Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Bleach featured herein.

Just a short Orihime/Ichigo piece that was somewhat inspired by another (unfinished) work of mine. This pairing is long overdue for a fic from me.

Warnings: het, random weirdness (it is Orihime…)

Enjoy.

Green Knight

Inoue Orihime woke up one weekday morning feeling happy, healthy and ready to deal with anything that would come that day. And something was coming, she could feel it. Today was the day her world would be changed irrevocably and she welcomed it with open arms and a hearty breakfast full of sugar and chilli powder.

Walking to school was a bright experience. The weather was perfect. Too perfect. Orihime stared around suspiciously, darting behind walls and telegraph poles when she noticed odd shadows and people walking strangely. The day appeared fine and like every other that had passed before, but this day was so very different.

After scaring the third stray cat out of its comfortable napping spot atop garbage bins, Orihime realised she was going to be late for school if she continued to investigate the should-be-odd happenings around. She thought for a moment, weighing the importance of school with the important things that were going to happen. She might miss something trapped in her classroom, but then, she also might learn something important that could help her with her investigations.

On the other hand, if this was supposed to be a day like any other — only it wasn't going to be and Orihime wasn't sure she was supposed to know that — then she would normally be at school by now. And if she was supposed to be at school, then maybe whatever strange thing that was going to happen today would happen at school.

Orihime punched the air determinedly. That must be it. She would go to school and stop whatever strange occurrence would occur before it occurred. Nothing would ruin the perfect day it was supposed to be.

Inoue Orihime raced to the school, startling a few classmates with her slipstream as she rushed by.

Tatsuki-chan was waiting for her in the classroom with a fond amused smile. Orihime was just on time. She said a cheerful hello to all her friends and quickly sat down before their teacher started taking the role. She answered promptly when her name was called and didn't take any more notice until their teacher called out one very specific name that, for reasons unknown and possibly nefarious, had no answer.

Kurosaki Ichigo.

Orihime twisted around in her seat to double check that Kurosaki-kun hadn't just fallen asleep, but no: his desk was empty of book-bag and person.

Was this the strange occurrence that was supposed to happen today?

Orihime continued to speculate frantically in her mind all through morning classes. Her lip was almost bitten through with worry-teeth-marks and she hadn't written any notes down. Tatsuki-chan shot her more than one concerned look and Orihime could barely manage to smile reassuringly at her best friend. She couldn't think about class at all; she could only think about Kurosaki-kun.

… And not in the usual way she usually got distracted and would think about Kurosaki-kun, that was just fun and silliness, this was serious thinking.

Orihime almost jumped out of her seat when the bell for morning break rang. Everyone started talking and laughing as they packed their books away and their teacher called goodbye enthusiastically. Tatsuki-chan looked over again in concern but Orihime waved her off with a smile again and said she was going to the bathroom.

Alone out in the hall, she took a deep steadying breath, bracing herself against the wall.

She had to find out what happened.

Determined once more, Orihime turned to head back into the classroom and bumped into someone hard enough to send them both to the floor.

"Wah! I'm so sorry! Here, let me help you up."

Orihime jumped up and leaned down to lend a hand only to squeak in surprise and almost fall over again.

Kurosaki Ichigo sat on the floor, stunned and a little disgruntled.

"I'm fine, thanks, Inoue." He got up without help and dusted off the seat of his pants.

Orihime wondered if she could ever be more embarrassed.

"I'm very sorry, Kurosaki-kun. I didn't see you there. I will endeavour to pay more attention to my surroundings in the future."

"Uh-huh. You do that."

Orihime forgot her mortification for a moment and looked up at the boy beside her. He was being too dismissive. Usually he would be a little confused around her — not that Orihime understood why, she seemed perfectly understandable to herself — but he would always be kind and try to understand her a little more. Sometimes when it was very urgent he would be a little rushed, but he would always apologise for the hurry and look her in the eye as he did so.

Right now, Kurosaki-kun's gaze was darting around the hallway as though he were expecting carnivorous dinosaurs to ambush him at any second. He didn't even seem to notice her standing there any more. This was very different from anything she'd seen from him before.

"Kurosaki-kun?" she asked, touching him gently on the arm.

He flinched and whipped his head around to stare at her almost in shock.

"Inoue? What are … did you hear that?"

"What?" Orihime's senses were primed now. Perhaps this was the odd thing that was supposed to happen today.

"Damn." Kurosaki-kun said a few more things under his breath before grabbing Orihime by the arm and dragging her along the hallway. She was so surprised by his actions that she didn't even protest or ask what was going on.

At least until they started running and hid in the first place Kurosaki-kun came across.

The boys bathroom.

Orihime squeaked and covered her eyes as soon as she realised where they were.

"We should be safe here for a little bit."

Orihime heard the sound of a lock click and opened her eyes carefully to see what exactly Kurosaki-kun was doing.

He was standing by the entrance taking in every corner of the tiled bathroom. He moved swiftly to the stalls and checked them carefully. The window was given just as thorough a look-over. It wasn't until he'd completely verified the safety of the room that he even glanced over at Orihime, who was standing awkwardly in the middle of the bathroom trying not to touch anything and blushing fiercely.

"Sorry," he said, though he didn't exactly sound it, "I had to get us out of the hallway. It was too open. They might have …" He cut off.

Orihime stared, her curiosity riled. "'They'?" Could this be the mysterious happening that was to occur today?

"I'm gonna sound crazy."

"People think I sound crazy all the time."

"You don't sound crazy." Kurosaki-kun thought a moment then amended, "Well, not completely."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's actually kinda … well, you wouldn't be you if you didn't sound a little weird sometimes. And I kinda … like the way you are. I mean … it's you, being you." Kurosaki-kun was looking at the floor for some reason. Orihime would have followed his gaze to see what was so interesting if she hadn't been reeling from that unexpected confession.

"Anyway," Kurosaki-kun coughed. "I needed to find somewhere safe. I think I've been followed since I left home this morning. I tried to shake them off before coming to school, but I can't be certain it worked."

"Who's following you? Is it the mafia? An international spy? Oh, or a werewolf? They can track people with their noses, you know."

The fact that Kurosaki-kun didn't look at her strangely for any of those suggestions was a very big indicator that something was very, very, wrong.

"I think it's worse than all of that."

Orihime stared. "What could be worse than mafia, spies and werewolves? Unless it's a werewolf spy working for the mafia!"

"Worse than that even. I think it's——"

Orihime never got to find out what Kurosaki-kun thought his stalkers were like because they were suddenly attacked as a toilet exploded.

A shrine-maiden with a grey face like a blank theatre mask with no eye or mouth holes stepped out from the broken stall and pointed to Kurosaki-kun with a staff.

"You will come with us, prince of the nether-realm."

"Like hell!" Kurosaki-kun shot back once the initial shock of the exploding toilet and the rain of water wore off.

"There is no choice in the matter."

Before either of them could react, the maiden had moved — shoving Orihime to the side and grabbing Kurosaki-kun by the waist to slam him against a wall, dazing him. It pressed a finger near the underside of his jaw and Kurosaki-kun slumped, unconscious, against the maiden. Orihime had barely stumbled and it was too late as the door to another stall was thrown from its hinge and the maiden — with Kurosaki-kun slung over one shoulder — dived into the toilet and disappeared.

Orihime could only stare at the wreckage of the boys bathroom in shocked bewilderment.

"I thought they could only do that in anime."

Shaking herself back a more regular state of mind, Orihime decided to find out about the maiden that had kidnapped Kurosaki-kun. She would find out what it was, why it had come for Kurosaki-kun and then she would go and rescue him.

… And she would disappear before someone found her locked inside a boys bathroom with destroyed stalls.

Climbing the stairs carved into a mountainside that was home to a mystical shrine was something Orihime had always wanted to do. Unfortunately, the shrine she had heard could possibly give her the information she needed was in the middle of town and only had a few steps to reach the main gate. The priest in charge wasn't a wizened old man with a bad temper and philosophical riddles either: he was middle-aged, smiling and told her exactly what she needed to know in precise detail as soon as she asked a question.

It was disappointing, but at least she knew what to do and where she had to go now to save Kurosaki-kun.

The Grey Maidens — as Orihime liked to think of them — weren't actually shrine maidens, they just took on the disguise to hide the fact that they were devils from the underworld. They had been sent to the living world to kidnap a boy with special powers so their demon lord could take over his body and walk around on the earth unchallenged and try to take it over.

Orihime had known Kurosaki-kun was special but this was taking things a little too far, in her opinion.

On top of all that, they had to perform the ritual summoning their lord into Kurosaki-kun's body before midnight tonight under the full-moon in a clear field by a lake of water where no one else could interrupt them. The ritual started at sunset and could not be interrupted after they finished the preparation rituals lest the demon accidentally be summoned without a body to wreak havoc on the world.

But Orihime was one step ahead of the Maidens. She knew exactly where they had to go. There was only one perfect mystical ritual spot near Kurakura and she knew the shortcut.

Sure enough, when Orihime arrived at the mystical clearing the Grey Maidens were just setting up for the preparation rituals.

Kurosaki-kun was tied up to a post off to the side while a bonfire sat in the middle. There were four of the Maidens, each pulling objects out of sacks to be used.

Orihime grew nervous. There was only one chance for her to act and save Kurosaki-kun with the least amount of danger, but she had to wait until near the end of their preparation rituals. If she didn't act in time or accidentally caught their attention then they would have to fight and run quickly because it was almost too close to the time of the true ritual by then and the demon might accidentally be summoned.

So she settled in to wait for a bit, dreading what was to come.

The priest at the shrine had told her about the preparation rituals and Orihime had stared at him in shock, but it seemed the priest had been completely correct about what was to come.

The first ritual involved singing bad pop karaoke into roses before ingesting all the petals. They had to go around in a circle three times and all perform a different song each time before the ritual was complete.

The second ritual was a waltz around the bonfire with cats followed by a tango and a foxtrot before they threw the cats into the air and saw how many landed on their feet before they ran away.

The final ritual was the one Orihime had been waiting for. It was the only one where they were all sufficiently distracted enough that she had a chance to get Kurosaki-kun away. As she saw the cats being thrown and then running away, Orihime got ready to move.

The Grey Maidens all started moving towards the lake, turning their back on Kurosaki-kun for a few moments. Orihime snuck closer to the pole he was tied to. She smiled as she saw he was awake and tugging furiously at the ropes around his wrists. Had he not been gagged, Orihime was sure she would be hearing some very imaginative curses.

Orihime took a careful look at the lake where the Maidens had been approaching and saw that they had begun the final ritual of a Marco Polo game. She acted.

Kurosaki-kun saw her approach and stared at her wide-eyed — so shocked he wasn't even trying to free his wrists any more. Orihime just smiled and started to work on loosening the ropes after pulling down his gag.

"I'm sorry I couldn't untie you earlier, Kurosaki-kun," she whispered. "I had to wait for them to go away for a bit."

"That's okay." Kurosaki-kun sounded a little dazed. Maybe the Maidens had done something to him. Orihime scowled and wished she could do something to those Maidens for what they did to Kurosaki-kun, but his safety and escape was most important right now.

Orihime untied Kurosaki-kun's wrists quickly and together they freed his legs. They were about to make their escape when they heard a cry of outrage rising from the lake.

The Maidens had spotted them.

"Run!" Orihime yelped and grabbed Kurosaki-kun's hand to drag him as far away as possible. He caught on and they were soon bolting through the long grass of the field to escape the supernatural fiends.

"Can't they just teleport or something?" Kurosaki-kun asked as he noticed they were managing to outrun them with ease.

"They can only travel through water," Orihime informed him between heavy breaths. "We just have to escape until sunset then they can't do their ritual and summon the demon lord into your body to take over the world."

Kurosaki-kun looked to the side where the sun was slowly setting and grinned. "That's only a few minutes, we can do that."

Orihime smiled. "Yes, we can!"

Then they ran onto the edge of the river leading to the lake.

"Oh crap," Kurosaki-kun swore.

Orihime grabbed him and shoved him behind her. "You can't get hurt."

"I can take care of myself."

"No, I mean you can't let them spill any of your blood or the ritual will start and the demon will be summoned."

"Oh." Kurosaki-kun grew quiet and Orihime felt him tense as the Maidens rose out of the water and headed for them. "Maybe we can outrun them again."

"You run and I'll hold them here."

"What? No! I can't leave you here alone to fight them."

"I can take care of myself. Tatsuki-chan taught me how to fight."

"Inoue …"

"We can't let the world end."

"And I won't leave you to die."

Orihime spared a glance behind her and saw how resolute Kurosaki-kun was. He'd never leave her.

"Okay, but don't get hurt."

Kurosaki-kun grinned but the expression faded to horror and Orihime turned and blocked barely in time to catch the blow aimed at her face. She managed to kick the Maiden away before another rushed at her and a third tried to stab her in the side. She saw the fourth out of the corner of her eye moving towards Kurosaki-kun and saw him dodge out of the way of the sword in its hand.

The lessons with Tatsuki-chan definitely came in handy as she knocked the Maiden grabbing her aside and elbowed the other in the throat before delivering a roundhouse kick to the temple that had it down. The first one had gotten up again and was rushing at her and Orihime blocked its blows again and got inside its defences to plant the heel of her hand hard up into its chin and a knee into its stomach before taking it down at the knees with enough force to land it on its head.

Looking around she saw Kurosaki-kun had taken down his opponent but he was turned away from her and didn't see the last Maiden with its knife rushing at him.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime cried out and rushed at him without thinking, pushing him aside and placing herself between him and his attacked just in time for the knife in the Maiden's hand to scrape her arm rather than any part of Kurosaki-kun's body.

"Inoue?" Kurosaki-kun stared at the blood seeping from the cut in her arm and growled. The Maiden almost seemed taken aback by the rage in his glare and wasn't fast enough to escape the furious barrage of punches Kurosaki-kun delivered to its face and torso.

Orihime grabbed at the Maiden's arm as it tried again to cut Kurosaki-kun and Kurosaki-kun used the distraction to knock the Maiden down completely.

"You shouldn't have done that," Kurosaki-kun scolded her as he took her arm and looked at the wound.

"But the demon would have been summoned and … and I couldn't let you get hurt."

Kurosaki-kun looked away as she blushed and cleared his throat.

"Uh … thanks."

Their conversation was interrupted by the rustling movements of the Maidens. They stood firm and ready again, waiting for an attack, but what happened next stunned them both.

The Grey Maidens started dissolving.

Orihime stared at the sight before looking around and seeing what had caused it.

"The sun's set."

Kurosaki-kun followed her gaze to the west and grinned. "Yeah, it has."

There was silence as the last of their foes dissolved and then Kurosaki-kun turned to her.

"You saved the world," he laughed. Not disbelievingly, just with relief and joy; it was as though he'd expected nothing less from her, but the sentiment still surprised her.

"I didn't mean to!"

Kurosaki-kun stared at her and started laughing again.

"Don't ever change, Orihime."

"…eh?" Orihime squeaked then blushed. "Kurosaki-kun … did you …?"

Kurosaki-kun only seemed to realise what he said himself just moments later and looked down to avoid her gaze. "Uh, yeah, sorry, I shouldn't have … but, is it alright … I mean …"

Orihime would have stared longer at the unexpected sight of Kurosaki-kun stumbling through his own embarrassment, but she hated the very idea of embarrassing situations — even for other people — that she quickly assured him.

"No, it's perfectly fine to use my given name. I'd like it if you called me Orihime."

And then they were both blushing and trying not to stare.

It was all just so … unusual. Rather nice, but unusual. Kurosaki-kun kept glancing up then down then up and away. His mouth kept opening as though he wanted to say something, but then he would stop and not even a whisper would escape. Orihime wondered if he'd gotten sick from the invaders or whether he did this all the time when he was alone, or on cold days or in the middle of forests.

"Orihime."

Orihime squeaked as she realised she had drifted off again long enough for Kurosaki-kun to draw closer.

He wasn't looking away any more. His face was set in that determined expression she saw so much and admired fiercely. It was the face that made her believe in him so much that she would follow him to death and beyond should he ask.

In contrast, his eyes were so warm. Sort of half-open, but he didn't look tired. Maybe a little dazed, but the same deep, sharp emotions shone through as they always had before.

His tongue dipped out to lick his upper lip and she saw his perfect gleaming teeth — and they did gleam, Orihime knew Kurosaki-kun didn't smoke, contrary to popular rumour.

Kurosaki-kun was getting closer and Orihime couldn't help getting drawn in further herself.

"Kurosaki-kun?" she whispered only moments before they touched.

She couldn't see it completely, but Orihime knew he was smiling.

"I think, especially after everything and my own presumption, that you can use my given name, Orihime."

The words were less whispered and more breathed onto her. The sound of her name on his lips combined with all the overloading sensations of his body so close to hers caused a shiver to thrum deep throughout her body.

Orihime closed her eyes, leaned closer and gave in completely to the anticipation of what was going to be the most perfect moment of her life.

Ichigo …

Inoue Orihime woke to white walls and white furnishings in a cold room. The surprisingly soft sofa was also white, as was her disturbingly comfortable outfit. The tray her meal sat steaming on was white, but the food was not. She didn't delight in this abrupt break in the colour-scheme as she knew not everything in her vision was white. The window was black — or rather the outside of the window was black.

It was always night behind the bars.

She choked down her meal after wiping at her eyes groggily. She wanted to throw it back up immediately, but knew how hungry her body was and wasn't sure when she might need the extra energy. It was pointless trying not to eat anyway; her hosts would hold her down and force the food down her throat if they returned and saw the tray was still full.

She tried not to stare at the window above just as she tried desperately not to think on her vivid dream. It made everything feel so futile and depressing. She had to stay strong, she had to remember her purpose here — why she came and then why she stayed. She was needed here. If she was here then she might be able to save the world for real this time.

And maybe …

Orihime felt something shift in the air. Something subtle but important. She turned to the window and dared to hope, concentrating hard on something that shouldn't be there.

Kurosaki-kun … Ichigo …

So maybe things would be a little different from the dream.

Inoue Orihime was certain, though, that she would be fighting beside the gallant prince when it would be needed.