no smut warning....

Ichigo did call Shinji the next day and they made plans for the following weekend. With that out of the way, the teen figured that he would have to wait for Saturday to see his lover again. Needless to say, he was surprised when Shinji was waiting for him after school on Monday.

"Hey, what're you doin' here?" Ichigo asked with mild suspicion. He was glad to see his boyfriend but he still associated anyone from the soul society at his school with apprehension.

"Nothin'," the blonde shrugged and looked around and seeing that the teen's friends were nearby, he decided to forego anything more affectionate for a later time. "Walk ya home?" he asked with quiet hopefulness.

Ichigo gave an equally quiet sound of affirmation before saying good bye to his friends, the more perceptive of which noticed that the pair were walking a little closer than usual.

The following day, Shinji couldn't wait until after school hours to see his boyfriend. For Tuesday, he joined him for lunch. Just before the lunch bell, he gave a flair of raietsu to signal his waiting on the roof. It was received, but not only by the intended recipient. Though he should have expected as much, Ichigo wasn't the only one to find him.

"Hakaro-san," Orihime greeted with her usual warmth. "What bring you here?"

The older vizard fought his instinct to wrap an arm around her as he had done in the past. "Oh, things were getting' boring so I just thought I'd have lunch with you guys for a change," he lied.

No one thought anything of that until he sat next to Ichigo, so close that they were practically touching, but not quite, and even then, no one said anything about it.

Ichigo on the other hand was much more inclined to take notice of his lover's minute advances and they were starting to make him nervous, so much so that he found himself fighting not to lean away for fear that would give even more away in addition to putting off his love. Though, once their meal was over, he did breath a sigh of relief that the affections didn't go any further than that. He kept wondering if Shinji was up to something but it he made no sort of move so he didn't question it.

Shinji bid Ichigo and his friends adieu when the next class bell rang leaving the group of teens to contemplate the interactions of the two vizard on their own, giving them more to contemplate by once again picking the young man up outside the schoolyard.

By this point, a few of the high schoolers were starting to get an inkling of the spark between the pair but it wasn't until the following day that someone said something about it and much to Ichigo's dismay, it was Uryu.

Normally, the quincy couldn't care less about the relationships of soul reapers but when he accidentally caught a glimpse of the bite mark of the orange-haired young man's backside one afternoon while they were changing in the locker room, he couldn't help staring at it, if only for a moment.

"What're you lookin' at?" Ichigo griped.

"Kurosaki, what's that?" he asked, motioning to the mark so that he wouldn't be accused of anything more indecent than a passing glance where the perfectly straight teeth marks caught his attention.

Ichigo blushed furiously and dressed as quickly as possible, unable to dignify the question with a better response than that. He'd forgotten about the love-bite on his ass except for when he'd examined himself in the mirror the day after the incident to find that Shinji had conveniently forgotten to heal that particular mark.

Uryu cocked a curious brow but let it go at that; he felt no place to intrude further since he'd only said something to divert attention away from himself.

Later that day, as Shinji was leading Ichigo away from the school, Uryu heard a voice behind him muse something strikingly similar to what he was thinking.

"Hakaro-san has sure been hanging around a lot lately." It was Orihime.

The quincy turned to his classmate, "You mean he's been hanging around Kurosaki a lot lately," he corrected.

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I wonder why…" she trailed off to observe the pair as they retreated from view.

Her spectacled classmate wasn't sure what to say to that and so simply shrugged and made his good-byes for the day.

Thursday morning, Ichigo found himself greeted by his blonde boyfriend on his walk to school. "Yo, Ichigo!" he called from across the street when he was about halfway there.

"Yo. What's up?" he carefully crossed when he got the chance.

"I just wanted to see you, that's all," he shrugged as though it was nothing.

Ichigo gave a sheepish grin but it quickly faltered.

"What's the matter?" he asked as quickly as the grin fell.

Orange brows furrowed as he thought of the best way to broach the subject on his mind. "Nothin' really. It's just…you've been visiting me at school a lot his week. I think some of my friends are starting to suspect something."

"Well, if they're your friends, you should be glad they're that perceptive," Shinji reasoned, making a small mental note that he might be pestering the other vizard a bit much.

That didn't make Ichigo feel any better but he didn't know how to continue without putting his foot in his mouth. This left him contemplating a nice way to ask Shinji to not visit him as often for the rest of his walk. He was so caught up in that train of thought that he didn't really notice when Shinji led him around the back of the school until they were already there.

Once they were alone, Shinji took Ichigo by the wrist and pulled him close while leaning back against a wall.

"Shinji, look-," he tried to defer but was interrupted.

"Just a quick kiss," he whispered, gently pulling the other closer. "To make up for the first time you pinned me here," he coaxed.

Only then did Ichigo realize where Shinji had led him, to the place where he had dragged the older vizard to interrogate him about invading his school during his first appearance there. He gave a hesitant look around and finding no one, gave in and let the older man steal his much desired kiss.

"Thank you," Shinji smiled. "Come see me later…if you have time, okay?"

Ichigo barely nodded before his boyfriend was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief and leaned his back against the wall. The moment had been short and sweet but he was glad it was over, the tension of being seen had nearly ruined it for him and he was very glad that no one had happened along to interrupt it.

Unfortunately for him, however, though no one had seen fit to intrude on their personal moment, someone had caught a fair portion of the show and was now inclined to say something about it.

"Kurosaki," a steady voice greeted.

Ichigo visibly started both at the voice and the sight of his quincy classmate and comrade. "Ishida…what's up?"

"Was that Hakaro-san again?" he asked knowingly.

"Since when do you care?" the soul reaper immediately went on the defensive.

"I just didn't know you two were on kissing terms, that's all," he casually informed.

Ichigo felt his stomach turn as a hot blush rose to his cheeks. "What're you followin' me or somethin'?" he demanded, obviously flustered.

"No, I just happened to be coming this way when I saw you two," he haughtily replied. Briefly, he considered asking if the blonde vizard was the mysterious ass-biter but decided against it and simply assumed that Ichigo didn't have it in him to be that promiscuous. "Look, not that it's any of my business," he began.

"Damn straight, it ain't any'a yer business," Ichigo's blush deepened a few shades as he gave a defensive sneer, daring the other to push it any more than he already had while praying desperately that the other would simply leave.

"But if you're gunna be like that about it, you should know that I'm not the only one who's noticed there's something going on between you two," he warned, adjusting his glasses as he spoke. He didn't wait for a response before turning and walking away.

"Fuck," Ichigo grumbled, smacking his head against the wall behind him. He did it again when the first bell rang a matter of seconds later, not allowing him the chance to think through what he wanted to do before having to try to pay attention to things he had difficulty paying attention to on a good day.

By lunch he'd determined that he had two options. The first was to keep trying to think of a way to ask Shinji to cool it. The second was mentally preparing himself for the inevitable embarrassment of being outted at school. The more he thought about it, he more he realized that he would most likely have to do both. Luckily, at the very least, Ishida didn't see fit to say anything to anyone else and Shinji somehow managed not to show up during the meal. At times, it even seemed that simply thinking about making some sort of comment, an ambiguous jab, made his classmate fumble his words or trip over his own feet.

While changing for gym, Ichigo changed as quickly and discretely as he could so as to not risk someone else seeing the mark on his backside. Ishida thought all of this was rather amusing, but only in as much as it made the soul reaper extremely self-conscious and all the more prone to bouts of inexplicable embarrassment.

After an entire day of this, Ishida took pity on Ichigo and once he was sure Shinji wasn't going to show up to take him away, he approached the orange-haired soul reaper as he was leaving the school yard.

"Kurosaki," the quincy called once he was a few paces behind his classmate.

Ichigo tensed visibly and didn't immediately turn to face the other.

Uryu took the other young man's not running away as an invitation to continue. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"'Bout what?" the soul reaper snapped.

"I think you know," he pressed even though the fact that they had yet to make eye contact was making him start to second-guess himself.

Ichigo looked around and then finally at the person standing next to him. "What is it?" he asked, obviously exasperated at having been put on the spot twice in one day.

The quincy made a vague motion for them to keep walking which was readily accepted. "I just wanted to assure you…I'm not planning on saying anything to anybody."

"So reassuring," Ichigo grumbled. "But thanks, I guess."

"Well, I could try to blackmail you," he teasingly proposed. "You seem embarrassed enough about it that it might work," he mused and received a look that made him wonder if his school uniform was flame retardant. "I'm joking."

The soul reaper rolled his eyes and gave another disgusted grumble.

"Does he know you're so embarrassed about it? Or are you lying to him and trying to make him think you don't care?" Uryu pressed.

Ichigo shook his head. "Ain't none of your business," he resolutely replied.

That made the quincy's school expression falter to a frown of disappointment for a moment.

"What?"

"I just thought you'd wanna talk about it. You've been worried about it all day," he pointed out.

Ichigo rolled his eyes again. "Who else…is figurin' it out?" he tried.

Uryu thought for a moment and tried not to smile. "Aizawa…Orihime…me…as far as I can tell."

The orange-haired teen pursed his lips. He wasn't terribly surprised by the list.

"But I don't think it'll be long before Tatsuke or Chad or even Keigo notices, if you keep up the way you are," he warned.

That make him frown a little, but wasn't any more than his usual scowl. "I just…don't know what to do…" he finally confessed, at least a portion of him glad for a somewhat sympathetic ear. "I don't what this to be a big deal…it's really not a big deal…but when I think about it, I get-" he suddenly stopped, mid-sentence. He didn't want to continue; he felt too exposed already so he distracted himself with the crosswalk signaler.

The quincy gave an empathetic sigh. "But they're your friends. They'll make a big deal out of it no matter who it is," he reminded.

"I know…" he trailed off in to a resigned little chuckle. "I should just man-up and tell'em to cool it…or practice my right hook on the first person who says something stupid; that oughtta do the trick." He rolled and stretched his right shoulder for emphasis.

That made Uryu laugh. "That sounds more like you."

Ichigo gave his classmate a playful shove as he laughed with him. "I can't believe you're the one makin' me feel better about this."

"Stranger things have happened," the quincy vaguely replied. "Honestly…you surprise me."

"How's that?" he cocked an orange brow.

"You mean besides being gay?" he teased. "I just didn't think you cared that much about what we thought about you."

"Well, like ya said. You're my friends," he shrugged.

Uryu smiled and gave an affectionate nod but before he could reply they were at Ichigo's house.

Ichigo considered telling his newfound confidant that his family was actually very aware of his relationship with Shinji, at least on the personal level but before he could, a basketball flew at his head.

"Kurosaki, look out!" he tried to warn but it was largely unnecessary.

Ichigo caught the ball millimeters from his face. "Ya crazy old man! What the hell was that?" he orange-haired teen demanded of his father, who happened to be playing basketball in the driveway with the girls.

Uryu blinked stupidly at the interaction for a moment. He knew the soul reaper's home life was chaotic but first hand experience is something different.

"Just makin' sure you're payin' attention," the father offered, barely dodging the ball that his son returned in kind.

A few moments of harmless bickering later, Karin interrupted, doing so by speaking to her brother's companion. "What's your name?"

"Oh, honey," Ishin immediately changed gears, "you don't remember Uryu, do you?"

Uryu blinked uncomprehendingly, apparently he didn't really remember her either.

"You're Ryuukin's boy, right?" the father surmised. "I haven't seen you, oh-since you were probably," he motioned to a height around his knees.

"You know my dad?"

"From way back," he dismissed. "I guess you girls were a little too young to remember back then," he mused.

"I don't remember that," Ichigo dismissed.

Ishin didn't want to tell his son or his friend that their not remembering was as much because the few times the pair had met as children were around the times when their mothers died as it was due to their ages. "Well, you boys were pretty little then too…" he mused with marked nostalgia.

"Whatever," Ichigo dismissed. "You wanna come in?" he turned to his classmate.

"Ah, no thanks. I gotta get home," Uryu politely took his leave before he could be drawn into any more strange discussions of the past. "See ya tomorrow."

After the girls went inside and the other young man was gone, Ishin turned to his son. "So, do I have to ask you to keep your door open when he's around too?" he asked, trying to keep his tone chidingly playful.

"Damn it Dad!" he blushed furiously. "He's just a friend from school." With that, he was retreating to his room.

"Just checkin'," Ishin called innocently after him and when his son emerged a little less than an hour later and headed for the front door, he had to say something. "Where ya goin?"

Ichigo tensed for a moment but it quickly faded. "I'm gunna go see Shinji for a bit. Is that cool?" he asked carefully.

"Gunna be home for dinner?" the father asked with a mixture of command and hopefulness.

"Yeah."

"See ya later then," he waved the young man off without further incident.

"You here for Shinji?" Lisa didn't bother to say hi before starting in on him.

Ichigo frowned but tried not to let her get to him. "Yeah. Is he around?" he asked hopefully.

His hopefulness was well received and with a gleam in her eyes, she led the youngest of their clan to one of the oldest. "I think he was hopin' you'd stop by," she mentioned off-handedly.

"He asked me to stop by," he replied.

She nodded thoughtfully but didn't reveal her thoughts any more than that before they caught sight of the blonde in question.

"Ichigo!" Shinji giddily greeted, practically running up to catch his lover in an impossibly warm embrace. Even though the school day was only just over, he was beginning to doubt whether or not his invitation would be accepted.

The teen gave an affectionate chuckle and accepted the embrace. He'd been expecting something but not quite so much and he was almost unsure how to reciprocate other than simply returning the actions, hoping that would be enough. Luckily, it seemed to be plenty and when he was released a moment later, his lover was beaming at him.

Lisa stayed for a moment to observe, to gawk, at the pair before being shooed away.

"I'm so glad you came," the older vizard didn't want to leave any room for doubt as to how much he appreciate the company.

"No problem. Did ya need anything? Or you just wanna hang out?" he offered.

Shinji gave an gentle smile at the thoughtfulness. "Just hang out…just spend time together…" he trailed off.

Ichigo smiled in return, feeling a warmth welling up in him at the man's honesty toward him. Another few minutes later, they were sitting at a card table with a couple of sodas and Shinji was dealing two cards to each of them.

"Look, Ichigo…I know I bothered you a lot this week, especially at school," Shinji finally apologized after a couple rounds of black jack.

Ichigo tensed for a moment and again let it ebb. "It's okay… I guess…" he trailed off as he shuffled.

"I…" Shinji pursed his lips, making it painfully apparent that he had something he wanted to say but he was having trouble getting it out.

"You what?" Ichigo prompted.

"I can't help it. I think I almost went crazy having to wait all day to see you today," he gave a nervous laugh as his cards were dealt, five. Apparently, they were playing poker now, not that he cared. They could have been playing Go Fish! for all he cared.

The confession made Ichigo frown.

"But I don't want you to feel like you have to be here," the blonde continued.

"Why are you bein' so weird?" Ichigo finally asked, though he had a pretty good idea already, and mostly because he was surprised that he wasn't the one acting overly strange.

Shinji averted his gaze for a moment, pretended to study his cards. "You know why," he curtly replied after a moment of thought.

The teen pursed his lips and made a very similar move by looking down at his hand. "Sorry…I just wanna be sure."

Shinji shrugged. The presence of his lover was soothing him considerably and since he had sensed the younger man's apprehension earlier that day and done his best to let him be because of it, he needed a little soothing.

"And about buggin' me at school," the orange-haired vizard finally broached.

"I'm really sorry about that. It was outta line. I won't bug ya there anymore unless it's really important," Shinji tried to circumvent.

"It's fine, just not as often, okay?" he bargained, his stomach flip-flopping.

"Naw," Shinji tried to dismiss. If he got an open invitation, he knew he was likely to abuse it. "An' like ya said earlier, some of 'em might be startin' to notice." He tried to be sympathetic to the delicacy of adolescence now because he demanded so much of Ichigo the rest of the time.

"Actually…someone already knows," the teen blushed a little.

"I'm sorry. Who?" the blonde blinked.

"Ishida…he saw us earlier," he elaborated. "And don't be sorry. He was pretty cool about it."

"The quincy? I guess I'm not that surprised."

"Why's that?"

Shinji cocked an eye brow. "He doesn't strike you as a little…" he trailed off for a moment, "queer?" he carefully finished.

Ichigo thought for a moment. The idea had crossed his mind, but not in quite some time.

"But probably only a little more than you," he mused.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That one day, you'll find a nice lady and she'll sweep you off your feet and you'll make hundreds of babies together. But until then…until then, it's just boys, boys, boys," the blonde teased lightheartedly.

Ichigo shifted a little, uncomfortable with the notion of future serious relationship while he was still getting the handle on his present situation. "So you think he's…" he motioned vaguely, not having considered that the quincy might need a confidant as badly as he did until now.

"Oh, I don't know. I'm only guessin'. You could always just ask'em," Shinji suggested with a cheeky smile.

Ichigo wrinkled his nose at the awkwardness of the idea, making Shinji laugh, and their conversation turned lighter from there. The teen took his leave a little over an hour later, when his growling stomach told him that it was time for dinner.

"Thanks for stopping by," Shinji gave him a quick peck on the cheek as they headed for the ramp.

"No problem. We still on for Saturday?" he asked hopefully.

Shinji smiled; the same question had just been on the tip of his tongue. "As long as you're still up for it."

"Pick me up at the house this time. I think my dad wants to see you again," Ichigo advised carefully.

Shinji nodded, hiding his mild reluctance behind his eagerness to have another romantic adventure with his young lover. "Can I visit you tomorrow sometime?" he asked hopefully.

"Walk me to school?" he proposed, hoping to limit his chances of having his boyfriend around during lunchtime, when his attentions tended to become more overt.

The older vizard nodded and closed the gap between them, snaking his arms around the younger's neck and drawing him in to a kiss. Feeling that he'd behaved himself enough for one day, he wasted no time in nipping at his lover's lips until they parted, allowing their tongues to mingle freely. He moaned into their embrace and when Ichigo held him tight, his knees gave ever so slightly. When that little rush subsided, he reluctantly pulled away, skin flushed and panting lightly for breath.

"Shinji…" Ichigo wasn't sure what to say, he felt a little overwhelmed but the look he was receiving made a little spark of excitement dance up and down his spine.

The blonde gave a nervous laugh and withdrew completely.

"Where are you goin'?" Ichigo accused playfully, unwilling to let the other get away so quickly after a such an intimate embrace.

Shinji's nervous smile turned to one of genuine warmth and affection. "One short moment of abandon is about all I can handle right now," he confessed before playfully adding, " or I might get carried away."

"Okay, save it for Saturday then," the young man suggested. He was about to leave when the slight sparkle of his lover's eyes caught his attention. Without thinking, he took the blonde's chin in his grasp and stole a kiss of his own before taking off.