Author's Note: Although I am definitely not new to the concept of fanfiction and writing it, this is definitely first time writing a Bleach fanfic, so I hope everyone would be nice and considerate in his or her comments. ( o) All forms, shapes and sizes of criticism are encouraged (as writers would only improve by constant suggestions and comments from readers) as long as they are constructive.

Spoilers: This story will continue from where Bleach ended of in the most recent chapter 221. I will go from there and obviously, it will deviate from the original tale. Basically, this story is my prediction (or rather what I would like to see occur in the series) of what might be able to happen in the Bleach storyline. Most of my plot is concocted from various fandom rumors, additional information Kubo Tite has released so far and of course, from my own imagination.

Oh and yea, Bleach does not belong to me (or would I be wasting my time here writing this? I'd be drawing the next chapter and counting my money of course LOL) and I am a poor college student so suing me would just be a waste of your money. Okay enff; said, let the story begin!

Hollow Fates: Undertones of Orange and Violet

Prologue: Dreams and Reality

At night, where our story begins…

A gust of autumn wind blew softly into the darkened bedroom, lightly gliding upon the dangling wooden wind chime hanging next to the window, creating a wondrous melody soothing to the ears. The draft of air whirled around the opened text on the wooden table, lying abandoned by its master as the breeze turned a couple pages past from where it originally was at. The book seemed to be a guide to the unexplained, like UFO's, vampires, Bigfoot and such.

Soon finding the book, which was full of gibberish anyway, to be just that and a waste of time if it dwelled upon it anymore, the playful trinket of wind flew away from the table and slithered towards the floor, passing through piles of similar texts to the one before. Faint coughing sounds could be heard, although it appeared as fast as it vanished away, causing one to think they must have imagined it even if it was heard. When a few serene seconds had passed and nothing happened, the room sighed in deep, quiet relief. The wind, which had now transformed itself to a string of lowly lit white lights, drifted up away from the floor and into the blue draped bed.

Passing through the navy silk drapes, the glowering balls of light danced upon the lone occupant inside, snoozing loudly as she slept away, oblivious to everything around her. The sleeping young woman had white marble skin, which looked to be so soft and creamy that it should be made illegal for a man to possess such fragile beauty. With thin brown brows, a high nose, thin lips and a head full of orange silky hair, she slept in peaceful harmony, oblivious to the light around her. While her eyes were currently closed, one would no doubt assume that they must be as enticing as her other features, for how could such a beautiful young lady's eyes be anything less that that?

The lights hovered above her head for a few minutes, zoomed around the interior of the bed, then fluttered back to her face, floating above it as if pondering over certain thoughts before it finally glowed a faint hint of lilac, twinkles of its luminosity shone dimly onto his visage. About half a minute later, the violet illuminations, along with the balls of white lights, disappeared all together into thin air.

The person on the bed, who was still in deep slumber, muttered some nonsensical broken phrases and turned on her side, flopping his right arm securely onto the bed sheets as he hugged the cotton material closer to herself. A couple of seconds later, she was already snoozing loudly like a pig again.

The white lights reappeared by the windows, slowly changing shape to take that of a human's. Staring with a serious notion at the full moon outside, the human silhouette glanced back at the sleeping form on the bed, an emotional expression upon its visage, red tears trimming the under sides of its eyes,

'It is time my Hime, time for you to retake your rightful position in this universe. It's not the time to dream now dear, wake up…'

Somewhere unknown, although magnificently beautiful…

'HIME…'

'WHO'S THERE?'

'Dear Hime, it's me. Or, have you already forgotten about me?' There was obvious hurt in the voice. Orihime could tell right away that it belonged to a male.

It was 'him' again…

'Who's me? Ah, what am I talking about? Of course I know who I am.' Orihime pouted, suddenly feeling the urge to mentally slap herself silly for asking such a stupid question in a time like this.

Standing right in front of him was the most breathtaking scenery of nature she'd ever seen. This was exactly how she'd always imagined heaven to look like. Before her was the longest and cleanest river she had ever seen in his life. Having lived for so long in the urban, any rivers she had seen had all been blackened by the cities' pollution long before she was born. To her left stood a mini-bamboo forest, leading a cobble stoned path that led to a petite island on the other side of the river. Sunlight shining down upon it, the rays of light bounced off the blue and clear simmering waters and created a glistening effect with the river's surface. Sparkles of reflections literally blinded Orihime's eyes, causing her great difficulty with her sight.

She has been here before; she knew she has! But when and under what circumstances, she just couldn't rake up the answer. And this man…she has seen him before! Well, more like 'heard' him before. In all the dreams from before! But each time, she never saw his face nor found out what he wanted with her. But this time, she was going to get to the bottom of everything, no matter what!

'I meant, who are you? And where are you, I don't see you.' Orihime squinted her eyes against the sunlight, leaning forward a bit.

'I'm standing right here.' Replied the low masculine voice. 'In the pavilion across the river!'

'I' – I can't see you!' Orihime tried to block the sunlight from her chocolate brown eyes with her hands, but they had been so used to the brightness that suddenly shielding it behind shadows produced white spots in her vision, ruining it to see properly. She was only able to make out there was a person standing in the stone tent on the other side. As for his face, she was completely powerless to make out.

'Orihime, I missed you so much. When will I ever see you again? You will keep your eternal promise to me, won't you? I can't live without you, you know that…right?' He desperately cried out. Only hearing his pleas alone made Orihime's heart wrench for the poor man; his voice alone told her how hurt he must have been…

'Mister – go away Mr. Sun! Mister,' Orihime took a step forward, leaning towards the pavilion hoping that the distance would enable her to see him better, forgetting for the moment that they were separated by a WHOLE river. 'How can I keep this promise, when I don't know you? Could you come any closer, I can't see you! I – " Unconsciously, she took another step towards the edge of the river… and fell into the icy cold waters of the river.

Orihime yelped in shock and immediately could feel the immobility of her body as the icy waters attacked her body's internal warming system. She found herself defenseless against the rushing river's current, sinking into the harsh and dark depths of the running stream as if something, a death weight perhaps, was pulling her down until she drowned to death. Gasping for air as her arms fought for its dear life to float back up again, Orihime soon found her vision becoming black as the coldness of the water overwhelmed her ability to float, let alone swim back onto shore. As she was about to give in, feeling the lightness of her spirit floating away as her eyes rolled back, giving in defeat to the water's empowering victory, a hand grabbed onto her waist. She could feel a strong pair of muscled hands pull her arms and place them over well toned shoulders, encircling them around a someone's neck to keep her secured as the person hauled them both with great effort against the river's currents towards shore, towards safety.

Faintly, Orihime could feel a man fits of struggles as he heaved her onto the grassland, out of the water. Breathing faintly, Orihime's eyes flutter open for a second, saw the man's eyes, and shut them close again, finally unable to stand in fatigue's way anymore.

And the next moment, Orihime would wake up in the comforts of her own bedroom, like each and every time from before. Silent chills would run up and down her spine, reminding her how real everything still felt, despite it being a dream and all.

And then it occurred to her; how familiar those eyes looked. The ones that she saw everyday in school…