So yeah, I had a spare day and felt like writing. I'm planning on making this a three chapter long short story and this chapter is more of a scene-setter than anything. It doesn't take place in any particular arc. I don't own Bleach; all characters, names, copyrighted materials etc within are the property of their respective owners, has some moderate language language in it, now that's out of the way I hope you enjoy it.

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It was a going to be a good night tonight. No hollows, no Kon, no fighting. Although the last one was questionable since Renji was also coming along Ichigo thought as he was walked down the street. He was on his way to Ishida's house where everyone was meeting up since it was closest to the fairground that they were going to. He kicked a pebble out of annoyance as he was walking; Rukia should have been walking with him. She wasn't though because of his father giving him the usual "use protection but also give me grandchildren" talk. After she realized that Isshin wasn't letting Ichigo leave without thoroughly embarrassing him first she thought it best to just go on ahead.

Ichigo furrowed his brow as he thought about it. In his opinion he was pretty sure that he made the point that he was going for a night out with his friends clear, and that it was difficult to confuse it with him going to an orgy with his friends. It appeared that his father didn't have the difficulty in confusing the two that he did.

He thought that Rukia and the others were probably all at Ishida's house already and just waiting for him now. He could just picture Renji, gloating about how a one legged hollow could have gotten to Ishida's house quicker. He also pictured Rukia standing there. Before she left (and before his father had started his ranting) he took a good look at what she was wearing: a light blue t-shirt, black boots and a slightly baggy pair of jeans that were too big for her. He smirked slightly at the time, earning him a disapproving glance from Rukia, but truth be told he was used to her either being in her shihakusho, her school uniform, or his sister's blue blouse, so seeing her in some new and more ...interesting... clothes was a change he could get used.

He had been thinking about Rukia a lot lately.

"You're late." Renji called out.

"I know, I know"

"You walk too slow. Even a one-legged hol– " started Renji with a smug grin.

"Don't start." Ichigo growled as he went to stand by Rukia.

"Right, now that Ichigo's here we can go." Ishida announced, "Me, Chad and Orihime have been waiting out here for almost fifteen minutes. And don't forget we need to go and look around before the fireworks display starts."

"Yeah, sorry" Ichigo apologized, "My father was being his usual self" he continued with a scowl.

"Let's start walking, it's getting cold." said Orihime as a brisk wind blew across.

Chad seemed indifferent.

A short walk later and they arrived at the fairground. It was a travelling fair that went from place to place and wouldn't be in Karakura town for very long, but nevertheless it was still fairly big. Orihime was the first one to enter the fair, letting out and audible "wow" as she happily flitted back and forth between the stalls by the entrance. The other five strolled through after her with Ichigo leading. He wandered along to one of the stalls, wondering if he should buy a chocolate ice cream cone.

"I'm going to win this easily!" grinned Renji as he handed one of the stall owner's a fee.

"Huh?" Ichigo looked up, "What are you doing?"

"Playing a game. All I've got to do is throw this ball at the coconut" he replied as he lined up his shot, " and when I knock the coconut off of the stand I win a prize."

"Sounds easy. I'll have a go after you've had your throws."

"Damn! I missed!" cursed Renji.

"Well your not going to hit it if you throw like that." Ichigo said casually.

"It was because you were talking!"

The others heard the commotion and came over to see what was happening.

"What're you guys arguing about now?" Rukia asked.

"Renji's playing some ball game." Ichigo answered, "Badly."

"Shut up! You'll put me off!" snarled Renji.

Renji threw the ball again, this time almost hitting the stall owner, making him jump and drop the newspaper he was reading.

"Hey watch it!"

"It's your own damn fault! You shouldn't have been standing in the way!"

"Just for that your not having your last throw! Damn punk…"

Renji mumbled something under his breath and stormed off. Orihime had a concerned look on her face, which Rukia addressed by saying "He'll be okay. He's just having a sulk because he didn't win."

"I heard that!" shouted Renji.

Ichigo chuckled quietly to himself. Rukia noticed and gave him a warm smile. He smiled back and quickly proceeded in giving the stall owner the money before Ishida or Chad saw them. He didn't want them to think he'd gone soft in his time off from being a Shinigami.

"Okay…" he said, more to himself than anything. " Lets do this!".

"Good luck Kurosaki-kun!" piped Orihime.

"Thanks," replied Ichigo confidently. He looked back and gave Rukia a cheeky grin "But I'm not going to need it."

Rukia gave a toothy grin in return. "If you say things like that you'll jinx yourself."

Orihime noticed the two of them grinning at each other and quietly smiled to herself.

Ichigo picked up the ball and carefully aimed it at the coconut. As he was doing so he knew everyone was watching him, but even so it was almost as if he could feel Rukia's gaze on him. It made the hairs on the back of it's neck prickle and stand on end. He liked it.

He threw the ball and missed by inches.

"Nearly" said Ishida before diving into an explaination about how he shouldn't feel like he's throwing it, he should feel like he's "letting it go".

"Yeah, yeah." Said Ichigo in response as he picked up another ball. "That's great and all but I prefer doing it my way."

He threw it, and again missed by inches.

"Damn…" he muttered. His usual scowl was becoming increasing pronounced.

"I'll do this," he thought to himself. "If nothing else, just to prove to everyone that I'm better Renji". He was of course eager to prove to everyone that he was better than Renji, but he was more concerned about proving this to one person in particular.

"I told you that you'd jinx yourself." Rukia sighed in an all-knowing tone.

"Yeah? In that case…" Ichigo calmly replied as he picked up the last ball from the stall. "Jinx this!" he shouted as without warning he launched the ball at the coconut, hitting it square in the middle. "Yes!" Ichigo thought triumphantly to himself as Orihime let out a celebratory whooping sound. However, the coconut just sat there.

"That's your three throws up" the stall owner said, still reading his newspaper. "Better luck next time."

"WHAT!" Ichigo practically exploded. "I hit that thing! It didn't fall off!"

"Not my problem."

"The game must be rigged" said Ishida insightfully.

"DAMN YOU! I WANT MY MONEY BACK!" Ichigo yelled demandingly.

"Like I said, it's not my problem."

Whilst Ichigo was busy screaming at the stall owner, Ishida had an idea.

"Hey Chad, how would you like to win a prize? I'm pretty sure you could knock it off." He asked.

"….Sure." Chad replied.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out some change which he put on the edge of the stall before picking up a ball. He stood next to the still-screaming Ichigo and took aim.

Ichigo fell silent as the stall-owner slowly turned from his paper to look through the hole that had been created centimeters away from his head by the ball, which had not only knocked the coconut off of it's post, but with an ear-splitting crunch proceeded in partially demolishing the back of his stall.

"oohhhh..."

That was the only sound he could make in response.

A few moments passed before he whipped round and announced that Chad had won a prize.

"The young man with the ginger hair can also have a prize. The post must have been faulty…heh" he laughed nervously.

"About damn time" Ichigo grumbled.

"Hmmm… most of the prizes are stuffed toys." Observed Ishida.

Ichigo looked around at the stuffed toys. They all looked pretty disgusting in his opinion, most of them had giant, over-exaggerated expressions on them. He wondered what kind of moron could possibly want any of these as he looked from toy to toy, looking for something half-decent that he could take back. Maybe he could give to Kon. He was mid-thought about Kon taking some ridiculous chicken-ish looking toy back to his lair and making it his bride when Rukia let out an excited gasp.

"Wow! It's a rabbit!" she said, pointing to one of the toys. "It looks like chappy!"

"It has terrible stitching…" Ishida pointed out.

Ichigo groaned.

"Chad, what are you getting?"

Chad held up the stuffed toy. It was large parakeet with a sombrero unceremoniously perched on it's head.

Ichigo stared at it for a moment.

"It…It suits you."

In the middle of Ishida's thorough examination and criticism of every toy on view, Orihime had an idea of her own. She walked over to Ichigo who was now looking hatefully at the prizes that he had to pick from, and whispered to him:

"You should get the rabbit as a gift for Rukia!"

"Huh?"

"She likes rabbits so it be nice if you got her it as a present."

Ichigo stopped and thought for a minute.

He could get her the present and going by her constant remarks of how it was "sooo cute" she'd definitely like it. But at the same time how would she react to him getting it for her? He wasn't exactly forthcoming about his feelings for her, and he didn't have much in the way of hints from her that she saw him as anything more than a friend. She'd see right through him if he got it for her; he didn't exactly go handing out gifts to people for no reason. And what if she refused to take it? Then not only would he be left looking like a idiot but he'd also be left with a giant novelty rabbit.

Orihime was still waiting for an answer.

"Yeah… I guess I could…"

"Great!" Orihime smiled, "I'll go talk to take her attention off of it so you can make it a surprise!"

He looked once more at the rabbit then uncertainly told the stall owner that he'd take it. He heard Orihime in the background:

"Rukiiaaa….."

"Yeah?"

"Wouldn't it be nice if Kurosaki-kun got that rabbit for you?"

"Oh he'd never do that" she replied, and then in a quieter voice said "This is Ichigo we're talking about."

Cheeky bitch, Ichigo laughed to himself as he took the rabbit from the stall owner. He wasn't that selfish. He took a deep breath and started walking over to Rukia.

He hoped he knew what was doing.

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Well that's the first chapter finished. If you feel like dropping a review or suggestion then please do, any feedback would be apreciated. I'll be starting the next chapter soon although getting reviews would encourage me to start it sooner ;) . The next chapter will contain more IchiRuki than this one and will also be less subtle. Not that it was particually subtle in this chapter, but you know what i mean!