A/N: Sooooo Sorry I hadn't updated sooner!!! I just remembered I even had this story on tap!! Hope it was worth the wait
More Than Just Friends
Going About It The Wrong Way
"You sure it was him??" Oihime asked
"Very sure. Positive. 100%. I walked right by them" she smiled
Orihime walked slowly with Chizuru. "You wanna come over right now??" Chizuru giggled happily, knowing she was with Orihime all alone.
"Uhh, no thank you" she declined politely
"What?? Why not Hime?"
"I might go over to Ichigo's later if he calls me"
"He might not even be home"
"Sure he would. Why wouldn't he be?"
"Think Orihime. He walked her home, they're all alone, the girl is pretty, he doesn't have you there with him, she might even invite him in, and from there on, who knows what may happen." She said trying to convince her
Orihime looked at her shoes sadly.
"You're probably not even on his mind" she said with fake sympathy
Orihime groaned. At this point she didn't want to even be around Chizuru, the only thing Chizuru succeeded in was upsetting her. "I'll see you at school tomorrow okay? Bye" she motioned to go down a separate street.
"Whoa!! Wait! What's wrong?! Was it something I said?" she feared she might've messed up her shot
Orihime continued to walk. "Hey do you hear me?" Chizuru asked
"It's a short cut home this way. I wanna get home fast suddenly my stomach hurts, I don't feel well."
"I'll walk you home and we'll just hang out at your house" Chizuru said already walking after her.
"No" she turned around to glare at her, "You'll just make me feel worse"
That stopped the red headed girl in her tracks. Speechless that she did the exact opposite of what kind of emotions she wanted to create in Orihime. 'Maybe it really is best to leave her alone' she walked slowly in the same direction she was headed before. Home.
Orihime continued to walk slowly a while later. Looking only at her shoes. Feeling as low as they were. "Baby?"
She looked up. "Ichigo" she was surprised to see him. "What are you doing in my neighborhood?" she asked
"What?? Look around you babe"
She saw familiar houses. Kids she had seen before. But they were not of her neighborhood. And whats more, she saw the Kurosaki Clinic.
"I-I-I didn't mean to come over here" she stuttered slowly
"So you... Walked here without even knowing it? Your body just kinda dragged you here?" he said confused.
Orihime knew it sounded strange. And it's not something that happens everyday, but that's the way it was. ".... Yeah" she whispered
"Huh" He said plainly. "Well since you're here you wanna come inside?" he said happy to see her
"Uhm no I.. My stomach hurts" she said hesitantly
"Oh sorry babe, I'll kiss your tummy to make you feel better" he put his hands on her waist
She backed up so that she wouldn't feel his touch, "No that's not necessary, thank you though"
"Okay well let's go inside, we can watch a movie if you want" he took her hand in his
"No Ichigo I gotta go, It's really important that I go, see you tomorrow at school" she struggled out of his hand
"Kay well give me a kiss" he bent down to her, but when he did, he turned her head to avoid his kiss. "Baby what's wrong??" he said with a worried look
"No-nothing" she looked at the ground refusing to look at his eyes
He looked at her, still with a worried expression on his face. He wasn't fooled by her. They've known eachother for so long. It didn't take much for him to figure it out that something was bothering her. What scared him even more, is that she didn't want to tell him. Orihime couldn't help it. She had to look at him, it pained her to see him that way and she showed a sad expression.
"I wish I could read your mind. But since I don't have that ability, please tell me what's on your mind." his tone was almost begging.
She looked down at the ground with her same expression. Orihime closed her eyes. Took a deep breath, exhaled, and nodded.
He took her hand again. "Let's go inside"
They stepped in the house. "Where's your family?" she asked
"Out"
"Oh" she calmed down thinking that it might be comforting, and she could talk freely.
They came to the couch and sat down. "So?" he was impatient and wanted to know as soon as possible
"Uhm... uhh... ohhh.." she groaned
He squeezed her hand gently. "Tell me. It's okay"
"I heard that you..." she looked her their hands, "Uhm, that you.." he could tell she was uncomfortable. "Uhm.. that you walked another girl home" she looked at his eyes finally.
Ichigo showed a confused expression. She didn't want him to play dumb and for him to act like he didn't know what was going on. She trusted him fully and compleately, if he said that he wasn't with anybody, she would believe it.
"I didn't do that" he said
"Really?"
"Yeah"
Orihime smiled lightly, then her expression went into a state of confusion.
"What is it?" he asked
"Just thinking"
"What about?"
"Well, I believe you when you tell me that you didn't walk another girl home. But now I'm confused on why she would tell me that"
"Who?"
"Chizuru"
"Chizuru told you that I walked another girl home?"
"Uh-huh"
"When?"
"After school when I was waiting for you. She came up to me saying she even saw you"
"Yeah, I'm wondering why she would make that up myself" he said "Maybe she thought she saw me when it was somebody else"
"She told me it was positive it was you because she walked right by you two."
Ichigo thought about Chizuru. Why she did it. How she was acting around Orihime. He thought of the possibility that Chizuru didn't want Orihime to be happy, 'Maybe that's why.' he thought, 'No, that couldn't be it. She's always so happy when she see's Orihime. She hugs her really hard and rubs her cheeks against hers. And gives her nice complements on how pretty she is and calls her Hime. The way she acts is almost as if she were a les......... Oh dear lord...' Ichigos eyes suddenly went wide with shock
Orhime looked up from the place on the wall she was staring at in thought and glanced at Ichigo, who still had his expression, "You okay??"
"No" he squeaked quietly
"Why?"
"Because... Chizu... ru... She's a... a"
"Yessssss???"
"Lesbian" he whispered. Feeling more shocked saying the word, than thinking it.
"Who?"
"Chizuru"
"What? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, and I don't think I'm mistaken"
Orihime sat back in her seat. She looked at Ichigo and looked back at her hands. She looked at Ichigo. Ichigo smiled sheepishly.
"What do I do??" She asked
"I don't know! Just tell her to back off!! Tell her you're flattered and that maybe she'll find a nice young girl out there for herself and that you're straight!"
"But that sounds so played out" she said
"Like I said I don't know! Just be like, 'Ichigo would be mad and he said, "Hands off my woman!!'"
"Ichigo-" she blinked
"It's true! I really am thinking, 'Chizuru hands the hell off my woman!! She's mine!!'. I can't stand the thought of losing you to anybody. Man or woman!"
"Oh Ichigo.." She smiled warmly. He looked at her. He smiled a little. She put her hands on his face. Carressed his cheeks with her thumbs. He looked at her, he could help but smile too. He leaned in and placed his lips on hers. He applied slight pressure, and so did she. The kiss was soft, and tender, the feelings they had toward eachother at the moment were of sincere care. It might've almost been perfect had it not have been for one interuption.
"Holy shit!! I knew it!!"
The yell startled them out of the kiss. Ichigo looked with wide eyes at the interupter. "Goddamn it Dad!!" He stood up.
"No, no, be a man. Finish what you started, you can't just leave her like that, don't mind me, I swear I won't make a sound" His father had a smile from ear to ear.
"No Dad!, are you crazy?! That's just weird! What you should've done is just walk back out!"
"I know I probably should've but you gotta understand how excited I was to see you kissing a girl! And not just any girl!" he looked at Orihime and took her hands and pulled her up, "Orihime, I am so happy you and my son are a couple now! I always knew it would happen but who would've thought it would be so soon?!" He slung his arm over Ichigos and pulled him in, and he did the same with Orihime putting them all in a group hug.
"Good job you guys" Said Karin, who had secretly been watching from the doorway along with Yuzu, who only smiled at them.
Ichigo lifted an eyebrow at them, "Why does everyone have to be so..." The phone rang. "Oh good" Ichigo said, happy something could take him out of the situation for a moment. He walked to the phone, "Yeah?" he answered. "Yeah she's here" he held a conversation. "Now?" he waited for a response. "Hold on let me ask" he put down the phone. "Orihime, were you supposed to meet up with Tatsuki at your house at 6?"
Orihimes eyes went wide, she gasped. She looked up at the clock, 6:13. "Yes!!" She rushed to the phone. "I'm sorry Tatsuki!! I'll be over there in a few minutes!!" She hung up without a response. "I gotta go!!" she kissed Ichigos cheek. She hurried to the door. "Bye Mr. Kurosaki!!, Karin, Yuzu!"
"Wait!!" Ichigo said. "Can I see you later today?"
"Sure, where and when??"
"I don't know, the park at 7:30?"
"Okay, I'll be there! Bye!!" and with that she ran out the door.
Later That Day.... 7:20 To Be Exact :)
"Bye Tatsuki! Thanks for bringing the food! I'll see you tomorrow!" Orihime yelled to Tatsuki who was walking home.
"No problem! Just remember to give me the bowl tomorrow or else my mom will throw a fit!" she yelled back
"Okay!!" She closed the door. The phone rang. She answered it. "Hello?"
"Hime!!"
"Chizuru??"
"Yeah! Hey we should hang out!! Can I come over? Maybe we can watch a movie under a blanket? I'll bring the popcorn!!"
"Oh Chizuru, that all sounds nice but uhm, I'm going to go spend time with Ichigo. I'm meeting up with him at 7:30. I was about to leave right now."
'It's always with him, huh? Never have time for me' she thought jealously. "Where you guys going?" she asked
"The park, but listen I have to go or I'll be late. Excuse me. See you tomorrow."
"Buh.." Chizuru wanted to say bye, but Orihime hung up before she had a chance to. Chizuru stared at her phone and then hung up angrilly. "What the heck?! I'm just brushed aside?! Urrgh!! Now that they're in a relationship together, I can't even so much as hold up a conversation with her!" She folded her arms. "It's like I don't even matter anymore." She looked out her window. Her eyes switched to the corner of her room. Staring at nothing. Just thinking. They suddenly shifted, as if she had just came to realize something. The corners of her mouth slowly moved upward into a smile. She stayed sitting down a while, as if thinking things over, her eyes shifted around. "I've been going about this the wrong way!!" she got up hurriedly, almost slipping in the process and rushed downstairs, out the front door, and dashed down the street.... In the direction of the park.... ' I'll go find Ichigo before Orihime can even get there and tell him she can't make it' she thought 'He'll leave and go home. Then when Orihime gets there I'll tell her that Ichigo couldn't make it and even if its just for that one day, I'll have her all to myself!!'
Ichigo waited on a bench. He was already there. He checked his cell phone for the time and put it back in his pocket. The time read 7:30. 'She should be here soon.' he thought. He looked around to see if she was around, she wasn't.
Several minutes later, Chizuru reaches the park out of breath. She looks around with a worried look on her face. "Okay now where..." She surveys the park until she spots an orange haired boy sitting at a bench. "Okay!" She huffed panting. She sped over to him. "Hey Ichigo!" She huffed once more.
"Chizuru?"
"Yeah how-- how's it going?" she swallowed some air.
"Were you running?" He stood up looking at her oddly.
"Uh-huh" She nodded quickly
"Why?" He asked, an eye brow raised in question
"Oh you know, getting in shape, being healthy, running, you know how it goes!" she said trying to play it off
"Uh--huh" he said slowly
"Well actually I came to tell you that Orihime can't come hang out with you today"
"So you ran??" He asked
"Well yeah I didn't want you to waste you're time here waiting you know?"
"Why can't Orihime come?"
"She's feeling ill"
"So soon?"
"What do you mean?"
"I just saw her like two hours ago and she was fine"
"Oh well uh, her stomach hurts"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah" She said
"I should take her some medicine" he started to walk off in the direction of her house
'No!' Chizuru's eyes went wide, 'If he goes to her house then they'll bump into eachother at some point! Orihimes coming here!' "Wait Ichigo!" She stepped in front of him quickly cutting off his steps. "I don't think thats a good idea!"
"Why?"
"Because uhm, she, uh..." Oh crap what do I say?! Even I can tell this sound sketchy
Ichigo looked ahead over Chizuru. Orihime was there. Her eyes were serching for him. "Hey Orihimes right there"
"She's what?!"
"Right there behind you look. You told me she was sick"
"Sure it's her??"
"Of course shes not that far away from us"
'Oh great. She's behind me. He's in front of me. They're both here. They'll both know I'm a liar. Then how will I look?' She thought. 'I think I only have one long shot chance.'
"I'll see you later Chizuru" Ichigo said.
Chizuru swallowed hard, she reached up and clasped her hands around Ichigos cheeks. She licked her lips nervously, a little unsure of what she was doing, and if it'll even work.
Ichigo looked at her oddly. "Hey what the hell are you--"
Before he could finish, Chizuru pulled his head down to meet hers at eye level. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She pressed her lips on his and held a tight grip on him.
Orihime contiued to look around, her eyes shifted trying to find Ichigo. She looked at a pair of people kissing. She focused on them. Normally, she wouldn't care if she saw two people kissing. It's compleately normal. It's just that... Nobody else had spiky orange hair other than her Ichigo. Her face relaxed. Looking stunned.
Ichigo tried to break out of her grip. He reached up to grab her hands. Before he could, Chizuru wrapped her arms around Ichigo's neck, putting them in a tight embrace. Ichigo put his hands on her waist, trying to push her away, seeing as he couldn't break the lock she had around his neck, and he couldn't put his hands in front of him.
To Orihime this looked as if he wanted to kiss her. Quite the opposite, but there was no way she could figure that out just by looking at them. 'Red hair' she thought. 'It's that girl' her mouth opened slightly. Her once relaxed eyebrows slowly bent toward her eyes. Her eyes watered up, threatening to break out at the sides. She exhaled slowly. Orihime didn't want to look at them anymore. Her head slowly bent down to stare at her feet.
Ichigo continued to try and pry from her grip until he finally put enough force on her to push her away. Chizurus arms unlocked from his neck and she brought them bent in front of her. "What is WRONG with you?!" He spit on his side and wiped his mouth on his sleave. "Orihime's right over--" He was reminded that she was in the park too. He gasped slowly and quietly. Ichigo looked up in her direction. If only she had kept looking at them, she would have seen his reaction, maybe it would've been easier for him to explain the truth and possibly would've believed him, and everything would've been okay.
She sniffled and ran a hand through her hair. She finally looked up at them. To find that Ichigo was staring at her too. They made eye contact. The red head hadn't turned around and kept looking at Ichigo. A tear slid down her cheek.
"Orihime" He whispered. He took one step forward to her.
Orihime took one step back away from him.
He two more steps. Without saying a word she slowly and repeatedly shook her head no. Turned around, tears glittering and flying as she did. Orihime ran in the direction from which she came, back to her house.
"Orihime wait!!" He shouted, running after her. Quickly advancing. Never running so fast before in his life. Scared more than anything, to lose her.
She kept running as well. Desperate to get home to the comfort of her room, her bed, her pillow, wanting to avoid contact with him. At this point, she couldn't bare to make eye contact with him.
"Orihime wait!!" He repeated. Still running. He got closer to her, more and more with each second. He finally reached her. He grabbed her wrist as it came back and forth as she ran, it forced her to turn around, the force of his grip going against the speed she was going, was too much, she let out a wince. "Orihime listen!! I can explain!"
"Let go!!" she yelled, struggling to pull out away from his grip. From what she just saw, her trust, faith, spirit, confidence, happiness, and heart was broken.
"No just hear me out! It not what it looked like i swear just listen to me!!"
Orihime was scared of Ichigo at this point. A million questions were racing in her mind, her heartbeat was quick, Ichigos grip on her wrist increased the more she tried to fight him. "Stop it Ichigo!!" She pulled away, he squeezed tighter. "You're hurting me!" Orihime took a step forward, maybe she wasn't thinking when she did this, perhaps she didn't mean to, and it was based purely on emotion and instinct. But she punched him hard in his cheek. Causing him to let go surprised at what she just did. She continued to run home, faster than before, scared that he would run after her again and catch up.
His hand went up to his face to the place she striked. He realized this went from bad to worse. She punched him. His thoughts were that she absolutely had to catch up to her again and fix things. Ichigo ran after her again trying to go a little faster this time. She was running as fast as she could too. "Tsubaki!!" She screamed.
There was a glow from the side of her head, along with a streak of light cutting through the air. It stopped in front of Ichigos face, causing him to stop.
"Stay away from her Ichigo" he warned in a growling tone
"Get outta the way Tsubaki." He tried to avoid him by going around him.
Tsubaki followed, still blocking his path. "Stay away from her you unfaithful bastard. Don't go to her and feed her a bunch of bullshit lies. Tell her that what see saw just now was just an illusion and that it didn't really happen? Or that you'll never do it again? That it was a big mistake? You're damned right it was a big mistake. Don't go to her. She saw it all. How do you suppose this makes her feel? I swear if you hurt her the way you just did, both emotionally and physically, I'll hurt you ten times worse. You broke her heart. And theres no way you can make it better."
With that he flew after Orihime, leaving Ichigo alone, stunned, he realized that Orihime seeing what she had just witnessed, probably did break her heart. He worried that Tsubaki was right, and maybe he really couldn't make things better. He stared at the ground. With a worried expression. His eyes shifted around. Now he was mad. His grinded his teeth, and made fists in his hands. Ichigo turned around to look at where Chizuru stood. It was all her fault. When he looked, emptyness there, and nothing more, she was gone.
He growled. Clenched his fists tighter. Angery, irritated, frustrated, worried. A rage of emotions. He could only mutter to himself, "How things could go from good to bad all in under 60 seconds?"
A/N: Oh I'm the shit!!! How was this chapeter? Pretty good?? I dunno I thought it was pretty good but that's just me. Tell me what you thought. And once again I'm sorry I had you guys waiting so long, I know a lot of you wanted me to update this. I promise the next chapter will get up here quicker.