'O-kay!' Yoruichi pepped herself up as she scrolled down her To Do list in her iPhone. 'I need to finish up the layout for the new page, contact Yumichika, get that article from Ikkaku, finally start on the cover page and…'

She was so engrossed in her thoughts as she walked briskly down the sidewalk that she didn't notice she was heading into a group of joggers.

'Watch out!' one of them yelled. She quickly looked up and squawked in surprise as she was ambushed. She tried her level best to dodge all of them and as she stumbled out, she angrily rounded on them with her hands raised in a 'what the hell?' way. But as she regained her balance, she accidentally bumped into someone else.

She wiped around angrily, ready to grill the next person who got in her way when she froze midway to see that it was a little girl. The caramel-headed child was staring miserably at a cone of ice cream on the sidewalk and Yoruichi realized that it must be hers.

She lifted the glasses to perch it on her head as she crouched down to the watery-eyed girl's level.

'Hey, I'm sorry I dropped your ice cream,' she apologized. The girl still looked pretty heartbroken and Yoruichi was starting to feel her pain. After all, dropping one's ice cream was a tragedy! 'Tell you what? Let me buy you another one!'

The girl suddenly looked at her, wide-eyed. She began to chew her lower lip in thought.

'Please? Pretty please?' Yoruichi asked sweetly. The girl broke out into a shy smile.

'Alright,' she whispered.

'What's your name?' Yoruichi asked as they strolled up to the ice cream truck, the little girl clutching Yoruichi's hand.

'I'm Yuzu! What's yours?' the girl asked cheerfully, her previous sadness forgotten.

'My name is Yoruichi,' Yoruichi answered warmly as she took the ice cream sundae from the ice cream man to hand it to Yuzu.

'Thank you!' the spritely little girl chirped as she skipped away.

Yoruichi paid the man and watched Yuzu bounce all the way to a bench that overlooked the park lake. Probably her father. Yuzu gesticulated to the ice cream and then pointed at Yoruichi. The man turned around and Yoruichi gasped in shock. It was Ichigo!

Ichigo grinned at her and waved. She waved back, her heart fluttering in a weird way. She'd never felt like this before. But she sort of liked it.

'I didn't know you were married,' Yoruichi mused as the two of them now walked around the park together.

'I was,' Ichigo answered. 'She's no longer with us.'

'Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bring it up like-!' Yoruichi rushed to apologize. Ichigo looked at her in confusion before he realized what she was getting at.

'No, no, she didn't pass away!' Ichigo laughed. 'She's with someone else I mean.'

'Oh,' Yoruichi said in embarrassment, trying to hide the blush trying to cloud her cheeks. 'Sorry.'

'It's okay. We all make mistakes,' Ichigo sighed. 'After my wife left us I called my mother to help. At that moment, I really needed her. But then, she too left us.'

'With who!' Yoruichi said in shock. Ichigo burst out laughing and pointed to the sky. This time Yoruichi couldn't hold in her blush.

'Sorry,' she mumbled again and cast her eyes to the ground.

Ichigo hooked his finger under her chin and lifted her head up so he could gaze into her eyes. Yoruichi inhaled sharply. It was getting harder to breathe with him so close like this. His warm chocolate eyes seemed to be engulfing her in their depths, pulling her in like she had no choice but to fall deep into them. But she was letting him do it. She was tired of fighting. For once, she wanted to fall so that she could be caught by someone who really, truly cared about her.

'Dadddyyy!' Yuzu trilled as she came barreling towards them. 'I want more ice cream, please!'

'More ice cream? Haven't you had enough?' Ichigo laughed as he lifted her into his arms and started walking towards the ice cream truck. 'I'll see you around, Yoruichi.'

'Um, yeah, you too,' Yoruichi murmured as she absentmindedly pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, her mind still flashing those hypnotic brown eyes again and again like a mantra.

'Ugh!' Shiro said in disgust as he shifted a test tube tray into a drawer. 'I hate getting stuck sorting out urine samples. Why did I sign up for this again?'

'Oh nurse!' a silver-haired, voluptuous doctor uttered as she stood in the doorway to the room, her eyes lidded seductively. 'I need some help doing a patient's file. Do you think I can count on you?'

He grinned mischievously.

'Sure thing, Doctor Isane,' he answered. She winked and walked off. He sighed dreamily. Oh yeah, that's why.

His phone suddenly vibrated in his pant pocket. He fished it out while placing another tray of samples into the drawer.

'Hi, Shiro, Grimmjow here,' said a familiar husky voice on the other end.

'Hi, sweetheart!' Shiro gushed and grinned as he imagined Grimmjow's face. He knew there was no one around but it didn't stop him from acting all lovey dovey gay with Grimmjow. Probably because he knew it pissed the bluenette off even though he held his tongue. Plus Shiro kinda enjoyed it himself though he'd never admit it to Grimmjow.

'Anyway, guess what? I just got hired for this major photo shoot and I need to fly out to Philadelphia today so I'll be back until tomorrow, okay?'

'You're leaving?' Shiro said in mock horror. 'Please, don't leave me! I'd simply die without you!'

'Ha ha,' Grimmjow answered and one could tell from his tone that he was rolling his eyes. 'Anyways, I couldn't get through to Yoruichi so tell her too. Bye.'

'Bye! I'll miss you, jiggly poo!' Shiro cooed before he shut the phone, sniggering to himself. Then, he stared at the phone for a minute, mulling over a thought. Should he do it?

Then, smiling once more, he dialed a number and placed his cell to his ear, finally closing the drawer.

'Hello, I'd like to talk to Yoruichi Shihoin please…'

'It's a surprise, Yoruichi! Can't you be patient?' Shiro sighed as he opened the taxi door for her, seeing as he had, after all, blindfolded her to keep true to the element of surprise.

'I still could have done without the blindfold, Shiro,' she grumbled and grasped his hand to help get her out of the taxi. He rolled his eyes.

'Ready?' he whispered in her ear.

'Yes, please!' she said in exasperation, still wearing the blindfold although she could have ripped it off a long time ago.

But she didn't want to ruin things for Shiro. After all, he went through the trouble telling her to dress nicely (she wore her chiffon violet dress with the black flower embroidery and spaghetti straps), getting a taxi to drive them to God knows where and also covering her eyes for the grand 'surprise'. And to top it, he insisted that they go tonight. So this surprise must be something spectacular. Too bad she hated waiting.

He finally removed the blindfold and Yoruichi eagerly opened her eyes only to see pitch black. She rounded on Shiro in confusion.

'Wha-!' she began but he turned her around to face the darkness again.

'And three, two, one,' he murmured. Right when he said 'one' the lights began to turn on one by one on a ferris wheel, a roller coaster, dodge 'em cars and so many other rides. Yoruichi's jaw dropped. He'd brought her to a carnival. But…carnivals didn't stay open till this late at night! How did he-!

'Surprise,' he mumbled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

Her curtain of hair swung forward as she twirled around to face him, a look of shock and amusement written all over her.

'It's all yours,' he continued. Her eyes widened. 'What do you want to do first?'

'Oh, Shiro this is wonderful! Thank you!' she gushed and hugged him tightly. She let go and grinned. 'Let's go on the merry-go-round first!'

He just grinned back and followed the elated woman to the ride.

'That was so much fun! I can't believe you don't like roller coasters! Those are the best!' Yoruichi exclaimed as the two of them sat on a bench, looking at the carnival alighted in different neon lights. It looked beautiful against the pitch black blanket that was the sky.

'I have my…reasons!' Shiro argued. Yoruichi laughed. He smiled benignly. 'I got something for you.'

She stared incredulously at him. There were more surprises?

'So that when you're like…90 years old,' he mused. 'Your looks are gone, you can barely see anything, you can barely hear anything and all you can eat is tapioca from a jar-!'

'Get on with it!' Yoruichi stated as she smacked his forearm. He rubbed it in mock hurt while still grinning like a moron.

'So that is when this…' he pulls out a beautifully decorated box, '…will come in handy.'

She rolled her eyes and opened the present. For the second time that day, her heart almost stopped. In the present lay an exquisitely leather bound book with a picture of Shiro and Yoruichi plastered on the cover.

'In here are all our memories, all our moments together,' he continued. 'They first time you made food for me…' they stopped at a picture of Shiro eating a bowl of something and Yoruichi watching him with a smile on her face, '…I ate all of it. Along with something else afterwards.'

'What?'

'Pepto-bismol.'

'SHIRO!'

'Whaat? You weren't that good on your first try!'

They both laughed and flipped through a few more pages. They stopped at one where the two of them were on a dock and Shiro was pointing something out.

'First time we went for a walk and I pointed out the sunset,' Shiro murmured.

'I remember that,' she murmured back and turned the page. She pointed at the photo. 'Oh, look! That day when it rained! We look so funny posing like weird macho men!'

'Grimmjow was too scared to join us,' Shiro laughed. She joined in.

'The next photo is my favourite,' he uttered once they stopped. Her smile widened but immediately vanished when she saw that the page was empty.

'Shiro, where-' she began when he pulled out a camera. Her eyes widened and then softened, touched by his action. 'Oh, Shiro!'

They leaned in together as he snapped a photo. Being one of those fast developing cameras, the photo came out immediately and Shiro handed it to her. She smiled gratefully and shook it slightly until the image faded into view.

'You're the best, Shiro,' she whispered and pressed the photo onto the empty page before turning to him to hug him. 'Thank you.'

He hugged her back, really soaking in the moment. This was perfect. Yoruichi was going to realize that he's an amazing guy and will want to be with him. Then with Grimmjow out of the picture, everything would be perfect. Just like it was supposed to be.

Or is it? 0.o

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while but I finally got down to it and I will update HOPEFULLY next week! We've only reached halfway through the story so don't worry there is plenty more drama to go so stay tuned! Love you guys for all the reviews! They make my day!