21. The Downpour - Raindrops pt4
That early December night was characterized by the big strikes of lightning that cleaved through the cloudy skies at the beginning of the evening.
The air felt heavy with rain, predicting a deluge very soon.
She was hurrying her way home from the library and casting a dreadful glare at the skies, wishing for it to not start raining before she got home because she did not have an umbrella with her, having given the only one she owned to Tatsuki the night before.
"Oh come on," she whined at the first drop that landed on her shoulder, making her break into a run.
Lately she had come to resent the idea of rain when before the thought of rain had filled her with hope and desire. She'd come to look at the phenomenon differently now; it filled her with regret and melancholy more than anything else.
Orihime shook her head to dismiss the depressing tone her thoughts were about to take and concentrated on getting home before it started to rain in earnest.
It'd been a month since she last saw Ricart, and almost two since she last saw Ichigo.
It hurt to think of him now.
They hadn't talked since that night and although she'd tried many times to gather the courage to go up to his house and talk to him, she never had; her shame over what happened kept her from taking the necessary steps to a possible reconciliation.
She couldn't face him, she couldn't find any courage to do so. What could he be thinking about her and her choices now? How was she supposed to fix what she messed up so badly? She had yelled at him; told him that she never wanted to see him ever again...
Orihime stopped in her tracks and sighed, hating the fact that she'd let her mind go to those dark places again. It was in those moments that she felt like crying the most because she regretted the way things had gone and the words that she had said.
And she knew that even though she'd really cared for Ricart at one point, she'd enjoyed his attention because it took her mind off of the one she'd really been thirsting for; the one who never really went away.
She felt despicable and like she maybe deserved what had happened that night last October. She hadn't been honest to Ricart and she hadn't been honest to Ichigo.
And now she'd lost both of them in one hit.
Orihime took in a quivering breath and lifted her face up to let the thick drops of rain fall on her morose expression, letting them function for the tears that wouldn't come.
She felt like such a failure.
All he had wanted to do was to protect her that night and she sent him away like you would a criminal, forever shattering those bonds of trust she'd come to cherish so deeply.
Even if he had that other girl, she still wanted to have him in her life. He gave her life meaning; she'd never been more happy than when she got to hang out with him and the rest of the gang. And even the gang wasn't the gang anymore; Chad was still in Mexico; Uryuu, Tatsuki and her were in college and Ichigo worked full time when he wasn't exorcising Hollows with Renji and Rukia or gone to the Soul Society... They barely had time for each other anymore anyway.
And it'd been quite a while since the last Hollow attack that had required the presence of the entire team.
The rain was cascading down by then and she didn't care about getting wet anymore; her skin felt as numb as her insides felt cold.
Lifting her head up when she arrived at the foot of the stairs leading to her apartment complex, she noticed something on the lower right edge of her vision, making her turn her head to look.
In a dark corner beneath the stairs was a little girl, she couldn't have been older than seven years old. Her petite body sat scrunched close to the ground as she wept in fright, her soft green hair tousled and smudged with dirt.
"Are you okay?" Orihime immediately wondered, preparing to walk around the concrete steps of the stairs to approach the child. "Are you hurt?"
She could hear the sobs that made the small shoulders of the girl shake now, along with words she seemed to be repeating over and over.
"He's going to eat me… He's going to eat me… He's going to eat me!"
Just then a loud explosion sounded from behind her and the gust of wind along with the tremors that traveled in the air from the blast made her hair flail to her right, the quake that followed making her fall to the ground with a shriek when she lost her balance, dropping her backpack containing her books. Her Shiten Koushun instinctively erected itself in front of her and the girl who was pressing her back against the wall with a panicked expression, her soul link shining in the middle of her chest as it heaved in fright.
The eerie, horrific cry of a Hollow then echoed through the rainy night.
Orihime stood up again and turned around with a determined expression on her face, getting ready to fight.
From between the apartment building on the other side of her street materialized a gigantesque Hollow, it's grotesque body making her gasp in disgust and put her hands against her nose because of the offensive, rotting odor it exuded. Its mask was partly broken, as if it had been cleaved by a sword before.
"Oho? What do we have here? New playthings to toy with?"
Orihime took a protective step back towards the cowering child, holding her hairpins against her chest with one hand while the other was stretched away from her defensively. "Not another step!" she said sternly.
"Oooh," the Hollow cooed, moving ever closer and chuckling darkly. The writhing, wriggling mass of dark colored, fleshy, worm-like appendages covering its blob-like body accelerated in its movement, making her feel queasy. "Pretty, pretty! Smells good… and it wants to play! I'm so lucky today."
Another wave of the repulsive odor hit her nose and she felt herself get lightheaded. "What is that…?" she whispered, her vision blurring rapidly as a wave of nausea hit her and she stumbled back. "Oh God, no..."
"How does it taste, my lovely?" the Hollow cackled, now towering above her. "How does it taste?!"
Orihime gritted her teeth with a grunt when the first hit against her shield felt like a physical strike and she fell onto one knee. She lifted her her head again with a scowl when her shield vibrated and buzzed as it prepared to deliver the retaliating strike.
The monster was caught off guard when Tsubaki's attack tore a hole through the upper half of its body and it howled in agony, disappearing into the void a moment later.
"We have to go!" Orihime told the young spirit, grabbing her by a hand.
"Did you kill it?" the girl gasped, letting Orihime pull her up into a standing position and following close behind her when they broke into a run towards the end of the street. It was raining even harder by then.
"No," she breathed, taking a brief moment to reorient herself in the darkened and rainy streets, wanting to take the them to the nearest area she knew that would be devoid of people. She could barely see where she was going; the visibility was that bad. "I only hurt him; he'll be back. Come on!"
She lead them down the second street on her right, having decided to take them to the banks of the Karasu River.
Before they could reach it tough, the Hollow materialized in front of them again, giving Orihime just enough time to erect her shield again.
However, the force of the unexpected blow still knocked them back, making them hit the asphalt with yelps of pain.
She'd felt something snap inside her right arm when she landed on it.
"He's coming back, miss! Miss, he's coming back!"
Orihime crawled into a sitting position with some difficulty, biting back a yell when white hot pain shot through her broken limb. "Run away… just run away," she gasped, wincing. "I'll hold him off as long as I can. You need to find my friend… he's a Shinigami… He'll get you to where you need to go."
"But, miss-"
Orihime shakingly managed to stand back up on her feet, a reassuring smile on her face. "Get going," she told her, turning around to face her opponent again. "He won't get you, I promise."
The girl's carmine eyes filled with tears, but she nodded and turned in the other direction, breaking into a run soon after.
Understanding all too well that the surprising element of her Shiten Koushun was gone, she patiently waited for the Hollow to come closer to her, hoping to put up her shield again in time to redirect the assault effectively.
She braced for the attack when the Hollow charged at her, only to gasp in surprise when it dematerialized again. Orihime pulled up her shield behind her and stumbled backwards when one of the tentacles hit it again, making her fall to the ground once more.
Another horrific yell resounded through the rainy night when her second retaliating attack hit it square in its mask, albeit not hard enough for it to break.
"You bitch! That's it! Come here!" It cried, blindly moving forward in search of her while a few tentacles held on to its masked face.
"No!" Orihime yelped when one of its tentacles wrapped itself around her left ankle and began to drag her over the ground. "No!" she cried again, this time with determination. "Tsubaki!"
The offensive spirit appeared once more and cut through the appendage keeping her hostage.
As the monster once again expressed its pain and anger, she saw a familiar pair of sandals run past her.
"Tough luck, pal. Neither of us die that easily. Goodbye."
Orihime sighed in relief when the Hollow disintegrated after its mask had been completely shattered by Ichigo's main blade. She sat up with some difficulty, holding onto her broken arm still. She looked into the direction she felt him to be because the heavy rain made it difficult to see where he was.
"Fuck."
A sound akin to a blade being thrusted into the ground then hit her ears and her instincts immediately discerned that something was wrong with him. Orihime scrambled onto her feet and ran to him, her expression turning to worry when she saw him kneeled on the floor next to his largest blade, leaning against it and bleeding from multiple lacerations on his body, panting heavily.
"Kurosaki-kun," she tried hesitantly, her brows drawing together when he vomited to the side and fell backwards. "Kurosaki-kun!"
She was by his side in an instant with Shun'o and Ayame already creating a dome around the both of them to heal his battered body and her broken arm.
"I must be dreaming…" he murmured drowsily when next he opened his eyes a little, a small smile gracing his lips. "Are you okay? I never got a chance to…"
She was shaking her head, refusing to listen to whatever he had to say. She didn't want to hear it; she was on the verge of tears already because of his pitiable state and she needed to concentrate to heal him as fast as she could. Obviously the poison he'd inhaled from his previous fight with the Hollow had spread and she knew from experience that healing a body from toxin was a whole lot trickier than just fixing a physical injury."You're badly hurt, Kurosaki-kun, please remain still. Please," she whispered, her voice trembling.
Ichigo's eyes softened and he smiled a little. "Inoue… I…"
"Not now…" she begged, shaking her head again, pulling her soaked hair behind an ear and biting her lower lip to try and keep it from quivering with held back emotion. "Please…"
"I can't stop thinking about you," he told her, blinking his eyes rapidly against the raindrops that fell relentlessly into his eyes. "I only realized when you left… Back then, I-"
Her left hand was now trembling as it hovered above him and she closed her eyes. "Kurosaki-kun…"
"I'm sorry for everything, Inoue."
That made her finally break down and she sobbed quietly. None of this was his fault… she was the one who let that man break her, let her believe again that she wasn't worth anything… let everything that Ichigo and the others had done for her go to waste. "Don't say that…" she whimpered in a small voice, squeezing her eyes shut in an effort to hide from his inquisitive gaze. "You haven't done anything wrong… I'm the one-"
His wet right hand then came to enclose her left wrist and she looked up at him. "Stop… I was supposed to protect you and I once again failed you by not telling you what needed to be said."
Her next breath was inhaled in a quivering gasp and she couldn't but stare at him for the longest of time while the rain incessantly poured onto them. "Kurosaki-kun…"
"I need you to be with me, I can't think straight when you're not around me…" he confessed, taking in a quivering breath against the next wave of nausea that hit him, his hand letting go of her wrist.
She let her eyes go over the wounds that were now closing themselves, briefly wondering how he could've let the Hollow attack him so many times. He was known for his impressive reflexes, and even if his movements were impeded by the poison, he shouldn't have been battered like this…
Orihime lifted her teary eyes up to his again, her gaze filling itself with guilt and deepening regret. Even if they hadn't become more than just friends, they were supposed to have stayed at least that; friends. How could she have forgotten about this? How could she have let her rejected feelings destroy everything they had built together with their friends?
He needed her, and even if it hadn't been in the way she had wanted for him to; she never should've let her selfish need supersede his. She now saw that it only distracted him from his mission, that her being in love with him wasn't something he needed.
Someone once told her that she was important to him, that her friendship with him made him fight better, that it gave him purpose and focus.
And she had thrown all of that away because he hadn't wanted to give her the attention she wished for.
And therefore she left him... to fight all alone.
She truly was the worst person alive.
"Inoue…?" Ichigo pressed after a few moments of silence had passed. "Please say something-"
Orihime closed the eyes she had directed to the ground and scowled, angry at herself. "I can't do this to you…" she murmured, biting her lower lip and hugging herself now that her right arm had been healed. "I can't… I'm sorry..."
"Inoue… are you listening to what I am saying?" he softly said, catching her attention again. "I want to be with you. The thought of you with someone else drives me crazy."
Her eyes went wide at that and she blinked through the rainfall, the thick drops of water running down her face making her even more appealing to him. "Kurosaki-kun…" she whispered, her heart beating faster now.
Of all the times she had fantasized about him saying it, this was not how she had ever thought it would go.
She gulped and opened her mouth to say something but hesitated, hating herself for having to do this to him, but wanting to be straight with him all the same. "I'm… I'm not ready…" she admitted. She was too broken still, felt too unworthy and disgusting for what she had done. "I'm so sorry…"
He only ever smiled at her and shook his head reassuringly, understanding where she was coming from. She had a great deal of healing to do, they both did. But in the meantime, he would make her a promise; one he had no intention of breaking for as long as he could still draw breath.
"I'm not going anywhere."
She looked down at the hand that he was holding up for her to take and hesitantly put one of hers in it, the warmth of his touch bringing back the familiarity that she had so missed, making more tears well up in her eyes. "Will you give me some time…?" she asked softly.
She felt too insecure to return his affections confidently, knowing that she'd need time to sort through all of her feelings and to forgive herself so they could build up their relationship once more.
He nodded. "Take as much time as you need; I'm not going anywhere."
Orihime chuckled tearfully and nodded back, holding onto his hand with both of hers gratefully, letting the rain mingle with her tears.
It was then, in the downpour that their hearts bound together, heaven and earth mingling and connecting.
United, at long last.
Busy busy busy...
A big thank you goes to fellow author Brokenangelwings83 for proofreading this chapter!
Thank you for your ongoing support of this piece, I hope you enjoyed. If you have questions, shoot in the comments!
The next 'Ashes to Ashes' chapter will be the last, as will the next 'raindrops' chapter be for its arc.
Do check out my 30 days nsfw otp Challenge for Ichihime I'm currently working on with SingingButterflyRose. We update every Monday and Friday! You can find my prompts on here, but for my partner's you'll have to visit my tumblr page (link is in my bio!).
I had some artwork done for Accursed, you can check it out through my profile, just click on the link to my DA profile in my biography.
Alrighty then, up next in my updating schedule is Accursed!
Onto the next one!
-MistressBlaque-