No need for a delay! Yay! I hope you enjoy.
Rukia was hard-pressed to actually tire Ichigo. Even as a now captain-class shinigami Ichigo still dwarfed her to a level that would have been frankly terrifying if it weren't for her knowledge that he wouldn't dare harm her.
Fortunately while tiring Ichigo may not be working, he was absorbing the dense quincy reiatsu that now filled the air.
She could feel Ichigo's power beginning to feel more and more like that of a quincy, as of a hidden part of himself was waking up.
Soon Rukia had found herself tired out after what was probably an hour at most of sparing.
Unable to keep up she sat down and had Ichigo continue the previous exerting activities until Bazz B could continue.
"So…" Ichigo spoke up before whatever he was thinking to say died in his throat.
"So?" Rukia turned her head over to look at Ichigo from her position laying down on the ground, ignoring the feelings that seeing the muscles of Ichigo's bare back gave her.
"I… what do we do?" Ichigo stopped. It was clear he hadn't been all there during their sparring session. She had been able to get a few nicks in. They may have bounced harmlessly off of his blut, but they got past his guard.
"About?" Rukia knew what he was talking about, but she wanted to be sure.
"Us…" Ichigo had sat on a nearby rock. Sweat had long since drenched the top of his shihakusho, so he had forgone the top and went bare-chested. Not that Rukia was arguing.
Rukia sighed.
"I won't force you to race ahead into something you aren't comfortable with," Rukia sat up, looking over her shoulder at her not-quite boyfriend. "But if you want to make things official, and if you want to do this, you would have to ask Kukaku to submit a marriage request to my brother. After that, the process will move forward on its own."
Ichigo looked at Rukia. In some ways things were moving quickly, in others, it felt like this was being built up to since that fateful summer night.
"Are you okay with it?" Ichigo didn't want to force her into anything either.
"If I wasn't we wouldn't be having this conversation, idiot," she shot him that half-hearted glare of hers. An attempt to mimic the stern expressions that she had given him before.
"But are you ready?" Ichigo wasn't quite ready to take that next step, but he wanted to know if she was, just to be sure.
"I don't know," Rukia stared off into nothing. Her face looked sullen, but not sad. Almost as if she was remembering a happy time that was spoiled by pain. "You are the first person in a long time to make me feel happy," her memories had fallen to the last person to do so, and how they were so similar, yet so very different.
Ichigo was shocked at that. He knew that she had blamed herself for Kaien's death, but was her life before they met so colorless?
"When you asked me to go back to the living world with you, I wanted to go. I wanted to run away so badly, to not let myself fall back into that trap I had been in before," Rukia sighed.
"What stopped you?" Ichigo remembers that time. He figured that she would stay, but everything that he had learned had made that decision weirder and weirder.
Rukia didn't know how to answer that question. She was torn in two directions, as though she had two places she belonged that were mutually exclusive.
"My brother and I had repaired our strained relationship, my oldest friend was back in my life, and I had known then that more cared about me than I thought." Rukia smiled. It wasn't enough that Ichigo gave her a home, he also just had to go and force the home that had hurt her to become comfortable as well.
"In hindsight, I don't think it was a fair question to ask," Rukia almost scoffed at that. Ichigo had risked his life for her, but he had a point. As she was exonerated, her subsequent discharge had been revoked, and her oaths reinstated. It was ultimately why she chose to stay in Soul Society. Even if that meant the next time he saw him would be after his demise.
"Perhaps not," she stood up, walking over to Ichigo. "But I considered it all the same," she then sat down next to him. Letting her hand fall on his.
"I know a good sparring match can get the blood pumping, but please at least save it for the hot springs before you start acting like Cupid hit you both with the same arrow," Bazz B was done recuperating and he had just walked in on the sappiest sight he had ever seen. "sheesh, kids."
The beast found himself fuming.
Right when he had that shark bitch on the ropes quincy just had to show up to make everything harder.
He was currently engaging the black-haired brat who tried to turn him into a crater, attempting to return the favor with hammer blow after hammer blow.
She simply dodged each of the wild swings or deflected them with her summoned blade.
He had enough. He charged a cero and quickly fired it point blank. There's no way she could dodge that.
"And I thought I had an explosive temper," she was next to him now, as though she had easily glided out of the way of his attack.
Before he could retaliate, however, he heard the call of another attack.
"Cascada."
Another deluge of water, this time bigger than the last hit. Leaving the area looking more like a small shoal than a desert.
At this moment the beast also noticed its master also struggling against its foes. So instead of testing its luck, it decided to cut and run.
With a burst of sonido, It had grabbed its master and opened a garganta, rushing through it back to where they came from.
Hallibel and the others elected not to pursue it. The threat had been dealt with, and there was no reason to overextend. Either way, the child showed no signs of being an arancar, and was likely affiliated in some way to a faction in Soul Society. No one wanted to deal with the consequences of pursuing them.
Everyone except Grimmjow.
"Get back here, I wasn't done with you!" Grimmjow flew through the garganta as it closed, intent on finishing the fight.
Hallibel was too tired to be pissed. She had worked on sealing Tiberon, her form returning to that of her regal garb, and her mask fragment once again covering her face.
"Nelliel, retrieve him," with that, Nell had sealed Gamuza and did a horizontal slash through the air, opening a garganta of her own before walking through it.
"So… Jagdarmmes are dead…" Bambietta tried to break the ice in this awkward situation.
Hallibel nodded. Grasping her right arm as she considered her next move. Roka's ability to spread her regenerative abilities across her 'web' had proven useful. Once again justifying Hallibel's efforts to recruit her.
"I may require you to extend your stay," the question went unsaid. If they weren't okay with that, or if Uryu wasn't, she wouldn't force the issue. Without Nelliel or Grimmjow though, she was significantly weakened.
"As much as I hate to admit he's right, we can't risk the balance right now," Bambietta hated not being able to act on her more violent tendencies, but her desire to not incur the wrath of the Gotei, even in its weakened state, outweighed her frustration.
The empress nodded silently. Looking out over the now-flooded region of Hueco Mundo as the shadows opened to take the quincy back to the living world. The water would dissipate, as it always did, but it was a rare sight to see the moon reflected the way it was, and she sought to enjoy the fleeting sight as she slowly caught her breath.
"Lady Hallibel," Gantenbaine looked over the battlefield. The lack of Grimmjow and Nelliel told him all he needed to know. "Grimmjow run off again?"
"Yes," Hallibel wanted to go back to Las Noches. The fight was exhausting and Grimmjow's behavior was more so.
The basement of the Ishida household was dark. It was clear that they had returned late into the night.
"You're back," The voice of Ryuken was colored with ambivalence. He cared little for Bambietta and Candice as it was clear they were the more violent of the sternritter that joined his son.
"The Jagdarmees are dead," Bambietta didn't like Ryuken either. While she respected his talents as a surgeon, he had abandoned his pride as a quincy.
"Good," Ryuken moved to leave. "Now, if that's all I would rather not have a live wire and a living bomb in my home."
Bambi knew Ryuken had little love for the company his son kept, but she still hated that he didn't even try to play nice.
"Would it kill you to not be an ass for once?" Candice glared at the Ishida patriarch. The sound of sparks arcing could be heard coming from her hair.
"Father, I'll take it from here," Uryu spoke before his father could prove that he could be quite the smartass. "How was the mission?"
"Completed, but there was a complication," describing whatever the hell they fought Hallibel as a complication was an understatement. Whoever the hell they were were _very_ powerful.
"What kind of complication?" Uryu was worried. If his ace in the sleeve considered something a complication it was usually pretty bad.
"We felt the presence of two combatants who could keep up with three vasto lorde class arrancar," Candice's report was unnerving. An unknown combatant of that strength was hard to believe enough, but two beggared belief.
"Ideas?" Uryu needed something to go off here. Two people of that strength didn't just escape notice without something concealing them.
"One of them was a hollow of indeterminate class, the other was a child of unidentifiable gender. They both retreated before we could get a good idea of who they were or who they served," That was… odd. Sure, a Hollow of that power could be challenging Hallibel for her throne, but the child threw that completely out of the window.
"Get some rest, you've earned it. I'll need to speak with some contacts," Bambi nodded. The sooner she got to her apartment the sooner she could take a shower and get something to eat. Just because she couldn't starve didn't mean she didn't want something good to eat after all of that. As far as she was concerned, this stopped being her problem when the two assailants retreated.
Ichigo was breathing heavily, his arm outstretched as if it had just thrown something, and that something was lodged in the ground behind Bazz B.
"Well kid, for a first arrow that wasn't half bad," Bazz B was smirking slightly. He didn't think he'd be able to do the job, but here he was, having helped the kid finally awaken his abilities as a quincy. "It's a bit brittle, and would shatter against anything with actual defenses, but now you know what it's supposed to look like."
The arrow was less of an arrow and more a haphazardly formed shard of reishi. It was solid, and quite sharp. As Bazz B walked over to it however, he quickly showed its fragility. Stepping on it and snapping it in half with a glassy crack.
"So now what?" Ichigo could feel his power was more awake now, there were techniques that were just at the edge of his memory, but not quite tangible.
"Practice, hell, maybe even meditate with your zanpakuto, your fragment should be in your inner world," Bazz-B didn't know how right he was. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think my job is done now."
With that Rukia pressed a button. The collar suddenly slammed down on his reiatsu, sealing it away completely and preventing him from using his abilities.
Bazz B shuddered. "I hate that part." He turned to leave, waiting for the detention corps agents to throw him back into Camp Seydlitz.
Rukia considered the sudden sealing of Bazz B's powers just revenge for interrupting a rather personal conversation. Especially one as intimately sensitive as the one they had. The politics of Soul Society just had to make things complicated in her life once again.
"So, are we done here?" Ichigo looked over at Rukia. His face showed a quizzical expression. He didn't expect all of that for whatever the hell that was.
"Yes," they had been here for so long that she had lost track of time. At best it was very late that same day, at worst, the sun was probably close to rising and she would have to take the day off to rest.
"Alright, I'll be taking a dip in the hot springs," Ichigo walked over to the healing springs, seeking to recuperate before returning to the Shiba estate. The exertion was enough to make his muscles sore and he needed to wash the sweat off of himself anywa.
"May I join you?" Rukia spoke before thinking. She was exhausted, wanting to take a dip as well. Seeing Ichigo without the top of his shihakusho again however also caused her to feel other things.
The two of them sat in awkward silence for a moment.
"Uh… sure?" Ichigo didn't know why he said yes. Seeing her nude again was a thought that was causing him to burn up, but at the same time, he wanted to be close to her. The thought of holding her small body was one he found himself often returning to.
Rukia blushed. Before, the thought of seeing Ichigo nude didn't bother her. Now though? It was enough to cause her face to turn a light pink.
Soon, after some awkward silence, and wrestling with their shihakusho, they were in the hot springs.
For a while, the two sat opposite each other in the springs. The awkward silence was almost unbearable, but neither knew what to say.
After a while, either from gathering enough courage or her desire exceeding her better judgment, she moved from her side of the springs to Ichigo's, sitting herself across his lap so that she could look at his face.
Words weren't exchanged, not only because the feelings at that moment couldn't be expressed in words, but because words were unneeded as amber met amethyst, and lips touched.
As always questions and feedback are welcome, so feel free to leave them below.