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"You won't do it!" Ichigo irritably mocked his friend and waved him off.
"I will so!" Keigo almost cried, "Ichigo has lost his faith in meee!" He flung himself to lie back on the floor of his living room, where the group of friends had all gathered after school. The seven teens sat in an imperfect circle with various snacks scattered around them.
"I never had faith in you, but that's not the issue! If you flash your ass to our sensei, you're getting expelled, stupid!" Easily ignoring his now very dramatically sobbing friend, Ichigo turned to address another friend whom he thought had known better, "Tatsuki, what the fuck? Why would you dare him to do that?"
"Obviously, I want him to get expelled," Tatsuki shrugged. Ichigo kept a stern face but gave his childhood bestie a covert thumbs up. Next to her, Orihime nervously tried to settle them down.
"Uhm, how about we all agree the dares can't endanger our futures?" she sweetly suggested to them all with a smile. Chad hummed in support of that on the other side of her, while the rest grumbled but eventually agreed.
"I don't understand the point of this game," Uryuu admitted. He'd grown accustomed to blocking out Keigo about as well as everyone else, but he still peered around Ichigo to eye the crocodile-tears meltdown.
"Truth or Dare is for fun, Ishida," Ichigo informed the boy sitting to his left, and leaned back on his hands to stretch out. Definitely just for comfort and not to pose his toned body. "You've researched fun, right?" He smiled impishly when Uryuu glared. He had purposely invited the Quincy to Keigo's planned Friday hang-out when they were within earshot of Orihime, knowing it was impossible to disappoint her once she had that hopeful grin directed at you.
Mizuiro cleared his throat and finally slapped his hand less than gently over Keigo's mouth, "There is only one purpose of this game, which I will hopefully reveal now." He spun the empty soda bottle that had been placed in the middle of their circle. The cap ended up pointing to Chad's knee. "Chad! Truth or dare?"
"Truth," Chad chose for self-preservation.
"A-ha! The most important question of this game: Who do you like?" Mizuiro grinned casually, as if it was completely innocent and not a loaded question in a room full of teenagers.
"You're kidding me," Uryuu deadpanned.
"Shhh." Ichigo leaned over and glared at him, but his heart wasn't in it. When one invited Ishida Uryuu, one expected snark. And Ishida always smelled nice, so leaning in had many benefits.
"It's a very old and honored tradition, Ishida," Tatsuki explained. "Friends should always have good blackmail material on each other." Uryuu blanched at her.
Orihime put her hands up innocently. "Well, I enjoy knowing who my friends like, so I can encourage them."
"Jennifer Love Hewitt," Chad eventually answered, because it was the early 2000s and nobody could go wrong with her in any future decade. It got him a few disappointed boos from those who preferred blackmail material and an "ooh, good one" from Orihime.
"You're supposed to say someone we can actually tell and either mock or set you up with!" Keigo whined loudly. Ichigo stuck a finger in his ear to block out the worst of it. Keigo was going to give him tinnitus.
"Sorry." Chad didn't seem sorry at all, but he got a reassuring smile from Ichigo and an arm hug from Orihime anyway.
"My turn!" Keigo spun, harder than necessary. When it came to a stop, it pointed directly at Orihime as if fate had guided it. "Ahhhhh~!" The overexcited boy sounded like a squeaky bike wheel.
Until Tatsuki, Ichigo, Chad, and Uryuu leaned in and glared so hard he worried they'd kill him by thought alone. "Uhhhhhh, truth or dare, Inoue?" He shook like a chihuahua in a cold, crowded airport.
"Dare!" Orihime seemed oblivious to Keigo's plight. She watched him face-plant into the floor and softly cry, something about missed opportunities he'll never have again. "Oh, a-are you okay? Did I choose wrong?"
Ichigo grabbed the back of Keigo's neck and squeezed, faking a big, friendly grin. "No, he's fine. Pick a good dare for Inoue, Keigo. Buddy."
Once the vice grip on his neck was released, Keigo sat up. He looked lifeless. He looked as if he'd never know joy again. "Inoue, I dare you to only sound like a dog until it's your next turn."
"Yay! Uh, I mean, bark-bark!" Orihime giggled, clearly enjoying the dare. Her friends smiled with her. Keigo could live another day.
"Alright," Ichigo sighed and spun. He crossed his fingers, hoping to make Uryuu squirm, but it wasn't in the cards. "Mizuiro, truth or dare."
"Dare." Mizuiro was not falling into the truth trap he'd set up.
Ichigo looked at his easy-going friend, having to angle around the still-devoid-of-life Keigo, and put careful thought into his decision. "I dare you to let us look in your phone for a full minute."
Mizuiro's eyes widened, but he retained a laid-back air about him. "What?"
"Do you accept?" Ichigo asked, voice pitched deep. The accompanying smile was pure evil. Uryuu even checked to make sure there were no yellow eyes. Ichigo kept his focus on Mizuiro, but enjoyed Uryuu getting closer in his peripheral vision. Maybe he'd lower his voice now and then to see if Uryuu liked that.
The normally relaxed teenager surprised them with a dark smile of his own that passed over his face so fast they weren’t sure if they imagined it. "Are you sure you can last a full minute?” Ichigo and Ishida exchanged a worried look at the same time.
“Wait-,” Ichigo started, rethinking this.
"Somebody get a watch!" Tatsuki ordered, slapping the floor like a gavel. Orihime howled happily next to her. Chad brought his wristwatch up to eye level, at the ready. Keigo blinked and perked up at this turn of events.
"Ready?" Mizuiro asked, pulling out his phone. He had the appearance of an innocent, respectable young man, as if his private life wasn't about to scar them.
Ichigo looked at the others’ excited faces and figured it couldn't be that bad. The womanizing boy thought he couldn't handle some thirsty texts and a nude pic or two. Ichigo had been living with thirsty thoughts 24/7 lately. Hell, Ichigo had nearly had his soul cleaved in half by a zanpakuto; he could handle a teenager’s cellphone. Cocky again, he held his palm out expectantly to Mizuiro, and the phone lowered into his waiting hand. "Time starts....now!"
Immediately, he flipped the cover open and gracefully swiveled until his back was leaning against Uryuu's shoulder blade, holding the phone high enough to share with everyone behind him. All the others, except Mizuiro and Chad, scrambled nearly on top of a scandalized Uryuu to get a view of the small screen.
A very fast scroll through contacts showed a lot of suspicious code names. Then Ichigo opened the text messages. Picking the thread from a contact only known as 'Beach', the group began to speed-read. Beach was almost certainly a girl and, judging by the lewd messages and low-pixel photos, one Mizuiro knew intimately.
"The fuck?"
"I believe that's illegal."
"Gross!"
"Ruff!"
"That's my boy, Mizuiro!"
That message thread was quickly backed out of, Ichigo looking a little green, and he opened one called 'Mall'. The same type of messages appeared. It was also the same with 'Park', 'Library', and 'Roof'. After one photo made the group of friends tilt their heads horizontally, then violently cringe, Ichigo nearly threw the phone at Mizuiro's head. Mizuiro caught it, face red but still smiling with pride.
"Guys, that's only been forty-five seconds," Chad told them. Everyone nauseously crawled back to their positions around the circle. Orihime was whimpering. It was Ichigo's turn to face-plant on the floor. He’d lost a dare that wasn’t even his.
"Don't... don't want it. Ishida, please spin."
"Kurosaki, I really don't want to continue this game," Uryuu loudly whispered to the deflated boy next to him.
Ichigo blindly reached over and patted Uryuu's knee in solidarity. He vaguely wished he'd landed higher. "I know. Just, just let everyone get their turn, then we'll, like, go pour bleach in our eyes or something."
Uryuu stared at the hand Ichigo left lying on him, but spun the bottle as instructed. Of course. Of-fucking-course it pointed at Ichigo. Uryuu sighed. "Truth or dare, Kurosaki?"
"Huh?" Ichigo finally lifted his head off the floor, forehead sporting a red mark. He followed Uryuu's extended finger to the bottle, then sat up straight. "Oh. Damn, I can't handle another dare so soon. Truth."
That made Uryuu pause and adjust his glasses. He knew what Mizuiro had told him, but that was so juvenile. Surely Ichigo didn't want to be asked about any crushes. There had to be better questions that they wanted to know the answers to. When he looked over at Mizuiro, the playboy gave a thumbs up, as if he read Uryuu's mind. Keigo, beside his companion, was nodding so hard he appeared to be headbanging. Turning his uncertain gaze to the rest, Chad was a brick wall, Tatsuki gestured to get on with it, and Orihime unhelpfully yipped.
"Um. Who... do you… like?" The question was asked less like a question to Ichigo and more like Uryuu was questioning if he was speaking a foreign language correctly.
It didn't help that Ichigo looked at him as if he'd just asked what color his hair was. Ichigo looked at Uryuu the way Uryuu usually looked at Ichigo. A patented 'you can't possibly be this dumb, can you' Ishida Uryuu Special.
"You, idiot," Ichigo said, pairing a condescending tone with the look to make it complete. "You knew that already!"
Silence filled the room. Uryuu gaped like a fish, eyes wide, slowly flushing to the tips of his ears.
The other friends in the room moved their eyes back and forth between the pair, like watching the shortest distance ping-pong game. As Uryuu became redder, Ichigo's expression became less condescending, then less sure, until it had devolved into one of anxious mortification.
"You-you did know that, right?" Ichigo attempted to laugh, pleading for Uryuu to admit this was a prank. "C'mon! I've been so fucking obvious, you have to know!"
"Woof," Orihime said softly. Tatsuki kindly cupped a hand over her mouth. Chad honest-to-god snorted before composing himself.
Uryuu at last had the presence of mind to shake his head 'no' and became defensively angry at the boy who had made his life chaotic since day one. "How? How on earth was I supposed to know you liked me, moron?!"
This. This was more their speed. Ichigo instantly met Uryuu's anger and flung back his own. "Well, why the hell would I stalk you in your boring club then try to follow you home if I didn't like you!?"
Mizuiro flipped his phone back out and started texting mysteriously, smiling widely.
"What!" Uryuu threw his hands up, ready to shake Ichigo like a faulty electronic device. "Because we were fighting! I was your enemy, and you were gathering intel!"
"I wanted more of your attention, dumbass! You had magically appeared the night before to show off for me, then announced you hated me right before disappearing again! That's like pulling my figurative pigtails!"
"Show off??" Uryuu's voice broke.
"Yeah, you dressed up all fancy, headshotted a Hollow, and gave me a seductive look over your shoulder!" Ichigo accused Uryuu, who looked apoplectic at this version of events. "I thought you were flirting and I was down for it!"
"He headshotted a what? Were they in a video game?" Keigo asked the room, completely lost, and starting to realize why Ichigo never seemed interested in waxing poetic about girls' bodies with him.
Uryuu pushed his glasses up, worried he was losing his mind. "That is not what happened, but even so, that makes nothing of your feelings obvious! Immediately after you followed me, we fought!"
"Well, yeah, you were a grade-A asshole, but I still tried my hardest to get you to like me! I mean, you touched my sword and helped release all my energy, so I thought we had a special moment!"
"I'm sorry?" Mizuiro asked, very interested in what he'd been left to assume that moment was.
Keigo jumped up, less interested in hearing the details. "Wow, look at the time! I think we all have homework to do! You know, at your own homes!"
Unfortunately, his tactic to disperse them didn't work. Tatsuki started yelling at him for being homophobic, and he hysterically defended himself, while Ichigo and Uryuu kept arguing as if nobody else were in the room besides themselves.
"I watched you all damn day when you came in hurt because of me! I know you felt that! Didn't I invite you to lunch with us?" Ichigo was looking a little pained. He had a manic look in his eye. Uryuu was not sympathetic to it.
"Taking pity on someone is not liking them, Kurosaki! Lunch with all of your friends during school is not the same as asking me out on a date!"
"PITY?! How is sitting there, wanting to kiss all over your injured arms and hands, pity?"
"THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU JUST SAID!" The upset flush on Uryuu's face spread to his neck, distracting Ichigo for a minute.
Off to the side, Mizuiro's thumbs flew over his keypad, humming. Tatsuki was still trying to needlessly defend her friend's courting methods to a cowering Keigo, while Orihime and Chad uncomfortably exchanged glances.
Needing to take one last shot at convincing Uryuu he was a master of flirtation and it was Uryuu who was the weird one, Ichigo strained out, "What about after we rescued Rukia and I told you we should do it again sometime? I was begging you to date me in front of everyone! And you hit me back with the pigtail pull again!" He knew he was sounding desperate. To him, this was all just as good as buying flowers and confessing, which was cute, but extremely delusional to the rest of the population.
At his wit's end, Uryuu was over this conversation. "Do we even speak the same language? You're literally insane, aren't you? I'm talking to a crazy person. Despite everything you think has happened, Kurosaki, in no uncertain terms, did you ever come out and say 'I like you'! That is the crux of this conversation! It's how a normal person lets you know, you buffoon!"
"Fine! Fine, I like you, Ishida!" Ichigo shouted for all of Keigo's neighbors to hear. "I like your shitty attitude and your cool powers and your sewing and your fucking gorgeous eyes and your legs and the way you bite your lip when you're thinking and the way you say my name!"
"Oh, we gotta go." Tatsuki stopped bullying Keigo to direct the entire room. She hauled a gaping Orihime and Chad up, pushing them towards the front door.
"I told you!" Keigo cried. He had known where this argument was going the instant Ichigo answered the game's question. Nobody credited him with how good he was at reading a room. Mizuiro patted his shoulder and walked out after the others, motioning to Ichigo and Uryuu and mouthing 'text me' to poor Keigo, stuck behind.
Uryuu was stunned into silence once again by the confession. He really shouldn't have been; that's what the whole argument had been about. The two stared at each other, one expectantly and the other a little overwhelmed.
But Uryuu had no reason to keep pretending he didn't also think Ichigo was annoyingly handsome, with admirable skills and heart. His getting upset about all this, when Ichigo liking him was the stuff of countless knitting daydreams, made him wonder if maybe he was the crazy one. He'd told Ichigo he deserved a proper confession and was surprisingly given one. Uryuu might as well push for the full experience.
"Good! Now you're supposed to kiss me."
It only took Ichigo a brief moment to process those words and get over the shock, but then he was crawling forward to do just that. His hands moved to cradle Uryuu's face and he leaned in, pausing a breath to make sure, before pressing their lips together. It was short and a little awkward with their noses bumping, but both thought it was the most thrilling thing they'd done so far in their young, dangerous lives. Neither one heard Keigo groaning into a pillow somewhere at the edge of the room.
When they parted, Ichigo dreamily stared at Uryuu. Something in his personality couldn't prevent him from ball-busting, though. With a smirk, he asked, "Does this mean you like me too? I think you have to say it, in no uncertain terms."
"Don't ruin it," Uryuu snapped and kissed him again, hands fisting the collar of Ichigo's school uniform. They angled their heads this time, their chaste kiss pressing harder for a longer duration.
"ICHIGOOOOO! CAN YOU PLEASE NOT DO THIS IN FRONT OF ME?" Keigo was on the verge of getting an ulcer.
Ichigo suddenly remembered other people existed in the world, and he pulled back from Uryuu—oh, his lips were a little wet and red now, that's going on the list of things Ichigo likes about him—noticing everyone but Keigo had left. He shot an apologetic look at his poor friend. As much as he understood how uncomfortable this was for the loud boy, he didn't want it to end just yet, and Keigo had a house without parents for a while more. He and Ishida could just go to another room. That gave him an idea.
He looked back into Uryuu's eyes, giddy, "Wanna play Seven Minutes In Heaven?"
Keigo put his foot down. "This is my house, Ichigo! I haven't even gotten any action in it yet! Please, be my frieeeend!"
The adolescent hormones raging inside Ichigo were going to drive him to kill Keigo in a second, friend or not.
"Kurosaki," Uryuu said with extra emphasis, making Ichigo's mouth go dry, "I don't recall if I ever told you that I live all alone in an apartment, not far from here." This was stated extremely casually, of course.
"Thanks, bye, Keigo!" Ichigo grabbed Uryuu's hand and raced them out the door. Keigo tearfully decided not to have any more hangouts at his house after that.