Disclaimer: We don't own bleach or any of its characters ~sigh~ But if we did, Ichigo would already be dating Orihime.

Chapter 1

Okami

Many years ago, hollows used to roam the earth freely. They were beasts; masked, heartless monsters with only one goal, to eat the souls of humans. They would terrorize many towns and eat all the souls there, leaving nothing left but chaos. No one could stop the ravenous monsters, and no one knew when they would strike next. But, one day, as the hollows were about to attack an island known as Karakura Island, they were attacked by a pack of rather large wolves, later known to the humans as the Okami. They were powerful and were able to kill hollows with their abilities, and soon the hollows were exterminated. The guardians also had human forms, and were accepted and honored by all the inhabitants of Karakura Island. Many festivals were held for the heroes, and in return, they continued exterminating the hollows for many years. Then, for some unknown reason, the Okami betrayed the humans, and after killing of a group of hollows that had attacked the island one day, they tried to kill the humans instead, betraying the help and hospitality that had been given to them. They were defeated and banished from the land and even today, still remain outlaws. For this reason, no one ever goes into the area known as the Abyss of Heroes, for the fear that they will be eaten alive by our so-called saviors.

'The Legend of the Guardians'. A tale that every person living on the beautiful Karakura Island knows. None of the humans ever associated with the guardians, or even went near their abyss. All except for one human. And so our story begins…

…

Tap, tap, tap. A plain wooden pencil being tapped on a plain brown school desk in the middle of a busy, loud classroom. 'Five more seconds, four, now three…' Big, gray eyes were staring at the clock, counting the moments until the end of her last day as a High School Junior. 'Two… One…'

"Ding, Ding, Ding" The final bell rang, and soon everyone was out of their seats, hugging and chatting about what their plan for the summer break was.

"Hey Orihime!" She looked up to find her best friend, Tatsuki Arisawa standing in front of her desk. "What are you doing for your summer break?"

"I don't know yet..." Orihime sighed, her eyes downcast. "Perhaps I'll just spend the summer at home."

This answer seemed to anger Tatsuki. "What? Again? Orihime, you need to do something! And this summer I'll be gone at my summer camp with my dojo!" She stared Orihime down, "You should not spend the entire summer at home Orihime. There are lots of things to do!"

Orihime replied sadly, "Like what?" she asked quietly.

Tatsuki immediately stopped yelling at her, feeling guilty. Instead she put her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Orihime," she said, this time with pity and comfort in her voice. "I know you miss Sora, but you can't go on like this! Don't you think that he would want you to have some fun instead of moping around?" Her voice suddenly because tough and determined, "So go have some fun this summer, Orihime! I know! Find a boyfriend! With a beautiful face and boobs that large, every boy on the island would want you!" And with that, Tatsuki bid her friend goodbye and left, swinging her bag over her shoulder as she left to pack for her summer camp.

Orihime sighed as she watched her friend leave. 'This is going to be a lonely summer.' She stood up from behind her desk, stuffed all of her things into her bag, and then slowly waded through her fellow classmates to get outside.

"Inoue-san!" She turned around to see Uryu Ishida, jogging towards her. Once he was beside her, he stopped, a small smile on his face. "Do you want me to walk you home?"

"Sure!" Orihime was grateful to her friend. After her brother, Sora Inoue, had been killed by a hollow a few years ago, Orihime almost never walked home alone anymore. Tatsuki had said that she needed the company, and Orihime enjoyed spending more time with her friends. Normally it was Tatsuki who accompanied her, but she didn't mind walking with Ishida-kun either. He was not very talkative, but still a good and trustworthy friend.

"I haven't seen you around lately," he said quietly.

"Yeah."

"Are you alright? You haven't seemed so well since your brother died." Orihime nodded and Uryu fell silent for the rest of the walk to her house, noticing her stiffness. "Well, um...see you next time." Orihime nodded again, and Uryu turned around and left. Orihime just watched him go silently until he was out of sight, then turned around to enter her apartment, but instead saw the masked face that always haunted her dreams blocking her way.

"Oh, I got a young girl? You look delicious…" He said in an entwined voice that made it sound like the hollow was talking underwater. Orihime wanted to run, but at the same time, she was frozen, and found that she couldn't move. Her heart was pounding almost painfully, her breath coming out in short gasps. Her entire body was trembling, and she wanted to scream, but found that she couldn't. 'I'm going to die, this thing is going to eat me, just like Sora! Please, let it be quick and painless.' It grabbed her right arm, its claws sinking deep into her muscle, and she screamed. The pain was intense, so intense she felt like she was suffocating. Suddenly she heard a low growl coming from behind her, and something big with four legs jumped over her head and attacked the hollow, landing on its back with its sharp claws sinking into the hollow's back. It let go of her, and she immediately fell backwards to avoid being dragged into the fighting. It looked like a giant wolf with fur the color of dark honey, its ears pinned to its head in alert. 'An okami!' Fear struck her heart, and she wasn't sure which one she was more afraid of, the light brown okami, or the giant masked hollow. She just sat there, watching her two worst fears fight each other. To her horror, the okami seemed to have the upper hand. The okami grabbed the hollow's neck, and in one smooth movement, bit off its head and jumped off of the hollow that was fading into dust. Then it turned to her.

"No, no, no! P-please! Don't eat me!" she begged, crawling back, her eyes shut tight.

"Why would I do that?" Her eyes shot open in surprise. It's not going to eat her? She slowly looked up to the wolf, but instead of fur and a tail, she saw a man, who looked about her age. He had brown eyes that looked like a mix of dark chocolate and reddish honey, giving his eyes an amber shade. To her surprise, he had clothes on. A t-shirt with the number 15 on it that clung onto his muscular chest, and some dark brown cargo pants. She wondered if the 15 symbolized rank. Did that mean he was the 15th strongest? Also, to her surprise, she saw that he was carrying a giant black and white sword across his back. But that wasn't the most surprising. The most surprising trait about him was his bright orange hair. It was even brighter than her burnt amber locks. He noticed her staring and said indignantly, "What?"

"Oh! Sorry!" 'Oops!' She hadn't meant to stare. But look at him. His orange hair that looked like fire in the right angle of sunlight...that body that was thin, but still lithe and muscular in just the right places...and those eyes...those eyes that seemed to burn right through her...No! She couldn't be daydreaming at a time like this! He was an okami, for lord's sake! But...a hot one at that...ARGHHH!

He looked at her, noticing the large gashes on her arm, and crouched down. He then opened his mouth (which was full of sharp canine teeth) and sliced open his wrist. She gave him a look of horror, but what shocked her even more was what he said next. He held out his wrist to her mouth, and said "Drink."

Not sure that she heard right, she asked "What?"

"I said drink."

"B-but…" she stammered.

"What?" he said, starting to get annoyed.

"B-but, I'm n-not a vampire!"

He was so surprised that he actually took a step back. "A what?"

"A vampire! They come out in the middle of the night to drink people's blood or turn other people in to one of their kind!"

The okami laughed, a light baritone laugh that made her blush deeply. "I don't think that you're a vampire or whatever you call it."

Shocked, Orihime said "You don't?" He shook his head. "Then why do you want me to drink your blood?"

He laughed again, and gestured to her injured arm which, because of her fear, she had previously forgotten about. "Our blood has healing properties, which is why we are so hard to kill. But, in order for the magical properties to work, we have to willingly give it over. So drink." He said once again holding out his arm to her lips. She hesitated, but took a sip, expecting the usual metal taste. But instead of the coppery tang of blood she had expected, his blood, strangely, tasted like vanilla ice cream, which used to be her favorite ice cream before her brother died. The okami withdrew his arm and started to bandage the cut with some cloth that he had pulled from his pocket. Then, she felt a slight tingling in her right arm. She looked at her arm, and found her skin working its way back together the muscle and fat melding back. When it was done, her arm looked brand new.

"Whoa! Cool!"

The okami nodded in agreement and stood up, dusting his pants. Then, he held out his hand and she took it, slightly blushing. His hand was big and calloused, but still warm and gentle. He helped her to her feet, then introduced himself. "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki… Hey! Why are you laughing?"

Orihime let out some loud snorts of laughter at the mention of his name. "I-ichigo? Y-you mean l-like, strawberry?" At that she burst in to even more fits of laughter. Ichigo seemed to get really annoyed, but she didn't really notice. Strawberry? That was cute!

"Hey! That's not what it means! It means the one who protects! Not strawberry! Hey, stop laughing at me!"

"S-sorry," she said, in between giggles, and she covered her mouth, trying to stop them. "M-my name i-is O-o-orihime Inoue!"

Ichigo smiled, "Nice to meet you Orihime."

"Nice t-to meet y-you too I-ichigo!" she said, and finally started to calm down, but made sure to keep her thoughts far away from strawberries. As she put away those thoughts, she found herself staring at Ichigo. 'He sure is handsome. Why did King Aizen say the okami were traitors? He seems fine to me…'

"Orihime, you're staring at me again," he said, pulling her from her thoughts and back to the real world.

"Oh, sorry," she blushed.

He nodded. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm just wondering why –" but before she could complete her sentence, she suddenly found herself swaying with sudden dizziness, before she a pair of muscular arms caught her.

"Are you alright?" Orihime nodded slightly, then her vision went black, and she fell into the land of her dreams. The last thing she felt were those strong arms gently lowering her to the ground.

AN: Hi! This is our second fic, Living a Lie. Oh, and THIS IS NOT BASED ON TWILIGHT. We got the okami details from a book we were reading called Nightshade, and the original storyline was Ashley's idea. Well please review to tell us what you think!