They arrived at Ishida's, only for her to notice how late it was. She understood now why they had all worried about her. It was already dinner time. Ishida looked winded from having to carry her bag and be close to her in case she was unsteady again. So far she seemed alright.

"Ishida-kun?" She said as she crossed into the living room. He grunted in response as he dropped her things on the floor in front of the couch. "I was thinking, since its dinner time-"

"I'll be making it, Inoue-san," He said curtly. She was shocked by the directness of the response. He saw the look on her face, and then coughed into his fist to hide his embarrassment. "I promised Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki that I would make sure you rested."

"Ah… but…"

"But to pass time until dinner is ready, I'll let you work on this," He said, taking out the material for the doll she had been making earlier. She saw a flash of his personal sewing kit as she reached for the material, before it was once more out of her grasp. She looked at him in confusion. "However, you have to promise me that you'll be careful this time."

"I'll definitely be much more careful, Ishida-kun!" She said, nodding her head for emphasis. He lowered his hand and the material to her waiting hands. Before she could say much more, she found the personal sewing kit also in her hands and Ishida in the kitchen. She stared dumbly at the item. "Thank you Ishida!" He didn't respond. He was in the kitchen, nervously looking at the ingredients cupboard. Had he gone mad? He never let anyone use or touch his personal kit. It was his, arranged very carefully for efficiency.

Her joyful voice made it all worth it. She seemed genuinely happy for the first time in a while. As terribly odd it was, he felt a surge of masculine pride at being able to please her.

Orihime awoke to the sound of a cell phone in her bag ringing insistently. She had spent a peaceful night reading on the couch beside the silent Ishida, working on his own crafts before going to sleep. Being awoken to suddenly to noise was… odd. She answered groggily.

"H-hello?"

"Ah, good. It's you, Inoue."

"K-kurosaki-kun?" She yawned. "Do you need something?"

"Listen… I know Ishida probably doesn't have a guest room or much furniture, but… make sure he doesn't try to get on your side of the bed! Who knows what kind of perverted-"

"Bed? Kurosaki-kun, I'm sleeping on the couch." She could hear someone laughing gleefully in the background. There was a struggle, and then Rukia was on the phone.

"How are you feeling this morning, Inoue?"

"Much better, Kuchiki-san! I slept very well last night."

"Well, I imagine so. Ishida seems like the type to go to bed early," Rukia began to laugh as if she had said something funny, and heard Kurosaki stomping about. "Well, I ought to let you go as Ishida should be making you breakfast about now." As she closed the cell phone and put it back in the bag, she did notice there was the smell of food in the air. She had been wondering about what Kuchiki-san found so funny when her stomach intervened.

She stood and walked groggily towards the small kitchen and found Ishida was making a traditional breakfast in very large portions. It looked rather good. Leaning against the door frame and yawning, she felt a little under dressed for the occasion. Ishida was already dressed and ready to go, and here she was with her hair in odd angles with her ruffled pajama top that she swore used to fit once and shorts. The sound apparently startled Ishida, as he nearly jumped. He looked over at her, and turned quite a red colour before fixing his glasses (which in her opinion had been fine).

"Good morning Inoue-san. How did you sleep?" He asked, looking at the breakfast and not her. He didn't know how he was going to survive these next few days. Chizuru, in all her perverted sense was likely the only one who understood how adorable Inoue could be at all times. At least, he hoped it was an everyone thing and not some over developed "Orihime-vision".

"Great!" She chirped. The atmosphere was nice. It was like… it was like when her brother was still alive. Mind you, her brother was much more affectionate and talked a bit more. He suddenly pointed to the table.

"Go sit down and wait. I'll be finished soon," He said, hoping he sounded calm. His nerves hadn't stopped since last night. He couldn't sleep, as he wondered whether he should have let her use his bed and he sleep on the couch but the thought of the well developed creature sleeping in his bed would make it impossible to get any sleep. He might start getting sentimental ideas of Inoue staying here long-term, and his attachment was bad enough at the moment.

And then, of course, him wondering what she should make for breakfast. He knew she liked to eat in large portions, but was that only for lunch? And what if she didn't like breakfast? And why was he taking this all so seriously? He needed to calm down before he had a panic attack.

Orihime looked at the large serving of rice in front of her thoughtfully. It was significantly larger than his. He was watching intently, which mad her heart race for a moment. His gaze was so intense, so focused… she felt like melting under it. She took a large bit of rice with her chop sticks and ate it. Instead of the plain rice she expected, she found he had flavoured it with something… now what was it? She chewed thoughtfully. He was still watching. He hadn't touched his own yet. She swallowed.

"Ah! Its honey, isn't it?" She said pointing at the mountain of rice. "I didn't know you liked honey flavour in your rice." He finally looked back at his own bowl.

"Well… it's just yours, actually. Is it alright?" He asked, hoping he didn't sound as desperate as he thought he did. She didn't seem to notice.

"I love it! Ishida-kun knows me so well!" She said, unable to see the effect she was having on him by way of her view being blocked by the large bowl of rice in front of her.

Living with Inoue- no, scratch that- Inoue staying with him had to be the worst torture and yet best blessing that Ishida Uryuu had ever been given. She had yet to burst at the seems with lots of talking as she tended to do, but the view of her wandering around in her pajamas was a memory he was unsure he wanted to let go of.

The phone was ringing again. Someone kept calling Inoue every few hours, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know who it was as the conversations were always rather strange.

"Eh? But I eat from my own bowl. No, he isn't spoon feeding me. Alright, bye." After such a conversation, Ishida was now dying to know who was asking her such strange things on a regular basis.

"Inoue-san," He began, cautiously. He stopped sewing the baby blue purse in his lap. "Who keeps calling you and what in the world are they asking you?"

"Oh, it's just Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san," she responded boredly. "They keep asking strange questions like: 'Are Inoue and Ishida-kun taking baths together to save water?' 'Is Inoue sleeping in Ishida's room because he doesn't have a guest room?' 'Is Ishida gently hand feeding Inoue?' I honestly wonder what they're thinking."

The Quincy had gone rather still, the needle falling onto the purse. All of those scenarios sounded somehow degrading to him… and yet all came with excuses that Inoue would probably accept. He wasn't sure whether to feel insulted or just overwhelmed with the mental images. He began to regret agreeing to look after her. There was going to be a moment, he could foresee. A moment in which, he would be unable to remain a gentleman. It was getting harder and harder to tell himself that she was sick and he had to look after her as one does a sick person. She seemed hardly unwell since she arrived. Her weakness had subsided, and she was showing a lot of colour again.

Unfortunately for him, the moment came as awkwardly as did all his 'blissful' moments with the beautiful red head. She had been restless, couldn't sit still since the second night. He couldn't understand what it was at all but it definitely wasn't illness.

(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.