Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of its characters. They belong to Tite Kubo and whoever else actually owns it and I make no money from writing this. This story however is mine and is not to be replicated, reposted, or copied in any way without my consent. Thank you.
…
The REAL Next Day. Part 2
.
Ichigo and Tatsuki looked at each other for a second before twin smiles broke over their faces and they ran out the door. Looks like school let out early today. No one noticed the thin line Ichigo's lips had become, or the distinct tightness of his jaw.
…
When they were outside the school and still running away at full speed, Tatsuki couldn't restrain her laughter anymore.
"Did you see the looks on their faces!" She laughed out maniacally as she tried to keep pace with Ichigo, which was rather hard when she was trying so hard to keep her sides intact. She did hear a small laugh come from Ichigo, but not what she would have expected from something as obviously funny as what they had just went through. His shoulders were tense, his movements were terse; everything about his posture suggested he was actually
angrier than anything else at the combined coma the class had just been put into.
They turned a corner into a back alley between two rows of buildings and suddenly Tatsuki found herself pinned to the cold brick of one of the office complexes. The wind had been knocked out of her in her surprise and she was fully ready to retaliate… until she saw that it had been
Ichigo of all people to do such a thing. Not only had she been pinned, she had also been lifted to his eye level, and was now sitting on his hips unintentionally on her part, but intentionally on his.
What she saw in his eyes very nearly stopped her heart.
Ichigo was looking straight into her eyes like he could bore into the depths of her soul just by doing that, and he was right. They were two of a kind. He had already witnessed her inner world when he had given her his powers, just like she had witnessed his. The thing was: one of his eyes was the glowing yellow of his other half with its darkness as deep as the core of Hell as its background, while the other was still his intense amber-brown. He was sweating, but some part of her doubted the reason for that was the unbelievably hot day they were currently experiencing, and she could see his muscles straining against the material of his shirt and vest as his reiatsu seemed to take tangible form in the air around them in its thickness. It was nearly violent, but such outrage could easily be mistaken for anger had it not been her he was holding.
"Why…?"
It was not spoken by her, but by a voice so airy from pure
fury that a Hollow's ghastly steam wafted from his mouth as he breathed the word out. There was no mistaking he was pissed, and very much so from the looks of things, but she couldn't understand
why he was so mad. That was made abundantly clear by his next sentence.
"Why are people so shocked I'd want to be engaged to you…?"
In less than a second her eyes had become larger than they ever had before. Why hadn't she seen it sooner? What she had found funny, he found immensely angering. The eyes that had locked on to them, the laughter and unbelief from people they called their friends… he was maddened by them. Keigo had been one of his friends for longer than most people could claim, and yet Ichigo had been ready to severely hurt him for what he had been doing so knowingly.
Albeit while there was a great deal of things to laugh about during that question period Miss Ochi had put him through, the reactions were all the same.
Even Urahara and Yoruichi. They were all the
same.
Ichigo had a reason to be pissed, and she was quickly coming to the same conclusion.
"Why is it so hard to believe?" He choked out, searching her face for any kind of answer. Not only was he mad, he was also in
pain. It pained him that people would take it so lightly, and she wasn't surprised by that one bit. Ichigo was anything if not serious. "You didn't come with me to Soul Society to help me save Rukia, you didn't help me face down Hollows or take down Arrancar's during the war with Aizen; you didn't do any of that, I know!"
Tatsuki's widened eyes froze in fear at the tone of those words, but once again he continued… and turned her heart to jelly.
"But you went through just as much pain when Orihime was captured, you suffered just as much as any of us even if your wounds couldn't be seen! You were always there! Ever since we were little you've always been there!"
His one eye not transformed was becoming moist with unshed tears as he all but shouted his feelings at her, and the one that was Ogihci's trademark was angry and hard, more than
just pissed at what had been done to what was inexplicably
his. The hands that had been clamped beside both sides of her head on the wall were now scraping down into fists, impossibly tearing rock from the wall with abnormal strength.
"You aren't weak, you don't get scared easily, you're willing to fight for what you believe in and dammit you're one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! What's so wrong with wanting to be with you forever! Why do people find it so damn
hard to believe!"
If there had been a breeze in the incredibly hot day, it would have knocked Tatsuki over had she not still been pinned to the wall by her fiancé. She had always known that under his tough exterior he was sensitive, but the fact had never had its fullest impact on her until she had heard those words. He had made himself vulnerable for her, she knew that, and that vulnerability had been pounced upon instantly. He didn't like people questioning his judgment, he didn't like people harassing his friends…he didn't like it, any of it, at all.
Her eyes softened and she reached up to embrace the hands gripping the chipped brick they had torn off the wall so hard she could see the blood flowing down his arms. She knew. She was acutely aware of what he was trying to say. Had it been her in his position, she knew she would have been facing the same kinds of looks and questions as he did. She had had to put up with Keigo's reaction, but that was mild punishment compared to facing Uryuu's arguably unknowing question. The person that had fought with him through so many battles of convictions, even he, had doubted the seriousness that Ichigo had tried to portray by acting so relaxed that their engagement had been found out.
His pained, mismatched eyes found hers again and the tears threatening to fall from the one finally broke loose at the understanding and caring they saw in the other pair. He buried his head in the crook of her neck and could do nothing but shake violently when she took her arms, with hands wet with his blood, and wrapped them around his neck in a gentle embrace as she too sought out his neck and laid her head down next to it.
"Why…? Dammit I love you…isn't that enough for them?"
The invincible Vizard was crying, and he wasn't crying for his own sake, he was crying because of the injustices done to
their very ideals.
Wordlessly, as she had been the entire time, the young woman whose heart was close to exploding with love removed herself from his neck and cupped his face in her strong hands, forcing him to look at her. She leaned her forehead on his with a gentility that most people would never suspect she could have, but she was as much of a woman as she was a fighter, just like she and Ichigo were no less Shinigami than they were Hollow. Wiping away the streak of tears from the one side of his face with the clean back of her hand, she smiled softly.
"It's enough for
me,"she affirmed in a loving whisper.
And with that, she kissed him, and all the world fell away as he responded like a starving man, but more accurately like a man that wanted—
needed—to affirm both himself and her that what they were experiencing was real. No amount of laughter could disavow what they had.
A ragged moan escaped her when the rough kisses became far more insistent and his tongue eagerly explored her mouth as it had so many times before. She was still pinned by his hips, but now that mass of bones and flesh under her had become mobile, grinding into her panty-clad core now only marginally covered by her school skirt. Why a high school would want their girls to wear miniskirts around pubescent young men was beyond her, but at the moment she wanted to jump for joy that there was no other material keeping him from her except the damp cotton.
Miniskirts weren't that bad after all.
She wanted to be able to move and do something for
him, but he wasn't going to have any of that apparently. She could barely move under the influence of the harsh jabs of his hips that ground the hard flesh under his pants across her increasingly wet panties. Each movement brushed the coarse fabric over her highly sensitive slit and the explosive nerve centre located just above it, and her eyes screwed shut at the volatile and desperately wanted sensations burning her from the inside out. Her hands were shaking and she was sweating profusely from both the heat outside
and inside her body, but Ichigo was vicious in his assault, barely giving her any time to breathe let alone time to remove their clothing.
Complain was the one thing she would never do though, not now, she had been wound way too tightly to care about what she was wearing at the moment. She loved the feelings he could create in her, and the heat flowing through her made her forget all about the heat of the environment around them. Their clothes were sticking to them from the humidity and their actions, and that only proved to set off even more nerves on their skin all at once from the contrast of the cold sweat on the clothing and their hot skin as they savagely rubbed against the other with no apparent concern for the world around them. All they could care about was the lightning dancing behind their eyes and the tsunami creating chaos in their insides.
"Oh god…" she whimpered helplessly as she thrashed against his hold. Her body was making it perfectly clear that it wouldn't be able to handle much more, and she had never wanted her body to give in to something more than she did at that moment. Ichigo's strangled breaths reverberated in her eardrums and she knew he was just as close as she was.
A cold breeze unexpectedly rushed through the alley and both Ichigo and Tatsuki cried out as that line pulled so tight in their bodies suddenly snapped in response to the air that chilled their paradoxically boiling flesh into fiery shivers that rippled in enormous shockwaves through their entire nervous systems. Even though their bodies had been expecting this on some level, they were unprepared for the sheer enormity of sensation that sent their bodies into erratic jerks even though they hadn't even performed the full act. Control over their muscles was officially a thing of the Past and they both crumpled to the unforgiving concrete of the ground, still reeling from the effects of their orgasm.
Maybe it was because of the recklessness of the emotions rushing through them as they sought their completion, or maybe it was the urgent need of some sort of comfort that brought about such a volatile end; whatever it was they didn't know, all they knew was the intense relief, the intense love the other offered. They needed everything the other had to give in times like these, and it was the knowledge—the
fact—that no matter what, the other would always be there to offer it that made it so intense.
As they regained their vision back from the blinding light that had taken over their sight, laughter as pure as a child's came from them. They were all they needed. Their friends were still their friends, but if they couldn't accept the inevitable—their union—well then that was just too bad now wasn't it?
Ichigo looked up at Tatsuki from under the orange locks that had pasted themselves to his face and smiled. "That was amazing."
Blurry black eyes met his, and even if the comment seemed out of place, she knew exactly what he meant. "That's putting it lightly." She could barely move. It felt like her muscles had all turned to goo, and she wasn't alone in that sentiment either. She could feel her Hollow reeling inside her, lying on the grassy expanse that made up her inner world, one lined with blue skyscrapers on the horizon. Out of reach but not out of mind.
Holy crap, he's got some skill for a beginner, she panted. Tatsuki couldn't even get up the strength to answer her.
She felt gravity start pulling on her again and realized Ichigo was getting up with her in his arms, just like he had when they were going back to Urahara's shop. She was once more drawn close to the warmth of his chest, now melded with the smell of his musk from his damp clothes, and she closed her eyes contently, satisfied to revel in the absolute presence that her fiancé exuded. Power and warmth, harshness and tenderness, skill and recklessness; his reiatsu was as tangible as the arms around her to her mind's eye.
Yes, this was where she belonged.
"It looks like we made quite a mess of ourselves," Ichigo commented offhandedly as he looked over both himself and his lover, or as much as he could look over himself. He didn't like the red 'mess' his bloody hands were creating on her leg and shoulder from where he was holding her, but it was just another thing to wash off. The clothes would be hard to explain though. He could
feel the wetness of his pants. It was certainly uncomfortable, and he could see an identical stain on Tatsuki's skirt. He guessed his hands were probably throbbing, protesting the weight on the cut flesh, but he still couldn't feel anything other than the haze their actions had put over his senses.
"Mm hmm," she responded breathily, to which he just chuckled.
"We're going to need to change before we see anyone, or anyone sees us."
She just nodded into his chest. "Mm hmm."
He smiled softly down on her.
She's so beautiful, and she's all mine. "I'll take us to your house first so you can shower and change, then I'll go to my house. We can meet up there later. Is that okay?"
Yet another, "Mm hmm."
He chuckled again, as he still hadn't fully recovered either. If not for his Hollow, he would still be on the ground too. That didn't mean his legs were feeling any stronger than hers probably were; it was through sheer willpower that he managed to stay up.
Hmm, I wonder… he thought mischievously. "And then we'll replace all your shorts and cargo pants with skirts and dresses, okay?"
Just as he thought, the same answer came. "Mm hmm."
Ichigo had to bite his lip almost to the point of breaking skin to repress the laughter that wanted to burst out of him. Under normal circumstances, Tatsuki would
kill anyone that even
suggested she get rid of
one pair of her precious shorts or cargo pants.
She must really be out of it. He thought too soon, because a weak hand suddenly reached up and grabbed his collar, trying feebly to pull his head down. He didn't resist and soon he saw Tatsuki glaring at him with the one eye she had managed to get open. "As soon as I can move you are
dead, y'hear me?" The threat lacked any actual strength behind it, and it was all he could do not to smile.
Instead, he winked at her. "Too late, but I'll keep that in mind," he replied softly and dipped down to give her nose a light peck. She let out a tiny squawk of indignation at her mental slip, as well as Ichigo's embarrassing kiss. Not that she would ever tell him she thought it was cute and touching, nope, never. She did manage to give his chest a pathetic punch though.
He only chuckled again and in a flash he was out of sight with her safely in his arms.
They could handle anything that came at them now.
…
Ichigo sighed, out of relief
and out of pain as he snuck into his room through his bedroom window. He had dropped Tatsuki off via the same method he now found himself using to enter his own room, and she had set to work getting ready for a change of clothes and a shower the second they entered. She had even started stripping right in front of him. How he had managed to drag himself out of her room before something happened again he couldn't even remember.
By some insane stroke of luck, Kon seemed to be out of the room at the moment—most likely being terrorized by Yuzu. He couldn't help but chuckle; he felt no pity whatsoever for the stuffy that made a living being annoying and ogling girls. Revulsion, now that he had no trouble feeling when he saw the plush lion dressed in bonnet and whatever other little item of torment his little sister had decided to decorate him with that day, but pity? Nope.
He made his way over to his closet as he shucked his damp vest and undid his practically transparent white shirt while ignoring the throbs of protest his hands sent to his brain at the actions. He had handled much worse pain than this before, and though it may seem twisted, he was thankful for that, because that made it much easier to disregard the pain he was going through right then. Throwing the unbuttoned shirt to the same place as his vest and all but tearing his stained pants and boxers from his body, he sighed in relief. He could still feel the areas of dried blood on him—from both where he had put his hands and Tatsuki had put hers—but that was much more tolerable than the sticky situation he had so embarrassedly realized he had put himself and his fiancé in.
Sighing again, he grabbed a towel from his closet to cover his nakedness as he stealthily tried to make his way to the bathroom in the hall unnoticed. Once again fate seemed to have mercy on the thoroughly embarrassed, yet proud, Vizard hero and he encountered no one on his way. Surprising considering his father's penchant for being in the right place at the wrong time, and his sisters' abilities of walking around the house with no goal in mind, except of course: Yuzu's compulsive need to clean. He didn't know what he would have done if Karin had been the one to find him in the hall. That just
spelled disaster.
He stood in front of the bathroom mirror and examined the damage he had done to himself, which was actually worse than he had thought. They were definitely going to need bandages. There was one thing he wasn't going to put up with any longer though, which was rectified when he took his crimson stained ring off and washed it under the water of the sink until it was sparkling again. He decided to leave it on the sink instead of taking it into the shower.
Sheesh, wearing a ring is taking some getting used to. He looked up from his hands to the mirror and saw a relatively normal occurrence nowadays.
Ogihci stood in place of his reflection, a shockingly normal smile on his face for once.
Heh, you sure know how to pick 'em, that's for sure, the Hollow sneered, but if his orange-haired equivalent didn't know any better—which by now he
did, he had become well attuned to his Hollow's tones—the sneer lacked anything of malice and instead seemed
impressed. "Glad you approve," Ichigo replied as he rolled his eyes and turned around to start the shower.
Ogihci didn't even give a second glance to the uncaring remark.
She can sure do some damage. Hehe, I'm surprised you didn't bail when she clawed your shoulders. Ichigo started in surprise and looked over his shoulder at his reflection, now back to himself. He saw that his Hollow had indeed been correct, and small scabs the shape of nail-sized crescent moons adorned his shoulders. He felt no pain, instead he felt the incredible urge to laugh.
Yup, she's anything but passive, he thought with a smile.
As he stepped into the shower and the hot water sprinkled over him, taking the sweat, blood, and secretions from his body as it did so, he put his hands on the tile of the wall and bowed his head, silently staring at the drain. The secondary confrontations had been taken care of, but the most important ones were still to come. He had to face both his family and hers sometime in the future. If all went well, he would be allowed the small wedding he wanted before they took a break to Soul Society so he, and maybe even she, could learn some things from the Fourth Division, but if all didn't, then there'd be a large possibility they'd just elope.
He didn't want to think of that. Having to leave his friends and family caused him to shudder, but he knew he couldn't live if he had to be apart from her now. Not only would he not be able to stand it, he had a nagging suspicion that his inner demon wouldn't take too well to that concept either.
Heh, you can bet your ass I'd have a problem with it! They don't like it, screw them. I'll tear this world apart piece by piece before I allow someone to keep me from my Queen! Ogihci warned dangerously.
So damn annoying, thought Ichigo as he shook his head in frustration.
Oh get off it! His other half instantly retorted,
You know as well as I do that you'd rather face me again than have her taken away! Well, he had him there.
So what do you suggest I do? The orange haired teen thought back sarcastically.
Inside his inner world, the white Ichigo rolled his glowing yellow eyes.
Where do you have the most respect? Ichigo thought about that for a moment, before his dreary eyes shot open in realization.
Looks like you understand. You could always lose the meat suit and stay as a Soul Reaper. The suggestion, as insane as ever from the seemingly loveless Hollow, did make some sense to the worried teen, and that made him even more worried. There would be far too many repercussions were he to do that. His family wouldn't be able to take another death, even one as faked as his would be. Karin, and even his father, would be able to see him, but Yuzu just wouldn't understand. He would rather die than put his family through another death, which in itself was a contradiction.
No, he simply couldn't do that.
He set to work scrubbing himself clean as well as cleansing his soiled hair from the sweat he had worked up over the day. It burned his hands to handle the shampoo and conditioner, but by the time he was done the cuts as well were clean and barely bleeding. As he turned off the shower and stepped out he instantly started searching for the bandages before they started to bleed again. He found them with little difficulty and wrapped his hands in the gauzed white cloth, which not surprisingly brought back memories of his battle with Byakuya Kuchiki. He had been wrapped up in more bandages for that fight than King Tut in all his mummified glory.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when someone pounding on the door snapped him out of his reminiscence. "Ichi! What's taking you so long in there! There's someone at the door for you!" It was Karin, as blunt as ever.
Who could be at the door for me? He didn't even want to think of the possibilities. It could be his friends, the ones that had so irritatingly fainted after his engagement had finally sunk through their thick skulls, or it could be…
Tatsuki! I almost forgot I told her to meet me here! Promptly shot into 'Scramble' mode, Ichigo yanked both his ring onto his finger and a towel around his waist before he shot out the door, past an extremely shocked Karin. His little sister was growing up, and had went through yet another growth spurt. That didn't stop her tomboyish tendencies though, and as much as Ichigo would have liked to think that that would keep the boys away from her, he could only remember his own situation with Tatsuki.
Yeah, her being a tomboy really
kept me away from her. He could
taste his own sarcasm.
In no time at all he had pulled a fresh pair of boxers and pants on and was running down the stairs while trying to get his tight t-shirt on, which was probably not the smartest plan he had ever had. Stairs tend to require having the ability to
see them, especially going at the speed he was. It was only a matter of time before his newly socked feet slipped on one of the deceptive steps, and just like during his first encounter with Rukia he fell head-over-heels down the stairs. He had one thing to be thankful for, and that was at least this time he wasn't bound by a binding spell courtesy of the 'little brat,' and was able to break his fall with his hands somewhere along the way once his shirt was finally on.
This did have one major drawback though, and Ichigo's hands made sure he knew what that was.
His arms buckled under the shooting pain coming from his hands and were it not for the roll he accomplished on the way down, he would have completed his trip down the stairs nose first.
Not something he wanted to experience again.
"Ichi!" He heard a scared voice cry. Since there was only one other female in the house, and only one that would care like that, needless to say when he looked down the stairs he wasn't surprised to see Yuzu, clutching her apron in worry and looking up at him with alarm all over her features. "You're bleeding!"
That got his attention. He looked down at his bandage-clad hands and saw that she was right. By stopping his fall he had reopened the wounds on his hands and the previously white bandages were now stained red.
Damn it all, can't I catch a break! He didn't let his annoyance show, because knowing Yuzu she would interpret it as directed at her and not his stupid hands.
"I'm fine Yuzu, don't worry," he said as he brushed off his pants and walked the rest of the way down the stairs.
"DON"T BRUSH OFF YOUR LITTLE SISTER ICHIGO!" A loud, extremely excited male tone exclaimed. There was no warning whatsoever to the arrival of the large body of his father flying through the air, elbow directed solely at Ichigo's cheek.
There was a huge
bang that punctuated the two bodies meeting each other in the giant collision and soon after there was another.
That was caused by Ichigo's annoyed fist in his father's face. It didn't take long before the daily, if not hourly, Kurosaki Battle-Royale broke out between father and son, and the two kids in adult's bodies were wrestling and rolling all over the house, destroying things in the path of their carnage. How a cloud of dust could be formed in what was supposed to be a mostly sterile clinical environment no one knows, but that was what was covering the two as punches and kicks were thrown. Of course, the usual ramblings came from that same dust cloud, going anywhere from 'Come on Son, you can do better than that!' to 'Damn you Old Man!'
Finally, when the dust settled, a victorious Ichigo stood above his father's pretzel-shaped body with a look of triumph set on his scuffed face. Isshin, naturally, lied on the ground with eyes spinning. "Only one minute 'til pin-down, you truly are my son!" The exasperatingly flashy man sobbed in joy.
Ichigo's eyebrow twitched and he kicked the pretzel-man into the opposing wall. "Dammit every other teenager doesn't have to put up with this! Why me!"
"Entertainment value?" Someone asked while muffling laughter.
Even muffled by a hand, he would know that voice anywhere. He turned around and sure enough, Tatsuki stood by the doorframe with a hand covering her mouth. He had much better ideas for what could be covering her mouth, but he pushed those aside for the moment. His family would probably die of shock if he suddenly went over and kissed Tatsuki, the one girl that had seen the inside of their house for the specific purpose of seeing him in the Past. She now shared that title with Rukia, but she had had it long before the tiny Soul Reaper had come into the picture.
Still, his eyes couldn't be stopped from roaming over her image even though he had denied his body the chance to taste her again. What instantly caught his attention was the healthy flesh of her breasts semi-exposed to the air. Tatsuki was wearing one of her favorite shirts, a white button-up with a vest drawn on it. It was done up in the way she usually wore it too, though she only wore it rarely. Her trim stomach and navel were exposed to view, and she was actually showing some cleavage in the way she had the buttons done up.
Though most people didn't notice half the time, it was a fact that Tatsuki certainly wasn't lacking in that department, and in Ichigo's personal opinion they had even gotten
larger in the past year and a half. She had compromised between her two favorites on her choice of leggings, as a pair of tight cargo shorts adorned her sculpted hips and legs, allowing welcome air flow in the almost unbearably hot day. A pair of simple flip-flops was on her feet and he had to admit, this was probably the most flesh he had ever seen exposed under Tatsuki's clothing since he had known her.
And hot damn did she look good.
He did notice she was taking in his relatively simple apparel with an equal amount of approval, and that brought a sly grin to his features as he rubbed the dirt off his face with what remained clean on the reddened bandages. Tatsuki noticed this immediately and her face clouded with worry, and that made him drop his hands to his sides instantly.
"They don't hurt as bad as they look," the suddenly self-conscious young man mumbled in explanation.
Tatsuki blew some of her hair out of her eyes in exasperation. "You really are an idiot," she whispered softly, but continued in words that more than just he could hear. "You know we'll have to get Orihime to look at them now, right?"
Ichigo chuckled lightly, and a sharp gasp was heard from beside them. He looked over curiously to see Yuzu, still clutching her apron like a housewife, looking at him with beady eyes filled with unshed tears of joy. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard her brother laugh so carelessly to the situation around him.
It pained him to admit it, but even Yuzu was growing up, and her body was changing accordingly. Both his little sisters were almost into their teens and the tell-tale signs of puberty were already showing, though with Karin it was kind of hard to notice, because she had her days where she'd punch someone for no apparent reason no matter if it was
that time of the month or not. They were both inheriting their mother's beauty, even if Karin tried her damndest to try and conceal that. Yuzu remained blissfully oblivious to the attention that was starting to get paid to her, but that may have also been because a certain red-haired young man would take a giant bat to anyone that even looked at her funny, whether she knew it or not.
That memory got another chuckle from him as he looked at his younger sibling. That was one less sister to worry about, because though Jinta was the definition of 'rough around the edges,' he had a good heart. That didn't nullify the reality that Ichigo still had his occasional moments of wanting to beat on the redhead for his snide remarks and actions, especially during his days at the Urahara Shop when he had been trying to get back his Soul Reaper powers, but it helped. The thoughts of his spit still incited anger in him sometimes, but that was over and done with already. He didn't need to worry about Karin though; she could take care of herself. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if she approached Tatsuki about more formal Karate lessons any time now.
That didn't mean that he wouldn't do anything were something to somehow befall one of them. Oh there would be Hell to pay were that to happen.
The war was over, his sisters were growing up, and he was getting
married of all things. Time was going by faster than he had thought it would. Even
he hadn't fully escaped its ravages. He had grown, literally, even though those changes had been taking place through his time in Soul Society and Hueco Mundo to lesser visible extents. He was now as tall as his father, and in all likelihood he would grow even taller since it was possible that he wasn't done growing yet, being the male that he was.
It was almost funny how long it took him to notice these things.
Reeling his mind back to the Present, Ichigo put a hand on Yuzu's shoulder. "There are some things I need to tell you guys."
Yuzu could only nod happily in response and run up the stairs to find Karin.
He looked over and saw that Tatsuki was smiling at him too, and he couldn't
not smile back. A double negative or no, Ichigo simply couldn't restrain her one of his smiles when he knew she deserved each and every one of them. From the looks of things, this would be the one group that might actually take this seriously, as reversed as it seemed. All except Isshin. Life would be discovered on other planets before the bearded, overdramatic maniac took anything seriously without lives hanging in the balance.
"You have something to tell your daddy!" said bearded maniac hollered joyfully as he jumped towards Ichigo with his arms outstretched. Ichigo instantly stopped his flight by planting his foot in the older man's face, and he fell to the ground like a rock.
"How did you untangle yourself!"
The words, "So cruel…my son…" wafted up from the floor.
Tatsuki merely laughed. She was already used to this but it was always funny seeing it up close. When Isshin finally peeled himself up from the floor, he looked over at her in shock, zooming from angle to angle around her just to make sure what he was seeing was real.
"Tatsuki…?" He sounded so confused. "You're a…girl…?"
BAM! Isshin had been relegated back to his previous position of twitching lifelessly on the floor.
The young woman was fuming silently, but she hadn't been the one to smash her soon-to-be father-in-law into the ground, even if she had wanted to be the one to do it. No, that privilege had been given to Ichigo, who stood fuming
openly over his father's body. "What the hell did you think she was! You can't honestly tell me you thought you were letting a
boy come over here when we were younger!"
Isshin moaned pitifully and rubbed his head, where a goose egg the size of…well…a goose egg, was forming on it. He rolled over onto his back to look up at the fuming twosome. "I meant…I was just reminded again that she was a girl!" He exclaimed happily, and was swiftly stomped further into the floor by Tatsuki's foot.
"That amounts to the same thing, moron!" She gritted out.
It was lucky for the Kurosaki patriarch that Karin and Yuzu came down the stairs at that moment, otherwise Tatsuki likely would've shown him some of the techniques she used on Chizuru all the time. Karin, upon witnessing the scene, slapped her palm to her forehead. "You never learn do you? Good grief."
Yuzu, being the more maternal of the two, naturally ran over to her father's whimpering form. "Daddy! Are you okay!"
Ichigo sighed. "Quit humoring him Yuzu, he'll never stop if you don't."
As if on cue, the burly man jumped up dramatically and pointed his finger into the air with the tone of absolute authority…over nothing. "Daddy will NEVER stop!" He proclaimed jubilantly.
BAM! Karin rolled her eyes when her father was dropped to the floor again. She had heard the ruckus downstairs but frankly she didn't want to get involved. She didn't feel sorry for her dad in the least. "So Ichi, Yuzu said you wanted to tell us something?"
It was strange how fast Ichigo could switch emotional gears, as he went from annoyed and angry to serious right away. Karin saw this and dropped her guise of being uninterested. When Ichigo went serious like he just did, it was not something to ignore. Even Isshin picked up on this, and rocketed over to a seat by Karin and Yuzu with a look of childlike curiosity on his face.
"Um…well…ya see…I'm…" He stammered miserably. He knew he could do it but for some reason the words were lodged in his throat.
Yuzu and Karin leaned forward in anticipation. This was another thing they weren't used to. Ichigo rarely, if ever, stuttered, especially with what they could have sworn was the beginnings of a
blush on his cheeks.
Tatsuki, ever the patient one, rolled her eyes and showed off her left hand to the small assemblage in front of them. "We're engaged, okay?" She said for him.
The silence in the normally loud house was deafening.
When no 'just kidding's or 'fooled you's were said, the fact seemed to finally sink in. It helped that Ichigo had sighed at his own uselessness and raised his left hand to reinforce the fact Tatsuki was trying to make.
Karin simply sat there, not knowing what to do, what to think, or what the laws of the universe were anymore. Yuzu's eyes started watering in happiness and she all but threw herself at Tatsuki and clamped her arms around her in a strong hug that belied her thin arms. It took Isshin the longest to react, but when he did, the waterworks flowed.
"OH MOTHER! LISTEN TO THIS! FATHER HAS ACQUIRED YET
ANOTHER DAUGHTER!" The bearded man shouted excitedly through his tears and pasted himself to the poster of his late wife Masaki on the wall.
The only son of the Kurosaki tribe rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "That…went better than I thought it would."
Then there was Tatsuki—who by this time was nearly turning blue from Yuzu's death-grip around her waist—who finally managed to push the smaller girl off of her and gasped for breath before reaching down and giving the girl a much more suitable hug, one that didn't cut off air flow. Yuzu was still crying, just like her father.
Suddenly Isshin was behind Ichigo and had thrown an arm around his shoulders. "My son, getting married!" Ichigo was going deaf from the noise and soon Isshin wrapped his other arm around his shoulders and gave his son a bear-hug, all the while crying his brains out. "Good for you son!"
Normally the first thing Ichigo would do when in a situation like this would be to punch his father into next week to get him off of him, but this time he just sighed and actually
returned the hug. After all, he had just given his father something to actually celebrate, and even he thought it was worth doing so. So just this once, he let his dad off easy.
"Thanks… Dad," Ichigo said hesitantly.
Isshin instantly started bawling again. Ichigo practically never called him 'dad.' Karin had finally gotten over the shock of her big brother getting married to her hero as a tomboy, when Ichigo had returned the hug and even said 'thanks,' which put her into yet another catatonic state.
This sky's falling outside, it has to be. The world's ending, yeah that's it: the world's ending. What else could explain it…? She was in shock, but some part of her recognized the truth of the matter. Denial over, she quickly wound into acceptance, and even compromise. She stood up and walked over to where Tatsuki was still standing with Yuzu sobbing in her arms, and put her hands on her hips as she looked up at her karate idol indifferently. "You're marrying my brother? You're giving me free karate lessons." She said it in a tone that meant it was non-negotiable.
Right beside her, Ichigo had to laugh at his sister's coping mechanism. It was exactly like 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours.' In this case though, Karin summed it up to Tatsuki was marrying
her older brother, so in return for his hand, she had to give the younger sister karate lessons. He just had to laugh at her reasoning.
After a bit of surprise, the older tomboy smiled back widely. "Deal."
"Karin!" Isshin reprimanded boisterously, "Don't hassle your sister-in-law! She's going to be family!" The old man was rushing at Karin, so in true Tatsuki form, said woman twirled around—with a now startled Yuzu in her grip—and kicked the football-tackle-ready father into the wall.
She grinned down at Karin, who was staring at the wall appreciatively. "Lesson one: that was a roundhouse kick."
It took a second for what she meant to sink in, but eventually Karin grinned back. "Got it!"
In what seemed like a second Isshin was back to his son had his arm around his shoulders again. Tatsuki had to do a quick double take.
What is he! Made of steel or something! "Now son…" Isshin began, in practiced exaggerated form, "after a wedding is something called the honeymoon, now for that the husband—!"
The tactless man was cut off by both Ichigo
and Tatsuki's fists colliding with his face at the same time, both of which had mortified blushes on their faces. "Shut up!" They both yelled at once. Even Karin and Yuzu had the decency to blush at what their father had tried to bring up so carelessly.
The bearded dramatic was sobbing on the ground again. "But…but how can you give me grandbabies if you don't know how?"
There was a horrified moment of silence.
Tatsuki cracked her knuckles as her bangs shielded her eyes from view. "Ichigo…just how much can your father survive…?"
Her fiancé backed away on impulse. He could
feel the dark waves radiating from her body. "He's… pretty tough…he can handle a lot," he answered with a gulp.
BAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! Isshin had officially become part of the wall.
Ichigo burst out laughing, as did Karin, but as usual Yuzu rushed to her father's aid, so she didn't see what the other two did, and that was Tatsuki turning back to face them with the remnants of black ebbing from her eyes. Ichigo only laughed more, but suddenly Karin realized something was off and took the time to analyze Tatsuki's spiritual pressure.
Her eyes widened. "You're like Ichi…"
They both stopped laughing, but even though they stopped, they still turned smiling faces on Karin. "It's okay, everything's under control. You don't have to worry about us," Ichigo explained softly, and Karin, though struggling back tears, nodded to him.
The infamous tomboy gave another one of her eye-closing smiles. "Everything's fine!"
Karin nodded with more conviction this time, and Ichigo gave her hair a quick ruffle in response. "Sheesh, listens more to Tatsuki than to her own brother. What's the world coming to?"
The preteen wiped away the remnants of tears that had been replaced by mirth from her eyes. "An end, that's what. Who'd have ever thought
you'd get married?"
She had him there.
"Well, someone obviously did," he replied slyly as he motioned his eyes towards Tatsuki. It was no surprise when Tatsuki punched his shoulder, and Karin let loose a reluctant laugh. "Take care of everything here, I think it's time Tatsuki and I went out for a bit." His lover seemed a bit stunned by this, but he quickly leaned over to whisper in her ear. "If we stay here any longer, the Old Man might recover."
Her eyes widened and she quickly agreed with him, all but pulling him from the house.
"Have fuuun," a certain soccer-enthusiast taunted insinuatingly from the door after them.
They did
not just hear that, did they?
Puberty was a terrible thing.
Yes, the world was definitely coming to an end. Still, that had gone better than they had ever hoped, even though it was one of the most embarrassing moments of their known lives.
Ichigo smiled at her as they slowed down to a walk, now far away from the accursed house. This time he allowed himself to do what he had previously denied, and quickly snatched her into his arms to plunder her mouth with a searing kiss.
"I never said hello," he whispered as he pulled away.
Tatsuki just moaned her approval. "Feel free to do that anytime."
Ichigo's eyes started transforming lustfully. "
You don't have to worry about that." She only smiled back.
"Good." It was then that Ichigo's Substitute Medallion decided to warn them of a Hollow, and both of them smiled at the other knowingly before rushing to an unimportant place to stash their bodies and taking off in their Soul Reaper forms towards where the Medallion told them. Besides, wounds healed faster in this form anyway, and if Ogihci had anything to say about it, those wounds on his hands were going to disappear really fast.
They were detrimental to more
important things he could do with those appendages.
…
Little did they know, the Shinigami Women's Association had more than their fair share of scouts in the Real World…
…
Author's Notes: Even more editing! Thanks for reading.
