Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ She Will Be Loved ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

She Will Be Loved

 

By Tituba

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any Bleach affiliates.

 

(A/N: Wow, I got a few more reviews than I thought I would. I'm really glad that more people are receptive to this story! Yay! Love you all! Well, here's the next chapter. I'll try to update every five days.

Also, since this is AU you'll understand the situations here.

 

Once again, please, tell me what you think!)

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2

 

Rukia's heart cracked just a little more whenever she saw them together. Although it shouldn't have surprised her any more than it used to. When the two had first started seeing each other, almost a year ago, back when Rukia had just turned seventeen, she thought it was the end of the world, or at least an era. Her and Ichigo's era.

 

When Orihime had first come to Rukia in her normal bubbly and excited manner she had only thought that the dim girl had scored something higher than a C on one of her tests. But instead she had arrived with Ichigo quickly in tow. He had his hands stuffed into his pockets and Rukia had smiled when she saw him. His customary scowl was replaced with a softer expression, but still one of slight discomfort. Orihime had bounded up to her and grasped one of Rukia's hands in both of her own. Her large breasts bounced up and down excitedly and she had practically squealed that the she and Ichigo were now an item.

 

Rukia remembered how the slight smile resting on her lips had dropped at the news. How her stomach clenched as though an iron hand had wrapped around it. How her eyes burned with tears she never even knew she had possessed. How her throat grew tight. How she forced herself to smile and close her eyes in pretend happiness. How her soul was splitting as though a chisel had been driven through it.

 

She remembered that her eyes had shifted over to Ichigo. He didn't even bother to look at her as Orihime continued bouncing about from table to table to declaim her news. Rukia remembered swallowing the unexpected lump that had risen in her throat. She rose and excused herself to the bathroom.

 

She wasn't exactly sure when she started crying. All she knew was that tears flowed down her face at an alarming rate as she huddled in the bathroom, attempting to shush her cries but knowing that it was quite futile. So she rushed home. She didn't go back to school that day.

 

As she stayed in her room pretending to have a queasy stomach she thought over her options. She remembered laughing bitterly at the sound of that idea. There were no options here. There were no choices. There were only obligations.

 

She would be happy for them. She would come to school every day and pretend to joke and laugh with them. She would eat lunch with them and study with them and do lab experiments with them. Everything would go on as planned. Her last years of high school would not be ruined by this new coupling.

 

Besides, they deserved each other. Orihime was exactly what Ichigo needed. She was bright and bubbly and could draw him out of the dark expanse of his melancholic disposition. Orihime could tell him stories that she had made up in her wild imagination. She could make him try new things and take him to places she wasn't even sure he would ever go to by himself. She would be the medicine that could help him through his darkest times.

 

She would be the person he turned to when his nights were cold and dark. She would be the body that wrapped around his as he slowly pushed inside of her. She would be the person to kiss him and to touch him. She would be the one who did all the things that Rukia couldn't.

 

When she went to school the next day a false façade of happiness and cheer was plastered across her face. She smiled and waved and hugged the different people that filled her life. Class went as normal, she paid attention to the teacher, she ignored the spiked orange head sitting in front of her, and when lunch came she went to eat with her friends. Ishida spoke of his new sewing techniques, Chad told everyone about his new body-building exercises, the only thing that was really different was that Ichigo was sitting next to Orihime instead of her.

 

Rukia endured the ordeal with a happy smiling face and when lunch ended walked out with the rest of her friends.

 

The only thing that brought her day crashing down was Ichigo's strong mouth in her ear, whispering softly, “I need you tonight.”

 

Rukia's stomach dropped completely out of her body the moment those words were whispered. Their meaning seeped slowly into her brain and the instant she registered them fully she felt like crying again. But this time the tears remained in her eyes. The sobs in her throat. The cries in her stomach.

 

The rest of school felt like a dream. She barely remembered the rest of her classes or the homework she hardly did on her bedroom floor.

 

When he came that night and tapped on her windowsill she thought her heart would beat out of her chest completely. She unlatched the bolt and took a few steps back.

 

Normally, neither one of them spoke whenever they were together, at least, never in private. But this night was the exception. This night, Rukia needed to clarify exactly what they were. She needed him to speak to her.

 

“Ichigo,” she breathed softly, her hands going automatically to the tie around her waist. “Why are you here?”

 

He was silent and simply stood for a few moments before taking a step forward. Rukia took a step back. She needed him to answer the question.

 

“You have Orihime.” She stated quietly. “Why are you here… with me? You have her.”

 

He took one more step forward and this time she didn't move back. He was standing right in front of her and she was breathing in heavy gasps.

 

“I have her.” He said softly. “But I need you.”

 

He came towards her and removed her robe. It dropped silently to the floor and Ichigo led Rukia to the bed. That was the first time they had ever made love where the tears were flowing freely down her face. Rukia also realized that he never even said her name.

 

She wasn't exactly sure why they had started sleeping together. It was such a regular occurrence now that it seemed as if they had been doing it for ages. It had been, however, only about two years.

 

It had been only a few months after the death of his mother. They were both sixteen years old and still reeling from the effects of entering a new year of high school. She remembered how they had been sitting on her floor, picking at the array of vegetables her butler, Haji, had left for them. Their homework had been studies on the emergence of established agriculture during the Yayoi period in Japan. Neither of them were actually reading the pages assigned to them but were instead skimming the text for any context words that would answer their fill-in-the-blanks more efficiently.

 

Rukia had been gently running her hand down the page when Ichigo's strong fingers grasped around hers. She had tensed predictably at his actions, joked with him, and tried to tug his fingers away but he wouldn't let her. He simply pulled her closer and closer. His lips had hovered over her neck and her ears and just barely grazed her skin. Rukia had tried kissing him but he didn't want that. Instead, he pressed their cheeks together and slowly began unbuttoning her uniform shirt.

 

She remembered how hard her heart had raced as he stripped off each layer of clothing until she lay bare beneath him. Her breathing had been unsteady and her nerves frayed as he pushed inside of her. She remembered the pain she had experienced at their first joining. The moment he thrust himself hard and deep inside of her she bit down on her tongue so hard she tasted blood. Ichigo hadn't even apologized before he pulled out of her and thrust back in. He had been gentle enough through the experience and towards the end she had even began to enjoy it. His movements were soft and smooth and just when Rukia began to feel the buildings of pressure inside of her she felt a warm and slick liquid fill her insides. Ichigo had come first and the moment he did he withdrew, as if afraid he had damaged her in some way.

 

It was only then that he apologized; his words were hurried and muttered. She had tried to stop him but he had his clothes on his body before she was able to utter a word. She lay naked on the carpet as he gathered his books, his pens, his papers, and exited the room in a flurry.

 

Rukia lay on the carpet for what seemed like hours, her thighs sticky with semen and her own wetness. She curled into herself and nursed her bruised stomach. Only when the light faded outside and the stars began to shine through did she get up and dress once again.

 

She felt violated. She felt abandoned. She felt useless. She felt tired. She felt like crying helplessly.

 

In the darkness of her room she reached for her phone and called her sister, Hisana, who lived in Tokyo with her brother in law. Hisana was sickly and frail but was the one person Rukia called whenever she desperately needed someone to talk to.

 

“Hello?”

 

“H-Hisana?” Rukia had asked, her voice cracking with unshed tears.

 

“Rukia? Is that you?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Honey, what's wrong?”

 

Rukia let out a dry chuckle. Hisana always acted more like her mother than her sister. Oh well, she was sixteen years older than her baby sister. Not to mention she was basically the person who raised Rukia from when she was small. It was Hisana, not Rukia's drunken father or nonexistent mother, who had changed all of Rukia's diapers and wiped away her tears, took her to school and made sure she ate properly. All of those things.

 

Hisana had been lucky. She had fallen in love with a wealthy man when she was only eighteen. Rukia had been two. She had married him within six months and the couple was awarded custody of Hisana's baby sister. Together they moved to Karakura town, a small place that was growing steadily in size. Rukia was happy with the two of them. The man her sister married was kind, he had a rather cold exterior but once the little black-haired girl had wormed her way into his heart the chilly pretenses were lessened and he began to love her as his own.

 

When Rukia began high school, however, Hisana grew very sick. She had a type of cancer that made her weak and frail. She and her husband moved to Tokyo, where there were better facilities to take care of her. Rukia was left at home with a butler who would take care of her. Occasionally she took trips to see her sister, but they had gotten fewer and fewer as Hisana grew sicker and sicker.

 

But now, for tonight, Rukia just wanted to talk to her sister.

 

“Hisana… I just—I just, um, had… sex with someone.” Her voice dropped out slowly as she carried on her sentence.

 

On the other end of the line, Hisana sucked in a breath and then coughed a little. “Rukia, honey, who was it?”

 

Rukia's voice choked softly. “Ichigo K-Kurosaki.”

 

“Kurosaki?” Hisana coughed again and seemed to take a sip of water. “That poor boy who lost his mother a little while ago?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Did you use protection?”

 

Rukia's face flamed and tears formed in her eyes again. “No.”

 

“Honey, then you need to go to the drugstore.” She murmured, her voice was hoarse and tired. “And if it's going to happen again you need to be on some kind of birth control.”

 

Rukia's lips twitched in a tiny smile, “You're not mad?”

 

“Mad? No, I'm just glad you told me.” There was a slight pause. “But… Rukia, you don't sound happy or scared… just sad.”

 

She choked a bit and furrowed her brow. “Hisana, it was just so strange. He didn't kiss me. He didn't speak to me. And… and… afterwards he apologized, dressed, and h-he left.”

 

“Oh honey…”

 

“Hisana,” the tears were flowing freely down her face now. “I just… I think he…” she sniffled and rubbed away the salty drops as they slid over her cheeks. “He doesn't love me, I know that. But I just feel so…”

 

“Empty?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Don't worry Rukia, don't worry.”

 

“What should I do?” She whispered.

 

“You need to talk to him, honey, don't avoid him. If he comes to you again you need to talk to him. Don't be afraid. He's been your friend forever. He'll understand.”

 

Rukia rocked silently on her bed and nodded softly. “Okay. I w-will.”

 

“And don't forget to get the medicine for—oh, hi sweetie. No, no, it's Rukia. She needed to talk to me about something. What? Yes, yes, I know. Don't worry. Rukia?”

 

“Yes?” The small girl whispered, still hugging tight to her knees. She could hear her brother-in-law's voice in the background and knew that Hisana would have to stop talking soon.

 

“I have to go, the doctor is coming soon.” Another cough permeated the call.

 

Rukia nodded and wiped more tears away. “A-Alright, say hi to Byakuya for me.”

 

The tone on the phone grew softer, as though Hisana were putting her hand to the receiver. “Rukia says hi, dear.”

 

“Tell her I said hello.”

 

Hisana was back, “He says hello.”

 

Byakuya's voice permeated the background. “Hisana, we need to go.”

 

“Oh, okay, alright, just hold on a minute. Rukia?” Her attention was towards the phone.

 

“I'm here.”

 

“Be strong, Rukia.”

 

Rukia choked a little bit and nodded. “I will.” She cleared her throat and shuddered softly, “Love you.”

 

“Love you too, see you soon.”

 

And the line went dead. Rukia removed the phone from her ear and set it slowly down on the bedspread. She swallowed the lump in her throat and laughed gingerly at Hisana's goodbye. She always said `see you soon' even though Rukia rarely got to see her more than twice a year now. Her sickness was so severe that she stayed in Tokyo most all the time. The only events where Rukia came to see her were Hisana's birthday and Christmas. Other than that her sister was with Byakuya, in Tokyo. He ran his wealthy business from there while her sister tried to regain her strength.

 

Rukia was alone with Haji.

 

She didn't mind being alone, not really, she had her friends and she had school. She had her occasional phone calls with Hisana and she kept busy with private classes Byakuya had asked her to attend that taught her more about the life of privilege she was now had to live in.

 

That night Rukia snuck out through her window, using the tree as leverage, and walked to the twenty-four hour drug store. She purchased the morning after pill and birth control. As she walked out of the store, hiding her flaming cheeks underneath a hooded jacket, she placed a pill on her tongue and fleetingly wondered if Ichigo would come again.

 

Come again he did. And again, and again, and again. Rukia had never questioned it. She had never told him to stop. She had never backed away or kicked or screamed or threw any type of fight. She simply let him do what he wanted. He came, he released, and he left. They rarely ever spoke. In fact, the only when Rukia ever did protest was when he came to her after announcing to everyone that he was seeing Orihime.

 

It was like that every time.

 

Some days he would come up to her and say he needed her. He never said he needed to see her or needed to talk to her or needed to touch her, he simply needed her body, he needed her willingness, he needed her weakness to never say no to her. Just to take her and please himself. Many times he had spent himself inside of her yet did not remain long enough so she might experience the same pleasure.

 

These times didn't bother her like they used to. She realized that she was there for him. Not for her. This was one sided love making. One sided in the fact that it only pleased him. Only satisfied his need for contact.