Me: We're back! And, uh...sorry you guys but after all the stuff i put up with today, school and otherwise, i've got almost no energy left to keep my eyes open, so bear with me with this author's note. If i don't mention a cake you submitted since the last chapp or something, know right now that we're totally enjoying it-

Ichigo: If not keeping it in our safe-

Me: SHUT UP! ...We're totally enjoying it and apologize, i'll catch you next chapp update!

Ichigo: (Whispers to Rukia) ...Is she PMS-ing?

Me: Nope.

Ichigo: (Sigh of relief)

Me: BUT, i'm about to, i cant just tell, i'm already feeling it.

Ichigo and Rukia: (Wailing) AWWWW, DAMMIT!

Me: (Eye-twitch) ...ENJOY.

Rukia: (Looks at audience) I'm not even DARING to point out that's my line.

Ichigo: (Sweatdrops as I eat a cake like a starved person) ...Good call, Rukia, good call.

The next day, Peyton was NOT a force to be reckoned with. And everyone within a five-mile radius almost instantly knew it once she drew near.

Miya sighed heavily as her youngest futu- ...oh, screw it, her youngest stepdaughter, ate her dry cereal savagely.

Almost as if she were imagining she was eating the human beings that annoyed her the most as of today.

Whoever Peyton had decided those people were, Miya sure felt sorry for them. "There is no worse situation...in this world...than a young woman receiving her period early, two days before a wedding," she commented.

Lindsay nodded quickly, sighing sympathetically for her little sister. The aforementioned sister just glared up at them briefly before returning to her pillaging of the ceral bowl, gulping down her glass of milk.

Damn, Miya had to give her credit, even the way she drank her milk was downright terrifying today.

Her husband-to-be continued reading the paper innocently, but she could tell he was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling as Seth commented, "I feel sorry for your boyfriend, P. He's gonna wish he was never born."

"You can say that again," she muttered dangerously, continuing to eat her cereal. This was the quietest she'd ever been at breakfast, and it was...well...terrifying. That adjective was being used a lot today, and really, the day had barely even started.

Though she finished first, Peyton was the last to grab her bag and stomp out the door. Mark and Miya watched from the window as Ichigo and Rukia showed up.

Miya sweatdropped as she watched her fiance, who was bouncing in his seat like a little kid, obviously hoping his daughter would give Ichigo major bruises.

But oddly enough, not only was he able to make her smile, but he SOMEHOW, don't ask Miya how the hell he managed it...but he SOMEHOW convinced her to let him carry her.

And everyone knew that Peyton was never very...what's the word...FOND of Ichigo even TOUCHING her when she was on her period.

Who knows why.

Mark and Nanaw both sighed with disappointment as the two lovers took off. Well, Mark simply knew they were dating, not having sex.

Miya shivered at the thought of him realizing those sounds he heard last night were DEFINITELY NOT Peyton stubbing her toe and Ichigo giving her medical attention.

...How the hell he actually BOUGHT Miya's lie of "Oh, he must be encouraging her, THAT'S why he's saying 'yes' and 'oh Peyton', hon!" was beyond her.

Not that she was complaining. She hoped he never brought out Old Winona ever again on that kid, she happened to like him dating her stepdaughter while having his vital organs still intact and not having a bullet lodged through the middle.

"...She's never gonna dump that kid, is she?"

"No, hon."

"...He's never gonna dump her, is he?"

"Highly doubt he will."

"Dammit, I was afraid of that."

Miya sighed and rolled her eyes. "Mark, can't you see? If those two fell any further for each other, they'd be halfway to China- ...wait, AMERICA, right now. They're not calling it quits any time soon, and you'll just have to deal with it."

Nanaw sighed heavily again, peering out the window. "Dammit, we know, Miya. Do you know how rough it is that DESPITE my designated Thirty Minutes In Heaven I'm gonna get this summer, he won't love me like he loves my great-grandchild?"

Mark and Miya shuddered at the mental images that produced. "...Grandmomma, I don't wanna have to watch YOU go to jail for statutory rape, Cameron was enough."

Instead of huffing or pouting, Nanaw nearly squealed. "You mean...Mark, you think it'll be...CONSENTUAL? HELL YES!"

Miya's temple throbbed. "Look what you've done NOW, dumbass."

MEANWHILE...

Don't ask Ichigo how the hell he managed to make Peyton not want to kill him...AND let him give her a ride on his back...but he sure was suffering for it now.

Her whole aura just SCREAMED at him "Do Not Touch, Mother Nature's Being A Bitch And We All Have To Suffer".

Which meant he could feel her RIGHT there, she was RIGHT THERE...and could he touch her without losing a limb?

Hells no.

So it was just like the other night, when Rukia threatened his manly wellbeing, only he knew Peyton wasn't going to be doing any seducing any time soon.

Things only got worse when she laid her head against him, her hair and top of her head against his jaw.

Which made the thought flash into his head of the LAST TIME her head had been in a position like that against him, and it most certainly wasn't when she was on his back.

In fact, she had been on HER back.

No, STOP, you're just gonna embarrass yourself, he thought grudgingly as he started feeling hot all over.

Things got even WORSE when they got to homeroom and it was time for the finals.

Meaning they stayed in homeroom for at least two hours.

Which meant she was pretty much all he could look at, due to Shinji sensing her Period Rage and moving as far back as he could after making the near-fatal mistake of trying to hug her and welcome her back.

They had explained to her before she got to school that to everyone else, it's as if she never left, thanks to Rukia.

Shinji and the other Soul Reapers (plus Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki, Ishihackaloogie, whatever) were the only ones who remembered her absence the past few weeks.

So now he was stuck staring down at a test that was painfully easy, TRYING...man was he trying...not to look at her.

She was RIGHT THERE, too. So close he could feel her reiatsu even when she was relatively calm (thought that was rare today due to her early...Gift).

Ichigo tried to take as much time as possible, but he nearly facedesked when he looked up at the clock after finishing and saw he had at least forty minutes left of sitting at his desk doing absolutely nothing.

...EXCEPT looking at anything and everything but Peyton.

Which lasted for a whole of three minutes; that's actually a new record for him.

He finally decided just ONE glance in her direction wouldn't hurt, but he almost instantly regretted it.

Peyton had her legs crossed, the leg on the ground bouncing impatiently as she checked her answers for the millionth time out of total complete boredom.

Her leg-bouncing made her skirt hitch up even more than the legs being crossed in the first place had!

Which...to any other person in Ms. Ochi's room, wouldn't be that much. Nothing compared to where Matsumoto's skirt was at most of the day.

But to him...he who had watched her slide off that skirt for him before, had practicall ripped OFF skirts like that on her before...he who could take one glance at her legs and slowly work his way up, knowing her whole body like the back of his hand.

...It was a lot better and more interesting to look at than the back of his hand, obviously, but still.

To him, it was a major deal.

Especially when he had been deprived of seeing all that for almost a month, after almost unlimited viewing of it all for a while, and now her...effing...PERIOD prevented him from seeing it all some more!

Ichigo tried to avert his gaze, he really did, but he could probably sooner walk on water than he could look in another direction.

Literally EVERYTHING was visible to him, almost as if he had x-ray vision; her thighs, her hips, her waist, her curves, her chest...everything.

Now he knew why x-ray was usually only in the form of glasses. That way the user could turn it off in times like these and not thank GOD he had a baggy sweatshirt handy that he could put in his lap for a while.

Peyton bounced her leg anxiously, trying to do anything but look at Ichigo. She hated this. She hated Mother Nature SOOO much right now, it wasn't even funny.

At all.

And she should KNOW what was and wasn't funny, she had the best sense of humor on the PLANET, dammit!

This was as far from funny as one could get. She had to look at anything but Ichigo at all costs. If she looked at him...she'd lose it.

Because just looking at him had effects on her that were mysterious, exciting, totally logical, and all-around infuriating, all at once.

Because one innocent look, no, a GLANCE in his direction, and her eyes would be roaming all over him in mere seconds.

And picturing every little detail. And oh, if he was looking in her direction, just FORGET IT. Then she'd REALLY lose it.

That eye contact might as well read "I want you in my pants RIGHT NOW, DAMMIT!". And then if he smiled, smirked, ANYTHING, she was doomed. Hell, Peyton might tackle him out of his desk right then and there if he did that.

...Yep, it was official. Her hormones were so out of whack right now it was lethal.

She nearly groaned out loud once she realized the pressure she was feeling in the pit of her stomach and a little further south was partially because he WAS in fact looking at her.

Well, not at her, but all OVER her.

Dammit, why did their perverted minds have to be so in-sync? This SUCKED. "Thanks a heap, Mother Nature," she muttered as quietly as possible.

Peyton felt stiff and had no choice but to stretch towards the sky, sighing involuntarily, and that's when the room was filled with a deafeningly loud SNAP amidst the dead silence.

Ichigo could see her squirming. Guess he wasn't the only one suffering from all this.

He knew he should look away, he knew it, but he still just couldn't tear his eyes away from her. Which turned out to be a very bad thing.

She suddenly dropped her pencil with finality and clasped her hands together, making his face pale.

She's not doing what I THINK she's doing, is she? He wondered miserably as he watched her reach her hands toward the sky, confirming his fear.

...Of COURSE she is.

He watched helplessly as she sighed involuntarily, her face totally calm and pleased all at once. Ichigo felt himself grow hotter and hotter as her back arched, and guess what that made HIM think of.

Suddenly, there was a really loud SNAP.

Peyton instantly stopped stretching to look around, as did he, when he suddenly realized it had been the sound of the pencil in his hand snapping in half. ...OF COURSE.

"Alright, what kind of IDIOT broke their pencil THIS FAR into the finals?" Ms. Ochi bellowed. Ichigo whistled innocently, tossing his pencil remnants onto Shinji's desk.

Renji immediately pointed at Shinji, who started to try and build things with the broken pencil, having not noticed it fall onto his desk.

"Ooooh, distraction!" He said with a grateful snicker as he started building some crappy kind of house out of it.

Ms. Ochi just sweatdropped, sighed, and shook her head. "...Kids these days."

Peyton, however, reluctantly made eye contact with Ichigo. Almost instantly, the feelings and urges that had been building up since he first started staring at her just about quadruplified themselves.

She seemed to be struggling with things along the same lines. "...Nice one," she muttered in her typical "you're-such-a-dumbass" tone.

He just smirked, and that made her suddenly turn around so fast he almost didn't hear the tiny gasp she stifled. Was that a trace of a moan he had heard?

Ichigo shook his head quickly. No no no no no no NO NO NOOOO, STOP IT, DAMMIT DAMMIT...DAMMIT ICHIGO!

King, this sucks.

SHUT UP!

Will do. 'Scuse me, while I go wallow in self-pity.

No problem.

Peyton felt so bad. She had gone from feeling homicidal, to happy, to angry, to annoyed, to frustrated, to aroused...to...what?

She didn't even know. She just felt it, and she felt it hard.

Stupid period hormones.

She felt so bad, doing this to Ichigo. Now he finally had her back, could finally do all the things she missed him doing to her, she could do all the things HE missed HER doing to HIM, and...oh, wait...NO! BECAUSE MOTHER NATURE DECIDED TO BE A BITCH!

And he wasn't the only one feeling deprived. So WHAT if they had done it three or four times since she got back?

So what?

That didn't make up for almost a MONTH of being deprived of something that felt so good, left them feeling so high, left her feeling so...loved.

And now she had to wait roughly another whole week thanks to her period. WHICH came early, did we mention that?

How in the HELL did this always happen? Hadn't she just gotten over her period around the day she was kidnapped?

Wait, no, AFTER that, because she distinctly remembered feeling ashamed the first couple days of her captivity because she was bleeding right through her clothes and could do absolutely nothing about it, thanks to solitary confinement.

So NOT EVEN three whole weeks had passed since her last Week Of Hell. ...AND the wedding was two days away!

NOT FAIR!

Ichigo jumped. "You think WAY too loudly, you know that?"

Peyton sighed miserably, stomping up his stairs after saying hi to his usual household occupants.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry."

He waved her off, right before the world's most awkwardest moment was born. Somehow, the two idiots managed to try and get through his door at the same time.

Meaning, while suffering through all these pent-up feelings and urges, they were suddenly pressed right up against each other as if to say "THERE! Go right ahead!".

They stared at each other for a second, her chest against his lower torso, her hip against his arm, his leg and thigh somehow pressed against her own.

They cleared their throats anxiously as they tried to move, ending with Peyton diving and hitting the floor rather ungracefully.

Ichigo sweatdropped. "...Well, that's one way to do it."

They then seemed to realize at the same time they made a HUGE mistake of coming up here. In his room.

With a lock.

Lots of locks.

And a bed.

And a floor.

And...hell, even a chair, a wall, they didn't quite care at this point.

Peyton groaned inwardly as Ichigo helped her up like the nice guy he was. But quite honestly, it made her want to beat him in the head with a shovel.

A really heavy one.

Now she was stuck with her hand in his grip, and he was stuck trying to make himself let go, and now they were both stuck looking at each other.

Finally, she coughed and let her eyes drop to the floor as she finally slid out of his grip and headed for his door.

"Uhhh...I think perhaps this wasn't my brightest idea...I'm just gonna go downstairs.."

Ichigo grabbed her hand again, sighing. "No, don't. It's fine. We can totally resist each other, right?"

She gave him a sarcastic look. "Is that a trick question? Ichigo, lemme go downstairs. I don't want you popping a blood vessel from concentrating too hard on resisting me."

He didn't even bother denying that one, and Peyton groaned. "Awww MAN! I feel like the worst girlfriend EVER, torturing you like this!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, and she was so busy looking into them that she didn't notice he was slowly inching her towards the wall. "You're not TORTURING me."

She rolled HER eyes. "Yeah right!" Peyton eyed him warily as he shut his door. "Ichigo..."

His hand moved from her hand to run up her arm, stroking the inside of her elbow. That shut her up in record time. "Just stop talking."

With that simple sentence, he kissed her, making her feelings triple themselves in strength. Luckily for him, he kissed her gently, slowly. If he hadn't, she might've tackled him to the ground right then and there.

I guess he'd consider that UN-lucky for him, She mused as she took the initiative to deepen the kiss as the inside-elbow-stroking increased.

Next thing Peyton knew she was pinned against the wall, yet closer to him at the same time, her hands running up his own arms, itching to reach under his shirt and trace his battle scars like she did sometimes at night when they were just laying there.

It got hotter in there as he kissed her cheek, her jawline, back to her mouth. She moaned and felt her knees nearly buckle when he did something totally new and gently nibbled her ear.

...Oh good GOD, was this supposed to HELP somehow? Honestly, she was pretty sure she was as aroused, throbbing and ready as she would've been if they were doing more than kissing.

Thanks so much Ichigo, you sexy orange-haired bastard. Knowing my weaknesses like that...

To get back at him, when he tried the nibbling in a different spot (the hollow of her neck, to be exact), she did something truly evil. Not only did she moan (which, trust me, wasn't fake in the least bit), but she dug her nails into his shoulder and ran her leg up his, brushing her knee against-

"Ohhhh GOD, Peyton, WHY?" He moaned. She simply laughed a little huskily.

Needless to say, the intensity had been steadily increasing, and it soon reached the point where Ichigo just plain HAD to break off the kissing.

They were both breathing a little heavy from the effort of controlling themselves (or lack thereof), and he pressed his forehead against hers at the same time her hands wrapped around the back of his neck.

"...See? Shutting up isn't always so bad, now, is it?"

Peyton gave him a halfhearted glare, and he just laughed as he kissed her one more time. She couldn't help but pull him back down for more, but then OF COURSE Nel walked in.

"ITSYGO, ITSYGO'S GIRLFWIEND! NEL WANTS TO PWAY HER NEW GAME!"

Their temples throbbed. "...Dammit."