'R' is for Russian (Part 2)

Things had been going very well with Ichigo. Much better than they had ever when with Sojiro – Toushiro wished more than anything that he could stop comparing the two. Ichigo was nothing like his ex. That afternoon they were in Ichigo's room, supposedly doing homework, but making out instead. Toushiro was on Ichigo's lap his fingers threaded through orange hair. Ichigo's hands were set lightly on Toushiro's hips and his thumbs rubbed slow circles across his lower abdomen.

They spent most of their time together in Ichigo's room. His father, Isshin, was an eccentric man who welcomed Toushiro with open arms and called him 'son' the moment they met. Usually, it would take time for Toushiro to feel like he belonged anywhere, but this was not the case with the Kurosaki family. He found that he liked going over to Ichigo's house and ending up spending more time there than his own home. His parents didn't even notice, of course.

Toushiro nibbled on Ichigo's bottom lip and pulled back slightly. Ichigo was breathless and rested his head on Toushiro's chest while the smaller boy braced himself on Ichigo's thigh with one hand and ran his fingers through the orange strands with the other.

"I like you, like really like you," Ichigo muttered.

Toushiro smiled. "Here we go again. You say that every time you see me."

"'Cause I do."

"I know." Toushiro placed a hand under Ichigo's jaw and gently raised his head then kissed him again. Ichigo moaned softly and gripped Toushiro's hips harder, pressing him firmly into his lap. He hissed and Toushiro grinned when he realised how hard the redhead was. He ground his hips against Ichigo's crotch, causing him to groan softly.

"Stop it, you tease," he muttered.

"No."

"Shiro-"

Toushiro reeled back, almost falling off of Ichigo's lap. He stared at Ichigo with wide eyes and realised that his stomach felt a little bit heavier.

"Don't call me that."

Ichigo froze with a guilty look on his face. "Sorry. You don't like it?"

Toushiro shook his head. "My ex used to call me that."

Ichigo chewed the inside of his cheek. "Shit, I didn't know, sorry."

Toushiro sighed and scooted off of Ichigo's lap. "Not your fault," he said, "I think I should be going home anyway." Damn that bastard, Sojiro, even now he was still running his life.

"Wait, spend the night," Ichigo said, grabbing Toushiro's hand.

"It's a school night."

"So?"

"I don't have clothes or anything-"

"You can borrow some of mine. Plus, Karin has a bunch of guy clothes and I'm sure she'd let you borrow something. Stay over, please?" He managed to pull off a very good puppy-dog face. His large, brown eyes sealed the deal.

Toushiro sighed, "Fine."

They had already eaten dinner and Ichigo had to bodily shove his father of out the room after he had asked him if Toushiro could spend the night. He slipped a couple condoms under the door after he left and Ichigo and Toushiro had both blushed and refused to meet each other's eyes for almost ten minutes.

"Can I take a shower?" Toushiro asked, hoping to escape the awkwardness.

"Yeah, sure, I'll get you a towel."

Ichigo led him to the bathroom and provided him with a towel, a toothbrush, one of his old shirts, and a pair of boxers to sleep in. After spending a good five minutes figuring out how the shower worked, he stepped under the warm stream of water. He almost couldn't believe that he was going to spend the night at his boyfriend's house. He almost felt giddy with excitement. The past few months with Ichigo were straight out of a romance novel – he wasn't afraid to admit.

He might have spent a little longer than usual in the bathroom. There were so many bottles which he could only assume belong to Ichigo's sisters. He didn't know what to start with; sometimes being an only child had its perks. When he re-entered Ichigo's room he found the redhead holding his phone with eyes that almost spelt murder. Toushiro's eyes widened and he knew that Sojiro had sent him a text and Ichigo had seen it.

"Why do you have my phone?" he asked softly.

A guilty expression instantly took over Ichigo's face. "I realised that you hadn't called your parents to ask if it was okay for you to stay here, so I was going to call them for you. But then I realised that I didn't know your home number, so I checked your phone. Are you mad?"

Toushiro shook his head; Ichigo could be so sweet. "No."

"Good, 'cause I am." He clenched his jaw and held up the phone. "Who the hell is this?"

Toushiro swore; this was not going to go well. "That's my ex, Sojiro."

"Why the hell is he texting you this rubbish?"

Toushiro tilted his head. Of course Ichigo would focus on what the texts said rather than the fact that his ex was still talking to him. "It was a bad breakup."

"That's no excuse for him to be saying this shit! How long had he been texting you?"

"... Since we broke up."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's no big deal-"

"No big deal?" He stood up and took a step towards Toushiro, who instinctively stepped back and brought his arms up to cover his face. "What are you... did you think I was going to hit you? What the hell has this maniac done?"

Toushiro swallowed and brought his hands to his sides. "Sojiro was a bad decision, okay."

"But why did you think I was going to hit you? Did he ever-"

"Yes."

Ichigo's eyes bulged. "Why didn't you tell me? Toushiro, this is serious."

Toushiro hung his head; Rangiku had told him the same thing. "Look, I didn't want you to know the mistakes I've made, okay. You were prefect, everything about you is perfect, and I didn't want my messed up past to ruin it. Yeah, I have a crazy ex; that goes well with most people."

"Toushiro..." Ichigo sighed and slowly wrapped his arms around him. "I don't give a crap about your past. I like who you are now. But, please, something has to be done about this. Tell your parents at least."

They were another set of bastards. "My parents don't care. They saw me come home with a messed up face and they didn't even bat an eye."

Ichigo frowned as if he didn't believe him. "You should have gone to the police."

"He didn't break anything; it wasn't that bad. But," he paused, "part of me didn't want to get him into trouble-"

"I don't understand; he hit you."

"I don't expect you to-"

"Then help me."

Toushiro sighed. "He's right; I'm messed up. You haven't met my parents yet, but they couldn't give a crap about me. Sojiro was one of the few people who actually seemed to care about me, so... I don't know... I didn't want to believe that he was a bad person."

Ichigo held him tighter. "But you ended up leaving him and that's all that matters."

"I shouldn't have dated him in the first place."

"Well, you have me now and I promise that I'll take care of you."

...

The faculty found out about the fake Russian class around two weeks after Halloween. There had been an error in the system where the class had been closed but still showed up on the students' schedules. By then it was too late to transfer into another class so they set up a study hall. It was still a free period, more or less, but now they had someone supervising them. They also had detentions for not reporting the class.

"This sucks," Ichigo muttered, "We could have gotten away with the credits. And, of course, my dad wasn't too pleased with he got the email-"

"Wait, they sent out an email?" Toushiro asked worriedly.

"Last night, but it's no big deal; I mean, it wasn't our fault."

"Yeah, try telling that to my parents. They're gonna disown me."

"Well, if you ever need a place to stay my house is always open.

"How very kind of you."

Ichigo gave him a quick peck on the cheek before the teacher arrived.

...

Toushiro very rarely had dinner with his parents, but tonight he was called down to eat and forced to endure tense silence and dry meatloaf. He knew the real reason why they were eating together; he was just waiting for the hammer to fall. He didn't have an appetite and after around three bites he gave up trying to eat and stared at his lap.

He would have texted Ichigo to pass the time but his father did not like phones at the table. Despite his own rule he would leave the table if his phone ever rang, but if he caught Toushiro texting he would be in even more trouble. The rule made no sense; it wasn't as if they talked anyway. The urge to take the phone from his pocket was strong, though.

"Toushiro, put your phone on the table, please; you know the rules." His father seemed to read his mind.

"Yes, sir," he muttered and placed it face-down next to his table mat.

"Now, am I to understand that you were taking a fake class?"

There it was. Toushiro hung his head.

"Do you know what this means? You've put yourself behind one class and compromised your integrity as a student. I am ashamed that you would do such a thing."

"What made you think that this was okay?" his mother chimed in.

"I – I guess that I just needed a break."

"You cannot afford breaks," his father hissed, "if you put yourself behind how will that affect you chances of going to a good university-"

His cell phone buzzed; the vibrations were magnified against the bare mahogany table. Toushiro swore in his mind as his father narrowed his eyes. Sojiro had impeccable timing as always.

"The school was right to punish you, but now that will be put on your record-"

Another loud buzz.

"It wasn't my fault," Toushiro said quietly, "there was an error in our schedules."

"Didn't you realise that when there was no teacher there was something wrong? Are you that stupid?"

"You should have at least changed classes," his mother added, "and now it's too late for that-"

Another buzz; Toushiro winced.

His father let out a harsh breath. "I think your priorities have become skewered. Your little friends seem to be more important to you than your school work. Give me your phone."

Toushiro's eyes widened; they would see all the text messages. "No-"

"Toushiro, now," his father snapped.

He handed his cell over and waited with a sinking stomach as his father saw everything.

"Fooling around with this boy, huh? Who is he?"

Toushiro hung his head. His heart beat heavily in his chest. "He was my boyfriend-"

"Boyfriend?" His parents didn't know he was gay, they didn't care to know. He had always wondered how they would react, if they would accept him. But now that seemed to be the least of his worries. "Well, you don't have time for boyfriends. I want you to call this boy and tell him that you don't have time for this because your school work is more important."

"What?" Toushiro exclaimed.

"You heard me. If you have time to fool around with boys then you are obviously not trying your best at school. Now call him." He held out the phone.

Toushiro's throat went dry and he felt his stomach drop. "No, you can't make me do that."

"Don't test my patience."

"I – I don't want to talk to him-"

"And I don't want a failure for a son."

"Dad, please." He felt tears prickle his eyes. He didn't know why he looked to his mother; she nodded to the phone.

"Fine, I'll dial the number."

"No!"

His father pressed the call button and held the ringing phone to him. He felt a few tears roll down his cheeks and he wanted to throw up. He could barely bring himself to look at Sojiro, much less talk to him. He took the phone with a shaky hand.

"Hello?"

His throat felt like it was going to explode."Hello, Sojiro..."

...

He cried his eyes out that night. Sojiro had thought that he had told his parents that he hit him. He had shouted Toushiro's ear off and vowed that he was going to hunt him down. His parents had been satisfied with the call and had allowed him to go to his room right after. They had kept his phone, however. His eyes were red and puffy when he woke up and he considered trying to cover them up with eyeliner, but decided against it at the last moment. It would probably make it worse if he started crying again.

Ichigo met him by his locker with a smirk that instantly fell when he saw Toushiro's face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"My parents got mad at me."

"What did they do?"

He took a deep breath. "They made me call Sojiro,"

"What? Why the hell did they do that?"

"He texted me during dinner and my dad asked to see my phone. I told them he was my ex but they thought we were still going out and they made me call him to breakup. Now, he thinks I told my parents that he hit me and he's going to come after me, I know it..." his voice trembled and he looked away.

"Well then, I'll just have to fight him off."

"No, you'll get in trouble."

"I told you that I'm going to take care of you. So, I'm not going to let your lunatic ex lay a finger on you."

Toushiro hugged him tightly and he bent down to kiss him.

...

Toushiro was on edge for most of the day; he expected Sojiro to appear out of nowhere and attack him. He didn't see his ex until after lunch as he went to get his books from his locker.

"I'm surprised that you went running to mommy and daddy. I thought they hated you." Sojiro snarled as he corned Toushiro against the lockers.

Toushiro struggled to calm his racing heart. "I didn't tell them-"

"So, what the hell was that last night?"

He swallowed hard. "They thought-"

"They thought what?" Sojiro shouted and shoved Toushiro hard against the lockers. "I told you that if you ever told on me you'd be sorry."

"I didn't tell anyone!"

Sojiro narrowed his eyes and pressed the fist balled in the front of Toushiro's shirt against his neck.

"I don't believe you." He pulled back his other arm. Toushiro shut his eyes and held up his arms. There was a loud thud and Toushiro was knocked to the floor. He cracked open an eye when he found out that nothing hurt and saw that Sojiro was on the floor as well. The dark-haired boy had a hand to the side of his head and was glaring at the person who had hit him. Ichigo towered over him, cracking his knuckles.

"What the hell asshole, wanna try that again?" Sojiro sneered and stood up.

"Gladly," Ichigo replied.

They leapt at each other. A crowd had formed around them; jeering them on and Toushiro knew a teacher wouldn't be far behind. He stood up and glared at the two boys trading blows.

"Stop it!" he yelled but then ignored him.

They seemed to be fighting on equal ground despite that Ichigo was younger and a bit smaller than Sojiro. They were both on the ground, bloody, in a matter of a few minutes and showed no signs of stopping. Toushiro didn't think; this fight was because of him and he had to stop it before they really hurt each other. He threw himself in between them and tried to wrench them apart. He didn't take into consideration that both of them towered head and shoulders over him and was thrown about like a rag-doll. He ignored the throbbing in his face and shoved and elbow into Sojiro's stomach and tried, with all his force, to push Ichigo off of the larger boy.

"What is going on here?" someone shouted and strong arms wrenched the two apart. Ichigo went crashing into the lockers and Sojiro remained on the floor. Their gym teacher glared at them. "You three principal's office, now!"

Ichigo wiped a trail of blood from his chin and straightened his shirt. He shot Sojiro a death glare before grabbing Toushiro's hand and stomping off.

"You didn't have to try to break us apart, you know," the redhead muttered. "The whole point of me fighting him was for you not to get hurt."

Toushiro rolled his eyes despite the fact that one was nearly swollen shut. "Idiot," he growled, "do you know how much trouble we're in? Besides I didn't want you getting hurt for my sake."

Ichigo snorted. "Either way, I taught that bastard a lesson."

...

All three of them were suspended for a week. Toushiro's parents thoroughly chewed him out and grounded him until further notice. He was still phone-less and suspected that he would be for a long time. But, they couldn't take his laptop since he needed it for school.

-What's the verdict?- Ichigo asked.

-Grounded. I'm not allowed to leave my room- Toushiro typed back.

-Same. Also got extra chores for the week I'm home-

-That sucks-

-Wanna meet up tonight at the park?-

-Sure-

Sneaking out wasn't as hard as he thought it would be and he over judged how long it would take. So, he was ten minutes early. He sat on a bench and pulled his knees into his chest. He wasn't nervous; he knew his parents never checked on him anyway. They hadn't spoken to him since he was grounded and they probably wouldn't for a while. He had never been in this much trouble before. They had told him that if he didn't shape up they would send him off to boarding school. It hadn't been an empty threat, but Toushiro found himself not caring. They hadn't even asked if he was okay or what the fight had been about, but instead of getting mad, like he usually did, he had just turned his back. He was through with caring when they didn't and it felt somewhat refreshing.

"Hey, beautiful."

He was startled from his thought as Ichigo walked up to the bench. He waved with a bandaged hand and sat down next to Toushiro.

The white-haired boy snorted. "Beautiful? Could you get any cheesier?"

"I could." Ichigo grinned.

"Please don't. For the love of god, don't"

"Fine, but only for you."

"Oh my god!"

Ichigo chuckled and wrapped his arm around Toushiro's shoulders. "So, Sojiro won't be bothering you anymore."

Toushiro shrugged. "I dunno; parents still have my phone."

"I was telling you. He has a concussion. I'd say I walked away victorious with only a busted mouth and this." He waved his bandaged arm.

Toushiro raised an eyebrow. "You gave him a concussion?"

"Well, he might have fallen and hit his head; I might have pushed him. Whatever, the asshole deserved it."

"Your dad must have been furious."

"Actually, when I told him Sojiro was going to beat you up he congratulated me. Only grounded me 'cause that's what 'parents are supposed to do'."

Toushiro chuckled.

"You could probably still come over and he'd be fine with it."

"Your dad is crazy."

"Tell me about it."

Toushiro grinned and leaned into Ichigo's chest. "I can't believe you picked a fight for me."

"Well, yeah, I ... uh, I really like you. You're my boyfriend."

"Thanks, you idiot."

Ichigo smiled and kissed the side of his forehead.

"You know what? Let's go back to your house. I doubt my parents will notice if I'm gone for the night."

...

They spent the night under Ichigo's sheets trying to be as quiet as possible, but it was easier said than done. Toushiro hadn't known how talented Ichigo was with his tongue and Ichigo hadn't known certain parts of his boy were so sensitive. The condoms that Isshin had given them were put to good use. Their first time was clumsy and a slightly awkward as they were both sore and covered in various bruises, but it was by far better than all the times he had been with Sojiro. They woke up in each other's arms – a tangle of naked limbs – and stared into each other's arms for a while. For the first time in Toushiro's life he felt like he was really and truly wanted.

"You're so beautiful."

"Shut up, Ichigo; you're ruining the mood."

They still kissed.

Well, this was the first and probably last time I'll do a high school fic. And now back to drabbles.

Hope you guys enjoyed it; drop off a review if you did.

-Mymomomo