Chapter 1

Her eyes were observing how the river flowed eloquently in one direction, following the winds rhythm. Breath vapor was exposed to the air every three seconds after she exhaled and scrunched her nose every now and then. She hid her chin in her warm scarf attempting to escape the harsh winds. Orihime's friends mindlessly continued on with their conversation paying no attention to her mind wandering off. All she could think about was Sora. The anniversary of his death was slowly creeping up, which typically caused a mood change to occur for Orihime. Normally, it lasts a week. Though she still appears smiling to her friends to cover up her depression, they still always saw through her. Her friends caught her sulking, like right now.

"Earth to Hime!?"

Being snapped out of her thoughts, Orihime whirled towards the familiar voice. She flashed a forced smile at her friend, "Hmm, Chizuru?"

"You were spacing off again, Hime! What's going on?"

Orihime saw her friends distressed look plastered onto her face. Quickly, Orihime rebutted, "Trust me! I'm fine. I promise." Giggling, she continued, "You know me. I always end up daydreaming no matter where I am."

Chizuru could only look at Orihime before she laughed, "You're right."

Chizuru and the rest of their group ended up laughing it off, blinded by what Orihime was really hiding. Tatsuki was the only one who stayed quiet, observing Orihime. She was in fact, the only one who knew.

—

Saying their goodbyes to each other, they saw Chizuru off. Tatsuki and Orihime were the only two left as sunset began approaching rather quickly this time. Spending time at the river with the group took longer than expected. No one complained though, it was nice and relaxing to be able to loosen up for a bit from the stress that school brought for the girls. The two were walking in the direction of Orihime's apartment having small talk here and there. Tatsuki would take advantage of their small periods of silence trying to come up with how to approach the touchy subject.

"Orihime?"

She looked at her best friend with a concerned stare, "What's up, Tatsuki?"

"I wanted to ask…are you-"

"Orihime? Tatsuki?"

Hearing that familiar voice caused the two girls to shift their heads to the young man standing in front of them.

Staring blankly for a second, Orihime quickly expressed delight by his presence and greeted him. "Ichigo! What are you doing out here so late? The sun is nearly down."

Bewildered at their occupancy, he rebutted, "I could ask you two the same thing."

Tatsuki looked at the two, and in a split second made eye contact with Orihime. She quickly turned. Orihime knew what Tatsuki was going to bring up, she was overjoyed that Ichigo showed up just in time. This was her way of escaping. Skipping a few steps in front of her friends, Orihime turned to face the two and quickly pronounced she was leaving.

"What? Orihime, I only walked you home halfway!"

"It's alright, Tatsuki! I'm capable of walking myself, don't worry about me. If a weird guy shows up then I'll karate chop him in half! Just like you taught me!" Orihime chuckled at her own statement but speedily turned at once and left before her best friend could stop her.

"See you guys!"

And with that, she was off.

"What's up with her?" Ichigo glanced down at Tatsuki who still appeared to be watching Orihime taking off almost to abruptly.

"Tomorrow… tomorrow is the day. Of-… of her brothers…anniversary." It seemed as if she herself couldn't even let the words come out of her mouth. Seeing Orihime drastically change only made her extremely sad. She hated how her friend had to cover herself up with a little act. She wanted Orihime coming to her with open arms…but she didn't. She never wanted to be a burden on her friends, especially to Tatsuki. She never wanted to appear as bothersome. She was very closed off to things like that during the month of his anniversary.

Noticing how the silence lingered on for a while, she instantly turned to look at Ichigo, forgetting about his presence.

The hurt expression on his face was heartbreaking… Tatsuki turned her head to cover her tears.

–
Both Ichigo and Tatsuki said their farewells before taking off in opposite directions. While walking home, he couldn't stop thinking about her. He knew how she felt. How she had was bottling up her feelings and instead expressed her camouflaged-self. He related so much. Why did she have to go through this alone? Ichigo was being hypocritical. He always seeked periods of solitude whenever his mom was brought up, but he didn't like knowing Orihime was alone during this tough time.

Trekking on foot, his eyes were wide. He stopped walking, realizing that his legs took him to Orihime's apartment complex. His gaze quickly softened, knowing he should've seen this coming. Walking up the flight of stairs, he reached her door. The blinds were shut, but he saw that her light was on. Taking a moment to breathe, he then continued by raising his arm and knocking on her door.

He quickly regretted his actions once he heard her stumbling and knocking over things just to get to the door. Sweat poured down his face hearing her painful 'ouches'.

–
Orihime was greeted by Ichigo's scowl.

"Ichigo?" She had a confused look glued to her face until he finally spoke up.

"Are you okay?" At first she was still confused until she saw his finger pointing at all of the bruises over her arms. Embarrassed, she immediately nodded her head and replied,
"Y-yes! I had boxes in front of the door and tripped on them. But nonetheless, I'm okay!" Scratching the back of her head, Ichigo's frown deepened, "You need to be more careful."

"Oh! Sorry, would you like to come in?"

"Huh? Oh- sure, yeah."

–
Ichigo was seated on Orihime's couch, sitting parallel to her. They were having small talk, he didn't know how to bring up the subject. Eyeing her, he could already see that she was getting little to no sleep. Her eye bags were plain and obvious. He mentally cursed at himself that he should've noticed earlier at school. He had to bring it up now.

"Are you sad?"

"Excuse me…?"

"You know, like…how do I explain this..," he scratched his chin mindlessly, "are you feeling low spirited?"

"Me? Low spirited? Oh heavens no, Ichigo. Why would you ask me something like that?"

There it was. Her fake laugh. It killed him seeing her put up this act. She continued babbling on about how happy she's been, but he interrupted her quickly this time before she got too deep into the story.

"Orihime. Quit lying to me."

"But ichi-"

"I can see it. You're not getting any sleep. Tell me whats gotten you so depressed."

Even though he already knew what it was, he didn't want to suddenly bring up her brother if she was persistent on not talking about him. He wouldn't force her to. Not if she wasn't comfortable enough.

"I…did Tatsuki tell you something?"

"…Yeah."

A moment of silence kept them from talking. She was on the verge of tears. He didn't mean to make her cry.

"Orihime, i'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" he was then interrupted by her soft cracked muffles, "Don't be sorry, Ichigo… you're just looking out for me. Thank you for that." He only stared which moved her to continue speaking, "My brothers anniversary is coming up. Tomorrow, actually."

Though Tatsuki told him beforehand what was bugging Orihime, it still saddened him a great deal hearing it from her own voice. She was about to continue until she felt the seat next to her dip. She looked up and saw him sitting next to her now, noticing how fast he was. He brought his arm over her shoulder and pulled her head to his chest. No one spoke a word.

Soft cries began debuting from Orihime. The cries that she held in this whole visit from Ichigo. Her soft cries began turning into weeping loudly. This is when she let it all out, and Ichigo was completely fine with that. His response to her cries was holding her tighter with his right arm. He knew it from the very start of their talk, that she was holding in much more. He felt the tense and strain that was bottled up inside of her. The same way he always felt thinking about his mom.

They stayed for like this for moments, until her cries began to soften once again. He didn't move an inch. He knew she needed him, so he would stay all night if he had to. In this case, staying in the same position for a long time caused her to slowly fall into a deep sleep. He looked down and saw that her eyes were shut with her mouth slightly opened. Cracking a smile at how exhausted she's become, he carefully picked her up bridal style and put her on her bed in the bedroom. After putting her blanket on, he tranquilly walked outside of the room and closed the door softly.

Not knowing what to do next, he grabbed her keys that were hanging and left her apartment, locking her door. He reminded himself to give back the keys at school tomorrow, hoping she would freak out that he took it in the first place. I mean, he had to or else she would've been sleeping with her apartment door unlocked, ready for someone to break in! He was doing the right thing!

Walking back home, he glanced at his watch which now read 10:43 p.m. His gaze softened looking forward, reminiscing on everything that had just happened back there. 'Poor girl. Holding that all in. Baka. She should have come to him if she felt this way.' He was trapped in his thoughts the entire walk back home, until a figure approached in front of him at lightning speed. This caused him to quickly stop himself from proceeding on his route. He finally looked up, eyes wide.

"Urahara?"

–

fin

(leave reviews! tell me how it was! should it be longer? do you like the size it's at right now?)

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