Author's Note: I've been a fan of Bleach for over two years now and I just got around to writing a Bleach fic XD. I'm so weird. So this is just a little IchiRuki drabble. Not much else today. It's set in early Bleach, before the whole Rescue Rukia stuff. Isn't it weird how simple Bleach used to be?

But anyway, time for a fic!

"Miss Kuchiki, Mr Kurosaki, you disappeared for two periods. Explain yourselves. "

"Oh I'm ever so sorry! I hate to miss class, I really do. But an emergency popped up and I unfortunately had to be taken away from my studies."

Rukia explained to the teacher, putting on her little act. It was the beginning of Lunch period and the teacher had asked to speak to Rukia and Ichigo. There had been a Hollow downtown earlier this morning, so the two of them naturally had to go and stop it. But the teacher was less than pleased. She was upset and surprised that Rukia and Ichigo had disappeared from class completely. She turned her attention to the orange-haired boy in front of her desk.

"And you Mr. Kurosaki?" She asked. Ichigo shrugged a bit.

"What she said…" Ichigo murmured. The teacher just shook her head.

"Look, I know your teenagers and your hormones must be out of control but is skipping class to make-out or whatever really that important?" She asked her two students. Both of them put on a look of shock.

"YOU THINK WE DID WHAT!" Ichigo said turning bright red.

"I can only assume. But for skipping my class, I'm going to have to give both of you detention. Be there today, immediately after school. Room 121." She said while writing both of them Detention slips. They each took one before exiting the classroom. Once they were away, Rukia let out a laugh.

"Can you believe it? She thinks we were cutting the class to make-out." Rukia said in between her laughs. Ichigo however, did not find it quite so funny.

"Are you nuts? It's not funny! The teacher thinks that we are weird and horny now!" Ichigo said, still a bit red in the face.

"Oh lighten up a bit Ichigo. It's just a teacher. Why were you getting all red in the classroom anyway? Oh, you're still a little red now. Matches your hair nicely." Rukia said with a smirk. Ichigo just turned away from her.

"Just shut up. I'll see you in detention…" He said before starting to walk off.

"Ichigo wait!"

"What?"

"What's detention?"

"Just show up!"

Ichigo walked out of his last class, making his way over to the detention room. Though, Ichigo couldn't get to the room that easily. Nah, he had to be harassed by his friends about earlier today. Just as he was about to open the door to the detention room, he was stopped by Keigo and Mizuiro.

"Yo Ichigo! Finally, you actually looked when I called your name! Anyway, I heard about you and Rukia this morning. Skipping class to make-out? I didn't know you had it in you!" Keigo said with a grin on his face.

"I did not skip class to make out!" Ichigo said, getting clearly annoyed by all of this. Keigo had been trying to get him to talk about it all day. But that was in class, so he could just use the cover that he was trying to pay attention.

"Hey Ichigo, don't be ashamed. Rukia's a cute girl. I knew you guys would be an item." Mizuiro said with an encouraging smile.

"We are not an ite-…" He began but just gave up mid-sentence and stormed into the detention room, slamming the door behind him. Everyone in the room looked at him. Ichigo actually looked pretty intimidating because of how pissed he was and the entrance he made into the room. Annoyed, he slammed the detention pass on the teacher's desk and went to the back of the classroom, taking a seat next to Rukia, but he didn't look at her.

"That was quite the entrance." Rukia said.

"Just shut up." Ichigo snapped.

"Are you still upset about earlier?" Rukia asked curiously.

"No." Ichigo replied stubbornly.

"Why do you care so much anyway? I thought you said you didn't care what people thought of you." Rukia inquired.

"I don't! I'm not upset okay!"

"You are."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'M NOT! I'M FINE!" Ichigo yelled, causing everyone in the room to turn to them in the back. The teacher muttered something about them needing to be quiet. The teacher was a very small man, and the last thing that he wanted was to get beaten up by this orange-haired detention thug. Ichigo just scowled and put his head on his desk. Damn Rukia. He got to thinking though. Why did he care so much about earlier today? It was just a teacher being stupid. And a rumor that spread around the school. Ichigo was used to people talking about him by now. People always talked about his weird hair color. His hair being orange was the reason he had gotten beat up in middle school. So if that hadn't bothered him for years, why did he care so much now? Was it because Rukia was involved? No, what difference did she make. She was just the slightly annoying shinigami that he was stuck with. That was all she was to him. At least that's what he believed.

"So what do we do here?" Rukia whispered to Ichigo.

"You just sit here for awhile. It's supposed to be punishment." Ichigo said. Looking around the room, the class was not very well controlled. That's probably because the teacher was such a coward.

"Hmm…some punishment." Rukia said and started tapping her fingers on the desk growing bored. Ichigo sat up, looking over at her. He really wanted to ask her if she was feeling uncomfortable about what happened earlier today. But he didn't want to come off as all sappy. Or maybe even give her the wrong idea about…well them. But was that idea really so wrong? Ichigo wasn't so sure at the moment. His train of thought was broken when some upper-classman came over to Rukia's desk and leaned on it. He grinned at her.

"Hey I heard that you're the girl that'll make-out with any guy during class?" He said. All this did was piss Rukia off. She glared at him. He wasn't worth her goody-goody act.

"I don't know where you heard that, but you couldn't be more wrong. Now leave me alone." She said and looked away from him.

"Well hey now; you made-out with this carrot-top didn't you? You must be a whore if you were-" The boy said but before he could finish his sentence, Ichigo punched him right in the face. The entire class looked at the scene in shock.

"No one…calls my friend a whore. Now beat it or I'll kick your ass more!" Ichigo threatened. The boy was probably more of a coward than the teacher, because he just rushed back to his desk. Ichigo sat back down, folding his arms. He didn't say a word to Rukia or anyone for the rest of the detention period. He didn't even glance over to Rukia. Rukia on the other hand was pretty shocked by this. Ichigo had…stood up for her. He punched a man that had insulted her. He probably knew that she could have taken care of him herself. Even with Ichigo having most of her shinigami powers, she was still a pretty strong woman. Ichigo knew that. But he had decided to take care of it himself. And Rukia was extremely grateful for that.

After the detention period was over, the teacher came over and managed to find the words to speak to Ichigo. He assigned him another week of detention for punching another student. Ichigo still didn't say a word and just took the slip, walking out without a word. Rukia followed behind him. The two walked in silence for a few blocks, neither one saying a word. Rukia looked at Ichigo, wondering just what was on his mind. He looked so serious. Rukia knew that Ichigo was a pretty serious person most of the time, but the only time she saw him this serious was when he was fighting a Hollow. At school, she noticed that Ichigo was a bit more relaxed. Rukia was a little concerned about him. She knew that she had to do with him being like this as well. She stopped walking entirely, looking down at the ground. Ichigo took notice of this a moment later. Turning his head, he looked back at her. Rukia looked up at him when she sensed his eyes on her.

"Ichigo…I want to thank you for standing up for me back in the classroom. I really appreciate it." Rukia said. She looked back down after she spoke these words. A moment of silence passed between the two of them. Rukia sighed quietly. But then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Ichigo.

"I don't stand for people who insult my friends. Rukia…you're important to me. You're my…friend." Ichigo paused, as if another word other than 'friend' had crossed his mind. "I won't let jerks like him do things like that to you. I promise." He even smiled a bit at her. At this, Rukia couldn't help but smile back at him. Ichigo was…he was really something else. She never met a person quite like him.

"Thank you Ichigo." Rukia said. Ichigo nodded and they started to walk again. "Hey, maybe tomorrow we can do something fun after school." Rukia said. "Oh wait you have detention." She remembered.

"Yeah…don't remind me." Ichigo grunted. At this, Rukia just laughed a bit. Ichigo smiled slightly when he heard her laugh. The two walked home together, both of them wearing a smile.