"I just had this image of us." Ichigo said. He was sprawled on his back on his bed, one leg hanging off of the side and beating an annoying pattern against the leg of my chair. I was trying to get my homework done, though admittedly it was a half-hearted attempt at best. I kept stopping to add knots to the growing friendship bracelet taped to the edge of the desk.
"Yeah?" I participated in the conversation with about as much effort as I was giving my homework. The threads of the bracelet were getting shorter and shorter the more rows that I knotted, making it harder for my clumsy fingers to twist the strands into the right pattern. I liked the pretty hearts that wove down the length of the bracelet just fine, but putting them there was almost too difficult for me to want to do it again.
"Yeah. I saw you and me, and we were the kings of the world." Ichigo told me, in that dreamy tone that's only socially acceptable when you're bs-ing someone.
"I would be a queen." I informed him, barely paying attention. Ichigo swung his legs into the air, gaining the momentum to leap to his feet like a movie star hero before falling back onto his bed, cross-legged and grinning. Showoff.
"Sure, but it would be great, wouldn't it? You and me, ruling the planet. There'd be no wars, no conflict between different nations, no language barriers . . . no import taxes."
"You had to pay double on your Chinese food order again, didn't you?"
"There would be no Chinese food!" he threw his arms out in an exaggerated gesture of triumph. "No countries!"
"No possessions or religion, too? Okay, John Lennon."
"We could run things the way that they're meant to be."
I swiveled in my chair to face him, crossing one of my legs over the other as I did so. "Ichigo, you're starting to sound like some crazy anarchist."
He lost momentum and stared at the wall, undeniably pouting. "I just think it would be cool."
"You and me, together?" I snorted. "We can barely make dinner without starting World War III."
"Now, I warned you that the burner was on-and did you listen? Noooo!" Ichigo complained, easily distracted. "And then you were all, 'I'm five-hundred and seventy-six years old-" he mimicked me in an insulting falsetto. "-I know how to make a salad.'!"
"I do!" I insisted, getting drawn in despite myself.
"No sane being cooks a salad!" Ichigo snapped back. "It's just not done! You should have used the microwave, at least!"
"How does that make any more sense?" I retorted, getting to my feet. "Who microwaves salad?!"
"Who puts a metal salad bowl on a hot burner?!"
"Who leaves a hot burner empty?!"
"I warned you that it was hot!" We were both shouting by then, glaring at each other with marked disapproval. Ichigo was still sitting on his bed, but his hands bunched at the covers and he was leaning forwards, almost off of the side, leg muscles taut as if ready to leap up at any moment. I was gripping the back of my chair for support, one knee up on the seat, putting a barrier between the two of us in case he decided to get violent.
"And I told you, I didn't hear you say that!" I said testily. I'd said it about a hundred times since the incident. I was beginning to think that he was the one with the hearing problem.
"Well, maybe you should listen better to what people are saying!" Ichigo snarled.
"Maybe you shouldn't do irrational things!" I snapped in reply.
He had no comeback after that, just huffed and turned away from me, clambering over his bed to sit on his windowsill. He liked to do that-I think sulking was more interesting for him if he could look out over the dark street and wish that he was somewhere that I wasn't. That's what I did, anyway.
I sat back down in my chair, pulling it back up to the desk and wincing as it scraped over the floor. Rather than make another go of my forgotten homework, I started up with the friendship bracelet again, though I wasn't feeling very friendly at the moment at all. After a long and awkward silence, I said, "See? We even argue about our arguments."
It must have been good timing, because Ichigo started to laugh. He lost his balance, teetering on the sill for a moment before crashing to the floor with a giant bang. That made me laugh, and once he got over rubbing his rear and wincing like an old man, Ichigo joined in.