Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: Sorry it took so long. I just couldn't satisfy myself. Still haven't, but I guess it's as good as it's going to get. I'll be able to post the final chapter tomorrow. Enjoy!

Inoue awoke with her fingers itching with inspiration. She had been having dreams every night for almost a week, and though the plots didn't stay with her, design ideas did. She forced herself to go through her morning ritual of a shower, breakfast and tea before she began working.

It was a creative ecstasy, and she had thrown herself into her work even more than usual in the last week. She passed it off saying that she wanted to get a jump on the next season, but if she was truthful, and she could at least be so with herself, it was because of the beautiful dreams.

She had no idea what she dreamed of - as she awoke, the meat of the dreams, the action would fade away. She knew, however, that she was dreaming of him. She had visions of him and her, being together and happy. She didn't know what went on, only what they had looked like.

It was after the first night that she decided to do a design or two. After the second night, she couldn't help but do more. Soon, she had decided to do her entire next season based on them. She worked feverishly in the mornings, trying to get all the ideas on paper before they ran away, and she would spend the rest of the day perfecting them.

Her apartment was demolished, as she hadn't bothered to even go into the small studio she rented. She had sketches put up everywhere, from tiny ones on scraps of paper to large, detailed and colored designs. She knew the pin holes in the wall would drive her landlord crazy, but she was like a woman posessed, and she liked being able to look up and see the results of her work. She was entirely sure there had once been paintings on the wall, and that one of them had been painted bright yellow, but you'd have to look really hard through all the papers to see any of that.

She felt a little silly, but though she knew that Ishida would never be hers, she knew he would always wear the things she sent him, and that made the dream designs even harder to ignore. He would surely wear these like all the others, and every time she saw him wearing them she would be reminded of these dreams, and what they made her feel.

The knock on the door shook her from her thoughts, and she didn't bother to take the papers off the low table before she answered the door, as she was sure there would be no point, when the rest of the apartment was so crazy.

She stood there for a second, and a second only, overcome as Hoshikawa Seiko stood in front of her door, looking like absolutely nothing had happened.

Inoue managed to catch herself quickly, and invited the woman into the room. She quickly noticed that her hand was bare. Inoue assumed Ishida hadn't gotten up the nerve to ask her yet, and resolved not to say anything. Though she liked the girl now standing in the middle of her living room, her first loyalty was to Ishida.

"What can I do for you, Hoshikawa-chan?" she asked, wanting desperately to get back to work, but always willing to take time out for a friend.

"I just - I'm not sure." Hoshikawa replied, and it seemed that her calm demeanor was cracking.

Inoue offered for her to sit down, took her coat and offered tea, stacking things carefully away from the table to give the other girl a little buffer from the mess. "I'm sorry, if I knew you were coming, I would have cleaned up a little-"

"No, no, I obviously caught you in the middle of work, and there seems to be a bit of method to the madness," Hoshikawa replied, making a slight attempt at humor. She seemed to try to avoid looking at the papers everywhere, and Inoue assumed it was because she hated mess so much.

"So is this purely a social visit, or am I to assume something is the matter?" Inoue asked nicely, not wanting to pry, but quite curious as to why she was there.

"Well, you and Ishida-san are old friends, right?" She asked, suddenly nervous.

"We went to school together for a long time, but we only began to really have a close friendship during high school." Inoue decided to merely supply any information the girl needed. After all, she and Ishida were possibly having trouble, and it wouldn't be fair of her at all to try and intrude by going any further than facts. She would help Hoshikawa, no matter what, because in doing it she was helping Ishida, but she would not offer any unnecessary conjecture.

"Well, he's gotten more talkative over the last couple of years, and that's good, really good. He's not especially outgoing, but compared to where he was, he's made a lot of steps, huh?"

"Of course, and we all think you helped contribute to that."

"Thank you, but I really don't think it was me. Anyway, there's something that he doesn't talk about a lot. It's been bothering me for a while now, and though I think I've learned him quite well, I thought maybe I'd get some outside advice."

Going through a mental catalogue of all the things Ishida might not have told Hoshikawa, Inoue decided she would have to be on her toes now - she refused to be the one to tell her about Ishida's powers, or anything else that might not have ever come up. "I'll help in any way I can, Hoshikawa-chan."

"Well, he doesn't really talk about it very often, and when he does, he tends to cut himself off. And he doesn't get outwardly upset when the topic comes up, but he does usually to change the subject quickly, and he never brings it up himself."

Inoue wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to think of it. It seemed pretty typical Ishida to her, but she knew that it would have to be more than that to upset a girl like Hoshikawa.

"What do you think it could be?" Hoshikawa asked hopefully.

She thought back to the fight with Kurotsuchi Mayuri, to Kurosaki almost killing him in Hueco Mundo, to the one time he had not scored top marks on a test. He never got angry when someone brought these things up in innocence, but he never lingered on it, and certainly never broached the subject himself.

"I think, perhaps, it is something he is ashamed of? Without knowing more about it, I would say that he maybe thinks he has failed at something, whether he actually has or not, and doesn't feel comfortable talking about it.

"Well, it's not a something so much as a someone."

Inoue instantly felt relief. There was not as much chance now that she would have to lead the girl away from the idea of Ishida having odd powers, and therefore not as many opportunities to accidentally betray his trust.

"You see, he never really wants to talk about this person, though we see them on occasion. I thought they were friends, but I've noticed more and more lately a reluctance to talk."

"Perhaps they had a fight?" Inoue was not really sure where this line of questioning was leading.

"I don't think so. I think it would be pretty obvious if they had fought. I think it's something deeper than that. Any ideas?"

"I'm not sure."

"What if I told you it was a woman?"

Inoue was careful to school her expression. "I think that perhaps reluctance to talk about a woman would still indicate failure of some sort."

"Failure in love?"

Inoue wasn't sure what to say without hurting her friend, so she tried to skirt it. "Maybe. I mean, I don't believe Ishida had any relationships before you-"

"As far as I know, they were never in any kind of relationship other than friendly."

Inoue kept quiet. She knew what this meant. Not only did she have to give him up to Hoshikawa, but she had to do it knowing that he would be happier with someone else - and that was one more person she had to feel bad about being jealous of.

"You know, don't you? You know what it is. I'm a big girl, don't spare my feelings."

"Perhaps Ishida is in love with someone else."

"That's what I thought, too." Strangely, the girl didn't cry. She wasn't done with her questioning, it seemed.

"And if I told you they were still friends?"

"I wouldn't know what to say. Surely, though, Ishida would never do anything improper-"

"I know he wouldn't. He wouldn't even consider it. But I think maybe that she loves him, too."

Inoue thought perhaps that she would be the one to cry. She knew Hoshikawa, and liked her. At least she was losing Ishida to someone that was worthy. This other girl was perhaps not as worthy. She felt a wave of sympathy for Hoshikawa. Inoue at least didn't have any claim on him - she could only imagine how the other girl was feeling.

"What makes you think that she's in love with him, too?"

"It's just things about their relationship. I don't think she even knows yet."

Inoue reached over and hugged the girl, and they sat on the couch together, crying, one for a lost love, and one for a love never to be gained.

"He asked me to marry him today."

Inoue gave a slight start, but the girl was crying on her shoulder, and she didn't even think of moving away. "What happened?"

"I told him I couldn't. I told him I just couldn't do it. Not when he loved someone else."

"You said that to him? I bet he was unhappy."

"Actually, he mostly seemed dejected. Tried to deny it for a little bit, but in the end he couldn't. Then I left. I told him I just couldn't marry him, when he was so obviously..." she trailed off, as if trying to decide how far she wanted to take the statement.

"So obviously in love with someone else?" Inoue offered seriously.

"No, so obviously in love with you."

That is how Inoue came to find herself sitting on her couch, surrounded by sketched dreams of Ishida while Ishida's now never-to-be fiancée cried on her shoulder, after admitting that she knew Ishida had really loved Inoue all along.

"No, Hoshikawa-chan, you've made a big mistake-"

"Funny, that's exactly what he said." She seemed hurt, but made no move from Inoue's shoulder.

"I-I don't know what to say."

"Can you swear to me that you don't love him? On our friendship?"

Inoue knew she could do no such thing. Fledgling as their friendship was, everyone knew that the people in Inoue's life would always be the most important to her.

The silence was more telling than anything else.

"Then swear to me that you'll love him."

Inoue shot up in earnest then, and Hoshikawa drew away to look Inoue in the eye for the first time since her confession. "I walked away from him this morning so that he could be happy with you, and also so that you could be happy with him. Please, Inoue-san, don't let that have been for nothing. Go to him - he needs comfort now."

"But what about you, Hoshikawa-chan?"

"I'll be okay. One day I'll find someone that loves me, and only me. For now, though, go to him. Please."

With a last, bone crushing hug, Hoshikawa Seiko walked out of her apartment and promised it would not be the last time they saw each other. Inoue quickly grabbed her coat and left as well, leaving behind her sketches for the reality that she had avoided for days. She thought that the train ride to Ishida's would be the longest of her life, but she was determined.

She would not let Hoshikawa's sacrifice have been in vain.