You knew from the beginning that they would end up together. It was painfully obvious that she loved him. Love him, you correct. A blind man could have seen the poorly hidden adoration in her eyes. A deaf man could easily hear the love that leaped out of every word she said to him. Yes, it was no surprise that they were to live happily ever after.

You admit that you thought it would have taken longer for them to become a couple. He was so damn oblivious you'd thought that it would take years for him to finally notice her. But somehow, one day, they were together. It wasn't just Kurosaki Ichigo or Inoue Orihime anymore; it was Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime.

You are happy for them. You really are because they are the best people you'll ever know, but still, you can't help feeling…heartbroken. But that's understandable. You loved her. Love her, you correct. You reason that that is natural, though. She has that kind of personality, that kind of soul that draws you in gently until it's too late to realize you're already drowning in her, dying because you have fallen in love with a girl whose heart belongs to another.

You didn't even try to change her mind. You knew it would be a wasted effort, and it would only destroy the relationship you had with both of them, so you kept your confession to yourself. Kept your feelings to yourself as they announced that they were dating, kept your mouth shut as she showed you her engagement ring, kept your tears in as they vowed to take each other in holy matrimony.

You thought that you would have stopped loving her from the moment they said "I do", but you still want her, need her, love her. And you feel guilty for that because he knows your feelings, but he trusts you. Trusts her, really, because she never had eyes for anyone else but him. So he lets you yearn for his wife in secret because he knows that if you could change how you felt, you would have done it a long time ago.

It's only when he's born that your love for her changes. The moment you see the baby, little tuffs of orange hair sprouting out of his head, see the baby try to smile, you know that you will never have her in the way that you want. You also know that you don't want her in that way anymore because she is happy. You never seen her happier, or him, for that matter, and that is all you could ever want for her. She finally has her own family, and she is loved.

You still love her, but it's not romantic love. It's the love that you should have been feeling from the start. It's the love you feel for that orange haired punk or that tall, quiet friend of yours. It's a love that is reserved for the most important of friends, the friends who became your family without even trying.

So you love her, but you don't love her. And maybe one day you will find someone like her or find someone who looks at you in the same way that she looks at him or find someone who looks at you in the same way he looks at her. But for now, you are happy with the way things are now. Perfectly content to be a friend to that idiot Ichigo and that sweet Orihime and to be the uncle of a baby who grabs your glasses from your face as you rock him in your arms.

You do admit you would be even happier if Kazui would stop breaking your glasses. This is the fourth pair that he has broken.