Lover To Lover

Lover To Lover
Rukia put a strand of hair behind her ear as she continued signing her papperwork, she was so tense lately, Ichigo had just moved to Soul Society and he was currently running some errands for her, normally this would be great, she loved having Ichigo around, he was a wonderfull stress reliever, he helped her with her work by running errands for her and always tried to keep the mood in the office light, just his very pressence soothed her and kept the stress off, and since they were both becoming captains soon it was extremely important to keep the stress off, in fact, she was toying with the idea of asking him to share her office once their promotions came, though she doubted that that was even allowed... but there was a problum, a reason why she was stressed out as well, being around him so much just kept reinforcing her feelings, she had known for quite some time that she was in love with him, since before he lost his powers, but she didn't have the courage to admit it, she looked out the window and sighed, her eyes lowering as she looked out the window, she couldn't keep on like this, the pressure of being around him so much without being able to do or say anything was killing her, she turned back to her papperwork and sucked in a deep breath, "What am I waiting for? I just need to spit it out! When have I EVER beat around the bush before?" she said with resolution to the empty office, standing suddenly and running to the door

~+~

"Ichigo!" Rukia shouted, making the taller man turn around and raise his eyebrows, "Hm?" he said as he looked down at his short freind, "Hey Rukia, I just finished dropping off those forms at the Academy," he said, Rukia nodded and took in a deep breath, "I need to ask you something," she said, he stared at her innocently and waited... but her stomach was twisted into a not and she blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "Do you want to go to the living world for lunch today?" she cursed in her head, hating that she just dropped her resolve like that, but not again, she would NOT give up again! "Sure," he replied, she smiled, "Great then, let's go now," she urged, taking his hand and heading for the gate, she was just going to have to deal with it, as soon as they sat down she was going to tell him how she felt- just blurt it out!

~+~

"Alright Rukia, what's going on?" Ichigo asked as he and Rukia sat at the small diner in the living world, "What do you mean?" she asked, "I mean don't kid yourself, I know that you didn't invite me here for just no reason, you've got something important to talk to me about don't you?" she sighed, he was on to her, "Yes... I do...." she replied, he leaned forward, "Well, what is it? You can tell me whatever it is, do I need to go beat some people up?" he teased, she smirked slightly, "No, and even if it were that you shouldn't be so quick to jump on it," he shrugged, "So what is it then?" she sighed, raking her hair behind her ears, "Ichigo.... I... you and I have been very close for a very long time now...." "Yeah...?" she paused, trying to figure out how to put it, wen suddenly her phone started going off, "A-Ah it's my brother! I really need to take this, sorry, I'll be right back!" she said, zipping off to the outside of the diner and leaving Ichigo quite puzzled and watching her through the window

Things were quiet after Rukia came back, for the first few minutes anyway, "So? What were you going to tell me?" Ichigo asked with raised eyebrows, Rukia sighed and looked down into her glass of lemonaid, sighing, "I.... it's just.... it isn't something that's easy to admit that's all..." she wispered, Ichigo stared at her for a moment before nodding, "I understand that, no rush, just tell me when you're ready," he replied with a shrug, leaning back and glancing over his shoulder, "So what do you think you're going to eat? The waitress was here a minute ago so sh-" "Do you want to be my lover?" the silence around them was thick and heavy, well, she had done it, just blurted it out.... she swallowed and stared at him seriously for a moment, he blinked, "Um.... run that past me again?" he asked timidly, "I asked if you want to be my lover... do you?" silence again, "I..... what brought that up?" she leaned back and looked at the ground for a few moments, "Mm... I was just thinking..... I'm in love with you and I don't think that going through some big ceremony or other practice really suits us .... so I decided I would just ask you if you wanted to be with me, and if you don't I understand, it won't affect our freindship, I was just.... if I didn't ask you I would be a coward, I don't think I could live with not having tried it atleast," he leaned back as well, closing his eyes breifly, "Hm.... so you're in love with me?" "Yes," "...Being your ah..... we don't have to.... I mean.... what exactly-" "It's just a term, we don't have to do anything physical or become two completely differnet people and get all grosse and mushy or anything like that, it would just be.... how would you call it ... mm ... 'dating'? Only, I always imagined we were more serious than that, that we wouldn't need to test anything, that-" "We could plunge straight into marriage?" he asked with a teasing smirk, "Perhaps; not much has to change... it's just admitting to ourselves and eachother wat our feelings are and deciding if we would like to be together romantically, emotionally, I believe we are already past this, but... perhaps...... lovers do things like kissing..... an-" "Rukia," she paused, looking up at him instantly, "It's fine, I get what you're saying," another pause, "...And?" "And ok, let's be lovers, as long as we don't have to rush into anything or change too much," she smiled at him, "I'm glad to hear that," he nodded slowly and leaned over the table, "C'mere," he said, she leaned forward, "I have a secret for you," she leaned forward a bit more and he kissed her full on the lips, it was quick, innocent, and chaste, but it was, none the less, a kiss, smiling, he leaned back, "I love you too," she smiled and slowly leaned back as well, "I'm glad to hear hear it,"