I know you guys must hate me but I am posting rewrites of this story. I lost the old file of it so that's why I never finished it earlier. But now it's done and I will be posting everything soon. :)
It had been five months, three days and it killed me every second. Sitting in class everyday had been horrible. I leaned over onto my desk and groaned.
"Are we boring you Ms. Inoue?"
I jumped up in my seat, "Oh- I'm sorry."
Everyone looked over at me for a moment, Tatsuki gave a concerned glance and turned back I glanced around to see everyone begin to look back towards the front and continue on with class. I looked over at the window to see that he hadn't even noticed. As usual or at least his recent usual, he just stared out the window. It was so different from the old Ichigo.
Since it happened that's all he seemed to do, stare aimlessly out the window, like he was lost. Trying to find something but just couldn't remember what it was.
His eyes looked so tired, his hair was stuck in front of his face covering most of his face. The orange locks glistened in the sun; I missed him.
He must have noticed me watching, he turned his eyes slightly to find mine. I quickly turned towards the front of the class.
"Inoue, you okay?" I nodded.
He looked around, noticing Ishida badly injured and "Ishida? Did I do that?"
He was shaking, he didn't know what happened, what he became. But he saved us, without him coming back Ulquiorra would have killed us all. I could tell he was afraid and confused. But he was back, he was here and he was not dead. Tears began to build in my eyes as he turned his focus back towards me. Without even realizing what I'd done I ran up to him and hugged him.
"Or-Orihime?" He looked down to me and I lifted my eyes that were filled with tears.
"I'm just happy that you back Kurosaki-kun. I-I thought you were gone." I smiled and looked back down in embarrassment. I felt his hand lift my chin back up. His eyes were tearing up too.
"I'm sorry Orihime." Before I could say anything he pressed his lips to mine. I melted.
"Inoue. Please pay attention. I cannot say it again."
I looked around, I lost focus again. Today was clearly not my day. Luckily it was only a few minutes left of class, I waited anxiously for the dismissal bell. I was sure to focus for the last few minutes to make up for not paying attention most of the day.
I got up from my seat and packed up my things.
"Bit distracted today Orihime?" Tatsuki nudged me on the shoulder, she knew exactly why I was distracted as he glanced back towards Ichigo.
I, being full of embarrassment, laughed uncontrollably.
"Are we still going for ice cream with the others today?" I nodded and looked around to see our usual friends suddenly around us.
"Sorry I don't think I can make it. I have...chores to do." Ishida looked at me, I knew that look. Ishida had taken over the hollow duties that Ichigo once had. I was thankful for it since I knew I still wasn't strong enough to do it myself.
"Too bad Ishida, next time though alright?" Tatsuki was her usual cheeriness. She had an easier time getting over everything. We never spoke about what had happened, I wasn't even sure she remembered it. But Ichigo told me what happened when I left, how they got in a fight over what happened. Everything changed after we got back.
"Please Ichigo, please protect them. Tatsuki, Kiego, everyone please Ichigo make sure they're alright."
"I promise." He lifted my chin again, and gave me a quick kiss. How I loved that; things were going to be different, I could feel it.
I nodded and he walked away with Unohana glancing back only for a moment to give me a reassuring smile and then he was off, running back to go protect our home and stop Aizen.
The next I saw him, he looked so different, his hair was longer, he looked taller and more grown up. And so sad.
"Kurosaki-san." I'm not sure why I was suddenly so formal but I wanted to be sure it was him.
He looked at us and smiled, he had done something but none of us understood it right away. He got up and walked towards us. Then he collapsed to the ground. We ran to him but Urahara stopped us. He explained that Ichigo understand that this would happen and realized the consequences of his actions. It was the only way he would win.
We brought Ichigo back to Urahara's shop where he went back to his body, and lay there for days.
Urahara explained that he would lose his shinigami powers, and that he knew that would happen. However it was much more than that, Ichigo would lose all memories of being a shinigami too. Urahara kept his eyes down when he explained it; Ichigo would forget everything about being a soul reaper. And anything related to it, it was just the price that would be paid for beating Aizen and receiving that power.
"You can't let that happen Urahara. He won't remember us. He won't know anything."
Ishida looked at me, he knew what I meant.
"That's not entirely true. He will remember you but as it was before all of this. His mind will make up for the time he lost but it'll be like the last year was a blur. He won't remember Soul society, and I'm sorry but that means Rukia and Renji and everyone else. Including myself. Ichigo Kurosaki will be an ordinary high school student."
I looked over to see Rukia with his eyes to the ground. She looked sad but understanding. After all Rukia had wanted Ichigo to be able to live a normal life, she had always felt guilty that she was responsible for what happened to Ichigo in the first place. She didn't realize that Ichigo felt pride in his strength and that he was thankful to her that he could protect everyone.
"Please Urahara there must be something you can do. What if we explained it to him? Would that help him to remember?"
"I understand how you feel Orihime but I'm sorry, that would only make it worse. At the moment his mind is fragile, pieces of his memory are being filled in to make up for such a large part of his life. If we were to break that barrier in his mind, it would reject it. It was cause even more harm to him. But in time there's a chance he could recover some of his memories but I'm afraid it's not very likely."
"No one in this room is to mention anything about what happened this year!" We all turned to see Ichigo's dad standing in the doorway. None of us had even known he was there to begin with.
"I understand the situation but he can never know."
I smiled as we walked down the street to the ice cream shop. Chad and Kiego were talking about something while Honsho and Mizuiro tried to have me join in on their topic. I smiled and laughed and tried my best to keep up with the conversation, but my focus was stuck on Tatsuki and Ichigo who were walking behind us. I kept turning back over my shoulder to make sure they were there.
Lately I had been thinking back to that time more than ever. I waited so long for him to finally say those words to me and then for him to then forget everything. His life. He did such great things and saved so many people and yet we were supposed to hide it from him. I often wondered what the old Ichigo would have said about it. If he would have agreed that we should keep his old life from him or try to find a way to fix it.
Urahara had tried many times to come up with an idea. But it always failed before we could even try.
"Orihime." Tatsuki called my name and I turned to see her running up to me.
"Your still talking about going to University in Tokyo at Tokai right?" I nodded.
"Ichigo said he applied to that one too. Weird huh? Maybe I need to apply there too, we can all go to school together." I glanced at Ichigo as he continued to walk, staring up at the sky. There were bags under his eyes and not much life in his face.
"Ha, yeah. You should Tatsuki." I burst out laughing again, not sure how to react.
"What are you thinking of taking Kurosaki-kun?"
"Oh, uh not sure. Medicine I guess. Not really sure what I wanna be though."
He still looked so lost and confused. This was one of the only times I had spoken to him since... everything. I knew he wouldn't remember me being around very much so I was sure to keep my distance, as did Ishida. We hadn't even heard from Rukia or anyone in Soul Society but we figured they wanted to keep their distance as much as possible.
"You alright Ichigo?" Tatsuki said.
"Sorry, what?"
"Are you alright?"
"Oh yeah just, thinking, I guess."
In the last week he looked more lost than usual. He didn't talk much anymore, he always seemed tired and distant and even with Tatsuki; his best friend, he seemed to want to stay away from her.
When we got into the ice cream shop I got over excited, Tatsuki had told me that it would be a place I would love and she was right. Every weird and delicious flavor I could think of: bean paste and chocolate, eggnog and carrots, I couldn't even decide.
After we all sat down we talked about the school year being done, and what we were all planning after school. I was planning to go to Tokyo mostly to get away from him, but what were the chances that he would follow me there. It hurt that he hardly knew me, it hurt that I lost my chance with him, and it hurt that he seemed so distant. But I had planned to forget about him, being near him like this everyday was unbearable; the thought of being able to get away and forget him had helped. Now that would also be taken away from me.
