Hello, everyone! Been a while, huh? I've been really bored this Spring Break, and I got an idea for a story, so I wrote it down. It's going to have multiple chapters, which I also haven't done in a while, and I hope you like it!

Your humble servant,

SillyPurpleBubbles

"Ryou, if you don't hurry up, I swear to God-"

"Oh, calm down, Strawberry! Open your eyes."

Ichigo huffed, opening her eyes to a small, pink rectangular box tied with a red ribbon. The curious girl cocked her head to the side.

"Well? Go on and open it," said Ryou, her boyfriend of three years. He was smiling gently, not hiding the eagerness he felt. She untied the ribbon, slowly in order to save it, earning a pair of rolled eyes from her significant other. Carefully removing the top of the box, she was further puzzled to find a colored note card in it. "Ryou, what on Earth..."

"Since you're not inclined to actually work for your paycheck," he silenced her protests with a finger over her mouth, "I'm making you work for your birthday present. Use the cards to find it. Good luck." He then walked out nonchalantly, as if he had only come in to ask Ichigo the time or how she felt about the weather. She stared at the door for a few moments before inquiring, "What just happened?" to no one in particular. "Well, I guess I have nothing better to do." She removed the hot pink card from the box and read:

Our favorite place

"Hm...our favorite place..." Ichigo's face lit up quickly, knowing automatically to what he was referring. She hopped up, grabbed her jacket, and headed out the door to the lake. When she arrived, she took her shoes and socks off to walk through the sand, loving the feeling of the grainy stuff squeezing between her toes. She strolled slowly, remembering the evening that made this their favorite place...

"Hey, Ichigo?" The girl looked over at Ryou, who had broken the trance she was in from the sunbathing. "Mmm?"

"Mind if we take a walk?" Ichigo got up, yawned, brushed herself off, and took his offered hand. She was used to this, though initially, it had freaked her out. They had grown very close since her and Masaya's break-up, and hand-holding came natural to them now. He led her to the dock, released her hand, and leaning over the dock, staring at the vast expanse of water before him. She leaned next to him, enjoying the breeze on her face. "Keichiro took me here a lot when we first moved to Japan." She looked at him, seeing the far away look in his eyes that she knew meant he was thinking of his parents. "Any time I felt sad about my parents or I had been teased at school. Even if I was just in a bad mood, I came here. Something about this place, just...calms me down. It seemed like nothing or no one in the world could do that except this lake after my parents died." He turned to look at her. "Then you came into my life."

Her head whipped around to look at him, unsure she had just heard him correctly. "Ichigo, before I found you, I was thoroughly dissatisfied with life. I devoted myself to to the Mew Project during the week, left on Friday, came home stoned out of my mind on Sunday, and started the whole thing over on Monday. My life was a circle. It seemed like there was no beginning and no end, and it wouldn't stop. I was just there, waiting to die. For a while, when you came along, you annoyed the stuffing out of me," he stopped to chuckle at his memories, "Seriously, Ichigo, I though you must have been taking some kind of course in annoying your boss.

"Still, I realized that, for the first time since my parents' death, something was unpredictable. I didn't know what to expect with you around. I found myself...wanting to be around you. Wondering about you and what you were doing. Worrying when you went to battle. I was in fervent denial for a long time but, finally, I took comfort in knowing there was someone out there..." he turned to her and took her face into his hands, "Someone that I could love."

Ichigo gasped, her eyes wide open. "What...what did you say?" Ryou smiled, pushing loose strands of hair from her face, slowly replying, "I love you." Unable to hold back any longer, Ryou brought her face to his, slowly pressing his lips to hers. Immediately, Ichigo entered a trance, melting into his strong arms. She left her eyes open, enjoying the look of his face being this close and loving the feeling of his lips against hers. He slowly began to move his lips, gently massaging hers with his own, carefully moving his tongue into her mouth. Ichigo wrapped her arms around Ryou's neck, feeling like every vein in her body was bursting with electricity. She wished that time could just stop, and she could be there, in Ryou's arms, kissing him, and not caring about anything else but the two of them.

Ryou finally broke away from his love, looking into her eyes. Ichigo smiled. "I love you, Ryou," she said, letting a few tears escape. Ryou smiled back, picked her up bridal style, and spun her around, earning a shrieking laugh from her. Still in his arms, he kissed her forehead lightly, saying, "You have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that."

Ichigo smiled at the memory, loving how it made her feel when she recalled that pleasant afternoon. Walking up to the dock, she found a second card taped to the ledge, colored blue:

You lost something here

"Oh, boy," she said, once again recalling quite quickly what he meant, and quite unwilling to dust off that memory. With pertinent reluctance, Ichigo replaced he shoes, and continued on the hunt for her present.

SillyPurpleBubbles