30_kisses entry for prompt "the road home"

Hyperactive students poured into the waiting bus, spirits high from their field trip to an historic shopping district. They bustled about, loudly laughing and fighting over who would sit where, some blushing as they anxiously prayed that they would be able to sit next to their crushes. The barks of the bus driver and accompanying teachers were ignored and drowned out by the students’ antics.

Near the back of the line, Tatsuki’s eye was twitching as she waited behind a blushing girl, struggling to stammer out her words to the confused boy in the seat.

“Oh for the love of –” Tatsuki roughly tapped the girl on the shoulder and the girl turned and blinked at her. “Okay.” Tatuski set her gaze on the boy. “Here’s how it is. This girl here? She likes you.” The gasp from the nervous girl was ignored. “And she wants to sit by you. You cool with that?”

The boy gaped at her and blinked, but nodded.

“Awesome.” She shoved the astonished, beet red girl into the seat. “There ya go. Live happily ever after.” Tatsuki moved on without waiting for a reaction as Orihime paused behind her to apologize and wish the shocked couple all the happiness in the world. Orihime hurried to catch up to her best friend and then slammed into the back of said friend who had come to a dead halt.

“Ah! Sorry Tatsuki! I-”

Tatsuki waved her off and gestured towards the back of the bus. “Hey Orihime,” she sang out mischievously. “Look who is sitting all by his lonesome.”

Orihime peered over her shoulder to see a lone spiky, orange head poking up over the seats. She frowned. “Why is he by himself?”

“I don’t know. It’s kinda tragic, isn’t it? Very sad.”

“Mhm,” Orihime agreed. “Maybe you should next to him.”

“Nope. You are.”

“Me?!” Orihime squeaked.

“Oi! Today would be fantastic!” a boy grouched from behind them.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tatsuki growled back at him and grabbed Orihime’s hand, pulling her towards the back. “You’re his friend, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but-”

“And you guys hung out most of the day today.”

“Well, there were other people too and-”

Tatsuki had stopped again to turn and smirk at her. “And nothing. You two were making googly eyes at each other all day. The rest of us might as well have not even been there.”

“Eh?!” Orihime cried.

Tatsuki grabbed her confused and very embarrassed friend by the wrist, yanking Orihime along before she could utter another word.

“Oi! Ichigo!”

The teen’s scowling face jerked up towards his childhood friend’s barking. “What?”

“Here.” She pulled Orihime in front of her and shoved her forward. “Orihime needs a seat.”

He blinked at her and then quickly turned and nodded at Orihime, gesturing at the empty space next to him. Orihime smiled shakily at him and plopped down, glancing worriedly at her friend.

“But where will you sit?”

Tatsuki glanced at the last row that was behind Ichigo and grinned when she saw Ishida busily sewing with his newly bought fabric. She plopped down next to him. “Hiya Ishida. Watchya makin’?”

Ishida’s head lifted and he glared at her from behind his glasses. “Something that needs room to be made. Lots of room. And quiet.”

“Oh? How nice.” She settled back into her seat and closed her eyes, ignoring the two holes being bored into the side of her head.

Ishida snorted and went back to his sewing, too gentlemanly to ask her to move, unfortunately for him.

In front of them, Orihime was already helping Ichigo wrap pretty ribbons around the bags of candy he’d bought for his sisters. Ichigo stuck his hand into one of the bags and popped a chocolate truffle into his mouth.

Orihime gasped. “Ichigo!” she reprimanded. “Those are for your sisters!”

He shrugged. “It’s chocolate,” he replied around the melting candy as if that explained everything.

“But-”

“Here.” He stuck his hand in the same bag and held out a truffle for her. “Take. Eat.” He shook his head as she opened her mouth to protest and grunted, urging her to take the chocolate in his hand.

She bit her lip and took the candy, her fingers brushing his palm, and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes slid shut as the rich chocolate melted and slid over her tongue, the sweet taste exploding in her mouth. She softly moaned and let her head fall back on the tall seat, swallowing the chocolate, savoring it as the last traces of the sweet candy left her mouth.

Orihime finally opened her eyes and turned towards Ichigo, blinking in surprise to find him staring at her. She decided he must want to know if she liked it, so she smiled at him. “They’re delicious!”

He nodded, and it was then that she noticed he was specifically staring at her mouth. She lifted her fingers to her lips and wiped at them, thinking there must be some leftover chocolate on her mouth, but his eyes only widened as she wiped at her lips. She swallowed nervously.

“Ano…is there something on my mouth?” He made no indication of hearing her. “…Kurosaki-kun?”

His head snapped up at his name being called. “Huh? …Oh! Uh…” His cheeks flamed and his head snapped forward to stare at the back of the seat in front of him. “Nah, no, you’re good. You’re fine.”

“Oh…Okay.” She frowned at him for a moment and then shrugged before tying a bow around the bag that held the truffles and placed them back in his bag. She settled back into her seat and faced forward, falling into a comfortable silence, simply enjoying being next to him as her thoughts went over the day. It had been an amazing one, spent mostly with him. After the wars were over and all the worlds quieted into at least a semi-normal routine, they’d grown much closer and were good friends. But nothing more than that.

She was fine with that, though. It was their senior year and they’d gone from only being classmates to being close friends and she couldn’t ask for more than that. It was good enough. A content smile crossed her face and her eyes began to droop as the vibrations from the rolling bus and the hum from the students lulled her into a sleepy state.

Suddenly her eyes popped open when she felt something heavy land on her shoulder. She shifted astonished eyes down to see orange spikes right next to her cheek and her heart pounded against her chest. I-Is he asleep?

She stretched her neck out to see over his hair and saw short, thick lashes resting on his cheek and his chest rising and falling steadily. Sure enough, he was fast asleep. Orihime froze with her back stiff against the seat, afraid to wake him up but worried about whether he would want to be on her shoulder and then afraid of they way she was loving the weighty feeling of his head and his hair brushing her cheek when she moved her head to the side.

He groaned softly and shifted his head. She gasped and jerked back in surprise, afraid he was waking up, and his head fell further down.

Orihime’s heart froze and her face went tomato red. H-He…he…m-m-my…b-breast!

His head had slipped down all the way past her shoulder and had landed softly on her breast, settling into the soft flesh.

Anxiously she looked to the seat across the aisle from them, and Chad and Keigo were there but Chad was staring out the window and Keigo was busy bothering the two girls in front of them. She looked back down at her crush resting on her breast and her heart went from frozen to slamming so hard against her chest she feared that alone would wake him up and then where would they be. Should she quickly move him so that he was off her chest before he awoke? Or should she just let him –

Another noise escaped his mouth and he nuzzled further into her breast until she could definitely feel his lips and nose pressed against her.

Minutes passed as the bus bumped along and Orihime was praying for the best as she tried not to think about how surprisingly good it felt to have his head nestled into her breast despite the unimaginable embarrassment it was causing her.

He moaned in his sleep again as an arm draped across her legs and she squeaked when his hand brushed her hip. Just then the bus hit a pothole and Ichigo bounced awake, his head off her breast, but still hovering inches above it and his arm still around her. She bit her lip hard as he blinked and smacked his lips together, looking around and gathering his bearings. He sniffed and glanced down, then up, then back down again and his eyes nearly popped right out of his head. His mouth dropped open as he openly stared at his pillow and Orihime was sure she would die of mortification right then and there. In fact, it would be really nice if that would happen really quickly. Preferably before he looked up again, which he was doing right now.

For a split second he stared at her with his shocked brown eyes before practically leaping back from her to the other side of the bench seat and stuttering unintelligible apologies.

Orihime laughed nervously and waved her hand at him. “I-It’s fine, you’re fine, I’m fine. We’re fine.”

“But-”

No, please just drop it, Ichigo! “No really. Really. I don’t mind. I mean! Wait, um, I mean it’s okay. Eh heh…” She didn’t even know what she was saying anymore!

Ichigo opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water before finally nodding and turning an extremely red face away from her to stare out the window, his heated cheek resting on his hand and his legs crossed.

Many agonizingly long minutes passed before they finally arrived back at Karakura Town High School and the students began filing out noisily. Tatsuki bounded into the aisle with a grumpy Ishida following her.

“I seriously just don’t get why it needs so many ruffles!” Tatsuki exclaimed. “That’s just not right!”

Ishida pushed up his glasses and snorted haughtily. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand fashion.”

Tatsuki whirled around. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Ishida smirked and was about to damn all his manners to hell and tell her exactly what it meant when he glanced to the side and noticed two very red faced teens still seated in front of his seat. He raised an eyebrow. “Kurosaki? Inoue-san? Are you coming?”

They both jumped and started nodding and awkwardly exclaiming that they were, which made Tatsuki’s eyebrows rise and her and Ishida to look at each other. As soon as they were outside, Ichigo and Orihime shot away from each other and Tatsuki grabbed Orihime’s arm, yanking her away from the rest of the students.

“What happened between you and Ichigo?” she hissed.

“Wh-Wh-What? Nothing happened! Nothing at all!” Orihime flailed.

“Uh-huh. What happened?”

Orihime looked away and fidgeted. “Nothing. Really. I mean…” Suddenly she buried her face in her hands and groaned. “I can’t talk about it, Tatsuki. It’s too embarrassing.”

Tatsuki’s interest was definitely piqued. “Embarrassing?”

Orihime shook her head, tore her beet red face from her hands, and turned away from her nosy friend. “Let’s just go home, Tatsuki.”

Tatsuki was about to protest when she saw Ichigo coming around the corner of the bus and heading straight for Orihime. She smiled happily when Orihime ran straight into Ichigo’s chest, causing them both to flap their hands and arms and stutter out their apologies. Ishida appeared behind Ichigo, and Tatsuki thought fast, rushed forward, and grabbed Ishida by the back of the collar, dragging him away.

“Sorry, Orihime! I just remembered I have some business to attend to and Ishida’s helping me!” she shouted over her shoulder. “Take Orihime home, Ichigo!”

Ichigo and Orihime watched in shock as the protesting Quincy was dragged into the school. The door to the school shut with a loud bang and suddenly all was silent around them. It was just them and the unbearable awkwardness that kept either from looking at each other or uttering a sound or even moving.

Finally, Ichigo cleared his throat. “We better get going.”

Orihime found her voice. “Ah, wait, you really don’t have to walk me home, I-”

“I want to,” he said gruffly and stalked towards the direction of her apartment without another word.

She decided it was probably best that she just go along and hurried to catch up with him, silently walking beside him.

One minute passed and she stole a glance at him. His face had toned down to a pretty pink color from its original tomato red, and his scowl was scrunched far down his nose. Orihime sighed softly and wracked her brain to find something to say to break the ice.

Five more strained minutes passed and Orihime was groaning inwardly. Why is my place so far? Suddenly her eyes lit up. Music! She opened the flap on her bag and rummaged around until she found her mp3 player. Her eyes made one more glance up at his face as she unwrapped the headphones. They were always listening to music together…but now she felt incredibly nervous about it.

“A-Ano…”

He jumped slightly at the sound of her voice and he lowered wide eyes to the little green ear bud. After blinking at it, he grunted his thanks and stuck it in his ear. Orihime hit the shuffle button and breathed a sigh of relief as the music started up, feeling her frayed nerves ease.

C’mon baby take it home
People are starting to stare
And they’re turning off all of the lights
We’ve been putting on a show all night
Boys will be boys

Take it off, take it off
‘Cause I can’t take anymore
It’s your touch, it’s your taste, it’s your dress on the floor
Take it off, take it off
‘Cause I been waiting all night for you
And this is what I’m gonna do

Ice, ice melt, you’re hot
Baby girl I can’t get enou-

Shaking fingers finally yanked the player out of her pocket and hit the skip button, the teens’ faces inflamed again. Orihimeee, she groaned at herself, completely incredulous. Of all the songs… This time she made sure to check the title of the next song before carelessly sticking it in her pocket as the music started up again.

Love songs, they kill me
They kill me now

She sighed in relief. Much better.

A few songs later, they finally reached her apartment complex and Ichigo took out the ear bud and handed it to her when they reached the bottom of the steps. She smiled and took it from him, slipping the player back into her bag and fishing for her keys as she took a step, but she didn’t quite lift her foot up far enough and the toe of her shoe caught on the step’s edge.

She let out a small squeak as she started to fall forward, but Ichigo quickly grabbed her hand, pulling her back and righting her on her feet. Orihime laughed nervously, thanking him and apologizing, but when she tried to retrieve her hand, she found that his grip had tightened and he was staring at it with a deep scowl on his face. His thumb lightly stroked the palm of her hand and shivers shot up and down her spine.

“K-Kuro-”

“What the hell have you been doing?” he growled.

She blinked at him. “Eh?”

He lifted her hand to show her the wounds and calluses on her hand. Her mouth dropped open to a small ‘o’, and he grabbed her other hand, scowling even deeper when he found that it was no different from the other. “Orihime.” Her eyes widened at the use of her name. “What’s going on?”

She shook herself out of the stupor his hand-holding had put her in and smiled brightly at him. “Oh it’s nothing, really. I’ve just been training a lot with Rukia and with Hacchi.” Her eyes grew wide and hopeful. “I think I’m getting a lot better too! The other day I even won in a fight against Hiyori!”

Ichigo stared at her with an unreadable expression for a few seconds, her hands still in his.

“Kurosaki-kun? Is everything all right?”

His eyes fell back to her hands, staring at them in silence as she waited for his reply. “You…You shouldn’t…” His low words made her lean in closer to hear him. “You shouldn’t be fighting,” he finally said, raising scowling eyes to her face.

Her smile slipped downward. “What?”

“You’re a healer. Not a fighter. I don’t want you fighting.”

Slowly, her eyebrows began to press downward.

“It’s too dangerous,” he continued. “It’s not you. It’s not-”

“I am a fighter,” she said steadily.

His eyes widened.

“Thank you for your concern, Kurosaki-kun.” His hands finally went slack and she slipped her hands out of his. “But I am a fighter.” She turned her back to him. “I’m a weak one, but I’m getting better. And…And one day, you won’t have to protect me anymore, Kurosaki-kun. One day I won’t bother everyone else with my weaknesses.”

Ichigo felt as if a knife had been sliced through his chest. She won’t need him to protect her anymore. She won’t need him to protect her anymore…

“So I have to work hard,” she said. “No matter what you say, I can’t-” A light gasp escaped her lips when warm arms suddenly wrapped around her from behind her and she felt the heat from his chest against her back. “Kuro-”

“Shut up,” he whispered.

“Eh?”

“You’re not weak. You’re just as strong as anyone else. So just shut up and let me protect you.”

She turned around to see the storm going on in his deep brown eyes, completely lost and confused at his reactions to what she’d said. If she had known that he would think this way then she would have healed her hands, but she liked having evidence of her hard work. But…

“I need to get stronger, Kurosaki-kun.”

Pain flashed across his eyes and it felt like a dagger to her heart, but before she could apologize, he nodded and grasped her hand again, staring down at it. Her eyes grew even wider as he lifted her palm to his lips and pressed a kiss to it. “Just…” His intense gaze bored into her as he squeezed her hand. “Don’t get hurt anymore.”

Her eyes widened and her heart stilled at her words being echoed back to her, bringing her back to that moment as she watched him getting hurt for the sake of her and their friends. And then she understood. She nodded and smiled softly at him. “All right.”

His body relaxed a bit and smiled crookedly at her, sheepishly releasing her hand and shoving his hands into his pockets. “Well…I guess I should go.”

She nodded again and they said their goodbyes. When she was back in her apartment, she fell back against the door and stared at the hand that still buzzed with heat from his lips. She’d reject the wounds. But later. Her fist closed and she pressed it to her chest as her eyes slid shut and a small smile lifted her lips. For now she wanted to keep his kiss and his words and his gaze close to her…for just a bit longer.

Outside, Ichigo was rubbing at his red face. What the hell is my problem? First I use her b-b-b-that as a pillow and then I kiss her hand?! Please, Kurosaki, let’s find one more thing to embarrass the hell out of you. It’ll be fun! He groaned inwardly. Well, at least no one saw.

He didn’t notice the bush shaking excitedly as he continued home.

“He kissed her hand! I can’t believe this! Kissed! Hand! Ichigo! Crazy, huh, Ishida?”

“Mmph,” was the angry response.

Tatsuki glanced over at the tied and gagged Quincy and grinned. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

~.~.~.~

First song is "Take it Home" by The White Tie Affair. Second song is "Lovesongs (They Kill Me)" by Cinema Bizarre.

Had no idea where I was going with this...and it kind of just...ended up far from where I originally thought to take it...Oh well! XD And um...don't know why Ishida's tied up...it just sort of happened. He thought he had better things to do than stalk his friends I suppose... But that's just crazy! THERE'S NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN STALK ICHIGO AND ORIHIME! *cough*

(let me know if this layout makes it a bitch to read)

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