New Years

Today was New Years Eve, and currently, Substitute Shinigami Ichigo Kurosaki was at a New Years party, held at the Soul Society, that he was unfortunately dragged into. All the shinigami at the party, were either drinking, eating, talking or laughing with each other as they reminisced about the year. Ichigo did have to admit that it was a good party, but he would have much preferred the plans he made earlier. Those plans were, to spend the entire day with Kuchiki Rukia, his girlfriend. Ever since his powers returned, the two were inseparable, just like old times, only this time they were more than friends.

So much has happened in the past year, he thought to himself as he looked at the beverage in his hand. By the way, where is that midget?

"Hey Ichigo!" yelled Renji.

"What do you want?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

"How about a game of Bull Shit?" asked the red-haired shinigami.

"What?" said Ichigo confused.

"You know, Bull Shit. BS or whatever you call it. The card game you showed Rukia how to play," he responded showing the deck of cards in his hand.

Oh no, thought Ichigo, even more annoyed. "Rukia taught you how to play?"

"Yeah! So come on. How about a round?"

"No," responded Ichigo flatly.

"Aw come on! Don't be so boring," complained Renji.

"Not gonna happen," said Ichigo.

Every time Ichigo was forced to be involved in weird schemes or games the shinigami wanted to do, it would either end up in disaster or he was the one who got hurt.

"Heeeey. What ya guys up to?" asked a female voice from behind.

Turning around, the two shinigami saw that it was Matsumoto, who was already drunk.

"A card game called BS," said Renji.

"Awwwwww. I wanna play!" moaned the drunken woman, giggling.

"Sounds like a way to past the time," said Ikkaku, who suddenly appeared.

"It would be a beautiful victory for me when I win," said Yumichika, who was beside him.

"Great. You guys can play with each other," said Ichigo trying to get away.

"Waaaait a sec," hiccupped Matsumoto. "You have to play too."

"Why?"

Matsumoto giggled and wobbled over to the orange-haired shinigami.

"Because," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I gots something."

Ichigo blushed at the big-breasted shinigami's close proximity to him.

"What do you mean?" he asked still blushing.

"I have a picture of you and Rukia on a date," she smirked.

"What?" shouted Ichigo, moving away from her.

Matsumoto giggled and slowly took out a picture from her black kimono. On the picture, were him and Rukia, in the snow, seriously making out.

"How did you get that picture?" he exclaimed, blushing at the memory of that moment.

"I have my resources," she said still smiling.

"Give me that!" he yelled reaching out to take the picture from her.

Quickly, Matsumoto waved the picture away from him and put it in between her breasts. Ichigo halted his hand.

"Mmmmm? Aren't you going to take it?" she said smiling at her victory.

Ichigo blushed furiously. "Damn it," he muttered.

"So will you play?" she asked giggling.

After a few seconds of cursing, Ichigo said, "Fine! But if I win, I get that picture!"

After settling down, Renji explained the rules, and everyone got their cards.

Luckily Rangiku-san is drunk, so it'll be an easy win, thought Ichigo as he looked at the cards in his hand.

Ichigo had won many times against Rukia, so beating a bunch of beginners would also be easy.

"Three tens," said Matsumoto facing the cards down.

"BS" said Ichigo.

Matsumoto groaned as she took the whole deck into her hands.

This is gonna be really easy, he thought satisfied.

However, things did not go as planned. Matsumoto did have the entire deck, but because she did, she knew who was lying. The result of the game? Matsumoto won first place, Renji second, Ikkaku third, Yumichika fourth, and in last place, Ichigo.

"I thought you would win since you taught Rukia how to play," snickered Renji.

"Shut up!"

"At least I didn't get the ugly place of being last," said Yumichika.

"Okay! Now you have to do a dare!" squealed Matsumoto.

"Since when was that part of the game?" yelled an infuriated Ichigo.

"Since I have a picture that I'm sure Kuchiki Byakuya would love to see!" she alleged with an evil smile.

Ichigo cursed at his misfortune.

"Good! Now go outside, shirtless, without a scarf or any kind of warmth, and clean the grass of snow!" she exclaimed laughing.

"OH HELL NO! It's freezing outside!" shouted Ichigo.

Matsumoto just pointed at the picture in between her breasts.

This is the worst New Year's Eve ever, thought Ichigo as he went outside and took off the upper part of his shinigami kimono.

The cold air slapped his exposed skin and he shivered. Grabbing a broom from the wall, he started to sweep.

"And I'll make sure you're still sweeping!" yelled Matsumoto as she gulped down a cup of sake.

This sucks!

This is great! thought Rukia as she happily munched on the hot red bean mochi in her hand.

Rukia was originally at the New Years party with Ichigo, but she had a craving for a sweet treat and everyone had already eaten all the desserts. So she quietly escaped outside to go buy some.

Good thing I bought a small bag of mochi to share with Ichigo, she thought to herself as she entered the warm house. "It's so cold outside."

"Hey Rukia!" said Renji waving like a maniac.

"Hey Renji. What's up?"

"Nutin'," he said as he suddenly lifted her up in a bear hug.

Rukia chocked at the bone-crushing hug and scrunched up her nose.

"You're drunk aren't you Renji," she said, holding her nose from his booze breath.

"Noooo!" he said chuckling.

Rukia pulled on his ear and he yelped at the sudden pain. Anytime Renji was drunk, Rukia only needed to pull on his ear if he was misbehaving.

"Hey, have you seen Ichigo?" she asked as he put her down.

Renji just started to laugh.

"Ookay," she said thinking he was too drunk to answer. "Hey Matsumoto-san!"

"Heeey Rukia-chaaan!" said Matsumoto slowly with a cup of sake in her hand.

Is everyone drunk? thought Rukia.

"Um, Matsumoto-san have you seen Ichigo?" she asked.

Matsumoto giggled and said, "Hey Rukia-chan, you know BS is a great game."

Rukia stared at her and said, "Uh, sure I guess."

"The game is even better when you dare the loser to do whatever you want," she snickered.

"Huh?" questioned Rukia.

Matsumoto pointed outside and Rukia turned to see. Her eyes became as big as plates when she saw Ichigo, shirtless, outside sweeping the snow away from a tree outside. Matsumoto started to laugh, while Rukia ran to him.

I think I lost all feeling from my waist up, thought Ichigo. If only Rangiku-san would just pass out from all the alcohol and I could ask Rukia to-

"Ichigo!"

The substitute shinigami turned to where his name was being called from and saw Rukia running towards him. She was wearing her blue kimono with a flower and butterfly print, tied with a pink obi. Ichigo forced himself not to call her cute earlier, but she looked extremely cute. He expected her to hit him on the head and call him a baka for being in the snow shirtless, but what surprised him was that she hugged him tightly.

"Kami Ichigo! You're freezing!" she said as she took off her white scarf. Standing on her tiptoes, she wrapped her scarf around his neck. Then she gave him a hot red bean mochi from the brown bag she held. Ichigo sat down, laying his back against the tree, as he let the hot dessert warm his hands.

"What happened?" asked Rukia.

Ichigo merely glared at her as he ate his snack.

"You know Ichigo, you can put on the top of your kimono now. I'm sure you've suffered enough," she said used to his glares.

"I would if I could," he said as he brushed off the crumbs from his hands. "But unfortunately she's blackmailing me."

"Blackmail? Why?"

Ichigo explained his forced participation in the card game and the picture Matsumoto had in between her uh,...breasts.

"You mean our date from Christmas Eve?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah," he sighed as his teeth chattered.

Suddenly, the yells of Sentaro and Kiyone shouted throughout the halls, "IT'S GOING TO BE THE NEW YEAR IN TWO MINUTES!"

All the shinigami raced outside to climb to the top of the all the roofs. No one wanted to miss the fireworks. Even Renji and Matsumoto, who were completely drunk, tried to climb up the roof. Both Ichigo and Rukia laughed as they watched the shinigami accidentally slip down or argue who would go up next. As soon as everyone was up on the roofs, excluding Ichigo and Rukia who were still by the tree, the shinigami started the countdown.

"Do you still feel cold Ichigo?" asked Rukia. 15, 14, 13

"Sort of," he responded as he rubbed his hands together. 12, 11, 10

"Your lips are still blue," she pointed out. 9, 8, 7

"Really?" he said, touching them lightly. 6, 5, 4

Rukia carefully took his fingers away from his lips and held them in her hands. Slowly inching towards his face, both of their foreheads touched. 3, 2, 1!

"I'll warm them up."

Rukia placed her lips softly on Ichigo's. Ichigo blushed, but closed his eyes as they kissed. Rukia's lips were so soft and so warm, like rose petals. The substitute shinigami wrapped his arms around her, holding her closely as they continued to kiss. The sound of fireworks continued to explode in the background, but the two shinigami were a bit busy with the fireworks bursting in their heads as their lips continued to move with each others. After kissing for a while, they stopped and gazed into each other's eyes, fingers intertwined.

"Happy New Year Ichigo," whispered Rukia touching her forehead with his.

"Happy New Year Rukia," he whispered back, giving her a chaste kiss.

Ichigo held Rukia closely in his arms, as they watched the fireworks.

"So what's your New Year's Resolution?" she asked as she admired the fireworks.

To make sure I never teach you how to play another card game again, he mentally noted.

"To make sure you never leave my side," he said as he held her hand.

"Hey! Well, mine is that you'll be with me too," she said smiling.

"Liar. You probably swore to buy millions of the damn Chappy," he scoffed.

"Hey! What do you have against Chappy?" she pouted at him.

Ichigo chuckled as he captured her lips again. "Thanks for the warm kisses," he said as he caressed her cheek and continued to kiss her.

Rukia blushed, but kissed him back, welcoming its tenderness.

I love you, is what continued to play in their minds as they kissed.

I can never win at the card game BS. I wrote this for a contest on deviantart. Hope I do good and Happy New Year everyone!