Welcome to the new chapter! :D

I have to admit that I procrastinated a little after writing half of this chapter... but here it is! I hope you enjoy it! And as always, I would be leaving replies for reviews (for those with no accounts) down below. Thank you for your patience and support thus far! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or its characters. But seriously, what the hell is with the quincies man.

Apart from a few awkward questions about his faux fiancée, the event went pretty well in Ichigo's opinion. Rukia had kept by her word and was out of sight for the remainder of the party so Ichigo can concentrate on mingling with current and potential clients. So much so that when the party finally ended, Ichigo took close to half an hour finding that damn midget. When he finally did, she was curled up into a ball at the corner of the bar counter. He gave the bartender a questioning look, which prompted him to answer that the lady had ordered almost everything on the menu that was listed under "Sweet" cocktails.

Ichigo rolled his eyes before approaching her and giving a firm shove. She didn't even budge. He took a deep breath and continued to pat on her shoulder.

There isn't anything in the world more irritating than having someone continuously tapping you when you're half asleep. She gave an exasperated growl before standing up, losing her balance in the process. Who in the world gave her these ridiculous shoes.

He let out a huge sigh, though it wasn't part of the agreement to send her back, he decided that perhaps he could do her this one favour. But the orange-head immediately regretted it the moment he carried her into the backseat of the car.

"Where to, Master Kurosaki?" asked his assistant, Hisagi Shuuhei without looking back from the driver's seat.

Rearranging the drunken girl's posture, he answered gruffly, "Hold on."

"Oi, where do you stay?"

"Somewhere in front," she slurred.

"What?" Ichigo almost shouted. Seriously, he was positive that he made an agreement for a fiancée, not to be a babysitter. He grumbled as he clasped the safety belt on for her. "Hisagi, just drive. Rukia, where do you stay?"

"Uhh." She struggled before plastering her face on the window. It started to fog up as she breathed, "let me see. Hold up, my vision's getting blurry. I swear my eyesight is 20/20. Okay okay, do you see that white house up ahead?"

"Hisagi." Ichigo called while Shuuhei nodded.

"Yeah, that's not my house."

If she wasn't a woman, Ichigo would have smacked her by now.

"Just drop me at the café" She finally said while trying to get her hair out of her face.

"You stay at the café?!"

"No… but all of my stuffs are there." She exhaled as if realising for the first time she had fingers, Rukia stared hard at her outstretched hands. "I was thrown out that day. Which day was it? I had no money to pay for my rental and all that shit. And… I think my landlord is actually… shh don't tell anyone." She looked at Ichigo straight in the eye with her index finger over her lips. "He is actually Stalin."

"Stalin was dead long ago."

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT." Shuuhei checked on the vehicle's windows to make sure they weren't cracked. "It's a conspiracy. And I just got DUMPED. By my HOUSE."

"Okay, I'm not even going to listen to you now. Shuuhei, just go to the café."

"Speaking of houses, today at work," She paused to hiccup, "I blew up a bagel."

"That's… that's not even related to houses."

"I KNOW! Who blows up bagels? Worst day of my life. But I met this guy and he proposed to me! What? Not Ashido! What the hell are you saying?" She playfully hit on his arm.

"I'm not saying anything." By then, Ichigo wasn't even looking at her and just stared out of the window, wishing the café was nearer.

"Ashido is a jerk. A DOWNRIGHT JERK. This is another guy. Well, he didn't exactly proposed to me. But he's giving money for doing absolutely nothing!"

"Yeah, and he's regretting it every second."

"You know him too? Such an idiot, right? Best day of my life."

"Hey hey hey! Who you calling an idiot?"

"Wait. I'm engaged to a guy I barely know. And he's named after a sissy fruit. What have I done? WORST DECISION EVER."

"I don't even know why I'm putting up with you." Ichigo's scowl deepens, "Hisagi, let's just go back to Shiba."

"Yes, Master Kurosaki."

It was another ten minutes of nonsense spouting out from her mouth with occasional hiccups before Hisagi pulled over at the entrance of Shiba Hotel. "Is this my house? Is this my new house?" Rukia exclaimed as she pressed her face on the window. "Oh my God, ¥150,000 can get you such a house? Best decision ever." Rukia garbled as she unhooked herself from the seatbelt and stumbled out of the car.

Ichigo followed after and walked past her towards the hotel lobby. "Ichigo, wait." Praying silently that it wasn't one of her gibberish again, he turned back.

"Thank you, Ichigo." She let out a smile, which Ichigo noted was pretty stunning despite her messy hair, smudged make-up and creased dress. He let out a soft smile as well. She may be annoying but she did help him out this time.

"By the way, that is the most ugliest hair I've ever seen."

On second thought, screw this. This was really the worst day of his life.

To: Senna

From: Ichigo

Sent: 1:32am

Yeah. Have a safe trip. I'll be busy the next few days.

-ooo-

Adjusting her position on the bed, she squinted as an intruding ray of light hit her face. Rukia covered her face with the duvet. The last time she checked, her room didn't have any windows. Hold up, since when did she have a duvet. Her hands frantically searched the bed for that odd lump which was supposed to be on the left side of her mattress but were only met with an endless surface of the smooth and soft Egyptian cotton bed sheet.

This wasn't her room.

Her eyelids sprang open to reveal her large amethyst orbs. Where is this place?

With a face full of fear and regret, she slowly lifted up the duvet to peek underneath. Her eyes widened. Where were her clothes?!

A blood curdling scream was released on mankind.

-ooo-

After accusing Shuuhei, who introduced himself as Ichigo's personal assistant, for rape, it took Rukia about three minutes before she recollected last evening's event. Which explained why she was in this black fancy dress, instead of her own clothes. She managed to croak out an awkward "O-ooohhhh" before excusing herself into the bathroom to wash herself up.

If Shuuhei wasn't waiting for her outside, Rukia would have spent five hours in that bathroom. It was her first time seeing a bathtub, let alone one that could easily fit three human beings. The shampoo and body soap provided smelled like heaven mixed with a thousand rose petals. "With Collagen and Vitamin E," she read, "Sounds like food. Whatever that means," before dumping the whole bottle into the bathtub.

And she swore that the bathroom was at least two times bigger than her whole apartment. Damn that personal assistant.

Having spent almost an hour to make every spot of her body spick and span in her bubble bath heaven, she sheepishly tiptoed out of the bathroom with a shy, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Shuuhei stood up, "No worries. Master Kurosaki has requested for me to pass you this." He said curtly while handing a cheque of ¥170,000 to Rukia with two hands, which Rukia also received with two hands. Because she was a fine lady. "Miss Rukia, if you're ready, please allow me to send you to wherever you need to be this morning."

Her eyes gleamed at the paper in front of her very eyes, mentally counting the number of zeros that were imprinted on it. She has, honestly, never seen so much money in her entire life. Okay, she has never seen so much money in her entire life that is NOT on the bottom of a bill statement. "Miss Rukia?"

She swallowed, before nodding and following Shuuhei out of the hotel room.

-ooo-

Rukia locked the door to her apartment and skipped down the stairs. It has been two week since she got "engaged", and nothing much happened since then. Being engaged sure is weird. She still had to keep her jobs since her pay was all used to pay up the three months of rental she owe "Mr Stalin" but, at least, now she has a place to stay.

Ichigo did stop by the café once to have her personally sign a contract that states the rules of their engagement. But she never saw him again. Not that she's complaining. In fact, she didn't mind it one bit. She was back to her own peaceful life with a monthly paycheck for doing absolutely nothing. Life was definitely looking up.

-ooo-

Slamming the mug on the table, he declared, "Since we're all here today, I have a confession to make."

Ichigo raised a single eyebrow at his friend, "What is it, Grim?" They were having one of their guys night out thing, only this time it was noon. And they were cramped in a small booth in the corner of a yakitori restaurant, highly recommended by Renji. Uryuu couldn't stop thinking about how much his hair would stink after this session.

"Y'know that day. That day. That very day-like two weeks ago or something. Who counts? But that day." Grimmjow struggled.

"I wish I knew what day it was." Uryuu commented, not that he really wanted to know.

"The day. Before your faithful engagement thing party… thing."

"Yeessss?" Ichigo was scowling by now. He started to recall that weird conversation he had with Grimm and his "fiancée".

"Yeah, just the day before that day, I…. I… I kindasortamaybe had hit on your fiancée."

"… what do you mean kinda… sorta?" Well, Ichigo never saw this coming. Here he was having a gazillion thoughts swimming through his mind on how they might have met each other before his engagement, but he didn't really thought it would be something… romantic in nature. And the "kinda-sorta" wasn't helping.

"Hey! It means what it means, man! Stop interrogating me!"

"I wasn't interrogating you! I just asked you what you meant! And maybe, trying to know what the hell you did to my fiancée."

"BUT YOU HAD A TONE. ADMIT IT. And I didn't do anything. It wasn't like I was thinking of doing anything. NO I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. AND I DON'T THINK." Grimmjow was screaming at the top of his lungs at this point.

"NOW I'M GETTING SUSPICIOUS."

"WAIT WAIT WAIT HOLD UP!" Renji yelled and placed both hands in front of each of their faces before looking at Grimmjow. "I thought you always hated Senna."

Grimmjow frowned behind Renji's palm, "The hell you talking about? I still do."

Adjusting his glasses with his middle finger, the man spoke, "Maybe I should explain this, Kurosaki didn't get engaged to Senna."

The red-head snapped his head to stare incredulously at Uryuu. "What do you- wait, then who?"

"Yeah, it was some other chick." Grimmjow replied, relieved that the attention wasn't on him anymore.

"Whom you sorta kinda did something indecent to." Ichigo shot.

Or maybe not.

"I DID NOT. Look, I didn't do anything. Alright? And you were there. She forgave me. So let's just forget this ever happened okay? It is making me feel really uncomfortable." And in a bid to signify the end of this discussion, he slapped hard at Ichigo's back and announced, "ANYWAY, we should all be congratulating Ichigo for finally growing some balls and dumping that lil' shit!"

"I HAVE BALLS."

"Okay okay," Grimmjow backed away, "you didn't need to announce it like you were starting a campaign over the existence of your genital organs."

Ichigo went a little red before letting out a huge sigh, "Look, I asked you guys out today because… I don't know, I'm feeling pretty vexed."

The days after the engagement party had been hell for Ichigo, and he had been trying to escape it all by burying himself in work. Senna gave him a call, as promised, the next day when she landed in America. He debated with himself if he should tell her that he went on with the party, but decided to just avoid the topic altogether. They spoke for about an hour, mostly she talked about how it was like there, who she met, her schedule for the coming weeks and comforting him that it won't be long before she was back in his arms. She would drop him occasional texts and would request to call or Skype everyday. But with every word she spoke, he couldn't determine if he felt guilty for getting engaged, betrayed that she left him, or relieved that she still loved him.

"Maybe I should have waited."

Grimmjow groaned. "Dude, you have already waited for her for at least 84 years."

"Yeah, but it's just six months. You know, I really should have waited… Instead of making such a rash decision."

"And she will ask for another three years. Come on! If she couldn't just spare that ONE night before flying to attend a stupid dinner party with you, just forget it man."

But how could he? Senna was his first love. Is his first love, and he still loves her. They just didn't understand.

-ooo-

Rukia kicked the same rock for the 52nd time as she walked home from school with her teacher's voice still ringing in her head. "Rukia, what have you been doing? You better buck up in your studies. This cannot do. You might lose your scholarship if you fail this module."

The petite girl breathed out. She decided that she would treat herself to a good meal today. Though she didn't really have much money left, but she deserved it. Before she went back to her tiny apartment and drown herself in world of texts and numbers.

And by good meal, she meant that Ramen Shop she has been dying to try that serves up a bowl of ramen for just ¥400!

-ooo-

"Hisagi. Call Rukia now." Ichigo demanded without looking up from his computer and continued typing away.

Shuuhei opened his mouth, wanting to say that he didn't have her number, but decided against it when he saw how stressed up his boss was. He dialed the number to the café and to his horror…

"SHE DOESN'T HAVE A- WHO THE FUCK DOESN'T HAVE A CELLPHONE." Ichigo hollered.

"Master Kurosaki, it seems that she doesn't have a home phone too as her landlord said, and I quote, she felt that she doesn't need one. No one calls her anyway. And she didn't want to pay the extra maintenance fee for it."

"What in the world is wrong with that woman. So how do we contact her? You spoke to her landlord, right? So where does she live?" Ichigo asked as he walked across the room to retrieve his jacket before leaving the office. "God damn it, of all the fake fiancées I could have picked."

And that's all I have for now! Do leave a review if you want :D And I just want to reiterate that I'm really appreciative of each and every review, favourite and subscription. It always makes my day :D

Replies:

Guest2: Heyyy! Thank you so much for the review! I love reading your reviews too (: I hope you enjoyed this chapter :D

Guest: Thank you for your review and your patience too :D! I hope you liked this chapter (:

Fer: Thank you for 2 reviews (: Hahahha yes! But Ukitake loves kids too, so I guess it is fine? XD I'm really glad that you liked the story, hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

guest forever: Yes! I apologise that this one is a little late. And you're welcome! Hope you enjoy this chapter too!

yuiyuki: OMYGOSH. Awwwww, such kind words! It always put a smile on my face to read your review. I'm so glad that you're back into fanfiction, and I really hope you're here to stay! There's plenty of talented writers here. Like recently, I read "8 Seconds" and it was awesome! You may check it out if you want!

star133: I KNOW RIGHT. Like do you put them in front of you, does it look like I am emphasizing on my crotch? Do you put them on your waist or is that too model-ish? But if you put it by the sides, you'd look too formal. Gawd. Hahhaah, anyways thank you so much for the review!

I can never say enough thank yous for all your support thus far. You people are such angels (:

Till next time! Happy November! :DDD