Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Bleach Ficlets: Dare To Live ❯ 32 A Suspicious Mind ( Chapter 32 )

Authors Note: I don't own Bleach and make no claims on it. If I did, there'd be a whole hell of a lot of kinky shit going down.

 

32A Suspicious Mind

 

There were some strange things going on in our house. I wasn't sure what it all meant, but there was definitely something happening and nobody was talking about it. Lately, I hated having to go into Ichi-nii's room. I got this creepy feeling like I was being watched when I picked up the laundry or the stray plates and glasses that seemed to multiply in his room. There was never anything there that I could see, but I wasn't anywhere near as good at seeing ghosts as Ichi-nii or Karin. I could've asked Ichi-nii about it but he'd been acting really weird lately. There was also the noises and voices I could sometimes hear coming from his room.

 

Karin told me it was my imagination but I knew that wasn't it when the pictures on the wall between our rooms started bouncing along with soft thumps and muffled groans. I'd felt the heat of my blush in my cheeks for what seemed like forever that night. I had a pretty good idea of what those thumps and groans meant. I wasn't a baby, but I found it a little uncomfortable to think about Ichi-nii doing things like that. A little sister didn't need to know when her big brother finally surrendered to temptation and took a girl to bed. I thought that he should've done something like that when the rest of us weren't home to avoid any embarrassing noises for all of us. I'd barely been able to look at Ichi-nii the next morning without blushing bright red. I think Karin might have said something to him because after that kind of loud incident, the pictures didn't bounce against the wall anymore. Or at least they didn't when I was in the room.

 

Karin was acting a little strange, too. She'd asked me if I every found anything weird when I went to gather the laundry from Ichi-nii's room. When I asked her what she meant by weird, she'd been vague and hadn't really answered me. I still had no idea what she'd been asking me about. I caught her going into Ichi-nii's room a few times, too, when I knew he wasn't home. She said she was looking for a CD that Ichi-nii borrowed from her, but they didn't even like the same kind of music, so why would Ichi-nii borrow one of her CD's? I know Karin wasn't lying to hurt me. I'm sure she thought she was protecting me from… something.

 

Sometimes I caught Karin staring off in the direction of Ichi-nii's room. She always looked like she was concentrating really hard then and would frown as if she couldn't solve a really tough puzzle. I had no idea what she was doing but sometimes, I'd get this feeling like something rubbing over my skin in a nice kind of way when Karin looked really intensely towards Ichi-nii's room. I figured that whatever was going on in Ichi-nii's room was what was making Karin look so solemn.

 

Karin wasn't the only one who'd get a funny look on their face when they looked in the direction of Ichi-nii's room. Dad sometimes looked like that, too. His expression would go all serious and it was almost like he turned into a completely different person right before my eyes. It was a little scary but it usually only lasted a few seconds. I don't think Karin ever noticed it. I'm sure she would've said something to me or Dad if she had.

 

Things were going on in Dad's room, too. I was changing the sheets one day and found some longish, pale blonde hairs on one of the pillow cases and a cuff link in the shape of a cross on the floor, covered by the blanket that had been pushed off the bed. Nobody in our family had hair that colour and I was almost positive Dad didn't own a pair of cuff links in the shape of a cross. Actually, I couldn't even remember him ever wearing cuff links, period.

 

I could mostly understand the blonde hair on the pillow. It'd been a long time since Mom died and I didn't expect Dad to never go out with anyone, but the cuff link was a total mystery to me. Maybe I'd made a mistake when I'd picked it up and placed it on his dresser. I hadn't been paying all that much attention and it might have been an earring or something that his lady friend had lost. Or it might have been something his lady friend gave him. When I went back into his room later in the day, the earring or cuff link or whatever it was, was gone. Dad never mentioned it and I didn't want to bring up the subject of him bringing a lady friend home or any gifts she might have given him.

 

There were some things you never wanted to discuss with your parents and who they might be having over in their bedroom was one of them.

 

I was on my way to drop off some clean sheets to Ichi-nii's room and almost walked into Dad standing outside Ichi-nii's door. I don't think he was waiting for Ichi-nii to answer the door. That strange expression that turned him into another person was on Dad's face again as he stared intently at the door. It vanished when he turned his head and saw me standing there with my armload of clean sheets.

 

“Ichigo is… busy right now, Yuzu. Why don't you try bringing him the clean sheets later?” Dad said softly as he threw an arm over my shoulder and steered me away from Ichi-nii's door.

 

I sent a glance back at Ichi-nii's door. I couldn't hear anything. Maybe Ichi-nii was studying. Even if he was, he wouldn't mind if I knocked and dropped off his laundry. I'd done it before and he never minded. I was about to tell Dad that Ichi-nii wouldn't be bothered if I knocked and gave him his sheets when I looked at Dad's face. The `other person' expression was back on his face. I looked down at the laundry I was carrying and didn't say anything. Sooner or later I was going to have to bring up all the strange things that were going on with my family. I didn't like the feeling of secrets that was starting to creep into my house. We were a family and we should be able to confide in each other. That's what being a family was all about, wasn't it?