I'm an awful person. I forgot to disclaim this story but we all know that this broke back Jamaican girl can't even draw stick men much less the epicness that is Bleach. So yea, there it is.

On a side note, you guys are all amazing. I'm glad you're all enjoying the story so far, it makes me feel special :$

On another side note: I do not hate Rukia. I think she's a great lil' boss ass midget. I just needed that one bitch friend, and she fits the bill for me. Just to clarify that to y'all.

On my last side note: I got another university offer ^.^

And now onto the story :)

Tomorrow came too quickly.

Although I knew I wasn't seeing Ichigo until way in the evening I couldn't help but feel nervous.

It was currently 8 now and I had nothing to do til 10, when I had a lecture and than lunch with my friends and then a seminar from 2-6- oh the joy. It was only Professor Unohana though so I had no issues with today. The long hours were a drag though, and I tended to day dream and lose track of my notes.

I followed through my usual morning routine. Get out of bed, bathroom-shower and brush my teeth, prance around my room naked for a bit, eat breakfast then finally get dressed. By the time I did all this it would be a little after 9, giving me plenty of time to watch re-runs of US sitcoms. Currently I was mixing yogurt and red bean paste together to dip strawberries in when my phone rang. I checked the caller ID. Hmm strange.

"Ohayo Tatsuki-chan! Aren't you supposed to be in a lecture now?" I asked curiously.

"Yea but it got cancelled until 10:30 so I was wondering if I could come over for a bit,"

"Yea sure, you gotta hurry though cuz I'm supposed to be in lectures by 10,"

"Alright I'm outside your block anyways, I'll see you in 10," she replied. I put the phone down and continued stirring my strawberry dip and then I realized something. I was still naked. Same time I realized that, the door rang.

"Uh- coming Tatsuki!" I shouted running to get a pair of panties and my robe and hauling them on in record time to get the door. I released the lock and opened to door to my best friend.

"Hey again,"

"Mhmm, now who's in here?" she asked dipping under my arm and looking around the room.

"W-what are you talking about there's no one here," I asked confused.

"Then what took you so long to get the door?" she asked sitting on the bed.

"Uh- well-"

Tatsuki sniffed and I paused watching her.

"Who was here? What's that smell?" she asked.

"Smell? Oh you probably mean the yogurt and red-bean paste I was mixing as a dip for my strawberries-"

Tatsuki jumped off the bed in disgust.

"Eww you had Ichigo here last night didn't you?!"

"Yea, but it's not what you think!"

"Then why does this bed smell like his cologne?"

I blushed, knowing that she was assuming the worse.

The thing with Tatsuki is, she's a bit anal about having things in order and she kind of imprints the smell of certain things to memory. Plus she has the nose of a blood hound. And even though she's known Ichigo way before any of us did, she most definitely didn't like the way he was now.

"Did you sleep with Kurosaki?" she asked.

"N-no! I just asked him, like I told you I was going to I swear it! Nothing happened!"

She took at seat at my desk and swiveled the chair to face me. "Spill,"

I got my dip and my strawberries and did just that, telling her everything up to when he said he'd give me a straight answer tonight.

"And you're sure you really wanna go through with this Hime? I mean...it's Ichigo,"

I finished of my fruit and sighed. Here we go again.

"Tatsuki-chan you confuse me. One second you encourage me and then the next you're acting like I'm about to make the biggest mistake ever."

"Because you probably are! You've had front row seats to what he does to girls yet still you go head first into this and I don't like it. If it were any other guy then maybe-"

"But there's no other guy Tats," I sighed. "We tried with Uryuu, with Keigo, Mizuiro even and nothing. But with Ichigo I feel-"

"Like you're going to melt like ice cream on the side walk in summer. I know, you've said that a million times. I just want you to be careful."

"I will. I'm no little girl Tatsuki," I said, pulling my outfit for the day out of my wardrobe. It was time to get ready for my lecture.

"Oh, I saw your best friend one my way here," commented Tatsuki lightly. I stiffened. I hated when she referred to Rukia as my "best friend".

"Oh, did you now," I said, strapping on my bra and pulling on a long sleeved blouse.

"Yep. She seemed to be making a beeline for a certain dorm block as well."

"Well she wouldn't find anyone there, he's got an early lecture today, and he might be...reckless but he doesn't miss school work," I said pulling on my knee length skirt.

"You have so much faith in him it's unbelievable. I say he skipped for an easy fuck, you think he's in Urahara-sensei's lecture room being a good boy and taking notes about the brain," my friend laughed.

I didn't answer her, just picked up my bag and my keys and waited for her to sort her stuff together as well. But in my mind, there was a war. He knew about the conversation we had last night...he wouldn't really go jump in another girl's bed right?

There was another part of me that argued that we weren't even together, if he wanted to go sleep with Rukia, then that wasn't my business. Anything we would have (that is if he said yes tonight) would be casual, giving him leeway to see other people if he wanted to. There was no way that I could ask him to make me his "one and only" so to say. He rejected the word relationship unless it had the word "open" or "casual" in front of it.

"C'mon Hime, let's go or you're gonna be late,"

I nodded, though on auto pilot and after locking the door made way for my first lecture of the new school term.

I met with my friends in the cafeteria since it was raining. I took my usual seat with Tatsuki and Nel and struck up conversation quickly. It was just us three, none of the boys were here yet and thankfully neither were Rukia or Rangiku. Currently we were talking about Nel's anniversary plans with her boyfriend.

"So he's taking you to dinner? And he got you a frigging Pandora? Who knew Grimmjow had it in him," commented Tatsuki. I nodded in agreement.

Grimmjow Jaggerjaques, another well known playboy until he started dating Nel in senior year. She had him jumping through so many hoops at first because she didn't like him initially, but later on grew to love him. He never looked back since then. He treated her so good it almost made me jealous. But maybe that was me being bitter. One day Ichigo might be able to look at me the same way he does to her. Like she was the light in his entire life.

"So Orihime, did you ask Ichigo about the thing?" asked Nel, ripping off the heads of her gummy bears.

"Yea, I did last night," I replied, looking around to make sure no one was around.

She looked up from her gummy bears. "Really?! Omg what di he say?!"

"Shhhh!"

"Oops, sorry!"
"He said he'd think about it and he'd speak to me tonight," I whispered.

A huge grin broke out on her face.

"I'm so happy for you!"

"Well at least I know you have my full support," I said, shooting a glance at Tatsuki who let out an exaggerated sigh and took a swing from her drink.

"You're not going to let it go aren't you?"

"Nope!" I said, eating my grapes.

"Well I think it's going to work out amazingly, you all know my theory" said Nel in her soft voice. Tatsuki sighed again and I blushed.

Nel's theory was that Ichigo was secretly in love with me-has been for years- and that he was just too scared to ask me out. I highly doubted that, especially with our conversation last night.

"You keep sighing Tatsuki, I'm just waiting for him to come out with it, and this way might just be the perfect way for him to do it," she said, color coding her now headless gummy bears.

"Who're you gals talking bout?"

We turned to see Rukia. And Ichigo. Holding hands.

Oh.

Tatsuki glared.

When he took notice of me looking at him he disentagled himself from Rukia's grasp and made way to find somewhere to sit.

Behind them were the rest of the gang, taking their usual seats at the huge bench.

"We were talking about how I wanted to get Grimmjow to cross dress," said Nel, going back to her sweets. The whole group laughed and said boy turned red and started a playful argument with his girlfriend.

The rest of the time flew by and before we knew it, it was time for us to go back for more lectures and seminars.

I walked with Tatsuki and Nel who were free for the rest of the day. As son as we were out of earshot, Tatsuki started.

"You know you saw that hickey on her neck."

"Tatsuki-"

"That's all I'm saying," she said, holding her hands up.

Nel sighed. "Why are you so against them trying this out Tatsuki?"

"Because you saw her there a while ago! She looked like someone killed her puppy when she saw them holding hands! I don't think you should go through with this at all Home-"

"Tatsuki can we not? I don't want to have this conversation right now," I said softly. I had to go before I lost it.

"Listen, I'll talk to you two later okay? I don't wanna be late for this seminar,"

I left the both of them standing there, Tatsuki looking angry and Nel looking lost.

7pm. Seminars were done and I had just gotten out the shower. My mind was Ichigo and Rukia free and I was currently on my fluffy carpet with a huge bowl of onion rings and whipped cream watching The Fresh Prince of Belair on Netflix when my door was knocked.

"Who is it?" I called out too lazy to move.

"Inoue? It's me Ichigo"

I paused mid-chew.

Oh snap! I forgot again!

"C-coming!"

I opened the door and there he was. I gestured for him to come in and locked the door.

Neither of us said anything for a while and then he broke the silence.

"Listen...I've been thinking...about everything and if we're gonna do this this I guess I should take a break from seeing other people since it clearly makes you feel uncomfortable."

Wait...what?

"Are you saying that you'll-"

"Teach you? Yea, I guess I am," he replied, scratching the back of his head.

Oh my red bean paste. He said yes!

"Thank you Kurosaki-kun!"

"If we're going to do this, you're gonna have to call me Ichigo. It makes sense for us to address each other with first names, especially under these circumstances,"

He shot me one of those rare smiles and sat on the carpet, gesturing for me to sit beside him. I didn't hesitate, but grabbed a notepad and a pen before sitting with him.

"If we're gonna do this, then we're gonna have to plan times because I'm busy and I know you're busy," I said, popping one of the onion rings in my mouth.

"Well I was thinking 3 or 2 times out of the week?" he asked, "when are you free?"

"Well now...Tuesdays I have Nel and Tats over for a sleepover, I can do Wednesdays and I can do Fridays and I'm free the whole weekend." I said, thinking of my timetable from my mind.

"Hmm...how about Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays?"

"At 8pm?"

"Sounds like a date," I said smiling.

For some strange reason I couldn't stop smiling.

He stood up and pulled me up to him. "So I guess I'll be seeing you on Wednesday then?"

"Uh-huh," I replied slighlty breathless.

Then he pulled me to him. I immediately stiffened. This wasn't like the other hugs he'd given me. This was...close. Extremely close. And he was so warm.

"Relax," he whispered in my ear. I shivered.

"Consider this your first lesson. Getting comfortable with your partner. If you go stiff every time I touch you then you won't enjoy anything we do together Orihime," he said in that same husky tone.

I swear if he kept talking I was going to combust from all the heat building up in my body.

I swallowed around my suddenly dry throat and nodded, trying to calm my body.

We just stood there like that for how long? I had no clue, but I can tell you it was great. Being held by someone you loved, even if those feeling weren't returned, it felt like they were.

When he was ready to go he gave me another chaste kiss on the cheek.

"I'll see you on Wednesday okay?"

I nodded.

"Sure. See you then,"

I closed the door, locked it and watched him walk away from the door when he was sure it was locked.

I slid down the floor against the door and kicked my feet out excitedly.

I think it was just hitting me that he actually agreed to this whole thing with me. I was so happy I forgot to breathe.

Suddenly Wednesday was just too far away.

There you have it.

Now excuse me whilst I go read one million and one fanfics and romance novels so I can figure out how to write a "lemon" scene...