Me: Well, this one's not really that perverted!
Rukia: In fact, it's kind of-
Ichigo: A piece of pure sappy crap?
Me and Rukia: (Dangerous voices) ...BITTERSWEET.
Ichigo: (moody) Whatever. Screw you two chicks, it sucks!
Lyrics of the Chapter: "And I'll chase, you into the dark. Such grace, has never been this ha-a-ard. I've never fallen, never fallen faster..."
-------it's from "Fallen", By Death in the Park, Featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore. it's really good i think, you should check it out! it's stuck in my head, haha-
Rukia: ON WITH THE GODDAMNED CHAPTER, MANDY!!
Me: ...Well, SORRY!!
Ichigo: (all innocent-like) We forgive you.
Peyton was lucky she got out of there when she did. If she had stayed any longer, who knows what she would have done?
She couldn't explain it, but something weird had come over her during their "experiment". It was like a tingly feeling, right near the middle of her gut. Like when a roller coaster suddenly plunged down.
She decided this could mean two things: either she was about to throw up, or something was changing between her and Ichigo.
Both options sucked. Honestly, what could she do about either one of them?!
She decided the best current course of action was to head for the restrooms just in case it was the first one. God, Peyton hoped it was the first one...
"You...are such a pervert," Rukia muttered, hands planted on her hips, which were currently underwater.
Ichigo's temple throbbed. "How come I'm always the ONLY ONE you blame for MUTUAL PERVERTED ACTIVITIES?!"
Toshiro and Matsumoto snickered. "I think I'm gonna go hunt down Peyton. I need her opinion on something," Matsumoto commented mysteriously.
Rukia forgot about her anger towards Ichigo, now totally curious due to Matsumoto's tone. "Lemme come, too!" She shouted, wading as fast as possible after the fellow Soul Reaper.
Ichigo sweatdropped, sighed, and shook his head. "Damn midget."
"Ichigo, you have a serious problem."
He had forgotten Toshiro was there, and jumped rather hard with a ninja yell. Toshiro sweatdropped, then shook his head slowly. "Well, other than your obvious mental ones."
Ichigo glared at him before hopping up to sit on the side of the pool. "Whaddaya mean by 'serious problem'?"
Toshiro hopped up as well. "Well, hmm, let me think. Perhaps the fact that you have feelings for Peyton?"
"How is that a problem? Just because I'm a smart-ass, doesn't mean I have no feelings. I have feelings for all my friends, thank you very much," he stalled.
Toshiro just stared at him. "...Not those kinds of feelings, and you know it."
Ichigo laughed anxiously, not liking where this was going. He liked to avoid this subject at all cost, for obvious perverted reasons.
"What makes you think I have FEELINGS feelings for that Annoying Midget?"
"Well, lemme put it this way. Do you make out on several occasions with all your female friends?"
Ichigo turned red. "Well....no.."
"I rest my case. Just face facts; you have romantic interest in Peyton."
Ichigo groaned. "God, will you stop talking like that?! It sounds so...FINAL."
"Final? I'm not sure I get your meaning."
"Well, if I did like Peyton that way, which I DON'T...I wouldn't be able to NOT feel that way after I realize I feel the way in which I feel for...wait, I just confused myself..."
"You're saying once you stop staying in denial, you've reached the point of no return?" Toshiro offered.
Ichigo pointed at him enthusiastically. "Yes, that's the one!"
"So you admit you know you have these feelings, but are in denial about them."
"What?! I never said all that!!"
"You did."
"Did not!"
"I'm sorry, but you did, I swear I heard you say it."
"NO I DIDN'T!!!"
"So you can confidently say you have no romantic interest in Peyton Cullen?"
"Yup."
"Then shout it out."
"But what if she hears me?!"
"Why should that matter?"
Ichigo huffed. "Fine....Okay, I'm not gonna say it."
"Because you can't bring yourself to say it."
"NOOOO, because I don't want her beating the crap out of me for it later. Plus, my dad might hear, and then he'll get all emotional, and I'll end up in a worse position than before."
They glared at each other for a long time, and finally, Toshiro sighed, getting up. "Alright. Whatever you say. But do you want MY advice?"
"Not really."
"I think if you have any feelings to get out, you should act on them. I really don't think she would mind. ...Or, if you're too cowardly to do that, get them out on paper or something, and burn it afterward. I've done that tons of times," he said mysteriously before strolling away casually.
Ichigo sweatdropped, swinging his feet through the water. "....Wow."
Peyton sighed, brushing the wet strands of hair away from her face as she stared down the Ole Porcelain Crapper.
Either you like the guy, or you don't. That simple. Except, of course you know, admitting you like him is like admitting defeat, because there's no way in hell you could ever tell him that. EVER.
"Peyton? You in here?"
Peyton poked her head out, already deciding that it was pointless to wait to throw up any longer.
Matsumoto and Rukia were there, looking very curious.
Peyton sweatdropped. "...Oh. Hi."
"Soo. Peyton. I need some of your advice," Matsumoto said slyly.
"...Okay..."
"I have this friend of mine, ...Annie. She's been friends with this guy for a while, and it seems pretty obvious to everyone else that they like each other. You know, LIKE each other. They're practically dating already. But they're both too stubborn to make an official move. What do you think Annie should do?"
Peyton laughed. "That's easy. Ask him out. Worse case scenario, he rejects her, but he'll forget about it anyway, so what does she have to lose? Jeez, Matsumoto, I can't believe you didn't think about that."
Rukia nodded, looking her right in the eye. "Exactly what I was thinking. What does Annie have to lose?"
And with that, they lead the way out of the bathroom.
Peyton followed, and really wanted to meet this Annie person.
SIX HOURS LATER...
She had actually come out there to run around the resort and try to make herself tired since her iPod just wasn't cutting it tonight, but ended up spotting Ichigo looking all pissy.
An evil smirk flashed across Peyton's face. One thought went through her mind: Now I can get revenge for all the times he's snuck up on me!
He still hadn't noticed her as she creeped across the bridge on which he was currently standing.
He was leaning over the railing, and as she got closer, she noticed two things. One, he had paper and pen in his hand. Two, he was muttering to himself.
"God, this is one of the stupidest things I've ever done. Stupid Toshiro. What does HE know about this crap?! Unless...I was RIGHT. He DOES have a thing for Matsumoto! Either her or Peyton, but him having a crush on Peyton is just unacceptable.."
"Unacceptable? Why is that?" Peyton asked, trying not to laugh as he spazzed out. Ichigo jumped and turned to face her before shoving his hand in his pocket, hiding his paper.
He blinked dumbly at her. "Hmm, what? What did you say?"
Peyton leaned against the railing beside him with a grin. "You heard me just fine, Ichigo. You said it was unacceptable. Why?"
He glanced at her, then noticed she was staring expectantly at him and looked at a random tree instead.
She was tempted to ask why the tree was suddenly so interesting, but decided to give the guy a break. He looked like he had just been caught doing something illegal.
"Well, because he's a...he's a, um...Soul Reaper! Yeah, he's a Soul Reaper, and they're not supposed to associate with humans unless it's for missions, anyway," he explained not-very-smoothly.
Peyton sweatdropped. "Well...isn't associating with me sort of the whole basis of Matsumoto's and Toshiro's standby mission here? And aren't YOU a Soul Reaper?"
"What I- what I MEANT was that, uh..CAPTAIN Soul Reapers aren't supposed to have...feelings for...uh, human chicks."
Peyton just sweatdropped and shook her head. "That's a splendid answer. When talking to an oblivious hard-assed general. Now tell me the REAL reason it's 'unacceptable'," she commented, imitating his voice with air quotes on the word.
Ichigo's temple throbbed. "Will you stop asking stupid questions, woman?!"
Peyton raised her eyebrows. "What's with this woman thing lately? And besides, it's not a stupid question, it's actually a pretty damn good one."
"Well...I don't know about the woman thing. It just keeps slipping out-"
"That's what she said," they muttered under their breath, then sweatdropped. "It's not natural for two people to be as perverted as us, is it?" Peyton asked thoughtfully.
"Nope, I don't think so."
"So. Your real explanation would be nice now."
Ichigo turned a little red, but forced it down in record time; Peyton was kind of impressed.
"Well...Jeez, Peyton, I dunno! I guess just because...you know, you're a good friend and he's...well, sort of a more-than-an-acquaintance-nearly-friend-type-person...and it-"
"Makes you jealous and come up with random terms for your friendship with Toshiro?" Peyton suggested.
Ichigo sweatdropped and sighed in defeat. "...Yeah, I guess."
Peyton laughed. "I don't get why you're so embarassed."
"I'm not embarassed!"
"Then what's in your pocket?"
He blinked innocently, slowly backing away. "...Nooooothing..."
Peyton sighed. "Ichigo, don't make me put my hand in your pocket."
He turned red again and simply said, "No comment" before running off.
"GET BACK HERE, KUROSAKI!!"
Peyton sprinted after him, finally managing to tackle him to the ground and pick his pocket.
He didn't realize she had his paper, and flipped her off into the grass. She landed and rolled with an "Oof!", and stood up before brushing herself off.
Peyton grinned smugly, pretending not to notice as he seemed to show slight interest as her hands grazed her butt.
She then calmly picked up the paper and unfolded it. A look of pure horror crossed over his face, and he lunged for her.
"Peyton, don't you dare read that!!"
She simply sidestepped at the last minute, and he went rolling, almost ending up in the lake.
While he was trying to get back up the hill, she read it out loud.
"Ahem. Toshiro said I should write out whatever the hell my problem was. So that's what I'm doing. Thank God you'll never read this, I'd have to kill myself. So. My problem."
Peyton glanced up as Ichigo climbed up the hill, muttering darkly to himself. This should be interesting.
"Some people wouldn't think of it as a problem. That it's not bad to feel my stomach feel all tingly when it's just you and me without the idiots we call friends. That it's never bad to have thoughts and dreams about you. That it's definitely not bad that after a while, my head...or soul, according to Matsumoto, or whatever..anyway, this soul-like thing saw you and kind of went 'Oh, there you are. I've been looking for you for, like...ever!'. And the weird thing is, I think I'd do almost anything for you, even though you hold the world record for being the quickest to piss me off. This is so weird, and kind of scary, and it really, really sucks."
Damn, who the hell was Ichigo writing all this about??
"But it's bad for me. I don't want all this. It doesn't seem fair. Would YOU consider it fair if you had all these 'good' things going on, but you couldn't act on them? I know, you're probably all 'Whoa, he's such a wuss.'"
Well, actually, she kind of was thinking that.
"Well, I'm not a wuss, thank you very much. I'm just extremely paranoid of all the bad things that could happen if I DID act on them. I'm scared of tons of things, but there's only one thing I'm terrified of. And that's losing you for good. ....Oh, and that Burger King guy, he's creepy as hell-"
Peyton sweatdropped. "He never told me about that...!!"
"So, I guess two things. But the first one's a bit more relevant to this paper-thing. And if this 'good feeling' stuff I wrote about isn't happening to you, you'll say no, and then it'll be awkward, just like that one chick I asked out in the seventh grade, Rei something, I can't even remember her full name!!"
Can you say run-on sentence?!
"But I'll always remember your name, and I don't want that to be the first thing that pops into my head when I think about you. You know, after you reject me. Because there's no way this could work out for me. So yeah. I think I'm done. I'm gonna go burn this piece of paper now...probably even flush it down the toilet, or stick it into that processer thing or whatever they're called, they're in the kitchen sinks. You know, some form of cruel and unusual punishment for this goddamned paper-thingie. And then I'm gonna be sure to tell Toshiro this was a stupid idea. Now I'm all depressed. I hope that short bastard's happy now, dammit!"
There was a jumpy line after that sentence, and Peyton guessed that was about the time she had scared the crap out of him.
She calmly waited for Ichigo to make it back up the hill, then handed him the paper. He looked at her suspiciously.
"Did you read this?!"
She scoffed. "Of course I did. Why wouldn't I read it?!"
Then she flashed a half-smile. "Whoever it is you're talking about, I hope it works out."
He blinked a couple times. "You mean you didn't know...I mean, uh....thanks."
She yawned and stretched a little before heading for her and Rukia's room. "Well, I'm tired now. Night Ichigo."
"..Night.." He said thoughtfully, looking really confused, yet relieved.
She suddenly turned around, and he pretended he hadn't been watching her leave. "Oh, and Ichigo?"
"What?"
She smiled, and it was kind of sad-looking. "..That girl? She's lucky."
Ichigo looked totally surprised, and she turned around real fast before walking quickly for her room.
Reading all that was really draining for some reason.
Me: Awwww!
Rukia: Still think it's not sweet-yet-sort-of-sad, aka BITTERSWEET, Ichigo??
Ichigo: (sniffling) N-No comment...
Me: Awwww...Ichigo's all emotional!
Ichigo: The FUCK i am!!
Rukia: (sighs glumly) AAANNNND he's back.
Me: Peyton, Peyton, Peyton. She's so oblivous.
Rukia: Yeah...anyway, REVIEW!