Okay, so. This is the beginning of my new IchiRuki fic. :) I'm excited. It's based on the 60 mile traffic jam in China that began on August 14th and ended August 24th. I don't know if any of you have been keeping up with it, but it's very interesting. I got the idea for this fic when my econ teacher first told me about it. I was sitting in class and just put Ichigo and Rukia in the situation, under different circumstances than the original plot of Bleach. So, yeah, I thought I'd give you all a little background information. :)

Also, because this takes place in ten short days, I'm guessing this fic will be a little short or it will be dragged out a lot. I'm hoping for dragged out, but not in a boring way. We'll just have to see, ha ha. :3

Anyway, I'll shut up now. Here we go, chapter one! :D

-:-

It was another ordinary day. I was behind the wheel of my ten year old truck, hoping it would make it another day. The vehicle was a danger, always threatening to break down, but you can't do anything about something like that if you have no money. Which was my case.

As I headed to my usual destination for a Friday morning, my daughter's school, I had to really focus to keep my eyes open. But the fact that Saki was with me made it easier to discipline myself.

Speaking of Saki, I thought.

Glancing at her from the corner of my eye I saw that she was staring at me. I turned my head toward her small form for a second, cocking an eyebrow. "What, Saki?"

"Why are you taking me to school?" she asked, confusion swallowing her expression.

"It's Friday, you have to go to school every week day unless the school says otherwise. You know that," I answered, noticing a sea of vehicles a few miles ahead.

"Today's not Friday, it's Saturday," she answered, blinking deliberately.

"What?" I asked, annoyance filling my voice, causing her to laugh loudly. I carefully pulled my phone from my pocket and pulled up the calendar, noting that it was indeed Saturday, August 14th. "Why didn't you say something before we left the house?" I demanded, causing her to shrink away from me, drawing closer to the door.

"I'm sorry...," she said simply, a frown now on her face.

Sighing, I shook my head. "It's fine, it's not your fault." Still, she stayed in place planted against the door. "Really, Saki, don't worry about it," I continued, ruffling up her orange hair.

She smiled and nodded, allowing herself to relax. "What do we do now, Daddy?"

"Well," I began, staring ahead at all the traffic. "I guess we'll have to turn around at that gas station and head home." As I answered I pulled the truck close to the bumper of the car in front of us; too close. Before I could back up a small, black vehicle did the same to me, trapping me. I sighed, focusing on any movement I saw in the crowd. Which was none.

"Daddy?" Saki said, trying to get my attention.

I heard her, I was just too focused on seeing what the hold up was to answer. She got impatient, reaching over to grab my sleeve and tug on it repeatedly. "Daddy," she continued to whine.

"What, Saki?" I asked, still not looking down at her.

"Can I go back to bed when we get home?" she asked, letting go of my sleeve.

"Yeah. You can go ahead and try to go back to sleep now, this might take awhile," I answered. Following my response was the noise of Saki's seat belt unbuckling. Before I had the chance to tell her to put it back on she slid to the middle seat, snapped on that seat belt, and rested all of her weight against my arm.

Smiling slightly, I pulled my arm back and laid it along her shoulders, pulling her closer as her head rested against my stomach.

It was silent for a few minutes, the radio humming softly to help Saki fall asleep better. But in the span of two songs the driver behind got impatient and honked their horn at me. Saki jumped up, waking from her almost-sleep. Sighing angrily, I leaned my arm out the window and flipped them off.

"Daddy, what are you doing?" Saki asked, trying to lean around me to see. Before she had the chance to struggle out of my grip I pulled my arm back into the truck and shook my head.

"Nothing, nothing. Go back to sleep."

She obeyed and leaned back, pulling closer to me as she sighed tiredly. That's when I heard the door of the car behind me slam, not thinking to much of it until I heard the guy's footsteps.

"Shit," I muttered under my breathe, not wanting to kick some guy's ass in front of my daughter. "Look," I began, leaning my head out the window. Before I could get anything else out I realized that it wasn't a guy at all.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You stop in front of me and then act like I'm being unreasonable when I get pissed! This is a street, not a fucking parking lot!" a short, hot-tempered woman began screaming loudly, pointing a finger in my face. It took all my will power not to beat the shit out of her anyway.

"I didn't just stop! Look in front of us, you idiot! I can't move!" I exclaimed, noticing Saki watching us.

"Who are you calling an idiot? You better just-!" She cut herself off after noticing my daughter staring at her.

"What?" I demanded, not realizing why she had stopped.

The woman was looking right at Saki, her angry expression gone. She turned back to me, only a hint of anger in her eyes. "You better just stay out of my way," she said calmly, heading back to her car.

"It's a little late for that," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Daddy, who was she?" Saki asked, blinking in confusion.

"No one I know," I stated. "And no one I want to know."

"Hmm," she answered quietly. "Daddy, I'm hot, can we go home?"

"I know, but we have to wait for the traffic to clear up."

"How long is that going to take?"

"It shouldn't take long."

-:-

An hour later we were sitting in the same exact spot. The summer heat hadn't let up at all, and it didn't help that my truck didn't have air conditioning. Saki had fallen asleep about ten minutes after the woman went back to her car.

By this time I was more than sure we weren't going anywhere. I had turned my truck off right after Saki fell asleep. Both windows were open, both mine and Saki's seat belts were off, and I had reclined our seats so we could be a little comfortable. Resting my arm against the door, I laid my legs across the seats, one foot on the dash board and Saki sprawled out over my chest. Her long, curly hair covered her back. Sweat formed on her forehead rapidly, always returning a moment after I'd wipe it away.

It was nine-thirty and the sun was shining brightly. I was ready to fall asleep myself, but I knew when this traffic jam cleared up I needed to be aware.

I distracted myself by listening to the radio, turning the volume up a little. That lasted me half an hour before I was zoning out again, jumping awake every few minutes.

Looking down at Saki I noticed how red her face had gotten since she had fallen asleep. I pushed her hair over her shoulder, allowing it to fall over the seat. Her small back, now uncovered, rose and fell with her shallow breathes. She looked horrible.

Suddenly she stirred, sitting up and rubbing her eyes with her fists. She looked up at me, a frown on her face, looking like she was about to cry. "What Saki? Are you alright?"

"I'm thirsty," she stated in a tiny voice.

"Okay, I'm sure I've got something in here," I said, sitting up and placing her on the now empty passenger's seat. Leaning over the front seats, I searched the back seat for any water bottles I might have forgotten or decided to throw away when they were half-empty.

"Did you find something Daddy?" she asked, peering over the seat as best as she could.

As I took my place again, I sighed. "Sorry, Saki. Nothing." She whined loudly, on the verge of tears again.

"My throat hurts," she said weakly. "Can't you ask someone?"

"I'm not giving you something I get from a stranger," I stated shaking my head.

"Ask that lady," she continued.

"Saki-"

"She's not a stranger, you talked to her! Besides, she stopped yelling because of me. If she wouldn't yell, I'm sure she wouldn't give me anything bad."

I sat silent for a moment before saying, "You trust people too much."

"Please, Daddy?"

Sighing, I opened the door and stepped out of my truck. "Fine. Just stay here." With that I headed toward the black car parked behind me. I stopped at the driver's window, which was rolled up. All the windows were up, meaning she probably had air conditioning. Lucky bitch...

Sighing again, I tapped on the window lightly with my knuckle. It came down all the way, revealing the woman. She held a stern gaze, her hands absently gripping the steering wheel. "Can I help you?" she demanded.

"Yeah. I was wondering if you had anything to drink. Preferably something that you haven't opened yet." I noticed I was right, she did have AC.

She stared at me, angrier than before. "After what happened earlier, you have the nerve to ask me for a favor? I can't believe you! You just stroll up here like everything's fine-"

"It's for my daughter," I said sternly, my usual scowl deepening.

At the mention of Saki, the woman's own glare disappeared. She just stared at me for a second and nodded. "Alright, sorry." She pulled her purse onto her lap and pulled out an unopened bottle, sitting it aside before continuing her search. After another moment she pulled out a small package of crackers. She picked up the bottle again and handed both to me.

"Thanks," I answered, inspecting both to make sure the seal of the bottle of water hadn't broken or the crackers' wrapper hadn't been messed with.

"You're really paranoid, aren't you?" the woman asked, a small smile on her face.

"Only when it comes to my kid," I answered absently.

Suddenly Saki screamed, pushing the truck's door open. My head snapped in her direction as I got ready to return to her. Before I had the chance to take a single step she crashed against my legs, wrapping her small arms around them as best as she could.

"What Saki, what's wrong?" I demanded, pulling away from her enough to kneel down and look directly at her.

"There was a beeeeee," she whined, causing me to laugh quietly.

"God, that's it? You scared the hell out of me," I said, picking her up and standing up again. I handed her the bottle of water and crackers, causing her to smile widely. "Say thank you."

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, grinning down at the woman.

"You're welcome, Saki," she answered, returning the gesture.

Saki squirmed until I put her down, where she sat on the pavement and began eating happily.

"She's so cute," the woman said, absently flipping her air conditioning off.

"Thanks," I answered, looking down at my daughter. The bottle of water the woman had given her was pretty big, Saki had to use both hands just to drink from it.

"What's your name?" she asked suddenly, gazing up at me.

Surprised, it took me a moment to reply. "Uh, Ichigo Kurosaki."

"I'm Rukia Kuchiki," she answered, holding her hand out to me.

I took it carefully, expecting a pitiful handshake. Instead she squeezed my hand tightly, smiling up at me in a way that made her look evil. "Just so you know, I'm only being nice because of her. I still have a problem with you."

I pulled my hand back quickly, a scowl returning to my face. "Good to know."

-:-

Okay, so. :) There's chapter one of this fic. I really hope you all like it! :D I'm really digging it so far, so I'm pretty excited! :D And just in case all you awesome IchiRuki fans were crushed to hear that Saki has long orange hair, she's NOT Orihime's. That's what I was worried about, you all thinking that. But she's not. :) Her hair is the same color as her daddy's:3

Okay, so, please review! :D