his rant.
"You damaged my face, Yukina! ("And clearly your brain," she interjected, "I thought I already corrected you?") A noble woman like you needs to be married with a nobleman like me! But instead you're hanging out with these ruffians!" Daisuke's angry finger was once again pointing at Hitsugaya.
Hitsugaya let out an exasperated sigh. It really wouldn't do to for a captain to knock his inferior officer's head off…no matter how incompetent and insolent the officer. 'Besides,' he glanced at a very irate Rukia, 'she looks like she'd do the job for me.'
Before his captain could reprimand him, Rukia coolly informed him, "I'm hanging out with these 'ruffians' because I am one." Daisuke gaped. "The 78th district, born and raised**. Before you try to marry someone, I suggest you think a little more about who exactly you're dealing with."
Everyone just stared at Daisuke, who glared at Rukia, who was grinding her teeth along with Hitsugaya, who was super pissed at this very rude soul reaper, just like Byakuya, who hated parties but stayed only because it was a party celebrating Rukia's success in the ranks of soul reapers and in the fight against the little douche bag they were all now staring at…which was Daisuke.
After a few tension-building moments of silence, Daisuke looked at both Rukia and Byakuya and began, "I can't believe this…on top of physical deformation and giant PUBLIC humiliation, you tricked me!" Once again, that pesky little pointing finger of his was out and flying towards Byakuya. "She's not really a noble, she's POOR! A poor STREET RAT!"
"If you wish to keep your finger, I suggest you retract it immediately." Byakuya threatened.
"Indeed," Hitsugaya agreed, "You're already in enough trouble as it is! Insulting not only your captain but a vice-captain of a different squad ("Your girlfriend!" Matsumoto sneezed) has got you a very severe punishment that I have yet to think of! But rest assured, Tokugawa, these insults won't be taken lightly."
Daisuke, much to the surprise of everyone, stood straight as an over-zealous homophobic and announced, "SCREW YOU! Fingers and punishments my ass!" The crazed boy was panting by now. "I swear to you, Yukina, and everyone here! I will get my revenge! What you and your brother have done is disgraceful! You may have defeated me easily but I promise you I will become strong and SMITE YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE!"
And with that, the angry boy ran off.
"Should we go after him?" Orihime, being the nice girl that she is, asked.
"Psh, I'll deal with that simpering fool tomorrow," Hitsugaya answered.
"Why'd you let such a loser into your squad, Hitsugaya?" Ichigo laughed out the question.
"None of the other squads would take him…" Both he and Matsumoto trailed off dejectedly.
Everyone spent a moment of silence sympathizing with the 10th division captain and vice-captain.
"Hn." Byakuya suddenly grunted. "This wouldn't have happened if you had just went along with the marriage plans, Rukia."
"And if I had gone along with the marriage plans," Rukia countered, "You would have been brother-in-law to that."
"Good point."
--------------------Yikes! Revenge! But at least we don't have to really deal with Daisuke for a while! And the scene is done! Yay!----------------------
The party was pretty much over after Daisuke's vow of revenge. Everyone had left for their own sleeping quarters except for Hitsugaya, who was trying to prolong his stay as much as possible (without seeming too obvious or awkward—he did have a super cool image to look after).
"So…" Hitsugaya began. "We…um…uh…" 'Way to go, retard.' He berated himself.
"We should start the mission tomorrow." Rukia supplied. They were both still sitting on the front porch of the barracks, facing the courtyard.
"Yeah!" her companion eagerly agreed. "We should!"
"Any idea who's going to be joining us?" Rukia fiddled with a loose string on her sleeve.
"Kind of." Hitsugaya replied. "I figured we'd just talk about that more tomorrow when we actually have to work."
"Ah…"
Rukia looked up at the clear night sky. "Nice night tonight."
"Mmhmm…" 'Okay, Toushiro, you said earlier you were gonna try to get her to fall for you…you can do it.' the young man encouraged himself.
"So, Kuchiki—"
"Hitsugaya—"
Both of them tried speaking at the same time and both of them blushed. "You go first!" they said in unison.
"No, you—"
"No, you—"
Both of them stayed silent. "Okay…" Rukia said. "That was strange."
"No kidding." Hitsugaya chuckled. "What did you want to talk about?"
"You know," she replied, "I can't remember anymore."
"Me either." He laughed.
She joined in and said off-handedly, "I like that."
"Like what?"
"How you can laugh like that with me!" Rukia blushed again and tried to correct herself. "Wait, not that, you know, you only laugh with me..."
"But I pretty much do only laugh with you." he smiled and glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes. "It's kind of funny how much more open I am with you…"
"Yeah," she almost whispered. "Guess it all started when you ran into me at that tree over there."
Hitsugaya looked and saw that they were indeed facing that very tree in which Rukia was singing. The very tree in which she snapped him out of his funk. "Probably," he said. "You know I never thanked you for talking with me for those first few days."
"I didn't need to be thanked." Rukia turned to face him. She smiled softly.
"But thanks anyways." Hitsugaya looked down at the ground. Almost shyly he asked, "I wonder if you'll still be able to talk to me and comfort me and make me smile and laugh when you're finally married?"
Rukia blinked. What was he going on about? "I will always talk to you!" She pretended to pout and elbowed him. "Besides! I think I should be offended that you think so little of my abilities. You actually think I can't handle the pansies my brother sends to fight me?"
Hitsugaya looked startled. Think little of her abilities? "Wait! I never meant to imply that you—"
"Ha ha, I'm just kidding, Hitsugaya!"
Hitsugaya sighed in relief. "I'm glad."
The dark-haired girl commented, "I told you before, I'm not going to let some goofy jerks like Daisuke Tokugawa beat me at my own game. I won't ever get married."
"I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of marriage just yet…" he whispered to himself with a mischievous smirk.
Rukia could have sworn her heart skipped a beat. She wasn't meant to hear the remark, but she heard it anyway. She stared at her friend. Just a little taller than her, handsome face, gorgeous eyes…not to mention he was one hell of a soul reaper and one of the nicest guys she's ever had the pleasure of knowing. 'Whoever you marry, Hitsugaya, will be the happiest woman in the world.' She couldn't help but think. But why was her heart pained at that thought?
"Toushiro."
"What?" Rukia snapped out of her thoughts.
"Call me Toushiro." Hitsugaya cleared up. "And I'll start calling you Rukia."
Rukia slowly grinned. "I dunno…" she gave him a sly look. "I think I still prefer Mr. Grouchy-face…"
"HEY!"
And with that, the two spent the rest of their evening try to make each other laugh.
End CH 4: Love and Quests
*Gotei 13, better sounding than the Thirteen Court Whatever Whatever. Shorter to type too.
**So I know she wasn't exactly born there, but she was a baby when she entered Soul Society, so might as well. Besides, it sounds cool.