It was quiet in the early morning. Inoue Orihime guessed it was about two or three in the morning. For some reason, she always thought of her brother at this time. About how he took such good care of her, and how the simplest things she said could upset him. When he came back as a hollow… he said her life was his. But Kurosaki-san had come to save her. Now, so early, when the sun was not up, she felt a pang in her chest. His name tended to that these days. Closing her eyes to let the tears fall, she attempted to turn onto her side.

'Ugh… honestly, Kurosaki-kun is too warm. I'll start to sweat soon,' she mused silently, searching with her hands in the darkness. Down her smooth shoulders, down her stomach to her full hips. Ah. There it was. A strong hand with strangely limp fingers rested over her hip, the skin contact was burning. Or so it felt to her. That's why she was on this side, held like a porcelain doll and not like a worn in teddy bear. Not like her.

She slowly, reluctantly, removed the curled fingers before making her escape before he could snatch her back. He had a terrible habit of that lately. It had taken her nearly fifteen minutes to get out of his possessive grip last time. She froze. He was saying something.

"Uh… Rukia…" He mumbled. The hand that previously held her captive closed in on itself. Orihime bit her lip to stop from making a sound as to keep them from waking up. It always felt like some strange sleep over, when she woke up. She still couldn't believe that the three of them all fit into Kurosaki-kun's bed.

She fished about in the darkness, finding her clothes with ease. They were always taken care of by Kuchiki-san. In the last two weeks, she had insisted it made more sense to fold her clothes up in a neat pile over here first so it would be less troublesome for Orihime to sort through his messy room all the time.

That was the thing about Kuchiki-san. She was so kind to Orihime, that she found herself hard pressed to dislike her. If anything, she admired her classmate's friendliness and love. Kuchiki loved Kurosaki-kun so much; it almost baffled her to comprehend it- and this was Inoue Orihime, known for her insane musings. This is why Tatsuki brushed off her entire rambling, not hearing it. Her silent cry, behind a bright smile.

"That's silly Orihime-chan, you can't date two people."

"… you're right, Tatsuki. How silly of me! I should stop watching so many dramas, I guess."

Orihime, now fully clothed, wiped at her eyes. There were sounds in the kitchen. Peeking around the corner, she found the fridge open and a small pajama clad body investigating its' content. She approached silently, a small smile on her face. She rested a hand gently on the girl's shoulder, startling her.

"Yuzu-chan? You shouldn't eat in the middle of the night. My big brother told me once that it gives you funny dreams," She said, Ichigo's sister calming at her voice.

"Inoue-neesan? You're leaving?" Yuzu asked, seeing the bag in Orihime's unoccupied hand. She laughed at the small girl's inquiry, it was so cute. No wonder her own older brother had loved her so much, little sisters were just so adorable!

"Hn. I'm going home," She answered. The younger girl looked a little sad, causing Orihime to pat her head affectionately. "You should go to bed before your dad or brother catches you."

Orihime left, and didn't look back. She couldn't. The tears began again, and she let them fall. It was only when it began to rain very heavily that she let her cries. Because over the thunder of the late night shower, no one would be able to hear her. None, except of course for her fairies. Of course, she never saw them much anymore. She couldn't bear to face Tsubaki's wrath and hear him go on his tirade about her stupidity. It was her life, wasn't it? If she made stupid decisions, that was just her own business. He had no right to chew her out for it. Thinking of Tsubaki 'chewing her out' in his small form made her chuckle. The worst he could do was perhaps chewing her hair. But… he wouldn't eat it all, would he? Ichigo said he liked her long hair.

"Ah, Inoue-san!". Inoue blinked. Where was she? Looking up, she saw Ishida's worried face hovering in front of her.

"Ah… what seems to be the matter, Ishida-kun?" She asked, finally locating herself in the club meeting. Ishida looked unusually worried, like when they were fighting hollows and she didn't call out her fairies. She had a bad habit of this, speaking of bad habits. One minute it was the middle of the night and the next she was here, at school. Where did most of her days go?

"I-inoue-san…" Ishida was holding her wrist, a slight blush on his face though he seemed to be taking care as to make the contact minimal. What a strange person. Following his gaze, she saw why he was so worried. "You cut your-"

"Oh! The doll!" She cried, looking at the simple doll she had been making. She had been careless and cut her finger somehow while she was sewing and there was blood on her craft. She was making it for Yuzu too… "Uryuu, we have to go wash it under cold water right away or else it will stain!" Orihime stood, and ran towards the girl's bathroom, completely unaware of her slip up. The boy was frozen where she had left him, beet red. The embarrassment was a bit much for him to manage, so he fell into the chair in front of Inoue's desk. He glanced distractedly at the desk. There were many drops of blood, some dried. Just how many times had she pricked her finger without noticing?

Inoue emerged from the bathroom then, a great sadness on her features.

"Inoue?"

She looked up. It was Ichigo. He seemed to be looking at the doll. Yes, yes, she knew the material was ruined. Why did he have to draw attention to her failure? Clearly she had let some blood dry in it, and now she would have to start this piece all over again.

Suddenly he had her wrist, and jerked her forward to look at it better.

"You're bleeding."

"Huh?" She responded, looking down at her now exposed fingers. Her wrist hurt, but she wasn't going to say anything. He was always rather rough with everything. Well, almost everything. There was one person in the world he treated like glass, and she had seen it herself. She flexed her hand, his grip was rather tight. His skin was burning her again. Always burning. Tears pricked at her eyes, she couldn't help it.

"Does it hurt?" He asked, glancing up to her face again. She nodded meekly, unable to speak the true cause of her hurt. "You should go to the nurse's office."

Without a sound, without a sign the pressure on her wrist was gone. She opened her eyes, and found Ishida there. He shot Ichigo a rather displeased look, whole holding a small white box in one hand. Somehow, she hadn't noticed when he had taken her hand. It was gentle, almost like the fluttering of butterfly wings that were barely there. It didn't burn. His pale skin was cool tot the touch, but not so cold as to make her shiver. And before she had known what was happening, she found her fingers bandaged. Her skin wasn't burning, and she was relieved for a moment.

"Oi, Ishida, you're pretty good at that, aren't you?" Ichigo said thoughtfully. "Next time I get injured I'll call you first."

"Don't bother," Ishida responded, the shine of his glasses hiding his eyes. "That would be too troublesome."

Ichigo and Orihime watched Ishida return to the classroom in his usual stoic nature. Ichgo shrugged, he still couldn't get the guy to lighten up. But that was just Ishida's nature he supposed. He turned back to his female companion.

"Oi, Inoue. We should invite him over for dinner sometime; it might be why he's not used to talking to us outside of a hollow situation," He said, a slight smirk on his face. He meant it in the best way, then. That was the only time he tried smiling. "Oh, Yuzu told me she saw you leave last night. You know you can stay the night, you don't have to go. Karin and Yuzu missed you at breakfast. Rukia, too."

"Ah…," She responded, looking a little guilty. "Well, I woke up from this really funny dream about a duck fighting this troll and I just realized that I forgot to do some laundry at home." She laughed, it was partly true. She really did have that dream. He shook his head to himself.

"So you'll be coming over again tonight, right? Yuzu loves having help making dinner," He said. It was obvious in the wording that he had already assumed she would be. Of course, she couldn't blame him for that assumption as she had been spending a lot of time there at first. But over the three or four weeks the entire fiasco started, she was there less and less.

"Ah, well, Kurosaki-kun… I love to cook with Yuzu however I still have a lot of laundry to do," She explained. It was a blatant lie. Kuchiki-san kept washing their clothes together to make full loads for the washing machine. Her clothes had never been so efficiently cleaned since her brother was alive. Sometimes she even threw in some of Kurosaki's clothes.

"Oh, well then tomorrow?" Ichigo said, caught off guard by that answer. Her smile was still plastered on her face as she continued trying to keep up this taxing conversation. She never wanted to go back. She wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere and scream out every title of her favourite dramas until her throat hurt and she was too tired to be awake anymore. The feeling could have been compared to a severe depression and self-hatred had any of her feelings made any sense. She didn't even know that many dramas.

"There's lots of laundry. Mountains! With monkeys at the top, you don't want to steal the bananas though. Or else they'll get mad and throw dirty clothes at you," She said. She saw a look of dejectedness pass through his eyes which made her heart wrench. Oh, this was always how it was. She was sorry. If it hurt him that much… "But the day after tomorrow I will return with lots of clothes to wear!"

"Ah. Good, there was something Kuchiki and I wanted to discuss. See you later then," He said, walking away. He seemed so relieved that she wasn't avoiding him. That look in his eyes… the look of when he talked about his mother, it just made her so sad. She made her way back to the classroom.

She understood. She had known it two weeks earlier. She was cooking with Yuzu when it occurred to her. She reminded Kurosaki-kun, Karin and Yuzu of their mother, and so the family had warmly taken to her extended visits. As for Kuchiki… She understood this as well. She and Kurosaki were connected in some deep and fulfilling way. It gave her a security that let her love him enough to let her into their life together as a couple. She loved him so much… Orihime felt weak, but continued to walk to her desk. She was sorry. She was so sorry. She couldn't love Kurosaki-kun enough to share him. She just couldn't. Not when she knew it wasn't her he truly loved. One day he'd realize, and just forget her. It was inevitable.

"Inoue-san… you look pale," Ishida commented. Normally, Ishida didn't talk much. But the way Inoue had been walking as of late, as though Zaraki was somewhere fighting nearby and she was barely staying on her feet worried him. It worried her friends, too, he could tell. But at the moment, she was quite pale. She looked at him, her doe eyes seeming rather wary- it worried him more. "Inoue-san, are you alright?"

There were spots clouding Orihime's vision. White dots were dancing about, and she watched them with interest. She wondered what Ishida was thinking about. He looked so stricken, as though he was the one who wasn't well. Perhaps he had caught a cold.

"S-sorry," She said, finding it hard to think. She was sorry. She was very sorry. And then there was darkness.

(A/N)

I don't own Bleach. Complete Author's notes can be found at the end of chapter four as I just cut this up into chapters for reading comfort.