Talk to Tatsuki

Tatsuki had been number two for a long time. Ichigo knew how significant it was that she reach her goal of being number one, so he understood her need to push herself, even if she did go overboard. He thought that she would probably be at her training spot for most of lunch time, overdoing it as usual. He also figured she'd probably skipped lunch. As he started to near the school's practice area he could already hear the pounding of a punching bag.
When he walked in he noticed she was all alone. "She must have chased everyone away or kicked everyone's ass to get some privacy."
He saw her things bunched up by the door. As he looked at Tatsuki, she planted a solid punch on the punching bag she was currently punishing. To Ichigo, she hadn't changed one bit. Back when they were in the dojo together she had the same determined look on her sweaty face. He certainly noticed thought, that she had grown into a much stronger woman, both physically and mentally.
"Yo! Clean that sweat off or you'll get a rash," Ichigo said as he threw her towel in her face while looking to the side.
Tatsuki hadn't even noticed him walk in. She was so focused on her technique that she blocked everything from her mind. "What are you doing here?" she finally asked as she scrubbed the towel across her forehead.
"Heard your tournament was starting up again. Figured I'd come by and give you some pointers so you won't suck again."
Tatsuki just shook her head at him. "YOU give ME pointers. If I remember correctly I'm the one that used to beat your bullies up for you."
Ichigo turned back and faced Tatsuki. He gave her a genuine grin and got into an attack stance. "We'll see if you still got it." Tatsuki smiled back and prepared herself as Ichigo charged her.
Stupidly, he tried a direct straight punch, but Tatsuki simply grabbed his wrist and elbow, pulled him down, and brought her leg over to plant a clear strike to his head. Ichigo went flying across the room, and hit a padded wall.
Tatsuki ran forward and tried following up with a hook while he was still a bit dazed but he had recovered faster than she thought. Her fist flew over his shoulder as he hit her with the side of his elbow. Tatsuki tried to keep her stance but she was **** to take a couple of steps back.
When she regained her balance Ichigo was waiting for her. A bit of blood trickled out the side of Tatsuki's mouth. At the sight of the blood, Ichigo's face showed a flash of regret. But Tatsuki's didn't, instead she just chuckled and ran right at him again. It was going to be a long fight.
. . .
They went around and around trading blocks and blows for hours. It was getting late, so they slowed their sparring and eventually took a break. The sun was already setting, leaving different hues of red, orange and yellow across the sky. Tatsuki sat staring out of the window; it had been a good day. She looked back at Ichigo who had almost instantly fallen asleep on the floor as soon as they had stopped sparring. Both of them had fought straight through the rest of the school day, skipping their classes after lunch. When the bell rang for them to return to class, neither of them flinched, instead, they'd just kept on fighting.
As Tatsuki looked at her sleeping friend, she realized that Ichigo wasn't the same mama's boy he had been not all that long ago. He had grown into a full-fledged man. Ichigo in his light sleep rolled onto his back and scratched his stomach. Tatsuki smiled to herself. "Stupid ass."
She scooted closer to him and grabbed her towel. She picked up his head and rested it on her thigh, then she began to clean the sweat off his face. She thought, "You tell me to clean off my sweat but don't even bother with your own. You really are stubborn aren't you?"
Once his face was cleaned off she could see the fine details of his face. He had a very defined chin. Most of the time, he had a rather solid face but now that he was sleeping it seemed like all of the pressures of his day had melted away. It was like he was a little boy again—and she like that because it brought back so many fond memories to her.
"So he did stay here," Rukia said from the doorway.
Tatsuki flinched suddenly causing Ichigo's head to hit the floor. He didn't even wake up. "Rukia? What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for him at home but his sisters said he hadn't arrived. So I figured I'd check here since this was the last place he said he was going."
Both of them stayed quiet for a while. Tatsuki sat there, quite impressed that Ichigo had actually said he was going to come and see her.
Soon, Rukia spoke up, "I'm sorry if I was interrupting something between you two."
Tatsuki immediately got red and flustered, "WHAT? Him and me? I don't think so."
Rukia just shrugged her shoulders and turned to leave. "With the way you're always worried about him, I think you might want to think about you and him." With that she was gone.
Tatsuki was left speechless. If anyone else had said anything about her relationship with Ichigo, it wouldn't have meant anything to her, but since Rukia had mentioned something that was completely different. Tatsuki had always thought that Ichigo and Rukia had something secret going on. To herself, she'd always hoped that Ichigo would recognize that Orihime had feelings for him, but he never seemed to. He really seemed quite dense at times.
She looked down at the sleeping Ichigo and began to talk quietly, "It's not like I haven't thought about it before. Sometimes I wish we were together. It's just that . . . well . . . I feel that sometimes you don't see me as a possible girlfriend but rather as one of your guy friends, because I act so rough and all. All of the other girls worry about their hair or their clothes or their makeup and I know that you like that sort of stuff, but that's just not me."
She continued, "Sometimes when I look at you, you're still that small, weak little mama's boy. Maybe you still are but you hide it behind all the tough guy stuff now. I remember thinking back when we were kids that I'd have to be tough enough for both of us. Now . . . now things are real different, and I don't even think you'd give me a chance if I wanted you to."
Ichigo began to fidget again in his sleep. Tatsuki laughed quietly at him as she watched him. Her gaze, almost as if magnetically drawn, stopped at his lips. They looked soft and soothing. She felt them pull her in. She tried gathering all of her courage to try and kiss him but the closer she got this his face the faster her courage depleted. Just a few centimeters away she shook her head and admitted to herself, "I can't."
"Uh, Tatsuki?"
Her eyes flew open. She was face-to-face with a very awake Ichigo. Out of pure natural reaction, she drove her fist downward into his face and yelled. Ichigo didn't even have time to let out a breath. But once Tatsuki collected herself she was met with a very hot-headed boy.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" He quickly pushed away from her and got up and to his feet, as if ready to fight.
"You startled me!" was all Tatsuki was able to say. Her face felt very warm. "How long have you been awake?" she said shyly.
Ichigo straighten back up and look away from her. "Since Rukia left."
Tatsuki grabbed her fifteen pound practice glove and flung it at him. It hit him square in the head with a loud "THUD!" Ichigo fell back down to the floor.
He yelled from his supine position, "WHAT THE HELL? I THOUGHT YOU LIKED ME?"
"SHUT UP I WAS JUST BABBLING!"
"BABBLING MY ASS!"
They got quiet for a while. Ichigo rolled to his side while Tatsuki sat on her legs; they didn't even try to look at each other. Neither of them knew what to say. The truth was out there in the open standing before them like the biggest elephant they'd ever seen.
"Did you mean it? What you just said?" Ichigo said flatly.
Tatsuki paused for a moment and then responded, "No."
Ichigo thought hard, taking in everything she had said, "I think if you would have told me, I would have given you a chance."
They looked hard at each other. Tatsuki stared at him for a very long time, trying to figure him out. Ichigo tried not to reveal too much but when she shook her head and laughed he knew she had gotten a hint.
"It would have taken you at least a week to admit it."
Ichigo chuckled and looked away again. "Yeah."
The atmosphere was different now. Everything seemed . . . brighter, yet still a bit strained between them. Tatsuki had mixed feelings about the whole affair but at least she felt like she could breathe again. She never expected to actually have a conversation like this with him. He was such a dork and he'd never really looked for a relationship before as far as she knew. He was always distant, even with his friends, so it was something she hadn't thought of looking for with him. She thought she would have wasted her time if she'd tried. But now…
To her, Ichigo looked comfortable. She could tell he was content with everything and how it turned out but one questioned stayed with her; where would they go from here? Tatsuki thought that at least for that day, enough information had been shared between them. She decided to leave it in Ichigo's hands. If he was indeed interested in her, he could make the first move, and to her surprise, she found that she'd let him if he did.
Ichigo picked himself up off the floor and started to gather his things. "We should get going. It's already rather late and Yuzu must have dinner almost ready." He picked up Tatsuki's school bag and slung it over his shoulder while tossing her gym bag at her. "You'd better change so we can go. I'll drop you off along the way."
Tatsuki saw this as a positive sign. She actually hoped Ichigo would come to a decision about her soon, now that they'd expressed a sort of interest in each other. "Al lright wait for me here," she said back to him as she turned toward the locker room to change.
Ichigo leaned against the wall as she walked off. He brought his hand up to his head, "Shit, what am I going to do now?" He wasn't sure if he was really ready to dive into a relationship with Tatsuki. Things were very different now. Had this happened a few months back it wouldn't have been a big deal at all, it would have been easy. Now, however, he was a shinigami. He would have to leave her if a hollow showed up. That could definitely cause some problems. Knowing Tatsuki, she'd fight with him about it since he'd be risking his life day-in-and day-out. He cursed silently.
Tatsuki tried to enter as casually as possible. She had been wrestling with herself about her clothes, hair, face, skin and so on, but in the end she just decided to be natural like she normally was. When Ichigo gave her a blank stare she felt as if she hadn't done enough after all. "Let's go already," she said to him, wondering if she should have put forth a little more effort to get him to notice her.
Tatsuki felt her spirits sink as Orihime screamed, "TATSUKI! ICHIGO! WHAT ARE YOU TWO STILL DOING HERE?"
The one person she was most concerned about in all of this was Orihime. Tatsuki knew that Orihime had very strong feelings for Ichigo and now with things possibly stirring between them how was she going to deal with Orihime? Ichigo, as dense as ever, just motioned her over and said, "I was training with her for her tournament."
"Oh, that's right. You two must have been at it for quite a while since neither of you came back to class after lunch." Tatsuki felt extremely tense and guilty. Her mind was troubled, trying to figure everything out. "So how's the training going Tatsuki?"
Forcing the words out of her mouth she said quietly, "G-good Orihime."
"So why are you getting out of school so late?" Ichigo questioned Orihime.
"Well," she began as she looked at the floor, "Today was our day to clean the classroom, but since you weren't there I had to do all of the work on my own. I was hoping to clean the classroom with you."
Tatsuki understood Orihime's sadness. Even though she was a bit shy before, she'd just recently learned how to openly talk with Ichigo. She was probably hoping to have some alone time with him today but it didn't happen.
Ichigo could see the sadness on Orihime's face and he didn't know what to do. He started, "Well cleaning the classroom wasn't quite as important as, OW!" Tatsuki hit him in mid-sentence.
She whispered at him, "You idiot, can't you that this girl likes you? She's liked you for a very long time now but has never had the courage to tell you! Now that you two talk a lot more she was probably looking forward to being with you today!" she hoped Orihime hadn't heard her.
That's when Ichigo finally realized it. Looking at Orihime's face he could now tell that what Tatsuki was saying was true. "You are such a moron Ichigo," he told himself. Now he was left with an enormous dilemma.
On one hand he had Tatsuki, the girl that had fought with him, supported him, helped him, and comforted him since he was a boy. She had been with him all this time and had never let him down. She was one of his best friends.
On the other hand he had Orihime; the girl spoke softly and kindly to him, helped him get Rukia back from Soul Society, and was there to encourage him whenever he needed it. She was a great companion in almost any given situation.
The question was; who might he pursue? Tatsuki or Orihime?