A/N: Chapter 2! I'm really bad at coming up with chapter titles. I'll just call this one: Airport and Airplane. I forgot to say this last time but the whole reason I'm even writing this fanfic is to get over my excitement for the Disneyland trip I'm going on in 3 days. I'll still continue this fic after I come back though because I'm having much more fun with it than I thought I would. I hope you're enjoying it so far!

Chapter 2: Airport and Airplane!

"Yo, Chad! Wait up!" Ichigo ran across the dark, damp and dimly lighten underground parking lot that was extremely lacking in its usual amount of cars considering it was just about 2:00am in the morning. His suitcase rattled behind him as he dragged it across the ground. Chad was walking along up ahead of him making his way to the doors exiting out to the airport. He stopped and turned around when he heard Ichigo call him.

"Ichigo, we got here at the same time?" Chad stopped and greeted his friend once he caught up.

"Yeah. I was running a little behind schedule because my dad was sleeping when he should have been driving. I was so glad when I saw you 'cause I thought I was already way too late." Ichigo heaved a heavy relief filled sigh, though to tell the truth he really wouldn't have minded if he got here late and everyone left without him. "Let's go. Do you think anyone is there yet?"

Chad glanced down at a wristwatch he had on his arm as the two began walking, "It's 1:56. Almost everyone should be there right now. How much people are coming anyway?"

Ichigo shrugged, "Dunno. I know there will at least be tons of women there because this thing they've got called the Shinigami Women's Association planned this whole trip. I don't know how much members that association's got but it can't be much, right?"

Chad grunted in agreement.

Ichigo looked up at his friend uneasily. He was so damn tall, taller than Ichigo. No matter how hard he tried Ichigo couldn't imagine this big guy going on a rollercoaster and having a fun time laughing and screaming, in fact, he almost laughed at the faint image he got. To be honest Ichigo didn't expect Chad to agree to come along on this trip but who knew, maybe Chad had a secrete love for rides and amusement parks.

After an almost awkward silent walk across the lot and over to the airport doors Ichigo and Chad finally arrived at their destination. Ichigo walked straight into the huge open space that lay behind the automatic doors, a space of shiny floors, white walls, and tons of different line ups of people leading to check in counters. Ichigo scanned the area for the group of Shinigami he'd be traveling with, looking out especially for Renji's head of red hair as it would be easy to spot but he didn't even have more than a second to do so. Before he could even take one more step into the airport a sudden hand smacked straight into his back, and Ichigo immediately knew who it was. He toppled forwards, a great gasp of air escaping his mouth. It didn't take him more than a second to whip around and stare straight at the one who had smacked him.

"Rukia! You need to work on your greetings!"

"Idiot!" Ichigo flinched and covered his face slightly in case Rukia would try to hit him again, "You're late! Everyone was wondering where you were!"

"Late? But… but I thought it was like 1:56 or something… And wait, Chad is late too, why aren't you yellin' at him!"

"My watch it probably behind, I didn't realize." Chad's deep voice sounded behind him.

Ichigo sighed. Chad has his excuse, now he had to make his. "Sorry, my dad was sleeping so I had to try and wake him up to drive me here." Ichigo looked up drowsily and got his first good look at Rukia.

The drowsiness flew right out of him.

She looked beautiful.

Ichigo almost stepped back in shock. Rukia was wearing a simple light blue dress that went down a little bit above her knees. Thin spaghetti straps that showed off her shoulders and a good portion of the area around her collar bone topped the whole thing off. It was so simple but Ichigo's mind was almost blown away at how good Rukia looked in it. A small stuttering sound escaped his mouth, he couldn't control it.

Rukia gave him a funny look, "What's up with you?"

"I- uh…"

"Kurosaki-kun!"

Ichigo spun around when he heard Orihime's voice, almost glad to have his eyes looking at something else besides Rukia. He turned and expected simple Orihime to be standing there waiting for him to greet her but he was shocked with the different result he got.

It wasn't just Orihime standing there. Standing behind her was a huge group of people, people he recognized as the Shinigami that would he would be going on this trip with. Ichigo gulped. He hadn't expected so much people to come.

Well here's who he recognized standing over there in the group: Renji caught his eyes first, which couldn't be helped with the crazy hair he had, then beside him Ishida stood along with Byakuya who was wearing a board glare along with a simple buttoned up blue shirt and white shorts. Unohana and Rangiku stood near the back of the group talking to some black haired girl with her hair clipped up at the back who was wearing glasses and another girl also with black hair who had her hair up in a bun with blue cloth wrapped around it. Ichigo remembered their faces but didn't know their names. Toushiro stood close to Rangiku looking as though she was saying something that was either annoying him or embarrassing him. Ichigo also recognized Soifon standing pretty isolated from the whole group. There were also some random people that Ichigo had barely ever spoken to such as Hisagi Shuuhei and Kira Izuru, and also Shunsui Kyoraku, Ukitake Juushiro, and Nemu Kurotsuchi if he remembered their names correctly. They all wore incredibly decorated human clothing that depending on your perspective were either fashionable or just plain creepy. Ichigo also spotted Tatsuki talking with Chizuru Honda. Ichigo gained a confused expression. He never remembered inviting that red haired girl along.

Ichigo was about to finally turn his gaze from the group of Shinigami to greet Orihime but then he suddenly froze. His heart sank. Standing in the very back of the crowd catching Ichigo's eye and practically giving him a stroke was Kenpachi. He stood tall and proud wearing a thin muscle shirt and ripped jeans. Standing beside him were Yumichika and Ikkaku, who were both wearing fishing hats and normal t-shirts and shorts. Ichigo stiffened up.

"Originally there were only supposed to be 18 people coming on this trip counting you and your friends but then at the last minute Kenpachi-taicho, Ikkaku and Yumichika tagged along and then Chizuru forced herself in as well when she heard Orihime was coming. That's a total of 22 people." Rukia glanced at Ichigo, "You look shocked."

"I didn't expect Kenpachi to come." Ichigo admitting turning to Rukia, Orihime completely forgotten. "And I didn't expect so much people."

Rukia shrugged, "Well-"

She was cut off.

Ichigo immediately recognized the voice of who interrupted her.

"Yo! You didn't all forget about us right!"

Ichigo and everyone else in the area turned around to face the airport doors, the place the voice came from. Ichigo could honestly say he wasn't entirely shocked with who he saw strutting casually in through the automatic door, suitcases in hand.

"Urahara-san! Yoruichi-san!" Ichigo called out the names and in the next second the Shinigami crowd that had been somewhere behind him gathered forwards towards the unexpected guests like a swarm of bees to honey.

Yoruichi was wearing the normal casual clothing you'd expect for a flight on a plane, a tank top and tight sweat pants, but Urahara looked crazy. He wore an orange Hawaiian buttoned shirt with green palm trees all over it along with beige shorts and his usual wooden sandals and green and white striped hat. He had huge sunglasses with a white trim and some sort of sparkly necklace that said something Ichigo couldn't quiet make out. His luggage was decorated with polka dots. Ichigo was reminded ever so slightly of his father.

"You two are coming along?" A voice sounded somewhere in the midst of the Shinigami crowd. Ichigo glanced behind him and the Shinigami crowd turned to see the voice came from the woman with glasses and clipped up hair who was talking to Rangiku earlier. "I hope you know that we don't have enough money left in the budget for you."

Urahara made a huge dramatic arm motion and have out a big gasp. Ichigo made a disgruntled face. "I'm sorry Nanao; I should have called before hand!"

The woman Ichigo took to be known as Nanao moved a hand up to shift her glasses higher up her nose. The motion reminded Ichigo strangely of Ishida, "Unless you've got money of your own with you you've wasted your time coming here."

Yoruichi frowned and Urahara slouched his shoulders, "I didn't bring enough money with me." He confessed scratching the back of his head.

"I-I-I'll pay for Yoruichi-sama!"

Once again everyone turned around to face the person who spoke. Anyone watching from afar might have thought it was rehearsed. Even without looking though one would almost automatically know that it was Soifon who spoke up at the edge of the crowd. The woman was standing dead still with her arms shaking and a small blush was plastered on her face. Her glare was stuck on Yoruichi and she didn't seem to notice everyone turn to look at her. She was wearing a small yellow dress that looked almost fit for a little girls princess costume. Ichigo struggled not to burst out laughing.

"Soifon!" Yoruichi suddenly gained a huge smile and she jumped in the air with joy, "Thank you! There's no way I'd want to miss out on this trip!" Yoruichi started forwards towards Soifon, whose only reaction was an even bigger blush. Yoruichi stopped at her and swung a happy arm around her shoulder after she kneeled down quiet a bit, "Thank you!"

Soifon completely stiffened up like a statue. Ichigo almost pitied the poor woman. She looked like she was going to faint.

"M-my pleasure Yoruichi-sama." Soifon said looking as though she was forcing her nervousness away, "It'll be no problem for me to cover your payment."

"Mmmhmm." Yoruichi said with a nod, "But what about Keisuke, do you have enough money for him too?"

Soifon nearly jumped out of her skin, "That man? Why would I—No, what on—No, why would I pay for him!"

"Because he wants to come too," Yoruichi said pointing to a pouting Urahara with drooping shoulders. Ichigo was reminded even more of his father.

Soifon shook her head, every inch of her body screaming that she was against the idea, "No, I'd really rather not pay for—"

"Please?"

Soifon stopped mid sentence. Ichigo observed as Yoruichi pulled the most pleading face he imagined she could muster.

Soifon looked awestruck, "I-I-I…" Soifon stuttered for a few moments and Ichigo could tell she had a strong debate going on inside of her head. Soifon gulped uneasily before she just admitted defeat and dropped her head. "Fine…" She said quietly. "I'll pay for him too."

"Aw right!" Yoruichi jumped in the air again and ran over to high five with Urahara. "That settles it, 24 guests for this trip! We're gonna have a blast!"

Ichigo smirked at how excited Yoruichi seemed.

Just then a sudden hand clamped down on his shoulder. Ichigo looked down to see Rukia standing at his right.

"You smiled." She said simply.

Ichigo twitched, "What?"

"You smiled." She repeated, "I think you're starting to get into the spirit of this trip." Rukia flashed a smile at Ichigo and gave him a dramatic thumb up.

Ichigo snorted, "I was just laughing at Yoruichi," He said, "I'm no happier about this trip than I was when you told me about it." He shrugged Rukia's hand away and stuffed his hands in the pockets of the baggy shorts he were wearing. "Stop assuming things."

Rukia smirked, obviously not entirely convinced, "You'll warm up soon enough." With that she finished and turned to walk away in Renji's direction.

Ichigo watched her leave and slightly sighed. He didn't even realize that he sighed. He was so lost in his sudden blank mind that he almost missed the announcement that rang out around the crowd.

"Everyone, I have your plane tickets! Please sit in the seat number on you're ticket and avoid switching randomly as much as possible so we have less confusion!" Ichigo looked up to see Ukitake calling out to everyone waving a huge wad of plane tickets above his head. The Shinigami swarmed around him as he passed the tickets around. Ichigo stayed back as far as he could without making it seem like he was trying to escape.

"Kurosaki-kun! Come get a ticket!" Orihime waved him over near the edge of the crowd.

Ichigo looked over at Orihime and smiled slightly, realizing suddenly that he hadn't greeted her yet and completely ignored her when she had greeted him earlier. Ichigo walked towards the girl trying not to look guilty, "Are you excited for the trip?" Ichigo asked when he met up with her and the two waited for the crowd in front of them to clear.

"Yes, defiantly." Orihime said with a soft smile, "I'm going to Disneyland with all my closest friends and some new nice people, how could I not be happy?"

Ichigo half heartedly wondered how Orihime managed to have such a good attitude all the time. Ichigo shrugged the idea away and looked up to see that most of the Shinigami has cleared up. "Come on, let's get our tickets," Ichigo said gesturing for Orihime to follow him as he advanced towards Ukitake.

"Ah, Kurosaki-kun, I'm glad to see that you're coming along on this trip!" The white haired man greeted Ichigo warmly as usual when he stopped beside him. He was wearing big sunglasses much like Urahara's and much the same clothes accept his Hawaiian shirt was a less tacky color of light green and the only pattern he had was two simple blue strips across the chest.

"Rukia kind of forced it on me." Ichigo mumbled grabbing a ticket from Ukitake's outstretched hand. "So I couldn't really say no."

"Rukia is just trying to get you to have some fun. You've been so serious lately." Ukitake said as he passed a ticket to Orihime, "I'm sure she just wants you to let loose." He put the remaining ticket in his pocket and turned his full attention to Ichigo.

Ichigo laughed slightly in agreement, "Yeah, I guess so…"

"Ichigo!"

"Speak of the devil," Ukitake chuckled.

"Ichigo, what seat are you?" Rukia and Renji approached Ichigo, tickets in hand. Renji was wearing his usual human world clothing: a funky patterned bandana, a yellow hippy shirt and a brown vest accept instead of his normal jeans he wore shorts much like the rest of the guys were today. Ichigo always had to struggle not to laugh whenever he saw him in that outfit. He always meant to talk him into wearing something less freaky but always ended up forgetting.

"Renji and I are sitting beside each other in row 10 seats e and f." Rukia said drawing Ichigo's gaze away from Renji.

Ichigo looked down at the ticket in his hand and was slightly shocked with the coincidence in what he saw, "I'm row 10 d." Ichigo announced, "So I guess we're all sitting together?"

"Great!" Rukia said flashing a smile. Ichigo's heart gave a small lurch. He ignored it.

"I'm row 10 c." Ichigo had heard that voice for the first time this morning. It was Ishida. The guy was now approaching Ichigo as well. Ishida was wearing a simple white t-shirt and beige shorts. It almost boggled Ichigo's mind to see the guy in something other than his school uniform or Quincy outfit. "That means I'll be sitting next to you across the aisle." By the voice Ishida was using Ichigo couldn't tell is he was mad, happy or sad about having to sit beside him.

"Hey, where is Inoue?" Rukia asked suddenly.

Ichigo's mind snapped into attention at Rukia's words, "She was with me a second ago." Ichigo said as he began to turn around on the stop scanning the area for Orihime. He quickly spotted her by Tatsuki and Chizuru laughing as the other two girls looked to be arguing. "She's over there." Ichigo said gesturing in Orihime's direction.

Ichigo looked around the area some more. It seemed everyone was coming together in clumps with the people they'd be sitting beside. Chad was off with that Hisagi guy and a few other people. Everyone seemed so… happy.

"Ichigo?"

"Huh? Wha—OH!" Ichigo snapped back to reality and saw that Rukia and Renji and most of everyone else were already heading out to check in their bags. Rukia was turned facing him trying to get his attention. He'd better make sure not to blank out in Disneyland like this or he'd get separated from everyone in no time. "I'm comin'." Ichigo said grabbing the handle to his bag.

"Hurry up, I wanna get on this plane already, I'm tired." Renji half growled and half yawned at Ichigo. At first Ichigo couldn't understand how Renji could be so tired even though it was only 2:00am but when he looked up at Renji and got a good look at his face for the first time tonight he saw that the man looked like he hadn't slept for at least two days. Ichigo almost grimaced at the sight.

"Whoa Renji, what's been keeping you up lately?" Ichigo asked observing the huge dark bags under Renji's eyes. He even looked paler than usual now that Ichigo thought about it, "You're not sick are you?"

Rukia answered before Renji had a chance to even open his mouth, "No, you see Ichigo; our Renji here has a sudden-"

"If you say one more word I'm going to murder you." In one quick motion Renji smacked his hand straight down on Rukia's mouth silencing whatever she was about to say.

Ichigo flinched. Renji was never so hostile towards Rukia, in fact if anything he usually treated her with a little too much care as though she was a delicate doll. Whatever secret it was that Rukia was about to say that made Renji silence her by force and by threats Ichigo wanted to hear it, but grudgingly he swallowed down his curiosity for the time being and ran to catch up with the group. He'd investigate into the situation more when they got to L.A.

.

.

"…Saki…urosaki… Kurosaki!"

Ichigo jumped awake so fast he almost hit the chair in front of him. He looked around wildly, his eyes wide with the shock of waking up so fast, "Wha, whu, who was calling me?"

"Snap out of it!" The sharp whisper snapped at Ichigo's right. He turned and saw Ishida leaning across the side of his seat looking ready to flick Ichigo if he didn't snap out of his sleepy trance.

"Ishida?" Ichigo asked.

"Lower your voice!" Ishida hissed. "Look, I need to ask you something."

Ichigo opened his mouth to reply but he was interrupted. A long and low snore fluttered into the air. Ichigo blinked. "What was…?" He glanced quickly to is left and saw Renji snoring up a storm at his seat next to the window. A strong light shined straight on him through the window as though to emphasize the fact that this was the man who was snoring so loudly in the midst of the quiet plane. Ichigo then quickly realized that most of the people on this plane were fast asleep. That was probably why Ishida wanted him to keep his voice down. He glanced quickly down at Rukia who was facing Renji and guessed she was sleeping as well even though he couldn't see her face for she was curled up in a little ball and breathing deeply. Ichigo tore his gaze from her before he got lost in thought and turned back to Ishida, "What's wrong?"

Renji snored again.

"That's what's wrong." Ishida said shaking his head as though in disappointment, "Abarai is snoring so loudly I can't go to sleep. I don't know how anyone else is managing."

Ichigo only just then noticed that Ishida had removed his glasses and was squinting at Ichigo as though he could barely see him. His hair was a mess. He must have being trying to sleep for a long time now. Ichigo held back a chuckle. "So, what do you need my help for?"

"Do you have any ear plugs?"

Ichigo scrunched up his face, "Ear plugs? Why would I have earplugs?"

"What, it's a normal question."

"No its not, why would you assume I have random earplugs with me?"

"I'm not asking your opinion I just want an answer."

"I gave you an answer."

"You didn't give me a direct one."

"I said 'Why would I have earplugs?' isn't that enough of an answer?"

"God whatever, stop being so annoying."

"YOU stop being annoying."

"All I did was asked a simple question."

"Well you—"

"Ooooooooooiiii!"

Ichigo jumped in his seat yet again and Ishida did along with him when completely out of the blue Urahara popped up in the middle of the two like a firecracker. That was one of the scariest moments of Ichigo's life.

"GAH, Urahara-san, what the hell are you doing?"

"I come bearing news." Urahara said pointing to the small T.V screen in front of Ishida that was mounted onto the seat in front of him as every seat on this airplane had. "We will be arriving at our destination soon, the L.A X airport." Sure enough the small airplane representing them flying across a map of the U.S was nearly right above the city of L.A and the small dot marked 'LA X International Airport'.

"Whoa, the time flew by." Ichigo said observing the screen in front of him. This flight sure hadn't seemed 7 hours long.

"Yeah, it flew by because you could actually fall asleep." Ishida grumbled.

"Psh whatever. Anyway, isn't it supposed to be around 9:00 here now? Why is it still so bright outside?" Ichigo asked gazing out Renji's window

"It's the middle of summer you dolt, of course it's still bright outside. And it's 8:30 right now." Ishida snapped at Ichigo while he bent down and dug out his glasses from his carryon backpack, "It's supposed to be really hot outside even now so be sure to wear a hat or something if you've got one."

"Will you two wake up your rows please?" Urahara asked heaving himself off of the floor, "Everyone else is starting to wake up except for the ones to your left, Kurosaki-san, and the one to your right, Ishida-san."

Ichigo quickly glanced over at Ishida's row. What he saw was absolutely priceless. The middle seat was empty, but sitting by the window looking completely innocent with the face of a small sleeping boy and smushed up against the window snoring ever so slightly was none other than Kuchiki Byakuya. Ichigo burst out laughing.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Byakuya! Byakuya looks so funny! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Ichigo clutched his stomach from laughter. Ishida looked at him like he'd gone crazy.

"Kurosaki, why are you laughing so much?"

"Byakuya! Damn after seeing him with such serious expressions this is absolutely hilarious!"

Ichigo suddenly felt Rukia's small body jolt beside him. He had probably woken her up.

"Ichigo, why are you being so loud, be quie—NII-SAMA!" Rukia gasped and her gaze shot directly towards Byakuya, "Nii-sama, you look so… Oi, Renji! You've gotta see this!" Rukia twisted and kicked Renji's chest until he jolted awake with a huge grunt.

"Hey, what's the big deal?" Renji asked scratching his head as he blinked a couple of times. "Why is everybody being so loud?"

"Renji, you've gotta see this!"

"See what…? TAICHO!" Reni's reaction was practically the same as Rukia's. He sat straight up and his eyes flew wide open.

"Ichigo, did you bring a camera? You've gotta take a picture." Rukia said leaning down and reaching for Ichigo's backpack.

"Wait, I've got it here." Ichigo shifted and fished his camera out of his back pocket. He chuckled and turned the camera on, then lifted it and zoomed in on Byakuya, "Say cheese." He said.

The picture came out perfectly. As Ichigo gazed at the picture and the sounds of everyone's laughter boomed around him he couldn't help but think… that maybe this vacation wouldn't be so bad after all.

A/N: I wrote this chapter really fast in an attempt to finish it before I go to Disneyland. It turns out I finished with a lot of time to spare! Now I'm going to try writing one more chapter before I go. Leave a review if you want but PLEASE don't be mean to me! I am very delicate and I can't take even the slightest criticism XD if you don't like the story just leave a sad face or something.