Chapter 2 - Answering Questions
Monday was a relief for Rukia and Ichigo. Well, in a way it was. Sure, they got to school and it was easy to avoid each other. But dealing with the questions of persistent classmates? Well, that was less then fun.
"I'm tell you, nothing happened!" Rukia insisted during lunchtime. She was sitting with Orihime and her friends under their usual tree, trying to convince them that nothing had happened between her and Ichigo. The girls were far from believing her though.
"That's not possible!" Michiru said. The others nodded in agreement.
"Why not?" Rukia asked patiently. She had to be patient; the alternative was losing her temper completely, and that would tip everyone off.
"Well, when you left you were...uh..."
"Kinda close," Chiziru filled in the words.
"Oh that," Rukia's mind worked quickly, "Well, you know, someone spiked the punch, and Ichigo had a lot of it, and I just wanted to make sure he got home okay because he didn't seem to be himself...and it's a good thing I went too, he almost got hit by a car on the way!"
Well, at least that part was true. "Really?" the girls exchanged wide-eyed looks. Rukia could tell they weren't buying any other part of her story though. "But that doesn't explain why you guys were making out in the corner," Michiru said after a second. Everyone nodded in agreement.
Think fast, think fast... "We weren't!" Yeah, that's absolutely brilliant Rukia
"Oh yeah," Tatsuki said in a sarcastic voice, "I forgot, there were just so many spiky-orange haired boys and impossibly short black-haired girls with violet eyes there, it was hard to tell one apart from the other"
"Am I really that short?" Tatsuki was incredibly lucky she wasn't Ichigo; otherwise Rukia might have hit her.
"Rukia!"
"Listen," Rukia put on her 'patient' face again, "I swear to you, absolutely nothing happened. Really. If it did, I'd tell you"
"Really?"
"Yes," she smiled, "After all, friends don't keep secrets, right?"
That grounded the persistent girls. They exchanged looks, suddenly guilty. Rukia knew she should have felt bad about pulling out a card like that, but hell, she was tired of being questioned, and tired of telling the same lies over and over. So what was one more small one to get them to leave her alone? After a second of silence they started talking about the party again, but thankfully it was nothing related to Rukia and Ichigo. Happy about this, Rukia was now eager to join in the conversation.
Up on the roof, Ichigo was being put through the same kind of torture. "Come on!" Keigo whined, "You're telling us absolutely nothing happened?!"
"Yes!" Ichigo said angrily, "Would you just drop it already?"
"I don't believe you," Keigo folded his arms stubbornly.
"Look," Ichigo rounded on his soon-to-be-dead friend, "Thanks to you, ya freakin' idiot, Rukia ended up drunk, and I just wanted to make sure she got home all right. We happen to live down the same way, so it wasn't exactly inconvenient. I got her home, made sure she was okay, and then went home myself. That's all. And if you bring up the damn story again, you're going to get flying lessons the hard way. Got it?"
Keigo nodded, now scared, and scrambled away from Ichigo, so that he was sitting next to Mizuiro. The two started talking about the party again. "What's he talking about anyway?" Ichigo looked over at Uryu and Chad, who had both been sitting by silently. Neither of them had gone to the party.
"Oh, stupid moron over there," Ichigo jerked his thumb at Keigo, "spiked the punch. So you know, kids ended up drunk, they thought they saw things they really didn't..."
"Like what?"
"Oh uh..." Ichigo ran his hand through his hair, "Uh...they thought they saw Rukia and I kissing"
Even Chad looked shocked. "We weren't!" Ichigo added quickly, "We weren't, really! It's like I told Keigo, Rukia ended up drunk thanks to him, so I wanted to make sure she got home okay. But you know, people saw us leave together, they started talking. Nothing happened though, really. I mean, for one thing Rukia's my friend. For another," he looked over at Keigo and Mizuiro to make sure they weren't paying attention. They weren't. Ichigo lowered his voice anyway, "I seriously doubt the Soul Society would be okay with something like that. And Rukia's not stupid, she wouldn't put her life in danger. Again"
It was easy to convince Chad and Uryu nothing had happened. Of course, Ichigo could use certain things to his advantage with them that he couldn't with anyone else; both of them knew all about the Soul Society and Rukia, and it made life so much easier at times like this. "I think the best part was when Aiko started stripping"
"Yeah, does anyone know how much of the punch she had?"
"When the hell did that happen?" Ichigo asked, despite himself.
"Oh, right before you and Rukia left, when you were the corner-"
"Keigo?"
"Yeah?"
"How much punch did you have?"
"None," Ichigo's blood ran cold, "My sister would have murdered me if I showed up at home drunk"
Ichigo cornered Rukia after school. He knew damn well it was going to look bad, but he didn't care. "What else do you remember from the party?" he asked as soon as he grabbed her.
"Wha-oh, jeez Ichigo, don't do that"
"Just tell me what you remember!"
"Someone's in a bad mood," she commented, pulling her arm out of his grip, "I remember going with you and Orihime...and I remember drinking the punch..."
"That's not much"
"Well what do you remember?"
"Not much"
They both sighed. "So, together again?" a sly voice said from behind Ichigo. They both jumped and looked around. Mizuiro, Keigo, Tatsuki, and Orihime were watching them, all with knowing smiles. Ichigo and Rukia exchanged glances, and realized just how close to each other they really were. They both jerked away at once.
"Keigo, rot in hell," Ichigo muttered as he tried to come up with excuses.
"What, it's not my fault if the two of you have the hots for each other," Keigo laughed, "Come on, why don't you just kiss already, you had no problem doing it at the party-"
Before Ichigo could do anything, Rukia flung her schoolbag as hard as she could at Keigo. It nailed him right in the face. Tatsuki, Mizuiro, and Orihime all gasped. Even Ichigo was shocked. Sure, Rukia had a temper, but she always kept in check at school. Well, around other people, anyway. And she'd certainly never hit anyone besides Ichigo. It'd been a long day though, and Ichigo knew it; he knew, without knowing how he knew, that she'd endured the same torrent of questions he had, and he knew there was only so much a person could take before they snapped.
Mizuiro leaned over Keigo, his eyes wide. "Er...Keigo? Are you okay?"
Tatsuki laughed appreciatively, "Well, looks like Rukia has a tough side after all"
Ichigo looked back at Rukia, and saw that she was focusing intently on the ground. He decided not to try and talk to her. She lived in his closet, after all, she could do things to him when he was sleeping. Without looking at any of them she walked away, stopping long enough to stoop down and grab her bag. "Ow..." Keigo muttered as he sat up, "Did she really just whip her bag at me?"
"No, you imagined it," Ichigo muttered sarcastically, "See what you get for pushing your luck?"
"Dude, never knew that chick was so aggressive"
Ichigo shook his head, sighing, "Well, if you morons are done jumping to conclusions, I'm going home. I have homework. I'm sure you guys have heard of it," he walked away without another word. He was aggravated, he was tired, and now he was a little weary of talking to Rukia. If she was actually willing to hit one of her classmates, he shuddered to think what she'd do to him.
Rukia didn't go back to Ichigo's. She wasn't in the mood to talk to her orange-haired friend, and she knew he was going to want to talk the second they saw each other. So instead she just wandered downtown.
She felt truly bad about what she did to Keigo. But after spending the day answering to, "So did you and Kurosaki do it?" Keigo's comments had been the absolute last straw. Still, she felt bad. She was going to have to figure out a way to make up for it. And while she was at it, maybe she'd figure out a way to make this whole mess go away.
She needed to figure out a way to make people stop asking about her and Ichigo. Even though she'd said five hundred different times, "Ichigo and I are just friends, nothing happened," she knew those answers wouldn't satisfy people for long. Especially not when Keigo and Mizuiro got word out that they'd found Ichigo and Rukia together after school. Of course, after what Rukia had done, the two boys might just take that secret to the grave. But she couldn't take that chance.
You know, I don't know what the big deal, a voice in th back of Rukia's head piped up, I mean, it's not like you don't like Ichigo, so what's the big deal?
Shut up, another voice snapped, Ichigo can never be with her, you know that
Great, Rukia sighed, Now I have voices bickering in my head. This day just couldn't get any worse
Then she realized what the first voice had said. Wait a second! Who said I liked Ichigo?
Please, like we don't all know it, the first voice sounded happy, Even Keigo and Mizuiro see it. Hell, even Renji sees it
What the hell. Rukia shook her head. She was talking to voices in her head. She really was losing it. Hey, the second voice broke in, were you listening to what I said before? So what if she likes Ichigo? She can't have him!
And why not? The first voice challenged.
The Soul Society would never allow it
Who says the Soul Society has to know?
They'll find out. They have their ways
Well you don't have to be so pessimistic about it
I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being-
Rukia lost her patience. "Oh shut up!"
"Eh...Rukia?" her eyes widened as she looked around and found herself facing a very confused looking Orihime and Tatsuki.
"Oh hi!" Rukia quickly slipped back into her "innocent-school-girl" voice.
"Um...hi," Orihime said tentatively, "Are you...okay?"
"Yeah, never better," Rukia quickly smiled, "Oh, is Keigo okay? I didn't mean to do that to him, sometimes I just don't think before I act..."
"Keigo's fine," Tatsuki said simply, "That's not who we're here to talk about though"
"Oh really?" she tried to look curious, even though she had a feeling she knew what they wanted to talk about, "Then who?"
"You," bulls-eye
"I'm not really all that interesting"
"Rukia-"
"Listen," she cut Tatsuki off, "I'd love to stick around, but I really have to get home, my mom's going to start worrying. We'll talk later, okay? Bye!"
She took off without another word
Orihime and Tatsuki exchanged looks. "I thought we were going to tell her we know she was lying before?" Orihime asked finally.
"We were," Tatsuki shook her head, "Ichigo and Rukia are two very stubborn people, aren't they?"
"Sure are," Orihime nodded, "It's so obvious they like each other, and yet they just can't admit it"
"And after what might have happened Friday night..."
"That's it!" Orihime snapped her fingers, "It's time to take this into our own hands!"
"And by our own hands you mean..."
"We're going to get Ichigo and Rukia together ourselves!"
So now Orihime and Tatsuki are matchmakers. This oughta be interesting. Anyways, I know I said before this was a one-shot, but I got a lot of positive feedback on it, and people kept saying I should keep going...so, being the softy that I am, I typed another chapter. I'm going to see how well this chapter goes over, and if people like it enough, then I'll keep going. Anyways, let me know what you think. Oh, and for the record, I know Orihime has a crush on Ichigo herself, but considering I don't really care for the pairing Orihime/Ichigo, I figured why bother even putting it in - Sam
