A comfortable silence had surrounded them during their breakfast. It wasn't because they were too embarrassed to talk, the food just deserved to be enjoyed to the fullest.

"This is probably the best thing I've ever had." Rukia stared at the now empty plate in front of her, awestruck, breaking their silence. It was just – the homemade food here required to be commemorated. It was as if it took you to another world, to escape the present just for a bit – a little like daydreaming.

"And that is the best compliment one can get."

The owner had returned out of nowhere and was suddenly standing next to their table. She started collecting their plates with an infectious smile: "I am happy you liked it."

Rukia nodded politely: "Thank you for the recommendation."

"Oh, don't thank me. You should thank Ichigo." The woman glanced over to the high schooler: "His whole family loves these bagels, even long before he was even born." She gave Rukia a wink: "But apart from that… you looked as if you might like strawberries." And then she was gone.

A repressed laugh came from Ichigo who had just managed not to drink his lemonade through his nose.

"Hey, what's so funny?!" Rukia had turned to face him a little sourly. Although she had to admit she was kind of relieved by his reaction – at least he wouldn't be able to tell if she had blushed of shame or with anger. She examined him for a moment when suddenly enlightenment hit her: "Oh, I see. So you're family really loved this dish even before you were born?" A teasing smile formed on her lips: "Be honest, Ichigo. These bagels are the real reason your parents decided to name you Ichigo."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow wearing his usual scowl but still a little amused: "Very funny."

Rukia pointed her index finger in his direction: "But you have to admit that would make for a nice story!"

He leaned back in his chair acting indifferent and scratched the back of his head, his voice a little too sarcastic: "Oh, yeah, I agree! I think my parents were sitting here on their first date, sharing those strawberry bagels and then my Mom suddenly said something like 'Let's name our first child Ichigo.' Yeah, I guess that's what must have happened." When there was no verbal reaction coming from Rukia he cautiously looked over to her from the corner of an eye, the stand-up-comedy atmosphere gone. She was staring at him… Shocked? Surprised? Bewildered? He couldn't really read her. "Did… I say something wrong? … Sorry, but I thought that was… funny?"

Her mouth moved when she spoke but everything else remained static: "Your parents were here on their first date? So this is what the woman meant with 'family tradition'?"

Oh. This tiny information might have involuntarily slipped him. That explained her reaction. Ichigo swallowed, clearing his throat and then stated rather dryly: "Well, yeah. Kind of."

"Ha!" A stunned sound left her mouth. "So that's the reason you took me here. Now, that's a smart move! Didn't know you could pull off something like that!" Her honest admiration was followed by a hint of cynical irony: "So, when did you intend to tell me? That this is indeed a date to you."

"It's not…" He placed a hand on his forehead, pondering, than he looked back to Rukia. He obviously owed her an explanation: "I've already told you. For today it doesn't matter what this is." Ichigo had just wanted to have a single day where everything could be alright between them again, only one day without having to constantly ask himself what this was all about. Yes, indeed, he had gone too far. But this place somehow made him tell her things he wouldn't have told her otherwise. He sighed internally. It was far from normal, far from comfortable and his mind was just all over the place. He wanted things to be back to normal with Rukia on the one hand, but on the other hand he wanted her to know how he felt – he was just unable to do so without being or acting awkward.

"Ichigo, tell me the truth." Rukia's voice didn't sound reproachful at all – her voice had this atmosphere of 'you can tell me anything, you know?' She leaned forward a little: "Is this a date to you or not?"

He sighed again. Not, because he was politely 'forced' to say it – internally he had already decided to do so – but because Rukia was really relentless when it came to such things. She would make him say even more delicate things if she went on like this.

"Alright… yes. To me… this is a date. Well, at least I would like it to be."

She seemed content with his answer, her face telling something like 'It wasn't too difficult telling me this, was it?'

She really strained his nerves sometimes. Where was this going?

With a blink of her eye the tensed mood was suddenly lifted: "Well, too bad this isn't our first date."

Ichigo eyed her clueless, then protested: "In what way is that not our first date?"

"Monday, the little bistro on the terrace, we both had a panini and your ego was deeply hurt because I treated you, remember?" She sounded somewhat amused – maybe because it was what you would call the epitome of a horrible first date.

"Hey, I… I thought we had agreed on the fact that it wasn't a date!" He had to object again.

Rukia sighed, shaking her head considering his missing insight but kept her more or less understanding smile: "Just because we only pretended to be in a relationship when we went on a date doesn't mean it didn't happen."

Ichigo sighed for the nth time today. It seemed as if he had to say it: "I know a lot has happened these past few days and I am not able to take anything back what I said or did just like that, but this time… I am serious." Ichigo got up from his seat and turned around before she would again make him say more than he was ready to tell her at the moment: "And now, I'll go inside to pay." He tried to sound as cool and indifferent as possible but wasn't sure if it was getting through to Rukia.

"Ah, the old-school way, I see. So the gentleman is going to pay for the lady?" She was clearly trying to tease him.

He was reminded of their first 'not first' date and retorted in an equally provoking tone: "Yeah, old-school. Guess you're quite familiar with that."

If she'd still had her fork she would have tossed it after him like a dart arrow.

A few minutes had already passed and they were still only silently walking next to each other. A few minutes that had felt like the longest hour in his life. To a point it had seemed that things were progressing in the right direction, back to a little normality. Then again… hell! What!? Why!? What did he even think!? Nothing, probably and that was the problem.

'Yes, I was flirting with you.'

'Yes, this was not the first time.'

'Yes, to me this is a date.'

Oh. My. God. Seriously? Sometimes he couldn't even agree with himself if things were progressing too fast or not fast enough. What stupid idiot even said such things? This is flirting to you, Kurosaki Ichigo? This just wasn't him at all, doing that. He hadn't been able to get the message across at all, had he? He just wasn't suited to use words in a way someone like Shakespeare would. All he had wanted was to show Rukia that she meant a lot to him. And yeah, sometimes he felt that their bickering was close to what you could call a flirting attempt, so he confessed it, confessed that he had indeed already flirted with her before in some kind of way. And then there was their conversation from last night…

"What is that?" Rukia had just returned to Ichigo's room after taking a shower.

"It's a futon." Ichigo stated matter-of-factly lying on said futon.

"I can see that, I am not stupid. What I meant was… why?" She sounded a little annoyed, demonstratively gesturing at the floor with both hands, demanding an explanation.

Ichigo propped himself up to a sitting position: "I thought this way you wouldn't have to sleep in the closet." He pointed over to it: "I won't fit in there so I am taking the futon. You can have the bed."

Rukia blinked at him incredulously a few times before voicing her doubts again: "But why?"

The high schooler grunted, starting to get annoyed himself: "Stop asking all the time. A single 'thank you' would have done."

Her eyes travelled to the floor with slight embarrassment, mumbling a barely audible "Thank you." before stepping over to his bed. She paused, struggling with herself whether to say something or not but then Ichigo switched off the lights. "Good night" it silently escaped her, slipping under the covers.

…

She had lost track of time. Rukia wasn't sure how long she had been lying awake in bed examining the window's silhouette in the dark. Had it already been hours or merely a few minutes? She remembered Ichigo's words from before:

'I don't want you to leave.'

The sentence repeated itself in her head over and over. The memory of his embrace made her feel her heart beat up to her ears. It was inevitable and with every passing second she became more and more unable to be in denial about it, about what she was feeling for him. She had finally reached the point, the point of no return where she wouldn't be able to fool herself anymore. It was the last step, when everyone else had already started to question you, had seen through your lies, your self-deception… everyone else had already been aware without a doubt. Sure, when no one was drawing attention to it and pointed out what it looked like on the outside there was no need to deny anything.

We are just friends, my ass. Honestly, every single person who believed that was just plain delusional. The more Rukia thought about it, the more obvious it became that nothing, really nothing between her and Ichigo was just friendship. Friends wouldn't talk to each other like that. Friends wouldn't look at each other like that. Friends wouldn't do that, pretending to be in a relationship – well alright, maybe that really did happen sometimes, somewhere… But arguing about it, arguing about what was why, where and when part of this fake-relationship, negotiating stupid deals and being unable to talk about anything else anymore although no one was watching. Seriously: Such deals were made between people who weren't sure if they could hold themselves back without a deal. If it wasn't 'a big deal' as they had tried to convince themselves over and over for the past few days then there shouldn't be a reason for arguing in the first place. She remembered the conversation with Isshin she'd had after dinner:

'Just two days ago you told me about your horrible condition and blamed everything on him for not doing anything. So I thought it might help you if I told you the truth – that it was my fault, because I provoked your situation to give you two a push. And now you are sitting here in front of me and are telling me you don't actually want him to do anything?'

' It's difficult.'

'That's always the case, isn't it?'

"Yeah, it is!"

"Are you ok?"

Rukia came back to reality. Had she just said that out loud? She cleared her throat, slightly blushing: "Are… you still awake?"

"No, I'm sleepwalking." He replied dryly.

She cleared her throat again: "You're not able to sleep either?"

He sighed: "No. No way."

"You didn't have to sleep on the floor."

"That's not the reason. … I'm just… thinking a lot."

"Me too."

"Yeah? What are you thinking about?"

"…You mean, honestly?" Ok, Rukia, where is this going?

"Uhm… yeah ok?"

…

"You don't have to tell me Rukia, if you don't…"

"About you."

Are you serious?! It felt as if she wasn't able to actively decide what she said anymore. It just… happened. Ok, make something up. You cannot leave it hanging like that.

"… I mean…"

Come on, Rukia, say something, anything.

"I just… I'm feeling bad because you're sleeping on the floor."

Maybe this wasn't your best idea, but let's see.

"I am sleeping on a futon."

"You know what I mean, Ichigo."

"And what am I supposed to do now? I already told you I won't fit into the closet." He sounded a little helpless.

"I mean… isn't that a little childish? We've shared the bed almost the whole week and now it's suddenly a problem?" A part of her really did feel bad for him, for the fact he had obviously felt the need to give the bed to her. But another part of her just wanted him close to her.

A part of him had felt responsible and had wanted to make up for at least a bit of what had happened those past days by offering her the bed. The other part however just wanted to have her close to him – at least closer than in the damn closet. Exactly this part of him was really tempted to just take her offer and go with it but… was that really the best idea?

'About you.'

Hell, just these two little words had given him a mini heart attack. Ichigo exhaled deeply. He had nearly replied with 'Yeah, me too.' He facepalmed internally. Although she probably hadn't meant it that way his pulse was racing – still.

"Ichigo?"

Huh? What? Did he miss anything?

"Really, you don't have to do this. I don't mind you sleeping here."

What was the right answer now? Was there even a 'right' answer? His pride was again fighting against his true feelings, against the things he really wanted. He should've embraced her longer earlier. At least she couldn't see his face in the dark, and he couldn't see hers – that would've made everything only more embarrassing. But because she wasn't able to see him he tried his usual indifferent voice: "Well, fine. If you're insisting. I don't have a problem with that either." He did actually, but…

He had gotten up from the futon and was now lying on his bed next to Rukia who to his luck had made some space for him. Ichigo couldn't remember ever being this nervous around her before.

It remained surprisingly silent. He raised an eyebrow, trying to peek over to her without moving. Had she already fallen asleep? He stared at the ceiling. Actually not much had changed. After he had gotten slightly used to the place on his bed, his thoughts were keeping him as busy as on the futon. They had something like a date tomorrow, although it shouldn't be, if you were asking him. His plan was to spend a normal day together with Rukia, as far as that was possible. He missed talking to her, being able to tell her barely anything, because he trusted no one as much as her. That was the reason he had thought of something that would hopefully show her what she meant to him. Apart from all the feelings that were or weren't between them he wasn't sure if she knew – how important she was to him.

He felt Rukia move next to him. Her warm breath suddenly touched his arm. Ichigo turned his head to her. She had rolled over to him in her sleep and was now… well really only inches away from him. He tried to repress the urge to panic, her breath constantly brushing over his skin. He had nearly forgotten to inhale again.

…

Rukia had nearly completely drifted off to sleep when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Only seconds later she found herself in Ichigo's arms. A part of her wanted to refuse to accept his embrace but his warmth had such a calming effect on her that her whole body instantly relaxed. She even caught herself snuggling into him a little more. She couldn't remember having ever felt this safe around someone. She felt as if nobody and nothing was able to harm her. However she still wondered if she deserved this. You couldn't just abandon such thoughts overnight. But in this moment right now it wasn't important what was right or wrong. It felt just too good to feel guilty or to have doubts. And because none of them commented on this moment in any way it wasn't too difficult just giving in. It was a moment where nothing that had happened between them mattered, they could just be together for the time being.

Rukia somehow felt as if she had escaped to a completely different world, somewhere between dream and reality. This new, surreal world had a warm and dizzying effect, prompting her to voice things she wouldn't have said in the real world.

"Have you ever been in love?" She mumbled quietly to herself, her face hidden in his shirt.

She hadn't really expected to get an answer. She had just thrown this question into the room as her consciousness was slowly getting blurry.

Ichigo's answer however came as if he hadn't even thought about it for a split second: "Have been?" She could hear a little smile resounding in his voice: "No."

Rukia sighed quietly, feeling completely comfortable – with him. Her mumbling was only a whisper this time: "I think I am."

Ichigo's smile widened, his voice a little challenging: "Yeah?" He bit his lip, trying to repress the question that was on the tip of his tongue. Then again… better now than never.

"And… who is it?"

He couldn't believe he'd really asked it. But he had and he couldn't take it back again. His heart was racing. If it would keep going like that he probably wouldn't be able to hear her answer, if she did answer. But after what seemed like ages there was still no reaction coming from Rukia. He wondered if she was still awake…

"Rukia?" He asked cautiously into the dark.

No answer.

Seriously? That was one of the worst moments to fall asleep! Ichigo sighed, letting out the air that had built up inside of him all at once. How the hell should he be able to fall asleep himself now left with these thoughts? And Rukia… She would probably have already forgotten about their conversation by tomorrow, wouldn't she?