ohmygaaahd did the live action just get anyone right back into their ichiruki feels? damn everYTIME I think I'm free something pulls me back.

Set end of 686

Untold

When they were in high school she used to watch them together. It was easy then. No one knew of her overwhelming crush aside from Tatsuki, and everyone was always so focused on getting her attention they never minded where she put hers. Even when Rukia just arrived, and she was charming everyone with that saccharine smile, seeing them with each other was like watching destiny unfold itself.

She'd never seen two people so unconsciously comfortable around each other, it was almost unnerving. They'd walk closecloseclose and that ever-present tightness in Kurosaki-kun seemed to slacken and his face didn't looked so pinchy and there was Kuchiki-san with eyes like moonlight, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down so she could whisper something in his ear. Like Kurosaki-kun didn't care about someone touching him so brazenly, like he wasn't finicky about his personal space, like that was a totally normal thing for someone to do him. Because it was. Because it was Rukia.

When people would ask if he and Rukia were dating he'd snort and roll his eyes and almost looked amused and he'd always say something like "Geez guys Rukia and I aren't like that," and Orihime would wonder if he knew he wasn't answering their question, not really anyway, because asking if they're dating is just a socially acceptable way of asking if they like each other. And his answer was not a denial of any amorous feelings or affection just that dating wasn't how he defined their relationship. Like it's more than some silly human classification of affection and commitment, like social affirmations are trivial and unnecessary. They didn't need labels for comfort or confirmation. It's all there, in the looks and the eye-rolls and the way he softened when he said her name.

Somehow she ends up marrying her high school crush and they call each other Ichigo and Orihime and it's all so romantic yet as the years slide on she can't help but wonder if she's only the consolation prize because while he certainly cares for her and treats her like a queen there's always something hidden in his eyes and no matter how hard he tries, he can't replace the sincerity of his feelings with effort.

When people say to her after ten years of togetherness and 8 years of marriage and a child and a shared bank account and the password to his phone "Wow Orihime you two really have it figured out!" because with all the public displays of commitment and love how could she ever question her husband's devotion to her-

Orihime watches Ichigo with Rukia as they argue and banter and somehow they're all fifteen again and she just wants to know how to make him come alivelike that-

(She wonders how she ever could've believed in it in the first place.)