Three Days

"Ichigo…are you…meditating?"

Ichigo opened one eye slowly, jumping in his seat as he saw three faces staring back at him at much closer proximity than he was expecting. He breathed deeply, shaking his head.

"Um…then what are you doing?" asked Orihime Inoue, raising her finger to her mouth in confusion.

"Ah…it's not important…don't worry about it," Ichigo replied with a smile, not exactly excited at the prospect of explaining his kidou training to his overly concerned friends.

"It looked like you were meditating," argued Chad, although his characteristically unenthusiastic tone could hardly be called argumentative.

"Yeah, I was just tired…" out of the corner of his eye Ichigo saw Uryuu smirk to himself, obviously not fooled by Ichigo's story. Ichigo sighed, impatiently waiting for class to start so he could focus on clearing his mind without any further interruptions, and just hope that the teacher would fail to notice his lack of attention during lectures.

"Class, before we get started I have some exciting news!" announced the teacher as the students settled into their seats. "I'd like to introduce our new transfer student, Miss…I'm sorry, what did you say your name was again?"

Ichigo stared in horror at the new "transfer student", an abnormally short, dark haired girl who returned his gaping expression with a smug smile.

"Kuchiki," Rukia answered. "My name is Rukia Kuchiki."

"All right then, Kuchiki. You can have a seat wherever you like."

"Thank you," said Rukia. Ichigo coughed lightly at her false politeness. "I'll take that desk there," she said, sitting down next to Ichigo.

"What…are…you…doing…here?" Ichigo hissed through his teeth.

"Making sure you don't do anything stupid with your training, what else?" replied Rukia, pulling some pens and notebooks out of her bag. "Oh, don't give me that look," she whispered, frowning at Ichigo, who still glared at her as though she'd sold his puppy.

Ichigo shook his head in exasperation, unable to think of anything he could say to her that would possibly make her change her mind and go home. Not that he minded having Rukia around, but her unexpected "transfers" into his class every so often were more trouble than they were worth. For the entire day he'd receive strange looks and questions from his classmates, all of them undoubtedly wondering why the mysterious new student stayed so close to him and seemed so comfortable around him. Of course, they'd forget everything about her as soon as Rukia decided she'd had enough fun for the day, and Ichigo would just be left feeling stressed out and exhausted. All he wanted was a little warning.

"Okay, let's begin," ordered the teacher, and the class uniformly flipped open their textbooks, pens at the ready to record all of the teacher's lecture.

All right…concentrate, thought Ichigo, figuring that now was as good a time as any to resume his training. He closed his eyes; letting his mind fall back to the image he'd deemed the most useful in helping him focus. The characters of Rukia's name illuminated themselves in his mind's eye, glowing softly against a dark background. He didn't know why he'd defaulted to using that image, but with such little time left until Yoruichi's test Ichigo wasn't about to contemplate the matter.

He traced over each of the strokes one by one, letting all of his other concerns drift from his thoughts. Unfortunately, however, this did not work as well as his previous attempts. His mind drifted from Rukia's name to a clear picture of her, first in her shinigami robes, and then in her school uniform, standing up in front of the class and introducing herself.

She actually looks kind of cute in that uniform, Ichigo thought, opening his eyes slightly to glance over at her. Rukia sat casually at her desk, head resting lightly on her fingertips as she doodled in her notebook. Ichigo's eyes wandered down to her legs, neatly crossed underneath the tabletop, the tips of her toes barely brushing the ground as she bounced her foot up and down ever so slightly. Rukia shifted positions, jerking her head in a clean, smooth motion to shake her hair out of her eyes. Ichigo suddenly remembered what it felt like to have her head resting on his shoulder, and he quickly looked away, his face beginning to take on a reddish glow.

Shit…I'm not…I don't…I mean…for Rukia?! he asked himself, his breath coming in more and more shallow as it dawned on him that he might feel more for her than he realized. He felt something nudge his arm and looked down, confused to find Rukia slipping a small piece of paper next to his elbow. He picked it up, unfolding it carefully and reading:

Get back to work, idiot! You're not going to get anywhere daydreaming!

NEVER MIND, he thought bitterly, crumpling the paper and shooting her a nasty glance.

Lunch could not have come soon enough. Mentally exhausted, Ichigo welcomed the break.

"You're getting better," Rukia noted, waiting impatiently for Ichigo to open her juice box, a skill she was never quite able to master.

"Yeah…I think I can get about a fourth of my spiritual pressure under control pretty easily," he agreed.

"All right, well, try to get as far as you can by the time school ends. When we get back to your room I'll take your training a step further."

Ichigo coughed, suddenly choking and sputtering on his water. As hard has he tried, he couldn't help but take Rukia's last remark out of context, especially after examining her figure so closely earlier that day.

"Don't…don't say things like that," he croaked as Orihime rushed towards him, frantically instructing him to take deep breaths as Rukia repeatedly whacked the heel of her hand against his back.

--

"Okay! Now that you've begun to master reigning in your spiritual pressure, we can move on to the second part of the training," Rukia said, lecturing Ichigo as they returned to his house from school. "The next step is to be able to keep your spiritual pressure under control while you multi task. If you can't do that, the entire technique is basically useless."

"Yeah, I figured as much," Ichigo said, exhaling sharply. It took nearly everything he had to keep just a fraction of his spiritual pressure under control; he had no idea how to go about maintaining that state while doing other things.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get it," Rukia said, smiling. "You have a way of surprising us all with these types of things."

"Hah, thanks…"

"Right, so the first thing I want you to do is bring in your spiritual pressure as much as you can," instructed Rukia.

Ichigo closed his eyes and focused in on the bright characters of Rukia's name, carefully pulling in as much of his spiritual pressure as he could and slowly stopping its rotation.

"Good. Now, I'm going to give you some simple tasks, and we'll see how well you can perform them."

Ichigo nodded, waiting for Rukia's command.

"Bring me a pencil," she said, sitting herself down on Ichigo's bed. Ichigo stood up carefully, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other while making sure the mass of spiritual pressure he'd collected remained completely still inside of him. It seemed simple enough, and he smiled, relieved that the exercise was proving so much easier than he'd originally thought. He reached his desk, and grabbed the nearest writing utensil he could find.

Damn, this is a pen, he noticed, placing it back down and searching for a pencil.

"Don't lose your focus," Rukia warned as Ichigo's spiritual pressure began to slip back out.

"I'm trying," he said through gritted teeth, forgetting to maintain his concentration while he rummaged through his desk. He closed his eyes again, slowly regaining his composure. "All right," he resumed, picking up his search again. He grabbed the first pencil he saw, hastily carrying it to Rukia before he completely lost control.

"Good," she said. "I didn't actually expect you do be able to do that," Rukia admitted, twirling the pencil between her fingers.

"What?! What kind of encouragement is that? You should have more faith in me!" Ichigo exclaimed, offended.

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Calm down…you were never good at controlling your spiritual pressure. You should be honored that I even considered moving to this stage in your training!" she retorted to a scowling Ichigo.

"Whatever…let's just practice some more. I want to be able to finish this part by dinner," Ichigo said, trying to divide the amount of time it would take for him to be able to control and maintain all of his spiritual pressure in his head.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask you…how have things been with your hollow?" Rukia suddenly asked, catching Ichigo off guard. He thought about it, realizing that he'd gotten through the past day or so without his hollow making any appearances.

"Better, actually," he said. "I haven't heard from him for a while. Ever since we started the kidou training, I guess."

Rukia nodded thoughtfully. "That's interesting…"

"Yeah, I suppose. Now give me another task," Ichigo demanded, suddenly growing impatient. If his hollow seemed to dislike whatever techniques Rukia was making him use, Ichigo wanted to immerse himself in them as deeply as possible as often as he could.

"How rude! Is that any way to speak to your teacher, someone who has graciously given up her precious time to help a hopeless case like-"

"JUST GET ON WITH IT!"

Rukia's eyes widened, and then narrowed menacingly. "FINE! Give Kon a bath," she snapped.

"You…you don't mean that," Ichigo said, instantly regretting his harsh choice of words. Washing the stuffed animal that housed a particularly feisty modified soul was not something Ichigo looked forward to.

Rukia crossed her arms, sticking her nose up at him and turning her head away. "You're just wasting your own time by arguing," she shrugged.

"Please, Rukia-sensei-sama…"

***

"GYAAAAAAAAAH!"

Rukia bolted upright, involuntarily yanking herself out of the tranquility of sleep. She blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the darkness of her closet.

Did Ichigo just scream? What's going on? she frantically asked herself, weakly sliding open the closet door and stumbling out onto the floor.

"SHUT UP! You're going to wake up your family," someone hissed. Through the dark room Rukia could barely make out someone stuffing his hand over Ichigo's mouth, pinning him to the bed as he thrashed underneath. She squinted; as much as the scene before her shocked her, she sensed something very familiar about it.

"Re…Renji?" she whispered, rushing over to Ichigo's bedside. Renji Abarai, her fellow shinigami and childhood friend, was the last person she expected to see. "What are you doing here? Is something wro-"

"Ichi-nii," Ichigo's sister Karin called, knocking at his door. All three of them froze, turning their heads slowly towards the door. "What's going on?"

Ichigo wrenched Renji's hand off of his mouth, gasping for air.

"Everything's all right, Karin, I just…uh…"

"Saw a spider," Rukia suggested quickly.

"I saw a spider," Ichigo echoed. "A spider?!" he mouthed. Rukia shrugged apologetically.

"You saw…a spider," Karin clarified, the concern in her voice giving way to skepticism.

Rukia tugged on Renji's sleeve, gesturing for him to hide out in her closet until she could be sure Karin wouldn't come inside. The Kurosaki family was usually aware of Rukia's comings and goings, but she did not particularly want to explain why another shinigami broke into their house in the middle of the night.

"Y-yeah, it was crawling on my face…it just startled me. Go back to sleep, Karin. I'm sorry I worried you," Ichigo explained.

The atmosphere tensed in the silence as Rukia, Ichigo and Renji (still hiding in the closet) waited to see if Karin would buy the story.

"…You're such a woman sometimes. Dad's never gonna let you live this down," Karin sighed. Rukia and the others relaxed.

"Sure, sure…just go back to bed, all right?" said Ichigo.

"Uh-huh…"

They waited a few moments to speak, wanting to make completely sure Karin was gone.

"Renji, what the HELL are you doing in my room!?" Ichigo spat, eyeing him nastily as he stepped out of Rukia's closet.

"Yes, Renji, what are you doing here?" Rukia added, curious herself.

"Sorry, sorry…I was actually sent here to 'compile a report of the goings on in the material world'."

"In the middle of the night? IN MY HOUSE?" Ichigo demanded, his voice escalating.

"Shut up, will ya? Sorry for intruding, but I'm on a bit of a tight schedule…in case you didn't know, the Soul Society's been kind of swamped lately…the Captain needs me back as soon as possible."

Rukia fidgeted uncomfortably, feeling a bit guilty about keeping her distance while things in the Soul Society were so hectic.

"I just need to ask Rukia a few questions, and then I'll be gone," Renji promised, smoothing out some messily crumpled sheets of paper.

"Me?" asked Rukia, wondering what information she had to offer.

"Could you at least take it somewhere else?" groaned Ichigo, shoving his head underneath his pillow. "I have to wake up early tomorrow…"

"Sure…let's go sit on the roof," said Rukia, climbing over Ichigo and out of the window. Renji nodded, following suit.

"So what does the Soul Society want from me?" Rukia asked again once they were situated.

Renji shrugged. "Just the usual…how have the hollows been, has there been anything strange lately…"

Rukia's stomach dropped. Was Renji really asking if there'd been anything strange lately? Had he not heard about the Elementals? Wasn't that the reason the Soul Society wanted a report in the first place? Did he mean anything else strange going on? She wondered whether she should assume he already knew, or if for some reason the Soul Society was keeping the information private…

"I know something weird is happening," he admitted after a few seconds. Rukia exhaled, relieved. "But no one will tell me what. The captains have been on edge for the past few days…it's really stressing me out," he confessed, laughing nervously.

"If you really want to know, I'll tell you," Rukia offered. Renji deserved to know the whole story, and she trusted that he wouldn't go around spreading the information to the wrong people.

Renji shook his head. "Nah, that's all right…if it gets to be enough of a problem I'll find out soon enough, and if it doesn't, I don't want one more thing to have to worry about…"

"I understand…but if the Soul Society already knows what's happening, why did they send you down here to get a report?" Rukia asked, thinking that it was a waste of time and manpower to send someone to investigate something Yoruichi would inevitably divulge anyway.

"Yeah, I wondered the same thing, but I guess I should have explained more clearly: it wasn't the Soul Society who sent me so much as the Captain…"

"Ah." Renji's surprise visit suddenly made a lot more sense. The Captain to which he kept referring was none other than Rukia's older brother Byakuya, who she imagined was not all too pleased with her lengthy absences, especially if he felt they put her in more danger than necessary.

"You should really go back and visit every once in a while, it would take some of the pressure off of me…" sighed Renji.

Rukia stared at him, wrinkling her forehead in confusion. "How exactly would my presence take the pressure off of you?"

"You know how the Captain is! He gets in a bad mood when he worries…and who do you think he ends up taking it out on? The Sixth Division is the most miserable place in the entire Seireitei," Renji explained bitterly. "Would it really be so bad if you just dropped in now and then?"

"I suppose I should…"

Rukia sat in silence for a few moments as Renji scribbled messy notes on a few pieces of paper, undoubtedly constructing a report that would most effectively satisfy Byakuya. She smiled to herself, remembering how amusing she found it when Byakuya chewed Renji out for little things like his messy handwriting. It had been a long time since she'd returned to the Soul Society, and she'd nearly forgotten that she had a life other than exorcising hollows and spending a few days a week at Ichigo's house. Rukia felt a twinge of nostalgia, but she quickly put it out of her mind. It wasn't that she didn't ever want to return to the Soul Society, but Ichigo needed her, and she needed him…

"All right, I'm finished. I guess I didn't need to ask you any questions after all," Renji said, smiling sheepishly.

"Wha-then why was it necessary to go through all of that? I could be asleep right now!" demanded Rukia, delivering a well-aimed punch at his shoulder.

"Hey, I can't make all of this stuff up, you know! There are certain things Captain Kuchiki asks me about where he'll know if I'm lying…and whether or not I've checked on you is one of them. And that guy is scary. Like…really scary."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Fine…well, I'm going to go back to sleep, I have to tag along with Ichigo to school tomorrow."

"Oh?"

"Yes, he's practicing some kidou…I want to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone."

Renji stared at her, suppressing a laugh. "Ichigo's practicing kidou? How's that working out?"

Rukia scowled, mildly put off by Renji's mocking tone. "He's doing a lot better than you ever did!" she snapped. Renji had no idea how hard Ichigo was working or exactly what he was dealing with. Who was he to judge?

"Hey, I'm not trying to offend you or anything! It's a valid question!"

Rukia sighed. "Right…well I'll see you later I guess. Tell my brother I said hello," she said, climbing down the roof and back into Ichigo's window. While it was nice to see Renji again after so long, his presence just made her worries sink in deeper. She didn't like hearing how the Soul Society was so "on edge" or how much of a bad mood people had adapted. It wasn't as if her presence would do much to change that, so why even bother going back? Although things on Earth hadn't been much better as of late…

"Do us all a favor and tell him yourself," Renji called. "Besides, I don't have to be back until tomorrow night. I'll stick around tomorrow and come visit Ichigo…I want to witness this kidou training with my own eyes," he snickered.

"Goodnight, Renji," Rukia said, smiling despite herself. A little goading from Renji might be just what Ichigo needed to complete the training.

--

Rukia opened her eyes the next morning, squinting at the light that spilled over her as she slid open the closet door. Ichigo's room was quiet, the bed neatly made and his backpack and textbooks notably absent from his desk.

"Wha…what time is it?" Rukia asked herself, groggily trudging over to Ichigo's clock. "9:43…oh, DAMMIT!" she growled, upset with herself for sleeping in and missing the chance to walk to school with Ichigo. "Stupid Renji," she muttered, attributing her need for a few hours of extra sleep to his unexpected visit the previous night (or very early morning). Rukia debated coming to school late, but ultimately decided against it. Ichigo would probably be fine, and she doubted she would be able to convince the secretary to let her into class so late in the day.

Rukia combed through the empty house for her usual fix of tabloids (courtesy of Ichigo's father), looking forward to the prospect of spending the morning reading on Ichigo's bed. However, something bothered her, and she couldn't exactly put her finger on it. She seemed to be forgetting something, or missing something…but Rukia shrugged it off, blaming it on her stress level and lack of sleep. She was sure it would be gone by the afternoon.

After successfully grabbing a few magazines and the entertainment section of the newspaper Rukia crawled on top of Ichigo's bed, pulling open the drapes to let the sunlight flood the dim room. She lied on her side, propping her head up onto her hand and flipping through her reading material. Her unsettling mood began to melt away, and before she knew it her eyelids grew heavy and finally closed shut over her tired eyes.

I shouldn't nap, she thought, fighting the waves of drowsiness that kept coming over her. But something about Ichigo's bed just lulled her closer and closer to sleep. All Rukia could think about was how nice pillow felt against her face, and how the fabric held the lingering scent of Ichigo's shampoo, most likely due to his habit of showering at night…it was almost as if he were sleeping just behind her. She could hear the even rhythm of his breathing, feel his hand reach over her side and pull her towards him…

--

"Ssh, I think she's asleep," someone whispered. Rukia drifted in and out of consciousness, barely aware of someone standing over her. She kept her eyes closed, not yet ready to end whatever dream she was having. She didn't fully remember it, but as far as she could tell it was nice…very nice…

"Let's just go somewhere else. I'll leave a note," Ichigo muttered, quietly pulling a piece of paper out of his bag and hastily scribbling her a message. His voice jolted Rukia out of her hazy state, and she pressed her face into the pillow, suddenly aware that she was blushing uncontrollably. Since when did Ichigo have this effect on her? She squeezed her eyes shut, now convinced that she would continue to feign sleep until Ichigo and who she could only assume to be Renji left.

Once she could be sure the boys were out of the house Rukia sat up, stretching her arms above her head and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She blinked a few times until her eyesight settled, and made her way over to the desk to read Ichigo's note.

Rukia,

Renji and I went to practice kidou at the park. See you later,

Ichigo

"I figured as much," she said to herself, slightly disappointed that the note wasn't longer, although she didn't know what else she'd want him to include. She grabbed her magazines from the bed and brought them over to the desk, deciding that the desk was a much safer place to read and didn't lend itself to naps quite so easily.

She flipped through pages of celebrity gossip for an hour or so, until the same restless and uncomfortable sensation she'd felt earlier returned and finally became so distracting that she was forced to abandon reading altogether.

What is going on…? she wondered, pacing around the room as the feeling became progressively worse. Suddenly she stopped, gasping as the answer came to her. She tried to search out Ichigo's spiritual pressure and barely sensed any. It felt like he'd completely disappeared. Rukia sat back down, thoroughly embarrassed by her reaction to Ichigo's progression through his kidou training. She'd grown so used to his constant presence that when she could no longer sense him it turned her into a nervous wreck. How had things gotten to this point? When did she begin to care so much?

She yelped, nearly knocked off her seat as Ichigo's spiritual pressure came rushing back.

"IDIOT!" she yelled, stamping out of the house and sprinting to the park. What did I tell him about releasing his spiritual pressure slowly? She should have known better than to leave him alone with Renji. Those two imbeciles were probably competing to see who could cause the most damage. But no matter, Rukia would make sure that they repented for submitting to such stupidity. I'll show them what REAL kidou is like…

A/N: Yeesh, this chapter was so long! Sorry for taking a while to update, school is...school. Unfortunately I have a particularly hellish week ahead of me, so I'll be laying low for a bit. Lo siento mucho :(

As always, have a wonderful day, and reviews are love :) I really appreciate your feedback!