Road Trip

Ichigo walked into the room and slammed the door behind him. He immediately fell face first onto his bed and gave an exasperated grunt into his pillow. Rukia, who was sitting in his chair at his desk, was watching this ordeal with her usual curiosity. Ichigo had let his body go limp, so Rukia walked over to his bedside and poked him on the shoulder, slightly moving his position. Ichigo didn't respond, so Rukia poked him again. When he ignored her again, she slapped him on the back on the back. He didn't react at first, but after a few seconds, he slowly rose to a sitting position and glared at her.

"After the news I just got, that doesn't even make me mad," Ichigo said slowly, his glare getting darker if possible. This statement slightly worried Rukia, but she didn't show it. Instead, she just decided to find out what this was all about.

"What are you talking about, idiot?" Rukia inquired. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"I just found out that we're going to take a road trip to my grandparents' place this weekend. By the way, you're coming too."

"So? I've never met your grandparents. How bad could they be?"

"No, that's not the point. My grandparents are awesome. They pull out their wallets at just the sight of my sisters and I."

"Then what's the problem?"

"How did I say we were going to get there?"

"A road trip?"

"Exactly." Ichigo plopped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, but Rukia still had questions.

"Ichigo, what's a road trip?" Ichigo stared at her for a moment, and then sighed.

"A road trip means a really, really long car ride."

"What's so bad about these 'road trips'?"

"Think about for a minute, midget. My father and I stuck in the same car for over three hours…"

"Enough said."

"Yep."

Rukia plopped down on the bed beside Ichigo, his glare spreading to her now. He had gotten her dreading this road trip now.

"Ichigo?"

"Yea?"

"I've never seen your family's car before."

"My dad always rents one. It'll be big to give everyone plenty of space."

XXX

Ishiin drove into the Kurosaki driveway and parked the suburban. Karin, Yuzu, and Rukia were standing ready with their bags while Ichigo could be seen dragging both his bags along with Ishiin's oversized bags to the car. Ishiin laughed to himself. He made Ichigo get his bags every time they did this little excursion. Ishiin knew Ichigo wanted nothing to do with him, so he always hid weights in his bags to make Ichigo work harder. Ishiin unlocked the car, and ran around back to open the trunk. One-by-one the kids put their bags into the trunk, and took their personal bags with them to their seats. Ishiin was alone up front, since no one wanted to sit in the passenger's seat. Karin and Yuzu sat in the middle row while Ichigo and Rukia sat in the back row. Ishiin adjusted the rearview mirror so that he could see everything everyone did behind him.

Then, the glorious road trip began. Rukia had to hold onto to Ichigo for dear life, since Ishiin to every windy back road he knew about. She kept her eyes shut, so she never saw Ishiin's grin in the front seat as he saw his plan was working. Ichigo; however, seemed to stay perfectly stable, despite his father's driving. When they were finally on the interstate, Rukia released her grip on Ichigo, and resumed her own seat. Karin was staring out the window, and Yuzu was knitting some sort of scarf for her grandparents. Eventually, the twins fell asleep. Rukia was bored, so she turned to see Ichigo leaning in the corner made by the back of the seat and the side of the car; he was reading. Rukia yawned; this was going to take a while. Rukia lied down on the seat and kicked her feet into Ichigo's lap.

"Hey, midget. Put your feet somewhere else," Ichigo demanded, pushing Rukia's legs off of his lap.

"But Ichigo," Rukia whined in her innocent girl voice.

"No. It's not gonna happen."

"Rukia sat up again, she was too aggravated to sleep now. She looked down between her legs and saw her backpack. She reached inside and pulled out her sketchbook.

"Gonna make more crappy, little drawings, midget?" Ichigo taunted, not even looking up from his book. Rukia threw her book at his head. Ichigo dodged it and flicked Rukia's forehead as a counter. Then, all hell broke loose. Rukia was punching and kicking, and Ichigo was blocking and smirking at her feeble attempts to harm his person. When would see and opening, he would flick Rukia again and again. Finally, Rukia grabbed Ichigo's collar, and threw him down onto the seat. She got on top of him, her knees on his chest, and started to hit him anywhere she could. Ichigo was still blocking all her punches, and then an idea struck him. Ichigo jumped up in such a way that their position was reversed. Ichigo was now on top of Rukia, and her legs were sticking up from either of his sides. Ichigo started to tickle Rukia's sides, and she couldn't help but laugh hysterically. Ichigo continued to tickle her mercilessly, Rukia tried to fight back, but Ichigo wouldn't let her.

"S-s-s-stop, Ichigo! Th-that tickles! I can't take it!" Rukia yelled.

"IIICCCHHHIIIGGGOOO!" Ishiin's yell interrupted, stopping Ichigo and Rukia in their tracks. "As much as I want grandbabies, do not make them in the back seat of a rental car!"

Ichigo and Rukia blushed, seeing what their current position looked like to anyone ahead of them. They separated and sat as far away from each other as possible. Magically, Karin and Yuzu had still managed to sleep through all of that.

Hours rolled by until night fell around the car. Ishiin had even stopped his incessant talking, in order to save his own energy. Rukia and Ichigo were both pretty tired from their little brawl/embarrassing incident. Ichigo sat staring out the window, watching each passing streetlight. Rukia's eyes started to droop. Rukia finally fell asleep and slid to the side. Her head fell onto Ichigo's shoulder. Ichigo looked down at her and smiled. He eased her head into his lap, and put his arm around her shoulder. Pretty soon Ichigo fell asleep too, with one last thought before he drifted away: maybe road trips aren't so bad after all.