(Recap)

Kurosaki Ichigo was a dangerous man.

He was too much of an overwhelming figure that had barged into her well-balanced, professional life. He was just too… enticing. As much as the pounding in her chest was due to his lack of awareness concerning personal space, Rukia was also nervous at the thought of how high this man could take her before dropping her to the ground.

As a long time friend of an overly passionate cupid with humongous breasts, Rukia became a victim –a specimen- of outlandish matchmaking experiments that were supposedly, she quoted, "good for your love life, Kia-chan!"

Rukia officially labeled them in two categories.

Firstly, the vacuous imbeciles. They were femininely attractive, wealthy, had egos the size of Asia and only seemed to know three ways of starting off a conversation – 'I', 'me' or 'my'. Usually comprising of higher-class men who got roped into meeting up with her, Rukia personally thought they only attended because it meant that one more person knew of how fabulous their golden toilets were. As if to flaunt their fortune even further, the meeting places usually took place at big-name restaurants that charged ten dollars for a glass of water, and a name in the reservation's list to get a seat next to even more obnoxiously, rich bastards. The smell of money and arrogance practically radiated off of their form in a manner that was everything but pleasant, in any sense of the word.

And secondly, the unfortunate souls. They were the more boyishly handsome ones who didn't really seem to have much of a say in their…contribution; Rukia assumed that Rangiku somehow forced them to comply to the blind dates… perhaps threatened their masculinity in some way. She noticed that her friend was a cunning fiend at that. Most of them were modest and pleasant, some even shy. It was cute, but Rukia just couldn't ever imagine herself with any of them.

She endured through the same grueling process at least twice a week, every week, for the past six months. By now, nothing could faze her. She had met up with some of the most prominent leaders in the market and even drank tea with diamond-studded teabags! Godamnit, she was pampered with money spent like loose change by some of them! And it wasn't as if they weren't attractive or anything, they were more than gifted. Rukia was used to all this, so why the hell was she so nervous?!

"You're staring, Rukia." Her stomach flipped at his deep voice. Feeling herself blushing, Rukia dropped her eyes back on her food.

Pancakes.

She was certain, for a man as prestigious and blue-blooded as Kurosaki Ichigo, something like pancakes probably wasn't even considered as food to him.

It was so easy to picture. The dinning room would've been as big as a ballroom with red silk curtains draped over large-paned windows, and a crystal chandelier looking over the vicinity –engulfing the area of the room in the brightest of lights. In the middle, on top of a red rug imported from France, the white, antique dining table would have a total of fourteen matching chairs. And at the end of the table, with two maids by his side like faithful dogs, Kurosaki-bocchama would've had a lavishing dinner – always made too much for him to eat. Feet barely touching the floor, his hands would skillfully work with the four different spoons, forks and knives, his eyes looking down only at his fine China-plate. Back straightened and stiff, the child, who should've been out playing with friends, would've already begun to bear the expectations of society on his small shoulders.

But he had taken her out for pancakes.

A small smile stretched on her lips. It was so simple.

"Are you thinking about me?"

Rukia slowly looked up to see intense amber eyes locked onto hers, quickly stuffing a slice of pancake in her mouth to hide the broadening smile, her gaze shifted to the waiter, who was setting down a tall glass of coke to a table near theirs, "idiot."

Ichigo saw her eyes concentrating on the person behind him and felt a small sense of irritation coursing through his blood, staring at the stack on her plate; he reached over and stabbed through two pancakes to bring it over to his, not caring if a sticky syrup trail dripped between their dishes as clear evidence of his actions, "hey! Eat your own food!"

Good. She was looking at him again.

Making sure to maintain eye contact, Ichigo slightly leaned in closer to her, "don't look at somebody else when I'm here."

Rukia stopped and lifted her eyebrow, only giving him an incredulous stare, "don't misunderstand, Kurosaki-san, we're not in any position to tell each other off for looking at somebody else."

There was a small pout, "I thought we were going to get married?"

Annoyance flooded back, "we're not even dating!"

"You don't want to marry me? Wasn't this our first date?"

Rukia huffed in disbelief, "we are not dating, and of course I won't want to marry you. I like to get to know a person before I decide to 'marry' them or not," she said mentally cursing at herself. She was sitting in the most inconvenient seat in the store right now, the furthest from the exit, the door, and the only one closest to her being the window. And the window was a lot closer to Ichigo, so even if she tried to reach for it, he would probably grab her before she even opened it.

A sly grin stretched on Ichigo's face, "then let's get to know each other."

Veins twitched and a tight smile twisted across Rukia's lips, "you seem to misunderstand me, Kurosaki Ichigo," the words came out strained, "I have no interest in starting any sort of relationship with you."

He gave an amused snort at this, "I know. I heard you the first time..."

The man was infuriating -

"…so my plan is to coax you until you fall in love with me."

- and hardheaded.

"You can't just force someone to like you!"

Amber stared at her questionably and Rukia simply glared. He had the audacity to reflect an expression of complete innocence and unawareness at her distress, "it wasn't illegal last time I checked."

The nerve!

It was like running around in an endless circle when talking to him, "Kurosaki-san," Ichigo moped at the formal use of his surname and requested for her to call him by his first, a plea immediately shot down without a second of hesitation, "do you always take your first dates to have pancakes?" Rukia really only asked because she didn't have anything else to talk about. After all, she was trying desperately hard not to divulge too much into his life.

Ichigo simply continued to eat the pancake. For a man of such lean build, he possessed a black void for a stomach, "no, this is the first time."

A vein twitched, "oh?" Rukia lightly gritted her teeth at the unpleasant implications of his confession.

"I usually treated all the other girls to some lavish dinner," for some reason, she felt as if she was being treated at the bottom of his notorious playboy chain, 'as if pancakes are just good enough for me, huh?' Rukia prompted to stab into her food. Ichigo saw the tense outline of her hand and pursed his lips before they managed to burst into an elated grin; she was just so easy to read, "I wouldn't have been interested in you if you were someone so easily swayed by money and position."

Rukia stopped trying to cut through the plate and looked up at her boss, who placed his fork down, "how should I say this…" Ichigo averted his gaze to the window, managing to slightly irritate Rukia, 'oh, so now he acts shy?!'

His lips formed into a small smile and Rukia noticed that it wasn't his usual brazen grin or that insufferable smirk, "you're the first person I've honestly considered being with."

Mouth opening and closing, Rukia managed to impersonate a fish out of water impressively well.

What the hell could she say to that?

Drawing out a sigh, she put her own fork down and looked at Ichigo. If… and majorly stressing if… the man was serious in any sense, the least she could do was take it sincerely, "Kurosaki-san, I'm flattered that you… fancy me… but please, look at all the prospects, I-I dream about you getting hit by a bus every morning for goodness sake! We don't know… we don't like each other enough to date, let alone get married. And a relationship isn't this-this easy." She saw him turning back to face her, "Kurosaki-san, what you're proposing is a fairytale… it just doesn't exist."

Ichigo stayed silent at her answer, a brow raised in clear amusement, "I'm not offering a fairytale, I'm too stubborn and hot-tempered for that. It's a strange turn of events, even for me… I never imagined that I'd consider marrying a devil incarnate that looks more like a kid than a woman," Rukia's brow gave a violent twitch, and here she was trying to approach it so professionally too, "how you interpret my actions is entirely up to you, frankly, you're as stubborn as me so I know I won't get through to you that easily… plus…"

The fork clanked against the plate again and the final stack of pancake was already being bitten into, "you're cute when you act serious, just enjoy the pancakes, baka."

Brainless idiot.

Rukia swore to God… she would kill this man.

Feeling blood rushing to her face, Rukia couldn't hear anything above the drumming in her ears. She felt so… so humiliated for taking him seriously! "You know what, I don't even need a weapon, I can just kill you with my chair!"

"Such a violent woman," Ichigo gingerly finished his food and sipped at his cup of coffee, "I hope it doesn't rub off on my sisters. That'd be a real pain."

Rukia set down the knife she was hazardously swinging around and stared at the man, "you have siblings?"

Ichigo passed her a bizarre glance, "why do you sound so surprised?"

Honestly? She didn't really know either. To say she was surprised was a falsely assumed judgment – she was simply taken-back. An image of mini Ichigo's in a pink dress with long, fiery hair and trademark smirk flashed across her mind, "those poor girls…"

Eye twitched, "what the hell's that supposed to mean?"

The raven-haired colleague wasn't paying attention. Rukia couldn't even begin to imagine the agony of living and growing up with this oversized monkey in the house. Mental scenarios of sibling interaction conjured from her imagination, wrongfully exaggerated beyond the scope of her own creativity, "I pray for mercy on their souls."

"Well aren't you just hilarious."

Rukia gave a small, mocking smile, "thank you, I do try."

"So, do you have any?" Bringing her cup of coffee up to her lips, Rukia lifted a brow at his question, "I meant siblings, do you have any siblings?"

Ichigo noticed something flash in her expression, disappearing as fast as it appeared. Had he just stepped over a line?

Slender fingers interlaced and gripped around the cup, placing it down on the table without taking a sip from it, "I used to. An older sister." Rukia stared into empty space, a small smile slowly stretching on her lips as she reminisced.

Brows slightly furrowed in dejection. Ichigo remembered now, how Rukia's resume paper from years back had caught his eyes out of the piles of hundreds. No parents listed. No siblings listed.

"She must've been beautiful," Ichigo gave a small smile of his own as Rukia's gaze focused back on him. He knew that look. Knew it all too well. It was an expression he had seen many times on the faces of his own siblings. Even his old man bore it from time to time when he thought he wasn't looking.

The look of having lost a loved one.

Rukia stared into amber eyes. Something about him was different. His gaze, his expression, the little smile on his lips. There was no pity, no word of apology fabricated through a façade of false sincerity. The small smile drew bigger into a grin, "the kindest… she was the kindest person I ever knew."

Ichigo smirked at her, "I guess we'll have to formally greet her together soon."

"Hey, hey!" Rukia saw the familiar gaze of mirth in his amber eyes, the one that always ignited passionately whenever he was about to do something risky or downright stupid, "don't jump ahead of yourself! We're not going to formally greet anyone."

The man across her playfully shrugged and took the cup of coffee closer to his lips in an attempt to hide his smirk, "whatever you say, midget."

She felt like burying her face into her hands and crying. The mood had shifted so many times between the two over the last couple of hours; Rukia couldn't believe how easily the monkey was leading her on into the conversation. She gave a small groan, "Kurosaki Ichigo, you are an infuriating man."

The amusement in his eyes refused to settle down, shining only brighter as they analyzed Rukia's face, "I can assure you, there are other parts of me you will find charming."

No double entendre intended… at least Rukia hoped not…

Before any more the mental image of her half-naked boss could manifest, Rukia shook her head feverously and tried to concentrate on the initial issue at hand, "well, Kurosaki-san-"

"Call me Ichigo."

Rukia tightly pursed her lips, "Fine. Ichigo-san-"

"Now try Ichi-baby."

A frustrated sigh escaped, "I swear, even if we did end up as spouses for god knows what reason, I would probably murder you during our honeymoon."

Ichigo leant slightly back on his chair, "I'm surprised you would even wait that long to murder me," he cupped his chin as if he was sincerely pondering the limits of Rukia's temper, "I had suspected that you'd at least make it to the altar before snapping."

With violet eyes set in a deadpan gaze, Rukia replied without even skipping a beat, "that can be arranged…"

To her surprise, Ichigo gave an amused laugh, "now that I think about it, my younger sister Karin always told me that I needed a wife who wasn't scared to murder me when the occasion arises."

His laugh, Rukia thought… wasn't so completely unpleasant…

"I guess from your perspective, it is a lot to take on board," Ichigo started to neatly stack up the empty plates, "but just think about it, alright? You don't have to give me an answer now, but my offer still stands, Mrs. Kurosaki Rukia-chan."

Not really having anything snarky to say at his seemingly sincere words, Rukia simply chose to give a small nod as they stood up and headed to the exit, "also, I'll need to have your number if I'm planning on coaxing you."

Rukia scoffed at how he made it seem like the most normal-thing to do, "don't think so, Kurosaki, we're not that far gone yet."

Unknownst to her, a smirk bloomed on Ichigo's face at her reply, 'not that far gone yet... she says'

"You know, don't you think it'd be nice to put this thing on trial or something," the pair stepped out from the warmth of the pancake parlor with a slight jingle of the door's bell, feeling the cold wind rush past her, Rukia shuddered and took a sharp intake of breath, "put what on trial?" In the same breath, she silently cursed the godforsaken weather before more cold gusts of wind blew towards her.

Ichigo gave a small tsk of disapproval before reaching for his coat that was in her hands. Draping it over her trembling shoulders, he tightly fastened the garment around her small figure, mentally smiling when she didn't resist the second time around, "well you seem to think that you don't like me-"

"I don't."

"-so I was thinking something like a trial period. Live with me, or date me as you so strongly stress, for a certain time, then decide whether you want to take me up on my offer." Ichigo lifted an eyebrow in amusement when he noticed the petite woman standing slightly morecloser to him than she had been before, "I reckon it'd be fun."

Fighting the smile that was threatening to tug at her lips, Rukia reluctantly pulled the coat closer to her and almost, almost mewled at how warm it was, "you're way in over your head, Kurosaki."

"Aw, come on! We've had our first date now, you can at least call me Ichi-baby!"

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To be continued…

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Regards,

M.