Chapter 3: In which Ichigo meets Orihime

(Orihime's house)

"Happy Birthday Hime" said her brother Sora

"Thank you nii-san!" said a 9 yrs old Orihime Inoue who had short orange hair

"Here's your gift" said sora handing her a small gift wrapped box

She quickly took it and tore it open

"What?! I am not a kid anymore why would you give me hairpins" she said throwing them and turned away pouting and couldn't see the look of hurt cross his face for a moment before he hid it behind a fake smile.

"hmmm..." he said trying not to sound hurt by her reaction while he was deeply saddened by this "well then i guess i will have to get you a new gift when i return from work..."

"I know you hate me, first you give me a useless gift and then you are not even spending your time with me even though its my birthday" said the girl to her brother "I hate you"

Sora was completely devastated by that he cursed himself and his boss inwardly that man was slave driver he never allowed his employes more than a leave per 3 months and would fire the person who took another leave..

Oh poor sora! how could he make her understand that all of this was for the sake of orhime only but what could he do he didn't have any qualifications and even his current boss took him in only because sora agreed to half payment.

He stood up and went to the front door ready to leave for his work he said a 'fakely' happy "good bye" but no reply came so he stood and left.

He was walking on the road thinking about what had happened today and was lost in his thoughts.He didn't see a car comming and when he did it was too late.

Accident *

(Orihime's POV)

Orihime was sitting in her room thinking about how she had reacted to his brother and felt extremely guilty.

She suddenly stood up and decided that she would go to his office and apologize to him then she searched the room and found the hairclip her brother had gifted her and mirracolously it was completely intact but she ignored it and put it on.

A few minutes later

Orihime was walking on the way to her brother's office and spotted spotted someone lying on the road in a pool of blood, she hurried towards the person to help him but was stopped on her tracks when she spotted that this person was none other than her brother.

She kneeled down next to her brother trying to make sure he was all right and chanting the mantra of ' Please be fine' 'Please wake up' and looked around for someone but unfortunately the street was empty so she did the only thing she could think of and carried him on her back and started running toward the nearest clinic or hospital.

At first that was all she could comprehend; she was running.

The longer she ran the more she felt, the more she saw, the more she heard. There was something heavy on her back, something that was pushing her forward and making it hard to keep her balance, but she was determined to. It was raining and she was soaking wet and cold, but something was dripping down on her right shoulder, making's way down her arm and front, and it was warm. The streets were all a stark gray, they matched the sky overhead. She was running towards something, something important. Suddenly she was stopped in front of a small building, but larger than the others. Her eyes looked up for a brief moment, landing on a sign.

'Kurosaki Clinic'

"Help!" she cried out, taking a hand that had been holding up the weight on her back and banging on the door, "Somebody help!"

"What's the emergency?" a gruff voice asked, the door opened to reveal a man, much taller than her, with short black hair and a beard. He laid eyes on her and they widened considerably, "Masaki!" he called out, turning around so his voice reverberated through the house.

"What is it dear?" a sweet voice asked, walking to the front. Once the woman's eyes landed on the sight she gasped and covered her mouth.

"See to the girl." The man said, reaching over to take the thing she was carrying.

The woman nodded, rushing forward as the weight was removed from her back. It was a man, a man in a blue suite. Blood stained much of the suite; a piece of metal could be seen piercing the cloth. He groaned as he was moved, but it was for the better. She didn't know what was happening, but he needed to be taken care of, quickly.

"Come with me dear." The woman, Masaki, said gently, pulling her along the hallways of the house as the man she had been carrying was taken somewhere else.

She didn't really understand much of what had happened, but she found herself cleaned up and in dry clothes. Masaki had washed away everything she could and found her a pair of nice clothes to put on while she waited. But that hadn't been all, Masaki also stayed with her, her gentleness made her calm.

"What's your name?" Masaki asked suddenly.

"I-Inoue Orihime." She answered; she felt something on her cheeks. She was crying?

"Orihime." Masaki repeated, "That's such a beautiful name, it suites you so well."

"Th-thank you." Orihime replied, and gradually she looked up at Masaki's face.

The woman offered her a smile, a gentle and caring smile. It made Orihime warm inside, it told her everything was going to be alright. Orihime couldn't stop the small smile that came to her own face as she looked at the older woman.

But that smile had been a lie.

"Listen Orihime I am going to help my husband to heal your brother and be a good girl !OK?"

"OK" Inoue said sniffing

A few minutes later

In the waiting room of the Kurosaki clinic. Ichigo just came down for a glass of water, when he heard a little girl crying. He watched with sadness in his eyes, he saw her face buried in her hands short orange hair, about the same shade as his, going over her hands, he walked over and sat beside her.

"Who are you waiting for?" He asked after a while of thinking of what to say

She sniffled, wiped her tears and looked up at the little boy, "My Big Brother, Sora… he was in a car accident, he's hurt really bad." she replied more tears rolling down her cheeks.

He paused, not sure how to talk to a crying girl, "I am sorry" he finally said, "It must be hard to lose someone you love"

"Well he's not dead! Are you saying my brother's going to die?! Ohhh!" she cried loudly

"N- no! I'm just saying how hard it is to deal with this" Ichigo was feeling very guilty so he rephrased his sentence desperately trying to stop the girl from crying.

She was about to use her sweater sleeve as a tissue until Ichigo offered her a real one, which she accepted, "Thank you"

He nodded, "What's your name?"

She slowly put down her damp tissue and made eye contact, her eyes meeting his, "Orihime Inoue"

"Ichigo Kurosaki" he extended his hand for her to shake which she took in hers, "Nice to meet you" he smiled back

They shook hands for a while starring at each other smiling before she was sad again "Its all my fault!"she said

"What do you mean?" asked Ichigo a little confused as why the girl was blaming herself

"It's not fair!It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair!" She shouted "I didn't get to apologize! I didn't get to say goodbye! I hate you Sora! You shouldn't have left me! I hate myself! I should have apologized; I should have ran after you! Maybe I could have saved you if I got you here sooner!"

"It's alright if you don't feel better." He said when she didn't respond, "Everything's alright." She was shocked when he pulled her into a hug, holding her close as he talked on, "I'm just guessing, but I think you feel weak right now. You felt like you could do more, but just couldn't. And now you don't want to feel like the only thing you're capable of is crying, so you made yourself angry instead."

Orihime felt new tears steam down her face. He was right; she did feel weak, completely and utterly weak.

"If you want strength, then take mine." Her eyes shot open at his words, "You can have it, all of it. I'll be a whiny cry baby for the rest of my life if it'll get you through this." He pulled away, and she could see he was crying himself now, "See? I'm already starting."

Orihime felt something within her, a new strength, something that told her she didn't have to just cry anymore. And for the first time she could think of, she smiled again. The motion was familiar and foreign at the same time, but it felt good.

"Thank you." She said quietly, and then pulled him close to cry again, she wasn't done crying yet.

A few hours later the doctor Ishshin Kurosaki announced that Sora was out of Danger and would be completely fine after a week and when Sora told him about his boss and told him that he would fire him Ishshin decided to take him in as a assistant/nurse. It was both the Worst and the Best day of Sora and Orihime's life.

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Note: This is before masaki's death.