Author's note: Hello, everyone! Happy Halloween in advance for those who celebrate it! That also goes for those who, like me, celebrate "El Día de Muertos". Oh, and yes, Ichigo has a problem with female underwear. xD This is so not edited, but still, please read and review!
Also, to those who'd like to know. A sequel to "Hanabi" is in the works, mostly finished and I need a title too. The sequel that Hanabi has spawned is actually longer and I'll probably end up posting it as a one-shot outside the collection. Look forward to that!!
Happy Birthday, Zelel!
Slips
24.10.2006
He wakes up to someone shaking him persistently. He feels like snapping at that person for waking him up, but he is actually too tired to do anything. "Mm… There's no school today, leave me alone," he mumbles in a barely audible voice, face deep into his pillow. It's a surprise that a random curse hasn't slipped out yet from his tongue, considering how utterly pissed he feels at the moment. A hand stretches out to push away whatever or whichever is bothering his sleep.
"No, Ichigo, you have to wake up!" Rukia turns out to be the one urging him to let go of his so precious sleeping time. Once more she shakes the boy by the shoulder insistently; her blue eyes however are fixed on the poster pinned on the wall in front of her. She adds as an afterthought, "Ahh, but get up slowly, alright?"
"What are you talking about?" He mutters, sleep still very evident in his slurry voice. "And just… what the hell are you doing on my…" Ichigo turns to look at her, pauses, and blinks. "…bed?"
Rukia's hair is a mess (as though a rush of wind has swept by), but what captures his attention the most is the fact that she's wrapped in his bed sheets (so that's why he's so cold!) and that her shoulders are bare (wait… bare?). She frowns angrily when he keeps staring through half-lidded eyes, her face is slightly pink. "Don't look, alright!?" she orders. "I'm going to stand up."
Ichigo nods absentmindedly, then he closes his eyes and attempts to fall asleep one more time. That is until his brain actually processes what's going on and he shots up in shock, eyes wide and round. "What the…!?" he screams, unable to continue as a pillow soars through the air and hits him square on the face.
"I said: Don't look, bastard!" she berates furiously. Rukia wraps the sheets tighter around herself and grunts.
Just as Ichigo fixes his gaze on the window, he finally notices that his clothes have been missing as well and stutters uncertainly, "What… how did… we didn't? Oh, shit. We…?"
"No, idiot, we didn't do anything stupider than stripping down," she blurts out before Ichigo can guess any further. Then, cheeks blushing even more crimson, she mutters, "Just… hand me my underwear, first, won't you? It's under you… I couldn't move you so I had to wake you up…"
Ichigo hoists himself up and finds the panties just where she said they would be. He picks them with the tips of his thumb and his index finger as though they are toxic. He stretches his hand her way and offers the white underwear to Rukia as he fixes his stare on the wall. His cheeks are also a not-so-faint shade of scarlet when he feels the garment snatched out from his reach. Then he hears a shuffle of noises which he instantly deems as Rukia dressing.
"You can look now," she speaks up after she quickly slips into her sky blue dress. He looks up at her hesitantly, relieved that she is fully clothed, but she is still avoidinglooking at him. Of course, he is still very much naked. "Cover yourself," she throws at him his t-shirt and the pair of faded jeans that piled up by her feet.
He sighs in relief only once he has finished dressing himself. "I need some aspirins, now," he says as he rubs his temple. He plops onto his bed one more time, rolling over his stomach and sinking his face against the feather pillow.
"I told you not to get up so quickly," she chastises while wearing a frown that could par up with his trademark one. Rukia sighs, waiting for the eminent questioning that she herself isn't sure can answer.
"If we didn't… do anything… Then, uh," he stumbles on his words, voice muffled by the pillow, "how did we… you know?" He's obviously too embarrassed to speak about them getting naked. There's a confused expression all over his face.
"Last night, remember?" she tells him, eyes screwed up in thought. She sits on the bed beside him and Ichigo turns so he's looking up at her. "We were drinking… a bit. I think there were at least a few bottles of sake…"
--
"You're drunk." Ichigo grinned slyly at the woman before him, a scary sight to the normal human being.
He himself was as drunk as he could be, and he barely had had some two… three… okay! Five sake bottles. But he'd been thirsty... yeah... It was a very light sake too. And it wasn't like he always drank. Just tonight, because Rukia dared him to and a man never backs down on his words. He was a man, so…
Rukia's head whizzed his way and she felt the ground shaking. "I'm not drunk," she gruffed out, even when she was pretty sure the earthquake wasn't over yet.
"You are so drunk," the boy assured confidently, but there was a particular sway of his body that made him look like he was about to stumble to the floor. Boy, those were some pretty wooden planks.
"I said I'm not," she retorted, a fisted hand in the air. She walked over to him to pounce at him, but ended up leaning against him so as to not fall face-first onto the floor.
"If you aren't drunk then…" Ichigo screwed up his eyes in thought, he paused long enough to come up with something and then a smirk crept over his lips, "then you won't let me do this."
What followed was so quick that it had her head spinning. He suddenly ducked down and he took her lips by surprise. So shocked she was that she couldn't avoid a tiny gasp escaping from her throat. For a moment, she had almost snapped out of it but her alcohol-induced mind won over and soon enough, she was even seeing flowers in the background. She smiled against the kiss and slowly responded.
Backing away, she grinned lazily at him. Well, that had been good. And there were still flowers on the background, funny… Oh, was that a new painting on Ichigo's wall? And were those actually stars instead of flowers? Hm…
"See?" he drawled in a lazy voice, point proved. Even if half of his mind wasn't really conscious, he knew he wanted to try that with her again. It was fun. He wiggled his eyebrows at her intently.
Rukia blinked once, twice, and a third time before smiling impishly at him. "I guess I am drunk, after all, hehehe," she giggled girlishly.
"You know, it's gettin' kinda hot…" Ichigo mumbled, a suggestive arching of his brow then making him look more positively crazy than before.
"Yeah…"
--
"Uh, it's actually kinda blurry…" he murmurs breathily…
He scratches the back of his head and gulps down the knot in his throat, looking anywhere but at her face. After a moment, he finally turns to glance at her, Rukia's blue gaze meets his, and he has to hold his breath. They nod at each other after a while that could have lasted an eternity, as some sort of silent understanding forms between them.
"This never happened, alright?" Ichigo is the first to breaks the silence as he offers his hand to the woman.
Rukia doesn't take a moment of hesitation to take it. "Deal."