Requested by Asiram- thank you

Uryuu x Orihime

Without

He walked in on her in tears, her eyes damp and her hands in fists against her cheeks, trying to rub the tracks away. There was something terrifyingly calm about her face, as if she had come to accept some great tragedy. He dropped his bags on the floor and fell on his knees, in front of her, taking her hands away and replacing them with his own, stroking the underside of her eyes with the tips of his fingers.

"Orihime, what's wrong?"

"I… it's stupid."

He stared at her levelly, until she blushed underneath his scrutiny.

"Really, it is nothing."

She had stared at him with that strange calm behind her eyes, and had nodded, and left it like that.

He knew he could not force it out of her, because she had a great strength of will like that. He did not ask when he saw her in that state a few days later, either, just opened his arms to her, although he watched her step with just a touch more hesitance than she normally would do. She wept several more times before she spoke of what troubled her, when they lay in the still dark of night. She had her face pressed to the naked skin of his chest, and began to speak, voice level.

"Sometimes, Uryuu, I feel like you're leaving me behind."

She spoke his name with deliberate emphasis, as if trying to anchor herself with it.

"What?"

"Every day, you're getting stronger, Uryuu… I wonder, sometimes, that one day you'll be too far for me to reach."

He laughed, softly, at her, and she looked up at him, smiling weakly.

"I'm sorry. I'm being stupid, aren't I?"

He shook his head, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Do you not understand, Orihime?"

Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him, a little damp from tears that he had not realised were falling. There was emotion in her eyes, painful and unreadable; it was almost as hard to look at as the calm of acceptance.

"I am going nowhere without you."

She smiled; bright, brilliant.

He hoped that his word would be enough to give her peace.