I do not own Bleach. Sorry for the late update with the holidays I lost track of what day it was.

Chapter 12 An Unlikely Agreement

Uryu was sitting in his seat when she walked in with Ichigo. He sent a glare at Ichigo. He had to give it to Hinata; she had been avoiding him for the past three weeks. She was always with either Ichigo or one of Ichigo's friends. He hadn't been able to get her by herself, but he needed to talk to her. He watched as Hinata threw her arms around Ichigo's shoulders, dangling and laughing with his friends. He noticed the Inoue girl looking jealous from the side.

A smile grew on his face; he had a plan.

. . .

Hinata stretched, before putting her stuff back into her bag. It had been a long day at school, but she had learned a few things. She was getting up when Orihime appeared in front of her.

"Hinata! Do you want to come to my home economic club today?" She appeared nervous and a little awkward.

"I don't know, Orihime. I was going to walk home with Ichigo today." She looked back to where Ichigo was talking with Chad. They had been getting into a lot of fights due to their flashy entrance on the first day of school and she didn't want to leave them alone.

"Aww, but you never spend time with me!" She pleaded. "You are always with Ichigo or Tatsuki!"

Hinata smiled; Tatsuki wouldn't leave her alone and was always following her around. She had even kidnapped her once for karate practice. Laughing, she answered, "Tatsuki just wants me in the karate club, Orihime."

"We are making cookies today."

That caught Hinata's attention. "Can I have some?"

"Of course!" With that, Orihime grabbed Hinata's arm and started to drag her off. "I'm borrowing Hinata, Ichigo." Orihime called over her shoulder as they passed.

Hinata gave a cheerful wave over her shoulder to a surprised Ichigo.

The closer they got to the home economics club, the more it looked like Hinata was dragging Orihime as she skipped down the hall. Hinata was looking forward to some warm cookies.

What she didn't expect, and her excitement over the cookies hid, was the hand that shot out as soon as she crossed the threshold of the room, grabbing her arm in a vise like grip. Hinata followed the hand with her eyes to see Uyru, an evil grin on his face as he pushed up his glasses. She froze.

At that moment, Orihime let go of her hand and backed away. Hinata turned to Orihime, "Save me!"

Orihime couldn't quite meet her eyes. "Sorry Hinata, but Uryu wanted to talk to you. He said if I brought you here that Ichigo would be alone and I could talk to him. Sorry!" With that she turned and ran away. She appeared to be crying as she went, as if she felt bad about selling her friend out.

"Traitor!" Hinata called out after the retreating girl, shaking.

She felt the grip on her arm tighten and she turned around to once again face Uryu. He still had a smile of triumph on his face. Looking past him, she saw that the room was empty. They were alone.

"Now we can finally talk," Uryu said as he pushed up his glasses again. He walked her over to some chairs before letting go of her arm.

Hinata looked anywhere but at Uryu. He still made her instincts scream to run. "I just want to go back to Ichigo." She stood stubbornly, arms crossed, ignoring his subtle hints for her to sit down.

"I need you to answer my questions," he said, gesturing for her to sit down once again.

Still not looking at him, she sat down with a huff. "What do you want? Ichigo's waiting for me."

"Well, I wanted to talk about you. How long have you been in Karurkura? Why have I never met you?"

Her eyes slid over him before looking away. "I moved in about a year ago. I live with my uncles and cousins, but just started school this year. I was home schooled before this." She recited what Ichigo and Kiskue had said was her backstory. "As to why I've never met you? I don't know."

She shot a glance at him again. He seemed to be nodding as if this all made sense. "Have you ever trained your quincy powers?"

She sighed and fidgeted again. "I told you I don't know what quincies are." She was getting antsy. She didn't like being stuck in this chair talking to this boy. All she wanted to do was escape his too observant eyes. She had gotten better over the last three weeks, but she still didn't like being around him.

He gave an exasperated sigh as if he couldn't believe how stupid she was as he pushed up his glasses again. "I told you last time; quincies are people who kill Hollows."

She raised an eyebrow. "What are hollows? Are they those monsters that attack the spirits that I see?"

His eyes got wide. "Yes. How could you not know what a hollow is? Didn't your family teach you about them?"

She gave a small smile. "My family. . . is a little complicated."

Thankfully, he nodded and let it drop.

There was a pause before he spoke again. "I could train you if you like."

She looked quizzically at him. "Train me?"

He reached out to grab her hand, but she pulled away from his reach. "Yeah. You are a qunicy. From what you have said, you have never even heard about them, so you haven't been trained at all. The fact that you have been able to get rid of hollows at all is an amazing feat." There was admiration in his voice as he said this last part. "But I can train you to be able to kill them with a lot less force. What do you say? Can I train you?"

She finally met his eyes. "I already know how to fight."

"Yes," he said slowly, "but if I train you, I can help you control the powers that will make you stronger."

She thought about it for a while. He was saying that she could become stronger while in her gigai. If she wanted to protect Ichigo without him knowing, she would need to become stronger. Finally, she nodded.

Uryu's face lit up. "Great! We can practice after my club activities . . . if that works for you?"

She pouted at the thought of not being able to spend time with Ichigo, but this was to help protect him so she gave a nod.

Uryu grabbed both of her hands pulling her to her feet, making her flinch and lean back. "This is going to be great! There is so much to teach you!" With that he raced out of the room, dragging her behind him.

. . .

The rumor started when a passing student watched Uyru Ishida drag Hinata Kurosaki through the halls. There was no base to the rumor; occasionally they would be seen walking home together. As time passed, however, the time they spent together grew more and more frequent. On weekends, Hinata was often seen at the Ishida hospital. She was also seen wearing a matching neckless to his bracelet he always had on. It quickly became rumored that they were a couple. The only person in the school unaware of these rumors was Ichigo.