Disc: I don't own BLEACH and LONG VACATION

Note: this fanfic is inspired from a J-Dorama, Long Vacation starred by Kimura Takuya of SMAP. Enjoy!

Thought/Past

Present.

.

*edit: oct 13th , now BETA-ed thanks for the sweetest Nypsy my new beta :D

-Love Story-

1

.

"Would you marry me?"

"Of course!"

-o-

She ran as fast as she could. She ignored the fact that people were staring at her, they were surprised and she didn't blame them, she understood very well why they gave her that look. It was about her attire after all. She stopped for a moment and caught her breath. She wanted to rest but she knew she didn't have time. She bit her lower lip as she cheered herself mentally, 'Yosh!', and she started to run again, dragging her extremely long and heavy skirt.

'Can't stop here… Can't stop here…' She told herself again and again that she couldn't stop, 'Not now… When finally my dream would come true…'

She worried about many things as she continued running. She worried that her sweat would smear the makeup, she worried that if she ran too fast she'd fall and ruin the clothes, she worried that the wig would fall. She placed one of her hands on her head to make sure the wig would stay there. That was not easy but she'd never complain. She had no time to complain.

-0-

"Tell me about your dream."

"I want to fall in love with a handsome guy, marry him and live happily ever after… Hey... Nii-chan don't laugh!"

-o-

She entered an old apartment building and soon after she found out that there was no lift there, she hurried over to the nearest stairs. Third floor, she told herself repeatedly, third floor.

There she was.

She didn't bother to catch her breath before she started banging on the door madly. She wasn't mad, really, she was just panicked.

Where is he?

She banged the door frantically.

Where is he? Don't tell me that he's still sleeping!

-o-

Someone was banging his front door. He groaned and opened his brown eyes slowly. What time is it? He yawned and looked at the digital clock on the table. Nine o'clock in the morning. He cursed sleepily and scowled. He had just been sleeping for three hours and he didn't expect to have any guests today, so why would someone bother to wake him up in such a brutal way? He rubbed the back of his orange head; the person was still banging on his door. He had no choice but to wake up and open the door.

He opened the door for a few seconds only to close it again. He blinked his eyes; he couldn't believe he saw what he'd just seen. He must be dreaming… Really…

She was about to shout, calling his name when suddenly the door was opened from inside revealing a man around her age. The man had a bright orange hair and his face looked tired as if he had just awakened from his sleep. They looked at each other before he suddenly shut the door right in front of her face with a loud BAM.

She was brought back into reality a few seconds later and quickly continued banging on the door. How could anyone do that to her after everything she did to reach this place?

After a few more seconds, finally the door was opened again to reveal the very same man as before. He looked confused and shocked. However this time she wouldn't let him close the door again so before he could close the door or stop her, she went past the man and entered the house. He turned his body to see the woman walk hastily to one of the rooms and open the door. He was speechless and too dumbfounded to stop the woman's invasion.

She found nothing in that room so she walked back to the living room only to find nothing satisfying. She ran to the small kitchen only to run back to the living room when she found nothing even in the kitchen. No one. She found nothing.

Her gray eyes darted around the place but she couldn't find what she came for.

It was frustrating.

She was still searching around the room when the shocked man slowly gained back his ability to think right. It wasn't his fault, really, the woman was just too…weird. She was wearing complete wedding attire, a white traditional kimono complete with its obi and mantle. It was obvious that she had been running in that attire. He raised his left brow when he realized she was also wearing geta. It was…interesting. How in the hell she could run with those things on her body? His eyes were on her wig, it was a traditional wig complete with its accessories, the wig had slipped out to one side but she didn't bother to fix it. Her face had been painted white though now the paint must have been less thick due to her sweat. He could see a faint red tint on her cheeks; he realized she got that from running.

Finally he found his voice back. This wasn't right.

"Who are you?" he didn't want to sound harsh, somehow he didn't want to scare this woman.

She turned her head and looked at him, didn't even bother to answer his question, "Where's Grimmjow?"

Suddenly he had a crazy idea about this situation and he didn't like it. He sighed before answered her question, "He moved out, I…"

"What?" she screamed, shocking the man who could only nod to respond. She looked into his brown eyes, tried to examine whether had he lied or not. When she realized he had told her the truth, the young woman became panicked. "What do you mean by moving out? Where is he? You must be kidding, right? He must be here somewhere! I mean, he couldn't just leave me on our wedding day!"

He opened his mouth to say something but was too shocked to speak.

Once again she moved around to find her fiancé.

"Grimmjow! Where are you? Just come out! I won't get mad about you being late!" Somehow she was pleading and he felt sorry for her, "Just please come out…"

She looked tired and though she didn't cry he knew she could cry anytime soon. He had to do something.

This isn't right!

"Errr. I don't know anything about this but Grimmjow did move out almost a week ago."

"He can't just leave me like that! Say…Who are you?" she asked him, as if she just realized that he had been there whole the time. She tilted her head, looking at the orange haired man innocently.

"Well, I am Kurosaki Ichigo, Grimmjow's roommate…" he said that carefully, then waited for a few seconds before he repeated the question he had asked her before, "Who are you?"

She hesitated before she said, "Inoue Orihime. Grimmjow's fiancée." She sighed at the word "fiancée", somehow he understood her feeling. He waited until she continued to speak, "The ceremony already started an hour ago, however Grimmjow's late. I thought he was still in his bed, I knew he was always a sleepy head. So I ran away from the temple when nobody was looking…" she sighed, the information he had just told her was still alien in her brain–she needed to make it sure… "W-what do you mean by moving out?" Before he could answer she said, "Ah, he must have wanted to surprised me! Yes that's it! He is always full of surprises! Right now he must be in the temple already, waiting for me… How stupid I am running all the way here! The new house must be for us to live in! He's always like that! Surprising me like this!"

She was about to leave when he stopped her.

"Sorry, but I know for a fact that Grimmjow was moving outside the country."

Those words stopped her dead in her tracks. She looked terrified. He made her realize the truth she had denied and he couldn't help but feel guilty for this.

For about five minutes both of them didn't move. Tense air surrounded them as he desperately thought of something to do.

"I'll go check his room–who knows maybe Grimmjow left you something. Just wait here, 'kay!"

He dashed to one of two bedrooms she had checked before. His eyes desperately gazed all over the room for something…anything! He checked under the pillow, under the bed, on the desk…and his eyes finally spotted something. It was a letter. He grabbed the letter and quickly left the room.

"Hey, you said you're Inoue Orihime?"

She nodded.

"Then this is for you. It's from Grimmjow…" he hadn't even finished his sentence when she grabbed the envelope and took it away from him.

She stared at it for a few seconds before she suddenly gave it back to him.

"Read it for me, please?"

He nodded but before he managed to take the letter she jerked it back.

"M-maybe I should read it." She said in a trembling voice.

She was about to open the envelope when she frowned and gave it back to him.

"Uh, no... It's better if you read it."

He growled as she once again changed her mind and kept the letter for herself. She mumbled something to herself that sounded like a mantra in his ears but in less than three seconds she changed her mind again and told him to read it for her.

Impatient he quickly grabbed the letter from her before she changed her mind again.

"Ah, wait…" she said nervously, "I need to prepare myself…" She mumbled something to herself again, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before she finally signaled him to read it. He rolled his eyes before he started to read the letter.

"My dearest Hime,

By the time you read this, I will not be by your side anymore. I am really sorry. I know I owe you a good explanation about this, so here I will explain to you. Around a few months ago I met this girl. I started to hang out with her and before I knew it, I had fallen in love with her."

"I am sorry, my dear Hime, I should have told you about this sooner but every time I looked upon your face and I saw your beautiful smile, I couldn't say it. I could never say it right in front of you, because deep inside I still have this feeling for you. But I have to do this, therefore I wrote this letter."

"I hope you understand how sorry I am, I still love you but this girl needs me. This girl is the type that couldn't live without me while you, my Hime, you are the type who would survive hundreds of years without me. Your smile is your most powerful power, Hime… Believe me you can go on without me. That was why I choose this girl over you."

"Please try to forgive me. I will always remember our happy time together. Take care, my princess…"

"Stop!" she suddenly screamed, "I can't hear more, that's enough!"

"Well, that's all" he said quietly.

She looked at him disbelievingly, "That's all?"

She chewed her lower lip and rubbed under her nose. Somehow he had an impression that she tried so hard not to cry. He tried not to ask but finally he couldn't help himself.

"Are you okay?"

Stupid question, really…

She didn't answer.

He sighed, "Miss?"

"I'm not a turtle."

He hadn't expected anything like that.

"Wh-what?"

How the hell a turtle has something to do with all of this?

He blinked as the girl looked up at his face.

"I'm not a turtle" she said that again, "He said in that letter that I could survive without him for hundreds of years. Only turtles could live for that long."

He didn't know what to say. This woman was like no one he had ever met. For a moment they let the silence swallow them. Finally after two or three minutes of silence she said something.

"I guess I should be going back…" she inhaled deeply, "I have to inform everyone that the wedding is off… I...I got dumped on my wedding day…"

He tried to read her expression but he couldn't.

She was walking toward the door when he realized something.

"How did you manage to get here?"

She hesitated before she stopped and gave him a side glance.

"I ran" she said it quietly.

Obviously…

He swallowed–that was crazy even for someone like him. What happened today was unthinkable.

"How far is the shrine from here?"

She thought for a moment before she answered in a low voice, "I don't know." She said honestly, "It must be around ten or fifteen kilometers…"

He opened his mouth. This is crazy. He didn't know how many times he had told himself this but he was sure that was crazy.

"And you ran all that distance? In that attire?"

She nodded. She didn't know where this conversation was going. She nodded once again when he told her to wait. He walked into his room only to come back a moment later. He approached her with some money in his hand.

"Here," he handed some money to her. "Use this to pay a taxi. You can't run back to the shrine with those stuffs."

She looked at the money in her hand before she looked at him again, "Are you sure?"

He nodded.

She licked her lips nervously, "I'll pay you back as soon as possible Kurosagi-san…"

He shook his head, "Nah, you don't have to," he frowned, "And it's Kurosaki by the way…Kurosaki Ichigo."

She laughed bitterly before she gave him a farewell bow and went out the door.

-o-

"When you decide to marry someone, make sure he will take care of you!"

"Of course Nii-chan…"

But she always fell for the wrong guy.

-o-

A.N

Hello, thanks for reading this. I know that maybe some of you wondering why I write this fic when I still have other unfinished projects. I am so sorry, I am just tempted to write this… I will still update my other fics when I have time.

I don't know if I should continue this fic or not, I can just leave it here as a one-shot or I could make it as a multi-chapter fic.. It depends on you.

By the way if you had time, check out my DeviantArt account, I have some IchiHime fanarts there… I also joined an ichihime group there… Be my friend there if you have account there :)

http(:)/recchinon(dot)deviantart(dot)com

Regards,

Recchinon