A/N: Back from vacation, next chapter will be up soon =)

Disclaimer: Me no own Bleach.

Hime Hour

Chapter 10

The rave about the royal couple had mellowed in the past weeks. The engaged pair did not appear on the front page nor the gossip columns.

That was until today's morning papers. In the sports section featured highlights from the Karakura Team at the Annual Kendo competition. There was a large photo of the group with all their medals and trophies. Then at the corner was two small pictures, one very good picture of Ichigo and Rukia looking smart in kendo uniform and holding the trophy proudly. While the other picture featured Ichigo talking to unglamorous Orihime (messy hair, no make up, dressed in dirty gym pants and old tee-shirt). Side by side, one of the two pictures obviously pale in comparison.

"Have you checked up their family background?" the dark haired man folded the newspaper and tossed it on the exquisite coffee table custom made from Southeast Asia.

"Yes Sir. They're just commoners. Her dad owns two convenient stores. Her mum is a housewife. Her brother goes to the same school as her, and they both got in through scholarships. Another thing, her dad got into an accident two days back and is still in the hospital." the servant bowed.

"Is that so?" the dark haired man leaned his chin on one arm with a smirk.

This is going to be interesting.

A group of girls crowded around Tatsuki's desk when the school bell rang.

"I'm starting to feel winter kicking in!" Ryo said while folding a scarf around her neck.

"I've got a solution." Tatsuki flipped to a folded page on the magazine on her desk, next to it lay a large brochure of a beautiful coastal view with white sand and deep green waters.

"Check this out!"

"It looks awesome Tatsuki-chan!!" Orihime's eyes gleam with excitement and clapped her hands in front of her large chest.

"We should so go after our final exams!" Chizuru popped her head between Orihime and Tatsuki exclaimed.

"Yeah, I propose we get away from the cold and soak up the sun, sea, san-"

"And lotsa girls in bikinis!" Chizuru interrupted Tatsuki.

She gave an evil laughter, not noticing the death glare from the dark haired girl on her right and the oblivious auburn haired girl on her left.

"Count me in! Count me in!" an all too excited Keigo yelled.

"Me too." Mizuiro walked up to the girls and Keigo.

The little group broke into enthusiastic murmurs.

"Then let's make it our school trip destination this year."

"I've always wanted to go to Bali!"

"Yeah, we had enough of Europe."

"It's a plan!"

"Shall we go Rukia?" the red haired boy asked.

"Yea, if you want to." She turned to her other three friends. "What about you guys?"

Chad nodded an 'anything'.

Ichigo shrugged a 'whatever'.

While Uryuu pushed his glasses up, meaning 'why not?'

But his friends knew he'd definitely go unless he wanted to get his ass kicked by his feisty girlfriend who planned this trip.

"There you are Ichigo! I knew I'd find you here."

Rukia was wearing a toga dress with a large designer bag over a shoulder. "I knew you'd never forget our secret hang out spot."

Her voice was slurred and she gave him a very unusual smile as she walked towards the crown prince and leaned on him.

Ichigo's eye brows shot skyward and felt his face starting to stain pink but he quickly grabbed onto Rukia when she started slipping off his body.

"You've been drinking!" Ichigo scowled at the raven haired girl and turned to Renji. "How much did she drink? Why did u let her drink?"

Orihime knew Ichigo liked to wear a scowl around. But she had not seen the scowl for some time now, since they were a 'pretend couple' at Renji's party. But at that moment, she had never seen and angrier or nastier scowl than the one Ichigo was giving Renji. Before she knew it, Ichigo carried Rukia bridal style and walked back into the clubhouse, with Renji following wordlessly behind.

Once out of the clubhouse main entrance, Ichigo threw the wasted girl in his arms onto Renji.

"Make sure you send her home safely."

Meanwhile, Orihime was still standing alone on the rooftop under the stars. She sighed helplessly.

'And I actually thought he wanted to kiss me.'

"Owwh-" The princess reached both hands to rub her aching head.

"What are you day dreaming about?" Kisuke kept his fan. "Today is an important day!"

"Hai, gomenasai."

"Remember our lesson?" Yoruichi looked fiercely at the princess.

"Hai, Yoruichi-sensei." The princess smiled while Nanao was busy tying the obi knot on the princess' pink and gold kimono and Nemu was putting on final touch of make up for her.

It was an important day where the royal family visited the shrine to offer prayers. The exception was that the princess was to join them – marking her first formal and public appearance as a part of the royal family.

Orihime fought hard to keep her attention span on the ceremony while enjoying the new experience. But what made her uncomfortable was the cold crowd stare, it seemed to be fixated only on her. She knew she was the centre of attention and only hope she didn't do anything wrong. Keeping her gaze downcast, her cheeks felt flustered and she only hope they didn't look as flustered.

King Isshin and Queen Masaki were very impressed that the day at the shrine went by smoothly without any mishaps despite the princess' usual clumsiness.

At the end of the ceremony, the royal family were escorted to the first black limousine while Ichigo and Orihime were led to the second black limousine.

"Where are we going?" Orihime whispered once the limousine door was closed.

"You'll see." Ichigo merely smirked.

Once the Crown Prince and Princess dressed in traditional kimono stepped out of the vehicle, they were overwhelmed by the surrounding crowd that cheered wildly. Ichigo seemed indifferent. But Orihime felt extremely uncomfortable under public scrutiny, it was all too new to her.

Then she realized they were standing in front of the Ishida Specialist Hospital – to be precise, the hospital owned by Uryuu's dad, where Gin was currently staying at.

"Dad and Mum found out about your dad's accident but they are too busy to visit him…And as you know, it's inconvenient for them to appear at a hospital as the circumstances dictate so instead they've prepared some gifts for your father and sent me as a representative."

"You? But you're the crown prince!"

"I happen to be your 'boyfriend' and we're engaged remember? It's only right that I pay a visit. Come on!"

The two men in black following Ichigo and Orihime presented boxes and baskets of ginseng, herbs, bird's nests and fresh fruits and laid them out on the table once they arrived in Gin's private ward.

"Tousan!" Orihime hurried to her father's bed and sat beside him. "How are you today?"

"My little girl! I saw you at the shrine on the news just now! What brings you here?"

"Do I need a reason to visit my Tousan?" Orihime pouted. "Besides, Ichigo-kun brought gifts from the palace."

Gin nodded to the crown prince.

"Your highness, thank you for your thoughtfulness but you don't have to visit me. I'm sure you have more important affairs to attend to. I feel uncomfortable that you have to make a trip-"

"Inoue-san, please don't stand on ceremony, after all we're going to be one family soon. It's only right that I visit." Ichigo's bold claim caught everyone off guard, including himself.

"Thank you. But the gifts are unnecessary, please have your men take them back."

"There gifts are nothing special, just small and inexpensive goods for daily consumption."

"To you they are cheap but to commoners they are special. Besides, they are bought using tax payers' money, arent' they?"

Ichigo was stunned speechless.

"Wow, ginseng! Thank you Ichigo-san!" the strawberry blonder woman entered the room with her silver haired son. "We don't even sell this grade of ginseng in our stores. I'll cook ginseng chicken for everyone tomorrow!"

"You're welcome."

"Kaasan! Toushiro!"

"Hime! You look so beautiful. Toushiro and I brought dinner from home." Rangiku said while her son set up the table with their dinner.

"Would you like to stay for dinner, Ichigo-kun?" Orihime shyly looked at the orange haired boy.

Ichigo stared at the containers of their so-called-dinner. One had brown rice congee with scallops, the second one had side dishes of pickles, and the third one contained cold tofu. There was also a bottle of red bean paste and a tube of wasabi.

Before he could protest, Rangiku pushed him onto the chair and shoved him a bowl and a pair of chopsticks.

"Itadakimas!"

The crown prince was having fun experimenting a commoner's meal. It wasn't half as bad as he'd imagined. In fact, he quite enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, Gin and Toushiro didn't like the way his eyes lingered on her or how he'd touch her arms, or brush against her back, sometimes he leaned too close to her when he speaks; but when he tugged her stray hair, Gin prepared himself to reach out and slap him… but the loud dance ringing tone startled him.

"Uh, Uryuu? I'm at your dad's hospital. WHAT??"

Ichigo shot up from his seat, leaving the Inoue family in puzzlement.

"I'll be right there!"

He abruptly excused himself and dashed out of the private ward.

"Wait! Ichigo-kun!"

Orihime followed him but due to the restricting kimono she had on she had a hard time keeping up. She saw him take a right turn at the end and hope she would see him by the time she reached that turn.

And saw him she did.

But he wasn't alone. Outside a large special ward stood Uryuu, Renji and Rukia. She saw that Rukia was crying helplessly. It felt weird to see the normally strong girl break down like that.

She slowly approached them, although not knowing if she was welcomed or not.

Ichigo was staring at Rukia with his heart in his eyes, the pain was written all over his face.

That moment, Orihime understood her place and looked away.

She leaned against the wall outside the bathroom.

"I hate feeling like this! Kuchiki-san is my friend. Her sister is seriously ill in the hospital and she is going through so much pain… but here I am, feeling jealous over her! I'm such a horrible person."

The bathroom door opened and her mother stepped out and shook her shoulders.

"No Hime, you're not. Sometimes we can't control our feelings. But isn't it a good thing that you know your own feelings and you're willing to come to terms with it? The fact that you admit you're jealous and know that being jealous is wrong is good enough."

"I believe you're both important to Ichigo-san. So just be yourself, be there for him when he needs you. Let him choose."

Then she tickled her daughter till the latter could not stop laughing.

"Stop Kaa-san! AHA… Stop! Hahahhh.." Orihime rolled on the floor laughing and tearing.

"Now, what say my beautiful and brainy daughter clean those tears away and focus on her upcoming exams?"

"Hai!"

.

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End.

Love,

Blitch out.

foxylove18 – Congratulations you're the winner as the first to say RenKia!! You get lotsa of Ichihime and Renkia cookies. Catch!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to read and review:

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Someone said they only review if the fic is good – I beg to differ.

That's being selfish cos I like to review even when the fic is poor, otherwise the writer will never know his/her mistake. But that's me being a serial-reader/reviewer.

On the other hand it is polite to review when the fic is good to show your appreciation which is a great source of motivation for the writer.

Review to speak your mind.. I don't mind if it's good or bad it's good to hear from you.

But what I don't need are boot lickers, I respect my readers more than that and I'm thankful you've all been honest and kind to me. I've been seeing reviews on other fics that are so obviously "suck ups", or they'd bitch about someone else' work along in that review - which totally pisses me off.

Hey this ain't elementary school, I ain't a teacher, you ain't a pet! Grow up.