Authors Note- I guess I'll explain my failure of a first chapter. I feel guilty… SO HERE GOES! Yeah… they are very OOC. All of them… -.- Ichigo seems a bit violent here and Uryu probably wouldn't turn to selling his body for money… I'd say I didn't do too retched with Ichigo's family though. (?) But OOC is kind of bad so I'll try to fix that. Also not really very AU- Gemini, I have no idea if you read up to the point where Ichigo loses his powers or something, but this story is set 17 months after Aizen's defeat, but Uryu is homeless so slight AU. I like AU… :3 Also, for Uzu's name, I always write it Ūzu on paper, but I lack the effort to insert the long vowel thing. Maybe I can do it this chapter. I felt that the steel toe boot thingy was relatively 'humorous'. Yeah you got me. But Americans that live in florida do wear their shoes inside so they don't "NEVER wear shoes inside. Canadians do too, and I live in Canada so I guess I just forgot about Japanese peoples…
The next morning Uryu woke up to being kicked off the bed rather violently and falling onto the floor.
"I thought I said that I hate it when people touch me with their feet!" He got up and put his glasses back on. "What is your problem?"
"You wouldn't wake up so I decided to help you out. Also, you smell okay for a homeless person. Like, a flowery type of smell." Ichigo turned onto his back.
"Really? That's what the guys at the orphanage said. And we only got to shower twice a week."
"Well do you want to have one now?" Ichigo asked.
"That would be good. I haven't showered in… I don't know." To be honest Uryu hadn't showered in two weeks. And he felt horrible about it. "Um… where is the shower?"
"Here I'll show you." Ichigo led him down the hall to the bathroom. It was mostly white, with a blue granite sink. Also, there were light blue mats in front of the toilet and bathtub. Uryu really liked the color scheme they had going on. Ichigo exited, and Uryu began taking his clothes off. He examined his profile in the mirror, even though he stuffed himself the night before, he could still count 12 ribs. It seemed like the only place where he had extra fat was on his hips. He hated that…
He stepped into the shower and let the warm water wet his hair. He loved showers, it was a good time to just relax and think about things. He thought about how Ichigo subconsciously wrapped his arms around him the night before and the warmth that radiated off of him. Uryu decided not to bring it up; maybe he would do it again tonight? He'd just have to wait and see what was going to happen today. He washed his hair with Ichigo's shampoo, which definitely smelt a bit foreign to his nose. It smelt a bit like cologne, so Uryu made sure he rinsed it out well so the scent wouldn't stick.
After that Uryu stepped out of the tub. He felt a bit cold now; the water was so warm and inviting. Now he was shivering, and his teeth chattered. He found a towel, wrapped it around his waist and skittered to Ichigo's room as fast as possible. There he found Ichigo tuning his guitar.
"Um…" Uryu looked at his clothes that he had recently made. "Ichigo I need to change."
"Don't worry. It's not like I'm a girl or anything."
Uryu shrugged and removed his towel. He made it an issue to make sure that Ichigo couldn't see anything. When he was finally dressed he watched Ichigo play his guitar. He was getting a bit better at this song he was trying to play, but he always swore when he missed a note or played a chord wrong.
When Ichigo finally put the guitar down Uryu clapped and smiled.
"Hm. Looks like I attracted an audience. Well that's good because I thought I'd give up." Ichigo got up and tried to ignore Uryu. But it was pretty hard because he was wearing some of the tightest skinny jeans he'd ever see on a guy. Still, he walked off and put his guitar on the stand.
Uryu sniffed his hair. It still had a bit of a residual scent on it from the shampoo he used. It smelt pretty weird on him and he didn't particularly like it. Maybe he could use his money he had saved up to buy the old hair stuff he used. He had maybe 300 dollars left from buying all of his thread and yarn so he probably could get some conditioner too. Uryu was positive that his hair would be horrible when it dried.
Ichigo yawned out of boredom. Now he had nothing to do, really. So he applied his efforts to cleaning his room up a bit, which meant he was really desperate to kill boredom. Uryu felt horrible sitting on his butt watching someone else clean so he got up and helped him too. When they were finished Ichigo's room was immaculate, thanks to Uryu.
"We did a good job, neh?" Ichigo turned to Uryu, who nodded in agreement. "But why'd you help? You didn't make the mess."
"I feel bad watching others work. It's a bit of a weakness of mine." It was true. He always helped the janitor lady at the orphanage. She was old and kind and her eyes told a story.
"Oh. Are you like a germophobe?"
"A bit, I lysol things often. But I shared a bed with someone else so I guess I'm not that bad."
"Okay. Well not that I'm complaining about it but don't clean it when I'm not in here, k?" Ichigo hated people going in his room when he wasn't around.
"Fine. But please don't make a huge mess." Uryu sat down on the bed.
"Don't try to tell me what to do with my own bedroom." He flicked Uryu on the back of the head. "Learn your place here. You can't tell me what to do, get used to it."
Uryu sighed and remembered how much of a dick Ichigo was to him. It seemed like he might've been opening up a bit, he guessed he was wrong. Maybe he could get to him. Somehow… He sat there with his mouth open for a bit thinking of how he could get to him.
Ichigo nudged him with his foot a few times. "Hello? Anyone Home?"
"Wha- oh. It's you.
"Yeah it's me who the hell else would it be?"
"I dunno… I was just thinking about maybe cooking dinner tonight…"
"Jeez… you sew, knit, clean, and cook? Are you a woman?" Uryu just looked at him funny.
"I question your eyesight, Kurosaki."
"You kind of do look like a woman…"
This time it was Uryu's turn to kick Ichigo in the face. It was well aimed, and had quite a bit of bite to it. Ichigo rubbed his chin.
"Hm. Not bad, for a girl."
Uryu glared rather demonically at Ichigo. He could be rather scary when he wanted to be. But Ichigo knew that if he acted frightened or submissive Uryu would never really learn where he stood in this house. He tried the sarcastic road instead and stuck with it.
"Oohhh… That's pretty scary Uryu."
Ishida tried to punch Ichigo in the face, but had his fist grabbed in mid air. He had no idea just how fast and strong and fast Ichigo was. Uryu couldn't move his hand, and he felt very vulnerable there. But he guessed he had it coming for trying to swing at someone with a body like that. But he was deceivably strong himself, and used his other hand to get Ichigo in the stomach. He wound up hurting his hand, but Ichigo got it a bit worse. He let go of Uryu, and held his stomach for a second.
"Ow… was that necessary?"
"Well you shouldn't have grabbed my wrist." Uryu blushed and looked at his feet. "I just don't like guys people touching me."
Ichigo realized why Uryu might not have liked being restrained, because of what happened at the orphanage. Maybe he was actually traumatized, and felt that if he couldn't get away he was vulnerable. Was he really that frightened something like that would happen to him again? It seemed a little oversensitive for his personality, but maybe he had a bit more dynamics to himself than a bitchy little problem. But he'd rather not think about Uryu any other way. Problem. Issue. Pain. Obstacle. Not even really a human, but an issue. Still he couldn't help but feel a bit bad for what happened to him in the past. Could it really be that bad?
Ichigo tried to change the subject. "So you're offering to cook dinner tonight? What do you wanna make?"
"I was thinking maybe ramen, or miso soup. But if you don't want soup I could do curry chicken and rice, too. In fact, what do you want to eat?"
"Well we had rice last night so let's do miso."
"Oh, I was definitely thinking that too." In fact if Ichigo said any of the others he would've done miso anyways. Miso and mackerel. He'd go out and buy a fish and show the Kurosaki family that he was worth keeping. (Ūzu knew that she'd keep him here no matter what, but Ichigo would throw him back to the orphanage any day.) "Would you walk with me?" Uryu felt a bit guilty asking someone that seemed to want to hit him more than get to know him. But it was better than risk going alone and get beaten up again.
"Well, I guess I haven't been out in a while. I could use a walk." Ichigo put on his hoodie. "Do you even have a coat to put on?"
"No." Ichigo was pretty surprised. The boy seemed to like making clothes, so why didn't he make something decent to walk around in?
"Here. Use this one." Ichigo tossed him a very dark blue hoodie. "Its way too small for me so you use it." Uryu put it on happily, it was nice and warm and he liked the color. They said goodbye and started walking down the street. Ishida seemed pretty content with not talking to Ichigo, and they walked in near silence. Ichigo finally spoke up and asked Uryu a bunch more questions.
"Which orphanage did you go to?"
"I'd prefer not to talk about it."
"Why not?"
"I'm trying not to think about what happened there. It was hell and hell is bad is it not? So can we please just not talk about it?" Uryu seemed rather worried and that shut Ichigo up.
"Okay. Well… where did you work when you were…" Ichigo remembered what Uryu's previous "profession" and trailed off. He guessed Uryu must have been absolutely starving or something to turn to that because he seemed like a proud guy now that he got to know him a bit. Maybe this would be better than he thought?
When they got to the fish market, the place was totally swamped. Ichigo decided to link arms with Uryu to keep track of him. It severely embarrassed them both, but it was worth it. If he lost Uryu, Ūzu would totally blame him, Karin would freak out on him and Isshin would snap and go all around the country looking for him. So avoiding that scenario all together would be nice.
Uryu put up his hood and pretended to be a girl or something. It was easy for him, he just pushed some of his hair back behind his ear and if he squeezed his shoulders together tight enough to give him lumps that looked like somewhat like a pair of boobs. He could even talk like a girl so Ichigo stuck with it.
When they had bought a rather small fish (they only needed enough to make a stew) and made their way home. Uryu didn't really make an effort to talk to people very often, so he was terrible at making conversation. He was quite happy with not linking arms with Ichigo, so he had nothing to complain about. He just looked up at the sky and walked. Today it was clear, blue and the sun made Ichigo's hair light up like wild fire. He got so absorbed in the beauty of the city and parks, that it left him a bit open.
Ichigo pressed a very cold juice box up to Uryu's cheek. He automatically recoiled and squeaked a bit, almost jumping onto the street. Ichigo stopped him, by yanking his arm. "Ow!"
"Don't be a wuss. Anyways it's better than getting hit by a taxi." Uryu noticed a yellow taxi honking at him.
He blushed and turned away. "Thanks."
They walked back home, talking about how all of the taxi drivers were very reckless and should watch where they're going.
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Please Review! I luv them and if you do I'll update faster, especially constructive criticism! VERY, VERY helpful! :3 but praise is good too. derp.