Title: Supporting her theory
Fandom: Bleach
Pairing: Ishida x Orihime
Rating: K
Warnings: Spoiler(ish?) for present arc in manga (up to ch. 198)
Disclaimer: I am not Kubo Tite, thus I do not own Bleach. I do not own these characters. I am only borrowing them for my own enjoyment.
If she allowed herself, she supposed she could be jealous of Kuchiki Rukia.
Inoue Orihime was dangerously close to zoning out as the teacher's voice droned on. Judging by their expressions, the sound sucked the soul from the collective students. Orihime blinked, crossing her eyes to stare at the tip of her nose in an effort to draw her attention away from her thoughts. She should be taking notes. Glancing down at her paper she saw that she'd doodled a stick with a circle at the top. The stick fragmented at the bottom and split off into two other sticks. The circle itself was fairly plain, except for the two squares with the connecting line between them, which was drawn about three-quarters of the way up. Eyes? Maybe. Below the square pupil-less eyes there was a huge set of puckered lips, which looked to be kissing the other doodle—an eye lashed rabbit with a glove on one paw (Did bunnies have eyelashes? Orihime supposed they might—didn't most eyes come with eyelashes?). The lips were so big, and the bunny so small, that the stick might not have been kissing the bunny so much as devouring it.
Orihime wondered where her hand had been while her mind was wandering.
For several moments she forced her hand and mind to the task of taking notes, determinedly paying attention as the teacher's quick hand wielded the chalk like a sword, slashing angrily at the blackboard. It made Orihime wonder if the blackboard was some evil thing that needed to be slain. The way the teacher attacked the smooth black surface reminded Orihime of something. Before her eyes the chalk lengthened and darkened and sharpened. The florescent lightening bounced off the surface of the formidable weapon. The teacher suddenly became much bulkier, so that her hips brushed her chair and knocked the pathetic resistance to the floor. With a wide, arcing swing the teacher cut the board in two. The halves hit the ground and shattered into millions of bouncing black bits. As they flew through the air each one morphed into a black butterfly, their wings caressing the air and creating the kind of soft, whispery music that reminded Orihime of—
"Inoue!"
Orihime's body jerked out of her chair so quickly that is clattered back and slammed into the desk behind her with a thud. She was blushing as she looked guiltily at her teacher, realizing too late she'd been lost in one of her fantasies.
"Solve this problem!"
Orihime looked over the problem, doing the calculations in her head and rattling off the answer after a pause, still blushing.
The teacher, however, looked rather pleased, congratulating her on the correct answer and warning her that next time she was caught daydreaming she'd get a piece of chalk in the forehead.
Orihime sat down after picking up her chair, her gaze briefly meeting a slanted, dark blue one. Ishida's glasses flashed as he quickly turned away, staring out the window beside him.
She looked down at her desk as she sat, trying to force herself to pay attention. She would not let her mind return to her previous thoughts. She had to pay attention. She didn't imagine chalk as a projectile felt very good.
As she copied down notes her gaze flicked over Rukia. The shorter girl was passing a note to Ichigo, tossing the scrap of paper at the back of his head so that a sharp corner jabbed into his scalp. He turned to glare at her, picking up the note and scowling as he read it.
Her gaze stayed on Rukia, watching as she turned her body to stretch out a leg. Orihime's eyes shifted to Ishida, who had turned back from the window. His gaze was now on Rukia, watching as she took the note from Ichigo and read it.
Yes, if she let herself, she could easily be jealous of Rukia. The raven-haired shinigami was very close to Ichigo. She could see how important she was to him. You'd have to be blind not to see it. And while that thought alone was enough to sadden her a bit—knowing she would never know Ichigo the way Rukia did—she was startled to discover that now knowing that Ishida was interested in her as well made her even sadder.
Why? Why did it hurt Orihime more to know that she captivated Ishida's attention? Was it because of his sudden alienation from them? Was it simply that she missed him? After spending so much time with him in Soul Society, she'd grown attached to his presence. She couldn't really describe it. Every time she tried she came up blank. Words couldn't describe their time together in Soul Society, nor begin to express Orihime's loneliness. At least, none of the words Orihime knew.
She stood with the rest of the class at the end of the day, gathering her books and glancing at Ishida as she did. His back was to her, the muscles in his shoulders rippling as he picked up his bag. As she watched he bent down, picking up a pen that had rolled from Rukia's desk and handing it to her. The tips of his fingers scraped over Rukia's tiny palm in a callused kiss, dropping the pen.
She smiled, thanking him, and he nodded and walked out. Not once did he ever glance at Orihime.
In Orihime's mind that settled things. She'd suspected, in Soul Society as she delivered that beautiful dress to Rukia, that Ishida had feelings for the shinigami. Seeing the way he looked at her today, and the way he nodded to her just now, confirmed her thought.
She could be jealous of Rukia. But she couldn't bring herself to be jealous of a girl who she respected so much. A girl she called her friend. A girl that she'd gladly risked her life to save, and still would to this day. She couldn't bring herself to be jealous of Rukia.
She could only feel sad.