Orihime looked fondly at the new cookbook. An American cookbook.
With all-American dishes and a new world of tastes awaiting her. She couldn't wait to make something from it.
She opened the thick book as she stood outside the bookstore on the blustering November sidewalk. A chill was in the air, with snowflakes surely to follow soon. She was wrapped in a purple and pink scarf, long navy woolen coat, and her longest school uniform skirt.
She should have been cold as the wind whipped into her face, but her eyes were fastened on the page she had opened to. A full double-page, color spread of a three-tiered cake in pink and white frosting met her. It invited her into the cookbook, and she eagerly turned the page.
To be greeted by a full-scale chocolate house with gumdrops and candy-canes and a graham cracker manger scene with animal crackers.
Orihime smiled, nearly drooled, and turned another page.
A fruitcake in all its brandied fruit-and-nut glory met here eyes. Actually, she thought, it looked kind of heavy.
On the next page was a huge turkey dinner – with a huge roasted, stuffed bird, huge mashed potatoes, and an ocean of golden gravy in the gravy boat. She wanted to dive into it.
"But food is only good when you have people to eat it with you," she said to the turkey. The turkey photo had no reply.
"Hmm, America has Thanksgiving sometime this week," she told the turkey. "It's a holiday to celebrate being thankful and to be with family. Maybe I can try out some recipes on someone who..." She sighed. "Has no family?"
She closed the book and hugged it to her chest as she turned down the sidewalk. Her mind began to chug along at prospects of possible dinner guests. "Everyone I know has a family," she murmured, frowning as her violet eyes focused on the busy traffic buzzing around her as she crossed to the next sidewalk. "Tatsuki has her family. Ichigo has a family. Chad has ..." she stopped thinking. "But he has that new job on the other side of town. He barely gets enough time to go to class and to sleep."
By the time Orihime got home she had run through her list of friends. Rukia had a very important family at the Kuchiki estate, and she knew that Rukia would rather spend her extra time with Ichigo. That had become painfully apparent lately.
She sighed, refusing to be sad for her two close friends that had recently rediscovered each other. "That's good for them," she said stoutly aloud as she hung up her coat and scarf on the peg by her door inside the apartment.
She set the cookbook on the low table near her couch and sat beside it, thinking. Ishida was trying to make amends with his father for the holiday season – she didn't want to interfere with that tenuous progress. Her thoughts turned to Renji.
She smiled, and then felt a blush well up over her cheeks. "Oh, my," she said, putting her fingertips to her cheek. It was warm. Embarrassingly warm.
So, she thought, testing out the name again. "Renji."
Sure enough, it was another blush, and this time pinker and warmer.
"Well, that's just silly to blush over...Renji." This time there was a definite flame of heat to the blush. No denying it, she thought. It was the name. His name.
She gave the thought more consideration. Likely Renji would have no family to have a holiday meal with anytime soon. He liked to eat, she knew. And maybe, just maybe, she could find a way to ask him to try out a new recipe for her.
But maybe she wouldn't see him before the Thanksgiving Day – she had to find out when Americans celebrated it. She couldn't just pick a day. What if she didn't have the chance to invite him before the day arrived? What if he wouldn't accept her invitation?
An odd panic gripped Orihime. It surprised her. Usually people accepted her invitation to dinner, even if only to be polite. But now, well, now she was suddenly alarmed that she wouldn't see Renji before the right day and she wouldn't be able to ask him.
The blush was creeping back over her.
She wondered why.
As luck had it, Orihime did get her chance the next day. School had let out and she was on her way home that evening after a long day of Crafts Club – they were making piñatas for an exchange class in one of the lower classes – and there he was. Wearing a thick brown coat, with a black knit hat over his hair, but with enough red ponytail hanging out for her to know it was him.
Standing just outside her apartment building.
Orihime seized her opportunity. But as her legs set into motion, her resolve lagged. Maybe it was a bad idea; too froward.
But then he turned and saw her. He grinned, waving. "Hey, Orihime! Are you just coming home from school?"
She nodded, skipping along the sidewalk to where he stood under the streetlight. "Yes. Crafts Club ran late." She looked around, but didn't see Ichigo or Rukia.
He read her glance. "Rukia said she'd be here soon. Had something she wanted to talk to you about for New Years."
"Oh, yes, she mentioned something about fireworks at the lake." She bit her lip, her fortitude slipping as he looked down at her. "It's nice to be with family for the holidays," she ventured. "And friends, too."
He nodded. "Yeah, I guess so." Some of her history came back to him in a lurch of memory. "Friends are good, too, huh? Almost like family sometimes."
"Oh, yes."
A gust of wind caught her scarf and it flung from her collar, twisting in the draft. Her hair followed, seeming to race the scarf as the wind grew sharper.
"It's getting colder, too," he said. He grabbed the end of the scarf as she pulled her hair back into obedience at her collar.
He watched a faint pink touch her cheeks, and then he wrapped the scarf around her neck, tucking the end into her hands. "You need to wear mittens, Orihime."
"I lost mine last year." She nodded, summoning her courage. "I have a new cookbook."
He lifted one tattooed eyebrow, grinning. "Yeah? Make anything yet?"
She smiled. "No. But, but I will. It's American."
He nodded. "Sounds good."
"Would you like to try a dinner?" Orihime wanted to call back the awkward collection of words, but it was too late. "I mean, come for dinner?"
He chuckled, watching the ends of the scarf try to escape her fingers as she clutched it tightly. "Sure."
She smiled wider. "You would?"
He nodded and was about to speak, but from the other side of the sidewalk came a group of people, and in front of them were Ichigo and Rukia. Renji saw the light in Orihime's eyes dim, something that had bothered him when he saw her see them lately.
She looked back to him. "Really?"
He nodded. "When?"
"Uh, this Thursday."
Rukia and Ichigo caught up to them, standing a little closer together than normal, Orihime noticed. She decided she didn't notice.
"What's this Thursday?" Ichigo asked, looking from Renji to Orihime.
"Orihime got a new cookbook and she's cooking dinner," Renji said. He looked to her. "It's American."
"Ooh, that would be good," Rukia said with a smile. "What are you going to make first, Orihime?"
The air seemed to suddenly grow colder as Orihime's cheeks felt warmer, too warm. Three sets of eyes looked back at her, waiting for her answer. She blinked. "Uh, well, a Thanksgiving meal." She slowly looked to Renji. "An American dinner."
He nodded at her. "What time?"
"Oh, uh..." Orihime tried to do a little quick figuring.
"That's good," Ichigo said to her. "We have no class Thursday. Isn't Thanksgiving a big dinner to make?"
Orihime had read up on that in the cookbook under the section called Advanced Preparations for Special Dinners. "Oh, yes. It takes hours and hours."
Rukia nodded. "I can help you. It might be fun."
Orihime stared at her. "You would?"
"Sure." She pulled her felt coat tighter around her chin. "Let's do that."
Orihime looked back to Renji, who was looking up at the dark skies pocked with stars. At this angle, she could see the tattoos at either side of his neck, see more of the red ponytail that was partly hidden in his sheepskin collar.
"Will you be there?" She'd meant to say it bolder, in case he was sensing a disturbance in the spiritual fields around them that she could not. She watched his eyes move along the heavens, feeling her pulse wait out his answer before her heartbeat would continue. She didn't realize her heart seemed to have stopped, pausing, awaiting his response. Maybe she would die right there if he didn't answer.
At least he would know what to do, she thought, giggling silently in her mind. She'd be in Soul Society in no time.
"We'd need to shop first," Rukia was saying, looking down as she fished her mittens out of her coat pocket.
"Oh..." Orihime said, looking to her.
"I will."
Her attention shot back to Renji as he said it.
"...Okay." She smiled.
Rukia dropped one mitten and Ichigo stooped to pick it up.
Orihime returned Renji's stare for a moment, finding no way to clarify her intention without being rude, and no way to undo the clumsy spot she found them in. She smiled. At least they were in it together.
Renji looked to Rukia as Ichigo handed her the mitten.
Or, Orihime thought, maybe she was in that spot alone.
"Thursday," Renji said to Orihime, reaching into his pocket. "I'll be there."
"Good." She nodded, and then looked down as he pulled a large pair of black and tan gloves from his coat.
He handed them to her. "Put these on. It's too cold to go without."
"Oh, but...I live right here." She looked to the apartment building.
He put the gloves in her hands. "Well, use them until you get new mittens. It's too cold to go without them, Orihime."
She smiled, taking the gloves, gripping them tightly. "Thank you."
He nodded to the sky. "I'm on call and that's definitely a Hollow."
Ichigo looked up.
"I'll make a list for dinner," Rukia said to Orihime. "I'm on call with Renji. See you in a few days!"
And then Rukia and Renji both darted down the sidewalk, gigais falling away as they went.
Orihime looked after Renji.
Ichigo watched her. "So, what do you want us to bring?"
She looked slowly to him. "Bring?"
"Yeah, well, I don't know about American dinners," he said. His gaze fell to where she gripped Renji's gloves.
Orihime sighed, and said hopefully, "...Nothing?"
He chuckled and turned down the sidewalk after the two shinigami who were already out of sight. "Okay. Goodnight, Orihime."
She watched him take off into the night.
It hadn't went exactly as she had planned.
She looked down at the large gloves in her hands, and then pulled them on her smaller ones. They were far too big and roomy, and warm from being in Renji's coat pocket.
But she had gotten a yes.
She smiled and went into the building.