-18-

"Rukia," he sighs, "it's been two days."

She tries not to huff. "Yeah, and I'm only answering my phone because I want you to stop calling."

There's barely a pause from that before Ichigo's stating, "You're mad."

"No shit," she snorts.

At that, he hesitates. "I don't understand why."

She splutters, and when someone in the library hisses at her, Rukia forcibly lowers her voice to hiss, "You don't – Ichigo, instead of just asking me out yourself, you went behind my back and arranged it with my mother? When you know I hated the entire concept? What the hell? Do you honestly think I can't make my own decisions?"

"That's not why I did it," he interjects and he sounds a little frazzled, and plenty uncomfortable. Good, she thinks a little viciously.

Their date had gone perfectly up until that phone call with her mother, proving, once again, that taking her mother's calls results in nothing but misfortune. Though this time, Rukia allows, her mother hadn't done it on her own.

"Then what then? Because I can't think of a single reason why you'd want to involve my mother in something that has nothing at all to do with her," she declares, setting aside her notes and books on the desk to cross her arms and glare unseeingly down the library hall.

He doesn't reply immediately which doesn't help with her temper. She's always a little more volatile closer to her heat, and with that thought, her face feels both tingly and hot with the remembered embarrassment she felt that she was going to ask Ichigo to share her heat with her – after he'd pulled this!

"Your mother was an obstacle." She snorts which he politely ignores to continue explaining, "She'd probably keep trying to set you up until you told her about me."

"So?"

"So, I took care of it," he says, and while he sounds stiff and awkward about it, he also doesn't sound all that repentant. But with her continued silence, he admits quietly, "I wasn't actually okay with you seeing other people, alright?"

Her anger unfurls. "What do you mean?"

"I know you didn't like them, and that you were being made to go on these dates with them, but that doesn't mean I had to like it. Before…all this though, I didn't have any reason to tell you because. What were you to me anyway besides a girl I liked?" Then, rubbing a hand over his face, his voice comes muffled, "Like I said, I figured you knew how dating was supposed to work, and if you wanted to compare partners then I had to respect that, whether I liked it or not."

Her stomach swoops.

Oh, god.

Rukia swallows. "Does that mean you were…seeing other people while I was on these dates?"

"No!" He's quick to refuse. "God, I didn't – I was speaking from my point of view. I didn't want anyone else, but I couldn't stop you if you wanted to."

"That's not – Ichigo, that's not how this works," Rukia says, and her face feels hot again, she cradles her face against her hand to cool her cheeks. "If seeing other people was what we both wanted, it would've been something we talked about first. And for the record, I wasn't 'comparing partners', I was just doing it to get my parents off my back. You were like…the reward at the end for dealing with it. Even if I wasn't necessarily looking for you after it was done."

He lets out a gusty exhale.

Then, "Okay. Okay."

"I'm still not happy you went behind my back," she tells him softly. "But I can understand where you were coming from."

Then, "So…are you still mad?"

"No," she eventually decides. More embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I overreacted."

"No. I get it, now that you've explained it to me," he says quietly. "I shouldn't have just done it, but thought you'd like the surprise of not having to deal with your mother anymore if I arranged it."

At that, Rukia chuckles. "Please, she wouldn't leave me alone the whole night because she wanted to hear everything about our date."

Having to tell her mother that Ichigo was "nice" and "thoughtful" and "makes her laugh", but also that he greatly pissed her off in a hundred and twenty seconds or less, but not being able to explain why was not something Rukia ever thought she'd have to do. But it's what she'd done.

"But seriously, I overreacted." She sighs. "I could've just told you when it happened instead of freezing you out for two days. It's just," she takes a breath and admits, "I get a little…touchy when I get…close to my heat."

"Oh." Then, "Oh."

"Yeah," she exhales, and for once there's an actual awkward pause between them. Maybe it would've been easier to bring it up when they hadn't been…fighting? How did that look anyway, to go from pointedly ignoring someone to wanting them to do something for you? She shakes her head. "So, uhm," Rukia manages a smile. "I'll see you in a couple of days then, okay?"

"Yeah," he echoes, then clears his throat. "Uh, if you need anything, let me know, okay?"

She doesn't know if he's just offering to be polite or.

Either way, Rukia thanks him, and puts the phone down with a sigh that's a combination of relieved and exhausted; she rests her head on her desk and tries to calm the agitated thump-thump-thump in her chest.

It's an attempt that's all for nothing when Inoue appears.

"Kuchiki-san."

"Ah," she startles, hand over her chest, and breathes through the adrenaline shot of panic. With the shushing in all directions, Rukia grimaces in apology before acknowledging, "Inoue?"

It's the first time Rukia's seen her face to face since her conversation with Tatsuki three days ago. Though, that's not an entirely accurate observation.

After Tatsuki made the executive decision not to be home if she could avoid it until Inoue had moved out so only Rangiku and Rukia were a witness to Inoue scuttling around the apartment, head bowed in submission every time she wasn't in her room. She'd rarely speak, though when she did, she used her baby voice in an attempt to garner sympathy which Rangiku, for one, wasn't moved by, and that Rukia just cringed to hear.

Now, though, Inoue looks like her usual self, and sounds. Different. It immediately gets Rukia's hackles up.

Her instincts aren't wrong when Inoue demands, "Does Tatsuki-chan know?"

"Know?" she echoes.

Inoue notches her chin. "About you and Kurosaki-kun."

She freezes. Then, "What about me and Ichigo?"

At that, Inoue scoffs, and it's so…not like her to do that Rukia almost recoils in surprise. "You accused me of using Tatsuki-chan when you did the exact same thing," Inoue says, and that makes Rukia frown.

"I didn't use Tatsuki for anything, least of all for anything involving Ichigo," she retorts, and when she's answered by more shushing from the other tables at the library, Rukia brushes it off with a glare.

Again, another scoff before Inoue's turning to leave. "We'll see what she thinks then, won't we?"

And Rukia can't do anything else but watch her go, baffled and a little shellshocked because. What. The. Actual. Hell.

"Does she seriously think it's the same thing?" Nanao demands twenty minutes later when Rukia leaves the library just as Nanao is done with a lab, the pair of them usually walking home together.

Rukia sighs. "I don't know. I'm kind of leaning towards yes because she's clearly certifiable, but that's not the issue here."

"Tatsuki," Nanao confirms before she shakes her head. Then, firmer, "You didn't use her though."

"I didn't," Rukia confirms, a little annoyed. "But that doesn't mean she won't see it that way especially if Inoue tells it, and god knows how Inoue will tell it." She scoffs at the thought, rubbing her face with her palms and sighing loudly once more. "Inoue knows nothing about me and Ichigo. Though how she even found out about me and him, I'll never know."

But Nanao isn't concerned about that. She squeezes her arm and gently pries her from the wall she found herself leaning against, tugging Rukia towards the apartment. "Your heat…"

"Yeah," she exhales. "It's not supposed to start yet." And then, because the observation isn't helpful, she adds, "It's really not a good time for this." Vaguely Rukia notes that her eyes feel hot. Like she's got a fever. Like she's about to cry. It could be both.

"C'mon, let's get you inside."

They manage to get to Rukia's floor before they hear the shouting from inside the apartment.

Nanao picks up the pace, and navigates them to the doorway just as Tatsuki demands, "Get out! I've had enough of this!"

At first, Rukia recoils like she's been hit, but then the door is thrown open, and she realizes Tatsuki wasn't talking to her.

Inoue's standing there crying again and pleading, "Tatsuki-chan, it's the truth!"

"The truth?" Tatsuki repeats with a growl. "The truth is you're manipulative and think everyone is too." Then her attention shifts at Rukia's whimper, and Tatsuki is setting aside Inoue and helping Nanao bring Rukia inside.

"I'm supposed to still have another day," Rukia tries to apologize, but Tatsuki's already asking, "It's started, already?"

"Could be the stress," Nanao answers her shooting Inoue a blank look, before saying, "Does she have her heat stuff organized?"

"Always," Tatsuki replies, "you've got them trained like the military at that chapter of yours."

"Responsible omegas," Nanao corrects primly.

Then, Tatsuki's turning her attention to Rukia, and scent marks her cheek with her palm in a sign of comfort as she asks quietly, "Do you want me and Rangiku to take care of you, or do you want me to call Ichigo?"

Rukia furrows her brow in confusion. "Ichigo?"

"Tatsuki-chan," Inoue whimpers.

She scoffs again, though this time it's more out of humor than anything else as she rolls her eyes and teases Rukia, "What, you really didn't think I'd know? Please, he was sending out so many mine-mine-mine hormones that day in the coffee shop, I thought I'd have to tie him to the street post outside."

"I didn't," Rukia stutters, struggling to stay conscious over the increased heat flooding her body. "That wasn't the first time I met him."

"Rukia," Nanao chides, clearly thinking that the priority of getting her settled was more important than clearing up anything Inoue might have said to Tatsuki about her and Ichigo. Even though it's not.

Tatsuki's been through enough, Rukia thinks.

She doesn't want to give Tatsuki any reason at all to question Rukia or Ichigo. Not when Tatsuki's probably still confused and angry and sad on a good day. Rukia refuses to put Tatsuki through that state of mind even for a moment, just for her own comfort, and she surely wouldn't lie to her like Inoue has just because it's convenient to.

"At the Sand Dollar," Rukia admits. "That night we were all supposed to have been hanging out together? I met him then, but I didn't. I didn't know it was him until after. And then we just kept seeing each other and -"

Her head snaps to the side, and it shocks her awake when she slowly turns her head forwards again, expression baffled and her eyes watering, Rukia finds Inoue crying too.

She looks furious beneath her tears, and her hand is still raised, palm red from where it had landed on Rukia's cheek.

Everyone's so jarred by the action that no one says anything, and there's nothing but the sound of Inoue's heavy breathing before, "You – you took him! Kurosaki-kun – he was supposed to meet me that night! And you just – you took him from me! Even though you knew I loved him! How could you! I've – I've never met another person so cruel!" And when she raises her hand again, she's only stopped by Nanao grabbing her wrist.

"Stop it."

"Ise-san!" Inoue protests.

"Stop it," Tatsuki repeats, voice so stiff and cold that Inoue's jaw just drops. Flicking her gaze Rukia's way, Tatsuki admits, "I knew. He's my best friend, Rukia, of course, I knew. Granted it was just a suspicion after you spent his rut with him, but it didn't click until later – until – until Orihime had her heat, and I couldn't stand the smell of him on you because I knew how much Orihime would've preferred it to me."

"Tatsuki," Rukia murmurs, horrified and heartbroken, but before Rukia can reach for her friend, to hug her and apologize, Inoue gets in the way to accuse: "You took him! You took him from me!"

"Stop it," Tatsuki demands, and she sounds so tired, so resigned.

It's Nanao that steps in to tell Inoue, "That's enough." Then, "Whatever conflict you have with Rukia isn't going to be resolved like this. You need to go." When Inoue does nothing but stare at her, tears still dripping down her chin and eyes crinkled at the corners in a glare; Nano cuts a glance Tatsuki's way, and asks, "Could you please take her outside?"

Tatsuki nods, pausing only to squeeze Rukia on the shoulder and mouth, "It's okay" before she hustles Inoue out, the other omega reanimating enough to try and wiggle her way free, plaintively begging for Tatsuki to listen, please, didn't you hear what she said? Tatsuki-chan, how can you let her get away with that? Then how could you? How could you?

Nanao sighs and shakes her head, urging Rukia towards her room. "C'mon, that's enough excitement for today, I think."

Rukia manages to mumble her thanks, and by the time she's been helped into her pajamas and coaxed beneath her covers, she's already mostly fallen asleep.