I don't own Bleach, Kubo-sensei does. Nor do I own the picture that I got the idea from. The link should be in my profile.
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Tatsuki wished she had brought a book as she stared out the window, feeling Ichigo's weight on her back and the emotions it brought up.
She didn't know why Ichigo had decided to join her rebuilt dojo, nor why he had decided to go with her to the competition. All Tatsuki could think of was when Orihime had disappeared, and Ichigo—dressed in a haori and hakama with a giant sword strapped to his back—Uryuu, and Sado had gone through a hole in the sky. A month later, they were all back, pretending that nothing had happened. The explanation that Urahara had promised had never come.
But Ichigo had drifted away from those who seemed to know what she, Keigo, and Mizuiro didn't. He'd started to eat lunch with Keigo and Mizuiro on the roof like old times—neither Uryuu, nor Sado ever showed up—and he had joined Tatsuki's dojo again; accepting his daily beating from her with the closest to a smile he ever got these days.
Tatsuki didn't like it. She didn't like it at all.
Even so, when the conductor's voice over the intercoms told her it was their stop, and Ichigo still wasn't awake, Tatsuki hoisted the sleeping man onto her back—cursing his height and weight—making it off the train just in time before the doors closed.
Cursing at Ichigo under her breath again, Tatsuki made her slow way to somewhere where she could put him down.
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Ichigo woke up to feel his chest and cheek burning pleasantly, as if he'd fallen asleep on a winter kotatsu. His shirt felt a little damp at the back, but from the sound of rushing water he was at the riverbank, so it was only to be expected.
Idly—without opening his eyes—Ichigo wondered how he'd gotten from the train with Tatsuki to the riverbank.
"Ichigo, we need to talk," said a soft voice a little over on his left side. It was Tatsuki, he'd know her voice anywhere; then he winced, suddenly knowing how he'd gotten from point a to point b.
"About what?" Ichigo forced himself to ask. The last time they'd "needed to talk" Ichigo had gone to a different school. The time before that had ended with him leaving the dojo. And the time before that had ended their fumbled, sloppy kisses that they had called practice.
"Everything."
That simple word sent a chill down his spine. Ichigo could only hope that some things Tatsuki refrained from asking because otherwise that girl threatened to shatter his entire life. Still though, even with a dry mouth, Ichigo said, "Sure." What else could he have done? Tatsuki was his oldest, dearest friend. His childhood knight in sweat soaked Karate clothes. There was nothing he couldn't think of doing for her.
"I want to know what happened two months ago. When Orihime disappeared, when you went after her, and when you came back covered in wounds."
She would have to have asked that, hadn't she? Of course she did. Ichigo was surprised it hadn't happened before.
"It's a long story," he warned. He heard Tatsuki snort.
"Of course it is. Tell me anyway. We got time."
"First, you gotta know about these things called Hollows. They're created when a ghost isn't sent to heaven for a long time, so they're consumed by their emotions and they turn into monsters with masks and holes. Hollows eat souls, and they like souls with lots of reiatsu—this stuff that makes people able to see ghosts and Hollows—the best. The shinigami are souls with reiatsu who have manifested swords that can hurt the Hollows. They fight the Hollows and send souls to heaven.
"I became a shinigami nearly a year ago, when Rukia first came to Karakura High. Then Uryuu, Chad, and Inoue all got powers, and not long after that we all had to go rescue Rukia from Soul Society—pretty much heaven. We saved her, but three of the shinigami captains betrayed Soul Society and went to Hueco Mundo—where the Hollows live. About a month later, two Arrancars—Hollows who have broken their masks—came and killed your dojo. You nearly died too, Tatsuki. If not for Chad and Inoue holding them off long enough for help to come, you would be.
"It wasn't long after that that one of those Arrancars captured Orihime on her way home from Soul Society. They made it look like Inoue was a traitor, and Soul Society pulled away—refusing to help us find her. So we went to Hueco Mundo ourselves—me, Chad, and Uryuu—and Rukia and Renji met up with us there. We would have died, though, if it weren't for a few of the captains coming to the rescue. Turns out they came to get me, because Aizen—the leader of the traitor shinigami—had attacked Karakura Town." Ichigo stopped, and shuddered. Tatsuki, who had been watching him out of the corner of her eye, turned to him fully.
"What happened?" she asked softly, knowing it was not the time to be gruff like she normally was.
Ichigo shuddered again. "Aizen wanted to kill everyone so he could become a god. Or something like that. You, Keigo, Mizuiro, Yuzu, Karin, Dad…everyone would have been gone if Aizen hadn't been stopped," he gritted out painfully.
"But you stopped him, right? I'm still here, and so is everyone else."
Even though Ichigo hadn't been meeting her eyes, he turned away from Tatsuki fully at her question. "Not really, no. We stopped his attack, but Aizen's still alive. Him and one other traitor managed to survive. We were no match for Aizen, he had us all trapped in illusion after illusion. Even me, somehow. Sometimes I think that Aizen just got bored, and he's waiting for us to get strong again so he can crush us even worse."
Tatsuki slapped him.
"And of course it's all your fault that this bastard got away. Not a single one of these shinigami can beat you, and if only you'd been able to spot the flaw in whatever illusion he has—and there's always a flaw—you'd have had him beat handily," Tatsuki snorted. "You're just a noble idiot, Ichigo. Leave the fighting to them that have been at it longer."
"You don't understand," Ichigo accused sullenly. Then he was pushed down by Tatsuki without warning, and she sat on his chest.
"No, you don't understand. But I can't make you if you don't want to, Ichigo. Now. Why have Ishida, Sado, and Orihime drawn away from you?" she demanded, sticking her finger in his face.
Ichigo pushed Tatsuki off his chest and coughed. Tatsuki kicked him playfully, then again harder when he didn't immediately tell her.
"It's because they want something from me that I'm not going to give them," Ichigo finally admitted. "Inoue especially. Uryuu would follow her anywhere, and he never really liked me. It was no tragedy for him to stop talking to me. Chad, though, he just wants me to keep quiet, he doesn't want me to burden you, Keigo, or Mizuiro. I was planning on telling you everything. But the time never seemed right. Plus, I thought you'd kill me."
The girl looked thoughtful. Tatsuki already knew that Orihime loved Ichigo, but for all her matchmaking, she'd always known that Ichigo would never look at Orihime like that. Perhaps it was her resemblance to Ichigo's mother, or even that Ichigo almost never looked at anyone who didn't punch him first: Tatsuki had known. That hadn't stopped her from wishing for the best for her friend.
"Why didn't Sado want you to tell us?" Tatsuki asked instead of her other question—why couldn't Ichigo love Orihime. The thought of what the answer might be scared her.
"He thinks that by knowing you'll be hurt. That you'll want to help, even though you don't have powers." At that Tatsuki grinned.
"Is that so? So you've already talked to Asano and Kojima about everything and you know what we all have been doing while you all were gone, huh?" she asked mischieviously, still laying in the grass where'd Ichigo had pushed her—the grin on her face.
Ichigo stared at her, feeling his chest tighten and his belly flop to and fro heatedly. "What? No, of course not."
Tatsuki laid her head on the ground, staring up at the sky. She raised her right arm and snapped her fingers a few times before a flame popped up out of her middle finger. Almost like a lighter, only Ichigo could see that it had literally come from Tatsuki herself.
"I need the suit to make it bigger for the moment, but we're not defenseless. Asano can run faster than a cheetah—makes for a good distraction. Kojima isn't part of the Karakura Raizers, but he can see Hollows and Shinigami as well. You'd know if you'd asked before now."
The substitute shinigami just stared at his friend in complete and utter shock. It seemed as though life was spiraling out of his control, and Ichigo wished—just for a moment—that he'd never met Kuchiki Rukia. But Ichigo just shook his head and took this newest revelation in stride.
"Anything else you want to know, Tatsuki?" Ichigo asked, resigned to being shocked. He only hoped that this interrogation didn't last for much longer.
Almost without Tatsuki realizing it, her mouth and vocal cords asked one final question, "Why can't you love Orihime?" As soon as the words had left her mouth, though, she fought the urge to clamp her hands around her mouth. What good would it do, with those words already out?
For a moment, Ichigo just thought. He took the question seriously—if he'd answered with a joke, then Tatsuki would have every right to beat him within an inch of his life—so it required serious thought. It was something that Ichigo had never really thought about before, so it was taking him longer than normal to find the reason.
It was all coming back to Tatsuki, Ichigo realized after a while. Those fumbled "practice" sessions, their childhood together, even the sight of Tatsuki's long fingers snapping then lighting on fire. And it wasn't as though Orihime and Ichigo ever spent much time together away from Tatsuki. He couldn't help but compare Orihime to Tatsuki—and there was no way that the other girl could compete with Ichigo's first and dearest friend.
"I never kissed anyone else, you know?" he mused outloud.
"I know. You're not the type. Neither have I," she replied.
"Every time I think of Inoue-chan, I have to think of you. Whenever I try to see her in a romantic light like she wants, I remember you after we kissed. I don't know if we could have had anything if she wasn't always around you, but I don't think so. She's too shy for me," Ichigo rubbed the back of his head. "I'm not that good at figuring out people, it was a miracle that I figured out Inoue-chan's crush at all."
Tatsuki was silent for a long time after that confession. None of it was really surprising, it was just hearing them out loud she couldn't ignore them. Finally she spoke.
"So what does this mean?"
To Tatsuki's surprise, Ichigo blushed a deep red that clashed horribly with his hair.
"I don't know. But maybe we can start practicing again?"
To Ichigo's surprise, Tatsuki answered him with a tender kiss.
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When I saw that picture, I knew that I had to write something for it. You might recognize the beginning from it.