It was a day like any other.

Ichigo and I were walking around Karakura Town, just recently having fought a Hollow. Well, it was more like he fought the Hollow, and I just kind of watched. But that's beyond the point.

He was talking to me, but I couldn't hear him. I was wallowing in a pool of my own thoughts, deep in thought. I really couldn't take it anymore. I was going to burst.

"… and then so I was like…Hey! Rukia! Rukia?" Ichigo asked, his head spinning around to look for me.

But I had already shunpo'd as fast as I could away from him.

I reached the beach after a short while, and realized that this was the place that Ichigo's mother had died. Sitting down, I watched some of the little kids and their families play on the sand, or splash each other in the water. Each one of them wore the same happy smile on their face.

I wish I could be like that. What does it take, to find happiness?

Spying a lone daisy, I picked it and began to pluck, saying, "Loves me… loves me not… loves me… loves me not…" Soon though, I threw it aside. What was the point?

Sitting down on the soft, white sand, I began to cry. Did he not notice? It had been 18 months I had spent in The World of The Living, and each and every day was the same. Ichigo and I would wake up, go to school, fight Hollows, go around town, and return to his house at night. I had been living the same thing every day. And finally, I was tired of it.

I cried my eyes out, and just when I thought that I had run out of tears, he arrived.

Stupid Ichigo.

"What's wrong, Kuchiki?" he asked, concern in his eyes.

I was too busy crying to respond.

"Kuchiki! Listen to me. What's wrong?" he asked, once more.

"Ichigo… Have you ever loved someone, but they didn't love you back? That every single day, they kept on breaking your heart, and you kept putting it back together in the hopes that one day they would stop breaking it and start mending it?"

"W-What? Who's the bastard that's running around breaking your heart? I swear, I'll punch his face in. I'll make him wish that he had never been born-" he angrily said.

"No…Don't do that. He's really a nice guy… and all I could ever wish for," I replied, looking up.

"Rukia…" He looked into my eyes, and said, "Remember, you can love someone all you want. Loving someone is like putting your life into their hands. And, well, if they break your heart… then they don't deserve your love."

I started crying again.

"Damn it… uh, stop crying! Did I say something…? Damn…"

I giggled, just a little bit.

"Hey! It isn't funny…"

He pulled me closer, and said, "But I wanna know. Who is it, Kuchiki? Is it… Asano?"

"No."

"Mizuiro?"

"No."

"Renji, that bastard-"

"No!"

"Ikkaku, I always knew he was a player-"

I grabbed him and shook him.

"Baka! Can't you see? The guy you're looking for is…" I couldn't bring myself to finish, instead looking down and away.

His eyes widened in shock.

"…me?"

I didn't speak.

Carefully, he picked up the forgotten daisy that I had thrown aside, and began to pluck it, and when he was done, it ended in a "Loves me."

"See? Even the flower was telling you the truth," he said.

And then it happened.

He kissed me.

I felt like I could fly.