This is a one-shot I did for my final exams. The question was: Write a story beginning with 'He trudged towards the beach and collapsed on the soft sand.' The first person that popped into my head was Ichigo. So, I did something about him.

There was another question, a one-word question. It was : 'Snakes'. I immediately thought about Gin, but I couldn't come up with any storyline.

Anyway, enjoy the story! The characters are from Bleach though they are not Shinigami.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't make Bleach, don't own the copyrights or make money from it.

HER.

He trudged towards the beach and collapsed on the soft sand. He glared at the evening sky, an orange hue that could have matched his hair. He fisted one hand, gripping the grainy sand hard. He was not very happy. Not at all.

School had been such a pain, his friends a bigger pain. Just when he thought he could have had a peaceful lunch with his best friend, Asano showed up with that huge, goofy grin and demanded that he be allowed to join the other two. As they started to eat, Asano had begun to interrogate him regarding her, accusing him of having a relationship with her, which he immediately denied. He did not have a relationship with that girl.

Throughout the day, Asano and a few others pestered him about it until he shouted at them to just shut up and leave him alone. He had walked home alone, and had found himself at the beach.

Life was hard, especially when you had a certain annoying, ebony-haired girl involved.

He closed his eyes against the dying rays of the sun and sighed heavily. His thoughts suddenly flew back to the day that he had first met the annoying girl. He had been walking home from school when some seniors cornered him. Usually, he wouldn't have any problem with taking care of himself except that day, he had been way too outnumbered. A punch to his eye and three to his guts had left him on the ground. Before they could continue beating him up, he saw a blurry flash of black before all the seniors passed out on the pavement. When he saw the petite girl who had saved him, shock turned into embarrassment. A girl had just saved his life!

She had helped him up and offered to walk him home. He had refused. The next day in school, he saw her again, this time as a transfer student from who-knows-where. She had to sit in the empty seat next to his and had pretended not to recognize him at all. On the teacher's orders, he had been forced to show her around the school.

As the months passed, they had grown close, receiving looks from other students that clearly said, 'They're 'together', aren't they? Yes, they definitely are'. He ignored these when he could because he was too lazy or annoyed to care. Even if she and him were close, they argued a lot, even over the smallest of things. Weirdly though, he enjoyed their bantering. He just felt content when they argued.

The sun was sinking lower beneath the horizon. He thought to the better side of the girl. She could be kind and gentle and had this crazy affection for cute objects, especially bunnies. He found it annoying, but what could he do? And the one thing he truly liked about the girl was that unlike other people, she was the only one who understood him. They had only known each other for several months, but they understood each other so well that many say their relationship is unique, what with their constant fighting and also their deep knowing of one another.

He sighed again when he heard soft padding on the sand. "I thought I'd find you here." He opened his eyes to see the blue-gray ones of her. She had a slight scowl on her face, her arms across her chest.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, getting up to a sitting position.

"Everyone's looking for you. Asano practically forced them to." She let out a breath before turning to walk away. "He said you had some project to finish."

He had almost forgotten about that Science project he had to do with Asano. He leaped to his feet and followed her to where Asano was probably waiting.