Chapter 9
-Yay! I got some reviews! Made my day! I'm a review whore! EXTRA-SUPER-SPECIAL thanks to Gemini24 for his/her helpful and faithful feedback, and to all the other bros that reviewed as well! Makes me sooo happy!
Kleptomaniacs are people that are addicted to stealing/scamming things off people.
Uryu's eyes shot open, he felt something in his throat so he ran to the bathroom as fast as he could, (forgetting hand-sanitizer,) and retched in the toilet violently, feeling disoriented afterwards. He heard stirring in Karin and Yuzu's bedroom, he wiped off his lips and flushed, the toilet always seemed so much louder because it was so early, Ishida hoped he didn't wake anyone up. Walking back to the bedroom after washing his hands and face, Uryu saw Ichigo staring off into space in his bedroom, a blank, lifeless stare.
"Good morning Ichigo." Uryu sat down on the bed.
"Morning." Ichigo said vacantly.
"How do you feel?" He sat on top of Ichigo, and leaned so he was looking his boyfriend in the eye.
"I'm fine, although I don't think you can say the same for yourself." Ichigo saw a small smile on Uryu's lips.
"Was I really that loud?" Uryu looked a little worried.
"Normally I would be mad at you for making that kind of noise in the morning, but I'm not gonna get mad at you for throwing up." Ichigo leaned up and pecked Uryu's cheek, he smelt good.
"Thanks, I really hope I didn't rouse anyone from their sleep…" He didn't hear any more movement in the bedroom beside theirs, so he presumed that the two girls were still asleep. Uryu lied beside Ichigo, a small frown on his face; he wasn't feeling too hot right at the moment. Ichigo turned and looked at the boy beside him, noticing the scowl on Uryu's face. His head was resting on his hands on the mattress and he was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.
Ichigo felt weird, like he was dizzy, his vision was a little fuzzy, and his stomach hurt, he was getting tired of being sick; he wanted to run outside and be with his friends instead of being bedridden and miserable. At least he still had his Uryu, who was being rather lethargic, lying on the bed, and staring at nothing, playing with his hair.
"Uryu?" Ichigo said quietly. The boy turned to acknowledge his boyfriend speaking. "Are you sad or something?"
Uryu shook his head slightly.
"Why do you look so sad then?" He gazed into Uryu's dark eyes.
"I guess I am sad…" He looked back into Ichigo's brown orbs; both of their eyes dimmed by poor health, Uryu's normally intense irises looked nearly black. It gave him a blank look. "Maybe it's because I'm sick."
"Yeah, this is kinda getting me down as well. How about, as soon as we're better again, we go out for dinner and hang out with friends?" Ichigo leaned in towards Uryu, who was looking at him dreamily. Their lips met for what seemed like a short amount of time, before Uryu sneezed into his shoulder, destroying the moment.
"That sounds good." He said after blowing his nose. He felt some crust forming under his eye so he wiped it off with a different paper napkin, scowling at the cursed 'eye-crusties', they were pretty nasty. He looked over to Ichigo, who was picking at his own eye as well. It was dark in the room, the sepia lamp letting off just enough light for them to tell what the other was doing, it hurt their eyes whenever the door opened, letting the light of day shine through. "I'm sick of being sick." He grimaced deeper.
"Me too." Ichigo frowned as well, he wiped his eyes and took a Tylenol, and the dreary aching in his body wasn't bothering him further. He squeezed his eyes shut at the bitter taste of the pill, he was quite accustomed to taking pills from swallowing the mod-soul, but it didn't taste as gross as the pill he just took. "Are you hungry?" Ichigo asked, eyeing the half-full bag of chips that he left on the side of his bed.
"No, not really." Uryu's stomach vocalizing contradicted what he just said.
"Are you sure?" Ichigo pulled out a chip and pushed it in Uryu's wide yawning mouth. The boy clamped down on it, slightly annoyed by Ichigo's forwardness. "See? You feel better already."
Uryu bit back the chip, along with the snappy retort he thought of. "I guess…" He stared at his feet for a while, before reluctantly leaning in for another chip and kissing Ichigo's lips before they could say anything about him being hungry, but found him making the kiss last a lot longer than he himself wanted it to. Ichigo could taste the salt from the chips on Uryu's tongue and smirked.
After a few more seconds, Uryu pulled back, breaking their lengthy kiss, he was out of breath. However, he leaned his panting mouth back into Ichigo's and tackled him back onto the bed, inwardly giggling when he felt Ichigo flip him so he was on the bottom again. He pinned Uryu's wrists to the bed and kissed his neck before returning his attention to his boyfriend's soft pink lips. It was the strawberry who broke their kiss first this time; he wanted it to last a great deal longer, but he heard someone walking towards their room. The door swung open, revealing Yuzu standing in her pajamas, her eyes were barely open to see her brother on top of Uryu, their faces less than an inch apart.
Yuzu looked at her feet and spoke quickly; she didn't mean to intrude on anything. "Nii-san I made some breakfast but I really didn't expect you two to be awake so I didn't knock sorry. I'll bring up breakfast." She backed out swiftly, shutting the door behind her, her cheeks were deep pink and she couldn't seem to get that image out of her head. Wide eyed in pure shock, she put a few pancakes on two plates, along with a bottle of syrup and a bowl of fruit.
"Poor girl…" Uryu deadpanned, sitting back up when Ichigo got off him.
Ichigo sat there with the same blank face as Uryu. "I think Karin gave her a yaoi. If that's the case, she's seen it all." He said flatly.
Uryu started chewing on his fingernails awkwardly, having a hard time picturing Yuzu with porn in her small hands. He smiled at the thought though, in this time and day, you don't know what people do in their spare time, and he figured he could read Yuzu like a book. Apparently not.
It didn't seem like Uryu to bite his nails off; however, the black-haired boy had a truly exhausting list of bad habits that Ichigo didn't know about. He only recently quit smoking, he used to do a variety of drugs that people told him would help him lose more weight, he used to gamble on things often, he sometimes even made bets with himself subconsciously, argued often, was good at manipulating people, a bad pessimist, and a former kleptomaniac. He tended to fidget, and stuttered when accused of something, but Ichigo knew that. This is only a portion of the list named Dumb Shit That Uryu Does/Did.
"It feels like this will never go away…" Uryu flopped back onto the bed lazily, his hair fluttering down beside him. He hid under the warm blanket, but his relaxation didn't last long as Yuzu walked in, (sure to knock this time,) along with her elaborate breakfast.
"Aw thanks Yuzu!" Ichigo smiled at the delicious looking breakfast his gloved and masked sister made. She sneezed. "I sure hope you aren't sick…" Ichigo said guiltily.
"I'm not, there was just a tickle in my nose," she reassured, but Ichigo was still a little worried, even though he was there to comfort her when she was being vaccinated. "Eat up. Sister's orders."
"Thanks." Uryu said, smiling. She smiled back, taking the old plates from their sandwiches as she walked out the room.
Ichigo dug into the breakfast quickly, while his boyfriend took his time to enjoy the food, quietly biting into it and watching Ichigo hork it all down as if something was compelling him to scoff his food like there was no tomorrow. Of course, Ichigo finished before Uryu and put his dish down on the nightstand, his belly full. He took an extra blueberry or two out of the fruit bowl and enjoyed the small spheres, observing Uryu. He looked as if he had an eating disorder, (sometimes Ichigo felt like asking him if he did,) he had this ritual of taking a tiny piece of whatever he was eating and putting it in his mouth, and chewing for a long time as if he was eating the entire dish at once. Now Ichigo wasn't about to say he ate like a normal person, (he just elaborately displayed that he didn't,) but Ishida was beginning to worry him. He felt Uryu's cold eyes on him.
"Why are you watching me eating?" He asked monotonically.
"D-d… I don't know." He stuttered out moronically, Uryu's eyes seemed oddly sharp right now; they were cutting into him. He was scary…
"Please, stop. I can't eat with you staring at me." He replied dismissively.
"O-okay." Ichigo twiddled his thumbs, staring off into space, realizing how bored he was. His facebook bleeped and blooped, but he didn't care. Ichigo didn't want to deal with people now. The wall seemed a lot more agreeable than whatever Renji had to say.
When he heard Uryu's plates clinking on the other dishes on the nightstand, he returned his gaze to him.
"Can we read some more of your books?" Uryu asked timidly. Ichigo nodded and sat against the wall, pulling out Hamlet instead of his assigned reading. "Can I sit in your lap?"
"No, Uryu." Ichigo replied, opening the book to where he left off.
"Hm… can I have my head in your lap?" He suggested.
"Yes." Ichigo felt Uryu's head resting in his knees.
'Did you think I was being dirty?' Uryu mentally questioned.
They read for about an hour before Ichigo heard Uryu's snoring.
The last few sentences Ichigo read:
Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia: No, my lord.
Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lap?
Ophelia: Ay, my lord.
Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters?
Ichigo smiled at this 'classy' humour; the book made a dull clicking noise when he snapped it shut, hoping the sudden noise would awaken Uryu. It didn't. He sighed and let Uryu nap, smiling when he heard Uryu saying something in his sleep, he didn't bother to listen in because he saw Uryu's hand go down his pants. Ichigo presumed that whatever he was dreaming about had to be interesting, but for Uryu's sake, he put a blanket over where his hand was just in case one of his little sisters walked in and saw the boy 'rewarding' himself. Then again, Ichigo wasn't excessively anxious of Yuzu not knocking anymore.
He heard Uryu's breathing hitch, he looked down to see Uryu with a deep blush on his face, and presumed that the boy had finished himself off. He peeked under the blanket just to be sure, and sure enough, Uryu's underwear was a mess. He would wait until his boyfriend was awake to relieve him of his dirty garments. Responsibly, Ichigo re-opened his assigned reading and thumbed through a few chapters of that as well, until his Uryu stirred once again. He looked up to Ichigo with a blush on his face.
"Do you need some new clothes?" Ichigo spoke first, to break the awkwardness. Uryu nodded quietly; Ichigo stood up and lent him some new underwear and fresh pajamas for them both. They changed silently, not looking at each other.
Lying back down on the bed, Ichigo felt comfy in his fluffy pajama shirt and pants. He normally reserved such warm clothing for winter, when the weather was bitter and sleety, but they were both feeling chills despite their high fevers. It was another shitty part of being under the weather; their bodies seemed to have bipolar disorder.
"Thanks…" Uryu cuddled in close to Ichigo, feeling warmth glowing off the larger boy.
"No problem." Ichigo felt his eyes drooping, his boyfriend made him sleepy somehow, perhaps it was because he was catching Uryu's yawns, or it was just that he was tired and he was going to sleep because Uryu was. He gave a long, deep yawn before shutting his eyes and squeezing Uryu tightly in his arms, they didn't wake up until around six PM.
XOXO
Uryu heard some noises coming from the computer. He looked to where Ichigo used to be, there was a pillow in his former spot. He looked over to the source of the noise that awakened him. Ichigo was glued to the computer, reading something.
"Hey Ichigo, what'cha doin'?" Uryu stood up.
"I'm looking up a word I found in here." He tossed Hamlet to Uryu.
"Oh." He flipped through the book, there were no illustrations, and the text was small and in poetry form, the beautiful writings and wit of Shakespeare gracing the reprint on cheap pulp paper. "I didn't expect you to be as tasteful as you are…"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ichigo turned to face Uryu.
"Well at first you kinda came off as a jerk to me… You also dress kinda weird…" He said quietly.
Ichigo thought back to the first day that Uryu arrived, it seemed like a long time ago, but in reality, he had been here in Ichigo's home for only just over a week now. "Yeah I guess… Sorry."
'I guess?' Uryu smiled mentally, as in is his head; he wasn't smiling like a 'mental person'.
"Well I don't care anymore; you're so good to me now so it doesn't matter." Uryu went to sit in Ichigo's lap, watching him as he typed and read.
"I'm good to you?" He asked, not looking at Uryu.
"Of course. You made me a sandwich, you let me sleep on your bed, and you love me-…" Uryu was about to go on but he was distracted by a sour look on Ichigo's face. "What's wrong?"
Ichigo sped to the bathroom, practically throwing Uryu off his lap. He slammed the door shut behind him and retched into the toilet, feeling a little disoriented afterwards, barely hearing Uryu's soft voice asking if he was okay. He flushed, so the other boy just let himself in.
"Ichigo?" Uryu kneeled down to where Ichigo was sitting, wiping stuff off his lips.
"Yeah?" He looked Uryu in the eye with a truly depressed glint in his eye. Uryu didn't say anything in reply so he stood up and helped his boyfriend to stand as well; Ichigo felt very dizzy and leaned on Uryu slightly. He grabbed his toothbrush and tried to get the taste of throw-up out of his mouth, which wasn't an easy feat, but he eventually achieved it with Uryu hugging him from behind. With the nasty taste and smell out of his mouth, they both returned to their bedroom after washing their hands.
"Can we read some more?" Uryu held up the gay looking book. It literally looked like a homosexual man threw up on it. Lime green with purple lettering, the author's name was obviously a flashy made-up pen name and she tried to make a dystopian novel, but it was light-hearted and weak in words. The way the cover looked made Ichigo wonder why he chose it in the first place, surely the other books he could've picked looked more interesting, maybe it was because all the others pounced on the better books and left him to choose between Twilight and the crappy book that he forgot the name of that Uryu was holding.
"Sure…" Ichigo wondered why not? Uryu seemed to like being read to, even if it was a sad excuse for a book like the one that he chose for some reason. Right now, Twilight strangely seemed like a better choice. He tried to find the place where he left off, and read a few chapters to Uryu, who fell asleep quickly. He was totally lost because he fell asleep a few minutes after Ichigo began reading, and he finished at least five chapters when Uryu was napping, but the boy didn't care, he was just trying to get Ichigo to finish his summer reading. Ichigo would thank him later.
The next few days dragged on and on, those days turned into a week, they lied in the bedroom and read a few books until Ichigo woke up one morning feeling great. His eyes weren't crusty, and he was breathing easily with a shit-eating grin on his face. He was free. However, he couldn't say the same for his Uryu, who was lying in bed asleep, coughing and sneezing here and there. Ichigo let him sleep, and got changed into his day clothes, out of the fuzzy pajamas that he loved so…
He walked downstairs into the morning light that shone through the window, to see Yuzu glaring at him.
"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked; his sister had a pout on her face.
"Go back up to Uryu." She pointed to the stairs.
"Why? I was just gonna grab something to eat…" Ichigo pointed to the fridge.
"I'll make something to eat, you spend time with him." She was still pointing to the stairs.
"But what if I get sick again?"
"You can't get measles twice. Daddy even said so." She crossed her arms.
"But I don't wanna…" Ichigo whined like a kid to his mommy.
"Too bad. He needs you." Yuzu gave him, the look.
Ichigo slunk back to his room like a dog that been struck. Yuzu smirked victoriously, she knew what Uryu needed and that was Ichigo, he couldn't just leave Uryu there alone to rot in the bedroom until he was healthy again.
He carefully opened the door to see Uryu coughing on the bed, his eyes were still watery and brittle, and he was developing more rashes on his sleeping body. He put his hand on Uryu's forehead and it was still burning and clammy. "Are you hungry for anything?" Ichigo asked quietly when Uryu's dull eyes opened slowly. He offered him some water and pills.
"Yeah… Sort of." Uryu's quiet and scratchy voice mewled. Ichigo felt guilty for trying to go back downstairs.
"Well I think Yuzu was gonna make some waffles if you want some." Ichigo traced his thumb along Uryu's chapped lips.
"Okay." He perked up a little at the thought of waffles. The ginger smiled and returned downstairs, Yuzu had two plates of blueberry waffles with syrup ready for him.
"Go eat with Uryu." She said, adding a please when Ichigo took the plates. She occasionally relished the amount of control she had over Ichigo, she could tell dad, or Karin, or she could blackmail him with Uryu, who was her main tool now. She could guilt trip Ichigo into anything when it came to Ishida. It was funny in a cruel way.
He opened the door to see that Uryu had whacked his nose on his knee when he sneezed, and smiled slightly when his boyfriend put his hands on his snout cutely.
"That's not funny." Uryu was smiling though, pinching his nose until he reached a Kleenex, cleaning up his second nosebleed that week.
"That was funny. You just have no sense of humour." Ichigo set a plate in between Uryu's crossed legs, and sat down with his own.
"So you're not sick anymore?" Uryu asked after swallowing a tiny mouthful of waffle.
"Nope."
"It's a good thing you can't get measles twice. I think if I wouldn't have you here with me then I'd never get better." Uryu smiled faintly, cutting another small piece of waffle off with his fork and knife, and then chewing slowly.
Ichigo felt guilty yet again. He felt that ditching Uryu for a second was a good idea; thankfully, Yuzu stopped him before he ran off. Sometimes that girl was so scary… Ichigo stared at Uryu, who was still chewing on the tiny bite. Mildly irritated, he snatched Uryu's fork out of his hand, took his plate, picked the smaller boy up and set him in his lap, and then cut a larger piece of waffle and pushed it past the boy's lips.
"Now chew." Ichigo demanded. Uryu, who was now a little shocked, chewed the chunk of waffle a little faster than usual; he was scared that Ichigo was mad at him for something. He swallowed, and felt Ichigo cutting another piece of waffle. He had his mouth open for Ichigo this time; he didn't want to get more syrup on his lips than he already did. This went on until his waffles were all gone, he wasn't used to eating at that pace so it came as a little shock when he looked down to his plate to see that he had already finished, in less than twenty minutes. "What makes you eat slowly anyways?" Ichigo asked as he put the plates on the nightstand.
"I dunno…" He said quietly, eating a blueberry that fell to his lap. They sat there for a long time, until Uryu saw his boyfriend sitting there with a sad look on his face. "Ichigo?"
The ginger blinked, he zoned out for a while. He looked at Uryu. "What's up?"
"Nothing… you just looked a little sad." Uryu scootched towards Ichigo on his butt, he was happy that he had someone to talk to again.
"Oh, I was just thinking." Ichigo excused.
"What were you thinking about? Was it by chance… Me?" Uryu said sarcastically.
"Actually, yes." Ichigo replied, yawning.
"Oh. Cool. Am I interesting to think about?" He leaned into Ichigo.
"Nope."
"Oh." Uryu smiled. Ichigo started nibbling on his cuticle again nervously. "What's wrong?"
"I feel kinda bad even though I'm not sick anymore." He replied blankly.
"Why would you feel bad?" Ishida questioned.
"It's like a gnawing feeling at my stomach." His voice seemed airy.
"Did you do something that you regret?"
"Yeah kinda." Ichigo yawned again. He regretted almost leaving Uryu inside to talk with no one.
Uryu coughed before speaking. "Well maybe doing something good will make you feel better-"
Ichigo hugged Uryu tightly, spontaneously. The boy, who was a bit startled by Ichigo's sudden activeness, hugged back, albeit a lot gentler than Ichigo was. He felt Ichigo kissing his neck and smiled, wondering if Ichigo's sudden action was the good deed he advised, or if Ichigo was just being… 'Nice'. They stayed there for a while, Uryu sneezed once or twice, and making sure he had a Kleenex to sneeze into, there was still a slight chance that Ichigo would get sick again, and he wasn't going to abuse the fact that the chance was small.
After a long while, Ichigo heard his facebook go off.
"You should check to see who it is." Uryu advised.
Ichigo sat on the computer chair and invited Uryu to sit in his lap. Renji was messaging him.
'What's up?' Renji typed into the chat-box.
'The sky.'
'Never would've guessed.' Renji added, 'Shuhei got the measles.'
'Well that sucks; you should take care of him.'
'That doesn't sound like much fun…'
'Would you expect him to do the same for you?'
'Okay…' Renji added a sad face. 'But if I get sick he's my bitch until I get better. -.-'
'XD' Ichigo felt Uryu kiss his chin. 'I gotta go, Uryu is still sick… :'( '
'Okay. Tell him I say hi. Byeeeeeeee!'
Ichigo facepalmed at Renji's cheesy response. 'Bye!'
Uryu smiled when he felt Ichigo kiss his forehead, his cheeks were a little pink, he didn't know why. "Where's Isshin?"
"He's at work; he said that he'd be home at around eight." Ichigo stood up and carried Uryu to the bed, plopping him down and sitting beside him.
"Oh." The black haired boy said, staring at the ceiling and yawning. "Thanks for taking care of me Ichigo."
"It's not a problem." Ichigo lied back and let Uryu's head rest on his torso; he really hoped that Uryu would get better soon; it had almost been a week since he got sick, and it was July 2nd now. "How are you feeling?" He turned to face Uryu, whose eyes were drooping slightly.
"I'm feeling a lot better than I used to, but I'm still-…" Uryu sneezed, "I'm still feeling under the weather."
"I see. I hope you're better soon." Ichigo looked at the clock; it was still around ten. Uryu coughed into his shoulder and wiped his watery eyes, he hated looking like he wanted to cry when he was happy as he could be with Ichigo at his side. "So do you want me to read to you again? The crappy book is almost done."
"Sure." Uryu snuggled up close to Ichigo; he had a Kleenex ready in case he sneezed, and a bottle of water. Ichigo began reading to Ishida, who fell asleep almost instantly. He finished his summer reading; when Uryu heard Ichigo stop reading, he opened his eyes. "Thank you for reading to me…" He looked up to Ichigo, who appeared bored and tired. "Oh come on, that book wasn't entirely dreadful…" Uryu tried to say this with a straight face.
"Meh." Was all Ichigo had to say. He tucked Uryu and himself in the bed, opening up Hamlet; he was almost finished that book as well. He started reading to Uryu, who stayed awake the whole time, as he finished his book. He didn't read too fast or too slow, and Uryu was willing to listen to his words all day, they were practically squishing against each other as Ichigo had his arm around Uryu's waist, pulling him closer and closer, the boy was almost having a hard time breathing. When the book was finally finished, it was half past twelve. Yuzu went out with her friends, so Ichigo concluded that he had to make lunch even though he was horrible at cooking, and even worse at cleaning up after himself after cooking. "Hey, I'm gonna go to the store to pick up something to eat."
"O-okay." Uryu gazed up to him with wide eyes.
"You gonna be okay here on your own?" Ichigo looked back down to him.
"Y-yeah but don't take too long."
"Okay. Don't do anything stupid." He exited, leaving Uryu lonely in bed.
Even though Ishida would never admit it, he was really lonesome and bored when people weren't around, that was probably why he wandered around the streets with some other misguided teens that ran away from home. Some of them took up selling themselves like Uryu, others just got in with gangs and trouble, and he knew a few people that were in jail right now. He looked out the window to see Ichigo speed walking to the store in his hoodie, it was lightly drizzling outside, Uryu, who normally loved the rain, was getting a little sick of the grey skies and showers that weren't normally a characteristic of summers in Karakura town. They were normally entirely bright and blue-skied; sometimes there were even heat waves where people spent most of their time in the ocean waters and on boats. He huffed, being sick made it even worse; he knew that even if he got better today the weather would still be miserable.
He coughed, and drank some more water, it felt good on his parched mouth, and even though it wasn't particularly cold, it was quite refreshing. He heard the front door open and eagerly washed his hands and looked to see who was walking in, smiling when he saw Ichigo taking off his shoes and holding a bag of cup-noodles. Uryu loved instant noodles, but they were so fattening that his maximum consumption was at the very most one cup a week. He snuck back to the dark room when Ichigo was walking back up the stairs, and sat on the bed, sneezing and coughing again.
"Are you hungry?" Ichigo poked his head in.
"Yeah, a little bit." He smiled slightly.
"I bought some noodles…" Ichigo backed out of the room and went downstairs, making the lazy food in the microwave. He hated cooking. Hate being an understatement to the absolute loathing that Ichigo had towards cooking anything. He waited for the microwave to beep, took some forks to eat their noodles with, and ran back up the stairs to Uryu, who was looking at some of the books that Karin dropped off for him. They were all things that he had already read, aside from a few reference books, so he opened one of those and started to read. Ichigo handed him the cup of noodles.
"Thank you." Uryu and Ichigo ate in silence, they had nothing much to say. There was nothing new going on, and it seemed a little lonely in their bedroom because they weren't talking. Neither of them had the courage to just bring something up either.
When they were finished, Ichigo took the Styrofoam noodle-cups downstairs and threw them in the garbage, he felt a little down in heart because it felt like Uryu was ignoring him, and he felt guilty for not trying to talk to him. He sat on the couch, thinking about what he would do to try to make Uryu feel a little better, the poor boy had the measles, and it was bad enough for him already.
Walking back up the stairs quietly, Ichigo heard Uryu coughing and sneezing again, this time it sounded quiet, but that may have been because he was hearing it through a door, or, was it possible that Uryu was getting a little better? That would be great.
He walked into the room to see Uryu blowing his nose; he didn't look as pale as he used to and his nose didn't sound as stuffed up, maybe he really was getting better.
"You're looking better already." Ichigo said. "Maybe it was because you had some junk food in you."
Uryu smiled up at him, "Don't make me fat now."
"I won't." Ichigo kissed Uryu's cheek and sat down beside him, a small smile on his face. "So do you feel any better now?"
"Yeah, I feel pretty good, compared to last week…" Uryu stared at the wall, he felt a lot better than he used to, and some color was returning to his face. "I think I'll be better after some sleep…" They both looked at the digital alarm clock; it was about 2 PM, he wouldn't be able to fall asleep at that hour. He sneezed and coughed, it made his lungs hurt, so he grabbed a water bottle and chugged it all back.
"So…"
"So…"
They sat there, not sure what to do next, it was boring in their dark bedroom, Ichigo felt like opening up the large window but it would hurt Uryu's sore eyes, he'd probably complain anyways.
The rest of the day went by slowly, all Uryu seemed to want to do was nap and read, so when Uryu was fast asleep at around five, Ichigo watched the rainfall while he stood on the balcony, waiting for Ishida to get up again. However, Uryu was still asleep when Ichigo finally came back in at around 11; he was sprawled across the bed with his hand down his pants, it made Ichigo snicker to himself. He checked his facebook once more before going to bed, there was supposed to be another big party going on at Tatsuki's house the day after tomorrow, it made him hope that Uryu would be healthy enough to go by then.
The next morning, Uryu felt something poking into his thigh, looking over, he saw that Ichigo was pressing against him with his midsection. He blushed and moved away from Ichigo, but the ginger just pulled him closer and closer, liking the warmth that came off Uryu.
He then realized how great he felt. He was breathing easily and his eyes didn't hurt when he opened the curtain, but they took some time to adjust to the sudden light that flooded their bedroom because he was used to sitting in the dark. His eyes weren't crusty and watery, his body didn't hurt as much, and the rash on his neck was already shrinking down; he gave a small yawn and cuddled into Ichigo, who was starting to become aware of his surroundings, the brightness in the room and Uryu beside him. His eyes opened slowly, they didn't like all the brightness in the room when they just woke up, but it was refreshing to see Uryu's face in the light, instead of the dark sepia colours that their room was set in when the light hurt their eyes.
Ishida put on his glasses quietly, not realizing that Ichigo was awake, and watching him. He took off his pajama pants and replaced them with his tight jeans, and then he checked in Ichigo's drawers for a shirt to wear, pulling out a dark green one that was inside out, he fixed it and saw that the shirt read, "I'm a keeper." He slid it on, the shirt fit him a lot better than all of Ichigo's other shirts, perhaps it was tight on Ichigo so he didn't wear it anymore, that would explain why it was at the bottom of Ichigo's drawers. He looked over to Ichigo; he blushed when he realized that Ichigo was probably watching him the whole time.
"G' morning." He said, walking over to his boyfriend and looking for a new shirt as well. "I have a bunch of shirts that don't fit me anymore, you can have them."
"O-okay." Uryu noticed that the shirt he was wearing smelt a lot like Ichigo, he smiled, Ichigo smelt good, like cinnamon in a way. "Thanks."
"No problem. That looks better on you anyways."
Uryu blushed furiously, he didn't know how respond to Ichigo's compliment. The other boy tugged his shirt off, it was a little sweaty from him sleeping in it, he found a deep blue shirt and slid it on, and they both walked down the stairs to see Isshin was still home.
"Good morning." Uryu said, smiling faintly. He was happy that he wasn't sick anymore, in fact, he almost forgot what the kitchen looked like.
"Morning!" Isshin said, he didn't turn to face them.
Yuzu, Karin, and Isshin looked like they were packing for something. They had many water bottles, and snacks, along with two large blankets along with some bags full of clothing. There was also two tents, with some roasting sticks and other supplies that could only mean one thing: camping.
"Dad?" Ichigo knew what was going on. Isshin and Yuzu had organized another road trip without consulting Ichigo.
"We're going camping!" Isshin and Yuzu said in unison.
"Oh joy…"
"Better pack some clothing!" Yuzu shooed her brother and Uryu back up the stairs, where they too got some bags of clothes packed.
"Don't act so depressed Ichigo, it sounds like fun!" Uryu stuffed his bag full of clothes.
Ichigo gave him a straight face. "Not when you're with Isshin… He makes you go into the woods and crap and I always get ticks…"
"Hm… Well if you wanna be crusty all the time then okay. It's better than being sick." Uryu put his hands on his hips.
"Well I guess, but remember, we were gonna go on our date today?" Ichigo reminded him.
"We can call this a date." Uryu smiled. "We can spend some time together, you know, you and me." He walked towards Ichigo and hugged him. "Where are we going to camp anyways?"
"I don't know for sure… Yuzu's getting all excited so I'm going to assume that it's a lake. She loves swimming." Ichigo packed some swimming trunks as well. He tossed Uryu a pair that was far too small for him himself.
"I like swimming too…" Uryu's small shopping bag was almost bursting; he managed to fit most of his clothes in there though, plus some of the shirts that Ichigo gave him. Ichigo led him back down the stairs where they loaded their stuff into the back of the car, along with a small blanket that they'd use for the ride. Uryu turned around to see Karin carrying a load of water that would normally be far too large for a girl her age, but she seemed to be carrying it with exceptional ease; Yuzu followed her with the roasting sticks and some food that they'd be able to cook over the fire.
Ichigo walked back inside to see Isshin smiling brightly, holding some fishing rods, confirming that they were going to a lake. Ichigo made his best effort to look at least vaguely excited, carrying the heaviest things to the car with a deceivingly strong Uryu to help.
All their things were packed now, so Ichigo stretched and yawned, it was still only quarter-to nine. "So when are we gonna hit the road?" Ichigo asked Isshin, whom was still smiling with his fishing hat on his head.
"Eh… at around ten. We'll be driving for about twelve hours though, and we need to stop for a night, so we could get going now." Isshin smiled sheepishly, he knew Ichigo hated car rides with a passion, and this was probably the longest one that he had been on in a long while.
"Okay…" Ichigo put his shoes on, "We should get going now then, we don't need to waste any time." He walked out the door with Uryu at his side, he told his little sisters to hop in the car. Isshin followed with a relieved look on his face, he predicted a much worse reaction from his son.
Isshin started the car, and they made their way down the long road.
