Trials and Tribulations pt 2 (Bleach, IchixRuki, pg-13)

[sitboy007]

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor do I profit form this writing.

Ok, I kinda forgot to say that T&T is actually a string of connecting oneshots. It gonna be about six or seven parts long. Here's the second part. Hope you like it.

Warnings: Not many spoilers, but some language. Ichigo has a dirty mouth.


Trials and Tribulation (pt 2)

If It Barks Like a Dog?

Owning a pet was an unthinkable subject. Ichigo didn?t object to having animals, though he wasn?t head over heels for them either. He was? indifferent. They had their pros and cons; they were good companions, but they could completely destroy a residence in one hour or less. Due to the small space of Ichigo?s apartment and his not-so-normal lifestyle, he ultimately decided against a ?furry companion.? However, Rukia is quite different from Ichigo.

The day was hot, very hot. Ichigo and Rukia were walking home from classes in the heat when they met an unexpected visitor in front of the apartment staircase.

?Oi, dog, move.? Ichigo scowled at the dog for a minute before continuing up the stairs.

?Ichigo, maybe we should give it some water or something.? Rukia looked at the creature sympathetically. ?It?ll die in this weather.?

?No. If you give it water it?ll keep coming back. Anyway, it?s a stray; it?ll find a way to survive. Just leave it.?

Rukia followed him up to the apartment, still thinking about the dog. When they got inside, she decided to go against Ichigo?s advice and began putting ice and some water into a bowl.

?What are you doing??

?I?m going to give that dog some water.?

?Didn?t I say no?? Rukia ignored him. From the window, Ichigo watched her cautiously approach the dog. The dog shared the apprehension, but soon came to her when curiosity won.

Honestly, Ichigo admired Rukia?s determination to help the animal. Ichigo admired her compassion. He had seen it only a few times, but it was one of her better characteristics. Another was her face. It wasn?t traffic stopping, but still rather appealing. Her body, though faux, wasn?t bad either. Ichigo stopped watching her before he began thinking too much.

When Rukia came back with the bowl, Ichigo had it in his mind to yell at her for blatantly ignoring him, but she beat him too it.

?See Ichigo, the world did not crumble because I gave the dog some water.?

?Yeah, and what if it comes back?? He glared.

?Then I?ll give it some more. And, if it keeps coming back, then I?ll keep giving it water. It?s the humane thing to do.? She ended the conversation by walking out.

Over the course of the next few days the dog came regularly for water. Eventually Rukia began feeding it left over pieces of her lunch. Ichigo practically threw a fit, but Rukia ignored him.

Ichigo was getting used to Rukia feeding it until she decide to bring it up the stairs.

?Hell no! We are NOT keeping the dog!? Ichigo stood in the door the block Rukia, and the dog, from entering.

?Ichigo, it?s just a dog.?

?No. This is my apartment, and I say that we are not keeping the fucking dog! It?s a one bedroom apartment, there is no space for a dog!? It was true. His apartment was rather small, and that dog wasn?t exactly little.

Rukia lifted the dog onto its hind legs and put her face next to it?s own. ?Aww, but Ichigo, he?s so friendly and loving. He?s practically begging to have a home and you?re depriving him of that wish. How can you be so cruel??

Ichigo didn?t know which was worse: the stray?s big brown sad eyes, or Rukia?s incredible blue ones. He scowled and held his ground. Just because they were both staring at him with ?puppy-dog? eyes did not mean that he would give in. Well, maybe it did.

?Whatever, but it?s not allowed in my bedroom.? Rukia lead the new pet inside, rather satisfied with herself.

That night, after a very thorough bath, and several hours of struggling with Ichigo, the dog slept comfortably curled up at the foot of Ichigo?s bed.


Ichigo had grown used to the dog. In fact he actually began to like
the creature. However he hated that he followed him absolutely everywhere. It was Rukia?s dog right? Then why did he like Ichigo so much? That irritated Ichigo.

As Ichigo was walking to school the dog, affectionately called Mutt, was hopping around his legs and nearly tripped him. Ichigo growled louder than Mutt did.

?Kurosaki-kun!? Orihime was running up to him waving. Ishida wasn?t far behind her. ?Hey Kurosaki-kun.?

?Hey, Inoue.?

?Oh, I didn?t know you had a dog!? Orihime stopped next to Ichigo and scratched Mutt behind the ear. ?He?s adorable! I love his color! It reminds me of coco! Or chestnuts! Just like Christmas!? Mutt was in complete euphoria while Orihime scratched his ear.

?He?s not mine. He?s Rukia?s, but unfortunately he follows me around everywhere.?

?I thinks it?s cute,? Orihime cooed as she moved her hand under the dog?s chin.

?I didn?t really think of you as a ?pet person?,? Ishida stated when he caught up to Orihime.

?As I said, he?s Rukia?s dog, but he follows me around. Damn mutt.? The dog barked. ?Yeah, and he does that whenever I say mutt.? The dog barked again.

?Well, he seems rather well trained, since he?s not on a leash and doesn?t run off.?

?Unfortunately.? Ichigo groaned a little. Then Sado walked up.

?Your dog? he?s really cute.? Sado leaned over and patted the former stray?s head.

?He?s Rukia?s,? Ichigo automatically responded. Sado hoisted the dog into his arms. The others gawked for a moment that he had just picked up a retriever sized dog, but then remembered it was Sado and snapped back to reality.

?By the way, Ichigo, where is Rukia?? Ishida asked.

?She went home for the weekend. She should be back tomorrow.?

?Oh.? Ishida glanced at his watch, ?well, I have classes in 15 minutes so I need to go,?

?We all need to go. Hey Chad, do you think you can carry the damn mutt (the dog barked) the rest of the way. Maybe then I won?t trip over him,? Ichigo asked. Sado nodded.

The dog waited patiently around the courtyard of the campus for Ichigo until he came out. Then trotted home with him.


There was nothing special about that night. Just another ordinary hollow hunt, but somehow it was different.

Ichigo got the call on his beeper to go get a hollow and so went into shinigami form. He struggled with Mutt to keep him in the apartment and not follow him. Rukia had conveniently ?gone out? with some friends; since when did she have a social life beyond Ichigo? Though she had called to say that she would meet him, Mutt was still entirely Ichigo?s responsibility. To say the least, Ichigo was a little frustrated with the animal, if not completely furious.

After slamming the window shut in the dog?s face and yelling some not so kind words at the pet, Ichigo speeded his way toward the hollow.

Overly flustered, and over zealous, Ichigo figured that it would be quick and easy. For a while he had the upper hand. The hollow was slower and far less intelligent than its opponent. Every swing was a hit and Ichigo was preparing for the final blow. However, in a split second, the tables had turned.

Ichigo had lost focus for one instant and was now pinned to the ground sans his zanpaku-to. He had no idea how it had happened and he didn?t how to get out of it. He found no way to win except by taking a hit or losing an arm.

Bracing himself for a blow, Ichigo saw a chocolate colored blur zoom past him. The next moment the hollow had released him and was flailing frantically. Ichigo drove away. He looked to see what had caused the hollow to act as it did.

Mutt was latched to the hollows neck.

The hollow swayed its head furiously, screaming. Its hands swatted at its neck to get the intruder off. Mutt clung to the hollow with his jaw, trying to stabilize his hind legs somewhere on the hollows neck. However he was basically swinging by his teeth. Finally, the hollow snatched Mutt and flung him off, like one would fling off a bug.

The hollow began to approach Mutt, seething. Ichigo took the opportunity. The hollow was defeated in one blow.

The shinigami stared at the limp form near his feet. How the hell did he get out? As he approached he watched the dog?s rib cage heave up and down, straining for oxygen.

When he bent down to touch his pet?s head, Mutt wagged his tail slowly and his chops spread into a dog-like smile. That same idiotic smile that he had when Ichigo first saw him at the bottom of the staircase. The same one he had on whenever he followed Ichigo or Rukia somewhere. The tips of his teeth showing and his tongue lolled out. Normally his eyes would have a certain sparkle, but instead they were dull and almost glazed over.

?Stupid mutt.? The dog let out a strangled bark. Ichigo cringed a little. Stupid damned dog. He passed his hand over the animal?s snout. His fingers were tipped with blood that was trickling from Mutt?s nostrils.

The dog was dying, and they both knew it.

?Ichigo?? Ichigo started when he heard Rukia?s voice. He looked back at her. ?What happened??

?The damned dog pounced on the hollow. He thought he could save me.?

?He wasn?t too wrong was he?? Rukia knelt next to Ichigo, by Mutt.

?Can you heal him Rukia? You healed me; it shouldn?t be that much different.?

?I was still somewhat of a shinigami when I helped you. I?m practically human now. My powers are coming back slower than I had hoped. I can?t help him.? Rukia?s vision began to blur. She blinked to keep herself composed.

?My father could help him, if we got him there in time.? Ichigo looked around. ?We? might be too far.?

?Take him anyway.?

?Hai.?


Ichigo and Rukia walked out of classes and expected Mutt to be there bouncing at their feet. However he wasn?t there. They walked home minus their furry third party.

At the apartment, Rukia went straight to the bedroom to change and Ichigo went to the kitchen for food.

Suddenly a loud yell came from the kitchen. Rukia dashed out with her shirt half unbuttoned. When she reached the doorway to the kitchen she halted and broke into laughter.

Ichigo was standing near the pantry practically shooting off flames, his teeth bared and fists clenched.

A very bandaged Mutt was lying amidst several fragments of cardboard boxes munching happily on the cereal that was once in the cardboard boxes, his tail wagging with that dog smile on his face.

?You stupid dog! What the fuck is wrong with you Mutt! (The dog barked) We leave you for several hours and look what you?ve done! Damned mutt! (The dog barked) AARRRRRRAAHHHHHHHH!!!!? Ichigo continued to rant as Mutt wagged his tail.

Rukia kept laughing.

[_sigil]

This review is Late. My apologies.

Well, I still love your style of writing. It flows.

It's nothing critical, but after seeing tons and tons of Fangirl Japlish I've grown very touchy to the subject. It's your choice, but usually a fictional text should only be written in one language. One "hai" isn't really worth complaining about, but I'm a damn perfectionist.

Otherwise the fic is all shiny and nice. ^^

[sitboy007]

yeah, that kinda bothered me later on, but i had already posted it for a while so i saw no use in changing it. I'm get kinda annoyed when people write like that unless they are using proper name sufixes, e.i. nii-sama etc.

anyway, thanx for reviewing. It's nice to have even ONE opinion.

I'll try posting the next chapter soon since it's been several ....months. hehehe

[_sigil]

Suffixes are an exception to the rule, mainly because some of them are hard to translate unless you're very familiar with Japanese culture. I respect the author, who can translate them, but it's better to leave them in if you're unsure.

Oh, do. This time I promise to review on time. ^^

[LittleRooster]

wow nice job. you should do another one.. I thought it was very good.

[Kane Shi Megami]

I like where you're going with this, it seems like they're a messed up 'family' of sorts.

[sitboy007]

hey, sorry that i havent written anything in a long time, over a year to be more specific. oops. school start and i got busy etc etc. but then 2006 rally was not a very good year for me, one bad blow after another, so i just wasn't very inspired to write comical episodes between these two.

anyway, i will get another chapter in soon. thank you for being patient.