NOTE: My titles are longer than my fics.
IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT I CAN SEE, WOULD YOU SEE YOU?
Chad knows that what he hides behind a wall of silence Ichigo hides behind a wall of noise. Besides it's not as if that nameless thing - they can't name it, it would be too terrifying if they did - did lend itself to analysis; it's quite irresistible and far too primitive to have either rhyme or reason. It's what they feel for each other: more than friendship, more than nakama and, really, quite different from brotherhood.
It's a belonging that's not defined by chains of ownership, but by a freedom that's anchored to the happy certainty of a home. If they could say it, they'd call it 'feeling at home in each other's heart'; but of course Ichigo would die before uttering such sentimental drivel and Chad would probably be so embarrassed he'd stay silent for a year.
It's also a hidden-and-slotted-into-stolen-time thing. It was bad at first, when they were forced to face its existence, with school and living into separate worlds, but since Ichigo met his shinigami doom… what with one thing and another they've barely managed to kiss once - briefly, awkwardly and dizzyingly - and exchange rib-creaking embraces, twice.
The rest is all the times their eyes meet and there's a silence; all the times their shoulders brush by and there's a shiver; all the times that Ichigo calls him Chad - no-one else does: no-one else is allowed - and all the times Chad does not call Ichigo Icchan - definitely not allowed, but he does so, in the privacy of his thoughts and positively revels in it. Chad does, after all. love cute things and Icchan is the cutest thing he's ever seen in his life.
So now they've stolen a moment in time, right between a catastrophe and another, and they're kissing, still awkwardly - the whole 'who's kissing whom and does it matter?' rather preys on their equanimity - but they manage. Chad has closed his eyes the better to enjoy the taste of Ichigo's mouth and the feeling of the slightly swaying body of his… his Icchan, is doing extremely pleasant things to his nether regions.
So very pleasant that Chad is, actually, having all sorts of flashing visions. There's Ichigo's warm brown eyes melting in unexpected tenderness; his improbably orange hair swaying in the wind; Ichigo being terminally badass with some shinigami or other; his shining yellow eyes laughing with cruel glee; Ichigo's blue tongue licking provocatively his white… white… lips…
Chad jumps back, as if bitten by an adder.
"Ichigo!" he cries out, shocked.
"Wuuuhhh…?" is all that Ichigo can manage, his mouth all rosily mauled.
"Ichigo," Chad repeats, a bit calmer. He's been having a waking dream, he reasons, because of cerebral hypoxia caused by all his blood rushing down in the heat of the moment, so to speak.
"What?" Ichigo says testily, having clearly managed to regain some measure of self awareness.
"I saw…" Chad starts, but that's wrong. "I felt… No, I thought…" it's useless, he really can't say it; so he regroups and tries again. "Ichigo."
"What? What? Whatwhatwhat? WHAT!?"
"Ichigo…"
"I know my fucking name! What the fuck's got into you, Chad?" Ichigo screams, incredibly pissed off.
"It's… Well… You were… but also not…" Chad would welcome a Hollow invasion at this point, he'd welcome World War Three, but he has to know or he'll go mad. "Ichigo," he essays.
"DON'T START THAT SHIT AGAIN!!! WHAT THE FUCK, CHAD!?"
Chad gulps air, holds it in and lets go of it all at once. "Ichigo," he says, quite serious, "are we having a threesome?"