Five Things Inoue Orihime Never Did.
Five more for my Orihime/Ishida claim at 30_romances: Five Things Inoue Orihime Never Did. Ratings range from G to R.
Theme 5. trickery exactly 100 words
note: this has a "prequel" in 5 Things Ishida Uryuu Never Did
Orihime had nearly given up hope in getting Uryuu-kun to assert himself in his intentions toward her. Driven by desperation, she set the scene, did a credible job of seeming distraught, and laid enough hints to pave the all the roads of Karakura Town.
Finally, predictably, he clued in. Orihime barely restrained herself from cheering aloud-for his eventual (if reluctant) perception, and for her own brilliance in making it happen.
She felt a little bad, hiding the plushie in the back recesses of her closet that way, but all was fair in love and war, or so she’d heard.
Theme 7. think pink
Orihime had been asked to dance by many boys-and several girls- but, craning her head anxiously above the throng in the dimly-lit gymnasium, she refused them all.
“I’m waiting,” she told Keigo earnestly when he requested a dance with her.
“For who?” he asked, puzzled.
“I don’t know!” she replied cheerfully. “But I’ll know when I see him.”
He shook his head and walked away, and Orihime kept looking and looking. She’d taken special care with her costume. She’d originally wanted to go as a Gundam, but Tatsuki insisted that wearing a mobile suit’s hard angles would just poke uncomfortably into her partner while dancing, so she settled on being Glinda, good witch of the north.
Encased in itchy pink tulle and a glittery headdress that kept threatening to topple off, and holding a glitter-covered star-tipped wand (that became somewhat gummier and lost much of its glitter the longer she held it in her nervously sweaty hand) only one thing sustained her:
“I hope I’ll get to dance with my Prince Charming!”
“Prince Charming was from Cinderella, not The Wizard of Oz,” Tatsuki grumbled, none too happy to be there, either. She glared at Keigo, who was midway across the gym and heading in her direction; he abruptly pulled an about-face and slunk back to Ichigo and the others.
“I told him I’d wear pink, so he would know who I was.” It would have been impossible not to recognize Orihime, perhaps even from a satellite in the earth’s orbit, Tatsuki suspected; the corset of the hugely hoopskirted dress cinched her waist to almost impossibly tiny proportions, making her bosom seem even more vast, and the coloured lights from overhead flashed vibrantly off her silver-spangled tiara.
Even with the dainty pearlescent mask covering Orihime’s eyes, her hair fell long and unbound over her shoulders, its colour distinctive in the sea of brunettes surrounding her.
“Really don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Tatsuki commented. Orihime beamed at her.
They bopped along to the tinny music bouncing off the walls, and then Orihime made a squeaky little sound of joy.
“Oh, there he is!” Orihime pointed to a figure poised at the end of the gymnasium.
He was swathed in a sweeping black cloak lined in scarlet satin, and his identity was secured behind a half-mask of pure white. Even through the teeming mass between them, it was clear his attention was riveted on Orihime, who returned his regard with equal intensity.
“The guy dressed like the Phantom of the Opera?” Tatsuki asked doubtfully. “Are you sure?”
Orihime didn’t break her eye-contact with him, only smiled at Ishida across the room. “Yes. I’m sure.”
Theme 15. take a hint exactly 150 words
Ishida was sitting by himself, his back to the group. Everything about his body language spoke of a rejection of the others and a deep desire to be alone.
That, of course, meant absolutely nothing to Orihime.
“Ishida-kun!” she exclaimed, plopping down beside him. “I know you said you didn’t want to eat with the others-they can be noisy-but I thought maybe if it was just me? You just look so lonely over here by yourself, and they say that loneliness can bring about depression and stomach trouble and even death! And I just couldn’t stand it if I inadvertently killed you-“
“Thanks, Inoue,” he interrupted, softening it with a tiny smile.
She beamed back at him and settled comfortably at his side, their shoulders just touching, her warmth welcome in the chilly November air.
Ishida thought maybe he liked that Inoue never could take a hint.
Theme 16. top
Orihime was starting to feel a little bad; Ishida looked as if he were suffering terribly. She was also worrying if the neighbours were able to hear how loudly he was moaning and groaning, and said as much to him.
“If you care so much about the neighbours,” he rasped, propping himself up on his elbows and leveling a gimlet (yet nearsighted; she’d removed his glasses a half-hour ago) glare in her direction, “then you should stop teasing me and just… come… here!”
He reached for her, but she danced away with the grace and alacrity of a ballerina. “But, Ishida-kun,” she protested sweetly, “the longer you wait, the more intense it’s supposed to be!”
He flopped back onto the bed and exhaled loudly. “I don’t know what those women told you at the lingerie party,” he said, “but it’s like you came back filled with pure evil. First you wear that… thing, which made my nose bleed at least a quart, and now you-I can’t believe they told you how to do this.”
He was blushing everywhere; Orihime thought it completely adorable, and sidled closer. “It’s called a teddy,” she said, “and they all swore you’d love it. Even if the lace is itchy.” She clambered onto the bed and crawled up his body until she was poised on all fours over him, smiling down into his face. “They also said you’d love when I did this. Aren’t you enjoying yourself, Ishida-kun?”
It was a pointless question; if he were any harder, he’d be made of solid granite.
“Mostly,” he replied, “but my wrists are pretty sore from how you tied me up.” He made a grimace of pain to punctuate his words, and Orihime scrambled up to untie him, inadvertently pressing her breasts into his face as she leaned forward.
“I’m so sorry,” she babbled, unknotting the scarf and pulling it free, “I didn’t realize. Here I was trying to be all dominant and drive you wild with lust, and instead aiee!”
Ishida, untied, skillfully grabbed her, flipped her to her back, and settled his long frame on top of her.
“You tricked me!” Orihime exclaimed, pouting.
“Just a little,” he replied, a trifle breathlessly as she wound her legs around him. “I just couldn’t wait any more.” And he reached between them to unsnap the fabric shielding her, then slowly slid himself in to the hilt.
“Oh, good,” she breathed, sighing happily, and pulled him closer.
Theme 20. take it in stride exactly 250 words
Ishida-kun had been avoiding her, and Kurosaki-kun and Sado-kun, as well.
Secretly, she was relieved that it wasn’t just her, because then she’d have had to wonder what exactly she had done that had repelled him and she’d have spent hours- no, days!- thinking about only that and she’d have never gotten anything done, perhaps would never have left her apartment again.
She would have been found two weeks later, dead on the floor, still wearing her penguin pajamas and with her hair in pigtails because she had been too busy wondering to change or shower or even eat, not even those leftover chocolate-mint-garlic anchovies she’d made last night for dinner.
“No!” Orihime declared, sending one fisted hand into the palm of the other. “Something’s wrong, and I’m not just going to just let Ishida-kun pretend he hates us now that we’re back! I know he doesn’t.”
She easily recalled how carefully he’d bandaged her arm, how vigilantly he’d protected her while she slept, and how fiercely he’d protected her from Mayuri-taichou. Strongest of all, however, was the memory of how it had felt to have his arms around her and his warm chest pressed to her back as he caught her while fighting Jiroubou.
Orihime shivered. She got out of bed, dressed carefully, and left her apartment, determination shining from her eyes. No, it wasn’t possible for him to have held her that protectively, and then consider her an enemy.
And she was going to prove it to him.