Ichigo turned to the side and looked at herself in the full length mirror on the wall. She turned from one side and then to the other as she tried to get a three hundred sixty degree view of herself. Normally she was not so obsessed with her looks, but today she wanted to try something different. She had recently received a cute yellow sweater with an embroidered picture of her bit beast on the front. It even had some sequins on it to give it a little added touch.

She was so in love with it that she had wanted to wear to wear it to the date she had planned for that day. But now she was wondering if maybe wearing the sweater would make her look like if she was trying to dress up a little for the date. Not that there was not anything wrong with trying to dress up for a date, but it was never really Ichigo's thing. Plus if she dressed up, and Rei did not the last thing she wanted was to make him feel like a slob.

Just going on in circles thinking about it started to give her a headache. So she decided to get a second opinion about what she should do. Walking over to her bed Ichigo picked up her phone that was sitting there, and dialed Suzu's phone number. It rang a couple of times before Suzu actually picked it up.

"What's up?" Suzu asked on the other side of the line

"I have a question to ask you," Ichigo replied sounding a tinsy bit nervous.

"Ok what is it?" Suzu asked, as she wondered what exactly it could be that Ichigo needed her help on. She hoped that whatever it was, that it didn't require her to come over to Ichigo's house right then and there, because she was a little preoccupied at that moment.

"You know how Saturdays are date night for me right? So I was thinking about wearing that sweater you gave me as a gift, but would that be to dressy for going out on a date?" Ichigo asked in one breath. Suzu stayed silent for a moment as she processed everything that Ichigo had just asked.

"So you're asking if it's bad to dress up for a date?" Suzu asked with a slight sarcastic tone in her voice. But Ichigo didn't quite pick up on that as she was too busy being worried over her current predicament.

"Sort of, I mean it's alright if I wear my sweater to the date right?" she asked again as she was really hoping for some good advice from her friend.

"Yes, Ichigo if you really want to wear your new sweater to your date, then go right ahead, and if Rei makes you feel bad about it tell him we'll find a cute matching tiger one just for him." Suzu told her friend. As soon as Ichigo heard those words a relieved smile spread across her face.

"Thanks!" she said happily as she really had her heart set of wearing her sweater.

"Sure, no problem," Suzu said before saying her goodbyes and hanging up on the call. With her wardrobe problem settled Ichigo finished getting ready for that night without any other troubles. In no time when Ichigo checked the clock she saw that it was already time to go and meet up with Rei. So after checking herself in the mirror one last time to make sure that she looked decent, Ichigo left the house and headed for the downtown shopping area.

For this particular date then had decided to go and watch a movie, since there was film that Ichigo had just been dying to watch since she had seen the trailer for it. With her current training schedule being so busy, she was glad to get chance to relax and do something relaxing. It was also an added bonus that she got to do that with Rei. Especially since she had been missing him a lot recently. Apparently she had mentioned it so much that week that more than once Suzu had threatened to shove her in a box and mail her to Rei to get her to stop talking.

So now she would get her fix of him, and be able to survive another hard working week. Before she realized it she was in front of the movie theater, and began to look around for Rei. But since it was a saturday it was pretty crowded with people, especially since everyone waited for the weekend to watch movies. After a while Ichigo started to get a little worried. Was she late? Did Rei leave to go look for her? Maybe she was really early and he had not arrived yet.

Ichigo had decided to go and pick a spot to stand and wait, when she heard something that caught her attention. Turning to where she heard the noise come from she saw Rei waving at her as she jogged over. In that first moment of seeing him, any worry she had been feeling was gone. A smile spread across her face as she hurried over to meet him.

"Sorry did you wait long?" Rei asked as he paused to catch his breath a little, and judging by how heavy he was breathing Ichigo guessed that he might have ran the entire way over.

"Oh don't worry I just got here myself," she told him, and he gave her relieved smile. After that they started on their usual small talk and catching up as they walked up to the ticket booth to the movie theater. After getting the tickets to their movie they went inside and waited in the snack line. Thankfully they were somewhat early for their screening so despite the fact that there was pretty long line for the snacks they weren't going to miss much. While they stood in line they continued to talk about everything they had done that week. Rei gave Ichigo updates on how all of his team members were doing, and what they were improving on. While Ichigo told Rei about all the trouble Suzu and everyone else had gotten into during the week.

By the time they had gotten their snacks and found their seats inside the theater, they were still laughing over some of the funny stories they were telling each other. It took them a couple of commercials on the big screen before they could quiet down.

"By the way, that's a great sweater," Rei said to Ichigo as he leaned in close to her. Ichigo could not help, but feel really pleased by that compliment.

"Thanks," she replied as she smiled brightly at him. She wondered if he could see her cheeks turning slightly pink from her giddy feeling. Even if he could that did not bother her one little bit, as he had seen her blush before. Plus it was always nice to hear from him that he thought she looked nice from time to time. "It was a gift from Suzu, I'm really fond of it now," she added.

"Well she did a really great job picking it out for you," he said before the lights in the room started to dim even more. Which meant that the movies was starting soon, so they both settled back into their seats to enjoy the movie. As the movie progressed on Ichigo noticed that Rei's leg was precariously close to her own. So she moved her leg over so that both of their knees were touching.

Looking through her peripheral vision she saw Rei turn his head towards her for a moment after she had moved her leg. Which made her smirk to herself, as she really liked the feeling of him being so close to her. Even if it was something as small and trivial as that. As long as Ichigo could be near him, it didn't matter if they were doing anything big like kissing, or just gently touching each other like they were.

They were about halfway through the movie when Ichigo felt something brush up against her hand. Which startled her for a moment, but when she looked down she saw that it was just Rei's hand. She relaxed, and felt curl his fingers around her so that they were somewhat holding hands. Ichigo gave a gentle appreciative squeeze of his fingers before she turned back to the screen to keep watching the movie.

That was how the two of them sat for the rest of the movie, and when the ending credits rolled across the screen the two of them got up. Their hands still holding onto one another, though they had moved to interlock their fingers together. Talking about their thoughts on the film, and what parts of the movies that they really loved or thought was the funniest. As soon as they were outside on the street again they were laughing again to one another.

The two of them walked down the street for a bit as they tried to think of what to do next, when something caught Ichigo's attention.

"I don't know about you, but I worked up a bit of an appetite," she told Rei.

"Sure, any particular place you want to eat at?" Rei asked.

"How about there?" Ichigo asked as she pointed out a Chinese themed restaurant. Seeing Ichigo's choice and venue made him let out a brief chuckle, as he appreciated her thoughtfulness.

"Yes, that's a perfect selection," he said with a smile, and led the two of them through the sliding doors of the restaurant.


I do no claim any sort of ownership over the characters in this story.

Ichigo Kinomiya belongs to Cat the Believer.