Title A Waiting Game

Warnings Rukia, Orihime, Ichigo, some other people, and Relationships

Disclaimer A legal piece of crap which says, with as many super-long words as possible, that I don't own what I write about.

Notes The companion piece. Also unbeta-ed, so please just point out the errors for me to fix! And yes, it reads as rambling, but I wrote it all in one seating, so I'm not expecting anyone to find it to be a stellar piece.

If Ichigo continues like this Orihime will loose him as soon as their vows are broken. It will take a while, yes, but death is inevitable. Hopefully, she is already prepared for that coming, because it could be anytime from a moment to a decade from her 'now'. After all, they are growing older, and Rukia's absence only seems to grow more tangible.

It should have worked out, really, because she loves Ichigo to the depths of her soul, and Ichigo loves her. It's been like that for as long as she can remember knowing him. True, Ichigo's love had always been a little different, but it had only evolved with their relationship to come closer and closer to what she felt for him.

Closer.

Sometimes Orihime wants to cry. Maybe, if Rukia had never been a part of the picture, Ichigo's love could have come to equal hers. Make no mistake, Ichigo loves her in his own clumsy way, and she might actually love him all the more for that, but she is a love that has been cultivated and grown, especially because she is human (mostly), and he is shinigami. They coexist, but it is a waiting and almost temporary thing because neither of them had wanted to waste love by waiting for death. So she loves him passionately, and he returns it as best as he can.

Still, sometimes he grows silent and Orihime knows that he is thinking back to a fall and December where everything nearly came apart. She had left, and he had tried to break away from half their nakama. And Orihime had come so close to believing that he could truly love her as she did him. He came after her, let Rukia slide away from him as he delved into a world he could not understand to bring her back. She had believed for a while. Believed until the day she learned Rukia had been taken back (into relative safety) under guard, leaving Ichigo with everyone's promise to bring her back safe.

He had wanted her back, too, but Orihime almost knows that he had experienced none of the single-mindedness that consumed him during Rukia's sentencing. And that is where the difference between herself and Rukia became apparent. They are both alive to Ichigo, but only one abduction drove desperation into his soul.

Rukia has argued this fact with her thousands of times in every moment they have managed to see each other. It is in the shinigami's manner as a facade is built, veiling Rukia's thoughts behind a bright smile that is ten thousand times more believable than the act she had built from horror manga. It is in Rukia's vague expressions and vacant eyes, and sometimes Orihime wants nothing more than to shake the smaller girl until she realizes the truth.

Because there are times when Ichigo grows so quiet, and maybe a little depressed and a little nostalgic, and she never quite knows what to do. She knows he is remembering something about chasing Rukia (maybe being struck down by Kuchiki Byakuya-taichou's blade, or struggling to master his Ban Kai, or the expression on the girl's face when he reappeared before her). It happens whenever they pass the high school, and everything about him makes it so that Orihime relives that moment of shock, happiness, and relief, when he saw Rukia's tiny frame balanced in the classroom window.

She always has to bring him back, though, because he can't spend the rest of his life in a dream. Sometimes just an attempt is enough to snap him out of it, and for a while, so are their babies. But eventually, it always comes to Tatsuki rushing over at the sound of her tears and beating on Ichigo and harassing her husband in a way that is almost so perfect that Rukia's distance is suddenly further than just death and Soul Society.

Orihime has the rest of Ichigo's lifetime to love, and be loved in return. Until death do they part, because Rukia will be waiting. And even if Orihime will never have enough of her waiting game (because no matter how nerve-wrecking it is, Ichigo's love is hers so long as they both breath), she will not stay their path. Besides, her Ichigo is a pale imitation, as is the Rukia Renji guards; those two are only vibrant together.