Author's Notes: Happy Birthday, Kurosaki Ichigo! And yes, as you might be thinking, this is yet another Ichigo-Birthday fic! Wait... Don't leave yet! I promise it won't be like every other fic you've read before... I guess? ((sighs)) Uh, please read? Hehehe... :P
If you look at the date, you'll see that I wrote this more than a year ago, five months before Ichigo's birthday. I was waiting to post it on the exact day, but then I went on vacations... So I thought, no worries,I'd wait another year (yeah, I'm that obsessive). So here it is now... ((gets weird stares)) xD Anyway, I'll be leaving town for vacations in about... hour and a half (geez, I guess I'll have to sleep in the car),and be back in a week; which means: next update in ten days. See you then! Thank you for reading.
Happy Birthday
15.02.2005
Something about the way she was looking at him made Ichigo feel wary. It triggered some unknown urge within him to take a step back, turn, and run like hell away from there. No, it definitely wasn't that he was scared of her, no friggin' way, but he wasn't an idiot either. Rukia was up to something, and that something was likely not going to be something pleasant, at least not for him.
"I-chi-go," Rukia sing-sang his name, enough to make him shudder with dread, and gave him a saccharine smile, showing off a perfect line of white teeth.
Ichigo stopped dead on his tracks and gulped, scrunching up his nose as she inched forward. It was late in the afternoon and they were about to head home after settling scores with two, weakling Hollows.
"What the hell do you want?" He spat, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at her.
The boy was sure of it, Rukia was without doubt up to something… Goodness, he was tired and most certainly not up for any more of her crap right now.
The former shinigami showed him her tiny, clearly empty hand at which he stared confusedly until she spoke. "I need money."
"WHAT?" he scowled. "NO way! You are a threat to my wallet already, I will not give you any more money."
"But I need it!" The girl whined childishly and pouted very much unRukia-like.
The action was enough to catch him off-guard and she was able to efficiently stomp on his right foot as she smirked. The orange-haired boy yelped, cursing under his breath. He looked down at her and glared. "Idiot."
"Bastard," she smirked triumphantly, not caring much about his own insult.
The fifteen-year-old growled, then plopped himself on his the park's bench, bringing up his foot to nurse it and evaluate severity of his wounds. "What do you want money for anyway? I get you practically everything you want," he said, almost scornfully.
"I need to buy something." Rukia remained standing in front of him, now face to face with him thanks to his current sitting position.
"What something?" He eyed her nervously. Was it poison to kill him or something close to it?
"That's is not of your interest," she told him sternly, shrugging off the subject and returning to her previous request. "Now hand me the money if you don't want me to hurt you any further," she warned sweetly.
He grinned. "Like hell…"
Ah. Certainly, bad choice of words…
He was sure he had a few contractures by the time Rukia was done with him. Really, what people said about ants was true, such tiny insect could hold so much strength hidden within them. Hell, it was a real wonder how he was even able to get back to the clinic on his own that night.
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Rukia was walking around the school grounds looking for Ichigo, her eyes scanning the crowd of fleeting students that went happily on their way to their homes. After all, it was the last day of classes and the beginning of summer vacations. A hot day of July.
It was then when she spotted the orange hair along the mass of people. Ichigo was about to exit the school, just having walked past the football court and not so farway from the building's entrance.
"Ichigo!"
He paused on his walk and turned to look at her over his right shoulder as he slugged his school bag behind his back with his left hand. "What?"
The petit-sized girl ran over and came to a halt in front of him. She breathed a sigh of relief, wordlessly starting to look through her brown schoolbag and fishing something inside of it. Rukia brightened up visibly as she came up with the desired object of her search. She brought out a box, a rather large one to actually fit inside her bag under normal circumstances, but this was Rukia after all, and anything was possible.
"Here," she offered the box to him. "I've been meaning to give you this."
He stared at her, brows furrowed in thought. His mind quickly jumped into conclusions…
'Is it… a bomb…?'
Hey, remember the this was Rukia thing? Well, this was just like that.
He could only stare at the poorly wrapped gift. Ichigo stood there, unfazed until the dark-haired girl noticed he wasn't about to make a move to grab it and kicked his leg. Ichigo was, thus, forced to take the present from her hands.
"For your birthday," she added. Rukia coughed, and motioned him to open it and he did it promptly; his leg had suffered enough, thank you.
He was startled alright, firstly because she had managed to remember the date and then she actually went and got him a gift. How long did she have his birthday in mind, anyway? At this, something in his mind clicked.
'A week ago…'
"Say, Rukia, just out of curiosity, did you buy me a present with my money?" He asked, glancing at her quickly, a fake grin on his lips. He was currently starting to get rid of the bright green wrapping paper and the flashy yellow and white bow carefully.
"Well, yes." She huffed resentfully, hands resting on her hips and cheeks tinged with slight pink. "At least you should be grateful I spent my own, precious time trying to find something suitable for this special ocassion."
His jaw was clenching and unclenching by the time he finally was confronted with Rukia's present. He looked up at her, glaring angrily. "Moron…" he groaned, holding up the pink, stuffed bunny from one of it's long ears.
The toy had purple spots, purple soft fabric for the insides of the ears, and a white, spongy tail. It was elegantly adorned with a ribbon tied around its neck in a dark purple shade and had a cardboard card attached to it, which read in black bolded letters the phrase: 'Hug me!'
"This…" he breathed, glancing disdainfully at said object and then back at her, "is something you find suitable for me?"
She nodded at him, smiling happily.
"Say again, Rukia, you really bought this piece of fluffy shit for me with my money?" he asked once again, brows twitching violently already. He was gripping the bunny's neck tightly with both hands.
"Uh-huh…"
"For my birthday?" Ichigo was gritting his teeth, his face then contorting into a mad grin.
Her blue eyes glinted merrily, laughter crossing them as she nodded at the substitute shinigami. Ichigo grunted just once.
"Rukia, you bitch..."
A satisfied smirk.
"I know." Her smile widened as his glare intensified, leaving no doubt that she was obviously pleased with herself. "Happy birthday, Ichigo."