A/N: It's been a while, guys! Well, not really, more like three days. I hope that I haven't kept you waiting in suspense. I highly doubt it. But anyway, here's Part Four of my most popular and first fanfiction. To everyone who reviewed, story-alerted or favorited, I owe you mass amount of cookies and gratitude! You guys are the reason that I update so regularly. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If I did, Orihime would be less cheerful. Sometimes her optimism is . . . scary.

Part Four: Nameless

Ichigo tapped his pencil against the side of his law book. He sighed. It was bad enough that he took math in college (honestly, who cared what happened when a girl named Susan bought forty watermelons? And why the hell did she need forty watermelons in the first place? When you think about it, word problems were just stupid) but there was no way that he would be able to remember all the court cases for his final.

Ichigo was sitting on a stool behind the counter of the bookstore. It was run by a guy named Urahara, who bought every book but the ones that people wanted to buy. Urahara-san loved anything that wasn't normal or out of the mainstream, which was why people generally didn't come to the shop that often. Which meant that Ichigo was basically doing his homework for his minimal wage. There were two high school kids that worked there with him, named Jinta and Ururu, but the three of them never shared shifts.

It didn't help business that the Urahara Books was the type of store that a person's eyes would just skip over. Not many people noticed it, and the ones that did were . . . odd. Ichigo had had one memorable visit from a man with bells in his spiked hair and an eye-patch. Ichigo rung him up and got him out of there as quickly as possible before this pirate-wannabe added to the already infamous reputation of the shop.

However, Ichigo had also made some friends from working at the shop. He was sometimes hung out with Ikkaku during weekends. The bald man was one of their regulars. Ichigo had immediately felt a sense of connection with him after he realized that he had also been branded a delinquent in high school for his bald head and wooden sword. Ikkaku had said that he would have had a real sword, but those were against the law. Ichigo didn't ask many questions, but as far as he was concerned, Ikkaku was simply a fighting fanatic whose recent hobby was swordplay. That didn't mean he was a delinquent. Just . . . socially challenged.

Ichigo enjoyed spending the time doing his homework and being the reason that Urahara had absolutely no food.

He wasn't paying attention when someone approached the counter, and didn't bother to look up when he did notice them. "Hello, and welcome to Urahara Books, and if you're looking for a good selection, you should probably go somewhere else . . ."

He looked up when he got a girlish giggle and a little "hi" in reply.

It was the girl from three nights ago—the barefoot girl.

Ichigo hadn't seen her since she had disappeared, running after the cat in the rain. Now the rain had stopped, and Ichigo would have been lying if he hadn't said that his thoughts did go to the girl more often than not. She was beautiful, after all, and there was something distinctly different about her from the other girls that he had met.

Ichigo smiled slightly. "Oh, so it's you."

"You remember me?" She asked with a grin. "I remember you."

"Yeah."

There was a moment of silence, but it wasn't awkward. It was full of things that didn't need to be said. Ichigo had the strangest feeling that in some other time, some other place, he had known her. There was just that sense of familiar friendship between them.

Ichigo cleared his throat. "Hey, so did you get that cat back where it belonged?"

"Oh, yes. It wasn't very happy with me, after all. Did you win that fight with your father?"

Ichigo looked affronted. "Of course I did. I've been beating him since my high school days."

Rukia tilted her head, an action that Ichigo found to be extremely cute. "Do you take martial arts?"

"Yeah, with Tatsuki."

"Tatsuki . . ." Rukia's face was indifferent, but her hopes sunk with the idea. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you had a girlfriend." Rukia seemed a little depressed and put-out by the idea.

Ichigo's eyes widened at the simple suggestion of the fact that Tatsuki was his girlfriend. He immediately waved his hands in denial.

"Oh, no no no no no. Don't get the wrong idea. I don't have a girlfriend." He blushed at the last statement. "I mean, she and I are just friends. There's nothing going on—"

"Calm down. I wasn't suggesting anything." Rukia placed a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"Oh, right. I knew that."

Rukia leaned over the counter slightly, propping her chin in her elbow. She looked at Ichigo through hooded eyes. "Riiight. . . if you say so."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow with his traditional smirk plastered on his face. "Are you doubting my honesty?"

"Now when did I ever say that?" Rukia said innocently, giving a sweet smile, acting as if she was a doll.

Ichigo gritted his teeth, though it wasn't in anger. Here was a girl who would stand on even terms with him, who would stare him down in a contest of wills and probably win. Even Tatsuki didn't have the will and fight of this girl, and that was something that he thought that he would never say.

"Are you here for any specific reason?" Ichigo asked, just to get out of whatever hot water he felt like he was boiling in.

It was Rukia's turn to blush.

"Well, I just wanted a book or two . . ."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Then you wouldn't have come here." An idea occurred to him. "Did you come here to see me?"

Rukia's blush deepened. "Baka, why would you think that . . . that's just stupid. . . I mean . . ."

It seems that she loses her high-class accent when she's flustered, Ichigo thought. Well, that's interesting.

"Wait, you did come to see me, didn't you?" Ichigo teased, leaning over his law book to be closer to her. Ichigo could see the deep red on her cheeks. "It's okay, you know, if you did."

Rukia turned away from him, placing a curtain of her black hair between the two of them. "I admit to nothing."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I watch you when you take out the trash," Ichigo said.

Rukia turned back to him, her cheeks now just a light shade of pink. "You were the one who was watching me?"

"Pretty much. But don't tell anyone about it. It'll ruin my reputation as a delinquent." Ichigo looked at her small frame. "Hey, just wondering, where do you go to school?"

He tried to phrase the question delicately because he wasn't sure how old she was. And if she was as young as she looked, he was pretty sure that he was doing something illegal. She was barely taller than some of the elementary school students. If she was anything less than third-year in high school, he would have been hitting on a girl who was younger than his sisters, and that didn't bode well for him. On any level.

"Oh, I go to the city college like three blocks from here."

Relief flooded his mind. He never would have heard the end of it if it got out that Ichigo liked a high-school kid.

Whoa. Back up. Did he just say that he liked her? Well, Ichigo did tend to make up his mind based off of first impressions. So yes, maybe, kind of, on an occasional Tuesday, he liked her. It was Tuesday.

"I go to the law school that's like, right next to that college."

"Really?" Rukia whistled. "That place is fancy. I thought that you said that you were a delinquent."

"Well, that's a matter of opinion. I mean, I don't consider myself a delinquent, just like I'm pretty sure that you don't consider yourself short."

"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about," Rukia said. "I'm not short. I'm simply vertically challenged, and what the hell would you know?"

Ichigo only smiled at her, which caused Rukia to turn that dark shade of pink yet again. Ichigo was simply marveling at the many moods of one very-short (no matter what she said) girl.

"Well," Ichigo said, "since my college is so close to yours, we should grab coffee some time."

Rukia flinched and then looked at him speculatively. "Did you just ask me out?"

Ichigo sighed. "Well, I was trying to be subtle about it, but I think that you just threw that idea to the wind. So then, let me be blunter. Would you like to get coffee with me?"

"Sure. What do I have to lose?" Rukia asked with a smile.

"Well, let me pack up and then we can go," Ichigo said as he threw his books and papers into his backpack and threw it over his shoulder. "Urahara-san!" Ichigo called.

Urahara yawned and came out of the back room with his sandals, green-and-white striped hat and his curved cane. He stretched and looked at his only employee. "Well, if it isn't Kurosaki . . . and oh, look what we have here? Want to introduce you to your friend?"

"Oh, right, this is Rukia."

Rukia tugged on his ear and brought him down to her level. "A, how do you know my name? And B, why the hell are you calling me by only my first name?"

"Ouch."

Rukia only sighed and let him go, which had Ichigo sending glares at his companion and rubbing his mutilated ear. "Hi, I'm Kuchiki Rukia, nice to meet you, Urahara-san." She walked forward and formally stuck her hand out.

Urahara took her hand kindly. "So you must be the infamous girl that Kurosaki-kun has been in a daze over."

"Hey! Don't tell her things that she doesn't need to know!"

"But, Kurosaki-kun, why not? Isn't she your girlfriend?"

Ichigo blushed scarlet. "Don't assume! And girlfriend is a bit strong of a word isn't it?"

"But, seeing the overwhelming love between the two of you—"

It took only seconds for Ichigo's foot to find Urahara's face. While Urahara lay questionably lifeless on the floor, Ichigo put an arm around Rukia's shoulders and walked her out of the book store, shouting behind him, "I'm taking a break, Urahara-san!"

Then he turned to Rukia. "Hi, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. Nice to meet you."

Rukia only laughed.

A/N: I personally enjoyed writing that. I hope you enjoyed reading it! Please review! :)