A/N: Sorry…Love y'all!

Holding her hand…once an inconceivable thought, an unimaginable action, becomes second nature to me. Her hand, small as it is, holds mine in a way that I'm not sure I can entirely describe. Because when she holds my hand, it seems that she is able to, in some kind of inexplicable way, make me feel absolutely helpless and absolutely powerful simultaneously. And that feeling, those opposing ideas, is something I should have already grown used to; she's always had that effect on me. She's always had that ability to make me feel as if I could shoulder the weight of the world with ease or crumble just at the thought of it. She always had that power. Rather if she realized it or not, she did.

But she knows a little of it now.

After Valentine's day, which I must admit ended with a lack of chocolates but a whole lot of sweetness, she's grown somewhat aware of what she can do to me. What a simple squeeze of her hand can make me do. And it's not just her hand that can manipulate me like a puppet. It's her alone.

And oh, how she toys with me. And like a puppy starved for attention, all I can do, all I want to do, is wait for her to give me it. That attention. The simple gesture of her fingers slipping through mine, the innocent act of her arm linking with mine, the purposeful warmth of her palm pressed against my cheek, the hesitant arms that wrap around me, the brush of her lips on mine! That attention she gives…how she toys with me!

And I think I can toy with her, too. Like I have some power over her like she does me. But I don't. I am weak to her. I try to tease her, and yet, she flips it. It is I who is teased. It is I who is left blushing, left bumbling. It is I who is weak.

But she does have moments of weakness.

When I invite her to meet my family for instance.

She's met them all before. She knows them. She shouldn't be nervous. But she is. Which is how I feel her somewhere close but a little distant from my house on that Saturday morning. I can't help but chuckle as I rush down the stairs and out the front door.

I spot her across the street, pacing in a small circle. As I approach her, which she doesn't notice, I hear her talking to herself.

It's cute.

"Oi!" I call out to her. She stops pacing and stares at me. "Did you go crazy? Shall I go get you a straightjacket?"

"Kurosaki-kun!" She greets as she skips toward me. She smiles brightly at me before glancing back at my house. Her expression grows wary.

I reach out and place a hand on her head.

"Why are you so worried? They know you."

She shakes her head.

"They know me as your friend. Not as your girlfriend," she whispers.

I sigh before I pull her into a hug.

"It doesn't matter what you are, Inoue. They love you."

Her head moves a little, and I look down. She stares up into my eyes. She is still worried.

"If they don't…if they hate me…will you still like me?"

Oh, how she toys with me…

I hug her tighter to me, tucking her head under my chin.

"You must have really gone crazy, huh?"

I hear a small sniffle in my arms.

"Don't ask such stupid questions, alright?" I pull back.

"But Kurosaki-kun…you didn't answer my stupid question."

I snort before I let her go to hold her hand. I start pulling her toward my house.

"You worry too much, Inoue," I remark as I reach my front door. I turn slightly to give a small smile. "You worry over things that you should never worry about," I finish as I open the door. "Karin! Yuzu! We have a guest!"

Quickly, I feel Inoue pull her hand away from mine. I hear her shuffle behind me, too. Like she's trying to hide from my sisters who are downright giddy to meet the mysterious girl that I've been seeing. The girl that I have yet to introduce to them. The girl that I have been hogging to myself for the last few weeks.

Which wasn't too far off from the truth. I did want to keep her all to myself. It's why I hadn't formally brought Inoue over to my home. But it was time. Time to stop monopolizing her.

Yuzu is the first out of the two to come greet us. Well, me, really, as Inoue is still clinging to my shirt, hiding behind me.

"Yuzu," I begin before I see Karin a few steps behind her. "Karin. There is someone I like you two to meet." The grip on my t-shirt tightens. "She's very important to me," I start while a blush spreads across my face. Karin chuckles, and Yuzu lets out a small squeal.

I roll my eyes before I move my head slightly to look at the girl who is looking up at me with terrified eyes. I sigh.

How she toys with me.

"Very important, so be kind to her," I finish as I nod my head at Inoue for her to introduce herself. She shakes her head, still hesitant, but I try to give her an encouraging smile. Which seems to work as she lets go of my shirt. She takes a deep breath, and she steps out from behind me.

I hear two gasps, but my eyes remain focused on the girl who is bowing.

"It's nice to meet you both!" She yells. I chuckle at her lack of volume control. "I am Inoue Orihime! I have been seeing your older brother for the last few weeks!" She somehow bows even more. "He's also very important to me," she whispers.

"I knew it!" Karin shouts.

"Onii-chan, you are dating Orihime-chan?" Yuzu asks innocently. But the question itself makes Inoue freeze as she begins to straighten from her bowed position, and I think maybe Inoue doesn't hear the curiosity of it. Rather, she wrongly hears what she has been fearing: disapproval.

I place my hand on the crook of Inoue's elbow, and she is set into motion again. She stands and gives me a nervous and distressed expression.

I can feel my facial features soften.

"I am."

A simple clarification that I punctuate with having my fingers lace through hers. At the action, she relaxes and smiles.

"How wonderful!" Yuzu exclaims as she rushes toward us. She then hugs Inoue, who is more surprised than she should have been.

"Way to go, Ichi-nii! Who'd ever think that you could land someone like Orihime-chan?" Karin remarks as she leans on the wall, watching Yuzu gush over Inoue who then pulls Inoue toward the kitchen. Poor Inoue barely has the time to give Karin a big smile before she is whisked away.

"Not me, that's for sure," I comment as I trail after the two. Karin follows behind me.

"You know, I am really impressed. My idiot of a brother is dating the prettiest girl in Karakura High School."

"So that's what you meant when you said you knew it."

"Well, yeah. I mean, I couldn't be 100% sure about it. I just knew that the rumors of the prettiest girl at your school dating someone and that cake that you received were around the same time. So I put two and two together."

I glance over my shoulder.

"Smart kid."

She snorts.

"I'd have to be a dummy or oblivious not to realize it was Orihime-chan." She looks at Yuzu who is chatting away with Inoue as she stirs something in a pot. "Correction: I'd have to be Yuzu not to realize it was Orihime-chan."

I smirk as I take a seat. Karin sits beside me. We watch as the other two giggle in glee.

"Hey. It's not so obvious. There are a lot of pretty girls at my school." I say to defend Yuzu. "Or so I'm told."

She chuckles.

"Sure, there are. But the keyword was 'prettiest.' And she," Karin nods her head in Inoue's direction, "is definitely the prettiest."

I stare at the focus of our conversation who finally looks at ease. At peace. Whose laughter fills the room.

"That she is."

"Besides…it had to be her."

I break my gaze to look at Karin.

"What do you mean?"

She shrugs as she looks away.

Before I can repeat the question, the one person who I hoped would've been to busy to come to breakfast shows up. The one person who was the main reason why I have been so reluctant to bring Inoue here.

"What's with all the commotion?" Dad asks in his usual exuberance.

Inoue stops what she is doing to give a bow.

"Good morning, Kurosaki-san."

"Orihime-chan! What a pleasure to see you! What brings you here so early?"

"An-ano…" she begins nervously.

"Ichi-nii wanted to introduce his girlfriend to us," Karin explains.

Dad already knows that Inoue and I are together, but he acts like he doesn't as he wildly looks across the room in exaggerated movements.

"Oh? Who could the unlucky lady be? Where is she?"

Yuzu crosses the room and playfully slaps dad's arm in mock anger.

"Don't be mean!"

"Umm…I am not sure about the unlucky part, but I am Kurosaki-kun's…you know," Inoue fumbles out with a blush.

At this, I hold my breath as I scrutinize my dad closely. Waiting to see his response. Waiting to see how I'll respond to his response.

His face brightens and tears stream down his face in embellished fashion.

"Masaki!" He screams with a grin as he runs toward mom's poster. "It's happened! It's finally happened!"

"Is that a good sign?" Inoue whispers.

Karin laughs.

"Are you kidding? He's probably happier you two are dating than Ichigo is."," she remarks. Inoue lets out a deep breath. A breath of happiness? Of relief? Whichever it is, it has my stomach clenching in the worst way.

Why the façade? Why mess with her in this way? Why make her happy when it's a lie? Why smile, why hurt her in this way?

Why are you doing this, dad?

But I can't ask the question. I have to let it go because bringing it up would risk Inoue hearing his answer, and I couldn't do that to her. So I let the scene play out as it does. Sisters surrounding the girl I've been enamored by, attaching to her in a way that warms me. The undecipherable dad who gives laughs too freely, who offers false smiles too readily. The girl whose lips parts in wide grins, whose happy reiatsu fills the kitchen before wrapping around me in a calming embrace.

It's only when we sit at the table to eat that I realize that I've been wrong from the beginning. It's only when I see dad tousle Inoue's hair as she shyly admits she's graduating top of our class with honors that I realize that my dad isn't totally lying to Inoue. That the fondness that leaps out of him when he congratulates her isn't insincere. That what I thought I knew was actually skewed and initially flawed.

It's only when I see how proud of her he is that it finally sinks in, that the truth finally takes it true form.

He likes her. Plain as day, he does. Maybe he always has. Maybe he has always had a soft spot for her. Maybe he carried around guilt from that day, maybe he never forgot that broken girl who carried her brother on her back. Maybe that guilt grew into something else over time as she became a permanent fixture in my life. Or maybe he likes her for nothing other than her being herself. Maybe he just fell into her magnetic pull just like the rest of us.

But regardless, he likes her. I can see that, and I wish that I hadn't because that leaves only one explanation that reveals his damning disapproval on that monumental night.

He likes her. He likes her, but he doesn't like her for me. And it should be the same sentiment. His disapproval remains unchanged, but it is entirely different. Because I had wondered why he couldn't see her in the way that I do. I had wondered for naught because he sees her wonderful traits and her kind attributes. He sees it all, and for some reason, for some dismaying reason, he has deemed her unfit for me.

She is not good for you, he had said. How can he see her, like her, and say those words to me? How could he mean them? It made no sense.

And for that, I resented him.

But I keep things as light as I can. For her, I let his undecipherable condemnation leave me my thoughts. For her, I try to remain in the moment. I just try to focus on the real meaning of this gathering and how important this day is to me, to her, to us.

And it is important.

Because today makes it real. Introducing her to my family, bringing her into this intimate part of my life, into this part of my world, it has me realizing that she fits perfectly into this facet of my life. That she is no guest in my house, no visitor in my life. That she is just like my sisters, my dad, and my mom to me. To me, just like my family, she is home.

Which makes me wonder…how important am I to her?

That question's answer isn't immediately known, but the hug she gives me as I drop her off at her apartment, the happiness she expresses about meeting my family, and the shy kiss she places on my cheek are all enough to satisfy my curiosity. For now, it is enough.