Inoue Orihime was a complicated individual. At least, she could admit that to herself. So the strange pulling in her belly at the thought of Ishida giving her home made lunch to the orange haired teen was... mysterious. She wanted Kurosaki to feel welcome, and yet... She didn't make that lunch for him. She'd never thought of herself as a selfish person, but she was beginning to question that theory. She was selfish. About him, anyway. She glanced out the classroom windows. Open, blue sky laid before her. The clouds were lazily moving past. And yet, she could not stop the feeling that the individual Kurosaki-san reminded her of dark clouds covering the sky. She felt suffocated. It was silent, why was it so silent?

"Stop it!" She cried, standing up. Her chair made a loud klank as it hit the floor.

"Orihime...?" Tatsuki said quietly, pulling on her arm. "Are you alright?" Orihime looked around her. She had just disrupted the class and the Literature teacher was looking at her with a particularly unhappy frown.

"Sensei, may I go to the nurse's office?" Orihime asked, sounding quite small.

"I have heard about your injury, you should have an escourt."He replied.

"Arisawa-san, please walk her there."

"Hai! Let's go Orihime-chan," Tatsuki said quickly. Before Orihime knew it, she was outside the classroom.

"Tatsuki... my head hurts. It really hurts...".

"Orihime... are you... thinking about anything?".

"... no, my head hurts too much."

"I see. Orihime-chan... I'll take you home," Tatsuki sighed, taking Inoue's hand and going in the direction of the office.

"Ah... no. I don't have the keys... Uryuu-kun can take me home." She pulled her hand away to catch Tatsuki's attention. Tatsuki looked at her, concerned. What was Orihime thinking? Was she remembering something? She couldn't ask... Because if Orihime wasn't remembering, asking about it would make her headache worse for sure.

"Orihime-chan, you think too hard. Don't worry, I'll stay with you until Ishida comes home and we can still have dinner together." Tatsuki said, smiling brightly. Without a word, Tatsuki stuck her head back in the classroom. "May I please borrow Ishida-san for a second?". The teacher nodded subtly. Ishida stood, and grabbed his school bag anticipating a walk home. When he got into the hallway and the door closed behind him, Tatsuki held an open palm to him. He stared at it, then back at her for a few moments. Inoue looked pale and nothing about the look on her face could have been considered bubbly at all.

"O- Inoue-san, are you alright? Do you need to go to the hospital..?" He asked, trying not to look at Tatsuki. He wasn't sure he had the money to take her to the hospital and he sure wasn't going to use his father's connections to do it. He didn't want his father to know about Inoue. She was safer at the Kurosaki clinic.

"Orihime-chan is going to rest at home so I need your keys. I'll stay with her." Tatsuki said, reminding him she was there. It was almost like a declaration of war against him, the way she said it. As if he had somehow been an unsuitable friend at one point or another. But why did she look at him like that, with such desperate eyes? He sighed. He felt a pain go through him. Orihime... was not his. She would never be his. After she remembered things... it would be better if Tatsuki was there with her if Orihime was remembering things. He rummaged through his school bag until he found the keys.

"Inoue-san knows the way," he remarked, pushing up his glasses. Tatsuki took them quickly, trying to end the social bit involving him as quickly as possible. Inoue was still looking pale, but she smiled at him.

"Uryuu-kun, I will see you later. Don't worry," the red-head declared as cheerfully as she could. "It's just a headache." Ishida smiled slightly. He pat her on the head gently. Somehow Orihime couldn't shake the feeling that it was like he was frowning and not smiling at all. It was his eyes. They were sad.

"Be careful, Inoue Orihime." She stared after him, frowning. She would have stared a bit more after he had gone into the classrom if Tatsuki would have let her.

"Orihime! Let's go... don't mind him. You'll see him tonight," She said softly. Orihime frowned.

"... Will I?" She glanced down. "Tatsuki-chan... I love Ishida. I really do." She felt as if there were supposed to be more words coming, but she couldn't find them. She looked at Tatsuki, lost yet wanting to say so much. She felt there was a river pouring through her and yet only a trickle of water could leak out. It was frustrating. She could feel tears forming. Perhaps there really was a river inside her... A strong hand grasped her shoulder, bringing her back to reality. Tatsuki was smiling at her.

"I understand, Orihime." She turned to go to the office, and Orihime followed. The red-head wiped at her eyes, relieved. Tatsuki probably did understand, even if Orihime didn't realize it herself.

"Tatsuki-chan, we should pick up some groceries on the way home. I used a lot of the basic necessities yesterday," Orihime said cheerily. The headache was still there, but it felt distant now.

"Alright, just a bit then. What do you need? We might be able to go to a convenience store and not go out of our way-" Tatsuki began.

"Oh, I need sweet bean paste, fish, whipped cream, orange marmalade, garlic powder-" Orihime cut her off. After the garlic powder, Tatsuki made an effort to stop listening and noted that she needed to pick up something for her stomach or make sure she guarded the kitchen from Orihime until Ishida got home. For a split second, she felt pity for the man. He was eating her handmade lunches to not hurt her feelings. That poor, poor... bastard! Who knows what kind of things were happening in that little apartment! She was going to make sure he got the message to keep his hands to himself until Orihime remembered. Of course she knew that Orihime wouldn't really care and might not remember and... well, he could wait. She wasn't going to let this be easy for him.

Ishida felt a chill on the back of his neck. He remembered Arisawa's eyes, and began to wonder if he could skip town for a couple days saying it was family emergency. But then... Orihime would be very sad. He wasn't sure which he could handle more of: Arisawa's violence or Orihime's unhappiness which would lead to- more of Arisawa's violence. He smiled. Inoue was not a ray of sunlight. That wasn't right. He'd been looking at it from the wrong perspective this whole time, but he finally understood. Inoue Orihime was... a flower. A flower with the sun, earth and rain constantly watching over her growth. Of course she liked Ichigo. He was the sun, giving her hope and helping her grow. And Ishida was just the rain. Falling, and falling and falling without being able to stop. But he was afraid of losing himself at the beginning. Now, seeing her as the flower he worried that perhaps he might drown her if he wasn't careful. He didn't inspire hope or make her laugh. He was the rain she couldn't have all the time. Tatsuki was the earth, constantly protecting her and looking after her. Because, without Arisawa-san, who was Orihime? He felt a shot of pain. He wanted to be her earth. But he couldn't be that. How cruel. She had pulled him to the ground but he could do nothing more for her. He was stuck, being eaten whole by her guardian. Literally. Arisawa-san could probably kill him and make it look like an accident. Maybe he ought to re-consider that leaving town plan again.

"Tatsuki-chan, why don't we make dinner together as a surprise tonight!" Orihime said suddenly. They were sitting on the floor in Ishida's very bland apartment in front of a radio that looked like it never got touched.

"Ah... alright Orihime-chan!" Tatsuki smiled. Oh yes. This was it. Just wait until that nerd got home to endure the all famous cooking of Inoue Orihime! This would be a great warning. After all, if you could get to a man's heart through his stomach, surely you could inspire fear the same way! "This will be so much fun Orihime!"

"T-tatsuki-chan... why is your smile so creepy..?" Inoue commented, not really expecting an answer.

(A/N)

So... uh... two years? Wow, that's... I'm so sorry! Please don't hurt me! I moved 3 times! Really!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inoue's headaches, Ishida's escape plan or his poor stomach. I really don't own Bleach or any of its' characters including but not limited to Ishida, Inoue, Ichigo, Tatsuki.

MemoriesOfNobody: Uh... you may not believe this, but it was because of you I remembered this story wasn't finished.

Aufera: Well, it was you as well. For whatever reason I was dellusional and forgot this story wasn't done. Then I had to watch lots of Bleach to get back into it again. I'm only on the Bounto arc though! XD

Malindorie: And I shall! I could not go through with this and not bring Rukia into the picture. I mean, who else is going to slap him and tell him to stop feeling sorry for himself?

loiteringpenguin: I promise I will this time. I'm so sad... my inspiration ran dry for almost two years. I'm not sure what happened. I'm not going to blame it on my boyfriend, but for a while I couldn't write because I was so caught up in my own romance that I became selfish and unable to focus on anyone else's. :(

LadyCatWoman: No worries. You're actually supposed to misinterpret it that way. But I will say no more! I'm ruining the element of surprise here...

TheOnlyLoveForSoujirou S...: Danke! Merci! Thank you! Arigatou!

Uchiha Ryken: blush Ohhh... thank you... a fan... :O

Toushirouseyes: Thank you so much! I love that all of you tell me about the characters! I mean, I can never be complimented too much about something like that. I'm really worried that I've lost the feeling I had in this before though. Are the characters still good?

ajisainokimi: no comment!

imuzuok: Danke!

Kane Shi Megami: I'm not sure I'm allowed to work too much with any adult content. Plus it's a little embarrassing. I mean, as the author, I have to be in that bedroom to know what it would look like to others without describing it. I mean... I'm not that kind of person, but I'll try my best...

your new biggest fan: Yeah, I've been thinking it would be cool if I had fan art depicting it. That's when you know you're in the big time!

Otaku Samurai: I know. It hurts me inside. A little. Except for the times he took 'Hime for granted... meanie Ichigo!

whitehitsugaya: Here it is!

NigaleCross: lol, I bet if you guys had known you only get one review per chapter that you'd have used it for something like: "Don't you leave us for 2 years!"

mellyd: arigatou!

Winterflower: Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that.

Hiiragi Demon: OMG! You're funny! That would be too hilarious!

RedBloodedTalisman: Here is teh update!

Gungnir: mmmm... mochi...

Inulover4eva: Your words... inspire me... Gosh, I keep stealing from the reviewers. If you all lived with me I might keep writing until I was just a little bony thing from not eating or sleeping.

Lady Ashari: Shariiiiii!! Come baaack! I needs youuuu! No one edited this chapter! I'm crying over here!

Satan Hat: lol, yeah... I feel more for Ishida myself.

talonlee: once more, I cannot say without ruining.

Sango Hikari: Yes... We should have one of angry Tatsuki as well. It would scare off the pants of Ishida.

Normally I would throw in a fun moment during the author's notes however it's taken me about an hour to write up the reviewer stuff and I really need to sleep. No, really. I actually work for a living now. ... maybe next time.