Vertigo
AN: Welcome to day 6 of the vacation! Daikanyama still. I'm so surprised that I've gotten so many reviews. Ultra nice ones too! To show my thanks, {and because I'm a major insomniac} I'm uploading again! :]
Rukia snuggled in her bed at the hotel, unable to sleep. It was nearly 3:00, but rest evaded her thought clogged mind. The thoughts weren't negative, just of great importance.
What was she to make of all these new developments with Ichigo? She was tempted to be confused, but she knew what they meant. She could run from it, but she didn't feel any need to.
He was alive and she was dead. He was young and she was old. But from the moment she stabbed him and gave him a piece of herself they had belonged to each other.
If it was wrong to care for him, to not give a damn about their entirely separate worlds, then she didn't want to be right. Who was she to know what was right? She didn't know if the Kuchiki Clan would approve, or even if she wanted them to. Hell, if she needed anyone to. It was time to accept the direction they were heading in.
"Rukia?"
"Karin? Why are you up?" She eased herself up from her bed.
"I think something's wrong with me."
Ichigo hated sleeping in hotel beds. The freshly laundered sheets were too crinkly, the beds not the worn comfort he was used to.
Plus his dad snored like an ape, and he had to share this room with him and Yuzu, the girl who talked non-stop in her sleep. He couldn't help but toss and turn. But something told him that he had woken for another reason. He suspected it was the two hushed and female voices, one sounding more panicked than the other.
"Karin? Why are you up?"
"I think something's wrong with me."
His eyes shot open in alarm. Should he get up?
"Why? What happened?" He watched as Rukia sat on Karin's bed, putting a hand on her knee. Karin looked around frantically for a moment, and then whispered something in the small soul reaper's ear. Rukia chuckled softly.
"Is that so? Nothing's wrong with you." Rukia replied serenely, as she pulled a pouch out of their suitcase.
"How is it not bad? It's blood! From…. There! It's not okay!" Karin babbled.
"I'm sure you're dad could explain it much better than I could, but I assure you, that it's normal, especially for a 13 year old girl."
Ichigo listened in silence as his best friend sat in the dark, explaining to his kid sister that she had no reason to be concerned about the blood on her pajama bottoms. He watched as Rukia led Karin to the bathroom, and explained calmly through the crack in the door how to use a pad.
As they both returned to their beds, oblivious to their audience, he knew that he couldn't possibly care more about the two of them than he already did.
The pleasantly heavy and warm sensation in his chest sent him to sleep. Crappy bed be damned.
AN: Wow. I think I just out fluffed myself.:p