(Author's Notes:) Wow…… School is.. scary. OO I have nights where I get only 2- 5 hours of sleep, and some nights, I've had to pull off all nighters… Yeah… So I'm sorry if the chapters seem lacking in quality… but I'm too tired to do anything more right now…
ok. You guys better be reading this. OO I don't wanna repeat myself. For those who are still confused on the last Chapter 4 version, that was just a random thing I put up to see which pairing people preferred.
The results:
More people preferred Ishida x Orihime to Byakuya x Orihime.
So, I'll be sticking with the original plan, and if you guys want, I'll add in slight Byakuya x Orihime. BUT PLEASE NOTE! I will NOT be following the manga's story line after the trip to soul society incident. Everything else after the Rukia rescue mission will be alternative reality in this story.
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For his Love: One girl's quest to find a prince
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Act four: feminine charms
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It's been one week.
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One whole week since those chocolates I gave him.
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If you give chocolates to a boy, isn't it one of the most obvious declarations of love?
… At least… that's what I thought…
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So if that's the case, why hasn't Kurosaki-kun come leaping into my arms yet?
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Uhhhhh… ok… that's a little unrealistic… As pleasant as the thought is, if that ever happened, I would think that it WASN'T Kurosaki-kun. (I mean, can you imagine him doing something like that?)
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But… at least a smile, some sign that he knew I liked him, and felt the same way…
Is that asking too much?
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I can't stand this waiting. Time is moving, and I'm not doing anything.
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It's time to take this to the next level!
Fight or die, Orihime! Yeah!
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(3rd person p.o.v.)
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Tatsuki Arisawa looked at the oncoming figure with trepidation, her eyes round. The sound of distinct heels sounded loudly against the flooring, echoing strangely in the sudden silence.
Heads turned, jaws dropped, and eyes widened as a certain orange-haired girl walked towards Tatsuki.
Tatsuki sweated.
"O-Orihime…!" She stuttered over her friend's name, as said person approached.
"Aa… Good morning, Tatsuki-chan!" A bright smile flashed its lovely way towards the black-haired Karate user. Tatsuki gave an uneasy smile back.
All around, people were whispering, casting furtive glances at the two. Tatsuki glared at the miscreants, but even she couldn't help wincing when Inoue finally stopped in front of her desk. Tatsuki cleared her throat after a couple seconds of awkward silence. Unfortunately, when she opened her mouth to say something, no sound came out. Tatsuki closed her mouth again, feeling foolish.
Inoue peered shyly at her friend.
"Do I look alright?" She whispered. Tatsuki raised her eyes, and gave Inoue a cursory inspection before quickly turning away, suppressing a groan of dismay.
God… the shame of it all…
Why, why, WHY was she friends with this girl again? Sometimes, it was extremely hard to remember why. Especially when Orihime got these ridiculous notions into her head (cough cough-- liking Ichigo, for one) … and those notions led her to do these ridiculous things (hack hack—trying to impress Ichigo, for another)… and these ridiculous things led to even more ridiculous situations (choke— her outfit is practically screaming for a guy to molest her!)… and… and…
This was starting to give her a headache.
"Tatsuki-chan… daijoubu…?" Orihime leaned in closer, peering at the black-haired girl's face worriedly. Tatsuki's jaw tightened at the low whistles of appreciation coming from the cluster of males sitting behind her.
"Yeah. Just fine and dandy." Arisawa practically snarled at the group of boys, threatening them away to the other side of the room. Turning back to Orihime, the faithful Tatsuki tacked on a somewhat unconvincing smile. "And… you look… very…" Her voice trailed off momentarily as her mind cast about frantically for a suitable word. "uhm… womanly."
Orihime beamed.
"Do I really? That's great! It took me forever to do the makeup… it kept smudging on me… and the clothes were so hard to decide on… since you know, school uniform rules and all…"
Tatsuki's mind detached itself from the conversation as Ichigo slammed open the door with customary scowl in place.
She really didn't want to be here to witness the inevitable.
"Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime whispered excitedly. "He… Kurosaki-kun is here!"
Arisawa nodded uncomfortably.
"Yeah… imagine that…" She sank lower into her seat, heaving a deep sigh.
This was going to be a long day.
A very long day.
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Ichigo blinked at the sudden apparition that had appeared right before his eyes.
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Everybody had been accusing him of being gay lately.
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Why?
Because he simply did not seem interested in females.
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He had good reason; Said orange-haired male lived in a house with one irritable, cranky black haired girl who acted remarkably like himself, and a innocent, and easily upset blonde girl who had taken upon herself the ubiquitous role of mother. He supposed his sisters weren't that horrible… but still…
Then there was the fact his mother had died. That had definitely scarred him…
And Arisawa Tatsuki with her whole tomboyishness that also entailed kicking his ass whenever she felt like it… scary just a bit, yeah?
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Oh, and the whole 'I-am-a-Shinigami-now-prepare-to-have-your-ass-blasted-into-oblivion-stupid-hollow!' thing certainly took up a good deal of his time.
Add to that one potentially crazy father and those he dubiously termed 'friends,' and… well… it was kinda hard to miss WHY he never seemed to look at females.
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And no.
He, Kurosaki Ichigo, was NOT gay. (1)
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It wasn't that he was NOT interested in the female gender.
He was.
He had his own stash of … certain magazines and manga… stashed in a very private corner of his room.
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Not that he ever had a chance to read those these days.
Again, he attributed that to his newfound occupation of substitute shinigami.
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So there he currently was, one fine school morning full of the usual chaos…
… with a good amount of female, er, chest cleavage staring him in the face.
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The orange-haired substitute shinigami stared stupidly at this vision that every male secretly hoped to see, as an angelic voice uttered some words that he failed to catch.
"Good morning, Kurosaki-kun!"
Fortunately for him, some unfrozen part of his brain registered the words, and forced the rest of his brain back into action. It was from here that his potentially good morning started to go rapidly downhill.
"Huhn?" He said intelligently, looking up. His eyes widened in shock and embarrassment as he encountered a familiar face. "……crap!"
Ichigo immediately pushed his chair far back and toppled over as a result, crashing into the desk behind him.
Inoue's mouth dropped in horror and she immediately went around his desk to help him up.
"Oh my gosh! Kurosaki-kun! Are you ok?"
Ichigo yelped when she drew closer, ignoring the roars of laughter sounding from the male population in the classroom.
"Fine, fine! I'm fine, Inoue!" He sprang back up, nearly crashing into the desk behind him. A few desks away, Tatsuki snickered. Maybe today won't be so long afterall, she thought with an amused twinkle in her eye.
"Kurosaki-kun? What's wrong?" Inoue looked at him with her typical innocent expression. "You're all red in the face…"
The orange-haired male's face darkened.
"I am?"
Inoue nodded.
"awwwwwwww …… crap…" He muttered, scowl falling back into place. Keigo took this as his cue to bound forward.
"Orihime-san!" The hyper male grinned, looking the female up and down lecherously. "I must say, you look astonishingly different today… positively radiant! Glowing with feminine beauty!" He declared. Ichigo chanced a peek back at the female standing somewhat nervously before him.
Instead of the customary hairstyle he was used to seeing, she had her hair up in an elaborate mess that resulted in a hairstyle that looked like it had taken ages to do. Shiny red lipstick stood out against her creamy skin, and her eyelids had been darkened with that stuff girls wore on their eyes.
Inoue's conservative dress had been exchanged in favor of a shirt that rode up whenever she moved, exposing a rather broad expanse of smooth flesh. Her skirt was far too short to be called appropriate, and too many buttons were open on her shirt to be called modest. And instead of the usual shoes and socks that girls wore, she was wearing a pair of rather painful looking heels.
"What is the special occasion today, Orihime-san?" Keigo asked, still looking at her with lust in his eyes.
"Yeah, what is the occasion, huhn?" Ichigo repeated in a low murmur.
Inoue looked at the orange haired male, who had, by now, decided to focus instead on the windowsill. His cheeks were still fiery red, but his scowl was back.
And more prominent then ever.
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Her eyes dropped with the presence of sudden tears.
"Uhm. No reason." She whispered.
Keigo watched, taken aback, when the copper-haired female turned on her heels (quite literally, at that) and fled from the room.
"Was it something I said?" He wondered aloud with a tragic expression on his face.
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Ishida, who had been watching the whole encounter from start to finish without saying a single word, now turned to Ichigo.
"Nice going, Kurosaki." He bit out. "You've succeeded in making Inoue-san feel horrible about herself when she was so obviously trying to please… someone." The black-haired Quincy shook his head disapprovingly. Ichigo's jaw dropped in amazement.
"Whaaat?" He growled. "So it's MY fault that she decided to dress so… immodestly?"
Tatsuki elbowed the clueless boy on the back of the head, her good mood rapidly deteriorating.
"Ichigo… do us all a favor and get some brains."
"……" The orange-haired boy's scowl deepened even more. "… Damn it all…"
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---------------- attempt four end-----------
(Author's notes:) The ending turned out a bit different than how I wanted it. Aa well.
Next chapter oughta be interesting. I'm almost positive it will contain some interaction between certain pairings.
Hm. Hope this chapter wasn't too horrid.
Now… it's back to the torture chamber… ooops… I mean, schoolwork… haha… ha… ha…