Karin: Hey guys. Here's my first Bleach fanfic. Hope you like it

Title: Spellbinding Sketches

Rating: T (might become M later on)

Pairing: Hitsugaya(Toushirou)/Rukia and I'll let you know the other pairings next chapter

Genres: Supernatural/Romance/Drama/Humor/Fantasy/Hurt/Comfort

Summary: AU Rukia Kuchiki was a young an aspiring artist with big ambitions. One of these ambitions was always to get accepted into the prestigious and mysterious school Da Vinci Academy. Once she gets there, however, things begin to change and she learns things beyond the human comprehension that has been hiding for centuries. At first all she wanted was to get in, now Rukia will do everything in her power to get out… too bad a certain white haired male won't let her.

Disclaimer: No owning of Bleach.


Spellbinding Sketches

Chapter One:

The Invitation

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There's something likable about the serenity of the morning. It always has people bask in its gentility and warmness. The sun's soft rays grace your cheeks as you lie against the comfy pillow still in dreamland.

"It's here! It's finally here!"

…well, formally in dreamland that is if a certain body tumbling out of bed was any indication.

A male of nineteen tumbled out of his comfy bed with a loud thump. His wild red hair in a disarray much more than usual due to the term known as "bed head". His brown eyes were half lidded in tiredness and a groan escaped his mouth. Running a hand through his hair, he rose up from the floor and climbed back into bed not bothering to address the noise factor. After all, he was quite use to it and no doubt the noise maker herself would clamp up after a couple of minutes if he just ignored her.

Sadly, that didn't seem to be the case for the male as five seconds later, his bedroom door was slammed open revealing the other occupant of there two bedroom apartment. Standing at 5'1, his roommate and best friend since childhood stood there with all her petite glory.

"RENJI!!!" she exclaimed and flung herself at his bed. Jumping up and down excitedly, bright amethyst eyes sparkled in glee and joy with raven black hair a little passed her shoulders framing her pale face. "Time to wake up Renji! You have to be awake for my epic moment!" the girl commanded continuously jumping on the young adult's bed.

"You can have your epic moment without me" the male groaned out grumpily pulling the covers over his face. Sometimes the male swore that instead of being eighteen, the woman was five.

This apparently did not please the female if her frown was any indication. Without saying anything, she jumped off his bed and walked out of the room. The male sighed in sweet relief that the loud mouth had given up. Now he could get some well deserved shut eye…

Too bad that as soon as he thought that, the female came back into his room with a bucket of ice cold water in it.

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"I hate you" the male muttered in loathing. The black haired female only shrugged at his bad mood.

"It's not my fault that you were too stubborn to get up making me pour cold water on you" the girl waved him off dismissively. "Honestly Renji, show a little more pride for me for this moment" the raven haired girl told her roommate.

The male, Renji, only growled in response. His brown eyes then drifted to the crimson envelope with the elegant sealing of a dragon and a phoenix crossing each other like an X with a chain and ribbon wrapped around the two mythical creatures binding them in black held in her hand. That accursed envelope was the cause of his sleep deprivation.

I hate you envelope, Renji cursed at the formation of paper. Was it possible to hate an inanimate object?

"Pff," the male let out a snort. "I don't know why you're getting so excited. You haven't even opened the thing yet! For you know it could say they don't want you" Renji told her bitterly.

The smaller woman replied by bonking the man on the head which was a very comical sight if you count in the fact that he stood almost to six feet and was pretty well-build for his age.

"Ow! Dammit Rukia! I'm just saying this because I don't want you to get your hopes up!" Renji told the female, Rukia. Said female gave him a glare in response.

"How do you know they're going to reject me? For all you know it could say 'Congratulations Ms. Rukia Kuchiki! You've been accepted into our school without much effort and is definitely more achieved than your friend Renji'!" she ended stingily.

Renji's eye twitched in annoyance at her obvious insult to him.

Ah yes, the object of the two friends' argument and the contents of the envelope is sketchy to you readers, isn't it? My apologies. Well, what dear little Rukia has in her hand right now is her reply from her application to one of the most prominent schools in the world to get into. Not an educated person in the world did not know this school's name and reputation.

This educational institution's name: Da Vinci Academy.

Da Vinci Academy—a school dedicated to the sole purpose of pursuing the philosophies, creative arts, and passions of the soul. Many geniuses emerged from this academy and were well known even to this day. Brilliance was this school's definition; success and beauty its entire being. Parents desired to send their children there; young scholars determined themselves into entering its graces of philosophy; high school graduates were awed by the possibility of becoming someone great because of setting foot into the school.

And like all the other millions of dreamers out in the world, Rukia Kuchiki had sent in an application to attend this great school. Ah yes, it wasn't like Rukia wasn't brilliant, heavens no, for she had graduated a year early from high school at the top of all her upperclassmen. She was very intellectual and creative; open-minded and determined.

Her talents in the arts were possibly amazing, or at least that's what everyone at their high school had said. Even the teachers were astounded and awed by this small girl's ability with a pencil and brush. She lived for art. She breathed for art. It was only natural she would want to pursue her desires and love for art in the best school for philosophers and artists alike.

However, that wouldn't be enough to get accepted they both knew. While Rukia could be a bit narcissistic—if constantly talking about being the overlord of Japan in your sleep wasn't a clue, Renji didn't know what was—and sometimes naïve, she was smart enough to consider the possibility of not getting accepted into Da Vinci Academy.

Named after the genius himself, the school was established perhaps a decade after the death of Leonardo Da Vinci— who died in 1519—in 1529. They only accepted the prodigies and young genius of the generations. Rejecting thousands each year, it was scarce for people to get accepted. Most of the time it was years before a single person was accepted into their stone artistic walls.

"You added that last part" Renji said bringing his fist softly on the petite girl's raven head. Rukia swatted her best friend's hand away with a snort and turned her gaze back to the envelope encased in a knuckle-white grip by her hands.

A quiet gulp sounded from her as her hands started shaking. Now that she actually held the envelope, it was nerve wracking on what answer she would get from Da Vinci Academy. It felt like her hands were paralyzed as she made no move to open the envelope to read its written contents.

Finally getting fed up with his friend's hesitation, Renji snatched the envelope from Rukia's hands—"Hey!" Rukia exclaimed angrily—and ripped the blasted thing open not bothering to be careful. Being much taller than Rukia, he was able to read the letter without much trouble even though Rukia bounced up and down in front of him in order to retrieve her letter back.

"'Dear Ms. Rukia Kuchiki'" Renji grinned evilly reading aloud ignoring Rukia's embarrassed shouts of not wanting him to read it, "'Thank you for applying your letter, and after much consideration, we have decided to'…" the male trailed off as his face was frozen into mild shock. All joking from before couldn't be found on his face as he just stared at the letter.

Rukia stopped her jumping to tilt her head to the side in confusion. The small woman wondered what was it in the letter that caused her almost never speechless friend to go… well, speechless.

"What?" she asked him. "What? What is it?" she asked again with more urgency in her voice. Dread was beginning to fill her gut as the worst came into her mind.

She didn't get in. After all that hard work the past year working at a dead end job to pay rent, she didn't get in.

But she had tried so hard! So damn hard in order to get accepted! She sacrificed sleep and most of her social life (for crying out loud, she was living with her only friend!). She had endured surviving only on Starbucks coffee and people whispered about how weird and anti-social she was.

It was unfair. Completely unfair.

Rukia bit her quivering lip in order not to cry. Her amethyst eyes became dewy and her nose began to clog up with mucus. Too absorbed in her misery, the Kuchiki girl didn't hear the thump of Renji fainting on the wooden panel floor. It wasn't until the letter whacked her in the face from the air did she come out of her sorrow to read it for her own eyes.

'Dear Ms. Rukia Kuchiki', she read in her mind not trusting her voice. 'Thank you for applying your letter, and after much consideration, we have decided to…' she read the rest through tear-filled eyes. However, instead of her tears increasing, her eyes became the size of saucers. Rukia repeated reading over the letter in disbelief for about three times before nervous and embarrassed laughter sounded from her lips.

Then she fainted.

'…to accept you into our academy. We hope that you will be pleased with this outcome'

Oh yeah, she was speechless!

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"…I got in" Rukia said still with wide eyes. Beside her on the couch was Renji with an ice pack on his head. "…I really got in." she said in shock staring ahead.

Renji raised an eyebrow at her behavior. Apparently Rukia was still in the shock/disbelief stage. Pretty soon though, he was pretty sure she would be bouncing off the walls like a manic.

"WOO-HOO!!!"

Renji stood corrected.

"I got in! I got in! I got in!" Rukia cheered through saying the phrase 'I got in' very quickly over and over making it sound like a bunch of gibberish. She jumped up and down like a bunny rabbit—her favorite animal by the way—with Renji half expecting bunny ears and a tail to appear on her person. The poor male massaged his temples as her loud voice wasn't helping his headache.

He was happy for her; even if it didn't show, he was proud of his best friend. After all the hard work that academy made her do, they had better have accepted her or else he'd come and beat them to a bloody pulp. It had been her goal since she was young to attend that school and by gods no one, not even that stuck up school itself, had the right to deny Rukia's ambition.

But there was one thing Renji wasn't pleased about besides his view of Da Vinci being filled with pompous rich or intellectual snobby morons. It was bad enough he wouldn't be with the Kuchiki to protect her—let's face it, she sticks out like a sore thumb. She's bound to draw some unwanted attention—but he wouldn't even be able to see her period!

For the accursed school, Da Vinci Academy, was in Italy.

Italy people! They were currently in Japan. Do you see the dilemma here folks?

And it was this fact that he couldn't help but have more detestation for the school. It was taking his best friend away from him. From childhood, he and Rukia had never been apart like this. They were a duo; a pair. Anyone who even attempted to get between them would suffer dire consequences.

He was tempted to say no. To tell her to forget about that stupid school and stay here with him. She could get into any university here in Japan and still live with him. She didn't have to go to the best art school in order to pursue a career in art.

But then he would look at her excited face and the desire to make her stay would be pushed back down. He couldn't do that to her. Rukia didn't like to be in some cage. She wanted to be free. She wanted to be able to make her own choices. She was just stubborn like that.

What right did he have to try and cage her like some animal?

None. None whatsoever, he concluded.

Renji's brown eyed gaze turned to look at his jumping friend solemnly. However, his gaze wasn't on her cheerful face, but on her left leg. If you look closely enough, you would see while she was jumping, that her right leg was doing more of the work. It wasn't just when she was jumping, but when she walked as well.

She limped slightly.

Of course, no one really noticed it. It was hard to tell especially since she wore baggy pants all the time even back in high school. Unless you had a sharp eye or already knew what you were looking for, you would never realize Rukia had a limp in her left leg.

She was very good at hiding it.

Although she told him constantly that she didn't care or mind the limp, he knew better. Sure, she had accepted her limp, but not the chronic pain she got with it. He saw it, when she paused in her steps from time to time or if her face would converse into an expression of pain before going back to being normal, that it did indeed bother her. She had to take painkillers constantly in order to dull the pain.

Renji suspected she had become an addict for them a long time ago. Still, when he had confronted her about it, she would reply that if she was an addict, it wasn't interfering with her lifestyle therefore it wasn't a problem.

And she was right, he admitted begrudgingly. Even if she got hyped up on painkillers from time to time, Rukia hadn't allowed it to mess up her studies or lifestyle. She was still the same person without much of a personality change.

Another thing he wasn't comfortable with: Rukia being in another country possibly getting hyped up on painkillers.

Just because they weren't interfering with her lifestyle didn't mean she didn't need to cut back on them.

A rough poking on his forehead made him come out of his musings.

"Oi! Stop spacing out and celebrate with me" Rukia told him with a stern expression. "You're looking at the new student of Da Vinci Academy. You should be basking in my presence right now" she said with an annoyed expression.

Renji glared at her and slapped her hand away in irritation. There she goes again being full of herself.

"You narcissist! Get over yourself" he told her.

"What was that?!" she screeched and pounced on the taller male with vengeance. Who was that moron calling a narcissist?!

"Ow! Get off me crazy woman!" And thus started a brawl between the two best friends.

Renji would miss this, he thought sadly. He didn't want her to get hurt. He wanted to keep Rukia safe. He wanted to protect her from all the bad things in the world. Rukia was very important to him after all. Nonetheless, even though it would hurt him, he knew that this is what she wanted more than anything.

And who was it of him to stop her?

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"Ah!" Rukia let out a sigh in bliss as she laid back on her bed. A mug of hot chocolate was on her bedside table while a book was on her stomach. She wore grey sweatpants and a purple tank top for bed with white ankle socks. Her normally let down hair was in a low ponytail as she picked up her book to resume reading.

Nevertheless, her mind was on anything but the written text.

"I can't believe I actually made it" she murmured to herself in astonishment. Even now, it seemed so surreal that she was actually going to Da Vinci Academy. It was like a dream.

Still, she supposed there were downsides to going to Italy. Not only would she be surrounded by complete strangers—she was always shy with new people sadly, a trait Renji said made her cute—but she wouldn't have Renji with her anymore and that pained her. Renji was her best friend and possibly the only one to ever put up with her craziness. They were like peanut butter and jelly; toothpaste and toothbrush; macaroni and cheese. You get the picture.

But then again, he seemed okay with her going. And she could always call him, Rukia reminded herself to stay on the positive side. An evil grin came upon her face; oh yeah, she could call him at three in the morning to just say hi. That would seriously annoy him.

Rukia then put down her book and grabbed a container on her nightstand. Unscrewing the top, she poured out two white pills and plopped them in her mouth. As she did so, her eyes caught a small picture of a woman. The woman was very beautiful and an exact replica of Rukia. Although, there were some differences in them. The biggest being the woman's soft smile upon her gentle face. This woman, even just by looking at her, was definitely not as brash and energetic as Rukia. No, she was more gentle and calm.

The Kuchiki smiled fondly at the photo. Even when she was a child, Rukia would find her features softening at the sight of this woman.

"Hey mom," Rukia greeted. "I made it like I promised. Hope you're proud of me" Rukia said with a gentle face.

"I love you" Rukia told her just as she always did. A yawn then escaped her lips and she was surprised to find that it was near eleven at night. Getting under the covers, the Kuchiki turned off the light, the last thing her seeing was her mother's smile.

Oh if only she knew. If only Rukia Kuchiki knew of what would happen in the future. Oh how her life will change; perhaps if she had seen what would happen when she was accepted into Da Vinci, maybe she would've backed out.

But then again, she can't see. Because if she did, we really wouldn't have our story now would we?

And thus Fate takes its course on our unknowing artist.


Karin: There you go. Hope you liked the first chapter! Please leave a review on the way out. I would really appreciate it if you could.

Anyway, this story is dedicated to the HitsuRuki army and I hope—if any of the members actually reads this story—that they will like this story. I hope to join you guys someday if that's okay.

So yeah, I'll definitely be doing a dark Hitsugaya in this so just letting you guys know. Come on, you know you love a dark and possessive Hitsugaya (nudges you while grinning). On a side note, Renji only thinks of Rukia as a sister so just in case anyone got the crush vibe; they're just really close as siblings. Just wanted to clear that up for anyone.

See ya Next time!