For those who follow this story Thank You so much for your reviews. Here's a nice long, juicy chapter for you!! ENJOY! :D

ADD** I added a little bit to the move scene... the thought had me laughing all the way home so I just had to throw it in there, hopefully you guys will like it too. And I apologize ahead of time for the misspellings! I'm going back and fixing things as time allows. THANKS!!

Orihime and Ichigo walked in comfortable silence along the damp, dark streets the last few blocks to the movie theater which was brightly lit up ahead.

After everything they had been through, it was natural for the friends to walk silently together without feeling awkward -- but even so, Orihime had so many other feelings running through her mind at the moment she couldn't keep them strait!

Peaking over she saw her tall, handsome Ichigo walking next to her with his hands in his pockets, his head looking down, and a contemplative look on his sharp features like he might also be lost in thought. Her heart swelled just looking at him and she quickly looked forward again.

She loved walking by his side -- she felt safe here. She hoped that she could always be here next to the man she loved, even if he didn't acknowledge her yet.

But he invited me with him tonight... He definitely doesn't mind me by his side, he even said I was one of the friends he likes most... well maybe he didn't say it quite like that but that's what he meant... his dear friend...

An overwhelming feeling of warmth filled her at the thought and she couldn't help but smile... But this particular warmth felt a little funny in her stomach and it wasn't something she had felt walking beside him before... It was more like fire.

Sneaking another quick peak at him only stoked the flames. She hadn't forgotten the dream, not by a long shot, and it still surprised her just how much she had enjoyed it...

Blushing now and closing her eyes as she walked, she willed herself not to think about it, especially when the hunk of abs was only a foot away from her. She frowned. What was wrong with her? She had never felt such a thing before. Well maybe she had, but never so distinct and strong and in broad day light! Well, night light, but still she had never felt this when in such close proximity to the object of her affection before.

She couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what this was... but she knew that it was at least a new level of admiration for her secret love.

She sighed. This is bad, if he only loves me as a friend I can't keep falling more and more in love with him like this. I have to behave, I can't let on that I had such an impure fantasy either, I just have to get through tonight...

They were only a few yards away from the theater when Ichigo heard her sigh.

Glancing over he noticed two things in very rapid succession. First was that Inoue, for some inexplicable reason, was walking with her eyes closed. The second was that she was a few steps away from walking right into a light pole!

"Inoue!!"

One moment she was walking enveloped in her thoughts, the next moment she heard his shout and felt herself falling! Then, just as suddenly, her body stopped moving. Ichigo had pulled her out of the way and right into his arms!

Opening her eyes Orihime found herself pressed into Ichigo's chest, her hands on his steely abs which she could easily feel under his shirt, and her face planted against his chest. Sheepishly she looked up and saw Ichigo's deep, fiery eyes looking at her with concern... and something else?

"Walking with your eyes closed is not a good idea..." Ichigo said simply, looking down at the surprised Inoue in his arms.

He may have looked calm and collected on the outside, but the aforementioned dragons in his stomach, just started a nuclear war. Inoue with her soft skin and wearing that amazing dress now had her perfect breasts crushed against his chest. And although he was trying with all his might to ignore these facts, he was finding it pretty difficult to breath normally... especially with her looking at him like that with her big beautiful eyes! Why was she just staring!?

Mercifully, Keigo and Mizuiro -- who both had their mouths hanging open as they witnessed their friends fall into each other on approach to the theater -- decided to pick this time to break the trance between them by being their normal obtuse selves.

"Orihime-chan! I didn't know you were in love with this loser!" Keigo cried!

"Ichigo you could have let us know you were dating." Added a Mizuiro with a big smirk on his face.

I knew this would happen. Ichigo thought irritated.

Reluctantly letting go of Orihime, who quickly mumbled and apology and stood on her own two feet, Ichigo walked over to his friends. He had an ominous, obviously fake smile on his face. Ichigo was going to make sure they got the message that they needed to behave tonight... or else.

"Excuse us real quick Inoue." Ichigo said, his strained smile still on his face.

He proceeded to grab both boys by the collar and drag them behind the theater.

BAM, CRASH! Orihime jumped! She heard some mumbled yells and whimpers before the three reappeared, Ichigo in front and two scared looking friends tailing behind.

Ichigo was satisfied. (He had just threatened their lives if they said another word that would contribute to the awkwardness of the night. He also politely, with his fists, let them know not to ask stupid questions, or rather, not to ask any questions at all.)

With that settled... he walked back over to Orihime.

"Hey." He said with a sheepish grin while scratching the back of his head.

Orihime just blinked her large, thoughtful eyes at him and smiled wide at the slightly guilty look on his face. He's so sweet!! Orihime thought -- Keigo and Mizuiro probably wouldn't agree...

"Ne, Where's Sado-kun?" Orihime asked.

"Well, he sounded sick on the phone, said something about falling out a window..."

Eek! Ichigo stiffened and coughed... Shit... I don't know how much she remembers...

"I'm sure he's fine." Ichigo said quickly.

Maybe its best he didn't come... we both need time to mentally recover...

"Let's go inside. The movie is going to start." Mizuiro said, trying to get the night back on track.

"Oh goodie! What movie is this?" Orihime asked with joy, completely forgetting about everything that had just happened.

"Oh you'll love it Orihime-chan!" Keigo chirped in, "It's about an ice cream man who becomes a rogue ninja and has to take down this evil organization called the Candy Factory and the special effects are supposed to be great..."

Orihime giggled at the wonderfully silly plot as an excited Keigo blabbered on and on. Ichigo followed behind smiling at his friend's enthusiasm, or more specifically, smiling at Orihime's reaction. She was easily amazed and always enthusiastic and bubbly. He liked her best when she was this way -- being her happy, bright, beautiful self... She flashed a bright smile back at him and he resolved never to cause her pain again.

Tuning back into the conversation, Ichigo heard Orihime coming up with possible plot twists that involved little blue men that left the other two scratching their heads.

Ichigo chuckled. I knew it was a good idea to bring her.

The group of friends ran to buy their popcorn except Orihime who said she had brought her own snacks... Ichigo was not looking forward to finding out.

Settling in for the movie there was a bit of a mad dash for the best seats, not to mention Keigo was jockeying for a seat next to Orihime which was starting to annoy Ichigo. After a minute of climbing over chairs and spilling some popcorn, Keigo ended up on Orihime's left, Ichigo on her right, and Mizuiro on the other side of Ichigo.

Finally! Ichigo thought. A chance to sit and relax.

The friends happily sat through some previews, each movie as lame as the next one as far as Ichigo was concerned, but he was just happy to be sitting and not dealing with any chaos.

Next to him Orihime was pulling out a little baggy of snacks from her small gold purse.

"What's that Inoue?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh, Kurosaki-kun this is my favorite movie snack. It's healthy and sweet, see!" She said happily pushing a handful of brown and green bits under his nose. "Chocolate covered asparagus!"

"Oh." He said simply, while making sure not to breathe through his nose.

He politely turned down a piece she offered pointing to his bag of popcorn.

She's a sweet girl, but that taste in food of hers really needs to be checked out...

Orihime nervously filled her mouth with her favorite snacks and turned her eyes back to the screen. She had never been to the movies with Ichigo before, let alone sit next to him in the dark the whole time. At times like this it was best for her not to think and just focus on the movie... Yeah, I'll be safe if I just think about the movie and nothing else. I can do this!

Finally, the movie -- "Ice Cream, You Scream: Revenge" -- began. Within minutes Ichigo was bored out of his mind... This is just mind numbing...

30 minutes in, the hero of film was in a shootout with henchmen from the evil Candy Factory organization. He was holed up in his ice cream truck and started grabbing some sharp looking popsicles out of the freeze, which doubled as delicious treat and deadly weapons.

Ichigo noticed mildly that the guy was throwing a bunch of strawberry popsicles, when suddenly, without thinking, Orihime let out an excited whisper...

"Oh I just love strawberries!" Ichigo head snapped around so fast he nearly broke it. He was rubbed his neck and was starring daggers at Keigo who had started to snigger... But Orhime just kept going with her excited whispering. "I especially like the popsicles; I just love popping a long juicy strawberry one into my mouth!"

GAGCK!! COUGH, Cough!!

A very bright red shinigami promptly began to choke on his popcorn.

"Oh, Kurosaki-kun, are you ok?" Orihime said in a worried whisper, slightly patting him on the back.

"Shhhh!" Came an angry person behind them.

"I'm fine..." Ichigo assured her and sat back in his seat. Good thing they were in a dark theater. Ichigo was uncharacteristically shaken and red as... well, you guessed it... as a strawberry.

Fuck, fuckity fuck, why does she have to say things like that?... His whole body was on fire and it wasn't only from embarrassment... his pants were fitting a little tighter than they should be.Thank god we're sitting down, she doesn't even realize what she said, oh my god I'm a pervert, this isn't good, my damn body...

Ichigo tried to calm himself. He looked down at the front of his pants.

She wasn't talking about you. He deadpanned to himself.

At least he was no longer annoyed by the movie.

Keigo was still holding in his laughter while Mizuiro was mentally cataloging every single detail of what happened tonight. After all, this was the freshest, most juicy gossip to come along in a long time!

Noticing that Keigo was still chucking, Ichigo raised his arm behind Inoue's head and flicked him hard in the ear. His teary eyed friend stopped giggling immediately and held the sore side of his head.

Ichigo felt triumphant for a second before he realized that he was in a whole other predicament entirely. Now he had his arm around the back of Orihime's seat, pretty much around her shoulders...

Orihime had noticed the second he had moved his arm there and took a sharp intake of breath.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, focus on the movie, focus on the movie...

Meanwhile, inside Ichigo's head... Crap, crap, crap! He repeated while sweating a bit, his arm still around the seat. Crap, I wasn't trying to pull a move, what if she thinks I was pulling a move? But then if I yank it away I might insult her and then if I need to hit Keigo again I don't want to throw my arm over again... If I just leave it there maybe it will seem natural and she'll forget it's even there, I'm not touching her, and it's comfortable... soooo....

He resolved to just leave his arm there for the remainder of the movie in case he had to hit Keigo again and because it was comfortable and he didn't want to look like he was doing or not doing anything because of what anyone might think...

But really, in a deep part of his mind that Ichigo was working very hard not to acknowledge, he knew he was keeping his arm there because it just felt really nice to have it there.

After ten minutes had passed with Ichigo's arm still behind her Orihime finally relaxed in her seat and got back into the movie, allowing her head to lean back a little.

As she leaned back Ichigo could suddenly feel her soft, silky hair against his arm... A warm, protective feeling filled him up and though his face never changed on the outside, he was certainly smiling on the inside. After a while this became like the most comfortable thing in the world, and Orihime couldn't wipe the little smile off of her face.

An hour later the movie was over and the satisfied friends made their way out of the theater. Orihime was beaming but really tired. Ichigo was exhausted and more than ready to go home and go strait to sleep.

With thoughts of warm beds in their heads the four friends pushed open the theater doors and walked out into the street -- only to come face to face with the last shinigami in the world that Ichigo wanted to see right now.

First Keigo stopped, and the other three bumped into him.

"Oi Keigo, watch it!" Ichigo said. After not getting a reaction, he following his friends blank stare forward and saw her.

"Yoruichi?!"

Standing in front of the friends, her arms crossed and a sharp look on her face Yoruichi squared herself in front of Ichigo.

"You should be sleeping. We have work to do tomorrow."

"That's where we're going!" Ichigo said angrily.

"What are you working on?" Orihime suddenly asked innocently.

Ichigo's eyes nearly popped out of his head. He started waving his arms wildly behind Orihime's back, making a slicing motion across his neck, pleading with Yoruichi to cut it out and shut her trap!!

"Well, aren't you behind in the times? You should know better than anybody that..."

"Aahhh!!!" Ichigo yelled making everyone jump. "Oh My God a hollow! My alarm is going off!! Weee Ooohh, Weee Ooohh, you hear that? Gotta run Yoruichi, see you tomorrow! Let's go Inoue!!"

He snatched his very confused friend by the wrist and dragged her down the street at a full sprint, leaving the others in his dust.

Yoruichi crossed her arms with a 'hmph' as the pair ran away.

"Oh, he's not going to get away with this for long." She said. A glint of mischief twinkled in her eye.

...Back at Orhime's house...

Ichigo had dragged poor Orhime quite a few blocks before he thought it was safe enough to stop. By then they were just a block from her apartment.

Panting Orihime looked up at him, "Kurosaki-kun, is there really a hollow? I don't feel anything."

Ichigo felt a little guilty for dragging her away like that but he couldn't let Yoruichi just blow the whole careful cover-up apart.

"No, it must have vanished again. Oh well, I'm sorry about that Inoue." He said scratching the back of his head again.

Orihime loved when he did that, he looked so good with his arm over his head like that... She looked down again. She really had to stop oogling her friend.

"C'mon, we're almost at your house." He said softly.

"Mmm." She affirmed and followed beside him again.

Ichigo is walking me to my door! This can't possibly be happening? I'm sure this is not a date but this just feels so nice. I wonder if he knows what he's doing to me?

A moment later they were at her steps.

That's when Ichigo realized he had to leave her here, and for some reason he didn't really feel like going. He watched her walk up a few steps when she turned around and looked at him with her bright hazel eyes.

"Thank you for inviting me to the movie Kurosaki-kun."

"Thank you for coming Inoue."

Genuine smiles came from both parties.

The looks said it all. Orihime managed to tear her eyes away his and run up to her apartment.

Ichigo chuckled, put his hands in his pockets, and began his leisurely walk home.

Today may have been the most insanely embarrassing and chaotic day of his life, but he couldn't help feeling happier than he had felt in a very long time.

**************

Once inside, Orihime quickly closed the door and threw herself onto her little futon and hugged her pillows.

A lighter feeling than she had ever felt around Ichigo enveloped her in a warm hug of emotions. Her heart was soaring!! Something about him seemed different tonight. He seemed more friendly, more attentive, more like he wanted to be around her.

Orihime didn't dare hope to think that all her dreams were coming true, but this little bit sure was enough for her. And maybe, just maybe, he was starting to feel something in return. She wanted to enjoy this feeling.

What a wonderfully weird day! The gods sure are quirky! She thought happily.

Orihime was hugging a pillow and sighing with contentment when something interrupted her lovey dovey thoughts...

Well, two huge somethings! She soon found herself smothered under the weight of Rangiku's huge breasts!!

"Welcome home Orihime-chan!" Rangiku yelled.

Orihime let out a small scream that was smothered in her bosom.

"Rangiku! What are you doing here so late? You scared me!" She cried once the breasts were off her face. "Are you going to be staying with me again?"

"No, I'm here on orders from Yoruichi."

Orihime blinked in confusion.

"She says she's going to need your help with some training tomorrow...."

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NEXT CHAP: The Fox Trot