None of them stirred until later that evening and it wasn't a surprise when Ichigo happened to be the first to wake. With a stretch and a groan, he swung his feet over the edge of the bed. His entire being ached but he had to take stock of the silence that now filled his home.
It didn't take long to find the other two. The hand hanging out into the hallway and the bathroom light gave them away pretty readily. In spite of himself and because no one was watching, he smiled at the sight of the two unconscious bodies tangled together. He still felt a pang of disappointment and guilt and not being able to finish Shinji off but after everything that happened it felt right enough that he wasn't going to argue.
He was about to look for something to cover them when he heard a noise from downstairs. It gave him such a start that he immediately went to go see what it was. His eyes widened to the size of saucers when he saw Hiyori sitting at his kitchen table picking at the last few pieces of pizza. "Ack! What are you doing here?" he demanded.
She looked up, an evil smirk spreading across her features. Then, she laughed at him and threw his long discarded pajama pants at him. Having spent the majority of the day nude, he didn't realize that he was still and blushed furiously as he scrambled to get his pants on, which to Hiyori was even more amusing than the fact that Ichigo forgot he was naked.
"Why the hell are you here?" he tried again once he was partially clothed.
That's when she did something that really disturbed him; she appeared very thoughtful for a moment. "They sent me for Shinji," she told him, purposefully being vague to see if her old comrade had decided to continue leaving his partner in the dark.
Ichigo scoffed. "What're you supposed to do for'em?" he asked incredulously.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously for a moment while she briefly considered decking the young man. Something in her decided against it. "I was suppos'ta bring'em back," she replied.
"And?" Ichigo couldn't help taking up a slightly defensive posture. There was no way he would have let her take him now or before.
"I decided not to," she replied simply as she picked up another piece of cold pizza.
Ichigo felt both relief and confusion at that. "Why?"
"Are you arguin'?" Now it was her turn to be defensive.
"No! I just…Why are you still here then?" He didn't want to push her out, exactly, but if she wasn't here to take Shinji away then why stay?
"They'll be mad that I didn't come back with him…They're probably already mad…" she grumbled.
Ichigo gave a sigh and sat down at the table. There were two pieces of pizza left so he grabbed one. He wasn't exactly hungry but he needed something to do while he collected his thoughts. "Thanks," he said between bits.
She frowned. In her heart, she knew she did the right thing by letting them ride it out together. At least Shinji would keep her company while the others gave her the cold shoulder. "Whatever," she snatched up the last piece.
As he was nibbling on his crust, Ichigo finally broke the silence once again. "Er, look, Hiyori…I'm not complaining or anything…."
"Just spit it out, dickhead," she ordered with a mouthful of food.
"I'm not complaining or anything but why did you let us go…if you weren't supposed to an' all," he blurted out.
She turned away and almost left. "You lasted almost as long as he did," she informed.
"So?"
She laughed a little because she wasn't sure how to tell him that she was impressed. She knew Ichigo had a lot of raietsu but she wasn't the only one who doubted his capacity to fulfill the blonde vizard's appetite. "You're the first one in a long time who's been able to do that."
Ichigo gave a cocky smirk but it quickly faded. "I didn't do it by myself," he admitted.
Hiyori gave him a suspicious look and attempted to sense the other, frowning when she felt no one else close enough to have done the job. "Who?"
"Kon," he admitted. That earned him an incredulous look. "What?"
"He's undetectable, you idiot."
"So?"
"So Shinji was just leaching the rest of your energy out of your body, duh," she smacked him on the forehead with her sandal.
That made Ichigo's smile return. "How long are you gunna hang out then?" he asked after a moment.
"I don't wanna go back without him. I have to at least do that," she grumbled and started looking for something to drink.
"Why? We're done," he dismissed.
"I can't come back empty handed," she sneered and pulled out a half-full bottle of cola.
"Why'd they send you here anyway?"
"Don't be such an idiot," she scolded just before taking a swig straight from the bottle. When he started to complain about that, she interrupted, "I can't get sucked in. With both of ya goin'…" she trailed off to take another drink.
He gave an exasperated sigh and hoped she wouldn't try to put the bottle back. "So now what?" It was starting to get late and he just wanted to go to bed.
The tiny blond scrunched up her nose in frustration. "He's gunna be out for the rest of the night at least. I'm gunna crash on your couch," she informed.
He disliked her intrusion but decided that he was happier to deal with it now than he would have been any earlier than now. "My sisters are out of town. You can sleep in their room if you want," he offered and when she still appeared reluctant, he added, "I think Yuzu just changed the sheets too."
She chugged the remainder of the soda and left the empty bottle on the kitchen table. "Lead the way," she ordered and he was too tired to protest.
When they reached the bathroom where Kon and Shinji were still very much passed out, she had Ichigo take back his human body and clean them up while she healed Shinji. He was glad that she didn't say anything about the panties except, "Get this stupid thing off'em."
Once the older man was tucked beneath Ichigo's bed sheets, he turned to Hiyori expectantly but she just turned and headed for the bed she was promised.
"Hey!" he called in a hushed whisper. "What about me?"
"I ain't wastin' my kido on you," she nearly slammed his door when she left, and only really denied him because she knew Shinji would want to do what he could first.
With another sigh of exasperation and exhaustion, Ichigo snatched up Kon and crawled into bed with his boyfriend. He laughed a little as he drifted to sleep, remembering that he often thought his twin sized bed was almost too small for just him and thinking that it was just about the right size for two.
This time, thanks to Hiyori's healing, Shinji was the first to wake and once he regained his bearings, he began to heal his boyfriend. Normally, Shinji didn't tend to use his healing kido. He was proficient and more than capable of saving a person's life but it was almost always easier to simply take them to Hachi rather than waste his time and energy. However, this was one person that he could waste all his time and energy on and still feel compelled to give him more. This compulsion unnerved him almost as much as it made him giddy and his expression told of this when Ichigo awoke about halfway through the process.
"Mmmm…" Ichigo knew before he opened his eyes that the hands sending a healing tingle through his worn body were those of his boyfriend but seeing the affectionate smile plastered across his face still made his heart flutter. "Thank you." He decided to give the man a break by pulling him into a tight embrace. As he nuzzled the blonde's neck, he added, "For everything."
Shinji couldn't formulate a proper response without letting on how deeply those simple words had struck him so he gave the next best thing. He lifted Ichigo's chin and started kissing everything he could reach until he got to the young man's lips where he stayed for as long as he was allowed.
His affectionate attacker was practically on top of him when Ichigo had to turn his head and break the kiss in order to catch his breath. "Shinji…" he began in an awestruck voice but that was as far as he got.
"Ichigo…I really think I love you," the fair man barely spoke and not just because their faces were millimeters apart. They had exchanged that particular pleasantry once before but this time the affection was less playful and clearly more heartfelt.
If Ichigo thought his heart was fluttery before, hearing that made him feel like it would outright stop and it was his turn to have trouble with his words.
Had Shinji been younger, he might have been put off by the look the orange-haired teen gave him in response. However, his experience told him that the stunned speechlessness wasn't necessarily bad. He knew one test, and was barely able to keep himself from smiling when he pressed his sure lips against the younger vizard's nearly trembling ones.
Ichigo melted into the second kiss as he felt a wave of emotions wash over him. The washing quickly turned to crashing when Shinji's hands, which had been caressing whichever parts of his lover they could get to, moved with more direction and toward his member. Sure and loving strokes brought him to nearly his full length before the kiss broke again. "Shinji…" he began again but this time was cut off.
"Make love to me…please."
The younger vizard brought one hand up to run his fingers through the blonde hair he loved so much. He stalled for a moment to look into Shinji face and really take in his expression. The vulnerability in Shinji's tone had made him second guess the notion that the blonde's episode was over but on closer inspection, he saw need but it wasn't the same kind of desperate and mindless need that he associated with the condition.
"Why're you looking at me like that?" Shinji was also second guessing himself.
"No one outside of my family has ever told me they loved me before," he replied sheepishly, feeling a blush of both arousal and embarrassment rise to his cheeks.
"I mean it," he replied with resolute impishness.
"I know." Ichigo, even in his youth, realized the level of sincerity in the man's voice. Regardless of whether the feelings were real or not, it was clear that Shinji didn't doubt them. "I-I love you too…I think," he bit his lip as he smiled upward.
That was all Shinji needed to hear. He tightened their embrace once again and rolled them over. He enjoyed being beneath his boyfriend as much as his boyfriend enjoyed being on top of him. Once like that, they spent quite some time simply kissing and caressing. This was the first time they had gotten to explore one another in such a way and they were both intent on making up for lost time.
After a while, though, Shinji began to wonder if his plea for physical love making was going to go ignored. He couldn't bring himself to ask a second time. Luckily, he didn't have to. His patience was eventually rewarded when he felt Ichigo groping blindly for the opening just below his balls.
The teen on top started guiding the head of his cock, which he assumed was only capable of erection because of his lover's healing kido, toward the opening without really thinking about it. The only thing in his mind was the echo of Shinji's thought to be ignored plea.
He didn't need preparation; all of yesterday took care of any need for that. He simply wrapped his legs around Ichigo's waist, making it easier for both of them. When the eager length slowly slid inside him, a guttural moan poured from him as he arched his back.
Moving with his lover's instinctive motions, Ichigo slipped a sure hand behind the blonde and placed it on the small of his back. His other hand went to rest to the side of Shinji's head for balance and leverage.
"Oh, god…Ichi-, yes!" Shinji breathlessly raved, wrapping his arms around the younger vizard's neck and bucking back with matched enthusiasm.
Ichigo groaned in response as it was all he could manage at the moment. He was too caught up in the heat of not only their friction but also in the sound of his boyfriend's voice and the feelings welling up within him. Instead, he found himself searching the face beneath him for signs that he wasn't the only one feeling such deep emotions. The sparkle in Shinji's eyes told him that he wasn't but he wasn't allowed to observe it for long because less than a handful of thrusts later, Shinji cried out, legs coming unwrapped to push back even harder.
The blonde involuntarily shut his eyes tightly as he threw his head back, "Yes! That's it, right there…" He kept one leg hitched around Ichigo's back while the other planted a foot on the mattress for more leverage.
Ichigo just smiled and did his best. With Shinji helping him, all he needed to do was keep going, keep pushing them toward the impending peak.
By this time they were so far gone that they no longer heard the creaking of the bed or the banging of the headboard on the wall. However, for the two within earshot, the mod soul who had snuck back to his hiding place in Ichigo's closet during the night and the younger female vizard in one of the adjacent rooms, those sounds only served to punctuate the now near constant vocal appreciations the loving pair didn't care to hold back. They both covered their ears and tried to block it out, hoping it wouldn't last for too long. Shinji and Ichigo on the other hand, found themselves wishing quite the opposite.
To compensate for not holding his young lover as tightly with his lower body, Shinji wrapped his arms even more tightly around his neck and shoulders. He loved the feeling of their sweat-slickened bodies rhythmically sliding together, the scorching heat the radiated from their bodies, and the way it felt like they were gasping for the last bits of oxygen left in the world. Before he even realized what he was doing, he was planting fervent kisses on every bit of Ichigo that he could reach, most his face and neck, landing on his lips for a kiss that deepened as he came.
Shinji's release and the immensity of the emotions he was feeling had Ichigo crashing into orgasm shortly after, groaning something similar to his lovers name as he spilled himself inside. After that, his leverage and balance faltered, leaving him to lay on his lover, who didn't seem to mind. Actually, he was obviously concerned with more than being squished by the slightly larger built vizard.
When he felt the sting of tears in his eyes, he quickly shut them even though that meant abandoning the loving smile beaming down at him, and started to laugh a foolish little laugh.
If the laughing wasn't bad enough, Ichigo thought he might be sick when he saw the first couple tears stream from the corners of his closed eyes. "What's wrong?"
That made Shinji laugh just that much harder but it did allow him to open his eyes once again, allowing his tears to flow freely. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong," he replied with a chuckle.
"Then what's with the water works?" The teen tried to sound playful and was reasonably successful.
"It's been a long time since I've loved anybody," he admitted.
Ichigo's gentle smile returned and he kissed away his boyfriend's tears. "Come on, I'll make breakfast."
Suddenly a voice called from outside the room, "You're way past breakfast!" Hiyori called and knew her attempt to embarrass them was a success when she heard them start to scramble about.
A moment later, Shinji opened the door. "Why are you still here?" he demanded.
She sneered and hit him with her shoe, "'Cause I'm not goin' back empty handed, ya sappy dickface!"
Shinji pushed past the younger blonde and wordlessly entered the bathroom.
"I can't believe you were listening to us," Ichigo told her, his voice speaking volumes of disgust and embarrassment.
"It was kinda hard not to. Oh, Shinji! Oh, Ichi!" she mocked. "So you still gunna make breakfast?" she diverted before he could get too mad.
"Sure, I guess," he agreed.
Once they were finished, he stacked the dishes in the sink to deal with later and they said their good byes.
Hiyori made a pukey face during their good-bye kiss but surprisingly, it only ruined the moment a little.
About fifteen minutes after they left, Ichigo received a text message. It was from Hiyori and it said: if u dont call him in the next couple days I WILL KICK YOUR ASS!!!!!