A/N: If you do not like the plot or character plot, then don't read the fic.
SUMMARY: Orihime Inoue: An 18 year old high-school student has a crush. On her English teacher. Mr Ichigo Kurosaki has been dubbed the sexiest teacher to ever work at Karakura Senior School. He is also battling some highly immoral feelings for a certain pumpkin-haired student. During her walk to school, Orihime was attacked by Nnoitra Gilga, a former comrade of Ichigo's in his teen years. As we learn Ichigo's dark past, we also learn that he will protect Orihime, but she is keeping things from him and Ichigo is resorting to his deductive skills. Can he help her with her own demons and somehow gain her trust? Can Orihime look past his biological make-up and see Ichigo for who he is?
WORD COUNT: 3, 097
RATING: M for very dark themes and sexual content.
DISCLAIMER: All is owned by Kubo-sensei.
CHAPTER 6:
Revealing the Past Encounter.
*THIRD PERSON P.O.V.*
Orihime stumbles into her apartment, her tears blurring her vision as she set aside her bag. Yuzu has deemed her well enough to stay alone from now on, by would still frequently check on her, but she has also made the observation that school was clearly out of the question due to Orihime's increasing aversion to men. The heartbroken girl walks to her bedroom and she changes easily into her summer pajamas before sliding into her double bed, thankfully, she didn't have to sleep on a futon anymore. Even though it was convenient and she slept rather well, the back pains that accompanied after were not for pleasant.
Orihime sighs as she remembers what she forgot to do and reluctantly gets up from her comfortable position, walking to her bathroom and she washes her face, brushes her teeth and brushes her hair before putting it up in a messy bun, and she sighs once again, staring at herself in the mirror. She doesn't see a girl or even a young woman anymore, not cheerful or bubbly, confessing her crush on her English teacher, but a broken child, desperately trying to play adult in a losing battle within herself. She was trying to kid herself into thinking that she could easily get over being assaulted by just reassuring herself that Mr Kurosaki was there, but Orihime woke up, she wasn't in some fairytale, but in real life. Mr Kurosaki isn't her prince, but a man living in the past, in love with a woman who knew him better than she ever would.
Orihime could see the look of pure adoration as he spoke of his friend, and then even compared herself to that same woman, it was as if he never moved forward, and everything that they had built up between them was just a front, just so that he can live in the shadows, shield himself from the outside world. But just thinking these thoughts about Mr Kurosaki, it made her heart hurt. She cares about him, even though she was so mad she could spit fire and so jealous she thought she would turn green any minute now.
The young teenage girl sighs and turns her back on her reflection, looking upon herself once more, before closing the light and shutting the door behind her, striding down the hall and back to her room, curling up in her bed once again. She turns to her side and sees the photograph she kept framed to preserve the memory. Tomorrow was the day and she always looked at that exact photo every single time. It was of her and her brother, a week before he died, they had gone to one of the new ice-cream parlors that had opened up during that time, and Sora wanted to reward her for her good work on her test, having received a 97 percent score so he took her out and having a camera to document the wonderful time, they had gotten a stranger to take a photo of them, hugging tight as siblings do, showing off their huge ice-cream cones, smiling blissfully into the camera. The person had only been too happy to.
Orihime's eyes fill with tears at the memory of her brother, before she wipes the lone tear away.
A week after that photo, Sora and Orihime were walking down to street, a man jumped Sora from behind, holding a blade to his throat. Trying to keep his sister from harm, he tried to fight the man off, but when their attacker proceeded onto Orihime, Sora jumped in the way and sustained a stab wound deep into the pit of his stomach, slashing at a quite a few vital organs. The blood was relentless and wouldn't stop no matter how much Orihime tried to staunch the flow, her hands and her school uniform were covered in blood. That was then that she mustered up the resolve and hoisted her brother on her small back, feeling the hot stickiness of his life-blood, leaving his body as she rambled on and on, hearing Sora's uneven breathing. She wasn't sure if he was listening or not, but she didn't care. After falling under the weight of her brother, scraping her knees on the unforgiving concrete more times than she could count, she arrived at a small clinic. Blindly, she burst through the door, covered in her brother's blood as well as her own. Her knees shaking with the extreme amount of complete body weight that her brother had, and from the fact that her knees had been torn open, bloody and on the brink of buckling. A man in a hoodie ran to them and lifted Sora from her back and she fell to the ground, feeling almost weightless at the liberation of her brother's dead weight on her back and shoulders, but she didn't care about her own pain, all she cared about was Sora.
'Please! Please, sir. Save my brother! I beg of you! He's all I have!'
Orihime repeated those words over and over, watching the proceedings with detachment, almost as if she was there but not there. Another man in a white coat came and took Sora from the other man, Orihime remembered that night, it was one she would never forget:
"Please! I beg you, he's the only family I have! Please save my brother!" Orihime calls from her place on the ground, her tears long since dried, but the heaving breaths never seemed to stop.
"It's okay, little one. My name is Doctor Isshin, this is my son, Ichigo. He's going to look after you while I patch up your brother. He's going to patch you up. Okay?" Not waiting for a reply from Orihime, Isshin rests Sora on a stretcher and ran to the Operating room and the young man kneels beside Orihime, his deep brown eyes raking over small body, seeing all the blood and even the severe wounds on her knees and winced.
"Do you think you could tell me your name?" He asks in a soft, calm voice as he lifts Orihime in his strong hold, her body feeling weak, almost as if she couldn't move at all.
"O-Orihime." Orihime manages to reply in the middle of her heaving breaths.
"Ah, like Tanabata. The Weaving Princess. That's a beautiful name. Now, Miss Orihime, I'm going to need you to calm down, okay? Can you take deep breaths for me?" Ichigo asks in a soft, kind voice, a voice he hadn't used in years.
Orihime shakes her head. "M-my b-b-brother!" Orihime gasps.
"Your brother is being taken care of, my Dad is trying to help him. Now I'm trying to help you. I need you to take deep breaths. I don't think your brother would like you to be this way, would he?" At Ichigo's prompt, Orihime shakes her head. "Right. Now just follow me. In." Ichigo took a deep breath in and Orihime mimicked him, "and out." As Ichigo exhaled, Orihime did so and she didn't feel that crushing sensation in her chest, that wasn't letting her breathe anymore. "Keep doing that, Orihime. You're doing great." Ichigo bursts through the doors, into the infirmary and set her down on one of the beds."Now, tell me, do you have any other sore places, apart from your knees?"
Orihime nodded. "My back hurts a lot, but that's from carrying Sora." Orihime gestures and Ichigo caught a glimpse at her hand and took hold of them gently, and looked at the ravaged flesh, skin peeling and blood slowly weeping from the grazes.
"Alright, you're in pretty rough shape. I'm just going to clean your wounds, put some cream on it, it should stop infection and cleanse the bacteria from what I can't clean with water, then I'm going to dress it."
"Dress it?" Orihime looks up at Ichigo with a confused expression on her delicate, devastated face.
"Yes, it's a different term for bandage. I'm going to bandage your hands and knees."
"Okay. Sora does that too! Whenever I fall, which is alot, he's always there to pick me up and he puts a strawberry band-aid on my sores and it's all better!" Orihime's euphoric expression turned to one of pure anguish, "if he ever survives." Tears welled in her eyes once more and using the back of her hands, she tried to wipe the tears away, unsuccessfully.
"Hey, he'll be fine. I promise. My Dad will patch him up and he'll be as good as new, giving you your strawberry band-aids and patting your head. He'll pull through. You'll see." Ichigo pats her small head, before grabbing the bowl of cool water and a few wads of cotton balls and started to clean her wounds, and she never once cried out in pain or let any kind of exclamation. "Are you okay? Are you in any pain?"
"Huh? No, no, not at all. I-it feels nice actually. Doesn't hurt at all."
"Well, that's good. You're very brave. I know for a fact, not a lot of 8-year-olds would do what you're doing."
"Um, I'm 11."
"Uhh. . seriously?" Ichigo asks, stopping what he was doing to look up at her, but Orihime couldn't see his facial features, the hood casts a shadow over his entire face, leaving him in the unknown.
"Mhmm! I turned 11 last month!"
"Congratulations." Ichigo responds as he applies some antiseptic cream on her wounds and bandaged both of her knees and her hands. "Okay, that's all I can do for you. Just sit there for a sec, I'll be back in a minute." Ichigo says, before standing straight and walking out the door to the infirmary.
"Thank you, Mr Ichigo."
Orihime rolls over on her back and wipes at her tears. Even though she got Sora to a clinic, they hadn't been able to do much, the stab wound was too critical and with all the blood he lost, added to the problem. And by the time she had gotten Sora to the clinic, it was too late and he was past saving.
She pulls the covers higher up her body and slowly fell asleep, thinking of the boy that patched her up and she kept thinking in the back of her mind, that he seemed very familiar to her.
(..)
Ichigo couldn't be more distracted if he tried.
Today is just not his day. He can't get Orihime out of his mind and all he can think about, is her hurt expression before she left his apartment. Somehow, that look in her eyes, was familiar, it called a very old memory in his mind, but he just doesn't want to believe anything. He is going to his Dad's today, to sort all of this out. He couldn't keep his mind off her, he couldn't stop dreaming about her, and he regretted every dream, because they were all inappropriate and he would never do that with his student, and that means he would never do what he is dreaming of, with Orihime Inoue.
God, that name sounds familiar.
Orihime.
Ori-hime.
Orihime.
O-REE-HE-MEH.
Why does it sound so familiar?!
And how in the hell had he not picked up on it before?!
(..)
Today is the day. It is the anniversary of her brother's passing. Every night before she mourns, she ponders over that exact same memory, and normally, she'd just visit his grave and spend the entire day there. But today would be different, she would spend the morning at her brother's grave and then visit the clinic where Sora died under the care of those who desperately tried to save his life.
It is a warm day out, so Orihime slips on one of her flowery skirts that fluttered and flowed around her lower half and a summery pink top that was silky to the touch and cinched underneath her bosom and flowed down to her waist. She slides on some sandals and prepared a small healthy snack for her time at the graveyard. She pulls up her hair in a messy bun, soft auburn tendrils caressed her cheeks and framed her face as she sat at her brothers shrine, prayed and lit the incense before she left for the morning.
Orihime walked to the graveyard, she was grateful that nobody, woman or man, looked at her in a way that would make her uncomfortable and she walked past the graves until she came to Sora's. It was quite simple but the cherry blossom tree that bloomed right behind him was simply majestic and its soft petals flowed down and draped over his grave peacefully, bringing a tear to her eye. Orihime believed that it was her brother's way of communicating with her, telling her that he was happy in the Great Beyond. Under Kami's loving gaze.
After she ate her snacks and spoke to her brother and she rest a few roses in a vase for him, lighting the incense and praying to him again, she took her leave, with another set of flowers in her hand and the basket in the other.
As Orihime turns the corner, she comes to face the side of the clinic and the man in the white coat that came out, huffing gently. It was Dr Isshin, she recognizes him almost immediately.
Isshin sees movement and turns his head to face her. "Uh, hello! Are you alright, Miss?" With concern in every stride, he walks toward her when he recognizes Orihime. "Ah! Miss Inoue! I'm glad to see you're out and about. How are you feeling? What brings you to my clinic?"
"Hello, Dr Isshin. I don't know if you'd remember me, it was quite a long time ago. I came here once, with my brother on my back. He died of severe stab wounds."
"Sora Inoue." Dr Isshin spoke up suddenly, and her heart thudded in her chest. "Yes, now I remember. You were the little girl. My son treated you did he not?"
"Yes, he did. I know I may be intruding, but, today is the anniversary of Sora's passing. I would normally spend the day with him at the cemetery, but after what's been going on, I realized that I never thanked you, for doing everything you could to save his life. I was just going to put this flowers at the door, but-" Orihime stops in her sentence to pass the flowers onto Isshin, who accepts them humbly, "please accept my gratitude and my apology for not coming sooner."
"Miss Inoue, no apology needed. You were young and you were alone, anybody would be scared and would not think to thank others. And as for your gratitude, I accept it wholeheartedly. Thank you for coming today. We can put them on the infirmary bed you were on, it seems a little more civil than placing it on the operating table. At the same time, I do need to keep that place clean at all times." Isshin jokes, making Orihime chuckle. "Please do come in, my son should be coming soon, so you can thank him also."
"Yes, I'd like that very much." Orihime's entire face lights at the prospect and they both enter the clinic.
(..)
Yuzu sets a hot cup of tea in front of Orihime, who thanks the older woman graciously. "Thank you, Yuzu."
"Oh please, no need to be so formal, Orihime. We did live together." Yuzu points out with a gentle smile, making Orihime giggle ever so slightly.
"I know. Old habits." Orihime bows her head before lifting her tea, sofly blowing on it to cool the steaming liquid, before taking a tentative sip. "Mmmm! Yuzu, this tea is delicious! Just like always!"
"I'm glad!" Yuzu's smile brightens the entire room and the younger girl can't help but smile with the same beam.
Something about Yuzu and Isshin makes her feel all so comfortable and loose. She feels as if she could relax and just be herself.
Isshin came back to the dining table and sat. "My son should be arriving shortly. He had set the time, and he's never late. Not since his younger days." Isshin rattles off, smiling proudly at the mention of his son. "He's come a long way since you met him. So, so far."
Orihime smiles happily for Isshin. He seems so happy for his son. The man must really be amazing and she couldn't wait to meet him. "He seemed rather good, when I met him. But that must have been because of the circumstances."
They heard the front door open and footsteps approaching, Orihime notes that they are rather heavy and a bit familiar. "Ah, Ichigo! Welcome back!" Isshin calls, standing to greet his son, while Yuzu laughs happily, excited to see her big brother.
"Welcome home, Ichi!"
Orihime stands, to respectfully greet the visitor and when the sliding door opens and she lays her eyes with the man that kept her strong, her eyes widen like saucers.
"Mr Kurosaki?!"