Strawberry Angel 10

4 hours, lots of romping, several girly shrieks, much unwanted attention, and one escape from the police later, Ratchet was hiding under the couch, Max was totally out of breath from yelling so much, and Iggy was snickering in a corner.

Things were going well, until, in classic Ichigo style, shit hit the fan.

"Aroooooo!" A long, echoing howl reverberated through the room, causing Iggy to freeze up.

"What the hell was that?" he snapped, startled.

"What was what?" asked Max, raising a brow.

"That…. Howling!" he retorted, shuddering. "It's freaking creepy."

"What are you talking about?" asked Maya, looking annoyed. "I don't hear anything."

"I'm more concerned that Iggy could," murmured Ichigo, expression contemplative. "It seems it's happening again. Interesting."

"What the hell is going on?" demanded Max, hands on her hips as she glared him down.

Ichigo blinked slowly at her. "Technically, humans shouldn't be able to notice such things."

"Hu..mans?" Nudge squeaked, startle. "But, aren't you, like, human too? So how would you know about, um, things like this? I mean-"

Ichigo snorted a tad bitterly. "Not really. Not anymore. And maybe not so much before, either." A humorless, self-depreciating laugh followed the statement.

Iggy moved over to crouch next to him at his spot sitting on the floor. "What do you mean by that?" he asked softly.

Ichigo's lips twisted into a grimace. "What you heard is a Hollow."

Angel's shocked, frightened gasp caused heads to snap towards her, but Ichigo was unsurprised. "Scary, aren't they?"

Angel's eyes welled up with tears. "You're a soldier."

"In a war not my own," he agreed somberly.

There was a tense silence.

"You're not human."

"No."

"They're really scary."

"So am I."

"No," she disagreed. "You could be very scary. Like the monsters. But you're not."

"Sometimes I am," he warned.

Angel shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Because we're your friends, and you'll take care of us."

Ichigo chuckled a little. "Not scared by the monster?"

"You're a nice monster," she stated solemnly.

Iggy tensed, attention diverting from the strange conversation as the howl echoed again.

Ichigo's head snapped up. "I should go deal with that."

"Wait- you're going after it?" spluttered Iggy, stunned. "Are you crazy!?"

Ichigo hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe. Hey, wanna come watch? I think you might be able to see them."

"Wait, wha-" Iggy cut off with a yelp as Ichigo dragged him out the door.

Iggy stumbled to a halt, a little out of breath. "What are you thinking?" he hissed.

"Just watch," Ichigo ordered. "I said it before. You might be able to see this."

Still holding Iggy's right hand with his left, Ichigo held his free hand up. Scarlet light began to bloom at his fingertips, growing even as it condensed. "Cero," he whispered reverently.

The tiny ball exploded with a shriek of displaced air as it obliterated its target, not even leaving ash behind. Ichigo's expression was oddly blissful as the rush of his rapidly returning powers left him with a pleasant afterglow. "I wasn't sure that'd actually work," he muttered, sounding awed and amused at once.

Iggy was silent beside him. "Hey… Ichigo…" His expression was unreadable. "Would you… do it again for me? Just one more time?"

Ichigo grinned at him, and squeezed his hand. "As many times as you want," he assured, feeling warm with accomplishment. "I can also do black and white. I may be able to do something blue, too, with a little more work."

Iggy nodded slowly. "Yes, please. That's… Thank you."

Ichigo's grin softened. "Yeah. Wanna go to the park for this? More space, and no one staring at me pointing at the sky like a lunatic."

Iggy snickered. "Yeah, why not?"

They didn't head back to the others for three more hours. In the end, Ichigo's kido blast just sort of blew up, but Iggy was still delighted by burst of blue.

And, of course, the glorious Maximum Ride was unbelievably furious when they got back.

"What were you thinking!?" she demanded, yelling. "You have some freaky conversation with Angel about monsters, then run off to kill one, drag Iggy with you, and disappear for three hours, and all you can say is, 'Oh, it was just a big one'!?"

"Don't you mean ' just a little one'?" pondered the Gasman absently.

"Of course not," Ichigo waved off. "It's the little ones you gotta watch out for. They have swords. And sometimes tentacles. And like to try to blast me into dust. Yeah, kinda fun, actually…"

Iggy snickered into his hand as Max stopped breathing with anger.

Ichigo leaned over to mutter in his ear. "Dude, I didn't know someone's face could go that red."

Iggy just clamped his hand down harder and struggled to keep quiet enough to keep Max's fury directed at Ichigo, who was totally unphased.

It didn't work.

"And you!" she snarled, making it sound like a dire insult. "I was worried! How could you just take off like that?! That's why I always leave you with Gazzy!"

"Oh, it's not just because I'm blind?" Iggy snapped back before he could help it.

"No! It's because you do stupid, immature stuff like this!"

"Well excuse me for enjoying being able to see something other than penguins!" he snarled back, turning on his heel. "I'm going to bed."

Ichigo just followed him, not even looking at Max as he hurried to catch up.

Max huffed out a breath, and collapsed into a chair. "Damn it."

Fang couldn't help but shoot her a sympathetic look.

It didn't help the overwhelming sensation of guilt building in her gut.

Ichigo peered around the doorframe tentatively. Before, he'd only been worried about making sure Iggy was okay and escaping the tension in the living room, but now he realized he hadn't thought this out well.

This was his fault. Iggy probably didn't want to talk to him.

He took a wavering step back, away from the door, only to yelp in surprise as Iggy slammed the door open and dragged him inside.

He only realized where he was when Iggy leaned back against the door to shut it, and stayed. Long arms twined around him, pressing him to Iggy's chest.

Sighing softly, half relieved, half happy, he leaned forward to rest his chin on Iggy's shoulder.

"Just for a minute?" Iggy asked, eyes shut as he tightened his hold.

Ichigo just hummed softly and wrapped his arms around Iggy in response.

A low sigh rushed from Iggy's mouth. "Thank you."

They stayed that way for a long time.

Whoa. O.O That turned out with a lot of different themes and styles, and really dramatic. Okay then. Ummm…. Let me know if you think their relationship is moving too fast. I'm kinda going for them just being there for each other for now, and any romance showing up later. For now they're just learning to lean on eachother.

Anyway, review please, I want to know how well or horribly I did after leaving this story for so long.