Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. That's why it's a fanfiction.

She really liked him.

Ryuzaki Rai had spent years silently adoring Kurosaki Ichigo from afar. It was in second grade when he claimed his feelings of apathy to her "cootie" touch and Rai revered him sacred. After countless years of studying him from across the classrooms, Rai was absolutely, absolutely sure she knew everything she could have known about this beautiful creature.

According to her notes, Kurosaki-sama was 174 centimeters tall and weighed 61 kilograms. The blood surging through his veins was type AO and although no one believed him, he was born naturally with orange hair. (She believed him. Oh, God did she believe him. His word was her law.) She spent several all nighters surfing the web, learning about these American men named Mike Ness and Al Pacino; they were Kurosaki-sama's favorite celebrities. And every morning when she set foot in the classroom, Rai would arrange the book, Othello, to conspicuously peek out from her book bag in hoping he would notice, for she knew that this William Shakespeare man was the person Kurosaki-sama adored. On the seventh of June, she exalted Ichigo's birth. And ten days after then, she mourned the day he was annually absent from school. When he moved, she watched.

Although she kept journals recorded specifically for him, Rai's school notebooks were filled with more Kurosaki Ichigo paraphernalia than her history work and math work combined. All of this was harvested onto books and into her memory with minimal contact to the actual Kurosaki. Imagine her world if Ichigo, in any form, rejected her. She would not take that risk.

To clarify, Ryuzaki Rai was not a reject. She was an attractive, light eye-colored girl with an IQ many students would be proud of to earn. She was involved in sports, earned her A's easily and kept a consistent monthly average of proposals from young boys willing to try their luck. Sure she was easily frightened, and her vegan diet increased the difficulty of finding an impressive restaurant to take her to, but the guys were intrigued by that committed daze she was always enveloped in. She was often engrossed in thought, and no one knew why. This made her mysterious, and, therefore, she was cool.

Of course, statistically it was bound to happen. She would come across a problem of Ichigo-sama's, something about him that Rai didn't like, and that was Kuchiki Rukia. On the day this black haired hag entered the high school as a new student and stuck to Kurosaki's side, Rai knew that Ichigo would not be single for long. This friend of his, this Kuchiki beast, was a googly-eyed dwarf witch with an overly feminine voice that gnawed on Ryuzaki's eardrums. Kuchiki Rukia curtsied like an old foreign lady and was sickeningly sweet and friendly, although she had a crude tendency to sporadically drag Kurosaki-sama to unknown locations. Ichigo would loudly criticize Kuchiki's home-made bentos, complaining about the bland taste and lack of sauce. Ryuzaki would have added more flavor to his bento. She knew he liked spicy foods... and chocolate.

Because of this, Kuchiki Rukia was a threat to Ryuzaki's wonderful and hypothetical relationship with Kurosaki-sama. This one-way competition had encouraged Ryuzaki to go further than she had ever hoped: Ryuzaki Rai gathered enough backbone to ask Kurosaki-sama on a date.

He agreed.

They've been going out ever since.

...

...

Once the starstruck feeling wore off, Ryuzaki grew comfortable to her new boyfriend. She had, in fact, been a very ideal girlfriend to Ichigo. Her bentos suited his taste and the clothes she bought him were formfitting but comfortable, the way he liked to dress. Ichigo-sama (her new name for him) had proven to be the boyfriend of her dreams as well; his dates were magical and his taste in all things was exquisite. Sure, Ichigo took everything slow, but that was because he was a classy guy. Sure, Ichigo had that direct approach of saying someone's name without Japanese mannerisms, but that's because he was edgy, or because he was modern, or because he was internationally cultured. Whatever the reason and whatever the case, she was irrevocably hooked.

And yet Kuchiki was more of a pest than she ever was. The more Ryuzaki stayed with Ichigo-sama, the more she realized how intimate her boyfriend and Kuchiki were. Even after four months of dating him, the high school class still identified Kurosaki and Kuchiki as a golden pair. It was unchangeable. If Ichigo-sama wasn't escorting Rai to her house, then he was walking Rukia to his own. Ryuzaki had never met the Kurosaki family, while Yuzu and Karin had begun to refer to Rukia as their nee-chan and Isshin identified Rukia as, "...another daughter! A supernatural blessing from my beautiful wife, Masaki!" Because of this, there were rumors going on that Kuchiki and Kurosaki were secretly dating, and, even more, other rumors suggested Kuchiki Rukia was living with him.

"Rukia?" Ichigo questioned before he took another sip of his tea. He and Ryuzaki were at a restaurant late in the evening when the topic came up. "Nah, Rukia and I are just friends. We're just kinda... into the same things."

"So you and Kuchiki aren't dating? And she isn't living with you?"

"Living with me? Who told ya that?"

"Asano-kun is always telling me things like that."

"Keigo, huh?" Ichigo made a mental note of that for the next time he saw Keigo.

"And he's always telling me how important she is to you," Ryuzaki added, stirring her miso soup.

Ichigo sighed and set his drink down. "Listen, Rai... Rukia is as irritating as hell most of the time, but I owe her a lot. We're close, but she's not my girlfriend. You are. I'm not that kind of guy, okay? So we're good?"

Ichigo looked out the restaurant window to think. Rukia had last texted him saying she was thinking about sleeping over at Inoue's apartment. He pulled out a wad of cash down on the table and stood up.

"You said you wanted to come over, right?" He smiled down at Ryuzaki. "Let's go then."

By the time they entered the house and up to his bedroom, Ryuzaki felt a small pang of victory inside. She had climbed this unbearably tall mountain and reached her goal: Ichigo-sama's bedroom. She thoroughly studied where his bed was and what books he kept on his shelves. She took notice of the color of the walls and how his bedsheets were meticulously made.

"Ano... uh... Rai. Are you crying?" Ichigo asked, uncomfortable at Ryuzaki's happy whimpers. She wiped her eyes with her wrists.

"Your room is so impeccably made! And it smells so nice!"

Ichigo just scratched his head. Ryuzaki would remember this smell forever. This was what she dreamt of: for Ichigo-sama to reciprocate her feelings back, for him to be as perfect as he seemed, and for her to make it up to his bedroom as his girlfriend. In addition to that, there was no hint of Kucheechee Rukia in sight. Ryuzaki was Ichigo-sama's only girl.

She was ready.

"You look really pretty tonight, Rai," Ichigo complimented. This was it, she thought. He was making his move, and she, having a very pretty face, was inviting him in. Ichigo held her waist and lured her closer to his chest, where Ryuzaki melted at the feeling of the warm skin on his arms. He smiled and she swore she was dying, and when their foreheads touched, she lost her senses. Ryuzaki leaned closer, their lips almost grazing each other...

"Meow."

Ryuzaki jumped in complete horror. She scampered behind Ichigo, her fingers cold from the voice.

"Ichigo-sama, you have a cat?" Ryuzaki stuttered at the word, "cat."

"Like hell I do," Ichigo answered, he looked highly irritated and stared suspiciously at his closet.

"Ichigo-sama! I'm afraid of cats!" Rai said, fleeing to his bed and getting under the sheets.

"I don't ha- say what?" Ichigo turned to his girlfriend, who was hidden under the blankets. "You're... afraid of cats?"

"Meow meow," said the closet. Ryuzaki's desperate scream confirmed her phobia. Ichigo, now completely disregarding the cat sounds, just stared at the blanket-covered girl in complete bewilderment.

"You're afraid... of cats?"

This time, the meow was in a deep masculine voice, "Meow meow."

Ryuzaki threw the sheets off her body and bolted out of his room to the stairs. Her shrieks were heard even from down the street. Rai loved him. She knew she did. But it was unbearable, Ryuzaki was no good near live animals, or dead ones. And she didn't like blueberries. She was sure sweet Ichigo-sama would understand tomorrow, but right now she focused all of her energy into getting home.

"What the hell kind of person is afraid of cats?" Ichigo muttered, heading to the closet door.

In the closet and on top of carefully folded linen, a raven haired girl was lying on her back, her face hidden behind a fashion magazine. There was an animated plush lion at her feet, snickering away.

"You stupid old bat, Rukia! What the hell?" Ichigo shouted violently. Rukia playfully placed the magazine down on her stomach.

"Ichigo!" she cheered, with an unnaturally high voice. Her violet eyes were wide open. "Your closet is so impeccably made! And it smells SO NICE!" Her voice cracked, and Kon's "pffts" turned into hollers of great amusement.

"NEE-SAN! THAT WAS FANTASTIC! THAT GIRL IS GONE! FIGHT FOR YOUR MAN NEE-!" Rukia pinned his face down with the heel of her foot.

"That's not why I creeped her out, Kon! I shooed her away because she was an annoying piece of work." Rukia said rudely, in a boyish voice that was nothing like Ryuzaki's description of her. The excessively ladylike personality was always gone once her school uniform was off. Rukia was now her natural self, a bold and confident young girl who found her daily enjoyment in agitating Ichigo.

"Rukia, LEAVE!" Ichigo bellowed, fervently pointing at the door. "Your room is with Yuzu and Karin. Now go!"

Rukia progressed, still enjoying the aftermath of her actions, "I STILL can't believe how easy that was!"

It was inevitable, Rukia was absolutely immobile. And once Ichigo realized this, he just sighed heavily, "I know, right? When was she going to tell me something like that? We'd never make it; I hate girls who scream over friggin' trivial stuff like that... Scoot over."

They were really quite a pair.

Thanks for reading! I hope I used, "paraphernalia" correctly. Meow Meow.