[Fanfiction] IchiRuki: Newsflash
Back-up time! I know one day I'll catch up, yes, I will!
Title: Newsflash
Series: Bleach
Pairing: IchiRuki
Date: October 10th, 2005.
Notes: Romance. Frustrated Ichigo
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The Kurosaki Ichigo Family Saga
ACT I: Newsflash
In which what seem casual conversations actually lead to surprising developments.
And thus, the beggining of a long journey.
Ichigo looked at her intently as Rukia sipped her tea. She maneuvered the ceramic with such measured movements and yet with such ease that it was hard not to follow the fluid motion of her hands. It was almost as if her fingers were dancing gracefully. Her eyes opened and she was gazing back at him, a mischievous glint finding its way to her blue irises upon catching him unconsciously staring at her. She lowered the cup from her moistened lips; these curved themselves into a playful smile. “Yes, Ichigo?”
He grunted, shifting his amber eyes away from her. “Nothing…” he murmured. Men weren’t supposed to pout, but if they could, Rukia was sure he was doing so.
She licked her pink lips; he saw it through the corner of his amber eyes. “This tea is good,” she stated casually, “Where did you get it?”
“At Sandal-hat’s place,” Ichigo grumbled; his mind drifted unwillingly to an unpleasant memory. He gritted his teeth wondering why in hell he would go to that guy’s store just to get her this special tea. Why couldn’t he go to some random store anyway?
Rukia laughed heartily. “From your face I get you didn’t have that much fun with Urahara?” She voiced out her guess and he nodded his head as a reply, eyes completely narrowed.
“The guy is insane,” he explained plainly, something both knew quite well already, but he didn’t comment anything else. Instead, the young man simply kept the colorful curses to himself.
A pregnant pause invaded the space in the room, one that she didn’t care to break. Rukia took the chance to gulp down another sip of the warm liquid. It tasted sweet enough, bitter enough, and it warmed her throat as she drank it. She had always liked tea. (She could see her face reflected on the amber tea. Her image showed a smiling woman.)
On the other side of the table, he grumbled once again as he gripped his own mug. Ichigo had chosen something much stronger than her tea. It was black coffee for him, no more than two spoons of sugar. (The curled fingers around the cup’s handle were turning white around the knuckles. He was actually surprised he hadn’t broken it yet.)
“So?” He made the effort to sound composed, but his voice betrayed him. Ichigo could almost start pulling at the roots of his orange hair. Waiting this much was making him impatient, edgy.
“So what?” she blinked innocently. Too innocently for Ichigo’s liking.
“What did he tell you?” He tried to smile, but failed miserably as instead there was a grimace on his face. Ichigo turned down to the already cold-turning coffee and drank all of what was left of it in one long gulp.
Her eyebrows rose at his rash action, stifling a chuckle when he made a face in distaste, but she decided to indulge him with a question of her own. “Who told me what?”
“Rukia…” He hissed her name through his closed teeth and she sniggered under her breath once again. He was so predictable sometimes. Ichigo breathed deeply, trying to cool himself down. “What did that damned doctor say?”
“Oh, nothing,” she said indifferently, “We just chatted a little bit. You know, the usual.” There was plain humor in Rukia’s words.
“You were inside that man’s office for over and hour and a half!” he exclaimed, his eyes opening widely. The tone he’d spoken with about the medic was tinted with contempt in its purest form.
“Yeah, so?” she shrugged. “If you wanted to hear our conversation, you should have stayed inside then.”
Ichigo looked like he was about to have a fit. “But the bastard threw me out!”
He’d been so worried about her and then that guy had actually asked him to leave the room. And now she was saying it was nothing?
“Hey, that’s not my fault.” The girl refilled her cup as she spoke, uncaring of both Ichigo’s sudden outburst and the facial contortions of his face. “You pissed the doctor off with so many damn questions. I would have kicked you out long before he did. Honestly, you didn’t even have to ask all those things; aren’t you an intern at the hospital already?”
“But…! Argh… Whatever…” He sighed resignedly.
Ichigo opened his mouth in an attempt to speak again, but paused to study her as he realized that her gaze was lingering on the bottom of her cup and that she was actually holding the ceramic object very tightly. In fact, it seemed Rukia was holding her cup in an even stronger grip than he’d been doing with his own a couple of minutes ago. She took another sip and he waited for her to lower the cup to the table before his hand reached over the polished surface and pulled her hand.
His fingers intertwined with hers in a quiet, tender gesture. “Well?”
She looked up from the cup, staring straight into his eyes and capturing them with her own. A faint smile stretched over her lips as she glanced down at their linked hands but didn’t pull hers away. “Do you have any names in mind?”
“Wha-?” He was startled by her sudden question. And yet Ichigo could feel he was starting to understand.
“Come on, Ichigo, we’ve only got seven months more to figure it out,” she told him seriously, “A good person needs a good name, after all.”
Rukia simply grinned at him as the boy dropped his hold on her hand and instead rushed to her side to envelope her lithe frame. His face was hidden on her lap as her small hands flew to his head and she started caressing his hair with her fingers. He muttered something against her clothes, a question that was more like a statement that he wanted to believe with all his heart, bringing her closer to him even when she remained sitting on the wooden chair.
“Yeah, you’ll be a daddy, Ichigo.”
And Rukia was still smiling.
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ACT I - ACT II - ACT III - ACT IV - ACT V