I do not own Bleach or any of the characters. Decided this would be fun to write and more fun to read. Tell me what you think.
Playing around
"Alright class," Misato spoke up as she walked into the room, doing a quick scan to make sure none of her trouble students were missing that day, which they weren't. "As it's Saint Valentine's Day two days from now, I've decided we're going to be putting on a play in spirit of the holiday."
There was a collective giggling cheer from the girls and Keigo while most of the boys, Ichigo louder than most, groaned. Only Uryu and Rukia remained silent.
"We'll be doing Romeo and Juliet," Misato stated and all of the girls, again except Rukia, along with Keigo cheered while a couple of the guys at the back of the room very nearly started weeping.
"Oh for crying out..." Ichigo groaned. "There's nothing romantic about Romeo and Juliet."
"Yes there is," Tatsuki scoffed. "Forbidden love, love conquering an age old blood feud-"
"Committing suicide," Ichigo countered.
"Dying to be with your one true love," Tatsuki said flatly, leveling a death glare at Ichigo as images of exactly what she had said filled his head for a moment.
"It's alright Tatsuki," Misato spoke up, a look of pure evil on her face that made all of the students gulp and lean back slightly. "Alright Ichigo, since you seem to be the resident expert on Romeo and Juliet, you get to have the lead role."
Ichigo paled as all of the girls, Rukia included, burst out laughing and the boys all winced in sympathy while mentally cheering that it wasn't them. Then, Misaki picked up a list of characters, complete with who would play each. She had already decided on roles. Ichigo groaned.
"Keigo, Mercutio, the overdramatic comedian," Misato stated and Keigo cheered.
"Calm down Mr. Asano," Mizuiro spoke up as Keigo sat back down weeping dramatically.
"Why do you have to do that?" Keigo complained.
"Tatsuki, I know it's a gender swap but you will be Tybalt," Misato stated.
"I'm so fucking dead," Ichigo groaned.
"What was that?" Misato questioned, voice icy and threatening.
"Nothing ma'am," Ichigo said, voice clipped.
"I thought not," Misato smiled. "Now as for the rest of you..."
And she began assigning characters until only Orihime and Rukia were left and only the roles of Mrs. Capulet and Juliet were left.
"We all know who's going to win Juliet," one of the boys in back muttered grinning.
"Yep, Orihime," another whispered back.
Rukia's going to get Juliet, I just know it, Orihime thought miserably.
It had better be Orihime, Rukia thought, remembering reading Romeo and Juliet a while back.
"And the role of Juliet goes to..." Misato began, pausing for dramatic effect. "Rukia!"
"Oh," Orihime breathed, disappointed.
"GOD DAMNIT!" Rukia swore as everyone stared at her.
"Fuck!" Ichigo complained.
"What has gotten into this class?" Misato demanded. "Since when does Rukia swear?"
"I'm surprised Rukia's not more excited about getting to make out with Ichigo," Chizuru, who had gotten the role of Mr. Capulet from the class running out of males, grinned.
"I'm so out of here," Rukia growled walking to the door only for Ichigo to latch onto her leg, making her drag him along.
"Wait!" Ichigo pleaded, eyes squeezed shut from pain after his nose had bounced off the floor. "Take me with you!"
"Fuck no!" Rukia snorted. "If I leave you you'll be Orihime's Romeo. Besides, you secretly love the idea of the play."
"PLEASE! ! !" Ichigo begged. "Don't leave me alone with these freaks! And Orihime. Just take me with you!"
"Who are you calling a freak!?" Tatsuki spat.
"Rukia!" Ichigo pleaded.
"Alright already!" Rukia groaned. "Just get the hell off my leg! And if you look up my skirt I'm leaving you here and making Keigo Juliet."
Ichigo leapt to his feet before opening his eyes and picking Rukia up in a crushing hug. She managed to get her arms free and pulled her gokon tekko on then slapped Ichigo, making his body collapse and release her as he flew across the room, now in his Soul Reaper form. He stood up, rubbing his cheek as Rukia dragged his body out of the room and the class sat in silence for a moment before they all burst out laughing at the display.
Ichigo hurried after Rukia as she dropped his body in a dumpster.
"What are you doing!?" Ichigo gaped pulling his body back out.
"I needed a place to hide you," Rukia shrugged.
"Not in the dumpster!" Ichigo complained.
Just then, Rukia's soul pager went off and she answered it on the second ring.
"Hello?" Rukia questioned. "Yes Ichigo's here...There's a what? Well when is it...That much? Well can we wait in our...not even me? Well what do we do until then? Blend in? I don't care if we do have to draw it out I'm not...Because our class is putting on a play...Romeo and Juliet...Don't laugh at me! I got stuck with Juliet! I'm not...but I don't...alright...it was...um...Ichigo..."
He let her hand drop, face scarlet and Ichigo could hear laughing from where he was.
"What's going on?" Ichigo questioned.
"He's laughing," Rukia stated before picking the phone back up. "Look can we please just wait as Soul Reaper? Why not? Well can we at least erase the last few minutes? It's a long story...We had a bit of a...negative reaction to our roles in the play...Thank you Captain...We will."
She hung up and put the soul pager away then sighed and turned to Ichigo.
"Well?" Ichigo questioned.
"There's supposedly a Menos Grande, possibly an Adjuchas, coming here, they can sense it but they can't tell when it'll be here or exactly what it'll be," Rukia reported. "We're not allowed to wait as Soul Reapers because we have to lure it out by acting like humans that just happen to have strong Spiritual Pressure. We'll have to be in the play. The only thing we got clearance to do is remove their memories of our show of leaving."
"Damnit," Ichigo sighed. "I was really hoping to get out of it."
"Yeah," Rukia muttered. "Might as well get started."
Ichigo sat on his bed and sighed. He hated plays. He wanted nothing more that to commit suicide and spend a few decades at the Soul Society to get away from the play. Especially since after they had gone back and replaced everyone's memories of their leaving, the entire class came to believe that Misato had designed the play so that any and all kisses between "Romeo" and "Juliet" had to be real kisses. Rukia wasn't much more excited about it than he was, especially since in the last week, they had practiced every scene they were in to perfection, with the exception of any scene requiring they kiss. They had the lines down, and both had memorized their stage movements individually but had yet to even begin considering practicing those scenes with each other.
"I'm not excited about it either," Rukia sighed. "But we should at least go through the lines once before we have to do it for real tomorrow."
"I know," Ichigo groaned. "I just wish we could wait in our soul forms so we didn't have to do this stupid play."
"Well we can't so quit complaining," Rukia sighed skimming through her lines to the first part she and Ichigo hadn't practiced together yet. "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this, for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" Ichigo sighed.
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer," Rukia recited, both of them keeping their scripts down.
"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair," Ichigo recited then stopped as he heard excited whispers behind the door.
He growled in frustration and walked over to the door, flinging it open in tim to see Isshin and Yuzu sprinting away. He slammed the door and walked back to the bed, collapsing and groaning into his pillow.
"I'm beginning to hate your family," Rukia muttered.
"Yeah," Ichigo agreed. "I think we have the lines down well enough."
"I agree," Rukia nodded before sighing. "Alright, We'd better get some rest."
"Yeah," Ichigo nodded. "Wouldn't want to be tired when the hollow saves us from the play."
"No doubt," Rukia smirked, both of them silently praying it would actually happen that way. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Ichigo replied.
She left for the guest bed Isshin was allowing her to stay in and Ichigo rolled over, glancing at his script before drifting off to sleep.
His dream was simple. He and Rukia were doing the play for real, only instead of dreading it, they were more than happy to. They got to the same scene they had been practicing before they went to sleep only this time, there was no interruption. Ichigo finished his lines and leaned forward, their lips less than an inch away when...
"Wake up Ichigo!" someone snapped and Ichigo's eyes snapped open, seeing Rukia standing in the doorway, already ready to leave. "Time for school."
He nodded and she left. He got up and got dressed then went down to the kitchen and looked at the clock. He ate a quick breakfast that Yuzu had already prepared then left. Where Rukia was normally waiting outside for him, she had already left today. He couldn't say he wasn't relieved about that after his dream. He still had no idea why he dreamt it but he was decided the only thing he had to hope for was that the hollow showed up before the play. He headed toward school, meeting Keigo and Mizuiro on the way, Keigo already in costume and Mizuiro as neutral as ever. Keigo and Mizuiro discussed their expectations of the play but Ichigo walked along in silence, head struggling to understand why he had dreamed what he did.
"Ichigo?" Mizuiro asked. "You alright?"
"Huh?" Ichigo mumbled. "Oh, yeah. Just thinking."
"I'll bet you're daydreaming about all the times you practiced your kiss with Rukia," Mizuiro chuckled.
"Didn't," Ichigo stated. "Don't want to be in the play at all."
"What?" Keigo gasped dramatically. "But this play is going to be amazing! And you'll get to make out with your-"
Ichigo smashed his fist into the top of Keigo's head so hard Keigo's nose started bleeding but Ichigo just continued walking like nothing had happened.
"I said I don't want to be in the play," Ichigo growled. "It's going to suck, the acting's going to suck, and I don't like Rukia like that."
Keigo and Mizuiro watched Ichigo walk away as Keigo held his nose closed before they continued.
"What's up with him today," Mizuiro wondered aloud.
"Clearly he'd rather have Orihime as Juliet," Keigo stated.
When Ichigo finally got to the school, he found his class all in costume. He took his from Misato's desk and changed into it then went to wait backstage where the others were gathering. Finally they all arrived and Misato walked in having them form a circle as she gave them one last pep talk. Ichigo ignore her and looked around the circle at his friends. All of the guys, himself included, were wearing uncomfortably tight pants and tunics, all looking relatively the same with Ichigo's being a bit more decorative than the others. Tatsuki was wearing the same type of outfit, being Tybalt, and on her it actually looked pretty good, if a bit too decorative for her personality. The girls, with the exception of Tatsuki and Chizuru, were all wearing dresses that quite frankly were likely excessively revealing for a high school play. Most, if not all of the girls had a mile of cleavage showing, Orihime having several miles, but Rukia was the exception among the dress wearing girls. Her dress was the same shade of purple as the dress she wore at Ichigo's house had on the shoulders. She had some make-up on to help her be seen from the audience. All in all, she was stunning. Ichigo's eyes lingered on her for several seconds before he looked to Chizuru and had to choke back a sudden burst of laughter. Chizuru was both pissed and elated at once. Elated because of Orihime's dress, and resulting cleavage, and pissed because she herself was wearing a tattered old brown cloak with a large darker brown patch sewn onto the right elbow, the bottom laying on the ground and tripping her every time she took a step, and sleeves that hang down almost to the floor, along with a wig of long messy grey hair and a equally messy grey beard attached that hung down to her waist.
Finally Misato left to introduce them and Ichigo sat down off to one side where he could watch but not be seen by the audience. Rukia sat beside him after a few minutes.
"I called about the hollow," Rukia said quietly. "They can't tell where it is but it should be here sometime today."
"Too late now," Ichigo sighed. "Unless it ruined our school. I'm not sure if I want it to or not."
"I know the feeling," Rukia agreed. "You're up."
Ichigo sighed and nodded, walking over to the entrance of the stage. After a moment, Chad, cast as Benvolio, twitched a finger, signaling Ichigo to enter and Ichigo sighed before walking onstage, his already bad mood perfect for the scene. After that scene, and the next, Ichigo finally sat down, watching as Rukia walked onstage to do her scene. Then, she left and the first scene that Ichigo was dreading began. Ichigo put on his mask for the scene and sighed. he could see Rukia on the other side, fidgeting and avoiding looking at him. He almost thought she looked nervous. He instantly felt nervousness grow rapidly inside of himself. He was actually going to have to do it. The hollow wouldn't be able to arrive and break into the school before they did. Finally, Romeo walked onstage for his part. After several minutes of excellent acting and horrible tension and nervousness, Ichigo and Rukia both walked over to one end of the stage, the others who were present walking to the other but all watching intently, the audience being too busy doing the same to notice. Ichigo could now clearly see the blush Rukia was fighting to keep hidden and could feel his own.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this," Ichigo recited taking her hand, blush darkening slightly as he did and Rukia's did the same. "My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much," Rukia replied, "which mannerly devotion shows in this, for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" Ichigo sighed.
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer," Rukia recited.
In reality, their acting was pretty good, but they both barely noticed they were saying anything, internally falling apart with nerves about what they were going to have to do.
"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair," Ichigo stated then gulped.
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake," Rukia recited, gripping the sides of her dress tightly to keep her hands from shaking, Ichigo noticing.
"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take," Ichigo said before taking a steadying breath as he leaned forward, and down.
He swallowed hard as he did and noticed that Rukia was leaning toward him as well, though not enough for anyone other than him to notice. He found himself, not dreading the kiss like he expected himself to, but anticipating it, almost excited. Just as they were within an inch of each other, the ground shook, throwing Rukia into Ichigo, her head smashing off of his chest before he caught her and the lights flickered.
"It's here," Ichigo muttered.
People in the audience were screaming so Ichigo and Rukia both sprinted out of the building, ducking into a side alley and ditching their bodies before sprinting out toward the Hollow, that they could finally sense. As they ran, Ichigo fell back a bit then glanced at Rukia. Her face was impassive so he couldn't tell what she was feeling. He wasn't entirely sure what he himself was feeling, but the only two options were relief and disappointment. After a moment, they reached the hollow and Ichigo sighed.
"All that fuss over a Gillian?" Ichigo complained. "For the love of God, Couldn't it at least bring us a few friends?"
Ichigo drew his sword and Rukia stayed off to one side, allowing Ichigo to kill the thing.
Ichigo landed beside Rukia as the Gillian faded and sighed. He looked over at Rukia but she was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice he was done fighting.
"We should get back," Ichigo stated.
"No," Rukia said catching his arm. "Not...not yet. If we wait a few minutes...they'll cancel the play to look for us."
"Is that...is that what you want?" Ichigo asked, choosing his words carefully.
Rukia was silent for a moment before her head fell.
"I don't know," she complained. "I haven't been able to figure out what I wanted since Captain Ukitake told me about that damned Hollow."
Ichigo nodded, remaining silent before glancing at her.
"I guess in the end it got here in time huh?" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah," Rukia nodded. "Just in time to block our kiss."
Ichigo blinked in surprise. She almost sounded, bitter about its timing. She turned and looked up at him and her face finally betrayed an emotion, disappointment.
"I was kind of enjoying getting graded for acting," she smirked. "And...it was fun to watch you get worked up about having to do it."
"That wasn't what I was getting worked up about," Ichigo stated. "Acting's one thing but..."
Rukia was confused for a second before her eyes widened and she nodded slightly. Then, a blush spread across her cheeks before beginning to spread.
"Well...it wasn't just acting I was enjoying," she said quietly.
Ichigo wasn't sure what she meant but the way she suddenly couldn't look him in the eye he had a guess.
"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" Ichigo muttered making Rukia look up at him in surprise as her blush spread.
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer," Rukia replied, smiling slightly.
"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair," Ichigo recited also smiling slightly, though Rukia wasn't looking at him.
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake," Rukia spoke, looking up at him, smile fading as he began to lean forward.
"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take," Ichigo mumbled, lips barely an inch from Rukia's.
He hesitated, stopping a couple centimeters from her but she instantly leaned forward. Ichigo kissed her back, closing his eyes as his hands went to her waist. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer and deepened the kiss. As they kissed, neither noticed Orihime, Chad, Uryu, and Tatsuki watching from off to one side, Chad holding Ichigo's body and Rukia's gigai on his shoulders.
"Sorry Orihime," Tatsuki sighed. "But it's about time."
"Yeah, it is," Orihime agreed.
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