A/N: Hey everyone! I just posted another story (soon to be followed by two more) called Deeper Care. It's a LOT more serious than this I suppose, but you may want to check it out! The next two to come out are: April Fools and Ice on the River. Enjoy!

P.S. I've rewritten some of this chapter and added some notes at the end to help you out… I also found grammar mistakes, so they're gone now.

Wafer Mayhem

The ferry floated lazily upon the waters of the channel and a fresh, crisp breeze blew through Rukia's hair. She smiled brightly and leaned over the red, paint-chipped railing almost far enough to make Ichigo to worry. The muffled sound of a tour guide inside the cabin bobbed happily on the wind and drifted past their ears as they caught the perfect view of Miyajima Tori, the floating gate to the Itsukushima Shrine.

"It doesn't look that big," Rukia contemplated, listening distantly to the guide's voice rattling off facts about the gateway. The sound of Ichigo's sincere laughter rang deep and strong.

"Well it is, dummy." He leaned against the railing with his elbows and a reminiscent look past over his features. His spiky orange hair blew stiffly in the ocean gusts.

"When I was little, my mom brought me here once a year. She said it was good for me to see things out of Karakura," he recalled with a smile on his face. "We'd take the ferry over and stand out here no matter how cold it was and watch the fishing boats go by."

"I'm sure it was wonderful," Rukia replied, looking down at a small shrimp skiff. Ichigo caught sight of it as well. When the distant silhouette of a fisherman on its deck appeared to get caught in a net and trip, they both grinned. Rukia sighed contently and Ichigo smiled at her, unable to help noticing the deep V neck of her zip-up blue top. Realizing his sincere gesture and unruly thoughts, he turned his head away and made the expression fall from his face. However, his attempt was short-lived as he heard her gasp sharply. Ichigo turned in a panic and grabbed her arm, a look of shock in his eyes. She looked at him perplexedly, her hand frozen mid-air above her hip. Her feet were planted squarely on the ground…Damnit.

"Ano…"

"S-sorry," he said, jerking away. A faint pink came to his cheeks as she raised her eyebrow.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"I thought you were falling off or something," he mumbled, turning his face away. She laughed, scorching his pride severely as he continued to grumble. He looked back at her as the teasing grin drooped into a frown of concentration.

"What?" Ichigo asked.

"My phone!" Rukia whined quietly, more to herself than to him. She slumped down against the windowsill of the cabin and sighed heavily. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"We wouldn't be able to get any Hollows in Karakura from here anyway, ya know." She didn't reply, but knew he was right. It was just one of those objects that was oddly attached to her personality, where when she didn't have it, she felt naked and vulnerable. That's why it was so hard for her to believe she had forgotten it. Her clothes seemed too small now and she tried to make herself tiny against the side of the large boat, showing as little of her own skin as she possibly could. If she had just had her phone with her, she wouldn't have felt so…so weak…

As they approached the dock, the two shinigami hopped down the narrow metal stairs onto the main deck to join a large group of people and a few sputtering motorbikes. Ichigo grabbed Rukia's wrist gently, remembering her earlier bruises and guided her up the winding path to the welcome lounge of the island. Before she could smother herself on a vending machine, Ichigo bought her a bottle of juice (with a cute animal on the front just to be thorough) and pushed her out the entrance to the Shrine grounds.

"Ooooo," she awed childishly, running towards a vender next to a small, run-down cart. 'Wafers, one hundred yen' a sign read next to his chair. The old man looked up at Rukia lazily as Ichigo handed him the coin and pointed to a small bundle of the food wordlessly. Ichigo eyed the group of deer conglomerating upon a group of American tourists as their supply of flat, dry pancakes ran out. He smirked. This would be interesting.

As soon as Rukia picked up the wafers, one of the dwarf deer came trotting up behind her. It nibbled on her skirt and tugged as she sniffed the bundle in her hands. Just as she was about to take a bite, she turned around to see what Ichigo wanted…Honestly, he could just tap her on the shoulder instead of tugging on her clothes… and screamed, her hair standing on end.

No less than ten miniature deer were closing in on her, their little pink tongues lapping hungrily at their noses. She glanced nervously at the bundle of wafers in her hand, threw them in the air and ran behind Ichigo.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" she yelled, clutching the back of his shirt. She felt so exposed, bare legs and arms and neck. Ichigo could barely contain his laughter as he fumbled with the flying wafers, trying to catch them on the tips of his fingers. He got a hold on them just before a small buck jumped up to catch them.

"They're deer," he replied simply. Rukia stared at him for a few moments, waiting for him to explain further.

"Okay, I know that. Why are they attacking us?" she asked, eyeing the small quadrupeds as they nipped wantonly at Ichigo's jacket and jeans. He laughed a bit and broke a wafer in half, feeding it to a doe.

"The food we just bought is for them, not you, baka" Ichigo teased with a smirk of great arrogance. His eyes flew open and the deer scattered as Rukia's heel met the small of his back. He landed nose first with a grinding thud on the pavement.

"OI!" he yelled, turning on her. The stack of wafers toppled down his shoulders in chunks and crums as the deer began to swarm over him. Rukia waved innocently as he was caught in the wave of hungry mammals and sat herself on a stone bench. She hummed quietly to herself, suppressing the sadistic grin that wanted to cloud her features. She couldn't allow her cheery façade to falter in front of the elderly vender, who was now staring at her with an open mouth. The man's gaze turned sluggishly toward Ichigo. The poor boy was being chased around the vast courtyard, frantically searching for the last wafer that they all hungered for.

Rukia giggled quietly behind her hand, her bubbly laughter drifting to his ears through the breeze. Ichigo looked at her, his face red, eyes wide. She waved again, flashing him her most sickeningly sweet smile. She pointed girlishly to the top of her head and Ichigo's hand flew to his brow, fumbling with the last wafer which had been stuck quite securely in his orange spikes. He frisbee'd the scrumptious little disk at Rukia and it landed in her lap.

Their shouts and insults could be heard echoing throughout the peaceful mountainside and courtyard for nearly half an hour as they practically played Monkey in the Middle with that one…little… wafer.

A/N: It was just a cute little scenario I imagined. Trust me, the deer on Miyajima are NUTS. Hope you liked it! Let me know if the links below are a good helper in visualizing the place they're at.

Whee, Culture Notes!

Miyajima's deer are small, fuzzy and cute. They're miniatures that you really can feed little wafers to. Mysteriously, they stay away from the old man who minds the wafers and his cart, but once you've got them in your hand, if you don't have them over they'll jump and nip and butt…It's really cute as long as you aren't afraid of them. I've seen people run and get chased around the courtyard, no joke. The link below is what it's like to feed them wafers:

is one of the most famous images in Japan. It's a large, red water gate to the Miyajima shrine, which is built above a tidal bay connected to the ocean channel beyond it. The gate is thought to have been used for the entrance of spiritual pilgrims and for certain festivals, such as the Soragawa Matsuri (Milkyway Festival) and New Year's. Here are two links to what Miyajima Tori (first) and Itsukishuma Shrine (second) look like:

http://imagineressources. Disclaimer! I don't own any of these and found them through Google Image Search.