rating: rated c for cute

disclaimer: i don't own shit

Paper Hearts

You wouldn't know how troublesome a situation can get when paper hearts are involved.

February 18th.

"Orihime-chan, make sure you lock the door when you leave, 'kay?"

"Yeeeeees."

"Alrighty, I'm off. See you tomorrow. And please be careful on your way home!"

"I will, Ihara-san. Byeee~!"

A door closed, a lock clicked silently, and Orihime Inoue sighed. The brown-haired girl was sitting in the small changing room in the back of ABCookie bakery, tucking the rest of her working clothes into her bag. She had changed into loose clothing already, even though she had yet to take off all the Valentine's Day decorations as Ihara-san, her boss, had told her to. Well, she didn't want to do it in her too tight working dress.

Orihime got up, stretching her tired muscles, turning to look for a ladder she could use to get all the festoons and other decorations that were placed higher than she could reach. When she walked around, scanning the area, she remembered Ishida-kun teasing her because she couldn't reach the top of the chalkboard when she was on cleaning duty last week. It wasn't usual for Ishida-kun to tease her, so she didn't know how to respond; instead she just took the dirty chalkboard cloth and threw it after him. Orihime wasn't sensitive about her size, since she wasn't really that small at all, it was just that his banter came out of nowhere. Gladly, her temper wasn't as frantic as Kuchiki-san's, otherwise, when Ishida-kun made that inappropriate statement about her size, she would probably have torn out the door and thrown it after him.

Behind a locker, Orihime caught sight of an instable looking ladder. It wasn't large, but she figured it would do the job.

一/姫

Big hazel eyes fixed a row of red paper hearts, attached to a long white cord. Thirty in number.

Thirty hearts. Thirty times love.

When Orihime thought about love, she almost immediately and unintentionally – but of course not unwillingly – also thought about Kurosaki-kun. He had been very nice and sweet to her in school today, asking her if she wanted to take a sip – "Or you can even have the rest if you want to." – of his juice because she had forgotten to bring her own. (She must have made such a big fuss about the juice that it somehow attracted Kurosaki-kun's attention.) It was then that her head had begun to spin so very badly just by thinking about drinking from the same drinking straw as Kurosaki-kun.

Just for a few seconds, Orihime felt dizzy again and lost balance on the ladder; she automatically reached out to something – even though there was nothing she could hold on to, besides plain wall and some decorations –, grabbed a colorful flower-mobile and tore it down with her. "Woaah!"

Fortunately, the brown-haired girl with advance towards getting herself hurt by the safest things didn't plunge down deep. She rose again, gracefully, and patted her butt. "Aw, I don't think that's how it's done right, Orihime." She looked down at the flower-mobile; the first decoration she successfully took down this evening.
She placed the mobile on the counter and made herself ready to climb Mount Ladder one more time when suddenly a light knock-knock proceeded from the door.

The first thing that flashed through Orihime's mind was Oh no, they found me! They finally noticed that I swiped that napkin with Don Kanonji's face printed on it from the restaurant last time! What do I tell them? I couldn't resist!. Maybe if she just kept quiet they would leave…

"Inoue?"

Orihime gasped. "Kurosaki-kun!"

Hastily, she walked to the door and opened it. Much to Orihime's surprise, Kurosaki-kun didn't seem very happy with his perked up eyebrows and wary face. "What's wrong, Kurosaki-kun?"

He sighed. "You open up to strangers that easily?"

Orihime looked confused. "But you're no stranger to me, Kurosaki-kun!"

He didn't seem convinced.

She tried it again. "If I hadn't recognized your voice, I wouldn't have let you in in the first place."

"And what if someone comes by pretending to be me? There are people out there who are able to fake voices, you know."

"That's impossible. There's no way I could ever mistake your voice. In fact, recognizing it is very simple. There is this slight grumpy tone that resonates every time."

"Alright, I acknowledge defeat," he said, followed by a small smile. "You busy?"

"Yeah, kind of. Ihara-san told me to take down all the Valentine's Day decorations."

Kurosaki-kun narrowed his eyes. "Okay I get that. But…" He lifted his arm and slightly touched a fluffy snowball-mobile. "What's with these Christmas decorations?"

"Ah, um…"

He was right, there were still some Christmas decorations among the red hearts, red roses, chocolates and cupids made of paper, fleece and plastic. And even though there weren't much Christmas decorations left… a green tree in between mainly pink, red and white things was striking. She could practically read it in Kurosaki-kun's face: Still having Christmas stuff up in February, is that even economically benefitting?

"Ihara-san wanted to remove the Christmas decorations herself on Ōmisoka, New Year's Eve, said something like 'When I'm at it at home, why not clean the shop as well' but, apparently her family came to visit, giving her a huge shock." Orihime made a meaningful pause. "You see, Ihara-san has an awful family. At least that's what she told me. I don't believe it, though."

"Then why didn't she clean up after Ōmisoka? After all she closed the shop for the first few days in Januray, didn't she?"

Orihme nodded. Then she looked around observantly. "According to Fujimashi-san from across," the brown-haired girl spoke in a low voice, fixing the boy with serious eyes, "it seems that Ihara-san was partying with, um, friends."

Kurosaki-kun looked rather amused. "Why do you speak in whispers? And what's bad about partying? I mean, I'm not that into partying myself and she could have done the cleaning instead but…" he said, whispering himself.

Orihime's eyes got more serious; they were practically saying 'It's obvious, Kurosaki-kun' now. "Well, you see, the friends Ihara-san was partying with…" she began, again low-voiced, blushing slightly. "She was partying with men."

Kurosaki-kun blinked a few times. There was silence, a lot of silence, and Orihime already thought about repeating what she had just said, even though saying it this one time almost felt like admitting that she was partying with men herself.

Then, the boy snorted with laughter.

Orihime stepped back, feeling slightly startled. She had expected him to get angry or at least a little scandalized. After all Ihara-san had been partying with men! Maybe she didn't explain things clearly enough.

"I'm sorry, Inoue," the orange-haired boy said, still chuckling quietly, slowly getting his act together. "I- I get what you mean. Really. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't laughing at you – "

"Kurosaki-kun would never do that."

" – it's just that I think…" he took a deep breath. "Ihara-san is old enough to make her own decisions, right? So if she wants to go and have a New Year's drinking party with some men, fine by me, fine by everyone."

Orihime thought about it for moment. Then, her eyes lit up. "Ah, yeah, I get it. Ne, Kurosaki-kun, I am also old enough to make my own decisions, am I not?"

His face darkened. "No, you can't have a party with men."

The brown-haired girl flinched in bewilderment. "T-T-That's not what I mean, Kurosaki-kun!" Even though she would like to have him over to her birthday party this year. But this was a completely different matter, and she didn't have the courage to say this out loud anyways. "Not that I would ever do something like that, but why can't I have a party with men even if it's my decision?"

Kurosaki-kun opened his mouth, looking really determined to state out his reasons, making Orihime feel slightly uneasy – because he seemed to have some damn good and plausible reasons – but then he just shut his mouth again and remained silent for a moment. "Promise me you won't ever go and have a party with weird old geezers, alright?"

Orihime couldn't help but stare for a few moments. Why did he ask her for this with such a serious look on his face? Did she make him sad or mad or something? A hint of exasperation was slowly worming into his brown eyes, making her heart sink into her belly. She already knew her answer, though it wasn't because partying with men was against her principles, but rather because Kurosaki-kun seemed genuinely concerned. She bit her lip and silently responded, "I-I promise."

He smiled, relieved, and Orihime's heart was up again, shimming in her chest, feeling warm and alive when she saw him reverting back to his usual happy self.

It was quiet for a moment – Orihime's finger unintentionally began to fiddle with the door handle – and then she could hear a small group of people passing by on the other side of the street.

Somehow, the silence that was building up between the two slowly began to suppress the actual topic, and eventually Orihime smiled back at him. "So…"

"You have to go back to work?"

"Mh."

"Do you need a hand?"

"Oh, you don't have to help, Kurosaki-kun. I can do it alone!" She punched her fist into the air.

"Then let me at least keep you company," he said. Orihime wanted to protest again, but he just shoved her inside, followed and closed the door behind them. "Since it's getting dark outside, I might as well bring you home after you're done."

Orihime froze. She knew she had to grab this chance. No, no. She didn't have to grab this chance – by the sound of Kurosaki-kun's voice there was no way out of it anyways.
She pulled herself together.

"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun… Um, mind if I ask why you are even here? Did you come to buy something?"

The boy took a look around before he leaned against the wall. "Nah, I was just taking a walk. And when I walked by here, I saw your ears through one of the windows… I figured it must be Inoue."

Orihime flushed bright red. "Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-My ears?" She covered her ears with her hands. "Oh no, I didn't know they were so conspicuous…"

There had been just one or two times in the past that she actually occupied herself with her ears; when she was wondering about earrings – she had seen some beautiful long ones, sadly her hair was too long and the earrings would have just gotten entangled in it – and when she had this horrible middle ear inflammation in fifth grade, a very terrible and painful memory.
But she never thought about her ears being this obvious.

Greatly embarrassed, she looked at Kurosaki-kun. That was when it hit her.
He was staring at her, puzzled, saying something, something that Orihime somehow couldn't understand. She couldn't hear his voice at all.

"Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no." Orihime was panicking now, watching Kurosaki-kun as he slowly pushed away from the wall he was leaning against, still soundlessly moving his lips. "Kurosaki-kun, something really really bad happened. It was really just for one second that I wished for my ears to go away, and now it seems I can't hear you anymore I –"

The orange-haired boy gently grabbed her wrists and forced her hands away from her ears. "Stupid." He reached over her shoulder, taking one of the fluffy things that were dangling down her hood. "I was talking about your bunny ears."

"Eh?" Orihime blinked in bewilderment of hearing his voice again.
He waved the bunny ear around a little bit. Orihime caught sight of it through the corner of her eye, letting out a surprised "Aa!"

"Yeah…" Kurosaki-kun smiled kindly. "You're the only one I know that actually dares to walk around in this suspicious hoodie. Everyone will spot you immediately because of it."

Orihime silently formed an O with her mouth. "Even the bad guys?"

The boy nodded. "Even the bad guys." He perked up an eyebrow. "Wait – did you do something that got you in trouble?"

"Ehh…" Don Kanonji… I'm so sorry. She was wondering if they probably told Don Kanonji personally that a napkin with his face on it was stolen by a mysterious brown-haired girl.
She nervously fiddled around with the zipper of her hoodie, staring at Kurosaki-kun's chest… which was making her even more nervous.
She turned around and walked up to the ladder. "No, no. Everything's fine, don't worry Kurosaki-kun."

Behind her, Kurosaki-kun was sighing deeply. "Really, if it's about you I don't know anymore whether I should worry or not."

She blushed, abashed. She didn't want to be a bother to him. "I'm very sorry for bothering you, Kurosaki-kun."

"Ah, it's okay. I always end up worrying anyways. But that's better than not caring at all, and then you really get into trouble, right?" he said and walked up to her, placing his hands on the ladder in a stabilizing manner. "So, want to get started?"

Actually… Why was it that Kurosaki-kun was this nice around her all the time? Always understanding, even though she was full of self-doubts, always being kind, even though her head was a complete mess. Was it because she was such a clumsy girl, because she couldn't handle herself well enough?
"Mh," she answered and stepped up the ladder, not paying attention to her feet and the steps, getting caught on the last one and thus losing her balance for a second. Though, she was standing firmly again shortly after.

"Are you sure I can't help you? Better prevent right now what might happen if you keep that up."

"Kurosaki-kun… it's fine." She paused and looked down at his hands that were still holding onto the frames of the ladder. Just then, a special thought came to her mind. "You know… when… when we were fighting… you were like my support… mentally… physically… and right now… you, too, are my support. I…" Her gaze dropped down again and her eyes met his. He looked surprised, and maybe there was a hint of sadness in his eyes, but there was no time for her to figure something else. He turned away his face, looking out of the big shop window.
She knew she had hit a nerve. She knew he missed fighting, protecting, that he missed Soul Society. She made him sad, something that she didn't ever want to happen, under no circumstances. But it did happen, and she didn't want to leave it at that.

"Um, ah… speaking of… big ears!" Orihime wanted to face-palm herself for the worst diversion she had ever made. Still, she went on speaking while plugging some needles out of the wall. "I, eh, I had this dream yesterday."

"Dream?" he asked.

"M-hm. It was about a robot with ears as big as an elephant's. He came visiting me on a Sunday afternoon and asked for a cup of tea. We had a little conversation about giant sharks swimming through outer space, and just when I was about to pour out the tea, I realized something. Can you guess what I realized, Kurosaki-kun?"

"Er, could it be that you forgot to boil the water?"

Orihime giggled. "No, nothing like that. You see, in my dream, I eventually put down the teapot and asked the robot 'Why would you want to drink tea? You can't do that, can you?' and the robot only said 'It's not about being able to do something – it's about wanting to do it' before he took the hot teapot himself and drank directly out of it."

She handed him a paper muffin and he flapped it around in his hands a little, still looking rather curiously up to the brown-haired. "And then? What happened? Did he explode?"

"Well." She stopped in her actions. "To be honest, I don't remember. Maybe he did explode, taking the last few minutes of that dream with him, you know."

"Aa. I won't complain about which happen to be your dreams, since you can't choose them. But that totally didn't explain why this robot had ears as big as an… an elephant's." He stared at the paper muffin in his hands. "However. You… you had these little frosted cakes for Valentine's Day this year, right? Did you sell them all?"

Orihime groaned when she had difficulties trying to pull out a needle that was stuck in the wall almost entirely. "Um, yeah. The cakes went out pretty fast. We started selling them on Monday and they were already out on Thursday."

"So… What about the cake I got from you on Friday for Valentine's Day? Was it really a self-made one? Tatsuki said she recognized your baking skills or something."

The brown-haired girl flushed deep red. "Ehh… I – I…" She had told him the day when she gave him the little frosted cake (together with her self-made chocolate) that "it isn't anything special" and that she "bought it cheaply from Ihara-san, because there were leftovers." She sighed. Lying had been a bad idea in the first place, but considering how well things were going after she told the untruth of her buying the cake, she thought it would be okay. Well, unfortunately it was her own fault for not being able to keep up the walls that protected her sweet little secret. She sighed again. "Um… you're right. Tatsuki-chan was right. The cake… was a lie."

"I figured as much. With that strawberry on top," Kurosaki-kun said and grinned. "It was tasty, though. Both the cake and the chocolate."

"Th-Thank you…"

Orihime couldn't help but making up a mental picture in her head of Kurosaki-kun eating that little cake. But there were far too many unanswered questions as to imagine something like this clearly right now; like, when did he eat it? At home? While walking home? How did he eat it? Did he use a fork or a knife to slice it into pieces? No, Orihime, you have to put your thinking onto another level. It's Kurosaki-kun we're thinking about, after all. Well, then it was most likely that he just tried to shove the whole cake in one go down his throat. No, no. These things won't do without chewing and swallowing, you already tried that, remember? M-hm. So, imaginary Kurosaki-kun tried to make a big imaginary bite. Still, there was one half of the cake left. Orihime thought about it for a second; maybe she would be able to put the cake into her mouth as a whole? Of course not without chewing and swallowing afterwards. She was hungry anyway, and perhaps this was... a challenge! Imaginary Orihime quickly popped up, and she couldn't wait – because it was a challenge and she was sure she could win it – so she just grabbed the cake and put it into her mouth, and seconds after it –

"No, aaaaaah~!"

Kurosaki-kun jumped and almost tore down the ladder that he was supposed to hold upright if something happened. Maybe this could backfire.

"Wha-What's wrong?" he asked, but the girl didn't hear his aroused voice, still being stuck into a world he couldn't see.

"Y-You can't eat that, Orihime, you can't!" she said in reality, but not quite for reality, since she was shouting at her imaginary self at that moment. She went back into thinking mode again, soundlessly – for anyone who watched her from far away – pleading her double to spit out the cake, because in the hurry her doppelganger had grabbed the cake that imaginary Kurosaki-kun already took a bite from and – and 'imaginary' her butt, it was just like with the juice – oh the juice, the drinking straw, Kurosaki-kun's lips on the drinking straw, Kurosaki-kun's lips on the cake, and her double's lips on the cake! Indirect contact, an indirect k-k-kis–

Her mind was abruptly torn back into reality when she felt someone pulling on her sleeve. She looked down, right into Kurosaki-kun's quizzical brown eyes and blushed when her brain started to synchronize her thoughts from earlier with the impressions she got from reality.

"S-Sorry."

Hastily, she handed him the next decoration – a small Cupid made of fleece –, her right hand already on the long rope with the thirty red paper hearts – thirty times love –, her head still full with images of Kurosaki-kun taking a bite from her little self-made cake, of herself taking a sip out of Kurosaki-kun's juice – heart beating fast, maybe too fast – and when she felt Kurosaki-kun's warm fingers touching her own as he took the small Cupid, the girl finally lost it.

"Hiiiiiiiii~!"

It was thanks to Kurosaki-kun's awesome reflexes that Orihime didn't hit her head on the counter when she once again lost her balance and fell down the ladder.

愛

Feeling Kurosaki-kun practically grabbing her butt and his other hand on her shoulder, the first thing she thought about wasn't possibly how nice it felt being carried bridal-style but rather –

"K-K-K-Kurosaki-kun! What are you doing? I got heavier since last time!"

"Ah, you're not as heavy as- er, I mean, no, y-you're not heavy at all."

She hid her face behind her hands and could almost immediately feel the heat her cheeks were emitting. "Aww…"

"Well, looks like we got another problem here", she heard him say.

When Orihime carefully peeked through her fingers, there was something red. Moving her hands away from her face, she saw it dangling down her wrist; one of the red paper hearts.
The cord on which the heart was attached to had wrapped round her arm, her thin waist and – following it with dazed eyes – she saw that it even had twisted around Kurosaki-kun's arm and neck, making him look like a with paper hearts decorated Christmas tree.

Ironically, her own heart began to show reaction to this as soon as she entirely realized what was going on there; they both were tangled up in thirty red paper hearts.
Her heart was fluttering so hard somewhere in her chest, she was afraid that Kurosaki-kun might even have felt it too. And when her other senses finally seemed to return, she almost passed out; her awesome nose caught his scent so intensively, it hit her like a stone.

"Well. Here comes the saying 'I told you so' in handy, I think."

Orihime could feel another surge of heat making its way from her neck up to her cheeks. She took her hood and put it on, pulled it deep down so that it was covering her face. "… please let me down, Kurosaki-kun."

"Nu-uh. I'm afraid that won't work."

The brown-haired girl shoved the hood up a bit and catched a glimpse of Kurosaki-kun playing with one of the paper hearts. She wondered how he managed to stay this calm when she was all edgy and fuzzy and warm inside. She pulled the hood down again. "… Why not?"

"We're tied, you forgot that already?" the boy answered. "The cord will tear if we move."

"I-It's okay! Ihara-san said it's okay if something breaks!"

"What if we could avoid breaking it?"

Orihime wondered. "How could we… possibly avoid breaking it? We can't untangle like this, can we?"

"Hmm," Kurosaki-kun sounded like he was honestly thinking about it. "What about staying like this forever?"

"Kurosaki-kun!" As much as she wanted to stay like this for eternity and beyond, even Orihime figured that this wasn't possible. She began to fidget slightly in his arms.

"We could walk over to Chizuru and ask her if she could help?"

"… please, Kurosaki-kun?"

"Alright," he said and put her down carefully. They both stepped back and the cord tore, though each of them was still wrapped up with the remaining hearts. "Safe ground. How does that feel?"

She hadn't quite the nerve to jump onto his ever moving train of dorky statements – even though she felt the slight sensation of delight blissfully tingling in her tummy – she just pulled her hood even deeper into her face – because she was afraid that the unnatural reddishness of her head might cause some minor panic in Kurosaki-kun's head if she showed it to him – the bunny ears hanging limply on either side of her head. "Ne, Kurosaki-kun… is my clumsiness a bad thing? It's just that… you often get involved when I'm being a klutz… and I can't imagine you being fine with this… Please tell me if it annoys you, you don't have to be so patient all the time. I-I will bear the truth…"

He was silent, but he wouldn't burst into laughter again, would he? Maybe he was thinking about whether he should tell her the painful truth or a kind lie…

Orihime felt like crying when Kurosaki-kun finally spoke, sounding all honest and happy, "You being clumsy is alright. As long as you're careful while being clumsy, that is. And if not…" A hand was placed on her head, patting it gently, and when she raised her head a little, peeking up from underneath her hood that was covering her face almost entirely, she saw one of the red paper hearts hanging down his arm, slightly swaying back and forth right before her watery eyes. "… I'm there to help. With pleasure."