grassangel | [IshiHime contest] [Bleach] I promise

Title: I promise

Series: Bleach
Character/Pairing: Ishida Uryuu/Inoue Orihime, Rukia cameo
Rating: PG+
Genre: Gen/Fluff?
Wordcount: 1231
Author's Notes: For

_debbiechan_'s IshiHime fic contest. Not quite happy with the ending but guh, I have a headache and my coding has stuffed up once already.

In the beginning, when he had just arrived in Rukongai, he had searched frantically for her, shouting her name out in the streets, the countryside. Ishida had spent a couple of days like that before collapsing with hunger.
A motherly woman had found him and nursed him back to health. When he asked her about Inoue, she shook her head, replying that she hadn't seen anyone like her.

Orihime hadn't stayed very long in Rukongai: she had been picked up by a shinigami scouting for those with spiritual powers within hours of her arrival.

In the two weeks after he collapsed, Ishida continued searching, asking old ladies if they had seen a young woman pass by and eavesdropping at bars for any rumours of a large chested girl. He had covered five districts in this way, doing odd tailoring jobs between his searching but it was was on the street of a town in west 37th, talking to a shinigami, that he finally received news of her.
The scouting shinigami had been surprised to find one of the legendary ryoka in his search and more than willing to tell him that Inoue Orihime, the other ryoka found in Rukongai, was enrolled for the next intake at the academy. He was even more willing when Ishida insisted to be taken back to the Seireitei.

In the month before she started at the academy, she caught up with the friends she had made the last time she had visited and vaguely wondered where Ishida-san had gotten to.

On the first day at the academy there had been a laugh, ringing across the crowded courtyard filled with new students to the shinigami academy. He thought he recognised it and swung around to face it, only meeting the face of another male student, who had muttered "What're you lookin' at?" before moving away into the crowd.
Then the Sou-taicho's speech began and Ishida turned to face the commander and listen to what was expected of him while attending the academy.

During the Sou-taicho's speech on hir first day, Orihime swore she saw the sun glinting off a pair of square lensed glasses.

In the halls of the academy, with rushed classes and full hallways, Ishida thought he saw on many occasions, bright auburn hair flashing brilliantly in the sunlight accompanied by a red and white uniform. He had stopped to look again many times, ready to reach out and place his hand on her shoulder, but it was always just another student whose hair had caught the light for a moment.
It didn't do much for his reputation to be caught standing in the halls with his hand half raised time after time.

Sometimes Orihime would see someone with a patched uniform or bag, a line of slightly off colour stiches being the only indication it had been fixed, and wondered if Ishida had fixed it.

Once, at the end of a lesson, with the teacher gone and students milling around, Ishida though he had heard someone mention her name. Standing up to take a look around the classroom, he only spotted a bunch of giggling girls leaving the room, not one of them auburn haired.
He cursed his bad luck and didn't overhear them talking about sushi rolls made with chocolate spread.

Right after one class, Orihime always tried to catch up to this black haired boy who sat in front of her, but her friends always managed to drag her away before she caught up with him, asking her why she wanted to talk to square glasses boy.

At graduation, Ishida thought he saw her bright smiling face among the crowd as the Sou-taicho inducted his class to service, but he was dragged away by some of his fellow classmates to a party before he could see her graduate. Later, when they were at the party and he had decided he didn't want to wake up with a hangover the next day, someone had said he should lighten up and maybe get laid, pointing towards the girls' group.
His anger at his classmate diffused as he caught sight of Orihime laughing and drinking with her friends, but was stopped from aproaching her by someone throwing up over his front.

Orihime's heart had soared when she saw Ishida up on the platform when the second class was called up to be inducted into service, before it dropped again as she spotted the class move off to a party as her own class was ushered up towards the Sou-taicho.

"Eighth division's squad five, you are working with the Sixth's squad four. Both sqauds will work under the guidance of fourth seat Honma of the Sixth and approach from the western side to storm the compound." The two squads were pointed towards where they were meant to wait before heading through the gate, Honma ordering them to be at ease, the groups mingling and chattering quietly as the other squads were arranged.
It was Orihime who spotted Ishida and rushed towards him, shihakusho sleeves flying as she flung her arms around him, exclaiming.

"Uryuu-kun! I'm so happy to see you again!" Ishida had looked so suprised to see her but had awkwardly returned her hug and murmured an 'I missed you too' before their reunion was broken up by orders to move out.

They were fighting together, just like they had when they were rescuing Rukia. Ishida felt a rush of adrenaline whenever Orihime shouted to alert him of an enemy behind him and ferociously kept her back as she did his.
It was near the end of the battle when an enemy previously knocked unconcious snuck up behind the pair and struck Ishida, sending a splash of blood over Inoue before they were cleaved by Shirayuki's blade.

She spent the next couple of hours sitting by his unconcious and bleeding body until a hand rested upon her shoulder and drew her away as Ishida was placed on a stretcher.
"Shush, he'll be okay Orihime," Rukia let her friend rest her head upon her shoulder and continued comforting her, "he'll be fine and everything will be all better tomorrow. Shush, it'll be all right."

-

After the battle, Uryuu is lying down and staring at a blank ceiling, cursing the tedium of not being able to do anything as people around him tending to the seriously wounded and fetching supplies, hurrying back and forth like flies. His head buzzes slightly from a mixture of pain and drugs as he slides his gaze down to the door opposite his bed.
The door opens and he smiles at the bright head peeking through gap, gladly greeting the distraction.

Orihime smiles back at him from the door, walking to Uryuu's bed and gently placing a small bag by his bedside. "I've brought you your sewing," she says, sitting down and folding her hands in her lap, "I thought you would be bored, Uryuu-kun, lying here all day." She sits there for a moment, ignoring his quiet thank you before reaching with one hand to hold his.
"You know I missed you, right? And that I'm glad you're alive?" Orihime's eyebrows come together in a concerned expression. He just smiles at her again and squeezes her hand.

"Remember, I said I missed you too Orihime."
And Ishida smiles again, Orihime's face growing bright again.