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"Tch," was Orihime's sound of annoyance. She picked up her cheeseburger again. Her feigned irritation left her face, as she smiled back at Tatsuki sticking her tongue out at her. I wish spiders were the only thing I had to worry about these days.
The next day, Tuesday
Walking into the kitchen, Isshin was quiet, and held a rather serious look on his face. Both Karin and Yuzu had recognized their father's look, and Yuzu was the first to speak on it. "What's wrong dad?" Yuzu asked, a frown on her face. "You can tell us."
"We know it has to do with the shinigami and arrancar business," Karin added, her eyes on her father. "I mean I think we should be allowed to know. This is about Orihime, who's like a sister to us now. And our niece. We should be allowed to at least know what's going on."
Isshin watched both his daughters for a moment, and then sighed. "I finally let Ichigo go back to helping with the hollows and arrancars after his weekend off. We were switching out, and they were attacked. Both your brother and I are fine, it just wasn't good on our side. There was one bad injury, and it was that girl Ichigo and Orihime are friends with. Akira, I think-"
"Akira was injured?" Orihime's voice from the kitchen archway was heard. One hand on the frame of the archway, and the other on her baby bump.
"Orihime," Isshin started, already seeing the concerned look on Orihime's face. "Don't-"
Orihime turned away, and walked right back out of the kitchen. Going to grab her purse from the coffee table. Already hearing footsteps behind her.
"Orihime," Isshin started, seeing Orihime was slipping on her flip flops. Something she had been wearing more often as it didn't require her to really have to put effort into putting them on. "You really shouldn't be involved in all this-"
"Akira is hurt," Orihime interrupted, her eyes going back to Isshin. "I can't just sit here. I need to go make sure she is okay, and nothing is going to change my mind."
Isshin was quiet, observing Orihime. With how set Orihime was in something she wanted to do it reminded him of how his wife used to be. And if Orihime was anything like his wife, disagreeing wouldn't end well for him. "At least let me drive."
At Urahara's
Isshin ended up making Karin and Yuzu come with them, so they all got out of his car outside Urahara's. Renji was outside, and had his eyes specifically on Orihime.
"Orihime, you aren't supposed to be here," Renji started, his eyes following Orihime as she came closer towards the front door.
"Here's how this is going to work," Orihime started a frown on her face, as she stopped directly in front of Renji. "If you don't let me go inside, I am going to start crying. Not because I'm upset, but because I'm angry. Because of how far along I am my hormones are starting to go all over the damn place. But, also I don't really have control over it. So, I will be taking out my anger on you." She pointed a finger to his chest. "If you do not let me inside, I will tear you apart."
That was all Renji needed to hear, as he stepped aside. Having been on Orihime's bad side more than once, he didn't think now would be a good time to be on her bad side again.
After Renji moved aside, Orihime walked right on in. Going through the shop, and then to the doors that led to the back room. She slid them open, and walked in.
"Orihime?" Rukia questioned, the first to look over. "What are you doing here?"
"You aren't supposed to be here," Toshiro said, eyeing Renji who was walking inside behind Orihime.
Ichigo had started to stand up from where he was sitting at the table. "Orihime, we decided for you to not be involved in this stuff anymore. You need to go back home-"
"Do not tell me what to do!" Orihime interrupted Ichigo, clearly pissed off. Her snapping at him, made it deadly quiet in the room. Her eyes went to Yoruichi. "Where is Akira?"
"Down the hall, third room to your left," Yoruichi replied after a moment of silence.
"Thank you," Orihime said, her eyes going back to Ichigo. "I cannot believe you would not tell me that Akira got hurt!" She snapped at him again, and then started down the hall.
It remained silent in the room, as Isshin, Yuzu, and Karin walked inside the room after Renji did. Renji was sighing. "There was no way I was going to stop her."
"How did she find out?" Uryu asked, even though it was quite clear how she did.
Ichigo's eyes focused on his dad. "Dad you weren't supposed to say anything to Orihime for a reason."
"It's not his fault Ichigo," Yuzu came right to their dad's defense.
"Orihime overheard me talking to Yuzu and Karin," Isshin explained, his arms crossed over his chest. "I didn't intentionally tell her."
It was quiet for a moment, then Karin sighed in annoyance with her brother. "And it's one of her friends for goodness sake! Someone should have told her, and then she probably wouldn't have freaked out like she did."
Orihime's POV
Sliding open the door to the room Yoruichi said Akira was in, Orihime walked in. Already seeing Akira, who was laying on a futon. She was holding her phone up with one hand, and had been looking at something on it.
However, having heard Orihime coming into the room, Akira looked over. A smirk growing on her face, as she locked her phone. Setting it down, she looked back to Orihime. "So it was you that I heard telling off Renji outside?"
"Yeah," Orihime replied, carefully moving so she could sit on the ground beside Akira's futon. Then she broke down in tears.
"Angry tears?" Akira asked, having guessed that's why Orihime would be crying.
Orihime nodded her head, and tried to wipe her tears away. "Yeah. I was holding it back until I left the others," she explained, sniffling as she tried to get herself together. "How are you?"
"Just a bruised shoulder, and a few other injuries here and there," Akira replied, shrugging one of her shoulders, and yawning. "It's not that bad."
"You are wrapped all over Akira. That's not just a few injuries," Orihime pointed out, sniffling again.
Akira sighed, and smiled genuinely at Orihime's observation. "By a 'few' I was right, they just aren't that small of injuries. They are a few bigger injuries."
"Did you break anything?"
"A small bone in my ankle," Akira grinned at that. "But, you best believe I kicked the arrancar's ass who did it to me. Not really kicked obviously, but you know what I mean."
Orihime laughed at how Akira seemed to be fine despite being injured. "I bet you did."
"Apparently it won't be that bad either," Akira added, rubbing one hand on her bad shoulder. "They'll have me healed up fully by Friday night. No big deal. I even get to miss school for the next couple days or so, so that's a plus."
"Well, at least you are going to be okay," Orihime's voice changed, showing she was crying again.
"I didn't make you mad, so is this you just being overly emotional?" Akira questioned, looking curiously at Orihime.
"I-" Orihime stopped to try to pull herself together again, and she finally smiled at Akira. "I thought you were going to die or something. I'm just relieved that you are going to be okay. I don't want you dying because of arrancars and hollows that are after me."
"Don't be so selfish Orihime," Akira started, trying to lighten the mood. "Maybe they were after me. Not everything can be about you."
That actually got both of them laughing. When their laughter slowed, Orihime smiled, "I'm glad you are going to be okay."
Fifteen minutes later
Having talked with Akira, until she had fell asleep in the middle of their conversation, Orihime finally left the room. Walking down the hall back to the main room, her eyes went to Isshin and the girls. "We can go back home now."
"Orihime-" Ichigo started, having already stood up at the sound of her leaving Akira's room.
"No," Orihime interrupted, turning to Ichigo. A frown on her face. "You are not going to start apologizing to me. Because you did nothing wrong."
"Okay…" Ichigo trailed off, slightly confused as he hadn't expected her to say that.
Orihime stepped closer to Ichigo. Her hand resting on his arm, and a small smile on her face. "Akira was hurt, and that scared me because I didn't know how bad. So I came here scared for her, and I was letting my hormone influenced emotions take over… I'm the one who's not supposed to be here, you did nothing wrong. So no, I do not want to hear you apologizing to me… I'm sorry I snapped at you."
It was quiet for a long moment, and then Ichigo finally hugged Orihime to himself. "I'll keep you updated on Akira okay?"
Orihime nodded against Ichigo's chest. "Okay."
The next evening, Wednesday
Sitting on the piano bench in the study, Orihime and Ichigo remained silent. Having been staring at their wall of sticky notes for well over ten minutes. They hadn't been able to take anymore names down, and had added a couple more since coming in the room around fifteen minutes ago.
"Twenty two names," Orihime spoke up finally, her eyes finally leaving the wall to look at Ichigo.
"And we can't take any of them down," Ichigo sighed, his eyes meeting Orihime's. "Why is this so hard?"
"Because this is going to lead to the name of our daughter," Orihime replied, sipping at her water she had. "This is an important decision."
Once again sighing, Ichigo looked down at his watch. "It's getting late. Dinner should be done anytime now. We should take down the one's we decided to take down, and then go eat."
Frowning, Orihime's eyes went back to the wall, and nodded. "Okay, I guess we can come back after dinner," she said, moving to push herself to standing up, and she watched Ichigo get up to take down the names they had decided to take down. Leaving them with sixteen choices left. Then they left the study, and went to join the rest of the family for dinner.
At the sight of Orihime and Ichigo, Yuzu's eyes lit up. "Did you choose a name yet?"
"We're still not sure," Ichigo said, his eyes meeting Orihime's, and then going back towards Yuzu.
"It's just a lot harder than we thought it would be," Orihime said, picking up fork to start eating dinner.
"It's understanding that it's taking you some time," Isshin nodding, clearly not at all pressuring for a name from Orihime and his son. "You two take all the time you need."
"Yeah, take your time," Yuzu agreed with her dad.
Karin, however, shook her head at her dad and Yuzu. "Am I the only one who is impatient about this?" She asked, the others laughed, but she remained serious. Clearly wanting to know what her niece's name was going to be already. Impatience all over her expression.
Two thirty in the morning
Sitting up, Orihime's eyes flickered open. Having been tossing and turning since originally laying down a few hours ago, Orihime had finally had an idea cross her mind. Reaching over to Ichigo, she rested her hand on his shoulder, and shook him gently. "Ichigo?"
After shaking him a few more times, Ichigo finally seemed to wake up. He groaned, and buried his face closer to the pillows.
"Ichigo, come on," Orihime said, stopping shaking his shoulder, as he clearly was awake now. "What if I was in labor? Would you ignore me then?"
"Are you in labor now?" Was Ichigo's muffled sounding question from where his face was resting against the pillow.
"No, because if I was and you were ignoring me like this, we would be having a very different conversation," Orihime replied, laughing at how that made Ichigo groan again. "Ichigo, come on."
Finally Ichigo moved to sit up. Yawning and looking over to the clock. "Orihime, it's two thirty in the morning."
Orihime, who had gotten up from the bed, grabbed her robe from where it was on the back of their desk chair. "I know that, now come on," she replied, barely giving him enough time to stand all the way up, before she grabbed his hand. Pulling him to the door. They walked all the way downstairs in the dark, Orihime using the flashlight on her phone so she wouldn't have to turn on all the lights.
They didn't stop until they were in the study. That's when Orihime actually turned on the lights. Ichigo groaned the second she flipped the switch, and moved his hands in front of his face. "That's just what I needed."
"Stop complaining, I've got a theory," Orihime told him, setting her phone down, and moving over to their wall of sticky notes. "You want to know why we can't pick a name?" She asked, and then proceeded to actually tear down the remaining sticky notes from the wall. "We can't pick a name because we are not really thinking together. We are forcing ourselves into choosing between just those sixteen. The one's we have taken off the wall are one's that we should consider too. Because at some point in the days that we've been doing this, we thought that they could be the possible name for baby girl. Giving ourselves a limited option of sixteen won't get us anywhere. Even if we narrow it down. There might be one we took off that we just haven't fully considered together."
"Okay, so how are supposed to pick a name?" Ichigo asked, pointing to the pile of sticky notes they had already taken down. "There are over three hundred something sticky notes, and I'm sure the sixteen we had was to keep us from having to shuffle through three hundred names."
"That's easy, we have to go through all of these names again, but together this time," Orihime replied, propping her hands on her hips. "We've been doing these separately, and taking them down separately. So I think that if we go through these all together, we might be able to actually make progress on finding a name for baby girl."
Ichigo stared at Orihime for a long moment. She's got that look in her eye. The one that means that she's determined to do something, which leaves me with one option. That thought had him sighing. "I'm going to make coffee first."
"Bring me a cup," Orihime said, easing herself to sitting down on the floor near the big pile of sticky notes. Starting to organize the sticky notes into one stack.
"I'm bringing you apple juice. If you want something sugary, then I'll bring you pop-tarts. You need to cool it with the coffee," Ichigo shot back, turning leaving the room.
"Not fair!" Orihime called back to him, laughing when she heard the sound of him laughing. Her eyes focused back on the sticky notes, and it had her smiling. Hopefully this works.
The next morning, Thursday
Walking downstairs, Orihime and Ichigo were both exhausted. Having stayed up the rest of the night. They had just left to go upstairs to get dressed for school about a half hour ago. Isshin and Karin were at the table, and Yuzu was no where to be seen.
"You two look like zombies," Karin said in a somewhat greeting.
Orihime and Ichigo had sat down at the table, and didn't get a chance to reply as Yuzu's voice was heard. "They're gone!"
"What's gone?" Isshin questioned, his eyes leaving his breakfast to look at Yuzu.
"The sticky notes," Yuzu answered, going over to her seat at the table. "They are all gone."
Karin's eyes winded. "They were there last night before we went to bed," she said, her eyes, along with the others, went to Orihime and Ichigo expectantly.
Orihime just yawned, and sipped at the strawberry and banana smoothie that Yuzu made and set out for her before she and Ichigo had come downstairs. "Yeah, we took them down last night."
"Or really this morning," Ichigo corrected, sipping at his coffee. "Orihime woke me up around two thirty in the morning, and made me come down here with her, and we took them down."
"But they are gone," Yuzu said, a slightly confused expression on her face. "Like really gone, I can't find them anywhere."
Orihime set her smoothie down and picked up her spoon. "Yeah, well we had to throw them away."
"Why?" Karin asked, starting to drink some of her water.
"So you all wouldn't know what name we chose," Ichigo added, sipping at his coffee again to hide the smile on his face.
That made Karin choke on her water.
"What?!" Yuzu exclaimed, her eyes wide.
"You two chose a name?" Isshin asked for clarification.
Orihime nodded, and smiled after she chewed the food in her mouth. "Yep."
"A little over half an hour ago. We just came back upstairs when you all started coming downstairs this morning," Ichigo explained, setting his coffee mug down.
"Well?" Karin asked them after a moment of silence. "Are you going to tell us?"
"No," Orihime and Ichigo replied together.
"Why not?!" Yuzu exclaimed, frowning.
"It's a surprise," Ichigo explained, looking to his dad, Yuzu, and then Karin. "We are keeping you in the dark."
"Why?" Karin asked rather impatiently.
Yuzu nodded. "That's not fair."
Isshin laughed at his daughters words, looking from Orihime to Ichigo. "Well, you two better keep that surprise under lock and key, because these two will be pestering you until you tell them."
"Right!" Karin agreed, with Yuzu nodding.
At school
"You two chose baby girl's name didn't you?" Was the first thing Tatsuki asked, as she and the others approached Orihime and Ichigo.
That had Orihime smiling, and Ichigo raising an eyebrow. "How did you know? We didn't even say anything."
"You didn't have too," Tatsuki said, focusing specifically on Orihime. "You have texted me every morning with a picture of the wall. And if you and Ichigo made any progress. Usually it's followed with a text of annoyance at how hard it was to choose. But not this morning."
"You don't know for sure-"
"I know you Orihime," Tatsuki interrupted, smirking.
Orihime was quiet for a moment, and then she nodded to Ichigo. "Sorry, I apparently can't keep a secret, because she knows things."
Ichigo laughed as he shook his head. "I knew it'd happen."
"Well?" Toshiro asked, his arms crossed. He and the other shinigami were here just to check in. Not to actually go and attend classes.
"What did you choose?" Renji added.
"We're not telling you," Orihime replied, smiling at the others. "It's a surprise." Her eyes specifically went to Tatsuki. "You might know things when it comes to me, but there's no way you are getting the name from just looking at me… And don't bother stealing my computer to look for it, or figuring out the pass code to my phone-"
"I already know the pass code to your phone," Tatsuki interrupted.
"I changed it," Orihime replied, a hand propped on her hip.
Tatsuki raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Really?"
Orihime frowned, quiet at first, before sighing. "Well I'm going to change it now. Anyway, don't bother looking for it. Because Ichigo and I were very thorough in getting rid of any evidence. We already anticipated you all invading our personal space to try and figure it out, so we took precautions."
That had everyone laughing.
"What's so funny?" It was Akira who asked this, coming up to them, on crutches.
"Akira, what are you doing here?" Orihime asked, smiling at the sight of her.
Tatsuki nodded, her focus on Akira now. "I thought you were skipping for the rest of the week?"
Akira laughed, as she stopped by them. "Yeah, well after two days being tortured by being in the same house with my parents twenty four seven, I've had enough to send me running back to school. Well… not really running, but you get what I mean."
While that had the others laughing, Mai just smiled. "How long will you be on crutches?"
"I'll be off them tomorrow," Akira replied, relaxing now that she was stopped. "After the gala tomorrow, I'm getting the rest of it healed up, so I'll be back to normal by the end of the night tomorrow… It is probably the best thing that comes from knowing some bad ass shinigami healers."
That had everyone laughing again. "That means you'll have an excuse to wear pants to the gala instead of a dress," Tatsuki said, a smirk growing on her face. "In fact, I'll wear pants with you so you won't be alone."
"I have a feeling you would wear pants anyways," Ichigo pointed out.
"You right," Tatsuki agreed, laughing along with the others this time.
Later on that day
"How did your doctor's appointment go?" Tatsuki asked, adjusting on the couch to face Orihime more.
"Dr. Ayame told me that my blood pressure is much better than last time. But, she still wants me to come in every four to five days. Just because I've had so much up and down time with my blood pressure," Orihime replied, having to adjust herself as well, more out of discomfort. "She also says I still have to check my blood pressure a few times everyday. I'm also not showing anymore signs apart from braxton hicks contractions, and that baby girl has dropped."
Tatsuki nodded, and a smirk grew on her face. "Speaking of baby girl-"
"We are not telling you the name Tatsuki," Ichigo interrupted, his arm wrapped around Orihime's shoulders, as he smiled. "So don't bother asking."
"Damn it," Tatsuki cursed, her smirk dropping off her face, as that had made the others laugh. "I'll find out eventually."
"I highly doubt you will Tatsuki. So good luck with that," Orihime replied, smiling at Tatsuki sticking out her tongue.
"Okay, so when exactly is the gala thing tomorrow?" Akira asked, having had her foot propped up on a pillow on the coffee table.
"Seven, right?" Ichigo confirmed with Orihime, who nodded, and he looked back to Akira. "Yeah, it's seven."
"Do you know what you are going to wear?" Rukia asked everyone in general, and they replied easily. Orihime on the other hand did not reply to Rukia's question.
Orihime groaned at the thought of what she was going to wear. "I actually have no idea what I am going to wear. I don't have anything at all that would go with the occasion."
"That's not true," Ichigo laughed, getting her to look at him. "Our closet is huge, and more than eight five percent of it is all of your clothes. Not including your shoes and bags, that are on shelves closer to the ground. As well as not including the clothes you have in our dresser out in our room."
"No," Orihime started, smoothing her shirt down over her baby bump, and clasping her hands together towards the bottom of her bump. "I mean clothes that I can fit into Ichigo. I'm huge, and everything I bought the last time I went shopping is starting not to fit anymore. Especially all my nicer clothes."
"You should go shopping tomorrow then," Rangiku suggested, always one to consider shopping.
"I guess I'll have to. I just don't want to spend so much money on something I'm only going to where this once. Dresses for events like these are always so damn expensive," Orihime reached over to pick her phone up off the coffee table. Unlocking it, she dialed a number, and stuck it up to her ear.
"Karin," Orihime started, her other hand moving to rub the top of her baby bump where she felt the baby was pressing against. "Will you and Yuzu come down here for a quick second please?" Nodding her head when Karin agreed, she ended the call, and set her phone back on the coffee table.
"Did you really have to call?" Ichigo asked, smiling at Orihime as she relaxed back against him.
Orihime's eyes went to Ichigo. "Does it look like I want to get up to walk upstairs right now?"
Ichigo was quiet for a moment, before shaking his head. "I'm not sure if should respond to that to be quite honest." He told her, making the others laugh.
"I don't want to go anywhere because my feet and ankles are swelling up and they hurt," Orihime replied, already hearing the sound of footsteps on the stairs behind them.
Karin and Yuzu appeared at the bottom, and walked around the couch to stand where they could see Orihime's face. "What did you need?" Karin asked, her hands propped on her hips.
"Would you two like to go to the mall with me tomorrow before the gala?" Orihime asked, rubbing her baby bump some more. "I don't have anything to wear for it and I was thinking about taking you two to buy you something to wear too."
"But, we have school tomorrow," Yuzu said, crossing her arms, as that had been the first thing on her mind.
Humming to herself for a long moment, Orihime finally shrugged her shoulders. "Well, it is not like it would be that big of a deal if you miss one day right-"
"Orihime," Ichigo interrupted, the hand that wasn't wrapped around her shoulders rested on her knee. He had an eyebrow raised at her suggesting it was okay for them to skip school. As Karin was smirking and Yuzu had a concerned look on her face.
Orihime sighed heavily, and looked to Karin and Yuzu again. "Fine, after school then?"
Yuzu nodded, looking a lot more relieved hearing that suggestion. "Yeah that'll be so much fun."
"I wouldn't go so far as saying that it would be so much fun because it is still shopping," Karin said, crossing her arms over her chest now. "Need anything else?"
Orihime shook her head. "Nope, that's it."
Then Yuzu and Karin left, and Tatsuki started laughing getting the others to look at her. "Did you see the look on Yuzu's face? She looked so concerned over skipping school."
That had Orihime smiling as she had noticed it too. "Well I'm sure if it was just Karin I probably wouldn't have to convince her at all to skip. She would agree before I could even tell her the reason why."
"You used to be like Yuzu," Tatsuki pointed out, then crossed her arms over her chest. "Always wanting to be at school and achieve the highest grade possible-"
"And then I got pregnant," Orihime interrupted, smirking now as she rubbed her baby bump. "And now I hate going to school and I still want to do good, but it's too much damn work."
That got the others laughing, and Ichigo reached over to smooth some of Orihime's hair down around her face. "Well, you are the one who wanted to try to attend school more. So when I wake you up in the morning for school, I'm just doing what you asked."
Orihime sighed, and stopped her hands on the lower part of her baby bump. "I know, and no matter how annoying it is, you have to keep doing that. Because lately I've been getting really tempted to just drop out of school, sit on the couch, and watch Grey's Anatomy all day." That made the others laugh again, and Orihime phone buzzed from the coffee table. Picking her phone back up from the table, she found the message was from Kira. As she opened the message her mouth fell open, and she actually half-yelled out when she read it. "Oh my god!"
"What?" Ichigo asked, alarmed at her yelling, and her moving suddenly.
"Kira had her baby!" Orihime exclaimed, laughing happily as she sat up more. Her fingers typing rapidly against the keyboard on her phone.
"She wasn't due until next week though right?" Ichigo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I guess she was early," Orihime replied, clapping her hands together excitedly, and then moving to grab the remote to the TV. Clicking the button to connect her laptop to the TV, as it was still connected from when she did it earlier.
"What are you doing Orihime?" Tatsuki asked, as Orihime switched to her computer where she was logging in.
"Kira wants to skype me, but my phone is not that good quality when I use skype," Orihime replied, smiling as she noticed Kira was already skyping her. Accepting the call the first thing she saw was actually Ryuu.
"You know Orihime, Kira wanted to skype you, and guess who was the one who had to go dig through her stuff to find her phone?" Ryuu asked, grinning as he saw Ichigo beside Orihime. "What's up man?"
"Nothing much is new here. How about you?" Ichigo countered.
"I'm a little tired, but I'm okay-"
"You have no right to say you are the one that's tired, I'm the one who actually gave birth here," Kira's voice interrupted Ryuu's. Make Orihime and Ichigo laugh.
Ryuu shook his head as he laughed. "Right, what was I thinking?"
"Alright, Orihime, no judgment okay? I'm not wearing any makeup, because I woke up in the middle of the night going into labor," Kira's voice was heard again.
Orihime laughed at that. "Of course no judgment. I make it a point to not wear that much makeup these days anyways. Why bother with it when it means I can sleep longer?"
That had Kira laughing, before Ryuu actually turned the phone around to see Kira. Kira and the new baby was seen then.
"Oh my god," Orihime said, lifting her hand up to her mouth at the sight of the new baby. "He's actually like the most precious thing I've ever seen." She gushed, actually getting slightly emotional at how cute he was.
Kira noticed Orihime was crying, and she laughed. "Orihime, you are not supposed to be the one crying here."
"Well, I can't help it. I'm a hormonal mess okay?" Orihime replied, laughing through her tears.
"Did you two decide on a name for him yet?" Ichigo asked.
Kira nodded. "Hiroko, after Ryuu's grandfather."
Ryuu adjusted close to Kira so they both could be in the frame of the camera. "He ended up being about eight and a half inches, and seven pounds even. The doctor said that if he made it to the due date, he would have possibly gained about ten more ounces."
"Well, he's absolutely precious," Orihime said, smiling as she tried wiping at her tears. "We'll definitely had to drive back over to Windsworth to come and see him in person sometime."'
Kira laughed, and nodded her head. "Well, for now, skype is going to have to do. I can tell you right now that you probably won't feel up to the drive over the last couple weeks of your pregnancy," she said, adjusting Hiroko in her arms a little. "Once you have your daughter, then we can have a little play date. Obviously it'll be more for us than it will be for them. But it would be nice."
"Definitely, you can come and see our new house sometime too," Orihime said, still having to wipe under her eyes at the tears that seemed to just do as they please.
"So, what about you two?" Ryuu asked, his eyes having been focused on his son, but went back to the camera. "Have you picked out a name for your daughter yet?"
Orihime and Ichigo shared a look and grinned, Ichigo speaking first. "Yes we did. This morning actually. But, we've been keeping it a secret from all of our friends and Ichigo's family."
"Which has been quite annoying," Akira spoke up, making both Kira and Ryuu laugh. Which at their laughter, Hiroko made a little noise and moved.
"Aw, just watching him move makes me want to cry all over again," Orihime said, laughing along with Kira. "I'll call you after the others leave and tell you what we chose. Because we won't be seeing you for a while. So you two will be the first to know."
"What?!" Tatsuki exclaimed in question. "Are you kidding me right now Orihime? That's not fair."
Orihime smiled and ignored Tatsuki's outburst. "Apparently that's unfair, but we'll just ignore that part." She said, making everyone laugh again.
Friday, the 29th of April
Finishing texting Tatsuki to tell her that they had made it to the art gala, Orihime's eyes left her phone to find Karin, as Yuzu was still beside her. Finding Karin and Ryuu were over by a few sport related pieces. Karin had been pointing something out to Ryuu, and he had grabbed her hand to pull her over to another one of the sports exhibit. It made her smile to see Karin laugh, and remain holding hands with Ryuu.
Thinking of Ryuu, brought her eyes back towards the doors of the entrance. Isshin was talking to Ryuu's dad, and Ichigo had remained over there with his dad. Isshin had said something along the lines of that he was going to offer to take Ryuu home after that gala.
The sound of Yuzu sighing beside her was heard. Yuzu's eyes were focused on Karin and Ryuu. "I want something like that."
Smiling at that, Orihime propped a hand on her hip. "Yuzu, I don't think you realize this, but you have guys practically falling all over you."
"Really?" Yuzu asked, although she shook her head. "No, I don't."
Orihime casually pointed out the group of guys from her school that were bunched awkwardly towards the front of the entrance. Clearly looking out of place here. "Those guys aren't here for the hell of it. They keep looking over at you, and then whenever you walk somewhere they aren't far behind. You just have been so focused on school and your art, you just haven't really noticed them."
"They can't possibly be here for just me," Yuzu declared, shaking her head, as she looked away from the guys direction.
"Okay," Orihime started, looking around for a moment, her eyes locked on a boy over by the start of the art exhibit. He had dark brown hair, and he was the only guy from their middle school here that was dressed rather nice. A clean looking button up and nice pants. "Go say hi to him, I saw you eyeing him earlier."
"But, I don't know-"
"Yuzu, I love you. Mostly because you always find the best traits in everyone you meet, and you care about others," Orihime interrupted, as she rested a hand on Yuzu's shoulder. "And because of that, you need a guy who's going to be nice, caring, and respectful to you. But, most importantly, understands and is respectful to your values. That boy over there is here because his art made it in the gala too. So he already likes art."
"He's really good. I've seen his work in my art class," Yuzu agreed after a moment of silence.
"Exactly," Orihime said, she gave Yuzu a gentle push in the boy's direction. "And he's well dressed, and he seems relaxed. Unlike the group of boys you've managed to lure here without really realizing it, he's got what you need. I think you should go say hi."
Yuzu nodded once, and moved over in the boy's direction. Walking first to appear as if she was looking at the art, and then she turned to speak to the boy.
Orihime watched as Yuzu spoke to this boy, who returned her greeting with a smile. It made Orihime smile to see the two start talking about the piece the boy had been looking at. My job is done here. Her eyes flickering over to where Ichigo and Isshin were. Now it's time to grab my man, and go find our friends. Apparently Tatsuki isn't going to look at her-
"Orihime!" Tatsuki's loud exclamation was heard.
Making Orihime smile, and shake her head. Well one of those two things are done. Time to get Ichigo.
An hour and a half later
After watching the entrance speech made by the director of the gala, along with the art directors for both the middle and high school, they had finally gotten around to enjoying the exhibits. They had just finished up in the middle school's exhibit, and were finally getting around to the high schools.
"Leave it to Orihime to take perfection to a whole other level," Tatsuki was saying as they had stopped by Orihime's drawings she had done for this. Her drawings a bridge in town at night in town, and the setting sun with half a view of the city, and half of the forest and mountains. Her photography pictures were reflected off her drawings, and were some shots she had taken with her camera before she did the drawings.
Orihime's cheeks turned red at Tatsuki saying that. "Stop saying that. They are not perfect. I don't always do perfect-"
"You are just like Yuzu," Karin interrupted, having been looking at the pieces. Both she and her boyfriend weren't all that interested in this stuff, but "Everything has to be perfect."
"It does not." Both Orihime and Yuzu disagreed simultaneously, then they shared a look. The others just laughed.
"Oh look, there's Ichigo's pictures," Orihime pointed a little farther down the wall to distract everyone from her own.
"We don't really have to stop here-"
"No we do," Tatsuki interrupted Ichigo, moving to get a closer look at the pictures. "I have to see these for myself."
Ichigo rolled his eyes at Tatsuki's words. "Don't you mean that you have to find something to make fun of?"
"Same thing," Tatsuki replied, making the others laugh.
Ichigo's pictures consisted of similar locations to the one's Orihime's took place in. But weren't exactly the same thing she had taken pictures of. There was a really pretty one of Orihime. The real bridge in her drawing that she did was behind her, and it appeared to be close to sunset. She had one hand on her baby bump, as her other hand had been up to shade her eyes from the setting sun.
"I didn't know you took that," Orihime said, smiling at the picture. Her eyes going to another picture near it. Another one that had her in the picture. She was visible from just below her eyes down to her right shoulder, in the left side of the picture. And then the rest of the picture was what was beside her, the main focus was her shadow. Taken from an angle so it wouldn't look too distorted. The shadow showed nearly her full body, minus part of her legs. And it was of her with her hands on her baby bump, and her hair flying behind her.
"That actual looks professional," Isshin complimented, a smirk at how he managed to end up with such creative children.
"I unfortunately have to agree," Tatsuki said, smirking as well, but more as a tease. "You didn't do as bad as I thought you were going to."
"Thanks… I guess," Ichigo replied back, rolling his eyes at how Tatsuki was smirking. His eyes went to Orihime who looked as if she was tearing up. "It's okay that I used that one right?"
"Yeah, of course," Orihime replied with a nod of her head.
"Then why do you look like you are going to cry?" Toshiro asked.
"Because I'm had a braxton hicks contraction," Orihime took in a shaky breath, as she closed her eyes. "And it really hurt."
Ichigo moved to ease Orihime sitting down on one of the benches that were there. "Orihime?"
"That was just the first one to be actually painful," Orihime replied, taking in another breath.
"Is that normal?" Ichigo asked his dad.
"As long as they aren't starting to happen more consistently," Isshin answered, his eyes on Orihime. "They can start to get worse the closer you get to going into labor."
Ichigo nodded, and watched Orihime as she sniffled and wiped under her eyes. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Orihime replied, wiping under her eyes again. Thankfully the tears hadn't fallen, just stung at her eyes a bit. "I just wasn't expecting it."
A half hour later
Having gone through the gala, the family and friends were now waiting to see what pieces of Yuzu's ended up getting sold. Which ended up being all of them. Her pieces were on the transition room from middle school to high school. Her pieces on one wall were apart of the middle school, and the other wall across the big room was high school work. Yuzu had wanted to personally hand her pieces over to the buyers and thank them, so that's what they were waiting on now. Yuzu had the last one in hand, and was waiting for the person who bought it to come pick it up. She had been admiring it, as it was one of her favorites that she did.
"I know this is probably not how most people would approach you," the sound of a guy's voice hit Yuzu's ears. "But, I was wondering if a celebrity like yourself had some time to speak to us fans."
Hearing that had Yuzu look right up from her painting. Just in time to meet the eyes of the guy who had sauntered over to her. His eyes were a grey color that had the slightest bit of green tint. He had dirty blonde hair that fell to just past his shoulders. He had on a grey snap back with pain splatters on the front of it. His version of dressed nice was grey dress pants that appeared a little baggy, and a beige dress shirt that wasn't tucked in. His shoes were old worn out looking black converse. Just barely visible at the collar of the dress shirt was a brown and beige shell necklace. It was border lining not matching, but the way he wore it seemed to make it look acceptable.
The sight of him had Yuzu's cheeks flare red, but more from what he had said. "I'm not… a celebrity."
The guy chuckled at the sight of her blush. "It seems I've made you uncomfortable."
"N-no," Yuzu disagreed, shaking her head, thinking that she may have appeared rude. "It's not that. It's just… I'm not that special."
"I beg to differ," the guy smiled at her with a lopsided grin that suited him well. "Everything you had brought here got sold. Not that I had doubts in your ability to create work that would be sold, but I thought I was something special when just eleven of my pieces got picked."
"Eleven?" Yuzu questioned, her eyes went over to the high school wall across from the one her work had been on. "Your work was the abstract pieces right?"
This had the guy smirking, as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "How could you guess?"
"I looked at it earlier. It had about eleven pieces so I just put two and two together," Yuzu replied, a genuine smile crossing her face. "They were really good pieces."
"Graffiti," the guy said back to her.
"What?" Yuzu asked, an eyebrow raised.
"That's the actual word of what my work was. That's the style I use in creating my pieces. Sure you can call them abstract, but typically I like to call them graffiti," the guy explained, still holding his smirk on his face. "I bet someone like you didn't know that graffiti isn't always to destroy property."
"I never said that," Yuzu disagreed almost immediately.
"From what I've notice so far, you seem to like the color red," The guy's eyes flickered to the painting Yuzu was holding, and then to her. "A lot of your paintings incorporated the color red into them, and you came here in a beautiful red dress. Did you plan that out?"
Yuzu's cheeks once again flared red. "N-no, it's just one of my favorite colors, I didn't plan it out."
Seeing he once again had managed to fluster Yuzu, the guy smiled his lopsided smile. "Well I just wanted to come meet the artist behind the wall of art over here. We were practically neighbors for a few hours."
Yuzu nodded slowly. Giving her time to mentally hit herself for being so flustered by this guy. "Well here I am. We've met. No celebrity. Just a normal someone who likes the color red… I guess"
"Well someone who likes the color red," the guy started, stepping closer to her, and taking one of her hands that she wasn't holding the painting with. He brought her hand to him, and he gently kissed it. "It was nice to meet you."
The guy turned, and sauntered away. Leaving Yuzu standing frozen to the spot, her cheeks flaming red.
At that moment her family, and her brother's and Orihime's friends walked over. Ichigo was staring after the guy, and then looked directly at Yuzu. "Who was that?"
Smiling at the sound of protective tone in Ichigo's voice, Orihime shook her head, and rested a hand on Yuzu's shoulder. "He was cute."
That only made Yuzu seem to grow more flustered. She shook her head, and nervously tucked her hair back behind her ear. "N-no, he wasn't- I mean, he was- no wait- Uh… I don't know," Yuzu dropped her head to her hand, and sighed. "I didn't get his name. He was just another artist who saw my work. Let's just stop talk about it. It wasn't a big deal." She replied quickly, her eyes catching sight of the buyers for her last painting. "I'm going to go give them their painting, and then we can go eat."
Later at dinner
After Yuzu finished talking with the couple who had bought her last painting, they had all walked over to a restaurant that was a couple blocks away. It was Yuzu's pick, and one of her favorite restaurants. They had a pretty big table as it was their family, along with Orihime and Ichigo's friends, and Karin's boyfriend. They had just finished up eating, and were talking about how the gala went.
"Did you enjoy it?" Isshin asked Yuzu.
Yuzu nodded, her thoughts going to that guy she had met towards the end, but shook the thoughts away. "It was really fun. I enjoyed seeing the other students work mostly. I even got to see some work from the high school friends that I know from the art studio, and that was nice."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Isshin smiled at Yuzu, before looking towards his other daughter and her boyfriend. "Ryuu, I told your parents I would take you home after this."
"Cool, thanks Mr. Kurosaki," Ryuu said, having just set down his water.
Just in time from where Karin had nudged him. Mocking him calling her dad Mr. Kurosaki under her breath, which made her laugh at him smirking.
"This is getting so old," Orihime's voice was heard, before she had moved back over to her seat to sit back down. "I have literally gone to the bathroom eleven times over the past four hours because of how low baby girl is, and that just adds even more precious on my bladder."
Tatsuki laughed at Orihime's complaint. "That sounds so pleasant. I'm sorry I'm not you."
"Yeah right," Orihime shot back, laughing along with the others.
"It sounds like you are starting to get impatient," Mai said, knowing exactly how it felt to be in Orihime's shoes, so it wasn't like she was judging.
"For her to get here already?" Orihime asked, watching as Mai nodded. "Hell yeah I'm impatient."
Ichigo laughed and shook his head. "Orihime not-"
"For a couple more weeks, I know," Orihime interrupted, and then she smiled at Ichigo. "But, I'm allowed to be impatient. I'm the one who is actually carrying her, and these past almost full nine months have been a long time full of not so fun side effects on my end of this deal here."
While that made the others laugh, Tatsuki just smirked. "You know what? I'd say you are not the most impatient here as you don't what it's like not knowing the name of the baby. That's real torture."
Orihime and Ichigo both laughed hearing that, and they shared a look. Ichigo being the first to break it to look back at Tatsuki. "I think we should wait to tell them until she gets here."
"I agree," Orihime nodded, laughing some more at Tatsuki's clear dislike of that idea.
"No way! That's not fair!" Tatsuki disagreed.
"I agree with Tatsuki," Karin added, a smirk on her face. "I've been dying to find out her name."
"Then don't be rushing us. We are going to tell you when it feels it right," Orihime said, her eyes went to Ichigo again. "Did you grab the painting we got?"
"Yeah, I did," Ichigo reached under the table to the bag they had brought in with them.
"Wait, you two bought a painting?" Yuzu asked.
Renji had an eyebrow raised. "Without any of us knowing?"
"When did you buy it?" Toshiro asked, an eyebrow raised. Having been around Orihime and Ichigo the whole time, and never saw them buy anything.
"No, we didn't buy this painting," Ichigo replied, unzipping the bag once had had it on his lap.
"So you stole the painting?" Tatsuki asked.
"Great," Karin started, a smirk still on her face. "Now my niece's parents are thief's."
While the others laughed, Ichigo shook his head, and handed a small canvas to Orihime. When it was in Orihime's hands, she smiled at him, and Ichigo's eyes went back across the table. All the way to Yuzu who was closer towards the other end of the table. "Come here Yuzu."
"Why?" Yuzu asked, but she started getting up anyway.
"I actually painted this painting," Orihime started, smiling as Yuzu walked their way. "I haven't painted in a little while, and I really wanted to have someone else's opinion on it. Because I want to put it up in the new house."
Ichigo rested a hand on Yuzu's shoulder as she stopped near his chair. "So, since your a fancy new artist that's good enough to sell her painting's for hundreds of dollars," he started, smiling at Yuzu's immediate blush. "We thought that we'd let you look at it, and tell everyone what you think."
"I'm sure it's beautiful," Yuzu said, accepting the painting from Orihime. Looking at it at first she was surprised. There was a white sheet of paper covering the middle part of the canvas, but the background was a pretty sunset like backgrounds, with shades of pink, orange, yellow, purple, and white. The edges of night sky up towards the top corners. "There is a paper on the canvas, is it supposed to be there?"
"Yeah," Orihime nodded. "Read the paper first."
"Okay…" Yuzu trailed off, as she focused down on the writing. "Baby girl has been a nice place holder for the past couple months, but it's time we start calling her by her real name." Taking off the paper as that's what it told her to do after the words ended. Her eyes widened, and a happy smile grew on her face. "Mina… You are naming her Mina!"
After that was said, nothing really could be heard as everyone started talking all at once, Orihime and Ichigo both grinning at each other at everyone's reactions.
"Finally!" Karin had exclaimed, a big smile on her face. "That's perfect."
Orihime's eyes flickered over to Tatsuki. "So Tatsuki," she started, a big smile on her face at her best friend. "Godmother approved?"
At that Tatsuki was taken a back, and her yes widened. "Really? I'm her godmother?"
While Orihime nodded, Ichigo spoke. "It was unanimously decided between us. All three of us," he said, his hand slid to rest on Orihime's baby bump. "We had talked about it and baby girl-I mean Mina-had kicked up a storm when we were talking about you being her godmother."
That had Tatsuki grinning, and she clapped her hands together. "That's awesome!" She exclaimed, moving to hug Orihime, who she was sitting beside. "I can't believe it. I'm going to have a goddaughter. And her name is going to be Mina."
"Well, to go with this good news of my granddaughters name," Isshin started, motioning for their waitress to comeback over. "I think this is the perfect excuse to get some dessert."
"Oh, I agree with anything that has sugar in it right now," Orihime said, laughing along with the others. Unable to keep the smile off her face now. Seeing that the others were the same way. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was happy.
Before bed that night
Having finished taking her shower, Orihime had changed into pajamas, and walked back into her and Ichigo's room. A big smile on her face, as her hands were on her baby bump.
Ichigo, who was already in bed, was watching her as she paused by their dresser to grab her phone. "Are you going to actually come to bed? Or am I going to have to go all the way over there to pick you up?"
Orihime laughed at his question, and walked over. After putting her phone on the charger, she settled in the bed with Ichigo's arms around her. Both of them remaining sitting up, and leaning back against the pillows. Their hands on her baby bump. "Mina… It feels amazing to me. Finally able to say it out loud."
"I know," Ichigo agreed, chuckling at the thought. "We only kept the secret since yesterday morning, but it feels like forever. I kept wanting to tell everyone."
"Me too," Orihime laughed, as she felt Mina get the hiccups. "She's really trying to keep me up tonight. From her moving around so much, kicking me, and getting the hiccups? I'll be up on and off all night I bet."
"Well, we've got all the time in the world to get some sleep. It's the weekend after all," Ichigo said, feeling Mina's hiccups from where his hands rested on Orihime's baby bump.
Orihime eyes shifted over to Ichigo. "Weekend or not, I'm exhausted. I need sleep."
Ichigo kissed her, and moved to get up from the bed. "In that case, I'm going to go grab a snack from downstairs. And that snack will most likely contain a lot of sugar, as that is what calms her down for some reason. So whatever you do, don't tell Ichigo," he joked about himself, as he turned to leave the room.
Orihime laughed at him joking about himself, and kept her hands on her baby bump. "Oh Mina, everything's perfect tonight. It looks like things are starting to get better. It feels like nothing can break us now."
Around five that morning
"Orihime?"
Feeling a hand at her shoulder, Orihime groaned, and snuggled her face closer to her pillows. "Stop, I'm trying to sleep here," she mumbled when the shaking of her shoulder continued.
"Orihime," the voice said again. "You need to get up."
With the new box fan they got going in the room, along with her drowsiness, Orihime didn't really process the voice, but knew it was Ichigo. "I'm really tired-"
"Orihime, you need to get up now," Ichigo's voice interrupted Orihime, this time he assisted in getting her to sit up.
When she was sitting up, Orihime had to push her hair out of her face, and she sighed. Not yet moving to get out of bed. "Ichigo- what's going on?" She asked, seeing Ichigo had been pulling on a jacket, as well as some shoes. "Where are you going?"
"We are both going," Ichigo corrected, finishing slipping on his shoes, and going to the dresser he pulled open the dresser drawers, and looked back to Orihime. "Leggings and a t-shirt okay?"
"Yeah," Orihime replied slowly, still confused, but pushed herself up. Already starting to slip off her pajamas. Once dressed in leggings and a t-shirt, Orihime's eyes widened when Ichigo all but started putting her jacket on for her. "Ichigo, I don't understand-" She broke off to yawn, and finished slipping on her jacket. Seeing Ichigo was not going to reply again, she reached forward, and grabbed his hand. Giving him no choice, but to stop and look at her.
"Orihime-"
"Ichigo, what is going on?" Orihime asked, although she froze up, and took in a sharp breath. Feeling a chill go down her spine, her hands flew protectively to her baby bump, and she squeezed her eyes shut. The air felt like it was knocked out of her lungs, and she felt cold all over. Recognizing the feeling to be only one person. Her eyes opened to look at Ichigo. "It's him."
A/N: … I'm just going to let you all figure out what exactly Orihime meant by "It's him" :) Also, thank you all who voted on the poll I had up on my blog for Baby Girl's name. Mina ended up being the highest one voted for, and my favorite from the poll. I think my favorite scene to write was when Yuzu and the graffiti guy. What was your favorite scene?
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