A Secret Heart

Valentine's Day.

It was a little before noon, Uryu Ishida was sitting in class looking towards his desk. He wanted to avoid noticing all the sappy love fests taking place around him. Why? Because people around him gave and received Valentine's Day gifts and sweets. It seemed like almost everyone had a smile on their face except himself, until…

…Orihime Inoue walked in the room. All of sudden Ishida felt the light flutter of love beat beneath his chest. But there wasn't a smile on Inoue's face, no, not this time. For some reason her face was somber. The once cheery glow in her eyes was now gone. "…What's wrong with Inoue?" Ishida asked himself, a look of wonder in his eyes.

All of a sudden he saw Inoue look around, glancing at the people around her. She wasn't getting any Valentine's Day gifts. She wasn't given a sweet treat from someone.
No, she was Valentine-less.

This came as a shock to Ishida. He thought Inoue was the sweetest, smartest, and most beautiful girl in school, so how could she not have a valentine? He understood how he could be valentine-less, but Inoue? He turned his face back towards his desk. He couldn't help but think of how stupid every boy in school must have been to not want to be Inoue's Valentine.

Ishida had wanted to give Inoue a Valentine's gift, but after thinking that she'd have so many from others and that his gift wouldn't be as good, he decided against it. He glanced back at the copper haired girl. She was fiddling with her fingers, a look in her eyes that seemed to be longing to be somebody's valentine. She began to look his way but Ishida quickly turned his view back towards his desk. If Ishida would have looked back towards Inoue, he would have seen the soft smile she was giving him. But he wasn't looking back so Inoue averted her happy gaze and it grew sad again. "She's probably sad because of something Kurosaki did…" Ishida thought to himself depressingly.

Just thinking about Ichigo having Inoue's affection made him jealous. Ishida dealt with this jealousy for one reason, and that was because it was what Inoue wanted. If it made her happy, he was happy. He glanced over at her; she was still sitting there, a somber look on her face. All of a sudden Inoue turned around in her seat to talk to Tatsuki.

"Has Kurosaki given you anything?" Tatsuki asked. Inoue smiled lightly, "…Uhh, I saw him buying some candies in the store the other day." She blushed a little, "He probably was getting it for Kuchiki-san."

Hearing a bit of sadness in Inoue's voice, Ishida couldn't help but get the sudden urge to want to hit Ichigo. "…I'm not anybody's valentine." Inoue said gloomily.
Suddenly, Inoue's face became animated, her arms flailing up and down as she shouted happily; "Oh! I bet she's gonna love it!" it was clear to Ishida that she was trying to change the subject. He hated seeing her so sad.

All of a sudden, Ishida opened up his writing desk; he took out a small bag of Heart candies and searched through the small sweet candies until he found the perfect heart for Inoue. After searching for a few minutes he found it. He looked back at Inoue, seeing if she still had her back turned. She was still lost in a conversation with Tatsuki. Mustering up all the courage in his body, Ishida walked over to Inoue's desk and quickly placed the candy heart on her desk and then started towards the classroom door, avoiding Inoue's discovery of him being the one who left the sweet heart candy.

Just then, her conversation with Tatsuki ended and Inoue turned around back towards her desk. She saw Ishida heading away from her and sighed. She looked down at her desk. A small blue heart candy was set on her desk. "Did Ishida-kun put this here?" Inoue asked in a soft, innocent voice. With no more thought to it, she picked up the blue heart and read its message.

Even though, Inoue couldn't believe what it said, she couldn't deny the fluffy feeling of happiness building inside of her. She read the words in a soft whisper.

"…'Be mine'…" A wide smile spread across her features as the meaning of the words sunk into her.

"Did Ishida-kun ask me to be his Valentine?" She asked wishfully. She looked back towards the class door, in hopes she would see him standing there. But he wasn't there, he was already gone.

"I'll ask him when I see him at lunch." She told herself as she nodded in reassurance. "I'll give him my gift too." She thought happily. "I wonder if he likes chocolate hearts?" She pondered, tilting her head as she dived into thought. Just then the bell rang to tell the class it was now time for Lunch.

And with the school bell still ringing in the air, she quickly ran out the door, hoping to see Ishida at lunch.

/end

. - they're love