The finish line was only a straightway away, but Orihime's lungs were already burning. The one kilo run seemed to get longer every year during gym class, and the summer heat was making each lap longer. She pushed herself on, knowing trying to catch Tatsuki ahead was futile.

"A little more," she panted, forcing her weary legs faster, her chest heaving with exertion. The afternoon sun gleamed onto the track, making her damp t-shirt cling to her with every breath.

Ahead, Tatsuki crossed the finish line and turned to wave Orihime on. "Come on, 'Hime! You can do it!"

Orihime pushed herself on, taking the last few meters at a slightly brisker pace. She slowed to a walk after she crossed the panted finish line on the track, breathing heavily as Tatsuki patted her back.

"Ha! You did it!"

The both looked to their classmate with the broken arm in a sling who was keeping times at the side of the track. She glanced to her clipboard and nodded, looking to Orihime.

"Sorry; seven seconds slower than last time," she told her. She marked the time on the chart beside Orihime's name on the clipboard. "Twelve seconds faster, Tatsuki."

The black-haired girl beamed.

"Ughh!" Orihime sighed, trying to catch her breath that eluded her. She put her hands on her hips and walked with Tatsuki across the field back to school as the last few classmates finished their run. "What's wrong ... with me, Tatsuki?" she said between gasps. "Uh, I think I ... ate too much for lunch."

Tatsuki nodded, breathing slower. "Maybe it was just the wrong combination of foods."

Orihime gave her a confused look and used both hands to tighten the ponytail at the back of her head. "Mm? Maybe so."

They crossed the field and went back into the school building to change for the walk home. Orihime didn't want to put her school uniform back on, not when her face was still glowing bright pink and her lungs ached with every inhale. But she did.

Within twenty minutes she and Tatsuki were back on the street, this time taking the sidewalk home. It had been six months since the end of Soul Society's Winter War with Aizen, and the once-threat was becoming a very bad memory for most shinigami and Living involved. The school year was giving way to summer, but even with all the homework and advancement of grades into Orihime's last year of school, nothing replaced memories of what had happened to so many during those months of turmoil.

"Do you miss him?" Tatsuki asked with unusual delicacy even for her in the last few months.

Orihime hugged her book closer. It wasn't homework – school would go on break in another day – but she wanted to keep up with her studies, and to distract herself. She automatically looked to the far end of the next street where Rukia stood in one of Urahara's latest gigais. She glanced back to see Ichigo wave to the petite shinigami as he jogged to meet her.

Orihime shrugged. "We're still friends, Tatsuki," she said with a sigh, a dull ache in her chest over her heart. "We always will be. I just have to accept some things."

Tatsuki shook her head as they hurried down the busy, sweltering street. "I meant Uryuu."

The auburn-haired girl forced a giggle. "Oh, yes... We're friends, too. You know how he's been lately." She looked to a side street where Uryuu Ishida's slender form was walking quickly away. A different twinge of sadness lent her voice. "He's determined to regain his Quincy heritage, even if his father isn't interested. Maybe there will be time for us together later, right?"

Tatsuki raised an eyebrow at the retreating form of Uryuu. "He can't be your boyfriend and a Quincy at the same time?" She shrugged, batting a bee away that buzzed near them. "He should make time, 'Hime."

Orihime nodded only a little. "You know how training is, Tatsuki," she said with a sigh that made her chest catch in a sudden stop. She let her breath out more slowly. She perked up, smiling fuller at her friend. "Hey, you've got time for ice cream tomorrow before you head off to the karate workshop, right?"

Tatsuki shook her head immediately, eyes glinting at the thought – of the martial arts study. "Sorry. Yesterday was my last ice cream for a month."

Orihime groaned with genuine pain. "I'd die without ice cream for a whole month."

The day dissolved into a muggy evening for late July, the sun sinking into Karakura Town's haze of dusk that made every air conditioning unit whine to high. Orihime suffered in solitude. The small apartment was too warm and her oscillating fan was whirring on the top gear, but doing little to cool the few rooms.

As a last resort, she took a cool shower and pulled on a loose camisole and shorts, wishing the lavender nylon material was even thinner. She wiped the light fog from the bathroom mirror. Her tepid shower hadn't steamed up the mirror, but it was enough moisture to make her image blurry. She pushed her damp hair from her face and wiped down the mirror.

Her somewhat distorted image stared back at her.

The throbbing in her chest from her one kilo run at school was still with her, sucking the air from her lungs, compounding the already thick air that hung over the oppressively humid town. She took a deep breath, a movement that made a sharp pain prick in her chest.

She took a slower breath this time, and then stared wide-eyed at the mirror.

At first it looked like a trick from the overheard light of the mirror. She frowned and wiped the mirror with the towel, and took a careful breath.

Beneath the thin lavender camisole a hint of shadow spread near the inside of her left breast. She pulled the collar to one side a little and leaned closer to the mirror. It wasn't a bruise, she decided. Just a darker area.

She put her palm to it, pressing gently.

Instantly she felt the skin beneath it give way, a dull pain seeming to collapse under her skin. She took her hand away and let her fingertips draw across the area.

The shadow remained, about the size of an egg yolk. She switched the overhead light on to full power.

The skin at her chest didn't look any paler in the better lighting.

She put her hand back over the spot. Her heart was beating faster, but she assumed that was because she was frightened, and growing more so by the moment.

"That's what the body does," she murmured to her reflection, who was just as alarmed as she was. "A natural response to anxiety." She rubbed her fingers across the shadowed patch. It didn't go away. It didn't change to a bruise, or sink farther into her; it just stayed. And ached.

She switched the light to dim, letting her camisole collar hang. For a long she stared at the spot of skin.

She shook her head, reining in her imagination.

"A trick of lighting," she told herself in a voice barely audible. "That's all."

That's what she told herself the next morning, too, but she didn't believe it any more than she had the night before. She dressed quickly, deliberately, and headed off to her last day of school classes before the month-long recess. She ignored the increasing throb in her chest, ignored the frantic beat of her heart that seemed to pound against her ribs until she would swear she was bruised from the inside out, ignored the shortness of breath that sapped her strength. And she ignored the collapsing feeling that sunk just under her school blouse.

By the end of classes that day, as her schoolmates leaped for joy at the break in school for a month, Orihime made her way across town alone, barely able to keep a smile on her face as she said a brief goodbye to Tatsuki.

She gave Ichigo and Rukia her best fakest cheery smile, and then one to Uryuu and Chad, and Chizuru, and headed to Urahara's shop deeper into the side streets.

Author's Note: This isn't exactly a sequel to Orihime in Hiding, but it takes place after. Thanks for reading!