Chapter 13: Confessions are far too often Long Overdue

The sky began to turn purple as the nightly ritual of the sunset commenced. After the afternoon's chaos things were calm once again. Everyone seemed to be keeping their distance, most likely afraid of upsetting either Ryou or me. He was still pretty unsettled by the whole event.

"Akasaka-sama?" He was sitting near the river bank sipping on his tea. I smiled at the sight. It was good to see some normalcy around me. He smiled warmly and invited me to join him.

"Have you talked to Ryou?" I shook my head, blushing slightly. "I didn't think he'd want to be around anyone right now, let alone me."

"Come now Ichigo. You're far more observant than that." I looked at him curiously. "I bet he'd really like to talk to you right now. But you know Ryou, Ichigo. He's not going to actively seek you out. It's just his way."

"That's the problem," I muttered burying my face into my knees. "He doesn't actively seek me out. He doesn't try anything at all!" He laughed a little.

"Doesn't try? I wouldn't say that. He's just subtle. He'd rather show how he feels than say it, that's all." I nodded slowly and excused myself. I had some thinking to do.

The sun was almost gone over the mountains now. The rush of water could be heard—there was a level 1 just beyond our camp point. He was lying on his sleeping bag. I crawled into the tarp and sat beside him.

"It's called Privacy Ichigo," he grumbled. "Do you just not respect the notion at all?" I bit my tongue. He was just being grumpy… I had to remember that. I gently stroked his blond bangs from his face. He closed his eyes.

"Are you okay?" He shook his head. "Is it because of earlier?"

"No, I just thought I'd be randomly moody." He sat up and looked at me. I laughed. I couldn't help it. The sarcastic remark had just struck me as funny for some reason. The strange thing was my laughing seemed to strike him as funny. We sat there laughing until… I just started to cry.

"Ryou I was so frightened." I buried my face into his chest, tears streaming down my cheeks. His arms wrapped tightly around me.

"I know. I'm sorry. I should have-" I shook my head and pulled back a bit.

"No, no. I was frightened for you. I couldn't see you, I was being pulled under. I was terrified I wouldn't see you again." The look on Ryou's face suddenly became very warm and soft.

"You were worried about me?" He gently wiped my tears with his thumb as he caressed my face. I nodded. "Ichigo…"

"I was afraid I'd never know how you felt about me. That's you'd never know how I felt about you. The idea terrified me." I was calming down now that my mini-emotional-break-down was over. He looked slightly hurt.

"You don't know how I feel about you?" I looked down.

"I want to hear it…" I looked back up at him searching his beautiful blue eyes for some kind of response. I could feel his body trembling against mine as he ran his fingers through my hair.

"I love you, Ichigo." Those words-I'd waited so long to hear them. I turned red and let out a sigh of relief, content. I whispered I love you too as our lips met in a deep, passionate kiss. Even though we had technically kissed before this time was different. I now knew for sure how Ryou felt about me. It was an incredible feeling. We broke the kiss, both of us blushing heavily. Ami called us for dinner.

"Let's not tell them yet," he said grabbing my arm as I tried to leave. I nodded in agreement. They wouldn't hear the end of it for the rest of the trip!

The rest of the evening went by in a blur. It had been an overly exciting day and I was starting to get emotionally numb for the moment. Ryou's mood seemed to have improved since our conversation. He was back to his normal self joking and chatting with every one. I smiled. I wondered if he'd treat me any differently now?

"What are you staring at Baka Strawberry? Shouldn't you be making a pig out of yourself like usual?" He looked at the half-eaten plate of food in front of me. That answered my question.

"How dare you-" he winked at me and I blushed. Without another word I continued eating my dinner.

"They must have gotten together," I heard Mint whisper to Retasu. I choked.

"It's true then?" Mint perked up, undoubtedly ready to avenge her lack of tea. The four girls began gathering closer around us. I backed away nervously. Ryou turned red and struck up conversation with Akasaka-sama.

"I guess we're going to start seeing each other…" I murmured, not sure what else to say. My father's going to have a heart attack, I thought. Ryou was three years older than me… Daddy didn't even like me dating Aoyama, and he was my age! Maybe this was one of those things he didn't need to know about.

That was right. We'd be home soon. Only a few more days remained on our two weeks of canoeing. In a couple of days we'd be taking part in a day long white water rafting trip and then… home. It was a good feeling. I missed home. I missed Mom and Dad. I even missed working at the café! I smiled.

"Alright, everyone get to bed," ordered Ami. "We've got a rough couple of days coming up and I want you all to be well rested."