Past, Present, Future

I don't wanna keep harping on about this, but this is my first fic that I've posted. I've written others that have been tossed to the dark confines of my mind, only dredged up everynow and again when I get bored and go through all the stories I've ever written (and the sad thing with those stories, is that I have about 5 originals, all about the same thing. I have trouble picking where the original that I want to write is going to go).

Anyway. This is not a place for originality.
This is a place for "borrowing" characters and places, and maybe even storylines.

Reviews are welcome.
Or not.
But if i get positive reviews, I will stay positive about my writing, and not give it up for a hopeless cause.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, or any of the characters in this story. Which is probably a good thing. Because Tite Kubo is just so much better than I am at writing it. Obviously. (Although, if I had control, there would definitely be more loving between the characters...)
Warnings: Not much in this one. There will be more to warn about in future chapters, however.


"Rukia! What's going on?" Renji demanded as he caught up with small girl as she walked through the hall.

Without looking at him, Rukia continued her brisk pace forward. "I told you, I've been adopted into the Kuchiki family. Now, if you don't mind, I'm late for class. And you'll be late too."

Renji flung out an arm to grasp her slender shoulder and to make her stop and look at him. "I don't give a damn about class. Why won't you just talk to me about this?"

"What is there to talk about, Renji? I've been adopted into nobility, my surname is now Kuchiki, and I have to go to class because I have an important family name to uphold!" she replied angrily, trying to snatch possession of her shoulder back so that she could continue forward. But the taller man just grabbed her other shoulder with his free hand and turned her so they were looking squarely at one another.

"It doesn't mean you have to ignore me, though," he said quietly, his brow furrowed with obvious confusion and sadness.

Rukia's eyes dropped, and her frame slumped in Renji's grasp. "I'm sorry, Renji, but I don't have time for this anymore. There is a lot of pressure on me now to do well. I've been handed a position in one of the thirteen Court Guard Squads, I can't just ignore that. I need to prove that I deserve it. I need to prove that the decision to adopt me into one of the most important and powerful families was not for nothing. I need to focus on school; I just don't have time for this."

"You don't have time... for this?" Renji repeated hollowly.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Rukia tried to control her breathing. "No. I'm sorry. I really am."

And with that, the small raven-haired girl slid from the tall red-head's hold and continued her previous path towards class, not looking back at Renji's slumped shoulders and look of despair and confusion still etched onto his face.

**

Rukia opened her eyes slowly, the guilt in her stomach making her feel sick. It had been so long since that day in the hall between classes. It had been so long since she had even thought about it. Did Renji still think about it? Why was she dreaming about such a thing?

She wrapped her slender arms around her body, in an attempt to hug herself. She and Renji had never officially been together. They had always just been really good friends, just trying to get by and survive in the harsh world of one of the poorest Rukongai districts. As they had gotten older, before they had gone to the Academy, they had had 'relations' with one another. But they had never considered themselves to be together.

Looking back now, Rukia realised that even though they had never officially dated, that was the day she had broken up with Renji. And if she had of seen his face when she turned away from him then, she would have realised how much it broke his heart.

Squeezing her eyes shut, similar to when she had done it all those years ago, Rukia tried to hold back the tears that threatened to spill out. Whoever said that it was easy for her to turn her back on him? He was her best friend, she had loved him too! But her brother had said that she needed to quit all ties to her less than respectful past. And that meant Renji had to be the first to go. Byakuya had said that if she refused to accept these conditions, that she would be effectively refusing her new place in the family, and she would be cast back out onto the streets, never allowed to return to the Soul Reaper Academy again.

She would have been a fool to turn down such an opportunity to escape the poverty she had grown up in, to lose everything she had gained since coming to the Academy. She had assumed that Renji would realise that, that one day he would forgive her. She had never actually found out if he did forgive her or not; he never acted like he did.

Nearby, the buzzing of an alarm clock when off, and Rukia started at the sound. Was it time to get up already?

The sound snapped off with a harsh click of a button that has been beaten too many times, and a few seconds later the door of the cupboard Rukia was occupying as her bedroom was flung open. A bleary faced Ichigo stood silhouetted in the frame as he searched for his school uniform, and Rukia quickly wiped the tears from her face in case the boy noticed. Chances were good that he wouldn't notice, seeing as mornings were definitely not his thing, but she didn't want to risk any taunting from the immature brat.

"Ichigo!" she snapped, sitting up and clutching the sheet to her chest. It was summer and too hot to wear proper pyjamas, so Rukia had taken to wearing a small singlet and her underpants to bed. As a result of the heat, Ichigo was also sleeping in less clothing, currently wearing only his boxers as he stared at Rukia blankly.

"I'm just looking for my uniform so I can go have a shower," he mumbled.

"Well, you don't normally get your uniform before showering, so why are you doing it now?" she demanded, subtly checking that the sheet covered any parts that may be exposed.

"What? Oh, I dunno. I just am. Shut up, will ya?" he grumbled before slamming the door shut.

Ichigo cursed himself as he entered the bathroom. Rukia was right; he always went right to the shower when getting up, then putting on his uniform after he had gotten back to his room. Why on earth did he go straight to the closet? Was he so out of it in the mornings that he had forgotten had not yet showered?

As the warm water hit his head and ran through his orange hair and down his lean back, something else hit him. A dream he had had just before waking... a dream that had been interrupted by the buzzing of the alarm.

Ichigo snapped his eyes open before realising his head was directly under the stream of water coming from the shower head, his eyes filling with it and causing them to sting slightly from the onslaught. Stepping back and furiously rubbing at his eyes, Ichigo tried to remember the dream. Rukia had been there, this much he could remember. His subconscious must have wanted to check on her, so without knowing what he was doing, he had gone to the closet first.

But what had the dream been about? Had she been in some kind of trouble, and that was why he had felt the subconscious need to check on her. Her powers were slowly returning day by day, but she was still nowhere near her previous powers, so it can't have been an uncommon dream to have.

After a few minutes had passed, and his hair was now freshly washed, Ichigo concluded that he was going to remember nothing more about the dream, other than that it had Rukia in it. Shutting off the water and wrapping a towel loosely around his waist, Ichigo stepped from the bathroom and back into his bedroom.

Rukia was already dressed in her uniform when Ichigo entered the room, and was in the process of brushing her hair. "I was starting to think you had drowned in there, you were taking so long," she joked.

"Ha ha, very funny," Ichigo replied dryly.

Rukia turned to look at the tall boy, intending to throw some sort of quip back at him, but found she had little to say to him once she had already opened her mouth. Shutting it quickly, she merely looked at him as he reached into the closet to grab out his uniform.

She couldn't help but notice just how much the boy was filling out, muscle wise. His new active lifestyle of fighting, running, and wielding his Zanpaktou had caused his body to tone up. And while there were random silver scars etched in his body from past fights, they merely added to his aura of mystery and danger. His hair was getting longer too; Rukia made a mental note to tell him he should get it cut soon. Although, it didn't look too bad this longer length...

The small girl sitting on the bed gave her head a little shake. She was not just thinking that Ichigo was looking good. It wasn't as if the boy held any attraction for her; she was a mature woman, what interest could she have in an immature adolescent male like Ichigo?

However, as Ichigo grumbled and threw clothes to the floor, Rukia found herself experiencing a typical 'mature woman' reaction as she watched him. It was hard to not notice the fact that there was a half naked male in the room, especially when his body was as nice as this. She noticed his towel hanging loosely about his hips, maybe even beginning to loosen even more and begin to slip as he searched for his uniform. She noticed how his shoulders were broader than they had been when she first met him, and how he was probably even slightly taller; he was still growing after all.

While Rukia was busy noticing things she may have overlooked otherwise, Ichigo found his pants, the last item he was searching for. Grabbing a new pair of boxers from the draw, Ichigo slipped into them, throwing off his towel once he had them on.

As he pulled on his pants, he noticed Rukia staring into nothing. So, she was day dreaming again, he sighed to himself. "Rukia," he called, but got no answer from her. "Rukia!"

"Huh?"

"What are you doing?" he asked as he pulled his white shirt on.

"Oh, ah, nothing." A slight blush crept into her cheeks as she resumed brushing her hair.

"Well... okay, then," Ichigo replied, not sounding convinced. Grabbing the discarded towel, he swiped at his hair roughly. "I'm going to get breakfast. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Okay," she answered, sounding strangely distracted.

**

"Lieutenant!"

"Sir!"

"I would like it if you joined us for dinner, this evening."

Renji eyed off his captain suspiciously. "Sir?"

"I know you and Rukia were good friends growing up, and I think it would be nice if you came to eat with us on the anniversary of her adoption."

Renji clenched his fists. He wanted to say no, that he had better things to do than to eat dinner with self-obsessed nobility such as them. But he couldn't say no to a request from his captain. "That would be good, sir," he replied instead.

Even though most other people would have smiled, Byakuya did not. "Very well. See you at seven then."

As Renji watched his captain leave, his eyes narrowed in obvious distaste towards the noble. From the moment he first met him, Renji never trusted Byakuya Kuchiki. He had stolen the only family Renji had left, and turned them against him. It had been years since Rukia had spoken to him in the hall of the Academy, when she had effectively told him they couldn't see each other anymore.

That was the day Renji swore he would be better than Kuchiki. He had to, in order to win Rukia back.

He and Rukia progressed through the thirteen Court Guard Squads after graduation, Renji's good grades enabling him a position in one of them, and Rukia's recent family connections enabling her position. Renji's determination to excel over Kuchiki had him training harder than anyone else, and Renji even managed Bankai, something only Soul Reapers wanting to become a captain bothered with.

Soon enough, Renji was chosen to be Lieutenant of Squad 6, underneath Kuchiki. And while he grumbled about it at first, he then realised what a golden opportunity it was to surpass the man he held a grudge against.

Renji had lost count of the years since Rukia had been adopted, of how long he had been attempting to be better than her 'older brother'. It must have been something big though, for the captain to invite his lieutenant. Personally, Renji didn't think he could sit in the same room as Rukia, ignoring all they once had, ignoring all that he ever felt for her. But you don't ever turn down a captain, let alone your own.

**

Renji opened his eyes and quickly threw the sheet over his face to stop the light from flooding his sight too much. Why was he dreaming about that night at dinner? He remembered it had been one of the most awkward things he had ever attended, and later swore that Kuchiki had done it on purpose.

Sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, he glanced around the small room he was currently occupying. He was in a gigai in the back of Urahara Shoten. And he needed to piss like he had been asleep for months, not hours.

Throwing back the sheet and locating his pants (it was so hot in the World of the Living that he had been sleeping naked), he pulled them on, but didn't bother doing them up; he was only going to undo them again in a few seconds.

After he had relieved himself, he wandered towards the front of the shop, where he could hear Tessai arguing with Uraru and Jinta, and Urahara humming to himself as he sorted through some stock. Renji felt bad that he must have slept in; he didn't want to impose on the ex soul reaper, and tried to help as much as possible.

Sliding open the door separating shop from abode, all eyes snapped to Renji.

"Ah, Mr Abarai, good to see you're finally up," Urahara casually remarked. "But you hardly look presentable to be standing in the shop," he continued, commenting on the fact Renji had no shirt and his hair was hanging about his face.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise it would be a problem," he blushed.

"Well it is, especially when we have little girls here." A smile was beginning to creep over Urahara's face, and Renji decided the less he was around here today, the better.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that I was going to head out, today. So... I'll just go get ready, and then I'll be outta your hair."

Urahara chuckled. "Fine. I guess we'll be seeing you in time for dinner, Mr Moocher?"

Renji cringed inwardly. He knew they were only having a little fun, but it was at his expense. And any fun at his expense, the lieutenant did not see as fun. "I'm not sure. Probably not."

"Oh?" Urahara raised an eyebrow, and the three behind him laughed.

Renji slid the door shut again, and walked back to his room. Locating a shirt, he wondered what the hell he was actually going to do today.


Wow.
My first story. Well, not really. But it's the first one I've put up.

Not much happens in this chapter, I know. It's more for setting the scene in later chappies.

Would be great if you could me know how I'm going.
What should I do better?
Should I keep going at all?

If you're going to review because you have negative criticism, that's fine. It helps me be better.
Just don't be mean about it, okay? I have a small, fragile ego, that's easily shattered by my insecurities.