Summary: Finding out that Kuchiki Rukia, the perfect nerd of Karakura high, was the sister of a well-known gang leader was pr

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, I don't own these characters, and I don't own my home (because my parents do).

This idea has been nagging at me for a little while, and I decided to use it for a Bleach fic. It's gonna be another long one (more than likely) but I think you will like it. The summary doesn't really say much, so just read it and tell me what you think.

Quid Quo Pro

Ch.1

Wanting Change

Kurosaki Ichigo had done everything he possibly and physically could to prevent himself from hearing the perplexing sounds that tuned away from around him, but the noise would not drain.

Pressing the pillow further to his already pillow-smashed head didn't do much either.

After squeezing his eyes and gritting his teeth for the final time, Ichigo arose from his small futon.

The floors creaked from beneath him as a sigh escaped from his dry mouth. His eyes were only half open, seeing as it was five in the morning.

Opening the shoji doors to his room, Ichigo took a right in the hallway towards where the irritating sound came from. A small girl was sitting on the floor, two pieces of hair glued to the middle of her forehead, her eyes soft and innocent.

The small girl, Ururu, was fumbling with…a vacuum.

A vacuum at five in the morning.

"Ururu, what the hell are you doing?" Ichigo grumbled, fighting to keep just one eye open. He had to get up in one hour for school, and that didn't help when he was always already grumpy at his all too bubbly high school.

"I'm fixing the vacuum, it broke." Ururu replied dryly. Ichigo stared at her, completely mystified.

"But why at five in the morning?" Ichigo replied, hoping that he could get to stop her ridiculous ways.

"Because Urahara-san will be getting up in one hour, and it will take me approximately fifty minutes to fix this, and then another ten minutes to clean the shop." Ururu replied. Ichigo could only throw a hard glare, though he figured the girl wouldn't notice it.

He slowly turned on his heel and walked back to his bed, figuring that he would just have to deal with hearing a vacuum being worked on for the next hour.

Living with Urahara Kisuke, Ichigo's uncle, had not been such a wise idea. Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo's father, wanted to go on a trip around the country for a year, looking into different medical fields and how things were handled nation-wide, the problem was Ichigo didn't want to go, though Yuzu and Karin seemed thrilled to go on a fun filled adventure with their over the top father.

So, the solution was to live with Urahara, a relative that lived smack dab in the middle of Karakura, Ichigo's hometown, but he wished he hadn't. Urahara wasn't too much of a problem, but the other three people, Tessai, a strict psycho man, Jinta, a bratty kid with red hair, and Ururu, a freakishly robot girl that new way to much for her young age.

All in all, a very obnoxious house, and Ichigo had only been living there for a month.

He had the entire school year to go.

"Why did Urahara even adopt Ururu and Jinta? They're insane." Ichigo mumbled to himself, trying to get some shut eye.

Sleep didn't happen, because seconds later did Ururu begin her fumbling with the vacuum ordeal again, and no sooner than later was Ichigo arising from his crappy futon to get ready for a more than likely crappy day of school.

Once his clothes were on, Ichigo did the things most boys his age, or any human being really, he took a shower, brushed his teeth, and combed his extremely knotted hair, though most of the tangles stayed.

Walking into the kitchen was the part of the morning he dreaded.

"You're late!" Jinta cried, chucking a metal spoon at Ichigo's head. Honestly, he thought that living with his uncle would cause him to avoid unnecessary and unwanted injuries.

Ichigo just closed his eyes and walked further into the kitchen, hoping to grab a quick piece of toast.

"No Ichigo-san, eat this." Tessai, standing directly and way too closely to Ichigo demanded, a cup full of egg yolk in his left hand.

"Ah, no thanks." Ichigo replied, backing away slowly.

"It will take Tessai approximately 11.5 seconds to shove the egg yolk down your throat." Ururu responded, staring at the bowl in her seat.

"Shut up Ururu, why don't you go sweep or something?" Jinta asked, smacking Ururu on the head. She covered up the bump with her hand, a frown forming on her face.

Ichigo went to say something, but felt the most disgusting and vile taste of liquid on the planet as, like Ururu predicted, Tessai pushed the cup down into Ichigo's mouth.

"Ichigo-san! I'm so glad you're up!" Chirped Urahara, entering the kitchen with a lazy smile on his face.

"Hey." Ichigo replied. He'd had enough of the…crazy people that morning, and so, he took a piece of bread and walked out the door, hoping that no one would follow him out.

The walk to his school had taken a total of seven minutes, seven minutes devoted to thinking, planning, and sometimes even..daydreaming, though it wasn't of perverted things like he knew most boys did when they were in high school.

Besides, he referred to those as wet dreams.

Walking into the gates of Karakura high, Ichigo found all of the student body surrounding him, talking, laughing, and some (all girls) were giggling like no tomorrow. He didn't want to know what the females of his high school "giggled" about, and he decided he never wanted to.

Girls and their secrets scared him more than many things.

He slowly began making his way towards the school, wishing he didn't have such a bright set of hair on his head. It seemed that no how bright or dark the sky was, Ichigo's head stood out like the sun coming from rain clouds.

Ichigo felt eyes on him all the way into the building, but he didn't let it bother him. A person staring at him was just something he was used to, whether he liked it or not.

After finally walking into the school, Ichigo found lockers on both sides of him, obvious freshman still trying to get their lockers open frantically, sweat pouring down their young faces. Then there were seniors, like him, who usually didn't use a locker. It wasn't that they didn't have a lot of books, lockers were just out of the question. Most people used their lockers for gym class anyway.

It was only the second of week of his senior year, and he already wished he was walking down the aisle for graduation. College easily sounded farfetched, like it wasn't really going to happen, but at the same time, Ichigo felt ready for it, ready to leave his town with his friends and go off to meet more people.

Going to college, Ichigo wouldn't have his "the depressed angry boy" reputation, or so he hoped. He knew he had the tendency to look pissed off all the time, but he didn't scowl as often as he did when he was younger, and he hoped that by going to college, people would see him differently, and maybe he wouldn't even feel so obliged to look pissed off all the time.

It just didn't help either when he currently lived with his uncle, who was honestly doing a much better of job of making Ichigo go insane better than his father.

He'd almost made it to his class without glancing up at anyone once, a goal he'd been trying to do, but unfortunately, someone that no one could not look at walked by him.

Kuchiki Rukia.

It's not that she was gorgeous, or that she had a good body, or that she was even popular, there was just…something about her.

Perhaps it was because she did look unique, with a piece of hair stuck to the middle of her face that she somehow pulled off, with her hair curving nicely around her face. Perhaps it was because her eyes were a violet color, instead of the usual green, blue, or brown most human beings had. Or perhaps it was due to the fact that Rukia was the president of just about every well-known higher up club at Karakura high.

Seeing that last reason, it was kind of hard to not know who she was. Maybe it did make her…popular in a lot of ways, but Ichigo didn't see that, since he never saw a lot of people walking with her, ever.

Plus, she was extremely short.

School, for the latter part, struck Ichigo as extremely boring. Minus having a few classes with his friends, Ichigo never found anything interesting about the information he learned in his classes, or the teachers that taught it.

"Turn your books to page 112, which talks about the way our government works." The teacher instructed. With one hand propped on his chin, Ichigo turned the page slowly, averting his eyes back and forth from the extremely pointless textbook pictures to the printed words on the pages.

After a while of his teacher blabbering about how Japan's government began, Ichigo tuned it out, deciding he'd heard enough about Japanese history for the day, and for the rest of his life really. He couldn't even count how many history classes he'd taken in his life. Ichigo could probably list every known Japanese leader from memory.

He glanced around the classroom, from the chalkboard to the large windows to his left. There was just…nothing to do.

Ichigo had been so excited to get to his senior year, the last year of high school, the close to a saga in his life, and yet, he felt so…not excited to say the least.

Hearing the sound of the bell made Ichigo jump, but he was quickly relieved to finally get out of the boring class. As he packed his book into his bag, a familiar voice crept up next to him.

"Ichigo! Why didn't you call me yesterday?" Keigo Asano asked. Ichigo rolled his eyes. Keigo acted like his lovesick girlfriend, which was so wrong on so many levels.

"I told you Keigo, I can't use the phone at night because my uncle needs it for his business, and I don't really want to talk to you over the phone anyway." Ichigo replied dully. Keigo looked…upset, but that was actually something normal.

"You're never going to change are you?" Keigo asked as they left the classroom to walk to their next class.

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo asked, not catching onto Keigo's suddenly serious tone.

"So many people have changed! I mean, look at Chad; he actually said a word this year! And Uryuu Ishida took up sowing lessons, and Chizuru, who would have thought she was lesbian!" Keigo cried.

"What are you getting at?" Ichigo asked.

"You're still the same. Always looking angry and throwing scowls every chance you get." Keigo replied.

"Shut up Keigo. You're still as perverted as always." Ichigo shot back.

"But that's natural! That's another thing, you never check out girls. Are you sure you aren't…gay?" Keigo asked, his face looking vile.

Ichigo was tempted to whack Keigo on the head.

"Keigo, I'm going to kick you in the balls if you don't stop."

"But there are so many options here! Take Inoue Orihime for instance, sweet, but busty! Or Tatsuki Arisawa, strong with an attitude!" Keigo went on.

"I'm going to class now." Ichigo replied and turned into his classroom. He heard Keigo sigh dramatically from outside the doorway.

He slumped into his seat, annoyed with Keigo, which was what usually occurred. So what if Ichigo didn't like any girls at the moment. He'd never really liked any girl throughout high school, but it didn't bother him. Ichigo had plenty of time to look at girls, so why should he suddenly need to his senior year, when he would be leaving for college shortly after?

School continued on somehow or the other as it always did, and in the blink of an eye, Ichigo was walking out of the building, next to, surprise surprise, Keigo.

"Man! There's this new girl in my math class, and let me tell you, I've never seen such a beautiful chest!!" Keigo cried. Ichigo eventually tuned him out.

Walking out the door, the same students were standing around, talking, flirting, and fighting.

"You know? I think Kuchiki Rukia is pretty hott. I mean, she doesn't have a big bust or anything, but she has amazing legs." Keigo said from next to Ichigo. Hearing the name Kuchiki, Ichigo looked to where the girl was.

As always, Kuchiki Rukia was alone, sitting down on a bench staring at a book.

"She's smart too. It's hard to believe, but she's only been here two years and already she's president of so many activities." Keigo stated with a more serious tone.

Ichigo looked at the girl for a moment before turning his shoulders and sighing.

"Who cares?" Ichigo mumbled. "I'll see you on Monday Keigo." And Ichigo would be dreading it.

Kuchiki Rukia was a goody girl that everyone looked at because she was…to them, still new and fresh, even if it had been two years. Ichigo would admit that there was something unique about her, but regarding her status at the school, he tried to ignore whatever rumors flew about.

"What? What about tonight? I thought you said you would hang out with me!" Keigo cried.

"I can't. I have to work for my uncle." Ichigo replied. Keigo looked…awkwardly upset again, but turned on his heel and walked off.

The one good thing about living with Urahara was that Ichigo got to work for him. Ichigo didn't get paid a whole lot, but it was better than getting nothing. Usually, Ichigo would run into town, get a few things Urahara needed for the store, and come back, which usually took a few hours.

Honestly, Ichigo liked his uncle. Urahara was a pretty calm guy, and even gave good advice every once in a while, unlike his father. Urahara also let Ichigo stay out much later on the weekends.

Upon entering his home, Urahara was standing in the doorway, a list in his hand.

"This is what I need you to get, and I need it by ten o'clock tonight." Urahara said dryly, passing the sheet to Ichigo.

"I have to go to downtown Tokyo?" Ichigo asked in shock. Urahara rarely let Ichigo go so far.

"You'll be alright kid. You know how to defend yourself. Surely Isshin taught you that."

Oh, Isshin surely had.

"Here's the bus tickets, now get going." Urahara replied. Ichigo sighed deeply, and turned to walk out of the house.

His day had officially turned busy.

Walking to the train station, Ichigo continued to think about how his senior year was going, and as much as he hated to admit it, Keigo's words continued to haunt him.

Did people really see him as such a mean guy? Just because he wasn't so outgoing like Keigo and the rest of his class? And so what if he wasn't interested in the female anatomy.

Something stirred inside Ichigo, and he suddenly wished for something in his life to change, for something new and different to happen, that would change his senior year, and maybe…himself.

"Maybe someone will mug me in Tokyo." Ichigo humored to himself with a small smirk.

But really, he wanted his life to change.

A/N: OK! First chapter, and I just want to say, this story is going to be my last story for a while, minus the other two I have up. I REALLY don't want to abandon this story, so look, I know there was absolutely no plot in this chapter, but trust me, it will all start picking up quickly in the next. Can you guys do me a huge favor? When and if you review, try telling me why you did or didn't like this chapter, what I can do to improve it, and any other advice. I've gotten wonderful advice in the past about what to do, so I want to use it, and bring this story to my full potential. I would really like to write novels when I get older, and possibly major in writing in college, but getting your help, people that read because they want to, would mean the world to me!!

Sorry for the blabbing, but I wanted to say that to you. Like I said, next chapter will be much more eventful, and as for Rukia not being in this chapter much, it all has to do with the fact that Ichigo doesn't see her as anything…special or different. As you can see from the summary I gave for this story, you will notice that she's very different.

PS: Hope you all liked that Urahara is Ichigo's uncle! (that will be explained more thoroughly to come).