Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters, creations or ideas. I would love to add a part of my taste to the storyline, but I doubt Kubo would let a mediocre girl to do so. *sob*

InnerVoice: I hate Zarar.

ME: I don't give a damn.

InnerVoice: I hate you!

ME: ...

InnerVoice: On with the story :P

ME: ...

InnerVoice: ...

Chapter 16 – "I don't know."

"I'm so sorry Rukia. We can't change you're school."

"YAY!" she screamed in joy as her arrogant brother closed his eyes in relief to see that she did not want to leave it.

"There aren't any other schools with security cameras, quick forensics, and trained nurses. They have either one, or none."

"Awesome."

"Not 'awesome'. All your school friends are going to blabber on about you. I suggest you leave your room and walk about on rare occasions for extra safety."

Rukia heaved sigh. "Whatever, Nii-sama."

"And Ichigo and Toushiro both have mentioned about this Madison girl."

"What? The both of them?"

"They both met me individually. But the utterance of the same thing from the two of them worries me."

"Don't. She's not worth worrying about Nii-sama. It's a waste of time."

Byakuya tapped his index finger on his knee. "Well, if you put it that way..."

"What did they say?"

"That she bothers you in various ways."

"That be it?"

"Yes. Now if you'll excuse me, it's 8:30am and I have a very important meeting to attend. If I do not, then I'll be dropping a bomb on the 'other boss.'

She giggled. "Bye Nii-samat!" she called after him as he left with his two bodyguards from her room. Tatsuki, who was waiting outside until they'd finished, closed the door behind her.

"I want to know who the other Kaien is."

"No" Rukia said promptly.

"Then I'll find him."

"NO!"

"And I will listen to you."

"NO!"

"Alright, I won't. Thanks for your permission!" she laughed mischievously.

"ARGH! You insolent little..."

Teee ti teee! Teee ti teee! (Tatsuki cell phone)

"Hello. This is she."

Rukia focused herself completely to her roommate.

"Uhuh. I'm not interested. Shut the hell up. Bye."

"Who was that?"

"The Kaien here in school."

"HE ASKED YOU OUT?"

"Why? You're jealous?"

"NO!"

"He told me to help him with some sort of karate moves. He goes for karate with me!"

"Ooh. But he still did ask YOU!"

"So? I'm on top of the class!"

"Show off."

"Well you're the one acting all squeaky-squeaky now. Ichigo told me he asked you out!"

"Why? You're jealous?"

"STOP REPEATING MY LINES!"

The midget giggled at her best friend. Tatsuki sure was mad about something.

"Who is the OTHER Kaien?" her best friend asked again.

"He's...an old friend.." Rukia finally said.

"I know he's more to that" Tatsuki dug.

"Just shut up okay? He was always just a friend." Rukia's eyes lifted off into a sweet daydream.

"Okay, fine. When you meeting Ichi?" Tatsuki raised an eyebrow.

Rukia gave her a sick look. "Would you drop the boy talk? You're annoying. I am meeting him on Saturday night. Strictly drama practices."

"Isn't it kind of obvious? He needs Orihime, not you for that! He said 'practice' as an excuse! I mean, a narrator can't do a play practice one-to-one with a lead role."

"You're wrong Tatsuki. We can always assess each other."

"You're going to kiss him for sure tomorrow. You'll see" she smirked.

"Okay so let's go for a walk now. I'm bored."

"What? I have to go to the gym! And we have classes from 9.30am today. Probably a staff meeting."

Rukia paused to think. She could only say "Oh."

After about a minute, she then asked Tatsuki, "Why are you going to the gym?"

"Just wanna check it out. I'll be off now."

Fluffing her black hair back a little she asked "Can I come?"

"Toushiro's coming now, you'd better wait for him" she said hurriedly. Then with a "Catch ya later!" Tatsuki disappeared from the dorm room.

'She's up to something' Rukia thought.

Knock knock knock

"Come in!" she yelled, and lied down on her bed hastily. She thought about Kaien and before she could drift off into their dreamy times together Toushiro closed the door, and asked her something that made her eyes bulge.

"Are you in love with Kurosaki?"

"Huh?" said Rukia in a daze. "What are you trying to say Toushiro?"

"I'm just asking you a very simple question. Are you in love with Kurosaki?"

She stared at him. "No."

"Good. Your worlds are both very different Rukia. If Byakuya-sama finds out that you've developed feelings for your bodyguard he will go nuts. Who knows what he might do to Kurosaki."

'Huh? What is wrong with Toushiro? Is this the truth? If I ever were to fall in love with Ichigo I'd never be able to be with him?Am I in love with him?' she questioned herself.

"Rukia?" Toushiro called her worriedly and she looked up at him still slow at thinking."Where is Tatsuki? I saw her leave the room a while ago."

"Oh. She went somewhere."

"Where?" he asked again.

"I forgot."

'Don't lie Rukia. I know you can't forget."

"I seriously can't remember!"

"What? What is wrong with you?" Toushiro came close to the bed.

She sat upright and started crying.

"Everyone knows who I am now.."

Her bodyguard that she loved just like her own brother just stared. Just like that.

"I could be easily killed.." she said slowly.

"Rukia, don't be stupid. Whether your famous or not, what reason would a person have to kill you for?"

"My abilities?" she said simply, but softly. She closed her eyes and hugged her knees.

"Only Aizen knows about that. I doubt he would tell anyone since he's the only one who's after you now. He wouldn't want any such distractions that concern you."

"How come I didn't know this?" Rukia jumped from the bed. Within seconds she was right next to Toushiro.

"Uh..because..." he looked pretty guilty-faced.

"Because of what?" she asked loudly.

"It's all kept confidential. No one should know. No one in the whole knows anything about you, apart from the whole Ruka Raiden thing. And everyone knows that you have bodyguards, but not who exactly. Don't worry okay?"

"So in other words...I can't go anywhere in the school unnoticed? If I have an accident it will be displayed on the school papers? I don't wanna be the gossip everyday!"

Toushiro heaved a sigh. "I think, we'll cut school for you today. I'll get a letter from Byakuya-sama."

"No. Oh I'm going alright. I am freaking going to the freaking school classes and I will be the freaking same."

Her bodyguard laughed. "Wipe those tears now, we'd better get ready. I'll wait outside."

Rukia looked at him in awe, as he too, like Tatsuki had, disappeared behind the dorm room door. 'He laughed?'

_During class_

She entered the class with her same mind, refreshed and feeling renewed. Although the reactions were different. Everyone stood in the class staring at her. A few of them motionless, and the rest of them stood in whispers with their mates.

She shrugged it off promptly. Tatsuki, walking beside her glared at every person nearby as they made their way to their usual seats, and upon finishing their mundane activity, shot a few more death glares at the groupies behind them who turned away immediately and pretended to be in heavy conversation with the people near them.

Rangiku enters the class, and notices the change of behavioural patterns towards the poor girl. She sighs to herself, and walks towards the board and says "Morning class" and before anyone could greet her back she roared "now without gossiping away about who knows what CONTINUE YOUR WORK" and sits down in her comfortable teachers chair.

Rukia was reminded of one of her other old teachers when it came to Rangiku. Coincidentally, it was also another one of her biology teachers. Her name was Tamara, and she'd helped her a lot especially on Byakuya's account, when it came to her. 'Come to think of it, I never asked her how she knew my brother. I wonder what their relationship was..'

Chizuru passed a note to Rukia in biology. It read 'Score girl! You're world famous!'

She sighed at the note and wrote a reply. 'I am not. Only in Japan. But everybody says its worldwide for some dumb reason.'

'I heard you're dating Ichigo Kurosaki too.'

Rukia stared at the note. That's all it said. 'I heard you're dating Ichigo Kurosaki too.'

'What are you talking about?'

'You know exactly what I'm talking about. Some Sarugaki or someone saw you at Poppy and Jerry's."

'That was something Tatsuki made me go to.'

'I'm so sure' and Chizuru adds a smiley face to the bottom with a tongue sticking out.

Rukia chose not to reply to that. She made a face at Chizuru to end the conversation. However, the girl chipped in another note, to Rukia's annoyance.

'Chillax girl. He likes you. Go for it. If you're not dating haha'

This caused her to flip. Rukia stood up, "Miss I'd like to say a few words before we begin our work."

"You should have already begun your work, Miss Kuchiki" came her reply. A few snorts were heard. Ichigo clenched his fists. Toushiro upon seeing this, raised an eye brow, trying to read Ichigo's face.

"Well if it weren't for the stares that my fellow colleagues were giving me, I wouldn't have to be standing here like this."

"What is it that you want to share with the class that's so important right now?" she continued, her voice raising some alarm.

"First I'd like to tell everyone that, my name is Rukia Kuchiki" she paused and looked at Toushiro's face and smiled. "I'm never anything but her. But unless you guys al help me to be her, I'm never going to be able to live a normal life I ever wanted to."

A few faces dropped in guilt. "I've had a lot of people cause me damage. And I've also had problems come my way. Not because I go looking for it…but because it finds me" she closed her eyes and opened them slowly and looked at everyone. "I only want to be just like you guys. So there, I've said it. I'm not very good with words, but I am making a personal request everyone in this room" now her eyes fixed on Chizuru. "Let me be myself."

She sat down. Just like that. No more words to say. Everyone in the class seemed to take her seriously. And for some funny reason, so had Kaien. To Madison's, disappointment. Although, he'd not seen what Madison was doing because his eyes were fixated on her for the spur of the moment.

A few whispers were heard. And as Rangiku's eyes wandered across the room, as she stood up, everyone quietened down. "Now now everyone. Let's not make this as hard as it already is. If I hear anything, and I mean ANYTHING!" she paused with fury in her voice. " Regarding this matter I will see to your punishment" she smiled at Rukia who nervously smiled back at her, scared at her sudden scale of anger.

She sat back down. "After ten minutes I want all your notes neatly in order, and I will mark every word. One mistake, and you have to write it all over again." Everyone looked at her in wonder, as if to say 'What's her damage?'

At lunch _

She felt like we was being scrutinised for her every move. Which she was of course.

The next thing she felt was a hand on her shoulder. Looking to her right, the tall pissed off orange-haired dude stood smirking at her, sarcastically. "Need a hand with that?"

"No I'm good thanks. Ginger" she giggled and walked to her table where Tatsuki, Chad, Ishida, Orihime already were. To her satisfaction, they were acting normal. Assuming they'd already talked about it and gotten over the whole thing she asked the first question that hit her mind "Where's Keigo?"

Ishida shot her a sharp look. Which surprised her, and then at this moment Ichigo joined in at the table right next to her. "He's with Mizuiro."

Her heart skipped a beat. 'I shouldn't have asked. Does Ishida know I had something to do with their poisoning?'

"Oh. Okay…" she said. Suddenly, everyone began to look a bit uneasy towards Ishida.

"Don't just OKAY me, Kuchiki. It was all your fault. We're all gonna be in trouble one day because of YOU."

She dropped her veggie burger, which fell on her lap and then to the floor. Her eyes widened, and then they filled with tears. Shoving Ichigo aside and ignoring her friends gasps she bolted out of the cafeteria, feeling a rush of pain in her heart.

Ichigo knew not to make the mistake of letting her go again. So he followed after her. Alone.

To which Ishida stood up and began to walk away muttering something. Orihime furious on this, screamed at him. "HOW COULD YOU SAY SUCH A THING?" and she'd gotten up and lunged forward to smack him. Her attempt was short-lived, as Tatsuki had grabbed her by arm and put all her weight on it, preventing Orihime from getting him.

The entire cafeteria had quietened. Everyone's eyes were on Orihime, Ishida, and Tatsuki who had gotten caught in the middle of what seemed to be a juvenile arguement.

Orihime's strength disappeared and she stood there firing Ishida a death glare, just like that of Tatsuki's. "You coward. I thought you were supposed to be nice! She's gone through hell and this is what you do! I swear to god, if you don't apologize to Kuchiki-san I will make sure as hell someone beats the living daylights out of you!" she said heavily, clenching her fists. Tatsuki had let go of her, upon knowing that she was not going to attack him anymore. No one had ever seen Orihime this mad.

"I'd like to see you try. What I said was true. Maybe I should've said nothing. Are you sure you know who she really is? I mean what's to say, she could have done home schooling without going through all this trouble."

"Why you-!" she was interrupted by an unexpected voice.

"I'm sure you think you know her inside out Ishida. I've only spent 2 about months with her, and her story works out for me. Whether you like it or not, I'm sure everyone except you around here approves of her being around and also more importantly being her friend. Despite all her troubles I'm pretty sure everyone here would like to go on as if everything is perfectly normal" It was Toushiro.

"Hn" Ishida replied. "You're persistent you know that. But not persistent enough. I'm sorry. I should probably go fix this.."

"Damn right you should" Tatsuki barked. "And not when she's in this state, cause I'm a hundred percent sure she doesn't want to have anything to do with you."

And with that, she walked away with Orihime and everyone else following her. Leaving Ishida alone, to be the victim of the constant stares. "Whatchu lookin at!" he roared and walked off.

On the way, Madison called "Nice work Ishida. Hope our plan B works out for you."

"Shut up. I can call you a million names that I cannot mention here" and he stormed off.

Kaien spoke, "What on earth was that about?"

Madison just laughed at him and said, "You're too immature to understand it. I don't think you can face the consequences."

He crumpled his eyebrows at her and also disappeared where Ishida had.

'What next, Kuchiki?' thought the ever-so stuck up Barbie.

_In the hallway to her room

'I want to runaway' was all her voice rang into her head.

"Rukia stop running!" Ichigo yelled. Suddenly a random dorm room popped open at the noises, and Rukia ran into the door and fell over. Ichigo sped up his pace and ran over to help her up when a familiar figure came out the door.

"Oh hey! Oops! Rukia-chan! I'm so sorry!" gasped Keigo. "Wait I'll bring some ice.

"I'm fine.." she muttered cursing under her breath at what she'd run into. Literally of course.

Ichigo lifted her up into his arms but she broke free from it. He could only think at that moment, 'What's on her mind?'

"Hey Keigo I thought you were at the nurses visiting Mizuiro and Ryu?"

"Well they weren't exactly awake so I didn't have to stay there that long. They're pretty tired but okay. Why?"

"Uhh.." and Ichigo finally stepped in

"Never mind that. She was just concerned.

Keigo had no idea about what had been going on. It was a very Keigo thing anyway. Clueless as always.

After dismissing him, she began walking towards her room. She whirls around to face Ichigo. 'This was it. I'm going to talk about it. Now.'

"Why are you following me?" she questioned

"That's not the-" but she interjected once again.

"Answer me."
"Well, the last time I checked, you ran away and almost got yourself killed."

"Maybe if I died, I'd it'd make everyone's lives so much easier. "
"How can you say such a thing!" his eyes boring into hers with disbelief.

She stared at his reaction. Looking at his hands ball into fists surprised her more than anything.

FLASHBACK_

She gets into her brother's limousine and sits at the very back of it. She peeps out to see Kaien standing secretly behind a tree out of her brother's view. As the car starts to move away from him, he gradually walks out and waves back at her. Upon stopping, his hands are now clenched, and his smile at a snail's pace, wears off. She smiles at him all the way until his figure is only now visible as a tiny speckle, and slowly disappeared like that as they drove into the sunset. She'd left. And there was nothing she could do about it. There was no going back anymore. Kaien was gone in her life, and she had no hope of ever seeing him again. Or so she thought.

END OF FLASHBACK_

'He couldn't love me. He just cared' she thought.

"Rukia? Are you okay?" Ichigo snaps her back to reality.

"Oh?" was all she could say in surprise.

"Are you alright? You spaced out for a second" his voice was now very concerned.

"I'll be fine.." was what she could say. "Let's go to my room please."

As she opened the door there was a piece of paper folded on the ground, neatly at her feet. She bent down to take it and she looked at it in surprise as their was a huge heart drawn all over it. Quickly before Ichigo could see, she flipped it over, and quickly kept it on her desk, under a book.

"Love note?" he asked with that same annoying smirk.

"I don't know, and I don't care. Probably a new fan club thing" she spoke tonelessly.

He looked at her. Like really looked at her. "Rukia..put all this stuff behind you. Everything you hear..everything you-"
"HOW CAN I ICHIGO?" she yelled.

"Calm down Rukia!" he came close to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Come outside here, it's refreshing" her gently pushed her towards the balcony window and opened it, taking her outside with him. It was a pretty big one too. Considering most boarding schools didn't have balconies at all. Plus it had the views of other balconies completely hidden by strange looking rough white walls. He looked at the girl who was looking at the balcony in amazement. "Never come out here I'm assuming? Surprising considering you've been here for two whole months. Look, they've made it suicide proof!" he pointed at the glass wall in the center of the balcony which exposed the most beautiful view of Japan. And then he looked at her, and his smile faded.

She had tears in her eyes again. It killed him to see a girl cry like this. She sniffled all that pain she still reminded him of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer for a second.

"I can't forget anything. It's like a curse. Everything I hear or see. I can't help it. Forgetting was never supposed to be in my blood."

He could feel the tiny girl's pulse from where he'd placed his hands. It was slowly increasing. He could feel her pain flowing inside him.

There faces were once again inches apart. Only, last time this had happened, she wasn't crying. Ichigo, quickly wipes her tears and says. "I can help you there okay. I'll help you forget. Well for the most part anyway."

She'd forgotten how annoying he was. She didn't know what had come over her, but after looking into his eyes, she accidentally slipped out words she shouldn't have followed by the most unexpected action she could ever commit.

"Thank you Kaien" and with that, she kissed him. On the lips.

'I'm kissing Ichigo Kurosaki. And I've known him for only two a minute did I just call him-?' her thoughts were interrupted.

Dissapointing to say, it was momentary though. He tore his lips away from hers.

"Kaien? You just called me Kaien? Kaien Shiba?"

She looked at him in repulsion. "No Ichigo I'm sorry! I never meant it like that.."

"What the hell?" were his next words and she winced at them.

"It's my head..I tend to remember things..differently when I'm upset.." she said weakly.

His disbelief grew more and more. "Why did you kiss me?"

"I don't know.." she said. "I think I may have done it by mistake."

"So you're not in love with me?" he asks her with a serious voice.

"I…" she hesitated. Suddenly, there were knocks on her door.

"It's Toushiro, open up!" he said aloud from outside.

As Rukia had begun to rush towards the door, Ichigo held her arm. "You can't tell anyone that we kissed. Or I'm going to lose my job."

"That all you care about eh?" she said stiffly.

"No. I just don't want to stop being the one looking out for you" he smiled at her. Then sarcastically added, "Shrimp."

"HEY! Rukia! Open the door already!" Toushiro yelled.

Instead of retorting back at him she just playfully punched him on the shoulder and smiled, and made her way to the door. As she opened it, Toushiro yelled "Why do you take so long to open your door?" and as he finished his sentence he saw Ichigo, grinning right behind her.

She laughed at him and said "I was talking to him."

"Sure you were. By the way Kurosaki, Tatsuki was looking for you"

"Bye Rukia.." and with that he dashed out of the room trying to avoid Toushiro's constant face-reading looks and closed the door behind him grinning like an idiot.

"Now you're going to tell me, what the hell happened in here" and with that he crossed his arms in annoyance.

She'd completely forgotten about the note. Mistake made, she was too dazed to realise what was going on.

End of chapter. Please do alert me for any mistakes. And yes, I'm updating after what may seem like two years. I got many alerts pleading for continuations so I did. I might make a few changes as it took me no less than an hour or two to write this. SO PLEASE R&R I MISS YOU GUYS.

*Cupcakes for every review*