Summary: Although it wasn't the first time she was doing it, she was completely aware of it now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If that was the case then Ichigo wouldn't have short hair.

Warm

.

She was in Ichigo's bed, with her hand held in the air as if she was trying to touch the room's ceiling. The sun's rays entered through the curtains and she felt some sense of warm when her hand was covered with the sun's color.

It's like she was hypnotized by the movement of her own fingers. She couldn't stop staring at them, moving them, inspecting closely her palm and even nails in case she found something different. Something that wasn't there before. But everything was still the same. She quickly put her hand down, without knowing why that bothered her, and sat on the bed to look out the window.

She didn't go to class that day and it was likely for Ichigo to scold her when he came home. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to see his face now but she didn't have many options where to go anyway. She looked at her hands again.

"Why?"

She didn't understand, but since yesterday she couldn't take the feeling of Ichigo's skin from her hands. Nothing strange happened, just the old same thing: the orange-haired boy getting overprotective and by trying to "save" her –she wasn't in any danger really- he let the Hollow to hurt him and in not a very nice way. As always, Rukia had to treat him and insult him for being so stupid.

"Why?"

There was nothing wrong in touching Ichigo since she did it anytime she had to treat his wounds and the boy wasn't very careful about it. Even so, she could feel that warmth in her hand since yesterday and she even thought that something was wrong with her gigai and curse Urahara, but deep inside she knew that wasn't the case. The ones to blame were those punks from Ichigo's school.

Although she didn't care much about socializing with anyone at school, she couldn't help but hear –from a not very discreet source- the rumors about her and the substitute shinigami spreading around. It is said that people get influenced when they get teased with another person… and that's what happened to her. She understands that the relationship she has with Ichigo may be weird for other people, she's not that absent-minded, but she doesn't get quite completely what kind of relationship she has with him.

That's why she wasn't just treating his wounds yesterday. She was touching him, not as an injured but as a boy she has been living with for months and has made a bond she couldn't find the words to describe and prefers not to try it. "Kuchiki Rukia, what would Nii-sama say if he saw you now?". Her hands went down Ichigo's torso not with the intention of treating him only, but also fix in her mind the shape of his body and the wound lines. Her mind registered that image with special attention and her fingers the warmth of his skin without her consent.

She laid back again in his bed and against his rational desires she fell asleep thinking how warm Ichigo could be and how it'd feel something more that the touch of his hand, a hug maybe.

The room's owner annoyed entrance woke her up, complaining that his day at school was total crap and it wasn't fair that she skipped classes whenever she wanted. Still sleepy, she glanced at him without even getting out of bed. The boy approached her, thinking that she wasn't totally awake and his face was inches from hers. Rukia, unsure if she was still dreaming or Ichigo was really in front of her, reached her hand out to touch his face. Slowly, her hand touched the boy's cheek and stayed there for a few seconds; she slid it down in a soft way, almost caressing his lips and put her hand down again in the bed.

Ichigo, unable to understand what was going on, only blushed living up to certain fruit and babbling incomprehensive words (something like "n-not be-because you're short you can stay home" or "not that shinigamis have to go to school too?") he left the room towards the bathroom to stay locked in there.

Smiling in the limbo between dream and reality, Rukia's only thought was that "Ichigo is really warm; wherever her fingers touch his warmth couldn't be erased".

Notes: What can I say? I'd really like to know more about those lost moments at the beginning of the story.