Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Or anything else that even comes close to being that awesome....

"Well, that was fun." Orihime said as she helped Rukia clean up the Monopoly board. They started the game after Rukia stomached dinner. She had never seen something so... interestingly edible, and had never played Monopoly before, but as soon as she got the idea, she gained the upper hand.

"Who knew a game could be so long?" Rukia asked, picking up her piles of properties and money.

"I have no clue. It's a good time killer, though." Orihime said, almost feeling sorry for herself over how badly she'd been beaten. She yawned, making Rukia smile again.

"Are you ready to call it quits yet?" Rukia asked.

"Aahh.... I think so...."

"Okay. I guess since the futon is... out of order... I'll sleep in your bed with you." Rukia said.

"WHAT? Umm, I uh...." Orihime was surprised by the suggestion, to say the least. A blush lightly showed itself on her features.

"What do you mean, 'What'? You're not going to make me sleep on the floor, are you?"

"Well, no, but...."

"Then it's settled." Rukia said, pulling a set of pajamas from Orihime's dresser and taking off her shirt.

"Eeh...." Orihime muttered, turning away from Rukia. Her rosy cheeks only turned darker as her actions took hold in her mind.

We're both girls, so it's not really breaking any rules, I change in front of Tatsuki all the time, she thought, but for some reason, this seems different.

"Inoue? Why are you acting like that?" Rukia asked, shirtless. Orihime was suddenly very thankful for the invention of the bra, knowing the dark-haired girl was still wearing it, even though she couldn't even bring herself to imagine facing her at the moment....

"I.... I'm not sure. I just... it's the first thing that came to my mind to do." she was certian at this point that her blush was all across her face now.

"Why's that, do you think?"

"I don't know, but I think it's related to the other thing I told you about... you know...."

"Aah, yes, the 'misplaced thing'." Rukia said cooly, tossing her head while flipping her wrist and leaning on one of her legs, accentuating the fact that she had great hips, "Well, keep asking yourself questions like that, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"Rukia...." Orihime said, making herself turn to face her. She ignored the fact that Rukia was still shirtless and made eye contact, "Promise me...." she paused, looking for the words, then continued, "Promise me that if you figure out what this is before I do, that you won't tell me. I want to figure it out myself." Rukia was confused for a moment, but her face softened as she smiled and nodded.

"I promise." she said, putting on the pajama shirt she was holding. She and Orihime changed, finished the regular nighttime routine, and ended up lying in the bed together.

"Who's going to turn off the lights?" Orihime asked. Both girls began trying to hold back laughter, and glanced at each other, resulting in failure in the effort for both of them.

"I'll do it." Rukia said between giggles. She got up, turned off the lights, and walked back over to the bed. She stood there for a few moments, as if contemplating something.

"Rukia? What's wrong?" Orihime's voice cut through the darkness, only serving to deepen Rukia's train of thoughts, but she shook her head, casting them aside.

Or at least, long enough to get herself into bed.

"Good night, Rukia." Orihime said. Rukia once more lost herself in her ideas, but decided not to act on them.

"Good night, Orihime." Rukia answered. To be honest, she was content to just lie there for a while, just staring at the ceiling, letting the fact that Orihime was beside her seep into her soul. She silently congratulated herself on a job well done, having kept her secret safe for another day, but that didn't keep the urge away. She was sorely tempted to roll over, move herself closer to the other girl and wrap her arms around her... but she smiled to herself as she remembered, she wouldn't dare. She was a girl... on top of that, she was dead... and on top of that, Orihime liked Ichigo. But even before the Arrancar had taken the girl, Rukia understood her feelings for her. She couldn't help but blame herself for what happened. If she had offered to help escort Inoue with the first Hell Butterfly, she thought, maybe it all could have been... but no, that Butterfly wasn't for Orihime. Does it work that way? Rukia didn't know, nor did she particularly care at the moment. She was content to be in Orihime's company. Yes, she liked her a lot. No, she didn't know if it was love. Yes, it hurt to be just her friend sometimes, but Rukia was okay with it. It guaranteed a positive relationship, so she didn't mind. Every once in a while, she got to comfort the girl, hold her close in friendly hugs, and make her smile.

Rukia frowned as she remembered the time she had come so close to Orihime, just to have someone fall from the sky and take her off someplace. What was that girl's name? Something like Hayori... no... Hiyori. That was it. Rukia remembered how weird and confusing it was, watching that girl fly away with Orihime. Then she began recalling things such as how adamant she was on rescuing Orihime, and when Rukia herself was certian she had given her life for her. (1)

She had lived to rescue Orihime. She couldn't die alone, and even though not dying single isn't quite what Kaien-dono meant, it helped strengthen her.

Rukia's thoughts became deeper and progressively more depressing as time went by, but oh, how she would have laughed if she knew that Orihime was deep in her own thoughts beside her. Orihime was facing away from Rukia, but she couldn't seem to make sleep come to her; her thoughts kept drifting back to the 'misplaced thing'. It was some kind of emotion, Rukia had said. How do you misplace an emotion? The way only Orihime could think of that was if an emotion was felt for the wrong person. But what emotion, and who was she supposed to feel it for? She thought back on her day, and remembered Tatsuki's complaint, "Are you spacing out on Kurosaki again? I swear, that boy is so dense, you should really just move on already...."

Then it clicked. Orihime's eyes widened as she realized, the emotion was the love she felt for Ichigo... but that's only half of it. Who she was really in love with was the question now. She figured it had to be someone close to Ichigo.... She thought and thought, and in her thought process, rolled over, expecting to see Rukia asleep, but instead saw her staring at the ceiling, frowning, lost in her own thoughts. She couldn't help but hope that Rukia hadn't noticed, so she could just watch. She wasn't the first time she had the urge to just stare at the Soul Reaper, but now it was all that was there. She pulled up the mental image of Rukia releasing Sode no Shirayuki, and how it really did reflect her strength, grace, and... what?

Beauty, she thought.

Then it clicked again.

It's Rukia. It's always been Rukia.... She suddenly remembered that she was staring straight at her, and that was a bad thing, seeing as the blushing would probably start soon, so she slowly rolled over, as to avoid questioning.

"Orihime." Rukia said, not looking away from the ceiling. Orihime blushed as her brain decided to finally acknowledge the fact that she and Rukia, who she now knew she liked, were in the same bed together.

"Y-yes?" Orihime managed to whisper. She had intended the response to be louder, but at the same time was relived that her voice hadn't left her completely.

"You're still awake." Rukia observed aloud, her tone slightly depressed, but obviously trying to hide it, "Are you still thinking about your 'misplaced thing'? You rolled over kind of slowly, I just thought you might have something you may want to discuss."

"Umm.... N-no, not yet." Orihime stuttered.

"Orihime, I don't think you realize how bad of a liar you are." Rukia sighed, turning her head to look at Orihime, but only saw the back of her head. Rukia being Rukia, and Orihime being a close friend, she continued, "You're hiding something."

"So are you...." Orihime said, actually louder than she had meant to. Rukia was shocked.

"What?" Rukia asked. Orihime rolled over, her eyes taking on the unusual trait of being piercing (at least, as far as Rukia could tell in the darkness) through an emotion which was uncommon in Orihime... a form of anger. It was light, but it still served to stun Rukia all the more.

"You heard me," Orihime said, sitting up and frowning, "You're hiding plenty of things. I don't know what they are, but it's obvious. You always have this look about you, like you have some sort of... I don't know... horrible conflict always going on in your head. It's a look of detachment, but wanting to be attached, like you know you belong in the Soul Society, but you still can't help wanting to be part of this world, too.... And then there's the other look, the grim one, like you've done something horrible, but I don't care!" she knew where this was suddenly going, but she didn't stop herself, "I don't care, Rukia! You might have done the worst thing in the world I can possibly think of, and I wouldn't care! I know you've gotten better about attachment, that's why you kept your gigai, but even if you did get rid of it, I still would be your friend, Rukia! I would still...." Orihime paused, looking away, wondering if she really wanted to finish her sentence, thinking about whether or not, since her feelings came from the ones she used to have for Ichigo, if they already had the same intensity. Then she considered for a split second if it really worked that way, or....

Finish the sentence or don't, Orihime, she thought she heard Tatsuki's voice say, just make the decision quick.

"....I would still love you." Orihime finished, tasting the words on her tongue, particularly the 'L' one. It felt right to her. She felt something wet trail down her cheek, and let herself smile, weakly.

Rukia was taken aback. Her heart had stopped at the sound of the words, the ones she'd wanted to hear, but at the same time had always feared. She wondered if this was really happening, if maybe she had fallen asleep, and hadn't realized it. She sat up, tilting her head to try to see Orihime's face in the faint moonlight that came in through the window, and noticed one tear, and a smile. Her expression changed as Orihime looked up and said,

"See? You're making another one right now! Except..." her voice faded.

"...this one isn't as sad as the others." Rukia finished, wiping away Orihime's tear with her thumb, smiling. Orihime's mixed confusion and longing was clear on her face, even in the darkness. Rukia's smile grew as her contact with Orihime's face spread from her thumb to her entire hand, and she continued, "You're right. I am hiding a few things. The first one you nailed on the head, and understand that I have been trying to work it out. The second, I might tell you some day, because the third..." she paused for dramatic effect, "is about to change us."

"Wha-what's that supposed to mean?" Orihime asked, unable to think at the moment. Too much was happening at once. She discovered and immediately revealed new feelings. Rukia was sharing some of her deepest secrets, and, to top it all off, Rukia still had her hand on Orihime's face, and was... leaning in closer?!

"What that means, 'Hime..." Rukia said, "is that even though it sounds a little weird to you, and it's strange to me to be admitting it right now, is that I... well, I'm not entirely sure what love feels like, really, so I wouldn't know, but...." she fell silent, mulling over how to adequately express her feelings to Orihime, when she whispered, just registering the fact that their faces were only centimeters apart, "I think that, if what I'm feeling isn't love, it's the closest thing I've ever been to it. Or would really ever want to be to it, because I would be very sore with myself if I ever discovered that there was more to it with anyone else."

"Rukia... that's so romantic.... I... umm.... Can I...uhh...or are you going to...?" Orihime said, finding herself at a loss for words. Rukia smiled wider, and almost giggled.

"It's okay," she whispered, "go ahead." Orihime's heart raced at Rukia's answer. She pictured Rukia being the kind of person to take the initiative, but today she got to have it.

Maybe Rukia is a completely different person in love than she is in everything else... maybe I am too, or maybe neither of us really know, but we're going to find out... Orihime thought, smiling and closing the small gap between her lips and Rukia's, ...together.

Orihime understood at the exact moment she kissed Rukia what people meant by it 'feeling right', because that was one of the few ways she could describe it, but that was really all she needed. She wrapped her arms around Rukia, felt Rukia follow suit, and....

Well, let's not turn this into a hentai, now. Even though they only made out, I can get pretty bad.

After a while, Rukia and Orihime were curled up together in the bed, trying to sleep when Rukia suddenly said,

"Oh, my God...."

"What is it, Rukia?" Orihime asked, still wide awake.

"I know how to help Soi Fon...." Rukia answered.

(1) For anyone who might not know, in Bleach you can die after you die. When you die the second time, you become part of the particles that make up the Soul Society.