Time spent together

Shizuka woke up with a wince as she found it hard to breathe and tried to move but was unable. Wondering what was going on she opened her eyes and almost screamed in surprise when she saw Ichigo's face right in front of hers. However, she somehow managed it to swallow the scream to not alarm her boyfriend's family when she remembered yesterday's events.

Ichigo's eyes were closed and he was breathing slowly and softly, indicating that he was fast asleep. She needed a moment to notice that he embraced her with his whole body, almost as if he tried to make sure that she won't disappear once he wakes up. Looking around she saw the morning light stream through the window into the room but since the sun was only peeking slightly over the rooftops she figured that it was around 6 am. Knowing when Ichigo wakes up Shizuka knew it was too early for him to wake up so she kept lying there though it was still quite difficult to breathe as he was crushing her to his body. Wriggling a bit she managed it to get into a better position and stared at his face, blushing.

She still couldn't believe that she was now together with him and was surprised she actually developed feelings for him, if anyone would have told her how things with the two would end she would have never been able to believe it. But right now she was happy to be able to be with him and snuggled closer, putting her head against his chest and listened to his heartbeat.

Feeling mischievous she pulled herself up a bit and placed a slightly clumsy kiss on his lips, her face bright red but content that she was able to get away with it.

After a while she decided it was time to get up and climbed over Ichigo, heading downstairs as she has heard Yuzu walking to the kitchen not so long ago.

"Good morning." She said when she noticed Yuzu preparing tea which seemingly startled the younger girl as she knocked over the teapot but Shizuka was fast enough to catch it and put it back on the cooking plate. "Careful, you might have gotten hurt."

"You surprised me." Yuzu answered but then smiled brightly at Shizuka. "Uhm... good morning, Onee-chan!"

This time it was Shizuka who was surprised but she found it cute that Yuzu called her big sis so she immediately consorted with Ichigo's little sister.

"Y-yes. Let me help you."

"But I can't..."

"No excuses! I'm gonna help." Shizuka basically forced Yuzu to let her help and so the two of them stood in the kitchen, preparing breakfast and chatting with each other.

"Is Onii-chan still sleeping."

"He was when I stood up." Shizuka answered as she watched over the cooking rice and stroked back her hair. She had slight problems to move in Ichigo's clothing which still were too big for her and Yuzu seemingly had noticed it.

"Oh right, your uniform is cleaned and dry. I'm going to bring it." She said and disappeared from the kitchen. Shizuka only chuckled and looked around, the house was much different than it was fifteen years ago but the most disturbing thing was the oversized poster showing Masaki on the wall. Considering what had happened between her and Isshin back then Shizuka could understand why Isshin is like that. She would probably be devastated if Ichigo would be killed by Hollows however the thought gave her goosebumps and she shook her head.

"I'll never let that happen..." She muttered as Yuzu finally returned with a bright smile and handed Shizuka her dry and clean uniform.

"Here you go!"

"Thank you, Yuzu-chan. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to get changed." Clinging to her clean uniform Shizuka headed to the bathroom and changed from Ichigo's comfortable clothes into her school uniform but missed the scent of Ichigo on them so she pressed the pullover she was wearing until now to her face, inhaling Ichigo's nice scent before she walked outside with the clothes in her arms, crossing paths with Isshin who left his room.

"Good morning." They said at the same time and Shizuka chuckled as Isshin studied her from head to toe.

"Did something special happen between you two?" He had a meaningful smile on his lips which caused her to blush but she shook her head.

"N-no." She answered. "Wouldn't that be moving too fast?"

"Well, youngsters are different nowadays." He answered which caused Shizuka to snort.

"You're not much older than me, Isshin-san." For some reasons it felt weird to think of her friend as her boyfriend's father – especially Isshin.

"I'm surprised you two got together, though. I guess you charmed him – just like I was charmed by Masaki."

"I'd rather say spending so much time together can make people develop feelings for each other." Shizuka answered and wondered if she should dare to ask Isshin what has truly happened to Masaki back then. After all she never got to know the reason why Masaki died and doesn't wanted to ask Ichigo about his mother's death as he seemed to be really traumatized by it.

"By the way, what has happened to Masaki back then? She was pretty powerful so to think a Hollow would have defeated her..." She asked slowly, carefully but Isshin seemed to be willing to tell her about it.

"It was Yhwach and his Auswählen." Isshin replied and told her that he took the lives of the Quincy he deemed impure, those of mixed blood, and so Masaki's powers disappeared and she fell in battle. Hearing the name Yhwach stirred something within Shizuka, almost like a long forgotten memory, someone talking about him but she couldn't remember who it was which made her furious but she tried to hide it.

"Yhwach... sounds familiar."

"Yes but he's no threat right now so don't worry, Shizuka-chan." Isshin patted her head which caused her to sulk. "You should better go and wake up your boyfriend if you don't want him to sleep in."

He then turned around and left down the stairs, leaving behind a dumbfounded and confused Shizuka who still tried to figure out who it was who talked about Yhwach in her memories. However, she shook her head to ignore it and instead headed over to Ichigo's room and noticed him sitting up at the moment, looking around as if he was searching for her.

"Good morning." She smiled at him as he noticed her and he blushed, greeting her back. He looked a bit distressed though and Shizuka wondered if it might be because she hadn't been next to him and she smiled teasingly.

"Did you thought I went off somewhere? Or maybe that you dreamed the things which happened yesterday?" Seeing him blush made Shizuka giggle as she realized that she did hit the nail on the head but Ichigo's expression turned into sight anger when he leaned forwards and grabbed her wrist, pulling her onto the bed.

"Says the one who had called my name so affectionately in her sleep." He says and Shizuka blushed, turning her head away in embarrassment but Ichigo put his hand under her chin, turning her head to him so that they kissed.

"Mh!" Being surprised by the kiss Shizuka slipped a moan but she let him kiss her though her face was still glowing hot when he did so. Finally Ichigo pulled away and smiled at her, stroking over her head.

"Y-you should get changed." She said, blushing even more and shoved his clothes in his arms before she left the room and leaned then against the closed door, her hand over her lips as she tried to calm down her racing heart.

I'm going to get a heart attack if this keeps up... She thought and waited for Ichigo to come out of his room so that they could breakfast together.

"Aren't Mizuiro and Keigo usually waiting for you?" Shizuka asked but Ichigo only shrugged as they left the Kurosakis house, heading towards the bus stop.

"Yeah but we left earlier than they arrive so that's why they're not here." Ichigo replied, walking next to her. Shizuka stole a glance over to his hand when they kept walking. She wanted to hold hands with him but was too shy to ask him. The back of their hands touched from time to time and when she looked up to Ichigo she noticed his ears turning red. She was about to ask him what's wrong when he suddenly gripped her hand tightly which startled Shizuka so she stopped walking.

"You don't like it?"

"N-no, I do. I was just surprised." She answered with a smile and squeezed his hand which made Ichigo blush only more but nonetheless he squeezed her hand back and their fingers intertwined. Shizuka could feel the people walking on the streets around them staring at them and realized that Ichigo might be embarrassed because they see him everyday and never saw him with a girl before.

"Are you embarrassed?" She asked and Ichigo jumped in surprise which caused her to laugh.

"Stop teasing me, Shizuka."

"Sorry, but I'm probably going to be teased to death by dad and his employees so let me have some fun." She answered and squeezed his hand again as they finally reached the bus stop where Keigo and Mizuiro standing there, both having big eyes as they saw them holding hands. Keigo's jaw even dropped in surprise which almost made Shizuka let go of Ichigo's hand in embarrassment but he refused to do so.

"D-did I miss something...?" Keigo muttered but Mizuiro only greeted them with a smile before he turned to Keigo.

"There's no need to be that surprised about it, Asano-san. We all have expected them to end up together."

"B-but...!"

They then continued to argue about the fact that Ichigo managed it to get such a hot girlfriend which made Shizuka grow flustered as she doesn't felt that hot – she saw herself as a normal and plain girl. However, they were interrupted as the bus finally arrived and they went into it.

During lunch break Ichigo tapped Shizuka on her shoulder when she was about to stand up and she looked around in surprise.

"Wanna eat lunch together?"

"Sure." Shizuka beamed. "I thought you'd never ask."

"Are you still upset about the last few days?" Ichigo sighed as they left the classroom and headed up to the roof, holding her hand though he seemed really embarrassed about this but refused to let go when she proposed to do so.

"Hm... maybe?" She chuckled when Ichigo furrowed his brows and had a grim expression on his face so she squeezed his hand. "That was a joke! I just thought you might want to eat alone with the guys."

"Not necessarily." Ichigo said, opening the door to the rooftop and letting Shizuka go through it first before he followed. The two of them searched for a quiet place to spend their lunch break together. Yuzu has gave Shizuka a bento, telling her to share it with Ichigo though Shizuka felt embarrassed at the thought of sharing her food.

"Let's share the bento." She still suggested it and Ichigo nodded, reaching for the chopsticks and they ate the food Yuzu prepared together but she noticed that Ichigo doesn't really responded to her, his only answers were "Mhm-hm" or "Yeah."

Furrowing her brows she poked him in the sides, causing him to yelp in surprise as his eyes grew bigger. He held his side and looked dumbfounded at her but Shizuka looked grimly at him, pouting.

"You weren't listening to me."

"I-I was."

"Then tell me what I was talking about."

Ichigo fell silent and Shizuka could see that he was trying to remember but as he needed too long Shizuka hit his upper arm which caused her boyfriend to jump and hold his upper arm, rubbing the red spot.

"Too late. You weren't listening!"

"Y-yeah but I was thinking about something." Ichigo said and Shizuka raised her left brow, wondering what he wanted to do when his face suddenly flushed bright red and he grabbed her hand. "Do you want to go somewhere together after school? Y'know, a-a date..."

Staring perplexed at Ichigo she tried not to laugh at his shy yet weird expression so she pressed her fist against her hand but he seemed to understand that she was doing her best to not laugh, looking upset.

"Don't look so angry, I'd like to go on a... date..." She noticed that she had a slight problem to pronounce the word, the thought of going on a date with him somehow flustered her.

Even so Ichigo looked really happy so she ignored the shy feeling within her and leaned against him, not able to wait until the school day finishes so that she could go on her first real date with her boyfriend. The bell which announced that lunch break was over rung through the whole school and the couple returned to their classroom, still holding hands.

The next few hours flew by quicker than Shizuka has imagined but somehow she couldn't concentrate herself on the things the teacher was saying and instead drew some random doodles on her notebook, mostly something which resembled Ichigo. She has actually done that before, when she still wasn't sure what she was feeling for Ichigo but it mostly were hearts.

"Urahara!" Her teacher called her name as she zoned out and she winced, looking up.

"Y-yes?"

"I asked you if you know how Soseki Natsume translated the English phrase I love you into Japanese!"

"The moon is beautiful, isn't it." Shizuka replied, remembering that a customer who has come to the Urahara Shop has complained that this really important sentence was translated into such a nonsense so she shot out the answer and got a praise from the teacher.

Finally the school was over after a few minutes and Shizuka put her things away in her bag, standing up as Ichigo took her hand in his and they said goodbye to their friends who shot them meaningful gazes but Shizuka decided to ignore them and instead wondered where he wanted to bring her as he seemed to have a place in mind.

"Where are we going?" She asked, looking up to him but Ichigo only smiled as he doesn't answered and only brought her to the riverbank where Shizuka found him on his mother's death anniversary.

"Here?"

"No, but I thought we might stop by." He said and sat down, patting the ground next to him so Shizuka sat next to him.

"I noticed you often sit here." She mentioned and noticed pain in Ichigo's eyes, sighing.

"This is the spot where my mother died." He answered and seeing his expression made Shizuka's heart quiver in pain so she put her arms around her, hugging him. Ichigo's body tensed for a moment but then also put his arms around and pulled her tighter into his arms which caused both of them fall onto the ground. Shizuka fell on top of him and her face grew hot when she tried to scramble away but Ichigo's hold was too strong.

"H-hey, people can see us!"

"I don't care." He replied and smiled at her but she only blushed as he put his hand on her cheek and kissed her. It was almost as if he tried to change this painful place into a nicer one so she let him do whatever he wanted. She could feel his thumb caressing her cheek but Shizuka felt people watching them and pulled away, her face possessing the color of a tomato.

"It's enough affection in the publicity."

"So you wouldn't mind it if we would be in private?"

"Yes... no... Don't ask me such embarrassing things!" She stood up and looked at him. "Now come, I want to see where you want to take me."

Ichigo smiled, apparently amused at her shyness and also stood up, taking her hand again as he lead her into the shopping district where they did some window-shopping, went into a café where Shizuka forced herself to drink coffee although she wasn't used to it as she mostly drinks tea and then headed to Karakura Town's cinema to watch an American romance action drama. Shizuka had nothing against the foreign movies but the special effects were a bit too exaggerated but Ichigo seemed to like it so she watched it. She felt a hand wrap around hers in the middle of the movie and winced, looking around but realized that it was Ichigo who shot her a shy smile before looking back at the huge screen. The two of them were sitting in the back of the cinema hall so no one could see them therefore Shizuka snuggled against Ichigo even though she still felt weird doing so but was content that she was finally able to do that. Her head leaning on his shoulder she noticed him raising her hand which he was still holding and kissed the back of her hand before he turned his head around so that he could kiss her. Blushing Shizuka kissed him back and their kiss eventually grew more passionately until Ichigo broke away, staring right into her eyes.

"Let's stop here." He muttered, ears red and she nodded as both of them stared back at the humongous screen.

"So you finally decided to come home after two days, huh?" Kisuke grinned behind his fan when Shizuka entered the living room after saying goodbye to Ichigo.

"I thought you have got tired of me and left."

"I could never!" She answered, frowning but walked over to her adoptive father, sitting down next to him. Tessai appeared and put the teacup in front of them on the table.

"But since you look so happy I guess it was good for you to not be at home for a bit but don't leave so suddenly."

Shizuka was puzzled at the sudden seriousness in Kisuke's tone but decided not to question it with the knowledge that he wouldn't answer either way and instead took her tea, quietly drinking it while thinking about the date with her boyfriend. It was nice to have spent such precious time with him and somehow she felt like she was going out with him longer than one day. Remembering the sweet kiss they have shared just a moment ago she blushed but tried to fight against it so that Kisuke won't get a weird idea but he still seemed to understand as Kisuke got a meaningful smile on his lips as he lead the teacup to his lips.

"You can tell me how it happened." He said which made Shizuka's face brightly in embarrassment when Jinta suddenly peeked his head in from the shop.

"They were kissing~"

"Jinta!" She shouted and grabbed the tray Tessai was holding and threw it at Jinta's face who fell backwards.

"Ouch!"

The boy sat up and rubbed his red nose while Shizuka tried to calm down but eventually nothing happened and she stood up, took her tea and went to her room as her face slowly cooled off. Sitting by her own table she placed her forehead against the table plate, sighing.

"Are you all right?" She heard Kisuke walking in and raised her head, nodding slightly.

"Yeah... just a bit embarrassed."

"But you do seem happier so it's a good thing and I'm happy for you." Kisuke sat down next to her, hiding his mouth behind his fan. "So tell me how it happened."

Shizuka thought for a moment if she really should tell him but Kisuke seemed to be extremely curious and she needed someone to talk to about this. Her friends were too busy trying to tease her so that she couldn't talk about it, the only one who was normal was Orihime but Shizuka knew that she liked Ichigo so she kept quiet about this to not hurt her friend. Taking a deep breath she then told him what happened yesterday and why it actually happened which made Kisuke rub his chin.

"I see, so that's why you were so depressed. But you two are together now so I guess there's no need to complain."

"I know... but it feels weird to be with the son of my former best friend I knew since he was a baby."

"This is the fate of the Shinigami." Kisuke shrugged. "You're my little girl yet you almost look my age."

"Right..." This made Shizuka realize that she's going to be young forever while Ichigo will grow old and eventually die since he's a human while she is going to live for a long, long time.

"Don't think too much about this. Just concentrate on the present." Kisuke patted her head and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. "But congratulations on your first lover."

"It's boyfriend. It doesn't feels right calling him lover."

"Hm... it seems that you were modernized by going to school."

"What am I, a machine?"

However, Shizuka chuckled and leaned against her adoptive father which made her remember how he used to hug her when she was little and had a nightmare because of the Hollows.

"But you have to bring him here. I want to get to know Kurosaki-san." Kisuke had a protective tone in his voice while she looked up to him, furrowing her brows.

"You don't plan to do anything, do you?"

"Who knows." Having a mysterious smile plastered on his face he hid it behind his fan though Shizuka was pretty sure he meant it serious so she bickered with him about it for a bit and eventually Kisuke left to do some work in his laboratory. Wanting to relax Shizuka laid out her futon and threw herself on top of it, taking out her cell phone.

"Yuzu and Dad don't stop pestering me when you'll come over again and I want to see you again. Want to meet tomorrow?"

She chuckled as she read it and wrote him back that Kisuke wanted to meet him and that she also was longing to see him before sending it. She was surprised that she felt empty even though she has saw him today already and soon got a message back.

"I'm coming around right now."

"Wha-what?!" Shizuka sat up in surprise and was about to write him back but he wrote he that he was already on his way so she decided to walk over to tell Kisuke Ichigo would come over for a bit and he raised his brows.

"Oh, already missing each other?"

"No teasing!"

She then left the old-fashioned house and stood in front of it, bobbing up and down as she waited for Ichigo but wondered after a while if he knew where he should exactly turn to reach the Urahara Shop and decided to come his way. She stepped out on the main street and recognized the orange hair coming closer so she approached him.

"You came out all the way?"

"You had a longer way than I did." She answered and threw herself in his arms. "Though it's surprising you got here so fast."

"I was in the area." Ichigo wrapped his arms around her, too and smiled at her. "So, what about coming over tomorrow?"

"Sure." She nodded and Ichigo put his hand on the back of her head, pulling her closer as he pressed his lips to hers and kissed Shizuka tenderly who wrapped her arms tighter around him, closing her eyes. Trying to follow Kisuke's advice she decided to not think that Ichigo would grow older and eventually die and instead live the moment with Ichigo, enjoying every second they spent together.

"I really love you." She said as they parted, blushing and Ichigo responded with a shy smile, also blushing.

"Me, too."

They closed in and eventually their lips touched, the shadows casted by the streetlights merged into one.