Okay by chapter 8 you should know that I do not own Bleach okay? Today's word is 'Innocence' so this is mainly going to be family fluff, but this whole series is called 'Slice of Life' so there will be fluff. Anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Ichika looked around with a slight blush. Here she was in an ice cream shop with Kazui. They were both 12 years old and feeling awkward. Since their parents were friends, they had grown up around each other and known each other for a while now. However, Ichika could never quite get over the fact that Kazui had developed a crush on her. Nor could she quite tell herself why she agree to this date with him. Maybe she did like him, or maybe she just wanted the ice cream, but here she was, dressed up looking at the cheery orange haired boy with an awkward look on her face.

"Is it good?" Kazui asked. "I got you strawberry."

"Yeah, it's not bad..." Ichika blushed.

"If you don't like strawberry I can get you something else..." Kazui said with a frantic look on his face. "Chocolate, or pineapple, maybe vanilla..."

"No, no, no, you're fine! You're fine!" Ichika said. God why am I so embarrassed! She thought as she clenched her fists. Kazui is just a kid who I kind of like hanging out with that his parents happen to have known mine. Nothing more and nothing less!

Meanwhile, Renji was standing in a corner looking at the the scene with concern. This was his baby girl on her first date. And just because he knew Kazui and his father and mother, did not mean he trusted the boy's intentions any less. He held onto Zabimaru tightly, ready to pounce if Kazui proved to acting inappropriately to his daughter.

There was a pause and Ichika looked around, blushing, rubbing her arm. She didn't really know what to say so she turned to Kazui and said, "Well do you like ice cream?"

"Well... yeah... I mean of course I do... Do you like ice cream...?" Kazui said, blushing looking away from Ichika

"Sure... I mean why wouldn't I..." Ichika, growing as red as her hair in her face. "Everyone likes ice cream."

"Yeah they do." Kazui said.

Ichika looked up and around. Something didn't feel right. She felt a spiritual presence in the establishment that was not one of the ones of the customers or employees. Knowing something foul may be about, she placed her hand on her zanpakto and looked around.

"What's up?" Kazui asked looking around.

"That presence." Ichika said, embarrassment and awkward feeling dissipating. "There's someone else here that wasn't before."

"Are you sure it's not a new customer?" Kazui asked.

"I'm sure it's not. I would have seen it." Ichika said proudly.

"Well I'll go with you. My dad was a Soul Reaper and I want to make him proud." Kazui said.

"Well that's one member of your family." Ichika said groaning as she got up and headed away from the ice cream. "My dad's a lieutenant and both my mom and my uncle are captains. I have a lot to live up to and I am not embarrassing myself by letting my guard drop for the likes of you!"

"Oh so I'm a burden now am I?" Kazui said slightly offended.

As Renji stood on watching in a distance, he turned to see Ichigo behind him. "Ichigo!" Renji said. "What are you doing here?"

"Apparently the same thing you're doing. Keeping an eye on my son's date with your daughter. Trust me if he did anything inappropriate to her, he'd get in trouble." Ichigo said.

"Sure he would..." Renji taunted.

"I'm serious! I taught Kazui well about honor and how to treat a lady." Ichigo looked over and saw Ichika guiding him around and holding tightly to her zanpakto. "Your daughter on the other hand needs some lessons on being a proper lady."

"She'd kill you for that. And besides, from what I can gather, she's only acting that way because she felt an unknown presence in the vicinity. Probably you, with your son you can't trust." Renji said sticking his tongue out at Ichigo.

"Or maybe she sensed her overprotective father and is going to tell him he's being too obvious with his spiritual pressure and that he should trust his daughter AND the boys she goes out with more." Ichigo taunted back at Renji.

Meanwhile, while the proud fathers were getting ready to fight, Ichika and Kazui headed outside and looked around. "I know I felt something." Ichika said. "And not too far away. You know this town better than I do Kazui, what is in that building over there? Beside the ice cream shop?"

"Oh that? That's an old abandoned animal pound. Strays would be taken there and put up for adoption and given medical care if needed," Kazui said

"Were there bunnies there too?" Ichika asked. "I always wanted a pet bunny."

"Sometimes." He said. "People could take pets in if they couldn't keep them anymore. But if they weren't adopted, they were put to sleep." Kazui explained.

"Put to sleep?" Ichika said, knowing in her heart what Kazui was talking about, but didn't like it. "Even the bunnies?"

"Even the bunnies." Kazui said sadly.

"It's not animal spirits, it seems like a soul reaper." Ichika said as she focused harder. She then looked over to the corner where Renji and Ichigo were getting ready to fight over whose child was more honorable when it came to dating.

"Well I'm not the one so lazy to hide his spiritual pressure from them! You know Ichika is in training, so she might be able to pick up on it." Ichigo yelled.

"Well maybe I want her to find it and I want your Kazui kid to find it too! Know they are being watched!" Renji said back.

"Dad?" Kazui said as he saw his father getting ready to fight Renji.

"Daddy?" Ichika said at her father.

"You still call your father 'Daddy'?" Kazui asked.

"Shut up! So what if I do? Shut up!" Ichika said blushing. Ichigo and Renji laughed. At this Ichika turned to them and asked. "And what are you doing here?" She demanded of the men.

"Well..." Renji didn't want to say his full intention at this point. "We wanted to see if you could find us."

"During our ice cream date?" Kazui asked skeptically.

"Yes!" Ichigo said, picking up on Renji's lead. "If one wants to be a soul reaper, they must be ready for anything at any time!"

"Really?" Ichika said.

"Really!" Renji smiled.

"You didn't trust Kazui or me did you?" She asked skeptically.

"Nope." Renji said as he saw Ichika's face fall. "But you had great intuition to pick up on that. Well done!"

"Well let me finish my date with Ichika before our ice cream becomes a melted pile of mess." Kazui said taking her hand and leading her back. "Thank you for your concern Dad and Mr. Abarai."

"That went well." Ichigo said.

"Better than I was expecting when Ichika figured out I didn't trust her. She can have her mother's temper at times." Renji sighed.

"Yeah, that Rukia can..." Ichigo said.

"What about her?" Renji said looking over at Ichigo.

"She's a very honorable woman!" Ichigo said, not wanting to offend Renji.

"You bet she is." Renji said as he went back to observing the date.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. Like I said, today's word was innocence and I wanted to portray it in a fun way and for some reason, this came to mind. Not all of these are going to be dark and depressing. Much of it I want to be fun and maybe a little comical. There's already enough depression in the world. But anyway remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm.