(一) Leaving and Waiting

(二) Love and Distance

(三) Kurosaki-kun and Inoue

(黒崎くん)

"He is finally on his way, isn't he? I wish I could see the expression on... Orihime?!"

"Tatsuki-chan!"

A very loud joyous shout and Arisawa Tatsuki braced herself for the incoming impact that was in the curvaceous form of a certain weaver princess.

She did not have to wait long.

She was soon hugged, tightly by her excitable best friend.

"Oh, Tatsuki-chan ~, how I have missed you!" Inoue Orihime tightened her thin arms around her surprised friend. She gazed fondly at the tall friend standing behind them. "Sado-kun." She smiled at him. 'Sado-kun seemed to be knocked out at my appearance. Am I being here is so unexpected?' She wondered and loosened her grip on her friend in confusion.

She took a step back.

"Tatsuki-chan, Sado-kun, are you not happy to see me?"

Tatsuki looked aghast at her. "Of course we are happy to see you. Right, Chad?" She turned to their giant of a friend.

Sado Yasutora gave his usual thumb's up of approval.

"See, we are happy to see you. What made you think otherwise?"

Orihime intertwined her fingers together. "Well, the two of you looked really surprised at the sight of me." She tilted her head and looked at them with confusion written on her fair face.

"You are imagining things. Let me look at you or rather the dress you are wearing." Tatsuki was not interested in fashion. She was just delaying the inevitable moment when the gentle healer would ask about her protector.

Orihime clapped her small hands lightly and twirled.

Tatsuki did not fail to notice the admiring glances from the male population and the jealous eyeballing from the other half.

'Same old Orihime.' Tatsuki thought nostalgically.

"Is it not beautiful?" Orihime held the bottom edges of the dress and gave a small bow.

Arisawa Tatsuki did not know anything about fashion. And she did not want to. She glanced at the beaming girl in what seemed to be just a little black dress.

Albeit, a shimmering, satiny-liked material.

Wait a minute...

There's something at the bottom of the dress.

Is that the moon?

A pair of lovers?

Standing on a bridge?

A bridge of...

Birds?!

She took a closer look.

Orihime's grin widened.

"Orihime," Tatsuki pointed at the picture on the dress. Hand-sewed. An embroidery of the highest standard from someone that used to belong to the handicrafts club.

"Did you sew this?"

The weaver princess nodded, bashful of her work.

"I had a little help."

Her namesake.

There was certainly no embarrassing the goddess.

"Isn't it beautiful, Sado-kun?" Tatsuki asked their male friend.

Sado stared back at them, blankly.

How would he, a big strong man know of something like that.

Besides...

It was not...

Cute,

If only she has added a puppy or a bunny.

Or was it a rabbit?

Didn't the Chinese has a legend about a rabbit living on the moon?

A Jade Rabbit.

Maybe...

Sado bent and like Tatsuki, took a closer look at the embroidery.

The moon, to be precise.

Nope.

No rabbit.

So, he could not comment on the fine stitches.

Orihime looked bewildered.

Tatsuki just shrugged her shoulders. She has weird friends.

Speaking of weird.

"Orihime, are those who I think they are?"

Orihime's nodding became more brisk.

"Tatsuki-chan is so clever. They are Kuro... "

Oops!

A Freudian slip of the tongue.

"Hee hee." Orihime giggled to hide her embarrassment and rubbed hastily the top of her head.

Tatsuki raised her eyebrows.

"Kuro?" She teased the blushing princess.

Orihime shook her head and waved her hands, furiously.

"You know who they are, Tatsuki-chan. They are Hikoboshi-san and Orihime-sama." She changed the motion of her head and started nodding.

Tatsuki peered even closer at the two tiny figures.

"I don't remember anything about the cow herder's hair being orange and the weaver princess seemed to have... wait, are those blue hair clips on her... " Tatsuki, deliberately stopped and slowly, compared the rapidly blushing princess to the one on the dress.

"What color is her hair, anyway?" She asked, innocently.

Orihime's cheeks flooded with a vibrant shade of crimson red.

She covered her warm face with her hands.

She was heard muttering about thread, pearls being in fashion, difficulties in finding beads and words that held no meaning to Tatsuki.

Tatsuki decided to let her awkward feeling friend take a breather. She patted Orihime on the head. She decided to change the subject.

"I thought you said you weren't coming back for Tanabata. Did you make the dress to wear it over there? After all, it's okay where you celebrate, as long as you do." She said, philosophically.

Orihime uncovered her face and almost shrieked in astonishment.

"That was what he said." She grinned and mimicked a male's voice, "The stars shinning at you are the same as the ones above you at Karaburu." The grin broadened.

"So, how did you persuade him to let you come... " Home was at the tip of her tongue but was it really for the grinning girl in front of her. Tatsuki thought for a while before she added, "here."

"You are not going to believe this. But I sulked." Orihime admitted with glee.

Tatsuki looked at her in disbelief. "You're right. I don't believe you capable of it."

The beaming girl-woman nodded and said with childlike triumph, "But I did. I was broody and I sighed rather loudly as we were doing the dress."

"We?"

Again a nod.

A very contented nod.

So...

Not wishful divine help from above.

But...

Shared interest.

Tatsuki felt happy for one friend but was worried for another. She shook her head to rid herself of perhaps self-imagined worriment. She concentrated on the still-talking friend.

"I even managed to scowl like Kurosaki-kun... " Orihime stopped and looked around. This was the reason she was here, the twinkling stars might be the same everywhere. But not the one person she most wanted to be with on this festival.

She wondered where he was.

She has assumed he would be with their friends.

How disappointing.

"Tatsuki-chan, where is Kurosaki-kun?"

At last.

"You mean Ichigo. He's... " Tatsuki started to share the good news when Orihime held up a hand to stop her.

With her other free hand, she used one finger to plod her chin and angled herself forward, "I should have done this the minute I came here." She informed her friends, closed her eyes and began to seek out Ichigo's reiastu.

She opened her eyes, bewilderment flashing in them. "He is not here. Kurosaki-kun is not here. Where is he? Is he working on another part-time job? Can he cope with his studies and a demanding job? Is he eating well? Is he looking after himself?"

A overwhelming fast string of questions was fired at an amused Tatsuki.

"Orihime, calm down. Ichigo is... "

"Friend of yours, Arisawa?" A rather attractive newcomer asked Tatsuki with his admiring eyes fixed solely on Orihime.

A startled Orihime managed to give him a little smile which seemed to encourage the hopeful classmate.

"Hi, I am... "

Tatsuki shoved him away. "We know who you, Yoshi-chan. Go away."

"But, but... "

"She's already taken. Now please go away."

Kedamori Nobuyoshi glared at Tatsuki and noticed the presence of Sado hovering next to the long-haired beauty. He shrugged his broad shoulders, coolly saluted the 'bodyguards' and walked off, casually.

"Tatsuki-chan, that was so rude. He might know where Kurosaki-kun is."

"I know where Ichigo is. But you need to stay calm and not get all highly emotional-like."

Orihime pouted.

"I do not behave like that. But why are you telling me to stay calm." She eyed her friend with suspicion. "Unless," Her eyes started to glisten, with her full lips trembling and her imaginative mind starting to go on a gloomy guess. "I know where Kurosaki-kun is." She sadly said.

"You do?"

Well.

A cosmic connection of sorts.

The gentle healer nodded and bit on her lower quivering lip.

"K-Kurosaki-kun is seeing his g-girl, girlfriend home."

"What?"

"Um, why wouldn't someone like Kurosaki-kun be attached? I bet she is very beautiful." Orihime turned to her friend, "Is she pretty? Is she nice? Does Tatsuki-chan like her?"

Tatsuki looked at the depressed daydreamer. She sighed.

"Not at this moment." She admitted.

"But... why? Is it because of me? It is not her fault that I did not get to meet Kurosaki-kun." Orihime sighed as well.

"Tatsuki-chan, you do not need to be so petty. We are all Kurosaki-kun's f-friends. We should be happy for him. Is he happy? Is he... "

And Orihime was on her way to another round of questions when Sado interrupted her.

"Inoue."

Orihime stopped abruptly. Her big brown eyes became brighter.

"K-Kurosaki-kun called me that all the time. I bet he does not call the one he likes by her family name." She tried not to dwell too much into what has been a persistent subject of painful speculation to her.

She nervously gazed upon Sado with trepidation.

"Does Sado-kun approve of the one that Kurosaki-kun likes?"

Sado looked at the unknowingly one and slowly, very slowly, a large thumb faced the heavens.

Kami-sama. It hurt.

Orihime felt betrayed.

She knew she should be happy for Kurosaki-kun that his best friend approved of her. Kurosaki-kun has never shown any indication she was anything more than a friend to him. So, she should not feel like a bitter, spurned ex-girlfriend.

She was and never will be one.

She forced a smile to appear on her pale face, even though her heart was weeping.

"You see, Tatsuki-chan, Sado-kun likes her. You should give her a chance to be friends with you. Good friends." She added, graciously.

"I should be going. I came here straight from the airport. I was so anxious to see Kuro..." Orihime faltered. "To see all of you again. But now I should be going back to the hotel to help out with the unpacking." She bowed and was ready to leave when Tatsuki grabbed her by the wrist.

"Since you've just came from the airport, you must have missed him."

"Miss who? Oh, you mean Kurosaki-kun and h-his g-girlfriend. No. I did not see them here."

'And I am glad to have miss the sight of Kurosaki-kun with another.' An angsty afterthought for the gentle healer.

"No. I don't mean here. I meant at the... " Tatsuki's explanation was cut off by a welcoming shout.

"Orihime-chan ~ "

Asano Keigo seemed to bounce towards Orihime, followed by a more sedate Kojima Mizuiro.

Orihime was heartened by the greeting from the grinning friend till he opened his mouth.

The genuine smile disappeared in a instance.

"What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here!" Keigo almost shouted at her.

But it was loud enough to hurt the princess' fragile feelings.

Orihime has never felt to be so unwanted.

Not since the day she was born.

Her throat felt full of her unshed tears.

She could not speak.

And so, she bowed again.

Tugging to be free of her friend's strong grasp on her wrist so she can flee.

Flee to where she knew she was wanted.

And loved.

Tatsuki held on tight to her.

What a mess.

"Listen, Orihime. The reason Ichigo is not here and why you shouldn't be here is he's on his way to where you are or were." Tatsuki hastened with her explanation to avoid any more misunderstanding.

"Y-You m-mean..." Orihime's big brown eyes grew bigger as realization set in.

Tatsuki grinned and nodded.

"B-But he cannot be there. I am here now. Why is Kurosaki-kun taking the trouble to go there? Is h-he going to tell me something important?" The excited princess asked, with newfound hope lingering in her fast beating heart.

'Yeah, he's going to confess his love to you.' Tatsuki thought of saying but decided against it. Let the princess hear it from her protector.

"He felt bad about not seeing you every time you are here. And you know how impulsive Ichigo is. Once he has made up his mind, he was on the plane." Tatsuki's explanation was only half the truth.

"When did he leave?"

Tatsuki looked around at their friends. "Round half an hour ago, I think." There was a general agreement of the time from the nodding of the heads.

"What?! And you are only telling me now? I could be... " Orihime thought about where she could be in the last thirty minutes.

With Kurosaki-kun?

She leveled an accusing look at her friend.

Tatsuki was taken aback by the rarely seen expression on the gentle healer's face.

"Why did you not tell me as soon as I have arrived here? Instead I was wasting time..." Orihime's thoughtless words trailed off when she saw the hurt in her friend's eyes.

"Tatsuki-chan, I... "

"So, spending time with your friends is wasting time? Friends you haven't seen for almost a year. I knew you would want to leave as soon as you heard about Ichigo. That's why I didn't tell you straight away. I wanted to bond with you, even for awhile. Was I being too selfish?" The previously second strongest girl in Japan showed a side of her not frequently witnessed by many people.

Orihime took her best friend's hands and covered them with her smaller ones.

A warm smile.

"I am sorry, Tatsuki-chan. I got carried away. I just wanted to see Kurosaki-kun so much. Forgive me?"

A watery, warm smile.

How could Tatsuki-chan say no.

"Yea."

Orihime squeezed the hands beneath hers closer.

"Have we bonded enough, Tatsuki-chan?" She asked sweetly, not so innocently.

"Yea, yea. Do what you must." Tatsuki tried to sound grouchy.

"Thank you, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime squealed, happily.

Her friends watched, amused as the skipping princess moved a distance from them. They continued observing her taking a cellphone from the bag slung across her body.

"Nice smartphone." Mizurio commented, knowingly.

"Expensive." Keigo guessed, correctly.

"Cute bag." Sado added, unsurprisingly, admiring the small bag dangling at the left side of their friend's curvy body.

"Shiny." Tatsuki noted of the bag in the shape of a bright red strawberry. She narrowed her eyes. "Are those crystals? Swar... " Her words died at the shocked expressions on her male friends' faces.

What the hell?!

Arisawa Tatsuki did not do fashion and certainly no girly stuffs.

What was she thinking?

Acting clueless about what had caused the strange looks being directed at her. She thought about what she should say next.

She was saved by the approaching, normally perky princess with a serious, concerned expression.

It could only mean one thing.

"Orihime, I'm so sorry. Are there no more flights going there?"

The princess shook her head.

"There are seats available," She started to say,

"That's good, eh?"

"Only in first class." The princess informed them with nary a emotion showing.

"Oh... " Tatsuki felt guilty. The princess will not be with her prince this Tanabata and it was all her fault.

"Orihime," Tatsuki consoling words were cut off by a breath-stealing hug.

"I will be flying... " The thrilled princess hugged her smothering friend tighter and shouted,

"First Class!"

She held her friend and jumped for awhile.

Tatsuki managed to pat her back as a sign of 'congratulations'?

Or

Save me?

"Oh Tatsuki, I am missing you already." Orihime smiled at the rest of her friends over Tatsuki's shoulder.

"All of you."

"Enough for a hug for me as well?" Keigo decided to try his luck.

Orihime giggled.

"What will Kurosaki-kun... " She released Tatsuki in a hurry. "What am I still doing here? I need to go back to the hotel and collect my passport."

Orihime started to run off, waving.

"Do not worry, everybody. I will bring Kurosaki-kun home." Her wave turned to a fist pumped high into the skies.

"Which home?" Tatsuki, after gulping a few mouthful of needed oxygen, shouted back at her.

The secretive princess beamed, waved and ran off.

"Now I really, really want to see the expressions on both of their faces when they have their little reunion."

(井上)

"Go back to China! You stinking, stingy chee... " The shout of insults faded away with the speeding taxi.

Kurosaki Ichigo scowled.

And glared.

'Psycho cabbie.' He thought angrily.

He worried if the insane cab driver has even dropped him off at the correct address.

He hoped it was the right place.

He was a stranger in a strange land.

He took a deep breath of encouragement.

He steadied himself.

And his jaw dropped.

This was where Inoue has been living!

The house.

If you can call it that.

It was big.

Very big!

It has more windows than the fingers on both of his hands.

Should he count with his toes as well?

And the garden.

He has never seen so much green, except on a football pitch.

Everything about where the gentle healer has been living screamed luxury.

With a capital 'L' to boot.

How was he going to complete with it?

With...

Love?

Is that even enough?

Could one really survive with just love?

Ichigo let out a rather big breath of exasperation.

It was too late to second guess anything.

At least he looked presentable.

Thanks to his helpful sisters and his annoying father.

No t-shirt, jeans, sneakers or even a backpack.

A fairly wrinkle-free collared solid-colored shirt with an equally impressive pair of dark slim-fit pants as advised, oxford lace-up with socks to match both his pants and shoes. And to complete his ensemble, a briefcase-liked messenger bag.

He must looked like a 'Salaryman'.

And his feet were killing him due to his leather shoes.

But it will all be worth it when his eyes could once again gaze upon whom he has truly missed.

Will she be truly happy to see him as well?

It has been awhile.

He looked for a way for her to know that he was here.

In the flesh.

In front of her massive house.

With an ATM at the side of the huge gate!

What the...

He went towards the machine.

Tentatively, he tapped on the screen.

He blew out a breath of relief when he saw Japanese among the numerous languages on screen.

Patiently, he followed the instructions that followed after every tap.

He was told to wait.

By a machine.

He waited.

And waited.

Did she not want to see him?

Maybe he should go 'shinigami'.

But what about his body?

And how about the people in the house?

Perhaps 'he' was preventing her from coming out.

So intent was he at the line of thoughts going through his mind that he did not hear the imposing gates opening, but at the corner of his eye he spotted a car coming out.

Was she in it?

Walking towards the vehicle, Kurosaki Ichigo might not know much about cars, but even he recognized the Prancing Horse badge on the sports car.

Or was it a 'super car'?

The window came sliding down, slowly.

Ichigo was struck by the strangely familiar pair of inquisitive eyes staring back at him.

He leaned forward.

But before the driver nor he could say anything, he thought he heard something.

The pair of weirdly familiar eyes widened.

Ichigo straightened.

Turned.

And a soft body heaved itself at him.

His back slammed against the car.

"K-Kurosaki-kun, K-Kurosaki-k-kun... "

His princess clung desperately at him.

Sobbing.

Her warm, trembling body pressed against his and he thought,

At last, his beautiful, sparkling star has finally fallen from the sky and straight into his arms.

This was where she belonged.

And he was never letting her go again.

But first, he needed to hold her back.

The stupid things were just hanging at the sides of his body.

His cowardly arms began to move painfully, slowly up and just as he was going to hug her...

His princess was ripped from him!

(さいかい)