Chapter 4

Rukia's bare feet slapped the cold pavement as she ran down the street looking for Ichigo. It had all started few minutes before when she had come back from dinner with Inoue and Tatsuki

She felt a twinge of disappointment when she came into the empty room, but she shrugged it off as indigestion and kicked off her shoes as she made her way to the closet. Rukia had eyed the package on the floor suspiciously at first, but after ascertaining that it wasn't a bomb of any sort she dumped its contents out on to the floor.

Out of the bag fell a white fuzzy Chappy the Bunny. Rukia let out small gasp and a bright smile flashed across her face as she stared at the long coveted stuffed animal. When she realized she was smiling she quickly wiped it off her face and replaced it with what she hoped was a cool disinterested look. She was glancing around the room to make sure no one had seen her expression when she noticed something slightly amiss.

She walked over to Ichigo's dresser and yanked open the bottom drawer that was not shut all the way. Curiosity getting the better of her, she peered in only to find to her surprise that it was filled to the top with stuffed animals. Rukia sifted through the plushies, wondering why Ichigo had them and why she felt as though she had seen them before.

And then she realized it, she had seen them before. They were the stuffed animals that were in the claw machine at the convenience store where she had spotted Chappy.

"Talking about Ichigo, I actually saw him at that store today"

So that means.. recalling Tatsuki's words from before, the answer suddenly dawned on Rukia and she had dashed out of the room.

Rukia slowed her pace as she felt a dull ache in her feet start to throb. She had left the room on impulse but now she was starting to question her reason for reacting the way that she did. I'm just going to forgive him and thank him for Chappy, she reminded herself, but a part of her knew that it was something other than Chappy that had caused her to start running. Deciding that she didn't really want to know what it was, she cleared her thoughts and turned the corner.

Ichigo stuffed his hands in his pockets as he wandered the streets. He hadn't been back to his room all day and he found that without Rukia he didn't really have anything to do. He had wasted all of his cash in the morning when he had went back and forth winning toys from the machine. Why did that damn rabbit have to be on the very bottom? Ichigo scowled and scratched the back of his head, that's the last time I take advice from an eleven year old. He had thought of asking Tatsuki for advice when he had seen her, but her answer always involved hittingpeople and he didn't think that would be the best solution in his case. So he had settled with asking Yuzu what to do when her friends were angry, and her advice was giving them stuffed animals. That led him to Happy, or Chaffy, whatever that thing was called.

That was one of the reasons why he was out in the cold instead of his warm room. He didn't want to be in there when she found it, it was too embarrassing. Ichigo exhaled loudly and stared up at the sky. Usually around this time he would be in his room doing homework while Rukia would lie on his bed reading a comic book or drawing stupid pictures all over his stuff. He could almost see her, her eyebrows slightly narrowed in that determined expression she had while she was thinking, her lips set in a slight curve so that he couldn't tell if she was smirking or smiling, that lock of hair that always fell in between her eyes and the rest of her silky black hair flowing behind her gracefully as she ran. Shit, Ichigo shook his head violently, now I'm hallucinating. He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes before he realized that he still saw her; it really was Rukia running towards him.

"Ichigo," it came out almost as a whisper as Rukia stopped in front of him and caught her breath. Her eyes seemed to shine from the moonlight as his gaze locked into hers. Not able to think of anything to say she began feeling sheepish, so she crossed her arms and turned around to avoid looking at him."Thank you," she said curtly.

Ichigo's eyebrow lifted and his smirk grew, "You came out looking like that just to tell me thank you?" Rukia whirled around glaring, "What is that supposed to mean? I look like wh-" Her sentence was cut short when she realized that he wasn't standing in front of her. She looked around and found him bending on the ground in front of her reaching for her foot.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded as she backed away. He merely growled and grabbed her feet and placed his tennis shoes on them. "Idiot, you want to walk into my room with those dirty feet of yours?" Ichigo straightened and marched past her leaving Rukia in a stunned silence.

"Yo, Rukia," Ichigo paused but didn't turn around to face her, "I'm sorry, for yesterday. I should've listened to you-" Rukia passed by him with her nose in the air. "Of course you should have, I'm both older and wiser than you. I guess I'll forgive you this time," she replied haughtily, causing Ichigo's eye to start twitching as he followed after her muttering curses under his breath.

They walked side by side peacefully when Ichigo finally broke the silence, "Oh yeah, Rukia, how do you know that weird tattoo guy? He was acting like a crazy ex-boyfriend or something."

Rukia's back stiffened slightly before she turned slowly with a sly look in her eyes. "Why, are you interested in my personal life? Could it be that Kurosaki Ichigo is jealous?" she taunted.

"I.. I'm not jealous! And I'm not interested in your personal life!" Ichigo exlaimed a little too loudly.

"Then don't ask," Rukia replied simply as she quickened her pace.

Why do I fall for it every time! Ichigo could feel the blood pulsing to his head, shaking his fist at her as he ran to catch up.

"Damn it!"

He watched from the shadows as the orange haired kid trailed after Rukia. He had been there from the beginning, disappointed but not surprised that Rukia could not sense him being near. She had become too used to this human world, he realized bitterly when she started running around on the street without noticing that he had trailed her the entire time. He hated the fact that she ran around looking for that guy, he hated theway her eyes shone when shesaw him, he hated that guy for putting his shoes on her feet, and he hated the fact that she let him. But most of all, he hated himself for caring so damn much and not doing anything about it.

Renji stood in the darkness until their voices had faded, and with a swish of his robes he disappeared into the night.

The next morning Rukia woke up to what she could only assume as a war raging outside of her closet door.

"Ichigooooo!"

"Gyaah! Get out of here you crazy old man!"

A scuffle ensued and then they spoke in normal tones before Rukia heard crying and the slamming of the room door. She slid her door aside after a few minutes of silence only to find Ichigo sitting on the floor rubbing at the footprint on his face.

"He's insane, he's really mentally ill," Ichigo muttered to no one in particular. Rukia glanced at him indifferently, this was not the first morning confrontation that she had witnessed and they tended to always end the same. With one arm clutched around Chappy and the other holding a horror manga, she layed herself lazily on Ichigo's bed.

Ichigo turned his attention to Rukia with his forehead wrinkled in thought. Sparing him a glare over her book, she lifted a single eyebrow.

"Something wrong?"

He pointed his finger at the stuffed animal and then at her, "What is it with you and this rabbit anyway? Did you own one when you were younger or something?"

"Baka, rabbits don't have souls,we can'thave rabbits in Soul Society," she said flatly.

"Have you ever really seen a rabbit before?" Ichigo asked, determined to find out her obsession with the thing.

"Once or twice, wild of course. I don't know," she shrugged, "I just like bunnies. And raccoons. And bears, puppies, cats.. basically fuzzy creatures."

Ichigo sprang to his feet and left the room, saying some excuse about seeing his sisters. Rukia ignored him, too engrossed in the demon that was stalking one of her characters. When he returned he had such a smug look on his face that she put her book down and looked at him curiously.

"Say, Rukia, have you ever gone to the zoo?"

"Onii-chan, what are we waiting for?" Yuzu looked up at her older brother who was staring off into the distance. Karin smirked and pointed in the opposite direction. "Looking for your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend! She's just a friend from school." Ichigo whispered loudly as he wheeled around. They waited as Rukia pranced over to them.

"Ohayo!" she flashed them a big smile as Ichigo introduced them. Whether because of their seemingly similar taste in clothes or because she just felt comfortable around her, Yuzu latched on to Rukia immediately. Karin on the other hand watched Rukia closely and tapped her chin. "I swear I've seen her before," she began when Ichigo realized the impending danger and quickly changed her attention to the tigers.

Somehow during the middle of the day Rukia had reverted to her usual self around Ichigo. Yuzu barely noticed the change but Karin relaxed having found another tomboy spirit to relate to. The three of them ran from animal to animal all the while chatting and licking ice cream cones. Ichigo shook his head as he followed after them getting slightly annoyed at being ignored. The annoyance was forgotten when he had to pull Rukia away from jumping into the bear den and tried to convince her that bears were in fact not very nice creatures.

"But, I'll just jump in there and touch it real fast. It can't be much more dangerous than a hollow," she hissed so that his sister's couldn't hear. Ichigo just shook his head and was thinking of a clever retort when Karin called her over to see the lions fighting. They stood and watched until the lions stopped playing and went off to sleep. Yuzu fell silent and then started sniffling.

"What's wrong?" Karin patted her on the back as a single tear rolled down her cheek. The soft-hearted girl looked up with her eyes brimming, "Karin-chan, do you think that these animals are lonely? Shouldn't we let them go back home? They left their homes and their families, and now they're here all alone. I bet they miss their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, but now they can never see them again."

Rukia shifted uncomfortably and stared off at the lions. Ichigo knelt in front ofYuzu and patted her head lightly. "Cheer up Yuzu, it's not that bad. They can't go back, they wouldn't fit in anymore. But look," he pointed at the lions who were leaning on each other as they slept, "since they came here they found new friends. I bet they wouldn't want to leave their new friends, right?" She nodded silently and wiped her nose on his sleeve.

He stood up and offered her his hand, "Now come on, I think that man over there is selling some cotton candy.."

The four of them walked down the street licking at the remains of the cotton candy on their fingers as the sun began to set. Karin jabbed Yuzu and silently motioned for her to walk ahead with her as Rukia and Ichigo fell behind. Ichigo turned his head to the side and studied the expression on her face. She looked peaceful and almost happy but her look was distant as she gave him a soft smile.

"So, you had a good time today?" he said jokingly, remembering her racing around the zoo with two kids in tow.

Rukia just nodded, her mouth too sticky to try to speak at the moment. Concentrating on unsticking her teeth she didn't notice the curb until she found herself tripping over it. Before she knew it, something had stopped her fall. Not something, someone.. she realized when she felt two arms wrapped around her waist.

Sheraised her eyescautiously to meet the two eyes thatlooked back into her own. Suddenly very aware of their close proximity she remained very still as he set her back on her feet. When she felt solid ground he quickly released her and stuck his hands in his pocket as he sprinted towards his sisters. Confused and feeling rather unbalanced Rukia lifted a hand to her chest, unsure why her cheeks were burning and why that moment had bothered her so much. What is this feeling..? And then she felt her body start shaking.

No, my body isn't shaking, she looked at Ichigo who grabbed on to his scared sisters, the ground is shaking. She could see the massive shape of a hollow as it stomped towards them. Rukia ran unsteadily over to Ichigo and pointed to his sisters, "Ichigo, take them home!"

"What?" He gaped at her in disbelief and narrowed his eyebrows. "No way! Turn me-"

"Listen to me this time, go take them home. I'll head it off to the park, meet me there." Ichigo shook his head at first, but his attention was distracted when Yuzu fainted. Scooping her into his arms he clasped his free hand on Karin's and nodded his head at Rukia. "Don't make me worry."

She smirked as she ran toward the hollow, "Don't make me wait."

Note: i finally finished this chapter! sorry for leaving the chapters as cliffhangers, i really didn't mean to on that last chapter. its rather anti-climatic if you were waiting to know what was in the bag, my apologies. it took me a while because i tried not to make it too fluffy/ooc.. note the word tried. i have to admit, i'm a huge ich/rukfan, but that's no guarantee on how the story is going to end. for you renji lovers out there, the love triangle is going to start in the next chapter so be prepared. as always i love to recieve any and all comments and criticisms because they only make things better, so please read and review and enjoy!