Disclaimer: I disclaim all of Bleach-verse and it's characters, they belong to Kubo-sama, because he is just that awesome. I own Ai.

Having Shinji walk away from Ai like he did, well that hurt, a lot, she just wanted him to support her the way a best friend should, she was finally unlocking the long-time frozen door of her emotions, she would have thought he would at least be the slightest bit happy for her, maybe even elated.

She sighed softly, she was currently aimlessly gliding through halls of Seireitei, with no real destination in mind; she was just wandering and allowing some time to herself and her reckless thoughts.

She knew why Shinji was being so taking this hard, because it was another man who held the key to her emotions and not himself. Ai knew that Shinji's love for her went further than that of friendship, and deep down he seemed to know that she would never reciprocate his feelings, and now that his inner-most fears were confirmed… That must be too painful to bear, Ai had no idea what he must be feeling right now, not because she was still going through the vulnerable stages of revealing her own inner feelings and thoughts, but she was simply on the opposite end of the 'love scale' as she had so dubiously dubbed it; dubiously because she was still trying to understand the concept of 'love', how to act on it, and how to receive it… And Shinji, well he had experienced it, and he had had it thrown back in his face.

What was 'love' really?

See this was partly why Ai had decided to shut off her emotions completely, Ai had witnessed 'love' countless times, in the numerous hopeless souls that surrounded her, they would all allow themselves to feel this inexplicable emotion, wearing their hearts on their sleeves, when they would all be set up for hurt in the end. That was what 'love' was to Ai, having your hopes held up so high, only to end in heartbreak.

Ai was the perfect example of this; she had loved her mother dearly and then she was cruelly and abruptly ripped from her life, causing the unbearable anguish she was burdened to bear for the rest of her undead life. She came up with a solution, shut off her emotions completely and maybe she will be alright in the end, until she was strong enough to 'love' again, and maybe one day she will be repaired.

But you see she had slipped up an innumerable amount of times, her father being the reason for her constant relapses. How could she not show love and affection for her father? The one person who was by her side all through her mother's traumatic death? Ai could never be so heartless as to turn her back on her father, after all he had suffered just as she had, even worse in his case, and then there was his incurable disease...

Now though… Now Ai had a different outlook, after meeting Kisuke, the young Shinigami felt that there was hope for her after all. After all of these years, Ai had finally reached her original goal, to find that day when she would be strong enough to 'love' again, and work hard from that day on to be repaired once again.

In Kisuke she found hope.

She may not understand completely what Shinji was currently going through emotionally, but she knew that if Ai, the girl with a frozen heart, was able to find love again (in the most unexpected of places), then surely, surely her best friend would find hope in that one person who could repair his broken heart, and help him to find love again.

It was with these hopeful and optimistic thoughts that Ai was roughly grabbed by each arm, and led into the nearest room, she had not been paying attention to her surroundings and had unknowingly wandered into the barracks of the eighth division, and this only meant one thing.

Yadomaru Lisa had pounced.

She looked left and right numerous times, her eyes disbelieving, on her left was the fukutaichou with her glasses reflecting the light hiding her eyes, only making her look scarier, she held a smirk that Ai only knew too well, and on her right was Mashiro, fukutaichou of the ninth division, she was smiling brightly, obviously excited about something, but when wasn't she?

Ai knew what was going to happen next, this was an unending cycle between the trio, the two fukutaichous were always wanting to play 'dress up' with the poor soul that was the twelfth division's third seat. Ai found it to be such a tedious task, and as unneeded as ever.

Ai managed to keep her poker face in check as she was being effortlessly carried by her two, although begrudgingly, friends, "What do you think you are doing?" her tone as icy as ever.

Lisa gave her a sidelong look, "Oh come on! We know about you and your new, hot taichou, so we've decided to give you a quick makeover, you need to look your best!"

Ai blinked, her expression unchanging, it would make anyone else feel uneasy to have her just staring at them without a shed of emotion to allow them into her thoughts, but Lisa had been used to it, "I deem that highly unnecessary, now if you would both be so kind as to put me down," she was not asking them, she was commanding them.

"Ai~! Don't be such a spoil sport! Let us have our fun just this once? Pleeeeease~?" Mashiro piped up then, in the whiny tone she had down to perfection, she affected a puppy dog look. That would not work on Ai.

"No. I will not repeat myself,"

The two mischievous fukutaichou's sighed forlornly, placing Ai safely on the ground as they did, in actuality their arms had grown extremely tired, they had to use both of course, what with Ai's abnormal height, especially for poor Mashiro, Ai was nearly double her size.

Before Ai could even turn around to walk out of the door, Lisa had locked it and was back next to her, smiling innocently. Ai hadn't caught the flash step, and continued in her futile journey to the door, she pushed on the door. It did not budge.

The room temperature grew unnaturally cold suddenly, and both girls knew they would be in for a fight before Ai finally fell victim to their evil plans.

Seeeee? I am updating quicker now aren't I? How long has it been since the last one? Like two weeks! XD I'm so proud :'D