Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

Thanks to the people who reviewed! I really appreciate all of your support and kind comments. And I'm sorry if Hitsugaya is OOC, sometimes that just happens with me. I dunno...I rather like the idea of an arrogant!Hitsugaya and the humbleyetsomewhatchildish!Rukia...I dunno. I probably make no sense. Haha.

Anyway, enjoy chapter two!

Wheel of the World
Chapter Two: The Ice Shinigami

The raven haired girl stared at this man who held such a domineering pose in front of her, despite his height.

Or lack thereof... Rukia thought with a smirk.

It seemed quiet for a while with just the sound of the chilly night wind rustling through the trees and the faded sound of cars just a few miles away from the formally quiet suburb where Rukia lived. Her liquid depths washed over this Hitsugaya Toshiro person.

He had a handsome face, although somewhat childlike in its appearance. Spiky white locks were being splayed around by the breeze in the night. Tanned skin seemed to glow in the moonlight and she could make out the distinct ripple of muscles even under all of those clothes. Blue green eyes looked at her with the utmost scrutiny before he said with a smirk, "Are you just going to sit there, or are you going to get your friend help before he bleeds to death?"

As if just realizing that Ishida was there, Rukia shot up in a panic, "Oh, no..."

"Don't worry..." Hitsugaya said in a strange tone, one that was mixed with an attitude of not caring and exasperation at the girl's anxiety. "C'mon, I'll help you get him into your house..."

Quirking an eyebrow at the white haired spirit, she gave him a shaky smile, "Thanks...um...Toshiro?"

"Hitsugaya." He corrected.

"Why can't I call you by your first name?"

"Just...don't."

"You don't like your first name?"

"I prefer being called Hitsugaya." The shorter man said, heaving Ishida's much taller form onto his shoulder and heading for the door to her house. "Or better yet, Hitsugaya-taichou."

"Why would I call you that?" Rukia asked, tilting her head to the side, causing her black locks to fall somewhat in front of her features.

"You ask too many questions...uh, girl." Hitsugaya stated, struggling for the big eyed girl's name.

"Rukia's my name." She offered, somewhat awkwardly opening the door for Hitsugaya to enter, "But if you're going to be insistent on calling people by their last names, then you can call me Kuchiki if you want."

Kuchiki...where had he heard that name mentioned before?

Shaking his head, he brought the bespectacled man into the house. He had no time to figure out where he had heard the girl's last name before. He just needed to focus on getting this human better so he could leave and tend to his other duties.

"Where should I put him?" Hitsugaya asked, looking around at the darkened house, which suddenly became illuminated when Rukia turned on the lights.

"Um...on the couch should be fine." Rukia pointed to a rather large couch seated in front of a rather large television in her rather large living room.

Nodding, the white haired shinigami made his way into the den and laid Ishida on the couch. He sighed exasperatedly, If only Unohana-taichou was here...this would take less time. Good thing she taught me a little something about healing...

"Um...Hitsugaya, do you need anything?" Rukia offered lamely as she watched the shorter man look over her friend's wounds, "For Ishida...that is."

"No..." Hitsugaya replied, his gaze not leaving the man on the couch. He stretched his hands over the large gash on the side of his head where he had impacted the wall. Rukia's eyes widened with amazement as a bluish, almost icy, aura emitted from his hands and soaked over the bloody area. The flesh began to close together, blood disappeared, bone fell back into place. It was a unique sight to watch, and the white haired man did this to the rest of Ishida's wounds, even bruises. Hitsugaya was done in a matter of an hour; Ishida was healed completely, although he was still unconscious, which was probably for the better.

"That was...amazing," Rukia awed, looking at the now virtually unharmed Ishida Uryu, "How did you - ?"

"Just a basic healing technique most shinigami know. The external wounds have disappeared, but he will he in pain. It will still feel like he was slammed into that wall, but his life is no longer in danger because of those wounds."

A feeling of relief washed over Rukia, "Whew, thanks."

"No need to thank me - " Hitsugaya stopped as soon as he lifted his eyes to meet those of the girl beside him, who was sitting in a very close proximity to his face. He felt his cold resolve begin to weaken for the first time in a while, but shook it off. How embarrassing! It was in front of a stranger, no less! He reasoned it to be due to the fact that no girl had ever been that close to his face, well...besides Hinamori, but she was his childhood friend, so he deemed that innocent. And an encounter with Matsumoto while she was drunk and hug-happy caused him to be face to face with something that definitely wasn't a face, but that was a different story altogether.

His eyes widened marginally before he snapped his head back and said, "What do you think you're doing, Kuchiki?"

She seemed to be caught out of a dazed sense of thinking, for she jolted slightly before smiling serenely and replying, "I just never thought shinigami would look like this."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, most of the times I hear of legends and see pictures of shinigami, they are described as...monsters." Rukia began to make silly motions with her hands, as if describing a 'monster'. With her fingers curling and uncurling, as if they were talons of some sort, it was a comical sight, as well as her facial expressions and her eyes being wide and expressive.

Hitsugaya nearly chuckled.

She stopped with her puppet theater and met her eyes with his, "And, ya know...ever seen the anime Death Note? The shinigami in that...I thought that's what they looked like." Rukia roamed her eyes around his frame, "Not like...you."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I dunno," Rukia began, sighing somewhat, "I mean, you do look old enough to be my younger brother."

Hitsugaya growled as his electric orbs met her calm ones, "Hey! I have lived at least ten of your lives, girl."

Rukia lightly bonked Hitsugaya on the head, which was surprising to her; with him being a shinigami and all, she expected her hand to pass straight through it. "Hey, my name is not 'girl'."

"Fine, Kuchiki." Hitsugaya rubbed the small sore spot on his head where she had tapped her fist.

The triumphant smile that spread across her features caused him to feel very irritated that she thought she won.

Before he had time to make a snappy comeback, this Rukia girl spoke again, this time in a serious, even tone as she gazed upon the unconscious form of the bespectacled man beside her, "So...what's going on?"

"Nn?"

"You said you would explain to me everything once we were inside..." Rukia broke it down for him, "I would very much like to know what happened."

Hitsugaya stared blankly at her for a moment.

"Please. If I do not impose on your time, I would like to know what exactly is happening..."

The white haired shinigami blinked in confusion for a moment. In just a short amount of time, he had seen so many angles from this girl - the worried friend, the joking girl, the shocked part, even her slight temper, and now the painfully polite angle of this girl. This girl was quite odd, but it intrigued him. And her earnest, polite words made him open his mouth and explain everything to her.

"As you know," He began, "I am a shinigami, or in other words - Soul Reaper."

Hitsugaya met his eyes with hers and held the gaze, not wavering, "Our first duty is to lead wholes - normal spirits - into the Soul Society by means of konso, which is sort of like exorcism, but it basically releases their soul from this world and allows them to pass on. The second thing we Soul Reapers must do are vanquish and purify hollows - evil spirits - who attack the dead and even the living and devour their souls." He tapped his sword as he said those words, "We use our zanpakutous for both tasks."

Rukia's eyes widened marginally in interest as Hitsugaya continued.

"Hollows used to be human once. They are souls who were not admitted into Soul Society by a shinigami - fallen souls. These souls weren't saved from other hollows. These souls, fall, lose their hearts, and become hollows themselves."

"So...that thing that attacked me...was that - ?"

"A hollow? Yes, it was."

Rukia felt a hard lump form in her throat, and she swallowed with difficulty.

"So..." Rukia trailed off, feeling a nervous twist in her stomach, "...if you wouldn't have came, it would've eaten...my soul?"

Hitsugaya nodded gravely, almost feeling bad for the girl. She looked deathly afraid.

"Any reason why they wanted to eat my soul?"

The turquoise eyed man paused, before explaining that, "I encountered you at the beginning of today, while you and that orange haired girl were walking to school. I was the one who got rid of that spirit that was trailing you, by use of konso. Ever since then, I knew you would be a prime target for a hollow since your spiritual energy is so high. At off-the-chart levels."

It was true. Rukia, despite her humanity, was actually a very spiritually charged girl. He was surprised that this was her first encounter with a hollow, seeing as how he was currently being somewhat overwhelmed by the energy pulsating off of her small frame.

"So it's a bad thing that I can see ghosts." Rukia said, more of a statement than a question.

"Well, I'd say it's not helping you if you were nearly killed tonight," Hitsugaya deadpanned, eyes dull but still connected with hers.

Rukia's violet orbs darkened into blue and she looked worried and sad, "Yeah..."

Hitsugaya ignored the slight feeling of pity he felt for the girl and looked at her friend, "A Quincy...I haven't seen one of those in years."

Great topic change, genius-taichou. Hitsugaya thought sarcastically to himself, almost punching himself for his bluntness.

Rukia seemed to go with it, however, for she asked, "Quincy...what's that?"

"They are the natural rivals of shinigami," Hitsugaya said, looking from him to her, "They are very strong if trained well. This one seems to be on his way to having great strength, though." His orbs scanned over the Quincy cross on his wrist, "They use bow and arrows as weapons...make them by conjuring up the energy around them and forming it into the weapon."

"How...how could I not have felt his energy?"

"He must be really good at hiding his true power," Hitsugaya explained, looking down at the Quincy youth, "Otherwise, I would've known there was a Quincy in the area before the hollow attacked."

Rukia seemed to understand, nodding her head gently toward the ivory haired male, "So, my energy...I don't know how to hide it and that's why I was attacked?"

"To put it bluntly, yes," Hitsugaya said, giving her the truth.

This seemed to sadden her, as she lowered her eyes before moving them to her friend's form. "Ah...I must not have the ability to do that..."

Hitsugaya didn't reveal to her that she most likely did, for then she would try and learn it herself. That would cause harm to her being in training her to suppress her aura...so he avoided it.

"You shouldn't worry." Hitsugaya said, looking down at her, "Matsumoto and I are the shinigami assigned to this area of Japan. With your energy, we can easily sense you and defend you from a hollow." Although it would be easier with a few gigai and backup forces...I should ask Yamamoto-genryusai when we get back to Soul Society...

"You'd do that?" Rukia seemed in shock of his sudden offer.

"Don't think of it as a personal favor." The white haired shinigami said, trying to quell her hopes that a shinigami would actually do her a favor. Although the idea did seem kind of nice... "Actually, in usual cases like this, when a human is attacked by a hollow, we use a memory replacement technique to cleanse their memories of that night. I would do that to you, but with your gifts, I wouldn't think this would be a one-time attack on you."

He could hear Rukia audibly gulp.

"But it will be okay," Hitsugaya found himself reassuring the girl despite himself, "I won't let your soul get eaten...I promise it."

At Hitsugaya's kind words, Rukia found herself smiling, "Ah...alright. Thank you."

Hitsugaya scoffed, turning his head to the side to avoid her glance. "Che...yeah..." His orbs then focused on Ishida, who stirred slightly, but was otherwise knocked out cold, "I doubt he'll wake up any time soon...so do you mind if he stays here for the night?"

"No. Not at all. When we were little, me and Ishida had sleepovers all the time." Rukia smiled brightly, and Hitsugaya took notice at the boyish and carefree way she did it. Her smile didn't try to be pretty. Her dimpled cheeks and big grin reminded him of himself when he was young and innocent and oh-so-carefree. Hitsugaya almost smiled along with her.

"That's good..." Hitsugaya replied, giving her a gentle and lazy smile, lips barely receding from his teeth, "Alright, well I'll leave you to go to sleep."

Rukia nodded whilst taking in a shaky breath as if to calm herself. "Okay...so I assume this won't be the last I see of you, ne?"

"I doubt it will be."

Rukia laughed, a light airy sound that was somewhat soothing to Hitsugaya's battle worn joints and state of mind, "Surprising as it is, it comforts me."

"See you, Kuchiki."

With that, his form raced out the door.

After a while of pondering over her thoughts, Rukia disappeared into the next room, bringing out a blanket to spread over Ishida. Sighing with a tired exasperation, she laid the comforting item over his lanky form gently. "Goodnight, Ishida."

Rukia then decided it would be best for her to get a bath and head to bed herself. Although it wasn't incredibly late, she felt as if she'd pulled an all-nighter the previous day, but in reality it was the physical and mental exhaustion of Hitsugaya telling her that she was basically a safety risk to herself and anyone around her due to the fact of her unusually high spiritual energy.

She walked up the stairs to the bathroom, ran her water in the tub, undressed out of her uniform, and slid into the warm caress of the liquid. The heat of the water seemed to ease her worries - the ones in both her mind and body. It was relaxing, calm...peaceful.

Rukia's eyes ran over her body, noticing that she had just a couple of bruises already forming from the hollow encounter. They were sensitive to the touch, so the raven haired girl just leaned back into the tub more, as if wishing that the water would wash away the memory of this horrible night from her mind.

The bath was a short one, despite how refreshed it made Rukia feel. She rose from the water, not bothering to bring out the hair dryer to fix her locks. She got a towel out form under the cabinet and dried herself before slipping on a robe and walking into her bedroom.

The house was silent, all for the creaking of the floorboards under feet as she made her way down the wood floors of the hall, down to her room, where the small soles finally met with fuzzy, shaggy carpet.

Once in her room, she plopped herself onto her bed, not bothering to even change into pajamas. Closing her eyes and leaning back into the soft cushions of her bed, she gave a tired groan as she felt sleep overwhelm her.

The first thing that entered her mind before she fell asleep was a pair of turquoise orbs, a zanpakutou, and a hollow's grin.

It had begun to rain just a few minutes after Rukia threw herself onto her bed.

Good thing she hadn't begun to undress herself... Hitsugaya said, almost blushing at the thought.

The white haired shinigami was perched gracefully onto the limb of a tree right beside the Kuchiki woman's bedroom window. The rain poured down onto his small frame, soaking his shihakusho. His wet hair hung down into his eyes in chunks. Sighing roughly, he pushed them out of the way. As he did so water sprinkled into his eyes. Rubbing them with his sleeve, he gave a slight yawn.

"Tired, taichou?"

"Ah, hello, Matsumoto." Hitsugaya lifted an eyebrow in wonderment, "It took you that short of a time to file a report...?"

The strawberry blonde closed her eyes and smiled somewhat innocently at her captain, "I left it with Nanao-chan."

Hitsugaya slapped his forehead while Matsumoto gave a rather nervous laugh.

"So you told her about it?" Matsumoto asked, looking down at him. Hitsugaya nodded. "Did you erase her memory?"

At this, Hitsugaya shook his head no. "With her spirit energy, more hollows are bound to attack her. I think she deserves to know what's going on."

"Aa." Matsumoto nodded in understanding. "Well, you'd better add that to the report, or Yamamoto-genryusai will not be happy with not knowing..."

Hitsugaya nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Do you think you could make another trip to Soul Society and add that to our report...or to Ise-fukutaichou's report, to be more exact?"

Matsumoto chuckled and a Hell butterfly appeared. "Sure, taichou."

The turquoise eyed man went back to staring through the window at the raven haired girl. She had turned over on her back now, hands splayed carelessly around her. Her hair was fanned out around her like a cascade of black water. He could see that her breathing was slowed, peaceful, and she looked rather innocent in her sleep, unlike the intelligent and serious woman he had seen her be.

"Don't stare too hard, taichou."

With that, Matsumoto left a very flustered Hitsugaya in her wake.

The bright, shining sun beaming through the blinds woke Rukia that morning. Yawning, she rolled over and checked her alarm clock. "Too early...need sleep..."

Walking lazily to the door, viewing it through heavily lidded eyes, she opened it just at the same time Ishida was raising his hand to knock.

"OWCH!"

Rukia clenched her eyes shut in a wince as she heard several bumps and bangs and yelps after the door KO-ed Ishida's clueless form. "I-I'm sorry, Ishida!" She called to the probably injured young man.

"N-No...pro-problem, Ruk...ia..."

She could hear little voices shouting in her head.

Oh my god, you killed Ishida!

You bastard!

The raven haired woman almost chuckled, but she raced down the stairs to help the crumpled pile of Uryu up. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah...I'm stronger than I look."

"I now know that..." Rukia mentioned, looking at his bracelet.

"Ah, so you remember..." Ishida said somewhat dumbly, "Do I need to - ?"

"No," The Kuchiki woman said, grasping his hand and helping him up, "The shinigami - Hitsugaya - explained it all. You're something called a Quincy. You use bows and arrows. And since I couldn't sense your energy, you're obviously very powerful."

Ishida almost blushed if it weren't for the word shinigami in that sentence. He spat with a tone filled with venom, "Shinigami?"

"Yes..." Rukia tilted her head in a confused manner, "You sound like you have a grudge against them...shinigami, that is."

Ishida stiffened as he lifted himself up and brushed his clothes off.

"I hate shinigami."

Rukia felt no further need to discuss that, for Ishida got up rigidly and began his ascent up the stairs once more. The black haired man seemed to dismiss the topic, because he continued as if he hadn't said that previous statement, "Do you still have some of my extra uniforms here?"

She nodded at the question, "Yeah, they're in my closet. Why would I have thrown them out?" She chuckled slightly, "Hello, you still come over when you and your father are having problems. So I gotta keep spare clothes for your lazy - " She noticed Ishida's shoulders tighten at the mention of his father, so she backed off from the subject, "Yeah, hold on, I'll go get them!" She then raced up the stairs in front of the bespectacled man.

Ishida sighed in an odd manner, closing his eyes as he did so, as if to quell something inside him.

"Here, Ishida." Rukia tossed some clothes down toward him.

They landed squarely on his head and Rukia chuckled as she disappeared into her own room to get ready for school.

Seconds later, they were both ready, and after eating a fast breakfast, they were off walking to school together.

Rukia, still munching on a bagel, explained everything to Ishida, although he already seemed to know about hollows and wholes and shinigami and Soul Society. Which seemed odd to Rukia, since she had known nothing about it. And if Ishida had known about this, why hadn't he told her before they had nearly been killed last night?

"Because you would've thought I was insane." He answered bluntly.

Rukia smiled nervously at the comment as she sweatdropped. "Yeah...right." I think I might be going a little insane as well...

The dark eyed girl stared straight in front of her, keeping her eye on the path in front of her with confidence. That is, until something caught her eye.

That something being a flash of white hair and tanned skin.

She stopped, hair flying in front of her face as a wind passed by.

"Something wrong?" Ishida asked. He had obviously not picked up on the presence.

"No, nothing, Ishida." Rukia gave him an elegant, reassuring smile.

They continued walking, talking, but Rukia couldn't rid that vision from her mind.

That was Hitsugaya...but why was he there?

End Chapter Two.

FINALLY!!! That's all I have to say about finishing this chapter. I feel like this one took forever to complete. This one is rather lengthy as well. But I hope you enjoyed it.

And if no one has noticed (which you prolly haven't) I'm kinda making Ishida in Renji's role in the anime/manga. Like the childhood friend who cares for her with those type of feelings... And yes, Renji will be in this fic. How? Well, you'll see. Ichigo will be as well. And some other characters will make appearances in this fic too. With major roles! Yes, yes. Haha.

Anyway, I would love it if I got some feedback for this chapter! (not trying to be a review whore...haha)

Arigato!