I don't own Bleach, Kubo Tite does.

Please Don't Go

'What the hell is she thinking?' Ichigo thought, not even bothering to fake paying attention to Ochi-sensei as she taught her class, a class that was missing one very smart, very ditzy, very well endowed student.

Word has spread quickly through school about Orihime's absence, although only her friends knew the truth. After today, she wouldn't be in their lives anymore. Tatsuki, for reasons unbeknown to Ichigo, had decided to take out her frustrations on him, throwing out insults ranging from 'Idiot' to 'Thick-headed worthless pieced of ignorant trash'. Rukia had just insulted him, not bothering to physically attack him. But when asked about why she and Tatsuki were taking it out on him her answer was simple.

"If you couldn't figure out the reason Orihime's leaving then you diffidently can't figure out why you're an idiot."

Ichigo growled as he thought about that answer. But then eventually his thoughts wondered back to Orihime. He just couldn't wrap his head around the reality, it just didn't feel real. She'd always been there, smiling and funny, but now she was leaving without a good explanation, although everyone except him seemed to understand why.

"I just need some space."

That piece of information kept playing through his head again and again. She'd smiled why she said it, the way she always did. But as it started to turn out to be true something rose up in Ichigo, a deep feeling of loss, sadness, a little anger, and loneliness. These feelings were confusing him, although he knew he wanted her to stay.

'But she wants to leave.' Ichigo thought looking out the window, 'I can't ask her to stay just because I don't want a friend to move away.' And there it was again, those same annoying feelings popping up.

Suddenly he felt something strange and looked around. Ochi-sensei was still teaching up front, but Tatsuki was giving a death glare, something that made him just tiniest bit afraid. But he was quick to return it; it wasn't as if this was his fault. And back the feelings came. Ichigo turned away from Tatsuki and resumed looking out the window, letting his eyes close briefly for a second.

And there she was. There was Orihime, standing in the middle of the classroom, just smiling that smile of hers. And those feeling melted away; Ichigo began to feel better just looking at her. Actually, thinking about it now, whenever his mind had wondered away in class, when he was snapped back into reality he found himself usually looking in her direction. Why though, he had no idea.

'Oh don't tell me you don't understand that!' his hollow yelled in an annoyed tone, 'Can you believe this guy Zangetsu?'

'Shut up you!' Ichigo yelled back mentally.

'You are quite stupid Ichigo.' Zangetsu replied causing his hollow to let out a loud laugh.

'What the hell's going on with you two?' Ichigo began yelling indignantly, 'I'm just sad that Inoue's leaving and you think it means I'm an idiot!? Of course I'm sad a friend's moving away!'

'Oh please, if you were just sad it wouldn't be storming in here. This is something totally different. Every time you wonder in your head you end up looking her way, you can't stop thinking about her smiling, and boy do I know that, and your friends know the real reason she's leaving.'

'She said she needed space.'

'If you take that as her only reason, as her real reason, then you're hopelessly stupid.'

'You mean she was lying?'

'Wow, he does have a brain! But the real question is why you're all mopey about her leaving, and it's not because she's a friend.'

Ichigo began thinking about Orihime again. And the more he did the more he realized that she had managed to work herself into every nook and cranny of his brain. She seemed to hold him captive without even trying, the way she talked, the way she smiled, the funny face she made when she came up with those unbelievable stories, the cute way she pursed her lips when she was thinking really hard.

'Wait . . . Did I just think . . . cute?'

'Cute and what else?' Zangetsu prompted.

'Sweet, kind, innocent, caring, funny, but strong, and determined too.' Ichigo noticed the goofy grin that came to his face as he thought of the instances where Orihime had shown those sides of herself, 'She's ready to help her friends in an instant, even if she's scared stiff. She doesn't have the will to fight, she just can't hurt anyone. But that's a good trait, not something she needs to push away.' His grin started to get bigger, 'She could stop the world with her smile or with her tears. And every time I see them I want to wipe them away, and make whatever she's crying about go away.'

'And what does this tell you King?'

'I don't know.' Ichigo thought but his smile still didn't leave his face.

'Oh c'mon!! When was the last time you felt such a strong sense of loss?'

Ichigo's thoughts wondered to his mother. The first thing he felt was those emotions from before, but they didn't confuse him this time. Then warmer feelings took their place as he remembered just how she smiled, almost constantly. Then, it was a like a picture appeared, it was his whole family sitting down for dinner, everyone smiling. And before he knew it the picture had changed.

In his mother's place was Orihime, smiling the same but a completely different smile. He was gone but had replaced his father, leaning in close to Orihime as they watched the two children. Karin and Yuzu were replaced by a boy and a girl, the boy looking similar to Karin but when he thought about it, he reminded Ichigo of Orihime's brother. The girl on the other hand shared Ichigo and Orihime's strange hair color, and looked a lot like Orihime but held a few of Ichigo's traits.

Ichigo's smile was replaced by a look of complete and utter surprise.

'Do you understand now Ichigo?'

Ichigo nodded slowly to himself.

'Then what the hell are you still doing here King!? GO!'

Suddenly Ichigo stood straight up, pushing his chair back hard and tipping it over. As it crashed to the ground the whole class turned back to look, only catching the blur as Ichigo bolted from the class and headed outside. As Ochi-sensei ran to the door and started to yell out to him Rukia, Uryuu, Chad, and Tatsuki all looked at each other and smiled, the idiot wasn't such an idiot anymore.

"Is that everything?" the cab driver asked Orihime as she set a box down beside her in the back seat.

Orihime nodded in response then looked out the window to her old apartment. This was the last time she'd see it, and it held a lot of memories for her. As sad look entered her eyes as she thought about what she was leaving behind, but she had too. More than anyone else, even Tatsuki, a certain orange haired Shinigami came to her mind. She'd been happy when he came for her in Hueco Mundo, overjoyed that he'd risked so much just to see her. But that joy eventually turned to pain, and day by day it had grown. She couldn't tell him, she just couldn't, and so leaving was the only choice left.

She'd found a good high school in another city far away, she'd be riding a plane to get there. After that she had her eyes set on a good college, still far away. Now, every one of her actions was centered on the goal of not seeing him again, that scowling, gruff, honest, and brave substitute Shinigami that had managed to steal her heart and all the feelings that came with it.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as the taxi came to a sudden stop, and she heard it collide with something. She looked up front but only saw the thing that she assumed was hit run to the side and knock on her window.

Ichigo's legs were in pain, but he pushed it out of his mind and kept running. His thoughts kept coming back to her, and luckily he was able to navigate his way to her house without thinking much about it. He didn't know how, he just had to stop her. The thought of not having her around to help, to smile was becoming more and more unbearable in his mind. He just had to stop her.

He finally came to the street that would take him straight to her apartment, and increased his speed accordingly. Although he panicked as he saw a taxi in front, with Orihime putting a box in the back seat with her. There was a few seconds before the taxi started moving, and if it started there was no way he could catch up to it. As it kept moving he saw it coming down the road he was running up.

'Don't you dare!!' his hollow yelled reading his thoughts as the taxi came closer.

But it was too late, Ichigo's mind was set. He quickly slowed his pace as the taxi got closer and stepped out into the middle of the lane. Luckily the driver saw him before hand and hit his brakes, the bad part was that it wasn't soon enough and he still wound up getting knocked over by the car.

"Hey, are you crazy!?" the driver yelled sticking his head out the window, "Use someone else to kill yourself, I'm busy!"

After mentally checking himself at super speed he stood up and ran over to the side of the car. He found the back seat window and knocked on it, mentally begging the girl inside to roll it down.

"K-Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime said with surprise as she saw it was him.

"Inoue." Ichigo replied, panting from the combination of an intense run and being hit by a car, "Don't go!" was all me managed to choke out from the speech he was trying to form in his head.

"I . . . I have to." Orihime said quietly, looking away from him, "I've already been enrolled and they've accepted. I can't just say I'm not going anymore because I changed my mind."

"Screw them!" her eyes were brought back to Ichigo, "I don't want you to go, I want you to stay." A drop of blood made its way down the side of his face, a small cut being the source, "Please." As soft look came to his face, "Please stay."

"I can't." was all she said, tears staring to form in her eyes.

"But Inoue-"

"Go!" she cried out to the driver, surprising him into slamming hard on the gas. Ichigo only managed to back away in time to avoid further harm, watching with a stunned expression as the taxi drove off.

Meanwhile, the driver of the taxi watched quietly, looking in his rearview mirror to see the girl with her head down, crying almost uncontrollably but quietly. He wished he could do something, say something, but his common sense told him there was nothing he could do or say that would ease her crying.

Ichigo watched the taxi driver off, stunned into silence as it rounded a corner and disappeared from view. She hadn't waited to listen, she just left. His knees wanted to give out but his body didn't seem to be capable of even that.

"So what Ichigo, you're just going to give up?" came a familiar voice behind him.

Ichigo turned around to see Urahara standing here, no fan in front of his face, just a hard expression of disappointment.

"What am I supposed to do?" Ichigo asked, his voice displaying how lost he was, "I tried and she just went anyway. What am I supposed to say to get her to stay?"

"The truth usually works best." Urahara took a few steps forward, "Why didn't you tell her then?"

"Because if I told her then she'd just stay to make me happy. I want her to stay because she wants to. I want to give her a reason to stay."

"Isn't that a good enough reason?" Urahara asked coldly, standing right in front of Ichigo, "And don't you dare say it isn't, love is always reason enough." And brought his cane up, slamming the end on Ichigo's forehead.

As Ichigo came out of his body it slumped back and he caught it in his arms. He looked at Urahara like he was a madman. However, Urahara brought out his fan and hid his face behind it.

"Make sure you put your body back on at the airport, don't wanna make the poor girl look like she's talking to thin air do you?"

Ichigo was still for a second then nodded. He brought his body around to back and picked it up then leapt high into the air. He left Urahara behind as he jumped from building to building, ran over telephone lines, and shunpo'd a couple of times to Karakura Airport. When he reached the building he looked around and found a private place to land and put his body back on. Once it was on he looked in a reflective window and wiped the blood from his head, otherwise he looked completely fine. Ichigo wasn't sure, but he figured that as long as he had been standing still, his talk with Urahara, and his frantic running, Orihime was either already there or she would show up in a few seconds. So he headed inside and began looking around. Unfortunately it was extremely crowded and he didn't even know which flight was hers. Not seeing her anywhere he started to run through the rest of building, looking for any sign of her. He spent the next thirty minutes exhausting him even more until he found her, standing in front of a large screen listing flights and times, a single suitcase by her side.

"Orihime!" he yelled out to get her attention, but when she saw him she turned slightly red, picked up her suitcase, and started walking away, "Orihime wait!" he yelled out again, running to her.

Luckily the crowds worked for him too since they kept her from getting far before he reached her and grabbed her wrist, he didn't grab hard or pull but she stopped all the same. She turned around with a sad look and watched him, bent over and breathing hard.

"What do you want Kurosaki-kun?" she asked.

"Don't go." He said again, looking up at her, pleading with his eyes.

"I have to."

"No you don't. And you don't want to go either." He stood up and looked at her, still holding her wrist.

"Yes I do. I can't stay here anymore. I have friends, but I'm still lonely, I'm not like the rest of you, I don't have any family waiting for me when I come home or supporting me from somewhere else. There's no one here for me, waiting for me."

"That can change Orihime." Ichigo took on a kind look, "I know I'm being selfish, but I don't want you to go because I don't want you to go. I don't want to go to school and not see you smiling. I don't want to not be able to hear your voice."

Orihime kept quiet, just looking at the ground. Ichigo took in a deep breath, this was it.

"Most of all, I don't want to be here without you period. Every time my mind wondered away from me in class, I always ended up looking at you. When I was fighting Grimmjow, you're the one that gave me the strength to win. I'll be waiting for you to come home from now on." His strength finally gave out and he fell down to one knee, "So please Orhime . . . please just stay with me. If you need a reason, then I'm right here in front of you. Love is reason enough."

Orhime looked right at him the second he was done with the last line. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? All those days and nights she spent dreaming about the moment and here it was. And it wasn't just words; she could see it in his eyes, love: pure, simple, kind, and hers, from him to her. And finally she noticed his hand had gone from holding her wrist to interlacing his fingers with her own. He wanted her to stay, so he could be with her.

"Kur-Ichigo." She said smiling down at him, tears starting to form in her eyes again, "I . . . I . . . "

"Just say 'Yes'." Came a female voice.

Ichigo and Orihime looked around to see that they were in the middle of a large circle with a lot of people watching them. Then they finally realized just what the people were waiting for, Ichigo was down on one knee and holding Orihime's hand in his own, her right hand.

"Don't you have a ring?" an old woman asked Ichigo, getting a slow shake of his head since he was surprised, "Then here." The woman walked forward, took a ring off her finger, and put it in Ichigo's hand, "I don't have any children to give it to and I now I know it's being put to good use." She said backing away before he could return it.

"Orihime." Ichigo looked back up at her, the ring in his hand, "Will you?" he smiled at her.

Orihime didn't say anything as the tears started sliding down her face. She just started nodding and smiled that smile that made his entire world turn. Ichigo didn't know how but he managed to find the strength to stand back up and slide the ring on Orihime's finger. As the crowd around them started clapping and cheering Ichigo brought Orihime in and kissed her, and even when they separated he kept her close, he didn't want to let her go.

End

Okay everybody, If you liked it then please post a review cause I'm debating with myself if I wanna put up a second chapter following up this story. But it all depends on you guys. So review and vote.