Author's Note
1. Some of the things in this story are different from the actual Bleach story, as you will find out when you get farther into the story.
2. I do NOT own Bleach or any part of it. Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo. If I did own Bleach, the storyline definitely would not be half as good, and I would've killed off half the characters, as well as adding some romance to the story.

1/26
*Yawn* Awakening from the depths of his foggy slumber, Ichigo Kurosaki stumbled over to his desk and slammed his hand down onto the alarm clock to stop the incessant beeping. Rubbing his tired eyes, he stumbled to his wardrobe, got dressed, grabbed some breakfast, and departed for his first class sometime later. He walked towards the spot where Rukia and her friends usually hung out in the morning, but not finding her there, he continued on, opening the door to the second floor.
He figured he'd hang out with Inoue, as she was one of his best friends. As Ichigo ventured towards Orihime, he found that she was with Hisagi.
'No surprise there,' Ichigo thought. 'After all, she does like him, and more than that, they're good friends.'
Ichigo pondered whether or not to make things awkward, but decided against it, remembering that Orihime had told him to stay out of her love life. The reason being, that even though Hisagi knew how Inoue felt about him, he (not to mention everyone else involved) was unsure as to whether as to whether he liked her or not. Either way, they'd still be friends.
Approaching Orihime, he talked to her about the exam they were about to take.
"So did you study?" asked Orihime.
"Well ya . . . but then I watched a movie." Ichigo answered.
"Nice." Orihime smirked.
The conversation continued on until the late bell for class was about to ring and they had to go their separate ways. Inoue and Hisagi hugged goodbye, which caused Ichigo to grin, thinking how cute they were together, and how sweet it was that they always said goodbye with a hug. Fortunately, Ichigo and Orihime had the same class together every morning, so they could continue their conversation until the morning announcements began blaring out over the school.

After the exam, there was a 10 minute break before you were expected to arrive at your next class. Ichigo left class in a hurry to seek out Rukia. As they approached each other, Ichigo gave a shy smile to Rukia, which was returned by a shy smile on her part as well. Walking up to her, he slipped his hand gently into hers, lacing their fingers together, and giving her hand a squeeze. They made conversation on the way to Rukia's next class. As they said goodbye, they embraced each other in a hug.
"I love you," Ichigo whispered.
"I love you too," Rukia happily replied.
After this exchange, Ichigo walked back to his first period class, to find Hisagi waiting outside for Orihime, who was still inside. Orihime soon came out, and Hisagi and Ichigo proceeded to walking her to her next class. They joined up with Isane on the way.
"Now you have three people walking you to class," joked Ichigo. "Nothing can get past us."
"Unless of course, someone comes at me from the side that no one is guarding," replied Orihime.
Ichigo rolled his eyes. Isane soon departed for her class, but Kurosaki, as well as Hisagi, continued to walk with Inoue.
"So, Ichigo, what'd you do to your hand there, huh?" Hisagi pried.
Ichigo's hand had several bandages on it, as he had been martial arts training; and when he woke up a few days ago, his wounds were inflamed and swollen. He explained this to his friends, who nodded. Somehow they got on the top of jujitsu techniques, and Ichigo explained to them the one he currently knew best.
"You do this when they throw a right punch. First, you throw up your left block to stop the punch. Then with your right hand, you make an eagle beak by sticking out your index or middle knuckle slightly. Jab them in the nose with this, and then rip your eagle beak fist down their chest. This hurts a lot more than you might think.
"Next, you hit them in the crotch with your ridge hand, which is where you move your thumb aside and hit with the lowest knuckle on your index finger in a karate chop like fashion.
"After that, you move your left arm, which you had maintained the block with up to their shoulder and push hard while grabbing the back of their knee with your right hand," Ichigo explained.
He then explained a jujitsu technique he once used consisting of putting one leg in back of theirs and driving them backwards, preferably with a chop to the neck. From there, they'd fall backwards over your leg.
"Hey, I'd probably fall for it!" smiled Orihime.
They all hugged, and departed for their next class, which was only 15 minutes, due to the fact that the time taken for the exam was subtracted from the length of the next period.
Not much happened in that 15 minutes, as it mostly consisted of people listening to music. Following suite, Ichigo whipped out his mp3 player and proceeded to rock out to Melodic Death Metal. After class was dismissed, Ichigo went to lunch. Thankfully, today he had lunch with Rukia, his girlfriend.
December 4th had been the day of boldness on Ichigo's part, as that was the day he asked Rukia out. Fortunately for him, she had said "yes". As they walked down the hallway together, now a couple, it was almost agonizing not to reach out and grab Rukia's hand, but Ichigo did not want to run the risk of taking things too fast. Since that day was a Friday, the two lovers were separated by a long weekend. When they saw each other again that Monday, they greeted each other with a long hug, and as he walked her to class, he grabbed her hand.
Their first kiss together was a beautiful thing. Rukia had wanted it to be memorable, so Ichigo let her pick the time and place. Soon after, they were finally alone together. Right as they were about to kiss, however, they heard footsteps coming closer. Rukia held a finger to her lips, mouthing 'Be Quiet Ichigo.' When the footsteps finally subsided, Rukia leaned in and kissed Ichigo fully on the lips for about half a second. It was the best thing Ichigo had felt in his life. Afterwards was when he first learned what "ecstasy" was. First, he felt nothing, but then his heart began to beat faster and faster, until he could no longer control the pace. His hands began to shake visibly, and his knees went weak. Soon even his legs were shaking. In fact, before long, Ichigo's whole body was shaking in pure ecstasy. He went to Rukia, who was in the same state, and showed her what he felt. It was a very happy day for the adorable couple. The next few times they kissed, Ichigo felt ecstasy, but it was gradually growing weaker, and soon subsided.
Then, a few weeks or happiness and secret sharing later, something went terribly wrong. Rukia and Ichigo had been separated for a number of weeks due to Christmas break. The Saturday before he was to get back to school, however, he found himself hopelessly daydreaming. But not about Rukia. About Orihime, one of his best friends. They had gradually been growing closer. Ichigo struggled with himself in an internal battle. Did he like Orihime? Did he feel more towards her than the feelings one friend feels towards another? This greatly perplexed him, but what disturbed him more, was he could not answer the question.
Thursday night, he called up his best friend Renji Abarai and told him about the internal conflict he had been having.
"Every time I see her, I want to make her laugh and smile. I always want to spend more time with her, and it makes me sad when we say goodbye. And more than that, I feel fondness towards her that is more than a friend."
Renji concluded that Ichigo did, in fact, like Orihime, but Ichigo didn't accept it. What was terrible though, was that at one point in the conversation, he found himself thinking: 'Oh my gosh, Orihime is so cute.' He told this to Renji, convincing him further that he liked Inoue. Sometime later, the friends hung up, and Ichigo headed towards school for an event that both he and Rukia were in together.
That night Rukia broke up with him, telling him she needed some time to think about things. She handed back the ring he had given her for their one month anniversary, it was a replacement for the first one he had given her on their anniversary, which she had lost. She seemed to like the second one better, which Ichigo had no qualms about.
"We'll still be friends, right?" Ichigo asked. Rukia nodded.
"Give me a hug," Ichigo pleaded.
Ichigo stepped forward, giving her a big hug. After their embrace, Rukia began to walk away. Ichigo followed, and as she was almost out the door, he called out her name. She turned halfway.
"I love you," Ichigo said.
He could swear he heard Rukia whisper "I love you too", but before he could be sure, she tuned and left the auditorium. Feeling numb, he called Renji up to tell him what had happened. He was in denial of the break up for the next few hours, and then, ultimately, he felt sorrow. It was a terrible sorrow, eating away all his emotions, leaving a huge gaping hole in his chest. Waking the following morning, Ichigo was a wreck. He cried and cried, the most he remembered crying in years.
"She was my everything,' Ichigo realized. 'Without her, I am nothing but a shell of my former self.' This only brought more tears, and as they fell from his face, pain, sadness, and sorrow hit with the force of 1,000 tons. That was when he broke. He just couldn't stand it anymore.
'I'm going back to bed,' Ichigo decided. After all, the event didn't start for another few hours. And with that decision, he cried himself to sleep.

Walking to lunch, Ichigo sat down at the table Rukia sat at, waiting for her. As she came, she announced they were going downstairs. That way she could hang out with all of her friends, as they sat outside of the lower level cafeteria. Following her down the stairs, he grasped her hand in his and told her he loved her.
"I love you too," she replied cutely and cheerfully, taking him back to the first time they had said I love you . . .

They had been sitting together at lunch and he had been talking to her best friend, who he had told he was in love with Rukia.
"So when do you think I should tell her?"
Ichigo was startled, as Rukia said: "Tell me what? Oh, wait . . . let me guess. What you want to tell me is 'I love you'."
"Well then it looks like I'll have to tell you at some point today now," Ichigo said with a grin. Silence ensued for a few seconds. Then Rukia turned to Ichigo.
"I love you, Ichigo."
Ichigo wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear.
"I love you too, Rukia."

Sitting with Rukia, Ichigo could feel her hand warm in his. It felt good. Her hand was so welcoming, so full of love. Scooting closer, he pressed his body against hers, putting his head on her shoulder. He'd had so many good times with her. But there had been some bad times too . . .

After waking up from his sorrowful slumber, Ichigo realized now that he was single and could think about his feelings towards Orihime. But not now. He was too confused now. Maybe later in the day. As the sun begins to set and the day grows old, Ichigo comes to a realization. He is in love with two girls.
Monday comes and he decides to confess to Inoue. The response was crushing. She liked him as a friend. Just a friend. But she is a great friend nonetheless.
Later that day Ichigo receives a note from Rukia. It reads: Do you still love me?
Ichigo wrote in reply : Hell ya! Every time I see you I melt inside. Later on he passed he a note. It read like this:
Ichigo: Do you still love me?
Rukia: Of course I do. I love you forever, remember?
Ichigo: So are you finished thinking about things?
Rukia: Asking if you still loved me was my way of asking you back out.
Ichigo: So we're a couple again?
Rukia caught Ichigo's eye and nodded with a smile. They continued passing notes, with Ichigo telling her how crushed he'd been when she'd broken up with him, the pain and sorrow he'd felt. At a later point, he wrote: So do you still want to make out with me? The answer came: Yes PLZ(;. Ichigo shot his eyebrows up and bit his tongue as his mouth formed an insane smile. He proceeded to asking her if she wanted her ring back, and got the same response.
They were dating again. Ichigo had but one problem. Namely: Orihime Inoue. His feelings for her. But the weirdest thing happened. As he searched inside himself to confront his feelings, he couldn't find them. They were gone. Ichigo felt elated. This day couldn't have gone better.

The period after lunch on every other day was the period he and Rukia had together. They always looked at each other, flirting across the distance that separated them. They would mouth 'I love you' to each other, Ichigo would wink at her, they'd make faces, and last but not least they'd pass notes. Right after they mouthed 'I love you', Ichigo got Rukia's attention and mouthed 'I love you more.' This was something they used to say to each other when they first started dating.
He passed a note to her saying:
I think we've established that I love you more. But seriously, on the scale of 1-10, I love you at a 10. When she passed him her reply, however, the teacher saw it, and made Ichigo give him the note before Ichigo even had time to read it. The teacher did not read it, and gave it back to them when he let the class have some time at the end of the period to talk.

"I'm a 9" was what Rukia had written on the sheet of paper as her reply. Ichigo cracked a smile, and walked over to Rukia, who was unresponsive. Apparently she was mad about getting the note taken away, and acted very "icky" (in her own words) towards everyone. Reading between the lines, Ichigo left her alone for the remainder of the period. He conversed with his best friend Renji, who was also in the same class, instead.

When Ichigo tried walking Rukia to her class, she was still rather angry. She told him to go to class, and wouldn't hold his hand. She didn't seem to be in a mood to argue with him, so he did as he was told. He wouldn't be alone anyway, because Renji walked the same way as Ichigo did, so they walked to Renji's class together. Renji asked him why he wasn't with Rukia, walking her to class. Ichigo told him about how she was mad and everything.
"I bet you enjoyed him taking that note away, didn't you Renji?" Ichigo smirked. "Yeah, but I would've enjoyed it more if he had read it out loud."
"Why is that? I showed you what it said," Ichigo reasoned. " . . . And then you took it."
"What? No I didn't! What is this 'note' you speak of?"
"C'mon Renji, don't be dumb."
"What, you're dumb? I know. Oh SNAP!"
"Why, yes, I realize you are dumb Renji."
After talking to Renji, Ichigo went up a floor to where he would wait out the rest of his school day in his last period classroom. Hopefully he wouldn't fall asleep, as the teacher was notorious for pouring water down the back of your neck if she caught you sleeping in her class. Quite frankly, Ichigo wasn't very much in the mood to have water poured down the back of his neck. Nonetheless, it didn't really matter what Ichigo wanted. It was more a question of what his body needed. And that was sleep. Ichigo was unable to pay attention, and slowly felt his eyelids closing and his head tilting back. He caught himself before he could fall asleep, and his fight with sleep continued through the rest of the period.
After class, Ichigo went outside to hang out with his friends at one of the pillars outside of school, as he did every day. Today he talked to Hisagi. When they said farewell, Ichigo called after him.
"Don't study too hard! Or at all! Go watch a movie!"
In going home that day, Ichigo reflected on the movie he had watched the night before. In it, there was a necklace, and if you were in love with the person who put the necklace on you, it would glow a bright red. He began to wonder . . . what if such a necklace existed?
If Rukia put it on him, he knew it would glow red. But what about Orihime? What about her? What if she put the necklace on him?
'Damn it,' Ichigo thought. 'I'm indecisive again.'
'Now I'm unsure as to whether I like Inoue again.'
Ichigo remembered how when he and Rukia got back together his feelings for Orihime had suddenly vanished. Now he realized that they had never left him. He had just been so happy to be back with Rukia, and so overwhelmed with his love for her, it had buried the emotions he had been feeling for Inoue. And now . . . his emotions for Inoue had resurfaced.
Feeling confused, Ichigo went to bed, drifting in and out of consciousness through the restless hours of the night.

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