DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH
I apologize for any spellings or grammatical errors
Rukia woke up with cold sweats trickling her skins, the sensation of fully conscious jolted her body from the bed. In a sitting position, she took deep inhales and exhales, entirely calming herself from the displeasure of having a nightmare she wished she never had.
Upon completely awake, she was now reluctant to go back to sleep. It wasn't entirely of the dread from repeating the same dream over again, instead the realization that it was merely half an hour earlier before her alarm will go off. It was too much of a time deficiency to go back to doze. Cursing the luck she had, she grumpily releases herself from the magnetic pull of her bed.
Are you up yet?
After sending the brief text to Momo, Rukia decided it was time for her to enjoy the morning shower. She chose the quickest and easiest outfit to wear, storming her way outside her room and towards the bathroom. What she did not expect was the appearance of a certain orange haired freak that undeniably worsen her morning while shirtless and drying his hair, walking outside the bathroom towards the living room. His flattened, disinterested expression as he scrolls his phone while stepping towards the raven haired without noticing Rukia's presence halted her steps.
When they were few centimetres apart, Ichigo noticed the familiar small feet blocking his pathway, causing him to look up from his screen and met with pair of violet orbs staring intently at him.
"Did you forget the house rules, Kurosaki?"
Ichigo rolls his eyes, "It's not like I'm walking naked around the dorm, Midget. I'm wearing pants."
"Still not justifying your reasons to walk around shirtless," she countered, "what if Momo comes and you're the one to open the door? I'm sure we both don't want any of my friends to misunderstand our boundaries even more."
"If any of your friends comes, I will wear a shirt." Ichigo sat on the sofa, nonchalantly opening one of the water bottles and decided not to associate with her nagging anymore. "And you told me yesterday that Momo is coming on ten, it's barely eight right now."
Rukia gave up trying to convince the man. While muttering some cursing words under her breath that sounds awfully familiar to hypocritical bastard, she stormed away from his sight and went inside the bathroom. At least she deserves a good shower to appease what's left of her pleasant morning.
Yesterday, Momo had convinced Rukia to lighten up and go out for a change of pace. The bun haired said she was invited to go out for a whole day by some popular girls from other majors, and she was intent on getting Rukia to go along with her.
"I'm accompanying you to the bar with Renji at night, so it's only fair you're accompanying me to go on girls' day out in the afternoon!"
Rukia, of course being the wary person she was, had refused countlesstimes at the offer Momo would call beneficial. But her best friend was uncharacteristically stubborn this time, whatever her reasons were, wailing and begging for Rukia to join her just this once. Sometimes, Rukia felt Momo was lucky she was her best friend.
Sighing at the warm sensation of waters completely washing her body and inner turmoil, Rukia felt herself relax a little after the tiring morning. Sighing to herself, she knew she couldn't stay for too long. Without further dawdling, she dried herself with a towel and went outside the bathroom after wearing the clothes she picked ahead of time.
As much as she dislikes it, she decided to sit on the couch beside the unwanted company of infamous Kurosaki Ichigo because her favourite show, Chappy the Rabbit is airing on TV in five minutes.
"Give me the remote, Kurosaki." Rukia offers her hand, "My show is about to start its opening song."
Ichigo scrunches his face in displeasure, "I am not watching that ridiculous cartoon with you."
"How dare you call Chappy ridiculous! Hand me the remote this instant!" She crossed her arms in disagreement, fists balled as she glared up at him in anger.
"No way." Ignoring the growl from the raven haired, Ichigo switched into other stations with the remote, purposively not changing to the specific channel Rukia hoped for while looking for much more interesting program.
Out of irritation, she lashed out a kick to his leg that was the nearest to her, earning a groan of pain and a chance of stealing the remote away from the man who let his guard down, which Rukia took.
"What the fuck, Rukia?!"
"Fuck off, Strawberry," Rukia spats, "I tried asking politely but you're the one who decided on being an uncultured fruit. Good thing the show has just started."
Ichigo glowers, "You're absurd."
"So is your bright hair." Rukia turned up the volume, the Chappy-themed-song started playing while the rabbits are dancing cheerfully on the screen. "Are we done stating the obvious now?"
After living with her for weeks, Ichigo has realized an important code. Rukia could stand being called off because of her height, being mocked because of her presence, being blackmailed because of her pride, and being argued over nothing she specifically had done wrong. But one thing Rukia could not tolerate is being kept away by her favourite series, Chappy the Rabbit that always airs on weekend mornings. When that outrageous bunny is mentioned, the crazy woman would always have her ways until Ichigo relents and let her have her ways by all means.
Ichigo growls, finally conceding, "Bitch."
"Why thank you." Rukia says in a beat, batting eyelashes upon the endearing remark.
After the little banter, both Ichigo and Rukia watched the show Ichigo would frequently call boring-ass-cartoon-series. As much as Ichigo wanted to argue anymore, he just wanted to finish his cereals quickly because he had been invited by Mizuiro to this new place he had been planning to try for quite a while too. He could bear watching some cringe-worthy series for twenty minutes, at the least. And God knows where Rukia would kick him this time if he tries stealing the remote from her while she's in the middle of enjoying her favourite show.
Finishing his breakfast, Ichigo heads outside with his casual attire, bidding farewell to the raven haired who's sitting on the sofa while eating some potato chips. With some "God damn it, Ichigo. Wash your dishes for a change-!" complaints from her being ignored by the man, Ichigo closed the door from outside with full knowledge Rukia will clean his bowl of cereals because she just couldn't stand a messy kitchen. At least her annoying ass has some useful qualities for once.
Inside the dorm, Rukia merely grumbled when her show was finished. That jerk kept leaving dirty plates and bowls for her to clean after grasping her habits to clean it up. Even though Rukia might be able to ignore it in the morning, she would always clean it at the end of the day while washing her own plates, so she decided to do it now with her extra time waiting for Momo to visit her.
As if on cue, the second she dried the bowl, a knock from the door and a harpy, high pitched voice calls, "Hey there, Rukia! I'm here to pick you up."
Setting aside the wet dish, Rukia went towards the front door and turned the knob. A beaming smile from her best friend shows just how much she was raring to go. "So when should we go?"
"Right this moment, actually," Rukia replies, "just let me grab my bag."
"Kuchiki-san!"
Rukia blinked at the familiar voice. She distinctly remembered hearing it somewhere once, she swears- so she turned her head back to find the source of the voice. Flashes of oranges covered her sights before she is engulfed into a big hug that might possibly suffocate her to death.
"What a coincidence to meet you again here!"
Fortunately, the hug didn't last long as someone decided to drag the woman away. "Cut her some slacks, Orihime. A girl needs to breathe."
"Uh, right, sorry about that, Kuchiki-san." The woman sheepishly smiled as she stood few inches in front of Rukia. The raven haired stared at the woman for a while before comprehending the situation.
Great, she just had to show up again and I'm feeling guilty about what happened before.
Soon enough, Rukia's lips curved into a smile. "Inoue-san, what a pleasure to meet you here! I deeply apologize about our first meeting." Rukia greeted with a rather apologetic look that wasn't totally faked.
Orihime shakes her head, "Oh, no. Nothing to feel bad about it," she beamed, "I got to know you, that's a very pleasant thing to take place!"
Rukia would've felt slightly better if Inoue had straightforwardly said her displeasure, but the woman was too sweet it makes her felt even worse.
The woman next to her raises an eyebrow, "Orihime, is she your acquaintance?"
"Yep! I met her during my day out with Kurosaki-kun."
Rukia winces at the truthful exclamation. Well she wasn't particularly wrong, while Momo gave a perceptive look towards Rukia that signed her knowledge of the accidental meeting fiasco.
"Oh! Nice to meet you then, Kuchiki-san!" The other girl offers her hand, "Call me Chizuru, and the more beautiful girls here the merrier this day would be!"
Rukia blinks, "Uh, nice to meet you too, Chizuru-san," she laughed, ". It was fortunate the girl was friendly and not throwing daggers at her for knowing Orihime met Rukia during her date with Ichigo, which actually sounded very suspicious.
Momo clears her throat, "So you met Rukia already, Inoue-san!" She smiled as she looked towards the two women in front of them. "Well, she is the friend I said I'm bringing along with me."
"Oh, she's the one?" Orihime giggled, "Then no worries, Kuchiki-san will fit right in no time!"
While the four of them were warming up to each other, another pair has arrived at the promised place, waving hands towards the group happily while cheerily greeting them.
"Momo! Orihime!" Another orange haired woman shouted from afar, next from her was a black, short haired girl with a frown-look expression Rukia finds all too familiar. "Geez, all of you are so early, how can you stand sober at the weekend?" She wailed as she came near them.
"Actually, only you who can't stand sober at the weekend, Rangiku-san."
"Well not everyone is grumpy like you, Karin-chan!" The woman pouted, and looking at her more closely, Rukia could barely recognize the busty woman until realizations dawned into her.
"You-!" Rukia pointed at the woman, mouth agape. "Aren't you-?!" Rukia clamped he mouth in recognition, the memory of her first day speeded through her mind.
Rangiku gave a light smile, "Of course! It is fully our responsibility. However, it was up to you to decide whether it is agreeable or not." She clears her throat, "With our current conditions, there are no more vacant rooms available. Or to be exact, no more vacant rooms left in the female dormitory." She explained, "Hence, the dormitory decided we can make some more… Special adjustments for you, Kuchiki-san, to get a vacant room inside the male dormitory."
Oh dang, whatever lucky stars she had above, surely it didn't shine upon her today.
The woman blinked and squint her eyes to recognize Rukia before gasping in awareness. "Oh, aren't you Kuchiki Rukia?!" She gasped in recognitions, "My name is Rangiku, nice to meet you again!"
"So I'm aware," Rukia mumbled, "so uh, you're not the staff from the dormitory?" No wonder Rukia couldn't find her anywhere after the special adjustments.
"Oh no way," Rangiku waved it off, "I was punished for being caught drinking on the hall, they told me to cover on the information desk for two weeks if I don't want to get expelled."
"You know Kuchiki-san too, Rangiku-san?"
A memory flares upon her.
As the three of them walked along together, Orihime decided to chat with Rukia and get to know her better. "So how did you and Ichigo meet?"
Ichigo looked absolutely shocked, shaking his head towards the petite woman as if giving a signal.
She doesn't know.
Oh no, this coincidence was definitely karma. Rukia cursed her calamity and before Rangiku could open her mouth to explain, Rukia decided to butt in. "Yeah, we met on the first day I moved to the dormitory. I got my keys from her." Then the raven haired gave a look to Rangiku, hoping she gets the signal to keep quiet.
Rangiku clamped her mouth before she smiled knowingly, nodding assuredly at the petite woman. Great, at least the woman knows what to do even when she doesn't know what's going on. Rukia sighed in a brief relief.
"Welp, I'm pretty sure you guys don't know this girl right here though." Rangiku grinned, decided to help Rukia by changing the topic. "I forgot I had a promise to accompany this sweetheart today so I'm dragging her today!" She exclaimed as she presented the ponytailed woman beside her.
"Kurosaki Karin." The girl introduced herself blandly, two hands hidden on the pocket of her hoodie. "Nice to meet you guys."
Momo raises an eyebrow, "Kurosaki?"
"Yep! She's Ichigo's little sister!"
Rukia almost chocked on her own spit at the outburst.
Now she definitely had to keep quiet about her living-together-fiasco with Kurosaki Ichigo around these guys. Knowing Ichigo and his overly-wary radar towards her, she might get accused of trying to get some juicy information about his personal life by warming up to his friends. And she's not thrilled with the idea of being suspected twice either.
"Oh, nice to meet you! Do you mind if I call you Karin-chan?" Orihime gave a wide smile, shaking the girl's hand enthusiastically. "I knew Kurosaki-kun had twin little sisters since high school but I never got around meeting you both!"
"Me neither!" Chizuru chimed, "You two were quite famous you know, being Kurosaki's little sisters yet not many have seen you both."
"Well, yeah. Ichi-nii rarely introduces girl friends to us." Karin agreed, "Me and Yuzu only ever met with Tatsuki. We don't use honorifics because Tatsuki told us not to, though."
"You can call me without honorifics too, you know. I don't mind." Orihime smiled.
"Or any of us!" Momo added, "Today is your day out with us, so no need to be so stiff to have a great start, don't you think?"
Karin grins, "I'll take you guys up on that offer then."
The day for the six of them went quite amusingly. After trying out the arcade and going into the photo booth, they even bought ice creams while sitting on the bench, talking about the differences between each buildings and majors, from lecturers to school facilities. Rukia learnt a lot about each of them and the daily lives of their circle. They were quite open telling about it that Rukia wonders what made Kurosaki Ichigo so wary of it around her. His friends don't seem to mind getting to know new people.
"Now that we've walked around here, I remember there's a famous café nearby!" Orihime began, looking around the street signs.
"I've also heard about it!" Momo approved, "It's a new place but it's popular among girls, I heard. They said the drinks taste unique and new!"
Chizuru sighs in endearment, "It would be a perfect place to ogle some pretty women then!"
"Sounds like a perfect place for girls' day out!" Rangiku winked, "Guess we decided our next stop then, ladies."
Rukia wasn't particularly invested at the idea, but she likes coffee so the suggestion wasn't bad nonetheless. After the amount of walks they went through, stopping by at a café doesn't sound so bad. It might prove some good ambiences that Rukia needs when the dorm is too much for her to handle in the future.
By arriving, the girls wasted no time to go ordering at the cashier. The place wasn't as packed as Rukia predicted. After hearing it was popular among girls, people would expect a shop filled with bunch of young girls or couples, but the store wasn't overpowering with sea of people.
There was a line when they were about to order of course, but it didn't take too long until it was their turn. The queue proved to be quite short. After ordering a cup of coffee, Rukia volunteered to save the girls a good spot while they were still deciding which beverages to try. She wasn't too interested in trying some sickening random recipe such as bubble gum milkshake, imagining what it tastes like by the name alone was enough to make her grimace.
Karin seemed like she was on the same boat as Rukia. After scanning the blackboard, frowning at the designations and ordering a plain hot chocolate, she proposed to accompany Rukia on searching for their seats. It didn't take long for Rukia to find a good spot on the corner of the room, a table wide enough for the six of them. But when Rukia was about to tell Karin about her newfound location, the black haired girl had walked towards a different direction with furrowing eyebrows.
"Karin?" Rukia questioned at the sudden odd movement but followed her anyway. The petite woman had thought Karin has found another decent seat, but her eyes followed the trail of Karin's scanning eyes. And that's when she was met with a pair of brown eyes staring directly at her violet pairs. She frowned.
"Ichi-nii!"
Rukia has decided that for her today was in fact, an International Coincidental Day.
Ichigo wasn't particularly interested on hanging out today.
If it wasn't for Mizuiro and Tatsuki forcing and blackmailing him to come with them, he would have been inside the dorm, boring himself out with whatever the TV has on or studying, but he preferred those activities rather than going out anyway.
Apparently, it's been a while since the five of them last went out together. With college getting them busy with their own majors and lives, they couldn't make their schedules to match. So when Keigo asked Mizuiro and Ishida to accompany him to visit the new café, Mizuiro decided to invite Tatsuki too, and since Tatsuki knows Ichigo was free for the day, she pulled some strings to drag him along and join the reunion.
Keigo was in the middle of begging Ichigo to ask the girls near their table to join, or at least ask for their numbers because Keigo was in desperate needs of entertainment from his hellish assignments. However Ichigo wasn't listening at all, his eyes scanning towards the whole room while absent-mindedly hearing Keigo's not-so-convincing suggestions.
"I mean, Ichigo- Look at you! You've got the looks but you let them be, that's such a waste! If I were you-!"
"Oh shut the hell up, Keigo." Tatsuki groaned, face-palming herself, "I'm not sacrificing my girls' day out with Orihime today for you to spend our time getting Ichigo some random girls' numbers."
"I second with Tatsuki," Ishida chimed, "aren't you being a little too forceful?"
"But he's wasting his worth!" Keigo stubbornly argued, "C'mon, even Mizuiro maximize his talents on getting some older girls. I'm telling Ichigo to enjoy his youth!"
"Whatever, Keigo." Ichigo moaned, chin resting on his palms while his eyes zoomed towards the whole café, seeing the place was far more enjoyable rather than Keigo's preaching. Truthfully, the place was too feminine for his liking, but he didn't particularly dislike it.
That's when his eyes found a familiar violet eyed, petite woman he's been seeing for too many times he could already single her out from the whole crowd. His eyes widened in acknowledgement, face paled when he saw not far from her was his sister who's walking slowly towards his way.
"What's wrong, Ichigo? You look pale."
"Ichi-nii!"
No way.
Rukia sweatdropped, taking deep breaths as if preparing herself for the worse before walking towards the direction Karin led her into. Knowing Ichigo and his personal issues, she didn't even need to organize any explanations as he will throw a fit faster than she could open her mouth.
Upon arriving at the table, it gets even more awkward seeing Tatsuki sitting in front of Ichigo, greeting Karin with her friendly welcomes. She also seemed perplexed at Rukia's presence monitoring Karin.
"Hey there, Karin. How come are you here?"
Karin snorts, "Some stuffs happened. Apparently someone forgot she had plans with me and agreed for a girls' day out today. She decided I had to come along because she doesn't want to feel bad cancelling our plans although I don't particularly mind it."
Tatsuki laughs, "Sounds like Rangiku to me."
Karin rolls her eyes, "Who else does it sound like?"
Rukia didn't want to interfere with her existence. She was about to tip toed slowly before anyone could call her out when the least probable person there actually did. "Oi, Midget. What are you doing here?"
Scandalized, Rukia gaped at the carelessness her roommate made. He just had to single her out at the worst time. Does he really have no idea how much effort she put to actually bear with his boundaries? And why the hell would he greet her in the public now when he would usually throw some dirty looks at her even back at the dormitory anyway?
Trying not to be too obvious, instantly Rukia glares, "Stop calling me that, won't you?"
"Nah," he smirked, "I like pissing you off."
Rukia huffs and Karin decided to informs, "She's here with me and the girls. You know her, Ichi-nii?"
Tatsuki raises an eyebrow, "Know her? Didn't you know-?"
Rukia shook her head furiously, her eyes prayerful hoped for the blunette to get the message. Karin knowing the truth might leads to some misunderstanding and worse, Orihime knowing the whole thing she hid. Fortunately, Tatsuki stopped her tracks at the right time.
"Didn't I know what?"
"That Rukia and I are friends." Ichigo cut in, too abrupt on his attempt to keep their secrecy that Karin raises an eyebrow in confusion as she stared at the nervous fidgets from the two sides.
Karin smirks knowingly, "Just friends?"
"Yep." Rukia popped the 'p'. "Just good friends." Inwardly, she flinches at the supposed sarcasms. Hopefully, Karin doesn't press any further.
Karin shrugs, "Well, if you guys say so." Both Ichigo and Rukia sighed in relief. Karin might have misinterpreted some aspects but at least the truth wasn't out of the water. Yet.
"Well anyway," Tatsuki decided to change the topic, "Rukia and I have met before but she probably hasn't met these three. The guy with black hair is Mizuiro, the one wearing glasses is called Ishida, and the brown haired one is Keigo."
Rukia bows slightly, "My name is Kuchiki Rukia."
"Mizuiro is a player so be careful."
"You know I'm only after the older women, Karin," Mizuiro says in amusements, "so you don't have to worry about me going after you." He assured the new girl.
"A new girl has appeared! Can I have your phone number please, Kuchiki-san?!"
"Butt off, Keigo." Tatsuki said before turning towards the raven haired. "You don't have to mind him much."
"Keigo is that way," Ishida agreed, "you don't need to deal with him too seriously."
"What kind of friends are you guys for downgrading me that way," Keigo whines, "I am just a lonely man in need of concern!"
Rukia chuckles, "Well, it's nice to meet you all."
"Likewise," Ishida nodded, "are you guys perhaps looking for seats?"
"Yeah," Karin answered, "We haven't found any tables big enough for the six of us, though."
Rukia was about to tell about her newfound spot, but before she could, Ishida cut in. "Then you guys can just join us by dragging the table for four nearby. We have two empty seats here anyway."
"That's a great idea!" Tatsuki clapped her hands in agreement. "There's an empty table right next to us, we can just connect ours with that one."
"Nice!" Without realizing, Rangiku was already behind the raven haired, startling Rukia as she turned around to see a grinning orange haired woman.
Rukia frowned.
Author's Note: I actually had plans to make this chapter way longer than this and ending the scene at a particular moment. However, I went against the idea and have decided to cut the chapter at the scene which was pretty anti-climatic, I know. But if I didn't you guys probably had to wait another month before I update this chapter, and after toying with the idea for few times, I decided a faster update is much better than a perfect ending of a chapter.
I have to apologize for few things. Firstly, life has been hectic for me lately. I have so much going on that I personally wouldn't be comfortable to share here, but I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not updating faster because of some solid reasons.
Secondly, I WILL still write. Please do keep in mind that I have lots of plans for this story ahead, but I'm just having a hard time acting out the story writing part. And thirdly, I know this story went like- too boring with all the new characters suddenly introduced, however they are mandatory so I apologize if there are only few moments of IchiRuki here. I tried adding their stuffs here and there but I also realized it myself that this chapter might not satiate you guys from my long updates lol.
Next in the topic, I want to thank you guys for so many reviews! You guys had no idea how much it pushes me to keep going, so keep them coming! I crammed in writing as much as I could in my hectic situation because of the sudden notifications from fanfiction in my email. So if you guys don't think it affects my update time, it actually does. And for all the guests that made time to actually to type out their thoughts, I really do appreciate you guys as much. Thank you so much for the lovely feedbacks. And all of you guys have brilliant thoughts and theories delivered that boost me up so much!
Sorry for the long author note lol, I just had so many things to deliver to you lot. I'll end it now, stay tuned for the next chapter :)