Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters.Thanks to CrystalRaindrop007 for Beta'ing!

Ichigo frowned as he cracked open the cover of the dictionary he had had in his closet for ten years but never used. But, he had been late for English class, and, as such, he had been forced to write a paper on love. The problem was, he didn't know the definition of love. Sure, he knew he loved his family and his mother, but what did it really mean?

Sighing, he flipped his fingers through the pages until he found the 'L' section. Now, just to find that one word in a million. Or thereabouts. Probably not a million . . . but if not, why the hell was the damn book so heavy?

Finally, he found it. It had four different meanings and read:

1: A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.

2: A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance.

3: To have a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person

4:To experience deep affection or intense desire for another.

Sighing, Ichigo grabbed a piece of paper and began scribbling his thoughts out on each meaning and who, family member, friend or any future lover, he would feel that kind of love to. From the first meaning . . . he had to look up several more words, then decided all three. The second one he blushed and quickly scribbled something down he would never let anyone see after putting 'Future Lover'.

The third meaning, he accidentally wrote a name rather than one of the categories he had chosen. Same with the forth, and he didn't realize he had done it until he looked back down, blushing madly, at his paper and quickly erased the simple five letter word off.

Then, groaning, he set to what the hell he was going to write. He would have to choose one of the definitions and go with that, then a person, or made-up character, to write about.

"Forth," he decided aloud, then, began thinking about what he could write about it. He would just take out the 'Intense Desire' part and go with 'Deep Affection'.

Now . . . who did he feel deep affection toward?

He began scribbling out a friend list and wrote 'Yes' or 'No' down beside each name.

Chad: No (Friendship - yes, deep affection - going a little too far)

Inoue: Deep friendly affection

Ishida: No

Tatsuki: Sisterly affection

Keigo: NO

Rukia:

Ichigo paused, his pencil in the air as he began to form the first line on 'No' beside her name. Frowning, he put his pencil in between his teeth and bit on it as he blinked a few times.

Did he feel deep affection toward her? He had even written 'Deep friendly affection' beside Inoue's name, and though he had known her longer, did he really feel more strongly about her than Rukia?

Shaking his head, Ichigo decided mentally, 'No'. He didn't feel more strongly toward Inoue than Rukia. Geez. Rukia even slept in his closet. Which, come to think of it, she was doing right now. She'd been tired when she came home from school, and dropped right off to sleep without so much as a punch in his general direction.

Shaking those thoughts from his head, Ichigo slowly formed the three-letter-word down beside Rukia's name.

'Yes'

Feeling strangely like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Ichigo decided to write his report on how he felt about Rukia.

She had crashed into his life, saved his family, lived with him for two months, was taken away, and he fought with all his heart and all of his soul to get her back and to save her from death. And it had hurt him inside every time she told him to go home and forget about her. Even if he wanted to, he probably couldn't. She wasn't someone you could easily forget, and if he had left her, knowing she was going to die, he wouldn't have been able to live with it. Her face and her beautiful eyes would assault his dreams and never let him forget what he had done.

And that was why he didn't go home. He wanted to save her. He didn't need to save her, he wanted to, and because of that, he needed to save her. He had to repay his debt, and maybe, just maybe, do a little extra for her.

Sighing, he realized that he couldn't write everything he had just thought down. Well, he could, but he couldn't turn it in.

Shrugging, Ichigo began writing it down anyway. He needed to get his feelings off of his chest.

And, as he wrote the last word on his paper in neat, small letters, he smiled as he formed the four-letter-word love with his pencil.

Yeah. He loved her.

But there was no way he would ever tell her. Not unless the timing was perfect. Maybe it would be someday. Maybe he would just kiss her and see if she slapped him or made it physically impossible for him to ever father children by kicking him there.

Or maybe, she would return the kiss.

And maybe, he wouldn't have a paper to turn in tomorrow because he had filled it with his private, personal thoughts he would never share with the world.

But maybe, one day, he would share them with her.

GAH! It's fluff again! (Falls over and kills herself.) Ahh . . . I did it again . . . (Whacks her head against the wall for good measure)

Please . . . .(OUCH) Review! . . . (OUCH!)

And don't hit your head on the wall. It hurts.