A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of my fanfic 우정(friendship)! First of all, this is an AU inspired by the anime and manga NANA and I am sorry if there's any OOCness in the characters. Also, there's a reason why Rukia's last name is different from the canon verse (which is wasn't originally made for her to have the same one as Orihime, but since it was based on NANA I put the same, but the real reason will be explained in the upcoming chapters). Also, there is also a reason for why Orihime is currently not dating Ulquiorra yet, as I want to develop both of their characters before really making the ship I said I would to become true!
Sorry for any spelling mistakes! Bleach is Tite Kubo's work and NANA is Ai Yazawa's work and I claim nothing!
Inoue
My hometown was completely normal. Neither big or small, it was warm, beautiful and surrounded by mountains and friendly people. However, there was still nothing that could be sold or used for tourism and everybody knew each other. I was the middle one of my family with two more siblings; my parents had a normal, safe condition as well. They were neither rich nor poor, having everything already established in their life. Graduated from a normal, high school only for girls I was left to my own devices to travel to Tokyo, reaching after any kind of dream I would have back then.
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Hey, Rukia...
Do you remember when we first met?
In that lonely, snowy night.
January 14, 2001.
It was snowing heavily outside.
The redheaded girl had just entered the train, walking around while she was looking for a place to seat only to find out that most of them were taken.
Eh, what do I do now?
Today was her birthday and her gift would be a one-way ticket all over to Tokyo from her hometown, Karakura; a ticket that she had bought with her own money after months of hard work as a waitress. All of this to see her boyfriend who was now living in the Capital due to his University.
Looking around and not seeing any empty seats, Orihime finally spotted one that didn't seem to be taken, well, that is if a guitar couldn't actually take a seat for itself.
Stopping in front of it, her eyes widened slightly after seeing who was there. It was a brunette woman with an extremely punk style; she had a black leather jacket on, as most of her clothes and even her hair were black and she had a cigarette between her red-colored lips. A complete contrast to Orihime, who had pink clothes on.
"Excuse me, miss…"
"Is the seat taken?" She asked, hoping that the other woman had listened to her correctly since she had her headphones on.
But she received no answer back.
Sighing, Orihime wondered if she should call the woman's attention. But, unfortunately, she was too shy for that.
Until she felt the train itself shaking; she could have panicked if she didn't fall directly at the other woman's lap, suddenly getting her attention.
That definitely wasn't the kind of attention she wanted to get.
"Ahhh! I'm sorry!" The redhead quickly got up, feeling her cheeks a little red due to the embarrassment.
But the brunette woman had just laughed. That, at least, made she feel a little more comfortable.
"Eh… Is this seat taken?"
That question made the pale, brunette woman widen her eyes slightly, taking her guitar off the seat as she smiled.
"No, you may seat."
"Thank you!"
Well, at least she doesn't seem scary as her style makes her to be.
"Eh, do all students nowadays dress up like models?" The woman asked, her eyes still a little widened due to the doubt.
"S-Students?!" Orihime blushed. "No! I'm 20 already!"
"Oh—" She seemed really surprised. "I'd surely give you at least 16!"
The woman laughed again. Orihime merely smiled gently.
"Well,"
"I'm twenty as well."
"Ehhhh?! Are you really?!" Orihime's jaw dropped slightly.
"Why, is that really surprising?"
"No, it's just… Well, you look like a rock star…"
"And does it have to do anything with age?" She smiled.
Beep, beep!
A cellphone's noise could be heard from their seat. Orihime picked her own from her purse, smiling almost automatically as she saw the name of who it was.
"Hello! Inoue speaking!" The brunette looked at her surprised, inhaling her cigarette.
"Ah~! Ishida-kun! How's things over there?"
"Ah, you're going to pick me up?! Ok, then! Bye-bye, love you!" She turned off her phone, constantly smiling after the call.
"Your boyfriend?" The woman asked.
"Yes! We've been dating for two years now… We used to live in my old city but he had to leave because of his University so here I am!"
"Whoa… You moved all the way to Tokyo because of a man?"
"Well, it's not just any man… Ishida-kun is special…"
Dear passengers, this is your Captain speaking. For weather reasons, we are going to stop the train for a few hours until the snow calms down so there won't be any accidents.
"Oh, no…" Orihime sighed; worried that she wouldn't be able to meet with Ishida in time.
"So, we're going to stay here for a few hours, huh…" The brunette said.
"Well, it's alright! Oh, I'm Inoue Orihime, by the way!"
"I know, I've heard you speaking. By the way…"
"I'm Inoue too, Inoue-chan. Inoue Rukia."
"Eh?"
They both laughed at the coincidence, as Orihime kept speaking about her life story to Rukia who would only patiently listen with a gentle smile on her lips.
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Hey, Rukia…
It was the day we first met, and yet I would only talk about myself.
You would only listen, not talking at all about yourself.
If I knew how selfish I was being at that time, I would have done it differently.
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"Ishida-kun!" Orihime ran to his arms before she could even say goodbye to Rukia, thinking that she was still there waiting.
"Inoue-san!" He replied in a lecture tone. "Are you okay?"
"Tch, Ishida-kun, I hate when you talk in this tone. It sounds like you're my dad!" She pouted. "Yes! Oh, also, there was this girl in the train with the same last name!"
"Rukia-san!" Orihime looked back. "She isn't here…"
"Yes, yes. Let's get home, it's cold."
"So, how was your trip all the way to here?" A redheaded male asked.
"Nah, it was alright. Besides… Why do you want to know, huh?"
"N-Nothing! Tch, stupid. I was only worried about you."
Rukia laughed. "Who's the stupid here, imbecile?!"
She had just arrived at the house of her best friend, Abarai Renji. Rukia would stay a few days there until she could find a nice apartment to live at.
"So, what about the others?"
"Ulquiorra is still in our hometown and, well…"
"We need a guitarist. You know that."
Tch. Sometimes, she truly hated how rational Renji was. Should she say he was cold blooded too by mentioning the word guitarist after everything that happened?
But Rukia knew it would be selfish of her to do so. Renji was one of the most hot-blooded people she ever met in her life and she knew well that she wasn't the only one to be sad because of that.
"Shut up. I know, I know."
Unfortunately or not, Renji was right. They had to get a new guitarist. But how?
And most important…
How would they get a guitarist better than he was?
Ugh! Why is searching for a job so difficult?
Orihime was walking through the Tokyo streets at the morning, trying to find any signs of a poster with "Looking for employees" written on it. But apparently that was more difficult than winning in the lottery. Sighing and looking down, Orihime would just walk without paying much attention to nothing else.
Even though she couldn't lose hope in finding a job and a place to live, sometimes the girl wondered if she could actually just live with Ishida and be a housewife.
But no, she couldn't do that either. Orihime knew that. Even dating Ishida for two years now, she would still feel like he wasn't the one for her.
Or you don't actually feel when someone is the one?
She sighed once again. It was actually difficult for her to put all of her thoughts organized, especially when Inoue had so much to do.
Deciding to look around once more, Orihime's eyes widened at the moment she saw a few papers with houses and prices information in the glass of the place's window. Her eyes soon stopped when she saw a paper with nice housing information and especially for the price being so…
"Cheap!"
Knocking the door before entering in the place, Orihime smiled. There was only an old man there, apparently the only one working there as she could see.
"Excuse me…"
"Could you please me show the house in the 7th floor with a nice price? I'm interested!"
"Ah, the building looks so pretty from here! Thank you, Kawano-san, for bringing me all this way here."
"There's no problem, child. After all, this is my job." The old man smiled gently. It was actually nice to have found such a kind person to negotiate with. She truly disliked arrogant people.
While they were walking inside the building, she couldn't not notice how many stairs she would have to walk until she could finally reach her future apartment. No wonder why it was so cheap.
But Orihime wasn't bothered by that. On the contrary, if the apartment was as good as she thought it was then she'd definitely spend all of her savings with it.
"Here it is," The old man said while gasping for some air.
Are all old people so easily to get tired like this?
He picked up the key that was inside his pocket to open the door, as Orihime quickly smiled as soon as she had a little peek of inside the apartment.
Walking inside it, her smile got even bigger. It was really beautiful with the same western style just like the entire building had. She wouldn't even have to take her shoes off before entering the house, which was a little weird, but understandable.
"It's so pretty!"
She was truly enchanted by all of that.
"So, to such a nice client like yourself, we're going to give you at least 20% off if you pay it all in cash…" A male voice echoed around the place as the door of the left room was opened, revealing three people.
"What are you two doing here?!" A brunette and well-dressed man practically shouted, clearly irritated by the presence of Orihime and Kawano there.
Orihime didn't even bother to answer him. She was paying more attention to those other two people in front of her, who looked like they didn't understand anything that was happening. One of them was a tall man with a crimson red hair that somehow had the form of a pineapple. And the other one was a pale, brunette woman with a punk style.
She blinked. Orihime was sure she knew that woman from somewhere…
"Rukia-san!"
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Hey, Rukia.
Do you remember that day? The day we met each other for the second time.
I was so happy to meet with the girl who had the same last name as I had again.
I couldn't even imagine what would happen after that day… Or better, after that moment.
I couldn't even believe in such a coincidence. It was almost as if God had planned all of that.
But I wonder,
Did you feel the same way too?