Thank you for your advises and honest opinions. I really needed that!
So we're back on the main track... Here you have an ichiruki chapter... :)
From chapter 10 :
"I believe you should start packing for the Seireitei, Kurosaki-san! Kuchiki-san, here is your stuff! I'll see you both in 10 days! Now, If you will excuse me…" he said as he returned to his shop.
Finally the moment the two of them remained alone, Rukia turned to Ichigo with a scolding expression on her face, but before she could say anything… Ichigo's cellphone rang.
"It's a message…" he said as he took the mobile from his pocket. "It's from Inoue" he added confused after he read it. " She said she has a surprise and that she's waiting us both before dinner at the dance hall…"
Rukia lift her eyebrows distrustful. The last thing she needed in this moment was Orihime's surprise. She gasped.
"We still have plenty of time until dinner…" he added. "Is there something you want you want to do until then?"
"Something such as?..." she answered in an unfriendly manner which reminded him so much of her brother. He instantly made a weary face at the thought of her looking so much with that iceberg.
"I don't know…" he finally said. "Since we're leaving tomorrow… maybe you'd like to do some shopping…or…"
"Huh?!" she gasped confused. "Do I look like the king of women who will waste her time on…" but then she stopped as she reminded the meeting she had a few days ago with that weird Shokun Lady who insisted so much on asking her help with the wedding planning. "As a matter a fact" she added with a different tone of voice " Do you know where I can find a shop for brides?"
"A shop for… what?!" shouted Ichigo scared. " You're getting married?"
"Mmm…." Stated Rukia with a mean smile. "Who knows… maybe…"
Ichigo's body instantly turned to stone, as his eyes were wide open in shock. He couldn't even find the senses to ask who the lucky "groom" is. He just felt like he wanted to beat someone really hard. He knew exactly who: "the lucky groom".
Rukia started to laugh:
"This serves you right!... You should see your face now!"
Ichigo blinked confused as she kept laughing.
"I was kidding!" she finally added. " I'm not getting married! It's possible to have a marriage in the clan soon and I promised that I will help with the planning."
"Ha…Ha…Ha…Good joke…" Ichigo tried to fake a laugh."As if I cared if you'd get married!"
Rukia lift again her eyebrows and passed by him, making her way to the main street.
"I will take you to the bride's shops" he shouted as he was trying to catch her from behind. "But don't expect me to enter with you there."
"There's no need for that, Ichigo!..." she replied sarcastically." You won't be at any help with your lack of common sense when it comes to fashion or beauty"
"My lack of common sense?!" he said laughing with irony. "Then I pity the bride who trusted you her wedding!"
"Ichigo…." She said with her fake sweet smile and voice. "I think that I will manage to find the shop if you'd give me the address only… and meanwhile you can wait for me at home. As a matter a fact I insist for you to do so…"
"I couldn't agree better!" he replied stiffed.
Half an hour later, on the main street of Karakura town, from behind the window of the peaceful and high-class shop "The white dress" a weird couple seemed to draw all the attention as they were arguing with loud voices:
"You can't put chappies on the dress veil!" he shouted annoyed for the 17th time. "It's not a pajama!
"And what would you know? On how many wedding have you been?" she replied as she was drawing frenetically a design for a wedding dress. The floor around then was covered with papers filled with Rukia's specific chappy drawing who supposed to portray the wedding guests and their clothing.
"It just doesn't suit! Trust me!"
"No! I don't trust you!... The wedding will have a chappy thematic! I've heard that wedding with theme are quite popular here…" she replied.
"Indeed… but not the ones with chappies!" he said annoyed as he was looking at her drawings. "If you want a popular theme, you can chose something the like fairy tale…or the ceremony on the beach. Maybe even the white winter theme. I went to one of this the last year. It came out pretty good!"
"Winter it's too cold... As for the others, we don't have beaches on Seireitei! Neither fairies! " she replied stiffed.
" I see…but you have chappies, right?"
"We'll stick to the chappies… we will have tables with seats on chappy shapes and white sheets with chappies pattern in the middle of which we'll put the coat of arms for the Kuchiki family!"
"I think Byakuya will kill you for that!" she stated simply as he threw on the floor one of her drawings.
"I believe that Nii-sama will actually like this idea!" she said with an smile full of admiration that almost scared him. After he gave it a second thought and he remembered that weird, strange creature of Byakuaya, the Seawood Ambassador he realized that Rukia might be right. That thought scared him even more. He slowly started to pity the grooms who asked for her help, whoever they were.
Meanwhile, as they were arguing the shop assistant looked at them worried as all the people, including the ones who were passing in front of the window shop were starring at them. She tried a couple of times to ask them to keep their voices down, but every time, the orange haired guy gave her scary look and made her back off. Now she was trying a different tactic, since she couldn't just kick them out of the store.
"Excuse me…" the women begun with a lovely voice.
"What?!" both of them turned to her. "We're not decided yet!"
On the women's face the smile froze.
"I see that you're not decided yet…That's why I was thinking to offer you some help…" the woman added.
Both of them looked at the distrustfully. The women gasped and approached them with a stack of catalogs and books.
"I brought you a couple of catalogs of this year's tendencies concerning wedding… maybe this could give some ideas…" she women said in her most polite manner.
After a couple of seconds on which the three of them starred one at each other, Rukia approached the assistant studying the cover of the catalogs. After another couples of second of silence, she finally concluded:
"Fine!...I'll buy all of them!"
The women sighed relived and started to pack the catalogs. Before the two of them left the shop, on her face the warm smile reappeared.
"You two really are alike…I'm sure your marriage will last a life time!"
Ichigo turned to the women with wide eyes as Rukia's face turned red and she hurried to leave.
"Oi, Rukia! Wait!" he shouted. "Why are you acting like this?...There was no way for the women to know that we are not … I mean… "
Rukia turned to him with wide and curious eyes.
"You know… engaged…" he finally said.
She bowed her face, hiding her disappointed look.
"Yes… engaged… " she whispered. "Come on… let's find a place to look on this stuff" she said and lift the bag with wedding catalogs.
They waked until the shore of the river that split Karakura and they sat on the grass while they were browsing the pages with the beautiful dresses and decors. This time both of them seemed peaceful and relaxed.
"I like this one…" he said while pointing at a bouquet of lilies.
"Yes… it's nice…better than the roses…" she said. "She could have all the room arranged in lilies…"
"But she can still have roses if she wants…"
"Red roses with white dress…" Rukia stated thoughtful. "This would be the traditional wedding colors… What do you think about that, given that at the wedding there will be a lot of nobility?..."
Ichigo laid his back on the grass facing the clear summer sky.
"I wonder if that would do…" he said with a dreamy voice. "I don't' know…If it were for me I would have a small wedding, one in which I would invite only the family and the close friends…"
Rukia smiled as she put the catalogs besides and lay next to him.
"If you'd invite all your friends…I wonder if the wedding will still be small…" she said and they both started to laugh.
"You know…" she said after a while. " If it were to be the case, i would also like to have a small wedding… but given my position I believe that this would be impossible…"
"I'm sure Byakuya won't be easy on you if you get married… Half of the Seireitei will be invited…"
"Tell me about!" she said half amused, half worried.
Then a few moments of silence passed.
"But you could do it in a different way…" he finally said. "You can have two weddings!"
"Two weddings?" she replied distrustful. "I'm not going to marry twice, Ichigo!"
"I meant you can have two ceremonies for the same wedding. You can have one in Soul Society where Byakuya can invite half of the Seireitei and another one, much more smaller, here in Karakura…What do you think about that?"
"Mmmm…" she stated as she was trying to picture that image.
"Of course the one in Seireitei, I believe that it would be best to let Byakuya to handle it…"
"Yes…I agree…" she said. It won't be a pleasant one…Certainly it would be extremely tiring, but I believe that i could handle it…"
"Rukia, we both managed to escape from deadly enemies…Comparing to that, a day with the nobility of Soul Society would be piece of cake!"
"You're saying this now, because you have never been around them! But trust me I prefer a hundred times the battlefield than all the manners and politeness I have to be aware of in front of the Elders… For me It could be bearable since I'm already used to them, but for you it would be suicidal!"
He started to laugh.
"Then I will spend that day thinking of the simple and intimate ceremony that I would have back home…"
"Simple and intimate'… I like the sound of it, Ichigo!"
"Told you!" he said with a grin as he was keeping his eyes close so the sun won't blind him.
"I would also wear a simple dress…"
"Just like the one you used to wear on the summer vacation when I was in highschool…"
"Exactly!" she exclaimed happily…But it has to be white…"
"White, of course…" he supported her words. "And we'll invite only the close friends… Chad…Ishida…Asano…Tatsuki…I also have some friends from the college…"
"And your family!"
"It comes within, Rukia!...I'll make Yuzu and Karin your maids of honor…"
"And Ishhin will lead me to the altar…"
"I think this would be for him a dream came true!" he added and again both of them started to laugh.
"Nii-sama won't get upset on this, since the only ceremony that will matter for him will be the one in Seireitei…" she added, but after a couple of seconds she gasped. "Oh!...We forgot about Renji!"
"What about him?" he said.
"He'll also be invited to the ceremony in Karakura!"
"I believe that Byakuya will invite him before you to the one in Seireitei…"
"So what?...He will come to both of them!"
"More presents for us!" he concluded while laughing.
"And where will the ceremony be hold?"
"You know the church downtown?"
"The white one, built in wood?... I think it would be perfect!...And then we can find a place to install a white tint and we can arrange it with a chappy theme."
"Oh! No! No! No!" he said repeatedly as he suddenly opened his eyes. "You can have your chappies on your honeymoon, but not at the ceremony!"
"Fine…On the honeymoon! But it's a promise!"
"It's a promise … you can have chappies wherever you want, even in bed, if you like it! But only on the honeymoon!"
"Right, only on the honeymoon which it should be…it should be…on the seaside!"
"Better an island!"
"Yeeessss… where I can lay the whole on the beach…"
"Just the two of us… a hammock and two cocktails! And then …. All day we could make lo…"
But here he stopped as she turned to him with big and worried eyes.
"Ichigo…" she tried to said… "What are we talking about?"
He got up, opened his mouth, but no word came out. Her last words brought him again to reality.
"Why are we having this conversation?…We are not getting married!" she added.
"Oh!...Ha… Ha… Ha…." He suddenly tried to fake a smile as he found himself tangled in that situation. "Yes…what a crazy idea…marriage…I don't know what came to me…Ha…Ha… Ha…"
But then he bowed his face.
"It was just a joke…Rukia… because there's no way we could ever get married, right? he added with a sadly smile.
"Indeed…" she whispered as sadly as him.
"I mean… It's impossible…With you being the heir of the Kuchiki's and me just an engendering student…" he added, trying more to convince himself than her.
"It's more because I'm dead and you are a human…." She replied with sad eyes.
"But we are both shinigamis…" he added with smile full of hope.
Her eyes widened again.
"Ichigo... why are we even talking about marriage?"
He turned to her with a tangled expression.
"Ichigo… I mean … me and you… we never…." She begun to say.
"Yeah…you're right…" he added still dazed.
"Yes… I'm right…" she reinforced her words.
"… I mean… we didn't even date…ever…"
"…Indeed. Never…" she added trying to keep herself together, but her face was slowly turning red.
"…Never… So there's no way for us to get married…" he replied, trying to keep his voice normal as it was starting to crack.
"… No, there's no way…We never dated…and you never proposed…"
"Yes… Yes…I never proposed!" he confirmed with a forced smile.
"No, Ichigo, you never proposed!" but this time in her voice there was something pretty close to a reproach. Instantly his eyes widened and his mouth remained half opened. His heart started to beat strongly as he couldn't believe his ears. Was she really?...
"Rukia…are you… I meant if I would…." He begun to say but he didn't seem to find his words. Again he remained with mouth half open.
" If you would 'what', Ichigo?" she replied nervous.
"Will you say 'yes' to me?" he suddenly spoke the first words that came through his mind.
Her eyes opened wide and unconsciously she put a hand over her chest as it started to burn her. She opened her mouth a couple of times but not a sound came out. For a second she thought that even if she could speak she didn't know what to say. Was he really proposing her?...
She blinked confused as she looked into his amber eyes. They looked to vulnerable and insecure in that moment and she feared that a refuse from her part will make him crumble right in front of her eyes. That strong Ichigo who could fight one hundred hallows at a time, was now so fragile…with his face and years red as the sunset behind them.
"Will you…?" he repeated hardly.
"I …" she tried to say, but the next second Ichigo's phone rang again.
Rukia gasped loudly and turned her face away from him as the moment was ruin. She didn't know if she was glad or sad because of that.
Ichigo took out his cell phone from his pocket: another message. A shadow seemed to cover all his face. He turned off the phone and faced the sunset with a sad expression as he recalled the message: "I'm already to the dance hall. I'll be waiting you here. Until then I'm sending you a biiiiiiiig kiss! :* ". In that moment he felt as if he wanted to throw the cellphone in to the river. He felt as if he wanted to end all this masquerade. The life he had the last 6 years seemed to no longer belong to him and that was because Rukia was now back. For him, even if she was a shinigami…a sprit… "dead" as she calls herself, she was more real than anything else around him.
The very first moment he was reunited with her, she was the only one that he could see… the presence of the others around him was blurred. He couldn't reject the life he had in her absence, he couldn't deny his relationship with Orihime, but he couldn't compare them with the feeling that Rukia was giving him when she was around. It was as if he compared a tern autumn day with the summer. Now as he knew what a life without summer would be, he couldn't lie to him anymore that this what he wanted…that this was the best for him. He neither could lie to Orihime anymore… During the past 6 years she had never stopped to love him and in return, during this time he had never done her wrong. He learned to care for her and to think of her as part of the family… but he never…absolutely never forgot Rukia. Her face seemed to be painted on his heart. After all this years it was too late to lie to him anymore… and above all , to lie Orihime. No matter if Rukia will stay or go back in Seireitei he had to put end to his relationship with Orihime. He respected her too much for putting her though all this. After he tried to kiss Rukia last night… after he almost proposed her a few moments ago… there was no way he could have the same relationship with Orihime. He could no longer see him holding her in him arms…He could no longer see her sleeping next to him…because the only thing he could see now…was Rukia.
He turned his face to her.
"Rukia…I'm decided!" he said a soft and deep voice.
But she avoided his eyes.
"Rukia! Look at me! Listen to me! I'm decided! I will …" he repeated raising his voice.
"Ichigo…" she interrupted him with low and sad voice. "No matter what you want to say…please keep it until later…please… I believe I've heard enough for today…"
Ichigo turned his face to the sunset. She must have been tired of his confusing behavior. She couldn't blame her since he crossed the line so many times.
"I see… I won't say any other weird things.." he added with a soft voice.
She gasped.
"It's almost dinner time…Wasn't Orihime saying that she wanted to see us?" she said trying to end the topic.
"Yeah…she must be waiting for us." He replied but he didn't care about these details anymore.
Even if she didn't seem in the mood for any other conversation somehow, as he was decided on his future now, he felt as a heavy burden was lifted from his heart. Tomorrow he will go back with her Soul Society. He will definitely remain a shinigami… he will definitely remained by her side… he didn't care she was the heir of the Kuchiki clan… he didn't care about Byakuya's approval… he didn't care about anything else in the world, expect from her…
That is what he was thinking in that moment, because …he didn't wanted to day it out lout, but he was in love with Rukia…
Thank you in advance for reading!