A/N: Computer Crisis! My dog ate seven keys off my laptop keyboard, but never fear! I have other computers by which to write. Enjoy!

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Chappy

Ichigo opened the door to his house and shoved his house key back in his pocket. Neither he nor Rukia spoke as they entered the home, the wistful air of the night completely encompassing their thoughts. Ichigo watched his date shrug off her shoes and bounce up the stairs, her hips swaying seductively as the skirt of her dress took turns hugging each of her thighs. His date. He smiled, his eyes sparkling with amusement as she rounded the corner to his bedroom, humming.

Ichigo looked down at his cell phone as it vibrated urgently in his hand. He flipped it open and found that he had missed several messages from their friends, wondering if they were okay. He walked up the stairs texting his excuses to Keigo and opened the door to his room without so much as a glance. It was only when Rukia screamed with frustration that he looked up with mild surprise.

…And soon burst into fits of full, hardy laughter, the force of which nearly knocked him off his feet. Rukia stood in the middle of the room, chasing herself around in circles on her tiptoes as she tried desperately to reach the zipper on the back of her dress. Her face a bright, embarrassed red, she shrieked with aggravation and flopped down on the bed, her dress puffing with air like a deflating muffin.

"Shut up! I didn't know it would be so hard to get off," she huffed, crossing her arms. Ichigo looked at her a moment, attempting to calm himself down, but fell upon his bookshelf for support as laughter caught him off guard and turned away, the vision still fresh in his mind. Rukia growled and threw a pillow at her escort, hitting him squarely in the stomach. He fell to the floor dramatically and stared up at the ceiling, his hands behind his head.

Rukia's towering form blocked the light from the lamp on his desk and Ichigo looked up at her silhouette as she stood above his chest, her stance wide and huffy. He waggled his eyebrows at her comically and grinned. She eyed him suspiciously.

…And ended up on the floor, sprawled across his chest, her leg flailing wildly in the air. Ichigo smirked and shielded his face as her heel came crashing into his forearms. He was quick enough to grab it, but completely forgot that she had another three limbs.

With a satisfying crunch, Rukia's left elbow buried itself deep in Ichigo's cheek and knocked him off balance. She yanked her foot from his loosened grasp with a victory guffaw and pinned him down as she sat on his stomach with a jump in the air. He heaved in two as air was pushed violently from his lungs and fell back against the carpet, limp and out of breath.

"Okay. You win. Wouldja get off me now?"

"No! You'll just start laughing and pointing again," Rukia accused, crossing her arms and interrogating his innocently solemn expression with squinted eyes.

"Fine. What do you want me to do?" he sighed, rolling his eyes. He forced himself to look away from her cute pout and modest amount of cleavage as she crossed her arms. Her persistent gaze, however, pulled his eyes back to her face and he grinned only barely, still remembering the way the fireworks had played off her skin.

"Unzip it so I don't run around like a chicken with its head cut off," she said, raising her eyebrow challengingly. Ichigo's smile melted away as he registered her words, a rich blush pushing at his cheeks. He tried to sit up, but Rukia wouldn't let him escape. He began to stutter nervously.

"What? No! Do it yourself!"

"Why can't you just pull a zipper? Your fingers don't work or something?"

"Don't be stupid, Rukia! You can't be this dumb," he swore, staring up at her in disbelief. His stomach was churning with a whirl of butterflies, his skin hot and tight. The image of her dress falling away to reveal pools of creamy skin replayed in his mind over and over with the same ferocity that Whinnie the Poo craves honey. He could almost feel her smoothness under his fingertips as he stared up at her, wanting to feast on the curve of her body, but denying that he dreamt of it often.

"Please?" Rukia asked after a heated battle of scowls. She fluttered her eyelashes charmingly with a bright, fake smile. Ichigo grumbled and pushed himself up on his elbows with defeat.

"Fine."

When Rukia refused to move he blinked, looking guiltily at her silky thigh, the skirt riding ever higher as he attempted to sit. Without a word of argument, he swallowed his pride and pushed himself up on one hand, his other catching her around the shoulders as she squeaked with surprise and fell deep into his lap. Their cheeks turned a rosy red as Ichigo's free hand held her tightly to his chest and searched across her naked spine and silky dress for the zipper she couldn't quite reach. He found it between her shoulder blades and pulled the small handle slowly.

"Thanks," Rukia said quietly, her hands on his chest. Ichigo nodded, but his fingers didn't fall away from the small of her back as her dress fell off her shoulders and pooled against her escort's body, barely concealing a black lace bra. They shared a somewhat nervous glance before both blinked and looked away. Ichigo coughed and his date pressed her clothing firmly to her chest as she climbed to her feet clumsily. He watched Rukia prance to her closet and bit his lip, forcing his scowl to resurface.

Her slinking figure was almost too much to bear for the poor teen. As she jumped away from him, seeking refuge in her closet as her dress slipped farther down her figure, he caught a glimpse of her lacey panties, a sexy, sleek black against her pale skin. He turned away and counted how many T's were in the English summary of his Oral Lesson Workbook, which sat on his bottom shelf.

With a bashful sigh as he envisioned Rukia in her undergarments, Ichigo stood and approached his bed, falling face first into his pillow. His stomach spurred excitedly as he recalled his date with Rukia. Date. He had almost convinced himself to call it that simply so that he wouldn't slip and call it something else when Keigo forced him to supply their friends with gossip. But there was no denying it. He had come to believe it was a date…and the air in his pillow was steadily becoming hot and stale…

Turning his head to the side so he could breath, Ichigo stared at the bottom drawer of his desk. He had all but forgotten the Chappy doll stuffed into the cramped hiding space and pulled the drawer open. The fluffy little toy bulged from the confines of the space and, after a few grunts of frustration, he coerced it from its hiding place and sat, scratching the back of his head as he inspected it.

It looked so small and…fluffy, much like what he imagined Rukia to be like once you got past that rocky exterior. Just a fuzzy stuffed animal. With a squeaker. Ichigo grinned and stood, the toy held gently in his hands. He approached Rukia's door and knocked softly, hiding the gift behind his back. Once the door opened, he did something he had never done before. He sat down on Rukia's futon.

"What?" Rukia asked, her usual Napoleonic gruff evident in the undertone of her voice. Ichigo swung his legs onto her bedding and faced her with a smile. She blushed, her knees tucked neatly beneath her as she sat in her small black slip, hiding almost nothing from Ichigo's eyes.

"Remember going to buy clothes last week?" he asked, still holding the present behind his back as he leaned against the wall. Rukia nodded, raising her eyebrow.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I found something that I thought you might…like," he said, letting the words fall thoughtfully from his lips. Rukia's stomach clenched and twisted with nervous excitement as her fingers curled into petite fists upon her bare thighs.

"And what would that be?" she asked softly, her body aching to crawl towards him, but everything else in her too scared to move. Ichigo coughed with embarrassment and he produced the Chappy doll from behind his waist. Rukia felt adrenaline drip down her body as her face brightened, adoring thoughts running through her mind as she grasped the doll gently in her arms and gave it a big squeeze.

"I didn't know when your birthday was, so I decided tonight was best to give it to you," Ichigo mumbled, nervous to his core. Rukia beamed sincerely at him and he felt all his anxiety drain away with that face, that smile. Without warning, she threw herself on him and wrapped her arms around his neck with the force of a sprung mousetrap. He sat frozen for a moment before chuckling and returning her gesture, laying his hands tenderly on her bare shoulders and satin-covered spine.

"Thank you so much, Ichigo! This will make sleeping a lot easier, ne," Rukia said, happiness brimming over her words, cascading to Ichigo's ears. He blushed as she squirmed, her slip riding dangerously over her rear. He looked away, finding that the inside of his closet had a different pattern than the rest of his room…

"Hey, don't get so worked up. It's just a doll," he said, gently pulling her off him. He was determined not to break their fragile relationship that seemed to be bringing them closer and closer together. Rukia backed away and bit her lip, fidgeting as she played with the small stuffed animal.

"No one's ever gotten me something like this," she said, completely enthralled. She made the bunny dance across her lap as she hummed, flopping his ears back and forth. Ichigo smirked and crossed his arms with a haughty snort.

"Well, it's no wonder! You're so short I bet people are afraid that you grow in rewind. Getting you a stuffed animal would just quicken the process." He was about to say some other snobbish joke, but was silenced by a squeaking smack to the head with the Chappy doll and a mouth full of fluff.

"Oi! Don't use it as a weapon against me!"

"Why not?! You're the one cracking jokes!"

"Because it's like treason!"

"What are you saying?!" Rukia asked incredulously, her voice raising an octave.

"I BOUGHT THE DAMNED THING."

They growled, grinding their teeth with animalistic ferocity and pushing their foreheads challengingly against each other. Ichigo closed his eyes and ripped himself away from her defiant glare.

"Good night," he said suddenly, his voice constricted with the disappointment that his gift was used for their first fight of the day. He jumped from the closet and turned to shut the door. Rukia's hand upon his stopped him from pulling it shut.

"Wait!" she said in a rush, stalling Ichigo's slumber, unable to see him walk away with such a deflated expression. She'd had such fun that night she found she was afraid to let it end. Would they just return to how they had been? Or would things change? For the better? She had to make sure that things continued to get better between them. No matter what.

Rukia looked around the room frantically for a moment, her lips parted with nervousness before she grabbed Ichigo's collar and pulled him toward her. Their lips were so close when she lost her nerve, her breath shallow, fingers shaking, that she could feel the heat of his skin on her cheeks. What had she been thinking? A kiss wouldn't make anything better. Romance never made anything better for anyone. It only brought heartache.

Just as she let go of Ichigo's shirt, he pushed forward, locking their lips together in a soft, innocent kiss. Neither was quite sure what to do, but Ichigo could only listen to his gut, twisting with anticipation and excitement at finally feeling how soft she was. Rukia let her eyes flitter shut as Ichigo's hand found her jaw and pulled her closer.

As they broke the bond to catch their breath, Rukia looked away, her face a brilliant shade of crimson. Ichigo pulled her face toward his so he could see her expression, his lips parted with barely restrained adrenaline. Rukia looked at him with great confusion before her face became almost blank, a completely impenetrable defense.

"Sorry," Rukia said quietly, mesmerized by Ichigo's gaze, which was caught somewhere between surprise, desire, and... He shook his head and was nearly about to speak when Rukia raised her hand in a silencing fashion. "I'm…I'm tired. I'll see you in the morning, Ichigo."

As Rukia slowly shut her closet door, Ichigo felt like he was being cut in half. She slowly fell away from his view like a sweet dream turned sour. He raised his hand to knock or pull the door open again, but shoved his fist back in his pocket instead. With a sigh, he turned around and walked back to his bed, his head falling upon the pillow with a fluffy thump.

A/N: I know, a little sad! But never fear! It'll work out. The Koi's got a slick plan!

Author Announcement: I'm going to be posting original works under the same penname on FictionPress! Please check it out if you like my style. I promise I write much better when focusing on my originals. Ta! TGK