This is one of two stories that I wrote for Aarin contest (and also on yohaly's request for Ichigo x Renji paring) and it surprisingly came third.
Betaed by the awesome Chii, all the remaining mistakes are mine.
Between friends
"Howl Zabimaru!" Renji, with the twist of his wrist, pulled his zanpakuto back and then charged forward, toward his orange-haired friend, Ichigo.
Ichigo dodged the huge skeleton head and with a jump he brandished his slim, black katana. "Getsuga Tenshou."
The wave of red and black energy surged over Renji, the yellow sand flying all over the artificial desert in Uruhara's basement.
Renji leapt sideways and with the flick of his wrist, sent his skeleton snake like beast directly on Ichigo. The big head collided with Ichigo's body and sent him flying through the air.
Renji, with swing of his hand, returned his sword into its normal shape, the pink fur with a skeleton head disappearing from his shoulder. He went toward where Ichigo was lying on his back. His sword was dropped to the ground with a solid thud as he grabbed his friend's kimono edges and hauled him up. "Stop fooling around!" he yelled into the white and red stripped mask. "How can I improve when you're holding back?"
"Who said I'm holding back?" Ichigo slapped Renji's hands away.
"Teme. You are in your hollow form and Zabimaru hit you." Renji narrowed his eyes and he had a sudden urge to stamp his feet. "You're pissing me off." He grabbed the edges of Ichigo's kimono again and drew their faces together, their noses almost touching. "Don't hold back on me!"
"Sheesh." Ichigo huffed irritably, hands pushing against Renji's chest, sending Renji toppling over; it would have worked perfectly had Renji's grip not been so tight, jerking Ichigo right after him with a startled sputter.
They ended on the ground, sand pressing against Renji from one side, Ichigo straddling his waist on the other, staring down at him.
"Shitsukoy, you are annoying." Renji pushed himself on his elbows and waited for Ichigo to show any signs of life other than his weird squirming.
Ichigo lifted his head, his hollow, yellow pupils dilated, swallowing the blackness of his eyes and staring with something similar to surprise at Renji, but he didn't make any move to get up.
"What's wrong with you? Get off me." Renji shoved Ichigo off him, stood up and picked his sword. "Now let's try this again." He started to walk away from Ichigo, putting enough distance between them, so that his beast would have enough of room to twist around. He faced Ichigo. "And this time don't hold back."
"Are you sure?" Ichigo was on his feet, his black kimono flying behind him and his sword in his hand.
Renji could swear that he could hear the smirk in Ichigo's voice. That strawberry had something on his mind and whatever it was, it definitely wasn't good. "I said so, did I. Uzai." He swigged his sword. "Bankai!"
The beast's big body appeared, its tail loosely wrapped around Renji and Renji flicked his wrist. "Howl Zabimaru!"
Two yellow eyes appeared before Renji and were gone in an instant.
Renji's beast disappeared in a flash and his sword fell down from his hand. His eyes opened wide, his red, brown pupils looking so small, and looked down at the area that still tingled from Ichigo's touch, then up again. He moved his jaw, tried to form words; at first there was no sound, but then it came. "You… you…. You! Temeeeeeeeeeeee! You just groped me! My private part! Does groping mean not holding back?" He fisted his hand and marched toward Ichigo. "You… you. You strawberry!"
"It wasn't… It wasn't me. It was my hollow." Ichigo lifted his hands in surrender, the mask on his face cracked, it crumbled down on the sand and revealed pink, flushed face. He stepped back and kept the distance of two steps between Renji and himself.
"Hollow my ass. And be still so I can hit you." Renji used a flesh step and managed to tackle Ichigo down on the ground.
They rolled over the ground, wrestling to dominate, until Renji fought his way to the top, shoving Ichigo's arms down to the ground and holding them there. He thought about showing Ichigo the strength of his fist, a revenge for his stunt, but he discovered that he just couldn't. "Man," he muttered, slapping his palm against Ichigo's chest, "you are an asshole," before he removed himself from Ichigo and ended sitting cross legged beside him.
"And you a red pineapple." Ichigo put his arms under his head.
"Says the orange strawberry." Renji took the spare hair-band off his wrist, he gathered his long crimson hair that got loose in their roll over the sand, and captured it in the high ponytail. "No wonder you win all your fights, when you use dirty tricks like that. Dirty molester."
"Hey!" Ichigo titled his head sideways. "I don't grope people. I never did before."
"So I'm special. I'm so flattered. Not."
"I'm sorry." Ichigo give Renji warm look of his now brown eyes. "I don't know what got over me. But you should see your face? That was just priceless," he started to chuckle.
"It's not funny!" Renji leaned over Ichigo and narrowed his eyes.
"Yes, it is."
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is."
"No, is not."
"Renji."
"What?" Renji blinked and started down at Ichigo who was just a second ago grinning at him and was now all serious.
"Have you ever kissed somebody?"
Renji straightened. "Where did that come from?"
"Just a thought." Ichigo pushed himself up on his elbow and looked up at the artificial sky. "You know," he gave Renji a little smile, before his gaze was lost in the distance again, "I have killed so many monsters, fought so many battles, but I have never kissed. How does it feel?"
"Nice, I guess."
Ichigo's eyes were on Renji again. "Just nice?"
"Well, not just nice, it's warm and– Why are you asking me, why don't you talk about this with girls, with Rukia or Inoue? Girls are better with this stuff." Renji crossed his arms over his chest, a light pink decorated the bridge of his nose.
"They wouldn't understand." Ichigo tried to hide the blush that with each passing moment become more and more apparent and was clashing with the wild orange mess of Ichigo's hair.
"And I do?"
"I don't really know. Do you?"
"Man." Renji rubbed the back of his neck. Ichigo was a teenager, a very responsible and protective one, but still a teenager and as in all teenagers there had to be some raging hormones in Ichigo too, he was just hiding them well. "I think I do. You want that talk about birds and the bees."
"Moron. I will be eighteen soon." Ichigo started to laugh, he sat up. "I'm young, but not that young."
"Then what do you want?"
"Could you teach me how to kiss? I mean, could you kiss me?" The redness on Ichigo's face adopted the colour of Renji's hair.
"WHAT?"
"Sheeesh." Ichigo stood up. "Forget that I said anything."
"Why?" Renji grabbed Ichigo's wrist. "I don't understand. Wouldn't you prefer a girl?"
"No. I mean… you know how the girls are. If I said that to a girl, she might take it the other way."
"Like you like her?"
"Yeah."
"But you don't like me?"
"No, that's not it."
"You do like me?" Damn. Renji almost slapped himself. Why was he asking this?
"Ammm…" One would think that the redness on Ichigo's face couldn't become anymore intense, but it did.
"It's ok." Renji tugged Ichigo down. "We are friends, ne. And what's a little kiss between friends?" And besides it had been so long since he'd had any kind of intimate contact with another person. Granted, it was mostly his fault due to his obsession with a certain black-haired jerk, and that obsession prompted him to turn away anyone interested in him, but...
"Yeah." Ichigo squatted down before Renji.
"Well, this is awkward." Renji cupped Ichigo's face.
"Tell me about it." Ichigo grimaced.
"Now shut up and try to relax." Renji held Ichigo's face between his hands, while Ichigo rolled his tense shoulders. "Ok."
"You are not going into a batt-"
Renji pressed his lips on Ichigo's. Just peck and then he slowly snuck his tongue into Ichigo's mouth. And it wasn't bad. Ichigo tasted fresh and orange-y; it was probably that soda that he drank earlier. With his tongue he stroked the roof of Ichigo's mouth and slid against Ichigo's own.
Ichigo started to push his tongue against Renji's and a simple kiss transformed into a battle for dominance.
Renji suddenly found himself on his back with Ichigo on top of him and his breath was sucked out of him. Boy, did the strawberry learn fast. He pushed against Ichigo's chest.
"What?" Ichigo lifted his head.
"End of the lesson."
"And beginning of the practice." Ichigo smirked as he dived in for another kiss.
The end
Let me know what you think. Please.