zombies are the least of our worries [fic] (ichigo/orihime)
title. zombies are the least of our worries
series. Bleach
character/pairing. Karakura gang, Ichigo/Orihime
word count. ~1750
rating. PG
disclaimer. Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite
summary. The gang play a game during lunch one day and mayhem ensues, one word at a time
notes. afteriwake wanted me to write Ichigo/Orihime with the prompt of ‘ninjas and zombies and robots, oh my!’ and then we decided it’d be more fun if we both wrote a fic using that prompt and seeing what we came up with. You can read her version here. Hopefully mine measures up! =)
Something happened one day that would change their lives forever…
Orihime followed Ichigo when the lunch bell rang.
“Orihime?” Tatsuki called after her. “Where are you going?”
“To lunch…?” she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and Tatsuki rolled her eyes.
“Right, yes, I got that. What I mean is where are you going? Michiru and Mahana have gone down to our spot already, aren’t you coming?”
“Hmmm.” Orihime pretended to look thoughtful, but Tatsuki caught her furtive glance towards Ichigo. “Not today, I think I’m in the mood for a change. I’ll see you later, Tatsuki-chan!”
Tatsuki watched in bemusement as Orihime caught up to Ichigo and chirped, “Kurosaki-kun!”
“Inoue?” he was clearly puzzled. “Aren’t you going to lunch?”
“I am! I thought I’d have lunch with Kurosaki-kun today!” At the look on his face, she quickly added, “Oh, and Sado-kun and Ishida-kun too, of course.”
“Right, well, okay, if you want to.” He turned and caught Tatsuki’s eye but she waved them off cheerfully before turning to meet the other girls for lunch.
As she descended the stairs, she clearly heard Keigo’s cry of, “Ichigo! How did you manage to trick Inoue-san into having lunch with us? You must teach me some of your skills!”
Something as simple as the two of them having lunch together was clearly going to cause waves, and she was going to have a lot of fun watching events unfold from the sidelines.
She plopped down on the grass and unpacked her lunch as Chizuru looked around in confusion.
“Where’s my ‘Hime?”
“Having lunch with Ichigo.” she said simply, trying to hide the grin on her face. She took advantage of Chizuru’s stunned silence to add, “And she’s not your ‘Hime.”
“Ichigo?” Chizuru snapped once she regained use of her tongue. “Ichigo?”
Tatsuki clapped her hand over her mouth and her eyes widened in mock horror. “Oh, whoops! I mean the boys.”
I’m going to have a lot of fun stirring the pot today!
“Does he think he can get his filthy hands on my beloved ‘Hime?” Chizuru was incensed and stormed up to the roof to confront him, ignoring the calls of the other girls to stop. Tatsuki sighed before quickly following her. Ichigo had always had a bit of a weakness against attacking girls who couldn’t defend themselves, at least not as well as he could, so she’d have to follow to protect Orihime from Chizuru.
Although, she mused while walking up the stairs, it was Orihime that would be in danger; perhaps he would come to her rescue, and that would be very interesting, perhaps even worth the gamble of letting Chizuru molest Orihime. She reached the door to the roof and paused, hand on the doorknob. Should she hang back and see if Ichigo would handle the situation?
“Tatsuki?” Michiru had caught up to her and Mahana and Ryo were close behind. “Aren’t you going out?”
“Yeah, I was just preparing myself for the carnage.” she lied before opening the door and, sure enough, Chizuru was tightly hugging Orihime when they stepped out onto the roof.
“Oh, my ‘Hime, did that vulgar idiot do anything to you while I was gone?”
“Who is this ‘vulgar idiot’ you’re talking about?” Ichigo growled. “It’d better not be me!”
“Shut up, Ichigo! You tricked her into coming here!”
“As if I would! I’d never force her to do something she didn’t want to. She wanted to come up and eat with us!”
“A vulgar idiot and a liar! C’mon, ‘Hime, let’s leave before he lures you back under his spell.” She pulled Orihime by the arm but she was resisting.
“Actually, Chizuru-chan, I did want to eat with them today.”
“Did? Past tense! You don’t anymore, right? Okay, let’s go!” she continued to tug and Orihime continued to stand her ground.
“Look, she clearly wants to eat here today,” Ichigo sighed, “why don’t you just let her stay?” When Chizuru refused to relinquish control, Ichigo stepped between them and forcibly removed Chizuru’s hand. “She doesn’t want to go! Why don’t you listen to what she wants for a change?”
“I concur, Ichigo!” Tatsuki applauded and Keigo almost fainted at the sudden influx of females. “Why don’t we all have lunch up here today? I mean, we’re all here anyway, and that way Chizuru can keep her eyes on the vulgar idiot.” She smirked at Ichigo and he glared at her.
“Bitch.”
“Thank you.” she replied modestly before sitting down and unpacking her lunch again.
Ichigo hadn’t noticed that he still had his hand on Orihime’s wrist, but she had, her face flushed, eyes fixated on the contact.
“Alright! Let’s have a lunch party on the roof!” Keigo cheered and they all settled down to eat. Tatsuki was keeping a close eye on Ichigo, who had suddenly noted the contact he had maintained with Orihime.
“Oh, sorry Inoue.” he muttered before he dropped her wrist so quickly, it was like he felt his touch was burning her.
“I don’t mind, Kurosaki-kun, thank you for helping me.” she whispered and Ichigo’s eyes softened before he quickly looked away.
“That’s okay.” he said gruffly before sitting, “Let’s eat, huh?” Orihime smiled before sitting next to him.
“‘Hime, why don’t you come sit next to me?” Chizuru winked suggestively.
“Let her sit where she wants to sit, idiot.” Tatsuki groused. “She came up here to sit with the boys for a change, so let her sit with a boy.”
“It’s not just a boy, it’s Ichigo!” Chizuru whined.
“And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?” he asked, a hint of a threat in his tone.
“I mean-”
“Let’s play a game!” Orihime quickly interrupted and all eyes turned to her.
“A game?” they chorused.
“Yes! I always wanted to play it, but it’s better with a big group, so I thought we could try it today!”
“How do you play?” Ichigo asked gently and she flushed.
“O-Oh. You’re really going to play?”
“Anything for you, ‘Hime.” Tatsuki whacked Chizuru on the back of her head. “Oi! I didn’t even touch her!”
“I don’t need an excuse to hit you.”
“Bitch.”
“Thank you.”
“So how do you play?” Ichigo repeated loudly.
“O-Oh, yes. It’s a word game!”
“Asano-san can’t play, then.” Mizuiro cut in.
“Oi! It’s ‘Keigo’ to you, and that was mean!”
“But it was true.” Tatsuki added.
“A word game?” Ichigo prompted for her to continue.
“Yeah, we make up a story by adding one word at a time. We go around in a circle and everyone adds a word.”
“I can handle that!” Keigo said defensively. “I’ll even start! Once…”
“Upon…” Mizuiro added then looked at Chad.
“A…”
“Time…” Ishida completed the stereotypical fairytale introduction.
“There…” Ryo continued.
“Lived…” Michiru said, fidgeting.
“A…” Mahana muttered around her lunch.
“Princess…” Chizuru grinned before Tatsuki hit her again.
“In…” Tatsuki ignored Chiruzu’s complaints.
“A…” Ichigo looked at Orihime.
“Robot! Full stop!” she finished the first sentence with a flourish.
“Robot?” Keigo asked.
“That’s against the rules!” Orihime pointed an accusing finger at him. “You’re not allowed to repeat the word before yours!”
“That’s not why I said… oh, never mind.” Keigo shook his head in resignation before continuing the story. “The…”
“Princess…”
“Was…”
“Very…”
“Happy…”
“Because…”
“She…”
“Was…”
“Also…”
“A…”
“Ninja! Full stop!”
“Ninja?”
“Asano-kun, you already broke the rules once…”
“Sorry! Okay. She…”
“Was…”
“Very…”
“Brave…”
“And…”
“Protected…”
“Everyone…”
“From…”
“The…”
“Evil…”
“Zombies! Full stop!”
“Wait, wait! There’s robots and ninjas and zombies in this story?” Michiru was clearly unable to handle Orihime’s imagination.
“That’s a little unrealistic.” Ryo said bluntly.
“This is Orihime we’re talking about. Realism isn’t her strong suit.” Mahana added.
“Hey, leave her alone!” Ichigo came to her defence and all their chatter stopped. Tatsuki gleefully noted everyone’s shocked expressions and Orihime’s rapidly flushing face.
Oh, Ichigo, you’re digging your own grave here!
“Thank you, Kurosaki-kun.” Orihime whispered.
You too, Orihime!
“That’s it! Orihime, move away from Ichigo!” Chizuru leapt for her but Tatsuki grabbed her arm.
“My God, you really are crazy.” Ichigo muttered and it only spurred Chizuru on.
“Let me go, Tatsuki! This is war!”
“Robots and ninjas are okay,” Keigo mused aloud, ignoring the muffled fight between Chizuru and Tatsuki (and later, he would bemoan the fact that he missed out on a girl versus girl fight in tears), “but I don’t like zombies.”
“Well, they were described as ‘evil zombies’ in the story.” Ichigo reasoned.
“Yeah, I guess…”
“Besides, the ninja princess who lived in a robot protected people from the evil zombies. And you shouldn’t be that scared of zombies, you know.” Orihime tried to reassure him but Keigo merely looked at her incredulously.
“Inoue-san, they eat your brains. I think I’m perfectly justified in being a little freaked out by them.”
“I think what she meant, Keigo,” Tatsuki shared a glance with Mizuiro before grinning cheekily, “is that you shouldn't be worried about them.”
“That’s right, Asano-san,” Mizuiro added with a wink, “I mean, with the size of your brain, you don’t have much to worry about. The rest of us, though, we’re a zombie feast.”
Keigo was speechless.
“See?” Tatsuki addressed the others. “How long does he take to come up with a retort?”
“Why are you guys so mean to me?” Keigo sobbed, turning to Chad who patted him awkwardly on the back.
“Let’s continue the story!” Orihime said brightly. “Asano-kun?”
“Okay, but only if they promise to be nicer to me!”
“Only if you promise not to be stupid.” Tatsuki and Mizuiro countered.
“She!”
“Was…”
“Also…”
“Happy…”
“Because…”
“She…”
“Was…”
“In…”
“Love…” Tatsuki winked at Orihime who squeaked.
“With…” Ichigo was looking between the two of them in confusion. Orihime was so flushed, it was hard to tell the difference between her face and her hair. “Yo, Inoue, are you okay? You haven’t said your word yet.” He laid a concerned hand on her shoulder, which only served to further disconcert her.
“With…” she whispered.
“Hey, Inoue-san! You broke the rules, too! You repeated the last word that was said!”
“Oh, I’m sorry! Umm… where were we up to?”
“She was in love with…” Ichigo recapped for her and she stared into his eyes.
“You.” she whispered.
“What?” Ichigo’s jaw dropped.
“What?” everybody else chorused.
“What?” Orihime echoed, breaking out of her reverie.
And then the bell rang.
request!
watch?
series. Bleach
character/pairing. Karakura gang, Ichigo/Orihime
word count. ~1750
rating. PG
disclaimer. Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite
summary. The gang play a game during lunch one day and mayhem ensues, one word at a time
notes. afteriwake wanted me to write Ichigo/Orihime with the prompt of ‘ninjas and zombies and robots, oh my!’ and then we decided it’d be more fun if we both wrote a fic using that prompt and seeing what we came up with. You can read her version here. Hopefully mine measures up! =)
Something happened one day that would change their lives forever…
Orihime followed Ichigo when the lunch bell rang.
“Orihime?” Tatsuki called after her. “Where are you going?”
“To lunch…?” she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and Tatsuki rolled her eyes.
“Right, yes, I got that. What I mean is where are you going? Michiru and Mahana have gone down to our spot already, aren’t you coming?”
“Hmmm.” Orihime pretended to look thoughtful, but Tatsuki caught her furtive glance towards Ichigo. “Not today, I think I’m in the mood for a change. I’ll see you later, Tatsuki-chan!”
Tatsuki watched in bemusement as Orihime caught up to Ichigo and chirped, “Kurosaki-kun!”
“Inoue?” he was clearly puzzled. “Aren’t you going to lunch?”
“I am! I thought I’d have lunch with Kurosaki-kun today!” At the look on his face, she quickly added, “Oh, and Sado-kun and Ishida-kun too, of course.”
“Right, well, okay, if you want to.” He turned and caught Tatsuki’s eye but she waved them off cheerfully before turning to meet the other girls for lunch.
As she descended the stairs, she clearly heard Keigo’s cry of, “Ichigo! How did you manage to trick Inoue-san into having lunch with us? You must teach me some of your skills!”
Something as simple as the two of them having lunch together was clearly going to cause waves, and she was going to have a lot of fun watching events unfold from the sidelines.
She plopped down on the grass and unpacked her lunch as Chizuru looked around in confusion.
“Where’s my ‘Hime?”
“Having lunch with Ichigo.” she said simply, trying to hide the grin on her face. She took advantage of Chizuru’s stunned silence to add, “And she’s not your ‘Hime.”
“Ichigo?” Chizuru snapped once she regained use of her tongue. “Ichigo?”
Tatsuki clapped her hand over her mouth and her eyes widened in mock horror. “Oh, whoops! I mean the boys.”
I’m going to have a lot of fun stirring the pot today!
“Does he think he can get his filthy hands on my beloved ‘Hime?” Chizuru was incensed and stormed up to the roof to confront him, ignoring the calls of the other girls to stop. Tatsuki sighed before quickly following her. Ichigo had always had a bit of a weakness against attacking girls who couldn’t defend themselves, at least not as well as he could, so she’d have to follow to protect Orihime from Chizuru.
Although, she mused while walking up the stairs, it was Orihime that would be in danger; perhaps he would come to her rescue, and that would be very interesting, perhaps even worth the gamble of letting Chizuru molest Orihime. She reached the door to the roof and paused, hand on the doorknob. Should she hang back and see if Ichigo would handle the situation?
“Tatsuki?” Michiru had caught up to her and Mahana and Ryo were close behind. “Aren’t you going out?”
“Yeah, I was just preparing myself for the carnage.” she lied before opening the door and, sure enough, Chizuru was tightly hugging Orihime when they stepped out onto the roof.
“Oh, my ‘Hime, did that vulgar idiot do anything to you while I was gone?”
“Who is this ‘vulgar idiot’ you’re talking about?” Ichigo growled. “It’d better not be me!”
“Shut up, Ichigo! You tricked her into coming here!”
“As if I would! I’d never force her to do something she didn’t want to. She wanted to come up and eat with us!”
“A vulgar idiot and a liar! C’mon, ‘Hime, let’s leave before he lures you back under his spell.” She pulled Orihime by the arm but she was resisting.
“Actually, Chizuru-chan, I did want to eat with them today.”
“Did? Past tense! You don’t anymore, right? Okay, let’s go!” she continued to tug and Orihime continued to stand her ground.
“Look, she clearly wants to eat here today,” Ichigo sighed, “why don’t you just let her stay?” When Chizuru refused to relinquish control, Ichigo stepped between them and forcibly removed Chizuru’s hand. “She doesn’t want to go! Why don’t you listen to what she wants for a change?”
“I concur, Ichigo!” Tatsuki applauded and Keigo almost fainted at the sudden influx of females. “Why don’t we all have lunch up here today? I mean, we’re all here anyway, and that way Chizuru can keep her eyes on the vulgar idiot.” She smirked at Ichigo and he glared at her.
“Bitch.”
“Thank you.” she replied modestly before sitting down and unpacking her lunch again.
Ichigo hadn’t noticed that he still had his hand on Orihime’s wrist, but she had, her face flushed, eyes fixated on the contact.
“Alright! Let’s have a lunch party on the roof!” Keigo cheered and they all settled down to eat. Tatsuki was keeping a close eye on Ichigo, who had suddenly noted the contact he had maintained with Orihime.
“Oh, sorry Inoue.” he muttered before he dropped her wrist so quickly, it was like he felt his touch was burning her.
“I don’t mind, Kurosaki-kun, thank you for helping me.” she whispered and Ichigo’s eyes softened before he quickly looked away.
“That’s okay.” he said gruffly before sitting, “Let’s eat, huh?” Orihime smiled before sitting next to him.
“‘Hime, why don’t you come sit next to me?” Chizuru winked suggestively.
“Let her sit where she wants to sit, idiot.” Tatsuki groused. “She came up here to sit with the boys for a change, so let her sit with a boy.”
“It’s not just a boy, it’s Ichigo!” Chizuru whined.
“And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?” he asked, a hint of a threat in his tone.
“I mean-”
“Let’s play a game!” Orihime quickly interrupted and all eyes turned to her.
“A game?” they chorused.
“Yes! I always wanted to play it, but it’s better with a big group, so I thought we could try it today!”
“How do you play?” Ichigo asked gently and she flushed.
“O-Oh. You’re really going to play?”
“Anything for you, ‘Hime.” Tatsuki whacked Chizuru on the back of her head. “Oi! I didn’t even touch her!”
“I don’t need an excuse to hit you.”
“Bitch.”
“Thank you.”
“So how do you play?” Ichigo repeated loudly.
“O-Oh, yes. It’s a word game!”
“Asano-san can’t play, then.” Mizuiro cut in.
“Oi! It’s ‘Keigo’ to you, and that was mean!”
“But it was true.” Tatsuki added.
“A word game?” Ichigo prompted for her to continue.
“Yeah, we make up a story by adding one word at a time. We go around in a circle and everyone adds a word.”
“I can handle that!” Keigo said defensively. “I’ll even start! Once…”
“Upon…” Mizuiro added then looked at Chad.
“A…”
“Time…” Ishida completed the stereotypical fairytale introduction.
“There…” Ryo continued.
“Lived…” Michiru said, fidgeting.
“A…” Mahana muttered around her lunch.
“Princess…” Chizuru grinned before Tatsuki hit her again.
“In…” Tatsuki ignored Chiruzu’s complaints.
“A…” Ichigo looked at Orihime.
“Robot! Full stop!” she finished the first sentence with a flourish.
“Robot?” Keigo asked.
“That’s against the rules!” Orihime pointed an accusing finger at him. “You’re not allowed to repeat the word before yours!”
“That’s not why I said… oh, never mind.” Keigo shook his head in resignation before continuing the story. “The…”
“Princess…”
“Was…”
“Very…”
“Happy…”
“Because…”
“She…”
“Was…”
“Also…”
“A…”
“Ninja! Full stop!”
“Ninja?”
“Asano-kun, you already broke the rules once…”
“Sorry! Okay. She…”
“Was…”
“Very…”
“Brave…”
“And…”
“Protected…”
“Everyone…”
“From…”
“The…”
“Evil…”
“Zombies! Full stop!”
“Wait, wait! There’s robots and ninjas and zombies in this story?” Michiru was clearly unable to handle Orihime’s imagination.
“That’s a little unrealistic.” Ryo said bluntly.
“This is Orihime we’re talking about. Realism isn’t her strong suit.” Mahana added.
“Hey, leave her alone!” Ichigo came to her defence and all their chatter stopped. Tatsuki gleefully noted everyone’s shocked expressions and Orihime’s rapidly flushing face.
Oh, Ichigo, you’re digging your own grave here!
“Thank you, Kurosaki-kun.” Orihime whispered.
You too, Orihime!
“That’s it! Orihime, move away from Ichigo!” Chizuru leapt for her but Tatsuki grabbed her arm.
“My God, you really are crazy.” Ichigo muttered and it only spurred Chizuru on.
“Let me go, Tatsuki! This is war!”
“Robots and ninjas are okay,” Keigo mused aloud, ignoring the muffled fight between Chizuru and Tatsuki (and later, he would bemoan the fact that he missed out on a girl versus girl fight in tears), “but I don’t like zombies.”
“Well, they were described as ‘evil zombies’ in the story.” Ichigo reasoned.
“Yeah, I guess…”
“Besides, the ninja princess who lived in a robot protected people from the evil zombies. And you shouldn’t be that scared of zombies, you know.” Orihime tried to reassure him but Keigo merely looked at her incredulously.
“Inoue-san, they eat your brains. I think I’m perfectly justified in being a little freaked out by them.”
“I think what she meant, Keigo,” Tatsuki shared a glance with Mizuiro before grinning cheekily, “is that you shouldn't be worried about them.”
“That’s right, Asano-san,” Mizuiro added with a wink, “I mean, with the size of your brain, you don’t have much to worry about. The rest of us, though, we’re a zombie feast.”
Keigo was speechless.
“See?” Tatsuki addressed the others. “How long does he take to come up with a retort?”
“Why are you guys so mean to me?” Keigo sobbed, turning to Chad who patted him awkwardly on the back.
“Let’s continue the story!” Orihime said brightly. “Asano-kun?”
“Okay, but only if they promise to be nicer to me!”
“Only if you promise not to be stupid.” Tatsuki and Mizuiro countered.
“She!”
“Was…”
“Also…”
“Happy…”
“Because…”
“She…”
“Was…”
“In…”
“Love…” Tatsuki winked at Orihime who squeaked.
“With…” Ichigo was looking between the two of them in confusion. Orihime was so flushed, it was hard to tell the difference between her face and her hair. “Yo, Inoue, are you okay? You haven’t said your word yet.” He laid a concerned hand on her shoulder, which only served to further disconcert her.
“With…” she whispered.
“Hey, Inoue-san! You broke the rules, too! You repeated the last word that was said!”
“Oh, I’m sorry! Umm… where were we up to?”
“She was in love with…” Ichigo recapped for her and she stared into his eyes.
“You.” she whispered.
“What?” Ichigo’s jaw dropped.
“What?” everybody else chorused.
“What?” Orihime echoed, breaking out of her reverie.
And then the bell rang.
request!
watch?