"Wait, your brother got an offer to buy out some company up north?"

"Yeah," Rukia said in a small voice as she stared up at the ceiling of her best friend's room. He was sitting on the floor facing his closet, leaning back against the bed she was laying on. She had never been as thankful as she was when he sat there and not with her on the bed like he normally would have. She wasn't sure she would be able to get through what she had to say if he had been so close to her.

"So, what does that mean then?"

She could practically hear him frowning. This wasn't how she had planned on spending her winter break. They were going to build a snowman when it finally snowed just like they've been talking about for all month. She was supposed to eat dinner at his house all the time and he was going to come over her house and have movie marathons like they always did. They planned for all of this and for what? For her brother-in-law to call and tell her that she's spending her entire winter break up north with him and her sister? That if everything works out like they want to they're all moving up there?

She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. Behind her eyelids tears welled up while she silently willed herself not to cry. Why did she have to realize how she felt now of all times? With regret she thought of how much easier it would have been to just leave without knowing at all. To leave without knowing she did absolutely nothing to tell him that she-

"Rukia?"

The sound of his pleading voice broke her out of her thoughts. She didn't bother to turn and look at him, though she could feel his amber eyes burning holes on her face, his head having turned away from the closet to look at her.

"Come on, Rukia, seriously. What are you trying to tell me?"

-IR-

Rukia was sure she had told him to be here an hour ago. Even going as far as to call the fool this morning to make sure he remembered the time and where they planned to meet. She was going to kill him whenever he showed up.

If he showed at all that is.

Looking down at her lap, she flipped open her phone and frowned. She was expecting a text message or a voice mail at the very least. The idiot couldn't even do that much? Everything was all ready to go. Her bags were all packed and the train ticket was safely in her coat pocket. The only thing missing was a certain carrot top to say good bye to.

She began bouncing her leg up and down as she sat watching the crowd of people saying their goodbyes to one another. It amazed Rukia as she sat on the gray wooden bench by the train station entrance, watching a woman cry while hugging what appeared to be her rather embarrassed son, how much she was going to miss everyone and exactly how much she wished someone were here to see her off.

Even though she knew it hadn't made any sound, Rukia opened her phone for another look. She huffed angrily when she obviously saw no new messages or anything of the sort. Her breath showed because of the extreme cold and her nose was running, yet here she was still, waiting for someone who didn't even have enough time to show.

She didn't allow any thought of something happening to him to enter her mind because she knew if she did, she wouldn't have the peace of the mind to leave.

"All passengers riding Train 9 must board the train now! All boarding Train 9!"

Rukia gripped her phone tight in her hand as the announcement played loudly over the speakers placed throughout the station. With ears ringing, she sat for a moment and watched a man in a suit run by, briefcase in one hand while looking at his wristwatch on the other. Chancing one last look at the screen of her phone, she sighed when the familiar background of her and Ichigo making faces was the only thing seen.

Sadness seeped its way into her heart like the cold did her skin. How could he not have even of shown?

Closing her phone with a loud snap, Rukia put it back in her pocket and stood up. She looked around the station as she grabbed her suitcase only to see groups of people heading for the train Rukia herself was about to board. All around her as she walked were groups of people crowding the doorways and windows.

Walking through the mass, she felt as though she was broadcasting to everyone that there was no one waiting among them watching for her to find a seat so they could wave through the window for a last goodbye.

With a heavy heart, she snuck her way through the gaps of the massive crowd and bumped into people who would suddenly fill them.

Once reaching the stairs to step on the train, she turned around and looked half heartedly at the many people making one big crowd. She took out her ticket from her plaid coat pocket and finished climbing the last few steps into the train.

She didn't see one head of orange.

-IR-

It was amazing but she found an unoccupied compartment. Smiling at her small victory, Rukia placed her bags in the overhead storage and took off her coat. She sat down at the seat next to the window and rubbed her hands together, attempting to give them a little warmth. Though the heat was on in the train, the cold from outside lingered on her skin and clothes.

Looking at all the people gathered outside near the windows to say their final goodbyes, Rukia noticed with slight disappointment that before her window, a little space somehow formed in the crowd, as if to tell her once again that no one was there for her to leave behind.

She was going to kill him. Then, once he was dead, kill him again.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she rolled her eyes and slouched back against the seat. Long ago she destroyed that annoying little thought of him being hurt somewhere in a ditch or some nonsense like that. He was too stubborn for that. No, there had to be another reason for him not showing up. But for now, she did what she did best when the rare occasion of her eyes filling with bitter tears and sadness occurred.

She got angry.

Staring ahead at the wall in front of her, she scowled. But like a light bulb turning on in a dark room, Rukia noticed the color of the velvet seat almost right in front of her. She raised an eyebrow as she looked at the slightly orange bench, arms still crossed but an idea quickly forming.

"Oh hey buddy!"

The idiot had finally driven her insane.

"I'm so glad you came to say goodbye! 'Cause you know, I won't see you for a while. A long while actually. But I hope you have fun while I'm gone. Feel free to text me! Or call, it doesn't matter, seeing as how you can't do either even when the best thing that ever happened to you is leaving."

She glared as if the real Ichigo was seating there in front of her instead of the defenseless velvet seat. Voices of the last few people still boarding carried through the closed door of her compartment. She could hear a voice louder than the rest say something before the crowd all laughed. Rukia focused on the seat again and gave it an angrier scowl.

"I've wanted to tell you something for a while now. I didn't bother paying attention to see if you felt the same or not. And you must be crazy if you think I should have mentioned this to you before but-"

She huffed in frustration before uncrossing her arms, gripping her seat, and leaning forward. Violet eyes stared at the seat as a lock of hair slipped from behind her ear and fell gently in her face as she tried to think of the right words to say.

"Do you realize how mad you make me sometimes? We argue more than anyone else I know. And sometimes you annoy me so much I just want to punch in the throat so you'll shut up for two seconds," she said in a rush to get it all out. Seeming to deflate of her most of her anger, she continued in a slightly defeated voice. "This is obviously the place where you insert some smartass comment and I would kick you in the shin or wherever, but… this is serious Ichigo."

Her eyes wandered to the floor, the tiniest of smiles gracing her lips. Unconsciously she brushed the lock of hair back behind her ear.

"But you're still my best friend you know? And sometime between all that fighting and you being an idiot I began… wait. Ok no, let me start over."

She took a deep breath and balled her hands into fists, trying to dig up any courage that might be left in her. "You're my best friend. Even when we fight and I hit you or draw on your face like you hate, we're still friends right? So it's not that hard to imagine that during all that I could-"

What had this moron done to her that she couldn't even say something so seemingly simple as this? And to a chair no less!

"You just have to make everything difficult don't you? You're such an idiot."

She looked up at the seat through her lashes. Her face was expressionless, but her violet eyes sang with regret for being too late. She wasn't the type to cry, especially over a boy, but as she looked at the seat she found it very hard not to.

"I love you, Ichigo."

Allowing one tear to fall down her pale cheek, she fixed her gaze once again out the window. People stood waving and smiling in the freezing cold, some crying while others tried shouting last goodbyes. Rukia closed her eyes and turned her body to lean against the window. With that one fallen tear, she promised herself that would be the end of it.

-IR-

"To all our passengers riding Train 9, I'm afraid there's going to be a delay in our departure." Rukia furrowed her brows in confusion as she listened to the conductor speaking over intercom. "It seems two little girls have lost their tickets to board, so if anyone knows anything about this, please inform one of our personnel to help speed up the delay. Thank you."

Rukia stuck her tongue out the mention of the delay. Which suitcase did she stick her ipod in again?

Suddenly there was a frantic pounding on the window Rukia was leaning against, making her scream and jump in surprise. Hearing the loud noise again, she stiffened and placed her hand over her heart to stop the frenzied beating it was doing, while taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. With eyes wide she slowly turned toward the window wishing that someone had only accidentally hit the window.

It turned out to be something much worse.

"Ichigo!"

Yes, there stood the orange haired fool in the flesh, standing in the empty space in front of Rukia's window, hands deep in his pockets and a rare smile on his lips. She could feel her face warm up and turn red.

Suddenly imagining a train seat to be her best friend and confessing her feelings to it seemed a lot more foolish then it did a minute ago.

Seeing his smile turn into a smirk, she knew that he noticed the blush on her face which only managed to make the color of it darken. Her embarrassment quickly turned to anger at the way his smirking made her feel as if he could possibly know she had done something embarrassing. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. She didn't care how she felt; he had a lot of explaining to do.

"Why are you late!?"

His faced melted into its usual frown, the cocky smirk he had been wearing gone. Pointing to his ear, he shrugged. Rukia scoffed and rolled her eyes, trying to hide the strangely welcoming knots forming in her stomach.

"Why are you late?!" she yelled even louder, her breath fogging up the glass before her. Using her shirt sleeve, she cleared a circle through the fog and looked at his blank face.

"Well?" she asked expectantly before wiping the window again. Her sleeve was thoroughly wet and from the hallway the sound of the occasional person walking past was the only disturbance to the silence of the compartment. It was easy for her to imagine her voice echoing back to her, carrying with it a subtle hint that in here, she was alone.

Outside Ichigo sighed in obvious annoyance, a small cloud of his breath forming in front of him. Stepping closer to the train, he tapped on the glass before distractedly looking to the side at the crowd of people beside him.

Inside the loud thumbing of Rukia's heart was the only thing she could hear. Never had she been so glad that her orange haired friend wasn't able to hear her. It was unnerving how aware she was that he hadn't stepped back to his original standing spot.

She shook her head to get her thoughts clear. She was angry. She had to remember that she was angry!

She tried to lower the window to get it open, only to her surprise, it wouldn't budge. When she tried again still nothing moved. She tried hitting the glass around the edges with the heel of her hand, anything to make it open. But still the window stayed closed, separating her from everything and everyone outside.

With a frustrated sigh, she drummed her fingers on the glass to get his attention back. Almost shyly Ichigo looked back at her. Their eyes locked in a clash of imperfect beauty of violet and amber.

To Rukia it was perfectly clear in his eyes. He was… nervous? But why?

She held up her index finger and walked to the compartment door, not waiting to see if Ichigo understood that she wanted him to wait for her to come back. Slowly peeking her head out the door, she looked up and down the hall for one of the personnel people the conductor had mentioned. A middle-aged blonde with showing brunette roots, wearing a uniform and fake smile walked over to Rukia with a very noticeable sway of her hips.

"Can I help you with something ma'am?"

Rukia didn't know what was more sickening. The sugary sweet voice the lady was using or that fact she was calling Rukia ma'am.

"Um, yes actually. The window in here won't open," she told the woman with the most polite smile she could conjure.

"Oh, I'm sorry ma'am but in that compartment the window is broken and doesn't open. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you."

Disappointment outweighing the anger building at the woman's snarky tone, Rukia slowly slide the door closed and gave a frustrated huff of breath. Walking back to the window, her eyes widened in discovery and a smile lit up her face as a solution to their problem popped into her head.

Digging in her coat pockets from where it laid on the seat, Rukia pulled out her phone and waved it in front of the window for Ichigo to see. He looked at the phone and back at her with a sheepish smile, as pulled out something from his coat pocket. There lying in his hand were bits of his cell phone, obviously gathered in a rush after having been smashed.

"You broke your phone." Rukia deadpanned. "How did that even happen?"

Fog of breath escaped Ichigo's mouth as he gave an angry sigh and stuffed the pieces back into his pocket, saying something unheard by Rukia. She tapped her fingernails against the glass in annoyance.

The train whistle drew everyone's attention and the crowd of people once again started to frantically wave goodbye to loved ones on the train that was about to depart.

Ichigo looked at Rukia through the window, nervousness etched on his face. In a rush, he said something to her while scratching the back of his neck, but Rukia was only able to see his mouth move.

"What?"

Rukia's breath once again fogged up the glass, so she didn't notice the dark blush gathering on Ichigo's face. He watched as she wiped the condensation from the window, his face full of concentration. Outside, the whistle blew again and train employees started closing the outside doors to enter the train.

Suddenly Ichigo exhaled on the window glass, successfully fogging it up. Using his index finger, in quick, straight motions, Ichigo began writing.

uoy evol I

Rukia stared at the words for a moment, trying to discern what he wrote. Idiot didn't realize he wrote it back words. She could hear the sound of the train about to go, the wheels groining as they begin to press forward.

The whistle blows once again and the words click inside Rukia's mind.

Man was she having a slow day.

Rukia looked at Ichigo with wide surprised eyes and laid her hand on the window, watching as he smiled shyly, still with the blush highlighting his face, and a hand up waving good bye. She looked at the words again and back at him, the train beginning to leave the station.

The train moved faster and faster till she could no longer see her best friend. She hadn't gotten to say anything back. She slowly sank into her seat, her eyes going back to the words that were slowly dripping down her window.

-IR-

Ichigo felt like an idiot.

He was sitting on a gray wooden bench, leaning his elbows on his knees. He held a wrapped box in his hands, flicking the pink bow at the top with his index finger. Beside him on the bench was a man in a suit, yelling into his cell phone something about missing his train, while slamming a fist down on his briefcase to make his point. Ichigo looked at the empty tracks where Rukia's train had once stood and let out a sigh.

He had planned for today to be so great for her so she wouldn't feel sad about leaving like he knew she was, but… everything had just gone wrong.

It started with his dad acting crazier than usual which shocked absolutely no one. The old man kept following him around the house as he was getting ready crying about how his third daughter was leaving him. Everyone who was going to come with him to the station to say goodbye called and told him they couldn't come anymore for whatever reason. He was already running late because he had to pick up Rukia's present, and then the line at the store was outrageously long. And to make matters worse, his phone fell out of his pocket while he was running to the station and it got run over by a car, breaking it to pieces.

And let's not even get started on the out of the blue decision to write on her window.

"Ichi-nii?" The orange haired boy looked away from the tracks to his sister, seeing her rub tears from her eyes. "The guy at the booth said they couldn't afford to stall the train any longer than a few minutes or else it could be dangerous with other scheduled trains coming in and all. But you got to say goodbye to her, didn't you?"

"Yeah, sort of."

"Sort of? What's that mean?" his other sister asked, fixing her red baseball hat.

Ichigo scratched the back of his head and a faint blush colored his cheeks. "Her window wouldn't open, so I didn't get to talk to her exactly."

"So you didn't get to give her your present?"

Ichigo sighed and slightly waved the wrapped present still in his hands. "Nope." Looking at the faces of his sisters, he shrugged and tried to muster up a grin. "Thanks for stalling the train you guys."

"You're welcome Ichi-nii!" Yuzu said with a big smile.

"Yeah, anything for you Ichigo," Karin said with a smirk, holding out her hand palm up.

Rolling his eyes, Ichigo stood up and took out money from his wallet, but really he knew that it was worth it. He knew that with how bad today was going; the only way he could pull this off was with his sisters' help. By playing the sympathy card for Yuzu, he had her crying to the conductor, giving him some sap story of how they lost their tickets. Karin was only a matter of how much cash he was willing to lose, though he knew without her stubborn and tough attitude he wouldn't have had the amount of time he did.

With a final look around the station, Ichigo placed his wallet and Rukia's gift back in his pockets. "Let's go home."

-IR-

"Ichigoooooo!"

His father's feet slammed into his face as Ichigo opened his front door. His sisters quickly walked inside while Ichigo flew back.

"Can I at least get through the door old man?!" Ichigo yelled, checking to make sure his nose wasn't bleeding.

"You're getting lazy my boy! Any son of mine should be able to dodge his father's attempts at sneak attacks!"

"Shut up," Ichigo mumbled as he punched his father, successfully propelling him to smash into the wall, "I was distracted ok?"

"Ah it must have something to do with my third daughter! No wonder she called and left you a message!" His father exclaimed with a smile as he jumped up and stood with his hands on hips.

"Rukia called?"

Ichigo ran to the phone and looked at the notepad his father insisted they keep for messages in case another doctor called. On a square piece of paper with Chappy's smiling face printed all over (a gift from Rukia to his dad in which he cried when receiving), in his dad's own messy handwriting, were the words:

Doctor Unohana…1 p.m. …Karakura Hospital… bring medical text as reference for procedure…

"Dad, what the hell?! Where is it?!"

"Where is what?"

"The message you idiot!"

"Well, it was only three words Ichigo. I didn't think it necessary to waste a piece of paper my precious third daughter gave me to write down three words."

It took all of Ichigo's self control not to punch his father again. Lord knows the man has enough brain damage.

"What did she say Dad?" he asked the black haired man through his teeth.

"She told me to tell you, 'Back at ya'."

"That's it?"

"Yup. Back at ya."

After a moment of thought, Ichigo's face lit up in an unguarded smile. His father stared first in surprise, then in delight, at the expression he hadn't seen in his young son for quite a while.

"Good news?" He asked in a slightly normal way, too afraid of being the one to ruin his son's smile.

"Very," the orange haired teen said, still having not noticed he was smiling.

With the distant look in his son's eyes, Isshin thought it ok to leave. He turned to leave and go see if his daughters had enjoyed the train station.

"Dad?"

Finally his son was reaching out to him and willing to talk! Isshin did a victory mental dance as he turned back to his son, ready to have his long awaited father-son moment.

"Yes son?"

"I need a new cell phone."

Isshin's sobs were heard throughout the neighborhood that night.

-IR-

Apparently there was another one I finished. Huh.

Anywho, I hope to continue more of these if I have the time and can remember where exactly I was going with the story. I have to warn you all though, time is going to skip around a lot. Hopefully, I can fix it when I'm done, but for now I'll post whenever I have the time.

As always, comments and criticism are appreciated! Thanks for reading!