I'm going to apologize before hand (and after) For any spelling and grammar mistakes you find I try to get them all but it's difficult to get all .


The heat was suffocating , she couldn't figure where it was coming from . Every thing was dark and empty like every other night . It was the reason she hated to sleep. The feeling of being alone and cold haunted her even after regaining her powers . With every breath she was becoming more conscious regaining her seances . The aroma of coffee hung in the air urging her further to reality .

Opening her eyes Ichigo's brain was hazy , it felt like she was asleep far longer then normal and by the way the sun was shining through the window it must have been late morning .

Shifting her gaze the noted the blanket on the floor. It could be the reason she was sweating .

Leaving the room , she made her way down the hall to the kitchen where the smell of the coffee was coming from . Hoping she would find a bed headed Byakuya standing there lazily sipping coffee. Instead she found the small figure of Yoruichi in her cat form , licking coffee from an abandoned mug .

"Yo Ichigo glad to see your up, thought you where dead." Moving her head up too look at her she gave Ichigo a cat smirk.

" Typical of you not to dare check ." Moving towards the fridge , she searched for something to eat. "What time is it ?"

" Eleven fourtyish ." Sleeping in was something Ichigo hated , just wasting part of a day away when you could be doing something better.

"Damn , Hey where you the one who got me a blanket last night?" Biting down on an apple from the fridge raising her eye brows at the cat .

"Nope , Maybe you sleep knit Ichigo ." The statement made her smile . It was a silly theory . " We both know that's more likely then the other option ."

"True, speaking of the other option where is he?"

"Work." Yoruichi jumped from the counter to the the floor softly giving her tail a small flick .

"That's gonna go over well." Sarcastically , she took another bite into the apple , "I bet there will be no one else working there by the end of the day ."

" Always such a pessimist eh Ichigo ?" She paused for a second. "Go shower you smell ."

"Subtle ," Tossing the apple core in the garbage she left for the nearest shower , amazed at the size of the bathroom .

She took an abnormally long shower , it's not like she had anything better to do today , Well Byakuya got to spend his days doing something at a job , they left Ichigo coped up in the house with nothing to do .

Ichigo was not good at doing 'nothing.' After her shower she sat on the couch for about ten minutes flicking aimlessly through the channels before giving up , moving on to the computer . She Accepted the fact she could not play solitary her focus rotated to searching the house for any bugs soul society may have installed to watch them .

The door bell was her savior when it rang . Making her to the front hall she swung open the door , reviling an overly peppy American blonde couple . They where maybe in there early thirties . The girl had her hair chopped to her chin framing her petite face and blue eyes . Her husband's hair was think and styled up . Both of them wore grins on there face .

"Welcome to the neighborhood !" The petite blonde woman said. " We're the Dudley's . I'm Jamie , and this is my husband Zachary ."

"Nice to meet you I'm Ic- Mai , Mai Tusskio . I would love to introduce you to my husband Kenta but he's at work right now ." She suddenly felt under-dressed in her own house . Wearing gray yoga pants and a pink tank top .

"Oh that's fine , I'm sure we will meet him soon." Zachary piped in .

"Would to like to come in ? I'm sure he will be home soon ."

"Oh no , we couldn't intrude ." Both there faces looked curious to what the inside of the house looked like .

"Trust me you wouldn't be intruding , I have been very bored today . I would love to have some company ." A phoney smile found it's way to Ichigo's lips and she ushered the pair in .

"Are you two originally from here?" The question slipped out before she could stop it .

"Oh golly no . This is where we came for our honeymoon." Sharing a secret smile with her husband she continued . " We just fell in love with it so we moved here ."

" Oh. Would you like some tea. " She wanted to change the subject from there love story , to really anything else .

" That would be lovely , we'll take any kind." Smiling Ichigo left the room , ignoring the smirking cat watching her she pored water into a kettle .

Just gotta get through this alone till Byakuya get's home . Her day would have been easier if she hadn't invited the Dudley's in but the boredom had taken over her actions . And soon enough she found her self conversing with normally with the pair .

Ends up that Zachary worked for Byakuya's company , and Jamie was a nurse at the local clinic .

An hour passed quickly just sitting there with the pair . They seemed overly interested in what Ichigo had to say. No matter how minor it was .

The sound of the door opening broke , the pair from telling what would have been a very long boring story .

" I guess Kenta's home. Kenta ?" Byakuya paused in the door way at the sound of her voice Why is she calling me by my alias ?. His question was answered when he walked in the living room seeing the orange haired woman sitting across from two strangers .

"Yes, I see we have guests." His deep voice ran through the room.

"This is Jamie and Zachary Dudley . Zachary works for your company Hun ."

"Yes , it's a pleasure to meet you , but we really have troubled Mai for to long we should get going." Jamie stood dragging her husband to her feet with her too . " You should have dinner at our house some time."

"That would be lovely." Leading them to the door Ichigo pasted a smile on her face ushering them out. Closing the she fell against the frame. " Oh thank god."

"If you have a guest you don't like , just tell them to leave . " Taking of his jacket, he gained an 'Are you stupid look' from her

"Great plan." Sarcastically she continued. "Too bad we all aren't emotionless bastards like you." Something in her words did hurt him .

" I thought you where the type to speak your mind. You used to " Retorting back .

" Maybe it's because I've been cooped up in here , and I jump at the chance to talk to some one , I'm going stir crazy Byakuya!" Internally Byakuya laughed .

"One day , it takes one day of normal solitude to break the infamous Ichigo Kurosaki.. Maybe you should take up a hobby . "

" There is no good hobby 's here Byakuya !"

"Collect stamps." The smallest smirk found it's way to his lips as he watched her face get red in anger .

"I'm not even gonna...scratch that if you didn't live here I would kick your butt to the curb ." His stomach rumbled he hadn't eaten since lunch .

"Kurosaki , I do believe it is the common house wive thing to make food. And I believe it's that time.'" None of the previous comments would have helped the build up to this point .

"Make you own god damned food." Throwing the nearest object , which was a plastic plant at him she headed out of the room.

"Kurosaki."

"I don't want to hear a single thing from you , I'm pissed Kuchiki." That was the first time she had called him by anything but his first name. Honestly he liked getting her angry at him it made him know he would be on her mind until she cooled down .

She spent the next two hours alone sitting cross legged in front of the fire place , just staring at the burnt wood rambling on in her head about how people where idiots .

"Ichigo." Byakuya spoke somewhere behind here.

"What!" There was a pause before he spoke.

"You can sleep upstairs tonight."

"What? Why?" She turned on her butt to face him.

"I figured we could rotate , this way I wouldn't wake you every morning and at least half the weak we both get a good sleep." Byakuya seemed so nonchalant about this , it was his way of apologizing for pissing her off .

"Oh . That's shockingly considerate of you Byakuya ," The fake mockery in her voice , made it obvious she was still angry at him.

"Go upstairs Kurosaki so I can sleep."

"No."

"Upstairs Kurosaki now."

"No." Walking forward , he glared at her.

"I swear if you put a single hand on my Kuchiki I will" It was to late , he's tossed her over his shoulder and was already walking up the stairs . "Byakuya!" Emerging into the bed room he dropped her on the bed and left closing the door behind him. "Bastard." She muttered to her self before changing into light pajamas .

Laying on the bed she breathed in and sighed .It smells like him . She thought hugging the sheets to her she fell to sleep quickly and deeply.

A loud squeaking beeping noise in her ears snapped her out of her sleep. The near by alarm clock was going off . It was only 2 am . Grumbling slightly she walked over banging her hand on it to shut it up. Nothing happened . Picking the thing up she wobbled her way down stairs with the annoying object .

"Byakuya! Shut your bloody clock up!" Not the normal morning greeting you would want to hear , but he expected nothing less.

She couldn't see him but she could tell he was in front of her as another hand began fumbling with the clock in her hand. He was close to her so very close she could hear his quite tired breaths . With the slide of a button the clock was off.

"Lower your voice Kurosaki , and go back upstairs ."

"Fine ." Handing of her new most hated item in the house to him she walked back up the stairs plopping onto the bed .

The rest of the night went by with out an interruption .

It was Saturday , which means Byakuya didn't work trying to deiced whether that was a good or a bad thing she half dazed walked down stairs to the kitchen . He wasn't their. Moving on she stumbled down the basement stairs to their private training area . Surprisingly that's where he was.

She watched him silently amazed . She's only ever seen him fight with a sword or kido . Never hand on hand . I guess it didn't surprise her to find out her was good . But she never thought he would make it so hard to look away.

He was in the middle of blue mats set up like in professional rings He was dressed only in a pair of black jogging pants his bare chest visible his mussels moving with him . Doing some sort of Kong-foo . Kicking up higher and faster , then she ever thought he was capable he slowly revolved on the spot moving his arms in an almost hypnotizing fashion

She was amazed just by watching him . His eyes met hers but he didn't stop. Instead he beckoned her to join him .

Walking forward he looked at her , she was dressed basically in the same thing as the previous day .

"no shoes." He noted .

Removing them , she stepped onto the mat raising her arms in one of the many fighting positions .

She made the first move aiming for his chest , he blocked it easily grabbing her wrist .

"Not fast enough , again." Moving faster she ducked under his kick elbowing him in the side . "Good." Jumping into a buttery kick she blocked it on the out side of her wrists wincing with impact .

"Dammit Byakuya." Sliding on her back and knees between his legs she kicked him from behind causing him to roll to save him self from a harsh impact.

Before she knew it she felt her self falling towards the ground instinctively she tried to move to a roll position but something held her in place.

With a thud her back hit the mat , Byakuya's hands pinning her arms his left knee holding her legs down . A sharp pain rolled up her spine

"Holy shit! Dammit my gigai's not used to his Byakuya !"

"If you can still breathe ." Grabbing her wrist he pulled her to her feet. " You can still fight." For a moment she was distracted by the sweat glistering Byakuya's chest .

" Old motto?"

"Your new one." With that he swung again watching her dodge his hit he admired the beauty . " Live by it ."


I apologize for spelling and grammar mistakes I really do try to fix them but I know some slip by me . I'd love your reviews , and next chapter will probably start more of the romance but you'll just have to wait (Winkey faces are unprofessional so just imagine one there ).I'll try to get at least 1 chapter up a week. I write faster when you feed me with reviews just a tip .

2400+ words

~Fred