Chapter Four

Ichigo gaped once he focused on the tiny Chappy heading his direction. Her paws were droopy because her hands only reached the wrists of the costume. She was even walking funny because of the size of the costume. The bickering between a few female students about how Rukia wasn't an appropriate choice for the costume faded into the background.

Why? Why would Rukia dress up as Chappy? She's practically drowning in that costume and she's dragging the costume feet.

A few other classmates who had readily accepted it motioned towards her, "C'mon, Kuchiki!"

He could only mutely stare as Chappy joined the rest of the other classmates who had already gathered together. The buzz of reactions to Rukia in the costume among his classmates was drowned out by his thoughts as Ichigo watched her from afar.

Even Renji appeared as Ichigo watched him ruffle Chappy's head, chortling lightly while some female classmates encouraged and complimented her in the costume. While trying to dig up a reason why Rukia would dress up as Chappy, he was abruptly reminded of the hell week that she put him through simply because she knew that he didn't want anyone to know that he had to dress up as Chappy. Then why the sudden change of heart? Was Rukia actually being…thoughtful?

Nah…this is her chance to finally achieve her deranged fantasy of dressing up as Chappy.

Renji noticed Ichigo still standing alone and called out to him from the gathering, "Yo! C'mon,"

Shaking his head while fisting his hands in his pockets, Ichigo joined his class in front of the camera. He scanned the dozens of classmates around him for Chappy, who was standing next to Hinamori and the rest of the girls in his class.

Or maybe the brat has a conscience for blackmailing me.

"Okay, all together now!"

Ichigo observed the tiny Chappy who stood next to Hinamori, who was giggling because of her.

An arm rested on Ichigo's shoulder, and he turned his head to see Renji smirk at the tiny Chappy, "Surprised, huh?"

Ichigo was caught off guard, "What?"

Renji gestured to Rukia in the Chappy costume, "Isn't Chappy who you were looking at?"

He followed Renji's hand, observing Rukia one more time, "Y-yeah…"

"I'm surprised as you. Rukia doesn't usually do things like that. She tries to stay out of the limelight, y'know?"

Silently taken back by Renji's words, he responded by pushing Renji's arm off, "Guess her desire to be Chappy was greater than that,"

Renji snorted, "Guess so,"

Noticing the other students ready with interesting poses and smiles; Ichigo dully moved to face the camera even though temptation gripped him to return his attention to Chappy.

"Okay, 1…2…3!"

The class broke out with a loud "Chiizu!" as the camera flash greeted them.

Once the photos were finished, the class whooped and cheered as a few hands patted Ichigo's shoulder in congratulations for a successful booth. He shifted his head back to notice Renji straying away with other male classmates laughing and joking loudly. Instead of joining the guys, Ichigo struggled through the crowd of his classmates, searching for a particular bunny. After slipping out of the crowd, he noticed a few girls leave Chappy with a tiny wave.

Nonchalantly, he walked over to the now alone Rukia who then noticed him, "What are you, a dwarf Chappy?"

Without hesitation, Rukia proceeded to jab him in the stomach with her elbow, her Chappy head meeting his chin in the process. He let out a small cough while clutching his stomach though he had more trouble containing his grin. The midget was definitely leering at him on the inside of her costume.

He jammed his hands in his pockets as his eyes retreated back to the crowd of students that had just dispersed into smaller ones, "Don't think you're off the hook for blackmail,"

His words hit a nerve in Rukia as she stepped towards him, poking his chest with her paw, "That was a selfless act for our class, you ignorant fool," He merely returned her glare with a haughty expression; attempting to win an argument with Chappy was ridiculous.

She slightly retreated and crossed her arms, "And…I had to take on this duty because I couldn't bear to see you taint Chappy's image any longer,"

"Taint, my ass. I bet you just wanted to dress up as Chappy,"

Rukia's tiny hands molded into gripped fists as she glared at Ichigo from inside the smiling costume, "Shut up!"

Was Ichigo really that oblivious? She didn't dress up as Chappy for him to mock her like that. Although, she supposed it was reasonable- it was Ichigo. She didn't think he was the type who would get down on his knees and thank her profusely. Not she would have minded if he did. She inwardly smirked when she imagined him on his knees, doing just that with a dumb look on his face.

"Rukia! C'mon!" The two's attention shifted to the voice; it was Hinamori waving while Renji passed her with what seemed to be a heavy box.

"Oh! I"ll be there, Momo!"

"Are they already starting to clean up?"

Rukia nodded at him while stepping towards Hinamori, "Ah,"

She began to walk when she realized that Ichigo was still standing there, "Hey! Just because I wore the costume doesn't mean you're finished with your job!"

Without another word, he casually caught up with Rukia and ruffled her Chappy head messily, grunting a "Thanks," before heading off first towards Hinamori.

First surprised, then amused by his gratitude, she jogged towards the two as best as she could without tripping. Stupid strawberry.

Ichigo was surprised to see that school life stayed hectic even after the festival. He was hoping for school life to settle down after the crazy festival, but with Rukia around it seemed school life would never stay quiet. In addition to that, Ichigo was not pleased about the event that was soon to occur that day.

His group mates from class were coming over to finish their project. It wasn't the fact that most of them were wealthy while his home was modest that bothered him. But the possibility of his family, or more likely his dad embarrassing him was worrying indeed. Shooting death glares at Rukia obviously didn't work when she nominated Ichigo's house for finishing the project at. His glares seemed to simply bounce off her eager nomination. The brat merely had gleaming eyes, dreaming of cartons of strawberry milk in boxes stored at his house. And the fact that she had never gone to a home with a clinic attached to it sweetened the deal for her.

"So do you ever bump into patients at home?"

"Do you have breakfast with patients?"

"I thought you couldn't get any stranger than your bad temper and orange hair"

Needless to say, she was an utter pain in the ass.

The doorbell rang, but instead of going straight to answer it, he warned his dad one final time not to act like himself. His dad merely waved it off with an incoherent promise. Heading to the door, he opened it to see Renji, Hinamori, and Rukia on his doorstep.

"Yo,"

He nodded as he moved to the side for them to enter, "Hey,"

Isshin and Yuzu peeked out from the living room before excitedly joining Ichigo in greeting his friends. Ichigo grimaced when he saw Rukia put on her model student act in front of Isshin and Yuzu. With those two as gullible as ever, he knew Rukia probably had them under her charm already.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kuchiki Rukia, Ichigo's classmate,"

Ichigo watched his father giggle with Yuzu as he glared at them suspiciously.

"Oh, Rukia- is it alright if we call you Rukia? It's a pleasure!"

Rukia modestly smiled, "No, the pleasure is all mine,"

Isshin wrapped his hands together, his eyes glistening with a dreamy expression on his face, "Ichigo! How did you meet such a lovely girl?"

Furiously trying to keep calm, he looked away, his hands restrained in his pockets, "Shut up, old man,"

Rukia shot him a haughty smirk, testing Ichigo's patience even further.

While his dad and Yuzu also greeted Renji and Hinamori, albeit with less fervor, Ichigo scrambled to stop Rukia from curiously looking around for the clinic. A glaring competition ensued.

Isshin sneakily took notice and wriggled his eyebrows, "Oh Ichigo, my boy! Already staring at her so lovingly!"

Ichigo punched his dad's face without a second thought. The three guests slightly blanched in shock.

With his dad momentarily down, Ichigo wisely took the opportunity to herd the three upstairs into his room.

With the two beginning to settle down and Rukia temporarily satisfied with investigating his room, Ichigo went back downstairs to get refreshments.

He popped open the fridge to retrieve some juices and a strawberry milk carton. Yuzu strolled in from the living room and watched him place the drinks on a tray, along with some crackers.

She touched the strawberry milk in surprise, "One of your friends likes strawberry milk too?"

"Yeah. That damn midget," he blurted out darkly.

"Really?"

Ichigo glanced at her, surprised by her enthusiastic response, "What?"

Yuzu shook her head and hands vigorously, "Oh, nothing!"

With her excitement clearly growing, she skipped out of the kitchen into the living room. He narrowed his eyes. Something bad was brewing. He could feel it.

Yuzu skipped over to the living room to deliver more good news-the special girl in Ichigo's mind even shared a favorite drink with her! She was starting to like Rukia more and more. Isshin cried out in joy when Yuzu told him in his ear as Ichigo glared at them while heading back upstairs. He sighed as he made the trip back to his room. He was completely against having the group meeting at his house. But it was unanimous- the other three were excited to go to his house.

He came upstairs to see the three with their books out already. Hinamori sat on the floor, Rukia lounged on his bed, while Renji on the floor leaned against the bed with one arm sprawled out on the bed sheet.

He glanced at Rukia doodling on her notebook and tossed a carton of strawberry milk towards her, "Oi, midget,"

It landed on the bed next to her as her eyes met the strawberry milk eagerly. She paused her doodling to unwrap the straw and carefully poke it through the carton.

Ichigo pulled out his chair and joined the group, "Now, what do we have to finish?"

Hinamori tapped her pen against her chin contemplatively, "We just have to finish editing our report and finish our presentation,"

Renji groaned disapprovingly as he lazily reached over to grab a drink, "That's too much work. I thought we were done with the presentation,"

Rukia pointed her pen accusingly at Renji, "That's because you ran off before class ended last time! Besides, we only need to rehearse since you and Ichigo haven't gone over your lines yet,"

Ichigo rolled his eyes as he skimmed through his notes, "I did go over my lines. Don't involve me in it,"

Renji snorted, unwilling to be solely blamed as the slacker of the group, "Well, it obviously wasn't enough because she didn't remember,"

"Shut up!"

In a way, Yuzu already knew Rukia before she came over that day.

She had heard of Rukia while vacuuming Ichigo's room one day. She had accidently knocked over his notebook while cheerfully humming along to her favorite TV show theme song, and it was when she bent over to pick it up that she found the glorious notes.

She noticed Kuchiki Rukia scribbled neatly on the right side of the paper and was surprised that her brother had a girl's notes. The only girl Yuzu could remember Ichigo ever bringing home was Tatsuki, and she hadn't visited in a while. Her eyes grew with delight as she flipped through the pages; there were random doodles of bunnies and more specifically, Chappy.

But what was even more exciting was that Yuzu had technically seen her before. There were several days when Yuzu would happen to be outside when Ichigo came home, so she had noticed Rukia on the bus a few times. The small, pretty student with black hair and violet eyes in the bus window. It was just that she couldn't put a name to her face then. Yuzu felt that fate was all the more tied to the two since she was already familiar with Rukia before they had even greeted each other.

Rukia had grown even more on her when she noticed her kind and soft smile. She was even impressed with the elegance that Rukia seemed to exude. And she couldn't help but giggle whenever she saw the array of different emotions Ichigo unconsciously emitted around Rukia. She had never seen her older brother act so funny before.

Giddy, she hugged a pillow, huddled on the couch in the living room. She peered over at Karin, who was busy watching TV.

"Don't you think it's exciting, Karin?"

"What?"

"About him and Rukia-chan!"

Karin displayed boredom both for Yuzu and the TV, impatiently flipping through channels, "No, Ichigo's always had girls over."

Yuzu frowned defensively, "Well, technically only Tatsuki! And she's definitely not as girly as Rukia,"

"Well, then what about the other female classmate who came?"

Yuzu scrunched her eyebrows, "They don't seem any closer than simply classmates!"

"Isn't that the same with Rukia?"

"But he even had her class notes, so they must be very close!"

Karin stretched lazily before getting up to go to the kitchen, "Whatever. I'd be more surprised if you two are actually right,"

Yuzu gave an indignant huff as Isshin, who had just entered, frantically tried to reassure her, "Don't worry Yuzu, I can feel it!"

Renji stretched lazily, flexing his wrist from writing too much, "Yo, what are you going to bring for the field trip?'

Hinamori glanced up from her book, "Oh, right! I almost forgot about the field trip,"

Ichigo sighed, "I don't know,"

"When is it again?"

Renji scratched his head, unsure, "Next week?"

"Ah, it's next week," Rukia answered.

Like Hinamori, Ichigo had totally forgotten about the field trip. He replayed the moment when his class discovered that they were the winning class. He remembered it was during an especially boring period, as his classmates had eagerly gotten up from their seats, whooping and cheering. The headmaster had announced the winning class over the speaker, and his class made certain to take advantage of its bragging rights. Ichigo had dropped his eyes when he heard, glad that he at least got something out of being forced to dress up as Chappy. His class was especially ecstatic to go on the field trip, which was to a snow resort. His classmates had noisily bragged that it was better than the field trip that the upperclassmen took last year, which was at an onsen.

The biggest field trip he had gone on at Karakura was to some exhibit at a museum, so he was fairly surprised to hear that the field trip was to a snow resort. He inwardly scoffed at the extravagance of the trip, although he supposed reaping up the benefits as a student at Seireitei wasn't so bad.

Hinamori tapped her chin with her finger contemplatively, "I don't think I've ever gone skiing before,"

Renji and Ichigo turned their attention to her, surprised, "Really?"

Rukia raised her hand, "I haven't either,"

Renji raised an eyebrow, "You too, Rukia?"

Rukia nodded, "Ah. I've never had the chance,"

Hinamori smiled bashfully, "Same here. Although the ski lift looks pretty cool,"

Renji grinned mischievously, "Yeah, but if you're not careful, you can fall off,"

Hinamori's eyes widened in response, "You can?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes as he reassured Hinamori, "Don't mind him, it's not that dangerous,"

Hinamori clapped her hands, "At any rate, I'm excited. I really didn't have the faintest idea that our class would win,"

"It's all thanks to Chappy," Rukia piped in, a playful grin on her lips. Ichigo narrowed his eyes at her with Renji unaware of her hidden message.

Renji rubbed his neck, "It's all because the upperclassmen were too damn confident with their booth,"

"Tch, then how come I saw you racing over there after it opened?"

Renji slightly turned red, "Shut up! I was just checking out the competition,"

Ichigo sniggered, "Ah, that's for sure,"

"At least I wasn't baking cookies or whatever at the booth,"

Rukia spoke up before Ichigo could retaliate with a comeback. She gave Renji a dry look, "You barely helped,"

"I was busy! Besides, I helped clean up, didn't I?"

Rukia simply gave him a look.

Ichigo stretched as he noticed the sun setting, "Wanna call it a day?"

Rukia slumped on his bed, shutting her book close while Hinamori yawned, skimming through her notes, "I think we can go ahead and do that,"

Ichigo began to clear up the mess of drinks and snacks on the ground while the other three stuffed their books in their backpacks. Hinamori picked up a few of the remaining wrappers from the snacks that Ichigo neglected, following him downstairs into the kitchen.

Rukia glanced at his desk which was sufficiently organized to her surprise. He barely had any photos besides a family photo at what seemed to be a festival. It seemed to be an outdated photo, although a soft grin made its way onto her face when she noticed Ichigo scowling in it. His father was grinning widely with one arm gripping Ichigo while his two younger sisters both carried colorful windmills.

Renji waited in the doorway, "Oi, Rukia! Let's go,"

Placing a hand over the strip of her bookbag, she quietly followed Renji downstairs, where Hinamori and Ichigo waited.

The three bowed, thanking Isshin for allowing them to visit as he chortled goodheartedly, "Think nothing of it! I was beginning to wonder if Ichigo had even made any friends at school,"

Ichigo rolled his eyes at his dad as he opened the door to let them out.

Isshin gripped Rukia's hands before she passed the door, "You're welcome anytime, Rukia! Please come visit soon!"

She initially glanced at him, surprised, before smiling, "O-okay, I will,"

Yuzu smiled brightly while waving, "It was very nice meeting you, Rukia!"

Ichigo, already outside with Hinamori and Renji, glanced back at the door, "Oi! Stop with your antics, old man!"

"This is for your own sake, son!"

Hinamori giggled while Renji slightly smirked. With that said, Rukia then left, slightly confused. Even though Ichigo's family was slightly clumsy and eccentric, they were also affectionate and warm. It was an environment that she had never experienced before, and uncomfortable as it was, it was also exciting. She could tell that Ichigo probably had a lot of fun with his family, thinking back to the old photo she saw in his room. Although, with Ichigo's bad temper, she was surprised that his family displayed nothing close to that. She furrowed her eyebrows. He really is a strange person.

"Man, you really gotta work on that mouth of yours," Renji shook his head as he slung his backpack on. It was after Kendo practice, and they were the last to leave. Due to Ichigo's brash and competitive nature, they were forced to close and lock the Kendo room as a consequence.

Ichigo scratched his head, annoyed, as he walked out of the room ready to leave, "Shut up. Didn't know that old man would make us close,"

He stalled right outside the doors to the dojo, waiting for Renji to come out, "You coming?"

Renji nearly made it through the doors when he suddenly turned back, "Hold on! Forgot something,"

Unwilling to wait any longer, Ichigo threw him the keys, "I'll be outside,"

With a quick response from Renji, he pushed open the doors to leave the building. He sighed as he stretched out his body and rubbed his neck. The sun light bathed him, easing the pain he felt from Kendo practice.

Suddenly, he noticed a group of guys heading towards him. They were all dressed in a different uniform from Seireitei High, each with a similar spiked or gelled back hairdo and piercings in several places. Identifying them as a bunch of Yankees, he simply stayed in place as he watched them close the distance between them.

The tallest of them gravitated to the front of the pack, blowing smoke into Ichigo's face, "You're Kurosaki, right?"

Ichigo merely dropped his face, annoyed by his presence and the smoke, "Can you get to the point? I haven't got all day,"

The tallest, presumably the leader, laughed obnoxiously as his crew followed in laughter. "You're funny, kid. I like a guy who gets to the point."

Ichigo casually stepped forward and flicked the leader's cigarette out of his stubby fingers and quietly killed the cigarette light beneath his shoe, "Don't think I can say the same for you,"

"Tch, tough guy, eh? Guess Tony was right,"

The sound of knuckles cracking followed in response, "Well, then, let's see how straightforward Hito can get when you mess with his crew,"

Ichigo's face dropped even lower, "You refer to yourself in third person?"

The leader, provoked, swiftly threw punches at Ichigo who dodged his attacks before landing a precise kick on his legs. Flinching from the pain, the leader gazed up to see Ichigo's intimidating stance before him.

Hastily looking back to his bewildered crew, he aggressively signaled them to start, "What the hell are you guys doing? Kill that little shithead!"

Ichigo fluidly passed through the continuous line of thugs targeting him. A chorus of moans and foolish yells surrounded Ichigo as he pummeled his fist into a skinny thug's cheek, drops of blood spilling out of his mouth. In the midst of fighting, the school door had opened with Renji walking out to see Ichigo against several thugs decorated with different bruises and blood.

"What the hell is going on?" Renji bellowed, stunned at the amount of fighting going on.

Renji stepped over a thug knocked out as he watched Ichigo whip his head back to notice Renji.

"What the hell do you think I'm doing?"

Renji stepped forward, "Dumbass, don't you know you're going to be in deep shit once Kenpachi or whoever finds out?"

Ichigo mimicked his movements while twisting the arm of a thug who failed in catching him off guard, "How was I supposed to know they were going to come all the way here?"

"So why are these fucking Yankees here?"

Ichigo narrowed his eyes, frustrated, "I don't know!"

The two suddenly heard a clatter behind Ichigo.

"R-Rukia?" Renji paled, gaping at her.

Ichigo promptly turned back to see the boss unconscious on the ground with a small knife in his hand while Rukia held a shovel in her hand, simmering with anger. Putting two together, he realized Rukia had hit the leader with a shovel. He was amazed.

"R-Rukia…What the? Where'd you get that shovel?"

Huffing a stray hair away, she leered at him, "Really, Kurosaki? You had to bring thugs to our school?"

"I didn't bring them!" Ichigo retorted, though it made no impact on dissolving her heated glare.

The remaining thugs ran over to their knocked out leader, crying out his name.

Rukia then turned her attention to the crew, leering dangerously at them, "I suggest you leave immediately or I will report you."

Carrying the boss and whatever was left of their pride, the thugs took one glance at her and Ichigo before hastily leaving the school ground.

Renji smirked, amused, "Damn. How'd you see him with the knife?"

Still annoyed with Ichigo, she slightly leaned on her shovel while gesturing back to the track field, "I was at track and I came back to get some water,"

Renji clapped Ichigo's back as Ichigo glared at him in response, "You would've been wiped if Rukia wasn't here,"

Ichigo vigorously pointed to Rukia, "It honestly doesn't bother you that this crazy midget just hit that boss with a shovel?"

Rukia glared at him in response.

Renji scratched his head while holding on to his bookbag slung over an arm, "What bothers me more is that you just got your ass saved by that tiny girl,"

While Ichigo retorted back with a scowl, he was honestly surprised as Renji was. How had that tiny girl, who looked like you could break her in two, managed to beat up a leader of a gang? Granted, this certain leader also referred to himself in third person, but she was tiny! Not to mention, she was part of a family that had connections; she came from a wealthy family. It was then he realized that perhaps Rukia had more to her than she revealed. And though he would never admit this out loud, he was curious to discover all the sides that Rukia had to her.

AN: Hope you liked this chapter, although it's definitely not my favorite. I knew I just needed to dish out something at least so pardon the rush and lack of quality. The next chapter should mostly consist of the field trip, which so far has been really fun writing. Can't promise a specific date as to when it'll be released, but I'm hoping that it won't take as long as this chapter did. Comments and suggestions are appreciated and encouraged!

p.s. call me a noob, but does anyone know how to place more spaces between the text? I've tried shift + enter and other things, but nothing's worked :/