'God! So I'm looking bad, yeah? How am I supposed to look when I almost got to be that stupid traffic cones next meal?'
Rukia thought frustrated as she changed into her pajamas.
Throwing herself onto the bed she held a monologue.
"If Ichigo was in pain back then? How does it feel when the soul tries to destroy the body harboring it? It has to hurt a lot, right?"
She turned around onto her stomach and hugged the pillow beneath her chest.
"That idiot's always acting tough and like the bad guy, but in reality he's a nice and gentle person. He even saved me twice now even though he acts as if he dislikes me. And then there's the thing he told me. That he'd had taken care of he had he known of my existence. My parents must have meant a lot to him, so does that make him my godfather?"

Rukia began to squirm around on the bed and moan in frustration.
"Ah, damn it's all so confusing!"
Eventually she ended up rolling onto her back again and stare at the ceiling.
"What should I do? When I'm afraid of him the next time he stands before me he'll feel bad. I should try and act as if nothing happened, that's the best I think."
Rukia made up her mind and got under the covers, turned to the side and looked at the stool with her clothes.
Before she fell asleep she thought.
'I have to get stronger, or I'll be a burden to Ichigo even more. Maybe I'm better off when...'

Sleep took her over before she could finish the thought and she dreamed of the recent happenings, the fear following her into her dreams and spin horrible scenarios with different outcomes.
From being devoured by the orangette, to being turned by him to save her from deaths edge.
When she woke up again she was bathed in sweat and longed for a shower.

It was still early in the morning so she was surprised when the doorbell rang, minutes after she left the bathroom.
She dressed quickly and then got the door.
A rarely seen person stood in front of her.
"I shall tell you from Ichigo that you have the day off and should use it to rest up. Starting tomorrow your training continues, with us councilmen though, since he's still bedridden for some time."
The one eyed, brunette Vampire delivered the message and turned to leave as soon as he had finished, but Rukia held him back.
"Is it always like this?"
"Usually, he takes a day off once in a while. Still it never has been several days until now. I think that illness is taking it's toll on him."

The Vampire combed through his long hair with right hand.
"Really now, we had no idea what was going on and we've been around him and those S.I.N.'s for some time already. We should have noticed and tried to help."
Starrk took another step away from Rukia, but she called out to him again.
"Starrk-san! Was it, right? Do you think it might help if I wasn't around? If I wasn't human, would he stop suffering?"
The male turned around to her and fixed her with his gray eye.
"I understand that you want to help him in a way. But he'd suffer otherwise, should you choose that path. Remember this. The rode you're thinking of taking is a strong current of blood and you might end up drowning in it."
Starrk bowed slightly and pulled on the non-existent hat on his head.
"I'll be going back to get some rest of my own then."
Rukia stayed at her door, until Starrk disappeared behind the one of his own house.

The vampires words had taken her aback a bit.
She hadn't thought of the consequences of that choice at all.
The blood consuming, and, did they eat anything at all?
Not aging, she really didn't want to stay like she was now for the rest of god knows what, though she wouldn't grow anymore anyway.
That she could end as one of the S.I.N. hadn't come to her mind at all, that was what he meant with drowning, didn't he?
Alright, she would put that plan aside for now.
More important was what she should do with her day off now.

Rukia looked around and just noticed.
'I have no private life at all.'
Reality was that, she was so concentrated on her search that she never got any friends and lost contact to the few she had in school as soon as they graduated.
She didn't want to go shopping for anything and the house was clean even in the furthest corner.
Defeated she dropped onto the sofa in the living room, but soon she got fed up with lazing around.
It was around midday then and the sun shone outside, so she grabbed her shoes and went for a walk on the manor grounds.

In the back of one of the houses she found strong stone walls which fenced in a Japanese styled flower garden.
There was one arched entryway close to the house on two sides.
If she remembered right, Ichigo told her that the inhabitants hated gardening, so she wondered why one of them had such a work intensive one build behind his house.
Well, maybe he got a gardener who cared for it.
She walked on the gravel walk through the flower and bamboo fields and admired the blooming buds.
There even was a fish pond with a small stream flowing into it from a farther away spring.
Close to the spring she found a large Sakura tree in full bloom.

As she was overcome by the view, she failed to notice the person sitting beneath the tree on a bench at first.
The sound of a page being turned made her aware then.
Directing her eyes to the person, she found herself even more impressed.
There on the bench sat the pale Vampire, with long night black hair, clad in a simple Kimono.
His hair was plaited, but a few strands escaped and now fell over his shoulder.
Sapphire green eyes wandered over the pages of the book he read very concentrated.
A light breeze rustled through the leaves of the tree and some petals fell, one of them landed on the page the Vampire had opened and he stopped for a moment.
He looked up to the tree and the still falling petals, then seemed to notice Rukia and turned his eyes to her frozen figure.

"What are you doing here, woman?"
Rukia was banned, unable to move or speak.
The vampire closed his book, put it aside and rose from his seat.
He walked to Rukia and stopped as he stood right in front of her.
"I asked you a question and I demand an answer."
He was taller than her, about seven or eight inches.

She just set on to answer, as a loud voice interrupted her.
"Hey, Ulqui! Hitting on the petite, pretty one?"
Like from thin air, the raven haired produced some throwing knifes and aimed them at the speaker, who just barely dodged them.
"Woah, there! What if that hit me?"
Rukia looked over to the attacked and saw that it was the blonde one.
Shinji, was his name she thought.
Another volley of knifes was directed at him, before he stopped his advance for a moment.
Taking another step, resulted in Ulquiorra taking another round of knifes out of his sleeves.
"Dare to take another step on my ground and I end your puny life."
Shinji got the threat and replied.
"No thanks. I have no desire to end up as shish kebab today."
As fast as he had come he was gone again and left a baffled Rukia, wondering what he wanted in the first place.

"Your answer, woman."
The ban was broken and Rukias tongue loose.
"Listen here. My name is Rukia. Ru-ki-a. And I just looked around because I'm bored and have nothing better to do."
It seemed that she surprised the man with the retort, at least a bit, since he didn't reply directly.
In the end he turned around and told her, as he left.
"Don't come here uninvited again. In the main house there's a large library on the second floor to the left. You might fond some literature to your liking there."
Rukia looked after the retreating form of Ulquiorra, until he disappeared behind some bamboo bushes.
Was it just her or was that man somewhat gorgeous?

Chapter 15
End