Title: perfect moments

Fandom: Bleach

Character/Pairing: Ichigo/Orihime

Rating: PG

Word Count: ~2000

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite

Summary: 'You don't need a perfect moment to make a moment perfect, d'you know what I mean?' People make their own moments. Orihime finally decides to make hers.

Tatsuki was always the one pushing her to do it. She was always waiting for the perfect moment.

"You keep using that excuse, Orihime." Tatsuki says to her one day. "If you keep making excuses, you'll never tell him!" Orihime squeezes some wasabi onto her apple and chews thoughtfully. When she makes no reply, Tatsuki sighs and pushes her lunchbox away. "Okay, look, I know how you are, Orihime. I know that you're scared and you don't think that he feels that way, but I'm telling you he does. He's just thick."

Seeing such doubt in her friend's eyes hurt so she tries going for unarguable logic. "Orihime, you don't need a perfect moment to make a moment perfect, d'you know what I mean?" When Orihime finally meets her gaze, Tatsuki smiles. "The time, the place, they don't matter. Because if Ichigo says what I know he'll say, that'll make the moment perfect for you, right?"

And finally Orihime returns Tatsuki's smile.

It's after school one day and Tatsuki's just left her to go to the dojo. Before she left, Tatsuki squeezed her hand before whispering, "Make your moment, Orihime."

She catches sight of him, clad in the school's soccer uniform, on the far end of the playing field. She clenches her fist and takes a deep breath to strengthen her resolve before moving towards him. The closer she gets, the harder it gets for her to breathe. It honestly feels like someone's sitting on her chest.

Finally she is within arm's length of him.

"Inoue!" he takes a step back from her in shock. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Just now. I mean, I just got here. Are you busy right now? I wanted to talk to you." she flounders for words. The first time she confessed was so much easier. Unconscious Ichigo was obviously that little bit easier to talk to.

"Uhh, I'm about to practice, but yeah, sure, I've got a few minutes." He faces her directly and the little breath she has in her lungs has somehow escaped her. How many different ways could this scenario go? Tatsuki is convinced there is only one, Orihime is not so sure.

After twenty seconds of staring at her in silence, Ichigo rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "So… Inoue?"

"Right!" she jerks herself out of her reverie. "I, um. There's just something I've been meaning to tell you for a while. And, I guess the thing is that I've always been scared of what you might say or do. Or what you might not say or do." She takes a deep breath and her brown eyes meet his nervously. He is waiting patiently and she finally resolves to take the plunge. "Kurosaki-kun, I… I love you."

She watches his mouth slacken, brown eyes widen. Seconds tick by and it feels like someone has grabbed her heart and is squeezing as hard as they can.

"Kurosaki-sempai! Time to start!"

Orihime turns to look at the soccer captain before dropping her gaze to her feet. Ichigo cannot bring himself to move a muscle, eyes blankly watching the auburn-haired girl in front of him.

"Kurosaki-sempai!"

"In a minute!" he bellows. The soccer captain flees and Orihime looks back up at him. "Inoue. I—"

"I'm so sorry, Kurosaki-kun, I didn't mean to disturb your practice." she murmurs while bowing her head. "Gotta run. I'll be late for work!" she weakly chuckles and Ichigo can recognise the fake grin on her face.

"Inoue…"

"See you tomorrow, Kurosaki-kun!"

She's run off before he can blink, let alone try and catch her.

His heart has sunk to the soles of his shoes and, when the captain calls for him again, he cannot bring himself to care.

It is almost the end of the day and Sayuri has kept Orihime busy working behind the counter after she'd come in looking like a wreck. She'd refused to go home and watching the girl with a fake smile on her face was just a little too painful, so she and Yui have been manning the floor.

The doorbell tinkers and she hears Yui calling out a welcome before she gasps and runs behind the counter.

"What? Is something wrong with you, too?" Having two workers down for the count today would be just her luck.

"Look! Look at that guy!" Yui's face is flushed and Sayuri glances at the only customer in the store. She can quickly see the reason for the girl's discomfort: a striking and handsome teenage boy with a shock of orange hair on his head has just entered the shop.

"Go serve him, then. Slip in a phone number." she elbows Yui in the side and laughs when she squawks in disapproval. "Look, if you don't serve him soon, I'll have to. I can't just leave him standing there." They continue to bicker until the boy leans himself casually on the counter and Sayuri has to hide a smile when she feels Yui jerk beside her.

"Umm, sorry to interrupt…" his voice is deep and pleasant, although she notes a trace of nervousness, something she hadn't expected from someone with such strong features and a furrowed brow.

"Not at all, sir! What would you like today?"

"Actually, I'm not hungry, I came to speak to Inoue Orihime. Is she here?" she sees his eyes wander, as if trying to catch sight of her behind them and she's suddenly on her guard. She's had enough of Orihime's crazy fans in here to last her a lifetime.

"Another fan, I suppose?" her eyes have narrowed and he looks her straight in the eye before looking away awkwardly.

"A friend, actually. It's kinda important so if she's here, I'd like to speak to her. I'll wait here until her shift's over if you like." He turns and quickly plops down in the nearest available seat.

"And whom shall I say is here to see her?"

"Uhhh… actually, if you tell her, she might not want to see me…"

"You're not making me want to tell her anything, you realise that, right?"

To her surprise, he chuckles. "Yeah, I can see that. Alright, tell her it's Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Okay, hang tight." She walks towards the back of the shop where Orihime is humming distractedly while cleaning the ovens. "Orihime-chan?"

She looks up, her eyes still downcast, before smiling. Picking up some empty trays, Orihime gets to her feet. "I'm almost done, I just have to wash—"

"There's someone here to see you. I thought he might be a stalker, but he says he's a friend. Kurosaki Ichigo?"

There's suddenly a cacophony of noise as Orihime drops the trays to the floor. "K-K-Kurosaki-kun? Here?"

Sayuri's relieved to know he's not a stalker, but still a little concerned about the reaction. She opens her mouth to speak but is interrupted before she can begin.

"Inoue? Are you here?" Sayuri turns to see Ichigo and hesitates for a second before walking back to Yui at the front of the store, determined to give the two the chance to converse.

Except that Orihime is clearly still in shock. Ichigo rubs the back of his neck.

"Look, Inoue, about before—"

"You do that when you're nervous." she interrupts. At his confused expression, she smiles. "Rubbing the back of your neck? You do it when you're nervous or uncomfortable."

"Do I? I hadn't noticed."

"I guess I just notice a lot of things about you, Kurosaki-kun."

The corners of his mouth twitch into an almost-smile. "I suppose you do." He clears his throat before continuing. "I wanted to talk to you, y'know, about what you said before." He watches her smile slip a little so he rushes on. "I mean, can I walk you home? Once you're finished anyway."

"Oh, you can go now if you like, Orihime-chan!" Sayuri pipes in, surprising the two. Orihime looks at her in horror, a slight shake of the head. "I insist! Off you go!" Orihime barely has time to splutter her protest and pick up her bag before she's pushed out the door with Ichigo.

Sayuri catches sight of Ichigo taking her bag before they round a corner and she smiles to herself.

Since he's taken her bag, she's only got her uniform to fiddle with. They're almost at her apartment and he hasn't said a word yet. She glances at him out of the corner of her eye and notices a slight bruise developing on his temple.

"How did you get that bruise, Kurosaki-kun?"

"Huh? Oh, this?" He touches the spot gingerly. "A couple too many soccer balls to the head today. Just a little distracted, you know." They share a look and she drops his gaze before smiling slightly.

They're walking up the stairs to her apartment now and Ichigo's throat has tightened. "So. I wanted to talk to you, remember?" he finally manages to scrape out as she's putting her key in the lock. She looks up, eyes slightly hooded before smiling nervously.

"Kurosaki-kun—"

He holds up a hand. "Look, Inoue, just… just let me talk because… I'm not sure I can get it out if you interrupt me." He waits for her nod before taking a deep breath and powering on. "Okay, so what you said before, it surprised me and… you know, sometimes it's hard to find the words?" he sighed. "The thing is I want the best for you, Inoue, because I honestly believe you deserve it. And I didn't mean to keep you waiting all day, it's just… the thing is… I've been told I'm a little dense, especially about this kind of stuff."

He pauses as she giggles to herself but she stops as he suddenly takes her hand. Their eyes meet and he continues, his voice softer than usual. "I'm still a little confused about how I feel about you. I know that it's not the way I feel about anybody else, but… I want you to know that I've thought about it and…" he hesitates and tightens his grip on her hand, "I think I'm falling in love with you. I mean, if I haven't already. I mentioned I'm a bit dense, right?"

She stares up at him blankly for a second before smiling brightly, her first genuine smile this afternoon. Seeing it, Ichigo cannot keep the smile off his face but suddenly jerks away from her.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Just wanted to make sure it's not a dream." she says cheerfully while pinching herself, wincing shortly before the smile returns. "Nope! Not a dream!"

Ichigo grins stupidly at her and cannot resist the pull towards this beautiful girl. He leans down quickly to peck her cheek, pulling back just as abruptly and turning away.

"Want to come in?" she asks after a pause, tugging on his hand. "I've got some leftover banana ramen in the fridge I can heat up."

"A-Actually, let me treat you to something. That's the way first dates are supposed to go, right?"

"First date…" she murmurs, hesitating briefly before leaning up quickly and kissing him softly. Ichigo's eyes open wide in shock before surrendering to the moment, but it's over almost as quickly as it begins, too quickly for Ichigo who leans down to recapture her lips. He bumps their foreheads together and she giggles heartily before he leads her back down the stairs to dinner.

She'll have to thank Tatsuki for giving her the push later and congratulate her on her insight. She'd made her moment and Ichigo had made it perfect.