Things were dead quiet at the Karakura high school. It wasn't closed or the holidays. The students were taking a test.
It was only nine in the morning and already her brain was shriveling up from the problems their teacher was cruel enough to give - at least Rukia's was.
Her friends were doing the test with no trouble at all. Lucky.
Rukia thought she had no use to studying about this 'math' as they call it. She never used anything like this in Soul Society. Besides, she never stayed long enough to understand what the teacher was blabbing about.
She looked out of the corner of her eyes and saw that Ichigo had a hard time staying up. Hell, she was sleepy too.
Last night Ichigo kept his nose in those books of his and in the midst of it, there were more hollows than usual. Two or three would show up every other day but last night there was almost twenty of them! It was strange, yes, but Ichigo couldn't care less becuase it was already one in the morning and he hadn't finished his studying or his homework. What made him even more pissed off was that he wasn't going to get a very good sleep because he would get less than six hours in.
These were one of the times when Rukia regretted giving him the powers and responsibilities of a Shinigami, but how else would he save those he cared about?
Usually when they take a test, Rukia would copy off of Ichigo and when he found out he was a little angry but he made it easier for her to copy because he understood her situation - sort of. She couldn't do that today, of course. Ichigo already had his head down and was fast asleep and she was tempted to give in as well but she needed to stay awake for both of them. Or she could wake him...?
The latter option seemed much more entertaining.
After the teacher announced that she was going to leave for a few minutes, Rukia jumped out of her desk when the door closed and poked at Ichigo's head with the sharp end of her pencil. He waved it off and she looked around in case if anyone was watching and when she saw that no one was, she gave a hard jab to his head.
"Oi! What the hell was that for, midget?" he yelled, already knowing it was her. The entire class watched Ichigo with their looks of surprises as he looked at them, muttering an apology.
He sat down and gave her a glare and whispered, "Why'd you do that? Is there a hollow?" She had noticed that sounded quite eager. Rukia shook her head and answered, "No. I just didn't want you to get in trouble for sleeping in class during the test. Sorry."
She was concerned? for him? This was new. It was very rare when Rukia would show her concern for him except when they're fighting. Somewhere in him he was very happy that she was worried for him. Not in an attention seeking way but in they way he knew she cared for him.
"Eh. Don't apologize. Thanks for waking me, though." she smiled as he smiled back.
He looked down at his test and saw that he only answered about eight questions before he nodded off and drooled a bit on the problem below. He silently leaned slowly towards Rukia's desk and despite the fact that she was as exhausted as him, she managed to answer about half of them which was fifteen.
...How was that even possible?
Rukia didn't even know how she answered those questions but she was proud. The work actually looked correct and proper. She saw Ichigo writing quickly and looking back at her test before looking at his and writing again. He had to strain his neck so she slid her test to her right side and made sure that it was on the question Ichigo was on. He silently thanked her by giving her a nod and writing again.
Ichigo seemed fully awakened by the time he finished by the time he finished his test. The teacher gave him a look when she saw the small drool stain but he still ended up getting an eighty, which was good enough for him.
On the way home, Rukia's lack of sleep finally caught up with her and she ended up accidently falling foward and banging her head against a streetlight before landing in Ichigo's arms. Ichigo winced at the loud metallic sound the pole made when it made contact with her flesh but kept his mouth shut and carried the fast asleep Kuchiki on his back the rest of the way home.
Even though Ichigo was pissed at himself because he wasn't able to catch her before she hurt herself or get anymore sleep throughout the day, at least he was going to walk home in peace and quiet.
If she helped him during the test, he would help her walk home. Ichigo smiled to himself.
I know this seems a little too short but this popped in my head and I thought it was cute. I know this probably seems a little lame but oh well. :) I'm sorry about the title. Again, I'm not very good with them. ^-^