Disclaimer: copy paste whatever you see in other stories...

Sorry for any grammatical errors and typos.


Saturday – 7:30 AM

"I-chi-go~ WAKE UP!"

Ichigo bolted from his bed, his body tensed, his eyes widened as adrenaline pumped into his blood stream, waking up every single fiber of his being. His head instinctively whipped to his left where he deduced his maniac of a father was positioned ready to pounce at him. Imagine his surprise when, instead of a flying kick, a smiling face of a certain girl greeted him.

"Jesus! What the hell are you doing here?" Ichigo exclaimed backing up onto the wall, his eyes fixated at the grinning Rukia in front of him. Don't get him wrong; waking up to a smiling face beats a surprise morning attack any day. But the fact that Rukia was in his room smiling at him, actually smiling at him, it was just creepy.

For the past five days that he'd been with her, well before and after school, he learned a few things about her. One is she likes to get everything her way, and thanks to her acting she usually does. But though her acting may have convinced his family, and Izumi, it's going to take a lot more to convince him. One other thing he learned is that whenever she smiles at him like that something's definitely up.

"Good morning Ichigo! Notice anything different?" Rukia asked happily twirling around, the light blue dress she wore swirling gracefully along with her. The light that casted a glow to her slim body just made looking at her a lot harder for the now blushing orange haired teen at the bed.

"Uh... you're smiling?" he tried, praying to the lord above that she didn't notice him blushing. She didn't.

"No. Try again." She took a seat beside his bed, resting her right leg up to his bed while still grinning at him.

"Um... uh... okay I give, what?" Rukia sighed exasperatedly; her smile disappeared only to be replaced by a frown.

"How do you think I got up here?" she asked, her growing irritation clear in her voice, as she stood up.

"You walked." Something clicked in Ichigo's brain.

"Oh." It was the first time Rukia had ever been upstairs. Because of her sprain she refused to climb up the stairs, complaining that it would hurt, and insisted that she'd stay down stairs even if it means sleeping on the couch. Of course his father made it so that she'd be comfortable, even going to all the trouble of bringing a bed to his 'study room' and taking out his stuff and anything else that might 'hurt' her.

"It's about time! God Ichigo, how slow can you be?"

"Shut up. And what the hell are you doing here?" He asked annoyed, glancing at his clock. "At freakin' 7 in the morning!" He added with a low growl at the end.

"Well Yuzu was going to the store to buy ingredients for hot cakes, and well since there's nothing to do here, and as you can see I can walk now" she skipped a bit as a demonstration "so I volunteered."

"Then go already." He buried his head under his pillow as an attempt to keep the light out and if possible the noise that is Rukia.

"But I don't know the way to the store." She said pulling the blanket off him, completely revealing the boxers he wore to sleep. Rukia blushed and quickly turned around.

"So get someone to go with you." He said as he blindly reached for his missing comforter. Ichigo's mind, apparently, was still too foggy from sleep that he didn't remember late last night he had only put on his boxers before falling asleep.

"I know, that's why I'm up here." She simply stated as she made her way out. "Oh and by the way Ichigo, isn't it a bit too cold to be sleeping with only your boxers on?"

A pause.

"Get out!"

{[[[[[]]]]]}

"Let's see... flour, check! Milk, check! Hm... Ichigo what's this?" Rukia asked, flailing the short grocery list Yuzu gave her.

Ichigo stood a little way from her, eyes closed, quietly listening to his iPod.

"Ichigo!" no response.

"I-chi-go!" Ichigo shifted a little, just enough to completely face Rukia.

Grumbling a few choices of words Rukia turned away from him. She squinted her eyes as she tried to decipher the words scribbled in the note, after a while she gave up. With a low growl she turned back to her useless companion. Reaching for the earphones she pulled it down with much strength that Ichigo's head was pull along with it.

Recovering from his surprise he glared at the girl in front of him but, suddenly wary of the close proximity, quickly looked away.

"What?" He mumbled.

"I said what this is?" she asked again, shoving the piece of paper at his face.

"A piece of paper"

Resisting the urge to slap him upside the head she settled for a murderous glare. "I know that you twit." She seethed. "I mean what is this!" She said, pointing to what could best be called well... chicken scratch.

After a while of trying to get heads or tails of the scribble Ichigo handed back the list. "Just get the ones that you can read." He said with a sigh, thinking that his father probably wrote that at the last minute. Honestly he could've at least tried writing clearly when it comes to family and friends.

Grabbing the list Rukia stuck her tongue out at him before running off to get the rest of the things needed. Ichigo hung back, trying to get as much distance from the hyper, childish girl while still being near enough to be able to locate her easily.

He sighed again while watching her trying to reach a particular item that's just a little bit out of her reach. Reaching over her small form Ichigo easily got the bottle of vanilla and handed it to Rukia.

She pouted at him "I could have gotten that myself!" she stated, snatching the bottle from him and walking away.

"Annoying littl-" the rest of his sentence was stuck in his throat as he spotted a very loud individual going his way, and he was not alone.

"Ichigo!" Keigo yelled as he tried to tackle Ichigo, which earned several curious looks from the nearby shoppers, excluding Rukia who seemed in deep thought as to which brand of vanilla she should buy.

By instincts Ichigo easily dodged the enthusiastic Keigo, who ended up smashing his face onto the nearby meat fridge. Quickly recovering Keigo jump back to his feet and started bowling loudly pointing accusingly at Ichigo.

"Shut the hell up Keigo!" yelled Tatsuki as she threw the nearest piece of merchandise at Keigo, which just happened to be a can of peas. "Jezz, it's because of you that we always get into trouble." She mumbled as Mizuiro started to poke the unconscious Keigo.

"Good morning Kurosaki-kun." Orihime sweetly greeted which was followed by a nod from Uryu, a grunt from Chad, the usual 'Yo' from Tatsuki and a smile from Mizuiro.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Ichigo asked, giving subtle glances at the oblivious Rukia.

"What does it look like we're doing Kurosaki? We're grocery shopping." Ishida stated factually, holding up the basket they were using, a duh look on his face. If only glares could kill Uryu would be 6 feet deep by then.

"We're having another get together a bit later Kurosaki-kun, would you like to join us?" Orihime asked. "I'll be making my famous wasabi cake with red bean paste icing and tofu-"

"Alright, alight Hime. Why don't we go ahead and look for your ingredients." Tatsuki cut her off, seeing as how people within hearing range started to turn green at the mention of wasabi cake.

But before they even took a step an unmistakable voice of a girl called out for Ichigo, which certainly didn't sound anything like any of his 10 year old sisters, and a second later Rukia came bounding out of the aisle two bottles of vanilla in hand.

"Hey, Ichigo which one d'ya think is better? Besties* or Knax*?" Rukia asked holding up the bottles.

"Ichigo! Why didn't you tell us you had company?" Mizuiro asked winking suggestively at Ichigo.

Apparently Keigo regained consciousness a little while back, that or he wasn't actually knocked out, cause he was yet again pointing accusingly at Ichigo saying something about betrayal before scurrying beside Rukia.

"Excuse me miss, what time is it?"He asked oh-so-innocently.

"Eh, um... se-seven fifty-nine." Rukia replied slowly, feeling a bit nervous at his sudden approach. Everyone else changed looks, all thinking the same thing.

"So today is September 27, 2006 at 7:59 is that right miss?" after a hesitant nod from Rukia Keigo continued "Thanks, I just wanted to be able to remember the exact moment that I met you." Keigo purred, which earned several eye rolls from the gang before he was punched out by Ichigo.

"So Ichigo aren't you gonna introduce us?" Tatsuki asked grinning from ear to ear.

"What? Oh... right." Ichigo put a hand on Rukia's shoulder and gently pushed her forward. "Guys this is Rukia. She's..." a complete stranger who's going to be living with us for the next couple of months, right like he's going to say that "... a friend, a family friend actually, a very old family friend who lives in another town far from here."

"Rukia these are my friends." Regretfully he silently added. "The idiotic pervert over there is Asano Keigo" he said jerking his head at the general direction of Keigo. "baby face there is Kojima Mizuiro, the big guy's Yas-Yasu... we call him Chad, that's Inoue Orihime, glasses there is Ishida Uruuy"

"It's Uryu Kurosaki." Ishida growled, annoyed that once again Ichigo pronounced his name wrong.

"Sure it is..." he deadpanned. "and the other one is Tatsuki." Tatsuki glared at him, her fingers clenching and unclenching at her side.

Forcing her anger to the back of her mind she forced on a smile, which looked more like a lopsided grin. "And you've already met the arrogant bastard Ichigo right?"

"I'm not arrogant!" he snapped.

"Oh did I say arrogant? I meant ignorant." With one last growl Ichigo grudgingly backed down from their verbal fight, repeating 'I do not hit girls' again and again in his head like a mantra.

"So it's Rukia-san right?" Orihime grabbed her right hand, her eyes shining with glee. "Hey! Rukia-chan can come to tonight's party too, right?"

"Well I guess one more person won't be a problem." Ishida piped up from behind, thinking over the night's event in detail, not that it ever goes according to plan.

"Oh no, please I wouldn't want to trouble you..."

"Oh no, it's no trouble at all!" Mizuiro cut in smiling boyishly.

"Please, thank you for the offer but I promised Yuzu-chan that I'd be helping her tonight and... well I promised." she lied.

"Oh... well then Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime turned to Ichigo.

"Eh... me? Ah, sorry I got that thing... with someone... and you know..." he said lamely. "Eh... isn't that right Rukia?"

"Eh, what's that Kurosaki-kun? I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about..." she said in the sickly-sweet voice she knew would irritate Ichigo.

"You know... that thing" he said, a slight pleading look on his face.

"Really? Hm..." she smiled one of those smiles; Ichigo could practically imagine the gears turning in her head. "Ah... was it that cookie thing you 'promised Yuzu'... and the movie?" she asked using the moment to her advantage.

Ichigo was going to regret this later but he would do anything to get out of their get together, which now that he thought about it happens almost every weekend. How is it that everyone, aside from himself, always has extra cash to spare? He'd never figure that out.

Silently groaning he went along with Rukia. "Yeah, that one..."

"Aw... too bad. Maybe you two can come next time." Orihime put in meekly smiling at both before she was pulled away by Tatsuki. Ishida followed closely, gingerly slipping his hands in Orihime's and slightly bushing as he did. Chad, who had draped the unconscious Keigo over his shoulders with so much ease that people nearby stared in awe at the gently giant, soon followed. Mizuiro, on the other hand, had somehow slipped away while Rukia was toying with Ichigo to answer a call, possibly from one of his older girlfriends.

"They sure are an interesting bunch." Rukia said as she began to walk back to their basket. Ichigo said nothing but nod his head in agreement.

"I can't wait to meet the rest of our classmates!" she exclaimed giggling as she gaily skipped ahead of Ichigo.

"Ah... wait, what did you say?"

"So which is better Besties? Or Knax?" she said ignoring Ichigo's question. "Oh and by the way Ichigo, I kinda forgot to bring the money Uncle gave me so... I'll pay you back later."


Besties* and Knax* - I totally just made that up... but if there really is a brand like this then eh.

Note: Hey, just came home from our very first road trip! Since I'm in a super good mood I decided to finish this earlier than planned. (Another reason: I got a nasty sunburn, no thanks to a certain someone, and got bored.) Right, now on to the other story...

Oh right, about the school thing and the other stuff... I'll write it next time, ne.