Ichigo woke up the next morning, feeling relieved that he didn't have that haunting dream that had been causing him grief for the last few weeks had not been in his sleep this past night. But then he realized that it was one day closer to the dance and he still had no idea what his feelings were toward Rukia. The more he thought about her, the more she seemed more attractive. He remembered her small and fragile body, her hips and her hour glass figure, and her eyes. Her eyes were what captivated Ichigo. He imagined gazing into her violet eyes and getting lost in them. He sighed as he closed his eyes, seeing Rukia in his minds eyes and himself next to her, holding her hand and laughing. He saw that Rukia, as short as she was, trying to get on her tip toes to kiss Ichigo's cheek. He bent down and laughed as she kissed it.
"Ichigo!"
His eyes immediately shot open, his fantasy being washed away by the screams of Keigo who was accompanied by Chad, Uryuu, Renji and Toshiro. He rolled his eyes as he proceeded downstairs, grabbing his jacket to join his friends.
"So Toshiro, you gunna ask Momo to the dance?" Renji snickered as Keigo laughed along with him. Uryuu was standing still, not really paying attention to the excitement.
"For the last time, I do not like Hinamori! She's just a friend," growled Toshiro, his face becoming as red as a bright tomato. He was fuming as Renji continued laughing.
"Toshiro, we all know that you like Hinamori" said Chad in his deep voice, smiling as Renji had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. Ichigo chuckled as he headed towards his group of friends, kicking Renji abit in the shin.
"You shouldn't bug Shiro about Momo, Renji," said Ichigo as he nudged Toshiro in the side, "What about Rangiku? We all know you along with Hisagi and Gin have been crushing on her for the longest time."
"Hey!" snarled Renji as his face turned the same color as his hair, "I thought we'd agreed to not talk about that again!"
"Oh come off it," laughed Toshiro, "You've been crushing on her since you saw her."
"Yeah Renji, even she knows it," said Chad in his low voice, scaring Keigo so much that he jumped backwards.
"Jeeze Chad, give us a warning when your gunna speak up!" Keigo whined. Chad only grunted in response.
"Uryuu," started Toshiro, "I heard somewhere that you finally grew the balls to ask out Orihime."
"Woah, I hadn't heard this," said Renji as he finally cooled down from the taunts.
"Well yes," Uryuu said simply, "It was simple really. I walked up, asked her, she said yes, and I told her that I'd pick her up at 7:00 for dinner."
"Wow Uryuu," said Ichigo, "I didn't know you had the hots for Miss Orihime!"
"Psh," scoffed Toshiro. He folded his arms and leaned against the fence. "Let's hope Ulquiorra doesn't hear about this. I heard he's got a thing for Inoue too. He'd beat the daylights out of you if you're not careful, Uryuu. He may not look like it, but that guy packs a punch. You should've seen what he did to Jaegerjaquez."
Everyone was listening intensely, not daring to breath as they listened to Toshiro's story about Ulquiorra.
"Grimmjow was just walkin in the halls, when Ulquiorra bumped into him while heading to his next class. Next thing you know, Grimmjow had him by the neck! Ulquiorra just stood there looking at him like he wasn't giving a shit about it but Jaegerjaquez was telling him to apologize but Ulquiorra wouldn't have it. Next thing I know, I see Ulquiorra punch Grimmjow in the gut and then he kicked him in the face and left, just like that." Toshiro finished, almost out of breath when he was done. Everyone looked at eachother, not knowing what to say.
"Damn," Renji whistled, "Who knew that Cifer was such a bad ass?"
"Who knew he could fight. He's way too quiet to fight." Said Ichigo, looking amazed. He'd never thought that someone like Ulquiorra Cifer had the ability to take on a punk like Jaegerjaquez.
"Well, I'm not scared of Cifer because I know if he tries to hurt me, then Orihime would be angry at him," Uryuu said with confidence in his voice, pushing up his glasses with his middle finger slightly.
"Well there's a problem with that, Ishida," said Renji, eyeing Uryuu. "How do you know that Inoue doesn't like Cifer more than you?"
"I'm certain that Orihime agreed to go with me because she does have feelings for me, I can assure you, Abarai." Uryuu said as he rolled his eyes at Renji.
"You never know," said Keigo, "maybe she agreed because no one had asked her yet."
"Keigo, there are plenty of men out there who would have asked Inoue to the dance and she obviously picked me."
"Ichigo, who are you going with anyway?" asked Toshiro, trying to change the subject. Ichigo's heart stopped as he remembered about Rukia. He saw her smiling, laughing and just being beautiful.
"Yo, Ichigo," shouted Renji, "who are you going with?"
"Oh, just Rukia, but just as friends," he said simply, shrugging slightly. Renji smirked. Toshiro laughed. Keigo's jaw dropped. Chad nodded in his direction. Uryuu chuckled. Ichigo grimaced.
"What?" Ichigo looked confused as he saw his friends' reaction.
"Oh, nothing Ichigo," said Renji, still smirking. "You just keep telling yourself that you two are going 'just as friends'."
"Ichigo! I was gunna ask Rukia!" Keigo pouted.
"It was a matter of time before you two started having a thing." Said Uryuu, looking at Ichigo with a ghost of a smile.
"I told you guys, we're going just as friends!" Ichigo yelled at them but Renji kept laughing.
"Ichigo, it's obvious, even I can tell," said Chad as Ichigo looked up to him, stunned. Never had he thought that Chad would have said anything like that.
"See Ichigo, even Chad can tell!" blurted Renji, trying regain breath as he wiped tears from his eyes.
Then a blue van pulled up in front of Ichigo's house with a roar. The driver was Mizuiro, the only one that Ichigo trusted to drive him.
"Finally Mizuiro," said Keigo, "We've been waiting forever!"
"Calm down Keigo, it's only been 15 minutes." Retorted Toshiro.
Ichigo along with his group of friends, hopped in the car one by one, crowding each other. Ichigo sat in between Toshiro and Renji in the back of the car, finding it hard to keep his personal space. As they were driving, Ichigo had thought about his friends and their reactions to him going with Rukia to the Dance. Was it really that obvious that he and Rukia had a thing for each other? Was it clear that he liked her more than a friend? He didn't know his emotions could show through him so easily. Just then he felt a buzz from his back pocket from his cell phone. He reached in his back pocket and pulled out his phone. The little screen read 'Rukia'. He then had a mini panic attack. If Renji or Toshiro saw he was texting her, it would give them all the more reason to keep bugging him about it, and Ichigo didn't need any more crap from anyone about Rukia. He quickly opened his phone to see the message.
"Hey Strawberry. Me, Orihime, Rangiku, Tatsuki and Momo are going to meet up with you boys. See you! :) Rukia"
He read the message quickly, looked to see if Toshiro or Renji were looking at it, but thankfully they were engaged in a heated argument about whether or not Toshiro should ask Momo to the dance. It was more Renji pestering Toshiro to ask her, with Toshiro protesting to the idea.
"Hey Midget. Can't wait to see you there. Ichigo."
Just as he was pressing the center button to send the message, Renji peered over to see who exactly he was texting. Ichigo looked up to see a smirk rise on Renji's lips and knew that he saw something that indicated Ichigo and his phone. He wasn't sure if he had actually read the message because Ichigo knew that everyone knew that he called Rukia a midget. If He was caught texting Rukia, all hell would break loose and he would be in deep shit. Ichigo stumbled to put his phone back in his pocket, hoping Renji wouldn't say a word. When Ichigo pocketed his cell, he looked up to Renji. Surprisingly, Renji just nodded his head and went back to his taunting. Ichigo was shocked that Renji hadn't just yelled out that he was texting Rukia, confessing his love. But then again, Renji wasn't always like that. It seemed like he understood the circumstances in which Ichigo was now placed, and chose not to say anything.
After hearing enough of Renji and Toshiro, Ichigo took both of his enormous hands and covered their mouths. After hearing that Toshiro was a wimp and that Renji being an idiot, he was done hearing their bickering.
"Listen, both of you," he growled as he looked from one to the other, "Keep this up and I might just make sure neither of you speaks again. I got a head ache the size of a mountain, and if you guys keep it up, it won't get any better."
Everyone in the car grew silent as he said this. Renji and Toshiro looked at each other, then at Ichigo and both nodded. Both of their eyes were as big as softballs and neither of them wanted to get on the bad side of an angry Ichigo. Ichigo removed his hands from their mouths and smiled.
"You guys sure are loud," he chuckled as he leaned his head back a bit. Ichigo always found it amusing to scare the living daylights out of friends to see their reactions. Ichigo could really beat up everyone if they pissed him off. Everyone knew that, so no one messed with him except those who were asking for suicide when challenging him. But either way, he never used his strength against his friends at all because he actually valued their lives.
They arrived at their destination, a small restaurant that served traditional Japanese food. The boys all got out of the cramped car and headed into the building, looking for a large enough table or booth to hold them all.
That's when Ichigo saw her. Rukia was at a round booth on the other side of the restaurant, wearing a white collar shirt with brightly colored butterflies at the bottom, slowly fading as you looked up the shirt. She was smiling and laughing with her friends. He noticed that the seat next to her was empty. He quickly headed to their table to claim the spot next to her.
"Yo, Ichigo!" shouted Keigo, "You found the girls?"
Ichigo responded by quickly sliding next to Rukia and accidently bumping into her doing so. At their touch, he blushed madly, blood rushed to his face. Looking at Rukia, he noticed that she too, was blushing.
"Baka!" she said, "don't you know that it's rude to bump into girls, strawberry?" she scolded him as a smirk curled up from her lips only slightly.
"Oh Rukia," giggled Momo, "We all know you were just waiting for that to happen!" All of the girls giggled as Rukia blushed even more and her temper only grew.
"Oh Rangiku," said Rukia smugly, "You should scoot over so Momo's little Shiro-chan can sit next to her."
Momo blushed and playfully pushed Rukia as all of them laughed. Inside Ichigo's mind, he was wondering why they were laughing instead of trying to beat the crap out of each other. He shook off the thought and decided to let it slide.
"You could at least have told us that you found them, Ichigo." Complained Keigo.
"Meh," shrugged Ichigo, "I thought you'd be able to find them yourself, Keigo. You're a big boy and don't need me to guide you around anymore. Or am I sadly mistaken?"
At this, everyone laughed as Keigo scowled. The boys sat down with menus in their hands, looking at drinks. As Ichigo was looking at the menu, he realized he was sitting next to Rukia rather closely, not giving him a lot of room to move. He was in between Toshiro and Rukia and he was being squished between the two midgets. He tried to re-adjust himself into a more comfortable position, but managed to get even closer to Rukia. He blushed only slightly at the awkward position he was in but brushed it off. He continued to skim over the menu and didn't see anything that really appealed.
"Ichigo, you want to split spaghetti with me?" asked Rukia, not looking up from her menu. Ichigo looked at the menu, searching for the spaghetti. As he began reading the description, he received a kick in the shin from Renji and he looked up. Renji gave him a look that said that it was a good idea to get it, but it was weird. He had the expression of someone trying to hide something extremely hysterical.
"Yeah, that sounds fine with me," Ichigo said with a mono-tone voice. He heard giggles coming from Orihime and Momo. A snicker was heard as Rukia spoke up.
"Oh ha ha. You guys are just as mature as an 11 year old," Rukia rolled her eyes. Ichigo didn't understand what was going on but decided to ask later.
"Rukia," sneered Rangiku, "you know that we're just speaking the truth."
Rukia blushed and hid under her menu. Ichigo glanced at Renji and gave him a look that said 'What the hell is going on?' but Renji shrugged and continued to look at his menu. Ichigo closed his menu and leaned back in the booth. He could see that Rukia was still pissed and her ears were tinted with the slightest red when she put down her menu. He stifled a chuckle as he kept looking at her. Then his stomach lurched. Butterflies had appeared.
"Are you ready to order?" asked the waiter, eyeing the giggling Momo and Rangiku. As everyone ordered, Ichigo's butterflies had disappeared without a trace. When it came time for him and Rukia to order their food, Rukia had already taken care of it.
"Hey Momo," Toshiro said as he looked down at the floor.
"Yeah?" replied Momo as she looked at him with a confused look.
"I was thinking," he started, his face turning a light pink, "I was thinking that you and I could, I mean if you aren't doing anything on Saturday, that you and me could-" Toshiro was cut off by Momo, her hand now attached to his mouth.
"Yes, I'll go with you, if you just stop blabbering like that, Shiro-chan." Ichigo could see a smile on Toshiro's face and then was deafened by Rukia's squeal of joy and Renji's snicker.
Ichigo was thankful that he didn't ask Rukia in front of everyone like that. He wondered how the hell Toshiro had done it without nearly pissing his pants. Ichigo knew just as well as Toshiro did that after lunch, everyone would be giving him shit about what had just happened, and he wasn't about to be let off the hook for about the next few centuries. Toshiro, however was distracted by all of the snickering from the boys and smiling with Momo, wrapping his hands around her.
"God, just get a room you two!" sneered Renji. Matsumoto laughed heartily as Momo stuck her tongue out at Renji.
"I don't see that you have anyone to go with, Pineapple head," laughed Momo. Renji blushed violently, but quickly recovered.
"Momo, you and I both know that I could get a date just as easily as you did."
"Oh really?" she raised an eyebrow, "and how exactly are you going to do that?"
"Like this." he sneered. He then did something that no one saw coming. Everyone went silent when he placed his lips onto Rangiku's, her eyes wide and in a state of shock, but she wasn't stopping the red head from kissing her. To Ichigo's surprise, Rangiku was kissing back with what it looked like, passion. Ichigo saw Renji wrap his arms around her while she was putting her hands around his neck, closing the space between them. Then Ichigo saw the unexpected. He saw for the shortest moment, a flash of Rangiku's tongue slip into Renji's mouth. Finally, Toshiro had the sense to yell at them and they immediately pulled away from each other, blushing madly.
Ichigo looked around, horrified yet amazed at the scene he and all of his friends had just witnessed. Rukia, Uryu, Tatsuki and Orihime all looked disgusted at Renji, while Keigo, Mizurio, Toshiro and even Chad all looked like they just got slapped in the face. But Momo's reaction was possibly the most evident to Ichigo. Her mouth was open, stammering incoherently while looking at Renji, then to Rangiku, then back to Renji. The look on her face was one to match someone who had just seen someone other than herself kissing Toshiro; angry, assaulted, confused, shocked and dumbfounded.
"So, do you want to go to the dance with me?" Renji said this to break the silence, other than the mumbling of Momo.
"Er," said Rangiku, "after that whole charade, I guess I have no choice but to say yes!"
Orihime, Rukia, Tatsuki and especially Momo all looked like they had saw pigs fly. Ichigo watched as Renji was sneering at Momo.
"Renji Abarai," she finally piped up, "you are possibly the most revolting, disgusting excuse for a man that I have had the misfortune to meet." She then smiled sweetly and rested her head on Toshiro's shoulder.
Renji's face couldn't have been more shocked. This time, it was him that was stuttering and mumbling.