Title: Love or Like?
Summary: Rukia and Ichigo are close childhood "friends" who goes to the same High School.
Pairing: Ichigo + Rukia, Ichigo + Orihime, Renji + Rukia and more!
Rated: T

Ichigo glanced over towards his childhood friend, who was chatting with the girls outside the classroom. Her raven black hair, that was up to her shoulder danced in the wind as her alluring violet eyes shone in the sun.
He and Rukia has been a really close childhood friend for as long as he could remember. She was tough, talked like a guy and always picked fights with him, but he always liked her the way she was. But when she was around other people, besides him she acted different. She was polite, innocent and sweet. He hated that more than anything in the world. He hated how fake she acted around other people. He hated how she put on her fake smile and he definitely hated when she wasn't showing her true self.

"Looking at Kuchiki-san again huh?" a familiar voice spoke. Ichigo quickly turned around with an annoyed look on his face. It was Tatsuki.

"Honestly Ichigo! If you cheat on Orihime I'll beat you up!" she claimed giving off a death glare. Ichigo scratched his hair, pretending he didn't know what she was talking about

"I wasn't looking at Rukia" he replied, trying to make his voice sound calm "I mean, Kuchiki-san…"

"Did you just call her Rukia?" Tatsuki asked rather surprised

"Well, no… I mean…" Ichigo just realized what he had just said. He was so used to calling Rukia by her first name it was a habit "I can't help it! She's my childhood friend!"

"But you still call Orihime by her family name and you guys are suppose to be dating!" she roared.

It was true. Even though it's only been a few months Ichigo was dating Orihime and still kept calling her "Inoue"

"You better start calling her Orihime or stop calling Kuchiki-san Rukia" Tatsuki threatened

"Just go away" Ichigo mumbled out.

As Tatsuki left him and gazed up into the cloudless blue sky with the sun beamed down on him. He thought about what Tatsuki just said. She was right. He needed to start calling his girlfriend by her name instead of her surname. But with Rukia it was different.

He could still remember the day when he started calling her Rukia. like if it was yesturday. It was in primary school, when they were 8 years old.

"What about strawberry?" Rukia asked bouncing beside him playfully
"No! Stop making up stupid nicknames for me!" he bellowed giving off a nasty glare, which only made Rukia smile
"But we've been friends for 7 years now! I don't want to call you Kurosaki-kun anymore!" she said, "Mommy said that when you are close to someone you can start calling them by their name or make a nickname for them!"
"Then why don't you just call me Ichigo instead of "Strawberry" or "Bunny" or other stupid nicknames you made"
Rukia sweetly laughed towards this as Ichigo slightly blushed. He was always weak with her smile
"Then you can call me Rukia" she announced festively.
Ichigo rubbed his bright orange hair, thinking it wasn't a bad idea
"Ichigo!" Rukia shouted out happily. He flustered towards this, as his face grew red as a tomato
"What…" he murmured out, avoiding eye contact with her. He tried putting on his angry face but it wasn't working
"Call me by my name!" Rukia insisted
"No!"
"Why? Why? Why?" Rukia kept repeating those words out until he finally cracked
"Okay fine! What… Ru…Ru… Umm…"
His mouth felt dry as a cotton with words chocked out of his mouth. This was going to be embarrassing
"Rukia" he said, almost in a whisper.
Rukia delightfully jumped up, repeating his name "Ichigo" until she was interrupted
"Ah! Young love" Isshin cried out
"Shut up!" Ichigo yelled. But his voice was faded away with Rukia repeating his name and Isshin mocking him. Even at the age of eight he couldn't believe how lame his life was.

"Hi Ichigo!" Rukia called out sitting beside him. He quickly snapped out of his flashback and turned towards Rukia

"Hey!" he answered back.
After having a flashback like that he felt a little uncomfortable around her

"So how's it going with you and Inoue?"

"Yeah good" he said. His voice was high pitched than usual "What about you, dating anyone?"

He felt his heart beating like a drum with Rukia sitting next to him. He usually wasn't like this but for some reason today felt different. Her fine, violet eyes gazed towards his as his heart skipped a beat

"I…"

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime shouted festively. Ichigo and Rukia spun around to see Ichigo's girlfriend, Orihime marching up towards them

"I… I'm going now. Can we walk home together today?" she asked rather shyly. Ichigo wasn't expecting her to say this but gladly accepted her offer

"Yea sure" he said, right before she smiled and took off.

"Was that Kuchiki-san?" asked Orihime as she lightly hugged him

"Yeah. We were just talking" he answered back. He was starring at Rukia as she went back to her friends. Orihime observed up towards Ichigo, and followed his eyesight. Only to notice her boyfriend looking at another girl besides her

"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime muttered out rather sadly

"Huh? What?" he chocked out noticing he was observing Rukia again "Umm… sorry. You said something?"

Orihime put on her fake smile, pretending everything was okay

"Yea. Can we go out after school today?" she asked, leaning closer towards him

"Umm… sorry. I'm going home with Rukia today" he answered, rather awkwardly.

There was an unpleasant rumor going around the school saying Ichigo loves Rukia instead of Orihime so this was very uneasy for him.
His girlfriend's eyes suddenly became dull as sadness filled her face

"You call her "Rukia" huh?" she whispered out

Oh no! Ichigo thought, slapping his mouth.

Orihime stepped away from him, as silence built up. He needed to fix his habit, especially in front of his girlfriend

"It's not like that. I only think Ruki…I mean… Kuchiki is my frie…" his words stopped as he suddenly realized what he was saying.
Even though there was nothing going on between him and Rukia he always knew he wanted to become closer to her. Ever since they were little they argued a lot but his heart always raced when Rukia was around.
Am I in love with Rukia? He wondered, blushing at his own thought. After a few seconds of silence Orihime finally spoke trying to break the awkward air around them

"You guys aren't dating right?" she asked rather nervously

"No!" he roared out "Look there's nothing going on between us okay."

His girlfriend tried putting on a cheerful smile, but it didn't work. I few months of dating and they are already arguing

"Well then, let's go out tomorrow" she said.

After agreeing to her idea she took off saying she needs to find Tatsuki. Lunchtime seemed to pass by quickly and after a few boring lesson it was home time

"Rukia, lets go," he urged walking up to her desk. The girls in the classroom started gossiping towards this, as Ichigo gave off an annoyed glance

"He called her by her name!" he heard one of the girl whisper

"Yep! Let's go!" Rukia said standing up as she grabbed her chappy bag

"You still have that?" he asked rather surprised. He couldn't believe a 15-year-old girl would still love Chappy the rabbit

"Yeah! This was the first present you ever brought me! I can't just throw it away!"

"It's not a present! I just picked it up randomly and gave it to you!" he lied.

He looked down at the bag. Unlike 5 years ago it was all old and stitched up from the places it broke. He remembered, it was the first present he ever gave her besides her birthday present

"Here!" Ichigo murmured out as his face flustered. Trying hard not to look into her eyes he handed her a red bag that had a picture of Chappy stitched on it
"Chappy!" Rukia beamed happily. She reached up towards the bag as her eyes shined in delight "But why are you giving me this. It's not my birthday?"
"I just found it! And since I didn't want it I'm giving it to you!" he answered. He tried calming his voice but it came out a little higher than usual.
Rukia blinked, not getting the picture
"Umm… Ichigo…."
"What! It's not like I walked past this store and saw the Chappy bag and knew you liked Chappy so I brought it to you! " He bolted out very loudly. His head was racing so fast he wasn't thinking straight
"Umm…Ichigo… thanks" she smiled. A sweet gentle smile that always-made Ichigo's heart skip a beat
He stepped back away from her. He wasn't going to lose to her smile
"Just go home now Rukia!" he chocked out, crossing his arms furiously. It was the most embarrassing thing he ever did in his life.

"Ichigo!" Rukia shouted, playfully punching him in the stomach "You day dream a lot today!"
"All thanks to you" he said, flustering from his flashback

"Huh?"

"I mean, umm… nothing!" he bolted out.

Ichigo and Rukia were now walking side by side on the main road, as cars rushed past them. As a gentle zephyr blew past the couple silence broke between them.

"So…" Ichigo mumbled out trying to break the awkward silence "Umm…" he felt really stupid as his tongue got twisted

"Is Inoue okay with us walking together?" Rukia asked, almost in a whisper

"Yeah, she's totally fine!" he lied, but he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable

"That's good. Ever since after lunch she looked sort of down so I thought she didn't want me walking with you"

Ichigo tried laughing it off but it didn't work. He knew she was feeling very awkward right now and he had to do something about it

"So what about you, you dating anyone?"

"Nop!"

"I knew it. No one would want to date a brat like you" he joked.

Rukia firmly punched him right in his stomach, and they continued arguing on their way home. It was just like good old days Ichigo remembers. The old Rukia was back

"Well I'm this way so I'll see you tomorrow, Strawberry!" she teased, giving off a mocking tone of voice

"What ever, idiot!" he replied giving off an annoyed glare. After she was out of sight Ichigo wondered if he was too disrespectful towards his girlfriend. After all, he seemed to be closer to Rukia than Orihime. And that wasn't a good thing

I suppose I need to apologize he thought to himself scratching his orange hair.

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Rukia walked silently up the street, feeling a little guilty towards Orihime. She and Ichigo were no more than childhood friends and she knew she needed to make that clear to her

"Rukia!" a voice call out. She turned around, only to see a friend of her marching up to her

"Renji!" she cried out joyfully.

He walked up right in front of her, with his red hair beaming in the sunlight as he looked down towards her

"Didn't know you were this way," he said

"Wanna walk together?"

"Sure"

Unlike Ichigo Renji was very sweet to her. People in their school usually avoided him since he had a tattoo all over his body but that didn't stop Rukia from talking to him.

As she looked down at her watch her violet eyes softened, as she mumbled out the words

"2 more days huh?"

"Huh?" Renji replied, noticing how she was spacing out

"2 more days and it's my birthday!" she said

I know a lot of people think Orihime is her surname but her actual surname is Inoue. A lot of people mistake it(even this fanfic site) and Inoue is a common surname in Japan. So sorry all Ichi x Ori fanz but Ichigo calls Orihime by her surname even in the manga!

Reviews are welcomed! Thankx!