Him and Her

Him and Her

Author: foxmagic07

Rating: R for later chapters, PG and PG-13 for now.

Warnings: Ichigo/Rukia ness and excessive use of embarrassment on Ichigo’s part.

Disclaimer: I Don’t own Bleach…blah blah…Tite Kubo owns Bleach…blah blah blah…

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Okay then. Here’s the next chapter and last part of my first story, His pain and Her embarrassment. Thanks to the reviewers. You guys are totally devoted Ichigo/Rukia fans (then again…maybe you’re not) who appreciate the goodness of embarrassing situations. But really…who doesn’t?

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--Story One: His pain and Her embarrassment –Part Two-

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“Thank you so much Kurosaki-san. It was really nice of you to let us come over on such short notice!” Bowed Orihime as her and the others were ushered inside.

“No problem! I would have woken him up sooner, but today has been really busy for the clinic!”

They followed him into the hallway and headed straight for the stairs that would lead them to Ichigo. Orihime seemed to be the only one that thought this was a good idea.

Keigo was beginning to feel a little more than afraid. “Dude, if we mess with him while he’s sleeping, won’t he…I dunno…be pissed? I don’t think this is such a good…”

“Oh shut up, Asano.” Interrupted Tatsuki. “She wanted us to come with her, so deal with it and shut your yap.”

Mizuiro sighed and pushed Keigo up the remainder of the steps. “Let’s just get it over with and go home.”

The door to the red head’s room loomed up in front of them. Before any of them knew what was going on, Isshin had grabbed a hold of the knob and proceeded to fling the door open without even knocking. Purely out of habit, you see. Besides, no one ever bothered to knock on Ichigo’s door despite how much he protested against them barging in (especially his Dad in the mornings).

Whatever. The group took it in stride, thinking the boy would just be sleeping. They could all wake him up with a rowdy cheer.

“GOOD MORNING ICHI….go…” The synchronized voices suddenly died.

Gasps of complete and utter astonishment could be heard coming from the small crowd. Oh, he was there all right. Right there, on the floor of his room…with Rukia directly on top of him (ehem). And they were both in their pajamas. It lay more than evident that she had spent the night.

Silence.

The pair froze. They looked from the group back to each other, and to the group again. That’s when the position of her and the boy’s bodies managed to catch Rukia’s attention.

She sweat dropped. “Good afternoon, everyone…”

He wanted to deck her. MORON! Don’t encourage them!

Orihime covered her mouth with her hand. Tatsuki smacked herself in the head. Chad remained silent, a little suprised. Keigo’s eyes were bugging out of their sockets. And Mizuiro just stared in shock. Isshin was struggling with a sense of pride and fleeting memories from when he was younger.

“Ru…Rukia-san?” Mizuiro was the only one who managed to speak, albeit a stutter.

Oh Hell! Ichigo’s mind screamed as he pushed Rukia off him and sat up

“Oh…um…Ichigo…I’m so sorry!” A fiercely blushing Orihime left quickly, followed by a very befuddled Tatsuki.

Chad walked away without so much as an acknowledgement to the circumstances. But Keigo, Mizuiro, and Isshin still stood rooted to the spot. The whole thing was making Ichigo incredibly pissed. He knew what was going through their minds and could guarantee it wasn’t anything decent.

“WAY TO GO ICHIGOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Keigo made that really annoying face that he used when it came to all things female. “YOU THE MAN!!!!!”

Trying to decide on whether the whole thing made him more embarrassed or angry, Ichigo looked for some one to take it out on.

“I can’t believe it, Ichigo! You and Rukia-san?” Asano was still going on and on.

Oh yes…Ichigo knew who to take it out on now.

“Get the hell outta my friggin room!” His punch sent the boy clear down the stairs. He focused his glare on Mizuiro next, daring him to even make a peep.

“Eh heh heh…I think I’ll go downstairs and wait as well…” And with that, he went to find Keigo.

This was all passing by Rukia so fast that she didn’t even get what Ichigo was so upset about. They hadn’t found out about her staying in his closet. Sure…she was wearing Yuzu’s pajamas…but that could be explained somehow. Seriously, though…what was Keigo talking about when he said ‘way to go Ichigo’? It was all too puzzling.

She was interrupted from her reverie by the sound of Kurosaki-san clearing his throat. “Ichigo, my son…I think it’s time we had ourselves a little talk.” He was trying to salvage what little he had left of his fatherly pride. “Have I ever told you the story about Mr. and Ms. Rabbit? It all began when Mr. Rabbit had begun to feel very lonely and…”

“SAVE IT!” Ichigo kicked his dad across the room. “I don’t need the birds-and-the-bees talk! Besides, nothing happened! And I thought I told you to knock when you came in my room!”

“Well if I had knocked, I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of having such a lovely father/son talk with you…now where was I? Oh yes…Mr. Rabbit was taking a walk when one day he bumped into Ms. Rabbit…”

That was it, he didn’t care if he was his dad. He had no desire to find out what happened to Mr. and Ms. Rabbit…er…whatever. This was all Rukia’s fault.

Speaking of the former shinigami, she stood baffled as the dispute between the Kurosakis escalated to a rough bout of kicking and fist-throwing. Of course, she expected this as normal, it had happened on countless occasions before. But she was never in the middle of it and this is what was causing her uncertainty.

“Umm…excuse me…Kurosaki-san?” Her voice gingerly broke through the fight. They both stopped to stare at her. “I’m terribly sorry for the misunderstanding. If it’s alright, could you and I please talk in private?”

Ichigo gave her a dubious look. He clearly had a problem with that.

Isshin on the other hand…

“Why OF COURSE! I’d be so very happy to answer ANY questions you might have.”

His smile was creeping Ichigo out. He sent the girl another death glare. “That’s not a good idea.”

Rukia simply walked over to him and proceeded to push the boy out of the room. “Oh tut tut! We will be just fine.” Then she added in a whisper only he could hear, “Trust me, Ichigo…I’ll take care of it.”

And with that, the door was shut in his face.

He glanced over his shoulders and down the stairs. That meant…he had to deal with his friends alone. A shudder ran through his spine.

For some reason, he’d much rather be fighting Hollows.

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Downstairs, the gang had made themselves comfortable in the living room. Of course, the polite thing would have been to go home and leave family business well enough alone. But each one of their curious natures had won out in that battle, even Orihime who usually respected the privacy of others.

But while Keigo and Mizuiro talked non-stop, the two girls remained silent. Tatsuki didn’t know what exactly was going on, but she knew that her friend might be taking it hard. It was becoming more and more apparent that she was gaining feelings for the Strawberry, whether romantic or not.

“Do you think…” Orihime began, “do you think that Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san are really…”

Tastuki shrugged, noting the tone in her voice. “Who knows. They are always together, but he never actually seemed to like her in that way.”

“Oh…I suppose you’re right. But I’ve always thought he cared more about people than he let on. If you watch very closely, Kurosaki-kun sometimes lets that mask of his fall…and maybe…it’s because of her.” Her face brightened. “Don’t you think, Tatsuki-chan?”

“Hmm…yeah, I guess…”

They said nothing more.

--

“It’s so not fair Ichigoooo! You passed second base, and you never even told me! I’m hurt!” Whined a rather annoying Keigo.

“Second base? What the Hell?!” He pushed the clinging parasite away. “You’re a moron, so just shut up. I told you nothing happened so nothing happened. And if you make anymore outta it I’ll shut your mouth, myself.”

It had only been 5 minutes since Ichigo made the brave trek down to the living room and the two boys had not ceased to question him. Chad, Inoue, and Tatsuki seemed to be the only sane people in the house at that point.

Ichigo furrowed his brow. How could this have happened? He had been so careful up until now. No one suspected a thing…they might of thought him mad to act the way he did (such as yelling to the nothingness in his room), but the idea of another person living in his closet never came up. Obviously they still didn’t think that; they thought something much worse. Hell, he wasn’t stupid and neither were they. If two and two were put together, it all added up to the same thing –the same thing that was on everybody’s minds…

They all thought he and Rukia had slept together.

Oh God…Cringed Ichigo. It’s creepy just thinking about it.

All this plus the fact that Mizuiro had a big fat mouth and would spread the story in a matter of minutes. When it came time to go back to school, everybody would know.

Everybody.

“Brother!” A familiar voice called.

Ichigo turned to look at his sister.

“Is Dad coming back? The clinic is packed! He needs to hurry up!” Karin stood impatiently.

He nodded and shooed her away before either of his ‘friends’ could get a hold of her to spill the recent situation. It would be even worse if his sisters knew.

A sudden thump coming from Ichigo’s bedroom caused his head to swivel to the stairs. What the…? What was that?

A worse-case-scenario came to mind as he dashed up the steps to his door. It was quickly flung open to reveal a quite unharmed Rukia standing over a quite unconscious Isshin. In her hands, she held something familiar as her body turned towards his.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!” Shouted Ichigo, his father passed out recklessly on the floor.

“This…don’t you remember it?” The girl held out what was in her palm. “We’ve used it several times before. Kiokuchikan memory replacement.”

“Oh, that thing.” His face eased, then became furious again. “Dammit, Rukia! Why didn’t you use it sooner?!”

“I couldn’t. Too many people at one time could hinder the effects. Too risky.” Her impassive expression took on a hint of mischief, the Kiokuchikan now being held at arm’s length. “Maybe it’s about time you learned how to use it…you’ll have lots of people to practice on.”

He groaned inwardly.

Little manipulative brat…

--

The school week soon came around and all was forgotten. Between the two shinigamis, they were able to replace everyone’s memories thus putting that day way WAY behind them.

“This is ridiculous.” Ichigo muttered under his breath.

It was lunch time, yet he found himself inside listening to Keigo, Mizuiro, Orihime, and Tatsuki go on and on about their visit to his house.

“It was HUMUNGOUS! A huge panda bear came walking in to Kurosaki-kun’s house! Right into the living room!”

“Then he sat down and squashed Keigo’s head! I don’t know how he got out of that one.”

“Yeah yeah, I even have the bump to prove it!”

The Death God sighed as he watched in complete irritation. That’s where I punched you, ya moron.

Not being able to stomach the ridiculousness of it all, he found himself wandering outside to where they usually ate. And sure enough, he had a shadow following him.

“Those replacement memories are getting more and more stupid.” He said, not bothering to look behind him.

Rukia walked up next to his negligent form and cast a smirk his way. “It worked, didn’t it? See, I told you I could handle it. I still don’t understand why you didn’t trust me in the first place.”

“It’s not that I didn’t trust you, it was that I didn’t trust my Dad. Who knows what that idiot will do.”

“Oh.” Her voice dropped, face scrunching in thought. “Hmm, I did wonder why he kept asking my age…and wondering if my dinner was busy…or if I was…er…busy for dinner? Yeah, something like that.”

Ichigo smacked himself. That freakin pervert! He never quits…

She continued without giving the boy so much as a glance. “Besides…I didn’t know anything he was talking about. Something to do with teenagers and hormones…I guess. Perhaps he was against the idea of me spending the night in your room?”

Right then, realization dawned on him. She had NO CLUE what the others had suspected. She hadn’t known what all the fuss was about, besides the obvious. Sure, all his friends finding her laying on top of him was bad…but apparently that’s the extent she had taken it.

He held back a blush at the thought. Telling her might be wise…

Ichigo looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She was focused souly on getting her food out of its packaging, not noticing his stare.

Then again…that conversation could wait till another day. A sigh escaped for the tenth time.

“Eh, Ichigo…could you give me a hand with this stupid thing? I can’t open it.” The girl’s words broke his silent thoughts.

Rolling his eyes, he snatched it from her grasp and opened the plastic with ease. When it was at last handed back, she seemed to gaze in wonder.

Such a simple thing, and it made her happy.

Ichigo decided that at that one moment, all the rumors in the entire school couldn’t have mattered less.

-- FIN --

UGH! I spent so long on this its not even funny. I read and re-read and read again. It was so much to put into one chapter that I was afraid I couldn’t keep the people in character. I hope I didn’t do too badly. (cowers away)

But please review anyways. I’d appreciate it.

-foxmagic07