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Chapter 10: Holding Pattern

July 18th.

Apart from being a chance to visit, Ichigo and Orihime's visit to Urahara's was a waste of time. He had brushed away their questions with excuses that the continued presence of the two Eleventh Division shinigami was a precautionary measure due to the suddenness of the hollows' departure from Karakura. So after tea, baked goods, and idle chitchat, the freshly minted couple found themselves leaving Urahara's shop hand-in-hand with free time and no plans. They were in the middle of a conversation about what to do for lunch when they were interrupted by a pair of familiar faces walking toward them with curious expressions.

"Renji, Rukia, where are you going?" Ichigo called out, awkwardly letting Orihime's hand go and stashing his own into his pocket.

"A better question might be where are you two going, and where did you come from?" Rukia asked, clearly interested more in what Orihime and Ichigo were doing alone together.

"Oh, Rukia-chan, we just came from Urahara-san's shop. We were wondering why Madarame-san and Ayasegawa-san are still here. We had thought they were only going to stay until you and Abarai-kun returned," Orihime answered, missing Rukia's implication.

"What did he tell you?" Renji asked, suspiciously.

"Nothing much," Ichigo answered. "He said something about 'procedure' and blew us off. Somehow, I don't believe that is all there is to it."

Renji and Rukia looked at each other knowingly. After a few moments of silent contemplation, Renji nodded at Rukia, who turned to face their friends with a serious expression. "Perhaps we should all go to Orihime-chan's place to talk. There isn't much to know at this point, but I think you should know what we know. If Ishida and Chad can come, that would be convenient. We'll pick up something to eat on the way, if you don't mind."

Orihime nodded and whipped out her phone, calling Uryuu while Ichigo texted Chad. Within minutes the plan was set, and everyone started toward Orihime's apartment.

"So that was it, and we haven't had any new information since then," Rukia told the group huddled around Orihime's living room table.

"So I guess we just wait then." Ichigo finally broke the silence that followed Rukia's explanation about what had happened in Soul Society.

Inoue had been nibbling on her lower lip and watching the floor, lost in thought. Finally, she decided she couldn't keep her concerns to herself. "Rukia-chan, you said everyone felt a surge of total despair and fear. Was there anything familiar about that? Anything else identifying about it?"

Uryuu's eyes shot up to Orihime's at her question. He seemed to be the only one in the room who recognized what she was alluding to. His brows furrowed for a moment and then he, too, looked to Rukia for answers.

"Well, I can't say there was anything I recognized about it, but I can honestly say that it was the purest, most intense instance of those emotions that I have ever experienced." Rukia said, looking to Renji who nodded in agreement.

Uryuu gave Orihime an intense look. She returned it, and then, nearly imperceptibly, shook her head to discourage him from saying anything further. Uryuu skootched over a bit toward her and put a hand on her shoulder in assurance, giving it a squeeze, and allowing it to trail down to the middle of her back and stay there. Neither he nor Orihime noticed Ichigo's growing scowl and reddening complexion.

"Ichigo?" Chad asked, having noticed his best friend's distress.

Orihime and Uryuu finally looked to their fair-haired friend and noticed him glaring at Uryuu.

"Is something wrong, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked in an intimidated voice.

His eyes softened as he looked down toward Orihime for a moment, only to harden again as he returned his gaze to Uryuu. "You're fine, Inoue, but Ishida is being rather handsy, don't you think?"

Uryuu shook his head in offended confusion. "To what are you referring, Kurosaki? I am merely trying to comfort our friend who is obviously worried about this situation. You would do the same if you had an ounce of sensitivity," he said in a rising voice, confusion giving way to anger.

To everyone's surprise, Ichigo backed down. He realized he wasn't being fair, given that no one else in the room knew about his new relationship status with Orihime. Although he wasn't exactly comfortable making an announcement about it, he knew he had to say something to avoid further misunderstandings.

"Sorry Ishida, it's just…" he looked to Orihime to gauge her feelings on revealing their relationship. She smiled at him in approval, giving him the boost he needed to continue. He sighed and shook his head in surrender. "I guess it's not fair to expect you to respect my relationship with Inoue when you don't know about it. We're going out," he said, taking her hand.

"I KNEW IT!" Rukia shouted, pointing at the two. Orihime giggled in response.

Chad and Uryuu's eyes grew wide. Chad recovered first, smiling and quietly saying, "Finally."

Uryuu's shock was a bit more severe. He sat frozen, with his hand still on Orihime's back, until she finally turned to face him completely.

"I'm sorry Ishida-kun, I wasn't keeping secrets from you or anything, this only happened last night," Orihime said, worried her dear friend might be feeling left out by the revelation.

Ishida recovered after that. He cleared his throat and stiffened. "I would never think you would do something like that, Inoue-san. I'm sorry, I'm just surprised, is all. If you're happy, I'm happy," he said politely with a small smile pointed only to Orihime. He looked up to Ichigo with a flat expression. "If you do anything to make her unhappy, I'll kill you."

Ichigo knew he meant it, and gave him a single nod in acknowledgement.

The week that followed was relatively uneventful. Orihime had filled Tatsuki in on what had happened with Ichigo over the phone each night, and by Thursday her athletic friend was getting kind of bored of hearing the minutiae of her awkward hand-held walks home with her new boyfriend.

The subsequent week was no different. Orihime would call Tatsuki religiously every night and gush about the quiet walk home, or if she stayed home that day, the non-descript text messages containing cutesy emojis. Tatsuki, however, was growing concerned; her best friend and new boyfriend appeared to be stuck in some kind of holding pattern. After the night of their first date, Orihime didn't mention any more dates or physical contact besides hand-holding. She decided the couple needed a push.

"Hey, Orihime, I was thinking, wouldn't it be great to go somewhere this summer? I'm coming back to Karakura next week. Maybe we could get a group together and rent a couple of those cabins in the mountains like we did with my family a few years ago."

The cottages she referred to were nothing glamorous by any means, and they could rent them for about 1500 yen per cabin per night, and each cabin could sleep four people easily. Including food and the train tickets to get to and from the mountain, it would be less than 5000 yen per person for the whole weekend.

"That sounds like so much fun, Tatsuki-chan!"

"Great, I'll call to reserve the cabins. You invite Ichigo, Ishida, Chad, Kuchiki and Abarai."

August 8th.

And thus the plans were made. A three-cabin campsite was reserved. There was no electricity, and the cabins' only comforts were shelter from the weather and wooden bed frames with musty futons rolled-up in the closet available for use. There was also a firepit and shared bath house with toilets, cold showers powered by a pump well, and a natural hotspring out the back. The scenery was quite beautiful, but it was only accessible on foot, and required a long journey up the side of a mountain over treacherous terrain, making it remote and private, despite its relative proximity to the Tokyo Metropolis.

The group reached the campsite in the early evening. Although it was cooler in the high altitude, they had worked up a sweat making the trek up the mountainside and it was decided that after setting up bunks the party would take turns cleaning up. Boys would go first, so they would be free to build a fire while the girls cleaned themselves up.

"Why did you get three cabins, Tatsuki-chan? We could have easily fit into two," asked Ryo while unpacking a few things into the girls' cabin. She had been invited by Tatsuki to even out the boy-girl ratio.

"Well, I wanted to have the site to ourselves, so I rented all three. Plus, that way there is one free, just in case…" Tatsuki trailed off.

"Just in case of what?" asked Ryo, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm sure she is worried about if one of the boys snore or something, that way everyone can sleep well!" Orihime answered, oblivious to Ryo's insinuation.

"Yeah, what she said," Tatsuki added with an eyeroll. "Well, I don't know about you three, but I am looking forward to getting into that hotspring. My legs are killing me!" she added.

"Yeah, maybe you should go over there now, you could sneak a peek at Sado-kun with his shirt off," Ryo teased while pulling a fresh pair of shorts out of her bag.

"WHAT?!" Orihime whipped her head around and pounced at Tatsuki, grabbing her by the shoulders. "You like Sado-kun?! How could you not tell me?!"

"It's not like that, Orihime," she answered, grabbing the healer by the wrists and removing her hands from her shoulders. "I just think he's kind of hot, that's all. I don't 'like' him. I don't really even know him very well."

"Still, you could have told me you thought he was cute," Orihime pouted. She looked between Ryo and Tatsuki like a kicked puppy.

"Relax, Orihime, no one is trying to steal your best friend. I was sitting next to her on the train ride here and we got to talking about our 'types'." Ryo said, putting a damper on Orihime's wild imagination wherein Ryo and Tatsuki were about to embark on a fabulous adventure in boys without her.

"You don't say? Who's your type then, Ryo?" Rukia prodded, feeling protective of Orihime.

Ryo's face went pink. "Ummrmmm," she mumbled.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Rukia pressed.

Ryo hid her face. Tatsuki was sick of all the cutesy shyness, and since she was outed already, held no reservations about outing Ryo.

"She likes Ishida."

Orihime gasped like a silent movie actress, delicate fingers clutched together, and then started to clap. "Oh, oh, oh!" she couldn't make any sense of her bubbling happiness at first. "Can you imagine if you dated Ishida-kun and Tatsuki-chan dated Sado-kun? We could all go out on group dates! And-"

Tatsuki interrupted. "And what is it we are doing now? It makes no difference. Besides, you're getting way ahead of yourself. We were just talking about who we think is cute of the guys here. That doesn't mean we are in love or anything. Calm down, sheesh."

Orihime looked at her best friend with a mildly wounded expression, but immediately forgot about any imagined offense when she heard a knock on the door and a deep voice.

"Your turn," Chad's deep voice reverberated through the door. The girls looked at one another with wide eyes, and Tatsuki and Ryo's faces started to turn red as they realized he might have heard Orihime's babbling. None of them dared to breathe at first, except Rukia, who shook her head at her immature friends and grabbed a towel.

"You would think none of you had ever spoken to a man before," she said as she left the cabin, leaving the door ajar. The three remaining girls turned their heads to look out the door with trepidation. There was a collective sigh of relief when they realized the guys were all busy making a fire, paying no mind to the girls.

After their showers, the girls went to the hotspring for a soak before dinner, with the exception of Rukia, who decided to just get dressed and join the guys. When the other girls were done with their soak, they went back to the shower room to change into fresh clothes.

"Um, Tatsuki-chan? Ryo-chan? Didn't we leave our clothes here?"

"Yes…" Ryo started carefully, her eyes scanning the room.

"Son of a bitch! That midget stole our clothes!" Tatsuki roared, kicking over a wash stool. After the stool stopped rattling, the girls were able to hear an evil cackle from the other side of the door.

"Indeed! The midget did steal your clothes. However will you get them back?" a fully clothed Rukia asked through the door in a sing-song voice.

"Rukia-chan, please!" Orihime whined.

"Sorry, Orihime, I can't just give them to you. One of you will have to come out and get them, I'm afraid," Rukia answered with false sympathy.

"Now what?" Tatsuki asked? As tough and self-assured as she was, she was very modest. She didn't want to be seen parading in front of her male classmates in only a towel under any circumstances. She looked between her two friends. Ryo was somewhat tall and very slim, so her towel was able to wrap around her sufficiently to keep her covered while coming up a little short on her legs, but all that was beside the point. Ryo was the least acquainted with the guys and would feel the least safe going out in a towel. Orihime, on the other hand, knew the boys the best, but she looked like sex wrapped in fluffy cotton. She had tied up her hair to keep it out of the hotspring, showing off her neck and shoulders. Her towel bound her full breasts tightly together, creating a bustier effect, with the flesh that spilled over the top of the towel jiggling sinfully with each move she made. The slit in her towel was wide as a result of the girth of her breast line, and the view of her upper thighs and the side of her hip was indecent. There was only one thing to do.

"Ok, Rock Paper Scissors, first one who loses goes out. Agreed?" Tatsuki proposed. The other two nodded, and brought out their fists.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors, shoot!" All three had thrown scissors. Tatsuki groaned softly.

"Rock, Paper Scissors, shoot!" She had thrown rock. Ryo had thrown scissors. Orihime had thrown paper.

"Ok, try again. Rock, Paper, Scissors, shoot!" This time, Tatsuki and Ryo threw rock. Orihime threw scissors. She took a deep breath. Ryo looked relieved. Tatsuki looked horrified. She had hoped Ryo would lose.

"Ok, I'll go. Pray for me," Orihime said dramatically for comic effect, trying to dispel the dark mood. She smiled and opened the door. "Rukia-chan! Where have you taken our clothes!?" she called as she strode out confidently.

The guys' chatter and efforts to tend the fire immediately ceased, and all eyes were on Orihime. Four mouths fell open, and four pair of pants suddenly felt a little tighter. They couldn't help it. It was biology, after all. Orihime saw them and felt a little thrill. She wasn't out there by choice, so she couldn't be considered an exhibitionist, which in her mind gave her license to feel empowered by the obvious effect she was having on the guys. She marched over toward them, jugs bouncing with every step, her towel threatening to reveal her womanhood with each stride. "So? Don't any of you have any idea where our clothes are?" she asked the mute, red-faced quartet with an air of authority and hands on her hips, accentuating her tiny waist and causing her towel to ride up all the more.

The four just gawked at her. She was truly magnificent. After what felt like an eternity, Orihime heard Rukia's nearly hysterical laughter coming from the spare cabin. Orihime looked toward it with a sharp expression. "You'll pay for this, Kuchiki!" she said, raising her fist, and taking a step in her direction. As she did so, her towel started to loosen. She grabbed for it, but she was too late. Just as it began to release, Ichigo's brain started to work again and he leapt up in front of Orihime, shielding her from the gaze of the other three men present. "Oh no!" Orihime said in a tiny voice.

Ichigo tried not to look. He really did, but as his girlfriend bent over in front of him to pick up her towel, he couldn't help but sneak a peek at her perfect bottom. He groaned in discomfort as his pants grew impossibly tight, and as soon as Orihime had the towel wrapped around her again, he picked her up like a bride and carried her into the cabin where Rukia was hiding the clothes. Rukia wisely took off toward the guys before Ichigo got to the threshold. He shot her a murderous glance as she scurried away. He slammed the door behind him and set Orihime down, turning to face the closed door while Orihime went about gathering the clothes.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Ichigo finally asked, forehead resting on the door.

"What? Of course not, Kurosaki-kun. I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do. I lost."

"Lost what?"

"Rock Paper Scissors."

"Oh." Ichigo groaned again.

"Are you alright, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked, worried now.

"No, I'm not alright. How do you think I'd feel, seeing my girlfriend nearly naked in front of my friends?" he shouted, louder than he wanted to.

Orihime suddenly was mortified. She understood that he might be a little jealous, but this was really uncalled for. The others were her friends, and as far as Orihime was concerned, they couldn't possibly be attracted to her. She started to wonder if perhaps that was the problem, and maybe Ichigo was embarrassed by how she looked.

"I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun, I didn't think you would be ashamed of me if-" she started, but couldn't continue as tears started to gather in her eyes.

He turned around then, face red, looking like he was being tortured. His heart ached knowing he was making her feel so badly, and his crotch ached seeing her still clad only in a towel. He allowed a strained groan through his nostrils, and then stepped up to Orihime and embraced her, careful to keep his arousal just far enough away from her. "I'm sorry, that's not what I meant," he said into her hair and laid a gentle kiss on her head.

"Then, you're not ashamed of my body?" Orihime asked with a small flicker of hope through her tears.

Ichigo couldn't believe what he was hearing. He let loose a mirthless laugh. "If only you knew what your body did to me," he said quietly. Orihime's eyes shot up to his and she suddenly felt alarmed by the fire she saw in them. He looked like he wanted to eat her. She shrunk in on herself slightly, causing her hip to jut forward by an inch. That inch was all she needed to feel the proof of Ichigo's attraction scrape against her through his jeans. She whimpered as a heady blush spread across her chest and face, her breath fanning up toward Ichigo's face. He eyes darkened further, and his body started to take over. He seized Orihime by the waist, craning his neck down to crush her lips with his.

This was nothing like the sweet pecks on the cheek she had received from him earlier. No, this was a full-fledged, hungry, scorching liplock. Orihime was quickly swept away and snaked her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. His lips moved against hers, and she tentatively opened her mouth, flicking the tip of her tongue out to taste his bottom lip. She let out a soft, feminine moan of appreciation and sucked his bottom lip into her mouth gently.

Ichigo was being driven mad by Orihime's forwardness. He pressed himself to her and subconsciously rocked his hips slightly in an attempt to alleviate the pressure building there. His hands made their way down to the backs of her thighs, and in an instant, he had hoisted her up and turned so that her back was pressed against the wall, his arousal pressed to the inside of her thigh painfully, although Orihime didn't seem to register any pain, so lost she was in the taste of his lips. Ichigo then opened his own mouth and thrust his tongue into Orihime's welcoming mouth.

Orihime whined in crippling pleasure as Ichigo's tongue dominated her mouth. She writhed under the pressure of his chest pressed against hers, and without either participant noticing, her towel was again coming loose. Orihime sucked on Ichigo's tongue and whimpered through her nose as her hormones took over her completely. Ichigo was similarly lost, his hands roving up her now-bare sides, his fingertips ghosting over the sides of her breasts, as he pulled out of Orihime's mouth and began to trail hot kisses across her cheek to her ear and down to her jaw. Orihime was overwhelmed by the sensation, distracted only by the growing ache of need between her legs. She pulled on Ichigo's shoulders, attempting to get some leverage so she could somehow find some relief, when her blood suddenly ran cold.

"Orihime! Ichigo! What is taking so long? The girls are starting to get cold! Get out here!" Rukia shouted from the other side of the door.

Ichigo let loose a feral growl in disapproval. His eyes met Orihime's, and she had to shake her head and blink at what she thought she saw. She looked again, and all she saw was a deep scowl on Ichigo's beautiful face, trying obviously to rein in his desire for the time being. But for a moment, she thought she saw black sclera and yellow irises looking at her.

Orihime took a shaking, deep breath, and reached down for her towel, which was hanging around her waist loosely. Once she had it in hand, Ichigo closed his eyes and took a step back, turning to face the other wall. Orihime quickly dressed and gathered up the other clothes.

"Coming, Rukia!" she called and opened the door, still out of breath, arms full of Ryo and Tatsuki's clothes.

Rukia and Renji were standing near the door. They looked at each other knowingly and chuckled as Orihime made a run for the bathhouse.

Several minutes later, an irate Ichigo emerged from the spare cabin. None of the guys dared give him a hard time about what may or may not have transpired while he and Orihime were in there. Given that they had all enjoyed an eyeful of his half-naked girlfriend earlier in the evening, they counted themselves lucky that they came out of the ordeal without bruises.

The rest of the evening went on as planned. A fire was built, a meal prepared, ghost stories were told, and Orihime and Ichigo gave each other a wide berth. Ever since their little rendezvous in the cabin, anytime they came near each other, they could both feel electricity crackling between them. Each time their eyes locked, their insides started to catch fire. They both knew it wasn't safe to get too close.

Finally the party went to bed, but neither Orihime nor Ichigo could fall asleep. After about an hour, Orihime's phone buzzed.

August 9th, 1:24 a.m.

From: Ichigo Kurosaki

Can't sleep. Are you up?

Orihime sighed in relief. She was hoping he would contact her.

August 9th, 1:25 a.m.

From: Orihime Inoue

I can't sleep either. Want to sit with me outside?

August 9th, 1:25 a.m.

From: Ichigo Kurosaki

I'm already out here.

Orihime got out of bed and put a hoodie on over her nightshirt and shorts, stepped into her flip flops and snuck outside. Ichigo was standing a few feet away.

"Hey," he said gently, holding a hand out to her. She took it and he pulled her in to a sweet embrace. "Sorry about before," he started.

"Why?" Orihime looked up to his face, nervous that he regretted what had happened.

"It's just that," he paused, gathering courage, "that was our first kiss. It wasn't exactly what I expected, and I'm sure it wasn't what you expected. I let my control slip, I'm sorry," he looked to the side, ashamed.

Orihime's heart melted at the sight of him. She stood up on her tiptoes and pulled his chin over to face her. "Does this make up for it?" she asked with smiling eyes, and then closed the distance between them, connecting her lips to his sweetly, lingering for a moment, before pushing slightly into it and then backing off with an audible "kiss" noise.

"Yes," he answered, giving her an vulnerable smile and then a tight hug. Just as the pair were about to go in for another kiss, the door behind Orihime opened up.

"Rukia-chan?" Orihime whispered into the darkness and then looked the other way as Renji came marching across the campground toward Rukia.

"I just got a hell butterfly from Ni-sama. We are being called back to Soul Society immediately."

"What?" Orihime and Ichigo asked in unison.

"What are you going to do with your gigai?" Ichigo asked.

"We'll just carry them with us, I guess, and drop them off at Urahara's," Renji answered.

"We'll go with you to Urahara's," Ichigo started.

"No, you won't. It is dark, the path is dangerous, and you are stuck in a physical body. You'll have to wait until morning." Rukia said in no uncertain terms.

"She's right, Ichigo. There is no way to make it down safely. We'll have to wait."

"Fine. I expect to hear something tomorrow." Ichigo relented.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo. I don't know when we'll be able to meet again, but I hope it's soon," Rukia said apologetically, worried her friend would take her disappearance badly again.

"Don't worry, Rukia, Renji. Just be careful. I hope we can meet again soon," he replied.

'He is growing up,' Rukia thought to herself. "Goodbye for now, Ichigo," she said, popping her soul candy, and letting Renji grab her and his own gigai.

"Goodbye Orihime," she said to her friend, who nodded and waived to her and Renji as he bade her farewell.

"Let's go to bed, Inoue. It's going to be an early morning for us, I imagine," Ichigo said, suddenly serious.

"Yes, goodnight, Kurosaki-kun," she said, heading to her cabin.

"Goodnight, Inoue," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to himself for another short, sweet kiss.

"See you in the morning," he added, with a roguish smile.

"Heh heh, yeah," Orihime answered with a somewhat idiotic grin, tripping her way up the cabin steps. "See you in the morning, Kurosaki-kun."

A/N: Surprise! Hope you liked it. let me know in the reviews, please.