Dessa's Note: Yay! Finally wrote it. I originally wanted it to be 5 chapters long, but It looks like it will be 8 or 10 chapters long at this rate… please excuse me if there are any faults, I was in a rush to publish.

Dedication: this is dedicated to all the woman and girls out there who have been sexually harassed whether it be cat calling, whistling, molesting or rape. These are all important and should be spoken about freely without fear of being blamed.

Chapter 3 - Differences

'Kurosaki kun, don't you ever have lectures to go to?' asked Orihime, peering at her neighbour reading yet another book, she had seen so many different ones in his hands that she had lost count.

'Yeah, but only three every week, it's almost like being unemployed.'

'Wow, you must have a lot of free time, I have twenty five lectures a week!'

'You'd think we would have free time, but they give us so much damn reading that it feels like there's no free time.'

'I don't know about that Ichigo… you do seem to have a lot of free time whenever I see you. And it's not like I don't have extra reading myself you know.'

'You don't have three books to read and an essay to write every week.' Hit back Ichigo, amused rather than annoyed at their banter.

'And you don't have labs and tutorials and text books to plough through!'

'I think I understand how a wheel turns.. I don't need a lecture on it.'

Orihime's eyes at this point blazed, and Ichigo internally grinned. 'Fine then, you think Mechanical Engineering is easy? Come to one of my lectures.'

Ichigo contemplated the offer. 'Okay, but only if you come to one of mine.'

'Deal.' Said Orihime happily, sticking her hand out to shake on it; already anticipating the lecture swap. Ichigo took her hand and shook it firmly; suddenly letting go when he noticed Orihime's slight wince, he apologised profusely. Orihime waved him off his unnecessary apologies while simultaneously waving the pain away, he sure did have a strong grip. As they fell back into comfortable silence, one finishing off her tutorial sheet, the other watching Inception on a laptop. Orihime pondered at how much more comfortable they were as opposed to their tense awkwardness when tenderly starting off their friendship two months ago.

Orihime giggled to herself quietly when thinking of how Ichigo stuttered his answers to any of her questions. Thankfully Ichigo was now so engrossed in his film and massive headphones that he didn't notice her giggle. She supposed she shouldn't giggle, she had been no better after all. Now she would cringe at the thought of how deeply she would blush those first few weeks they had spoken… he hadn't even said anything flirtatious! He would simply ask about little things, the food she liked to eat, the places she liked to go, the things she wanted to do in life. It had been a very different type of conversation to those with the men of alternative motives who had approached her. A few weeks ago, he had asked her, with a quiet voice, as though nervous, what her favourite type of flowers were.

Orihime had paused, casting her eyes down to hide her expression, 'Daffodils.' She replied in equal quietness.

A moment of silence.

'Still daffodils?'

'Yes.'

Ichigo had given her a very rare small smile, just a tiny hitch of one corner of his mouth. 'You haven't changed much.'

It had been the only reference to the past either of them had uttered. They had shared a gaze that permeated understanding between them at that moment, one that transferred peace and acknowledgement. Despite the topic not being elaborated upon, or touched upon again since, Orihime took comfort from knowing that Ichigo had known her.

'By the way, are you coming to the club tonight?' Orihime's thought were intercepted by a nonchalant looking Ichigo with his headphones draped around his strong neck. Orihime shook her head in answer, 'Why not?'

'I don't like the noise. Plus, the last time I went I was kind of pushed to go by the girls in Halls and I really didn't have a good time.' She had actually been groped by drunk men. Not that she was about to say that to Ichigo. A hint of deception must have entered her tone because Ichigo had narrowed his eyes slightly.

'Why didn't you have a good time?'

Orihime averted her eyes, working furiously on her tutorial and frequently glancing at her text book but reading nothing. 'Oh you know, lots of noise, a headache and general disorder. Not really my cup of tea... he he…' her shaking laughter was what gave her away.

'What happened Inoue?' demanded Ichigo shrewdly.

Orihime took a big sigh, put her pen down and began. 'Well, it was.. you know, loud and stuff… But I did um.. get… um..'

Ichigo leaned closer to her, encouraging her, portraying patience even though it was quickly depleting. 'You can tell me. I won't tell anyone else.'

Orihime looked down and fiddled with her fingers 'I sort of... got touched.'

Ichigo snapped. 'What!'

'Shh Kurosaki-kun, someone could hear us!' whispered Orihime, trying to sink in her seat.

'Oh, sorry. But what happened?'

'Well, I was at the club with the girls from my Halls… I swear I wasn't wearing anything bad! I wasn't even wearing anything fancy because the girls called me just before I reached my room.'

'Inoue, I'm not blaming you. It's not your fault.'

'I-I know… I guess.'

'So, what happened?' Ichigo wasn't so sure himself if he wanted to know, but something violent and dark was propelling him to find out.

'I was standing with the girls, because I'm not much of a dancer... and I wasn't drinking anything, then I felt something just sort of… glide past me, it was really… fleeting? I wasn't even sure that it had happened, but then a few moments later I felt something more… firm. I turned to see who was behind me and it was some man, he said something to me, but I couldn't hear him because of all the noise.' Orihime took a deep breath, her voice was shaking by this point, and her eyes were very very bright, but Ichigo couldn't turn away from her face. 'Then I walked away and left the club without telling anyone. But I texted the girls when I was on the bus where I was going…'

Ichigo had to restrain himself from taking her into his arms, but he was too scared to touch her, especially considering they had never had that type of contact, except once when they were kids. He then tore his gaze away and let his arms slip under the table so she wouldn't have to see his clenching fists.

'Sorry Inoue, some guys are bastards like that.'

'It wasn't your fault Kurosaki-kun.'

'Did you recognise him?'

'No, he looked too old to be a student.'

Ichigo wanted to swear, loudly. He really needed to change the subject, or he was going to break something. 'No clubs then. What have you got planned for tonight?'

'Nothing really, but weren't you going to the club with Hikaru-san?' God he hated that that idiot insisted she use his first name.

'Not anymore, I'll let him know. How about we get some Pizza?'

'Yeah sure! I think Hana-chan is free!'

'Doesn't she have tennis practice?' asked Ichigo hopefully, Orihime really never understood his subtle hints to do things alone.

'Nope, not today. Otherwise I would be at practice too.' Replied Orihime without tearing her eyes away from her mobile screen as she texted her friend.

'I thought you dropped tennis because you didn't have enough time for it or something?'

'Well, yes, but I go in sometimes to help out and stay in touch. It's nice to be around girls sometimes.' Replied Orihime smilingly, Ichigo thought being in a male dominated environment must be taking its toll on her somehow. Perhaps he should lay off a little and give her some space.

'If you want a girly time out I can stay at home if you want.'

'No that's alright, it'll be nice the three of us.' And she finished with a smile.

Ichigo noticed that Orihime rarely drank, (she said it was like tasting alien apple juice), she drank so rarely that she decided not to drink at all ("You need to love your liver Kurosaki-kun!"). It was only three weeks after Ichigo starting hanging out with Orihime that he realised he hadn't touched a drop of the stuff either, as he hadn't attended any pointless pub crawls or drinking excursions since. Ichigo found he felt better for it and his wallet was benefitting too.

He found that Orihime did enjoy socialising in her own way, she loved trying out the different restaurants their city offered and the many museums she could prowl around in for free. Most of the time Ichigo would join her, but she always managed to bring a friend along with her too, sometimes it was Suzuki or one of her course mates (the more decent ones) or one of her girl friends from tennis. Ichigo was very grateful Orihime had at least a few decent friends, despite them still being of the male race, they were generally respectful and gracious towards her. A few of them safely had girlfriends. Of course, Ichigo wasn't entirely lucky, his so called friend Hikaru was still on his back; even more so since he had placed himself as Orihime's library seat neighbour.

'So?' asked Hikaru, his eyebrows jumping up and down on his brow.

'So what?'

'When do I get to hear the great story of how you got laid?'

Ichigo's orange juice managed to spray itself on a passing professor. The professor's grey bushy eyebrow ticked in irate annoyance. After apologising profusely and nailing a giggling Hikaru to the wall, Ichigo allowed himself to explode, 'What the hell do you mean you idiot? We're friends!'

'Doesn't mean you ain't getting some.' Was Hikaru's rather unwise answer, he did manage to detect his companion's boiling anger a few seconds before it was too late; ducking his head before it met the fuming orange head's fist, but it was quickly caught back in a head lock.

'You-' Ichigo chose this moment to use his most colourful language. 'We're only friends! Not all girls are a possible lay, get that through your HEAD! I'm not bloody well like you, some womaniser who takes virgins for a sport.'

'Dude! Chill! Chill! You're… choking me.' Ichigo suddenly let go and Hikaru crumpled to the floor.

'Just because I've been with a few girls, actually.. quite a few if I say so myself, doesn't mean I've treated them badly you know.'

'Then why do you keep changing your girlfriends so often?'

'Well.. I have a lot of love to give.' Ichigo growled, but continued walking down the corridor, 'I tell them in the beginning you know.. that I don't want anything serious. So most of them don't cry when its break up time.'

'But some still do.' This seemed to annoy Hikaru in some inexplicable way.

'Dude, all I'm saying is that she is a GIRL, one with all the relevant parts to her... and if you don't seem to understand that, doesn't mean others haven't. If you want to keep hold of her you'll have to act and fast.'

'Don't you dare go near her!'

'Relax, not that I wouldn't want to, but I have set my sights on others… and I won't break the unbreakable code of guys.'

Shockingly, Ichigo discovered that his friend, was in fact, right. This realisation was too much to take in and it happened when Ichigo was already tense from an upcoming essay deadline. He had arrived at his usual time one Thursday afternoon at the library, when walking up to Orihime's usual seat he noticed Suzuki noticing him. He then said something to Orihime, who was sporting a raging blush, she then nodded and allowed him to leave in silence. She greeted Ichigo in equal silence, not in an ignoring fashion, but simply because it was obvious her mind was very much far away.

'Oi! Inoue.' He called, trying to gage her attention, she shook her head like a wet puppy and turned to face him, her cheeks still a flaming red.

'Err.. y-yes Kurosaki kun?'

'What did Suzuki want?'

Her eyes rounded, she then immediately dropped her gaze and made for her pen which spiralled off the table and landed in a bin. 'Oh.. nothing… nothing at all, just something about the lecture this Monday.'

Ichigo watched her and noticed her jerky movements, her blazing cheeks and her dazed eyes that looked as though she were watching a scene in some other realm of time.

'What did he say to you Inoue?' Ichigo tried to get the hint of danger out of his tone.

The effect was instantaneous, Orihime shook her head again and stammered nonsensically, until she finally gave up, packed her books, made a hasty garbled mixed excuse and apology and practically ran out of the library.

Ichigo didn't want to think about it, but the image of her face, so beautifully flushed and dazed while thinking of something that he knew nothing about was incredibly frustrating. He also knew what had caused that dazed face but he didn't want to dwell on it. He had no choice though, when Suzuki entered their dorm room at a dark hour, preparing for sleep.

'What did you say to Inoue?' it blurted out of Ichigo's mouth before he could help it.

'I don't think you need to know.'

'You asked her out didn't you?'

'Do you have a problem with that?'

Ichigo grit his teeth. 'No.'

'Yeah right, you're as green as Ivy.'

'I don't care who you date. As long as you don't act like heartbreaker Hikaru.'

'Guess I won't get a chance, she said no…' the sadness in his voice was so thick it could have been liquefied and made to feed wilting flowers.

'She said no?' Ichigo was all amazement, and his voice showed it.

'Yeah, no need to sound so happy about it.'

'Sorry mate.. can't help myself.'

'Yeah well, don't sound so smug. I'm not the only one who's asked her, and I won't be the last.'

'What?' The panic was definitely back and charging.

'Yeah, she's said no so many times I don't think she even wants a boyfriend.'

'Not want a boyfriend?' repeated Ichigo helplessly.

'Yup, sad thought for humanity. But it's a wise move, not many guys here have idiot levels below the average, she's better alone for now.'

Ichigo pondered as he lay on his bed, arms crossed behind his head… the evidence was clear; the University was definitely full of idiots, and Orihime was intelligent enough to avoid them. But that in no way meant he didn't have competition, especially if she could still sport that dazed look. He hoped one day he would be the one to put it on her face. But if she had rejected Suzuki, why did she even look dazed in the first place?

Orihime lay curled in the foetal position, hugging her extra pillow to her chest. She had been unable to stop thinking over her decision from earlier that afternoon. As much as her mind insisted on how silly it was to keep thinking about Suzuki, her vanity could not help it. It was very seldom that she felt she had a true admirer; that the realisation of it came as something of a shock. With the indulgence of her poorly nurtured vanity came guilt. She had thought she had esteemed her orange haired friend and his past memory too highly to be thinking of another so easily.

It happened so suddenly! The two of them were simply doing their work, when Suzuki suddenly turned to her and said in precise succinct language of how he liked her, admired her and found much to respect in her character. Naturally, she became a mute; an opportunity he took to further his speech and ask if she would consider dating him. After floundering about with bad grammar and mixed up words, she had found her lost cognitive abilities and replied softly that she wanted to focus on her studies for the meantime and would prefer if they did not risk their very good friendship.

Thinking about it now, Orihime wondered if she had been too cruel, rejecting him without thought. But it was a definite rejection, she didn't know what it was but she knew, deep down, that they would probably be better off with other partners, he seemed too serious for her and she was almost afraid of showing her silly side to him, for fear of disapproval. No, she was certain in her decision. But that did not stop her from feeling quite pleased with being admired by at least one good man in the world.

A month later she felt that Karma had turned up on her doorstep. The fated day of the lecture swap had come and Orihime was at first very happy to be bringing around her friend and introducing him to her other friends. She giggled a little when she introduced Ichigo to her friend Atsushi.

'Hi Atsushi!' greeted Orihime, she had to crane her head because of his much taller than average height. 'It's nice to know you can leave the gym every now and again. I haven't seen you come to lectures in ages.' She teased.

'Yeah well, had to make an appearance or people will forget me. Whose you're friend?' he said, casting his green eyes to an obviously shaken Ichigo.

'Ah yes, Atsushi, this is my friend Kurosaki-kun, he studies English literature. We're doing a lecture swap today to see whose studies are the hardest.'

'Hey Kurosaki' he held out a thick arm to shake Ichigo's shaking hand.

'Nice to meet you,' but Ichigo thought it wasn't, 'So you live at the gym huh?'

'Yup, me and my brother have this bet on who will put on the most weight by the end of term. I haven't lost any bet to him so I couldn't let him win this one either.'

'Uh-huh.. so is it hard to do? I've been thinking of starting weight lifting at the gym myself.' Orihime gave him a confused look, she never heard him speak of wanting to body build… she didn't even remember him mentioning the gym once.

Atsushi on the other hand became very excited and began talking on the variety of exercises and weights for optimum muscle mass gain. Orihime was surprised to see Ichigo genuinely interested in the conversation which she was rapidly getting bored of. Perhaps he had been lacking in macho conversations lately… the talk turned to the variety of available protein shakes and she desperately interrupted them by mentioning on how the lecture was about to start.

It had been a strange lecture. There had been a lot of laughter and grinning by the students, she didn't understand why, the lecture wasn't even that interesting, after all, it was only about Nuts, bolts and screws. Everyone was really cracking up when the lecturer referred to the sleeve of a joining as female simply because it had a hole and the screw was to be entered into the sleeve by a screw driver… She was even more confused when everyone giggled like mad when the lecturer mentioned how screws shouldn't be screwed too tightly into the sleeve or it would break the sleeve. Honestly it was beyond her. She turned to Ichigo to see if he could make much sense of it all, only to find him suppressing laughter too. He seemed to notice her confusion as he asked her with slightly shaking shoulders if she was alright.

'I just don't understand why everyone is laughing so much.'

'Don't you get it?' asked Ichigo incredulously.

'Get what?' she replied innocently, genuinely wanting the answer. But she didn't get one, Ichigo instead seemed to wish for the lecture to finish, judging by the countless times he glanced at the clock.

But that was in no way her punishment for spending an entire afternoon thinking of another man, despite the two of them being seated toward the back end of the lecture, Yuki had managed to notice Ichigo. It must have been the orange of his hair, she shouldn't have been surprised. But what she was surprised about was how quickly Yuki had approached him in the corridor after the lecture.

'Hi, my name is Yuki' she stuck out her hand which Ichigo dazedly shook. 'At your service' she said quietly, it was almost a whisper, and it might have well have been in his ear because she was standing far too close to him, but Orihime felt helpless and stood by waiting for the introduction to finish, and if she was lucky it would end soon.

'Ichigo Kurosaki, nice to meet you.'

'Hmm, Ichigo, that's a nice name' her voice was like cat's purr. Their hands had stopped shaking but neither had dropped the contact. Orihime could clearly see Ichigo's eyes glide up from Yuki's sleeveless arm to the thin strap at her shoulder and down to the display of creamy skin; framed by her low cut V-neck camisole. Yuki, noticing where his eyes had wondered dropped her hand from Ichigo's slack grip and held her hands together behind her back, making her chest thrust out forward.

'So what do you study Ichigo?'

'Huh?' Ichigo jolted his eyes back up to Yuki's face, he seemed to realise she was waiting for an answer, 'Oh.. English lit.' He brought his hand up to the back of his neck in his awkwardness, hoping he wasn't a blushing mess. Her hands were still behind her back, so he lowered his gaze thinking it would be safer, only to be faced by naked long legs and a mini skirt wrapped around her flared hips.

'Wow, that sounds cool!'

Orihime had had enough, 'Yes it is, in fact we're late for one of the lectures. So bye.' And without further ado Orihime grabbed Ichigo's arm and dragged him away from the sight of skin he had feasted upon. Almost as soon as Orihime forcefully redirected them she let go of his arm, feeling unjustifiably hurt, angry and ashamed all at the same time. She had no place to feel hurt; if he wanted to look at Yuki then that's fine, if Yuki wanted to bare all for the world to see then that's fine too. But Orihime did mind and she didn't know why… hence she felt ashamed for feeling so. If she was honest with herself; she would've liked it if she too had the power to arrest all of a man's attention with simply her presence and make him weak in knees. She shook her head… that was simply not like her, she had had enough cat calls and jeering from random men to know not to encourage them. She looked down at herself; Polo necked long sleeved top and floor length skirt with cute bow topped flats peeking out beneath the hem. This was her and it wasn't going to change, least of all for V-necks and mini-skirts. She had made promises to herself and was not going to break them.

Orihime realised she must have spaced out and follow Ichigo's directions because they were at the lecture hall of the first year English Literature students. Ichigo seemed to be speaking to Orihime very cautiously, as though anything he said might detonate a ticking bomb within her. Coming back to full consciousness, Orihime turned her head around the lecture theatre. It was smaller than hers, and the chairs were positioned to face each other; making it more cosy. That was indeed not the thing she noticed first; the most striking feature of the hall was that it was filled were girls, many more than there were boys. Orihime gulped… they were remarkably pretty girls too, with glamorous dress senses; wrapping themselves in pretty knee length dresses which hugged at the waist and flared at the hips, others wore simple jeans and t-shirts but managed to pull off looking majestic with fancy accessories like designer bags and sparkling bracelets. Orihime was too busy getting lost in her self-consciousness that she failed to notice Ichigo taking out three books and the lecture starting.

It was very different to her own. Instead of being talked and lectured to, as is expected in a lecture, the students were encouraged to discuss various points of view regarding the literature they had been told to read. She noticed the girls were unafraid of stating their opinion about some subject or other to a class of a hundred people. She would never have that kind of courage. Ichigo didn't speak much but made clear points when forced to by the lecturer. At the moment when his voice echoed across the hall, she felt proud of him. What was most surprising was how much these students knew, they talked of society, prosperity, sexual independence, bread winners, countries, history, authoritarianism and one person even managed to reference a welsh folk tale from the Mabinogion. All she knew about was bits of metal and how to stick them together.

Her sadness must have permeated around her because Ichigo asked her several times if she was okay. She simply nodded and smiled a tender small smile. Truthfully, she was far from it.

Dessa's Note: My sister has a friend who actually does the body building thing, she showed me a picture and his arm was the size of his head! In case you're wondering, some engineering lectures are actually that full of innuendoes. My own dad was the one that taught me that the sleeve was the female part and the screw was the male part… he even used the word 'hole' to explain himself. You don't even want to know what my face was like.