Look, I'm hoping you like this. This is my first attempt ever at an Alternate Universe fanfic, and it's straight off the Sputtering Candle Production Line.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, magic 8 ball says that I don't own Bleach. I'm still trying, though. Copy my stuff, and I'll skin you alive.
"That's the last of it," Byakuya set the last box beside the front door, and slid down the wall to the floor. "If you want help unpacking, ask your sister." Byakuya stood up, and hugged his sister-in-law.
"Thanks. You can go now; I'll bring Hisana back later when I kick her out." Rukia pecked him on the cheek, and went to the other side of the room to start unpacking one of the boxes, leaving room for Hisana to kiss Byakuya good-bye.
Hisana closed the door after her husband walked out. She leaped over the oversized, leather couch and took a few knickknacks to start putting them on the mantle.
"How did you hook him?" Rukia asked, placing one encyclopedia after another on the floor-to-cieling bookcase. "Wish I had the luck you do."
"Rukia, you know damn well we met at a bar seven years ago. I still need to thank that guy that made me the fake ID." Hisana went over to help Rukia with her books.
"Speaking of thanking people, thanks for helping me pay for this house. I couldn't stand another day in those dorms, no matter how much you paid me." Rukia side-hugged her favourite big sister. "I'm so happy you're a lawyer, and Bya-nii is born rich."
"Whatever, Lady Freeloader. You've lived in our basement for the past six months." She play smacked Rukia.
"I was trying to save up for a place that I'm cofortable in. It can't get much more comfortable than living in your basement, and eating Celia's cooking." Rukia went over to another box, and carried it into her bedroom. "Would you grab that one over there?" Rukia nodded to a box labled 'Shoes.'
Rukia flopped down on her newly made bed, and sighed. She was exausted.She'd just taken Hisana home, and it was now two in the morning. They'd spent the last six hours unpacking, and had gone to the Walmart on the other side of town to get groceries after they unpacked the kitchen.
Rukia was just about to drift off to sleep when she noticed the pounding at her front door. She grabbed a butcher knife on her way to answer the door, and jerked it open angrily. "What the hell do you want?" She glared at the orange haired man standing on her porch.
"I'm sorry it's so late, but I just got in, and wanted to say welcome to the neighborhood." He held his arms up in defence. "I'm Ichigo, by the way. I live in the one next door with my family. University stundent, and I'm still living at home. Kind of pathetic, huh?" He dropped his arms.
"Not as pathetic as being beaten up by a very tired girl." Rukia set her knife down on the end table besude the door. "You have ten seconds to get off my property, or I'll call the cops. Try knocking in the daylight!" She slammed the door in his face, and watched him through the big bay window as he ran off into his own house.
She stretched out on her couch, and turned on the TV. News. Boring, but she was too tired to give a flip.
"Great, now I'll never get to sleep." Rukia layed her forearm over her eyes, listening to the news anchor ramble about the newly escaped murderer in Arkansas. "Geeze, now I'm going to be thinking about some psycho maniac who's not even in my own damned state for the remander of the night." She muted the TV, and pulled the afghan off the back of the couch, spreading it over her legs before she went off to dreamland.
Ichigo tossed the baseball repeatedly up in the air, thinking about the black-headed midget he just met thirty minutes before. He'd been dared by his friend to go 'greet the new chick,' as he put it. He didn't expect ichigo would actually do it.
He looked up at a knock at his door. Shit. Dad heard the front door open...I knew I should have gone up through the window! Ichigo jumped up, and opened the door. "Hey."
"Hey, son! Did you score?" Isshin has been hell-bent on grandchildren since he first learned Ichigo was 'waving at his chin.' "Was it that girl you've been with for the past year? The redhead?"
"We broke up three months ago. She's with Uryu. If you're that desperate to know about someone's love life, bug him." Ichigo drove his fist into his father's face, and made his nose bleed. "His number's in the phone book!" He then slammed the door in his face.
Ichigo opened up the media player on his laptop, and hooked it up to the surround-sound speakers he'd gotten for his fifteenth birthday from his mother. He glanced over at the picture of her hanging up on the wall, and went back to the media player. He missed her, a lot. Ichigo went into the folder that she's saved to a CD when he was nine. It had all her favourite music in it, and one song that reminded Ichigo of her a lot. Shooting Star, by Bad Company.
He buried his face in the sweater he'd wrapped around his pillow. Masaki had gotten it for her thirtieth birthday from the whole family. It wasn't much, but it was what she wanted, so she got it.
That was almost eleven years ago.
"Damn it! Why'd you have to leave, mom? Why'd you have to die on us, on me?" Ichigo through his fist into the wall, making a nice-sized dent.
Well, what ya think?
Shorty