Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination.
-.-.-.-
Ichigo's family had been out all day, so only Rukia and Ichigo were present in the Kurosaki house. After Ichigo had regained his power, Rukia hadn't been in the human world very often due to her Vice-captain duty, but once in a while she would visit, and she would stay at with the Kurosakis' without exception. Today was one of the days she visited, and she was sitting at Ichigo's desk doodling randomly.
"Your family sure is having fun outside for a long time. I wonder when they will be back." Rukia spoke without ceasing her doodling.
"No idea. Bet they are out buying stuffs to throw me a surprise birthday party", answered Ichigo, who was lying on his bed reading a book.
Rukia stopped drawing and turned the chair to look at him. "How do you know about a surprise party? What surprise would it be then?"
"They do it every year, and my dad and Yuzu can never keep a secret. Karin just kind of inserts her name in the cards. There's nothing new."
"Well, the new thing is that I'm here this time isn't it? Hmm, come to think of it, I've known you for more than two years but this is the first time I'm around for your birthday."
"My first birthday after we met was around the time you were captured by Soul Society. Lots of things to do besides celebrating back then. And the year after that, I lost my power, and… you never visited." Ichigo commented, still staring at the book he had in his hands.
He seemed nonchalant, but Rukia still sensed somewhat of a sulking tone in his voice. They did not talk much about how she wasn't around during those 17 months, but they both know neither of them was thrilled about not seeing each other that long. Rukia sighed and dragged the chair closer to the bed. Ichigo was still pretending to read and ignored her, so she poked him lightly.
"Ichigo." No response.
"Ichigo." She poked harder this time, but he still refused to answer. So she reached up and flicked him on the nose.
"THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" Ichigo bolted up and shot death glares at her.
"Let's go out to play. It's your birthday so don't keep lying around like that! Get changed, and I'll meet you downstairs in 15 minutes."
With that, Rukia left the room before Ichigo even had the chance to refuse.
-.-.-.-
"The weather is so hot. Why are we even at an amusement park?" Ichigo scowled.
"It's because we need amusement. I'll buy you ice-cream, so stop being so grumpy."
"If you take money from my wallet to buy it then what's the point?"
"No, it's my own money. I exchanged for human money at Urahara's. He has a horrible exchange rate, but too bad he's the only one I know. Now wait here!"
Rukia came back with the ice-cream after a few minutes. Ichigo stared down at his cup. She had bought him two scoops of ice-cream, one chocolate and one strawberry. His eyebrow twitched.
"Okay, I'll give you credits for knowing I like chocolate, but strawberry, really?"
"Hah, that scoop was just to tease you." Rukia smirked. Ichigo muttered something under his breath, but he finished the ice-cream anyway.
After they finished eating, it was time to get on the rides. Ichigo expected Rukia not to fair well on all those roller-coasters since she probably didn't have much experience with them, but the worst thing that happened to her after riding everything were only a few woozy steps after they got off the spinning tea cups ride. When asked about it, Rukia only replied offhandedly,
"I've always liked high places, and the speed of those rides can no way compare with shunpo. It was still fun though."
Ichigo should have guessed it. They had finished all the rides, so what was left was going home. He was conflicted about the idea; while he never planned to be hanging out outside on such a hot day, he was kind of enjoying himself too. So, naturally, he was also conflicted when he heard Rukia said,
"It's still early. Let's go watch a movie."
-.-.-.-
The cinema was quite crowded. It was expected, since people would rather be in air-conditioned places than being outside in the heat. Ichigo and Rukia were looking at all the movie posters trying to pick something to watch, and Rukia had again generously offered to buy the tickets because it was his birthday. She was so unusually nice to him that he suspected she might actually have some evil scheme waiting for him later.
There wasn't any movie he really wanted to watch, so he was going to just pick a random one. However, when he turned to look at Rukia, he saw that she was staring with sparkly eyes at a poster with some rabbits on it. Typical.
"Hey Rukia, if you want to watch that movie, we can watch it."
"R-really? I mean, no, it's your birthday, so you choose." She said that, but she looked like she wanted to take down the poster and bring it back to hang in her room for all eternity. That idiot Rukia.
"Okay, then I choose that one. That rabbit is wearing some kind of ninja outfit so maybe it's not too bad." After he said that, Ichigo had to suppress a smile as he watched Rukia practically skipping to the ticket booth.
The movie actually wasn't so bad. The main character was actually very well developed despite being a rabbit. Oh and that rabbit has moves too. Who knew a movie with a fluffy animal as the main character would have such great action sequences? Ichigo would downright deny it if anyone ever asked him, but he actually thought the movie was kind of good. After the movie, they grabbed a quick bite at a fast food restaurant next to the cinema and proceeded home.
They walked back in comfortable silence. Rukia was clutching the rabbit movie merchandise she got after they got out of the movie and humming happily. As they got near the house, she asked,
"So, did you have fun today?"
"Huh? It was okay I guess." Ichigo scratched his head.
"Hey, I took the time to take you out and actually paid for everything, so you must at least say you had a really really really good time or something!"
"Fine! Great time! Best time ever!" Ichigo answered quickly to prevent Rukia from changing to a more violent mode.
"Good, so keep a happy face when you see the party so people will know I did a good job!"
"Wait, a good job of what?" Ichigo was confused. Rukia smiled.
"I was more involved in the party than you thought. My duty was to keep you out of the house so people can get everything ready. Now, come in!"
"SURPRISE!"
-.-.-.-
For once, Ichigo was actually surprised. Besides his human friends, even his shinigami friends from Soul Society showed up. He can even spot Byakuya, who sent him a chilly glare when he walked in with Rukia. Besides Byakuya and Toushiro there were no other captains, which Ichigo is glad for because he didn't know how having many captains here would affect the human world, and also because he didn't feel like being challenged to a fight by Kenpachi in his house on his birthday. The captains had written some cards for him though, with the most flowery one being Captain Kyouraku's, and the shortest one from Kenpachi ("Fight me.").
The party was chaotic. Rangiku-san, Ikkaku and Yumichika smuggled some alcohols in despite being warned in advance by Yuzu not to, and Isshin was already drunk and was singing the weirdest tunes ever. Toushiro was rubbing his head in annoyance looking at those trouble makers, and Byakuya just stood silently in his spot, probably judging everyone. Renji and Chad were have an arm-wrestling match in a corner. Inoue had just told him sadly how she had baked something to bring to the party but her friends accidentally misplaced it on the way, while Ishida and Tatsuki had stood next to her signaling to him it hadn't entirely been an accident. Keigo was crying about how he was going to be killed when he got home later because he stopped his sister from coming to a party Ikkaku was at, and was begging Ichigo to let him stay at Ichigo's house forever. Some of his other friends, both human and shinigami, were gathering around Urahara to hear him advertising some of his shady products. Amidst the chaos, Ichigo saw Rukia running around trying to help Yuzu sorting everything: confiscating alcohols, trying to make Isshin quiet down, warning people not to break everything, and stopping Urahara from selling any inappropriate products. She caught him looking at her and flashed him a quick smile before resuming her duty. She really was more involved in planning this thing than he has thought.
-.-.-.-
Finally the party was over. Ichigo had just finished dragging Isshin to his room with his sisters, and he convinced them to go to bed since it was way past their bedtime. When he came back downstairs, Rukia was still cleaning up, so he started helping too.
"Just leave it Ichigo, the birthday boy shouldn't have to clean up."
"Nah, it's past midnight, so it's not my birthday anymore. And why is there so many of the stuffs from my room down here?"
"The drunken people, along with Keigo, Mizuiro and Chizuru decided to ransack your room to find blackmail materials and brought a bunch of stuffs down here."
"And you didn't stop them?" Ichigo asked indignantly.
"I'd like to see you try stopping those people. They were a really stubborn bunch. Besides, if you have nothing to be ashamed of then it shouldn't be a problem right?" Rukia smirked.
Ichigo grumbled and continued cleaning. Soon things were sorted out, and there were only a few spots which they decided could be cleaned in the morning. They started bringing Ichigo's stuffs along with everyone's gifts up to his room.
"I sure get a lot of gifts this year. I hope no one gives me any weird stuff."
"Then you should probably be cautious of gifts from people like Urahara. That man is really twisted. You wouldn't want to know some of the stuffs he was trying to advertise at the party earlier."
"Yeah, don't let me know. By the way, I don't see your gift in this pile, hmm?"
"I bought you tickets to the park, ice-cream and movie tickets remember? Don't be a greedy idiot."
"Hey I was just kidding, no need to call me an idiot!"
Rukia laughed at his response. Suddenly she looked like she thought of something and exclaimed,
"Actually I may actually have a gift for you!" She suddenly rushed to his room making Ichigo have to rush after her.
When he got to his room, Rukia was digging for something in his closet, and then finally fished out something. It was apparently a DVD of a movie he was forced to watch by Keigo around two years back. The DVD looked like it had been in his closet for a very long time, but he had tidied up his closet a hundred times and this was the first time he had seen it. Maybe Rukia created some secret compartments in there when she had stayed there or something.
"I bought this as a gift for you two years ago," she said, "because back then Keigo was going on and on about this movie and how much you would love it. But then I returned to Soul Society before your birthday and couldn't give it to you. I can't believe I'd forgotten about it until now."
Rukia looked at the DVD tenderly like it brought back a lot of memories. Finally, she tossed it to him.
"It's two years late, but you should have it. Happy birthday Ichigo."
Ichigo caught the DVD in his hand. So Rukia had prepared a birthday gift for him even back then when they had only known each other for two months. The thought made him happy. Suddenly he started walking out of his room.
"Where are you going Ichigo? It's already so late!"
"All that cleaning made me not sleepy anymore, so I'm gonna go watch this movie. Wanna join me?"
-.-.-.-
"This movie is terrible, Ichigo."
"Yup."
"You have really bad taste."
"It was Keigo's taste actually."
"Still, you are the one who wants to watch it now. Why?"
Ichigo just shrugged, and Rukia didn't demand an answer. Despite his claim earlier, Ichigo was getting sleepy, and from the look on Rukia's face she was too. Just before he drifted off to sleep, he mumbled,
"I had fun. Thanks Rukia."
He managed to hear her said "no problem, idiot" before sleep claimed him completely.
-.-.-.-
The Kurosaki family came downstairs to the buzzing noise from the DVD player, and saw two shinigami asleep on the couch. There was sadly no scandalous material for Isshin because the two were leaning on two different sides of the couch, but one thing for sure was that they both looked serene and happy. So, the three of them decided to let those two sleep. They left the room quietly except for Karin's one comment.
"Best party we've ever thrown for Ichi-nii, I bet."
-.-.-.-
A.N. Hi there! I don't want this to be a full-out romance yet, because at this point their relationship is still "more than friends, but not quite lovers yet". Still, it was very fluffy wasn't it! ;)