Orihime woke unrefreshed. Her head hurt and it felt like some invisible force was keeping her held down. This was not her idea of a good morning. She rolled off the couch, ignoring the man sitting at the table, and headed straight for the coffee. She poured herself a cup and found her favorite flavored creamer in the fridge. Once she was satisfied with the flavor, she took the first big sip of her perfect cup.

"Mmm..yummy."

She walked past the dining room table and on her way towards the living room, she paused. She gripped her mug tight and slowly turned around to see the man sitting back in the chair.

"Yo!" Ichigo said quickly with a wave.

Orihime shrieked and pointed her mug at him, sending some coffee down her hand.

"Ghost!"

Ichigo's eyes widened, then he leaned back more and chuckled.

"It's only been 5 hours Inoue, I hope you'd remember me." Orihime blinked a few times.

"Oohh..of course. Kurosaki-kun, I'm sorry, I'm not much of a morning person." She placed her hand on her cheek, trying to hide her reddened face beneath an embarrassed chuckle.

"It's alright."

A moment went by and Orihime could feel the drips of coffee on her hand, so she ran over to the kitchen to clean up.

"Don't get many visitors this time of year, do ya?"

"No, not in the winter. My friend Tatsuki-chan comes by sometimes, but that's about it."

Ichigo nodded. He sighed and let out the next part slowly.

"What about boyfriends?"

She hid her face behind the half wall of the kitchen to hide her immediate blush.

"N..no."

"Really? How old are you, 18? You should have all the guys all over you."

"I..I'm 20, and I'm not interested!" Orihime couldn't believe he had asked such a personal question. Silence traveled through the air for what seemed to be an eternity until Ichigo finally spoke.

"We're the same age. Imagine that..." He seemed like he trailed off. Orihime peeked her head out and could see Ichigo's expression looking sad.

"Are you alright? How's your wound? Do you need me to out more bandages on?"

Ichigo's eyes looked up, and she could see a different expression. It wasn't exactly sad, just blank.

"I'm fine."

"Oh good, I'm glad. Hey did you eat yet? I have these strawberry mochi that are amazing with hot sauce."

His eyes brightened and he chuckled, shaking his head.

"I'll be fine. I should be heading out. I saw that you got plowed out."

Orihime's bright smile lowered and she could feel her heart racing through her chest. This confused her.
He's just some stranger that got hurt and is now leaving. This is just you being lonely and wanting company.

"Inoue?"

Why is my heart still racing? Slow down, slow down!

"Inoue?"

She looked up and her bright smile returned.

"Great! I'm glad you're feeling better. If you need to stay here longer, you definitely can. I won't mind. If you need to leave, I can walk you to your car."

Ichigo figited in his chair.

"It's ok. You don't have to go out in the cold for me." She looked so disappointed and even began putting out her bottom lip in an obvious pout. Ichigo messed his hair up. "Ok, fine."

"Yay! I'll go change right now!"

She stuffed three mochi into her mouth and ran towards the bedroom. He stayed in place until she returned moments later in a long light pink coat with white faux-fur trim. She motioned to the back door where her boots were. They both walked out the door and headed down the driveway. They both took the shovels to carve out a path to the plowed road. They walked along the side of the road, chatting about the weather, the local events, anything that was going on. Finally, she saw the car emerge from the blowing snow. He had hit a snow bank, but had also hit a fence, and the windshield had broken with pieces of fence all scattered around and inside the car.

"That looks pretty bad. Will you be able to run it again?" He didn't respond. She started helping him clear out the debris and shoveled with her hands the parts that were too buried in the snow bank to push out. Finally the car emerged from the snow pile and Ichigo started it up easily. Orihime was quite surprised since it looked to have taken a bit of damage from the fence and snow, plus the windshield was broken. He got out of the car and her heart started racing again. She mustered all the strength she could handle and finally let out what was on her mind for quite a while.

"It was really nice to meet you Kurosaki-kun. if you'd like, you...you can stop by for dinner sometime. I really would love to have visitors. That is, once you fix your car and get to your sister's and are feeling better. I..I just really enjoyed your company and would love to see you again."

The snow blew their hair as the cold rushed in and made Orihime shiver to the harsh winds. He was almost obscured by the amount of snow that was blowing. Finally, Ichigo's smile came through the snow like a warming light that she desperately needed.

"I'd like that. How about Friday at 7?"

Oh my gosh! He said yes! Wow, oh man, speak lady speak!

"Great! I'll see you then. Drive safely Kurosaki-kun."

She reached out to wave goodbye, but was suddenly being embraced. She smiled into his shoulder and gave a big hug back. He spoke into her ear.

"Thank you for doing this for me. I feel so relieved that someone finally noticed me."

He let go and she already felt alone. With her biggest smile she could muster, she gave him one final wave and he started down the road. She turned around and smiled at the road, trying to hide her blush. Just then a gust of wind came again and blew the snow around, obscuring everything. She turned around as the wind was subsiding. The car was already gone. She felt a weight on her that she didn't like.

"Please come back soon."