• • •
"Jun-Chan~!"
I blinked, searching for whoever had called my name. I soon spotted the familiar head of auburn hair that belonged to none other than Orihime.
"Oh! Hey, Orihime." I said, forcing a smile on my face. It was hard to act normal after experiencing the dream again last night and getting little sleep at all. I felt so out of it today.
"Is something wrong, Jun-Chan?" Orihime asked, seeming to zone in on the slight change in my personality and the forced smile. However, I saw Tatsuki running up to us, so I shook my head sweetly.
"Oh, nothing! I'm perfectly fine!" I answered, faking enthusiasm.
Orihime smiled, my act seemed to fool her. However, I could easily see the skeptical look on Tatsuki's face. She wasn't fooled.
"That's good to hear!" Orihime cheerfully replied, smiling as we made our way into the classroom that we all shared. All of our desks happened to be near each other; we were lucky.
"Tatsuki!"
"What?" Tatsuki asked, looking over her shoulder to see who had called out her name. Michiru ran over to our huddle of desks, looking quite unsure of herself.
"Tatsuki, you have art class, right?" Michiru asked, clutching her bag to her chest. She looked really nervous, so I wondered what was up with her. She wasn't usually like this.
"Yeah…" Tatsuki replied, wondering what her having art class had to do with anything.
"Did you do the project 'My Future Self'?"
"I did, but why are you asking?"
"Show me! I'm not confident about mine..!"
Tatsuki nodded, before rummaging around in her bag before pulling her artwork out to show us.
"Wow!" Michiru exclaimed.
"It's amazing..!" I cooed, looking at the drawing.
The project, like Michiru had mentioned, was called 'My Future Self.' We were supposed to draw ourselves in the future, which was obvious. Although, we were supposed to focus on what we'd be doing in the years from now, like career wise and stuff.
Tatsuki had illustrated her dream of becoming a martial arts champion. She was holding up the belt, her opponent passed out on the floor of the ring in a heap.
"I'll be the future champ of women's martial arts!" Tatsuki smugly exclaimed, as she crossed her arms over her shoulder.
"So cool…" Michiru cooed, before looking down at her art project with downcast eyes. "I really shouldn't show my crappy one. Tatsuki is so good, yet she doesn't want to be an artist..! How about you, Jun? What did you draw?"
"Huh? Me?" I questioned, before shrugging and digging through my messenger bag for my art project. "I really didn't spend as much time on it as I would have liked… But, it's good enough, I suppose."
"Incredible!" Michiru exclaimed, her eyes wide as she looked at my drawing as well.
"It's perfect!" Orihime complimented, as Tatsuki nodded her head in agreement. "I didn't know that you wanted to be a singer..!"
"Well, it's the first thing that I thought of." I sheepishly admitted, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. I knew that it was a crappy thing to draw. After all, singing isn't a real career. I should have just stuck with my idea of being a doctor instead.
I had drawn the future me on stage, seated a beautiful black grand piano. My fingers were shown pressing lightly on the keys of ivory and ebony in a difficult chord, while a microphone was positioned near my mouth. When I was younger, I had always wanted to be a singer. Mom had the best voice in the world, and she'd usually sing me to sleep whenever I would wake up from bad dreams. She also tried to teach me how to play the piano, and I was good for a four year old.
"Okay, what about you, Orihime?" Michiru asked, drawing everyone's attention to Orihime. I was glad for that, because I could feel my eyes beginning to sting with unshed tears, just from thinking about the past so easily like that. "What did you draw?"
"Ehehe~! I was hoping you'd ask!" Orihime laughed, grinning widely as she dug through her bag as well. "In fact, I'm secretly proud of it!"
"I wonder what it looks like..?" Michiru lightly asked, waiting for Orihime to show her work of art.
I shook my head clean of those depressing thoughts, as I tried to join back in on the conversation.
There was really no telling what Orihime would draw. It was a little nerve wrecking just thinking about what she'd come up with, using that overactive imagination of hers.
"Max speed is 380 KM/H! Flames of 20,000° Celsius shoot from the mouth and special destructo-beams shoot from the eyes!" Orihime exclaimed, happily pointing to the robot version of herself that she had drawn.
I felt a sweat drop rolling down the back of my head as a deadpan expression took over my face. Was she even allowed to draw that..? But, after all, that could be considered her in the future… The WAY distant future, but still in the future.
"It's not like that, Orihime!" Tatsuki shouted, "That's different! Do you want to get detention again?!"
"Huh?" Orihime asked, not understanding. She blinked a few times in confusion before her eyes zoomed in on someone in the background, "Ah!"
Orihime had spotted her prey, and was going in for the attack.
"Good morning, Kurosaki-Kun~!" Orihime exclaimed, waving her hands wildly in the air as she grinned like an idiot.
Kurosaki seemed to freeze for a second, before turning around with a fake smile on his face. "Hey! Morning, Inoue!"
Tatsuki and I exchanged looks with each other; it was obvious that something was different with Kurosaki. Was it Kon instead..?
Ah! Kon was that Mod-Soul! Kurosaki decided to name him Kon, short for Kaizo Konpaku. Kon whined about the name, wanting to be called Kai instead. I have to admit, Kai did sound much cooler than Kon. But, Kurosaki explained to me that he thought Kai sounded too cool for the Mod-Soul, so we should call him Kon instead.
"Wha..? What was that?" Michiru questioned. "Ichigo's in a real good mood today? Isn't he, Orihime?"
"Why… is Kurosaki-Kun so tense?" Orihime questioned, watching the strawberry as he made his way to his seat.
"Eh, what are you talking about?" Michiru asked, looking confused. "That's the first time I've seen Ichigo smile like that." She looked at Orihime weirdly, wondering if she was just being spacy again.
"Hey, what day is today?" Tatsuki asked, as she stood up from her seated position on the top of the desk.
"June sixteenth." I answered, knowing the date off of the top of my head. I had remembered the date showing up on my alarm clock throughout the countless times I'd glanced at it this morning. "Why? Does the date have anything to do with the reason why he's acting so tense?"
"You're both really amazing," Tatsuki said, sadly smiling. "It took me three years to realize 'that'."
"Tatsuki-Chan..?" Orihime questioned, her brows slightly furrowed.
"If you have some urgent business with Ichigo, finish it today." Tatsuki advised, her eyes meeting mine for a split fraction of a second before she looked away and at his back. "Because he… will be taking tomorrow off."
It was silent after that, and my eyes locked with Rukia's knowing violet orbs. She had been listening in to our conversation, although she was trying to look busy from behind a magazine. She held my gaze until I decided to break it and walk over to my desk behind hers. I lazily opened our history book, ruffling through the pages before class started.
"Jun, is something wrong?" Rukia asked, turning around in her desk so that she faced me. I tried to avoid the deep purple gaze, but found it increasingly difficult.
"Hm? No, nothing's wrong. I'm fine." I spoke, forcing another smile on my face as I shut my eyes, praying that she would believe me.
"Are you sure?" She asked, studying me with a caring look.
Rukia knew nothing about my past. The only other soul that knew about it was Urahara, and possibly Tessai and Urahara's friend Yoruichi. But, they were the only ones. I just couldn't bring myself to talk about it again. And, I trusted that Urahara wouldn't tell anyone.
"Uh, yeah! Of course I'm sure, see?" I questioned, forcing yet another fake smile and putting my pointer fingers at the corners of the smile. I called this my 'Yachiru Smile,' because this is what she'd do. "See, nothing's wrong!"
"Alright. However, you know that you can always come and talk to me if anything is wrong." Rukia said, her eyes sparkling with concern.
"Yeah, I know." I muttered, sighing as I dropped my hands and the fake smile. "Thanks for worrying."
"Hey, Jun-Chan!" Orihime called out, waving her hand in front of my face to get my attention. "Do you want to come over to my place tonight? Tatsuki-Chan's coming over, too, so it'll be a lot of fun! What do you say?"
"Um," I hedged, not too sure if it was a good idea to go and spend time with her and Tatsuki, but I had to cave after I saw the pleading look she shot me. "Okay, I'll come over. What time?"
"Show up around six. We'll have some dinner and dessert, my treat!" Orihime happily exclaimed, bouncing up and down in her excitement.
"Sounds great." I laughed, actually smiling a little bit. "I can't wait."
These people really knew how to cheer me up.
Maybe it was because they were still humans, like I was? I hadn't been around living human beings in years, so it felt nice to be kind of normal again; well, as normal as I could ever possibly be.
Sure, Orihime might space out a lot and be hyper and kind of ditzy, but she was still my friend. The same thing goes for Tatsuki; she might be freakishly strong and a tomboy, but she was still a friend.
I feel like I can trust Orihime and Tatsuki as much as I trust Rukia. Hell, I even feel like I've started trusting Kurosaki and seeing him as a friend.
"Great..!" Orihime exclaimed, going on and on about what she could possibly fix for dinner and dessert. I couldn't fight the real smile that tugged at my lips, and I giggled at some of the combinations that she described.
Because I was talking to Orihime, I missed the left out look cross over Rukia's face. Of course, it was only natural for her to feel like that; I hadn't been spending nearly as much time with her as I usually did. But, I was so caught up in building friendships with the humans around me, I didn't notice her loneliness building up.
• • •
"You know, I think that you actually cooked a pretty decent dinner." Tatsuki stated, patting the top of Orihime's head as the former beamed at her accomplishment.
"Yeah, it was pretty good! I was a little worried when I saw it jiggle, but that was definitely the best thing that I've had in a while." I said, giggling a bit and smiling. They both burst out laughing at the same time with me, knowing that my words were true.
"See! I'm a good cook!" Orihime stated, striking a body builder pose and trying to flex her muscles.
"You guys are so silly, you make me laugh!" I exclaimed, holding my sides that were aching from so much laughter.
"Well, your laugh makes us laugh..!" Tatsuki defended, grinning.
"Yeah!" Orihime nodded, grinning and laughing a bit. "You squeak when you laugh! It's really funny!"
"I can't help it~!" I whined, still laughing. "This is how I've always laughed." I covered my mouth with my hands, trying to stifle the laugher that tried to keep on coming out.
Everyone has to admit that laughing is contagious. Especially when a group of teenage girls are involved in the situation. It does a lot, lifting my feelings. I hadn't felt this at ease in a long time.
"So, Tatsuki-Chan…" Orihime trailed off as we all got our laughing under control. She had decided to change the subject, because she was still curious about what we had been talking about earlier that day. "Why won't Kurosaki-Kun be at school tomorrow? You never told us."
Tatsuki scratched the back of her head. "Well, to answer that, I'd have to tell you the whole story."
"Well, we have time." I said, lightly tossing my hair back behind my shoulders, and moving my bangs out of my eyes so I could clearly see Tatsuki. "Right, Orihime?"
"Yep! I don't mind how long the story is!" Orihime agreed, nodding. We exchanged smiles before turning our gazes towards Tatsuki, pleading looks covering our faces.
"Oh, alright. Alright already!" Tatsuki said, not being able to refuse our puppy dog looks. "But don't interrupt me!"
Tatsuki then made herself comfortable as she sat cross-legged on Orihime's bed. Orihime and I made ourselves comfortable by lying on the floor with a bunch of pillows and stared up at Tatsuki with big eyes. It was like an elementary school teacher having story time with her class.
"Okay," Tatsuki breathed in, pausing to collect her thoughts before she began the story. "We first met when we were four at the dojo that I went to. I noticed him first because of his flashy hair color and because he was holding hands with such a pretty Mom, smiling like crazy the entire time. So scrawny and grinning like an idiot… He looked incredibly puny. He really was, too. He cried whenever he lost." Tatsuki paused to smile and punch her other hand with a fist, thinking back on those memories. "You know, at the dojo, I was the first one to make that guy cry. One blow to the upper body! It didn't take more than ten seconds that time. But, you know, even though he cried, he started smiling again in no time, whenever he saw the face of his Mom when she came to pick him up. I really hated that. A man who loses like that shouldn't be smiling like an idiot!"
Tatsuki paused for a second, looking away from us as she laced her hands together and put them in her lap. "That's what I'd think when I'd see that smile. He really was spoiled, and he stuck to his Mom like glue. But… He looked so happy, laughing so pleasantly… That was… the beginning." She paused when she unlaced her fingers, holding her head in one of her hands as she looked down. "His Mother died. When he was nine years old. Well, I was nine at that time, too, but that doesn't really matter. Anyway, even at nine, he was still spoiled, grinning dumbly, and stuck to his Mom. But she died. Starting the next day, he skipped school. When I wondered what he was up to and went looking for him, he was at the riverbank where his Mother died, carrying his schoolbag from morning till night."
She paused for a bit, her voice sounding weak and filled with emotion. Tatsuki really sounded as if she were about to cry herself. I felt my eyes glaze over; I understood what he went though.
"It looked like he was searching for his Mom… Wandering, wandering… He would squat down if he was tired, but soon after he'd then stand up to wander again. Every single day, from morning till night… It was so hard to see him like that..! The Ichigo from that time…"
"Poor Kurosaki-Kun… I never knew." Orihime spoke as she closed her eyes and slightly frowned.
"So, that's why…" I spoke, trailing off as I felt their gazes fall on me. "He always acts so tough, but deep within him he's hiding all of those memories and feelings from so long ago. They must have drug him down so much that all he wanted to do was to break free. He wanted to forget, so he hid all of them deep within him, like in a little box. He probably didn't want to worry anyone with those memories… That's probably how he became the Kurosaki that you all know today, the only Kurosaki that I've known."
"I'd never thought of it that way before." Orihime said. "But, that does sound very convincing. That's probably what I would do if that ever happened."
That's how I knew, because that's what I did. After my parent's death, after all of my foster parent's deaths… I would put up a shield around my heart. I tried to guard myself from heartbreak, deciding that it was better not to get close to anyone than getting close and losing them. The first person to get past that shield was Urahara; he was the one who started to help me take it down.
"Jun-Chan, are you alright?" Orihime asked, breaking the depressing train of thoughts that were running through my mind. "You don't look too good. You look really pale."
"Oh, I'm alright." I answered. "I do feel a little bad, but that's all. That just means that it's probably gonna rain soon… I always feel kind of sick before it rains. Besides, it hasn't rained a drop since I've been here."
"Really? You get sick every time before it rains?" Orihime questioned with wide eyes.
"I usually get something similar to a cold. My nose gets all stuffy, I start to sneeze and cough all the time, and I'm usually really cold even if it's warm." I explained, shrugging my shoulders before a grin stretched across my lips. "When I was young, for a while, my parents thought that I was allergic to rain clouds! That was always funny…"
"They did say that there was a chance of rain tomorrow, although it wasn't a very high chance." Tatsuki said, skeptically looking at me.
"Well, it's happened ever since I can remember. But, I get over it after it's rained and the air is clear. Actually, I'm probably allergic to all of the pollution in the air..?" I mused, fake smiling again. "Besides, I haven't been sleeping well these past few nights, and I think that it's caught up with me. 'Cause, you know, you always seem to get sick when you haven't been sleeping well. So if I'm not at school tomorrow, you guys will know why. I'll probably feel bad enough not to come in, and I don't know if it's contagious or not. So… if I'm not there, could one of you guys tell the teacher and get any make-up work?"
"Sure! But I hope that you will feel better by tomorrow morning, Jun-Chan." Orihime answered, lightly smiling.
"Me too, Orihime, me too."