Orihime, for the first time since she had moved in with Ishida Uryuu was troubled. not just her usual troubled. More of a trouble that didn't go away when she went to sleep. It was a problem that she had learned was not in the category of being able to be slept off. Which made her pout. This problem had not become smaller, but it was not becoming bigger either. The phone rang, and she was forced to answer it.

"Hello?". She always seemed to say it in the form of a question when she wasn't paying attention. The person on the other end seemed to know this and could have been upset but chose not to show it if he was.

"Inoue Orihime-san, I assume." The voice was cool, crisp and strangely much like Uryuu's when he was feeling distracted. But then there was something a little colder about this voice that made her almost drop the pen she was holding.

"Speaking," She answered cheerfully, setting the pen down on some homework she hadn't really been focusing on. Ishida really didn't like it when she did that, even though she always got her homework done on time. She just needed the thinking space.

"This is Ishida Ryuuken." Orihime raised one thin eyebrow. Was she supposed to know this person?

"Ah, you must be a relative of Ishida Uryuu. But he's not home right now, so-" Orihime never finished. Because he'd hung up before she could say anything more. Well, the man was certainly curt possibly even rude. But it hadn't been so bad, as it had distracted her from her problem for a small while. It was mainly an issue of time and comfort. She had been living with Ishida for years, and yet it was dreams of that night that were plaguing her with odd worries. They were silly, she knew that. It had hit her all at once when they'd been receiving their acceptance letters. Ishida had received many, and the worries about whether they could manage to still live together bothered her. Ishida hadn't talked about any future career plans, not that she had ever thought to ask.

She perhaps didn't ask enough questions. For instance, when she had finally told everyone about her new living arrangements two weeks into it. She didn't ask any questions as to why Kurosaki had been too busy to come to the house warming party she had finally talked Ishida into. But then, it had caught her a little off guard when he had showed up anyway with a certain little female shinigami in tow. Rukia had been so happy for her, and even brought some strange gifts from Soul Society. At first she had started to question whether they might be like ghost objects once left in the human world for too long but she was assured otherwise. Her arrival had been rather nice and calming for the red headed girl, as she once again resided at Ichigo's home and he calmed down. That wasn't really the right word for it. It was more that her presence distracted him. He'd been moody a lot after he'd found out she had been pretending that her memory hadn't returned. He was hurt by it, she was sure. But she had no way to explain her reasoning why without making his feelings even more hurt. There was nothing positive she could say about it. It had been purely selfish, but when Rukia came back she seemed to have found the right words to soothe him as she always did. Or perhaps she just beat him up. One could never tell.

Tatsuki had been harder to handle at first. She urged Orihime to re-think the entire situation, pointing out logically that she might just be feeling a little lonely at her own apartment and that maybe that feeling would pass. She had taken a long evening to convince Tatsuki that with their combined income they were going to get a bigger apartment. It was the two bedrooms that finally sealed the deal. Orihime was not silly. Well, she was, but she was not stupid. She had her own bed and bedroom furniture at home and her own many other items that would not fit into Ishida's tiny apartment. She kept Sora's memorial away in a corner of her room so as not to bother Ishida too much by it. She felt that perhaps if she put her brother out in the front room as was traditional there would be no way she could kiss Ishida without feeling embarrassed. It was silly, but Ishida didn't ask. So she had gotten into his habit of not asking. It was easy to blame others, she knew, but she was quite sure he at least influenced this change.

She was surprised out of her reverie when she heard unlocking the front door. She picked up her pen as if to make that she was studying. After all, their entrance exams were no funny matter even if they had already been sent letters. High school wasn't even over yet, though it almost was and she already had to study to enter a University or College. To do what? She'd never really thought about it. She'd had these grand schemes of becoming a bride, and then forgot that brides made no money and received no family aid. As long as she went to school she would still be contributing to the rent. That, and Ishida had made sure she'd applied to different Universities. He seemed to think she could be a career woman- if there was a career in the world that worked in her insanity.

"Inoue, the page is upside down," He said as he breezed past into the kitchen. He was right, too. She sighed, the quincy man was far too sharp. Some days it made her want to blind fold him, not that it would help her case any. She stood and stretched before peeking her head into the doorway to the kitchen. He was pouring some juice into two cups.

"Ishida Ryuuken called. Is he a relative of yours?" She said once he'd put the mango juice back in the fridge. He swerved to look at her in surprise. He could tell she wanted to know more than that.

"He's my father," He said shortly. Inoue was surprised by this knowledge. His father? Why did he live on his own? She decided at that moment she was going to start asking questions. It was too quiet when she didn't. Sleeping in separate rooms was one thing, but she refused to keep the fear of rocking the boat from her intimacy with her boyfriend.

"You never told me about him. He must be wondering what Universities you're applying for," Inoue pressed, and saw he noticed it too.

"Can we please leave that man out of our home and conversation, Inoue?" He was using his eyes on her, the sad ones she couldn't say no to. She hated it when he used those! It was like he had laser beams piercing into her heart. "We can talk about anything else that you want to."

"Anything?" Inoue perked up. He looked at her warily, wondering if she'd shrunk some clothing in the wash again and was going to tell him about it.

"Anything."

"Ishida... uhm... you remember the night we started living together again?" Inoue accepted the cup of mango juice he handed to her. She shifted her weight uncomfortably as he nodded. "Well... I was just thinking that... do you still feel that way?" Ishida was completely unsure where this conversation was going. Of course, that was nothing new to him. No matter how hard he tried to understand everything about her, there was always something out of grasp. He put his cup down on the counter and took her free hand, lifting it to his lips gently.

"Of course, Orihime," He said, hoping to wipe away the worried look on her face. He still held her free hand as she took a sip of her mango juice before setting the cup down on the counter as well.

"So... you still want to be with me? And... maybe marry me?" Orihime hated having to bring it up. She'd been warned by Tatsuki that such promptings led to men running away. She said that men were more cautious about such serious commitments. But Ishida didn't seem fazed by it as he pulled her in close to place a kiss on her nose that made her heart flutter. She was very glad that Ishida was somewhat shy, as the blush on his face made her feel less embarrassed by her's. Of course, sleeping in two bedrooms did that to a couple.

"Yes. I promised, for you and that baby," He wasn't smiling, but she could hear the humour in his voice. She set her expression very straight. here it went.

"It's just that... since the baby wasn't ever real and I sort of just used it as an excuse to make you love me again... and it will never really be born... well, then does that mean we'll never actually get married?" Inoue completed the question with some difficulty. Ishida looked at her, raising one eyebrow curiously. That's what she was worrying about? His illogical Orihime was being logical. It was spooky. He was expecting Ichigo to burst in the door proclaiming he was really a woman in disguise.

"Most people wait until they're done University to get married, 'Hime," He said, trying not to make it sound like he was postponing such a plan for personal freedom. He actually was just traditional that way, it only seemed to make sense to wait until they had careers- weddings were expensive.

"Oh," Inoue said, still feeling a bit put out. She pulled back a pout, knowing he'd tried to make it softer by calling her by that nickname. He was pretty translucent in his affections which wasn't such a bad thing, but sometimes she found herself distracted by his efforts and hated losing an important thought path because of it. He made an eye movement that was almost the same as sighing before looking at her seriously.

"But we could be engaged, if that's what you would like," He finally compromised. Life with Inoue wasn't perfect, wasn't planned and wasn't organized. So even without a ring, it seemed like she might treat it like a traditional proposal. What worried him most of the time was that she might change her mind someday, and decide she didn't want to play out this beauty and the geek fairy tale any longer. She kissed him then, and she tasted like mango juice. She drew her face away only to lean it on his shoulder.

"Alright," She said, closing her eyes. "Only one catch."

"What?"

"We share a room. Like a real engaged couple." Ishida's mind boggled at the thought. It would be a decorating disaster. The colours and patterns of their things just didn't match. There was no question of becoming lovers, in his mind. If it was what she wanted, he could only oblige. However from a fashion standpoint it would be difficult. But he silently reminded himself about compromise. It hadn't done him any danger yet.

"What about the extra room?"

"We'll make it into a sewing and crafts room."

Well now he just couldn't say no. Not even to her hideous green body pillow in the shape of a frog.

(A/N)

Disclaimer: I don't own them. At all, or in any shape or form. I'm also not making money off this.

Hey all! It's finally over! It kind of makes me sad, really. Part of me just wants to keep going, and the other part is all "yay! It's finally finished, now I can go finish other fanfics! Maybe I can write more Ishihime in the future, but I'm really thinking about writing some crack pair fanfics because there just isn't enough of them. Someone put the idea in my head of a crack pairing with Nanao-chan and Yumichika.

Sheepsama13: I'm hoping that Ishida hasn't stretched out of his mold in this chapter. It's always with the epilogues I have the hardest time keeping them all from becoming like goo.

Aufera: How evil! I placed it farther into the future, but Ichigo was still sort of in there.

sakR9: Ahaha... well, no. Now it's done. Forever. Because the epilogue is officially the end. And I know what you mean, I need to look through the chapters again because I missed a bunch of errors like that.

TheJoker'sAce: Seriously, write it. It would be awesome. I would read it, and dance in little circles. Or I could write it, but I'd like to finish my other stories so it might be a little while unless it was just a one-shot. Or maybe I could cut it off at around 6 000 words.

animelover00094: I'll send you the link if I write it, but it would be like stabbing myself in the eye to write a self-insert. But the idea has merit. Perhaps I can find some off the side character to do it with.

123PIKACHU: Yeah, well I aim to please and shock. So far the being shocking bit has been really fun. It's going to be sad going back to normal characters.

Names Are Hard: Nah, Ichigo was just feeling all rejected. After all, he was the only one she forgot. Anyone would feel hurt by that. If Ichigo had liked her it would have taken at least five more chapters to finish the fanfic. And I didn't want this getting too long or else people wouldn't really get to read it all together if they want to because it would take too long.