Ichigo awoke after the best night's sleep he had had in months. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning loudly, his hair had plastered itself to the side of his face after what was clearly another warm night, not that he had noticed for once. He looked around blearily and saw that the closet door was ajar and the memories of the previous night came back to him.

He couldn't see Rukia, but his eye was quickly drawn to the lamp and untidy pile of garments on the floor where they had clearly been pushed through the gap in the door. Ichigo recognised the white strappy top that had hugged her body so tightly yesterday and he couldn't stop the mental image of Rukia taking it off that flashed through his adolescent mind.

Quietly cursing himself, he stood as silently as he could and tip toed over to the closet to retrieve the desk lamp. He cocked and ear to the gap in the door, he couldn't hear anything. Ichigo glanced at the clock, it wasn't late, but it wasn't early either, he should probably wake Rukia.

"...Rukia?" he whispered.

Nothing.

"Rukia?" he persisted, louder.

This time the closet door shot open and a very awake, not to mention fully clothed Rukia shot daggers back at Ichigo.

"What!?", she demanded.

"Nothing...just making sure you were up!" Ichigo protested. "You coming down for breakfast?"

"I don't think that would be a good idea, do you?" she snapped back.

"Why not?"

"Think about it Ichigo..." Rukia sighed, folding her pyjamas and putting them to one side next to some well-read looking mangas, "I come down to breakfast with your family, having clearly not slept in your sisters room last night, how would you explain that?"

Ichigo paled, that was a very good point, sneaking food up to her like he used to do wasn't an option any more either, Yuzu would see straight through it.

As Rukia hopped down from the closet, Ichigo appraised her in her uniform for the first time in a long time.

Has that skirt gotten shorter?

"I'll go on ahead" she replied, heading for the window. Ichigo opened his mouth to say that he would bring her something to eat later, but before he could, she was gone.

Well, that was weird...

Ichigo stared thoughtfully at the window, Rukia seemed in a colder mood than usual this morning. He just sighed and shook his head, it was too early to try and understand girls, especially Rukia. Deciding a quick shower might be in order, Ichigo turned for the door, but something caught his eye. He glanced down to see Rukia's clothes from yesterday were still on the floor.

Quickly coming to the conclusion that leaving Rukia's clothes on the floor of his bedroom probably wasn't the best idea, he scooped them up. Trying to ignore how nice they smelled even after she had worn them all day, he opened the closet door to put them back inside. Unfortunately for Ichigo, it was at that moment that a white bra fell from inside the folds of the top, landing on the floor by his feet.

Panic, that was Ichigo's initial reaction, he rapidly backed up and cowered as if the offending garment was going to explode. What did he do?

You're overreacting Ichigo, just pick it up!

He still had Rukia's clothes in his hand. He pulled to the top over it to act as sort of glove and approached the carelessly discarded bra.

"Dammit Rukia...be more careful..." he hissed as he bent down to pick it up. Ichigo found himself begging that his sister wouldn't pick that moment to come in to wake him, or worse still, his father.

Blushing furiously, he grabbed the bra with the top, hastily wrapped it all in a bundle and pitched it overarm into the depths of the closet, which his slammed shut with his foot.

Finally, Ichigo gave himself a couple of good hard slaps and decided that this morning's shower would be a cold one.

"See you!" Ichigo called as he shut the front door, slinging his school bag over his shoulder as he did so. After a strangely trying morning, Yuzu had made him his favourite breakfast as a birthday treat, before dropping the subject completely as per the general agreement.

Oddly, only Mizuiro was waiting for him outside. "Morning" Ichigo said as he approached him.

Mizuiro dropped his headphones from his ears and smiled, "Morning Ichigo, Happy Birthday" he replied, getting formalities out of the way as he knew Ichigo too well.

"Yeah yeah..." Ichigo grunted, "Say where is..."

"Happy Birthday, Ichigo!" Keigo exclaimed, answering Ichigo's unspoken question. He leapt from his ambush point atop a nearby wall in an attempt to catch his friend off guard and cling to his back.

"Thanks..." Ichigo sighed as he calmly ducked. Keigo sailed clear over Ichigo head and crashed into the pavement face first. "Good try by the way" Ichigo quipped before turning and starting the walk to school.

Mizuiro poked Keigo with his toe. "You okay, Asano-san?"

Keigo sprang to his feet, giving his friend the thumbs up. "Barely felt it!" he spluttered through the blood that was pouring from his nose.

Once they caught up with Ichigo, the three of them walked in silence for a while. Mostly because the most talkative of the bunch had a tissue pressed to his face in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Eventful weekend, Ichigo?" Mizuiro asked nonchalantly, not looking up from his phone.

Ichigo's heart missed a beat. That was a fairly normal question but something about the way he said it didn't sound right.

"Pretty dull, why?" he replied warily.

"Noticed a couple of broken windows on your house..."

Ichigo relaxed. "Oh that, it was just some kids..." he lied.

"I swear Ichigo...", Keigo said as they rounded the corner at the end of the street, his voice muffled by tissue, "...weird stuff always happens to your h..." he trailed off. Rukia was just ahead, waiting for them, chatting with Inoue who had clearly already caught up with her.

"K...K...Kuchiki-san!" Keigo stammered, being uncharacteristically polite. He dropped his tissue, his face now covered in tears instead of blood. "Never has there been a more agreeable sight on a Monday morning!" he cried, running towards the two girls, arms out.

He didn't get far, Ichigo had a firm hold on the collar of his shirt. "Morning." he grunted to the pair, he had already seen Rukia but that wasn't public knowledge.

"Kuchiki-san..." Mizuiro said in greeting, "...strange coincidence, you being here today of all days!" he finished, shooting a rapid glance at Ichigo.

Ichigo let go of Keigo, who was reunited with the pavement with a dull thud. He glared at Mizuiro with a mixture of anger and suspicion.

"What's special about today?" Rukia asked, quite innocently.

Inoue briefly looked stunned, "Today is Kurosaki-kun's birthday!..." she replied, if she was shocked that Rukia didn't know, she covered it well.

"It is!?" Rukia looked horrified, "Oh, I didn't...know that..."

"Of all people I thought you would've known that Rukia-chan!" Keigo piped up, somehow he had crawled along the pavement unnoticed and was taking advantage of the girls short skirts.

"YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!" Ichigo roared, grabbing Keigo by the leg and dragging him into within beating range.

Inoue turned her back on the sounds of Ichigo bludgeoning Keigo to within an inch of his life and steered Rukia in the same direction. Mizuiro had taken a very well timed phone call and had walked ahead.

"Don't worry Kuchiki-san!" Inoue said cheerily, "Kurosaki-kun really doesn't care, he doesn't even like his family making a fuss!"

"Oh, I see" Rukia replied as she glanced over her shoulder, feeling the urge to join in on the kicking that Ichigo was giving Keigo. She already felt bad about being short with him earlier and made a mental note to apologise to Ichigo later.

The rest of the walk, or limp in Keigo's case, was fairly uneventful and before they knew it they were in amongst the crush of students filing into school, the vast majority of which were high on pre-summer excitement. With summer so close Ichigo couldn't imagine the teachers were going to get much out of their pupils, maybe Ochi-sensei would cut him a little slack, Ichigo thought optimistically.

He glanced at Rukia, she didn't look at all nervous, which was strange. Ichigo wouldn't want to be in her position, but looked forward to hearing her excuses regarding why she was enrolling in school for one week.

"Good luck..." he whispered, but it wasn't sincere, it was dripping with smug sarcasm.

"I won't need it" she breathed.

Rukia strode into the classroom like she owned it, heading straight for her old desk. Ichigo followed closely. They passed a few students on the way, some he knew, others whose names he could never remember, but when each of them looked up the greeting was the same.

"Morning, Kuchiki-san!"

And that was it, Ichigo sat at his desk, more than a little confused. Even a couple of the girls who knew Rukia from before such as Michiru and Mahana turned and waved to her as if nothing was wrong.

Ichigo wasn't expecting anyone to know her, he thought everyone had lost their memories of her when she left the first time, but everyone was acting as if she had always been there. Uryu and Chad walked in, both their eyes fell on Rukia at the same time and they waved in greeting, but that wasn't unusual.

They were followed by Ochi-Sensei, if anyone would notice something was wrong it would be her, Ichigo thought. Again however, she read Rukia's name off the register and acknowledged her presence without any hesitation before starting the class.

"Right!" Ochi-sensei said, clapping her hands to get the attention of the class "Seeing as it's the last week of school I'm sure none of you are eager to do much work!"

The class cheered in agreement.

"Well bad luck! We'll be starting with Algebra!" she laughed, turning to the board and ignoring the groans from her students.

Ichigo slowly leant closer to Rukia. "Rukia..." he hissed. She didn't respond, she was looking at the formulae the teacher was drawing on the board, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Rukia!", Ichigo whispered more urgently.

"What!?" she hissed back, not taking her eyes off the board.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Don't ask me!" she whispered back sharply, "I've never understood algebra"

"Not that!" Ichigo snapped, nearly falling from his chair as he leaned closer. He did a quick check over his shoulder for eavesdroppers. "I mean, why is everyone acting like you never left?"

Rukia still didn't turn to look at him, "Because as far as they are concerned, I never did"

"You erased their memories?"

"Not really...", Rukia sighed, "It's more a form of memory manipulation"

"Say again?"

"I'll explain later!" Rukia snapped, attempting to cut the conversation short as she had spotted something Ichigo hadn't.

Too late.

"Kurosaki!" Ochi-sensei snapped.

Ichigo sat bolt upright, suddenly aware of how far across the gangway he had been leaning. "Yes sensei!?"

"Whisper sweet nothings to Kuchiki later! Pay attention!" she barked. This sent a ripple of laughter through the class, in which Rukia participated.

"And you! Kuchiki!" the teacher barked, clearly not finished. This caught Rukia off guard who suddenly looked terrified.

"Y...yes?" she stammered.

It was Ichigo's turn to chuckle.

"You in particular need to pay attention to this!" Ochi-sensei said, rapping a knuckle against the board.

Having retrieved everyone's attention except for Ichigo's , the teacher continued with the class, while Ichigo continued with his old habit of looking out the window. So this was what Rukia was doing last night, making preparations so that her return to school would seem normal. He couldn't help but be a little impressed.

It was at that moment a balled up piece of paper landed on his desk. He instinctively covered it with his hand while glancing over at Rukia. Did she want the rumours to start again already?

He flattened the paper against his notebook. It read simply 'Sorry for forgetting your birthday' finished with a doodle of a sad looking Chappy in the corner. Ichigo shook his head while he slipped the note between the pages of his book.

What is she feeling guilty for?

Ichigo didn't even want his family to do anything for him on his birthday, he certainly didn't expect anything from Rukia. If she felt guilty about not knowing then she was wasting her time.

After a few minutes, Ichigo became aware of that sixth sense that lets you know when you're being watched. Slowly, he turned his head to the right, expecting to find Keigo leering in Rukia's general direction. Instead it was Tatsuki's ice cold stare that was there to meet his gaze.

Shit! Tatsuki!

Ichigo began to sweat, he had completely forgotten the discussion the two of them had had on Saturday. If you could call it a discussion, Tatsuki had basically read his mind and then torn him a new one. Either way, the look she was giving him made it very apparent that she hadn't forgotten and was keen to resume their conversation as quickly as possible.

Trying his hardest not to look terrified, Ichigo slowly panned his gaze back to the view out of the windows. What was he going to say to her? Following their shopping trip Tatsuki had to leave to work an afternoon shift at her part time job, and once she had left Ichigo had forgotten all about the little incident outside the clothes store.

For starters, anything he said to her was going to have to be a complete lie, he wasn't about to tell her the truth. Then it struck him, she wouldn't say anything around Inoue, or Rukia for that matter, she wasn't like that. All Ichigo had to do was keep other people around him and try not to get caught in a situation that would allow Tatsuki to get him alone.

Despite having the barest outline of a plan, Ichigo felt no better about his situation and in typical fashion, it wasn't long before the lesson was over and the bell rang for morning break.

Standing, Ichigo put himself between Inoue and Rukia, a position every guy in the class would no doubt kill each other to be in. Sadly however, his not-so-well-thought-out plan was about to be foiled.

"Kurosaki! Can you hold on a moment?" Ochi-sensei barked.

Dammit!

"We'll go on ahead Ichigo!" Keigo called and all Ichigo could do was watch in horror as everyone who could possibly witness his murder filed out of the room, leaving him alone with the teacher.

"Don't look so frightened Kurosaki!" his teacher said, clearly misreading his panicked expression. "You probably think I'm being unreasonable, but I just want you to pass your exams!"

Ichigo turned to face her, wondering where this was going.

"I can to help you with that!" she continued, "So on that subject...do you have something for me?"

Ichigo blinked once, twice.

"You mean like...a bribe?" he said.

Ochi-sensei looked at him blankly, unable to believe the words that had come out of his mouth. "You can give me money if you want Kurosaki but it won't help your grades, I was referring to the homework I set you on Friday"

"Oh!" Ichigo sighed as realisation dawned, "Yeah its right here". He reached into his bag and handed his work over to the teacher.

"No way..." Ochi-sensei breathed, "You actually did it..."

"Is that a problem?" Ichigo asked, confused again.

"Not at all!" she replied, choosing to not inform Ichigo that all the teachers took bets on how much homework they could set a select few of the more difficult students, just as an experiment to see how much they could get out of excited, distracted kids so close to the end of term. Ichigo had unwittingly won the pot for her.

Ichigo turned and left the room, eager to get back to Rukia and the others a quickly as possible.

However he hadn't got far down the deserted corridor when...

"Ichigo!" Tatsuki called from behind him.

She had waited for him, of course she had waited for him. Ichigo cringed and turned around slowly. She didn't look impressed as she walked towards him, Ichigo desperately tried to think of something to say.

"Tatsuki look, if this is about Saturday then..." he started.

"Will you shut up and let me talk!?" she snapped, interrupting him.

Ichigo braced himself for round two.

"Im sorry..." Tatsuki said.

What?

"Huh?" was all Ichigo could manage in reply.

"Listen..." Tatsuki said, dropping her gaze to the floor. "I had no right going off at you way I did"

Ichigo just listened, he had seen many sides to Tatsuki in the past, but this wasn't one of them.

Tatsuki checked around her for anyone who might be listening before continuing.

"You and Rukia..." she said, "You've been through more than I could ever imagine and whatever the situation is between you two, I get that it's complicated". She looked back up at Ichigo. "Whatever you may or may not feel for her, it's none of my business and it wasn't my place to ask you about it"

Ichigo just smiled, despite the fact he hadn't remembered until just now, it was good to know Tatsuki wasn't angry at him.

"You don't have to explain yourself to anyone..." she smiled, "Least of all me!"

"Thanks Tatsuki" Ichigo replied.

Tatsuki just nodded, then looked around, feeling self conscious. "Right! If you ever make me say something like that again I'll be forced to kill you!" she snapped, before walking past him.

"But..." she said, slowing her pace and turning to face him again. "If you did want to talk about anything, I will offer as unbiased an opinion as I can" she finished, before setting off again.

Ichigo smiled again, he didn't need to ask her what she meant by unbiased.

"Oh yeah!..." Tatsuki called from the end of the corridor, "Happy Birthday!"

Ichigo waved her off, "Yeah whatever!"

So to sum up, I'm not dead and writers block sucks, the manga being on hiatus hasn't helped matters either but there we go. I'm hoping Rukia's return to school is as canonically correct as I can make it, I should point out that I'm disregarding all filler content from the Anime.

This is usually the point where I say "Next update soon" but that hasn't worked out so I wont say it and maybe it will happen...or something...I don't know, it's late and I'm babbling...

Thanks!