Heyyo! This story is slowly taking over my entire life- I hope you all are happy
Disclaimer, I do not own Bleach or its characters
Hope you enjoy!
Orihime:
I could feel the heat of his eyes on me as I wrote my notes. Even as I tried to focus I could see the intensity he likely held on his face in my mind's eye.
He wanted me to glance back. I knew he did.
Which is why I didn't.
I liked the thought of him stewing back there, liked the thought of him pining for my attention.
When did I get this way? Mere weeks ago, I would have hated these thoughts, would have done anything to make sure he knew I breathed.
Whoever I'd been then had died the first time he'd held my face between his hands, had strangled out into nothing at the first push of him into my body.
Now, with the echo of him still all over me, I swallowed down a smile. And just for fun, I pulled my hair over one shoulder, then stretched my arms above my head with a pleasant sort of sigh.
The boy seated behind me swore quietly after his knee slammed up against his desk, but I was too focused on the hitch of spiritual pressure that slammed into the room.
As it vibrated across my skin, I ran a finger along my collar, absentmindedly stroking the sensitive skin just below it.
I tsked. Ichigo knew how I felt about hickeys, but I could tell this one was already well formed.
Forgetting my ploy, I glanced over my shoulder at him, scowl at the ready.
My heart dropped into my stomach. His forearms were braced on his desk, the muscles of his biceps flexed as I ran my gaze over them until I built the courage to meet his eye.
He had no right to look so sinful.
Someone cleared their throat, and I realized I was looking right past the boy seated behind me- we locked eyes, and my cheeks flamed.
I was turning forward as he began glancing back, likely to see what had caused such an expression I knew I hadn't thought to hide.
Ichigo's reiatsu had flowed down to a normal level, if it hadn't I never would have noticed the flare of something dark creeping closer- it was all the warning I got before his badge began to blare.
I was so accustomed to it that I didn't even blink, but Ichigo cursed. Then, without even a word to the teacher he was out of his seat and to the door.
He didn't even glance back and I sighed, slumping down into my seat.
I was suddenly less interested in paying attention, so I stared out the window instead. Watching as my boyfriend ran across the field, his sword already drawn.
.
Ichigo hadn't returned.
I'd been forced to sit the rest of the day in the deafening silence of his absence.
I walked toward the front gate, both mine and Ichigos bags clasped in front of me. He said he'd walk me home, but I wasn't sure if he'd be finished anytime soon…
I paused just outside the school gate, leaning back against the brick with a huff.
I wish I had the nerve to follow after him whenever his pass notified him of a hollow. Once I'd nearly done it, I'd stood as he had, but one word from our teacher and I'd plopped right back down. I don't know how he did it so often and was somehow still allowed back.
"Out here all alone?"
I jumped at the sudden presence of a tall boy beside me. His hair was slicked back on the sides but fluffy up top, but it was the lollipop sticking out between his teeth that I noticed first.
He leaned forward, "You're Orihime Inoue, aren't you? You're in your third year."
It didn't seem that he needed confirmation but I nodded anyway, one eye on the sky.
The sucker clinked against his tooth as he moved it from one cheek to the other, "Yeah, I know you. Where's your scary boyfriend?"
I cocked my head to the side, and answered honestly, "Off doing scary things,"
He only laughed, "Did he forget about some date or something?" Bracing an arm of the wall beside me, he invaded into personal space, "He'd better be careful, or someone's gonna snatch you right out from under him."
Something wicked flared in my chest. I was new to some emotions- jealousy, anxiety, greed. But this one I knew, but it had grown stronger lately. I never realized how hot anger could feel.
It was what brought out my response, something I never would have said without it's cunning slice, "But I find it quite comfortable under him."
Eyebrows snapping up, the boy's lollipop nearly slipped out of his mouth.
Before he could sort out his thoughts, my personal hero chimed in, "Yo, Hime!"
Ichigo was still in his uniform, but it might as well have been a suit of armor as he appeared a few feet away.
My smile was giant and genuine as I pushed off the wall. Ichigo was already beside me before I'd taken more than a step toward him.
He took both bags from my hands and I pulled his arm into me, hugging to it instead of to all of him.
"Sorry, I'm late." He sounded breathless.
Heart filled with glee, I pressed my cheek into his shoulder, "It's alright, I didn't wait long."
Ichigo did a double take, as if just now noticing the lollipop boy.
I watch as they look one another up and down. The boy seemed to stand taller than he had a moment ago, his chest puffing out and I smothered a laugh, an image of a puffer fish sucking a lollipop flashing in my mind.
"You got business with me?" Ichigo asked him. And with Ichigo here I suddenly realized how rude I'd been, not even asking for his name.
Pufferfish shrugged, "Not yet,"
I wanted to laugh but Ichigo was being too serious and I knew what that meant.
I pulled at his arm, stepping toward the path to my apartment, "Come on, Ichi. You promised I could cook for you tonight."
He didn't budge for a moment, and I held my breath- it looked like pufferfish was doing the same. Then, Ichigo took a step back, letting me pull him.
We were nearly around the corner when the boy called out, "I'll be seeing you, Inoue!"
Tensing, Ichigo wound an arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. Something so simple, yet it made me feel small and sacred.
"Do you know him?" He asked into my hair.
I shook my head, "This is the first time I've spoken to him. I don't even know his name."
"Hm," Ichigo hummed.
I had suffered through nearly two hours of school without him, and I wasn't about to let him dwell on something like this. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Hurt?"
"From your battle?"
"Oh, that." He said, like it was nothing, "No, it wasn't anything difficult."
I looked up at him, "You were gone a while,"
His rare smile overtook his face, and I knew pufferfish was forgotten. "Miss me?"
I slipped out of his arm and jumped forward to walk backwards in front of him, "What would you do if I said yes?"
He swung our bags over his shoulder, free hand shoving into his pocket. I always used to stare at him whenever he walked like that. Back when he seemed unreachable.
"Maybe tease you. I was only gone for two classes."
I frowned, crossing my arms, "Easy for you to say. You're the one who gets to leave while I have to stay behind."
He thought about it, then nodded, "I see your point. Now walk normally, you're going to trip."
I grinned, not obeying, "You'd catch me."
Sighing, Ichigo dipped his head back, "Of course I would."
Yet there had been a time when I'd doubted it. A time not so long ago, when I'd been so sure he would let me plummet.
The thought made me want to cry.
"Hey," he said. Then his index finger poked at my cheek and my head snapped up. "Don't look so sad, I was only joking. You can walk backwards as long as you want."
And that made me want to cry for an entirely different reason. I threw myself at him suddenly, and he dropped our bags to catch me into his arms. I peppered his face with kisses, and he snickered as he weathered them.
When I allowed him to pull back he feathered his fingers across my cheek, then into the hair at the nape of my neck, "Now what's this nonsense of me letting you cook tonight?"
My cheeks ached with my grin, "It got you moving, didn't it?"
He picked up our bags with a shake of his head, "I thought maybe that hollow had actually killed me and sent me to live my worst fears."
I shoved him with a gasp, and his answering laughter filled my world with a golden light that rivaled that of the setting sun.
Reaching my apartment building, Ichigo followed me up the stairs. After about one floor up, he pulled on the edge of my skirt, "This thing is worthless. If I dropped back a single step, I'd get an eyeful."
I smoothed it down as I walked, "It's longer than most schools." He hummed in disagreement and I said, "You've never noticed it before?"
We reached my floor as he responded, "Of course not. I'm a gentleman and never would have looked at your skirt while we were friends," I gave him a doubtful look as I unlocked my door. "What's that look? You doubt my chivalry?" He closed the door and set our bags down.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. "I wouldn't go that far."
I didn't know how to properly tell him what was swirling in my head. No matter how I phrased it, I still sounded idiotic. How could I explain to him that I'd wanted him to notice those types of things, that I'd been consumed with curiosity on if he had. If he had never thought twice about my short skirt, or had any type of thought about me back then… Well then it means all those times I thought I'd caught him looking, or hours I'd spent replaying our every interaction- that it had all only been in my head.
I didn't want to find out how pathetic I'd really been.
I peered over at him, both of us still standing in my entryway. He was leaning down, untying his boots and I watched his fingers delicately pull at the laces.
Those were the same hands that maimed hollows and protected countless lives. They were the same hands that were endlessly gentle as they wound into my hair, across my skin. Hands that had promised to catch me anytime I fell.
I'd doubted him then, and I swore I would never hesitate again.
"Did you never notice me back then?"
Ichigo's fingers halted, then he glanced up from his bent position. I wondered if I looked as nervous as I felt, my hands fisted into my skirt to keep them from fidgeting- more blood rushing into my cheeks by the second.
He stood straight, hand going to the back of his neck. I didn't think that was a good sign. "Define 'notice'."
"Well…" I didn't want to say it plainly. It felt that if I had to, it meant I already had the answer, "Did I ever cross your mind?"
"Yeah. All the time."
"In what way?"
Seeming to be at a loss, he shrugged, "No way in particular, I guess."
Embarrassment and shame flooded my chest, drowning my thundering heart in tar. I swallowed past the unexpected ache. Silly, that's what that ache was. What did it matter how he'd seen me back then? When I knew exactly how he saw me now.
I forced my hands to loosen their grip on my skirt, forced myself to meet his eye with a smile as I rubbed one hand over the back of my head, "That's such a you answer,"Stop it. "Are you hungry? I'd bet you are, after not eating during lunch!" Please stop. "I'll heat up some curry for you. You can trust it because you made it!" It. Doesn't. Matter.
I turned toward the kitchen, my smile plastered in place. I just needed a few minutes to sort myself out, just a minute or two and then it would be all fine again.
I was suddenly yanked backwards, back colliding with a strong chest. I opened my mouth to speak but Ichigo's hand settled over my eyes, and my mouth closed slowly. Fearing now that my voice would shake if I let out even a breath.
"I would rather be gutted open, than see you make that expression." Spoken right into my ear, his voice seemed thicker, "It's humiliating, the things I let myself think about you back then." His head thumped against my shoulder, "I'm only a teenager, I don't have the kind of restraint to keep my hands off you, let alone my eyes."
I didn't want to even breathe, in case it made him pause. I wanted to hear every unbrittled word.
"You don't want to know half of what I used to imagine, but it does seem important to you, so you should know that I've always seen you."
Swallowing down the lump in my throat, and with my eyes still covered by his hand I felt strangely grounded as I said, "Tell me,"
I could feel his head beating against my shoulder blade, and his breath fan out over my shoulder. I was asking a lot of him, asking him to lay out his private thoughts at my feet, and I allowed him his hesitation.
My skin was buzzing when he finally began, "When we went to that concert with Chad, last year," I nodded though I doubt he could see it, "During the break between sets, you kneeled down to tie your shoe, but you looked up at me while I was talking and you- fuck I can't believe I'm telling you this."
I reached up and touched his wrist and he shuddered a breath, "You had that blue popsicle in your mouth, and… well your cheeks were hollowed in around it and with the angle- I just, I couldn't get it out of my head. After that, I was completely lost."
That concert, I had such a vivid memory of it. I could hardly remember the band, could likely not tell you even what town it had been in. But the look of him that night, eyes dark and foreboding. His stature, overpowering and secure, it had stayed with me.
And it seems a part of me had stayed with him too.
"Is that all?" I ask him.
He groaned, "Do you not understand what I'm telling you?"
I tried to shrug, but his arm wrapped around me made it impossible.
"Orihime," he growled, determination in every syllable, "I jacked off to the image of my dick in your mouth for months."
My hand dropped off his wrist.
"You-"
"Don't say anything. Please," It might have been my imagination but I could feel a searing heat from where his forehead was pressed against my shoulder. My lips began to pull upward as he continued, "It shouldn't matter now, considering we've gone far past that, but I still feel so mortified about it."
I tried to turn in his hold but he held me tighter, "Let me see your face,"
"No fucking way,"
I rested my head back against his shoulder. "Would it make you feel better to hear one of my old fantasies?"
He went completely still.
I knew he wouldn't answer, and I worried if I waited too long I would lose all my nerve, "I never had a real moment to think about, but I have an overactive imagination so I made due. I had many scenarios that I would let play out, though there was one in particular that I kept going back to."
Without meaning to, I shifted towards his cheek and the scruff on his chin sent a thrill through my body.
"It always started the same, I'd be touching myself in bed. At first I'd be completely alone, but then there would be a shift when I could tell there was someone watching me. And when I'd open my eyes, you'd be standing there in your shinigami form." This time, it was him who moved his nose along the curve of my throat. "You'd only watch at first, but then you'd draw closer and closer. Until you were standing completely over me." His lips ghosted over my pulse and it was hard to focus on my words, "Then, you'd move my hand away and replace it with your mouth."
Ichigo's teeth tugged my earlobe right as he ground his hips into my backside.
I was moments away from collapse, but Ichigo was adamant, "Then what?"
Shaking my head, I wet my lips, "Nothing, I was always a goner after that,"
Even while feeling his smile against my cheek, his voice sounded more sensual than humorous, "You thought I'd be sated after only one?" Spinning me around, he brushed his lips against mine, before taking complete control with a strong brush of his tongue. I was gasping, already completely breathless before he said, "Let's put your imagination to shame."
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I am already working into the next chapter, so lord help us all
Thank you for reading- I hope to see you at the next chapter!
