Toshinori stared at Ichigo oddly as she lay curled up on the couch, resting.

She'd been there for a little while now since they had returned from their outing and he wasn't sure exactly how to approach her after what had happened in the alley. Wracking his brain, he tried to think of how everything had gone so...weird.

Everything had been going so well when they had left this morning. He'd learned that she was made to be a mother- honestly she was so good at the whole mothering thing that he was a tad bit envious. He'd learned a little bit more about her family. Her man child father. And the fact that she had two younger sisters who were twins. Twins!

That was definitely something that she might have needed to mention beforehand.

Not that it changed his plans any. One baby or two, it made no difference to him. He'd love his child/children regardless of how many of them there were.

And then he had gotten angry and overly curious when she'd mentioned that...Kisuke bastard again, and he'd ruined everything. He knew that there was still a lot about Ichigo that he didn't know and all, but he wanted to know her. To know her past, her present, and her hopes and dreams for the future. Her family, her friends- the bastards responsible for modifying her...

He wanted to know everything.

But after earlier, he was also just a little bit scared of her. Not...truly scared, mind you. He'd been up against villains that scared him far more than she possibly could.

But at the same time, he was certainly scared enough to not want to walk down a dark alley if she was waiting for him at the other end of it. Something told him that if he ever did, and she was upset like she'd been earlier- he was sure that once she caught him- his undignified, dying screams would probably echo across the city.

So, here he was just sort of hiding out in his kitchen- where he totally wasn't hoarding anything like the left over sweets, and the fridge. Because for all he knew the end was nigh- watching her like a hawk from his position, partially hidden by the island.

"Toshinori?" Her voice finally called out, startling him so badly that he literally tripped over his own feet and fell in an effort just to stand up.

He yelped as he hit the floor on his stomach. And then went totally still when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he slowly turned his head to see her crouched down on the island, looking over the edge of it right at him.

"Good lord you're fast." He blurted out in shock- because honestly he wasn't sure how she had even managed to move so fast, much less climb up there without making any flipping sound. Did she just teleport? To find me? He wondered curiously as she blinked at him before slowly climbing down off of the island and kneeling down next to him. Her garnet colored eyes looking him over carefully for any signs of pain or injury.

"Are you alright?" She asked after a heartbeat or so.

"Y-Yes."

"Good." She said with a nod as she reached out and took hold of one of his arms, right around where his elbow was, and then stood up and tugged him up too. She may not have tugged him totally up off of the floor, but she'd given him a decent head start by getting him up onto his knees so that eh could get up a little bit easier.

"You want to tell me what you're doing hanging out here in the kitchen and shooting me funny looks?" She asked once he was finally on his feet again.

He blinked at her while trying to figure out how to tell her that he was simply hanging out, just thinking... And somehow wondering if the start of the apocalypse would be a good deterrent to asking her anymore questions.

"Toshi." She said again, this time shortening his name to get his attention.

"Uh...yeah?"

"It's okay if you're a little bit freaked out."

"I'm not freaked out!" He said quickly. Not wanting to give her the impression that he was terribly bothered by what had happened before.

"Then why are you hanging out in here acting like you got a killer zombie, or a demon or something hanging out in the living room?"

"I-I was just wondering what would happen during a zombie apocalypse. You know, like what sort of stuff would happen and-"

"A lot of dumbasses would die. Frat boys, stupid people- likely some girls with obscenely big tits and no real brain cells to speak of, people that border on vegetable-esque. So...if such a thing were to actually happen, more than half of the population would die pretty much overnight. And-" He couldn't help but gape at her in horror.

She rolled her eyes at him and reached out to place her fingertips against the underside of his jaw, and used them to force his mouth shut. "If your so horrified by the turn of conversation, then you shouldn't bring such things up in the first place," She said as she dropped her hand away from his jaw before then asking seriously, "Do you want me to leave? I mean, am I bothering you or something?"

His eyes widened a little bit in dismay at the question as his hand shot out and wrapped around the nape of her neck and he tugged her in close and growled out in a fierce tone. "No. Never." Before then asking her in a slightly saddened tone. "D-Do you want to leave?"

"No," She replied in a small tone before tacking on. "I just thought that since you seem to be uncomfortable- I just wanted to ask you and make sure."

"I'm not uncomfortable. And I'm sorry that I made you think that I was."

She thinned her lips a little bit and shrugged her shoulders. As if to say, 'I'm used to it.'

Which made his heart ache a little bit in his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up against his chest and let her rest her head on his shoulder.

She was still tired. Even though she hadn't really been resting all that much when she had been on the couch. She'd been too busy keeping track of his chaotic emotions and listening to his every small shuffle. If not for the fact that she had been acutely aware of the fact that he was watching her- she likely would have actually taken a nap for a little bit.

He seemed to know this, because after being held for several long minutes, he bent down a little bit and swept her up in his arms and carried her back over to the couch and sat down on it and placed her in his lap.

Once that was done, and he was certain that she would be comfortable where she was, he reached up and tucked a few silken strands of her dark hair back behind her ears as he suggested quietly, "Why don't you get some rest. I think I'll sit here for a little while, hold you and watch some TV. I'll even keep the volume down so that it doesn't bother you any."

Ichigo nodded her head and then took a moment to lean up a tad to nuzzle the underside of his jaw in an affectionate manner before settling back down and closing her eyes.