Wow, so many reviews, Thank you all, I really appreciate it.
WARNING SPOILER do not read if you're not a fan of spoilers: For the story that is. This is a Ichihime story, so that's all I'm going to say on the subject. I know it's hard, but I have a plan.
Anyway, read, review and enjoy?
Tokyo 2004 Spring
He was enraptured by the beautiful girl. He couldn't remove his eyes from her, let alone form coherent speeches in her near vicinity.
Every time he opened his mouth, he sounded like an incorrigible douche, trying to impress the pretty girl.
He could tell that her friend wasn't buying it, however she on the other hand…
She looked at him with such interest, such innocence, it was hard to resist.
She looked so familiar; it was painful just trying to remember.
He had to admit, like a moth to a brightly burning flame, he was drawn to her despite the pain.
He knew that at that moment, he would do anything to have her.
Sell his soul, cut out his own heart, jump off a cliff, anything, it didn't even have to be humanly possible, he would find a way to make this woman his. If only for a little while.
"So, what are your names?" Keigo, surprisingly competent in this situation asks.
So far he's been able to keep up with a decent conversation for the past half hour while Ichigo did nothing but stare and occasionally spoke of his background and work.
He's brain been turned to mush and it couldn't have come at a worst time.
"Arisawa Tatsuki," the spikey hair one replies.
"Inoue Orihime," that name struck a chord with him. It was beautiful, like her. But it also meant something to him…he couldn't remember what, or why she looked so familiar.
"Man is you serious? Like the Inoue-san? The model?" Ichigo looks at Keigo, surprised.
Shyly, she nods, looking around slightly nervous.
She moves a delicate finger to her plump, moist lips, shushing him.
"Yes, but please don't blow my cover," she whispers her sunglasses sliding down her nose a bit.
Glee takes hold of Keigo as he tries to contain himself. It wasn't often that you had barbeque with the world's most beautiful model.
Jitters race up and down his body as he begins to tremble.
Tatsuki rolls her eyes, taking a sip of her beer. This man was seemingly normal until he found out who Orihime was. Now, he's probably going to be as incapacitated as his friend.
"Orihime-chan, I think we should leave," she says looking around for bathroom.
"No!" Ichigo is enormously surprised by the force in his own voice.
The desperation.
But he is desperate. The thought a being parted from her so prematurely causes a physical ache within his soul.
He tries again, this time, he's much more clam. "Please…don't go. I'm…uh…sorry…about my friend…and myself. It's not usual that we have such…um…women…speak to us," he fumbles through, trying to formulate a plan in which he could convince her to stay.
Never in his life has he had so much trouble, so much difficulty around a woman before.
What makes her so different?
What makes her so special?
He could offer her no tricks, no lines.
From the moment their eyes met from across the restaurant he knew that it wouldn't end in a one night stand.
No, this was something much stronger.
Something that scared at the same time captivating him in its warm glow, filling his entire being until there was overflow.
Orihime looks to Tatsuki, her eyes pleading, her lips in a pout.
Rolling her eyes, she agrees to stay and Orihime gives her a huge hug, squeezing the girl tight, causing her to laugh.
Okay, now that he had her for a bit longer, it was time to plan how to keep her forever.
She was his.
BrOkEn
Tokyo 2013 Spring
One week later.
It has been a week and Orihime was unable to rid her mind of those haunting eyes. They were so piercing, as if they were seeing through her very soul.
They invaded her dreams, her thoughts, and her private moments alone.
They battled for dominance with another pair of eyes that haunts her. A pair that was formerly warm and loving.
She was fucked up and she knew it.
She tosses on her gray sweater, pulling the thick, long orange braid from out of the back, and pulls it to the side of her head.
She dons her large black shades and heels and makes her way out of the house, shouting her goodbye to Hana.
She climbs in the car and smiles.
She was going to have lunch with Tatsuki!
She hasn't seen her long time best friends in a few months. Tatsuki's been pretty busy with running a chain of dojos that she opened after she won her fourth Judo title when she was 25.
She had earned her business degree so the opening of such was fairly easy. But she spent so much time managing the schools, of which there were three, and the business management of it all, it was hard to break away and find time to hang out.
So this was a treat that Orihime will treasure.
Her driver pulls up to a little café at the corner of the street, Orihime sees Tatsuki standing there, waiting for her, and excitement bubbles out of her as she rushes out of the car and into Tatsuki, enveloping her in a large hug.
"Ohayo Tatsuki-chan! It's been much too long!"
Laughing, Tatsuki returns the hug. "Much too long indeed Hime-chan. Come on lets go in, I know you're starving."
Orihime's stomach growls in response.
After they've eaten, they sit in their chairs in the outside area of the café, occasionally sipping their teas and watching as people go by.
Tatsuki sighs.
"When are you going to leave him?"
Orihime smiles sadly and closes her eyes.
She knew this was coming. For the past few years, it appeared at least once in their every conversation.
"…I don't think that I can…"
"Orhime-chan," Tatsuki groans, trying to contain her frustration. "When are you going to realize that this isn't healthy? You are slowly killing yourself just to hold on to something that has long since abandoned you. They have a child. They have a daughter. He basically lives with her!"
"I know Tatsuki-chan…I know. Every day I wake up, praying that this was all some real bad nightmare but it's not. I keep praying that he'll change back into the man that I was so desperately in love with. The kind hearted man…who found it so difficult to manage direct conversation with me when we first met." She looks down to her hand, spotting the grandiose wedding ring.
I love you. I love you so much that it hurts. And I can't imagine living the rest of my life…without you right there by my side. I know that we haven't know-
Yes.
Wha?
Yes. Oh Kami, yes!
"I don't know this monster that he's become…I hate the monster that he is…I really hate him, with every single fiber of my being I hate him and there is no room for me to hate anyone else." A tear escapes her eye, rolling down her cheek. She shakes her head slowly, more tears fall. "But I can't bring myself to leave him, because I'm still in love with the man that I once knew, and it kills me inside to think that I'll never see him again."
She covers her mouth, her heart constricting in her chest.
She takes a big heaving breath, wheezing, trying to calm herself down and not get worked up.
She feels Tatsuki's arm wrap tightly around her, squeezing her, giving her comfort.
"Oh Kami Tatsuki-chan, I'm so fucked up…I'm so fucked up…it hurts. Why does it hurt so much?"
Tatsuki closes her eyes, her beautiful friend was so tormented and in so much pain.
It was killing her.
"Because…Hime-chan…you just…fell in love with the wrong person."
bRoKeN
Tokyo 2008, Fall
Ichigo sat in the hall outside his bedroom door.
He was forbidden to go inside.
It has been that way for two weeks.
Still, every night, he sat outside the door, listening as Tatsuki would soothe his wife, reassuring her that Akihiko's death wasn't her fault. There wasn't anything that she could have done differently.
He wished that she would let him near her.
He wanted to hold her and tell her that everything would be alright.
He wanted to soothe her worries and her fears and pain.
He wanted to be the light to her darkness and fight away her demons.
He knew how badly she wanted children. He so desperately wants to give her some.
But her body.
The doctor says that her body isn't all that healthy to carry a child, which is why they keep losing them.
If having a child means losing her, than he doesn't want one. He can live without.
He doesn't even remember the other's names. He knows that there's a nursery for the first one all the way at the end of the hall. But that's it.
She was tormented after the first one. She wouldn't get out of bed, no matter how much he pleaded with her.
He could only remember the pain that losing their first child caused her.
He was hoping that Akihiko would make her forget about the first one…make her stronger.
But it has only served to make her reject him.
He hears her cries, and he closes his eyes tightly in response, taking a deep breath.
He should be in there!
Why won't she let him help her?!
Tatsuki doesn't understand what's she's going through! He does!
Tatsuki wasn't there as the doctors cut her opened their dead little baby boy was wrapped in a pale blue blanket! He was!
Tatsuki didn't wake in the middle of the night and nearly died three times over every single time Orihime woke covered in blood!
He did!
So why was Tatsuki in there?
And he was out here?
Did she really hate him that much?
He truly didn't mean to put her through this pain a fourth time.
This was an accident.
The condom had broken and they were too busy to care at the time.
But then she became pregnant again.
He doesn't want to hurt her.
But she's hurting him.
He loves her.
So why does Tatsuki gets to help her feel better?
And he gets no one?
BrOkEn
Ichigo goes over the sales projections that were strewn casually across his desk, his mind filled with numbers.
He palms his eye socket, sighing deeply.
He looks at his watch. It's already eight.
He should probably head home; he wonders what Orihime has set for dinner.
…
That wasn't right.
"Ichigo-kun!"
He quickly brings his attention to the sound of his name on to catch his father's hard fist in his jaw.
He flies out of his chair and lands hard on the ground, groaning in pain.
"Man, you're totally out of it. Or I must be getting better." Isshin states proudly, flexing his muscles.
Ichigo holds on to his nose as it pulsated with pain.
"What is it old man, I'm busy!"
"Really? Shouldn't you be home with that wife of yours? Boy I remember when you first married her, you usually left an hour before you were allowed to. Now you stay here hours on end, it's crazy! Remember when you kids had sex in the office?"
"Is there a reason for you being here?" Ichigo growls irritated.
"There is actually, I'm going to need you and your wife to host a dinner party next Friday for the Ishida Styles clothing company. I was thinking of doing a merger with them."
"Why do we need to do a merger with them, they sell clothes, we sell beauty products."
"So that they can carry our brand in their stores," Isshin says simply.
"But's that's something that could be handled over a simple phone call, you don't need to throw a whole party."
"I know. That's why I'm not and you are. Go home and discuss it with your wife. She's been pretty busy lately right?" Ichigo had no reply. He actually wasn't aware of what his wife has be doing lately. He couldn't bring himself to care all that much. "I've seen that her face has multiplied across the country lately. I've heard rumors of her being cast in a movie!" Isshin says dreamily, looking up to the skies.
Movie? Last he checked, Orihime wasn't an actress. Although, it's been about 2 years since he looked at the tabloids to see what people were saying about her so…
"Um, okay, I'll guess I'll just ask her how her schedule is, and we'll see from there." Ichigo packs his things, and prepares to leave the office.
"Oh, son, when you get home, tell my beautiful daughter in law thank you for the red bean paste cookies. They really brightened my day!"
Ichigo nods, only barely as he shoots out the door.
He doesn't take a breath until he's outside in the warm, refreshing air of springtime.
He inhales deeply, taking in all of the fresh air that he could.
It felt as though his father was suffocating him with all of that talk of Orihime.
He's already moved on from her, so why did it feel uncomfortable to talk about her.
"If you don't want to be with her anymore Ichigo-kun then why are you still with her?"
"I've told you this a thousand times, I can't just divorce her, she the face of the company, it would make us look bad."
She glared at him, holding on tightly to her newborn child.
"That's bullshit and we both know it."
He shook those thoughts from his mind.
He was beginning to feel unwell.
If only he knew that this was only the beginning of his suffering.
Questions, Comments and/or Concerns?
Will update soon.
