Standard disclaimer applies.
Author's notes: What can I say about this one? Don't you all love Keigo?xDPlease review if you like what you read! Bye and see you soon!

P.S. A big thanks to AdventWing, it's always a delight to read your encouraging reviews. I'm really glad you find what I write to be something actually readable. You know, I was going to post a different scene less happy, so to speak, so I hope this time I don't make you feel down? Their separation put me in such a distress that I just had to write something about it.

Incomprehension
25.07.2005

Sometimes Rukia felt like she would never understand Ichigo. He had a rather difficult logic to his actions and way of thinking that she knew would be hard to get. Like today, when she had almost dropped the wrapped ice she had brought for his injury after his blatant accusation. He was blaming her.

"Let me get this straight." Rukia's hand was on her hip as she angrily stared straight into Ichigo's eyes. The confusion in her tone was being subdued by the sudden annoyance at his smug attitude. "Asano-kun hit you by surprise and it's my fault?"

"YES!" He snapped irately, regretting the minute he did as his sore jaw prickled him with a new wave of pain. He brought his hand to rub it, but only managed to relieve the pain momentarily. "K'so…"

"But why is it my fault, you miserable moron?" she demanded heatedly, and threw the ice at him while sitting on the chair by his desk. In simple terms she was… perplexed. "Besides, you could have avoided that hit! What the hell were you doing anyway?"

"I was looking at… something…" he retorted, flustered by where the end his sentence was going to. Of course, telling her he had been distracted by her, of all people, being swarmed by ten thousand hormonal, teenage males as she came out of the pool in that blue, school swimsuit was out of the question. He pressed the ice against his lower lip, muttering darkly to her, "It's none of your business."

"And yet, it is my fault," she repeated dryly, not without noticing he was evading the question.

Ichigo shrugged indifferently.

Her eyes narrowed and she had to grimace at the deep purple blot forming on the skin of his jaw and his fat lip. She took the ice bag out of his grasp, not without a protest from the boy, before quickly changing the ice cube inside the cloth for a bigger one from the bowl in her lap and returning the new wrapped ice to him. She was looking down at the melting ice as she asked casually, "Did they do something to Asano-kun?"

"They didn't report him. He told the teacher it was an accident and they believed him," Ichigo pronounced begrudgingly, holding steadily the ice to his injury. "And you are worrying about his punishment? Damn, it was me who got hit."

Rukia smirked despite the frown and raised her eyes to meet his reproachful amber ones. "Ah, of course I'd worry about dearest Asano-kun! He gave me chocolates in Valentines, remember?" she beamed, speaking first in that chirpy voice that made Ichigo dizzy before returning to a more normal tone. "Ichigo, you've got to stop being so loud and whiny. I'm sure he really thought you'd dodge. And it isn't that bad, you only fell into the pool, you didn't die or anything."

Ichigo stared at her like she'd grown a third head and growled under his breath. "Whatever."

"Well…" Conjuring her best efforts, she had smiled little to appease him, but he merely plopped himself on his bed and effectively ignored her. This made Rukia's eyebrows twitch as she glowered at him. "Why you… fool. That was just your idiocy surfacing at gym class, I bet. I mean, you've practically learned to feel Asano-kun three meters away. Do enlighten me, Ichigo, what on earth were you thinking about?" she thundered the question this time.

A frown on his features and the bruise around his jaw darkening, Ichigo glanced at her quickly, flushing faintly before looking back at the ceiling and grunting at her, "Nothing…"

She blinked once before groaning loudly. "ARGH! You…"

Sometimes Rukia felt like she would never understand the fifteen-year-old boy. Other times, like now, she just wanted to strangle him.