Title: The Best Is Yet To Come
Summary: He was the double's world figure skating champion with her, but foul play can have a deadly outcome. When he meets and up and coming skater from Canada will they rise to the top again? IchiRuki
Shalan's Woo Hoo: WOOO! I'm writing another to wake me up… XDDD hope you all like this one… it should be fun!
Disclaimer: I do not own bleach… but if you've read any of my other stories… I sure do like messing with them XD
Prologue: Another Day
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"It'll be alright Ichigo…" Jushiro placed a hand on the skater's shoulder. He was standing next to the bedside of his partner, the woman he had loved, the woman he had skated with for years… the one woman that he had ever known to smack him across the face when he was being stupid.
"Yeah… sure it will be…" the skater's eyes were hidden beneath his bangs, a shadow falling across his eyes. Jushiro wore his sweatpants and his t-shirt that he always wore when they were at a competition. Ichigo squeezed his partner's hand.
Orihime Inoue. She was beautiful, talented and sexy all rolled into one. Her body lay broken on the bed, her left leg was broken in three places and her back was severely broken. Ichigo felt tears well up in his eyes and he leaned down, kissing her hand desperately.
"Please wake up…" He stroked her face tenderly. He knew the only thing that was keeping her alive were the machines… he knew that he would have to let her go… but a part of him didn't want to… he wanted to be able to hold her tightly in his arms, to cradle her and tell her everything would be alright… but he couldn't he knew this… but that didn't mean he didn't want to. "Please my darling… I can't live without you…" tears dripped down his cheeks as he stroked her red hair away from her slightly swollen face.
"Ichigo… let's go…" Jushiro put a hand on his shoulder but the skater pulled away.
"Orihime… you can do it… please…" he whispered and Jushiro tugged him again.
"Ichigo you won't want to see this…" Jushiro tried to get him to leave as a doctor walked into the room.
"NO! YOU CAN'T KILL HER!" Ichigo tried to attack the doctor but Jushiro hooked his arms beneath Ichigo's armpits.
"ICHIGO! Calm down!" Jushiro pulled him back while the young man continued to scream, punching, kicking, hitting anything he could find. Jushiro took him outside and slammed him up against the wall. "You can't control your destiny… you can't decide what happens and what doesn't happen… so she's gone… don't you think about anyone other than yourself?" Jushiro hissed and Ichigo looked him in the eyes. The blue eyes man was furious and nearly crying himself. "I'm destroyed that she's gone but no one asks me if I care… you don't even bother to ask me if I'm alright… listen… you and I are the only ones who knew anything about her besides Tatsuke. So shut up." He jerked him against the wall again and Ichigo stared at him. He had never seen his coach this livid before.
"I'm sorry…" his tears spilled over his mouth and he wrapped his arms around the coach. Jushiro hugged him back. Tatsuke leaned against the wall as the doctors "pulled the plug" and tears welled up in the woman's eyes. So her best friend was gone… forever.
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Ichigo sat on his bed staring at the picture of himself and his fiancé. She looked so happy and carefree, his arms wrapped around her waist as the swooped past the camera, gliding across the ice. There wasn't anyone who could skate or dance like she could.
"Orihime…" He flopped back onto his bed with a deep sigh. He didn't think he'd ever be able to skate professionally again without her… of course… that meant he was out of a job. Not that this bothered him, since he was her next to kin all of her money was pooled together with his giving him a total amount of over four million dollars with money still coming in… but that didn't matter…
What mattered was that the woman he was going to spend the rest of his life with was dead… what matter was that she was gone because of their rivals… she was gone because of some stupid prank…
She was gone because… he hadn't protected her… he hadn't been there for her when she needed him the most…
Ichigo closed his eyes… and suddenly… four years had passed…
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She glided backwards across the ice, her arms spread wide, her legs in a perfect line, she swooped around and spun pulling off a double axel perfectly, landing beautifully her body moving in perfect time.
"So she's the one you were talking about…" He whispered to the trainer and she nodded. "She certainly is beautiful… but…" he watched her set her jaw and take on much more speed, spinning elegantly into a triple axel and landed that as well. "She's too fiery for him…"
"She's perfect for him…" the trainer whispered. The blonde looked over at her and lifted an eyebrow. "She's got the power to bring him back to the top where he belongs… she won the gold medal at the winter Olympics last year in the singles…"
"Yeah… the women's singles… not the doubles tournament…" He pointed out.
"She could learn… she's always learned easily… she's perfect for him!" she shook the blonde and he shook his head.
"I'll have to see what he says…" He stood up.
"Thank you Kisuke…" the blonde looked over at the tanned woman and nodded.
"This could be his last chance…" he walked off.