A/n: Okay so there's good news and there's bad news and I will start with the bad because the good will (hopefully) make you forget the bad (hopefully). Bad news is, this is a short chapter. Good news is, next chapter will be longer. That said, I would like to take a moment to thank those of you who took the time to leave feedback. You guys were great! I will personally get back to you anyway because I always do but I just had to say it! Thank you so much!

Warning(s): except a little swearing, none.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

On Top of the World

"Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss."

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Ichigo jerked awake, the word "peppermint" escaping his lips as the last vestiges of the weird dream he had been having slowly faded into nothingness, the heaviness of sleep gradually lifting from him as he became more alert and better aware of his surroundings. He noticed with some confusion that he was alone on the couch, the shirt Rukia had borrowed had been left neatly folded on the coffee table before him and there was a lingering scent in the air, a blend of spicy tea and crispy bacon, that quickly overpowered his senses. He stretched languidly until the bones of his back gave a pleasant and satisfying pop before he stood and made his way over to the kitchen.

There was a tray on one of the countertops in which a cup of steaming green tea had been arranged along with some toast, a side of yoghurt with raisins and a plate with bacon and eggs. Next to it was a folded note, bunny faces drawn on the outside (the artistry abysmal at best). Ichigo widened and narrowed his eyes several times, trying his best to clear the drowsiness from them so he could read.

"Off to work. Thank you (abysmal smiling bunny face). Have a good practice today.

- Rukia

P.s., Buy healthier food, idiot. (abysmal angry bunny face)

He rolled his eyes and pocketed the note in one of the pockets of his sweatpants before he took a seat on one of the stools of the kitchen bar that the house had come with, ready to dig in. The TV mounted on the wall right next to the fridge had been left on with the morning news and he was able to catch the last of the sports broadcast before they moved on to a different segment.

"In entertainment news: it's over! Girls all over Japan will be delighted to know that Ichigo Kurosaki is officially back on the market. The famous soccer sensation has called it quits with his year and a half girlfriend Mashiro Kuna. Sources claim the reason behind the sudden unexpected end to their heated romance remains unknown. Kurosaki could not be reached for comment—"

Ichigo walked over to the device and turned it off, eyes hooded and lips set into a straight line. There had been a moment in his career where having his personal life invaded upon like this had made him angry to the point where he would become withdrawn from the world and he would drown in his own sulkiness, never allowing those that cared about him to reach him. Rukia had changed that. She never failed to knock some sense into him (sometimes literally) when he needed it most and was always able to bring him back to his comfort zone where he was able to relax and start over with a clean slate whenever he was at the end of his rope.

"Fame is a fickle thing," she had said to him once. "It'll pass."

He sighed, knowing that she was right. One day they would grow tired of him. For him, that day could not come soon enough.

-O-o-O-

Rukia boarded her limited edition white Range Rover (a gift from her brother for graduating law school at the top of her class) and exited Ichigo's house, intent on stopping by her penthouse apartment (also a gift from her brother for graduating law school at the top of her class) to shower and get dressed before she went to work. For some reason she couldn't dispose of the feeling that something was...off. Having never been one for superstition or unfounded suspicions, she brushed it off and continued about her day as she normally did.

From a few cars behind her, pictures of her were snapped from all possible angles. They tried to zero in on her face but were unable to take a good clear shot because of the discretion that had to be taken in order to take the pictures without the target finding out.

"Is that good enough?" the driver asked.

"Yeah, that's good," the photographer said, scrolling through the pictures. "We'll get her face later. Now we just need her name..."

-O-o-O-

Pre-season.

If there was a phase of training that all athletes universally despised it was pre-season. It was grueling, bodies were constantly being pushed to their limit and exhaustion allowed them to do nothing more than shower and go to bed after the day was done since they had to wake up early the next day to do everything all over again. The Goteijūsantai F.C had won the title 8 years in a row and they attributed their success to the rigorous work put into this particular part of the season. Renowned for signing only the best talent in the nation, they believed that it was in pre-season that teams won championships and they grilled their players during the time period to get them in the shape that would allow them to play at the peak of their performance. No less was expected from the wealthiest club in the league. It was something they took pride on.

Ichigo led the team on a fine friday morning as they warmed up, all players equally dressed in their Adidas practice attire which consisted of a black muscle shirt combined with black pants and dark knee-length socks with dark cleats. For approximately 40 minutes, they worked their resistance on the vast expanse of the dewy, dark green turf of their stadium. The trainer would blow the whistle and they would sprint for close to a minute across the field before the trainer blew the whistle again and they returned to their regular jogging pace. When resistance work was done, they had 10 minutes to stretch before they moved on to strength.

In the strength phase of training, all players worked on push-ups, sit-ups, torso rotation, back flexors, lunges, squats and calf-raises before they moved on to work with resistance bands, followed by medicine ball workout. It went on for close to an hour before they moved on to speed training. Medium-length orange cones were spread sporadically around the field for speed training and they had to sprint and change directions throughout the field under an appointed time and do several reps of the same drill to be done. After getting through the three phases, they went on to get practice started.

During pre-season practices, players were to get the feel for the ball and the proportion of the field until they became one with both. They worked on their footwork and their stamina, sharpening their techniques for the coming season. Ichigo displayed his fast striker skills early on. He defeated his opposition by crossing the ball and dribbling off and he was very adept at using both his feet and head to score. He also was a skillful winger, he could defend other players with his pace and dribbling and he had a good power hit, especially for free kicks. The players were always blown away by his skills, for being so young, he displayed a knowledge for the game never seen before. It was no wonder he was the best soccer player in all of Asia!

After practice was done, they hit the showers and Ichigo was blessedly grateful for the warmth that seemed to seep through every pore of his skin. He was sore, there were parts of his body he didn't even know could hurt that hurt and those were entirely separate from the muscles of his body that inexplicably cramped completely out of nowhere, making him let out an undignified yelp of pain and stop wherever he was to stretch them until the muscle gave.

"Ne, Ichigo," someone called from the shower stall next to his and Ichigo turned just in time to come up to a fairly brawny man with crimson red hair tied up in a braid so it wouldn't get wet, edged jagged tattoos marring his bare tan skin. "We're going out tomorrow. You comin'?"

"Gross Renji," someone interrupted from the shower stall at the other side of Ichigo's. "Can't you wait 'til you're both dressed? It's disrespectful," he said and Renji clicked his tongue.

"Fuck off, Yumi," he said and continued to wash himself off. Yumi shook his head and rolled his eyes, going back to his shower.

"You know him, Ichi. He's never been one for manners," he said.

"Like you're one to talk, you ass," said a bald-headed man next to Yumi's shower stall. "So ya comin' Ichi?"

Ichigo washed himself free of soap to try and buy himself more time to think about it. Aside from being close friends, Renji, Yumichika and Ikkaku were also members of his team. Renji was the best midfielder the league had, having been inducted to the J-League's Best XI team just last year. Yumichika had been the league's Breakthrough Player of the Year as a left wing and Ikkaku was their goalie, though he hadn't earned awards, he was still among the best in the league. Ikkaku also owned a nightclub called Madarame, named respectively after his last name and it had become a hotspot for celebrities, professional athletes and famous socialites alike.

"Sure," Ichigo said. He was exhausted but he also felt like he needed to loosen up and tomorrow would be the first day off that they would have since pre-season had started. He had a lot on his plate at the moment with practices and training and tending to his sponsors, his breakup...and Rukia. He just wanted a night to not think about anything.

When they were done, they said their goodbyes and Ichigo hopped in his black Maserati GranTurismo S and drove off. The only biological needs that he instinctively conformed to during preseason were getting enough sleep or getting enough food in his stomach since all he ever felt was either tired or hungry. When he slept, his sleep was so deep he woke up wondering what the hell year it was. When he ate, he could eat entire menus from restaurants down without ever feeling entirely full which surely wouldn't be strange when he was with the rest of his teammates who could also do the same but was definitely impressive when he was with people that had never burned calories for a living before.

Inoue Orihime sat before him, dumbstruck as he hovered over the plates that she had set on the table and devoured the food on each of them without minding what he mixed with what.

"What?" he stopped with a spoonful of steamed white rice mixed with beef curry, udon noodles and a piece of egg roll on the side halfway to his mouth, cheeks puffed up with food.

"Ah, it's nothing!" Inoue smiled courteously and he shrugged a shoulder.

"It's all going to the same place," he mumbled in a garble, swallowing and digging in again with gusto.

Soon he was done, for now anyway, and the waiters of the place cleared the table before they brought tea as he settled in to talk with his friend. Inoue was the owner of the restaurant. They had grown up together in the same neighborhood back in Karakura and ever since he had known her, she had been a fan of the kitchen. Her restaurant had gained its popularity because of the bold recipes she put together which didn't always sound right on the menu but tasted surprisingly good once you tried them. It wasn't always so, all through middle school she came up with the weirdest combinations that had nasty outcomes; it was needless to say it took a lot of trial and error before she was able to get the whole cooking business straight. Because Ichigo had been one of the people that had never stopped believing in her, she felt forever grateful to him, enough to invite him over for meals every now and then on the house.

They caught up on everything that they needed to catch up on. Inoue told him about his old high school friends, how Ishida had asked her to marry him and she had said yes and how Chad was still working at his father's old garage and had met a girl but was so far only talking with her though he soon would ask her out on a date. Keigo and Mizuiro's women's lingerie joint business was going well and Tatsuki had become a renowned personal trainer, her services requested by famous Japanese celebrities and the likes.

"I hope she marries an A-lister!" Orihime gushed, eyes shining bright at the thought.

Ichigo smiled but it was a sad smile, burdened with regrets for the things he couldn't change. His friends were so happy and free. To think that he had almost destroyed that hurt. What made it worse was they didn't blame him, on the contrary, they called and left voicemails often and texted him on a regular basis. It was him who stayed away, not because he didn't care about them but because he didn't want to take from them the privilege of moving about with their lives without the disturbances that being close to him would bring. He had liked it when he was still a nobody, still remembered somewhat what it was like and would give anything for that aspect of his life to go back to being what it used to be. He couldn't take their freedom away from them. It was a price he had to pay, one his friends would not understand even if he tried to explain it himself.

"How is Rukia?" Inoue asked and his mind went blank, the question catching him off-guard.

"She's okay," he said at last but the hesitation didn't go by unnoticed.

Everyone in their small circle of friends knew about the saga between him and Rukia and they had always pushed him to pursue her as something more than just a friend. They knew Ichigo had feelings for her that went beyond just a close friend and if there was one thing they all wanted after years of seeing them interact with each other, it was for their love story to finally come to a close with the happy ending it deserved. Life had gotten in the way so many times for them, however, the timing just never seemed right.

"She told me she and Ashido broke up," Inoue said. "And didn't you say you broke up with that girl recently?" she added offhandedly, her tone suggestive and Ichigo knew what she was implying without her having to say anything.

"I don't," he started, letting out a breath as he looked for words to try and explain why he couldn't strive for a relationship with Rukia, even though he maybe sort of wanted to. "I can't," his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Rukia's my best friend," he explained and Inoue detected the I don't want to lose her too in between the lines left unsaid.

"Your intentions with her are honorable," Inoue said wisely. "What makes you think you will lose her?"

-O-o-O-

Whenever Ichigo visited Karakura, stopping by his family's house was a long-established arrangement. Even when he didn't doubt that his father was doing a good job taking care of his twin sisters on his own, he liked to personally check up on things and make sure everyone was doing okay. He didn't get to see them much since he had gone pro, a sacrifice he had been forced to make to keep them off the radars from paparazzi and gossipers working for the media. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something were to happen to them and he wasn't around to stop it.

His father ran out the front door and tried to goad him into a bear hug that he just barely managed to dodge, rough and brutal as he knew those were. Yuzu received him with a bright smile though it quickly faded into a crestfallen look when she noticed that he had come alone.

"Where's Rukia?" she asked. A snort was heard before the door was pulled open wider, his other sister coming into view.

"Geez Yuzu, can't you be a little more sensitive?" Karin gave Ichigo an evil half-grin. "He just broke up with...what's her face?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, expecting the banter. Although Mashiro had been liked in his household, it wasn't with the same level of affection that his family had always felt for Rukia. Rukia was worshipped, kind of like his mother, except that she was his best friend and though the fact had been well established by him for ages, it hadn't ever made his family abandon the idea that they made the perfect couple and that they should get married and have babies as soon as humanly possible. They saw Rukia as the light of his world (which wasn't far from the truth) and it kept them from properly opening up to anybody that wasn't her. They weren't rude to the girls he dated but Ichigo could tell that there was something that kept them from warming up to them the way they had warmed up to Rukia, as if they expected him to break up with them somewhere along the way (which he had done, numerously) so why bother?

They sat in the living room and got caught up with the recent events going on in their respective lives. His father talked about the clinic and how it was still going strong. Karin had made the school's girls soccer team though her position was still undefined since she had good enough reflexes to be a goalie but she also had a strong left kick. Yuzu was dating a boy a year older than her to which Ichigo wanted to flip his shit but then Karin had gone on to relate how their father had received him the first time they had met.

"He asked him if he smoked or drank," Karin explained rolling her eyes.

"And?" Ichigo asked, genuinely concerned.

"Of course he doesn't!" Yuzu answered outraged. "Jinta isn't like that," she added defensively.

"Then he put on his "serious dad face" and told him he had a .45 and a shovel," Karin finished, fingers forming quotation marks in the air and there was a collective mental face-palm around the table.

Ichigo told them about practices and the up and coming season before he tapped into his break-up with Mashiro. He told them about how the decision had been mutual since all they did anymore was fight. They felt sorry for him, even when they hadn't really opened up to her, he knew they worried about his happiness and wanted to see him settled down with someone that would be good for him. They asked about Rukia and he told them how well her job was going, choosing to leave the fact that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend and had shacked up with him last night out of the conversation because he knew they would make a big deal out of it when it really wasn't.

"She's a good girl, Rukia. Reminds me of Masaki," his father said with a hint of pride in his tone.

"She's cute and she takes good care of our brother," Yuzu said in her nurturing ways, grinning wide.

"I'm just glad someone does," Karin added her two cents.

Ichigo glared. They liked to do this thing where they would point out all of Rukia's attributes out loud while they pretended he wasn't there, as if to convince him that she was perfect for him—like he didn't know that. The truth of the matter, however, remained that it was a complicated issue. Their worlds were realms apart and even if he could come up with thousands of reasons why it could work between them, he couldn't do it without thinking of a thousand reasons more why it wouldn't. Rukia made his days brighter, there was no denying that, but she also often was the basis of the war of emotions raging inside of him.

He was still yet to know how to handle that.

-O-o-O-

When he arrived at his house, there were several things that immediately put him on high alert. The front door had been left open (he was sure he had closed and locked it), the light in the living room closest to his room was on and so was the light in his bedroom, both of which he was positive had been pointedly left turned off. A robber would've been more inconspicuous and the security guard was highly efficient at keeping trespassers away, it was one of the main reasons that he had decided to move here. Which meant whoever had come over unannounced had to be someone he knew.

When he entered the house everything was still but there was indistinct clatter coming from his bedroom. He made his way over and came up to the small figure of Rukia trying to fit two huge suitcases in his walk-in closet, her back to him, completely unaware of is presence. He frowned.

"Oi," the low tone made her jump. She stood perfectly still, as if remaining unmoving would somehow make him un-see her. "You left the door open, dumbass."

Rukia smiled nervously. "I did?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. She remained with her back turned to him and Ichigo walked up to her until they stood side by side, both of them now staring at the suitcases.

"What's with the suitcases?" he asked, locking eyes with her. Immediately he knew that there was something she wanted/needed from him and that whatever it was, he wasn't going to like it.

Rukia sighed before she dropped the bomb. "I need a place to stay."

End of Chapter 2. Okay, so this is the second part of the intro pretty much. It's short but it was either a really long chapter left with a bad cliffhanger or a shorter chapter now and a longer one next. Anyway, I thank you for the response again, I'm glad you guys like it. Like I said in my note, I will get back to you personally, because I always do, I just ask that you be patient! Also, the feedback really helped a lot to carve out this chapter so go crazy with it, ask questions, tell me what you loved and what you didn't love, it's fine. I promise!

I hope you're all well!

Dom.