X
I smiled widely, freely, as I sent a devastating current of electricity from the tip of my wand to the target. My smile grew as the target was annihilated with the loud crack of thunder.
Jackie whistled next to me. "Damn. That'd stop someone's heart," she remarked, leaning forward as if to get a better look.
"Idiot. That'd kill them first," Yukio argued from behind, game controller clicking as he looked up.
"Hey, Yukio, what do you think kills a guy?" Riruko tried to follow his logic.
I squeezed my wand tighter as I smiled down at it. I can feel it. I can see it. The reishi circling around and compacting into my wand, the slight gusts of reishi on my skin as it writhed around us.
"I'm back," I whispered to myself, jabbing the wand forward to release an even bigger zap at nothing in particular.
X
"You always get home this late?" Shinji caught me practically skipping in, making me freeze.
"Uh…sometimes?" My head slowly turned around. I looked at him sheepishly.
Shinji was leaning right next to the door, arms crossed as if he was waiting for something.
"Were you waiting for me?" I asked, foot falling as the idea made my mind wiggle.
"Just got worried," he admitted, watching me evenly despite the admission. Small tulips blossomed in my cheeks, fueled by his words.
"Oh…" I opened my mouth to apologize. "I would have hurried up if I knew." I went to pull out the burner phone he had so kindly replaced my previous one with in an attempt to fully disconnect from Isshin.
"What kind of job can you hurry up?" he asked, eyebrow raised. Quicksand circled my feet as I realized what this was about. He doesn't trust me. My phone slipped back into my pocket.
My lower lip quivered. "Good point." I tried to play it off, looking away. The heavy concrete blocks of guilt were starting to fall on my head. He's always so worried about me, and now I've gone and…
Shinji pushed off from the wall and headed toward the TV, likely to watch his Wednesday night reruns. "I'll be up for a bit," he told me nonchalantly.
"Oh, uh, goodnight," I said weakly.
"Night." He waved me off.
He passed me by, and I was struck by the smell of gunpowder. Kisuke? The thought carried me away to my room, sulfuric acid slowly nibbling at my guilt.
X
" Stop! Stop! Stop!" I screamed out, hands flailing as something pressed down on me. "Help!" I screeched, hyperventilating as the lights clicked on.
"Koi!" Shinji's voice reached through my screams. Firm hands on my shoulders shook me as I gulped air.
Zero meters, zero meters, zero meters, my brain chanted as I forcefully slowed my breathing. Blinking, my head lolled as I looked into Shinji's concerned face.
"It's okay," he reassured me, his hands quick to give me space.
"No!" I reached back out, snagging a hand. I felt hungry for genuine, soft contact. "Don't go. Don't go," I begged him, eyes tearing up as Tsukishima and Aizen haunted the forefront of my thoughts.
His eyes widened, mouth falling open from my request as he looked at our hands. He slowly formed words. "Is this—Is this okay?" he asked about our contact.
I nodded, face still cherried. "It's okay," I assured him. "It's okay."
Taking a moment to think, he looked at our hands and then the bed.
"Okay." He swallowed. "Okay," he agreed. I winced as our hands dropped so that he could turn the light off. I watched as his darkened form then came back. "Scoot over," he complained after an awkward moment of us staring at each other.
"Oh." I flushed, making room as I pressed against the wall.
I was hyperaware of the dip in the bed as he sat, shoved his shoes off, and then lay down on the blanket. Tentatively, cautious as if I was going to scare off a deer, my fingers reached out to brush his long sleeve. I gripped lightly.
His other hand settled into mine and I jumped.
"Sorry." He was quick to apologize and let go, conscious of my limitations.
"No, no." I let him go to search in the dark for his other hand. "I need this." My hand settled on his.
Minutes passed, the twain of our light breaths occasionally muffled by the overgrown bush slinking along my broken window in the breeze.
"I'm sorry, Shinji," I confessed. He remained quiet, and I could only hope that he was still awake. "I-I'm scared of men." Saying the truth out loud made me feel helpless, a victim of myself.
"I know," he answered, surprising me. I rolled to face him. "It's okay to be hurt," he told me again.
My breath hitched slightly from my raw emotions building.
"I was hurt," he continued, either purposely ignoring the pathetic sound or oblivious to it. "Aizen…forced us into this mess." For once, he didn't emphasize the name of his enemy, instead his voice fell with a quiet grief. "To be taught all yer life to hate hollows and then have one forced into you…" He trailed off.
"Our hollows caused chaos in our inner worlds," he explained. "Mine wouldn't let me sleep or eat. Or do anything, really. It was always there. Screaming." He shifted to face me, both of his hands holding mine. "That technique you told us about…it worked." His grip tightened.
I bit my lip, hoping that the coat of darkness wouldn't give my drowning away.
"You gave me peace," he reiterated, and I let out a weak, shaky breath.
"Shinji, I—"
"Koi, I-I don't want you to leave," he started as my voice failed me. "That woman I told you about, Keisei—" His voice broke slightly from her name, my name. "I felt like I had to protect you, keep you safe because you reminded me of her so much."
I forced my lips closed, fighting against the pathetic peeps of sadness that tried to erupt as he continued. "But then we started getting along. We like the same music, TV, books, games," he listed them off easily, "And you're so much more…you."
"Koi, you're so free and honest. You don't let things hold you back. You defeated Aizen, and you're recovering"—a sting in my heart as he believed my lie—"from losing everything. You're so strong," he admired.
"You went through everything that we went through." Shinji slowed down, drawing to a close. "I get it. I get what it's like to be left behind." His voice tightened as my hiccupping sobs grew, his confession reaching deep inside of me and seeing the truth. I felt as if I had been laid bare before him.
"Shinji, I-I—" I clamped my free hand tightly on my ribs, trying to use the pain to calm down.
"I know." His forehead pressed into mine as I sniffled. "I know." Shinji agreed with my pain.
X
When I woke up, Shinji was still there. He was resting on his back, head turned away as he snored quietly. I gripped his midsection tightly, pulling us closer as I nestled into the crook of his neck.
He hummed, shifting slightly as I woke him up. His free hand curled around my middle as he yawned.
"Come to the Seireitei with me." Shinji interrupted the peace stretching in between us.
I tensed. "The Soul Society?" I asked. I forgot, I realized, feeling as though I was capsizing momentarily. Shinji, he…he's past due when he disappeared originally in our—my—timeline.
"They offered me the Fifth Squad," he confessed, rubbing my midsection slowly. "Don't know if I'll take it for sure yet."
Kensei's words hung over us both. "They don't live long," he had said.
"It's your home." My words brought back the clean smells of the Seireitei, starchy white clothes, the clear endless sky hanging heavily inside me. The human world had not been as kind to me as the Seireitei.
"It could be yours too," he answered easily.
"It was hard for me to be a Soul Reaper in this world," I confessed. "The humans can be so…" I trailed off.
"Yeah," he agreed, understanding.
X
New Message!
From: you
To: 036-xxxx-xxxx
Message:
Leaving to go to the soul society. Things aren't working out. Bye
Send? Delete?
My finger hovered over the send button as I wavered between telling them in person and taking the coward's way out. What am I saying? I don't even know if I trust them still…
Hitting send, I kept my phone open as I waited for what was surely going to be a fast response from Ginjo. I made myself comfortable on the park bench that I favored despite it being far from the warehouse.
I shouldn't have told them at all. Anxiety gnawed on me like a toy. They could be dangerous.
A ding, and I opened up the new message.
"Huh?" I wondered out loud, looking down at the jumble of letters and numbers.
My phone started to vibrate as a new call came in. He's calling me? I hesitated to answer. I watched as it rang three times decisively before going to voicemail.
Worrying my bottom lip, I waited a few moments before I dialed my own number. Putting the password in for my voicemail, I worried further when I saw that I had one new message.
"Koi," Ginjo's loud voice sounded scratchy over the poor phone speakers. "Tsukishima is back!" My heart thudded in my chest as I listened to the genuine fear in his voice. "Check on your family!" he warned me. "I'll meet you at the bottom of Satori Mountain! We're gonna get this bastard!" he yelled before his phone audibly clipped shut.
I felt my body crystallize as I took in his words. My phone vibrated again, and I saw his name pop up a second time. My family? I wondered, thinking back to when I could have mentioned them.
I never mentioned my family. I never mentioned anyone else besides myself.
My mouth twisted as I realized that something stank. Standing, I threw out my weak sensory net and was disappointed when I couldn't sense my siblings. I haven't seen the twins in at least half a year. Guilt tugged at me despite knowing that Isshin would wrap his hands around my neck and not let go the next time. Hopefully they'll see me now.
D espite me turning my back on them, I still felt obligated to protect them from the dangers that I had brought upon the household. Not like Isshin's going to do anything. Per usual.
X
The house was lit up against the night when I got there, the living room curtains drawn back as people stood around and chatted. Pressing myself against the neighbor's fence, I pressed my powers inside myself tighter as I saw the guests.
The twins, Inoue, Ishida, Chad… They mostly looked like high schoolers, save one that stuck out like a sore thumb. Tsukishima. I crept around the bend, going the long way around the house to my room.
I have to go back. I fought against the growing stalagmites on my feet. I absentmindedly touched my bracelet, making sure that it was still there.
Looking up at my window, I easily jumped into the air and stood there while I quietly slid it open. This house needs to use its locks more, I thought dryly, bracing myself.
Pushing in through the curtains, my eyes threw around as I looked at the scattered papers everywhere. I forced myself to take a deep breath as the images grasped at my mind, whispering to me and pulling me down further and further until I couldn't breathe.
Hand drawings of me, of Keisei and Koi. Studies of my face, studies of my body. In some, I was clothed; in others, I was not. The details on the kimonos I wore were magnificent, accurate to the individual beads. The accuracy of the love bites, scratches on my flesh, and other marks was supreme.
In some, I stood looking forward or shyly over my shoulder. In others, the fire in my eyes was bellied by my erotic positions.
There were some of individual parts, an eye, a foot, my hair. Even fewer depicted me with another Soul Reaper.
No, not just a Soul Reaper, I corrected myself, stepping on one drawing that particularly perturbed me with malice. Him.
Opening my closet, I crouched down and harshly brushed aside the oldest of the drawings, aged deeply with yellowing parchment, as I delved into my storage.
I smoothed my hands over a simple black box.
I can't go down and act like a hero. I'll get those kids killed.
I snuck out like a coward.
X
The path up Satoshi Mountain and the Lord Manor stretched before me, the bricks worn away and smooth with use.
"Hey," Ginjo greeted me gruffly, shifting around almost nervously. "Took you long enough." His eyes narrowed at me. "Unless you're here to kill me too." His grip tightened on his necklace as I felt his power spike.
"Kill you too? Where are the others?" I looked around, expecting a trap.
"Tsukishima got to them," he ground out, lifting his arm to show me a deep cut. "I have no idea how he did it, but I do know his base is up there." He jerked his head up to the mountain. "I want to pay him a visit," he finished with a dangerous smile.
I looked up the mountain, worrying my lip painfully. We don't know Tsukishima's powers. Supposedly. I eyed Ginjo. But either way, he's a threat to those around me. The people Ichigo cared about. The frigid heat was poignant against my back. "Fine," I agreed. "Let's go."
"Finally," he grumbled, walking forward as he led the way.
The walk up the mountain was slow going and silent. The stones had been rubbed raw, exposing the genuine layers beneath as the moss rested on them. The trees seemed to sing lowly amongst themselves, quieting as we passed by. The crickets and cicadas were noticeably absent, but that was normal for the odd mountain.
The closer we got to the top, the more I was overcome with an odd feeling. What is in store for us? My eyes burrowed into Ginjo's back. What's in store for me?
Coming up and over the top of the path, we were greeted by Tsukishima with open arms. The Lord Manor stood behind him, illuminated by ghostly blue lights. "Hello," he started, deceptively pleasant. "I missed you earlier, Koi." He smiled slightly.
Ginjo turned to discreetly look back at me. Tsukishima is trying to create a rift in us, I realized suddenly. Should I…Should I trust Ginjo? I wondered, gripping my wand tightly as I tried to decipher his reverse psychology.
I defeated Tsukishima once. I can do it again. He's just a man.
Blue lights flew in between the three of us, making Ginjo and I dodge to the side, effectively splitting us up.
"Uryu!" I yelled, recognizing the arrows of a power I no longer held.
"Kurosaki," he greeted me, emerging from the tree line. "I didn't expect you to be here." His steely voice unnerved me.
"What's that supposed to mean?" My eyes narrowed at him as I resisted the urge to point my weapon at him.
"I just came here to kill him," Uryu informed me, raising his bow at Ginjo.
"Tsukishima tricked you!" I yelled, jumping in front of the wide-eyed idiot man despite my dislike for him. "His powers are—"
"No! Get back, Kurosaki!" Uryu screamed over me as I held my arms out.
"No, Uryu, he's—!" Air whooshed out of me as something slid cleanly through my lungs. I looked down, pain scarily absent as I saw something that wasn't me protruding from my chest.
I was dripping off the cold metal, my heart beating painfully as it butted up against it.
"Idiot girl," Ginjo demeaned me. I watched as his blade began to glow, a strange purple light emanating.
"Huh…?" I could only struggle to get the airy question out, my lungs leaking before I could get the oxygen into my blood.
"I tricked you, idiot."
Fuck. I felt my powers start to mix with his, our emotions touching as he drew my powers into him. I acted on impulse to save him…
Ichigo's brave smile and eyes crossed my mind as I felt the wisps of my power leave me completely.
"Ichigo?" Ginjo asked behind me, hearing my thoughts through the link as it closed. "Just another kid dumb enough to get killed, huh?" he mocked, and I was dragged back as he ripped his sword back out of me.
I felt numb. I couldn't feel my knees hit the ground or the cold rain that had started up overhead. I couldn't feel the reishi in the air, in my body.
"Kurosaki!" Uryu went to rush forward, only to have Ginjo point his sword at him threateningly. I couldn't feel the souls of those I cared about around me. Rukia, Ichigo, Shinji…
"Sure you want to do that?" Ginjo asked, play in his voice.
I'm sorry…
I shakily held the frigidly molten pistol up to my head, the weight almost too much to bear.
"I can't do this anymore."
BANG!
X
Ginjo stood over the bloody, broken woman. He stared down in pity at her crumpled form. The pistol had fallen to her knees, the rain pattering onto it softly.
The three men were silent as the rain waltzed in her blood.
"Well, that was easy." Ginjo laughed as Tsukishima smirked.
"Indeed," Tsukishima agreed.
"Easy…?" The small shoulders of the Quincy shook. "Easy?!" He raised his bow in a flash of fury, ready to unleash a flurry of attacks before a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"We'll take it from here," the new man said, green haori dragging through the wind.
" Urahara!" the young man gasped before turning farther as other figures appeared. "Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, Byakuya, Hitsugaya!" He listed them off in disbelief.
"I fear we're too late." Captain Hitsugaya observed the scene with a dark expression.
Rukia shook, her face shadowed under her bangs. "Ichigo, we…failed you!" Large tears fell as Renji put a hand on her shoulder.
"Look." Renji noticed the rest of the Fullbringers arrive, each of their abilities active and ready to fight.
Ikkaku twirled his sword, an angry look on his face. "Looks like we came here to get revenge," he agreed.
"Bring it," Ginjo tempted the group, raising his zanpakutou up.
Urahara flash stepped in front of Ginjo, easily dropping through his defenses.
X
Shinji knew that something was wrong. He could feel the Soul Reapers gathering on Satoshi Mountain, their spiritual pressures rising in unexpected anger and hurt.
"Koi's not here either," Mashiro tittered, looking as tense and nervous as the other Vizards.
Shinji frowned and stood. "I'm going to go see what's up," he declared. "The rest of you stay here," he ordered, ignoring Hiyori's objections.
X
Shinji stared at the corpse at his feet. Red soaked into his new boots, staining both him and the delicate moss that comforted her soft face.
Her name slipped from his lips softly as he stood, riveted in place.
He said her name again.
There was no response.
Holding his breath, he slowly lowered himself, careful not to displace her long hair that he treasured. He tried her name again even as he choked and gagged at the sight.
Part of her skull was missing.
The pistol slept peacefully next to her.
"Why?" His voice didn't sound like his own. "Why!"
Shinji looked up, tears cutting deep in his face, to see Kisuke toying with a man with strange reiatsu.
Shinji's reiatsu descended on the battlefield, throwing everything into chaos as he screamed.
X
I gasped, gripping at the ground and then myself and then my chest as I pushed myself up. I hacked into the ground, not covering my mouth as my hands went to touch my head. "I-I'm not dead?"
Ginjo.
I looked up, freezing when I saw Shinji kneeling next to me, Uryu standing on my other side. Kisuke Urahara, Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, Byakuya, and Hitsugaya stood farther away, but each looked at me with grief-stricken expressions. They're…back…?
"What happened…?" I asked slowly, feeling as if I had just somehow lost my jaw and had it put back on. Ginjo…? I looked first to Shinji only to see him look at Uryu. I looked up at the teen.
"Your zanpakutou. You told me how to use it after…" Uryu quietly started before trailing off. After Ichigo passed, I slowly recalled. That's right, I…I told him in case Aizen—
Shinji's arms wrapped around me tightly, pulling me into him. The small group of Soul Reapers averted their eyes. "Why wouldn't you just ask for help?!" Shinji asked me, voice low and raw as if he had been screaming.
"I didn't want to worry you," I answered, eyes looking at the ground in shame. My answer felt so insignificant now.
"You didn't want to worry me so you shot yourself?!" He thrust me out at arm's length, shaking me slightly as he looked at me with wild eyes. His hands bit into me harshly as he suffered.
I fumbled, not sure what to say. "I-I knew that I wasn't dead," I answered lamely.
"And if Uryu hadn't been here?" he asked feverishly.
I kept my mouth closed.
"Idiot!" He gripped me into him tighter, painfully.
"I can't breathe." At this, Shinji let me go and helped me stand.
"We're going to talk," he warned me dangerously before turning to the Soul Reapers. "Huh? Just gonna stare?" he complained, putting his hands on his hips and trying to put up a show that everything was normal despite the tremor in his shoulders and his shaking voice.
"Not at all!" Kisuke waved his fan at us as if to wipe off the grief under his eyes, eager to play along. Kisuke turned to me then and folded his fan up, tucking it away in his sleeve. "I'm sorry we were too late." His words made me sober up.
I didn't offer anything other than a sad look and a head tilt. "I thought you all forgot about me," I confessed.
" We'd never!" Rukia objected, stepping forward and yelling at my apparently obscene idea. "Koi, you saved me from execution! How could we?" She faded toward the end, her raw eyes growing redder.
"She's right." Renji surprised me. "You fought alongside us in Hueco Mundo. I'll never forget that." He put a fist on his heart.
"Renji, Rukia…" My voice broke as my eyes cried plutonic tears. I felt that the heavens were personally descending to see my wish through. Just one more thing…
I looked at my hands, feeling a strange tingling at the thought.
"Do you feel it?" Kisuke asked, making me frown as I looked up.
"Feel what?"
"Why, your powers, of course." He answered me like it was a simple answer to a simple puzzle, a small smile on his face as he watched the idea settle into my mind.
I looked down, mouth hanging open as I tested. Reaching inside myself, I felt the darkness. I drew back with a shock only to slowly approach closer.
It wound around me, smooth and happy, joyfully consuming the bright lights of my soul. It swam above the trees, ran beneath the earth, whistled around the planets, and flew in the water, all to reach me.
The shadows calmed, circulating in my palm as they grew into a sword.
Another pulse, a second conscience, slowly rose from the depths of the vast void.
Koi…! Shiro's voice broke as she greeted me, nestling into me tightly.
In the real world, I covered my mouth with a hand to hide my sob.
"Thank you." I looked up at Kisuke, at all of them, as my deluge started.
X
Despite it all, Shinji and I walked home hand in hand. It had been emotional, sending the others off with the promise that we would see them soon, that I didn't hold a grudge. I appreciated the simplicity of our stroll.
"I'm upset with what you did tonight," Shinji spoke seriously, making my feelings dip. But I knew that this was something we had to discuss.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you anything," I spoke honestly.
"You killed yourself!" He rounded on me, and I felt the painful spike of his reiatsu as it curled around us protectively, sand batting against my face.
" Shinji, I-I couldn't let myself be hurt like that by a man again." I forced myself to keep eye contact. "I'm not going to give my life to someone else like that. He wasn't going to make my death easy."
He backed off somewhat at that. His hand tightened around mine. "It's okay to rely on other people," he told me again.
My eyes softened. "I'm sorry," I apologized again, not knowing what to say.
"Say that you understand," he pressed, voice still raw.
"I can rely on you." I pushed us closer together as we walked.
"Do you promise that you'll tell me in the future?" he asked, pausing outside the warehouse.
I looked at him in confusion. "Tell you what?"
"Anything like this!" He waved his hand about, frustrated.
"I promise," I solemnly agreed. "Shinji…" I started, stalling him by his hand as he went to enter. He looked back at me. "I think the Seireitei is going to be great. For both of us." I smiled softly at the warm thought.
This lightened his mood somewhat, the rolls in his reiatsu lessening. "Yeah," he agreed, urging me forward to show the family my new powers. "It will be."
X
I gasped as Kisuke embraced me, his wood smoke smell showing that he had already been up for some time.
"I'm sorry," he apologized again in my ear. "I believed Isshin," he revealed, his hat tickling me lightly.
"It's okay." I patted him on the back, relieved the man in question hadn't appeared on my final morning in the World of the Living. Still, Kisuke…we talked about how he had misled you before…
He withdrew, taking the hint. "Good luck," he wished me privately. "Then!" He snapped loudly, and the senkaimon appeared.
"Ooh!" Inoue exclaimed behind me, clapping. Chad grunted in surprise.
I turned around to smile at the kids.
"You guys going to be okay?" I asked them, ever worrying.
"We'll be fine," Uryu assured me, putting a hand on Inoue's shoulder as he adjusted his glasses. Chad held up a thumb, and my smile broadened.
I turned to look at the Vizards next, the ones who weren't following us, and how they stood in their own small bubble. My smile softened as I watched Shinji exchange words with Love, likely making sure once again that he would be able to manage our family. He's still worried, I thought fondly.
I laughed as Shinji dodged a kick from Hiyori, who, as ever, had misplaced her anger. "Bastard!" she cursed him despite the cheer in her voice.
"Whatever!" Shinji flapped a hand, turning to leave.
"Take care!" Mashiro cheered them on happily, popping a fist up as she stood on my other side.
"We'll see them soon, Dummy." Kensei made a face at her, making her pout as they got into it.
"You sure, Lisa?" I looked at her softly.
She gave me a nod. "Better books here." She held up the peace sign. "I'll save some for you."
I laughed and tried to cover my blush. "Thanks!"
I looked at the two young girls before me. "Yuzu. Karin." We had already had our goodbyes, as tearful as they were, but I had wanted to see them again.
I bent down, making our eyes level. Yuzu was crying but looked like she was trying to hold it in as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
Karin surprised me by starting first. "Your reasons… I get it." She looked away, contemplatively. "You deserve a break," she told me. My smile tightened at the strong feelings we shared.
"I'll see you both again," I promised them, putting a hand on either head.
Kisuke's voice and clapping gathered our attention. I straightened up. "All right, all right!" he started. "The senkaimon is ready. Ready to go?" he asked playfully, a large smile on his face. I swung my duffle over my shoulder, Shinji dropping my hand briefly to swing his backpack on.
We reconnected and smiled at each other.
"Then…go!" He started the kido up, and the senkaimon lit up a pure white. Mashiro dived in without a second thought, and Kensei was quick to get after her with a sharp "be careful!"
Shinji's hand pulled me forward as he looked back, smiling, and I followed him into the portal.
X
We were quick to get settled in the Fifth Division. Our hairbrushes co-mingled in the bathroom, our bags of clothes haphazardly dumped into the closet, both half open. The kitchen was noticeably bare, what with having the division chef and his underlings on call.
That same chef had hand-delivered a wrapped bottle of vintage sake earlier in the day as a greeting after Shinji had introduced himself to the squad members.
The delicate blue bottle sat half empty off to the side as I leaned on Shinji. I feel like Keisei again, I realized warmly.
His arm was warm around me as he embraced his lasting spell of hiccups from drinking too fast.
" Tomorrow is"—hiccup!—"going to be the first official day." He rubbed my arm.
I smiled, feeling perfect. "You'll do fine," I assured him.
"Yeah, I will," he agreed immediately, making me laugh. He laughed at my reaction, his hiccups interrupting still.
I could only laugh harder.
"Well?" he asked, fingers tracing under my pajamas. "Should we make it lucky?" he asked.
I giggled, pulling away briefly so that I could get on my knees to lean on him more. "Lucky?" The sake in me heated my face.
"Very lucky," he assured me, looking up as I dipped down to kiss him.
I want to say thank you to all my readers - you mean the world to me.