FIGHTING THAT FEELING
Chapter Two: Mind over Heart
Ichigo glared, daring anyone – ANYONE – to say something.
"And just where were you two? Class started forty-five minutes ago. You're late. You better have a good excuse, Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san." The teacher frowned at them in disapproval.
The rest of the class just snickered and gave each other brief, but knowing glances. Ichigo felt like taking a broom stick and smacking them all on the head – especially Keigo and Mizuiro, because somehow -- just somehow -- he had a feeling that they were the ones at fault. He could practically smell the word EVIL looming over to where they were sitting.
Typically, Rukia was oblivious to it all, and smiled demurely. "Oh, about that," she said. "Sorry…Kurosaki-kun and I had…something important to discuss. We kind of got distracted..."
To Ichigo's horror, the classes' quiet giggling had soon escalated to a full, "slap-on-the-knee" kind of uproar. It had him wanting to find a big hole in the ground and bury himself in it for the rest of his sorry life. Why, oh why, had he agreed to let Rukia do all the talking? She had managed to single-handedly seal his fate with those words.
The teacher's frown deepened and her dissatisfaction became much more apparent. "Oh, I see," she said – in a tone that Ichigo did NOT find particularly assuring that things would turn out for the better. "Well, I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, but class hours are not hours for personal activities." The class giggled again. Ichigo desperately wanted to find that hole in the ground right now. Anything was better than where he was. "Please, let this not happen again. Understood?"
Rukia smiled brightly and curtsied. "Oh, yes, sensei!"
Hell, Ichigo thought as he took his seat. Everyone's eyes were on him. He was in hell…
She couldn't understand what she had done wrong.
Sitting in her seat Rukia doodled idly on the end of her notebook, meanwhile she let her eyes linger towards the boy beside her.
He really had a nasty temper, she thought, watching him. Even after a year of hanging out with him, she still couldn't fathom how anyone could be so moody. She supposed this was all part of keeping up his so-called "image". Then again, she could never really tell with Ichigo, considering his personality seemed just as unpredictable as his irritability.
Rukia wanted to pull out her hair in frustration, because really – out of all the human boys she had met so far, not one of them was as infuriating as THIS one! As far as she was concerned he was the ONLY one who could get under her skin and expect to make it out alive. She couldn't help wonder how exactly he did it.
He was leaning on the edge of his desk with that typical, not to mention infantile, 'I'm angry at the world, woe is me' scowl on his face. It was enough to give her a splitting headache!
Then again… Her eyes softened at her current thought. He could be really sweet when he wants to be, remembering earlier how he'd taught her to use the 'Giant Box'. A vend—a venda-ing machine, was it? Yes, he'd been really considerate then. He was a little rusty at letting others know how he felt, but she knew, despite how hard he tried to hide it, that he still cared. In his own, maddening, grumpy way…he cared.
And to Rukia, that was all that mattered.
"Kuchiki-san?" The teacher was suddenly at her side, looking over her shoulder. Rukia nearly jumped out of her seat in surprise; the entire class, including Ichigo, was watching her. "I don't know what's so interesting about the back of Kurosaki-kun's head, but please…do try to pay attention." Rukia went red in the face, and, not really looking at him, she was pretty sure Ichigo had gone and done the same.
"Sorry, sensei," she mumbled, her head bowed down in disgrace.
The teacher nodded. "See that it doesn't happen again." Rukia nodded solemnly. "Oh, and also—" Rukia looked up. "—I'd appreciate it if you leave the artwork sketch of Kurosaki-kun till AFTER class, understand?"
She looked down on her desk, where, to her teacher's exact words, a drawn picture of a strawberry could be seen on the edge of her notebook. It had Ichigo's wild, orange hair and his perceptible scowl. The class had bursted out into a raucous laughter, as Rukia proceeded to sink in her seat, her face flushing to a colour close to that of a ripe tomato. She snuck a quick glance at Ichigo, who had the look that could only be described as pure horror.
Rukia sighed. "Yes, sensei. Sorry, sensei."
"Oh, cheer up! I thought it went pretty well considering we were gone for forty-five minutes!" said Rukia to Ichigo's sulking figure. "It could've been worse…"
Ichigo looked at her in amazement. "Worse?" he repeated, his voice cracking. "Worse? How can it possibly get worse than this?" He started to bang his head repeatedly on the cement wall. Maybe if he did this long enough, he'd knock himself out and wake up to find this was all just a bad dream. Ten minutes later, he was still awake, and still thumping his head on this brick wall. His heart dropped. That meant he wasn't dreaming! This was all real and everything that he had wished never happened really did! He moaned into his hands. "I'm ruined I tell you…ruined! Rukia, this is all your fault!"
"What?" she gasped. "I didn't do anything!"
"Yes, you did!" he yelled. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"Oh, shut up! It's not like I did it on purpose or anything!" said Rukia, whose face had gone meek red, but whether it was from anger or embarrassment he didn't know…nor did he care.
"Why were you even drawing me in the first place?" he demanded, his face going pink just mentioning it.
"I…I…what the hell are you talking about?" Rukia stammered, the faint red on her cheeks turning scarlet. "Don't be so cocky! I'd never draw you!"
Ichigo scowled. She was lying, and he knew it. Although… really, why HAD she been drawing him in the first place?
Rukia huffed, pushing a stray lock of dark hair out of her face. "And would you quit overreacting?" she insisted. "It's nothing to cry over!"
"I'm. Not. Crying," Ichigo gritted out, although he was close to. He gave her a resentful glare over his shoulder. How dare she take this calmly! He thought furiously. His reputation was at stake and all she could tell him was that it was nothing? "And I have every right to overreact, because this is NOT nothing, Rukia! Not when the entire school thinks that you and I are—" he stopped short in what he was about to say the moment he saw the look of complete and utter puzzlement grace Rukia's face. "Nevermind. Forget it."
Really…he fumed. Was her head really so dense that she could not figure out what he was trying to say! And how the heck could she not notice the VITAL signs people were sending their way each time they were together? They'd been giving them weird looks since Rukia had first come to this school and then some!
And now this…
Ichigo clenched his fists. Somehow, he didn't think this whole misfortune was just coincidence – there had to have been a trigger. An image of Keigo and Mizuiro's smiling, evil faces, while they warmed their hands of the crime they'd just commit, swarmed fast into Ichigo's mind.
Next time I find those two idiots, they're dead!
Rukia cleared her throat awkwardly. "Okay, are you done whining yet?" His glare intensified. Rukia sighed. "Well, hurry up already. I want to go home."
"Well, that sure was a BIG waste of my time," said Ichigo sarcastically, as he slowly disappeared back into his body.
"Oh, shut up," said Rukia, sharply. "At least we got him."
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "You mean at least I got him." Rukia rolled her eyes. "And that Hollow wasn't even seven feet high!" he went on, exasperated. "You pulled me out of school just for something that was this big?" He measured from the ground to just below his waist and gave her an incredulous look.
"Fool! A Hollow's size doesn't measure to the size of the damage it can inflict!" she scolded. She even had the nerve to show him a diagram with those annoyingly cute bunny rabbits. "Besides, I just relay the message to you," she added indignantly. "I don't get stats about it unless it's a Hollow we've faced before."
"Cheh! Looks like someone needs a new dial-up phone," said Ichigo unpleasantly. "Cause that thing--"he indicated at the phone in her hands, "—is ancient."
Rukia scowled. "Hey, I didn't ask you to time frame all of my equipment, you know?" she said haughtily. "All of these things are the state of the art made especially by the Soul Society – they're practically the best we've got at tracking down Hollows."
"Yeah…right…" Ichigo grunted disbelievingly.
"Oh shut up!" said Rukia impatiently. "Let's just go back to school already."
"No thanks," said Ichigo, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"What? But we still have another three more hours left of school!" said Rukia, shocked. "You can't skip out!"
Ichigo snorted. "If I go back there – with you," he emphasized, hoping maybe Rukia will finally get it. Then again, from the confused look on her face… Maybe not, "– not only will Keigo and Mizuiro talk, but the whole school will as well!"
"Talk about what?" Rukia demanded. He snorted again. She was so frustratingly naive sometimes, he just felt like wringing her neck. "Ichigo! What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means exactly how I said it," he said, shrugging gruffly.
There was a pause as she thought about what he said. Then her face flushed red, getting angrier by the second, until the implication of his words finally dawned on her. "You don't want to be seen with me, is that it?"
Ichigo groaned in frustration. "Forget it. If you don't get it now, you never will," he said. He turned to leave, when he felt Rukia grab him gently, yet firmly on the arm, pulling him back to face her. He felt an instant surge, a spark of some sort course through him at that one prolonged touch.
"Tell me then," said Rukia quietly.
Ichigo looked away and swallowed the lump that formed in his throat. Why was he so weak? And why couldn't he yank her off? And must she look at him that way?
That's it, he thought, I'm cracking…or I really am getting soft – ack! Now way! NOT happening!
"Ichigo?" Rukia squeezed his arm. He suddenly became aware of how close they were standing, how blue her eyes were, how unbelievably nice that skirt looked on her –
He quickly jerked away, his face glowing. "I-It's nothing!" he snapped. "Just forget about it. Let's just get back to school."
Without waiting for her to say something, he walked ahead, mentally kicking himself on the behind for such an awkward situation he'd gotten himself into.
Really…what was happening to him?
Ichigo stared hard at the ceiling as the words 'what was happening to him?' echoed repeatedly inside his head. Despite asking himself that question a million times, he couldn't seem to come up with an answer. What the hell was I thinking? He wondered. But even that question didn't land him anywhere else. He was still stuck, feeling more confused than ever.
He turned his head towards his bedroom door, and listened quietly to the running water coming from the bathroom. Rukia was taking a shower, and he could hear the pleasant sound of her singing all the way from where he was. His father and sisters (and Kon, who'd been forced under his will by Yuzu to come along) had gone out, so he knew it would be okay to have her walking around the house.
But really, he thought as something just dawned on him, it was just them in the house. Together. Alone. Not to mention they shared the same room.
The bathroom water turned off. As if caught doing something bad (and he might as well have been), he shook his head rapidly – he even whapped his forehead for good measure -- as if by doing so he'd cleanse himself of whatever dirty thoughts he'd been thinking of.
Honestly, I'm turning into Keigo! He thought and felt immediately horrified by the notion.
Rukia came into the room, wearing nothing by a bathrobe; she grabbed a handful of her clothes then disappeared back the way she came. All that time, Ichigo hadn't taken his eyes off her. He wanted to whack himself with something hard when he caught himself.
It wasn't that he didn't think Rukia was a girl – he had long since realized that fact – but the reality that she was, indeed, a girl was what made her living inside his bedroom closet all the more difficult. He was nearing seventeen, and she was probably the closet thing of the opposite sex he interacted closely with, aside from his sisters. Only problem was, Rukia was NOT his sister, nor could he see her as one.
Argh! He mentally knocked himself. I need help. Fast.
"Uh…Ichigo?" Rukia poked her head through the door.
Ichigo exhaled quickly then said, in his best attempt to sound normal, "Yeah…what is it?"
"I…uh…I think I did something."
Ichigo froze. Somehow, whenever she said 'I did something', disaster wasn't too far away, just burning to strike. Ichigo got up from his bed and made his way towards her.
"What is it this time?" he sighed heavily. Rukia bit her lip, making Ichigo more alert – when she did THAT it usually meant it was really, really bad, which habitually resulted in him running long hours into the night, trying to prevent the house from burning or crumbling down into rubble. His eyes went wide, as he pushed his way passed her and into the bathroom, where the taps were on full blast – exceeding over the sink and trickling rapidly onto the floor, creating a mini pool of water. "What the HELL did you do?"
"I…I didn't do it on purpose!" she cried defensively. "I went to wash the blood stains off my shirt from the fight we had earlier with the Hollow—I didn't know I'd break the valves!"
Ichigo slapped his forehead. "Ahh! Honestly, sometimes you are so—"
"Now isn't the time to tell me how stupid I am!" Rukia snapped, eyes flashing.
"What the hell are you talking about? Now is the perfect time to tell you how stupid you are!" Ichigo flung his arms up in the air as Rukia sent him a death glare. "Okay, okay," he grumbled in a reluctantly defeated tone. "I'll fix it."
A pause.
"But you're still an idiot!"
"Hmm… this tastes good," said Rukia.
"Yeah…" said Ichigo, roughly shoving the ends of his chopsticks into his mouth. He was annoyed, but that was understandable considering what he had gone through.
"What's it called?"
"Instant noodle," he replied.
"Instant noo-del?" Rukia repeated slowly, staring curiously at her bowl. "They look like squirmy little worms to me."
"Well, I can assure you they're noodles," said Ichigo.
Rukia blinked at these so called 'noodles'. Really… the human sustenance was an interesting and vastly peculiar thing. And she included the time she ate the bizarre, triangular-shaped nourishment that Ichigo once called 'pizza'. She took a slurp of the 'instant noodles' and rejoiced in its scrumptious flavor. She idly wondered why they called them instant in the first place, when there was nothing 'instant' about them.
"You think you can teach me how to cook these instant noodles?" she asked.
Ichigo shrugged. "I suppose so."
"Can you show me now?"
Ichigo raised a brow. "Why suddenly so interested?" he said.
Rukia shrugged. "I want to learn," she said.
Ichigo nodded. "Okay. Just one rule of advice though." His features took on a dark and serious face. Rukia tilted her head to the side in wonderment. "Promise me you won't burn the kitchen?"
WHAM!
"Ow, bitch!" He rubbed the spot where she had thrown her bowl at him. "That was totally uncalled for!"
"Cheh! Just hurry into the kitchen already and teach me!"
"Bitch…" he muttered for the second time before following her in.
He sighed exasperatingly. "For the last TIME, Rukia, you pour the water INTO the pan and then you dump the noodles IN! Really," he said, rolling his eyes, "it's not rocket science."
Rukia glared. How dare he make fun of her! "I wouldn't be messing up if you'd just explain it bloody properly!"
"I AM explaining it properly; it's just YOU who has the listening impediment around here!" he said loudly.
Rukia glared, thoroughly aggravated – at him, because, well, he was Ichigo, and at the noodles because, well, they didn't like her. Damn you… why the hell won't you work?
Ichigo rolled his eyes again. "Here," he said, sighing in a way that made Rukia feel like an over-emotional toddler. He came around behind her and took the arm that was holding the bag of noodles. "You pour this," he said, leading her hand over to the pan, "over here." After saying so, he deliberately tipped her arm over and Rukia watched as the noodles fell from the bag and into the pan which was filled with steaming water. He glanced at her to see if she was paying attention. "Got it?"
He was leaning just over her shoulder; she could feel his chest touching her back and his breath tickling her cheek – when he had taken her arm and stood at the back of her, she had immediately tensed up. Rukia was barely even aware of what he saying because her mind was whizzing, her entire thoughts blurring out of control, because at that precise moment, all she could think of was him, and the fact that he had his arms wrapped around her.
"Rukia?"
Startled, Rukia looked at him. He was frowning.
"Oh…sorry," she mumbled. God, what the hell happened to me? "What did you say?"
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I said do you get it?" Truthfully, Rukia couldn't remember, but she nodded – mechanically – nonetheless just for the sake of answering. "Okay then." He released his hold on her, and Rukia felt mildly disappointed by the loss. "Just stir for ten minutes, and then it should be ready."
He turned to leave, but paused when he reached the doorway.
"Oh, don't forget to turn off the stove when you're done," he reminded. "I don't want to come back here and find that you've burned a hole through our wall or something."
Rukia scowled. "I won't burn anything," she said firmly. "Just wait."
She had that look on her face again, like she was rising to a challenge.
Ichigo chuckled then waved carelessly at her. "Okay then. I'm taking a shower."
He left, and Rukia, rolling up her sleeves, set out straight to work.
Why did he have a feeling he shouldn't have left her all by herself? He thought. There was a feeling of dread in his heart, and a part of him wanted to go back there and check to see if the kitchen was still in tact. The other part, however… never wanted to come back there again.
What the hell was he thinking? He asked himself for what felt like the millionth time that hour. He didn't know what had possessed him. His body had just moved on his own. Before he had even considered what he was doing, he was holding her hand and pressing closely against her. He wondered if she had even heard his heart pounded erratically – he certainly had; in fact – he placed a palm over his chest -- his heart was still beating erratically.
Ichigo closed his eyes, trying to his best advantage to calm himself down. He counted to ten several times, but to his dismay, he could still recount the smell of her hair, the feeling of her hand in his…
He shook his head again.
Really… he needed help. And for the sake of his sanity, he hoped it was soon.
"I need a cold shower," he muttered.
When he returned, Ichigo was surprised, not mention relieved, to find that the kitchen was one hundred percent still there. Rukia placed her hands on her hips, looking mightily superior.
"Hah! See? I told you I could do it!" she said.
Ichigo went around the room to check and see if he was not just hallucinating. Sink? Check. Fridge? Check, check. House…? Check, check, check.
Next thing he knew, he was being forced to sit down and was being served a large bowl filled with…? Ichigo blinked. Was that really instant noodles? Rukia grinned again in excitement (although she was trying to conceal it and look superior over Ichigo).
"I made it all by myself," she said, looking proud.
Ichigo nodded as he inspected the so-called 'noodles'. "Uh, yeah…I can tell that," he said. You over-cooked it, he thought. He drew a breath – Rukia was not going to like what he had to tell her, but someone had to. Who knew what this kind of thing could do to a person if he just let her cook, cook and cook and then serve whatever damn concoction to whomever she pleased.
He opened his mouth, when Rukia said brightly, "I made it especially for you, so eat up!"
"Crap," Ichigo muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, nothing," he said, looking sulkily at the bowl now. He was going to get terrible indigestion (where are those ant-acids?) – was this thing even edible?
"You don't like it, do you?"
Ichigo jerked his head up. Rukia was frowning, looking at him with slight disappointment. He immediately shook his head.
"No, no, no. I like it," he said quickly. Rukia scoffed, not believing him.
"There's no need to lie," she said bitterly. "Here. I'll just—"
He swatted her hand away. "Oi! These are MINE!" he snapped. "If I want to eat them I'll eat them, and right now I want to eat them!" He grabbed for the set of chopsticks beside him, scooped up a whole bunch of noodles then shoved them deliberately into his mouth. "See?" he said stiffly, his mouth full.
Rukia seemed to be much happier over this. "Oh, okay!" she said. "I'm going to go get my own then! Be right back."
"Take your time," said Ichigo, still chewing. He watched her with an intensity of a hawk as she disappeared back into the kitchen. Not a second had passed before he was running to the nearest trash can and spitting out whatever it just was that was making his tongue curl in disgust.
Ugh, he thought as he dumped the rest of his bowl into the trash, why the hell did I just do that? I should've just downright have told her that her cooking sucked and that she'd never make it out as a chef even if she tried for a hundred years.
On a regular basis, he probably might have – after all, he'd rather endure excruciating pain than this. All would be at peace again and so would his tongue. But tonight… he just couldn't. He kept remembering the pleased smile on her face and how annoyingly happy that made him feel.
Rukia came back with – not one, not two, but three bowls of noodles.
"The look on your face made it seem like it was really, really good," she explained at his jaw-slacken expression. "So I decided I'm going to have three helpings of instant noodle!"
Ichigo stared, awestruck. Rukia looked down at his bowl.
"Oh, wow, done already?"
Ichigo cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah…" he said, awkwardly.
"You want another bowl?" she asked.
NO! He wanted to scream. Instead he said, in a much refiner tone than what he wanted to use, "Uh…no thanks. I'm full."
"Oh, okay," said Rukia, taking her seat. "I put the rest back in the fridge incase you change your mind."
You'd have to mangle me first!
"Hmm…" said Rukia, sucking on the end of her chopstick. Ichigo watched her closely. Any minute now she was going to head for the garbage can, but just incase she didn't make it there in time, Ichigo had a mop and soap detergent ready. However, the reaction Ichigo had been expecting was replaced by the one he hadn't been expecting at all; Rukia's face, furrowed with wonderment, brightened considerably as she looked down at her bowl – er bowls. "Wow, this is really, really good!"
Ichigo's jaw dropped.
No. Bloody. Way.
"WE'RE HOME!" Isshin came out of no where, ready to jump kick him, when Ichigo whirled around and jumped kicked him instead. "YES! Nice one!" He did a 'thumbs up' sign from where he was on the floor. "I have taught you well, my son!"
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever, goat-face."
"Uh…Ichi-nii?" Karin looked, bewildered, at the dining table.
Ichigo faltered slightly. Damn. He'd forgotten about the bowls.
He did his best to look defensive. "Yeah, what about it?"
"You ate ALL of that?" said Karin.
"Yeah, so?" said Ichigo. He was going to give Rukia a good kicking on the behind when he got back. Why did he let her eat so much anyway? He shrugged. "I'm a growing guy."
"But, Onii-chan, that's eight bowls!" said Yuzu, horrified. "You'll get fat!"
Tell that to Rukia…but then again, it's theoretically impossible that she could get fat.
After a while, it was apparent that three bowls wouldn't be enough to satisfy Rukia's monsterous food cravings, and she had made five consecutive trips in between to get the rest of her helpings. He couldn't understand how someone so small and skinny could have an appetite the size of...of... Asia!
And now he was being reprimanded for it. Ichigo sighed heavily. "Whatever, I'm going to bed."
"GOODNIGHT, MY SON, REST WELL TILL—"
BAM!
"Stop yelling! It's too late for you to be screaming at the top of your lungs at this time of the night! Geez!" Ichigo's voice trailed away as he ran up the stairs.
Karin looked carefully at his retreating back. "You know…he's been acting real strange ever since he started high school," she said.
"Yeah!" Yuzu pouted. "Onii-chan is always moody!"
Karin nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah…and eating double the amount of helpings?" She frowned. "Very strange…"
Their father jumped back on two feet, looking incredibly enthusiastic about this new speculation. "Is that so?" he said, his voice high and boisterous. "Well, Ichigo must face the difficult trials of manhood sooner or later, and—"he gasped, as though he was suddenly hit in the face with enlightenment (which did NOT happen very often), and started flocking his arms excitedly in the air. "OH! Oh! Oh!"
Karin stared wearily at him; even till this day her father never ceased to bewilder her. "What the heck are you going on about now, goat-face?"
Her father grinned so widely that Karin took several steps away from him. "Hah! It is obvious that your dear brother has been finally hit by cupid's arrow -- the icon of LOVE!" He punched his hands in the air for inspiring affect, which only added to Karin and Yuzu's puzzlement over their father's state of mind.
"Say what?" deadpanned Karin.
"It's that mystery girl he's seeing, I tell you!" he professed vigorously. "I'm sure of it!" He turned towards his daughters, tears of happiness flooding down his beard-coated face. "Don't you see? Ichigo has finally done the deed! I'm finally going to have grandchi—"
WHAM!
"Okay, that's it!" Karin snapped. Her face had gone remotely red. She definitely did NOT want to hear this about her brother. Yuzu on the other hand looked like she was scarred for life. Poor girl. Karin gritted her teeth at her father's flatten form on the floor. "We don't want to hear what you've got to say!"
"But… but…!"
"No buts!"
Her father pouted babyishly before crawling towards the sanctum of the kitchen. Karin rolled her eyes. Honestly, she couldn't remember who the parent in this relationship was anymore.
Yuzu bit her lip in remorse. "You don't think we hurt his feelings, do you?" she asked quietly.
"Nah," said Karin, although she didn't look as if she had even given it much thought. "He's probably in there right now doing something crazy again."
"Oh! Noodles!" His voice rang from the kitchen. "Yummy!"
"See what I mean?"
Yuzu nodded. Then she frowned. "Hey, where did my teddy bear go?"
When Ichigo reached his room, he was immediately attacked by a hysterical and furious Kon, who'd no doubt been subjected to one of Yuzu's make believe games; he was wearing a massive red, frilly gown with yellow pompom balls bouncing about along the sides. And on the side of Kon's left ear was a red ribbon to match.
"ICHIGO! You traitor! How dare you let your sister drag me off like that! You have no idea how horrifying it was!" he cried into Ichigo's shirt. "And what's worse is she even dressed me up in one of her dolly outfits again – I mean what the hell do I look like to her? A girl? I can't keep this up anymore, Ichigo, if she makes me wear one more thing I'm going to…" he just went on and on and on, but Ichigo was still registering something he said earlier.
"Wait…You were gone?" he asked, frowning. Really… he hadn't notice, especially with all of the… distractions. He cleared his throat. On the other hand, it had been really, really quiet earlier – well, that sure explained a lot of things.
Kon glared. "Ah! You heartless, heartless fiend, you—"
"Get off me." Ichigo flung Kon aside. Kon dropped to the floor, still glaring daggers at Ichigo's back.
"How can you treat me like this? I'm part of the team now aren't I?" Ichigo's stoic expression was enough for Kon to figure out his answer. "Fine! At least Nee-san appreciates me!" He stuck his tongue out childishly. "Nyah! Nyah!"
Ichigo felt his irritation resurface and would've given Kon the spanking of his life when the closet door slid open and an aggravated Rukia appeared behind it – once again clad in Yuzu's pajamas. Ichigo would've found this immensely distracting if not for the severe frown she had on her face.
"Hey, would you two shut up?" she snapped. "Just go to bed – if you don't I'll make you! And don't bloody think I won't!" She slammed the door back shut, and that was that.
Ichigo looked at Kon, who was crying again, and couldn't help a devious grin. "Heh… so much for appreciation now, huh?"
"Grr! Just you wait, Ichigo, one of these days I'm so going to totally kick your ass!"
Ichigo rolled his eyes as he got into bed. "Yeah…like THAT day will ever come," he said as he heaved a great yawn.
Kon 'humphed!' before loitering off someplace else.
Ichigo yawned again. He'd had one exhausting day. Tired, he turned on his side and was quick to drift off to sleep…
Ichigo was walking down the halls of his school. The corridors were strangely empty, but he liked it. Up ahead, he could see someone leaning against the wall. Judging from how they stood, and the fact that they were wearing a skirt, he knew right away it must be a girl. As he got closer, he realized he knew who she was.
"What took you so long?" she said, pushing herself off the wall. Dark hair and piercing blue eyes and the smell of sweet perfume collided against him as she shoved him against the wall.
He wasn't hurt, yet he wasn't pushing her away either. Instead, he wrapped his arms around in a tight embrace and let their faces lean in close to one another.
"Sorry…" he murmured, as he gently brimmed the side of her jaw with his nose. "But the teachers wouldn't let me out. I'm here now though."
The girl smiled in the way that totally made him want her. Before either of them knew what was happing, he had HER pinned against the wall, his mouth coming down to claim hers. She responded with equal yearning, wrapping her arms around his neck and loosening the tie from his shirt… letting it fall onto the floor…
Ichigo woke up, gasping for air. His heart was hammering so fast he could hardly breathe, and for the life of him he couldn't get back to sleep. He lay on his bad, flat on his back as he stared eyes wide at the ceiling, refusing to look at the closet door.
A/N: Ah long chapter! But it's here! It was a hassle, considering this was the first time I actually went in depth with Ichigo and Rukia's feelings. I hope I did it justice here and that the both of them are still IN-character. They're probably the most complicated characters in the story, because (1) we only see the side they want us to see and (2) they have this annoying knack at hiding how they really feel. Not to mention Ichigo is going through certain changes –cough- puberty –cough-
Aside from that, wow – a lot of reviews! I'm so happy! I really appreciate all of your thoughts! Thanks!
