A/N: Ok so, because of the popularity of my Naruto oneshot collection To Love Sakura, I decided to branch out and try my hand at some bleach oneshots featuring my favorite bleach female character: Orihime-chan! Well I guess it depends on if people are interested if I continue or not (also depends on if I have some good ideas for some more oneshots).
Disclaimer: sadly bleach belongs to KT and not to me...
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Hero
He is not your average hero, she thinks, all glasses and lanky limbs and sewing needles. He is more like the superhero's secret identity, the boy balancing precariously between nerd and the not-so-noticed boy next door. He is the type that generally isn't noticed unless he wants to be, and mostly he doesn't want to be so he isn't.
But then, she reasoned, he did have the superhero costume and the dramatic poses. In battle he would have a hard, determined look, the kind she imagined real superheroes would have, and he would say something clever before going into action. But then she would remember that he was mostly a reserved person and therefore perhaps wasn't like a superhero in that way.
Orihime would next think that, like a good hero, he was self-sacrificing. He would give up everything to ensure of the safety of whomever he was protecting, whether it be his pride, his powers, or his life. However, every good hero would lose it all only to retrieve it once again because the ending always had to be happy. But…Ishida never considered he would have a happy ending. Where a true hero would be optimistic, she knew he would think realistically.
He could look so fragile; distant and fleeting as if you could see him there one moment and the next he'd just be gone and no one would notice. A real hero would be missed and others would rise up to bring him back. But this would not happen for the last Quincy. He could disappear and no one would notice the absence of the quiet boy with the glasses and dark hair and the kind smile he saved for those most important to him.
But she would.
She would miss seeing him, sitting there in sewing club laboriously pouring everything he had into a new design. She knew a real hero probably didn't sew, but it was what made him so unique and she needed him to be that way.
She would miss the way his eyebrows shot together in complete concentration or the way his mouth would thin out, lips coming together in a line when he was faced with a problem. A real hero would charge into battle, consequences forgotten, but that was not how the real world worked. He needed to be cautious or else one day he would not be returning to her and he would never want to hurt her so.
She would miss the faint tinge of pink that would cross his cheeks when she smiled at him, and how he would try and hide it by fiddling with his glasses. He was shy where a hero would always be brave, whether in the face of extreme danger or the girl he loved, it would always be handled with courage and ease. He could never be like this, but that was ok because she was shy too but they knew how the other felt all the same.
She would miss those moments when he felt brave enough to take her hand in his, his oh-so-important fingers entwining with her own, applying just the right amount of pressure that made her feel safe but not enclosed completely. It was proof of how much he believed in her strength and it made her love him all the more. A real hero was one to shield their love from everything, while the damsel would rely completely on the hero to ensure her safety. He was neither that hero nor she that damsel.
She would miss when he held her, for those were the moments when he needed her the most. He had his Quincy Pride, but he let it crumble before her and would allow her to keep him alive. And she would always hold him together, because she knew if he ever really did fall, she would fall too. That was how close they had become, how much they depended on each other. It was both frightening and beautiful.
He would come to her and one look would tell her everything she needed to know. She would pull him to her, his face buried in her hair while her hands went around his neck, and they would just be.
Sometimes she would talk about nothing, and it never bothered her if he didn't reply. She knew he was listening, but sometimes there just weren't any words to be said.
She knew a real hero wouldn't allow being held, because it would be up to him to do the holding always, with no exceptions. He always had to remain strong and never depend on another. But Ishida had moments of weakness, though Orihime never really thought of them as such. He needed her and she needed him, and that was all there was to it.
Sometimes it was she who needed to be held, and she was the one that would cry. The tears would fall and fall and fall and he would kiss them all away. When she asked him why he always did this he smiled softly and replied "For every drop of pain you shed its only right to even it out with this comfort." He had only been slightly surprised when she began crying even harder after this reply.
She would definitely miss his kisses. A real hero would be an excellent kisser from the start, she thought, and he had not been. They were both inexperienced and sloppy in the beginning, but that didn't matter. His motto on everything was 'practice makes perfect', and she found she had no problems with this.
His technique was formed completely for her. He knew when to be gentle, when just the tiniest brush of lips was needed. He knew when to be rough, when he would pull her completely to him so he could taste all of her. He knew when to tease, to keep the minimum distant between each other and send her into a frenzy. He knew how to draw out all of those little noises from her, and he would chuckle against her and she would pout because she knew he couldn't resist her when she did that, and it would ensure he got serious.
Orihime knew a real hero could only give half of himself to the one he loved because a real hero could never be tied down. A real hero lived to save others but he would only be around for little while and then he would be gone.
Therefore, in the end she was glad he was not a real hero because she could keep him. He could give her his whole self because he needed to, and she could give him everything in return and know she would not have to miss him.
The not-really-a-hero needed his not-really-a-damsel, and that was all there was to it.
Ishida Uryuu was not a real hero, except for when he really was.
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A/N: I hope that wasn't too bad! It was my first Bleach oneshot... So here's the deal, I'm gonna keep this open and see if people are interested in more Orihime oneshots. Some other pairings I would like to try are RenjiHime, IchiHime, ByaHime, HitsuHime, and ShuuheiHime to name a few. If you are interested in any of these or have some alternate pairing you might wish to see (as long as if features Orihime and keep in mind I DON'T write yuri) you can also add that. Previously I have done a voting system to help determine what pairing is done next so if I see a lot of interest in a particular pairing I will be more likely to do that pairing right away. So anyways, please review and tell me what you wanna see!
--Miss Soupy