Title: Ditzy, but sweet

Rating: G

Pairing / Characters: Ishida Uryuu / Inoue Orihime

Word Count: 509 words

Warnings: Mild spoilers in general

Summary: Ishida wonders why he loves Inoue as much as he does

A/N: Ishida loves Inoue who loves Ichigo who loves Rukia who loves Renji. Whew. What a mouthful.

FOR CELLI. WITH LOVE…

Ishida wonders why he loves her so much.

True, she can slice someone in half with a simple command, but he doesn't think it's her unique power that makes her so powerful.

Maybe it's because her hair smells so fragrant, like summer.

Maybe it's because her eyes shine like the star shaped hair pins she wears. Maybe it's just because she doesn't see a former Quincy when she looks at him but an important part of their little team.

Honestly, Ishida doesn't know what makes Inoue Orihime so important to him.

They once spent a night together, lying in the grass and watching the stars, Inoue's shunshun rikka hovering in the air around them like miniature guardian angels.

Inoue kept pointing out oddly shaped clusters of stars, weaving incredibly unbelievable tales of the tiny, four armed three legged two headed orange skinned people who lived in their tiny glass houses and drank from tiny little cups and ate off tiny little plates. She told him about the food she thought they ate, fruits grown in the starlight, foods never seen on earth before.

Ishida hadn't known whether to laugh or to be horrified.

Inoue's imagination even scared him.

At the same time though, it draws him to her. He listens to her in class, coming up with the most absurd reasons for why she eats what she does, and why she enjoys it. His favourite by far is reason thirty four: the fairies make her do it.

Ishida always laughs when he hears that; he has no idea whether the shunshun rikka really do make her eat such strange things – in fact, he doesn't know if they eat at all, but only he, Ichigo and Chad know about them and Ishida struggles to hide his amusement at that ridiculously bold statement.

Two days ago, Ishida spent two hours after school with Inoue, building miniature houses of grass so the ants would have a place to stay when it rained. Ishida doesn't know how he managed to get roped into doing it, but Inoue told him that Kurosaki-kun was busy with training and could Ishida-kun help her pretty please.

Damn it, he couldn't say no and she knew it.

When she had injured herself in Soul Society protecting him, she had told him how much of a klutz she was, that even if she had been alone she would have gotten hurt and without Ishida-kun's help would have kept bleeding until she became anaemic. Ishida had to laugh. Only Inoue would have come up with a statement like that.

Even now, sitting at her bedside watching her sleep, Ishida still doesn't know why he loves her. She is ditzy but sweet, sunlight and stardust woven together, innocence and strength. She hates to hurt, and hurts for others who have forgotten how.

Ishida thinks that maybe, just maybe it could be that. Her heart may belong with Kurosaki but it is her heart that makes her so special.

She teaches him that there is more to life than power, after all.