A/N- I'm not sure whether to leave this as a one shot, or make a fic of it. What do you guys think?

Colours And Monotone

It bored him.

The everyday bored him. Fighting with Isshin had lost its excitement. Going to school, God knows it made him want to punch himself in the face. But the worst of all, the little things in life that he valued so much began to fade into duller shades.

Going out for hot dogs with Chad, Inoue and Tatsuki began to fade from its original bright orange.

Smiling at his sisters and joking around with them slowly began to lose its bright blue shade in his mind.

Of course, he wasn't going colourblind or anything. It was just how he viewed the world, thinking it couldn't be helped. The monotonous rain had returned, bringing with it all the despair he was so proud of overcoming. But what could he do anymore? There was no one to dry the eternal wash of his gloom.

And so, shade by shade, the colours that brought the joy in his life began to fade into black and white.

It was no surprise to him when as he grudgingly walked up the long road to school, the autumn wind had lost its serenity and the golden sunlight had lost its shine.

Sighing inwardly, he flung his bag nonchalantly over his desk and was greeted by the usual nod from Tatsuki, wave from Chad and a high pitched 'Good morning, Kurosaki kun!' from Inoue.

Their teacher soon strode into the classroom, forcing a strained and visibly uncomfortable silence. Ichigo bowed politely and rather routinely before sitting back down and listening to what he had to say, only because he had to.

'Right so we've got four transfer students. Be polite, be nice, help them out when they need help.'

At the teacher's signal, four students, if they could be called that, walked into the classroom, each so physically different from the other, it hurt his eyes to look at them straight. One had the most terrible eyebrows Ichigo had ever seen with shockingly red hair, one was surprisingly short with white hair, the other was giving half the class nosebleeds as she flipped her golden hair around, and the one at the far end was a dark haired shortie.

'Now if you could all take your seats. Wherever you find a seat is alright, I'd like you to get along with the whole class.'

Sighing as the Bad Eyebrow Tomato made a face at her after being offered a seat by a girl only too willing to share, the dark haired one slid down into the last available seat in the class, right next to him.

'You mind, Orange?'

'Nah, make yourself at home, Shortie.'

'Sharp tongue there, Obviously Bleached.'

'Thanks, and it's natural, Probably Like 10.'

'Please. That's as natural as Renji's eyebrows.'

'Oh, so Renji's his name. I didn't pay attention to the introductions and I've been calling him Bad Eyebrow Tomato in my head.'

She turned away to laugh and when she turned back to Ichigo, there was a smile on her face that he couldn't help but return.

'Don't let him hear you. He'll kill you before you can say Tomato.'

'Ah, I doubt he can. I spar with a gorilla everyday.' He rolled his eyes, thinking of Isshin.

'Gorillas? Renji belongs to the same family, he's a baboon. Plus, he's trained by Nii sama- uh no, I mean Kuchiki sensei.'

Ichigo's eyes widened. Kuchiki sensei as in the scarily calm Kuchiki sensei? Kuchiki sensei as in the one teacher in the whole school everybody knew never to piss off?

'Kuchiki sensei is your brother? That'd mean you're Rukia? The pride he keeps talking about. God, everyone who's been in one of his classes probably knows more about you than themselves.'

She seemed to be beaming with pride as she squeaked, 'Seems I'm known then,' before darting off at the end of class to join Bad Eyebrow Tomato, Shorty and Probably A Model.

The next time he saw her was later that day as he started off towards home as the bell signalling the end of school. She was surrounded by the type of delinquents who disgusted him. He was ready to jump in and kick some ass but there was something about her calm and almost bored expression that held him back. Kuchiki sensei appeared behind him, trying his best to control his laughter.

He only heard whiffs of their conversation but what he picked up was, they hated Rukia for coming from a rich family and hated the fact she didn't shiver in front of them like most newbies do. The tallest guy threw a punch and Ichigo flinched, expecting a shriek of pain from the raven haired girl but to his surprise, heard a kick and a grunt of pain.

Almost effortlessly, with the skill of a trained fighter, Rukia flipped him over, and kicked him in the stomach, and left him groaning. She seemed bored as she skillfully swatted away the idiot's half assed attempts as an attack before slamming him into the ground with a controlled force. She turned and caught sight of him, waved, before turning red with embarassment and apologising for her sloppy fighting.

Ichigo realised she was talking to Kuchiki sensei and smacked himself due to the fact he waved back to her.

Byakuya smiled as he walked towards her, almost talking to himself. 'That's my sister. A sister I train everyday. Those punks are nothing to her.'

Ichigo couldn't help but let his jaw drop as she ruffled her hair out, stretching her limbs. Standing before him was a magnificent, beautiful, strong and sassy girl. How could his jaw not drop?

He smiled to himself for the first time in a long time and he walked off. Something in his view changed and for a second, Ichigo Kurosaki squinted.

Was it just him, or did the path look brighter and you could even say, more colourful?