The Sun and the Moon
Chapter 6
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Ichigo said as he closed the ward door behind him. "Old patients don't usually like getting checked for everything, but it seems Yamashita-san deviates from the norm."
Inoue Orihime chuckled. "Nn, it's okay, Kurosaki-kun! I haven't been waiting long."
Ichigo knew it was lie, because Nurse Mashima had informed him during Yamashita-san's checkup that the beautiful, well-endowed girl had been waiting for him since seven in the evening.
Orihime held out a big plastic bag towards him. As they walked to the canteen, Ichigo opened it to look at the contents inside, which revealed themselves to be his own clothes, freshly-laundered and still smelling of flower-scented detergent.
"Oh, look, Kurosaki-kun! There's an empty table over there!" Orihime had already made her way towards the table before Ichigo could even react to the discovery that once again, for the umpteenth time, the girl had taken the initiative to wash his laundry.
Ichigo followed her gingerly towards the table, where Orihime had already seated herself. "Ano… Inoue. I told you, didn't I? You don't have to wash my laundry—"
"No, Kurosaki-kun! It was nothing, heh.. heh.." The girl was in an awfully joyous mood, and she rambled on and on about her difficulty choosing what to eat as they ordered. Finally, the food came and Orihime started piling on melted cheese on her salmon belly sushi, when she noticed that Ichigo had remained quiet and was staring at her.
"Kurosaki-kun? Is something wrong?"
"Why are you here, Inoue?" asked Ichigo quietly, his face holding a strange expression which Orihime had never seen before. "To see you, of course, Kurosaki-kun!"
"I heard from Tatsuki that your house was a mess, so I came down and—"
"I told you a million times never to clean my house again, didn't I?"
Orihime seemed to cower back slightly in fear. Ichigo regretted immediately for sounding too fierce. He was not really angry with the girl, it was more of… frustration. He made a mental note to himself to make sure his apartment door was locked before he left the house ever again.
The girl in front of him looked down at her lap in sadness. For a moment, Ichigo feared that she might start crying right then and there in the middle of the canteen. He noted that the Chief of Medicine was dining with his other seniors at a nearby table. "Are you angry with me, Kurosaki-kun?"
Ichigo sighed. "No, I am not angry, Inoue. Just that—"
"Orihime," the girl said softly.
Ichigo blinked back in confusion.
"You can call me Orihime, Kurosaki-kun."
Ichigo looked away. He did not know how long he could keep this up, how long they could do this.
"Don't."
Orihime saw that his hand was clenched to a fist. Looking up, she realized that Ichigo was scowling intently at his fist in concentration. "Don't do this anymore, Inoue."
Orihime broke into a smile, suddenly eager to change the topic. "Alright, Kurosaki-kun! Look, let's not—"
Ichigo looked up in anger this time, speaking every single word with malice. "Do you think, Inoue, that by doing all this for me – cleaning my house, washing my laundry – I will suddenly proclaim my undying love to you?"
The smile on Orihime's face dropped immediately, her brown eyes betrayed the hurt his words had caused.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Inoue, before you finally give up?"
This time he had done it; Ichigo looked up to see Orihime's tear-stained face. He felt like the biggest bastard in the whole world, but he knew that if he did not become one now, he would be an even bigger bastard later.
"I know, Kurosaki-kun. I know that when Kuchiki-san was around, I could never compete with her. But I had hoped that… I had hoped…"
Ichigo laughed menacingly. It almost felt like he was watching someone else, and not himself, making a girl cry and hurting her feelings. "That I would reciprocate your feelings?"
Orihime looked up and stared back at his defiant eyes. "No, Kurosaki-kun. I know I will never be able to replace Kuchiki-san in your heart, demo… I want you to depend on me, even if… Even if you cannot love me back… Just, please, Kurosaki-kun, at least try to…"
Ichigo stared at Orihime incredulously as she continued. "I do not mind if you marry me out of pity, I just… I just want to be by your side forever…"
Ichigo stood up in disbelief. He was about to stalk off due to the absurdity of her suggestion; he could not take hearing her words any second longer, but Orihime clutched his arm, this time attracting the attention of the diners at nearby tables. Orihime looked at him in a beseeching plea. He returned her gaze, this time the scowl on his face softening. This woman… This woman was offering herself to him wholeheartedly, this wonderful, beautiful woman… And yet, why couldn't he find it in himself to say yes?
Orihime looked at him expectantly. Ichigo sighed and took the hand which clutched desperately at his arm, a gesture which seemed to raise some hope within Orihime. He motioned for them to sit down, and finally when the attention of the onlookers had been diverted elsewhere, he continued, "I'm sorry, Inoue."
More tears fell as Orihime looked down dejectedly.
His hand still holding hers, Ichigo said, "I can't do that, Orihime."
"I can't lie to you, or to myself. Can you do that, Orihime? Can you live a lie?"
Time ticked by in silence, then finally Orihime extracted her hand from beneath his and quickly stood up from her chair.
"Sayonara, Kurosaki-kun," was the last thing she said before she left him, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Ichigo sat alone at the table later for a few minutes, perhaps hours, silently wondering to himself what a certain raven-haired shinigami would do to him, what punishment he would get, had she known what a bastard he had been.
"Congratulations, Rukia!"
The female shinigami almost choked on her sake when her red-haired childhood friend patted her on the back so violently. After coughing out the snorted alcohol unceremoniously, she scolded, "Stop it, you idiot, you almost killed me!"
Abarai Renji looked back at her quizzically. "What's with your face? It doesn't look like it belongs to someone who had just been promoted to the position of a lieutenant!"
"Shut up, Renji."
"What, you're not happy with it? Aspiring to be a captain is a bit too ambitious at this point of time, isn't it, Rukia?" Renji poured himself another cup of sake. It was the first time Rukia had joined the other lieutenants in their weekly sake gatherings at Rukongai. Matsumoto Rangiku was already knocked out after downing almost 5 bottles of sake by herself, and Kira Izuru had to run to the backdoor as he was going to be sick. Just like every other week, nothing abnormal there.
"What captain, you idiot?" Rukia replied, deciding she might as well pour herself some sake too. "I didn't want to get seated at all, Renji."
"Why not? Ukitake-taichou had been wanting to make you his lieutenant for ages, and finally Kuchiki-taichou had come around to letting you become a seated officer…"
Placing the cup to her mouth, Rukia downed the alcohol in one shot. There was a burning sensation as the sake flowed down her throat, but the after-taste was refreshing. She was reminded of the day her brother informed her of the recommendation to appoint her as the new lieutenant of the thirteenth squad.
"I am honoured, Onii-sama," she said, bowing her head such that her forehead touched the tips of her hands flat on the floor. "But—"
"I have conveyed my approval to Ukitake-taichou's request, Rukia. Taking up his previous post—" Rukia looked up slightly, "—I think Shiba Kaien would find it a very generous gesture from you, do you not agree?"
At that point, Rukia could not understand why she could not bring herself to say anything but, "Yes, Nii-sama."
Rukia sighed at the memory. The tattooed man beside her was now observing a certain pink-haired lieutenant terrorizing Izuru who had just returned from the back of the teahouse.
"I know why you're not exactly happy about it," Renji's deep voice broke through her own thoughts.
Her childhood friend looked at her knowingly. "Now that you're a lieutenant, you can't go back and forth between the living world and Soul Society as easily as before."
Renji said it so matter-of-factly, he might have been stating instead that the world was round and not flat.
The quick flicker of her gaze towards him betrayed her shock at his astute observation, but Rukia said nothing to his comment. "Don't think I haven't noticed your unexplained disappearances into the living world, Rukia."
"Your brother noticed it too."
Rukia sighed, dropping all pretences. "Perhaps that's exactly why he approved of my appointment in the first place, to prevent me from ever going back to the living world," she lamented as she adjusted the position of the wooden badge with her squad's insignia and number on her upper arm. She still had not gotten used to its annoying presence.
"So you have been meeting him then?"
Rukia stopped fidgeting with her lieutenant's badge and poured herself another drink. She was finally starting to understand the joys of sake. "No wonder I never stood a chance…"
"He doesn't know," she said quickly, before pouring the warm alcohol into her mouth. Renji looked at her disbelievingly. "So you've been following him around like a stalker?"
"Shut up."
Rukia poured herself the last drop from the bottle, and downed another cup of sake. Renji decided that it was probably best that he left the topic at that, considering that his friend was now seemingly determined to empty the teahouse of all its sake bottles. For a moment, the two childhood friends just observed the rest of the lieutenants, who were all either dead drunk, or getting abused by Yachiru-fukutaichou.
After fifteen minutes, Rukia had felt it was courtesy to join the rest, and dropped her head on the table with a loud thud, muttering incoherently from intoxication, leaving Renji the only sane person left in the group. "Oi, Rukia!"
Renji jabbed his friend by the ribs. "Stop it, Ichigo… towakke…" murmured the petite shinigami, before falling asleep with her mouth unflatteringly open.
Renji sighed. Watching all his fellow lieutenants make a fool of themselves, he made a mental note to himself never to invite Rukia to another weekly gathering ever again.