Guys .. Seriously.. I would appreciate a little more reviews whether it's flames or compliments or advices .. Come on now .. don't go soft on me.

Disclaimer : I do not own Bleach.


"Good morning Captain Ichigo!" Bowed and exclaimed an unnamed shinigami who was passing by the former shinigami substitute.

'Captain Ichigo huh.'

It was a weird feeling to wear the white haori. The white haori has always been exclusive to only the ones who are considered a valuable asset to Sereitei and the elite of the masses. Only those who are superior in power, participated in vast amounts of battles and have reached the 'Ban' release could be nominated and even then, the captaincy is not guaranteed. So in retrospect, to be added to a list filled with handful of former and current captains were rather humbling. Lost in his thoughts, Ichigo accidentally banged on the door of his squad barracks and fell backwards with a thump and landed on his rear end.

"Motherfuc-"

"Your first day in charge and you are already making a fool out of yourself eh, Ichigo?" Smirked Rukia as she knelt down beside Ichigo to inspect for any injuries only to be swatted away by the grumpy Captain.

"Feh, the day a door hurts me will be the day I bow down to Byakuya." Exclaimed Ichigo, wearing his iconic scowl getting up from the ground and dusted himself. "And it's Captain Ichigo for you, Lieutenant Rukia." Now Ichigo smirked as he saw Rukia wrinkling her nose in acknowledgement of the current state of their professional relationship. Her brash and stupidly strong student is now her Captain.

"Gaah! Why did I even decide to take up the mission to go to Kakakura town and had to meet up with this ego-maniac!" She thought out loud as she stomped her foot on the ground in an angered manner.

"Because If you didn't, I wouldn't have met with someone as amazing as you, minus the arrogance and childishness of course." Ichigo replied as he put his hands on Rukia's shoulder to stop her actions.

Rukia couldn't believe what she was hearing as she could only look at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the whole of sereitei to hide the dominant presence of her blush spreading throughout her cheeks.

Ichigo, who became frustrated at Rukia's lack of reply at his embarrassing claims held both out both of his palm and cupped Rukia's face and made her face him. "I-ichi-go ..." Rukia could not process what was going on as she could only stare at his scowling face which was now getting closer and closer to a point of their breath mixing with each other.

"I meant everything I said, by the way." Whispered Ichigo as he, shocked at his own braveness and with a burning resolution, he decided to move further to capture her inviting lips as he could see Rukia slowly closing her eyes and embracing his actions. He was half an inch away from her lips and was about to move in for the kill when he heard the voice of a character he deemed dead a long time ago.

'Hello, King!'


Rukia felt an abrupt push and she lost balance landing on her rear. "Kya!" She felt hurt and furious at Ichigo's actions and was about to voice her anger when she saw the pure look of horror on Ichigo's face and felt devastated at the thought of Ichigo finding her revolting to a point of horror and felt tears battling to escape her eyes and stood up to run away from the man who had hurt her emotionally when she felt a strong arm engulfing her in its embrace.

When Ichigo came back to his senses and realized what he had done, he swiftly reached out to Rukia and pulled her into his embrace as he knew from the look in her eyes she felt devastated at his act of rejection. "Rukia! Please stop struggling .. Damn it! Midget! Stop moving and let me explain. Come on Rukes. Please?" Ichigo pleaded at Rukia to give him a chance to explain his abrupt action.

"Why explain. I know I'm too revolting for you to push me away that fast. And that look of horror. You must despise me huh." Rukia started bleating into Ichigo's chest while banging on it as hard as she could.

"Rukes, please. I'm sorry for my action but It wasn't it isn't what you think. Come on Rukia, I love you too much to think of you anything other than stunningly beautiful. Please.. stop crying. I'm sorry."

Rukia felt her heart skip a beat as she heard him say those words 'He .. he loves m-me ?' They stood there for a long period of time in silent as Rukia could reconstruct her line of thought and Ichigo moving his hand up and down her back to soothe her.

After what felt like a whole year Ichigo heard "Then why did you push me away?"

Rukia, who has finally stopped bawling her eyes out looked at him with hopeful eyes that Ichigo wasn't lying about his confession towards her, waiting for a reply.

"Rukia, I-I'm sorry. Just know that it's not you that I was horrified. It.. It's something else. I ... I gotta get something straight. How about you go into the barracks and brief the recruits while I get my thoughts together. I promise I'll tell you later."

Rukia was certainly not happy with her Captain's explanation but decided to let it slide for now. After all, the mighty hero of sereitei who was her captain had just declared his undying love towards her. "Fine. But I expect a good explanation for the shit you pulled off here." With that said, Rukia was about to walk into the barrack when she felt Ichigo pull her into him again and felt his lips on hers for a few second before Ichigo pulled away and looked away from her, trying to hide his blush from her eyes. "Now shooo! Captain's orders!" Ichigo told her off as he still didn't dare to look into Rukia's eyes as she only could nod and giddily walk into the barrack heading to the Barrack training ground where all the 13th Squad members were assembled.

"Damn. Son I was about to come over to your barrack to see if you're doing well but I must say, You were doing exceptionally well. In fact, you make this old man very proud of you!"

Snapping out of his muse, Ichigo turned around to see his dad who was now the captain of the 4th Squad grinning like a mad man while wiggling his eyebrows at him.

"Dad, Don't start. Actually I got something I need to talk to you about. " Ichigo said with a serious look that told Isshin his son indeed had something important to discuss with him, not as dad and son, but a junior seeking guidance from a veteran. Isshin nodded at Ichigo, informing him that he had the captain of the 4th squad's complete attention.

Ichigo swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat as he told Isshin "He's back."

Isshin was first confused at the statement but he knew clearly what Ichigo meant when he saw Ichigo pointing at his chest.

"B-but Ichigo, my son. That is impossible. I mean, you lost you-"

"Dad. He is back."

Sighing , Isshin said with a distressed tone "This ... This is bad ..."

To be continued ?