Pride (IchiRuki Fanfiction) 💗

Part 13

"Rukia...Is everything okay? You seem to be spacing out a bit lately..." Kaien said, noticing Rukia's change in behaviour.
"What do you mean, Kaien?  I haven't been spacing out at all. You're just imagining things." She denied it.
"Uh-uh. There you go again. Denying. I've known you for ages Rukia. And I can tell when you're lying. Tell me. What's on your mind?" Kaien smiled and poked Rukia's nose.
"Nothing's on my mind, I told you I was fine." She insisted.
"Oh really? Is that why you've been staring at Ichigo and Orihime under that waterfall since we came here?" He asked her and smiled.
"Shut up. I don't care about what he does. He can do whatever he wants to do." She said while frowning.
"Oh my God! I knew it! You are so jealous!" He smiled and pointed his finger at Rukia.
"What? That's ridiculous, Kaien! Why would I be jealous?" She denied her feelings towards Ichigo once again, hating herself for having any for him.
"It's so obvious. You kept looking in their direction when we were talking. You couldn't take your eyes off of them and besides, when we first found you today, you were really happy and excited about coming here, and now you're just...grumpy."  Kaien stated.
"My mood swings have nothing to do with Ichigo being under that waterfall with another girl, Kaien. Quit messing around." Rukia replied and then her jaw dropped.
Ichigo was kissing Orihime.
"Rukia...Are you okay?" Kaien asked, noticing her face expression changed. She went from annoyed face expression to shocked one.
"Y-yeah. I think we should go. It's starting to get cold in here." Rukia said, turning her back, making her way to the stairs to climb out of the pool.
"Wait! You're pale. What happened?" He asked her, clearly worried about her.
"I need to go to toilet. Excuse me." She said and rushed out of the pool towards the lady's restroom.
No...No way...This isn't happening...Why was he kissing her? I knew that he had something for Orihime. I am such a fool!
"Rukia! Wait!" Kaien yelled her name which caught Ichigo's and Orihime's attention. At the sound of that name, they both stopped kissing and looked up to see Rukia running away.
"What's happening? Do you think she saw us?"  Orihime asked.
"Yeah. She probably has." He said.
"Do you think she got upset and ran away because of us doing this?" She asked again.
"Yeah. Orihime, I think we messed up." Ichigo admitted.
"We hurt Rukia, didn't we..?" She asked, worried.
"Yeah. We did..." Ichigo reluctantly said.
"What do we do now?" Orihime immediately regretted her part in this scheme. She kissed him the first chance she got. She always had feelings for Ichigo, but what if Rukia did too? She probably hurt her feelings now.
"Nothing...There's nothing we can do to fix this right now...The damage has been done already.We just need to let it go. If Rukia has any feelings for me, she will show them eventually. If not, then we did all of this...For nothing. Time will tell." Ichigo answered.
"Rukia is pretty good at hiding things though. She's always been very secretive. Even if she does feel something, she will probably try her best not to show it." Orihime stated.
"I know her attitude so I will know her feelings straight away. I can tell when she's bothered sometimes. Anyway, you went out of your way to help me and I appreciate that. So, thank you for doing that Orihime." Ichigo thanked Orihime, even though he felt terrible after doing it. He wasn't only dragging her into his love drama, but also risking her messing up her friendship with Rukia.
"It's okay. I'll be in touch." Orihime said.
"Okay. I am gonna hit the shower now." He said and smiled at her. Her eyes didn't leave him as he was making his way towards the toilets and showers.
I am a terrible person...She thought. She just kissed her biggest crush ever. Her heart was still pounding, almost jumping out of her chest. The butterflies in her stomach were fluttering and she couldn't stop the redness in her cheeks.
I...I am in love with him...Even though he's in love with someone else...I can't help it.
She thought as a tear rolled down her cheek.
He loves Rukia. Not me. And she might love him too...But, that didn't stop me from kissing him. I...I am the worst...
She regretted helping Ichigo make Rukia jealous. Apart from Ichigo being her crush, him and Rukia were her best friends. She may have just screwed up something special. Something that was fine the way it was. Ichigo thought of her as a wonderful person, but he didn't know about her ulterior motives. He didn't know that she liked him. Rukia also loved Orihime, but now, she probably screwed up their friendship.
Stop crying. Someone's gonna notice...You don't wanna be a cry baby.
She tried to stop her tears by rubbing them quickly and faking a smile. She is gonna go out of the pool and act like nothing happened. If someone else saw them kissing, she's just gonna ignore it and say nothing about it. But when she did, no one asked her anything about that kiss. It seemed as if no one noticed anything. She went to pick her stuff and leave. She was already on edge.
"Orihime? You going already?" Orihime turned when she heard familiar voice calling her name. Everyone's eyes were on her, except from Ichigo's and Rukia's, cause they weren't there.
"Yeah...I have some errands to run." She quietly answered.
"Okay. See you later." Everyone greeted her.
"Bye." She said while faking a smile. Then she left.