Disclaimer: Standard applied
Summary: Autumn last year I was rejected. My boyfriend fell in love with another girl. The man who rejected me is still my boyfriend even now, and the girl he loves is still my best friend. And even now they still love each other. AU.
Note:
Past/Thought
Present
-. This is an AU, so as expected from most AU, yes the character would be OOC. So don't bother to review about the OOCness-
edited: 4/26/10
Thanks for my LOVELY BETA: MiloMaxwell
and reviewers :)
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Disc: Standard Apllied
---beta'd---
Dedicated for Blitch-sama. :) She is one of my favorite author. Thanks for continuing reading this fic.
Chapter 5 —Orihime—
"Hearts"
.
"Are you okay?"
I nodded, "I'm ok."
I looked at him, his lips were like a thin line, his scowl was deep and his eyes looked into mine, he worried about me.
I smiled widely, spinning cheerfully like a ballerina, just to show him I was okay, "See? I am fine!"
"Don't do that! You'll get dizzy!" he warned me.
I giggled and ran few meters in front of him and did the spin again. Ichigo scowled and watched me with such a disapproving look. Not far from him, Renji and Rukia stood with an amused look on their face and plastic bags on their hands. Renji smirked while Rukia shook her head while smiling. They looked kind of happy that I was back to my old self. I wasn't. I was just pretending.
I was really good pretending in front of them lately.
Today we went to the supermarket to buy some stuff that we'd need during our vacation. We bought much stuff like snacks and fireworks. It was supposed to be a cheerful and happy vacation, I did not want to ruin it with my mood. I wanted to make everything normal again. At least, I did not want to look sad. I knew that Renji and Rukia started to worry about me; I did not want to make anyone worry. No one, not even Ichigo, especially him. So today, after the shopping I requested to them so we would walk through this park on our way home. I wanted to show them that I was ok and fine.
We bought quite a lot of things but they did not let me to bring the plastic bag. They still treated me like this, which was why I wanted to show them that I was fine. They should not worry about me.
A few days ago, I fainted. It was not that bad but they almost canceled the plan just because of that. Just because of me. Of course I would not let them to do that. I had to make them sure that I was okay. I would not let them cancel this vacation they had been waiting for so long just because of a stupid reason: me.
"Ah," I almost tripped when a strong hand caught my arms to stop me from falling.
"I told you to be careful…"
Ichigo looked at me scowling as usual.
I bit my lower lip. I felt my cheeks burning.
He was too close. This was not good for my heart.
"Don't forget, we're here too, you guys!" Renji called.
I quickly pulled away from Ichigo and murmured an almost inaudible thank you. He just nodded. I wondered what he was thinking about. I stole a glance at Rukia and I caught her looking at Ichigo's back. I knew the expression she wore. It was jealousy.
"You will give me heart attack one day, Hime," he whispered as we started to walk again. This time he grabbed my hand and did not let it go.
I just lowered my head.
If I did not know better, I would think that he loved me.
Rukia and Renji quickened their pace, now they walked right beside Ichigo. The three of them talked about something, I looked at the other why, did not want to let them to see my expression now. My heart was beating faster than usual.
Ichigo did not let my hand go. He talked with Renji and Rukia, still holding my hand.
I wonder if he could hear my heartbeats, after all it had been so noisy here inside my chest.
I wonder if there was a naughty little blue man hammering on my heart now.
I close my eyes and inhaled deeply. I tried to calm my heart a little. It didn't work so I opened my eyes slowly. I tilted my head and looked at the summer sky. I wondered why the summer skies always looked higher than usual.
Maybe it was just me.
Ichigo was laughing at something Renji said. I did not know what it was about because I didn't pay attention on what they were talking about. Instead, I looked at our entwined hands. His hand was big, and calloused because he had used it to swing the wooden sword at least one hundred times a day. It was big, calloused… and warm.
Hot. It was hot.
His hand was burnt!
Or was it fever?
No….
…Maybe it was my hand.
I smiled, I hadn't known the last time I felt so relaxed like this. His hand, just by holding his hand, gave me peace. If only we could stay like this forever.
No.
I reminded myself.
I should be realistic. We could not be like this forever.
Ichigo would need his hand to do something; I could not hold it forever.
Neither his hand nor his heart, I could get neither.
Suddenly I felt a pang inside my chest.
It was my heart again; I wondered why it was so hurtful every time I remembered that Ichigo did not love me. I wondered why my mind told me to let him go—he did not love me after all—but my heart told me not to, and now when I had done as what my heart said… it hurt.
I remembered that night, when he hugged me—or was it me that hugged him?—and told me that he promised that he would never leave me. That night, somehow—even thought my mind told me that it was impossible, that it was just a sweet nothing—my heart told me to believe it.
This heart could be really annoying sometimes.
But I could not ignore it. However, it was my heart which had chosen him in the first place.
My heart had been really noisy whenever he was around me.
I wonder if his heart did the same whenever he was around Rukia.
I bit my lower lip.
"…Hime.."
I turned as someone called me. It was Ichigo. He stopped and I did the same.
"You didn't hear what I said, did you?" He was still scowling. I wondered if that scowl was permanent.
"Eh… What?"
"Geezz, what are you thinking, Orihime…" Rukia teased me, she smiled, her usual pretty smile, "You aren't too excited about this vacation, now are you?"
I startled, "Of course I do!" I was just thinking about something else, "I was just … eh… spacing out…"
Ichigo sighed, "Well, I asked you, Renji planned to take his friend with us…" he explained to me, "You could also take Tatsuki with you right? Renji said that…"
"My friend wanted to join us!" Renji cut Ichigo, "He has no one to spend summer vacation with, and with our current number now that you take Tatsuki with you, he would make it even! What do you think, Orihime-chan?"
I frowned, he has no one to spend summer vacation with? So sad.
"Of course it is okay, Renji kun!" I smiled, "The more the merrier!"
Ichigo groaned, he had always thought that I was too good for my own good. Though I thought he had known better, I was not that good.
"This guy, your friend, we can trust him, right?" Ichigo asked Renji as we continued to walk. His hand still held mine.
Renji made a hurt face—which by the way would not work to Ichigo—and rolled his eyes, "You don't have to be that rude, Strawberry! I'm not stupid, it's not like I would take a criminal with us."
Wow Renji knew some criminals? He was really cool.
"Yeah, I would ask the same question to you, Tattooed Baboon…" Rukia smirked, he put her hands in her jacket's pockets, "I knew that almost your friends are— except us of course— your kind."
"What do you mean?" Renji narrowed his eyes, ready for a fight with the small woman.
"They're jerks." It was Ichigo who said it.
Rukia laughed.
Suddenly my heart pounded harder.
Rukia's face as she looked at Ichigo was…
…beautiful.
Her eyes were full of love.
She was too beautiful.
"Don't worry Orihime-chan…"
When I realized it, Renji had already on my other side and whispered to my ear.
"You will like to meet him."
Something clenched on my heart.
My heart told me that something would happen.
------------------chapter 5—Orihime— "Hearts" : end-------------------
Author's Note:
There are few things I want to say about the story, first, I am sorry for the short chapter (I hope I make it up by updating it faster). I would be busy, and I do not want to force my beta-san to work in hurry, so I posted the unbeta'd chapters first (I would be busy so I am not sure when will I update again, hopefully someday next week). I'm so sorry for grammar and typos. I hope you could still understand it.
Second, about the plot, I could only say please be patient and believe me that all the good things will happen after the bad things. The reason why it is slow was because I divided every chapter into different POV, which mean I could only take one step each time (or so I believe).
Third, I did not like to spoil my story, but I give you hints about each character's true feeling not directly by dialogue or by the thought of the character. If I wrote it using 3rd person POV (my POV) I could just simply stated about what the characters thought and feel, but since I use 1st POV, I could not do that. What you read is what the character wanted to tell you or what they think, hint: Some didn't want to tell you everything, some character did not understand and misunderstand his/her own feeling, and some character misunderstood the others' feeling.
I hope I did not make you confuse.
Thanks for reading, alerting and reviewing!
Love yah!
-R-
