Thank you to those who reviewed! It really boosts my energy and it makes writing a lot easier! At least I know I have an audience! Keep at it!

And yeah, I know this is a very quick update, but if you guys like it, then I always update as soon as possible.

Also, I may be including HitsuHina as a side pairing. Just to prolong the story a little. Any objections? Just a chapter or two. You know, I'll be twisting in my own plot with Twilight's. And I'll be adding in a few more events with Ichigo and Rukia.

Lotsa love,

JJ

I woke to the surprising warmth of my bed. My brother's face swum in and out of my vision, and I tried to sit up without success.

"Nii-sama…" I breathed. "I'm sorry."

He nodded, and placed a cup of hot water on my bedside table. "I will come back." He said and closed the door.

Sighing, I fell back into the pillows. Trying to reconstruct the past, I remembered shutting the front door behind me with surprising strength before falling. I must have fainted, I thought. And then the previous events washed back like a wave crashing upon the shore. The face of the monster, and my orange haired saviour…it was all so vivid!

I spent a leisurely day in my room, happily basking in my own solitude. That was until lunch, when Orihime called me up and frantically demanded an explanation. To save myself face and so I wouldn't sound completely insane, I told her I had fainted (which was the truth enough) and that I had a bit of a fever and wouldn't return to school until the next day. From then on she proceeded to tell me in painful detail about how she had asked out Konomi, who had accepted her invitation with grace.

"So are you still up for some dress shopping on Saturday?" She asked.

"I wouldn't miss it." I replied with all the enthusiasm I could muster in my voice.

"Great! See you tomorrow!" She said and hung up.

Sighing, I flopped backwards and closed my eyes. But when I tried to sleep, the only images that I could see were that of the monster and my rescuer, especially my rescuer…what was it about him that was so enticing? Delving farther inside my mind, I connected my constant thinking of him with the term familiarity, but from where? I hated unsolved mysteries, and was determined to find out.

Next day at school, everyone had some sort of speculation about me. Exaggerated stories were floating in and out, some as far going as to say I had fainted because I was anorexic, others as equally ridiculous.

"How are you handling the attention?" Hinamori asked me friendlily on the way to physics.

"Just barely." I replied truthfully. Where Orihime would've just stared at me with incomprehension, Hinamori nodded in agreement. She was a meek, shy girl whom I considered a very good friend.

"Who are you taking to the formal?" She asked.

I shook my head. "I'm not going. I've never been much of a dancer."

She nodded. "Orihime said something about you not going, but I wasn't sure. I thought all girls liked to go to formals."

"Not me. So, who are you asking?" I wondered.

She blushed red, but answered readily. "I'm going to ask Toshiro-kun."

"Toshiro?"

"Hitsugaya Toshiro. He's in our class. White hair, green eyes…"

"Ah." I nodded. I had indeed caught sight of such a figure a few days before.

"He usually spends lunchtime alone. However, we're childhood friends. But then again, I wouldn't be surprised if he refused. If he does, I'll just go with Keigo. He's better than nothing." She said.

"Hope you have fun."

"Ichigo's returned to school today." She said out of the blue.

"He left?"

"Yeah. For a week. But he's back now." Hinamori smiled before taking her seat next to Keigo.

"Oh, Rukia-chan!" He waved happily. I waved back with a huge, stretched smile on my face and escaped to my seat.

Ichigo was sitting there, and suddenly I stopped. His face suddenly merged with that of my saviour, and the realization hit me hard. As though someone had punched me in the gut, my breath started coming in shallowly. That can't be true, I reasoned. You must be hallucinating. Having reasoned myself into sanity, I sat down submissively and avoided his eyes. However, the image of him and my saviour merged didn't disappear, and I wondered about it all physics.

"Kuchiki!" I jumped as the harsh voice of Karushi-sensei knocked me into reality.

"H-hai?"

"What is the answer?"

I flustered, losing my cool. I felt everyone's eyes on me, and my cheeks turned crimson. "I-I don't know, Karushi-sensei."

He clicked his tongue in disapproval, and turned to someone else.

"Don't worry. It wasn't your fault. Karushi-sensei's in a really bad mood today." A deep, manly voice said.

Whipping my head around, I saw that it was Ichigo who had spoken. His brown eyes were friendly, and his customary frown had been replaced by a smile. I bit back the urge to say: "Are you talking to me?"

When I didn't answer, his smile lowered a notch. "So, are you enjoying Karakura High?"

But I couldn't answer even if my life had depended on it. Because right then and there, I knew I had made no mistake. He had saved me from the monster. He had protected me. I had to thank him for my life.

"It couldn't be!" I gasped, and then realised I had actually spoken, for Ichigo was staring at me in confusion. But behind his eyes, I thought I read an indescribable fear. "You-saved me!"

"What?" He frowned. Yet I could read the fear now clearly on his face, the fear that I knew his secret, whatever it was.

"You saved me from that monster when I was going home on Wednesday!" I said in one high-pitched, unnatural sounding sentence. "I know it was you! Orange hair, brown eyes, it suddenly makes sense!"

For a second there was pure surprise on his eyes, which only people who have had their secrets revealed can carry. But he quickly masked it with anger. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "How could it be? Unless I was hallucinating, which I'm sure I wasn't because I am right here in class and next to you!"

He frowned, and looked away. I realized this was the signal to the end of our conversation. But I wasn't going to let it go.

"Tell me." I hissed, for Karushi-sensei was looking our way. "I have a right to know."

"It's none of your business, what I do and what I don't." He replied icily, still with his head turned away from me.

"I'm going to make it mine." I hissed back with venom. I was unusually angry, but that anger faded as soon as I saw him slide fluidly out of his chair after class, the first one out the door. I had ruined my non-existent chances of ever becoming at least an acquaintance of his. Now we were enemies of the worst kind.

"But it was his fault for not wanting to tell me anyway." I reasoned with myself childishly. I often had these inner battles, as my personalities and feelings clashed. "Besides, now he's just made it worse for himself."

But when he had spoken to me, my heart had fluttered unnaturally from an emotion other than shock. And the first sensation I had felt was a strange sort of giddiness, and happiness.

"Kuchiki-san!" Orihime yelled from the corridor. I realised that I had been standing statue-still in the middle of the hallway, forcing students around me. "What are you doing?"

Shaking my head, I hurriedly ran to join her as we walked to our next class.

Can I get just a few more reviews before I start posting? I'd like at least three more please! I know these are annoying but I need my standards you know!!

Thanks! It will make a difference!