Chapter 2 in the Challenge series with SecretStarr. Be sure to go read her work as well.

Remember, these are one shots based off songs, we both write without talking about it, we just use the same song.

This was inspired by the Song Favorite Liar by: The Wrecks

I don't own Bleach (Disclaimer)


Favorite Liar

Ichigo found himself bundled up under a black hoodie and standing with his back leaned against a convenience store window. College classes had come to a close that day for winter break and he was bloody exhausted.

His friends were inside shopping. Ichigo didn't join them because the night sky was showing plenty of stars. He stared at the sky lights with a set of headphones in. The reaper was bobbing his head lightly to the music when he felt something small pelt his chest. Ichigo looked down at the ground to spot what had hit him. He bent down and picked up the tiny rounded object, as he observed it he whispered aloud with confusion. "A pebble? Who would throw a rock in the middle of the night?"

He looked up lethargically in the direction the minute rock had come from. His brain snapped to attention when he saw her standing under the light of a street lamp. All four foot eight inches of her form radiated irritancy. Her arms were crossed and her brow furrowed when Ichigo called out to her excitedly. "Rukia!? When did you get to town?"

She physically responded with a silent foot tapping. Ichigo picked up the signal. He knew he was in trouble and not sure why. So he smiled inwardly but didn't show it aloud. He decided on playful rebellion and spoke defensively through a dry tone. "What?"

At that point, a towering and cut Mexican man walked out of the well-lit convenience store's sliding doors. He was accompanied by a much smaller and obviously Jovial Japanese man. They turned to head towards their friend Ichigo when they spotted the fiery girl. They both froze when the smaller man spoke up to the Mexican giant. "Eh Chad, is it just me or is Ichigo about to die?"

The big Mexican espied Rukia, then spoke in a deep and sultry voice, "Let's stay out of it Keigo."

Chad turned around and headed right back into the store. The smaller man called back, "DUH dude, I ain't getting in the middle of that. She looks feral." The two of them went inside quickly, Keigo pulled out the popcorn he'd just bought and ate it as they watched through the frost bitten window. Keigo made a comment to Chad as they watched Rukia slowly walk up to Ichigo. "Live TV is better isn't it?"

Chad reached into the popcorn bag and answered after a pause. "…Yeah."

Rukia approached the Strawberry, "You went without me."

Ichigo looked puzzled, "Umm, Went where without you?"

Rukia scoffed, "Don't play dumb with me, I don't appreciate being lied to."

Now Ichigo was mad, insinuating claims of falsehood still ate at the man. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Rukia puffed air out of the dark clothing clad gigai she wore for the day. "I told you I wanted to see the mountains when they were snow covered. We had a conversation about how I wanted to go with you sometime! You said you'd take me the next time you went! Your sister even invited me here to go…that's because you told Uryu to tell me, right?"

Ichigo gave her a flat look. She continued, angered by his lack of reaction. "I literally cleared my schedule as fast as I could so I could go! Your sister said you all decided to wait since I couldn't get free until tomorrow!"

Ichigo nodded. "Mmm."

"Don't even try to talk your way out of it jerk, Karin told me they went today! I can't believe you'd let me come all the way here for it then bail on your word! Not to mention your whole family went without me!"

Ichigo looked away and shrugged. "I go a lot, I can just take you another time."

She steamed like a kettle. How the hell could he shrug it off? Her face was rose with a mix of embarrassment and irritation. "You jerk! I wanted to stay at the hotel and sleep with you under a big blanket! I was looking forward to the spa too! See if I ever go anywhere with you again!"

Ichigo hid the smile he garnered from the anger she showed. He started to walk off down the road, he waved a dismissive hand over his head as he yelled at her with his own sassiness. "I'll just ask one of the pretty girls in class to go with me next weekend, hell, maybe Orihime is free!"

As he disappeared around the corner, Rukia's jaw dropped with shock at the last comment. She spoke to herself aloud. "What the hell!? We're in a courtship and he's just going to ask another girl to go!"

Her feet wanted her to follow him and yell, but she was unsure what to say. The dark haired reaper crossed her arms and started tapping her foot while she thought of the best way to punish the orange haired bastard.

As she did so, a cheery male voice spoke at her. "Hey Rukia, what seems to be the issue?"

Rukia glanced over at the source. Keigo and Chad had left the store to find out what was going on after they saw Ichigo leave. Rukia noted them both and glanced up at Chad's face. She spoke to the Mexican, "Oh! Hi Chad."

Keigo looked like he'd been shot, "You can't even say hi to me! Ichigo and Chad get all the ladies!"

Rukia glanced at him. Her arms were still crossed and her anger at Ichigo seeped out toward Keigo, "Don't be so dramatic Keigo."

Keigo stood up straight. "Yes ma'am."

There was a small pause. Then Chad huffed out a sigh and asked of the tiny gal. "Why are you mad at Ichigo?"

Rukia shook her head as she thought of the Substitute Reaper. "He asked me to take time off so I could go to the mountains with him…I was really excited and everyone went without me. I mean I understand the others…but I can't believe Ichigo did that."

The two men looked at each other with funny looks. Rukia caught it and sensed that she was missing some joke that she was the butt of. She asked directly. "What is it?"

Keigo started laughing for a few seconds, once he died down. Chad spoke. "Umm…Ichigo didn't go to the mountains."

Rukia looked dumbfounded. "What?"

Keigo chimed in. "Yeah dude, Ichigo didn't go with us...pretty much all our buddies, even Chad and I here just got back from the trip. Ichigo picked us up when we got back."

Rukia just blinked, still surprised.

Chad filled in the rest. "Yeah, when Ichigo found out you couldn't make it in time, he canceled his tickets. He said he wouldn't go out there without you."

Rukia's face started to blush slightly when she came to the realization. It was also romantic in nature and she still couldn't filter that well on account of her inexperience in that realm. She inquired of the two. "Why would he lie and say he went!?"

Keigo answered swiftly, "Ichigo's the kind of guy to pull pranks. I heard you call him a liar so he probably ran with it to mess with you dude. He's a total troll sometimes."

Chad nodded, "He's sassy."

Keigo looked at Chad and spoke jokingly, "You think she'd know that if she's dating him. I hope you didn't break his heart by yelling at him."

Rukia felt the regret wash over her as she took off running in the direction Ichigo had left in. When she did, Chad asked of Keigo, "Why did you put it like that?"

Keigo scratched his nose, "Hey, messing with people lets me soak up negative energy and expand my lifespan."

It actually pulled a tiny chuckle out of the stoic man.

Rukia pushed her Gigai to run at top speed, in doing so she cleared a few blocks on the way towards Ichigo's Dad's house. She only passed a few people on the street, the cold had driven most home to hunker down. That allowed her to spot the orange hair from a block away. She felt excitement and hustled over. When she caught up to the man, he was sitting at a bus stop. Rukia stormed up and snapped. "Chad said you didn't go to the mountains today! Why did you not tell me?!"

Ichigo started laughing and spoke amidst the chuckle, "You shoulda seen your face. So mad! You decided to yell at me so I decided to get you back. It was pretty cute that you wanted to go with me so badly!"

She turned red.

He jabbed with a flirt. "You blushing?"

Rukia then unleashed a barrage of chops and punches to various parts of his body as she complained. "Don't lie to me you punk! I actually thought you went without me!"

Ichigo caught her hands and held them long enough to stop the play punches. "Of course, I would never go without you. I'm kinda shocked you think I could be that terrible."

She shriveled up a tad. Then shouted again, "Hey, it's not my fault! Your sister told me you had."

Ichigo didn't verbally respond, he simply motioned for Rukia to sit next to him on the bench. She did so. Then Ichigo handed her two pieces of paper. Rukia observed them and smiled broadly, "hey, are these train tickets to go out to the resort on the mountain?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yup, got em switched yesterday so we could still go."

Rukia sat contemplating her folly in jumping to far stretching conclusions. She was also immediately excited to go out and see the mountains for the first time. Ichigo sat quietly and it made the anxiety build up in her. She finally spoke aloud and calmly, "Sorry I called you a liar."

Ichigo smiled, "I mean, pranking you like that can technically be considered a lie. "

Rukia laughed, "Mighty interesting philosophy there. In that case, you're my favorite liar."

Ichigo smiled again, this time allowing a small laugh to escape, "Well in that case, I forgive you for being so mean to me."

Rukia nodded, "I appreciate it, but how can you forgive me so quickly, I yelled at you quite viciously back there?"

Ichigo made soft eye contact with her. "Easy, its cause I like you."

Her cheeks went a shade of Crimson again, "Why do you like me so much anyway?"

Ichigo looked out over the sky again. "First, you stopped the rain…now you made me love it too."

Rukia cocked her head sideways slightly, "That's a pretty poetically romantic thing for such an idiot to say."

Ichigo playfully chopped her on the forehead, "Hey, I'm not an idiot ya midget!"

She jumped up and punched her guy in the chest. Ichigo rubbed it as a bus pulled up behind Rukia. Her soul reaper pager dinged as the bus arrived too. It distracted both of them from the conversation. The ding usually meant Rukia had to go back to work and it made the mood sink. Work ruining their trip was the last thing either of them wanted. Ichigo watched in anticipation as Rukia's face showed serious sadness. She looked up at Ichigo. "They called me in."

Ichigo hopped up and threw his hands in the air. "Of course! Let me call Captain Shunsui right now! He's getting a mouthful. He can't just call you in on a whim. What about your lieutenants, tell them to handle whatever it is. They all know you don't get to come over here often."

He was puffing when he noticed Rukia covering her mouth to hide a giggle. He realized something was up and snapped, "What the heck you laughing for?"

Rukia spoke while holding back the laugh, "That was Hanataro, he asked if we could take pictures of the mountains for him."

Ichigo tried to hide his own embarrassed blush, as he'd fallen right for that one. Rukia came up and patted his arm, "Looks like we're even. Gotta keep up with my favorite fibbing little punk."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and turned her shoulders towards the bus behind her. "Just get on the bus midget."

After a quick bus ride and a walk into the subway the two of them were loaded up on the train and riding out toward Mt Fuji. They sat across from each other on a mostly vacant train. Ichigo looked at his phone. "Looks like we won't get there until like 3 am. Can we just wake up tomorrow and stay in bed…honestly I'm looking forward to that more than anything. We haven't done much of that."

The thought of sharing a bed made Rukia's imagination run a tad and she tried to hide it as she answered, "Sounds good to me, that sounds…nice."

Ichigo decided to goad playfully again, "Maybe if I'm lucky you won't have many clothes on."

Rukia grinned mischievously, then hit him with his own medicine, "Well, if I'm lucky you won't even be able to find your clothes."

Ichigo's jaw dropped at the uncharacteristic quip.

Rukia reached over and used her hand to close his mouth. "About time you came down from that cloud Ichigo?"

"Then don't send me to the 9th one."

She laughed and hopped over to sit next to him. Rukia leaned her head against his shoulder. "Hey Ichigo, Can we do this kind of thing every weekend?"

He smiled broadly.

"As long as there aren't any hollows."

Rukia smiled, she'd started to fall asleep, but she answered, "Every good courtship has some fighting."

Ichigo nodded and smiled at yet another quip from the brilliant girl on his arm. He watched her fall asleep then glanced out the train window and thought to himself as the lights zoomed by.

He thought back on her question. "Can we do this every weekend, huh?"

"As if I could ever hide away from you."


Hope you enjoyed it, look out for the next in this silly business.