So lay down your hollow tips
And kiss your lover's lips
And know that fate is what you make of it
What You Make Of It
By: Summoner Lenne10 (Previously Kirei Kiyara, and before that Unicornfan)
Kurosaki Ichigo didn't have time for girls or hormones.
Seriously, he didn't. Have you lived his life? Have you even seen it? Between his insane home life (most of the 'insanity' being thanks to a certain psychopathic father), having to put up with the punks that kept beating him up because of his fricken hair (he wasn't going to change it, get over it), and having to keep up with his grades to prove them all wrong he didn't have time to practically take a moment to breathe- let alone take five minutes to make out or whatever.
You see- he didn't have time before/ But now? Now that he had this whole "shinigami" thing under his belt? He didn't even have time to eat a snack! Hell, last time he tried Rukia snatched it out of his hands, smiled an evil little smirk and said "You have no time, there's a Hollow around the corner."
"Wait, what, so you have time though?!" Seriously- what the hell!?
"I'm not the one who has to, or can, kill the thing. I'll remind you that's all your fault. And this body's worthless- might as well nourish it." For it being 'all his fault' she was pretty damn sure revealing in the fact that he had to beat up all the evil ghosts- and she went out of her way to plop a grape in her mouth and annoy him because he couldn't eat it.
And seriously at that, what the hell?! He'd seen tons of ghosts in his life- and before this? Not a single Hollow! Rukia said the first was attracted to his ki, which was all fine and well, but then why weren't others before? And why so many now- it was a fucking conspiracy!
So, seriously, his hormones? Non existent. He had no time for them.
... Except they weren't non existent. Which was... really, really, really, really, annoying.
It all started when he was at school one day (August 3rd, near the beginning of his freshmen year, if anyone gives.) And was eating lunch during break. Mizuro was being, well, himself. Innocent and perverted, except he was giving up the innocent facade and was just being perverted.
"You know what would be great?' he asked, leaning back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head . "If I had my own personal sex slave."
Orihime gave a little gasp, Rukia looked up from her manga that she claimed was for study but, considering it was a Watase Yuu shojou (that one about China or something) he highly doubted it, and gave him a flat look and went back to her manga, Ichigo just rolled his eyes and continued eating his ramen, Chad shifted uncomfortably in his chair and went back to eating his apple, and Tatsuki hit him over the head.
"Ow!" He said, grabbing the back of his head, "But..." he added, eyes growing introspective, "She'd have to be a virgin. Because what's hotter than that? I mean I like older woman, 'cus they know what to do, but for a sex slave, you'd need someone all innocent and what-not you can do stuff to and they won't even get it." He smiled wickedly. Ichigo shot him a dirty look and Tatsuki hit him over the head again, harder.
"NO, seriously, guys, are you with me?" He asked, while nursing his skull, and, noting he was only surrounded by girls (and Chad, who was completely unresponsive about this matter and would continue to be that way- he had tried before), and decided to not get the attention of the school lesbian, turned to Ichigo. "Ok then, Ichigo, you with me!?" Ichigo had been known, on rare occasion, to be perverted, and it was a better shot than Chad anyway.
Looking up from his ramen Ichigo frowned realizing he was talking to him and sighed, "No. Actually. Can you leave me out of this?'
Orihime did this little squeal thing that most probably had to with Ichigo saying something that valiant and chivalrous that was not lost on anyone- they all just sort of ignored it, and Rukia just chuckled under her breath as she flipped a page in her manga. Ichigo sighed and returned to his ramen.
"Oh, come on man! Think about it! Like, she could do your every wish, and hell, she could live in your closet so your parents would never find out!"
And that made Ichigo choke on his ramen., and Rukia looked up from her manga to start laughing her stupid little head off while Orihime started to freak out.
"Oh no, he's choking! What happens if he dies? Someone, do the Heimlich maneuver! Help Kurosaki-kun!" She yelled out, wrapping her arm around his heaving shoulder and yelling at the entire room.
"I'm... fine... Inoue..." he said between grit teeth, trying to get the damn ramen down and glaring at the class until they looked away as Chas raised uncertainly to help him out- he really didn't need to be squeezed to death at the moment, even if Chad would be attempting to help.
"Oh, what Ichigo?" Rukia drawled, looking at him smartly. "Did that hit a nerve? Do you have some secret fantasy about having a girl in your closet?" Oh, she was loving this.
Except she was doing that in so-obvious-full-of-bullshit innocent mode of her's, that no one else seemed to pick up on, and she was acting like she was genuinely concerned about him.
Which was even worse off than otherwise.
"Na-no! God dammit woman, shut up! That manga's rotting your brain out!" he angrily swiped at the manga, ignoring the group's gasps at being mean to the 'oh-so-kind' girl, seriously, how did any of them fall for her shit!?, and glanced at it, slightly amazed she let him get it, "What the hell? They're making out!" he blinked and flipped through the book. "And again, and again, and- this stuff is retarded!"
"Give that back!" she huffed, in fake protest, "I need to learn what will happen between Miaka and Tamahome!"
"Why!?" Seriously, it looked retarded to him. Wasn't this series old anyway?
Rukia shrugged, "Suit yourself, you can read all about their torturous love affair if you'd rather have it yourself." She smirked, reached into her backpack and pulled out a Loveless manga and flipped it open.
"What the hell!?" Ichigo screamed, jumping up and pointing at her manga. "Isn't that like, shounen ai!?"
"And shouta." She said levelly, giving him a calm look in the eye then returning to her manga, 'I didn't think you'd be into it, honestly, but if you want to you can borrow it. But wouldn't it be treacherous to that dream girl of yours in your closet?"
The entire classroom was now watching this exchange very keenly, not quiet getting it.
"Oh, oh... SHUT UP! It's not my fault you can't find a better fucking place to liv-" He stopped himself mid sentence, realizing what he was saying. "Oh, never mind, fuck this."He grabbed his ramen, shot everyone a dark glare, threw Rukia her manga back like it was toxic (and where the hell did she store all this shit anyway? With the amount of manga she got her hands on you'd think his entire closet would be full of it. Maybe she had a library card or something.) And stalked over to the corner to finish eating his ramen in peace.
Except it wasn't in peace. Of course it wasn't in peace. Of course he couldn't eat in fucking peace. Because whatever cynical, dominical gods (or maybe shinigami) that had decided to give him this crack-pot life just loved to torment him.
"I'm sorry Kurosaki-kun." Orihime said, sliding in next to him. "That was uncalled for, he shouldn't have said that."
He lessened his inner rant a bit as he glanced over at Orihime- ehh, she was just trying to cheer him up, so maybe it wasn't a bad thing.
"I think he's wrong anyway. I think that a sex slave should be someone experienced, not a virgin!" She announced happily, and lifted a finger into the air to exclaim her point.
Ichigo face faulted as her cursed those random deities. Oh, they were all making his life a fucking hell.
He ended up walking home alone after school that day, seeing as Mizurio had some kind of club or another which was really meant to try and pick up older chicks- he didn't quiet know how he did it and honestly didn't want to know so he made sure to not ask for specific details- and, honestly, he was happier to not be around the guy currently, Chad lived in the opposite direction, Tatsuki had something to do with Inoue (had something to do with getting her edible food by normal human standards) and Kaiko had a doctor's appointment that day so he hadn't been there anyway. This was fine with Ichigo, he could brood his way home, still not over the... disturbing lunch he had just survived (barely) through.
And, honestly, he didn't know why it bothered him so damn much! But he couldn't get it out of his head. And it shouldn't bother him, because it honestly never had bothered him that he had a girl living in his closet. Really, it didn't!
Except... annoying memories were coming to surface.
Like how one time he had been stripping out of his shirt and was only in his boxers when Rukia jumped in through the window. (Which he had closed the blinds on but hadn't shut all together because it was a damn hot day.) He fumbled trying to get his shirt back on while she gave him the once-over, said simply "Nice abs", laughed, and walked into her closet.
Or the... significantly worse time that he had kept trying to forget, but kept... creeping at him.
Like when he was sleeping.
Which was really, really, really awkward.
He had spent the night at Mizuro's house (which were always slightly scarring experiences in and of themselves) and got back to his house early, like six-in-the-fricken-morning-early (he didn't have the luxury of just kicking back and doing nothing all day long anymore- damned hollows liked to attack) and walked into his room, expecting you know, his room. Instead?
Instead he walked in on Rukia dressed only in panties and fumbling with putting on a bra. So it wasn't on yet. Meaning he saw... ... that... part... of her...
"AHH- AHH! WHAT THE HELL?!" He screamed, covering his eyes and slamming the door shut behind him. Oh dear... why the... THAT'S WHAT HIS CLOSET WAS FOR! He shook his head and rubbed at his eyes, trying to get the image away. ... It wouldn't go.
"Ichigo, are you ok?" Karin asked, coming around the corner dressed in her pajama's and towel-drying her hair, yawning slightly. "Why're you yelling? It's too early in the morning. Wait, didn't you go to that perv's house last night anyway? Why on earth are you here so early? Ever heard of sleep?" She gave another yawn.
"Uhh, ya... just... saw something really gross on tv, ya, that's it." He said, striking an odd pose and smiling awkwardly (which always seemed to be his cover during odd situations, which happened more and more frequently lately. Like this one, considering a pretty little shinigami and a very obvious lack of clothes.)
Trying to forget, trying to forget, trying to forget.
"... And you had to scream and shut the door for that- right. Weirdo." She rolled her eyes and continued on to her room, she stopped half-way there though and turned back. "Oh, ya, Ichigo, you haven't seen any of my bra's have you? They've gone missing. Yuzu and my clothes are just vanishing, it's really creepy, I'm worried there's some pedophile sneaking in here or something."
He blinked trying to not think of his thirteen year old sister and her lack of breasts, and what the connotation of her missing bra's meant.
"No, god no, I keep as much of a radius from that stuff as I can." Karin lifted an eyebrow at her obviously frazzled brother, shook her head, and walked off muttering "Teenagers."
Oh ya, whatever. He sighed, slid down against his door and sat on the floor, and clasped his hand to his face. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Finally, after five minutes or so, and deciding she should be dressed by now he, slowly, opened his door- to make sure she could, you know, scream or something if she wasn't dressed yet.
Instead she was sitting on his bed, cross-legged, wearing a long flowy dress he vaguely noted as being Yuzu's.
Except it never looked that good on Yuzu.
GOD DAMN MIND! SHUT UP!
She stared at him, lifted an eyebrow, and finally spoke up,
"You know, I finished getting dressed about 5 minutes ago. And I'm not toxic, it's like you'd never seen boobs before."
At this comment a sudden shouting was heard from the closet.
"BREASTS? BREASTS? WHY DOES ICHIGO GET TO SEE THAT AND I DON'T? IT'S NOT FAIR ENOUGH THAT YOU SHUT ME IN HERE WHILE YOU CHANGED, BUT NOW ICHIGO GET'S TO SEE AND I DON'T? NEE-SAN, LET ME OUT, NEE-SAN! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! IT'S THE LEAST YOU CAN DO FOR ME, TO GIVE ME THE SAME TREATMENT, IT'S THE LEAST YOU CAN DO!" Ichigo promptly walked over to his drawer, got out some duck tape, tore it off, walked back to his abducted closet, opened it, and shut up the god-damned stuffed animal.
Then, after that was done and Rukia raised a delicate eyebrow at him and Kon screamed muffled cries, he did his best to just ignore the previous comment, glared, and pointed a finger at her, "You, what the hell? You've already taken over my closet! This is my room! I would think I could walk into here without seeing X-rated material! And stop stealing my sister's clothes! Go to a thrift store or something! Karin was just complaining about not being able to find her bra, which is just extremely wrong." Because if it was his sister's bra, and all, he shouldn't have been so damned... interested. God dammit!
She gave him a level glance and sighed. "Do you know how annoying it is trying to change in that tiny closet? And I'm trying to get some other clothes, I just have no money so it's not all that easy and you should see the things Uruhara is trying to get me wear- or not, it'd probably be a better idea for your overall mental health, and shut up. That was not X-rated, and you know it- you're friends with Mizuro. That was just a flash of breasts, and I'd like to have you know this body isn't real anyway so it's equivalent to a mannequin, kind of. And it's not like I knew you'd be here so god-damned early, I'd thought you'd sleep like a normal human being." She said this all with the air of talking about an annoying mosquito or something. Dammit, wasn't she a girl!? Wasn't she supposed to be freaking out and screaming and not the other way around?!
"Normal? The reason I'm not a normal human being is because of you, woman! I had to be up to make sure no god-damned hollows attacked or anything, since you're like a leech I can't get off my fricken side. You have to follow me around everywhere so you can nag in my ear 'Oh, Ichigooooo, there's a Hollow- kill it!'" at this point he adopted a high pitched, whiny voice, to which she gave him another level glare.
"Your impersonations suck." There was a muffled affirmative from Kon from the said-closet-of-so-many-problem's.
"Oh, shut up! God, you need money for clothes? I'll give you money for clothes! Just, stop stealing my sisters'! And dammit, don't change out in here again, I want to be able to walk into my own damned room! You've already taken over my closet! Go in the bathroom or something!" He glared at her once again, because glaring was about all he could do to try and get rid of those mental images.
"I can't go in the bathroom nitwit." She said cooly, adjsuting her legs to have them in front of her, while clasping her hands around them, "Yuzu or Karin might see me. But whatever, I'll stay in my closet. Which you never used before much anyway, and you know it. Happy?"
"Yes. And it's my closet, so that's completely besides the point! And get off my bed, if there's no Hollow business I'm going back to sleep." He grabbed his pillow off his bed and half-heartedly swung at her. She put her arms over her head in a defensive move, grabbed the pillow out of his hands with a sharp twist, and had it launched right back at him in the blink of an eye. Damn shinigami.
"Whatever, I'm not tired so I'd rather start my day. Actually, if you're gonna be a lazy bum and sleep, can I have that money now? Might as well make some use of my day."
He grunted from his place under the pillow, where he pulled it over his ears, pulled the pillow away to give her an extremly annoyed look, and reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, and grabbed 10,000 yen.
"Here." He sighed, hanging her the money. "That's all I'm giving you. So you can be smart and go to a thrift store and get enough clothes to last you forever however long you're gonna be here, or you can be a girl and an idiot and buy a pair of shoes with that money. I honestly don't give a damn, I'm just not gonna give you anymore money." He grabbed his pillow again and resindily floped his head back onto the bed.
"Oh, like you're one to speak, Mr. I-Wear-Designer-Jeans-Even-If-All-Jeans-Look-The-Same. And don't worry Ichigo, I wouldn't wate the money on shoes. I might buy a pretty set of lacy lingerie for you though, have any preferences in color?"
He threw the pillow at her again and screamed, "SHUT. UP!"
She snickered and jumped out of the window, but on the window ledge turned back, "Oh, and keep your phone on, I'll call you if I run into any trouble."
He mumbled an affirmative and she rolled her eyes, jumped back into the room to grab the pillow and threw it back at him- he gave a muffled thanks and put it under his tired orange head- and then was off.
Of course his sleep was not restful and instead involved very... annoying dreams about a petite figure that he kept trying to remind himself when he was awake was not real so therefor was equal to being turned on by a robot or something, but that his unconscious mind decided to ignore. He also tried to block out from his mind a previous conversation with Mizuro involving some manga called Chobits and the possibility of robot sex slaves- the topic this time had not been an entirely new one, it had just been the most disturbing one. And on top of that, Rukia did end up calling him an hour later because some Hollow attacked her and he had to go and run to her damned rescue- and protect her, and her damned clothes she had gotten at a thrift store.
Remembering these... annoying events when he'd much rather not Ichigo walked home angrily, glaring at the bird flying across the sky. Stupid school. Stupid friends. Stupid cute girl living in his closet who wasn't even a real girl. God dammit.
And of course, because the kami out there were out to get him, said annoying object of his thoughts suddenly jumped down off a roof (the sad thing was he was used to that by now) and walked up to keep in stride with him. He looked down at her and sighed.
"I thought we agreed on that whole "We don't go home together so no one knows you're living in my closet' thing, not that you helped that any today." He shot her a dark glare.
"Oh, whatever. Your friends aren't here today anyway, and I can just say I was coming to tutor you or something." She shrugged nonchalantly.
He gave her another look. "... You mean I would tutor you. Because incase you've forgotten, you have some of the lowest grades in the school. I have some of the highest."
She shook her head, as if shooing away a fly. "Oh, whatever. Close enough. I don't have time to study and it honestly doesn't matter, there's only so long I'm staying in this world anyway." He felt a familiar pang of sorrow shoot through his heart quickly at the thought- that she'd have to go someday soon, whenever she got her powers back, and when that day came he'd be normal again. But... as much as he bitched about it, he didn't quiet... want to be normal anymore. Not that he ever really was in the first place. And he didn't know why it honestly bothered him so much, the idea of this girl leaving, but it did. So instead he covered it up with annoyance at the fact that she mentioned her not having time to do homework when he obviously did, or found time anyway, and rolled his eyes in her general direction.
"I basically am your sensei, or sempai, anyway, when it comes to being a shinigami." She added as they continued walking home, he adjusted his backpack a bit so it was more comfortable and turned to look at her as she walked next to him. The breeze kicked up her grey skirt to swirl around her slim legs, and the height difference gave him an... odd view when he looked down at her. He quickly diverted his attention back forward and furrowed his brow more than usual, ignoring the fact his heart rate had gone up just a bit, and that his hands felt suddenly rather damp.
"That doesn't count. That's not in your typical curriculum." He let out a sigh as he saw his house approaching around the corner. This day was hell, and he'd be happy to be home. Though, of course, he still had the problem of the girl in his closet.
Rukia glanced up at his scowl, more pronounced than was typical, and sighed and looked ahead. "I'm not a virgin, you know."
He spluttered and stopped and did a double take and tried to regain his composure, not very well, while Rukia stopped, gave him a level look, and then started to laugh at him, "Why the hell would you tell me that? And why the hell are you laughing!?" Blah- agh!
"Because it was mentioned before, and I'm over one hundred and fifty years old here Ichigo, even though I might not look it. Think for a second, it'd be pretty sad if I'd never been layed in that entire time." He did mentally agree but twitched at her language anyway.
"Ok, whatever, that was disturbing, and not needed, can we move on?" But despite that, he felt an odd... sinking feeling in his chest. It hurt a bit to breathe, and he felt a bit dizzy, and his heart pounded painfully- it... hurt, this feeling. And he didn't know why he should feel like that because it was a rather obvious thing and who the hell was he to care whether or not Rukia had had sex or not?
He wondered with who- but no way in hell was he ever going to ask that out loud, so that would just remain an annoying unanswered question in the back of his mind. God dammit, like this day wasn't bad enough.
Rukia watched the emotions play across his face, his attempts at hiding them not working very well, gave a small chuckle and walked up to him until she was standing, well not exactly face-to face but more like face-to-chest with him, nearly pressed against said chest, and looking straight up into his eyes- which were quiet a bit higher than her's were.
"What are you doin-?" Ichigo questioned, trying to ignore the heat rising to his face at her proximity and all the others things stirring within him, before she stood up on her tiptoes, snaked her arm around his neck so that she was able to pull his head down to her level and lighlty kissed him on his lips.
Feelings exploded within him and he couldn't exactly tell what was up or down and all he could distinctly tell was the feel of her soft lips lightly moving against his, and god-dammit if she wasn't real because this was the most real thing he had ever felt, and forgetting himself for a moment, forgetting her and her relation to him and what this could do to it, forgetting everything except how amazing and wonderful this girl felt in his arms, he snacked his hand into her hair, wrapped his other arm around her tiny waist- taking a moment to be amazed at truly how petite she was- and slowly moved his lips against her own.
She pulled back though, after a moment, and he left go of her quickly, as if she burned him, which in some senses she had, and stared dumfounded at her, not able to find any smart aleck remake to say to her or anything... just stared, half in a daze.
Rukia on her part just smirked at him mischievously, "That wasn't your first kiss, was it Strawberry?"
"What?! No, of course not!" He huffed angrily, crossing his arms to try and look cool and aloof and to regain any of his composure, and trying to get his head back down to earth from... wherever it had been.
Ok, it was, but she didn't need to know that.
Except if she could tell?
Oh, god, now he was worried about what if he sucked at it, and she would be mad or digusted at him and- wait, why did he care about this? Kurosaki Ichigo didn't care about girls or hormones, he had no time!
She smirked at him again, seeing the utterly lost look on his face, "Hey, Ichigo, I'm gonna go 'round back and into the window again, unless you wanna introduce me to your father?" She smirked wickedly at that, and he got the implication there- because his father would take it as "ICHIGO'S NEW (and only) GIRLFRIEND!", large kanji and small hiragana and all, and... he wasn't even sure if she was, or not, or what, anymore.
His whole world had been turned upside down and this girl was laughing at him. Damn bitch! And he had no idea why she had even done that, and... maybe he imagined it all? Excpet his lips were still tingling and his heart was racing and-... damn bitch!
"No, ya, go around. I'm gonna take a shower." He tried to say as calmly and aloofly as possible, which it goes without saying he utterly failed at. But a shower was a good idea-time to think, definitely.
She cocked an eyebrow at him but let whatever little comment she could have said there to herself and hopped off into the distance, before stopping and turning back and adding "By the way Ichigo, not only must your peripheral vision be hindered by your constant scrowl- and I'd think it'd give you a headache also, both of which are distinct disadvantages for a shinigami and could very easily get you killed, you really do look much nicer without it. Maybe one day you'll even give a real smile." She, at that, gave him one of those smiles she had been talking about, one that wasn't cocky or michevious and quiet literally took his breath away, before she turned again, and then was gone- to go enter his window. He watched her leave, and only then remembered that he needed to breathe as he became acutely aware of the aching in his lungs, shook his head, and lighting touched his lips, pondering those last words and all these things he was feeling and walked to his front door. It didn't surpass him that he'd just kiss his, basically, boss whom was currenlty living in his closet.
If things were awkard before it was going to hit a new level from now on... dammit.
"Oh, hey Ichigo." Karin greeted him as he walked in the front door, "Who was that girl you were just making out with?"
"WAH- WHHHHATTTT!? Kurosaki Isshin screamed at the top of his lungs, grabbing Ichigo into a bear hug around his neck that left Ichigo choking and spurting. "My son has finally become a man!? Oh, what a wonderful, wondrous occasion! BUT, WAIT, I CAN'T HAVE YOU SEEING SOME LOCAL TRAMP! WHAT IF YOU GET HER PREGNANT? OH, WHAT A MARVELOUS DAY THOUGH, THAT SOME GIRL HAS FINALLY TAKEN INTO HER HEART OUR ORANGE-HAIRED FREAK HERE! BUT, NO, WHAT IF YOU GET HER PREGANT?! OR GET AN STD!? ICHIGO, WE NEED TO HAVE THE TALK!"
Ichigo tried to spurt out that he couldn't breathe and that he did not need to have "The Talk" (especially from his father), and that he was not a freak, and, that he highly doubted she could get pregant or have an STD (which he only said outloud because he couldn't be understood anyway), but instead he just ended up turning blue from a lack of oxygen. And after his father finally let go of him and allowed him to breathe he got into a fight with said idiot of a father, because he was being an idiot and screamed there was no girl so to shut the hell up and when Karin went to speak up he screamed, "SHUT UP KARIN!" but this didn't stop their dad from going into "The Talk" with all of them, something they all did not want to hear (though Yuzu seemed very excited at the possibility that her brother had a girlfriend and kept asking if she knew her and what she was like and if she'd stop by, only adding to Ichigo's discomfort), and then gulped down their food so that they could get away from him and he ended up following Ichigo to his room where he slammed the door on him and told him to SHUT THE HELL UP AND GO AWAY.
Once he got in his room he found Rukia, giggling, and Kon, beginning one of his customary rants to him.
"Oh, so your father was speaking about sex was he!? Not that an inexpirenced little twit like you would ever understand it, I doubt you'll ever get a girl in your life, of course though, if you lend me your body I can go around picking up so many babes you wouldn't-" Kon was shut up here by Ichigo towering over him and glaring dangerously at him, "I'm the little one, am I?"
And with an evil glint in his eye he threw Kon out the window, much to the stuffed animal's protests. Whatever. Rukia would get him later. To which the said girl gave him a sharp look and started giggling again.
"Oh, shut up." He said, starting on his homework, while she happily sat on his bed and looked at him evenly, and after a bit of this he impatiently asked her that shouldn't she do her homework as well? She just shrugged and laughed.
"I'm failing everything anyway." She shrugged. He just rolled his eyes at her and continued on with his work, trying not to think abot how soft her lips were and trying not to think about how... nice the prospect sounded to him of him and her, cuddling on his bed while watching some lame thing on TV.
God dammit.
And so he did his homework, and the project due next month, and basically anything to get his mind off her and she finally rolled her eyes and went to her closet- that god damned closet- to go and read more mind-rotting manga, and he wondered if things would ever be the same between them, and whether they would get awkward or perhaps somethiing... else that he was too scared to think about.
But they didn't. He was woken up the next day, Wednesday, far too early with her screaming at him at four in the morning that there was a hollow on the loose, and he had to go kill, or exorcise, or whatever, the god-damned thing before the sun was even up and then get ready and go to school, and deal with all the crap there.
And, oddly, she treated him the exact same. And after a few day's of being on edge around her he resigned to it, because he supposed, it was probably for the best, and maybe he had just imagined the whole thing.
Well, except, Karin and Yuzu wouldn't shut up about it- admittingly Karin was smart and did try to mention it when their father wasn't around, but the man had super heairng or something and would shoot out of pratically no where and start ranting again. And Yuzu just brought it around whenever she remembered, with no concerns about whether their father was in the nearby proximity, which really didn't help him at all.
And life returned to normal for Ichigo, or, as normal as it ever was for him, and he knew this was probably a good thing- because his life was far too damned complacated for girls or hormones or any other damned situation- but a part of him regretted it, because it might have been... nice.
Or not. Damned hormones. He had no need for them.
A/N: This was first written when I had watched or read barely any Bleach, and honestly I don't know that much more now. Therefor, please point out any blazing inconsistencies (I think there was something wrong with it being the beginning of the school year yet them having Kon). I know I personally hate mistakes such as these in my main fandoms, so I wouldn't want to get anyone here mad. This is obviously supposed to be pre Soul Society arc, hence why nothing came of this at the end- because it'd be kind of against canon to say they got together here and yet have the Soul Society arc have no mention of it.
I've never written Rukia or Ichigo before and I have to say they were far too much fun- I am not a witty person, and writing witty characters was certainly a treat. While I'm always a possible-canon-couple person, and I love Orihime dearly, I do think I like these two a bit more, and I can pretty much tell you I'll write more stories about them, because this was just too dreadfully fun to not do again. That and I think I'm going to become fully obsessed with Bleach sometime soon, so hopefully look forward to it all then?
This fic was previously known as 'Show You What Your Head Is For' from the Red Hot Chili Pepper's song So Much I. However, after a day's contemplation after I posted it, I realized how truly horrible and perverted of a name that was and how little it fit the story. After scrounging my music I found this name- taken from Incubus's Agoraphobia. I still do not feel it fits completely, and may STILL change the name yet, but in the meantime I like it quiet a bit:).
I have a feeling the grammar here went completely wonky though- I always yell about tenses, and yet I believe I butchered them completely. Also since I originally finished this story up at 3 AM- a feat for me since I usually half write stories and then never properly finish them and then do not remember where I was going to go with it- the last few pages had run on sentences and stuff. In editing I tried to catch them, but... I don't know how well it worked. Especially that one paragraph that I fixed up as best as I could but was sort of beyond my control. It hurts my brain to read- that's not good.
I think I need a beta. But they'd need to know a REALLY weird mix of fandoms (atm Naruto, Bleach, Harry Potter, Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden, and Rurouni Kenshin.) Maybe I can get a few? Or maybe I shouldn't delude myself thinking anyone would want to be :).
So please review and tell me about whether or not I sufficiently butchered up Rukia and Ichigo. Not that that was my intention at all of course, but still.
- When I was reading the manga scans on onemanga, I was surprised to see Ichigo call Orihime Inoue and her call him Kurosaki-kun, since the American dub of the anime and Americans translation of the manga had him calling her Orihime and she calling him Ichigo. I assume it's the cultural difference, however, that they didn't bother trying to explain, and assume this is correct. If it's not, please tell me and I'll edit it back. I left talking about her actions as Orihime though, even if it's in Ichigo's P.O.V., because I find it too odd otherwise.
- I have no idea whether there is such a thing as capital and lower-case hiragana and kanji, I rather doubt it, but since the original sentence was 'capital letters and everything' and I realized that was probably incorrect, that's what it's going by.
A kami, as a note, is a Japanese polytheistic deity, that lives in things (tree kami, river kami, etc) from Shintoism. Though they're know here as kami, gods, and deities. The last is an inside joke with myself mostly.