Happiness Is a Good Thing, Don't You Know?

by Windrises

Things have been awkward between Ichigo and Rukia. The two friends wonder why they can't have a normal conversation anymore and they hope they can make things better.

Note: Bleach is an anime that was done by the studio Pierrot and is based on a manga by Tite Kubo.

Ichigo Kurosaki and his teammates had finished up another one of their missions. They were hanging out in their hideout and were trying to recover and relax, from having to stop so many villains.

Ichigo walked up to one of his main crime-fighting partners, Rukia Kuchiki, and said, "That was a pretty cool adventure."

Rukia replied, "Um, yeah. The important thing is that all of those villains are gone." Rukia seemed to have something on her mind, but Ichigo wasn't picking up on what was on her mind.

Things had been awkward between Ichigo and Rukia, but Ichigo didn't know why. Bleach put his hand on his chin and tried to think of a way to spice up the conversation. He considered commenting on Rukia's beautiful hair. However, he figured he had to rephrase that, because he didn't want to make it seem like he was flirting with her. After all, he had a crush on Orihime Inoue. Ichigo looked at Rukia and said, "Your hair's not that awful."

Rukia had a confused look on her face, while saying, "Excuse me?"

Ichgio said, "I was trying to say you have nice hair."

Rukia was surprised to hear that. She tried to return the compliment, by saying, "You have good hair too."

Ichgio proudly played with his hair, while saying, "Thank you. I use high quality hair products. Some of the bottles cost twenty dollars, but it's always worth it."

Ichigo's attempt to make things less awkward weren't paying off. Rukia said, "I'm going to go relax. I'll see you later."

Ichgio replied, "Okay then."

Rukia walked over to the soda machine and got herself a bottle. Drinking the tasty soda was a brief distraction from her awkward life. Although she wasn't as clueless as Ichigo about the awkward tension, she was also confused about what was going on. She and Ichigo had always been such good friends. She wondered what was going on.

Orihime walked and got a soda. Rukia looked at her. She seemed so cheerful. To Rukia, it felt like Orihime was always in a good mood. Orihime said, "Hi Rukia. What's going on?"

Rukia tried to hide her feelings, while saying, "I don't know."

Orihime gently tapped Rukia's head and replied, "It seems like you have something on your mind."

Rukia responded, "I disagree. There's not that much on my mind."

Orihime put her arm around Rukia and said, "Come on. I know you're not thoughtless, so what's up?"

Rukia sighed and replied, "I have been having awkward feelings."

Orihime asked, "Awkward feelings? What is this about?"

Rukia considered explaining what was going on, but she barely even understood her own feelings, so she said, "Don't worry about. I'm just going to go back to my room."

Orihime replied, "You need to fill me in. I'm your friend."

Rukia responded, "Maybe tomorrow. I'll see you later. Have a nice evening."

Orihime replied, "You too." Rukia walked to her room.

A few minutes later, Ichgio walked by the snack machine and saw Renji Abarari. Ichgio looked at Renji and saw that he had a dozen bags of snacks, so he jokingly said, "Your superpower is craving snacks."

Renji replied, "I wasn't sure which types of snacks to get, so I thought I'd get a dozen, sort of like a dozen donuts. So, what's going on, bro?"

Ichigo started pacing around the hallway. He tried to word himself carefully, while saying, "Rukia's been acting a little different."

Renji asked, "What do you mean?"

Ichigo explained, "When we first started fighting crime, we were like the best of friends. We had a great bond and everything seemed to be going well. However, things haven't as easy, recently."

Renji asked, "Why not?"

Ichigo barely had a clue, about why things were different. He said, "Rukia and I have been having awkward conversations. It's hard to find stuff to talk about. Today, I was so desperate for conversation topics, that I started bragging about my expensive hair products. I probably sounded like a bragging doofus."

Renji had an amused look on his face, while saying, "That sounds like a perfectly good description of you."

Ichigo said, "Excuse me?"

Renji replied, "Your description should be Ichigo, master of bragging doofuses." Renji burst into laughter. He was in such a goofy mood, he started dancing back to his room.

Meanwhile, Rukia was hanging out in her room. She had a lot on her mind, but she barely understood what she was feeling. She said to herself, "What a counterintuitive problem." She had been thinking about Ichigo. Thinking about him made her feel happy, but that happiness kept turning into awkward feelings. She wasn't sure why that was and she wanted to figure out the answer, but for now, she needed a break. She figured a relaxing bath would help.

While walking around the hallway, Ichigo bumped into Chad. Chad was carrying a stink bomb and was planning on throwing it at Renji, because Renji broke all of his plants. Ichigo said, "Hi Chad. Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Chad nervously replied, "I'm sorry Ichigo, but this is a bad time."

Ichgio asked, "Can you at least spare a few seconds?"

Chad said, "I'm afraid I can't." Ichgio accidentally tripped over one of Renji's candy wrappers. He accidentally knocked himself and Chad to the ground. The stink bomb landed on both of them.

Ichgio did a long cough, before saying, "Worst smell ever."

Chad replied, "Frankly, I'm glad to hear that. I'm going to get another stink bomb and throw it on Renji, for revenge."

Ichigo asked, "Can I use your shower? My room's shower is broken."

Chad replied, "No, I need to take a quick shower and prank Renji."

Ichigo walked up to Rukia's door, hoping that she would let him take a shower. He knocked on the door, but Rukia didn't answer, since she was taking a bath. Ichigo opened the bedroom door. He looked around the room, but didn't see her. He figured she was in the bathroom. He walked up to Rukia's bathroom door and knocked on it.

Rukia was a little scared to hear someone knocking, so she asked, "Who's there?"

Ichigo said, "It's Ichigo."

Rukia asked, "Um, what do you want?"

Ichigo said, "I need to take a shower, quickly."

Rukia replied, "I can smell you from in here, but this isn't a good time. I'm taking a bath."

Ichigo responded, "That's okay. I'll stand out here and wait."

Rukia asked, "Could you turn on the radio or something? Might make things less awkward."

Ichigo replied, "Okay." He found the radio, next to Rukia's bed and turned it on. He switched the radio station to the pop station. He started dancing, while listening to the pop song. Even though Rukia was in a separate room, she could hear Ichigo dancing around. Although she was a bit annoyed to hear Ichigo accidentally knocking a few things to the ground, she enjoyed having her mood lightened up. Ichigo and Rukia had dealt with a lot of awkward conversations, so avoiding conversation and listening to Ichigo dance was a nice change of pace, for Rukia.

Ten minutes later, Rukia finished her bath. She got out of the tub and got on a black bathrobe. She stepped out of the bathroom and said, "You can stop the goofy dance moves and take a shower."

Ichigo lightly smiled and replied, "Thank you."

Rukia said, "Not to be rude, but why do you smell so bad?"

Ichigo replied, "Chad accidentally dropped a stink bomb on him and me."

Rukia whispered, "Such immature behavior."

After Ichigo finished his shower, he stepped out of the bathroom, wearing the same clothes from before. Rukia took a break from brushing her hair and said, "When you get to your room, you should put on some fresh clothes."

Ichigo replied, "No need for that. My clothes smelt terrible, so I bathed with my outfit on."

Rukia took a closer look at Bleach and saw that his clothes were soaked. She said, "Fair enough, but you should change into some dry clothes."

Ichigo replied, "Good advice." He touched his head, while saying, "My hair doesn't look as fancy, because I didn't bring my hair products. However, I have pretty amazing hair." Bleach's attempt at small talk was making things more awkward, instead of less awkward.

Rukia said, "I need to change into my pajamas and you need to get on clothes that aren't completely soaked, so you better get to your room."

Ichigo replied, "Good idea." The radio was still on, so he danced out of the room.

Ichgio went into the hallway and saw Uryu Ishida. Uryu said, "Hi Ichigo. What's going on?"

Ichigo replied, "Things have been awkward and weird, between Rukia and me."

Uryu responded, "You should forget about Rukia. After all, she's just a friend. Orihime is the one you should be focusing on. You and her haven't spent much time together, because of the recent villain battles. Are you two dating?"

Ichigo explained, "Not yet, but I've been considering asking her out."

Uryu replied, "Go ahead and do it. I think you and her would be a cute couple."

Ichigo lightly smiled and responded, "That's not a bad idea, so I'm going to give it a shot." He walked to Orihime's door, forgetting the fact he was wearing soaked clothes. He walked into the room. Orihime's radio was on, so he started dancing.

Orihime saw Ichigo and asked, "What's going on?"

Ichigo explained, "I wanted to pay you a visit and ask you some stuff."

Orihime replied, "You're dancing in my room, in wet clothes. Did you wet yourself?"

Ichigo had an embarrassed look on his face, while saying, "That's not what happened."

Orihime looked at the ground and saw that Ichigo's wet clothes were getting the carpet and some magazines wet. She said, "Frankly, you need to go."

Ichigo replied, "Fair enough, but do you want to go out, sometime?"

Orihime sighed and responded, "I'm sorry Ichigo, but I'm afraid you're not my type, after all."

Ichigo walked out of Orihime's room. He was expecting to be heartbroken about Orihime's rejection, but he wasn't. However, he was disappointed. He was tired of the wet clothes, so he started running to his room. He ran into Chad, who was carrying another stink bomb. The stink bomb landed on Ichigo, again.

Chad looked at Ichigo and said, "You ruined another one of my pranks."

Ichigo replied, "I'll have to take another shower, because of your gross pranks. However, I'm not going to bother with it, at this time. I'll just take it in the morning." He went into his room and started getting ready for bed.

Meanwhile, Rukia was laying on her bed. She tried to forget about the day's chaos. She closed her eyes and tried to have a nice rest, but her dreams were about Ichigo. She started realizing what was going on and what her true feelings were.

The next morning, The next morning, Ichigo looked at Renji. Renji smelt terrible, because Chad had dumped a stink bomb at him. Renji said, "Breaking his stupid plants was a dumb idea." Ichigo smirked at him.

Rukia finished changing into her day clothes, when Ichigo walked in. Rukia had a mildly offended look on her face, while saying, "You should knock."

Ichigo replied, "I didn't knock, because I was worried you'd still be sleeping."

Rukia responded, "If I had been asleep, you would of woken me up, by barging in."

Ichigo had just started talking to Rukia and things were off to another awkward start. He feared the reason for all this tension was because of his immature behavior. He said, "I don't know how to make good conversations. I bomb at having nice talks with you and I drove Orihime crazy. She doesn't want to date me."

Rukia touched Ichigo's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Ichigo replied, "I wasn't as sad about it, as I thought I would be."

Rukia had a nervous look on her face, while saying, "Our awkward conversations are my fault, not mine."

Ichigo asked, "What do you mean?"

Rukia said, "Ichigo, going on adventures with you and spending time with you makes me happy. I was embarrassed and felt weird about being happy, when I'm with you."

Ichigo had a surprised look on his face, while asking, "Why would you be ashamed of happiness? Happiness isn't a bad thing, don't you know?"

Rukia shyly replied, "Yes, but you give me special feelings of happiness, feelings that embarrassed me. I've even started blushing, because of you."

Ichigo was starting to understand what was going on. He had an embarrassing question, but he figured he should ask it. He asked, "Do you have a crush on me?"

Rukia shyly said, "Yes I do. I'm sorry."

Ichigo gently replied, "You have no reason to be sorry. I'm honored to hear that."

Rukia asked, "Really?"

Ichigo said, "I was confused about why I didn't care about dating Orihime anymore and I know why, she wasn't the right girl for me. Perhaps, my closest ally is also the one closest to my heart."

Rukia blushed, while feeling happier than ever before. She gave him a big hug and said, "I really like you."

Ichigo replied, "I like you too."

Rukia looked at Ichigo's face and asked, "Can I give you a kiss?"

Ichigo casually said, "Sure." He was expecting a kiss on the cheek, but she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Ichigo was pleasantly surprised. This morning, in general, was a pleasant surprise and a start to passionate happiness, between Ichigo and Rukia.