Orihime looked around the class that just started their break. She only had fifteen minutes to talk to the person she was looking for but couldn't see that person in the room.
Tatsuki looked at her friend and yawned. "Who are you looking for Orihime?"
The said girl snapped to attention and smiled widely at her friend before responding, "No one really. Oh!" she clapped her hands together and jumped out of her seat, "I have to go to the bathroom!" she cried as she ran out of the classroom, leaving Tatsuki alone and dumbfounded.
Orihime walked around the school, searching for her friend. Remembering where that person often hid, she quickly ran outside, snuggling into her jacket for more warmth, and stopped in front of the big tree she and her friends would often eat lunch by during warmer weather.
"Found you!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air and smiling widely.
Rukia suddenly jumped off the branch and landed next to her well-endowed friend. "Were you looking for me Inoue?"
Orihime nodded and lead Rukia to a bench next to the school wall. The two sat down and looked up into the sky where the sun was peering over the clouds, melting way the cold of the winter breeze.
"So," Orihime suddenly spoke, "How are things going with Kurosaki-kun?"
Rukia couldn't help but blush. "W-what do you mean?"
Orihime chuckled at her friend's cute reaction. "You don't have to hide it. I can tell you two finally realized your feelings for each other."
"H-how?" Rukia stuttered as she looked away.
"By the way you two have been interacting with each other these days. You would always wear a happy smile, even when you fight. And Kurosaki-kun would smile happily, too, whenever he looked at you," she pointed out.
Rukia sighed. Looks like the cat's out of the bag. She stood up, straightened her skirt, stood in front of Orihime and bowed 90-degrees. "Gomen!"
Orihime's eyes widen and frantically waved her arms, shaking her head, "No…why? I don't understand. Please stand up—"
Rukia kept her position as she kept talking. "I know you have feelings for Ichigo and I'm a horrible person who took away your chances with him. I know I'm not worthy to be your friend but I really really like you and I want to continue our friendship."
Orihime looked at her friend with an arched eyebrow but started to laugh when she heard of Rukia's explanation. Rukia stood up straight and looked deep into Orihime's eyes with a serious expression. Her friend kept laughing and smiled sweetly at her. "Kuchiki-san, you don't have to say that. Don't you know I'm happy for your two?"
"But—"
"When I was saved from Hueco Mundo, I decided to confess to Kurosaki-kun," she confessed, "But then I realized something while confessing. I was really scared, not for the possibility that he might reject me but in case he accepted me." Orihime paused as Rukia sat down next to her again. She looked at her friend who looked confused. Orihime smiled as she closed her eyes to remember that eventful day.
Flashback
"I really like you!" Orihime cried out as she bowed.
Ichigo looked at her with a stunt expression. "W-what?" he stuttered.
Suddenly, out of nowhere her heart started beating really fast and sweat was forming. Yes, it was good to finally let this weight off her chest, but…why is she hoping for him to say 'no'? It was then Orihime realized what she really wanted.
Before Ichigo could reply Orihime started to laugh even though there were tears in her eyes. Ichigo, still too stunt, didn't know how to react.
"A-are you ok, Inoue?" he asked cautiously.
Orihime straightened up as she smiled and nodded.
Ichigo cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head. He looked away, kind of embarrassed of his situation. "Well, um… I really appreciate your confession, but… damn, how do I say this…sorry." He whispered the last word as he looked straight into her eyes.
"Thank goodness!"
The orange head slightly lost his footing at the unexpected outburst from a girl that just got rejected by him. "W-what?"
Orihime laughed at Ichigo's 'WTF' expression. "All I wanted was to tell you that I like you but I really didn't want to date you."
"Again: what?" he repeated, looking questionably at his friend.
"I already know who you really like, and I really, with all my heart, want you things to work out between you two."
"Who are you talking about?" Ichigo asked.
Orihime smiled, giving him a wink. "Kuchiki-san, of course!"
"WHAT?" Ichigo blushed furiously as he roared, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Hehe," Orihime giggled, "I might seem a bit silly sometimes but I'm very observant. And I've known all this time that you two like each other," she said in a teasing tone.
"Che, I don't know what you're talking about," he repeated as looked away, afraid of getting caught.
"Still, if you need any help with Kuchiki-san, ask me! I'm totally supportive of your relationship!" Orihime smiled, throwing her arms into the air and cheering the red Ichigo into confessing, while he kept denying it.
End of Flashback
Rukia smiled sweetly with a faint blush. "He really is an idiot."
Orihime laughed as the two looked at each other. She just finished telling Rukia when and what happened during her confession.
As Rukia watched her bubbly friend laugh, she wrapped her arms around her friend's waist and hugged her tightly. "Thank you," she whispered.
Orihime hugged back and smiled widely. "Hehe, no problem! And if Kurosaki-kun does anything to hurt you, tell me and I'll make him pay," she teased with a fake scowl.
"Trust me, if he does anything stupid, I'll kill him myself…if niisama or Renji doesn't get to him first that is," she laughed and Orihime joined her.
At that point Tatsuki, who had been hiding by the corner and listening to their conversation the whole time, decided it was time to make her presence known. She jumped out and quickly hugged her two friends. "God, I'm glad I have you two!" she exclaimed.
"Tatsuki-chan! When did you get here?" Orihime asked as the three girls pulled away to look at each other, although their arms were still linked.
"I was here the whole time," Tatsuki replied. She then looked at each of the girls and sighed. "I seriously don't think Ichigo deserves either of you two."
Rukia and Orihime laughed at their friend's comment, sort of agreeing with her at the same time.
"WHAT THE HELL?"!
The girls turned around to see an angry Chizuru staring at them with Ryo and Michiru walking behind her.
"ARISAWA! GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY HIME AND RUKI!"
"What's going on out there?"
Ichigo turned around and came face-to-face with Mizuiro who just asked him a question. The orange head shrugged. "Tatsuki is just beating up Chizuru again."
At that point Keigo jumped towards the window and looked down. "Look! The goddess of valleys and the beautiful Kuchiki-san is down there as well! Oh, what I won't give to date at least one of them!" he cried with fake waterworks strolling down his eye.
And before Ichigo could walk away Keigo jumped up and clung to him. "ICHIGO! Why are we so unfortunate to not have girlfriends when we should be living out our youths?"
"Why are you dragging me into this?" Ichigo yelled as he tossed his 'friend' to the side.
"Asano-kun—"
"And why are you acting all formal to me?"
"—You shouldn't compared Ichigo to yourself," Mizuiro continued, totally ignoring Keigo's cries, "He's already got a girl."
"What?" Ichigo and Keigo yelled out at the same time.
Mizuiro smiled (girls might think it is cute but guys know very well it meant mischief) at Ichigo. "I saw you making out with someone yesterday while I was at the grocery's," he pointed his finger at Ichigo who was blushing.
"ICHIGGOOO! How could you do this to me? Who are you going out with?" Keigo once again threw himself at his friend but Ichigo side-stepped just in time and dodged Keigo, who ended up slamming into the desk.
Mizuiro checked to make sure Keigo wasn't dead and looked at Ichigo. "So, how long has it been since you two made it official?"
"Shut up," Ichigo snorted as he looked back out the window. He looked down to see a laughing Rukia surrounded by her friends and his scowl slightly disappeared as a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Explain to me again WHY I'm missing my handicraft club for this?" Uryuu groaned for the nth time that day.
"Shut up you stupid pansy," Ichigo shouted back at him, "Why do you care so much? Look, even Inoue's not complaining and you two are in the same club together," Ichigo reasoned as he pointed at Orihime who was talking with Rukia.
Uryuu just pouted and kept walking with his friends to Urahara's shop afterschool. Upon arriving at the shop, they noticed Jinta and Ururu were once again neglecting their work as they played Janken-po.
"JAN-KEN-PO!" They cried out. Jinta released 'scissors' while Ururu pulled out her fist as 'rock.'
"Look over—there," Ururu softly spoke, pointing upwards and the pissed off Jinta's gaze followed her finger. "Yeah, I won!" Ururu cheered.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Jinta cried out as he pulled on poor Ururu's bangs, "YOU CHEATED!"
Idiot, the five teenagers thought to themselves.
"Jinta! What have I told you about picking fights with Ururu?" Tessai said as he picked up the frantic boy off the ground. While Jinta was still making a fuss, Tessai looked to the side and noticed the five teens still standing before them. "Oh! You're all here! Well the manager is downstairs in the training room, waiting for you," he told them.
Ichigo shrugged as he led his group inside.
Rukia just walked by the three employees, patting Ururu's head as she passed her.
"Thanks," Chad said to Tessai.
"Thank you," Orihime bowed at the older man.
Uryuu just nodded and got the same response before closing the doors behind him.
When all five of them arrived at the underground training room they noticed Urahara not too far away, surrounded by a couple of people.
"What's going on?" Ichigo asked when he arrived before them.
"ICHIGOO!" Isshin jumped up and aimed his two feet at his son's face. Sadly for him Ichigo already saw the move coming so he quickly threw a punch at his father, sending him off course.
But unlucky for Ichigo, his father landed right next to Rukia.
Isshin jumped right back up and pulled Rukia into a hug. "RUKIA-CHAN! Papa is so happy that my ingrate of a son had chosen you to be the future bearer of his children! Tell me, any signs of a baby yet?"
Rukia blushed heavily, opening and closing her mouth, unsure of how to answer the grandfather-wannabe.
"Will you stop that?" Ichigo cried out.
Thankfully Ishida Ryuuken, whose been sitting with Urahara and gang, got up and pulled the back of Isshin's collar. "You're annoying," he sternly said to his 'friend.'
"And you're a jackass," Isshin retorted with a pout.
Yoruichi slapped the back of Isshin's head to shut him up. She looked up at the blushing Ichigo and grinned. "So I heard you finally took a step into manhood, hm? Well good for you!" she laughed as she patted Ichigo's back.
"When did you two make things official?" Ishida asked as he pushed up his glasses.
"Apparently not too long ago," Orihime answered for her flustered friends.
"Will every one of you just shut up and tell me what's going on?" Ichigo cried, wanting nothing more than to get himself, and his girlfriend, out of the center-of-attention.
"Sheesh, fine," Isshin pouted as he sat back down, arms crossed over his chest.
"So, why did you call us here?" Rukia asked, sitting on her knees and Orihime followed suit. Ichigo, Chad and Uryuu just stood behind the girls and waited for the others to talk.
Urahara snapped his fan shut and raised his hat slightly higher. "We just wanted to keep you guys updated," he said. "Since we don't fully know whether Aizen is really dead or not, Yoruichi decided to check up on a few things."
"And?" Chad asked.
Urahara and Yoruichi looked at each other for a moment and shrugged.
"Well, so far nothing bad has happened," Yoruichi replied, "But that's what's bothering us. It's been too quiet this past month since the war ended. I went to Hueco Mundo a few days ago and just got back after meeting up with Nell. Apparently things have been way too quiet on her side as well, bringing up suspicion amongst them."
There was a pause as the information sunk in. Ichigo felt his gut twisting, thinking that if Aizen was coming back, then it was his fault… Damn!
"Does this have anything to do with that arrancar I encountered earlier today?" Rukia suddenly asked.
"That's why we're here," Ryuuken replied as he pulled off his glasses to clean it, "We are not sure if it something important or not so we're looking into it."
Isshin nodded in agreement. "So if any of you guys notice anything suspicious, come tell one of us right away."
The five teens nodded with a serious expression.
Maybe the war wasn't over yet…
A/N: OMG! War not over? Is this true? You'll have to wait and see! Find out what else comes up and tries to get in the way of Ichigo living a normal life with his family, friends, and Rukia!
 | Review this Chapter |
No comments:
Post a Comment