Title: The Hook-Up
Category: Bleach
Pairing(s): Ichigo/Rukia (among others)
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: T (rating may change; not too sure)

Summary: – AU – Love, parties, work, and reliable friends. Charm, lies, treachery, and deceit. The businessman, the rich princess, and the vengeful, overprotective girlfriend. He’s dating someone who drives him up the wall on a daily basis, and she’s looking for someone without all the baggage. But what Rukia didn’t know is that things tend to get dangerous when you go after someone else’s man.

December’s Note: As soon as this idea popped into my mind I had to put it on paper (the computerized kind XD). Anyway, to those who are reading “Welcome to My So-Called Life”, don’t worry. I have NOT abandoned it. But this idea was screaming at me, and well, here it is. I hope you can review with honest opinions. Give it a shot. I know I am!

I also would like to thank Zapenbits for giving me some feedback and confidence. Thank you so much!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach or any of its wonderful characters.

I. Chapter ONE: Encounters Including Coffee

The majority of everyone who has been alive can honestly say that they’ve had at least one experience that was just plain…well, crazy. Between, let’s say, parties, work, schoolwork (for some), parties, drinking at the parties, sleeping, and probably more parties, there probably wasn’t much time for anything else. Like, common sense, for example. If you do or pursue something you want without thinking, the consequences are either good or bad.

Mostly bad.

But then you have the instances where everything turns out exactly the way you want it to and then everything is all hunky-dory. But when you go after something that isn’t “nailed down”, in a sense, well…not everyone goes down without a fight.

“You’re insane.”

That was the first thing Rukia Kuchiki heard as she sat up in bed. This wasn’t happening. She looked over at the clock that read eight o’ clock in blaring red letters. Then she looked out the window to see that the sun was proudly shining through, its rays spilling out over her bed, onto the floor, and striking the wall. And then she turned her attention to the voice beside her. It was odd; her sister standing next to her bed with a cup of coffee. Rukia frowned and looked around the room; something wasn’t right.

“What?” Rukia said groggily, running a tired hand through her ruffled raven hair, “What are you… What the… How did you…get in here?”

“I told the lady downstairs that I’m your sister and that I needed to talk to you.” Hisana Kuchiki , her three years older sister, answered promptly with a smile.

“Ugh… And she believed you?”

“Of course. She actually thought that we were twins at first.”

Well, Rukia could certainly imagine that. She and Hisana did look rather similar. About the only thing that told them apart was the fact that Rukia was much shorter than Hisana and her eyes were a deep violet color other than dark brown.

But none of that mattered at the time. Rukia was too busy being just a little ticked that the tenant-owner or whoever the hell she was would just give the key to her penthouse to just anyone, even if it was Hisana.

Rukia yawned, “Yeah, right. Remind me to kill her later.”

“Oh, come on, baby sister. It’s not that big of a deal.” Hisana said with a roll of her eyes as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“Yes, it is. What if a psycho killer had come looking for me instead? I’d be dead by now and he’d be on his way to Tahiti in a jet plane.” She jerked her thumb at the sky as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“You’re over-exaggerating, Rukia.” Hisana said, deadpanning with a sigh.

“No, I’m not.” She stood from the bed reluctantly with a sigh while stretching her arms in the air. She scratched her head and walked over to the mirror that rested atop her dresser. God, she looked like hell.

Her shoulder length raven black hair was a complete and utter mess that rested on her head and her eyes just screamed ‘I didn’t get any sleep last night’. But who could blame her? She worked as co-owner of an interior design company and she had been up all night with some woman talking about the difference between red and scarlet and how it affected someone’s need to eat.

Rukia didn’t really understand what the woman had been talking about, but she had learned one thing in the seven years she had been working with anyone or for anyone: the customer/client is always right. No matter what.

She blinked a few times before remembering why she had woken up in the first place. She turned back to her sister swiftly with a skeptical look in her eyes, “Why did you say that?”

“What?” Hisana asked while looking over the rim of her coffee mug. Well, Rukia’s coffee mug.

“I’m not insane.” Rukia countered.

“Yes, you are.”

“Why?”

“For hiring that girl.”

“What? I didn’t hire her; Rangiku did.” Rukia said, leaning against the dresser and folding her arms. It was true; her best friend and practical sister, Rangiku Matsumoto, hired the new girl. But she had every right to; Rangiku had practically built the company on her own. In Rukia’s mind, she had only helped out a little but Rangiku insisted that she run the place with her six years ago. So, she accepted.

“I don’t like her.” Hisana said, looking at the wall.

Rukia held in a groan; Hisana usually didn’t like the people that were hired at Inner Spirits, Matsu’s Designs, the design company. Granted, the last person who was hired was a bit of a nut job… That doesn’t mean that everyone is that way, right? Right.

“You don’t even know her…”

“Neither do you. What’s her name, anyway?”

“That’s real good; judging someone who you’ve never even seen before…” Rukia waved her hand sardonically.

“Oh, shush.”

“Anyway, her name’s…uh…” Rukia searched her mind. Come on! We just hired her last week… “Oh! Orihime Inoue. Or something like that…”

“Hm…” Hisana sat in silence for a moment, “She sounds like a bimbo.”

“Ugh!” Rukia groaned at her sister’s rudeness. She pushed herself off of the dresser and trailed into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Sometimes you’ll get into a relationship and everything is wonderful. Both of the people are happy and they love each other, they get married, have children, the whole kit-and-caboodle. And everyone’s happy with absolutely no regrets whatsoever.

That’s what a lot of people call ‘love at first sight’.

But then you have the relationships where the couple hates each others’ guts. Or one person hates the other and they don’t even know it. They find the craziest excuses to stay together and everyone realizes it except for them. They fight over every little thing. They’re always together, but either one or both of them hate it.

Funny how things work out, isn’t it?

This is what was running through the mind of Ichigo Kurosaki as he sat on the couch in his living room, straightening his tie. The orange haired man sighed heavily as he figured what he would do for the day. Well, for one, he needed to go to work; that’s a given. That didn’t change the fact that he didn’t want to go.

Sure, working at Seireitei Enterprises had its perks but his boss had no perks at all. What was he thinking? That guy couldn’t be perky to save his life. Hell, Ichigo never even remembered seeing the guy smile. Not once! In all honesty, Ichigo didn’t know why he was hired. Byakuya Kuchiki didn’t have to voice his opinion; he already knew that the man hated him. But the corporation paid good money (very good money) so Ichigo couldn’t complain too much.

Plus, he was pleasantly surprised to see some of his friends from college working there as well. So, maybe work wasn’t so bad after all.

It was after work that bothered him.

“Ichigo! I didn’t know you were up. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

Ichigo turned around at the soft voice of his girlfriend. She had her usual smile on and was brushing her long, strawberry blonde hair while walking down the six steps from the bedroom and into the living room.

“I…didn’t want to disturb you.” Ichigo answered rather bluntly. It annoyed some, but that was just who he was. He was honest and direct.

Orihime Inoue walked around to the back of the couch and hugged him around his shoulders. He had to refrain from scowling. It’s not that he flat out hated her, it was just that… Well, she could get annoying sometimes.

Okay, most of the time.

“Well, that was sweet of you, but you know I have to start my new job today! I don’t wanna be late!” Orihime exclaimed while straightening her jeans and tan, semi-frilly tank top. She was overly happy about the job. She loved doing design work and this place had an opening. It was pretty strange; in her opinion, the interview had gone horrible, but here she was, waking up at 9am and going to work.

Ichigo sighed as he stood. He didn’t really feel like coming back home to Orihime’s…well, her peppiness. He thought it was amazing that she could be so happy all the time, but not today. Today, he had a headache.

“Well, I’m gonna head on to work.” Ichigo said while grabbing his briefcase, “I’ll see you tonight.”

“When will you be home?”

“Uh… I’m not really sure. Kuchiki’s got me and some others working on some reports. I’ve got a shareholders’ meeting at three, and you know how long those take…” He was vaguely reminded of the last meeting’s unexpected outburst.

“All right, then.” Orihime stood in front of him and straightened his tie and black suit jacket a little more with a smile, “Have a good day.”

Ichigo let a small smile cross onto his face, “You, too. Good luck with your first day.”

“Thanks.” She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips, “See you tonight.”

“I’ll try not to be too late.” Ichigo said as he looked at his watch one last time and made his way out the door. He smiled a little to himself as he pressed the ‘1’ button on the elevator. So what Orihime was happy all the time? She was a good person with a better personality. That was why he started dating her a year ago in the first place.

Rukia pulled on a silk, long sleeved, spring green button up blouse that had a V-neck with a small ruffle trim around the neckline along with a pair of black dress pants. She pinned her hair back with a black butterfly clip that Hisana had given her when she was younger. She left the occasional pieces hanging on either side of her head as well as in her face as she grabbed her purse and headed down the stairs of her home.

She noticed her sister sitting on the couch watching television. Rukia rolled her eyes in amusement while she pulled on a pair of flat shoes, “So, tell me. What are you doing here anyway? Why aren’t you with your husband?”

A few years ago, Hisana had married a man named Byakuya Kuchiki. He was an odd man; he never really showed any type of emotion. He was a rich man, being born into a rich family, thus making his wife rich as well, and so on and so forth. A lot of people believed that Hisana only married him for his money, but that simply was not true. She really did love him. And even though he had a strange way of showing it, he loved her, too. Probably more than words could express anyway.

“He left early this morning. A meeting with the shareholders, among other things.” Hisana answered while sipping her coffee, “You know, you really should get a better selection of coffee. Or stop drinking it. You have way too much of it. They say it stunts your growth.”

Rukia’s eye twitched while giving her sister an ‘are you kidding me?’ look as she filled her own travel mug with coffee, “I am not short. Don’t even start.”

“Who are you trying to convince? I never said you were short.”

“But you implied it.” The petite twenty-eight year old pointed out while grabbing a folder that had Chappy the Rabbit on it.

What? It was her favorite cartoon as a child and it just so happened to follow her into adulthood.

“I didn’t imply anything. You’re in denial.” Hisana smirked.

Rukia huffed in irritancy as she walked to the door, “Lock up when you leave. But if you’re going to stay here all day, then don’t let anyone in here; I don’t care who it is.”

“Okay. Love you. Have a good day and try not to stress yourself out.”

“Love you, too. Thanks, and I’ll try.” Rukia mumbled as she took the stairs down to the bottom floor. She lived on the sixth floor, so it wasn’t too much trouble. Besides, she had a thing about elevators. She didn’t take them unless it was absolutely required for her to do so.

She had a car, but she never really took it to work. She usually walked wherever she went; Karakura Town was big but not that big. Still, there just so happened to be a lot of other people wandering around the street today to go to work. Rukia grumbled as she weaved her way past people to avoid slamming into one of them. Why couldn’t they just take cars? She knew they had them.

She sighed while taking a sip of her coffee. She loved coffee and didn’t care whether it stunted her growth or not. Screw that. It was just a rumor anyway; just something that parents tell their kids but isn’t necessarily fact or truth. Like, Santa, for example. He wasn’t real, but parents proceeded to tell their children that he was.

Lesson number one: thinking about stupid things like that, not paying attention to where you’re going, and rounding a corner is not a good idea at all.

Rukia learned this firsthand as she slammed straight into someone’s chest, sending her coffee flying all over her blouse and face. She spluttered with her eyes closed and let out a surprised gasp.

This is the high point of my day. Rukia thought sarcastically while opening her eyes and staring down at her shirt. Great. She was going to walk into work with a huge coffee stain on her shirt. She looked over at the folder to make sure it wasn’t damaged.

It wasn’t. But her shirt was.

Rukia looked up at the man who had just bumped into her and was surprised. For one thing, he was taller than she (but then again, almost everybody is). He had a handsome face and he was wearing a business suit that actually had a matching tie (unlike so many other people she knew). But what shocked her most was his hair. It was spiky and orange. Bright orange. And it clashed with his chocolate eyes nicely. At least she thought so.

He sort of just…stared down at her with a raised eyebrow. He probably thought she looked rather odd, what, with her arms raised near her shoulders and coffee all over her. She watch him look down at himself with a look of surprise and that was when she realized that he had coffee all over him, too. He glared at her.

“Hey, watch where you’re goin’!” He said rather rudely as he attempted to wipe away the stain. It wasn’t working.

“What?!” Rukia geared back with a look of sheer incredulity. Was this guy serious?

“You heard me. Watch. Where. You’re. Go-ing.” He said slowly with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“You bumped into me!” Rukia contradicted with an intense glare.

“No, I didn’t! You weren’t watching where you were going! You ran into me!”

“If that’s true, then why didn’t you move? You weren’t watching where you were going either, obviously, carrot top!” Rukia retorted. The guy scowled at her fiercely, but she wasn’t intimidated.

He then smirked, “Well, I’ll try not to hold it against you. I mean, after all, it must be pretty hard to see from all the way down there, huh, midget?”

Rukia’s mouth formed a shocked and appalled O. She narrowed her eyes at the man. No. No, he didn’t. He did not just call her a midget. In that split second of staring at him intensely, Rukia came up with a million ways to kill this guy and get away with it.

She wasn’t sure when it happened, but it did. She kicked him harshly in the leg and then shoved past him, storming down the street. She didn’t want to wait around and hear his next string of insults, but it was sweet and satisfactory to hear his yelp of pain as he held his leg.

She ended up power walking the rest of the way to work with murderous intent written all over her usual calm face. Who did that guy think he was? Really? How dare he offend her in such a manner? Granted, she had insulted him first, but still! She had never met someone so rude, so arrogant, so irritatingly annoying, so…freaking cute.

Rukia shook her head. It didn’t matter how hot the guy was. He was a jerk. She had only known him for a few minutes and there were so many more obscene words to describe him, but that one repeated itself over and over and over.

She rounded a few corners before shoving open the doors to the building which she worked. Storming up the stairs (because she felt she would explode if she waited for the elevator to take her to the twelfth floor), she pushed the door open and marched into the office. She was so beyond frustrated; she didn’t know what to do with herself.

“Aaargh!” She yelled as she slammed the folder on the large white table that was in the middle of the room. It was going to be a long day.

December’s Note: Well, there it is. Thanx for reading (and hopefully reviewing)!

December.