Chapter 7: "The temperature"

Ichigo was reading the newspaper in the dining room while Orihime was preparing their breakfast. It didn't happen something between them since that kiss and no one was speaking about it. Orihime was feeling somewhat dizzy while she was chopping some vegetables. Ichigo asked her something, but she couldn't hear him at all. Her sight was so blurred that she managed to cut her index finger.

"Shit, are you alright?" Ichigo tried to ask her, but she fainted in his arms in the next second.

Later in that day Orihime woke up. She found herself in Ichigo's bed with a cold compress on her forehead. She felt like her body was on fire. It seems that it wasn't a good decision to hide the fact that she got sick, but…. She didn't want to create more problem to Ichigo than she already did, plus she had a bad vibe from him since the previous day, since he kissed her. Maybe she should have stopped him, he wasn't thinking right, plus he's maybe thinking at his last girlfriend.

"Little blue man, I messed it up this time."Orihime said it aloud, wanting to express her feelings.

"Tsh… For a person what had just fainted you're making some noise. Damn." Ichigo said entering in the room with a bowl with hot soup. Orihime was looking perplex at him. "Tsh… I did my best here. I don't know if it's good enough, but at least is edible, so don't look like that at me." Ichigo was somewhat grumpy or maybe ashamed. It was a hard thing to say about him considering the fact that even he didn't know how to act about it.

"Oh…. It looks tasty. I thought you don't know how to cook." Orihime said taking a slip of it. It was really salty, but… she could fell some wasabi in it. Did he really remember her preferences?

"I'd never said that I don't know to cook, it's just… I don't like it, ok?" Ichigo was acting strange to her. He seemed more defensive than always so it made her wonder if he's thinking about the kiss. Her cheeks color changed suddenly at that thought. "Shit… Don't tell me I put too much wasabi in it." Orihime put the bowl aside after what she answers.

"No, no. It's fine, seriously. It's just… you shouldn't worry about the other day." After she cleared her thoughts she hid her face. She felt like his gaze is piercing though her body.

"Huh ? Why shouldn't I worry about?" Ichigo seemed confused by her statement, making her to blush even harder.

"Can't you remember about yesterday?" She asked in a lower voice. The possibility of him to not remember her first kiss seemed more painful than she would admit.

"Of course I remember. I'm a criminal not a person what forgets. I don't see about what I should worry about. You came after me, despite I told you not to, or… are you talking about the kiss?" Having him to say it so lightly made her to hit him with the pillow what made him to laugh. "Tsh, what should be this for? Don't tell me it was your first kiss." Orihime embraced the pillow after he finished his statement and just nodded. The criminal began to scratch the back of his neck. "You should have stopped me. It's not a good thing to get involved with someone like me." He didn't look at her anymore, he didn't want to taint her even more with his bad aura. The man wanted to get up and leave her, but she caught her wrist. Their eyes met again, even if she was covering the most of her face with the pillow.

"I wanted it too so it's ok. Even if your past is still a mystery for me, even if you're not going to stop killing people in order to reach your goal, I can't make myself regret for even a second that I gave it to you. So you don't need to go away from me, and your soup is great, even if it's a little too salty for my taste. I love it." Ichigo arms moved without her consent, embracing her strong. Hear teary face was resting on his chest while his palms were caressing her back.

"Damn, sometimes you really make me wish to not be found by you, to simply die there on those dirty streets, rather than to taint or to have this feelings again. Tsh…" Orihime's breathing stopped. She thought she was hallucinating, because Ichigo would never say something so sentimental to her. Yes, that should be, but she couldn't believe that because their lips met again.

This kiss was different from the other one. It was filled with desire and emotions, but it ended faster than it began. "Why aren't you rejecting me? Can't you see you're my victim? If it wasn't me you wouldn't be here now. You wouldn't need to hide, you wouldn't need to accept the desires of a criminal!" He shouts at her for this time, he wanted to leave, because he knew if he would stay any longer with her it would be even harder for him to leave her, because she starts to conquer his closed hearth. He remained speechless when her lips pressed his.

"It's ok. I don't mind to stay like this with you till the end of the time. I don't mind to stay by your side and protect you from the demons of your past or cooking you. I like to see all the expressions you're making when you like something and dislike other thing. I really loved the soup that you made for me, I could sense that I'm not a stranger to you and that's ok to me for now. I don't expect something to you. I promise that I'm not going to intrude more in your life than you're going to let me, so please. Let's continue this game a little longer. Even I'm the victim and you're the criminal, I wouldn't mind you taking my life, because you're the one what made me live again." Her sweet words were like a drug for his broken soul, but still. He wouldn't like her to get lost on the same wrong path as him.

"You should mind more about yourself. Don't say easily such big words. You don't know what means to die. You don't know that's the big end." Ichigo shivered when he felt her palm over hers moving them on her neck. Her skin was so smooth and fragile that he was scared that even his touch is capable of hurting her.

"Go ahead and try it. Kill me if you think I'd lied to you, but if you're going to do it please don't look so hurt at me. Ok?" Ichigo moved his hands on her waist making her to be even closer to him.

"Don't speak more nonsenses than you already did. You don't need to prove anything to me. You did more than enough already so stop the hell it." Orihime giggled smiling fragile.

"You're having a big hearth, even if you want to hide it." There were her last words before she fainted again. Ichigo was even scared than before and he hated this feeling. He put herself back in her head and changed her compression. She didn't wake up than later in the night.

"Mmm…." She murmurs opening her eyes. She found Ichigo next to her on a chair embracing gentle her right fingers with his. She smiled and kissed him sweet on his forehead. "It's a pity that you're not awake. I wanted to tell you about my dream, but you wouldn't probably want to hear about it." She looks next to her to see a bowl with could soup. "I'm sorry if you couldn't eat properly because of me. I shouldn't dream so much, but still… it was such a beautiful dream that I wouldn't woke up ever again."

She left his side walking on her tiptoes walking in the kitchen, but what saw there scared her and she started to scream. Ichigo stood up next by her side, but he couldn't know what to say when he saw the image in front of them. He took Orihime in his arms hiding her from the horrible scene in front of them. The old lady what tried to warn Orihime was now dead in their kitchen with a big message wrote next the lifeless body.

"How much do you think I will wait till I'm going to kill you?"

The words didn't need to be followed by a name, because Ichigo knew exact the person who did it. The criminal couldn't believe himself that he let himself and her so unprotected while he was caught in his thoughts.

"Orihime, we're going to move, now." He explained taking her back in the bedroom.

Chapter 8: "Closer, but far away than ever"