Characters: Orihime, Ryuuken, Uryuu
Summary: She can see it.
Pairings: Ishida x Orihime, though it can be interpreted as platonic
Warnings/Spoilers: No spoilers
Timeline: Post-manga
Author's Note: An outsider's perspective on their relationship, even if it's only a single aspect of it, seemed interesting.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
There are two schools of thought on Ishida Ryuuken and his son, Uryuu, that Orihime knows of, concerning their likeness. There are probably many, many more composed by those who have ever watched them interact, but Orihime doesn't know them and they don't factor in now.
One, is that they bear absolutely no similarity to each other, and that it's nearly impossible to tell that they're related at all.
The other, is that a large part of the difficult relations between father and son is that they are painfully alike.
The truth is, as Orihime sees and watches, somewhere in between.
Ryuuken is nothing like his son now, except in case of stubbornness, which in him manifests as cold pride and in Uryuu as obstinacy. There's little similarity, aside from that, that Orihime can see, and she has looked very hard. But he used to be, maybe.
Orihime doesn't know any of the particulars. Another similarity between father and son is that the past is a touchy subject with both. So she's left only to her guesses.
The similarities are most glaring when the two have occasion to fight. Orihime's fairly certain what it says about Uryuu, that he won't say a word or look her in the eyes after he and his father have argued—it's the only reason she knows the two have even encountered each other and argued at all, apart from the two or three highly unpleasant arguments that Orihime's had the displeasure of witnessing.
Their eyes both glint the same way, until Uryuu finally loses his nerve and stops being capable of looking his father in the eye. Ryuuken smells blood at this point and always gets more vicious in escalation in their fighting.
Voices are hard in the same way, brittle and never moving from monotone barely concealing anger. They never back down until they do, and they don't do it gracefully. It's like watching a train wreck, eyes riveted on the blood and gore, until Orihime finally manages to look away, and Uryuu's grateful later when she doesn't try to get him to talk about it. Some things don't need to be said out loud to be shared. She knows, she understands Uryuu, but she can't understand Ryuuken.
Maybe… Orihime can never be sure, doesn't know the man that well, but maybe Ryuuken sees what he used to be in his son, and, used to turning his eyes away, can't bring himself to see the past play out before his eyes.
It shouldn't have to be this way, but there's nothing for it. His cold pride won't let him back down.
It's a bit ironic, really.