A/N: No excuses for my absence. I just lost the drive to write. My muse left. Plain and simple. So today, I sat down and tried to push myself to write, and I did. If it's not great, I'm sorry, but I felt I made you all wait long enough. Big thanks to Bleachfanficfanatic for her help as always. I think I forgot to mention that she helped me out last chapter, too. My bad.

Now, I had planned for the pace to be slow for a bit longer, but I don't know if I'll get out of this writer's block, so I've decided to speed it up a bit. From this chapter on, I think it will be more one-shot style than how it usually is. Less dialogue, too. I don't want to do this, but if I keep going at the same speed I'm going now, it'll be ten years until I finish, and I won't do that to you all.

Anyways, please keep reading, enjoying, and reviewing. Thank you all for being patient with me and for all the glowing reviews. Beartes review really made me gush!

"What are you doing?"

She looks up in confusion.

"Eating?"

I eye her dubiously. I mean, she's not wrong. She is eating, but she's not eating in the way that I'm used to. She's picking at her food in almost careful consideration. The whole process is precise and slow, and that's just not her.

It's disconcerting.

"Are you?" I counter.

She blushes as she rubs her head.

"It's weird, right? Me trying to act like a lady."

I frown.

"What are you talking about?"

"The girls at lunch told me to not eat a lot and to eat slowly. To be more proper," she admits quietly.

I cross my arms, annoyed. Not at her but at her friends who tried to change her.

"I've already seen the way you eat, Inoue. And although it can be frightening at times, I like it."

She laughs.

"Frightening?"

I uncross my arms and extend my index finger towards her, narrowing my eyes.

"Don't think I forgot the incident where Tatsuki almost lost her fingertip."

She wrinkles her nose.

"That wasn't my fault!" She begins to defend herself while blushing. "I thought Tatsuki moved her hand!"

I shake my head in good humor.

"That'll be the last time she tries to feed you, you know," I comment.

She deflates a bit as she agrees with me.

"But I must admit that I'm surprised Tatsuki told you to change."

She starts waving her hands in front of her in alarm.

"Tatsuki-chan had training today, so she wasn't there today at lunch."

"Well, if she was there, she would've told you to be yourself because I…I like you just the way you are."

I can't meet her eyes as I admit this to her, and it's not because I am lying. I'm not. But it's because my words are so true that it's embarrassing.

"Me too," she says quietly. I look at her. "I like all of Kurosaki-kun."

The last confession is said without any hesitation. Without any doubt. No quiver in her voice. Just absolute sincerity in her tone and unwavering gaze. A gaze that entrances me in every possible way. And those feelings, those light and dark feelings that only she can evoke, whirl up in me, clashing against each other in an almost violent dance. Who leads in the dance, I can't tell, and I don't want to find out, so I look down, breaking our eye contact, which provides a temporary relief.

To gain a couple of seconds to gather myself, I focus on the task of moving some of my food onto her plate. When she lightly protests, saying that she's not hungry, I point out that she's already eating, and this teasing allows for those intense feelings to slow down into a subdued waltz. And watching her eat in her usual carefree, rambunctious manner further calms me down until I can think clearly.

She likes all of me? It seems improbable. Impossible even. More than that, it seems impracticable to like me so, impractical for her to do so, but…

I put my utensils down.

"Since when?" I probe gently.

She blinks slowly as she swallows a bite of her food. She tilts her head in confusion.

"When did you start liking me?" All of me, I want to add but omit.

She sets her own utensils down, and her hands disappear under the table.

"You probably don't remember," she begins in a whisper while she casts her eyes down. I want to disagree with her, but I keep silent as she continues. "We had just started high school, and I wasn't really comfortable being in school with older classmates."

I want to ask why, but I don't dare interrupt.

"Tatsuki-chan would usually be by my side, but she had to stay and talk with a teacher, so I waited outside for her. It was fine until an upper classman passed by. He started out nice, but then he started to be mean about my clips." At this, she gently touches them. "I tried to be polite, and I tried to leave, but he was too forceful. He kept blocking my path. He then tried to take my clips from my hair, saying they were too childish."

She takes a deep breath and looks into my eyes.

"And then," she smiles in nostalgia. "Before he could lay a finger on them, a hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. I was looking down at the time, so I didn't see who the hand belonged to, but I recognized the voice as he said—"

"'Don't touch Inoue,'" I finish for her.

Her eyes widen.

"You remember?" She asks in surprise.

I nod. I probably remember it better than she does.

I had to stay behind because a teacher was lecturing me about my hair. By the time I left his classroom, everyone had already left to go home, and I was using the now empty courtyard as a short cut. Well, I thought it was empty, but I heard this voice from a distance. I couldn't see where the voice was coming from, but I could hear what he was saying.

He was hitting on a girl. He was complimenting her in an obnoxious way, and although it was annoying to hear, it wasn't my business so I just ignored it. Until I heard a familiar voice. And then I couldn't ignore it any longer.

When I finally spotted them, when I looked at Inoue who was close to tears as she held her head while the guy reached for her, I moved without thinking. Before I could even comprehend how I moved so quickly, I was already grabbing the guy's wrist. I had tightened my fingers around his wrist as I threatened him. He had looked like he wanted fight back, but with a glare and a punishing squeeze, he backed down and left.

As I looked back at her, she was trembling. I had thought at the time that she was scared of me, and I was just about to leave when she looked up and gave me a grateful smile with teary eyes. I remember that I had been embarrassed by her gratitude, and I told her that she didn't need to thank me. She had shaken her head and said that she did. That I saved her most precious possession that she got from her brother, and she said she couldn't thank me enough. I just replied that if they are that important to her, she should do anything to protect them next time for her sake and her brother's.

When she fell silent, I thought I offended her, and before I could apologize, Tatsuki came. And after a quick explanation given by Inoue, Tatsuki thanked me before scolding Inoue for not using her training. She then started to lead Inoue away, but before they disappeared around the corner, Inoue had turned around and waved. She had grinned, and with a smile that reached her eyes, she had yelled, "Thank you, Kurosaki-kun!"

It was the first time someone addressed me in that kind of familiarity yet respectful way. The first time she addressed me. The first time she said my name.

How could I not remember?

"You not only saved me, but you also listened to my ramblings."

"That's when you started liking me?"

She nods.

"I already knew that the rumors about you were lies," she admits. "But it was at that moment that I realized how kind you truly were."

Reactively, I almost argue with her statement because it seems untrue to me. The memory she inaccurately remembers occurred only a couple of days after the first day of school, and in that time span, I got in a few fights, which spurred the rumors surrounding me to increase.

But before I can open my mouth, a memory of my own starts to form in my head.

It was the first day of school. I had been early since I walked Karin and Yuzu to their school. I had just passed the gate when I saw a few people pointing and whispering, boys and girls alike. I thought that they might be gossiping about me, but as my eyes followed a finger, I found their focus.

Ahead of me, a girl with auburn hair that reminded me too much of a sunset had stopped in the middle of the pathway and was looking up at the sky. I looked up, too, trying to find what fascinated her, and what entranced the other students, but I didn't see anything. So I looked down and back at her.

That was when I knew what everyone was looking at.

She was beautiful. I could only see her profile, but it was undeniable. But then she turned around, and my eyes found hers. My eyes were met with the warmest brown honey-like eyes I had ever seen, and it was at that moment that I knew she wasn't just beautiful. She was something unearthly.

I had expected, like other times, for her to take one look at me and cower in fear. It was the kind of response I had coaxed in people. But…her eyes had just widened. And then she smiled.

I had been so confused, so bewildered that I felt myself scowling instinctively at her weird response. I thought that she would definitely lose her smile, turn around, and run away, but her smile grew, and she laughed. And not in a mean way. It was an inviting laugh. It was like she was laughing with me instead of at me, laughing at some inside joke she and I shared.

It had been strange, but before I could think more about it, Chad called out to me, and I looked over my shoulder to greet him. By the time I turned back, she was gone like a ghost.

It wasn't until Mizuiro, Keigo, Chad, and I stepped into our homeroom that I found out she wasn't a ghost that everyone could see. She was just a regular student.

She had glanced up to look at us, and our eyes met again. Hers enlarged in surprise while mine narrowed in suspicion until a voice drew my attention to the side of her.

It was Tatsuki. She had called my name, and she waved me over. I listened to her all the while thinking that it was an odd combination to see. Tatsuki still exuded her fierceness while she exuded gentleness. It was really odd.

But a quick introduction told me that their friendship was not just odd but strong as well, but instead of commenting on it, I looked straight at the girl that Tatsuki just introduced to me.

I predicted that she would immediately look away. I had a forming bruise on my cheek from the fight Chad and I were just in, and I was dirty from the fly-away dirt that was kicked up. I was disheveled in a way that made the girl next to her lean away from me in fright, but she just had that smile.

With our eyes locked in a stare, she told me it was nice to meet me.

And she truly meant it.

Till this day, I don't know why she was so sincere. I had assumed that she was nice to me because that was her demeanor or that Tatsuki told her to be, but then why did she laugh? Why did she smile?

I unknowingly voice my questions at her, and she looks mildly embarrassed.

"Promise you won't get mad?" She asks with lowered eyelashes and a small voice.

I chuckle at her worried expression before I nod and take a sip of water.

"I was really nervous the first day of school, and even though Tatsuki-chan would soon be my side, I still felt uneasy. I spent all morning talking with Ani to calm my nerves, but it wasn't working. Then I heard whispering when I was walking toward the school's entrance door, and my uneasiness grew. But I noticed what they were whispering about," her voice rises in excitement. "In the sky, there were two birds chasing each other like they were playing a game of tag!"

I inwardly sigh at yet another detail she misunderstood.

"I was so memorized by the sight that I stopped walking. I couldn't tear my eyes away, so when they flew behind me, I followed their movements. That's when I saw you." At this pause, she stares into my eyes, and our gaze doesn't just make remember the past, I'm thrown back into it. Into that first moment where our eyes would interlock for the first time without any pain or tears or sympathy attached to them. Our first true meeting. "You looked tenser than I felt. Guarded for some unknown reason, and I don't know why, but seeing you like that, you…reminded me of a kitten."

I'm teleported back to the present.

"A kitten?" I ask with an incredulous tone.

"Mmm." She nods quickly. "One of those orange, fluffy tabbies with its hair standing on end as a warning to everyone else. It was really cute."

I frown in embarrassment.

"I couldn't help but to smile when I looked at you. And then," she pauses to let out a giggle. "You scowled at me." She attempts to smother her laughs by covering her mouth, but her eyes give her away as they sparkle in laughter. "It was like you hissed at me! It was cuteness overload!"

I look down.

"Something is wrong with your head, Inoue. No one in their right mind would think like that," I mumble. Me, cute? No way.

She pouts as she shakes her head.

"I think I'm the only one who has my mind right, then," she states.

I glance back up at her, and I watch her defiantly stare at me, daring me to challenge her.

I sigh as I lay my cheek against my fist.

"Do you still see me as a kitten?" I ask, choosing to bypass her declaration.

She blinks before closing her eyes in thought.

"Umm…Rather than a kitten, I think you are more fitted to be a lion."

My eyebrow quirks up.

"How so?"

She purses her lips.

"Well, you are strong," she begins while holding up a finger like she's counting the similarities. "Courageous." She adds another finger. "Fierce." Another. "Protective." Another. "And most of all, although you are intimidating, you can be the sweetest, cutest thing in the world," she finishes as she clasps her hands together.

I open my fist so I can spread my fingers across my cheeks to hide my blush.

"So I've just been upgraded to a bigger cat?"

She laughs.

"I guess. But I do imagine you in different ways, so don't get to hung up about it," she explains.

I sit up straighter.

"Oh? Like what?"

She flushes.

"Kurosaki-kun's not being fair! All of my secrets are being revealed one after the other."

I snort.

"Is that my fault?"

She nods.

"I suppose you want me to share some of mine."

She nods with more vigor, earnestly, and I sigh again.

Vulnerability. That's what she asking of me. She wants to know me, and that really shouldn't be a problem. She and I have been friends for years. And we do know each other. Even more than that, she's seen me at my worst, at my weakest. She's seen my faults, my failures…she's seen it, and she still wants to know more.

So even though I'm adverse to it, I give her what she wants: I allow myself to be vulnerable.

"What do you want to know?" I ask as I take a sip of my water.

Her eyes light up in excitement.

"Was Tatsuki-chan your first crush?!"

I nearly spit the water at her.

But I manage to swallow before that could happen; although the water goes down the wrong pipe, making me cough.

"Are you crazy!" I direct at her with a hoarse voice. "Why would you ask that?!"

"You two were childhood friends so…"

"So what? That's all she was."

"Oh."

Why does she look disappointed?

"That's not what you wanted to hear?"

She shrugs.

"I just thought that if she were your first crush, we would have that in common."

My eyes bulge out of my socket.

"Tatsuki was your first crush?"

She rubs her head.

"Maybe? Anyways, if it wasn't Tatsuki-chan, who was it?"

The desire to redirect the topic back is powerful, but that would be me unraveling her secrets when it should be the other way around. But I'll file this for later. There's no way in hell that I wouldn't question her about it.

"I never really thought about it," I tell her. Again, the disappointed expression reappears. I continue after a pause. "But if I had to name someone, your name is the only one that pops up in my head."

"Me?" She points at herself.

I chuckle.

"Is that still disappointing?"

She shakes her head slowly.

"Surprising," she clarifies.

I chuckle.

"Took me surprise, too," I admit. Her head tilts as she stares into my eyes. "I didn't know that I liked you until recently. But all the signs were there."

Her eyebrows raise.

"Signs?"

I nod.

"You know, you've haunted me since we were twelve," I begin. She looks down, probably because she was not prepared for the painful memory I'm about to bring up. "I didn't know your name, but I remembered your face that day. Your pain. I remembered how you didn't blame my dad. You just thanked him even when your world was crashing around you. I remembered that sad girl."

She's still looking down, and maybe I should have rethought about divulging the past. But it's too late to take my words back so I just forge through.

"And then I met this kind, smiling girl on the first day of high school." She looks up, and her eyes are still reflecting a residue of sadness but also curiosity at the prolepsis in my story. "I knew that within the first couple of hours of meeting her, she was not only kind but extremely clumsy and accident prone."

"That's not true," she murmurs.

"Matter of fact, she was so klutzy that I worried about her, and when I found out she was too trusting, I worried about her more." She blushes. "So the kind, smiling girl preoccupied my thoughts time after time, but it still didn't click that the sad girl I met three years ago and my classmate were the same person until a month or so had passed in school."

"You really didn't know?"

"How could I? The you I met at my home and the you I met in school were two completely different people. But sad or happy, you were the one at the back of my mind. And as we grew to be friends, you were the one person I was most concerned about. The one person that I cared the most about what you thought of me. More than anyone else, you were the one I had to protect. Who knew that the more I tried to protect you, the more danger I would put you through, though," I add as an afterthought.

"That doesn't mean you had a crush on me," she responds lightly, dejectedly. "That just means I was so weak that you felt the need to protect me."

I scowl.

"You're not weak, Inoue," I state a bit too intensely, sincerely. "Do you not know how many people would be dead without you? How I would be dead without you?"

She stays silent.

"Maybe it's my fault you think that way," I tell her. She looks ready to disagree. "But I just…seeing you in pain…it hurts more than if I had been injured directly, so that's why I'd risk everything to protect you. And maybe that doesn't prove anything, but I didn't, I don't," I correct before continuing, "protect you just to keep you safe, Inoue. I protect you because that smiling girl that you are and that sad girl that you were, I want both of them to be safe and happy. I want you happy, Inoue. More than anyone."

By now, her face is bright red, and I know mine is the same shade. I feel almost breathless due to how much I talked. I feel embarrassed at the clunky and awkward way I tried to express myself. And yet…I feel relieved. Relieved that she finally knows the depths of my feelings, and talking them aloud, I even realize myself how much I have truly fallen for her.

"So now you know," I say as I watch her face closely. "You were—What's happening?"

She's currently making a worrisome expression. Her eyebrows are knit together, and her mouth is pursed. She looks like she's glaring at me.

"I'm trying not to cry," she gets out in a quiet voice.

I feel my shoulders slump in relief.

"I said something cute?"

She nods while making that scrunched up face. I chuckle as I reach over and poke her forehead.

The instant my finger makes contact with her skin, her face relaxes, and tears start to run down her flushed cheeks. I quickly hand her my napkin.

"It's no handkerchief, but it'll have to do."

She gives a watery laugh.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be crying on our first date," she apologizes. She sniffles.

"I have a feeling that it would be weird if you didn't."

Again, she laughs.

"Oh, good! You're laughing," Taku says out of nowhere. "I was worried I would have to fight Ichigo."

"Fight me?"

"Yeah. For making Inoue-san cry."

This sobers Inoue up.

"It's not like that! These are tears of happiness!"

He smirks at me.

"I never knew you were such a lady-killer."

"I'm not. She's just a cry-baby."

She looks like she wants to take offense to my comment, but she just wipes her face and shrugs.

"Well, I'm sorry for interrupting. I'll bring you a dessert on the house," Taku offers as he clears our dishes from our table.

"You don't have to," Inoue interjects.

He smiles at her.

"It's not every day Ichigo brings a girl here."

I bristle.

"It's not any day I bring a girl here," I stress.

"I stand by what I said," Taku replies as he leaves.

"What a pain," I remark before turning back to her. "You okay?"

"I think so?" I give her questioning look. "It's just when I think about me being your first crush, my heart beats too fast."

"This must be what Tatsuki must be feeling, knowing she was your first crush," I tease.

"She…It's not…Don't tell her, Kurosaki-kun!" She practically whines.

I pretend to mull it over, enjoying the anxious expression she gives. Does that make me a sadist?

God, I hope not.

"We'll see how the rest of the night goes."

"Kurosaki-kun!"

I laugh as she threatens to throw the used napkin at me.

So now she knows she was my first crush. Only time will tell what other first she'll be for me.

Only time will tell.