Greetings. Thank you for reading this Fan Fiction. I am attempting to keep everyone in character, which in a situation like this is difficult. I hope you enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, if I did….why would I be writing fan fiction instead of Bleach? I simply own the plotlines and some creative quotes.

Ichigo Thinking/talking

Hollow Ichigo (Hichigo) Talking

Chapter 2 — Deep Breaths

Orihime awoke the next morning to Ichigo nudging her shoulder and shaking her.

"Hime, get up, I have breakfast for you." His voice was soft and gentle, not scaring her, and she got up, slowly making her way to the kitchen table.

Ichigo set a plate in front of her with a bowl of rice, fruit, and eggs. Something light enough for her stomach, yet with enough nutrients that Ichigo wasn't going to have to worry about her all day.

She began to eat, although she wasn't thrilled about the odd food, but Orihime had to admit, Ichigo didn't cook all that badly.

"Today is Friday and apparently we have a four day weekend, because the teachers have an in school service day today and one on Monday. I'm going to be here with you, okay Hime?" Ichigo sat in a chair across from her and crossed his arms. "Think you can handle school on Tuesday? I'm not going to force you. If you need to stay home, I'll stay with you. I won't leave you alone."

"Thank you, Ichigo."

Orihime felt tears come to her eyes. Why was Ichigo so good to her, when she only brought him trouble?

"You have nothing to thank me for, Orihime."

His eyes bore into hers and she felt a blush graze her cheeks, which caused Ichigo to smile one of his rare smiles.

"I checked the test last night, you aren't pregnant." The smile faded as he spoke. "Orihime, I'm so sorry I couldn't get to you." He knelt on the floor and set his head in her lap. "I am so sorry. I didn't protect you enough."

Ichigo wrapped his arm around her small waist.

After Orihime set down the bowl, she hesitantly put her hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault Ichigo." Tears were in her eyes, and she attempted to hold them back. Ichigo's guilt would eat at him if she didn't alleviate him of the burden. "I never blamed you for not getting to me sooner. I prayed that you would save me, and you did, but you don't have to feel guilty over something that you had no control over. I watched you, I knew you would save me. You went through so much and I don't know how to thank you."

She slowly leaned down and wrapped her arms around him, and pulled him up.

"Thank you."

Her tears fell freely in front of him. She had no reason to hide anymore.

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"Orihime, I was so worried about you!"

It was finally Tuesday, and Tatsuki ran over to hug Orihime only to have her move to step out of reach, cringing when she touched her. Tatsuki slowly let go when Orihime began to struggle against her hold, panicking.

"Orihime? What's… What's the matter?"

"Just let go of her, Tatsuki," Ichigo quietly stated as he gently pulled the shaking Orihime into his arms.

He cursed under his breath as he felt her tremble and whimper.

Her eyes were glazed and seemed to be somewhere else. Ichigo looked down at her and forced her to look at him.

"Orihime stop. You're fine. You're here with me. Look at me. It's Ichigo. Look at me." He watched as her eyes began to focus on his face then began clouding up as tears formed in her eyes. He hated being so rough, but treating her like broken glass wasn't going to make her get better.

"Tatsuki, I'm sorry." Orihime looked at her best friend and bowed in apology.

She hadn't known that her fear would extend to women too. It seemed as though any contact made her brain overreact, but then Aizen hadn't just used sexual abuse. He had used Loly and Menoly to abuse her as well…Not that they needed a lot of prompting for some reason.

"What happened to you Orihime?" Tatsuki looked confused and hurt before looking at Ichigo who had a protective arm around Orihime's waist. "Why don't you trust me anymore?"

She had tears brimming in her eyes, and Orihime gulped.

Sighing, Ichigo decided to clear a couple things up.

"Tatsuki, it's not just you. If Orihime wants, we can tell you later. But not here. Don't you do that to her." His voice became hard on the last couple sentences, he hadn't meant for it to, but his hollow was seeping though, and the voice in his head was getting to him.

Hey, King? Why didn't you let me take control and just save our girl? It would have been better.' The hollow snickered. 'So weak that you couldn't save her, just like with your mother. You kill off women, you are too weak. I could overthrow you, and….. take her for myself.

Shut the fuck up, horse, Ichigo snapped at his hollow.

"Ichigo? What the hell do you mean by that?" Tatsuki snarled at him. "You're the one that didn't save her! Yet, she runs to you! She's your girlfriend and you left her there!"

Ichigo stepped away from Orihime as Tatsuki reached forward and gripped him by his shirt.

"You stupid bastard! How could you!" Her fist drew back and was about to hit him when Tatsuki felt a weight on her arm. "O-Orihime?"

"Tatsuki, please stop. He did save me. He did. I'll tell you everything at home. But please, don't hurt him. He did so much, went through so much for me and it was all my fault, Tatsuki. So please don't hurt him more."

Orihime's soft eyes stared at her and Tatsuki slowly let go of Ichigo and stepped back.

"Orihime? What do you mean?" Her eyes welled with tears that she couldn't understand this. Somehow, she knew that Orihime wasn't lying. Maybe when Ichigo went to that weird guy's place, he was actually trying to help Orihime?

Ichigo again wrapped his arm around Orihime's shoulders.

"Tatsuki, I— We will tell you everything later. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." With that he pulled Orihime forward towards their class.

"Ichigo…There's so many people," Orihime stuttered as she and Ichigo walked to homeroom. He could see her trembling. "I don't know why I'm so scared. It's not like they know."

"Hime, you will be fine. None of them know. They will never know," He whispered into her ear. They made it to homeroom and by the time they did, Orihime felt like she was going to puke. There were too many people. The boys stared at her and she felt it like they were touching her. Why had she never noticed before?

"Ichigo... I have to…go to the restroom…I'll be back," She whispered before she ran from the room.

He turned and followed her, ignoring the snickers of the girls who had always been jealous of her. Apparently, he hadn't been the only one to notice the look on her face.

King, why didn't you tell those whores to shut up and leave our woman alone? The hollow sounded generally curious. Morbidly curious.

They're girls. I'm not trash enough to hurt women, Ichigo sneered at the hollow in his head.

He stood, leaning against the wall outside the girl's restroom. Ichigo knew what was happening and his gut clenched at the idea of Orihime being so scared that she felt the urged to vomit.

The door opened to reveal Orihime, pale and trembling.

"Hime… Let's go home."

He wrapped his arm around her and they began to walk to the office to get permission to leave.

Since Orihime lived alone, she could leave, but unfortunately, Ichigo had to call his father.

By the time they reached the house, Orihime had regained some of her natural color. She still felt nauseated and faint, but compared to when she was at the school, she felt almost as good as new. Her legs still trembled and her bottom lip quivered, and Ichigo kept a firm grip on her body as they made their way up the stairs.

"You overdid it." Ichigo stared down at her, watching her frail body tremble as he carefully guided her to the couch.

"They stared at me…I could feel their touch Ichigo. It was so disgusting, like they knew what happened. I never saw them look at me that way before. The boys, they all had the same look, that look…" Her voice trailed off as she remembered the look in Aizen's eyes. His hands cold and rough on her skin, his teeth, his breath…

She whimpered aloud.

"Hime look at me. Now. Stop going back there!"

Ichigo stared into her eyes, trying to show her his love through that look. Love, not lust. Orihime felt herself being pulled out of the darkness by his brown eyes. There was no lust in his eyes. She felt her body relax, and slowly she closed her eyes before opening them once more.

He was still there.

His orange hair and brown eyes, the trademark frown. She could trust Ichigo. He had never touched her in lust, or desire. They had never even kissed. Ichigo hadn't used her and as she watched him, she felt a small smile tug at her lips.

He was the one guardian she wanted for the rest of her life.

Ichigo watched as Orihime's lips pulled into a small smile, and couldn't help but sigh in relief. She was out of that dark place in her mind.

Thank goodness…

The hollow laughed, a high pitched, evil, disconcerting sound. You think that she's healing? I could make her heal faster. One day King, I'll be in control and take her. I'll make her mine, and she'll learn how a woman is supposed to be.

Bastard! You leave her alone! She's mine. Ichigo growled at his hollow. How could that thing be a part of him?

Hichigo smiled in his Kings mind. Just you wait King. When you're weak, I'll take over and make you watch as I use her. It's not like it has never crossed your mind. I know what you really want to do to her. You are not as innocent as you lead people to believe, King...

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Orihime's Journal

Hueco Mundo -Entry Two

I can't help but cry. I feel so disgusting. Aizen came to my room earlier and he took the only thing I had dear to me anymore. I can still feel his touch and I can barely keep myself here in my mind. My body betrayed me… What did I do to cause this?

Ulquiorra came in after and Aizen told him to clean me.

I have nothing left. My virginity and my security are gone. Ulquiorra's touch scared me and I know he could sense it. Those eyes that are usually so cold, held something close to disgust, with Aizen or with me, I do not know, but I suspect the latter. Those cold hands hurt me just as much as Aizen's. I hated the way he saw me weak.

I hate what's become of me.

A/N: This one was longer as a thank you to those who reviewed; I hope you enjoyed the introduction of Hichigo and Tatsuki. Those two are going to be very important to the story. Hichigo especially. I am going to upload a minimum of 1 time a week, however, if there are more reviews, and ideas given, it will help with the process of writing. I do love writing; yet it is nice to receive encouragement. The next chapter will be up soon, I hoped this met everyone's expectations. I haven't been able to send any chapters to my Beta because of some technical difficulties; but I want you to be able to enjoy them, so I apologize for the mistakes, I do try to Beta them myself.

R3iga11004: I have the story plotted out, and as a result I know where I am going…mostly. I change things here and there, but I have the end result. ^-^ Thank you, I was reading other fan fictions and couldn't help but look at my writing as think 'uggg… I am horrible.' But I suppose that is how the human mind works. Thank you for the reviews!

Ladycifer: Yes, the hurt and pain are an integral part of the story. I had some issues with the pregnancy and ended up deciding to not make her pregnant….I think that Ichigo thanks me for that…In my head I could hear him yelling at me, and since he's my favorite character I cut him some slack. Thank you for the compliment. I am trying very hard to keep everyone in character, and watch my diction and syntax. I always seem to degrade my writing, and it is difficult to view yourself as a good writer when surrounded by such wonderful writers such as Alice Hattercandy, Missteak, overactiveimagination39 and Chiera(to name a few of my favorite writers here). Ichigo was the hardest, he is so complex, and….difficult. Thanks for the reviews!

Child of the Ashes: Thank you so much, I feel honored. I love your fan fictions. The first chapter was problematic, seeing as I was trying to give subtle hints without too much detail. It is a very touchy subject and I didn't want to offend anyone, but the idea has been in my mind for a while. I hope you decide to stay with the story. ^-^

Nypsy: When I say depressing and dark I mean more heavy than fluffy. I try to add some fluff and sweet moments, but because Orihime was raped and has to put that behind her there may be some darker scenes. I thought about rating it T, but I figured just to be safe I'd rate it M, so I have some leeway. I don't think I'll run you off however; I am the ever hopeless romantic. Nevertheless, I make the characters go through some pretty heavy things before I allow them to live 'Happily Ever After.'

Thank you all for the comments. I hope you stick with the story and keep reviewing, I was so happy to see the reviews; it is nice to see that people are accepting the story idea.