Rukia woke rather early on the next day, around 7 am.
She had slept wonderfully in the grand bed that stood in the bedroom of her new home.
Now while she was looking for something to eat for breakfast, a knock on the front door interrupted said search.
The petite female wondered who it could be and walked over to get the door, finding the albino from the day before standing at her porch with a wide grin on his lips.

"Ah, so the little Missy didn't run away yesterday after all. I'm glad you didn't, though a bit surprised."
Shiro chirped and earned himself a cold stare from Rukia.
"A good morning to you too, Shiro-san."
She remarked snappish, which made Shiro only grin a tad wider, so she just sighed, letting his lack of manners slide this time.
"So, what do you want?"
The albino shrugged and waved with his left hand.
"Just wanted to see if Ichi lied to me or not and introduce you to the rest, should you be here."
"The rest?"
"Yeah, I'm sure Ichi told you. The councilmen that live here."
Rukia nodded, then turned to grab her keys and shoes.
"Lets go and get this over with then."

Shiro led her into the mansion, through some hallways and finally into the great living hall, where the four remaining Council members sat, occupied with different things.
"Guys, I wanna introduce you to someone, so stop with whatever you're doing right now."
Shiro said and four heads lifted to gaze first at him and then the new arrived person.

"Who's the midget, Shiro?"
Grimmjow asked, after taking only a short glance at Rukia.

"Oh, I know! She's the housemaid I begged you for forever for, right?"
Shinji beamed, jumping up and down on the spot.

"I think I heard that Ichigo-sama got a watchdog. I suppose it's her."
The stoic and always well informed Ulquiorra stated, which in turn made Shinji drop in his seat again and sulk.

"A watchdog? Why does he need one? He's the head of V.A.S.T. and the top of the Shichi Shikei, shouldn't he be able to care for himself?"
Starrks tired voice came from behind a pile of documents and soon after the man himself appeared out of mentioned one.

Shiro silences them all, then explains before introducing each other.
"Ulquiorra is right she's Ichis watchdog from now on. The reason doesn't matter at the moment, so don't bother with it. Well everyone, this is Rukia. Rukia meet, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Shinji and Starrk."
The albino said, pointing at each person when mentioned.
Rukia bowed shortly, but otherwise did no more.

To her this bunch of men, seemed strange and suspicious and she still didn't really believe what Ichigo had told her about Vampires and V.A.S.T. and all that.
Shiro noticed that she felt a bit uneasy and led her away, directing a few last words at his group beforehand.
Afterward he lead the petite female through a maze of hallways, to the hell knows where.
Somewhere on the way he suddenly spoke up.
"Since you seem to have accepted your job at least, I want you to do something. Alright?"
He asked, without turning to look at the smaller female, who looked up to him.
"Fine. What will that be?"
"Get an impression of Ichigo. Watch his every move for some time and then when you think you know enough, come to me for a talk. I think when you reached that point it will be easier to explain things, because you'll have seen a lot for yourself and opened up to things you still might deny at this point right now."

The albino stopped in front of one of many doors announcing.
"Now, welcome to our private chambers."
He opened the door and entered, with Rukia following behind him, hesitantly.
"Ichi! I brought Rukia. Are you ready yet to get to work?"
Shiro called into the room, receiving a muffled answer seconds later.
"Yea, Be there in a moment."
Just as said, a moment later Ichigo came from one of the other rooms, dressed in a white shirt, black slacks and shoes, fumbling with a necktie.
"I swear, I'll never get used to these things. Why are you making me wear them anyway?"

Shiro stepped in front of Ichigo and righted the tie.
"Because as the boss of an organization you have to appear as one, even in the 22nd century."
Ichigo rolled his eyes in annoyance, but still gave Shiro a quick kiss, when the albino was finished with the orangettes tie.
"I see you tonight."
"Not if I see you earlier."

"Come on little Rukia-chan, you don't want to be late to your first working day, right?"
Ichigo turned to her, ignoring the smart remark of his mate and headed off without waiting for the female, who hurried to follow him in order to not get lost in the maze of hallways of the mansion.
Once the two reached the garage that belonged to the building and got into Ichigos car they drove off toward the V.A.S.T. headquarters and got the elevator to the top floor.

There Ichigo took a seat in his chair at the window side, Rukia stood at the other side of his desk, watching him for a while.
"You can sit down anywhere you like. If you don't want to stand there all day."
That was the only thing the orangette told her and she got a feeling that he wouldn't say much more for the entire day, when the absent gaze she saw, now that she sat down in one of the chairs of the booth, next to Ichigos office desk.

This day, would be a long one.
She was sure of it.

Chapter 5
End