AN: Hey there. It's like, 2:11 AM. Awesome. In the place of studying chemistry and all that other good stuff, I'm writing more fanfiction! So basically, you should all be happy that I'm going to sacrifice my life for the greater good of Oh – last chapter – that was also the last bit of the Business Trip saga. I know, I'll miss it as much as you guys. It was fun writing Ichi-Ruki with no distractions. This chapter brings us to the start of a new…um…story between the two, hopefully being a lot deeper. Well, anyway, I haven't said this in a long time, but seriously, thanks for the reviews. Wow, I didn't know how immensely huge the Bleach fandom has grown. It seems that I have a whole lot of new reviewers I have never seen before. Welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying my story. And to those people that have read since I've started, thanks. Basically, you guys are the foundation of my writing. Lol, someone was a bit impatient with the way the Ichi-Ruki relationship was going. Well, I'm honestly sorry, I'm just trying to make it realistic…(there are people like that in real life!). Don't worry – this isn't going to be one of those fanfictions where they actually do not get together. That would suck.
One last thing – I just finished reading the latest Bleach manga chapters – they rock! The only thing bad is, is that everything here is going to be outdated, which kind of sucks. So, I'm trying to finish this off as soon as possible.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

A Summer Job: The Office Romance (Part I)

"WHAT!"

The old man's eyes did not widen at all with the outburst the young shinigami captain had just thrown at him.

"Sorry, but even if you are new, and even if you didn't know the rules well enough, you must still be punished accordingly."

"But, but…" the young man trailed.

"Kurosaki Ichigo. You have told me the same excuses, over and over again. Kuchiki Rukia can be somewhat excused from her actions because of her lower rank, and her nobility. They will take care of her. You, however, are my direct responsibility, and I cannot, and will not, have you floundering your responsibility of the whole fifth division. My punishment still stands."

"And she doesn't get anything but a lecture!"

Yamamoto raised an eyebrow.

"And me? I get an extreme punishment of being locked up in my office for one whole week? Doing paperwork?"

"Well, I see that punishment fitting, since as a captain you are supposed to fulfil those duties – and your absence did clog up the paperwork somewhat."

"But…why can't you just do a normal punishment…like, like…"

"Like sending you out in the wilderness to train?"

"Yes! That's normal!"

"You'd like it too much. Now, stop your arguing and get on with your job. Your sentence starts tomorrow morning."

Ichigo mumbled something incoherent and then turned around, only to be met by the tip of an extremely sharp (and cold) sword.

"Where the hell have you been, you bastard?"

Ichigo looked down to see the white-blue spikes of the boy genius, Hitsugaya Toushiro.

"What do you want, brat?" Ichigo replied, annoyed.

"You made Hinamori worry over the whole affairs of the 5th division," came the chilling reply.

"Pft." Ichigo said, as he released a breath. "Ask Rukia about that," he said, looking to the side, not paying any attention to the sword pointing towards his midriff.

"Ask me about what?" came a dainty voice from the doorway. The raven-haired shinigami was standing there prettily, smiling as if they weren't in trouble at all. Which was partly true, since she probably got told not to do it again, or something stupid like that, Ichigo thought.

"About why I was gone for the past few days."

Rukia still kept her smile on as the Hitsugaya turned to her questioningly. She lifted her shoulders slightly, and said, "He went on a holiday, that's all"

Suddenly, the temperature in the room decreased by an extremely large increment.

"You. Went. On. A. Holiday?" came the slow, deliberate voice of a very angry, 10th division captain.

"Yeah? So?" Ichigo said tauntingly, as he reached behind his back for his soul slayer.

Before any further damage could be done to the two captains, and the landscape, a cool voice cut in.

"What is the matter?"

Byakuya.

You could almost cut the tension with a knife, as the hair-lengthening, hair-netting, hair-straightening, hair-everything captain walked inside the room. He gave the 1st division captain a slight nod, and then turned to Ichigo.

"Where were you? And what did you do with Rukia?"

Ichigo looked to the side again, clearly frustrated. He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it. "I don't need to tell you," he said coolly, knowing that this type of response would grate Byakuya more than a heated answer.

With that, Ichigo strolled casually out of the captain hall, grabbing Rukia along by the shoulder as he walked past her.

Byakuya's face remained calm as he turned to face the founder of the shinigami academy. When he had talked to Rukia, she had simply said they had taken a little holiday together. She didn't say where, and what they did, though. And even though every single bone in his body was simply aching to know, Byakuya held his tongue. He could find out from other sources. He didn't want Rukia to think he was actually worried about her. He was much to cool, and suave to be a typical older brother figure. But what did they do! They could've…No, no, Byakuya thought, as he shook his head (mentally, mind you). Ichigo would have told Yamamoto-taichou, what had happened – he would just need to ask the 1st division captain politely.

"Yes, Kuchiki Byakuya?"

Byakuya turned to the white haired shinigami next to him who was still simmering quietly. "Hitsugaya-taicho. Please leave."

The temperature, which had just recovered from its previous deduction, suddenly dropped again.

"Fine," replied the genius, almost sulkily. "But…" said Hitsugaya, as he turned to Yamamoto before he left.

"Yes, yes, I will see to your earlier request, Hitsugaya-taichou," interrupted the old man, lifting his hand slightly in acknowledgment. The old captain watched the 10th division captain walk out of the room, and then shifted his gaze to the captain of the 6th division. There was a long silence, and then finally the Kuchiki spoke.

"What was Kurosaki Ichigo doing?"

"I believe that is none of your business," replied the old man.

Even though every bone in his body wanted to cry out that it was most definitely his business, Byakuya kept his mouth shut.

"I have come up with a suitable punishment for Rukia."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Instead of the traditional punishments of the Kuchiki clan, I have decided to let her taste the duties of a higher-ranking officer. As you said earlier, she is ready to move up the ranks. It will be good experience for her." The 6th division captain paused. "I will not hold her back any longer."

"I will prepare something for Rukia. More importantly, have you told her about it yet?"

"No," came the cool reply. "I suspect I will have to soon. And the boy, as well. They will start wondering, and the shinigami's here cannot keep their mouths' shut forever."

Yamamoto rubbed his temples in thought. There were too many shinigami to please. First there was Toshirou, who had demanded that Hinamori be set free from her vice-captaincy duties the week that Ichigo was locked up to complete the immense loads of paperwork that had grown during his absence.

Well, that wasn't too hard to solve, Yamamoto thought, since he wasn't planning on letting anyone help the orange haired captain in the first place.

But then, Kuchiki Byakuya had come to him and told him that he wanted Rukia to experience some higher-ranking office duties. He could let Rukia join in on Ichigo's work; he actually didn't think that the orange haired captain would be capable of finishing off the required paperwork anyway. He wouldn't usually let anyone help Ichigo, but since the new captain was so uptight about Rukia being let off so easily, it might be good if he got to see that Rukia would have a bit more punishment that what he actually thought.

Now, there was one last issue he would have to resolve with the two shinigami. Renji. Rukia would certainly start looking for him soon. It would be best if they were put to their punishments as soon as possible, so that the question would not cross their mind. After all, he did not know if the boy, or the girl, for that matter, would do anything reckless if they found out that Renji was actually missing in action.

Well, actually, it was inevitable that the question would cross their mind, but since they would be 'imprisoned' then they couldn't actually do anything about it.

The reason why the 1st division captain was so reluctant to tell them anything, was because what Ikkaku and Yumichika had reported was not good at all. They had detected Renji's spirit force – that was good, even though it was said to be extremely faint. However, they had not found Renji at all. That meant that Renji was dying, and if Ikkaku and Yumichika did find him, he would probably be dead already. Yamamoto did not want to give the orange haired captain and his shinigami friend a false hope.

Yamamoto closed his eyes. There was a stage when he felt like those two – where he could do anything he wanted, but that was a long, long time ago.

"Right. Is everything clear?" The old captain examined the two shinigami in front of him. He had just told them the details of their punishment. Rukia had taken it like a normal shinigami would've, however, the boy was still spouting excuses, though not as much as yesterday, since the girl was with him.

"But why is it outside the Court of Pure Souls?"

The old man sighed. The real reason why was that he did not want them to find out that Renji was gone. Knowing Rukia, she would probably find out the real reason somehow.

"Outside of the Court of Pure Souls, and where we will be sending you, it will be extremely complementary to what you will be doing." A pause. "You will concentrate a lot easier. Any more questions?" he asked, but his eyes disagreed.

Rukia did not say anything. Ichigo, on the other hand, seemed to want to ask thousands more, but seemed content with that one answer. Besides, the old captain's eyes looked fairly dangerous.

"Right. Well, you can start off straight away. Oh, Rukia, this is a personal request – please allocate some times in the evening in which you can teach Kurosaki-taichou the basics of his captain job. This was supposed to be done by Hinamori-fukitaichou, however…"

"I understand," said the girl.

The actual place allocated for them did not just include a building. In fact, it was a medium sized house, accompanied by a small garden that included a little pond. Ichigo had raised his eyebrow when he first saw it – wasn't this supposed to be punishment. Rukia on the other hand had not said a word.

They now sat in the living room of the house, not saying anything. They had looked at amount of paperwork they had to do, and had let out a big long sigh.

"This is all your fault, you know." Ichigo expected her to jump up, yell, defend herself and attack him as she usually did, but this time she just gave him a sideways glance. Well, that didn't get him anywhere.

"Don't you think it's weird," he continued, "that even though this was supposed to be punishment, they give us this nice house, and even a garden?"

"…"

"Oi, Rukia, are you awake?"

"Huh?"

"I said, don't you think its weird that –"

"Yes. I've never heard of it before," she muttered wanly, though Ichigo could tell she wasn't paying any real attention to him.

"…"

"Oi."

This time, Rukia looked up, because Ichigo was standing right in front of her. She felt her face reddening, and she looked away angrily, for he had disturbed her train of thought. "What?" she said crossly.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Nothing. I was just thinking," she said, but a lot softer. Ichigo could tell she was lying – but girls were girls, and he felt content to leave it at that – for the moment.

The truth was, Rukia didn't want to tell him she was thinking of Renji. The first thing she had noticed when they had arrived at the Court of Pure Souls was that the shinigami population seemed strangely subdued. Another thing that disturbed her, but she hadn't exactly pursued, was the fact that both Hitsugaya and Hisagi were back from their mission, however, she had not seen Renji. Oh, it was probable that he was out at the time of their arrival – but it just seemed that the old captain was hiding something from them. It couldn't be possible that he was…

"No…"

"What?" answered Ichigo, who was now at the other side of the room.

"Nothing…" she replied, and even though Ichigo turned his back to her again, she knew that he would ask about later. Oh well, she would probably have to tell him. Hopefully he would say that it was just her thinking too much. Hopefully.

After a few moments of silence, she decided she should probably speak up. She had just realised that Ichigo had been starting most of the conversations between them, and she had basically brushed him off. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she was scared that Ichigo would suddenly bring up the topic of…what he had said that night in the inn. It wasn't that she was scared of it, it was just that it scared her that Ichigo actually liked her.

For sure, she liked him, but was it more than just liking him? He could – no he was an idiot at times, but she knew that almost every time he had good intentions.

"So, you want to start working now?"

"Huh?" The tone of his voice told her that he was slightly surprised. She smiled to herself.

"I said, let's start working now." She paused, to measure his reaction. He just looked at her evenly. "I mean, if we finish a big amount today we could probably have tonight off."

"Hn."

She took his grunt as a yes, and moved toward the large room where they were supposed to work. They had examined the room earlier, and had been greeted with mountains upon mountains of sheets.

The only thing good Ichigo could see was that the sheets were placed in neat piles – so he wouldn't have to sort them. He sat at one of the desks and picked up a pile to begin. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rukia do the same. Rukia. Ever since they had come back from their trip together, there was just a little something different about her. At times she completely ignored him, which he had thought that he didn't mind at all – but he found that it was irritating him constantly. For some reason he just wanted to know what she was thinking, who she was thinking of. At other times, she seemed to give him her attention – almost too much attention, and Ichigo found that was also disturbing him greatly. But he didn't think it was that bad. The other night, when they had finished talking about something – he couldn't remember – she had just given him a casual 'bye' and a knowing smile, before entering Byakuya's mansion. That smile drove him crazy, and he wasn't able to sleep until the early hours of the morning – he couldn't stop thinking of it.

He looked down at his pile, which lay untouched. He sneaked a glance to where Rukia was sitting, and noticed that her pile was of similar size to his. So he liked her. But now what? Did she even feel the same way for him – or did those kisses they had mean nothing. God, the woman had taken his first kiss away from him, and now they didn't even talk about it. Though, Ichigo did admit he hadn't actually thought of kissing any other girl besides Rukia.

He sneaked another glance at Rukia. She was sitting with her elbows on the desk, face between her palms. It seemed like she was deep in thought. Well, so he thought, until she turned to look at him. He immediately lowered his gaze, and felt his face heating up. Damn Rukia. Now she probably thought he was doing something stupid, like staring at her. Not that he was, or anything.

Desperately, he tried to find something to do, something that would take his mind off the event that just happened. He grabbed the top sheet of his pile and furiously started working. He finished it in record time. He picked up another one immediately, and started on it. It wasn't till the sixth sheet when he summoned up enough courage to look over to where Rukia. She was sitting there, a small smile on her face as she worked.

"Hey."

After finishing off the sentence she was writing, she looked up at Ichigo, who was looking at her paper, not at her. She allowed herself a small smile, when she remembered that she had caught Ichigo staring at her.

"You said that if we worked the whole day we could have tonight off."

"Yeah, and?" She seemed surprised at Ichigo's expression.

He looked at her carefully. "Rukia, didn't you notice that you've been working non-stop? It's already night outside."

"What?"

"Look, I even turned the lights on," he said.

"Oh yeah…you did too," she said, more to herself than to him. "I guess I was a bit engrossed."

"Tch…shut-up. Don't tell me you like doing this stuff."

They sat on the wooden porch, looking at the small Japanese garden. The gentle sound of trickling water was the only disturbance in the still night air. All in all, it was peaceful, but Rukia knew better than to believe that the peace could last. Somewhere out there Aizen was planning something – something that would disrupt the balance of the three worlds forever.

"Rukia."

She was so lost in her thought that she didn't fully register that Ichigo was speaking to her.

"Rukia," he said, this time a bit more forcefully.

"Yeah?" she answered, turning to face him.

"Aren't you going to tell me?"

"What?"

Ichigo let out an annoyed breath, and looked straight ahead. "Don't act like you don't know. You've been pre-occupied ever since you came here."

"I know."

"What the hell is 'I know'? That doesn't tell me what I want to know!"

Again, Ichigo expected Rukia to yell back at him – no he actually wanted Rukia to yell back at him because that would mean she was feeling normal, and everything would be all right again. What she said next shocked him.

"Sorry."

"…"

"I…I don't want to tell you."

"Tell me."

Rukia drew in a deep breath. "I think something's happened to Renji."

Renji. Of course, he should have known. "Oh."

Rukia heard the sudden change in his tone, and immediately regretted telling him. But, she had already said what she was basically thinking of, so she would probably have to follow through now.

"It's not like that, Ichigo," she started, even though she didn't even know herself what that meant. "I mean, I'm just thinking – why would they put us here in some deserted place, Hitsugaya-taichou and Hisagi-fukitaichou are back – but we didn't see Renji. Didn't you notice that everyone was being strangely quiet when we entered the Court of Pure Souls."

"I…yeah," was his response, though it sounded like he wasn't fully convinced.

"It's not like that," she said again, frustrated that Ichigo would take her the wrong way.

"It's fine. It's understandable that you would worry about him." With that, Ichigo stood up.

"Wait, Ichigo," she said, trying to put as much command in her voice as possible. "Stay."

"Why?" he replied, still standing up, but at least not moving. "I should just leave you to think of Renji, since you're so worried about him," obviously trying to sound uncaring.

"No. Of course I'm worried…but…I want you to stay. I…I like being with you."

Ichigo glanced down at her. And then sat down, but he refused to look at her. There was an awkward period of silence.

"…"

"So," Ichigo started, "You think that something has happened to Renji."

"Yeah," she replied, looking at him, trying to will him into turning around and facing her, but his face seemed set straight forward.

"I don't think he is."

When Rukia sighed, Ichigo let out an irritated breath.

"Look, its not like we can do anything about it, if something has happened to him, right?"

"…"

"So stop worrying about it."

For some reason he felt Rukia would accept his lame explanation. And she did. He could see her visibly loosen up. That was all he wanted. But, it was obvious now that Rukia still had heavy attachments to Renji. And, for some reason, that hurt him. He didn't feel like he belonged next to her anymore.

"I'm going."

"What? No, stay," Rukia said.

This time, Ichigo looked at her. "Why should I stay?"

Something clicked, and his response suddenly made sense to Rukia. He was jealous. Of course he was. Now that she had heard his confession a couple of nights ago, everything made sense. She stopped herself from smiling, because she knew Ichigo would take that the wrong way as well.

"Ichigo, I want you to stay."

He didn't say anything but he got up once again.

Rukia sighed, and smiled at the ground. She reached up and pulled on his shirtsleeve just as he was about to go. She felt no surprise when Ichigo didn't give much struggle at all. She pulled him down, pulled herself up against him, closed her eyes, and kissed him deeply. As she felt him slowly start to respond to her kiss, she pulled away gently, before she got too carried away. She gave him a small smile, and then sat down, pulling him next to her, winding her arm around his – it was something she had always wanted to do.

She could've just explained to him that there were no 'special' feelings between her and Renji. She could have just told him that she liked him. But, Rukia thought, as she pulled herself closer to him, it was easier the way she had done it. And, much more interesting, she thought, as she felt her face redden. Thank goodness it was dark.

AN: And, we'll leave it there. Mostly because I'm tired. And it was a long chapter (the longest yet). Anyway, I guess you could take that as the start of their relationship – though, I'll explore it a lot deeper next time. Please review, hope everyone was happy with this chapter, though I know it didn't really get interesting till the end – sorry, but I really needed to set the scene, blah blah blah.