A/N: Hey, guys, I was in a hurry last time to type it out quickly so I didn't say this- Thankyou for the 100+ reviews! Haha, I can't believe it! I never thought it'd have these many of them- well, I hoped it would, but…blah.

Thankyou all of you reading and reviewing. I'll try my best to not make any grammatical or spelling mistakes.

Whoa, I can't believe I'm updating this early. It's only been around 5days since the last one, but well, I'm glad.

I hope you like this chapter (:

Disclaimer- I don't own Bleach-or Rukia and Ichigo would be together by now :P

The Footballers

23rd January, 2011 (Monday) 10.00 p.m.

Oh man.

Oh maaaaaaaaaaaaaaann!

Everything was so quick I could barely process things in my head!

Renji was yelling at me to come up and look at 'this' in the school grounds below us, and then Inoue was screaming her heads off and she tugged at my arm to make me stand up from where I was writing and see what was happening in the grounds through the window-and-and-

My blood went cold as my eyes fell on what they had wanted me to see.

Down in the grounds was Tatsuki, who was punching some friend of Grimmjow's.

Her face was contorted into a grimace and cheeks smeared with dirt. She looked more vulnerable than I've ever seen her.

They were cornering her and tugging at her clothes- laughing mirthlessly. I could hear her shouting and yelling at them. What made me so angry was the fact that Grimmjow seemed completely unaffected! I mean, he's been allegedly dating her for the past at least one two weeks- he's got to have softened up a little bit with her?

But then, it's Grimmjow we're talking about here.

I felt frozen to the ground. Grimmjow just then grabbed her by the waist and threw her against the fence without a care, leaning in front of her as she tried to forcefully push him off. He was lowering his lips, lookind hungry and grinning- I couldn't believe this- I mean, yeah Grimmjow and his friends are a little rowdy- but this was not rowdy, this was literally sexual harassment-!

Tatsuki is strong and everything, but there was no way she could take up 11 football players closing in on her. I jumped up, my jaw dropping as I joint Inoue near the window.

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL THEM!" Renji yelled and raced down the stairs before I could stop him.

"Renji!" I shouted but he was gone. My head shot towards Inoue "Go find the others- and DON'T get yourself involved!"

I threw my diary away on top of my bag and ran after Renji, teeth gritted.

"Renji- STOP! DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID!" I yelled after him as I heard him shout Tatsuki's name. Well, partly I was desperate to reach the grounds and beat the crap out of Grimmjow and his jocks. Who the hell do they think they are messing around with Tatsuki like that?

But he didn't listen. He's so much like Ichigo. He was just running blindly and didn't stop until he reached the games grounds where Grimmjow's soccer gang were bullying Tatsuki.

It was hard to see someone like Tatsuki get bullied. But she was putting up a hell of a fight. Not one of those 11 footballers had been able to do any...'thing' to her yet. Her clothes were a little dishevelled- that's just about it, but now she was kind of getting tired and Grimmjow was taking advantage of that.

"STOP THAT YOU BASTARD!" Renji screamed as I reached the grounds, panting, doubled over.

Grimmjow and the jocks turned slowly.

Tatsuki was staring at both of us wide-eyed, her mouth agape. I guess she couldn't believe I had come to help her after everything she'd said about me to me.

Her school uniform was all muddled up and her left sleeve was ripped. She was panting, and she had a deep gash on her right arm that was bleeding badly. She must've cut herself when Grimmjow had pushed her violently and she'd crashed on the broken fence at the end of the grounds.

"Renji, get out! I don't-" she shouted at him but he glared at her and went "I think you should shut up this time, Tatsuki." in a quiet voice.

"Renji- what is-?" Ichigo doubled over panting as he reached me. Uryu and Toshirou were some paces away. He stared straight ahead, at Tatsuki and seemed to have understood what was going on "Let her go, Grimmjow" he said in a small growl.

Grimmjow just grabbed Tatsuki by the wrist roughly, smirking.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME-!" She punched him across the cheek hard- POW! I thought he broke a cheekbone.

"You…!" Grimmjow spat at her and raising his hand, slapped her with a loud CRACK! "Stay in your limits, woman!"

That's when Renji lost himself- when he saw Grimmjow slap his ex-girlfriend.

"DON'T. DO. THAT. TO. HER. EVER!" Renji shouted, beginning to punch him in the gut.

Grimmjow's friends flung at Renji- who had grabbed Grimmjow around the waist and was kicking him in the stomach with his knee. I pushed one of his friends onto the ground and kicked him while Ichigo grabbed someone else. I am short- but don't underestimate me. I was turning out to be too much for the guy to handle. Partly because I was on top of him and was punching him so that he didn't have any chance whatsoever of hitting me- he was too busy defending himself.
Renji was yelling hysterically. If no one else, I was sure he was going to get killed today "You think you're some random bastard who can touch her? YOU STAY IN YOUR LIMITS, GRIMMJOW!"

Hitsugaya and the others had joined us. I punched everyone I could get my hands on as Hitsugaya headbutted someone and grabbed their feet (advantage of being short- you can reach almost any place without much difficulty) and Uryu was hitting them with a racquet.

Within five minutes, a major fight had broke out.

Eevryone was yelling and I was being pushed and I was punching and hitting and kicking- I lost track of everything and everyone.

Renji was still mad, and Ichigo was shouting at him to shut the fuck up and at the same time was taking on three of the footballers.

One of the people suddenly caught my wrist in mid-air.

"I must do you sometime, Kuchiki-san" he grinned, showing flossy teeth "You're extremely violent, you know what I mean?"

"Not 'til I'm alive, asshole!" Ichigo shouted. I don't where he came from. The next thing I knew, he'd caught the guy's arm and I kicked the guy in the stomach.

"Violent's the right word, jerk!" I spat at him as he sprawled on the dirt, and I turned just as someone else tackled Ichigo to the floor. It was so horrifying- I couldn't believe everything had gone so wrong in just five minutes.

Renji was being hit by two of the guys, Ichigo had someone descending on him, Inoue was helping Tatsuki up (who had grabbed another racquet and knocked someone out before she fell on her knees) Uryu had someone punching him and he'd lost track of his glasses, Hitsugaya was cornered by some three guys, Rangiku was grabbed by two and Grimmjow was lying on the ground looking on, smirking, as they hit Renji, wiping blood off his mouth. Two of the footballers were on the ground, unconscious.

The whole of the grounds were filled with clouds of dirt as people ran and hit and moved about. It was blinding- like as if there was a war.

But what struck me was Ichigo…he looked like he had died- his nose and mouth were bleeding and he had hit his head right on the football goalpost. One guy was walking towards him, grinning- the same one who had tackled him down.

That was what made my strength come back- I wanted to protect him. Stupid, I know.

I was aware of someone running behind me, but I ran senselessly towards Ichigo until out of nowhere a leg kicked in front of me and the studs' spikes dug right inside my forehead-

I couldn't help it- the pain shot through my head, blinding and stinging uncontrollably- the blood was obscuring my vision- I cried out and fell to the ground, clutching my head, closing my eyes shut tightly.

It hurt so much- everything went spinning- my hands were filled with blood, and when I looked at it, it made me feel sick-nauseating-I thought I'd die right there, there was so much blood.

Inoue sent a blood-curdling scream as she ran towards me- but someone caught her hand and I couldn't to look who- I knew Uryu was on it by the way he yelled out in fury. I was too busy blinking away the tears that sprang up in my eyes due to the pain.

"RUKIA!" Ichigo cried, but just then Grimmjow stood up, taking advantage of Ichigo's momentary distraction and gave him a kick right in the stomach.

"Oh, look who's with us- famous orangehead- heartthrob ICHIGO KUROSAKI!" Grimmjow snickered, standing over him as Ichigo doubled over, clutching his stomach tight, spitting blood. I felt my head shoot up at Grimmjow's words and eyes widen at Ichigo in horror. "How does it feel, Kurosaki? To know someone's stronger than you? You're just another popular hot-shot!" he spat and kicked him.

Ichigo sat there, panting.. glaring up at Grimmjow, face contorted.

"ICHIGO!" I was being kicked and thrown from here and there- Uryu was flailing around helplessly without his glasses and Renji was busy hitting people madly.

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Inoue (who had been saved by a mad momentarily blind Uryu flailing the racquet around at the guy who had caught her) grab Ishida's glasses, run over to her boyfriend, and bang one guy with the racquet Tatsuki handed to her. After that Inoue fell to the ground, shivering, and Matsumoto began to help her and Tatsuki walk away. Inoue tried to run at me but I shouted at her to get back.

Seven were still up, and there were only five of us, not including Tatsuki, Matsumoto and Inoue-

"ICHIGO!"

Hitsugaya was trying to distract Grimmjow so that Ichigo would have time to stand up for the very least.

I managed to crawl up to Ichigo somehow, staggering. My forehead was still aching.

"Rukia- you're hurt! Go to Inoue, n-now!" he panted, eyes shocked as he looked at me up close.

"No!"

"Yes-! I'll take care of Grimm-" he stood up, holding his stomach, gritting his teeth.

"Count me in." I stood up too, though I was wincing at the sudden aching dizziness shooting up and jumping up to my feet had caused me and looked at him with determined eyes. He looked back, just as Uryu knocked another one out, and Renji did the same to two.

These people were big, believe me.

Just then, Grimmjow punched Toshirou off him, and turned around to face us, and Ichigo nodded at me.

"HEY GRIMMJOW-! take this-!" he punched him across the face. Grimmjow was thrown towards me and jumping up, I sent a kick straight at his jaw.

He staggered back and hit the ground and I fell back towards the ground too, due to kicking so high, but Ichigo caught me and we both went down together.

I opened my eyes and saw Hitsugaya, Uryu, Renji, Matsumoto and Tatsuki standing to shield us from the remaining six. Inoue wasn;t to be seen anywhere.

I turned to look at Ichigo in the eyes from where we lay. Sticky blood covered my forehead .and his face wasn't exactly clean either, as he gazed back at me. It was as if the whole world went blank, and I got lost in his amber eyes.

I thought that only happened in movies, but here I was, on top of him with his arms loosely around me as he rubbed my back gently.

Man, I could do that forever.

But Grimmjow was getting on his feet, wiping his mouth and glaring at me with bloodshot eyes "Kuchiki…"

I couldn't fight anymore, I was tired. I knew we were done for, when suddenly-

"What is going on?" came the horrified voice of Ukitake Jushiro, our school principle.

That's when I realized that we were still in school- technically, and that the principle left the school one hour after everyone else did.

Inoue must have informed him about what was going on in his office where he had been resting because he was ill, again.

I looked around to realize that she hadn't been in the fight for a long time- she was rinning towards me, crying, as she came out of the school building.

That's when I also realized how completely stupid I had been. Instead of running after Renji and forgetting everything and panicking, I could've used my head and gone to the principle. It would've saved so much of time and getting hurt.

Looking at Ichigo's terrible state- how much in pain he was trying not to look- and how much the cut on my forehead hurt- I really regretted my impulsive action.

So, so, so stupid of me.

Well, still, I haven't been more glad to hear the principle's voice ever before than that time.

"All of you- in my office- now!" he barked at the conscious footballers and they shot us dirty and threatening looks, dragging their feet to the building.

Grimmjow looked like he would kill us if he was given a chance.

That's when I realized that I was still on top of Ichigo, my fists on his chest…

I could feel his six-pack- they made me blush- while he looked back into my eyes, like as if he had lost himself. He wasn't even blinking.

I hurriedly got up and helped him up "You look terrible- do you feel alright?" I asked anxiously "Does it hurt?"

He just raised his hand and wiped the blood on my forehead "Are you okay?" he asked me softly. He looked pained- not pained as in his injuries, but pained to see my injuries as he examined my cut and brushed his fingers softly over it.

"I'm sorry, Rukia…I couldn't protect you-"

I laughed, despite the blinding pain "Oh shut up"

"You need an ambulance!" Ukitake sir said, his face alarmed as he looked at me, Ichigo and Renji. We did look dead.

A little better than minced meat, actually.

"Come in the Nurse Room at once! We'll be calling the ambulance- What in the world caused this to happen?"

Tatsuki explained that when these people were playing football, Grimmjow 'accidently' pulled Tatsuki's shirt up and tried to….um….do 'things' to her. And when she tried to fight back, they started to gain on her forcefully.

I wasn't really surprised. I knew Grimmjow was the kind of person who'd do that. He's tried manipulating Inoue before too, but thankfully I was there, and Inoue, unlike Tatsuki, trusts me more than some random jock.

Renji was boiling with anger- it took all of us- including Ukitake sir- to stop him from racing back to Grimmjow and beating the shit out of him. He was bleeding as it was.

Renji, I mean.

Tatsuki then looked at me through a dirt-covered face "Rukia, I'm- I'm- I was stupid, and I was a bitch. I can't-"

I didn't want to hear her say sorry, I had never heard her say those words before, and I realized just then that I didn't want to hear her now either.

"It's okay. You don't need to say anything else." I said, smiling a little- but that was mostly because I had felt Ichigo's arms snake around my waist and grip it tightly as he tried to balance his weight on both his feet and not fall. I caught him around the waist securely, smiling up at him.

He's caught me so many times from falling before, it was my turn now.

Renji, me, Ichigo and Tatsuki were taken to the hospital.

I needed stitches, Ichigo had a mild concussion, Renji had a disfigured collar bone, and Tatsuki for a check-up, just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong.

I haven't left the hospital though, I'm with Ichigo. He's lying in bed, sleeping deeply since the doctor's told him to rest for a while. Well, there was not really any need of telling him, he dozed off the minute the doctor had finished looking at him. Then he'd woken up, I'd given him something to eat and he'd slept off again. The hospital staff are probably gonna make him stay the night, but if he becomes The Ichigo, then maybe they'll have to give in.

If in any case he does stay the night, I'm not leaving this hospital until he wakes up tomorrow morning. Since I'm completely obsessed with sleeping next to him and watching him wake up, I guess I can take advantage of that.

Grimmjow and his jocks have been expelled, Inoue and the others told us when they hurriedly came to visit and ask if we were fine.

Uryu and the others are fine- Rangiku just got some cuts, Toshirou got a bruise and Uryu sprained his ankle and had a black eye.

Meanwhile, Tatsuki and Renji made-up.

Well, I think so, because they were kissing in the hospital cafeteria when I went there to get some food for Ichigo. They must have made-up. Last time I checked, you kiss either because you like someone, or because someone is dying and you need to give them CPR.

Renji looked very happy and Tatsuki seemed like she's finally gotten a part of her life back.

"Jeez, those two are idiots." Uryu said when I told them about it later when they came at around seven.

"Well, all's well that ends well!" Orihime said happily.

She didn't get hurt at all- apart from a scratch due to falling on the ground accidentally after slipping. I don't know how she manages to look so beautiful all the time- even when she's fighting.

Or trying to, anyway.

Uryu got up "I'm getting myself a coffee- anyone want one?"

I just looked back at Ichigo's bandaged face as he slept calmly. He looked so boyishly cute and innocent- I had to smile.

And just when Uryu passed by me, he said something softly in my ear so that I was the only one who heard him- something that's still ringing in my head.

He said- "They are idiots, Rukia- but not more than you two."

And he went off.

I'm not an idiot, it's just that stupid Ichigo.

If he doesn't realize he likes me then what's the point in me realizing that?

Oh god, how can I even think he likes me?

Well…he kissed me.

Thrice.

At his house, then when I'd not been feeling well, then at the club...

Okay...

WHY CAN'T HE JUST TELL ME WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT ME SO I CAN STOP THINKING ABOUT IT?

IDIOT!

A/N: Wow,this was long.

I hope it wasn't too overrated. I liked some parts of it- I guess. Tell me what you guys think (:

I cannot believe there's only one last chapter left, and then this story will be over! :O

Thankyou very much for reading, all of you,

~SS~