A/N: Omfg. Sorry for not updating in an uber long time. My computer broke for a long, long time (some of you may already know since ya'll PMed me and stuff) and I've been busyyy busy with school and life and other things... So I'm trying to type this up as quickly as possible, but it's hard when I'm not inspired. Thank you for the lovely REVIEWS everyone!

Don't own Bleach or Rukia or Ichigo or the song lyrics. I do own that dumb Father of Rukia's though AND the new character introduced in this chapterrr.

Chapter 5: Fall to Pieces

Recap: She didn't know what to do with herself anymore. She knew she couldn't go home, but she had nowhere to stay. Ichigo probably hated her and he was the last person she wanted to see. It was just her now; no one else was there but her. She was in a life of solitude now and nothing would change that. She wasn't ready for a change. As she was sobbing, deep in thought and depression, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up with tear stained cheeks.

"You wretched girl! You ruined my plans for everything!" Her father stood before her with a face more angry and twisted than she had ever seen in her life.

He grabbed a handful of her hair and snatched her up to his face. She was screaming in pain and choking on her sobs as she began to kick blindly at anywhere available.

"Stop it! Let me go!" She managed to scream out in agony.

He drew back his free hand and slapped hard her across the face. The sound of the slap echoed across the empty park and Ichigo stood there, stunned and oblivious to what was happening.

"Don't ever tell me what to do!" He threw her roughly across the sand and she didn't have enough strength to get up. Blood was beginning to drip out of her mouth.

Ichigo was furious at what he was seeing and he picked up a sharp stick which he then hid in his pant pocket. He ran and dropkicked Rukia's father in the head. Immediately he pulled out the stick and stabbed it in his arm.

While her father was distracted by the stick, Ichigo hastily ran over to Rukia and picked her up.

He began to run towards his house as fast as he could while carrying Rukia in his arms.

"I'm going to get you two for this!" Rukia's father shouted as soon as he noticed them.

Ichigo didn't turn back. All he could think about was getting her to a safe place.

She weakly looked up at him.

"Why are you doing all of this for me?" She wondered to herself before she began drifting off to sleep.

She silently hummed the tune to Avril Lavigne's "Fall to Pieces" as the lyrics clearly played in her mind while she was starting to lull herself to sleep.

If I had my way, I'd never get over you
Today's the day, I pray that we make it through
Make it through the fall
Make it through it all

And I don't want to fall to pieces
I just want to sit and stare at you
I don't want to talk about it
And I don't want a conversation
I just want to cry in front of you
I don't want to talk about it
Cause I'm in love with you

You're the only one I'd be with till the end
When I come undone, you bring me back again
Back under the stars
Back into your arms

He reached his house and as he was running up the stairs, he noticed Hitsugaya had a female companion with him. They both walked into his house laughing, but now was not the time for Ichigo to worry about that.

Ichigo unlocked the door to his apartment home and gently laid Rukia down on his bed.

He went and got a warm moist towel to clean her face with.

When he finished cleaning her face, he decided he wanted to go and check out what Hitsugaya was up to.

(STORY FLIP. It's kind of like a filler? Just to make this chapter longer.  I'll get back to ICHIxRUKI later on)

Hitsugaya opened the door to his apartment inviting in his childhood friend, Maybelle.

Maybelle was a pretty Chinese girl with mid-back, dark brown, layered hair, long legs, deep brown eyes, and a nice thin body.

She had moved to Japan at the age of five and met Hitsugaya through school. She had fallen in love with him on the first day they met, but she never told him how she felt because she was afraid to tell him.

She was afraid he would discard her feelings and toss away their friendship. There were times she came close, but she knew deep down that she couldn't ever tell him.

She tried not to make it obvious, but somehow, someway, something would always slip. Luckily, Hitsugaya never noticed because they were good friends so he thought she was just acting like good friends do.

He also never knew that every time she saw him, she wanted to cry and confess everything to him, but that would be selfish of her. She wanted to cry and tell him of all the times he had hurt her, she wanted to tell him everything…

She was not selfish.

So she kept all of her emotions inside and tried really hard to make him happy even if it meant hurting her.

He would tell her about girls he had liked and she would listen to him even though it made her heart ache. He once told her about a girl he had fallen head over heels in love with and she tried really hard to support him.

That girl was a terrible person.

Even though he had confessed his love to her, she would rant on about the guys she was in love with. She had hurt him very much and all Maybelle could do was comfort him as her heart just kept breaking.

One day, he told her he stopped liking her. Maybelle didn't believe him because deep down, she knew he would always have a part of him that would still be in love with her.

Hitsugaya waved a hand in front of Maybelle's face.

"… Maybelle?" He said with a curious look on his face.

"Hrm?! What?! OH! Sorry, I was spacing out for a moment… Heh, heh."

"You're so ditzy…" Hitsugaya muttered under his breath.

"HEY! I heard that!" She said smacking him lightly on the back of his head.

He turned around to look at her but only to see her sticking her tongue out at him.

He rolled his eyes at her and plopped down on his spongy couch.

"Argh, I hate wearing my school uniform. It's cute and all, but wearing it all the time is so unnecessary. I'm going to borrow some of your clothes for now." She said as she walked towards Hitsugaya's room.

Hitsugaya just sighed and turned on the television.

As Maybelle walked into his room, her happy face suddenly turned sad and she breathed out a heavy sigh.

She slowly walked to his closet and slid open the door. She looked at all of his clothes trying to decide which one she'd like to wear.

As she was scanning through the shirts, something caught her eye in the corner of his closet.

It was pink.

She crawled to the corner and picked up the soft little teddy bear.

She held it in her arms as memories came flooding back.

"YOU!" She shouted at Hitsugaya as he was walking to class.

It was Valentines Day in their grade eight year. Everyone was happily swooning with their loved ones and the hallway lockers were decorated with pink and red streamers.

Hitsugaya turned around and saw Maybelle with one foot out and a finger pointed towards him. He stared at her with a relaxed look on his face.

She began skipping towards him with a gleeful look in her eyes.

"Here!" She shoved a box wrapped in red paper with a pink ribbon tied on it.

"I had some left over stuff so I thought I'd give some to you." She said blushing. She tried to cover it up with a witty face.

Hitsugaya just sighed, turned around, and walked away. He waved up an arm and said thanks.

She put up a fake smile as she gripped the letter she had written to him in her hand even tighter.

She wrote him a letter telling him everything and she almost gave it to him but he walked away before she could even lift her arm.

She sighed again. Then she realized she was sitting in Hitsugaya's closet and quickly snatched a shirt and pants and put them on in his closet.

She placed the teddy bear back in the corner of the closet and crawled out.

Maybelle folded her uniform and tossed it on his bed.

As she turned around, he walked in and pushed her on his bed.

"Hey!" She shouted as she tried to get up.

He pushed her back down, put his hands around her waist, and climbed on top of her.

"What are you doing?" she said laughing. "That tickles!"

Then he did something, something that made her stop thinking.

He kissed her on the cheek.

She stopped laughing and the room went silent.

"Umm… I think I have to go now…" She said quietly as she gently pushed him off of her.

She picked up her uniform and as she reached the door way to his room, she turned around and looked at him.

He looked confused and she tried not to make eye contact with him by looking at the beige carpet.

"I'm going to borrow your clothes… I'll give them back to you another time…" She said while slightly bowing.

Then she quickly headed for the door.

'What just happened? Why am I so confused?' She wondered to herself.

She began crying as she put her shoes on but she didn't even know why she was crying.

Isn't this what she had wanted?

Her heart was racing and she tried desperately to get herself together.

She felt him tap her shoulder.

(Teehee, flipping back to the regular storyline.)

Ichigo got bored of trying to find a way to figure out how to spy on them so he went back to his apartment.

He walked to his room to check on her and she was still asleep, so he decided to watch some television in the living room.

"Why can't you just be with me?" Ichigo yelled at her.

She kept shaking her head as she cried.

"All you do is cry! You're never going to amount to anything." He clenched his fists.

She wanted so much to yell back at him that she was afraid, that she couldn't fall in love, that she had too many problems that she didn't want him to be burdened with, and that she didn't think she was strong enough.

But she couldn't.

She tried but nothing came out of her mouth.

Who was he to make her fall in love with him so easily?

Why was she so in love with him?

She kept telling herself that he was just going to be another person in her life that would just make her hate herself.

He began to walk away from her, frustrated that she wasn't responding.

She reached out to him but he didn't stop or turn around.

"Ichi…Ichigo…" She pleaded when she finally had enough confidence to speak.

He still continued walking without even taking a second glance at her.

"Please don't leave me…" She cried.

He disappeared and she was alone again.

"Hahaha, you stupid cat!" Ichigo blurted out to his television waking Rukia up.

She looked around the room seeing familiar walls and bed sheets.

Then she realized where she was and she tried to get out of the bed but her whole body ached from when her father had attacked her.

She just continued to lay there, quiet.

'What am I going to do now?' she thought to herself with a strained look on her face.

Then she heard a knock on the door.

Ichigo got up and opened the door seeing a strange man in a business suit that he had never seen in his life before.

His hair was black, silky, and long. He also had white tube-like objects in his hair.

"Hello, my name is Byakuya. You don't know me, but I'm here to pick up my younger sister, Rukia. I've been told she was here, so there's no use in trying to hide her." said the strange man.

Rukia's heart started thumping.

Was her brother, Byakuya, really here to come and take her away?

"What do you want with her?" Ichigo barked back.

"I must have a word with her, it's important and you shouldn't interfere. Now please let me talk to my younger sister."

"If you're going to take her back to that bastard of a father, then I refuse to let you come in."

"You have nothing to worry about then." Byakuya responded in a cold tone.

TO BE CONTINUED! I promise. :)

Heehee, cliffy! Once again, I'm sorry for not updating in such a long time. :( Anyways… What does Byakuya have to say to Rukia? What is he going to do? Why is he here all of a sudden? You'll just have to wait until the next chapter comes out! Hahaha. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! It makes an author like me, happy. I promise I'll keep writing and try to update as soon as possible, unless my computer breaks down again. But please review? Sorry for the not so good chapter! It's hard to write. Hahaha.