This is a re-edit! Appologies, this chapter is really corny and very unrealistic, but I couldn't justify taking it out. Hope it suffices!

Chapter 9

Fluttering around, the young Hanako searched desperately for a hiding spot, and that was harder than it seemed in the desert-like basement. Just when she was about to give up hope, a soft voice caught her attention. "Psst! Ayame-chaaaaan!" The said girl looked around the dusty area and saw nothing, but the voice reoccurred. "Over here Ayame!" Turning around, Ayame finally found the source of the voice: her favorite blonde. He was popping his head out from behind a bolder with a goofy grin plastered on his face. "You can come hide with me!"

"Kisuke-kun! Arigato!" Skipping over to his large rock, she plopped down next to him and leaned her back against his shoulder. "Ne, Kisuke-kun..."

Because she was sitting perpendicular to how he was sitting, it was easier for him to sneak a neat little barrier trick without her noticing. "Hai?"

"What do we do now?"

Urahara smiled at how little she knew about this game that most every child knew. He decided it was something learned better late than never. "Well, since we're not it, we just wait here until the person who's it finds us."

"Oh! Okay!"

In comfortable silence they sat; neither of them feeling the need to fill it. Reaching up and behind her, Ayame brought her finger tips to the ends of his blonde hair and let the strands tickle on her skin. It was amazing how simply feeling the soft texture of his hair made her want to just get on top of him and stroke his head with her cheek. Quickly realizing that the foreign thoughts she was having seemed lewd, she reeled her hand back and leaned away from him. Unfortunately she leaned too far forward and began to fall, but Urahara had fast enough reflexes and held her back by the back of her shorts. His fingers had reached down two or three inches under the hemline of her little jean shorts, and they remained there until he was sure that she wasn't at risk of falling any more. He was pretty sure that she was the first person he had ever heard of that could actually be capable of hurting themself even when sitting on the floor. Kisuke took both of her shoulders and turned her around so she was on her knees facing him. "Ayame... Have you ever felt anything..." he pointed to her chest, right over her heart. "...right here?" He was being bold -he knew he was- but he had to know.

"Felt?"

Urahara frowned; perhaps he was the only one feeling the pulsing in the heart. "Yeah, like... never mind, it's not important."

"Huh? Okay..."

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After a few hours of looking, Yoruichi and the rest of the party goers were ready to just give up on looking for Urahara and the birthday girl. "Damn it! Where are they," she yelled as she slammed her palm on the little table they had set up. "Renji! Did you check the entirenorth side?"

The red-head put his hands up, "I did! Behind every rock!"

"Ururu, you and Jinta check all of the west side, right?"

"Hai," the girl replied quietly.

"Tessai?"

"Everywhere."

"Damn it! He must be using a force field!" Yoruichi realized with pursed lips.

"For hide 'n' seek?" Renji asked.

"Idiot. This was never just hide 'n' seek, what do you think we are? Human?" The feline-like woman sighed; she was beginning to think there was no hope for Renji. "From the beginning this seemed like the simple game, and for Ayame it was, but for us we were going to have a bit more fun. We all used bindings, invisibility, flash stepping; anything. You were just an idiot and didn't think to. Ururu hid behind a fake rock that set an illusion of not being there. Jinta turned into dust and layed low. Tessai knew all the hidden trap doors and went there. Youhid in a tree."

"So where do Urahara and Ayame fall into this?"

"Since we can't find Ayame, we can assume that he found her and took her. They're hiding together."

"Could they have left?"

"No, that wouldn't be fun for Urahara. He's here and probably doesn't want to be found, so he-"

"Wait, does that mean he's trying to get in her pants?"

Whack!After slapping Renji in the back of the head, she continued. "He managed to sneak a force field without her seeing, so he's somewhere in here, but we can't see him. For all we know he could be right next to us."

"So how do we find them?"

"Go around and touch things. This is along the lines of any force field, so we can feel around and if we feel it just right, we'll find a bend."

"That'll take hours!"

"Then get started."

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All Ayame could think at the moment was 'nice'- she was currently leaning on Urahara, who had his left arm around her shoulder. She just loved how much heat he was radiating and how it warmed her where he came in contact with her. "Mmm... Kisuke-kun..."

"Huh?"

Nuzzling her cheek on his shoulder, Ayame breathed in his scent, which was a mixture of deliciousness and Urahara. It was strange how such a rock-hard man could be so soft, with muscles so tight. She was sure that under his skin was strong meat that she couldn't even begin to explain. Curiosity got the best of her, so she lifted her fingers to his shoulder and firmly pressed her fingers to his skin so she could feel the direct brick-quality of his muscles. Next she twisted her body so she could trace her fingers over his pectoral, loving the feel of the tense skin and the way it stretched over tightly. "Kisuke-kun, your skin is so... Is it all like that?"

Laughing to himself, Urahara smirked, "why don't you see for yourself?" Taking the chance, Urahara untied the strings that were in a bow on the right side of his green shirt and then proceeded pull it open to reveal his bare torso. Amazed, Ayame stared at the ground, fully aware of the deep pink blush that was flooding her cheeks. Urahara suddenly got a burst of bravery and lifted her hips and moved her so that she was straddling his lap. Her knees were wrapped around his hips, making her sit on him. Knowing she was about to apologize or something of that nature, Urahara beat her to it. "Ayame-chan, it's alright, go on." When she didn't reply, he took action by holding her hand in his and placing it on his other arm so his hand was on the back of her's, guiding her. "This is my bicep... and my triceps..." He informed, slowly sliding her hand up his arm. "My deltoid..." Next he moved her to his chest where she started to move on her own, but he still kept his hand on her's. While he was sure there was nothing romantic going on, he did recognize that the actions were perhaps the most sensual thing he had ever felt. He watched as Ayame moved down his chest, tracing over the lines of his abdominals, where she started to move her hand all the way to the hem of his pants. It was somewhat erotic how she traced those muscles that made a path strait down into his pants, but naturally she stopped at his hem line. Not that he minded. To end her muscle trip, she traced back up his chest and made her way up his neck, enjoying the dip at the base of his throat. From there she moved her hand to his cheek, which was a bad move if she didn't want to get kissed. Truly, Urahara wanted to kiss her, he wanted her to pull his jaw forward and press her lips to his lips, from there he would then have proceeded to join her mouth with gentle caresses.

While Urahara was contemplating kissing her, Ayame moved her hand up to his hair, where she ran her fingers through his blonde hat-hair. She felt Kisuke's arms snaking around her waist and holding her close -only comforting her further. That's when she saw it; a small one inch long cut on the front of his left trapezius. It was red -bloodred. And it was open enough to show how the skin was broken and a tiny layer of muscle was torn. "K-kisu-"

Suddenly Ayame fell forward on Kisuke's chest, passing out immediately. He was confused at first, but then he remembered that he and Ichigo had trained a few days earlier and the teenager was able to get him close to the neck. She must faint at the sight of anyone's blood, no matter how big or how small. Sighing and shrugging, Urahara relaxed back on the rock behind him and continued to hold her. He was quiteokay with this.

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An hour later, Kisuke's attention was drawn to Ayame's sleeping face because she started to stir. For the past hour Kisuke was listening intently to the cute nothings that the poor girl spoke in slumber; it was easy to just watch the artificial clouds go by and listen in. For a while, he hadn't even noticed that the gibberish she was speaking was actually normal words backwards, that is until he thought about whom 'Ekusik Araharu' could be. Some times after she would say something, he'd sit for minutes trying to figure out what she was saying, like what he was working on now, "em ot laiceps os..." He was sure he'd be able to figure it out after a while, but it was rather difficult. The mind goes through a process of having to configure backwards letters. Japanese was a language with kanji symbols that have more than one meaning, so figuring out both spelling and context verbally, as well as based on memory, was hard. Holding her with one arm, he used his other hand to reach toward the dusty ground and pressed his finger in the light sand. The laziest way to figure it out would be to just write it out. Since Urahara was a smart man, it was easy for him to remember the gibberish phrase. First he wrote it out exactly as she said it, then took it letter by letter and moved them around.

...em ot laiceps os...

... ...

... so special to me ...

'What is so special, Ayame-chan?... What, or who?' He thought to himself as he sorted out the next phrase.

...esrevinu ym...fo...enihsnus...eht...

... ...

... the sunshine of my universe ...

...uretihsia...I taht tsaf os taeb traeh ym ekam...uoy iok Ekusik...

... uretihsia...I taht tsaf os taeb traeh ym ekam...uoy iok Ekusik...

... ... ... ...

... Kisuke-koi you... make my heart beat so fast that I ... aishiteru ...

'These words... Are they for real? Am I really seeing these words together in the same sentence right in front of me? Kisuke? Koi? Heartbeat?... Aishiteru?... This can't be happening... This isn't right!' Suddenly Urahara violently wiped at what he had been working on and stared at the messy dust. 'This isn't right...I mustbe mistaken... Maybe I was listening half-heartedly? Or-'

"Kisuke!" Yoruichi said with a sharp voice as she came out from the other side of the rock he and Ayame were sitting behind. "We've been-" Finally the feline woman noticed his long face and squatted down to his level,"...Are you... 'shiteru'... Kisuke... Could that have perhaps said 'I love you' before you wiped it away?"

"She was talking in her sleep again."

Frowning, Yoruichi shook her head. "If you're thinking you're wrong right now, stop."

And she left it at that.

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"Well, now that that mystery is solved, I suppose we should move on to the next activity," Yoruichi declared, ending the chatter.

"Yeah," Renji mumbled from under his breath, earning a smack to the back of the head from the cat woman. That said woman asked him to 'share with the class' what the next activity was to be. Piñata.

"'Piñata'? What's that?"

The younger redhead, Jinta, grinned a wide and sly grin. "Only the best game ever, idiot! Are you stupid?!"

"J-jinta!" Ururu gasped, appalled.

"What was that, teme?!" The boy then proceeded to pull her into a headlock to give her a nugie.

"Now now, Jinta, let her go," Urahara requested calmly and lightly. When the boy finally did, he began to explain the game to Ayame. "Well, everyone takes turns beating that," he then pointed to point to a paper mache flower hanging from seemingly nowhere. "The trick is, you have to be blind folded, see? And the one who breaks it open gets to see the special surprise first, and then it's a free for all!"

When Urahara ceased to mention what the best part was, Jinta jumped up yelling, "You forgot to say the can-" Before he could get the word out, Urahara quickly covered his mouth with his hand from behind. "Tch kahndur! Tch kahndur!" [The candy! The candy!] After whispering into his ear, Urahara let him go. "Not cool!"

Losing all seriousness, Yoruichi smiled and watched the scene before her. "Ayame-chan, are you ready to try it out? Come here!"

"O-okay," the girl responded nervously as she walked the short five feet to Yoruichi. "What do I do again?"

"Well, first we're going to blindfold you, then we're going to spin you around. Then you can whack away three times!" Twisting her around, Yoruichi placed the blindfold over her lavender eyes and tied the two loose ends in the back. "There!"

In the dark, Ayame felt someone put something long and round in her hands. Next she felt hands on her shoulders, spinning her around, they were large and warm hands, so she was sure it was Urahara. Just as she stopped spinning she heard someone say to start, so she lifted the stick in the air and swung. After swinging and missing three times, Ayame was turned 180 degrees and told to try again. Swingmiss. Swingmiss. Swingmit!

Urahara and the rest of the gang watched shocked as the stick Ayame was wielding came back around and hit her square in the forehead, knocking her to the ground. "And out she goes..."