A/N: Sorry. Another one I just couldn't get out of my head. Total crack.

Of Reputations and Rumors and Punishment for Good Deeds

It was inevitable. With as much time as she was spending with Ichigo, Ishida, and Chad, alone, people were bound to talk.

"Didn't I tell you to watch out for her? Girls with bodies like that can't resist using them..."

"Who does she think she's kidding? Everybody knows..."

"She could at least try to hide it at school..."

"Slut."

"Whore."

"Floozy."

"I wonder how much she charges..."

"You think they do it all at once...?"

"I bet she'd do me for free..."

All day it had been the same thing. Loud whispers, meant to be overheard. Sharp words, meant to wound. Orihime only made it to lunch before she faked an illness and went home, wondering how she'd ever have the strength to go back again.

She got all the way to her front door before the tears broke through, streaming down her face as she sank down on the stoop and just let go.

She might as well start wearing a scarlet letter on her chest, and she hadn't even done anything! But once tarnished...her good name could never be restored. Even if she and her supposed lovers told the truth a hundred times over, no one would believe it. Not when the rumors were so much more interesting. And expected.

Inoue Orihime, red-headed big-chested air-headed slut, made so much more sense than Inoue Orihime, never-even-been-kissed. No, the truth didn't matter. She was ruined.

Hitsugaya perched on the roof, trying very hard not to make a sound. She hadn't noticed him yet, and he meant to keep it that way.

Of all the times for Matsumoto to be out, shopping or "doing recon" as she called it. She would be able to console the girl. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with an emotional female, and he'd probably make it worse anyway. The best thing he could do was to stay out of it.

Aww, hell. He never could stand to see a girl cry.

"If you're looking for a place to hide," he began, making her jump and scan her surroundings, "no one ever looks up."

"Toushirou-kun!" she exclaimed, finally spotting him. She spun away again, wiping her face. "I was just, uh—"

"Crying?" he supplied.

"No, I—" she broke off, flushing. "Yes. How long have you been there?"

"Hours. I told you, no one ever looks up." He laid back. "There's a great view from up here."

She perked up. "Really?"

"Yeah. Come see."

"I couldn't!" she sighed, biting her lip. "What if I fall?"

He cocked his head at her. "Seriously?"

"Huh? What do you mean? It's high up there, it's normal to be worried about falling! Why, just last night on the news, there was this man who climbed up a telephone pole and almost died falling off!"

He glared harder. "Inoue, I'm not going to let you fall."

"O-oh. Right."

She climbed up, taking his offered hand and settling down a few feet away from him. He liked how she kept a respectful distance, instead of settling down practically in his lap, like Matsumoto would have done.

They sat in silence, sharing the view, while the girl's shoulders gradually stopped shaking.

Hitsugaya didn't have a lot of experience with this. Matsumoto and Hinamori didn't come to him with their problems very often, but when they did, they tended to flop down and blurt everything out within seconds. He'd never had to draw it out before. He considered leaving it alone, but even though she'd stopped crying, the heartbroken look on her face was just as bad.

He sighed. "Sometimes it helps to talk about it."

She kicked her legs in the breeze, watching her toes move back and forth and back and forth. "You'll think it's stupid. It is stupid. And I'm stupid for caring. Everyone's getting ready to fight this war and people might die, and I'm worried because I can't show my face in school any more."

"Why not?"

The tears started running again. "Because I broke the rules. I should've known better, I did know better, but there's just been so much going on, and the rules seemed so petty compared with saving Rukia and then the arrancar and everything. But that's why I'm upset, really, because it's my own fault! People will talk, of course they will talk, but 'good girls don't give them a reason to!'" she parroted like she was repeating something she'd heard a hundred times. "And I guess I'm not a good girl any more."

Hitsugaya didn't reply, he just let her sit there, knowing she'd start up again when she was ready.

She finally looked over at him. "I don't guess the rules are the same where you're from, with Rangiku-san spending so much time with you and everything, but here, good girls aren't supposed to spend much time with boys. At all. And especially not alone." She sniffled. "Some of the girls from school saw me going into Kurosaki-kun's house with Ishida-kun and Sado-kun, and I wasn't alone with them, not really—Kuchiki-san was with us, but she wasn't wearing her gigai and no one else could see her, although, I suppose it wouldn't have mattered. They just would have said the same horrible things about her that they're saying about me, so it's good that they couldn't see her! At least her reputation isn't r-ruined!"

Hitsugaya searched for meaning in her tangents. When he found it, he tried not to blush. "Ah. The same idea exists in Soul Society, but I suppose there's more leeway than there is here. Plenty of male captains have female lieutenants, and one female captain has a male lieutenant. People understand that captains and lieutenants have to work very closely together, but most of them try to be careful about it—they never close the door when it's just the two of them in the room, they try not to touch each other casually or spend time together outside the office."

"But Rangiku-san touches you all of the time!" Inoue burst out, then clapped a hand over her mouth as she turned bright red. "Sorry, that was rude."

He nodded, accepting the apology. "I said 'they.' Matsumoto and I don't worry about it, for a couple reasons. One is that most people automatically assume either that nothing could be going on between us because of the way I look, or that something must be going on between us because of the way she looks, and there's no changing those minds once they're made up, so there's no reason to try. Another is it's just too much work. Matsumoto and I work well together, we're probably more in sync than most captains and lieutenants, and part of that is because we don't waste time worrying about whether the door is open when we're having a strategy meeting. We know nothing is going on, and that's all that matters."

He watched her face fall, knew she was thinking he didn't understand, so he tried again. "Inoue-san, like you said, people will talk. But people will also think what they want, based on how you look, and there's nothing you can do about that. You're beating yourself up now because people were predisposed to think badly of you, and you weren't extra careful to make sure they didn't have an excuse. Well, too bad. What's done is done. The best thing you can do right now is ignore them. If you go around acting guilty because you broke the rules, as you say, people are even more likely to think that you have a real reason to be guilty. You may have broken the rules about appearances, but unless I'm missing something, you haven't broken the ones that really matter. Am I wrong?"

She shook her head.

"Then don't give them another reason to think that you have by hanging your head and avoiding them. Go back to school tomorrow with your head held high, knowing that things aren't what they appear, and that you have more important things to worry about than appearances, anyway. Or something like that." He sighed. "Or ask Matsumoto. She's better at this stuff than I am."

"I think you were doing pretty well, Taichou!" his lieutenant chirped from behind them.

Inoue jumped, but he'd known she was there all along. "Take over for me, anyway," he said, giving Inoue a nod and slipping into the house.

Orihime watched him go, thinking how kind he'd been to sit there and try to make her feel better, when it obviously made him so uncomfortable.

Then she had a good cry with Rangiku, and they bemoaned the fate of large-chested women to be so susceptible to rumors. And backaches. And suffocation.

And the next day, she followed the young captain's advice, walking into school with her head held high, pretending like the rumors didn't exist. It was hard, but she did it, and it worked perfectly fine until she had to stay after school to collect the extra work she'd missed the day before. By the time she was walking home, the grounds had cleared out. It was almost eerie how quiet it was.

She walked faster, aiming for the busy street right around the corner from the school's entrance.

She was steps away when a hand clamped over her mouth and steely arms dragged her backward.

She struggled, but whoever it was had a good hold on her. She bit him, and he dropped her. She got a good scream out before he was on her again, this time holding a knife to her neck.

"Try that again," he taunted, digging the knife in so it left a shallow cut.

She stilled, terrified. Besides the one holding her, there were three more, boys her own age, but not ones she recognized.

The one in the middle grinned. "Well, if it isn't Karakura High's resident whore. How 'bout a freebie, honey, just for us."

And then there were hands all over her, touching, groping, hurting her, laughter ringing in her ears the whole time.

For the first time in her life, Orihime really wanted to die.

Hitsugaya hoped he was overreacting. But something told him Inoue was taking too long at school and he should check on her. He always trusted his instincts.

It was a good thing, because he was close enough to hear her when she screamed.

He was still too late. By the time he got there, she was on the ground, four boys surrounding her, practically lying on top of her. Luckily, for all of their sakes, everyone was still clothed. Hitsugaya didn't know what he would have done if that hadn't been true.

"Get off of her!" he demanded, voice shaking with rage.

"Toushirou-kun!" Inoue cried, struggling to push the boys away.

Her attackers froze, but then they looked up at him and snorted, going back to what they were doing.

"Get out of here, brat!" one spat over his shoulder. "You're too young to see this."

Hitsugaya was confident he could take them, even in his stupid, weak, all-too-limiting gigai. But if he was wrong, the consequences were too great. So he didn't hesitate a second before swallowing his gikongan.

"Oh, look, the chibi fainted!"

They wouldn't have seen it coming anyway, but damn, it was satisfying to take them out with a roundhouse kick to the face while they were busy laughing at his gigai.

Hyourinmaru was pulsing on his back, begging to help, but he couldn't kill humans. As much as these deserved to die.

When he'd knocked them out cold and piled them in a tree, he went back to Inoue, who was curled up on the ground, knees to chest, chin to knees, shuddering.

She wasn't crying this time, but the dazed expression in her eyes was worse. Much worse. She looked so taken aback, in fact, that he had to rethink his clothing assumptions.

"They didn't—" he broke off, unsure how to phrase it.

She snapped out of it then, giving him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "N-no, Toushirou-kun. They didn't get very far. Thank you for saving me."

He reached down a hand to pull her to her feet, but she scrambled back, looking at his hand like it was a snake come to bite her. He stepped back, trying not to feel hurt. He was a guy, wasn't he? It was no wonder she didn't want to touch him, not after what had just happened. It wasn't personal.

Then she surprised him by lunging, tackling him to the ground and burying her face in his chest. He let her, leaning against a tree and just letting her hold onto him. After a few moments, he rested a hand on her head, carding his fingers through her hair.

"I'm sorry, Inoue-san," he murmured, unable to keep silent. "I underestimated the importance of a reputation in your world. And you were hurt because of it."

She shook her head against him. "Please don't say that, Toushirou-kun," she whispered. "Don't feel guilty. I can't handle that burden right now."

"All right."

She met his gaze then. "Do you know what the worst part is?"

"No." He wasn't going to guess either.

"They stole my first kiss." Finally, the tears came, filling her eyes until they glistened. "A girl always remembers her first kiss. It's supposed to be with someone special. I always hoped mine would be with—" she broke off, hiding her face again.

Kurosaki, his mind supplied.

"But now, I'll always look back a-and r-remember th-this!"

His heart broke for her. "This doesn't count," he snapped, too upset to guard his tone. "What matters is your first kiss freely given, not one that's stolen from you."

"O-oh." She paused for a moment. "Toushirou-kun, have you ever kissed anyone?"

"No." As much as he wanted to, he didn't lie. Not at a time like this.

"Oh." She looked up at him. "C-can I kiss you?"

His heart jumped into his throat. "You want your first kiss to be with me?"

"Yes. Is that bad?"

"What about—" he broke off, unsure he wanted to mention Kurosaki. Then he realized what this was really about. "Inoue, you don't owe me anything."

"Of course I do. But that's not why I want to kiss you." How could one girl be so earnest?

"Because I'm here, then."

"No!"

Why did every conversation with her feel like tug-of-war over the punchline? "Why else would you want to?"

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes."

She blushed. "Then I don't know. Maybe because you're sweet, and you're cute, and I trust you."

Playing the trust card was low. Too low for him to fight. "All right, Inoue. I'll kiss you. On one condition."

"Anything!"

He frowned. "Never tell a man you'll do anything he wants you to do."

"Done!"

"That wasn't the condition." He felt a headache coming on.

"Oh. Then what is?"

"Never call me 'cute' again," he whispered as he lowered his lips to brush against hers. It was chaste for a kiss, simple, sweet, the way a girl's first kiss should be.

He hadn't even closed his eyes, but when he drew back, they looked at each other differently.

And as he flashed her home, leaving his slow, all-too-human, useless gigai on the ground, waiting for the second trip, all he could think about was how complicated this human world was, where rumors and broken rules could be so devastating.

And first kisses, well, they could change everything.

A/N (Reprise): Aww. I always kind of wanted to write a HitsuHime. Although this is pretty open-ended. I don't have any plans to continue it right now, but if you'd be interested in a continuation, let me know.

Thanks for reading!