A/N: Thank you for all the favorites, alerts and reviews! I really appreciate them all! And also, in this chapter, it's mainly to show parts of Rukia's personality.

Note: In all chapters, before Ichigo and Rukia get to work, their mornings are shown in little tidbits.

[Also, I took this chapter down since I had to make some changes, not major changes, but I didn't want anyone reading the old chapter while I was editing]

Information and small profiles you may want to know:

Kurosaki Ichigo: He's 27 years old, and if you didn't know, he's a pediatrician. He strongly admires literature, and respects William Shakespeare. He met Renji in his first year of college [pre-med], who had been his roommate at the time. When he's working, he takes his job very seriously, but when he's not working, he's more laid back.

Kuchiki Rukia: She's 25 years old, and she too is a pediatrician. However, she is also a debutant artist -who is becoming more popular as time goes. The only problem is that she can't, for some mysteriously strange reason, draw rabbits even though she had a weird fetish with them. She met Tatsuki and Orihime in the middle of her second year of college [pre-med]. She can sometimes be judgmental, but she's also very understanding when time calls for it.

Abarai Renji: He's 27 years old, and he's a mechanic who works at a well-known garage near Seireitei hospital. He really should be working in a more professional place rather than a garage, but he chose not to since he's extremely lazy. He's also smooth with the ladies, but tends to break hearts, nicely though. He's laid back and and pretty goofy, but when he feels like it, he can be smart.

Arisawa Tatsuki: She's 26 years old, and she's a mechanic. She used to work at Renji's rival garage. She sometimes teaches kids at the dojo near Seireitei hospital when she has time. After having her heart broken by her first love, she now despises men because of it [will be explained later]. She's somewhat impulsive, but kind nonetheless.

Inoue Orihime: She's 25 years old, and is a chef at a five star restaurant. She loves food, and is a great cook. However, her own recipes need a little work, they're not yet labeled as "edible." She is also very naïve, open, and curious, which makes her easier to manipulate. She's very kind, generous, and bubbly. She can be serious if time calls for it.

About Seireitei: The divisions in Seireitei Hospital are the same as in the Bleach universe's Seireitei, except for a couple of things. One, some of the divisions are specialized in certain medical fields. Two, some characters were taken out since they weren't exactly fit for the title of "doctor." Such as, Kenpachi and Ikkaku, don't fret though, they were given a better position.

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I claim Bleach as mine and so on…

Chapter 1: Conflicting Thoughts

Rukia groaned and nibbled on her taiyaki. Today was her first day starting work with that… orange haired thing, known as Kurosaki Ichigo. She didn't even know what to call him! He was just a something. She didn't even start her work with him yet and she already wasn't fond of him.

After their little unfortunate meeting[s] last week, Yamamoto proposed that Rukia come in for a few days to get a small orientation of the hospital. He had given the carrot-top minimal time off to show her the important material that only the assistants and head doctors knew. Yes, the carrot-top did do that, which helped a lot, but then he gave her a note containing his "rules" and what she had to do for him as his assistant.

To do list and rules:

1. Get me a regular black coffee, and some sort of food substance every morning before getting to the hospital, and it can't be something poisonous. Preferably, western doughnuts or pastries would be nice.

2. When at the office, if you notice the coffee machine needs to be refilled, please do so. If there isn't any more coffee, I give you permission to go out and get more. You can drink the coffee too, I don't care, just don't drain it.

3. Organize my paperwork into little neat piles, please. I'll give you five hundred yen [About 6 dollars] if I have to.

4. You must call me, Kurosaki-sama.

Kurosaki-sama

Rukia stared at the note in disgust, "Am I his maid or his assistant? I can't tell," she said aloud.

She had woken up early this morning so that she could get ready, and possibly get Kurosaki-sama's coffee and pastries. Did she feel like doing so? No way in hell.

Rukia yawned and finished her taiyaki. She got up from her couch and lazily trekked over to the bathroom to fulfill her daily sanitary needs.

Today was going to be an "exciting" day.

Ichigo stretched and wiped the perspiration from his face with a small towel. He sighed as he felt the cold air hit his wet skin as he exited the gym. Damn, I need a shower… bad, he thought, rushing to his car.

He usually worked out at the gym every morning for an hour or two. Lately though, he had been working extra long every morning. It helped clear out his mind of the world, and also that Renji had made stupid remarks about how he had put on some weight and would lose his six-pack. Not that he cared or anything.

As he drove back to his apartment, his mind drifted off to his new coworker, Kuchiki Rukio or Rukia or whatever her name was. They hadn't a very good start, and things had just gotten worse after that. She had kicked him, yelled at him, and argued with everything he said. It was a good thing he was taught some lessons from one of the psychologists in his division a long time ago. If he hadn't, he would have ended up strangling her.

He couldn't say he hated her, but he also couldn't say he liked her either. After all, he barely knew her, and according to the psychologist, "You mustn't judge someone without knowing their real personality first."

As much as Ichigo wanted to believe that, he just couldn't –for Kuchiki Rukia at least. That she-devil was just so… unbelievably short, annoying, pissy, full of herself, cold, and beyond irritating.

"Actually, come to think of it, isn't she related to Kuchiki Byakuya?" mumbled Ichigo to himself. "Eh, stuck up Kuchiki siblings… only I would have the luck of getting stuck with one of them."

Ichigo scrunched his eyebrows and scowled unbelievably deep. Great, his mood was already ruined and he hadn't even seen Ishida once today!

When he made it to his –insanely gorgeous- apartment, he quickly entered… only to see Renji dozing off on his couch. "What the hell, Renji? Since when did you find my extra key? And since when do you live on my couch?" exclaimed Ichigo with his eye twitching.

The said red headed man yawned and rubbed his sleepy eyes, "Since you suck at hiding things. And what are you smoking? This couch has been my buddy since college."

"I do not suck at hiding things! And my couch in my apartment is your friend?" Ichigo took off his shoes and closed the door, walking toward his bed room.

Renji shrugged, "Yeah, it's been my bud ever since I started hiding crack and alcohol under its cushions," he said smirking.

Ichigo froze, slowly turning to Renji, revealing a menacing expression on his face. He started moving toward the other man, literally sending everything in his path into metaphoric flames, "So all those times I suffered from back aches was because you were hiding crap under my couch? And what did I tell you about doing dru-"

Inching toward the other side of the couch, Renji quickly said, "Dude, I was just kidding! Chillax! You know I wouldn't do drugs, right?"

Ichigo simmered a bit, but kept on glaring at Renji, "You've done a bunch of things that I've told you not to do, so I'd think otherwise. And don't joke about stuff like that. It's more serious than you think. And if I catch you with some sort of drug, you're dead meat."

The other man rolled his eyes, "Sheesh, what are you my mom? You're such a health freak you… doctor-ish doctor. And I wasn't lying about the alcohol though," said Renji, lifting his two socked feet on to Ichigo's coffee table. "You know, lately, you've been really easy to piss off. You're already moody to begin with, but now it's really damn easy to anger you, it's kinda like a game."

As Renji was laughing to himself, Ichigo on the other hand was trying to prevent himself from getting an aneurism because of the red haired dimwit. "So you were hiding shit in my couch! And what do you expect, I'm a fucking doctor! And I am not moody! I've just had a lot on my mind. And get your feet off my coffee table!"

"Hm… 'a regular black coffee' he says? Okay that I can do, but food substance? How the hell am I supposed to know what the asshole likes?" mumbled Rukia to herself as she reread the "to-do list." She did not have time for this maid shit, let alone did she have time to consider what he liked. But since it was her first day, she might as well just do what the idiot wanted –especially since she was the one who smashed into his car [but she would never admit that, to him at least].

She sighed and grumbled, reading all the food on the menu. After several minutes of looking at overpriced foods, "God, this has got to be more troublesome than my actual job," said Rukia, mentally slapping the palm of her hand to her forehead. Maybe I'll just get the asshole a bag of random doughnuts, she thought, approving of her decision. As she started walking over to the "random doughnuts of the week" shelf, someone had lightly tapped her on the shoulder from behind, making her turn around.

"Uh, hi! You're Ichigo-san's new assistant, right? I saw you walking with him last week!" exclaimed a dark haired woman, holding a half eaten croissant.

Rukia just stared back at the other woman suspiciously before coming back to her senses, noticing that she was being rude. "Ah, yes, I am. I'm Kuchiki Rukia and it's very nice to meet you, uh… sorry, but who might you be?" Thank god for the polite Kuchiki speech abilities, if she didn't have those, she would probably end up saying something extremely rude. Something like, "Who the hell are you? And what do you want from me? And why would you ask me that? In a café? What if I wasn't that idiot's assistant? What would happen then? Huh? Ever thought of that? And why the hell did I tell you my name?" Yup, way too many unnecessary questions asked than answered.

"Oh! I forgot to introduce myself! Sorry! My name's Hinamori Momo and it's very nice to meet you too, Kuchiki-chan," said Momo, smiling brightly.

Rukia smiled back politely, "Oh, just forget the honorifics, I'd prefer that you'd call me Rukia."

"Of course! And you can also call me Momo, if you want to that is, Rukia," said Momo with a welcoming smile, walking towards the counter as one of the café employees placed her coffee on it. "So… are you here to pick up Ichigo-san's coffee and pastries?"

The raven haired woman's face lightly tinted of surprise, to only be quickly wiped off. Does everyone know about the dimwit's 'to-do list,' thought Rukia somewhat humorously. "Actually, I am, how did you know?" she asked as she picked up one of the small paper bags on the "random doughnuts of the week" shelf.

"Hmm… well, I used to chat with Ichigo-san's old assistant, Senna-san, whenever we saw each other here," answered Momo adding half and half to her coffee. "And if it's any help, she said that Ichigo-san likes anything chocolaty," she said, turning to Rukia.

Rukia groaned as she peeked in the bag in her hands, there was cinnamon, jelly filled, glazed, but no chocolate. "Bleh, whatever, the idiot eats what he gets," she said, plopping the donuts/doughnuts on the counter.

Momo giggled and stood next to Rukia, "You don't seem to like him very much. But don't worry, he's just been having a hard time lately. His old assistant slash ex-girlfriend, moved to the US. And I don't think he's gotten over her yet, nor did she. Matter-of-factly, I don't think they ever will, but that's not what I'm trying to say. Eventually, he'll start to get used to you, and he won't be as irritating. He's really a nice guy when he wants to be."

Rukia started to consider what the other woman said, but it was kind of hard. Sure, Ichigo's girlfriend or ex-girlfriend moved to the US when they supposedly still had feelings for each other, but did that mean he had to make everyone around him feel unpleasant? No, no it didn't. "Well, we'll see about that. So far, he seems pissy to everyone, and you said it yourself, 'he's nice when he wants to be,'" she said, handing money to the cashier for the newly made coffee and doughnuts.

"Well, I'll admit, he does tend to get cranky, but soon he'll warm up to you, I'm sure of it! As long as you don't bring up a touchy topic or anything that might tick him off, he should be fine with you," said Momo, trying to assure Rukia. She grinned, "You know what? You should stop by my division sometime if you're stressed out and have free time! My division specializes in psychology and psychiatry, so if you want to stop by sometime, that would be great! I'm the co-lead doctor, so if you get into some deep doo-doo with the nurses, I can clear it up for you." She went to clap her hands together, but sadly remembered she was holding coffee in one hand, and a croissant in the other.

Rukia was starting to like this girl. She was cute, helpful and kind. She kind of reminded her of her auburn haired friend. "Sure, I'll stop by sometime, anything that gives me a break from him," she said smiling genuinely, "But don't think I hate the guy though, he just makes the atmosphere disturbed is all… well, anyway, I think it's about time we leave, it's quarter to nine."

"Oh! You're right!" Momo said, checking her watch. "Shiro-chan's going to get so pissed! He needs that folder by nine!" She abruptly stuffed her croissant in her mouth and started rushing over to the door, before quickly turning around and politely excusing herself –which ended up sounding muffled due to the croissant nestled in her mouth.

Rukia lifted her eyebrow at the girl, but shrugged it off, "Okay… ?

"Anyways, I guess I should get going too."

She quickly trotted over to the door, and headed out to her car.

People sent her weird looks as she passed by them. Okay, so what if she wasn't wearing a jacket or a coat, and the temperature outside was below 20 [-6.67 Celsius]? Did it matter? Not really. Did she care? Hell no. She had always preferred the cold over humid and hot weather, so weird looks were always thrown her way whenever she walked around without an article of warm clothing on. It wasn't like she cared, anyways. She was used to it.

Rukia unlocked her car and slipped into the driver's seat before igniting it, enjoying the sound of it roar to life. Her eyes flickered to the time, and exhaled a sigh of relief, not even three minutes had passed by since Momo left which was a good thing. Most of the time, somehow just by walking from "point a" to "point b" for Rukia, a lot of time would pass by. Time management was never her thing, but today it seemed she was having a bit of good luck. Waking up early was definitely a good choice.

She pulled out of her parking position on the side of the road and drove away hastily avoiding all black Mercedes she had the misfortune to encounter -which happened to be many. She didn't want to get into that kind of situation again, and who knew? What if in one of those many Mercedes, the idiot was sitting comfortably with his weird tattooed friend? Just the thought of it made her want to deliberately choke on a piece of taiyaki.

Arriving to destination…

Rukia sighed, and quickly entered Seireitei Hospital, passing by nurses and visitors as she walked through the lobby to the elevators.

The architecture was absolutely breath taking. One would mistake the hospital for some sort of historic art museum. The outside consisted of about three semi-tall white buildings joined together to create a white palace like look, minus the expensive décor. Then, the parking garage surrounded the buildings in a shape of a circle or square [she couldn't really tell], making it almost look like some sort of castle. She was probably just exaggerating though. She tended to do that often.

The elevator opened, accompanying her into its space. She pressed the button that directed it to go up to the 14th floor, and just waited patiently as the moving platform did its job. Noticing that there wasn't any lame music for her to fall asleep too, she started humming the Chappy the rabbit theme.

10 minutes passed by, and only 5 floors moved.

Okay, she was starting to get really pissed now. How long could it possibly take to move 14 floors? Sure, 5 or 6 minutes made sense, but definitely no more than 10.

"God, I swear, every minute of my life is meant to be miserable…" said Rukia as she stared at the slowly increasing floor meter. At least it was making some progress now. There were only 3 floors left.

Ding!

Rukia hurriedly rushed out of the elevator once it opened and made her way down the hall, trying not to spill the coffee in her hand.

It seemed like she was a walking disturbance. The sound of her heels clacking was severely killing the silence in the halls, and the ruffling sound of the doughnut bag wasn't any help either.

Approaching her new office, she opened the door only to be welcomed by the sight of Kurosaki Ichigo in his office chair staring directly at her as if he was awaiting her appearance.

"Ah, good to see you made it here without killing anybody's eardrums with your clacking. I could hear it from all the way down the damn hall!"

What a wonderful welcome.

"I'm glad you could hear it 'from all the way down the damn hall,' Kurosaki-sama! Maybe every morning I should clack even louder so your ears bleed!" said Rukia with feigned cheerfulness. She closed the office door, and started towards "Kurosaki-sama's" desk –digging her heels into the floor with every step. "And here's the coffee and donuts you wanted," Rukia giggled, and batted her eyelashes innocently.

Ichigo eyed her suspiciously, and cautiously took the food items from out of her possession. The only problem was that… she wasn't letting go of the doughnut bag. He started to tug on it, but her grip never faltered.

Rukia smiled creepily, and pulled the bag out of his hand quickly and smacked him over the head with it. She dropped it on his desk and stuck her tongue out before clacking away to her desk.

"What the hell was that for, bitch?" questioned Ichigo, rubbing his head. He was definitely sure that his respect meter for her just went down a notch. Not that it was a decent amount to begin with.

"Just eat your doughnuts and shut up," said Rukia, plopping into her ridiculously comfy office chair. She looked down at the many manila folders laid down on her desk and curiously looked through them.

Ichigo grumbled but then noticed her curiosity with the folders, "Oh, those are the profiles of the intensive care patients. There's paperwork in all the folders that you need to fill out and give to Ishida."

Rukia examined the "inch thick" folders, and placed seven of them to the side, leaving one in front of her to work on. "How come the nurses aren't taking care of these?"

"They are, just the more urgent papers. You're filling out the more complex details. All the tests are there, and if you need to, you can check on the patients," explained Ichigo, plopping his own load of paperwork on his desk.

She nodded and grabbed her Chappy the Rabbit collectable light up pen [she had brought in all her stuff the week before]. She clicked it, and smiled brightly at how the tiny rabbit head changed different colors.

"Really? A light up pen? How old are you? Five? A four year old even said they wouldn't be caught dead with one of those hideous rabbit pens. Not that I would blame them," said Ichigo chuckling. "You're like an overgrown child. Actually, scratch that, you look like a child and you act like one too. "

That abruptly earned him, a rabbit printed stapler magically connecting with his face.

"Chappy is not hideous! And I do not look or act like a child!" yelled Rukia, grinding her teeth together. She didn't like to result to violence, but this guy really deserved it.

"Will you stop inflicting pain to my head you little she-devil!" Ichigo grabbed his face in pain, and glared daggers at Rukia.

"I will if you stop being such an as-" she suddenly stopped mid sentence, noticing a small boy in a hospital gown peeking into the office through a small opening in the door.

She blinked at him and slowly walked toward him. She opened the door wider and kneeled down to the boy's height, "Do you need something?" she said, instantly changing her tone of voice to a more softer, kinder tone.

The boy nodded, "Do you know where my 'kaa-san is?" asked the boy silently. He looked no more than six years old.

Rukia opened her mouth to say something, but closed it, not knowing what exactly to say. What could she say?

"Yuichi?" asked Ichigo walking up from behind Rukia and smiling kindly at the boy. "You shouldn't be up, you haven't completely healed yet."

The boy, Yuichi, smiled once he saw Ichigo and ran to him grabbing a hold of his pant leg. "But I feel perfectly fine, Ichigo-san! I can run and jump again!"

Ichigo chuckled, "I'm glad you feel fine, but I still think you should rest so that you'll be one-hundred percent better," he said, grinning. He kneeled down and ruffled Yuichi's hair.

Rukia just watched the engagement with a tiny smile on her face. She felt kind of nice and warm inside. This was kind of cute.

"But I want to find my 'kaa-san! Please let me!" exclaimed Yuichi, looking up at Ichigo expectantly.

The orange haired man smiled affectionately at the small boy and shook his head "no. " Yuichi reminded him of himself when he was younger, always persistent to find his mother. This scene also seemed familiar to him too, a small young boy looking around a hospital for his mother, only to find out she wasn't with them anymore. Except in Yuichi's case, his mother was in a coma –not that he would actually tell the poor boy, unless he was ready to hear it. "Yuichi… your 'kaa-san still isn't well yet. Sorry, I can't let you see her yet. When you're better and she's better, I promise I'll let you go see her, okay?"

The small boy looked down at his hands and thought before reluctantly nodding his head.

"Good, then it's a promise! For now, you'll need to build up your strength so when you do get to see her, she'll see you strong and healthy," said Ichigo, holding one of his arms up to emphasize strong muscles. He lent Yuichi his hand before he stood up. He turned to Rukia, "I'll be back in a little." He then left the office at a nice slow pace, taking to mind the small boy's short legs.

Rukia nodded and watched as the two walked away. She got up once they disappeared from her sight and went back to her desk. She looked down at the paperwork on her desk and sighed, staring at it blankly.

She sat there with her hand up to her cheek, checking off boxes.

It was weird, in a total of five minutes her opinion of the orange haired idiot went from an idiotic insult-worthy man to a kind and considerate gentleman. What made it weirder was that at that moment, Ichigo's resemblance to him was so similar that it made her cringe. The smile and expression were exactly the same as his. She knew that Ichigo wasn't him, but the resemblance was so close that it was hard to tell the difference other than Ichigo's hair and scowl.

Rukia had noted the similarities when she first actually looked at him, but she never gave much thought into it. As much as she hated to admit it, it kind of bothered her. She couldn't look him in the eye for anymore than five seconds –which was an accomplishment itself. Besides finding him annoying, this was also a reason why she wanted to avoid him. Yes, it was ridiculous, but sometimes, there were some things a girl had to do to make her life a little less shitty. There were times when these things called for being a bit ridiculous.

She bit on the middle of her pen, and just stared into space until-

"Oi! Kuchiki, are you listening?"

Rukia jumped slightly, noticing that Ichigo was already back and in front of her desk. She stared at him as he furrowed his eyebrows at her. Not feeling comfortable under his gaze, she looked away. "Uh, what do you want?" she asked, trying not to think of what she was just pondering on about. She had to think of something else, like his bushy-ish eyebrows! Actually, that was a matter worth thinking of. His eyebrows were abnormally bushy, not that bushy, but bushy. They were like tiny orange wooly bears.

"Well, I was telling you that if Yuichi ever comes by looking for his mother, tell him she's not well yet. His mother's in a coma right now, and might not ever wake up, so I don't want him to know just yet," said Ichigo looking at her weird.

Rukia nodded, looking at the wall behind him. "But… wouldn't it be easier to just tell him? I'm sure he'll understand, leaving him hanging like this won't do any good."

"True, but he's still not well, and the last thing I would want is for him to start worrying about his mother when he's not even better yet. It's too much pain to handle for a small caring and sensitive kid like him," said Ichigo scratching the back of his head, looking sadly out the window.

"I see…," said Rukia, finally looking up. She saw his retreating form going back to his desk and mentally sighed in relief.

"You know, most of the children here are always looking for their parents, sometimes their parents don't even come to visit them so it's kind of depressing," said Ichigo as he sat down in his office chair and began scribbling things on his paperwork.

Rukia nodded and slowly began to examine the papers on her desk.

Now she had conflicting thoughts of Kurosaki Ichigo. She had been dreading having to work with him for the past week, but now she suddenly felt like she could tolerate working with him despite the similarities between him and him. Oh well, life sucked that was for sure.

"Oh, and don't call me Kuchiki. I'm Rukia, just Rukia," said Rukia. Well, if she was going to work with this idiot, she ought to at least try to get along with him. Firstly, she had to try to get used to staring at him for more than five seconds.

"Heh, same goes for me, Rukia. And 'Kurosaki-sama' was only to piss you off," Ichigo said, smirking. His smirk slowly deteriorated when he noticed Rukia staring at him intently. It was creeping the hell out of him! She was being like Renji's old iguana that just kept staring at him.

His only thoughts then, were, Crazy bitch!

A/N:Yes! I'm finally finished with this chapter! I meant to finish it two weeks before, but I never got the time to do it. Rukia's kind of OOC in this story, but it's nothing too bad, I hope!

Please tell me what you think so far! Reviews and opinions are appreciated!