Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters. The creative storyline of this fic ended up being mine though. :P

They don't want to know what I'm thinking, thought Orihime, as she watched her classmates decide what their class should do for the school festival.

"But I want a café shop!" Someone cried.

"No! Let's have a ghost maze!" Another voice came. "Orihime, what do you want?"

"Anything is fine by me." She smiled, then answered. After all, she didn't want to be a nuisance or another troublesome voice to be taken into consideration.

Let them do what they want. Orihime murmured in her mind. I just won't give them any trouble. I will respect their decisions.

In the end, the class took so long to come to a compromise that the teacher issued an essay on "Cooperation", to be handed in the day after, which prompted Orihime to blabber about what would happen if the little coloured men could cooperate with each other.

Her unfortunate audience was Kurosaki Ichigo. Not that he was listening, as he trailed a few steps ahead of her.

"The green ones' got the brains, so… It would be dreadful!" She halted her steps in realization.

Suddenly, a voice came from behind them, "Hey, beauty, bet ya hadn't even had your first kiss with this loser. How' bout you ditch him and join us?"

Orihime was frozen stiff in horror. Five men, each with a pungent smell lingering around them, were edging unsteadily towards her.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" Thankfully, Ichigo backtracked in time, shielding her from the men.

Before she could catch onto the retort, a punch was sent straight at Ichigo, stopped timely by his hand.

At the crack of Ichigo's palm catching the punch, her heart skipped a beat, and she flinched.

Despite her shock, her mind was still quite active. Is Kurosaki-kun looking at me through the mirror? And why isn't he moving?

Before she could come up with an answer to her questions, a command sounded, "Inoue, get down." Before she could comply, she was pushed down, and his body shielded hers.

Her heart was thumping in her chest from the sudden closeness. Despite the noise, the face looming above hers had taken her full attention.

His jaws were set. His brows were knitted together. Both of this conveyed conviction. But what is that in his eyes? Why are they bearing into hers with such desperation?

If she hadn't known better, she would have thought he's afraid.

"Playin hero, huh? Let's see how long you can 'protect' her now, shall we?" The dull thud of a foot connecting with Ichigo's back brought her back to reality. "Kurosaki-kun, don't get hurt because of me!" I'm not worth you to get hurt.

No reaction came from Ichigo. Why do you want to protect me? Orihime cried in her mind. "Protecting me or not…" Orihime murmured. "I don't care. I just don't want to see Kurosaki-kun being hurt."

Still no reaction.

Why isn't he fighting? From how he blocked the punch earlier, it's impossible that he can't fight!

She looked into Ichigo's eyes again. She realized, it was not pure fear. It was fear mixed with determination and desperation, as if he were grasping onto something with his dear life.

Stay with me. Please, stay with me. His eyes seemed to be crying out to her.

"I will stay by Kurosaki-kun." Orihime said. For added measure, she cupped his face gently in her palm, then added, "Fight."

Is that called a roundhous kick? Orihime asked herself, as she saw Ichigo perform some sort of sweeping kick.

Yet despite her conscious effort to keep her fear at bay with artificial curiosity, she couldn't help but flinch every time she heard the sound of impacting body parts.

As abruptly as it had started, the fighting ceased, with the drunk men being chased away by Ichigo.

He turned back to Orihime, and then immediately turned away.

Orihime could see herself in the road's corner mirrors, and she realized why.

A pair of widely opened eyes stared back at her. She looked afraid… of him, the person who had just saved her. Guess he's sick of me now that I seem so ungrateful.

Then, he turned and started walking away. "Bye." He said.

He took a step.

He's leaving… She realized.

Then a second.

He probably doesn't want me to get near him…

Then a third.

But…

She never got to that part behind the "but", as she had already walked briskly towards, Ichigo, retreating figure, and grasped his sleeve.

"You know, Kurosaki-kun…" She started. The atmosphere was suffocating. She knew she had to continue with something, anything, but nothing came to mind.

It would have been surprising to Orihime that Ichigo couldn't hear her brain whirring at the effort if not for the fact that she had no extra brain cells to spare at the moment. What to say? What to say?

She felt a pull on her hand by Ichigo's sleeve. He's moving!

"Actually, I really haven't had my first kiss yet, you know." As her overloaded mind went bank with panic, the sentence rolled out of her lips. The embarrassment seemed to come automatically though, as she instinctively pressed her face into his jacket, minimizing exposure to the world.

Three excruciating seconds passed.

"That's really random." Ichigo's reply came with an attempt to turn to face her. She turned with him so that she would stay at his back. "I'm not exactly presentable right now."

At the door, she hid behind the door and said goodbye to him.

He bid good night to her as well. And thus they parted for the night again.

.

.

.

It was like the calmness before a storm.