#ichisu

It was only a matter of time before the law caught up to her. How long did she really think she would be able to get away with her vigilante affairs before someone ratted her out? She’d pissed off plenty people with her work. It was only a matter of time before one of them pussied out and got the police involved. So here she is, sitting behind bars. Talking to the one person she dared to call in this kind of situation.

"So—" He doesn’t really know how to begin. "When were you going to tell me about this. Hm?"

"I was hoping never." She can only assume he means her whole secret business. Busting gangs, trying to prevent crime. Which ironically has ended up with her being the one convicted.

"Hn," the ginger beside her grunts, a disapproving frown on his face as he peers at his friend through the prison bars. "You should have," he states simply.

"Well, I didn’t." Retsu has never found reason for dwelling in the past. Bringing up ‘what ifs’ is only a waste of time. Sure, maybe it would have been wiser to tell her only friend of her excursions. But she knew he would get involved—force her to stop. And how could she give up the only thing that made her feel like she had any purpose in this world? The one thing that gave her a sense of identity?

"No shit." The girl’s ability to be so blunt, even in a situation like this, is somewhat amazing to Ichigo. And not in a good way. "So, what’re you gonna do, huh?"

"Rot in here." Her only other option would be to ask her grandparents to bail her out. And she would rather die a thousand deaths than owe those people any more than she already does. Especially because she knows that they will hang it over her head—probably more than everything else combined.

"Try again." Ichigo is not about to sit here and do nothing about her being in jail. He can’t. It’s just not in him to do so.

"That’s all I got, Kurosaki." She knows he’ll be persistent. Perhaps it was a mistake to call him—

"There has to be something." He’s worried about what’ll happen to her in here. Sure, he knows she can handle herself, but still—

"…Heh." Despite herself, she is amused. Flattered, even. Usually his incessant need to protect her is just flat-out annoying. But, since he can’t do anything of the sort at the moment, all he can do is be worried. And, somehow, that puts a small smile on her face. "Don’t worry, Kurosaki. Maybe I’ll swallow my pride and call Cat—"

"Do what you’ve gotta do, sunshine. Just—don’t let youself stay in here. Alright?"

"Yeah, alright." Hazel eyes shift over as the guard approaches. "Looks like you’d better get going."

"Come see me when you get out. Otherwise I’m coming back for you," vows the one who protects. He then stands and escorts himself out, lead to the exit by the armed guard.

Send me a ‘★’ and I will tell you how my character feels about yours.

Really, Retsu’s feelings about you are rather complicated, Ichigo. Her first feeling and reaction towards you is to kick your ass—what with your attitude and incessant need to call her ‘sunshine.’ She also gets annoyed that you refuse to fight her back, and thus feels that you are sexist.

But, honestly, she can only really be mad at you to a point. Finding out what happened to your mother really impacted her, and still has a profound effect on her today. Though she may still punch you around, she is very careful and sensitive to your demeanor, because she is constantly worried about springing up that pain within you. Since she knows just how much it hurts, she doesn’t want to cause you to feel that way.

The brunette’s narrowed eyes only got wider and wider as the boy approached, opening all the way in shock when he presses his lips against hers. Heat instantly rising to her cheeks, Retsu glares even more heatedly at the ginger as she wipes her trembling lips with her sleeve.

"Oh boy," Retsu huffs, glancing at the clock. The rain had started unexpectedly. Though the clouds have been hanging over the town ominously for most of the morning, the teen wasn’t really expecting much from them until later tonight. Or at least, not five minutes before she was expecting her orange-haired friend.

Knowing the boy isn’t to fond of the rain, she starts heating up a pot of water for tea and runs upstairs for a dry T-shirt. As she pulls the garment from her drawer, however, a clap of thunder shakes the house. A yelp escapes the teen. After a moment, she also grabs a pair of over-sized basketball shorts. He’ll probably need it.

Sure enough, almost exactly five minutes later, there’s pounding at the door. The tea already brewing, towels on one shoulder, and spare clothes on the other, Retsu is prepared.

"Hold your horses, I’m coming!" she shouts from the kitchen, quickly hopping on over to the door and pulling it open. And there he is, looking about as happy as a cat in the bath. She can’t help but smirk. “A bit wet out there, huh Kurosaki?" she quips. The ginger merely grunts, stepping passed her into the house.

"Well hello to you too," she puffs, flinging the towel from over her shoulder onto his face. Ichigo merely blinks in surprise as the girl starts ruffling his hair with the towel, drying him off. Did she actually realize that he’d get wet on his way here and prepared accordingly?

When she takes the towel off his head, putting it around his shoulders, he sees the spare clothes she has and smells the tea in the kitchen. Heat rises to his cheeks. It seems that’s exactly what she has done. His amber eyes turn molten as he looks down at her, not that she seems to notice.

"Here are some dry clothes," the brunette says nonchalantly, taking the outfit off her shoulder and presenting it to him. When he only stares at her, she huffs and grabs his hand, placing the garments in them with her other hand. “Okay? Go get yourself dried and changed," she orders before going off to the kitchen to pour their tea. 

Staring at her in wonder for a moment, a ghost of a smile comes to the ginger’s face. “Right," he finally responds, earning a side-glance. Suddenly sheepish, the boy rubs the back of his head, not able to shake the smile that insists on appearing. “I’ll do that, then."

Retsu simply raises an eyebrow as she watches him go into the bathroom and shut the door.

"I’ll get it," the ginger said as he heard a knock on the door, the rest of his family sitting in the living room not paying attention.

Ichigo opened the door to find Retsu standing at his front door standing in the rain, the teen looked back to his family. They didn’t seem to have seen her and kept their eyes on the television, “What the hell are you doing here?!," he yelled in a whisper.

"I didn’t know where else to go," she whispered back, her teeth clattering to the cold.

"Are you fucking crazy!?" he said through grit teeth, speaking loud enough for only her to hear.

"Just let me in already," she growled, not wanting to spend anymore time in the down pour.

Ichigo rolled his eyes, but complied. Carefully and quietly, he took Retsu inside, “Stay quiet," he ordered her lowly and pointed in the direction in his family.

The brunette nodded and followed the ginger, being sure that she was silent and tried to control her shaking.

The teen held his breath as they made their way to the stair case that lead to his room without being noticed. It wasn’t until he felt ashen hues watch them as they crept. Turning he saw Karin looking at them with a scowl, something they had in common, her eyes showing some interest. Ichigo placed his index finger against his lips, motioning ‘Shh.’ Karin nodded a smirk etched into her features, then turned back to the tv and turned the volume up to distract everyone else.

‘Tch, she’s just as bad as the old man,’ he thought to himself as he and the brunette made their way up the stairs.

Retsu stood stiffly in the center of the ginger’s room, turning to him when she heard the door close. The poor girl was shaking like a leaf.

Ichigo dug into his closet and took out a change of clothes, “Get out of that, you’ll catch a cold," he grunted tossing her the dry clothes, “and put these on."

The brunette nodded and clutched the dry fabric, “Do you mind?" 

14: kiss along the hips

Summer vacation finally came, and seemed to have brought the sweltering hot temperatures along with it. The two teens sat in the living room trying to escape the heat. They had the tendency to meet up at Retsu’s house, whether it was for studying or just to hang out.

Ichigo laid on the floor, his hands behind his head, “Could it get any hotter?" he huffed, a scowl taking his features.

Retsu sat beside the ginger and held a cold glass of ice water to her neck with her eyes closed, “Do something that’ll cool you down, don’t just lay there," she chided him, “I know it’s hot, but that doesn’t mean you can be lazy and complain." 

Ichigo wasn’t sure if it was the heat and the way the brunette sat there in her tank top and shorts with water rolling down her skin or anything else that made him do what he did next. Silently the ginger sat up from where he laid and leaned towards Retsu, slowly inching closer to close the space between them.

Her eyes still closed, Retsu furrowed her eyebrows waiting for his retort or a snide comment, but none came. She peaked and eye open before snapping open the other. She saw the ginger inches away from her, his amber eyes looking into her brown ones, “What are you-" she was cut off by the other teen who took the cold glass of water from her neck and replaced it with his warm lips. 

He said nothing, even when she opened her eyes he was still silent. The teen pressed his lips against her neck enjoying the coolness of her skin from the cold glass that was once held there, “You told me to do something that cooled me down," he smirked against her neck before making his way down to her stomach and pulled up her tank top till the material was just below her ribs and started to kiss the exposed skin.

Retsu’s face flushed deep red as she felt the ginger’s lips travel her body. Sending a pleasant shiver through her, "..Ichigo.." his name escaped her as she rested her back on the floor to give him more access.

The teen let out a low grunt in response and put his hands on her waist to hold her into place as his lips ran over her navel. He pressed his lips firmly as he reached her hip. He wasted no time in covering the untouched space. The feeling of the brunette’s hands running through his hair and her rapid breaths encouraged him as he continued to move his mouth up and down her hips.

7. Romantic Kiss

"What in the hell does that even mean..!?"

((lolidunno))

*pewf*

"Are you trying to annoy me with that sound effe—…where am I."

The scene is set. Brilliant purple and pink clouds streak across the sky, glowing with the setting sun. A soft, warm breeze shifts the early-summer air, taking with it several dozen cherry blossoms. Pink pedals fall silently to the lush grass below.

Resting among and under the fallen flowers is a simple, checkered blanket. On it, two teenagers lay, their limbs lazily tangled together. It starts with a soft kiss on the forehead, then the nose. Ichigo gently brushes away brown locks to kiss the girl’s burning red cheek next.

As the ginger’s hand slowly slides to the back of his lover’s neck, amber eyes meet hazel. A moment passes of silent communication, their shared emotions flowing from one to the other and back again, drawing them closer magnetically. Both pairs of eyes slip shut as parted lips brush softly.

"K-Kurosaki."