Fandom: Bleach

Pairing: Orihime Inoue x Uryu Ishida

Theme set: Gamma

Title: After the Rain

Rating: K

Warning[s]: Spoilers up to the latest manga chapter (#441 - Broken Spotlight).

Notes: Bleach and its characters © Tite Kubo. Also, I changed #37 from what it originally was. I like it better now.

#01 - Ring

The dust was rising in a ring around them, Orihime was laughing, and for a second Uryu forgot to mind that he had gotten his white shirt all dirty.

#02 - Hero

As they each chose a pathway out of that tall white hall, Uryu vowed that his would be the one that led to Orihime.

#03 - Memory

They took their trips to the cemetery together after they discovered that her brother and his grandfather had the same anniversary.

#04 - Box

In the room that had no exit, when Dondo Chakka insisted that he had to find a way out and save the girl he was devoted to, Uryu knew exactly how the Hollow felt.

#05 - Run

He had to turn his head so she wouldn't see him grinning as he slowed his pace, allowing her to cross the finish line first.

#06 - Hurricane

Even with the wind whizzing in her ears and her hair flying in her face, she noticed how straight he kept his back and how high he held his head as he sent a thousand arrows sailing over her.

#07 - Wings

"That one reminds me of you," she said, pointing to the statue of an angel who stared nobly down at them.

#08 - Cold

He was glad he always brought an extra cape, even if it found no more glorious use than to serve as a blanket for a shivering girl.

#09 - Red

As her feet finally gave out from under her and she dropped to ground in a heap , he wondered in more than a little agitation why she never thought to use Souten Kishun on herself.

#10 - Drink

He felt like he might pass out from water intoxication at any second, but it was worth it to hear her gush about how the punch bowl was almost empty by the end of the party, so she was sure that she had finally learned to make something which other people would like.

#12 - Temptation

For fear that it might actually come true, and thus cause Orihime pain, he never dared wish that Ichigo would turn her down, but at times he came dangerously close.

#13 - View

"I have a spare, you know," he protested, but Orihime had already called out her fairies to assist her in mending his broken eyeglasses.

#14 - Music

She sometimes sang quietly to herself as she worked beside him in the Home Handicrafts club, and sometimes, even more quietly, he would join in.

#15 - Silk

She knew that her kimono was prettier than all the other girls', because hers was custom-made by the best "seamster" in Karakura.

#16 - Cover

The staff at the bakery didn't know that their number-one customer had ulterior motives for coming there every day -- they just thought he really liked bread.

#17 - Promise

"It'll make you feel better, I promise," she said, so he took the somewhat worn teddy bear she held out to him and awkwardly gave it a hug.

#18 - Dream

He didn't know what he wanted to do yet, and she was having a hard time choosing just one thing to do, but both of their grades were good, so they knew they could find a university which would accept them both, and they could figure it out from there.

#20 - Talent

She always showed him her drawings before she turned them into art class, and it was only if he approved them that she would show them to anyone else -- leading to each of her pieces, no matter his real opinion of them, being showcased proudly whenever anyone asked.

#21 - Silence

"Don't hurt me, I'll talk," he heard her scream, and ran around the corner with bow already in hand, only to find her enacting an elaborate interrogation scene in which a reticent gummy bear decided to talk after having its ears stretched so much that it now looked like a gummy rabbit.

#22 - Journey

It was amazing how quickly that drunken Soul Reaper went being from Uryu's least favorite to most favorite person when he agreed to take Orihime away from the scene of the battle which Uryu was about to wage.

#49 - Lock

She suddenly stopped as they passed through the doorway, her head jerking back a bit, and Uryu, spying the problem, set his books on the floor and began working to free her hair from the doorknob around which it had gotten tangled as she passed.

#24 - Strength

When he discovered the potted plant neglected in a back corner of the classroom, Orihime told him not to worry, because the plant was strong enough to survive for a long time without anyone paying attention to it, but Uryu looked at her seriously and replied "That doesn't mean it should have to."

#46 - Gravity

Other people told him that he was too serious for his own good, but Orihime would sidle up to him afterwards and assure him that she liked him just the way he was.

#26 - Ice

If she were to be the rain that would bind hearts together, then he would be the cold which would freeze them that way forever, never mind the fact that it wasn't his own heart she wished to bind to hers.

#50 - Breathe

Because in the end, as long as Orihime was happy, then Uryu -- really and truly -- was happy, too.

#27 - Fall

Ever since the night when she had -- to use her own terms -- "decided to rest her eyes" while walking, he insisted on taking the spot behind her during those long night marches...just in case.

#45 - Eclipse

Orihime found it very hard to smile in the days when the Bounts were at large.

#28 - Forgotten

Only after Uryu had dropped her safely off at home did Orihime, slightly sunburned, realize she hadn't thought of Ichigo all day.

#35 - Fever

"Not getting sick, are you?" Ryuken smirked when Uryu came home with a face flushed with more than just sunburn, and Uryu scowled, knowing that Ryuken, being a doctor, knew what a fevered flush looked like -- and this wasn't it.

#29 - Dance

Everyone considered it as nothing short of a miracle that she got him to do that silly routine with her for the talent show, in front of the whole school, but he could seldom bring himself to refuse Orihime anything.

#19 - Candle

One of the times that he did, however, was when he had to insist that despite Chizuru's suggestion, Orihime was not going to jump out of giant cake for the other girl's birthday.

#30 - Body

It was with suspension from school that the Student Council president threatened the two freshman, if he ever caught them ogling Orihime like that again.

#31 - Sacred

He was the only one who noticed her lips moving in silent prayer each time an enemy fell.

#32 - Farewells

"She was pretty mad when you ran away from the hospital without telling us" Chad told him afterwards, and Uryu was glad to think she cared about him to even that degree.

#33 - World

The way the never-setting moon of Hueco Mundo glinted off the bars of her cell window reminded her of the way the moon back home used to glint off of Uryu's glasses when he went Hollow hunting.

#34 - Formal

She wondered if he realized he had just called her "Hime."

#36 - Laugh

He had many different laughs (she was one of the few people who knew him well enough to have heard them all), but her favorite was the way he laughed when defeating an opponent in battle -- at those times he was bright and unrestrained in a way that he rarely was in everyday life.

#37 - Lies

"What's your New Year's wish?" she asks him, and he stutters out something about getting good grades in all of their classes.

#38 - Forever

Uryu could never forgive the 12th Division captain for what he had done to his grandfather, while Orihime, when she heard about the case of Szayel Aporro, could never thank him enough for what he had done for Uryu.

#39 - Overwhelmed

Was it strange that despite the walls which were crumbling around her, and the very large arrancar who posed a very real threat not very far away from her, she still had time to realize that Uryu was wearing a new uniform?

#40 - Whisper

The most awful part of having the Tsukishima use his Fullbring on her was the fact that she could feel Uryu's pain still embedded in the blade.

#42 - Talk

Once, when Uryu had been feeling particularly low, he had been surprised by Renji taking him aside and giving him a long and serious talk about not giving up on his dreams, and how patience would surely pay off one day.

#43 - Search

If only Uryu could find something among the racks that wouldn't shrink her head, displace her soul, cause her legs to walk away from the rest of her, or spontaneously ignite her hair, he was sure that Urahara sold candy in flavors weird enough to please Orihime.

#41 - Wait

When even Kon asked him when he was going to stop staring at Orihime all moony-eyed and just ask her out already, Uryu decided it was time to make his move.

#44 - Hope

Though she had envisioned a young man in a dark coat taking her away from Hueco Mundo, she found that being rescued by a young man in a light one was even better.

#11 - Midnight

On the flip side, she found that dark hair was now much more interesting to her than light hair used to be.

#23 - Fire

He thought he saw a glimmer of hope when Tatsuki began trying to beat him up on a regular basis.

#47 - Highway

Uryu was certain his father would kill him if he found out he was teaching Orihime to drive in Ryuken's new Mercedes, but he didn't care -- first, because he enjoyed aggravating the man, and second, because the brand had rated high in all the safety reports, and he wasn't putting Orihime behind the wheel of anything but the safest car out there.

#48 - Unknown

"This uniform belongs to Uryu Ishida" said the name tag which she had embroidered for him out of silver and blue threads, and even though he wouldn't need it, since there weren't any other Quincys who might mistake his uniform for theirs, he stitched it to the inside anyway.

#25 - Mask

He bit his lip and didn't say anything, but Orihime had seen how violently the wayward sewing needle had stabbed into his palm, and when she took his hand in hers to run her fingers over the small red spot that was forming there, he didn't pull away.