Summary: Seireitei Psychiatric Hospital, a place for those deemed insane and beyond help. Can one determined healer prove them wrong and heal the one she loves?
Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort/Angst [possible humor]
Warnings: AU/Sex/Language/Mature Themes
Pairings: Ichigo and Orihime

AUTHORS NOTE: Hello to anyone reading this, I don't really have much to say except that I hope you enjoy it, oh and thanks for reading this.

A Schizophrenics Love

Chapter 7:

He didn't sleep well that night, but for once - it wasn't down to his usual problems with the voice in his head, or the one reoccurring nightmare he frequently had - no, tonight he wasn't able to sleep because of one person. His doctor to be exact. Every time he closed his eyes, an image of her tear stained face would float into his memory and he'd find himself wide awake once again.

I can't blame ya for thinking about her…she's fucking hot-

Not now

- think about how vulnerable she was today-

Shut up

- seriously King, you need to learn how to take advantage of shit, that woulda been an easy fuck-

There was a loud smashing noise within the confines of his room and Ichigo was suddenly plunged into a murky darkness.

Look what you made me do you bastard, Ichigo grumbled to the voice within his mind and he stumbled around his room to find the main light switch. In his frustration and anger with the vulgar voice he had flung his lamp across the room, causing it to break and submerge him in darkness. Stupid hollow, Ichigo thought angrily when he finally reached the switch. He didn't have a name for the voice or the alter personality that would sometimes take control, he felt that giving it a name would be like admitting he was disturbed; instead he sometimes referred to the presence residing within him as a 'hollow', because of the hollow feeling he would feel every time he allowed himself to be taken over by the beast within. He'd never told anyone that before, not his father, his sisters, or any of his doctors, it was just a word he would occasionally use whilst he was alone. He briefly wondered what Orihime would say or think if he ever mentioned his little nickname to her, and he was suddenly brought back to reality, remembering why he had smashed the lamp. It was because of her. He wasn't sure what it was, but once the hollow within him began speaking derogatorily about Orihime, something snapped inside him .

"Why though," he muttered aloud as he crossed his room and flopped down on the regulatory hospital bed, why do I care? Sure, he had never been able to stand to watch anyone he cared about crying, especially when it was because of him that said person was crying, but he wasn't sure when he began to care about her. He respected her a hell of a lot more than some of the other doctors at the hospital, she was kind, patient and at times very funny.

Sounds like ya like Hime-chan, Kingy

Ichigo squinted his eyes shut tightly to block out the voice, but he couldn't help but growl out loud possessively when he heard the words, 'Hime-chan'. He hated the familiar way the hollow voice would talk about Orihime, as if they were friends,

You ain't friends with her either Kingy, your just another nutcase to be added to her list of nutcases to try and fix.

Ignoring the malicious voice, Ichigo flipped himself over in bed and closed his eyes, allowing the image of a crying Orihime to float into his mind. She was a beautiful woman, he wasn't blind - just because he chose to control himself didn't mean he wasn't acutely aware of her beauty. A blush crept slowly upon his cheeks as he thought about how closely they were sitting next to each other throughout the evening, and the way she had placed her hand upon his knee, almost subconsciously, as if she had sensed he was close to snapping without him even saying a word. That was another thing he liked about her; he never had to say much, and yet she would still know what he was thinking or how to deal with him. Liked she really cared about him.

She's your doctor King, don't inflate that head of yours…it's her fucking job to care…you ain't nothing special

Ichigo rolled over once again and before falling into the unconscious state of mind called sleep, he found himself agreeing with the voice.

She didn't sleep well that night either. After she'd dropped Ichigo back at the hospital she drove around aimlessly for at least two hours. She couldn't go home, she wasn't ready to face Tatsuki yet. So she drove around the streets of Japan, sobbing her heart out and hating herself for it. She knew she was in the wrong, it was a bad move taking Ichigo out of the hospital - with her friends no less, but she couldn't help it. The doctor in her knew the short outing had to have done him so good, but unfortunately she wasn't thinking like a doctor right now. Her emotions were running rampant. Caring for a patient was one thing…but loving a patient was on a whole different level. It was unprofessional and she was pretty sure it was unlawful as well.

"He's under my care for a reason," she muttered to herself quietly as she drove through the empty streets, "he's under my care for a reason," she kept repeating those words to herself but it didn't help. You can't help who you fall in love with.

"Where have you been Orihime?"

Orihime winced at the sharp tone of voice Tatsuki used, she kept her head bent low so Tatsuki wouldn't be able to see her tear stained face,

"…traffic. There was a lot of traffic," she mumbled, trying to walk past Tatsuki to get to her bedroom, "I'm quite tired so I'm just going to go to-"

"Oh no you don't!" Tatsuki lashed out a grabbed onto one of Orihime's arms, effectively stopping her from moving, "we need to talk about what happened tonight!"

"There's nothing to talk about!" Orihime almost yelled, it was like there was a coil in her stomach and it had just snapped. She lifted her head up and faced Tatsuki, allowing her to see her tired and blood shot eyes, "you were right, it was a stupid thing to do! I wasn't thinking, I wasn't being professional, you were right. But I don't want to talk about it now, please Tatsuki-chan!"

They stared at each other in complete silence for a few minutes, before Tatsuki's eyes finally softened and she took a few quick steps closer to Orihime to engulf her in a tight hug.

"I love you Hime, you know that…don't you?"

"Y..yes,"

"I hate arguing with you, you know all I want is to see you happy and smiling like usual. But sometimes…sometimes Hime, you have no street smarts. You're a frickin' genius with everything else, but you don't have an accurate sense of reality. People like Ichigo are in hospitals for a reason, I don't know why you thought it would be a good idea to take him out of there…"

"…he hasn't been out in a while," she said lamely, "I thought it would be good therapy for him,"

"See what I mean, the doctor side of you has the right idea, but the other side of you mixes it all up. Jeez Hime, if you wanted to get him out of the hospital, I'm sure you have hospital arranged visits with other patients; not you and him with a few other friends. It looked like you two were on a date!"

Orihime blushed as she realised that was indeed how it would've appeared to the outside world,

"I know Tatsuki-chan, I know-"

"You know what your problem is?" Tatsuki interrupted barely even noticing Orihime had continued talking, "you're too nice and caring. I bet that Ichigo's a nice guy, and you've taken to him, just like you do to everyone, and you consider him a friend. You can't do that Hime, you have to have a certain degree of integrity and responsibility, got it?"

Orihime nodded and Tatsuki relinquished her hold of her. Orihime said goodnight to Tatsuki before quickly rushing to her bedroom and closing the door shut behind her. She crawled into bed without even taking her clothes off,

He's my patient. He is under my care and he trusts me to look after him and eventually heal him. Even considering a relationship with him would be going against every one of my ethics, and would be unfair to him. He is a patient. He's my patient. Nothing more…

She repeated those words to herself as she fell into a fitful sleep.


A/N: I am very disappointed in myself. I haven't updated in what, almost two weeks, and this is what I have to give you. I told you I'd be slower updating because of school and stuff, but the reason this chapter took so long is because I have had a major case of writers blocks, and I think it shows a lot.

This chapter is very short and is essentially just a filler chapter. I'm not very proud of it. But fear not, because I promise you I will have another chapter out within a couple of hours that will make up for the pitifulness of this one. I don't even have a name for this chapter, it sucks that much.

Thank you for all your reviews and I realised that a lot of you asked me questions in your reviews, so I'm gonna go and answer all of them now. If you don't actually have a fanfiction account, I can't answer your review directly so instead of posting all my answers at the bottom of this, I'm gonna put them up on my profile page within the next hour or so. So if you want to see your answer, check there.

Otherwise, thank you for still reading this, although I'm becoming slower at updating and this chapter sucked, I appreciate all of you very much.