Her Greatest Desire

Summary: Being married to Ichigo was supposed to be a dream come true. Or was that a nightmare?

1: Your Hearts Desire

She knew she should've waited for back up. But she just wanted to prove herself. Just this once, she wanted to show everyone that she wasn't some weak damsel in distress who needed her knight in a black yukata to rescue her every time.

As she lay by the pavement in a pool of her own sticky blood, she realised how wrong she had been with that idea.

"Inoue?"

Tears pricked at her eyes as she heard his voice. Of course, he'd have to be the one who found her. Couldn't it have been Rukia-chan, or Ishida-kun? Fate was a cruel, cruel man.

"Inoue!" his voice was louder and more frantic this time, and she heard the sound of his footsteps as he approached her limp body.

"Inoue? What…what the hell happened to you?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but only a weak trickle of blood fell from her lips. She decided it was better that way. Telling him how she had been beaten by a mere Hollow would be far too much shame. Her vision began to blur as he bent his head down over her face, his eyes wide and frantic with worry and fear.

"Just…just hold on a second, I'll get my Dad and…"

Whatever else he was saying was drowned out by a loud buzzing noise in her ear. Her vision began to get blurry with each passing second, and the pain in her abdomen was increasing.

"Inoue!"

A small smile graced her lips as everything finally went black.

Kurosaki-kun.

Every bone, limb, and joint in her body ached as she began to slowly stir. It felt as if she had been thrown off the top of a building and then used as a chew toy for some sort of oversized dog. Slowly, as not to irritate her already aching body, she pushed herself up onto her knees to survey the area she was in. Her eyes widened in shock and fear as she realised that she was lying in a field, and not the bustling district of Rukongai like she had been expecting to awaken in.

"Ah, you're awake!"

A whimper of surprise escaped her lips as she whirled around quickly to find herself staring at a strange woman sitting on a wrought iron bench. Her eyes narrowed as the woman smirked at her, she had half a mind to put her shield up in anticipation, but decided against it as the woman's eyes suddenly softened and she outstretched a pale hand towards Orihime.

"Come on then, I'm not going to bite," the woman sighed impatiently, crossing her slim legs over each other as she waited for Orihime to slowly stand up.

"Who are you?" Orihime asked quietly as she pushed herself onto her feet and began slowly making her way towards the strange woman. She was really rather beautiful, Orihime noted as she drew closer to her. She had long dark turquoise hair that was piled atop her head in a messy bun, as if she had simply rolled out of bed that way. She wore a simple, form fitting, but short, silver yukata that was loosely tied around her slim waist, causing an ample amount of bosom to be laid on show. It reminded her of something that Rangiku might wear. Instead of falling to her feet, the yukata stopped abruptly just before the crease of her knee, and Orihime gained the impression that if the strange woman were sitting in any other position, she would have got a clear image of her underwear. Orihime was sure she was imagining it, but she was sure the woman was glowing, but she assumed that must have just been an effect of the sunlight.

She jumped slightly as the woman began to openly laugh. She had a nice laugh, it was soft and soothing, a laugh that made Orihime want to smile as well. All of a sudden, the woman stood up and in a flash she was standing before Orihime. Orihime gulped and took an instinctive step backwards, the woman was tall. Very tall.

"Don't look so afraid, pet," the woman said lightly, lifting up and hand and pressing it down on Orihime's shoulder, "I told you, I'm not going to bite."

"Uh-uh huh," Orihime squeaked as the strange woman wrapped her arm fully around her shoulder and began to guide her to the large bench she had been sitting on before.

"Your file said you were quite the brave young lady, Orihime," the woman said, fixing Orihime with a disapproving look, "and the files don't lie, so toughen up please."

Orihime frowned, wondering exactly what file the woman was talking about.

"Who are you?" she asked again, putting more urgency into her voice, "and how did you know my name?"

The woman sighed and lightly rapped Orihime on the head, as if she were a child, "I told you, I read your file. I have to read the file of everyone who lands in my domain. Though," she paused and shook her head sadly, "it has been a while. I'd say you're the first in a good two hundred years. I've been so lonely you see."

"T-two hundred years?" Orihime gasped, the woman before her couldn't have been older than her mid twenties, and even that was pushing it, "so….you're dead?" she asked, assuming this could be the only way that a woman as youthful looking as her, could claim to be so old. The woman nodded and a realisation struck Orihime.

"And…" she gulped, "and me? I'm dead too, then?" she remembered being struck down by the Hollow and falling unconscious in a sticky pool of her own blood, dying had been much less painful than she had anticipated it would be.

"Hmm," the woman simply hummed before smiling brightly at Orihime, "you wanted to know my name, didn't you?"

Orihime blinked, surprised by her non-committal answer, and then sudden change of question.

"Well," the woman sighed a blew out a puff of breath, "truth is, I don't know my name, I've forgotten it, you see? I've been alone for two hundred years with nobody to speak to, remembering something like my name just wasn't necessary."

Orihime shifted uncomfortably in her seat, not knowing exactly what to say. She felt extremely out of place. She was dead, well she assumed she was, so why hadn't she woken up in Rukongai? In fact, where was she? And the strange woman had said something about this being her "domain", hadn't she?

"I do however, remember my title!" the woman said loudly, her tone going from sad to happy in an instance, "you can't forget a thing like that, definitely not."

"Your title?" Orihime was beginning to wonder if the woman was mad.

"Correct, my title, I am…" she paused for dramatic effect, "the Goddess of Desire!"

"The Goddess of-"

Desire continued on speaking as if Orihime wasn't spluttering incoherently next to her, "yes Hime my dear, the Goddess of Desire. It's a pretty rubbish title though, I hardly ever get to interact with you humans, if I could go back in time I think I'd pick something like the Goddess of Morals. She sure as hell gets to interact with you guys more than I do!" she scowled as she thought of Moral and all the fun she had playing with her little human friends.

"But you said you were dead!" Orihime accused, not understanding Desire at all, "when you die, you go to Soul Society and become a Soul or a Shinigami, that's just the way it works!"

Desire nodded her head, "yes, yes, that's how it usually works. But every now and then, you get a God or Goddess opening and the Spirit King comes down from his perch and picks one of us poor souls to be the newest God or Goddess. Mind you, it doesn't happen very often, so I'm not surprised you don't know about it."

Her head was beginning to hurt with all this new information. She had just died for God's sake, she was supposed to be in Rukongai looking for her Shinigami friends, not sitting on a strange bench with an even stranger woman talking about even stranger things.

"And what do you do exactly?" Orihime asked, "why am I even here? If I died, shouldn't I be in Rukongai?"

Once again, Desire nodded her head, this time causing a few strands of hair to fall loose around her face.

"Each God or Goddess all do different things. For example, the Goddess of Morals - horrible old hag, you don't want to meet her," she added snidely, "is in charge of making sure you little humans do the right thing. Or in a lot of cases, the wrong thing. There's also the God of Happiness, he's a very nice young chap, always smiling and laughing. I'm sure you can guess what his job is?"

Orihime nodded, "he goes around making sure we're happy?"

"Exactly my dear Hime. He has to regulate the happiness levels of you little humans. You can't be too happy all the time though, so he works in close partnership with the Goddess of Sadness. Moody little bitch she is," Desire added with a scowl.

"And you?" Orihime prompted, sensing that Desire was about to go on a little rant about the Goddess of Sadness, "what exactly do you do?"

"I'm the Goddess of Desire, sweetie. It's my job to make sure you guys get exactly what your hearts desire. Only trouble is, you humans rarely know what you really want, so I don't get much work. You only think you want something, but in reality you don't, meaning my job is one big waste of time really," she sighed and mumbled angrily under her breath for a few moments, seemingly forgetting about Orihime.

"So what am I doing here?" Orihime asked urgently, "I'm dead! Why am I here with you?"

"Why are you so determined to be dead," Desire asked with a frown, "I thought you humans were desperate to live as long as possible. You're only 18, aren't you?"

"Am I dead or not?" Orihime asked sharply, feeling increasingly frustrated with every second she spent talking to desire.

"Eh, so-so," Desire said, "you're hanging in there."

Orihime frowned, thinking back to the last thing she could remember before she fell unconscious. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, and she could feel a sharp pain in her abdomen where the Hollow had slashed her.

"You see, the God of Destiny said your time isn't up yet," Desire continued, "he's not ready to cart you up to Soul Society just yet. So while he's sorting out the mess you've made,"

"Hey-!" Orihime said indignantly, it wasn't like she purposely got herself attacked by a Hollow!"

"…he's asked me to look after you for a while, keep you entertained and all that jazz."

Orihime did her best to hide her wince, she wasn't totally sure she wanted to be kept in the company of Desire for much longer. The woman was clearly insane. Though, she supposed she had to be thankful for the fact that she wasn't dead, that was a plus.

"So Orihime," Desire turned to her and waggled her eyes mischievously, "want to have some fun?"

"F-fun?" Orihime asked nervously, not sure that what Desire had in mind for her could possibly be considered fun by most people.

"You," Desire said softly, a dreamy look coming over her pretty features, "you're not like other humans…"

"I'm not?"

"Not at all. You know what you want. I can practically taste your hearts desire," she licked her lips and grinned at Orihime, "I know what you want."

Orihime said nothing, feeling slightly alarmed by this new change in Desire.

"I can give him to you, you know?"

"Him?"

Desire laughed and patted Orihime gently on the shoulders, "Kuro-saki-kun," she purred, grinning as she watched Orihime blush about ten different shades of red at the mention of his name, "you want him. Your heart is practically swelling with desire for him, it's a wonder you haven't burst the poor thing yet."

Orihime's hands subconsciously went to her chest at Desire's teasing words.

"So Orihime," Desire said in that same low purr from before, "I could give him to you, would you like that? Who am I kidding?" she laughed as she stood up, "of course you'd like that!" Desire stuck her pale hand in front of Orihime's face and lightly pressed her forefinger against her forehead.

"What are you doing?" Orihime asked nervously.

"I'm just giving you want you want, I'm giving you your hearts desire," Desire whispered in an almost seductive manner before pushing against Orihime's forehead, sending her reeling backwards off the bench.

Orihime gave a small squeak of surprise as she toppled backwards off the bench. She expected to hit the grassy floor within seconds, but instead she kept falling and falling, as if she had been pushed into a deep hole.

"Have fun sweetie!" Desire called, that was the last thing Orihime heard or saw before everything went black.

She'd been having the strangest dream. First, she was on Hollow patrol with Ichigo, and she had died. Then she met with a strange woman, who was most certainly crazy, called Desire. And then she had found out that she hadn't died at all, and that a man called Destiny was sorting everything out for her. And finally, she had been pushed down a hole.

"Maybe Tatsuki-chan is right," Orihime murmured as she stretched under her bed sheets, "I think I should stop eating cheese late at night."

At the mention of the food that she assumed was the cause of her weird dreams, her stomach began to growl in protest. She sighed realising that she had to get up from the comfort of her bed. She attempted to roll over, but was stopped by something pressing against her face and torso.

"Eh?" she asked herself, wondering if in her cheese-sleep induced state, she had moved her furniture around in her room. Slowly, she poked her head out of the covers to find out what exactly it was that was obstructing her movement.

"God, you're always such a morning person," a deep voice groaned out from next to her.

She froze. Someone was in her bed. With her.

The person rolled over in bed and grinned at her, "I'm actually surprised you're so awake after last night," he chuckled and it was only then that she realised that he was not wearing a shirt, and - as she quickly looked down and checked her own body - she was dressed in only a bra and a pair of thin panties.

On any normal occasion, she probably would have shrieked and fainted about the fact that she was so scantily dressed in someone else's presence.

But right now, she was too busy fainting over the fact that a shirtless Kurosaki Ichigo was lying in bed next to her.