A/N: Well well, it seems we have really reached the end of this story. Thank you to everyone who came along for the ride, you have been a tremendous group of readers. Your thoughts and feedback always made me really happy. 😊
And another thank you goes out to Gina-chan1979 for proofreading this and being a ray of positivity and sunshine!
Now, as I said, this epilogue is mainly humorous, you could almost say it's crack. It plays a little more with the main theme of this story: As I told you before, the basic idea of this story was to see how spiritually sensitive people could use their 7th sense -namely sensing reiatsu- in courtship or how this sense would play a part in relationships.
(Now some of you might think 'Wait, 7th sense? Shouldn't it be 6th sense?' But nope, it's a common misconception that humans have only five senses, actually, we have six, the 6th one being our sense of balance. Just a fun bit of information. 😉)
I really hope you enjoy this epilogue. Have a great day!
.
.
.
Epilogue
.
.
.
Orihime rushed towards the origin of the violent knocking and flung her door open. Behind it stood Tatsuki with a fierce expression, befitting for the fighter that she was.
"Orihime, you're ok, thank Goodness!" She exclaimed grimly as she charged past her best friend into the small apartment.
The redhead was dumbfounded at the intrusion, but quickly closed the door behind her.
"Good morning, Tatsuki-chan. Of course I'm ok, why wouldn't I be?"
"You never answered any of my texts! You said you would text me how your date went, remember? And then I felt your energy spike this morning, and Ichigo's too, like it does when you fight, so naturally I was worried."
This morning… Orihime flushed in realization. Whoops. Her reiatsu had spiked alright, although for a very different reason. She lifted her hand to the back of her head in embarrassment. "Uh, well, Tatsuki-chan, uhm, you know…"
Tatsuki ignored her rambling. Her eyes had caught on something and she stepped closer to her best friend, examining her closely. Her next words left her in a whisper.
"No way…" She lifted a hand to Orihime's chin, tilting it upwards and sidewards, ignoring her small protests.
"No fucking way…" She repeated while she stared at her best friend's neck – a neck that was likely littered with hickeys as Orihime realized suddenly. Ichigo did seem to have a special weakness for her neck. The thought tugged at her lips in an effort to make her smile, but the current situation forbade it.
"You didn't!" Tatsuki asserted now and Orihime bit her lip as she steeled herself for what would follow.
"Eh heh heh, we kind of did…"
Tatsuki paled as her hand slowly fell from its position.
"But…" She stared at her with wide eyes. "It was your first date, Orihime."
"Uh well, yes. Yes, it was." Orihime laughed with some embarrassment, with her eyes closed and her hand fumbling her hair.
"So what I felt this morning…" Tatsuki's voice trailed off before her eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth as petrified realization scurried across her face. "Ew, no!"
Orihime knew her blush was spreading down to her neck now. She had never considered that her spiritually sensitive friends would be able to sense their… activities. And if even Tatsuki had felt it that meant… Oh no… A whirlwind of faces swept through her mind.
Ishida-kun… would probably keep quiet about it and just give them a knowing glance. Sado-kun… wouldn't say anything. At least not to her. He might give Ichigo a thumbs-up.
But Urahara-san… Orihime lifted her hands to cover her face. And Yoruichi-san… Oh goodness…
And if they knew, she knew it was only a matter of time before Rangiku would burst through her door and demand details. And the Visoreds… Orihime squealed, briefly forgetting the presence of her best friend in the room.
The black-haired girl made herself known by clearing her throat. "So…" she started.
"You did, huh?"
Lowering her hands, Orihime nodded.
"And if that feeling this morning is anything to go by, I'm guessing it was good?"
Orihime paused in her fretting to recall the morning she'd had. A dreamy smile emerged on her face. Good was really an understatement. She could still feel where he had- She was snapped back to reality by the sound of her best friend's laugh.
"Alright, Orihime! Go you, I guess! I mean, I did always tell you to go get him. Didn't mean it quite as literal, but hey," Now a grin was spreading across her face. "You do seem very… satisfied." She paused, weighing her head from side to side. "And I mean, like you say, you are 18. And there's nothing wrong with doing it when it's consensual and you're safe. You did use protection, didn't you?"
"Uuuhm," Orihime started hesitantly, but hurried to continue when the grin practically fell from Tatsuki's face, leaving a horrified expression.
"We didn't, but Tatsuki-chan, he was in his Shinigami form, you know, his spiritual body and you can't, uhm, you know. It's not possible to, uhm, transmit diseases and such- when you- but... You know also, pregnancy. It doesn't… Uh. Anyways, it's all safe."
Tatsuki glared as her best friend rambled her explanation. "How can you be sure?"
Orihime winced at the face her friend was making. "Rangiku-san…" ("Of course," interjected Tatsuki with resignation.)
"And then, Urahara-san also said something like that once."
Tatsuki exploded. "Why would that pervert speak to you about something like that?"
"Oh, it's not like that Tatsuki-chan, this was years ago and we were all there, you see!"
"So that creepy bastard talked to teenagers about sex between humans and soul reapers? What the hell?"
The redhead shrunk under her best friend's scowl. "Uhm, yes. But it turned out to be useful knowledge, didn't it?"
For a moment, it was quiet except for the sound of Tatsuki's palm hitting her face in exasperation. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes like she was trying to calm herself.
"Ok, let's never talk about that again. Anyways. Onto more important topics. Where does this development leave you and Ichigo?"
The beam that emerged on Orihime's face was so blinding, it rivaled the sun. "Right, I didn't lead with that, did I?" She flung her arms around Tatsuki's neck and jumped up and down happily. "He's my boyfriend now, Tatsuki-chaaan!"
.
.
.
7 weeks later
Ichigo stepped out of his room, closing the door behind him clad in only a towel when he heard his father's voice yell from downstairs.
"Ichigoooo, don't take too long in the bathroom I need to shower, too!"
He rolled his eyes and proceeded to the bathroom, locking the door behind him to prevent any crazy interruptions from his old man – he learnt from his mistakes.
Throwing a glance at the mirror he was surprised by his reflection's relaxed expression. It was weird to see his face without a frown. But he guessed that was to be expected when dating a woman like Orihime. Her kindness and care never seized to amaze him. More and more often he found his hand reaching for hers when they walked, a gesture that she accepted readily and with an easy smile. To be quite honest, that smile had recently started causing a feeling inside him that felt oddly like moths buzzing around in his stomach…
He stepped into the shower, shaking his head at himself as the hot water hit him. Ok, fine, they were butterflies. And even those mind-boggling three words had sometimes popped up in his head lately, like his mind was flirting with them. Not that he was ready to say it, no, he wasn't even quite sure it was the truth – yet. But it definitely felt like that was the direction everything was headed to. Damn, he was getting sappy.
A smile flitted across his face as he remembered something she'd said. Now that they actually had real conversations, he had realized that she was funny, too. It wasn't only her vivid imagination – that was just an interesting part of her personality – no, she actually had a subtle, quick-witted humor that never failed to make him laugh.
And then of course, laughing wasn't the only pleasant thing they did together. He couldn't help but smirk at the thought. He would never have expected it, but behind Orihime's shy and scatterbrained exterior hid – well, actually a lot of things, but one of them was a surprising amount of sexual curiosity. Her creativity in that regard greatly surpassed his own. Although he had recently had an interesting realization: If he concentrated and focused on her reiatsu, he could figure out what she liked and what she didn't.
He wondered if he was the first spiritually sensitive person to stumble upon that useful knowledge. It was genius, really, and he was quite proud to have come up with it. It made for a very happy Orihime. And a happy Orihime made him happy. And well – she had the most amazing ways of showing her appreciation. He could still feel her lips where – no, this was not the time to think about that, he had to hurry before his dad would come kicking down the door.
He quickly rinsed out his shampoo while he tried to steer his thought process back into safer waters.
.
Slipping back into his room, Ichigo almost had a heart attack.
"Rukia? What the fuck?"
The tiny soul reaper was sitting on his bed, with her arms crossed, giving him an icy stare. The temperature in the room felt so frosty it made all the hair on his arms stand up – and not in the good way.
"Why hello to you too, Ichigo," she said in a manner that had him fearing for his life. "I thought I'd drop in and check if there were any… news with you."
Clearing his throat to shake the uneasy feeling she caused, he attempted to grin at her.
"Soo… I'm guessing you somehow heard about me and O- Inoue then?"
A sickly-sweet smile appeared on her face.
"You and Inoue… Why, what a surprise. I'm sure this must be very new information, otherwise I would have heard about it from my best human friends, am I right?" Her fake smile widened to a point that Ichigo was afraid her face would split in half. Yikes, she was scary. He had to admit that the thought of telling her had slipped his mind.
"I'm sorry, Rukia," he tried sheepishly. "But wait, who'd you hear it from?"
That seemed to be the wrong question as Rukia's reiatsu started to slowly rise.
"Why, that is a very good question indeed." Ichigo had faced many a terrifying opponent and stood his ground, but now confronted with this angry Rukia, he realized that her way of speaking when she was in this state of mind really creeped him out.
"Let's see. So apparently, Yoruichi told Soi-Fon. Now, she's in the stealth corps so you'd think the information would die there, but no – she got drunk one night and told Captain Kyoraku. Who in turn told Nanao-san, but she has tact, so she kept quiet about it. However, he did also tell Captain Ukitake, who of course told his third seats because they are basically all part of one weird codependent blob. Now, Kotetsu told her sister, who in turn told Captain Unohana."
Her voice was dripping with sweetness and Ichigo cringed. He saw where this was going.
"Rukia, listen –,"
"Now while I am not sure about the nature of their relationship, it seems that Captain Unohana told Kenpachi, who in turn told Ikkaku and Yumichika. They went out drinking with Renji and told him… And Renji…" She dropped her volume, so it was barely above dangerous whisper. "Renji told me."
And then, she exploded in his face.
"Do you know how embarrassing it was to hear this information from Renji? RENJI? Do you have any idea how smug he was that he knew, and I didn't? Do you, Ichigo? Do you?!"
Ichigo tried to shield his face as she pummeled him violently.
"Alright, alright, I get it, I'm sorry, ok! It shouldn't have slipped my mind, but it did, ok? Now stop that," he caught her wrist mid-punch. "…before I kick your ass!" She glared at him venomously before her face suddenly smoothed.
"I shall forgive you…" Ichigo's eyebrows shot up. "…on one condition. I need you to tell me how you got her."
.
.
.
Orihime was standing across from her Shinigami friend with nothing but confusion written in her face. Rukia had barged into her home and grimly told her that it was great to see her. Her voice had sounded stern like she was giving orders to subordinates. Then she had gone on to congratulate Orihime to her relationship with Ichigo, again in a voice that sounded dangerously harsh, like heads were about to roll. It was very confusing, really. Orihime lifted her hands to placate her friend.
"Eh hee, Rukia-chan, you are behaving strangely." Her words went seemingly unheard.
"…So I asked Ichigo about it, but it turned out he had no idea how it really happened that the two of you got together." She paused to throw Orihime a glare. "Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it was you who made it all come to pass. You've loved him for ages! And we have all been rooting for you!" She pointed an accusing finger at Orihime, who shrunk away from it. So confusing!
"So!" Rukia continued with no regard for Orihime's reaction. "I need you to tell me everything! What did you do to seduce Ichigo? He's about as dense as they come, so you must have been aggressive. I need to know everything. Leave nothing out. Here…," she suddenly pulled out a Chappy plushie although Orihime couldn't figure out for the life of her where the tiny Shinigami had kept a toy of that size. It almost hit her in the face as Rukia tossed it at her. "…use Chappy for demonstrations if you need to!"
Orihime laughed awkwardly, while she scratched the back of her head until realization dawned on her.
"Wait… Rukia-chan, this is about Renji-kun, isn't it?"
The soul reaper's eyes widened and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks as she denied it vehemently.
"What? No! This is purely for uh… research purposes. Yes. Why would it have anything to do with Renji, that stupid, dense oaf of a man?"
Orihime couldn't help but smile. She really had a soft spot for her two Shinigami friends. They'd been dancing around each other for too long.
She bent over to pick up the Chappy plushie and sat down on her couch.
"Ok, Rukia-chan, I admit that you are right, it was kind of my doing." She couldn't help the proud sound of her voice. "Although Ichigo-kun didn't put up that much of a fight." She giggled happily. It had been weeks, but she still couldn't believe how well her plan had worked out. She wanted the same happiness for her friends. "I shall tell you what I did, for your research purposes that have absolutely zero to do with Renji-kun."
Rukia seemed surprised to be met with so little resistance and briefly smiled an enthusiastic smile at Orihime. Then she was suddenly back to a business-like attitude and pulled out a notepad and a pen (again, Orihime had no idea where those had come from), before seating herself across from her. She lifted her eyes eagerly.
"Great. Leave nothing out!"
"So it all started one Sunday morning roughly three months ago…"
.
.
.
Fin
.
.
.
.
.
A/N: Gah, this is it. I hope it made you smile in some places. 😊
I love Rukia and I just thought it would be fitting for Orihime to pass the torch to her. But while I think that a RenRuki story with this concept would be hilarious (because tbh I don't think Orihime's ploys would work for them, but in the end they would still get together somehow), I am not enough of a RenRuki fan to write it. I like them as a side pairing but I don't know them enough to actually write about them. (But if anyone wants to give it a go, I'd be happy to read it!)
Now my dear readers, as for my next project:
I won't have time for another multi-chapter fic anytime soon. I think. Although if my muse hits me, who knows what will happen.
Either way, I'm thinking of starting a drabble/short-story- collection. Ichihime because they are my OTP. I am open for prompts, especially one-word-prompts. 😊 They really help getting the creative juices flowing, so hit me with 'em!
As for this story, I am really fond of it. Now, I am happy that I finished it because I was worried my motivation would leave me sooner. But maybe I will write something like a sequel at some point. I would notify you about that in form of a new chapter here. For now, this story will be marked as complete.
Farewell you all and thank you again!