Hey there! Long time no see! Haven't updated in a while! Hope you guys aren't angry with 's chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Rukia was staring out the window as it began to rain. It's not that she particularly disliked the rain, she occasionally enjoyed it, it was just that she knew that another person out there hated it and he was sick. She was also worried about how she would keep her guitar dry. Maybe she would have to leave it in the music room tonight. But she didn't want to leave it in the music room.

"Worried?"

Rukia faced her best friend and nodded. "He hates the rain... And he's sick.

"He's as tenacious as a cockroach, don't worry."

"I know..."

Momo sighed as she grabbed her bass and set it in a corner. "I'm leaving this here, I don't want it wet and all."

"Where's Renji?"

Momo shrugged. "Didn't see him after dismissal, he didn't even stop by for practice."

Rukia sat down on the couch and watched the rain pour down. It was raining pretty hard. "That's weird... It's kinda sad just with the two of us. No piano slash guitar and no drums."

"True... Ah well, I'm heading off first." Momo said.

Momo exited and closed the sliding door with a soft thud. Rukia closed her eyes as she listened to the rain. In all honestly, she preferred the silence that came with the soft sunset. It was far more pleasant than the rain. Rukia picked up her guitar and remembered everything her sister Hisana taught her and she remembered how she played. Her fingers always made things magical.

Rukia began to play a composition of her sister's but was cut short when she heard the door slide open. She turned around and contrary to what she expected, it wasn't Renji or Momo. Instead, she saw a certain handsome stoic face with long black ebony hair. His face moved slightly at the sight of her.

Rukia stood up instantly.

"Ten no Hoshi..." he mumbled involuntarily but Rukia caught it.

"Ah, Kuchiki-sensei, I was about to leave." Rukia said but what he said lingered in her mind.

He shook his head as he averted his gaze as though it was tremendously painful to look at her. "No, I was just checking up on the room. It's rather late Fubuki, you should head home."

Rukia nodded as she made a split second decision to leave her guitar much to her dismay. Byakuya raised an eyebrow when he saw what she was doing. "Fubuki... You're leaving that here?"

She nodded. "I don't want it to get wet."

He walked over to her and took it from her. He went to the storeroom and came out with a waterproof case. He opened it and placed the guitar inside. "It's a little heavy but it'll keep it safe... After all, this guitar looks like it has had many precious memories."

Rukia nodded. "It does, it was my sister's."

His hand twitched when she mentioned her sister. "Is that so?"

"Yes." was all she replied as she took the guitar case. It was heavy but bearable. "Thank you Kuchiki-sensei."

He shook his head. "It's precious isn't it? It's not a problem Fubuki." he replied kindly. It sounded odd for him to sound so kind.

Rukia bowed to him before exiting. She stopped before she slid the door open. "By the way Kuchiki-sensei... How do you know that it was called Ten no Hoshi? Only me and my sister Hisana know the name of that piece..."

And the only other one who knew it was Hisana's boyfriend who was unknown to Rukia.

He was silent nor did he make any attempt to answer.

Rukia took it as a sign that she wasn't getting anything out of him. "Sorry for that... See you tomorrow sensei."

Then she left.

He sat down and sighed. "Sorry Hisana, Rukia will have to wait for a little while longer... She can do that right? After all, she's a strong girl like you."

Then he stared at the ceiling blankly. "But... She looks so much like you, it's difficult for me..." then he smiled. "That Gibson I gave you still has that scratch you made the first time you touched it... You cried like a baby when you scratched it, it was so cute... Then we wrote Ten no Hoshi on that day too... I'm surprised you taught that to Rukia..."

Then he buried his face in his hands.

"Hisana, I miss you..."

Ichigo and Rukia walked together to school just this once. Rukia ended up waking him up since when she called him about an assignment, he realized that his alarm clock was off. The two of them met up with Momo and Momo gave them the eyebrow before laughing and teasing them nonstop much to their dismays. The moment they got to school, it was weird. Weird to the infinity and beyond level.

They cornered Ichigo and Rukia and began to fawn over them. They didn't glare at Rukia, rather they supported them to the point that it was scary. The only one's opposed were the Rukia supporters which were mostly male. Rukia's female admirers joined the IchigoXRukia fanclub. Ichigo took Rukia's arm and steered her away from the crowd and that single act only served to increase their fangirling.

Momo finally caught up with them and they all switched their shoes before dropping off their instruments. Momo was an exception seeing as though she left her bass there yesterday and Rukia switched back to her old guitar case nor made of something hard and waterproof.

As soon as they walked in the classroom, the girls were having their fangirl fantasies while the boys were glaring at Ichigo for no particular reason. Momo snickered as she took her seat and the couple had no clue why. They sat down and that was when the class broke the news to them.

"Fubuki-chan, Kurosaki-kun... We're doing a reprised Cinderella play and you two are the lead!" one girl shouted.

"What!" the two said simultaneously, even their heads snapped towards whomever said that.

"It's true, Rukia, you're Cinderella and Kurosaki-kun's the prince!" Momo said enthusiastically.

Renji sighed angrily, Momo could tell his jealousy was off the charts. "It's reprised. So I'm the prince's brother who's also in love with Cinderella. Momo is becomes the best friend of cinderalla, she's a noble you see."

"What? This is so reprised..." Rukia said.

"Renji, I'll do the explaining. So you know the start, Cinderella and her evil step sisters and her evil step mother. She dearly wants to go to the ball but her stepfamily won't let her. Then the fairy godmother grants Cinderella her wish and every night until midnight, she turns into some beautiful princess. There are balls every night at the palace since its a kingdom of merriment. Cinderella goes every-night and meets the people of the castle. Turns out, the kingdom was created by the sad prince who wanted to make people happy so he made this illusion of happiness so no one will be sad. Cinderella will convince him that sadness and suffering is a part of life and it makes people stronger. True happiness can be achieved if one knows suffering so he breaks the illusion and starts a new life with Cinderella."

Ichigo smiled. "Sounds interesting..."

"So the side characters are a twist and Cinderella is supposed to be torn between Ichigo and Renji. Does she love the dark and sad prince or does she love the more happy and understanding prince? That's what we want our audience to be conflicted over." Momo said.

"So I'm the dark one and Abarai over there is like the best friend type of prince?" Ichigo asked.

"In layman's terms... So some of our classmates spent all of last night to make our script early..." Momo said before taking out two small books and handing them to Ichigo and Rukia. "Memorize them okay, ad-lib if you must."

Ichigo and Rukia scanned through the book and froze at the final page. They looked at the class and yelled. "We're kissing!"

"Why do you two have a problem with that... You do that everyday." Momo whispered.

"But it's in public." they reasoned together.

"Deal with it, just don't get carried away like you two always do." Momo said as she ignored their demands.

"We don't get carried away!" they retorted.

"Oh? Do I need to show you the video?"

"No!"

Momo laughed. "Damn, you two are fun..."

Then the class began to chant sample again and again until Ichigo and Rukia were forced to go to the front and ad-lib their acting after scanning through the section of the script their class demanded. Three, two, one and action.

"My good prince!" Rukia said dreadfully as she suddenly rushed to his brooding form and held his shirt from behind. "Do not blame yourself... I... I shouldn't have said that."

He didn't turn around but he moved his head to look at her. "Cinderella... It's just that... I've never thought of it that way before... Sadness as a pathway for happiness. I admit that it's an interesting path." he said with a warm smile.

Rukia rested her head against his back. "Prince Julian... It's true... I've always suffered despite your illusion... I still did suffer because an illusion cannot affect the way people act... But... Remaining by your side, I'm happy... If at all possible, I want to heal you for the rest of eternity..."

He turned around and cupped her cheek softly. "Cinderella... Are you truly happy?"

She nodded with a sincere smile. "I am... Because I... I've never loved someone like this before..."

"What about Cain? I thought you loved my brother?"

"C-Cain? Yes I love him... B-"

"Don't waste your breath on me. Go to him" he said as he withdrew his hand but she caught it and gave him such a sad look.

"Wait! I love Cain but I'm not in love with him... I'm in love with you Julian! But I'm afraid... I'm afraid that you only see Cinderella the princess and not Cinderella the girl..."

He hugged her tightly and played with her ebony hair. "I love both of them, rather I love you... Every moment spent with you has given me happiness... It gives me the courage to face the darkness... But I can't face it alone... Will you face it with me?"

"Julian..."

Ichigo leaned down and gave her an inconspicuous kiss to the cheek and the two of them returned to their seats after a standing ovation.

"Oh my God! You two are perfect! You act as if you really were in love!" one girl squealed.

"Fubuki-san! Do a scene with Abarai-kun!"

Rukia sighed as she looked at Renji. "Shall we Renji?"

It's been a while since he had her attention like that. He smiled. "Yeah..."

The two went to the front and began to act.

Renji held her wrist and began to yell at her as what the script demanded. "Cinderella! Were... Were you leading me on! Was I nothing to you when you were having secret rendezvous with Julian the entire time! I thought... I thought you loved me!"

"C-Cain! I never said I loved you... Well yes, I love you but I'm in love with your brother... You've changed Cain... You used to be so kind... What happened... You've been so cruel lately..."

"I... C-Cinderella..."

Rukia tore her had from his grip and gave him a faux slap on the face. "Cain... I'm sorry if I led you on but that is by no means intentional! You were a great companion Cain but I don't love you that way... I love you as a friend... That's it..."

Then Rukia walked away with a standing ovation and Renji thought of it a bit more personally. Then more people shouted.

"I honestly don't know who to cheer on... Julian and Cinderella or Cain and Cinderella... If we're conflicted then it's all good!" the one girl shouted.

The class reached an agreement before Kuchiki-sensei came in.

Rukia walked towards the music room and remembered what had happened yesterday. Her encounter with Kuchiki-sensei made her so suspicious of him. After thinking about it, she realized that he was already giving off so many signs.

First of all, he tends to stare at her involuntarily as though she looked like someone he knew. Another was that he always had a hard time saying her name, so much that Rukia wanted to tell him that he could call her by her first name. Rukia always thought of him as the worse music teacher ever, if that were truly the case then why did he know about that guitar case. Most average people would've advised her to plastic wrap it but he offered her the case.

The most suspicious one of all was that how he knew that the song she was playing was called Ten no Hoshi. That was something, her sister wrote with her boyfriend and that song was only performed to Rukia and Rukia only. How did he know?

As Rukia walked, an image flashed in her mind. She was walking to her sister's hospital room when she saw someone with long black hair, a man exit the room. Rukia had never seen him before so she assumed that the man was her boyfriend. Who else would visit Hisana and was male?

She shook her head and opened the door to the music room.

"Why is it that it that this year, I get all the crap shoved at me." Rukia whined as she took her guitar and brought it out of it's case.

"Why can't I be in the average working class? Why can't have normal friends and get normal boyfriend and just be normal?"

"Well you can't so deal with it." a voice from behind said.

"Don't do that idiot... I would've thrown you out the window if I didn't know it was you... Out of self defense of course." Rukia replied with a smiled as she looked back to fine familiar orange hair and that arrogant smirk that infuriated her to no end.

"Well you didn't so all's good." was all he replied as he walked up to her.

"All's good my ass." she retorted as she ignored how close he was to her. This was getting old and annoying.

"If you want..." he said as his arms snaked around her before she could register the act. He was practically breathing on her neck already. "I'll be your boyfriend if you're so desperate for an average life."

She tried to squirm her way out but he was far too strong for her as usual. "You're the complete opposite of normal... Hell no, I'd rather go to the depths of Tartarus and back out than be your girlfriend. You are so hate-able..." she said angrily as her temper began to build up.

He was silent and she could no longer feel that smirk of his. "What part of me do you hate?"

"Everything..." she replied quickly, her own temper was blinding her.

"Define everything." he demanded. His voice was just like that afternoon when Rukia found him playing Alkan.

She breathed in deeply. "That infuriating smirk of yours... Whenever you do that, it feels like you're looking down on me. That god awful personality of yours... You can be such an ass yet... You can be so nice I don't know which one's Ichigo... I hate that stupid mouth of yours that keeps spouting out nonsense... I hate how you have me wrapped around your finger like I'm a toy, your play thing..." she said.

She felt his arms slacken and that was when she turned around to finally see his expression. His expression was unreadable, she couldn't tell what he was thinking. "I also hate how you make me feel special because I know you so well but then you also make me feel disposable... It's like you're going to throw me away once you're bored... I can't stand it." she said, her eyebrows were slanted downwards and her mouth was curved to a scowl.

"I feel bad for telling you all of those things but then you make me feel that I made the right choice by telling you all of that... Not even Renji knows about my sister that much... You know just as much as Momo yet you're a total stranger..." Rukia said.

"Rukia... I..."

"And don't you dare feel sorry for me now after all that you've done." Rukia said before walking away from him and grabbing her guitar and plugged it to the amp. She needed an outlet, all that pent up stress was leaking out and she was lashing it out on him.

She sighed as she played an opening riff to a song. One minute into the song and she realized that didn't move. She stopped playing and looked back at him. "Don't tell me your sulking."

"I-I'm not sulking..." was his immediate response.

Rukia sighed. He was acting really odd today. She walked up to him after putting her guitar down. She pointed to his face. "Please, that face is a sulking face."

"I don't sulk."

"You're doing it now."

"Get real midget, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. I don't sulk."

"Do I need to take a picture of you?"

"No..."

"Don't tell me your fever's coming back." she said as she placed her hand against his forehead. Ichigo gently took her hand off.

"I'm fine..."

"If you're fine then stop PMSing."

He scowled heavily. "I am not PMSing... Rather boys can't do that."

"Yes, well you are..."

"I'm not..."

Rukia crossed her arms after an exasperated sigh. "See... This is one of the reasons why I dislike you. You're so close right now but your face is practically begging for someone to open you up... If you want to keep things to yourself then stop making that face!"

"I'm not being closed!"

"You are... Look, I ask a question and you don't answer it. I ask if something's wrong and you say nothing. I ask if you have a problem, you say nothing and when I point out whatever it is that might be your problem you get mad at me for no reason! Did I not define being closed minded!" Rukia said angrily.

It was this kind of Ichigo she hated the most.

"It's none of your concern anyway."

Rukia gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. After all they've been through, he tells her it's none of her concern.

"Tell me Ichigo... What am I to you?"

He seemed taken aback by this question. "I'm your master and you're my maid."

"Is that it?"

"Yes... That's all there ever was..."

Rukia directed her amethyst eyes towards his burning amber ones to see if he was being truthful. He wasn't totally being truthful.

"Oh... So it's just employer and employee?"

"Yes, that exactly what it is."

She kept her temper in check. "Does an employer tell his employee about his family? Do things and play the piano he swore to never ever play for his employee?"

He didn't answer.

"And does the employee go all the way just to take care of her sick employer?" Rukia asked angrily before unplugging the wire from the amp without turning it off first without thinking. It made an unpleasant sound, an amateur mistake but she couldn't care less.

She suited up her guitar again and began to trudge off with her belongings. "I think we've gone past that employee employer line. Because everything you're saying now sounds like bullshit to me because if that were the case..."

She turned back and gave him a pained look. "If that were really the case then I... told a guy whom I thought could've been my friend a lot of things I've never told anyone except Momo before..."

Rukia left the room angrily. She shoved past Momo's shoulder and surprised her along with Renji who was trailing Momo while spinning his drumsticks absentmindedly.

The two walked in the music room to find Ichigo staring at his hands.

Rukia forced herself to stand up from her book to address the doorbell. She stumbled over a small pile before finally reaching the door and opening it to find her best friend with a plastic containing a tub of strawberry ice cream. Rukia smiled. "Seriously... Strawberry?"

"We'll laugh about it... Now come on, I can sleep over." Momo said before pushing her way past Rukia and eyeing the pile of books on floor with a raised eyebrow.

"Seeing as though you're television set is nonexistent, I'm brought my laptop over..." Momo said before putting her things to the side.

Rukia closed the door and fixed up the pile of books she accidentally knocked over earlier. She sat next to Momo and rested her head on her shoulder. "Thinking about it now, I don't know why I was so upset. I feel like I just got dumped by a boy but it wasn't like that..."

"Rukia... Let's face it... There's only one reason why you're so upset... You're falling in love." Momo said as she opened the tub of ice cream.

"I'm not... Seriously, in love with that asshole? You can't be serious..." Rukia replied before looking up to Momo. "Am I?"

"It's up to you... I was just guessing but what happened."

"I stupidly let my temper run wild."

Momo chuckled. "Not that." she said before offering Rukia a spoon.

Rukia took it and stole the tub from Momo's hands and took one big scoop and devoured it quickly. "So I came in the music room mumbling to myself saying things like why can't I get a normal boyfriend and normal blah blah blah, so on and so forth."

"Keep talking."

"So being the usual ass he is, he snuck in again and greeted me like the usual... Then he jokingly hugged me from behind and said: If you're so desperate for an average boyfriend then I'll be boyfriend... Or something along those lines. So naturally, I said no because he was such a hate-able man... But then he stopped smirking and began to ask what I hated about him. I told him that I hated the way he smirked because it always felt like he was looking down on me. I said that I hated that mouth the spouted off nonsense..."

"I said that I hated his personality as how he made me feel like I was so close to him before making me realize he was so far away... I said I hated how he had me like a puppet on strings, all wrapped up around his finger like a play thing. I said that I hated how he makes me feel special by being the only other person to know so much about him but I also feel disposable. Like once he gets bored, he'll throw me away like I never mattered to him not even by a millimeter."

"I hated that I told him things I've only told you and that all he said was that I was the employee and he was the employer... I snapped. I was pissed because I honestly thought he could've been my friend given enough time but turns out... I'm just his maid... Nothing more and nothing less..." Rukia said bitterly.

"Rukia..."

"That's just the short of it... Actually... After I told him about why I hated him, he just stood there as I played the guitar for a full minute... Then I asked if he was sulking he said no... But he really did look like he was sulking. Maybe his fever came back so I checked but he just brushed my hand aside. Then I got mad, I asked why he was being so close then he said he wasn't. I just felt a bit betrayed... Before I knew it, I trusted him and he didn't even trust me back... Maybe I have no right to ask him for personal things but... But... Why didn't he say anything?"

Momo also took a spoonful and ate it before speaking. "I can see your point but your temper is partly to blame... You ran your mouth and you probably hurt him."

"I just got carried away... Maybe it's the stress..."

"Maybe..."

"I'll tell you another thing... You know about the Hisana's boyfriend who never showed up?"

"Yeah..."

"I think he's Kuchiki-sensei..."

"That is the worse joke ever."

"I'm not joking... Hisana wrote Ten no Hoshi with her boyfriend. She performed it to me and I performed it to you so only we know it... Yet, when I was playing it, he knew the title... It's just not possible for him to know. He was also the one who gave me the guitar case to keep my Gibson dry."

Momo looked at Rukia before looking out to the starry night sky. "Living like this for three years then some jerk makes your life harder... Then you find that boyfriend who never came to be closer than you thought and he never said anything nor did anything to help you an inch. Then you grow close to Kurosaki-kun but he tells you that there wasn't a bond to begin with... I can see where you're coming at." Momo said.

"I don't really get myself anymore..." Rukia admitted.

"The big question is... Who is Kurosaki Ichigo to you." Momo said.

"He's..." Rukia said as she closed her eyes.

Rukia, if you have problems... Try asking yourself. Maybe you already have the answer.

But onee-san... it's not easy.

"Ichigo is... A special friend... I feel like I've known him forever... He makes me want to trust him..."

"If you know that much then you can tell who the real Kurosaki-kun is."

Rukia nodded. "Music never lies..."

Rukia kept her eyes closed as memories flooded in. The day they met and he played Alkan, when he taught her how to play some piano, his Clair de Lune, their duets together, when he transcribed glow into piano. That time after the date when they stared at each other along with when he was sick and when they were in the infirmary. When he hugged her on the rooftop and when he kissed her when she was going to Momo's house.

"How do you know you love someone? You've been in love once..."

Momo laugh. "That was a really bad crush but... You're heart beats faster when you see him. When he's happy, you're happy... There are sparks when you kiss and somehow you feel like you want to be with this person forever... There's something about him you can't get enough of like maybe his eyes or something... It's hard to explain..."

Hmm... There were some times when her heart would beat faster... Whenever he smiled a real smiled, she felt like smiling but it just made her flush red. There were those awkward kisses and... It was in those times when she would stare into his eyes and time would pass by without them noticing...

No! No No No!

She wasn't in love with Ichigo!

Rukia grabbed the book she was reading earlier and threw it against the wall angrily. Momo was just smiling. "I'm not in love with him!"

"Denial is just the first step my dear."

"Who would be in love with an asshole like him!" Rukia yelled angrily as she began to stubbornly stuff her face with strawberry ice cream.

"I mean come on! He's a jerk! A real womanizer! He's a stupid genius who can speak five languages fluently and another ten languages at preschool conversational level!"

"Keep telling yourself that Rukia."

"No, I can't be in love with him! It makes no utter sense!"

"Love makes no sense Rukia..."

"B-but... But I..."

"Rukia... Stop denying things..."

"I... I'm..."

Momo was silent. She gave Rukia a couple of more minutes. There was no room for doubt. Ichigo was the only guy who could make Rukia like this.

"I'm... In love with him...?"

"What do you think?" Momo smiled as she watched a very confused Rukia.

Rukia's heart began to beat faster and faster. She felt it swelling up in her chest. She gripped the tub of ice cream in her hands as her chest felt light. Her eyes were wide as her mouth quivered slightly.

"I love Ichigo...?"

….

Thanks for the reviews on previous chapter! Suffered a severe writer's block I tell you and that's why I haven't been uploading any of my other fics. But I would update them soon since I am back!

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