A bit short but what can ya do? No really, someone help me lol
I'd forgotten how much I really love this story and our dorky, smutty Ichigo and Orihime babies.
I can't wait to spend more time with them!
Ichigo:
My hands ache as I clench them into fists in my lap, feeling the split skin of my knuckles stretch and pull. I sat slouched in a chair outside the principal's office while I waited for my old man, no sound filling my head but the one of Chad getting chewed out just for being there to stop me.
I rolled my shoulders for probably the fifth time in as many minutes. It's been such a long time since I've fought in my own body, I'd forgotten how much hitting someone hurts long after it's over.
As I sit here, the look on Orihime's face keeps flashing through my mind… and it only makes me feel even more shitty. I hadn't meant to hit him. Really. I hadn't gone looking for him for this to be the outcome, I'd just… lost my cool.
I dropped my head into my hands, groaning.
"That's an odd sound for the person who won the fight to make," I glanced up to see the face I'd thought I would be confronting. The same one who seemed to be popping up around Orihime more often than not these days. And I realized I didn't even know his damn name. "Sup, Ichigo, looking good. You don't mind if I call you that, do you?"
I didn't even have the energy to glare, "Do whatever you want,"
He laughed and then plopped into the seat beside me. He pulled a lollipop from his pocket and removed the wrapper as he said, "Why so glum?" When I didn't answer he continued, "I doubt that was the first time you've had to go head to head with some guy for her. Doubt it'll be the last either."
My annoyance fueling me, I gave him a sideways glare. "Are you talking about yourself now?"
He grinned around the stick of his sucker, "What good would that do? Even if I did end up winning- not that I think I would after today- Inoue would just be there to clean your wounds and I'd be even farther from her."
It took everything in me not to smile evilly at that, "You're smarter than you look."
"I get that a lot." He responded with a shrug, not at all offended.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, the voice of the principal muffled through the door beside me once again hearable. The only words I could make out were: future, expectations, delinquent. All things that had already been yelled at me and were now directed at the only person who would have been able to drag me off Aki- and had arrived in the knick of time.
And there it was again; Orihime's face. Her eyes, big and round and as shocked as I'd ever seen them, hands half reaching toward me but hesitating. Leaving them only partly away from her body. It was the hesitation that twisted like a knife in my gut.
I hung my head again, elbows on my knees, "She's gonna be pissed at me."
The boy beside me only crossed his arms across his chest and sunk a bit lower in his chair. "You defended her honor, I bet she's thrilled."
I did laugh at that. Orihime would have taken that boy's words and let them slide right off her. She would have smiled and told me to do the same but I knew they would bother her. Deep down where she wouldn't let anyone else see. She'd have held them with her and let them cut her over and over again- but she'd never have wanted me to do what I did. Much less be thrilled about it. "You really don't know her at all."
"So she keeps telling me." He paused, kicking his feet against the laminate floor a few times at dirt that wasn't there, "Though, I do feel like I'm starting to figure you out. It makes a little more sense now."
"What does?"
"You and her."
I sat up again, shoulders tensed as I stared at his profile. I'd nearly forgotten who I was talking to. Now suddenly remembering what he'd said to her at the bakery. "What's it got to do with you?"
He met my eye, and something about his smirk made my hands ache a little less, like they were going numb enough to hit something just one more time. "Call it morbid curiosity. I know you won't believe it but you and I are a lot more similar than you might expect." He chuckled at my answering scoff. "And guys like us, who beat guys bloody just for the thrill of it, rarely get the girl. I wanted to know what made you so special, thought maybe I could steal it from you. But I see now that even if I could, you'd never let her go."
My head was shaking in my disagreement before I could voice it, "That's not true."
"You think so?" He asked, seeming genuinely curious.
I struggled to find the words, instead ended up just grasping at this feeling deep inside myself. Hoping it would lead me toward them. "Hime chose me- and yeah, maybe sometimes I don't understand why but she did. And I'll fight for her, in any way she needs me to. But if she ever pulls away, if she ever decides I'm not what she wants then I'll let her go. I just want her to be as happy as she can be, even if it's not with me."
He stared at me for a long moment, his brow puckered in what I assumed was thought but could easily be in doubt and I stared right back. Then he took a deep breath, pulling his candy from his mouth as he stood. "I get why she's with you, Kurosaki, even if you don't." Then he mumbled something under his breath, I barely caught the word object before he was speaking again. "You know, I think you and I could have been friends. If I'd met you before seeing her, before talking to her."
I sat back in my seat, and shrugged. "We could still be friends now."
He tipped his head back and laughed, "I'm in too deep now, I gotta see it through." Then he extended his hand to me, returning his sucker between his teeth as I took it, "I should have done this from the start but I'm Nakao Kazuhiro and I have feelings for your girlfriend. Pleasure to meet you."
I didn't miss the slight flinch in his features as my hand tightened around his. I could break every bone under his paper skin but instead I just said between clenched teeth, "Be respectful toward her and we won't have a problem."
He could feel however he wanted, and Orihime could handle him just fine on her own but I wouldn't hesitate to make what happened with Aki look like daydream if he took things too far. He seemed to read that in my eyes as he nodded.
Just then, a cheerful voice piped up from beside us, causing us both to snap our attention to it. "Ichigo?"
Kazuhiro released my hand and stepped back as Orihime stepped closer. "Hey, Hime. Oh- please don't pout like that. I feel horrible enough already."
I could tell she really was trying to stop that quiver in her lip but with a half gasp she flung her arms around my head and pulled me into her embrace, "Why did you do that! You should have just ignored him. Your hand…"
Her next words were lost in her tears and I just wound an arm around her and rubbed soothing strokes down her back. "I'm alright, Orihime. I've had much worse than this."
Her answer was inaudible but I kept up with the reassurances. I could see over her shoulder that Kazuhiro had begun walking away but had paused. Half turned toward us, watching. When he noticed my attention he tipped his head and turned away again and didn't look back as he walked away.
After a few minutes, Orihime seemed to calm down a bit, but she still clung to me. Her hand fisted into my shirt as I hugged her. That's how my dad found us. He was disheveled and still wearing his doctor's coat as he came to a stop right in front of me, his hands on his hips making me feel like a scolded toddler.
"I thought you were smart enough to not do these things during school."
I couldn't meet his eye, and so I stared just beyond him. Orihime pulled back from me completely, "Kurosaki-san, it was my-"
"It won't happen again, Dad."
My father just stared into my eyes, as if he was searching for something and then finally said with a single nod of his head, "All right." He then turned his attention to Orihime, no doubt marking the tear stains not yet dried on her cheeks. "Well it looks like you could use a good home cooked meal, Inoue-chan. Why don't you come over tonight, I'm sure the girls would love to see you. It's been a while since you've come over, after all."
Hime sniffled a bit as I stroked the small of her back. She nodded smally, "I'd like that very much, Kurosaki-san."
My dad just smiled at her in that rare fatherly way of his and then very gently patted her on the head, "Why don't you head to class, hm? I'll take him from here."
I was about to object when Orihime nodded and stood, my hands dropping off her as she bowed to my dad and then gave me a little smile before walking toward our classroom.
My dad filled the seat she just vacated, sitting straight as an arrow as we waited for the principal to finish up with Chad. The space between us grew comfortable and quiet until he said, "You can explain to me exactly what happened on our way home."
Barely resisting the urge to argue, I nodded. Suddenly hoping the principal would take his time.
.
.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter in-spite of its shortness!
Thank you for reading it!
