[Ichigo/Rukia][stardust_rain]
Title: Antiseptic
Author: stardust_rain
Pairing: Ichigo/Rukia
Rating: PG, for some language
Spoilers: entire SS arc



1. Rukia had never really liked or disliked the moon before. But once, she peeked out of her cupboard and saw the silver light that illuminated Ichigo's sleeping face and felt how magical it might be.

2. Ichigo had never learnt to play the guitar in his room. When Matsumoto suggests that he should write a song to Rukia he gapes at her and promises himself to never learn to play it.

3. Rukia swears that the next person who calls her and Ichigo "a matching couple" will get their neck broken before they can say "romance".

4. Ichigo has a bruise on his right hand from where Rukia kicked him. It fricking hurts afterwards and why the did she hell have to kick to freaking hard and what was the point of trying to break the bones in his hand, huh?!

Rukia answers back that she scuffed her shoes and lost her art book with the precious Chappy drawings in the process of running away and saving him, so he should shut the hell up.

5. But the bruise is also a sign of how desperately Rukia wanted to keep him alive and he' reminded by the sharp pain he gets every time he grips his sword too hard. It fades away completely the night before he frees her from the stand.

6. Ichigo was shocked half to death when Hanatarou told him later that he landed like a prince in front of Rukia on the brigde. He swears on his life, his sword and his soul that dammit, that was not on purpose!!

7. Rukia was very tempted to tell Hanatarou about Ichigo’s baby photos in the back of his cupboard, but then decided against it. She wanted to come home in one piece, after all.

8. Although Ichigo will definetly kill Aizen for trying to murder Rukia, buried deep, deep down in the blackest innermost corner of his heart, he has a grain or gratitude for the man. If he had just taken a short-cut taken the Hougyouku right out of Rukia’s body, neither of them would have come such a long way.

9. Rukia still doesn’t know whether or not she should be grateful to or pissed at Urahara for saving Ichigo’s life and then risking it.

10. Ichigo hates fairytales with soppy endings, weeping princesses and pretty-boy princes with not enough brain to fill and egg cup. He also hates the fact that Rukia reminds him that he’s a hypocrite for hating it, because he's acted like a prince with a gianormous sword and after all she was locked in a tower.

11. Rukia tried to bandage Ichigo once after she came back. He was suffocated half to death before managing to choke out “You said to heal me, not kill me, damn it!”

12. Ichigo fears marriage and especially to Rukia. This is because he knows that death won’t do them part, no matter what, no matter how hard he begs and that this marriage will have no mercy on him, oh no.

13. But when he finally makes up his mind to propose her, Ichigo will never confess that he was more scared of asking Byakuya for Rukia’s hand than ever was and ever will be of fighting him.

14. Ichigo and Rukia both have their own bottles of painkillers stocked under the pillow. On his is a drawing of Chappy with fangs and an eyepatch and "Die, you damned hare, die" written underneath. Hers has "im rilly st00pid" pointing to a (very crude and very intentionally ugly) doodle of Ichigo's head. Neither knows about the other's, er, stress relief.

15. Ichigo does know about Rukia's past, her loss and the person she lost. He just doesn't care.

16. Rukia often has to remind Captain Ukitake not to draw likeness between Ichigo and Kaien. The Vice Captain would be ashamed to be compared to a bratty, moody, scowling, orange-haired moron with an over-sized sword that she would never, ever respect. (Ukitake has no idea how ro reply to this, but decides to take Kyoraku's word for granted when he says "denial is the first step to acceptance".)

17. If Ichigo ever becomes captain, he will blackmail, beg and bribe anyone he can not to get Rukia in his division. He does not want his own subordinate kicking his ass.

18. He'll never say it out loud, but his main reason for coming to Soul Society was to not because it was his fault Rukia was going to die. Not because he didn't want to see her cry again, not because he wanted to kick Renji and Byakuya's asses. His room just felt both smaller and oversized without her there.

19. She'll never say it out loud, but she was a bit disapointed at his reaction when she told him she was staying. She was definetly going to miss his breathing that would lull her to sleep.

20. A day after Rukia was taken away and before his training with Urahara started, it was drizzling. Behind the curtain of rain, Ichigo saw Rukia everywhere he went - girls with funny dresses; short, black hair that stuck out at the bottom; mobiles phones going off in the corridors - and suddenly realized how odd (he later realized that the word was empty) it felt without her.

That was the first time he had worried about his mental state.