Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ The String ❯ Talking ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Hey peoples!!! Thanks for tunin' in. Hope ya like it!!!

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Disclaimer: Well when I checked five minutes ago I still didn't own Bleach or the characters. -_- Oh well!!! *holds up handcuffs, ropes, duck tape and `Taking Hostages For Dummies'*

 

(Lucy: Oh, God… O.O SECURITY!!!!!!!!)

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha- hey no wait! I swear I wasn't going to do anything! Hey no aahhhhhhh!!!!!!! Not the straight jacket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Two: Talking

 

 

(Girls)

 

Orihime was nibbling on her pickle, peanut-butter and honey sandwich contemplating about whether a few strawberries or some chocolate pudding would pull it all together while thinking about (who else?) Ichigo and how much she liked him when her thoughts were interrupted by Tatsuki's voice.

 

“Orihime-chan, what are you thinking about so hard? Is it Ichigo again?”

 

“What? O-Oh no! Of course not!” she tried to argue but seeing the look on Tatsuki's face let her know that she knew only too well that Orihime was thinking of Ichigo and it was no use trying to deny it. She blushed lightly and sighed, “It's just… Why doesn't he like me? All I want is to be able to make him happy and cheerful when he's sad. At first I thought I just wanted him to be happy, but then I saw how easy it was for Rukia-chan to make him happy and I didn't feel as satisfied as I thought I would. I want to be the one to cheer him up and encourage him to go on fighting but I know I can't. He won't listen to me. All he does is apologize for not being stronger. He only actually tries to get stronger when Rukia-chan knocks some sense into him. I guess I'm really, kinda jealous of Rukia-chan. It's not fair either because I really like her and she's so nice and everything, I don't want to be jealous of her, but I can't help it… And I'm really tired of the fact that nobody ever likes me!”

 

Orihime was almost in tears. Tatsuki saw that she wasn't going to be able to hold it in for much longer so she intervened and said, “Oh that's not true! Over half the schools' male population-”

 

“No it is true! They don't see me! All they see when they look at me is the size of my chest and maybe they think I'm a little bit pretty, but they don't really know me. The first thing people look at when they meet me is not my face, I can assure you that much, and it's not fair!!!”

 

Tatsuki had to admit she had a point there. She decided to drop a hint about Ishida. “Well I know a few people who know the real Orihime and they think she's pretty awesome.”

 

“Who?” Orihime inquired.

 

Tatsuki replied with, “I can't tell you. It's not my secret to tell, and besides, if you haven't noticed by now, you will soon.”

 

A few seconds later they heard the school bell ring, telling them they had five minutes until they're next class. “Hey, why don't you come to my house this afternoon? We can do homework and hang around an' talk an' stuff, okay?” Tatsuki asked. Orihime nodded in agreement and the girls pushed through the crowded halls to their lockers. Orihime was in a little better spirits by then and she had a lot more to think about, which mostly kept her mind free of the remaining sadness left in her being.

 

Who liked her and why did Tatsuki know about it? Was it somebody who knew her, Orihime, personally? Someone in their group? One of Ichigo's friends like Keigo or Mizuiro? This kept her mind busy for the majority of fifth period until she got tired of thinking about it and turned her attention to her lessons.

 

Tatsuki noticed this and knew that Orihime would probably never guess. She'd just have to spell it out for her later that day. Why was Orihime so blind to him? Tatsuki kind of felt for Uryu. He was a nice guy and one of the coolest nerds she had ever met. She kind of considered him a friend. He was kind of funny because it was so easy to read his emotions. The guy was like an open book. He was almost exactly opposite of Ichigo and it seemed like everybody thought so. How could those two be friends when they were so different? Uryu was so open and intelligent and Ichigo was like a wall or something. He was closed and always kept to himself. It was so difficult to read his emotions. One could never quite tell what was going through his mind, and although he was smart, he never really thought things through like Uryu did. Why would Orihime like somebody when he so obviously didn't like her and that was his personality? Sure, Ichigo was nice, but he was rough and sometimes a little scary due to the fact that he was so quiet and powerful. Not to say that Ichigo was quiet, no, quiet was the wrong word, he was just closed, and he always had a scowl on his face. Uryu was never scary, just protective, and even though that's what Ichigo was going for, it was still frightening sometimes. Uryu was very powerful but a lot gentler. That's what made Ichigo scary… The fact that he was rough made Ichigo intimidating.

 

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(Boys)

 

Ichigo was becoming irritated and was about to start shouting but refrained several times. Who could blame him? It was Keigo carrying on the conversation. Ichigo tried to ignore him and thought about how happy he would be when Rukia came back to school. She was supposed to be there tomorrow. Thank God. Keigo was getting on his last nerve. Ichigo had actually partially forgotten what he was chattering on about until he started hopping around Uryu talking about Rangiku, whom he had met last month. “…and Wow! Depending on who wears it, the girls' uniform can be a beautiful and deadly weapon! I mean, did you see her? And that Orihime-san is HOT!!! She is one boobilicious babe!! Donchya think-?”

 

Uryu cut Keigo off from his constant and somewhat annoying chatter with, "Keigo-kun. Just stop talking already!”

 

“Why? You guys know it's true. I mean you can't say she isn't-”

 

“Just don't talk about Inoue-san that way. I'd appreciate it if you talked about Matsumoto-san elsewhere as well…” Ishida said quietly without looking up from his lunch.

 

“Why? Do you like her or something?”

 

“Who?”

 

“Orihime-san. You do, don't you? Of course, who doesn't like her? She is the hottest girl in school-”

 

“No. I-”

 

“Yes you do! Don't lie to me Ishida-kun!!! Mizuiro, he's lying right? You think she's pretty too right???”

 

“Calm down Keigo-kun. You're very loud.” This was Mizuiro's voice.

 

“What is with you guys??? Why are you so different??? What is going on?!?!?!?” Keigo screamed with waterfalls of tears gushing down his face. When he had finally gotten quiet, Ichigo released a sigh of relief.

 

“Ishida-kun, just say it already. We all know you like her. I know that Tatsuki's figured it out. She's known for a while I think. She's just been too polite to say anything and I know she hasn't told Inoue-san yet or she'd have come to school crying and apologizing to you already. Apparently everybody but her knows.”

 

Ishida sighed and contemplated for a minute over Ichigo's words and decided he was probably right. “Fine… I do, but I don't know what to do. It's just so hard because she doesn't even seem to know that I exist. She's always too busy admiring you, Ichigo-kun.”

 

Ichigo obviously hadn't been expecting him to say this because immediately afterwards his eyes got wide in surprise and he ended up choking on his drink.

 

After his little coughing fit, Ichigo said, “What?!? But, but, I don't like her! What the hell? Why would she like me??? That makes no sense! I've never done anything to make her like me!”

 

“You mean you've never noticed?” asked Mizuiro.

 

“Noticed what?” By this point Ichigo looked thoroughly confused. What could Mizuiro possibly be talking about?

 

Deciding it would be best to explain things to Ichigo, Uryu started off with, “Every girl that has ever met you has liked you, with the exception of Rukia-san. They all get over it within the first month though. Orihime, however, has not. She always stares at you and blushes when you talk to her and she thinks about you all the time. I can't read her mind, but I know that every time you talk to her or say something nice to her she tries to figure out if you could possibly be flirting with her or not. The other night when we went to Tatsuki-san's house to do homework, you said she looked nice and she blushed like a million shades of pink and tried to figure out if you were flirting or not. Didn't you notice?”

 

Now, come to think of it, he had noticed but had simply paid no attention to it.

 

Ichigo began to speak, but promptly shut his mouth to think `Ichigo you baka!' while fixing Ishida with an incredulous gaze. He felt like he could kick himself. Why had he never noticed that before?

 

Uryu's voice interrupted his thoughts, “Well, sorry, but it's pretty obvious."

 

Ichigo didn't mind. It was true. How could get upset over something that was so painfully true? This was bad. And wait; did Uryu say that Rukia was the only person that never liked him? Great. The only person he ever wanted to like him was the only person that didn't. This was frustrating; frustrating and troublesome.

 

Uryu noticed Ichigo's face fall slightly. He figured it was probably because what he'd said about Rukia had just hit him. “Kurosaki-kun, you like Rukia-san don't you?”

 

Keigo suddenly had life in him again. “Ha!!! I knew it Ichigo! I knew you liked her. I was right, I was right, I was right!!!!! Haha!!!”

 

Keigo was positively bouncing off the walls, or he would have been if there had been any walls on the roof. As he tried to get near Ichigo so he could scream some more about him liking Rukia and hop around him or something, it became apparent that Ichigo didn't seem to have any intent on allowing that to happen. A second later the substitute Shinigami could be seen punching Keigo in the face. This was a natural and expected reaction from Ichigo and as such, didn't really surprise anyone. This was simply what happened when Keigo was being too hyper. The only person it actually affected was Keigo, who fell to the ground and incoherently mumbled something about how Ichigo had gotten so mean.

 

Ichigo turned back to Uryu and, even though he didn't really want to, he felt he was obligate to reply to the previously stated question, and since he had pretty much made Uryu tell, he definitely couldn't refuse, so reluctantly he admitted that he indeed liked Rukia.

 

“Hey you guys, maybe we should have a party or something…” Mizuiro offered.

 

Ichigo thought a party would be fun but he didn't know what the reason for having one would be. “Why?”

 

“Well we could throw a party for Inoue-san's birthday on Saturday.” Uryu said. “We really didn't celebrate her birthday much.”

 

About a moment later the school bell rang and the boys gathered up the remainder of their lunches, threw them in a nearby trashcan and walked into the school building, chatting to each other.

 

“Hey you guys, should we ask the girls about the party thing later?” Mizuiro asked.

 

They all mumbled that they didn't really care which served as an agreement.

 

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(Girls)

 

Orihime was at Tatsuki's house with a cup of peppermint tea, sitting on a sofa in the living room. They had been talking about what had been going on at school lately; teachers, gossip, homework and other things of that nature when the doorbell rang and Tatsuki went to answer it. After a moment or so, she returned to the living room with Rukia following closely behind. Tastuki went to the kitchen to get Rukia a cup of tea, leaving her in the room to chat with Orihime for a few seconds.

 

“Oh, hello Rukia-chan! How are you doing? You haven't been at school for a few days. Have you been at Urahara-san's?”

 

“Yeah. I've been trying to recover some of my Shinigami powers. I have to admit, I'm a lot stronger than I was a few weeks ago.”

 

Tatsuki walked in with a small cup of tea and handed it to Rukia who made herself comfortable in an armchair facing Orihime.

 

“So where have you been the last few days, Rukia-chan?” she asked.

 

“Oh, um, sick. I came down with a pretty bad cold last week and just decided not to come to school.” Rukia answered quickly.

 

Tatsuki accepted her explanation and replied, “Well I'm glad you're feeling better.” Rukia took a sip of tea and smiled.

 

“Mmm… This is good tea. I love peppermint! So how was your birthday Orihime?”

 

Orihime looked up from her tea and answered, “What? Oh, it was good. I'm glad I have such good friends. That's mostly what I was thinking about all day. I think about my friends every year on my birthday because I see it as a day of celebration not for myself becoming a year older, but for my life being marked a year longer. The reason I think of my friends is because, without you guys my life wouldn't actually be very happy so there would be no reason to celebrate. I celebrate my birthday for you guys because without you there would be nothing to be happy for. Every day would just tell me that I had one day less to live. My birthday would tell me I was another year closer to death, but as long as I have you guys, I couldn't care less. For me, every day I live tells me I have lived another day with friends. That's why I'm always so happy on my birthday.”

 

Tatsuki and Rukia had never looked at it this way before. They doubted that hardly anybody did. Only a person who truly appreciated life would feel this way about their birthday, or anything for that matter. Rukia was stunned that Orihime had said this. Tatsuki thought it was one of the coolest things she'd heard Orihime say and was surprised that this is what had gone through her head all those years. She must have really thought it out.

 

“Wow, Orihime-chan. I think that's the coolest thing you've ever said.” Tatsuki told her. Orihime blushed and thanked her.

 

“Yeah Inoue-chan. I never thought of it that way.” Rukia smiled at her.

 

Tatsuki's face suddenly lit up and she said, “Hey you guys! We should totally have a party! What do you think Orihime-chan? We could have it at your house as a sort of late birthday party!” Rukia thought that sounded like fun but waited for Orihime to say something before responding.

 

“Well, ok, I don't see why we shouldn't have one. It's not like we have anything better to do.”

 

“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” Rukia said, mirroring her thoughts.

 

"Oh!!! I just figured it out!" Orihime suddenly declared.

 

"Figured what out?" Tatsuki inquired.

 

"Strawberry yogurt!!!!" the red-head squealed, obviously delighted.

 

"Ummm…. What?" came the next question.

 

"At lunch I was eating something that I just whipped together this morning, it was a pickle peanut-butter and honey sandwich-" (at this her friends shuddered) "-and I was wondering if I should put strawberries or chocolate pudding in it, and now I'm thinking I should have put strawberry yogurt in it! It has the consistency of chocolate pudding and some of the taste of strawberries!"

 

"Umm…. Orihime, I'm not even sure that all of those things belongs in the same meal, let alone on the same sandwich…" Rukia piped up.

 

The girls then talked for about forty-five more minutes when the topic of Orihime's dress came up.

 

“Oh that's so sweet!” Rukia exclaimed after hearing about what Uryu's gift had been. “I always knew he liked you!”

 

“What?!? Oh no, no, no, no, no! He was just being friendly, that's all! Ishida-kun doesn't like me! Oh, Tatsuki-chan, that reminds me! This morning, at lunch, who were you talking about when you said that someone liked me?”

 

“Well, um, actually, Orihime-chan, um, he's actually the one I was talking about…” Orihime was quiet while Rukia looked at Tatsuki. Tatsuki looked at Orihime and said, “I already talked to him… well sort of… I said a few things to him and I knew that if he reacted the way I expected him to, it would mean that he liked you and he answered right...”

 

“But, but that means that… Oh geez… How long has he liked me?”

 

“Um… I'd say… a few weeks after he met you?”

 

Orihime's heart sank into her stomach. This was awful. How could she be so cruel? All this time Uryu had liked her and what had she done? She'd ignored him and tried to make Ichigo like her, hoping that he would eventually ask her out even though she knew he liked Rukia. This morning when she had been wondering who liked her she'd completely dismissed the thought of Uryu. How could she not see what had been staring her in the face for so long? By this time hot tears were gathering in her eyes. He'd been so nice to her and he had acknowledged the fact that she would never notice him, yet hadn't accepted it. He'd kept trying and she'd basically just pushed him away. She'd always thought of Uryu as a friend and never considered the fact that he would ever like her. Orihime couldn't stand it anymore. The dam burst and tears flowed down her cheeks. She never wanted to hurt him. She never would have guessed that she was hurting him like this.

 

Tatsuki saw that her friend needed someone to cry on and thought it should probably be her as she was Orihime's best friend and the one that had broken the news in the first place. Tatsuki hugged her and let Orihime weep into her chest.

 

After a few minutes had passed and Orihime had calmed down a bit, Rukia asked, “So if Uryu likes you and you like Ichigo and I like Renji, who likes me?”

 

Orihime and Tatsuki looked at her, looked at each other, then looked back at Rukia and said in unison, “Ichigo.”

 

“Yeah, I thought so. Poor guy. The thing is, I don't know what to do about it. How do I set him straight without hurting him?”

 

They talked for another half hour before they had everything figured out.

 

“Ok, so Uryu likes Orihime, Orihime likes Ichigo, Ichigo likes Rukia, Rukia likes Renji and Renji might like Rukia back. We're gonna have a party on Saturday at 5:00 and invite Yoruichi, Renji, Uryu, Sado, Keigo, Mizuiro, and Ichigo, right?” Tatsuki reeled off. Rukia and Orihime nodded in agreement and Rukia looked at the clock. It was 6:30.

 

“Oh you guys, I gotta go. Dinner's at 7:00. See ya later!”

 

“Ok! See ya later Rukia-chan!” they called after her.

 

“Ok, so… On with those party plans…” Tatsuki continued.

 

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A/N: Ok well hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! (^_^)

 

(Lucy: Hey, who let you back in?!? SEC-)

 

*holds up Zanpaktou* Don't say a word…

 

(Lucy: O.O Yes ma'am!)