Hi guys! 'Sup?

Here's the second chapter.

I would like to apologize for the many misspelled words in the first chapter. I re-read it and I almost gagged at the grammatical errors and yeah, misspelled words. I won't edit it though as I'm too lazy... :) In the meantime, enjoy chapter two. Huzzah!


Chapter II: In which HE is bothered.


Orihime was fighting off her sleep as Ochi-sensei actively discussed the answers to the homework she assigned the class to do yesterday. She 'cutely squeaked' as Ichigo put it when Tatsuki poked her side to help her stay awake.

Yes, Ichigo is watching Orihime like a hawk the whole time in class. It's not like he wanted to see her face or something. Nope. He was just concerned for the girl. It seems like she didn't get any sleep again from last night.

He frowned. Yesterday night was weird. When his badge signaled for a hollow to dispatch off, he quickly went to the source of disturbance and was no surprised that yet again, the hollow was in Orihime's place as it has been happening lately. The thing that surprised him was that Urahara was there, with Orihime, standing in front of her, as if he knows that the hollow is after her. Ichigo ignored it though, thinking that maybe Urahara is only looking out for others' safety and as long as its Orihime's, then it's okay.

But why in the world would hollows attack Orihime? Even Rukia and Renji was weirded out by the situation. What would the hollows want from Orihime? Ever since the Hueco Mundo incident, Ichigo swore that he'll protect Orihime and will not anyone get their hands to her, but it seems that its going to happen again. For some reason, he feels like something he doesn't want to happen will happen. And it unsettles him. Big time.

He sighed and took a glance at the auburn-haired girl. He frowned. Orihime's completely dropped her head at the desk and Ochi-sensei's called her three times already but to no avail, the girl won't wake up.

The teacher went to the girl's table and was about to wake Orihime up when suddenly Ichigo voiced his disagreement. "Don't wake her, sensei. She's quite tired from last night. She didn't get enough sleep, so don't wake her. She needs to rest."

Ochi-sensei stared at him, dumbly. The teacher then reddened, thinking of something rather perverted than what the boy really meant.

The vagueness of what he stated caused his classmates to murmur and whisper at each other and in just a minute, a new rumor was established: Ichigo and Orihime did something lovey-dovey last night.

Tatsuki sighed and murmured something about Ichigo being stupid.

At this, Keigo stood up, cheeks burning and pointed a finger at Ichigo. "You! I can't believe you, Ichigo! You tainted Orihime-chan!"

Ichigo's brows furrowed. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Mizuiro patted Ichigo's shoulder smiling, "You do realize that you just subtly hinted that you and Orihime did something naughty together and you're acting like a protective boyfriend."

The young shinigami widened his eyes as realization hit him like his dad would hit him. He stood up, waving his hands frantically to clear things up. "What I meant is that she- she- Inoue... seems... she looks tired can't you-"

The girls giggled, the guys congratulated him, and Ochi-sensei is still standing up near Orihime, dumbly.

His explanation was cut short as the bell rang, signaling that it was lunch time.


"Way to go, Ichigo. I didn't know you had it in you." Mizuiro chuckled.

"Fuck off and will you stop glaring at me, Keigo? It creeps me out, so just stop, okay. Stop."

Keigo, still glaring at Ichigo, then straightened hi face and asked, "So, how was it like?"

"Huh?"

"You know, being on top of Orihime." Keigo wiggled his brows, urging Ichigo to share with him the details of what happened last night, which was, in fact, non-existent.

Ichigo face-palmed himself. "For the hundredth time, We didn't do - " He fell silent, remembering, again, the dream. That dream. That oh so sexy dream he had about Orihime.

She was gasping, trying to keep up with him. "Ichigo!" She screamed as he hit another particular spot that made Orihime gaga for more. He continued his pace: fast and hard. Orihime continued to moan, her nails digging his back. He stared at her lips and licked his lips. He wanted to taste those soft, pink, and pump lips of her so he dove in and kissed Orihime - hard...

Keigo snapped his fingers in front of Ichigo's face and grinned. "You're reminiscing about it, aren't you? You're red!"

Ichigo flushed for being caught and cursed. "I was not." He then stood up and excused himself to the bathroom with Keigo shouting at him for being unfair because he doesn't want to share his experience with Orihime. It was quite true with the dream and all but he doesn't want to share it because: 1. It was him and Orihime, 2. It's his own dream, therefore it should be private, 3. He's bothered by the vividness of his dream, and 4. It's not like a dream; it feels like fragments of his memory, which flashes in his mind by means of dreams. Well, whatever. For the time being, he's going to enjoy pumping Orihime fast and hard while massaging those soft mounds...

Ichigo stopped his tracks and hit his head in the wall beside him, trying to stop those fragmented memories.


Orihime was rounding the corner with Tatsuki when he found Ichigo headbutting with the wall. She ran to him.

"Kurosaki-kun, what are you playing at?"

Ichigo stopped what he was doing and furrowed his brows. That was weird. He can usually feel Orihime's reiatsu when she's near. But today, particularly now, he can't sense her reiatsu and it bugged the hell out of him. Regardless, he answered her.

"My head just hurts."

Tatsuki rolled her eyes. "Let's go back to class, Orihime. I don't want the Ichigo's stupidity influencing you." She said, dragging Orihime.

Orihime waved at Ichigo. "You should go to the clinic, Kurosaki-kun and uhh, see you in class." She smiled.

He smiled.


It was dismissal time. Classes ended at exactly 3:00 P.M and students are crowding the gate, excited to go home.

"Inoue, I'm going to walk you to your workplace."

The auburn-haired girl suddenly whipped her head to look at Ichigo, surprised. Now, under a different situation, this gesture would be sweet and Orihime would shout all over Karakura how she's happy that her one-sided love, her long time crush, her strawberry scowling boy just volunteered to walk her to her workplace.

But alas, the situation is, indeed, a different one. She didn't want to turn down Ichigo's offer, but accepting it would be the same as telling him: "Sure, but the thing is, I'm not going to my workplace. I'm going to Urahara's for my daily checkup and yeah, it's my third and last day tomorrow to make a decision whether I stay here and abort our baby or move to Soul Society and give birth to our baby and raised him/her there. And yes, as you've heard correctly, I'm pregnant and you're the father. Let's go!"

She sighed. "There's no need for you to do that, Kurosaki-kun. My workplace is quite near so I can manage on my own." She said without flailing.

He scowled. She smiled. She really loved that scowl. For some intriguing reason, his scowl turns her on. And that is so weird... Weirder than her obsessing over red bean paste.

"Stop making reasons, Inoue. I'm not buying it today."

"But you bought yesterday, and the other day!" She said, grimacing in the end because she just realized how stupid that move is - revealing the fact that she has been making excuses to avoid Ichigo walking her to her workplace.

The orange-haired boy smirked, grabbed her left forearm gently, and started dragging her towards the door. "Let's go."


They were walking near the gate of the school when she spoke. "Kurosaki-kun, I'm not going to my workplace. I'm actually going to go grocery shopping, so please go home now." She nervously stated.

Ichigo ignored her fifth obvious excuse for him to not walk her to her workplace. That is, if she really is going. Whatever.

"Then I'll walk you to the grocery store or wherever place you'll come up with in a span of thirty seconds."

She looked up at him, wondering.

"Yes. I noticed that you were constantly changing the place of where you will go for every thirty seconds. I'm that smart to notice that."

She pouted. She knows that there's no escaping Ichigo when he's so damned insistent on doing something. She was reminded of how he was so intent on saving Rukia; how he was so intent on blaming himself for eternity for the death of his mother; and heaven forbid her to forget how he was so sexily intent (Orihime finds it sexy) on bringing her back from Hueco Mundo. And now, Ichigo, on his very insistent behavior, is out and about intent on walking Orihime to wherever place she can come up with.

As she was deep in her thought as how she would escape from Ichigo and go to Urahara, The orange-haired shinigami spoke.

"Is there something wrong, Inoue? And don't play coy this time." He warned, his eyes narrowing.

Orihime contemplated on what her reply should be because frankly, she, too, is worried over Ichigo worrying over her. She bit her lip.

"Don't worry over me, Kurosaki-kun. I'm mighty fine!"

Frustrated, Ichigo grunted. "Then why the hell those freaking hollows are always appearing at your place or near you, and they seem to have take an interest in eating you. It's like you're their new red bean paste or something."

Orihime laughed. "That's funny. I didn't know you can make jokes, Kurosaki-kun!" She sighed. "I actually don't know." Lie. "But I consulted Urahara-san over this and he said that maybe they are just hungry for a certain healer: me!" She giggled. "And he said maybe it's because of my reiatsu."

His brows are still furrowed, thinking of her reply. "Okay, so where actually are you going?"

She nervously giggled. "To Urahara's"


"Hmm. It's quite simple: it's because she can't hide her reiatsu and she's got a tremendous amount of it." Urahara explained to the most insistent scowling person ever - Ichigo.

"Then why can't I sense her reiatsu clearly?" Ichigo asked, annoyed.

"You can sense my reiatsu?" Orihime asked, surprised.

Urahara chuckled. Ah, young love. "I see that you've got some overprotective boyfriendly issue here, Ichigo." He said, waving his fan.

At that, both teenagers reddened.

"What?! I'm just curious, okay. And worried. Geez" Ichigo explained, stuttering.

"And to answer your questionable over-protectiveness I've been teaching our dear Orihime on how to hide her reiatsu so that hollows won't ever attack her anymore." Urahara said, looking straight at Orihime, conveying something only the two of them knew, plus Yoruichi.

He nodded, getting a bit assured of Orihime's safety.

"So see, Kurosaki-kun, there's nothing to worry about." She smiled. Still, he's not convinced. There's something in his stomach that says he shouldn't be convinced of her reassuring smiles; he has this gut feeling that there's something Orihime's not saying and it's bothering him.


As they neared Orihime's apartment, Ichigo stopped walking and spoke. "If a hollow attacks you tonight, please call me right away. I don't want to wait for the late signals indicating their presence. I want to be there to save you right away."

Orihime was touched by his statement. It was too sweet of him. "Thank you, Kurosaki-kun. But I have to remind you that you don't need to take all the burden. Sometimes others' shoud take the burden because they deserve it." She looked down and looked up at Ichigo again. "You should learn to think of yourself and not blame yourself every time someone gets hurt or something happens to them. It's not your fault, okay?" She held out her right hand and touched his left cheek. "Though I'm grateful and happy for your concern, I'm not a damsel in distress, Kurosaki-kun. I need to sort my own problems too, by myself. I don't want to depend on others anymore and burden them. I need to stand on my own feet and face my problems. Sorry, I'm blabbering. I don't know what's gotten in to me." She said, emotionally.

Ichigo furrowed and furrowed his eyebrows as he listened to Orihime's long declaration of something, and the one thing he concluded is that: Orihime is hiding something big from him. And he is fuggingly bothered by it.

He held out his left hand and put it on top of Orihime's right, which was still touching his left cheek. "Okay, I didn't understand anything from what you said but there's one thing I need you to promise me: don't go off on your own again like what you did when you went to Hueco Mundo without telling anyone. I've got this gut feeling that you've got some big problem and you'll just walk away from us again to try and solve it on your own, but promise me... promise me that you won't leave. You won't leave Karakura, you won't leave us..." You won't leave me... He thought

She sighed and closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she silently said,

"I promise."

Lie.


There you have it. Reviews? Review!