Chapter three The unreachable girl

I was confused at first about who had killed it but as I turned something was returning to Orihime and then transformed into a hairpin that landed in her hair as if it was always meant to be there.

She looks at me and what must be a sort of puzzled expression lies on my face, but it's hard to see emotions on a beast's profile.

"I've learnt to look after myself, I've had to learn to kill instead of just defend because otherwise I would be dead by know…You taught me stay strong in a fight…you did that Ichigo…It's because of you that I even bothered fighting back, because I thought stupidly that one day you might come back, that one day I might actually see you alive…"

She speaks slowly her words flowing and elegant and I cock my head to side again listening to every word remembering what human's words mean and realising what she's talking about. I left her. When I transformed into this, I left my family and my friends. I left everything, not just my duty as a shinigami I left behind hearts. And when I left I broke them, ripping them to pieces with my blunt teeth.

"You're really here?" She asks me as more tears fall creating tracks of moisture. I watch them with interest because it makes me feel something, it creates a tugging sensation in my chest but I don't remember the emotion. I don't know what it means.

"Do you remember?" She asks instead and her voice has lost its strength, it's wobbly and unsafe.

"I…I remember parts." I say trying not to hiss as much as my voice does so as not to scare her, but it seems not to work because she cry's more.

"You can't be Ichigo again can you?" She has her face in her hands and I don't understand it.

"I don't know" I say because that's the truth, I've never tried. I don't know whether Ichigo got devoured all those years ago when what I am now, came to the surface, or if he's still here in me fighting on.

"Ori…Orihime"

She looks up her eyes wide as I say her name again and then she does something that surprises me. She smiles.

"You're alive, I've wished and hoped for so long that you'd still be alive, and you are, you really are!"

She runs at me and her arms go around my back, she stands on her toes so she's closer to me and buries her head in my shoulder. She cries over and over and her arms tighten on me. The warmth of her body makes me tremble, I can't remember such warmth.

I drop my blade and it clatters on the floor but I pay it no attention. I fasten my arms around her tiny body as if I'm protecting her. She smells like sunset, and flowers and the smell before it rains when the dust settles. She smells like life. I place the side of my face to her hair and feel its soft texture against my hard bone skin.

She holds me tighter, and then she's got her fingers in my long tangled her and she's stroking the orange strands and I suddenly feel such despair that I can no longer stand. I fall to my knees but she follows and doesn't let go. And neither do I.

"I can't be what I was, but from now on I will always watch you. I will take care of you, I will protect you, so you never feel alone, I will make sure you never cry again. I will be there, always" I whisper into her hair and I feel a kiss on the skin of my bare neck. At that moment I want to smile, but I know smiling is impossible while wearing a mask of bone. But even so the emotion is there and that's all that really matters

End

And I would just like to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUROSAKI ICHIGO! 15/07/2012

This short story is in tribute of you, I might as well thank you, because i've had years of enjoyment reading and watching bleach, so thank you to

Tite Kubo aslo :)

Crossing-Danger x