Ichigo sighed as he walked down the sidewalk. He still wasn't quite sure this was the best idea, but Yuzu had talked him into it. Yes he liked her. Yes, he knew she liked him. However, this entire approach seemed a bit odd to him. It was him who thought of it in the first place, but he hadn't planned on actually going through with it. In fact the entire idea had started off as a joke, but as soon as he told Yuzu it all became real. Yes it was all his younger sister's fault that he was in this position.

Taking a deep breath as he appeared at the door. After a few seconds Ichigo knocked on the door. A orange haired girl opened the door "Ichigo, what are you doing here?" asked a surprised Orihime with oven mitts on.

"Well I was wondering if I could stay with you for a couple weeks." Ichigo stated. Orihime's cheeks started to turn red. Ichigo was actually asking to live in her apartment. "I mean I can go ask Chad or someone else if it's too much trouble." he said seeing her embarrassment. He was having a bit of difficulty seeing how this plan would actually work. A plan starting from a joke didn't seem like a great plan.

"W-wh-what, no, no it's fine you can stay here as long as you want. You're my friend after all." Orihime replied, looking down towards her feet with her face turning even more red.

"Thanks." Ichigo said with a wide smile. "By the way, if you're cooking something shouldn't you get back to it?" he said seeing the apron she was wearing.

Orihime looked up in surprise, and then panic. "Ah, I completely forgot I was making dinner." she said in a panic, running back to her kitchen. "Bring your stuff in and close the front door" she yelled from the kitchen.

Ichigo picked up his bag and brought it inside, closing the door behind him. It was good to see that the apartment was relatively clean and completely normal. No weird soul reaper stuff or anything. Poking his head into the kitchen he took a look at what she was making. As usual it was something a bit weird, but of course in this case he definitely couldn't say anything about that.

"Oh Ichigo, do you want to have dinner with me?" Orihime asked.

"No, I brought some food with me. I don't want to impose too much, and besides you weren't expecting me."

"Oh, what did you bring?"

"A few sandwiches and some rice." he replied. It was a simple meal, but it would last him for tonight and for school tomorrow. Although even if it was simple he couldn't claim that he made it, that was Yuzu. Ichigo gave a mental sigh. Why couldn't Yuzu be a little more like Karin and not butt into his personal life. Sure Karin had her moments, but that was generally when she actually had good reason to be worried about his wellbeing.

"I made enough for two. I like to bring what I make for dinner as lunch the next day. We can share this meal and we can share the food you brought for lunch tomorrow." Orihime said happily.

"Oh ok." Ichigo replied a bit lamely. Pulling the food out of his pack, he put it into the fridge. "Uh, did you make any rice tonight?" Ichigo asked

Orihime shook her head "It's too much trouble most of the time since I'm normally cooking other stuff."

"You don't have a rice cooker?" Ichigo asked a bit surprised. Even if Orihime did like cooking weird things, not having a rice cooker was a bit odd.

"No, it broke a while ago and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one."

"Why don't we eat the rice I brought. It probably won't be very good by tomorrow." Ichigo suggested.

Orihime smiled and nodded. This felt good to have Ichigo living with her, even if it had only been a minute or two. They were already planning what they would eat for dinner, and what they would bring to school tomorrow. Orihime sighed happily. "I'll get you settled in after we eat." she told him as she brought whatever she had made out of the oven. Looking at it, Ichigo couldn't quite tell what was in it, though it looked like it had some bean paste, jelly of some sort, bananas, peanut butter, cheese, onions, and squid. Below that he couldn't see anything.

After Orihime dished them up some food, he steeled himself. He didn't want to hesitate once the food came. That would be rude. After Orihime set the plate down on the table, he looked up "Um, should I start eating now, or do you normally do something first?"

"No, I usually eat in front of the TV, but since I have company now I figured we could eat at the table." she told him happily.

Ichigo took a bite of whatever was in front of him, and was mildly surprised. It wasn't bad. It was by no means his favorite food, and he would of prefered whatever Yuzu cooked back at his house, but it didn't taste awful like he thought it would have.

"What do you think?" Orihime asked a bit nervously. "I know most people think the food I make is kind of weird."

"I won't lie, it's not my favorite, but it actually does taste kinda good." Ichigo said with a smile. He didn't think lying about it would be the best idea. He wanted to have a mutual trust between them.

"To be honest, the reason I started making food like this was because after my brother died I didn't know how to cook, and what ingredients went it what. After a few days of eating just rice, the rice cooker broke and I decided to try to make something. I just kinda tossed in whatever was lying around." Orihime admitted. She hadn't actually told anyone this since it was a bit embarrassing.

"If you want I can teach you how to make some normal stuff. I only really know from what Yuzu makes, but it's still something. Besides it's good to be creative when cooking, food will get boring otherwise." Ichigo said grinning. Orihime smiled. No one had supported her cooking like that. They just called it weird, and generally didn't eat it. The only person that did seem to like her cooking, besides Ichigo, was Rangiku. It was nice to have someone want to help improve her cooking, but not really change it.

After they were finished eating, Orihime went and picked up Ichigo's bag. "Hey, I can't let you carry that. You're letting me stay here for free, if anything I want to help you with stuff." Ichigo said taking his bag from her. Orihime smiled and nodded.

"The room is right next to mine, so feel free to pop in if you need anything." Orihime told him.

After putting his stuff down, Ichigo headed back out. Walking into the kitchen he saw Orihime cleaning up. "Let me help, it's the least I can do."

Orihime nodded and asked him to clean the dishes while she took care of the surrounding area. After about five minutes they were both finished. "So, um do you wanna go out, watch TV, or go to bed." Ichigo asked a bit awkwardly. He didn't really know about what she normally did, and he didn't want to disrupt her schedule.

"Uh do you mind waiting here for a second, I wanna go," she paused and looked at the altar that she still had. She didn't really know what to call it since her brother had moved on, but she didn't want Ichigo to hear what she was saying.

Seeing where she was looking Ichigo smiled "Of course. I'm just going to head to my room and start putting some stuff away." he replied as he headed towards his room.

Orihime sighed. She didn't know why she still did this, but it made her feel good. She started talking to the shrine and explained everything about what was happening with Ichigo moving in and living with her.

Ichigo on the other hand was putting his clothes in the drawers in the room. After putting a few personal objects around the room, Ichigo peeked out from his room to see if Orihime was still doing whatever she was doing. Orihime saw Ichigo looking out of his room and waved him over. "Come on, we can watch TV now." she said with the ever present smile on her face.

Ichigo sat down on the couch next to Orihime. Looking at the TV he noticed that she was watching the same things his little sisters watched. He smiled as he saw Orihime singing along with the intro. She was a bit old for the show, but he couldn't say he was surprised. Of course it was still kind of cute.

After around two hours, Orihime had fallen asleep against Ichigo. Ichigo smiled and felt his eyes flutter a few times. He didn't want to wake up Orihime, but he figured it would be better for both of them to sleep in a bed. After a few thoughts of why he should carry her to her bed, he fell asleep.