Chapter Text
If I were the rain...would I be able to bind two hearts together?
Such were the thoughts of Orihime Kurosaki as she was watching the rain through the window from her bed. She remembered an old trail of thought she had more than a decade ago and as her mind drifted to the past, she took a quick glance at her husband, Ichigo Kurosaki, who was still asleep next to her.
Today was just about to be another wonderful day in the Kurosaki household. To be fair, it’s been now several years she had the chance to enjoy what felt like true happiness.
Of course, she had to work hard to obtain it and it took quite some time to happen. She remembered how everything in her life began. First, the story of the day her brother Sora took her out of her oppressive parents clutches. He always have been taking care of his little sister while also praising her beautiful long auburn hair.
Unfortunately, he passed away when Orihime was twelve, the poor girl had to live by herself with little support from some distant relative of hers. Her aunt to be precise, helped her with everyday expenses and rent on the condition Orihime kept having good grades. It was quite fair although Orihime had to deal with living all alone at such a young age.
At the time, she had regrets about the last time she saw and argued with her brother about the child-looking hairpins Sora gave her. This day was the saddest day she ever remembered and lived through but it was also the day she met the boy who would change her world, though not immediately.
She didn’t recall how but she found her brother on the side of the road, soaked from the heavy rain and his own blood. Orihime tried to find help but the streets seemed empty, as if they were all alone in this world. She remembered a local clinic was nearby, her brother took her there from time to time when she was sick or needed vaccine shots. Young Orihime managed to carry her dying brother on her shoulders, almost dragging herself toward the clinic with a illuminated sign indicating “Clinic Kurosaki”.
She remembered how desperate she was as she cried loudly, knocking heavily on the front door of the clinic until she saw light through the door and what matched her eyes when the door opened made its way into her soul forever. She saw orange hair who belonged to a boy of her age displaying a scowl on his face until he realized what was happening before his eyes.
“Help him, please!” was all Orihime managed to say.
Her strengths were leaving her as she heard the boy shouting “DAD!”. At the same time, she felt the boy's arms trying to keep her from falling on the soaked and lifeless concrete. The man who rushed in a hurry hearing the boy was the doctor, Isshin Kurosaki who quickly took Sora and began administering first aid on her brother. Orihime remembers how pale Isshin was as he realized he had to call for an ambulance from Karakura Hospital as he didn’t have everything he needed to save Sora.
As Isshin tried his best saving her brother, Orihime was still in shock, soaked in blood and rain and exhausted. The boy dragged her inside and let her rest on a nearby sofa.
“Don’t move! I’ll be back soon!” ordered the young boy.
Indeed, he quickly went to a nearby room, looking for towels and warm robes for the girl before returning to her in a hurry.
“There, I’ll dry you as best as I can! You, on the other hand, will wear these robes, understood?!” said the boy with force in his voice but his eyes were filled with softness and compassion for the young girl. Orihime mechanically followed his instructions, as if life itself had left her eyes and soul.
The boy knew what the girl was getting through, maybe not everything but at least, he empathized with her and tried his best to distract the girl from any obscure thought.
“My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, what’s yours?” said the boy with a soft voice.
At first, Orihime didn’t responded, she leveled her gaze with Ichigo but immediately dropped it back to the floor. Ichigo didn’t gave up as he repeated what he said just before, she once again raised her empty gaze to meet his and tried to emit sounds through her sobby voice.
“I-I’m Ori-Orihime... In-Inoue”
“Good. I’m happy to meet you, Inoue. Do you know someone we can contact?”
“N-No! Sora, my brother, is my only family!”
Ichigo felt a lump forming in his throat, that poor girl was about to be all by herself, without anyone looking after her. Not knowing what to do to stop the girl from pouring her soul out from crying out loud, Ichigo sat beside her and took her small cold hand. He didn’t say a word as Orihime continued to cry, then she rested her head on his shoulder, still crying, until exhaustion took its toll.
She now rested against Ichigo, who moved a little bit to sit comfortably. The boy had placed a blanket onto both of them as he knew neither of them was about to move and as things were looking, it would be a long night.
Orihime woke up to a sad reality, Sora had past away on his way to the hospital. For a few days, she stayed as a patient with PTSD in the Kurosaki clinic until, for better or worse, she felt better and went back to her home. Orihime returned to her middle school, bullying happened from time to time for a year until she met the person who would be her best friend forever, Tatsuki Arisawa.
That friendship allowed her to grow her hair long again as a token of her trust in Tatsuki. She also engaged in karate with the help of her best friend as a way to defend herself and to vent frustration away.
As she started high school, she reunited with the boy she could never forget, Ichigo Kurosaki. She didn’t know if he remembered her from the event involving Sora but she was taken aback when Tatsuki introduced them. In fact, she knew Ichigo long before she befriended Orihime. Thus began her regular life as a high school student and also her crush on Ichigo.
At first, it was curiosity about his different scowls, then she discovered his golden heart as he participated in activities he wasn’t fond of for the sake and love of his family. She empathized with him as she learned about the death of his mother, Masaki.
Her bond with Ichigo grew further as he saved her from her brother who turned into a Hollow. This event allowed her to properly say goodbye to Sora as well as showing him she was happy despite how hard life could be to her.
As Rukia Kuchiki was among them, the self designated “Last Quincy” Uryu Ishida joined their group and his rivalry/friendship with Ichigo also started. Watching Ichigo and Uryu fighting packs of Hollows and a Menos Grande reinforced their will to help their friends in the fights to come. Orihime and Yasutora Sado had recently awaken to their respective powers when they had to protect someone. Her own power, the Shun Shun Rikka and its fairies were born from her wishes to protect her friends and from her contact with Rukia and Ichigo.
After that, things escalated quickly. Rukia was forced to return to Soul Society to face her execution and Ichigo wondered what he should do. Was it fair to mess with Soul Society? It haunted him until Orihime managed to convince Ichigo to go and save her. She also wouldn’t let her friend die so she trained to join Ichigo and her other friends to the world of Shinigamis.
Then, Aizen’s conspiracy was revealed as he went to Hueco Mundo, the world of Hollows. Around this time, Orihime faced her powerlessness as two arrancars could have killed everyone if Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin hadn’t intervened.
This was also the time she was abducted to Hueco Mundo. She was only allowed to see one person one last time. As she went to Ichigo’s bedroom, she found him asleep and still wounded. This was the only person she decided to see and she used this moment to confessed her love for Ichigo, even though he wasn’t aware of her presence.
Of course, her friends came to rescue her but they almost died in the process. Truth be told, Ichigo actually died against Ulquiorra but her desperate cries managed to rise him from the dead as his Hollow took over to save her.
Right after this traumatic event, Ichigo defeated and sealed Sosuke Aizen with the help of the captains of Soul Society, at the cost of his powers.
More than a year after these events, Ichigo recovered some of his powers with the help of the Fullbringers before being betrayed but fortunately, the Shinigamis paid their debt and gave him his powers back.
Things could have stopped there but fate had other plans for them.
The Wandenreich troubled their peace as Yhwach, the King and Father of all the Quincies tried to merge the three worlds back into one, the Primordial World, where death didn’t exist and only stagnation reigned. Ichigo managed to once again save the world as everyone pushed themselves to their absolute limits. Orihime did so too, she managed to reject her perceived weakness and erase Yhwach from this world at the cost of her own life... However, The Almighty, the power to see the future and rewrite it, changed the timeline and Orihime came back to Ichigo.
Peace returned again and nothing troubled it this time. Although, a certain event gave the opportunity to finally offer Ichigo and Orihime a future together. Rukia and Renji officially married a few years after the Wandenreich was defeated and as they traveled back to the Human World, Ichigo asked Orihime to make some time for him because he wanted to have an important talk with her. At the time she didn’t know that conversation would lead to them becoming a couple and it would also lay the foundation of their actual family.
Now in their thirties, our couple have a son of their own, the little Kazui who plays a lot with Kon.
Her mind was still drifting to pleasing topics when she felt two strong arms around her frame pulling her back on the mattress.
“Hello Orihime. Why are you looking at the rain instead of looking at your wonderful sleeping husband?” said Ichigo with a smile and a teasing tone to his wife.
With a little giggle, Orihime responded “Ichigo, you’re being silly. I was just remembering the past!”
But before she could go on blabbing for hours, Ichigo captured her lips with his own. It caught her off guard but she soon composed herself, looking back at him with playfulness luring in her gaze, Orihime followed his lead and abandoned herself to her husband.
The day went on as usual, Ichigo continued working on his current translation assignment, Orihime was playing with Kazui and Kon before preparing diner. As the moonlight glow pierced through the lovely house, Orihime and Ichigo went to tuck Kazui in his bed before going to their own. They kissed goodnight then they quickly fell in the arms of Morpheus.
However, something unintended and quite weird was about to come. Not some life threatening event of course but it revealed to be quite disturbing for Orihime.
As she woke up the next day, she was alone in the dark and she couldn’t smell her husband, nor could she sense his spiritual pressure near her. This was quite unusual but what shocked her the most was the fact she wasn’t in her bed, she was in a futon. It had been years she hadn’t slept in a futon because Ichigo preferred occidental beds. At first, she imagined she went down during the night and prepared a futon to sleep in it, it didn’t make any sense but it could be possible.
However when she dragged herself to the nearest window, the truth unveiled. As Orihime opened the curtains, she recognized the landscape through the window, then she also saw her reflection in it. She could never forget the view she had from the house she lived in with her brother nor could she ignore she had the features of a fifteen years old!
The last confirmation came when she looked around her now lit room. It was her old room…
As crazy as it looked like, Orihime Kurosaki somehow went back in time when she was still a teenager known as Orihime Inoue.