AN: Hey guys, thanks for the reviews. No wait, I ESPECIALLY thank those who reviewed last chapter. I know there ain't much RenjixTatsuki fans out there, so I was kinda expecting a drop in the reviews. :( Anyway, that was sorta expected, so yeah, no big deal there. Anyway, just bear with me as I go through this section of my fanfic. It IS needed, not just mindless fluff (though there probably will be some) but yeah. Well, enjoy. This chapter is more of Renji and Tatsuki. I actually think they suit each other, but anyway.

Do not worry! There will be IchiRukiness - as they are the main couple here.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

A Summer Job – Rehabilitation (Part II)

"Oi. Tatsuki."

The girl lying on the side of the bed stirred, but didn't wake. Renji groaned. Right now he felt so weak. A lot weaker than what he had originally felt. Absentmindedly he wondered about what the poison had to do with the new weakness that was overcoming his body. Probably everything, he thought. It was damn annoying though, having his spiritual power ebb so low.

He turned his attention to the dark haired girl who was lying on the side of the bed. He put his hand on her head in an attempt to wake her, and exhaled in surprise when he found that her hair was actually quite soft. He had expected her hair to be hard, judging by the way they stuck out at weird angles. Well, you learn something new everyday.

He gently shook her, then removed his hand when it was sure that she was regaining her consciousness. The girl looked around her, then looked at Renji.

"Abarai," she acknowledged him with a small nod of her head that he could hardly see in the fading light.

"Tatsuki…" He paused, thinking about what he should say. It was obvious the poison that the arrancar had hit him with was dangerous. It was too dangerous to be lying in bed, becoming weaker and weaker by the second. Who knows? Maybe when he had no spiritual power left, something was going to happen. But the only one who could help was…

"I…I have to ask you a favour," he said, carefully choosing his words. Even though he hadn't really angered the girl, he didn't want to know what she was like when she was angry. Her martial art skills wasn't something he wanted to get closely acquainted with.

Surprisingly enough, all she did was look at him closely. "Depends what it is. I mean, I am housing you, and feeding you, and treating you…"

"Pfft."

"Well I am! This is…"

She trailed off as he touched her arm that was still resting on the bed. "Thankyou for that," he said softly.

Tatsuki almost jerked her arm back towards herself at his soft spoken response. Well, well, it seemed that he could speak softly. Probably not often – and anyway she sort of owed him the treatment because he did, after all, save her life. She should have been the one saying thanks. She sighed and then looked down at the figure on the bed. "What is it?"

"I…we need to go to a friend of mine."

"Why?" She asked, crossing her arms. Renji looked at her. Obviously she wasn't a big fan of going outside at night. He wondered briefly why she would care.

"Well, that arrancar that hit me…It poisoned me, and I need to get a cure." Blunt as usual.

"So…" she said, weighing her options. "When do we go?"

"Now."

They walked along the quite streets of Karakura. Renji had some difficulty walking; it was like he was slowly falling unconscious. He turned to his former classmate. It turned out that she had to help him get out of bed, he was so damn weak. Thankfully she didn't jest about it, but just helped him silently. That, he was truly thankful for.

They walked in silence, and Renji found his conscious slipping away.

"Tatsuki…" he muttered wanly.

"What?"

"Can we talk?"

"H-huh?" Obviously the girl didn't expect this.

Renji gave her a flat look. "I meant, just conversation so that I can stay alive."

She looked at him curiously. "Ok."

Silence fell in between them like a blanket. Renji let out a loud sigh. "Er, talking means talking."

"Shut-up," she snapped. "I was trying to think of something to say."

He sighed. "Ok, I'll start." He inhaled sharply. "Why isn't there anyone else in your house?"

She looked up at him. The topic hurt her a bit, reminding her of her loneliness. "Well, my mum and dad are away for the whole summer. On a cruise."

Renji picked up on the lonely tone in her voice. He himself had heard it when Rukia talked to him sometimes. Tied up in one of the noble houses in Soul Society wasn't exactly fun. He held his tongue; he would question her about it later.

"So…do you have any…powers?" he asked, trying to choose the correct words.

"Powers?"

"Um…you know…like…powers…" he finished lamely. There wasn't really any other way to describe it. Like, what would you call Inoue's powers? A talent? No, not really.

She looked up at him again, this time raising her eyebrow. "Um…well, I like karate."

He sighed. "That isn't what I mean. I mean, like supernatural powers."

"…"

"You know, like…have you seen Ishida, Chad, or Inoue's powers?"

She shook her head, probably still digesting the fact that her best friend had…so called 'powers'. Renji was about to try again, but she stopped him.

"I have seen those three…well, Ishida anyway, wearing weird clothes. There was also this one time when I saw Chad with this super massive arm. And Inoue…" she trailed off, leaving Renji to wonder.

"Hn. I suppose your powers will come later…"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, basically, people who are close to your childhood friend Ichigo get affected by his spiritual power."

"Spiritual power?"

"That's basically it. Spiritual power. Like…" Renji scratched the back of his head – he wasn't good at explanations. "Sort of like an energy source."

"I see." She nodded, but it would take time for her to fully digest this. "So…Chad, Inoue, and Ishida all have this…spirit power?"

Renji nodded. He glanced at the street name, and noticed that they were coming closer to that place. He broke off the conversation as he stepped onto the doorway of the 'shop'. In the night, the 'shop' looked kind of freaky, all wooden and creaky.

Renji hesitated, then knocked on the sliding door. Almost immediately the door slid open, and he was met by a sneering, red-haired little boy.

"We're closed. Go away."

Renji looked down in disdain. That look would have made Byakuya proud. "Hey, shortie, I want to see Urahara-san."

"Oh. It's you," the shorter boy said, as if finally realising who it actually was. "Come in," he said grudgingly, "And your girlfriend too," he added, before getting his head smashed in by Renji and Tatsuki.

"Ara! Why do you have to come to business this late at night?"

Renji groaned. He really didn't want to see Urahara, but there was really no other help on the earth since his spirit power was so weak.

"Well I -…"

He didn't finish his sentence. He simply toppled over, smashing into the wooden floor. Tatsuki watched as the man she presumed to be Urahara knelt down to examine Renji's face. He was dressed rather weirdly; a striped hat shadowing over his face, and a green coat, followed by traditional wooden clogs. The man lifted up Renji and pulled him into the adjacent room, but not before motioning for her to follow. The small red-haired boy finally recovered from his beating and closed the door, skipping ahead of her to the adjacent room.

When she got there, Renji was already lying down on a futon, and the guy that wore the striped hat was there, sitting down on the floor. Next to him sat this huge guy in an apron, and next to him was a small, timid girl with large eyes. The red haired boy darted to the side of the girl, and they all looked at her. She sighed. Way to single out the odd one out.

The man known as Urahara spoke first. "Welcome, Tatsuki-chan! We were wondering when you were going to turn up."

Wow. That simple few sentences said a lot of stuff. First, how rude of that guy to call her by the suffix 'chan'. Secondly, how the hell did he know her name in the first place. Thirdly, how come they were wondering when she was going to turn up – since they didn't even know each other.

She decided it would be too troublesome to ask him all those things she had listed, so she gave a calculated response. "How is he?"

"Ah, forgive me, Tatsuki-chan! He is doing quite fine, and will wake up shortly."

"What about the poison?"

"Ara! You seem to be quite attached to this man you just met."

She fixed her gaze on him evenly, then sat down. "Just curious."

The man opposite her was giving off the impression that he was a loony, but she had studied him briefly, and it looked like he knew a lot of stuff. It was like he was pretending under that façade. She mustn't underestimate this guy.

"So, how much did Renji tell you?"

The abrupt change in subject nearly choked her. She waited a few seconds to regain her composure, then spoke. "About?"

The man fixed her with a creepy gaze.

"Ok, he told me what hollows were. He told me what…" she paused, trying to remember what Renji had said. "He told me what arrancars are…and he also told me what he actually is."

There, that should have been enough information. Urahara leant back, looking slightly amused. He looked to his er…sidekicks, and gave them a look that said, 'I can handle this'. They stood up, and walked out of the room, while the red-haired boy scowled at her.

Tatsuki scowled back. It wasn't her fault that the damn brat had decided to call her Renji's girlfriend. As IF that would ever happen.

"So…he didn't tell you anything about…you?"

"Huh?" The question had caught her off guard. "Well…he did ask me if I had any powers…Hey, aren't you supposed to be helping him?"

Urahara looked at the young girl, then laughed. It was obvious that they had a connection. The vice-captain had probably done something stupid; like save her life.

"I will help him, but he has to be awake first."

"Oh."

"But!" he let out a eerily 'happy' smile, "We can talk about you!"

Ugh. This man was sickening. And weird.

"What is it…about me?"

Urahara raised his eyebrow (of course Tatsuki didn't see it, since it was under his hat).

"Well, first off, you know my name. And then, you tell me that you were expecting me. Isn't that a bit…weird?"

The man in front of her laughed hollowly. "So he didn't tell you then."

"WHAT?" She was seriously starting to get frustrated now. A bit more, and she would have to kung-fu his ass.

"So…what did he ask you again – about your 'powers' that is…"

"All he said was, 'Do you have any 'powers'?', to which I replied, I don't."

"Did he tell you anything about…spiritual power?"

"Yes. He said that Ishida, Inoue and Chad had that." She didn't know what possessed her to say her classmates' names to this random guy who she just met, but she somehow felt that he actually knew them.

"Well that's good then."

What? How could this man just wrap up all these mysterious things with a simple, 'Well that's good then'?

"Wait."

Urahara looked at her questioningly.

"What didn't he tell me?"

"Tsk, tsk," he said, before pulling out a fan and fanning his face. "So hasty."

Tatsuki felt that if the man known as Urahara didn't tell her soon, she was going to beat it out of him.

Urahara must have read her mind, because he said in mock fear, "Oh, do not hurt me child!"

Tatsuki looked away in disgust. "So tell me…what didn't he tell me?"

"Are you ready?" His mocking voice had suddenly grown a lot more quite, a lot more serious.

"Ready?"

"Ready to know?"

She didn't know what to say, so she just nodded.

"This spiritual power…the more you have, the stronger you are. Your friend Ichigo – he has a reservoir. The thing is, he can't control this monstrous spirit power, and he lets it leak out. Thus, people who are close to him start to develop their own spirit power."

Tatsuki looked at Urahara. What was he getting at?

"That is why Inoue, Chad, and even one of your other classmates are starting to have heightened spiritual abilities. Inoue and Chad's spirit power has increased due to special training."

He paused, looking at the girl in front of him. How would she react?

"So…"

"So, since you were the first friend of Ichigo, you have been exposed to his spiritual power the longest."

It took her a moment to register this. "If so…how come people like Chad and Inoue, who have only met up with him since he started high-school – how come they already have this…spirit power…and I don't?"

"Ah, that too, we are puzzling about. However, we found the answer to our puzzle."

"What?"

"Your spirit power has been dormant."

"WHAT?"

"For some reason, even though you were the first one to be closely affiliated with Ichigo, your spirit power…concealed itself."

"…"

Urahara continued. "Lately, however, there have been numerous events that have changed this. Your spirit power is waking. And…"

Tatsuki didn't say anything; she just waited for Urahara to finish his sentence.

"It's huge."

It took about three seconds for her to let the words sink slowly into her mind.

My spirit power…is huge?

Urahara watched her carefully. Chances were, she wouldn't understand the depth of her statement; she would probably understand later, but not now. At any rate, her spirit power that had been lying dormant had now surfaced, and it was pretty damn huge. Pretty damn huge meaning at its height it would be about the same as the shinigami lying in front of them. For a human, that was a really big amount of spirit power. Even for a shinigami, Renji's level of spirit power was noticeably large. Because the girl had been a childhood friend with Ichigo, her spirit power reserve had probably been upped each day, resulting from contact with the boy. And each day, it never surfaced, but when it did…

"Uhh…" The groan from the red-haired shinigami brought him out of his thoughts. After a few moments of adjusting his eyes to the light, the shinigami spoke.

"Hey…Tatsuki…Urahara-san…How long have I been out?"

Renji's voice sounded tired, old. Urahara frowned, Renji wouldn't like what he heard – concerning the 'poison', as the girl put it.

"Um…about an hour," the girl answered.

"Oh."

"Abarai Renji," said Urahara in an unusually serious tone.

"Yo. Urahara-san. What's up?" Turning his attention from Tatsuki, he focused on the weird ex-captain. "And about this…" He unconsciously put a hand to his bandaged shoulder. The poisoned shoulder.

"Sorry Renji. But…it's too late…you're going to…die."

AN: Wow, I actually put a cliffhanger in. HAHAHAH! It's a ploy to get more reviews. MUAHAHA! Lol, actually I just can't write any more because it's late. Seriously. Sorry guys, but you all know I update soonish anyway. No big deal XD

Please review! And go check out my new Naruto fanfic featuring NejiTen.

REVIEW! It would be great to reach the 300 mark, right? LOL don't worry, I'm not asking for the 300-review mark until my next update! Well… I could be mean….lolz, jks, nah you guys are so cool, I love each and everyone of you – even the mean ones! Ok, I'm getting teary-eyed…hahaha, not. This fic won't finish for a long time, so its ok XD.

Till next chapter! Keep a look out – Ikkaku, Yumichika, Keigo, and um…what's his friend's name? I'd check up on it, but I'm too lazy. Someone tell me in a review. Thanks!