The Courier

Oleander-Tea

Summary: [AU] At the end of WW3, the world is in turmoil. Anarchy runs rampant, and Japan's future is a battle between Sereitei and Hueco Mundo, two political parties each with their skeletons to hide. Ichigo finds Rukia and shelters her, but what happens when it becomes painfully clear that she's more danger than she's worth?

Legal: All characters belong to Kubo Tite. Storyline is mine.

Chapter 3: Move

"Oi, Rukia," Ichigo was properly distracted from Orihime at the moment. "Like what you see?"

He was pleased to see that she was, indeed, staring, when she blinked and he could almost discern the tiny flick of her head dispersing her thoughts. Good thing he already gave her the one-over himself before she noticed. Rukia was still breathing heavily from her run, her chest, flattened by a tank, visibly rising and falling with every inhale and exhale. She glistened in the warm colors of dusk reflecting off of a thin sheen of sweat on her body. He could see extraordinarily toned arms and legs, shoulder and ass that don't come with just running and 10k every week. Ichigo had a brief thought that she could have been a fighter too, and an almost effective one at that, given her stature. When the mental image had quickly shifted from sparring with her in the park to a more private sort of sparring in the dark, he had yelled out to her, almost willing the last lingering image to trash Rukia's mind instead of his.

Rukia walked toward them now, completely ignoring Renji and he chugged some water and toweled off. She stopped halfway between Ichigo and and the park-goers still engrossed in the show.

"I don't like sloppy," she snapped. Ichigo hadn't noticed that he was grinning until he felt the facial muscles drop. "You have no control over your strength, you're too slow, and your tactics are too predictable. Maybe you can take Renji right now, and probably even somebody better, but the moment someone comes along with half a brain and some goddamn eyes you're fucked."

Rukia drew a sharp breath after her attack while Ichigo almost spluttered.

Renji snicked, "Yeah Ichigo, slow and sloppy." He paused a second, "Wait a minute; you think he could take me?"

Truth was, Ichigo knew he was better than Renji, definitely in terms of raw strength and energy. But beyond that, Ichigo was better than most people he knew. His father had done a decent enough job of training him as a child, then putting him through a variety of kung fu, karate, mixed martial arts classes as he got older, and Ichigo continued the exercise into adulthood. It was relaxing, in a way, and definitely more fun than lifting weights all day long. He had met Renji at a club once, and though they got off to a rocky start, became fast friends because they could train well together.

Plus, Renji wasn't nearly as insane as that Zaraki dude.

And nobody had ever told him he lacked control.

"What the hell makes you such an expert, you little midget?" Ichigo glowered.

Rukia fumed, arms flailing for emphasis, "Excuse me, Mr. All-Brawn-and-no-Brain, doesn't an expert to see absolutely no strategy whatsoever here! Don't confuse luck with skill, you idiot."

"So you do like what you see!"

"You think I don't have half a brain?!" Renji interjected.

Rukia balked, "Oh I didn't mean that, Renji! You've improved a lot, but he's just stronger than you-" she took her foot out of her mouth at that point and had the courtesy to look around sheepishly. Ichigo thought it unfitting of her; his first meeting with her last night, and now this, told him she was contradictory and incendiary, not apologetic.

Renji sulked. Ichigo gaped. Rukia made her way closer to the men she'd just reduced to boys within a matter of seconds.

"We should go," she whispered, then, almost as an afterthought, "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have said what I said."

Renji grunted and threw his backpack at her, full of sweat soaked shirts and towels, "You're carrying this."

Ichigo's temper was still aflame, but neither of his companions seemed keen to continue their "conversation." As they walked home, Renji and Rukia chattered about politics, and Ichigo turned to introspection. It was odd. Rukia wasn't the type to apologize and Renji really wasn't the type to just take shit like that from somebody, even if she were a girl. There was something amiss here.

Maybe it was just Rukia. He couldn't remember the last time he felt anything as strongly as he did now, and also last night, yelling at Rukia. There was a deep knot inside his chest that pulled tighter and tighter when they argued, and Ichigo couldn't deter the knot nor Rukia herself using all the medical tactics he had learned dealing with unruly patients. When it happened the night before, Ichigo had thought it was due to his breakup with Orihime, that somehow his emotions were short circuiting, and instead of feeling horribly sad about Orihime, he felt extraordinarily angry toward Rukia.

"She's really very kind,"Renji had said in the morning, trying to convince Ichigo to go to lunch with her. "She's got the biggest heart of anyone I know, just give her a chance."

Lunch had turned out relatively normal, despite some awkward times of Renji staring at Matsumoto's chest. Rukia did seem more normal, and when the topic of Ichigo's living situation came up unexpectedly, Ichigo had gotten the distinct impression she wanted him to be as comfortable as possible. She had invited everyone to see a new horror flick, probably to take Ichigo's mind off things, much like what Renji was trying to do, and though Ichigo was mildly annoyed with their concern, he was appreciative enough to go along with it. After all, if he weren't here, he'd probably have to move back home, and Ichigo would only end up killing himself to avoid his father's relentless laments over the grandchildren that would no longer be.

As the trio stepped into the elevator to their apartment building, Renji and Rukia stopped arguing over whether or not the people wanted a ruler they could relate to, or a stoic face who could lead, like Kuchiki. Rukia takes out a protein shake from her backpack and downs it.

"Fifteen minutes," she said, wiping her mouth and smirking at Renji. "Rangiku doesn't like tardiness."

Ichigo snuck another quick glance at her ass as she walked into her own apartment. He must be what his idiot pervert father called an "ass man."

"Yo Ichigo," Renji scowled. "You gonna keep starin' or am I gonna have to actually kick your ass."

"I wasn't-"

"Whatever, dude. I'm gonna shower."

#

The next morning woke Ichigo with the grating sound of a blender and the worst hangover he's had in a long time.

"Shut that shit up," he hissed, covering his face and ears with a pillow. Man that Matsumoto chick can drink. Ichigo had fallen asleep or passed out on Renji's bed around 1 AM, barely after Rukia excused herself to do the same on her own bed. He was rudely kicked out of it a few hours later, by a giggling Rangiku and wobbling Renji. As he moved to the couch, he thanked god he was still drunk enough to just pass the fuck out without having to lie around listening to whatever Rangiku and Renji were up to in his bed. He did, however, have the capacity to make a mental note to not sleep in Renji's bed again until the sheets were cleaned.

"Drink this," Rukia pulled his pillow away. Ichigo blinked and mentally thanked her for closing all the blinds and keeping the lights off, "You'll feel better."

She handed him a glass of some smoothie she must have been making and carried one more to Renji's room. He, unfortunately, did not receive the same treatment as she flipped the lights on and practically screamed, "Rise and shine, Abarai, we gotta run."

"Son of a bitch!" Renji's muffled complaints were choked off as Rukia seemingly forced her smoothie down his throat.

Ichigo looked at the clock and groaned. It was already past ten in the morning, and he was supposed to be at Orihime's by noon. They still had to go to Renji's office and pick up a car, and god knows how long that would take, especially when it came down to government bureaucracy.

"Ichigo, go shower at my place," Rukia strolled from Renji's room to the bathroom, dragging a naked Renji by the ear with one hand and holding onto a towel with the other. "We need to leave soon."

"Do what she says." If Renji had a tail, it would be tucked between his legs at the moment. 'Learn from my mistakes, young grasshopper.'

The fuzzy memory of Matsumoto's early morning departure pried itself into Ichigo's head: Don't tell Rukia was the name of the game. The girl in question was hurriedly stuffing Renji into the bathroom and turning on the shower water, unquestioningly ignoring Renji's state of nudity, unless… Unless this was a common occurrence for her? To manhandle Renji's naked body?

Rukia huffed as she left the bathroom door, slamming it shut, "I'm doing you a favor you big ugly baby. Do you want to invoke the wrath of Byakuya Kuchiki if you were late?"

Renji mumbled something incomprehensible, and Rukia pointedly chose to ignore it. Instead she turned to Ichigo and said, slowly, as if he were daft, "Shower. Now. Go."

Ichigo crawled out of the couch, and a sound not unlike what old men would make when getting up from a chair escaped the back of his throat. His head was pounding, and as he stood up with some new boxers and a towel, Rukia shoved her smoothie in his hand again.

"Drink. Trust me."

Ichigo took a tentative sip. It wasn't bad, but definitely not magical. At least it didn't taste like the weird ass shit Orihime really liked, full of wheat grass or spirulina or whatever it was. He continued drinking and let Rukia lead him to her apartment across the hall. It wasn't much different than Renji's, considering it had the same layout. The living room was pretty bare, with a couch, coffee table, and desk in view. He didn't see any décor, just the necessities. His murky mind had thought it agreed with Rukia, nothing superfluous.

"I'm not planning on stripping and bathing you," her slightly annoyed voice came from the kitchen. "You're a big boy, you can do it yourself."

"Can you just shut up for ten minutes? Please?" Ichigo scowled.

"You know it's probably a lot more difficult to hear me if you're in the shower," Rukia rolled her eyes. She was pouring some milk and what Ichigo assumed was more protein powder into a shaker. Did she wake up early to go work out?

"I hope so," Ichigo said as he finished his smoothie and stepped into the bathroom.

After his shower, Ichigo felt almost wonderful. He wasn't sure if it was just the shower itself, the rather unmemorable smoothie, or Rukia's fruity shampoo and soap, but when stepped out of the bathroom, he couldn't remember why he was so annoyed with her earlier on. Renji was now fully clothed, sitting on Rukia's couch, staring blankly at Rukia, who looked up from her laptop when Ichigo emerged.

"Ready for this?" she asked, almost gently.

"Yeah, sure," Ichigo said. What else was there to say?

The subway ride to Sereitei was unusually quiet, for Renji seemed to be lost in thought, and Rukia had brought a business text with her. They had gone into a plain looking office building, and Renji led the trio through a maze to a security desk for the keys to a small van. The entire process took under twenty minutes, for which Ichigo was thankful; he really wasn't in any mood to entertain small talk at the moment.

He was still nursing a slight headache, and this would be the first time he saw his ex (Ichigo supposed he truly had an "ex" now) since the breakup, and though he instigated the separation and knew that it would be the best for them both, his heart still ached for her. It wasn't really that Ichigo didn't love her; as a matter of fact, he would have scorched the world over for her if she were in a hint of trouble. But Ichigo was a romantic, and he remembered the way he'd felt reading Shakespeare as a teenager. Orihime was Juliet, but Ichigo was Hamlet, and he felt that Orihime deserved Romeo instead. It was just too stupid and cheesy a sentiment to say aloud, and he wasn't sure Orihime would understand why Hamlet and Romeo had to be different people or even why it's possible that Hamlet can still care a great deal about what happens to Juliet.

Plus, he wanted to find his own Ophelia, though she'd ideally not be crazy, and he wouldn't drive her to her own death.

On their way to the van, Rukia had excused herself for a restroom break. Ichigo thought it was painfully obvious that Renji had been waiting for this moment all morning, since he all but pounced on Ichigo the moment she was out of sight.

"Don't tell Rukia about Rangiku."

"What's the big deal?" Ichigo swatted Renji away. "It's not like you're shacking up with them both."

Renji glowered at him.

"… Are you?"

"No, but we did it once," he scowled. "Twice, actually. It was a while ago, and it probably doesn't even matter anymore, but I don't want her freaking out about this if it doesn't end up going anywhere."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "You slept with Rukia?" Ichigo wasn't sure whether he was glad that Rukia wasn't regarded as a mere child by others or envious of others' experiences with her. The image of her ass walking away from him momentarily flashed across his mind's eye, surprising Ichigo. He'd always looked at girls, sure, but they rarely made an impression past a few minutes.

"Yes, but the circumstances…" Renji trailed off. "Look, it just didn't work out, okay? Just keep your mouth shut about Rangiku."

Ichigo didn't know how Rukia could have missed it, considering Renji and Matsumoto were flirting all night previously, "Sure, okay, whatever."

Renji's gaze shifted from Ichigo's face to somewhere over his shoulder. Ichigo took this to mean Rukia had returned from the restroom, and turned to hand over the keys to their car.

"Call me if you want a ride back to the office," Rukia gave Renji a slight squeeze of the forearm and walked away. Ichigo caught Renji's face as it twisted into an ugly grimace before he shook it off. If Ichigo knew the right thing to say at the moment, he thought he would have liked to offer Renji those words, but he certainly didn't know the whole story, much less what would make Abarai Renji feel better.

He settled on a rough "See you tonight" before heading out after Rukia, who was thankfully quiet for the duration of the ride to Orihime's, only breaking the silence to ask for directions.

"I'll just… wait here?" Rukia said uncertainly as she parked the car next to Orihime's apartment building.

"Sure," Ichigo looked at her, almost willing her to provide some feminine insight to what he should be expecting upstairs.

Rukia met his gaze, eyes flickering lightly. "I don't know your story," her voice was barely above a whisper. "But sometimes you have to really hurt your loved ones to do what's best for them."

Ichigo looked away for a moment and clambered out of the car. He thought he walked slowly up the stairs to Orihime's apartment, dreading the tears that were likely to greet him on the other side of her door. When he finally reached them, he knocked, though the key jingled in his pocket next to Renji's key.

Orihime had clearly been crying when she opened the door, but she put on a bright face anyway, which only seemed to pain Ichigo more, "Hello Ichigo."

He tried to smile, so she wouldn't think he was angry with her, "Hi."

"Come on in," she had a poor imitation of her happiest smile plastered on her mouth.

Ichigo walked in to his old apartment to see many boxes lining the walls, with Tatsuki Arisawa seething in a corner, sitting on one of said boxes, "Oh, hey Tatsuki, what's up?"

"Orihime told me that if I had nothing nice to say," Tatsuki spat. "To keep my mouth shut."

"Ah, yeah okay, I probably deserve that one," he conceded, though a childish part of him still hurt from it. Tatsuki was his friend before she was Orihime's friend, as whiney as that sounded.

"I put all your things in these boxes here," Orihime gestured at wall by the door. "I'm… I'm moving as well. This place just has so many memories…"

Ichigo was next to her in seconds, before the first tear fell from her beautiful eyes. He knew Orihime like he knew his little sisters, and now more than ever, she reminded him of Yuzu and her first heartbreak. He didn't know whether to hug Orihime or simply get the hell out of there, and he hated himself more than ever for it. Tatsuki pulled her away, glaring at Ichigo.

"Just go, Ichigo," Tatsuki said, her voice sounded resigned as Orihime had buried Tatsuki in a tight embrace. "I'll look after her."

Ichigo quickly stacked a few boxes together and pushed them out the door. He'll have to make a few trips, but it was probably for the best at the moment to avoid Orihime.

"Thanks Tatsuki," he mumbled, hiding his eyes under his hair. "And… Orihime. I, uh. I really am sorry. I just... You deserve better, you know?"

Orihime didn't look up, but Ichigo could hear a sharp intake of air. She was probably crying harder. Shit. Tatsuki pointed a finger at the door violently mouthing, "Leave."

Ichigo obeyed and shut the door.

He kicked the stack of boxes toward the elevators, sighing a breath of relief he didn't know he was holding. It hadn't been the worst encounter of his life, but probably a top five. He was thankful Tatsuki, tomboyish as she was, knew how to handle these matters, and probably provided more comfort for Orihime than he ever could, especially at this time. Knowing this, though, didn't keep his conscience from kicking his ass for leaving Orihime like that.

"Fuck!" he yelled when he was finally outside the building.

The late summer's day was beautiful; a light breeze whispered secrets around him and the sun seemed to smile sweetly on his cheeks. The world, as it seemed, didn't care for Orihime's suffering or Ichigo's guilt.

Ichigo picked up two boxes and carried them toward Rukia's car across the street. He eventually realized that he couldn't see her in the driver's seat, and it wasn't because she was too short. After reaching the car, he looked around skeptically and checked his phone, finding no signs of her. He called her number, and after ringing a reasonable number of times, he got her voicemail.

"Fucking great," he muttered, feeling like an idiot. He walked his boxes to the sidewalk and put them down. Sitting on the curb, he rested his head on an arm, turning his head just so…

Ichigo jumped up. The passenger side window had a bullet hole through it.

"FUCK." This day just fucking gets better.

Looking inside the car, he found no trace of blood or Rukia's belongings, and the bullet sat harmlessly etched into one of the seats. Maybe she had left before the gunshot through the window? His boxes forgotten, Ichigo started running down the street, phone dialing Rukia's number over and over again, yelling her name.

It must have been a mile later when Ichigo finally stopped running. Not really because he was tired, he just realized the futility of the exercise, though it made him appreciate the era before cell phones and how worried parents must have been should their spawns be late for whatever reason. Ichigo breathed out a frustrated sigh and headed back to the car, taking another route. Pulling out his phone again, he dialed Renji's number, but before he could put the phone on his ear, he heard a distinct set of steps behind him.

"I have a gun pointed at you. Do not turn around."

"What the fuck?" Ichigo's mind raced at the possibilities.

"How do you know Rukia Kuchiki?"

"I… What's it to you anyway?" Ichigo was finally getting fed up with the infuriatingly difficult morning. "What do you want from me?"

Nothing was making sense right now.

It didn't help as he heard more steps behind him, a few yells and what seemed like punches and kicks being thrown, and then a fucking gunshot go off, for which Ichigo ducked but did not dare turn around.

"What are you doing you idiot? Run!" Rukia's voice rang out.

Ichigo's temper boiled over as he swirled around to face her, arms wild but prepared to throw as many punches as necessary, "What are you doing? What the fuck is this?"

Rukia had her back turned to him, but she was holding a gun pointed at a rather nondescript man in sunglasses.

"How the fuck am I supposed to know? And get the hell out of here!" Rukia spat back, and then turning her attention to the man, she shoved him with the gun toward an alleyway. "Who the fuck are you?"

Ichigo did not get the hell out of there and instead followed them. Rukia stopped moving behind a dumpster, which Ichigo thought was possibly too stereotypical of a place for this kind of thing, whatever it was, to go down.

"Who I am is none of your business," the man said. Everything about his demeanor screamed a calmness that sent chills down Ichigo's spine.

Rukia sent him a left hook to the jaw before Ichigo could blink. "Who. Are. You."

The man started to speak again, but Ichigo didn't hear what. He would later recall this portion of the day's events in slow motion as Rukia took a step behind her, toward Ichigo, eyes widening with fear, the same time Ichigo heard shuffling behind him. Instinct had instructed him to duck again, but Rukia had taken a second step, leaping off the ground directly into him, knocking him sideways.

"MOVE-" she never got a chance to finish her sentence.

Ichigo heard three gun shots beating to the sound of his heart. Bang. Bang bang. He remembered feeling his abdomen explode in pain, and two voices screaming in unison before losing consciousness.

#

Notes: A little Ichigo centric this time around, but at least there was drama, and there was excitement! Right? Right.

I know these characters aren't all true to canon, but I think given their backgrounds, particularly Rukia's, it kind of makes sense. If we take canon Rukia, subtract the Byakuya Kuchiki influence, and add in some Kaien (a sense of responsibility and caretaking, though I think those are pretty natural Rukia traits), Urahara (wiliness), and Yoruichi (being comfortable in your own skin) early on in life, I think this is a much more likely outcome anyway. Let me know how you feel about that, and any other aspect of the story!