paradisalost | [Thread] Seeing You

Who: Ichigo (

fist_phase) and Tatsuki (

fiercestwarrior)
What: Meeting up ~~so Tatsuki can punch his face through a window~~ to talk.
When: Now-ish? (After this.)
Where: Ichigo's room, 916
Rating: PG-13 for perhaps some cussing and violence on Tatsuki's part, har har.

Almost since she'd arrived, Tatsuki had been hoping Ichigo would show up. Well, hoping was a bad word. She'd wanted him to show up - so she could finally pin him down and get some goddamn answers. He'd rushed off to that Hueco Mundo place after brushing her off like she was no one and nothing - and she wasn't prepared to forgive him for that anytime soon.

And especially now that she knew - about the arrancar, the vizard, everything with the shinigami, what had happened to Orihime...

Having heard it all from everyone but him served only to make her even angrier.

The floors went by in a blur as she practically ran down to his room without even realizing she was doing it, and when she got there, she pounded on the door like her life depended on it. "Ichigo!"

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"....."

There was a bit indecisiveness, as Ichigo looked to the door. He could always pretend he wasn't there... But, then again, he wouldn't put it past Tatsuki to knock down the door. Besides, he couldn't avoid her forever. She was his friend, and this was something he had coming for a long time.

...she sounded pretty pissed, huh?

Taking a deep breath, he slowly, cautiously twisted the knob of the door, tensing up as he slowly opened it. "E-eh. Yo, Tatsuki," he said, both his expression and his tone lacking any real happiness, or even surprise.

Tatsuki just stood there, breathing hard through her nose, staring at him. Her hands, balled into fists, were shaking badly.

She didn't care if he noticed, right now, her left eye. The strange, terrible scarring around it. The milky light blue of blindness it had taken on.

For her, one eye was enough, at the very least to pull back a fist and punch Ichigo with every last ounce of strength she had, right in the jaw.

"You IDIOT!" she shouted, advancing on him. She wasn't just angry; that much was clear on her face. Tatsuki wasn't normally one to wear her heart on her sleeve, but it was clear she was bitter, and she was hurt, and she would let him know.

"You have so much goddamn explaining to do," she said through clenched teeth.

...well, it was going well so far.

The punch didn't cause Ichigo to fall, partially because he half-expected it. He did, however, stumble some distance back words, before catching himself. He stood tall, then. His lip bled, but he didn't wipe it. He just looked down at her, his expression no different from before.

Then, with a sudden change of personality, he rolled his eyes, scratching the back of his head. "I thought someone already explained to you what was going on. What else do you want to know?" His tone wasn't serious, nor his facial expression.

Tatsuki merely took this as a not-so-welcome invitation into the room and stomped inside, slamming the door shut behind her.

Her eyes widened slightly when he rolled his. For a moment she just stood there, in utter disbelief.

".... you have got to be kidding me, Ichigo," she said, her voice suddenly soft. "What.. what the hell happened? Aren't we friends?" She stepped forward to place a hand on his chest and give him a light shove, though her face was .. sad. "Why the hell did you lie to me? Why wouldn't you tell me anything? I SAW you fighting Grimmjaw! I saw a whole damn lot of things and you never owned up to any of it, when you knew that I knew."

Then she paused, glancing off to the side. When she spoke, her voice had dropped half an octave into a dark, bitter growl. "And Orihime, Ichigo. Orihime. How. Could you. Not. Tell me."

He felt the sides of his mouth drop to a frown, face softening into a sincere expression as she went on. He was an idiot to think he could get through this with a few sarcastic remarks and a nonchalant attitude. She was his friend, and to see her like this...

"Tatsuki..." he only said her name, unsure on what he should follow it with. What the hell could he say? Could he even tell her the real reason? She was throwing questions at him even Ichigo himself didn't know the complete the answer to.

"...I'm sorry," was all Ichigo could bring himself to say. And even then, he couldn't even look her in the eyes as he said it. His head was turned, his hands in his pockets.

"Sorry?" she echoed, her voice incredulous. "I couldn't care less if you're sorry. A damn apology is not what I want from you, because it doesn't mean anything. What I want, Ichigo... is for you to trust me."

Because it was clear he didn't, at least to her. This wasn't about being sorry and this wasn't about caring. It was clear he cared, he just had an idiot way of showing it, as usual. That wasn't it.

It was that after knowing him the longest, knowing him from even before his mom died, sparring with him and coming over to his house all the time during middle school..

.. after all that, and he didn't trust her enough to tell her a word of this? That stung.

Not that she said a word of this. She just folded her arms and watched him, an unhappy frown settled on her features.

Trust her? Eyes set to the wall to his left, hands fidgeting in his pockets, Ichigo tried desperately to think up a response she could understand without hurting her. ..if there was one, anyway. It was never a good feeling, knowing someone feels you need to be protected.

"I do trust you," he said finally. "If anything happens, from now on, you'll be the first person I tell, from here on..." He was hesitant to finish, but he felt he had to. "But I couldn't tell you before. You said you've seen me fight one of them, right? I couldn't risk telling you..."

".. and me getting involved, right?" Her smirk was crooked and more than a little sarcastic. "Because you know I would've tried."

Heaving a sigh, Tatsuki grabbed a chair and spun it around, sitting backwards on it and resting her arms on the back. She was silent for a moment or three, mulling all of it over in her head. Then she gestured vaguely, looking off to one side with a sulky expression. "Well, whatever. I guess you did what you felt you had to. But you better tell me in the future. We're nakama, right?" The look she gave him was hard, almost a warning, above her small, fierce smile. "Don't forget that."

She knew it was a sudden change from her anger before, but .. she didn't want to dwell on it. The more she thought about it, the more .. she thought maybe she could see where he was coming from. Maybe. Just maybe.

((OOC: ...ew. Look at my typo. : ( ...OKAY WORKING ON A RESPONSE NOW.))

[Thread] Seeing You

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