A/N: Thank you everyone for the Favs and Alerts it makes me happy that people are checking up on this story. Sorry it took so long for me to post this chapter. I was having a hard time deciding where to end ch 3 and start ch 4... Anyway I hope you like it!
It happened shortly after three in the morning, something woke Orihime. She wasn't sure what woke her but then she heard it, a small whimper, barely audible, and then a louder one. Looking over she realized that Akiyoshi was shaking slightly. Scooting closer to him she noticed he was still sleeping. There was a dampness on his cheeks which meant he must have been having a nightmare. She wasn't sure what to do since she knew you weren't suppose to wake people from nightmares but after Akiyoshi let out another whimper she decided to anyway.
"Akiyoshi-kun, I need you to wake up." She continued to shake his shoulder, "Hey please wake up."
His body suddenly stirred, he opened his eyes, "Princess? What's wrong?"
Orihime smiled softly at him, "You looked like you were having a bad dream so I thought it might be best to wake you."
The memories of the nightmare came back to him and he nodded slowly. "I was having a scary dream."
"Do you want to tell me about it? Sometimes talking about them makes them less scary."
"Well I don't remember all of it, just the scary part." Sitting up and snuggling close to Orihime, he continued, "I was running in the woods and something was chasing me. I couldn't see it but I could hear it roar really loudly." With this Akiyoshi stood up and roared like the monster from his dream. "I kept running and it kept chasing me, every once in awhile it would roar or tell me it was going to eat me!" With this his eyes got big as he looked down at Orihime.
It made Orihime uneasy with how much this monster sounded like a hollow and she began to wonder if his powers were going to awaken sooner than later. She wasn't sure how things were going to work for him since she gained her ability to see hollows and ghosts on that fateful night when Ichigo saved her from her brother.
Wanting to comfort the boy she said, "Well you don't have to worry because I'm here with you and I'll keep you safe! If that ever happened I'd show up with flashlights and then it wouldn't be dark anymore and we could use the lights as swords and defeat that scary roaring bad thing." With this Orihime had jumped up and pretended to wield a sword like she was defeating bad guys.
Akiyoshi began to giggle, and so Orihime's smiled mischievously, stopping her imaginary sword fight to tickle him.
After his fits of laughter died down she looked at him seriously, "Akiyoshi-kun, remember I'm here for you now. I won't let any scary monsters harm you and I'll take care of you always, okay?"
With a smile on his face he answered, "Yes, I understand Princess. I believe in you."
Orihime, being touched at the amount of faith this child was putting in her, couldn't help herself as she squealed and wrapped him in a big hug. To which Akiyoshi accepted and started giggling again.
"Now, we should really get back to sleep," Orihime said releasing him from her hold.
But instead of climbing back in his own futon Akiyoshi snuggled into Orihime's. Orihime just smiled and climbed in with him and cuddled him up and they drifted off to sleep.
As the next morning came Orihime began to stir, when all of a sudden she had the wind knocked out of her. Gasping she opened her brown eyes wide what she saw were big gray ones staring back at her.
Akiyoshi was sitting on top of her with a big smile on his face, "Good morning Princess!"
She smiled back and tried to sit up to no avail. Finally she said, "Good morning Akiyoshi-kun, would you mind getting off of me so that I can get up?"
Not realizing he had knocked the wind out of Orihime, he jumped up, "Okay Princess! So what are we going to play today?" with that question his stomach gurgled.
Orihime laughed and said, "How about we put up our futons, get dressed, and then eat breakfast while we decide?"
"Okay!" with that said Akiyoshi began folding the blankets while Orihime put the futons in the closet.
With that done Orihime took Akiyoshi into the living room and put on some cartoons for him to watch. He was fascinated by them, cartoons were a new thing for him as the only shows that he and Baa-chan watched were old time endo period dramas. While he was busy watching the shows, Orihime headed into the kitchen to make breakfast.
Breakfast was a big deal for Orihime who felt that meal times were the most important times of the day. Since she didn't know exactly what Akiyoshi would like she decided to make a simple traditional breakfast including miso soup and steamed rice with a variety of side dishes. Once everything was ready and situated on the table she called Akiyoshi over to eat.
"Wow, everything looks yummy!" Akiyoshi said.
"Thank you! I wasn't sure what you liked so I tried to make a little of everything." She replied with a huge smile. "There is natto, tamagoyaki, umeboshi, and nori, as well as the steamed rice and miso soup. Oh, and I also have some red bean paste, wasabi, cheese and butter for toppings!"
With a huge grin Akiyoshi said, "Itadaki-masu."
Orihime smiled back and repeated "Itadaki-masu."
With this said Orihime began to slather red bean paste on the majority of her breakfast as well as mix butter and cheese in her soup. Akiyoshi watched her with rapid fascination; once she dug in and didn't die he decided to try it also. Taking some of the red bean paste he covered only part of his breakfast, just in case he didn't like it, and took a bite. His eyes lit up at how delicious it tasted, which made Orihime laugh.
"Isn't it great! I keep trying to get my friends to try it but they won't!" she said with a pout.
"I think it's really super! I never even thought of trying to do that before." Akiyoshi said and took another bite.
"I'm really glad you like it, we should have something extra delicious for dinner tonight!" Orihime said excitedly, "Maybe when we go out later we can pick up some ingredients and you can help me in the kitchen?"
"Really, you'll let me help? It's going to be so much fun." With this he quickly finished his breakfast, "Gochisou-sama."
She laughed and quickly finished her own breakfast. "Gochisou-sama."
"Can we go shopping now, Princess?" He could barely contain his excitement, "I haven't been shopping before, and this is going to be so cool."
"Hold on a second, before we go shopping we need to know what we need to buy. I think we're going to need some stuff for your bedroom too. So we need to finish your room first. How about we make a list of everything we need to buy and then make an afternoon of it?" Orihime asked.
"Okay, what should we do first?" he replied with a small sigh.
She smiled as she responded, "Well first let's get the rest of your things put away, and then we'll know what we still need. We can look around at a few different stores. We may not buy anything today, but it would be nice to see what you like. Let's pack a lunch and we can go to a park I wanted to show you. After that we'll stop at the grocery store on the way home."
"So first I have to clean my room?" Akiyoshi said while wrinkling his nose. He held up his hand and extended his index finger and began counting, "Then go shopping. To the park. And the grocery store," he noticed he had opened his whole hand and frowned. Tapping his fingers with his other, he closed his thumb and said, "Four things!"
"Yep, that sounds right. I'll help you with your room so let's get started." Orihime said.
The bedroom took even less time then she thought to clean. Before Akiyoshi's arrival, Orihime didn't keep much in the room; only her sewing items and a few loose odds and ends. She simply scooped them all into a bin and moved it to her own bedroom to arrange later. Examining the now mostly bare room, she contemplated what the boy would need. It was clear Akiyoshi didn't need much in the way of furniture; just a dresser for his clothing and a bookshelf to house his puzzles and books. She figured that with her savings and new promotion she would be able to afford the items comfortably.
After finishing the bedroom they packed the bentos, made the grocery list, and headed out. First they stopped by a few furniture stores until they came across exactly what they were looking for. It was a child's furniture set that came with a small dresser, a bookshelf, and a toy chest. The set was light brown and even though they didn't need a toy chest it was a nice bonus. Since the price was good Orihime went ahead a purchased it and scheduled to have it delivered on Monday afternoon. With that done they happily headed to the park.
Orihime had another agenda for going to the particular park that they were headed to. This park was located across the street from the bakery that she worked at. She wanted to make sure she would be able to see Akiyoshi from there while she worked. Currently she didn't have anyone to watch him so she figured she'd let him play in the park until she got off work. After they found a nice spot under a tree they sat down to rest and have their lunch.
"Yoshi-kun, do you see that bakery across the street?" Orihime asked, while setting out the bento boxes they had brought from home.
Looking up at the new nickname she gave, he smiled big, "Is it the one with the cakes in the windows?"
"Yep that's the one," realizing that she shortened his name she continued, "Ah I'm sorry! I should have asked if it was okay for me to call you Yoshi-kun. It just seemed to fit you and it is part of your name so I didn't think you would mind." She replied with a bright face.
"No don't say sorry Princess I really like it and you let me call you Princess so it's fair right!" with this said Akiyoshi looked up at her happily.
She laughed, "Okay then Yoshi-kun it is! Anyway what I wanted to talk to you about was that starting Monday I have to work across the street at that bakery."
"Okay, do I go with you?" He asked curiously.
"Well, sort of, today's Saturday, so we still have tomorrow, and then it's Monday. I was thinking that while I work you could come here and play. I'll come have lunch with you during my break."
"Um, well okay as long as you come during lunch." Akiyoshi responded.
Orihime could tell that Akiyoshi wasn't too keen on the idea but she didn't really have another choice. So with that said she sent him off to play. Akiyoshi ran off towards the other children who were there playing. Orihime settled back against the tree so that she could relax. It wasn't long before thoughts of her current situation began to invade her mind. Although she really liked Akiyoshi she was still apprehensive about raising him. She didn't really know much about being a single parent, the only references she had were what she could remember about Sora and Kurosaki-san. Sora had had always been kind even when he needed to discipline her but her memories ended when she was nine so they were a little foggy. Then there was Kurosaki-san who was also a single parent, but she didn't know all that much about his relationship with his children, mostly just that he liked to wake Ichigo up by kicking him and constantly planned sneak attacks on him. She was pretty sure she didn't want to wake Akiyoshi that way and that he was too young for sneak attacks. With a sigh Orihime opened her eyes, looking around she found Akiyoshi playing tag with a couple of kids. It made her smile to hear him laughing and having fun. Seeing this eased her heart, although she was nervous she still felt like she made the right decision. Akiyoshi noticed her looking and gave her a wave; she gave a wave back of her own. After another twenty minutes she noticed that the children began to disperse back to their parents. She, herself, realized that they should probably be on their way soon so she began to clean up their lunch. Once this was done she glanced up and noticed that Akiyoshi was standing next to a little girl about his age talking and laughing with her.
The smile slowly fell from Orihime's face when she noticed the chain dangling from the little girl's chest. She had thought she would have more time before Akiyoshi would be able to see ghosts; she was honestly hoping for a couple of years so they could get used to living together first. Orihime noticed that Akiyoshi was looking at her a bit concerned, so she quickly put a smile back on her face and beckoned him to come back to her. He smiled in return and began to run towards her.
"Did you have fun Yoshi-kun?" Orihime asked once he was close enough.
"Yep! I made lots of friends. I can't remember all their names but they said that they come here a lot to play." Akiyoshi said excitedly.
Orihime smiled, "Well that's great! I'm glad you made some friends. We'll come here bunches so that you can make lots and lots of friends."
With this statement she was rewarded with a huge smile and a big hug.
"Yoshi-kun, we need to get going now, we still have to stop and pick up the ingredients for dinner. When we get home I would like to talk to you about a few things also." She gave him a small smile when she noticed he was reluctant to leave.
"Alright, but can I go say bye to Hisa-chan?"
"Sure," Orihime replied.
Akiyoshi ran towards the girl he was just talking to. He knew that she was different somehow since no else talked to her but he thought that it may be that she was shy and this was her first time at the park too. So he wanted to make sure that she knew that he would be her friend but he had to go home now.
"Hisa-chan, Princess said that it's time to go home so I can't play anymore today." Akiyoshi said once he reached her side
"Okay, will you come back and play with me sometime?" Hisa-chan asked in a quiet voice that was barely audible.
"Yep, Princess says that she'll bring me here tons" Akiyoshi said with a smile
"Why do you call her Princess and not Okaa-san?" Hisa-chan asked
Akiyoshi was a bit confused but he answered, "I don't have an Okaa-san I only have Princess. I call her Princess because I think she's a princess. Anyway I have to go we can talk more next time I'm here."
With this Akiyoshi waved and began to walk back to Orihime. He was curious on what made an Okaa-san an Okaa-san and if Orhime was his Okaa-san. When Akiyoshi reached her she held out her hand to him and without a second thought he took it. He decided that he wasn't worried about the Okaa-san thing as long as he had Orihime.
A/N: So I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Psst... You see that button below... press it! Please review!