Guest - Looks like jerk-alert Ichigo is a success in this story and I am glad for that. It just makes the later chapters interesting and Ichigo would simply have to do more to redeem his jerkness (Don't care if that's not a word, I am making it a word. XD) Ino has weird vibes? Because she left Rukia with an argument just like that? :3

Luna Marie Whelan - I have to apologize. Because FanFiction was stirring shit up for the past few days, I uploaded a total of multiple 'Sealing of Fate' because I couldn't see the chapter anywhere. As soon as I did that and realized ny mistake, I deleted all of them. So, that might be the cause of it. I am sorry~ T_T

Disclaimer: I neither own Bleach nor its characters. :3

Waking up with a killer fucking headache, Ichigo groaned. He vaguely remembered Momo walking him to his bedroom last night. He had dreamt about her, the one who had ruined his heart, the one who had ruined him. Having a dream about her hadn't made his hangover any better since it had been a while since he had dreamt about her. In the dream, she was beside Ichigo in the car. They were racing down some airport runway, nothing but miles of pavement before them. Ichigo's eyes weren't glued to the road though, his gaze was fixated on her. She was twirling a strand of her long hair around her fingers, eyes glistening back at Ichigo. After that, she had turned to him and spoke in the most judgemental tone possible.

You are drunk.

Ichigo was awake by then, deciding that he had enough lazing around and got to the office, ignoring Ikkaku's question of getting breakfast. After that particular dream, no amount of foods could get him not to puke in his expensive suit. When Ichigo had gotten to the office, Isshin was there, sitting on the couch. "Well, this is a surprise."

Observing Ichigo as he sat across him, Isshin shook his head. "Oh God, Ichigo. You stink."

Ichigo frowned in response. "I didn't have time to shower this morning."

"Well, you smell like you showered in a tub of poop last night."

About to say something back, Ichigo simply sighed. "What can I help you with this morning, Old Man?"

Placing his hands on his knees, Isshin regarded Ichigo. "I just wanted to let you know I arranged a dinner with Mr. Ichimaru and his wife." Gin Ichimaru was the owner of a hotel that Kurosaki Enterprise had been trying to buy and rebrand. Discussions had been ongoing with him for over a year and he was getting more and more on-board with the idea, in the very least.

"He is acceptable to the idea?"

Isshin shrugged in response. "Not entirely a full bite but more acceptable to the idea." Isshin's tone of voice grew serious. "You will have to do your best work tonight, Ichigo."

It was Ichigo's turn to shrug. "I always do my best."

"We will see about that." Isshin stood up, proceeding to leave the office. "Bring Rukia with you along to the dinner. Ichinaru will be bringing his wife, Matsumoto, along with him. Well, that's what I remember her name as, anyway." Ichigo couldn't help but groan mentally as he dug up last night's memories. Grabbing her and calling her a gold-digging slut. After last night's incident, she was supposed to act civil with Ichigo and not bear any grudge towards Ichigo for last night? "You understand?"

It was getting clear that Isshin was waiting for Ichigo to confirm what he was suggesting. "Yeah, I understand."

Las Noches. 8PM.

Getting off the phone with Isshin, Rukia had came to know of his plan just as her phone vibrated, getting Ichigo's messages as well. 'A very important dinner with very important potential business associates', Isshin had said. Despite Isshin assuring her that the dinner would be nothing but fun for Rukia, she had a hard time believing Isshin's words, especially after last night's incident. Reminding herself of Ukitake, she heaved a deep breath. Thinking of last night, she mentally chided herself for almost violating the conditions of the contract as she had gotten so close to telling Ichigo the circumstances of her family. Looking through the closet to find a most-stylish outfit; an emerald-colored silk jumpsuit with a tie around the waist, she stepped out of the house. "You look incredible."

"Thank You for the compliment, Hanatarou." A vote of confidence was something Rukia really needed to ease the nerves of the dinner that she was gonna attend, with a guy who had practically raped her with his eyes last night.

Reaching Las Noches, Rukia walked over to the hostess. "Ichigo Kurosaki's table."

"This way."

Being the last to arrive, Rukia's nerves skyrocketed even higher. Ichigo was dressed in some fancy suit and across from him were the 'Very important business associates', Rukia had assumed. The man was probably around in his 20s with unusual silver hair. He was in a navy blue suit and his watch sparkled under the restaurant's lights. His wife sat beside him, looking every inch like a model. Although, the only distinguish features that she had was her cleavage. Was those even real? Knowing that it was rude, Rukia shifted her attention to elsewhere as she noticed Ichigo and Ichimaru standing up, Ichigo instantly placing his hands around her waist and kissed her cheeks, playing the role of a husband exceptionally well. "Hi, doll."

"Hello." Rukia smiled and simply instructed herself to get this dinner over and done with.

"Gin Ichimaru."

Taking the hand, Rukia nodded her head and smiled. "Nice to meet you."

Proceeding to the table and greeting Ichimaru's wife next, Rukia offered her hand as Matsumoto squealed. "Hello, Darling."

Sitting down and having a waiter refilling her glass with white wine, she took a sip, knowing that she would need it as Ichigo started the conversation. "So, shall we talk business? I know you are looking to find a new property owner, Ichimaru-San and our rebranding would do nothing but lift up your family's legacy -- "

"Wait a minute, Ichigo. We hadn't even ordered our appetizers yet. Let's hold off on the business talk for the sake of the beautiful ladies beside us."

"Absolutely." Ichigo smiled and not an inch of annoyance was seen. "Tell me, how was Milan?"

"Oh, you cannot believe how divine it was." Matsumoto moaned from her seat. "The fashion, the scenery, all of it is divine, I tell you." It was as if Matsumoto was used to the centre of attention and was using this advantage.

"Wonderful." Ichimaru chimed in. "We were there for 15 days and still, we couldn't get enough. The 2 of you should seriously drop by Milan."

"We will add it to the list, won't we?" Ichigo asked, shifting his gaze to Rukia.

Knowing that she had to answer the question, Rukia nodded her head. "Of course, we will add that to the list. Excuse me." With that, she pushed the chair back and without waiting for any of their reactions, headed for the restroom.

Looking at the mirror, she had wondered who this girl was. This girl who is acting for the sake of money for Ukitake's treatment, where had the past Rukia Tachibana gone? After Ichigo Kurosaki's fiasco for calling her a gold-digging slut, she was supposed to act civil, no, scratch that, lovey-dovey with him? Taking a moment to calm herself down, she walked back out before feeling a hand grab her shoulders. "Hey." She turned around, gazing at Ichigo. "Look, I know last night was fucked up." Understatement of the century, Rukia thought. "I was drunk, probably said some shit I shouldn't have." Ichigo's eyes were darting around, as if afraid that somebody would see him apologizing. "But, I really need for this dinner to go well. Whatever you need to say to me, do it after we leave. Sounds good?"

That was a new side Rukia hadn't seen Ichigo in. She had originally thought Ichigo only thinks about himself but now... That doesn't necessarily mean that Rukia had forgiven Ichigo but if Isshin's company was on the line... "Sounds good."

Returning to the table, Ichimaru smiled. "Welcome back. I hope that you don't mind that we ordered salmon."

"Perfect." Ichigo smiled.

"Great."

"So, Ichigo..." There was a sparkle in Ichimaru's eyes. "Tell us all about the woman that swept you off your feet. It's nice to finally see you settled down."

Ichigo gazed at Rukia, suddenly at a loss. "Well, I met Rukia and we... Instantly..."

Rukia took a moment to gaze at Ichigo before smiling at both Ichimaru and Matsumoto. "You will have to pardon Ichigo, he always gets choked up while telling the story, really." She giggled as she began telling the story that she had recited in her head millions of times. "We met in a take-out shop in the city, actually." Rukia gazed at Ichigo and noticing that Ichigo stayed silent, took it as her cue to continue. "I had just left an interview whereas Ichigo was simply having a bad day. Funny story, we grabbed each other's food by mistake and just started talking. The rest, well, it fell simply into place."

Matsumoto clapped her hands together. "So beautiful."

"What were you interviewing for?"

"A 'Manager' position in a bilinguistic company named Kuchiki Enterprise."

"I know Kuchiki Enterprise. Manager?" Ichimaru questioned and they looked at Rukia confusedly.

"Yes." Rukia smiled. "My degree was in that so that was mainly the position that I was looking for." For some reasons, as Ichimaru's gaze travelled from Rukia then onwards onto Ichigo, he had looked mildly surprised and impressed. Ichigo, apparently, was trying to swallow his own shock as well. "I was really fortunate to have gotten a Degree. It was a wonderful experience."

"You, Sir..." Ichimaru regarded Ichigo. "...Have found yourself a treasure of a wife."

Rukia looked confused at what Ichimaru had said, not understanding but as she gazed at Ichigo, Ichigo's reply was soft and genuine. "It appears so."

I wasn't good enough but Ichigo Kurosaki is? I have eyes everywhere. You can't run from me. Good luck, Tachibana-San. You will need it.

Looking at the incoming text from her phone, Rukia couldn't help but feel the urge to puke with each and every text that Aizen had sent her. Leaving the phone on the table, Toshiro tried peeking to see what was making Rukia's face as white as a sheet. "What is it?"

Rukia had taken to stopping by the shop whenever she went for a jog, which had been often in the past couple of weeks that had flew by. Running had allowed Rukia to clear her head, giving her an escape. And, escaping from Ichigo and his residence... That was considered a blessing. This morning though, her jog was uninterrupted time to think rather than an escape. Second half of the dinner yesterday had went smoothly, both of them even managing to have a few laugh and as the dinner ended, Ichigo had Ikkaku drive her home as he proceeded to have some drinks nearby the area. Rather than civil as she had intended to be, it was more like friendly, as if it was the first time that Ichigo had gotten to know Rukia outside of his assumptions. Thoughts of getting along with Ichigo filled Rukia's mind as she proceeded with her jog this morning, thoughts of a better future and hope. Moments before she had received the texts, Toshiro was just telling Rukia a movie that he had seen last night and Rukia was more than happy to have a distraction. Then came the texts. Although it had came from a foreign number unknown to Rukia, she knew where the texts came from, specifically. "Hello?" Toshiro waved his hand in front of Rukia, earning Rukia's attention. "Who is it?"

Rukia shook her head. "It's nothing."

"If it was nothing, you wouldn't look like you just saw the ghost of Annabelle. Come on, spill." He frowned.

Rukia folded her arms as she looked at him. "Hey, if you have watched the movie of Annabelle, you wouldn't be saying that." Toshiro gazed back at Rukia, not wavering his gaze and Rukia was painfully reminded that with both Shuuhei and Yumichika busying himself at the restaurant and Ino giving her the cold treatment, there was no one beside her except Toshiro Hitsugaya. She sighed after a few moments, relenting. "Okay. Fine. It's my old boss."

"Who is he?"

"Head of Sosuke Cooperation, this really important linguistics' company. I worked for him for a little over 11 months."

"Okay?" Toshiro appeared confused, not getting it and as Rukia stayed silent, not offering anything else, he tapped his fingers on the table, indicating his impatience. "You are not giving me anything here, Rukia."

"He was..." For some reasons, it felt difficult to reveal what Aizen did to her in front of Toshiro. "The entire time I was working there, he was trying to get me to sleep with him. Originally, it was simply inviting me to dinner. As I kept rejecting him, he started making me go to private meetings in his office. He would attempt touching my leg or shoulder. When I stopped going to those so-called 'Private Meetings', the situation had gotten worse. Having my personal cell number, he would leave me voicemails and follow me home from work. It was like I couldn't even go grocery shopping without seeing him somewhere in the background. It was really bad..."

"Oh God..." Toshiro placed his hand on top of hers, causing Rukia to gaze at Toshiro. Instantly knowing what Rukia was thinking, Toshiro chuckled. "Oh, I know you are married, Rukia. Don't worry, I'm not into you. Well, not into women generally. But, enough about me, back to you."

Rukia gazed at Toushiro's hand on top of hers and wondered about the courage that it had taken for Toshiro to admit that so casually. Toshiro revealing private information about himself had placed Rukia at ease as she continued. "I tried quitting actually. For a whole month, even though the job had been amazing and I loved the job overall, I just couldn't deal with his constant harrassment. I even tried switching my numbers a few times such that he couldn't travel back to me, but everytime, he always manages to track me down. I started having panic attacks. I knew that I couldn't continue living this way and finally told my Nii-San what was going on and they were the ones who gave me the strength to finally quit."

"And then?"

"Putting in my resignation, he called me into his office. Walking in, I made sure the door was left open. He took the resignation letter away from my hands and he whispered to me that if I was to quit, I would never work again. If I took a step out of Sosuke Cooperation, he would make sure that I was un-hire-able. he told me I shouldn't have said No."

"Sweetheart..." Toshiro began speaking and Rukia noted there was pain in his voice, as if he was angered by what Aizen did to her. "You don't deserve that. Nobody deserves that, but especially you. You don't deserve that." Snatching Rukia's phone away before she could even respond, Toshiro read through all the texts from Aizen before frowning. "Oh God, have you gone to the police?"

Rukia nodded her head. "When this whole fiasco started initially and then again before I resigned from Sosuke Cooperation. The police said that I didn't have any proof that he was following me. Besides, he's a huge and powerful man and I'm only an inexperienced 23-year-old. The odds were never in my favor from the start."

Toshiro frowned. "So, you are just ignoring him?"

Rukia smiled weakly. "He's messed up a lot of my life, but... I can't really do anything. He has the power and the resources. I can only hope that he would run out of steam eventually."

Silence was heard for a few moments from Toshiro. "Have you told Ichigo-San about it? He could probably help --"

"No!" It was spoken so fast that Toshiro was taken aback and Rukia lowered her gaze, trying to find a way to salvage the situation. Knowing Ichigo, if he had known the situation, Rukia had no doubt he would have settled the problem but would also take advantage of her situation. "It 's already embarrassing enough, I wouldn't want to have to trouble Ichigo."

If Toshiro had thought that Ichigo and Rukia's interactions were too polite for a lovey-dovey newlywed, he hadn't commented on it. Yet, looking at Toshiro's gaze, labelled with such pity, had made tears well up in Rukia's eyes. "No, stop that. None of that. Don't waste your tears on your creepy boss, that morherfucker. Do you understand me?" Rukia could only nod. "You know what? Screw this, we are going out."

"Eh? What? Going out?" By the time that Rukia had gazed up at Toushiro, he was already cleaning up the counter and closing the cash register. "Toushiro! Can you do that?"

Toshiro simply shrugged to Rukia's question. "Eh, probably not. But, hey, I just did." With that said, Toshiro dragged Rukia away from the coffee shop and into a shopping mall, it seemed that they were going window-shopping. Already been to 3 stores, Toshiro had managed to convince Rukia to buy 2 slinky dresses, a blazer and the tightest pair of jeans that Rukia had ever owned. "You and your husband will thank me later, I assure you." Rukia doubted that would be the case, though. Her husband, huh? Before she could dwell more on that topic, Toshiro had dragged Rukia to the 5th store that they would be browsing today. This store was a hat store, where hats of all shapes and sizes lined the walls. All of these hats had only one thing in common; their exorbitant prices. "God, I have wanted one of these hats for so long."

Rukia smiled. "It looks good on you."

"Yeah, it definitely looks good." Toshiro rolled his eyes as soon as he saw the pricing. "For 800 bucks, it better look good or else."

Rukia gasped. "800 bucks for a hat?"

Toshiro patted Rukia's shoulders, shaking his head. "It's not a hat." Seconds after, he went back to posing in front of a mirror with a particular hat he had chosen. "It's a statement."

Rukia couldn't help but giggle. Really, being with Toshiro had felt easy, like a long-lost friend. Rukia didn't have to take note of everything she said or look out for the meaning behind his comments, unlike Isshin and Ichigo. Toshiro had cared about Rukia not because of 'Kurosaki' being attached to her name but simply because Rukia was Rukia. Overcome by the desire to do something nice for him for all Toshiro has done, she smiled. "Toshiro." Rukia called out Toshiro's name, motioning for Toshiro to hand her the hat.

Toshiro passed her the hat. "You wanna try?" Shaking her head and taking the hat, she walked over to the cash register. The staff looked at Rukia skeptically, as if not believing she was going to pay for the hat. Smiling as she took out the card that Isshin had produced for her in situations like these, the staff all but dropped her mouth. "Ohmygod, are you serious about this, Rukia?"

Smiling at Toshiro, Rukia's gaze then turned to the salesperson behind the cash register. "If you could gift wrap it, that would be great."

"Of course."

Swiping the card and watching as Rukia signed the receipt, the staff then wrapped the hat into a beautiful little package, tying it with a pale blue bow. Handing it to Rukia, Rukia then handed it to Toshiro, just as a familiar face walked into the store right there and then. It was Matsumoto, the wife of Mr. Ichimaru whom Rukia had met just yesterday. Recognizing her immediately, Matsumoto practically bounced over to Rukia. "Darling!" Rukia offered a smile in return as her gaze turned to Toshiro before eyeing Rukia and then at the bag in Toshiro's hands. "These hats..."

Before Rukia could greet Matsumoto, Toshiro had already successfully cut her off. "Exactly." Toshiro offered his hand to Matsumoto. "I'm Toshiro. Toshiro Hitsugaya."

Allowing him to shake her hand, Matsumo nodded. "Matsumoto." Her voice was seemingly just above a whisper as she turned back to Rukia.

"We were just heading out, Matsumoto-San. Come on, Toshiro." Toshiro looked at Rukia, confused but Rukia knew better. She could take it easy when she was alone with Toshiro but having somebody that knew about Ichigo and her was making Rukia nervous, for some reasons she couldn't put her finger on. That was why, she had wanted to escape Matsumoto's view as soon as possible. "It was nice seeing you again."

Matsumoto smiled warmly and Rukia had no idea whether she should believe her warm smiles or not. Moments later, she turned her attention to a black on the far wall. Walking out of the store with Toshiro behind her, she wasn't oblivious to Matsumoto's gaze fixating on them the whole time.

Author's Notes: Hm... Rukia just can't take a break, can she?