A/N: Been a short while again hasn't it? No one probably knows me as this is the first Bleach fic I've written, but certainly not my first story. Anyway, my other one-shot kind of bombed so I'm hoping this one will at least get one review. It is kind of pathetic, but what can you do, I suppose? Anyway, I'll keep this short, it's just a one-shot about Ishida and Orihime, so if you like it even a tiny bit please leave a review cause this was one of those stories I was torn between saying "it's decent," and then "It's atrocious!" Please be the judge of that, I need closure! Anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach, and if I did, I'm sure the story would be shot to hell.
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It was a nice day. Cool, calm, collected, the atmosphere exuded all of it. Autumn was a nice time of the year, Ishida thought as he stood with his back propped up against a brick wall, arms crossed over his chest. There was a slight breeze that nipped at exposed faces every now and then, but excluding that one flaw of the morning, his physical surroundings almost felt perfect.
Commotion was at its minimum with it being so early, and the school halls rang silently without the boisterous clambering of children infecting its already decaying interior. He couldn't place what it was that nudged him to rise early and arrive at school as early as he did, but the deed was already done and he felt no need to dwell on it any longer. Instead, he felt obliged to take in the serene conditions the edifice reflected off its glossy, unmarked and blotch-free windows. This hour of the morning was the domain in which silence presided in, the quiet thrived at such ungodly school hours. Ishida could feel it, the sense of intrusion where loitering wasn't permitted, but for some reason, the dominate spirit of such a subdued ambiance suited him. He was granted permission to reside near the mum building when other children were not. He blended in well with his temporarily still surroundings and remained in his erect position as tranquil as he could so as not to disturb the peace which would eventually be broken by the bustling of a thousand kids and more.
Resting his head against the building, he closed his eyes only for mere seconds before hearing the all too familiar ring of Inoue Orihime's jingling voice, and as he slowly lifted the drape that blurred his vision, he took in her bouncing form as she bopped and skipped her way over to him.
"Morning Ishida-kun! You're here so early! How come?" She inquired with that dewy, wide-eyed look she was so famous for. She was so much like a doll, Ishida couldn't help but think, with that same awe-stricken mask she never was without. Like a porcelain doll, always with overly large, vivacious, bubbly orbs that shot from one side of the room to the other in utter amazement of the world. At his silent state of mind, her sphere shaped glass-like eyes swelled to another size as she tilted her head sideways eagerly expecting an answer.
Ishida, being pulled from his thoughts and grounding his feet to solid ground replied with a shrug of the shoulder as he, by pure habit, pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
"I could ask you the same thing, Inoue." He retorted with the same demure, sedate tone that always poured forth from his vocals the rare times he put them to use. Orihime only giggled at his shell like exterior he felt implored to keep standing before him.
"I'm always here this early! I like to get here before anyone else just in case there's some secret stealthy robots sneaking around, ya know? But you beat me to it today, Ishida-kun!" She answered him, her voice filled with her usual warmth despite however much he distanced himself from her moments before.
Turning his head so as to better look behind Orihime as opposed to blankly staring at her, he couldn't help but notice how she repetitively picked up her leg only to put it back down and then lift the other, hopping from one boot clad foot to the next so as to keep herself warm. Her hands were tightly clasped together and she practiced the action of sniffling as though her nose was runny from the chill winds that could become overbearing to those with low endurance.
"Cold, Inoue?" He absentmindedly questioned her, seeing as the frostbitten breeze that relentlessly pounded against both of their raw looking cheeks had no effect on Ishida himself.
He watched as those doe-like eyes of hers' he doted on moments before morphed into mere slits from her broad smile soaring from one side of her dimpled cheek to the other. His fingers eventually found the large, black, shiny buttons of his black coat, and as he, by instinct, began to do undo the fastenings so as to hand it over to his somewhat tinier counterpart, he watched as she vigorously bopped her chestnut coloured locks of hair back and forth while gleefully responding,
"No thanks! If you can bear it so can I!" He inwardly laughed at her amusing antics, smirking slightly at her childlike stubbornness while at the same time buttoning his undone top button back up. Inoue Orihime was the embodiment of innocence, he couldn't help but think to himself as she stood there before him, hands now tucked tightly behind her back as she rigidly remained upright and stiff from the occasional blasts of ice laced gusts of air that entangled itself within the long strands of Orihime's tresses.
He was only allowed a few minutes of conversation with Orihime before Tatsuki displayed herself before the twosome, and just by her invasion he knew the remainder of the cattle would alas, be shortly arriving as well. It wasn't that Ishida held an awful dislike for Tatsuki, only that he wished, for some peculiar reason, that the roughed-up, boyish looking girl held off for just a little while longer. His time with Orihime would forever and always be limited or non-existent, and unraveling her sugar coded wrapping, in his opinion, was more of a challenge than people gave the anatomically correct girl credit for. And Uryuu Ishida, for the most part, enjoyed life because challenges were such a rare and uncommon thing for the young Quincy.
He poured no eloquent words from the cavity known as his mouth while in the presence of Tatsuki, and simply went back to living in his private bubble exclusively created for him by him as the rest of Orihime and Tatsuki's friends stepped onto school grounds and began the routine which paralleled every other day lived out by youth.
However, he had an incredibly suppressed urge to flee the group the minute Kurosaki Ichigo pushed his way through the crowd with his same, indifferent attitude that lead others on to believe he wished to be elsewhere as opposed to being in the company of bumbling idiots. Ishida knew why Ichigo decided to enter the claustrophobic resembling pack of children long before he even shoved one hand through the little cloister. It was because of Kuchiki Rukia, it was because Rukia joined only minutes earlier to delve into meaningless conversation with her new found friends.
Rukia was not what bothered Ishida, in fact, Ishida was quite impartial to the pixie sized stick, however he was indeed intolerable to the way Ichigo so blatantly exuded attachment to her while in the presence of Orihime. It was how one boy could be so completely and utterly oblivious to the affections of another girl, and how he trampled those emotions and battered them in pure blissful ignorance each and every time she saw him with Rukia.
Orihime wasn't your typical airhead with a heaving bosom and vast vacant space residing within her skull encasement, contrary to popular belief. It was clear and evident to her that Ichigo and Rukia were attracted to each other as more than just "friends," even if they, themselves, had yet to figure it out, and yet she continued to long and pine for the affections of this boy who, for some reason, was in such high demand among his female companions. Ishida, having to watch Orihime silently suffer through what was probably very familiar to a sort of death each day, was hurting, and though he detested himself for thinking so, he couldn't help himself but ponder on where exactly his feelings stood on the subject of Orihime.
He sighed as the animated, vibrant girl closed the gap between herself and Ichigo for sheer warmth and protection from the winds which began to increasingly pick up. Ichigo hadn't shown any signs of shielding her the way Ishida would have liked to defend her; Ichigo simply remained in his signature slouching pose, glancing at Rukia every now and then who was finishing up a conversation with Tatsuki before the bell tolled and called the herd to the pasture.
However, any hopes of Orihime perhaps coming to terms with reality and accepting the fact that Kurosaki Ichigo maybe wasn't the boy of her dreams were soon crushed.
Ishida watched Ichigo's growing impatience with the shivering form of Orihime's voluptuous body and the unbecoming sound of her teeth chattering together at a rapid pace. Soon enough, Ichigo mimicked the exact same action Ishida practiced only a little while ago, with the only difference being that Ichigo was driven by irritability and Ishida out of concern.
Hastily unfastening his buttons, Ichigo ripped away at his jacket and shoved it in Orihime's face, her arms enveloping the warm material which latched onto Ichigo's lingering scent, slowly conforming to her own, feminine aroma that would take up residence on his coat for a short period of time. She smiled, elated at his harsh gesture which she took to heart, despite however much she knew it meant little to Ichigo and the world to herself. A girl could dream, she mused to herself, and she would for the time being before Ichigo came hunting for his coat back at the end of the day.
It boggled Ishida's mind how one girl could be so fixated on one such jack-ass boy, while at the same time caring deeply for the girl of Ichigo's unrecognized affections. She divided herself up into too many pieces, she desired to please the world and yet she remained only one very petite girl. Ishida's sudden plunge into the depths of Orihime's complex mind was sudden and very out of his character, but perhaps, in time, he could slowly enough take her mind off of Ichigo and onto something else. Even if it's on a boy other than himself, as he wasn't even sure what this pang of… envy, one could say, was. But he knew as long she set her sights on anyone rather than Ichigo he would be happy.
It wasn't that he completely hated Ichigo either, but he knew Orihime was a girl who should be loved with a whole heart, and he wasn't so sure Ichigo could provide her with that as long as Rukia lingered in his world, in the bubble Ichigo built for himself, and maybe even for Rukia as well.
However much Orihime may have unconsciously hurt Ishida, to which he could still find no explanation for, he still wished the best for her even if he couldn't be the one to give her that comfort she seemed to long for so very badly.
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A/N: I know I could do better, I know, but please be kind in your reviews, not too harsh! Criticism is plenty welcome as I know I have a lot to work on. I did try very hard to keep Ishida and everyone in character, but I think I strayed a little, especially with Ichigo. (Oops!) This actually intended to be an Ichigo and Rukia one-shot, as they are just my favourite coupling in Bleach by far, but for some reason I ended up babbling about how Ishida is confused as to how he feels on Orihime. I really hated poor Orihime's character at first, especially when people would pair her with Ichigo, but she eventually grew on me. Basically, I wrote this because it always bothered me how she seemed to be fixated on Ichigo and blatantly ignored poor Ishida's feelings for her (Which he seems to have) And so I figured if it bothered me it must bother him, "so let's get his emotions down on paper!" That's what I thought! Ahhh, my rambling has reached its peak, again, please leave a review, they mean a lot! Thank you!