Okay, I came up with this story at work a few days ago. And being that the 4th of July was around the corner I thought that I should write a story with my favorite couple seeing the fireworks. And being that the 4th of July is an American holiday and is not celebrated anywhere else, I thought that a fireworks festival would be perfect. I whipped this one out really quickly because I wanted it to be ready by the 4th. So if there are grammer mistakes, sorry. The story is fluffy goodness. IchiHime and RenRuki pairing. So enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't worry Bleach or the characters.

Fireworks Festival

"Oh wow, a fireworks festival." Orihime was excited to see the flyer that was hanging on one of the bulletin boards at school.

"Hey, we should all go to that. It looks like fun." said Rukia.

"Yeah, it's a great idea." said Tatsuki.

"I'm in. All those hot babes will be there." Keigo appeared from behind them dancing joyfully.

"It'll be a great date night, I should take one of my older female friends as a date." Mizuiro looked at the flyer.

"Your such a player." Ichigo shook his head in disapproval.

"Hey, no I'm not. Its not my fault the older women like me." Mizuiro pouted.

Keigo tapped Mizuiro on the shoulder. "Can you hook me up with one of your female friends? And while your at it bring one for Ichigo, Chad and Uryū."

Ichigo grunted. "Don't bother. I don't need your help."

"So does that mean that you have a date already?" Keigo pointed in shock.

Orihime looked at Ichigo to see if Keigo was right about Ichigo having a date.

"Its none of your business anyways, but no I don't have a date."

Orihime was relieved that Ichigo did not have a date for the festival. She wouldn't have been able to bear seeing him with someone else.

"See, hook him up." Keigo said.

"Don't even try it." Ichigo balled his fist.

"So we'll all go as a group." Tatsuki interrupted Ichigo from beating Keigo.

"Yay, we're all going together." Orihime jumped with joy.

Ichigo walked to the main entrance of where the festival started. There where little children running around horse playing. He looked up and down and didn't see any of his friends around.

"Damn it, where are they? We were supposed to meet up here at 7."

"Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo turned around and saw Orihime standing there in a lavender yukata with a pink floral pattern and a yellow obi. Orihime's hair was pulled back into a neat bun, topping it off with her blue hairpins. Ichigo felt his breathe leave him, a pale red color appeared on his face. He had never seen Orihime this beautiful. He always had acknowledged her beauty, but never would dare to show it for the fear of being compared to Keigo. But after Orihime was taken to Hueco Mundo, he felt an emptiness whenever she was not around. He had finally realized that Orihime meant something to him. He had feelings for her but didn't know if Orihime had the same feelings for him.

"Kurosaki-kun, are you okay?"

Ichigo quickly snapped out of his daze.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Where's Tatsuki?"

Orihime giggled. "She has a date."

"What? Really?" Ichigo was surprised that his childhood friend had a date with someone.

Orihime nodded. "Yeah, I know. I was surprised when she told me. She said that this guy from her dojo asked her out. At first she didn't really want to go out with him but he had finally convinced her to go."

"I wonder how he convinced her to go out with him?" Ichigo rubbed the back of his head trying to picture the guy asking Tatsuki out.

"She said that she had lost to him in a match and the deal was if she lost she would go out with him."

Ichigo laughed. "That explains it."

Orihime looked around. "So where is Sado-kun and Ishida-kun?"

"Uryū said that he would meet up with us later because he had something to do at the hospital. And as for Chad, Mizuiro and Keigo found him a date."

"Wow. Really? And I thought Tatsuki having a date was surprising."

Ichigo laughed at the way Orihime said that.

"And Rukia is somewhere around here with Renji. She had been begging him to bring her here since she saw the flyer. Being that he can't really refuse her sometimes, he had no choice but to bring her. Saying something about not knowing where else to take her on a date night. So we will see them around here somewhere."

Ichigo had realized that he would be all alone with Orihime for the whole festival. The pale red color appeared on his face again.

"So I guess its just you and me." Orihime said softly. Her face had the same pale red color like Ichigo.

She couldn't help but thinking that this would be a perfect first date. But she soon stopped. 'Kurosaki-kun doesn't like me like that. We're only friends.'

"Yeah, it seems like it. Why don't we make the best of it."

Orihime happily nodded.

Ichigo and Orihime walked to the festival side by side. Ichigo felt like he might just start sweating from anxiety being at the festival with Orihime by himself. 'It shouldn't be that awkward. There are a lot of people here. Act normal.'

"Why don't we get something to eat? I'm kind of hungry." Orihime looked at Ichigo.

"Okay sure. Which food stand do you want to go to?"

"That one looks good." Orihime pointed to a dumpling stand.

Ichigo nodded. He walked with Orihime to the stand and paid for their dumplings.

"Thank you Kurosaki-kun. You really didn't have to pay for my dumplings." Orihime took a bit of the dumpling.

"Don't worry about it Inoue, I wanted to." Ichigo took a bit out of his dumpling.

"Wow this is really good." Orihime exclaimed.

"Yeah it is."

They walked around finishing their dumplings.

"Inoue."

"Hmm." Orihime looked at him.

"You have some food on your face." Ichigo wiped off the food that was on her face.

Orihime blushed at the touch of her face by Ichigo's hand. Ichigo kept his hand on her face a little longer and caressed it.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

Ichigo stopped and quickly moved his hand from her face.

"Sorry about that." Ichigo felt himself turn red. 'Damn it. What's wrong with me.'

"It's okay."

Orihime looked around. "Hey lets go play that."

She grabbed Ichigo by the hand and dragged him to game stand. It took Ichigo by surprise.

"The game is a race. The first one to reach the top wins. All you need to do is pull the trigger of the water gun, and aim for the black circle." The game vender told them.

Ichigo and Orihime sat down and took there water guns in hand.

"Okay. When you hear the bell, start shooting."

"Your going down, Kurosaki-kun."

"Not a chance, Inoue."

The bell rang and they pulled the trigger. They both pointed the gun at the circle and watched as the red ball in the tube rose up from the water. The winner ball rang.

"Yay, I won." Orihime smiled.

"For you." The vender handed her a stuff cat.

"I told you that I was going to win."

"I guess you did." He smiled at her. He liked to see her like that. That's probably why he let her win.

They walked through the crowd. Some students from the high school ran through the crowd and one of them pushed Orihime hard. She was pushed right into Ichigo, who caught her. Orihime looked up and noticed that Ichigo's face was close to hers. Ichigo didn't want to let her go and she didn't want to leave his arms. Staring into each others eyes, their lips were getting closer and closer.

"Hey, Ichigo."

They quickly and disappointedly snapped out of each others grasped and looked away, blushing.

'Damn it, Renji. Some timing you have. I'll pay you back for this later.' Ichigo thought while angrily looking at the red haired shinigami.

Renji and Rukia walked up to their friends. Rukia was wearing a bright yellow yukata with a multicolored floral pattern that was tied with a red obi. Renji was holding a mountain of stuff animals and gifts.

"Hi Renji-kun, Kuchiki-san." Orihime waved.

"Hey Inoue-san, Ichigo." Rukia looked at them confused. "Where is everyone else? I thought that you were all coming together."

"Their all on dates, just like you two. And we ended up coming here expecting to meet up with everyone but ended up here by ourselves." Ichigo explained.

A grin appeared on both Renji's and Rukia's face.

"Well I think that there is a lot more that we have to see Rukia." Renji freed up his hand and placed it around her waist.

"Your right Renji. There's a bunny stand that I have been dying to see. They have Chappy there and you need try to win more things for me." Rukia smiled at him.

Renji laughed. "Whatever makes you happy."

Rukia turned back to Ichigo and Orihime.

"We'll see you around. Hope your date goes well."

"Its not a…." They both started but stopped when Renji and Rukia were gone.

"Come on Inoue. Is there anywhere you will like to stop at?"

"Um, not that I can think of right now. But lets walk around some more, maybe we will see something thing that we like."

"Sounds great."

Orihime and Ichigo walked around for a while talking about different things. Ichigo loved spending time with Orihime like this. He laughed at some of the stories that she told him. He was always surprised at how smart she really was, even though she seemed to be a complete airhead at times. He didn't care, that was why he loved so much.

"Hey you, with the orange hair." A game vender called out. "Why don't you try to win something for your beautiful girlfriend." He waved a stuffed bunny around.

By the look in Orihime's face Ichigo could tell that she wanted the bunny.

"Alright. Give me that ball."

Orihime was surprised to see that Ichigo was actually going to do this for her. Ichigo walked up to the stand. He paid the vender and grabbed the baseball. He pulled his arm back, aimed and threw it right at the bottles. All six bottles fell to the floor.

"We have a winner." The vender handed Ichigo the big stuff bunny.

"Here you go Inoue." Ichigo smiled back at her while handed her the bunny.

Orihime blushed. "Thank you, Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo grabbed Orihime by the hand. "Come on, the fireworks display is going to start soon."

Ichigo led Orihime through the crowd and found a high place on the hill where they had a perfect view.

"Wait here."

"Where are you going?"

"To get something."

"Okay."

Ichigo disappeared for a minute. Orihime looked around and saw all the couples cuddling, laughing and making out. She didn't see anyone that she knew. She started to wonder if they had come to the festival.

"Okay here we go."

Ichigo had reappeared with a blanket and placed it on the floor.

"I thought that we could sit down on the blanket. That way you won't get your yukata dirty." He reached out his hand.

"Thank you Kurosaki-kun."

Orihime took Ichigo's hand. He helped her sit on the blanket, then sat right next to her. There was an awkward silence between them. Sitting next to each other and around nothing but couples made it more awkward.

The crowd gasped as the fireworks display started.

"Wow, its really beautiful." Orihime gasped. Without noticing she had inched closer to Ichigo.

Ichigo looked at Orihime, who was busy looking at the fireworks. "It sure is beautiful. Very beautiful."

"Huh?" Orihime turned her head to look at him. His face as really close to hers.

'It's now or never.' He thought.

Before Orihime knew it, their lips met each other.

'Oh my God. Kurosaki-kun is kissing me.'

'I can't believe I'm actually kissing her.'

After a minute, their lips parted.

"I'm sorry Inoue. I shouldn't have." Ichigo looked away.

"I'm glad you did."

Ichigo looked at Orihime, who took hold of his lips again giving him a quick kiss. Orihime rested against Ichigo, with her head on his shoulder. Ichigo took his arm and wrapped it around her. They stayed like that watching the fireworks while occasionally stealing kisses from each other.

"That was fun. Thank you for walking me home Kurosaki-kun."

"It's no problem, Inoue. I couldn't let you walk home by yourself this late at night." Ichigo smiled at her.

Orihime smiled back. "My protector." She grabbed Ichigo's arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

They turned the corner and Orihime's apartment came into their site. They walked up the stairs. Orihime unlocked her door and turned to him.

"Thank you again, Kurosaki-kun."

"It was my pleasure….so… when can we go on our second date?"

"Hmm." Orihime placed her finger on her mouth and made a thinking face. "If you're free, how about tomorrow."

"Sounds perfect."

Orihime wrapped her arms around Ichigo's neck and kissed him.

"I can't wait, Kurosaki-kun."

"Neither can I." Ichigo kissed her. "Goodnight Inoue. I hope you have sweet dreams."

"I will now." Orihime kissed him. "Goodnight Kurosaki-kun."

Orihime turned to walk into her apartment.

"Inoue." She turned back. "You never told me what your going to name the bunny. You already named the cat Whiskers."

"His name is Strawberry."

Well that's it. Hoped you liked it. Please review review review review, it will mean alot to me.