Originally I didn't plan to do a sequel to my first story (I didn't even think I could pull off a sequel), but after much toying with the idea and much debating with myself, I decided to do it, and I told myself I would go through with it if I could sketch it out in one sitting. Well, I did, but then comes the piecing together, editing, beta reading, etc. It took me a while, since I've been very busy, but I've finally managed to post it. I'm proud of it. I just wish it could've been shorter.
I realize now I suck at writing Ichigo, so forgive me if you feel he is a bit out of character. In my defense, I was listening to some very sappy songs while writing this. I might've been in a too-cheery mood. Hopefully you find him… endearing.
Music that contributed to the inspiration for this story: "Grazed Knees" by Snow Patrol, "Sunshine" by Keane, "Sanctuary" by Natalie Imbruglia, "Life" by Yui Horie, "London Rain" by Heather Nova, "Come Clean" by Hilary Duff, "Here I am" by Marion Raven, "The Walnut Tree" by Keane, and a whole bunch of others that I can't recall right now.
Disclaimer: I don't own (unfortunately) anything about this story, except for the main plot. That was my twisted, hopeful romantic mind on the work.
Rumors – by Deathberry15
1: Come clean
Okay, so maybe Keigo had not been so far from the truth. But he didn't need to know that. Nobody needed to know, Ichigo told himself firmly. However, he didn't think he was doing a very good job hiding it anyway.
Bloody viruses.
"That shade of green is not very flattering on you, Kurosaki-kun. It clashes with your hair."
"Shut up, Rukia."
Rukia continued to smile her cheesy smile that always accompanied her corny schoolgirl voice, while observing a very dizzy and sickly green Ichigo as he swayed slightly from side to side. Class 1-3 had just gotten back from lunch, and was now leisurely lounging around waiting for Ochi-sensei. Ichigo, much to his own dismay (and maybe the ones around him as well), had spent most of the morning coughing and sneezing, and he had been barely able to eat anything, fearing it would only make his stomach more upset than it already seemed to be. Now he had a headache and he was afraid he'd gotten chills too. All of which would explain why Rukia was poking fun at his face. He guessed he didn't look very well.
"Shouldn't you go to the nurse or something?" Rukia muttered, dropping the weird voice. For a fleeting second, she looked genuinely concerned for him. There were beads of cold sweat on his forehead and he was getting greener by the second.
He wanted to say he was fine, but he couldn't really speak, so he just shook his head. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed hard, gulping down the feeling at the pit of his stomach.
Rukia just gave him a pitiful stare. "Seriously, Ichigo, you don't look so well. In fact, you look like you might pass out. If you don't go to the nurse, then I'll have to drag you over there myself."
Ichigo shot Rukia a glare, but he didn't look half as threatening as he usually would have, considering his miserable state.
"Thank you, but I'm fine," he replied in mock politeness through gritted teeth, causing Rukia to glare back and huff.
"Suit yourself, pig-head," she shot back, and walked over to Tatsuki and Orihime, joining their conversation. Ichigo rolled his eyes, but looked back at them.
Considering the rumors that had been going around (thanks to Keigo), the last thing Ichigo needed was for anyone to find out he was actually sick, because people would only assume it was true how he caught the sickness. His classmates could be so annoyingly nosy. But regardless of what anyone thought, Ichigo didn't want Orihime, most importantly, to find out he might be sick. He wouldn't want her to think she'd had anything to do with that; he had assured her he would be fine.
Orihime had gone back to school that morning, and already she seemed to be on the same high spirits she always was. The previous afternoon, once Dr. Kurosaki had made 100 sure that she could go back home and back to her normal activities, she had left the clinic and gone back to her flat, after thanking Isshin and Yuzu and Karin. But Ichigo had not been present. He had been on "shinigami duty". When he'd returned later that evening, she was already gone.
Ichigo had noted how perfectly fine she seemed. There were no more symptoms, and she even seemed livelier than ever. When she had greeted him this morning as he entered the classroom, it was as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn't spent a week holed up at the clinic, feeling terrible and nearly overdosed on pharmaceuticals. However, she did approach him briefly to thank him for taking care of her and helping her out with the schoolwork. But before he could reply, she had walked away, and he thought he'd seen her blushing slightly. He was glad she had left, though; for a moment he had started to blush too. Thankfully, no one else seemed to have witnessed the minor interaction. He didn't need that.
The truth was that the rumors Keigo had spread were more accurate than he would ever admit. He did kiss Orihime, and now he couldn't stop thinking about that.
He kissed her, and the cold symptoms he was manifesting were enough to prove it.
Of course, there were a million other ways he could've caught it from her, other than lip contact. In fact, there were also a million other people he could've caught the cold from, considering the amount of patients that frequently visited his dad at the clinic with various ailments, colds and flu included. He could've gotten it from the pre-school children with runny noses, the ones who came about two weeks ago for a checkup appointment; he could've been infected by the wheezing old man who came to pick up some prescriptions on Monday. There was a woman a few weeks ago who'd had a terrible dry cough. Any of them could've infected him, and the cold could just be manifesting itself now.
But no one would see it that way. They would only think of Orihime having spent a full week at the Kurosaki clinic, in close proximity of Ichigo.
So he was screwed anyway.
When he was not worrying about what everyone would think, though, he pondered over what exactly made him kiss her in the first place. It had been a sudden, whimsical thing, an impulse. Caused by what? He had no idea. But now he was beyond embarrassed.
What was worse, he had no idea if Orihime had been conscious at all when he'd kissed her. Did she remember him kissing her? Maybe she had, or maybe she thought she was hallucinating again. But he had no way of finding out. He could never bring the subject up with her. If she couldn't remember, then she would know he had done it, and he would just be even more embarrassed that he already was. If she did remember, though… well, what then?
Ichigo had no more time to think about that, when Ochi-sensei finally walked through the door and told everyone to take their seats. As she pulled out her notebook to do roll call, Ichigo sat down heavily. He was sweating profusely now, and feeling worse. But what was there left for him to do? He took a few deep breaths. Relax, Kurosaki, he told himself. All he had to do was wait a couple of hours and then he could go home and pop a few pills and get better. I hope.
"Kurosaki Ichigo! Kurosaki! Are you listening?"
Ichigo was startled out of his thoughts. He looked around, and everyone was staring at him, including the sensei, with an exasperated expression on her face. She had been calling his name from the attendance list, and he hadn't heard her.
"Um… huh?" he mumbled like an idiot.
Ochi-sensei sat back down with a huff and shook her head. "Never mind. Pay attention, though. Your body is obviously present, but your mind needs to stop wandering and get back in the classroom, or else I'll have to mark you down as 'absent', you hear?" And she continued calling out names.
Ichigo blushed slightly. A few classmates were still staring at him; he glared, and they looked away. Nosy gits, he thought angrily, and smiled satisfied that he could still inflict that kind of fear on his peers with just a look. He went back to breathing deeply.
"Ichigo…" a deep voice behind him said. Ichigo turned to look at Chad, who was watching him serenely. "Are you alright?" Chad asked quietly, his faced neutral.
Ichigo, naturally, was about to reply that he was fine, but he didn't get the chance. A wave of nausea overcame him, and he felt the bitter taste of bile rising to his throat, and the sensation that his whole digestive system was tightening. Not thinking twice about it, he clapped a hand over his mouth and leapt to his feet, nearly knocking over his desk and the desk of everyone around him, as he made his way across the classroom and to the door. He barely heard Ochi-sensei yell something at him, and the students exclaiming confusedly, when he was already rushing down the hallway toward the restroom. He burst through the swinging door, rushed into one of the nearest stalls, and unclamped his mouth. In one fluid movement, he sank to his knees, lifted the toilet seat, and puked.
His hands were shaking as he held on to the edges of the porcelain bowl, heaving into it. Tears sprung to his eyes as he scrunched them shut to block out his surroundings, bent only on getting rid of the awful feeling in his stomach. He couldn't even bring himself to look at what now lay in the abyss of the toilet. He was about to flush it away, but only bent down for a second round of retching. And after round two came round three, and he begged for it to stop.
Five minutes later, when he had made sure all the contents of his stomach had been poured and flushed down the toilet bowl, and he had managed to get his breath back, Ichigo emerged from the stall, holding on with trembling grip to the linoleum walls, his legs wobbly as he half-crawled, half-lifted himself back to his feet. He desperately needed fresh air, because the stench of his sick mixed with the strong industrial-solvent smell typical of a public toilet was making him even sicker.
A low exclamation of disgust interrupted his wallowing, and Ichigo looked to his left to find Ishida leaning casually against the sinks, arms crossed over his chest.
"That was so gross," he said, pushing his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. Ichigo wanted to ignore him, but there was no point.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice coming out raspy and weak.
"Ochi-sensei sent me to check up on you," Ishida responded, as he watched Ichigo walk painstakingly over to the sinks. "I wasn't as shocked as everyone else when you rushed out like that; I'm used to it. But Kuchiki-san mentioned you didn't look very well all day. I must say, that's rather an understatement."
Ichigo glared at him, but when he looked at himself in the broad mirror covering the wall above the sinks, he had to admit it was true. His face was paper-white, which made his hair look even brighter, he was glistening with sweat, and his eyes were bloodshot and had dark circles underneath. Wincing at his reflection, he opened the tab and splashed cool water in his face before taking a mouthful and spitting it out to get rid of the taste of vomit.
"Perhaps you should really go to the infirmary. You look half-dead," Ishida continued.
"Thank you for your concern, but I'll be fine," Ichigo replied scornfully, although his withered look did very little to throw off Ishida, who only chuckled.
"Whatever. I'm not even going to argue, I'm well acquainted with your stubbornness. Just come on, you should get back soon before people have more time to gossip," Ishida said as he held the door open for Ichigo, more out of pity than for courtesy. Ichigo gave him a questioning look, wondering what the hell he meant. But by the smug smile from the bespectacled Quincy, Ichigo knew it had something to do with the rumors. He would've liked to punch him, but he felt too weak.
"He's still alive, sensei," Ishida said as he walked back into class, and nonchalantly sat at his desk. He was shortly followed by a trembling Ichigo.
"Kurosaki, if you're sick and you need to use the restroom, you should request permission first. You know that," Ochi-sensei said looking over her shoulder as she continued to scribble on the chalkboard.
"I'm not sick," Ichigo quickly replied. He suddenly reminded himself of a certain redhead. Feeling everyone's eyes upon him, he dragged himself to his desk and plopped down into his chair. People started whispering. He knew what they were whispering about. But he told himself he didn't care.
He was going to make it through the day. Otherwise, he'd never live it down. People could say whatever they wanted, but he didn't care one bit. It was none of their business anyway.
Oblivious to what people were saying, Orihime sat quietly, doodling absent-mindedly in her notebook while staring out the window with a dreamy gaze. Ichigo stole a quick glance in her direction and chuckled inwardly; she was probably daydreaming, clearly very much detached from her surroundings.
This was one of those occasions in which he was glad she was so flaky.
It started to rain during last period, and it didn't stop after the bell rang. Everyone who belonged to a club or practiced some other extracurricular activity was glad to not have to go home under this downpour. It rained all afternoon.
Ichigo and Rukia went straight home after school. They made a quick stop by the gym locker rooms to get their hoodies. They didn't help much, however. When they arrived at the clinic, they were both soaking wet, and Ichigo only started sneezing again.
"Well, at least we're already out of the rain and we can dry off," Rukia said as she squeezed some of the water out of her clothes, and took her shoes off at the entrance. Ichigo did the same, sniffling and coughing, and Rukia couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Since she was dead, she couldn't get sick, so she had no clue how bad Ichigo really felt. "Come on, you should change those clothes," she said supportively.
Ichigo nodded with a sigh of relief; he was glad to be home, though. Now he could rest and take it easy and recover from his affliction.
Although he should've known better.
"WELCOME HOME, ICHIGO!"
He was unable to dodge the sumo-style body block his father gave him just as he entered the house. Knocked painfully to the floor, Ichigo landed at Rukia's feet, while Isshin laughed maniacally in front of them.
"There's a lesson for you, son, for leaving your umbrella at home! And now you're dripping water all over the floor!" he said, and continued to laugh.
"RUKIA-CHAN!" he said after a moment, bowing to her politely. "You grace us with your presence during this bleak rainy afternoon!"
Rukia switched to corny girl mode. "Good evening, Kurosaki-san. Glad to see you're doing well, as always," she curtsied with a smile. She looked rather funny doing that since she was soaked from head to toe. Ichigo trembled with rage as he stood back up.
"YOU IDIOT! I FEEL TERRIBLE AND THIS IS HOW YOU WELCOME ME HOME? I'M SOAKED, I FEEL SICK, I'M STARVING AND I'M COLD, AND MY SORRY EXCUSE FOR A FATHER CAN ONLY GREET ME AFTER A VERY LONG DAY BY KNOCKING ME OVER!"
Isshin and Rukia both cringed at Ichigo's outburst. Ichigo just stood there, glaring at his father, water clinging to him everywhere, nostrils flaring. Then he sneezed.
"ACHOO!"
Isshin shielded himself. "My son! I had no idea you were ailing! If I had known you were feeling bad, I wouldn't have administered my powerful body block!" He looked distraught for a moment, but then he glared angrily at Ichigo and thwacked him over his head. "YOU SHOULD'VE WARNED ME!"
Ichigo recovered and looked even madder, as he spun and kicked his father square in the stomach.
"HOW COULD I IF YOU KNOCK ME DOWN AS SOON AS I STEP THROUGH THE DOOR? YOU INCONSIDERATE GIT!"
"BUT THEN YOU SHOULD BE USED TO IT ALREADY!"
They started throwing punches and kicks at each other, while Rukia stood on the sidelines and watched them amusedly but worried about the two of them hurting each other. Karin appeared next to her, followed by Yuzu a moment later, carrying the dinner plates she was going to set at the dining table.
"Shouldn't we perhaps try to stop them?" Rukia asked Karin.
"Oh, they'll stop when they start bleeding. Don't worry," Karin replied, and Yuzu gave her a look.
"Karin, make them stop, would you?" she said to her twin.
"Excuse me; I don't want to get a black eye from trying to cut in."
The fighting suddenly ceased and Ichigo stood over his father, pressing him down with one foot on his back, so that Isshin wouldn't be able to stand up.
"Gaah, I only let you win because you're sick," Isshin managed to say, although his face was squished against the floor.
"Sure, goat chin. Just face it, your son was able to beat you even when he's got the flu," Karin retorted.
"I don't have the flu. It's only a mild cold," Ichigo retorted angrily. Yuzu rolled her eyes.
"Stop it, you two. Daddy, can we please have a peaceful evening? And onii-chan, when you're sick, you're more temperamental and you snap at everyone, but we're not putting up with that. Now go to your room and change into dry clothes. I'll bring you some dinner, and they you should lie down and rest," she said in a determined tone. Ichigo was not about to argue, so he gestured for Rukia to follow him. They went upstairs, Ichigo stomping moodily to his bedroom.
"Could this day possibly get any worse?" he grumbled as he opened the door.
Inside his room, he found several members of the Gotei 13, all in school uniform. Matsumoto was sprawled on his bed flipping through some manga, Ikkaku and Yumichika were sorting through his records, and Renji seemed to be torturing Kon, whose screams of pain were muffled by Renji's hands. Only Hitsugaya, always the cool, collected one, sat patiently on the desk chair, clearly wanting to wait for him without making himself too comfortable.
A vein started popping on Ichigo's forehead.
"I guess you spoke too soon," Rukia whispered sarcastically.
"Hellooooo, Kurosaki-kun!" Matsumoto hollered in a high-pitched voice, waving frantically at him.
"ICHIGO! NEE-SAN! YOU'RE HERE! SAVE ME!" Kon yelled, managing to poke his mouth out through Renji's fingers long enough to call for help.
Ichigo snatched the poor plushie out of the red-haired vice-captain's hands. Disregarding the ranks of the shinigami present, he proceeded to glared at each in turn.
"OUT! EVERYBODY OUT!"
"Hey, that's no way to treat your guests. Especially not the Gotei 13. You should have more respect for your superiors." Yumichika said.
"Who let you guys in?" Ichigo asked, looking like he was having a very difficult time keeping his tone down, or his fists at his sides.
"We let ourselves in," Renji said matter-of-factly.
"Figures," Ichigo replied, unnerved. "Look, guys, I know how everyone's nervous because of what's happening, but it's not like I can do anything about. So could any doomsday-ish discussions about Aizen and Ou Ken and Arrancar wait until, say, tomorrow? I seriously feel like shit," he said in one breath.
"He looks a bit shitty too," Ikkaku whispered to Yumichika.
"That's not why we're here," Matsumoto said, sounding offended. "Can't we pay a friendly visit to a fellow shinigami?"
Ichigo raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "What are you saying? You came here just for the heck of it?"
"We found out you were sick," Hitsugaya replied curtly. Ichigo looked briefly at Rukia inquiringly, but she just shrugged.
"Ichigo's sick?" Kon asked softly, but then he got a mischievous look and a maniacal grin. "FU! Serves you right, you know? This is definitively karmic backfire on you! That's for not letting me reach the Valley of the Gods, for keeping me away from my goddess Orihime! How does it feel, Ichigo? Huh? HUH!"
Ichigo flung Kon away, and the plushie bounced and squeaked painfully against the walls, floor, roof, Ikkaku's head, and finally landed inside the open bottom drawer of the dresser. Ichigo simply kicked the drawer close.
"How did you guys find out I was sick?" he said after a moment.
"Renji informed us. He met your friend Chad at Urahara Shoten just earlier, and he told him," Yumichika said.
Ichigo looked at Renji intently; he wasn't sure if he wanted to kill him or simply beat him up painfully. Ichigo looked at Rukia too, in a desperate attempt to get her to help him, but she just shrugged again. Renji huffed, clearly vexed by Ichigo's outrage.
"Look, believe it or not, we just came to wish you a swift recovery. That's it, no need to get paranoid," he finally said exasperatedly.
"Yes, so remember to take your medicines, get plenty of rest, and no chasing hollows for a bit. You know you can't overexert yourself," Matsumoto said in a syrupy voice, like a cheesy nurse.
"Why not? It's not like my soul's sick too," Ichigo replied. Rukia shook her head.
"Actually, even your soul is affected when your body's sick," Rukia corrected. Ichigo gave her a skeptical look.
"Kuchiki-san's right, you know," Hitsugaya explained. "Health is not only physical, but mental too. Anything that affects your body affects your mind and soul."
Ichigo thought of Orihime, when she explained her method of denial; if she could convince herself that she was not really sick, then maybe she could cheat her body into reacting to that. Ichigo realized, maybe she wasn't so crazy after all.
"Humans are so fragile, aren't they?" Ikkaku started. "Anything can make them sick or tired or both. It's all because of that mind, body and soul relation."
"Are you insinuating that I'm weak?" Ichigo asked harshly, abruptly facing him up.
"Get your germs away from me," Ikkaku said, shoving him away. They were close to starting a stupid scuffle, but Hitsugaya spoke up.
"I don't think you understand the seriousness of the situation, Kurosaki Ichigo," he interjected. "It's been quite calm lately, and we haven't had any sort of major disturbance, for now we're only waiting for what we suspect is going to happen to, well, happen."
"So basically we're just sitting around waiting for the shit to hit the fan," Renji cut in.
"Well, that's a very… eloquent way… to put it, but Abarai-fukutaichou is correct," Hitsugaya said, cocking one eyebrow in Renji's direction. Renji smirked.
"So what we mean to say is, get well soon, because we need you to be well, because we will need your help if –or rather, when— something happens," Matsumoto said, now solemn and serious. "If you want to fight, you need to be in perfect health; otherwise it's not going to be of much help."
"Gee, thanks for the cheering up. I needed that," Ichigo replied. She seemed unfazed, and broke into a cheesy smile.
"And now, we're leaving so you can rest your frail little body, mind and soul," she said. Ichigo narrowed her eyes at her.
The shinigami got up and one by one exited through the window (hey didn't seem to mind the rain at all). Before Hitsugaya and Matsumoto left, however, Ichigo remembered something.
"Ah, Rangiku-san, Toshirou-san, I've been meaning to ask you," he started hesitantly. The 10th division captain and vice-captain both turned to look at him.
"It's Hitsugaya-taichou," Hitsugaya corrected.
"Yeah, whatever. I was just wondering, have you guys noticed anything different about Inoue?"
"Different?" Hitsugaya inquired.
"Has she said anything peculiar at all?" Ichigo tried to elaborate. "I mean, more peculiar than usual?"
"About what specifically?" Matsumoto asked.
"About something that might have… happened while she was staying at the clinic," Ichigo muttered. He was worried he would start blushing.
"She spoke about little people who tied her down on her bed," Hitsugaya replied. "Is that what you're referring to?"
Ichigo sweat-dropped. The way Hitsugaya said it, Ichigo might actually believe the captain found it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Never mind," he said. He was sure that either one of them (especially Matsumoto) would remember something about a kiss, if Orihime had mentioned such a thing. Matsumoto would be all over him, teasing and squealing, or at least that's what he supposed would be the most likely scenario. In that case, Orihime probably hadn't mentioned anything. He wondered what that meant.
"Are you alright, Kurosaki-kun?" Matsumoto asked.
"No, I'm not. I need to sleep," Ichigo replied. The shinigami looked at each other then waved goodbye, and followed the others out the window. Ichigo ambled over to his bed and sat down, pulling his wet socks off his feet. The hardwood floor felt cold.
"Talk about a friendly visit," he said to Rukia.
"I thought it was nice of them," she replied.
"You're not serious, are you? That was probably the scariest, most cryptic visit I've ever gotten," he countered. He stood up and walked over to his closet. "Even scarier than the time I met you, cuz we both know how that went." He took off his shirt, and he had started to pull off the T-shirt he had underneath, when he realized Rukia was present. With a groan, he climbed into his closet and closed the door for privacy.
"Because, okay, you were on duty, getting rid of this huge hollow that nearly killed us all. But these guys are creepy. I mean, you don't drop in on a sick person or whatever without a heads-up, especially if you're not even going to use the front door," he said, his voice muffled slightly through the closed door.
Rukia observed this with a comical expression. "Why are you so feisty?"
"I'm not!" he yelled.
Rukia rolled her eyes. "I guess Yuzu's right then," she said with a chuckle.
"Ugh, as if I didn't have enough of Aizen and Hueco Mundo, and Hollows and Arrancar and Vizards and all that, now I get a cold," he continued talking, and Rukia had to strain her ears to listen.
"Well, I guess hanging out with a sick Inoue has its consequences," she answered. "But you seemed to really enjoy it," she added in a playful tone. She could almost feel the heat rising to his face, and she heard him scoff.
"You know what? Why don't you—OUCH!" he cut himself off, and Rukia heard a loud thump as he did.
"Are you okay in there?" she asked, walking to the closet.
"Yeah, I just slipped and hit my already aching head really freaking hard. I'm perfect."
Rukia ignored the sarcasm. "Need any help?"
"If you open this door, consider yourself dead, you hear? I'm completely naked in here."
"Oooooh!" Rukia teased.
"Shut up. You sound like a five-year-old," he said, and after a few more thumps and bumps, he continued talking. "And, on top of the cold, there's Keigo and his stupid rumor that's all over school now. I'm telling you, I will gladly give him a soul burial one of these days, just so I don't have to put up with him anymore. I mean, can you believe him?"
"The last thing I heard was that Chizuru was doing voodoo on you for kissing Orihime, and that's really why you're sick," Rukia commented, smirking. "Or something equally twisted."
Ichigo finally came out of the closet, wearing a pair of worn out track pants he sometimes used to sleep, and a black T-shirt. "Rukia, you don't actually believe those rumors, do you?" he asked, trying to sound incredulous.
Rukia didn't reply. If she said anything, she knew somehow she would blow her cover, because, as Renji continuously reminded her, she was a terrible liar.
"Are you listening to me?"
Rukia looked at Ichigo, who was staring back at her curiously, but just as she was about to say something (anything), there was a knock on the door.
"What are you guys doing up here?" Yuzu asked, coming in with a tray.
"Um, Rukia and I were just talking. Why?" Ichigo replied.
"You two sure make a lot of noise just talking. It sounded like there were about eight people in here," Yuzu said. Ichigo and Rukia looked at each other; clearly Yuzu could be perceptive, but at the same time, very oblivious.
"Daddy sends these medicines: antihistaminic and something for your stomach. And here's some dinner. I'll come back in a bit to check if you have a fever."
"Ah, thanks, Yuzu."
"Rukia-chan, dinner is ready downstairs," Yuzu said to Rukia.
"Ah, sure, thanks. I just need to change," Rukia replied curtly. She followed Yuzu out of the room, but before she left, she turned one last time to Ichigo.
"Sweet dreams, prince charming."
Ichigo gave her the strangest questioning look, and Rukia smirked before closing the door behind her. He thought about it for a moment, and decided Rukia was either being weird just poking fun at him, or something told him she might actually believe the rumors.
"Prince charming? You! Nee-san is making fun of you. Definitively," Kon said, popping out from inside the dresser.
"Shut up."
Ichigo reached for the pills his dad had sent him, popped them into his mouth and gulped them down with some water. Then he lay back on his bed.
"Uh, are you gonna eat that?" Kon asked, pointing to the food on the tray.
"I'm not hungry."
"More for me, then."
Ichigo watched as the plush lion disgustingly stuffed generous amounts of food into his mouth. He shook his head and sighed. Unfortunately, Yuzu hadn't brought him anything for his headache, but he decided hopefully a bit of sleep would make it go away. With a loud sigh, he rolled over onto his right side and pulled the covers up to his chin, hoping he could relax and fall asleep. It would be difficult, there were so many thoughts running around his head, he doubted he would get any real rest. So instead, he just lay there, staring out the window at the falling rain, his eyes glazing over, and he slowly relaxed. There were always some good, soothing memories in the rain.
A few blocks away, inside a small flat, Orihime greeted Hitsugaya and Matsumoto as they came in, shaking water off their umbrellas. She sat by the window, with an open book on her lap, but she was barely doing any reading, as she just watched the droplets pelting the windowpanes and then slowly making their way down the glass, kind of like tears, while the rain continued to fall.
Part two coming sooner than you expect. Like, right about… now.
-Nariko the Seer a.k.a Deathberry15