Disclaimer: I do not own bleach... :(

Chapter 10

Breaking hearts

"Ichigo..?" Rukia's hand flew to her mouth as she looked at him in shock. "No.." She clenched her teeth together, confusion and hurt evident on her face. Mixed emotions flickered through her, rapidly changing from one to the other. She.. she didn't want to believe it. No, she couldn't believe it. There was no way that the kind person that she had come to know over the last couple of weeks was the one person that she also hated.

It seemed like a horrible dream to her, one in which everything seemed to go wrong. But she also knew that it was not a dream and that fact scared her deeply. She looked at the person in front of her, not recognizing who he really was anymore. She didn't know if he was the creature that she despised or the human that she had come to love. But she also found that a part of her didn't want to know. She was scared that the answers to her questions would mean that her heart would be broken. Still, she knew she had to say something before the despair welled up inside of her.

Shaking her head, she asked softly. "Who are you?"

Ichigo looked at her, defeat evident in his now amber eyes but he chose to keep quiet. It hurt him more than he would admit to see Rukia looking at him like that. It had been hard enough with Keigo but it was unspeakably worse with the person that he had fallen in love with. He had no idea what was going through her mind but he could only imagine the hatred she was feeling for him. He had lied to her and betrayed her. There was no mistaking that.

Rukia grew angry when he didn't answer and rounded on him, her eyes flashing furiously "Who the hell are you?"

Ichigo sighed softly, realising that he couldn't keep quiet for much longer "I'm Ichigo but I'm also Tsuki Kuro."

"How … how can you be both?"

"I always have been. Tsuki Kuro is the person that most people see when they look at me and judge me for what I am but Ichigo is who I truly am."

"So.." She thought for a moment, betrayal clear in her eyes. "…was all that time that I spent with Ichigo Kurosaki just a lie?"

Ichigo stepped forward, reaching out with one hand, a shocked expression on his face "Of course not Rukia. That was all real."

But Rukia wasn't listening to him and she moaned softly, shaking her head. "I should have realized right from the moment I met you. You never even questioned my past and you sometimes seemed to know more than you let on. That time when I felt your reiatsu in class and it was like Tsuki Kuro's… the fact that you'd been adopted ten years ago when Tsuki Kuro disappeared ten years ago.." She moaned again, not quite believing that she hadn't figured this out sooner. "And then just yesterday with the reiatsu in the bedroom. I should've realized that it was coming from you. Argh!" She glared furiously, her hand clenched into fists. "You might think that you had a good reason for keeping this from me but you didn't, Ichigo. You didn't! If you had just told me this when you met me then this wouldn't have happened!"

Ichigo looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry Rukia… I just didn't want you to be hurt."

"Hurt!" She gave a bitter laugh, her voice gaining a slightly hysterical edge to it. "You didn't want me to be hurt? If you hadn't wanted to hurt me, you would've told me straight away. Then I wouldn't have fallen in love with you, believing that you were a good person." Tears sprung into her eyes but she wiped them away quickly, not wanting to show weakness to the devil that stood in front of her.

"I don't know what to say.."

"You shouldn't say anything. You'll just make it worse."

"Rukia.."

The angel closed her eyes as crystalline tears began to spill down her face carving wet streaks into her pale cheeks. "You're the devil Ichigo! You're my enemy and I'm supposed to hate you because you lie to everyone! I wanted to believe you when you told me that you weren't evil but yet, you lied to me this whole time. How am I meant to trust you after that Ichigo?" She looked at Ichigo as if she was pleading him to tell her that she was wrong.

But Ichigo shook his head. "I don't know Rukia…..it's not my choice to make. It's up to you to decide whether or not you can trust me anymore. Anything I say won't make a difference.. I just want.." He paused for a moment and Rukia's eyes acquired a blank look as she heard this.

"You just want what?" She said softly. "You want me to be best friends with you? You want me to fall in love with you? You want to betray the trust that I had placed in you?" She stepped forward, her eyes beginning to flash dangerously. "You want to hurt me so deeply that I'm wondering if I can ever even look at you again? Well guess what Ichigo! You've done all those things. You've made me despise you because of what you did to me. There were so many chances over the weeks that I've known you to tell me the truth. You could have told me as Tsuki Kuro before I even found out that you were the devil's son. Maybe then I would have believed you and I would have been able to trust you, knowing that I would not get hurt anymore. You could have told me as Ichigo as well and I would have believed you because I loved you. But no! You didn't tell me! You waited until the very last moment!"

She clenched her hands into fists, trying to hide the fact that she was shaking slightly. "You waited until I had already found out the truth and you waited until I hated you." She looked down, sniffling slightly. "Ichigo, I don't think that you understand how much you meant to me. You were the one thing that was going to keep me in the human world instead of going back to the soul society. But now that you're dead to me, I don't feel that I should stay here any longer."

Ichigo looked taken aback, his eyes filled with pain. "No Rukia! I know that you're friends with the others as well! Don't go back before the month is up! They want to be your friend..." He trailed off suddenly before looking away. "Look, I told you moments ago that I was going to leave and it's true. I can't be here while you're here because I know that I'll cause you too much pain. No matter what, I want you to be happy."

Rukia closed her eyes, her eyebrows knitting together. "Ichigo... I'm sorry but I really can't do this." Then suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up to see Ichigo smiling down at her with a sad look in his eyes.

"I know." He stepped backwards, tilting his head to one side. "Rukia, I'm sorry for everything that I've done to you. I know just how much pain I have caused you but I want you to know that I wouldn't have changed anything. I had the best time in my life when I was with you. It was the first time I felt truly accepted for who I was. But.." He looked down, his eyes now hidden by his spiky orange hair. "I guess I was wrong. I just don't fit anywhere because I can't deny who I am."

Rukia opened her violet eyes slowly, trying not to burst into tears as she gazed into his eyes. Somewhere deep down she wished that she could just forget about everything and she knew that she actually could. She knew that there was a way to make her forget everything and in turn it would stop the intense pain that she was feeling. But in order to forget Tsuki Kuro, she would need to forget Ichigo and she also knew that she could never do that. No matter what happened in the future, Rukia made a silent promise to herself that she would never forget him. But then she felt a small bubble of rage growing inside of her and she looked away quickly. "..go.."

The devil looked surprised. "What?"

"Just go!" She lashed out, hitting him hard on the cheek with her small hand. "I can't do this anymore! I can't..." She broke off into uncontrollable sobbing, burying her face in her hands as despair welled up within her.

Ichigo looked at her in shock, gingerly reaching up with one hand to his face, unable to believe what had just happened. In all the times he had imagined this exact scenario, Rukia had never actually been angry enough to hurt him. But as he looked at her shaking form, he realized exactly what he had done to her and it made him sad. He had effectively ruined her life with only a few short words. He knew that nothing could ever make her forgive him. Taking a deep breath in, the devil closed his eyes briefly, trying to ignore the tears that were filling his eyes. "I'm sorry.." He said, not sure what else to say.

"I said go!" Rukia screamed at him. "Don't you get it Ichigo? I hate you!" She looked down at the ground tears falling without a sound. "I hate you.."

Ichigo flinched, her words biting into him. He watched her for a moment, feeling an incredible pain in his chest as his heart was torn to pieces before saying softly "I love you." And then he was gone.

Rukia stood there for a moment before wiping away her tears, her eyes watching the space that Ichigo had stood in not moments before. After a moment however, she began to sob and collapsed to the ground, her eyes wide as she shook her head. "I can't believe it.. " She muttered to herself, her eyes filling with tears. "This whole time.. Ichigo was Tsuki Kuro." It felt like a nightmare to her, to find out that the person that she loved was the devil. She didn't want to believe it but now that she thought about it, she realized that there had been so many things that pointed to it and she had just chosen to ignore them.

"He's the devil!" She didn't want to accept the fact that he was in fact the devil, the person that was her most despised enemy. The creature that killed innocent people and lied all the time in order to get personal gain. It was more than just Tsuki Kuro being the devil, much more... Ichigo was the person that she trusted the most and she had loved him. But now, after finding out that he had lied to her the whole time, she wasn't sure what to think anymore.

She wondered if he had truly been using her the whole time and with a defeated sigh, she decided that he probably had. After all, if he truly had feelings for her like he said, he wouldn't have lied. Yet.. Rukia thought, her mind swirling in confusion. Just then, she heard the light sound of footsteps on the ground and she whirled around to see Isshin Kurosaki standing there. In her distress, she had forgotten to hide the fact that she was an angel and she panicked for a moment before noticing that Isshin didn't seem shocked. "You ..knew?" She asked softly, not just talking about the fact that she was an angel.

Isshin sighed and sat down next to her. "Rukia, I'm not actually human either." He turned to look at her with sad eyes. "I'm an angel. Or I was until I fell in love with a human and ran to earth with her." He smiled sadly "She was so beautiful and she loved me, even after I told her what I truly was." Then he nodded at her "I've known that you've been in my house this whole time. I sensed you that night you came down to earth and I knew that Ichigo had taken care of you after that. I also knew since the time that I'd met him that Ichigo was the devil's son."

Rukia was silent for a moment and she gazed up at the night sky, watching the twinkling stars. "Why? Why did you take him in if you knew?"

Isshin sighed "I don't really know why. When I saw him standing there in the rain, miserable, I realised that he needed someone to take care of him, to be a father. And so I decided to adopt him. I was worried at first because I didn't know what he would do. For all I knew, him acting miserable could have been an act to try and befriend me. But after a few weeks, I wondered if I had been right about him in the first place. It was easy to work out that he had an extremely large amount of power. If he had wanted to, he could have killed me without me even knowing. But he didn't and that fact mattered to me a whole lot more than I think he realized."

The black-haired man ran a hand through his hair, gazing up at the sky thoughtfully. "I realized later on that adopting him was in fact one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my whole life. Ichigo was different. He always has been. But it wasn't the bad kind of different. It was actually good and the fact that he is the devil's son doesn't change that."

Rukia looked at him, confusion evident on her young-looking face "What do you mean by different?"

Isshin sighed again "I don't suppose you would understand. You're too young."

"Tell me!"

He held up his hands in defeat. "Alright!" He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "When I found him, Ichigo was pretty unsociable. He was afraid of others because they judged him. If he didn't act how he was supposed to, they would be mean to him and tease him. But the problem was, he didn't want to act how he was supposed to. His whole life, he had been forced to act as the devil's son and when he came to earth, he came to escape all that. I took him in and after a few months I realised just how bad people had treated him in the past. So I vowed to watch him closely to see if I could help him but nothing I did seemed to make any difference. He treated me with a distinct coldness because of what he had experienced in the past. But when my two daughters were born, I finally saw a different side of him. He loved them so much and treated them as his own siblings. They loved him back and I never was able to ruin this by telling them who he truly was. So, I watched in silence as he began to change. Then I enrolled him in school and he met some friends there. He changed even further and he began to enjoy life, relishing in the fact that people liked him for who he was."

Isshin stopped for a moment to catch his breath "So you see, Ichigo is different to what people think he is like. He is more human than you might think but the fact that he is the devil's son makes him different from the rest of us. That is something that you need to understand about him. But more importantly, he would never deliberately hurt the ones he loves" His eyes met Rukia's "And he did not mean to cause you any pain."

Rukia gave a hollow laugh and looked away so that he did not see the betrayal in her eyes. "That may be so but he still lied to me. Anyway, how do I know that I can believe all that you are telling me?"

Isshin gave her a smile "Because you know deep down that Ichigo is not like that. You know that he is as good as the rest of us if not better. You only need to give him a chance."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Rukia finally spoke, her voice heavy with betrayal and hurt. "I have spent enough time with him over the past month to know that he is not like that. I have even spent enough time with him as Tsuki Kuro to know that he did not mean to cause me any pain. I know that he is actually good."

Isshin looked at her, confusion written all over his face. Rukia reflected that it was strange to see him this serious because she had come to think of him as the crazy, hyper man that liked to randomly attack Ichigo. She realised now that that had all been a mask in order to protect Ichigo and to give him a normal life. Isshin spoke softly "If you know that he is truly good then why do you still hate him?"

Rukia looked away again "I'm not actually sure" She said in a small voice. She was telling the truth. After reflecting over everything that had happened, she knew that Ichigo had a right to not tell her who he was and she knew that he hadn't because he wanted to protect her from the truth. But still she felt angry at him and slightly sad. "I have no idea why I still hate him so much"

Isshin watched her silently, seeing the ever changing emotions that flickered in her eyes. Then he realized what was making her so annoyed. It wasn't the fact that Ichigo was actually the devil that made her angry. Nor was it the fact that he was her enemy. It was the thought that Ichigo had kept something a secret from her. Rukia had trusted in Ichigo with all her heart when she had realized her feelings for him and she had thought that he had loved her back. To discover that he was keeping something this big a secret from her, showed that he did not in fact trust her.

It was hurtful and caused more pain than the actual secret itself. Rukia had just wanted Ichigo to trust her but by hiding this he had shown that he did not. Isshin sighed and looked up at the dark sky, wondering when the last time that he had seen it was. It had been so long. Then he glanced back to the crestfallen angel and opened his mouth to speak. Then he paused and changed what he was going to say "I think I know why you hate him so much Rukia."

Rukia looked up in surprise "Tell me! I want to know so that I don't hate him this much anymore."

But Isshin shook his head and stood up "I'm sorry but I can't. You must find out on your own otherwise you will not be able to ever forgive him." He turned to go but glanced back at the angel for a moment, his eyes full of concern and sympathy. He knew just how hard it was to be in love and he wanted nothing more than to help these two but he knew that he couldn't interfere. They had to work it out on their own. "Rukia, just remember. Ichigo has a good heart and he loves you with that heart." Then he was gone, walking back towards his house in the darkness.

Rukia watched him go with a slight amount of sadness. He was a nice person, she thought to herself and she was glad that he had found Ichigo when he had come to earth. If he hadn't, Ichigo would probably have gotten caught by the angels and this wouldn't be happening now. But, Rukia said to herself as her gaze returned to the sky, would that have been a bad thing? To tell the truth, she didn't actually know anymore. She couldn't tell what she thought about this whole thing but she knew that it would take some time to figure out her true feelings.

Heaving a big sigh, she got to her feet, stretching her white wings out behind her. Then with a small amount of defeat, she walked after Isshin, knowing that he would take her in while she sorted this out. She slid her bare feet across the ground and with each step, heard whispers in the wind. He betrayed you. He betrayed you.. the whispers said but Rukia ignored them and kept on walking through the night.

It was all too much.

The air was thick with moisture as if it was about to rain. A blonde-haired man stared off into the distance, his eyes unusually thoughtful. Rays of sunlight drifted over the tops of the nearby houses as the sun began to greet the new day.

He suddenly felt a strong presence and glanced around, his gaze fixating on a teenager that stood in the middle of the street. Strange, the man thought and dismissed him but as a few golden rays alighted the young teenager's face, he sat up hurriedly, eyes wide in surprise. "You.." He said, not even bothering to hide how amazed and also afraid he was that this person was here.

The teenager walked forward, slowly and meaningfully, his yellow and black eyes never once leaving the shopkeeper. As he neared the building two large back wings flickered into existence behind him. The teenager looked at them before giving a soft laugh. "I should've known that you would have spells around here, Kisuke Urahara"

Urahara waved his fan around him, trying to appear at ease with the whole situation. "What are you doing here, devil?"

The devil looked away sadly, his orange hair hiding his eyes from view. "Che.. I thought that you'd be like this."

"Well, why wouldn't I be distrustful towards you? After all, you have been lying to Rukia this whole time.

Tsuki Kuro froze, his demonic eyes narrowing as he looked at the shopkeeper warily. "How do you know about that?"

"Oh, I know a lot of things.. but Miss Kuchiki would often talk about you when she came here. You know, she never quite forgave herself after she thought that she'd killed you.."

Tsuki Kuro sighed and he blinked slowly. "I know."

"Oh, I know a lot of things.. but Miss Kuchiki would often talk about you when she came here. You know, she never quite forgave herself after she thought that she'd killed you.."

Tsuki Kuro sighed and he blinked slowly. "I know."

Urahara watched him for a moment, taking in the haunting eyes and large black wings. He had met the devil once and the meeting had been short, mainly consisting of a few questions for investigative reasons from the scientist. But he had never been able to study a devil as he could at the moment and he wondered how he could use this situation to his advantage. Then he realized that the devil had come to him, obviously in need of something and he wondered if he could ask for something in return. Maybe some information, he mused quietly. Then again, he though as something else occurred to him, I wouldn't want to get on his bad side. So the shopkeeper straightened up and beckoned for the tall teenager to come inside. "I have a feeling that this could take a while." He said with a defeated tone as he slid the door shut before turning to face his newest customer.

"I have often heard rumours about you. Most of them are obviously made up in order to scare the younger angels but still.. I wonder if some of them are true." He glanced meaningfully at the person on the other side of the room.

Tsuki Kuro's black and yellow eyes narrowed slightly and he spoke suddenly, his tone cold. "Look, Urahara. I know that you want some information and I will willingly give it to you once I know that I can get something in return." He paused for a moment. "Will you give me whatever I as for no matter what it is?"

Urahara eyed him for a moment but then nodded, knowing that he would give anything for the information that the devil could give him. "Then, Tsuki Kuro, I would like to know why you ran away from your father... or did your father lie to me when he told me that you had in fact run away from home ten years ago?"

The devil was silent for a moment but then.. "Yes, he was telling the truth. I ran away because I felt that I did not fit in to the stereotypical devil that my father wanted me to be."

"How so?"

"For starters, I wasn't even the slightest bit interested in attacking and killing humans. In fact, I'd always tried to talk to them instead. Of course, my father wasn't in the least bit happy with this but because I was his son, he forgave me. But it wasn't just that. No matter how hard I tried, I could not find the willingness to fight with the angels. The angels had never personally done any wrongdoing to me and so I did not want to harm them. But when I asked my father what they had done to make him hate them, he only replied that he fought them because he must. Because it was his duty to fight with them. It was just what any devil had to do." He stopped for a moment, giving a small sigh.

"So ten years ago, I decided that I didn't want to get caught up in what my father wanted me to do and so I escaped to the human world. It was easy enough to hide here with my powers and if I didn't want anyone to find me, than no one would."

Urahara nodded, filing the important bits of information away for future reference. He had to admit that the devil wasn't anything like what he had been expecting and he found that he could almost feel a small bit of sympathy for the powerful creature. The situation was very similar to what Rukia had experienced when she had joined the Kuchiki clan. "If you didn't want to be found, then why did you let Rukia Kuchiki find you?"

"Because I had already noticed that she was in this town. I watched her before she met me of course and I wondered if she would know who I was. I decided to test it out and so I made her follow me one night. Of course I lied to her about what I was. I didn't want her to know right away and it was interesting to see how she reacted to me when she thought that I was just another creature.." Tsuki Kuro tilted his head to the side, a soft smile lighting up his face as he remembered it. "Of course, she had to find out eventually and I have you to thank for that, Urahara."

Urahara stopped thinking suddenly, gazing at the devil from around his fan. But he noticed that he didn't seem particularly angry about it. "I have one last question for you before you tell me what you want." He drew a deep breath in "What is your connection to the human, Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Tsuki Kuro looked at him in surprise and then began to laugh. "I should've known that you had something to do with it." He said, sounding amused. "I'll have you know that Rukia was wrong. I am not inhabiting the body of Ichigo, I am in fact Ichigo Kurosaki. I have lived in the human world for ten years now under that name."

Urahara nodded, not at all surprised. "I thought so. After all, demons don't tend to inhabit humans and there was no way that the tattoo was just a coincidence." He paused. "Have you told Miss Kuchiki? Does she know yet?"

"Yes.." Tsuki Kuro looked away to hide the sadness in his eyes. "She questioned me about Ichigo and it ended with me telling her the truth. I just couldn't keep lying to her. She deserved to know after all I had put her through"

Urahara studied the devil for a moment and realized that he was sincere in his sadness. It was surprising for him to see a devil like this as he vividly remembered the time that he had met Tsuki Kuro's father. He had been a bloodthirsty monster who enjoyed massacring thousands of humans. But this devil.. he was different. The ten years that he had spent in the human world had obviously changed him and he seemed more … human. He felt other emotions apart from the negative ones and had even found love. After a few moments of silence, Urahara spoke again his voice full of sympathy. "Well, what is it that you want from me? You wouldn't have come let me ask all those questions if you didn't want something that only I could give you."

The devil looked at him surprise "Don't you have any more questions?"

The scientist gave a sigh and shook his head. "Even those few questions gave me more than enough information. You can consider that as payment for what you want from me."

The orange haired teenager ran a hand through his spiky hair, black and yellow eyes meeting grey. "I want to get away from here."

A/N- I AM SOOO SORRY! I kept putting off writing this for soo long! I can't believe I put it off! Srsly I'm soo sorry! But hopefully it was worth it..? The other day I finally told myself 'SIT DOWN AND WRITE ALREADY" and I actually did. I also spent a lot of time editing it so I hope that it ends up being good because it is such an important chapter. As soon as this is posted, I'm going to go and finish the next chapter which is in fact the last one! (Apart from the epilogue) I can't believe that it's almost finished! It's so sad!

But thanks to all my readers for sticking with me through this extremely annoying bout of gaps between updating.

Please review!

p.s- I bothered to go on Photoshop for once and I actually drew a pic for this fic. It's up on my dA account with the same username! If u have time I would enjoy to hear ur feedback on it!

Until next time (which I hope is soon),

Gadzooks97