#alpharaposa

“Well, how do I look?”

Uryuu adjusted his tie one last time and glanced over, expecting to see Arisawa— Tatsuki, he needed to call her Tatsuki if they were to be believed as partners— in some sort of dress like he’d always seen women wearing in period shows and—

Froze.

Tatsuki smirked at him, hands on her hips and shoulders pulled back, showing off the tailored suit that fit her perfectly, accentuating her body just right to hint at her strength without fully revealing it. “Cat got your tongue?” she asked smugly as she stalked closer and began to circle him, eyeing his outfit up as she did. “You clean up pretty well yourself.”

This is the premium content I expect here.

We live to serve here at the Friendly Neighborhood Death Star and Sith Lair! 

I can see Kisuke searching for the bullet, going “Come on, there’s no exit wound, it’s got to be in here somewhere” while other people are staring and thinking, “Dude, you’re bleeding out, WTH is wrong with you?”

Dick, Tim, and Darien all just shrug at Uryuu. “Welcome to the family.”

Uryuu doesn’t understand this whole... thing, okay? He’s an adult, he has his life (mostly) together, he does his own thing, there haven’t been any world-ending threats in almost a DECADE, it’s great.

And now these costumed vigilantes are refusing to leave him alone? He’s getting invited to dinner?

There’s even a butler that greets him and shows him a room and asks about his favorite foods and offers him hot chocolate whenever one of the vigilantes drags him back to the mansion in the dead of night? What?

Cat sees need for rest, makes sure it happens.

That does seem like it’d be awkward for Ichigo at times, inside Kaito’s head. He has to have a BIT more of a clue than the Kurosaki they’re both trying to keep alive now. Just how much blushing does he go through when moments like this come up? With only Shiro or Zangetsu to see (if they’re even paying attention).

So, Kaito’s Ichigo does know the level of focus that Kaito HAS on his alternate self -- he actually does call Kaito out on a small result of that, at one point, saying that it’s kinda creepy how well Kaito can read Kurosaki’s expressions. But at the same time he doesn’t really know the depths of it?

Like, if we’re going to be metaphorical about it, it’s like a lake. Ichigo can see how big and expansive it is, but he doesn’t know how DEEP it goes until things start to happen and Kaito starts to react. Honestly, Kaito isn’t even entirely conscious of what he’s doing? He’s just... all wound up in Saving Kurosaki and making sure what he went through doesn’t get repeated. And in the process he just... gets fixated on Kurosaki because the teen IS kind and Kaito doesn’t think he really deserves it anymore, but at the same time he /wants/ that attention, so....

It’s why Ichigo says:

(*I suppose I could see why he’d think it, too. Without knowing the full reason you’re here, it does look a bit like devotion.*)

in chapter 22. It “looks a bit like devotion”, because Ichigo is still mostly under the assumption that their focus is on the teens and making sure they survive so that the past isn’t repeated. Not “making sure Kurosaki is fine, which means the past CAN’T be repeated”.

It’s a tiny difference in focus (”prevent our outcome so they’ll be fine” vs “make sure they are (Kurosaki is) fine so our outcome never happens”), and I don’t think either of them are entirely aware of the shift, or when it happened.

As for blushing... hm.

I mean... when it finally becomes clear that Kaito IS devoted to Kurosaki, there’s probably some flailing and embarrassment and “W H A T” being thrown around, along with Ichigo trying to steer Kaito AWAY from that sort of thinking. So... a little bit here and there? Especially whenever Kaito accidentally slips into a “Kurosaki hung the stars and moon and I will murder anyone who says otherwise” mindset, which would usually occur at times when Kurosaki like... praises/congratulates/etc Kaito.

(It’s completely non-sexual, for the record. Just... a result of how Kaito grew up, and the trauma he went through. Uryuu has a much less extreme version, but it’s still there as well.)

(Ichigo, to his embarrassment and minor horror, realizes that he can put Kaito into the same mindset even /faster/ than Kurosaki can. He’s not sure he wants to acknowledge this, ever.)

I regularly stitch plastic canvas, and in my frustrations on how few words you can fit on a sheet of plastic canvas, I am going to try embroidery next. I have purchased a handful of supplies and am very nervous even though I already know and use several stitches for this kind of thing.

Yeah, I love the denial from Kaito’s point of view. “Devoted? Who said anything about devoted?”

Kaito has absolutely wrapped part of his identity up in BOTH Ichigos, and at the same time he’s trying to deny that he’s DONE THAT. It leaves him in a really awkward, unbalanced position, wavering between trying to be ‘hands off’ and being so purely, wholly devoted to a person that he’ll literally do almost anything they ask without regard for himself.

(It’s a damn good thing Ichigo in all his incarnations is a kind, loyal teen, because honestly...)

And Kurosaki really doesn’t understand the full extent of how Kaito views him.

I mean, he sort of gets it? Especially after that talk he had with the other teens before the invasion, about loyalty and how Kaito views them, but... he thinks it’s more spread out amongst the teens. That they’re all about equal in Kaito’s eyes. Not that he’s the focus. And he doesn’t know the LENGTHS that Kaito will willingly and unhesitatingly go to for him.