Just an idea that's been dancing around in my head and creating extremely deep imprints on the interior of my skull.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Tatsuki would have played a much bigger role
It's only when they are together, alone for once after five years and in college, that they realize just how bitter the other is, even if they can't tell each other what it is that makes them so.
Tatsuki is bitter for the boy-no, he's a man now, she rebukes herself-that she once thought she knew. Bitter that she no longer knows him as she once did and is now stuck living in the memories of the past, something that she, a fresh young woman braving the world with only her strength and schoolbag all those years ago, swore never to do.
But she finds it far too difficult to look at Ichigo now and see a person she doesn't know. She doesn't want to see him leave like Orihime has. It's easier to break a promise to herself than to lose him too.
She should never have let Inoue become her constant. Tatsuki had gotten used to protecting her because she liked protecting anyone she can. She still does, that's just her nature. She's not a genius, she's not eloquent, she's not beautiful or girly, she's athletically gifted and that's what she's comfortable with. That's how she thought if would stay with Orihime; she would be a protector, Inoue her charge. But then Orihime had proven to be capable enough to take care of herself...and then she drifted away.
What kind of a shitty constant was that?
She'd moved on. She could handle being without Orihime, difficult though it was.
Ichigo though...She'd known Ichigo when he'd been a scrawny li'l kid with a smile too big for his face and tears that didn't belong on a boy's face. In passing years, she saw him become a moody, rebellious young man that didn't quite know what the hell he was supposed to do. And then she'd seen him, boy-Ichigo and man-Ichigo, unite to make a whole when Kuchiki came.
She hated herself for not being able to help Ichigo when someone else, someone they'd almost just met could.
She wanted to reach out, and show Ichigo that she was still Tatsuki, still waiting for him...but then she remembered who she was. She was still Tatsuki. She was still strong, and tough, and as unfeminine as could be. She was still impatient, still proud, still as independent as the day she'd met Ichigo.
And she still hated herself for losing him.
She took another sip of her coffee, not noticing Ichigo's descent into thought.
Ichigo didn't know what happened.
With Tatsuki and him.
A bonus of becoming a shinigami he'd realized, was to be able to one up Tatsuki at last. Cause come on, who can beat being a shinigami? But somewhere along the way, it seemed like their friendship had sort of started deteriorating. Sure, they still cared for each other, and went through the same motions that friends usually did.
But there wasn't the same meaning that it once held. And for the normally fearless, reckless Ichigo, it scared the freaking shit out of him.
He wanted to show Tatsuki how much stronger he'd become, but somehow in this mess of maybe a few months...somehow he'd gone forever, and he was looking back at her. Beside him then were Chad, Rukia, Inoue, and Ishida, but there was no longer Tatsuki. And ahead of him, he didn't know what waited.
Ichigo in the present, Tatsuki in the past.
Tatsuki in the present, Ichigo lightyears ahead of her.
They didn't know how to bridge the gap.
It made them bitter.
They both took a sip of their black coffees and found that the bitterness in the drink was undetectable.
The bitterness in their hearts was stronger.
Toasting each other in their heartss, they took another sip to the future.
Yeah, originally I figured I might expand this into a multi-chapter where Tatsuki and Ichigo work to repair their friendship, but I figured that I probably wasn't capable of it. Tell me whatcha think?