Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. Any other references made in this story belong to their respective owners. I only own the OC characters.

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Rukia got up before Ichigo the next morning, mostly due to the fact that Ichigo snored like a buzzsaw. She got dressed and made her way to the building that had breakfast, getting ready for the tasks of the day. When she opened the door to the room, she was greeted by the sight of Maddie sitting cross-legged at the table by herself, scarfing down a bowl of ramen. She didn't even notice Rukia until the raven-haired Soul Reaper entered fully into the space.

"Oh, hey, Rukia. Good morning," she garbled out with food in her mouth.

"Hi," Rukia said nonchalantly.

Maddie sucked a noodle into her mouth. "You know, I've always wanted to try ramen. I didn't get to before I decided to protect the world. And, to be honest, it tastes exactly how I imagined it would be: really delicious." She continued to eat her breakfast.

"I'm glad it's to your liking," Rukia admonished, preparing her own meal. When she sat down across from Maddie, she began to speak. "So where are you and Carter from? It seems you live somewhere else other than where Ichigo lives."

Maddie spoke again when her mouth wasn't full. "Oh, we're from a country called the United States. It's basically on the other side of the world where Japan is."

"Well, this isn't Japan," Rukia stated. "This is the Spirit World."

"Yeah, I figured it wasn't the real world. It looked suspiciously like Japan before it was modernized, so for a minute, I thought we had gone back in time. But there were just so many strange auras that I knew that it couldn't be that."

"So, how long have you and Carter been together?" Rukia asked, ignoring the strange comment.

Maddie finished another bite of ramen. "I'm not surprised that you were able to guess, since it's so obvious. But if I told you that, you wouldn't believe me. It would contradict how old you think I am."

Rukia stared at her blankly. "You mean you're older than you actually appear to be? That makes no sense. No one can be immortal."

Maddie slurped up more noodles. "That is quite a long story, one that would need an entire day to tell. I have many stories about my adventures, but now is not the time for them. It is true that I age very slowly, but I'm not necessarily immortal. I can still get killed. Same goes for Carter."

Rukia had to take a minute to process all this improbable information. It was something that was a little hard to comprehend. While she was musing, Maddie asked a question that caught her off-guard. "So, what about you and Ichigo?"

Rukia was confused. "What about me and Ichigo?"

Maddie stared at her. "Aren't you two, you know, like...?" she gestured by moving her hands back and forth towards each other.

Rukia realized what she was getting at and immediately became flustered. "What?! No! That's absurd! We're not together!"

"Oh," Maddie observed. "I just assumed."

"What on earth would make you assume?" Rukia asked defensively.

Maddie finished another bite. "I've seen the way he looks at you. And believe me, I've been with a man long enough to know that he's feeling emotions he doesn't know how to deal with."

Rukia pondered this. "I never noticed, or even thought about it that way."

Maddie gave a small smile. "Well you never know, you may be feeling the same thing, but you won't allow yourself to admit it."

Rukia knew that Maddie was only trying to be reassuring, but she had never thought of Ichigo in that sense. She had always thought that they would remain friends, and it would never amount to more than that. Still, she did know how grateful Ichigo was, and still is, to her after she gave him his Soul Reaper powers. And she could never repay the debt she owed him after he came all the way to the Soul Society to save her...

Maddie set down her now empty bowl of ramen. "Well, " she sighed, "time to hit the ground runnin', I suppose." She stretched out her arms above her head. "Let's say we get to work, huh?"

Rukia smiled, glad to have such a warm-hearted person to be so understanding, albeit a person who felt like an alien to her. But just before they could stand up, a violent torrent of reiatsu exploded out from the bay. The spiritual pressure had almost doubled to twice its initial size.

"What the hell is that?" Rukia asked, astonished.

Maddie's face grew hard. "Dammit," she muttered. She got up and ran outside with Rukia following her. Needless to say, she was stunned by the sight that greeted her eyes. She could now see the giant spiritual pressure, but it looked nothing like what she'd ever seen. A long thick black line stretched over the length of the bay, with tendril-like waves of black energy spewing from it. From what Rukia could discern, this was the dimensional portal.

"Maddie, what's happening?" Rukia asked her.

Maddie glared daggers at the portal. "The rift is in its final stages of opening."

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When Ichigo woke up that morning, Rukia was gone. It was typical, since Ichigo was always the last to wake up anyways. He figured she had gotten tired of his snoring and went to go have breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, it sounded like a good idea to him. Dragging himself out of bed, Ichigo made his way to the building where they served the morning meal. He was so engrossed at what they might have, that he didn't notice Carter coming from around the bend until he smacked into him. Carter immediately fell to the floor, knocked over from the force.

"Damn, man," he exclaimed, "you're like a brick wall."

"Sorry," Ichigo apologized.

"Eh, it's fine," Carter dismissed, picking himself up. They settled themselves where they were standing, and began their conversation.

"So, how did you and Maddie meet?" Ichigo asked.

Carter stood there thinking. "How did we meet? Wow, that was a long time ago. Let's see... I actually came looking for her, because I had heard about her from somewhere. I thought she would be a great help in a mission that my team had in a special organization of magicians that I worked from, called The House of Life. When I first laid eyes on her, she seemed very strange to me. When I began to understand her more, I realized just how much I'd fallen in love with her."

"Well, I don't think you got such a bad catch," Ichigo jibed.

Carter chuckled. "Oh, my catch is far from bad. She's a keeper." He looked at Ichigo intently. "So, what about you and Rukia?"

Ichigo stared at him dumbly. "What about me and Rukia?"

Carter's eyes went wide. "Oh, I didn't mean to imply anything... I-I just assumed that...," Carter appeared flustered.

Ichigo's shock was evident on his face when he realized what Carter was trying to say. "No, definitely not! We are not together!"

"But... dude, it seemed really obvious," Carter pointed out. "No one can mistake the way you look at her."

Ichigo immediately became defensive. "Even if that were true, I don't think of her like that. We're just friends."

Carter scoffed. "You sound like me when I was falling in love. Severely denying the emotions that you're feeling," he said in a teasing tone.

This just annoyed Ichigo even more. "I'm not denying anything! That's the truth!"

Carter realized that teasing Ichigo wasn't going to make any progress. "You can keep telling yourself that, man. But to be honest, it's not just gonna go away if you ignore it. Trust me, as a guy who knows from experience, it'll work out better for you in the long run to just say how you feel." He ended with a wink.

Ichigo felt like berating him some more, but realized that this would go on all day. However, despite what Carter said, he only thought of Rukia as a friend, and never ventured beyond that. He regarded that as forbidden territory. Still, she did save him...

Ichigo was about to thank Carter for his encouraging words, but was cut short by the massive explosion of elevated reiatsu from out over the bay. The clearly marked portal radiated with a strange, dark spiritual pressure.

Ichigo stared with wide eyes. "Carter, what the hell's going on?"

"Shit,"Carter muttered. "We need to get to Maddie, fast!" He began running towards the direction of Maddie's spiritual pressure, with Ichigo close on his heels.

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Author's Note: Hello, everyone. I'm not dead! Yay! At least, not yet.X( Junior year has already proven to be a bitch. Marching band certainly doesn't help matters. That's why I've been gone for so long. My schedule has been jam-packed. I've already had my first game of the season, and my next is on Saturday. At least I don't have any practice tomorrow, so I should be able to post the next chapter of Diamond in the Rough.

I'm sure some of my Kane Chronicles fans have realized who Carter is by now, probably since the last chapter. I know that him being here doesn't make any sense, and I know that Carter already has a girlfriend. To ease your mind, yes, I ship Carter and Zia too. It's just that this came from a phase early on in my fangirl "career," and it just stuck with me through all these years. For the sake of this story, this pairing will stand, even in future stories. So bear with me, I promise that their is a logical explanation for why Zia isn't there.

So many people have read my stories! ^_^ *gives you all hugs* I can't believe the turnout of Lost and Bound. I never imagined that the number would grow to be this high. I didn't think people would like it enough. It could use some editing (thanks a lot, Wattpad-_-), so I'll probably do that, but not right now because high school. Thank you guys so much! You make me so happy! This story is currently my least popular on my profile, but still, people read it. I also know that most of my readers for this story are mostly male, not that that matters, but I just wanna say that I have two other stories, one of which is ongoing and mature, and the other is completed. Of course, if you've already checked them out, then you're awesome *gives you another hug*

Praise is appreciated and constructive criticism is encouraged.

See you next time!

-The_Mayflower