Yo fellow writers and readers, strawberry-hime3 here and this my second story "The golden guitar" hope you all enjoy it and features ichihime (one of my fave pairings) as the main couple, this set after the time skip and ichigo keeps his powers, this is a song fic. WARNING: Might contain a citrus concoction of lemony lime goodness.

Remember to R&R!

PS: I hope all you readers of my other story "love is our secret" will be patient and wait for the next chapters, currently working on chap 2

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, I wish I did though but to make it clear I don't own any manga. Bleach belongs to Kubo-sama.

Chapter 1, Inside the window

Orihime walked down the deserted sidewalk back from her part time job at the local bakery/sweet shop. She was glad she obtained a part time job, and especially since the insurance she got from her brother being dead was only enough to pay for the rent and she had hardly any money left for even food.

She gently swung the bag of bread she held in her hand back and forth. It was Friday afternoon and she had nothing to do, no one to hang out with. All her friends were doing one of their hobbies or working at their part time jobs. Take Ishida for an instant, he didn't have a job (like he needed one), he would probably be up in his room sowing one of his Quincy outfits, or somewhere in the park shooting arrows at a tree.

Ichigo would be somewhere killing a hollow or got dragged of to his job at the Unagi shop (an odd jobs business) by his crazy boss. Kurosaki-kun . . .she thought with a sigh.

Kurasaki Ichigo, the center of her thoughts, she wondered how the bright haired teen was doing, it had been 17 months since the war, nightmares still haunted her about the time she spent in the Hu- down there.

She wished she had something to do something to keep her mind from those frightening dreams; she didn't want to tell Tatsuki cause she new she would just worry about her. Tatsuki could see something was wrong with the healer; she asked over and over but the answer she would get was 'nothing'. Orihime didn't want to about the nightmares, only because they scared her. She didn't want to relive those horrible memories again so she kept them bottled up.

As she was thinking she walked past a new store, a music store to be exact. She wanted to get home before it was dark, she just went by it, until something in the store window caught her eye.

In the store window, set up right in the middle was a beautiful electric guitar. It was a metallic gold color and on the body of the instrument were six Hibiscus flowers of different colors slightly overlapping each other. It was so magnificent, she had seen famous singers on TV play them and they made it look so easy. Know all she could think about was how it sounded.

"Ah, something caught your eye" a man's voice came from the entrance of the shop. Orihime almost jumped in surprise at the voice, she turned around to the location of the sound and saw a short, old man standing a few feet away, he was wearing a red vest and a name tag that said "Mr. Yubashi-Owner", the she realized what she was doing.

"O-oh, I didn't mean to stare" the apologized the healer. "Don't apologize, my dear, I can see your eyeing my electric guitar, a beauty isn't it?" he asked as he looked through the store window with her. "Yes, it is" Orihime said softly. The owner smiled, "I'm glad you think so, I designed it myself," he said proudly as he examined it. "Really? Well really love the color you choose for the body, and the flowers . . ." she trailed of thinking. Her eyes skimmed over the flowers. Light green, red, pink, dark blue, black and white were the colors of the Hibiscus. She immediately thought of her Shun Shun Rikka.

"Do you know how to play?" the kind owner questioned, "ah n-no, I could never play something like this, I'm such a clutz, I would probably break it by accident" the healer ranted with a weak smile. "Oh, how about I give you lessons?" he suggested. Orihime looked at him for a moment she thought but then frowned, "I probably don't have enough money to pay you for them" she said quietly, sadness crawled on her face.

"Oh, pish-posh, I don't need money to teach one to play a guitar, I just do it for the love of music, you look like a sweet young girl and I would be delighted to teach you, only if you want to though" he asked her and turned around to face her. Orihime looked at him with hope in her eyes, "yes, I would love to learn" she said in delight and a gorgeous smile graced her lips.

"Wonderful, we'll have to schedule a times for the lessons" he said putting a hand on his chin. "Well, tomorrow's Thursday, it's my day of form work and I don't have handicrafts club on Thursdays, so how tomorrow after school. I can get here around about three thirty, how does that sound?" the healer suggested with a smile, her large grey eyes sparkling with happiness. "Perfect, oh, I just remembered, you will need a guitar and an amplifier" he said and looked back at the store window, "how about this one?" he suggested, pointing at the golden guitar.

He chuckled at the expression Orihime gave him, absolute shock. "N-n-n-no, I could never afford something like th"- "my dear, money is no object to me, I was the youngest of a very wealthy family so I have plenty of money so don't worry yourself" the shop owner said and put a hand on her shoulder. She smiled at him weakly, "o . . .ok, but I may sound rude when I say this, but if you very wealthy, why do you own a store?"

she asked with a curious face.

"For the love of music, my dear. I've grown up with music and I want to share it" he said dropping his hand of her shoulder. For the love of music, Orihime thought. If she learned to play she would have something to do, something to keep her mind off her scary dreams, a little bit of happiness was being offered on a silver platter, it would be stupid not to take it.

"Ok, I'll be here tomorrow" she said cheerfully, the shop owner smiled, "then it's decided, every Thursday afternoon, you'll come down for lessons. Don't worry about the guitar, we'll discuss every thing tomorrow" he said looking up at her.

"Can't wait! I hope I won't be a bother to you Yubashi-sensie," she said, using his name for the first time. Yubashi chuckled at her sense of formalness, "of course you won't be a bother, oh, and there is just one more detail" he said, making Orihime tilt her head in curiosity. "Your name" the shop owner said with a chuckle. Orihimes' eyes widened, she was so lost I the topic of their discussion that she didn't even realized that she forgot to introduce herself.

"Oh, how rude of me! My name is Orihime Inoque," she said holding out her hand. The old shopkeeper laughed and took her hand, "Yasuo Yubashi, and it's a pleasure to meet you" Yasuo said as he shook her hand.

Orihime smiled happily and then noticed the time on her watch, it said quarter past six. "Oh my! Look at the time, I must be getting home, it was a pleasure meeting, I'll promise to be on time tomorrow Yubashi-sensei" she said urgently. Orihime quickly bowed and ran off, waving back at him before she disappeared around the corner.

"What an extra ordinary girl . . ."

~oOo~

Orihime settled down on her bed after dinner. She was staring at the ceiling in deep thought. This had to be the one of the luckiest days of her life. Someone really nice had offered her electric guitar lessons and a beautiful electric guitar, all for free! Now she would have something to keep her mind of all those frightening dreams, she was so exited. The only instrument she had ever played was the recorder, and she wasn't even good at it.

Guitar lessons . . . I wonder if I would be any good. I wonder what everyone would think, I wonder what kurasaki-kun would think . .

To be continued

~oOo~

What did you guys think of the first chapter? I hopped you all like it, and I hope you all will be patient and wait for the next chapter.

Remember to R&R!

From little miss sweet 'n' sour-

strawberry-hime3 ;D