A/N: Hello there! Here is chapter 11! It's a nice long one for you. I hope it pleases you. I didn't really intend on using this song as THE chapter song, but I went with it seeing as it was a particular part with the chapter. You'll understand when you get to it. Song is "My Girl," by the Temptations. Yeah, haha. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Nope.

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Chapter 11: My Girl

"Alright, so do me a favor and tell me how I ended up here again?" Ichigo said with the utmost regret.

"Oh quit being a baby. It's your turn. Chad already failed with his and we had to run from the damn security guards. Just get it over with," Renji pushed him ahead as he held the camera from behind the bush.

Ichigo flew forward and looked back with a glare at the redhead who was smirking behind the camera. Ichigo then looked forward and took a deep breath. He started his slow walk towards the pool full of many civilians on that hot sunny day.

Two hours earlier…

"You're such a pansy. You can't kill a small ass spider?" Ichigo said as he laughed.

"Screw you, Kurosaki. You can get bitten by those little bastards and wind up getting a dangerous or fatal disease. I rather not risk it," Uryuu said as he stood away from the wall with the said pest. Ichigo picked up a particular magazine on a table and made his way lazily over to it.

"Yeah sewing kit boy, you could get bitten and even though you're a geek and look like Peter Parker, I doubt you have any luck of ever getting to be as cool as Spiderman," Ichigo said rolling up the magazine and slamming it on the wall. He let the weapon fall to the floor with a slap, walked back over to the couch and flopped down.

"Well at least I'm not scared shitless of whether or not my girlfriend is gonna dump me or not for posing with my ex," Uryuu added with a glare. "And pick up that damn magazine now that you ruined it."

Ichigo took in a deep breath. "That wasn't low at all," he mumbled. He then looked back at his friend who approached the magazine on the floor with a grimace on his face.

"I thought I told you it doesn't matter. Rukia probably doesn't give two shits about the cover. If there's nothing goin' on then I doubt Senna will bother. She'll probably even say how nice it looks."

Chad, who was sitting next to him in Ichigo's living room, spoke up. "So why are you so miserable?"

Ichigo turned his head quickly towards his well-built friend, "Whose side are you on, man?" Chad just shrugged.

"It's a good question though, Ichigo," Renji said before taking a chug of his beer.

Ichigo turned to look at the redhead in the chair. "I'm not miserable," he corrected.

"No, you've just been bitchy ever since you saw the magazine," Renji said in response.

"No I haven't," he said in defense.

Uryuu wiped the side of the magazine off on the table it was originally on and then threw it on the orange headed man's lap. "You haven't done anything but sit there ever since you saw this."

Ichigo groaned and held the edge of the magazine off his lap. "Ugh, god. I swear if I have bug guts on me…"

"You'll what?" Uryuu said crossing his arms as a glare was seen on his glasses.

"Don't challenge me, Peter Pan. I'm not in the mood," he said with a glare.

"I thought it was Peter Parker…" Uryuu corrected.

"So we agree?" Ichigo said with a smirk.

Chad started laughing. "That reminds me of the time I dared you to jump off the roof of your house with an umbrella," he said to Ichigo.

Uryuu joined in laughing, "And then he slammed straight into the pool and ended up getting a huge red mark from the impact."

Chad smiled, "Rukia was pissed at us." The room fell silent. Everyone avoided eye contact at that moment. Ichigo was now staring for the millionth time at the cover in which he co-starred on.

"Then I dared you to sing a song outside Orihime's window, but you chickened out," Chad said with another laugh.

"I didn't chicken out!" Uryuu yelled. "I just had a sore throat that night," he added sheepishly.

"Bullshit," Renji smiled and said with disbelief as he finished his bottle.

"Oh yeah? Then why don't I re-dare you?" Chad said in return.

"Jesus, you're grown men," Ichigo added with complete attitude as his eyes were still glued to the cover.

"Then I dare you to propose to the Chinese food guy that gives out samples in the mall!" Uryuu yelled back to Chad; ignoring Ichigo's comment.

Renji laughed, "Well you guys should make this interesting. Care to bet on it?"

Uryuu thought for a moment, "We see who can fully complete their task."

Chad nodded, "How much?"

"Two hundred sounds good," Renji added.

"Two hundred?!" the two yelled in unison.

"What? Like you guys don't have enough cash…" Renji replied in defense.

"Fine," Chad said slightly annoyed as the two reached into the pockets and pulled out their wallets. They put two hundred bucks on the coffee table.

"Are those ones?" Renji asked with a laugh.

Uryuu glared, "I don't usually walk around with millions of dollars in my wallet."

"I'm in," Ichigo said from the couch.

The three men in the room looked surprised at the orange headed man. "What?" he asked slightly irritated.

Uryuu raised an eyebrow with a smirk, "I thought you weren't in the mood for a challenge?"

He shrugged, "You've sparked my interest. Two hundred is it?" he asked as he contributed to the pool on the table.

"Oh I've got the perfect one for you, choirboy," Uryuu said smirking.

"Bring it on, schoolgirl."

Two hours later…

"Oh, Kurosaki!" Uryuu whispered, yet called after Ichigo with Chad waving him back.

"What?" Ichigo said beginning to walk back towards the three.

"Everything but this," the man wearing glasses said as he threw something at the orange headed man.

Ichigo caught it and tried to process what it was. "Since you think you're so cool, you should be able to pull it off," Uryuu added sarcastically.

Ichigo frowned, "Just a Spiderman mask? Are you serious?"

Chad nodded. "What? Are you backing out now?" Chad added with a smile.

Ichigo looked at them like they were crazy. "Hell no. I'm just processing the fact that you guys really are gay," he said with a smirk as he turned and walked towards the pool again.

He took a deep breath and saw the pool full with a lot of people. He grimaced at the sight of children in the shallow end and saw the row of teenage girls trying to get a tan by the side, followed by the row of middle aged women trying to do the same. There was a variety of people and they had no idea what was coming.

He put on the full headed mask quickly over his entire head and continued on his way. His mind quickly flashed to something he hadn't thought about in a long time.

He sat on the lifeguard stand cracking his neck as the sweat rolled down his temple. The sun was blazing and there was too many to count that decided to go to the pool that day. He was bored to death. No one ever needed him to come to their rescue and today was just too hot for him to sit up somewhere watching everyone else cool off in the water.

"Hi," he heard from his side. He looked down towards the three girls who were smiling up at him.

"Hey," he said somewhat awkward. He tried to pretend like he saw something and moved his gaze onto the water in a fake alarm.

"You're in my calculus class, right?" one of them said with her shiny blonde hair and red lipstick. She didn't have to say a word; neither did the other two; he knew they were coming on to him. The sad part was he was never really good at letting people down.

Rukia, Orihime and Tatsuki sat on the ledge of the pool with their legs dangling into the water.

"Ugh, don't they make you sick? I hate those bitchy little princess-wanna-bes," Tatsuki said with a grimace. "I can only imagine what you're thinkin' there, Ruk."

"What do you mean?" she asked somewhat confused. "I'm fine," she corrected with ease.

Tatsuki gave her a look as if she was crazy. "Are you serious? They are totally hitting on your boyfriend. I'd expect some sort of death threat out of you!"

Rukia just shrugged. Orihime was kicking her feet lightly in the water, "Good for you, Rukia. You're taking the higher road," she said cheerfully.

The three friends watched the three girls flirting with a certain orange headed idiot and by the time they all saw the main blonde place her hand on Ichigo's thigh, Rukia was on her feet.

"Alright that bitch is going down!" Rukia yelled quite loud as she was about to storm off.

"So much for the higher road," Orihime sighed and slowly stood up.

Tatsuki was already to her feet as well, but she did it in order to hold Rukia back with her hands on the raven haired girl's shoulders. "Tatsuki! What the hell? Let me go! You encouraged me to be angry!" she exclaimed in surprise.

Tatsuki smirked, "Well yeah, but I rather not have to get rid of the bodies when you're done with 'em."

Orihime stood standing somewhat sadly. "Just take some deep breathes."

Rukia followed her friend's advice. Suddenly an idea came to her head. She had a smirk on her face. "I'll be back. Don't worry. I won't lay a finger on them," she said, earning Tatsuki's consent.

The raven haired girl of eighteen began to walk slowly and quite seductively towards the diving board, where you would have to pass the lifeguard stand to get to. She had on the slightest smile as she noticed many of the male specimens, whose path she crossed, stop and stare at the mesmerizing young woman.

Ichigo saw her coming and his attention was taken away from the three girls, who became irritated by his captivation of the approaching opponent. Rukia saw the glares that the girls were giving her and she wanted to grin so badly, but remained neutral. Once she was close enough, she turned her head towards Ichigo and winked without a single word, and then continued on her way.

Ichigo was left to stare at her hypnotizing hips that moved in a well balanced pattern. Her two piece was clearly the young man's enemy due to his want to jump off his high horse and pin her to the ground. Oh the many scenarios that ran through his head at the moment…

She made it to the diving board and walked to the very edge where she thought she had achieved victory, but as she looked back at the lifeguard stand, she saw two of the girls place their hands further up on his thigh than before. Then, for the faintest second, she felt like her eyes could burn them to a crisp. Then, without a second thought she dove into the water.

Ichigo grimaced as he tried to sit as far back in the chair as possible to avoid their touch. He looked up and noticed Rukia had already jumped. His eyes scanned the pool. She hadn't come up yet. His heart began to beat faster and faster and within less than a second, he had shoved the girls out of his way and dove expertly into the deep end. There, underwater, he saw her half floating at the bottom; her eyes were closed.

He swam quickly, grabbed her and made it to the surface. He pushed her over the ledge of the pool and climbed up quickly with water going everywhere. His hair was beyond wet and it dripped down his face, but he could care less about that at the moment.

He laid her down and held her chin up slightly and plugging her nose before his lips met hers. Then, she smirked and flew her hands up behind his wet orange head. His hands let go of her face as he needed them to balance him on the floor. After a few seconds of a very passionate and very wet kiss, she let Ichigo lean up. She stared up at him with a satisfied smile as she saw the three girls glare and walk away with their arms crossed over their chests.

He stared breathless at the girl underneath him until his mind registered what had happened. "What the hell, Rukia! What were you thinking?!"

She didn't really think about this part of her plan. All she wanted was for those bimbos to get their hands off her man, but she never thought about what he would do. 'Woops.' She just stared up at him with her mouth slightly ajar as she searched for words.

"I thought you were drowning! My heart nearly came up my throat and out my damn mouth!" he yelled.

She frowned and showed a clear face of regret. "I'm sorry," she said with complete belief.

He sighed heavily and looked away. "I don't know if I can accept that right now."

She leaned up slightly with her elbows. "I get why you're mad. That was stupid of me, but those girls were just… ugh!" she said in annoyance. "I thought the walk would do it, but then I looked up and there was more touching and I swear if I had a knife I would have used it!" she said getting very ruthless.

"It's not like I would have let them go any farther!" he said in defense.

"Well, how am I supposed to know?! You're an idiot and don't know how to say 'no'!" she yelled back at him.

"I know how to say 'no'!" he argued. They were causing quite a scene.

"You know what? I might have got your adrenaline running but I got their skanky ass fingers off you. I'm not apologizing for that," she said with confidence.

He was silent and avoided her gaze. She then sighed and placed her hand gently on his forearm. "I said I'm sorry. Come on. You know how protective you are. You get all macho when I'm paired with any guy for a stupid lab," she explained in a calm tone as she stared at his turned face. All she received was silence.

She sighed heavily. "Alright, fine. Be mad. I said sorry, so there's nothing else I can do," she stood up hastily and brushed off her legs. She leaned down and placed her lips gently on his cheek and left them there for at least four seconds. His heart rate increased yet again. She whispered into his ear and in no way was it supposed to be in a bewitching way. "Tell me when you finally forgive me," she said before walking away towards the restroom so she could change; she had to be at work in less than an hour.

He sighed as her lips left a tingling on his cheek that spread throughout his entire body. He grunted and then picked himself off the ground.

She was about turn the corner and enter through the door when he quickly wrapped his arms around her bare waist, pushed her against the wall; which shielded them from an audience. Then, he slammed his lips against hers.

After a few seconds, he titled his head back to look at her with smirk. Rukia was a little out of breath as she raised her hand to her chest. She then punched him on his chest. "You just scared the living shit out of me! I thought I was booking my future appearance on The Cold Case Files!"

He flinched from her fist, but then smiled as he leaned closer to her face again. "I guess we're even, huh midget?"

She glared at first, but then rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I guess."

"Good," he said pecking her lips. "When you going to work?" he added as he continued to give her light kisses.

She began to laugh, "I have to be there in about," she was interrupted by another peck. "Forty minutes," she continued.

He groaned in annoyance. She then raised an eyebrow. "Don't even think about it. The last time you told me to skip work, I almost lost my job."

He grinned, "But I bet it was worth it."

She smiled and looked up into the air as if she was thinking. "Eh. Not really."

He raised both eyebrows. "Oh yeah?" he asked as his fingers traced the top of her swim suit bottom.

She nodded, "Mhm. I don't really think I'm willing to waste my time again."

Ichigo looked into her eyes. "Well if that's what you think, that's fine. I'll just give you a sample of what you're missing." He then pressed himself completely against her as his hands slid up her bare stomach so slowly that goose bumps began to form. His lips moved like magic as her mind tried to absorb every feeling that he was giving her. He leaned off her lips slightly as her eyes remained closed.

He looked at her smiling face, "Still wasting your time?" She chuckled slightly, "Yup."

He then captured her lips again as his hands made it to hold her face. His tongue invaded her mouth and then her body went haywire. He leaned back to look at her again with a grin; her eyes were open now.

"Alright!" she said while laughing. "Stop, otherwise I really will miss work again and then I really will get fired! Wait until I'm off work." She began to push him away from her, "Better yet, wait until you're off work. Someone could be drowning right now, ya know?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, "You mean pretending to drown?"

She smiled and rolled her eyes as she began to walk around him towards the door, "Oh you know it was a good idea. Admit it now that you forgive me."

"Who said anything about forgiving you? You gotta earn that," he added suavely.

She gave a single chuckle, "Piece of cake."

He shook his head as he began to walk backwards. "Go change, Kuchiki," he said before turning around and heading back towards his stand.

'Why the hell are you thinking about that?' he yelled in his head. He sighed heavily.

'Alright, let's do this.' He then grabbed the bottom of his tank top and pulled up over his head and threw it on the grass as he walked. He then pulled his jogging shorts down and stepped out of them quickly as he continued to walk towards the fast approaching pool.

He kicked his shoes off, which he had already planned on not wearing socks for this task anyway. He swallowed and without stopping, he took the finally step and dropped his boxers.

Then he ran. He made it to the diving board, where he was told to jump on it three times and then belly flop into the water. He heard shrieks and saw mothers covering their children's eyes. On the other hand, he saw many young women eyeing him up and even heard some whistles; some sounded manly…

Ichigo hit the water hard and he knew that it was going to be damn painful after the shock wore off. He stayed at the bottom of the pool to recover quickly and then swam up and jumped out as fast as he could. He turned around to the pool and with his own little addition to the task; he bowed and then ran off.

He picked up his boxers, put them on and then picked up his clothes as he ran by them.

"What the hell are you sitting there for?! Get in the damn car before the cops show up!" he yelled from underneath the mask as he approached the three men laughing hysterically behind the bush. They all jumped up and began making a mad dash with the half naked orange headed man towards the car.

They all laughed in the car as Ichigo pulled the mask off his head. He ruffled his orange locks and cracked his neck.

"I'm kind of surprised, Kurosaki. I didn't expect you to remember the jumps or the belly flop. I figured you lose from that," Renji said as he held the camera in the passenger seat.

Chad continued to drive and look in his mirror to make sure the police weren't in sight. "Yeah. Good job. But next we've got Uryuu," he said as he took a turn.

Ichigo smirked as he threw his tank top on over his head. "I can't wait to see this- actually I can't wait to hear this."

Uryuu rolled is eyes, "Just put your pants on, you corruptor of childhood."

"What does that even mean?" Ichigo laughed as he pulled his shorts back on awkwardly in the moving car.

"Those poor kids' minds are scarred from seeing you," Uryuu answered.

Ichigo gave a chuckle, "Those kids should feel bad for me! I'm about to go deaf from your terrible singing voice!"

Uryuu was about to throw his hands around his seat mate's neck before Chad hit the breaks. "We're here."

"Orihime!" Rukia said in shock but she began to laugh. "Since when are you so forward?!"

The strawberry blonde shrugged with a shy smile. "We've been dating for a few months now, but it's like he's afraid to touch me. Is it too much to want him to push me against a wall or something?"

Rukia couldn't help but laugh. This was just weird to hear from Orihime. In fact, Rukia was holding her stomach and found it hard to stand up. Tatsuki was holding her hand over her mouth and avoiding eye contact as chuckles broke through.

"It is too much to ask?" Orihime asked becoming aware of how embarrassing this conversation was for her.

Rukia shook her head as she tried to catch her breath. "No," she said before taking another breath, "It's not too much. But I get it. It's Uryuu. He's had a thing for you since high school. He's probably just too head over heels to know what to do with you."

Orihime sighed. Then, Rukia's phone went off. She looked at it and then smiled curiously. "Renji! What are you up to?" she answered cheerfully.

"Hey Rukia," he said casually. "Do me a favor. Are you at home?"

She squinted at his comment as suspicion grew. "No… I'm at Orihime's with Tatsuki."

"What?! No! I mean-" he responded not knowing what to do. She could hear a familiar voice in the background, but couldn't understand. Renji was then heard talking back, "I'm not going to give it away! Just back the hell up and let me handle this! Rukia," he turned the conversation back to the girl who remained confused.

"What?" she asked trying to get him to talk more.

"I need you to slowly and delicately guide Orihime to a certain location in her house that would allow her to be able to look out on a certain area of her house that can be used to do certain-" Renji said slowly and hesitantly.

"Give me the god damn phone!" Rukia heard the familiar voice again and this time she knew exactly who it was. "Rukia."

Her heart must have skipped a beat when he said her name. She didn't know why, but she found it hard to let words escape her mouth. She cleared her throat, "I-Ichigo?"

"Yeah, hey," he said strangely soft. He subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck. "Can you do me a favor?"

She then got a little more comfortable. She raised an eyebrow even though he could not see her, "Geez Kurosaki, you know there is such a thing as kissing someone's ass for those kinds of things."

She did not expectant to hear him chuckle. The three men even stopped to look at him with surprise. "I know, but I've never been really good at wiping other people's asses either." This time she chuckled. Ichigo heard Orihime speak.

"What's going on? What are Renji and Ichigo asking for?" she asked curiously. Tatsuki didn't seem to care that much, but quietly observed the situation. Rukia shrugged and Ichigo quickly spoke.

"Don't tell her anything that I'm about to say! Say we're calling 'cause we want you to pick us some lottery numbers," he said thinking quickly.

Rukia was kind of stumbled. "Uh… okay." She paused and then registered it, "That's actually really lame."

She heard a growl on the other side of the phone. "Just do it, Kuchiki," he groaned.

She held her hand over the phone and spoke to Orihime, "They want me to pick them lottery numbers."

The strawberry blonde looked confused. "They have plenty of money…"

Rukia just shrugged and gave Tatsuki a wink to let her know something was going on. Ichigo began to talk again. "Even number for 'yes' and odd for 'no'."

"Okay," she agreed.

"Are you upstairs?"

"Fourteen."

"Are you in her bedroom?"

"Twenty-three."

"Does her bedroom have that little balcony that leads to the backyard?"

"Fifty-four."

"Can you take her there?"

"Thirty-eight."

"Remember when I jumped off the roof into my pool when we were kids?"

Her voice growled, "Forty-two…"

"Well this is something like that, but no pain. Well maybe you're ears…" he chuckled. "You'll thank me for it though." He then paused, "How many numbers was that?"

"That was five."

He nodded and then smiled softly, "Did you like the magazine cover?"

She smiled in the same manner and spoke softly, "Two."

He smiled even more, "Me too." He stood there for a second, "You can hang up now and bring her to her bedroom."

"Alright," she said with a soft tone still.

"And Rukia?" he added somewhat urgently.

"Yes?" she said and subconsciously held her breath.

He exhaled, "Thanks."

She exhaled as well, "No problem, Strawberry." He chuckled and then hung up.

"God. It's kind of stuffy in here, isn't it?" Rukia said hanging up the phone.

"What? I think its fine," Orihime said not noticing.

Tatsuki got the hint. "I don't know. It's either getting really hot in here or I'm havin' a hot flash at such a young age…"

"Let's go get some air," Rukia said pulling on her friend's wrist. She led her to her bedroom and opened up the balcony doors.

"Look at that beautiful sunset!" Rukia yelled with a smile. Orihime smiled and stepped out.

Then, they heard the start of 'instruments' which were really the voices of three men. Chad and Renji took on the constant bass, while Ichigo took the guitar part to sing.

Then, Uryuu came in. His heart was racing, while he started off with a shaky voice.

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside I've got the month of May

His voice cracked on the word, "May" and the guys found it hard not to laugh and mess up the 'music'.

I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl)

They came in with the echo when necessary. And Uryuu felt like he was getting used to it. Orihime was left with her hand over her open mouth. Rukia and Tatsuki were trying so hard not to laugh as hard as possible.

I've got so much honey the bees envy me.
I've got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl)

Uryuu was now getting really into it and was having no problem swaying with the song now.

I don't need no money, fortune, or fame.
I've got all the riches baby one man can claim.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl)

He put it all out on the line for the last few lines.

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
with my girl.
I've even got the month of May
with my girl

The ending was full of power and he suddenly felt shy once the three stopped playing their convincing instrumentals. He smiled sheepishly up at Orihime. "Well… I'll call you later!" he said beginning to walk off.

"Wait!" she yelled from the balcony before disappearing into the house. Uryuu swallowed hard and then shook his head.

"I gotta get out of here," he said before walking fast towards the front of the house where the car was.

"Yo! Ishida! Maybe you should wait!" Ichigo yelled after him as Chad elbowed him.

"What are you doing?! Let him fail his challenge, man!" Chad whispered to Ichigo. Ishida didn't listen.

Rukia looked down on the three remaining and shook her head with a big grin. Tatsuki was laughing out loud clearly, "You guys are idiots."

Renji laughed, "You loved it and you know it."

The boxer laughed, "Of course I did. Uryuu singing? That is something you can't miss."

Rukia spoke up, "I can't believe he actually went through with the dare you gave him years ago, Chad."

"I know. I was sure he was gonna lose his money first," the giant responded.

"You guys are not betting," she said disappointedly, hoping she misunderstood.

Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck, "No?" he said unconvincingly. Tatsuki sighed loudly in disappointment as she shook her head and made her way inside to go down the stairs inside.

"Oh god. Hold on. I don't want to yell down anymore," Rukia yelled before jumping over the ledge and holding onto the drain pipe.

"What the hell are you doing, midget!" Ichigo yelled running towards the wall of the house.

"I've got it covered! Just get out of my way," she said climbing down slowly.

"Rukia! Why couldn't you have just used the damn stairs inside?" Renji asked incredulously.

"What did you expect?" Chad said unenthusiastically.

She was a little less than ten feet above the ground when she decided to try to slide down it instead. This caused her to lose her grip and before she hit the ground she felt arms encompass her. She took a deep breath.

"Way to almost break your neck," the orange headed man said after letting go of her from behind.

Rukia just brushed off her pants, "Well I obviously wasn't going to if you were going to be there to be my cushion."

He glared, "I was only your cushion because I knew you would fall and I'd have to catch you!"

She froze and let those words take over her thoughts. She swallowed and broke eye contact with him. "Thanks," she said softly. He knew how weird it had gotten as well and just replied with a mumble, "Yeah."

"Let's go find Uryuu so I can let him down easy," Ichigo said before walking towards the front of the house. The rest followed him and met up with Tatsuki who came out of the front door.

Once they saw the car in sight, they also saw Orihime and Uryuu… her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, his hands around her waist, while their lips were crushed together.

"Damn," Chad said with a smile.

Rukia shook her head as she crossed her arms over her chest with a grin. "I guess she's getting more contact now," she mumbled to herself.

"Dude! Quit making out! You lost!" Ichigo said with a chuckle.

The two separated with embarrassment of getting caught. They came closer to the group as Renji began to explain.

"So due to Chad and Uryuu not completing their challenges, Ichigo wins."

The orange headed man threw both hands in the air. "That's right!" he yelled cockily.

The two other men rolled there eyes. Tatsuki didn't quite understand. "How did Uryuu lose? We just saw him go through with it."

"He didn't confess his love for her," Chad said unenthusiastically.

Uryuu threw his hand to his face. "This is so embarrassing," he mumbled. Orihime grinned from ear to ear and kissed his cheek.

Tatsuki looked over to Chad and Ichigo, "What did you guys have to do?"

Renji laughed, "How about we just go back to Ichigo's and you can see what they had to do."

Ichigo's eyes grew wide. "What?! No way! We agreed no one would see that!" he yelled with paranoia.

"Let's get going," Renji said, ignoring Ichigo and walking towards the car.

Everyone began to move toward a vehicle, while Ichigo stood where he remained, "Come on guys!" he begged.

Rukia walked up next to him. "What are you so afraid of? We're all friends here," she said with her violet eyes staring into his. She then turned and made her way towards Tatsuki's car.

He watched her retreating form and took in her words. They were finally friends again. After all this time they had made it back to where they started. He couldn't help but let his lips curl into a smile. Then it hit him. He doesn't need her seeing what's on that camera.

Everyone was sitting down in the living room. Renji sat in a chair with Tatsuki sitting on the arm. Uryuu sat with Orihime on the love seat, while Chad sat on the couch next to Rukia. Ichigo was pacing in the background as Renji tried to figure out how to play the tape.

'I gotta think. Gotta think,' he thought to himself urgently. 'Anyone but her.' He then stopped pacing, 'Well… its not like she hasn't seen me like that… it's just… it's just been awhile!' he yelled in his head with frustration as he started pacing again.

He looked up at his kitchen, 'Ask her to help me get some drinks?' He then shook his head, 'We'd be back in there before we saw Chad pop the question and not put the ring on that guy's finger.' He then smiled as he thought about how his friend lost the bet.

Ichigo then looked up his stairs. He thought about it for a moment and then nodded slowly as he began to like this new idea. He then turned back to the group and leaned over the back of the couch, tapping her on the shoulder. "Hey, can you come with me for a sec?"

She looked at him curiously, "Sure." She got up as Renji continued to yell profanity at the television screen. They began to make their way up the stairs and Ichigo led her into his bedroom. She raised an eyebrow, but quickly dismissed any thoughts that she knew she shouldn't be having.

"Ichi-" she began as she looked around his bedroom. She felt wrong standing in it. It was different now from when she helped prepare him for Orihime's talk show; now he was in a relationship with someone. Regardless of their true intentions in his bed chambers, she felt uncomfortable.

"Sit down," he said motioning towards his bed as he went for a drawer in a dresser on the far wall.

"Uh, I don't think I should," she said sheepishly, which caused him to turn around and look at her awkwardly.

"And why is that?" he asked somewhat suspiciously with furrowed eyebrows.

"It's your bed," she said incredulously without looking at him. "It's just weird!"

He rolled his eyes, "Whatever, midget. Stand then," he said shaking his head as he turned back around and continued rummaging through his drawer.

She crossed her arms and looked around. She took a deep breath and then flopped on the floor sitting Indian style. He turned around with a possession in hand and then raised an eyebrow. He sighed and walked over towards and crashed down to the floor next to her.

"Who said you had to sit on the floor?" she asked trying to defend her action.

"Well if I'm trying to show you something I should probably be next to you, shouldn't I?" he said sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and then looked at his hands. Her mouth began to open slowly as her eyes grew wide, "Is that…?"

He smiled softly and nodded as his eyes looked back at the object he was holding. "I thought I lost it years ago, but a found it in the past year when I went back home."

They sat there in a minute of silence as they stared at the worn sheet of paper in Ichigo's hands. Rukia slowly reached over and took it out of his grip. She smiled big as she read her ten year old handwriting. She let her fingers trace across the words written on the paper. 'Friends FOREVER' were the words written in rainbow colored markers. There was a picture of two bunnies on the piece paper holding hands.

"You were always so damn forward," he said with a chuckle as he leaned back on his palms with his legs stretched out in front of him on the floor.

She raised an eyebrow and looked back at him with a knowing smile, "Apparently you liked that about me otherwise you would have thrown this away a long time ago."

He shrugged. "You ran straight up to me before you left the playground that day, handed it to me and said in a threatening tone, 'Keep that forever or else!'," he said in defense.

She gave a laugh and nodded as she looked back towards the paper, "See? Then it worked."

He shook his head at her and moved on. "How old is that thing now? Twelve years?"

She nodded her head slowly and then looked back at him with a sincere and delicate smile. "Almost thirteen. You're twenty-third birthday is coming up," she added seeing as how they met shortly after his tenth birthday.

He sighed, "Yeah. Time is flying by." The two sat silently as Rukia continued to stare at her childhood creation. Ichigo struggled as he began to stand up. He stretched his back once he stood straight up and then looked down at the raven haired woman still captivated by the picture.

"It really has," she said softly with her eyes hanging on the words in the sheet. She tilted her head up to look into his eyes. "And now I'm sitting here next to you almost thirteen years later," she said in a 'look at that,' manner.

He smiled down at her and held his hand down for her to grab, in which she did. "What did you expect?" he said as he pulled her up. She balanced herself and stood staring into his amber eyes again after handing him their memory. "You did say, 'Friends forever,'" he said with a sly smile.

She found trouble believing he had just said that. They had been through a messy couple of years and after all of that, he just reinforced her declaration that she made almost thirteen years ago. She smiled shyly and simply said, "Yeah," before turning and walking towards the door as a blush graced her cheeks. She turned back around once she made it to the door. "Come on, Strawberry. Let's get back downstairs," she said with a kind smile as she made a nod towards the stairs.

He nodded with a smile, placed the picture on his bed and walked out of the room behind her.

"By the way," she started as they made it to the bottom of the stairs. "I hope you didn't think that could distract me from seeing whatever stunt you pulled on that videotape," she said in an all-knowing tone of voice as she strutted back into the living room.

His eyes went wide and then he followed quickly behind her. Renji smirked, "Perfect timing!" he said as the image of Ichigo was now on the screen with his back walking away from the camera.

Then, immediately, Ichigo draped his arms over Rukia and put his hands over her eyes. "Ichigo?! Get off!" she yelled as she got out of his grip and looked at the screen with a smile. He began to panic and as his shirt was seen being thrown to the ground he quickly wrapped his arms around her waist and tried carrying her off.

Of course, being Rukia Kuchiki, she was always up for a good fight, especially with Ichigo Kurosaki. She kicked her legs around everywhere and threw her arms over her head as well as trying to elbow him in the gut, which she succeeded in doing. She ran back over behind the couch and saw the final drop of his boxers. Her mouth fell open as a smile began to grow. The rest of the group was laughing, especially the unexpected few that had no idea.

Ichigo wasn't ready to give up though. They had only seen him from behind. He watched for a moment and before he saw himself starting to turn and jump on the diving board, he grabbed Rukia and turned her towards him and wrapped her in his arms close to his body. He had a good grip on her this time and there was no way she was going to get out.

She began to try to break free, but once she saw how close they were, her struggle stopped as she stared deeply into his eyes. They were lost in the other's gaze for what felt like an infinite amount of moments with his arms tightly wrapped around her body so that they were pressed together.

He swallowed hard as he saw her cheeks begin to turn a light pink. He quickly let go and looked anywhere but at her. She watched him act uncomfortable as she found she had lost her breath. She blinked a few times and then casually looked over at the screen; not like it mattered to her anymore. She saw him running back towards the camera in his boxers with his clothes in his hands.

Rukia smiled at the screen and then peeked at Ichigo from the corner of her eye. He was completely red and looking at what seemed like the empty wall. Her smile grew even bigger and the rest of their friends had no idea what had occurred behind them. The screen changed to showing the back of Orihime's house.

She casually took a step to the side so that she could lean close into Ichigo. "I can't wait to see Ishida embarrass himself twice," she whispered in order to loosen the tension she knew Ichigo was feeling.

He smiled with his blush almost dead. Ichigo leaned down to her and whispered as they both kept their eyes on the screen. "Don't worry. I'm getting a copy of this."

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Long chapter. Like? Didn't? Too long? Tell me your thoughts. They are getting so friendly! Exciting! Yay! Okay, I'm done. Later