Hado ch 3

HADO

A/N: Wow guys!! You really impressed me with all those comments!! You make me so happy! I don´t know what would I do without you!

Before I forget, Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite, because if it weren´t, the pages would be full of IchiRukiness!!!!

Chapter 3.

“Rukia-nee! Rukia-nee!” Rukia had just finished taking a bath (with the help of some servants) when she heard Yuzu´s stressed voice and went out to meet her, as fast as her wounds would allow her.”

“Yuzu-chan! What´s wrong?”

The little girl took her by the hand and stared at her, eyes impossibly wide. “Unohana-san has come over to see you!” she looked completely terrified. “She´ll take you away! Quick! We have to hide you!!”  She pulled Rukia into the corridor, facing the end of it, probably towards her own room.

“B-but… Yuzu-chan!”

“Y… Yuzu… what are you doing?” asked a yawning and very sleepy Karin, who was stepping from outside their shared room and went out to meet them, awakened by all the ruckus her twin was making.

The girl let go of Rukia´s hand and shook her twin by the shoulders “Help me Karin! Unohana-san is talking with dad and wants to see Rukia-nee. She´ll take her away!!”

Karin´s eyes opened wide as well. “A-are you sure?”

“I overheard them talking when I was making breakfast! Hurry! We have to hide her!”

Rukia was completely at a loss of words. First for the intense pain the movement was causing to her wounds, and second for the girl´s actions. They seem to care so much for her that the twins were actually searching frantically for a place to hide. She smiled, touched at their attempt on protecting her.

“What are you girls doing!!?”

The three screamed when Isshin´s face showed through the doorframe, startling them and actually making Yuzu jump a bit for that. The twins started talking at the same time, making it unintelligible to understand, until Isshin raised his hand and stopped the frantic rambling.

“Karin, explain.” His eyes were set rough, but he could barely repress his grin.

“Unohana-san is here to take Rukia-san from us” she answered, challenging her father with her eyes. “We can´t allow that to happen!”

“Uh? Who told you that?”

Karin looked embarrassed, and refused to meet her father´s eyes. She didn´t want to give her twin away. But Yuzu stepped over, looked shyly at her father and then averted her eyes, embarrassed as well.

“I- I overheard you talking to Unohana-san.”

“You overheard?” Isshin´s grin grew wider this time. “What have we talked about overhearing other people´s conversations?” He tried as much as he could to sound angry. Only, he was failing completely, and Rukia almost giggled at that.

Both twins blushed a deep red, and Yuzu´s eyes started to muster. “I- I…”

Rukia was about to step over when Isshin placed his hands on each of his daughters´ heads, and smiled tenderly at them. “It´s ok, girls. Don´t worry, you know papa would never let anyone take Rukia-chan from you.” Karin stole a glance towards her father. “But you´re wrong. Unohana-taicho is not here to take her away. She´s here to heal her” He turned around, addressing the woman that stood beside him. “And to know if we´re treating her well, isn´t that right, taicho?”

She smiled sweetly at the girls, looking intently to each one of them. “You´re perfectly right, Kurosaki-taicho. I´m just here to see if Rukia-chan is well.”

The twins´ face lit up immensely, and Yuzu hugged Rukia, careful not to hurt her… too much. “You´re staying! You´re staying!!”

Rukia looked with a worried expression towards Isshin, who nodded and smiled at her. She smiled back and placed a reassuring hand in the little girl´s head. “Yes, Yuzu-chan. It seems to be I´m staying.” Then she yelped this time, as she heard someone´s cry, so very close to her ear. When she turned, she saw it came from Isshin, who had rivers of tears streaming down his cheeks. Again.

“Masaki!! See how happy your girls are!! Our family is growing in number!! Masaki!!” He cried even more, looking towards the sky, until Karin kicked him in the stomach, making him kneel.

“Shut up, goat chin! You´re embarrassing us!!!” A sweat drop came from everyone´s head.

While the girl kept on kicking his fallen and crying father, Unohana put a hand in Rukia´s healthy shoulder, prompting her to follow and smiling down at her. “Don´t worry, everything will be ok. But we need to talk.”

Rukia sighed and let go of Yuzu. “Yes, Unohana taicho.”

They went to Rukia´s room and sat facing each other. Unohana immediately undressed her and started to take out the bandages, very carefully. From time to time she stole glances at the girl, who flinched as she progressed. ‘Poor Byakuya. She IS Hisana´s living picture.’

“Does it hurt much, Kuchiki-chan?”

She jerked at the use of her new last name, startled. She still wasn´t used to it. “J-just a bit, Unohana-taicho.”

“You don´t like that name?”

Rukia opened up her eyes wide, scared at the idea of this venting into her brother´s ears. “N-no, no! it´s not that, Unohana-taicho! It´s my name after all. Please forgive me for such a disregard of manners!” she would´ve bowed if she weren´t half naked an under Unohana´s grip on her shoulder.

The woman was surprised at the girl´s jump, obviously scared. “It´s okay, Rukia-chan. Can I call you Rukia-chan?” the girl nodded. They stood some minutes without speaking.

“It was a very brave thing you did back there. The Kurosaki must completely adore you for it.”

“I don´t deserve this much attention coming from them. They´re being too kind to me.”

“Nonsense, young woman. You saved their lives, and even more so, Kurosaki´s heir.” Rukia didn´t respond, and Unohana didn´t push any further. “You have a very bad wound in here, it´s actually a miracle you´re alive.” The woman said, after fully uncovering the girl´s shoulder. The wound was still open, although the bleeding had stopped. It ran from the base of her neck to where her arm was born, both in the front as in the back. For what Unohana could see, it seemed that some teeth had sunk deep into Rukia´s lung, but she could also see that her subordinate had done a good job. That wound was almost healed. But Unohana was worried, nevertheless. The flesh was open, no skin to protect it, blood could still pour out of it, when, with the use of Kido, it should´ve just left a mark that in one or two days would only leave a faint scar. What kind of hollow could do such damage as this?

“Okay, stand still. This might hurt a little.” Rukia grimaced at the feeling of warm kido applied to her injury. It stung like hell, actually burned, but she could feel it was easing the throbbing pain that she had gotten used to by now.

“Thank you. Unohana-taicho.”

The captain nodded, and after some minutes, broke the silence again.

“Your brother, Kuchiki-taicho, sent his regards, hoping that you get well and come back to him soon enough.”

Rukia opened her eyes wide, but then a sad mist covered the amethyst orbs. She knew that the woman was saying it only to comfort her. Her brother would never say such things. “Thank you.” She closed her eyes again, this time with a weight on her spirit. The man had never looked at her but only once, when he had adopted her. Whenever they talked, he made sure his eyes were astray from her. This made her feel even lonelier than before. Impossibly lonely.

“Well, at least it seems that the injuries in your arm and head are healing quite well. That´s a relief. But you should be careful with the bite in your shoulder.” Unohana warned. “I don´t understand the physiopathology, it must be the hollow´s saliva. But normal level kido seems to have not much effect on it. I could barely heal it with my own reiatsu.” She closed the handle in her katana, were she put some of the samples she had taken from Rukia´s shoulder, and looked intently at her. “I´ll do some research on these so that we can heal you better. In the meantime, you have to stay here.”

Rukia´s eyes opened like plates, afraid of what her brother would have to say to this. In the little time she got to spend with the Kuchiki, she had learnt of the loathe her brother held for the Kurosakis, although she didn´t know why.

Unohana smiled reassuringly, understanding immediately the girl´s terrified look. “Don’t worry. I´ve talked with your brother, and he knows that, if it´s an order coming from me, then not even the Kuchiki leader can disobey.”

Rukia was relieved by that. But just a little. Unohana eyed her with a menacing look.

“And that includes YOU, young woman.” Rukia did smile this time, with a faint blush on her cheek, thinking at how easily the captain had read her body language. But she felt so comfortable with her, that she couldn´t take it really as threatening.

“I understand, Unohana-taicho.”

“Good.” The older woman smiled, and got up from the bed. “Well then, I´ll be off. I´ll send one of my subordinates in three days, and I hope you get better. If I find something new on this, I´ll come personally and let you now.”

“Thank you so much, Unohana-taicho.” Rukia bowed this time. “You´re so kind.”

“You don´t need to thank me, Rukia-chan. Is the least I can do for a Kuchiki.” Rukia flinched a little, and Unohana´s eyes looked at her tenderly, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You are a Kuchiki now, whether you like it or not. Please understand that Byakuya has placed great trust on your shoulders.” Rukia´s pale face faintly blushed, and she dropped her shoulders slightly, overwhelmed by the idea. “No, Rukia-chan.” The woman´s voice raised a pitch. “You´ve become a Kuchiki just recently, but I know you have that strength inside of you. That will and pride. The only thing your brother will do for you is to nourish it, making you stronger.” But Rukia´s stance didn´t change a bit, so the woman dropped it and decided to let the girl mull over it, and left stealing a last glance at her.

Rukia stood there, silent for some minutes, thinking those words and the immense weight they had brought on her shoulders, when she noticed movement in her periphery vision. She glanced up, and saw Karin in the doorframe, silent, looking with a combination of anger and shyness (or embarrassment) at approaching her. Rukia smiled a bit, reassuring the girl, so Karin gave some steps towards her, without meeting her eyes.

“The guys are sparing now. My dad sent me to ask you if you would like to come over and watch, Rukia-nee.”

Rukia was surprised. “In the three days I´ve been in here, it´s the first time you call me like that.”

Karin blushed at those words, deepening her frown. Just like her brother´s, Rukia noticed. “Thank you.” She said lightly. The girl glanced at her, a bit taken by surprise.

“Yeah, well...” Karin said with a shrug, stood there motionless for a moment, and then seemed to have made up her mind, because she took Rukia´s hand to help her stand and led her to the training grounds.

When they arrived, Rukia saw they were in a beautiful garden surrounded by multicolored flowers with some sakura trees, and in the middle of it was a small field, with many artifacts for training, where she could see the small group practicing. She saw Isshin and his flashing-haired son, as well as Sado and Toshirou.

The boys were surrounding the man menacingly, whose wide grin told her that he wasn’t at all worried at how outnumbered he was. The boys walked a little bit crouched around him, the wooden katanas at the ready, while he closed his eyes and yielded both of his katanas, one in the front, the other beside him. They stood there like that until Isshin yelled what seemed to Rukia a war cry, and then the boys attacked at the same time, screaming as well, but Isshin stopped two of the three swords with his own and the third kid, Sado, was smacked in the abdomen with a tremendous kick.

One down, two more to go.

Without losing his inertia, the man gave a complete turn, breaking Ichigo´s and Toshirou´s attacking stance and avoiding a direct blow from his son, responding with a hit in the back with all the weight of his katana, and making Rukia grimace at the slashing sound as it met Ichigo´s flesh.

Toushiro was defeated immediately after with a slap in the face that had him watching stars for a moment. Isshin then laughed at them, while they were tending their respective painful areas.

Getting close to Ichigo, Isshin kicked him in the ribs, making the boy curse quite loudly. “Learn your lesson, my son. Don´t you ever let your guard down.”

“Go away and die goat chin!!!!!” was Ichigo´s painful response, while he tended his bruised side.

Although they were all beginners, by his movements Rukia couldn´t deny it. The head of the Kurosaki house really had quite the skills in swordsmanship. She was impressed by him.

The guys started to rise from the ground, groaning and reading themselves for the next assault.

“My dad IS good, isn´t he?” Karin asked her, with a huge proud smile plastered on her face.

“There´s no denying that, Karin-chan.” Both girls stood there in awe, until Yuzu called them over to sit near a tree, and gave them each one some juice she had made earlier. Then the twins got a respective seat on Rukia´s side, as if escorting her. She couldn´t help but be surprised at how easily this family was making her part of them. She felt rather uncomfortable, but it also felt nice, in some way, the feeling of being accepted in a place where love could be felt in the air. She sighed deeply, happy with the idea.

“Yooooo!!! Kurosaki-kun!!” Rukia heard a female voice yelling from behind them, and turned to see a girl taller than her, but who seemed around her age. Her long hair was orange as well, many shades darker than Ichigo´s, and seemed rather smooth. She was thin, with a small waist that contrasted with her rather large… er… she seemed like a nice girl.

Beside her stood a skinny guy, with a long face and eyes somewhat hidden behind spectacles that glittered in the intense sunlight, his dark hair contrasting with his pale skin. She noticed his stance, close to the girl, in a protective intention. Was he her boyfriend?

“Inoue-san! Ishida-san!!” Yuzu called, excited, and ran to greet them. Karin looked back at them and sighed, and to Rukia she seemed to be rather annoyed.

“Hey!! Ishida!!” Ichigo yelled at them, with sweat all over his face, dampening his clothes. “Get your sorry ass over here! Unless you´re coward enough!!”

A vein throbbed in the raven haired guy´s temple. “How insulting! Okay, I´ll go before you start crying like last time.”

“Whhaaattt???!!! You moron!! Come over here and let me kick your sorry ass!!”

“Stop yelling curses, Kurosaki!! There are ladies here!!” the boy rushed to meet them, vein still throbbing.

“As if you didn´t curse, you whinney!”

“I don´t whine!!!!”

Sado chuckled lightly at their exchange, something that impressed Rukia a bit. Since she had met the big guy, he´d always been as close to her as he could, always cautious whenever she was around and ready to help her in every way he could find. But always silent, his face never showing much emotion but surprise, and she had found he blushed quite easily.

“Rukia-nee!” Yuzu took her from her reverie. “This is Inoue Orihime-san, Ichi-nii´s friend!”

Rukia raised her eyes to meet the girls´ and greet her, when she noticed the intent look she was receiving from Inoue, as if the girl were glancing to a poisoned or otherwise dangerous animal. She didn´t like that look. At all. Rukia didn´t say anything, her eyes never left the girl´s, forcing Inoue to look away. The girl blushed, and then stared back at Rukia for the proper greeting.

“Nice to meet you. Yuzu told me your name is…”

“Kuchiki Rukia.” She said in a cold voice, and lowered her face a bit, glaring menacingly at her. “Nice to meet you too.” This was the glare that had earned her some respect back at Rukongai. As well as some enemies. Karin stared at both of them, smirking. ‘Well’ she thought ‘this was going to be interesting.’

Both girls stood facing each other for almost a full minute, Orihime a bit tremulous (which made Rukia´s smirk grow wider), but this was a match she knew she couldn´t allow herself to lose, until Yuzu pulled Inoue to a seat beside them. “C´mon Inoue-san, sit with us to watch them have fun!”

“O-okay, Yuzu-chan.”

The moment she broke eye contact with Orihime, Rukia scolded herself inwardly. She was just a guest, and such a bothersome one, and this girl was friends with the family. She should be more polite to her. ‘But she started it!!’ was the childish answer from her consciousness.

“So, Kuchiki-san, are you an acquaintance of the Kurosaki´s?”

“No, I-.”

“She saved Ichi-nii and Karin´s lives!!” was Yuzu´s reply. Orihime stared wide eyed at Rukia, making her feel uncomfortable. “Tell her, Karin!!”

The twin smiled evilly at that. “My pleasure, Yuzu.” And she started the story she had retold several times before, although this time she exaggerated Rukia´s participation… but just a bit, according to her.

After the third time Rukia scolded Karin for the new interpretation of her actions, she decided to give up and instead watched the boys sparing. With a sigh, she wished with all her might she could be with them. Even though she sucked at it, they seem to be having fun. So sad Unohana had been too keen in making her understand the severity of her wounds.

They stood there watching them spar for the rest of the day.

------------

After the practice, the guys were worn out but happy, so everyone started to gather their things to go and get ready for dinner, when Ishida approached Ichigo.

“Who´s the girl sitting beside your sisters?”

Ichigo turned to see them chatting. “Long story. But in short, she saved us from a hollow.”

“SHE saved YOU??” Ichigo glared at him, and Ishida whistled. “Kurosaki, I know you´re not strong, but being saved by a girl like HER, well…” Without a word, Ichigo threw a punch towards Ishida, who stopped it in middair.

“Whatever” Ichigo said after retrieving his arm. “She saved Sado too!”

“Hey!” was the only reply from his friend, before the huge boy started to follow the rest towards the house.

They began walking as well, although a bit distanced from the girls. “She´s rather pretty.” Ishida said.

“Uh?” Ichigo was startled by that statement, but turned immediately to look intently at Rukia, who was walking with Yuzu´s hand in her own and Karin´s escort in her left. “Well, she does have a pretty face, but… she kinda looks like a kid. She´s short and doesn´t have any of a woman´s body at all.”

“Her eyes seem quite beautiful, though, smart shine.”

Ichigo laughed mockingly at that. “Please!! Because I know that what you see in Orihime are her EYES!”

Ishida´s face burned and threw a kick towards Ichigo, missing completely. “Shut your mouth up, Kurosaki!!”

Ichigo was about to answer back when his father hit him from the back, making him stagger. “What was that for???”

“You moron, help Rukia-chan to get into the house.”

“What??? Why??” He could see Ishida´s mocking smile. “She can walk, don´t you see?? Aren´t you exaggerating a bit about this?”

Isshin hit his son once more. “Do as I say.”

Cursing, Ichigo opened his stride and reached the girl and, without a single warning, he lifted her from the ground (careful to watch over her injuries) and opened his steps even longer.

“What are you doing??” screamed Rukia at him.

“Shut up midget! My dad´s orders.”

“What??” She looked at him with a killing look digging deep into her amethyst sight. “What did you just call me??”

His ears flashed deep red. He´d never wanted to insult her, he had just been so mad! “Uh… sorry, I…“ But this time she was completely thrown off balance by his insult, and started kicking her legs off, and punching him with her healthy fist. “Stop it, midget!! You´ll fall over!!”

“Stop calling me midget, you idiot!!”

“I said I was sorry, all right?? It´s not my fault you´re extremely short!!”

This was it. Ignoring the pain the movement caused her, Rukia kicked his face with her knee and then bit him at the neck. “GAaaaahhhrgh!!!” He almost made her fall if it wasn´t for Ishida´s intervention, catching her just immediately after he had let her go.

“Stupid Kurosaki!! You´re hurting her!” Then Ishida realized she was in his arms, and stood there, face incredibly crimson and unable to move. Rukia didn´t feel his stare until after a moment, since she was too busy glaring at the orange haired moron. But then she noticed she had landed in someone else´s arms, and that the owner of them was staring at her, with an expression of awe. She blushed and cleared her throat.

“Excuse me.” She said, trying to sound as nonchalant as she could. “I don´t know who you are but… can you put me on my feet, please?”

Ishida blushed even more and nodded. “Y-yes, sorry… m-my name is Ishida Uryuu.”

“Nice to meet you, Ishida-san. I´m Kuchiki Rukia.” As he was placing her in the ground, Ichigo recovered and started yelling at them.

“Stupid and ungrateful midget!! I could´ve hurt you! I was just trying to help you!!”

“Well it seems to me that you were brute enough to do that. You were HURTING me, idiot!!”

“I started to hurt you because you kept on moving as if you were a sac of worms!! Argh!” this time she had been faster than Ichigo, kicking him in the shin and turning away from him, determined on ignoring whatever he had to say, and taking Yuzu by the hand.

“C´mon, girls. Let´s get something to eat.” She said with as much dignity as she could muster.

Yuzu nodded, looking worriedly at her brother, but Karin had a wide grin on her face. Yes, this girl was definitely interesting.

Ichigo followed them, cursing, while Ishida stared at Rukia, blushing, impressed by the fire in her actions. The stare didn´t pass unnoticed by the auburn-haired young woman standing beside them, who followed the group.

Behind them all, Isshin had a killing smile in his face. “Aaah… young love.”

--------------

After the meal, Rukia had returned to the garden, she had fallen in love with that place, and had decided to take the evenings there for as long as she would stay at the Kurosaki´s.

Since she couldn´t climb a tree, she settled it with resting at its roots, feeling incredibly at peace at the moment, even when her shoulder throbbed a little bit painfully, and was falling into a light slumber when she heard the trees branches moving. Was it an animal?

“Rukia!!” was the scream that reached her ears.

“Yaaargh!!” she jumped, startled by the yell.

“What? What´s wrong?” She looked up and saw Renji, her so missed friend, looking back at her, completely upside down, his legs secured in one of the branches.

“Oh my…! Renji!! You scared the hell out of me!!”

“Why? You never got scared no matter what I did!” he jumped to the ground and sat next to her. “Are you all right?” He asked her, concern in his voice. “You never came back to the academy and there were some stories of you fighting a hollow. What happened, Rukia? Are you hurt?”

His worried expression clutched at her heart, and she averted her eyes from him, afraid he could still read her.

“Yes, I´m fine, Renji. Don´t worry.”

He snickered. “How come you´re fine but you haven´t been at the academy at all? Don´t you care what happens to your grades? You can be kicked off!”

“No, I´m not worried. Kurosaki-dono talked to the principal, and so I have permission to stay here for as long as Unohana-taicho says.”

“Unohana-taicho?” he asked surprised. “A taicho is treating your wounds?? Are they THAT severe?”

“No, moron! My nii-sama asked her to come and see me.” She sighed as an idea hit her. “I´m a Kuchiki, after all.”

This time it was his chest the one that tightened by her words. The last name reminded him that she was unreachable for him. For now.

They remained silent for a moment, already not used to the other´s presence, which worried Rukia a bit. Was she going to lose him, after all? They were distancing from each other a lot this time, she could feel it by the awkward position they held. Was this unavoidable?

“So tell me, what happened to you?”

“Why should I tell you?” she challenged.

“Because I keep repeating myself that you attacked the hollow seeing that we did it as well and survived.”

“I did not!”

He sighed. “Rukia, I told you that because I wanted you to know how dangerous hollows are, especially since I know that you never measure danger. You think you can accomplish it all, but look at you!” she flinched at his words. Damn! He still could read her.

“It´s not what you think. I went there because there wasn´t anyone around but me. For heaven´s sake Renji! They were kids!! I couldn´t just stand there and watch them die!!” she inhaled and calmed herself a little. “You know I can´t do that.”

Yes, he knew. He knew she would expose herself to protect others. She always did that, fighting bigger and older kids than her, even some grown ups, whenever she saw a little child being frightened or abused at. It had always left her with a bleeding nose, a darkened eye or even a broken bone, and sometimes that included him as well, since he always came to her rescue. But he remembered the grin of sufficiency plastered on her face whenever she could see the child clutching to her, now safe, and was happy to see she was able to help.

“Promise me you won´t do it again” he said with a low voice.

“Then why am I becoming a shinigami?” she scoffed at him, rolling her eyes. She understood him perfectly. But she knew he understood her too.

“I didn´t tell you the thing that happened to us so that you would rush and face a hollow.” He spoke again.

“Renji!!” she yelled at him, flustered. “I didn´t went there searching for the hollow!! The moment I attacked I knew I wasn´t strong enough nor skilled enough to win!”

“Damn it, Rukia! Then why did you do it??” he was scared at the idea of losing her for something so stupid.

Rukia inhaled deeply, trying to repress her boiling temper. “Because the kids were in the middle! I had to save them!! Please Renji, understand! I couldn´t let them die!”

He sighed and lowered his gaze. “I know. But it still scares me to picture you… facing that monster…”

Rukia sighed too, knowing her friend was being sincere. “I know.” Was her faint response.

They stood silent a minute, until he spoke again.

“You know? You did exactly what Momo did.”

“Who?”

“Momo. My friend. She was the one who charged against the hollows, trying to help Hisagi-senpai.”

Ah.

A FEMALE friend.

Rukia raised an eyebrow and felt her ears rather hot, but didn´t know why.

“She stood there in the middle of the fight, watching the senpai struggle with the hollow.” He kept on. “And it was she the one who ran to him, trying to help him, just like you did those kids. When Kira and I saw her running, we just ran after her, trying to protect her.”

Oh.

So he RAN to protect HER.

She felt a tic growing on her left eyebrow.

Since she didn´t talk, Renji misinterpreted her silence, thinking that she was interested. “You´ll meet her soon enough, I´ll make sure of that! She´s very nice and sweet, although sometimes too sweet for me, but she´s also very skilled with the swords and even more so at kido.” The tic grew in intensity. “She´s very playful and smart, she knows a lot of things; she´s kinda like a little genius, if you ask me. You just wait, you´ll love her.”

Oh yes.

Rukia was already LOVING this girl.

“Oh, but the good part of her is that…”

“Renji.” She interrupted him with a warning glare.

He raised an eyebrow at her tone. “Uh? What´s wrong, Rukia?”

“I think you should leave.” Was her cold reply.

“Uh? What? Why? I just got here!”

“Because I´m tired and my shoulder is starting to ache. I need to rest.” She refused to meet his eyes.

“But I can´t leave right now!”

“And why is that?” she asked, menacingly this time.

He was taken aback, but then grinned evilly. “Because I came all the way here just to see your wound!”

Her eyes grew wide in surprise “You´re disgusting, Renji!”

“Oh c’mon! Just a peek! They say it´s awful”

“Of course I´m not showing it to you!!”

“Oh please Rukia! Oh! I know! I´ll show you mine so that you can show me yours!”

Her eyes grew impossibly wide, watching him roll up the sleeve of his hakama. “N-no Renji, that won´t be necessary.”

But he didn´t listen, and showed his bare leg, all muscled, causing Rukia to blush bright crimson. “See? This one was done with a slash from Kira. He´s so clumsy sometimes!” He laughed at the memory, and caused something similar to a chuckle from his friend. Rukia had heard of the guy before, and he seemed like a nice kid.

“That´s not even a scratch! Nope. I refuse to show you mine.”

“Yeah? Well, look at this.” He opened up the front of his robe, revealing very well toned muscles in his chest and stomach. This time Rukia turned purple, especially when he took her little hand so that she could feel the texture of the scar, barely visible in that light. “You see? This was done in a practice. Here, you can feel how rough it is.”

“Y-yes.” She stammered a bit. “It does feel rough… but…”

“Still won´t show me your scar? Okay! I still have one more to go. Here.” He started to take off his robe, revealing his broad, stone-hard shoulders, and this time Rukia lost a heart beat.

“N-no! wait! Renji!! A-alright, alright! I´ll show you! But please put your clothes on!!”

He grinned with an air of sufficiency. “Now we´re talking!”

“Well, it IS a nasty wound, you know?” She didn´t know why but Rukia felt too shy. The idea of exposing some skin to him made her feel flustered, which was weird, given that they had lived together all their childhood. “Unohana-taicho was impressed at it, so I warn you.” She removed some of her kimono at the level of her shoulder and a bit of the bandage closest to her neck, letting him take a peek. “There. It´s the only thing you´ll get.”

He whistled. “It looks pretty bad! Man! I don´t have one of those!!” he sounded like whimpering.

She laughed at that, repressing the flinch that always crept at her in every move. She didn´t want Renji to know she was hurting. After all, they barely saw each other anymore, and Rukia wished to enjoy his presence as much as she could. “So. You want to know how I got this?”

“Sure I want!”

She smiled at him, and began telling the story… with the inflictions and turnarounds that she had heard from Karin. After all, a little bit of that wouldn´t hurt anybody, right?

They remained talking the rest of the evening, catching up, until the night fell and he had to leave.

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The days were passing by rather slowly to Rukia, who felt happy to be in that house but who was becoming restless by the inactivity, and the fact that her wounds were aching less didn’t help much. She felt stronger, and she wanted to participate in everything, but the Kurosaki´s kept on pampering her (except Ichigo, who only did it when he was forced) and this was getting in her nerves. She wasn´t used to it, and it actually made her feel useless. It was also the idea of the days she hadn´t assist to the Academy. Renji was right, what about her grades?

So she stood there, watching them sparing but with her mind elsewhere. Yuzu sometimes had to move her a bit to take her from her reverie. She was starting to love these girls, and even thought it would be painful once she had to leave the house. But this wasn´t right, she already had a house on her own and she had to return to the Academy. Soon. The inactivity was wearing her out.

She was musing on this when she noticed Karin approaching the guys, with a wooden katana on her hand, and making them stop their activity when they noticed her presence.

“What´s wrong, Karin?” Isshin asked softly.

“I want to practice with you. I want to spare with you.” Was her reply, with a determined look on her eyes that pierced her father.

“Nonsense, Karin!” Ichigo yelled at her. “You can´t be here with us. You´re too young, and could get yourself hurt.”

“But Toshirou is with you! And he is MY age!” was her angry reply. The addressed boy was about to answer when Ichigo beat him to it.

“But you are a girl Karin! You don´t have the strength!”

That was it.

Ichigo´s statement had reached Rukia´s heart as a sting (it still impressed her at how easily she lost her temper with him). His words reminded her of the thousands of times she was about to be left behind for being a girl, and then the thousand and one times she had to prove they were wrong. With a determined look in her eyes, she approached Karin.

“Don´t be stupid!” She yelled at him. “That´s no reason enough to not let her practice with you! That´s lame!”

“What are you saying midget!? We could hurt her! Don´t you care what could happen? Besides, she´ll hold us down!”

A vein throbbed in her temple (something he was rather proficient on doing to her). “I´ve told you thousands of times.” She looked at him with a killing intent on her eyes. “Do. Not. Call me.” She took the katana from Karin´s hand and launched forward, attacking Ichigo. “MIDGET!!”

With one hand she took the weapon and charged many times at him, clashing her sword with his and making him stagger backwards. “Oi! Midget! Stop it!! What the hell you think you´re doing???” everyone was at a loss of words for her sudden attack. True, she wasn´t good at it, but it didn´t mean she didn´t have any skill at all. She at least knew the basics and the theory. The thing she lacked was the ability.

“Trying to make you remember you´re forbidden to call me THAT!!” She kept on clashing the swords. Her intention wasn´t to hurt him, but at least to injure his pride a bit. He deserved it many times over.

“Oi!! Dad! Do something!! Stop her!!” He yelled desperately at his father, worried that she could get hurt. Or actually hurt HIM. She had skills, that at least he couldn´t deny.

“Sorry lad.” Isshin shrugged. “I´ve learned quite well never to get in the path of an angry woman.”

“Dammit, you traitor!”

“Stop being a pussy and attack me, Ichigo!!”

“Hey!! Don´t insult me like that, MIDGET!!”

“Aaargh!!!” she screamed at him, and drew backwards to meet his blade more fiercely. She had him already against a tree, and lurched forward to attack once more. He closed his eyes and gave a blind slash, hoping that it would hit against her blade. He felt the impact, and actually twisted a bit his wrist, but then everything became silent. When he stole a glance at Rukia, Ichigo saw that her weapon was far away from her, close to Isshin´s feet, and that she was breathing agitatedly, just like him. Her eyes were covered by her dark tresses, and her hands were clenched in tight fists.

“A-are you alright… Rukia?” he asked, almost afraid of moving.

She didn´t move for a few seconds, when, suddenly, she kicked him hard at his shin.

“Aaghh!! Stupid midget!!”

As he clutched his injured leg, she turned around and decidedly walked towards the house, not meeting anyone´s eyes. Karin wanted to approach her but her father took her by the shoulder, shaking his head. He understood she needed some space.

Ishida looked at her retrieval, with an unreadable expression on his face, while Sado whistled, grinning, and Toshirou smirked at Ichigo. “I think she defeated you, Kurosaki.”

“Shut up!!.”

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Rukia was breathing heavily, and once she reached the kitchen, confident that nobody was there, she leaned her body on the wall, sliding down slowly. The pain was unbearable, and she clutched her arm, sweat already on her head and neck. She removed a bit of her kimono, exposing some of her shoulder, and could see crimson stains on the bandages.

“Shimatta!” she cursed, as she bumped her head on the wall. She knew she had done something very stupid back there, but she had been so angry! And it had actually felt good, ventilating all that frustration like that… until the pain came. Stupidly, she thought, it only made her strike harder at him, this time angry at her wounds until, still clumsy with the sword, she had lost her grip on the katana.

“Shimatta!” she cursed once more, as she thought that they were going to call Unohana-taicho. And she could only imagine what the woman would say to her. She closed her eyes and sighed.

“I knew it.” A male voice spoke in front of her, and she opened her eyes, startled, watching Ishida´s slim figure in front of her, a pained expression in his eyes. “I knew you had hurt yourself.”

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A/N:

Nooo!! Ishida! What are you going to do??? *devilish laughter*
Well, hope you guys enjoyed it. Fiiiuu!!! It was sooo hard to write this time!! but as always, had so much fun doing it. Hope you enjoy as much as I do!!
And now, I wonder… who will be the next prospect to appear? *wiggles her eyebrows*
Until next chapter!!