His voice continued to resound in her ears long after he escaped from her. She could feel his hands trailing all over her body, reaching around her neck, choking, then caressing her cheek but never getting close enough for her to kiss the invisible lips. His sardonic grin was burned into her vision so no matter where she looked he was there, but then he disappeared in an instant, cutting the heart that she couldn't believe was still beating, just like it had when she'd wanted him to go.

He was gone now.

She couldn't speak, she couldn't breathe. Why? She wanted him to go hadn't she? Of course she never wanted for him to take Ichigo with him, but an escape from his cruel ways had been something she'd wished for over and over between the sobs and gasps that had escaped her bruised lips time and time again when he claimed them.

It was true then. Just like he'd told her from the beginning, she was his, and she would slowly fade away to join him where he was.

And Ichigo. Her promise that she would love him for five lifetimes, she thought they would be her own. Rather than making a promise she'd made a curse- she knew now. His first lifetime, his human lifetime, the one in which they first met, then his second lifetime, when he became a substitute shinigami-that one was so short, she wished she'd done more for him. Then, as he had told her, his third lifetime, the one in which Ichigo regained his shinigami powers and he was born. Also the one in which she made her promise-the curse. His fourth lifetime, the shortest of them all, it ended the same way as the third; because of her. And then his fifth and final lifetime…

She could see it coming before it arrived. Like a runaway train, her whole world derailed at that moment.

He called her his little doll once. In a strange way she realised he had never been more right. She was the horrible china doll, trapped behind the barrier of glass, the one barrier she couldn't slip through. She beat against the glass over and over, until her hands bled. It was always the same; everyone could see her, she could see everyone else, but no one could touch her. She could reach however far she liked but the person she was reaching for always slipped away before they could touch. There was always that glass wall between them.

She honestly hadn't meant for this to happen though. It was slightly ironic. If she were a little more like him she would've laughed. She wasn't wearing a seatbelt when the car in front of her had hit the brakes. She never bothered to anymore, but now all the scolding she had given to the others, including Ichigo, for not wearing a seatbelt had lashed onto her and her body crashed through the wall of glass.

The broken shards dug into her side and she would've been cold, she thought, but the warm pooling blood had reached all the way to her motionless spirit body from its corporeal counterpart. She stared at herself, vision blurry, hearing voices both living and, she was sure, dead. It could've been strangers, it could've been Tatsuki or Rukia or Ishida or Chad or any of her nakama. It made no difference. The voices that had haunted since that day their possessors were killed-even they would not reach her.

He told her how he thought everyone should always anticipate the end if there was ever a beginning. She'd been ready. She had been ready before she'd hit the glass, before she'd gotten into the car in the first place. She'd been ready before she had screamed for them not to, that Ichigo was still in there, that they couldn't kill him, before she'd finally accepted that she loved them both, before she'd seen him die for the last time. It went far before then, even before the day she met him.

He claimed her as his, taken her apart, and stolen everything. She denied it. She loved Ichigo. He said that they were both hollow though she would've let him tear her heart from her chest for all she cared anymore. But it was always a 'would've' never a 'did'. Because it was like he said "We are all born dead"; from the beginning it had been already over. Already over…

She felt something warm press against her forehead.

She could hear voices. Vague sounds of arguing, the words becoming clearer with each passing second.

"…Told you so."

"Shut-up! This-she's still so young! She shouldn't have already…"

"…Died? What're you so upset about? We got to have her again extra early." A hand brushed her arm and Orihime's heart lurched forward suddenly. She almost opened her eyes right then but she kept them shut. She had to be sure it wasn't a dream. She knew those voices but she had to be sure they were really there and not in her mind.

"You sick demented monster, I would've been there to protect her if you hadn't stolen my body."

"Hey! Whoa! Wait a minute! We were protecting her that time! And your Shinigami and Vizard 'allies' are the ones that teamed up to kill us, who, by the way, would've succeeded in wiping us both from existence where it not for the fact that we were hollow at the time, which was actually all your fault anyway."

"How was it my fault? You were the hollow half back then!"

"Yeah, says Mr. I'm-becoming-more-hollow/I'm-an-idiot-who-doesn't-listen-to-people-when-they-tell-me-not-to-die-instead-forcing-that-same-poor-shmuck-to-fuse-with-me-every-time-I-get-injured-and-a-little-over-protective-of-Hime-during-a-battle. But no, you're absolutely right. It was all my fault. I planned the whole thing, right up to getting stabbed through the skull and sublimated. Hell, I even decided the two of us should go into hiding for no apparent reason other than fact that I-meaning you- am a moron. Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna reap my long deserved reward of having my princess back."

"Touch her and I'll kill you."

She couldn't wait any longer. She opened her eyes and stared up into a pair of beautiful amber irises, the same as the ones she'd once fallen in love with, and another set of irises of an even lighter tone, molten gold, lit up with mischief though not sinister as she remembered. Neither pair was set in black. Both clearly evidenced their being alive. Her heart stuttered painfully back to life. It wasn't over yet.

"Kurosaki…kun? And…hollow-kun?"

The said 'hollow' turned on his identical smacked him. "Way to go moron, you woke her up!" He turned back to Orihime with a grin. "Anyway, nice ta' see ya' again, Princess! Welcome to Rukongai!"

Ok, ok, I lied. This is the last of the old drabble flood. Everything from here on out will be new stuff, I promise. This was made for a drabble contest from a while ago(that I unfortunately didn't submit it to on time). The prompt for this drabble was 'Already Over' (as in the song by Red). Despite going over the word limit I think I kind of missed the point of it. And really, only the first part was based on the prompt, the rest was just random crack. Warning: there may be some confusion and mistakes. I originally wrote this at 3:00 am.

I hope to turn this into a full-fledged fic later on when I'm not so busy with other things and I've finished my 'Juxtaposed' fic. Until then, this will remain a confusing and hopefully enjoyable drabble.

Reviews are all inspiring. Feed a hungry writer today.