A/N: Happy Holidays, everyone! ✨✨ Thanks so much for being patient—here's a slightly longer chapter for y'all. Enjoy :)

"Morning."

Renji greeted me as I stepped out of my tent into the bright sunlight, and I nodded back at him while stifling a yawn. He seemed to have woken up some time ago and was in good spirits, already dressed in his hiking clothes and humming under his breath as he fired up the stove. Some chopped ingredients lay prepared on the picnic table by his makeshift workstation, ready to be cooked for our pre-hike breakfast.

I walked over and sat on the bench by him with my hands stuffed in the pockets of some sweatpants I'd thrown on. "You're up early. How'd you sleep?"

"Dude, I feel great." He grinned, grabbing a pan from in front of me. "I see why you always do this now, I don't think I've ever felt this productive in my life."

I snorted but didn't reply as I felt another yawn come up as he continued. "How about you? You look kinda dead, man. Hope Rukia didn't keep you up too late."

I shook my head wordlessly in response while bringing my palms up to rub my eyes. If he only had any idea...

Falling asleep had been next to impossible last night. After finally tearing myself away from the spot Rukia had left me outside her tent, I'd gotten back to my own, only to spend the next thirty minutes trying unsuccessfully to push thoughts of what had just happened out of my head. But it was useless—whenever I tried closing my eyes, all I could see was the image of her silhouette burned behind my lids; remembering the way she'd looked, how her back had arched as she raised her arms above her head to remove her top...

Without even intending to, I'd kept replaying the vision like a movie in my head. It was so innocent, really—just the outline of her body visible through a layer of canvas, backlit by the soft glow of her lamp. But what had really gotten to me was when I'd realized she hadn't been wearing a bra under her oversized sweater.

I'd been painfully hard as my eyes had followed the lithe curve of her profile up her flat tummy to the swell of her breasts, her perky nipples clearly visible from the side. My feet refused to move as I found myself rooted to the spot, unable to look away as she continued undressing on the other side of the cloth; my face and neck felt as if they were burning despite the freezing temperature.

The longer I stared, the more I wished I were there in the tent with her and that I was the one helping her remove that damn sweater. I wanted to feel her heated skin beneath my hands, to see if it was as soft I imagined it to be, to make her little body shiver from something other than the cold...

How the fuck was she this sexy?

In a weak attempt to get my lust under control, I tried telling myself she hadn't known I was still standing outside—that she definitely wasn't doing any of it on purpose to tease me and it was all just an accident...but the taboo element of watching her undress without her knowing only ended up making me even harder. God, what was wrong with me?

Horny and frustrated with myself, it sucked, but eventually I was able to fall into a restless sleep, maybe just out of sheer exhaustion from thinking so much...only to see her again in my dreams.

Filthy, X-rated dreams. Dreams involving the two of us doing things I'd never even thought of doing, in positions I'd never even tried...far dirtier than anything I'd imagined up until this point.

I'd woken up with a gasp. I lay there in my tent, breathing hard as I tried to calm down. Even though I had a large sleeping bag with enough room to stretch my legs, my body felt uncomfortably warm and I immediately kicked off the top layer, letting out a hard breath in relief at the cool air. Grabbing my phone from next to me to check the time, I was disoriented to see that it was only about four in the morning. I tossed it aside and lay back down with my arm across my eyes, doing my best to return my breathing to normal.

I was hard beyond belief, and feeling extremely off.

Some of the things I'd pictured myself doing with Rukia last night almost freaked me out with how realistic they'd been. It's not like my thoughts had been exactly pure over the rest of this trip either, but something about how real it'd felt this time was different...even as I lay there alone in my sleeping bag, I swore I could still feel the aftersensation of her small body pressed against me, her breasts soft against my chest and legs tangled in mine. And as exciting as it had been, another part of me felt disgusted at my own mind for subconsciously conjuring up such vividly explicit scenes in the first place, much less with someone as young and, in my mind, inexperienced as Rukia.

Renji's little fucking sister!

Right on cue as if she could hear my agonizing thoughts, I heard the unmistakable zip of a door coming from Rukia's tent from behind me at the table. I immediately stiffened; as much as I'd tried to prepare myself to see her today, my nerves were still shot from last night and my body felt like it was hypersensitive to anything alerting me to her presence. Renji didn't seem to notice anything as he greeted and spoke with her like usual, but I was way too tense to pay attention to anything they were saying at the moment.

I could feel my neck heating up as I tried not to look at her, keeping my back to her as she came toward us. Thankfully, she stayed standing behind where I sat and kept chatting with Renji, true to his prediction about already having gotten over their small argument from yesterday. While they continued to talk, I decided to take it as an opportunity to get some space between us so I could pull myself together before facing her again, and stood up from the bench without turning around. "I'll get some coffee going."

I heard Renji call out "Thanks!" from behind me as I started heading toward his tent to retrieve the coffee supplies. Once I got there, I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I'd been holding, and stood there surveying the chaotic heap of equipment he'd left outside with my hands still in my pockets. I almost cracked a smirk; Renji may have gotten up earlier than usual today, but his organizational skills were still pretty crappy. The supplies hadn't been a mess when Rukia and I had left them last night, and I was pretty sure it hadn't been the work of a wild animal. Or I guess it was, kind of.

"Hey."

I nearly jumped out of my skin as Rukia appeared from behind me, walking over toward where I was standing. Even though the brief moment of distance had helped me calm down somewhat, hearing the sound of her soft voice still caused me to flinch. It was serene, unconcerned—the exact opposite of how I was feeling. As a knee-jerk reaction, my eyes impulsively snapped onto her face a little too quickly before I had a chance to stop myself.

It felt extra weird seeing her in the flesh after seeing her in such...graphic dreams, but I released a small breath of relief when I saw what she was wearing. Her hair was hidden in a low ponytail under a plain white baseball cap, and she had on a light purple hiking jacket zipped modestly up to her collar, as well as some pale, almost white leggings. Honestly, I was a little surprised; the last words she'd said to me the previous evening had tormented me all night, and part of me had been terrified she was going to come out of her tent this morning in some tiny little outfit and follow through on her...request, so I was secretly a bit relieved. And maybe just a little disappointed...

I gave her a "hey" back as she walked around me to duck into Renji's tent, and I felt myself relax with the added distance...until I looked down.

I swallowed hard.

Shit. Rukia was not wearing leggings, as I'd previously thought, but instead had on a very small pair of black shorts, if they could be called that. I hadn't noticed earlier since from my taller angle her jacket had hidden the hemline of her shorts, but I could see now that the creamy color I'd mistaken for leggings was actually her smooth, bare legs. The black, stretchy-looking material hugged her hips and accentuated her tiny waist beneath her jacket, which had ridden up as she leaned over.

If I had thought her ass looked good in those denim shorts on the first day of our trip, it looked absolutely mouthwatering right now.

The farther she leaned into the tent, the more I continued to stare; her legs looked long and smooth, and I found myself wanting so badly to reach out and run my hands over them. Fuck, she was practically wearing nothing more than underwear; my eyes were glued to that sexy little triangle at the apex of her thighs.

She ducked back out of the tent, having found what she was looking for, and my eyes immediately snapped away from her luscious body. I looked around furiously for the cups, locating them buried underneath some paper towels, and went to pick them up as if I'd finally found what I came for.

"How'd you sleep?" Her voice drifted over my shoulder.

I continued to keep my gaze away from her as I answered, scatteredly looking around for any other supplies Renji might have forgotten to grab for breakfast. "Ah, fine. How about you?"

"I slept fine. Though I got a little warm last night."

I almost coughed, catching myself. "Oh yeah? I thought it was pretty cold, actually." What a fucking liar.

"Yeah, I think I just had too many blankets on," she said, coming over to the side of the tent where I was. "Whatcha looking for?"

"Uh," I racked my brain quickly, "do you know where we put the creamer?"

"Oh yeah! Renji left that in the cooler too. One sec." She turned around to head back to the tent.

Fuck, say something. I couldn't tell if she sensed my awkwardness, but I definitely didn't want to make it any more obvious. "What did you need to grab?"

She lifted her arm in the air behind her to show me the small paper carton she was holding, as I tried very hard not to look at her ass, which was sticking out of the tent again. "We're having omelettes for breakfast and the idiot forgot to grab the eggs."

"Oh yeah," I said. "Eggs are your favorite, huh?"

Her eyes widened at me slightly as she ducked back out of the tent, this time with the creamer and a jar of instant coffee in hand. "How'd you know that?"

I blinked. "Uh...I dunno. Maybe you told me once or something."

"Maybe..." She looked down, and I felt my face heat a little. "I mean, we never really talked much before this trip." Oh yeah, because I was always an asshole and ignored her.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, right. Then maybe I'm just observant," I joked, trying to diffuse some of the tension, and I noticed her cheeks turn slightly pink but she nodded and gave a small laugh. "Guess that must be it. Should I get the sugar too?"

"I'm good, but you should probably grab some for Renji."

She laughed again, and it sounded more relaxed this time. "You know him too well."

After gathering the sugar and a couple other supplies, we walked back together to the picnic table, where Renji was starting to toss some of the veggies in a skillet. "Hey, good timing. Ruks, how do you want your omelette?"

Her eyes lit up as she dropped off the supplies she was holding on the bench. "Can I get mine in a roll?"

"Hell no, I can barely do a flip without breaking it! Why do you have to be so damn fancy?"

"Then why'd you even ask!"

I chuckled, seeing how quickly their moods had reversed. "It's okay, I can do it."

Renji glared at his sister as he stepped aside from the stove to let me use it. "Fine. You better thank Ichigo, 'cause your future husband isn't gonna make rolled omelettes every morning for your picky ass."

She glared right back at him. "It's not like it's that hard to make."

"Then make it yourself!"

I tried not to smile as they continued to snap at each other, feeling myself relax as I started cooking. Their bickering was helping take off some of my earlier edge, and I was grateful for the chance to keep my hands busy as I grabbed a couple eggs to crack them into a bowl.

Renji eventually cooled off, volunteering to get the coffee ready now that he was off omelette duty. Rukia sat at the bench, helping me beat and prepare the eggs before I poured them into the pan. Once I'd finished making all of our omelettes and Renji had filled three cups with steaming coffee, we sat down at the table to eat.

Rukia grinned widely at me. "Thanks for the omelette, Ichigo."

I smirked. "Anytime, midget. Wasn't that hard to make."

The two of us laughed as Renji growled at us mid-bite from across the table.

After we'd finished cleaning up the dishes and I changed into a light jacket and shorts for our hike, we set out to hit the trail. The hike we'd chosen turned out to be even better than it had looked in pictures; the scenery we'd passed so far had ranged from lush shaded paths along streams and waterfalls, to brighter areas of dappled sunlight through forests. It was supposed to be about four hours roundtrip, and we were planning to take a longer break at the top for lunch, which we'd packed in our bags before heading out. There weren't any picnic tables at the peak, but there'd be a little shady lookout area we could sit at to eat.

It had been an easy hike so far, and we were a little over three-quarters of the way there. There were a couple sections where we'd had to scale a few flights of stairs built into the trail, but for the most part the elevation gain had been pretty steady as we made our way up.

Despite the sun having come up hours ago, the morning chill was only just starting to fade as it was slowly replaced by a pleasant warmth that felt more like summer. I was finally starting to feel warm enough to take off my jacket as we exited what would be the last shaded section of the hike before we reached the top. Now that we were getting close, the trail was getting noticeably narrower and steeper.

"Fuck, we have to climb this thing?"

I looked up to see Renji standing in front of me, his black tank already soaked in sweat as he'd taken his jacket off about twenty minutes into our hike. As I followed his line of sight, I saw Rukia standing a little ways ahead of us at the foot of an impressive mountain of rocks, not unmanageably steep but still nothing to sneeze at. The tip of a pole was just barely visible at the top, marking our destination.

"We'll probably have to crawl our way up," Rukia said as we caught up to her. "Might have to use our hands just to be safe."

"Fuck," Renji said again.

I took the opportunity to pull off my jacket while we weren't moving, folding it up and putting it away in my backpack. "You good, man? We can take a break if you need."

"Nah, I'm fine." He pulled the lid off his water bottle and took a large gulp. "You guys can go first, I'll just be in back."

I glanced back up at the peak, crowned by a bright blue sky with no clouds in sight. "All right. Looks like it'll take us fifteen, maybe twenty minutes," I estimated.

Rukia grinned breezily. "Oh, that's nothing. Come on, we're so close!"

"Dammit," Renji growled. "One day when you're working sixty hours a week and sitting at a desk all day you won't think it's so easy either."

She rolled her eyes playfully and tilted her head in the direction of the rocky trail. "Ichigo is tough and can handle it, right?"

I tried not to read too much into the tone of her question and ignored the small shudder I felt shoot down my spine, clapping Renji on the shoulder as I passed him to follow her lead. "Take it easy, dude." Rukia smirked from in front of us before turning to start climbing the first couple rocks.

It looked pretty steep when you were standing at the bottom looking up, but the climb itself wasn't actually too bad. We were moving more horizontally than vertically as we scaled the rocks, using both our arms and legs to stay balanced and keeping an eye out for good footholds. We didn't speak much, instead focusing on the rocks in front of us one at a time.

Pretty admirably, we were about half of the way up and Rukia still seemed to have plenty of energy, moving deftly from rock to rock without slowing down much. On the other hand, I was definitely starting to feel the burn, though it felt good to get in a solid workout that wasn't hitting the gym after work, to Renji's earlier point. The tranquility of the fairly empty trail was a welcome change of pace, and as we got higher the breeze felt great with the lack of shade.

"Wanna take a break and wait for Renji?" Rukia's voice came from above me.

I looked up to see her turning around to sit on a large rock she'd reached several yards ahead of me. "Sure."

Taking a break from the rock I was climbing to do the same, I plopped onto my ass and opened up my backpack to take out my water bottle, taking a gulp as I looked at the scenery spread out below where we were sitting. A little ways down, Renji was not as far behind as I'd thought and would probably make it over to us in a couple minutes. "How're you feeling?" I asked, glancing back up at her.

"Not bad. It's a really nice view up here." She crossed her legs while taking a sip of her own water, and I noticed how toned they were despite her slender build.

No kidding. I looked away to watch Renji again as he let out a couple of curses from below. "I think Renji brought his camera. Maybe we can get some pictures at the top."

"Yeah, we definitely should!"

I chuckled at her enthusiasm and tucked my water bottle back into my bag. "Well, I can definitely tell you're a hiker. Are you even tired at all?"

She grinned proudly. "Only a little. I'd say my stamina's pretty good."

Oh how I'd love to test that personally sometime...I flushed and shook my head a little to get rid of the uninvited thought.

As we were talking, Renji caught up to where we were sitting. He climbed onto the rock below mine and dropped onto his ass. "Fuck. Gonna be sore as shit tomorrow."

Rukia smirked down at him. "I keep telling Mom and Dad how out of shape you are, but they think I'm kidding. Since you're the gym freak."

Renji growled. "I told you! I don't have time to go on hikes and run a billion miles every day 'for fun' like you!"

I raised my eyebrows at her. "You run too?" I guess it explained those legs...

"Yeah," she shrugged. "I like to do a couple laps every morning before class. There are tons of good running spots on campus."

"Don't encourage her!" Renji snapped, and she laughed at him.

After several more minutes, we were starting to get pretty warm with the sun having risen high in the sky and nothing to block it from where we were sitting, so we decided to start making our way up again. We were all climbing closely together this time, with Rukia still leading the way and Renji behind me.

I was looking forward to reaching the top and enjoying a lunch break, as well as finally seeing the spectacular view we'd seen in all the pictures firsthand. As we approached the summit, I raised my head to glance up toward the peak...and was greeted instead with a very different view.

Rukia's perfect little ass was right in front of my eyes, no more than six feet in front of me. It was swaying side to side with her hips as she climbed, and just slightly bounced with each of her movements.

I could've touched it if I just got a little closer.

At this angle and this close up, I could just barely make out the outline of her pussy under her little shorts...it looked soft and plump. This view felt way too intimate and I quickly dropped my head back down, my face on fire. I felt myself starting to get hard despite myself and silently prayed Renji wouldn't notice. He probably hadn't since he wasn't some fucking pervert who stares at people's asses while they're climbing, but either way the last thing I needed was for him to see his best friend getting a raging hard-on for his little sister.

For the last stretch of the hike, I kept my head down and eyes laser-focused on the rocks in front of me for the rest of the climb, but just knowing what was in front of me, if I just looked up...it was torture. No matter how hard I tried not to think about her perky, round ass, the image of the spot between her legs, so temptingly close, was seared into my memory.

We finally reached the top, and I was grateful when she stood up to stretch by the side, removing the threat of me seeing that view and adding some distance between us. Renji climbed up behind me as well, and we spent a few minutes enjoying the light breeze that was strongest at the peak.

After taking a few minutes to refresh and catch our breaths, Renji complained he was hungry so we agreed to eat first and enjoy the views after lunch. We found a spot with some large rocks in the speckled shade of a few trees and sat down to eat, with Rukia sitting next to me and Renji across from us.

As I started to unwrap mine, the sound of a zipper to my left caught my ear and made me glance to the side out of the corner of my eye.

I was still facing forward, about to take a bite of my sandwich, but I could see Rukia shrug out of her jacket in my peripheral vision as her bare shoulders came into view, and I nearly choked mid-bite.

There it was—the outfit I'd been both dreading and anxiously anticipating. So this entire time, she had been hiking in a tiny sports bra, in addition to her barely-there shorts that had nearly caused me to have an accident as we were climbing. Just thinking about how much of her skin was exposed caused my cock to to lurch slightly in my shorts; it took almost all of my willpower not to just turn my head and get a better look.

Renji, on the other hand, hadn't noticed right away as she took off her jacket. He looked up from his sandwich and coughed loudly when he saw what she was wearing underneath it. "Jesus, Ruks!"

"What?"

"Put on some clothes!"

"I just took my jacket off because it's so hot," she deadpanned, taking a first bite of her sandwich. "So no thanks."

Even though I wasn't looking at him with my gaze firmly planted on my lunch, I could feel Renji's eyes dart over to me. "Y-you can't just—we're outside, there are people—"

"There's no one else here except Ichigo," she said, annoyed, "and everyone else is on the other side of the mountain."

Renji was speechless for a moment as I could tell he was thinking that I was exactly the "people" he had in mind as he tried to dissuade her. I continued to focus resolutely on my sandwich, chewing and swallowing as evenly as I could. I wasn't sure if he suspected how my body was reacting to her being so close and so unclothed next to me, but there was no way in hell I wanted to let him find out.

Luckily, he seemed to take my lack of response to her being half naked next to me as a sign that I wasn't interested, and dropped the subject. As we ate, I thought to myself absently that he hadn't reacted much to her choice of hiking bottoms earlier this morning, and wondered with a twinge of envy if he was used to seeing her like that at home. Maybe she wore tiny sleep shorts to bed, or maybe he was personally just more affected by topless women.

Although, there's no way he could be unaffected if he'd been the one behind her and saw what I'd seen, I thought. Those cute puffy lips...

I slapped myself mentally. Fucking perv. Of course he doesn't look at her like that, she's his sister.

The rest of lunch was a bit more painful than I'd originally imagined it would be, but at least I managed to keep my raging erection down in front of everyone. I did my best not to think about her enticing barely-clad figure sitting to my left and instead tried to focus on pacing my eating so that I wouldn't finish before the rest of them and awkwardly look like I was avoiding looking at her, even though I was.

Afterward, we cleaned up our trash and packed it back in our bags. Rukia wanted to explore the rest of the peak to find the best viewing spot, so we walked around the top of the mountain a couple times to try to find a spot that wasn't too crowded.

We finally came to an area that overlooked a large expanse of the forest below us with the ocean faintly sparkling in the distance. Rukia skipped ahead to the front of the overlook while we followed her.

Until then, I'd been doing my best to keep my gaze averted from her as we wandered around the summit, or to only look at her face when I was speaking to her. But I had to admit that now with her body turned away and Renji a couple steps behind me, I couldn't help but take a quick peek at her figure as she stood before the edge.

Her hands were on her hips with her thumbs facing forward, the rest of her fingers resting lightly above the swell of her ass. Not counting the outfit she wore on our first day of the trip, it was my first time really seeing how tiny her waist was, as it flared out into unexpectedly full hips above her long, smooth legs. Although I couldn't see the front of it, I could tell she was wearing a tiny black sports bra to match her shorts, several thin straps crisscrossing over her delicate shoulder blades.

It suddenly occurred to me I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen a girl so casually in this little clothing, outside of sex and past relationships. Probably not since the days of wild college parties...but ever since I'd started working I'd found myself in mostly professional environments with at least business casual dress codes, and even at the gym I went to most of the women who frequented it were a bit older as well, preferring tanks and leggings to sports bras and shorts.

As I was thinking, Rukia lifted a hand from her hip to readjust her baseball cap, and the breeze blew her hair over her shoulder. I found myself transfixed, unable to look away as she placed it back on her head, tossing her silky ponytail back behind her.

My eyes followed her back down the curve of her spine, pausing at her supple ass and slender, toned thighs. I didn't know if it was the unconcerned way she was standing there with so much skin exposed, looking like she didn't give a damn she was half naked in public, or the innocent-looking white baseball cap reminding me of college football games, or something else, but for some reason all I could think about in that moment on was what felt like her obvious youthfulness.

"I think we found the best view," she said from in front of us, and I secretly had to agree.

"Wanna get a picture? You guys stand there first, let me check the lighting," Renji offered, taking off his backpack to get his camera out.

Don't be fucking weird, hurry up and go stand with her...I stepped over so I was standing next to her, our backs to the scenery as we waited for him to finish fixing the settings.

"All right—Take One," he said, squinting an eye as he aimed the camera at us and looked into the viewfinder. "Let's see how this turns out."

I stood there stupidly with my hands gripping the straps of my bag, and jolted when I felt Rukia's small arm snake across my back to wrap around my waist. Shit. It'd look even more awkward if I kept my hands where they were, so I took one off to drape my arm over her shoulder with forced casualness, trying to look as "older-brotherly" as possible and not like I was getting excited at the feeling of her bare skin against mine. Though I'd immediately snapped my eyes away, I'd also looked down briefly in reaction to her sudden movement and had caught of glimpse of her chest now that I could see her front, the black sports bra hugging her modest breasts to form enticing cleavage and the outline of her perky nipples visible...

Before I had a moment to process much beyond that, there was the click of a shutter and Renji was peering down at the camera screen. "Cool, angle looks good. Don't move, I'll go get someone to take it for us," he said before jogging off.

I barely registered what he'd said as we stood there watching him talking to a couple hikers nearby, my arm still around Rukia as she stood pressed against my side. Of all the little things so far that had driven me crazy and consumed my thoughts with her on this trip, my brain had never felt like it was closer to short circuiting than right now. Despite the cooldown from lunch, her skin was warm against mine as I could feel the heat rolling off of it, and I could feel how smooth and soft it was beneath my arm.

She lightly adjusted her grip on my waist and I nearly jumped at the feeling of her fingers brushing close to my stomach. My erection was threatening to come back and I was freaking out, praying to God she didn't look down or do anything to stimulate me further, even though all I really wanted to do was grab her waist and pull her against me hard, to touch her heated skin, to feel more of her...

I barely managed to pull it together just as Renji got back with a fellow hiker in tow, handing them the camera and providing them with some quick instructions before coming over to join us. He stood on Rukia's other side, grinning as he threw his arm over her opposite shoulder.

I couldn't help but suppress a shudder as I stood there stiffly, trying my best to smile for the camera as I caught the flowery scent of Rukia's shampoo on the breeze.

A/N: Phew! And we're officially halfway through MBFLS—the real fun starts soon so hope you're all looking forward to it :)

For all my fellow IchiRuki lovers, I'd also like to share that there's a lovely IR Discord Server where you can share your headcanons, fics, art, and chat about our favorite pair! Let me know if you'd like a link to join us. Though hopefully this won't apply to anyone reading this story, please note that this is a strictly 18-and-up server with no underaged users allowed, though you're still welcome to join without access to the NSFW channels if you'd like.

As always, feel free to find me on Twitter at itspillowtime where I post doodles and retweet anything with an IR pulse. Hope you're all staying safe and enjoying your holidays and see you in the next chapter!