Different
Disclaimer/Notes: I don't own Bleach or Ishida, though the latter is something I shall remedy very soon. (evil laughter) Anyway, I've always wondered why Orihime had such high grades and yet was so silly, and why in the world she eats how she does. This wacky little story attempts to answer those questions. I'm currently struggling to write a more serious Bleach story, but it's stalling, and when this insane idea came to me, I decided it was better than writing nothing...
It was kind of scary, so most of the school shied away from Inoue Orihime's latest concoction. Though all of her culinary attempts were unsettling, this one was particularly traumatic. No one even knew the ingredients to this one, and no one was brave enough to risk exposure to the toxic lunchbox to ask. Orihime sighed dramatically as she sat down. "No one's looking at me," she murmured, taking a thoughtful bite of her food.
"Ah...Um...Inoue-san!"
"Hmm?" Apparently torn from her thought, Orihime glanced up, fragments of food still lingering on her lips, and searched for the intruder. "Oh, Ishida-kun! I'm sorry. I didn't notice you were here!"
"Yes. Well, I've been sitting here all the time."
"Oh!" Orihime exclaimed, nodding. She grinned and shamelessly stripped another slurping bite off of her food. Ishida risked a quick glance at it, and he was sure that the strips of slimy meat were actually writhing.
Inoue-san may have finally succeeded in creating an entity aware of its own existence.
Clearing his throat loudly, Ishida pushed his glasses up on his face with a deft finger and sat up straight. "Ah, Inoue-san, why aren't you eating with Arisawa-san...?"
Orihime didn't catch the polite dismissal. "Oh. Well, she's not here today. She broke her wrist in karate. And would you know? Everybody else is all sitting together today. There's no room for me...so I decided I'd sit by myself."
Ishida surveyed the room quickly, and he noticed she was right. All the students had grouped together in the center of the room, leaving no space for any unwanted guests. On the edge of the social circle, Ishida nodded. "I see."
"But then you showed up, so...I'm really glad I'm not sitting alone anymore!"
"Inoue-san? I was already here."
She looked at him and blinked. "I know," she said brightly. "Anyway, what are you doing?"
Her enthusiasm was overwhelming almost to the point of exhaustion. His voice was ice compared to her warm demeanor. "Inoue-san, you you mind if I ask a question?"
"'Course not!" Another bite. Particularly frightening.
Ishida glanced to the side. "Why...do you make food like that?"
Her reply was immediate and unpremeditated. "Because it's different!"
"...Different? How so?"
"Yep. Different. I've eaten so much, it's boring to keep eating the same things, right? Because if I did then I'd never know what the other stuff tasted like. So I make different things, 'cause I don't want to miss out on anything."
It made a very strange sort of sense. "But what if it's not good? What if the things you make turn out to be something you don't like?"
Another grin. "You never know until you try! Sometimes it's really, really good. And if I didn't try, then I'd never know what I'd missed out on."
At first, he'd wanted to be alone, but he was surprised to feel intrigued by this conversation. Another question brimmed in his mind, but he couldn't ask it. "Don't you ever want to just have the same thing?" he asked absently. "Once you find something good, isn't it normal to just stick with it?"
"No." Again, her answer was immediate. She pressed a finger thoughtfully to her lips. "Because when you think you're happy with something, after a while it's just normal again, and you don't appreciate it."
Silence stretched between them. Ishida had fallen out of the conversation and sat back in his seat, sewing his latest project smoothly.
"Like the sunrise!" Inoue suddenly screeched.
In surprise, Ishida jerked up in his seat, knees slamming against the table. His glasses slipped down on his nose as he stared at the girl who had just made the frantic declaration. She sat back in her chair, happy with herself.
Ishida bumbled in his seat, pushing his glasses up with one finger as he rubbed his bruised knee with his free hand.
"What?" A rather unintelligent, robotic question, but he was too flustered to do anything else.
"A sunrise. If you see the sunrise every morning, then you get used to it. But if all you see is darkness, then when the sun rises for the first time, it's beautiful. And would you like to see the same sunrise every morning? I sure wouldn't. I'd like to see different ones."
Ishida frowned. It almost made her eating habits sound...logical. Which was, in itself, rather disturbing.
To distract himself from that fact, he looked back down to his forgotten project, painfully aware of the bubbly girl sitting across from him, bouncing enthusiastically in her seat.
Damn.
The question came out almost without his permission.
Perhaps her spontaneity was bleeding onto him.
"How can you be like this, Inoue-san?" He suddenly said, his voice intensely questioning.
Her smile was confused, reflecting his unnerved expression. "Hmm? What do you mean?"
He didn't reply. Wasn't sure what to say now. "So...happy. I know about...the way you live. And why you live like that. Your brother..."
It couldn't really be utter stupidity that made her like this. Her grades denied it. So what, then?
Inoue's expression darkened only for the briefest of moments. "Because," she finally replied. "It's different."
Ishida choked on his premeditated reply, echoing dumbly, "Different?"
Orihime's shining demeanor softened a tiny bit, replaced by a sort of wistfulness. "Because at first I was really sad. Sad that I didn't have a mom and dad like all the other kids, sad when Sora..." She brought a smile back to her face. "And I've seen a lot of people who change when that happens. They find reasons to hate themselves and hate others, anything but living, you know? So I thought I'd be different. And I just live every day, and I try to smile, and I live. And... to try new things. I don't want to hide from the world...or to see the same sunrise twice. And things are okay, because sometimes the new things aren't that bad."
Ishida was silent. Orihime lapsed into silence, too.
Ishida had finished with lunch, and silently stood, his expression indifferent as always, and walked away. After a few steps, he turned around, awkwardly fidgeting with one hand while he busied the other with straightening already perfectly straight glasses. "Inoue-san?"
"Hmm?" That expression was back, and her face was bright and tranquil again.
"Ah...thank you." He smiled softly and turned away.
As he rounded the corner, he shot one last glance back at Orihime and her gaping lunchbox. Her mind and eyes had wandered somewhere else, watching a yellow butterfly meander past the window in the illumination of the afternoon sun. This morning had definitely departed from his usual schedule. He had wanted to finish this project before lunch was over.
Today had certainly been different. But maybe...just maybe...a good kind of different.
Author's Notes: Well...that's it! My first IshiHime, and my first Bleach fic ever! I'm not sure if the characters were IC...I hope they were. Please review and leave your thoughts! Orihime's lunch begs you!