Lucy smirked. "Sorry but my cats wouldn't have like the new intruder. Which reminds me," she reached behind the door and pulled out a stack of mail, "here's her weekly mail."
"Thanks," Ichigo groaned. Since Angel couldn't list that they were living together, Lucy allowed Angel to use her address as her new home address, even though they don't even live together. It was only to cover up the truth from their school.
"I can't wait to see how this is going to turn out," Mark grinned.
Ichigo sighed when realized what this might entail. If Mark knew about this 'juicy' detail then he just might… He quickly glared at the older man and sneered, "You better not tell anyone or else I'll—"
"Ah, kill me?" Mark interrupted with an amused look. "You should know by now that your threats don't work on me anymore. I've been hearing them ever since you were little and it never scared me."
"True," Ichigo smirked, "But I wasn't going to say that."
Mark's amusement slowly disappeared. He couldn't be talking about…
"I was planning on taking your precious hat and give it to Zander's stupid bird so it can make a nest out of it and shit into it—"
"NNNOOOOOOO!" Mark cried, suddenly kneeling before Ichigo and pulling on his arm, begging for mercy, "I promise I won't tell a single soul, Walker-kun!"
Lucy rolled her eyes. "You really know how to go straight for the 'balls.'"
Ichigo nodded. "Now that we got that straight—" he extended his hand, "—give me the keys to the car."
"Here," Mark quickly handed it over, now knowing the great hold Ichigo had over his head, literally.
Ichigo quickly took the keys. "Thanks. I'll return it to you in a few weeks." He quickly made his way to the door.
But just as his hand reached it, Lucy suddenly called out to him. "Good luck getting laid!"
Ichigo turned back abruptly, his face completely red. "W-wh-what the fuck?!"
Lucy grinned while patting  Mark on the head, who was still crying. "You heard me. I know where you're planning on going with your little student. It might be frowned upon but I think it's kind of kinky."
Mark suddenly jumped to his feet, feeling all better. "Not to mention it's one of our favorite kinds of role-play in the bedroom."
"Eugh! You need to keep that kind of stuff to yourself!" Ichigo yelled, the red extending down to his neck.
Lucy smirked. "Fine we will but that doesn't mean we weren't serious about you getting laid."
"You dumbass, that's got nothing to do with why Angel's going with me!" Ichigo snapped at them.
"Ah, so you admit you're going with her!" Mark smirked.
"I—you—FUCK YOU!" Ichigo yelled back before quickly exiting the store.
Mark grinned as he looked over at Lucy. "I wonder if he realizes we were actually being serious for once."
Lucy chuckled, "He's too oblivious about his feelings. And it'll be awhile before he can convince her to join him in bed."
Mark nodded, fanning himself despite the air conditioner still working behind him. "I really should update Walker-san about this new development. I'm sure he would like to know that his son is going to turn into a man soon."
"But you promised never to tell anyone about him and Bushū living together," Lucy smirked, "Or did you already forget about his threat to destroy your precious hat."
Mark grinned widely. "True…but you made no such promise, now did you my dear?"
Lucy grinned back. "That's exactly what I was thinking."
Ichigo sighed as he turned the corner down the street and into the freeway. The day started out great but Mark and Lucy just had to open their big mouths to make things difficult for him.
"You okay?"
Ichigo glanced to the side before quickly looking back at the road before him. "Ah, don't worry about it."
Angel, who was seated in the passenger seat, raised an eyebrow. "But you've been sighing the entire time since you got this car from Mark. Did he do something stupid again?"
"You could say that," Ichigo nodded as he pressed on the accelerator a bit more.
Angel grinned. "Well, you know he's just an old, perverted shopkeeper so just ignore him."
Meanwhile…
Somewhere in the store, Mark let out a loud sneeze.
Ichigo smirked. "Yeah, you're right."
Meanwhile…part II
Another sneeze escaped him, this time earning a weird stare from Lucy. He wiped his runny nose and shrugged his shoulders. "Allergies?"
But the woman shook her head. "More like someone talking shit about you…like always."
"Anyways, tell me what this place is like," Angel asked, leaning comfortable against her seat.
Ichigo nodded but kept his eye in front of him the entire time. "Like I said, it's a private beach that my mother inherited from her grandparents. And apparently it passed down to me once I was old enough. It's less than half a mile away from the public beach and the main town. The house is only one floor, but it's spacious with a patio outside and three bedrooms: one that used to be for my parents, one for me and one for my two sisters to use together. You'll be using theirs."
Angel looked outside the window as she tried to imagine this place. "Did you and your family visit this place often?"
"Used to," Ichigo replied, a small frown appearing on his face, "Every summer we went over there but when my mom died that tradition kind of died with her."
"Oh, I'm sorry," she whispered.
Ichigo shook his head. "Nah, don't worry too much about it. My dad used to take my sisters there after that incident, but not as often as we used to. And I'm pretty much the only one who doesn't go there anymore, even though I own the place now."
Angel nodded. "I see. Well, I can understand why you wouldn't want to go there especially with all the memories."
"Good to know there's someone who can see from my point of view," Ichigo smirked.
"But why did you decide to suddenly go now?"
Ichigo shrugged. "I just wanted to get some fresh air and I thought it be best at the beach." He looked over at Angel to see her trying to cover her yawn with her hand. "Why don't you close your eyes for a bit? We still have more than an hour and a half left before we reach there."
"No, I'm fine," she yawned again.
Ichigo smirked. "You sure don't look 'fine' to me."
"Shut up," she scowled.
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Stubborn as ever," he mumbled.
Angel tried to stifle each of her yawns as she talked with Ichigo about school, apartment rent, how horrible of a driver Ichigo was, how incredibly short she was (of course by this time they were more arguing and yelling then talking), and the possibility of them living together getting revealed.
"I told you not to worry too much about that," Ichigo groaned, "We won't get caught."
"But what if we do?" Angel frowned. "My friends have been bugging me nonstop about visiting my new place and I'm running out of excuses."
"I thought that one where your roommate didn't like unwanted visitors was a pretty good one. Lucy is really like that."
Angel sighed. "But they're not buying it now. They just want me to invite them when she's not there."
Ichigo frowned. "Those friends of yours are pretty persistent."
"Yeah, and extremely overprotective of me," Angel added.
"That's not a bad thing," Ichigo smirked at her.
Angel looked at him and smiled. "No, I guess not. But it is when they're trying to come over to our place."