Her Heart

Disclaimer: BLEACH belongs to Kubo Tite and Shiueisha Publishings.

Summary: "Your mother's an amazing person. She loved you even before you were born. And because she did, she entrusted something very precious to you..." Retrospective Ichiruki

Chapter 1: Memory

It was historical…that moment in time when he saw those two beautiful eyes flutter open to peer up at him. For about a split second, Ichigo could not help but smile. The small bundle nestled in his arms was definitely her mother's child. Snow white skin, a small button nose, and now he could clearly see that she had the same soul-piercing pair of midnight blue eyes.

'Rukia...she looks just like you.' He thought fondly for a moment before his tender expression quickly faded into a solemn one.

He held the baby closer to himself.

It hurt to think of her. His wife, that is. Whenever he did, he felt as though someone was painfully wrenching his heart right out of his chest

'Damn it, Rukia. If only you had waited a little longer.' He cursed. In his despair, he almost forgot about the child in his arms and nearly dropped her. If it weren't for his quick reflexes...well he didn't want to think about it.

"Sorry, baby." He whispered, repositioning the child so that her head would now be resting against his chest. He patted her on the back soothingly and held her close.

'I'm so sorry for everything. I couldn't be there for you...I couldn't be there for my most precious person.'

*:.:*:.:*:.:*:.:*:.:*Three Weeks Ago*:.:*:.:*:.:*:.:*:.:*

Rukia stared thoughtfully at the empty crib that rested at the corner of their bedroom. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as they skimmed over the various-sized, stuffed animals that have recently taken residence in the said cradle.

"Cute..." she uttered out in awe, smiling in delight as she reached out for the Chappy bunny-looking toy.

As soon as her hand wrapped around the doll, she felt a pair of warm muscular arms encircle her waist.

"Ichigo..." she uttered, craning her neck back to find a pair of mahogany brown eyes staring back at her.

"Stealing toys from our unborn child, are we?" he teased, raising an eyebrow at her as he subconsciously moved his hands over her rounded belly.

A faint blush instantly appeared on her cheeks.

"I was not!" she cried out indignantly, letting go of the toy so that she could fold her arms across her chest.

Ichigo chuckled at his flustered wife.

"So...you weren't going to keep Chappy all to yourself?" he smirked.

"Of course not!" she fumed, her face turning redder by the minute. "I just wanted to inspect it to...to...to make sure that it's safe for our child."

"..."

"What?"

"...Nothing." he snickered, but soon regretted it when she punched him rather painfully on the shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell, Rukia!" Ichigo howled, as he rubbed the sore spot.

He gave her a wounded look, hoping that she would feel bad for him, but she had already turned away from him to get back into their bed. Once settled, she pulled out a baby care guidebook and began to read it, ignoring him completely.

The substitute shinigami sweat-dropped.

"Oi, Rukia! Is that anyway to treat your loving husband?" He cried out in disbelief, pointing a finger at her in an accusing manner.

She glanced up from her book for a moment. And just when he thought that she was going to apologize, she stuck her tongue out at him and went back to reading her book.

Ichigo's face blanched even further.

"This woman..." he seethed inwardly, but that didn't stop the corner of his lip from twitching.

In his "indignation," he marched over to their bed and snatched the book out of her dainty hands, keeping it away from her so that she would look at him instead.

"Really, Ichigo? Stealing a pregnant woman's book. That's low, even for you." She folded her arms once again and scowled to feign annoyance, but her citrus-haired husband could already see through her facade.

"Well maybe I'll act a little more mature if my wife does too," he baited, grinning impishly.

The petite shinigami merely scoffed and turned away from him.

"As a Kuchiki, I am plenty mature," she touted proudly.

"But you're a Kurosaki now," he replied matter-of-factly, smirking.

"Then it must be your fault that I'm not as sophisticated as I used to be," she teased back playfully, turning around to face him once again. But as soon as she did, she suddenly found her face to be dangerously close to his.

Her breath hitched in surprise and she felt a sudden rush of heat instantly flood to her face.

"Ichigo..."

To say the least, Ichigo looked amused. Even the most obtuse observer could see a playful glint sparkle through his intense heavy-lidded gaze.

The strawberry-blonde man didn't mind the sudden close proximity. Not one bit. After all, it was a rare moment for them to be this close, this physically intimate. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he moved in closer to her and cupped her face with his hands. She nuzzled into them instinctively as he gently swept one of his thumbs across her cheek in a deliberately slow and tender manner before placing it on her soft lips.

Rukia reddened even more if that was possible.

"Ichigo..." she whimpered, but before she could say anything else, he had already leaned forward to capture her lips with his own. Caving into her own overwhelming feelings, she began to kiss him in return, but before she could close her eyes and lose herself completely to their fervor, a flutter of black and red flew across her line of sight. Groaning, she reluctantly pulled herself away from her eager husband.

"Wha-what..." he sputtered, confused by her withdrawal.

"You fool, there's a message for you." She pointed out haughtily, nodding at the presence of the hell butterfly that had decided to rest on his shoulder.

Annoyed, Ichigo turned his head to face the little messenger and scowled at it.

"Well...what is it?"

'Kurosaki Ichigo, please report to Yamamato soutaichou immediately! You were selected to carry out an important mission and you must leave for it as soon as possible. I repeat, please report to the soutaichou immediately! That is all.'

With that relayed, the dutiful insect flew out the nearest window, leaving the shinigami couple to stare after it in complete silence.

'An important mission, huh?' Ichigo wondered, frowning.

He turned to his wife who had the same serious expression as he did.

"Rukia..." he started, but she interrupted him.

"You should go, Ichigo. They're expecting you."

"Ah..." he agreed, but he couldn't help but wonder...what kind of state of emergency was Soul Society in this time? And did it really have to happen now?

A/N: Thank you for reading the first chapter! Hopefully it was worthy of your time. In any case, I would really appreciate some feedback in order to get a good idea of what you thought of the story so far. I want to tailor it to your enjoyment, so please let me know if…the characters were OOC, the format is confusing, there are a lot of mistakes, my writing style doesn't flow well, the pacing is a little weird, etc… I'll try to take all of these thoughts into consideration when I'm writing. Anyways, thanks again for reading. I'll be back with chapter 2 fairly soon. :)