The title of this chapter makes sense.
Really.
Don't let it fool you; that is exactly what it says on my new wallet and so I'm sure that in some part of the world its a very meaningful, philosophical-like sentence.

Anyway, enjoy!Chapter's short but I'll be uploading another one immediately in a few hours!
I'm stuck a bit, so let the reviews come with encouragements and I'll upload maybe today itself!

-_- please forgive if it sucks a bit.
Which it does.
Next one is definitely better! :D

Heart attack. Chest burn. Seizure.

WHAAAAAAAAAAT? WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT WAS WHITE-!
Ishida was about to start expressing these thoughts of his ,which was going to involve a lot of mad waving of arms and terrifying expressions and facial colors, but he was interrupted, some would say fortunately.

No one wants to endure visual trauma for no reason.

'I really really like all of you', Rukia smiled one of her rare, genuine smiles, her cheeks flushing, eyes shining, looking like and an unbearably adorable Chappy without the anatomical specifications. 'You, and Inoue, and Sado, and…'

Good grief. This woman.

He almost died, didn't he?

Ishida glared viciously at the grass at his feet as if it was personally responsible for his plight. If he were to correct Kuchiki-san about the meaning of the term, if he managed to do that without dying of heart failure because of the mindboggling naïveté of this woman who was centuries older than him, she was, he was positive, sure to refuse him. At this point, she might not even be sure as to why, but she would say no. If she knew …

Wait.

Wait.

If she knew! If!

If!

The point was for Kurosaki to think that this was a date, wasn't it?

The Quincy looked up at the shinigami with new hope shining in his sapphire eyes.

Oh, for obliviousness!

'It's like going out for ice-cream', the words were out of his mouth before he could think twice.

'Eh?', Rukia tilted her head slightly in a silent question.

'You know, since we like each other, because we're friends, you know, we go out and um, eat stuff and watch movies and stuff. That's, um that's what it is...'

'Eat ice-cream?', she asked excitedly.

'Yes!', he grinned at her.' We'll have fun!'

'Ah~! Okay!'

Ishida looked at her joyous face, her amethyst eyes looking at him with absolute trust, and had a very vivid image of himself burning in hellfire.

Sorry, Kuchiki-san!, he thought frantically. Forgive me this one!

'Will everyone be coming?', she asked.

Oh. Yeah, that.

'Well, a date is only between two friends, Kuchiki-san. But you know, after we finish our date, you can then go on one with Inoue-san and Sado-kun, even Arisawa-san and-no wait, not Asano-kun though', Ishida was suddenly struck with the horrifying implications of something like this happening; bloodied streets, Asano Keigo's body lying lifeless, result of a mysterious, powerful attack, with spiritually-aware people claiming to have seen an orange-headed beast-man in black hacking the schoolboy. No, that simply wouldn't do; as a resident of Karakura cho, he couldn't very well stand aside and let its reputation be tarnished like that. Besides, who was going to clean all the blood? Sheesh.' Kuchiki-san, it is imperative that you never say yes to Asano-kun, okay?', he continued earnestly.

'Ah? Okay, if you say so', if she was surprised, she didn't show it; in retrospect, Ishida had to admit that the idea couldn't have held any appeal to her in the first place. And who could blame her, really?

'Ishida?'

' Yes , Kuchiki-san?'

'Will I..I mean, will I also get to-', she cleared her throat, her cheeks pink.' Get to go on one with Ichigo?'

Ishida was tempted, oh so tempted to throw his hands in the air and scream stuff about victory and the beauty of the world. He debated whether to consider this a job done after all. Kuchiki Rukia likes moronic Kurosaki Ichigo back!Why wasn't his little stunt over then!He considered siding up to Rukia and conspiratorially relate to her the objective he was working towards (wouldn't that make everything just so much easier!) but godammit, Matsumoto would definitely find out; damn woman had ears of a hawk. Wait, wasn't it 'eyes of a hawk'?...Then what was that about ears?...elephants, maybe?...hmm.. Let's see…

'Ishida?', Rukia interrupted, saving him from having to delve into the depths of his own ignorance.

'Ah, yes! Of course you can, Kuchiki-san! Absolutely you can!'

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at his over-enthusiasm, but fortunately Ishida had been acting mad consistently throughout their conversation, so this particular reaction didn't stand out much after all.

'Okay, so let's go then!', she jumped up.

'Eh? What, NOW!'

' Why not?'

'Well, um…how about evening today?', he offered. Hopefully, he'd have gotten himself together by then. Fake or not, he really was looking forward to not falling down in pieces in front of a date.

She grinned excitedly. 'Okay!'
Probably already dreaming about ice-cream, Ishida thought.

'Should I come pick you up at seven then? Oh, and wear something nice'

She looked down at her dress.

'No! Not that you don't look nice now! I mean, people usually dress up on dates, that's all!', he burst out. How smooth he was when talking to females. He should just die, really. 'Kuchiki-san always look beautiful, no matter what!', he added, face burning.

He really wanted to go home now.

She smiled.

'Will Ishida wear something nice too?'

'Ah? Well, sure…if-if you want me to…'

'Please do! I will too! It'll be fun', she grinned, eyes sparkling. She turned and started towards the house whose door was suspiciously open a crack or two. 'I'll see you in the evening then!'

Ishida sighed, and feeling extremely spent, started dragging himself in direction of home to enjoy the few hours of his life before Kurosaki's pea brain declared him to be a mortal enemy.

He didn't notice the bushes he passed twitching every few moments as a bunch of interfering shadows followed him.

'Matsumoto to 11! Smooth execution of part A! Release the Strawberry!', one of them said into a walkie talkie.

At the same time, Madarame Ikkaku blandly informed Kurosaki Ichigo that they should go home now since he didn't think they were going to find that rainbow colored fishy that Yachiru had asked for after all, and that it would seem like when Ichigo had been yelling that it didn't exist as he was being dragged to random shops, he had been making sense. 'Meh, whatchyagonnado?', he is said to have muttered as he bid a crude farewell to the fuming shinigami daiko.

When Ichigo got home that day, having killed Madarame Ikkaku a dozen times in his head, he was a in a pretty black mood. He responded to his father's not-so-much-of-a-surprise attacks with even more violence than usual, gave monosyllabic answers as Yuzu(who looked suspiciously cross with him for some reason) asked him what he'd like for dinner and frowned generously at Karin, who seemed to be in an even worse mood that him and kept finding excuses to snap at him.

The only exception was Rukia, who seemed to be in an exceptionally cheerful state of mind. Of course, this itself was worrying enough; usually the demon midget would be reading those disturbing manga of her's and ignoring his existence or atleast picking fights with him.

'What's up with you?', he enquired suspiciously of her he rinsed plates and she dried them. They really did work so well together, didn't they? Almost as if…almost…as if they were…Whoa! Ok, Kurosaki no more! No more earth-shatteringly disturbing thoughts like that!

Rukia, oblivious to the mental trauma he had just suffered, shrugged daintily.

'Nothing', she chirped.' Why do you ask?'

O-kaaay, did she just answer him properly and without so much of a hint of a patronizing tone?

Rukia is dying from a horrible disease!, his panicked brain screamed.

Review please!

Lose not le patience, the next chapter comes!