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"Want to go to the aquarium?"
Ichigo spent a real solid minute trying to figure out what kind of battle grounds an aquarium was. Then he kicked himself for being so naive.
"Sure, Uryu, let's go to the aquarium."
An hour train ride and several wrong turns later, they arrived at their destination. Ichigo bought both their tickets with the promise of getting to pick out a souvenir on Uryu's dime later. They walked through the door and almost stopped in their tracks at the people they saw.
Obnoxious pink hair styled into an even more obnoxious mokawk, and straw-yellow shoulder length hair. Uryu's hands clenched and he reached instinctively for the chain bracelet on his wrist. Ichigo stopped him before he could make a scene.
Tugging him down one of the hallways, Ichigo evaded any confrontation with Bazz-B and Jugram. Truthfully, he didn't know them well. Uryu had spent months working into their confidence but he didn't share many details with the karakura gang. From what he could gather during the war and Uryu's nightmare mumbling, those two were old friends that had a big showdown and at least one of them almost killed Uryu. That was enough for Ichigo to keep away from them without his zanpakuto.
"Okay, I'm fine now Ichigo. You can stop dragging me away from the cool fish please," Uryu said. He pulled his sleeve out of Ichigo’s grasp and straightened the cloth back to form. He still wasn't breathing normally. "Ignore them. Let's look at some weird little freaks like we planned."
Ichigo stared at him hard and turned away when Uryu refused to meet his gaze. "Whatever you say."
The hallways they were in was lined with huge tanks and viewing windows. It looked like the tanks had more light farther down the hallway. Next to them was a tank holding a positively massive fish. The placard below it said it was some kind of karp. Ichigo had eaten karp before and seeing this beast face to face was a little stomach churning. Fishermen must be massively muscled to reel these things in.
Uryu went to the next tank and Ichigo trailed after him. It was incredible to see such creatures so closely. Every step of the hallway made Ichigo forget what had happened earlier. By the time they reached the final tank in the section - a rocky riverbed system with salamanders - they both had calmed down.
One of the salamanders crawled over the rocks to the glass and stuck a hand up. Tentatively at first, Uryu placed a finger over the glass too.
"Haha, he's giving you a high-five. This is a new win for interspecies relationships." Ichigo chuckled as he watched the interaction.
"Hmm yeah, well I've always been good at those considering I'm friends with you," Uryu said matter-of-factly. He didn't look away from the tank, didn't lose inflection in his tone, didn't even laugh about it.
Ichigo's heart squeezed a little tighter.
In the blue light of the aquarium, Uryu leaning down to touch the wall, glasses reflecting the image of a small black spotted salamander, Ichigo realized something he had denied for a long time.
"That's the first time you called me your friend," he whispered. He knew they were friends, but it was something else to hear that confirmed. His smile hurt his cheeks.
Of course, Uryu didn't hear. The salamander pushed off the glass and swam into a cave in the rocks.
They carried on to the next part of the aquarium. The room opened up to a multi-story tall section with a floor-to-ceiling wall looking into an even deeper tank. There were some touch tanks scattered around but it was clear the large Ocean tank was the exhibit for this area.
Ichigo leaned on the acrylic to see over the edge. He didn't need to though, the creature lurking just below quickly swam up into full view. It was a huge turtle.
"This sea turtle was born and raised here at this aquarium. It was one of the first animals to go on display and has outlived four directors. Some people believe it can give you good luck if it makes eye contact with you," Uryu read off the placard.
Ichigo was once again mystified. Four directors - how old did that make the turtle? At least sixty years old. "Where do you think that belief started? Must be someone got a proposal or survived a car crash after coming here, and now the aquarium uses it for marketing or something."
"I don't know and I don't care. Luck doesn't matter to me unless it's about surviving the next apocalypse you drag me into. Turtle or no, I have the feeling you'll be the death of me."
Ichigo laughed. He couldn't help it. Uryu was absolutely correct about that, he would drag his friends into any apocalypse whether they wanted it or not. "Well hey now, I haven't let you die yet. You're the one who keeps trying to get killed and then I have to come save your ass."
Uryu muttered something he couldn't quite catch and then turned away from his view.
The turtle passed by them again. This time, it seemed to slow down a bit. It was just a flash but Ichigo could have sworn he saw it wink at him.
Uryu moved on to a touch tank and Ichigo had to leave his fascinated turtle watching to catch up.
"Why do you keep walking away from me?" Ichigo asked. He cleaned his hands and dipped them in the water to pet a starfish.
"I'm not walking away, I'm just walking." Uryu scooped a black urchin into his palm and stroked along its spines. "I'm trying to see the whole aquarium before it closes. If we go at your pace then we'd never see it all."
"You're calling me slow?"
Uryu snorted and released the urchin. "Yes, you are the slowest person I know."
Ichigo's eye twitched a little. "I'm not slow, I'm one of the fastest shinigami I know!"
The small fish approaching his outstretched hand skittered away when he raised his voice. The starfish brushed his knuckles and Ichigo relented to pet it again.
"You're not a slow fighter. Hell, sometimes I lose track of you because of how you flit around enemies so carelessly. But you are slow." Uryu washed and dried his hands and walked away again.
Going down a dark hallway, Ichigo caught up to Uryu at a jellyfish exhibit. He huffed a little, "You left me again. We're supposed to be hanging out so stop going off on your own."
"This is a- Whatever, doesn't matter. We are 'hanging out,' you're here aren't you?" Uryu sounded upset.
Ichigo couldn't figure out what was going on. They were so chill by the salamander but now Uryu was mad. What crab had snipped his balls?
"Oh, you survived after all."
Uryu and him whipped around to see Bazz-B and Jugram closing in on them.
Ichigo put himself in front of Uryu and spoke confidently, "Not a step further if you know what's good for you."
They stopped. Bazz-B tilted his head back and swept his eyes up and down.
"Ichigo, it's fine. This is a public space and they can be here too." Uryu was collected, but Ichigo could feel the tension radiating off him.
"Right, we're here for the fish not for you. We're not about to restart a war we lost just yet," Jugram said.
On the one hand these guys clearly were upsetting Uryu but on the other hand he had no reason not to trust them except their entire family history of genocide and treachery. Ichigo didn't move.
Bazz-B chuffed and turned around. "Fuck this. We don't have to interact if you don't want to. We have a date that's not gonna be ruined by old wounds." He grabbed Jugram's hand and they walked out of the dark hall to the turtle tank.
Ichigo only let his guard down when they were out of view. He turned around to the jellyfish again and Uryu's frowning face.
"What? They were making you upset," he justified.
Something flickered across Uryu's face, unidentifiable in the low light of the jellyfish. Wordlessly, he moved on to the next tank.
"Oh come on. Cut it out with this weird vibe! We're supposed to be friends, as in you thank me when I help you and then we talk it out when we're pissed off." Ichigo was damn fed up with this.
Uryu sighed and faced him. Floating red jellyfish behind him looked almost like a halo. "Ichigo, this was supposed to be a date."
The placard beside Uryu's white knuckled hands read: "Fun Fact! Jellyfish don't have brains!" Ichigo physically, spiritually, and emotionally identified with those jellyfish.
"Like, a friends date?" Garbage, absolute garbage coming from his mouth.
Uryu sighed again and took his glasses off to rub his eyes with his palms. "No, like a date date, between two people with romantic intent, where one person finally asks out his high school crush after nearly losing him. I thought… doesn't matter what I thought, I didn't make it clear enough anyway."
Ichigo wandered to the glow-in-the-dark fish tank. His head a full with too many thoughts. Nothing made sense anymore.
"So you, Uryu Ishida, the goodie two shoes extraordinaire, like me, Ichigo Kurosaki, the punk fuckup? Really?" Uryu's nod was barely visible in the low light. "Why?"
Uryu was standing in he's away before he could take another breath. His eyes were wild and lips tight. "I don't know why. I didn't exactly choose to like you. You're a stubborn harass I'd prefer to have shot through the back the first time I met you and your stupidly strong reiatsu. If I could do it all over again I would have. But you found a way to worry me, to make me want to do better. I threw my bow away and you gave me a new one. You motivate me to be better than I was before. You do that to everyone honestly. I'm just the unlucky bastard who took that personally, and selfishly I want that all to myself."
He was panting, tears in the corners of his eyes. Ichigo lifted a hand and wiped the tears away on one side. Uryu shut his eyes tightly, expecting something harsh to happen probably.
"I like you too. You make me want to protect," Ichigo said. He was sure of it now. "When you were with Ywhach I was going crazy. Orihime and Chad had to hold me back from cutting apart the whole Soul Society to find you. I thought it was just me being overprotective of my friends but I didn't even go that wild when Orihime was captured. If you died then I would've killed the whole world."
Uryu smiled and Ichigo felt it more than saw it, his hand tracing the softness of his cheek now. No more tears fell. They simply stood there in the dark tunnel of the aquarium surrounded by jellyfish and genetically engineered fish and weird crabs.
— —
"Hey, can I get this one?" Ichigo held up a plush pink octopus that was easily half his height. The giftshop was large, displaying fish novelties ranging from fish gummies to a spinning globe with continents shaped like shrimp. Where Ichigo had managed to find such a huge stuffed animal was beside the point.
Uryu clenched his fist around his wallet, but nodded.
Ichigo carried his trophy to the counter and giddily had Uryu pay. He grumbled the whole time but did uphold his original agreement to buy one (1) souvenir for Ichigo. If all it took to open Uryu's pocketbook was a little batting eyelashes then Ichigo was about to be a well-kept man.
The octopus was comical even in comparison to Ichigo’s comically obnoxious hair color. To make it worse, he insisted on carrying the stuffed animal over his shoulders like a piggy-backing child, two tentacles hanging over each shoulder. Everyone looked at them as they went from the aquarium to the train station and then to the Kurosaki house.
"So…" Ichigo said, unsure how to end his first successful date.
Uryu looked no more knowledgeable on the subject. He wrung his hands for a moment then seemed to settle on a decision. Quick as sonido, he kissed Ichigo's cheek and fled from the front porch. His words floated back to a stunned Ichigo, "See you tomorrow!"
Moving purely on muscle memory, Ichigo opened the door, ducked the attack from his dad, and climbed upstairs to his room. He fell into bed face first, octopus sitting over him like a victor after battle. Ichigo’s cheeks were pink as his plush animal.