She has heard it several times and in several different fashions. Girls with their glossy lips and acidic tongues have told her so. So have the boys who think that she can't hear as she passes by in the halls. It has always meant nothing.

"She could have anyone," they say, sniffing, simpering. "Anyone at all."

They say it over and over and she wonders the same thing each time: what is the point of "could" if nobody "would?" The echoing words are as far as anyone will reach—she has learned not to expect anything more. She has learned it, she knows it, and yet it is all forgotten in the span of a few moments.

She makes a noise of surprise when she collides unceremoniously into something solid that grunts upon impact.

"Oh!" she says, flinching before looking up. "I- Oh."

She is trying to figure out why it is that her mouth won't make a sound, or why her knees have suddenly weakened. She belatedly realizes that she is staring and her hands have squeezed into trembling fists.

"Sorry," the boy says gruffly, his scowl deepening when her eyes waver upward to fixate on his hair. It is a sunny color, brighter and more vibrant than hers, illuminating the dull sky. Her lips part, but she isn't entirely sure what to say anymore.

"Are you okay?" he is asking, and she blinks slowly.

He looks like a punk with that angry expression and lean frame, but she's somehow sure he isn't dangerous. Distantly, she can feel something sleepily sitting under her skin push out and away to reach for him.

"Oi!" he says. She starts. "I asked if you were okay. Are you?"

"Y-yes," she gasps, her voice inexplicably breathy.

He studies her for a beat, then sidles past, frowning and frumpy. She watches his silhouette fade into a lackluster horizon.

You could have anyone, but who would you choose?

She cannot shake the memory of his beautiful, burning eyes. She realizes that she doesn't want to.


I wanted to write about Ichigo and Orihime's first meeting, so here is my take on it! from the canon, all we really know for sure is that Ichigo remembers first seeing Orihime when a dying Sora came to the Kurosaki clinic. he seems to have gotten to know her better only about a year or so before the canon, I think. I'd aimed this shot prior to Sora's death.

drop me a review, I love hearing from you all!