Symptoms of a Spiritual Kind

She could feel Byakuya's spirit energy pressing uncomfortably against her personal space. For the past three days she had had a 'shadow' known as Byakuya Kuchiki, perhaps she did not see him much of the time, but she still felt his spirit energy and it was driving her insane. Being around Ichigo and Renji had given her some amount of tolerance to the uncomfortable feeling of spirit pressing against her senses, but this was too much. Never had she had to bear it 24/7 and never had it been this intrusive - well except the spirit energy of hollows, but that kind was downright annoying.

She rubbed her temples slowly; she could feel the beginnings of a very unpleasant headache setting in and she did not like it one bit. Tatsuki looked up at the teacher and forced herself to concentrate, maybe if she focused on something else her headache would disappear. "Arisawa," the teacher's voice caused her to furrow her brows in concentration as she tried to focus on his words and not her headache, "can you come up to the board and solve number five?" She let out a deep breath and rose to her feet, rubbing the back of her neck slowly as she walked towards the board. She could hear the teacher saying something but could not make out what it was, because all her energy was focused on understanding the question that was wobbling on the board.

She picked up the marker slowly and un-capped it. Lucky for her, the question was rather simple so it required very little though on her part. She took in a deep breath and began to write.

If she had her way she would have smashed the lunch bell; the shrill sound practically tore her throbbing head in half. At the sound of the bell she dropped the marker and returned to her seat where she placed her head on the table on shut her eyes. There was no way she was going to walk all the way to the lunch room; she had to save her energy for getting through the school day. Once class ended she was heading straight home and going to sleep till the next day - with the way her head was throbbing, it seemed more like she would sleep till the next year.

"Are you alright?" an all too familiar and currently unwelcome voice asked. She gave him a 'thumbs up' without looking up at him. "I think you're lying."

She lifted her head and looked up at him, "Ichigo, it's nothing."

"So there is something wrong with you, why don't you go to the nurse or something?" he asked,

"Because it's nothing." She said almost shortly,

"No it isn't." he was slowly beginning to irritate her with his inability to let things go. It really was not serious – she hoped.

"Ichigo, you're not responsible for my health ok? I am, so if I say it's nothing then it's nothing."

"Suit yourself." He shrugged before walking away. Tatsuki sighed and placed her head back on the table.

Ichigo stopped by the classroom door and stared questioningly at the red-head who was blocking the way by leaning against the doorframe. "Fucking clueless idiot." Renji said as he shoved Ichigo's lunch box into his hands and pointed back at Tatsuki, "The least you can do is keep her company… unless you want me to."

Ichigo's left eye twitched in annoyance, "why don't you go ahead? Ok?"

"I'm just trying to help you."

"I don't need it." Ichigo said coldly as he glared Renji, "I've known her longer, if I want her attention I can get it – without your 'help'." Renji shrugged a casual, accepting shrug and let him pass.

"Oi, miss, do you think this is a sick bay or something!" Renji yelled as he approached Tatsuki; he couldn't leave her there by herself.

"Renji, it you shout one more time I swear I'll kill you." She said slowly and menacingly. He pulled an extra chair to her desk and sat next to her. "What do you want?" He ignored her question and placed the back of his hand to her forehead,

"You really are sick aren't you?"

"I said it's nothing." She said through clenched teeth.

"Well Ichigo didn't think so; he asked me to stay here with you and make sure you didn't die or something. I think Keigo got into some kind of trouble again so he couldn't stay." Tatsuki nodded slowly as though she were willing herself to believe him. "He's worried about you."

"I know." She lied.

By the end of the day she could barely see straight, but she still forced herself to walk home. Ichigo offered to walk her home but she refused; the last thing she needed was the strain of their friendship glaring at her while she was trying to focus on walking, so she set off on her own because Renji was too nice to. Sometimes she wished he cared a little less about Ichigo's feelings.

She had to force her legs to move, because they felt as though they were made out of rubber. She stopped and held her head in her hands; her head was throbbing and her vision was swimming, the people on the streets began to wobble and tumble. One moment they were miles away and the next they were right in front of her. She almost fell over when she, for a brief moment, spotted Byakuya standing across the street – or at least thought she did, because now he was no longer there but she could still feel his spirit energy slamming against her as though it were trying to kill her. She held her head in her hands and shut her eyes tightly as she forced herself to take deep breaths that were supposed to be soothing but failed to help.

She opened her eyes only to find the ground rushing towards her, or her towards it – she could not really tell which was happening. She expected to hit the ground, she expected the pain, but it never came. His face came into view; he was looking at her with those eyes that were so blank, so expressionless that they were almost hostile.

Byakuya looked down at the dark haired girl forcing herself to stay awake. She just had be fall ill didn't she? She had to fall ill and make his job even harder. "Close your eyes." He said, "You can sleep; I'll take you to a hospital."

"No, no. I'm fine." She said as she pushed him away and tried to stand up, in an attempt to prove that she was fine – the last thing she wanted was him touching her; somehow, it made her feel even worse – but the moment his support left her she found the ground rushing towards her again. Luckilly, he was there to catch her again.

"I'm going to take you to a hospital." He said in a tone that made it clear that it was not up for discussion. He picked her up gently and marveled at how tiny she was; for some reason she had always seemed bigger.

She curled up in pain and whimpered as she clutched the fabric of his shirt tightly; her head was exploding with pain. The irritation in his eyes quickly faded the moment he noticed the tears that rolled down her face. She was suffering. A hospital, he needed a hospital.