Whoo! An update! Guys, I have good news for you. I've thought of what I want to do with this story at least for the next few chapters and let me tell you, things are about to get GOOD. I'm so excited to start writing the next few chapters which I haven't been able to say for a long so I'm really pumped. My muse has returned! That being said, this is kind of another filler chapter but things are about to heat up for sure so keep an eye out for that! Hope you guys like it!

"Ah! Good evening, Ms. Kuchiki. My, my you look like you just got run over by a train. Are you alright?" Rukia's eccentric dance instructor/partner greeted her as she rushed into the door of the familiar dance studio.

"I'm fine, Yumichika. I've just had a lot going on with the new job, finishing up the last of my classes before I graduate, and a bunch of other stuff. Not to mention the fact that I lost track of time at work today and missed my bus. Sorry I'm so late," Rukia answered, out of breath from having to run the last five blocks. The bus she was forced to take didn't come all the way to the usual stop right by the studio.

"That's alright, dear. I won't hold it against you this time. If you want we can cut back on lessons until everything slows down. I know it's really stressful for you right now, especially with your college graduation right around the corner."

"No, I'm not going to do that. I have a lot going on, but this is the one thing I actually look forward to doing. It's a good stress reliever," Rukia said as she set down her bag in the corner and removed the small jacket she was wearing to reveal her black tank top and flowing dance skirt.

"Well I guess that's one way to look at it. Come on, let's start the warm up," Yumichika instructed as they began their usual practice routine. Though Yumichika had taught Rukia everything she knew as a dancer, he was also a great partner and would create small routines that they practiced together in addition to teaching. They had done plenty of just-for-fun numbers over the past few years but had never performed anywhere besides Rangiku's club dance floor.

After their time together had come to a close, Yumichika had decided to strike up a conversation about Rukia's new job, seeing as how every time he had even mentioned it to her she grumbled and urged him to change the subject. He could clearly see the stress it was causing her already and she had only been there for about a month. He wondered why she had even taken it in the first place.

"Are you sure you're alright, dear? This new job of yours seems to be doing a number on you. And not in a good way."

"It's fine. It's not the greatest job I've ever had but it pays better than working in the coffee shop and it's actually in the field I want to go in to so that's a plus," Rukia said nonchalantly, not liking where the conversation was going but knowing she had held off her instructor's questions about it long enough.

"But it's working you ragged. Every time I see you now you look like you haven't slept in days and you're about to pull your hair out. You might have hated it, but at least the coffee shop gig didn't kill you."

"Yumichika, I promise it's not that bad. There are other things besides the job itself that have been stressing me out lately. Once all of that gets resolved, it'll be a lot easier on me," Rukia reassured.

"Uh huh. It had better be. I hate seeing you like this, Rukia," Yumichika told her with genuine concern.

"I promise I'm alright. Besides, I choose to look at the bright side. This job has plenty of good things to offer me."

Yumichika took on a mischievous look as he thought about what she might be referring to. "I see. I bet that hunky boss of yours with the orange hair has been something good that the job has offered you."

Rukia nearly spat out the water she was drinking. "You mean Ichigo? That bastard is not a bright spot in my life, Yumichika. Trust me. Besides, he's not my boss. I mean, he technically is but he's not the one directly over me."

"Oh, I see. Does that mean he's the one directly under you?" Yumichika asked suggestively. Rukia quickly caught the innuendo and knew that if she was drinking water when he asked that question she would have spat it out all over him.

"Yumichika, stop! Ichigo and I are not together, at all. In any sense. He's just the CEO I work for, nothing more."

"Right. And I suppose when you got together with him that one night you were just discussing business?"

Rukia internally groaned when she remembered that Yumichika had seen them together on their "date". In addition to that, he had also been there when Ichigo attended her dance workshop the night they all went clubbing together. It would be difficult to try and convince her dance instructor and partner that Ichigo was nothing more to her than the CEO of the company she now worked for. She figured it was reasonable, though, since most people didn't go out on dates and to dance workshops with the CEOs of their companies.

Rukia came to a realization when she thought about how hard the relationship she had with Ichigo was to define. He was definitely more than the CEO of her company and definitely less than a love interest (for her, at least). So what did that make him?

She shook her head of the thought when she realized Yumichika was staring at her with a knowing look in his eyes. She didn't want to dwell on this subject any longer and she definitely didn't want to listen to any more of Yumichika's suggestive teasing.

"Just drop it, Yumichika. I have a lot on my mind right now and I don't have the time to be thinking about that bastard. I have to go home and make sure Orihime doesn't burn the place down trying to cook dinner. I'll see you later," she said quickly as she gathered her things and made to leave the studio, if only to avoid the current conversation.

"Alright, fine. Just make sure you keep your heart open as well as your mind, dear. You have a bad habit of not doing that," Yumichika called at her as she hurried out the door.

She closed the studio door behind her and paused to let the words her instructor told her sink in. What the hell does he mean by 'keeping my heart open'? she wondered to herself. She knew he was talking about Ichigo but she didn't know how to interpret his words. Again, she had to shake herself free from those thoughts. There were other, more serious things that had to be dealt with before she would define her relationship with that cocky, orange-haired freak she found she didn't hate as much as she used to.

The next day, as Rukia sat at her desk working, the phone rang and she went to pick it up with practiced ease. "Jushiro Ukitake's office. How may I help you?"

"Wow, you're getting good at that," a familiar voice said from the other line. Immediately Rukia's professional facade faded.

"What do you want, Kurosaki?" she asked in irritation.

"Hey, now. Is that any way to speak to your boss?" Ichigo teased.

"As far as I'm concerned, you're not my boss. Mr. Ukitake is. As such I don't feel the need to be professional around you."

"Don't let anyone catch you saying that, Rukia. You'll blow our cover."

"Right. Because you've done such a good job of keeping our cover," Rukia retorted sarcastically.

"Touche. Now listen, I have an offer for you," he started.

"Uh oh. I don't like this sound of this."

"Just hear me out, alright?"

"Fine," Rukia relented with a sigh. This ought to be good.

"I was wondering if you would like to get some breakfast with me before work tomorrow."

"What, did you finally give up on trying to get me to go out to lunch with you that you resorted to a different meal of the day?" Rukia asked with a snarky tone.

"No, I just think it's important we spend more time together."

"Really?" Rukia asked sarcastically. Ichigo had been giving her that line for awhile now and she was starting to get really tired of it.

"I'm serious, Rukia. Ishida has been getting on to me. He says we need to be more obvious."

"I'm pretty sure you've been obvious enough."

"Apparently not. Look, I know I've been bugging you lately and for that I'm sorry, but this is actually really important."

"It's important for us to go on breakfast dates together?"

"We need to do more things in public. If Aizen thinks this is just some office flirtation thing, he won't take the bait. He needs to think there's something really going on between us and in order for that to work, we need to be together out in public where more people can see us. We haven't done much of that lately."

Rukia sighed. He was right about that. So far she hadn't been approached by any of Aizen's men, meaning that they hadn't been doing a good job of flaunting their relationship(though she would argue they were being too obvious with the way Kurosaki was acting). "Fine. But I'm only doing this for the plan."

"Of course you are," Ichigo replied sarcastically. Rukia partially wished she was talking to him in person so she could glare him down. She didn't know why people like Yumichika wanted the two of them to be together. She couldn't go through a conversation with that man without wanting to choke him. If Yumichika wanted her to keep her heart open, Ichigo was doing a good job of shutting and locking it.

"So where do you want to go?" she asked.

"Ooh, I get to pick?"

She rolled her eyes at that. "Well you're the one who asked."

Ichigo gave a small chuckle at that. "Well, I know this great little coffee shop pretty close to the office."

Rukia audibly groaned. Why, of all places, would he want to go there?

"Good morning, Rukia. You look absolutely breathtaking today," Ichigo greeted with a chipper voice as he opened the door to the familiar coffee shop and waltzed up to where his employee was standing in line waiting to order.

"What are you so happy about?" she asked him in an almost deadly tone. She hadn't had her coffee yet today because of this little 'date' and was in a rather foul mood.

"Well I get to start off my morning having breakfast with a beautiful young woman. Why shouldn't I be happy about that?" Ichigo told her with a cheeky grin. She couldn't even bear looking at him for too long because she was so annoyed with his early morning cheeriness. No one should be that happy at 7:30 in the morning.

"Rukia! It's so good to see you here today," Rukia's former coworker said with a happy smile when she finally made it to the front the of line.

"Hey, Momo. It's good to see you too. Sorry I haven't around here very much. My schedule has been crazy lately."

"Yeah, I can tell. It's alright though, I understand. What can I get for you?"

"Give me a large coffee, black. And a spinach quiche," Rukia ordered as she reached into her purse to get her wallet. When she did, Ichigo reached in front of her and placed his card down. Rukia rolled her eyes at his gesture, but she had been expecting him to do it anyway.

"Her order is on me, Momo," he said as he flashed the cashier his signature smile. Momo couldn't help but smile back, even though she had never thought Ichigo was as dreamy as all the other girls at the shop did.

Ichigo placed his order and the two said their goodbyes to Momo before sitting down at a table by the window, as per Ishida's suggestion.

"Oh, well I guess that's my replacement," Rukia said as she nodded her head to a young blond woman busily making drinks behind the counter in the same place Rukia had always worked.

"Yeah, I guess. Bet you're glad you're not doing that anymore."

"I don't know. I mean, it was difficult and tiring, but working here was always so simple. There was always something for me to do and I knew exactly how to do it. Now, I just sit behind a desk and take phone calls. The excitement in my day comes when I get to get up off my ass and go make a bunch of copies," Rukia lamented.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Ichigo told her sincerely.

"Not your fault. This is my choice and I don't regret it. I just wish I was doing something a little more exciting than boring desk work."

"You'll get your chance someday. Once you get your degree and your brother gets his company back, I know you'll be doing something great there."

And, yet again, Ichigo made Rukia think twice about the vendetta she had against him. It was so goddamn frustrating how he could just switch between douchebag millionaire to caring friend so quickly. If he just picked one and stuck with it she would at least know how she felt about him. All she did now was second guess herself every time she was around him.

"So, other than the boring day to day stuff, how is working with Ukitake?"

"It's alright. Mr. Ukitake is a great boss and Kiyone and Sentaro keep me entertained."

"God, I don't know how you work with those two."

Rukia laughed when she thought about her crazy coworkers. "They're insane, but they're both really sweet. And they always look out for me. Believe it or not, I've actually befriended them."

"Well, good for you, I guess. Not many people at the company want to work with them, except for Ukitake. That's why they both idolize him."

"Yeah. I think they idolize me a bit, too. Even so, they're still really great people."

Just then, their food and drinks arrived and Rukia happily devoured her quiche and gulped down a good bit of her coffee, despite the scalding feeling on her tongue. It was too late in the morning for her not to have had any coffee.

"So, I have a question for you," Ichigo said, breaking the surprisingly comfortable silence between them while they ate their food.

"What's that?" Rukia asked curiously.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I've always wondered. What was your childhood like?"

Rukia was taken aback by the question. "That's a big thing to ask."

"Yeah, I know. It's just, I've told you a lot about my childhood but I've never heard about yours. I know you were adopted by Byakuya when you were still pretty young, but that's about it."

"You ever heard why Byakuya adopted me?"

Ichigo shook his head no.

"It was because he married my sister, Hisana."

"I didn't know Byakuya had a wife."

"He doesn't anymore."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Ichigo told her, knowing he was treading into dangerous territory. He hated to bring up any bad memories but he knew it was important for him to get to know her better.

"It's okay. Hisana has been dead for awhile, which is probably why you never knew about her."

"When did she die?"

"When I was fifteen. Byakuya has been raising me by himself ever since."

They lapsed into silence again as Ichigo processed what Rukia had already told him and Rukia had no intention of divulging any more information if he didn't ask for it. It was a touchy subject, sure, but she was willing to tell him a little bit about it.

"So, what was it like to be raised by Byakuya Kuchiki?" Ichigo finally asked.

"About what you would expect if you've ever met my brother. Byakuya was strict and very proper with the way he raised me. I learned how to be an heiress long before Hisana died. The plan had always been to pass the company along to me once Byakuya retired. He had planned on retiring with Hisana but her sickness changed that. He still wanted me to inherit his company, though. He had a lot of faith in me."

"I'm sure he still does."

"Maybe," Rukia offered weakly. She could never tell what her brother thought of her and now that he had lost everything, she could tell even less than she could before. She didn't know what he expected her to do now that there was no company to give to her, but she had continued on with her college education knowing that's what he would've wanted.

"Well, I know he'll be happy when you return his company to him."

"Yeah, on the very off chance we can actually do it."

"We can. I know we can. Weren't you the one who told me that Kuchiki's never back down from a challenge? Don't lose your faith now."

Rukia looked into Ichigo's eyes and saw a fire she had never seen there before. Ichigo had as much faith in her as her brother used to. Even if Byakuya stopped believing in her ability to turn things around, Ichigo still did and, as much as she didn't want to admit it, that was huge.

"You know what, Kurosaki? I hardly ever say this, but you were right. This was a good idea," Rukia told him with a smile as she raised her coffee cup for a mock toast. Ichigo smiled back and clinked his own coffee cup with hers.

"I'm glad you think so. Now if I could only get you to go out on another dinner date with me."

"Don't push your luck, Kurosaki."

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