(A/N) This is not my first story. I came up with many ideas for a new story about Ichigo and Rukia during long car rides, and all I needed to do was piece them together. I have a lot in mind for this story and I hope it is successful and catches the interest of many readers.
I am a sophomore, so don't freak out if I use a lot of slang… Hehe. In this story, the characters go to Karakura High School, but it is totally different than what it looks like in the series. School colors are gray and red. No uniforms. Mascots are lions because that animal just seems so strong.
Rukia's hair is different in this story. It is longer than in the series, stopping just above her elbows. Her bang is still where it is. Orihime's bangs are clipped to each side, like when she was in Hueco Mundo, but the rest of her hair is a bit curled at the ends, much like the hair she wears during the 2-year time skip in the manga.
None of the Espada have their usual tattoos except for Grimmjow, who only has the tattoo of the number 6 on his back.
This is the first chapter of an unnamed story, and I will probably come up with the name for it when I'm done writing this chapter.
Anything with a * by it will be explained at the end of each chapter.
Please excuse any mistakes. Thanks in advance!
Sorry if my writing sucks.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Blue's Clues, or their characters.
Chapter 1 – Spilled Milk
Wednesday, September 4th – Karakura High School – 12:15 PM – Lunch Period
"Kurosaki-kun, over here!" A timid voice called from a crowded lunch table. She waved to the boy whose back was turned as she collected her burnt-orange hair in one hand, pulling it to the side and keeping it from blowing into Ulquiorra's face.
Tatsuki nudged her best friend, scooping a spoonful of mixed fruits into her mouth. "I don't think he heard you, Hime."
"Hey, Arisawa!" Grimmjow pointed his fork at the girl, "Don't encourage her to open her big mouth! She'll shatter one of my ear drums!"
This demand caused a boy with a mop of fiery-red hair to whip around and face him. "Don't talk to my girl like that, asshole!" growled Renji, wrapping a protective arm around Tatsuki. "I'll kick your ass if I hear it again!"
"I can kick your ass in seconds, shit head!" barked back Grimmjow, a smirk playing at his lips.
Renji opened his big mouth, ready to retort the blue-haired bastard when Neliel brought her fist down to the table and demanded they both stop acting like children. "You two are like cats and dogs!" she yelled angrily. She turned to Grimmjow, placing her hand over his, her request done in a soft, pleasant voice. "Please, stop fighting with Renji. You two are friends."
He rolled his eyes and sighed, nodding in agreement with his girlfriend. "Alright, alright. Whatever."
Ichigo finally finished his conversation with Senna Shinenju of the Karakura cheerleaders and took a seat next to Grimmjow before giving him a brofist. "Hey guys," he greeted with a scowl. "Sorry I'm late-Shinenju tried to invite me to some dumb game she's cheering at, but I could care less."
Orihime smiled. "It's fine. Jaegerjaquez-kun stopped me from yelling for you multiple times!" She squirted ketchup onto her chocolate bar and started snacking on it hungrily. "I was beginning to get worried you lost your hearing," she half-joked.
Grimmjow rested his head on the table. "Damn, she keeps botherin' you to go watch her do shit." He knew very well that Ichigo hated Senna. A wicked smile replaced his smirk as he lifted his head slightly to face his best friend. "Unless she asks if you wanna see her strip. Wouldn't you like that, big boy?" he sniggered.
"Shut the hell up, Grimmjow." An angry Ichigo's scowl grew deeper as he impaled his salad with force, bending and nearly breaking the plastic fork in his hand. "She constantly invites me to events that she's in and I'm getting sick of it. It's been this way since junior high! I would've gotten here sooner if she hadn't blocked my way every time I tried to leave!"
"Man, can't she take rejection? She acts like she's your girlfriend…" Renji stated in a bored manner.
Grimmjow smirked. "The only girlfriend Carrot-Top here's ever had was Arisawa, the bitch," he replied casually as he sipped his juice. Neliel scowled and stepped on her boyfriend's foot hard, letting him know that she still did not approve of his bickering with Renji and Tatsuki, and she knew she finally got her message across when he winced in pain.
"Hey! That was only for 3 days, and it was in 7th grade!" Tatsuki shouted back. "And we didn't even like each other! You assholes told me to give him a chance, and you told him to give me a chance! Dumbest joke ever."
"Yeah, the most awkward 3 days of my life," sighed Ichigo, his scowl still apparent. "What I don't get is why she keeps trying to talk to me. Girls are supposed to fear me, not like me." What he said was true—Ichigo's trademark scowl scared off most of the student body, and those who he'd known well since childhood, those he liked, or those who he'd gotten along with were sitting with him at their usual lunch table.
The group continued to eat lunch together and began to share their first day as seniors, Ichigo desperately wanting to forget about Senna. Suddenly, he felt something cold and wet penetrate the fabric of his sneakers and immediately looked underneath the table to see his feet swimming in chocolate milk, turning around to angrily face the culprit who spilled it.
A petite girl calmly squatted down and soaked up the milk she accidentally spilled as if nothing was wrong. Unfortunately, Ichigo rose out of his chair and towered over her in an attempt to scare her into never crossing his path again.
"Hey!" He put on the most intimidating scowl he had to match his angry growl. His friends each raised an eyebrow, looking over from across the table to see what was going on.
The girl didn't look up; she didn't even flinch. She ignored him and continued to clean up the mess she made, intending to leave as soon as the floor was dry.
Ichigo's brows furrowed. "I'm talking to you, midget! Answer me!" He gripped his chair, his nails beginning to dent the metal back of it.
She heard him, but she refused to face him. "Gomen," she apologized lowly, her focus still on getting every drip of milk soaked up.
Ichigo was a tall guy, so from all the way down there, her apology was barely audible. Assuming she was defying him, he raised his voice, drawing attention from some students from other tables. "What the hell did you say to me? Do you know how wet and uncomfortable my shoes feel!"
The girl rose slowly, the look on her pale face easily expressing anger. She crushed dried and soaked napkins in the palms of her hands down her sides as her frown grew, and she looked him straight in the eye. "I SAID SORRY, DUMBASS!"
The tone in her voice had no trace of fear in it, and it left everyone at the table, including Ichigo, speechless with their eyes wide. Senna Shinenju ran to the scene from her usual table, making her appearance loud and attention stealing. "Ichigo! Are you okay? Is this dweeb bothering you? I'll kick her ass for you!" She sugar coated every word and lightly held onto his arm, which he immediately shook off.
Voluminous, raven locks bounced as its owner's neck turned to the left to face large, amber eyes. "You're going to kick someone's ass for accidentally spilling milkon someone else?" she questioned unbelievingly; was this cheerleader serious?
Senna brought her hands to her hips and smirked challengingly. "He's not just someone else," she spat back. "He's captain of the soccer team. He's the fastest guy on track. He's the smartest guy in school. He's the hottest guy in school. He's Ichigo Kurosaki. And, most importantly, he's my boyfriend, so BACK OFF, bitch!" She brought her fist back and clenched it as tight as she could before swinging at the short girl.
She didn't move an inch. Her violet eyes perceived the attack in slow motion, and before Senna's fist could come in contact with her skin, she raised an arm and casually pushed Senna's wrist to the left, *directing her fist away from her target with the back of her hand into nothing but air.
Orihime couldn't sit still. Kuchiki-san is so calm and cool! She didn't even blink! The rest of the gang watched the girl unknown to them in interest, Grimmjow and Renji smirking in approval of her.
"H-How did you block my punch?" Senna's lower lip quivered in slight fear. "I-Ichigo, do something about it!" She shook his arm, encouraging and expecting him to fight for her, but all he could do was stare with his mouth hanging somewhere in between shock and amazement.
Rukia folded her arms over her chest, pinning both Ichigo and Senna down with an icy, dead glare. She tapped her foot and waited for an apology, and when she was sure neither of them would offer one, she sighed and reached into the pocket of her blazer.
Pulling out a wad of cash, she fingered past the edges of the green paper until she found 3 twenties. She pulled them out of the bundle and grabbed Ichigo's hand, turning it so its palm faced upward. He raised an eyebrow, unsure of what she was doing, but continued to watch in curiosity.
"Here." She sighed, her scowl still apparent, slapping the bills in his palm and curling his fingers over them. "I'm sorry for ruining your sneakers. Go buy new ones." She proceeded to bend over and pick up her lunch tray from the floor, and as she walked passed Senna, she softened her scowl only slightly. "Sorry for spilling milk on your boyfriend's shoes."
Rukia continued to walk, her stride completely calm with her chin in the air. She set her tray down at an empty lunch table outside of the cafeteria and began to eat what remained of her lunch.
Ichigo suddenly felt guilty. He didn't have to yell at the poor girl. She even gave him sixty dollars to go buy new shoes, and the spilling was an accident. All of it shocked him, especially how she stood up to him and casually redirected Senna's fist- not that Senna was good at fighting in the first place.
He was speechless. He literally had nothing to say. He was kind of embarrassed, actually. He made a big scene about how uncomfortable his shoes were and he ended up getting yelled at and paid money he didn't earn. To save himself, he looked in her direction and opened his mouth to apologize, but instead a low, "she's not my girlfriend!" squeaked out.
Senna broke out of shock and smiled confidently. "Great job, Ichigo! You scared her off!" she cheered. "You're my hero!"
"Get away from me," he grumbled. "Leave me the hell alone, Shinenju. I don't have time to deal with you." He sat in his chair again and started playing with his food, clearly not wanting to talk. He knew he should apologize, but he didn't know how.
Senna had never seen him this way, and it surprised her enough to shut her up and make her leave. Grimmjow eyed his best friend, punching his shoulder jokingly to test his reaction, but he didn't even look up.
What's wrong with you, man? The only time he ever saw Ichigo like this was when someone mentioned his mother, who passed away years ago from illness. What just happened must've hit him hard if he won't even hit Grimmjow back.
Ulquiorra sipped some of his flavored tea and cleared his throat. "I wonder who that trash was," he said.
"Schiffer-kun!" Orihime snapped, "She is not trash! She's a new student!"
Ichigo looked up, curious as to how Orihime knew that girl, but he continued to play with his food and pretend like he didn't care.
"And why are you defending the new trash, Inoue?" Ulquiorra sipped more of his tea, unaffected by the sudden raise in her voice. "New trash should be left alone, or tampered with."
Orihime looked disapprovingly at him. "She just transferred here from Seireitei High School. Her name is Rukia Kuchiki; she had third period with me, and we sat next to each other." She looked towards the exit of the cafeteria and saw Rukia eating alone under a cherry blossom tree, picking out petals from her salad.
Her beautiful indigo eyes saddened at the sight. "She's my partner in history for the rest of the school year, and I'm supposed to go to her house to work on our project after school." She turned to Ichigo and adjusted the pins in her hair. "Kurosaki-kun, I really think you should apologize to Kuchiki-san."
"Yeah, man. That was such a dick-move just now. She gave you friggin' sixty bucks!" Renji commented. Tatsuki nodded in agreement.
"Shut up," was all Ichigo could say, but his friends knew he meant "I know". He still needed to figure out how to apologize.
Neliel coughed. "She sure can handle herself in a fight. Senna is weak, but I thought that maybe because of Rukia-chan's size, she would have the advantage. I guess not."
"That was pretty sick," commented Grimmjow. "Makes me wanna get down with someone."
His girlfriend stepped on the same foot again, giving him a warning look. "Remember what Principal Yamamoto said: NO MORE FIGHTS! You'll get suspended, honey," she reminded him as sweetly as she could.
Ichigo clenched his fist and rubbed his temple. "Look, can we just get off the subject of Shinenju, fighting, and that… that… girl? It's annoying," he requested in a low, irritated manner.
All nodded understandingly, none saying a word related to that subject in fear he would break their now peaceful, quiet lunch.
Sixth Period – 1:50 PM - Home Economics – Mr. Shunsui Kyoraku's Class
Ichigo walked quickly from fifth period to sixth, wanting to avoid being caught by Senna and forced to walk her to class. From across campus, he could hear her asking every senior where he was, and that was all he needed to hear to pick up the pace.
During fifth period, he tried to come up with ways to apologize to Rukia. He thought of catching up to her before she left campus, but that would make it awkward since Orihime would probably already be with her. He thought of leaving an apology note in her locker, but he didn't know which one was hers. He even thought of looking her up in the phonebook to apologize over the phone, but he would just be interrupting her project time with Orihime. How the hell was he supposed to say he was sorry?
Lost in thought, he bumped into someone, knocking them over along with the books in their arms. He shook his head back into reality and scowled angrily at the person on the floor. "Watch where you're going!" he yelled.
His coffee-brown eyes soon met familiar violet ones. His scowl disappeared and he immediately felt guilty. He bent over and reached for her literature textbook in an attempt to help, but had his hand slapped away instead.
"I don't need your help," Rukia spat; it was obvious she recognized him. "I assume you purposely bumped into me so that when I spilled my books, one of the corners of a book would get caught in a loose strand of your clothing and pull it apart, so you can yell at me and I'd end up giving you money to get new threads." She picked up all of her books and stood, straightening out her shirt and walked passed Ichigo to a seat in the back of the room.
Ichigo scowled and marched after her. He slammed his books on the two-seated desk and glared at her. "Look, I didn't ask you to give me sixty dollars for my shoes, midget!"
"And I didn't ask you to yell at me. Oh, and I certainly didn't ask your girlfriend to start shit with me." It was still apparent that she was angry, and she didn't even look at him. She pulled out her agenda and wrote down the activities for the period, uninterested in what he had to say.
He wanted to pull his hair out; he was aware that he was saying the wrong things to her. "Rukia, I—"
"How the hell do you know my name?" She glared at him with such intensity that his throat clumped up and he had nothing to say—again.
The bell rang and Kyoraku-sensei rose from his seat in the front. "Good afternoon, Seniors! Home economics will be your last class of the day, and—excuse me, handsome man with the orange hair?"
Ichigo turned his attention to the teacher and finally found his voice again. "It's Ichigo," he squeaked. "Ichigo Kurosaki."
"Ah, yes. Ichigo-kun, please take a seat next to, uh..." Kyoraku-sensei scratched his head and tried to guess who Rukia was, wondering if she was related to any of the students from previous years.
"Rukia Kuchiki," she filled in calmly. Kyoraku-sensei smiled in appreciation and continued, "Take a seat next to Rukia-chan." He waited for Ichigo to oblige, which he did, and began going over the expectations of the course.
Ichigo made sure Kyoraku-sensei was deep into explanation before turning to face Rukia. He whispered in order to keep them from getting caught. "Hey, I just wanted to say sorry about earlier," he began. "I just… I don't know. My first day as a senior hasn't been going as smoothly as I expected it to be."
Rukia continued jotting down whatever Kyoraku-sensei said in her agenda and didn't bother to look at Ichigo. "It's not like my first day in this town went smoothly, either. And it doesn't mean you can take your anger out on me," she whispered back as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "By the way, you didn't answer my question: How the hell do you know my name?"
He felt extremely guilty. He's lived here his whole life and today was just like any other bad day, but she just moved here from Seireitei and he ruined her first day. He took out his agenda and began jotting down notes as well, which also made it less obvious that they were whispering to each other. "I had no idea it was your first day in town. I know I shouldn't have taken out my anger on you; I have a short temper. Orihime Inoue gave me your name."
She looked at him, Orihime's name catching her attention, and she decided to give him a chance since she knew Orihime was a very sweet girl. "Oh. Well, I suppose that bumping was accidental. I forgive you for that."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "What about earlier, at lunch?"
She gave him a look that said 'are you kidding me?' written all over it.
"I'm sorry," he sighed. He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out the sixty dollars she'd given him earlier and slid it over to her side of the desk. "I really am."
Rukia eyed the money, then looked back up at him. Deciding he was sincere, she pushed the money back to him and gave him a small smile. "I'll forgive you, but only if you accept the sixty I gave you."
His scowl came back and he pushed it back to her. "No. Men don't take money from girls."
She scowled back even harder and shoved the bills back to his side. "Girls? I am not a girl. I am almost eighteen years old, asshole."
"Fine, women, whatever. Just take back your sixty—I can just dry my damn shoes, midget!" He pushed back the bills and focused his attention on writing in his agenda, not wanting to argue with her.
"No! I was the one who ruined them with milk, so take my sixty! I don't even need it! I have a lot of money saved up anyway!" She pushed it back right under the arm he was using to write with and focused her attention on her own agenda. "Take it, or I'll hold a grudge against you."
Ichigo glared at her. "You wouldn't…" he challenged.
Rukia smiled insincerely, "Try me." The look in her eyes convinced him she was telling the truth. Not risking the chance, he pocketed the sixty dollars and cursed under his breath.
"Ichigo-kun, Rukia-chan, is something wrong back there?" Kyoraku-sensei questioned from the front of the room, which causing heads to turn.
Rukia faked the most cheerful voice she could. "Oh, no, Sensei! Kurosaki-kun was just explaining to me the route to get home since I am new to Karakura Town!" She put on a fake smile and giggled cutely, earning a smile and nod of approval from Kyoraku-sensei.
Ichigo scowled. "That was the worst acting I have ever seen." He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his seat, already bored with the teacher's introduction to home economics. "I can't believe he actually bought it."
Rukia dug her face into a horror manga from her bag and glared at Ichigo from behind it. "You wouldn't know good acting even if it hit you in the face."
He snorted and rolled his eyes. "This coming from the girl who probably got acting lessons from Blue's Clues."
That earned him a hard elbow to the stomach. He held his stomach in pain, never having been hit anywhere by any girl other than Tatsuki—and it hurt, too. Rukia impressed him, but not enough to make her a part of his daily schedule. She was just a classmate; nothing more, nothing less.
The bell rang and everyone gathered their items and rushed out the door, eager to get home and relax from the first day of school. "Remember, there's no such thing as too much sake!" called Kyoraku-sensei as his students left.
"Well, I guess that's all I wanted to talk to you about," Ichigo yawned. "I'll see you around, Midget."
Rukia shut her manga and slipped it into her bag, then rose and pushed in her chair. "See you," she called behind her as she walked passed him to find Orihime.
Ichigo stepped forward suddenly, as if he had forgotten something. "Hey, Rukia!"
She stopped for a second to listen to what he had to say. "Yeah?"
He offered something he rarely ever showed—a smile. Even though it was small, it was friendly and very unlike him, but something strange made him feel glad that he had apologized.
"She's not my girlfriend."
At first, Rukia was confused, but finally recalled who he was referring to. She returned the smile before turning to leave again. "Good to know, Strawberry."
She is one strange chick, he thought as his usual scowl came back. A pain in the ass, too.. He carried his bag over his shoulder and stuffed his free hand in the pocket of his jeans before leaving the room.
At least I don't have to deal with her anymore.
(A/N) At least that's what you think, Ichigo…
*When Rukia blocks Senna's punch, it is much like how Ulquiorra deflects Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou with the back of his hand.
I hope you enjoyed.
-KawaiiShofu