A/N: This chapter took forever to write just because I had to find a balance between Ichigo's intelligence (he really is smart) and his obliviousness in regards to himself and Inoue. I'm sorry about the long wait! I'm glad that I have gained a loyal fan base for this story! I really cherish each favorite, follow, and review I get. Anyways, I hope all of you continue to read, review, and enjoy!

I couldn't condemn her for liking someone. It's only natural that she would harbor those kind of feelings for a person. She's always given her affection so freely that it would be a crime, a force against nature, if she remained alone. And yet, selfishly, I want just that.

I couldn't really put it into words, but when I glance up from my workbook that I have been pretending to read from, as my eyes follow her as she moves back and forth completing task after task, I can't help but want her to stay unchanged as the Inoue that I know. The Inoue whose smile is for everyone and not for just a specific someone.

Why couldn't she stay that way? Is she unhappy with the way things are now? Is she no longer content with having us, her friends, by her side? Is that why she's suddenly talking about crushes and whatnot? Is it because Tatsuki is leaving? It would make a little sense if it were because then…then I could reassure her that we would still be there for her. That I would be there for her. It would be better if that were the case.

Or maybe she just likes that undeserving man. Maybe she's tired of hiding her feelings. Maybe she just wants to be with that man. The man that she has chosen carefully. The man who she deems special and worthy of her.

And the sad thing is…he wouldn't be. Whoever she picked, he would never be worthy of her. Which is why Inoue and I could not be friends after she tells me about him. Because how could I sit and watch as she settled for anything less than what she deserves? I couldn't. I would, every step of the way, watch that man, scrutinize each move he made, fight him every second he is with her. I would, without my own permission and without good reason, undermine him and by doing that, I would undermine her entire relationship. And I wouldn't do that to her. I wouldn't cause her that kind of pain. Nor would I willingly wait for that devious, yes devious because how else could he manage to gain her favor, devious because he dared to deny it for another, man to break her heart. And I wouldn't be able to protect her from it because she gives him the power to do so. I wouldn't be able to handle seeing that happen. I couldn't stomach it.

She looks up suddenly when she is handing someone their order, and her eyes find mine. And then she smiles. She smiles, and I my conviction starts to waver.

She finishes up and rushes to my side. "You stayed."

My lips inch their way up a little. "Yeah. It's a good place to study," I lie. I hadn't read a word, but it would give me just enough leeway, so she won't ask me a question about my presence at the bakery.

And then, she regains that glow from earlier, and again, I'm shaken.

She laughs. "Well, I'm almost done. I just have to clean up, and then we can head out." I nod, and she starts heading back to her station. I stand up and follow her. She stops and looks at me.

"I can help."

She blushes and shakes her head. "It's okay! I can-"

"I want to help." I leave no room for argument, and I can see her fighting a smile.

"Alright," she relents. "I'm going to put you to work, Kurosaki-kun," she threatens as if to make me rescind my offer.

"Do your worst because I'm up for the challenge," I counter, and her laughter fills the room, and I swear it's so powerful that it seeps into my skin.

She claps her hands together and looks around the store, probably seeing what needs to be done. "Oh! You can help me with the trays on the top!" She walks over to them. She opens one of the displays, and she stretches up and carefully pulls out the tray. Before I know it, I'm behind her, taking the tray from her hands. Her head tilts back in surprise, and I freeze in surprise, and there is this moment in which we just stand in this position. Where we just look at each other.

"I feel like I'm interrupting something."

Inoue jumps a little, and in that movement, because we are so close, because I have yet to move away from her personal space, that small jump allows for her body to be pressed against mine in the most inappropriate of ways. Her backside against my…

I stumble back, and the tray almost flies backwards.

Inoue is fussing out a denial with her face so deeply red. Kansuke is taking what she is saying with a grin as he leans against the door frame. He walks forward and lays his hand on top of her head, and I set the tray on the counter. I feel weirdly tempted to throw it at him.

"Calm down, Orihime-chan. I'm just teasing." She nods, and he laughs. And his hand is still on her, and she's not moving back or flinching from him, and I'm unsettled.

He looks up. He smirks at me, and he runs his hand down her head like he is smoothing down her hair. I glare at him, silently demanding him to stop. He ignores my warning.

"Who is this?" I ask her, and just like I wanted, she turns to me and steps forward. He's no longer touching her.

She smacks her forehead. "How rude of me! I forgot to introduce you two! This is…"

"Kansuke Sakuma." He moves over to us, and he stops when he is by her side. He sticks out his hand for me to shake.

"Kurosaki Ichigo." We shake hands, and I must admit that I squeeze his hand a bit harder than normal. His grip is just as strong.

He lets go. "So you're the infamous Kurosaki…" He glances down at Inoue. "Kun."

I peek at her, and her blush returns. She reaches out and tugs on his white sleeve. "She talks about you all the time." My eyebrows raise. She talks about me? I can feel myself warm up at the thought. "And Tatsuki-chan, Sado-kun, Ishida-kun, Kuchiki-san, and so on."

Bastard. He did that on purpose. "Well, that's funny. She's hardly ever mentioned you."

Petty. It's petty, I know it, but there is something about this man that rubs me the wrong way.

"Kurosaki-kun!" She gasps.

"It's okay, Orihime-chan. It would be kind of…scandalous for a high school girl to talk about an old man too often," he directs this at me while he smirks, and I scoff.

"You're not old," she protests.

"Aww. Isn't our Orihime-chan so nice?" He goes in to touch her head again.

"Inoue, what should I do with the trays?" She rushes to my side and grabs the tray.

"Oh, right! We're supposed to be cleaning! We'll be taking them to the kitchen to wash them. Excuse us, Kansuke-kun." She disappears behind the door.

We size each other up for a second until I decide that I've had enough of him. I go for the other trays, stacking them up together to make only one trip. I pass him, resisting the urge to bump him on the way.

Inoue is at the industrial sink, already washing the tray, and I join her. She gives me an appreciative smile as we wash, and the annoyance that man caused becomes less and less noticeable. And when she starts humming some tune, I completely forget him altogether. It's just her and I in this whimsical bubble she's created.

When we finish, we tread back to the front, and to my great displeasure, he's still there. I tell myself to not be rude, so I keep all of the comments I wish to make to myself.

"I wiped down the counters for you, so you don't have to worry about that."

"Thank you, Kansuke-kun!" She looks around the room. "I guess I should go change since everything seems to be in order."

It's quiet after she leaves the two of us alone. "You do know that I care about her, don't you?"

As I hear that, everything in me tightens. "I don't know anything," I spit out.

He chuckles. "Let me just give you one word of advice, man-to-man: if you hurt her, don't be showing your face around here anymore."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Before he can answer, Inoue crashes into the room. "Is everything alright?!"

"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?" He smiles, but she doesn't see it. She's looking at me, her eyes searching for something I'm not quite sure of. My own eyes shift down, avoiding hers in case I give my feelings, whatever they are, away, but in doing so, I catch a glimpse of skin.

"Inoue, your shirt…"

"Huh?" She looks down and swiftly turns around. She gives an awkward giggle. "I was in a rush, so I buttoned my blouse wrong. How embarrassing."

"What's more embarrassing is that you're trying to fix it with two men in the room," he jokes. At this, she runs off yelling an apology.

Again, the room falls into a tension-filled silence. I'm not going to attempt to make conversation with this insufferable man. Everything he says would either piss me off or confuse me, which in turn would piss me off even more. With us, silence would be better.

She reenters with her uniform in place.

"Here you go, Orihime-chan." He hands her a box of baked goods. It looks like regular bread. "And remember, eat it with something other than butter." She reluctantly agrees. "Okay, you two should go, so I can lock up. I'm tired, too."

He ushers us out, and I don't wait for him to finish locking the doors. Inoue says goodbye and catches up to me.

"You're probably wondering why he's locking up tonight, right? Owner-san is out of town this week visiting his grandchildren, which means we all have to pick up the slack. Which reminds me! Thank you for helping with cleaning! It was really sweet of you. "

I'm glad it's dark. She can't see the pink in my cheeks. "It's nothing. And it should be me thanking you."

"For what?"

"For treating me to a meal."

"It…it wasn't a meal, but you're welcome. May-maybe next time I can treat you to a real meal."

It almost sounds like she just asked me out on a date but that's impossible. She wouldn't be asking me something like that. She'll save those words for him.

"Next time I'll treat you to something," I tell her. I strain my eyes, trying to spot her reaction to my offer. It doesn't disappoint. She starts to light up.

"Next time," she whispers with…excitement? It could be, and it also could be something else. Either way, I'm unexpectedly conflicted.

Would the next time come soon enough? Would it come before she'll tell me? Before I distance myself from her?

The air feels suffocating.

Could I do it? Would I really be able to let her go? Even in theory, it seems difficult, so what would I do when the moment finally comes?

How dramatic of me. How Shakespearean. It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing for Inoue and I. So what if I couldn't see her with him? It wouldn't necessarily mean that I would have to cut her completely out of my life. We just wouldn't spend as much time together. I could live like that until we graduate. I could live with just seeing her sporadically. And then when we finally part for the next stage in our life, I could live with just feeling her reiatsu from a distance. She said she wouldn't leave this town, and I wouldn't either, so I could live like that. If I could just feel her, sense that she is safe and happy, I could live with that kind of future. I would have to be able to live like that.

For her sake, I would make myself live like that.

She's strangely silent. She's always been attuned to my unspoken moods and feelings. Could she, on some level, be sensing this dread that's building up inside me?

"You're worried." I state. She doesn't deny it. She just releases a meek 'yeah'. "About what?"

"Why did that customer…why did he…I don't understand."

So that's bothering her. "Don't worry about it, Inoue." I brush it off. I couldn't tell her the real reason without broaching upon dangerous and embarrassing territory. "I am sorry that I kind of made a scene, though."

"It's not your fault," she defends me quickly. I smile at that. She doesn't even really know if I'm not the one to blame, but there she goes again, putting all her faith in me. Trusting me without good reason.

How hurt will she be when I start avoiding her? Even after I promised her that that would never happen?

"You know, my coworker, she was really scared that you two would start fighting, and even when the situation was defused, she was still wary about you. And I thought, 'How funny.'"

"Funny?"

"Yeah. She couldn't see that you were restraining yourself. That you wouldn't have done anything." She looks away. "She thought you were scary. I thought you were cool."

Cool? How was it that she could look at me, me who was baring teeth and fists, and think that I was cool? But that's her. She always sees the good in me.

"You're are so weird." The words come out soft and…affectionate? Well, her weirdness is enduring in a way.

She laughs. "Kurosaki-kun is cool, and I'm weird? That sounds about right." She laughs some more. Then her laughter quietens, and she stops walking. She briefly looks down. She moves her hands together, clutching them, and she shifts her head up. It appears like she is staring at my chin rather than into my eyes. "Ummm, Kurosaki-kun, I, well, I…"

I stare at her with apprehension. She's blushing and stuttering, and I have a feeling that she is going to tell me it now. Tell me who she likes, but I'm not ready. I'm not ready to let our relationship, whatever it is, be destroyed.

So I cut her off.

It's my turn to ramble as I start walking again. I tell her about keeping the television on at work to keep the customers entertained while they wait in line. She's shocked that I interrupted her, and maybe even a little hurt, but I continue. I continue with saying that she should get a chair to step on, so she won't have to reach for anything that is up too high because she'll hurt her back from all of the stretching. I tell her that she should squat instead of bending because, again, she'll hurt her back, and she doesn't question me about the advice I offer her for which I'm grateful.

Once satisfied that I've made it sufficiently more difficult for all of those perverts to enjoy a peek-show without actually harming them physically, I change the topic. I don't ease up on the talking, fearing that if I leave her the opportunity, she will try to finish what she was trying to tell me.

"It's really too bad that you have plans on Saturday. Karin has another match, and she was hoping that you would make it."

"Really?" I nod. "I would have loved to go…" I can hear the sadness and regret in her voice.

"Well, you can go the following Saturday if you don't have any plans."

"I'm free!" She shouts. She whips her head back and forth as she covers her mouth, realizing that she screamed it out loud. I laugh. "Will…will you be going, too?"

I squint in confusion. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I?"

"Karin-chan told me that you sometimes don't go because of work and stuff," she explains.

I blush. At least, Karin had the decency to make some excuse for me. I'll admit that I had taken some days off from watching her matches to work, either at my job or on homework, hang out, or just relax. But if Inoue is going to watch, then so would I.

"I decided to take the weekends off for the time being."

"So you'll be there? You're sure?" I nod slowly. "Okay!" She pumps a fist into the air. "The following Saturday it is!"

"What?"

But she doesn't hear my question because we are already at her apartment, and she's thanking me for walking her home. She gives me the box, saying that she has some leftovers from yesterday, and she's waving goodbye to me while smiling that smile of hers, and she leaves me at the bottom of the stairs while I wonder why her reiatsu seems so much like earlier.

I walk home, disturbed. I had succeeded in delaying the inevitable, but she'll eventually tell me. I couldn't keep dodging her confession without her becoming suspicious.

It's frustrating! The more time I spent with her, the more chances she had to tell me. But if I start to avoid her now, that will just mean more time away from her, less time to enjoy her company.

She's right. Things are changing, and I'm just not prepared for it.

Yuzu greets me at the front door, and I barely muster a smile before handing her the box and claiming that I already had something to eat. I head up to my room and fall face first onto my bed, feeling tired and…miserable.

"What's with that face, Ichigo?"

I roll over and sit up.

"What are you doing here, Renji?" I can't even begin to hide my irritation.

He shrugs his shoulders. "I've gotta deliver something to Urahara-san."

I'm too lethargic to even comment that Rukia was just here for the same thing. All I do is lie back down, hoping he will get the hint. He doesn't.

"How's Inoue?"

I spring up. "She's good. Why? What'd you hear?" Rukia better not have told him anything or showed him any of those pictures.

"Nothing." It's quiet as I scowl at him. "Do you know if she's seeing anyone?"

I choke on air. "What?!"

"Is she dating anyone? I have a…friend who is interested in her."

"Why?"

He glowers. "You know, just because you don't think she's beautiful, doesn't-"

"I never said she isn't beautiful!" I shout at him.

His eyes widen, and he makes the 'I surrender' gesture with his hands. "Okay. I get it. You think that she's beautiful."

"What!" I sputter out. "I didn't mean it like that. I just…I just." I'm sure my face matches his hair. "Whatever. It's not like it's a secret that she's…attractive," I remark. "And I meant to say, 'Why now.' Not just why."

He walks over to my desk and picks up a book and starts to flip through it. "My friend…he just seems more and more interested."

I can feel my eyebrows push together. "Tell him not bother. She's already likes someone else."

"Wait, you know that she likes—"

"Likes some guy, yeah," I finish impatiently.

…

"You're an idiot," he insults.

"As if that means anything coming from you," I retort.

He puts the book down, and he folds his arm across his chest. He leans against my desk and stares at me for a full minute with his eyes narrowed in on me. "So Rukia says you've been walking Inoue lately."

"What of it?" It's starting to feel like he is being confrontational with me.

"Well, why?"

"Why is everyone asking me that?" I grind my teeth. He stares at me. "I don't know. Okay? Why does it even matter why I'm walking her? It's not a big deal."

"It does matter," he argues. I blink at the forcefulness of his statement. "Look, I know you feel guilty, but you can't just stay by her side because of it."

"That's not…Why would I feel guilty?"

"Who are you trying to kid, Ichigo?"

I look away. Is that what's going on? Is it guilt that is pulling me to Inoue? Making me feel this way? Confusing me? Is it the guilt from then that is wreaking havoc in my life recently?

I shake my head. "It's not guilt. Why can't I just want to be with her? Why does there need to be a reason?"

"You're right. You don't need to have a reason. You two are just friends, right?"

There it is again. Just friends. I'm starting to hate that phrase. It describes what Inoue and I are, and at the same time, it doesn't, and it feels like the more I hear it, the more…disconcerted I become.

"Right," I agree under my breath.

He is still studying me. "You can't protect her forever." I cringe from his words. "You can't just stick to her, thinking that you can protect her from every danger out there. It's not fair, and you'll just end up hurting her."

"I know that!" I snap. Of course it isn't fair. She even mentioned it earlier, and I experienced it today. My presence around her affects people's perceptions and actions. I already thought about this, which is why I decided to make myself scarce in her life after she tells me. I would do this, so I could spare her the pain. I'd forget about the pain it will cause me when I detach myself from her. I would do this to protect her.

And I'm wrong and so he is. Even if that spot next her is filled by that man, it wouldn't hinder me from protecting her. It's a job that I would never resign from. A promise that I'd die to uphold. A vow that no one could keep me from fulfilling.

"You really are an idiot." He looks exasperated as he pushes himself off from his perch. He turns toward the door. "I'm leaving. I told Rukia I'd talk to you, even though I told her it would be hopeless, and I did." He takes three steps and stops at the doorway. His back faces me. "I know Inoue's more than just a friend, Ichigo. She means more to you than you probably know. But if you don't realize how much she means to you, you'll lose her."

My mouth opens, but no sounds come out.

"You bastard!" He rubs his neck. "I thought I told you that I didn't ever want to sound so sappy and sentimental ever again." He flicks his wrist to the right to indicate his goodbye, and I notice that he is wearing the same bracelet that Rukia lost. "Get your head out of your ass, Ichigo. You are the only one standing in the way to your own happiness."