Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of the products mentioned.

Week three

By this time Rukia was starting to believe in karma and all that Jazz, for just as Ichigo stood up, after their whole episode… he slipped on what ever 'paper' Renji threw on the floor. He wasn't raving in pain of cursing, he kept lying silently on the floor, not moving a muscle.

"Ichigo?" He didn't reply or even groan in pain. "Strawberry? This isn't funny?" She looked at the orange haired man lying motionless. She kicked his foot. Nothing.

"Uhm guys!" she yelled to get everyone's attention "I think Ichigo is dead..." Renji only shrugged and continue to play the game that Rukia and Ichigo had abandoned.

"What do you mean?" Toshiro, who was already dressed in his pyjama's came down the stairs. Rukia didn't answer him immediately, but bent down and touched Ichigo's neck.

"No, false alarm. He's got a pulse." As she straightened her pose, Toshiro was already by Ichigo's side checking his pulse again.

"What did you do to the poor guy?" Said guy started to moan and turn.

"See… he is alive." Rukia pointed at him and then sat on the couch next to him. The poor soul sat up with great struggle. Once up he looked Rukia in the eye, groaned and mumble something along the lines of 'a royal pain in my ass'.

"I'm going to bed… to sleep off this pain." Maybe he wanted to emphasise it more, so he looked straight at Rukia when he said the word 'pain'. As he disappeared through the double doors, leading into his room he felt the forceful stare of violet orbs.

~Monday~ *31/01*

It was safe to say Rukia couldn't sleep that night, because it was just around 3 in the morning when she became fed up at looking at her ceiling. In her purple nightgown and pink bunny slippers she made her way down stairs for a much needed midnight snack. The refrigerator eliminated the house in an eerie glow. She settled for Ichigo's strawberry yogurt and made her descent to her room. A glimmer of light escaped underneath the double doors and caught Rukia's attention. She only slid the door open, a small crack of light formed. She could see inside Ichigo was bent over the engine of an old, beaten up car. From where she was leaning against the door it looked like he was talking to himself, but in reality he was humming a song. A song that had more history than the national anthem.

For the second time that night the song started in his head and just continued. He was meddling with the carbonator when a small sneeze made him aware of his onlooker outside his door. As casually as he could he walked to the table next to the door, pretending to search for something. All part of his plan not to scare away his little stalker. He yanked the doors open and down fell a little raven haired girl with a small bowl of yogurt.

"Oh look, it is you Rukia… what can I do for you?" The yogurt was entertaining her hair and face when she looked up and Ichigo couldn't help but laugh.

"It's not funny!" she whisper-screamed at him, while she tried to investigate the damage.

"Wouldn't you laugh if a midget with yogurt in her hair was standing in front of you?" He smiled.

"Ha-Ha… very funny." She patted her gown, dusting of the imaginary dirt.

"Hold on" he touched her cheek were some yogurt had landed and wiped some of it off "is this my strawberry yogurt?" she froze. Quickly she thought about excuses and so on, but telling the truth was going to get more of a reaction.

"Yes, it is." Then she did something that could only be described as insane or totally flirty… taking his finger and licking off the yogurt "It's too delicious not to eat some." Normally she wouldn't do anything remotely like this; she would never come in a foot radius from a male or even touch him. Now standing less than a foot away, she was blushing.

He leaned down, his face only an inch from hers… "Well, let me taste some." He licked a smudge of yogurt off her cheek, making the crimson glow on her cheeks darker. "Maybe we should clean you up, we wouldn't want you smelling like rotten milk, would we?" she flinched. "Relax, I won't use my tongue".

Again her blush got darker. Grabbing her had they made their way to the kitchen with Ichigo leading the way. He dabbed a cloth in some warm water and walked over to Rukia, who by now was sitting on the counter.

"You know I almost kicked Shuuhei's ass because I thought he ate my yogurt… looks like a need to apologize." Ichigo started some small talk, but Rukia won't budge. The cloth circled around her mouth as Ichigo's concentration was glued to her fine lips. Those cherry lips were so small and gently, he couldn't help but stare. His cloth-free hand moved passed her left cheek and cradled her neck.

"You are awfully quiet…" she looked up, and Ichigo could see why. Her cheeks were blood red and her eyes had grown enormous. He dropped the cloth and leaned forward. Inch by inch he closed the space between the lips, but when their lips brushed against each other Rukia pulled away and turned to face the cabinet on her right.

"Ichigo…"

"Sorry." He quickly turned away and head out. Rukia could only hear the soft thump of his door. The kitchen grew silent. She sat there for another 15 minutes thinking what would have happened if she hadn't pulled away.

Throughout the day, she avoided him and he avoided her. At lunch Rukia pulled Momo away from the Cafeteria to go sit in an empty classroom, where Ichigo sent Renji to look if she was in the Cafeteria as he hid behind his locker door.

All their roommates noted something when both excused themselves to eat in their room, both not feeling well. None of them wanted to say it, but the air was thick between them, so something had happened when they weren't looking.

~Tuesday~ *01/02*

Orihime was hugging his arm off as they walked through the school. Everyone was used to them walking around, arm-in-arm, as they did for the last year. "Ichi-bo…" His nickname she gave him, really irritated him to hell, but he couldn't say anything or he'd be the son of a bitch who was against Orihime.

Reluctantly he answered "Yes..."

"I heard from a very reliable source that Rukia has been sleeping around with the guys in your house." He stopped. "Bo… it just don't want you to fall in her trap, so you should watch-"

"Rukia ain't like that." The anger in his eyes bore into Orihime's. Sending a chill up her spine.
"What?" he ripped his arm from hers and walked away. Eyes were glued to him as he walked down the hall and he immediately knew what rumours were going to arise. At the end of the hall Toshiro stood and gave him a puzzling look. He just shrugged it off and went to stand outside. Breathing in the cold air, made him relax.

"So I heard they call my roommates the Six Kings… why is that?" Rukia asked as she was poking around in her salad, looking for some tomato under all the lettuce. Momo looked up from her sandwich, her brown eyes questioning Rukia.

"Well… how to explain this." She placed the sandwich down and shifted closer to Rukia. "Okay so basically the school calls them that, because of the fact that they're the 'king' of their own area of expertise… Take Shiro for instant, he is the Head of the Yearbook committee… Captain of the Baseball team and he is a good planner of sorts. Most girls only like him because they want him to take a photo of them. Did you know he is an intern at the biggest photograph company in the country?"

"No, but wow… what about Chad? He is always so quiet..."

"The big, strong silence type… always a winner, but mainly because he is the Captain of our Football team, he made us won the last two years." After munching down on a slice of cucumber Rukia asked about the others. "Renji is the wacko of the six… he is a black belt in Karate and he isn't too bad with a kitana. Shiro told me, but don't tell him I told you, but Renji has a crush on you." Rukia only shrugged it off; she wasn't in the mood for a relationship after what happened yesterday.

"You probably know that Shuuhei is in a band… you probably should stay clean of him."

"Toshiro said the same… is he really that bad?"

"Let's just say he and Miss Soi Fon has something going on behind the bleachers." Nemu interrupted, finally joining the conversation.

"OH… that's way he gets the nice-nice treatment in P.E." Rukia only grinned as she thought about the dark haired man who lives down the hall from her.

"And Uryu-" at the mention of his name Nemu started to blush slightly, but it looks like only Rukia caught it. "-he is the smartest of the group, actually he is the smartest in the whole school." Nemu turned her attention back to her lunch.

"And Ichigo…"

"I don't want to know!" Rukia turned away from her friends as she tried to hide her blush.

"Rukia?" Momo touched her arm, sending ripples down her spine.

"It is just… That guy makes me so angry, all the freaking time." With that the conversation died down and break ended.

That afternoon at work Ichigo was luckily not there, but unfortunately for Rukia, Rangiku was. And she is like a hound dog, she smelled the difference in Rukia and immediately knew it was something to do with love. Her mission for the day was to find out as much as she possible could. Urahara was in good fortune that there wasn't too many customers complaining about Rangiku running a mock after Rukia.

"Like at told you a thousand times already Rangiku… I'm not in love with anyone." They were cleaning up as the shop was closing.

"I know that face when I see it Rukia, just ask my loving Gin… he knows all about it." Yes, Rukia knew all about Rangiku's loving Gin, since she started to work there she got the whole story from start to finish. How he asked her out on a date, how the date went. What sort of man he was and how good he was in bed. Stories that made Rukia head for the hills when Gin walked through the door of the coffeehouse when he usually picked up Rangiku.

"Good night Rangiku, I'm going home now. Good night Urahara, see you Thursday." Rukia wrapped her scarf around her neck and started to head out. This particular day winter was in full swing yet again, which was very weird. When are you going to buy a car? A voice nagged in the back of her mind as she started her journey home, a journey of 19 blocks of cold, icy wind. Two blocks away she felt like her legs were frozen solid, but she just continued. A blue Mustang stopped next to her and the window rolled down.

"Midget, get in the car." She just kept walking, rather the cold than to be in the same car as him.

"No thank you, I'm fine out here. Walking. Alone. Not with you." She said as the car started to move with her.

"Yeah I get that you want to avoid me. But you are going to freeze" as he the words left his mouth, cold wind passed by Rukia. Giving her more goose bumps.

"Fine…" Unwillingly she got into the Mustang with the person she has been hiding from for the last two days. Luckily he made it easy and the one class they had together (Science)… he skipped. The ride was warmer than outside, but the atmosphere was much colder. With a few blocks down and only a few to go Rukia prayed that the ride would end quickly… and it did. Ichigo pulled over and cut the engine.

"I can't take it anymore, we have to talk about… yesterday." He kept is eyes on the steering wheel.

"No we don't… nothing happened."

"Rukia, you know as well as I do, more than nothing happened… we almost…"

"Kissed?" he nodded. "Ichigo nothing happened, okay?"

"Then why have you been running away from me?" He turned to her and she turned away. She didn't want to have this conversation at all.

"I don't … you just bring up bad memories." She started to fiddle with a piece of paper from her back pocket, but Ichigo grabbed her hands.

"Rukia, look at me." She kept staring out of the car until his hand turned her face the other way. The next thing she knew, he was kissing her. Not too hard and not too gentle. Passionately and slow. It surprised her that she was kissing him back.

"Stop!" she broke the kiss and backed away as far as she could. "Start the car and take me home."

"Rukia don't do this." He tried to take her hand again, but she yanked it away.

"Trust me Ichigo, this… can't happen. I know how it feels to be cheated on. Even though I don't like Orihime… she doesn't deserve this. Now drive or I'm walking home." The rest of the ride home was silent and awkward. Rukia slammed the door as she got out and didn't even look back.

~Wednesday~ 02/02

The whole house (apart from Rukia) was running late, as usually. By the time they had to leave Ichigo still hadn't come out of his room. Rukia told the guys to leave him be and just go to school without him. When Renji knocked, Ichigo opened door, threw Renji his keys and shut the door again.

"Told you, now let's go before we are late." Rukia opened the door ushering the boys out. "Bye Ichigo" she whispered as she closed the door.

He stood with his head against his door as he listened to the three cars drive away. Silence. It was broken when Ichigo kicked he toolbox, sending his tools flying all over the room. "ARGH! What the hell is wrong with me?" he placed his hands on the bonnet of the Camaro and then his head. He was still in the clothes of the day before, a dark blue jean and a black long sleeved shirt, when he grabbed Chad's keys of the rack. Without a jacket or helmet he sped forward with the motorbike going to a place that could help him with his problem. Less than 30 minutes later he cut the engine and headed into the graveyard.

"Mom… I don't know what to do." He touched the gravestone inscribed with MASAKI KUROSAKI Wife and Beloved Mother. "At first she drove me mad, insane even… then when I found her out on the porch, passed out in the cold, something changed. From then on each time I see those violet eyes, I melt. But… Orihime." He sat down and continued to talk. "I told you about her before, she was just my friend, nothing more… until that jerks started to… to… I saved her, but she took it the wrong way. Now if I leave her, the whole school is going to think I am a jerk." A pause.

"You always told me I shouldn't care what people think, but I don't want them to think badly about Rukia either… she changed my world. In, not even 3 weeks. Is this how love feels? Mom I don't know anymore." The snow got heavier and Ichigo decided to head back before he is stuck with a nasty cold.

~Thursday~ *03/02*

The café was full of people as the storm blew in. Rukia and Rangiku were running around with coffee and hot chocolate the whole afternoon, people poured in and later the whole place was full. Urahara muttered something about needing more help. Silently Rukia wished that he didn't call Ichigo to come help, and 20 minutes later a short woman with short blond hair walked in. She was in plain jeans and a simple black shirt.

"Urahara I'm here and you should be lucky, this place is full." Rukia greeted the stranger; she introduced herself as Kiyone and sped off to take some orders. As the day came to an end Rukia was dead tired. She grabbed her jacket and looked outside to see the winter wonderland.

"I'm gonna need a lift." She muttered, yanked out her phone and went to the contact list. For a moment she hovered on Ichigo's name, but scrolled down to Toshiro's number.

"Rukia? Hi…"

"Oh, Toshiro. Sorry to call, but can you maybe come pick me up?"

"… uhm I'm kinda out with Karin at the moment, wait I'll call Ichigo."

"NO!" but before her request for not him went through, the call was ended. "Shit." It wasn't 5 minutes later that the Mustang stood outside the coffeehouse. Rukia turned away, contemplating if this was the right choice, but she pulled herself together and swallowed the feeling that was brewing in her throat. Inside the Mustang was warm and the engine made as soft hum. She didn't greet him and he didn't try to. When they reached the first intersection with a red light, Ichigo turned to Rukia.

"You should know how Orihime and I started to go out"

"I don't… really I don't"

"Well you are going to hear it anyway…" he started his story and Rukia couldn't help but listen.

Flashback

The sun was high in the sky as summer was in full swing. The whole class was at the beach enjoying a day in the sea, sand and summer. Ichigo and Renji were deep in the sea waiting for the right wave to come along. They talked about girls, parents and their passed year in High School. As the day dragged on, no waves came so the two boys swam back to the shore to join their friends. They played volleyball and built sandcastles around sleeping Renji. Everything was all fun and games. On his way home Ichigo stopped to get the sand out of his sandals. He heard a muffled sound coming from the alley. At first the young teen though it was a cat or something, but he saw a red head duck behind the big dumpster. Slowly making his way around… two jerks jumped him, he third held on to Orihime, his hand over her mouth. And his other hand down her shirt… The orange haired male was enraged and took on the two that wanted to pound him.

He made mince meat of them then went to the third; he pulled Orihime away from him and gave her a reassuring hug. "It is okay, I'm here."

"Are you her boyfriend or what?" the man laughed as her lunged at Ichigo, two swift kicks and he was down for the count. Ichigo bent down and before hitting the guy unconscious he said: "Yeah I am". After that the cops showed up and booked the three guys, but Orihime also booked Ichigo. From that day on, they were going out, even though he didn't mean to…

End Flashback

"So you want me to believe that you are the hero and that is should feel bad for you?" Rukia looked him in the eyes and he could tell she wasn't too happy about his story.

"No, I just want you to understand my situation…" he wiped his face with he large hand.

"Your situation? You could've broken it off with her long ago."

"I tried once and just before she came yelling that a guy was threatening her and I couldn't stand to watch her get hurt…"

"Did you ever see this man?" he looked stunned as he drove. The question wasn't what he expected.

"No, but as time went on, nothing happened and nobody threatened her again."

"Orihime is smarter than she looks… I give her that." Ichigo cut off the engine as they had pulled up the driveway.

"What do you mean?" She climbed out and looked back inside.

"If you ever realise what is going on, maybe I'll still be available, but if you don't wake up soon… you are doomed forever." With that she walked to the house and disappeared behind the door.

"Realise what Rukia… that I love you?"

~Friday~ *04/02*

This Friday night no party or big event shook the foundations of the house. Shuuhei was out with his band, playing a gig. Only God knows where. So the whole house was quiet and relaxed, except when Renji screamed "Die mother Fucker. Die!" The PS3 was in full swing. He hadn't stopped playing since they returned from school. Ichigo was in the kitchen wiping something up and the smell travelled through the house.

"Smells good." Toshiro commented as he was cleaning his lenses and organising his backpack. He was going out said Saturday to take photos out in the snow, so everything should stand ready a whole day earlier. "Rukia, why aren't you helping? I thought Ichigo was going to teach you?"

She didn't look up from her TEENZONE magazine as she spoke. "Nah, I don't feel like taking orders from that moron today, maybe some other time." She continued to read the fascinating article about ADHD. By the time dinner was done and Ichigo called the remaining brood of boys, and girl, to come and sit down to eat.

Ichigo kept his eyes to his food, chewing remarkably slowly. Where as Rukia sat and enjoyed the dinner conversation, their eyes not meeting once.

Later she stood in her room, alone, Rukia let out the breath that's been weighing down her life force. Never knowing how hard it was to sit in the same room as him, smile at Renji's idiotic jokes and munching down on his delicious food. The petite girl grabbed a photo from her album that brought so many pain and sorrow, but brought back great memories.

Knock-Knock

At first Rukia thought it was Ichigo knocking. 90% of her wished it was him and the other 10% tried to warn her, but the voice that asked permission to enter wasn't Ichigo's.

"Toshiro, come on in…" She turned the photo upside down on her desk and watched the white haired boy enter.

"What is going on Rukia?" he sat on the bed and stared at her standing across the room.

"Nothing… why would anything be wrong?" Her fake smile was planted on her lips and cheeks.

"You know, I wasn't born yesterday… I can see something is up between you and Ichigo. I just don't know what. Did he hurt you or –" Her smile faded.

"No…" her response was quick and straight to the point "…it just, if I tell you… would you keep it a secret, please?"

"Yes I promise." She went and sat next to him on the bed and told him the whole story from the event that happened Monday morning to the awkward conversation in his car. "Rukia, you should know… Ichigo doesn't do something without reason. He lives to protect the ones who are dear to him."

"I know, but I shouldn't be one of them."

"Why not?"

She didn't have an answer, he only replied with a hug, a hug that Rukia desperately needed. Right on cue her door opened to reveal Ichigo standing in her doorway. "Oh. Sorry." His voice was blunt with a hint of anger. He disappeared from their sights, down the hall. On instinct Rukia jumped from Toshiro's friendly embrace to stop Ichigo.

"Wait." She whisper-screamed to avoid the guys hearing down stairs. "Would you stop, please?"

"Why? You looked fine with Toshiro…" both of them was standing in the narrow corridor, only a foot away from each other.

"What? You think-"

"What do you expect me to think? Huh? Do you want me to believe Orihime is right?"

She didn't know how to respond. Orihime has been a torn in her side from day one. "No, she has got you so good Ichigo, like you are her perfect puppet and you are too blind to see it."

"I'm the puppet? What were you doing with Toshiro?"

"He was comforting me. Okay?" he stayed quiet for awhile hoping Rukia would explain, she saw the look in his eyes and decided he needed to know. "I told him, about… this. I just needed someone to talk to."

"Why not me?"

"Because I don't trust myself with you… so please don't make it harder than it already is." She turned away and walk straight into her room, Toshiro wasn't there; he probably slipped out when they were arguing and into his own room. She picked up the photo again and only asked one question before putting it away. "Kaien is this the feeling you had?"

~Saturday~ *05/02*

Rukia's day didn't start bright and early, she slept in 'till about 11 'o clock. Her shift didn't start until noon. So slowly she rolled out of her bed and got dressed in a blue jean and white button down shirt. The air still had a chilly bite to it, so just for extra measure she threw her purple scarf around her neck and grabbed her black leather jacket. After grabbing an apple for the road, Rukia told the few remaining guys (Chad, Renji and Shuuhei) she was going to work. Chad offered to take her, but she was not in the mood to have a near death experience again.

The sun baked the back of Rukia's head as she made her way to the coffeehouse, the fresh air was what she needed. The whole night she rolled around in her bed, trying to reason with herself. Trying to convince herself she didn't feel anything for Ichigo, but who was she kidding. She wanted to kiss him from the moment they met and actually kick his ass at the same time. But ultimately she vowed not to let this distract her, she was going to stay away from him the best she could.

Her plan didn't work so well when she entered the café. Ichigo was standing with a tray in his hands, walking to the table and set down the customers' lunch. When he looked up, after being thanked by the young lady at the table, his eyes connected with hers. Both turned away from each other. The day dragged on and nothing happened, they said what needed to be said, mostly orders and screw ups, but that was it.

"What is going on with those two?" Urahara's tapped on Rangiku's shoulder drawing her attention.

"I don't know… they look so distant toward each other."

Urahara only smirked and went to his office.

~Sunday~ *06/04*

The table was set for lunch and all the boys were already sitting, awaiting their feast. Rukia came out of the kitchen holding a giant silver pot. When she revealed the content there was a cheer in the room. Roast beef… a recipe Rukia borrowed from Momo and she wanted to try it out. The smell was heavenly and soon it was gone, as the occupants of the house devoured the meal.

"I hoped you guys enjoyed that… because I won't be making it anytime soon." There were sad faces and faces of annoyance.

"Well, a job well done." After Toshiro thanked her for a meal, he excused himself and headed outside, car keys in hand.

"Where do you think he goes?" Renji asked as he gulped down his mouthful of Coke.

"I don't know." Rukia shrugged, but of course she knew… he was on his way to Karin. Rukia expected an uneventful evening, but she was wrong. Uryu called her downstairs when the doorbell rang. She didn't know who it could be. She didn't have a lot of friends here, so who would be searching for her?

Her feet pattered down the stairs. She had her black jean on and only a simple purple shirt. Entering the lounge she passed Ichigo. For a moment both of them looked at each other, but both turned away without saying anything. Something tugged at her stomach and she wanted to turn around, grab him and kiss him. But another male presence in the room caught her attention.

He stood behind Uryu as they walked towards her. Only wearing a black shirt and a jean, he still looked handsome. An expression of relieve was painted on his face. His hair was black and untamed, just as untamed as the look in his aqua green eyes.

"Hello, Rukia" She was stunned as he stood there, wacky smile and all.

"What are you doing here, Kaien?"

R.I.P. sSappHireSs
WAAITT! I'm not dead... yet.

I'm really sorry for taking sooooo long to update, but after the whole stress of school **, and the fact that for the last 2 weeks FanFiction wouldn't let me log on... I couldn't post this sooner!

So please don't kill me... *standing on knees, waving a white flag*
Please... o.0

If you don't hate me... review?