Title: White Midnight Magic. Nothing special or relevant about this title. It's just a name of a cupcake from a local bakery I frequent.

Summary: Ichigo apparently doesn't believe in love, Orihime apparently doesn't know how to make love confessions, and their friends think that this is some weird new form of flirting. Well Orihime thinks that this at least will make an interesting love story to tell her kids one day.

Setting: AU. Normal high school.

Rating: K+ – T

Warnings: None particularly. Um, unbeta'd?

*I've read plenty of fics where Orihime confesses to Ichigo so I wanted to do one of my own. I took a different route with this and hopefully you enjoy my characterizations.

White Midnight Magic

"After the lunch period is over all students are required to meet at the main entrance of the School, due to the auditorium being renovated―The third study day is now over."

Today all the students of Karakura High School will be gathered together and so Orihime finds herself at the entrance hall of the school, by the lockers, staring into the west hallway.

"The student council would like to thank the faculty and all the students for the willing cooperation into organizing the school's first ever 'graduation festival'. This is the third day and almost the end of the week. But next week will be final exams, therefore we need all preparations ready by Friday."

She turns around to hear Ishida, speaking with a voice that a true school president should possess as he stares into the crowd with a stern gaze from behind his glasses while giving out instructions to the student body.

"Remember, your group is based on your home room class and each class has tasks assigned to them, with the class representatives acting as the leaders of that group. If you're unsure of where to go or what to do, there will be lists of each class and what their assignment is, that Kuchiki-san is setting up by the school news bulletin board. If you have any further questions regarding that, you may ask Kuchiki-san or any of the members of the council."

Ishida pauses, glancing over at Rukia, who is straining on the tips of her toes to tack the lists onto the board. He shakes his head before facing the students once more.

"I, as your senior class president would like to thank all you once again. Quickly find your groups and you may get started." With that he shuts off the megaphone that Orihime just now notices he has as he makes his way to assist Rukia.

And here she's thinking on how he had seriously wicked vocal ranges and projection skills.

She laughs to herself about her easily distracted nature until the thoughts get pushed out of the picture when the excited chatter of the students rises, figures moving away from her, blending together and forming little clumps from her peripheral vision.

Instead of following along with the rest of the student body she stays rooted in her spot but she is almost carried away by their nonsense dancing their way into her head. She has to kick them out though, no matter how rude it makes her seem because she has an important mission accomplish!

That's right, it's time for some geometry! She begins to concentrate and after a couple of calculations done in her head she shifts her position a few paces forward and one towards the right.

Happy with her mathematics, she smiles and blows a kiss at the mirror from across the school's foyer.

Tatsuki eyes her friend with interest and laughs quietly at her silly antics, head lightly shaking out the long spikes of her growing hair. She goes to stand next to Orihime and follows her best friend's gaze but doesn't see anyone particularly outstanding or interesting amongst the throngs of students around the west hallway entrance.

But spotting a large ten foot mirror—which she vaguely wonders what it could possibly be used for—that other students had previously brought out, she guesses that she doesn't need to.

Rukia is the second to catch the scene in action. She hops away from the rest of the student council and makes her way to her friends. After what she has just witnessed there is no way to stop her curiosity from filling to the brim. She reaches the two girls, taking a quick glance at Orihime who has pink cheeks and goo-goo eyes. She bites back her curiosity a little longer to turn and look up at Tatsuki. Rukia sees that like her, Tatsuki doesn't even bother to conceal the sly smile from her lips and this pushes Rukia to tease in an excitedly hushed whisper. "Sooo who was that for?"

Orihime's smile turns into a grin, and she sing-songs, "nobodyyy!"

Tatsuki scoffs before crossing her arms, "you're a little liar Orihime!" Her accusations and body language make it seem like she is upset but her teasing tone and how her face immediately breaks into a smile afterwards contradict everything else.

While Orihime is distracted by Tatsuki, Rukia flanks her left side. "She's right! Spill before I pinch you!" Despite her words, Rukia pinches Orihime anyways.

Orihime squeals and squirms but she can't stop her giggling. "Okay, okay!" And her smile stretches the widest her friends have ever seen. "It's just for someone I like." She giggles again, biting her lips and going starry-eyed.

Both Rukia and Tatsuki giggle and laugh along with their auburn-haired friend. Understanding completely why Orihime is acting like the lovesick high school girl she actually is.

"It's almost been a month huh?" Tatsuki fails to communicate seriously when Orihime cheerfully nods in agreement.

So Rukia takes a swing. "Does it bother that nothing has happened yet?"

"Ohhh, that's not true..."

"Wait! What do you mean that!?" Silence ensues and being ignored irritates Tatsuki and disintegrates Rukia's patience—

"Hey Orhime!"

"Orhime—Huh?"

Rukia and Tatsuki catch Orihime staring faraway into the mirror again with bright round eyes and a... Flirtatious smile? Hold up! They both quickly squish their cheeks against Orihime's to get a better glimpse of what their pretty friend sees.

And not a moment too soon before the figure disappears into the shadows of the east hallway.

Watching Orihime take off after the figure while leaving her friends behind does not bother neither Tatsuki nor Rukia, in fact it makes them laugh out loud again.

Rukia eventually manages stifling her laughter before waving Tatsuki goodbye, heading back to join the rest of the council.

Where she hopes that no one on the council asks about the sly smile stretching across her lips.

Ichigo's cheeks lightly burn and his scowl runs deeper.

He stares intensely at the mirror across the school's foyer at certain group of girls.

Or rather a very particular, very peculiar girl of that group.

And even though the lively sounds of students drowned mostly everything around him and despite the distance between him and the girls, he could still hear their laughter, in his mind.

Which is the last thing he needs considering how his head is now filled with blown kisses and sweet smiles. Don't forget the bright smiles, the flirtatious smiles—

He grumbles more to himself than his friends about nonsensical girls and he curses geometry while he's at it. How on earth did she figure how to position herself so that they could both see each other through a mirror!?

Oh right. Sadly, he forgot that he is dealing with a math whiz, who is one of the top students of their class. But how can he deal with this when she has also figured out a way to imprint her image inside his mind. If he dares to close his eyes all the moments he's spent with her, especially from this past month, begins to replay and repeat nonstop. He can't take it anymore!

He sighs completely to himself. He hates it how it sounds like he's complaining. Those moments with her, and the alone moments, were not bad. They were nice, very nice but could he trust the reason behind them?

The image of Tatsuki and Rukia, of them laughing, at him—it blurs and fogs all those other moments further into the recesses of his mind.

He turns away to shove his way out of the crowd. His steps are faster than normal as he walks off to a narrow hallway to escape the small wave of students.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

Ichigo does not hear the voice calling him as combs his hand quickly through his hair in light frustration. He walks just a tad bit faster but after few more steps he stops by an unfamiliar hand capturing his.

All of his nerves cries to spring into attack!mode but he stops short when he finally registers whose voice that had just called him.

When he turns to greet Inoue, he is left mildly complexed by the absence of her form. That is, until he follows the trail down his arm, spotting the small hand still grasping around his wrist, his eyes climb up her arm and reaches her face.

Or what would be her face if it isn't for the fact that her body's bent forward, her other hand balancing herself on her knee, and her head tilting downward causing her hair to fall all around her.

Her head whips back and miraculously her long hair misses striking his face. The lips that had blown him a kiss are breathing hard and her cheeks are stained pink. Her movements may have been exaggerated but not as much as how he momentarily freaks out in his head over his hand still being encased in hers.

"U-uh Inoue? My hand?" Ichigo lifts up his hand for emphasis and he hopes that she doesn't catch the sudden unexplained nervousness in his tone or the fact that his hands feel like they are going sweat at anytime. Luckily Orihime quickly drops it with a embarrassed smile accompanying a quick apology, "o-oh, sorry."

Now the pink in her cheeks were long gone. Maybe he has mistaken it for an embarrassed blush, when in fact, is just the result of her earlier exertion and following breathlessness.

He is unsure whether or not he feels disappointed.

Ichigo jolts back into reality when he felt two hands grabbing onto his school jacket. He looks down and finds Orihime with the strangest look he has ever seen her make.

A mix of mischief and excitement and... are her eyes sparkling?

"You sneaking off again?" She asks, the excitement in her tone more apparent with each word.

This for some reason makes him feel flustered but to answer her question—and to uphold his cool image—he shrugs and says, "you gonna rat me out to Ishida and Rukia?"

Orihime simply shakes her head before tugging on his sleeve, pulling him into the hallway and away from the crowd. She catches him staring at her quizzically and so she winks.

"Not if you plan on ratting me out for joining you."

Their white school issued shoes lightly pad down the hallway, languid in their steps but careful in order to not attract attention from possible wandering teachers.

Orihime lets out giggle when she twirls, walks backwards so she could face her favorite orange-haired friend with a little secretive smile that she could no longer hold back.

Her smiles are dangerous, he thinks and his point is proven when she suddenly strides off into another hallway on the left side. "Come on," she speaks up softly as she pulls the other by the sleeve of his uniform making him turn in as well.

Ichigo does not object because he already has gotten used to her random quirky behavior. He allows her to hold onto his arm, guiding him down the hall until they reach a set of stairs.

She tugs on his arm again while signaling up the stairs with her head. "Let's go this way."

He doesn't want to say he is suspicious but he can admit that he is curious. "Why?"

"I..." She pauses, first to bite her lip in contemplation before that secretive smiles tugs out her lips once more. "I want to go to the roof to talk to you about something..." Ichigo slightly frowns at Orihime's sudden bashfulness, with her head tilting to one side, letting her bright red cinnamon hair to frame her suddenly light pink cheeks. He sighs.

"Inoue if this is about that Valentine's day prank―"

She pouts before immediately laughing quietly. She takes hold of his hand, stands in front of him, bows respectfully, and then plants a chaste kiss on that hand.

Just like a true gentleman would, she thinks and laughs lightly at the idea of her playing the role of the gentleman instead of it being the other way around.

Her lips graze the top of his hand with every word when she says, "don't ever say that. My confession was not a prank Kurosaki-kun." She lifts up her head, gazing into his eyes through her thick eyelashes. The soft brown highlights the gold specks in her eyes, makes it seem brighter, makes it appear like they are glowing somehow.

This paralyzes Ichigo when he realizes on how he just described her eyes.

Orihime cannot help by smile adoringly when she sees a dust of pink on his cheeks and how his hands warm up a couple of degrees.

But she lets go of his hand and climbs the first few steps ahead leaving Ichigo to scowl at the bottom. When she reaches the top she spins around and sees him unmoving and this has her lips bubbling into a pout. But for once since this trek around the school started she speaks with seriousness in her tone, hands of her hips for good measure. "Why don't you take me or my confession seriously?"

"Inoue, I already know that it was a setup so it can hardly be called serious." Ichigo huffs before climbing up the steps after her. Orihime shrugs at his words but he remarks, lips turning down in that similar weary grimace, "I still can't believe how Rukia and Tatsuki could make you keep up with this." He shakes his head at the incredulity of their friends' crazy antics.

"Is that what you believe? Do you have any proof?" She challenges and giggles when he splutters for a comeback. She spins away from him, gives a few more twirls and swirls before she stumbles which causes Ichigo to react by steadying her, catching her elbows and setting her on her feet.

"No more of that." He orders and can't help but smirk, somewhat softly when Orihime responds with a, "hai Kurosaki-taichou!" And a salute.

She marches dutifully ahead but causes Ichigo to slightly jerk when she faces him with quick spin of her head.

"I meant every word." And he is taken aback by the intensity of the seemingly innocent declaration. "My confession was not a prank," she placed her hand over hear as though to emphasize her point, "but like I said beforehand, please give me your answer on White day."

But White day is only two days away...

"Yosh! Now let's go to the rooftop!" And Ichigo is once again swept away by Orihime when she loops her arm with his.

And with her acting as the leader, they end up circling (and twirling) the second story three more times before finally heading up to the roof.

I decided to save the ranting for the end. I centered it to make it seem more important. Did it work?

Sooo February was crazy. Between work, school, hospital visits, a car accident (hospital and accident unrelated), I've been so overly stressed and it's seriously bringing me down. Plus I accidently deleted the chapter for HIYA (Heavy in Your Arms) that I was working on. Which completely frustrates me because now I can't seem to write it as nice as I had it before. That's why I decided to break away from it and write something lighthearted to cheer me up!

But I'm really sorry for those who are waiting patiently on HIYA, to reassure you guys, I have already begun rewriting the chapter and it's getting close to completion. I also plan on posting two chapters for HIYA by the end of this month. Although I do want to finish this short fic by the end of this week.

I really hope I have enough time for all of this ^^!

Well... Please ReViEw!

Take care my lovelies~

Nova