Ichigo x Rukia x Orihime

Can You Hear Me?

...

Blackness.

"Can you hear me?"

Just blackness.

"Orihime?"

Her hearing was, in contrast, a world of confusing colour.

"Speak to me!"

The audios were all so muddled, overlapping with eachother.

"What's the true meaning of a heart?"

Was this the ending of her dream and the resume to reality?

"Orihime?"

One voice was overpowering the other.

"I think I understand now..."

Defeating it's opponent.

"Please wake up!"

....

As her eyelashes fluttered and her blurry vision focused a little, she recognised a certain concerned-looking carrot-topped boy leaning over her.

"...Ichigo?"

Was that who her heart was yearning for? And yearning so badly for?

"Thank God. You had me so scared!" His familiar husky voice, laced with worry, filled her numb body with a little more feeling. Just a little, though.

"I'm fine." She was surprised at how nonchalant she sounded, despite having clearly fainted. Or knocked unconscious. Same thing. And while she didn't really know why she spoke monotonely, at the same time she knew exactly why.

Did being unconscious really answer her unanswered question? Had it really taken her to be knocked out, for her brain to not be in her control, for her heart to be unrestricted, for her to tell herself the truth?

Was she going to continue to do as before and block it out, ignore it? Attempt to replace the feeling too quickly?

To forget?

"You gotta be more careful, Orihime", Ichigo continued, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Otherwise all that time I spent rescuing you in the Soul Society will have been a waste! And we can't have that, that was hard!" And he accompanied his warm, his ever so slightly jokey tone with a heart wrenching smile, his eyes shut in genuine relief.

She mattered to him.

And there was no denying that that made her happy.

And just looking at his youthful, yet handsome face that radiated so much genuine joy, knowing the hardships and perils he'd been through, knowing how much he cared...

It was very easy to see how she had fallen in love with him. The truth was, she loved it when he smiled at her. When he cried with her about his past. When he rescued her. When his cheeks got all flushed when she was deliberately being provocative.

There was no one as innocent and big-hearted as Ichigo.

Almost as if she couldn't control herself, she sat up and cupped his face, looking deeply into his eyes. She was barely conscious of her surroundings, it looked like the Kurosaki clinic. His eyes widened and his cheeks reddened.

"Are you ok?", he asked slowly, looking back into her eyes. She was sure they were emitting a thousand emotions. And whether or not he'd be able to distinguish between any of them, or if she'd just have to show him another way, it didn't matter.

What mattered was what was currently, all of a sudden, happening inside her.

She knew it, she could feel it, the a hundred and one emotions battling inside her fragile body, some of them real and raw, some she was convincing herself to be genuine.

The empty, robotic voice.

The feeling of potential to not be so empty.

The desire to learn more.

The desire to understand humanity.

Those searching, green eyes that had once captivated her beyond belief.

But forever out of her reach. What was in her reach was this golden boy, her crush, her friend, her potential soul mate... but even he wasn't unconditionally hers, one of her best friends was competing with her to claim him, and she had convinced herself her heart was tearing whenever she saw her in the lead...

Her heart couldn't possibly be torn. It was already damaged beyond belief.

...

"Please tell me you're ok", he whispered. She shook her head slightly and smiled as crystal-like tears formed in the corner of her eyes and dropped down her cheeks. She could see his panic grow as his gaze fixated on those sparkling streams, but she knew she couldn't keep lying to everyone, including herself. Including Ichigo. Especially Ichigo.

She bit her lip softly, and looked at his gorgeous brown eyes that were searching her own in a panic, trying to suss out the problem. She couldn't just brush this off any more. She had to tell him. She had to show herself.

...

"... I'm not ok", she whispered.

And in a gesture of desperation, she moved forwards and pressed her lips to his.