"Santen Kesshun, I reject!"
Orihime was hard at work, practicing calling out her Shun Shun Rikka without having to waste time using their names. She had whispered the shorter incantations over and over again for the last couple of hours, but she still hadn't made any real progress.
Just as she was about to try again, she heard a small shuffling noise from behind the curtain.
"Uryu?" she enquired, softly.
There was no response.
Orihime tried again. "Are you awake, Uryu?"
Still no reaction.
Orihime was suddenly overcome by an immense curiosity. Before she realised what she was doing, she had reached out and swept the curtain aside, revealing the sleeping Quincy curled up on his side, his face by her feet.
Orihime didn't quite know exactly what she had expected to see, but she was taken aback by how peaceful her friend looked. His pretty, delicate features were arranged in a serene expression, unguarded by the glasses which normally obscured his face, and his black hair, which was starting to look a bit stringy after having spent several days with very restricted access to shampoo, tumbled untidily across his nose.
His chest rose and fell slowly with each silent breath, and Orihime was struck by how skinny and fragile his body looked. It was hard to believe that this was the same boy who had physically carried her away from Jirobo Ikkanzaka's reach before proceeding to utterly annihilate the hapless Soul Reaper. The fact that somebody so small could wield so much power and strength was mind-boggling to Orihime.
Just as Orihime was musing on how his pure white clothes put her in mind of angels, his lips parted and she heard his voice.
"Orihime."
Orihime panicked, worried that she may have woken him up, but before she could make an hasty apology for waking him with her staring, she looked back to his face and realised that his eyes were still closed.
Oh, so he was sleep-talking! Silly Uryu, Orihime thought, working hard to stop herself from giggling.
"Orihime," Uryu repeated.
"Yes?" Orihime prompted, quietly.
"Orihime, I..."
Orihime frowned. "What is it?"
The sleeping Uryu smiled softly. "I l..."
And with that, he rolled aside, his left cheek squished against the cold, stone floor. He said no more.
The cogs in Orihime's brain immediately started whirring, coming up with ways to fill the gap.
"I l...ost my spare Quincy cape and need you to help me find it? I l...icked an icy lamp-post to see what would happen and now I'm stuck? I l...et Keigo Asano borrow my sewing kit and now he won't give it back?"
Orihime's eye was caught by the small square of pink fabric he appeared to be in the middle of bunching up into a flower, which was lying behind him.
"You certainly have some silly dreams, Uryu," Orihime said, softly, taking one last glance at his gentle expression before she replaced the curtain between them and returned to her fairies.
Author's notes: Lowri strikes again! It is pretty much officially my trademark move to eventually continue stories I originally intended to be a one-shot. So, um, yay! More unrequited IshiHime fluff! :D