(星)

Inoue Orihime was feeling nervous.

It was almost time for recess and since today was her first day in a new school, where was she going to have her lunch?

How she miss her two best friends. She wondered if they were getting ready to share their lunches with each other.

She wondered if she could share her lunch with...

She stole a quick shy peek at the orange-haired classmate sitting next to her,

Two completely different vibrant shades of brown collided.

Startled, they held each other gazes for what seemed like an eternity till Orihime finally offered a small timid smile and looked away.

Kurosaki Ichigo smirked to himself as his auburn-haired classmate turned away from him.

He did not mean to look at her, well he meant to look at her, just not for himself to have been caught by her. He has not been able to keep his eyes off her since he first laid his eyes on her.

What has she done to him?

Kurosaki Ichigo did not ogle girls.

No.

Kurosaki Ichigo did not look at girls.

Period.

So,

Why has he been unable to focus on anything else other than the beauty sitting next to him.

Yes. She was beautiful.

But there seemed to be so much more to her than mere physical attraction on his side.

Ichigo wanted to find out more about her, he wanted to know more about her, he wanted to know everything about her.

Asking her to join him for lunch would be a great start.

He wondered how was he going to do it?

(星)

Ichigo scowled annoyingly at his fellow classmates surrounding Orihime. More like suffocating the poor girl. As soon as the school bell has rang for recess, the whole lot has descended on her like locusts. A ravenous destructive swarm bent on devouring the last innocent fragile plant left standing.

He has to save her.

He has to protect her.

He clenched and unclenched his fists. Eyes gleamed with determination. Heart pounding furiously for what he was about to do. He stood up from his chair.

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo sighed.

A very deep long-suffering sigh.

Instead of rescuing his princess, he has to face his 'friend'.

Before he could get a word out, his female classmate has already grabbed his arm tightly with her own two hands, "Let's go, Ichigo."And she started to pull him away from Orihime.

Only to be stopped by Asano Keigo and Kojima Mizuiro, "Ichigo, why don't you invite your pretty new 'neighbour' to join us?" Keigo drooled over the prospect of the extremely enticing new transfer student having lunch with 'him'.

"Yes. Ichigo, she seemed to be overwhelmed by all the attraction being shown to her." Mizuiro added after his observation.

Their female classmate glared angrily at the two of them, "Just let her be. For all you know, she could be deliberately seeking the attention showered upon her. That attention whore."

Ichigo shook his head and once again before he could say anything, Keigo, perhaps to spite their jealous classmate, shouted at Orihime, "Inoue-san, come on! We are waiting for you!" He lifted Ichigo's free arm and waved at Orihime with it.

Orihime looked up and she almost squeaked out her relief.

She has been feeling so nervous and frantically trying to find a solution for her current dilemma. She did not want to offend any of her new classmates and yet, she was truly uncomfortable with all the questions and praises. When she heard the scrape of her classmate's chair, she thought he was going to do something but she has to witness a petite girl pulled him away from her.

She did not know why she felt so disappointed.

And her heart, it experienced a completely different kind new aching.

Was her heart trying to tell her something?

Now, when she heard her name being called, she quickly took it as a way out. And when she saw it was her orange-haired classmate, her heart nearly jumped out of her mouth or that was how she felt.

And she was being waved at... by him.

She timidly looked him in the face and there appeared to be a small smile of encouragement at her.

He was her knight in shiny armour.

She should not keep him waiting.

Jumping quickly to her feet, she tried to avoid hitting anyone before she offered her sincerest apologies to the classmates surrounding her.

She grabbed her bentou.

She rushed to him.

But in her hurry to get to him, she has forgotten how clumsy she was.

She tripped on her own feet and she was going to fall facedown onto the floor.

She braced herself for the impact but she did not suffer the indignity of having to kiss the floor on her first day at school.

Strong tanned arms have caught her.

She gazed gratefully at the one who rescued her.

Concerned deep chocolate eyes returned the gaze.

"Inoue, are you alright?"

As soon as Ichigo noticed Orihime was in danger of falling down, he torn the clingy grasp from his arm and dashed to save her from damaging her very angelic face.

And now staring at the angel in his arms, he felt unrecognizable emotions coursing throughout his body. Uncomfortable feelings, but not unwanted. He just have to find out in time what these sensations signified.

And yet,

Somehow he knew.

But,

He did not want to admit it was... love.

For he knew loving her will take a lot of courage and he did not want to be in love.

He just did not.

Getting no response from the girl in his arms as she continued to grace him with a look of pure admiration on her very cute blushing face, he gulped at the undeserved honor bestowed on him.

He forced, imaginary or real, what was preventing him from speaking to go down his throat by swallowing very hard.

He gazed into her mesmerizing soft honey eyes.

"Inoue, are you alright?" He repeated in a gentle voice as he slowly released her from his arms, but seeing her still wobbling on her shaking feet, he lent support to her by holding both her wrists again.

He could feel her pulses throbbing rhythmically fast underneath his rough hands.

Her small pink tongue came out to wet her perched lips as Orihime slowly composed herself to assure her saviour she was fine.

"I-I a-am..." She found her voice again albeit stammering, but she was separated from him again

A pair of contemptuous dark eyes glared at her, "Of course, she's alright! The pretentious bitch!" She spat out.

This time Ichigo was not going to let her get away from insulting an innocent girl. he scowled at her, "Apologize now, Mi..."

"NO! Why should I!" She shouted back furiously.

"It is alright, Kurosaki-kun. I am not offended. Your sister did not mean anything by it." Orihime turned to to give her a friendly little smile. Facing the orange-haired girl, she was so staggered by the sheer hatred directed at her that she did not see the hand coming towards her.

"You stupid bitch!" She shrieked. She wanted to slap the princess's fair face so badly.

Ichigo caught the arm before it could make contact with Orihime's blanched face.

"Don't you even dare think of hurting her!" He growled out his protectiveness of the ashen-face girl. "And I am warning you now," He glared intimidating at her, "No more of your sick scaring tactics!"

The threatened classmate did not seem to be overly bother with the chilling warning, instead she pierced the auburn-haired beauty with another of her full of contempt look and stomp off.

Orihime stared in confusion at the back of her classmate. She was transported back to the days of being bullied because of what the bullies deemed whatever they found not to their liking, it was up to them to correct it.

That being her hair. Absent-mindedly, she stroke her long hair, at least back then she had her brothers to warn off the bullies once they knew their sister was being bullied.

But now, who will protect her?

A single lonely tear, much like how she was feeling now, slowly began its sad journey from the corner of her eye to descend down her blushing cheek,

But before it could hit the ground and disappear forever,

A rough finger reached out, gently caressing her face as it carefully collected the lone tear onto it.

This was not love, right?

(星)

(Yoshi. I am home. I am back. What!? Nobody noticed I was gone. My friend did good, eh? He posted all I have written. I hoped to go through them once I have the time. Now I need to do a update for this story and a few more before I disappear again. Two words. WORLD CUP! Will give thanks for the suggestions given for the classmate and explain my choice in my next update. Hopefully it will be before the whistle is blown. ;)