Unfortunately, the next morning was dry as day. Not a single drop of rainfall, not a cloud in sight.
If Ichigo had noticed the worried glances and wordless concern his cellmates kept directing towards the sky, he sure didn't give any indication of it. He woke up, brushed his teeth, and carefully wrapped the now-fixed barrettes in the cleanest handkerchief he managed to nick from Ishida's collection.
"I find your perseverance remarkable," Ishida commented idly, flipping a page from his book. "Now, a man of respectable stature - someone outside these walls with no rap sheet, for instance - could perhaps replace the barrettes with something expensive, but I suppose you have the sentimental value going for you."
"Boy, you're talkative today," Ichigo mumbled under his breath, carefully folding the napkin twice over before putting it in his pocket.
"Then again," Ishida continued, as if Ichigo hadn't said anything. "Your ill-temper, your crass mannerisms, your refusal to respect anyone, especially authority figures - these are all red flags. Despite my predilection to men, I find it hard to objectively pinpoint what Dr. Inoue sees in you, Kurosaki."
"He's 5'10," Chad pointed out.
"True," Ishida conceded. "I suppose a good height is one of the evolutionary advantages that make you the dominant male in the sample species currently. And the fact that your face hasn't had to be rearranged too many times. But I do wonder if that will be enough for her."
Ichigo wondered if anyone was going to raise hell at the fact that Chad found his only remarkable trait to be his height or if he had to do it himself. Then, he processed Ishida's words and scowled. "Since when do you care so much about my lovelife, you prick?"
Ishida leaned forward in piqued interest, all of a sudden. "Ah, so you do admit that there is the possibility of a romance brewing."
Ichigo's face flamed. "That's not what I - urgh!" He grabbed a fistful of hair in his own hands. That is not what I said!" he hollered, then dropped his voice to a whisper, pointing at Ishida. "Don't put words in my mouth."
"Don't make them so easy to put." Ishida crossed his arms smugly.
"I hate you. Chad deserves better." Ichigo grinned, knowing he'd crossed a line there. Ishida looked like he was going to blow a gasket.
"Ichigo, Uryu," Chad warned, wanting to break up the tension before it escalated into something serious. Then, he turned to Ichigo. "If you want, I could help you write a song for her."
"Gah!" Ichigo yelled, jerking back like Chad had stung him. "Don't say things like that, Chad!"
"Quiet in there!" one of the guards yelled, as he made his rounds.
They all eased up, if only slightly. Ichigo's face was dangerously speeding from pink to deep-red, still reeling from Chad's comment.
The guard returned, banging on the door with a baton. "You're up for P.I, Kurosaki!"
Ichigo tensed.
"It'll be fine, Ichigo," Chad assured. "Just give it to her."
"Or she'll think you pawned it," Ishida murmured disinterestedly. "As terrible as a romantic you are, even you wouldn't want that."
"I hope you slip on water and die," Ichigo spat.
"I embezzled millions from my own father's properties to opensource medication at a lower-than-market-rate," Ishida said, sounding bored. "It's going to take a little more than water to kill me."
Ichigo considered this for a moment. Then,
"I hope you slip on water and die anyway."
x.x
Ichigo found her in the clinic, sorting through poop.
"Oh, I think I found one, Hanataro-san!" she exclaimed, not noticing Ichigo walk through the door. Ichigo squinted, trying to see what exactly she found. She made a face. "Blech, it's just an undigested apple seed, false alarm."
"Hate it when that happens," Hanataro agreed, good-naturedly, his own tweezers and gloves sifting through the shit.
Ichigo cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"Oh, hello, Kurosaki-san!" she said brightly, her high ponytail swishing as she turned over her shoulder. "We're just sifting through Kotsubaki-san's excreta to look for worm eggs this morning!"
His stomach felt sick for her, but he figured this was her job and though she looked slightly tired, she seemed eager to make a breakthrough. He supposed he couldn't exactly give her her pins while she was elbows-deep in shit, however, so he nodded. "Can I do something while you're at it, then?"
She bit her lip, like she was thinking. Ichigo tried not to think about how she was probably the only person in the entire prison who could stand in the midst of buckets and buckets of shit and still look fresh, like a newly vibrant daisy sprung from mud - because that was some sappy shit that he did not have time to confront today. Especially not after Ishida and Chad's teasing.
"Do you mind neatly arranging the paperwork on my desk into one big pile so it doesn't look as cluttered as it does right now? I'd really appreciate it," she requested, snapping him out of it. Then, as an afterthought, her eyes widened. "No peeking into the files, though! You'd be violating doctor-patient confidentiality and that would land you in a little bit of trouble."
"A lot of trouble," Hanataro corrected, narrowing his eyes at Ichigo.
Ichigo raised his hands in surrender, then moved so she could give him access to her office. When she returned to the ward, he ducked inside the office and made his way to her table. By the desk light was a portrait of her brother, adjacent to a picture of her and some short, black-haired friend - probably the Tatsuki girl.
He began sifting through the files, arranging them as neatly as he could. Then, something flashy caught the corner of his eye, right between the beige folders. He glanced over his shoulder, saw that Orihime and Hanataro were still dealing with their crap, and pulled it out of its place.
It was a scribbled out prescription paper, but what caught his attention wasn't the scratched-out prescription itself, but the drawing in the upper right corner. 'Future Me,' it said, under a doodle of herself with triangular conveyor belts for legs and a hiss of smoke exiting her (presumably cyborg) body. Beside her was a doodle of him - the orange hair was a dead giveaway - with a mechanical box for a body and bolt-like ear piercings. Smoke was coming out of his mouth, too. There was also a half-finished scribble of Renji and his daughter (two red pineapples so far), but Ichigo's heart gave a halted thump when she saw how they were distanced a little away from him and Orihime.
Either Orihime was good at establishing perspectives, or he was reading into this little doodle more than he should.
"Hey, Kurosaki-san! Hanataro just popped out to bring the antibiotics for - oh," she cut herself off suddenly, feeling her face swarm with the most humiliating heat.
'He found it!' her brain screamed, all the mecha processors and ventilating fans in her body beginning to shut down.
"So," he held up the paper, unable to stop the grin on his face. "How much trouble would I be in for going through this?"
Orihime blushed, coming up to him. "No trouble, just a lot of embarrassment on my part."
He flapped the paper. "You're good with colors."
She waved dismissively. "Oh, really, it's nothing-just very, very childish things that I, as an adult, should know better than to do...you're teasing me, aren't you?"
He set the paper down and beckoned her to come closer. She did, stepping right in front of him with a curious look on her face. "Close your eyes," he said, feeling his voice suddenly turn low and gravelly.
"Kurosaki-san…" she said, a little uncertainly, but when she looked into his eyes, she knew she could trust him when she closed hers.
He watched for a moment, as her lids came down with their feathery lashes. From his pocket, he picked out her pins with one hand, carefully reaching for her hand with the other. When his fingers brushed over the skin of her wrist, she gasped, but didn't shirk away. He pried open her fist gently, before putting the flowery pins back in her palm. "Open them," he said, almost a whisper.
From the feel of the metal alone, she knew what he'd done. Her eyes began to blur with tears as she opened them, regarding the newly fixed pins in shock. "Y-you…"
"I had Ishida fix it for me," he answered, feeling heat snake up his neck. "He, uh, he's kind of an asshole but he minored in handicrafts and he owed me a favor, so I thought I'd do something-," he coughed to hide his flush behind his palm. "-something nice for you, because I thought it was the right thing to do and -"
He didn't have time to finish, because Orihime had all but thrown herself at him, arms looped around his middle. It was a loose grip, giving him enough space to pull back, but when she murmured 'thank you, thank you, thank you,' into his chest, he felt his own arms encircling her in a tight embrace.
She pulled her head away from his chest, still in his arms, and smiled at him. "That was the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me, Kurosaki-san. Thank you so much."
If he was half-alert, he would have scoffed and said something about the bar being too low. But right now, staring into her deep, stormy eyes, he felt himself getting pulled into something new and exhilarating. Something that teetered at the edge of a cliff, begging him to push himself off and enjoy the swoop in his stomach at the free fall.
One of his hands left her back to cup her face, while the other stayed respectfully on her shoulder. He looked down at her face, the emotion in her eyes indescribable as anything but pure feeling.
Ichigo leaned down, the edge of his rough nose bumping with her small, stubby one. Touching his lips tentatively with hers, their mouths brushed together gently when they made contact. Orihime sucked in a breath, the puff of air ticklish on his mouth, before she leaned up to return the kiss. She rubbed his forearms up and down tenderly with her palms, a soft sigh escaping her when she felt his muscles running underneath her palms.
One of Ichigo's hands remained on her shoulder, firm, but not too tight - like he was giving her enough freedom to pull away from him if and when she wanted to. The fingers of his other hand gently trailed down the back of her neck, tracing the baby hairs from the base of her rounded hairline to the bony little bump at the bottom.
For a split second, as he pulled away, he somehow decided the details of where, when, and how were all irrelevant as long as it was them and they were together. Then, when he saw her beautiful, awe-struck face, he felt a sense of realization wash over him, terribly cold and grazing.
"Inoue…"
She must have seen it in his eyes, because she gently dislodged his hand from her cheek. "I'm sorry," she said, in a small voice, staring at her feet. "That was very unprofessional of me, I didn't...I mean - I'm sorry." She hated the way her voice trembled, hated even more that she couldn't bring herself to call this a mistake.
I kissed you, one half of Ichigo wanted to say. The other half wanted to pull her to him, hold her tight, and do it again. He felt his heart sink at her obvious attempt to keep herself from tearing up in front of him. "Inoue," he tried again, knowing what the right thing to say was, but not liking how incredibly wrong and bitter it tasted on his tongue. "We shouldn't have."
"I know," she replied, quietly. When she looked up at him, there was a quiet, resilient bravery there that he admired and envied. She was a lot stronger than he'd ever be, the way she was meeting his gaze through the hurt and the realization and the tiny tears. "I'm sorry. Do you think, maybe we would have…? In another lifetime?"
He looked away, not wanting to see the hope in her eyes. He wasn't that strong. "Don't do that," he warned, going a few steps back. "Let's not...do that."
She sniffed and nodded, even though he couldn't see her. "I think you should go," she whispered, staring down at her hands.
"Okay." Ichigo ran his hand through his hair, feeling this caged energy coursing through his veins, red-hot.
"Can we still be friends?" she asked, bottom lip trembling dangerously.
His chest ached. He needed to get out of here before he did something stupid again.
"Okay," he said, hoarsely.
She wiped a pesky little tear with the back of her knuckle, suddenly finding the fake potted plant on her desk very interesting.
"Inoue, I'm -"
"Please, Kurosaki-san," she said, turning away from him fully. "Just go."
He hesitated for a moment, then rapped the front door. After catching the guard's attention, he left wordlessly, not once looking back over his shoulder.