And I'm back!

Hi. I hope you all are good.

Here is another chapter that took me longer to write than it really should have.
I hope you like it :)

Chapter 9

When Ichigo walked into the station the next morning, he reminded himself to act normal around Kuchiki.
This meant continuing their cat-and-mouse routine-NOT staring at her when she wasn't looking.
Admitting his feelings to himself, came with a lot of other unwarranted emotions-chief of which was regret for the way they had met.
If only he could go back in time…
But he couldn't, and now he didn't really know what to do other than to keep up their current dynamic.
It was the only way he could have any kind of relationship with her, anyhow.
And although he was the one who knew this secret about her, he also knew that if she could go back in time, she would make sure she called the right person-which wasn't him.

As he neared their precinct, his declaration to protect her echoed in his head once again. He cringed thinking of how she had just left without saying a word.
He still couldn't believe he had let himself say that.
Ichigo paused before the door and took a deep breath to calm himself.
He was ready with a clever quip that would have her scrunching her eyebrows as she spat back a scathing reply.

However, he was not prepared for the stab of jealousy that came when he opened the door and saw Kuchiki at her desk, laughing with Agent Hisagi.
Jealousy was a new feeling for him, and he didn't like it one single bit.

'Good morning, Detective Kurosaki,' Hisagi said as he rose from Kuchiki's desk. 'Rukia was just telling me about the case.'
'Mmm, I must have missed the funny part of the murder,' Ichigo said sarcastically. He knew his irritation showed plainly on his face.
'Oh, don't mind him, Shuhei. He's always in a mood,' she said flippantly, barely even giving him a sideways glance.

Shuhei?
Shuhei?

How the fuck were they already on a first name basis?

'Weren't there two of you?' he asked, joining them at Kuchiki's desk. He made sure to stand directly next to her chair.
He saw that Uryu and Chad were not around either.
He'd be damned if he was going to third-wheel this case.

'Izuru went to get coffee,' Shuhei said, settling back onto her desk.
Ichigo fought the urge to push him off it.

'We have a machine,' said Ichigo, sticking his hands in his pockets.

'Izuru and I like a specific type of coffee,' Shuhei explained. He looked like he wanted to say more but his phone buzzed and he excused himself to answer it.

'Figures, he'd be a coffee snob,' Ichigo said as soon as Shuhei was out of the room.

'OWW!' Kuchiki rammed her elbow into his thigh.

'Be nice!' she ordered, glaring up at him.

'What the hell are your bones even made of, Kuchiki? Fuck!' He cursed rubbing the spot where she had hit him.

'Don't be a baby, Kurosaki,' she told him, rolling her eyes.

He couldn't believe this was the woman he had fallen for.
Out of all the perfectly normal, nice girls-girls who would, no doubt, like him back-this violent midget was the one that made his heart race.

'I think we should talk to Yoshino again. She is more involved than she led on,' Rukia suggested. She had just finished reading Maki's reports-scant as they were, and the only connection that they had was still Yoshino Soma. He was either pretending to be her friend, or pretending to date her-his notes weren't very clear. Either way, she was the one he was getting information from.

'Did her name come up when you were in vice?' Agent Kira asked Kurosaki.
'Nope. But I'll check if they heard anything since.'

Kurosaki had explained that when he still at vice, they had been trying to take down the operation. But Kariya was not only as elusive as the wind, he was also a dangerous, ruthless man.
Anyone who had agreed to talk to them ended up dead and horribly mutilated.
Eventually, they had stopped pursuing the case.
Rukia hadn't even known that Kurosaki was in vice before joining homicide.
She wondered at the change.

She made a mental note to ask him later.
Then squashed it and threw it in her mental trashcan. She didn't want to do or say anything else that would make Kurosaki think that she was interested in him.
And she wasn't!
Interested in him, that is.

It was a relief when he walked into the precinct grumpy and snippy as usual.
She had rationalized that whatever reaction she had to him before was because she had been high on painkillers; and then it was anxiety that he knew something about her life that no one else did.
Whatever she felt, or thought she felt, was a just a product of circumstance.
She wouldn't even care if he decided to ignore her again.
Or so she told herself.

'Okay, Rukia and I will go talk to Yoshino,' Shuhei was saying, 'while Izuru and Kurosaki can go back to Maki's place and look for his phone and laptop.'

'We already checked his apartment. We didn't find anything,' Kurosaki said, scowling-as he had been since the morning.

'His laptop and phone have to be hidden there somewhere. It's protocol,' Agent Kira said succinctly. She narrowed her eyes at Kurosaki, levelling him a look that said 'don't even argue!'
Kurosaki held her gaze for a second, but thankfully remained silent.

'Okay, then. Lead the way, Agent,' he said to Kira, who looked like he was already tired of this case.

In the end, it was Yoshino who was revealed to be the killer.
Rukia could have kicked herself.
The perpetrator had been right there under their noses. If she hadn't been so preoccupied with her own things, maybe she would have seen the connection earlier.

'Ugh, we should have been more thorough,' she said, watching Yoshino from behind the two-way mirror-she sat very still, eyes wide and watery.

'We didn't have all the information, Kuchiki. How were we to know that Maki was undercover,' Kurosaki said from beside her. 'Or that Yoshino is such an excellent liar.'

When she and Agent Hisagi went to her place to confront her, she had, again, blatantly denied having anything to do with Maki's death. She was quite convincing-until they found Maki's phone and laptop in her possession.

She tried to run but Rukia chased after her, tackling her to the ground before she could jump a fence and slip through their fingers. But all that running had disturbed the healing wound on her abdomen.
Her hand went to it now, checking once again, for blood.
But it came away dry, and she sighed in relief.

'You okay?' Kurosaki asked her-his voice was softer than she would like it to be.

'I'm fine, Kurosaki. You don't have to keep asking me that,' she replied, her eyes still trained on Yoshino.

'Fine, then.'

An awkward silence wrapped around them until Shuhei and Agent Kira finally walked in to begin the interrogation.

'It was accident! I didn't mean to pull the trigger!' Yoshino wailed before they could even start the questioning.

'Just tell us what happened,' Agent Hisagi said calmly, while Agent Kira stood to one side.

'He…he was helping me, but I had a feeling he was hiding something, so I followed him. He was supposed to plant that vial in the office for someone to find! But he didn't!'

'So you shot him?'

'No! I..I wanted to scare him. That's all! But my…my finger slipped and…then he…'

'Miss Soma, we know you have relations with the Ginjo cartel.' Yoshino's face immediately filled with fear. 'If you help us, we can get your sentence reduced.'

'No. Just take me to prison,' she pleaded in desperation as tears streamed down her face.

'Miss Soma, you killed a federal agent. '

'A…a federal agent? No. Ichinose was an IT tech. He was my-'

'Agent Maki, was undercover as an IT tech.'

The colour had completely drained from her face. Rukia almost felt sorry for the woman.

'Miss Soma, I am sorry that you were misled. But Jin Kariya must be brought to justice. If you can help us with that, then perhaps Agent Maki's death would not have been in vain.'

Yoshina remain silent, the reality of the situation, no doubt, taking hold of her.

Eventually Shuhei and Agent Kira left her alone, and joined them on the other side of the mirror.

'I think that's all we're getting out of her right now. We'll arrange for her transfer and pick this up when we're back at the base.' Shuhei said, coming to standing between her and Kurosaki.

Kurosaki's brow furrowed. Rukia could tell from earlier on that he didn't like Shuhei. But now that the case had been solved, she longer had to make sure that Kurosaki didn't say anything stupid.

'I have some paperwork to finish,' Rukia said, removing herself from whatever tension that was brewing between the two.

Back at her desk, she found Rangiku sitting there filing her nails.
There goes her paperwork.
Whenever Rangiku came to her desk, she came with a plan-none of which involved actual police work.

'Rukiaaa,' she sang, getting up from the chair and enveloping her in a tight hug. 'I missed you!'

'Okay, that's enough,' Rukia said trying to tap out the hug.

'You know, one day, this touch-me-die attitude is gonna hurt my feelings,' Rangiku whined, but she released her hold.

'Are you getting thinner?' Rangiku asked worriedly as she pulled at the sides of Rukia's shirt.

Rangiku was Rukia's first and only female friend. This meant that she got away with a lot of things that most people would get punched for.

'No, I'm not,' Rukia insisted, standing there with her arms akimbo as Rangiku inspected her waistline.

It was at that moment that Kurosaki had walked in.
Great.
He looked at her. Then at Rangiku. Then her again.

'Hi Rangiku. Looks like you found a doll to play with,' he said, his eyes crinkling with amusement.
'Does she come with her own dollhouse too?'

'Shut up, Kurosaki,' she said giving him her best glare.

Rukia couldn't believe she thought she was attracted to him.

'I heard you guys caught someone in connection with Kariya,' Rangiku said.

Rukia was explaining the case to her when Shuhei and Agent Kira returned.

'I can't believe you've been working with these handsome guys all day, and I was stuck in a van with the three idiots' Rangiku pouted.

'I have Kurosaki. He's three idiots all by himself,' she said, jabbing her thumb in his direction.

'Hey!' he exclaimed from his chair.

She ignored him to introduce the agents to Rangiku, who was already undressing them with her eyes.

'This is Agent Shuhei Hisagi, and Agent Izuru Kira. Agents, this is Detective Rangiku Matsumoto-Vice'

'If I had known that they had sent such handsome men, I would have offered my services,' she said with a wink.

Agent Kira blushed furiously. It was the most reaction she had seen from the man. Not that she could blame him. In the presence of Rangiku, most men would forget their own name.

'Some of us are clocking out early and heading to a bar nearby. You guys should join us. We can celebrate finally getting something on Kariya,' Rangiku told them, looping her arm through Rukia's.

'That sounds great. We just need to update our superiors.'

As soon as Shuhei dragged Kira away, Rangiku started to pull apart Rukia's low bun.

'Rangiku, what the hell?' she exclaimed trying to swat Rangiku's hands away. But Rangiku, undeterred, moved behind her to fix the back of her hair.

'Would you relax? I'm not letting you come with us looking like the military just dropped you off.'

Kurosaki had the nerve to laugh.

'What, carrot-head? What?' She crossed her arms and stared him down.

'Nothing, midget.' He matched her stare.

Her breathe caught in her throat, but she didn't want to be the one to look away first.

They stayed like that until Rangiku said, 'Right, that's better!'

Then Kurosaki abruptly left the room.

'What's his problem?' Rangiku asked her, still fussing with Rukia's hair.

'Fuck if I know,' she shrugged in response.

'You know, this thing with you and Ichigo…it's kinda hot,' Rangiku said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

'That ridiculous, Rangiku. Absolutely ridiculous.'

'Oh come, now. Have you never heard of enemies-to-lovers? I think the two of you are just masking your desire for each other behind these childish taunts'

'Desire? Really now? Kurosaki and I desire each other? You used to read Sweet Valley High in school, didn't you?'

'Yes, desire. And, yes, I read Sweet Valley. It was very informative, I'll have you know,' she said indignantly.

'Sure,' Rukia said with a chuckle.

'Look, all I'm saying is, who knows what would happen if the two of you were stuck in a tiny little inn room with one bed?'

'I'd kill him and take the bed for myself.'

'Okay, what if he took you in his strong arms and laid you on the bed, ever so gently?

'Can we just go, please?'

Rukia started toward the door and Rangiku followed closely.

'What if he ripped off his shirt and, like, pinned you against the wall?'

'Oh my, God…' Rukia sighed in defeat.

She came to the conclusion that her dear friend had been reading one too many romance novels, and now needed an outlet for her fantasies.

Fantasies that would no doubt be stuck in Rukia's own head, especially since she knew how it felt to be carried by those strong arms.

She sighed again, cursing Rangiku and her spicy imagination.