Oh my goodness! You all have no idea how sorry that I am. I've left you all hanging for probably more that a month now. My best excuse for why is really sucky. The end of the quarter came and with it a bunch of tests. And then the beginning of the new quarter. My birthday. Halloween. A bunch of annoying and random distraction interspersed therein. Yeah . . . my reasons don't even begin to cover how bad I feel considering that I had already written part three by the night that I had posted part two. A thousand apologies.
Disclaimer: I continue to be ownership-less.
Sharing a Bed is Only the Beginning – Three
She woke to the sensation of movement.
And when Kuchiki Rukia could finally pry open her eyes, it was to watch a blanket drop up from her head to the floor.
Wait a second, when did the floor become the ceiling?
With a groan, she tossed her head up only to have it land roughly on a warm, solid mass.
Squinting her eyes through the semi-dark room, the first feature that she could distinguish was atrociously flaming hair.
Ichigo?
She struggled a bit in his grasp and immediately a sharp pain lanced through her arm causing her to glance down and scowl at the poorly done bandaging.
If I weren't so weak right now I could heal this in a -
"Ahh!"
Her thoughts were pulled aside as Ichigo took another lurching step forward.
"Ichigo? Ichigo! What are you doing? Put me down this instant!" demanded Rukia while her glares appeared not to faze him.
With some gentle shimmying, she managed to extricate her other arm from where it lay trapped between their two bodies.
Rukia snapped her fingers deftly in front of his face and still he didn't seem to notice her as he eased forward once again.
Dammit, he must be sleep-walking.
Rukia resigned herself as the substitute shinigami made his slow trek to the stairs.
After the imbalance she felt with only a single step upwards, Rukia imagined herself tumbling from his arms in a pained heap and so she wrapped her good arm securely around his neck.
If Ichigo sensed her shift, he didn't show it in his semi-conscious state and simply maintained his steady pace.
She stayed quiet until they reached his room and he set her gently on the bed.
"Okay now Ichigo, just let me get into the closet and then you can get back to the sleep that anyone can tell you desperately need."
Her move to stand attracted the first sign of coherence from Ichigo that she'd seen as he turned to scowl lightly at her actions.
Rukia halted and his face recomposed itself into blankness as he heaved his physical body from the floor and tucked it safely into the closet whereupon its head flopped onto her gigai's shoulder. He firmly shut the two forms out of sight before turning back to her.
"You know what, Ichigo? Why don't I just go sleep in Karin and Yuzu's room tonight? You can finally have the room to yourself again." She said the last part in an almost sing-songy voice as if the bribery would reach him.
It didn't.
Ichigo advanced on her and again slid his arms beneath her back and legs.
"Fine. You can carry me to the other room, you big oaf. Now let's just get – hey! Hey!"
No sooner had Ichigo picked Rukia up than he was already dropping her back down again. Only this time, her landing position was a foot or so closer to the wall than before.
She could only watch in frozen shock as Ichigo pulled the covers up to her chest while leaving a corner of the blanket flipped down to slip under himself.
Caught in the grip of her curious nature, Rukia didn't fight back as he settled himself underneath and scooted closer to her.
His arm confidently snaked out to wrap around her waist and still Rukia didn't halt his movements. When he secured her within his embrace, chest to back, she felt her breath catch.
She squirmed a bit and only then noticed the odd texture of her clothing against her skin. Gingerly lifting the blanket, she peaked underneath.
Oh, Kami . . . Are those what I think they are?
She got distracted yet again as he nuzzled his face into the nape of her neck and decided that this newest predicament could wait until morning.
Aided by a final calming breath, Rukia allowed herself to settle deeper into the boy surrounding her so completely and joined him in the bliss of unconsciousness.
So, did this chapter in any way make up for how I abandoned you all for a month? Feel free to tell me what you think. Many thanks go out to all of the reviewers and people who have put me on their favorite and/or alert lists. A special thanks is for ichirukifan13 and VanillaTwilight4 who both put me on their alert lists last night causing emails to be sent to me which awoke me up from my fanfiction uploading stupor. Please continue to review. :)