Happy Singles Awareness Day!

I'm so so sorry for the rather late update, but school comes first and I sorta ran out of muses for Bleach during Kubo-sensei's three week hiatus. But anyway! I'm back again and meh, I'm not so happy with this chapter, but I still hope that you guys'll enjoy it.

Title: One Step at a Time
Characters/ Pairing: Hitsugaya Toushiro, Kuchiki Rukia; HitsuRuki
Rating: K+ - T
Warnings: OOCness, inconsistencies, language
Summary: There are steps that they have to undertake as they fall in love. A series of mostly interrelated one-shots and what-nots and everything in between of the HitsuRuki Variety.

Disclaimer: I am but a poor college student. I own nothing.

One Step at a Time

Step 4

Feel

.

.

.

"Take your clothes off, Kuchiki."

HItsugaya Toushiro tells her seriously with all the level-headedness the Captain was known for and Rukia blinks stupidly at him in reply. Because what the hell was she supposed to say to that? It wasn't every day that Hitsugaya Toushiro, mighty Captain of the 10th Division and fabled asexual human ice block, asks anyone to strip for him, let alone her, and the raven-haired Shinigami thinks that she deserves the right to be scandalously baffled. Not to mention the fact that her brain just short-circuited after the man's statement and took an untimely dive into the gutter never to be seen again.

"What?" Rukai chokes out eloquently in an attempt at an intelligible response, turning her widened eyes towards the white-haired Captain as she unconsciously clutched at her shihakusho protectively.

Hitsugaya sighs loudly before sitting on his haunches in front of her. "Kuchiki, just…please take your clothes off. The top part would do." He says with the patience one might afford a naughty child and Rukia feels just a tad bit insulted.

"Why?" She asks gratingly, leaning away from Hitsugaya even as her bloodied back protested, causing her to keen lowly in pain, and in turn making her companion afford her with a very pointed stare with his striking teal eyes. And Rukia realizes that this is probably not the time to admire Hitsugaya Toushiro's pretty, pretty eyes and his annoyingly long eyelashes and—

Okay. She's shutting up right now.

"Because, Kuchiki," Hitsugaya starts long-sufferingly, sitting down on the patch of grass a scant centimetres away from her. "You're injured and I need to see how bad your wounds are."

She sniffs derisively. "Why can't we just wait for the 4th Division?" And alright, Rukia knows full well that she's acting like a complete brat right now, but she really doesn't want to undress in front of Hitsugaya Toushiro and his pretty, pretty eyes. She's read enough of the manga Ichigo kept underneath his bed to know where this was headed. Girl gets injured, guy tries to heal the girl, girl undresses, and uh—she forgot what was supposed to happen next but she knows that it doesn't really end well for the girl.

Or was it the guy?

Never mind, she'll just have to ask Ichigo the next time she sees him.

But anyway, she was not taking her clothes off.

"They won't be arriving 'til later."

"I can wait."

"You're losing blood at a very alarming rate."

"I feel fine, sir." Rukia declares, even as she feels horribly faint from all the blood loss. In retrospect, she probably shouldn't have jumped in front of the Hollow earlier to save the rabbit.

"Kuchiki," he warns, his tone taking on a steely edge and his eyebrows furrowing in sheer annoyance at her sorry attempts at stalling.

She knows that she should probably stop annoying the Captain seeing as he was only looking out for her well-being, but Rukia lives to be difficult and Hitsugaya Toushiro was proving to be very fun to annoy. "With all due respect, sir, I don't know what you've heard but I'm not the type of girl who undresses on the first date." Rukia says jokingly, teasingly, despite the sudden hammering of her silly heart.

He blinks at her incredulously.

"Kuchiki, if you do not undress right this instant, I will undress you myself."

"You wouldn't."

"I can and I will. Now strip." Hitsugaya mandates.

A huff, a glare, and Rukia finally concedes. "Fine," she grinds out through gritted teeth before making a vague shooing motion at the Captain. "Can you please move away for a moment, sir? I can't exactly undress if you're watching."

Teal eyes widen as a blush makes itself known on Hitsugaya's face and Rukia watches in slight fascination as the white-haired prodigy hastily moves away from her as if burnt. "Ah, right." He pointedly stands up and turns his back to her, taking a few steps forward; far enough to give her some semblance of privacy but close enough to reach her quickly lest something bad happens. "Call me when you're done."

As soon as she was sure that the man was at a suitable distance away from her (she trusts the Captain not to peek), Rukia gingerly shrugs off her shihakusho, wincing every so often when the torn fabric grazed the wounds on her back. The back part of her uniform was practically in tatters and she dreads to find out as to how her back even looked like. The Hollow that they encountered earlier had insanely large claws, and if the searing pain Rukia is experiencing right now was of any indication, then she was pretty sure that her back was a bloody mess.

The raven-haired Vice-Captain takes a deep, calming breath before surveying her torso; there was a smattering of bruises scattered on her arms and it seemed that the large cut on her back had extended to her front, curling just beneath the swell of her breasts and effectively tearing at the bindings she'd painstakingly wrapped around herself earlier.

Rukia sighs. She really shouldn't have saved that rabbit earlier.

But what's done was done and she was irrevocably stuck at some random patch of forest in the Rukon District, half-naked with a large cut on her back, with Hitsugaya Toushiro standing just a few feet away from her.

My, you two are moving fast aren't you? First, he kisses you, and now he has you undressing for him! Shirayuki exclaims somewhere in the back of her mind, and Rukia studiously ignores her zanpakutou for the sake of her sanity, which was admittedly rather hard when Shirayuki doesn't want to be ignored. Oho, ignoring me aren't we? How mean, and here I was concerned for your well-being…

Shirayuki?

Yes, Rukia?

Shut up.

Hmph, spoilsport.

Rolling her eyes derisively at Shirayuki's antics, Rukia gathered the torn material of her uniform in her hands and draped it over her front in a sorry attempt to salvage whatever shred of dignity she still has. "Sir? I'm done." She calls out, and immediately regretted it as the Captain strode purposefully towards her as soon as the words left her mouth.

"Relax," Hitsugaya tells her softly as he positions himself behind her, his proximity inciting a plethora of goose pimples to erupt on her exposed skin. She almost jumps up when she feels cold hands touch themselves experimentally on her bloodied back, and Rukia forces herself to relax and breathe out through her nose to calm down. There was no use getting all worked up. Slowly, the Captain's cool reiatsu start melding on her skin, acting as a form anaesthetic as Hitsugaya performed kidou to close her wounds. "Why on earth did you jump in front of that Hollow earlier, Kuchiki?" The Captain wonders aloud behind her, and violet eyes widen slightly in surprise.

Was the Captain actually trying to start a conversation with her?

Huh.

If a large gash on her back was what it would take for The Captain to talk to her, then Rukia worries for her well-being as to what it would take for Hitsugaya Toushiro to kiss her again.

"Well…" she starts cautiously, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "There was this…um…rabbit. And I wanted to save it." Rukia mumbles out quickly, realizing how stupid her reason sounded.

Hitsugaya hums thoughtfully in response. "A rabbit."

"Yes, sir."

The white-haired male's calloused hands settled softly on her shoulders, applying enough pressure for it to be slightly uncomfortable. "You jumped in front of a Hollow to save a rabbit." He deadpans, and Rukia can almost see the incredulous look etched on his face.

"Yes."

A short silence follows her answer, and suddenly a weird noise that sounded suspiciously like a short laugh came from the stoic Captain. "You're a weird one, Kuchiki."

"That wasn't a very nice thing to say, taichou."

Hitsugaya Toushiro snorts. "Good, I wasn't trying to be nice," he says, fingers smoothing over the newly healed flesh on her back before stopping to tap thoughtfully on the indentions of her vertebrae. "Turn around a little, Kuchiki; the gash extends a bit to your torso."

She stiffens, knowing fully well where that gash extends to. Sure, Rukia was alright with showing the Captain her bloodied back, but she was definitely not okay with Hitsugaya Toushiro ogling at her front where he can see her non-existent assets. (Yes, she's full aware that she's not gifted in the chest department and she does not need for Ichigo and Renji to remind her every fucking time.) "That really won't be necessary—"

"I'm not going to look at anything else other than the gash, Kuchiki. I give you my word for that."

"But—"

"I'm giving you my permission to run me through with your sword if you think that I'm peeking."

A single black eyebrow rises in consideration, and a few seconds ticked by. The raven-haired Shinigami, obviously pacified by the possibility of maiming a Captain finally, finally utters a hurried, "alright."

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Welcome back, taichou!" Matsumoto greets cheerily from her position on the couch and Toushiro scrunches up his nose at the hint of sake lingering in the air. "Oh hey, where's your Captain's haori?" the voluptuous woman inquires, causing a blush to erupt on his face.

Toushiro merely shrugs.

.

.

.

A/N: This was supposed to be a bit longer but then I felt as if it was beginning to be a little tedious. IDK. I'm sorry if it sucks! I'll make it up to you guys. Somehow.

Anyway.

Comments? Suggestions? Violent Reactions?

Leave me a review, guys!