Here is Chapter 10.. :D sorry for the wait guyssssssss ... and thanks for reviewing and stuff ;D

Chapter 10- The Duet

Rukia walked back into her room as quietly as possible so she wouldn't wake up her depressed roommate Momo. Does Hitsugaya know what he's missing out on? Rukia thought with a soft sigh.

A shiver ran up her spine, and I still need to pair up with him for that stupid duet. Momo's words from the other day still floated around in her head. She just couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Her eyes slowly drifted to Momo, who was sleeping on her own bed curled up in a ball. Rukia pulled the blankets closer towards Momo; her chest slowly rose and went back down as she breathed her slow, soft breaths.

She quickly picked up her flute and went to the practice room where she was to meet Hitsugaya to rehearse their duet. Just the thought of that stupid white-haired kid made her growl in annoyance.

At the practice room, Hitsugaya arrived ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time. He rested his cello on his shoulder, making him hunch a little. He tightened his bow and tuned his instrument to make sure the notes spoke perfectly in tune. He placed a piece of paper on his stand and picked up his bow. A dark, rich tone filled the room as the bow met the strings.

Rukia hurried to the room but slowed down as she heard the saddest, most thought provoking tune she had ever heard. The amount of emotion that came out of that room entered her ears and made her body freeze. She looked through the glass in the door and saw Hitsugaya pulling the bow from left to right and felt the sorrow he was trying to portray. Each note pierced her fragile heart and tears blurred her vision. He is either really sad or just really good at playing sadly… whichever it was Rukia didn't want to disrupt the moment so she waited outside until the last note sung out with great misery and the music flowed to a stop.

She knocked on the door and stepped into the room. "That was really good…"

Hitsugaya quickly wiped something off his face and turned around, "Huh… oh… uhh… thanks."

Rukia walked up to him, "Were you crying?"

"N-no… there's just something in my eye…" Hitsugaya mumbled while rubbing his eye ferociously with a forced laugh.

Anger suddenly washed over Rukia and she strided up to Hitsugaya, grabbed his small wrist and demanded, "Why? Why can you break Momo's heart like that?"

Hitsugaya was taken aback by Rukia's actions and was quiet for a moment after hearing Rukia's words. He looked at his shoes and mumbled out, "I-I… don't want to hurt her… I'm going to be working full-time on my music during my time here so I don't have time for a relationship…"

Rukia sighed, "Don't you think your music is going to be better if you're happy in life? I don't think that display before was very happy."

Hitsugaya looked at his beloved cello. After a moment of silence he turned back to her and cleared his throat, "Shall we get back to practicing?"

A huge sigh came from Rukia as she told herself … don't swear at him… don't swear at him… Rukia put together her flute and played a few notes to warm up. She loved the way the sound rebounded from the ceiling to the wooden ground. She looked at Hitsugaya and nodded, they sight read the piece they planned to play. Pretty soon, the room was once again filled with music, but although the piece was a more cheerful one, the sound that was produced didn't reflect that feeling.

"Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop… this isn't right," Rukia complained as she put down her flute. She turned to face the white-haired musician. "It's meant to be happy, but at the moment, all I can hear is a cello that is sad, and gloomy and blah."

"Let's try again then," he said.

The music restarted, a little bit more lively this time but Rukia just couldn't help but feel unhappiness coming out of Hitsugaya's cello. But to keep the practice going, she tried her best at ignoring the sadness that she was feeling.

At 5:30, they stopped playing and decided to go back to their rooms to get ready for dinner. After all, they did play for the whole afternoon. Rukia cleaned her flute from top to bottom, only to get criticized by a certain string player that she takes too long.

"What! I love my flute and I take care of it!"

"I'm just saying, you take to damn long!" Hitsugaya grunted. He tapped his cello case impatiently as he watched Rukia pack her flute away.

Rukia grunted, a vein popped up on her forehead. She quickly finished polishing the head-joint and put it away. After admiring her stunning job at polishing for what seemed like an eternity for Hitsugaya, she closed the flute case and headed off with Hitsugaya, who was grumbling like an old grandpa. His cello followed behind him as he wheeled it towards the elevators.

"How's Momo?" Hitsugaya asked quietly once they stepped into the lift.

"Not very good…" Rukia replied. "She has hardly eaten at all since the other day."

Hitsugaya frowned. He didn't mean for her to get this upset… "Could you tell her I'm sorry ?"

"I don't think that's the best idea, maybe you should say it yourself."

The young boy looked doubtful.

"Come on, be a man!" Rukia pushed with a frustrated sigh.

Hitsugaya nodded slowly and said, "Fine, but not so soon. I need to think things out."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she huffed while walking out of the elevator and towards her room. Just before she went inside her room, she turned to Hitsugaya and said, "Just don't make her wait too long."

"I'll try," Hitsugaya replied and headed back to his room. He heaved a sigh and laid down on his bed. He needed someone to talk to, but that loud carrot-head was out, no doubt practising his duet piece with Momo. Momo… Hitsugaya ran his hand through his hair in annoyance. He can't seem to get her out of his head these days and the sad look on Momo's face that day was engraved into his brain…

Hitsugaya stared blankly at his room and sat up when his eyes focused on something. That's it, I'll make it up to Momo with…