Disclaimer: I do not own BLEACH. Never will.

A/N: Hey! Hows everyone been doing? I'm so sorry for the late update!! I'll try to be faster next time. And sorry for the grammar/spelling mistake, etc. Well... the adventure thing is going to be on hiatus for a few chappies, meaning that there will be more fluff... I think... I hope I wrote enough... but anyway, Enjoy!

Thanks to auburn-haired-sadist-XD and anonymous for reviewing. It was very much appreciated! :)

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Perfection

Chapter Seven

"RUKIA!!"

Ichigo yelled as he struggled more violently than ever. "Rukia! Oi! Rukia! Damn this friggin' bakudou!"

"Kurosaki! Stop it! You'll seriously injure your soul if you keep on struggling!" Ishida yelled, trying to stop Ichigo from struggling.

"Who the hell cares?!" Ichigo yelled back, struggling even more. The spell cracked.

"Kurosaki-kun! Stop it! Please!!" Orihime begged.

"Aaghh!!" Ichigo yelled as he broke free from Rukia's bakudou. He took Rukia in his hand the moment he was freed from the spell. He covered the cut on her head with his free hand. "What happened?!"

"Kurosaki, calm down. She had lost a lot of reiatsu and you yelling isn't going to help her." Ishida fixed his glasses position. "She went back to fight before her wound close properly."

"I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun... I couldn't stop her..." Orihime bit her lower lip and looked away, trying to keep herself from crying.

Ichigo gritted his teeth and looked at the unconscious shinigami in his arms. She was breathing, thank God for that, but it was heavy and unstable. "Not again..." he muttered, barely audible.

BOOM!

"Sado-kun!" Orihime yelled. She ran over to the gentle giant who was lying on the ground after the hollow had kicked him. The bubbly girl dragged Sado gently and put him inside her Soten Kesshun.

"Chad!" Ichigo called.

"I-Ichigo..." Sado looked up at his orange-haired friend. "Did you broke away from Kuchiki-san's spell?" Sado asked as he lie down on the cold ground.

"That doesn't matter right now! You okay?"

"Good as ever."

Ichigo smirked. "Rest then." he put Rukia down gently and grabbed Zangetsu. "Take care of them, Inoue." he said as he shunpo-ed out of Orihime's Soten Kesshun to fight.

The hollow flinched slightly when he felt enormous amount of reiatsu coming out of the shinigami representative. It flared even more as Ichigo yelled,

"BANKAI!"

Large amount of black reiatsu enveloped him.

"Tensa Zangetsu." A piece of broken chain rattled as the slim, black sword swayed slightly. Ichigo stood there with furrowed eyes, deep in concentration.

'What's the matter, King? Afraid that it'll kick your sorry ass again?' the hollow inside him mocked.

"Do you know how he regenerate?" Ichigo asked.

'Eh? You're asking me?' it mocked.

"Just answer the damn question."

'No. I do not know hoe he regenerate.'

"You ain't lyin' are yo--"

'Heh. I can see you finally left the dead weight behind.'

"She's not a friggin' dead weight!!" Ichigo yelled as he finally leaped up towards the hollow and slashed its stomach diagonally. The hollow screamed as it backed away.

'Admit it, King. The only reason that you let that dead weight fights with you is because you--'

"She's not a freakin' dead weight, dammit! And no, I do not!!" Ichigo shunpo-ed to the hollow's back and slashed it vertically. He could felt his other side raised an eyebrow at him.

'Eh? You don't care about her?'

"Of course I care about her!" Ichigo shunpo-ed back to the front.

'Then why did you say you 'do not'?'

"Just shut the hell up, would you??" Ichigo slashed the hollow mask through the crack that Ishida and Sado had created moments ago, leaving it to disintegrate. He then walked back to his nakama. "How is she?" he asked.

'Ah... so now you're worried about her...' his hollow mocked yet again.

"She's fine, Kurosaki-kun. Just fine. And she's healing quite briskly compare to--" Orihime replied.

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP??" Ichigo yelled at his inner hollow. Sado and Ishida stifled a small gasp at the carrot-top's reaction. Orihime looked shocked as the smile slowly dropped from her face.

"Go-Gomenasai Kurosaki-kun... I didn't mean to..." Orihime stammered.

Ichigo realized what he just did and quickly said, "Oh no! I didn't mean you, Inoue. Just the freakin' bastard inside my head..." the last part of his sentence came to a mumble. He shook his head once more to clear his mind and went in inside Orihime's Soten Kesshun to check on his friends.

Sado was sitting down Indian style, being unusually quiet as always. Ishida was sitting down as well, quietly complaining about his dirty tie.

Ichigo sat down next to Rukia, legs crossed. He accidentally woke her up by tucking a strand of her ebony hair behind her ear.

Rukia opened her eyes slightly, checking if danger is still near. She could only see one thing.

Orange.

Bright, bright orange.

Just like the sun.

She opened her eyes completely, her violet orbs scanning the area as she sat up.

"'Lo, fruit-top!" she said in an unusually cheery voice. A vein popped out of the said fruit-top's head.

"What the hell did you just called me, MIDGET??" he hollered.

The bickering continued as Ishida looked at his watch. "Damn! Sado-kun, Inoue-san, I think we should get back to class now!" he said, pointing at his watch for Sado and Orihime to see.

"Oh no!" Orihime said, putting both her hands on both side of her jaw. "I hope Ochi-sensei will let us slide this time. See you later, Kurosaki-kun! Kuchiki-san!" she said cheerily as she stopped her Soten Kesshun and ran towards the school with Ishida and Sado behind her.

Ichigo and Rukia stopped bickering for a moment and said, "Ha?"

"Nee-san!!" Kon leaped up out of nowhere, again, and hugged Rukia. "I missed you so much! That bastard, Ichigo, leaving me all alone at school (he was talking about the time when Ichigo has pull him off of his face and threw him on the ground). He didn't do anything bad to you, did he?"

"Ha?" Rukia answered with a raised eyebrow as Ichigo ripped Kon off of Rukia and held his head in front of his face.

"What the hell did you mean by that?" Ichigo said in a low, threatening voice.

"Oh please, you know what I meant by that. Did you do anything bad to her? As if in, did you take advantage of her innocence and naivety and--" Kon was cut off by a hard push at the back of his head to the ground.

"To hell with that!" Ichigo yelled, blushing furiously, "I did not do anything to her that was out of the usual!"

"And by usual you mean--" Kon managed to choked out, only to be pushed even harder into the ground by the blushing Ichigo.

'He got you there, King.' his inner hollow laughed maniacally.

'The hell?' he thought, blushing even more (if that's possible), 'They're ganging up against me, now?? Wait, where's Rukia?' he looked around and realized that she was on the edge of the lake, crouching down with her back turned to him. He stopped pushing Kon, got up and walked towards her.

"Oi, Rukia. What'cha doing?" he asked.

Rukia turned her whole body - still crouching sown - to face the carrot-top behind her. Well, she have to turn her head upwards if she really wanted to face him, but she thought the glimpse of his spiky orange hair is enough.

"Nothing." she replied nonchalantly. Ichigo crouched down to accompany her.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her and leaned to his left to peek behind her, only to have the petite shinigami leaning to her right, blocking his sight. Then, he leaned to his right and she leaned to her left, blocking his sight yet again. His eyebrows twitched in annoyance as Rukia blocked his sight again by leaning backward when he leaned forward.

"Ichigo, what are you doing?" Rukia asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Me? What are you doing?" he retorted back.

"Nothing." she said as she averted her eyes from his.

"Nothing, my foot. Spill, Rukia."

"What is there to spill?"

"Gah! Just move!" he put his left hand on her right shoulder and pushed her out of the way.

Rukia let out a small gasp as she stumbled to her left.

"Eh? What's this?" Ichigo asked as he stared to a deep green lump that Rukia has been hiding from him. He reached his hand out to touch - well, poke - the thing, but Rukia slapped it away and took the lump.

"Don't hurt her!" she said as she hold the said lump gently.

"Her? What do you mean--" the lump moved "Whoa! It moved!" he pointed his index finger at it...her!

"Of course she moved! She's alive, fool!" Rukia held the lump protectively.

"What is it?" he poked the lump cautiously.

"Wha-- How dare you ask such a rude question! She is a baby turtle! A baby turtle named Sofia!" she glared at Ichigo.

"Is that why you came running here before?"

Rukia gave him a look that says, le-duh?! "Obviously." she replied calmly, a method she learned from her nii-sama.

"So the reason you didn't want me to take you to the nurse's office is--" Rukia cut him off.

"Yes. It's because after the treatment the nurse give me, you'll follow me around all day, observing whatever I do and won't let me go anywhere after school in case I got 'hurt' again. And I need to feed this poor little thing!"

"You're talking as if I'm a stalker, you know."

"Exactly my point."

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched visibly, but he decided to calm down for once and let this one go. His gaze shifted from Rukia to Sofia, then back to Rukia. She noticed this and asked,

"Just what are you looking at? Furthermore, where's Kon?" she stood up and looked around, still with Sofia in her clutch.

"Oh. There you are." she said as she spotted him in the small hole that have formed when Ichigo pushed him in. She picked him up with her free hand and hold him up high. He didn't give away any respond.

"Kon. Wake up. Oi, Kon." she shook the stuffed lion but he's still not responding. Curious, she moved him closer to her face so she could observe his. "Kon--"

"Nee-san!! Let me have your first kis--" Kon puckered his lips and was 1 inch from Rukia's, all ready to kiss her.

That is, before Ichigo grabbed him and practically ripped him off of her, ruining the moment.

"Oi! What the hell?!" Kon yelled, trying to break free from Ichigo's firm grip.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen on my watch, pal." Ichigo scowled.

"Wha--" Kon stuttered. "That's not fair! Just because you want to have her first kiss, doesn't mean that you have to take away my chance!" he struggled even more.

Ichigo felt his face heated up at the mod-soul sentence and yelled, "Shut up!" before dipping his hand into Kon's mouth to find the soul candy.

"Mmh!! Mmhh!!" Kon struggled.

"A-ha! There we go!" Ichigo said as he yanked his hand out of the now-lifeless stuffed animal, the soul candy within his possession. "'K then! Let's go home, Rukia!"

"Eh? What about Sofia?"

"We can take her home. Don't really think it'll be a problem." he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Oh, and wait here for a moment, will ya?" he tossed the lion plushy along with the soul candy to Rukia, who nodded as she catches both of them. Ichigo shunpo-ed away without another word.

Two minutes later, the arriving Ichigo was greeted by,

"Oi, Ichigo! What're you coming back here for?! Go to hell already!" Kon yelled as he punched him with his – unfortunately for him – soft paws.

Ichigo glared at Rukia who responded with a,

"What?! I was bored and you certainly did not say anything about not putting Kon back to his body!"

Ichigo sighed, dropped the bodies he was carrying and grabbed Kon by the back of his neck, pulling him close to his face so he can get the soul candy out again.

Kon, realizing what was happening, quickly said,

"Wa-Wait! Ichigo! Let me tell you what happened to nee-san while you were gone!"

Ichigo stopped his action and raised an eyebrow at him, "I was gone for like, two minutes."

"A lot can happen in those past two minutes. You wanna know, don't you?" Ichigo stared blankly at the talking stuffed animal in front of him. "Okay, then. I'll tell you." Kon continued, gesturing Ichigo to lean so he could whispered to him.

"So, Ichigo, what happened was..." Kon paused. Ichigo nodded, gesturing him to continue. "I got her first k-i-s-s..."

Kon whisper echoed in Ichigo's brain. It took a while for him to completely progressed the sentence Kon just whispered to him, but he did anyway, because he yelled,

"You WHAT??"

Point proven.

"Yep. It's true, all true." Kon said while sniffling, feeling proud of himself.

"Uso." Ichigo said simply.

"I am not! And I can tell you how it went!"

Flashback (Kon's style & P.O.V)

Nee-san put my soul back in my beautiful body and so, I sat up immediately. Her face was in front of mine and I could've kissed her if she hadn't put her hand in front of my face.

'Thank goodness for her reflexes.' Ichigo thought.

And so, I started asking her about you. Where were you, what did you do to her and stuff.

"What the hell did you mean by that?!" Ichigo yelled.

"Do you wanna know what happened or not?" Kon asked.

"Feh. Fine."

Yes, as I was saying, I asked her about all that stuff and she said that she didn't know where you were and you didn't do anything to her except the yelling and all. Then, she stood up, carrying that little bastard with her. What was her name again? Safio? Sapphire?

"Sofia." Ichigo corrected.

"Yeah, whatever." Kon retorted back.

She started walking towards the lake to let So...Sofia?

Ichigo nodded.

Yeah, Sofia, play with the water or something. I, couldn't stand my beautiful and precious nee-san being taken away by that...that...thing, immediately jumped to her right shoulder. She turned her head to kindly fend me off and that's when our lips met.

Flashback ended.

"'The hell?!" Ichigo yelled, throwing Kon – who is in la-la-land – to the ground.

"I-Ichigo? What's wrong?" Rukia went over to him, the baby turtle in her hands.

Ichigo looked at her, intensity was clear in his eyes. She responded with a curious look.

"Why are you... looking at me like that?" she asked.

"Like what?"

"Eto... it's... uh... your eyes looked so... intense..."

"No, it doesn't!"

"Yes, it do--"

"Let's just go!" he practically shouted. Rukia was taken aback by his action and was about to say something, but the look he has in his eyes stopped her. It was... jealousy? 'But why would he be jealous?' she thought.

He turned away and started walking, but he stopped a few steps later. He turned to face her, but his eyes is avoiding hers.

"Your gigai. Here." he handed her her gigai.

"Ah... Thanks." she took her gigai with a small smile.

He went back into his own body, picked Kon up and ran away after saying, "See you home."

"Yeah." Rukia replied in whisper after she went into her gigai. She picked Sofia up and started walking towards the Kurosakis' house.

'What did I do?'

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