Waking up to Rukia's naked back was growing on Ichigo. In the few weeks of their intimate relationship, he had often felt shooting pains of anxiety in the first seconds of wakeful morning. Did they know what they were doing? What if Byakuya found out? What if Renji found out? The list was long. However, with each new encounter the young and powerful Shinigami-representative and training Vizard relinquished his grip on worry and wondering and relished in his quiet moments with Rukia.

They could only sleep together in moments of solitude. When they were both certain of no interruptions, they forgot all protocol and let their bodies unite. Always slow, always deliberate. As great as the pleasure was, as surprised as he was at the vixen Rukia had become, as needy as he was...Ichigo's most treasured and favored moments where not when he was inside her, but when he lay peacefully beside her while she slept. His face was usually pressed up against her naked back, and her scent permeated his being. It was almost like the fighting and the struggling had never happened. They had always been like this, familiar and close, quiet and left to their own activities. It sounded silly and unmanly, but Ichigo's felt the pulse of his purpose on earth culminate in these scattered moments. He had embarked on this path as a Reaper because of the creature next to him. She had stopped the rain that had downpoured across the plain of his life. Now, it was her. Only her. He had his friends...and then there was this milk, white, naked body beside him warming him from darkness.

Then she would wake up. Usually, the panic would set in on her. With a brief kiss, Ichigo's stomach would drop as she hurridly left the bed and dressed. "Before your sisters wake up" or "Before any of the others come for us" she would always mutter. But Ichigo knew she regretted the quick exits, hasty endearments, hurried carresses. Damn it. He could never just have it his way, could he?

But on this particular day, the rain outside and the low activity of Arrancar or Hollow demonstration stayed Rukia's usual habit of hurriedly kissing her lover and sprinting to either the Kurosaki bathroom or out the window.

She sleepily turned to face Ichigo and grinned.

"You always wake up before I do." she whispered groggily.

"Yeah." was all he could manage as he watched her eye lids flutter.

She punched his arm, "Quit looking at me with that dumb expression."

Stunned out of a static daze, Ichigo felt an alien smile spread throughout his entire body. "Shut up, Rukia." He pulled her small, lithe, liquid smooth body against him, planting his whole face into the crook of her neck and inhaled.

"Eww...Ichigo stop it." she struggled, but it was all a game. She adored his arms around her waist. She sucked in his scent. She danced in the moment of his body covering and consuming.

"I'm not letting go of you today." He managed to get those words out but went numb when he felt her foot connect with his shin in a hard kick. Suddenly she had jumped out of his arms and out of the bed. What was more, she was laughing...as if challenging him to stop her. Before she could clear it, Ichigo recovered his wits and, maybe a bit to harshly, grabbed her by the arms and threw her back onto the warm bed beneath him.

"No. I'm not done with you yet."

Furious and also flattered at his want, Rukia pushed back only for a moment. When his soft, pliable mouth covered her body in kisses she melted back into the sheets and cursed her own weakness at fighting his most persistent lips. They were divine.

Secretly, her favorite moments were before he was inside her. They were when he lay over her, teasing and glaring at her with his obnoxious, but devastating, eyes. It was a daily dare to resist him. She couldn't do it anymore. She loved him. Damn whatever happened next.

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