Ninth Story – All I Want

Rating – PG

Summary – Rukia and Christmas Eve at the Kurosakis'...let the chaos begin

Disclaimer – Don't own show or song.


I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you.


"Yuzu,out!" and for the third time, Kurosaki Yuzu darted away from her brother's bedroom, giggling. She had been trying to get a peak at what he had gotten her for Christmas. It was Christmas Eve. So of course, Ichigo was aggravated. He had been trying for the last three weeks to get all his shopping done, and the presents wrapped. But of course, life kept interfering.

Well, Shinigami life, at any rate.

"Don't hollows know that Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace?" Ichigo had grumbled after the last fight. Which, of course, had led to the question,

"What's Christmas?"

From Rukia, of course. Who else wouldn't know what Christmas was?

"Are you serious?" Ichigo had said as he slipped back into his body, "Tell me, what planet are you from again?"

To which Rukia had responded with a kick and, "Just tell me"

Which had led to Ichigo hopping around on one foot for five minutes, howling in pain, and then a short and annoyed explanation about Christmas. Rukia had, unsurprisingly, been fascinated.

"Why's Ichigo yelling?" Rukia asked Yuzu as the young girl came into the room she shared with Rukia and Karin. Yuzu grinned.

"Because I want to see what he got me for Christmas. But you know what Ichigo's like," Yuzu smiled as she rolled her eyes a little, "He takes every little thing so seriously"

"Can't argue with that," a small smile twitched at Rukia's lips. "Christmas is tomorrow, isn't it?"

Yuzu looked shocked. Rukia instantly realized her mistake. Yuzu still didn't know about Shinigami and Soul Society and (most importantly) who Rukia really was. "I mean," the young Death God quickly tried to fix her slip up, "I've just been really busy lately, school...and everything, I lost track of the days. You know how that is, I'm sure"

Yuzu looked convinced. Rukia sighed inwardly. That had been a close one. "Anyways, half the fun of Christmas is the surprise, don't you think?" Yuzu nodded. "You'd probably be better off just leaving Ichigo alone until he finishes wrapping"

Feeling proud of herself for remembering, Rukia stood up to leave. "Where you going?"

"Well, while we're on the subject of Ichigo, I've been meaning to talk to him about something," Rukia smiled over her shoulder at Yuzu. "Be right back"

She made her way to Ichigo's room and started to open the door. "Yuzu, I told you to –! Oh, it's only you," Ichigo scowled as Rukia walked in. Rukia responded by kicking his knee.

"Only me?! Thanks a lot!"

"You knew what I meant!" Ichigo hollered back, rubbing his knee. "Jeez, why are you always so – never-mind!" he added quickly as Rukia raised her foot again. She smiled and sat down on the bed. "Anyways, what do you want?"

"I want to talk to you about tomorrow"

Ichigo sighed, sounding annoyed. "I told you, Yuzu gets everyone up at five in the morning and we all go down and take the presents out from under the tree-"

"Not that!" Rukia said impatiently, "I meant what do you plan on doing if there's a hollow attack? Obviously this is a big deal to your family, especially Yuzu. You can't just run out on them, you need a plan-"

"Rukia, you need a vacation," Ichigo said boredly, going back to wrapping the presents he had bought. He had finished Yuzu's, and was moving on to Karin's. Rukia scowled and hit him in the back of the head.

"Baka," she muttered, folding her arms and leaning back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Fine, but if something bad happens..."

"I doubt there'll be some apocalypse if we take one day off," Ichigo said, sounding impatient, "Besides, I'm not the only Shinigami here, there's Afro-dude too, he can take care of it, can't he? Unless he takes Christmas off"

"Very funny"

"Rukia-chan!" Yuzu appeared in the door suddenly.

"What did I say about barging into my room?!"

Yuzu ignored him. "Rukia-chan, will you help me bake cookies? I'm making gingerbread men for tomorrow!"

Rukia bit back the question 'what are gingerbread men?' and discreetly sent Ichigo a questioning looked. He inclined his head just a little, and Rukia smiled.

"Of course Yuzu-chan, I'd love to"

Ichigo followed the girls downstairs, muttering something about needing a drink. As soon as the three hit the first floor, Isshin appeared in front of them, holding something over Ichigo's and Rukia's heads. Ichigo looked up, his brilliant amber eyes narrowed.

"Mistletoe!" Isshin crowed, sounding thrilled. "Pucker up Ichigo, you have to kiss Rukia-chan now–oof!"

He grunted as Ichigo kicked him in the face and sent him flying away. "What the hell was that?" Rukia muttered, raising an eyebrow at Ichigo, who shook his head.

"Don't even ask"

"Come on!" Yuzu, noticing nothing of the exchange, grabbed Rukia's hand and dragged her into the kitchen. Ichigo turned to glare at his father.

"Stay away from us with that," he said threateningly, pointing to the mistletoe still clutched tightly in Isshin's hands.

"Aw Ichigoooo!" Isshin wailed, "You'll never get a girl if you act like that!"

Ichigo just rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen. All he wanted was a glass of water. So how things ended up the way they did...he'd never know.

"Ichi-nii, do you want to help too?" Yuzu asked.

"Erm...no, not really," Ichigo drank deeply from the glass of water. And nearly choked when he saw Rukia, covered from head to toe and flour. She gave him a mutinous glare.

"Not. One. Word"

"Oh," Yuzu looked back at Rukia. "Rukia-chan picked up the flour the wrong way. Good thing we have another bag"

Ichigo smirked. He wouldn't say anything.

Yuzu grabbed a chair and dragged it over to where Ichigo was standing. "It's up here in the cabinet, somewhere..."

"Yuzu, I don't think-"

That was as far as Ichigo got when a 'whoops!' cut him off. And the next thing he knew, an open bag of flour was on hishead. "Good look for you Ichigo," Rukia said as she laughed. Yuzu began laughing too, even though it was obvious she felt bad. Ichigo scowled as he set down his now floury cup of water.

"Oh yeah?" he bent down and scooped up a fist full of flour off the floor. Rukia's bright violet eyes widened in surprise.

"Don't you dare-"

And he threw it at her. She coughed and sputtered as it hit her in the face. "Ichigo!" she choked, rubbing her eyes. And for a second Ichigo was really concerned. He started towards her, not noticing that her hand was creeping over the counter where another small pile of spilled flour was sitting.

"Hey, you all right-?"

He paid dearly for his moment of compassion when he received flour to the face. When he finished rubbing it out of his own eyes, he saw Rukia smirking at him.

And that was when the flour fight began. For the first minute it was just Ichigo and Rukia, then Yuzu decided she wanted to join in. Then Karin and Isshin came in to see what the source of all the noise was, and were both bombarded by flour. Karin walked out. Isshin flew into the fight full force.

It was at least fifteen minutes later they finally realized they had managed to make the kitchen completely white. Yuzu giggled as she looked around. Isshin expected his handy work, grinning as if it were a work of art. Ichigo and Rukia just glared at each other, and said at the same time, "This is all your fault"

After that Yuzu set them all to work cleaning up. Karin came in to laugh as she watched them get down on their hands and knees and try to sweep up flour with their hands (because of course, they only had one broom, and Yuzu was using it). It was almost midnight by the time they finally got the rest of the flour off the walls and ceilings. Now it was just on them.

"So much for cookies," Yuzu said sadly as she looked at the clock, "I guess we'll make them tomorrow"

"If there's any flour left," Karin added, stretching and yawning, "You guys better clean up before you go to bed"

And with that she left. Ichigo brushed some flour out of his hair, scowling. Isshin yawned as he bid everyone good night and went upstairs. Yuzu looked at Rukia expectantly.

"Coming?"

Rukia looked back at Ichigo, and shook her head. "I'll be up in a few. You go"

Yuzu nodded and started upstairs. Ichigo gave Rukia a suspicious look.

"What?"

She just shrugged. "You know...sorry. About getting the flour in your eyes. It hurts like hell, I know. I shouldn't have done that"

Ichigo shrugged in a 'whatever' kind of way. "I did it to you first. Forget about it. Come on, it's late. Let's just go to bed"

They were walking through the kitchen door when Ichigo happened to look up. His father had hung the mistletoe over the door. He groaned, and Rukia looked up as well.

"Yeah, what is that stuff anyway?"

"Mistletoe," Ichigo grumbled, "It's this stupid tradition...if you walk under it with someone else, you're supposed to...kiss them"

The sudden thought burned into his mind. Him. And Rukia. Kissing. For some reason, it didn't disgust him the way he thought it would. In fact...it was almost a welcome thought.

Rukia turned red. "O-Oh"

"It's just a stupid tradition," Ichigo said, hoping his voice wasn't cracking too much. "I mean...you know...no one follows tradition"

"No way"

And with that they walked out the door, and started up the stairs. The silence between them was thick and awkward. Then they spoke at the same time.

"Rukia-"

"Ichigo-"

"Oh," they stopped.

"You go"

"Nah, you"

Rukia gulped. "It's just...I mean...it's stupid, but I...I uh..."

"Spit it out"

"Shut up," she grumbled. Then she did something that surprised him just as much as it did her. She stood up on her tiptoes and she kissed him. It only lasted a second. But when she pulled away, Ichigo realized he didn't want it to end.

Violet eyes met amber, and she muttered, "Sorry," in a low voice. But Ichigo wasn't listening. Instead he took her by the shoulders, bent down, and kissed her. And this time it lasted longer.

Karin, Yuzu, and Isshin watched from their respective bedroom doors, all wide-eyed. Isshin had tears of joy running down his face. Yuzu was just bouncy.

When Ichigo finally pulled away, he muttered,, "I wasn't sure what to get you for Christmas"

"Don't worry, I didn't know what to get you either," she muttered back, "It doesn't matter anyways, does it?"

Ichigo smiled, just a little. "Nah. It doesn't. Not now"

And he kissed her again. All in all, it was probably the best Christmas Eve of his life.


Author's Note – Oh don't ask! I really don't know. But after my last chapter...I needed something happy, all right?! Just review. Oh, and Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy Kwanzaa/if you don't celebrate any of these, ignore this. Sorry, have to be politically correct for all religions (honestly, I'm an atheist, and I could really care less...) – Sam