"Rukia? Eh, Rukia, you in there?"

Ichigo wandered over to his closet, yawning widely.

"We've got school...you alive?"

When he heard nothing from inside, he roughly yanked it open, only to be met with a kick in the face.

"Don't come in here!" Rukia yelled, puling the closet door shut so that only her head was sticking out. "You're just lucky I already finished changing into my uniform, or you would be facing something much worse!"

"You didn't answer me when I called you!" Ichigo yelled back, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Besides, you do realize that everytime you kick me like that, I can see your panties, right?"

Rukia gaped at him in fury, but words wouldn't come.

"What do you have in there that you don't want me to see anyway?" he asked. "It's my closet."

Her face suddenly turned bright red and she slammed the closet door shut.

"It's none of your business!"

Ichigo stared at the closed door, then let his hand drop from his face. It would be nice, just once, if they didn't fight, he thought. Especially today.

February 14.

He sighed, and turned away, picking his backpack up off the floor. There was no point in hoping.

She had no idea about how he felt.

Rukia sank to the floor of the closet, drawing her knees up to her chest. What a mess. Why did he have to open the door just as she was putting it in her bag?

She glanced down at the red heart-shaped box in her hands, and felt even more confused. Why was she following a human custom? More importantly, why had she made the chocolate by scratch instead of buying it? She'd even bought the ingredients and secretly made it in the kitchen while everyone was sleeping. All this effort and she didn't even know why she was doing it. What was Ichigo to her? Her logical mind said "a friend", but her feelings said differently.

So, here she was with a heart-shaped box of chocolates, trying to figure out how to give them to him. Considering that she had just freaked out at him, it was probably safe to say that she wouldn't be getting a good reception. She could be such a fool sometimes. Nothing says, "I think I'm falling in love with you," like a kick in the face.

Rukia took a deep breath and stood up, shoving the chocolate into her bag. Might as well face the music at some point.

This has got to be the slowest day of all time, Ichigo thought. School dragged on like molasses. Mizuro, as usual, got tons of chocolate from girls, and Keigo, of course, had tried to strangle him again. At the start of the day, Inoue had shoved a small box of chocolates into his hands, friendship chocolate, he assumed, but other than that, he hadn't gotten anything.

Not that he cared about chocolate from anyone but her.

But he hadn't been alone with her since the morning. At lunch, the girls took her with them to eat together, and during class, what was he supposed to do?

It was so stupid to be fixating on this, but he couldn't seem to think of anything else.

When the end of the day rolled around, Rukia came up to Ichigo as if everything was the normal, and said, "Let's go."

Just like that. Of course, to a shinigami, this was an ordinary day, wasn't it?

He had bloody rotten luck.

The snow lay just barely on the street as they walked side by side, in silence. The sky was bright above them, but the light only served to make everything feel quieter. Was he the only one feeling this awkward? Was he the only one who wanted to move a little closer?

"So, I saw Inoue give you chocolate," Rukia said suddenly.

"What? Oh, yeah," Ichigo replied, barely able to remember the green box in his backpack. "I'm guessing she gave them to all of her guy friends."

Rukia shrugged, and stopped walking, reaching into her bag.

"Well, I guess it shouldn't matter too much if you get another thing of chocolates," she said offhandedly, pulling out a small, red, heart-shaped box.

Ichigo's mouth went dry. She had actually got him chocolate?

"Here, take it," she said impatiently when he just stood there, staring at her. "I made it from scratch, so you better like it!"

Did this matter to her as much as it did to him, Ichigo wondered, reaching out slowly. She seemed so nonchalant about it. But then he noticed that the hand held out towards him was shaking.

His heart racing, he took the chocolate and dropped it into his backpack, stepping closer to her. Her eyes widened, but she didn't step back.

"D-Don't take this the wrong way!" she exclaimed, an edge of panic in her voice. "I don't want you to think that I-like you or something."

He caught her hand in his own, his fingers wrapping around her much smaller ones, and she looked up at his face. Rukia's eyes were filled with a sort of confused longing, and he could feel it radiating off her like heat.

"If you don't want me to like you, don't look at me like that," he muttered, his free hand drifting up to trace the side of her face.

"What?"

"I...Aw, hell." Ichigo slid his hand around to the back of her neck and tilted her head up, leaning down and crushing his lips to hers. She froze for a split second in shock, but then his arms went around her, pulling her to him, and he could feel her kissing him back, her hands clutching at the back of his jacket. They clung to each other until they couldn't breathe anymore, and then they pulled back slightly, staring at each other.

"Be my Valentine?" Ichigo asked, feeling happier than he had felt in a very long time.

"I thought I was supposed to ask that," Rukia mumbled, still looking shell-shocked, her cheeks pink.

"I don't care," Ichigo replied. "Just say yes."

"...Yes."

Rukia discovered later, tasting the chocolate in Ichigo's mouth, that she was really bad at cooking. But Ichigo ate it all anyway, every single piece.