Chapter 2

You Are My Sunshine

Her joy was very short lived, two days after the kiss Orihime was halfway home from the grocery store when she started to panic, her mind going over every little thing that could now go wrong.

"Oh Kami how could I have done that!" She groaned aloud, slapping herself in the face. "He's going to hate you for sure now baka." She could feel all her previous joy and determination seep out of her body and she slowly made her way to a nearby bench, belatedly realizing she'd made it to the park that sat in the middle of the trail that led to her home and the one to Ichigo's.

She sat back with a heavy sigh, her eyes watering in her mind's panic. She'd been so proud of herself for being so bold for once, for taking charge, and although his response was everything she wanted, everything in her now was freaking out at what her actions would put into effect, the only reason she hadn't freaked out before was because she'd kept herself busy in order to keep it out of her mind.

"What have I done." She cried burying her face in her hands. Could this day get any worse?

"Inoue." Ichigo's voice called from above her and the hairs on the back of her neck rose.

Yes, yes it could.

"K-kurosaki-kun!" She nearly shrieked rising to her feet as fast as her suddenly shaky legs would let her. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you leave the grocery store, I was trying to catch up with you, jeez when did you get so fast?" He asked and if she was in any condition she would have giggled, his already mused hair was all over the place, and his breathing was slightly labored.

"Sorry, I've been running laps with Tatsuki to stay in shape so I guess even my walking has sped up." She smiled and he raised an eyebrow. There was a moment of silence before Ichigo took a step towards her and sat himself on the bench she'd been on. She turned back to look at him and he simply patted the seat beside him, his face impassive, yet a light pink coloring his cheeks. He was quiet for a few minutes and Orihime could nearly hear the sound of her own heart racing in her chest.

"You ran off so fast the other day you didn't give me a chance to react." He said after a few minutes of terrifying silence. His brown eyes turned to her slowly and she nearly lost her breath, hadn't his eyes always been this intense? Why did it do so much more to her now?

"I was afraid of what you might have said." she heard herself whispering, seemingly unable to keep herself from being honest with him, his gaze was doing things to her it'd never done before.

"I guess I understand." He said softly, looking away and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, he was wearing a long sleeve V-neck tee with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a simple black banded watch which he tugged on a few times before twiddling his thumbs before him and taking a deep breath.

"I don't know what to say really." he admitted softly.

"It's alright, I understand if you don't like me." Orihime whispered, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice, and burying her face in her light pink scarf thanking the slightly chilly weather.

"I do like you Inoue, you're one of the only people I actually do like." He sighed looking back at her. "I just never thought you'd like me in that way, and I've been so caught up in this Shinigami business since we were freshman that I never really thought about liking anybody that way."

"Do you- I mean, do you think you could ever like me that way?" She whispered, looking down at her shaking hands in her lap. She heard him sigh and bit her lip, there was so much going on today, so many feelings she'd never thought would leave her head were suddenly all coming to the surface.

"I don't-" he sighed in aggravation "I don't know how I feel, I just know I don't want to lose you." He said looking over at her. "I keep thinking of what you might do if I don't have feelings for you and the only thing I see is you leaving my side and that hurts. You're always there smiling and cheering me on no matter how big of an asshole I'm being so the thought of not having you there, I dont know, I could see my life without a lot of people but my life without you, that would just be a world full of rain." His cheeks were a deep cheery color by the time he'd finished his declaration and Orihime smiled softly.

"What does that even mean?" she giggled. She was so confused. "You don't know if you like me, but you can't see your life without me? How does that make sense?" She asked, and she could feel the tears about to slip from her eyes, she was so frustrated, how could that even be possible, how could he not see his life without her, but still not have feelings for her?

"It doesn't make sense Inoue, I know that but you have to understand where I'm coming from, a few days ago I thought we were just friends, then all of a sudden you tell me you like me, how am I supposed to react?" He said looking her way. "I want you to give me time." he said taking one of her hands in his and looking her in the eye. "I know it might be hard but I'm asking you to give me time to fall for you the way you fell for me."

"Something tells me you're half way there." Rukia said from above them and they both pulled away from each other surprised.

Ichigo's cheeks darkening to such a deep red Orihime began to fear for his safety and Rukia simply laughed loudly walking away from them with her hand in the air.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but Ichigo when you're down stop by Urahara's, we have some things we need to discuss. I'm glad you finally told him Orihime!" And just as quickly as she'd come, she was gone.

Ichigo grunted under his breath about annoying midgets and Orihime could do nothing but stare in shock, how long had she even been standing there? How did she know she had feelings for Ichigo? Said boy looked over at her, measuring her reaction before taking some bags from her hands.

"You never answered my question." He said, keeping his eyes anywhere but on her face.

"You didn't ask me a question." She said softly, tapping her finger on her chin, her mouth open in a small 'o' as she tried to recollect.

"Y-yes I did!" Ichigo said looking over at her a light blush on his cheeks "I told you to give me time."

"Well it's not really a question if you're telling me Kurosaki-kun." She giggled and he blushed a deeper red which caused her to giggle harder.

"Damn it." He grunted taking her hand in his and walking in the direction of her home, he hadn't blushed this much since he was a kid.

Orihime slipped her fingers around his and lent her head on his arm, forcing him to realize he'd been unintentionally pulling her behind him.

"Take your time Kurosaki-kun," she whispered "I'll be here whenever you're ready." she smiled looking up at him with a bright smile, reaching up on her tip toes and placing a quick kiss on his lips. Ichigo smiled down at her, his hand tightening around hers slightly as he started towards her home once more.

It hadn't been that bad of a day if he could say so himself.

A/N: Yo what's up all you IchiHime lovers? Ok so here's chapter two, that I have been working on for like three hours since I got home early from work tonight and the kids are asleep! I'm sorry you guys have had to wait so long, but I work two jobs and usually get home too exhausted both physically and mentally to write, I wish writing fanfiction got me paid, at least then I could put all my ideas down on paper. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed and who favorited, I'll let you know I don't think Ichigo was too in character here but I'm trying to write them a little more mature, maybe around 18-19 about to graduate high school and junk. I promise next chapter I'll work on being a little more descriptive of like their surroundings and their outfits and thoughts and stuff, I love stories like that I just hate that I can't seem to write them. . Thank you guys for your patience, I promise I will do my best to upload sooner. My daughter just woke up sooooooo BYE! XOXOXO