Summary: Ishida gets lots of chocolate for Valentine's Day. How is he going to pay the girls back?

"Since you've taken over as Class President, um, the school has become a much nicer place. You ah, you work so hard and I...I wanted to show you my appreciation. Happy Valentine's day!"

Blushing furiously, Ogawa Michiru held out a box of chocolates with both hands. With a pleasant smile, Ishida Uryuu accepted her heartfelt gift.

"Thank you very much Ogawa-san." He said. "I'm sure I will enjoy them."

"I hope so." She replied. "I picked them out especially for you. OH! I..I don't mean they're special or anything! I…I…I just meant I thought of you when I was buying them. No, wait! That's not what I mean! I…I have to go now!"

Her face fire engine red, Michiru ran out the classroom door almost crashing into Inoue Orihime.

"Sorry Orhime-chan!" She blurted out as she ran down the hall.

"What was that all about?" Orhime wondered aloud as she came in. "Hi Ishida-kun. I brought you some chocolates. Happy Valentine's day! Wow, you sure got a lot this year."

Setting her box of chocolates down, she selected one from the pile on Uryuu's desk.

"I told you becoming class president would be good for you. It looks like every girl in class gave you chocolate this year. Some of these are very fancy too. Oh ho, look at this one. I'm thinking whoever gave you this might want to be more than friends. Ishida-kun? Ishida-kun are you alright?"

It wasn't like Uryuu to be impolite and not respond to her. Taking a closer look, she noticed the smile on his face was actually very stiff and rigid. In fact, his skin looked pale and sweat was beading on his forehead.

"Ishida-kun…?"

"Help…me." He groaned as he started to collapse.

"Ishida-kun!"

Rushing to his side, she guided him to his seat before he could fall down.

"Ishida-kun, what's the matter with you? Are you sick? Are you hurt? Shall I use my shun-shun-rikka?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that." He assured her. "It's all this chocolate! How am I going to repay all of that on White Day?"

Orihime's eyes widened in understanding. Like her, Uryuu lived on a fixed income. Since you were expected to pay back the chocolate you received with a gift of equal value, Uryuu would have to come up with some extra cash before March 14th to pay back for all those chocolates. She felt guilty now for buying him some of the pricier stuff. Still, it could be worse. For significant others, you were supposed to repay them threefold.

"Don't worry Ishida-kun. Let me help you figure something out."

Taking a pencil and some paper from her desk, she helped him sort out the various gifts in order of expense. She had a pretty good idea how much the chocolates cost and soon came up with a rough estimate for how much he would have to spend on return gifts.

"Well this doesn't look like so much." She said showing him the figures. "I'm sure if you get a part time job you can make this much in a couple of weeks. Don't you already work part time for Urahara-san?"

Uryuu grimaced and fiddled with his glasses. "I don't exactly work for him and even if I did, he doesn't exactly pay with money. No, if I'm going to pay for these, I'm going to have to get a real part time job. But how? Between school and keeping Karakura safe, where am I going to find the time?"

"Shame on you, Ishida-kun." Orihime scolded. "I keep telling you to stop trying to do everything on your own. I can talk to Chad and we can set up a schedule to let you have some time off. You're not the only ones with powers you know."

Uryuu was touched. "You'd do that for me? You'd cover my patrols so I can work?"

"Of course we will, Ishida-kun. We've been trying to get you to let us help you for months!"

Uryuu nodded. "Then I have a chance. I will get a part time job. I will pay back the girls for their lovely gifts. Quincy honor will be upheld!"

"Please enjoy your meal" Uryuu said after placing the dishes on the table. I did it, he thought. I managed to get a good part time job. True, being a waiter wasn't the most glamorous of jobs, but he would soon have enough to pay for all the White Day gifts he needed. It gave him a real sense of pride that he was able to fix his problems on his own. Well, on his own and with a little help from his friends.

"Excuse me, I need a table for two please."

"Certainly." He replied turning around. "Would you like a seat near the…huh? Nemu-san? What are you doing here?"

"It was my idea boy." A strange thin man next to Nemu said. "I caught word that you took a job at this restaurant and thought it would be an excellent opportunity for some fun."

Realization hit Uryuu like a sledgehammer. "Captain Kurotsuchi!" He looked very ordinary without his makeup and dressed in a regular suit, but his sneering voice and arrogant tone were unmistakable.

Mayuri seemed to take great pleasure in Uryuu's anger. "I believe we would like a seat near the window, wouldn't we Nemu?"

"As if I would allow you to enter here." Uryuu declared. "What are you really here for? Are you planning to attack me here in front of everyone? Or were you going to poison all my customers and blame it on me?"

"Hmm. That last one sounds like something I'd do." Mayuri conceded. "However, I felt it would be more than enough to order you around like a trained monkey. If you want to keep your job, you will have to be polite and deferential to me no matter what, even if it kills you. How could I pass over humiliating you in such a delicious fashion?"

"I will never serve you Kurotsuchi Mayuri." Uryuu snarled. "Get out! Get out and never come back!"

Uryuu jumped as someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Is there a problem here?" the manager asked.

"Oh kind sir." Mayrui quavered. "I don't know what happened. I simply wanted to take my daughter out to a nice dinner and your waiter here verbally attacked us making wild accusations. Poor Nemu here is on the verge of tears."

"I'm fine." Nemu insisted. "This is all a misunderstanding."

"Don't try to defend the beast." Mayuri said. "He's not worthy of your pity."

"Is what this man says true Ishida-san?" the manager asked. "Have you been harassing them?"

"You don't understand." Ishida replied. "This man is a mass murder, a poisoner and a psychopath. The blood of thousands are on his hands!"

"Oh dear." Mayuri tutted. "I think the poor boy has gone off the deep end.

"I'm sorry Ishida-san." The manager said while shaking his head. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

OK, Ishida thought. This time I'm not going to screw things up. Working in a convenience store was a lot easier than being a waiter and you didn't have to intereact with the customers as much. If he kept his wits about him, he would soon have earned enough to get those White Day gifts.

"All done with the shelf stocking sempai." He announced.

"Huh. You did a pretty good job, Ishida-san." Hanataro allowed. "If you keep this up, you might be promoted to full time."

"Thank you. I really think I can fit in here." He adjusted the paper hat the convenience store required. That was going to take some getting used to. "I still don't understand why you're here Hanataro-san. Aren't you needed in Soul Society?"

"Ah-ha-ha." Hanataro nervously laughed while scratching the back of his head. "Well, you see, Captain Unohana took a liking to some of the cosmetics here and, uh, this is becoming a regular thing for me."

That was certainly something interesting to hear, Uryuu thought. He didn't think Captain Unohana was especially vain, but he supposed all women like to look their best from time to time. His musings were cut short by a loud ruckus at the entrance.

"Hanataro!" Someone bellowed. "I heard I could find you here!"

"Ganju!" Hanataro replied. "It's good to see you again. You remember Ishida-san, don't you?"

"Glad to see you." Ganju greeted roughly shaking his hand. "So you're working with Hanataro too?"

"Yes, I'm learning a lot." Ishida replied as he tried to get his hand back. "So what brings you here?"

"Well with my old friend here, I thought this would be a good time to bring by the gang and show them all the cool stuff in the real world. Come on up here boys!"

Winding their way through the aisles, Ganju's "gang" was soon assembled.

"Please let me reintroduce them." Ganju said. "This is Top, Fever, Dumbell, and Hawk. We also brought Mindy, Sonny, Connie and Cindy, but I don't know where they got to."

"Mindy, Sonny, Connie…" Uryuu wondered out loud. "Wait a minute. Aren't those your boars?"

Right on cue, one of the shelving units toppled over, the gang's boars gorging themselves on snack food. The scene quickly devolved into chaos as Hanataro and Uryuu struggled to restore order. Customers screamed and ran for the exits. The manager came out of the back office in a rage.

"What is the meaning of this? Why are there pigs all over my store? Who are these people?"

Uryuu looked up from his efforts to wrestle a boar to the ground and looked over at Hanataro. The young soul reaper was white as a sheet. No doubt he was terrified of losing this job.

"This is my fault sir." He volunteered. "These are my friends and they brought the boars with them."

The manager's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Really? I'm sorry Ishida-san. I'm afraid I'm going to have to terminate your employment."

"I wouldn't recommend buttons. I never like using them. Zippers are the way to go."

Uryuu congratulated himself. He'd actually gotten a job at his favorite store, Sunflower Seams. After years of shopping there, he knew every item in the store and could talk for hours about all things sewing. It didn't feel like work at all. Indeed, he'd been talking to his latest customer for at least two hours.

"In fact with that material, I'd recommend this lace trim to create a contrast with the pattern. This will make the end result even more eye catching."

"Uh, yes. I see." The glassy eyed customer wearily replied.

"Ishida-san, could I see you in the back?" The manager interrupted.

"But I'm not finished with this customer." Uryuu protested.

"Don't worry, I'll get someone else to finish up. Please go back to my office and have a seat."

Uryuu was confused, but he did as he was told. After a few minutes, the manager entered, sighed then sat down.

"Ishdia-san, have you read the western novel, 'Of Mice and Men'?"

Uryuu nodded. "I did. I did a paper on it for school."

The manager nodded back. "Very good. Do you remember the character of Lennie? What was he known for?"

Uryuu thought for a moment. "Well. He was unusually strong. And he was mentally impaired. And he loved stroking soft things, like small animals, but he would accidentally kill them because he didn't know his own strength."

"And that's your problem." The manager said. "You obviously know everything there is to know about sewing. And I can tell you love sewing very much. However, in the time you spent driving that customer into an overloaded stupor, you could have been selling to four other customers. Don't you see? Like Lennie, you love something so much…you're killing it. I'm sorry Ishida-san. I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go."

Uryuu sat at his school desk drowning in despair. He groaned into his hands. "And I can't even blame the Shinigami on that last one. What am I going to do now? There's only one week left till White Day."

Orhime pulled his hands away from his face. "Tell you what Ishida-kun. I'll have a word with my manager and get you a job with me. I'm sure you will get the hang of it quickly and between the two of us, we can handle everything even if everyone in Soul Society shows up. Just like when we worked together before."

Uryuu had to smile at that. The memory of their time alone fighting side by side were some of his most favorite memories. "You'd really do that for me? Inoue-san, I can't thank you enough!"

Orhime blushed and waved it off. "Think nothing of it. I wouldn't want your many admirers to be disappointed on White Day."

That gave Uryuu an idea. "Speaking of White Day, I did make at least a little money before being fired, so I got you this. I was going to give it to you then, but…I think you should have it now."

Reaching into his book bag, he pulled out a small gaily wrapped present. Orhime accepted it with wonder in her eyes, carefully opening up the box and gasping at the contents inside.

"A necklace. It's beautiful. And the pendent is in the shape of my hair pins. Where did you find it?"

He wasn't about to admit he'd been searching for months in his spare time.

"It's just something I came across. Do you like it?"

"I love it!" Orhime declared. "Oh, but I can't accept this. It's far more expensive than the chocolates I gave you."

"Don't think of it that way." He replied. "Think of it as thanks for all the help you've given me. Really, I want you to have it."

"Well. When you put it that way." Unfastening the clasp, she put it around her neck. "I can't wait to get to a mirror and see how I look. Thank you so much Ishida-kun."

"You're welcome." He answered. Just seeing her smile like that made him feel like all the trouble he'd endured up to that point had been worth it. Threefold.