"Orihime-chan... are you alright?" Tatsuki asked, worried face hovering above her.

"Huh? I'm fine Tatsuki! I feel energetic and everything," She said, sitting up. They all watched in wonder, standing in the Kurosaki Clinic. "Where am I?"

"Oh, you hit your head and got knocked out. We were really worried about you!" Tatsuki said, letting out a sigh of relief.

Ichigo, Karin, Chad holding Kon, Ishida and Tatsuki were all present.

"It's lucky we were so close to Kurosaki's place,"Ishida commented dryly. "Even if it was his fault."

"What are you talking about? It was an accident! Accident!" Ichigo growled.

"I'd have to agree with glasses guy, Nii-chan," Karin interjected.

Inoue, Ishida and Kon had gone out shopping to find more material to fix the stuffed animal up. He was getting more and more strangely shaped and covered with patches as time went on and wouldn't stop complaining. So Ichigo had given him over to Inoue to present to the handicrafts club as her own, and they had been approved to buy material with the club money as long as they could show the before and after pictures in the pamphlets they handed out to freshmen in an effort to get more people to join.

It had been coincidental that Karin had convinced Chad, Ichigo and Tatsuki to play a game of baseball with her to improve her skills. She had chosen the more athletic of the group in the hopes she might have an actual match against them. It was common knowledge at school that Kurosaki Karin was head of whatever sports team she joined. She'd been bored and wanted some sort of challenge.

It was when Ichigo was up to bat and hit the ball too hard that the problem occurred. It didn't go out into the field as planned, but towards the other side of the park. It was unfortunate that Ishida and Inoue were on the other side of the hedge that the ball ripped through. They realized with a frightening clarity of who was on the other side of the bush when they heard a panicking Ishida trying to wake Inoue up by saying her name loudly along with Kon.

"Tatsuki, can you go without me? I want to talk to the others for a second," Orihime spoke. Tatsuki looked hesitant, but left the room because Karin was there.

"What did you want to talk about?" Ichigo asked. Inoue looked at him blankly before turning to Ishida.

"Ishida-kun, who is your friend? Is he a Quincy?" She asked, pointing to the confused Ichigo. The rest of the room was silent.

"Inoue-nee-san... don't you recognize my idiot brother?"Karin interrupted, looking a little surprised.

"You have a brother? I only met you and Yuzu. Where have you been hiding him?" Orihime joked, hoping to lighten the mood. However, everyone seemed to darken. She looked around at them. What had she said wrong?

"Inoue... do you remember Kuchiki-san?" Ishida asked cautiously. The red head nodded. He continued, unmindful of Karin's presence with his next question. "And soul society?" Again she nodded.

"Of course I do! Who could forget such an amazing adventure?" She replied brightly. "It's too bad Kon couldn't come." The group was silent.

"Do you remember why you went to soul society?" Ishida continued. Orihime looked at him like he was the stupid one then.

"I've told you a million times! I went to help you save Kuchiki-san, even if she didn't feel the same way about you," She said, smiling serenely. Ishida was unsure why she was still looking at him. He pointed lamely to himself, and she nodded again.

"Wait. Who saved Rukia?" Ichigo broke in, looking baffled at the whole situation. Inoue looked at him, and he felt a chill as he saw no spark of recognition there. She really didn't recognize him...?

"Ishida-kun, of course! So you're Karin's brother, huh? You have a lot of power. I'm jealous," She was still talking, but they were staring at her. She stopped, looking self-consciously at them. "... what? Do I have mustard on my face?" She reached up to touch her lips, wondering what they were all so surprised by.

"Otou-san!" Ichigo yelled, stomping out of the room like the building was on fire.

"Sorry, but she looks fine. Her memory should go back to normal in about two weeks or so. It's funny that she only forgot you though," Isshin commented, looking at his son. Before Ichigo could respond, his father was already attacking him. "Did you do something to make her want to forget you!" Ichigo kicked his father out of the way.

"I-inoue?" Ishida said quietly. He suddenly found that said girl was standing beside him with one arm slung around his shoulders affectionately. The archer had turned many colours of red, confusion still clearly in his face.

"I said, let's go home! We need to feed the cat," Inoue said, looking at him with a pout. To her, everyone was acting a little dumb today. And Ishida was particularly bashful. How odd.

"H-home?" Ishida said, voicing the question of all in the room.

"Inoue... are you living with Ishida?" Chad asked sullenly. Ishida shook his head slightly so that Inoue couldn't see. He was still bright red, and unsure about what to do to the arm hanging over him. He felt like some bashful girl being hit on. Next Inoue was going to tell him they had three kids and visited his father for dinner every Sunday. While the prospect was not so grim (with the exception of his father), Inoue had somehow made new memories to explain away Ichigo's nonexistence.

"But you've been to the apartment, Chad... you eat lunch with us at school too, with Keigo and the others..." Inoue said, staring unabashedly at the large creature.

"Ichigo... and the others, please come with me into the hallway," Isshin said seriously. He turned to Inoue and smiled warmly. "Don't worry Inoue-san, you'll be heading home soon." Once they had gathered in the hallway, Ichigo burst into questions.

"Ishida? Since when were you living with Inoue?" He asked teasingly. Before the red Quincy could speak, Isshin answered.

"She doesn't. However, you're all just going to have to go along with this until she regains her memories. Ishida, you'll just have to watch her. Besides, it gives us a good gauge to figure out when her memories return and have someone make sure she's resting up and tending to her head properly."

"W-what...!" Ishida blurted, entire body red. Isshin placed one strong hand on Ishida's shoulder, a stern look in his eyes.

"However, it would be in your best interests not to take advantage of Inoue in this state," He said. Ishida saw and understood the dangerous tone in his voice as the warning it was meant to be. He nodded, returning to his normal colour. "Now Ichigo... go ask her what her cat looks like so we can get something tomorrow. Ishida, tell her that Tatsuki is looking after the cat tonight and we'll get her to drop it off to you tomorrow."

"Huh? Ishida-kun, what was it that he wanted to talk about?" Inoue asked as he re-entered the room alone.

"Ah... nothing much. Just to make sure that you take it easy."

"Oh, I see. But honestly, what silly questions you had earlier! How could I forget the return from soul society when you asked me to live with you?" Inoue said, laughing gleefully. She then held a finger up to her lips and looked at him conspiratorally. "But I kept my promise! I didn't say anything about our relationship!"

Ishida was sure he was going to faint as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. Dear Kami... what exactly was this relationship like that she'd made up?

(A/N)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters or setting of Bleach

Thanks to my Beta reader, Ashari:) Can't wait for you to get chapter two now that I'm done writing it.

Revised:May 17, 2011