Rukia elegantly took a bite out of her sub so large that even Renji was impressed. Her cheeks bulged as she chewed and her face melted into a content expression before she gulped down the food.

"Should I give you two some privacy?" her redheaded friend -seated across from her- asked, referring to the way she gazed lovingly at the sandwich in her hands.

"This is the first food I've had today;" Rukia said seriously. "Let me enjoy my moment." then she dived in for another ridiculously large bite.

Renji stared at her. "Boy, they're really overworking you over there, huh?" he said, referring to her internship at Seretei.

Rukia shrugged. "Iw's nawt tha bawd." she spoke through a mouthful of bread, chicken, tomato and lettuce. Seeing Renji's dumbfounded expression, she amended, "It's not that bad."

He made a 'hmph" sound. "How about that supervisor guy you told me about? Whats-his-name?"

"Ichigo?" she looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Oi, Intern."

She pushed against the desk to roll backwards in her wheeled chair and out of her cubicle, assuming an annoyed expression. "Yes, oh mighty one?"

The orange-haired man grimaced at the address she used. She chuckled inwardly. "Cut it with the nicknames."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Alright, Ichigo." she bit back a smirk; she knew he got irritated when she used his first name.

"I have work for you." he stated simply, then dropped a heavy pile of papers on her lap.

She frowned down at it. "Don't you ever have something nice for me? Why is it never 'Good morning, Rukia!' or 'Have a nice day!'"

"I'm your boss, not a self-help video." he deadpanned.

"Supervisor. You're my supervisor." Rukia clarified.

"Same difference." Ichigo waved her off. "Get to work."

And he was off to shut himself in his office again.

Rukia came back from the flashback. "No improvement, I'm sorry to report." she said, answering Renji's question. "He's as grouchy as ever."

"Sucks for you."

"You're not exactly helping, sunshine." she glared at her friend. Then she looked back at her half eaten sandwich and thought for a moment. "At least he's kept his end of the bargain. He's been giving me actual work, even though intern work isn't very exciting…And aside from his general bad mood, he hasn't been too big of an ass yet."

"Sounds like a real charmer, this guy." Renji said sarcastically.

"You don't know the half of it." Rukia sighed and dropped her unfinished sub on the plate before her, her appetite suddenly vanishing. She rested her face on her hand and blew a strand of hair out of her face in a bored manner.

"Ah, cheer up. You've been working there, what? Two weeks? I'm sure he'll warm up to you eventually." he consoled.

"Obviously you don't know him."

"Well, it's not like you're the easiest person to get along wit-" a narrowed look stopped him short. "Anyway, he can't be that bad." he tried reasoning.

"Whatever." she didn't feel like arguing at that point. "I don't like him." she folded her arms over her chest stubbornly.

Renji raised a tattooed eyebrow. "You sure about that? Maybe the whole problem is that you're attract-"

"Can it right there, pineapple!" Without warning, a piece of silverware flew at the man's head with accurate precision.

"Gah! What's the matter with you? You could have poked my eye out with that!" he scolded a little too loudly, attracting a few stares from the people seated around them at the sidewalk café. "Besides, touchy much?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rukia said through gritted teeth, crossing her arms again to keep from hitting him again and causing a scene. Renji had no idea how close to home he'd hit.

"I think you do." he said simply, as if he was unfazed by her anger. "But believe what you want. He who laughs last, laughs…" he trailed off. "What was it again?"

Rukia groaned and banged her head against the table. "How is it that you have an actual job and I don't again?"

"I'm a people person."

Rukia looked up to him, with his obnoxiously red, gravity-defying pony tail and all his tattooed glory. Then she dropped her head on the table again. A muffled "Why?" escaped her form.

-x-

Rukia rested her face on one hand as the other worked the keyboard, one key at a time. She looked at the computer screen through half-closed eyes and lazily scrolled down the page at certain intervals.

Type, scroll, type, scroll, click; type, scroll, type, scroll, click; type, scroll, type, scroll, click…

Anyone who walked by would easily identify this as the picture of absolute boredom.

"I see you're getting the hang of this."

Rukia nearly jumped out of her skin as a head popped up over the edge of the cubicle's front wall and spoke.

"Gah! Are you trying to scare me to death?" she berated, though she wasn't anywhere near being mad.

She recognized the man's face immediately. In front of her, calmly resting his chin on his bronzed arms -which were nonchalantly folded on the edge of the thin wall- was Kaien Shiba.

Kaien worked on the cubicle connected to hers, and had made it a habit to pop up over the edge at random moments for seemingly no reason at all…(usually he wanted to borrow a stapler or some other office supply which he should have had).

"Why would I want that?" Kaien questioned her previous exclamation. "I can't have my favorite coworker dying on me. Who else would I turn to in my time of need?" Kaien said with playful dread.

Rukia rolled her eyes, a tiny smile making its way to her face.

One thing she hadn't mentioned to Renji, was the part of working at Seretei that pretty much made it all -damnably attractive but irritating supervisors included- bearable. And that was Kaien.

"What do you need this time?" Rukia asked. "Stapler? Printing paper? Chewing gum?"

"What? Why do you immediately assume I want something?" Kaien looked mockingly hurt. "Can't I just pop up for a word with my friend? Honestly! You hurt my feelings, Rukia."

She rolled her eyes, already accustomed to his ways. "Of course you can. I guess that means I can just lock away all my much-needed supplies to just 'have a word' now-"

"Wait!" he cut her off as she'd started closing a drawer with all the office supplies in it. Rukia smirked. "I was hoping you'd have a spare pair of scissors in there, you know, for a friend." he grinned sheepishly.

"As it just so happens…" she was deliberately slow in extracting a pair from the drawer. "I do. But-" she pulled them out of his reach just as his hand flew towards them. "This is the third time today you've borrowed them. I believe a fee is in order."

Kaien looked deflated. "You would charge your own friend for a simple favor?"

She smirked. "I've been craving a glazed donut from that shop where your wife works at, lately. But it's such a long trip from my apartment…"

"Done." he immediately said, and Rukia let him snatch the scissors away from her without further ado.

Rukia was just opening her mouth to tell him what a sold-out he was, when they were interrupted by someone conspicuously clearing his throat.

"This isn't a social hangout, you two." The orange-haired man had emerged from his office with a glare for Rukia and Kaien. "Get back to work, Shiba." he ordered. The dark-haired man complied and disappeared back into his cubicle after shooting Rukia an apologetic look.

"And you," Ichigo pointed at Rukia, then to the door behind him. "In my office."

She blinked, wondering what she had done to deserve that. In the two weeks of her internship, after that first day, she hadn't stepped foot in Ichigo's office even once. He would always come out to deliver her work at her cubicle, never calling her in.

So, curious as to the sudden change, Rukia followed him into the office. Ichigo closed the door behind them and went to his desk, not taking the only available seat, so they were both standing.

"Ukitake sent me word about one of our writers being out of commission after an unfortunate accident." he spoke while searching the contents of his desk, not facing her.

"Um…I'm sorry?" What was she supposed to say?

"You shouldn't be." Ichigo corrected, straightening up with a folder in his hands. He finally looked at her. "The guy was supposed to do an article on home appliances for this Friday."

Rukia stared. "…And?"

"And we need someone else to cover that spot for the paper. Guess who's getting that spot."

Rukia blinked, slowly processing his words. "You mean…?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you?" Charming, as always. "You're covering the spot, Intern. We'll need you to have the article typed up by Wednesday at the latest. Make sure its properly edited by then; we don't want to waste time on spellchecking the proper names for refrigerators."

Rukia didn't utter a word. She was, quite frankly, speechless at the moment.

Ichigo seemed to notice her lack of response for the first time. "Oi! Did you hear me?" he leaned down before her and flicked her on the forehead.

"Ow!" she cried, taking a hand to the reddening spot. "Why'd you do that?"

"Well, it seems I finally have your attention." he muttered. "I just told you you've been given a chance to prove your worth and you're just standing there with that dumb look on your face." he accused.

Rukia, for once, was embarrassed. "I- I was shocked! How did…I mean…Wouldn't this usually mean some other writer would get the article? I'm just an intern…"

"Obviously it wasn't a coincidence." Ichigo said, turning away from her to look at some interesting spot on the wall. "I suggested you take the article to Ukitake; he agreed. End of story."

Now Rukia was surprised. "You recommended me?"

Ichigo turned and found her gawking. "Don't get that sappy look! It's part of the deal, remember? The faster you're done with the internship, the sooner you're not my responsibility, and I'm out of probation. Win-win."

He explained it so calmly and logically, Rukia might have brushed it off as nothing but a selfish act. But even if she'd only known Ichigo for two weeks (an extra two days if you counted their first meeting) she knew enough to see through that nonchalance.

"Thank you." she said sincerely.

Ichigo looked slightly flustered at her gratitude. "Yeah, well." he scratched behind his ear awkwardly. "Make sure you don't make me look bad."

With that, he shoved the folder in her hand. Rukia took a peek inside and beamed.

Finally, her first actual job. Perhaps this wouldn't finalize her place at Seretei, but it was definitely one step closer to being done with her internship and having a secure job at last.

With a hurried goodbye, she was out of the office and in front of her computer with renewed vigor.

Seretei Daily here I come.

-x-

Next morning…

When Ichigo Kurosaki went to work that morning, he expected the usual: too much editing to do, lack of competence from his coworkers, harassment from his superiors, and a conspicuous lack of chocolate bars in the vending machines.

However, that morning he walked into his office to find something unexpected.

He was, at first, pleasantly surprised to see a folder on his desk, containing Rukia Kuchiki's completed article on home appliances. He wasn't used to getting things -or delivering them- on time, much less ahead of time. This was a first.

So yes, Ichigo was rather pleased.

Those feelings changed, though, the moment he extracted the contents of the folder and flipped through them. "What the…" His eyes widened then narrowed as he read hastily through it.

Everyone currently working on the fourth floor jumped and dropped what they were doing as the door to the office of Ichigo Kurosaki opened and slammed into the wall with audible force. But even more forceful, was the man him self's booming voice as he called.

"INTERN! In my office, NOW."

All eyes were suddenly on the small black-haired girl frozen in her cubicle.

"What did you do?" half-whispered Kaien over the wall.

Rukia shrugged as if to say 'Don't know', then got up and retreated to the office, shutting the door to all the curious glances.

"Err…Ichigo? Sir?" she quickly amended, a sign that even she was a bit intimidated.

"What the hell is this?" Ichigo asked lowly, dangerously, pointing to the folder with her article currently sitting on his desk.

"My article?" she answered with a tone that made it sound like a question.

"Yes, I saw that." Ichigo said, his eyes shadowed by his bangs, hiding his expression. "What I want to know…" he paused for effect, before suddenly lifting his gaze and pointing at the offending folder. "-is why on earth is it about RABBITS?"

Rukia flinched at his loud voice. "It's not about rabbits!" she quickly said. "It's about home appliances, like you said!"

"No," he corrected. "It's about the wonders of Chappy For Home products!" he accused with disgust. "What the hell?"

"What?" Rukia asked, like she was genuinely confused. "They have a whole line of home appliances. Great quality too." she stated, as if she knew from experience. Ichigo didn't want to think about the possibility.

"That's not what you were supposed to write about." he narrowed his eyes at her, then roughly grabbed the folder like it had offended him -which it most certainly had- and shoved it under her nose. "Do it over."

"What?" she screeched. "I worked on it all night!" she yelled at him, and by the shadows under her eyes, he knew she was telling the truth.

"Too bad!" he yelled back. "Do something better next time."

She gaped incredulously at him. "Are you insane? That's a perfectly good piece of work right there! Like hell I'll be writing another!"

"You will and you'll have it ready by morning." he corrected calmly.

"That's ridiculous! I'm not writing anything more."

"That's out of the question. You are, and you will. Remember, my ass is on the line as well."

"No! I refuse." she folded her arms over her chest and looked away, chin up and legs apart, for effect.

Ichigo felt his patience well -never too highly stocked in the first place- begin to run out. "Don't make this difficult. I got you this chance, you can't repay me with this." he waved the folder in her face for emphasis.

"Now do it over." he said, shoving the folder in her arms.

Rukia gaped down at it then glared up at him. "I said no!" she slammed the folder -with a good amount of force too- on his chest.

Ichigo tried to pretend he wasn't slightly out of breath from the hit. "And I, your boss," he grabbed the edges of the folder that she was still holding against him. "Said yes!" he pushed it back into her.

Before he had a chance to let go, Rukia pushed it back towards him. "You are my supervisor! No!"

"Yes!" he pushed back.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Never!"

"Right now!"

"Like hell!"

"Stop arguing!"

"Stop being an idiot!"

With each forceful exclamation they continued shoving the folder back and forth, all the time glaring furiously at each other and using a little more force than necessary. Neither paused when their forceful shoves started to make them stagger slightly in place.

"I will not!" she yelled with a powerful shove that actually pushed him and left him stumbling to the wall.

"You little-!" he glared strongly as, instead of pushing, he pulled the folder towards him and succeeded in making her loose her balance. She stumbled clumsily and fell forward- right into his chest.

Unfortunately for both of them, Mr. Ukitake chose that moment to open the door and come in. The scene he was greeted with of Rukia pressed against Ichigo, who's back was against the wall, could be interpreted in a million different ways…Non of which spelled 'promotion' for the orange-haired man.

Looking like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar, Ichigo and Rukia scrambled away from each other, red staining their cheeks.

"My, my," Ukitake smiled. "It seems like you two are finally warming up."

"NO!" the two exclaimed simultaneously.

Ukitake chuckled good humouredly, while another man stepped out from behind him, up to that point unnoticed by either Ichigo or Rukia.

He cleared his throat loudly. "I don't need to remind either of you that the company has a strict 'no relationships' policy between coworkers, right?" the man said, looking sternly at the pair.

"Of course not, Mr. Aizen." Ichigo said hastily, clearing his throat and hoping the unwanted heat in his cheeks would fade away quickly.

The bespectacled man gave a hearty chuckle. "I was just joking, Kurosaki. I would never suspect any wrong from you." he smiled at Ichigo, who struggled not to squirm under those brown orbs that seemed to look right into one's soul. Luckily for him, Aizen turned to look beside him at Rukia.

"And who's this?" he asked.

"This is the new intern I was telling you about; Rukia Kuchiki." Ukitake answered, smiling almost proudly as he motioned towards Rukia.

"Ah, Kuchiki." The light reflected off of the Aizen's dark-framed glasses as he lowered his gaze to Rukia's. "I've heard so much about you. All of it good, of course." he added smoothly.

Ichigo gave a sideways glance to see that Rukia's cheeks had turned a darker red at the compliment. He wondered by her reaction if she was never used to hearing those.

"Thank you, Sir." she said, lowering her head respectfully.

"Oh, how rude of me! I haven't introduced myself." laughed Aizen. "I'm Sosuke Aizen. Pleased to meet you, Kuchiki."

"Pleasure, Sir." Rukia said politely, taking his outstretched hand to shake.

"Sosuke is the editor of our sister newspaper, the Gotei." Ukitake explained for Rukia's benefit. "He doesn't work in Karakura, he's just visiting for a while, isn't that right?"

"Yes, thank you for the introduction, Jushiro." said Aizen, looking at his comrade before focusing back on Rukia. "I'm only here for a couple of months, but I'm hoping to acquaint myself with as many promising writers as I can. I'm glad to know I'm in the presence of one of them." he said, and Ichigo rolled his eyes. He very much doubted he was talking about him.

"I'm flattered." Rukia said.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Ichigo spoke up, reminding everyone that he was still in the room.

"Ah, Ichigo." Ukitake looked at him. "I'm afraid I need you to finish that article on home appliances sooner than expected."

Ichigo never wanted to tell Ukitake to can it as much as he did then. He didn't need to look to know that Rukia was looking at him quizzically.

"If you could have it by the end of the day that would be great." Ukitake said.

"But I-" Ichigo started to protest, but was cut off by another voice.

"It's right here!" Rukia said quickly, holding out the folder containing the abomination about rabbit merchandise.

"Oh!" Ukitake exclaimed, taking the folder in his hands. Ichigo wanted to scream and rip it away, but knew it was too late now. He was screwed. "That's excellent. I suppose that solves that, then!" he said with sickening cheerfulness.

"Ukitake-" he tried.

"I'm sorry I can't stay." the white-haired man cut him off. "Sosuke and I have some business to attend to. Thank you, though, Ichigo. Having this ready is a great help."

Ichigo opened his mouth to protest, but then reconsidered. "Yeah…No problem." he said as nonchalantly as he could, shoulders slumped.

Ukitake and Aizen gave their apologies and said their farewells then exited, leaving Ichigo and Rukia standing in the office alone.

Rukia crossed her arms over her chest and turned to Ichigo with a raised eyebrow.

"You can leave now; good day." Ichigo said, non-too-subtly, without looking at her.

Rukia, of course, didn't move. "When were you planning to tell me that you were supposed to do the article?"

"I am busy writing actual reports on worthwhile things. An article for home appliances is exactly the type of job an intern should do." he said calmly, still not facing her.

He felt her eyes boring into him. "And you were going to use mine with your name on it?" she questioned, though he was pretty sure by her tone that she already suspected that wasn't the case.

"No, your name is written there, isn't it? Ukitake doesn't have time to read something minor like that over; he'd never notice until it's published."

"And I'd get on the paper." she finished, having figured out his plan.

"Yes. Now that you know, you can leave." he started to go to his chair, hoping she'd just leave it at that.

No such luck. "You never talked to Mr. Ukitake about me getting the article. He never agreed to it." she spoke from behind him, still on the same spot she'd been in before.

Ichigo groaned inwardly. "I did tell him about it. He said he thought it was a good idea, but not for this. It was too short notice and he thought you wouldn't make it on time."

"You thought differently."

It wasn't a question, but Ichigo answered anyway. "Yes. Now, would you mind?" he looked at her over his shoulder. "I have work to do."

Rukia looked pensive. "That was…nice of you." she decided.

"Yeah, I'm the freaking Pope. Now get out."

"I never thought I would say this twice in one week, but…Thanks, Ichigo."

He turned around to look at her, and saw that she was being sincere, not mocking as usual. "You can thank me by leaving my office." he deadpanned.

She didn't look ruffled by his rudeness. "Is that why you were so bothered by the Chappy merchandise?" she asked now.

Ichigo let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, because if Ukitake did eye through the article, he'd either know something was off, or worse…He'd think it was me."

Rukia laughed suddenly. She laughed.

"There's nothing funny about that!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, there is." Rukia said between laughs. "You just don't have the sense of humor necessary to see it."

Ichigo made a show of rolling his eyes. "No, you're just weird."

It was Rukia's turn to roll her eyes. "Whatever you say."

Ichigo suspected that she was still thinking about what he did and figuring he was some really nice guy…He wasn't. He did it purely to get rid of her faster. No other reason at all.

"Are you going to stand there and irritate me all day?" he asked rudely.

"As fun as that sounds, I do have better things to do. Thanks for the invite, though."

"I didn't-!" but it was too late; she was gone.

Damn her. The girl really knew how to get under his skin. He wondered what he ever saw in her.

His mind was quick to produce quite a few visual answers to that. He accordingly told his mind to shut the hell up and mind its own business; then he went back to work.

-x-

"What was that all about?" asked Kaien the moment she exited Ichigo's office, a sly smile still playing at her lips.

"Nothing." was her automatic reply.

"Nothing?" he repeated dubiously. "You're not smiling like it was 'nothing'."

"Just some stuff about an article." she tried waving him off. But Kaien could sure be persistent...And nosy.

"Yeah, right! I heard yelling. Actually," he corrected. "The whole fourth floor heard it."

Rukia tried not to seem embarrassed and act cool. "Well, we had a little disagreement." she couldn't stop a blush when she remembered how that had ended; with her pressed against her supervisor's rather toned chest. She prayed Kaien wouldn't notice the added color on her cheeks.

"Hmmmmmm?" he stretched out the syllable and looked closely at her. "What's this? Blushing are we?" she couldn't help but blush further under his scrutiny. "Why, you and our orange-haired supervisor from hell wouldn't happen to have a thing going on now, would you?"

"No!" she said a little too quickly.

"Aha!" Kaien laughed at her expense. "That's okay. I won't tell on you, I get it. Hormones and all."

"Kaien!" she exclaimed, completely embarrassed.

When she finally went back to work, she couldn't stop her mind from going back to what she had found out Ichigo had done for her.

Regardless of it being because he wanted to get rid of her faster, as he had told her bluntly; he'd gone out of his way, behind his boss's back, risking his job which they both knew to be hanging dangerously on the line, so she could get on the paper.

She didn't know whether to be thrilled or worried. For one thing, she now knew that her getting on the paper might cost Ichigo his job; she might not like the guy ('Are you sure?' her mind asked. 'Shut up!' she answered) but she didn't want to get him fired on her behalf.

On the other hand, she hadn't done anything wrong; he was the one to tell her to write the article and she had. Whatever consequences came of it were his fault alone. And if it did happen to work out, then she'll be that much closer to being off the internship and with a real job!

She couldn't stop grinning at the thought.

Yes, it'll all work out.

And if it did, she couldn't help reminding herself, it would all be thanks to him…

The irony of it was painful. But most of all, what struck her was the fact that, act as he might, perhaps Ichigo was more of a nice guy than he was willing to admit.

A/N: I wrote and rewrote this so many times its not even funny. I'm still not entirely sure about this, but oh well, its what I have. Its mainly to set the mood as to how things have been working out between Ichigo and Rukia for now; things will change pretty soon.

And yes, Kaien is alive!Hurray! (and just in case anyone was going to ask; No, there will not be any sort of love triangle between him Rukia and Ichigo. As Rukia mentions in the story, he has a wife and I inform you he is happily married. End of story.)

Also, I know some of you are eager to get the IchiRuki-ness going on already; I know this is pretty damn slow after that first chapter, but to be fair I did warn you. And I like to develop the pairing before I get to the good stuff (but worry not! More chapters like chapter one will occur in the not-so-far future!)

Another thing, I got flamed last chapter. I hadn't been flamed in a while. Heh. I was pretty pissed, but now I'm calmed down and would just like to say a few things: To my lovely flamer, next time, if you would at least have the figurative balls to leave a signed review so I can reply directly, that would be great. Second, the joke's on you buddy, cause I do not suck, I swallow.

To my lovely reviewers:

M.O.N.S.T.E.R. EATS. P.O.C.K.Y., shnizlefritz, ali6220, novicestar, Prizz, Black Sun Upon An Icy Sky, Aizawa Ayumu Oz Vessalius, Nivek01, MeoNg, IchiRuki77, reaper baby xp, alyssa (lmao you're right! you are the only actual name XD), and ai

Thank you guys so much! Reading your reviews over and over makes me so happy!(ehem, well...not over and over and over, heh. you know, I'm busy doing other...stuff...ehem, hehe)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! (not very eventful, I'm sorry, but yeah, i'm slow at beginnings xD) And a slightly late Happy Thanksgiving to you all!