This is a collection of one-shots for a challenge I got roped into doing. 31 Kisses, and my pairing is IchiHime. Just don't kill me.

OnyxKatana

Challenge: First Kiss

It was about time, is what any of their friends would say, if asked about Ichigo and Orihime's relationship. For two people who spent a good amount of their lives around each other, they took an awfully long time to see what was long since obvious to the others. Surprisingly enough, neither of the orange-heads were willing to believe it. They redefined "oblivious".

In the end, after seeing both her best friends hopelessly flounder around each other, Tatsuki was the one to end the nonsense. Half out of pity, and half out of frustration, she had finally forced both idiots to confess their feelings. It had taken a little bit of help from Rukia, but it worked. Rukia had frozen both of them to the ground, and refused to let them out until they spilled to each other about their mutual crushes on each other. As Tatsuki put it, everyone was sick and tired of watching both of them make 'doe-eyes' at each other, and wanted them to 'just get on with it!'

Sadly, this relief was short-lived. Sure, the two were finally together, but there wasn't a single person who had seen them do anything more than occasionally hold hands. And even then, their burning faces could put their hair to shame. And now that more than a month had passed since they got together, their extreme shyness or 'delicate handling of the situation' was starting to get on everyone's nerves. The girls wondered how Orihime could resist Ichigo's charms. The boys just wanted to know why Ichigo hadn't thoroughly ravaged the Goddess of Karakura High. And their friends were at a loss for what to do about the lovebirds.

School had just let out for the week, and as was tradition, Kurosaki Ichigo was waiting at the gates for Inoue Orihime. Ichigo walked her home every single day that she didn't have to work. There had been a lot of 'discussion' over the matter, and unsurprisingly, Ichigo had emerged the victor. Nobody was surprised at Ichigo walking her home the first few times, because it was a common occurrence for either Ichigo or Tatsuki to walk the girl home. However, eyebrows rose when Ichigo started doing it almost every day. That was exactly how the school found out about the Goddess dating the Delinquent Punk. And didn't that cause a massive uproar.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

The tall, orange-haired teenager pushed himself off the wall, his expression softening on hearing the joyful exclamation.

"Yo, Inoue. Ready?"

He received his reply when the auburn-haired girl skipped up to him and slipped her tiny hand in his much larger one. They set off towards her apartment, at a pace that was neither fast nor slow. Ichigo was quiet, while he glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye. He cracked a smile at her excited and energetic description of her day. She was telling him all about her day in great detail. So much, in that she was barely paying any attention to her surroundings. Occasionally, Ichigo would say something in reply to her, but his most frequently used phrase was "Look out." It was astonishing how Orihime was an accident waiting to happen at times.

Thankfully, they managed to reach Orihime's apartment with only three stumbles, two near-collisions, and five almost-punching-Ichigo-in-the-arm-with-flinging-gestures. Not a bad record, from Ichigo's point of view. Atleast there was nothing like almost getting run over by a car. And definitely no Hollows showed up, so that was another plus.

"... and that's how I saved Tatsuki-chan from the little blue men!"

Orihime was gesticulating wildly through the entire monologue, and Ichigo wasn't really surprised when she overbalanced, tripped over a step and would have landed on her bottom if not for a pair of arms hooking around her shoulders. He pulled her up from where she had all but landed on him. Giving her a quick once-over, he asked, "You alright, Inoue?"

She looked up at him with her huge, shining, gray eyes. "Hai, Kurosaki-kun! I'm built sturdy anyway!" She bonked herself on the head to prove her point.

Ichigo smirked at his girlfriend's antics. She could be very childish and a complete klutz sometimes, but he wouldn't have it any other way. In his opinion, she was the best thing to ever happen to him. Even if that sounded incredibly cheesy and completely out-of-character for Kurosaki Ichigo. He was in love with his unbelievably awesome girlfriend. So sue him.

Meanwhile, said girlfriend was having a mini panic attack as she fiddled with the lock on her door. Yet again, her clumsiness had cropped up. And this time, she had almost landed ON Kurosaki-kun!

'He must think I'm so clumsy and stupid. And maybe he will decide that he doesn't want to date me because I'm so stupid. Or maybe he already thinks that, but he hasn't dumped me because he feels guilty or something. Aaahhh! That must be it. Kurosaki-kun is too sweet to dump me, so maybe that's why he's forced to put up with me, when he really doesn't want to. Oh my goodness, I am such a bad person, to keep Kurosaki-kun trapped like this! I'm almost as bad as the little blue-'

She was jerked out of her overactive imagination by a deep voice.

"Uh, Inoue? You sure you're alright?"

"Huh?"

Orihime blinked in surprise, as she found herself being stared down at by a pair of chocolate eyes, that were narrowed in concern. The scowl softened, before being replaced by a small, teasing grin.

"You spaced out for a bit there."

Orihime shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Thank you for walking me home, Kurosaki-kun!"

She turned to go inside when her mind pulled her back to the conversation she had with Tatsuki that morning. The raven-haired girl had had it with the two orange-haired idiots.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU HAVEN'T KISSED YET?"

"Ano, Tatsuki-chan, it's-"

"Don't 'Tatsuki-chan' me! You two are idiots! Give me one good reason as to why you two haven't even kissed when both of you know you like each other! Huh?"

"But-"

"Just make the first move, if that idiot is too dense to! Goodness knows he needs akick to get him moving!"

Orihime took a deep breath. Now or never.

Ichigo had turned to go down the steps, when he heard a soft, almost inaudible, "Um, Kurosaki-kun?"

He turned around to look at his girlfriend. He barely registered her moving close to him before he felt something warm and soft press upon his lips for a couple seconds, before lifting. There was an "Eep!" before a mass of flying auburn hair darted inside the apartment and locked the door.

For his part, Ichigo was still trying to comprehend what had happened as he made his way home on autopilot. It took almost a whole block before reality settled in.

'Inoue kissed me. INOUE KISSED ME!'

Karin looked at her twin, her flabbergasted expression saying it all.

"Yuzu, do you have any idea WHY Ichi-nii just walked in with his face almost splitting in two from that stupid smile?"

A.N. *hides behind a wall* How was that? Good? Bad? Cringe-worthy? Meh?

Please, PLEASE review. I'm begging you. I really need to know how my work is, so that I can make an effort to not get pelted with tomatoes for the next one.

IchiHime is one of my favourite pairings, and my Bleach OTP, but I have no experience in writing them. So, I can only hope you liked this one, and that my others are slightly better.

And if you guys have any particular kind of kiss you want to see, feel free to PM me, or leave it in the reviews. I'll try to include those as bonus chapters, apart from the main challenge kisses.

Until next time,

OnyxKatana :)