Dessa's Note: Wow, the second chapter's out. I hope this meets expectations. I'm feeling really iffy about it, like going to an exam under prepared. I might edit it sometime in the future. Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: applied

Chapter 2

It being mildly late in the evening, Ichigo had no chance to escape his father's firm grip as he dragged him away from a waving Orihime to settle down at the dining table and eat his supper. Ichigo then cried a promise to Orihime that he would take her to his tree house the following day, she smiled and nodded as answer.

At the dining table, Ichigo helped his father ladle food onto the illustrated plates for his young sisters. Isshin noticed his normally boisterous but scowling son was frowning deeply in thought, despite a slightly more relaxed forehead. The father had already been informed by Sora-kun that his son had befriended the little girl next door and not to be alarmed if she were to feed Ichigo anything. The interactions between the two children would be something quiet intriguing and Isshin couldn't wait for the inevitable female induced dilemmas his son was about to experience, oh the joy it would bring to a proud father! Glancing at the orange head he noticed that the boy's eyes were gazing at the large portrait of his wife.

'Dad.' Stated Ichigo, the father replied with insignificant words of well rehearsed interest, 'How did you make mum marry you?'

Eyebrows on a receding hairline rose… Oh ho…. In the split second of thought Isshin allowed himself before replying, the doctor evaluated that he had two options. One, he could tease Ichigo for the motives behind his strange question which will probably lead to anger, a juvenile fist fight and the silent treatment. Two, he could answer honestly and observe the fruits of this most interesting development. Curiosity won over humiliation.

'Well, I asked her to marry me.' replied Isshin simply, testing the waters.

Ichigo scowled slight in confusion 'But how did you make her like you?' Oh Isshin was sure this was a worthy investment.

'At first, I did anything to get her attention,'

'Err… isn't attention that thing that Sensei always shouts in school?'

'No… Well yes. But this is a different kind of attention,'

'What kind is it?'

'The kind when you try to get a girl to notice you.'

Judging by the lift of sheer puzzlement on his son's face, Isshin knew he must have headed down the right track. 'Okay, okay so what did you do?' asked the boy excitedly, his eyes widening marginally in anticipation.

'In the beginning I tried pick up lines-'

'Pick up lines?' the confused scowl was back.

'Yes, pick up lines, like 'If I could arrange the alphabet I'd put U and I together' or 'someone stole the stars and put them in your eyes', or 'you must be tired because you've been running through my mind all day' and my favourite but least successful 'It's raining outside so lets get wet too.' Ahh those were the days..' and Isshin fell into a serenely reminiscent gaze.

'What do you mean "lets get wet too"? Why would anyone want to get wet? Do they want to catch a cold or something?'

Isshin prayed that Masaki was not fuming in her grave. 'That doesn't matter, what matters is that pick up lines don't work, so don't use them.'

'Okay fine, don't use pick up lines. Then what did you do to get mum to marry you?'

'Hush, I'm getting to that part,' the twins were now playing with their spoons. 'So your mum just ignored me, she probably thought I was annoying… guess I was. So I thought I'd do the slower but more mature thing,' at this he lifted his gaze from his son's to the portrait of the mother of his children. 'I spoke to her seriously, said I really really liked her; that I admired her and that she made me want to become a better man for her. Do you know what she said after that?'

'What?'

The doctor's eyes snapped to his son's 'She asked me if I would become her friend.' Ichigo's eyes widened and nearly protruded out of their orbits all together.

'I know, it was the last thing I expected too' said Isshin misunderstanding his son's shock. 'But I agreed of course, it gave me an excuse to be closer to her, I could learn more about her and try to impress her.'

'You? Impress?' Ichigo shook his head sceptically, 'I don't think so, I still think you forced mum to marry you.'

'Well I didn't. Believe it or not she married me from her own free will!' what was happening here? How could his son all of a sudden be irritating him!

'Alright alright, so you didn't force her. How did you do it then?'

'Do what?'

'Impress mum!'

'Oh, well, at first I kept talking to her about my weight,'

'You're weight?' asked Ichigo disbelievingly, 'Why would you complain to mum about being fat?'

'I was not fat! And it wasn't about being fat anyway, it was more about you know, muscle mass. But I learnt pretty quickly that she wasn't into that.'

'Muscle mass?'

'Yes muscle mass, as in how strong my biceps were. But your mother was never so superficial to be impressed by that. And girls don't like it when you always talk about yourself.' Isshin grew quickly agitated by the condescending look in his son's eyes, but suppressed it in order to continue his remarkable teachings. 'So what I did was learn about her, I found out about her favourite flowers, the places she likes to go to, the food she liked to eat, the books she'd read, the films she'd watched, her dreams and ambitions, how many children she wanted and what she would call them…' Isshin suddenly smiled and turned to face the portrait again 'and then I realised that she was… unique. That no other lady compared to her, and that's when I asked her to marry me because I wouldn't be happy without her as a wife.'

'And then what?' asked Ichigo, enraptured.

'She said yes, but she wanted to wait until after she finished her studies and got settled into work.'

'Why did she say yes?'

Instead of looking angry, Ichigo's father looked thoughtful 'I don't know, but she said that being friends with me let her know me too… and she liked me.'

'That sounds stuuupid!'

'To you it might, but sometimes things happen and you don't know how it did.' Isshin cast one last look at the portrait, sighed and moved to clear up the twin's food-smothered faces.

….

Ichigo pondered on the little tale his father told him the next day on his way to the tree house with Orihime. She didn't seem to mind his benign silence and continued chatting of the deliciousness of her onion pancake breakfast. She paused after a particularly long period that was devoid of her companion's contributing 'hmms' and cared to scrutinise his thoughtful scowl which seemed all of a sudden.. amusing.

'Ichigo has a funny scowl!' tinkled she with an innocent laugh.

Normally Ichigo would have automatically denied that any facial feature of his could be deemed as comical in any way possible. However at that moment he could only think of her smile and parallel that to the vague advice of his dad.

'Orihime.'

'Yes?'

'What flowers do you like?'

She smiled beautifully to the sky while she thought of her answer. 'Daffodils!' and she nodded as affirmation.

'Why daffodils?'

'Because Nii-san says the colour of the inside bit of a daffodil is like the colour of my hair.'

Ichigo pondered over her reasoning and decided he agreed with it, but he didn't understand how this would make her like him. What?… Like him? Good God what's happened to his mind?

'What flowers do you like Ichigo-kun?'

'Flowers are for sissies' replied Ichigo derisively without thought, immediately Orihime began to tear up, though she did her best to hide it.

'O- Oi what's wrong?'

'D-does t-that mean I'm a s-sissy?'

Ichigo panicked. 'NO! No, you are not a sissy, definitely not!'

'Really?' asked Orihime tremulously, her drying tears tinted with hope.

'Yeah' she smiled thankfully which made him return a little one of his own.

The rest of their journey to the tree house Ichigo spoke a little more which was a vast improvement to his normally sombre silence.

…..

Keigo and Mizuiro, being the only two currently in the tree house, were busy playing 'Guess Who' and arguing over what defined a moustache when the trap door opened and gave entrance way to their orange haired friend. They both greeted him and began suggesting three-member activities to do while he nodded in return, but then the most bizarre thing happened: he talked down the still opened trap door.

'Be careful and give me your hand or you'll fall.'

Keigo was on the verge of asking Ichigo why he would talk to a trap door, when unexpectedly, a voice was heard… a very different kind of voice too.

'But it's fun climbing with two hands,'

'Don't do that, the steps aren't sanded, so you'll get a splinter.' And he extended his arm to aid her.

The top of Orihime's head appeared 'What's sanded?'

'I-Ichigo… is that a' began Mizuiro, but then Orihime's head appeared

'Girl…' completed Keigo, looking completely astounded.

'Its something that makes wood smooth.' Answered Ichigo, while helping a staggering Orihime find her feet. He did not notice his shell shocked friends.

'Ichigo!' said Mizuiro with alarm, catching the attention of his friend.

'Huh?' Ichigo turned towards his friend in puzzlement, 'what?'

'You brought a girl here!' cried Mizuiro in criminal fear.

'Yeah I know.'

'I thought you didn't like girls.'

'I don't' Orihime's eyes widened.

'Then what is she doing here?' Mizuiro pointed more vehemently than intended towards the near-tearful girl.

'She's an exception'

Mizuiro's eyebrows nearly disappeared 'Whyyyyy?'

'Because she's my friend' Orihime smiled to herself. At this, a flicker of understanding passed through Mizuiro's eyes, he then proceeded to shrug his shoulders and return to his game with Keigo… Except Keigo had suddenly vanished. One quick glance around the room informed him that Keigo had not miraculously disappeared, but had simply wandered in a dazed stupor towards the only girl to have ever stepped foot in this dominantly male domain. Keigo was about to grab a fistful of her hair too; before a heavily scowling Ichigo intercepted.

'What do you think you're doing idiot!' said the orange head dangerously while he pushed the dazed boy roughly aside, this seemed to sober him somewhat..

'But… its so long, it's like a horse's tail!' and he tried reaching for it again, like a moth to a flame.

Orihime blushed profusely, not knowing if she just received a compliment or an insult. Ichigo, who couldn't care less of the intention behind the words had a very different reaction; one could say that steam was splitting out from Ichigo's ears as he swelled in anger like a wild bull on chillies.

'Stop touching her hair you Baka!' and before the blasphemous fingers could finally reach their destination, Ichigo had wrestled his friend to the floor. As Orihime moved to halt the brewing of a fight, new voices were heard.

'What's hap-' began Suzuki but was caught off guard by the violation of section three of the tree house agreement that was presently standing in the middle of the room.

'FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!' cried Yamada, rolling up his sleeves and preparing to dive into the fray.

'No please stop fighting!' said Orihime loudly enough to be heard, this caught Yamada's attention who just noticed her, it also managed to stop Ichigo from his activities and spared a near mass-of-pulp Keigo. Mizuiro was relieved he didn't have to step in this time.

'Whoa… What are you doing here? No girls aloud here girly!' said Yamada.

'Umm…' she began fidgeting with her fingers.

'I brought her here,' said Ichigo standing in front of the girl.

'Why? You don't even like girls.'

'She's my new neighbour.'

'So?'

'She's also my friend.'

'But Tatsuki's your friend and you don't let her up here.'

'Then she can when she comes back from holiday.'

'But she can't because this is strictly a no girls allowed zone! You made the rule yourself!'

Ichigo shrugged 'Fine, we can lift the rule for special exceptions.'

'Ooh so she's special to you now?' sniggered Keigo in a very 10 year old boy fashion.

Ichigo glared at him while fighting the beginnings of a blush. 'Shut up,' he said in the deadliest voice he could muster.

The conversation carried on in this manner. Orihime was left glancing anxiously from one face to the next as though watching a tennis ball in the Wimbledon men's final, Keigo would persistently jab at Ichigo's expense, Yamada would sometimes join in but was mostly a spectator like Mizuiro. It was strangely Suzuki who remained the only member to have not said a single word and none noticed his stolen glances at Orihime.

The boys concluded that due to Ichigo's persistence to break his own rule, Orihime would be allowed to stay. At first Orihime simply remained next to Ichigo's side while he gave the grand tour of the tree house. He showed her their game chest, their manga shelves and their planning wall where they would scheme ideas for exploration, treasure hunting and fighting bad guys. Ichigo then proceeded to explain how he built the tree house and everything in it, this lead to inevitable arguments, the first of which was with Suzuki who stated bluntly, though suddenly, that it was he who had designed, the tree house and that all had helped in its construction, Ichigo had retaliated that it was his idea originally and hence it was only logical that the tree house belonged to him. The argument carried on in this circular dispute. Suzuki remained mostly silent for the remainder of Orihime's visit, only opening his mouth to say something at Ichigo's expense.

Meanwhile Orihime could barely say a word for shyness. Once she felt familiar enough with the workings of the secular group, she began to giggle slightly at some of their antics, such as when Keigo failed a handstand. Ichigo was pleased at her interaction, subsequently he asked her to tell them a story, simultaneously bragging to his male friends that he had befriended someone with a big enough brain to tell stories without a book in front of her. This simple piece of information seemed to catch the interest of the audience, who then demanded for one of her tales. Orihime was hesitant. But after encouragement from Ichigo, she began a tale involving a giant ant, fifty rocks and a wish for freedom.

Dessa's Note: I was meant to write more, but it's 5.50 in the morning and I hope you'll forgive me, but I'm tiiiiiired! I can't ait for Chapter 3. I really can't wait! The plan has already been set so all that is needed is for it to be constructed which shouldn't take too long :D