Disclaimer= I do not own Bleach.

To put it into perspective, scary and crazy are understatements about what I suffered through. I suppose I should start at the beginning.

It started around the week of Halloween. For some reason, my family was big on this holiday, but I was not. All week they were buying candy and decorating the house with black and orange stuff. All week I tried avoiding my house altogether either by doing my homework at school or by hanging out with Inoue at her house and eating dinner over there as well. Everyone thought that we were an item (which we were not), but I figured that someone should eat with her the food that she cooked because I am sure that she felt very lonely during dinnertime. Anyways, Halloween night rolls around and as soon as I came home from school, I showered and left. I had a light meal with my family, but that was it. My plan was to have dinner with Inoue, Ishida, and Chad, and then go dancing at a nightclub.

The dinner was great. We had a 3-course meal. Ishida and Chad were not really digging the appetizers (sushi and crab cakes) like Inoue and I were. Everything went smooth during dinner. Afterwards, we walked down the street to go dancing at the club. Ishida had some sweating disease or something because within 15 minutes, he was drenched. He brought one of those Quincy towels with him, which was somewhat funny. It was somewhat hard to do any moves because the club was at capacity. It was around midnight when I sensed it. Remarkably, I can sense reiatsu better than Ishida. I sensed three hollows… NEAR MY HOUSE! I was extremely worried, so I was shocked to find my house up in flames.

The firefighters did all they can to save my house, but they could not save it. What worried me was my family. I saw them being taken out in stretchers, and all three had severe burns, while my dad had deep slashes on both his shoulders. Yuzu and Karin were not breathing. My dad opened his eyes to look at me. He flashed a faint smile and said his final words to me

"Ichigo, live on."

I was crushed. For the rest of the weekend, I went AWOL. As much as I had wanted to, I simply could not miss school. I read a story about a person who lost his grandma to cancer… he had to go to school the next day. To this day, he has never had a chance to properly grieve. I had two whole days, which was a mere pittance because grieving takes much more time than that. I get to class on Monday, an hour earlier than the rest. At 8 AM, everyone arrives in a rush, which then turns to a deaf silence when they saw me. They slowly go to their desks and the room is still quiet. I clearly knew why they were silent, so I had to break the ice somehow.

"Hey everyone, how was your weekend?" No one answered right away.

Kiego spoke first eventually, talking about how some new Don Kanonji show was on. He imitated his laugh and then crossed his arms to guard his face because I usually deck him when he does that annoying laugh. Today, I did not have the heart to do that.

Lunch rolled around and I sat by myself on the roof. I was not really hungry, so I sipped on apple juice. After I finished that, I rested against a wall and looked up towards the sky. I had a flashback about the weekend's events, which got me very emotional. Up until this point, I kept all of my emotions bottled up inside. Now they were released. Being now emotionally unstable, I could not go to class for the rest of the day. I ran downstairs through the cafeteria, out of the school and all the way to who knows where. I ran out of breath when I was under a bridge. Everything seemed to be coming down on me, and I could no longer take it, so I got a needle from my backpack filled with a liquid, appropriately named "deathquid," and walked out from under the bridge. I looked up at the sky and I called my dad's name out from the heavens.

I said, "Dad, I do not want to live any longer." I almost stabbed myself in the neck with the needle until she I stopped me from doing that.

Inoue Orihime.

I was shocked to say the least. I pleaded with her to give me the needle back, but she did not give me it back, instead she threw it in the river. After she did that, she gave me a mean glare. Tears quickly formed in her eyes. She scolded me big time and cried even more during the scolding. She then said something that I will always remember:

"Kurosaki-kun, you may not want to live any longer, but I want you to because… I love you."

She ran off crying after she said that. The next day in class she acted as though nothing had happened. Something did happen… she saved my life.

It has been 8 years since that day and I am forever grateful for her saving me. As we approach Valentine's Day, it also marks 8 years since I proposed to Inoue on Valentine's Day. We were married after graduation. She is now pregnant with our first child. I am so blessed to have married someone so beautiful and so caring as Inoue. I love her with all my heart and soul and I am thankful that I have her- I will forever have her.