A/N- Hello! First of all thank you all who took time to read my story. I was soooo happy by the reviews I received!
:D
Now here I am with another new chapter. I have taken the present arc into consideration and this story basically takes place after the thousand year blood war. But those who don't know about it need not worry at all. Sorry if there are any typos or grammar mistakes. Didn't have time to proof read it.

Disclaimer:Bleach belongs to KT

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DREAMING OF YOU

She was walking in front of him, clad in white, barefoot in a forest. The rays of the setting sun reflecting off her copper curls as they swayed around her waist. The beauty of his surrounding was overshadowed by the beauty of the girl. Somewhere nearby there was a flowing stream, its gentle gushing and trickling mixed with her quiet humming was music to his ears, serenading him with both calm and longing. It was strangely liberating and hauntingly beautiful. This was it...the voice he'd been waiting to hear for years. Suddenly, she halted next to a very large sakura tree. It was in full bloom...laden with pink and white flowers,lovely and full of life, so much like her. A gentle wind blew through the pink petals and also through her russet tresses as she turned around, her eyes dancing with an untold mystery, and gave him a heart throbbing smile, both stunning and so very sad. He reached out for her but his fingers closed around nothing but air...and then he felt it, a slight brush against his fingers and even in his dream, the air seemed to reach back.

Ichigo opened his eyes slowly. He had dreamt of Inoue but it had felt so very real. He looked down at his hand, eyes wide. He could still feel his fingers tingling. His alarm clock started ringing at that moment. Scowling at his hand one last time, he got up from his bed and looked out of the window. It was a beautiful day in Karakura, spring had arrived.

Spirits lifting, Ichigo headed for the shower, not wanting to be late today of all days. He had studied medicine and was a doctor now, like his father, in a reputed hospital in Tokyo. He lived alone in a comfortable apartment. But he was visiting Karakura this weekend and they had all planned to meet today for a picnic near Karasu River. The whole gang would be there. Chad, Tatsuki and Ishida had stayed in Karakura town, Keigo had moved to Shinjuku city which wasn't too far while Ichigo and Mizuiro had moved to Tokyo. Renji and Rukia would be coming from Soul Society.

Ichigo went downstairs where the smell of delicious breakfast greeted him.

"Ohayo Onii-chan!" Yuzu greeted him while Karin just grunted, her mouth already full of food. Both of them were dressed in uniforms. The twins were high school seniors now. Seeing them reminded Ichigo of Inoue and Tatsuki. He tried to conjure up an image of Tatsuki beating up a random creep while Orihime tried to stop her but for some reason; her face was blurred in his memory as if hidden in a shroud of mist.

What was that? Why couldn't he picture Inoue? Thinking it was probably due to his sleep clogged brain function in the morning Ichigo let the incident slip.

"Where is Oya-ji?" Ichigo asked Yuzu, noting how quiet and normal the morning had been.
"Oh he went to a conference in Hokkaido. He'll be back in a few days." She answered setting out a plate for him.

So the old goat was out. No wonder it was so peaceful. Ichigo thought wryly.

"Ne Ichi-nii, I want your room. You hardly ever stay here so it's so unfair that you don't allow anyone else to move in either, even though it's empty." Karin complained with a frown, chopsticks sticking out of her mouth.
Ichigo looked at his sister. Her tomboyish attitude had not changed in the slightest. And she had been complaining non-stop about how girly Yuzu was and how even the "daughters" of the Kurosaki family should have their own space and what not.

"Even if I let you have my room you both will just end up staying together. So what's the point?" Ichigo said offhandedly knowing it was impossible to separate the twins. Both of them had the polar opposite personalities, looks as well as interests but were inseparable since birth.

"No fair Ichi-nii!" Karin said mutinously.

"Tch. Why you both are dressed for school anyways? Isn't it the weekend?" Ichigo asked starting to eat his breakfast, his usual frown firmly in place.

"We have extra classes for university entrance exams." Yuzu said brightly, settling down on the table with her own plate.
"It's such a pain." Karin commented flatly.

Karin seemed to be in a bad mood that morning, Ichigo noted. He knew even if he asked her whether everything was all right, she won't tell him anything. He was first to admit that he was not the brightest kid on the block when it came to understanding how girls felt so he kept his business to himself.

"Fine...you can have my room." Ichigo said looking at Karin again who was furiously poking a potato with her chop sticks to vent her feelings.
"R-really?" she asked looking up, her eyes wide while Yuzu choked on her fried eggs.
"Yeah...don't ask me again or I might change my mind", He commented dryly brushing a hand through his spiky orange hair willing it to flatten itself, which of course didn't happen.

"There is probably some old stuff of mine in there. Most of it is junk but if you find something you think might be useful just keep it aside and I'll take a look after I come back." Ichigo said standing up after finishing his breakfast.

"Oh I already threw your stuff out last year when I was cleaning your room and yes most of it was useless. But there was a photo album full of pictures, a lot of highly colorful and illustrative bunny drawings, a few old manga, some music CDs" Yuzu was counting on her fingers. "Oh, and there was a lovely journal which I didn't look into. Probably your diary, ne Onii-chan?" She finished with devilish glint in her eyes.

Ichigo who was just walking out of the door stopped dead in his tracks. His attention, which was fixed on his cell phone as he texted Mizuiro, was completely diverted.

"A journal?" he repeated slowly, frown deepening as the nape of his neck prickled.
"Hai!"

Ichigo raced his memory and for the life of him couldn't remember ever keeping a diary in high school.

"I have kept all of them in a bag in your closet so if you want I-"

Ichigo turned around swiftly and almost ran upstairs. He knew it was no big deal, its probably just some stupid old notebook, but he couldn't stop his legs and their brisk pace for some reason.

He reached his room and opened his wardrobe, it seemed impossibly small to him and he wondered how the dark haired imp had stayed there for so long. His eyes traveled from the bottom shelf to the topmost one and sure enough in the right corner of the top shelf sat an inconspicuous grey bag.
He pulled it out slowly expecting there to be a layer of dust on top of it. But it was clean. As expected from his sister, concluded Ichigo, a crooked half smile lifting his lips.

Keeping the bag on his old study table Ichigo slid the chain open deftly and looked inside. Everything inside was neatly arranged. Sure enough, it had a lot a battered old manga, a few music CDs, an old earphone, Rukia's hideous drawings were stacked on one side and then there was that picture album. Ichigo flipped through it once. It contained many pictures of his high school days mostly with Mizuiro, Keigo and Chad. Tatsuki and Ishida,looking prissy as ever, appeared in a few of them too. His eyes kept searching for someone else though. It looked like he didn't have any pictures of Inoue which was a slightly disheartening thought as he was already forgetting her face and after everything they had gone through together, invading three worlds together, he didn't have a single freaking picture of the person who saved his life more times than he could count. Suddenly Ichigo felt like an ass. He never necessarily ignored her but maybe he should've paid her more attention and been a little more grateful...she damn well deserved it, more from him than anyone else.

Not a single fucking picture Ichigo concluded, double checking. Maybe she'd left because she got tired of him as he had always been an unfeeling git towards her, having the emotional perception of, well frankly, a Gillian.

But he let the thought drift as his eyes found something else. It was, sure enough, a diary clad in soft, worn out leather of light brown hue. The pages weren't crisp but bore the signs of gentle aging from being unused for a long time.

Breath caught in his throat, Ichigo flipped to the first page and he almost felt his heart stop.
There taped to the first page was a large photograph. There were 9 people pressed close together, all smiling for the camera, Renji, Rukia, Ishida, Chad, Mizuiro, Keigo Ichigo and...Inoue.
She looked astounding and he remembered the moment as if it was yesterday and not 5 years ago on the New Year's Day when they had gone for the shrine visit. They were all dressed in Kimonos. Ichigo didn't have this picture but he clearly remembered posing for it while Ururu had been the one with the camera.

And three months after that, when the first of the sakura started blossoming and spring was at their doorstep, Inoue had gone without a trace. Spring that year had lost all meaning for them.

He felt a pang of sadness as he looked at her smiling face. Even in the picture she glowed, so much like the sun. It had been a great day. The last one they had all spent together before they got busy with entrance exams and stuff.

He looked at her closely taking a note of all her features. Her face was flushed with laughter, lips stretched in a wide smile and her eyes glazed as if...as if. Ichigo looked at the photograph again, bringing it close to his face, his nose almost touching it.

Is it just my mind playing tricks on me or does it look like her eyes are full of tears? He winced at the thought.

Had she already decided by then that she was leaving, Ichigo wondered. Did she know how much her going away would affect everyone...would affect him? Inoue was irreplaceable to all of them but for Ichigo she was something more than that. In all of his fights against powerful enemies, being so close to death on so many occasions and shouldering the weight of so much hate...it was her presence that reminded him that the world is still bright...that there is still hope. Her encouraging smiles kept helped him fight, her complete faith in him helped him win and after the battles when she put his battered body together, he knew he was home. None of his other friends made him feel the way she did. Even amongst his nakama...she was different, she was special.

He closed his eyes, reveling in his memory of her...and all the things he found hard to remember the past few days came flooding back, drowning him in their comforting familiarity. He could remember every last detail of the times they had spent together...those moments dancing in his mind, the air alight with memories he'd made with her and heavy with pain of loss. Ichigo, for the life of him, couldn't fathom how he could have forgotten anything about her ever. Even after these five years she felt so real. Not a day had passed when he didn't think about her.

But today was different. True, granted Inoue was his precious nakama and would always remain so no matter how many years passed, but he usually didn't think about her with so much intensity, at least he hadn't in the recent months. There was something about that morning which made him ache with longing to see her one more time.

Ichigo looked at the adjacent page and recognized Inoue's familiar handwriting, written in a simple blue ink.

Inoue Orihime.

Insides tingling, he reached to flip the page but at that moment he heard a knock at his bedroom door. It was Karin.

"Ichi-nii, Tatsuki-chan is here to see you and she looks a little, uh, disturbed...we're leaving for school." She announced poking her head inside his room.

Tatsuki? What was she doing there, disturbed none the less? Maybe she'd come to haul his ass to the river bank seeing as how he was late for their meet up. Tch even after all these years, she was as annoying as ever. Ichigo thought ruefully, having completely forgotten about their meeting.

At that moment Tatsuki bounded into his room. She had a wild look about her.

"Tatsu-"

"Ichigo...do you remember Orihime?" She asked him abruptly,she was panting heavily and Ichigo noticed her clenched fists were shaking.

"Remember Inoue? What do you mean?" Of course he remembered her, how could he not.

Her eyes fell on the diary which was still in his hands and she hastily took a shaky step towards him, recognizing it immediately.

"Where did you get that?" she asked him pointing at the diary, sounding a bit unnerved as her eyes glistened with tears of frustration.

"I found it in my room...it's Inoue's." He replied, his words sounding strange to his own ears. Why was it there in his room?

Of course it was hers. Tatsuki thought as a blurred image of the pretty girl bending over and writing something in that same book materialized in her thoughts.

...

"What are you doing Orihime?" Tatsuki had found her friend sitting in a far corner of the library one day during lunch, an English dictionary open next to her.

"Eh?...Hahaha.. I'm just writing" she had replied blushing.

"Is that a diary?"

"Eto...not quite." she had said, flushed with embarrassment.

"Let me read it!" Tatsuki had teased her.

"No! I-I mean..."

"Tch. You have probably written about your plans to become a cyborg in the future...and a secret love letter to that dense carrot top" Tatsuki had said suggestively making the red-head blush profusely.

"It's more than that." a quiet reply had come from her.

...

Tears spilled down her cheeks as that memory too faded into darkness. Tatsuki took a deep breadth trying to calm herself, she never cried dammit! It was beyond cruel that her best friend had left but it was completely heart breaking to have her memories disappear too. With the way things were going, she knew that, any moment now, she would completely forget about her best friend. It was all happening so fast that it made her head spin. She bent double trying not to puke. Ichigo immediately tried to help her sit down but she jerked his hand away. Her precious memories were slowly disappearing, the tighter she held on, the faster they faded...it was like trying to hold water in her bare hands.

Tatsuki knew...there was no time. She moved forward and grabbed his collar looking straight into his eyes.

"Ichigo...my memories of the times I spent with Orihime are fading, everyone has already forgotten about her. Soon I...I will forget her too...find her and bring her back. I know you can..you must. There is something terribly wrong going on here" Tatsuki said trying to stop her body from shaking.

Tatsuki knew...no matter how much Orihime had loved her and everyone else, it was the man standing in front of her who had meant the world to Orihime, it had always been him. He was not just someone she loved...he was her state of mind.

Tatsuki felt helpless tears prickling her eyes again as the last shard of memory faded from existence in her mind, taking away all the cherished time she had spent with Orihime. She couldn't help but crumble in a heap on the floor. She could hear Ichigo saying something as he shook her shoulders.

If the place I'm going is somewhere Tatsuki-chan can't go, then please wait for me here, I will come back for sure. Come back to Tatsuki-chan's side. A sweet voice echoed in her mind, reverberating inside her soul and then it was gone, so warm in its familiarity and so painful in its parting, as it made her remember a bygone time when she was with her...when they were together. Complete.

"Promise me Ichigo...Promise me..." she choked out.

"I promise." he had whispered.

That's right...you hold her heart.

And then Tatsuki forgot all about blushing smiles, soulful eyes, lovely laughter, strange food tastes, impossible dreams and long copper tresses symbolizing an unbreakable bond...the one who loved her, the one she loved.

She closed her eyes and Ichigo watched her loose the one solace she'd been holding on to...her memories.

The diary was lying on the floor beside him, it was flipped open to the first entry.

1. Zeitgeist

Noun.
the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time.

If someone had given me a choice between living my life and living the one Zeitgeist when I first fell in love, I would have gladly preferred the latter by far. Anytime. Such is the madness of only true magic of life. I shall keep it as my guiding star forever.

-13th January,2011

As Ichigo easily read those words written in a foreign language and jotted in a lovely stroke, his insides gave a lurch as their meaning registered. And at that moment he felt somehow everything was going to change for him.

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A/N-So what did you guys think? Is the story a bit slow? The plot here is as important as romance. I hope Ichigo was not too OOC but the thing is five years have passed, so I decided to take subtle changes into account. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and can anyone guess what is happening to our lovely Orihime?
Please read and please, please,please,please review and as always constructive criticism is welcome.
:D
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