Ring shopping with Ichigo turned out to be...interesting, to say the least.

And not for what he imagined would be a typical reason either. The woman really didn't like the idea of going someplace that he could be recognized at. He found this out when he suggested certain high-end stores to visit and automatically got turned down.

And once he tried suggesting less high-end stores, and still got turned down, he started to get a little bit frustrated. He couldn't help it; he hadn't known that ring shopping would be so difficult.

Thankfully, Ichigo knew exactly what she wanted and where it was and after explaining this to him, he perked up and regained his eagerness considerably.

Especially when she took hold of his hand and led him through the busy streets, right to the shop. Once they were standing outside of the store, he looked up at the sign for a moment, his eyes scanning the name of the place before turning to her and asking in an uncertain tone, "You want an engagement ring from here?"

He didn't say it aloud, but he wasn't really sure what to think of the store. And he probably gave her the impression that he didn't approve of shopping here.

But she didn't let his lack of approval bother her any. She smiled at him and reached for the door and then opened it and walked inside. Leaving him standing there frowning for a moment before following her in to at least look around and see if there was anything interesting.

He was expecting to see a tacky, qypsy-esque setup the moment that he stepped inside of the store. However, what he found was something considerably different.

Everything was professionally set up. The pieces of jewelry were all on display in glass cases with lights shining above them to make them sparkle and catch the customer's attention. There was a nicely dressed couple standing behind one of the counters, that noticed the two of them almost automatically and called out a polite greeting to them.

Ichigo waved and greeted them back and then walked away to go to one of the display cases and stood there, seemingly waiting on him to join her. He nodded to the two employee's and then moved to see what it was that had had his fiancée dragging him to the shop.

And the moment that he stepped up beside her and looked down, his eyes widened in shock at the rows and rows of floral and vine designed pieces of semi-precious jewelry. Many of the pieces were simple. While others were intricate and stunningly elegant.

Each one was made of various metals and had stones ranging from diamonds to garnets and moonstones.

Shooting her a glance, he saw the wide grin on her face as she tapped the glass above something that he had missed in his first cursory scan of the items. Letting his eyes flicker to her finger, and then to what she was pointing at he felt his eyes widen again and his breath leave his lungs in a rush.

His heart pounded, the fluttering was back in his stomach, and he suddenly reached out and took hold of her hand as he whispered to her. "I love them. Which color were you wanting?"

"I thought that you might. I like the white gold and diamond ones. But we can mix and match the stones and metals if you want."

"I like the diamond ones too." He said after a moment or so of careful thought before asking her in a hushed tone. "Are you sure that you don't want a little bit of color in your ring?"

"I sort of do. Nontraditional stuff is nice and all, but just diamonds doesn't suit me."

"Very well, what stone and color do you want then?"

"Green tourmaline, and diamonds." Ichigo said almost automatically.

"Green?" He echoed as he scrunched up his nose a little bit and then asked, "Why green?"

"I don't think that you would appreciate blue or pink tourmaline. Besides, the deep green of the tourmaline matches your eyes. They're pretty, ya know?"

He huffed a quiet laugh at her oddly worded compliment about his eyes before then saying. "Dearest, both of my Junior High and High school uniforms were pink. I don't care if the stones are feminine in color; if you want the pink stones then that is what we will both get. It won't bother me to have a matching colored one, I assure you."

"But what if someone makes fun of it?"

He blinked at her and smiled at her, finding it precious that she would feel concerned about something so silly.

"It doesn't matter. I'm not a child. I'm completely secure in my masculinity. Besides, don't you know that real men wear pink." He said as he lifted one of his hands and waved one of the employee's over before she could object again. After that, it only took a few more minutes to get the rings- and stones- desired by them both in the proper sizes and then pay for them.

He found it cute that Ichigo refused to let him pay for his own ring when he was already buying hers.

And because she seemed rather excited at the idea of buying him something, he didn't bother arguing with her once he finished up his purchase and then stepped aside so that she could pay for hers.

He couldn't help but be amused by her as she handed the money for his ring over. She seemed to be practically vibrating in place with happiness the whole time.

Honestly, it was pretty cute. And the moment that she finally finished paying for his ring, she quickly thanked the person at the register and then turned and walked over to him and held out the small bag that the ring was in for him to take.

"Here. It's yours." She said as he gave her a slow smile and then reached out, but instead of taking the bag from her, he instead wrapped his hand around her wrist and pulled her off-balance so that she would fall into him.

She squeaked as she fell, her face landing against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and just held her for a moment.

"Thank you for buying my ring." He said after a heartbeat or so before finally letting her go and taking the bag from her and switching it out with his own as she blushed and nodded.

Reaching into the bags, the two of them took a few moments to pull the rings out and put them on. He wore his one his left hand's ring finger. And she wore hers on the same hand and finger as him.

Once they both had them on, he reached out and took her small hand in his and they quietly left the shop together. They were walking along the sidewalk, making small talk and trying to decide what to do next since neither of them needed to be anywhere to do anything important right then.

He was about to suggest that maybe they see about setting up a date and time for her to meet his parents when she got a phone call on her cell. And since she didn't want to have to let go of his hand- she put it on speaker and then paled as they both heard a series of panicked screams, explosions, and a couple of sirens.

"W-What the?" She muttered as her grip on the phone tightened a bit as someone quickly shouted.

"Emergency! Ichigo, you need to come home! Your house is on fire!"

And then the call was cut off by her hanging up on whoever was calling while he stared at her worriedly.

"Dearest?"

"If it's important they'll call back." She said automatically as she gave him a slightly strained smile. He frowned and felt her hand tighten around his in an anxious manner as her phone began to ring again.

She didn't bother to answer it though.

"Should we head over to your home and see-" He started to ask her if they should go to her home and check and see what was going on. After all, if her home was on fire- shouldn't she be worried about her stuff being destroyed?

"No." She said quickly. "No, we should not. Instead let's look for apartments to rent." Her cell phone began to ring again.

"Is there any particular reason that you do not want to go home? Especially since the place you live is on fire?" He asked curiously.

"Because the fire is probably the work of one of my many, many well-meaning- but idiot friends."

"Ah, and you think this...because?"

"Because it's happened a few times before." She said with a sigh, her shoulder's slumping a bit in defeat when her phone began to ring yet again.

Deciding to put a stop to the nonsense before she got any more stressed, he reached out and plucked her cell from her hand and then answered it. "She's coming. And she isn't coming alone. I want the person responsible for the damages present."

There was silence for a heartbeat- well, silence as far as speaking went. There were a few other panicked screams and explosions happening in the background before he heard a man's deep voice call out, "Understood!" As he hung up the phone and then handed it back to her.

"Come, dearest. I'll help you sort things out and figure out where to stay afterwards." He said coaxingly as she sighed and looked down at her new ring, looking as if she wanted nothing more than to disappear.

He didn't like it.

Especially when things had been going so well before. But he definitely knew where she was coming from and could empathize. After all, he had some idiot friends too. And he wouldn't past any of them to set his home on fire for one well-meant reason or another.

He'd known them long enough to know that that was just how they were.