Author's Note-Hi! I'm new here and I love Ichiruki. I know personally that there are a bunch of other oneshot collections like this, but a friend of mine and a fellow author suggested I give it a shot. One more thing, each little story will focus on a time before or after they began their relationship. Just to clear that up. Also, there will be a mini summary of each little story for each chapter for your convenience.

Disclaimer-I own nothing.

Hospital Encounter

Summary-Takes place during the Bount Arc. Rukia and Ichigo get into an argument, but will it turn into something else.

Rukia sat quietly in one of the chairs by Uryu's hospital bed. He'd finally fallen asleep about five minutes ago. Ichigo sat across from her flipping idly through a magazine. Rukia felt like she couldn't take the silence anymore, so she decided to say what was on her mind.

"Ichigo." Her voice was low, but had a serious note to it.

The orange haired youth flipped a page. "Hmm?"

Ignoring the fact that he wasn't even looking at her, Rukia continued, "I want to thank you."

That seemed to have caught his attention. His amber eyes flitted up to her face and regarded her curiously. "What? What are you talking about?"

Rukia steadily met his gaze. "Well... I just felt like saying it, that's all."

Ichigo scowled at her before looking back down at the magazine in his hands. "Whoa. That's pretty creepy."

"Huh?" Rukia felt her eyebrows twitch in annoyance. Why couldn't that idiot just take a compliment? "What do you mean creepy?" She felt her voice raising but she didn't care. "So your saying I'm creepy, is that it?"

"Huh?" Ichigo looked up quickly, sensing by her tone that he'd better start explaining himself before she threw a fit. "Well, no. It's just that when you suddenly say something like that out of the blue, it's a little weird, that's all." He felt proud of his explanation and was sure that was the end of it. He was wrong.

Rukia was downright angry now. "When someone expresses their feelings you think something's wrong with them and call them weird?!"

Now Ichigo was getting frustrated. Why did that midget have to put words in his mouth? "Look, I didn't say that it was wrong, I just said that it was weird."

Rukia was not appeased. "But your implying something's wrong with them!"

Now Ichigo was shouting right along with her. "Wrong and weird are completely different!"

"Oh yeah! Only an insensitive idiot like you would be stupid enough to say something like that!"

"What did you say?" Both chairs were pushed back in fits of rage and the two now stood at their full heights trying to intimidate each other with angry glares.

Ichigo was suddenly struck by how violet Rukia's eyes really were. If not for the fact that she was glaring, they might be considered extremely beautiful. Then he noticed their proximity. Their bodies were only separated by a few inches and if he leaned down just a bit, they would be face to face. Before he had time to think about what he was doing, he was leaning down toward her, his face slowly but surely nearing hers. In the heat of the moment, Rukia stood up on her tiptoes to meet him almost in anticipation. He was centimeters away from her lips...

"What the hell are you two doing!"

They jumped away from each other guiltily and looked down at Uryu, who had his eyes wide open and was staring at them in horror.

Before Ichigo knew what was happening, Rukia somehow snatched up his magazine and proceeded to slap him with it. He lurched back in surprise and pain. "What the hell, Rukia?!"

She ignored him in favor of addressing Uryu. "I was just teaching this insensitive idiot to mind other people's feelings," she managed to say with composed dignity.

Uryu raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "By kissing him?"

Ichigo was suddenly in his face. "Hey man, we were NOT kissing! And shouldn't you be asleep?"

Uryu rolled his eyes. "How do you expect me to sleep with you two idiots making a ruckus?"

Now it was Ichigo's turn to roll his eyes. "First of all, who are you calling idiots?! And second of all, who says "ruckus" anymore, Grandpa?"

"I say it, Kurosaki!" Uryu was getting frustrated. Now both boys were snarling at each other like animals.

Rukia decided to step in. "Ichigo, back off and sit down! Uryu, we'll be quiet so go back to sleep." Both boys gave her identical looks of protest, but she shut them both down with a Kuchiki glare so cold they both shivered. With a sigh, Uryu flopped back down on his pillows and turned away from them to face the wall. Ichigo picked up his magazine from the floor and sat back down, occasionally throwing glances at Rukia who had also taken her seat. He wondered what would have happened if that damned Ishida hadn't woken up. Had he and Rukia really almost just kissed? He would have pondered it further, but they were here on business after all. Finding and stopping the Bounts was top priority. But Ichigo knew he wouldn't soon forget their hospital encounter.

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