White Zangetsu tries to tell himself that this is all a dream, that King would never want him like this or even let White Zangetsu use his name—he hadn't meant to call Ichigo by his name, it had just slipped out—but King is a very real weight on his lap, and the skin under White Zangetsu's hand is very warm and real too. And King wants White Zangetsu to use his name. "Ichigo," he breathes out, like it's a prayer, and the smile that blossoms on Ichigo's face is absolutely everything. He feels like he can get drunk on that smile, so very warm and shy, and he put it there. Ichigo is smiling because of him.

"You're allowed to touch me," Ichigo tells him in a soft tone, like he hasn't already made it clear that White Zangetsu can touch him, but White Zangetsu isn't going to point that out.

"I want t' do more than touch ya, Ichigo," White Zangetsu says with absolute seriousness as he swipes his thumb across Ichigo's bottom lip. "I want t' taste ya, an' fuck ya, an' make ya mine," he admits, if only because there's no point in keeping what he wants to do to Ichigo from Ichigo himself.

"I kinda figured that with the way you were looking at me," Ichigo confesses, his blush darkening considerably, and he looks away from White Zangetsu. "And I, uh, I'm interested in that with you, but I, um, I haven't really, yanno, thought about that before."

White Zangetsu grins at Ichigo's refusal to say the word sex, and he briefly considers teasing Ichigo over it, but he immediately tosses that idea out. It won't do to get Ichigo upset with him when he already has Ichigo right where he wants him, so no to the teasing for now. Instead, he curls his fingers underneath Ichigo's chin and leans in to press their mouths together. Ichigo's gaze snaps back to his with his attempt at a first kiss, made clumsy by the fact that their noses seem to get in the way, and he starts to pull back when it seems like a lost cause.

"Let's try that again," Ichigo immediately murmurs, and he snakes his free arm—the other still decidedly trapped between them—around White Zangetsu's neck to keep from him from retreating. It works, and Ichigo uses his new leverage to close the scant gap between them, his head tilted just so and, oh, this is how a kiss works.

It's a much better second attempt, and White Zangetsu definitely sees the appeal in kissing. Ichigo's mouth is soft against his, and…a powerful and unfamiliar reiatsu brushes against them, more specifically Ichigo, making them break apart.

"You felt that, right?" Ichigo asks, looking and sounding puzzled, and White Zangetsu tightens his arm around the teen.

"Yes," he answers as he looks up at the sky of Ichigo's inner world, his eyes narrowing. "Tha' didn't belong t' any of yer friends or anyone in th' Zero Division."

Ichigo doesn't immediately respond to his observation, and when White Zangetsu returns his attention to Ichigo, he's met with a perplexed expression. "I think that was the Soul King," Ichigo finally says, voice just barely above a whisper.

White Zangetsu doesn't want to say that Ichigo is right, doesn't want to think about what it means because Ichigo is right, but… "If it's th' Soul King reachin' out t' ya, then ya should go see what he wants with ya." He doesn't like it, not one bit, but it's not like Ichigo can refuse a summons from someone like the Soul King.

"I should," Ichigo quietly agrees, and his expression becomes contemplative. "Are you able to manifest out there? Not as a sword or a mask, but…"

"Like I am in here? I can try, but I don't know if somethin' like tha' will work." He understands why Ichigo is asking, or at least he thinks he does, and it's touching that Ichigo wants him manifested out there to accompany him. He just hopes that he can manifest out there the way Ichigo wants him to. "See ya out there?"

Ichigo gives him a nod, his mouth curling with a small smile, and then his weight vanishes from White Zangetsu's lap as he leaves his inner world. It's almost lamentable that they were interrupted, and White Zangetsu sits there for a few seconds before he decides to follow after Ichigo, or at least try to.

As he focuses on manifesting out there, he almost doesn't notice the Soul King's reiatsu return, and it isn't a brush of reiatsu like before. It latches onto him, onto them, and it pulls, and Ichigo's inner world starts to spin, and him with it, before it's all just gone in the blink of an eye, and his vision fills with black. The ground beneath him is suddenly a lot more cushiony; at least he thinks it's the ground, but then he notices that his orientation is all wrong and he's not sitting on the ground.

"I don't know what I was expecting when I asked if you could manifest out here, but it wasn't this," comes Ichigo's voice from…underneath him? "Think you could get up, White Zangetsu? You're kind of crushing me."

White Zangetsu blinks, and then he slowly pushes himself up to find that he is indeed on top of Ichigo and that the black that had filled his vision is Ichigo's shihakushō. "Well, I wasn't expectin' th' Soul King t' involve himself in this," he gripes as he eases himself up off of Ichigo and stands. "So if anyone's t' blame fer me almost crushin' ya, it's him."

"Let's just go see what he wants," Ichigo says in a hushed voice as he picks himself up off of the floor and straightens his shihakushō. He gives White Zangetsu a cursory once over, even going so far as to smooth the wrinkles out of White Zangetsu's shihakushō, and then he gives a satisfied nod before he turns and leads the way out of…well, White Zangetsu doesn't know where they are. He just shrugs and follows after Ichigo, not at all interested in taking in their surroundings.