AHEM. This is Lauran (the author) speaking here. Several parts of the story might possibly be changed or taken out, especially the season during which this takes place. Characters may be added in at one point, due to my lack of knowledge of most of Ichigo and Inoue's class. Sorry if this upsets you.
(In the middle of January)
It was a cold winter day. A really cold winter day. You were walking to high school today, Thursday, since your mom had a business meeting.
'And she just has to have that business meeting on the coldest day of the year so far.' you bitterly thought, shivering and teeth chattering, and yet, switching the track of your thoughts from your (very) busy mother to your out-of-school job as a magician. Yes, a magician.
The outfit you wore while performing, both on the street and at various shows, was your favorite set of clothing of all time.
A long white cape and a silver masquerade-type mask, along with a smooth grey button-up vest.
Everyone who watched your performances knew that you were in fact, a girl. They didn't mind. Your tricks, words and art of fiddling with the mind enchanted and dazzled them every time, and as far as you knew, that's all they cared about. And quite a number of people at school knew about your talent for magic and illusion-creating, causing many to pressure you into competing in the talent show this year.
Being a quite short-tempered person, you had had enough of all their nagging, and decided to enter the competition this year to keep your fans quiet. Whenever you passed one of them in the hallway, there was a 13.5 chance that they would drop to their knees, tell you what a great magician you are and that you would be the obvious winner of the talent show.
Naturally, this embarrassed you greatly, and you didn't want the other person to humiliate themselves like that, so you tended to walk faster in the halls to avoid such situations.
And of course, that was the reason you became fully aware of Ichigo Kurosaki.
You had just gotten to school, already late, hands nearly frozen and your nose cherry-red. You had put the hood of your black jacket (black: for heat absorbing!) on, but that didn't protect your poor nose from the cold. As you ran eagerly into the school, the wonderful, glorious feeling of heater-produced warmth hit your body, heating up the parts of your body that had grown cold and chilled.
'Oh! That's right. I always have street performances in the park on Thursdays. I better finish my homework in study hall today! Otherwise, mom's gonna bother me about the importance of knowing your priorities, and dad won't really bother trying to stop my mom from giving me a lecture,' you chuckled at the next thought.
'He knows that if he tries to halt her speech, she'll turn around and tell him about encouraging me to be more of a student than a magician. And then she'll say, "After all, you were the one to raise her to learn all those magic tricks!" and continue her lecture. It happens every time…' you thought. Suddenly, your train of thoughts was interrupted as you crashed into someone who had just entered the classroom before you, snapping you out of your trance.
"HEY! Watch where you're going!" this person scolded you as you looked up into their face.
'Bright orange hair, an unmistakable "always annoyed" personality… Heh. That can only be one person.' You thought, and quietly chuckled.
'Ichigo Kurosaki.'
"Are you laughing at me?" he accused. "What'd I do?"
"Oh, you didn't do anything, don't worry. It was I bumped into you! Gomen!" you apologized hastily. Inoue was glaring at you intently, determined to burn you with her gaze. You even held your hands up slightly, showing that you didn't mean any harm.
Then, to try to ease the tension between you two… or three, including Inoue, you pulled a bouquet of flowers from nowhere and threw it to her. "Here, Inoue."
You then proceeded to ask Ichigo, "Is there anything you want me to do now to further apologize?" in a cautious tone. You didn't want him to beat you up like he did with the other people who really angered him.
But the expression on Ichigo's face surprised you. Instead of being his usual grimace and "pissed off" look, he had a smirk on his face. Your eyes widened slightly before returning to your original expression.
"So you're the school's top magician. Heh. There've been quite a few people talking about you," he said, the smirk still on his face.
"So? Would you like to challenge me or something?" you questioned. "If so, I'd be more than happy to –"
"Whoa. Easy. I wasn't gonna challenge you to a magic duel or anything. You're definitely better than me at magic," he said.
Then, as the entire class leaned in, interested in your conversation, you whispered to him, "Ok. Come to the park after school. I'll be there doing a street performance. Watch if you want to. I've got better things to be doing than continuing this conversation right now. Class is starting!"
After that comment, the teacher walked in, and the class took their seats. "Good morning class!" she chirped.
FAST-FORWARD TO AFTER SCHOOL ENDS
You raced out of the girls' bathroom with your backpack, after adjusting your mask one more time, towards the park. You had stayed in school a tiny bit later today in order to finish all your homework.
In ten minutes, you had set up your "usual spot" (kingdom hearts fans, remember that name?) and all your illusions for today were ready. Your heart was racing, and excitement dwelled in your heart.
'Today's the day! That new magic trick Dad helped me perfect will bring some more bystanders to watch my performance. I can't wait! Heh. The look on Ichigo's face will be priceless,' you thought.
A grin formed on your face as you saw Ichigo and the new transfer student, Kuchiki, walk to a secluded area near your "stage". Some of the usual onlookers had seated themselves on a bench across from you, smiling and saying things like, "Hey there! What sort of tricks have you got in store for us this time?"
You merely smiled back and replied, "Don't worry. I'll make sure that you enjoy today's show."
Inoue walked past you, suddenly seemed to recognize you, turned around and said, "Oh hello! You're that magician that someone told me was entered in the talent show this year. Fancy seeing you here. Do you mind if I stick around to watch your show?"
"Not at all. I'm just about to begin," you told her, a devious grin on your face.
You raised your hands in the air, clapped them, and took them apart to reveal a group of beautiful black butterflies. They flew out of your hands and into the gentle breeze that blew through a few strands of your hair.
A few members of your audience gasped in delight, watching with mouths open, gazing at the beauty of the tiny creatures.
"And that's not all…" you muttered. These people were obviously easily amused.
You yanked your coal-colored cape around to cover up your body, only revealing your eyes, which now had a mischievous glint in them. Then, you flung your cape open again to reveal a dove sitting patiently in your hand, cooing.
It was then that you noticed Inoue had gone somewhere else.
'She's most likely gone to look for Ichigo…'
You then let it fly away. Then, you pulled out a small packet from your sleeve. You showed it around before throwing it abruptly on the ground, creating a fog around the performance area that took up about 15 square feet. From the midst of the eerie fog, you flipped a bunch of cards through and they blew away some of the mist. You picked up the cards again, but the audience noticed… that they were all stacked in a perfectly neat pile!
A few members of the audience clapped, beaming at the fantastical tricks you were playing on their minds.
By then, Kuchiki and Ichigo were done with whatever they were doing in that secluded area, so they came over to watch your magic show.
You glanced at them and briefly smiled before launching a rose into the air. You clapped your hands together and threw another rose into the air, except this one was
white and the other one was red. You caught one in each hand and twirled around in circles, your cape swinging behind you.
All of a sudden, while in the middle of a twirl, you threw the roses into the air, but along with them, a whole bunch of yellow roses and sakura flower petals appeared. The audience really went wild after that demonstration.
Several minutes later, you had finished your show, but Ichigo and Kuchiki had stayed behind to talk to you.
"How'd you do it?" Ichigo asked, a smirk on his face.
"A good magician never reveals her secrets," you answered, returning the smirk.
A Few Months Later…
You had now become a close friend to Ichigo, and secretly had a crush on him. Although, you had only informed Kuchiki of this, and made her give her word to never reveal it to him. She didn't seem the type to gossip about these sort of things, anyway. You had pondered this notion of having a crush on Ichigo Kurosaki, but couldn't make any sort of conclusion about it.
After school
CRASH! You heard a noise coming from downstairs, you were in your room finishing your homework.
'What the hell happened?' you thought. Deciding not to pay attention to the crash, you turned back to your paper and wrote the last sentence of your essay.
Suddenly, you heard a shrill scream, and you leapt out of your swivel chair and dashed out of your room to find your dad sprawled on the floor, blood slowly spilling out of his back, and your mom, backing up toward the stairs, shaking in fear.
"MOM! What h-" You noticed some huge deformed creature lurching toward her, and you instantly went stiff.
"MOM, GET OUT OF HERE!" you shrieked. She turned around and yelled back, "Honey, get out of here! Use one of those magic tricks of yours!"
You ran down, despite your ever-growing shock, and stuffed two small smoke bombs in her hands. "Throw this as hard as you can on the floor, get Dad, and take him to the hospital. I'll distract that thing!" And before she could say one of her motherly protests, you dashed up the stairs, and unleashed a flock of pigeons onto the monster's body.
Your mom did as you told her to, and suddenly, a grey fog was shrouding the rest of the room. You backed up against the wall of the stairs, listening carefully for any sudden movements. After a few seconds of silence, a gigantic hand knocked you off your feet and dragged you into the air. Your feet dangled in the air, and you felt a rough grip squeezing most of your body. A cut was on your cheek, and it stung. You winced as the smoke finally cleared up and you were gazing upon the horrific face of the monster that had invaded your home.
A loud "CRASH" echoed through the room as a window broke and the first thing you noticed… was bright orange. A sword swung out of nowhere, a breeze trailing after it as it traveled swiftly through the air. The arm that was holding you captive dropped to the floor, unattached to its former owner. The figure that had burst through your window stood up, sword in hand, and a glare directed at the monster. You could only see his back, but you noticed that he had bright orange hair…
"Get away from the hallow!" he muttered, just so you could barely hear him. His gaze at the hideous creature in front of you never once faltered as you scrambled up the stairs, horrified at what had happened in just a few minutes. The hallow swung its one good arm around, trying to knock him off of balance, and maybe kill him in the process. As your brain seemingly overworked in order to come up with explanations for all this, another thump sounded as another person jumped through the broken window and into your house.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" you screamed, convinced that you had gone completely insane. You touched the cut you had on your cheek and felt a sharp pain run through you. You gulped.
'Oh my god… this is all real…' you concluded, slightly shivering at this discovery.
The man with orange hair turned around to look at your condition, while you froze, pleading for some way to understand this situation.
For there, in front of you, stood Ichigo Kurosaki and Kuchiki. You had so many questions about all this…
'But for some strange reason, I don't feel that this is the right moment to ask questions,' you thought sarcastically.
"Rukia, go over there and get out of here," he stated… more like commanded. Nonetheless, Kuchiki… Rukia?... whoever she actually is… jumped amazingly high and lifted herself over the banister and got back on her feet. You tried to squeeze yourself as flat as you could against the wall, but she pulled you along, and practically threw you out the window. You resisted, insisting that you needed to help Ichigo, but she merely smirked and said bluntly, "No."
You muttered, "Fine," and jumped out the window (you're on the first floor, don't worry.) onto the grassy lawn. After 'whatever her name is' followed you out, you sneaked behind her slowly, pretending to follow her to another secluded area, you jumped on her, shrieking like a mad person. She was caught off-guard, since she had been expecting you to still be paralyzed by fear. She jumped into the air, startled. You took this chance to make a dash into the house.
You noticed that Ichigo was flung into your staircase, creating a large dent in your stairs, with pieces of wood broken. The hallow was lunging toward him, mouth open. You took a nearby flowerpot and flung it at the creature.
It swung around, looking you in the eye with its apparently soulless eyes. You winced and screamed in pain at its sharp claws piercing your arm. Blood was slowly flowing out, and you were preparing yourself for death. You feared for your mom and dad, who would come home sometime after Dad was treated, only to find your brutally torn apart figure.
'The Grim Reaper might as well show up, now…' you thought, your vision fading, your eyes closed, ready for the next life.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!!" a voice called out. You suddenly jolted awake again to find Ichigo slicing his sword through the monster's neck. A large cut was visible on his arm, but he continued his attack on the hallow. A THWOCK was heard, and the head of the monstrous thing had been chopped off of its original owner.
The head fell onto the wooden floor of your house, and blood dripped out, slowly forming a puddle on the wooden floor. You could see the torn ligaments of its neck muscles if you examined it closely, but you didn't want a close-up view of the bloody body part.
The body of the hallow collapsed onto the floor, dragging you with it. But Ichigo yanked you out of the fading grasp of the spirit and held you close, protecting you from the large cloud of dust as Rukia watched from the doorway, an eyebrow slightly raised.
"How protective of you, Ichigo-san," she said, not conveying any emotions. Ichigo noticed how close he had brought you to him, and you looked up into his brown eyes, which widened slightly to show surprise. He had a "tough-guy" image to maintain, though…
Ichigo quickly put you down on your feet, his face returning to its usual small frown.
"Are you ok?" he asked you, turning you around and checking for any gashes or deep wounds.
You pointed to the cut on your cheek. Some blood had oozed out of it, but not much. He glanced at it and said, "It's not bad. Just don't touch it."
You nodded, staying silent, pondering how this all could have happened. But you decided not to ask all the questions you had at the sudden crash of Kuchi – uhh – Rukia… and Ichigo bursting through a window into your house. You agreed to yourself that you'd ask the questions later… if the two of them didn't explain everything to you, that is.
"Ok. Now that that's over, I need to do something," Rukia said. She pulled out a ducky tube thing that looked like a gum dispenser. You stared at it in confusion, wondering, 'She needs some gum to chew?' You looked to Ichigo, but he looked as if he were thinking about something.
She suddenly raised it to your face, and you looked at her queerly. You were pondering if she had some sort of mental problem going on.
"I'm sorry we have to do this to you, but we have no choice," Rukia told you. You were prepared to try and knock her out with some magic trick, when Ichigo's hand shot up and took the gum dispenser from her hand.
"What – I – she needs…" she stammered, until Ichigo interrupted her confusion to say something.
"I think we can trust her…" he murmured. But Rukia looked at him strangely, and countered, "BUT, we have to tell her the rest of –" and was interrupted by him again.
"Yeah, yeah. I know that, so let's get to it. I want to be home on time for dinner, so my dad doesn't try to kick my ass or something like that," he grumbled, looking away.
Then, Rukia took you firmly by the arm and dragged you off to what was left of a beautiful leather couch. She sat down, dragging you with her, and took a deep breath.
"WELL? Tell her!" Ichigo spat out, apparently not in a good mood… as usual.
"I'm getting there, baka (idiot)!" she growled back.
He was about to shout something back, but after seeing the disapproving look on your face, he reluctantly turned around to calm himself down after contenting himself with saying, "I'll kill you later. Don't forget that."
You really needed to know the truth at this point. Rukia took another deep breath before diving into the long speech she was obliged to give in order to wipe the blank look off of your face. After forty minutes or so of endless talking and a question and answer session, Rukia slumped back for a few seconds for the long narrative and its facts to sink deep into your brain.
"Do you get it now?" she asked after a moment of silence.
"… Yeah," you answered. You couldn't believe how sweet Ichigo really was on the inside, because you had proof. What he said the day he took on Rukia's shinigami powers and the first time he ever saved a person...
There was a moment of silence, and you looked to Ichigo to see what he was doing, and softly chuckled to see Ichigo leaning against a wall, taking a nap.
'He must have gotten pretty bored,' you thought.
You stood up; daring to do something no one (outside of his family, perhaps) had ever tried to.
You were going to hug Ichigo Kurosaki.
As you approached him, you turned around to face Rukia. She raised an eyebrow, and you put your pointer finger to your lips to gesture for her to remain quiet. She smirked, getting an idea of what you were going to do, and nodded.
You slowly stepped up so that only a foot remained in between the two of you and paused to see if he moved or shifted, but nothing happened.
Getting rid of what little space was left between your bodies, you put your arms around him and squeezed a bit.
And you know what happened?
He hugged back, just like magic.