"ACHOO!"
Papers and loose sticky notes flew from the short and unexpected wind produced by the powerful sneeze, before settling back into scattered positions on Ichigo's desk.
Said man sniffed loudly in annoyance, then redirected his attention back to the computer and continued typing. He wrote away for another few moments before stopping, and leaning forward in his seat as he opened a file on the computer and began scrolling carefully through its contents. On another window, he opened a search on the matter of what he was reading, and after a few tries he found an interesting document. He wasted no time and jumped straight to examining it with the scrutiny of a reporter, names immediately jumping out at him; both familiar and unknown. Two of them in particular peaked his interest and he started to click on something when-
"Hey, I-"
"GET OUT!"
He nearly fell out of his chair as he shouted and jumped back from the screen, somehow managing to click all the windows closed, leaving only the desktop background of a generic palm beach staring back.
There was silence after the scream as the person at the door blinked and the startled orange-haired guy got a look at the petite raven-head.
"Oh. It's you." he relaxed back into his chair.
Rukia on the other hand didn't look too happy about the news. "Good morning to you too." she said sarcastically.
"I thought it was someone else." Ichigo defended, starting to turn back to the monitor as Rukia started walking into the office. "Close the door." he said without looking at her before she came in any further.
"Whatever you say...Jumpy." Rukia said as she did.
"What is it?" Ichigo asked when she came to stand over him without saying anything.
"Just came to give you a little something on behalf of my fellow coworkers." she answered vaguely, before producing something she had been keeping behind her back and tossing it at him.
In a good demonstration of his reflexes, Ichigo caught the cylindrical object and read over the seal with furrowing eyebrows. "What-"
"They're cold pills." Rukia explained unnecessarily, in her opinion. Ichigo started to open his mouth, but anticipating his protests, she swiftly cut him off. "Yes, you do need them."
"Do not." he replied, starting to shove the container back at her.
"The entirety of the fourth floor begs to differ." Rukia said, and seeing his confused expression the corner of her mouth lifted in a smug smirk. "Did you know the sound of your sneezing travels throughout the entire fourth floor?"
Ichigo kept on his scowl, trying to decide whether or not what she said was actually true.
"Do us all a favor and take a couple of those, so we aren't distracted by the sound of your exploding mucus." Rukia said before he could once again protest. "Better yet, take the rest of the day off. You've been sick for a week now, I'm sure Ukitake won't mind."
"I'm sure he wouldn't. But some of us have work to do." Ichigo replied, clicking open a document to get his point across.
"You've worked plenty. We can handle a day without you, Ichigo." Rukia said, and beneath her teasing edge, Ichigo was already learning to recognize the disguised hints of concern.
"I'll be fine. If I went home I'd just do the same thing I do here, at least I can punch some hours in this way."
Rukia rolled her eyes and Ichigo thought he heard her mumble something that sounded like "workaholic" under her breath.
"Now, if you don't mind." Ichigo gestured to the door and to the open document on his computer, trying to get the message across wordlessly.
"Fine." Rukia understood, and she raised her hands in apparent defeat. "I'll leave if you take the pills." she bargained.
Ichigo grimaced and resisted the urge to groan. Rukia merely raised her eyebrows and looked at him as if to say, 'Come on, how much does it take?'
Releasing a sharp breath, Ichigo reluctantly twisted the container open and shook out a couple of pills onto his palm and immediately to his mouth, swallowing them in one gulp without even a glass of water.
"Happy?" he looked at Rukia, who grinned.
"Very. Was that so hard?"
"Get out." Ichigo deadpanned. The raven-head let out a chuckle before exiting and closing the door behind her.
Ichigo shook his head, for a moment wondering at his new, strange relationship with that woman. Now that they had decided they were on 'friend' terms, she had started going in and out of his office freely, which Ichigo had thought annoyed him at first, but he soon found that her short visits usually left him in a slightly better mood…Or a worse one. Depending on the case.
Still, he was surprised at how quickly she had adjusted herself to the 'friendship' term. That girl sure had a few surprises up her sleeve.
Then he quickly pushed away all his thoughts of Rukia and looked back at the computer, where he had opened an old document to pretend he was working on it. After looking back to check that his door was closed and no one was coming in, he started clicking open the page he'd been looking at before.
He brought out a notepad and a pen and started writing down.
Two important names came up; Sosuke Aizen and Gin Ichimaru.
I found the link. I'm getting closer…
-x-
Rukia exited Ichigo's office with a slight shake of her head. Sometimes it was hard to believe how stubborn the idiot was. Honestly, most people faked being sick to skip work; not the other way around.
But then again, that was one of the things she'd started to admire about Ichigo. If nothing else, the guy definitely had a passion for what he did. And from what she heard, and the bits she'd read, he was damn good at it too.
"Hey, Rukia!" called a blonde-haired woman from her cubicle when she walked past.
"Hi, Rangiku." Rukia smiled back, waving at the woman before continuing on her way to the elevator, waving to a few other people she recognized on the way.
Things were looking up for Rukia.
It seemed ever since last week, all had gone uphill. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she'd gotten one published article or that she was in a better mood in general…But all of a sudden, her internship seemed to be going off wonderful.
Maybe it was since she and Ichigo finally became friends, or a loose interpretation of the word; they still argued and bickered frequently and she still thought he was a grouch if she ever saw one, but it seemed ever since reaching an understanding, they were slowly coming to terms with themselves. Rukia was quickly learning that despite his unfriendly demeanor, behind his scowl Ichigo was actually a pretty nice guy. You just had to learn to see past his hostile words and perpetually furrowed eyebrows.
For example, last Friday, when he had come out of his office for a minute…
"Here."
Rukia nearly jumped up as the gruff voice spoke above her and dropped a small folder on her small cubicle desk.
"Wha-?"
She didn't get a chance to finish her questioning as she looked into the contents of the folder and was surprised to recognized one of the old articles she'd written for recommendation. It had red markings -underlined and circled phrases, with notes at the margins- all through it in a handwriting she didn't immediately recognize.
"Your style is good but you need to work on your grammar. I spotted about four run-ons in the first two paragraphs alone."
With shock, Rukia realized that Ichigo had actually read and revised her work- and was giving her constructive criticism.
The trick is, Ichigo won't come straight out and tell you he's doing something nice, in fact, he'll do everything in his power to make it seem like he's not. Rukia was starting to see that, and it actually made it curious. This guy seemed to have more layers to him than she thought.
I think the guy I me on Halloween may actually be there, buried somewhere under that scowl.
She shook herself out of her thoughts the moment she noticed herself begin to smile unconsciously at memories she shouldn't be straying to.
But all in all, Rukia Kuchiki could say she was doing well.
"So you're digging the internship thing?" The redheaded tattooed man sitting across from her that could be mistaken for a thug if not for his suit asked, glaring down at his plate as he struggled to get the spaghetti around his fork.
"Mhmm." Rukia nodded through a mouthful of pasta, a half hour after having left Seretei for lunch break and met her childhood friend. "It's going better than I expected." she said after swallowing.
"I thought you said you hated it." Renji said, looking confused and frustrated at the same time as he couldn't properly gather his food. "The whole being an intern thing. And your boss, or supervisor or whatever…Wasn't he a pain in the ass?"
"Ichigo." Rukia supplied him the name yet again. "And yes, he was." she confirmed, starting to take more food. "But not anymore."
"He get fired or something?" Renji asked, looking up from his plate after having nearly dipped his head in to get close to the fork before the contents spilled away from his reach.
Rukia didn't notice the redhead's current comical position, her eyes unfocused as she started thinking. "No. We're on good terms now. He's even helping me with my writing."
"Oh." Renji mumbled approvingly. "Well good for you. When do you think you'll be off the internship and on a steady paycheck?"
Rukia's expression fell ever so slightly but she was quick to cover it, too quick for the redhead struggling with his food to notice the slip. "Not too long from now, I think. It's been a month already. I just…" she didn't finish her thought as her gaze finally focused back on the man before her.
She let out a laugh as she saw Renji biting through a glob of spaghetti , his chin practically inside the plate and his fork discarded in uselessness and frustration.
"Okay." she said between chuckles. "That's the last time we take you out for Italian."
-x-
The small apartment was quiet and shut off from the noisy sirens and traffic outside that night.
Inside, its habitant sat on the couch in the living area with a glass of milk, a newspaper and a red pen.
Rukia settled herself with her legs crossed and the glass of milk on the coffee table, before opening up the newspaper to the job section, pen in hand, and began reading.
Beside the milk on the coffee table, torn open envelopes contained the bills for that month.
Rukia hadn't mentioned to Renji, or anyone, but the fact is that one month without a salary was coming tougher than she expected. She had some saved money from working through college, but it wouldn't sustain her for long; and the truth was, she had no idea when she'd actually be getting a steady spot on Seretei.
With those thoughts in mind, Rukia began circling adds.
-x-
When the alarm clock went off at his bedside table that morning, Ichigo let out a long groan.
Not because of the usual reason people become irritated with their alarm clocks, which would be that it wakes them up from blesses slumber; in Ichigo's case, he groaned because the alarm went off and he hadn't shut an eye all night.
He lazily slapped his hand on the snooze button and lay still for a moment, looking at the ceiling, surrounded by used tissues all over the bed.
He had a long day ahead of him.
As if on cue, his eyes squeezed shut, his mouth opened and…
"ACHOO!"
Great.
"Good morning, Mr. Kurosaki." greeted pleasantly the blonde girl sitting at the reception desk that morning.
Ichigo didn't bother acknowledging her or any of the other people who greeted him as they passed him by on the way to the office that morning. He simply kept his head low, a tissue gripped tightly in his hand and a jar of cold pills tucked safely in the pocket of his jacket.
"Well, look who's late for once." he heard a voice say just as he was about to reach his office. "Morning, Ichigo." Rukia greeted from her cubicle.
Like everyone else that morning, Ichigo ignored her, and proceeded to go in his office and slam the door behind him.
"What crawled up his ass?" The dark-haired Kaien wondered as he witnessed the scene of his grumpy coworker being…extra grumpy.
Rukia shrugged in response, genuinely not knowing what could have merited such a response. Kaien quickly dismissed it, not noticing the way the female's eyebrows furrowed and she stared at the closed door for a few extra moments before returning to her work.
In his office, Ichigo sank to his chair, not even bothering to take his jacket off first. He pulled out the medicine jar and opened it, taking it directly to his mouth and shaking out to -or maybe three- of the pills and swallowing forcibly.
The term 'feeling like crap' did not begin to cover how Ichigo was feeling. He felt like his body weighed a ton, his nose was runny and red -probably peeling from all the times he'd wiped it with the surprisingly harsh tissue-, he kept sneezing every two minutes, and to top it all off, he hadn't slept.
Despite all that, he kept going on.
I'm too close now…I can't loose the lead because of a stupid cold.
With those thoughts, he got on starting the computer, rubbing his temples as the whirring of the machine indicated its coming to life…And added to the pounding in his head.
Ichigo ignored his complaining body and started working on opening files and documents, and running searches, writing down all the important details. Ichigo was going to proof that his skills as a reporter were not in vain.
He worked like that for almost an hour before being interrupted by the sound of ringing.
After giving a startled jump which did nothing for his ever-increasing headache, he grabbed the phone from his pocket and picked up.
"Ichigo." spoke a deep voice on the other end.
"Chad." he said, recognizing the voice immediately. After a flickering glance to the door, Ichigo lowered his voice and spoke into the receiver. "What do you have?"
"I couldn't get much. After the Chief removed me from the case he's been keeping things pretty hushed up." Chad explained. "But I was able to get some things on Ichimaru."
Ichigo felt like letting out a victory cry but refrained from making any unnecessary noise, checking once more to make sure no one was coming into the office before speaking back. "Alright, well I've been able to dig up something that might connect him to Aizen, but I need more solid info. I'll send you the links tonight."
"Ok." Chad said simply. "I'll try to see if I can find anything else."
"Great. Call me when you do." Ichigo said, starting to take the phone away before, "And Chad?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks man."
He heard a grunt in response before the call was ended.
Feeling more triumphant, Ichigo went back to his computer when he noticed a problem. He couldn't read anything that was on the screen. He blinked hurriedly and rubbed at his eyes, but it was no use. His vision had gone blurry.
"Damn it, fucking piece of-" he started cussing, just before he heard the door to his office opening.
The last thing he wanted was a visit from his boss or anyone at that moment.
"Ichigo," Rukia started to say, and he was somewhat relieved, and somewhat peeved that it was her.
"What do you want?" he asked sharply. He hadn't meant to sound like such a jerk…it just came out that way.
Rukia, however, didn't seem taken aback by his rudeness. She didn't even comment on it as she usually did. "Are you okay?"
Her question, not containing a drop of irony or mockery took him slightly by surprise.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just have to get this done, okay? So please leave." he said shortly, trying to ignore the fact that he couldn't actually see what he was looking to get done.
"Look at me." Rukia instructed, her voice suddenly hard. It wasn't the tone she used to argue with him; it was a tone that left no room for discussion.
And not really in the mood to discuss anyway, Ichigo did as she said…As much as he could, since all he saw was a foggy version of black hair, fair skin, and a pair of blue-violet dots.
"You're going home." Rukia stated after looking at him for three seconds.
"What? What are you talking about? Go back to work." he said, turning to his computer and willing his eyes to focus properly.
"Ichigo, you look like you haven't slept at all and a train ran over you last night." Rukia informed him. "You're in no condition to be here."
Ichigo would have thought it almost comical how her voice suddenly took on a motherly sort of commanding tone, if he didn't find it so annoying.
"You're not my mother. If I say I'm well enough to be here, then I'm-"
Slap!
Ichigo's mouth dropped open as he felt the sudden sting on his cheek. "You…"
"I said you're going home. Grab your stuff."
And that ended that argument.
A few minutes later, Ichigo was walking after Rukia down to the parking lot, his vision still not sharp but having improved a bit. And he was scowling.
"Why are you still here?" he asked in irritation. Wasn't it enough for her that she got him to leave?
"I'm making sure you don't sneak back in to work." she said simply, like it was the most logical thing in the world.
Ichigo scoffed, but otherwise said nothing and glared into space.
Once they'd made it to his car, and he started opening the door to the driver's seat, he turned to look at his dark-haired companion.
"I'm already here. You can go back now." Ichigo said not-so-subtly. Rukia looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you sure you're in any condition to drive?"
Ichigo scoffed again, this time acting like the very suggestion of what she said was ridiculous. "Of course I am. Don't be stupid." With that, he climbed into the driver's seat and started the car.
He sat there for a few seemingly endless moment, his amber gaze glaring through the windshield and his hands' grip tight on the steering wheel, and he didn't move an inch the whole time.
He really wished he could see without feeling like a plastic bag had been shoved over his head. But most of all, he wished Rukia wasn't there, just waiting for him to say it.
"Godammit," he growled under his breath before angrily getting out of the car and facing Rukia.
Said girl smiled and offered, almost smugly, "I'll drive you."
Ichigo, far too irritated to dwell on her goodwill at the moment, huffed as he made his way around to the passenger seat and slammed the door closed. Rukia climbed in with much more finesse and she started fixing the mirrors before giving Ichigo a look.
"Not.." he said with his eyes focused on glaring through the windshield.
Rukia bit back a grin and started driving wordlessly out of the building's lot.
The driver waited about a minute to ask the current passenger for the directions to his house. Said man muttered them unhappily and then reclined his head back and shut his eyes. Rukia watched him out of the corner of his eye, fully aware that he was much more sick than he let on, her thoughts confirmed then. She almost laughed when she saw that even as he relaxed back and closed his eyes, his eyebrows remained deeply furrowed.
"Hey Rukia," Ichigo spoke up after a period of silence except for the muffled sounds of traffic outside.
"Hmm?" she flickered her gaze over for a moment to see that he had straightened up and opened his eyes. "What's the matter? Tired of glaring at the inside of your eyelids?" she snickered, her eyes ahead as she turned the wheel to make a turn.
She felt Ichigo's glare on her now without needing to look. "It just doesn't have the same effect as on people, right? Shame." she smirked.
After muttering something under his breath, Ichigo said, "How are you planning on getting back to work?" he questioned, due to the fact that it was his car she was driving, to his house; away from Seretei.
Rukia shrugged and kept her eyes on the road. "I'll ask a friend to pick me up and bring me over."
"You have friends?" Ichigo shot at her, with a theatrically raised eyebrow and a mockingly surprised tone.
Score one for Ichigo.
Rukia decided to let him have that one; at least he was feeling well enough to banter a bit. They started to lull back into silence and she decided to fill it with music. When she reached to turn on the radio, she was surprised to hear rock music blaring off loudly from the speakers.
"Gah!" Ichigo wailed, his hands coming up to cover his ears and his face scrunching up.
"Err," Rukia hurriedly turned it down until it was just a small sound in the distance. "Sorry." she apologized sheepishly, seeing him pinch the bridge of his nose and breathe deeply.
Meanwhile, Ichigo tried to recover what brain tissue had survived the explosion in his head thanks to that damn music. "Nevermind." he grumbled through the flared up pain.
Rukia looked at him meekly before saying, "I didn't have you pinned as a rocker, though."
It was faint, but she thought she saw the corner of his mouth lift slightly. "Oh yeah? What did you expect? Classical?"
Rukia grinned at him. "Actually I figured you were just the type of guy to listen to the news on the radio." Then she added, "And there's nothing wrong with classical music."
"What? You play or something?" Ichigo asked peeping at her, suddenly curious.
"Does it matter to you?" she quirked an eyebrow.
"Not particularly." He shrugged nonchalantly.
"Then don't ask."
Someone somewhere slapped their knee and yelled 'burn!'.
Ichigo fumed in his seat and muttered about "stupid little creeps".
It was about ten more minutes before Rukia pulled up at a street lined with one story houses, not particularly luxurious but well-cared for. It looked like the kind of place young newly weds would move into to start a family. Though, Rukia thought, Ichigo didn't seem particularly the type.
Then again, she wondered…He couldn't have been with anyone at the moment, considering his actions on Halloween night (then again, he could be more of a player than she gave him credit for), but maybe he had plans for the future… Or had had plans. She decided it was better not to ask.
"Well, here we are." She announced, stopping before the house number Ichigo had told her before. "Is this the right house?"
"Yeah." Ichigo confirmed, looking out the passenger window at the place. Rukia followed his gaze and they sat in silence, looking at the house for a few moments.
"Thanks for uh, driving me and all." Ichigo said awkwardly.
"Sure thing. Just don't make a habit of taking advantage of my kindness." Rukia responded, earning a stuttered "Wha-! I didn't-! Why you!" from Ichigo.
The orange-head gruffly opened the car door and climbed out -a bit too quickly apparently, because the moment he was on his feet his vision flashed and he felt lightheaded, making him stumble on his feet.
Rukia watched him with furrowed eyebrows. "You sure you're going to be okay?"
"Fine." Ichigo grumbled, moving towards his house.
Rukia glanced at her wristwatch quickly. Renji won't be out to lunch for over an hour still…
"Hey Ichigo," she called, getting out of the car and slamming the door closed. "I still have some time before anyone picks me up." She said, walking up the steps to the front door beside him. "I can come in for a minute and-"
"No way." Ichigo was instant to disagree. "Aren't you the one that told me to rest? I can't get any rest with you in the house."
"I won't be a bother-" Rukia said, and seeing how Ichigo was opening his mouth to take a shot at that she hurriedly added, "It's just for a little bit until my friend gets off work; you won't even know I'm there."
Ichigo looked at her dubiously.
"Besides," Rukia quickly added. "I know a great family recipe that'll get rid of that cold like that." she snapped her fingers at the 'that' and smiled smugly up at him.
He still didn't look convinced, so she said, "Or you can suffer through that headache for the rest of the week. Your choice." she shrugged, starting to turn around and make as if to leave.
Five minutes later Ichigo was lying down on his couch with a wet cloth on his head while Rukia worked around his kitchen.
"You know," the raven-head currently standing on her tiptoes to reach the cupboard started. "You should really just go to bed. Isn't that more comfortable?"
"No." Ichigo replied flatly from the living room. "I'm not letting you run around my house unsupervised."
Rukia rolled her eyes almost audibly and went on throwing ingredients in a blender.
"What are you making anyway?" Ichigo asked, not looking but hearing the commotion.
"The recipe that will cure you."
"What's in it?" he asked more warily still.
"You don't need to know." was all she said, and Ichigo got a bad feeling in his stomach.
No one spoke after that and Ichigo allowed himself to take a nap while she finished.
By the time Rukia had finished, he was stretched out on the couch, one feet dangling off; the wet cloth was laying over his eyes with his arm over it and he was snoring softly.
Rukia paused only for a second to take in the sight before taking a seat on the very edge of the couch and shaking him awake.
"AH!" Ichigo yelled out after having mumbled incoherencies as she awoke him; when the cloth fell from his eyes and she saw her face inches away from his, he yelled out and backed into the corner of the couch as far as he could to get away from her…which wasn't much. The outburst was rewarded with a pang of pain in his head, which left him clutching it and grumbling while Rukia sat blinking.
"Okay drama queen," she held up a glass containing a suspiciously colored liquid. "Here you go. Drink up."
"Rukia," Ichigo started in what sounded like a diplomatic tone. The girl listened. "What the hell is that?"
"The family recipe." she answered, unruffled by the wild look in his eye.
"Are you trying to poison me?" Ichigo yelled out. "I ain't drinking that crap! Go flush it or something!" he crossed his arms in an 'x' shape in front of his face and glared disgustedly at the murky drink.
"Oh don't be such a baby." Rukia groaned. "You just have to take it all in one gulp." she shoved the glass in front of his face, allowing its scent to drift upwards…
"Oh God!" Ichigo covered his nose. "It smells like vomit!"
"Does not!" Rukia defended, her cheeks turning pink. Still, she dared to take a slight whiff of the concoction and hurriedly shoved it away from her face, though disguising her reaction. "It just has a strong smell because of the ingredients."
"What ingredients exactly?" Ichigo questioned. Rukia was smarter than that though.
"I'll tell you after you drink it."
"When hell freezes over!"
"Just one gulp!"
"Shoot me first!"
"You're being an idiot!"
"If I drink that I'll be a corpse!"
"Ichigo!"
"Rukia!"
They both glared at each other and a bolt of electricity seemed to pass through them where their eyes met.
Rukia let out a sigh. "I know it looks weird," she started in a reasoning voice. "But you'll feel better once you drink it."
Ichigo crossed his arms over his chest and glared stubbornly at the drink, though his pose slackened slightly from her tone.
"I promise." Rukia added, her eyes honest.
Ichigo suddenly noticed how close her face was to his, and the fact that they were in his house, alone, sitting together in a couch blared brightly with red lights. To top it all off, Rukia was giving him that soft convincing look, a small smile with big eyes, and leaning close to him…
"Okay gimme that!" he roughly snatched the glass from her hand, starling her and spilling a few drops of the contents. Anything to get her away. He thought with a gulp. He stared down at the drink for a few seconds and already felt his stomach begin protesting.
With a gloomy voice, he said, "Bottoms up." And downed the whole thing in two gulps, feeling the thick liquid burn its way down his throat. He made quite an array of faces.
"See that wasn't so bad." Rukia said casually, while Ichigo coughed and made 'ack' noises. "I'll get you some water to take that down." she offered sheepishly as he gave her a look while he grabbed his neck.
Rukia didn't sit down again as she offered him the glass of water, which Ichigo swallowed in a few gulps. Rukia stared at him for a moment and he began to sit up a little straighter, noticing that he was starting to feel the lightheadedness fading.
"Hey, thanks for…everything." Ichigo said after a moment of silence, feeling the need to at least be polite, considering all she'd done. "You didn't have to."
"No, I didn't." Rukia agreed, a little grin on her features. "But I did because I'm such a nice person."
He stared at her smug little smile for a moment. "Why did you?" Ichigo asked seriously, honestly baffled that the woman had actually gone to such lengths to make sure he was okay.
Rukia seemed taken aback by the question only for a moment before blinking and giving Ichigo an actual smile.
" Because that's what friends are for."
Her quick and honest declaration took Ichigo by surprise and he could only stare at the smiling girl in wonder.
They both turned to look at the front door as the sound of a honk came from outside.
"That's my ride." Rukia said, starting towards the door. "I'll see you around, Ichigo."
"Yeah…" Ichigo said back, looking at her back thoughtfully. "See you around."
A/N: Sooo…How long has it been since my last update? One month, two? I honestly don't know, but I apologize for the delay. I'm generally not a fast updater, but this was slow, even for me. And I wanted to say- I have a good excuse: WRITER'S BLOCK. From hell! Seriously, worst one I've ever gotten. Through most of January and December I abandoned all reading AND writing, fan fiction and otherwise. It was bad…Oddly enough, it was cured by the secondary cause of this delayed chapter: My internet stopped working.
Important note: This chapter may seem fillerish and shorter than usual, but it actually introduced a LOT of content and foreshadowing for future chapters. I think this is the chapter which contains the most important content up til now actually xD Some of it was fairly obvious, some was subtle, some of it REALLY subtle, so you may want to read closely. However, the peak of the chapter was Rukia's "That's what friends are for". They agreed to be friends last chapter, but this is when they are really starting to see what it is to be actual friends.
To my reviewers: Chappygami (special thanks to you for showing me those stories that helped break the writer's block xD), yuki chan, xcHiBii-RuKiiax, AnimeFanx3, hoshinairi, xwhitemoonx, MN (feel special again!^^ lol), CosyInTheRocket, M.O.N.S.T.E.R. EATS. POCKY., reaper baby xp, Lunar, Yuyukawaii, jenaca, Nivek01 (hey, i know you from the Bleach Asylum! I'm TsukiHana37 :D), theaCoi, Amaterasu Ai, AwesomeAnimeStarIchiRuki, Sa Rart, shnizlefritz, ali6220, xXBleachluverXx, Black Sun Upon An Icy Sky, leekdakay (lol i loved your review! haha yeah, i guess i'm famous now, i was starting to feel ignored XD), 09ice and MeoNg-thanks for the reviews! I'm glad to see people liking the story and being interested!^^
I reinstate how much I love you guys, it honestly makes me happy to see people enjoying the story, and reading you tell me about it keeps me going! (I wouldn't have come out of that writer's block if not for those reviews which popped up unexpectedly from people asking about the story…you guys don't know how much it helps!) Also, I'm sorry I don't reply personally- it's not that I don't want to or that I don't read or care (trust me, I DO), it's just that I have a lot of messages to reply from different forums and networks and I get all caught up in it; time isn't enough. But I wanted to make sure you know that, trust me, those reviews make a BIG [note all caps] difference! (there is nothing like logging in and seeing review alerts for a happy heart^^)
And to the eloquent and surprisingly reliable lisa: Sweetie, you've reviewed chapters 3 and 5 now. Judging by that, I'd say you are reading my story consistently…Are you a masochist, or just misinformed? You know, if you dislike the story so much, it's as simple as a click away to exit and forget it forever, you don't need to punish yourself like this. Then again, since you keep coming back, I might start thinking you secretly like this story…One question though; not to insult your high judging capabilities, but I do wonder, how exactly did I make Rukia act like Orihime? I understand if you tell me she's OOC (you can't meet everyone's standards) but HOW is she like Orihime of all people? Which manga are you reading? [Leave me the answer on your next flame please….or better yet, sign in and send me a message, kay? Thanks, you're a doll]