The air wrapped around her hand. She knew it was her imagination, but if she just concentrated hard enough it felt real. She could reach out again, for that hand, and grasp air that was almost more solid than the hand she had reached for in the first place. It was something about the sunlight; warm and pulsing with life that made it seem all the more real.
"Orihime, are you coming with?"
She looked up, blinking, and then shook her head. She put forth a smile, tilting her head so that the light just barely caught the edge of her right hairpin. It gave a tiny shine, adding onto her smile and giving everyone the over all feeling that Orihime was just as bubbly as usual. "No, not today, I have a lot of studying to do."
"Oh, okay. Can we give you a ride home? The weather forecast said it might rain."
Orihime titled her head back to regard the sky. It was baby blue, thin wisps of stratus clouds dotting the right edge in her line of sight. "No, it's okay. I don't think it will."
"Okay then, see you on Monday!"
Orihime nodded, absentmindedly, still looking up at the sky. It was nice of the teacher to take them outside for the last period of the day.
Orihime heard a familiar tone of voice, followed by another, the light and playful arguing of Ichigo and Rukia making its way to her ears. She watched them walk down the grassy slope that led to her usual lunch spot, bumping into each other with smile smirks like they were having some sort of sparing match that involved simply bumping hips. Rukia was a little too short to actually bump Ichigo's hip, though, so when he hip-checked her he was hitting her waist and she had to retaliate with an elbow.
Ichigo stopped under one of the branches of the tree, the light around him slightly green due to it streaming through the canopy of leaves above him. He gave her a friendly nod and a little wave, Rukia smiling at her right after noticing she had Ichigo's attention. Rukia gave a wave too, though Orihime thought she looked funny doing it and like she didn't really know what she was doing.
"Hi Kuroaski-kun! Hi Rukia-san!"
Ichigo really did look like a prince, standing underneath that grand tree, when he returned her greating. The thick chocolate colored bark set off his eyes, and the green haloed around his head contrasted sharply with his orange hair.
But then he turned to say something to Rukia, who was still waving happily, and Orihime blinked becuase suddenly her vision had changed.
Standing under that tree, shadowed by the leaves Ichigo's face had a bit of darkness about it. With sharp branches behind him, it almost looked like he had two long horns protruding from his for head. Ichigo really did look like a demon, standing underneath that grand tree, when he turned his head just to the side.
When Ichigo looks back to Orihime he finds that she's gone.
She didn't stick around to even say goodbye- but he knows that she got up and left on her own accord because he sees her running by herself out of the school yard and towards her house.