Rukia covers my eyes from behind. "Don't you dare look." she orders.

I sigh. Why does she have to be so damn difficult all the time? "What, you want me to wear a blindfold or something?" I gripe. "It's a pool, Rukia. Everyone's in a swimsuit. Here, look." Just to prove my point, I shake off her hands and strip off my shirt, turning around. "See, now I'm half-naked, too . . ." I trail off.

And shamelessly stare.

There's a good 59% of my brain that's telling me to get it together and stop being such a pig, but-

Let me get one thing straight-I don't notice girls. I have no desire to date, kiss, or do anything with girls. It's not because I wouldn't if I could, it's because there is just too much going on in my life for me to also take up time thinking about the other gender. Maybe if I was a normal teenage boy, yes, I would spend more hours idly checking out babes and renting tuxes to go to dances and all that crap-but, not to be too blunt, I'm not a normal teenage boy, and I never have been. There's never been a girl I've been interested in as more than friends, and while I do notice particularly pretty or nice girls, I rarely feel anything other than casual interest.

I've never had my stomach sit up, take attention, and run circles around my rapidly beating heart, but that's the closest I can come to describing the reaction I have when my eyes land on Rukia in a swimsuit.

It's not like she's some model perfect-she's still short, small-chested, and glaring at me-but there's just . . . something. The way the blue material sweeps around her slim neck in a halter, or pulls in to the waist that I carelessly grabbed not one hour ago.

I notice.

"You're staring at me." she says, blunt, and then strikes a goofy pose. "Do I look that gorgeous?"

Spell broken as I remember who exactly I'm with, I throw a towel at her head. "What happened to being self-conscious?!"

Rukia laughs, takes the towel, and dances over to the locker room door, hovering, obviously waiting for me to go first. Fine. If that's how she wants it.

I growl and charge at her, catching her off guard as I plow into her waist and throw her over my shoulder. She shrieks, loud enough for the entire pool to hear, and I thrust my shoulder against the door, shoving it open and carrying her out to the pool as she pounds at my back, laughing. I'm laughing a little, too, as I make a beeline for the pool itself.

When she realizes I'm not stopping, Rukia starts to swear at me. "Ichigo, don't you dare-"

I jump in. Her voice is abruptly replaced by the sounds of water swirling into my ears, and I break the surface with her still clinging to me.

"I'm going to kill you." Deadly calm, too close to my ear for comfort. I go to shove her away, but she holds on tighter. "I can't swim, you idiot!"

"Wha-" I've been treading water for both of us, but now I almost let go. Hastily, I grab the side of the pool, guiding her hands to the concrete border. "You can't?"

"No." Much like a wet cat, she's clutching the side of the pool for dear life, holding herself up bodily, as much of herself out of the water as possible.

Unthinking, I put my hand on her lower back. "Let go." Her skin is warm under my hand, and I realize too late that familiarity of the gesture. Rukia lets go without compunction.

"Okay, now take the side with your hands." I demonstrate. "Let your legs float."

"How-" she begins.

"Relax." I order. "Kick your legs slowly to keep them up, if you have to."

She does as I say, and soon enough can easily stay afloat with only one hand holding on. I smile at her, proud despite myself. I can't help it-Rukia has taught me so much. It feels good to be able to return the favor.

"So, ready to try actual swimming?" I ask.

"Isn't that what this is?" she asks, alarmed. I gesture around to the rest of the pool. "How many people do you see hanging on to the edge of the pool like a drowning rat?"

She glares at me, and with her free hand splashes water in my direction. "Hey!" I protest, and she does it again. "Stop it!"

Again.

I tackle her once more, this time slower because of the water, and haul her away from the side. "Ahh!" she cries, panicked.

"I'm not gonna let you drown, geez!" I tell her, annoyed. "Besides, there's a lifeguard." I nod to where Ishida sits, in a tall chair shaded from the sun, looking like the tool he is with sunscreen caked on his nose and a very tight pair of Speedo shorts.

"I don't want to learn to swim!" Rukia tells me. "And that lifeguard isn't very reassuring!"

"It's okay." I growl. "I already said I won't let you-"

"I don't want to!" she insists.

"FINE!" I'm not going to force her. We drift in slow circles, Rukia holding onto my shoulders. "But you can't hang onto me the whole time."

"I won't. I'll hang onto someone else."

"Like who?"

"Like . . ." Rukia looks around. "Oh! Hi, Chad!" She waves enthusiastically, tightening her grip on me with her other hand. I look around for the first time and notice several of our friends milling around, some in the deep end, some sitting on deck chairs or at tables on the pool side. Most of them are eyeing us with expressions bordering on amusement.

"Yeah. You go annoy him." I shove Rukia towards the big guy, ignoring her flailing as she tries to make the few feet's distance herself. Chad grabs her before she goes under, and I swear he shoot me a look before he swings her out of the pool and onto the side, where she dips her legs in and looks prim. "Thank you." she says, and I can tell by the way she pitches her voice that it's more of a dig at me than anything else.

I resist the urge to flip them both the bird. I mean, come on-this really isn't my day. First Rukia goes all weird, licking my fingers and acting like Susie Sunshine, and then the whole swimsuit thing, and the swimming debacle-is the universe conspiring against me or what?

I swim laps, talk with my friends, and ignore Rukia. I get the feeling we've had a fight, but I don't even know what over, just that every time I see her I get annoyed, especially when she's chatting with some guys from another school, or jumping into the deep end, after much persuasion, into one of my buddies' arms. I also notice-while trying my best not to notice-that Keigo teaches her how to swim. So he's okay to teach her and I'm not? What happened to not wanting to learn how to swim?

It rankles me, not that I would ever admit it. After about an hour, I feel my shoulders getting hot and get out, heading into the locker room to get sunscreen out of my bag. Coming back out lathered up, I feel a stab of guilt. Rukia isn't the best at being grounded in the real world-she didn't put on sunscreen when we first went out, either, and probably doesn't even know what a sunburn is. She grew up in a netherworld, after all.

I swallow my pride. "Rukia!"

She looks up, expression obvious. I hear you but I'm not going to come.

I gesture for her to come here. She doesn't.

"Come here a second." I say, not yelling, but making it clear that I'm not asking. After another second to save face, she slowly gets out of the pool and takes her sweet time coming over to me. I grab her roughly by the arm-okay, I'm still a little annoyed-and drag her into the cool, stone locker room.

"What do you want?" she snaps, struggling. "Geez, Ichigo, let go of me!" I do, but only because I'd feel like a real creep if I didn't, and I already feel overprotective and controlling, so I don't need anything else added to the list.

"Sit down." I point at the nearest bench. Rukia looks about to protest, so I seize her by the shoulders and force her down. I can tell the manhandling is rankling her-so what? She started it . . . whatever "it" is.

I squirt a palmfull of sunscreen and start rubbing it over her back, which is slightly pink. She flinches at the cold and begins to writhe uncomfortably. "What are you doing?" she whines.

"Sunscreen. You're burning." I say shortly, depositing another handful onto her shoulders. This time I go a little more slowly-she's redder, here, probably already burnt badly. "So," I clear my throat, not sure how to continue but with the vague idea that I should. "You seemed to be having fun with the boys out there."

"Jealous?" she tosses over her shoulder, a throwaway remark that should have directed our conversation back into the familiar zones of argument, but instead lies heavy between us, a lead weight, gaining strength the longer it sits.

"No." I say after a pause, spreading lotion down her arms. "Just curious as to why it's okay for Keigo to teach you how to swim and not me."

She squirms. "I don't have to answer that."

"No." I pull back, finished, and wipe my greasy hands on my shorts. "And I don't have to buy you ice cream or take you to the pool. But we're friends, so I do." I pause significantly.

"It's nothing." Rukia lies. "It just seemed like a bad idea, and then a good idea later, and you weren't talking to me-"

"Because you got up on your high horse about something-"

"-and so I just . . . asked someone else." she keeps her tone light, but it's almost funny how pathetic her lying is. I can see through her as easily as myself-she might as well have been me. The only thing I can't see is why she's acting like this.

"Whatever. It's not like I care." I tell her, and wonder if she can see through my lies, too. "But I would have appreciated the truth."

Rukia turns. "Ich-" she starts, then falters. "Never mind."

"Yeah. I figured." I grab my bag and throw all of my stuff into it, shoving towel, clothes, sunscreen, all haphazardly, jerkily. Not caring. Being fine. "See you at home."

"Ichigo!"

"Have fun with your friends." Oh, I know I'm being dramatic. I know I'm acting like the world's biggest loser, and it's not cool for a guy to admit that he has hurt feelings-I know, but still I stalk out like the most ticked-off girlfriend in the world, theatrically shoving the door open and sailing away. Yeah, it's stupid, it's irrational, and it's admitting that I care-but I can't stop myself. I am hurt, I am angry, and for some unfathomable reason, I'm pissed at every guy at the pool who so much as looked at Rukia.