Warnings: mild language. Ichigo's mind going just slightly down the gutter.
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Ichigo casually rounded the corner in the school hallway with Mizuiro by his side and Keigo behind them dramatically exclaiming because Ichigo couldn't make it to whatever outing Keigo had planned out all by himself. Ichigo did feel a twinge of guilt, but really, he couldn't make it. Keigo should learn to ask before he made big plans. Ichigo sighed inwardly. He would have to make it up to Keigo somehow.
"Eh? What kind of lip stuff is that, Orihime?"
Ichigo looked up at the sound of his friend's name. Orihime, Tatsuki, and a couple of their friends were gathered in a cluster near the classroom. The one who had spoken and was peering at something in Orihime's hand was... Ichigo scowled. Damn it, what was her name? The really petite, shy chick. Mina... Momo... Mia...
Orihime looked at the stick in her hand. "This, Michiru-chan?"
Right, Michuru.
"It's chocolate-flavored chapstick!" Orihime declared happily.
Chocolate-flavored? They made them chocolate-flavored? Girls' products would never cease to amaze him.
Tatsuki scoffed. "Those things never actually taste like chocolate. Just some weird flavor with a funny after taste."
Tch, of course it would be a rip-off.
Orihime shook her head. "This one really does taste like chocolate." She reached into her bag, pulled out a small packet of kleenexes, took one out, and wiped the top of the stick before handing it to her best friend. "Try it!"
Tatsuki eyeballed it with skepticism as she took it. Before she could try it, though, Keigo suddenly burst through Ichigo and Mizuiro.
"You mean girls' lips can taste like chocolate? So cute!"
Tatsuki gaped at the wiggling body of Keigo as she held the chapstick in mid-air. She carefully handed the stick back to Orihime. "You know what, I think I'll try it later. We have to get back into class anyway."
Orihime nodded and after offering it to her other friends and being met with nervous refusals combined with glances at a puppy-eyed Keigo, she tucked it back into her bag and followed her friends into the classroom. She turned her head just before she was inside and spotted Ichigo. A blush creeped onto her cheeks as she smiled brightly and waved. Ichigo let his mouth curve up and his head nod in response. There may have been some heat filling his own cheeks.
"Aww, I wish I could kiss Orihime-chan's chocolate-flavored li- OW! Ichigo, what was that for?!"
Mizuiro shook his head at Keigo. "You're lucky that's all he's doing to you, saying something like that about his girlfriend right in front of him."
Keigo winced. "I still haven't accepted that bizarre turn of events!"
Ichigo chose to ignore his friends and strolled into class. As he slid into his seat, he mentally ordered the heat to leave his face, pronto.
He and Orihime had been dating for a couple of weeks now, but he still wasn't used to it. First off, he was too damned happy. That was a state of mind he wasn't used to. And by happy he meant the kind of crazy shit that had a person feeling like they were walking on clouds and stuff; he really didn't know what to do with that. He was beginning to relate, in a very small way, to his dad and his attitude towards Ichigo's mother. Which was terrifying, to say the least. And the shift from friends to dating was rather disconcerting. Great. But a little weird. He was still getting used to treating her like a girlfriend. In his opinion, he was doing a pretty botched up job of it. But Orihime lit up with every lame thing he did, so at least one person thought he was doing okay. And that one person's opinion happened to count the most. So, gold star for Ichigo.
The first week they had dated had gone pretty smoothly. Namely, there was privacy. They hadn't set out to hide it, but they didn't want to make some big announcement either. Tatsuki and Chad knew. He was pretty sure Ishida knew, by the shrewd looks he had given them. But that was it. And then about a week ago, the whole school had found out. Through no one's fault but their own. He and Orihime had met on the way to school and ended up holding hands. Then, like an idiot, he was so distracted by her that he didn't realize they were already at school until they were standing in front of the glass double doors, still holding hands; the yard was covered with slack-jawed school-mates.
That little incident had caused a tropical storm in the student body that only recently was beginning to show signs of waning. Although, he wasn't sure if the glares from the male population would ever stop. No matter how much he glowered at them in return, they didn't back off for long. And that was different. Usually he didn't even have to raise his fist against the law-abiding males in his school. His delinquent hair and permanent scowl did most of the job for him. A little narrowing of the eyes and they'd stop bothering him. But since it was known that he was dating Orihime, it was almost like... they weren't scared of him anymore. Did they think he had gone soft or something? Tch.
He didn't even want to think about the headaches Keigo had caused him.
All he had to say was thank god they were graduating soon.
Ichigo absentmindedly tapped the eraser of his pencil on his desk.
Chocolate-flavored chapstick.
He glanced over at Orihime just as she was rubbing her lips together. Ichigo jerked his eyes back to his desk. He could feel where his brain was thinking about going, and no way was he letting it. He did not care if her chocolate-flavored chapstick actually tasted like chocolate. And he would not find out because he sure as hell wasn't putting on some girly lip stuff. And he definitely wasn't going to try Keigo's method to find out. They hadn't... that... yet. And he wasn't sure when they would be doing... that. He definitely didn't want to push her. Plus, he was scared to death he would be crappy at it.
He loved chocolate, but he wasn't insane.
"Ah! It does taste like chocolate! How surprising..."
Keigo had left the room on a teacher's errand and so Tatsuki had taken the opportunity between classes to try the stuff out. Orihime grinned at her best friend and urged her other friends to try it. One by one they exclaimed and confirmed with Orihime the place where she got it.
Ichigo was doing a terrible job of attempting to focus on the textbook in front of him.
"Kurosaki-kun?"
His head popped up at the sound of her voice, and his heart skipped a beat when their eyes met. He had thought this sort of thing would go away once they started dating, but it only seemed to get worse. He supposed he didn't entirely mind, though. It was odd that your guts doing weird flip-floppy, rib-cage-banging, should-probably-be-life-threatening things would feel good, but it did.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Do you wanna try some?"
"Huh?"
"My chapstick."
For a split second his eyes fell to her lips before he checked himself and focused on the small tube she held out in front of her. He wrinkled his nose. "No, thanks."
She tilted her head to side. "Eh? I thought you liked chocolate?"
"That's a little girly for me..."
She opened her mouth to reply, but Mizuiro swiveled in his seat in front of Ichigo. "Chapstick's not girly, Ichigo." He pulled out a plain-looking stick from his pocket. "I use it. Don't you want soft lips?"
Ichigo felt his eye twitch. "Mizuiro... please don't talk to me about soft lips."
Mizuiro waggled his eyebrows at him. "Do I make you feel uncomfortable things, Ichi-kun?"
Ichigo rolled his eyes at his friend. "Shut up. And yeah, I use chapstick. But that stuff's..." He nodded his head towards Orihime. "...different. It's... flavored."
Mizuiro raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Flavored means girly?"
"Y-Yeah." Ichigo stood his ground, even though it did sound a little silly coming from someone else. Still.
"So, wait." Tatsuki was smirking at him. "You use chapstick, Ichigo?"
He resisted the urge to shift in his seat. "So what? Doesn't everybody?" He didn't like the way her mouth was curling.
"Any particular reason you want soft lips, Ichigo?"
He silently cursed the red creeping up his neck as he felt nearly every eye in the classroom on him. Damn his loud friends. "No!" he barked. "I get dry lips just like anyone else, what of it?"
There were a few snickers along with a faint "So defensive..." and a "Curse your luck, Kurosaki". Ichigo whirled around and swept the classroom with his best glare. They quickly quieted. When he turned back, Tatsuki was whispering something to Orihime and their friends. The girls suddenly burst into giggles while Orihime turned bright red.
"T-Tatsuki! I-" She cut short when her nervous gaze happened to catch his. With a small squeak she turned and sat perfectly straight at her desk, unnecessarily straightening her things.
Ichigo unknowingly mirrored her actions along with a grunt and a sneer at the sly expression on Mizuiro's face.
None too soon, school ended and Ichigo and Orihime left the grounds together to head to her apartment.
"Um..." Orihime fidgeted. "I'm sorry about what happened in class earlier."
Ichigo blinked in confusion. "Huh? What happened?"
"The... chapstick thing..."
"Oh, right. Nah, it wasn't your fault and it was nothing anyway."
He noticed that his free-swinging hand was conveniently right next to her free-swinging hand.
Orihime nibbled at her lip. "This stuff really is amazing, though!"
Ichigo brushed his hand against hers "accidentally". One or two more times of that little move and he should be able to surreptitiously slip his fingers through hers.
"I really should stop licking it all off all the time. It's probably not very good for you to eat chapstick in excessive quantities. It's so yummy, though!"
He was momentarily derailed from his Hold Girlfriend's Hand mission at the mention of her licking things. Ichigo held back a groan at his damn brain. "Yeah, probably not."
In horror, he watched her hand lift away from his reach and dig into her bag. Thwarted. Damn it. Fat lot of good saving worlds did him when he couldn't even hold his girlfriend's hand properly. A better man than he would have probably smoothly taken her hand in his and not beat around the bush. He could almost hear Aizen starting in on one of his rambling speeches about how Ichigo was such an incompetent insect who could never achieve his goals much less woo a girl, blah blah blah.
"Are you sure you don't want to try it, Kurosaki-kun?" she was saying. He glanced over and eyeballed the chocolate chapstick in her hand.
"Uh..."
She uncapped it and wiggled it at him.
He scowled at the brown stick. "It doesn't make your lips brown?"
Orihime shook her head and pointed to her mouth. "It's colorless just like regular chapstick. See?"
"Uh-huh." He took the opportunity to openly stare at her lips. They looked really soft, he noticed. And maybe just a little darkened, colorless or no. The mouth he was staring at suddenly curved mischievously.
"C'mon, Kurosaki-kun. You know you want to try it." She pointed the stick at him and gave him a dramatic wink. "There's no one around but us rabbits. I won't tell anyone if you won't tell anyone."
"No, really, Inoue, I-"
He raised his hands defensively as she crept closer with the chapstick poised. He started backing away, and they ended up zig-zagging down the sidewalk with Orihime in pursuit, taunting him and trying to dodge around his hands to get to his face.
She grinned as she pursued. "I thought you loved chocolate!"
"I do, but-" He was cut off when she did some kind of absurdly complicated bob-and-weave move, nearly landeding the flavored stuff right on her target. Ichigo couldn't stop the laugh that escaped his throat as he jerked his head back and stumbled backwards. "There's no way you're getting that stuff on me."
Orihime suddenly stopped short in her tracks, a gleam in her eye. "Oh ho, is that a challenge, good sir?"
Ichigo paused and folded his arms as he gave her a cocky smirk. "Tch. My instincts are top-notch- holy shit!" Orihime was suddenly flying straight for him. Before he could blink she was practically on top of him with the tube headed for his lips at top speed. At the last moment, when he could smell the chocolate right under his nose, he grabbed her wrist and spun them both around until her back was against the stone wall that ran along the sidewalk.
She had started laughing when they were spinning, and he was now grinning down at her wide mouth and crinkling eyes.
"What did I say? Top-notch instincts."
Orihime suppressed her laughter and quirked her mouth in mock-frustration, but then her smile broke through again with a breathless chuckle.
It was then that Ichigo slowly realized the position they were in, and his grin began to slip. Firstly, they were close. So close he could feel the heat emanating from her body; her chest was rising and falling mere inches from his. He had one of her hands pinned by the wrist against the wall, and his other hand had somehow found its way to her waist.
It was more intimate then they had dared so far, that was for sure. He should back away and let her have her hand back. But then he looked at her face and noticed that the laughter had completely left her features, replaced by an unreadable expression. And something in that enigmatic face pulled him in, told him not to back away, but to dare to move closer.
His gaze dropped from her wide eyes to her lips. Those chocolate-flavored lips that had been distracting him nearly all day. He was curious about whether it really did have a chocolate flavor, sure, but if he was honest, what he really wanted to know was what Inoue Orihime tasted like. How she felt. What it was like to kiss her.
Ichigo had inch by inch been lowering his head, desperately wanting to dare to have an unconventional go at trying her chapstick. But just a moment from touching her mouth, where he could feel her warm breath ghosting across his lips, he stopped. His chest felt tight with trepidation. Should he be doing this already? What if he was a rotten kisser? How did he even-
Orihime made the decision and closed the distance. He felt her soft, slightly shaky lips against his. Almost as soon as she had kissed him, he felt her begin to pull away, and a loud, slightly desperate, no sliced through his shocked brain. Ichigo pressed against her lips himself this time, not wanting this to end just yet. He hadn't even been able to soak it all in.
But now he would linger and take her in. The bottom of his shoe scraped across the concrete as he moved closer, their bodies now barely touching.
Her lips were so soft and full, he wanted to nibble them. But he wasn't sure she would like that or even if anyone liked that, so he refrained. He could faintly taste the chocolate against his mouth. She smelled like chocolate and that shampoo that had been beckoning him to bury his face in her hair every time she was around.
Orihime's free hand clutched the front of his school jacket, and he faintly realized he still had her wrist imprisoned and that he should probably let it go and do something else with his own hand. He hesitated a moment after releasing her, and then lifted his hand until the tips of his fingers brushed her jaw and traveled up her cheek because her face seemed like a good place to touch. He really liked her face. And just a little more and his fingers slid into her soft hair. His hand was now in the best of both worlds, his palm touching warm skin and soft hair resting between his fingers. Not to mention his other hand was firmly resting on her hip. Plus his lips... well.
This was heaven, he decided. In fact, he dared heaven to even attempt to top this. Heaven would forgive him if he was skeptical. Because this wasn't just any kiss with any girl. This was Orihime. A girl who was one of his important friends. Now girlfriend; a thought that still sent him reeling a little. And... the girl he loved. Although he hadn't told her that yet. He didn't want to scare her off. Definitely not that. So, he would keep that bit of information hidden deep in his heart for the time being.
Ichigo shifted his mouth, wanting to be more involved in this kissing thing, but not quite sure how. He ended up kind of capturing her bottom lip and lightly sucking on it because it simply seemed like the thing that should be done to a plump bottom lip.
Orihime responded by grasping his jacket tightly in both hands, twisting the fabric a little as she pulled him closer and captured his top lip. He figured that meant good things. It certainly felt tremendously good. Ichigo also decided he wanted a little better taste of this chocolate chapstick, and boldly ran the tip of his tongue along her lip.
Not only did it actually taste like chocolate and pretty good chocolate, although he had definitely had better quality, but his move had the added bonus of making Orihime gasp in a way that had his heart practically jumping out of his chest and speaking of chests, hers was also now firmly pressed against his. His hand gripped her hip firmly as he tried to tell his brain that it really should not be going down that road yet, that road of Orihime's soft curves, but it was really difficult. Especially when she tasted so good, smelled so good, felt so good; and especially when she mimicked his move and ran her tongue along his lip.
He had thought he was feeling electricity before. Now his body was practically acting on its own as it responded to the jolts tingling through his veins and the heat building in his chest. He began to hold her even tighter, his mouth shifting a little more, intent on exploring further; her arms wrapping around his neck did nothing to discourage him.
A loud, gruff voice chose then to break into their world. "Oi, oi, oi. Get a room or find a damn tree to hide behind. Not in the middle of the damn town."
Ichigo yanked back from her, but kept her protectively encircled in his arms as he twisted around to see where the voice came from. A bulky man stood in front of his shop with an apron tied to his waist, one hand fisted at his hip, the other holding a large push broom. Ichigo felt his neck burn as he took in just how public their display had been. Thankfully, it seemed the shop-owner currently eyeing them with exasperated amusement was the only witness.
He glanced down at Orihime who was bright red and peeking around him.
"Ah," Ichigo finally said. "Sorry... we, uh..."
Orihime wriggled out of his grasp and bowed deeply to the man. "S-Sorry, Shop-owner-san!"
Ichigo hesitated and then bowed with her.
"Fine, fine. Young love, etcetera. Jus' take it somewhere else."
"Yes, sir!" Orihime replied and pushed on Ichigo's back to get him moving. He gladly and quickly complied.
They walked quickly, nearly jogging, until they were out of sight for sure. A couple of minutes later, they came to a stop in the park next to her apartment building and faced each other. Orihime, with her red face and big eyes, bit her lip. And then snorted. Within seconds Ichigo was joining her in a fit of laughter.
When they recovered, he easily did what he had been struggling so hard to do just minutes before and took her hand as they continued walking at a more leisurely pace. Orihime laced her fingers through his, and he felt the bottom drop out of his stomach pleasantly like it always did when she did that, plus the tingling warmth all throughout his hand.
After a few moments, Orihime said, "Ah, I think I dropped my chapstick back there..."
"Oh. Sh-Should we go back and get it?" He wasn't exactly keen on the idea, but if she really wanted it...
"N-No, I bought them in a pack so I have others."
Ichigo let out a gush of breath. "I see, that's good."
Her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, but that's littering! Maybe we should go back and get it..."
"Oh, right... Well, wait. That guy seemed to be cleaning, with that big broom and all. He probably already got it."
Her hand dropped and her shoulders visibly relaxed. "Ah, you're probably right."
They walked a few more feet in silence. Ichigo noticed her frequently biting her lip, and he silently relived what it felt like to nearly be biting it himself.
Ichigo cleared his throat. "It, uh... That is, you were right. It really does taste like chocolate. The, um, chapstick, I mean."
Orihime looked up at him in a moment of confusion just before awareness widened her eyes. She dropped her head back to look at the walkway in front of them, her cheeks even more flushed.
Her mouth jerked up into a playful smile. "Told you, Kurosaki-kun."
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Ah, I keep writing from Ichigo's POV. I need to write from Orihime's more... Also should write Keigo better and not just as the pervy, rather ridiculous friend... Maybe PM me if you have any Keigo ideas? Prompts, ships, both?