Author's Note: Hey! I haven't written anything for a while but this story just sort of jumped me this morning. I was watching the rain outside my house and a raindrop ran down my nose. You may notice that this isn't a Naruto fanfic? I've been into Bleach as well for a while now and I have to say, I now wear two pairs of OTP friendship bracelets :P NaruGaa on one arm and Ulquihime on the other. (I'm totally cool, I know.) The Ulquihime's not hugely prominent in this though, so if you're not into that pairing it's easy to overlook.

Obviously, this isn't very canon, but I've stuck some familiar bits in here to try and make it believable. Also, this being my first Bleach fanfic I'm hoping the characters are, you know, in character. I'll let you be the judge of that :P Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Bleach and it's characters belong to Tite Kubo, and the cover picture belongs to *Rusky-Boz on deviantART

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I find that I love the rain; an opinion still so foreign to me that I barely understand how to connect the feeling to the word. I tilt my head back, allowing the light droplets to run down my face and trace the faint green lines still lingering down my cheeks.

They are fading. Much like the tattooed number four on my chest. All the signs which tied me to who and what I had been are growing less significant the more time I spend in this world.

The more time I spend with her.

It is not something I am keen to admit, but her gentle and patient lessons have taught me more than they intended. It was not only the ways of humans and their world that I slowly came to grasp, but the sensations that I feel in my chest.

I lift a pale, long fingered hand to rest upon the place where the hole had been. It has long since been filled by the heart which I'd found atop that huge domed fortress in Hueco Mundo. The strange and confusing organ which did not belong within the halls of Las Noches and had brought hollow of all levels swarming to my position in gluttony. I had been afraid, I remembered that constricting sensation perfectly, but it was not for myself. No. As astounding as it was to my confused form, I was afraid for the woman who had saved me and in turn, for the two men whose lives she considered so essential. None of us had been in a fit position to defend ourselves at that moment and it was with a flash of determination in her eyes that I had seen the woman stand and face the approaching hollows with her hands held out in front of her.

"I'll hold them back." She'd said, tilting her face back to look at me. "Do you think you could open a garganta and get them out of here?"

She'd been asking me to save her friends and myself, but I had caught the look in her eyes which I had admired several times before. That look told me that she would put everything she had into protecting us, even if her own life were the price.

The shinigami and the quincy were looking at me now, daring me to answer. They were testing me, waiting to see if I would sacrifice the woman they had come here to save as soon as my own longevity was assured.

Ironically, I found that I would not disappoint them.

As the hollows began pounding against the woman's shield, I gathered what power I could and opened the garganta, ushering the two men through. She turned to look at me then, and the smile on her face expressed such gratitude that for one critical moment I was stilled. In that moment a clawed foot came through her shield. Panic. That was the second sensation my reinstated heart was grasped by. She was still facing me but her smile became a determined line and she closed her eyes.

No.

I lurched forward and my hand darted out to her, but without her own reaching back, I wouldn't be able to drag her back in time.

The claws closed around her, drawing blood and a gasp of pain from her lips. I wasn't close enough.

"Orihime!" I called desperately, my hand still too far away to stop the hollow from raking its claws across her delicate skin. She opened her eyes, a film of pain and sadness across them as she saw me still approaching. Her lips parted, and she mouthed at me,

Go.

I would not. I continued to reach out and grief seemed to take over her, as it had in Las Noches. But there was no hope in her eyes now as the shield began to let more hollows through and she was dragged back, away from me. She seemed to accept not only her own fate, but my stubborn refusal of her wishes as she finally lifted her arm to reach back.

There was no hesitant brushing of fingers this time. My hand securely wrapped itself around her wrist and pulled. A yelp escaped her as she was dragged through the hollow's grip and into my own and I felt a deep rooted regret for causing her more harm but as I held her securely against my chest with one arm and with the other miraculously fired a cero back at our attackers, I was simply glad that she was still alive. The cero held them back long enough for me to lift her and run back, into the garganta. The survivors quickly recovered however and came after me. I was only just able to close the rip in time to prevent them following us into the void before I fell to my knees on the most unstable reiatsu platform I had ever created.

"Inoue!" I exhaustedly lifted my head to see Kurosaki and the quincy heading back towards us. Fools, I thought, but still... I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders at the sight of them.

"I cannot hold us. Take her." I said, and the quincy obediently did so.

"W-we made it."

Her soft voice, broken by her pain, brought all eyes to her. She was in an incredibly bad state.

"Inoue, you need to try and heal yourself!" Kurosaki said urgently, but she slowly shook her head.

"She used all her power to save us." I said quietly, and an uneasy silence came over us. How would we save her now? There were wars on each side of this void and no one inside to help us.

Or so we thought.

To our intense relief, a female shinigami captain came upon us. She took the woman from the quincy and bid us to follow her, healing the woman as we did so. Apparently, another shinigami captain had broken into the remains of Szayel's lab and worked out how to open a garganta to get them out. This captain, being their most powerful medic, had been sent ahead.

I remember sitting beside the quincy, Ishida, while we waited for the woman to recover and the fighting to conclude. I remember the insecurity of not knowing what would happen next. I remember the warmth of the woman's hand when she roused enough to finally take my own.

I remember the following day, when I had accompanied her to Kurosaki's bedside. Much to the dislike of the Soul Society, I might add. They were understandably wary of me but my crumbled mask fragment and lack of hollow hole seemed to reassure them somewhat.

I remember afterward, when I had taken her home. I remember standing outside her living quarters as the rain began to fall.

She'd smiled softly, and just as I was doing now, tilted her head back.

"What are you doing, Onna?" I asked, watching her. Her smile grew but she didn't open her eyes as she explained,

"I'm letting the rain wash it away."

"It?"

Lifting her hand to shield her eyes from the rain as she looked at me, she said, "The bad feelings."

Her explanation did not strike me with the poignancy that her words about the heart had, but I had accepted her as a reliable source and so I joined her in tilting my face towards the water falling from the sky. It ran down my face, it flitted against my eyelids. It fooled my skin into feeling that its entire surface was being rinsed down and as I stood there beneath the dark sky I could almost understand what she was saying.

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Author's Note: Hwew, well thanks for reading, as always! I'm gonna go make myself a sandwhich and change out of my pyjamas now to celebrate my finally writing something new :) I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to hearing from some long-standing Bleach fans to let me know how this little noob did! Hehe.

Thanks again :)

Emma x