Hey, lovely readers, thanks for all the great reviews. So, just a small change, Renji will now address Byakuya as "Byakuya-dono." Thanks to MiranKaya for suggesting this. I think it sounds better than –san. Like more professional sounding (if that makes any sense).
Chapter 10 A fight
"I've got to get out of here." Rukia said desperately. Then she remembered what Yoruichi said earlier about a way to stop the affects of the love spell. Rukia gulped, and then decided to make her move…
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"Kurosaki-san has probably been affected by the love spell by now." Urahara said as he sat down next to Yoruichi on the back porch of the store.
"And Rukia's probably following my advice to get rid of the spell." Yoruichi smirked.
"This ought to be interesting." Urahara grinned, as they both looked up at the yellow-orange sky.
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"Rukia…where are you?" Ichigo said in a sing song voice.
"I-I'm right here!" Rukia said from behind him. Ichigo turned around to see Rukia, with the top buttons of her shirt undone, and sitting in a suggestive position. Ichigo stood there for a few second just staring at her.
"Rukia, let's have sex right now." Ichigo said with a dead serious expression.
"Yoruichi-san that obviously didn't work!!" Rukia screamed as she bolted for the door. "I'm so stupid! Those two tricked me!" Rukia grumbled as she dashed into a closet. She heard some footsteps rush past her, and then she breathed out a sigh of relief, as she sat down in the pitch black little room. "What am I going to do?" Rukia sighed to herself, and then heard some breathing next to her. She gasped and held her breath. There was someone else in the closet. "It can't be Ichigo! But who else…?" Rukia thought to herself as she tried to hear for anymore sounds from the other person. Then a hand touched her shoulder. She gasped, turned around and pinned the person to the wall in an instant.
"R-Rukia-san, it's me! Hanataro desu!" Hanataro's voice said in the darkness.
"H-Hanataro? What are you doing in the closet?" Rukia asked, then let go of him.
"Ah well, I-I tripped and fell inside, then I got tangled in this rope so I couldn't really get out." Hanataro explained.
"I-I see." Rukia sweat dropped. "Here let me help you out with that." Suddenly the door burst open and standing there was Ichigo.
"Found you Rukia." Ichigo had a smirk on his face which faded, when he saw who else was in the closet with Rukia. "What exactly are you doing? Huh? You cheating on me?!"
"What are you talking about…?" Rukia gave Ichigo a 'what in the world are you saying?' look. Then she got an idea. "Hanataro! Can you help me with something?"
"Huh? S-sure, but what is—." Hanataro never got a chance to finish his sentence, because Rukia grabbed him by his collar, practically choking him. "R-Rukia-san what are you—?!"
"If we pretend to kiss, maybe Ichigo under the love spell will get jealous and snap out of it!" Rukia explained to Hanataro.
"H-how does that even make sense?" Hanataro asked.
"Just do it!" Rukia commanded and was about to lean in for a kiss, however Ichigo saw this and obviously couldn't accept it.
"Hey you bastard, get away from my girl!" Ichigo shouted and tried to pull Hanataro away from Rukia, but ended up falling on top of Hanataro with their lips colliding.
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"Those guys…they just left without even saying good bye…" Renji grumbled to himself as he walked into his bedroom and collapsed on his bed. "I guess Rukia doesn't care about me any more…now that she has Ichigo with her." Renji sighed and looked up at the ceiling. He was sitting around, for who knows how long, when his cell phone rang. He let it ring a few times, then finally got up and answered it. It was Keigo.
"Yo Keigo…what's up?" Renji answered.
"Did you hear?!?! There's a school field trip coming up soon!" Keigo exclaimed.
"So…?"
"So it means a whole week together! 7 nights together with the beautiful girls in our class! It's our chance to make a move on them! Of course it's also a chance for friendships to blossom-." Renji hung up the phone and ran to his school bag. He searched through it and found a permission slip for the very same class trip.
"This is my chance to see Rukia again!" Renji thought to himself happily, and ran out the door to get his permission slip signed by… "Wait a second! Who am I supposed to ask to sign this? Hm I guess anyone should be fine…" He figured and walked down the hall to see Byakuya walking the other way. "Ah! I can ask Byakuya-dono!" Renji thought. "Byakuya-dono, wait up!" Byakuya stopped to see who had called his name.
"What is it Renji?"
"Hey…uh I like to think of us as family, don't you?" Renji said.
"What is this about? I have work to do." Byakuya stated, completely unfazed.
"Right…well my school's having this field trip and I need someone to sign the permission slip…could you?"
"Let me see it." Byakuya said, and Renji handed him the document. Byakuya took out a pen from the breast pocket of his jacket and started scribbling his signature.
"Woah, that's a nice pen!" Renji observed, "Where'd you buy it?" Byakuya didn't answer and handed the paper back to Renji.
"Well if that is all…" Byakuya said, wearing his trademark emotionless expression.
"You really don't want me to know where you got that pen huh?" Renji sighed. Byakuya took that as his queue to leave and turned around and began to walk. "You know," Renji said, "Rukia's going on this trip too." The red head walked up to Byakuya, who had stopped in his tracks after hearing Rukia's name. "And she'll have to get her permission slip signed too, so she'll have to come back here. Maybe then you can give her that present you got for her on the day she left." Renji smirked, and walked away. Byakuya turned around to see Renji's retreating figure. The Kuchiki placed his hand on his pocket to feel the little gift box that had been there and a very tiny smile found its way to his lips.
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"Hm, so the love spell wears off when you kiss someone else." Rukia observed.
"I-I can't believe my first kiss was…was…" Hanataro was in a state of complete shock.
"It's not like I planned mine to be with a guy either." Ichigo sighed. "So does this mean I have to kiss someone whenever I get like that?"
"Well yes, but that was the effects of AB-, so we'll just have to try another blood type." Rukia explained. "But I don't have any with me, so we'll have to wait for Urahara to give us some. Where did you say he was Hanataro?"
"Uh…h-he didn't really tell me…" Hanataro replied. "But he went that way." Hanataro pointed to the back part of the store. "I-I'll go check if he's there." The black haired young man said to Rukia and Ichigo.
"Ok, thanks." Rukia said.
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"Yoruichi-san, it's time for dinner~" Urahara said, and started pouring some dry cat food in a red cat's food bowl with Yoruichi's name on it. Yoruichi just gave him a dry look. "Ah ha ha it was just a joke. But you could have at least worn the collar I bought you…" He mumbled. Yoruichi smirked and walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his back.
"It was a diamond studded collar." Yoruichi said into his ear gently. "Your intentions may be misunderstood with such a gift." She said.
"You know very well of my intentions, don't you?" Urahara grinned, with his hat covering his eyes as he turned around to face her.
"You're serious?" Yoruichi asked a little surprised. Urahara took his hat off, and nodded with a smile.
"Ano…excuse me…" Hanataro's voice broke their conversation. "Ah S-Sorry am I interrupting something?"
"No, what's wrong?" Urahara walked toward Hanataro, leaving a semi-surprised Yoruichi standing there.
"Well, Rukia-san and Ichigo-san need to get a different blood type for Ichigo-san to drink." Hanataro explained.
"So the love spell wore off huh?" Urahara smirked. "I wonder if Rukia-san followed the plan." He said, as he and Hanataro went back inside, with Yoruichi trailing behind.
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After Hanataro left, Rukia turned to see Ichigo looking out the window. The sun was setting, leaving dark orange color streaming across the sky. "Ichigo…"
"…It was really weird, being under that spell or whatever…" Ichigo turned to Rukia. "I mean it's like I was watching myself doing things…and I couldn't even stop myself. I didn't…do anything to you…did I? I mean the first time this happened."
"A-about that…Ichigo, I…I have to tell you something about that night…um…I, well just promise me, you won't let it affect our friendship." Rukia said nervously.
"Well we already technically had "sex," and that didn't affect our friendship, so what else would?" Ichigo said sarcastically.
"I'm serious Ichigo." Rukia had a stern look on her face, and Ichigo understood and said nothing more. "Ok well, you started, you know getting strange, and you…well you tried to kiss me and then…"
"W-what did I do?" Ichigo asked quickly.
"You didn't...you didn't kiss me, because I asked you not to."
"Huh?" Ichigo gave Rukia a puzzled look. "Wait so…what's the problem-- ."
"I-I kissed you!" Rukia shouted her face completely red. Before Ichigo could reply, Urahara, Hanataro, and Yoruichi walked in.
"Hello Kurosaki-san, ok, so we have O- and A-, which one would you like to try? Although you should probably try both to see which one works better. So here you go." Urahara handed Ichigo a box filled with blood substitute juice boxes. Apparently he hadn't heard what Ichigo and Rukia were talking about, or at least showed no signs of it.
"Uh…yeah thanks." Ichigo said, obviously distracted. "You are…?
"Ah well I'm Urahara Kisuke, just a young, sexy shopkeeper." Urahara grinned.
"…I see." Ichigo sweat dropped. "Well thanks for the blood…substitute things…"
"Sure, no problem." Urahara said, "Don't forget to watch for changes in behavior Rukia-san."
"I will." Rukia replied, "Thanks." At that, Ichigo and Rukia, left the Urahara shop and headed home. After walking for a few minutes in silence, Ichigo decided to ask the question on his mind.
"A-about what you said before…about k-kissing me…." Ichigo stammered.
"Look, just please forget about it, it was just something stupid I did…I don't even know why." Rukia explained.
"So you're saying kissing me was something stupid?" Ichigo asked, feeling like he was being insulted.
"No…I mean it was just a mistake, let's just pretend it never happened." Rukia said, trying not to make a big deal out of it.
"A mistake? Was it really that bad?!" Ichigo asked angrily.
"Ichigo! Calm down, I'm just trying to go back to the way things were before it happened." Rukia replied.
"Well maybe I don't want to go back to how things were!" Ichigo shouted, and that made Rukia stop in her tracks. She looked up at Ichigo slowly.
"I-Ichigo…what are you saying?" Rukia asked, a confused expression on her face.
"J-Just forget it!" Ichigo sighed sharply, and walked ahead of her. Rukia looked down, not knowing what he meant by that. It was one of the first times, where Rukia had no idea what Ichigo was thinking and they both didn't like it.
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Ichigo and Rukia didn't speak the whole way home, and when they got home, Rukia shut herself in Ichigo's closet and Ichigo shut himself in the bathroom. They didn't leave those rooms for the whole night. Isshin was busy at the hospital, and Karin and Yuzu had already left for their hot springs trip. The house was silent. Dark and silent, as gray clouds drifted into the indigo sky.
"Why did he get so angry?!" Rukia thought to herself as she leaned her back onto the closet wall. "I mean I was trying to make it less uncomfortable for him! But he had to blow up like that…I don't like this…I couldn't tell what he was thinking…It's not like Ichigo feels the same way that I feel about him…does he? Ugh what's wrong with me?! Why am I even thinking like this…? What the hell is going on?! "
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"What the hell is her problem?!" Ichigo grumbled to himself, as he slammed the bathroom door shut. "She was the one who kissed me, and then she just wants to forget about it?! Did she really think it was just a mistake? Arrgghh why am I getting so annoyed about this?! No, I do know…at least I think I do… well it doesn't matter, since she clearly doesn't feel the same way. Ugh, this is pissing me off!" Ichigo punched the door with his fist, and sunk to the floor. "Why couldn't she see…? Damnit!"
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When morning finally came, Ichigo was sore all over from falling asleep on the bathroom floor. He got up slowly to lessen the pain, and went into the hallway to see his dad collapsed on the floor.
"O-Oyaji?!" Ichigo gasped.
"I-Ichigo…? B-bathroom…is it free now?" Isshin asked, half dead.
"You needed to use the bathroom? How long were you waiting out here?"
"Uhh…3'oclock…in the...morning...I think…" Isshin got up and almost collapsed again. Ichigo guided his father to the bathroom, and then closed the door, leaving his father to…relieve himself. Ichigo headed for the kitchen to find it empty. "So she's not awake yet huh?" Ichigo thought to himself, and then turned around to see Rukia coming down the stairs. He quickly turned back around, and Rukia walked right past him. He watched her take out some bread and put it in the toaster.
"What?" She asked him. He just blinked at her. "What're you looking at?" She said in a cold tone.
"What the hell's with your attitude?!" Ichigo shouted, "I'm the one who should be angry!"
"You?! You're the one who blew up in my face, when I was just trying to make your stinking life easier!" Rukia yelled right back.
"Oh? You were trying to make my life easier?! Then how about you just get the hell out and leave me and my stinking life alone!" Ichigo hollered at Rukia. Rukia was struck silent, and Ichigo immediately regretted saying what he just had. Before he could say anything else, Rukia ran past him out the front door, and Ichigo couldn't move a muscle to stop her.
A/N
Ichigo, you baka! Hehe I had to have an serious argument between the two at some point. I mean c'mon it can't be all lovey-dovey with these two ne? Reviews are loved and appreciated! Ok bye-za~