Author's note: Hello again. First I want to thank all the people who reviewed to my story. Thank you guys, you're the best! And I'm so sorry for the very late update, so here is chapter 3, I hope you'll like it. This chapter is full of Ichigo and Rukia! Enjoy

And sorry for the grammar erorrs, no one's perfect, I'm still learning! XD

- - Chapter 3 - -

Ichigo stood there, frozen. He needed a few seconds to register the words in his head. Did she really ask him to take her to his kingdom? No way in hell he'll let this happen! Who knows what will happen!?

"Are you crazy? Do you know what you just said!? I won't do it! Do you know what will happen if . . ."

Apparently his outburts didn't impress Rukia at all. She was watching him, her glare was unreadable, no emotions were on her face. With a cold voice, who could freeze hell, she said:

"I thought that you humans at least keep on your word but I guess I was wrong. You think only for yourselves! Are you scared or something?"

His eye twitched. That's it! She can beat him up as much as she wants but to call him a coward!? She won't get away with this! He'll get her back. . . someday.

"Who are you calling a coward, midget? This has nothing to do with your request! You wanna go to the kingdom? Fine! I'll take you! I keep on my word! You better be here before sun dawn tomorrow!" cried Ichigo as his hands were balled into fists, shaking from anger.

"You see? It wasn't so hard now, was it? I knew you'd see it in my way." said cheerfully Rukia. She had a huge smile on her face and her eyes shined with complacency, like she had known that he will agree. Wait a minute! He was being tricked! She called him a coward on purpose so he could get angry and agree to this! Damnit! How could he be so stupid!? There's no turning back now! Damnit! He couldn't beleive his own stupidy!

"You bitch! You did this on purpose!" said Ichigo while pointing a finger at her.

"I did what Kurosaki-kun?" she sing-songed with a hight pitch voice. "I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe the sun got to you."

Ichigo was standing and watching her like he was seeing her for the first time. "Wha...!? Where the hell did this voice come from!?" He didn't know why but this voice was annoying him like hell and he was receiving a headache from it.

"Kurosaki-kun, stop looking at me, it's rude, ohh and shut your mouth. I think I saw a fly to get in it." grinned Rukia. It was so easy to tease him, just for the smallest things and he get's angry, her life definatly will be more intertesting. She couldn't wait until tomorrow. . .

Ichigo couldn't beleive that he was doing this! Nope, it's not true. He was dreaming, he's really dreaming! Why? Why he had to accept? It's her fault! Narrowing his eyes, he continued his journey to the arranged place.

Around an hour riding, he finally arrived to his destination. And there she was, sitting on the grass...agan. Sliding of his horse, Ichigo untied one package and headed towards Rukia. He stopped a few feet away from her, he looked at the package then at her as an evil smile appeared on his face. With full force, he trew the package at her and it hit her. . . right on the head.

The unexpected hit stunned Rukia. What the hell just happened? She turn her head sharply to see Ichigo rolling on the grass, laughing. . .at her. A vein popped on her forehead, standing up, she walked towards him and kicked him in the stomach sreaming:

"What was that for, you idiot!? And what's this package for?" she was looking at him with angry eyes and was pointing at the package.

Ichigo was holding his stomach, but despite the pain, he was grinning. At least he got her back. Standing up, he walked towards the package as he got out a white shirt, brown pants, a belt, a brown hat and a pair of boots. He took them and handed them to Rukia.

"Put them on. You're clothes will attract attention and not to mention your ears! You better put the hat on or we're not going anywhere!"

Rukia looked at him then at the clothes in her arms, then at her clothes. What's wrong with them? They're just clothes. The elves outfit was from rare fabric with green

undertone, their garment comprised tight trousers, shirt that clinged to the body tightly and a bright green belt. There weren't any decorations to their oufit, they were just simple yet diffrent from the human clothes. Rukia looked at the clothes in her hands again. They were a little big for her. Oh well, if she wants to see his kingdom then she'll make an expection.

Suddenly she froze. "Wait a second, where will I get dressed? I'm not gonna get dressed in front of him!" Lifting her head, she asked him:

"Tell me genius, where am I gonna get dressed? Unless you want to be in front of you of course."

Ichigo didn't know what to answer. He looked around but the trees weren't that big. They weren't gonna hide half of her while she get dressed. Scratching his head, he murmured:
"Think of something, it's your problem, not mine."

Rukia stared at him then grinned. She turned her back to him as she start to unbuttom her shirt. . .

Ichigo couldn't beleive his eyes, she was stripping in front of him!

"Oii idiot, what the hell are you doing!? Don't strip in front of me!" he screamed with a little panic in his voice.

Rukia ignored him and let her shirt to fall on the soft grass. Soft milky skin showed in front of Ichigo's eyes, his lips felt dry, his heart ponded in his chest, his cheeks burned, his hands itched to touch her soft shoulder. With all his will power, he teared his eyes away from her and turned his back to her.

Rukia turned her head a little and her smile widened. It was so much fun to tease him like that but if he turns around, he is dead!

Ichigo was trying to think of something else other than the girl that was dressing a few feet away from him. "Relax, it's just Rukia, the little midget for crying out loud! I'm not attracted to her, I was just suprised, yeah, that's it!" His thoughts were interrupted by Rukia's voice.

"I'm ready. Let's go." he heared Rukia saying as she walked passed him. Ichigo observed Rukia with the new clothes. They were big for her, they were making her look small and more fragile than she already was, at least the hat hid her ears. Ichigo barely kept himself from laughing at her, she looked ridiculous in these clothes but he won't tell her that. Oh no, not a chance. Ichigo watched her as she walked towards his horse. Wait. Why his horse?

"Oiii, Rukia, why are you walking towards my horse?"

Rukia looked at him as if he is an idiot.

"Do you see any other horse here? I didn't take mine, I walked here. No more questions. Let's go, we don't have all day!"

Murmuring under his breathe, Ichigo helped Rukia to climb on his horse then he climbed too. He felt how her delicate hands wrapped around his waist and her head rested on his back. His body froze, he felt a few drops of sweat dripping down his face. This was gonna be a long ride. . .

"Are we there yet?" asked for a hundred time Rukia.

A vein popped on Ichigo's forehead. He glared at her through his shoulder and said roughly:

"I told you already, no! Geez, you're so annoying! Can't you just shut up for a while?" with this he turned his head forward.

Rukia watched without interest the view around her. With each passing mile, the exotic nature was becoming more and more poor until it was almoust an wilderness which meant that they're near the human lands. After an hour, in front of them appeared huge walls with iron gates to which there were guards. Rukia thought that they'll stop them but to her suprise, the guards backed off and bowed.

"Why did they bow and didn't stop us?" wondered Rukia "I'll ask Ichigo later."

The view in front of Rukia was magnificent, she didn't know that a city can be this amusing! There were so many movements, there were big and small houses, hosts, you could see little fountains here and there, the roads were clean and level, happy children's voices echoed in the air. This place was so full of life! She was brought back to reality by the voice of her friend.

"So, where do you want to go? If you want, I can show you the market place, I have to take some things from there anyway."

Rukia thought for a moment. "The market? Sounds good. Well, come on, let's go!"

Ichigo grinned at her enthusiasm. "Good, but first we need to get off the horse, there're a lot of people here and I don't want to attract attention to us with the horse."

After they got off the horse, they headed to the market, it was gonna take them half an hour to get there, so Rukia decided to ask Ichigo.

"Ichigo?"

"What is it?" asked Ichigo.

"Well. . .why the guards didn't stop us and insted bowed?"

Ichigo froze a little but Rukia didn't see anything. "Damnit! What am I supposed to tell her? I can't say to her that I'm the prince and that's why they bowed! Think Ichigo, think!"

"Umm...well. . .you see. . .they greeted us for welcome, they're nice, not like some midget I have the unpleasure to know." grinned Ichigo.

"Don't call me midget, Strawberry!" screamed Rukia as she gathered a few looks.

Ichigo reacted fast as he grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. The contact made Rukia to blush a little but after that she got annoyed that he was pulling her like some little kid.

"I can walk you know, so you can let go of my hand!" hissed Rukia.

Ichigo just found out that he was still holding her hand and immediately let go of her like it was on fire and turned his head to hide his burning cheeks. There was an awkward silence until Ichigo heard Rukia to squeаl. He turned his head to see. . . that she wasn't with him. "Damnit! Where the hell is she? Damnit!"

Ichigo was looking around like a mad man until he spotted her kneeling in front of a cage with rabbits. He blew a sigh of relief and walked with slow steps towards her.

"What are you doing? And don't you run away from me anymore! You can't run away just like that! Hey, are you listening to me?"

Rukia was too busy watching the bunnies to hear what Ichigo was saying. She looked at him with an annoyed expression.

"What do you want? Can't you see that I'm busy?"

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched. He glared at her but she didn't pay him attention. Sighing, he kneeled next to her and looked at the fluffy little animals who were stealing Rukia's attention from him. He frowned. What the hell these rabbits have that he hasn't? He glared at them and asked:

"What are you looking at them so much? They're just rabbits! They'll be killed for food anyway so. . . "

"What!?" Rukia turned her head towards him with pure shock on her face. "You eat them?"

Ichigo snorted. "What else for? They're for food, not some pets. Don't tell me you haven't eaten a rabbit before."

"No, I'm not! We don't kill such cute creatures! You humans are so cruel!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Pffuu, you're making it sound like it's the end of the world. The nature is like this, you should kno. . ." again his speech was interrupted by Rukia's enthusiastic voice.

"Let's save them!" announced Rukia as she stood on her feet, she turned around to face Ichigo with pleading eyes. Those beautiful eyes in which you could lose youself in them and see through her soul. What? Beautiful eyes? Ichigo shook his head to clear his thoughts. He should really stop reading poems. . .

"So here's the plan. You'll distract the salesman while I go and open the cage and let the bunnies free! Then they'll run away and be free!" beamed Rukia as she looked at Ichigo for his approval.

"That's it? Geez, you're more stupid than I thought! I can't beleive that I agreed to help you, I must be crazy! And they're tame animals, I don't think that. . ."

At this Rukia cut him. "No there's not. They're wild. They're from our forest. Beleive me, I know the diffrence between tame rabbit and wild one, these are not tame rabbits, if they were, then they wouldn't have been curled up in fear. Every wild animal who is being held in a cage would get scared!"

Afrer half an hour of argumenting, Ichigo gave up and after this found himself in a few feet away from his so called "victim". Sighing and murmuring under his breath about crazy midgets and stupid rabbits, he headed towards the poor salesman to perform his "mission".

Rukia was standing on a fair distance from Ichigo but her attention was once again on the bunnies.

Ichigo was approaching the salesman as little drops of sweat were running down his face. Taking a deep breath, he began a conversation with the man for simple things like how much costs a certain object and from where was it.

It had been a good five minutes but there was no sign of Rukia. "Where the hell is she?" He turned his head to see Rukia standing and watching the little beasts.

"Great, just what a needed." Sighing in frustation, he couched loudly in order to cath her attention which he did. Her head snapped up and she immediatly started to get to work.

She started to approach as quetly as she can while Ichigo distracted the man. She got to the bunnies and wondered how to open the cage.

Ichigo couldn't think of anything else to say and looked at the salesman nervously. The man was about to turn to the direction where Rukia was when Ichigo did a desperate act to grab the man's attention as he screamed on the top of his lugs:

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" he pointet a finger towards one object. This definitely cathed the attention of the passing people. Ichigo flushed from embarrassment "You own me Rukia." he thought.

Rukia understood that she don't has much time so without thinking she drew her sword and broke the lock which unfortunately attracted attention to her.

"Thiefs! Guards! Catch them!" screamed the salesman as Ichigo run towards Rukia which she for a record time managed to gather all the bunnies in her arms and started running.

"Rukia! What are you doing!? Leave the rabbits on the ground!" screamed Ichigo after her.

"Don't shout at me and just take some of the bunnies, I can hardly hold them!" screamed Rukia too as she handed Ichigo a few rabbits when he was next to her.

Holding the bunnies tightly in his arms he run with Rukia from the guards who were after them. . .

"I told you that we'll make it!" said happily Rukia while playing with the bunnies.

Ichigo watched her with amusment as he couldn't stop the little smile that was forming on his lips. Rukia was an interesting person and this day was truly amusing! Who could have thought that he'll be stealing rabbits?

"So, what we'll do with them?" asked Ichigo.

Rukia teared her gaze from them to look at Ichigo.

"We'll take them to the forest and leave them there. Every animal should be free, not caged. No one has the right to take your freedom. No one has the right to decide what will happen with your life." Rukia was watching the bunnies who strangely, were surrounding her. She smiled at them and caressed one of them.

"Why are they not running away from you?" wondered Ichigo.

"Because we're in harmony with the nature. They know that we'll help them, that's why they don't run away from us. There's something. . .like a connetion between us, you humans don't understand, all you do is stealing from the nature and don't give anything in return while we give."

Ichigo scratched his head, how was he supposed to answer that? She was right at some point but what bothered him was how she talked. It was like she herself was being held up in a cage. What life did she has? He didn't know anything about her but he wanted to understand her, to know her more.

"Rukia?" Ichigo asked softly.

"Hmm?"

"I know it's a little rude but. . . what kind of life do you have? You were talking in such a way that it was like. . . " he went silent because he didn't know how to continue his question.

Rukia looked at him and understood what he was trying to ask. She looked at the bunnies again and answered.

"I'm not allowed to go outside. Everytime I have to sneak in order to go out for a while. The place where we meet with you everytime is the place where I relax, where I can get a break from the world and to be just me. Sometimes I wish everyone to leave me alone but. . . " Rukia bowed her head and went silent.

Ichigo watched her as his eyes softened. He walked towards Rukia as he looked at her he hesitated a little, at this Rukia looked at him questioningly but then she gasped as she felt his strong arms around her waist.

"Wha. . . ?"

"Shut up, Rukia. Just. . .don't say anything." murmured Ichigo as he tightened his embrace. He buried his face in her neck as he inhaled her scent.

Rukia stood in pure shock but aftet this she hugged him back and buried her face in his chest. The world around them dissapeared, it was only them, the only thing that broke the silence were their heartbeats. As Rukia listened to his beating heart, she thought that she needed this, no matter how strange it sounded. . .she needed it. His embrace brought her peace. She felt save and secure like all the pain was washed away. . .

Author's Note: That's it for today XD Again, I'm so sorry for the late update. I hope you liked this chapter and please review :D