Characters: Orihime, Ishida
Summary: He doesn't call her Orihime.
Pairings: IshiHime
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Timeline: Post-Current Events
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
It's far too easy to mistake for emotional distance, even if it's not. But it still tends to raise eyebrows.
Orihime likes to think that, by now, their relationship has progressed to the point that she and Ishida can refer to each other by their first names, but, of course, they don't. When she doesn't, it's purely out of habit; it's still his family name that comes most easily to her lips. With Ishida, it's considerably more complicated.
She can tell he wants to, but always seems to stop just short, stops himself from trampling over that last marker and simply behaving as himself. He's incapable of surmounting the final boundary.
Not Orihime.
Never Orihime.
Always Inoue-san, in ever moment and situation. In every close moment, over letters and the phone, always.
It would hurt others. And it does hurt her, just a little bit. But in order to really love someone, you have to first at least partially understand them, and Orihime understands why Ishida still needs to keep walls up.