And I've lost who I am
And I can't understand
Why my heart is so broken
Rejecting your love...There's a light
There's a sun, taking all the shattered ones
To the place, we belong…
~Shattered by Trading Yesterday


VIII. Sunday Road Trip

Ichigo had been suspicious, to say the least, when Rukia had oh-so-casually suggested a Sunday road trip. Hisana had been more than happy to volunteer her car for the adventure — something that had raised Ichigo's suspicion radar even more. Of course, neither sister had given Ichigo a chance to voice his doubts. Now why would they ever do that?

"Where are we going?" Ichigo demanded as they left the city. Rukia just smirked as they pulled up to a stop sign.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you patience is virtue?"

"Hasn't anyone ever told you kidnapping is a crime?"

"Now who in their right mind is going to believe that little old me kidnapped a giant monster like you?" Rukia asked with a laugh. "If you say the word kidnapping, the police will probably arrest you."

Unfortunately, she had a point. It didn't help Ichigo's case that he already had a record, of course. Vandalism, stealing, a whole bunch of little petty crimes. They built up after awhile though.

"What was your social worker like?" Ichigo asked, a bit off-handedly, mostly to take his mind off their mystery destination. He hadn't expected Rukia's hand to tighten around the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white, nor had he expected her face to crumple into an almost pained look. He suddenly felt bad for asking. "…Rukia?"

"Come on kiddo, this is the third home you've gotten kicked out of," Kaien said with a sigh as he led Rukia towards his car. "What happened, you were doing fine in the beginning."

"They wanted to adopt me," Rukia grumbled, kicking at a rock with her foot. Kaien smiled a bit as he ruffled Rukia's hair.

"What a crime. Let me guess, they also wanted to buy you a puppy? What monsters, they must be stopped." Rukia giggled a bit despite herself.

"Kaien-dono!"

Kaien chuckled. He, of course, knew the reason for Rukia's aversion to adoption. He made a mental note to tell her next family not to mention the idea to her. Unless they wanted all their windows taken out by rocks too.

Snap…snap…

"Rukia!"

Rukia jumped a mile as a pair of snapping fingers, along with Ichigo's voice, brought her back to reality. She blinked a couple of times before remembering she was sitting in a car. And she was supposed to be driving.

"Oops," she muttered as she carefully pressed down on the gas pedal, moving them forward. She could feel Ichigo's gaze burning a hole into the side of her head as he tried to figure out what Rukia's space-out had been all about.

"Are you okay?" He asked after a moment. Rukia nodded, pressing her lips tightly together and trying to convey the message that she didn't want to talk. Thankfully, Ichigo seemed to get the hint. He turned to look out the window, leaving his "kidnapper" alone. Which probably wasn't a good thing. But Rukia was grateful for it.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence…at least until they passed one of those signs telling them they were entering a town. Ichigo's eyes widened as he finally realized where they were going. "What the hell?" He demanded loudly, turning to glare at Rukia, who was smirking faintly.

"Something wrong?"

"Why are we here?"

"Well I was under the impression that your sisters lived here, I thought it'd be a great treat for them to see that their older brother was still alive."

To say Ichigo was angry would have been an understatement. Rukia knew she should have felt bad about pulling this on him. Obviously he didn't want to see his sisters for a reason, and though Rukia couldn't quite fathom what kind of reason it was, in all reality, she also didn't care. Things weren't always about him.

"I want to see Nee-san," Rukia said unhappily as she climbed into the car. Kaien sighed, looking at his watch, then up at the setting sun.

"It's kind of late kiddo, I need to get you to the Kyorakus' and start seeing if I can find out about another foster home for you…"

"But I want to see Nee-san," Rukia whined, glaring at Kaien. "Please Kaien-dono, I haven't seen her in a long time."

Another sigh. "All right," he finally ceded as he turned the key in the ignition, and the engine roared to life. "We can't stay for long though, okay?"

Rukia didn't care. Even five minutes with her sister was better than no time at all.

Ichigo didn't know what it was like. He was the older sibling in this case, he didn't know how it was to be the younger sibling constantly worrying for the older one. And if his sisters were anything like Rukia…

"Just do this. For them, okay? Hisana talked to them on the phone last night, they were really excited about seeing you."

How could Ichigo say no to that?

The sight of Yuzu and Karin, sitting on the front steps of the house they now called home, chatting animatedly about something or another, pulled tightly at Ichigo's heart. Their heads snapped around as Rukia pulled the car into their driveway, and they jumped up. They'd grown, Ichigo noted stupidly as he climbed out of the car. They were about as tall as Rukia, he thought with some amusement.

"Ichi-nii!" Yuzu cheered as she launched herself at her brother, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. Ichigo smiled a bit as he returned the hug.

"Good to see you again too, Yuzu."

Karin stayed a few steps back from Yuzu, uncertain as always. Ichigo raised his eyes to look at his raven-haired sister, who was regarding him a bit stonily. "No hug for your big brother, Karin?"

The girl smiled just a little as she stepped forward, allowing Ichigo to wrap an arm around her as well. Rukia leaned against the hood of the car, arms crossed over her chest, smiling. Okay, so it'd been low, not telling Ichigo they were coming out here. But Rukia had a feeling he wouldn't be complaining any time soon.

All and all it was a rather enjoyable day. Yuzu's and Karin's foster parents had cleared out in order to give the girls some time with their estranged brother. Rukia had been planning to do the same thing, until Yuzu had turned to her and (after happily exclaiming that she looked like a mini-version of Hisana) invited her to stay as well. Even then she'd been planning to make up an excuse about having to run errands and taking off, but Ichigo's eyes had sought hers out, silently beseeching her to say. And so Rukia had given in, following the Kurosaki siblings into the house. Yuzu had instantly set to work on cooking lunch, all the while chatting excitedly, filling her brother in on everything he'd missed in the year they'd been apart. Karin, Rukia noticed, was mostly quiet as she sat at the table with her brother, staring at the wooden surface in front of her.

"So what've you been doing?" She finally asked when Yuzu stopped to breathe. Ichigo looked a bit surprised at the question.

"Well…you know…a bit of this, a bit of that…"

"Still getting into trouble?" Ichigo cringed.

"Yeah…maybe a little…"

"You really can't blame him, Karin-chan," Rukia spoke up, feeling a strange need to come to Ichigo's rescue. "Sometimes it's hard for fools to remember that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. He causes the same trouble over and over because he doesn't remember that the actions he's taking got him into trouble before, you know?"

Ichigo was insulted when Yuzu and Karin both began laughing. "Traitors," he muttered, glaring at both of them. Rukia smirked, pleased with her thought-up-on-the-spot defense. She was surprised when Ichigo shot her a strangely grateful look.

Rukia was amazed by now good lunch was. Yuzu was really a terrific cook. Ichigo seemed impressed by the fact too.

After lunch Yuzu dragged Ichigo upstairs to show him her room. Karin stayed downstairs with Rukia; they sat next to each other on the couch, silent for a few moments.

"Ichi-nii didn't want to come here, did he?" The younger girl asked after a minute. Rukia turned to look at her, surprised she had come to such a conclusion.

"No," she finally admitted. She saw no point in lying to Karin, who would probably see right through it. "But I think he's happy he's here now. He really loves you and your sister even if he doesn't always act it."

"How bad is the trouble he's been getting into? Do you know?"

Rukia hesitated. She knew more about Ichigo than she let on, but what was safe to tell Karin? "It's not really…trouble," she finally settled for saying. "He just doesn't like to sit still, he runs away from his foster homes a lot. It just causes trouble because he's a minor, and the police are always picking him up when he runs."

Karin sighed. "I hate how he does that. He needs to learn not to close himself off so much, his life would be so much better if he learned to let himself be happy."

Rukia certainly wasn't about to disagree with that. In fact she was pretty sure she'd said that to Ichigo at one point in time.

"So why did you make him come out here if you knew he didn't want to?" Karin asked, abruptly changing the subject. Rukia didn't hesitate to answer this one.

"I know what it's like to be the little sister. You worry about Ichigo a lot, don't you?" Karin nodded slowly. "I get that. And anyways Ichigo's being selfish, not coming here to see you. He's your older brother. You deserve to be able to see him if it's possible. And there was nothing stopping him from coming out here today, besides his own stubbornness."

Karin smiled a bit. She kind of liked Rukia, though she'd probably never admit it.

"And see, that's from when we went to the beach last summer, we found a whole bunch of crabs and we put them in that bucket…"

Ichigo was smiling as his sister showed him all the pictures that lined the surface of her bureau. Yuzu seemed to be enjoying herself. That was all that mattered to Ichigo.

"And that's from Karin's soccer game at the end of last season, she scored the winning goal for the entire championship, she still has the ball in her room actually, I'll show it to you in a bit if you want."

Well at least Karin and Yuzu seemed to be going somewhere with their lives. Ichigo was glad that they had themselves on track. It wouldn't have been fair if their lives had been ruined too. "So what's it like living with Hisana-san?" Yuzu asked after a moment. Ichigo snorted.

"Well Hisana-san's fine…her sister, on the other hand, is the biggest pain in the butt I've ever met."

Yuzu giggled. "She seems pretty nice to me."

"Yeah, she's an absolute angel when she's around other people. Get her alone with me though and you see the devil horns that are holding her halo up."

"Well she got you to come here, that says something about her don't you think?"

"Yeah, she's a manipulative little midget." Ichigo rolled his eyes and quickly changed the subject. He hadn't come here to talk about Rukia, after all. "Come on, lets go see that soccer ball of Karin's."

Yuzu grinned as she led Ichigo out of the room and across the hall, slipping into another room. It was so easy to please — and distract — her. Ichigo smiled a bit as he followed her. He was strangely glad that Rukia had brought him there.


"Thank you."

Rukia looked over at Ichigo, surprised. "What?"

Ichigo sighed. She would force him to repeat himself… "Thanks for today. For making me come out here. It was…nice…seeing the two of them again. I missed them more than I realized."

"Of course you did, they're your little sisters. You love them."

Ichigo sighed quietly. "You really do know everything, don't you?" Rukia laughed as she returned her attention to the road before them.

"Well I try. I'm surprisingly clueless about some things though. You know, if it makes you feel any better."

"Somehow, it does." Ichigo chuckled a bit despite himself. He would never admit it, not even to himself, but he almost liked seeing Rukia smile. The haunted look that had ruled her face when he'd asked her about her social worker had made something pull tight in his chest. He didn't understand the pain, and he didn't understand why it hurt so much to see Rukia upset…but he wasn't going to think too far into it. He'd just drive himself crazy if he did that.

"Anyways…thanks again."

"Anytime," Rukia said with a smirk. "You know me, I'm always willing to kick you in the butt if you need me."

"Don't I know it." Ichigo rolled his eyes. He would certainly never admit that he was grateful for that.


Author's Note: So I know you were all hoping for some more of Rukia's past this chapter — sorry for that. But I've had this chapter in mind since I started writing this story, and you know me, I have no self-control — when an idea persists, I can't help but write it. So we have this. Next chapter is a little more of Rukia's past. And I'm sure you're all wondering about her reaction when Ichigo asked about her social worker — we'll find out about that too. I can't guarantee exactly when the next chapter is going to come out, unfortunately — I'm back in school now, and unfortunately college takes priority over every other aspect of my life :-/ No matter how much I hate it. Reviews motivate me though, so review please and maybe I'll feel more compelled to blow off homework XD — Sam