Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach!

Alright! Chapter six! Here we go! And it should be quite a doosy of a chapter, though even as I write, I'm not sure where this is gonna go, but I do have a vague idea of it all. So anyway! Thanks to the people encouraging me to get off my lazy ass and update! Much love to ya, and to my reviewers! I heart cha all!

Enjoy!

Wheel of the World
Chapter Six: A Perfectly Good Heart

Rukia's first night with the shinigami was anything but peaceful. Between the toilet overflowing (twice, mind you!), Hitsugaya's sudden chocolate craze, Matsumoto and Hinamori's fascination with the poster of Orlando Bloom in Rukia's room, Ichigo's penchant for eating anything and everything in sight even if it wasn't edible (which he found out the hard way when trying to devour a pack of Swiffer mop pads), and Renji's loud mouthed comments over the stupidity of humans on television, the poor raven haired Kuchiki hardly got any sleep.

The usual trance-like state of someone deprived of sleep was interrupted when her alarm sounded, forcing her into consciousness. As she opened her violet jewel-like orbs, she yelped, for a pair of familiar turquoise eyes were staring down at her. She shot up, unfortunately causing her head to collide with Hitsugaya's, who immediately clutched his head in pain. "D-Damn..."

"Ne - ne?! What the hell are you doing in my room, Hitsugaya?!"

"You were talking in your sleep and I heard my name...so yeah." Hitsugaya replied casually, running a hand through his snowy locks.

"N-No...No I wasn't!" Rukia defended, looking the white haired shinigami in the face, careful violet orbs studying his face with scrutiny.

"Um, yes, you were - "

Hitsugaya's rebuttal was interrupted by the door to Rukia's room slamming open; Matsumoto stood in the door frame, looking like a supermodel, even if she was only dressed in the school's uniform. "Oi, Rukia..." She trailed off, looking at the strange predicament that she suddenly found her captain in, "Hitsugaya...wow, being awfully forward, aren't we?" The busty woman chuckled, giving her captain a mischievous look before turning her sights on Rukia.

"Did you want something, Matsumoto?" Rukia asked, rubbing her eyes lazily with the back of her hand.

The strawberry blonde just smiled, "Oh, it slipped my mind..." She found herself trailing off once again, but she picked up where she left off, "I'll let you get ready for school. Come on, Hitsugaya."

Matsumoto grasped the white haired shinigami's wrist and tugged him out of the room so Rukia could get dressed. The dark haired woman glanced at the door as it shut behind them. Quirking a brow, the Kuchiki girl rose from her bed, feeling grateful she hadn't gotten out from beneath her covers while Hitsugaya was in the room, for she slept only in her underwear and a button up shirt. She blushed at the thought of him seeing her like this.

Nonetheless, Rukia walked to her closet and opened the doors to search for a clean uniform. But, to her utter shock and somewhat horror, a carrot topped shinigami came tumbling over from inside the closet, landing at her feet with a crash and a curse.

To say the least, Rukia screamed.

Loud.

And suddenly, Hitsugaya was the one bursting through her door, his sword in his hands, shinigami garb on, and ready for battle.

The girl flushed and looked from Hitsugaya to Ichigo and back again before screaming, "What the hell!"

Hitsugaya looked at Ichigo and stomped over to the dazed shinigami, kicking him and sending him flying into the nearby wall, "Idiot!"

Rukia was flustered and she tried desperately to cover her exposed bottom by tugging the hem of her shirt downward, "Get out! Both of you. OUT!"

"I was just trying to protect - "

"Hitsugaya," Rukia cut him off tersely, "I am half naked. You are in my room. You, as well as the orange haired idiot who was sleeping in my closet, need to get OUT!"

The ice shinigami sighed, and grasped Ichigo's collar. Hitsugaya was beginning to think he kicked him a bit too hard, for he was almost unconscious. "Alright," Hitsugaya complied with the angry raven haired girl's demands and left, but not before taking a secret glance at her cute attempt to cover herself.

Humans... He rolled his eyes, but the attempt in itself was half hearted, because a voice in the back of his head was taunting him.

"You know she's cute."

After getting dressed, Rukia bounded down the stairs, grasping her school bag that hung on the stair rail as she did so, and made her way into the kitchen. It took her a while to process the sight, but once she did, violet eyes widened.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

Rukia dodged the mess created by frantic shinigami trying to cook and play Scrabble all at the same time (She was beginning to wonder where all these board games were coming from - she certainly didn't remember them.) and grabbed an energy bar from the cabinet beside the refrigerator.

The Kuchiki woman bolted out the door, only to crash into Hitsugaya's back, who was waiting for her outside the door rather patiently, though it would make him late as well. She fell back on her bottom, colliding with the hard floor with an "oomph" leaving her lips as she did so.

"How does someone not even as tall as you make you fall down?" The white haired shinigami said, giving her a look of bewilderment.

"So you admit you're short." Rukia countered, picking herself up from her fallen position.

Hitsugaya rolled his turquoise orbs, "Humans..." He scoffed with contempt.

"You know we're interesting." Rukia playfully defended.

"Interestingly stupid."

"Oh, nice. Really nice, Hitsugaya."

The two then began to walk to school. The day was a beautiful one, the kind that many people would be so often to point out to everyone. But neither Rukia nor Hitsugaya felt the need to say anything, for they both knew what beauty this one day had. It was strange, and almost unsettling in a way, that one day could be so nice, without any traces of dark clouds in the sky.

It had Hitsugaya feeling unnerved.

But, as he took a private glance toward Rukia out of the corner of his eye, any unease he felt was immediately voided.

"Good morning, Rukia, Hitsugaya!" The cheery voice of Orihime chirped as both the raven haired and the ivory haired individuals entered the classroom. The Inoue girl bounded up to the two of them and smiled brightly. "You were almost late, but you got here just in time - "

She was interrupted by the bell.

"Oh...well, ah...haha!" Orihime laughed, scratching the back of her head, "I guess that proves my point!"

The raven haired beauty smiled at the optimistic young woman, "Good morning, Orihime." She replied, finally able to get a word in. Hitsugaya just nodded in greeting, glad that no one took their entrance together in the wrong context.

"Yes," Orihime smiled, "It's a nice day, ne?"

Rukia nodded, but before she could answer, a string of curses barged into her train of thought.

"Dammit, you idiot!"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!"

"Yes, it was, you orange-topped-moron!"

"I didn't mean to spill my juice on you!"

"Like I care! You should know that you don't open a juice box by jumping on it, you dumb ass!"

Rukia gulped as she turned to face the object of the problematic situation that had just occurred.

Arisawa Tatsuki was screaming at Kurosaki Ichigo, holding him by the shirt collar and shaking him back and forth, brown eyes blazing, looking ready to kill. Her short black locks were flaring with some unknown wind that came around her. A desk laid on the floor, toppled over and mangled as if some truck had run over it, next to them.

A devil! A devil in the wreckage! Hitsugaya thought, stunned.

She was strong, he could tell. Insanely strong. And a beauty too, according to Ichigo, who was blushing slightly from the contact. Either that, or the feisty girl was choking him to death.

"T-Tatsuki!" Orihime squeaked, "U-Um...I don't think Ichigo meant to..."

The girl named Tatsuki didn't seem to notice the long haired girl's plea to help the carrot top. She was more focused on the humongous yellow stain on the front of her blouse and skirt. And focused on making this cocky new guy scream for mercy if it was the last thing she did.

Another guy spoke up, "Whoa, Tatsuki...did you have an accident?" He chuckled.

Brown eyes flared as she reached out and began strangling both of them.

"Keigo, you moron." Rukia said exasperatedly.

To the delight of Ichigo and Keigo, Ochi-sensei entered the room and stopped the fighting. As soon as everyone sat down - and resumed breathing normally - she said, "Well, I'm sure that was interesting...now, let's get on with the lesson."

Rukia sighed as she sank into her seat, violet eyes trying to focus on Ochi-sensei's lecture, as well as trying to think of what could possibly go wrong next with the culturally dense shinigami she suddenly brought to Karakura. She was really beginning to think Ichigo was a complete moron. Seriously, who opened a juice box by jumping on it? Let alone do it in front of Tatsuki, the second strongest girl in Japan?

An idiot, that's who.

Her thoughts were suddenly drawn to Hitsugaya, who, when she caught a fleeting glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, was working diligently on some kind of problem Ochi-sensei had assigned. He had waited for her this morning, even after everyone else had left. It struck her as odd, and as a sweet gesture despite himself that he would do that.

She sighed and sank further into her desk, looking around the room nonchalantly, and meeting eyes with Ishida. Rukia gave him a small smile when their eyes met, and he returned the gesture, with a hint of a blush that the Kuchiki girl apparently didn't see.

Rukia began to scribble on her paper. A picture of a rather strange looking bunny rabbit and other things emerged during the lecture her teacher was giving, and she started drawing other things. The hollow mask she saw just a few days ago, Ishida and his Quincy bow, and - to her utter surprise - after a few minutes of subconscious doodling, she saw the image of Hitsugaya beginning to take shape, spiky hair, zanpakutou, serious eyes, and all.

She crumbled up the paper and tossed it into her backpack as an afterthought.

He was intriguing, she had to admit, with his icy turquoise stare, his snowy white hair, and his somewhat cocky attitude. The coldness that radiated from him was almost as interesting as the fact that he was, indeed, a shinigami. But even more interesting than all those things was the fact that he was kind to her. Kind. And even when he seemed to be impatient with her, she always got the feeling that he didn't even mean the harsh things he said.

Then again, maybe Rukia was disillusioning herself.

She found herself searching for Hitsugaya's form in the classroom, and found that he had been looking at her. Their eyes met, and her heart gave a strange thump in her chest. His eyes looked...soft. And she could almost see the hint of a smile on his lips. She could feel herself blush, and she turned away quickly, raven hair spinning around as she did so.

Maybe she wasn't disillusioned after all.

Lunch came very quickly, Rukia noticed as she entered the lunch room. Usually, she would pack her own lunch to eat, but since this morning she was so incredibly rushed to get to school, she hadn't had the time to, so she resorted to buying lunch from the cafeteria.

She left the lunch line, tray in hand, with various food items on it. Rukia walked to the table where Orihime and Tatsuki sat, eating their lunches.

"Hello again, Rukia!" Orihime chirped and Rukia waved coolly at her. The Inoue girl smiled as she took a bite of her homemade...err...Rukia nor Tatsuki didn't know what it was that the auburn haired girl had cooked today, but it certainly didn't look appetizing. Neither of the dark haired girls wanted to ask...or wanted to know, they decided, so they just ate in silence for a while until...until...

"Ru-ki-aa!" A sing-song voice chirped as a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders quite suddenly.

Rukia started, and turned around, searching for the cause of this sudden interruption. "Keigo...what is it?"

Asano Keigo rubbed his cheek in Rukia's raven locks, "We're gonna sit next to you and Tatsuki and Orihime today!"

"Um...ah...alright," Rukia replied humbly as Keigo and his friend Kojima Mizuiro plopped down on the bench. Keigo was beside Rukia, while Mizuiro took a seat beside Orihime.

The five-some then restarted their chatter and joking, with Keigo's occasional glances at Rukia which were often accompanied by a wily grin. The raven haired Kuchiki girl felt uncomfortable, but didn't let it show; she hid her discomfort with a polite smile and the airy laugh she was known for.

Somehow, during their conversation, Rukia looked up at the lunch line, only to see Matsumoto and Hitsugaya, waiting to get their lunch. But as soon as she looked up, Hitsugaya's eyes shifted to connect with her own. Turquoise orbs flashed with some foreign emotion Rukia wasn't aware of.

But whatever it was, it gave her a chill.

Hitsugaya clenched and unclenched the fingers of his right hand.

That...boy was practically undressing her with his eyes!

He didn't know enough about this boy...only that his name was Keigo...and that he really wasn't on his good list after all the things he was witnessing.

The hugging her from behind, rubbing his cheek on the crown of her head, the small flirtations with his eyes, his fingers steadily moving closer and closer to Rukia's slender hand...

I'm going insane.

Matsumoto looked down at her taichou, her eyes softening at the white haired boy's appearance. He looked absolutely annoyed. The strawberry blonde followed his gaze to see it was focused on the lovely Rukia, who was currently being encroached upon by some boy with strange looking eyebrows. "Hitsugaya..." Matsumoto started, getting her superior's attention. "Calm down. We don't want Hyorinmaru to make an unexpected appearance." She gave him a small smile, but sighed when she saw Hitsugaya was practically grinding his teeth together in aggravation.

"Why doesn't she tell him to get lost?" He almost growled.

Matsumoto shrugged, "Why don't you ask her that?"

Hitsugaya looked down, almost embarrassed at his current state.

"But an even better question would be: Why do you care so much, Hitsugaya?" The beautiful shinigami said, a strangely insightful question coming from her usually playful self.

Hitsugaya was silent as he contemplated her words.

It was at this time, Rukia looked up, violet eyes almost searching for him. He moved his turquoise orbs to meet her own jewellike ones. He then saw Rukia look away, bewildered and somewhat flustered.

Why do I care?

"Hitsugaya..."

The white haired shinigami was genuinely surprised when he found Rukia looking at him with a kind expression, her school bag on her shoulder, ready to head home. He looked perplexed as he asked, "What is it?"

"Are you ready to head home?"

If Hitsugaya were to say he wasn't surprised by that question, he'd be lying. His gorgeous blue-green eyes widened slightly before resuming their normal, cold gaze, "You want to walk home with me?"

Those large eyes of hers moved quickly to the side, then back to his face, "Well, everyone else had left before I had chance to catch up, and I saw that you were the only one of the...guests..." She said the word carefully, "...left, so...yeah. And I didn't see any problem with us walking home together, but if you don't want to, I will understand - "

"It's fine." Hitsugaya cut in a bit too quickly, but tried to regain his composure. "I mean, I have no problem walking home with you."

Rukia gave him a bright smile that made her think she was spending too much time with Orihime, and the two left out the door.

Walking onto the street, a breeze picked up, and Rukia shivered. It felt as if it were getting colder, but this was a sinister type of cold... The raven haired girl suppressed another shiver and kept on walking, for some reason not wanting to look like a weakling in front of the strong shinigami walking just across from her.

The two were quiet for the majority of the walk home, until Hitsugaya's curiosity got the better of him.

"So...that Keigo guy..."

Rukia's eyes widened marginally before looking at the ice shinigami, "What about him?"

"Well, it's obvious he likes you."

"And? What are you getting at, Hitsugaya?"

Hitsugaya was quiet for a while; Rukia didn't bother to break the silence, because she was rather flustered that the white haired being would question her about her "romantic" life.

"Nothing." He finally answered, not even looking at her.

"Did I do something wrong?" Rukia pondered, looking at him, wondering when he grew. He was now exactly her height.

He shook his head no, and finally turned to look at her, "No...you did nothing wrong." He bit his lip, wondering why he was so nervous now of all times, "It's just me. I...sometimes wonder about my motives."

"Motives?" Rukia said the word out loud, as if wondering what it meant. She was rather confused as to why Hitsugaya was acting this strange all of a sudden. What could he mean by "motives"?

"I just wonder sometimes...if my heart has good intentions or bad." Hitsugaya wanted to slap himself for blurting that out. He hardly ever opened up to people like this. But that stupid...stupid, irrational jealousy bubbling inside him when he saw another person look at Rukia with...feelings more than friendship...he found himself getting a little hot under the collar and more prone to saying what he truly felt. And he found that when he was with Rukia, saying what he felt was quite easy compared to practically everyone else he knew.

Again, Matsumoto's question rang throughout his subconscious.

"Why do you care so much, Hitsugaya?"

The first answer that came to his mind was because he was an idiot. An irritated, obsessive idiot. How could he even have the nerve to care who she hung out with, let alone who she was romantically interested in, when he had only known her a few days? Only an idiot would feel that way. And right now, Hitsugaya felt as if he were walking around town with a big sign that had "Idiot, here!" printed in large, bold letters hanging above his head.

His reverie was interrupted by Rukia's sweet voice, without any prior knowledge to his deeds in Soul Society, or to his thoughts about her, or about other things... Things that seemed terrible. Things that seemed as if they would brand him as a bad person. The Kuchiki girl apparently had no preconceived notions about him and his position in the spirit world, which was why the words that came from her lips both surprised and touched him deeply, as if hitting a chord deep within his strong chest.

"I believe you have a perfectly good heart, Hitsugaya."

He stopped, as did she, and he gave her a look as he studied her pretty features. The evening sun was hitting her beautifully, causing her jewel eyes to shine with her smile. The sunlight gave her ebony locks a gorgeous sheen, and made her pale skin stand out. A smile curled his lips.

"I guess what you don't know won't hurt you, Kuchiki."

Rukia giggled as Hitsugaya began walking, suddenly wondering why his heart was thundering in his chest. And wondering about the blush that graced the petite girl's cheeks when she had said those meaningful words, full of innocence and life and hope and praise.

He realized after a few steps that Rukia wasn't following him, so he turned to find out why she wasn't moving...

Hitsugaya's eyes widened and a snarl escaped his lips.

Rukia stood still as a board, shoulders straight and erect, legs locked in place, eyes wide as saucers. She was stunned silent, and staring into Hitsugaya's eyes with a vulnerable look that he couldn't keep his heart from lurching at the sight of.

"Hitsu...gaya..." She said in a pleading voice so scared and unlike her that made Hitsugaya clench his fists and wonder how in the hell he could've missed it.

How could he have let his guard down so much?

He cursed.

Behind Rukia stood a hollow.

End Chapter Six.

There's chapter six! Finally, it's finished, I know! Well, at least it wasn't as far apart as the last update! But I swear, the updates will be sooner! I promise ya!

I hope I'm not moving things with Hitsu-kun and Rukia-chan along too fast. I mean, they gotta have moments together! So cha. And besides, that makes it more interesting! Haha, well...uhm...yeah. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review with your opinions! They will be very much appreciated!

Thanks so much again! The reviews for last chapter were great!

Arigato!

HitsuRuki Army rox ma sox!