Well, here's my very late Christmas fic and my first story in the Bleach archive! I just got into Bleach over Christmas break hence my first Bleach story would be about Christmas. This story takes place during The Substitute episodes. Oh, and in this story, Ichigo's family knows about Rukia. That's the only thing different from the anime.
P.S. I'm sure this idea has been used before, but I posted this with no intent to steal anyone elses work. If mine is too similar to yours or someone elses, please let me know so I can try and change it. (But at least wait until later on to see. This is only the first chapter after all.) Again, I'm am not purposely plagiarizing someone elses work.
Please read and enjoy!
This Thing Called Christmas
December 18th, 3:28p.m.
"Okay class. You all have worked very hard this entire semester, but I would like to give you all one final assignment," the teacher explained at the front of the classroom.
The entire classroom was filled with groans from the students.
"The final assignment is for you all to have a happy holiday season!" the teacher exclaimed, knowing she would catch the students off guard. "I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year. Have a Merry Christmas!"
The groaning died down and was soon replaced by either silence from shock, sighs of relief, or cries of joy. The school bell rang indicating not only the end of the day, but the end of the semester as well.
For the next ten seconds, the room was filled with the sound of chairs scraping across the tiled floor, students calling to their friends, and papers being shoved into backpack, not to be seen again until January 3rd.
"Sooooo Ichigoooo!" the annoying voice of Keigo Asano called from across the room. "What do you have planned for Holiday Break? Any crazy vacations planned?"
"Although it's none of your concern, Keigo," the orange-haired boy in question answered, "I'm simply just going to be spending Christmas with my family this year."
"Awwww man, you're so dull!" Keigo complained. "You need to loosen up a bit!"
Ichigo sighed and mumbled, "If the entire world was like you, we'd all be doomed."
Now with anime rivers falling down his face, Keigo fell to the floor and started to whine about what a "meanie" Ichigo was.
Ignoring his whiny friend, Ichigo pulled on his backpack and left the room. He was halfway across the courtyard when his name was called again.
"Ichigo, hold up!"
Ichigo turned around to see no one other than Rukia running to catch up with him. When she got to his side, they exchanged hellos and began their walk back to Ichigo's house.
The walk was pretty silent. Ichigo never spoke unless he was spoken to first; and even then he never said much back.
Meanwhile, Rukia was busy pondering over the reason school was let out for two weeks. What was the word the teachers and students were using? Christmas?
Rukia didn't know what exactly that was, but it had to be pretty important for school to be cancelled. She wanted to find out, and who better to ask than Ichigo?
"Hey, Ichigo?" she spoke up.
"What is it?" he asked, barely glancing down at her.
She looked back up at him and asked, "What's Christmas?"
Ichigo ceased walking altogether and spun around to face the miniature shinigami.
"What the hell?!" he exclaimed. "You mean, you're living in this world and you don't even know what Christmas is?"
She gave him a sneer and said, "Well, I haven't really been paying much attention to these everyday human things. Remember, I'm only here to protect this town from Hollows, not to be a tourist."
"Still, I thought everyone knew about Christmas," he said.
"Well, obviously, I don't."
Ichigo sighed and then continued walking. "It's kinda hard to explain."
"Well can you at least make an attempt?" she asked. "It was all Orihime and Tatsuki were talking about at lunch today. Well, that and whoever this Santa Claus is…"
"Aw, come on!" Ichigo yelled in frustration. "You don't know who Santa is either?!"
Rukia just stared at him, anxious to figure everything out.
Ichigo let out another sigh before saying, "I'll explain everything to you when we get home."
There was a pause and then, "Why didn't you ask Orihime or Tatsuki at lunch?"
"I didn't want to make a fool of myself!" Rukia snapped at him.
"You still are!" Ichigo argued back. "What difference does it make who you ask? You're still a fool for not knowing what Christmas is."
That earned him a hard kick in the shin.
"Ow! Damn it, what was that for?"
"You know very well what that was for," Rukia muttered. "Stop being a smartass and just tell me what this Christmas thing is all about."
---
4:15p.m.
After arriving home and treating his bruising shin, Ichigo plopped onto his bed and shut his eyes. After a long day of final exams, all the teen wanted to do was rest.
Unfortunately for him, a black-haired girl had other plans for him.
"Ah-hem!" she cleared her throat rather loudly.
Ichigo moaned. "What now?" he asked.
"Um, if you haven't already forgotten, you were going to explain Christmas to me," Rukia told him.
"Oh, right…"
Rukia situated herself in Ichigo's desk chair and turned to face him, violet eyes blinking in anticipation.
Ichigo sat up on his bed before going into a long explanation about how Christmas was started to honor Jesus, and how, now, all different kinds of people celebrated it. He explained to her how during the time of year, everyone is friendly to one another and the process of gift giving. He told her how some people decorated their houses with lights and decorations and how everyone who celebrated it set up a Christmas tree, where the presents were kept underneath.
"Why a tree?" Rukia asked, genuinely confused.
"Ugh, I don't know!" Ichigo complained. "Go look it up on the Internet!"
"What's the Internet?"
Ichigo sweat dropped. He was not about to go into that tonight.
"And what about snow? Doesn't Christmas always involve snow? I heard Orihime saying she was hoping for a large snowfall this Christmas," Rukia said after Ichigo was through with his explanation.
"Well, it doesn't snow every Christmas. But, people always associate Christmas with snow, so in a way, yes," Ichigo said while scratching his head. Explaining everything about Christmas to someone who was completely clueless was more difficult than it seemed.
"Does it snow a lot here?" Rukia asked.
"We haven't had a white Christmas for three years now, but when it snows here it snows," he replied.
"Well, perhaps we'll have a good snow this year," Rukia said. "I'd like to see snow. Orihime said it makes everything look beautiful."
Ichigo shrugged. "Honestly, I really don't care for Christmas. Sure, it's nice being out of school, but I'm not really that into this time of the year. It's too cold if you ask me."
"I love the cold," Rukia whispered.
"Good for you," Ichigo mumbled, falling back onto his bed.
Silence came over the bedroom.
Once again, it was broken by Rukia.
"Ichigo? Now that I know what Christmas is, can you tell me when it is?"
"December 25th, seven days from now," he replied in a monotonous voice.
"It's just seven days away?" she seemed surprised. "Why isn't your house decorated yet?"
"We put our tree and decorations up on the 20th," he replied. "And don't ask me why, because I don't know," he added, answering Rukia's unasked question. "It's just when my dad and sisters put them up."
"Don't you help them?"
"No." Well, he couldn't have put it more bluntly.
"Why?"
Ichigo shot up on his bed again. "Geez, how many questions are you gonna ask? I don't help because I just don't feel like it, is that a problem to you?"
Rukia didn't say anything and just watched Ichigo fall back onto his bed. Realizing he wasn't in the best of moods right now, she decided to leave him alone. She got up from the chair and climbed into Ichigo's closet and onto her "bed".
Getting comfortable, Rukia began to think everything over. So, apparently, Christmas was a big deal in the world of the living. Well, it was a big deal to everyone but Ichigo. He seemed to have no liking for it at all. Rukia wanted to ask him why, but she knew she was getting on his nerves. She wasn't trying to make Ichigo upset, she just had lots of questions and wanted answers. It wasn't her fault she was deprived of all knowledge of this holiday.
Maybe she would ask Ichigo why he disliked the holiday tomorrow. She'd leave him alone about it the rest of the night.
On a lighter note, she was thoroughly excited about Christmas. After all, this was her first one and she was anxious to find out what happens. The world of the living just seemed to get more and more interesting each day. She desperately hoped that these next seven days would quickly pass by.
Rukia cracked open the closest door and saw Ichigo was now on his laptop. What he was looking at, she couldn't tell. She then glanced at the clock next to him. It was just going on 5:30. She decided she had plenty of time for a nap before Ichigo would call her down for dinner.
Rukia settled down for a nap, her dreams filled of nothing but thoughts of what her first Christmas would be like.
Don't worry, there's more to come!