Disclaimer: Gah!! I always forgot to put the shtoopid disclaimer in every chapter!! But everyone knows that I don't own BLEACH. Cuz if I did, then it wouldn't be BLEACH. :) I don't own Mou Hitotsu no Birthday by Fm.Theta either.

A/N: Hiyas all!! I'm feeling VERY hyper today because of this HUGE cotton candy I ate at this random amusement park. SUGAR RUSH!! Anyways, I'm glad that you guys like the ketchup thing. It was very random and it kinda popped into my head, as usual, and I thought that I was making so many flashbacks! Hau...

And, I'm FINALLY over my writer's block!! WOOH!! Finally I know what's going to happen in this story! I just hope that my 'theory' is logical enough. I'm not a logical person, really. So about this chapter... I guess there will be some Ichiruki moments... I think...

Thank you to disinterested, Ericd, anonymous, auburn-haired-sadist-XD and x pink cloud x for reviewing!! Here's my replies!

To...

disinterested: Glad you like his moments of embarrassment. I found it fun to embarrass him. I always thought he never has enough embarrassment in his life. XD

Ericd: I'm glad you like my story. What happens in this chapter, well... just read to find out! XD

anonymous: nye he he... I know Kon is kinda stupid, but I can't stop loving him! He's my 5th favourite character!! Yes, I know... the angel-looking thing is cheesy, but I can't help it! I just wanted Ichigo to get embarrassed!! I'm feeling evil flowing through my veins!! MUAHAH!! XD

auburn-haired-sadist-XD: Hollow Ichigo is going to be in this chapter, too!! I'm glad you love my story and I'll try my best to make the fluff as realistic as possible!! Wait... how do you make fluff realistic again...? XD

x pink cloud x: He he he... I'm glad you're enjoying the story/chapters and the ketchup incident. It was based on my experience... sob... but I was the ketchup plopper (?), so I didn't get any ketchupy stains!! YAY!!

Thank you for all of the people who has added my story in their alert/favourite list, added me as one of their favourite authors, and reviewed. I LOVE YOU ALL!! XD

I'm very sorry in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes and if any character is OOC -bows-

Enjoy!!

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Perfection

Chapter Nine

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"Huff... huff..." Ichigo panted as he jog, following Rukia's small trail of reiatsu. 'Man. Tonight is cold. Why the hell is she so far away already? Did she ran? Did she--' his train of thoughts was interrupted.

'Hey, King. No time no see.' the hollow inside him said.

'Long time my ass.'

'Where's Rukia-chan? I missed what you did a moment ago 'cuz I was sleeping.'

'You were freakin' sleeping the whole time??'

'Yep.' it said as it laughed maniacally.

'Well you can say whatever the hell you want, just don't bother me.' Ichigo's pace got quicker.

'Okay then, I'll start. King, you suck.'

'As if I care whether you think I am or not.' he turned his head left then right as he jogged, checking if he can spot the ebony-haired girl.

'Oh, and remember the thing that I said about me being in love with her? Yeah, that was all just to provoke you.' it laughed maniacally once again.

Ichigo halted, his foot is in mid-air, his eyes widened in anger. "You WHAT??" he yelled out loud.

'Heh. That got your attention.'

The carrot-top started jogging again as he took deep breaths to stop himself from mentally killing the hollow inside of him. 'So you're not in love with her?'

'Maybe. Maybe not.'

"Tch. Asshole." Ichigo mumbled as he jogged along, still trying to spot the petite girl. He came to a junction and turned left. His eyes widened as he did so and he immediately hid behind a lamp post. 'Heh. Found you, Ru-ki-a.' his eyes glinted evilly. He catches up with his breath and followed her stealthily. Rukia stopped and glanced behind her. Luckily, Ichigo had already hide beside a vending machine.

'Wait. Why am I hiding?' he thought. 'Right. I just want to know who she was going with without her knowing. Yeah, that's it. I just don't want her to get hurt. That's it.'

"Hmm... that's weird. I thought I saw Ichigo..." Rukia mumbled, one of her eyebrows raised. Ichigo gulped beside the live—i mean mission-saving vending machine. "Oh well." she turned and continued walking. Ichigo sighed in relieve.

Rukia looked up to the sky as she walk deliberately. Her eyes slightly widened as she realized something. 'Oh no! I'm gonna miss it!!' she thought before she started running.

'What the--?! Why did she ran? Did she noticed me already? I was so sure I concealed my presence... ah, screw it!! She ain't getting away that easily!' Ichigo ran after her.

'Wait! Why do I hear footsteps coming from behind me? And why does its pace got quicker as I run? What if the footsteps belongs to a murderer or this rapist as Ichigo had told me? Well, I can take him down easily then. But why won't I stop running??' she ran even faster.

'Damn it! She quickened her pace!' Ichigo thought as he quickened his.

The chasing continued until they went to a grassy place, which made Rukia unable to hear Ichigo's footsteps anymore. 'I think I lost him... and look!! I made it!!' she thought as she slowed down and walked up a hill.

'She slowed down. Why? And where am I?' Ichigo thought as he looked around. He was near a forest and in front of him was a huge hill that Rukia is walking on. The wind softly blew on the trees, making them swayed a little bit. The leaves have all fell out, making the trees a bit eerie-looking.

'It's very unusually... serene here...' he furrowed his eyebrows, deep in thoughts as he continued on his following. The girl that has been his target sat down on the very top of the hill and set something down beside her, presumably his i-pod since he saw her took his black earphones from it a moment later.

She hugged her knees and hummed as she listened to some of Ichigo's music. Ichigo watched very carefully from afar, waiting for her friend to come.

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15 minutes have passed since Rukia sat on the very top of the hill and Ichigo couldn't take anymore of it. 'She got stood up, huh? Thought so.' he thought before sighing, 'Well... she is a girl. Maybe I should go there and comfort her... or something.' he walked towards the said girl, hands in his pockets.

Rukia noticed a noise coming from behind her. 'Could it be that murderer that was following me a while ago?' she thought, eyes narrowed as she tried to glance at the murderer without him noticing her. 'Ah, screw it. Let him murder me if he wants to. I'm dead already anyway.' she decided to ignore the murderer and continued on humming.

"Hello, little lady. Give me your purse or I'll kill you!" the murderer threatened (Who suspected that he was a REAL murderer?? 5 points for who did!! XP) with a knife below Rukia's chin.

Ichigo eyes widened from afar. 'How the hell--?! When did he even came here??' he started running towards the two silhouettes.

Rukia sighed in annoyance and sarcastically said, "I don't have a purse, oh Mr. Murderer." she rolled her gleaming violet orbs. She calmly took off Ichigo's earphone and put it on the ground, near his i-pod. She then stood up,trying to look clearly at the murderer's face.

"Don't you dare toy with me woman!!" the murderer pulled his knife back and swung it full force at Rukia's neck. She narrowed her eyes and ducked, kicking his feet at a swift motion to the side, making him lose his balance and stumbled. At the same time, Ichigo arrived and give a hard uppercut to his chin, making him rolled off the hill to who knows where.

Rukia looked up and could see a glimpse of orange.

Bright, bright orange.

Okay, maybe not so bright -since it was night- but the moonlight is enough for her to see the orange. The rest was just her imagination. She raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Are you Ichigo or just another petty murderer?"

"Of course I'm another petty murderer." Ichigo answered sarcastically, rolling his warm brown eyes. He put his hands inside his pocket, trying to look as nonchalant as possible.

Rukia decided to play along and elbowed him on he stomach, hard. He doubled over and yelled, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, MIDGET??"

She smirked and sat down on the welcoming grass, "Ah, so you are Ichigo."

"Che. Whatever." he scowled as he sat down by her right side, Indian style.

"Oh, and by the way, you suck at pretending to be the murderer. Maybe you should dye that orange hair of yours black first before doing something so stupid. People are going to realize that you're the murderer before you know it." she put his earphones back in her ears.

"But since I'm not, I won't and I don't care what the hell does other people think of me or my hair." he looked at her suspiciously.

"What?" his look was starting to annoy her a little.

"Where's your friend? Did the little miss Kuchiki Rukia got stood up?" he smirked smugly.

"Stood up? As if. And my friend has been here for a while, thank you very much." she rolled her eyes and copied Ichigo's smirk.

"Oh really? Where is he, then? I can't see him anywhere."

Rukia raised an eyebrow at Ichigo's sentences. "Whoever said that my friend is a he? And she is right here, beside me, the whole time." she gestured to her left with her hand. Ichigo leaned over and realized that it was...

"Sofia? She's your friend?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course! Who else do you think it is?" she answered with the exact same incredulous tone as Ichigo just did.

"Well..." he scratched the back of his head, waiting for an answer to magically pop out. "Never mind. How did you know about this place anyway?"

"Oh, Inoue told me. She also told me that if I come here with someone special, something good might happen. So, I took Sofia with me." she picked Sofia up and settled her down on her lap, stroking her head gently.

"Oh..." he replied, "Wait a minute! She's your special someone?" he asked back as realization dawned on him.

"Yeah. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just thought that your special someone would be a human like Inoue, Renji, your nii-sama or... me." the last part of his sentence came to a mumble.

"Or who?"

"Forget it."

"Well, I was going to take Inoue and Arisawa with me, but they said that had plans with Chizuru and I do not want to risk it. I also thought about asking Renji or nii-sama, but they're both in Soul Society! It'll just be another burden for them to come along just so they could go to this hill. I also thought about asking you..." she wondered, her finger on her chin, eyebrows furrowed, trying to remember the bunch of people she had in mind.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you." she smiled at him, which brings back the all-too-familiar familiar red tinge on his cheeks. "I was going to ask you when Ochi-sensei was grading our test, but you pissed me off so bad, so I decided to cool off for a little bit. I was about to ask you again after we fought the...unusual... hollow, but you ran away before I could say anything!"

"Ah...So I was the last resort, eh?" the last part of his sentence was meant to be inside his head, but he spoke it out loud. Again. Screw it.

"Huh?"

"Oh no! I was just spacing out! Just continue." he grinned sheepishly.

"Actually, you were the first person I was going to ask, if I remembered correctly." she said with a tinge of rose on her cheeks, one eyebrow raised as she searched her memories.

"Eh?"

"Ah! Forget it! Oh, and why are you here?" she shook the annoying tinge off of her cheeks and looked at him.

"Oh, right! That's because you forgot your jack...et..." he searched around for Rukia's pear green jacket but the slapped himself on the forehead for forgetting it.

"Aho...! Aho...! Aho...!" a crow (is it a crow?) flew over their heads.

A vein popped out on Ichigo's forehead and he shouted, "SHUT UP YOU DAMN BIRD!!" as his fist shook in the air. 'What the hell is a crow doing in the middle of a cold, winter night?'

Rukia couldn't help but laugh from the side, watching as the scene unfolded in front of her.

"Damn. I must've forgotten it at home. Look, I--" he calmed down and turned to Rukia to apologize, but she cut him off.

"Meh. Don't mind it. I'm not cold anyways." she said between her laughs. Ichigo scowled at her laughs but that scowl was replaced by a look of concern when he saw her shiver as a gust of wind blew.

Sighing, he took of his unzipped jacket and put it over Rukia's body. She quickly looked up, causing the venetian red jacket to fell down to her back, clearly confused about the kind gesture Ichigo just did.

"A-Ah... Don't mind that. I just... don't want to take care of you when you're sick." he looked away. His attempt to hide his kind gesture made Rukia chuckle for a bit.

"Ha—h... I ended up being here with you and Sofia. Guess that made you and Sofia my special people, ne?" she looked up, wrapping the red jacket tighter around her to keep her warm.

Ichigo blushed slightly and looked back at her for a while. Her purple reflected the light from the pure white moon, making it looked like it glows by itself. 'Just like the moon.' he thought. He wondered why she was so mesmerized by the moon, so, he decided to look up to it, too. He found himself mesmerized by it moments later.

Rukia started humming again a second later and he didn't recognized the song she hummed. He noticed that she still listening to his i-pod the whole time. He frowned before stealing his left earphone from her and putting it properly in his left ear.

Suki na HITO ni suki to ieru

Kirameku tokubetsu na yume

Kizutsuku koto mo nani mo osorezu

Kakedashite yukeru no nara

"I've never heard this song before." he said, raising one eyebrow at the raven-haired girl beside him.

Rukia looked at him and said, "I know. I downloaded...it and asked Karin and Yuzu to help me put it in your i-pod." she pointed at the dark red i-pod nano video beside her.

"Why those two..." he grumbled in response.

Suki na HITO ni suki to ieru

Sono hi wa atarashii BAASUDEI

Kinou to chigau watashi ni natte

mayowazu ni tokihanatsu yo

My love for you

"Hey Ichigo..."

"Hm?"

"Thanks for coming here to make sure I was okay."

"Wha—Who said that I was--" he was cut off by Rukia's infamous glare. It's even more intimidating now since the moonlight made her eyes glow evilly.

"Please don't ruin this moment with your big ego, Ichigo." she asked but really, it sounded more like a threat. He gulped in response.

Rukia observed him for a second. He was wearing a red T-shirt with a picture of a black sun in the middle. He layered it with his black hoodie, which was also unzipped. He wore a pair of grey denim and dark brown snow boots. His black scarf was hanging rather loosely on his neck.

Kimi ni atta hi wa ippai shiawase

Kimi ni atta ato ippai samishii kedo

Machiawase wo shita nara nee okureru nante ikenai yo

Sou ichibyou demo nagaku itai kara...

"Why did you went bankai on that hollow? I mean, you know you could've finish it with one strike of Getsuga Tenshou without even releasing." Rukia asked.

"'Cuz he hurt the person that meant the world to me." he said, not bothering to even look at her.

Rukia raised an eyebrow at his statement. Then she smirked and sarcastically said, "Why, Ichigo! I didn't know that I'm that important to you!"

"Well, you are." he said with an even tone, no hint of sarcasm or whatsoever in his voice. Rukia felt her cheeks heating up.

Suki na HITO ni meguriaeta

Mabayui hajimete no toki

Onaji jikan wo ikite iru koto

Sore dake de kiseki dakara

"Well, you know what? I think that you're trying to get even at me for saying that you're one of my special people is rather mean. I actually meant it, you know." she said with a fake offended tone.

"Well, if you meant it, so did I." he looked into her eyes. She accidentally looked back. They both broke away, looking slightly redder than they did before.

"Let's just... sing along..." she grinned sheepishly before she sang along to the song played on the carrot-top's i-pod.

Suki na HITO ni meguriaeta

Ima koso atarashii BAASUDEI

Jishin nai kedo sunao ni natte

Ashita koso uchiakeyou

Ichigo raised an eyebrow as he hear Rukia sang. He didn't know she can sing! Well, he knew she can hum but not sing and strangely, her deep voice actually blended well with the song.

She took a deep breath before singing the last chorus. That was what was suppose to happen if only Ichigo didn't interrupt her by turning her head towards him and lifting her chin up.

"What the--! Ichigo, if you don't mind, I would like to sing along to the last chorus, thank you very much." she said sarcastically, her violet eyes gazed into his chocolate brown questioningly—or was it yellow?

Okay, the carrot-top is in an apocalypse right now. He had no idea what happened after Rukia sang along. He opened his eyes and saw that he was inside his world.

"Huh? What happened? Why am I here?" he asked as he looked around, searching for Zangetsu. "Wait a minute... Where's that damned bastard?" he said, referring to his inner hollow. "No way he is—oh god." he realized what was happening, his inner hollow has somehow pulled him inside. He sighed before yelling, "You ain't getting away with this, ya hear that??"

He concentrated his reiatsu, trying to break through the 'shield' his hollow have created just for him. 'Come on! Break through!!' he thought as he saw a small light coming towards him. He quickly pushed himself towards the light and opened his eyes, in the real world this time. The first thing he noticed was Rukia's gleaming eyes filled with curiosity.

'What is she so curious about? What did he—oh, crap.' he thought as he noticed that his hand was lifting her chin up.

'No need to thank me, King.' his inner hollow mocked him.

'Piss off.' he retorted back. He has two choices now. One is to be brave and tell—oh sorry, I meant show her how he feels and two is to run away from the truth (Ichigo: What truth??) and shrugs it off like it was nothing. Inhaling deeply before exhaling, he choose to go with option one. He cautiously leaned in, slowly closing the gap between them.

Rukia was confused. Very confused. And it's written all over her face. First, he got all pissed at lunch for something, then he got worried when they were fighting the hollow, then he got pissed. Again. And now... 'What is he doing?' she thought as he leaned in even closer. 'Wait. He isn't going to--'

And then,

She felt an electric jolt going through her petite body.

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A/N: How was that for a fluff moment? I hope its not too cheesy cuz I worked a long time to made it this way. And... you'll probably hate me for the next chapter. But if you can, please don't, I'm begging you... :'(