Orihime grew up on fairytales.
One about a mermaid, who dared to fall in love with a human, and ended up turning into a pile of bubbles.
Another about a poor girl, hunted down by her stepmother, and found the meaning of true friendship, as well as true love.
But her all time favorite was the one about the Frog prince. She loved the idea of a princess being wed to a frog, not knowing it was really a prince. To her, the story meant that deep inside, everyone was kind and strong, just like a prince.
& & &
"Ishida-kun!" the bouncy red head exclaimed, running towards the quiet Quincy archer. He dared to rear his head around, although he wound up regretting it.
"Hello, Inoue-san," He managed to utter.
"Why are you out here all alone? And in the snow, no less?" she asked, letting snowflakes gently fall onto her white, delicate face.
"I just...wanted to take a walk." He answered, carefully brushing the snow off his jet black hair.
"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked nonchalantly. "I would get lonely if I walked all alone in the snow."
"Yeah," he answered. "I guess it does get lonely sometimes."
She smiled. Quickly hoping over to the other side of him, the two walked in silence along the cold, dark road.
"Why did you come out here?" he found himself asking.
"No reason! I guess I wanted to take a better look at the snow. It's so pretty this time of year."
"Inoue-san, you're a very odd person." He found himself responding again. Had someone taken over his mind or something? He had never, ever been the type of person who always grabbed the last word. He barely seemed to even talk at all. But when he was with her, it seemed to just blurt out.
"Is being odd a bad thing?" she giggled, moving closer to the quiet man. Ishida shivered.
"In your case...I guess not." He mumbled, and looked away, hoping she didn't catch a glance of the fact he was red as a cherry.
"What do you mean 'your case'?" she asked, puffing up her cheeks in anger.
"...nothing, nothing..."
The two stayed quiet for some time, until Orihime had an irresistible urge to break the eerie silence.
"Ishida – kun, what have you ever heard of the story 'The Frog Prince'?"
He snapped back to reality. "Um...no, I don't think so."
She went on to tell him the entire story, of course she stumbled a bit, but she could tell that the black haired boy had been listening intensively the whole way through.
"What do you think the moral of the story is, Ishida – kun?" she asked, looking up with big, bulging, intensive eyes.
He pondered for a while, still trying to grab the concept pf why she asked if he knew the story or not in the fist place, and then trying to compute the moral as well. He shook his head in defeat, failing to understand anything she had done or had asked.
She giggled. "You may think this is silly...but I think it means that everyone can be strong, and nice, just like a prince. No matter how hard of a front people put up, deep down there's a nice person trying to get out."
He was shocked by the fact that this innocent little girl could think that deep for a fairy tale. He began to wonder why she couldn't use logic like that in her everyday life, but, once again, rode off the rails in his train of thought.
"That's a good way to think of it." He responded. "Although I think it means..."
She opened her ears, and heart wide enough to listen.
"...that people shouldn't be judged by how hard a front they put up. Because there's always someone...someone who can see right through them."
The red head beamed. "Yeah!"
The snow fell down harder, causing Orihime to shiver, then sneeze. Ishida took off part of his jacket, and covered the girl with it. She looked up, only to see something she had never seen Ishida dare to do before. Even if it was faint, she could see right through his scowl.
He was smiling at her.
"Oh," she thought. "So that's what he meant."
He meant, she concluded, that she had seen through his front, and found the brave, kind prince sleeping deep inside of him...
Fin.
Yes...It is CRAPTACULAR, is it not? O.o LOL In other news, I've always loved the frog prince as well. It reminds me of bacon. Don't ask why.
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