Only One For Me

Only One For Me
(AU oneshot)
"Why do you hate school so much?" Rukia's head jerked up as she walked and stared at Ichigo, he didn't look into her eyes, he didn't even glance at her, he just stared straight ahead, "Sorry but I don't hear you chanting the school anthem every night before bed either," she said, readjusting the grip on her messenger bag, "Maybe not, but I don't get sick the night before my first day back like you do," she flinched, "How do you know about that?" she muttered, "I had to get up last night at four in the morning to take the dog out, I noticed the light in your bedroom on, you were wearing a fever patch," she huffed, "You're creepy for spying on me," she stated simply, "Spying? Pfft, you live a few feet away from me, that's not SPYING," "Is so," "Not," "Is," "Not," "Is," he huffed, "Are you going to answer me or not?" "Not,"

"Hey Rukia look! We have our lockers next to eachother!" Ichigo said happily, dragging her towards the row of lockers nearest the waterfountane, "Yeah, that's good I guess," she muttered, reading the locker combination on her slip of papper and starting to unlock the thing, "We have most of our classes together too! ...And by most I mean half but...." he muttered, she looked up and shook her head, "Sorry but I'm going to be in chorus and band, can't spend time with you then," he huffed as he started to work the lock on the top locker, "Seriously? You're doing double music?" "Yeah...." "Rukia that's a little much... trying to get out of gym?" "You read me like an open book," she said with a smile, he shook his head, "Rukia, even if you don't have to take gym you won't be able to take art or health either, that doesn't bother you?" "No, music is my element," "But you LIKE art, and health too, heck health is the only class you've ever gotten an A+ in-OW!" he shouted, he had bent down to pick up his backpack when suddenly a book "fell" on his head, "Oops," she said in a monotone, "What is that thing anyway? Harry Potter?" "It's called 'East' actually, it's as long as a Harry Potter book though, over five hundred pages," he shook his head slightly, "How you read something like that by day and manga by night is beyond me," he chuckled

"I mean it's really too bad that we don't have our lunch class together but having first period, last period, and home room is pretty cool," Ichigo said as the two walked home, after getting no response he sighed, haulting and pulling on Rukia's arm to stop her as well, "What's wrong?" "Huh?" "What happened?" he repeated, "N-Nothing," "Oh please, we've lived next to eachother since birth, I know by now when something is wrong with you or not," she stared at the ground, "I.... I didn't get into A Band," she wispered, "What?! That's crazy! You practiced your flute all summer so you could get in on your first try an-" "Yeah well not good enough, I wasn't good enough so.... I had to pick between chorus and band... and I picked chorus," they met eyes for a breif moment, "Gym won't be that bad, you'll only have to do it a few weeks since you're in chorus," "Yeah..... still...." he sighed lightly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they walked, ever since they were in kindergarden gym had been a struggle for her, her short legs made it hard to run fast and long and she had weak lungs so she got winded far too easily, making her a point of teasing by kids and teachers both, though the gym teacher at their elementry school mostly did it as a fun chiding, it hurt Rukia's feelings all the same, it especially created a sore spot with her since Ichigo excelled at it, he had long legs and big lungs and played sports since he was a kid.... oh.... and the fact that she never watched sports just made things worse.... despite being athletic and exercising on a regular basis, she wasn't good at most things in gym either, she exercised with swimming, martial arts, and ice skating, none of wich are in any sort of averge gym class, "What class are you taking this term?" "Health," she sighed, "So am I! See? I TOLD you we had half classes," "Yeah, six weeks of sexual education and being told not to do drugs, yippee," she muttered sarcastically, "Just what I want to see," Ichigo nudged her slightly, "Nah, I hear our instructor is a real push over, I bet ya' he never gives homework, keeps his lessons confined to movies and talking all day, and lets us go outside alot," he said, trying to brighten her mood, it wasn't working, "Do you ever hear yourself when we talk about school?" she said suddenly, "I mean.... listen to yourself, 'he lets us go outside'? 'They went easy on us with homework today'? 'I get to have a waterbottle in most of my calsses'? It sounds like we're in a prison cell all day," he sighed lightly and suddenly grabbed her hand, "Come with me," he demanded, "H-Huh?" she muttered as he dragged her off of the path towards home, "Come here," he chuckled, pulling her into a large feild full of flowers and near a patch of woods, the feild was on top of a hill that overlooked half the city and the scenery was really something, "How about I make a deal with you, every day that you make it through school I bring you here to do your homework instead of your stuffy old room ok? 'Sides you need fresh air once in a wile... I'm starting to think you're allergic to the outside...." he chuckled as he sat down, slowly, reluctantly, she sat next to him and opened her messenger bag, "Deal,"

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"Hey Rukia, you like animals right?" the girl turned her attention to the person speaking to her as she waited in the hall for the classes to switch, as her last class was out early, "Yeah...." she muttered, weary of the boy speaking, he had been one of the most annoying people she'd ever met in grade school, and she didn't expect he was going to change anytime soon," "Well guess what? I saw a leopord the other day," she hardly believed him and thus she ignored him, "And I ATE it," she groaned, she knew he was just teasing her and lieing but it made her uncomfortable all the same and she desperatly wished the doors would hurry up and open, "Mmmm leopord with salt," she took in a deep breath and started to count backwards from ten in her mind, trying to tune him out, "Hey," she looked up at Ichigo as he walked up to them, Ichigo was a full two feet taller than her antagonist was, and much more muscular too.... "You know, karma isn't too kind to those who hurt women, children, and animals," "Oh yeah?" the boy said boldly, "Yeah, and I'm karma's agent," he said, making the boy back down as the door opened to the classroom and the last class filed out, "Thanks but I could have handeled that," Rukia muttered, "Yeah by counting to ten? I hate to tell you this but it doesn't usually work Rukia," he said as they walked in, "Good morning class, I realize you've been sitting where you want the last week, but today I'm assigning seats," the woman said, telling each of them where to go, "Rukia, your seat is right in front of the board," she said with a smile, this teacher, Miss Saudi was, to Rukia's great releif, quite nice and very fond of the younger girl, and even though Miss Saudi thought she was doing Rukia a favour... she wanted no where NEAR that side of the class, because right behind the table she was going to be sitting at was a small, glass terrarium.... with a snake in it, a small ball snake named Apple, she never saw the snake because she sat on the other side of the room, but she had a terrible phobia of them due to being bitten by a poisenous one when she was five and spending a week in the hospital as consequence, "Rukia it's harmless," Ichigo soothed as she reluctantly and very slowly trudged towards the new seat, atleast Ichigo was next to her.... that way if by some unfourtinate event the snake decided to eat her said reptile would have to go through Ichigo first.... and Ichigo didn't exactly like snakes either... "Please Ichigo, don't try any of that psycho-mumbo-jumbo you've been picking up from Michiru's sister," Michiru, a neighbor who was a grade below the two, had a sister who had just become a psycologist, she spent alot of time in the neighborhood though and talked alot with Ichigo and Rukia, "Who said I'd try? Now look, I'm going to prove that THIS snake is nothing to be afraid of," he said, dragging her up from her seat, luckily it still wasn't time for class to start yet, though... that was quiet UNlucky for Rukia.... she gulped as she was forced closer and closer to the shelf the snake was on, she heard giggling and glanced out of the corner of her eye to see almost everyone else her age laughing at her, "Don't pay attention to them Rukia," Ichigo muttered, "See? It's actually kind of cute up close," she disagreed, GREATLY disagreed, and she was still petrified that the snake, no bigger than her hand, would magically find it's way out of that tank and hunt her down.... as irrational as her fears were, they were still there, however all she needed was more amo to be thrown at her and especially considering that everyone knows how much she loves animals.... she sucked in a breath and slapped on a fake smile and a fake cheery voice, "Y-You're right, I can't believe I was ever scared of him," she said, fooling everyone... except Ichigo.... but for extra affect she even bent down and waved at the snake, "Hi Apple," she said cheerfully, the snake's tounge flicked out and she felt like she was going to have a heart attack

That entire class everytime he had the chance Ichigo doodled cartoon snakes on Rukia's pappers and notebooks, the snakes were smiling and done in odd colors of pens (like blue and orange) and they succeeded in making Rukia feel more comfortable about sharing room with the reptile, in fact, by the time class was over (and Rukia's study sheet was almost completly over taken by Ichigo's artistic delights) she even started to like Apple, the small ball snake that she had feared not an hour ago, until, that is.... they walked out of class, "Hey Rukia! I saw Miss Saudi feeding your precious snake DEAD RATS this morning!" it was the same pest from earlier that was bothering her.... and the thoughts that went uncontrollably through her head disturbed her and churned her stomach yet again, completly shooting down Ichigo's little balloon of comfort that he had blown up for her all of that class, "Amerman what did I say about karma!?" Ichigo snarled as he chased after the boy, leaving Rukia leaning against the wall, waiting for the doors to her next class to open, she opened her "East" book and started to read, trying to clear the images out of her mind and erase the day, 'Rose picked up a spool of gold thread and-' "He's so cute though!" she had to stop reading, she couldn't concentrate with the girls chattering behind her, "I know! Ichigo is so unique and dashing! I wish he'd marry me!" she heard, 'Oh please...' she thought, "Makes me wonder what he sees in that bookworm," she heard, glancing over her shoulder long enough to see a girl with blonde hair and blue eye shadow pointing at her, "Maybe he likes nerds? Do you think if I wear glasses he'll notice me?" she heard as well, she sighed and tried to go back to her book, she hated these days, hated them... and her only ray of light Ichigo wasn't even there half the time to give her a breath of air, she tried to fend for herself, she tried to ignore them, really she did, but it was hard to do when you were all alone against an entire school of people

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"Alright, it's Monday so your silent reading will be in math today," Rukia heard as people started to pull out their books, she always looked forward to Monday math class simply for the reason that she hated math and being able to take twenty minutes out of it to read her book was always a pleasure, she picked up the heafty book under her desk and glanced back at Ichigo as he pulled out a Shounen Jump, 'If we're allowed to read manga here I'm definatly bringing my Skip Beat manga with me tommorrow...' she mused, and as if on cue.... "Kurosaki, you're aware that you can't have comics in school aren't you?" he looked up at the teacher, nearly devestated, and frowned, "But this isn't a comic book; it's a manga magazeene," "No pictures, sorry, and if you have nothing to read you'll have to get a red mark," he opened his mouth again but closed it wen a loud "THUMP" smacked against his desk, he looked down to see a semi-thick book with a pheonix on the cover of it, the title "The Great Snape Debate" written on the cover, he glanced at Rukia, who was retracting her arm and going back to her own book, slowly, he put his magazene under his desk and slid the book closer to him, grabbing a pen, he scribbled a note on his hand when no one was looknig and tapped her shoulder, "How many books do you carry every day????" his hand read, she shrugged, holding up three fingers, then four, then three again, "Three or four" being her apparent answer, he shook his head, no wonder she always complained of having a sore back....

"Thank you for having my back," Ichigo said as the two started walking towards their next class, she shrugged, "Think nothing of it," she replied, "I always carry a few books with me in case I finish one," he blinked, "Huh..." he muttered, "I'll see you in Languege Arts," he said, waving as the two departed across seperate hallways, she reluctantly waved back, her classes with Ichigo were always the less stressfull, she had a freind there, someone she could rely on, someone she could stick with, but in her other classes she was all alone, and that's when the predators set in, people had respect for Ichigo, for two diffrent reasons, the girls respected him because they all thought he was good looking, and the boys respected him because he could (and would) beat them senseless otherwise, Rukia didn't have that kind of credit, she wasn't shy, but she prefered to spend her time behind a book instead of making herself look good or dressing scandelously or threatening people, people admired muscels on men, they didn't admire muscels on women, and despite being a black belt in martial arts (just like Ichigo) she was much less willing to use it or threaten to use it, she'd prefer to keep to herself, so as she walked into her class and sat down, she tried to stay far away from the other people there as much as possible, "What are you reading?" she heard, the same condescending tone that she always heard in this class, true, she only had ONE class with this paticular girl, but it was her longest class and this girl was Rukia's worst antagonist, "'East'," she muttered, "Oh, more geeky stuff," Rukia tried to ignore her, "You know you really should think of wearing clothes that make you stand out more instead of those slutty looking dresses.... oh wait, those DO make you stand out, in a BAD way," she cackled, Rukia sighed and sunk lower into her seat, the dresses she wore were hardly "slutty", they were long, usually past Rukia's nees, and usually had short or long sleeves, so she knew that that comment was meant in a sarcastic way, closing her eyes, she just tried to ignore it....

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Rukia bit the inside of her lip lightly, she and Ichigo had been up all night the night before constructing this.... thing.... for math class, it was supposed to be a simple assignment, to construct a creature out of styrofoam shapes (triangles, cubes, spheres etc) but Rukia's project got a little... out of hand... and when it came to be nine at night and she still couldn't figure out how to keep the peices together, she decided she had to call in reinforcements, Ichigo didn't leave her house until two o'clock the next morning, "Rukia, your project is the last for today," she stood up and took her project to the front of the room, having looked around at all the other projects, Ichigo's included, she realized that she may have overdone it... alot... "The creature I built is Kilala from the anime Inuyasha, she's a firefox cat demon," she said as her heart started to thump, "The head is a sphere, the body and feet are cubes, and the ears are triangles," she said, still no sort of response, "I made the fur out of a yellow fabric, the tale is orange tissue papper, and the face is made out of beads," "Um, I think you misunderstood the project," the teacher said, "The assignment was to construct a styrofoam creature out of shapes but you can't really see the diffrent geometrics underneath the fabric," now she felt really bad, spending all this time and energy on it.. wasting ICHIGO'S time and energy... just for it to be wrong? "But I did everything I was supposed to do," she replied, she wasn't someone weak who refused to stand up for herself, but she only did so if she was fighting for someone or something she found important, if it was a point she COULD argue, she would, "No one told me I wasn't ALLOWED to put fabric on it or.... bidazzle it or anything like that," she replied, "Well we thought it was ovbious," the teacher argued back, "But it wasn't and it was never in the instructions that I couldn't," she replied, her palms starting to sweat, she could see the rest of the class was highly amused that the quiet bookworm was actually ARGUING with a teacher, and it wasn't as if she was arguing for the sake of it, she was in the RIGHT, and even though it was just a little sculpture, she felt very proud of this project and she felt that if she stepped aside she'd be letting her Kilala down, "Well I love it," both Rukia and the teacher jerked their heads around to Ichigo, who was now standing and walking towards them, "Ichigo," she said quietly, "I mean the simple fact that she OVERDID her work should show dedication and be worth extra points in my opinion, look at the design, it's very creative and as someone who helped her with this I can tell you it wasn't easy to make either, it was a huge pain getting those beads stuck on and fitting the peices together and look at how well it turned out, the detail is fantastic," he continued, speaking not only to the teacher but to the classroom of students too, "I think Rukia went above and beyound expectations," "But she wasn't supposed to," "Then someone should have explained things more CLEARLY before the two of us nearly strangled ourselves trying to make this thing into a cat last night," he said, the bell rang before anything else could be said and Rukia grabbed Ichigo's hand to lead him (and her project) away from the scene, "Fool! You could have gotten in serious trouble for that little stunt!" she hissed as she packed up her books and rushed towards the door, "So? I'd rather it that way and you get the grade you deserve," "She won't give in," she muttered, "I think she will," he replied as they walked out of class, "Ooof!" Rukia muttered as some girl bumped into her, nocking her over and spilling her books and things all over the floor, "WATCH IT!" Ichigo shouted down the hall, bending down to help her up, "Are you ok?" she nodded slowly as he picked her up and set her on her feet, neatly stacking her books and pappers, "I'm fine," she sqweaked as he handed her her stuff, in truth she had landed on her shoulder and now the bone in her arm ached incredably as if she had smacked it with a malet, "That's good," he replied, picking up the mangled remains of her demon cat, "It looks like Kilala here bore the brunt of it," "NO!" she cried, "My project! I wanted to put that on a shelf!" "Don't worry, we'll fix it," he replied, leading her forward and into the cafeteria, she huffed, he set all of her stuff down on one of the tables, thankfull that it was far too early to start lunch, and ran away from her as she tried to repair the sad little styrofoam peices herself, "Here," he said, coming back with a box of toothpicks and some double-sided tape, "Come on, we can fix it," he said quietly, sticking the peices back together with the makeshift tools, "Thanks.... now let's hope no one does that again..." she said, bending down and opening her locker, "Why? You don't plan on carrying that thing all day do you?" "What choice do I have? My locker is too small to fit it," he glanced at his upper locker, wich was slightly taller than the bottum ones, and opened the metal door, "Then she can live in my locker," he replied, putting the cat creature into the box, "Thank you," she said quietly as she stood from her locker, "No problum, it's in return for yesterday," he replied, "What are you two doing?" the two turned around and came face to face with one of the worst teachers in the school, "Putting our stuff in our lockers?" Ichigo replied, "And is that your's?" she asked, pointing to the "sculpture" that was in Ichigo's locker, "Um, no it's mine," Rukia chimed in, "And why is it in HIS locker?" "Because my locker is too small, it'll get crushed in here," she replied, "I don't care," "But I OFFERED to put it in my locker," "I don't care, it can't stay there," "ACTUALLY," Ichigo said, "I constructed half of this, I claim partial custody," he said, shutting the locker door, she opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted again, "Rukia! Why aren't you in class?" she turned around to see her chorus teacher standing behind her, "Beacuse Ms. Regan is chewing her out about her locker," Ichigo replied for her, the chorus teacher rolled her eyes, "Well I NEED her for her chorus class, if you need her, you'll have to speak to her another time, not during MY class," she snapped, leading Rukia away, "Thank you," she muttered, almost inaudiably, "Well," Ichigo said with a smirk, "I have gym class to get to,"

'Shoot oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot!!!' Rukia thought as she ran down the stairs to her health class, any second now she was going to be late... again... "Watch it!" she heard as she was pushed into the wall and dropped her "East" book down the stairs, "My book!" she sqweaked, running after it only to see that Ichigo had already caught it, "This your's?" he asked rhetorically, she smiled, "Thanks..." he nodded, "Ofcourse," he said as they walked into the classroom

"So why did you want me to come here after school Ichigo?" Rukia asked as they walked into his house, "'Cause the Old Man is working in the clinic and is busy so he won't be able to bother you, besides, remember how when we were little you used to make all those ferindship bracelets?" she nodded slowly as they walked into his room, "Well you've been having it rough lately, so yesterday I bought some beads and elastic and figured that if you wanted we could make some bracelets," he said, pulling the supplies out of his desk drawers, "You always said you thought that was boring," she said as she sat on the floor and he pulled out the supplies, "Well I changed my mind, ok?" she smiled and nodded slowly, "Ok,"

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Rukia smiled down and looked at the bracelet she was wearing, a few weeks ago when she and Ichigo made bracelets he gave her one with her name on it, it was made of white and blue beads and had hearts and her name on it, in exchange she gave him a black and red bracelet with his name on it, by this point in the school year she was, unfourtinatly, stuck in a gym class "Move Stupid!" she heard, turning just soon enough for a ball to hit her in the side of the head, "Ouch..." she muttered, "Rukia!" she then felt something warm dripping out of her nose... and put her hands to her face, "Oh no..." she muttered as red started to leak over her skin, "Hey what's the big idea hitting her like that?!" Ichigo shouted, "What's going on?" the coach asked as he walked over to the three, "He HIT her with a ball!" Ichgio said, pointing to the kid who was "innocently" bouncing the offensive basketball, "No I didn't! She fell! She's a klutz!" Rukai glared, she would have spoken up if it weren't for the fact that she was trying so hard to stop the bleeding, "Look, her nose is bleeding, I need to take her to the clinic," "The nurse isn't there, she left for the day," rolling his eyes, Ichigo grabbed Rukia's arm and lead her out of the gym, "Oh well, all we need is tissues and ice anyway," he muttered

"Tilt your head down," Ichigo said quietly, getting her another box of tissues from the cabinet, "I thought you were supposed to tilt it up?" "No, that way you would swallow your blood, this way you just let it all out," "...Grosse," she muttered, "It's not that bad, but you're coming home with me to let my dad make sure you're ok," "Ichigo don't make a big deal out of this," she muttered as she tossed a tissue in the trash, sniffing slightly, "You got hit in the head, your nose is bleeding, I'm making a big deal out of this," he said, lifting her up and setting her on the desk and trying to tilt her head back, "Stop that! I'm fine!" she muttered with a slightly red face, "Quit moving so much, let me make sure the blood stopped," "It stopped, it stopped!" she replied, turning away, she didn't want him looking up her nose... that was just disgusting, blood or not... "You have a really nice bruise forming there Rukia, I'm sure it'll be a DASHING shade of black by the time it's done turning colors," he said, picking up the ice bag he had prepared for her and putting it on her cheek, she hissed slightly at the contact and snapped her eyes shut, "Yeah, you're coming to get checked out, and then you're staying for dinner," he said as the afternoon announcements came on signaling it was almost time for school to close, "Y-You don't have to do that," "Your brother still gone?" "Yeah.... on a buisness trip..." "You're staying with us for dinner, when's the last time you ate a meal you didn't cook yourself?" she huffed lightly and he helped her off of the desk, picking up his backpack and her messenger bag and leading her out of the clinic, "Let's go," "....Thanks," she wispered, "Mmhm, you should stop arguing with me, I always know what's best for you anyway,"

"Rediculous, I've never heard of such a thing," Isshin muttered as he put a gel patch on Rukia's injured cheek, "When I was in school the nurses were there until every last kid left and she leaves before school is even over? What are schools doing these days?" he muttered, Ichigo shook his head, "Stupid kid throwing balls at her... I would've beaten him to a pulp if Rukia hadn't been standing there bleeding," Isshin rolled his eyes and stepped on Ichigo's foot, "That's when you send her off with someone else and take care of the kid Boy!" he snapped, Ichigo rolled his eyes, "I'm going to go see when dinner'll be ready~! Little Rukia I hope you feel better soon!" he said, Rukia smiled at him as he wispered to Ichigo again, "Take her to your room and do something to make me proud Boy!" he snickered, "OLD MAN!!" he screamed as Isshin flew out of the clinic room, Rukia giggling slightly, "So, now that the pest is gone, are you going to the dance tommorrow?" he asked as he fished around for something or other in the drawers of the counter, "No, you know I don't go to those things," "Come on Rukia, crawl out of your book and live a little," "Why? All those dances are good for are the popular kids putting everyone else down and listening to that gutter-trash they DARE to call music, give me a nice ballet or museum trip instead and I'll be there in a second," he seemed to have found wat he was looking for and set whatever it was on the counter, shutting the drawers, "It won't be that bad, besides they'll have pizza," "Pizza I can order at home wile I read," "Rukia please? I want to spend time with you," "We never spend time APART, besides you hate dancing," "So?" she sighed and he turned around, handing her a red, cherry lollipop, "Rukia please? If you go with me I'll buy you any Monster High doll you want, I know you collect those things almost as much as books," she unwrapped the lollipop and sighed, "I dunno... I get a pretty generous allowence and Monster High dolls are only a week or two worth...." she mused as she put the sucker in her mouth, "Ok.... if you just spend TWO hours with me at that dance I'll buy you a Monster High doll AND take you to the museum Saturday to see that new Mythical Creatures exhibit," she perked at that, she couldn't drive because of her age and her brother was hardly ever home, and considering that the museum (unlike her usual haunts like the zoo and the aquarium) was downtown and she couldn't get there without a car.... this was quite a treat, "Hmm.... that's tempting....." "I'll even buy you dinner ok?" she sighed and closed her eyes, "You could become quite a fisherman if you were ever interested Ichigo, you know how to bait a line," she said, sucking on the lollipop, he smiled, "Nah, I just know how to please you," he chuckled, "Anything with fantasy creatures, fiction, or animals will pretty much get you," "Why do you want to go to this dance anyway?" he stared at her for a moment before shrugging, "Well, alot of people are going to be there, I just want to go to make a little... announcement," "About what?" "You'll see," he said with a smile, scruffing her hair and helping her off of the bench to lead her upstairs

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~~+~+~+~+~

Rukia's stomach hurt, she wasn't even eating today, this dance Ichigo had bribed her into was weighing heavily on her nerves and she felt ill, she had been to a school dance once and was miserable the entire time, she was far from looking forward to this evening... she was however, looking forward to tommorrow, she loved spending time with Ichigo, especially in enviroments she enjoyed like museums and zoos, it always made her feel euphoric, for some reason it was impossible for her to feel anything but joy when he's around, "Oh look, the bookworm is even reading at lunch," she tried not to look behind her, tried to ignore the clique of girls that seemed to have nothing better to do than to to make her feel sorry for breathing, "What's this Bookworm? Did your mommy make this for you?" the leader of the group asked rhetorically as she tugged on Rukia's bracelet, "Hey leave that alone!" she demanded suddenly, jerking her arm back to protect the bracelet Ichigo made for her, "Oooh hit a sore spot did I?" she cackled, grabbing Rukia's bracelet again, "Leave me alone!" "Make me!" she replied, Rukia had had enough, "Why don't you just go cake on more blue eyeshadow and leave me be?!" she screeched, tugging her arm away, but with the offending girl tugging on the bracelet even harder the weak elastic snapped and the beads flew everywhere, "My bracelet!" she screamed, getting down on the floor and trying to collect the beads, "Oh now look what you did," the girl said, Rukia was furious, this bracelet meant alot to her, it was like having a constant protection barrier around her, something magical like she could find in one of her books, the bracelet reminded her of Ichigo and made her feel stronger, and now it was broken beyound repair, "What's going on?!" she looked behind her to see said person standing over her, "O-Oh hi Ichigo," the girl said, slapping on a happy face and batting her eyes, "She broke my bracelet," Rukia muttered, Ichigo glared at her and dropped down to his nees to start helping Rukia collect the beads, "Don't worry, I'll just string it back together later," he offered, looking around for the "R" bead and handing a few of the blue ones he found to Rukia, "Kurosaki, what are you doing  over here? Your class is over there," they both sighed in stress as they looked up at the same teacher that had gotten on them about Rukia's project living in Ichigo's locker weeks before, "That girl over there broke Rukia's bracelet and I'm helping her pick up the peices," he replied gruffly, "You're not allowed to be over here," Ichigo had just about had it, finding the last of the beads and handing them to Rukia, "I just said someone broke Rukia's bracelet and your concern is the fact that I'm helping her?" he huffed, "It doesn't matter why you're over here, you're not allowed to be," he stood up, helping Rukia stand as well, "I'm helping her," he said in a demanding tone, "Stay there, I'm going to go find something for you to put your remains in," Ichigo said quietly to Rukia as he walked away in the other direction, she put the beads in her lap for the time being, regretting her life at the moment

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"I'm sorry about your bracelet," Ichigo said as they walked into the gym for the dance, "It's ok," she muttered quietly, looking around at the diffrent cliques that had formed, some dancing, others talking, "Do you want to dance?" he asked, "You hate dancing," she replied, "Maybe, but I'll still dance with YOU," she blinked, "You're acting weird lately," she muttered, "Am I?" he replied vaguely, "Yes, very- "Hi Ichigo," he turned around and stared down at one of the girls who had been antagonizing Rukia lately, "Would you like to dance?" she asked, batting her eyes, "No, sorry, Rukia is my girlfreind so I don't think she'd care for that," he said, enphaziing the word "girlfreind" making Rukia's eyes widen, the girl's mouth dropped and she stomped away, "Well that little stunt will be all over school tommorrow with any luck," he chuckled, "With any.. LUCK?" she replied with raised eyebrows, "You.... you...." "I wanted to announce it, that's why I wanted you to come to the dance so much, I want you to be my girlfreind Rukia, I mean.... if you want to... it's just that I sort of love you so stop looking at me like that and tell me already," he said in a hurried tone with a blush on her face, "...Rukia...." he muttered, she smiled at him, "I..... you really feel that way about me?" "Ofcourse! Do I ever lie to you?" she smiled, "Ofcourse I'll be your girlfreind...... I love you too," he smiled, "Good, now come 'ere," he said, taking her hand and dragging her out the backdoor, "What are you doing?" "Well since we can't do this in school..." he mused, leading her to the sidwalk and lightly cupping her face, he leaned down, closed his eyes, and placed his lips over her's, giving her a gentle, innocent kiss, "That's how you seal a deal," "What deal?" she asked with a dark red blush, "The deal that I'll be with you forever," she smiled, "Then let me seal the same deal,"