Prologue
"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." ~ The Wonder Years
xXxXx
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The rain fell more heavily in the night, making the little girl tremble even more. Blood and salty tears mixed with the rainwater and drenched the pavement, but the blood wasn't her own. It was of the adult man she was dragging along with her.
Each step taken by the young girl became an even greater challenge. She has been walking endlessly trying to find help, but there was no one around. She was alone.
After many minutes of struggling she finally collapsed to the ground. The man she was carrying was too heavy for her to handle, he groaned in pain from the fall, and previous injuries he sustained from a car accident. Almost soundlessly he whispered a word, "Orihime."
With her name spoken from the injured man she stood up on shaky knees, uneven pants coursing through her. "I won't give up." she panted, "I can't give up. Please Ni-san just a little more, hang in there!"
Once again, she began her distressed search for help.
After roaming around for god knows how long, a dim source of light broke out through the darkness. With her free hand, she rid her eyes of the tears and rainwater that stained them. The auburn haired child squinted through the rain and spotted a sign that read 'Kurosaki Clinic'.
She mustered all the power her little body could handle, and trudged over to small door that lead to the clinic.
xXxXx
Muffled pounding noises awoke a nine year old Ichigo Kurosaki. At first he ignored it and pulled the covers over his head once more, thinking it was just his imagination, but suddenly the pounding became louder. Sighing in defeat, the orange haired boy leapt out of bed grumbling.
Heading down the wooden stairs and towards the source of the sound, slowly getting more agitated as the shouting and banging got even louder. "I'm coming, I'm coming." He mumbles while thinking to himself, 'Who has so much energy this early in the morning?'
When Ichigo opened the door he received the shock of a lifetime, standing out in the pouring rain was a young auburn haired girl that looked to be about his age. On her back was a man twice her size and he appeared to be severely injured.
"P-please…m-my brother g-got hurt an-and- help…we ne-need help," the young girl spoke in broken sentences. She wasn't even able conjure up a full phrase.
Ichigo stood there dumbfounded. What was he supposed to do? He wasn't a doctor, he didn't know the- a thought suddenly struck his mind. His father was a doctor! He was about to rush up the stairs to awaken the elder Kurosaki, when a he heard a soft squeal.
The little girl in front of him collapsed onto the floor. A gust of adrenaline surged through his body as he tried to help get the man off her. It was difficult for the young seven year old, but he was able to edge the older man's body of the little girl in front of him, just enough for her to be able to breathe.
"U-uh, ok j-just stay here! I'll go get my dad, he's a doctor!" Ichigo ran up the stairs towards his parents' bedroom in great haste. He burst through the door and rushed over to his father's side, shaking him awake.
"Dad! You need to help! There is a little girl outside and…..a man! He's really hurt and…and...and…the girl…she…" Ichigo desperately tried to get out the words that were not forming properly in his head, all the sudden events shook him like a hurricane.
Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki slowly began to awaken due to their only son's shouts. Isshin sat up and stretched his arms over his head while letting out a loud yawn. Masaki got up out of bed and walked over towards Ichigo. "Sweetie don't shout you'll wake up the twins. Now tell mommy what's wrong."
"Ichigo! Its 2 in the morning! Why the he-" Masaki shot a deathly glare at her husband daring him to finish that sentence, "Err… I mean, why are you yelling at this hour?"
Ichigo grew frustrated at his parents' cluelessness. For heaven's sake there was a dying man and hurt child at their front door!
"Th-there's no time to explain mom! Dad you need to come down stairs. Now!" Ichigo yanked his arm out of his mother's grip and walked over to his father's side of the bed. With an unnatural force that a mere seven year old shouldn't normally acquire, Ichigo successfully tore his father out of the bed and made him fall flat on the floor.
"Alright, I'm coming! I knew we shouldn't have signed him up for karate so early. He is too damn strong for a little kid." Mumbled Isshin. Masaki slightly chuckled at her husband and son.
"Finally! Now hurry up there isn't much time!" the orange haired child ran down the stairs like a bolt of lightning. When he saw the little girl again he was surprised to see her standing trying to help the injured man. "Dad get down here now! You need to hurry!" Ichigo ran over to the little girl.
"So what's the big deal Ichi- Shit." Isshin cursed when he finally reached the end of the stairs. "Oh dear," gasped Masaki.
Isshin Kurosaki is normally a silly and fun man, however, when situations need him to be, his personality will take a U-turn and his seriousness will show.
"Masaki, I need you to call Urahara, tell him that he needs to come here now." Masaki nodded and went over to the telephone to call said man.
"Ichigo, I need you to bring this little girl in and take care of her. If we aren't careful she can go into a state of shock after her adrenaline fades. I'm going to bring this man into the operating room and get to work." Isshin rushed over to the man and lifted him up onto his shoulders. As he was about to start walking towards the operating room, he felt a soft tug on his pants. He looked down and saw the small girl looking up at him with hope.
"I don't have anyone else. Please, save Ni-chan."
At that moment Ichigo felt his heart drop. Judging from the man's injures it was highly unlikely that he would survive. Isshin must have thought the same as he shot her a sad smile, "I promise I'll try my best." And with those final words he was off.
Ichigo walked over to the little girl and helped her stand up. He put her fragile arm over his shoulder and carried her to the couch. As he gently laid the girl on the furniture, she softly spoke out to him, "That man is gonna save Ni-chan, right? He's gonna make all those booboos go away and this will all be one big dream…..right?"
The orange haired boy winced. This girl has been through enough, anyone could see that from the broken, vacant look in her eyes, there was no way he was going to tell her the fate that was mostly likely to come to her brother.
Instead he decided to evade her question. "You look cold let me go get you a towel."
Ichigo quickly went to go get the towel and came back. By the time he came back the little girl had already fallen asleep from exhaustion. He tilted his little head to the side in a curious manner while looking at her.
"She sure is pretty huh?"
Ichigo jumped at turned his head to the side with red cheeks. "MOM! She's a girl! Girls have cooties." Ichigo crossed his arms and looked off to the side in an irritated manner.
Masaki stood there while giggling slightly at her son's behavior. 'My poor innocent son has so much to learn.'
xXxXx
3 Months Later
"Masaki-san, can we please go over there and look at the pretty flowers. They look so nice!" shouted a small girl by the name of Orihime.
It's been three months since the death of Sora Inoue. Isshin, with the help of Urahara, tried everything in his power to save the young man but his effort was hopeless. Luckily, the young Orihime has been coping well with the death of her older brother. She says it's good that her Ni-san is in a better place where he can watch over Orihime anytime anywhere.
Unluckily, Orihime has no distinctive relatives to come and care for her. Isshin and Masaki refused to send her to an orphanage, so they took Orihime under their wing until a relative did show up.
Those three months have caused great changes in Ichigo Kurosaki's seven years of living. Orihime and Ichigo have grown very close since they were the same age, he even introduced him to his friends Tatsuki, Rukia, Renji, and even his frenemy Uryu. They would always go out on play dates with each other and have loads of fun.
Orihime was a ray of sunshine that brightened up everyone's mood. She would help take care of the twin Karin and Yuzu, she would also be Masaki's little helper with chores around the house. However, lately little Ichigo has been feeling very strange around our ball of sunshine.
'I don't get it. Every time she's by me my heart starts beating fast, and I get these weird feeling in my tummy.' Ichigo thought to himself while following his mom and Orihime in the park, 'Could it be that she infected me with cooties?' the little ginger boy let out a short gasp as a wave of realization hit him, 'I need to get another cootie shot from Renji and Uryu!'
"Ichigo-kun what's with the weird face?" Orihime had on a cute pout as she inched her face closer towards Ichigo's surprised face.
Ichigo turned the brightest shade of red as his stomach had a weird feeling again. He raised his arms and made an 'x' shape with them. "G-get away from me! I need to get another cootie shot first!" the confused boy cried.
"Ehhhhh? Oh no! Have the blue aliens come and taken over Ichigo-kun's mind? Don't worry Ichigo-kun I'll save you!" Orihime dived towards Ichigo head and began pulling on his hair. "Come out you aliens, leave my friend alone!"
Ichigo let out a girlish shriek as Orihime began pulling on his hair. "What are you doing Orihime-chan!? You're gonna rip out my precious hair!"
Masaki lightly giggled at the two children, she and the little girl had grown attached towards each other throughout the course of her three month stay. The innocent little miss had been through so much in her short life, which is one of the main reasons as to why the Kurosaki family took her under their wing.
Masaki felt as if Orihime was her long lost daughter, they actually seemed to resemble each other, and many people even asked if they were related! She would always tell them that they weren't related….yet.
'Oh yes, my dear son. I see those feelings that are beginning to form for Orihime. You may not know them yet but you will in the future' Masaki thought to herself with a small smile, watching the red faced Ichigo trying to run away from the laughing Orihime.
Then, the worst happened.
Whilst fleeing from the giggling Orihime, Ichigo tripped over his untied shoelaces onto the middle of an incoming car on the street. Orihime saw him trip and gasped. "Ichigo-kun!" she screamed while running towards him.
Ichigo froze. He desperately wanted to move, but he just couldn't. It was like some force was keeping him nailed to the ground and paralyzed with fear.
Masaki began sprinting towards her son and gently but firmly pushed Orihime away from the upcoming danger and dove in the middle of the cobblestone street.
"MASAKI-SAN!"
The last thing Orihime remembered before fainting was the sounds of a horn blasting and a loud thud.
A/N: Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own Bleach. *curls up into ball and crys*
Hello~ thebeautywithin13 at your service! I wanna say sorry to my readers that I went on a sudden hiatus. Life caught up to me and it's been pretty difficult. But, don't worry the next chapter for Just My Luck should be out very soon! In the mean time I hope you all enjoyed the prologue to When Sunlight Fades.
I've had this story idea in my mind for ages, and finally I was able to get it out! And of course I had to write a story about my ultimate OTP Ichihime *sigh* I love this couple so much.
I want to give out a special thanks to my AMAZING beta reader FaryTailFTW! You're awesome and thank you for keeping up with my crazy schedule
Thank you for reader, whether you're a new reader or an old one! Also, drop a review! They encourage me to write better :D