Kiss

"Ichigo, have you ever kissed anybody before?" Rukia asks him suddenly as he's reading his book. Ichigo sets down his book and blushes at that question.

"Why do you want to know that?" He asks her nervously.

"I was remembering that time that Kon used your body to kiss Inoue and Tatsuki, and I was wondering if you have ever kissed yourself." Rukia explains as she pins him with a serious stare.

"I don't really want to talk about kissing." Ichigo tells her, a bit embarrassed that she'd ask about his lack of experience. Rukia doesn't like that answer and she jumps and lands in a sitting position on Ichigo's stomach. The air rushes out of his lungs unexpectedly at that.

"Answer my question, fool." Rukia tells him in a smug voice. Ichigo glares up at her.

"No. I haven't ever kissed anybody. Are you happy now?" Ichigo asks her, even though he's embarrassed. Rukia gets off of him slowly and walks over to the closet before she climbs in and gives him a happy grin.

"I'm glad." Rukia tells him, before she slides the door shut, causing Ichigo to sit there staring at the door for awhile. Why had she smiled like that?

Ichigo suddenly worries that maybe she's figured out that the only girl he wants to kiss is the one that's so close to him, and yet always seems so unreachable. He sighs and picks his book back up, even though he has a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that he can't ignore.

I want to kiss Rukia.

Ichigo blushes at that thought. He's been tempted before to try and kiss her but he's always chickened out.

Now that she's asked him this question though, it's all he can think about.

He wonders what it would feel like to hold her in his arms, and to feel her lips pressing against his own. He's sure it would feel so right and perfect, but he's also afraid of what it would mean if he kissed her. After all, she's a noble in Soul Society.

Sure, she might have acted like a kiss was no big deal when Kon was in his body doing it, but he suspects she acted like that to try and calm him down. She certainly has never greeted him with a kiss, as though it were no big deal.

No she's greeted me with a kick in the face before, that was right before she hopped on my back, even though she had her Shinigami powers back and made me kill a hollow to help me get back my resolve.

Ichigo knows she is the reason he's been able to obtain some happiness with his life, and to come to grips with his mother's death. He can never thank her enough for the privilege that she had bestowed upon him when she had first given him her own Shinigami powers.

He falls into a restless sleep that night, and the next day, Rukia spends the next day acting like she never asked him about his history with kissing the night before. Of course, it's all Ichigo can think about when his eyes rest on her, but he doesn't dare tell her that.

He hates how one little question from her can bug him for a full day after the fact, and he's pretty sure it will still bug him the next day, and probably the day after that.

Once again, it's later in the evening, and Ichigo is reading when Rukia appears in front of him again. Ichigo slowly puts down the book and gives her a suspicious look.

"What?" Ichigo asks her, nervous since what she'd asked the night before had been so embarrassing.

"Has there ever been a girl you wanted to kiss, and didn't?" Rukia asks him tonight. Ichigo turns away from her.

"None of your business." Ichigo replies in a quiet voice. No way will he admit he's been imagining what it would be like to kiss her.

"Since it's none of my business, I should probably take that to mean that you've never felt the desire to kiss me." Rukia says in a clearly sad voice. Ichigo turns around.

"What would make you say that?" Ichigo asks as he feels bad for upsetting her.

"Because it would be my business if you had thought about doing it with me, wouldn't it?" Rukia asks him sadly.

"No, it still wouldn't be your business, my thoughts are private." Ichigo explains softly, even as he stares at her inviting lips.

"Would you still say that even if you knew that telling me would result in me kissing you?" Rukia asks him next. Ichigo swallows audibly as he stares up into her big blue eyes. He doesn't know how to answer her.

"I don't know." Ichigo finally says, since he can't think straight with all of this talk about kissing. No matter what she may think, he's still a teenage boy.

"Please let me know when you do know." Rukia says before climbing into his closet.

He stares at it.

She made it sound like she does want to kiss me. I want to kiss her too. If we do though, how will that change things?

Ichigo falls into a restless sleep, once again.

Rukia lays in the closet feeling irritated. She had practically told him that she wants to kiss him, and he had stared up at her with such a shocked expression.

Rukia doesn't know what to make of it. For a long time now, she's imagined what it would be like to kiss him, and to run her fingers through his bright orange hair.

She's been thinking about it so much that she's not sure how much longer she can go without trying to kiss him. She wants him to want her to kiss him though, which makes it that much harder.

He had acted like he was a bit afraid when she had confronted him about kissing the past two nights, but she knows it isn't all that uncommon for teenagers to have done such things. She's done her studying, she knows most sixteen year old boys have at least thought about kissing a girl. Many of them have already gone as far as to have sex at sixteen, or even younger according to Rukia's data.

The next day, after school, Rukia and Ichigo don't talk much. Ichigo keeps giving her strange looks though, and Rukia notices them. She doesn't know quite how to handle his uneasiness, and so she decides to finally break the ice and just be honest with him. She walks into his bedroom after his sisters have gone to bed and he looks up at her with a bit of worry showing on his face.

"Ichigo." Rukia says, and Ichigo meets her gaze.

"What?" Ichigo asks worried what she'll say next.

"I'm afraid I can't go another day without kissing you. If that bothers you, I can start staying at Inoue's apartment with her instead of here with you." Rukia says to him softly with a bit of a blush. "Inoue said that I could if I wanted to." She adds.

Ichigo swallows and looks up at her. He knows she doesn't really want to go to Inoue's, and he doesn't want her to go either.

"I don't want you to leave. I want you to come here." Ichigo says with red cheeks. Rukia sits down next to him on the bed.

"Ichigo?" Rukia asks with sudden nervousness from the warmth in his eyes.

"If I had known you wanted to kiss me, I'd have kissed you a long time ago." Ichigo whispers before he leans over and kisses her. Rukia responds enthusiastically and when they pull away from each other, they're both very breathless. They both can only stare into each other's eyes for a minute before Rukia can finally speak.

"I'm going to want a lot of those everyday from now on." Rukia says bossily.

"Me too." Ichigo says, before leaning in to kiss her again.