FINALLY a new update.

Sorry I took so long~~ I've been struggling with writing for a while because of busy schedule and constant writer's block T^T

Hopefully I'll now be able to write a little more...!

Enjoy~~

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Bleach nor any of its characters. All credits to Tite Kubo, creator of Bleach.

It had been two months since Yamamoto dismissed his three students for a while, and summer break had started. They wouldn't be back to the Academy even if they figured something out. Haruna had asked Ukitake to come to their hospital once a week to do examinations, and Ukitake had agreed. At first, he would only come for the examinations by himself, but at some point Kyoraku joined him, and then they started coming even when it wasn't for an examination. Whenever Haruna wasn't examining Ukitake, the three would spar, sometimes with swords, sometimes barehanded, and sometimes with kidou. Even though they didn't know what to do next, they thought it might be better to keep themselves sharp with their training.

"You know," said Kyoraku, panting after one of their sparring sessions, "I still don't know what we're supposed to do."

"Honestly," Ukitake said, "me neither."

"He did say we'll find out when the time comes…" Haruna said. "But seriously… I have no idea either… How long do we have to wait?"

"Well," Kyoraku said, catching his breath. "We'll found out sooner or later."

Kurayami Haruna….

Haruna was standing on a giant cloud in the middle of the sky. Everything was so nice: all white and light blue. Perfect weather.

Kurayami Haruna….

A strange voice was calling her. Suddenly, the sunlight engulfed her.

Kurayami Haruna….

The voice called again.

"Who are you?" she asked.

My name is….

"What? I can't hear you!" she said.

I said my name is….

"What is your name?" she couldn't hear the name of the voice that was talking to her.

I am ….

"Where are you? Who are you?" she was now yelling. She couldn't even tell where the voice was coming from.

….

The voice was saying something, but the voice was so distant that she couldn't pick up on the words.

"Haruna?" Hayato called her desperately. "Haruna!"

"Huh?" Haruna woke up from her sleep. "Onii-chan? Why are you here?"

"Well," he said, "I sensed a huge amount of reiatsu coming from this direction, and when I came to see what was happening, there was a huge light coming from your room. It almost looked like I was in broad daylight."

"Huh…?" Haruna was confused.

"Did something happen?" Hayato asked.

"Not really…" Haruna replied. "I just had a weird dream."

"Dream?" Hayato said.

"Yeah… But it's nothing to worry about."

"If you say so," Hayato said as he patted her hair. "You should go back to sleep." He stood up to leave the room.

"Yes," she said. "Thank you. Good night."

"Good night."

The morning came, and Haruna couldn't forget the dream she had and what her brother told her.

A strange light coming out of my room….? She sat on her futon, pondering about last night. There's no point in thinking about this. I should start getting ready. The guys will be here soon.

"Alright," Haruna said. "This is it for today."

"Thank you for your hard work, Haruna," said Ukitake as he got up the bed.

"Haruna-chan, don't you think you're pushing yourself a little bit too hard?" Kyoraku said. "You should take it easier sometimes."

"Shunsui," Haruna said, "I'm okay. I'm getting enough rest. I promise."

"Well," Kyoraku said. "If you say so." He smirked.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she asked

"Oh nothing," Kyoraku said. "I just find it cute that you'd say that so that we don't worry." He kept the smirk on his face.

"Why does it feel like you're just teasing me…" Haruna said as she stood up.

"But it's true," Ukitake said.

"R-really…?" she blushed.

Well, she definitely has something for Ukitake, Kyoraku thought to himself.

"Ah," Ukitake realized that he had just called her cute and blushed even more than her.

And he definitely has something for her, too. Kyoraku said to himself again.

"Well, well," Kyoraku said. "I think I'll be going home for now."

"Huh?" Ukitake said. "It's still quite early."

"Yeah," Haruna said. "I thought we were going to the academy's training grounds to practice our kidou."

"Yeah," Kyoraku said, "but I forgot there was somewhere else I needed to go today. I'm sorry. But, you two should go. I'll catch up to you if I can."

"Ah, yeah… sure…" Ukitake and Haruna agreed.

"Well, then," Kyoraku said, "I'll be leaving now. See you later." He left the room.

Ukitake and Haruna were in the room, alone, in silence. Their faces were still a little bit red from the incident moments ago.

"Sh-should we go…?" Haruna broke the silence.

"Ah… s-sure…" Ukitake said.

They walked to the academy training grounds in silence. Multiple times had they been by themselves because of the medical treatment he was receiving from her, but lately the atmosphere between the two had gotten a little awkward.

"We're almost there…" Ukitake said.

"Y-yeah…" Haruna replied.

Whenever they were left alone, Haruna would stutter her words, and she always thought about what was good to say but ended up saying nothing.

Geez… That Shunsui… Why did he have to leave all of a sudden? I'm alone with Juushiro… Wait, since when am I so conscious about that? I've been alone with Juushiro before…

"-runa…? Haruna?" Ukitake called.

"Huh? Wha-?" she stumbled on the stairs and almost fell, but Ukitake grabbed her arm before she hit the floor.

"Are you okay?" Ukitake asked. "You should be more careful," he said.

"I-I'm okay," she said blushing. He's holding my arm… "Juushiro… You can let go of me… I'm fine now…"

"Oh, yeah," he said as he let go of her arm. "Sorry."

"Ah," she said, "no no, don't apologize. Th-thank you for helping me."

"No problem," he said smiling kindly. "We're here already, so let's go in."

"Yeah," she said, and the two of them went into the academy.

They went to the kidou training grounds, where a bunch of targets were laid out.

"Juushiro," Haruna called him.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering…" Haruna started talking but didn't finish her sentence.

"Huh?"

"I mean… I was wondering if you could teach me some kidou…" she finally said.

"What? But, Haruna, you're great at kidou," Ukitake said. "If anything, I think you're better than me."

"No," Haruna said. "That's not true… You have so much more control over your reiatsu than me… I still remember when we had that kidou training back when we were in the First Class. You cast a kidou without enchanting it… Even if it was a low level kidou, it takes extremely good control of your reiatsu to do that… I don't think I can do that… not even now…"

"That's not true," Ukitake said. "I think you can do it. After all, you're a lot more knowledgeable than I am. Have more faith in yourself."

"More faith… in myself…?" Haruna repeated those words.

"Yes," Ukitake said as he walked closer to her. He grabbed her shoulders and said, "You are amazingly strong, so you just need to believe that you can do it, and you'll be fine."

"Y-you think so?" she said, blushing at the short distance between them.

"Definitely!" Ukitake exclaimed. He had a broad smile, like that of a little kid.

Cute… Haruna thought to herself and blushed.

"Ahem," Kyoraku coughed. "Are you two done with your little lovey-dovey skit?"

"Shunsui!" Haruna said, flustered. "W-what do you mean lovey-dovey skit?!" Her face was bright red.

"You know," Kyoraku said in his teasing voice. "You look really cute when you blush, Haruna-chan."

"Will you stop messing with me?" Haruna said as she hit Kyoraku's head. "Let's start training."

"Ouch," Kyoraku said while rubbing his head. "That hurts…"

"I don't know how you didn't see that coming, Kyoraku," Ukitake said.

"Heh," Kyoraku laughed. "I guess. Let's go."

"Yeah."

Kurayami Haruna…

The voice called her again.

"That voice… Who are you?"

She looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. She was up in the clouds again, and a warm sunlight was engulfing her.

Kurayami Haruna… It is I, …

Again, the voice was muffled.

"Who are you? I can't hear you."

My name is …

"I can't hear your name…"

Kurayami…Haruna…

The voice got more and more distant until it was completely inaudible.

She woke up in the middle of the night in cold sweat. It's this dream again… I've been having this dream for the past two weeks… I wonder what this is about…

Like I said, I'll try to write more often and update more!