Ichigo was secure in the knowledge that absolutely no one cared to look through the books in his room.

He only cared because several books were in English. A language everyone studied in school but only sometimes learned. Only nerds kept books for it. Everyone knew how to point out a pen, though.

No, there was no reason for anyone to look through nondescript books sitting quietly in the corner.

Until Rukia arrived, anyway.

They'd barely settled back in for the night, having put the spirit of Orihime's brother to rest, before she announced she would be his roommate. Within minutes she'd taken to going through nearly everything in his room. She roved with a child-like curiosity; as if cheap plastic pens were a novelty, as if the television was magic. As if the idea of 'privacy' was a nice notion once created a long time ago in a far-off land that died off a decade before.

Her attitude did not change in the weeks that followed.

One night, as Ichigo valiantly tried to win a battle with homework, a blue book was thrust in his face.

"What does that say, Ichigo?" Rukia asked.

He grunted, shoving it away, before peering at it. He recognized the English lettering. But, more importantly, he recognized the cartoon-like illustration taking up half the page. "It's Alice in Wonderland."

Rukia frowned. "You're able to read it?"

Ichigo shrugged, attempting to look back at the homework sitting on his desk. "Kind of."

He heard her pace about his bedroom. "I see."

"Why? Don't you guys learn different languages in Soul Society? What does it matter?"

She glared, somehow dignified, before taking the book back. "I was merely curious. That's all. What language is it?"

Ichigo shrugged. He knew better than to try and study again. "English. It's mostly spoken in countries far away from here."

Rukia nodded. There was a glint in her eyes, one he'd started to see in the weeks since he'd met her. It always happened when she learned something new about the living world. There was a wide-eyed hopefulness, too. It reminded him of a kid seeing a festival for the very first time; her normally controlled, forceful nature held at bay, just for a moment, making her seem so much younger than the eighty-something years she apparently was. Like a teenage girl seeing the world for the first time.

Ichigo cleared his throat and tried to return to his studies. He knew it was a futile effort.

"Ah! I see," she said, the words coming quickly now, her excitement poorly subdued. "How did you learn this? Is it common?"

He scoffed, whirling on her in disbelief. "You're in English class at school! Remember?"

She blinked. "Ah. I suppose it sounds familiar."

"Tch. Maybe if you didn't just copy my homework you'd learn something in class."

"Fool! It is not my fault. I've never studied it before. The class is hardly for beginners. Such a language doesn't exist in Soul Society."

He glanced with narrowed eyes at the book still held carefully in her hands. His gaze flickered back to Rukia. "You want to read it 'cause of the rabbit, right?"

She whirled, clutching the book to her chest reflexively and glaring. "F-Fool! That has nothing to do with it!"

Ichigo thought. An idea formed that involved tutoring. Some way for him to teach her, to give back, after Rukia's training and showing him the ways of a Soul Reaper. Sure, it meant they'd spend even more time together than they already were. He didn't mind that idea. For some reason.

He opened his mouth, gathered his courage, and-

"I will find a way to learn this," she said matter-of-factly, her previous embarrassment forgotten. "Do not worry. It will not interfere with your duties as a Soul Reaper. Or your human studies."

Ichigo stuttered, trying to object, but she was suddenly out the window and walking down the nighttime street.

"O-oi!"

The next day, during lunch, Rukia smugly informed Ichigo she had found means to learn English.

"It is an English-speaking club. They offer free lessons in the language." She passed her juice-box over to him for him to duly open. "It's an American company who are fluent in English as well as Japanese. I am confident it will be fruitful."

Ichigo paused, his chopsticks hovering over his bento box. "How'd you find out about these classes?"

"They had a large sign advertising it." She stole a piece of carrot from his lunch.

"Hey!" He scowled. But his thoughts were still fixated on Rukia and her endeavor. She was nothing if not resourceful. The living world seemed easy enough for her to navigate, even if she was clueless about most of it. "They just teach it for free?"

"No, there is a small fee. However, I have taken care of it," she said with a triumphant smirk.

"Where did you get the-"

"Good luck, Kuchiki-san!" Kiego waved from across the rooftop.

"Thank you very much!" She smiled her sickly-sweet fake smile and giggled. Ichigo wanted to leap over the rooftop railing. Once Keigo's attention was drawn elsewhere, she turned back to Ichigo. She frowned, slightly. "However, I am in need of a partner," she admitted.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It is a partnered course. I cannot do it alone. They were very clear on that," she let out a sigh.

An idea struck him. One that meant they would still need to spend even more time together. And that it didn't seem like a bad idea to him, for some reason. Ichigo found himself opening his mouth-

"Ah!" she gasped, triumphant, eyes scanning the roof. "Chad!" Rukia jerked upright, turning.

"W-wait-"

"Are you able to speak English?" Rukia asked, looking at Chad.

Chad shook his head. "I can speak Spanish, because of my Abuelo. I only know some English. It's… very similar, though."

"W-wait! Rukia-"

"That will work. I will need your help after school today," Rukia said soberly.

Chad stared, silently. Then he nodded.

Ichigo felt something in his chest, in his stomach. Maybe it was the salmon onigiri Yuzu made. Yeah. That was probably it, he thought.

Scowling, he glared at his bento box.

Rukia appeared at Ichigo's window only an hour after school ended. In that period of time, Ichigo had tried ignoring the fact that his sanity was quickly slipping away.

"Rukia!" he said, jumping out of his seat the moment she appeared. She landed gracefully in the middle of the room, her school bag in tow.

She paused, blinking at him. "What is it?"

"A-ah," he swallowed and remembered himself. He fell back in his chair, leaning as casually as he could on the desk. "Nothing," he managed.

Her gaze held for several moments, suspicious, before turning to her bag. Her eyes grew wide with excitement which bubbled over, her words coming quickly. Rukia smiled in triumph. "I have successfully completed my first English course."

He blanched. "You were only gone an hour!"

"We are fast learners," she smirked. She began to put her things away in the closet.

Ichigo knew he should have tried to show disinterest and respect her privacy. It didn't have anything to do with him, after all. So he said, "What happened?"

"It was simple. We arrived at the complex and asked for the class. Then, we were given forms to fill out. It was difficult, as we could not understand them well." She began to sort her pile of stolen manga in a corner of the closet.

That sounded normal enough. Sometimes language classes started with immersion of the second language early on. "Yeah?"

"Fortunately, the teacher was there to help. After that, we were told different things to say in English and to repeat them. Although we had difficulty understanding it."

Ichigo rested his head on his open palm. He wasn't sulking, he told himself.

Rukia turned to face him directly. She smirked as if signifying her complete victory, a paper held in her hand. "We already received a certificate for our achievement."

"What the hell?" he asked. He grabbed it from her outstretched hand. It was ornate with an ivory background, the English in a formal curly script that made it hard to make out. There was a white dove at the top embossed in gold. Next to it was a cross symbol, like in Western religions. Down below he saw the names 'Rukia Kuchiki' and 'Sado Yasutora'. And a large English word, in silver, at the very top.

Ichigo racked his brain for the translation.

Ichigo's vision went red, then white, then a spectrum of colors outside human perception in a kaleidoscope of incomplete images as he temporarily lost all sensation. Slowly, his vision returned, as did his ability to speak.

He bolted upright from his chair. "R-R-" he tried, his voice closer to a squeak, growing louder. "R-Rukia!"

She blinked. "What's wrong?"

"T-This is-" It was a yell, a shriek, a plea. "T-this is a marriage certificate!" He pointed desperately to the paper.

"What?" she breathed, now very small.

"It says 'Marriage'!" He pointed to the word, then to their names. "What kind of 'English' lesson was that?!"

"I- Fool! That is not funny!" She stomped her foot.

"I'm not being funny! This is a marriage certificate! It's what people get to show they're married! Shit!" he skimmed the paper, trying to control his racing heartbeat. "Where- How-"

"I do not know!" she huffed, folding her arms and glaring at the now cursed paper. "It was a building with signs in English with many seats and colorful windows. We were told to go into the leader's office… I could not understand what he was saying…!"

Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose, willing the room to stop threatening to spin. "It was a church… That was the priest!"

"I- How were we to know?!"

Ichigo gaped as reality failed to resolve itself, his words barely coherent. "How the hell did you marry someone by accident?!"

Rukia considered. "The priest was very convincing."

His mind raced with a hundred questions. All of them related to annulment procedures and the legality of marriage certificates in a Western church. He needed the internet right away. But more than anything, he pictured Rukia standing next to Chad in front of an altar, surrounded by flowers and admitting their devotion to one another, and it was quickly driving him mad.

"W-we'll fix this!" he said as panic started to subside for fire. He looked Rukia straight in the eye. "Got that?"

Rukia studied him. Somehow, through her shocked stare and flustered concern, she remained far more collected than someone should be in that position. As if he were the focus of her attention; as if his own state of mind was the matter at hand.

He expected her to nod, soberly, and accept his rescue.

Instead, she smirked.

"W-what?"

Rukia leaned forward, a teasing glint to her eyes. "I see. You are jealous."

He loudly scoffed. "I'm not jealous! This is serious, Rukia!"

"It is a piece of paper. Nothing more." The amusement held in her gaze. "Are you so bothered at the thought of me being married?"

Ichigo's cheeks grew warm. "I- N-No! That's not it! Shut up!"

But it only made her smirk grow, her amusement deepening. "You should not take such things so seriously. It is one's actions that speak; not a ceremony or the words of another."

Soberness streaked her tone, but it was not mocking. There was a fondness there, too. It was not at his expense. It was a comfort, Ichigo knew; Rukia focusing on helping him, even through her own absurd situation.

It had only been a few weeks, and yet he'd felt like she was guiding him his entire life.

He forced himself to look away so her intense gaze wouldn't pull him under. "I know that, okay? But it still matters. You shouldn't get tricked into anything you don't want. That's all." Then, he remembered. "And Chad probably wouldn't like it, either."

She paused thoughtfully. "That explains why they looked so strangely at us at the end. We merely thanked them and agreed to go to McDonald's for dinner."

Despite himself, Ichigo barked a laugh. "You'd deserve a better honeymoon than that," he found himself saying.

She smirked. "Oh?"

Every ounce of resolve went to tilting his head away to hide the redness of his cheeks. "I'm going downstairs to look this up online. It may not even count legally."

"I would hope not. It would be very troublesome to explain. I have also heard long-distance relationships are difficult."

"Yeah, I've heard that, too."

It made Ichigo wonder, then, what kind of relationships she'd had in the foggy mystery that was her life, back in a world beyond that of the living. And if there was anyone important to her back there. She'd never mentioned. There was no hint of it. But he thought of it, all the same, and hoped there wasn't.

He didn't know why. Not at first.

Reality hit him like a brick wall. His voice rose, unsteady in pitch. "H-hold on! Why are we talking about this?! It doesn't- It's not a real relationship!"

"Simply because it is a fake relationship it does not mean I should be careless about it," Rukia said firmly.

Ichigo scowled. It sounded more like a scowl, that time, and less of a panicked squeal.

They snuck downstairs to the clinic. After a furious internet search, to the best of Ichigo's knowledge, a church-issued marriage certificate was not legally binding in Japan. He breathed a long sigh in relief, sagging in the computer chair. All his energy deserted him as he felt more liquid than human. "You're fine," he breathed, as Rukia leaned curiously over his shoulder. "It doesn't count."

"See? You have no need to worry," she smirked, amusement dancing in her eyes.

Ichigo tried to scowl, but it came out as a smirk. "Yeah."

He saw her calm, then, and noted how the excitement faded from her gaze. Ichigo sat up ramrod straight in his chair. "So. You want to read that book, right?"

Curious, she nodded.

"Then I'll have to teach you, I guess." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at an innocent plant in the corner.

There was a pause as she considered. He finally snuck a glance. She did not scoff at him; did not glare in stubborn indignation as he expected. She simply watched with wide eyes, staring, as if he spoke the most impossible thing in the world. "You… Would do that?" she asked.

He shrugged. The room was unusually warm. "Yeah. You wanna learn, right?"

When he dared to glance at her again, she was smiling. It was a look he'd never seen on her face before, not in the weeks they'd worked together.

Now he'd seen it. The memory was grasped and tucked away, lingering in the back of his thoughts. It stayed with him for hours, days, just there whenever he closed his eyes. Moments were stolen away between fighting hollows and school. He'd remember it.

He wondered when he'd see it again.

The next night, he started to read her Alice in Wonderland. What began as an English lesson quickly gave way to Rukia's impatience at hearing the story. Ichigo 'taught' her English by reading the story and translating it to Japanese aloud. (The illustrations helped.)

They did so every evening when they weren't fighting hollows. Rukia sat in her usual spot in the closet door, entranced, inexplicably blaming him for the Queen of Hearts' villainy. She cared little for Alice. It was the rabbit she wanted to hear about, after all.

One night, Ichigo looked up to find something different. Rukia's attention had drifted to peer at nothing in particular, her gaze vacant. She leaned against the closet door, limbs slack and a foot kicking idly. The picture of serenity; all troubles of the world a distant memory. A smile teased on her lips.

She turned, surprised to find him watching her.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

It was not a declaration that came to his lips. It was a prelude to it; a notion spoken aloud, an awareness of moving forward with a clear, unmistakable destination. One he knew was futile to deny. He spoke softly, the sound barely heard even in the stillness of the room: eight words uttered in English, without hesitation or pause.

Only a flicker of uncertainty could be seen in her violet eyes. Rukia didn't know the words, not in the least. But she couldn't deny the softness to his gaze, just for a moment. Instead of fire, there was tenderness. A look she knew he'd rarely shared with anyone else. And his voice, even forming unfamiliar words, was barely uttered. The kind formed by speaking from one's heart.

It was over in just a moment. Ichigo turned away, placing the book on the shelf. He started going about his normal nighttime routine.

Rukia blinked, finding she'd been holding her breath. "What does that mean?"

He was already halfway out of the room when he casually said, over his shoulder, "I'll tell you later."

She shook her head as if it would shake the foolish thoughts racing through her mind. She had to have imagined what she saw, of course. It was easy to do so. She was tired, after all.

But she could have sworn he was smiling faintly, still, as he wished her goodnight and turned off the lights.

Life moved on. They never again spoke of the 'marriage' and the certificate again. (The offensive document had been burned by Ichigo in a trashcan a block away.) It sank away into the depths of night; never to be known of again.

At least, until Chad tried to marry his college sweetheart.