Chapter 2: Giant Secret
-Present time/ Post Aizen-
What do you do when you love a close friend? Throw in a twist. How about that girl also happens to be hopelessly in love with your best friend? A friend that you owe everything. A boy you admire, but can't help being jealous of? You hold it all inside and support them.
I know how it feels to be in that position. For a while now, I have found myself drawn towards a special, auburn headed goddess. "Goddess" they call her, but her looks aren't what I've grown to love about her.
Despite his growing feelings, Chad respects Ichigo too much to confess. No matter how much it hurts to acknowledge, I honestly feel that the pair will one day notice they belong together. Well one of them hasn't noticed yet.
Most people see Orihime's devotion and their similarly orange hair and think 'these two should be together,' but Chad sees more than he lets on. He knows that Ichigo needs a woman as similar to his lost mother, Masaki, as he can find. And who, but Orihime, could hope to fill such a loved and respected place? Looks aside, he has witnessed her easing Ichigo's troubled mind. He has seen her entice the smallest of grins with her antics from their sometimes too solemn friend. She has character beyond her surface appeals, and he also has had to force his thoughts away from the surface on some quiet occasions. I am still a normal functioning teen.
Even were he to confess, Chad fears the consequences that would follow his confession. Inside, he shies away from being bold and making a confession due to a fear that it would shatter the bonds his group has formed throughout their battles. Not ot mention what it would do to the fair healer. Orihime would turn me down gently, weighing her kind heart with guilt in the process. Rukia would find these childish love struggles embarrassing and step away from the issue. Uryu... may well hold a torch for "Inoue-san" himself; who can tell with their stoic, cold, and expressionless companion.
Lastly, the scowling Ichigo. Sure, he doesn't love her romantically at present, but there is no question that he feels something for her. Why else is he so violently protective of her. He promised to "protect her" and went against Soul Society to do it. Ichigo has always took note of her clumsily incurred injuries- well before he first protected her from the world of Shinigami and souls. But more importantly, if Chad confessed, someone would then take pity on Ichigo and explain why she turned me down, her love for him, and I truly believe that once aware of her feelings Ichigo will snatch them up. Who wouldn't? And I am selfish enough to not want to be the catalyst that breaks my own…
"Orihime," Chad mutters so quietly that no one else would hear his deep low tones. She is genuinely kind, something that many girls our age fake to achieve, and I love her for it. She chatters incessantly, yet the sound of her vibrant melodious voice transfers me into her vivid imagination. Couple these tales with her angelic voice, breathless tones filled with wonder, you can be transported to a colorful and better place... If only you stopped to truly listen.
None of us deserve her, he mused.
Not even me. I never noticed how strong Inoue was...is, how intelligent. None of us have truly even noticed HER. Especially not before her astounding powers surfaced. No one has noticed her true beauty. Chad may not come across as the sharpest, but he knows beauty. He would never allow himself the teenage pastime of imagining Orihime's fine figure, but he thinks about her comeliness. The clumsy girl has most likely run into every inanimate object possible, especially light posts, giving them the opportunity to measure her 'stature' up close and as a witness to many of these clumsy feats, he had too though unwittingly.
But to Chad, a body is only a vessel, and Orihime's is so noteworthy only because her beautiful soul is too radiant to be contained and her outward traits have matured to match. Her person loosely imitates how wonderful her heart is. How could he do anything but to fall for her? Who could not notice her for the rarity she is? Only the man she loves. Their friend. The one who introduced Chad to his ideal woman. Ichigo.
Yes. Chad has watched over Orihime. They gained their powers at the same time. They learned about the Soul Society and were presented with the same choice to join the fight against the hollows. They had trained together, sweat together, and were even the first to encounter the Arrancar threat when Yammy and Ulquiorra appeared. They have protected each other, bled together, and supported one another.
He has been the quiet shadow alongside her. Though she needs no one to bolster her in truth. Being beside her is like being in the presence of the sun. She shone in all ways.
She may be spacey and innocent, but those were not faults. They did not make her weak. Everyone assumed she was weak because she is a pacifist. I made a similar promise to myself not to use my hands to hurt others. But her resolve to not hurt people is deeper still. It comes from her pain.
Chad can see that pain; in moments when she stares out of the classroom window or those occasional times when she comes to his house to share her part-time jobs donated bread, and she drifts off topic into reveries. She has sadness. Complexity. Trauma. Strength that goes beyond superficial muscles like his own. Inner courage that no one realizes.
Everyone coddles her, Chad too to an extent but only from those seeking to steal her innocence. Tatsuki treats Orihime like a baby bird or a colt under the legs of a mother mare. She has taught her to fight but the second something real, something a bit graphic occurs, she's there to pummel it from Orihime's sight. How can she grow like that?
Chad appreciates anyone who protects her from the lecherous physical attacks that trail her like ripples in a lake, but he sees that she is above such things. She isn't meek but strong-minded and forgiving, she isn't oblivious but striving to see the best in people despite their actions and outward character. She sees the character inside of us.
Though it certainly would help if she remembered that her school uniform coupled with her assets and exuberant personality, caused many a peek under her skirt and drew eyes to her heaving bosom. But who is he to shatter her pure spirit and belief in the good of her peers.
I am a silent giant. I am her friend. And when Ichigo isn't around, I am the wall that protects her from the mundane and persistent perverted "threats."
But it hurts being quiet sometimes. He wonders what would happen if he actually spoke up. If he gave her a glimpse of what's on his mind. Would it change anything? Not until she and Ichigo settle the thing between them. He scoffs. At least she is still my close nakama.