So this chapter wasn't as long as the others, but I had a really hard time stretching it. DX I actually had to rewrite a good chunk of it, since it was really wiiierd. XD (I even got confirmation from copper that it was bad, lol.) So I ended up throwing another fail Rangiku/Hime scene, that I really think I should take out, but I'll keep because it makes the chapter longer. D: Oh, and next chapter will prolly be shorter too, since it'll still be day IV(four XD), cuz I just haaaaaad to leave a cliffy at the end of this one. :3 Anywho, enjoy the chapter! Thank you so much for all of your reviews, I luff you all so much~)
.disclaimer. I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.
.chapter title. Disappear
---
He thought he would get lucky. That by some chance, some random, glorifying chance, she'd still be there when he woke up. His amber eyes would slowly flutter open and reveal the small, frail girl sleeping on the same couch, huddled into a small ball. Then he'd really believe that dreams came true.
But it wasn't such the case. Ichigo's eyes snapped open, opposite of fluttering, and his head jerked to his side, the place he hoped she'd be.
But she wasn't. He was alone. And it didn't take him very long to get off the piece of furniture to search the rest of her apartment. Kitchen, bathroom, her bedroom. Every space was just as empty as before.
Carelessly letting his previously hopeful body collapse onto her bed, he suddenly found it hard to breathe. '… She's really gone…' It didn't help matters that the pain in his heart from yesterday had reappeared.
Ichigo slowly lifted his right hand to his face and stared at it unemotionally. The same hand he felt her reiatsu the night she left for Hueco Mundo. Maybe he was in a state of desperation, he didn't know. He brought his palm to his forehead, and rested it there, intently searching for her reiatsu, knowing very well it wouldn't be there.
"How…" He grumbled to himself, his fingers clasping his orange locks tightly. 'How the hell can I go to school when I know she's not there??' He was so used to going, and one of the first things he'd see would be her. Inoue's toothy grin, her slightly flushed cheeks, and her bright, big gray eyes. He groaned, now wondering if things could ever be the same again. '… Probably not…'
Ichigo let his emotionless eyes stare at the white wall, his mind running with thoughts of her. Nothing else, only her…
"I'm sorry Kurosaki-kun… If only I was stronger, I could've stopped this!" Orihime spoke, her voice tinged with bitter pain. She truly felt upset about not being able to protect her friends.
"Don't worry, Inoue. And don't apologize either. You did the best you could…" He replied, wanting to comfort her. Ichigo never thought of her as weak. So what if she didn't like to fight? That only made her stronger. The road of pacifism was a long and hard one to travel, but she would never care, and she'd travel it anyways. She'd rather fix problems with kind and gentle words, not with fighting and pain.
The substitute shinigami let his lips curl up into a small smile at her bravery. Though she might not think it, and he would probably never say it, he truly thought she was stronger than he was. She'd gone to Hueco Mundo and back, almost the equivalent of hell, and she still managed to smile.
Though he soon frowned as he remembered that bastard Yammi, and how he carelessly smacked Inoue around like she was a doll. She didn't do anything wrong, and she still got hurt. She was always getting hurt, and even if it was his fault, she wouldn't let him apologize for it. He really did want to apologize to her, and promise to protect her better, back then. But he was in a moment of weakness, and needed Rukia to kick his ass to get him back on his feet.
Ichigo's downward stare fell to the floor, as his heart grew heavier. He promised to protect her, but she still got taken to Hueco Mundo anyways… He wasn't there when she needed him most. Where the hell was he? Because every time she needed his help, he was off somewhere else. Groaning in frustration, Ichigo pounded his fist into the springy mattress.
"HELP ME KUROSAKI-KUN!!" Orihime's voice screamed out, her tone apparent with despair and pain.
Ichigo could barely remember it, as all he could feel at the time was pain, but felt nothing at the same time. His mind was fogged up as he heard her desperate cry, but he knew he needed to help her.
'I can hear her… She's calling me… Stand up! I will protect her!!'
He somehow managed to muster the strength to think, and even more power to assist her. The shinigami clenched his fist tighter, wishing he could've seen what happened. Everything blacked out after then, and when he came to, Inoue had tears in her eyes and was frightfully pale. Ishida was even worse, as his own Zangetsu had impaled him through the stomach.
Ichigo took a deep breath and managed to calm down some from his self-frustration, as he remembered what else had happened in that place. He picked her up… Although it probably wasn't the most gentle of lifting, she seemed more preoccupied with the idea that she was too heavy for him to be lifting. He could still remember the faint, burning touch from her hands on his clothes, her fingers quivering from the sudden surprise of him picking her up.
"What, is something wrong?"
"I-I'm… heavy…"
"Oh, don't worry, you're not as heavy as I thought you'd be."
Why he had to phrase it like that, he had no clue. There were times Ichigo let his mind wander, occasionally thinking, 'I wonder what it'd be like to pick her up…' Granted, those were some of his lower moments, and he'd later beat himself up for thinking such a stupid thing.
So, still, he wished he'd rephrased it better, instead of saying, "Don't worry, you're not as heavy as I thought you'd be." Maybe he wouldn't have gotten hit where it hurt the most by Nel.
Nel… Despite what they two probably thought, he could hear almost every word they were conversing on top of that broken building. He heard Nel's cries, telling Inoue that he was fighting and getting hurt for her, but she was still afraid. Hell, she had every reason to be afraid. He looked frightening in his mask.
But she still called out to him.
"Don't die, Kurosaki-kun! You don't have to win… You don't have to keep fighting any more… Just please don't get hurt…"
Ichigo smiled slightly as he remembered her heartfelt concern over him. She always seemed to be concerned over him. Amber eyes flashed back to his hand again, Ichigo's mind dawning on a new revelation.
Everything she's done, every time he saw her, she always seemed to be genuinely concerned for him. It was like he was her drive when she wanted to do something. His cheeks grew hot at the new possibility.
He promptly snuffed out the idea, as he was one hundred percent sure she'd never do, never feels that for him. It was impossible…
A heavy knock disturbed the orangette from his thinking, making him drag his weary body off of her bed and to the front door. He really didn't want to answer it. Whoever was there was here to see Inoue, the woman who would not be here. Turning the handle slowly, Ichigo felt his face contort to a tense expression.
And to his surprise, Rukia stood at the door of Inoue's apartment.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ichigo grumbled, tempted to slam the door in her face. Rukia stepped into the flat, a small bounce in her step.
"I'm here to visit, what do you think?" she spoke almost tonelessly, her eyes wandering the apartment. "… She's gone?"
Slowly letting the door close shut, Ichigo kept quiet, his hand folding into an all-familiar fist. He could think it, and he could hear it, but he didn't want to say it. Saying that she was gone would only mean he accepted her absence.
"Ichigo… I know it's hard for her to be gone, but you need to accept it…"
"It's sort of hard to accept her being… you know… When I have this fucking pain in my chest as a reminder, Rukia," Ichigo replied dryly, emphasizing her name at the end. Rukia crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one leg.
"Pain? Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events…" The small woman mused, a small smile playing on the edge of her lips.
"Can't you ever shut the hell up? And what the fuck do you want? I'm not in the mood for your childish games…" he grumbled, letting his body collapse again on the couch. Again, his knuckles were turning dangerously pale, but the pain in his hands was nothing to the feeling in his heart.
"You're annoying. I come to visit you, and you're just going to sit on your ass and remember the better times," Rukia scoffed, her small eyebrows furrowing with purple irises flashing with dangerous emotions.
"Yes, Rukia, I'm going to sit on my ass and remember, because it's sure as hell better than not remembering her at all."
"Inoue wouldn't want you to be brooding over this. You know she'd want you to be happy, so don't spout nonsense to me that she wouldn't."
'Damn…' She had him there.
"I'm going to brood over it, dammit, whether you're… right or not," Ichigo murmured, finding it hard to accept that the conniving woman next to him was right for once. He remained silent for a few minutes, and Rukia kept quiet as well, before Ichigo folded his hands together and pulled his lips into a tight line. "You know, I'm feeling kind of bothered by something, and I don't know why…"
"And what's that?"
"… Inoue didn't even say goodbye…" Amber eyes fell to the floor, defeated. "I mean, if she didn't want to, and made her happy, then fine, but… It hurts that she would do that again…" Ichigo's eyes snapped up to Rukia's momentarily, emotions of hurt and question. "I mean, you know how she healed my hand the first time! You think she would've woken me up or something to tell me good bye." He paused, suddenly feeling very awkward. "Wow, I sound insane…"
"Yeah, you do," Rukia spoke firmly, a smirk on her face. "And you're the stupidest person I've ever met."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean??" Ichigo yelled, suddenly full of vigor again, but he soon fell back onto the cushions again. "You know, whatever… I don't give a damn…"
Rukia's sneer grew wider. 'It's like he's completely hopeless without her.' She mused inwardly.
"So she was in your room before she left for Hueco Mundo, and healed your injuries. What does that tell you?" She asked, promptly taking a seat next to the orangette.
"… Nothing?"
"No, you idiot!" Rukia yelled, giving Ichigo a hard slap on the back of the head. "If you remember right, people were still hurt after the incident with the Arrancar, people she knew. No one else was healed fully, so why did she choose you, out of all these others, to heal?"
The substitute shinigami remained silent, his eyes fluttering closed with a deep frown engraved in his features.
"And dammit Ichigo, you know Inoue. She'd never leave without saying something first!" Rukia scoffed, giving him another punch in the arm. Somewhere deep inside, Ichigo felt that possibility from earlier bubble up. Maybe it wasn't such a crazy theory… Maybe she really did have feelings for him.
Despite there being more evidence than before, he squished that idea again. He didn't want to seem overly hopeful on something that still probably wouldn't be true.
"So are you done sulking?" Rukia brought Ichigo out of his thinking again; his cheeks lightly flushed from his stupid 'possibilities'. "I have Chad and Renji waiting outside."
"What, you brought those two along so we can all walk happily together to school? Maybe skip, even?" Ichigo scoffed, somewhat tempted to look out the window and determine if they were actually there or not.
"Actually, we're going to Soul Society. Quite honestly, I would've gone without your sorry ass, but Chad insisted on informing you."
Ichigo snapped his head towards her, eyes big. "W-Wait, what do you mean?"
"Unlike you, who's sitting on his stupid butt and wallowing in self-pity, we're going to rescue Inoue. She's my friend, and I'm not going to stand by and watch her lose everything she holds dear to her," Rukia explained, standing up while putting her hands on her hips. "So unless you're going to be annoying and tag along, I'm leaving. We don't have much time."
Ichigo stood up quickly, his eyes still as big as saucers. "Y-You're going to save Inoue?"
"I just said that, idiot," Rukia growled, pulling the familiar door open. "See ya."
"No, wait!" Ichigo yelled out to her, stopping her in her tracks. Rukia kept her back to the boy, and wore a sly smile on her face. "I want to go to! No, I-I need to go, I owe it to her!"
"Ichigo," Rukia spoke clearly. "You've always gone after friends because you've wanted to protect them, but I'm not going to let you come along if that's your reason this time. If you want to go after her, your excuse needs to be bigger than 'she is a friend', because she's more than that. She's more than a friend to all of us, Ichigo."
Ichigo gulped, his mind flying to ideas for a reason to want to go after his friend. No, she was right, she wasn't just a friend… "W-well, what's your reason?" He inquired, wanting to gauge her reasoning.
"Inoue's become one of my greatest friends. I could probably even say she's my best. And if she is, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch." Rukia turned around with sharp eyes. "What's your reasoning, Ichigo?"
Dumbfounded, Ichigo's hard gaze fell to the floor, suddenly finding the carpet very interesting. 'I want Inoue here… It wouldn't be the same without her…' He swallowed thickly, discovering it was getting harder to breathe. 'I… wouldn't be the same without her.'
And then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Feeling beaten, he brought his hand up to face, choking back a groan. Tatsuki was right. All along, she'd been right.
"Fix that stupid wiring in your brain, idiot… And quick... Before you realize what you want is already gone."
Ichigo thought he wanted her to stay, but he was wrong. Oh, so wrong. He didn't want just her to stay. He wanted her.
He wanted that bright, vivid smile of hers to belong to him and him only. Her bright gray eyes that shone like the sun; he wanted them to only look at him, and he'd vow to never let tears fall from them again.
'I… I think I lov-'
"Figure it out yet?" Rukia snapped him out his deep thoughts yet again, inciting a quick growl from the boy. Ichigo looked towards the shinigami with fire and determination in his eyes.
"I think so… I think I have it all figured out now."
"Okay… And what do you have figured out?"
Ichigo smirked, pulling his shinigami badge out of his pocket. "None of your damned business. Now let's go save Inoue."
---
Orihime gazed emotionless at the large mirror in front of her. For the time being, they put her in a luxurious room with tall walls and multitudes of mirrors. The room was full of colors, but inside she felt nothing. It was as if the moment she stepped into Soul Society, all her feelings had disappeared. She even questioned her memories from the last few days, as they all seemed so dreamlike, compared to her current predicament.
"You look good!" Rangiku exclaimed, suddenly bursting into her room. Orihime, feeling quite out of it mentally, didn't bother to turn around and greet her friend. It seemed like a burden to force happiness, when she clearly was far from happy.
"I guess…" She mumbled, smoothing out the fabric. Soul Society had given her special to clothes to change into, saying the fabric helped bring the Key's reiatsu up to it's maximum potential. Her maximum potential.
It was simply, really. It was a small white dress that appeared to be made out of something like silk. The fabric was a bit longer than she was, thus being too long for her, but her bare toes still peaked out from under the fabric. A slit went up middle of the fabric in front, exposing her smooth legs with the slightest turn. The top portion of the dress had dropping sleeves, falling off her shoulders, and leaving her soft, pink skin revealed. The snuggest part of the outfit was the area around her chest. It was apparently supposed to be loose and/or formfitting, but they made a mistake on size judgment and it was just a bit tight. She was lucky it wasn't like that for the entire thing, and the fabric was fitted to be loose and billowy at the hem under her generous chest.
The shinigami that handed her the clothes told her she'd need to remove everything on her person, but she refused to take off the necklace with her precious strawberry on it. It was the only thing that reminded her everything that had happened in the last few days was real.
"Orihime-chan…" Rangiku sighed, soon behind the young teen. "I'm sorry for what's happened."
"You don't need to apologize. It's not your fault," Orihime spoke quietly and tonelessly. Her eyes held no emotion in them, causing somewhat of a worry in her blonde elder. Rangiku put her hands on Orihime's small shoulders, her thumb lightly moving back and forth against her skin, as if a sign of comfort.
"Yamamoto-sotaichou and the rest of the captains are ready to see you, Orihime-chan…" She spoke again, hoping she wouldn't respond as blankly as before. Orihime merely nodded, closing her eyes slowly. For a brief second, Rangiku could've sworn she saw a flash of pain go through her gray eyes, from the reflection of the mirror. Immediately she felt worse, but she still took the small girl's hand and lead her to her ultimate fate.
---
"Inoue Orihime, do you know why you are in front of us today?" Yamamoto's voice bellowed out into the captain's hall. Ten people, the captains, all looked towards the auburn-haired healer, who merely kept her hands folded together in front of her, her face with no expression at all.
"Yes, sir… The decision for the Royal Key, which is inside me," Orihime spoke dully, doing her best not to tremble with fear. She swallowed hard before saying the last part. "… Has been made."
"Yes. Now tell us. Has Kurosaki Ichigo done his job as a your bodyguard for the last three days?" Yamamoto now inquired, slightly rising an eyebrow.
Orihime gave a pregnant pause again before speaking. "Y-Yes sir. Under his watch, I wasn't hurt."
"Then what's with the wrapping around your hand?"
"Um, clumsy mistake… I accidentally cut myself on glass, but he helped me clean it up almost immediately."
Few, interesting glances were exchanged throughout the room, but Orihime kept her focus on the head captain at the front of the room. Yamamoto nodded.
"Very well… Inoue Orihime, from previous and thorough discussion between Soul Society representatives and the Soul King, the decision has been made for how the Royal Key should be handled," the head captain stood up as he spoke, clearly pronouncing every word clearly to the teen. "You will be sent to the Royal Realm to perform your duties there and you will leave through the Golden Gate at midnight tonight."
Inoue Orihime didn't show it, but her heart broke on the inside. 'So I'm going to suffer with my feelings for the rest of my life…' For a brief moment, she thought she would've preferred to die. That way she wouldn't have to feel so much painful longing for Kurosaki-kun for the rest of her life.
She blinked slowly before showing big, very nervous gray eyes to the ten people in the room. Her tongue stuck out for a brief moment, licking at her dried lips before saying two last words.
"… Yes sir…"
---
"So let me get this straight… They're keeping Inoue in Soul Society for twenty-four hours before they send her to god knows what?" Ichigo asked harshly, doing his best not to smack the smaller woman running by his side. She ran at a leisurely pace, despite the fact it was she that said there wasn't much time.
It had already taken Urahara almost 3 hours to set up the Senkaimon they used before, when getting Rukia the first time, and now she was running like they had all the time in the world!
"She just said that, dumbass! Geez, you need to clean your ears out…" The tall, redhead punched the substitute hard, causing a yelp of pain from the boy.
"Dammit, Renji, this isn't the time to be punching people!" Ichigo retorted, now doing his best not to punch both of them. He wanted to get to Soul Society. He wanted to get to Inoue.
"If you listened to Rukia better, I wouldn't have to punch you! We shouldn't have to tell you twice about all this!"
"I'm not asking you to tell me everything again, I'm just confirming!"
"…" Chad remained silent as he ran, soon pointing to what appeared to be the exit. "We're here…"
"Finally…" Ichigo groaned, also seeing the light at the end. They continued running until they were in a field of flowers, which was very unfamiliar to all of them. "Aw, dammit, now you got us lost! We'll never reach Inoue in time!"
"Ichigo, look…" Chad murmured, pointing a large finger towards a suddenly familiar house. "Isn't that…"
Ichigo deadpanned, his expression falling. "Oh, hell no…" Rukia's mouth opened in awe.
"Oh, that's the Shiba house…"
Ichigo promptly brought his hand up his face, resulting in a loud slap sound. This was the last place he wanted to be right now. If he remembered Kukaku, she'd keep them there and talk to them for hours. On any other given circumstance, he'd gladly stay and chat (not), but he really had to go.
"We should just get out of here while we can…" Ichigo grumbled, itching to head the opposite direction as fast as possible. Rukia continued to stare at the house with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"No, wait Ichigo… I have an idea," she muttered, soon taking off towards the house at top speed. The others had no choice but to follow along, although Ichigo was really tempted to leave them all there. He wanted to rescue Inoue, not drink tea with old buddies… Or maybe in Kukaku's case, sake.
Rukia was pounding on the door of the Shiba's house when the other three caught up to her. It wasn't long after when Kukaku answered the door, a very, very pissed expression on her face.
"For the last, goddamned time, we're NOT open on-" Kukaku yelled, but immediately stopped when she saw the unfortunately familiar black-haired woman that was knocking on her door. "It's you…" She grumbled. Rukia wanted to look at the ground, feeling returning shame from killing their brother, but she kept her hard gaze on the woman.
"Shiba-san, we need your help…"
---
Orihime sighed, her stare focused on the soon setting sun outside her window.
"It's no different…" She murmured to herself, pulling nervously at her dress. Inwardly, she tried to compare the differences between her stay in Hueco Mundo, and here. At the moment, she found absolutely none. Her heart gave a heavy lurch as tears burned in her eyes.
Taking in a shuddering breath, she let the hot tears roll, her body beginning to shake hard with nervousness. She'd tried her best to hold back her feelings while in this place, whatever emotions she had left after entering this place. But it was apparently too much for her, and her body broke down, jerking at every sob.
"I-I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime stuttered to no one. "I-I guess I c-can't see you in the next lifetime… Because I don't get another…"
The healer sat silently, letting quiet salty drops fall down her face. She closed her eyes and pictured his cute, scowling face, orange hair falling awfully low over the burning amber eyes she loved so much. And just then, his expression would go from annoyed, to amused, just like the look he gave her the day before. A small, soft, but very sincere smile graced his lips, and his eyes still burned with intensity, but it wasn't just resolve and determination. She would picture his eyes full of intense love, and he'd open his mouth ever so slightly, and whisper those three words she'd want to hear.
Long eyelashes fluttering open slowly, tears continued to dribble down her red cheeks, eventually travelling down to her exposed neck. 'I'm so stupid…' She let herself think, wallowing in hurt. Orihime let herself fall sideways onto the large couch and closed her eyes quickly once more.
She knew she daydreamed. Most of it was purely accidental, but there were times where she felt like she hurt so much, she wanted to escape to a temporary fantasy. Now shouldn't be one of those times, she reasoned, but she couldn't help herself.
Her eyelids felt heavy as she pictured Kurosaki-kun in front of her. He was in his bankai shihakusho, and he seemed to be somewhat fatigued, but he smiled. Seeing his own grin made Orihime curl her lips upwards as well. Never would she have thought that he came after her, but here he was in front of her, proving her wrong.
She mouthed his name, causing his smirk to grow wider. He extended his hand out to her, and with soft eyes, he said, 'Let's go home, Inoue…'
But she immediately regretted daydreaming at all. Once eye her eyes opened again, the tears fell onto the couch, melting into the fabric.
Grabbing onto a cushion desperately and holding it close, Orihime choked back another sob. 'Yep… Definitely stupid…' Hearing another knock, she again made no attempt to greet her guest. She merely flipped onto her other side and held the pillow tightly.
"Orihime-chan?"
It was Rangiku again.
"W-What is it?" Orihime squeaked quietly, truly trying her best to shove her feelings back down. So far down, they could never bubble up again, making her feel almost emotionless. At least it didn't hurt so much that way.
"Orihime-chan, I… I didn't want you to be alone," Rangiku spoke softly, sitting on the edge of the couch. Orihime felt the springs of the furniture pull down with the weight. She only responded by curling into a ball. "I'm sorry, Orihime-chan."
"There's nothing for you to be sorry for…" The healer replied, her response muffled by the cushion.
"Let me apologize anyways. Surely you've apologized a lot yourself, hm?" Orihime's face turned a bit red as she silently agreed to her friend's statement.
"… So why are you here again?" Orihime asked in a hushed tone, her fingers itching to hug her friend. She refrained from doing so though, since she was leaving soon. If she hugged her now and poured her heart out once again, as she did before, her busty friend would only feel more guilt later.
"I didn't want you to be alone… Goodness knows it can be scary being alone in such a big room like this," Rangiku explained, lightly placing a hand on Orihime's bare foot, as a sign of comfort. "… Wanna talk about anything?"
Orihime's form curled up tighter, and the shinigami heard a muffled and hesitated, "…No…"
"You sure?"
Again, Orihime hesitated, biting her bottom lip as she forced those rising feelings to stay down. "…No…"
"Aw, Orihime-chan, you can talk to me about anything! Wait! Do you want me to go get you some ice cream, with pickles and red bean paste?" The elder goaded, trying to tempt her and lure the healer out of her shell. Her form remained still.
"I'm not hungry…" She mumbled, hugging the pillow even tighter.
"You didn't eat earlier, when was the last time you ate?"
Orihime shyly peaked out from under the fabric of the cushion, her face slightly red. "Um… two days ago… I think? I still drank water though…"
"Two days? Two days?! Good lord, no wonder you're so frightfully skinny!" Rangiku exclaimed, throwing her hands onto the small girl's waist, pinching her sides lightly. Orihime managed to crack a small, weak smile at her friend's attempt to cheer her up.
"I know, I'm sorry…" She confessed, now drawing imaginary circles on the cloth. "I just… felt sick every time I looked at the food." Rangiku shrugged and patted her lightly on the back.
"You have to eat something though. Otherwise you'll pass out."
Orihime nodded, and on cue, her stomach gave a loud grumble, causing the girl to turn bright red. Rangiku laughed, and promptly stood up.
"That's it, I'm getting you your ice cream," she spoke between chuckles. "And sake. Loooots of sake! And when I get back, you and I are going to have girl talk." Orihime managed to smile a bit bigger, and Rangiku quickly left.
'Rangiku-san's so wonderful… I really do have good friends…' Orihime thought, playing with the fabric of her dress again. '… Too bad this will be the last time I see them…'
Rangiku returned with Orihime's promised ice cream, and lots of sake. Somehow, she managed to calm down enough, and didn't get sick at the sight of her food. Smiling, the healer ate bite after bite of her absolutely delicious frozen treat, when Rangiku popped a surprise question on her.
"So did Ichigo finally realize his undying love for you?"
Orihime didn't know whether she was choking or having a brain freeze from eating too big a bite during the asking of that question. Probably both, she concluded.
"W-What?? K-Kuro- Rangiku-san, no! O-Of course he wouldn't!!" Orihime stuttered, taking long pauses in between to hold her freezing head. Rangiku grinned and poked at the girl's side.
"He bought you the necklace, come on, spill! Tell me what else he did!" She prodded and poked, wanting a juicy answer from the smaller teen. Orihime took another big bite of her snack before answering.
"H-He… hugged me… er, I hugged him the first time, but he hugged me the second time…"
A squeal of delight startled the poor redhead, causing her to almost fling her bowl of ice cream onto the brightly colored wall.
"So how did it happen? Tell me!" Rangiku pleaded, taking a large sip of her sake and pouring another cup.
"I-I… just asked him if I could have a hug, is all…" Orihime muttered, embarrassed. Her face was growing hotter by the minute, and if it weren't for the cold food, it'd probably be even hotter.
"And he didn't say no?? Well, if that isn't a sign of accepting your dying love, then I don't know what is…" Rangiku blanched, lazily taking another sip, before pulling out another cup and forcefully handing it to the younger girl. "Here, in celebration."
Orihime's gray eyes looked at the blonde questionably. "Celebrating what?" She asked. Rangiku smirked as she poured a bit of sake for the underage teen.
"Good question… Never mind, just take a sip. Think of it as a farewell gift."
"Oh, so it's a goodbye thing now?" Orihime questioned, taking a small sniff of the alcohol. Rangiku nodded, still grinning.
"Yuuup, now drink, drink, drink!" Rangiku commanded, soon swigging the rest of her own. Orihime laughed lightly, and somewhat awkwardly, as the obvious thought crossed her mind. 'Rangiku-san's drunk.' Taking a deep breath, the healer soon a sip of the stinky smelling stuff, soon gagging from the burning sensation she got after drinking.
"Are you sure it's okay?" Orihime questioned, trying to speak though it sort of hurt to speak. Rangiku nodded again.
"It's only one sip… Plus, it has no affect on reiatsu or anything, so the Key shouldn't be harmed at all," she explained, swirling her cup around lightly. "Ah, that reminds me."
"Eh?"
Rangiku soon held up her glass and smiled. "Orihime-chan's a woman now. You've grown up, and I really am proud of you."
"Wait… Is this a congratulations instead?"
"I guess, just put your glass up."
Laughing lightly, she did as she was told, and put her cup up, as she was told. And as Rangiku rambled on, cracking jokes to herself, Orihime's smile faded a bit. She enjoyed her friend's company, she really did. But she couldn't help be feel down as the bitter thought crossed her mind.
'This could very well be the last time I'm happy.'
Hearing Rangiku finish her mindless talking, she soon forced a hearty smile back to the shinigami.
"Thank you, Rangiku-san."
---
The full moon shone brightly on the many souls present in the field. Orihime wiggled her toes in between the grass strands, finding it hard to contain her worry. All captains were nearby, all watching with different expressions. Some looked at her in pity; some looked at her proudly, like she was doing a good thing for Soul Society.
Letting go of a nervous sigh, Orihime fidgeted lightly as she and the rest of the authority figures waited for the head captain to arrive. One he would come, the ceremony to bring Inoue Orihime to the Royal Realm would begin.
She looked at the large, Golden Gate in front of her, noticing its odd glow. It sort of reminded her of the light orange glow from her own Shun Shun Rikka.
It wasn't long until they saw the familiar head captain coming up the hill, his vice-captain at his side.
"Inoue Orihime, are you ready to leave for the Royal Realm?" Yamamoto's voice bellowed out as he marched closer.
'You'd send me even if I wasn't ready…' She thought bitterly to herself. Giving them a shaky nod, Orihime took a step forward, slowly getting closer to the glowing entrance.
"Very well then… Inoue Orihime, once you get to the Royal Realm, you will immediately be taught on your duties. You will also be informed of how to control the Key better, and within time, you should be able to use it's power as your own," the old man informed the small teen, his voice very intimidating. Again, she gave a shaky nod and stepped forward again.
"… Yes sir…"
Her body tingled with worry and nervousness as tears stuck to her eyelashes. She brought her hands to her stinging eyes, wiping away the salty drops from her vision. Taking in a shuddering breath, she thought of him as a way to calm down. A small, sad smile graced her lips as she took the final step towards the gate.
"I'll be going now…" Orihime muttered, bunching up the fabric of her dress in her fingers. "Ja ne…"
"Like hell you're not!"
She froze, sending a shock down her spine hearing that voice. 'It couldn't be! H-He'd never come here!' Orihime turned around slowly, fearful what she'd just heard was her imagination, and that her mind was just playing tricks on her.
But he was real. Orange hair, smoldering amber eyes, tall, wearing a black shihakusho, and a small, familiar smirk.
"Hey Inoue."
---
R & R, pleeeease. XD