Hard eyes and clenched fists.

That was how Riven finished every match, as if another piece of her had slipped away facing her supposed comrades of Noxus.

If one looked closely enough, they might see her inside one of the many bars inside the League's citadel. Beyond the walls, an almost permanently starry sky was seemingly painted, like a mirage of violet and ebony void among the shining stars.

A long sigh of relief was the only comforting thing beyond the edge of her empty glass. Foam stuck to it's inside as if it had been dumped into a nearby sink. Yet, there were no bathrooms in such a place, as was expected of one of the more traditional breweries scattered about the locals. She gently pushed the empty glassware with the tip of her finger, relishing in the harsh sound it made sliding, like nails dragging along sandpaper.

Another.

The way she gazed expectantly at the bartender gave him all the information he would need from his most frequent customer. He hesitated for a moment, caught by the fierce orange orbs hidden by white bangs.

"I think that…" She immediately glared at him, in a way that did not ask, but demanded of his attention. Her nervously stopped at the intense gaze directed at him. Well, maybe not at him, but rather through him, like he was the glass frame of a window pane. Firmly, he shook his head.

"You've had enough. Go home please." He hadn't said that last bit, but, he was hoping that he sounded sincere enough despite the tired bags that hung under his eyes. Dealing with people like this was… exhausting.

Riven's reply was short and to the point, just like what her origin suggested.

"Another. I won't ask again." He gave a defeated sigh as he reached under the bar to fish another bottle from the storage. He was hoping, that, she wouldn't notice that it had a much lower alcohol content as his fingers brushed past the other variously filled containers of whiskey below.

He gripped it, hand covering the label as he poured it into her waiting glass. The almost sickly shaking of her hand made it nearly impossible to do so without spilling.

Once full, the glass half set, half slammed to the counter as she growled in discontent. Instead of complaining, she sipped at the beverage, fighting the urge to vomit at the tasteless contents.

The doors to the bar were opened, and he was greeted with yet another familiar face, but not one he feared quite as much as the young female at the front. Orange hair and tanned skin clearly marked him different, but the blades at his hips told much more than just his outward appearance.

Riven tried her best to ignore him, focused inwardly on the thoughts swirling in her head. But when he sat down next to her, she got the feeling that it wouldn't be long before he caught her attention.

The bartender looked to him, sighing in relief.

"The usual?" The orange-haired male shook his head in response.

"Just a glass of water." Riven sucked in her lip in annoyance, hand tightening about the glass. The cup creaked in danger of being cracked.

"If you hold It that tight, it'll break." She clicked her tongue to bite back a particularly nasty response. He wasn't involved in her affairs, at least, not from what she knew.

"What do you want with me, Ichigo?" He frowned at her response. His eyes didn't break from the hand holding the glass. It quivered, shaking as if she were unable to lift the object. He knew that, from experience, she did not lack in any such qualities. The definition of muscle along her arms proved as much. Yet, he still did not say a word. Riven turned, eyes narrowed yet unfocused as they drew to him.

"If you didn't come to say anything, then why bother?" He sighed quietly, as if to himself rather than the slurr of her speech. She had let go of her glass, luckily for him, long enough for Ichigo to snatch the half-full cup and move it away from her. She went to protest but said nothing as he downed his glass of water and stood. Riven watched intently as he wrapped his coat about her shoulders and lifted her from her stool.

"What the… hell-" Riven fought the urge to vomit as she settled onto his back, arms loosely drawn about his neck.

It was no use. In her state, she couldn't very well move on her own, and with so many fanatics and other stumbling drunks, she knew that it made her easy prey.

When did he get out of the bar? I wasn't finished…

"You've drank enough to poison someone twice your size again, Riven." Her grip tightened about his neck as she tried to ignore his words. Riven couldn't even manage to stop the reply from fumbling out of her mouth.

"Shut up… idiot." Ichigo walked aimlessly along the streets, eyes unfocused as he trekked through the barely filled streets. His sharp inhale made her cringe. The sound seemed to reverberate like a drum pounding against her skill.

"When are you going to realize that you're not alone here? I thought I told you to-"

"To stop drinking myself into a coma. If you only came to throw it in my face, then you can leave me here to get back to my home on my own." Ichigo stopped, closing his eyes as he fixed his grip on her legs, holding them tighter as to not let her fall.

"If that was really my intention, I wouldn't have bothered to care about you." She gripped tighter around him, fingernails digging into his shoulders as a snort escaped her.

"I've seen people like you, playing the hero. What happens when everyone around you is killed by something you couldn't control? Tell me, what would-"

"I won't let it happen. Not again." Riven's eyes glared distastefully at the back of his head.

"What, is this where you make some hero speech, where you tell me you saved everyone? Get… real, idiot." His grip tightened about her legs, almost painfully. She couldn't tell if she was still shaking, or if it was the ground beneath them. Yet, the movement of his arms told another story.

"The dead don't come back, nor do they give us peace of mind. If you truly knew what they wanted, this is clearly not what they had in mind when they lost their lives." She growled, adrenaline pumping as she pushed away from him, stepping back to glare defiantly in his direction.

"What the hell would you know? You're just some dumb kid!" He held no response, and if she were to look close, he was relaxed, calm almost. The eerie feeling gnawing painfully in her gut almost made her vomit back up what had done well to settle but a few moments ago. What is he doing? Is he…

When he turned, Riven expected hate, anger, or something to let her know she had been right. But when he looked back, the harsh face of reality came crashing down as gold irises flashed beneath the normally soft brown eyes he held. It feels evil… like… almost as if it were a beast, but empty. What is that?

"Because I'm the one who failed to save anyone. If you knew what that felt like, truly, you would know what it means when you lose control." Images flashed to the forefront of Riven's mind, and she clasped her head in pain. Many of those captured in her head were dead and gone, yet, the chill running through her spine left her solemn, almost hollow.

"I…" Ichigo turned away, still facing away from her in wait. Riven approached him slowly, clumsily lumbering onto his back as she once again buried her nose into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I just… it gets hard." Her thoughts of that same presence were washed away by the guilt she'd felt, and the butterflies swimming in her stomach.

Ichigo smiled a bit, relishing the warmth of her as she closed her eyes.

"I know."

The rest of the trek back was silent as stone, only mumbles from the white-haired beauty on Ichigo's back as he opened the door to her home. As expected, it was sparse. Riven never was one to stray from a Spartan-like lifestyle, a modest approach to the life of one of the League's champions.

Ichigo let her down slowly, settling Riven as she balanced on the balls of her feet. She kicked off her boots, letting them fall to the floor as her socks followed. Ichigo held her shoulders to keep her steady as she tried to make her way up the stairs. In their haste they forgot to lock the front door- but in this part of town, who would dare to invade a trained combatant's home to commit robbery?

"Where now?" She steadied her balance as she took the last step to the top of the stairs, careful not to slip and tumble back down the stairwell in her drunken state.

"Left." He opened the first door to the left that she mentioned, and took notice of the simple red, white and black textures of her bedroom. It too, was sparse like everything else save for the few dressers and wooden boxes of trinkets scattered about the nightstands.

Ichigo gently set her down to her bed, intent on leaving for the night. He turned and motioned to the door, but found himself rooted as her finger lazily held to one of the loops in his jeans. Riven's eyes were glossed over, and her mouth was slightly parted from the dehydration, but she managed to force out the tumble of words at the back of her mind.

"You don't have to do anything, and you don't have to go alone. Just… stay with me. Please." He tried to respond to her as quietly as possible as not to cause a disturbance, but he felt something tugging him back, closer to the woman lying on the mattress before him. Any other thoughts or plans were pushed to the back of his mind. How could he leave her alone, to suffer alone?

"Alright. But when we wake up, I want to see the Riven I once knew back at the surface." Riven studied Ichigo intently as he removed his excess clothing. The tan sweater revealed a white tee, and the jeans gave way to the black shorts beneath, the white drawstring loosely hanging away like a needle from thread.

Riven shifted her weight to face away from him, fist clutched to her chest as her breathing started to become erratic. Her heart felt as if it were going to pound out of her chest as he slipped beneath the covers beside her. Every minute that passed was like an hour, and Riven's stomach seemed to churn madly as his breath evened, and a light, almost unnoticeable snore passed with each moment.

Riven brushed a hand through the slashes of white hair the obscured her vision, and with hesitance, she gently pressed her lips against his, only for a moment so she could clear her doubts. It wasn't long before Riven found herself held to Ichigo's chest as he turned in his sleep, arms wrapped about her stomach and their legs intertwined like roots to a tree. I guess… that he's right. This is my life now.

And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

The early morning birds chirped through the crack of the open windowsill as Ichigo and Riven laid together in peace. His chin rested atop her head as they tried to savor the few minutes left of the early morning.

"Hey, that's mine! Give it back!" The sound of a child's taunting echoed within the room, and just as quick a snarky reply followed behind.

"Well, maybe if you shared I wouldn't take it!" Scuffling and heavy thuds of wrestling made the two sigh, both in happiness as well as irritation as life's newest problem hit their ears like a freight train.

"Y'know, hon, we really need a vacation." Riven tried her best to keep smiling, the corner of her mouth twitching ever so lightly as another loud scream penetrated through the paper-thin walls of their home.

"Earmuffs, Ichi. Earmuffs too." He chuckled as she tilted her head up for him. Ichigo readily gave Riven her morning kiss- just in time for their two children, Shava and Karin, to come bustling through the door in an uproar. They both silently cried as complaint after complaint rung like bells in their minds.

"Yeah… I can attest to that."

I hope that all of you enjoyed reading this, as much as I enjoyed writing it. I had an Ichigo x Riven story planned for quite a while, but I never really got to it. TL:DR I'm just really lazy nowadays.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by, and hopefully you can expect some more one-shots from the series of Bleach/LoL crossovers that I'm working on. For now, I'll see you all later.

Agrithnum