Ichigo tried to slow his heart, his breath. He willed the muscles in his body to relax, to not contract, tremble at the pace he had involuntarily set as he thrust his whole body into Rukia. He was young, it was his first time. He knew that he wouldn't last much longer, and the thought embarrassed him. He had never felt like this in his life. So alive, completely aware of his body, his surroundings, and the feel of Rukia's hair on his his bare chest. Each movement was an ebb, each sound a flow, and the motion of their love making beat against the sands of his consciousness--a different sort of ocean.
But he couldn't make this divine sensation at sea last much longer, he let go and let himself pour utterly out.
And then her lips were on his eyes, paying special attention to the details of his eye brows. Her voice was humming in his ears, lulling him to sleep--and he no longer felt ashamed.
"You've always been in a hurry." She whispered tiredly into his neck. He groaned, unable to move. She had sucked all the energy out of him.
"Next time, I'll let you have your way." His lips felt like rubber.
"Mmm..." apparently she also was too sated to speak. Her fingers merely danced across his skin. Rukia found it shocking to believe not not long ago, she had sat on the floor of the Kuchiki library, reading about her sister...and now she was here, naked in Ichigo's bed and all the frustration she had been feeling for over a year had rushed out of her like a water, inundated the room with sweat and sex.
She loved him, but didn't understand her love. She had never felt so strongly about a person in all her many years. She had never been so undone--and as she let her mind wander, she thought that maybe this was how it had been for Byakuya Nii-sama...as he looked down at poor, helpless Hisana and found his soul uncoiling out of the tight spring...flattening out, opening up, and letting her heart be trampled by love for another.
She closed her eyes.
She thought she smelled cherry blossoms in the air.
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Renji had come all this way, stopped by Urahara's shouten to procure a gigai, and even bought several bentou boxes from the local combini. All in effort to find Rukia and Ichigo, the two he knew he could count on to help him discover the whereabouts of his captain. As of yet, Yamamoto-taichou did not think it necessary to raise any kind of alarm, but Renju knew there was something more to this than met the eye. Rukia would believe him.
But the bento boxes soon were forgotten, as well as thoughts of Byakuya Kuchiki when Renji lept deftly up to the window sill of Ichigo's bedroom, his heart stopped and his scarlet eyes quivered in their sockets.
"Rukia."
Byakuya could not move. He was bolted down as if nailed to the tatami-matted floor. She was angry, livid...this test was the most severe of all. His fingers were bleeding, his rietsu was pulsing with the pain of captivity.
Senbonzakura was holding him hostage.