Just a short little oneshot. Innocent, cute-sy IchiRuki. When trying to motivate myself to write more, this is what happens.
.:Friend Zone:.
"Ichigo, what's the 'friend zone'?" Rukia asked one day after they had come home from school.
Tossing his backpack to the chair, Ichigo sat down on his bed before looking to Rukia, now sitting on her bed in the closet
"Why do you ask?" Ichigo was curious.
"The girls were talking about how Chizuru is always in the friend zone with Orihime and other girls. I had no idea what they were talking about."
Ichigo huffed. "It just means someone wants to take their friendship to the next level while the other person doesn't. It's a stupid term which was just made up recently."
Rukia was silent for a minute, seeming to be thinking something over. After a while, she looked up at Ichigo with her intense violent eyes.
"Am I in the friend zone, Ichigo?" she asked.
"Uh…" Ichigo stuttered, suddenly uncomfortable with the subject. "I don't know. Do you like me more than just a friend?"
Rukia blushed lightly and looked away. "I don't know," she mumbled. "Sometimes I think I do, but other times I'm not so sure."
"Well, in order for you to be in the friend zone, I'd have to have no interest in taking our relationship to the next level," Ichigo said.
"But you do?" Rukia piped up, a hopeful edge to her voice.
Ichigo shrugged and chuckled. "I don't know." He fell back onto his bed as he added, "Sometimes I think I have harbored these feelings for you, but then I think that if I had, they would've come out by now. We've known each other for so long now, and neither of us has said anything until now?"
"Maybe we've been too scared," Rukia said.
"Of admitting to our feelings?" Ichigo questioned.
Rukia smirked. "Of ending up in the friend zone."
Ichigo laughed. "It's just a silly term, Rukia."
"But its use can speak volumes."
Ichigo sat up at that. "How do you mean?"
"Like, how would you feel if you loved someone so much, finally gathered the courage to say something to him/her, and then they told you they only saw you as a friend? The pain would be so immense," she described. With a dry chuckle she added, "I can only imagine how Keigo must feel all the time."
Ichigo shared her laugh. "He won't let that stop him."
Rukia looked back over at him and the seriousness had returned to her eyes.
"So where do we stand, Ichigo?"
Ichigo shrugged again. "Not in the friend zone, I suppose. We both just admitted we do have something other than friendship inside us, it just hasn't grown to its fullest yet."
"So we're in the quasi-friend zone?" Rukia asked with a smile.
Ichigo smiled back. "A new term coined by our own Rukia Kuchiki: quasi-friend zone. When the feelings haven't escalated enough, yet are present on each side."
"Think it will develop enough someday?" she asked next, her earlier blush returning ever-so-slightly.
Ichigo grinned. "Without a doubt."