Small Talk
So much for small talk. The big idea somehow snuck in, when we weren't looking.

He watched as she cleaned. Ichigo had perched himself at just the right place on the covered walkway that connected the upper floor of the school with the nearby gymnasium to be able to watch her without being noticed. He didn't really intend on watching her when he initially set out across the pathway, but once he caught a glimpse of her sweeping in the school courtyard, he disobeyed every instinct in his body and crouched behind the wall to watch her. He was being extra careful in this moment, because he had learned that having bright orange hair meant that if he wasn't careful, he could be spotted from a mile away. As a kid it was torture when he played hide and go seek. Right now, it would have meant sheer embarrassment if he was spotted, not just by Orihime, but by anyone in the school.

It was mesmerizing, watching Orihime as she did her chore. Most kids who were given the task would do it begrudgingly, but he could faintly hear the tune her gentle voice was humming. He watched as a breeze kicked in and scattered most of the litter she had been neatly sweeping into a pile scatter about the courtyard. Again, most students who had such a job would have groaned and cursed the wind, but he watched as it looked like she was enjoying the feeling of the wind sweeping through her hair and clothes.

It shouldn't have been such an odd thing to him, really. This was Inoue, the girl who always smiled and always had something genuinely nice to say. It was something that had been bothering him recently when it came to her, when he sat back the thought about her. He just wondered how she should remain so happy. Months earlier, she had been taken to that horrible place. That horrible man had tried to use her as he had previously used Rukia and that nice girl, Aizen's vice captain whose name he could never remember. Rukia came out of it okay, but by the time he'd had a chance to see her after saving her from being executed, she'd already experienced most of the abuse. In an odd way, it seemed to have helped her reconnect with her brother and long-lost friend. For Orihime, all of that was done now as well, and they had brought her home. He was expecting to see a different Inoue. He knew at least some of the emotional torture that she had endured, because he had seen it was his own eyes. If he wasn't mistaken, he may have caused some of it. His heart was waiting for that wrenching feeling of seeing her again and bright face taking on a dull appearance.

But it never came.

Maybe he really shouldn't have been so surprised. He'd recently learned from Tatsuki that Orihime's parents had beaten her as a toddler when she would so much as cry; that her mother had turned to working in a soapland and spend more time with her clients than her children; and that her father was a drunken monster, angry that he was stuck in a life with children and an ungrateful wife. The person who took her out of that atrocious existence at the cost of his happiness, her beloved brother Sora, had been killed when she was barely a teenager. Then along he came, sweeping her up into this shinigami business. He had watched almost a year ago as that brother she loved so deeply became a monster and tried desperately to take her life. He had unlocked a power from deep within her soul that exposed her this life of fighting and blood. Yet through all of that, Inoue Orihime smiled and carried herself like none of it ever happened, and he had no reason to believe that she wasn't honestly happy. He'd seen her fake smiles before. He knew very well the extra brightness she tried to force into her eyes voice. He saw it very often in Hueco Mundo, yet he didn't feel any of that coming from her recently.

Still, he felt like he'd wronged her. If only he was stronger, she wouldn't have been taken in the first place. She wouldn't even have those memories.

"So, you're spying on her now?" His thoughts were interrupted by a female voice behind him. He whirled around to see Tatsuki in her karate uniform. In a panic he quickly reached up and grabbed his childhood friend by her collar and yanked her down alongside him. Before she could yell at him, he'd placed his hand over her mouth.

"Say anything and," Ichigo had started. However, despite his long history of friendship with Tatsuki, he didn't really have any juicy blackmail to try to use as leverage. There was just that picture of her in the fluffy dress from her 6th birthday party, but he was sure that she had far of incriminating pictures of him. Angry, yet unable to give her a reason to keep her mouth closed, he removed his hand.

"Dammit, Ichigo, what in the hell was that?" she asked, thankfully at a normal volume.

"You can't go up sneaking up on people like that," Ichigo said in a harsh whisper.

"Well, I think I have every right to sneak up on guys leering at poor Orihime like that," she said with a defensive tone, adjusting her collar.

"I wasn't leering. Who do you think I am, Keigo or Chizuru?"

"I suppose you're right about that," Tatsuki said giving her childhood friend a suspicious look. "I don't think anyone is worse than those two." She sighed and took a seat next to him, leaning her back on the wall behind her.

It was true, he wasn't like those two. In fact, she'd found it a little odd that Ichigo had little to no reaction to girls in the first place. He'd always treated her like any of his male friends, but that sort of thing would be natural since they'd met in karate class with her beating him to the point of tears. Then there was that transfer student, Rukia. At first, Tatsuki had certainly thought that there was was something going on between the two. She appeared one day, and it was like some sort of instant friendship. She always saw them hanging around together at school or even at the park afterward. Then time moved on, and she never got the feeling that they were more than friends. They were close, extremely close, but he never seemed to treat Rukia any different than he would her, or that strange tattooed red-headed guy that showed up later.

Then there came that day when they both walked into class bandaged up. She watched as Ichigo approached Orihime looking pained and like he had something important to tell her. As she greeted him as cheery as ever, he managed to lose his nerve in an instant. She watched him walk away to sit on a nearby desk, and Orihime rushed out of the classroom. Tatsuki had later learned what happened the day before from that guy who wore the geta and the striped hat, and it all started to fit together. She started to understand bit by bit that maybe Ichigo felt something a little more when it came to Orihime, yet, understanding her friend and the young man that he'd become, she didn't think that he had much of a grip on exactly what it was he was feeling or that Orihime was as wild about him as she was. "So," Tatsuki continued, breaking the silence, "why exactly were you looking at her while trying not to be seen?"

Ichigo sighed and rubbed his temples.

"She just looks so happy."

"And what's wrong with Orihime looking happy? You're her friend too, right? I'd think you'd want her to be happy with all that you've done for her; all the trouble you went through to make sure she was brought back home and safe."

"That place, Tatsuki. That place and those people, they just wanted to use her and hurt her. I can only imagine everything she saw there. Hell, it was hard for me to fathom some of the stuff that went on there."

"But you brought her back, Ichigo. She's here, and she's smiling again because you came for her."

"She shouldn't have been taken in the first place. She shouldn't have seen any of that. It's my fault she went though that," he said with a booming voice. Realizing his anger had gotten the best of him, he took a deep breath, leaned his head back against the wall, and shut his eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry, it's just...I don't know."

Tatsuki a sudden urge to take advantage of the situation. What was the next time that she'd be talking to such a vulnerable Ichigo?

"You really care for her a lot, don't you?"

The question didn't get quite the reaction that she was hoping for. He just heaved another sigh and ruffled his fingers through his already messy hair. Maybe she was asking him something that he'd already been asking himself now that their lives had slowed down to a at least somewhat normal pace.

"Well, she's my friend, of course I care for her."

"Ichigo," she said with a stern voice, hoping he'd try to not evade the question. "You know what I mean."

He looked over at Tatsuki to see her expression was dead serious. He had felt guilty for hiding everything from her in the first place. While he hoped that she understood that he hid the truth because he was trying to keep her safe, he still knew that she didn't appreciate it in the least. She was a friend to both him and Orihime, and if there was anyone to trust about this, it was her.

"I feel like I've dragged her into all of this, but, at the same time, I want to push her away from it. It's just that there's something about her that makes me want to keep her safe. I just don't really know what it is. Ever since all of this stuff ended, it's been on my mind, but it's just such a mess in my head."

"I know what that is, Ichigo," Tatsuki said smiling. "Why else do you think I make sure she doesn't get bullied anymore or that Chizuru can keep her filthy hands off her?"

"But that's different."

"How is it different? When I first met her, brother had died a little less than a year ago. She barely talked, and she'd just let these girls bully her everyday. I decided to help her, because it was just so hard to watch. I didn't know how she'd react, but I think I got the best reward. That smile of hers is really something else. It's the most rewarding part of being her friend. I never thought I've have such an amazing, kind person like her as a friend."

She sat next to Ichigo for what felt like forever without a word between them. She should have known better. Ever since his mother's death, he'd become a bit of an emotional brick wall. He tried so hard to keep people from penetrating that defensive personality he put up. It was something that always managed to make her heart break a little when she saw him, because she'd remember what a happy kid he used to be. It was hard for her, but a long ago, she gave up trying to help him. It felt like a lost cause to try to get a little bit of the old Ichigo back, so she just let their friendship evolve. When Orihime stepped into the picture and could notice things about him so easily and empathize with his struggles, she that thought maybe someone like Orihime would be good for Ichigo. Of course, her brown-haired friend's crush on him only made her feel more strongly about it. More than anything she wanted them to be happy, and she knew that they'd be able to make each other happy. Even if it meant that she'd probably see a little less of Orihime. "Look, I need to get to practice," she said standing up and breaking the silence. "You don't need to give me an answer or anything, but maybe you should talk to her."

He just thanked his friend as she left and waited for her to leave before getting up. He took one last glance at Orihime, who seemed to be cheerily finishing up. He'd have to talk to her sometime soon, and that scared him to death.