Rukia stirred as her phone vibrated violently. She ignored the shaking phone and slowly fell back to her slumber. The phone, once again, started to rattle disturbing her time of rest.
Are you freaking serious? Who wakes up at a time like this?
She slowly pulled herself out of bed and unlocked her phone. The caller id was unknown, making her hesitate to pick up the call. The phone stopped ringing and she let out a defeated sigh. She can't go back to sleep now, but she needed the rest. Rukia sluggishly crawled back into bed and placed her head onto her pillow, trying to go back to sleep. When she thought she was about to go back to sleep, her phone rang again. Rukia let out a quiet enraged internal scream, picked up her phone, and decided to answer it once and for all.
"Hello?" her sleepy, but raspy voice asked. She saw Momo stirring in her sleep and quietly tiptoed into the bathroom.
"Wow... I didn't expect you to... Rukia were you sleeping?"
"Who the hell is this?" She carefully closed the bathroom door, trying not to disturb Momo.
"It's just me."
"What?" Rukia checked the caller id again, still unknown.
"Handsome. Rich. Tall. Ring any bells?"
"I think you got the wrong," she let out a big yawn and rubbed her eyes," Rukia. Sorry, you should check the number given to you. They probably gave you a fake or something."
"Toshiro got it for me and it's legit. My phone says Kuchiki Rukia and there's only one Kuchiki Rukia I know of."
"Ichigo?" Rukia said loathing him for waking her up so early.
"I mean it's obviously me. Who could miss this handsome voice?"
"It's 3 a.m. Ichigo."
"I had an appointment for us at 4 a.m. this morning, but I thought I'd cut us both some slack and get it appointed earlier."
"It's 3."
"Well, you're awake."
"You woke me up at 3 a.m. to have an appointment with you? This appointment better be important enough to wake a person up at 3 in the morning."
"I help you get customers and you help me attract people. Our original plan. Sound important enough? We both don't have any time to lose so I suggest we get this over as quickly as possible?"
"Fine," Rukia stretched out a bit, "where do you want to meet?"
"Where do you live?"
"Well, considering you stalked me down to get my number, you can stalk me down to get my address too."
"That's actually not a bad idea."
"Ichigo!"
"Hey, you suggested it, but if you're in Karakura, I know a place we can meet up. Go to the local clinic."
"You mean, Kurosaki Clinic?"
"I'll meet you there in 20 minutes."
Ichigo stood there, by his dad's clinic. He looked at the place with disgust. In fact, he hasn't been at the place for 5 years and I guess that's just how much he hates the place. He turns his attention away when he heard light footsteps waddling towards him. There he saw Kuchiki Rukia, a very tired Kuchiki Rukia.
What is she wearing? Oh my- how? Why?
Rukia had her short bob pulled back into a pony tail. She had on a gray sweater that was probably 2 sizes too big for her and black sweats with stripes on the side. Her shoes were dirty white sneakers that had probably been about a couple of years old. Ichigo's eye twitched as he saw her nearing him.
"Well, aren't you a bit too dressed up for being up at 3?" Rukia asked as she wiped her nose with the sleeve of her sweater and let out a yawn without covering her mouth. Ichigo looked at her with distaste and stepped back from.
What a horrible taste. Such horrible, disgusting, atrocious taste.
Ichigo shielded his eyes from her with his hands. Rukia had a comical little vein pop and imaginary fumes puffed out of her ears.
"What's your problem," she asked nearing him and he continues to step back from her, "if my memory recalls correctly, and it's always correct, you're the one who called me out at 3 a.m. not me."
"You dress with a horrible sense of fashion." he muttered as he crossed his arms and turned his head away from her.
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, aren't you underdressed? This is a meeting with your future boss."
"You called me out at 3."
"Yes, and you should be dressed, this is a business meeting."
"I was asleep Ichigo."
"You answered my call, therefore you were not asleep."
"You imbecile," Rukia muttered and he comically grinned at her. She kicked his shin and he yelped in pain and grabbed his hurt spot.
"Stop doing that!" he glared at her and she turned to walk away.
"Hey, stop doing that running away thing too!" he yelled at her and ran after her.
Unknown to the both of them, somebody was watching them from the top floor of Kurosaki Clinic.
"Did you even listen to anything I said?" Ichigo shook the semi-sleeping Rukia. She rolled her head up to him and nodded. He took a sip of his coffee and dramatically looked around at his private coffee shop in the middle of his family's resort.
"So basically, you'll promote me and I'll send out flyers to promote Getsuga Enterprise?"
"Anything you want to add on?" he took another sip of his coffee.
"Yeah, I think your idea sucks ass," Ichigo spat out his coffee on her note, "we'll still be stuck back at square one again and it's also really cliché."
"Well, I've been planning this since the day we had our meeting about being partners. How about you? Do you have any better ideas?"
"Well... no actually. It's like 3 or 4 in the morning and I'm not really up yet."
"Exactly. We'll just stick to my plan." he stood up to leave.
"Wait," Ichigo stopped mid-way and listened to her, "if your plan fails. Let's go with my plan."
"Which is?"
"Give me some time. I'll surely think of it, but as for the moment, I'll go with your plan." Rukia half grinned at him and extends her hands towards him for a handshake. Ichigo gaped at her, half blushing and half surprised at her gesture.
"What now Ichigo?"
"You're actually really going with my plan?" Ichigo points to himself and takes a step back, hoping she wasn't going to kick him. Rukia crosses her arms and rolls her eyes.
"Well yeah."
"No fighting or anything of that sort?"
"Why? Did you want me to pick a fight with you or something?"
"No, no. This is fine. Ok, so let me give you a ride to Getsuga." Ichigo beckoned her to his car, smirking at her.
"Don't push it Ichigo." Rukia shakes as her vein pops. He shrugs his shoulders at her and she walks past him, making sure to bump into him.
"Are you gonna do that walking off and ignoring me again?"
"Where is she?" Kuroki Senna cried as she slammed her hands down in front of Yachiru and juts her face near Yachiru.
"Ma'am I told you," Yachiru pouted as she slams her teen magazine down and stands up from her chair, "Kuchiki-san isn't here yet. I don't know why either, she's usually here really early."
"Well, call her and tell her to get here quickly, I need to talk to her!"
"Well, the manager is always here, I can direct you to him."
"I said I wanted to talk to Kuchiki. Is Kuchiki the same as your manager?"
"Please leave." Yachiru crosses her arm and furrows her brows at Senna.
"No. I'll stay here and wait for Kuchiki to come."
"You're causing a commotion for the other customers. I am asking you to leave. You can't loiter here without ordering."
"Caramel macchiato, medium, skim, extra shot, extra hot, extra whip, sugar free, more on the caramel, and use a light hand on the whipped cream," Senna shot a smile at Yachiru, who just stood there and gaped, "ohh, would you like me to repeat that? You know you should respect me more, since I am older."
"R-repeat please."
"Caramel macchiato," Senna said extra slowly, "medium, skim, extra-"
"Kusajishi-chan, I'll take care of that order." Renji interrupted the two girls, smiling at them, and taking the pen from Yachiru.
"Abarai-san," Yachiru bowed down.
"Just go to the other register, I'll take care of this. Please phone Kuchiki-san after this," he turned to an angry Senna, "what was your order ma'am?"
"To see Kuchiki, but alas I won't get my order taken. So I guess, a cup of cappuccino would be nice, easy hand on the sugar."
"You should stop bothering her."
"Who are you to give me orders? Stop bothering her," Senna slammed down ten dollars at the counter and glared at Renji, "who are you, her boyfriend? Are you her family?"
"She's a very special person." Renji glared at Senna. Senna's mind clicked and she gaped and gasped out loud.
"You are in love with Kuchiki?"
"It's not like that. It's like-"
"That's disgusting, you're like so old."
"I'm 28."
"You're 28? Why do you look so old? It's your skin! You need to take better care of it." Senna turned around and sat down near the register.
"I guess, I overwork."
"How can someone like you ever like a girl like her?"
"I don't like her."
"Sure~ you don't." Senna cocked her eyebrow. Renji glared at her and walked to their coffee counter to make Senna's coffee.
Meanwhile
"You really followed me to the bus station." Rukia glanced up and down at the neatly dressed Ichigo. He placed his hands on his knees and took in deep breaths.
"Damn woman, you run fast." he kept gasping for air while Rukia laughed at him.
"Someone needs to get into shape."
"The bus isn't here. What the heck?"
"Have you never ridden the bus? Do you think it has high technology that senses you and rushes to your side?" Rukia asked him sarcastically, taking off her ponytail and ruffling her hair. Ichigo gazed at her, charmed by her actions. He saw the strand of hair fall down to the middle of her face and took in a deep breath before turning away from her face quickly.
"What now?"
"I-I haven't ever ridden the bus. Happy now? You've done something I haven't." Ichigo crosses his arm and mopes.
"Tch, I didn't expect you to ever ride a bus anyways."
"Hey! What is that suppose to mean?"
"It's coming." Rukia said leaning her head forward to get a better view of the bus and Ichigo copies her gesture.
"I'm guessing you don't have a bus card."
"You have to pay to ride this?" Ichigo points to the bus as it rolls closer to them. He looks around as more people seem to have come. Rukia takes out her bus card.
"It gives you a discount, but it's a dollar per stop. Not like you can't afford it." Rukia said as she boarded the bus. Ichigo hesitates and follows behind her.
"Wow, it's really crowded in here." he said as he follows Rukia and sits next to her.
"Don't sit next to me."
"Stop being mean! I don't know where to sit." Ichigo quietly shouts at her. The seats were all filled up very quickly. Ichigo gapes around at all the people, feeling uncomfortable.
"I'm not feeling well. Scoot over Rukia."
"Scoot over? What's your problem?" Rukia scolds him. Ichigo sweats and breathes in harder than usual. The last passenger, a pregnant woman, walks in, disappointed to see that all the seats were taken. She stands up and holds onto the rail.
"Hey miss," Rukia gets up and points to her seat, "here."
"Ahh, no it's-"
"No problem." Rukia smiled sincerely. Ichigo blushed at her sincere smile, but it soon went away when he noticed that the pregnant woman was walking to sit his way. He saw Rukia walk to the rail and stood up.
"Here, you get double the seat which is double the protection. You don't need to thank me." he gave the pregnant woman a half smirk and walked over to Rukia and grabs onto the rail.
"What are you doing?"
"Rukia, you sure are interesting," He looks down at her and smirks. Rukia looks at him with disgust, "first picking a fight with the CEO and now giving up your seat to a pregnant woman. I just-" he stopped mid-sentence and looked away.
"You just what?" Rukia raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing."
"Weirdo." Rukia scoffed and looked away as the bus begins to take off.
"Rukia, I don't feel so good."
"What is it now?!" Rukia shouted and turned to Ichigo. The bus started to move faster. He looks at her, turning pale.
"Rukia, I -blargh-" Rukia screams and jumps back as Ichigo regurgitate all over the bus floor.
"You had motion sickness and you still followed me? You drive a car this shouldn't happen!" Rukia hands her cloth to Ichigo, "wipe yourself, if word goes out that the president of Getsuga hurled all over the bus floor, business won't go well for me."
"Evil. Just thinking bout yourself. I only get motion sickness when other people drive at inhumane speed." Ichigo sneers as he takes the cloth from her and wipes his mouth. They both walked towards the entrance of Getsuga Enterprise.
"Shouldn't you go first? You're late to work." Ichigo asks as she turns slightly.
"Yeah, I forgot you're always late so it's not a surprise." Rukia grins as she enters the building leaving Ichigo behind.
As she nears Queen's Cup, she sees a familiar face drinking coffee near the register and Renji at her usual place. She quickly opened the door and broke in.
"Manager, sorry I'm late," Rukia bowed down and then turned to Senna, "what are you doing here Kuroki?"
"To talk to you." Senna placed her cup of cappuccino down and pulls the empty seat open for Rukia.
"I'll be going now Manager," Rukia bowed down to Renji, "and Kuroki, stop bothering me during my shift."
"That's why I came here to talk to you Kuchiki. I want to work here." Senna crosses her arms and smiles proudly.
Rukia and Renji looked at each other as their jaws drop to the ground in disbelief.
Ichigo places his feet on his desk and reads over the flyer that Ishida had made. It was pink with white lace on the edges. Apparently, this was made to attract female shoppers because females were the majority in his store. There was also a giveaway that had a free car to a lucky winner.
"Not bad Ishida," Ichigo scans the paper and in the corner of his eye, he saw her, his imagination of Rukia.
"Are you here to torment me again?" he asks. Imaginary Rukia furrows her brows at him and crosses her arms.
"Wow, exactly what your real self would do. I think I'm getting a little too good at this," Ichigo slowly moves from his bad position and stands up facing away from imaginary Rukia, "Actually, I'm quite happy you didn't leave me on that bus today. I had a feeling you'd leave me there throwing up, but you're a good person and you wouldn't do that. Instead you apologized to everyone for me. I like that." Ichigo turned and imaginary Rukia was smiling sincerely at him. Ichigo blushed at his imagination and thought of when she smiled like that to the pregnant woman.
"You should smile more like that. You're really-"
"I see, still talking to imaginary friends?" a voice said behind Ichigo. Imaginary Rukia faded away and Ichigo spiraled to see his double, but with aqua eyes and onyx hair.
"Wha-"
"It's nice to see you again Ichigo."
"You're concert isn't till tomorrow. Why are you here today? Who let you in my office?" Ichigo sneered at him.
"Woah, take it easy little guy," he grinned at Ichigo, his height advantage granted him to place his hand on the top of Ichigo's head and ruffle it, "aren't you glad I'm back in town?"
"Shut up Kaien." Ichigo slapped Kaien's hand off his head. Kaien let out a laugh.
"I see, still fiery. Look, you even have that youthful glow to you."
"Shut up. Geez, why are you here anyways." Ichigo scratched the back of his head, turning opposite from Kaien.
"Unohona-sensei and I chatted earlier. She mentioned you and c'mon, can't I visit my favorite cousin." Kaien teased him pulling Ichigo into a headlock. Ichigo's vein pop.
"That's disgusting. Don't let those words come out of your mouth again." Ichigo scoffed at Kaien and pulled out. Kaien let out a hearty laugh and placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder.
"So.. remembering the accident yet?"
"Let's not bring that up Kaien."
"Anyways, wooo, going to my concert tomorrow?"
"That is atrocious," Ichigo looked at Kaien up and down with disgust, "you're music is for desperate teen girls and that voice of yours is worse than nails scratching on a chalkboard."
"Haha, ouch Ichi-ichi," Kaien pretended to be hurt, clutching onto his gut, "you're such a jerk."
"Well, I have business to attend to, so I'll be going first."
"Hey, I saw Karin-chan and Yuzu-chan yesterday. Wanna go visit them?"
"No thanks." Ichigo said while walking to his desk to grab his blazer. There was a long silence between the two cousins.
"You should really come to my concert. It'd be nice to get support. I am getting old."
"Well, now that you noticed the facts,"
"How about, I help promote your place," Ichigo perked up at Kaien's request, "and you come to my concert."
"Tch, I'll think about it."
"Hey, stop being an ass Ichigo." Kaien said as Ichigo walked past him and shrugged his shoulders. Ichigo opened the door and left Kaien there awkwardly.
"So, I'll start tomorrow right? I want the shift that Rukia is in," Senna glared at Rukia then Renji, "you know, since it's the busiest."
Renji scoffed and Rukia let out a dry sarcastic laugh.
"Yeah, you'll start tomorrow. Be here sharp and early or I'll fire you!" Rukia grinned at Senna.
"Very well Kuchiki. Since we'll be working with each other I suppose it's best to annoy you tomorrow. Have fun on your last free day." Senna smiled sickly sweet at the both of them before proceeding to walk out the door.
"Woo!" Rukia shouted and jumped for joy.
"Why are you so happy? Your nemesis is working for you."
"Does it really matter manager? We have an extra worker so it's easier to switch between the shifts. Besides, Cayenne's concert is tomorrow, I'm so excited!" Rukia squealed. Renji smiled at the bubbly Rukia.
"Did you invite any of your friends yet?"
"Well, actually, none of them like idols, so it's ok to go alone." Rukia smiled at Renji. He grinned at her, but it soon disappeared when Ichigo walked into their store.
"Yo. May I borrow her?" Ichigo points to Rukia. Renji glared at him in shock.
"W-why you. Why right now?" she yelled at him standing up.
"Well, it's to discuss our change of plans, but if you don't want to hear it out, don't follow me." Ichigo said walking out the door. Rukia's jaw drop.
"Manager, I'm really sorry, I'll be right back." Rukia bowed to Renji and ran after Ichigo.
"Why did Kuroki-san walk out of your shop with your uniform?" Ichigo asked as the two walked out of the mall.
"Wow, stalker much Ichigo?"
"I just so happen to see her walk out as I walked in. Besides, a woman like you isn't worth my stalking power." He shrugged his shoulders at her as she glared at him.
"She's working with me now."
"What?" Ichigo shouted and was shot back.
"Kuroki is working with me now. Why?"
"Did you use black magic of some sort?"
"Sort of." Rukia turned to him and did a replica of his shoulder shrugging.
"I bet you used this magic to make me talk to you." He rubbed his temples as they both neared a restaurant.
"That would be a waste of my black magic power," he glared at her as she shot him a smirk, "it's just reverse psychology."
"Reverse psychology huh?" Ichigo asked as he pulled open the door for Rukia.
"Why are we going in here?"
"To discuss our mission of helping each other out."
"We could have discussed it in your office."
"I'm your boss, so I choose the place. You're just my employee."
"Cocky bastard." Rukia muttered under her breath and walked in.
"What was that?"
"Nothing sir."
They both walked in and escorted up the stairs to a seemingly private room with a medium circular table and two chairs. Ichigo was the first to walk over and sit down as Rukia was still trying to process the information.
"Well," he gestured her to sit in front of him, "tell me about this, 'reverse psychology'."
"W-woah where are we?" Rukia asked as she sat in the chair and looked around.
"At a restaurant," Ichigo said as the waiter came to take their order, "please just give us an order of everything," he turned back to Rukia, "now tell me about this reverse psychology."
"Well, I just acted like I didn't want Senna to work with me, but actually I'm really desperate for workers at the moment and she just fell for it." Rukia grinned.
"Wow, you're a dangerous one." Ichigo leans on his hand and smirks at Rukia.
"We're not going to discuss the plan are we?"
"You're also really good at guessing."
"How did I know," Rukia sighed as she got up.
"No. I was thinking since we'll be helping each other that we will need bonding time. I'm now having my doubts about trusting you. I need to know if you're really going to advertise my mall, or are you trying to hack into my mall and steal my money and information."
"Why would I do that?"
"It's hard to trust anybody in this world," Ichigo said as the waiter placed down their first plate of food and went back for more, "so I just need to know if you're serious and reliable enough to go on with this plan."
"Well," Rukia sat back down in her seat, "Kurosaki Ichigo, I promise you, I will never, ever hack into or try to bring down your mall."
"Alright, let's have this meal to symbolize this promise. I, Kurosaki Ichigo, will promise to help this short girl bring up her sales and have more employees." he stuck out his hand for her to shake.
"I, Kuchiki Rukia, will not try to sabotage this weird guy's mall in any way. I will also advertise his mall in my spare time." Rukia took his hand and shook it.
"Woah, your hands are really soft." Ichigo's eyes lit up and grinned at her. Rukia kicked him from under the table. He yelped and startled the waiter who dropped their food onto him.
*AN: Hey guys, long time no see? I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll update the other chapter as soon as I can. I tried to make two chapters but I had a serious brain fart. It's like my brain didn't want to cooperate, but I'll try my best to make it good for you guys. I just don't want to throw in random stuff to make it two updates. I want it to be good because your support makes me really happy and I want to make you guys happy too by (attempting) to write good chapters.
I have irregular updates because it's hard for me to balance my schedule and I like to write for fun, so I apologize for the irregular update times.