Rukia Kuchiki was not an easy soul to break. She could take any physical torture short of death and come out smiling. She could take any mental pain and shrug it off like it never happened. She knew there were people out there who were living worse lives then she could ever imagine and she knew she had people who cared about it. It was the little things that kept you sane.

She looked at her cell. It dreary walls bored down on her like tidal waves of ice. She knew anyone lesser would have driven them selves mad waiting in a place like this. But not her. She could take anything and she could dish it out twenty times worse if she had to. Everyone knew this; it was common knowledge before her prison days and during them.

Yet, one crazy red head kid knew nothing. He knew that he wanted to protect random people and didn't give a damn who got in his way, including her. He would shove her aside if it meant for a greater good. She would lecture him for hours afterwards and he would just shrug his shoulders and go to sleep.

Rukia gave a soft laugh that echoed forlornly in the cell. It reverberated, and for a second she though the cell was laughing at her. Her eyes widened and she put her head in her hands. Oh god, she was cracking, wasn't she? She would loose it before anyone could come. She would die a lunatic, haunted by the images of her past. She closed her eyes and dared the tears to come.

They didn't accept.

In stead a blurry image swam in front of her eyes. Orihime stood there smiling and holding out her hand. "We're friends," her mental voice echoed around in Rukia's head just as her laugh did in the cell. Rukia saw a ghostly image of her hand reach out and she felt Orihime touch it and smile. "You'll be okay, Rukia-san," she said and disappeared.

"No," Rukia whispered.

Then she heard Ichigo's mental voice berate her. "What the hell do ya mean 'no'? Since when do you say no? You better get off you butt and stop mopin around by the time I get there," he said his ever permanent scowl deepening.

"Oh god Rukia," she whispered to herself. "You're finally starting to crack." She held her head in her hands and looked at the marble floor. It glistened in the morning sunlight. She gazed at it for a few minutes then she turned around to look out of the window.

There was the device meant for her death, silhouetted against the sunrise.

Her fist tightened and she looked at it. "No," she said in a firm voice. It didn't echo this time. It was a statement, no. It felt good to say, just one syllable that rolled off her tongue. No. She would make it through this and she would have her sanity, her heart and her goals in tact.

No. What a pure and simple truth. That's all it took too. When she felt like she was going to loose, all she had to so was say no and everything went back to normal.

In her minds eye she could see Ichigo smiling and nodding at her in approval. She knew he was coming, she could tell. That idiot, of course he would come. She told him not to and he just had to be so defiant didn't he? No one could give Ichigo orders, not unless you wanted a grade A yell fest.

The sun continued to rise and she felt her grip on her mind strengthen. The cold fear she felt in the depths of her mind started to slip away replaced by hope and courage. She would be damned if she let anyone see her unstable.

She was Rukia Kuchiki and she could withstand anything. She knew it. She was invincible and no one, no where would tell her otherwise.

And she knew there was a red head idiot out there who would be the first to tell her so.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Rukia one shot! I want to know what the hell the poor woman is doing up there all this time XD So here's something I'm sure has already been done but hey, it was nice.