The Common Thread: Part 1

"It's summer time!"

"Keigo! Watch the-"

Clunk. Pause.

"Owwwiiiieeee!"

Deep sigh before, "Why can't you ever watch where you're going?"

"Hey guys wait up!"

"Oh. Hey Tatsuki."

"What happened to Keigo?"

"The usual. He got overexcited and didn't look where he was going."

As her friends chatted easily while getting ready to head home after a long last day of school before summer break, Orihime hung back and simply observed them all from a slight distance.

Lately, she had been in a reflective mood over different things for the past week or so. The fact that this was going to be their last summer as high school students before they graduated next year was what she found herself thinking about most often. Looking at each of her friends talking and laughing together made her grateful that they had become so close over the past couple of years, but she was also worried that this would be their last year together before everyone started going their separate ways and possibly forgetting about the bonds of friendship that they had forged together. She would mentally scold herself and say that there was no possible way that any of her friends would ever forget about all they had been through together, but some tiny part of her still despaired that time and distance away from each other would change everything.

Orihime was brought back to the present when Tatsuki called to her, "Hey there slowpoke! I don't want to stay in this building a minute longer than I have to, so let's get moving."

Allowing a smile to brighten her features, Orihime replied, "I'm coming!"

Falling into step beside her friends, Orihime forced herself to relax and act naturally since she reasoned that there was no reason to freak out about the future just yet. She should enjoy this time with her friends while it lasted, and worry about the changes that might come next year. They still had one more year of high school together before anything changed.

Pulling her mind back to the present, her heart sank as she realized that her friends were already discussing their plans about what they would do after high school.

"Well, the dojo that I've gone to all these years has asked me if I want to start working there as an instructor, so I thought I would work there over the summer now and see if I like it enough," Tatsuki was saying.

Ichigo looked at Tatsuki searchingly as he asked, "Why would they want you to be an instructor?"

Tatsuki looked directly at Ichigo as she answered, "Because I have high standards for my students and expect them to be met. I have even higher ones for myself in order to keep myself in prime condition at all times."

"So?"

"So what?"

"How long do the students actually stay with you?"

Tatsuki gave Ichigo a menacing look, "Long enough for me to teach them that if they want to be a snot-nosed, cry-baby that they need to find another dojo with an instructor who cares."

Uryu mumbled to himself, "So very effective and yet counterintuitive at the same time. It could almost be an oxymoron."

Tatsuki whirled on Uryu with her fists half raised, "Did you just call me an ox and a moron?"

Uryu was so shocked by the ludicrous statement that he stood stock still for a moment before he asked Ichigo out of the corner of his mouth, "Is she really serious?"

Tatsuki cut Ichigo off before he could reply, "I asked you a question, Four Eyes, and don't you go looking to Ichigo to back you up! Be a man and answer my question! Did you just call me an ox and a moron? Answer me before I knock your teeth out through the back of your head!"

Adjusting his glasses awkwardly, Uryu replied, "No, I said oxymoron which is a word that refers to two things contradicting one another. I did not insult you by associating you with a beast of burden or a word commonly used to describe an idiot."

Tatsuki's fists lowered, "Well, as long as you didn't call me an ox and a moron, I guess I'll let it slide this time."

Orihime couldn't help but want to laugh at the end of the argument and from what she could tell the others had found the exchange amusing as well, but before anyone could say anything to ruin the tentative peace between the two feuding friends, Orihime walked over to Tatsuki and linked arms with her.

"I have something I want to tell you, so let's go ahead a little ways."

"Fine with me."

As they began to walk away, Ichigo called after them, "What's so important that it couldn't wait? Or why don't you think that you can talk in front of us?"

Tatsuki replied, "Well, I'm sure it could wait forever, and some of you can be dense enough not to really get what goes on in a girl's head even if we were to spell things out for you…but I can't let you guys listen in to whatever Orihime's going to tell me on principal."

With that, the two girls walked a little ahead of the rest of the group as the guys started bantering and bickering amongst themselves.

Tatsuki turned to Orihime and asked, "So, what's up?"

Orihime answered, "It's probably nothing."

"Spit it out and we'll see."

Orihime took a deep breath before she began, "Lately, I haven't been feeling quite myself. I've been thinking more and more about what's going to happen to all of us once we graduate. What's going to happen to our friendship? I can't help but feel that once we go our separate ways that the bonds we have created over the past couple of years with each other will begin to break from the time and distance away from each other increases. I'm being silly and I keep trying to tell myself that there will never be a time that we ever completely forget each other since the bonds we have created are so strong through our life and death struggles over the past couple of years are not going to be severed by something so menial. But the fear is there just the same."

Tatsuki paused after Orihime's speech before she replied, "You're right. This kind of thinking is completely unlike you. However, if I try to put myself in your position, I kind of see where you're coming from. You don't have any family to rely on unlike most of us do, so we are really all you have. However, just because we are your closest friends now, doesn't mean that you won't make new friends in the future."

Orihime looked thoughtful as Tatsuki continued, "Besides, as you said, with all the stuff we have all gone through together, I doubt that even graduation will be able to separate us for very long. If what I gather is accurate from the rest of the guys, most of them are not planning on moving at all from Karakura. Ichigo for sure is not going anywhere, which might be nice for you."

Orihime gave Tatsuki a scandalized look as she squeaked, "What are you trying to say?"

Tatsuki grinned at her, "Just that if Ichigo doesn't get his eyesight fixed soon where you are concerned, then I might have to kick his butt in gear. Only a complete ox and moron wouldn't be able to see just how great a girl you are and how much you like Ichigo."

Orihime was about to reply, when suddenly they heard a cry of, "Stop thief!" from up ahead of them. All of a sudden, an average sized man started sprinting in their direction and Tatsuki dropped down into a defensive stance.

"End of the line bucko," said Tatsuki as she gave the guy two hefty punches that knocked him off his feet, successfully ending his flight.

The problem with Tatsuki's strategy was that she had failed to realize where the guy would go next after she was finished with him. The guy flew into Orihime and sent her flying out into the street.

Two sounds managed to reach Orihime before she was struck by something solid and thrown into unconsciousness. The first sound was screeching tires attempting to stop. The other was Ichigo screaming her name.

Author's Note:

So, I have to be honest about the inspiration for this entire story because I have to give credit where credit is due. The entire idea for The Common Thread came from two sources. One, was the quote by Orihime saying how she wished she could live five lifetimes, etc. (I don't know the whole quote, so I won't post it here. If you are curious, she says it in episode 141 of the anime.) And secondly, on I saw this series of pictures drawn by nekosaiko about her interpretation of what those five lifetimes might look like. As soon as I saw those pictures, I really, REALLY wanted to write about what those lifetimes might actually be like, so after I asked if that was ok with nekosaiko, I started working on this story and here is the result.

If you care to take a look at the pictures, go to , type in 'nekosaiko', click search then on any of the pictures that pop up, scroll down a bit until you see about three small pictures on the right side of your screen and below the pictures is a link that says 'View Gallery, then find the folder that says 'doujin for sale' and the pictures I am referring to are the very first ones you will see in that folder. Hopefully all those directions make sense, because for whatever reason, I couldn't post a link here...or maybe I didn't do it right...I don't know...if you have any questions or would like me to send you the link directly, I'll see what I can do. :)

The pictures are positively STUNNING, so I highly recommend you go and take a look. Just so you know, the stories are loosely based off of the pictures, in that I will be developing lifetimes in the different time periods nekosaiko drew, but like the wedding scene in one of those pictures, I won't actually have that version of Ichigo and Orihime get married since I think it would be really weird for Orihime to get married in one lifetime and then move forward…just seems odd to me.

Hope this makes sense and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I'm always willing to help clear up any misunderstandings my writings might have caused.

Enjoy!