There was never any agreement as to how their partnership should work and Ichigo never said that she could stay at his house or sleep on the sheets in his wardrobe or borrow his sister's clothes, but, after the first night, he left the window of his room ajar; it felt like as much of an invitation as she could expect.

They fell into a routine: making their separate ways to school, but walking most of the route back together. Rukia would slip back into his house through the open window. In the quiet time, while the family ate in the room downstairs or Ichigo helped his sisters with their homework, Rukia slept with the hollow detector resting against her chest. Usually, she woke a little time later to find him in the room, either sleeping or reading, but, on the fourth day, he woke her himself with a tray of food and his usual frown, as if he did these things with reluctance:

"Do you eat?" he said.

"Regularly."

And, after that, he brought a share of every meal to his room. She would eat while he slept and they waited for the hollow detector to buzz.

At first, she spent most of her time in the cramped cupboard, checking bulletins from Soul Society. When this became painfully dull, she took to sneaking across his room to where a book-case was crammed with Manga and fantastical stories. Quick as lightning, she would snatch one, often while he slept, and return to the to the safe shadows of the cupboard. This continued until, one night, he pointed out to her that there was no need for her to stay in there the whole time. Hence, a week on, she had become accustomed to sitting on the floor of his room, reading magazines and comics from the human world. Sometimes, she sat at his desk and tried out the brightly coloured pens on scraps of paper she found there. Since he never stopped her or complained, she assumed he didn't mind.

His was a bright, peaceful world. He didn't speak much and the silence was a comfort to her. It lacked expectation, authority and demand. He spent most of his spare time alone in his room, she discovered. At no point did she factor herself into that equation. It wouldn't even have occurred to her.

Having discovered that she ate and drank like an ordinary human girl, Ichigo started bunking off of school at lunchtime. He took her to the local mall and paid for their lunch. Since she'd never tasted fast food before, her reactions amused him. He seemed to enjoy these trips until, one morning, nearly three weeks after their first meeting, he shoved a paper bag into her hands:

"It's a packed lunch. We high school students aren't made of money, you know."

After the morning's lessons, she followed him up onto the roof. It was a fine day and, through a wire mesh fence, they had a glorious view of the city, shining in a heat haze. Rukia stood staring at the tightly packed grid of roads and tower blocks, while Ichigo sat back on his heels and unpacked sandwiches and bags of crisps. It was a fine thing, she thought, helping herself, to be standing here in the sunshine eating human food in the human world. Her own life seemed very, very far away.

In amongst the food were boxes that appeared to be drinks of some kind. When she picked one up, she could hear the liquid sloshing around inside. Yet, try as she might, she couldn't figure out how to get into it.

"How do you drink this?" she asked Ichigo.

"Just put the straw in."

"Straw?"

"Yes, straw."

But his explanation was interrupted as the door at the top of the stairs opened and two students spilt out onto the roof. Rukia recognised them both as boys from their class.

"Ichigo!" A broad grin spread over the smaller one's face: "You've decided to join us again." Mizuiro looked younger than he really was, yet his appearance was always immaculate, from his perfectly-ironed shirts to his slicked-back hair. In contrast, the other boy was tall with a mane of unbrushed hair; Asano wore his shirt untucked and his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders and he had a bluntness of manner that never failed to catch Rukia off guard:

"Ichigo!" he cried as he saw them. "You brought Kuchiki-san to have lunch with us! Oh, Ichigo! You will never know how grateful I am!" With that, he put his hands on Rukia's shoulders: "Welcome! Welcome to this garden of manhood!"

"Er….. Thank you?"

"A party! We're going to have a party in your honour, Kuchiki-san!"

It was only then that it occurred to Rukia that she was out of place in this scene. She had observed the behaviour of high school students: the males tended to group together with the other males; the females with the females. If Ichigo had known that she would stand out here, then why had he brought her? And why had the attitude of his friends altered so dramatically? "If there's anything at all that I can do for you, Kuchiki-san, just ask," Asano said.

Rukia glanced down. The boxed drink was still in her hand:

"Well, actually….."

"Ignore him, Rukia-chan," Mizuiro said, approaching her for the first time: "We're humbled that you've joined us."

"Watch out for him, Rukia. He looks innocent, but he's a real womaniser," Ichigo said, grinning.

"How can you say that, Kurosaki-san? Rumours like that could damage my reputation! And, anyway, she's perfectly safe with me. I only go for older women."

"That's exactly why I'm telling her to be careful."

He had made a joke, Rukia realised, and one that only she would understand. When she glanced over, he was watching her, the hint of a smile on his lips.

A third boy, Chad Yasutora, joined them then. He was also nominally in their class, Rukia knew, though he skipped school even more often than Ichigo and rarely wore a uniform. This went unquestioned by the teachers, perhaps because, at over six foot, with tanned skin and wavey black hair, he already looked out of place at the school. Like Ichigo, he was a man of few words. Perhaps they enjoyed one another's long silences because the two seemed, to Rukia, to be close friends. Today, he strode up to their little group and, without a word, placed, in their midst, a cage containing a white parakeet.

"A parrot! You got a parrot, Chad!" cried Asano: "Does it talk?"

The bird responded:

"Hello, my name is Yuichi Shibata."

Asano went wild with delight, going down on hands and knees by the cage to see if it would say more, but Rukia stiffened. At her side, Ichigo stopped eating and stared intently at the cage.

He knows, she thought. He's learning. She knelt down beside him while the other boys cooed around the cage:

"You felt it too. There's a spirit in that parakeet. It's not a hollow; just a lost soul, but we should perform khonso on it. Tonight."

He scowled:

"Another night without sleep."

"Shut up."

"Hey," Asano was saying: "Where did you get the bird, Chad?"

"A man gave it to me," Chad said slowly. They waited to see if he would elaborate, then Asano shook his head:

"That's it?"

"Yes."

Ichigo had noticed something else:

"How did you get hurt, Chad?" There were bandages on the boy's right arm and leg.

"A steel girder."

"A girder?" Asano exclaimed: "Chad, you must have skin like iron!"

"And, on my way home, I was in a motorcycle accident."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I took the driver to hospital."

Asano laughed nervously:

"You're a tank, man. You're a tank."

They moved off then, Asano, Mizuiro and Chad, chatting about the parakeet, about school, about the lunch their parents had packed for them. Rukia watched them go and gave a start when she felt the box she had been holding taken from her hands. Ichigo tore something plastic from the side, a thin tube, and poked it into the top of the box before handing it back to her.

"Straw," he said. She tentatively took a sip of the liquid. It was sweet and tasted of fruit. Welcome on a hot day.

"Thanks," she said.