[fic] First Best

[kiyala.livejournal.com]

Title: First Best
Author: kiyala
Word Count: 2234
Fandom: Bleach
Pairing: Ishida Uryuu / Inoue Orihime
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach
Notes: This is for one of the nicest people I've ever met online, hidden_gems ♥

I know how much you love IshiHime Charlie, so I thought I'd write you a fic for the pairing. I'm not too good at writing het, and I don't know how I did with the characterisations but I really hope you like it, and I hope you have a great birthday!

x-posted to ishidafansanon

---

When Inoue Orihime walked into the classroom 1-3 on the morning of the fourteenth of February, she found three roses on her desk. One was wrapped elaborately in red ribbon and had a shiny red card saying that it was from Chizuru. One was unwrapped, but had a suggestive card attached to it to tell her it was from Keigo. The third was the one that caught her attention. It had a ribbon tied around it, not the plastic type found in art stores such as the ones on Chizuru’s rose were made of, but of silk. It had no card. She had run her fingers across the material, awed at how it felt against her skin, and then slowly put the rose back down on her desk as a blush crept to her face. She turned her head carefully to Kurosaki Ichigo’s desk. He looked oblivious to the fact that some desks had roses on them – his did not. He didn’t seem to care either way, lazily scratching his head as he took his books out of his bag. She smiled shyly. He was probably just waiting for a more private moment to speak to her.

She carried her roses with her during lunch, and noticed that Rukia also had roses; two of them. One was identical to one of hers – from Keigo. The other was neither wrapped nor had a card attached to it. Rukia confessed with a faint blush, that she knew it was from Ichigo. Orihime went from shocked, to heart-broken, to very happy within a minute. It made her chest hurt, but she ignored it as she smiled at her Shinigami friend and told her how happy she was for her – for both of them.

At the end of lunch, she was too upset to notice that Ishida was watching her with a dejected expression.


*


After school, she didn’t go straight home, but to a park down the road. She sat on a bench, watching children play, twirling her anonymous rose in her fingers. She noticed the presence of someone else and slowly turned.

“Oh, Ishida-kun!” she gave him a small smile that felt far too difficult to form, “What are you doing here? I thought your house was in that direction.”

“I noticed you were looking upset,” he replied, his voice softer than normal, “I thought that perhaps you could do with some company.”

Orihime looked surprised that someone had noticed her sadness, but quickly shook it off and gave Ishida a slightly more cheerful smile. “Mm! Please sit down. I suppose that normally, Tatsuki-chan would be there to keep me company, but she has karate this afternoon, so…”

Ishida frowned as the sad look returned to the girl’s eyes and sat down, leaning over his legs and looking at her. “You… are you upset for any particular reason? Ah— only if it’s something you’d want to talk about, of course.”

“It’s just…” Orihime gripped tightly onto the end of her skirt and shook her head quickly, “Nothing. It’s nothing, Ishida-kun. I’m just being silly, that’s all!”

Sighing, Ishida looked away from her and fixed his gaze on a patch of grass at his feet. “You’ve seemed upset since lunch time. Since you saw that Kurosaki had given Kuchiki-san a rose…”

Orihime made a small, upset sound at the back of her throat and Ishida immediately regretted saying what he had.

“I should be happy for them, Ishida-kun, I know I should… and I am! I’m happy that they’re happy. Because Kurosaki-kun deserves someone… someone who can make him feel special, and Rukia-chan is good at making people feel special – like even if I accidentally dropped her favourite bunny plushie off a cliff, she’d still make me feel special, because she’s a nice person – but… Ishida-kun… whenever I think about it, I just can’t stop feeling like this…”

Ishida sighed, straightening up and leaning against the bench. “…It does hurt to see that the one you care about cares about someone else, doesn’t it?”

Orihime looked at the rose in her hands and then at Ishida. “I don’t know who gave me this rose… there wasn’t any card with it. I… I was hoping it would be from Kurosaki-kun… but it’s not.”

Sighing, Ishida rose to his feet. “If someone else gave you a rose, Inoue-san, doesn’t that mean that there’s someone else out there who cares about you?”

The girl’s eyes widened, “You’re right, Ishida-kun! I didn’t even think of that… you’re so smart!”

“You’re not as alone as you think you are, Inoue-san,” murmured, turning to leave, “You still have your friends here for you. And the person who gave you the rose – whoever he is – he cares for you too.”

He could only walk three steps before he froze. Orihime was hugging him from behind, her arms crossed over his chest and her cheek pressed to his back.

“Thank you, Ishida-kun. It means a lot to me.”

Allowing a small, somewhat sad smile to creep across his lips, he pulled Orhime’s arms away and turned around.

“I’m going to try and find out who gave me the rose,” Orihime said, sounding determined, “Because I want to say thank you, at least. I want to find out who they are… and maybe I’ll find out that I like them too—”

“Inoue-san, I don’t think it’s a good idea to try and replace Kurosaki like that. You should only try and return someone’s feelings if you feel something for them as well… otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair for them.”

“You’re right again, Ishida-kun… thank you so much.”

This time, Ishida gave her a genuine smile before turning to leave.

“I wish you luck, Inoue-san… and don’t spend too long pining for Kurosaki… if he hasn’t noticed what a caring person you are, he is clearly not worth being upset over.”


*


Orihime was looking much happier the next day at school. She smiled at Ishida when she walked into the classroom with Tatsuki, just before she was tackled by Chizuru. He returned the smile, but to his book as he looked away.

Ichigo and Rukia entered the room together, and Ishida immediately looked up, searching the room for Orihime. She stood at a corner of the room with Tatsuki and her other friends, and smiled as Rukia took Ichigo by the hand and pulled him over to their group to say good morning.

Ishida’s girp on the pen he had just taken out of his pencil case tightened upon noticing the sad look – however fleeting – in Orihime’s eyes. She then turned to meet his gaze and he quickly looked away, opening his book again.

Their teacher chose that moment to enter the classroom and everyone sat down, turning their attention to their work.

The rest of the day passed normally. Ishida found it surprising that Orihime could hide her sadness so well when it was impossible for her to hide the adoring look in her eyes every time she had looked at Ichigo before. At lunch time, when they all sat on the rooftop together, Ishida took his book with him, choosing to sit at the edge of the group and ignoring the conversation to read and occasionally check on Orihime. He had thought that he was being subtle about it, but couldn’t shake the feeling that Orihime was aware that he was looking at her. Instead of making him want to stop, it compelled him to look even more, trying to catch her eye.

By the end of lunch, he hadn’t finished reading many pages of his book and he hadn’t caught Orihime’s eye at all, leaving him feeling somewhat disappointed and foolish. Shaking his head as the lunch bell rang, he was the first to stand and walk back to the classroom, not saying a word to any of his classmates.

He should have known that he was hoping for far too much.


*


“Um… Ishida-kun?” It was the end of the day and Ishida was walking home when he heard Orihime’s voice.

Stopping in his tracks and turning around. “Inoue-san? Isn’t your home in that direction?”

Making a small sound of agreement as she nodded, she looked up at him with a shy smile, “But you went to all the trouble of following me yesterday when I was upset, and I thought…”

She paused and Ishida gave her a patient look, waiting for her to continue.

“Ishida-kun, you were the one who gave me the rose yesterday, weren’t you?”

His eyes widened and his grip on his bag tightened, “I… yes. It was me, Inoue-san.”

He reasoned with himself that he shouldn’t have found it so surprising. He knew that Orihime was far smarter than she acted, but it didn’t stop his heart from hammering inside his chest.

“D-does that mean that you like me, Ishida-kun? Like how Kurosaki-kun likes Rukia-chan?”

“Yes,” Ishida replied, looking at the ground, his voice sounding hollow.

“And Ishida-kun…” Orihime continued, more quietly than before, “If I liked you the same way Rukia-chan likes Kurosaki-kun… would that be okay with you?”

This made Ishida look up and he stared at Orihime, who looked embarrassed by all of the attention.

He took a deep breath, and then sighed. “No, Inoue-san. That wouldn’t be okay with me.”

“But—”

“I care for you, Inoue-san. I would do anything in my power to make you happy. Please understand that. But the one thing I cannot do is be second best to Kurosaki. I can’t be a replacement. I can’t accept your feelings unless you truly feel that way for me instead of it just being a rebound from Kurosaki. I… I’m sorry, Inoue-san.”

It took all of Ishida’s self control to turn and walk away. He felt no better than Ichigo for this, but he knew that he couldn’t do anything else. Orihime hadn’t moved and was watching him walking away, but he couldn’t bring himself to look back. Tightening his grip on his bag to the point where his knuckles turned white, he simply continued walking.


*


Ichigo and Rukia were happy with each other. As the years passed, they became closer and closer. Ukitake-taichou had managed to give her the permanent position of patrolling Karakura so her duties at Soul Society barely came in the way of their relationship.

Ishida was lonely. Looking at Ichigo and Rukia only made him feel more alone. He couldn’t bear to look at Orihime. He knew that she was also lonely, and he knew that it was his fault.

Since the day, three years ago – when he had been given the chance to become close to her, to give her all the attention and care that he had wanted to – when he had turned it down, he and Orihime had just reverted to being friends. He had found himself waiting for her to say or do something, to give him another chance, but it never came.

What he didn’t realise was that Orihime was waiting for him to do the same.

After school had ended, Ishida had dutifully enrolled in a medicine course at the most prestigious university in the district. It had annoyed, but it hadn’t surprised him when he found Kurosaki Ichigo in the same course.

It had surprised him when he saw that Inoue Orihime was also in it.

After finishing school, Rukia had stopped following Ichigo around everywhere and stayed on post when he was at university, visiting him regularly during his breaks. The four of them frequently spent their time together and being alone with Orihime whenever the other two decided that they wanted to spend some time alone only served to make things even more awkward.

It was in one of these situations, where Ishida and Orihime were sitting at a table, eating their lunch, that Orihime finally decided to speak up.

“Uryuu? Do you still hate Ichigo?”

Ishida blinked, first at the sound of Orihime calling him by his given name which he still hadn’t become used to, and then at the question.

“…I don’t think so. He can be an idiot, but he does mean well.”

“Did you hate him because you were jealous of him? I used to think that I should hate Rukia, because I was jealous of her and Ichigo… but then I remembered that she was my friend, and it was silly of me to not like her for something that she couldn’t do anything about. And I’m not jealous of her any more either…”

Ishida slowly put his chopsticks down as he realised where the conversation was headed, “I see.”

“Uryuu…” Orihime hesitated, but then pushed on, “I think that when I first said it, I was being silly. I was trying to replace Ichigo, like you said. But that was so long ago and this time, I know that I mean it. I like you, the same way Rukia likes Ichigo. I care about you… and you’re not second best to Ichigo. You’re first best. And… and I guess I wanted to ask you if you still feel that way about me?”

After a short silence, Uryuu smiled and leaned across the table, bringing a hand to Orihime’s cheek and giving her a short kiss.

“You’ve always been first best for me, Orihime. Thank you.”