The Essential Support

by The Dessa

Orihime is getting married but is panicked about finally revealing all her body's imperfections... so Matsumoto helps out a little. A bra related fic mainly for girls, but boys welcome to read if you're brave enough. Implied Ichihime.

Dessa's Note: Well, this is a birthday present to me and a Christmas present to the world. I'd like to think this oneshot is informative. It's information I gathered only recently and I think it's very important for young ladies (teens primarily) to know this stuff, I was always too embarrassed to by my own bras when I was growing and my mum had to buy my first one for me. I now think back to that day 9 years ago and think it was actually important for me to learn what my mother knew of the new world of womanhood I would be entering. So this oneshot is for all the girls just utterly confused and anxious about growing up ^_^

Disclaimer: applied.

The Essential Support

Rangiku Matsumoto had been shopping for the best part of four hours and still hadn't found the correct pair of shoes that would match the expensive but indispensible dress she had bought. Despite the wedding being six months away the call to shop had never been stronger inclined in her so it was absolutely imperative she bought the perfect pair of heels. With an impressive howl that shook the window panes of the shoe store did she gave up on the shoes entirely after she had scratched the back of her heel. Rangiku then walked out into the street, huffing in indignation at her rather large feet, but as she just decided to sit at a cafe and relieve her stress through a nice cup of chrysanthemum tea did she notice a timid auburn haired young woman blushing profusely in a lingerie shop just on the opposite pavement to where she was walking. Rangiku's evil grin could have been picked up on anyone's radar but Orihime Inoue was too distracted to have sensed the danger.

Orihime was flushed, confused and completely overwhelmed. She had decided to spend her Saturday doing some light shopping for some essentials, but some unknown force of extreme strength had guided her feet into a lingerie shop. Orihime rarely visited such mortifying places; this was due to a combination of various reasons, one of which was because she would rather be seen dead than caught buying an item of clothing directly related to certain anatomy, hers of which was already of considerable size. Another reason was because she was self conscious of the husbands and men standing outside the shop who were waiting for their wives and partners to finish with their purchases, surely they would know her intentions, and Orihime, again, would rather be seen dead than have other's know that she wanted to buy such an item. The main reason however, was not blamed on her embarrassment, but due to her very limited knowledge of bras and brassieres. She had not had a mother's guidance during her years of growth; that would pick out her first bra, teach her how to decipher the mind puzzling nomenclature or even how to wear one.

Orihime did not even notice when she started to need a bra, it had just occurred to her one day that it was painful to run down the stairs, she had discussed this with Tatsuki when she was nearly fourteen, her best friend recommended seeing the doctor, after all, chest pains was a serious thing in this day and age. Her doctor just smiled and told her that maybe she should invest some time and money in buying a bra as it would make moving around more comfortable. Orihime took the advice and entered a lingerie shop for the first time, she had decided to not invite Tatsuki along with her, her friend was not really the girly type to be comfortable discussing such topics as Orihime had discovered when informing her of the result of her doctor's appointment. Upon entering the shop she had been so astonished and mortified at some of the items on display, that she strove to find the simplest one that appealed to her, eventually she found a plain white cotton soft bra with a picture of Pingu on the cup's side, she bought it immediately and took it home with her.

At home she tried gruellingly to fathom how to wear her embarrassing purchase, she spent a tiring fifteen minutes stretching her arms behind her back as far as they would go to fasten the clasps but to no avail, they simply would not fasten, eventually she gave up, took off the bra, clasped it with her hands in front of her angry eyes and wore the bra as though it were a jumper (1). A few months later she discovered that she could clasp her Pingu bra at the front and just twist the bra until the clasp was rightfully flushed against her back. Eventually when her arms grew slightly longer she braved the traditional method of bra wearing and managed to train herself into fastening the clasps at the back.

That was the story of Orihime's first bra, one of the first modern rites of passage for passing into womanhood. It had been achieved with no supervision and within a matter of miniscule minutes. As the months went by, she realised that rather than giving her comfort, the bra caused her increasing irritation and daily back pain that she would only be made thoroughly aware of when she'd lie down to sleep. She then braved the lingerie store again and bought a simple underwire bra, having judged by the sparse information on the packaging that it would lighten the load from her shoulders but Orihime fingered the hidden metal wire with anxiety. It was immensely more uncomfortable, but it kept her breasts in line and for a while she was happy.

Now, at 22, the prospect of having to reveal her body with all its secrets and imperfections to her soon to be husband was building a pressure cooker of panic inside her chest. She eyed the provocative bras on display with a worried frown, what would Ichigo think of her? Would he like it or think she was lewd for choosing such an atrocious thing?

But what about when he saw her completely?

Orihime shook her head, knowing that any further thought would just break her already frazzled nerves.

'Hello gorgeous' said a sly voice from directly behind her ear; Orihime must have jumped a foot into the air before she tentatively turned around with wide humiliated eyes to observe a gleefully looking Rangiku.

'Rangiku san! What a pleasant surprise!' she said shakily, while noting that there was really nothing pleasant about it.

'Oh don't give me that chit chat, what are you doing here in this particular store, hmm?'

'Umm, well that is.. erm..'

'Wow Orihime… I never thought you were the type for that section of the shop'

'I-I'm not! I was just.. err...'

'Oh don't be shy Orihime! I'm just surprised you got yourself in here at all'

'It wasn't me! It was my feet!'

'I'm sure it was.'

'Believe me! I would never voluntarily come to a shop like this...'

'But you must have one day? How else did you buy your bras?'

'Well.. yes but that was a long time ago-'

'And let me guess... you were thinking of what a certain orange haired fiancé of yours might like for a special private time?' Rangiku knew she was right, she knew almost immediately because Orihime was no longer whispering denials. Orihime was now pursing her lips together and blinking furiously; as though she was about to cry.

'Orihime chan… are you okay?' It was her undoing. Without any warning, Orihime cried out her fears and anxiety through furious tears and kneeled down on the floor while she loudly confessed how worried she was of Ichigo seeing how truly ugly her body was. Rangiku was very startled but allowed Orihime to vent out her panic in the crowded shop. She then moved to her and gave the younger woman a sisterly hug while lightly stroking her back, much like an eight year old would to a six year old that just got teased in the school playground.

'Come on Orihime, I can understand you being nervous, but no need to be so nervous.'

'But- but'

'Let's go to a cafe and talk this over some tea, okay?'

Orihime lifted her red face with puffed up eyes and nodded, 'Can I have hot chocolate?'

As Rangiku ordered some chrysanthemum tea, Orihime had calmed considerably.

'Now, would you like to tell me what your little breakdown was about?' began Rangiku, thinking it better to get the grievances out of the way.

'Well... it's really embarrassing Rangiku san, I've never really told anyone, not even Tatsuki chan.'

'It's okay, I won't laugh' but Orihime was doubtful and the impression appeared so on her face because Rangiku further stressed to her companion that she could sometimes be sensitive.

'Well... it's about...' Orihime's voice was now so low, Rangiku had to lean across the table to hear 'm-my ch-chest.'

'Your chest?' said Rangiku within a large hearing range.

'Rangiku san!' whispered Orihime in embarrassment, looking around the other tables to see if anyone heard.

'Okay… well where on your chest?' resumed Rangiku in an acceptable whisper.

'Around... my b-breasts and shoulders,'

'What about them?'

'I have these... dark lines… under my arm pits, under my breasts and across my back.' She paused for Rangiku's reaction, but she just encouraged her to continue 'and my shoulders are red, the skin peels and feel's really raw, it's sort of dented and they look like notches now... honestly Rangiku san, I-I look really awful underneath my clothes and I'm really dreading the wedding night.'

Rangiku just stared at her thoughtfully for a few seconds before she leaned forward to hold Orihime's hand in a comforting gesture, 'Orihime chan, you're not ugly, you've just not been wearing the right bra. All we have to do is get you fitted properly and presto! Problem solved!'

'The right bra? That's what's been causing it?' questioned Orihime in wide eyed astonishment.

'Yup, not what you were expecting?'

'I thought I had a contagious skin eating virus!'

Her friend laughed loudly 'Thank god it isn't, or the wedding night would be a bitch.'

Orihime didn't seem to understand and tilted her head in perplexity 'eh?'

Rangiku arched her brow but released it shortly afterwards and chose to change the subject.

'Orihime chan, do you, by any chance sleep with your bra on?'

The wide eyed lady just remained perplexed 'Am I not supposed to?' she asked shakily, fidgeting with her fingers.

'No, you're not. The point of a bra is to give your two ladies support. When your lying down they don't need it… don't you find it uncomfortable?'

Orihime nodded her head vigorously, 'Very, but I thought it would help them stay in one place and keep my shape…'

'That's just some myth, don't listen to it. But you do need a proper bra, or they'll sag.'

Surprising Rangiku, Orihime huffed in agitation and frowned 'Why do I have so many problems? I mean... why do I need to wear one in the first place? Women didn't have them in the stone age, so why do we need them now? Oh I wish had smaller breasts.' Orihime ended her speech by staring daggers at her cup of hot chocolate, almost with the intent to break it with her mine of frustration.

Rangiku was sympathetic 'Don't be upset Orihime, loads of women have bra lines and problems with their breasts, whether it's not being able to run comfortably anymore, to not having any cleavage. A girl with small breasts want them bigger and a girl with big breasts want them smaller (2) and no girl exists on that all important middle line. And yes, underwire bras didn't exists in the Stone age but clothing to support breasts have been in existence since ancient India and Greece!'

Orihime's eyes widened in interest, 'Really?' she breathed in awe.

'Yup, but some women don't wear bras. Some celebrities are known for that, and feminists too.'

'Why don't they?'

'I'm not sure, but I guess some women think they're some forced modern necessity and refuse to bend to socially unspoken rules. Feminists on the other hand believe that bras have made women's breasts more the subject of sexual appeal than an actual maternal organ, and so bras makes women more sex objects than anything else. But I disagree, all of a woman's body is sexually appealing, it's just part of natural attraction, you don't really need a bra to make you a sex object, it's how you dress that does that. And anyway, it's considered kind of indecent to not wear a bra, you wouldn't want them flying everywhere at any movement, they could knock your eye out! And it would make them really obvious to passers by.'

Orihime's face smiled in newly replenished awe, 'Wow Rangiku san! You have opinions!'

The elder lady frowned, 'Of course I have opinions! Did you think I had a head full of cobwebs?'

Orihime was flustered and immediately flew her arms about like a windmill with a mind of its own 'No, no, no! Of course not Rangiku san! I just never hear your opinions so I assumed you didn't have any!'

Rangiku was about to retort but thought better of it and steered back to their original discussion with a sigh. 'It doesn't matter, we'll just buy you a new bra, didn't your mother teach you how to get one that fits properly?'

Orihime cast her eyes to stare at her lap 'No… no she didn't'

Rangiku noticed she had touched a raw nerve and wisely decided to change the subject 'Well, I'll be doing that for you, better late than never, and I'll help you out picking pretty underwear for your married life'

But Orihime was not amused, 'Oh Rangiku san, why do I need to? Can't my breasts support themselves?'

'Well, breasts do have a ligament called 'Cooper's ligament' which helps with shape and support and I'd say yes to someone considerably smaller than you if they didn't want to wear a bra, but the forces of gravity can do a lot of sagging to big breasts that aren't supported. So no, you have to wear a bra. Besides, don't you feel the skin at you collar bone stretch when you don't wear one? I don't know about you, but I prefer not to feel that stretch.'

Orihime dropped her head to the table in dire bleakness 'I wish I had smaller breasts.'

'I doubt your fiancé would. But never mind Orihime,' she said while patting the young woman's hands, 'we'll get you fitted up when we leave and you'll be a brand new woman.'

'What about the bra lines?'

'Well, I can't guarantee that those lines will disappear before the wedding, but they will in time if you wear the right bra with proper support. Cocoa butter helps too, you should also try exfoliating the skin and remember to keep it moisturised. Your skin just needs some TLC. Oh, and never go to sleep with a bra on!' Orihime nodded her head in concurrence to Rangiku's severe finger point but her eyes soon watered and she proceeded to thank her friend exponentially with all the gratitude she could pour.

Orihime stood in the changing room in her jeans and bra waiting in anxiety for her friend to knock on the door to signal her return. They had left the café half an hour ago and Rangiku had persuaded her young friend to enter a Lingerie shop of absolute certain questionability but was finally persuaded when informed of it's speciality with large breasted women. Rangiku had then whizzed her over to the fitting rooms and instructed her to remove her blouse while she left to find bras that might suit her.

It was with a slightly tremulous jolt that Orihime became aware of the playful knocking on her door.

'Ra-Rangiku san? Is that you?'

'Yup it's me! And I've been knocking for about five hours now. You better open the door soon or I might be tempted to read out your suspected bra size quite loudly'

Orihime ran to open the door but kept her body out of sight from her friend's view. But Rangiku wouldn't have been able to see her anyway, due to the teetering pile of the shop's bras that she proceeded to dump on a small chair in the corner of the very square like room. She then gave Orihime a critical look while walking around her. Orihime just stood stiff and still.

'Tut tut. The back band is riding up a lot,' said Rangiku formidably.

'Is that bad?'

'Yup, it means the band size is too big, and you've tightened the shoulder straps too much to compensate for that, which is why you've got such awful red shoulder marks. You've ended up putting all the weight on you shoulders not your spine. Do you get any back pain? What size is this thing anyway?' asked Rangiku with efficiency of breath but liberal amounts of disapproval. Despite her formidable disappointment Rangiku surveyed Orihime's red notched shoulders with empathy, having known what it was like to have peeling raw skin.

'Umm… yes I do have back pain and… its umm… 34E' stuttered Orihime while averting her eyes to the floor, uncomfortable under her friend's critical gaze.

'Well, I think you're a 32 or 30, and yup, the front band is falling down. You see Orihime, this middle bit between the cups needs to be flat up against the breast bone, that means the cup size is too small, and the fact that the cups are over-spilling is another sign of a bad bra.' Orihime remained quiet, not knowing what to say. 'Well, I want you to change into… this bra. Tell me when you're finished.' (3) And in a flurry, Rangiku left her alone. Once she changed into the contraption she spoke timidly at the door, saying that she was finished and feeling foolish for speaking to a door. She then opened it timidly to peek out and see where her friend went. Rangiku noticed the protruding head and rushed back to her friend's side after roaming her shopper-friendly eyes around the store.

'Nice! Very nice! This fits you so much better!' squealed Rangiku delightedly. She then caused Orihime a shock by suddenly sliding her thumb directly underneath and along the underwired cups.

'Rangiku san!' cried Orihime shying away from her friend and crossing her arms across her chest.

'Don't worry Orihime, I'm just checking the adjustments. A bra should be loose enough to let a finger squeeze through but not tight enough to not let a finger through at all.'

'Oh… but Rangiku san, the material on the cups... they're wrinkling'

'That's okay, you just haven't scooped the breasts up.'

'S-scoop? H-how do I do that?' asked Orihime in atone closer to fright than anything else.

'Well, you just put a hand into the cup and bring the breast up a bit so that it's sitting on the wires without touching them.'

Orihime did as she was instructed and found that true to her friend's word, the wrinkling at the top of the cup had smoothed itself out.

'Yay! It fits! Can we go now?' pleaded Orihime hopefully, Rangiku arched an eyebrow, but just then Orihime had read the bra's label '30 G?' Shocked eyes sharply flicked to her friend 'I'm a G? that's 2 sizes bigger! Is that even possible?'

'Yes it's possible, about 80 percent are not wearing the right sized bra and most of them are wearing bras two sizes too small. But it's still not a true fit, see, you still have some wrinkling on the left side.' Orihime looked more carefully at herself in the mirror and realised that what her friend said was true.

'But why is it wrinkling? I thought the scooping thing would fix that.'

'Well, it's supposed to, but it looks like one of the breasts is bigger than the other.'

'What?' exclaimed Orihime in a squeaky whisper, so appalled she could barely speak.

'Don't look all wide eyed horror at me. It's perfectly normal; in fact, hardly any women have identical breasts. And yours aren't bad at all! You could hardly guess that they are different.'

'But you found out!' opposed Orihime looking at herself anxiously in the mirror by all possible angles, 'What if… what if others do too?' and by "others" Rangiku could easily decipher whom she really meant.

'I'm sure none of this year's husbands-to-be could notice. Besides, men hardly pay attention to a woman's small details. I once cut my hair almost to my scalp for a dare and Taitchou just told me to get him a cup of tea!'

Orihime just looked hopelessly at her reflection, 'That's hardly the same situation as this Rangiku san.'

'It's alright' said her friend while she squeezed Orihime's shoulders in a comforting way that ended up just making her wince. 'The only problem here is the wrinkling and we can sort that out just fine by using different styled bras,' she demonstrated her point by holding up different bras from the tottering pile up to Orihime's chest. The first of which was a plain white bra, with a wide chest band and cups of a thick material. 'Now the first thing you need to know is that underwired bras are essential for support and breast health, most bras have underwires and bras without underwires are pointless unless you've just hit puberty and want to train yourself up a bit. Underwires also come in useful if you get shot at, and you know what they say! Safety comes first! (4) All the more reason to wear a bra! Now… this bra is called a T-shirt bra, it has raised seams so you can't see its outline when you wear a top or t-shirt on top of it. It gives good support and is usually for daily wear. That Orihime-chan is necessity number 1.' Orihime nodded her head looking as dumb founded as a child is seeing a rollercoaster for the first time.

'This one' Rangiku held up a yellow lacy bra with a thin connection between the cups 'Is the ever impressive Push-up bra, like the name says, it pushes the breasts up to enhance the ever important cleavage, it does this by using padding…' Rangiku inverted the bra to show the now astounded Orihime a foam like pad that slit into a pocket inside the cup 'the padding can be positioned either on the outward sides of the cup to push the girls together, or on the bottom centre of the cup to lift up the breasts. Padding can be made of foam, rubber or liquid gel, unless you get a water bra which have pockets of water in them (5), but those are usually for small breasted ladies wanting to look a bit more… fuller. I don't really wear padded bras much so I can't tell you which is the most comfortable, but I think the gel ones would be.' she paused in her ramblings to take a glance at Orihime, her face displayed a strange mixture of intrigue, resolution and embarrassment. Rangiku decided that the unusual lack of interruptions suited her admirably and decided to resume her enjoyable teaching lesson. 'A push up bra is not really needed for someone of your size, but it makes you look nice, not always comfortable, especially in the summer when you sweat down the breast bone, it can make that area of skin greasy… but still useful.' Orihime nodded her head, now putting on her blouse to lessen the feeling of peculiarity and coldness, Rangiku just proceeded to the next bra. 'This one is a Plunge bra and is the most popular type,' and she gave Orihime a wide cheery smile, showing her the garment that had a strange deep dip between the cups 'My favourite! They let you wear low cut tops without revealing the bra, so you don't look erm… distasteful. You can also wear these with deep or plunging necklines, that to me makes this bra necessity number 2!'

'Err… Rangiku san, I-I don't think I need to buy one of those... I'm not really a errr... plunging kind of person.' spoke Orihime timidly, blushing heavily.

'Oh… that's okay' Rangiku looked slight crest fallen, 'No matter, there are still many types of bras to choose from. Now this one,' she held up a pretty bra with thick cups that had shoulder straps which were widely set apart, 'I really like these, this bra is called a balcony or demi-bra, they push the breasts up and the cups are actually half cups so they look like actual balconies.'

'That's cute!' commented Orihime, showing relaxed interest for the first time.

Rangiku smiled, light shining in her eyes 'I know! The half cups solve your problem of the wrinkling material, they also have a sensuality about them that is not too full on and they're not uncomfortable once you get used to it. This particular bra covers quite a bit but other balcony bars vary with displays of cleavage. Definitely a necessity number 3!' Orihime nodded excitedly but was still blushing delicately.

Rangiku then described a few more bras to the somewhat uneducated young woman, she persuaded her to invest into a sports bra that was actually a cup size smaller than the other bras 'they have to be smaller for better support because they don't have underwires, this way you won't embarrass yourself when jogging.' Rangiku also tried to persuade her to buy other scandalous items, ones with awfully small cups, and others with nothing but sheer material (6). 'Think of it as an investment into Ichigo,' Orihime was too shocked for words and reached a blushing point of a near critical level; Rangiku reluctantly interpreted her stutters as a 'no'.

Orihime paid for her purchases feeling like a new woman but was still dressed with a delicate blush, as she reached for her receipt a thought struck her.

'Rangiku san.'

'Yes Orihime chan?'

'How do you know all this bra trivia?'

It was obvious her companion was not expecting such a question, but Rangiku smiled and gave a small giggle. 'One word Orihime: Wikipedia.'

Dessa's Note: Yeah, Wikipedia is AWESOME! They even have a formula for figuring out bra sizes!

Footnotes:

1. I bet all young girls have tried wearing a bra the first time this way! I know I did!

2. While it's possible to go under the knife to make breasts larger, not many people know that it's possible to make them smaller too, for a woman like Orihime she will no doubt have sagging in her 30s and 40s, especially after pregnancy, where breasts enlarge naturally, this will most likely cause a lot of back pain and operations for breast reductions are available for such women. Apparently there are exercises you can do after pregnancy to return breasts to what they normally were but I don't know anything about them. Breasts can also deflate after a pregnancy and sag right down to your belly button, it's not a pretty sight but women go through it for their children, so be respectful to your mums!

3. There is another way of measuring someone's bra size, your get a tape measure and place it at the underside of the breasts and measure the chest length. Then you measure the chest length with the tape measure along the widest part of the breast. You subtract the first measurement from the second and the difference in length tells you your cup size, but I think cups sizes are a bit different between England and America and I have no idea what the system is for the rest of the world so I stuck to my preferred way of measuring bra sizes… by just trying on bras. Different shops have differently manufactured bras, so a woman will probably be one size in one shop and a different size in another shop. It's annoying, but that's why you should ALWAYS try a bra on before buying it.

4. Yup, there have been lots of accounts wear people have been saved from death when a bullet deflected off the underwire of a victim's bra. Useful things in the end right?

5. I wouldn't wear a water bra, what if you get poked by something sharp? Then you have to explain to everyone why you have water pouring from your chest!

6. I have come across items of lingerie that would take A LOT of courage to wear… I feel sorry for the models who have to model them in catalogues, they always look so uncomfortable with their fake set smiles.