A/N: Glad to see this fic is doing so well. This sets the fears I had about trying a new anime to rest. Anyways hope you all continue to enjoy.
Disclaimer: Reading this may cause the zombies from the last chapter to appear in your own dreams, but then again it probably won't (and I of course do not own Bleach).
Orihime Inoue was thinking. In fact as of late thinking is something she had been doing a lot of. For Orihime it was unusual to spend so much time on thought and even more so when all those thoughts converged on the same subject, yet that was exactly how things had turned out.
It had started two days before when Chizuru had implanted in her head the idea that her best friend Tatsuki may in fact wish to love her as more than a friend. The following day after coming face to face with certain death and then face to face with her usual crush, Ichigo, Orihime became determined to sort things out.
That was exactly what she was trying to accomplish. Since that day when Tatsuki had walked her home, Orihime had been careful to keep her distance from her dear friend. In fact, as class had just ended for that day, Orihime had effectively evaded Tatsuki nearly entirely for two days of school now, seeing her only when necessary in class.
As it was, this day being a meeting of the handicrafts club, she had a real excuse to not join Tatsuki for the walk home. She could just sit here, the misshapen project she had only just started being neglected, and just think.
Tatsuki was a girl. This was one of the key thoughts that had continued to cross her mind the last couple days. It would be a lie to say Orihime had the most typical of thought patterns, but even she knew it was not something normal for two girls to love each other in a romantic way. That didn't necessarily mean it was wrong though; Chizuru, despite being quite proud of her love for her same sex, was a fairly level, good friend in Orihime's eyes. If Tatsuki loved her, if she returned that love, they wouldn't be bad people either, she was certain.
Right now though, she didn't even know if she was attracted to Tatsuki or if that even mattered. She had always been fond of Ichigo but part of her now wondered if she ever really found him to be physically attractive. Thinking in such terms did not come naturally to her, what she found attractive in people was their personality, how great a person they were. Tatsuki had always been the most wonderful friend to her, shouldn't she then be the most attractive one to her as well?
If she was actually willing to go forward with these feelings, how could she do it? Could she really just go up to Tatsuki and ask her if she loved her? What if Tatsuki said no? What if all this thought was simply based on a false conclusion? What if all Tatsuki ever was was a friend? What if Tatsuki was hurt by her asking? There were so many questions the girl now had. She couldn't help but feel she'd go mad if somehow they didn't all get answered soon.
"Orihime?" A nearby voice called her out of her perpetuating thoughts. Orihime looked up to see the face of Uryu Ishida, a classmate of hers. Uryu asked while staring down a the unrecognizable handicraft project on her desk, "Is everything alright Orihime? You seem unfocused."
"No I'm fine!" Orihime forced her usual cheery demeanor. She punctuated it with the excuse, "I was just daydreaming."
It wasn't unusual for Orihime to be daydreaming, Uryu knew this. But the dazed but serious, concentrating look that had graced Orihime's face as he had watched seemed a far cry from the expressions usually accompanying her over-imaginative dreams. It wasn't too typical for someone like Uryu Ishida to delve into one of his classmate's personal troubles but after perilously trekking through the dangers of the Soul Society with this same girl he felt he could at least offer his help.
"Are you sure?" The young Quincy questioned causing Orihime's smile to fall.
Uryu was a friend just like Chizuru and Ichigo. Maybe she could use him to help her sort this stuff out just like she had done the other two. She sighed as she said, "You're right, I can't seem to stay focused on anything lately."
Ishida sat down at the desk next to her before coolly saying, "So do you know why?"
"Yeah. I can't stop thinking..." Orihime answered unsatisfactorily.
Uryu rolled his eyes slightly, wondering why he had decided to try and help, he said somewhat impatiently, "That would explain not being able to focus, but Orihime what have you been thinking about?"
"Uh well, let's see..." Orihime replied in haste. She thought a few minutes about how to phrase her predicament. Finally she asked in a energetic way, "Have you ever been convinced that one of your friends might be in love with you but you're not sure and you're not sure if you're ready to move to the next level but you don't want to disappoint them but at the same time you don't know how to approach them about it since they might not love you in the first place but you can't just forget about it because not knowing will lead to you being eaten alive by a ravaging horde of evil zombies?"
"No I can't say I have." Ishida said with signs of definite bewilderment. After a moment he assessed in a broken tone, 'That seems like a pretty specialized situation actually."
"Well it's kinda like that for me right now." Orihime said while nodding fiercely.
"Is that so?" Uryu said coolly as he pushed his glasses up his face with his finger. He gave a slight smirk before saying in a determined tone, "In that case, lead me to this zombie army and I will aid you in destroying them!"
Orihime laughed before saying in light manner, "The zombies aren't real. They're in my brain."
Ishida gave a reflective pose before saying in a pondering tone, "That is unusual. Zombies usually eat brains, not possess them."
Orihime gave another laugh but this time sighed as she said, "The zombies don't matter, it's the other stuff I keep thinking about."
"Oh well, I'm really not any good with romantic advise..." Uryu started, giving a cool pose as he did. He soon added in a thought out way, "But I would say that the best thing to do would be to confront them on it."
"Really?" Orihime didn't look convinced. She asked, "But what if I was wrong and doing so would hurt them?"
"I doubt that's the case, Orihime." Ishida said in a certain tone. He continued his advise, "If we're talking about someone who is really your good friend then the suggestion that they would love you shouldn't hurt them."
Orihime smiled at this. Even if Tatsuki didn't love her romantically, it was quite clear that she did care a great deal for her. Wouldn't it be safe to say then that, even if she was wrong, Tatsuki wouldn't be upset with her asking. She said gratefully, "Yeah! Thanks, that really helps a lot."
Uryu gave a slight look of accomplishment before adding more suggestions, "What's important though, is how you feel toward this person. Even if you are certain they love you, you won't be happy unless you've come to terms with your own feelings on the matter. Once you do that, you have control of how it turns out instead of your friend"
Orihime gave several quick nods. Yes, before she confronted Tatsuki she needed to be ready to love Tatsuki herself. She needed to be able to commit herself to being with Tatsuki. Then it would be easy.
"Wow Uryu! Thanks a lot!" Orihime shot a beaming smile at the young man. She then said respectfully, "You sure know a lot about this stuff."
Uryu shook his head as he argued, "No, I really don't."
"But your advise really helped me. I think I can do this now." Orihime said joyfully.
"It wasn't anything though. It was all just hypothetical." Uryu said in a calculated voice that seemed to be hiding marked embarrassment.
Orihime ignored this comment to simply offer her conclusion, "I think now I might actually be ready to ask."
Uryu gave a proud look at the girl as he spoke, "That's good. I seriously doubt he'll reject you. It isn't like him."
Orihime looked baffled at this. They were talking about Tatsuki, weren't they? And Tatsuki was a girl, wasn't she? She sighed, Uryu didn't know this was about Tatsuki. Now she was curious though as she asked, "Who do you think I'm talking about?"
Uryu gave a look of concern as he said, "What do you mean? This is about Ichigo, isn't it?"
"What?! No. What gives you that idea?" Orihime's voice seemed shocked at the notion.
"He's Ichigo." Uryu asserted as if it was enough. He gave a pause before asking in a cool manner that almost sounded as if he wasn't now hopelessly prying, "So tell me who it is then."
Orihime opened her mouth but decided it probably wasn't best to blurt out Tatsuki's name. If would sound strange and it would be unnecessary if things went poorly. She merely sighed again as she said in a wispy tone, "I'm sorry, but I probably shouldn't tell you till the right time."
"Orihime! Then...!" Uryu gave a flustered look of shock as he now stared intently at he girl. He took a moment to collect himself before saying dramatically, "I had thought I had kept my feelings concealed, but you are perceptive, Orihime. You are quite special to me and if it what you so desire then I would gladly-"
"No, it's not you either." Orihime cut him off in a carefree way.
"Oh. Uh, really?" Uryu put his face in his hand to hide the blush that had formed there.
"Yeah, sorry." Orihime said sweetly, noticing the down look on Ishida's face.
"In that case we can just leave it at that..." Uryu said returning to his usual tone.
"Alright!" Orihime agreed fully. She got to her feet, stuffing her barely started sewing project into her bag and began the trek out of the classroom. She turned to finally say, "Thanks for helping me."
Ishida accepted the offer of thanks and returned it with a nod as Orihime proceeded into the now sparsely populated school halls.
She had only taken a few steps before she was greeted by a familiar voice. A voice that now sounded more lovely and sweet than about anything. She turned at once to find herself facing the very object of her current obsession, Tatsuki Arisawa.
Upon seeing the other girl, at once Orihime formulated the plan she would use. She'd ask Tatsuki to go out with her tomorrow, she'd make it go just like a romantic date. She would be certain to give it the right atmosphere and see how Tatsuki responded. At her best luck, Tatsuki would be confessing to her at the end of the night, at her worst luck she'd just end up really really embarrassed for a couple days.
"Orihime, there you are." Tatsuki said in a tone that seemed slightly concerned and slightly irritated.
"Tatsuki..." Orihime said in a dreamy romantic tone that thankfully was low enough that Tatsuki at once did not pick up on it's intentions.
"Orihime, have you been avoiding me the last couple days for some reason?" Tatsuki asked pointedly.
"No of course not. Why would I ever avoid you, Tatsuki?" Orihime said in a quite awkward tone that confused the other to a degree.
"Uh, okay, but Orihime you didn't talk to me at all yesterday and then today as well. I stayed here late today just so I could ask you about it." Orihime could really sense the depth of the concern in Tatsuki's words.
"So you were worried and you missed talking to me then?" Orihime giggled as she said in a somewhat teasing way.
"Orihime are you alright?" Tatsuki was now looking at Orihime in a very bewildered way. She came to the assessment, "You're acting even stranger than usual today."
"Oh it's nothing." Orihime said in a carefree manner. She then made her request, "Since you missed me the last couple days, how about we go out and have some fun together tomorrow night?"
Tatsuki still seemed a little concerned about Orihime's mental state as she reluctantly said with a faint smile, "Uh, sure, I guess. Sounds nice."
"Yeah. I can't wait." Orihime cheered.
"Me too." Tatsuki said smiling at her best friend's energy. She added, "Now why don't we get home?"
"Sure." Orihime agreed as she skipped to Tatsuki's side, joining her once more on the walk home.
As they walked Orihime found her eyes most often focused on Tatsuki, who at that moment looked very beautiful to her.
There were still many questions in Orihime's mind even though the doubts were beginning to vanish. She still didn't know how she really felt toward Tatsuki; it was a hard thing to put into words, but at the very least she knew now that this love was something she wanted desperately to feel. The next day, she hoped, she would get that chance.
A/N; Again I've pretty much failed at making a chapter of substantial length. I have a real feeling the next chapter will be a remedy to that for this fic though. When I was planning this fic I had it set up where Orihime would have a series of talks with some of her friends to come to the inevitable conclusion that her and Tatsuki should really be together. Chizuru was a natural for starting up the discussion of a yuri relationship and Ichigo was an obvious choice since being Orihime's primary love interest makes him already partly involved. For picking a third one of her friends to move things along I had a little more trouble deciding. I initially had Rukia placed to fill the part, but since I had placed this fic post Soul Society I thought it'd be a little tough to work her in. I briefly thought Chad would work since he's one of my favorite Bleach characters but I realized with him, the chapter would end up having no length and Orihime most likely wouldn't be able to get much out of it. Uryu has an established history with Orihime and on top that is one of those fun characters that can seemed real cool even though he's seriously out there. I decided he'd be perfect for this scene, since I can really work off of the eclectic aspects of his character. Anyways in the next chapter, the other characters won't matter, it will just be Orihime and Tatsuki and their little date and of course the sexual situations it may or may not lead to. So I hope you'll still be willing to read further, expect the next chapter soon.