'ELLO EVERYONE!
Ichigo: cheerful much?
Me: little bit, yes. ANYWAY. This is more like a filler because:
a) i couldnt fit all of it in one nice and short chapter for yall
b) fillers arent always bad, they give you something to read until-
Ichigo: until you get off your lazy ass and type again?
Me: ...NO.
and c) ...well, there isn't a C. Except that it's my story. So NEH.
LYRICS OF THE CHAPTER: "Oooh, whatcha say? Oh, that you only meant well. Well, of course you did."
EDIT: Me: (looks at author's note) ...What is this, I don't even...
Ichigo: How is this a filler, Mandy?
Me: I wrote that author's note over a year ago, leave me alone! ...I still go by those lyrics, though. I like it.
Come Monday, Rukia was back, and Ichigo looked like a scorned puppy. Peyton eyed the two suspiciously during lunch period, having followed them onto the roof. "Uh...do I want to know what he did?"
Rukia shot him an annoyed glare. "You weren't supposed to know. Was she, Ichigo?"
"Noooo..."
Peyton gave her a weird look. "What, about the, uh...Soul Reapers?" she asked, whispering at the end. Rukia nodded angrily, and Peyton laughed.
"Oh! Well, I had already figured something really freaky was going on! He's actually pretty lucky I believed him, or I would've kicked his perverted ass!"
Ichigo made a face. "I don't doubt it. Did you see what she did to those poor skaters last week? ...Kinda reminded me of myself, actually..."
They both shuddered at the thought of them being alike, and then Peyton groaned. "You saw that? You saw me talking to ghost kid?"
"Yup," Rukia answered, cheered up by her embarrassment.
Peyton sighed and shook her head. "And I thought I was so good at keeping the whole psychic thing a secret!"
Rukia waved her off. "Oh, don't worry. If anyone else had seen it, they'd just think you were talking to yourself!"
Peyton sweatdropped. "Oh, well that's a relief."
Ichigo smirked, let off the hook. Rukia furrowed her brows. "Wait, did you call Ichigo perverted?" His face fell as Peyton smirked at the thought of revenge.
"Oh, yeah. I was taking a shower, minding my own innocent business, when him and his stupid teddy bear thang popped in my bathroom!"
Rukia gasped, even ignoring her accent slipping when she said "thang". "ICHIGO!"
"RUKIA, HONESTLY, I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"
Peyton and the rest of the roof dwellers winced with every blow. "Dang. She sure is angry. Um, sorry Ichigo!" she called out with an awkward laugh.
"You're gonna pay for this, Peyton!"
"DON'T YOU TAKE THIS OUT ON HER! PERVERT!"
"I'M NOT A PERVERT!"
"DON'T ARGUE WITH ME!"
...Ouch. That's gonna leave some marks... Peyton shrugged. "Oh well. He had it comin'."
The next day, as soon as she got to homeroom, she busted out laughing at Ichigo. He sighed as she held her stomach with one hand and the edge of a desk with the other, laughing so hard she wasn't making any noise. "It's not that funny, really!" he protested, temple throbbing.
"Your eye...looks...like a prune! HOW IS THAT NOT FUNNY?" she wheezed. "I thought they only did that in cartoons!"
Rukia sweatdropped. "I laughed too, but honestly. Can you even try to stop?" Peyton shook her head, gasping for air before finally giving one last giggle. "You done?"
"For now!"
She giggled randomly. "Sorry. I had some chocolate milk for breakfast."
"So, out of curiousity...what did they say over in the other world? About the extra ghosts."
Rukia shot Ichigo a glare before explaining. "They're not sure what to make of it. Such an increase hasn't happened in well over fifty years. Well, of this type. We had an incident a while back, but...it was different," she explained carefully.
Peyton shot a sideways glance at Ichigo, who was currently kicking a random pinecone with extreme interest. "What kind of incident?" Rukia cleared her throat anxiously. "Oh, it was nothing, really." A brief awkward silence followed. Hmm. So no one wants to share it with the newbie. Proves my theory...
Ichigo suddenly scowled at her, snapping her out of her thoughts. "The hell're you staring at me like that for?"
She blinked, flushing a little. She hadn't realized she'd been looking at him, but luckily she recovered with a scowl of her own. "Don't flatter yourself, Kurosaki, I was zoning out."
"Uh-huh. That's your story, eh?"
"IT'S THE TRUTH, GODDAMMIT!"
"Finally, you're home!" Lindsay called out a little too cheerfully.
Peyton eyed her suspiciously. "...Is it somebody's birthday?" She glanced around spastically for a calendar. "I know it's not yours...is it mine? Did I forget again?" Lindsay laughed. "It's not anyone's birthday! We have a guest."
"...Guest?"
Peyton peeked into the living room. She saw her brother, her dad...and hair tied up with a red ribbon. She slinked into the living room. "I was informed we have a guest?"
Dad smiled anxiously. "Oh, good, you're home. Finally."
She sweatdropped. "That seems to be a common phrase around here, I usually get home around this time..." Granted she was only late when she and Ichigo got into verbal fights, which usually led to physical fighting, but that happened nearly every day, so...
The woman grinned and held out her hand. "Hey there. You must be his middle child. I'm Miya."
A/N: Ha. Bet you guys thought it was Senna!
Peyton hesitantly shook it, taking her in. She looked only a little older than Lindsay, to be honest. Her shiny black hair trailed down to stop at her waist as she stood up and fixed her ribbon. Her bright blue eyes were practically fricking glowing, she was so happy.
"...Er, I'm Peyton," she said suddenly, flushing a little after realizing she'd been staring.
Dad cleared his throat. "Miya's a co-worker. And a very good friend of mine."
Both Seth and Peyton snorted at that line. "Please, dad." Now we know why he's been coming home so late nowadays! ...Jeez, I thought she was a foreign exchange student or something...
So Miya stayed for dinner, and they all had a very interesting and hilarious conversation from what Peyton could gather. She was too busy picking at her food. Lindsay had made it, of course: onigiri and fish.
She suddenly laughed out loud as she realized that minus the sleeping-over part, this was almost like her night at the Kurosakis'. This caused everyone to turn and look at her, and she cleared her throat nervously and went back to picking at the fish.
Later, Peyton offered to wash dishes as everyone else went to watch television with Dad and Miya. She thought about this Memory Rosary girl, wondering who -or what- she was. Was, is? No, definitely was. Otherwise they wouldn't so neatly sideskirt the subject, especially Rukia. And why did she feel so determined to know?
After a few hours of washing a grand total of five dishes and utensils at least eighty times, Miya was saying goodbye. She went to show her out like a good girl, but to her surprise, Miya hugged her. Peyton patted her back awkwardly, and Miya pulled away, grinning from ear to ear. "I can't wait to see you all again. Goodnight!"
As dad went outside to walk her to her car (which made Peyton wonder why she hadn't noticed the extra car in the driveway when she'd first gotten home), she felt sick to her stomach. Was it the food? Nope, most definitely rage, nice try, Peyton. I have to ask him. I have to. As soon as he comes back, I'm asking.
"Wasn't she great?" Dad asked, with more than a little hint of excitement in his voice as he joined them on the couch. Peyton was situated between Seth and Lindsay, seething.
"Awesome!"
"She's hot enough."
"Sure."
"I'm glad you like her, guys. You're going to be seeing a lot more of her-"
"Dad?"
"Hold on, Peyton. You'll be seeing a lot more of her beca-"
"Dad!"
"Jeez, P, let the man finish!"
"Shut up Seth!"
"Thank you, son. Now, as I was saying-"
"DAD!"
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?"
Lindsay and Seth looked between the two, from dad's exasperated expression to Peyton's position on the couch: arms folded over her chest, pale, and a look on her face that could kill.
"Why does she have a bright, sparkly ring on a very important finger?" she asked, each word sharp and precise.
Dad sighed heavily. "That's what I was trying to tell you. I asked her to marry me last week."
"YES!"
"I HAVE A HOT STEP-MOM!"
Peyton blinked, almost as if she hadn't known the answer before she'd even asked the question. Which, of course, she had. "...Oh. Congrats, dad."
He smiled at them. "She's moving in next week."
"Have you set a date?" Lindsay asked excitedly.
"Not yet, but we were thinking around March or April."
"A spring wedding!" Lindsay exclaimed, nearly swooning at the romantic-ness. Peyton about gagged.
Seth had a scowl on his face. "She doesn't happen to have any hot friends, does she?"
"Either way, they're too old for ya, son."
"How? She could be my sister," Peyton muttered to herself. Luckily no one heard her, so she stayed a little longer before waiting for them to be occupied with the tv. She then went upstairs and resumed her role as Seething Younger Sister Who Hates Her Family's Guts For Moving Her Here, complete with slamming a book onto her desk and pretending to be extremely absorbed with its contents as she continued to mope .
A week later, Miya came to stay. A few weeks after that, things were almost normal. Except for Peyton. More and more spirits were begging for her help, leaving her exhausted and cranky when she wasn't solving their problems.
See, THIS was why she could never be a therapist. Quite honestly, if she heard one more spirit's sob story, she was going to gouge her eardrums out with a spork.
"...And I had to wake you up four times today!" Rukia finished, making Peyton sigh tiredly.
"I'm sorry, okay? I just...I'm just tired."
"It wouldn't have anything to do with an extra car in your driveway, would it?" Ichigo asked sneakily.
Peyton shot him a glare so intense that he winced. "I'm. Just. Tired. Okay?" She pretended not to see the look they exchanged between each other that clearly read: "Should we stage an intervention now, or later?"
Almost three months since Peyton's family moved, she noticed with dismay the leaves were changing. It was that time again. Realizing this made her even more tired. Before that Wednesday afternoon, Peyton had never seen Ichigo go all Soul-Reaper. Not clearly. Until, that is, they were walking home.
Rukia had left for the Soul Society at the request of some of the captains, which basically meant Ichigo and Peyton could have as many stupid fights as they wanted.
"What, can no one look at a leaf anymore, Ichigo?"
"It's not what you were looking at, it was the way you were looking at it!"
"...That sounds like something a girl would say," she pointed out dully.
"But still! You've been all depressed, too, so...What the hell's wrong with you?" he demanded to know, narrowing his eyes slightly as he stared at her.
Peyton sighed in annoyance. "NOTHING!" She yelled it out so loud that some random birds on a wire flew off in a frenzy. They watched them go with wide eyes and sweatdrops.
"...Uh-huh. Nothing at all, Peyton."
Peyton sighed again. "Well, fine, if you must know-" Before she could finish her sentence, a giant Hollow ran her down. They apparently had a nasty habit of doing that. "Godammit, how come I can never see them coming?" she exclaimed, wincing as she realized that her fall had hurt like hell. She struggled to get up as it slashed at Ichigo; she was pinned by a heavy branch it had knocked down when it attacked her.
Eventually she got it off and slid away from it, standing up. There he was, his body laying awkwardly by the ground, and his Soul Reaper self battling the Hollow. She suddenly felt an instinct cross her mind - she needed to move his body, and fast.
Peyton did so without question, and made a small yelping noise as the Hollow crushed the spot Ichigo's body had been lying just seconds ago. And this all took place right around the corner from Peyton's house. After defeating the Hollow with relative ease that made Peyton realize just how helpless she really was whenever he wasn't around, Ichigo slipped right back into his human body, bruised and with a slight scratch by his wrist.
"Thanks for keeping my body safe."
Peyton glanced at the place where the Hollow had been. "No problem. Just keep that thing away from me!" she declared, making a weird face.
Right as they started laughing, Ichigo stopped and scratched his head at something behind her. "What the hell is that guy doing?"
"What guy?"
He pointed behind her. "That one right there, he's running right-"
BAM!
"Oh crap! Seth, get off him!" She yanked him off before he could land a good punch. "What the hell's your problem, bro?"
"What do you mean? You're defending this pervert?"
Peyton and Ichigo glanced at each other. What with Ichigo's bruises and bewildered expression, and Peyton's dissheveled clothes, not to mention her yelling "Keep that thing away from me!"...
"Ohhhhh. No, Seth, it's nothing like that! It was an, um, a raccoon! Yes, a raccoon. I wasn't...er, assaulted!" ...Goddamn pervert, she thought moodily with an eye-twitch.
He eyed them both. "Huh. That explains all the scratches on you guys. C'mon Peyton, let's go home. Miya's cooking again...Sorry about that, dude."
Ichigo waved him off. "Eh, no problem. Who's Miya, exactly?"
"What, Peyton didn't tell you? She's our-" Peyton stomped on his foot. "OW!"
"Miya's no one. C'mon Seth, let's go home."
"...Uh-huh. Don't think I'm dropping this, Cullen!" Ichigo shouted after them.
Peyton turned around and stuck her tongue out at him before stomping away with a confused Seth. "The hell was that about, P?"
"Noooo-thing," she replied innocently.