A companion/sequel thing to my RenRuki one-shot "Tea Time, Rudely Disturbed". (Personal opinion of author: I actually don't think either Renji or Orihime have any such thoughts as romance between Ichigo and Rukia in canon, but these were fun to write nonetheless :D)
(Edit: in case any are popping in a second time, I changed the last couple of paragraphs a bit. The sentences were bugging me. Hopefully they are better now.)

Warnings: None. Except maybe very mild language...

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Ichigo closed his eyes with relish as the spoonful of dark chocolate ice cream melted over his tongue and ran down his throat. A rush of breath contentedly escaped his nose. Eating chocolate ice cream on a hot day and sitting outdoors with a friend. This was the life. Ichigo realized he had become a bit of an old man, mulling over the simple pleasures, but he figured he was allowed at least that after some seriously outrageous high school years.

He glanced over at his companion as she gleefully ate her green tea ginger ice cream, her body squirming with happiness, the heels of her shoes bouncing cheerfully on a lower step. These were the same steps where they had sat all that time ago when she had surprised him and given him the resolve he needed to save Rukia.

Ichigo could not help but smile a little as he remembered her impersonation of him with mouth defiant, scowl in place, and pose haughty.

"Oh? I wonder what Kurosaki-kun is smiling about?"

He turned startled eyes to his friend. She was leaning over with her head turned, hair falling over her knees, her smile spread around the small spoon in her mouth.

Ichigo cleared his throat and shrugged, stabbing at the diminishing ice cream in his cup. "Nothing much." For some reason, he felt embarrassed to tell her that he had been thinking about her.

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments as they ate their ice cream. He realized they didn't get to be alone much. There seemed to always be at least one of their other friends around. The only reason they were alone right now was because Chad only had time to grab some ice cream with them and then return home to feed some mutt he had found last week. Hopefully, the big sappy idiot would find a home for it soon.

Not that he wanted to especially spend time alone with her. Er... Not that he didn't either. But... damn it. He shoveled a heaping spoon of comforting chocolate into his mouth. For some reason, he was feeling embarrassed and awkward again. Now he felt the need to say something to break what had been a comfortable silence before his brain had gone weird.

"Uh, so I saw Rukia last week."

Orihime perked up. "Really? That's great! How is she?"

He shrugged again, the tip of his spoon scraping at the bottom of the bowl. "Fine, I guess. She was a little weird at first, but then got better after she talked for a while." And by 'talked' he meant 'made no sense' and 'cursed like a sailor'.

"Rukia was weird?"

"Yeah, I guess Renji had gotten some funny ideas about some stuff."

"Oh?"

"Yeah..." Ichigo absently swirled his spoon around his cup and then looked down sadly when he saw that all the ice cream was gone. "I guess Renji and Rukia are a couple or something now." He frowned. Why didn't he get the bigger size? Oh, right. Because Yuzu would kill him if he ruined his supper. But still. He wasn't prepared for the last bite of chocolate to be his last bite. It snuck up on him and it was unsettling.

"A couple?"

He nodded. "Maybe. They might not be. I don't really know, actually. Just seemed that way." Maybe he could persuade Yuzu to make something chocolate for dessert. It was getting close to his birthday. Somewhat. If he stretched his birthday out to last all summer.

"Kurosaki-kun..."

"Hm?" He looked over at her ice cream. There was still some icy light green at the bottom that she didn't seem interested in. It was too bad she didn't order chocolate, or he would offer to finish it.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes pensively. The thing was, Orihime didn't not finish food. Ever. He looked up at her face and felt slightly alarmed at her expression. Her eyes were wide with worry and her lips were pressed tightly together.

"Inoue...?"

He jumped when she suddenly punched the air with a determined look. "All right." Orihime turned to face him, took a deep breath, and looked him in the eye as if she was about to give some very stern instruction. "They're not a couple yet, Kurosaki-kun. It's not too late!"

"...What? Not too late for what?"

She swung her arm in a huge arc until her index finger nearly touched the bridge of his nose. "To confess your feelings, Kurosaki-kun!"

He stared at her finger cross-eyed. "Eh?" He gave his head a slight shake and looked past her finger to her resolved expression. "Confess what feelings?"

Orihime narrowed her eyes at him. "You can't play dumb with me." She retrieved her finger and tapped the side of her nose with it. Ichigo half expected her to whip out a deerstalker cap and a magnifying glass. "I know a thing or two about love and can spot it a mile away."

"L-Love?"

She had already turned away, curled into a thinking man's position, her ice cream cup jostling between her knees. Ichigo reached over and grabbed it before the now melted contents spilled all over her legs.

"Inoue, what are you talking about?"

She ignored him as she started mumbling to herself. "Now, how shall we do this? I wonder if Urahara-san would open a way to Soul Society for such a reason..." Orihime pumped her fist into her hand. "Of course he would! This is a matter of life and death!"

"Uh, I-Inoue..."

Suddenly, she sat up pin straight, her head swiveling around, practically sniffing the air. "Is that..." She gasped and looked at him, eyes huge and awe-filled. "It must be fate! Time to go, Kurosaki-kun! Even if it doesn't work out, you should never have regrets about never confessing!"

Orihime bounced to her feet and grabbed his wrist, yanking him up. Ichigo barely was able to balance the two cups in one hand before he was being pulled behind her, clamoring down the steps. They rounded the corner and he deftly tossed them into a trash can as they zoomed past.

"Oi, Inoue! Where are we going?"

She glanced back. "Can't you feel her?"

"Feel who?"

"Rukia!" They came to a sudden stop. Orihime released his wrist and waved enthusiastically up at the sky. Ichigo looked up and saw his tiny shinigami friend.

"Inoue?" she called down. "Ichigo!" Rukia crouched her knees slightly before jumping and landing softly on the pavement in front of the two teenagers.

"Hey, Rukia," Ichigo greeted. "What brings you back so soon?"

"The assigned shinigami sent a panicked distress call about having some trouble with a couple of souls. " Rukia looked to the side, her face peeved. "It was just an elderly couple who died at the same time and were more interested in arguing about whose fault it was than heading to their after life. He was blaming her cooking and she was blaming him for being an idiot and not knowing how to pick out meat properly."

Ichigo smirked. "Heh, I thought you were lieutenant. You still get these crappy jobs?"

"Sh-Shut up! They thought it was a dire situation that would need my high skill level!"

"Sure, sure."

"Why you..."

"Ano," Orihime interrupted. Both heads swiveled to look at her. "Sorry, but I need to get to my job, now."

"Ah! The bakery!" Rukia looked at her with wide-eyed interest. "I'll come with you. I have heard about this delicious bread and would like to try it."

Orihime squeaked and looked a bit panicked. "A-Ano, the thing is... I don't think we'll have any leftover bread today."

"Oh, that's all right." Rukia excitedly dug around in her shinigami robes before pulling out a bunny-shaped coin purse, showing it to Orihime with blushing pride. "I have human money with me."

Soft brown eyes started darting all around. "Well... the truth is... Th-The bread isn't very good today." She made a dramatically disgusted face. "So gross. New baker that's training a-and stuff."

"Oh, I see." Rukia blinked with disappointment. "Maybe next time, then."

Orihime nodded enthusiastically. "Next time, definitely!" She looked back and forth between the two of them. Her expression went a little sad before she seemed to shake herself and pull on a stalwart face. "I guess I'll see you guys later!"

She made to leave, but then turned to face Ichigo and crooked her finger. Ichigo looked perplexed, before obediently bending towards her. She stood on tip-toe, cupped her hands around her mouth, and whispered in his ear. "Don't forget to tell Rukia you love her with all your heart, Kurosaki-kun!"

Orihime skipped off, waving her hand at them, before disappearing.

Ichigo stood frozen in place, still bent, and still feeling her warm breath on his ear.

Rukia gave him a sly expression. "Oho, what did she whisper in your ear, Ichigo?"

"Eh?" He slowly straightened, returning his attention to the shinigami.

"Did I interrupt a date?"

"Uh..."

Rukia pressed her fingers to her quirking mouth. "Oh my, Ichigo, you dog!"

"Sh-Shut up! It wasn't like that! She... She said..."

Rukia coyly pressed her hands to her cheeks. "Oh, now, Ichigo. You shouldn't share sweet nothings like that."

"She said I had to tell you that I love you."

Rukia froze, her hands slowly slipping from her face. "Eh?"

Ichigo shook his head and shrugged, his eyes slightly vacant in shock.

"Why all of a sudden?"

"I don't know. One minute we're eating ice cream, then I mention that you and Renji might be a couple now, and next she's telling me that I need to confess. That it might not be too late. Something about no regrets. And then she senses your reiatsu and starts pulling me down the road!"

Rukia stared. "This sounds strangely familiar..."

"To what?"

"Renji. When he was pushing me to confess to you."

"Oh." Ichigo scratched his head. "I guess it does. Where do they get these ideas?"

"I don't know, but Ichigo?"

"What?"

"You know Renji loves me, right?"

"I was the one who told you, idiot."

"And now Inoue is doing the same thing Renji was doing."

"Right."

"And so..." Rukia rolled her wrist towards him expectantly.

"So what?"

She glared at him. "You fool! Inoue feels the same way!"

Ichigo started and looked her up and down. "You think Inoue loves you too?"

Rukia's face twisted into utter disbelief. "Eh?"

Ichigo frowned at how his heart had dropped to his stomach. But why should he care? Orihime was free to love who she plea- "Ow! Damn it, Rukia! What was that for?" He glared at her while he rubbed his sore head.

"No, you idiot! Inoue loves you!"

"...You're off your rocker."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Ichigo, go ask any one of your friends, Chad, Ishida, Arisawa... all of them will tell you that Inoue is in love with you. You're the only idiot who has no clue."

Ichigo managed to push past the rather dazed feeling of being told that Orihime loved him and everyone knew it to retort with, "Tch, I bet everyone in Soul Society knew that Renji was in love with you. You had to be told by this idiot, if I remember straight."

A slight blush crossed over her cheeks. "That... Anyway!" she shouted. "Inoue loves you, so go do something about it. Knowing her she's probably already planned an outlandish wedding for us while breaking her own heart. I have to get back to Soul Society."

Ichigo was the one to give her a sly look this time. "Got a date with Renji?"

Her cheeks turned dark red. "N-None of your business. Goodbye!"

Ichigo watched her leap into the air and bounce away. On automatic, he turned and started to head home.

Inoue loves you!

He gulped. Slowly, Rukia's words were settling into his mind, heart, and gut. Even his fingers felt a little tingly. Orihime loved him? But that was crazy. Maybe he should ask Chad or Tatsuki or someone. He scowled. But what would he do with that? What if Orihime really loved him? What then?

Hadn't he just last week decided that he didn't want to add falling in love to the heaping pile on his plate?

Ichigo rubbed the heel of his hand against his chest. It felt overly warm and full. His heart rate felt abnormally fast too. Maybe he should have his dad check him out.

Orihime cheerfully waved goodbye to her boss as she stepped out of the bakery after closing and into the dusk. She turned on her heel and skipped towards home, plastic bag full of bread swinging in her hand. It didn't take but a few seconds when her feet calmed to a normal walk and her bag slowed in its swing.

Her heart felt heavy. And worried. Heavy because she had pushed the one she loved so completely in the opposite direction. Worried because she didn't know if she had done the right thing.

She had panicked when she had heard that Rukia might be in a relationship with Renji because she knew how Ichigo felt about her. And she thought she knew how Rukia felt too. So she quickly reasoned that Rukia must be going to Renji because she thought that Ichigo didn't feel the same way. But even if that wasn't true and Rukia did love Renji, she didn't want Ichigo to live with regrets. She didn't want him to feel the pain of 'what if', if he had to feel any pain at all.

She only hoped she did the right thing. She had only wanted to protect him.

Orihime shook herself. The most important thing was that Ichigo was honest with his feelings. She nodded with a small harrumph. Now, she wondered what kind of wedding they would have. Maybe she could bake the cake. She frowned at that. Although neither seemed to keen on her tastes, so maybe she should just offer to have her bakery do it. Maybe a big one so that she could dress up as Chappy and hide in the middle, popping out at just the right moment. Rukia's eyes would be so shiny!

"Inoue."

Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest from the shock of the familiar voice saying her name. The bag slipped from her fingers, but Ichigo was quick and grabbed it before it hit the ground.

"K-Kurosaki-kun?"

She stared at him as he straightened, her hands pressed to her chest.

"Hey..." He looked down at the bag he was holding. "They had leftovers after all?"

"Eh?" She looked at the bag, momentarily bewildered, and then flushed when she remembered her fib. She reached out to retrieve it while nervously laughing in agreement. It was then that she noticed they were in the playground of the park she usually cut through to get home from her job. A swing was gently swaying behind him. Had he been waiting for her?

Orihime looked up at his face. His eyes were downcast and his arms were crossed over his chest.

Her heart sank.

It had obviously gone badly with Rukia. She had been completely wrong and now Ichigo was in pain because of her. She was so stupid! Orihime wanted to bonk herself on the head and cry, but she spoke instead. "Is there something wrong, Kurosaki-kun?"

"Huh? Oh. Well, I..." He softly kicked the ground with his toe. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Anything!"

He nodded and waved at the swing next to the one he had been sitting in. "You wanna sit?"

Orihime answered by moving to the swing and settling in, the plastic bag of bread dangling on her elbow as she held on to the swing's chains. She watched him sit, his long body looking almost comical in the small, low swing, except that she didn't feel very comical. She felt quite miserable.

"Why..." He cleared his throat. "Why did you think I was in love with Rukia?"

"Eh?" Her eyelashes fluttered. Why? Well, so many reasons. She may have been wrong about Rukia, but not Ichigo. "Well, all you went through to save her in Soul Society."

His amber eyes flicked over to her before scowling deeper in confusion. "But I, uh, saved you in Hueco Mundo."

"Oh..." She hadn't... but somehow it had felt different. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Well... the way you look at each other."

"Uh... I don't really know what to say about that... but I don't think... I don't know. What else?"

Orihime was quite confused at this point. Why was he asking all this? "You two always seemed so close. You were always together."

Ichigo scratched his cheek. "Well, yeah. We're close, I guess. I dunno about always together, but we had a lot of business to take care of, especially when I first got my powers. Plus we're friends, so, yeah..."

"But... earlier when we were eating ice cream. You smiled in that way... I thought you were thinking about Rukia. Then you started talking about her, and you looked so sad and frown-y when you told me about her and Abarai-kun."

Ichigo frowned thoughtfully. "Smiled? In what..." Light dawned in his eyes as they widened slightly. "Oh!" He coughed. "Uh, no, I wasn't thinking about Rukia."

"Eh? But you looked all soft and mush-"

"I was thinking about you."

He had turned his face away, and Orihime stared at his ear. It looked red, but that might just be the dim lights shining on the playground and playing tricks on her eyes.

"Me?"

"I just... We were sitting on those same steps, you know. I was just thinking about back then."

"Oh." Orihime remembered what he was talking about. "I see... But the sad frown-y face..."

Ichigo shrugged and looked down at the ground in front of him. "Probably 'cause I was out of ice cream and was thinking I should have gotten more scoops."

"Ice cream..."

"Yeah."

Orihime fell silent as she stared out at the dark forms of trees. Could she have gotten it wrong? Ichigo didn't love Rukia after all? But if that was true... she had just seriously put him through a lot of trouble. Her eyes widened with apology as she turned her head to look at him. "Kurosaki-kun, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to... I really thought you loved Rukia."

Ichigo looked at her and gave her a half-smile. "It's fine, Inoue. You just want your friends to be happy. Nothing wrong with that."

She felt her face go red with embarrassment. "So, Rukia and Abarai-kun..."

"Are probably on a date right now."

"Oh." Orihime took a moment to gather some of her thoughts and feelings together -she would have to deal with the rest of them later- and smiled, swinging back and forth a little, heels in the ground with the toes of her shoes pointed cheerfully upwards. "Well, that's good, though! For Rukia and Abarai-kun to be happy together. Ah, I should bake a cake for their wedding instead!"

Ichigo gaped at her, aghast. "You really were planning a wedding for Rukia and I..."

"Eh? A-Ano..."

"Then..." He stopped the slight swing he had been doing, and as Orihime stopped with him, she felt like the atmosphere had suddenly done an abrupt shift. She frowned at Ichigo with concern. Was there something deeper bothering him? Surely she hadn't done something else to give him trouble.

"There was actually something else I wanted to ask you."

"Yes?"

"Do you..." He took a deep breath, rubbed his chest a little with his hand, and then surprised her by suddenly looking straight at her. "Inoue, do you like me?"

She felt like either the park had gotten a whole lot smaller or the trees had tucked up their roots about their knobby trunks and rushed up closer in anticipation of the conversation. They were crowding her a bit and she wanted to ask them nicely if they wouldn't mind give them a little privacy. Not to mention their heavy, expectant breathing was sucking all the oxygen out of the air and making it very difficult to breathe.

It was on the tip of her tongue to reply with a flippant 'of course I like you', but she couldn't run from the fact that she knew exactly what kind of 'like' he was talking about. She looked into the widened eyes staring intently at her and attempted to fathom their depths above the wild pounding of her heart.

Orihime looked away, lowering her head a little, letting her hair hide the sides of her face. She was reading things in his eyes that gave her hope, but clearly her optimism was getting the better of her. Besides, she apparently wasn't as good at reading Ichigo as she had claimed she was. It broke a little piece of her heart to think that she didn't know him as well as she thought.

But anyway. He had asked a question, and it deserved an answer. An honest one. She opened her mouth to shyly say the words, but then realized she didn't want to do that. She wasn't ashamed of her love for Kurosaki Ichigo. It was something that was dear to her, something that gave her strength beyond what she could have done on her own. It wasn't diminutive and shy, but so very alive and thrummed through her veins continuously. It was so much a part of her and the person she had grown to become... Now that it was practically out in the open, how could she mumble how she felt behind a curtain of hair?

So, she lifted her head and faced him straight on, looking right into the amber eyes that she loved so much, and said with strength and surety in her her voice, "Yes, I like you. I love you, Kurosaki-kun."

His eyes widened further and his face looked startled.

She waited patiently for him to respond.

It felt surprisingly good to tell him that he held her heart. She had been perfectly content to let him unknowingly hold the funny looking muscle in his strong hands -she knew it was safe there, no matter what- and simply be to him the kind of friend and support that he was to her, to protect him as he protected her; but this felt really good too.

Regardless of the butterflies holding a disco party in her stomach.

Ichigo's face looked like it had been frantically processing her words, all while rubbing his hand on his chest. She wondered if too much chocolate could give a person heartburn. That would be a shame, though, so she hoped it wasn't true. Ichigo really loved chocolate.

"I-Inoue... the thing is... Well, you see..." He rubbed his chest a little more before turning his swing so he fully faced her, long legs and all. His eyebrows scowled deeply, then he looked away, and finally looked at her with that tender look that she was so familiar with -although there was something a touch different this time- combined with eyebrows fiercely wrinkling the skin between them. "That's good that you feel that way, because I like you too, Inoue."

Her butterflies were turning into fireworks. "Y-You do?"

He nodded once.

"Oh." Kurosaki-kun... likes me? "Oh, wow." Was this what he had been feeling? Because she felt like her chest was full and warm and she had the urge rub her hand on it to make sure everything didn't explode out of her because that would be rather messy.

The sound of him clearing his throat jerked her back to staring at the reality of this scene. It wasn't a daydream. Ichigo was sitting on a swing right next to her, blushing, and liking her.

"C-Can I walk you home?"

It wasn't the first time he had asked her that. She had felt flustered and happy and excited when he did. But this time was completely different. He was asking her because she was the girl he liked. Orihime felt that if she started swinging now, she would pop right out of the seat and fly away to balloon heaven.

"Yes, Kurosaki-kun."

A corner of his mouth jerked up before he stood and, after a moment of hesitation, he reached his hand out for hers. Orihime, after staring for just a moment, slipped her hand into his and let him pull her up. And then she was amazed, because once she was standing, he didn't let go.

He walked her to her apartment. On the way, they stumbled and blushed through setting the particulars of their first date.

And he still didn't let go.

Not until she had to fumble for her keys and open her door, did he slowly release her hand, the tips of his fingers running along her skin, as if to touch her as long as possible.

She felt she should reciprocate for holding her hand and sending all those hot sparkles up her arm and into her heart, so she, very quickly, bounced up on her toes and pressed her lips to his warm cheek.

Orihime didn't wait to watch his reaction, but whirled around and ran into her apartment, nearly slamming the door. She fell back against it as her hand pressed against the wings of a panicked bird that had replaced her heart. There were several seconds where she bathed in the warm nearness of his reiatsu before she felt him finally move away. When she could no longer feel his heavy presence -but still that light awareness that he was still alive and in this world-, her body finally began to return to at least a semblance of normal human temperature and heart rate. Though she doubted the warm, full feeling was planning on vacating the home it had made behind her rib cage anytime soon.

As for Ichigo, he didn't remove his hand from that fortunate cheek at any time on his way home. Almost as if he was afraid the warm buzz that lingered from her lips would fly away if he let it. When he walked into the house, still holding his cheek, he easily dodged his father's greeting while hardly moving a muscle. He was completely oblivious to his family's stares as he dazedly made his way up to his room. Then he quietly shut the door on the voices below as they speculated on whether he had a toothache and hoped maybe this would finally teach him not to eat so much chocolate.

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Fuuu, -squishes them Rangiku-style-. Hope you enjoyed your stop in here and that it wasn't too fluffy ^_^ Also, I wanted to thank all the people who have been quite welcoming in my venture into fanfiction, especially the anons that I haven't been able to personally thank -more squishes-. Your reviews, faves, and follows are very encouraging. And, of course, I welcome constructive criticism as well. Anyway, I'll shut up now so you can be on your way. Thanks again!