Perks and Anniversaries

By Yoshiko Hatake

Ichigo and Orihime, oneshot.

As their one year anniversary comes closer, Ichigo's thoughts on that specific date and the past year.

Completely random, just came to me all of a sudden.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Or the liquid. XD Haha, lame, I know.

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I shuffled down the stairs heading towards the kitchen. It was around one am. Perfect time for a midnight snack to calm the grumbling in my stomach. Probably from nervousness. It would be our 1 year anniversary. 1 year we had been married. Time sure went by quickly.

I opened the refrigerator not bothering to turn on the lights. I let the light illuminate the kitchen temporarily as I searched for something. Finding some of the strange food she had cooked for dinner I took it out. Strange how quickly you start to like this kind of things.

Red bean paste, she put those in nearly everything now. I yawned as I continued moving around heading toward the counter, but I stubbed my toe. I screamed the lights came on.

And then there were two screaming.

Once my renewed screaming was over. I stared at her.

"Ichigo, don't scare me like that!" She said, in her sweet melodic voice.

"Didn't you know it was me when I went to the fridge."

She shook her head. "No! I was eating some toast, and I heard some foot steps, I was going to try and suprise them from behind, but they disappeared really quickly. Then I saw them going through the fridge, so I thought they were going for food! Then, I realized it was you." She sat down at the table in front of a small plate of a large slice of bread, which she had baked herself. But accidentally put in too much ingredients, which caused it to be quite large.

"Orihime…" I started, grabbing a fork from the drawer and then sitting down across from her.

"You need to be more careful. If you're not quick enough someone could kidnap you or harm you. I'm not sure if the Shun Shun Rikka, activates if you're in harms way." I said.

"Don't worry. I'll use my head." She said, tapping it with her finger.

"Did you mean literally?"

"Possibly."

"Good."

I dug into the strange concoction and looked up at Orihime. She was eating her snack as well…

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"Here's to Ichigo and Orihime! On their engagement!" It was my father who had popped the cork on the champagne. Everyone was mostly drunk and, or passed out.

Orihime sweat dropped looking around at the small crowd in the Kurosaki kitchen. Of course I moved out a long time ago, dad just wanted me to throw the party there to celebrate our engagement. We had started dating almost a year ago. How that happened, I still don't know.

I say it was luck she says it was fate. We were both on the same beach at the same time. We saw each other and got reunited. I was supposed to take over the family business of the clinic. Unfortunately, Karin was scouted in high school and now gets to play soccer all she wants, while Yuzu was in school to be a nurse. That weird Jinta boy still is around as well.

So, I took a break and a group of my friends headed toward the beach. It started raining and they headed in. I came back out with an umbrella and we met there.

"Ne…Ichigo…" My younger sister Karin started, "You…hic…better treat…Ori…hic…right or I'll kick you real hard!"

"Yes, yes…" I muttered as I helped her lie down on the couch. I notice Yuzu's head resting on that Jinta boy. He was blushing slightly, and had a wide smile on his face, I had the strong urge to knock that smile off his face. But, Orihime stopped me.

"Ichigo…Let's go to sleep!" She said, smiling. Too most perverts, no of course I haven't touched her. I couldn't, I'd most likely regret it. Not sure, probably that protective instinct I had.

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Ahh, one of the perks of being married to a woman who had strange interests. Our home was laden with things we both liked. Stuff that I thought was cool, and that were comfortable for me, and stuff that she thought was cute. The result, quite strange really.

I looked around the room that I had entered, the living room. It wasn't that late, but I yawned and pulled at the tie that restricted myself. A smell of her cooking wafted towards me. I inched closer to the kitchen and looked in.

She was standing near the stove cooking. I smiled, wondering just what she had concocted today.

"I'm back." I said, finally walking in.

"Welcome home." She said, turning her head to look at me with a smile.

Month 4, day 3. I wasn't the one counting, she did. She would count the days during her shower. Which would wake me up while I would sleep through the alarm. She sure was strange.

But I loved her.

I took a seat at the table, "What're you cooking?"

"Miso soup…"

"Oh!"

"With carrots, and a side of rice with red bean paste and curry!"

"Oh…?" I said, realizing she had put something strange into the food.

"Carrots are good for eye health!"

"Ah, that's good." I said.

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It was morning.

"1 YEAR…" I heard her singing, my ears perked at this. Today was the day. I had it all planned, I even told her not to do anything, just wear something nice.

I got up and rushed downstairs. There I took out the food I had prepared myself…okay Yuzu prepared. I helped, I chopped some stuff.

I heated it up and set it out at the table. I told her not to check it, saying they were food my sister wanted to store there. She obediently agreed not to look.

I ran back upstairs just as she was dressed and brushing her hair.

"Breakfast is ready." I stated.

"What? But I was going to cook."

"No worries, it's all taken care of." I stated. She nodded and left the room to check out area.

I walked into the bathroom, and took a quick shower. By the time I came out wearing a towel around my waist and one around my neck, I was attacked by Orihime.

"Aww, thank you so much!" She said.

"Orihime! I'm not completely dry yet!" I warned. She didn't heed to that.

"It doesn't matter, thank you so much." She said smiling.

I grinned, "Anything to make you smile." I brushed some of her hair out of her face. This caused me to get another hug.

"Ichigo! You're so romantic!"

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After a strange day of eating breakfast, going to the park; which she wanted to do, and feeding the ducks there, we ate lunch in the same park, somehow I was able to ward away the ducks. Then we met up with some of our friends, Rukia, Ishida, Chad, and some others. We did karaoke, another idea of her's.

I did enjoy it, somewhat, but hearing Ishida sing wasn't at all…enjoyable.

All in all it seems to have been a good night. But my plans for tonight aren't complete yet.

"Hey, follow me." I said and quickly took her hand in mine. She gave me a confused look as I pulled her along.

Finally we arrived, it was on the school rooftop. How we got up there, that's a secret. I looked over at her, she still had that confused look on. Then the fireworks went off. Her attention went to the sky, as a smile came onto her face.

"Ichigo! Look! There's so many colors, how did you know they'd go off."

"Oh…Luck." I said, grinning.

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"Damn, that Ichigo."

"Now now…" Urahara smirked watching Jinta light the fireworks. He fanned himself lightly as he sat in a beach chair.

Jinta continued lighting them, as he had been told, but continued cursing loudly, and openly.

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"Orihime?"

"Hai?" She asked, happily. My head was lying in her lap as she stared up at the sky from where we sat. I had laid out the blanket we used previously at the park.

"Are you happy?"

"I've always been happy."

"Eh?"

"I'm happily married to you, Ichigo." She gave me a smile.

I smiled back, "Then I'm happy."

There was silence for awhile, except for the sounds of the fireworks, crackling and booming, into colors. We continued to watch in awe of it all.

"Um…"

I turned my head back to her.

"Um……"

"Orihime?"

"Um……"

"What's wrong?"

"Umm…" She finally took a deep breath, "Well…you see…I've been meaning to tell you but…it kind of slipped my mind. But…well…"

Oh no, here comes the final blow, she must be having and affair, or worse, she could have found out she was dying.

"I'm two weeks pregnant."

I stared at her face for awhile, she just rubbed the back of her head.

"Sorry…"

"I'm not sure if I should be happy or shocked…"

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Man…I'm wondering if this is a crack fic. Hmm…Kinda did it on whim. Support the Ichigo and Orihime pairing!

-Yoshiko Hatake