Title: Favours
Category: Bleach
Word Count: 811
Characters/Pairings: Ishida, Inoue; IshiHime
Timeline/Spoilers: post-SS arc; slight spoilers for SS arc (but who hasn't read that?)
Summary: When Inoue asks Ishida for a favor, it's not what he expects.
Notes: Also, this hasn't been proofread, as I'm putting this up at nearly 12:00 at night and I'm getting sleepy, so please bear with me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, which belongs to Kubo Tite-sensei and Shonen Jump.
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"And Ishida will be partnered with Inoue," the teacher announced.
A strange feeling swelled up in Ishida's stomach; he didn't know if it was butterflies or his lunch coming back for a second course. Either way, he knew that with Inoue-san as his partner, there was no chance of getting any work done.
The Handicrafts Club's affiliates had offered to make costumes for the school play and had just announced who would be working with whom. And the young Quincy knew that he'd be too distracted by his partner to be able to do anything. He considered asking for an exchange when said partner plopped down right next to him. "I'm so glad that we get to work together, Ishida-kun," she gushed with that all too sweet smile on her face. No way he could back out of it now.
'Damn it, you're a Quincy! You've fought against hollows and Captain-level shinigami! You should be able to handle a single high school girl!' he reproached himself. He then noticed that someone's hand was waving in his face and blinked.
"Earth to Ishida-kun," said the owner of the hand.
"Ah, Inoue-san, my apologies," he replied sheepishly.
"You looked pretty deep in thought," she said, a bit concerned. "Is something wrong?" The cute look on her face made him want to stare at her for the rest of the day, but he snapped himself out of it.
"No, no everything's fine," he said, turning away to hide the red tinge on his cheeks. "Let's get to work, shall we?"
She nodded fiercely, and Ishida was momentarily taken back at her vehemence. "Yeah, we can do it Ishida-kun!" she yelped, posing and striking her fist in the air. He sweat-dropped.
x
"Alright, we've been assigned the costumes of the lead roles, Romeo and Juliet," said Uryu. The Drama Club was performing (you guessed it) Romeo and Juliet. "First thing's first. We have to make designs."
"Hai. Why don't I work on Juliet and you on Romeo?"
He nodded in agreement.
'This won't be so bad,' he thought. 'We're partners, but we'll be doing separate things. I'll be able to focus on my work this why.'
Or so he thought...
x
Every two minutes or so, her voice piped up. It was "Ishida-kun" this, or "Ishida-kun" that. And sometimes, "What do you think of this, Ishida-kun," or "Does this look okay to you, Ishida-kun?" But, being the gentleman that he was, and not to mention smitten with the girl currently overusing his name, Ishida patiently answered all of his questions.
It had been about five minutes, and no "Ishida-kun"s. Truth be told, he liked her constant interruptions; they gave him a chance to talk to her, even if it was just a "Yes, Inoue-san," "No, Inoue-san," or "Let me help you with that, Inoue-san."
What? He liked overusing her name, too.
After another three minutes of silence, Orihime spoke up again. "Um, Ishida-kun. Can I ask you a favour?" Her sudden shyness surprised the sewing-expert. She hadn't been so reserved when asking questions before. What could've brought about the change?
"Anything." Had he said that out loud? Nonetheless, he gave her a small smile as encouragement.
"Well, it's kind of dumb, but..." her voice trailed off.
"What is it, Inoue-san?" he prodded.
"I was wondering...if you could call me 'Orihime' instead of 'Inoue-san'," she stuttered. Ishida was momentarily shocked. It was actually quite comedic. His jaw had dropped and his glasses slid down his nose, revealing his wide he'd been expecting, it hadn't been this. Before he could learn how to make words again, she continued. "I mean, I know we haven't known each other long, but we've been through a lot together. Going to Soul Society, helping to save Kuchiki-san... I just thought it'd be nice if you called me by my given name," she finished, embarrassed.
Ishida quickly recovered himself, sliding his glasses back up. For some reason, his face was quite red. He was still too out-of-sorts to realize that her face looked exactly the same.
"S- sure," he said, trying not to stutter and utterly failing. "Orihime-san," he said slowly, trying out her name for the first time. She smiled, and Ishida smiled back.
xxx
favour (n) (alt. spelling: favour) (Pronunciation: \fā-vər\)
1. a requested piece of help often at the expense of the one asked
I need a favour. Could you lend me five dollars?
xxx
If that were true, Ishida later mused, then why did it feel like he had gotten the better end of the deal?
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owaranai
A/N: *Okay I know it's the Handicrafts Club but I figured that it could deal with sewing and designing costumes, too. And it's the only scenario that I could think of that would have them as partners.
Also, in regards to the definition of 'favour', it's not from any dictionary. I looked it up on a couple of sites, but none of them fit the way I wanted it to for the story, so I twisted it up a bit.
And this is my first non-angst story. Yay! xD Angst seems to be about all I can write...
Lastly, let me know if Ishida or Inoue seemed OOC to you. Other than that, thanks for reading. ^^
-Sora(: