A/N: Someone left an anonymous review last chapter, under the name 'niinii', about how Americans don't celebrate boxing day. All I can say is that I'm pretty sure most Japanese don't celebrate Christmas, either. Yea... XD
Fanfiction formatting was being stupid for this chapter. If something happens to the formatting, you know who to blame. I think it all might be centered.
Also, let's see how many of you will think I came up with this on the spot, like I did.
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Twenty-Sixth Collected
Helpful
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Rukia sighed. Then yawned. Her eyes drooped, her head nodded, her knees shook. She was exhausted. She blamed Ichigo. Damned bastard kept her up all night with his late-night studying and she couldn't seem to keep up, despite her shinigami background. That boy had way too much stamina for his own good; so much it was sickening.
While dozing as she walked home, she failed to notice Inoue prance up to her. "Hello, Kuchiki-san!" she greeted happily, snapping the shorter girl out of her daze.
"Ah, Inoue-san." she said back, looking at her through tired eyes.
Orihime noticed this.
"Huh? Kuchiki-san, what's wrong? You look so tired!" Rukia merely smiled. Orihime was just too nice and concerned for her own good.
"It's nothing, Inoue-san." she answered, slumping her shoulders forward. "I'm just really tired. Ichigo and I stayed up most of the night studying for the history test we had this morning."
Regardless, Orihime still looked genuinely worried. "But Kuchiki-san, we were told about that test a week ago! Why would you need to study all night if you studied before?"
Rukia looked over to the other girl with a deadpanned expression, silently asking her if she was for real. The redhead caught on and made her mouth into the shape of a small, understanding 'o'.
"Don't get me wrong," Rukia defended. "I would have studied, but it's just that the Soul Society has been calling on me a lot this week, and the hollows," she rolled her eyes. "The hollows were being hollows."
This caused Orihime to laugh, though Rukia couldn't understand why. "Didn't you two just think to stay home though? You could have just had a full day to study that way."
Somehow, they hadn't thought of that. At least Rukia didn't.
"Ugh," she groaned, and hung her head in humiliation. Why didn't she think of that? "I asked Ichigo to help me through spirit form on the test, but he wouldn't. Something about it being 'dishonest' and 'cheating'." she mocked, imitating his voice poorly. Orihime hid a laugh behind her hand.
"That kind of sounds like Kurosaki-kun. But I think he wouldn't do that because he cares." Now this through Rukia for a loop. How did that work?
"I don't get it," she admitted, looking at the eccentric girl.
Orihime thought over her words carefully before she spoke. "Well, big brother would tell me that you can tell people care about each other when they try and convince a person to do the right thing because, in the end, they only end up hurting themselves if they make the wrong choice. So, maybe Kurosaki-kun just is showing he cares that you don't end up harming yourself."
Rukia narrowed her eyes and looked to the side at the riverbank they walked along. "I don't see how him helping me on a test when I'm about to pass out is harming myself. In fact I think I failed and that'd hurt me even more, wouldn't it?" she muttered making Orihime laughed again.
"I suppose you're right," Orihime mused. "You wouldn't really need to know all that history when you're fighting a hollow, would you?"
"Exactly!" Rukia replied, throwing her hands up into the air. "It's ridiculous."
"Maybe, maybe not." the other girl said, again confusing the shinigami.
She took the bait. "And how's that?"
"You could apply that to other stuff, I guess. I mean, you're not always going to be able to take the easy way out on stuff, so why not just prepare and work through it?" By now, Orihime seemed to be talking to herself more than anything so Rukia opted to not answer.
Still, Rukia thought about it and came to the conclusion that although Orihime meant well, she could really stretch things out of proportion.
"Ah!" she suddenly remembered something loudly, making the other girl jump into the air slightly. "What did you put down for question eleven?" she asked.
Rukia made a blank face. "I can't even remember what the test was about, Inoue-san. Get back to me after I've had a decent amount of sleep."
Orihime smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head. "Yea, okay. Sorry, I know what it's like to have not of had a lot of sleep. Like, there was this one time when Sora and I were finishing up my literature project but we had to clean up and..."
Rukia earnestly listened to what the girl had to say, instead of just pretending like she would with nearly anyone else. There was something about Orihime that just couldn't be ignored, and listening to her prattle on about the past helped Rukia feel just a little less tired than she did before the girl began talking to her.
"Maybe you're right," Rukia murmured at the end of Orihime's story, referring to what she had said about her late night studying. It was too bad that Inoue didn't catch on, so she just ended up getting a questioning look at the random comment.
"Neh? Right about what, Kuchiki-san?" she asked, leaning forward to get a look at the other girl's face, as if it would help.
Rukia just shook her head, telling her to forget it. Eventually, they came to the point where they both had to split paths. They waved goodbye to each other and started walking in opposite directions.
Standing up a bit straighter, the shinigami rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Feeling a bit more awake, she wondered where the hell Ichigo was. Regardless, maybe they could just have a quiet night with no Soul Society, or hollows, or tests. And they would sleep. It sounded nice.
Too bad that when she got home Rukia found Ichigo already beginning to study for the huge math test they had tomorrow afternoon. Heaving a huge groan, Rukia tried to decide if Ichigo would think it would be the right thing to use the memory modifier on their teacher.
Word Count: 1003
A/N: I honestly had no idea where I was going with this when I first started it. I just let it flow and this is what it turned out to be. Short, simple, easy to read, I think. A very good break from last chapter (which I like to call 'my little lapse in sanity') I believe. I dunno. I think I just wanted to write about Orihime, with a smidgen of IchiRuki squeezed in there. Orihime is such a lovable character at times. Although... after the Soul Society arc and into Hueco Mundo arc I really wanted to just slap her. To this day, I don't know why. -shrugs-
Argh. I'm very annoyed. They're making another filler arc right in the middle of the Hueco Mundo arc. Retarded, no? It starts after Grimmjow turns into his release form, I believe.