Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Summary: Their height difference botches up their attempts to kiss.

A/N: My second baby. Review please. Still K+ rating. I'd probably try a lemon one of these days... or weeks. ^_^

Operation: First Kiss

Rukia and Ichigo have a problem. It could be a big or small problem – depending on whose perspective.

After months of dragging on they were officially recognized as a couple, and they did want to kiss that first day, but Ichigo thinks it fucking awkward to bend all the way to her lips. And there was no way a Kuchiki princess would submit herself to the indignity of hanging over Ichigo's shoulders like a damp towel – and even if she would, she doubts her toes would even touch ground.

It was Ichigo who tried to get the first kiss going.

He just woke up to find Rukia lying face down on the carpet, reading her manga. He figured he needed to indulge his hormones once in a while and proceeded to hoist Rukia up by the waist, trying to get her to sit on his lap.

Rukia did not take kindly to being jostled out of her comfortable position, and the manga she was reading just started to get good. She kicked and cursed at Ichigo, who seemed hell-bent on dumping her into his lap.

Ichigo tried to keep her lips steady by holding onto her face, but the prickly shinigami was too affronted by the manhandling to recognize what Ichigo was actually trying to do. She finally managed to punch his nose, causing Ichigo to be thrown on his back on the bed.

Ichigo clutched at his bleeding nose, muttering darkly about stupid midgets.

To this day, she still doesn't know what Ichigo tried to do that morning.

It was Rukia who attempted to go for it next.

They were going to a picnic with Chad and the others that day. Rukia primped and dressed fit to kill to tempt the living daylights out of her boyfriend. She stood by the hallway, waiting for him to leave his room.

When Ichigo arrived, he was too surprised to see Rukia waiting by the hallway instead of sitting comfortably in the living room to notice how pretty she looked.

Disgruntled but not deterred, Rukia figured that the direct approach would be better – subtlety was lost on the idiot strawberry – and seized his shirt and tugged him towards her, trying to get his face close enough for her to kiss.

Unfortunately, Ichigo's shirt is one of those delicate cottony types that would have been nice to wear for a picnic on sunny days, but not strong enough to withstand the onslaught of a female shinigami. The shirt gave a tearing sound that resonated along the hallway.

By the time Ichigo realized what Rukia was trying to do, it was too late. He was already shouting about the torn shirt and Rukia's clumsiness, and she was already screaming about his cluelessness and insensitivity.

He tried to rectify matters by pinning her to the wall and attempting to kiss her, but Rukia wasn't in the mood anymore and decked him instead.

The picnic passed with neither one speaking to the other. Ichigo was scowling as if his life depended on it and Rukia was overdoing her fake sugary sweetness act, knowing how much it pisses Ichigo off.

The third attempt is one of those spur of the moment things.

They had just got home from school. Rukia has just managed to remove her shoes and called out a cheerful "Tadaima!".

Too frustrated to care what his father thinks, Ichigo grabbed Rukia by the wrist and dragged her up to his room, the prickly shinigami spitting curses at him the whole time. He ignored her and locked the door, throwing his enraged girlfriend upon the bed and pinning her there with his body.

She would have yelled but he quickly covered her mouth with his. Rukia suddenly didn't feel like shouting anymore. When their lips parted – one needs oxygen to live, after all – Ichigo chided her for her loud mouth while Rukia teased him about his caveman tactics.

Then, they proceeded to spend the next ten satisfying minutes making-out on the bed.

A few days later, Rukia aired her new concern to Ichigo over lunch in the school's rooftop.

"Ne, Ichigo, with our height difference, how are we ever going to have sex?"

Ichigo promptly choked on his onigiri.