Heres the next chapter, short I know but at least its there no? Next chapter I am going to try to double the length. ^-^ Thank you Ebony Dagger for the review on chapter 3. It made me realize my mistake so thanks a bunch! I will change that when I can xD and so heres the chappy!

Ichigo woke up feeling pain consume her body as she moved her head to look at the clock. She was used to the pain by now. It was typical for her. She groaned as she sat up and realized it was only 2:00AM. She figured Mario was still asleep so she quietly slipped out of bed. 'I wonder who brought me home last night. Did Mario bring me? I could have sworn I heard Ryou s voice and that he brought me home but maybe I was imagining it. I have been thinking about him a lot lately but I don t know why I even think about that jerk. He s always so mean to me and he never lets me get a raise! Oh, one day I swear I will get the better of him.'

Ichigo smirked at the thought of one day Ryou actually being nice to her. She imagined his smile for once instead of his cocky smirk. 'Yes, his absolute gorgeous smile will definitely be better than his sexy cocky smirk!' Suddenly her eyes were as wide as saucers. 'Did I just' She shook her head then chose to forget about him for now. Once she was done undressing she examined herself in the mirror. 'So many cuts and bruises.' She frowned at how deep the cuts were. Once she cleaned them out and applied medicine she carefully bandaged herself. She had to pry her eyes open beforehand to keep them open and it was mega painful but she managed to wash them and she was able to see again although she did get stuck with two gigantic purple eyes which she covered with makeup.

Then without bothering to check what time it was, she walked to her room and changed into a blood red spaghetti strapped shirt that had a black cat on it. As for her pants she put on a pair of black tight shorts which had a red paw mark on her right backside. Ichigo looked at herself in her mirror and fixed her hair up into a ponytail. She noticed how long her hair was growing. She was getting tired of having to cut it every 3 days so she decided to just let it grow out. Her hair went to her waist even with a ponytail now. She looked around for her black bracelets which helped her in blocking but found instead her black gloves which were also good for blocking so she slipped those on. Once she got to her own personal dojo she warmed up with regular stretches then moved on to sit-ups and pushups. When she finally got her blood pumping she began the real exercises. Without hesitation she turned on her music and put it on loud then she began to practice with her Sai. She performed all of the most advanced katas. She was so focused on her form that she didn t notice her admirer standing at the back of the dojo. He watched her attack at her invisible opponent. She did spins and flips perfectly. Once she was finished with one particular kata she heard clapping so she turned around. She almost jumped when she saw Ryou standing there clapping. Her facial expression was turned from shock to happy to serious.

He wondered why she was so serious. "Your very good. Why don t you ever fight like that against the cynaclons?"

Ichigo glared at him before responding coldly. "what are you doing here?"

"Why so cold? Don t tell me that just because I m your boss I am not allowed to visit you every once in awhile." he leaned on the wall.

"Right let me guess, you couldn t stand that you wouldn t get to yell at me on the weekend so you came to yell at me in my own home." She turned her back on him and continued practicing only she was distracted by knowing he was still watching her.

"I can't stand any day where I wont see you. I miss you so much." Ryou stared at her with a bit of hurt in his eyes but shook it off. "No actually I was just wondering if you d like to go out for some coffee or something. I mean, you work a lot and I figured I should buy you coffee at least, that is if Masaya doesn t mind. Speaking of him, mind telling me why I haven t seen him around?"

Ichigo froze as he mentioned Masaya. She stared at the floor sadly but tried not to show it. "Masaya broke up with me for one of my best friends. I haven t seen him in weeks." Then she continued practicing, or at least tried to before Ryou spoke again.

"I'm sorry I didn t mean to bring him up. I have another question then. Do you have a boyfriend?" She was surprised that he d even want to know. Why do you care?

"Well, maybe I'd like to..." he couldn t finish his sentence.

She stared at him. "Are you saying that you d want to be my.."

He nodded. He could feel his face was hot and tried to hide it. "So what do you say?"

Ichigo didn't know what to say. She was surprised when she found herself wishing that she could say yes. But she didn t, instead she shook her head sadly and looked away. "Ryou I can't. I want to but right now I can't."

"Why? Why cant we be together? You like someone else?" Ryou felt jealousy hit him again. It hurt for him especially if she were to have said yes.

"No, I only like one person but right now I cant be with him because I have things to take care of first and I would never forgive myself if anything ever happened to him." She felt a tear on her cheek and wiped it away. She felt him wrap his arms around her and she wanted nothing more than for him to take her away for good but she pushed him aside and took off running to her room.

Ryou simply stood there and watched her run, away from him. He felt like running after her but decided against it. He decided to leave her alone for awhile. Once Mario woke up at 6:00AM he was surprised to see Ryou in the living room watching TV. Good morning he smiled.

"Morning"

"is something wrong?"

"no"

"are you sure?"

"yeah"

"well ok, what do you want for breakfast?"

"anything."

"how about pancakes and eggs with sausages on the side?"

"sure, sounds good."

"Ok, well I m gonna go call Ichigo down so she can help me." With that Mario left to get Ichigo and in a few minutes they both came down laughing and joking around. Once Ichigo saw that Ryou was still there she quieted down but still managed a smile. Ryou felt good since she smiled at him. At least he knew that she wasn't mad at him or anything. He figured that it would still be awkward hanging out at her house and around her.

"Ryou can I talk to you in private?"

Ryou nodded and him and Ichigo walked into one of the extra rooms. At first it was quiet between them, the she spoke. "I'm sorry Ryou"

He was a bit surprised that she would apologize. "For what?"

"For treating you like I did this morning then running off on you."

"Its alright. You don't have to apologize."

"I was also thinking about what you said"

This made Ryou turn red. "I um.. Uh" he looked at the floor.

"I don't think I'm ready just yet to have another boyfriend but maybe when I'm ready" she fidgeted with her thumbs.

Ryou nodded and was surprised when she kissed him lightly on the cheek before she left the room. Maybe there was a chance after all.