A/N:

Hey there,

Thank you so much for reading and for the reviews, I was so happy when I read them. They're so motivating. I wrote the first chapter of this FF years ago, but never had the chance and the motivation to write more.
I want to thank my Betareader Renji4eva for reading over my stuff, just to give you all a chapter without annoying grammar or vocabulary failures. Thank you so much!

And have fun!

Standing on the edge

Chapter 3

Or

Chapter 5/10

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„I can't do this anymore."

"But you said you're gonna help me!"

The blue eyed man in the black tuxedo could not look into the eyes of the red haired girl. There was pain in the air and he knew had to tell her. After some seconds, his voice echoed through the dark sky.

"That was a long time ago. In a time when I used to love you..."

The girl gasped.

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"Oh my God!"

Orihime was throwing red bean-paste covered popcorns into her mouth. Her eyes were reflecting the flickering of the TV screen.

"I can't believe that. He's such an ass, honestly!"

Rangiku was sitting next to Orihime. She was eating chips coated in red bean paste instead. Some of them were landing on the cleavage of her big boobs. But it did not seem to bother her.

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To be continued...

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"Nooooo!"

"They're always doing this!"

Orihime took the zapper and turned the television off. She was annoyed and nervous and everything but calm. That was such a thrilling episode. Once a month, a new episode of "Shadow's Dust" was aired on TV. It was Orihime's and Rangiku's favourite series. And every time, Rangiku came to the living world to watch it together with Orihime while they ate and talked about weird stuff at the same time.

Rangiku got up from the floor and made herself comfortable on the couch, as whenever they watched TV, they got so drawn in that they always ended up sitting right in front of it. Rangiku had heard about something and a cheeky grin crept on her lips.

"Orihime, so is it right that you shared a kiss with someone lately?"

Said girl snorted and choked at that statement.

"Wh - who..?"

"Oh honey, such things are spreading like fire in Gotei 13. Come here, Orihime."

Rangiku tapped on the seat beside her, indicating for Orihime to sit there. She saw that the younger girl was blushing. She liked that. It showed Orihime's innocence, the cute seventeen years she had lived so far. Sometimes, Rangiku felt like an old grandma when she talked about things like that with her.

Orihime stepped up to the couch and deposited herself beside Rangiku. She looked shy and seemed edgy. And she was blushing.

"Rangiku-san... I didn't expected that from him. Truly, I was taken away..."

Rangiku's eyes softened, her smile growing wider.

"That's normal. It was your first kiss after all. Tell me how it felt!"

Orihime was flustered, although, she knew she could tell Rangiku-san everything. She trusted her. She really was like an older sister to Orihime.

"It was great... And weird, at once. His lips were so soft. And I think, we didn't do much during the... kiss... Our lips were just touching."

And then, all of sudden, the younger girl's look became irritated and worried. She gazed at the floor.

"But there was something else, too. Rangiku-san, you know that I like him so much. But I hesitated at some moments because he felt different... Demanding... I really don't know, what to think about it."

Orihime sighed. Honestly, it had felt weird. She had imagined it very often. In her dreams. In her daydreams. In every single moment. She had forced herself back then, to do it. And she could remember, that she had failed. And after that, she used to imagine it to happening every time when they were alone. That he would kiss her, just like he did a few days ago. And yet, she was feeling unsatisfied. Like something was not right.

"Has he said anything after that?"

"No... We didn't talked since then."

"Why not?"

Rangiku became worried. That was not how she had imagined it would be.

"I really don't know. We haven't had the chance to talk. We weren't alone since then."

"You know, we have things called phones?"

"Yeah, I know... I couldn't overcome myself. And he didn't message me or anything, either."

Orihime sighed again. What if he didn't liked the kiss? What if he thought that it was a mistake? She just couldn't bring that up when she was with him. But she couldn't act like nothing had happened either.

And Rangiku was thinking, that it was common. That two people, who liked each other that much, were not speaking about their feelings. Simply acting strange and everything even though it was so easy to clear up mistakes. Things were getting complicated for nothing.

"Orihime, listen to me."

Rangiku placed her hand on Orihime's. She looked into her eyes, smiling all the time to comfort her. Her voice was gentle.

"You're such a beautiful girl and Ichigo is one lucky guy to be loved by someone like you. You're thinking it's weird, but everything is weird and different when you do it the first time. You both haven't experienced something like this before. But ignoring each other makes things worse."

"But what should I do?"

"How about you go find him and confront him with your situation?"

"You really think I should do that?"

"Aa, I definitely think that."

She had thought about the words of the sophisticated woman. And she knew that she was right about the things Rangiku-san had said. Orihime was waiting for nothing. And she was becoming more and more unhappy and anxious as more time went by. She had to do something. So she decided, in the middle of the night, to confront him with the complex situation they shared lately. She could not wait a minute longer. It bothered her too much. She took her keys, threw a jacket over her shoulders and stepped outside her apartment.

If anybody knew that she was going to walk to the Kurosaki-kun's home so late at night, she was sure that it would really piss everyone off. She thought of how scary Kurosaki-kun's expression would be and tried to keep her reiatsu down to its lowest level.

Her thoughts were fading away as she walked through dark and cold streets. And the streets were somehow becoming never ending trails. She was also freezing. Orihime started to jog. Maybe it would heat her up. Her thoughts came back to her mind. What if he hesitated because she did not say anything to him afterwards? What if he was worried that she did not like it when he had kissed her? Orihime became optimistic – What if he had the same thoughts that she did?

She would tell him that he did not have to worry about it. That she was happy when it had happened. That she had imagined it happening so many times. That she had liked it, the feeling of his soft lips against hers. Maybe that would cheer him up. She just had to find him now. They already had wasted too much time. Time they could have spent together instead of being apart. She wanted to be with him so much right now. She wanted to bury his doubts in a deep black hole. She wanted to hold him. She really was yearning for him.

And after an eternity, she could finally see the Kurosaki house. As she stood in front of it, she looked up. She knew exactly where his room was. There, where no lights were burning. But that was not a problem. Regardless of whether she hated waking him up right now, she just had to.

She tiptoed closer to the house. Taking a small stone from the ground, she carefully threw it against the window. A quiet 'Tock' was heard. After a few seconds, she took another little stone and did the same. A third and a fourth time. But nothing happened.

Orihime sighed, as she did so often. It could not be that he was sleeping that deeply, could it? Her head snapped up as she heard something from above. She saw that his window was opening. And that a man with orange hair looked at her with his tired eyes. She could see them widen when he finally spotted her. Then a conversation of whispers took place.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

"Orihime-san?"

"Is that you, Kon?"

"Aa."

"Where's Kurosaki-kun?"

"He went to take care of some hollows."

Orihime could see hesitation spreading in his eyes.

"I'll wait until he's back. Thank you, Kon."

"You don't have to wait, Orihime-san. When he's back, I'll tell him that you were here."

"Thanks Kon, but I prefer to wait for him."

"Why don't you come in? I could open the door for you."

"I'll just wait here. Go to sleep Kon, it's very late. But thank you very much."

"Alright... Good night, Orihime-san."

Orihime knew about Kon's obsession with her. She did not want to be in a room alone with him. No matter how much she hated to say such things, he could be annoying sometimes. She felt a bit relieved when she heard the closing of the window. After Kurosaki-kun told her that the little stuffed animal was a mod soul who was perverted and was mostly thinking about her chest, things became different between her and the cute animal. She could not find him cute anymore.

But then, this was Kon, after all and she liked him. He was a good soul and he was taking care of Kurosaki-kun's body.

She waited and decided not to think anymore. The more she thought, the more doubtful she felt about her purpose. She settled herself on a large stone in the Kurosaki garden and pulled her jacket tighter around her body.

She waited and waited.

But she could not sense his reiatsu anywhere near. Well, he had become very good at hiding it. Ishida-kun had persuaded him to learn how to do that from him. She wished that he hadn't. She could not follow him now. And her eyelids were getting heavy. So heavy. But she wanted to see him. Talk to him. So she forced herself back to life.

And waited and waited.

But she could not wait anymore. Whether she wanted to see him or not, at this rate, she was going to fall asleep in front of his house. And that was not something she would like him to see. And after an hour which felt like eternity, she decided to go back home. Maybe it had been a good thing that she come to his home even if she did not have the opportunity to talk to him. She was tired. And maybe, she could get some sleep now.

As she walked home, deep brown eyes followed her figure. She did not notice. That person was afraid to talk to her. Too afraid that he would make things worse if he came closer to her. So he followed her in silence, until she was in her apartment. Until she was laying safely in her bed.

He was her guard in secret.

And he would always be.

A/N:

Liked it? Please review! Next chapter will be updated soon.

WhiteKandis