Mary trained brutally hard, harder then she really should but she didn't care. She wanted to fight again, wanted to breathe again. It'd been a week and her muscles were toning up nicely again and building to make up from the parts burnt off on her back. It also helped to lessen the aching pain she normally felt in her shoulder blades, a pain the fourth division had said would probably never go away.
She was taking a break under a tree, turtle neck off because, scars or not, it was way to friggin hot to spar in this balmy weather. Besides her comrades in the eleventh division liked the scars and said it made her look tough and badass. Mary smiled at the compliment, although she still felt self-conscious. She knew if she left the barracks in only her sports bra and hakama everyone would stare and whisper. She rolled her shoulders and sipped her water, thinking herself alone in the field within the eleventh division walls.
She jumped when she heard Ichigo behind her say, "Wanna spar with me next." She sucked down the water she'd been sipping the wrong way and coughed.
"Sorry didn't mean to scare you," he said with a warm smile. She saw his gaze fall on her back. How could it not? There she was sitting under a tree with a water bottle clutched in her hand and her back was bare save for the sliver of black bra.
She waited like a deer in the headlights for his smile to turn to disgust or worse pity. But neither happened, instead he looked…angry. But that look disappeared swiftly and he asked his earlier question again. "So did you wanna spar with me next?"
"Sure," Mary said before her brain really had time to process what had happened. She had never fought with Ichigo before and she could feel Kerria was happy about it. Apparently her zanpaktou saw Ichigo as a good challenge. "You want zanpaktous in their released form or as katanas?"
"I can't make my zanpaktou into a katana," Ichigo said. He gave Mary a challenging look as she gapped at him.
"You're kidding. You mastered bankai in days….DAYS! and you can't turn your zanpaktou into a katana," Mary said turning away and rolling her eyes. Can you believe this guy? Ichigo was glaring at her. "Well anyway I guess that means released forms it is. Climb Kerria." Her zanpaktou turned into a sickle and the branch wrapped around her arm. Ichigo blinked in surprise. He hadn't seen her released form and had figured Mary didn't have a zanpaktou yet.
He studied the blade a moment and grabbed the one on his back. The bandages fell away and revealed Zangetsu. Mary sized up the blade, noting its length would give Ichigo a long reach during battle. Kerria was practically bouncing around in her hand eager to start.
They both took defensive posses and were off. Mary was wary of Ichigo's blade. He swung it around like an axe and her quick reflexes spent a good portion of the time dodging in and out of its reach. She caught a swing in the curve of Kerria's sickle and she could feel Zangetsu's power hum though her blade. All the raw energy was unnerving and with a flip of her wrist she had pushed the blade back and was in Ichigo's face.
In the close proximity, Ichigo was suddenly very aware that he was fighting Mary while she was in a bra with her cleavage hanging out and her abs glistening with sweat. His guard went down and she hit him in the gut with the back of her hilt. He grunted as she danced away from him.
"Focus Ichigo," Mary said. She was a bit angry now. She new that punch had been easy because he was staring at her scars. She should have put her shirt back on and screwed how hot the turtle neck was to fight in.
Ichigo growled and charged her, shunpoing. The fast movement caught her off guard and she just managed to stop the swing from hitting her. The branch around her arm tightened and she could feel her rietsu grow until golden color flooded her blade. She pushed him back as Ichigo's own rietsu, a strange black and red, flickered up his own blade.
This was no longer a fight of sword but of will power. Ichigo's power was enormous compared to her own, but she was holding her ground.
"You are stronger then you think," Kerria whispered in her ear as her power started flickering up to twine into Ichigo's blade like a twisting vine. Finally, after what felt like hours but was really minutes, Ichigo pulled back. She swung at him again and he parried. He thrust at her again and she moved out of the way to slice at him. She caught his shirt, ripping it but not injuring the skin beneath.
"Whoops," she said in fake innocence and moved back out of his reach. Ichigo cursed and tore off his ruined shirt. Mary hadn't been prepared for that. There were a lot of good looking muscular men in Soul Society, but Ichigo looked too good. It was like his abs and pecks were perfectly sculpted by a master artist. Her mouth went dry and Kerria yelled at her to pay attention.
They clashed again, parries and slashes so fast it caused sparks to fly off their blades. Ichigo finally swung and Mary side stepped it. He didn't give her a chance to balance herself and he turned the blade in his hand and pushed on hers, causing her to stumble and lose her footing.
Before she had a chance to fall though, Ichigo reached out a hand and caught her. He easily hauled her back up into a standing position and they were both breathing hard and far too close and shirtless. Mary gulped in air as she started feeling hot from something other then just the summer heat.
They both jumped when they heard some cat calls and a few hoots. A sizable crowd had gathered as they had fought and several of the eleventh guard members were making lewd gestures and remarks.
Mary smiled good naturedly yet embarrassed at the crowd and went to grab her shirt and water bottle. Ichigo followed and they retreated away from the throng that was starting to disperse since the spar was over.
Mary led them down into the barracks to her room. She threw open the door to show the bed was unmade, and clothes were strewn everywhere. The only thing not on the floor was the lacy underwear from Ichigo's first visit. It had to be hidden after several panty raids.
"Sorry…about all that," Mary said a little awkwardly as she sat down on the unmade sleeping mat and Ichigo sank to the floor. He shook his head at her. "It wasn't like it was your fault."
They both smiled at each other after which an awkward silence followed. "You fight really well," Ichigo finally said to her. "Your zanpaktou…Kerria you called it..."
"Her," Mary said. "From what I've gathered Kerria is a female, although I don't know what she looks like."
"Really?" Ichigo said, surprised that Mary hadn't been in the world inside her head.
"Well she doesn't talk much to me. I think it's because she's a plant." The blade beside her hummed a warm emotion of content. Kerria was pleased with the battle despite the fact it had lost and a tendril of its power still reached out toward Zangetsu.
Ichigo was getting a similar vibe from Zangetsu although he wasn't about to share it. It was like the swords were friends, their shinigami's having communed in battle creating a bond between the blades.
Mary rolled her shoulders. The spar may have been fun but now that it was over she could feel the ache in her back start again. She reached over for the bottle of special balm Hanatarou had given her to relax and ease the muscles.
"What's that?" Ichigo asked.
"Just a lotion for my back," Mary said and started smearing a bit on her shoulders and up into her hair.
"Here let me," Ichigo said and reached out to snag the bottle.
"It's okay. I got it," Mary said. She gave him a daring look and tried to take it back.
"I want to help," Ichigo said and moved the bottle out of reach so Mary had to basically climb onto him to try and get it back.
"No it's mine. You don't know how to do it," she said a competitive smile coming to her lips.
"It makes more sense if I do it," Ichigo said and pushed her away gently. "You can't reach your back well by yourself. And my dad's a doctor so chill. I think I can handle some balm."
Mary muttered about stubborn men but was smiling none the less when she turned around so her back was to Ichigo. "Alright then Dr. Kurosaki, put it on."
She normally had Yumichika do this for her since his hands were soft and gentle. She expected Ichigo's hands to be the opposite, hard and rough, but he surprised her. The hands felt huge on her shoulder blades as he messaged in the balm and worked her muscles at the same time to loosen and relax them. It was all tender and soothing, and she shivered at the butterflies it was giving her.
"You cold?" Ichigo asked taking the shiver to mean something else.
"I'm fine," Mary said in a far too girlish way. She mentally slapped herself. Snap out of it. Okay he was shirtless and very soothingly rubbing away her pain in her room alone, that did not mean she could make this more intimate. He still had that girl; the pretty one with the perfect boobs and pretty long hair and scar-less body.
"Are you sure?" Ichigo said and stopped rubbing altogether. She shivered again. Why did he have to say it like that, all husky and rough like they'd been doing something far different then sparing.
"I think it's good. You can stop now," she said desperate for him to stop touching her. But he didn't. His hands traveled to her lower back and then around her front. She was pulled back and felt a hot, hard chest hit her back. She gulped.
"Ichigo?" She relaxed a bit into the hug and Ichigo buried his face in her shoulder.
"I should have protected you," he finally said, she could hear the anger there and sadness and self guilt all woven together to wrench at her heart.
"It's not your fault." Mary tried to turn her head to look at him. "You weren't even in Soul Society at the time."
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I should have stopped Aizen the first time. If I had this wouldn't have happened."
Mary sighed. So that was it, and here she'd been acting like a love struck puppy. It was just Ichigo felt responsible for her injuries, nothing more. "Don't blame yourself. You did all you could and more from what I've been told. My injuries have nothing to do with that…okay?"
He didn't say anything at first just hugged her tighter. She felt a pair of lips kiss her shoulder. It was barely a peck, but it sent her heart hammering and all her senses on alert. "When I said you were pretty I meant it Mary," he said into her shoulder. She shuddered.
"Ichi..?"
"And no matter how many times your body is scarred that's not going to change," he said and finally let her go. She turned just enough to look him in the eyes.
"Why are you telling me this?" she said confused. "What about that other girl…the one from the real world. You shouldn't be telling me this kind of stuff Ichigo."
"You mean Orihime." Ichigo blinked in surprise at the mention of his past girlfriend. "I broke up with her weeks ago."
"Oh…" Mary said a bit dumbfounded for a minute until her mind caught up with the fact that Ichigo wasn't cheating, was hugging her against his very hot body, and was basically confessing that he liked her while she sat there like a moron.
"Well…uh…," Mary said and smiled shyly. Ichigo smiled back, but it was not an all together innocent smile. He leaned in and kissed her chastely cutting off whatever response she was going to give. She let out a little gasp and then sighed and leaned into it as their arms wrapped around each other.
