I love how we mostly had no expectations when it came to the adaptation of Ichihime becoming canon, because we all assumed that Kubo wouldn't dive into their relationship too much (he stated Bleach wasn't a romance manga), and rn we have Ichigo carrying Orihime where he would normally have just pulled her to the side, PRINCESS CARRY might I add, we have a cute, longing look from Ichigo in the ending, and the overall appreciation and inclusion of Orihime as a force to be reckoned with...
In the next episodes, we do have additional scenes, we have moments that are even more intimate, so I would absolutely not be surprised if, one way or another, we end up with Ichihime holding hands. Be it because the fight is over, some hidden little moment or a big revelation, hell, when they'll be MARRIED
They're so in love, I can't I love them, this is the best period of my life
so, there's a scene in early cour 3 where ichigo tells the group how powerful squad zero is, and orihime comes to the completely valid conclusion that if they're that strong, there's a chance they may be able to take down yhwach themselves. obviously, when they later go up to the soul king palace, ichibei gravely tells ichigo that the fight against yhwach comes down to him, that defeating yhwach is his responsibility and that he's sorry but he's going to be down and out for a good while – as will the rest of squad zero.
orihime is there for this conversation btw, and i think this is interesting because it immediately sets up a dichotomy between her and the rest of soul society. everyone in soul society believes to some degree that ichigo is not only capable but also the world's only hope for taking yhwach down, which is an immense pressure that we've seen ichigo valiantly take up but also buckle under throughout this arc. orihime's first thought, however, wasn't him but the actual soldiers responsible for keeping the soul king safe. orihime doesn't default to ichigo. rather, her entire journey throughout bleach has been to stand strong and – if not support him – then at least not be a burden to him. she wants to be able to pull her own weight, and while she has struggled with that historically, her post-FB transformation reveals a genuine effort towards this goal. where orihime needed uryu to take her up to the tower in las noches, she spends the entirety of tybw ferrying her group (which includes ichigo) around on her shield. ichigo even calls for her to do this, which is significant because ichigo rarely calls upon anyone else's powers – he purely relies on his own. more to come on this front.
i want to note some soul society exceptions here, namely rukia and renji. rukia has told ichigo repeatedly that he needs to rely on his friends ("rely on us, ichigo") and renji, as we know, accompanies ichigo in the final battle due to a promise he made himself to protect ichigo, the one who brought him and rukia together. you also have chad, who has been ichigo's day one since day one, and uryu, who also joins the final battle (alongside aizen). but i think it's important to acknowledge that even though these allies have been "partners" to ichigo, orihime is on a different level for a variety of reasons, the most important being that she was the one ichigo asked. renji insisted on coming, uryu joined in, aizen joined in. but not only did ichigo ask orihime to come, he implied that them fighting together would be an advantage, and he repeatedly called on her to use her shield during pivotal moments of the battle. ichigo may have fought with others by his side, but orihime is the only one he actively asked for – which is huge because again, ichigo has never, ever done this.
and i think this is so perfect on a thematic level because orihime explicitly trained to be battle support for ichigo. while everyone else motivated him to become stronger and conquer the enemy in battle, she motivated herself to become stronger and help him. to reduce his burden and fight for him so he could focus on fighting for everyone else (and for himself). there's a lot of talk about who ichigo's battle partners are, and all the names above have been featured in the conversation. however, all of them are combat-oriented, zanjutsu-oriented fighters who ichigo has realistically and thematically never needed. realistically, their powers don't complement his perfectly. thematically, ichigo has already said that he doesn't care if someone else could fill in his shoes, he's going to fight to the death because he's here and he has the power! what ichigo truly desired was orihime's power – her ability to stall, to heal, to shield. he may have accepted and even used his other allies' powers to his advantage but he certainly never asked for them explicitly.
i think this difference becomes even more clear when you see their first brush with yhawch during the soul king seal fiasco. as ichigo flew into battle, orihime quickly began healing him. i can't imagine how powerful it feels for him to be bruised and sore one second and then immediately cleansed in the next – not having to worry about that at all. nobody else in the history of bleach has directly contributed to his battle effort like this. everyone fought their own enemies, but it was pretty much decided that The Big Enemy was all his. and he had embraced this for the most part, until he faced his biggest enemy yet and he asked her to come with. and it is unbelievable how hard orihime has worked for this. how long she's wanted this. she told ichigo right at the end of the soul society arc that she's sorry she couldn't do it. in hueco mundo, she literally throws up a shield in front of theee espada #4 ulquiorra to protect him. she stood up to grimmjow for him. she beat herself up so much for what happened at the tower, she not only trained for 17 months, she also told ichigo she was working on herself and then proceeded to protect him from ginjou. again, throughout these arcs, all of ichigo's friends have fought their own enemies. what sets orihime apart is that even at her weakest, she was determined to fight ichigo's. of the entire cast, i would say orihime is the one who pushes herself the hardest because she knows ichigo's burden will be the greatest and she's preparing to stand against his opponents. everyone else is preparing for their own battles, but she has always been preparing for the final battle, the one that traditionally falls on him. even though she was by his side before, she had never been able to do it because she had never quite gained fluid confidence in her own ability. but she kept returning, she kept returning and now she's one of a very small group of people who went toe-to-toe with yhwach – and actually lived to tell the tale.
(I was supposed to post this for when one of the IHWeek prompts was 'music' 🙊 Rated 'M' but only kind of)
Ichigo puts the earbud in her ear and stares away at the wall, nervous. Sitting on his bed with her legs crossed, Orihime is so pretty it makes him uncomfortable. He doesn't know why he thought it was a good idea to just sit there while she listened to the songs, but he regrets it now. Orihime's face is pursed in concentration, like this is the most important thing she'll ever do. Ichigo's eyes drift to her lips, and then he glances away.
"Is the volume okay?" he asks her.
Her eyes flick to his and she nods. Her face is still solemn. Putting the other earbud in his own ear would've been less awkward, but it would've pulled their faces closer together, created heat on a bed that already feels too hot.
It's unbearable. Ichigo pulls both earbuds out of her ears and blurts, "Maybe you should just listen to it at home."
Orihime blinks in surprise "Ah! Really?" Her smile turns sheepish. "I don't have a Walkman though."
"Take mine," he insists, practically shoving it right into her hands.
Orihime tries to shove it back. "No, no. I couldn't just take it from you like that. I'm not so great with technology, and you had to go all the way to Akiba to buy it..."
"It's okay." Ichigo licks his lips. "I know you won't break it."
Orihime stares up at him from under her lids, uncertain. When she realizes his trust must be genuine, she gives him a sweet smile. "If you're sure."
"I'm sure," he tells her. "Take as long as you need. I don't want it back."
+
Orihime sits at the far back of the bus, staring down at her own lap. The Walkman is not heavy, but she feels the weight of its presence in a way that's hard to ignore. She tried to plug in an earbud a few times but felt like it wasn't the right time. Her mind drifted to Ichigo, his tense face under the light of his bedroom window. He tried to pass off the cassette with his usual nonchalance, but she could tell that this was important to him. Maybe even vulnerable. He'd certainly been in a hurry to rush her off home so he wouldn't have to see her reaction to it.
She pulls her gaze to the window and bites her lip. She wants to have the right reaction, wants to savor Ichigo's gift in a way that will please him. She feels equal parts touched and embarrassed that he went to such lengths for her. Between those wires is a tone she hasn't heard before, a sentiment she doesn't know. But he pulled it out too abruptly for any chords to have made an impression.
And here she was, thinking they were just going to listen to music.
When Ichigo had called her over earlier that afternoon, Orihime had been delighted. She clocked out of work and hopped to his neighborhood, humming a light tune as the breeze twirled her skirt. When she went upstairs to his room, they talked for a good bit like they always did—him leaning against his doorway, her aimlessly walking around his room like it was a museum of all things Kurosaki Ichigo. A fading ink stain here, a band poster there. She loves his room. She's charmed by its little trinkets, its scent. By the boy, and the quiet noises he holds in his throat when they kiss in it.
She bunches a hand into her skirt and flushes. Maybe she'd been too distracted by the chink on the shelf, because when she turned, he'd thrust a cassette into her hands and said, "Here. I made this."
"Woah! That's so cool." She examined it between her fingers gingerly, completely oblivious.
It was only when that he cleared his throat and admitted, "I made it for you," that the meaning clicked and Orihime's world fell away from her.
+
Orihime makes dinner completely distracted. Really, it's a miracle that nothing burned down or poisoned her. She eats through this muted distraction, then clears everything away and sits at her low table, carefully placing the Walkman right on top. Ichigo had shown her how to use it, so she follows the steps, pushing one earbud in, and then another.
She pictures Ichigo doing the same, lying down on his bed with a hand on his stomach. The drums beat down. The guitar swells.
I have to get back
the sun that’s being taken away, a woman sings.
Orihime's fingers hover over the keys. She didn't know songs could be made this way, made to say these things. She can't help but wonder what Ichigo thought, when he first heard this song. Did the feelings rush through his head, or his chest? Did he feel the same goosebumps she feels now, when the chorus kicked in?
It's a phantom sensation, the presence of Ichigo's feelings right beside hers.
She hits pause before the next song can roll in. She decides to go to sleep.
Oh my darling
Oh my darling
Give your power of love.
+
The next morning, she combs her hair and tucks her bangs neatly into their barrettes. She dusts off her uniform and pins her badge to her chest. Then she picks up the Walkman, pushes the earbuds in and steps out to work.
It's a new step in her routine. She walks down streets she always does, but she feels extra conscious of the world around her. The rays of light, the gazes of passers-by. Everything looks different now, vibrant. There are new sounds in her ears, new voices.
This next song is in English. Orihime is only mildly surprised by that, knowing just how much Ichigo admires English words, English music. A world away from their world, but the feelings are just as familiar. Orihime's English is not as good as Ichigo's, but the man's melancholy is evident in his delivery. His yearning infused within the tone.
You, soft and only
You, lost and lonely.
Orihime turns the volume up and carefully crosses the street. Her heart is full with an unexpected sensation, a strange ache. She wonders if Ichigo knows how to sing this song. If he attempted plucking the chords on his own guitar, with his lovely, careful fingers.
If he thought about her when he heard the words.
The swoop in her stomach is so intense she has to stop at a street light. It's presumptuous. Stupid, even. She scolds herself for jumping into the middle of the spotlight, for making it all about herself. A few pedestrians give her an odd glance as she physically tries to shake herself off.
I made this for you, Ichigo's voice rings in her head. His quiet, certain voice tangling with the wistful crooning in her ears.
Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes.
+
When Ichigo first asked her—without saying the words—if she wanted to be with him, she had to teach herself to believe in his heart, the surface of which she knew, but the depths of which were unknowable. She repeated words like faith and trust to herself and plunged. And of course, love. That goo-and-butterflies feeling. That bittersweet, awful ache. Everyone struggles to capture it, cup it with fingers and give it words. This is why she figures he took to language as a line of passion. The failure of words, the attempt. The spaces in between.
At night, after she washes her face and retreats to bed, she finds those spaces embedded within the music. Ichigo has never been good at creating words, but he has a knack for finding them. Orihime always wondered what he thought of her, what words he says when she's not around. What words he won't say to anyone, not even to her.
She lays on her stomach now and struggles to stand strong in the face of this storm. This confession. The man in her ears pleads with his lover to rain on him, admits that his heart is caught up in a noose. Orihime figures there must be a thousand languages in the world to express this feeling, and although none of them would be enough, the attempt is all they have.
Talk myself out of feelin'
Talk my way out of control
Talk myself out of fallin' in love
Fallin' in love with you, say!
+
Orihime's not sure how many songs there actually are on this playlist. She knows the cassette must have a limit, but she's not sure where it is. It's a sweet kind of tension, sitting in this car without knowing where she's really going. Listening, without a chance to speak back. There's a story within the rise of the music, its soft fall. The songs speak of loss and defeat. Of tentative, uncertain hope. Of peace and weakness. Humor and joy. Warmth. Desire.
There's so much she wants to respond to, so many sounds she wants to hear over and over again. But she has to let love lead her by hand, dropping each gift behind as she holds her hand open for the next. It's overwhelming. Vignettes of her own life pass her by, tangling with Ichigo's until they're a heap of wires, until they're a heap of feelings on loop, one song melting into the next.
Me too, she wants to say, to the sweet, sad song about giving up forever for a brief burst of love.
I want that too, she wants to say, to the man who sings about giving his woman pleasure, about making her his family.
I would do the same for you, she wants to insist, to the man who swears he would die for her, choose this one life for her.
She pictures Ichigo in his bedroom, carefully, painstakingly putting it all together, picking it all apart.
She bursts into tears.
+
Her breaking point is the apology. She didn't know it at the time, but it's the last song on the playlist, a guitar-heavy lament that stops her in her tracks. By this point, any pretense of objectivity has fallen away from her until the world is just her, Ichigo and their story. Until the Walkman in her palm is the heart that beats between them. The ticking of the song builds a sustained tension. An anxious waiting. She's not sure what to expect.
And then it cracks open, making her gasp.
I crumble completely when you cry...
Orihime stands in her hallway, completely still, and it takes a few minutes of silence for her to realize the song eventually ended.
Can I come over, she texts him hurriedly, flinging things into her bag before he even responds.
Sure, he texts back, just under a minute later.
+
Ichigo's been pacing around in his room for the last 30 minutes, anxious as hell. Just as anxious as he was the day she stepped out of his house with that ill-founded cassette—and their ill-founded feelings. He's spent the last week nervously picturing her in his head, her reaction to the words. The songs. Her judgment of his taste in music. His medium of expression. Ichigo's never been good with words. Never known how to tell her what she makes him feel, when she flips her hair or touches his knuckles or presses her lips to his. Every love song's been about her lately anyway, so he'd put it together on a whim, barking at his sisters to shut the door when they popped in to ask what he was doing.
And now Orihime's coming over, Walkman in hand, having heard it all. Having seen every last inch of him until there was no modesty left between them.
The thump of feet on the stairs are the only indication he has. Years of battle sharpen him, though, and he turns to the doorway, just as Orihime materializes.
When she catches sight of him, she breaks into a sprint, launching herself into his arms with a force. Ichigo barely has time to open up his arms, but he manages, and then Orihime is kissing him, her mouth messy and wet and clumsy under his. Ichigo grips the back of her thigh to brace himself, stopping just short of her ass. Then, he sets his other hand under her nape and tilts her head until he can control the kiss. Until he can bring them back down from wherever this is about to go.
"I listened to it," she confesses when he pulls away, and she's so breathless and pink he nearly forgets what she's talking about.
Memory returns, though, and he finds his heartbeat surging, fast and hard.
"Did you like it?" he asks her quietly, staring into her eyes with an intent as they begin to glisten.
"Oh, Ichigo, it's beautiful," she confesses in a half-whisper, her hand sliding over his chest. "It's so beautiful."
"I know I'm not so great with words," he begins.
Orihime shakes her head and pulls him into a hug. Her heartbeat is light and fast under his, her hand soft on the back of his head. Ichigo closes his eyes and buries himself in the feeling.
"It's okay," she whispers with a small smile, when they finally pull apart. "I hear you loud and clear."
+
This time, they listen together, one earbud with him, and the other with her.
"What's this one called," Orihime asks with earnest curiosity, her skin warm and bare under her shirt, under his fingers.
"Goo Goo Dolls," he tells her. She giggles at the name, softening into a smile when he leans forward to press a kiss to her nose. "It's called Iris."
"It's beautiful," she tells him.
Ichigo reaches out to kiss her throat. He lets his lips settle on the warm skin, feeling the rush of her life underneath. The rhythm of her body. Her hand climbs the back of his neck. The song switches over to the next on the list.
