AN: Hm…Well, nothing to say, except that I am pretty disappointed at the moment. I'm writing this, and I only got a small number of reviews for last chapter compared to the rest of it. Well, therefore, this chapter is dedicated to all the people that reviewed last chapter. The most special thank-you to you guys, who stuck with me then. All of you who didn't, that was really mean. I'm sad. And I'm also writing this chapter slowly, cuz there's not enough inspiration. NOOOO! Yeah, that, and sorry for not updating at the right time. Got a bit carried away reading this other fic. It was great.

Small reply to reviewer: Their noses were bleeding because they were girl-watching XD…I'm pretty sure I put it in there that they were watching something. Sorry, I thought everyone would have got it. I'll try to explain things a bit clearer next time.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

A Summer Job: Rehabilitation (Part III)

"Bye now, Renji-kun!"

"Shut-up Urahara," Renji growled, still slightly annoyed at the ex-captain for tricking him into believing that he was going to die.

"Now, now, is the way to talk to someone who just saved your life?"

"You nearly killed me back there!"

"I was only joking," said Urahara, smiling his creepy smile.

"Pfft. Let's go, Tatsuki."

Renji turned around, sick of talking with the ex-shingami that could be very, very annoying. Tatsuki didn't resist; she didn't particularly like the weird shop man – he was a tad weird. Probably harmless, but still, a tad weird.

"Oh, Renji."

This time Renji stopped, as Urahara's voice had become deathly serious.

"…"

"Make sure I get the gigai back in good condition. Its pretty important."

"Yeah," Renji said, back still facing Urahara. "Ok, come on, lets go Tatsuki."

Again, Tatsuki complied. They walked down the empty, darkened street in silence. This was because they were both thinking of the day's events. Actually, the actual day's events didn't hold any particular significance, but the events they had encountered at the Urahara shop, did have a rather large impact on both of them. Renji, because he had been supposedly 'healed'. Urahara (after telling him that he was going to die) told him the real nature of his poisoning. The poison was a totally different kind to the average poison. The poison would suck away at the host's spirit power until there was none left, and then, when there was no spirit power left, the poison would then start to inflict terrible damage from inside the body. With no spirit power to counter the spiritual poisoning, the host was in for a horrible death. Urahara had countered the poison by putting Renji in a special gigai, similar to Rukia's old one, however, it was slightly modified so Renji would not become a human. The gigai was made to eat any impurities in the host's spirit power, in other words, the poison. However, it still would take long for the poison to be fully eradicated. That, and it would also take a while for Renji's spiritual power to be completely restored.

Tatsuki, on the other hand, even though she had been a bit worried over Urahara's comment, (though she didn't admit it to herself – why would she care if the red-haired shinigami died?) her thoughts had turned to what Urahara had been saying before Renji had woken up. Thoughts whirled through her head. What exactly did the man mean when he said she had a huge spirit power inside of her? Listening to Urahara's explanation of Renji's predicament, she gleaned a bit of information, but she still couldn't quite grasp the concept. It was really bugging her, because she was the type of person that liked to understand things, liked to know how things worked.

They continued walking down the empty pathway, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Renji grew sick of brooding about being in a gigai, and decided to strike up some conversation.

"So…what did you and Urahara-san talk about when I was out?"

Tatsuki carefully hid her immediate expression, though she knew Renji had seen it. It was too late. She sighed, not really wanting to tell him that she had almost no idea what the hell the man had been going on about.

After a few seconds of silence Renji said, "Something weird?"

At that, she just sighed again.

He cocked an eyebrow at her, puzzled at her reaction. "He told you about his love-life?"

She just glared at him.

"Well, I give up," he said, exasperated. Sometimes women were so difficult to understand – like they expected you to read their mind.

"I never asked you to guess," she retorted, still walking along.

"Well, I was just curious, and since you decided to just sigh whenever I asked you, I figured it was something big."

She sighed.

Renji groaned, and put a hand through his long red hair. "See?"

She stopped, then scowled at him. Underneath the streetlight her facial features were accentuated, and she looked eerily…beautiful, Renji decided. But only underneath the streetlight. No where else. No where.

"Well, if you really want to know, he just told me that I have spirit power."

Renji blanched. "Uh, that wasn't that big a deal. I could've told you that."

She gave him a blank look and mumbled something barely audible.

Renji looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

Tatsuki said nothing.

"So... you didn't want to tell me, because you didn't understand it?"

She looked away. "Shut-up."

"Oh my, the great Tatsuki doesn't understand something," he said sarcastically, intending it to be playful, but somehow it came out rather harsh.

She looked at him with hurt in her eyes. Renji backed away slowly, not wanting to be on the end of her famous punch, or kick for that matter. Instead of inflicting physical damage on him, however, she just walked away silently.

Damn. Renji cursed his stupid mouth, and then ran up to the spiky haired girl. "Hey, I'm sorry."

If she heard him, she didn't let on.

"Hey, I didn't mean to say that."

She walked a bit faster.

Shit. Far out. Why couldn't he just act normal for once? No wonder Rukia didn't like him. It was because he was to brash, to harsh with his words. But she knew he meant well. Tatsuki didn't. Pulling a rough hand through his red hair, he ran to catch up to the dark haired girl. He stood in front of her, arms out.

"Hey, I'm really sorry. I'll explain to you all that spiritual power stuff when we get home."

She raised an eyebrow, and a few minutes of silence passed between them.

"Uh, I'm apologizing here…say something, dammit," he said, clearly not understanding what was going through the girl's mind.

"Ok, ok," she said, then pushed past him. "But only," she said, pausing to look up at him, "If you explain it."

Renji nodded, then fell back into step beside her. He grinned to himself, amused at Tatsuki's need to understand spirit power. Well, it wouldn't hurt, he thought, she does have a rather large spirit power. Even though 'rather large' was putting it mildly. He sighed. He would have to explain that to her as well.

Surprisingly, they walked in comfortable silence. Tatsuki glanced to the tall guy walking next to her. Even though they had only been living together for a few days, she felt like she knew him well. He was probably one of those people who made others feel comfortable around them. Someone sort of like Ichigo. Thinking of Ichigo now, she thought she saw some similarities between the two. Not physically, but on a personality level, they were about the same. They both walked around with scowls, even though Renji also switched his scowl for an arrogant look sometimes, and they both were hot headed, and easily angered.

Actually, she thought, still looking at Renji, that's probably the reason why she felt so comfortable around him. Being friends with Ichigo taught her how to deal with people like that.

"Renji."

"Huh?" he said, looking down at the spiky haired girl.

"Ichigo…what was your relationship with him?"

He barked out a short, harsh, laugh. But beneath it, Tatsuki could tell she had hit a tender topic.

"Sorry. Something went wrong between you two?"

This time it was Renji's turn not to say anything. But, being a girl, Tatsuki could read his mind a lot better than he did her. And, by the obvious look of jealously printed on his face; it wasn't too hard to read what was going on. But jealous of what, she thought, pondering the issue for a moment. What did Ichigo have, that Renji didn't?

She didn't say anything else, and Renji was relieved. He didn't really want to explain the whole Ichigo-Rukia-Renji love triangle. Though, he thought bitterly, it isn't a triangle anymore.

Renji woke the normal way, that is, slowly coming to consciousness, slowly becoming aware of the things that were happening. Cracking open an eyelid, he saw that it was day, that fact given by the sunlight streaming through his window. When they had got home last night they were both exhausted, both mentally and physically. They had headed off to their respective bedrooms with a nod and Renji had found out that Tatsuki's room was just down the hallway.

Stretching in his bed, he slowly sat up, thinking about what he was going that day. There wasn't really much he could do, he thought, laying out his options. He couldn't return to Soul Society because one, he couldn't get enough spiritual energy up to even open a gate, and two, even if he could open a gate, he needed his gigai to function properly – and it wouldn't function properly in Soul Society. Being in a gigai brought some advantages, and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages was that he had to clean the damn thing, and that meant showers, shampoo, soap and all that annoying stuff. He groggily stepped out of his borrowed bedroom, and opened the two doors, unaware that he hadn't put on his shirt.

He walked down the hallway, towards the bathroom – Tatsuki had shown him earlier – to relieve himself, and probably take a shower. As he reached the bathroom door, he promptly walked into a towel-clad girl who was obviously going the other way. This was because she walked straight into him. For a while, they stood there, pressed against each other's bodies. Renji was shocked that there was another girl in the house – and she was in a towel. And she had a great body, he thought feeling the slightly damp towel against his bare torso. Her short hair was dripping wet, hanging loosely down the sides of her head. She has nice hair too, Renji thought, still unable to pull away due to shock.

"What the hell are you doing, you pervert!"

It was on the receiving end of that punch that he finally realised who it was.

"Tatsuki?" he said in disbelief as the towel-clad girl left him, doubled over. That was Tatsuki? He almost couldn't believe it. Hundreds of thoughts whirled through his mind. There was no way that was Tatsuki. But who else could punch like that? And the girl did go to Tatsuki's room, he thought. But what happened to her hair? Tatsuki didn't have hair like that – she had spikes. His mind raged on. Tatsuki didn't have a body like that – or did she? He had never really payed special attention to Tatsuki at their school, and the guys didn't really talk about her in terms of her sexuality. Well, that was probably because she wouldn't hesitate to kill them all if she knew they were talking about her. But still, no one really held a romantic interest in Tatsuki, so he never found out what she was like. Even though the school skirt was rather short, no one really looked at her legs either. But looking at them a while ago, after she punched him, he conceded that they were really good looking legs. He mentally slapped himself from thinking any further. Well, if that really was Tatsuki, he thought after he had calmed down a bit, what had happened to her spikes? The shower, he heard a tired voice in his head say. Renji placed a hand to his head. That was right, he thought to himself, her hair would have gone down after being in the shower. Who would have thought that it actually looked good? And for that matter, who would have thought that she actually looked more like a girl than a boy when her hair was down.

Meanwhile, Tatsuki sat on her bed, placing a hand over her fast beating heart. Being pressed against Renji's bare chest wasn't really the best way to end her shower. Well, it wasn't the best way, but it was somehow…enjoyable? NO! It wasn't enjoyable at all, she scolded herself. But being pressed against his chest…She stood up, and looked herself in her full-length mirror. Wearing a tight towel accentuated her curves but she had never really thought seriously about the shape of her body. Actually, she had once. But that was back when she was fourteen-years-old, hitting puberty. It was back then, when she had decided to give up trying to make her body look sexy. Her best friend, Inoue, overshadowed her in every physical aspect of the woman's body. Even though most people thought she was a tomboy – which she was – she still held some sort of interest in guys, especially during puberty. She never pursued her secret romantic interests, because all the guys in her class, with the exception of one or two, were already smitten with her best friend. It was natural for Orihime to turn them down; it was obvious to everyone (except for one person) that she liked Ichigo. Even Tatsuki herself liked Ichigo at one point. But, upon finding out that Inoue liked Ichigo, she immediately quenched her feelings for him. After that, she had no more romantic interests. But then this…this guy came. She looked back at the mirror. She probably had an above average body, she thought. But that was probably only because of her martial art training – it toned her shape. Her legs were long and shapely, but her breasts weren't really that big. Well, compared to Inoue's…

What the hell am I thinking? I bump into some guy, and now I'm thinking about how my body looks!

Still, she couldn't stop replaying the scene in her head over and over again. Finally, she changed into clothes she didn't really expect herself to be wearing and then stomped out of her room, barefoot. She had to clear her mind.

Half an hour later, Renji had finished showering, had tried to forget about the morning's incident, had already convinced himself that it was Tatsuki he had accidentally run into, and had already tied his hair up in its usual pony tail. Now there was nothing to do, and his thoughts kept wandering back to the bathroom incident. Even though he was about 150 years old, he hadn't really had much experience with girls. The closest girl to him was Rukia, and they hadn't done anything together. Oh sure, he knew about all the parts of the girl's body, how they reproduced, etc, but he had never had any real experience with women. Which was probably why he was thinking like a 15-year-old puberty-stricken boy.

Failing miserably to keep the bad thoughts out of his head, he stood up, intent to go outside to get some fresh air. That, and he was hungry again. But there was no way, no way, in the world that he was going to ask Tatsuki for food. It would be too embarrassing. As he wandered down the hallways, trying to find the exit, he heard some noises coming from behind a double door. Still thinking that Tatsuki was in her room, he didn't hesitate to open them.

AN: HAHAH! Cliffhanger. Oh well, better review then. More reviews, and I'll update super quick. Hope you liked the little bit of fluff I put in there. Hehehe, I always wondered if Tatsuki would look good with her hair down. Anyway, please review. I really appreciate it – and the feedback helps me write really fast. I mean, I'm writing this chapter slowly cuz hardly anyone reviewed last chapter. Hm…lets see…hit the 300 mark! Or else…muahahaha…Don't make me sad. Make me happy! So review! Thanks again to all the loyal reviewers. Bye!