Chapter 2:

Jeans

Everything's too sudden.

I can't think of what to say.

But she's looking at me.

"Y-You know, I want to ask you for a favor..." She said.

"Inoue?"

She looks up at me. "Kurosaki-kun!" And smiles.

I don't really know what to say to her other than ask her what she's doing here and why she isn't at the Soul Society with Rukia. Seeing her again would have been sixty years from now—until she had been reincarnated. Although by then I'd be seventy-five if not dead. Now, just a week later, I find her here.

Maybe I'll just skip the questions and ask her how she's been since last week, if the Soul Society treated her well, if she hasn't ran into any hollows, if she'd like to—

"Kurosaki-kun?"

Shit, she's staring at me.

I blink several times. "Inoue," I scratch the back of my head, "So... h-how's it like being a ghost?"

I should have just asked her where Rukia is...

"It's fun!" She keeps smiling. "I get to meet all these new people, some of them are really nice. But, Kurosaki-kun?" Her expression changes a little and she scratches the side of her cheek.

"Y-Yeah?" I reply.

She walks towards me. "How are you able to see ghosts?"

I avoid her eyes and start looking around. How can I see ghosts? I don't know how to explain that. I guess telling her the truth won't hurt anymore.

"It's needed for my part-time job." I lie anyway.

"Oh! As a shinigami, right?"

"Sure."

"It's good to see you, Kurosaki-kun." She puts her hands behind her and leans forward a bit, smiling with both her eyes and lips.

I step back. "Same goes for me, Inoue." I manage half a smile.

"Who's this, sweetie?" I hear the voice of the older woman. I completely forgot there were more ghosts here. "Boyfriend?" The old lady giggles.

Inoue, turns around and shakes her head. "N-no! We're classmates, or we were classmates." She laughs nervously.

"Ah, it's one-sided," the lady whispers. "We should leave them, I'm sure they have a lot to talk about." She says.

"Let's see each other again." The old man waves.

"You should tell him, sweetie, you have nothing to lose!" And they both disappear.

"Tell me..." I mumble.

She turns to me again. "Don't worry about what she said, she just meant to, uh, tell you why I'm here."

"No, I'm not worried about that."

"You're not?"

"I'm sure Rukia know's what she's doing. But where is she?" I ask.

"Oh." She switches her gaze towards the floor. "She's not here," she says softly.

That damn Shinigami, I take it she's not doing her job right.

"So, do you have anywhere to go?" I ask. I don't want her wandering the streets alone with no shinigami around.

"Well I was planning on roaming around a little. Do you think I can scare people?"

I want to laugh at her because she's just... not scary. "Maybe if you sneak up on them."

"No, I think I can just make noises and move some furniture." She keeps a smile on her face.

I smile at her and then ask her if she wants to walk with me. She nods and I feel a little better having her next to me.

We walk silently to my house.

"I'm home," I say as I take off my shoes. I notice that Inoue tries to take off her shoes, it's kind of funny, she hasn't realized she's floating now.

She sees me looking at her and she just smiles again. I point down at her feet and she makes an interesting face, a mixture of realization and embarrassment.

She laughs. "Oh yeah, I forgot."

We walk past the kitchen and I head to my room. I kind of figure Inoue is following me, but I look behind me anyway. She's just standing by the dining table.

"You can come—"

"Hey, who's the ghost?" I hear Karin say as she sets a glass of milk on the table.

"Ah yeah, this is Inoue, she's a classmate," I reply. "She was wandering around alone, figured I'd bring her in."

Inoue staggers a little and looks back and forth between me an Karin. "You can see ghosts too?" She asks her.

"Unfortunately. But I'll tell you something." Karin answers. She then looks at me and smirks. "You're the first girl he brings home."

"Idiot, don't say that. She's a friend who died not too long ago." I walk toward them. "She was my classmate. And I've brought plenty of girls!"

"Tatsuki doesn't count."

"Hi, you must be Kurosaki-kun's sister, nice too meet you. I'm Inoue Orihime." She bows slightly; a little too polite for my younger sister.

Karin looks back at me again. "You two were friends?"

"Classmates." I respond.

"Of course, there's no chance you'd be more." She states.

I'm just going to ignore that, Karin.

"Anyway, I'm going to do my homework, dad said he'd be late." She says. "Also, Yuzu made chocolate cake today, it's in the fridge. Get some before dad comes home." She gulps down the glass of milk and walks into her room.

"Sigh." I scratch the back of my head. "You can come into my room if you want, Inoue." I say and open the door.

I don't hear her respond so I take a look at her and she's staring intently at the fridge. It's a look I've never seen before, but probably one that Arisawa had seen plenty of times. I kind of want to laugh and not because she looks funny, rather she looks like my little sisters with that face. There's a certain twinkle in her eye and she looks like she's thinking of the right words to ask me. Her mouth is slightly open which makes her look even more interesting.

"Do you want some chocolate cake?" I ask.

She gets a little teary eyed like telling me she's relieved I've asked her. I hold in my chuckle as she nods and thanks me.

I take out the cake and we sit on the table. The cake is covered in creamy milk chocolate frosting, decorated with an assortment of nuts, and topped with five ripe strawberries.

Yuzu's the best. Even my mouth is watering

But I'm not about to admit how much I love chocolate.

I grab plates, forks, and a knife. I give Inoue a piece and she thanks me again. Then I finally realize something.

"Ghosts can eat?" I ask out loud.

Inoue stops what she's doing and stares at the piece of cake on her fork. She closes her mouth and thinks for a moment.

I just stare at her now. She's thinking pretty hard as she's analyzing the way she's holding her fork and how the fork is holding the bite-size piece of chocolate cake. She makes a worried face but then opens her mouth and finally attempts to eat it.

"It's so good!" She cries.

I let out a short chuckle as I grab a piece for me. I look up again and she's smiling toward my direction... I blink and look down, but I fucking end up losing my cool.

"Shit!"

"Kurosaki-kun!"

"It's okay it just landed on my lap."

She gets up and floats around, "Um, uh, where are the paper-towels!"

"It's okay, I'll use these napkins."

"Are you hurt? Oh wait you can't be hurt, it's just chocolate cake!"

"I'm okay."

She squats next to my chair and tries to clean up.

I have to admit that this is one of the most embarrassing situations I've ever been in. It's really uncomfortable for me, not because of the damn chocolate cake falling on my lap, but having a girl try to clean my jeans. My fucking jeans...

I'm not even sure if she knows where the cake landed. Maybe she's just being a girl and at the sight of a mess she automatically thinks "Clean!". And what's making me angry is not her, it's the fact that she's so close and it's making me so fucking nervous.

I'm normally a cool guy, my reputation has been plainly established as such and I've worked hard to maintain that image. But this, she, is ruining it too easily.

I don't want to yell at her because I'm sure she's just trying to be helpful, but there is nothing I can think of to stop her.

Fuck.

I look at the top of her head and lean my lips toward her ear.

"Inoue?" I say as cool as I can.

"Yes?" She turns her head and her nose almost touches my lip. Her face suddenly turns red and she moves backward as fast as she can.

She finally realizes it. But now I'm a little curious, do ghosts have the same chemical reactions as their human bodies?

A/N: I intended to update soon but school started which delayed the update. But now I have time :D Anyway, thanks for reading up to here even if you didn't like it I appreciate your time. Remember though, read the one-shot for Bleach, it's adorable! ^_^