-dies of complete shock- Holy crap! Chapter 10! I must say, I am completely proud of myself right now, considering this is the first time in ancient Arisadonna history that I ever reached a tenth chapter. Actually, I must say, before this story, I've never actually gone past Chapter 5 for any story at all. So really, this is a really big accomplishment for me, and I want to thank everyone who has been reading this story up to now. Even if my writing is totally sucking right now, I'm really, really happy that there are those who are sticking with me and are still reading.

So, before I make comments about the story, I wanted to ask a little question to all my readers out there. When you all (or most of you) review this story, if you can, may you please let me in on which of the first 10 chapters of Thirty Kisses have you liked the best and why? You don't have to write a big in-depth essay on why. Just tell me which chapter you liked and whether you liked it because of the style of writing or the events that occurred or something like that. I just want to see overall which time I was doing my best and to try to get back to writing that way, cause I must say, right now, I'm just all over the place with this writing thing. Haha.

Okay, so about this chapter. In this chapter, it's mainly Ryou and Ichigo in a photo booth. Yes, how fun! -giggle fit- I attempted to write this chapter a little bit as I did with Chapter 2, because in MY opinion, I think I did the best writing in that one. Even if what was going on wasn't as exciting as other chapters, I think when it came to the style of writing, that was the best one. That chapter got almost 50 reviews alone too, so it must have been good. o-O I tried to get Ryou's thoughts back into the game, though it's not too much thinking.

This was a fun chapter, really. For inspiration, I had "Photo Booth" by Death Cab For Cutie on repeat. Mid-way though, I listened to a song called "Never Enough" cause I thought it was perfect background music for the kiss scene, but honestly, it's by an unknown artist, which totally upsets me, cause the song is just awesome. Oh, and the photos themselves were inspired by the ones in the credits of "A Lot Like Love."

So, anyway, go ahead and read the chapter, so I can shut up. Enjoy. :D

X. 10

All the slander and double-speak
Were only foolish attempts to show you did not mean
Anything but the blatant proof was
Your lips touching mine in the photo booth.
-'Photo Booth' by Death Cab For Cutie

To be honest, Ryou couldn't remember ever taking a picture in a photo booth in his life. He had never really found much interest in the activity and figured there really wasn't much of a point to take pictures all by himself. And since Ryou was never really the friend-type of guy, well, there wasn't much of a chance of him entering a single photo booth ever.

Well, until now.

He allowed Ichigo to pull him along the street towards the small little room, as he really began to wonder why he had agreed to do anything she wanted. Even if it was all only for one day, he never did like having anyone be the boss of him. Especially not Ichigo. After all, he was supposed to be bossing her around.

"I am not going in there," he protested, even though he did not make any sudden move to stop her from pushing him inside.

The photo booth was quite crowded. When Ichigo attempted to sit down, she was half in mid-air and half on top of Ryou's lap. Ryou groaned, attempting to move aside to give her room, but the shift only made him even more uncomfortable, and Ichigo still could not fit in the seat beside him.

"You just had to choose a small photo booth, didn't you?" He asked, though he wasn't looking for a reply as he watched her stand up half-way, attempting to find a solution to their seating difficulty. Ryou sighed, finally giving in as he made himself comfortable in the seat, though he knew it wouldn't last long. "Just sit."

Ichigo bit her lip and again sat half on his lap, though attempted to move to the side as much as possible. "Are you sure you're alright with this?" She tried to hold back a giggle, already seeing the discomfort in his face expression.

Ryou simply rolled his eyes, looking away from her. "You are pretty heavy."

She pouted, jabbing a finger on his shoulder. "Hey! That was uncalled for!"

"Was it, really?"

Actually, it wasn't. When didn't Ryou have some sort of complaint and comment about Ichigo's weight? It had always been a factor since the day of their very first meeting up in a tree about a year ago. "Oh, whatever. You're gonna have to pay for this though."

Ryou squinted his eyes, slightly confused. Then he realized she wasn't talking about the comment, but about the photo booth. He groaned, before glaring at her. "This was your idea, yet you still want me to pay for it? That's a tad bit unfair, don't you think, Ichigo?"

He could tell with her nervous smile that she didn't think it was unfair. Nothing was really unfair to her when things were at the expense of Ryou; why would they be? He gave yet another sigh, once again giving in, as he attempted to reach into his pocket for some change. However, with Ichigo semi-on top of him, this attempt was quite a difficult action to do.

He tried to adjust his body so that he could fit his hand in his pocket to grab the money, but in the process, accidently lifted a leg up, kicking Ichigo in the shin. "Oww!" She screamed out, jumping slightly, accidently hitting Ryou in the side of his head with her elbow. Ryou winced, wanting to lift his right hand up to rub his head, but it was stuck between the back wall and Ichigo's back.

This was really uncomfortable.

"When we get out of here, I will most likely end up killing you for this," he said, finally pulling out a bit of yen from this pocket. "Darn it, Ichigo! You elbowed my head!"

"And you kicked my leg!" She shot back, holding her arms up against the walls to try and balance herself. "If you're so annoyed by this, you could try to speed it up a little, so we can finish up and get out of here. Why are you going so slow, anyway?"

It was the second time that day he wished for a gun. And this time, he really did want to shoot her. Even if her ghost came back to haunt him not long afterwards, at least she wouldn't be physically hurting him right now. She may not have been as heavy as Ryou tended to complain, but she still had him in an extremely awkward and uncomfortable position right then and there. He couldn't exactly feel his left leg at the moment, not with Ichigo's weight upon it.

He inserted the coins into the slots and waited. As he stared through the glass in front of him, Ichigo poked him gently with her elbow. "Come on, Ryou, smile!" She said to him, just as the flash went off. So much for that picture. Just as he was preparing himself for the next pose–preparing, as in contemplating whether he should just put on his normal face and risk looking stupid again or put on a smile and most likely still look stupid–Ichigo leaned down and pressed her lips against his cheek.

Ryou's face color changed to a light shade of red, as the flash went off unexpectedly yet again. Ichigo just giggled, looking over at him. "Ichigo!" He wasn't sure what he was actually upset about: the fact that Ichigo kissed his cheek without notice during the picture or the fact that she had actually made him blush unexpectedly? Ryou was definitely not one to start blushing. Actually, he was beginning to realize that he wasn't one to do a lot of things, yet here Ichigo was changing all of that.

"Hey, what's the point of taking pictures if you're just gonna sit there and look boring?" She asked, nudging him lightly with her shoulder, looking at him, waiting for him to do something. Instead, he just turned his head and stared at her blankly just as another flash went off. She frowned. "That was the worst picture pose ever!"

Ah well. Ryou was never the picture-taking guy anyway. He wasn't the type to pose and put on a big smile to snap a photo. Well, not anymore anyway. In truth, Ryou hadn't taken an actual happy photo in about, hmm, possibly six or seven years now. It had been a while. "Are we done yet?" he asked, wanting to get out of the tiny space already so he could feel his two legs again. Oh, the feeling of comfort, how he missed it.

"Oh, nuh-uh! One picture left! And you have to smile!" She ordered, pinching his nose. Instead of listening to her demand, he pinched her nose back. "Hey!" She nudged him with her elbow, and attempt to tickle his stomach. He wasn't ticklish there, but Ryou couldn't help but snicker at her attempts, slightly putting on a smile. Feeling as though she had accomplished what she had been trying to do, she smiled just as the final flash went off.

"Okay, so we're done, right?" He asked, relieved that he could finally be able to feel some freedom again. He watched as she waited for the pictures to develop. When she picked them up, he frowned as she shook her head. "What now, Ichigo?"

"Nope, we have to do it again. Look at you, you look so dumb in these pictures!" She said, holding them up to his face for him to see.

She was sort of right. The first image, Ichigo had come out quite pretty with her smile, but he looked pretty dumb, looking as if he didn't even know what was going on. In the second image, it did, however, manage to catch him looking dumb-struck, blushing from the kiss on the cheek she had given him. The third image was pretty humorous, because it captured Ichigo pouting and looking quite upset at him, something he quite enjoyed seeing at the time. He found the last image interesting, seeing as how they were both smiling. In fact, he actually kind of liked that one.

"They're not that bad," he said, not really wanting to take more pictures. He just wanted to get out of that booth. Right now.

"Nope," she stated, bringing his hopes down. "Look, you could keep that set, and we could take another one for me to keep. Because one way or another, we are going to have you take some decent pictures, mister." He didn't get why she wasn't just satisfied with that final image. Wasn't it decent enough? He didn't admit though that he kind of liked the fact that he'd get to keep the pictures. After all, he hadn't take normal pictures in some years now and he liked that these were with Ichigo.

But he wasn't planning to show her his feelings towards that and just grumbled, pulling out more change from his pocket. "This better be quick. I do not want to sit here a second longer with your big butt squishing me to death." Big butt? Whoa, Ryou.

"What?!" She shouted, quite surprised at his comment. "Hey, I ... I do not have a big butt!" She whined, pouting again.

He just shook his head, putting the change into the machine. "I am not having this argument, Ichigo." She continued to whine about something, though he couldn't quite catch her words clearly since she was mumbling everything she was saying. Annoying, whiney Ichigo was back. "You want me to start tickling you again?" He asked, but she wasn't quite listening as she continued to whine.

So, he tickled her. And as expected, she began laughing, not being able to hold back. The first flash went off, just as she tried to keep his arms away. "Ryou, stop!" She shouted, though it wasn't as though that could actually do much, considering he kept on. Instead, he leaned over as she continue to giggle, and kissed her cheek just as the next flash went off.

He finally let her go, and watched her as she managed to stop laughing. She looked up at him for a moment and bit her lip nervously, as Ryou just stared at her. There was another flash, but Ryou ignored it. He leaned over and kissed her mouth, pulling her closer to him.

The final flash came about a little less than a minute later, and Ichigo broke the kiss, looking away from him. None of them said anything for a long moment. Even Ryou didn't give any of his snide comments and remained quiet. Finally, Ichigo spoke up, although she didn't look back to him. "You've kissed me ten times already."

Ryou nodded. "Yup."

"That's a lot."

He nodded again. "Yup."

"You're like ... a third done."

Another nod. "Yup."

"Can you say anything besides 'yup'?" She asked, blinking repeatedly.

Ryou smirked. "Nope."

Ichigo broke into a smile, finally looking back at him. "You are the source of all evil, you know that."

"Thanks for the compliment," he replied. Every time he kissed her, things always seemed to become awkward between the two. True, it was an odd thing that Ryou was kissing her so many times in a day, but it was a bet; that was the whole point. Still, somehow, things always turned out weird afterwards, as if it was really surprising that he'd actually do such a thing, even though it was expected. Still, it was all for the sake of winning the bet. That, and his feelings for Ichigo, of course.

Ichigo watched as the developed strip came out and she grabbed it, pulling it up to her face to get a better look. She didn't frown this time–much to Ryou's relief–and bit her lip, nodding. "These are a lot better, I guess." She turned the strip for him to see.

The first image was of himself tickling Ichigo. She was in mid-laugh, attempting to get away from him, as he tickled her with a smile on his face. He blinked, not really remembering the smile, but looked down at the next picture. In this one, he was kissing Ichigo's cheek, and unlike when she had done the same to him, she didn't look confused or surprised and seemed to be giggling, most likely still from the tickling. In the third photo, they were just staring at one another, neither smiling nor frowning; just staring. And then it was down to the final photo: the kiss.

It was strange looking at a photo of himself kissing Ichigo. He had already kissed her several times, but this was the first time he actually saw what it looked like. Looking at the picture, he seemed to finally figure out why they had always become awkward afterwards.

It wasn't just a casual, meaningless kiss. It was real. It was powerful. Everything Ryou felt for her was in that kiss, and just by looking at the photo, it was obvious to see what his feelings were. There was a difference between kissing someone you loved and kissing someone you didn't. And the photo showed that it was definitely the former. It made Ryou wonder, if maybe she had figured out his feelings. "Ichigo?"

She blinked, looking over at him. "Huh?"

He looked at her for a moment, lost in thought. If she had known, why hadn't she said something by now? Or maybe she didn't know. Maybe Ichigo was as dense as she proved to be. He sighed, shaking his head. "Nothing. It's nothing," he said, handing her back the strip. "May we get out of here now? I can't feel my legs anymore."

"Oh! Right!" Ichigo pulled back the curtain of the photo booth and stood up, stepping outside. Already, Ryou felt so amazed as the life return to his legs and he felt even better when he stepped out of the booth. He sighed in great relief, as he stretched his legs. "Feeling better?" Ichigo asked, with a giggle.

Ryou glared, crossing his arms. "I am never getting into a photo booth with you ever again. I mean it, Ichigo. Those were probably the worst fifteen minutes of my life ever." He obviously didn't mean it. There had been much worse experiences in his life and though he was really uncomfortable in there, the photo booth experience was not one of them. Still, if he ever did have to enter another photo booth, he would make sure it was twice as big as the one he had just been in.

"It wasn't all that bad," she said, though what did she know? After all, she was the one sitting comfortably on his leg, while he completely lost his ability to move. Then that made him wonder. Was his leg a comfortable place to sit on? He shook the thought out of his head, realizing that that wasn't really the point at the moment. "What are you complaining about? You got to make out with a girl in a photobooth," she pointed out, causing him to blush slightly.

Ryou gave a short laugh, as he tried to hide the red from his face. It was a bit odd to hear Ichigo say something like that, but it wasn't really something to blush about. Still, it just sort of popped out of nowhere, which had caught him off guard. "I thought we weren't making out, Ichigo."

"We weren't," she admitted, doing that thing where she contradicted everything she said. "But it is fun to see you get all red over something so silly." She laughed.

Right, glad to see she was enjoying herself. "Did you know that when you start speaking, all I hear is an annoying high-pitched sound that just makes me want to shoot myself? It's like an awful eeeee sound, and it just keeps ringing in my ears," he said, rubbing his ear to prove a point.

"Oh, come on, that's–"

"Wait, there it is again! It's going eeeee. Gosh, that's so ... so ... " he trailed off, not bothering to finish his statement, as he just began walking away. Getting Ichigo back, plus changing the conversation: success. It was Ryou's job to do the teasing, and Ichigo couldn't just go ahead and take that from him.

Ichigo followed him. "You really are the source of all evil."

"And you really should stop repeating yourself. It's worse than the high-pitched noises."

Ryou could never quite figure out why he liked picking on Ichigo so much. It wasn't as if he was like that with everybody, because he wasn't; it was only with Ichigo. Maybe he was like a little boy in kindergarten with a crush, chasing her around, pushing her into the mud. Although instead of screaming and accusing him of having cooties, well, she'd whine a little and just give in if he kissed her. Really, it was a lot easier than kindergarten in that sense.

Although, of course, kindergarten boys really didn't have to worry so much about confessions as he had to right now. Then again, he wasn't planning on confessing. Not anytime soon, anyway.

It's not as if she was making it any easier for him anyway. After all, he had practically sang her a love song, something very un-Ryou-like and she still hadn't gotten it. Then there was the minor detail that he made a bet that he could kiss her thirty times in a single day. If she couldn't read between those lines, then maybe something really was wrong with her.

Then again, there was the possibility that she might have figured it out already, but hadn't said a word. Maybe she didn't care. Nah. If she knew, she would have yelled at him and maybe have thrown a few things here and there, since she absolutely enjoyed using inanimate objects to bring him pain.

"I do not make high-pitched noises!" She complained. Maybe this had been a bad idea. After all, she was getting into that whiney mode again, which really did sound high-pitched. It was a tough choice: Ichigo teasing or Ichigo whining? On a scale, they were pretty equal. But maybe the whining was the lesser of two evils. At least with that, he wasn't getting himself embarrassed.

He tried to make another point by putting a finger in each ear in order to block out her sound. "Indeed, you do, Ichigo," he muttered. He was walking ahead, but really, he had no idea where he was going. They hadn't decided on another destination, after all. Maybe if he was lucky, their "day of fun" was over right then and there.

"Oh! I know a great place to go to next!" Dammit. "It's right over that way. Follow!" Well, he couldn't exactly plan the celebration party just yet, but at least she wasn't a) teasing or b) whining. However, now she was just being c) too darn giddy, and that, at times, was a headache too. It was a wonder that with how many things about her that annoyed him, how he still managed to be so crazy about her.

Maybe psychiatric help was the answer.

He crossed his arms, so she wouldn't grab one to drag, which would end up cutting off his circulation since she had the tendency to grab on tightly. "Don't you ever just get tired? How the heck do you let out so much energy in one day that should take you about a month to use up?"

"What about you? How do you live life not being energetic enough? You're like a robot." Robot. Hmm, what a nice similie. "The only time you use any energy at all is to pick on me, and even then, it doesn't seem like it takes much out of you."

"So, you're saying I should be like you?"

Ichigo thought about that for a moment. "Hey! That's a good idea!" Erm, what? "We should try that and see how it works out. You can try being like me, and I can try being like you."

Ryou already had an answer, but he just needed a moment to laugh in his head about the silliness of her idea. "You're on a row today, Einstein. These things you come up with are just so remarkable," he noted, sarcastically.

"Hey! It's an awesome idea! Watch." She cleared her throat. "Yo, Ichi, you're a nonsensical, imbecilic, lethargic dunce."

He snickered. "I do not sound like that. Although you got that dunce part down. Where'd you learn all of those big words, Ichigo? Finally using that thing in your head which we like to call a mind?"

"You're a jerk."

"And how many times have you said it? You know, being you shouldn't be so hard. I just have to repeat everything I say, repeat everything I say."

"Hey!"

He coughed. "Hey!" He shouted back, in a higher-pitched voice. This wasn't so bad. After all, he was running out of ways to annoy her, since he's used pretty much every idea that's come to mind. Now he could just mimic her annoying habits to throw them back at her. It didn't seem too hard either.

Yup. Time to be an idiot.

-End, Part X.

Another chapter, another dollar. :D If only that were true; I could use the money. Anyway! I've managed to complete one third of Thirty Kisses, and I am darn proud! WHOO! Again, thanks to everyone who's been reading up until now. I'm actually glad I got this far before it became a year since the posting of this story. Hopefully, I can finish the entire story before the end of 2007, too. That'd be an even bigger accomplishment, eh?

So what are your opinions on this chapter? I have to say, it's a lot better than the past chapter. I'm glad you all liked chapter 9, even if I wasn't feeling too great about it, and hopefully, you all liked this one as well. I think you might, considering you all actually liked the crappy chapter (or you were all just being nice, who knows?). Also, don't ask me what is up with this whole Ryou-and-Ichi-acting-like-each-other thing. Yeah, I have no idea. I needed an extra thousand words to finish this chapter, and that's where it ended up. So, yeah. o-O

Like I said before, I had "Photo Booth" on repeat while I wrote this chapter. And because it took so darn long to write, I must have heard that thing 60+ times already. No worries, though. I still love Death Cab very much. :D The photo booth idea didn't turn out so bad. Let me know what you thought about it. No hints for upcoming chapters this time around though. Not cause I'm mean. Cause I don't really have much of an idea just yet. :O No worries. I'll think of something! Bwahahaha!

CLIFF-HANGING TIME! BOO-YAH! Hey, maybe THIS was actually the longest author's notes thinger ever. Hmm. Anyway ... WHAT was I thinking when I wrote that junk about Ryou and Ichigo acting like one another? WHEN will I get some good ideas running through my mind again? WHO loves taking pictures in photo booths? (Is it fun? I've never been in one before. GASP!) WHY am I using Dr. Cox from the television show, Scrubs, as my new inspiration for Ryou's lines? WHERE is my mommy and the cupcakes?! Erm ... I mean ... WHERE is Carmen Sandiego? I should try buying some of her computer games. They seem like fun. :D ANYHOO! Find out in the next chapter of Thirty Kisses!

... Fear the writer's block. o-O