Hello my darling readers!

I am back finally, risen from the dead!

Thank you all for your patience. I truly appreciate it!

Love you all!

Chapter 20

'When did this happen? How did this happen? I mean-I know said-I didn't actually think-Oh my god! I can't believe I was actually right!'

Rukia couldn't believe that they had been caught already. She had hoped to keep this a secret for a while longer, but barely two days and, here they were, being interrogated by Rangiku.

'Right about what?' Ichigo asked, brow furrowed. Rukia dropped her head in her hands and groaned.

'You and her! That the tension was of a sexual nature,' Rangiku clarified, stopping to gesture between the two of them.

Ichigo turned to her with a grin so wide, she could count his teeth. 'Is that so?'

'Stop smiling,' Rukia said. 'She also wanted me to marry Shuhei.'

That did the trick- his expression turned sour as he crossed his arms and mumbled something to himself.

Rukia suppressed a smile. Ichigo was adorable when he was jealous.

'Oh my god!' Rangiku gasped in a sudden realization. 'Yumichika is going to DIE when I-'

'No.' They both said firmly.

'We're keeping this between us,' Rukia continued, looking Rangiku straight in the eye. 'If you tell anyone, Rangiku, I swear to God-'

'Okay, okay. My lips are sealed, I promise. Back to the how and when-'

Rangiku was interrupted by a notification from her phone. 'Shit. I have to go. I just popped in to check on you after last night, but I see clearly now that you were well taken care of."

Rukia couldn't help but blush at the way Ichigo smiled at her. If Rangiku noticed, she made no comment.

'I will be back for the details!' she exclaimed as she left, walking backwards toward the door.

The minute she was gone, Ichigo scooped Rukia up from her seat.

'I was going to shower,' she said, enjoying the feeling of his strong arms beneath her.

'Me too,' he replied with a slow smile.

Rukia couldn't believe how ridiculously easy it was being with Ichigo. It was like they were together in a past life and their hearts and bodies still remembered each other. They would still bicker, sure, but that now somehow always ended with his lips on hers. She would neither deny nor admit that sometimes she would provoke him for this exact outcome.

Months went by like this, and Rukia hadn't known she could be this happy. The only dark cloud threatening her bliss was the fact that she still hadn't told Ichigo about Kaien. She had meant to-so many times, but she just couldn't get the words to leave her mouth.

She had left the burner buried in her closet and never replied to the Heart Emoji again-blocking the number from her phone completely. It was time to put this behind her and focus on this wonderful new thing that the universe thought she deserved.

And so, help her, she wasn't letting anything come in the way of it.

She had chosen Ichigo; chosen herself.

But still.

In the back of her heart, she was still scared that once he found out, Ichigo would reject her and she would have to go back to her lonely existence.

Maybe it would be easier if he just asked. But he never did.

He hadn't even asked about her scars. He only kissed them lovingly, and traced their lines as though they were something beautiful about her.

One day, however, while they were watching TV in his apartment, and he idly traced the jagged scar on her thigh, and she told him what had happened. It was the first time she had ever felt like sharing her past with anyone.

'It was my first day as detective. I was chasing a suspect, and I cut through an alley, and ran straight through a gap in the wire gate. The broken wires ripped through my skin. I caught the bastard though.'

She smiled at him but he only looked at her with his brows furrowed.

Her heart stopped and her smile fell.

If he disapproved of this story, then there was no way he would understand-

His mouth crashed into hers, so fast that their teeth knocked. He pulled away just as quickly, leaning his forehead on her shoulder.

'It is a miracle that you are still alive.'

He had made her promise, then and there, that she would never risk herself ever again.

'We're detectives. It what we do,' she countered.

'I don't care, Rukia. Just promise me.'

The seriousness in his tone, and the tightness with which he held her, the wobble in his voice…

'I promise.'

Ichigo could no longer imagine his life without waking up with Rukia in his arms. He would always awake before her, but close his eyes again until she woke him. He hated leaving her in the morning, and he hated it when she left even more.

And then when they saw each other again, he would have to pretend that she hadn't become his lifeline. But still, Ichigo was content keeping their relationship to himself. He still wasn't ready for the questions and comments that would ensue.

He especially didn't know how he would face Renji.

Ichigo quickly put that thought out of his head when the love of his life stirred next to him. The clock on his bedside told him he had about an hour before she woke up and rushed out.

He imagined what it would be like if she stayed; used his shower; dressed in his room; had breakfast with him. Ichigo had been thinking about it a lot, actually-ever since she had told him about the scar on her thigh.

After that night, she gained the courage to tell him about her other scars.

He knew the scar on her right arm came from a knife fight in South Rukongai. He also knew that she had lived there with her sister until she was fourteen. Then her sister married a police captain from North Rukongai and she moved there, hoping that she never had to return to the South.

But she did, when she was sent there on completion of her training. It was there that a murderer's mother attacked her in court, slashing a kitchen knife across her ribcage.

She had also told him that her sister had died of an illness when she seventeen. And since then, her relationship with her brother-in-law had become strained, so much so that the rotten bastard had told her to leave.

He could tell, from the way her eyes turned glassy and her hands tightened around his, that she still carried the weight of his abandonment.

If Ichigo ever met the man, he would be sure to greet him with a fist to his face.

But Rukia still hadn't told him about the scar near her spine.

Nor had she told him what she had been doing when he found her that first night.

And, in all honesty, he was too afraid to ask.

He pulled her closer to him, closed his eyes and buried his nose in the crook of her neck. He awoke again when she hurriedly patted his backed.

'Ichigo, wake up. I'm going to be late.'

He opened his eyes, but kept his hold on her.

'Ichigo.'

He hated this.

'Move in with me.'

'Huh?' Her hand stilled.

He raised himself up on his forearms so that he could look at her.

'Or I could move in with you. Or we could find a new place. Together.'

For a while, for long while, she just blinked at him. Then she placed her palm on his chest, pushing him back as she sat up. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

Was that a 'yes'?

'Let's talk after work, okay.'

He could only nod.

She kissed him again and then she was gone.

The rest of the morning, Ichigo was a nervous wreck-his thoughts going a mile a minute. What if she didn't want to move in with him? What if he was moving too fast for her? It had only been a few months, after all.

But, in that moment, it had felt right to ask her.

Ichigo's anxiety only worsened when he arrived at the precinct only to be greeted by her empty desk.

He went to the break room and called her.

No answer.

He tried again.

Nothing.

He sent message after message but no reply.

Ichigo went back to his desk, and tried to calm down telling himself that she was just late, and that she wasn't answering her because she was driving.

An hour went by and still, she didn't show.

She couldn't have gone off doing whatever it is she did, could she? She had promised him she wouldn't risk her life, hadn't she?

His panic soared when Kisuke poked his head through the door to ask, 'Anyone know why Rukia isn't here yet?'

No one knew.

Ichigo couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed his keys and drove faster than he ever had in his life.

When he reached her apartment, he saw that her car was still there. But Ichigo knew that something was off when she saw her door slightly ajar. With a hand on his gun, Ichigo pushed the door opened.

'Rukia?' he called when he noticed her badge and keys on the kitchen counter, next to a mug full of cold coffee.

Ichigo's blood roared in his ears as he searched the rest of the apartment. Fear gripped his lungs, his throat, his heart.

Where was she?

He searched the apartment again. For anything that might give him a clue. Then he heard footsteps coming from the living room.

With his gun in his hand, he moved quickly, finding himself aiming at a tall, dark-skinned woman, with long dark hair tied high on her head.

'Who the fuck are you?' he demanded.

But before he could get any answers, Captain Kisuke Urahara walked through the door.

'Put your gun down, Ichigo,' he said, calmly. 'There's something we have to discuss.'