Chapter: American Honor (Veteran's Day Special)

Shalan's Barf: I know this is a little early for veteran's day but my dad's leaving tomorrow so I wanted to get it posted before Sunday…

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Smoke filled the room and Ichigo coughed lightly, reaching for the cigarette package in his front pocket. He tapped one out and bit down on it gently before lifting a hand and lighting it.

"So I tells him, I says 'You can't pull that tab with your teeth…' and he says to me 'yes I can I seen John Wayne do it!'" Kisuke roared with laughter. "Then you know what he goes and does next? He tries to pull the pin with his teeth!" Ichigo sniggered. "Boy splintered his two front teeth!" Kisuke nearly fell out of his chair and the table roared with laughter.

Byakuya looked around the room at the other people in the bar. Several men were giving them dirty looks and a few were muttering among themselves, shooting the vets dirty looks. He caught Ichigo's eye who nodded and leaned back in his chair, blowing a puff of smoke into the air. It was the first time in quite a while that he had been able to visit with his friend since his return to the United States. It was also one of his first times being out and about after completing his physical therapy. He felt much better being back in shape, his muscles filled out again.

"They're giving us looks…" Uryu grumbled into his beer bottle before taking a swing. Ichigo pursed his lips. The Marine simply took another draw on his cigarette.

"Ignore them, if they don't start anything we won't have to finish it… remember… we're Marines…" Ichigo warned softly and the other three, though riled slightly, fell quiet. Ichigo's time spent in a POW camp had given him something of a reverence from his fellow Marines.

"Yeah but we also have a right to teach them not to be so damn disrespectful…" Kisuke gripped his glass tightly and Ichigo lifted his eyes to meet his blonde friend's.

"If we start it we'll get court marshaled… if they start it and or threaten us we'll just be defending honor." Just as Ichigo said that a young man sauntered up to them.

"Are you that leatherneck that got 'imself caught over in Viet Nam?" He cackled and Ichigo simply looked at him out of one eye over his shoulder.

"I didn't get myself caught… but yeah…" Ichigo lit another cigarette, stubbing out the old one. "Cigarette?" He offered the package to the man. Several other men joined the young man and Kisuke gripped his glass.

"Boy you must be stupid! If I was over there I wouldn't ever let myself get caught… not that we should be there in the first place… 'cause the war's stupid…" Another chimed and Ichigo simply closed his eyes and drew in on his cigarette. Uryu fisted his hands under the table and Byakuya leaned forward on the table.

"Yeah! I mean you guys don't do anything over there anyways… ya'll just sit around all day and sleep with Vietnamese whores…" One man drank from a beer bottle. Ichigo continued to ignore them and flicked the butt of his cigarette lightly, tapping the glowing tip into the ashtray. "And I even heard that you all are just leaving people out there to die… you all are just letting Americans die over there for no reason…" At that Ichigo opened his eyes and Byakuya's jaw clenched.

"I mean it's not like the Army has any honor anymore… the only reason we're over there is because Vietnamese girls are easy… you Army people disgust me…" The first spat on Ichigo's shirt, that's what started it, Kisuke stood up so quickly his chair flew out from behind him.

"I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT HE WAS SAVING ONE OF OUR COMRADE'S LIVES WHEN HE WAS CAPTURED! THEN WHEN HE WAS INJURED AND INCAPACITATED HE TOOK CONTROL OF A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SITUATION AND LED AN ENTIRE BRIGADE OF POWS TO SAFETY!" Kisuke threw his beer bottle at the boy and it burst on the floor. Ichigo stood up calmly and stubbed out his cigarette.

"Yeah you say that… but look he won't even say anything to defend himself… what? Did the Vietnamese turn you into a pussy?" Another heckler cackled from the back. Byakuya stood up as Uryu did.

"Actually I'm a Marine… and you want a reason for why we're over there?" Ichigo kept his back to the group. Uryu looked at him curiously. "It's for the little girl that I saw lying dead in a pool of her own blood, the lower half of her body blown off… it's for the woman whose husbands have been Shanghaied into the National Vietnamese Army. It's for the young men who try desperately to raise their family according to their own religions… not according to their country's. It's so that my wife and daughter can sleep safely in their beds at night when I'm dead and gone. It's so that your children can continue to live under the American flag with pride… so don't you tell me…" his powerful hand gripped the first heckler by the front of his shirt, yanking him up so that their faces were barely inches apart. "That I'm over in Viet Nam doing nothing…" His breath steamed across the other man's face. The boy shuddered lightly at the Marine's sheer strength. "Because I suffered worse than you ever will in your life… so that you wouldn't…" He growled.

"You're lying!" Another shouted from the back.

"And to come back from Viet Nam… and to be called a leatherneck, to be spat on, to be called a FUCKING LIAR!" Ichigo threw the first boy across the room and he hit the bar, hard. "Really kinda gets me steamed… What makes any of you think that you have any idea as to what goes on over there? You watch the news? You read the papers? YOU HAVEN'T BEEN THERE! MY GIRLFRIEND HAS BEEN WAITING FOR ME TO COME BACK FOR THREE YEARS! HAVE YOUR FAMILIES BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO COME HOME? HAVE YOUR FAMILIES EVER THOUGHT THAT YOU MAY NOT COME BACK ALIVE?" Tears pricked at the corner of the Marine's eyes, his anger flaring through his muscles and jaw. He reached out to punch one of the men but Kisuke grabbed his wrist.

"Calm down Kurosaki…" Byakuya warned and Ichigo jerked only to have Uryu hook his arms beneath the Marine's. Ichigo struggled, trying to get at the other men.

"Kurosaki… You're Japanese? They let Japs into the military? To go into the war in another Asian country? No wonder there's so many traitors over there." That was the final straw. The other three let the enraged Marine loose on the speaker.

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She rested her forehead against her hands, biting her bottom lip harshly. The door opened and she jerked her head up, whirling her upper body around to face the person walking in. "Ichigo…" his name rolled off her lips and she ran towards him, only to halt a few feet away from him. He smelled like smoke… and blood. Crimson liquid ran down his chin from the corner of his mouth and a swollen purple and black bruise surrounded his left eye. Two fingers on his right hand were swollen as well and appeared to be broken. "What in the hell happened?" Rukia reached up and placed a hand on the side of his face.

"Got into a fight… Going to bed…" he muttered and walked past her. She suddenly felt the rift grow between them again as he turned down the hallway. Her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head, closing her eyes.

"Are you going back?" The question that had been hanging over the household for nearly six months finally emptied from her mouth. Ichigo stopped dead in his tracks and for a moment there was complete silence, except for the low rolling thunder in the distance. She felt her body relax slightly, staring at him as he turned back to her. "Oh god…" She covered her mouth and he bowed his head. "Oh Jesus Christ Ichigo…" Tears dripped down her cheeks and she felt fear shake her body. "No…" she shook her head. He looked down then off to the side. "NO!" She dropped to her knees and he continued to stare into space. He closed his eyes.

"I don't belong here Rukia…" He felt her eyes upon him and opened his. "I just can't stay here when I know that there are men overseas dying for my country… when I know that I can still fight for the people who can't…" Ichigo told her and she nodded, sobs wracking her body. She did little to hide the redness in her face, her hands pressed to her head. Her mouth was open in a silent, painful scream, her tears soaking her skin and her nightgown. Her breathing came in painful short gasps, shaky and haggard. Saliva hung in strings from her mouth, getting caught on her skin as she sobbed.

She buried her face into his chest, gripping his shirt with her hands, as his arms wrapped around her tightly, pulling her into his body. He pressed his face into her hair, letting her cry into his shoulder. She moved her head slightly and let the bridge of her nose press against his neck as she cried.

"But before I go…" he whispered in her ear. "Will you marry me Rukia?" Her tears subsided and she drew away from him, staring into his eyes. "I don't think I could go back over if I didn't know you were mine…" he placed a hand on the side of her face as tear-filled cerulean burnt into deep ocher. She choked on her own tongue as his fingers slid the most beautiful ring she had ever seen onto her finger. It was silver, with a simple square diamond set in it. "Sorry it's not as big as you deserve… I'm not a rich man… but it's all I can offer you besides myself." A fresh wave of tears reached her eyes and he looked down. "You deserve more than I can give you…" He sounded almost ashamed.

"You give me more than I deserve…" she whispered before closing the distance between their lips. She tasted coppery blood and tobacco at first but then it faded into the familiar taste of his mouth as the kiss deepened. His fingers tangled through her hair as her hands gripped his face. Her hands slid through the drying blood on his cheek and through a single line of salty cold tears. He was crying. Not something that happened often… but he was crying.

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"Major Ichigo Kurosaki, thank you for your service to the United States Marines and to the United States of America. In honor of your bravery and actions above and beyond the call of duty I hereby bestow upon you the Congressional Medal of Honor…" President Lyndon B. Johnson clasped the blue and white ribbon around the orange haired young man's neck as cameras flashed. He smiled as he shook the president's hand, squeezing gently. Almost a year and a half since he had returned the medal was placed around his neck… a medal that he didn't think he deserved.

He sat on the bed in their hotel room, his legs crossed Indian style. His bare upper body shone in the dim light, his boxers pulled down slightly. A pair of hands slid up his arms and around his shoulders. "Congratulations baby…" she whispered and he looked up at her. He set the ribbon and medal on the bedside table and pressed a hand to her swollen belly.

"You are so beautiful…" his voice cracked slightly as he spoke and she smiled, pressing their foreheads together.

"I'm pregnant… not beautiful…" she chuckled and he kissed her lips tenderly.

"The fact that you're pregnant makes you even more radiant than you usually are…" His hand slid along the stretched skin tenderly beneath her shirt.

"You want some toast with that ham?" She whispered before their lips met again. His hands held her head as she knelt on the bed between his legs.

"Can you butter it and feed it to me?" He replied teasingly before she pushed him back onto the bed.

"Maybe…" their lips met again, her hands sliding up his chest and shoulders.

Much later into the evening he buried his face into the back of her neck, her hair twisted and pulled out of his way. She giggled quietly as he planted a line of kisses down her skin, his hands curved against her stomach. Their daughter slept soundly in the other room of the suite.

"I leave in three months…" He whispered in her ear and she nodded, gripping his hands with hers. "And I'll come back to you I promise…" her grip tightened and he bowed his head into her neck. She pulled his hand to her lips and kissed his skin lovingly.

"I believe you Ichigo Kurosaki… but if you don't I'll personally drag your dead body back and then blow it up in our backyard…" she joked.

"I love you…" He muttered and she smiled.

"I love you too… semper fi…" she whispered before closing her eyes… simply waiting to go to sleep.

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This is dedicated to the men and woman of the armed forces who are no longer in service the men and women who are still in service… as well as the men and women who never returned… THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

Shalan