AN: Bleh. Wanted something to do. So I'm writing this chapter. Sorry for being late. School has interrupted me. Again, thank you so much to the reviewers out there (you guys seriously rock) I mean, taking the time to review again and again, really is touching. I'll be sad when this ends. HAVE NO FEAR! It will not end. Not soon anyway. Still heaps of stuff to go through with Ichigo and Rukia. Hehehe…
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach
A Summer Job: Business Trip (Part VIII)
He woke up, curling close to himself because of the morning wind. However, he could feel the sun's ray's heating up his clothes, and he knew it was already late. Cracking open an eyelid he put his hand in front of him, expecting to find Rukia, but he found grass. Instantly he sat up, now very much awake. Rukia was gone. He frantically looked around, before he saw a small yellow figure on the side of the lake, sitting on a small outcropping of rock.
He took in a deep breath to calm himself, and placed a hand over his fast beating heart, refusing to acknowledge that he had actually been worried about where she could have been. After a few minutes, and a normal heart rate, he stood up, stretched, and wandered over to where Rukia was sitting.
It was a bit awkward to get to where she was sitting. He had to go through some rocky ground before he reached her. Walking up behind her silently, her heard her humming a small tune. His usually frowning face twisted into a small smile. He stepped up noiselessly beside her.
"Yo."
Rukia stopped humming her little made up tune, and looked up. She smiled softly to herself when she saw who it was. Remembering the position she had woken up in the morning, she blushed a bit, and looked down to hide it. She had been curled up rather closely to the orange haired boy, and she would be lying if she said that she had moved out of his embrace as soon as she had woken up. Actually, she had taken advantage of the situation, and snuggled closer into him, trying to let the moment last – because she knew if he was awake, he wouldn't be doing this.
"I said, hello, Rukia."
"Good morning, Ichigo," she replied, still keeping her face down.
Ichigo shrugged at her weird behaviour. It wasn't up to him to question what she did; no matter how weird it was.
Uncharacteristically, he asked, "Can I sit down?"
She frowned. He usually didn't ask her for her permission to sit down next to her. Though, she decided, it was quite nice. Nice for him to have some manners for a change.
"Yeah, sure."
He sat down beside her, dangling his legs over the overhanging rock platform. For a while they just sat there, basking in the late morning sun. Ichigo turned to look at her; she was looking down into the water, as if searching for something. Every now and again, she would look at the lake as if she were analysing it. He smiled inwardly at how cute she looked – smaller than him, and eyeing the lake as if it were some sort of huge bathtub. Her hair was slightly mussed up, but her face was alive, like it was more than awake.
Suddenly, she turned and looked at him, and caught him staring at her. And it wasn't one of those things where he could just look away, he found himself starting to mutter some excuse before she even said anything. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Do I look weird or something?"
Silence.
She was starting to get mad. "And remember, your answer will directly affect your manhood, Kurosaki Ichigo," she said, crossing her arms.
"Oh? Will it?"
"Don't try me," she growled dangerously.
"Ok, ok," he relented, looking away from her, over to the lake.
It took her a few moments to realise that he hadn't answered her question.
Damn Ichigo.
"No."
"Huh?" She looked up at him confused. He was still staring across the lake, like he wanted to cross it.
"No, you don't look weird," he said, looking straight ahead.
"Oh," she murmured, somewhat subdued by his unexpected answer. She leant over to him, and in the process placed her hand down on his accidentally. She was about to remove it, but felt his fingers tighten over her own. She looked at him quizzically, but he kept staring straight ahead, as if trying to burn down the forest on the other side.
She looked at their hands, and blushed, though after he had tightened his grip, she didn't try to move her fingers.
"Ichigo…" she said wanly, turning towards him, but not looking at him.
"Hmm?" he said shortly, shifting his face to look at her.
She took in a deep breath. Ichigo felt her grip tighten on his hand, and he instinctively moved forward. Their gaze locked, and they continued to move their faces closer, each aware that their hands were tightening on each other's.
Rukia saw his face coming closer. She couldn't help but wonder, what did she really mean to this…boy? Heck, she didn't even know if she loved him, but the way he made her feel, her – a freakin' 152 year old shinigami – the way he made her feel was unexplainable. It was like her heart decided to play a beat that skipped a few, and her stomach had decided to take a journey to visit the throat. She swallowed. They were coming closer, and she focused on his lips. This would be the third time they kissed.
Grumble…They both jumped back, suddenly self-conscious of their proximity, but both of them did not let go of the other's hand. They did, however, look away to hide their blushes.
Finally, Ichigo turned around.
"What was that?" he asked, sounding annoyingly amused.
"Nothing. It was nothing," Rukia said shortly. There was no way that she was going to explain to him that her freakin' stomach had just grumbled. It wasn't her bloody fault anyway, she thought, feeling irritated and cranky. It was because they hadn't eaten in so long.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," she snapped, annoyed at the smirk that played over the younger shinigami's face. "And," she added, before the other shinigami could get a chance to say some smart ass comment, "I think its time we get some food."
Ichigo sat there glumly. No, it wasn't glumness, it was more like, he was sitting there sulking. His counterpart was next to him, looking indifferent to his expression.
"Far out," he mumbled under his breath, for the nth time. "We've been waiting for ages!"
"Shut-up. They'll bite soon," was her reply, and she turned back to looking at the water.
Ichigo snorted. "That's what you said an hour ago."
"Shut-up," she said dangerously. "We did this back when I was living in the city. Just deal with it ok?"
"Jeez," he grumbled. "It's like we're poor."
Rukia shot him a scary look, before settling down again, holding her makeshift rod. This had been her idea, fishing. It would be a bit annoying to have to go all the way back to the nearest place – and they probably wouldn't have had any food anyway. So she opted for fishing. The lake was clean, and she was sure that there were heaps of fish in it. Though, the amount of bites they had gotten didn't say much.
She looked over to her orange haired friend, who was sitting next to her looking bored. The truth was, she was getting hungry, not to mention bored as well.
She peeked at Ichigo again. He had sat back a bit, leaning on his hands on his side. She looked at his hands, wondering what would he do if she held his hand. This time, intentionally. She thought about him getting angry, but there wasn't really a chance of that, was there? She could just say it was a mistake, like last time. She tentatively placed her hand softly on his outstretched one. Out of the corner of her eye she could see his eyes widen a bit, and she grinned, laughing silently to herself that she had caused him discomfort. Even though, he didn't pull away, and for that she was glad.
Ichigo couldn't take it anymore. He had to ask her what she felt for him. Actually, he had to ask himself what he felt for her. Did he like her? Well, he certainly had some sort of feelings for her that ran over the friendship line. He thought she was attractive, obviously, but he never really admitted that to himself until now. Now that he had, he kept finding it harder and harder to suppress these weird feelings that he was having in his stomach every time he saw her. It was like his stomach was strapped on to some anti gravity device. And when she had put her hand out to hold his hand – what was that supposed to mean? Was that a sign? A hint, of some sort?
He let out a small sigh, exasperated. Seriously, girls were the most complex creatures on planet earth, on soul society, and he probably wouldn't be far from wrong if he said that in the Hollow world, the female species of them were pretty complex as well.
He leaned in, closer to Rukia, noticing her soft complexion on her neck. He lowered his head so that she couldn't see his eyes. When his mouth was level with her ear he spoke, a bit lower than what he intended to.
"Rukia…what –"
He felt his line tug.
Damn. Not now.
He drew away, trying to ignore the way she eyed him weirdly, though she was blushing. That being a good or bad sign, he did not know. He turned his attention to his makeshift rod. It was bending quite a lot. He pulled the rod carefully, making sure that the fish on the end of the line was secure on the hook, and then he threw the fish out behind him.
Rukia smiled happily at him, and he couldn't help feel a bit proud. That was, until the fish started having a fit, and was moving mentally around on the ground.
Ichigo immediately dived for it, fearful that it might flip back into the water. But for all his quickness and agility, he missed. Rukia just laughed at him.
He watched her fuss quietly over the fire, trying to make it so the fish was evenly cooked, and all those other small things that people that cook over a fire have to worry about. Finally she finished whatever she was fretting about and went over to where he was sitting. Some of her raven coloured hair was hanging loosely over the side of her face.
Her hair was getting longer, he decided. But, he didn't mind it, he thought. It was a bit different to what he was used to seeing, but it made her…somewhat beautiful. Somewhat beautiful, mind you. Rukia wasn't the type to look beautiful – he had decided that a long time ago, when he first had met her. She was more the type to look cute, and pretty. But with her hair growing that little bit longer, it was like she had grown up just that little bit more. A rogue strand of hair fell over the front of her face as she bent down, studying something in the grass in front of her. He expected her to pull it behind her ear like she usually did, but she left it.
Before he could think rationally, he leant over and tucked the strand of hair behind her ear. She looked up at him, and their gaze held for a moment. As if realising what he had did, he lowered his gaze, and he shrunk back, expecting her to get mad, or something, but after a while she just looked amusedly at him. He didn't meet her gaze.
"Thanks." She didn't sound mad, Ichigo thought.
Silence.
"Was it annoying you?" she asked him, curious to understand his sudden outburst of physical contact.
"No," he said bluntly.
She raised an eyebrow at him, as if waiting for an explanation.
"Just…um… something I wanted to do," he shrugged, as if it was an every-day thing. Which, it wasn't, and both of them knew that. But, she didn't say anything else, nor did he venture to explain further. It would probably embarrass him further. His action pulled them into awkward silence, until the fish was cooked.
"Come on, Rukia, how long are you going to take?"
"Just wait," she told him, offhandedly, as if he didn't matter.
He grumbled something incomprehensible under his breath. Rukia had been on the hill that over looked the lake for about five minutes, trying to take in the view. Even Ichigo had to admit; it was pretty nice, though he didn't say it out loud. It was about midafternoon when they had decided to start heading off. After they had eaten their breakfast, they had taken a short walk along the edge of the lake. Rukia had taken off her shoes, and skipped daintily along on the water's edge, while Ichigo strolled a bit further off. His usual scowl wasn't in place as he watched Rukia dance through the shallow water. He thought that, if Rukia was always like this, not having a care in the world, he could probably live with her. For sure, he had lived with her before, but, that was when she was always annoying him about what hollows to kill, how to kill them, what was happening to her spiritual power, etc. She always had something to worry about. Now, in her home, she felt so carefree, that Ichigo almost thought she was a different person – somewhat more attractive, someone he wouldn't mind spending time with.
"Ichigo?"
He snapped out of his thinking immediately, to find Rukia staring curiously up at him.
"Huh?" he said, sounding a bit out to it.
"You said, 'let's go' but you've been standing there for the past ten minutes, staring out into space."
"Oh."
Rukia studied him carefully. He was acting a tad weird today. First he tucked some hair behind her ear for her – not that she minded, it was just that it was so unexpected – and now he was gazing off into the distance like something massive was occupying his mind.
"Anyway, let's go," he said, trying to shrug off his earlier actions. However, Rukia wouldn't let him go that easily. She half jogged, half ran to fall in step beside him.
They walked in silence for the first few minutes, and every time Rukia looked up at him, she could see him looking off into the distance, still thinking about something. But it didn't look like he was thinking like he usually did – with his trademark scowl – this look seemed like a more analytical in nature, as if trying to find out the universe's secrets. Her mind rushed back to all the manga's that she used to read at his place, thinking of where she had seen that expression before. That was it.
"Ichigo," she said, though she wasn't expecting any response from the orange haired captain.
"Ichigo," she said, this time a bit louder. He was still lost in his own little thinking zone.
She stood in front of him, and he didn't notice her till he was right on top of her. He stumbled backwards, trying to ignore the heat that was seeping into his face again.
"Rukia, what the…"
"I called your name like fifty times," she said, sounding exasperated.
"Oh. Sorry."
She glared at him as he started walking again, sidestepping her.
"So, Ichigo, what are you thinking about?" she asked, before he could fall back into his weird new 'thinking' mode again.
"Hmm?"
"Thinking" – she pointed to his head – "What are you thinking?"
"Oh. Nothing."
The way he said it, it was obvious it was a lie. She rolled her eyes at him as they walked. "I think you're thinking of a girl," she said casually, as if she had just told him he had orange hair.
She kept walking with a secret smile on her face, knowing that he had stopped a little bit behind her. Which he had, he was standing in the same spot he had been when she had said her little statement.
"Hmm…" she murmured, looking over her shoulder, as he jogged to catch up to her.
He gave her a glare, and continued walking.
"So, I was right, right?" she said again, causing him to splutter.
"Wha – no! Why would I be thinking of some…girl?" he said, making the word 'girl' sound like it was some infectious disease.
"Oh, I don't know," Rukia said flippantly, though she was smiling inside. "Maybe it was the way you were looking off into the distance and all…" she trailed off, leaving him to think about what he was actually doing.
"Well?"
"No."
"Oh," she said, trying to hide her disappointment. "Then what were you thinking about?" she asked.
He didn't say anything for the next few minutes as they walked. She sighed; she was never going to get anything out of him. It was possible that he was lying, and he really was thinking of some girl – well at least that's what her manga's would tell her. She was sure the expression he was wearing was the same one as that guy who was lovesick – thinking about this one girl all the time. She sighed again, quietly so that he wouldn't hear her.
AN: Hmm, ok, next chapter, they gotta head back to that crazy inn, with that crazy attendant. Hahaha. Please review – apologies again for being late – just that I have 3 assessment tasks this week, and yeah, last grade – I should probably work. Updates will slow for a bit, but they will not cease. So yeah, if you review, it might give me a bit more inspiration to write faster. Cya next time around.