Yay! First Bleach fic! I hope you guys like it! Personally, I think of this story idea on the whole as a total cliché, but I couldn't resist myself I thought of it when I was reading my copy of Bleach 1. (yea, I know I suck with keeping up with manga, and I haven't read any other ones from Bleach x.x) The idea came to me when Mizuiro was introducing himself to Rukia. He said, "My hobby is-" and Ichigo ended his sentence for him by saying "picking up chicks." And then, after they end that conversation, Keigo shows up and calls Rukia the 'beautiful new girl', and it made me think:

What happens when Prom rolls around? Would Ichigo finally get the balls to ask Rukia? Or would the poor shinigami fall prey to the lecherous intentions of their classmates?

Disclaimer: Bleach doesn't belong to me. None of these characters belong to me. It's all cannon, which coming from me is pretty uncommon. I usually throw an OC into the mix. So BE GRATEFUL OO Usually my OC fics suck worse than Ruki's drawings XD

Note: This scene takes place in about April or May.

...:::Night of Golden Memories:::...

Chapter 1: The Million-Dollar Question

Rukia Kuchiki joined her friend, Ichigo Kurosaki, and his friends for lunch for what seemed like the millionth time since the beginning of that semester. Why did she still sit with them anyways? Other than Ichigo, all those guys were totally brain-dead. But then, she figured, Ichigo was a good reason that she sat with the group. In fact, it was the only reason she sat with them. Ichigo always tried his best to get himself caught up with them, but there are days when a little pep talk from 'the guys' is needed. Yesterday was one of those days. But in every other way, yesterday was anything but 'one of those days'.

Yesterday, they had announced the date and theme of the senior prom:

"Night of Golden Memories," She had heard the student senate president announce over the intercom.

Okay. So we wear what, gold for memories, or black for night? She contemplated wearing her shinigami robes for the latter, then quickly discarded the idea. Gold it was.

The student president continued. "July 15th. Tickets are $30; you can buy them from..." Rukia made a realization as the girl on the speaker made her peppy little speech. That was Ichigo's birthday, wasn't it? She found this somewhat amusing. She looked over at Ichigo, standing over Keigo-kun's desk along with Mizuiro and a few others. Ichigo heard the date announced, and he turned beck to his friends, talking about plans for post-prom activities- that is, if any of the boys were certain they weren't going to get a hotel room to go screw their dates. Rukia definitely didn't hear them mention it, but she could tell that was what they were thinking. Scheduling conflicts. She grunted quietly in disdain. What seemed more disgusting was that these boys probably weren't anywhere close to getting any now, but everything changes at prom.

She folded her arms and put her head on her desk, harumphing quietly enough to only hear it herself, and puffed a small ball of air at the long piece of hair that always seemed to stick onto her face. She thought about the matters at hand. She had noticed that Ichigo was not as interested as the other boys when they were talking about their dates. Come to think of it, Ichigo didn't have a date. That she knew of, at least. By now Ichigo told her a lot of his secrets. She knew things about him even Yuzu and Karin didn't know. But Ichigo didn't have a date. She figured that Orihime was probably going to ask him. It would be fitting, being that he did save her life that fateful night those years ago... but she thought about it. She wondered about the possibility of maybe going with Chad. No, he never seemed to be into the prom bullshit.

But something occurred to her. What if it was Rukia who Ichigo wanted to take to prom? She pondered this. Their friendship still was, lasting longer than an opera. And, well... Rukia had grown rather fond of her berry-headed friend... but... No! No, that wouldn't work. It would turn heads, and get people talking... Strawberry may not care what the other kids think, but Rukia was no fool. She'd seen what gossip could do to other people... Ichigo would understand. Rukia decided that Ichigo was probably not going to ask her to prom. Her mind was buzzing with prom, and added to the somewhat loud whispers of Ichigo's friends the peaceful tune of homeroom eventually lulled her into a light doze.

"Hey sleepyhead."

Rukia woke with a start, looking up at the flaming orange hair and brown eyes that she had come to know... and love...

"Hai, Strawberry?"

A low murmur came from behind Rukia. She turned around to see the guys, all huddled a few desks back, giving Ichigo thumbs up and cheering him on, before quickly turning their heads away and whistling almost comically. She heard Ichigo mutter "God dammit you guys..." and looked back at him. "Yes...?"

Ichigo shuffled around and looked at his feet. "Well, uh..." Rukia kept gazing at him, but inside, she was worried about Ichigo. She had never seen him like this before. Either he was nervous, or he was trying to stall time before the guys pulled some childish prank. She decided on the former. She looked up at him, and Ichigo glanced at her until he noticed she was looking at him and looked at her desk. "Are you alright, Ichigo?" Rukia asked. "You seem really nervous." Ichigo shuddered, then finally he got on his knees so he was at eye level with Rukia and looked at her confidently. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that... well, since this morning there's been something I've been meaning to do..." Rukia nodded as if to say, "Go on." Ichigo took a deep breath. "I've been meaning to ask you what color the dress you're wearing for prom will be, so that way my tie will match and we will match." Rukia couldn't grasp what he was getting at here. "I don't understand. Why would you want to wear a tie that's the same color as my dress? What are you saying?"

The response was anything but what she had expected. Not only that, but it was hard to hear the end of it, because the cheering section behind her went wild mid-sentence.

"Rukia, I was wondering if you wanted to go to prom with me."

Ooooooooh, romantic cliffhanger! Wheeee! R&R! I refuse to upload any more until I get 5 reviews!