Chapter 13: Shopping

After breakfast had been attended to there was the simple matter of just what they were going to do with the day. Orihime had made a list as they ate, and it entailed some very simple things. First off, Orihime had to clean up the house a little bit, it was getting awful dusty, and with each passing moment, Hinamori would give a small hiccup and then a sneeze, obviously she was sensitive to the dust. Afterwards, when the cleaning was done, there laid the matter of diapers. There was but one left, and since one of the resident actually DID need them for a real reason, there would need to be a venture to get them. Orihime wondered if it was indeed intelligent to leave the house with her two babies alone in it.

The first time she had left it was naught but Hinamori alone, sleeping, in the house, which was shamefully inappropriate of her to leave all by her lonesome, especially in the condition she was in when Orihime had left the house. But it was unthinkable to leave two babies in the house, alone, awake, and up to no good as Rukia was definitely known for, which was getting herself into trouble. So, knowing the outcome would not be the best, Orihime went before her baby council with her dilemma.

"No, no way, never, you're not getting me out of this house wearing this!" Rukia exclaimed in indignation, knowing her yellow one-piece would never be able to hide the bulk or crinkle of the diaper, and that Orihime would definitely not see fit to let her take her duly awarded punishment off her behind.

"Uh….ummmm, okay," Hinamori answered afterward, while Rukia still swore and protested loudly in the background. Orihime could only smile to this and nod, and now to work on Rukia.

"Rukia, we need to go to the store and get more diapers, and other food….you can't possibly think it fair to deny Hinamori something she actually requires? Do you?"

"I…but…"

"And don't you think it quite unfair that all we have to eat is oatmeal and juice? Maybe Hinamori's belly is unsettled by the same meal every day, she needs it, or she could very well get sick again…the food is bringing her reiatsu back up!"

"But….and…" Rukia tried to no avail, Orihime made a good guilt-trip, indeed. But suddenly she changed tactic.

"It's the dress, huh?" she asked Rukia, holding at the dress that was still upon Rukia's body.

"I…yes! Yes, it's the dress!" Rukia answered honestly, feeling bad that Orihime might suspect she did not care about Hinamori or her needs.

"Well, I have a bigger dress in my closet, it will definitely fit you, and no one will be able to see your widdle white baby pants," Orihime poked gently on the front of the diaper, giggling to herself as Rukia pulled down on the front of her dress to hide the diaper.

"All right, lemme see the dress then…" Rukia pouted, a deep red splotch covering her face.

"One moment," Orihime chimed gently, getting to her feet as Hinamori followed with her eyes, watching Orihime go towards her closet, from whence so many odd things came. She was almost fearful for Rukia of what the dress would look like.

Rukia's eyes followed too as, once more, the only object that protruded from the closet was Orihime wiggling bottom. She moved back and forth, in the bottom of the closet, through boxes and hampers of yore, looking for the dress.

"I know it's in here somewhere, everything is in here somewhere! I'd worn it a couple of times when I was about 12, when I was the same height and shape as you, Rukia. However, since my little "growth spurt," wearing the dress became an impossible feat with my bosom. So…I stuffed it in a box somewhere in here," Orihime explained, though her voice didn't carry so well from the dark of the closet.

Now she worked to find it once more as her two charges watched with anticipation. Finally the dress was produced. Rukia turned red again, but Hinamori breathed a sigh of relief, it was not comical, though it was quite different.

It was a Lolita dress with frills on the shoulders, neckline, skirt-line, and all. Around the waist were small black chains, covered in sparkling faux gems that glittered and clinked as they were moved. Overall it was black, but the pleats and the collar were decorated with a deep purple, and the shoulders were brilliant white, whiter than would have been expected for something stuffed in a closet. Sleeveless, it looked more like a maid's dress than Lolita, had it not been adorned with the belt and violet. Rukia shut her eyes and tried to pretend it was a dream, but Hinamori admired the dress, she wished she was the one that got to wear it, although her adult clothes would be just fine.

"Why….it looks...different," Rukia said with fake appreciation of the attractive, yet lavishly extravagant dress.

"Thank you, I used to really love this dress, but had to stop wearing it when I inherited these!" Orihime giggled and Hinamori followed as Orihime prodded her naughty pillows as she'd done the padding betwixt Rukia's knees before.

"This is almost as bad as my dress…" Rukia pouted, unhappy with this outcome.

Hinamori wanted to say something, but felt that shyness form a lump in her throat, unbelievable though she swallowed it down hard and tapped Rukia upon the shoulder. She turned, expecting to get a lecture but Hinamori spoke softly, a bit red-faced.

"You can wear my clothes, Rukia. I'd….like to wear the dress," She had her eyes squeezed closed, hoping that if she couldn't see them, they couldn't see her.

"You'd really do that for me?" asked Rukia, tugging on Hinamori's hand, who nodded furiously in reply, refusing to open her eyes.

"All right then, I'll get you Hinamori's clothes, and Hinamori, get ready to put the dress on, I expect you'll need help," Orihime stated with maternal grace, happy that everyone got what they wanted. She hurried off, and soon laid the outfit Hinamori had worn just a while before. Rukia was pleased with this outfit, even if Hinamori's style was not the same as her own. She stood and now found how odd it really did feel to move around with the padding between her legs. Sitting, laying down, rolling around, all of those were simple in the diaper's thickness, but standing and walking were hindered.

"I'm waddling like a duckling!" Rukia complained when skirt and shirt were on well enough that she could move.

"Oh shush, no one will notice," Orihime dismissed, getting Hinamori's tee off and helping her into the dress.

Rukia was going to pout some more, but she decided it was better not to, as she could still feel a slight pain in her bottom, with each waddle she made, a nice and constant reminder of what happened when you made Orihime mad. And anyway, Orihime was now helping Hinamori change, and it would be awfully rude to impede their pace anymore than her pouting had already done. It was best to be a "good baby" rather than a bad one, if she knew what was good for her butt, and she did.

Hinamori stood nice and still only moving when instructed, slipping her arms into the shoulders of the dress as it was pulled over her, and laid out around her middle. It fit her like a glove, and quite comfortably. The chest had a little extra room, but that only made it even more comfortable. Hinamori's face was ruby once more, being helped to dress was an embarrassing moment, but she'd tried standing before, and the consequences of trying to walk alone were already obvious. With Orihime's help, she was once more on her feet, now she too recognized the padding between her legs as Orihime helped her talk a couple of steps, the dress falling nicely around her as she did.

The "crinkle, crinkle, crinkle" of each step the two of them took echoed in the silent room, Rukia pensively examining the spectacle, hoping Hinamori would not need to be ushered through town like this. As if watching an infant toddle with the help her parent, Orihime grinned with reassuring sparkles in her eyes, meeting Hinamori's grateful glance upward. Finally, Orihime let go of Hinamori's hands, there was a moment of disorientation and Orihime stood poised to catch her little one, but Hinamori righted and centered herself and took two of three steps to the wall on her own, putting her hand out and balancing herself a bit against the sturdy side of the room.

"Almost!" Orihime congratulated, patting Hinamori's bottom, sending clinks of metal from the belt, and hushed crinkles from the diaper. Hinamori turned beet, but nodded.

"I wanna try a little more….I think I can…" she said confidently, pushing off the wall without further ado and making a small, shuffle towards the other side of the room, and the beanbag chair there.

Momo kept her mind fixated on the beanbag chair; it gave her a purpose, a goal. It wasn't so much as pain holding her back, but a stiffness in her legs and hips, the diaper wasn't helping, but even without it there wouldn't be much difference in the way she walked, there was an impedance either way. After about a half minute of hardscrabble shuffling and limping, Hinamori balanced herself on the wall nearest the chair and turned back to Orihime.

"Good job!" Orihime cheered, clapping, treating Hinamori as if she really was her baby, and taking her first fledgling steps. "Now come to momma," Orihime beckoned, her hands extended, fingers making an invisible pull on Hinamori.

Rukia found this quite comical, and herself toddled, in a half waddle, towards Orihime, finally making some sort of progress in halting her waddling, but not much at all. She was scarlet in doing this, a scarlet of embarrassment. But she'd rather her face be red than her bottom, so didn't dare question the diaper at all. She turned and leaned herself against the wall and watched Hinamori intently begin her walk towards Orihime. It was sturdier now, and it was only a moment before Hinamori had taken her first real stride and reached Orihime in a human pace.

"I did it!" Hinamori exclaimed, almost surprised by her own excitement, but proud that she was no a little less dependant on hard-working Orihime, who had cared for her these last couple of days, hand and foot, for the little invalid she'd become.

"Yes, you did! What a wonderful, big girl!" Orihime coaxed, as even Rukia grinned, enjoying how Hinamori was babied and she got off light. Orihime then turned to Rukia and pulled her upright. She patted Rukia's bottom extensively, as if testing how bulky or visible the diaper was through the skirt, and fussed with Rukia's hair for a moment, before deciding it was fine. "There, no both of you are good to go,"

To this Rukia grumbled, and walked towards the door with that waddling toddle that made her feel both babyish and stupid. Hinamori, too, limped towards the door, and just as Orihime got her purse and made for the exit, she remembered forgetting to dust and clean. A deep sigh issued and Inoue bopped herself on the head.

"Well, I'll do it when we get home…" she told herself aloud.

"Do what?" asked Momo sweetly, curious now.

"Clean up a bit, nothing special, let's go," Orihime ordered in captainly fashion, before marching out the door and towards the stores.

Hinamori could not help dawdling behind, tripping on her own feet here and there, the squish and crinkle of the diaper at each fell wrong step made her blush and yip, as if the barely empty street was judging her. Rukia too had kept a slower pace, as it seemed to downgrade the sound level of each little sound that may alert people to the fact that under the skirt was not a pair of panties.

With their pace severely hindered, Orihime found herself cutting the act of being upright and fast, and hanging back with her two little ones, though they just looked like simple friends out on a walk in the way they were currently assembled. Hinamori tried to focus on the street and the lovely dress she was wearing, but two things hindered her. One was the feeling of the diaper, with each movement it chafed delicately, not painfully but annoying, and the second reason was the feeling she would soon wet said diaper, feeling hot and upset just at the thought of peeing in public, even if no one would be able to see it or tell.

However, as they hurried down the street with a limp, a waddle, and a restrained stride, Hinamori knew it was inevitable, and worrying about it was only making it worse. She took her mind immediately off of her bladder and continued walking. The warmth accumulating between her legs from walking would make it hard to know if she was wet anyway, so why even bother worrying about it? She nodded to herself, silently, and looked at Rukia, whose strained face implied great hardship. Rukia struggled here and there, her waddle only making it more difficult as she randomly began pulling down on the back of the skirt, as if an invisible eye was trying to peek and would certainly know the different between the white of panties and the white of a diaper with only one furtive glance.

When the store was in sight, there were two audible sighs of relief from either side of Orihime. She looked from Rukia to Hinamori and shook her head back and forth genially.

"I hope that was a sigh of relief in only ONE way," she joked gently.

"As if I'd do THAT here!" Rukia replied angrily, and stuck her tongue out like a sore child.

"Don't be fresh," Orihime replied coyly, swatting Rukia's bottom playfully, causing her to go wide-eyed and chalantly stare at all the people in the vicinity, as if they now knew, and were aware of her state. Hinamori said nothing, shaking her head in dismay of Rukia's boldness.

For a moment there was a brief halt while Rukia peered about her. There was only four other people on the street besides them, one was a mother and her little daughter, quite ironically. The other was an old man caning his way down the street, and the last was a grade school girl, walking to who knows where, all were easily ignorable, and Rukia ignorable to them. With that she continued and the others did too, walking into the store.

Orihime made no business looking like she was buying anything else but diapers, while Rukia and Hinamori milled about the front of the store, pretending they knew nothing of what Inoue was going to buy. Both were a bit embarrassed, just to be outside was risking being found out, and the shame that might follow would be too great to bear!

Back at the incontinence aisle, Orihime took her time looking over the brands of diapers that sat upon the shelf. She noted the ones she had bought before, and that they seemed to have a good level of absorption, but she was also looking to see if there might be a better one, one that would allow less changes, and therefore would forego another trip to the store if Hinamori didn't fully recover soon. Her hobble was much too slow, and the work she put into it made it clear that she'd be defenseless in battle. Rest was order, and since she showed no sign of regained continence, this was the only option, since she couldn't very well have puddles, could she? And she very well couldn't let Rukia off after just one diaper change, could she?

No, and that was that. She pulled up a package that said "Overnight" on it. This package was heavier than the one she'd previously bought, and since it contained the same size and amount of briefs, she was sure this one had to be much thicker, and by that methodology, much more absorbent. Snapping her fingers she remembered to get a new pacifier on the way back, since Hinamori had used one, it meant Rukia would need her OWN. This one was nice and white, simple but elegant, perfect for naughty Miss Kuchiki.

Finally she went to get some more food, some canned soup looked good, and even though they had had soup before, it was better than nothing. She picked up two cans and kept moving, then a little bit of bread, since that would add substance to the soup, which was needed if they were trying to bring Hinamori's fortitude back up to speed. Lastly she got another carton of juice, the one she'd filled Rukia with before. That accomplished she made towards the front of the store. She carried these things openly, right to the front of the store, past one or two customers without a blush or turn of her head. She set them upon the counter and then turned to Rukia and Hinamori.

"Do you two need anything before we get these and leave?" her voice was still, calm, and cool, causing the two of them to shudder and say nothing at being included in the purchase of diapers.

"I'm okay…" Rukia said before shutting her mouth as quickly as possible, not knowing what she could say.

"I am a little thirsty, mo-Inoue," Hinamori chirped softly, catching herself from calling Orihime "mommy" in public.

"All right, get a drink then," Orihime said sighing and giving a laugh that the cashier, a young man in his early twenties, by the look of him, mimicked uncomfortably, weirded out by their purchase, but too fond of his job to ask questions.

Hinamori hurried, as best she could, to the back, ignoring the crinkles that were masked by the clinking of her chain link belt. She looked through the drinks, before noticing something as she ran her hand along the cool bottles. She closed her eyes and prayed it stopped before she had an accident. She felt her body empty itself a little more and then opened her eyes and looked at the floor. Thankfully there was no puddle, no telltale signs of what had just occurred. She cursed herself on the inside but shook her head hard.

'Not a big deal, really, just get a drink and walk back, Hinamori!' she encouraged herself, grabbing a soda and returning to the front, a little slower than before.

She reached the counter as Rukia began tapping her feet, quite uncomfortable and wanting to be home as soon as possible, where she would be in private and away from all the people who could find out her secret, it was dangerous her, dangerous to her overwhelming pride, and the cashier's looks weren't helping. But overall they got out fine, the diapers and paci were collected in a nice black bag and the soda was handed back to Hinamori who popped the top and drank a few sips as if her life depended on it, if only to calm her nerves. The way back was calm, and quiet for most of the way.

"Well, are either of my little babies wet?" Orihime inquired bluntly when they were in an area that was not so densely near to people. Both turned red, but only one got a little closer to Orihime to nod and respond.

"I am….a little, I think a little at least," Hinamori said, thought it was an obvious lie, having realized back in the store that she'd near on flooded the entire padding, and was in dire need of a change, if not now then sooner.

"Hmm, well, you're lucky there are no places to do it here….just kidding," Orihime joked, rubbing Hinamori upon the head. "And what about you Rukia?" she asked, turning back to the other raven coiffed kiddie.

"I'm QUITE dry!" Rukia pouted, crossing her arms. She indeed had not needed to go, but would have probably had the same dilemma she'd come across that morning, with the inability to go even when she had to.

As they crossed the threshold back into the Inoue residence, each member took off their shoes, stowed them, and milled into the living room. Hinamori nursed her drink for a little bit as she sat on the floor near the table, happy to be back in side and sitting down. She huffed a bit, exhausted from the trip. She conked out only a moment or so later her drink bottle emptied and skirt all in disarray. It rode up as she fell back on the lump of pillows in the corner, and exposed was the off-yellow discoloring of the once pearly padding that was affixed between her legs. Rukia pulled Hinamori's skirt down, if only to keep her from looking so precociously more babyish than she already did.

Orihime set down the bag and settled everything. She took out the pacifier and turned to Rukia, extending it to her after removing it from the packaging. Rukia just looked at it for a moment.

"Here, come on, you'll need it for nap time," she insisted, pushing it at Rukia's lips, who knew better, and let it pass.

"I don't need a nap…" Rukia lisped through a muffled mouth, pacifier obscuring her words almost to incomprehensibility.

"See, you're cranky, so yes you do need one, off to bed!" Orihime insisted, settling Rukia next to Hinamori and pulling a sheet over both of them.

"I really don't…." Rukia pouted, smarter than to take the pacifier out, so she talked through one side of her mouth.

"Hmm, if not a nap then what, Miss Cranky? Maybe another spanky?" Orihime falsely threatened, though it needn't be honest sounding to make Rukia shake her head wildly back and forth.

"No, no, I feel tired all of a sudden…" she faked a yawn, throwing her arms back in a stretch. "…yes, I could use a nap now, definitely!"

Orihime turned away to clean as Rukia tried her best to fall asleep. Eventually she did find that she was tired. The "excitement" of being out of the house in diapers was enough to put her out almost as fast as Hinamori.

Dusting came first for Orihime and she quickly became bored, finishing the dusting and giving up, throwing herself to the beanbag chair and playing with her hair while looking at Hinamori and Rukia snore away. Again she was filled with motherly pride, and a little bit of longing, knowing she could not keep Hinamori, and Rukia, babied forever. But she set her mind on enjoying it for now and worrying about it later.

Orihime fell to her laziness not even ten minutes later, snoring deeply, filling the room now with that cacophonic pitch of snores that echoed without rhyme or rhythm. With them all asleep, there was no one to notice the spark of a small reiatsu far across the other side of town. The slit cracked open, the door to the world of hollows was silent and invisible to anyone who was not spiritually aware. From the mire of gray that swirled beyond the gate stepped a figure, indiscernible as a shadow against the shades of pall that covered the entirety of the entranceway. But one thing was certain…the figure was human….