Sorry for the year+ long delay! After rereading my chapters, I've decided to start posting for this story again! Please review if you enjoy!
I could hear the thumping of feet against the wooden floor throughout the house as I lay on top of the sheets on Ichigo's bed. It was near dinner time, so there was a lot of movement going on from his father and sisters. I used spend most of my time in Ichigo's closet, out of fear that a curious sister would coming snooping into her older brother's room while he was gone and uncover one of his biggest secrets lying right on the bed. However, to my surprise and fortune, Ichigo's family seems to be surprisingly respectful of his privacy. This gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted in the bedroom while he was gone.
Ichigo didn't really like the idea of me being locked in his room while he was out, but I enjoyed the alone time. Besides, he was with Chad playing basketball, a strange human game that I wasn't very well accustomed to.
"It's simple", he said to me the first time I had gone with him, while we stood on the court waiting on Chad to arrive. "You just throw the ball in the hoop like this". He then effortlessly threw the orange ball he had brought with us towards a metal loop suspended high off the ground on a pole. The ball slid through the narrow loop without even touching the rim and smacked the ground sharply. Ichigo caught it mid bounce and tossed the ball towards me. Even though his aim was fine, the ball still managed to slip through my fingers and bounced wildly at my feet. I had to kneel down and hold the ball down with both hands in order to bring it under control.
I looked up at him and scowled while he smirked at me. "Give it a try, Rukia", he said with an amused tone.
I stood up with the ball and tried to replicate the way I had saw Ichigo hold it earlier, but I found holding a ball bigger than my head a little awkward. Once I had a grasp, I turned my attention to the loop bearing pole in front of us. It was probably only about 10 feet away from us, but it seemed like a mile to me. I readied myself thrust the ball into the air. I focused my attention on the loop instead of the ball, waiting for contact to be made, only to be startled when ball hit the ground with the ground only about 5 feet in front of me.
I expected to hear Ichigo's chuckle from beside me, but he didn't say a word as he went after the runaway ball. "How did that happen?" I asked him. "I could have sworn I threw it hard enough".
"You'll get better", Ichigo calmly before bouncing the ball back towards me. "Just give it a bit more power, and try again." Ichigo crossed his arms and observed as I grasp the ball a little hard, focused even more on the goal in front of me, and thrust the ball with even more force in front of me. This time, the ball did go a whole ten feet in front of me, just another ten feet the left of the goal this time.
Ichigo had me practice for the 15 minutes it took Chad to arrive. By that time, I had actually gotten the ball to bounce of the rim of the loop 3 out of 5 times. When Chad was ready, I took a break on a bench beside the court to watch them play. I watched as they swiftly dodged past each other, aggressively slap the ball out of each other's hands, and used their bodies as walls to prevent each other from reaching the goals. They were able to get the ball in the hoop each and every time that they tried, even if it meant leaping what seemed like my entire body height to do so. I knew that there was no way even 5 of me would be able to keep up with the two of them in a game.
Since then I'd decided to either stroll the park by myself and enjoy the beautiful scenery and giddy children, while Ichigo played his game or just stay home and enjoy the time to myself. Most of the time, I would read, do some puzzling school work, or draw whatever cute animals came to mind. Today, however, I was content with lying atop the bed and letting whatever object my eyes were focused on slowly drift out of focus as much as I could before blinking and bringing the object back into clear view. It was a strange game, but it gave me a strange sense of pleasure and helped the time go by a little faster.'
From down the stairs, I heard the front door slam shut and a young voice shout "Ichi-nii, you're late for dinner again!" followed by a familiar mumble.
As I began to hear the thump of heavy footsteps on the stairs, I started to wonder if I should at least change from the lying position in preparation for Ichigo's arrival. I had decided to maintain my position as I heard the door swing open. My eyes shifted to the side and I watched Ichigo place a large plate of food on his desk. He then peeled off his sweat soaked shirt to reveal his lean, shiny torso and collapsed onto the bed right beside me. Ichigo's bed is rather small, so I had no choice but to scoot closer to the wall the accommodate him. Even, much of his body was pressed against mine. As soon as his body fell onto the bed, I was overcome by the smell of his body. Even though he was covered in sweat, it wasn't an unpleasant smell. Though it wasn't sweet, it was rather pleasant in a way that I wasn't able to identify.
Ichigo had his hands stretched out above his head over the edge of the bed. One of them stretched across his face, obscuring it so that I could only see the orange hair plastered to his forehead and his brown eyes lazily watching me.
The pleasant feeling that was overcoming my body enhanced the attraction I had for the boy lying next to me immensely. I moved even closer to him and moved my hands onto his body. His skin was hot and damp under my anxious finger tips. I felt the need to touch every inch of his body.
I'm sure it wasn't the fact that he was half undressed that had me so anxious. I had seen him without a shirt plenty of times after the shower that he usually took after his basketball game. This time was different. This was a feeling that I had never had before.
"Rukia", I heard Ichigo breathe. I finally took my attention off of his body and focused on his face. He was propped himself up and a studying me carefully. I'm sure he was trying to communicate something to me through the expression he was wearing as his eyes bore into mine, but I was too distracted to tell. My breathing had taken on a shallower pace.
"I brought you dinner", he said huskily, making no motion towards the food growing cold on his desk. He didn't even blink. I wanted to reply in a seductive manner, how it wasn't the food that I was hungry for, but I was in too primal of a state. Instead I just went straight towards his mouth and started kissing him so aggressively, we didn't even take the time to breathe.
Ichigo shifted his body so that it was on top of mine. His lips were hot, his tongue was hot, his body was hot, and I could feel the heat radiating through my body. It was like a chemical reaction, changing my entire composition of my body into something else. I was changing into something I had never been before. I needed more of his body. I had a craving to touch him more than I had ever before. Before I knew it, I was out of my own shirt. However, the feeling of his bare skin against mine did little to satiate me. If anything, it increased my hunger tenfold. I needed to be out of my clothes and I needed him to be out of his. I normally don't lose control of my behavior around Ichigo or anyone else for that manner. I would have been concerned with what he thought of me and how I was acting, but somehow, I felt that he not only understood my urges, but were being overcome by the same ones.
He did, however, manage to pause the progression of our actions. "Are you sure about this?" he asked from on top of me. He was piercing right into my eyes, in a way that normally would have put me off, but I wasn't myself. I may have verbally said "yes". I may have merely mumbled or moaned, but either way we continued with our venture.
I'm not sure how to describe what happened next in a way that doesn't make it sound dirty or vulgar or something else that it wasn't. Never before had I experienced the entire range of physical and emotional states in one act. Excitement, apprehension, pain, warmth, ecstasy, fullness, all right after the other. Not only were we closer than we had ever been, but we were one. I was fully exposed and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever done.
When we had finished, we lay next to each other in the same way we had begun. Ichigo's arm laying across most of his face combined with the dim glow of the moon through the window being the only source of light made Ichigo's expression especially hard to read. He just watched me and I watched him.
"Rukia-", I heard him stutter before silence filled the room once again. I could tell that he didn't know what to say. Neither did I. What would have sufficed? Thank you? That was great? Maybe just rolling over and going to sleep?
He reached out and held the side of my face. His arm was no longer obscuring his face, yet his expression was blank. The sides of his mouth then curled into a slight smile. "I love you", he said softly.
My hand moved to my face to meet his hand. "I love you, too", I replied smiling even more broadly.