Hi... yeah.. I've been gone ages. Almost a year, wow xD anyways, I'm sort of back from the extremely long hiatus I took. I'll see if I can get a chap uploaded per week for one story, so you're looking at getting a chap a month I guess. Or two. Depends..

I'm sorry I haven't updated my other stories, I know some of you guys have been asking. Details are on my profile, go take a look.

Now this story- named Boundaries for fairly obvious reasons- is an IchiRuki fanfic set in the AoT universe. What better to put the most loved couple in the most popular current anime. :P this probably isn't the best first chapter written but it's a start. I really have hopes for this story.

Don't forget to review/comment or whatever it's called, or drop me a PM. Thanks :)

Yes, this isn't a crossover. I consider it Bleach AU, technically, since I'm not using AoT characters. Just Bleach ones.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or AoT. Rights go to those to whom they belong to.

Her eyes flickered slightly, before opening partially and rapidly blinking as the stream of sunlight filtering in through the grimy window hit her square in the face. Grumbling slightly and rubbing her eyes to dissipate the black spots, Rukia yawned widely once, before fully opening her eyes, and after a quick glance round her dingy room, carefully swinging her legs out of bed and after quickly getting dressed, bounding down the stairs.

"Not so loudly," a voice admonished her from the bottom of the stairs. Rukia looked to see a familiar face staring back at her, one that looked exactly like hers only slightly older. Her sister smiled softly at her, gently rubbing the growing bump that was her stomach. "You'll wake the little one," she whispered.

Rukia couldn't help but smile back. "Sorry," she mumbled back with a grimace. "How is he?"

"She," Hisana corrected. "I'm sure it's a girl.. she's very quiet and well behaved,"

"It could be a well-behaved boy.. just like Nii-sama," came the reply. "Well, you never know.."

Hisana let out a laugh, her eyes slightly misty, thoughts of the unknown prodding her. "It's not long to go anyway,"

"You won't even know where the next 6 months will go," Rukia said matter-of-factly, as she began preparing breakfast for the duo. "Before you know it, you'll be holding him in your arms,"

"I can't wait," she replied, her eyes suddenly bright, glowing almost with an ethereal glow. "Hopefully I'll have saved up for the essentials by then,"

"Probably," Rukia replied, with a slight twinge, remembering it was her birthday today- and also that she probably wouldn't get anything as Hisana needed to save what little money they had for the baby.

"Did the Collector come by?" she asked, glancing at the cracked clock on the heavily plastered wall.

"Not yet," Hisana replied. "I got the tax ready though," she said, pointing to a small pile of cash on the worktop counter

"You counted properly right? I don't want him to take another 10% tax for giving him the incorrect amount.. it's high as it is.."

"Don't worry, I gave him 80% tax in full. What's ours is in the box over there,"

"We're really going to need that 20% in the coming months," Rukia said. "It's important,"

"And speaking of importance… Happy Birthday," Hisana said happily. "18 now, huh? You're a grown woman now!"

Rukia remained silent for a moment, pondering the though, before finally muttering 'whatever' before heading back to the worktop to finish preparing breakfast.

"Wait wait wait where are you going?" Hisana questioned, putting a shoulder on Rukia's arm to stop her. "I haven't given you your present yet!"

"Present?" Rukia asked, puzzled. 'What could she possibly have gotten me?' What with weekly tax rates being 80% and them barely scraping by on very limited rations, having spending money for anything other than food was a rarity. They bought maybe 2 dresses each in the year. In fact, most of their clothes were getting rather small now. And on top of that, there was a baby to prepare for, to save up for, so anything that was left spare would be put aside for the baby.

"Here," Hisana said, handing over a medium-sized, thin rectangular package. Rukia accepted the package, thinking wistfully of the professional art pencils she had seen some months back in on their half-yearly trip to the inner city. However they had been extremely expensive, and she doubted Hisana could have saved up enough to buy her those. Nevertheless she sat down, preparing herself for disappointment and began to carefully peel back the paper, to be reused for something else.

As she peeled apart the paper, she saw a familiar sheen underneath, slightly glowing in the reflection of the morning sun. Her eyes went wide as she saw the stencilled lettering she'd gazed so longingly at all those months ago, that read PROFESSIONAL ART PENCILS- 36 PACK. Throwing the paper to one side, she inspected the tin, gently opening it with a resounding click, and simply running her hands over the neatly nested pencils, and breathing in the heady scent of lead. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much it must have cost, or how much Hisana must have had to save up just to buy her this. Looking on the back, she saw the tag that read $29.99.

"Nee-sama.. how did you-"

"No questions Rukia.. did you like it?" Hisana asked, handing her two slices of bread and a warm glass of milk.

"Of course I did, I love it, but-"

"Eat up, you don't want to be late for your first day, right?"

"But Nee-sama-"

"Rukia, what did I tell you about asking too many questions? Now eat, will you?" she answered, sounding rather irritated. As she sat down to eat, Rukia noticed that her portion was significantly less. As it had been last night. And the day before.

"Nee-sama.." Rukia asked cautiously. "Have you been eating properly?"

"Yeah, I have.. but you know it's hard to eat so much whilst pregnant, right?" she replied.

The tone of her voice indicated she was lying, and Rukia realised what she'd done- that she'd been buying less food and eating less food herself just so she could save up for her birthday. Instantly Rukia felt guilty for being too hard on her Nee-sama and resolved to be kinder.

"Nee-sama.. I'm sorry for bothering you like that," Rukia said, shame colouring her voice. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright," Hisana replied, her eyes soft. "I understand. Look, I managed to get some paper too, so you can do all your sketches on there. You can go try it out now if you like,"

Hisana smiled softly as she watched her younger sister bound upstairs excitedly, eager to try out her new art pencils. Rukia was a natural born artist- she'd been drawing for as long as she could remember, doodles and sketches here and there, and once a detailed portrait of herself that she'd received for a birthday, which was still hanging above her bed. She'd won many local art competitions and was hoping to progress to the national ones in a year's time- if her army training didn't hinder her.

Thinking about that made her sad, that Rukia had to harbour such ambitions as training in the army when she should just be enjoying her life. But in conditions like theirs, it simply wasn't possible. There was a time when Rukia was much younger where it could have been possible, back when they lived in Wall Maria- but the abandonment of humanity there almost 15 years ago after the invasion of Titans had made it nigh on impossible- not to mention the colossal taxes needed to fund the army and such. Sometimes Hisana envied her ancestors- who had been able to travel the world without any care at all; see all the wonders and natural beauties the world had been able to offer, instead of being trapped behind these walls. Even the life she'd led 15 years ago had been heaven compared to now- her family had still been alive and well and things had been peaceful as they could be. However that dark night 15 years ago where she'd had to watch her family being murdered and fleeing under the cover of darkness with a screaming 3 year old Rukia still brought shivers down her spine.

But she wasn't alone. She still had Rukia, and often her husband when he wasn't on army duty. That alone was enough to make her happy, even if the world itself had turned grey.

Rukia stumbled up the stairs two at a time, eager to try out her new pencils. Adrenaline rushed through her as she perched herself- no, threw herself onto her bed, pencils and paper in hand, and grabbing the cardboard next to her which she used to lean on, began to draw. This time she let her mind wander, instead of focusing on a specific person or object, and soon the paper was full of an assortment of lines and squiggles which only she could make sense of. Grabbing the coloured pencils, she began to colour slowly yet eagerly, striving to make her work perfect. The pencils had come with a free watercolour set, so she opened those too and worked on adding small details here and there, making her work vibrant as possible.

"Rukia!" came a voice, after what seemed like hours. Before Rukia could respond, however, Hisana came bounding up the stairs, about to tell Rukia to get ready and leave, before stopping short at the sight of Rukia's newest piece of art.

Her eyes widened at the beautiful array of colours, blended spectacularly to form a well-known sight known as the Northern Lights.

"Wow," Hisana whispered, marvelling at the incredible wisps twisting in and out, as though it was real, right before her eyes. "That's amazing.. how did you…" her voice trailed away, feeling a pang of sadness as she always did when seeing pictures of the Northern Lights. It had been her and Rukia's dream to travel far north to see them, however since they were trapped behind the walls, it was practically impossible. Sometimes, it made her well up, thinking that nobody had seen such a phenomenal beauty in over 100 years. Rukia spent most of her time drawing them, amongst other things, mostly nature, in the hope that one day they both may be able to journey out of the walls to see them.

Shaking the thought from her mind, she took the paper and pencils from Rukia, which was followed by a loud protest.

"But Nee-sama, I was just-"

"No, Rukia, you need to get ready now," Hisana said firmly. "Don't you want to enrol? If you're late today, they won't let you enrol, and you'll have to wait another year. Now, do you-" the question was barely out of her mouth and Rukia shot off as fast as she could, grabbing her rookie uniform, eager to look best on her first day, and without further ado, flew down the stairs without a second thought.

Glancing at Rukia's drawing sadly, Hisana let out a tired sigh, placing the drawing safely with all her other work, before heading back downstairs.

'Someday,' she promised herself. 'Someday this dream will come true.'

Mmmmm, I hope you enjoyed that. Don't forget to review/comment!

Hopefully someone is interested. xD