NOTE: Happy birthday to Sparklingwave!

He leaned closer, "Ichigo, just hurey up and kiss me," she said, Ichigo couldn't have heard anything sweeter, but right before their lips met, Rukia diapeared, and Ichigo awoke from the dream, he raised up, it was probbably around noon, with Rukia gone there really wasn't much to do, so after she got him up early that moning, after battling hollows all night mind you, she was ready to make him hurry up with the goodbyes so she could erase everyone's memory, though she forgot that it would have to wait another two days as planned, because today was Saturday, but just before he started to explain that to her, she was ordered back to Soul Society for a couple of hours, ordered, that was something that wouldn't happen to Rukia anymore, she would never be "ordered" to do anything ever agian, because she was becoming a captin, and as the captin commander, (well in three more days) Ichigo is going to make some changes, Ichigo wanted a quick nap, Rukia had been gone for two hours, yes that's right, 10:00 AM is early to Ichigo, he looked at his window, and just as he did, Rukia flew in, Ichigo jumped slightly, Rukia ran towards Ichigo, the next thing he new, her arms were wrapped around his neck, her small body was pinning his to the bed, her head rested in the crook of his neck, her skin was hot, Ichigo wasn't sure wat was going on, he wrapped his arms around her little body, after a few minutes, she let go, pulled away, and sat down, she put a hand ontop of his, and then it hit him, "Rukia," her hand was burned, rope burns or carpet burns, something like that, it was bleeding, Ichigo didn't see this, he felt it, felt the rough scrape on her raw skin, felt the quickly drying blood that was seeping out of her cut, he could tell that her hand had been cut on glass, he could tell this because of seeing blood and burns all his life, he looked at Rukia's face, her cheek was bruised and beging to bleed slightly, he started to touch her blueing skin, but retracted his hand wen he saw her flinch, she turned to face him, "I'm sorry!" she said in all to happy tone, "I just, I just wanted to hug you for a minute, that's all, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have surprised you," her words slipped out of his mind, barely hearing wat she said, "Wat happened? Are you ok? Who struck you?" "Ichigo? I'm fine but, can we please, talk about it later?" Ichigo picked up her rist, he could encirle it with his tumb and index finger, he turned her palm over, and gently pressed on the tips of her fingers to unfold her forming fist, wat unfolded made his eyes go as wide as they could, burned, scared, bloody, raw, that discrbed the skin on her soft hand, he let go and reached around her, picking up her other rist, it was the same story, she stared at the floor, refusing to meet his gaze, "Rukia," he said, but only barely,
It stung, it hurt, it was painful, Rukia gritted her teeth, wincing and trying not to flinch, "Sorry, I no this really hurts," Rukia looked up, "No it's-" "Rukia, don't bother," she looked down, "Are you sure? Are you sure you want to continue? You don't have to you no, I'll be ok," "I don't want to say this again, Rukia, just let me help you, for ounce, let me help you," Rukia said nothing, Ichigo put the bloody cloth back in the bowl of water, "This'll-" "I no," she didn't want him to finish the sentence, she new that the disinfectent spray would certainly sting, she'd been sprayed before, but she didn't want to say anything didn't want to hear anything, she almost wanted to be left alone, she just wanted to sit there and be with him, breathe him in, fall and rest her head on his chest if she wanted to fall asleep, she did want to fall asleep, she bit her lip wen she felt the sting on her hand, as Ichigo started wrapping the wound, she let her lip escape the cage of her teeth, she let go as she felt the bandeges wrap around her palm, she felt the small metal clasp close off the bandeges, without a word she offered her other hand to Ichigo as soon as she felt the clasp close around her rist, still not looking at him as she did so, the cycle repeated, she closed her eyes ounce Ichigo finished with her palm, as a sighn to start working on her face, it was easier, having a good explination for not looking at him, staring straight ahead, but keeping her eyes closed, lest the medicin that was being sprayed across her cheek enter her eyes, he had to be delicate wen he touched her face, he new that, the reason why she didn't want to look at him or talk to him, is because, if she talked to him, she would have to look at him, and if she looked at him, she was afraid that his stern eyes would glare back at her and lock her in place, imprisoning her and making her tell him everything, albeit reluctintly, "Ok," his voice broke her thoughts and she instinctivly opened her eyes, "Ichigo?" she looked at him reluctintly, her eyes widened wen she saw his, they were soft and sweet, thay weren't the same eyes that locked her in place, they were diffrent eyes, concerned eyes, "Yes?" "Um, do you think I could take a nap first, wen I wake up, I promise, I'll," Rukia closed her eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath, "I'll tell you everything you want to no," Ichigo took her arm and tugged a little, pulling her towards the bed, she layed down, he next to her, and they fell asleep
The mask twisted a little, and came off, "No," Ichigo wispered, "Yes!" she said, "No!" "Yes Ichigo! You want to no how I got those injuries? Hm? Well! Because my hollow self, that's me, now controls this body!" the hollow looked like Rukia, but it wasn't her, it couldn't be her, could it? No, it couldn't! "You can't be a-" "A wat? A hollow? A monster? You mean, like you?" "You, you aren't Rukia! Rukia would never-" "Never, say such a thing? Would never, tell the truth?" "You are NOT Rukia!!" "Prove it!" 'No!' the hollow mask formed, he couldn't control the hollow within him, "Haha! Now! Let's see who's stronger and battle to the death!" he heard, but everything went blank, and he woke up, he looked over, Rukia was still sleeping, his face softened, it was just a dream, she was here, she was ok, she was curled up in his arms, like a little kitten, he smiled, any minute he expected her to start purring, and then, as if on que, she wimpered a little in her sleep, Ichigo could laugh at the resemblence and uncanny timeing, but he didn't want to wake her up, wake up her small, sleeping body, she was so little, yet so strong, he never really noticed that she was about half his size untill now, he espically didn't notice it wen they were fighting, battling, he brushed a strand of silky dark hair out of her eyes, he thought for a moment, thinking about everything, about her, his heart nearly started aching, he wanted to kiss her so much,
Rukia woke up, she kept her eyes closed, she wasn't exactly looking forward to talking to Ichigo, "So, you're awake," she opened her eyes, how did he do that? She sat up and looked at Ichigo, "Wat do you want to no?" "Let's start with, who slugged you?" "We might as well start from the beging then, you'll only end up finding out everything anyway, well, Captin Kutosuchi and I were on our way to the research lab, and wen he got there, he said that he wanted to no why I was the one that possesed the Hogyoku, and then," "'And then'?" "And then, he, strapped me to a table, and I started getting scared, he started talking about test subjects, and, anyway, I started getting really scared, broke free and, he hit me, I slammed into a shelf, and that's how I got the cuts on my hand, some glass viles broke and I just wanted to escape, I got burns wen I ran my hands on the carpet to get up," "He's dead!" "No Ichigo! Stop!" "Why should I?!" "You can't protect everyone you no," "But, I can atleast protect you, right?" Ichigo stroked Rukia's face, they kissed, "You can protect me," she said wen the kiss broke, "There's just one more thing that I want to no Rukia, do you love me?" "Yes, do you love me?" "Yes,"