Shopping Together

AN: Trying to keep it mainly Ichigo's POV but if anything is confusing please feel free to let me know. Thank you JK Robertson, Aquavit, Gastromancer420, Carefreeberry, and Guest for taking the time to let me know what you think. It keeps me motivated.

Neither knew what they were doing but they both knew a change was happening. Slowly he pulled away, ready to tell her goodnight when her grey eyes looked up at him with such love he couldn't stop himself. He leaned down and lightly pressed his lips to her's. He pulled back slightly to see how she would react when she smiled up at him and pulled him down for another kiss. It was sweet, timid and perfect to them.

Ichigo's POV

I couldn't believe it, Inoue Orihime was kissing me! I was running out of air, but I didn't care, I'd do anything to keep this kiss going forever. Slowly I felt her pull back until I lowered my forehead to hers. When her beautiful grey eyes opened I could tell she was going to say something, I only hoped it was good.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ORIHIME?!"

A very scary Tatsuki yelled at me. We both jumped apart to see her walking towards us. No, make that stomping up the stairs. Without thinking, I stood in front of Inoue. I knew Tatsuki would never hurt her but it was either stand in front of her or hide behind her. I still wasn't sure I made the right decision.

"Hello, Tatsuki! What are you doing here so late?" Orihime called out, completely ignoring the tension in the air. How she did that, I'd never know.

I watched Tatsuki give Inoue a quick smile before marching right up to me. I'd never admit this, but she scared the hell out of me. "Ichigo, what are you doing to Orihime?"

"Um… k-ki-kissing her?"

Damn, way to stutter. I thought to myself.

"I could see that! Are you two together now? Are you just kissing her for the fun of it? What are you going to do now that you two have kissed?" She demanded.

(Tatsuki wasn't trying to be mean. She knew both of her brightly colored hair friends cared for each other, but she also knew neither of them would take the next step to either walk away, or move forward. If they were left to do this on their own she was pretty sure they'd be in their 30s before they moved past this awkward stage).

"Orihime, would you be okay with Ichigo kissing other girls?" I watched as Inoue gasped, grabbing her chest before she shook her head no.

"What about you? Would you be cool with her kissing another guy?" I felt my hallow thrash around at the idea of her kissing another man. My jaw clenched, and I could feel my nails digging into my skin with how hard I was clenching my hands.

"No," I growled out.

"Good! You two are on the same page. Does this mean you two are together now?" Our best friend asked us.

Shit, what do I do? Do I want to be with Inoue? Well of course I do but should I be? I mean she's too kind-hearted and I've already put her through so much. I'm going to get her killed if we date. Everyone will use her to get to me.

"I-it's okay Kurosaki-kun. Tatsuki, did you want to come in? You must have come by for a reason." Inoue kept her head down as she spoke. Tatsuki glared at me before pushing past me to get to her friend. I stood there and watched her open the door letting Tatsuki in before she turned to look at me. Her eyes were watery, but I could tell she was holding it all in.

Fuck. What do I do?

"Goodnight Kurosaki-kun," Inoue whispered. Before I knew what I was doing I grabbed her arm before she could shut the door.

"Wait, Inoue, it's not… I don't… ugh!" I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. I didn't expect this to be so hard.

"Look, I don't know how to do this but… do you?" She cut me off, which I couldn't be more thankful for.

"Yes!" She smiled my special smile before I gave her one last hug and left so the girls could go talk about me. I must have had this stupid grin on my face the whole way home, but I didn't care. I was dating the girl of my dreams.

All I could think was thank the Gods she understood what I was trying to ask.

It had been a few days since Inoue and I had our first kiss. Sadly, I haven't seen her once, with the break she signed up to work full time and I had to work, and I was helping my sisters shop. Which is why I'm stuck walking through the mall, again, Saturday morning instead of sleeping in. Karin didn't seem too thrilled either, but Yuzu was amazing at picking out gifts for people.

When we entered, oh I have no idea what number this store was, but a flash of auburn hair caught my attention. Inoue was currently looking at herself in the mirror, a silly hat on her while she made funny faces and giggled at herself. Our eyes met in the mirror. Her eyes grew comically wide as she spun around. I watched her pull the hat from her head and laugh. She put the hat up and walked over to me.

"Hello Kurosaki-kun" She giggled.

"Hey, Inoue. Aren't you working today?" If I had known she had the day off I would have been with her instead of here with my sisters.

"No, my boss told me I had to take a day off since I've been working so hard. I came to get all my last-minute shopping done." Before I could answer my sisters noticed the addition to the group.

"Inoue-san! How are you?" Yuzu greeted.

"I'm well, how are you Yuzu-chan? And please, call my Orihime-chan." I chucked as Yuzu blushed and nodded her head, unable to respond now. Noticing this, Inoue turned towards Karin.

"Karin, are you ready for your next game? It's the Saturday after Christmas correct?"

Karin stood stunted that not only was she asking about her life but remembered when the next soccer game was. "I am. The team and I have been working hard to keep up our cardio over the break. How did you know when our next game was?"

Smiling Inoue answered her. "Oh, I asked Satoda-kun for a copy of the district schedule so I could go watch."

Karin thought back and remembered seeing her at every game but always assumed it was for Tatsuki or maybe to see Ichigo. In truth, it was because Orihime was interested in supporting her.

Yuzu pulled Karin away as she told me to stay back for a few minutes. Guessing they found something for me I looked back towards Inoue. We both started to speak and stopped, awkwardly laughing.

"You go first, Inoue." I offered while rubbing the back of my neck. Not quite ready to speak if there was a way she could go first. Truth be told, I was expecting to see her before I figured out what to say or how to act. I've never been a boyfriend before and I knew Inoue wouldn't expect anything from me I still wanted her to have the best.

"Sorry Kurosaki-kun, I wanted to let you know you don't have to date me because of Tatsuki..." She didn't even look up as she spoke, but my heart ached at the thought of already losing her before we even began.

"I mean if you regret it-" but she cut me off.

"No! Not at all."

"Then we're good." I started to stop all conversation on the subject. Luckily, she knew me well enough to know I'm not a man of many words. Maybe that's why fighting was so easy for me. You don't have to talk about feelings or anything, you just handle the issue with actions.

Maybe I could use that here...

There was a shot it could work. As we started walking towards my sisters in the distance our hands touched, I could see her blushing from the corner of my eye so I went for it. I let our hands touch again but this time I took her smaller one in mine. I could feel my face heat up but I didn't look at her or my face would get even worse. None of that mattered though, I had her.

It was five days till Christmas, between the shopping trip and now we had two dates. One was simple and at her apartment, we ordered pizza and watched a couple of sci-fi movies together. I ended up falling asleep with her on the couch and didn't go home. When we woke up she demanded she go with me to my house, said she needed to speak to my dad. It was honestly one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Flashback

"Dad I'm home." I called out as I waited for his "sneak" attack. Inoue even stepped to the side to make sure she wasn't in the way. After a quick fight, Dad seemed to notice we had company.

"Ah, Orihime-chan! How great it is to see my future daughter-in-law." He yelled out as he hugged her hard enough to stop her breathing.

"Oi, old man! Stop calling her that and let go!" I swear he did it just to piss me off. Well, that or give us a hard time.

"Ha-ha it's okay Kurosaki-kun, I wanted to apologize to you Kurosaki-san." She ended dead serious.

"For what?" My dad looked completely confused. Inoue shocked us both by bowing towards him.

"I'm so sorry for disrespecting you and your son. We were watching a couple of movies and both fell asleep. I meant no dis-" She stopped her little speech when my Dad picked her up and hugged her again.

"You silly, silly woman. I know you'd never do anything to disrespect me or hurt my family. Things happen, and you coming here to tell me for yourself shows how brave and respectful you are. I trust you both. Now then, let's get some of the treats Yuzu made last night before she gets back from the store."

End of Flashback

Luckily, we agreed to just go with the flow instead of trying to act completely different now that we were a couple. Our first real date went much better, even if it was only a simple dinner then walk through the park. I was worried about our classmates though, once we went public on social media I was getting spammed by people making sure I wasn't going to hurt her. It also felt as if others thought I was just using her which made me think maybe it wasn't the best time to date... She called me out on being quiet one night and made me tell her what was going on. She scolded me at that point, telling me it's no one's business but ours and if others want to judge us then they aren't real friends.

From that point on we became glued at the hip without even knowing it. It was like breathing, it just happened. It must have been worrying my sisters for a while if Yuzu was asking me about it now.

We were sitting at the table, eating dinner when Yuzu spoke up.

"Onii-chan, are you going to move in with Orihime-chan's apartment?"

That caused me to choke on my food. Karin let out a quite "smooth" while eating and our Father just laughed.

"Wh-why would you think that?" I questioned her. I could feel my face heating up.

"Because you two have been together a lot and I don't know how she's managed to be alone for so long. How does she deal with being so alone all the time?"

This hit me, she has been alone for years. Hell, almost a decade. While I knew she had been it never really hit that she was alone. I didn't mean to say what I was thinking out loud, but I guess I did.

"Inoue, well she's Inoue. She smiles to hide the pain, keeps her troubles to herself so she doesn't bother others. She doesn't want people to worry over her and wants to live her life happy instead of miserable after everything her brother did for her. She keeps busy by working hard on school since she won't be able to go once she graduates high school, she works hard at her job including extra hours to have any extra to spend each month and puts some in savings for graduation. Her aunt is only paying for her living expenses while she's in High School. After that, she's fully on her own... That's what's so unfair, she's really smart and loves to learn new things... She's the only one I know who's totally alone..."

I stopped talking when my Dad spoke up, "Son, she's not alone. She has us and her friends. If you think she's alone she will too. Why don't you invite her to stay with us for Christmas, have her come over the night of the 23rd and then stay till the 26th so she's with us, her new family."

Nodding, I got up and headed out the door.

How have I never noticed she's all alone before? That was all I could think of as I walked over to her place. Had I really been that blind? Had I really not noticed someone who's been so close to me for so many years has been on her own?

Once I finally made it to her apartment I rushed up the stairs and knocked on her door. I heard a faint "Coming" before she opened the door and smiled at me. I didn't even let her talk though, I stepped in and pulled her close. I never realized how much she meant to me, each time I think I have an idea on how much she means to me I get hit with a whole new level.

I pulled her into my arms while using my foot to close the door. I pulled her face to look up at me before I kissed her. This wasn't like our last kisses either, this one was full of emotion. As soon as we need to breathe I pulled back just enough for us both to take a breath, but not too far that our lips weren't touching before I dove back in for more. I couldn't help it. Her hands slid behind my head and wrapped around my neck before she lightly played with my hair. I pulled her closer to me before finally ending the kiss.

"Wow." She whispered.

"Yeah. I wanted to ask you something." She looked up at me with her grey eyes that I loved so much and I came right out instead of stumbling for once.

"Come stay with us for Christmas." Well, I tried to ask.

"Really? Your family wouldn't mind?"

"Nope, they all want you there with us." She gave me a bright smile before she gave me her response.

"I'd love to! I do have one question for you though, it um might be inappropriate so feel free to say no but could I umm maybe call you by your given name?"

I laughed, not a fake laugh, not a chuckle but a real laugh. "Of course, as long as I can call your Orihime."

Her answer came in the form of another heated kiss, not that I was complaining.

It would be a great holiday for us, one where she wouldn't be alone for a moment of it.