Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kiki wasn't entirely sure what to do with herself when Byakuya took her arm firmly and began to lead her back towards her barracks. It wasn't as if she couldn't yank her arm away and make a scene, but why would she want to? She was being escorted home in a very genteel fashion by a very handsome man. What wasn't to like? Well, the surprised glances and murmurs behind hands that followed them on the street was one thing that she could have definitely lived without. Then again, the Kuchiki house was one of the highest noble families; anything that the clan head did, especially one that could be construed in so romantic a fashion, was bound to make tongues wag. She tugged at her arm in his hold a little, looking decidedly uncomfortable at the scrutiny they were getting. "Ne... Kuchiki-taicho, you umm...you don't have to hold my arm; people are staring and the Drunken Idiot club is gonna be starting enough rumors about you and me already." She said, trying to disentangle her arm before more scandalous gossip started.

Ikkaku looked positively gobsmacked as Sym kissed his cheek and started dragging him towards the door. He wasn't quite sure what to expect but one thing he'd learned a long time ago from Sym was to expect the unexpected. He was hoping for a little more time with her before they had to crash, but he wasn't sure what form that time was going to take. He didn't have any illusions about getting to find out what color her panties were or anything like that, but he was hoping at least for a few more kisses. He let her lead him down the street and managed to keep pace, his longer legs making that less of a problem than it would be for her to keep up with him without shun po. He let them get a few blocks away before speaking up. "Oi...Sym-chan... What we gonna do now?" He asked curiously, wondering if she had any ideas in mind. Unless they involved a whole lotta kissing, he didn't really have any ideas on how to spend the rest of the night at all.

There wasn't much more to say after that; after all, in a fight she sure as hell wasn't going to best Kuchiki Byakuya, no matter how hard she tried. It would be best not to cause a scene and just beat a hasty retreat when he finally got her back to her barracks. It was rather sweet of him in a slightly nerve-wracking way to be treated like a lady and escorted home, but she couldn't help glancing around as they made their way through the streets towards the 7th Division barracks and her new accomodations. It was going to be odd, getting used to a new (larger) room and a new bed and a new squad but she was looking forward to it honestly.

She glanced up at him and shook her head at his suggestion. "Don't worry about it. No one with any real sense is going to think anything of me and you together. We'd make the silliest couple Seireitei's ever seen." She smiled a bit ruefully and glanced out over the lamp-lit street as they made their way through raucous, cheerful restaurants and bars, past theaters and street vendors packing up for the night, the air warm and balmy as summer was gradually fading into autumn. It was her favorite time of year to be honest; it reminded her of that glorious Indian summer that was the perpetual climate in her home district, Madokasawa. Eternal fall, with the slightest chill in the air indicating a winter that would never come, with golden and scarlet leaves that would fall forever, the trees never losing their foliage. It had been a beautiful place to grow up. She missed it now, living in the middle of the city like she did.

It took a few moments to remember that she had a companion and she blushed a little, sure that she was being rather rude. "So, did you have a good time at least, Kuchiki-taicho? Not exactly your scene and all but you seemed to get along okay." She asked in her own peculiarly informal and yet still polite way. Kiki was about the only person who could manage to be completely respectful and utterly laid back at the same time. It was an odd balancing act but one she seemed to pull off with effortless aplomb. "It was nice having everyone there. Shame Iba-san couldn't be there, but well, he had work and all. I'll be there to help starting tomorrow, but ya know how that goes." She glanced up at him, wondering if she was just babbling and if he would really rather that she kindly shut the hell up. Kuchiki was always hard to read like that. He seemed like he had the same expression no matter what he was thinking. She snorted a bit inwardly, imagining him professing his undying love to someone with that same stoic face. Surely he wasn't that much of a cold fish!

... Was he?



Ikkaku glanced down at Sym as they made their way along the street towards the training fields, a little surprised at such a thing. Inwardly he was perhaps just a bit disappointed; after all, he was really hoping for some quiet cuddle time with Sym, but he couldn't deny a certain intrigue with what she had in mind. After all, up until a couple of minutes ago, she'd seemed positively snuggly as well, so maybe they weren't so far off in their assessments. Of course, being at the training grounds DID provide them with a very good alibi if anyone (particularly her very tall, very strong, extremely scary dad!) happened to catch them out there. It wasn't as if he expected them to actually DO anything - it was heading towards fall after all, and nice as it was outside now, the nights were beginning to get chilly. Not to mention, alibi or not, being caught en flagrante delecto with his daughter wasn't going to endear him to Zaraki-taicho in the least, and no amount of protestation that they were "just sparring" was gonna save his hide.

When she mentioned looking at the stars, he had to stop and think a moment. He couldn't honestly remember a time when he had just stared up at the sky for no better reason. Sure he'd looked at them to tell direction, or to get an idea of what the weather might be like in the morning (whether he should wear white socks to the training ground or if the mud would just precipitate going barefoot) but he'd never just stopped to look at them. He glanced over at Sym a moment. "Can't say as I ever have. Least not without a reason. Why? You an astronomer or something?" He asked, slightly curious and a little impressed. Smart people impressed Ikkaku; Yumi said it grew out of his natural stupidity, but folks that studied things and understood them were very interesting and worth listening to in his mind. Of course, he preferred his way of handing situations; namely, "hit it until it stops moving, if that doesn't work, just hit it with something bigger", but as much as Kurotsuchi freaked him out and he gave that Ishida kid s**t for being a weak little p***y, and as creepy as he found Urahara with his fans and his candy and that eternal, positively pervy smile, he respected that those guys could take him apart with their brains in a matter of moments. A smart fighter respected the power that fueled him, but also respected the power that countered him.

If Sym was one of them smarty types as well as being a hell of a fighter, she just rocketed up a few more places in Ikkaku's "Interesting Meter".

Kiki looked over at him a moment, apologetic but just a teensy bit irritated. She had thought her friends had been remarkably well behaved; what did Kuchiki-taicho have against them? "They're good guys. Loyal, honest, always there if you need them." She bristled defensively, just a slight stiffening to indicate her displeasure at him being what she felt was a bit disparaging of her friends. "It was really nice of them to come celebrate with me. I'm going to be visiting my parents this weekend and we're gonna have a little party there in the district." She smiled a little, a faintly faraway look in her eyes. "There'll be barbecue and my mom'll make her sticky rice balls and meat buns, Dad'll probably break out the apple brandy, he said he's had a cask of it sitting down in the cellar for years, ever since I graduated Academy." She laughed a little. "He's broken one out for every promotion I get... If I ever make lieutenant or captain, I don't think that even he has enough alcohol to handle THAT party!" She grinned a bit, thinking of her loud, raucous, prankster father and her quiet, elegant mother. No two people could have ever been more different...or more in love. After all, her father had eventually forsaken his right to the position of clan head to marry her mother and help raise her out in Rukongai; if that wasn't love, she didn't know what was.

* * *

Ikkaku looked over at her as he lay on his back, staring up at the crisply clear sky, one of the few indications that it wasn't as summery as the balmy warmth wanted to make it seem. He listened to her speak, and was surprised at how perceptive she was. Momo, Kira and Hisagi all seemed a little lost nowadays, fighting desperately to claw their way out of that depression that had sprung up under them with their captains' betrayal. Sometimes he caught small glimpses of it in Komamura-taicho. The fox-headed captain was hard to read, probably due to his furry face and his naturally stoic demeanor, but it had to hurt, losing your best friend like that. He tried to imagine for a moment what he'd feel like if suddenly one day Yumichika tried to put a sword through his back. For real, not just in sparring. He didn't know if he could take it.

He slid his arm under her shoulders and pulled her closer to his side. "Yer too smart for yer own good sometimes." He said ruefully, smiling over at her. "Me and Renji...yeah, we're cut from the same cloth. He wants to prove himself and finally get that little Kuchiki chick to notice him, prove himself worth of her. Me? I don't know what I'm trying to prove anymore." It was the most honest he'd ever been. Just made sense it would be talking to her that it'd come out.

"Another funny thing about stars, y'know? That light you're seeing now? Heard them 12th Division guys talking about it once. That light left those stars hundreds or thousands of years ago. There ain't no way of knowing if those stars that are just barely holding on are still there, or if they finally burned out. No way t' tell whether or not me and Renji's star there didn't finally burn itself up." He hesitated a moment and smiled a little. "I'm kinda glad of that. By the time we see the light from those stars die out and fade away... maybe we'll have made ourselves another star, ya think?"

Kiki glanced over at Byakuya a moment, wondering if maybe she'd heard him wrong. Did that mean he wanted to come to her parents' party? "Well, if you wanna come, we'd be happy to have you. It ain't gonna be anything big, just family and my buddies from the district. Mom's family'll be there. We don't hear much outta my dad's bunch. All busy being noble and stuff I guess." She shrugged a little, seeming positively non-chalant about the knowledge that one side of her family didn't particularly care if she existed. It was fair enough, she didn't really care if they existed. She remembered meeting them a few times growing up. There had been raised voices and her mother had looked alternately pale and flushed. She didn't know what it was all about, but every time afterwards her mother would be very quiet and her dad would be way too cheerful, almost a bit fake about it. It left a bad taste in her mouth for the noble houses, to be honest. There were some that were alright, though they tended to be like Ukitake-taicho and Kyouraku-taicho and weren't very highly placed nobles or anything like that.

She glanced back over at Byakuya a moment and sighed slightly, giving him a rueful smile. "You know my dad reminds me a lot of Kyouraku-taicho. Just less lazy and more of a joker. Just wanting to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into." Good lord, he was handsome! Sometimes she didn't even think about it, but then she'd glance over at him and it'd hit her in the face like a ton of bricks. It just wasn't fair for one man to be that beautiful.

If she were a more artistic person, she'd have probably described the smooth, clean lines of his face, the angular beauty of his chin and cheekbones and the aquiline line of his nose. She might have expounded on the beautiful stormy gray of his eyes, or the way his hair managed to sweep back from his face in a manner both artful and careless, as if his handsomeness was merely chance, and so natural that he need never do anything to encourage aside from bathe and brush his hair. However, Kiki wasn't really the sort to get all gushy about things like that (she'd have been embarrassed at her own self had she heard herself think anything like that!) but she could certainly appreciate that Kuchiki Byakuya was a gorgeous man. Then again, every female member of Seireitei aside from the ones batting for the home team (yes, I'm looking at you Soi Fon-taicho!) knew that the head of the Kuchiki clan was a fox of the first order. She gave herself a little shake and turned away before she embarrassed herself more. "So, you want to come?"



Ikkaku grinned down at her head resting on his chest and stroked his fingers over her hair softly. "Yeah yeah, I know. But I get first crack at him. I've been waiting longer." He said, though the words didn't hold anything even remotely resembling snark. He thought on her words for a few minutes, just stroking his fingers through her hair. He wanted to be the strongest. But what good was strength without a purpose? It had always been enough before to be the strongest, or in his captain's case, serve under the strongest. There was the joy of battle, the rush that came from steel on steel, of matching wits and strength and sheer luck against another person. Maybe it was how he proved that he was truly alive, and worthy of being so.

He looked down at the young woman resting against his chest a moment and thought about it. He wasn't the sort for being introspective; he'd leave that to Kira, who was exceptionally good at it. Good enough to depress himself all the damned time was more like it. But he couldn't help thinking that maybe what he needed to do was find a purpose, something to fight for. Nothing ephemeral like truth or honor, that just wasn't him. And look how well that s**t did for Tousen, after all. Got him all shades of messed up in the head. But maybe what he was missing, what that restlessness in his chest at night as he lay in his bunk and stared up at the ceiling, was purpose. His gaze softened a bit as he regarded Sym's pretty face looking up at him with those big eyes, saying things that he didn't even know he had wanted to hear. Maybe that was his purpose. Maybe he'd found it.

But he wasn't going to say that yet. Best not to say things until you're sure of them. It's harder to take things back than to not say them at all, after all. "Til the day we die, kid." He said. It sounded almost like a pledge, a vow.

He was rather surprised to find that he didn't really mind that thought.

Kiki laughed brightly and shook her head. "Well, he's got a great sense of humor. He's not mean about it or anything like that. But if he offers you gum, don't take it. He found this one joke shop in the Living World when he was a shinigami, before he lost his legs, and ever since then he's had a standing order for all sorts of gags and stuff. Whoopie cushions, rubber chickens, joy buzzers, he's got them all." She smiled fondly at the thought of her dad's perpetual grin and assortment of gags. "You'll probably get along better with my mom. She's real ladylike and all that. I think she used to be someone important when she was alive but I dunno for sure. No one really remembers much most of the time when they wake up in Rukongai, so no way to tell for sure. But you'll get to meet Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Yakov. I'm sure the cousins will be there too. There's a whole slew of them now!" She grinned at the thought. They weren't blood relatives to her mother of course; when a soul arrived in Soul Society, they pretty much hooked up with other souls and formed their own families. Her mom had fallen in with a traveling theater troupe that toured the upper districts. Kiki's voice was a pale comparison to her mother's. Shineiki Chisuzu wasn't called the Golden Songbird of Madokasawa for nothing. Kiki had gotten most of her looks from her mother, who had a distinctly European look to her, with the brown hair and violet eyes, though her mother was smaller, more dainty and delicate than the lanky Fourth Seat. She'd gotten her height and her build from her father, who'd been sixth seat of 13th Division before losing his legs in some rebellion a few centuries ago.

She glanced back over at Byakuya a moment and smiled. "It's pretty much a big potluck thing. Dad'll be doing the barbecuing and all, Mother'll be making cakes and pies. Hopefully Aunt Priss'll bring her roasted potatoes. Damn, they're about as tasty as you get! Uncle Yakov brings cornmeal muffins every time.. ooh, you'll have to try Nana Youko's fried sesame balls with the sweet bean paste in the center! God, she's the best cook! Mink's probably going to bring more crabapple tarts, I dunno how she gets 'em so sweet but she does..." She continued to talk about all the different foods that her positively monstrous family would be hauling out; from the sounds of it, her promotion was just a good excuse for the whole extended family to have a huge feast. A good number of the names didn't sound Japanese in the least; there was a surprisingly large concentration of other nationalities that found themselves in the Madokasawa region of Soul Society. Birds of a feather and all.

After a few minutes, she realized that she'd been running her mouth nonstop and had the good grace to look abashed. "Er...sorry about that. I get excited about food. Dad says I get it from Nona Benadetta. She was Italian when she came to Soul Society. Mother was English, I think. Aunt Priss was American, Uncle Yakov came from the Ukraine... we're just a huge mutt of a family I guess." She grinned sheepishly. "What I meant to say was that if you wanted to bring something to the dinner, you could."



"Trust me, kid. I ain't under no impression that you're not a full grown woman." He grunted a little and shifted under her, a faint blush on his cheeks. "Hell, there's parts of me achin' cuz of that fact." He muttered under his breath, hopefully too soft to be heard. Then she began to sing, and he closed his eyes, just listening to her, feeling the cool grass under him, the warmth of her against his chest, his fingers in the silk of her hair. Her voice was soft and sweet, and the song faintly bittersweet and melancholic enough to give a slight tang of sadness in the back of his mind. He just lay still, feeling her heart beat against his chest and the soft, rhythmic rumble of her voice reverberating through her and into him. It was soothing in a way that he hadn't felt for a long time, lulling him into a sleepy relaxation.

Then the song ended and he felt her lips on his. Suddenly that soft, tranquil sense of calm was shattered and his heart was thundering in his chest like a racehorse, blood roaring through his veins as everything woke back up from the lethargy that her voice and song and warmth had induced. His arms slid down around her waist, pulling her closer into his chest, his tongue lightly flicking against her lower lip as she kissed him. From zero to sixty in one kiss. Damn, the girl was gonna be the death of him!

He couldn't find it in himself to complain though.

What was her favorite food? Kiki couldn't help but laugh at that question a little. "Everything!" She grinned over at him, sliding her hands into her pockets and tilting her head back as they walked, looking up at the sky. "I've tried so many different kinds of food...when I was in Academy, I spent a year on patrol in the world of the living. Different countries, some that my family had told me about. I had matzo ball soup and gefilte fish in Israel, kippers and blood pudding in England, fougasse and panzetta in France, peanut chicken and rice noodles in Thailand and borscht in the Ukraine. I've had kobe beef and chicken nuggets. If people eat it, I've tried it and liked most of it." She smiled a little. "Food's really scarce out in the districts. Most folks don't need it, since they don't have any reishi. Doesn't mean that they don't like the taste, or the memories that it brings. All of our big celebrations are done with food. Birthdays, weddings, new babies, graduation from school in the district or even the academy, promotions...hell, even funerals. They're all just an excuse for the clan to get together and laugh and tell stories and bring enough food to feed a small army. It'll last for days sometimes, with everyone bringing tents and wagons if they live far away, like a little gypsy camp. Dancing and singing, telling tall tales and funny stories, sometimes putting on plays. They were a theater troupe back in the day, before everyone settled down and got married and had kids, after all. That spirit doesn't die easily, I guess." She smiled a bit, thinking about the huge passel of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and family that she didn't have a title for but loved just the same. "We're not related by blood, any of us. Well, my mother and dad are related to me by blood of course, but the rest...just folks that stuck together, became a family while they were lost souls in Rukongai, travelling the districts, singing and dancing, fortune telling and doing magic tricks and dramatic plays for their supper." She glanced over at him and winked. "I can even read your palm or cast the bones for you. I'm shaky with Tarot, but I'm a natural with palm reading. Uncle Krios says I'm a regular little oracle, but I mostly agree with him because he brings the best baklava, I tell ya."

She smiled a little up at him, pushing her hair back behind her shoulder. "I think...I think you'll like them. They're loud and friendly and...well, they sure ain't nobles. But you know, I love them. They're always there for you. That's what families are, y'know? I guess it doesn't matter if you're really blood related or not. Family is what you make it." She smiled softly, an expression of quiet fondness on her face as they walked. The 7th Division barracks were in sight, and she was almost a little sad to think that the walk was done. Kuchiki was a surprisingly comfortable companion, quiet and attentive. He didn't talk much, but she felt a bit bad for talking his ears off. He hadn't complained so... maybe he'd enjoyed her talking as much as she enjoyed doing it.

* * *

Her tongue stroked against his, and he shuddered, a soft moan escaping his throat, his fingers twisting in her shirt as he kissed her deeper, one hand sliding up to the back of her head, cupping her neck and kissing her greedily. In the back of his mind, he knew she wasn't ready for more. She'd said as much, and he respected that. But Christ it was hard to pull away. Mustering his willpower, he pulled back, softening and lightening his kisses, moving from her lips along her jaw and to her ear, gently nibbling at the shell of her ear. "You're too good to be true, ya know. I'm waitin' for the shoe to drop but I'll sure enjoy this til it does." He grinned against her throat, half joking, but only half. Everything good in his life tended to disappear if he tried to hold on to it too tightly. He didn't want to make the same mistake with her.

She grinned, stepping in front of him now that he'd stopped and turning to face him. "Ohh, I did it all the time back in the 4th Division. Lots of girls wanted their palms read and the bones cast for them to see who they'd marry, how many kids they'd have, things like that." She winked at him slyly. "You broke a lotta hearts, ya know? Lots of girls asking if they'd get to marry you. Had to disappoint them every time. But we should do it inside where there's better light. Doing it in dim light throws the reading off. But the candles and stuff like that do add to the atmosphere, so don't ever expect a palm reading done at a festival or something to be accurate. If you want the most accurate reading, you make an ink print of the person's hand. That way all the little lines stand out. But there's more to it than that. The texture of the skin, the length of fingers, the patterns of fingerprints, they all tell their part of the story."

She smiled mysteriously. "It's all very complicated and involved. Bone casting is a bit different. Of course bonecasters don't still use bones of course, but it's an old tradition. Aunt Ingrith taught me; she was a Viking back in the day, I think. She said she was a spákona back in the living world, a Nordic witch. The spákona tosses the rune-inscribed bones into a sacred circle drawn on the ground. There used to be sacrifices and reading of the entrails of the sacrificial animals by priests, but that fell out of practice much faster than the bonecasting." She shrugged a bit and grinned. "A little too messy for most folks, I suppose."

She didn't see anything weird about her family herself; she'd grown up with crazy Romanji gypsies, Indian dervishes, jugglers and sword swallowers and flamedancers, fortuntellers and belly dancers, magicians and singers and witches who brewed strange herbal potions and made charms. Carpenters and farmers, shepherds and stonecutters, doctors and computer programmers and artists and poets; everyone in her family had a story to tell. "When a soul wakes up in Rukongai, they remember their lives back in the living world. It's blurry sometimes, but if you find a family who helps you learn the ways around here and that you can tell your story to, you don't forget." She turned, looking out towards the west, towards the section of Rukongai that housed Madosakawa. "When you wake up, my mother says, it's like waking up from a long sleep and your life before is like a dream. It's strange and soft and fuzzy, and over time, if you don't actively try to remember, or if you don't tell someone, then it just...fades." She moved back to stand beside him and started walking towards her barracks. "My family tells their stories to remember them, to remember who and what they were. One day we'll be reborn and we'll lose all of our memories. We'll become new people, new souls. But if we tell our lives to our friends, our family, our children and grandchildren... then even when we lose ourselves utterly, when we're wiped clean... someone somewhere never forgets us. We live on, everything that made us who we were, the very last inches of who we are."



Reluctantly he drew his mouth away from her ear, resting his head against the crook of her neck, heart pounding a wild, staccato beat, like the machine guns of the living world movies about gangsters and soldiers. His breath came hard and hot, labored as he tried to force himself calm. That'd be a hell of a way to introduce her to more carnal pursuits, wouldn't it? Just pounce and ravage the poor girl! THAT was sure to give her good memories of him! Which is about all he'd be, a memory and a greasy spot on the ground where either she or her dad splattered him were he to make that sort of horrible lapse in judgement.

"We better stop, Sym. We go too much further and things are gonna get real awkward for you, or real painful for me. Maybe both, dunno." He panted, the words hard to force out. His fingers clawed through her hair, gentle in his own way, but still Ikkaku; rough and a little too hard, but at least his version of tenderness. "Sucks though. Lips and neck that sweet, makes a man wanna taste more of ya. But I ain't the kinda b*****d to trick or force or guilt a girl inta doing nothing she ain't up for. So we better stop 'fore my good sense gets overruled by my bad sense."

Kiki had privately had her own thoughts about the girls who had come begging her for palm readings and runecasts in reference to the Kuchiki clan head. She wasn't about to tell him that she had gotten requests for love spells and potions and charms as well. He probably didn't need to know that half the female population of Seireitei had been the butt of her private little joke, wearing a small pouch of particularly odoriferous herbs in their bras to make them "irresistible to the man of their dreams", most times which ended up being Kuchiki-taicho. He was handsome, rich, powerful and well, seeing him training with his squad on occasion had even made her decidedly squidgy and weak in the knees. However, things like that weren't meant to be played with and hopefully wearing stinky herbs around for a week had been fitting punishment for girls who would have taken away a person's free will and forced them to love them. It was mostly foolish girls with stars in their eyes dreaming about their one true love, but some women were downright mercenary. Those were the ones that definitely made her glad she had never been a noble; having to worry about people like that, or worse yet, being molded into someone like that, was a definite pitfall of noble families. Granted, Kuchiki-taicho wasn't bad, but he was very guarded and reserved. Probably a lifetime of having to deal with people like that trying to curry favor, never knowing if someone cared about you or were friends with you for yourself or what you could do for them...must have made it hell in the romance department too; always worried about gold diggers and those looking to climb the social ladder by trying to marry into the high nobility.

She shook her head to dismiss such maudlin thoughts and grinned at him when he mentioned possibly bringing a Kuchiki family dish. "That'd be great! If you do, my Aintín Briathe will probably want the recipe to add to our archives. She loves new foods and new stories, so she'll probably have a million questions for you. She's the storykeeper, she keeps scrolls and scrolls of histories but she's got most of them memorized. Don't be too scandalized by her, she's still got the Celt in her. Wanders about in a few leather straps and hides and blue paint. She's civilized though; knows how to shake hands and bathe herself and everything." Kiki grinned a bit. "She almost went to the academy to become a shinigami, but they wanted her to wear the robes and...well, you don't tell a Celt they need to cover up. Just not done. That's how they went into battle back in her day; stark naked, covered in blue paint, wailing like banshees. Scared most of their enemies into retreat before they even clashed swords. Pretty effective tactic, I think. She patrols the forest around Madosakawa for Hollows even now. No one's had much trouble ever since she and some of the others with battle experience and spiritual power got together and formed the Gae Bolg to make sure no Hollows hung out in the forests eating people." Kiki stopped and shook her head. "Y'know, you're gonna know my family better than they do if I keep running my mouth to you. You'll meet them at the party, and you'll get to know them there if I don't keep ruining all the surprises for you!"

They had arrived at the barracks by this point and Kiki turned to face him, leaning against the doorjamb and smiling up at him. "So, want me to read your palm tonight, or did you want to do it some other time? We've both got early days and all, and you're a captain, so even if you wanted to, you couldn't sleep in." She made a face. "Unless you were in fact Kyouraku-taicho... I don't think he's ever gotten to work on time a day in his life."



"Yeah, well...trust me, kid; the last thing I was expecting was you to say that you liked me so I guess on that front we're kinda even, huh?" Ikkaku smirked a little at her and shook his head, rubbing his hand over the bare skin of his scalp. The girl was really gonna be the death of him; listen to him now, breath coming in hard, sharp pants, skin flushed, heart pounding, sweat beading across his skin... anyone else that knew him would have thought he'd just come out of a hard fight but no! He'd just been playing tongue fencing with a sexy little number who was really wreaking havoc on his ability to breath and blink at the same time. He sat up, sliding an arm around her waist and pulling her against his side, hugging her to him.

"You know yer dad's gonna try and kill me when he finds out. Just wantin' ta let you know in case Yumi has to tell ya that if ya wanna go out one night you'll need a vacuum cleaner to get up all the pieces of me." He smiled down at her, resting his forehead against her temple and pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. "Hope you know I don't think most chicks are worth that kinda trouble. Good thing you are, right?" It was a backhanded compliment, but if Ikkaku was willing to risk death and dismemberment from one of the few men in existence able to dish it out to him without breaking hardly a sweat, that was nearly as good as a declaration of undying love for most men. He waited a few minutes and then stood up, offering her his hand. "I probably need t'get you back to the division, huh? Before someone ends up thinking I was defilin' ya or something out here all alone in the dark." He leered at her playfully but it wasn't entirely an inaccurate worry. He didn't want her reputation sullied because people thought she and he had done the nasty. Not that he wanted to deal with her dad (or Kyouraku-taicho for that matter) out for his blood, but he didn't want her to have to deal with the telling snickers and whispers and grins that would follow her if people thought that something had actually happened between them. There was a double standard, stupid as it was, and the same people that would congratulate him for bagging her would disparage her for getting bagged. It was stupid, but it was the way of the world and until it changed, it had to be dealt with.