Inoue loved Ichigo, she always knew that she had. Whether or not he returned these feelings were unknown to her. But that was ok. 'Maybe its better if I never know...' she thought. She didn't think she could take the disappointment if it turned out that he didn't feel the same way.

Sometimes he seemed to treat her as 'just another friend'. Other times, he acted like she was special.

When he had come to rescue her in Las Noches, she had almost thought that maybe something would happen between them. But nothing really changed.

It was all so puzzling to her. Thinking of him as her knight in shining armor. Lying awake at night after dreams of him coming to sweep her off her feet. Were they all just fleeting daydreams? With a sigh, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

She found herself in darkness; pitch black every direction she looked. Strangely though, she could see herself as if there was light. Footsteps echoed off of invisible walls.

She turned around.

'Ichigo?' It wouldn't be the first time she had dreamed about him.

The person standing there certainly did look like him, except without any color. Then she saw his eyes: Hollow eyes.

She shifted backwards, trying to get into a semi-threatening defensive position. It didn't help that she was visibly shaking, or the fact that her hairpins were missing. "You aren't Kurosaki-kun…" The thing in front of her felt absolutely evil.

The white being smiled. "Smart girl. You wouldn't believe how many times I've gotten mixed up with that idiot."

Orihime flinched, both at the cold tone of voice, and at his words. She said nothing.

"What are you doing here?"

"I-I don't know... I was j-just-"

"Ah well. I don't really care, and it doesn't really matter." He smiled, but his narrowed eyes burned with hatred and sadistic amusement. He all the sudden stopped, a calculating look replacing his prior expression. His head tilted up and slightly to the side as he looked at her, now frowning a bit. "Hey… you're one of King's friends, aren't you? Orihime, right?"

'King? Who is King?' Hesitantly, she nodded, not liking the sound of this… thing speaking her name.

"You're the one that has a crush on him. You and that stupid Midget Shinigami both." The smile slipped off his face. "Pathetic."

"Umm…"

He continued, not caring about her attempts to speak. "You're both weak. I don't see why he should waste his time with either of you."

"Because he… he protects us." Her voice was shaking, fear creeping into her heart. The white 'Ichigo' hadn't done anything to her, but she got the impression that he could kill her easily without a second thought. "I-I may not be strong... but he cares for me... and I care for him."

He looked her straight in the eye. "You do realize that you don't actually love him."

Her blood freezes in her veins "W-what? Of course I do!"

"Really." He purred with amusement "Or are you just in love with your own deluded fantasies?" He took a few steps closer to her.

She took a step back, and stayed silent.

"You imagine him a prince, a knight, a savior, right? But do you really look at him for what he is? For what he has done? He's a soldier. That idiot won't even admit it to himself, but he lives to kill."

"No!" She violently shook her head, trying in vain to block out the feral voice. "H-he protects his friends."

"That's just what he says too. I try to get him to see the truth, but he's stubborn. You're just as bad as he is…" A look of slight disappointment touches his features for a second. "Anyway, a fight is a fight no matter what. If you really must give it a cutesy name to save your fragile conscience, then what do I care. Justified killing is still killing."

She swallows past the lump in her throat, trying to ignore the words. 'W-what even is this dream? Why? Why must I endure this!? Why is Ichigo- no... that's not Ichigo...'

The amusement was quickly fading from his voice "And you've gone and created your own little illusion to live happily in. Your powers revolve around 'rejecting reality.' It seems only fitting for you to reject the reality about the person of your supposed 'affection'. After all, your mind doesn't want to have to cope with the harsh truth. In your mind, the prince is supposed to slay the dragon to save the princess, not become the monster in the process." He scowled at her. "You've blinded yourself. Stupid girl."

Fear and anger clashed in her mind. These torturous words were made only worse by the fact that the person mocking her looked exactly like Ichigo.

"Are you scared of Ichigo?" He asked suddenly.

"Of course not."

He noticed her blatant uneasiness, a playful spark dancing in his amber eyes. "Are you afraid of me?"

The words took her by surprise, Ulquiorra had asked her the same thing before. She had pushed down her fear and said 'no' before.

She couldn't deny it now.

Those eyes terrified her. They brought back too many painful memories: her brother, Hueco Mundo... During her friend's battle against Grimmjow, she had managed to look past the evil appearance of those eyes because she knew he was protecting her. She had seen the concern for her own safety; she had still seen Ichigo behind those strange eyes.

Now, looking at this person, she saw nothing but twisted amusement and sadistic rage.

"I can tell just by looking at you- you despise me. You can't really love Ichigo if you hate me. It just won't work that way."

"But… you're not Kurosaki-kun…" Her voice trembled as she spoke. "You're his... H-hollow... I think."

"Me? I'm just a lowly, nameless servant who will one day rise up and claim the King's crown." He said with a smirk, pacing in a lazy circle around her. "But you're right. I am not him. However-" he turned on his heel, "He is me. Deep down in his core, brutal strength courses through him. You've seen it: The battle against that Ulquiorra guy after he blasted that hole through King's chest? That wasn't me in control there."

She shuddered, forcing away the nightmarish visions. There was no way her friend was anything like this. He has to be lying.

"And aren't you supposed to love someone unconditionally? Hmm?" He scratched the back of his head. "Then again... what do I really know about any of this. That idiot's emotions are always so jumbled up." He was mainly talking to himself, but Orihime heard him.

Silence ensued.

"You can... feel his emotions?" Her voice seemed to be working without her actually thinking about it.

He sent a quick glare in her direction. "Yeah. It's a pain. What of it?"

Inoue shifted uncomfortably under the Hollow's sharp gaze. "Um… d-do you happen to know if… if Kurosaki-kun likes me?" A heavy blush spread into her cheeks. She wasn't sure why she even asked- or how she got the courage to ask- but it seemed like the right thing to say.

He barked out a laugh. "How in the world should I know that? All I know is, around certain people, he acts foolish and careless, and his stupid emotions resonate through his world and into my own soul, and I can't seem to block them out no matter how hard I try." He looked down at his hands, seeming to forget about the girl in front of him. "It's a quite peculiar sensation… I can't understand it... it feels so odd... even now when you're here... it's like I'm falling..."

'That sounds like... Is he…?' She blinked a couple times, surprised. "...Do you love me?" She didn't know where that question came from either.

A smirk slowly made its way onto his face. His weight shifted slightly, as if to take a step.

Orihime took another shaky step back, only to suddenly find herself being pushed over backwards and painfully colliding with the ground. The Hollow hovered over her, pinning her to the ground. A hand wrapped its way around her neck, his knee digging painfully into her abdomen, right below her sternum.

The fear that had been slowly ebbing away returned full-force.

"Tsk tsk. And here I thought you were actually intelligent." He sneered. She could feel her heart racing in her chest. "Don't go getting me confused with Ichigo now. I'm a Hollow. Love is a human-created emotion, going almost completely against all reason and logic. No. I don't Love. I Lust. The driving force of instinctual lust is the closest thing I'll ever experience to whatever it is you call 'love'. I guess I can kinda answer one question for you: Because of this, Ichigo will never love you with all of his heart."

She sucked in a quick breath, his words like knives cutting through her.

"Don't take it personally. He will never be able to love anyone with all of his heart as long as I'm around. And I do plan on being around for a while." He rolled himself off of her and sat up a few feet away. "I hate all these emotions I feel coming from him. When I saw you here, I came over with the full intent of killing you. I thought it would make this horrid feeling stop. Sure, Zangetsu would kill me for the hurricane I'd inevitably cause, but I would be free from this."

She didn't doubt he was telling the truth, the murderous light in his eyes told her everything. "But you didn't…" She looked behind him, streaks of color began appearing in the darkness as if the dawn was coming.

"Funny, huh? I don't know why I didn't tear you to shreds. I don't know..." His eyes slowly closed. She moved so she was sitting across from him, gradually calming down again. Light colors began to grow in the sky, bleeding up from the flat, black horizon like a sunrise. The Hollow laughed humorlessly. "Maybe I'm becoming more like my stupid King than I thought. Maybe I'm living in illusions too."

She began to relax as he simply sat with his eyes closed; and started to wonder why she was having such a bizarre dream. She voiced her question.

He simply flashed another crooked smile. "Who ever said this is a dream, Princess?"

She looked at his face. 'He seems… confused. Confused and lonely. He said that he couldn't feel love, but… he didn't kill me. Maybe… he's not all bad.' She smiled. Sitting there with closed eyes, the Hollow looked identical to Ichigo. She could just imagine color flowing into him-

"Orihime…"

Healthy peach shades spreading over his ivory skin-

"Yes?"

His snowy hair slowly fading to a beautiful sunset orange-

"Are you afraid of me?"

Chocolate-brown eyes watching her with warmth and compassion-

'No.'

He opened his gold-on-black eyes.

"Yes."

He smirked. "Good."

Her honey eyes flew open as she sat up, looking around frantically. She was in her bed in her room. Sunlight streamed in through her window. Rubbing her eyes, she walked to the bathroom. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, thinking about the odd person in the odd dream and the odd things he had said.

"Who said it was a dream?"

She shook her head, liberating her mind of the image of those eyes. 'Still...' she thought, brushing her hair, 'He didn't kill me, even though he said he wanted to. Maybe he's not so bad. Maybe I can learn to like him. Maybe I still have a chance.'

With a smile, she finished readying herself and headed off to meet her friends.

I hope you enjoyed reading. This is the first time I have written Orihime, I hope she's not ooc...

Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo