A/N: I decided to give you the second chapter right away, just so you can see which direction this will be going. Please review if you liked it or if you have constructive criticism.
.
.
.
Chapter 2 – Touching
.
.
.
Ichigo yawned and stretched. He felt tired. Rubbing his eyes, he swung one of his legs out of the bed, coming to sit on the side of it. He'd woken up before his alarm and his old man was most likely still asleep, giving Ichigo some much-needed peace from his crazy antics.
He stood up and dragged himself to the bathroom. As he stepped into the shower, he relished in the normalcy of it all. Being at home. Sleeping in a bed. Having a shower. Not fighting. These were simple things, but he was more than grateful to have them. It had been more than one year since they had returned from hell and from time to time it still all felt surreal to him.
He even enjoyed going to school. After Aizen's defeat soul society had finally sent Karakura a Shinigami guardian that deserved his name and so Ichigo had rarely been needed to fend off hollows. Additionally, word had gotten out that it was a seriously dangerous idea to mess with the orange haired kid from Karakura high, so he hadn't gotten any trouble from punks and hooligans around town. With his attendance up and less things to worry about, he had risen to 8th in his class - a development that had had his old man crying at his wife's poster that their son had a brain after all.
Yep, it was all good.
.
.
.
Orihime was humming to herself as she locked the door behind her. Toady was going to be the day. She had planned it all out. And today the plan would be set in motion. She would start small. She didn't want to scare him off. And – she admitted to herself – as bold as she was in her dreams, she needed to ease herself into it as well.
But she was resolute. No backing down this time. She put on her game face and pumped her fist in the air. "Space cadet Inoue departs on the mission to make her country proud," she cried cheerfully. And with that, she started off to school.
.
.
.
Ichigo yawned while he walked through the hall on his way to the classroom. "Good morning, Ichigo," he heard Mizuiro's voice behind him and turned to greet his classmate.
"Yo, Mizuiro. Keigo." The latter greeted him with a theatrical "Ichigooooo, good morning, how are you?" but he made no move towards him and was therefore spared a fist to his face. Somehow, he had matured a little after Aizen's defeat and Ichigo couldn't say that he minded. It had been a somewhat tiresome routine to punch Keigo every morning. He already had enough of that with his father and that guy was obviously never growing out of it.
He furrowed his brow a little thinking of his father. It still irked him that his father was a soul reaper – and of captain class no less- and that he had never known or noticed. Seriously, wasn't this something you would tell your son?
"Good morning, Kurosaki-kun," A cheerful voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to see Inoue Orihime smile at him. His frowning forehead relaxed a little at the sight of her as he greeted her back. Her smile widened even more, and her eyes lingered on him for a little longer than necessary. He held her gaze, questioningly. After a second, she looked down and he could have sworn he had seen a blush creep onto her cheeks. What was that about?
.
Orihime felt herself blush. Breathe Orihime. No backing down now, you can do this. Start low, go slow, you've handled way more dangerous situations than this! She nodded to herself and looked back up. "Let's get inside, class is about to start," she chirped and with all the nerve she could muster, she moved past her crush way closer that she needed to, even brushing his abs with her arm in passing as she entered the classroom. Her inner fangirl squealed at the touch.
She inwardly patted herself on the shoulder. Start low, go slow. She repeated her mantra. The first step was done. It was small. But it had been deliberate, and she was proud of herself that she had done it.
.
What just happened? Ichigo stared after his friend quizzically. It was unusual for her to just step into his personal space like that. Sure, they touched all the time, but that was usually when he caught her when she was being clumsy or when he had to bring her to safety in a fight. He shrugged. Maybe she had just misjudged the distance between them.
.
Classes went by quickly and soon the bell rang for lunch. The gang was making their way up to the roof, chatting and teasing one another.
"Yo, Orihime, how was your weekend?" Orihime turned to Tatsuki.
"Let's see…" The redhead put her index finger to her chin. "It was good, Tatsuki-chan! I made a game plan for – uhm, for when the aliens attack. You know you can never be too cautious. One day we might wake up and find ourselves in the middle of an invasion and then we will be so grateful to actually have a game plan all set out. We should have a code word so we can surely recognize each other when the skin changers walk among us. What do you think of onomatopoeia? It's the perfect word because no one uses it in an actual conversation even though it's actually a nice word, don't you think?"
Tatsuki blinked at her best friend's babbling. Then she broke into a smile.
"Actually, Hime, a code word is a great idea, but I could never remember onomatopoeia. Let's make it strawberry ice cream." She smirked.
"No, that won't do Tatsuki-chan," Orihime protested seriously. "What if a skin changer actually just wants to go eat ice cream with me and I will think that it's really you? Or what if they just want to talk about our favorite ice cream flavors and then I won't be able to decide, because there are so many good flavors and I might say cinnamon ice cream and everyone knows skin changers hate cinnamon – oh, you're teasing me," she suddenly realized and blushed. Tatsuki laughed. They stepped towards the group of their friends that had already sat themselves down on the roof.
"Oh, speaking of crazy best friends in dangerous situations…" Tatsuki said. Orihime made an indignant face at her as she continued:
"Ichigo! My Karate practice was moved so now it's right after school on Mondays and Wednesdays. That means I can't walk Orihime home. Would you mind taking over?" Tatsuki slumped down next to Chad and unpacked her lunch.
"Tatsuki-chan, I really don't need anyone to walk me home. I'm eighteen, I can take care of-"
"Sure, no worries, Tatsuki." Ichigo voiced, ignoring Orihime's protest.
"Thanks man." "Sure thing." Orihime looked from one to the other. The two most important people in her life often bickered but when it came to their overprotectiveness of their pretty ginger friend, they agreed completely – often to Orihime's dismay. She was a grown-up after all. She could walk home by herself.
"Guys, while I appreciate the -," she trailed off, suddenly realizing what that meant. She would walk home from school with Ichigo. Twice a week. She closed her mouth and blushed slightly. For crying out loud, you almost passed up on a perfectly good opportunity to get closer to the goal. Get your head in the game, Inoue! And speaking of which- don't you have something to do?
Orihime blushed for the umpteenth time that day. Right. It was time for step two of her plan. She stepped towards the group of her friends that had long sat down in a circle. She swallowed dryly. Let's do this. And with that, she sat down on the right side of Kurosaki-kun, tugging her legs to her right side, purposefully touching her left knee to his thigh. It took all the restraint she had not to immediately pull back at the touch.
An image flashed before her eyes. A strong hand grabbing her knee, stroking up her thigh, coming to rest on her rear. Hot breath on her neck. NO! Now was not the time to think of such things. She was just sitting next to him. People did that all the time. No big deal. Trying to be casual, she unpacked her lunch, still hyperaware that their legs were touching.
"Itadakimasu," she chimed happily and dug in. Her heart was racing. Her leg was on fire. How did anyone do anything with their crushes? How did people live through dates? She was sure her face was the same color as her hair now. She kept stuffing her face to cover it up.
Phase one was "Establish physical closeness with Kurosaki-kun. Make it normal. People like to be touched by people they like."
And she was already dying.
.
.
.
When Orihime's knee settled in that place, touching his thigh, the hair on Ichigo's arms stood upright. His reiatsu spiked slightly, earning him an annoyed look by Ishida. He scowled at him. This was the second time today that Inoue was touching him. Didn't she notice? His throat went a little dry. He glanced over at the healer. She was eating merrily as she always did.