FicWad

Careless Wonder

Chapter Seventeen: The Dance

"You look amazing!"

"No I don't. I look ridiculous."

"Wha'? No you don't! Purple looks really good on you!"

"I look ridiculous."

"But… I worked so hard…"

"It's not you, Orihime, it's me. Pretty is just not in my nature."

Aria's eyebrow twitched uncontrollably, her eyes scanning over the person she saw in the mirror. She definitely did not pull off being pretty.

"Oh, come on, stop criticizing yourself and open your eyes. You look beautiful, Aria." Tatsuki appeared behind her, she herself sporting a long blue dress that fit loosely around her curves. Unlike Orihime's pink dress, her neck-line was high to cover her cleavage, and the straps were roughly an inch long to cover more skin on her shoulders.

"I agree! Tatsuki knows best!" Orihime popped back into the picture, her pink, short dress hugging her curves and showed off her ample breasts. The neck-line wasn't too low, but did show a little cleavage, something Orihime hadn't realized until after she made the purchase. She was in such a hurry to pick the perfect dress for Aria, since she'd agreed to do a makeover before the dance, and didn't think twice about her dress. She also hadn't realized it was a spaghetti strap as well. Of course, Orihime wished she's bought a sparkling dress for herself seeing Aria shine with her dress before her eyes.

The doorbell rang making the three girls looked over toward the doors direction. "That must be the boys," Orihime said giddily. She quickly strolled out of her room and toward the door to invite the boys in.

Both Tatsuki and Aria listened as Orihime invited the three boys into her hime, her cheery voice echoing loudly through the small halls of her home. Aria sighed loudly, not looking forward to presenting herself to the boys.

"Are you ready Aria?" Tatsuki asked, walking toward the door and looking back at her for an answer.

Aria sighed loudly again, but nodded her head nonetheless. She turned around and followed Tatsuki out the door and into the living room were the boys and her date awaited.

When Orihime opened the door, Ichigo had the biggest scowl on his face. At first, it startled her, but when she'd saw Uryuu pushing up his glasses with his own scowl, she knew then that the two must have had a fight on the way to her house. She giggled when she realized this, and invited the three boys in still smiling after them.

Keigo came sliding in, his grin taking up his whole face. He had his hand over his eyes, searching for his date he couldn't wait to see. "So where's the sweet and lovely Aria?" Keigo almost sang, continuing his search.

"Oh, she and Tatsuki are still getting ready. They should be out soon." Orihime glanced over at Ichigo and blushed. She looked away when he'd looked over at her too, sensing she was staring.

"You look nice, Orihime," Uryuu complimented, smiling fondly at his close friend.

"Thank you, Uryuu," she blushed, smiling in his direction but also felt a little disappointed that Ichigo hadn't complimented her as of yet.

"Hey Uryuu, didn't know you'd look so good in a suit. It suits you," Tatsuki complimented when she walked into the room, smiling over at her friends.

"Same goes for you, Ichigo and Keigo." Keigo laughed his weird, embarrassed laughed, and Ichigo returned the smile, nodding his head at his old friend.

"So, you must be Keigo my brother has set me up with," Aria's voice said from the hallway. Everyone turned to watch Aria walk in with a light smile on her face. Ichigo stiffened when he saw her, surprise written all over his face.

She was wearing a sparkling purple dress that went down to her ankles, but slit open on the right side revealing her bare leg. The dress itself was strapless, but she had a short-sleeved, black laced jacket covering her shoulders and back. Her hair was curled and pulled to her left side, a pin keeping it in place on her right. Her eye shadow was a light smoky black; she also had lip gloss on giving her lips a light sheen of sparkle that matched nicely with her dress.

"Close your mouth Ichigo, and stop drooling, Aria isn't your date, remember?" Uryuu whispered so no one else would hear. He closed his mouth and gulped softly, his eyes never leaving Aria's. She was still smiling over at Keigo, but once her eyes moved to Ichigo's, everything seemed to stop. The only two people in the room was him and Aria.

"Y-you look good, Aria," he finally got out, trying not to stutter but ended up failing miserably.

A small blush formed on her cheeks, causing her to look away. He blinked at her blush, realizing that that was the first time he'd seen her do such a thing.

"Thank you, Ichigo. You looked nice, too." She returned the compliment, the blush not leaving her face when she looked back.

"You look AMAZING!" Keigo cried out, taking her hands in his, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I can't believe I'm taking someone as beautiful as you to the dance! You look a lot like your brother, but a lot prettier of course, not saying you look like a guy or anything!"

Aria chuckled. "My brother has told me a lot about you, seems he was right about you. You are a very interesting character, Keigo Asano."

"Hopefully everything he told you were only positive things!"

"Of course. My brother considers you a close friend of his."

More tears streamed down his face, the weight of the new information was almost too much for him to bare when he fell to one knee, but still clutched her hands in his afraid that if he let her go, she would disappear.

"Jeez Keigo," Tatsuki started, rolling her eyes. "Can you look anymore pathetic in front of a pretty girl?"

"Awwhh! Tatsuki, why do you have to be so mean?!" Keigo whined. Aria chuckled further, pulling Keigo up to his feet and smiling warmly. With her high heels on, the two were about the same height.

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Keigo and Aria walked ahead of everyone in their own little world, conversing about whatever nonsense Keigo spewed from his mouth. Aria's arm was linked with Keigo's as they walked, and unbeknownst to them, a pair of brown eyes was watching a particular red head as she continued her strange conversation with her friend.

Orihime, whom was walking next to Ichigo, looked up at him and saw his intense stare that was directed toward Aria. She looked over at her as well, seeing her laugh at something Keigo had said. Aria was indeed in a chipper mood than usual. Not once had she tried to insult Ichigo, or divert the conversation to someone else so she wasn't involved. Considering what had happened a couple of days ago, she was surprised that Aria was being so happy. She'd thought for sure Aria would still be grieving over the issue of Roy attacking Ichigo's family out of the blue.

She looked back up at Ichigo, his stare never leaving Aria as thoughts ran through his mind. "She looks beautiful tonight, doesn't she?"

"Yeah…" he said absentmindedly. Orihime looked away, the feeling of hurt taking over her senses. Right then and there, she'd never felt this much jealously for one person. It made herself feel ashamed for thinking those thoughts of a new friend of hers. It wasn't her fault.

Ichigo blinked a couple of times, registering that Orihime had asked him a question and the fact that he wasn't paying any attention to her. "Orihime," he waited for her to look back up at him, and when she did, he smiled down at her. "You look beautiful as well." She blushed immensely and looked away, unable to look him in the eye after that comment.

"It's like a love triangle," Tatsuke muttered under her breath for only Uryuu to hear.

"Unbeknownst to them, of course."

"Yeah, Orihime's been in love with Ichigo for some time now, and when she finally has a date with him, he's not even paying attention to her but instead is looking at another girl! That jackass. Isn't it obvious that she's interested in Keigo?"

"I wouldn't say she's interested."

"Huh?" She looked at her blue haired friend in question. "Why do you say that?"

"Aria isn't a very social person. Right now she's not entirely herself. She's putting up an act for Keigo's benefit only."

"Huh? Why would she do that?"

"Because her brother set her up with Keigo, and both never go back on their word… and because something big is happening in Aria's life right now, but she doesn't want to bring others down with her, so - she's putting up a front for their benefit, putting her own feelings last on her list."

"That's pretty deep and selfless of her."

"Yeah, it is." Uryuu knew she wanted nothing more than to go out looking for Roy. Every night she'd been out looking for him, putting out as much spiritual pressure for them to find her. A couple of times he'd gone out to see her when she was out doing her patrolling; there was nothing he could say to make her go back home.

He'd felt her energy the moment she released it. It was late at night, roughly two AM when he'd felt Aria's spiritual energy rise. Uryuu sighed to himself before sitting up in bed and getting up. There was no way he could get sleep now knowing full well that Aria was baiting herself to get Roy's attention. She'd been doing it for almost a week now. Getting dressed in a sweet shirt and jeans, then pulling a coat over to protect him from the cold, he set out to Aria's destination. She was in the park when he'd found her.

She was pacing back and forth, flaring her spiritual pressure over and over again. He was surprised that a hollow hadn't come to attack. There was a visible line in the little snow on the ground that hadn't melt from the couple of warmer days they'd had the last couple of days.

He slowly walked up to her, taking slow, deliberate steps in hopes of not startling her. She instantly whirled around and looked at him with startled wide eyes, but as soon as she saw it was Uryuu, she calmed down and glared at the four-eyed boy.

"I thought you said last night you were done trying to bait yourself for Roy?" he asked, looking straight into her eyes, searching for anything she may had been giving away.

She turned around from his gaze, not wanting to look at him any longer. "Yeah, well, I lied." She turned her head so one eye was looking at him, narrowing when he gave her a worried look.

"You need to stop putting yourself through this. He'll come out at his own leisure. Isn't it obvious by now that he has something planned for the future?" If Roy truly only wanted Aria, he would have made his move by now when she'd been flaunting her spiritual pressure every night. No. He had something up his sleeve and Uryuu had the feeling it was coming quick.

"You don't know that," Aria growled, turning her head back forward and began to walk ahead, away from Uryuu. "Now leave me alone. You're annoying me right now."

Aria stopped when she felt someone grab her arm. She didn't move to look at him, but kept still and waited for whatever he had to say. "It isn't wise to keep up these all night patrols. When he does make his move-"

"I'll destroy him," Aria cut him off, bitter venom dripping off every word she'd said.

"Is that something you truly want? Wasn't he someone who you've grown up with? Someone who was there when everything was normal and perfect in your life?"

"What are you trying to say, Uryuu? That I should just pardon him of everything he has done?" she breathed in slowly, her anger rising. "He hurt Yuzu, Karin, and Isshin, people who took care of me and took me in when they didn't even know me. He almost killed… he almost killed Ichigo." The last part was barely a whisper, but Uryuu could still hear the anguish in her voice. "If anything ever happened to him, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. He's done so much for me, and I've done nothing in return except hurt him and his family." She ripped her arm away from his grasp, her hands curling to fists that now shook at her side.

"Don't you dare tell me that he deserves my mercy; don't you dare say it."

"I wasn't saying that at all. I was only asking you if you truly wanted to destroy him, that's all." Uryuu choose his words carefully. Two nights ago he'd took her too far in which she ended up just running away from him to be alone.

"What I want to do with him is no concern of yours, Uryuu," she seethed. She began to walk forward again, but was stopped by Uryuu's voice.

"Can you at least do me the favor of going back home and sleeping? I don't feel comfortable with you staying up all night in search for a dead end." He pushed up his glasses before turning sharp on his heels knowing full well the conversation was about to end and there was nothing further he could say to change her mind. But before he would end it, he had one last question to ask of her. A question that was off topic from their previous discussion.

"Do you plan on still going to the dance with Keigo tomorrow night?"

"Of course," she replied swiftly, finding the change in topic welcoming to say the least. "I never go back on my word. I promised him a date, and a date he shall get."

"Do you feel up to it? What's the point in going if you're only going to worry about someone that's out of your reach all night? No point in making Keigo suffer with you." He'd heard her turn on her own heels, facing the back of his head with angry eyes.

"For your information, Uryuu, I have every intention of having Keigo enjoy himself in being my date tomorrow night, despite my own feelings." With those last words, she'd left, leaving Uryuu behind to ponder over her words. Only tomorrow will tell if she'd been telling the truth.

And here she was, walking next to Keigo smiling with Ichigo looking after her with his mouth hanging open… figuratively speaking. In a way, she did look happy. That, or she was a very good actor.

"Woah! They really outdid themselves this year!" Keigo exclaimed, his eyes sparkling at the display of lighting and decoration their school was covered in. Aria's eyes light up when she saw the flashing lights near the entrance, all different colors dancing before her eyes, memorizing her.

"It's beautiful," Aria whispered breathlessly.

"Yeah, but… uh, there not as beautiful as you," Keigo said nervously, looking away and scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Aria looked over at him and saw his nervous gesture and gave him a small smile in return.

"Thank you, Keigo. You… you really think that?" Aria asked with disbelief.

"Yeah, I meant it, too."

She looked away from him, blushing deeply. Never had anyone told her that she'd looked beautiful. Of course, it wasn't like she'd got out much in the past, but it… felt nice. It felt nice to be called beautiful and to be looked at like how Keigo was looking at her then. He truly meant what he'd said.

Keigo paid for both their tickets, refusing to let Aria pay her own. He'd said it wasn't gentlemanly to let the girl pay on their first date. She'd snickered at him which only made him blush profusely, then he'd complimented on her laugh, saying she had a nice laugh. Again, he'd made her blush again for the second time that night. She wasn't complaining, though. She'd actually kind of liked it.

When their little group walked into the gym where the dance was being held, they were instantly greeted by the blast of music and lighting that illuminated the dark room in a beautiful glow of sparkling light. Again, Aria was memorized by the lighting, but her train of sight was soon obscured by a hand gesturing toward her. She looked down and saw the hand was palm up, waiting for something. She looked up to its owner and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Care to dance, my lady?" Keigo asked cheerfully. Aria looked at him wide eyed.

"I have to dance?" Aria's confusion and apprehension was apparent on her priceless face. But nontheless she encircled her arm around Keigo's without much thought. Keigo went to walk forward, but his arm that was encircled over Aria's pulled him back to her, her feet planted firmly to the ground.

"It is called a dance, Aria. People generally dance at a dance," Ichigo said with a chuckle from behind her.

She turned around to glare at his sarcastic comment, but stopped when she saw a certain sparkle in his eyes as he looked upon her fondly. Too fondly that it almost made her blush. She quickly turned away when she realized she was staring at him longer than what was appropriate.

"I know that, dumbass," she forcefully shot back, trying to ignore and forget how he'd been looking at her. Aria tightened her hold on Keigo's arm and looked up at him. "Let's dance…" when he looked at her gleefully, she added, "But I must warn you that I never danced before… ever." She was grateful to hear that the music was fast paced. She didn't know if she could handle dancing close and slow with someone just yet. She hated being touched. Even holding Keigo's arm like she was now was making her feel just a little bit uncomfortable.

"That's okay, I'm not a good dancer myself," Keigo admitted while scratching the back of his head with his nervous gesture. She smiled at his nervousness. Ichigo would do the exact same thing if he'd been put in a similar situation.

"Good," she declared, pulling him to the dance floor. "We both can look like fools together."

Tonight wasn't about her. She'd made a promise to go with Keigo to the dance and she was going to keep that promise and allow him to have a great time. Her problems were forcefully pushed to the back of her mind for the time being.

She'd ignored all the stares she'd received while making her way to the dance floor, probably because they noticed her 'family resemblance' to Blake and wondered if they were related, and stopped near the dance floor. She turned back around, looking at Keigo directly only to see his face heat up with a blush. She smiled softly at him, then shifted her eyes to the right and looked over to the rest of her friends. Uryuu and Tatsuki were talking amongst themselves, she'd guessed they weren't the dancing type. When her eyes landed on Ichigo, he, too, was conversing with Orihime. She had a hold of his arm and was pulling lightly. Aria guessed that she was trying to get Ichigo to dance with her. Ichigo, of course, was probably refusing and was most likely telling her he wasn't the dancing type. Aria closed her eyes and shook her head, a light smile caressing her lips.

He was so oblivious. Couldn't he tell that Orihime was head over heels in love with him? Who could miss it? He was denser than she'd realized. The thought made her smile widen. 'He's truly a dumbass,' she thought to herself.

Aria watched the girls around her danced. Some dirty danced and others simply swayed to the beat of the music. She copied the non-dirty dancers, her arms raised in the air as she swayed her hips, twirled, and whatnot, until she began to feel comfortable with what she was doing,

Soon, both Keigo and Aria were dancing to the beat of the music, both actually laughing at each other when they'd accidently bumped into one another or stomped on each other's feet.

Aria was laughing. She was actually, truly laughing… and it had felt good. It had been a long time since the last time she'd laughed this much.

After a while, Aria took off her two-inch high heels, finding her feet aching from dancing nonstop. As an hour passed, both Keigo and Aria were having the time of their lives, figuratively speaking, of course. Aria's mind slowly, but surely, forgot about Roy and everything he'd recently done. For once, she'd felt carefree.

Soon enough, Aria forgot about her fear of getting close to people, physically and mentally, and was holding Keigo's hand as she twirled around and just simply danced.

The tempo of the music changed, slowing down to a slow dance. Both Keigo and Aria stopped, their breaths heavy from overexerting their bodies. Keigo blushed, and offered his hand. She took it without hesitation, stepping close to Keigo and smiling warmly up toward him.

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Ichigo was dragged to the floor, a faint blush on his cheeks when Orihime turned toward him with a warm smile. Ichigo watched her take a step closer to him, her own cheeks painted with a blush when she reached for his hand. He looked up and noticed Keigo and Aria dancing. She had her small smile on her face while she looked up at Keigo, conversing with one another. Their bodies were almost touching, both her arms were around his neck while Keigo was encircled around her waist.

He realized how serene she looked just then. He could tell her mind wasn't concentrated on her problems, but instead was attentive on what was going on then. The only time he could remember her acting so… carefree, was the day they had the snow day and the snowball fight.

"Ichigo…" Orihime whispered tentatively, getting his attention. He looked down at her and noticed she was frowning. Ichigo mentally smacked himself, smiling down at her and trying to get his mind off of Aria. Tonight, Orihime was his date. He couldn't help but blush at the thought of it. He'd hoped she wouldn't get the wrong idea. She was a good friend of his. The last thing he'd wanted to do was complicate things between them.

But tonight, much like Aria, he was Orihime's date, and he was going to have a good time with his good friend. Maybe later on the night, he would ask Aria for a dance.

The thought made him blush even deeper.

"Sorry, I was distracted." When she continued to frown, he tried to reprimand himself. "It won't happen again, I promise." He smiled down toward her and nodded.

Ichigo danced with Orihime, keeping up a small conversation with her so he could give her his full attention. Uryuu and Tatsuki ended up slow dancing as well, both chuckling at something he couldn't quite hear. When the song was over, he watched both Keigo and Aria make their way over to the refreshments, Tatsuki and Uryuu following close behind.

"Are you thirsty, Orihime?" Ichigo asked, already walking over to the punch.

"Uh, um… yes! Something to drink sounds good right now!" She sounded flustered, her cheeks were still tinged pink from their dance. Ichigo smiled at her all too innocent look.

When they both made their way to the drinks and their friends, Ichigo noticed Keigo's arm flailing through the air and a very displeased look on his face. When they were close enough, he could finally make out what he was so worried about that he had to blatantly display his displeasure for the world to see.

"That's no fair Uryuu! Aria's my date tonight, not yours!" Keigo whined.

Uryuu pushed up his glasses in his way of showing he was being annoyed but was keeping his cool about it, 'I'm not taking her away from you. I just merely asked if I could have one dance with her, that's all." Keigo jutted his lip out but said no more knowing full well that he didn't have the right to tell Aria who she could or couldn't dance with.

"One dance won't kill me," Aria teased, taking Uryuu's extended arm into hers. When Uryuu made his way back to the dance floor, Aria discarded her cup in the trash bin then looked up to see Ichigo staring blankly at her. When she passed, she smiled up at him and in return he smiled back. She was the first to break eye contact while she walked with Uryuu to the dance floor. It was another slow dance, which wasn't a surprise considering the DJ was playing all upbeat music for the last hour and nothing with a slow beat.

"Ichigo," he heard Tatsuki say from beside him. He looked toward her in question, giving her his full attention before she continued, "Would you mind dancing one dance with me as well?" When everyone gave her a strange look, she quickly fixed herself. "I wanted to talk to you about something alone, that's all! I mean, if that's okay with you, Orihime, since he's 'your' date and all." The way she said 'your' made him wonder if Tatsuki was mad at him about something. She emphasized it enough to make him believe so.

"Oh, not at all, Tatsuki!"

Ichigo scratched the back of his head nervously while he let Tatsuki wrap her arm around him. They awkwardly walked to the dance floor without saying a word. Of course, Tatsuki, once on the dance floor, took her position and placed both of her arms around Ichigo's neck, while he tentatively placed his hands on her waist, a slight blush coming to his cheeks.

"You're so weird, Ichigo. I don't know why you get yourself so worked up from a little dance. I'm not going to bite you or anything," she chastised, smiling up at her blushing friend.

Ichigo turned his head and mumbled something underneath his breath before saying, "You wanted to talk to me about something?" He didn't bother trying to keep the irritation out of his tone of voice.

"It's about Orihime," she began, looking away from him as she watching Orihime talk to Keigo cheerfully about something that had her smiling big. Tatsuki smiled at her clumsy, yet passionate friend.

"I don't want her to get hurt. Tonight she was looking forward to spending some time with you, Ichigo. She was so excited, but all you've been doing is drooling over Aria. If you liked her so much then why didn't you ask her yourself instead of letting Keigo take your place?"

Ichigo could feel the sweat forming on the aide of his face from her remark. "What! I don't like Aria in that way! She's just a good friend of mine, that's all!" He laughed nervously, the sweat growing.

"Are you seriously that oblivious to your own feelings too, Ichigo? I know you like her, I don't know how much, but the way you've been looking at her all night is a look I never seen on your face before." She looked back at him now and frowned. "What I'm trying to say is to not get Orihime's hopes all, that's all."

"Hopes up? What are you talking about, Tatsuki!" He truly had no idea what she was talking about.

"You really are dense, aren't you? Just… never mind." She stepped away from him when the song finally ended. She was looking down as she thought about something, then finally looked back up toward him in contemplation. "Just figure out what you want sooner rather than later, okay?" He cocked his head to the side but nodded nonetheless, not quite understanding what just happened. She smiled up at him before turning around to walk back to their group. He followed her, looking ahead to see Orihime, Uryuu, and Keigo all huddled around the punch talking, but no Aria.

"Where's Aria?" Ichigo couldn't help but ask when he stepped close to his group of friends.

"She said she needed a breath of fresh air. The crowd was starting to get to her," Uryuu answered.

Ichigo looked toward the door the lead to the outside and began walking toward it, excusing himself from his friends. Uryuu sighed as he watched his friend make his way to the outside. Orihime, on the other hand, watched him leave again without so much as acknowledging her. She couldn't help but think that Ichigo had more than just friendly feelings for their friend Aria.

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Ichigo stepped outside, finding a breeze of cold air welcoming his exit. He closed the door behind him and searched the vicinity. It didn't take long to find Aria standing near a light pole and looked off into a field blanketed by snow. He began to walk toward her but stopped when he saw a snowflake hover in his view. He looked up to see more falling from the sky. He didn't know it was supposed to snow tonight. When he looked back at Aria, she too, was looking up toward the sky, a light smile gracing her lips. Again, he couldn't help but stare at her. She looked peaceful, almost out of character for her, he had to admit.

Finally, he began to walk toward her again, taking long strides and standing behind her where he stopped and stared at her back. He noticed then that she wasn't wearing a coat which only made him sigh to himself.

"You're going to catch a cold, Aria."

Aria didn't flinch, but she was surprised to see Ichigo behind her without so much as sensing him approach. She smiled as his remark and shook her head before returning it back to look up toward the sky. "You should know by now that I don't get colds, Ichigo."

"It's a wonder how you don't. Staying out in the cold as much as you would make anyone fall ill."

"I'm not everyone."

"I know."

Still, she couldn't help but shiver a little when another cold breeze hit her bare skin. Ichigo, without thinking, put his hands on her arms and slowly ran them up in down in an attempt to help warm her up. Her skin was cool to the touch, which slightly worried him. He started to wish he wore some sort of dress jacket to the dance instead of a long sleeved, button up shirt, and dress pants.

"You're freezing."

Aria chuckled at his blatancy. "Tell me something I don't know."

"Don't you get cold?"

"I already told you once before that I don't mind the cold. I actually welcome it." They stood their silent again as the snow fell around them. She looked back toward the sky and smiled.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She couldn't help but ask.

He didn't answer her right away. Instead, he thought about what Tatsuki had said to him, how she'd thought he'd actually liked Aria. He was staring at her differently, was what Tatsuki said. Was that true? Or was it all in her head.

"Ichigo…" Aria began, but hesitated.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you – for everything you've done for me." She turned around to look up at him. Ichigo stared back down at her, watching her lips turn up into a smile that used to be so rare for him to see, but tonight all she was doing was smiling. At that thought, he couldn't help but smile himself.

"You don't need to thank me, Aria."

"Yes I do. You have no idea how grateful I am to you."

Suddenly, she inched her way toward him and began to hug him gently, placing her head in his chest and listening in on his speeding heartbeat. He wrapped his arms around her without hesitation, like it was natural for him.

"I could never ask for a better friend than you, Ichigo. You're… one of the best things that ever happened to me in my entire life. Thank you." He tightened his hold on her when she said this. For some odd reason, it made him feel sad. Knowing how her life was like growing up, not having a friend to comfort her… not having anything. But then, he smiled down and rested his chin on her shoulder, having to lean forward a bit to accommodate the height difference.

He didn't know what spurred this moment between them, but he had to admit to himself that he was enjoying the moment he was having with her. That was until he felt her jerk in his grip suddenly, and pulled away, her eyes wide from disbelief and worry when she looked away from him and off into the distance.

"What is it, Aria?" Ichigo asked, now suddenly serious once he saw her face.

"It can't be… not again?" She whispered, taking a step in the direction she was staring intently at.

"What is it, Aria?" he asked again, but more urgently.

"Mother?" And with that, she began to run toward the spiritual pressure she was feeling with Ichigo following close behind, calling out her name