Chapter Ten

"Is that guy hot?"

"Keigo."

"What about that guy?"

"Keigo."

"Him?"

"Ew, no."

"Ha ha! So we have a start! We know what we don't like! Him!"

"Oh, for the love of God, Keigo!"

"Why are you singling me out?! Mahana's doing it, too!"

"We just want to know," said Mahana bossily. "It's natural to be curious; aren't you curious? What exactly is Kurosaki Ichigo's type?"

"Actually, I want to know, too." Chizuru grinned mischievously. "I had no I had a fellow friend in the rainbow tree, Ichigo."

"I am nothing like you." Ichigo glared.

"Sadly not true," said Chizuru smoothly. "In all seriousness, though, the easiest way to get comfortable with the idea of being gay is to treat it casually with other people."

Ichigo sighed. "Okay…" He gritted his teeth. "Question time. Go."

"You have five seconds! Body type! Pick one!" Tatsuki called, grinning. Absolutely everyone he was friends with was sitting around him at lunchtime, listening with rabid interest.

"Uh - well -"

Everyone started counting. "Five - four - three -"

"Slim!"

"Fit?"

"Yes."

"Makes sense. You're a black belt and a health nut. I accept," said Tatsuki smoothly. "Now someone else gets to ask a question."

Ichigo sighed, pained. "I can't believe I agreed to this…" he muttered.

"No grumbling!" Tatsuki mandated. "Somebody else, ask a question!"

"Androgynous, masculine, or feminine?! Dark and serious, or cheerful and happy?!" Orihime was beaming.

"Hey, that's not fair, she asked two questions! Does she get ask two question?" Ichigo protested.

"Dodging the questions, Ichigo," Tatsuki grinned, and everyone started counting again. "Five - four -"

"Androgynous! Dark and serious!"

"Intelligent?"

"Yes."

"HA! We have a type!" And everyone started cheering.

Ichigo leaned over and put his face in his hands. "You're going to embarrass me into being openly gay?" he asked.

"Only because we love you, Ichigo," said Tatsuki, shrugging.

Ichigo was on his way to the bathroom, his face still rather warm, after question time was over. It was still lunch. He'd just left the school restroom when he looked up and saw three guys surrounding him. Big guys.

"Hey, fag." The guy in front pushed him.

"Touch me again and I'll fucking murder you," Ichigo growled, barely keeping a hold on his temper.

"Oh, yeah? You don't like this?" The guy shoved him again mockingly.

Ichigo could see his friends on their way over, but he didn't exactly need their help and was determined to prove it. He wasn't a weaker fighter just because he liked men. He kicked the first guy in the dick, punched him in the face, and swept his feet out from under him. The other two charged at him from either side; he ducked out of the way and let them body slam into each other. Then he took their faces and smashed them against each other's.

It was over in a matter of a few seconds. By the time his friends had run over, none of them could stand.

Ichigo marched right over to the headmaster's office and stuck his head in. "Sir?" he said calmly. "I need you to take three six-foot male students to the school infirmary, and then make the announcement over the loudspeakers that Kurosaki Ichigo just sent three students to the hospital for making fun of his homosexuality."

Everyone stared - his friends, the people in the headmaster's office, everyone.

"Well," Keigo observed, "it turns out all we had to do is piss him off."

"Indeed," Chad agreed, deadpan.

Over the following months, Ichigo slowly grew accustomed to the idea of his sexuality. He went on a couple of dates - one to a concert, one for some coffee.

Neither of them led to anything, but neither of them went horribly wrong either. Nothing weird happened, both guys were perfectly polite, and he was actually much more attentive of them than he thought he would have been toward a woman. Dates with guys actually held his attention; they were interesting.

He got his first real kiss at the end of one of them, and it was soft and warm, and it lasted for much longer than he admitted to any of his friends the next day.

After that he started becoming more comfortable, talking about who was hot and who wasn't.

Over the course of time, Ichigo realized he was happy. He had a strong friends group at school, he didn't hate his job, he got good grades, he proved adept at raising two younger sisters. He came to accept himself as he was, not as he wanted or didn't want to be.

Despite all the death that had dogged him throughout his short life, he realized he had come to a calm place - a place where he was satisfied with himself and his life. He woke up one day and realized his parents' deaths didn't hold a dark sway over him the way they used to.

He had come to terms, he thought, with the idea of death.

He admitted to Karin and Yuzu one night, "I need you guys to be okay with it, because I know you can sense them, too… But I'd like to try talking to some ghosts again.

"I'm not as - I don't know - bitter, anymore."

Karin and Yuzu looked at each other and smiled. "I think that sounds like a great idea."

Author's Note: One more chapter left and after that we've hit canon, ladies and gents.