Disclaimer: We do not own Bleach...yet. Muahaha. -clears throats- Right. Since this is a co-written story, it is posted under both Lendra-Chan and M.C., thus we both get equal credit for it. Understand that it is NOT by any means copied and/or stolen. It was an agreement on both parts of the authoresses. Thank you.

B. A/N: Hey there!! So, this here is the first chapter of what started as a roleplay between me and my awesome mexican boyfriend Lendra-Chan. (Haha. A joke between us.) Anyway, we thought it was pretty clever, and decided that since it was getting to be over 60 some-odd pages long, we should probably do something with it. So -theme music- Dun dun da daaaa! Here it is!

A. A/N: Okay, now it's LENDRA-CHAN'S TURN TO POST! Yeah, so that is Britney, my weirdo nucleus girlfriend (that consists along the same joking lines as the Mexican boyfriend bit) and we decided, ah HELL! It's pretty fricken' sweet if you ask me. However, this is a role play, so there is going to be rather…different situations that one wouldn't really expect in a regular story. Oh, and by the way, I TOTALLY thought up the title. -cackles maniacally- OH! And since Britney FAILED to mention this, I suppose I will. :3 The characters I played in the role play were - Ichigo, Kon, Renji, Hitsugaya, Urahara, Kira, SHIROSAKIIII, and additional characters Keigo, Mizuiro etc. I also started it off. -heart- … basically, I played every male…

Characters: (who wrote who B: See? I was getting to it...you impatient person, you...)
Ichigo (And most other males): Alendra.
Rukia (And most other females): Britney.

CINNAMON BLUES: An IchiRuki Story

AKA: "Good Morning. I Love You. Who Are You?"

Chapter 1

“Oy... Oy, ------! C'mon, it's time to get up!...”

His fist was firmly knocking on his closet door; the sound echoing in the room. It always did this. Every morning and every night...

“HEY, ----!! I don't want to pull this damn closet open to see you changing so you'd better open up!!...”

It was a familiar feeling. It was welcoming. But his patience didn't accept the delay. He layed his hands upon the closet after a few more seconds of silence as his answer. He hesitated - as he always had- before roughly sliding his closet open to his awakening once more--

“--!!”

Chocolate eyes shot open as he had abruptly awakened from the dream. It was the same dream he had almost every night. As soon as he'd open his closet, he'd wake up and be left to ponder the meaning of such a dream.

“...Ugh...Damn dreams...”

He agonizingly rubbed his eyes as he tried to forget the bothersome dream and fall back asleep. His head was aching and he'd be getting up for school in less than four hours. Finding it impossible to dwindle back to slumber, he glanced over at the journal lying on his table beside his bed. He knew it wasn't the one he had before but he couldn't remember where the other one had gone and this one had every date from the day he received the other journal, so what was the use...?

He reached over and grabbed it - flipping through the pages and landing on a familiar entry and reading it to himself

My name is Kurosaki Ichigo. Sophemore class three, age 16. I have brown eyes and Orange hair - no, it's not dyed. I've been living my normal, ghost filled life as regularly as always. A few come to bug me every now and then, but it's never different... But recently, I've been having these weird dreams... Really weird...

--

“Get up!”

The voice was urgent as it wafted through the thin wooden door. Rolling over, she pulled the covers over her head.

“Mmm...”

She groaned as her intruder's insistent knocking continued. She wondered what on Earth could possibly be more important than sleep at the moment.

“Rukia! Get up!”

She threw back the covers. She was used to it by now. This happened nearly every morning and had become quite the routine. If she didn't get up soon, he'd just-

“Don't make me open this door!”

She reached for the door herself, wrenching it open herself, the bright light from the room beyond nearly blinding her.

“I'm up, alrea-!”

Her eyes blinked open as she realized that everything had been a dream, once again.

“Miss Rukia, you need to get up.”

That was not the same voice as before. Taking in her surroundings, she noticed that she was no longer in the closet she had been sleeping in moments before. But why on Earth had she been sleeping in a closet in the first place? Even if it was a dream?

“What time is it?”

She glanced around the room looking for a clock. A short balding man stood by the door, looking concerned.

“Are you alright, Miss Rukia?”

She nodded, feeling as though she'd forgotten something.

“Just a dream, that's all.” Finally, she spotted it! The clock on the wall ticked loudly. Her eyes grew wide. “Oh no! I'm going to be late!”

Hurrying toward the closet, she ignored the man behind her, who'd begun to list off what was available for breakfast at the diner just below the motel she was staying in.

--

“IIIIIIIchigooooo!! Wake up already, damnit!” The voice was distinctly male and echoing behind his eyelids.

“Who...who is it...” He heard himself asking sleepily.

“W-Who is i--.. Why you! Bastard Ichigo! It's me ! Nee-san's already waiting for you at school, lazy ass! GET UP!”

He groaned as the voice seemed to get farther and farther away. “Nee-...what?”

The voice seemed to growl something else, but it was too far away for him to catch. He opened his eyes and gave a groan-morning. Slowly, Ichigo sat up, running a hand through his orange locks.

“...Ugh, my head...” He glanced at the clock beside his bed and chocked on his next intake of breath. “Sh-SHIT! I'm going to be late! Damnit, where's Yuzu and Dad when I need 'em?!”

--

Her footsteps echoed off the pavement as she took several turns down random alleyways in hopes of making it to class on time.

“I can't believe it...”

She hadn't bothered to eat anything before leaving, though the landlord of the motel had insisted on it. She hurried down another alley.

“Dammit! Isn't there a faster route? Oof!” She ran into something hard. Falling backward, she landed hard on the ground. “Ouch...”

She looked up to see a boy standing before her. For some reason, his orange hair gave her the strange feeling she'd seen him somewhere before.

Ichigo felt the little collision and roughly turned around to snap at the person who had run into him so carelessly in his hurry. However, his eyes met with the familiar sapphire iris' of the girl disheveled on the ground.

“Oh! Um.. Y'okay?”

Rukia blinked slowly, the brown eyes of the boy she'd bumped into boring into her own.

“I-I'm fine. Are you okay?” She felt herself turn red, though she could hardly understand why.

His eyebrows furrowed down into a scowl as they always did as his lips shifted into a pout at the girl's odd reaction.

“Yeah - I'm fine.” He coughed and held out a hand to her to assist the small girl in getting up off the concrete ground.

She could sense that the boy was annoyed. Instead of taking the hand that was offered to her, she knocked it aside.

“I'm fine. I can get up myself.” She hurried to her feet awkwardly and began to brush off her skirt.

Ichigo was surprised by her vulgar response and shoved his knocked off hand into his pocket irately and snuffed in irritancy.

“Big talk for someone who fell in the first place...” He mumbled under his breath.

Noticing that the boy didn't appear to be moving, she glared in his direction, wondering if he was expecting some sort of apology.

“Well, he's certainly not going to get one now...” she thought bitterly.

Ichigo humphed loudly as he briskly turned his back to her and continued to walk down the side walk quickly.

“Good riddance!”

Rukia watched as the boy stalked away. Though many streams of angry words were rushing through her mind at that moment, she was still bothered by the thought that she was certain she'd seen that scowl before.

“But where...”

She was quite aware that those passing by were certain to think that she was insane for talking aloud to herself like that, but she didn't seem to care. She wanted to know who that boy was and why he seemed so familiar to her.

“Hmmm...”

It took her a moment to realize that he was walking in the direction of her school.

Ichigo was walking with an annoyed slump to his shoulders as he stomped rather immaturely; Her insensitive reaction to his rarely given compliance had grated at his nerves more so than it should of and was already putting a damper on his already bad day. However, he couldn't shake off the familiarity of her indifference.

“Hmph, what should I care... damn bitch...” he muttered darkly.

Rukia hurried down the hallway leading toward her classroom, knowing that she was going to get in trouble for being late, and doing her best to shove the boy from her mind. Her hand reached hesitantly for the handle to the door, turning it slowly.

“Rukia-chan!”

Keigo Asano smiled brightly as she entered the room. A young woman to his right smiled as well and waved happily, her long red hair dancing about her waist.

'Why are you so late? You left before I did!'

The voice from the dream was back. It came from somewhere to her left. As she turned to face the source, she was brought back to reality by another sound behind her.

Rukia blinked. She was still standing in front of the classroom door, her hand resting on the handle. Behind her stood the orange haired boy she'd met on the street.

Ichigo scratched his head through his hair and grit his teeth.

“Oy, oy! What's with the delay?! You --” He paused as he recognized her and faltered. “S-Since when did you have my first class!!” He pointed at her brutishly.

Rukia kept her cool, even though the boy appeared more infuriating than before. “Your first class? And what makes this classroom yours?” She was both surprised and proud at how easily the comeback slipped from her mouth.

He growled and grit his teeth, slapping a hand down onto her head in order to make their difference in height painfully obvious.

“That ain't the point, y'a little--”

The classroom door was abruptly torn open as the teacher stood before them looking royally pissed.

“Kuchiki!! Kurosaki! What is the meaning of this! Get into this class immediately! We've got new seating!”

Rukia pushed her way past the boy into the classroom. The teacher moved back toward her desk, still glaring in their direction.

“Well! Are you just going to stand there?” she asked, gaping at them. “Your seats are just behind Asano and Inoue. Move!” Rukia looked back at the classroom, suddenly feeling very confused. It hit her as soon as she looked at the students before her. She had no idea who any of these people were.

Ichigo glanced at her and snuffed - quickly redirecting his gaze in the opposite direction.

“So she's a transfer student -- and she sits next to me...”

He somehow wanted to feel...relieved - though half of him wanted to feel more so irritated.

“Great.”

Rukia wished the boy would hurry and find his seat so she could stop standing there looking like an idiot. If one of them didn't sit down soon, she was certain the teacher was going to blow a fuse.

“After you...” she said coolly, gesturing for the boy to move first.

He growled and fisted a hand in his pocket at her cool demeanor.

“Why that condescending little...”

He snappishly groaned as he sourly walked to his seat, barely offering a glance to his friend Keigo as he passed by.

She resisted the urge to smile as he sat down in his seat. There was an empty seat next to him, behind a girl with...incredibly long red hair. Rukia froze.

“Do I...know her?” Shaking her head, she drove the thought from her mind. “Of course I know her. She's in my class...She's...She's...”.She ravaged her brain for a name.

“Behind Asano and Inoue.”

“She must be Inoue. Sounds like a girls name to me...”

Realizing she was merely standing by her desk, she sat down quickly, avoiding the strange glances she received from the students around her. Especially the orange-haired boy to her left, who seemed to have taken an interest in staring at her.

Ichigo gave a loud sigh as he quickly glanced out the window in irritation. Keigo had turned around to make small talk with the girl and Ichigo attempted to keep his eyes focused on the chalk board - which he was finding very difficult to do. He prayed for class to end as soon as possible.

--

The bell for lunch was greatly welcomed, giving the students leave to go about their usual routines. Rukia, however, sat in her seat, unsure of where she was supposed to go; or rather, what she was supposed to do.

“Are you coming?”

The girl she believed to be Inoue had stopped in front of her desk, smiling broadly. Rukia looked around to see if she might have been talking to someone behind her.

“Huh? Me?”

Inoue giggled and grabbed Rukia by the arm, dragging her from the room. “Stop being so silly! Come eat with us!”

Ichigo watched as Inoue dragged the reluctant girl off for an estrogen party. He rubbed his temples wearily as he followed Keigo and his excited rambling about 'the new girl’.

“Keigo, seriously. She's not all that amazing.” That's what he had said, though something was contradicting his presumption in the back of his mind.

“Sit!” Inoue insisted, tugging on Rukia's arm.

Rukia gave in reluctantly and stared at the girls surrounding her. Finally, their faces began to become clearer to her, as if she HAD seen them before. However, they were still entirely nameless.

“Are you going to eat anything?” Inoue asked, looking at Rukia's empty hands.

Rukia looked down. She had completely forgotten to pack a lunch. How on Earth had she forgotten to do that?

“That's right. I was late.”

“That's all right!” Inoue smiled, if possible, even wider. “You can just share with me!”

She held out a box of something Rukia couldn't quite place a name to.

She shook her head politely. “No thank you.”

Inoue shrugged, and began to eat heartily, causing crumbs to spill down her uniform. Ignoring the strange rumbling that had started in her stomach at the sight of the food before her, she focused on something past them. In the distance, she could see a group of boys. A flash of bright orange caused her to jump.

That boy was over there. That annoying, rude, pain-in-the-ass boy. Rukia had half a mind to march over to him and tell him exactly what she thought of him. However, Rukia frowned. She couldn't possibly do that. Not when she couldn't explain it to herself...

“Why...” She asked herself. “Why is it suddenly hard for me to breathe?”

Lunch had been particularly systematic as always. Keigo had been his usual melodramatic self while Mizuiro simply dealt with his attitude by dangling bait in the form of witty comebacks. However, Keigo's focus had been narrowed on Rukia in particular. Why he had singled out such a girl was perplexing enough. Sure, she was new; but she wasn't exactly Keigo's normal form of attention. Ichigo scowled to himself and groaned in frustration as he bit into his sandwich in irritation; humbly ignoring the awkward stares he received from his fellow lunch mates.

“I wonder what Ichigo's eating right now.” Inoue said aloud between large bites of what looked like a giant loaf of bread.

The girl sitting next to her rolled her eyes. “You say this every lunch. Why don't you just ask him sometime?”

Inoue blushed and shook her head. “I couldn't possibly ask such a personal question, Tatsuki!"

'Tasuki' sighed deeply and continued eating her lunch. Rukia looked back and forth from them, feeling quite out of the loop.

“You can ask ME what I have for lunch, 'Hime!” A girl to Rukia's left said, batting her eyes behind a fancy pair of glasses. “I'd be GLAD to tell you...”

Tatsuki glared at the girl in what seemed to be a very protective manner. Once again, Rukia felt quite confused. Finally, she decided to go for it. She asked the question she probably shouldn't have asked.

"Who’s Ichigo?”

Ichigo stopped mid-bite and his face started to scrunch up suddenly.

"Yo...Ichi, you okay?" Mizuiro asked, peering at his friend curiously before Ichigo suddenly blew up with a large sneeze.

He sniffed loudly and rubbed his nose; shying away from the echo his sneeze had caused and cleared his throat - abruptly ignoring the frightened scattering birds and the excessive stares from even more students.

“Fine...just feeling the after affects of being talked about behind my back...”

The group of girls jumped at the sound of someone sneezing far off. Inoue turned to stare in the direction of the boys. When she turned back to them, her eyes were wide.

“That was him! I know it was!”

Rukia blinked slowly, still waiting for the answer to her question.

Tatsuki tried to ignore her friend. “What do you mean 'Who's Ichigo?' You've known him for ages now, Rukia.”

Rukia blinked again. “I...have? Oh...” She nodded quickly, deciding to back herself out of the tight spot she'd just put herself in. “Of course I have! I remember now! I'm sorry...”

Tatsuki shook her head, as Rukia avoided her gaze. “Sad really. And to think you forgot the name of the person you showed up late with this morning...”

Rukia's head shot up.

Ichigo sniffed and stared off rather irritably after finishing off the last of his sandwich. Suddenly, his shoulders were abruptly seized as Keigo insistently shook him, demanding his attention.

“Ichigo-Ichigo-Ichigooo!!”

Ichigo growled and delivered a uppercut, snapping at his friend. “What the hell, Keigo! Whaddya want?!”

Keigo sniffed as he quickly recovered from he blow. “You can't just ignore me like this, Ichigo! I was asking you a question! What are your thoughts on the new girl?!”

Ichigo gave him a hooded stare and snuffed in displeasure. “I have no thoughts on 'the new girl'.”

Ichigo quickly brushed Keigo's hands from his shoulders as Keigo stared in horror at his blunt reply.

“Why do you look so surprised?” Tatsuki asked, staring at Rukia, whose focus seemed to be somewhere to the left of her shoulder. Suddenly, Tatsuki's eyes grew wide. She seemed to understand, though she was rather confused, herself. “You really didn't-”

BRRRIIIIINNGG!!

The bell sounded loudly over the grounds, beckoning the children back to class. For the rest of the day, Rukia found it hard to ignore that boy to the left of her.

Ichigo...

The name echoed through her mind like some old memory.

Ichigo...

Ichigo felt her insistent stare on his back and tried his best to not make eye contact with her. It was bad enough he was living in a haze of constant de ja vu with her around, but having the feeling of her sapphire eyes boring into him was enough to set his spine on chills.

--

A/N: Okay, so that's the end of the first chapter. We have a lot of chapter splitting up to do, but hey, who needs to do homework/sleep anyway? Tell us please if you like it, so we'll keep going. We leave you with a lovely little conversation that came up while discussing possible titles:

B: Okay, first though, we need a title

B: Memoirs of a Shinigami was the cleverest one I could think of

B: But I think that's taken

B: or or or SHINIGAMI: A SOAP OPERA

A: Memory Riddles?

B: Solving a Memory

A: I like quirky titles

B: I dunno...mine are usually like clever...

A: I kinda want riddles to be in the title for some reason

A: Speaking in Riddles

A: Speaking in Riddles sounds cool

B: Yeah, the only problem with that...is yeah, Riddles come into play, but some people may not get it...

B: Omg...we should put this argument in our A/N

B: be like: TITLE Discussion

A: LMFAO yes.

A: wow

A: we're dorks

B: A Smutty Story That Wasn't Supposed To Be Smutty

A: well - speaking in riddles would make sense to those who are smart :-)

A: and that would just motivate the horny ones, dear...:-)

It goes on for a while, but we didn't really want to bore you. So yes, that gives you a little sneak peek into the future, and since we agreed to rate it M, we can pretty much do whatever we want with it. :-) Hope you enjoyed it and please review. -Waves Happily- Bai bai!!