but this, in which there is no i or you [fic] (ichigo/orihime)
title. but this, in which there is no i or you
series. Bleach
character/pairing. Ichigo/Orihime, Rukia
word count. ~1650
prompt. I think thou art an ass [The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare] (written for 10_shakespeare)
rating. PG
disclaimer. Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite, The Comedy of Errors to William Shakespeare, and Sonnet XVII to Pablo Neruda
summary. Ichigo’s sick of people telling him he’s an idiot. He’s also kind of sick of them being right
i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where
As much as he had missed her while she was gone, Ichigo would never hesitate to say that Rukia was a giant pain in the arse.
They’re having lunch on the roof as usual. Ishida and Chad are sitting side by side in silence, Mizuiro is playing with his phone, and Keigo is making a scene. The normalcy of the scene is a little disconcerting to Ichigo, but he’s not going to fight it. Normal is good. Too bad it happened so infrequently.
“I heard that idiot Hamada asked out our lovely Inoue-san!” Keigo shouts in abject horror, shaking his hands and looking towards the heavens, as if asking for an answer for why such a travesty has occurred. “The nerve of that jerk!”
Rukia watches Ichigo under hooded eyes and grins when Ichigo’s eyebrows involuntarily furrow (more so than usual, at least) and fists clench after Keigo’s statement.
“Something wrong, Kurosaki-kun?” she asks in a sickly sweet voice and her grin widens when he glares daggers at her.
“But did she say yes?” Mizuiro asks distractedly, still punching away on his phone.
“As if! Inoue-san knows she’s too good for an idiot like him!” Keigo waves away the notion.
“Then what’s the problem? It’s not like she’s actually going to date the guy…”
“But he dared to think he had a chance!” Keigo grabs Mizuiro by the collar to make sure he understood the enormity of this fact.
“Well,” Rukia chimes in, “it’s pretty well known that Inoue-san has a bit of a thing for idiots.”
“What?”
Ishida, Chad, Keigo and Mizuiro look up at Ichigo’s interjection.
“Who?”
“Oh my, Kurosaki-kun, I didn’t know you cared!” Rukia chirps. Ichigo opens his mouth to retort but is interrupted by the bell. “Oh dear, I guess we should be heading back to class!” Rukia leaps off the ledge and runs down the stairwell, leaving an irate Ichigo behind.
Damn her.
He can’t help but watch her in their next class. She seems as cheerful as ever, splitting her time between writing, or maybe drawing, in her notebook and staring out of the window. Only occasionally does she look up to listen to the teacher.
After an hour or so of watching her, he can feel her eyes on him.
“You got a problem?” he mutters and he can hear her chuckle.
“What do you mean, Kurosaki-kun?”
“Can you please stop talking like that? It freaks me out.”
“All the more reason for me to talk this way, Kurosaki-kun.”
If he could deck her in class, he would’ve done it in a heartbeat. Instead, he scoffs, and returns his gaze to watching Orihime by the window.
The sensation that he doesn’t want to look away from her stirs something in his stomach, but he thinks nothing of it. Obviously his lunch didn’t agree with him, that was all.
The afternoon classes fly by, and all Ichigo has gained from it is that sin²x + cos²x = 1 (and that bit might’ve been revision of an earlier class, so really, he hadn’t learnt anything) and that Orihime’s hair was a really nice shade of orange, much nicer than his own at least.
He throws his bag over his shoulder and heads home, Rukia on his heels. He passes by Tatsuki at the school gate and she waves in acknowledgment.
“Yo Ichigo, Kuchiki-san.”
“Where’s Inoue? Don’t you usually walk her home?” Ichigo asks and stiffens when he hears Rukia giggle.
“Straight to the point, huh, Kurosaki-kun?” she whispers and Ichigo elbows her to shut her trap.
“Oh, she’s meeting Hamada.”
“Wait, what?” Ichigo asks in shock, not noticing that Rukia seems a little taken aback by the news, too.
“Yeah, she said it was really important and I should go on ahead.” Tatsuki shrugs her shoulders in nonchalance and Ichigo starts to open his mouth but Rukia has grabbed his arm.
“Oh, that’s nice to hear, Arisawa-san. We’d best be going now, bye!” she says quickly before dragging Ichigo out of the school and around the corner.
“What the hell? I wasn’t done talking yet!” Ichigo bellows.
“I know, but I also know that whatever was going to come out of your mouth next would’ve been a mistake so I thought I’d save you the trouble of having to apologise later.”
Ichigo crosses his arms across his chest. “And how do you know that I would’ve said the wrong thing, Miss Know-it-All?”
“Because, Ichigo, you,” she points an accusing finger at his chest, “are an idiot, and you clearly don’t understand anything.”
They glare at each other for a few seconds before she huffs and stalks away. Ichigo’s so angry with her, he turns around and storms in the other direction.
i love you simply, without problems or pride
He spends the rest of the afternoon walking nowhere in particular. His mind is filled with images of poor Orihime spending time with that… that… that idiot (thank you, Keigo, you phrased it perfectly, he thinks to himself).
The sun is setting when he finds he has aimlessly walked towards her apartment and is surprised to catch sight of her, skipping towards her apartment door.
“Inoue!” he calls up to her before stuffing his hands into his pockets. She turns and regards him with curiosity but still leans down to peer at him over her balcony.
“Kurosaki-kun? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I, uhh, was just wandering around. Trying to get away from Rukia…” he shifts his weight awkwardly, unable to meet her gaze. The silence feels awkward to him so he keeps talking. “I thought you’d be spending the day out.”
She has the decency to look confused. “Why?”
“Weren’t you on a date with that Hamada guy?” The question leaves her stunned and speechless and Ichigo takes her non-response as confirmation. “It’s okay, Tatsuki told us. I’m, uhhh… happy for you.” he finally manages.
The silence between them is heavy, stifling.
“Kurosaki-kun-”
“You’d better warn him about Keigo, I think he’ll attack him out of indignant rage when he finds out.” he tries to joke. It’s strange for him to be uncomfortable around Orihime, things are usually so easy-going, it’s downright disconcerting and Ichigo wonders if it’s the reason why his mouth feels the compulsive need to make useless chatter.
“Actually, we’re not dating.” she says clearly. He finally looks up at her and she smiles slightly, but not quite honestly as her eyes look a little sad. “He’s actually interested in Tatsuki-chan and thought that asking her best friend for insider information was probably a good place to start.”
“Oh.”
Well, now he felt stupid.
“I, um. I didn’t want you to think there was any funny business going on, that’s all. It’s very important to me that Kurosaki-kun doesn’t misunderstand.”
He stares blankly at her for a second before his mouth forms an ‘O’.
Oh. Oh.
“So!” she calls to him after the silence grows, Ichigo still being gobsmacked. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kurosaki-kun!”
It’s another few seconds before Ichigo can gather the sense to call after her, “Inoue!” but he’s only greeted with the slamming of her door. “Damn.”
“And that,” Rukia’s voice startles him and he turns quickly to face her, “that is why I said you are an idiot. Or, as your hero would say,” she clears her throat authoritatively and points that damn accusing finger at him, “I think thou art an ass.”
Ichigo really wishes he could disagree with her.
It takes him two hours before he’s steeled enough resolve to knock on her door. She answers with a smile on her face but the corners droop a little when she sees him and it feels like someone’s stabbed him in the chest. Instead he holds up two jars of red bean paste as a peace offering.
“Can we talk? Please?” she makes no reply except to take the jars from him after a pause so he pushes on. “Okay, I’m going to assume that you’re going to let me talk. You don’t have to listen if you don’t want to, but it would kinda mean a lot if you did.”
“I’m listening. I’ll always listen to you, Kurosaki-kun.”
Her words give him a little bit of hope and he smiles. “I know. That’s one of the things I really like about you, Inoue. Actually, I’ve come to realise I like a lot of things about you. Too many. So many, it’s like it’s all I can think about right now. And I know I’ve been an idiot because there’s so many things, I wonder how I never noticed them before today, but obviously it took me thinking another guy was seriously going after you for me to realise that, even though there’s already way too many things I like about you, I’m hoping that you’ll give me the chance to find out even more.”
The words come out in a rush, like he’s being holding them back and he just cannot do it anymore, just cannot contain how much he really likes this girl.
She puts down the jars and slowly reaches to grasp both his hands. Her hands are so much smaller than his but it still feels like a perfect fit somehow.
“As it turns out, Kurosaki-kun, I really like you. And I’d like to add more things I like about you to my giant list, too.”
Her wide smile mirrors his own grin.
“I heard you like idiots.” he jokes.
“Just one.”
She pecks him on the cheek before inviting him in. Ichigo can hardly believe his luck before another thought crashes down on him.
Damn. Keigo was going to give him hell when he found out.
i love you in this way because i don't know any other way of loving
request!
watch?
series. Bleach
character/pairing. Ichigo/Orihime, Rukia
word count. ~1650
prompt. I think thou art an ass [The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare] (written for 10_shakespeare)
rating. PG
disclaimer. Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite, The Comedy of Errors to William Shakespeare, and Sonnet XVII to Pablo Neruda
summary. Ichigo’s sick of people telling him he’s an idiot. He’s also kind of sick of them being right
i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where
As much as he had missed her while she was gone, Ichigo would never hesitate to say that Rukia was a giant pain in the arse.
They’re having lunch on the roof as usual. Ishida and Chad are sitting side by side in silence, Mizuiro is playing with his phone, and Keigo is making a scene. The normalcy of the scene is a little disconcerting to Ichigo, but he’s not going to fight it. Normal is good. Too bad it happened so infrequently.
“I heard that idiot Hamada asked out our lovely Inoue-san!” Keigo shouts in abject horror, shaking his hands and looking towards the heavens, as if asking for an answer for why such a travesty has occurred. “The nerve of that jerk!”
Rukia watches Ichigo under hooded eyes and grins when Ichigo’s eyebrows involuntarily furrow (more so than usual, at least) and fists clench after Keigo’s statement.
“Something wrong, Kurosaki-kun?” she asks in a sickly sweet voice and her grin widens when he glares daggers at her.
“But did she say yes?” Mizuiro asks distractedly, still punching away on his phone.
“As if! Inoue-san knows she’s too good for an idiot like him!” Keigo waves away the notion.
“Then what’s the problem? It’s not like she’s actually going to date the guy…”
“But he dared to think he had a chance!” Keigo grabs Mizuiro by the collar to make sure he understood the enormity of this fact.
“Well,” Rukia chimes in, “it’s pretty well known that Inoue-san has a bit of a thing for idiots.”
“What?”
Ishida, Chad, Keigo and Mizuiro look up at Ichigo’s interjection.
“Who?”
“Oh my, Kurosaki-kun, I didn’t know you cared!” Rukia chirps. Ichigo opens his mouth to retort but is interrupted by the bell. “Oh dear, I guess we should be heading back to class!” Rukia leaps off the ledge and runs down the stairwell, leaving an irate Ichigo behind.
Damn her.
He can’t help but watch her in their next class. She seems as cheerful as ever, splitting her time between writing, or maybe drawing, in her notebook and staring out of the window. Only occasionally does she look up to listen to the teacher.
After an hour or so of watching her, he can feel her eyes on him.
“You got a problem?” he mutters and he can hear her chuckle.
“What do you mean, Kurosaki-kun?”
“Can you please stop talking like that? It freaks me out.”
“All the more reason for me to talk this way, Kurosaki-kun.”
If he could deck her in class, he would’ve done it in a heartbeat. Instead, he scoffs, and returns his gaze to watching Orihime by the window.
The sensation that he doesn’t want to look away from her stirs something in his stomach, but he thinks nothing of it. Obviously his lunch didn’t agree with him, that was all.
The afternoon classes fly by, and all Ichigo has gained from it is that sin²x + cos²x = 1 (and that bit might’ve been revision of an earlier class, so really, he hadn’t learnt anything) and that Orihime’s hair was a really nice shade of orange, much nicer than his own at least.
He throws his bag over his shoulder and heads home, Rukia on his heels. He passes by Tatsuki at the school gate and she waves in acknowledgment.
“Yo Ichigo, Kuchiki-san.”
“Where’s Inoue? Don’t you usually walk her home?” Ichigo asks and stiffens when he hears Rukia giggle.
“Straight to the point, huh, Kurosaki-kun?” she whispers and Ichigo elbows her to shut her trap.
“Oh, she’s meeting Hamada.”
“Wait, what?” Ichigo asks in shock, not noticing that Rukia seems a little taken aback by the news, too.
“Yeah, she said it was really important and I should go on ahead.” Tatsuki shrugs her shoulders in nonchalance and Ichigo starts to open his mouth but Rukia has grabbed his arm.
“Oh, that’s nice to hear, Arisawa-san. We’d best be going now, bye!” she says quickly before dragging Ichigo out of the school and around the corner.
“What the hell? I wasn’t done talking yet!” Ichigo bellows.
“I know, but I also know that whatever was going to come out of your mouth next would’ve been a mistake so I thought I’d save you the trouble of having to apologise later.”
Ichigo crosses his arms across his chest. “And how do you know that I would’ve said the wrong thing, Miss Know-it-All?”
“Because, Ichigo, you,” she points an accusing finger at his chest, “are an idiot, and you clearly don’t understand anything.”
They glare at each other for a few seconds before she huffs and stalks away. Ichigo’s so angry with her, he turns around and storms in the other direction.
i love you simply, without problems or pride
He spends the rest of the afternoon walking nowhere in particular. His mind is filled with images of poor Orihime spending time with that… that… that idiot (thank you, Keigo, you phrased it perfectly, he thinks to himself).
The sun is setting when he finds he has aimlessly walked towards her apartment and is surprised to catch sight of her, skipping towards her apartment door.
“Inoue!” he calls up to her before stuffing his hands into his pockets. She turns and regards him with curiosity but still leans down to peer at him over her balcony.
“Kurosaki-kun? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I, uhh, was just wandering around. Trying to get away from Rukia…” he shifts his weight awkwardly, unable to meet her gaze. The silence feels awkward to him so he keeps talking. “I thought you’d be spending the day out.”
She has the decency to look confused. “Why?”
“Weren’t you on a date with that Hamada guy?” The question leaves her stunned and speechless and Ichigo takes her non-response as confirmation. “It’s okay, Tatsuki told us. I’m, uhhh… happy for you.” he finally manages.
The silence between them is heavy, stifling.
“Kurosaki-kun-”
“You’d better warn him about Keigo, I think he’ll attack him out of indignant rage when he finds out.” he tries to joke. It’s strange for him to be uncomfortable around Orihime, things are usually so easy-going, it’s downright disconcerting and Ichigo wonders if it’s the reason why his mouth feels the compulsive need to make useless chatter.
“Actually, we’re not dating.” she says clearly. He finally looks up at her and she smiles slightly, but not quite honestly as her eyes look a little sad. “He’s actually interested in Tatsuki-chan and thought that asking her best friend for insider information was probably a good place to start.”
“Oh.”
Well, now he felt stupid.
“I, um. I didn’t want you to think there was any funny business going on, that’s all. It’s very important to me that Kurosaki-kun doesn’t misunderstand.”
He stares blankly at her for a second before his mouth forms an ‘O’.
Oh. Oh.
“So!” she calls to him after the silence grows, Ichigo still being gobsmacked. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kurosaki-kun!”
It’s another few seconds before Ichigo can gather the sense to call after her, “Inoue!” but he’s only greeted with the slamming of her door. “Damn.”
“And that,” Rukia’s voice startles him and he turns quickly to face her, “that is why I said you are an idiot. Or, as your hero would say,” she clears her throat authoritatively and points that damn accusing finger at him, “I think thou art an ass.”
Ichigo really wishes he could disagree with her.
It takes him two hours before he’s steeled enough resolve to knock on her door. She answers with a smile on her face but the corners droop a little when she sees him and it feels like someone’s stabbed him in the chest. Instead he holds up two jars of red bean paste as a peace offering.
“Can we talk? Please?” she makes no reply except to take the jars from him after a pause so he pushes on. “Okay, I’m going to assume that you’re going to let me talk. You don’t have to listen if you don’t want to, but it would kinda mean a lot if you did.”
“I’m listening. I’ll always listen to you, Kurosaki-kun.”
Her words give him a little bit of hope and he smiles. “I know. That’s one of the things I really like about you, Inoue. Actually, I’ve come to realise I like a lot of things about you. Too many. So many, it’s like it’s all I can think about right now. And I know I’ve been an idiot because there’s so many things, I wonder how I never noticed them before today, but obviously it took me thinking another guy was seriously going after you for me to realise that, even though there’s already way too many things I like about you, I’m hoping that you’ll give me the chance to find out even more.”
The words come out in a rush, like he’s being holding them back and he just cannot do it anymore, just cannot contain how much he really likes this girl.
She puts down the jars and slowly reaches to grasp both his hands. Her hands are so much smaller than his but it still feels like a perfect fit somehow.
“As it turns out, Kurosaki-kun, I really like you. And I’d like to add more things I like about you to my giant list, too.”
Her wide smile mirrors his own grin.
“I heard you like idiots.” he jokes.
“Just one.”
She pecks him on the cheek before inviting him in. Ichigo can hardly believe his luck before another thought crashes down on him.
Damn. Keigo was going to give him hell when he found out.
i love you in this way because i don't know any other way of loving
request!
watch?