It was after dinner, a very delicious roast by Martha, Gramps's wife, and now they sat in the living area.
"So, can I assume that you three will be staying awhile longer? I mean, we have so much catching up to do and all. Besides, Kish, you look tired. Have you been straining your muscles again? I told you, stop trying to train so hard."
At this, all heads turned to Kish, who was sitting, hunched, on the couch. This would've been totally normal, if he weren't nearly crying from the pain.
"Kish, please, just rest awhile. I'll even take care of you." Ichigo offered lovingly, stroking his pain filled cheek. True, he'd been straining to keep himself flying for a while now. It was all because he'd been beaten by Tart last month in training. It'd eaten at his thoughts.
So, graciously excepting her kind offer, Kish quickly pushed his shoes off as he pulled his feet up. Once he'd done this, and curled into ball-like state, he leaned down and rested his tired body onto the couch. He let his head lay ontop of Ichigo's lap as he drifted off to sleep.
Once he was sure that Kish was fast asleep, Gramps spoke up.
"I don't like the looks of this. It seems like his 'problems' are resurfacing."
At this, Ichigo turned her head, obviously confused, looking for an answer.
"Well, see, mom and dad died a while back. Dad died of cancer, mom of heart break soon after. Since then, Kish has always been piled with so many responsibilities. Ones that are really eating away at him. After mom and dad passed, Kish started to space out, to distance himself, emotionally, from everyone else. It was only when he'd met you that he showed any other kind of actual, genuine emotions. He started to laugh, joke, goof off more. It made us all very happy. But, we're all a bit scared that you might try to leave, leaving Kish to deal with all this alone again." she paused here, letting her grandfather explain further.
"He's lonely whenever you're not around. I guess you could say he's become addicted, clingy even. Yet, it's only towards you. So, if you were to leave, Kish would become withdrawn and depressed again. You could even say that he has a graveyard of skeletons in his closet. Thus, we're all counting on you to marry him and stand beside him forever, because we can all sense that your feelings towards him are true and unchanging." with a confirming nod from Harmony, as well as some passing maids, old ladies that'd helped to raise Kish, she returned it.
Soon, she'd begun to rub her fingers behind his ears, earning a sigh of utter and complete pleasure from the boy in her lap. "Yeah, maybe not right away. I definitely want to stay by them both though."
"So, can we stay for awhile?! I mean, Kish has to rest and all, and this'll give us plenty of catching up time. It's perfect!!!" Harmony cooed, jumping from her seat. Only to latch onto Ichigo's arm and start to pull. Giving her the pleading puppy dog eyes.
"…fine, we can stay. As long as it's alright with Martha and Gramps." she caved, gently pulling away from Harmony so that she could go back to scratching Kish's ears.
"AH, Ichigo, that's the spot! Right there!" taking his sleeping sounds of pleasure as her doing something right, she kept scratching that specific part of his ear. This, in turn, caused the boy in question to cuddle his head deep into a place it shouldn't really be.
Ichigo could feel all the blood rush from her face as it turned a deep, blush, red. Though the position would usually earn Kish a wack upside the head, she was letting it slide. After all, they WERE pretty much boyfriend and girlfriend. Besides, Kish was sleeping and sore? Why not just leave it be for now?