nekare

Peace has returned to my home, now that my cousins have already left. I love them dearly, but there's only su much questioning and running around trying to keep the baby from the stairs a person can take. Right now, I'm frustrated since I have to teach math to my little brother, and I've been going about it for ages and he just. Won't. Get. It. Argh.

So, Bleach drabble to get my spirits up. I really like this one, actually; one of my favorites for the fandom. ('Cause face it, Older!Ichigo sounds quite amazing.) Written for bleach_drabble. Feedback will be loved!

Author: Nekare
Title: Window
Pairing: Ichigo/Rukia
Rating: G
Genre: Drama, romance.
Word Count: 579
Spoilers: Soul Society ending.


He’s twenty-five now, a fine doctor if you listen to some people’s words. A sullen young man, say other. A brave man, that would put his own life at stake for a cause he believes in; his friends would say.

Ichigo strolls down the street, a bag of groceries he had received from Mrs.Yamashita with a polite nod hanging from his hand; the other one in his pocket. The sky is burning with the sunset, hues of pink, blue and orange – like the hair he has cursed so many times – bleeding and mingling in the wide sky.

His apartment is visible now, but he stops in front of his father’s clinic, his home for so many years. His gaze travels inevitably to the window in his old room, the window in which he had known the girl – woman, he reminded himself – that had turned his entire world upside down. The glass reflected the colors of the sky, and he half expected a little hand to open it, breeze entering and filling the room, curtains dancing slowly with the wind.

Rukia had always liked to leave the window open.

Maybe it had been the only way for her to lie to herself, to pretend she wasn’t in the human world, with no choice but to live in weak body and watch a boy – almost a mere baby in her eyes – fight for her while she waited in the sidelines. After all, the sky was the same as in Soul Society; and as she stared at it – as she did countless times – she could avoid reality and imagine herself back home.

Ichigo had always wanted her to call this place home.

Maybe he had it all wrong, and maybe she only liked the breeze. And maybe, just maybe; he should have forgotten all about her a long time ago, instead of holding onto her sweet-tasting memory and almost drowning in the safe appearing mystery that she was. He tears his gaze away from the clinic and continues to his apartment, just a few blocks away.

He fumbles for the keys in his back pocket, his mind blank on the task. The door is finally opened, and he enters with a sigh in his lips. The keys are thrown into a nearby chair, and soon his coat follows. He leaves the bag of groceries on the kitchen table, nibbling absentmindedly on an apple. The acid taste is still vivid in his mouth when he enters his bedroom, long fingers scratching at his scalp. He looks around, and his eyes widen in surprise.

She’s sitting on his window sill, her dark figure cutting the path of the light and small legs hanging outside the four story building. Rukia turns to him, and he can see the soft smile that is painted on her face. Her eyes speak of silent laughter, glittering in the almost darkness that’s starting to fall upon the town.

A moment passes, and he is capable of speech once again. “Took you long enough.” His tone is harsh, but he knows she’ll see through it. She always has.

“Sorry. I got lost.” She smiles again, and his scowl disappears to show the rare smile only Rukia has ever seen. They stare at each other, and the darkness falls.

- - - - - -

And everything goes back to normal as soon as Ichigo realizes she has drawn hideous bunnies in all of his bedroom walls with a permanent marker.