The Best Laid Plans: Part 2

Pulling up to the beach, Ichigo checked the time and saw that he still had a little less than an hour before Orihime was due to arrive. He started unloading the beach gear and setting up for an unforgettable date. Ichigo was so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice several figures coming up behind him.

"Hey there, Ichigo!" called Keigo in greeting as he pounded a fist into Ichigo's shoulder.

Ichigo gave a yelp of surprise and his startled movement nearly made him drop the small gray cooler he was holding on Keigo's foot. Keigo was accompanied by Tatsuki, Chad, Uryu and Mizuiro.

He recovered quickly and all but screamed at Keigo, "Don't do that!!"

Keigo grinned impishly, "Aww, did I scare poor Ichigo out of his wits? Or was it his skin?"

Ichigo scowled at the troublemaker, "What are you doing here?"

Tatsuki replied, "Just came to see how things were going. I at least want to make sure that you don't mess anything up when you pop the question to Orihime."

Ichigo began, "What? Do you think I'm a complete idiot that I can't set up-" he stopped abruptly when the full meaning of Tatsuki's words hit him, "Who told you I was going to propose tonight?"

Tatsuki smiled, "So I am right! You are going to propose!"

Uryu muttered, "Well, it's about time."

Ichigo turned on Uryu, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Uryu adjusted his glasses and said, "Just that some of us were wondering if you would ever get your act together enough to ask Orihime the four word question. One would think that posing such an inquiry would take a lot less time than you've taken."

Ichigo barely suppressed his annoyance, "Not that it's any of your business, but Orihime and I had discussed months ago that marriage would not be brought up until we were both finished with school and pretty well established in jobs."

Mizuiro cut in, "To be perfectly honest, we had suspicions that you might be asking her soon, but it really was just a coincidence that we were walking by when we saw you setting up over here."

Tatsuki asked, "Why'd you pick here of all places?"

Ichigo scowled at her, "None of your business."

Keigo answered in a rather sing-song tone, "Oh, but I know." When the others turned to him, he continued, "Don't you guys remember? This is the spot we said to meet after graduation and the rest of us…ahem…conveniently didn't tell these two lovebirds that we had changed the meeting place on them."

Ichigo growled, "You have ten seconds to start running."

Tatsuki put a restraining hand on Ichigo's shoulder, "Oh, knock it off. We'll leave soon. I just want to see the ring you're giving her first."

Ichigo said in a perplexed tone, "Why? You're not into jewelry now, are you?"

Tatsuki gave him a withering look, "Just because I don't normally wear the stuff, doesn't mean that I'm completely clueless when it comes to knowing a good ring from a bad ring. I want to make sure you're giving her something worthwhile."

Ichigo answered irritably, "What do you think I am? Dumb or something?"

Keigo cut in, "Singing In the Rain quotes aside, here Tatsuki," he tossed a white box to her, "take a peek and tell us what you think."

It took Ichigo less than three seconds to look at the box in Tatsuki's hands, feel in his pocket and realize what Keigo had done.

He turned on Keigo, "I am going to-"

"Hey Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled at Ichigo, "What kind of a ring do you call this?"

She tossed a circular object to him, which Ichigo caught instinctively. Taking a closer look at the object, his heart stopped for a moment as his eyes processed the unfamiliar ring in his hand. The center stone was huge and bright pink in an oval shape with tinier multi colored gems surrounding the garish centerpiece.

Ichigo was caught off guard and barely managed to choke out, "No I…this isn't…I don't…where…how…"

Looking completely bewildered, Ichigo glimpsed movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his gaze to see Keigo's hands firmly clasped over his mouth while his eyes told the entire story.

"You're dead if you don't give it back right now," Ichigo said in a steely voice.

Keigo feigned surprise when he produced a small white box out of nowhere, "Where did that come from? You have to take better care of such a-" He was cut off by Ichigo lunging forward with what sounded like a growl to repossess the precious ring.

The struggle lasted a short while, longer than Ichigo had anticipated with Keigo's infuriating grin making him even more upset. At long last (or so it seemed to Ichigo), he was able to wrench the precious box from Keigo's grip and Ichigo quickly opened it up to make sure that it was still there. Having convinced himself that the ring was safe and intact, he breathed a long sigh before he slipped the box back into his pocket and turned to Keigo.

Keigo lifted his hands in defense as he said, "Don't look at me. It wasn't my idea."
At Ichigo's look of disbelief, Keigo continued, "No! Honest! Tatsuki just asked me if I might be interested in helping her play a little prank and-" Noticing Ichigo's look, Keigo thought it would be better to let the matter rest.

"I really could care less whose idea it was," said Ichigo, looking at each of his friends in turn, "all I want is for you guys to clear out now before Orihime-"

He was interrupted by an all too familiar voice calling out, "Hey everybody!"

Everyone turned to see Orihime walking up with a purple beach bag over her shoulder, stuffed with every kind of object that you might associate with the beach or water from sand castle molds to several multi-colored shovels and pails, two different kinds of sunscreen (spray-on and the lotion kind), snorkeling gear, a paddle for a canoe (no one was ever able to figure out where she got the paddle from or why she thought it was going to be useful without a boat), bottles of water and five different flavors of juice, plus about four good sized beach towels of various vibrant colors which you could probably pick out from a satellite. She was wearing a pair of black women's swimming trunks with a multi-colored pattern running up the side, a black swimming tank top and a sheer white cover-up. Her floppy white hat and enormous sunglasses indicated that she was prepared for a fun day at the beach.

Coming up beside Ichigo, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and said, "Hi! I got off work early, so I hope you don't mind that I came straight over since I had already gotten all my stuff together before I went to work and I couldn't wait to see you." Turning to everyone else, she said, "It looks like you all were having fun over here, so I hope I didn't miss any games you might have planned."

Ichigo got over his shock and asked, "Games? What are you talking about?"

Orihime leaned over to start unpacking her seemingly bottomless bag as she answered, "Oh nothing much. I just saw you trying to get something from Keigo as I was walking up, so I thought maybe you had planned some sort of 'keep-away' game to play with everyone since they are all here."

As she was saying this, Tatsuki and Keigo had put their hands over their mouths to keep from busting out laughing, while the rest merely looked amused. Only Ichigo seemed uncomfortable.

"Oh, that was nothing," he glared at Keigo, "just Keigo being Keigo. And they were just about to leave."

Orihime looked up, "Oh, they're not staying?"

Keigo elbowed Ichigo in the ribs, "You hear that?"

Tatsuki draped her arm over Ichigo's shoulder and grinned at him impishly, "She doesn't mind if we stay."

Orihime looked at them with a confused expression, "What's going on?"

Ichigo put his hands up, "Nothing Orihime!" Looking at the others, he continued, "I only planned on us…" he trailed off not quite sure how to finish.

Orihime stood up and gave him a knowing smile, "I know. I was just teasing," turning to the others she said, "Maybe we can meet up with you later after our date if there's still time."

Mizuiro spoke up, "Sounds good to me."

Everyone else nodded while Keigo wrapped his arms around Ichigo in an awkward hug and cried out in a melodramatic wail, "Don't miss us too much, Ichigo! We'll see each other soon!"

Ichigo struggled as he said, "Get off me! I can't miss you until you're gone! Far away if you know what's good for you!!!"

Uryu rolled his eyes and pried the sobbing clown away from Ichigo before the group went further up the beach. Eventually, Tatsuki seemed to tire of Keigo's antics as well for it wasn't long after the group was out of sight that Keigo let out a loud yelp and blessed silence settled over the secluded beach area.