Flowers For Ichigo

Author's Note: My first attempt at a bleach story. I hope ya like. Lot's of thanks to my beta

Summary: Kurosaki Ichigo, after defeating Aizen and restoring peace to his town, has been feeling that something or someone is missing from his life. Trying to figure out what it is that's been tugging at his mind, a flower appears at his doorstep.

"Yea, laugh it up"

Rukia continued to laugh, rubbing the tears out of her eyes. "Come on! It's not like we're making fun of you or anything."

Glaring Ichigo rubbed his temples. "Who sends a guy flowers? I mean, isn't that weird?"

Rukia looked at him skeptically. "Why would that be weird? I mean, it's kinda funny when you think about it."

Ichigo continued to rub his temples. "I ask again why would me receiving flowers be funny?" Raising his voice slightly, Ichigo's shoulders slumped.

She stopped laughing and looked at Ichigo seriously.

"Well, it's funny 'cause who is suicidal enough to send you, of all people, flowers?" she put her hands up shaking her head back and forth. It was just not something someone in their right mind would do.

"Yea, strawberry-chan, no one's that crazy."

Ichigo glared at the redhead. "Don't call me strawberry, pineapple!"

Renji stood and clenched a fist. "Don't call me pineapple, bastard!"

They continued to yell back and forth. Ichigo wanted to punch the redhead in the face. All morning since he had received that godforsaken flower they'd been making it their business to make sure they expressed delighted they were that someone had the balls to send him one. It all started that morning…

~Flashback~

"Ichi-nii, you gotta get up!" Ichigo's sister Yuzu said, shaking her brother awake.

Mumbling, Ichigo turned over to face his sister. "Alright already. I'm up, I'm up," sitting up in bed and stretching. He hated mornings. After the defeat of Aizen and the Espada everything had gone relatively back to normal, except for the occasional hollows and some training. Or as much as normal would allow.

It'd been a full year since them winning and Ichigo still couldn't get used to it. Even though the small thirst for some ass-kicking still lingered, Ichigo felt that something was majorly missing from his life, something or someone. He couldn't put his finger on it but something was scratching at the back of his mind, trying to tell him that he wanted something or someone.

For the life of him he couldn't figure it out and his inner hollow had made it his life's mission to continue to laugh at him about it. He had tried to talk to Zangetsu about it and all he got was a, "When it's time you will know. I cannot give you the answer." Now that was great. It was obvious that they knew what it was that was missing but wouldn't tell him.

Sighing and getting frustrated, Ichigo got ready for school. Whatever it was that he so-called wanted or needed would just have to wait. Finished, Ichigo went down stairs for some food.

"Hey, Yuzu where's dad?" he said, looking around.

"He had a patient come in early this morning."

Smiling slightly, Ichigo grabbed some food. Thank god he left. He wasn't in the mood to dodge the overly-excited man, nor was he in the mood to punch him in the face. Finishing his breakfast, Ichigo headed for the door.

Opening the door, Ichigo looked down, almost stepping on a flower. Why was there a flower on his porch outside his door? Taking a closer look, Ichigo could tell it wasn't an ordinary flower. It was a rose. A light pink rose. What the hell was a rose doing in front of his door?

Taking the flower in the house for Yuzu to put in a vase, Ichigo hurried to school, wondering who the hell was it that had the balls to send him a flower and a rose of all things. What could it mean? Did someone have a crush on him? Or was this some joke? Deciding to ask Rukia about it, Ichigo headed for school… never noticing a pair of eyes following him.

~Present~

"Break it up boys!" Rukia glared at them, breaking the two apart.

"Sit down." Sitting down, they looked at Rukia.

"Now let's go over this again, shall we? You got up this morning like you normally do and when you opened your door there was a flower on the step?" She asked, making sure she had heard him that morning correctly

"Yes." She looked at him questioningly.

"Why type of flower was it?" He looked at her with a 'why does it even matter' face.

"It does matter, fool. Each flower has a different meaning."

Each flower had a different meaning? Seriously? How was he supposed to know that? Looking at her and thinking back, he answered.

"A light pink rose." Her eyes widened and she pulled out her 'know-it-all' book.

"Light pink rose, light pink rose. Ah, here it is."

"So what does it mean?"

"You have nothing to worry about. It says a light pink rose means friendship. Someone just wants to be friends with you." He looked at her incredulously.

"Friendship? If they wanted to be friends they just had to talk to me." She stared at him.

"Ask you? Have you seen yourself lately? You're downright scary; since the end of the war you've been acting differently. Every time someone looked like they wanted to ask you something you looked at them like you wanted to eat them for dinner." Ichigo looked at her with wide eyes.

"Seriously? I didn't notice…" Ichigo trailed off. Had he really been looking at people like that?

She shook her head and leaning over, she put her hand on Ichigo's shoulder.

"It's fine. It's hard to adapt when you're no longer the savior of the world or constantly looking over your shoulder." Renji nodded with her in agreement. Maybe I should talk to them about what I've been feeling lately… Ichigo thought.

Sighing and turning around in his seat, Ichigo looked out the window. There was a lot of things to think about, one of them being: Who the hell sent him that flower and why the hell had they sent it to him?