Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to the wonderful Tite Kubo.
Author notes: Voices written Like this belong to otherworldly beings. Roles will sometimes reverse with Orihime's voice as this and the otherworldly being's voice written normally.
Her Last Day
Ichigo entered his house and let the puppy free to roam in its new home. The small black poodle ran into the kitchen where breakfast was being served. It ran in between Yuzu's legs causing her to spill the glass of orange juice she was holding.
"Ichigo you let a dog in!" Karin grabbed the puppy by its tail and held it in the air.
"He's ours; a friend gave him to me." Ichigo grabbed the poor puppy and handed it to Yuzu who had her arms open to grab it.
"I always wanted a puppy! Does he have a name?" Ichigo nodded his head.
"No so how 'bout you give him one".
Yuzu smiled and hugged the puppy as it barked to be put down.
"I shall name you Aka!"
"Aka?" Ichigo cocked his eyebrow and looked at his sister. "Why Aka?"
"I like the name Aka..." Yuzu stared down at the floor, upset that Ichigo didn't like the name she had given the puppy.
"I think the name Aka is adorable." Orihime made her way into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of toast that was sitting on the table.
Yuzu smiled, glad that someone else agreed with her. "Ohayo gozaimasu Orihime-chan!"
"Ohayo." Orihime sat at the table and began eating her toast.
Ichigo couldn't help but to look at her. He was quite disappointed to see that she wasn't revealing too much today. She wore long blue pajama pants and a white long sleeved shirt. Ichigo looked up to her face and was shocked to see her wearing sunglasses.
Orihime could see Ichigo looking at her so she smiled and talked before he could say anything. "I've been having migraines lately. The light is my worst enemy right now."
Yuzu walked back into the kitchen holding the puppy in one arm and a toy in the other.
"There you are Aka now you have a friend." She placed the toy down which happened to be a familiar stuffed animal that Ichigo and Orihime knew too well. Orihime reached down and grabbed the puppy, allowing Kon to get away.
Yuzu eyed Aka as he licked Orihime's rosy cheeks.
"He's so adorable! We have to go shopping and buy dog stuff. Like food, toys, a place for him to sleep, and other things he'll need."
Orihime spit up some of her orange juice as she rushed to speak.
"I'll go with you. I could use the fresh air!"
Orihime thought that the journey outdoors would refresh her senses. The sun beating down on her already sweaty body was instead exhausting her. Her body was covered under a heavy olive green sweat suit which was the only thing she had which could cover the scars from her nightly torment.
"Orihime are you alright?" Yuzu looked back at Orihime whose walking began to become slow and unsteady.
"I'm al-" Darkness clouded her vision before she could even finish her statement. Orihime could feel her body falling backwards, and could hear the sounds of people rushing over to help her. Then there was nothing, Orihime had passed out.
"Are you alright? You took quite a fall." Orihime smiled at the young man who was holding an ice pack against her head. He had shiny black hair which he had to occasionally run his fingers through, to keep from getting in his eyes. He was buff and you can clearly see his chiseled abs through the red button down shirt he was wearing. The buttons at the top were unbuttoned showing only a small portion of a tattoo that he had on his chest. He was a gorgeous man, whose dark grey eyes showed that he too had a mysterious side.
"I hope you're alright to walk. I bought us some snow cones. Yuzu smiled and handed Orihime the strawberry flavored ice.
" Yes I'm fine, thank you." Orihime took a bite out of her snow cone and stood to her feet. She extended her free hand to the young man to thank him for helping her.
He grabbed her hand and shook it gently. "The next time you fall I promise I'll be there to catch you." And with that he left.
Orihime followed Yuzu around the pet store. She didn't want to walk back to the house when the pet store was only a block more away. As they made their way down the animal aisle, she began to think otherwise. Dogs backed away in their cages, growling as the orange haired woman walked pass. The large green eyes of the black cats followed every movement she made around the store. The birds screeched and flew crazily around in their small cages.
"I wonder what's troubling the animals." A woman and her husband stood in the aisle curious as to what was causing the animals strange behaviors. Their daughter who was around the age of 4, peeked from behind her mother's leg, as the orange haired female made her way pass them.
"Orihime look at this!" Yuzu ran towards a small display that had fancy dog collars. Yuzu held up one that was turquoise in color and had shiny black gems in the shape of hearts all around it.
"This is adorable!" Yuzu turned to see the price tag and grew saddened at what it showed. The price was way too much for her budget.
"I guess I'll start saving up for it." Yuzu smiled and placed the collar back on the display. Orihime stood there looking at the collar. It was beautiful but it was priced ridiculously. There was no way that Yuzu would be able to afford it even if she did try saving her money. Orihime walked away from the display and continued following Yuzu who continued to place things inside of the cart.
"Excuse me ma'am. Excuse me!" Orihime turned around to face the woman who was addressing her. She was young probably around the age of sixteen. Her bleach blonde hair was braided off to the side where it sat against her right shoulder. She scowled at Orihime while looking her up and down, chewing on her gum obnoxiously.
Orihime smiled at the young girl while trying to ignore her cow -like chewing.
"Yes?"
"I saw you take that collar!" You stood around it for some time!" The girl folded her arms and stood upright as if she was trying to intimidate Orihime.
"I would never do no such thing as steal!" Orihime gasped as the young girl laughed and brought out her hand.
"I saw you place it into that purse of yours, now hand it over or I will call the police!" The girl shouted to purposely gain the attention of the other customers. The store only had a few people in it all of which were too intrigued by the uproar the animals were making, to pay any attention to the stealing accusation.
"How dare you accuse me of stealing!" Orihime opened her purse and emptied all of its contents onto the floor.
"Where is this collar you speak of?" Orihime eyed the girl waiting for a response.
"My apologies ma'am." The girl turned to walk away but was stopped by a hand.
Yuzu bent down to pick up the contents that was in Orihime's purse, but Orihime blocked her from doing so.
"No Yuzu! I want her to pick everything up and place it back into my purse." Orihime let go of the girl's arm and stood there waiting for her to do so.
"You've got to be kidding me!" The girl laughed and brushed pass Orihime, making her way towards the register.
"Orihime!" Yuzu stood there in shock as Orihime leaped over and grabbed the young girl by her hair. With a good grip on the girl's braid, she dragged her back down the aisle to where the items of her purse lay.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Orihime let go off her hair and stood hovering over her as she proceeded to place the items back into the purse.
The walk home was one of awkward silence until Yuzu noticed that Orihime was no longer wearing her sunglasses. Her eyes were red and she had large dark bags underneath them. Yuzu began to think that her lack of sleep was probably the reason for the out of character behavior she had portrayed back at the store.
"I thought we were heading to the pet store?" Orihime eyed Yuzu confused that they were walking back towards the house.
"We already went to the pet store... Are you alright?" Yuzu stared worriedly at the orange haired woman before her.
"Umm... Yeah I must have blacked out for a bit. I'm fine now don't worry." Orihime smiled.
"I don't think you hit your head that hard when you feel. Have you been getting enough sleep?" Yuzu watched as Orihime felt for her sunglasses which were no longer on her face.
"Yeah... I try to." Orihime didn't want to lie to Yuzu nor did she want to worry her. Although Orihime knew that she needed help and soon, she didn't know who she could turn to. She hated burdening other people. Yuzu accepted the response, and understood that Orihime was troubled by something but did not want to discuss it.
Once at the house, Orihime made her way upstairs and to her room. She hurriedly undressed herself to be relieved from the hot deathtrap she wore. As soon as the olive green pants fell to her ankles, something dropped to the floor. Its black gems glistened as the sun hit it. It seemed to be some sort of collar, and a rather expensive one. Orihime kicked it under the bed and continued changing her clothes. She then opened the window to let the small breeze ease its way in.
"I don't remember anything after I fainted; I suppose that was your doing."
'Indeed it was. Ooh the fun I had!'
"Why was I not able to watch your actions?"
'I thought you'd know the answer to that. I could not find you to capture you for good this time. You must have landed into another part of your subconscious that I do not have access to...yet! Hahaha but surely that will not happen again!'
Orihime's thoughts lingered on what the entity had said. Where was this part of her subconscious where the entity could not reach her? And how could she go there again? With this new discovery, Orihime had finally gained some hope that she had been looking for.
"Orihime?" Yuzu entered the room holding a small blue teacup in her hand.
"It's chamomile tea, it should help soothe the conflict you are having." Yuzu handed her the teacup and smiled, waiting for Orihime to take a sip.
"Thank you…Is it caffeinated?" Orihime accepted the tea but wanted to know if it would aid her in her fight to stay awake.
"I'm not sure…Orihime in the condition that you're in, it would be wise to get as much sleep as you can." Yuzu worriedly looked at Orihime. She wished the girl would elaborate more on the problem so that she could help more.
"Thank you for your concern but I am fine, don't worry yourself." Orihime smiled and took a few sips of the tea to please Yuzu. The tea had a weird aftertaste to it, but it was sweetened to her liking. Orihime gulped it all down, still parched from her dehydrating trip outdoors.
Yuzu took the empty teacup glad that there was not a sip left. Even though she did not know what was troubling Orihime, she was happy enough to be able to help her out in a small way. Yuzu walked downstairs to see why Aka was barking. She laughed as the little puppy jumped up and down on a somewhat annoyed Ichigo.
Ichigo walked into the kitchen to get himself a nice cold drink. He had just gotten back from a jog around the park. Although he no longer had to fight, he wanted to keep his body in shape.
"Hey what's this on the counter?" Ichigo noticed a strange yellow bottle with blue stars all over it. Inside was a white powered substance that had no smell to it. On the bottom of the bottle was Urahara written in small black letters.
Yuzu grabbed the bottle from Ichigo and placed it back into the cabinet.
"Karin got it from the Urahara shop. She needed something to help her sleep before her big soccer games. Before this, she'd stay up all night blabbering to me about bad things that could happen during the game."
"Karin isn't even here, what's it doing out?" Ichigo eyed Yuzu as he chugged down a bottle of water.
"Orihime told me that she's been having trouble sleeping lately, so I put some into her tea." Yuzu looked worried as she remembered seeing those heavy dark bags underneath Orihime's eyes. She also remembered the incident that occurred at the pet store and believed that it was related to her sleep deprivation.
"Is something wrong? Why hasn't she been getting any sleep?" Ichigo began to worry. He hadn't spoken much to Orihime since she moved in, and felt that should change. He'd spend all of tomorrow with her.
"Maybe she's still getting used to staying here. It takes a while for people to get comfortable in a new environment." Yuzu spoke slowly as if she was trying to make herself believe that was truly the reason.
Ichigo nodded and decided to leave the rest of his questions for the orange haired girl tomorrow.
Orihime sat on the bed. Her limbs became very heavy and she didn't have the energy to stand back up. "What is happening to me?" Orihime fell back onto the bed, her eyes slowly losing their focus. "No I can't! I can't fall asl—"
'IT FEELS GREAT TO BE BACK!'
Thanks to all of those who have left me wonderful reviews! It is because of you all that I have gained the motivation to continue on with my fanfics. I really love you guys! *smiles*
Next chapter "A Night Out" coming soon!
