A Star and A Stray Dog

Proposal

From the jewelers, Renji was running back to the (rather large) house that he and Rukia shared. They weren't very rich, but thanks to Rukia's ties to nobility, the two lovers were able to live together in a larger than normal home on the west side of the Seireitei. With the ring in his pocket, as he neared their block, Renji decided the perfect place to take Rukia for their night out.

As he walked in the door to their house, Renji heard water running and figured she must be in the shower. In most people's houses, you expect to see a coat rack by the door, however their house had a zanpaku-to rack instead. Renji hung Zabimaru next to Rukia's Sode no Shirayuki, the completely white zanpaku-to, the only one like it, and walked down the hallway. Upon passing the bathroom, he saw the door was open about half way and caught a glimpse of Rukia stepping out of the shower stall. That image in mind, he decided to have a little fun. Silently he stepped into the bathroom behind Rukia, being sure to conceal his spiritual pressure. He then grabbed Rukia from behind in a loving embrace. Rukia gasped and her cheeks turned slightly red.

"Hey there beautiful" Renji greeted, kissing her on the cheek. Rukia giggled, Renji's warm breath tickled her neck as he spoke to her. Renji growled deep in his throat and moved his hands upward and placed one on each of Rukia's small breasts. Rukia let out a small moan and spun herself around in his arms.

"Haha, hey there." Rukia giggled as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. Renji then lifted her up and buried his face in her neck again.

"Mmmmm, you smell nice" Renji told her inhaling deeply. Rukia smiled at him and laid a small kiss on the tip of his nose as he set her back on the ground.

"Hey, whaddya say we go out tonight, hm?" he offered, still not letting her out of his hold, beginning to trace light circles with his thumb over her mid-section.

Rukia let out a small laugh. "Sure. What'd you have in mind?" she asked, still lightly giggling.

"You'll see" Renji told her, smirking.

"Alright. Lemme just get ready" Rukia said "Which I can't very well do with you hanging on to me like this" she continued in her matter-of-factly voice, turning around to kiss him on the cheek once more as he let her go.

Renji left the bathroom and went to go sit on the living room couch. Feeling the ring in the pocket of his hakama, he silently debated on ideas of what to say, he was nervous to say the least. Agh, what do I have to be nervous about? I love her more than life itself…but what if I freeze up. And then there's still how to tell her that I'm taking Captain Kuchiki's position as Captain of squad six in only 3 days. Damn. He said to himself.

After about a half-hour of waiting, Rukia stepped into the living room clad in her Soul Reaper shihokshou, just as he was. Renji stood up and walked over to her, taking her tiny hand in his.

"C'mon lets go" Rukia said eagerly. Renji was not very good at keeping secrets so she knew something was up and was itching to find out what.

After walking through the Seireitei for a short time, chatting about various odds and ends, they came to a small, but elegant restaurant. Upon entry they were guided to their table and presented with menus. Renji fidgeted slightly, he was so on edge he nearly poured his glass of water down the neck of his kimono when he went to take a sip. Rukia laughed at this, being used to the always-aware Renji, she never knew him to get nervous about anything.

In a short while the waiter came back to take their orders, Rukia had decided on a dango and sashimi combo with asari soup; Renji had decided on a sushi and beef combo with miso soup and curry rice. When the waiter had left, there was an awkward silence due to Renji's anxiety. Deciding to break the silence Rukia had asked Renji as to why he was behaving so strangely. Not wanting to reveal the whole truth yet Renji wracked his brain for an answer.

"Well…um…to tell you the truth…the reason I was so late coming home is part of it. It's that earlier today I challenged Captain Kuchiki to a duel…with two conditions, one of which was, if I beat him, he'd retire as a Soul Reaper and I'd become the new Captain of Squad 6. I won and I still cant believe it, so I'm a tad on edge." Renji explained. Rukia gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Oh my gosh, how did you- Renji congratulations!" Rukia exclaimed reaching across the table to hug him. She was so happy she didn't bother to ask about the second condition for Renji's fight…or realize that Renji's answer didn't really answer her question, which Renji was relatively thankful for, now wasn't his idea of the right time to propose.

"When's the ceremony?" asked a very curious Rukia.

"Sunday at 5pm. I worked it out with Captain Kuchiki and Captain Yamamoto straight after the fight…well after the both of is were healed that is heh heh" Renji answered.

Rukia gasped "That's three days from now! Wow, if we wanna have a party I'd better get started with the plans!" Rukia blurted out. Renji couldn't help but smirk at how enthusiastic she was being about this whole deal, it was so out of character for her.

When their food came they thanked the waiter, broke their chopsticks and with a small bowing gesture to eachother, in unison they both said "Itadakimasu" and proceeded with eating their meals.

After dinner they had decided to skip desert and left the restaurant. Renji took Rukia by the hand and smiled at her.

"C'mon, there's one more place I wanna take you" he said kissing her on the cheek. He led her down a familiar road and then they began to walk up to a grassy plateau that suddenly looked all too memorable to Rukia. When they reached the top she had recognized it to be Soukyoku Hill. However, the Soukyoku blade was no longer there and the stand remained broken and instead of the barren desert terrain the hill once had, there was now lush grass with park benches placed around the area. Rukia glanced up at Renji and gave him a confused look.

"Recently they made Soukyoku hill a Seireitei national park dedicated to everyone who helped to expose Aizen. Just after Ichigo was made Squad 5 Captain actually. See, if you hadn't avoided coming here for so long you might know that." Renji explained adding a small joke at the end to poke fun at his girlfriend. Rukia jabbed him in the arm playfully. Renji just laughed and bent down to kiss her.

As if on cue fireworks of many different colors exploded from behind them, seemingly coming from West Rukon. Renji moved his lips away from Rukia's and knelt down on one knee in front of her. Rukia's eyes widened as she realized why Renji had been so on edge the whole night.

"Rukia, we've been together practically our whole lives, and I can't remember a time your smile and kind words didn't make me feel at ease. I love you more than anything in the whole universe and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, if you will have me as your husband…Rukia Kuchiki, will you marry me?" Renji asked, not stuttering or tripping up at all. Again Rukia gasped and her eyes welled up with tears of joy.

"Yes…Yes Renji I will" Rukia replied as Renji slipped a beautiful diamond ring on her petit finger, the sparkling diamond in the shape of a heart.

Renji stood up and held the weeping Rukia close to him, kissing the top of her head. Rukia wrapped her arms around Renji and tried to will herself to stop crying. Wiping the tears away from her eyes Renji softly laid his lips on hers, though the gentle kiss didn't last long as Rukia added a little more pressure.

"I love you" Rukia told him as she broke away from the kiss.

"Mmm Rukia… I love you too" Renji replied encircling his arms around Rukia's waist. The two definitely would be busy the next few months leading up to the wedding.

Yay! I'm finally done! Sorry I was a day passed my deadline, but my computer wasn't working one of my free days and the other day I was dead tired and ended up falling asleep before I got a chance to write. I hope you liked this chapter…honestly I didn't really like the beginning too much, in my opinion it got better once the fireworks started and the whole proposal scene was goin on. But PLEASE tell me what you think, good or bad. Warning: Next chapter is probably gunna be rather long, it'll contain Renji's promotion ceremony and party and then a special surprise. The warning is that it'll be VERY steamy in parts. Stay Tuned!!! And PLEASE REVIEW!!!!

Disclaimers: I do not own Bleach!!! If I did Renji and Rukia would be together already, so would Orihime and Uryu and Toshiro Wouldn't be such an ass, but that's not the case. Also, I 'll say it again: I DO NOT stick lemon warnings in the middle of chapters, if you don't like em, find em and skip em. However I wouldn't recommend it because my lemons usually advance the story in some way.