#there is no way that wouldn’t come full circle to bite Ichigo on the ass

[black--sun]

He smirks a little when Shiro says more people should grovel at his feet before the expression evens out and he says, “Want me to make them?” He could do it. He doesn’t doubt that. And for just a second, he has a very strong urge. But he sits back and shrugs. “Guess it depends on whether you think I’m just a bar kind of date or a dinner kind of date.” Not that he can’t enjoy both. But tonight, there’s a right answer to that query. Shiro tells him to pick though, so he decides to show him what a mistake that is. “Take me some place that has food with names I can’t pronounce.”

For some reason, the reminder that Shiro is hard to discourage has him relaxing. He’s not ready to give up on the idea of them getting along, but if they don’t, maybe Shiro and him can still make it work. Hating his sisters would be a deal breaker, but hating his dad is probably just good taste. He lets his shoulders unknot.

“I don’t know about scarier, but she’s definitely meaner. Actually, if you mess with Karin, Yuzu can get pretty scary too.”

Ichigo blinks when Shiro starts toying with his wallpapers. Since the phone was open, he doesn’t have the heart to tell Shiro that photo was already on that screen, just tastefully cropped so Ichigo wasn’t flashing dick shots every time he pulled it out. The second one has him pausing, mouth flattening. It’s the ugliest bird he’s ever seen. And beady eyed. “You know, feel free to send that one to yourself and make your own phone ugly.” He eyes that bird distastefully, but probably won’t change it. Because two people he likes a lot like it. Which makes him sigh and slide Shiro a semi-indulgent look. “You’re getting awfully comfortable with my phone over there.”

Ichigo says he knows like it’s obvious and Shiro catches on a sound between offense and guilt. It shouldn’t be happening. It definitely shouldn’t be obvious. He was drunk, Ichigo shouldn’t have taken anything he’d said seriously. “I was just drunk and bitching.” He settles on in response, as if it’s some sort of counter argument so the whole thing can be dismissed. “I would'a been fine.” He doesn’t regret his drunk texts, because he can see how that interaction maybe laid the beginnings of what they’re doing now.

He looks over, but Ichigo’s tone is… something he’s not sure what to do with. It’s not casual, it’s not chastising. It’s sort of soft and a lot. He knows exactly what the words means, but not quite how to respond to them. He hesitates a short moment, then swallows and shrugs, and attempts casual anyway. “It’s fine. I told you I’d let you get some school stuff done.”

A brow arches mildly. That doesn’t really clear much up, honestly. But ok. “Oh, right.” He wonders if Ichigo’s talking about his pretty ex girlfriend for a second, but he’s pretty sure that’s not the case.

He’s distracted, but it’s on purpose, which ends up meaning he’s distracted from work and distracted from Ichigo and everything else going on too. He showed up because he basically got bullied into it- though now he wonders if Rukia told him he had to be here because Ichigo showed up without him. And with Shuren, evidently. The line of his mouth thins with a hint of tension that’s broken when he catches the illumination of Ichigo’s phone screen being shown to him. He looks over, then does a little bit of a double take, before grabbing the phone to get a closer look. “What the fuck? How come you didn’t tell me you got friends with fire power? That looks fun as hell, if I had known the family you were supposed to be visiting was gonna blow things up we would'a went.”