Disclaimer: No, I still do not own Bleach. Get it into yo head.
About This Chapter: In this chapter there's a sort of emotional understanding between … who? Two people ;P Nothing else really important happens. The rest is really just showing character personality. Enjoy
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Narrator's Point of View
"Ichigo!" Says Renji after pulling his friend away from the large group on the roof. Ichigo had just introduced Rukia to his friends, shocking Renji who can't stand Rukia for no apparent reason. "What's wrong with you?" He asks, and Ichigo raises an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" He asks, looking at Renji like he's insane.
Renji returns the 'you're crazy' look. "Remember the irritating pipsqueak who's new in our class that I told you about Friday?" He asks.
"Yeah, why?" Ichigo asks, not putting together the puzzle pieces and getting annoyed.
"That girl—Rukia—is the irritating pipsqueak!" Renji says, exasperated, obviously having a hard time keeping his voice down. Ichigo seems to think about this for a second, then he turns around and heads back to the group, instantly followed by Renji.
"Accordin' to Renji, you're an irritating pipsqueak." Ichigo says to Rukia, ignoring everyone else. "But…
Rukia's Point of View
"But… Renji's judgment of other people has always been sort of off." Ichigo says, and he walks up to me, sticking out his hand to shake mine.
"Welcome to the club, shorty."
XDXDXDXD
The first few periods of school go by without anything happening. The only thing is Renji looking at me in a funny way—is that… worry? I put it out of my head; what would he have to worry about?
When the lunch bell rings, I stand up, pulling out my lunch—Byakuya made it today, so it should be much better than Fridays food. I see a shadow go over me, and turn around to see Matsumoto, Tatsuki, Orihime and Chizuru standing over me.
"May I help y-" I start, but Matsumoto interrupts me before I can finish.
"How did you do it?" She asks.
"Do what?" I ask, genuinely confused.
"Get Ichigo to be nice to you." Matsumoto says as if this should be obvious.
"Uh, he's anything but nice to me." I say, smiling, thinking of him calling me stupid after just meeting me.
"Yeah, but he said you're his friend. That's really nice for Ichigo, you know." Tatsuki says, speaking up. Orihime and Chizuru nod in agreement from behind Matsumoto and Tatsuki.
"Whatever." I say, unable to recall Ichigo calling me his friend. I shrug and grab my lunch, making to eat it in the classroom again.
"Oh no you don't." Matsumoto says, grabbing my elbow and pulling me out of my seat while Tatsuki grabs my lunch. I look at them questioningly. "You're one of us now, apparently. You eat lunch with us." They then proceed to literally drag me onto the roof, where they distribute me with my lunch sack. The rest of the group gradually joins us, until we have everyone sitting around in a big circle. No one speaks at first, and I have a bad feeling it's because of me.
"So." Matsumoto says from my left as I take a drink of juice. "Do you have a boyfriend, Rukia?" She asks me, turning to face me. I spit out my juice and start giggling. Everyone at this point—including Renji—is looking at me.
"No." I say when I'm done whipping my chin off with a napkin that Byakuya packed me.
"A lover then." Tatsuki says from my left, and I laugh again.
"No, I don't have a lover, either." I say, still smiling. Everyone shrugs and turns back to their lunches, and some more conversations start up, different people talking about different things.
"Matsumoto," I hear Chizuru say. "You're not asking the right questions." She says, and she leans around Matsumoto and looks at me.
"So, you don't have a boyfriend, and you don't have a lover, so do you have a girlfriend?" She asks, and everyone stops their conversations to listen to my answer.
"No, I'm not a lesbian." I say, chuckling.
"Chizuru," Renji says from across the circle. "You look sort of disappointed about that." He says, laughing.
"Of course I am!" Chizuru yells at Renji while I blush deep deep red. "She's really cute! Of course I'm upset that every hot girl in school is straight!" She says, taking a bite of an apple and chewing it irritatedly.
"Well," says Mizuiro, who had been silent before this. "Maybe you should try dating some guys instead. I could hook you up with a good date."
"You idiot." Says Keigo, punching Mizuiro on the arm lightly. "She's into girls; she's not going to date a guy just because you tell her to!"
"I wasn't telling her, I was just suggesting…" Mizuiro and Keigo end up arguing silently between themselves about Chizuru, and I turn back to my lunch.
Everyone starts up their own conversations, Matsumoto and Chizuru talking about going to the mall, Ishida and Tatsuki talking about something in low voices that I can't hear, and Ichigo and Renji talking about sports. I smile, knowing that I'm accepted in this group even if no one speaks to me, if not everyone but Renji accepting me. After a little while, Chad and Orihime get up to get something Orihime left in the classroom, though why Chad has to go with her, I don't know.
"WHY?" Keigo yells, startling everyone and making me jump.
"What is it?" Ichigo asks, looking worried.
"Mizuiro has three dates with three different girls this weekend. It's not fair!" Keigo yells, looking irritated.
"It's perfectly fair." Mizuiro says, looking slightly embarrassed that his plans for the weekend have been yelled out for everyone to know.
"It's disgusting, that's what it is." Tatsuki says. "You don't need to have that many dates, let alone with that many people. You're just leading on those girls so you can dump them later." Mizuiro and Tatsuki start arguing now, Tatsuki yelling loudly, Mizuiro talking quietly and calmly.
Someone sits next to me, and I turn to see it's Ichigo, who moved next to me in the confusion.
"Do people argue like this every day?" I ask him, looking deliberately at Tatsuki and Mizuiro.
"No." He says, and I look at him, surprised, and see him smiling. "It's usually much, much worse." He laughs at my expression, and steals Tatsuki's un-open juice box, poking the straw through the top and holding it in his hand but not drinking any, looking like he's just there to enjoy the show.
We sit there for a few minutes, everyone listening to the two fight, cheering each of them on in turn.
"You know." Ichigo says, not taking his eyes off the two fighting. "Matsumoto and Chizuru seem to like you, and Tatsuki and Orihime seem to be getting there. I think that you'll fit in just fine."
I will never admit it to him, but hearing Ichigo say that makes me very happy, and I have to hide my smile.
"Of course I will, Ichigo." I say, stealing the juice box out of his hand and taking a sip, then handing it back to him. "Everyone likes me. Always." I giggle on the inside and finish my lunch, cleaning up just as the bell rings.
XDXDXDXD
I'm sitting in the last period of school, staring at the board, listening to the teacher and taking notes on physics. I'm pretty good at physics, and can enjoy it, but having it last period on a Monday is pretty tough, even for me. I look up at the clock and see that there're only about ten minutes left in class, and I sigh happily. I can take ten minutes. Suddenly Matsumoto, who sits in front of me, stretches her arms back, and she drops a little piece of paper onto my desk. I wonder what's so important that Matsumoto can't wait ten minutes to tell me, and I look around to see if anyone noticed the note. I see Ichigo, who sits at the desk next to mine looking at the piece of paper. He then looks up at me and makes a face that says 'well read it, shorty.' I pick up the piece of paper when the teacher's not looking and read it quickly.
Friday. Sleepover party my house. Girls stay overnight, boys leave 7-8.
I think about Friday night, thinking if I have any plans, and decide that I'm free. I then think about if Hisana and Byakuya will let me go, and I know they will; they'll be too happy to know that I'm making friends to say no. I pick up my pencil and quickly write a response.
See u there. Txt me your address.
I write, followed by my cell phone number. I then pick up the piece of paper and stretch forward, dropping the piece of paper onto Matsumoto's desk. About five minutes later—five minutes left in class—I get a text message. Thankfully my phone is on vibrate, so no one notices. I take it out—we have the rest of class to work on homework, so I don't feel bad about texting in class—and see that it's Matsumoto's address already. I smile, thinking about how Matsumoto was texting me in class, too impatient to wait for school to end. I send a quick response, then start back up on my homework, finishing the page of physics questions and a page of math problems in the five minutes left.
XDXDXDXD
"A party?" Hisana asks at the dinner table, sounding for the entire world like she's jealous and wants to come, too.
"Is this party going to be safe?" Byakuya asks, always the worried one.
"It should be. The guys that are coming are leaving before eight, and then it's just girls hanging out. And," I add when Byakuya doesn't seem convinced. "I'm pretty sure Matsumoto's parents are going to be there the whole time."
Byakuya thinks for a minute, taking a bite of an onigiri—the only thing Hisana is capable of making, thus something we eat all the time. "I'll have to come in and meet her parents." He says, and I sigh.
"Ooh, me too!" Hisana sounds, getting excited.
"Okay." I say. "Just please, don't embarrass me." Byakuya and Hisana smile at each other upon hearing this, and I have a bad feeling that embarrassing me is exactly what they plan to do.
XDXDXDXD
It's three o'clock, half an hour before I have to be at Matsumoto's house. I look at myself in the mirror, trying to put my hair into two braids but not entirely succeeding. I'm wearing a plain yellow-orange dress and brown boots, and—at least I think—I look cute.
Hisana walks in and leans against the door frame.
"No alcohol." She says, acting uncharacteristically solemn, and I sigh. "Or drugs." She continues. "And, no kissing." I turn to her and smile.
"Byakuya made you come tell me these things, right?" I ask, and she losses the uptight attitude.
"Yes!" She says, and she runs over to me, yanking my hair out of my hands, braiding it for me. "I hate when he makes me be all serious." She says pouting.
"Yeah." I say. "No one can take you seriously when you're like that though. They all know it's because Byakuya asked you to be like that for whatever reason." She looks at me.
"I'm really that bad of an actress?" She asks, and I laugh at her.
"Yes." I say, replying truthfully. We laugh and sit on my bed, both of us petting Kawaii at the same time.
"But I'm serious. None of those things, okay?" She asks.
"Yeah, I know." I say, and we sit there, saying nothing until Byakuya honks at us to hurry up.
"Oh, yeah." She says, looking like she just remembered something. "I forgot to tell you. Byakuya's waiting out in the car." I roll my eyes, give Kawaii a kiss on the nose, and head out the door with Hisana and into the garage where an irritated looking Byakuya waits in his car.
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We get to Matsumoto's house relatively quickly—she lives pretty close—getting there at almost exactly three thirty, just a few minutes after. I get out of the car and head up the driveway to the house, followed by a bouncing Hisana and then an apathetic Byakuya. I ring the doorbell and let Byakuya and Hisana move slightly in front of me.
After a moment, a woman opens the door. She has short, tightly curled orange hair and endowments even bigger than Matsumoto's—yes, I didn't think it was possible, but they are bigger.
"Hello." She says, looking at us all. "I'm Matsumoto Rana. You must be Rukia-chan, and her… parents?" She asks, turning the end of the sentence into a question, not sure of how Byakuya and Hisana are related to me.
"Nice to meet you." Says Byakuya. "I am Kuchiki Byakuya, and this is my wife, Kuchiki Hisana. We are Rukia's older siblings, as well as legal guardians." Matsumoto's mother seems surprised to find out that they're my brother and sister, but she doesn't say anything. I look behind her to see Matsumoto, Chizuru, Tatsuki, and Orihime standing there waiting for me. Behind them, outside on a large back porch, I can see all the guys sitting, laughing.
"It's very nice to meet you two." Matsumoto's mother says, smiling politely. "May I help you?"
"We just wanted to meet the parents of Rukia's friend before leaving here, but it's okay now." Byakuya says. I blush at his bluntness, and I can tell that Hisana is also embarrassed by the way she rubs her feet together, but Matsumoto's mom seems un-fazed.
"I completely understand." She says. "Would you like to come in?"
No, no, no, no, please. Just. Say. No! I think.
"No thank you." Byakuya says. "We really must be going. It was nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you." Hisana says. I walk in after hugging Byakuya and Hisana, and Matsumoto's mother closes the door.
"Please tell me if you need anything." She says, and then she leaves.
"RUKIA!" Matsumoto says, running up and hugging me, nearly knocking me over. "Let's go take your bag up to my room, 'kay?" She says, and we all head up to her room.
I have to say, Matsumoto would probably love the color of my room. Everything in her room is pink and fuzzy, including the walls. They are covered in a fuzzy pink cloth that's only a few shades less obnoxious than the color of my room.
"So, only one rule about being here." Matsumoto says, turning to face me. She pulls my bag out of my hand and tosses it with everyone else's. "While you're here, you have to call me Rangiku in front of my parents. When we're just with the group you can call me Matsumoto, it's just that my parents don't think kids should go by their last name, so you have to call me Rangiku in front of them, or else they'll get mad. Other than that, there aren't any rules in this house. Except," She says, looking at my feet. "Could you take your shoes off, please?" She asks, and I nod.
"I tried to when I stepped in, but you attacked me and pulled me up here before I could." I say, smiling. I bend down and pull off my shoes, placing them where Matsumoto points in the corner of her bedroom.
"She can't help it." Tatsuki says, sitting on Matsumoto's bed. "She gets really excited whenever someone comes over." We laugh, at this, and fall into a happy silence.
"Well," Orihime says, and I notice that it's the first time I've heard her speak except for in class when she had to introduce herself. "We should get downstairs. All the guys are waiting for us." We agree and head down the stairs and outside.
XDXDXDXD
It's really amazing how many people Matsumoto's parents let her have over at once. The whole group is staying for dinner, and then all the girls are staying overnight. We have a few hours before dinner, so we all sit outside, playing board and card games and listening to music.
Ichigo moves over to sit next to me.
"Hey." He says. "You look nice." He says this gruffly and without looking at me, so I can tell he's embarrassed.
"Thanks." I say, trying not to sound too pleased. "You too." He's wearing a white t shirt with black sleeves and jeans, and it really does look good on him.
"You having fun?" He asks after a moment.
"Yeah." I say, laughing to see Renji punch Keigo for hitting on Matsumoto. Keigo isn't hurt—he's used to it—but I can't help but feel slightly guilty for laughing. I'm surprised to see Tatsuki sitting on Ishida's lap, her arms wrapped around his neck—I suppose opposites really do attract.
I look over at Keigo and see he's still lying on his back the way he landed after Renji punched him. Everyone's ignoring him, but I start to feel worried, so I get up and stand near his head, looking down at him.
"Are you okay?" I ask, and for some reason everyone stops talking to listen to his answer.
"Well, if you stood over my head I'd be better, but I'm fine." He answers.
It takes me a second, but I understand. I lean down and punch him in the same spot Renji did, then walk over and sit back down next to Ichigo while everyone laughs.
"Don't worry." Ichigo says, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'll protect you." He then winks at me and pushes me over. I sit back up and push him back, but I can't even make him budge.
I'm still trying to push over Ichigo—who is at this point laughing his head off—when Matsumoto, who had been watching us, stands up quickly. She goes over to Tatsuki and bends down to whisper something in her ear. Tatsuki smiles and nods, and then she stands up, too.
"Come on, girls." Says Tatsuki.
"We're going inside to play truth-or-dare." Finishes Matsumoto. I stand up, along with Chizuru and Orihime. We walk inside and sit down in the living room. I notice that we can see the backyard through a window. Ichigo and Keigo are wrestling, but Ichigo is going easy on Keigo; Ichigo could beat Keigo in a second if he wanted to.
We play truth or dare for half an hour without any really interesting questions or dares. The most interesting thing was Tatsuki asking Chizuru how long she'd known she was a lesbian, to which Chizuru had answered 'always'.
I'm about to suggest that we quit when I realize that it's my turn. Deciding to give it one more shot, I stupidly choose dare. Tatsuki and Matsumoto mumble to each other, then they look back at me, smiling.
"We dare you—" Says Matsumoto.
"—To kiss Ichigo." Tatsuki finishes.
"What?" Yells Chizuru, jumping off the couch. "That's a horrible idea!"
"I don't think—" I start, but Chizuru cuts me off.
"See? She doesn't want to. Let's move on. I choose truth."
"Actually," I say. "I was going to say that I don't think it's that big a problem."
"WHAT?" The four of them say at the same time. I can tell that even Matsumoto and Tatsuki weren't planning on me following through with the dare.
"Yeah." I say, working not to laugh at their faces. "You can watch me through the window if you don't believe me." I say as I walk out of the room and onto the back porch.
I walk off the porch and into the backyard, motioning for Ichigo to come over.
"What?" He asks when he gets over.
"Matsumoto and Tatsuki dared me to kiss you." I say, and I can tell that the guys on the porch can't hear me.
"BUT." I say, cutting him off when he opens his mouth. "They didn't specify where I have to kiss you. Hold out your hand."
He takes up his hand, putting it in my outstretched one. He looks half confused and half like he understands what's going on, so I can't tell which is true.
I take up his index finger, kissing it. I drop it immediately, making a show of wiping off my lips while he makes a show of wiping off his finger.
I look up at the porch and see that all the guys are staring at us, confused. I walk up past them without a word, going back inside, back to a disappointed Matsumoto, a peeved Tatsuki, an ecstatic Chizuru, and an Orihime that looks just as confused as the guys outside who know absolutely nothing about what's going on.
XDXDXDXD
Narrator's Point of View
"Hisana." Byakuya says, pulling his wife down so that she's sitting on his lap. He hugs her, putting his face into her neck, where they stay like that for a bit.
"Yes, Byakuya?" She says, not moving from the position.
"I'm worried about Rukia. Is that stupid? Am I being over-protective? You know I don't want to act like one of those stifling parents, but I can't really help it." He says into her neck. She picks up his head with her hands and looks him straight in the eyes, not blinking once.
"It's not stupid. It's sweet and loving." She says firmly but lovingly. "Even though she doesn't say it, I know that Rukia is happy that you care for her so much as to worry about her when all she's doing is going to a sleep-over." She kisses him, closing her eyes, and then stands up, pulling him with her.
"Come on. Let's go make dinner." She says, pulling her husband into the kitchen. "How about some onigiri?" She asks, and he smiles at his wife's small choice of options of things she can make.
"I want sukiyaki." He says, sounding a bit like a little boy talking to his mother.
"Well then." She says, and she kisses him again. "You're going to have to make that."
XDXDXDXD
Rukia's Point of View
We finish up dinner on the patio—yakiniku—right as the sun goes down.
"I'm not cleaning up." Says Renji as everyone stands and grabs something to take into the kitchen. I try to stand up, but Matsumoto pushes me down.
"This is your first time here." She says. "You can't help until your second or third time." I smile at her and settle back into my chair, handing her my plate and thanking her.
When everyone but Renji and I are inside, he turns to me and sighs.
"I need to have a serious conversation with you." He says, sounding the most serious I've ever heard him.
I consider being sarcastic to loosen the tension, but then I look into his eyes and can tell that that will only make him like me less, which is not something I want to do.
"Okay." I end up saying, holding his gaze.
"I need to tell you that I'm sorry I was mean to you, but I have serious reasons." He starts, and then pauses. I don't say anything, even though I know he's waiting for me to talk. He sighs again, but then continues. "I don't like new kids for one reason: They're always mean to Ichigo." I almost scoff at this—people being mean to Ichigo is something I need to see to believe. He's so scary and mean looking that I can't imagine anyone having the guts to say anything disrespectful to him—unless it's about his hair color. Instead, I just keep silent again.
"They're always mean by making fun of him for looking unhappy and scowling all the time. I know," He says when I make a face. "We always make fun of him for looking unhappy and scowling. But we're his friends, and we know why. Those people just do it for fun.
"I want to tell you why he's always looking like that." He continues. He takes a sip of water as if he's tiring out by telling this story.
"When Ichigo was nine, his mother was run over by a car while pushing him out of the way. She died saving him, and, to this day, he feels as if he killed her. The man—or woman—who ran over his mom was never caught, so Ichigo feels like he's the only one who can take the blame." He stops here, and I stare at him. I notice that my breathing became hard at some point during his story, and I have to take a sip of water myself to calm down.
"So, you're saying," I start, but I can't finish.
"Yeah." He says. "That's why he's always like that. Because, in his mind, he killed his mother."
As if on cue, everyone walks out right after he says that, and I see Renji smile brightly at the big group of teenagers. I try to smile, but I can't.
"Rukia, what's wrong?" Matsumoto asks me, checking my forehead to see if I have a fever.
I try to smile again, but like before I can't.
"Uh, nothing." I say, seeing Renji shoot me a warning glance. "I just need to use your restroom. Can you point it out to me?" I ask, and I head to the room Matsumoto points out to me. When in the bathroom with the door tightly closed and locked, I bend over the open toilet and puke out my meal, unable to hold it in.
While I kneel there, retching, memories that haven't stirred up in over a year pass through my mind. I remember that dark, evil day when Hisana and I went over to Byakuya's house, sobbing. I was six then, but I remember it as if it was yesterday. The memories that will haunt me forever.
I just realized that I must seem like a total dork writing "…'s point of view" instead of "…'s POV". Hey, I'm new to this -_-
I hate when you're writing a fan fiction, and you have a certain number of words you want to write, and it's like, 'only 1,200 words left; only 1,100 words left; only 1,000 words left -_-' That happened to my, except it started at 2,000. I was then like, 'Only—whoa! 2,700 words! That's way past my goal!' (Goal=2,200 words). Happy face (There are 4,489 words in this chapter.)
Please review! Like, seriously. Review. Now. Click. The. Button. NOWXDXDXDXD
I also wanted to add that while writing this I have discovered that Matsumoto's name is REALLY IRRITATING to write.
REALLY IRRITATING.