Prompt: Ichigo proposes to Orihime (Ichigo POV)

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The truth was, he actually did have something planned.

It had been bothering him for months, the idea of finally "popping the question" to the woman he loved. And he had gone to great lengths to make sure it would all go smoothly.

His first task, before any sort of question on how he would actually propose to her, came with asking for permission.

It was daunting, to say the least. But he knew that she would appreciate it and that if he didn't ask for permission then several people would skewer his balls and fry them. Unfortunately, the girl with no family also happened to have the biggest family of all of them.

It was a given that he found it best to ask her for permission. Never mind that she was also conveniently the easiest to reach, but she was also the closest thing to a sister Orihime had.

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"You want to what?"

He sat, oddly enough not even breaking a sweat in the face of the fire-breathing Dragon like he thought he might. If anything, his mind was strikingly clear. His resolve was unshakeable.

"I want to marry Orihime."

She blinked quickly, placing her hands on her knees as she leaned closer, over the table between them, and leveled him with a stare that often-sent lesser men (Keigo) running for the hills.

"You…" She blinked again as if the action would suddenly clear her mind of whatever haze was obscuring it. And he waited.

"You want to marry Orihime…" She finally said, speaking slowly as if to better process the information handed to her.

He nodded, his fists clenching on his thighs. For a horrible, terrifying moment, he feared the worst. That she would absolutely reject the idea. It wouldn't stop him, nothing could at this point he was too far gone, but he didn't want to cause a rift in their friendship.

He jumped, startled when she let out a loud whoop, shaking her fists in the air as though she'd just won a karate tournament.

"It's about damn time you moron!" She laughed, leaning over the table to give his shoulder a hard punch that had him wincing.

"Uh… yeah…" He frowned, rubbing his shoulder absently as he watched the Karate Champion of Japan squirm around in her seat like an excited child. If he hadn't before seen her pick up a full-grown man and toss him into the Karakura River, he might have thought her to be just any other young woman anticipating the proposal for her best friend. However, because he knew her, he knew she was thinking of ways to use this to her advantage and blackmail him somewhere down the line. Something that would most definitely embarrass him.

"Have you thought about how you'll ask her?" She pressed suddenly, her gaze as intense as ever as she leveled him with a look that said "you had better have something amazing planned" as well as promised pain if he didn't. So now he allowed himself to tug at the collar of his shirt, his gaze drifting away to the other side of the room.

He had thought about it. He had thought about it for hours on end. He had first read through every Shakespeare novel he owned that had even a hint of romance before discarding the idea of taking a page out of any of those books. Because that any idea from Macbeth would be doomed from the start. He had snuck into Yuzu and Karin's room and peeked at a few of Yuzu's romance novels, only to toss them against the wall when he realized he now knew more about his sister than he ever wanted to. He had even gone as far as to buy one of those girly magazines (under the cover of night, when he knew no one would see him) to try and find some sort of clue.

Tatsuki waited, her gaze both hardening yet somehow also growing more humored as the seconds ticked by.

"You have no idea, huh?"

His forehead hit the table between them with a resounding thump.

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His second task, had been figuring out how to propose. And it had taken more effort than he would like to ever admit just coming up with an idea.

At first, he and Tatsuki bounced around the classics (much to his blushing embarrassment).

Taking her out to dinner for example. It would be simple; where he would kneel after pretending to drop something and propose that way. It was easy, a classic, and would be more opportune for several reasons. However, they both knew that Orihime would just dart down to pick up whatever he could have "dropped" before he even got the chance to get out of his chair.
They fiddled with dropping the ring in a glass of champagne. But they both agreed that was a little too tacky and ran the risk of her accidentally swallowing it if she began to daydream at any point. And that would be an absolute disaster.

Tatsuki had teased the idea of proposing during their more… intimate… couple activities. But it was quickly dismissed with a dry comment of "I don't want to know where you'd hide the ring."

They thought of a simpler (less costly) choice. He would take her on a walk through the park at night. She loved to look at the stars, although she might be suspicious given that he wasn't a fan of walking her around out past sunset to begin with. Too many creeps lurked at night, even in the calm streets of Karakura. And as intimidating as he could be, he would rather not spend half their walk wondering when he would have to toss out his infamous glare next. However, the idea was further scrapped in favor of a slightly altered idea that would leave more for surprise and ran with their routine.

A simple picnic.

They both had a day coming up where neither of them worked or went to school. A lazy Sunday. Orihime loved being outside on a warm sunny day, and she would surely love a nice picnic with her boyfriend. All he would have to do is lightly nudge the idea into her mind, so she wouldn't think twice. They would make their picnic basket, and head off for the park. And she would be none the wiser to the ring sitting in his pocket.

The point is, he did have something planned.

And he had spent hours thinking about the right thing to say when to say it, how to say it. Really, he could have probably spent years on it if he let himself. He had practiced it in the fucking mirror for Soul King's sake!

So, when it came the time when he finally said it, it didn't at all come out as planned. And given his brand of luck, he wasn't entirely surprised by the fact.

He didn't bring her to a fancy restaurant.

He didn't spend hours preparing a fancy dinner, with romantic candlelight to set the mood.

He didn't whisper it in her ear after making love.

Instead, they were in the kitchen, sitting on the floor, positively coated in flour. The scent of fresh cinnamon rolls drifted through the air with their laughter, as she teasingly swiped three fingers over his cheek to make whiskers.

Her eyes were bright, and her smile as warm as the sun filtering through the kitchen window through the blinds. The pink flush of her cheeks diminished only by the thin layer of flour splashed upon the pale skin. She sat, settled between his legs and in his arms after he (heroically) took them both down after slipping on a small puddle of spilled milk they'd both been trying to wipe up. Their attempts at preparing cinnamon rolls for their picnic (and his proposal) would be postponed.

And it was sitting there, as she swiped those three slender fingers softly over his cheeks, and she declared him "Kitty Kurosaki" that he somehow knew…

"Marry me."

It wasn't a question.