Hello! Long time no see!

See author's notes at the end of the story for explanations. Thank you and enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor any of its characters. I am merely a fan who loves writing fan fictions.

Temporary

"I demand you to get me another pair of these human clothes, Ichigo," Rukia said while pointing a finger to the neatly folded pair of pajamas atop her closet space. The look on her face meant serious business.

"Why? You already have one. Yuzu would surely notice something's missing from her wardrobe if I steal another one. And besides, you could use your uniform for the day and then change into a new one before you go to school," he replied casually, sitting down on his desk table and flipping through the pages of his English notebook. He began to work on his homework when he suddenly felt something cold seeping through his back. He turned around and saw Rukia glaring at him with loathe in her eyes.

"Ichigo, how could you say that?! That is just so dirty! You cannot expect me to use the same clothes I've already used as my sleeping attire! That is too uncomfortable!" she huffed indignantly, closing the gap between them with long strides. Their faces were almost touching, and Ichigo could already feel the heat from Rukia's skin, see the thickness of her eyelashes, the perfect curve of her nose, the gentle curve of her upper lip, the—WHOA! Stop right there. This woman was Rukia Kuchiki the shinigami. The unattractive shinigami who loved hitting him. The unattractive shinigami who had severe mood swings. He had only known her for a few weeks. It was totally impossible for him to feel attracted to her in any way.

Totally and absolutely.

He cleared his throat. He leaned further into his chair—to gain more personal space—and crossed his arms around his chest. "I refuse. If you wish to have another pair of pajamas, you could go sneak in my sisters' room yourself, or you could just buy another one with your own money."

Rukia was now infuriated at this point. Her cheeks turned red and her nostrils flared. Her expression was so comical—Ichigo could have laughed—if not for the seriousness of the situation. Yes, it was serious when Rukia was angry. Because an angry Rukia was a violent Rukia, and the idea of a violent Rukia going berserk on him because of pajamas was not appealing to Ichigo so much.

Ichigo contemplated but silently added, "It's not like you'd stay here for a long time, anyways."

She looked about ready to burst and her hands were twitching—probably itching to hit him—but after hearing his statement, she ground her teeth together, closing her mouth shut.

"Fine," she said defeated, her arms falling loosely on her sides. Ichigo felt his jaw opening as he stared at Rukia surprised.

Did she just surrender to him?

He was about to rub it on her but the look on her face stopped him dead in his tracks. She turned away and walked back to the closet—HER closet, as per her insistence—and slid the door closed behind her with a resonating 'bang'.

"That woman and her tantrums. Tch," Ichigo whispered to himself, getting back to his homework. But he was having a hard time concentrating. He found himself glancing at the closet door hoping—a little—that maybe Rukia was just joking and that she was peeking through the door wanting to see if her tantrum had evoked a reaction from him. But no. The closet remained closed and quiet until the rest of the day.

Ichigo woke up the next morning feeling tired. There were dark bags under his eyes. He had a hard time sleeping last night, constantly thinking about the look on Rukia's face. It almost seemed like she had been sad and upset. It kept replaying on his mind over and over.

Was it he had said?

The thing about not staying long?

It was true, anyways. It was their deal. Once she regained her shinigami powers, she would leave him in peace. He would go back to his normal life without all those hollow problems.

But deep in his heart, Ichigo knew he would miss this. The thrill of wielding a sword and the adrenaline that would course through his body whenever he'd face a hollow. Those were out of the world experiences only a few humans—or maybe he was the only one—were given the privilege. It wasn't like he disliked normalcy. He just disliked the constancy of normalness wherein he'd always find himself waking up only to do the same routine every single day.

But being a shinigami was different. The constancy of not knowing what to expect next, was overwhelming. He would surely miss it.

And Rukia?

Well, let's just say he was quite ambivalent about missing her.

After fixing himself and donning on his uniform, Ichigo grabbed his bag and knocked on the closet door. He hoped she wasn't angry anymore. There was no answer after some time, so Ichigo slowly opened the door and peeked into the gap. The closet was empty except for Rukia's pajamas. She must have left early. She'd usually wait for him in the mornings before leaping off from his bedroom window, but seeing as they had an argument over some stupid pajamas, maybe she had intentionally woken up earlier than usual to avoid his face.

Ichigo felt a little irritated at that.

Shaking his head from her childish antics, Ichigo went down the stairs to eat breakfast with his family. Upon seeing the feast Yuzu had made for them, he immediately devoured his breakfast and thanked the girl for the delicious meal. He was truly grateful his father was gone for a medical conference and would still be until the rest of the week.

He grabbed some left over pieces of toast and an apple before getting his bag and slipping on his shoes. He was about to leave when Karin's voice stopped him.

"You seem a bit rushed, Ichi-nii." It was more like a statement than a question. "Why? Do you need to do something at school? It's still early."

Ichigo grumbled from the doorway. "None of your business, Karin." And before she could say anything further, he quickly left the vicinity with hurried footsteps.

On the way to school, he could only think of one thing:

To give Rukia her breakfast.

Surely, the woman would be even more infuriated if he brought her breakfast late. This was another part of their deal (more like demanded him to do it). They would go their separate ways in the mornings to avoid suspicions, but Ichigo would have to bring her some breakfast when they met in school. They held secret meetings at the rooftop every early morning because no one was there at that time of the day.

Pushing the door open, he stepped inside the tiled floors of the rooftop and looked around. He frowned. Not a single soul, not even Rukia, was present.

But she should have been here already! She had left early!

Cursing, Ichigo thought about all the possibilities. Maybe on the way, Rukia saw another fascinating human contraption and became totally immersed with it. Or maybe she went the other way—the longer route—because she felt like stretching her limbs.

He glanced at his wristwatch. Eight minutes had already passed by. Still no sign of Rukia.

The possibility that she had ditched him began to surface on his mind.

Was she this childish?! Just because he had upset her last night?

OK. So he had been an ass. But that was totally true, anyways. She knew it as well. She was even the one being adamant about regaining her powers and leaving the human world in the first place. Then why get upset over something you were working so hard for?

Sometimes, she was so hard to understand.

Shaking his head, he glanced at his wristwatch again and felt a vein twitch on his forehead.

Now he was going to be late! So much for waking up earlier than usual!

Ichigo looked down at the bag of food in his hand and furrowed his eyebrows. So Rukia was sometimes hard to understand. But her eyes were like a mirror of her emotions. Even if she put on a mask, he could see right through it by just looking at her eyes. Weird how he could easily read her feelings, but Ichigo knew what he had seen through them last night, and he didn't like it one bit.

He had to talk to her and set things straight. He would not be able to concentrate fighting off hollows with the feeling of guilt bearing him down.

He was able to reach the classroom before the bell rang, thankfully. But he felt his eyebrows furrow even more when he noticed that Rukia's seat was unoccupied. Even her things were missing. Upon stepping inside, Keigo approached him and asked, "Ichigooooooo! My lovely Kuchiki-san is missing! She's usually early and has never been this late! Where is she? What have you done to the future mother of my twenty beautiful children?"

Ichigo felt like punching him on the face but ought not to. "Why are you asking me that? I'm not her mother."

"But you guys are quite close. So I thought you would know if something has happened to her." Keigo paused and placed a hand on his chest and wiped a tear from his eye dramatically. "Very well, let's just wait until lunch. My lovely Kuchiki-san is a strong woman." He made a beeline for his desk and sobbed face-down. Keigo was a total moron. Ichigo could only shake his head.

The hours went by without Rukia showing her face. He could sense reiatsu, yes, but he was absolutely bad at detecting it. He could with luck when he was fueled with adrenaline. But right now he was too consumed up with his thoughts about the shinigami woman that he could not even concentrate with his studies.

Where the hell could she be?!

Finally, lunch rolled by and Ichigo immediately shot up from his seat. If that Rukia thought guilt-tripping him was a good idea, then she better get herself ready. He was fed up with all of her bullshits!

Making his way to the rooftop—but not before grabbing his lunch and the left over breakfast he had stolen—he looked around with wild eyes. He walked to the railings and searched for the school grounds for the familiar frame of a small woman with short, raven hair.

He spotted her, even from this far away, on a lone tree a good distance away from the main quadrangle. She was sitting with her knees close to her chest, looking like she was observing the things going on around her with great interest. Ichigo felt his anger seeping away. He let his shoulders sag.

He had made up his mind.

He would talk to her.

Set things straight.

Pumped up with new found energy, he ran his way down the stairs and was only able to wave a hand in response to his friends when they asked him where he was off to running at such great speed.

When he got to Rukia's spot, he was panting a lot and he had his hands on his knees breathing oxygen for dear life. He looked up and found Rukia staring at him impassively.

"What are you doing here?" were the first words that came out of her mouth.

He opened his mouth to say something as well, but no words came out. So much for setting up a goal. Instead, feeling foolish enough, he offered her the bag of food. Scratching the back of his head, he said, "Your breakfast. You forgot."

Rukia's eyes widen. She averted her eyes to the ground. "You did not have to, Ichigo. I am still full."

*GRUMBLE*

He saw Rukia's cheeks burn red from embarrassment. He could not help but tease her a bit. "Eh? Did you say something, Rukia?"

"Idiot!" Her face was now absolutely red by this time. Ichigo fought the urge to laugh as he sat beside her and placed the bag of food on her lap.

"Just eat, OK? You're way more bitchy when you're hungry." Rukia looked up at him and contemplated about saying something but chigo beat her to it. "I was an ass last night. But really, you should not skip meals like that. It's not good especially for people with mood swings."

Rukia's eyes widen even more.

This... This was his way of apologizing.

She could not help but smile at him. But upon hearing the last part of his speech, a vein began to tick on her forehead.

"M-Mood swings, you say?" She elbowed him on the gut and felt a sense of satisfaction surge through her when she heard him groan in pain. "Moron! I do not have mood swings! I am mentally stable, thank you very much!"

"I did not say anything about being mentally unstable." Ichigo nursed the soon-to-be-bruise on his stomach and groaned again. "Bitch."

Somehow, Ichigo was thankful. Rukia was now back to normal. A violent Rukia was always better than a gloomy Rukia. He glanced at her while she was munching on her late-stolen-cold-breakfast. A small piece of toast then came flying at him. He frowned. "What the hell was that for?"

"Stop staring at me. It's disconcerting, pervert," she grumbled, pausing from chewing on her apple.

"I'm not a pervert. There's nothing even good to look at. Hmp." He turned away from her but frowned when he remembered something. Chucking the bag towards her again, Rukia was able to catch it with one hand. "You forgot your juicebox."

For a moment, her eyes lit up with glee. But she immediately averted her eyes to the side and mumbled, "You did not have to. But thanks." She took the juice pack and started poking the tip of the straw into the box. Ichigo's eyes were following her movements from his peripheral. He could not help but sigh and save the box from her tortures.

"You know, it really amazes me how you can still not open this damn thing after all this time." He easily poked the straw into the allotted space and handed her back the juicebox. She stuck her tongue at him but gulped down the juice nonetheless.

Silence then consumed them both. Rukia then stopped from her eating and looked up at him. "But really Ichigo, you should stop indulging me with these human stuffs." She looked away and her eyes glazed over with an emotion he was not quite familiar with. "I am not human. I do not belong here. You were right, Ichigo. I would need to leave someday. These are all temporary. I am a temporary in your world. I cannot afford to attach myself here and the things around it." She forced a smile at him. "Thank you for reminding me last night. I guess I got a bit immersed from being in here for so long that I almost forgot my place." She stood up and left Ichigo gaping on his spot. Dusting her skirt, she grinned and threw the crumpled piece of paperbag on his head.

"Hey!" Ichigo snapped. "Stop hitting me!"

But Rukia was already running away from him. Ichigo was left sitting there looking after her retreating back.

Something from her speech made him want to go after her and tell her she was wrong.

That, somehow, somewhere, she did belong in the human world. In his world.

Shaking his head from the ridiculous thought, he stood up and walked his way towards the classroom.

Rukia was not human.

Rukia was temporary.

Rukia was a shinigami.

Then why did he still feel like arguing with her? She had even admitted he was right. All of these, all of the things that had anything to do with her would vanish once she disappeared from this world.

But even after this realization, Ichigo found himself deciding to buy her another pair of pajamas just in case she extended her stay in the human world.

The idea for this just popped into my head while I was listening to CHARLIE WILSON'S 'WITHOUT YOU'. At first I wanted to write this by starting at chapter 432 in the manga (the goodbye scene) with Ichigo having flashbacks and finally realizing he loves Rukia. Go and listen to the song. You'd figure why. But then I realized I would not be able to finish it properly because it'd take too long and that I was not so sure if I could remember/write properly the scenes in the Fullbringer arc. So yeah, this oneshot was supposed to be one of the MANY flashbacks. LOL. xD

I hope I get them in character. This is my first none-AU, anyways. I really enjoyed writing this so I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved making it.

Sorry for being MIA. I'm not sure when will I come back again, but I'm so glad to be back for a bit here in FFN. It feels good to be back yeeeaaah! I missed you guys a lot! I hope you missed me too haha!

I would like to hear your thoughts. Don't forget to review! I love you all! :*

- snow