The Canopy of Las Noches

In honor of the release of the first episode of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War have a fluffy Ichihime one shot. This piece was originally intended to explore a "what if" scenario of what would happen if Rukia, Renji, and Chad had encountered a fully hollowfied Ichigo after his fight with Ulquiorra. That got shot to hell because Ichihime happened. I couldn't go back after I started writing it, it was too cute. This is the fourth time I've tried to publish this story and I'm starting to think Wattpad doesn't want me working on anything but the Save Me from the Dark rewrite.

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Dust billowed in large clouds as rubble settled. It was deathly silent in a world of grays on the canopy of Las Noches. The eternal crescent moon was the sole source of light by which to see the horrendous events that had occurred. One minute, the enemy had the upper hand, seemingly killing the one person who could end the war. The next, the enemy was the fool who had believed he had won only to be blasted to pieces. All that remained was a hollow shell of the hero. His pale form stood over the body of the fallen, like an angel of death come to collect the remains of his soul. He turned away from the body to face the woman he'd died to protect. She sat near a formation of large rocks made from fallen debris, her healing dome surrounding their injured archer.

"Ichigo," Orihime called as she stood to walk towards him.

Ichigo slowly stumbled towards her, "Ori... hime."

Orihime broke into a run towards him.

"I will... protect... you," Ichigo panted out.

Orihime came to a stop in front of the man, and reached out her hand to touch his arm, yet hesitated. As if losing the last of his strength, Ichigo fell forward into Orihime. She quickly wrapped her arms around him to hold him up, but his weight dragged her down.

Orihime gently shifted Ichigo in her arms, carefully avoiding the sharp horns on his hollow mask. She glanced back at where Uryu still sat up against a rock, his arm healing, yet still largely missing. She couldn't use her Soren Kisshun to try to reverse Ichigo's hollowfication while Uryu was still healing. Orihime turned back to face Ichigo again as he shifted in her arms.

"I will... protect...," Ichigo's voice died out as he lost consciousness, his body went slack and his head fell to rest under Orihime's chin, his horn pressing harshly into her chest.

Panic began to surface as Orihime tried to confirm that Ichigo was still alive. The hole in his chest was no reassurance as she searched for a pulse, or any sign of life. Orihime stared at the mask for all of a moment before deciding to take it off. She quickly gripped the edge of the mask with her free hand and tugged. The bone-like material cracked and fragmented around the outer parts as she pulled the mask off. Immediately Orihime felt the pressure on her chest was relieved as the horn was removed, and similarly the weight on her heart lifted as she felt the steady burn of his spiritual pressure as he breathed, simply asleep.

With Ichigo's head tucked in the crook of her shoulder, Orihime took a moment to breathe. So much happened within less than an hour that it made it feel like the battle that had just concluded happened over several months. Despite the uncertainty of Ichigo's situation and that of her friends, Orihime was glad to have a moment to stop and calm her frayed nerves.

Ichigo shifted in her arms, making himself comfortable. Orihime had no doubt he was sleeping off an adrenaline crash, as well as recovering his spiritual pressure from overuse. She glanced over his body in her arms. His hollow hole was a disconcerting and painful reminder of what had occurred not even an hour ago. Ichigo's pale skin was striking against his still vibrant orange hair, and was accented by strange black markings. And his hair. Oh, his hair. The wild mop of orange was now a fiery mane that looked and felt impossibly soft for having just come out of a fight. Orihime found this quite unfair.

A soft, yet deep rumbling startled Orihime from her thoughts about Ichigo's hair. The noise resonated in her chest like a cat's purr. Curiously, Orihime pressed her ear to Ichigo's chest. A smile broke out over her face as she realized Ichigo was truly purring.

The steady purring was a comfort to Orihime as she absentmindedly began running her hand through Ichigo's now long hair. While Orihime was distracted, Uryu sat up, finally healed enough to support himself. He glanced over in the direction of the hole Ulquiorra had blown into the ceiling of Las Noches. Three spiritual pressures were approaching the entrance to the canopy, but Uryu wasn't worried, it was Renji, Chad, and Rukia. They had won their fight and were finally catching up to them.

"Orihime, Chad and the others are on their way here. Is Ichigo alright?" Uryu asked as Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka returned to her pins.

Orihime turned her head to look at him, "Yeah, I think he's just collapsed from exhaustion," She sighed as she turned back to Ichigo, "He's not returning to his soul reaper form though..."

Uryu frowned and slowly stood up and walked over to Orihime. He glanced down at Ichigo as he came to stand next to Orihime. Uryu had to hold back his laughter at the sight before him. Ichigo had made himself quite at home in Orihime's arms as he snored softly.

Uryu pushed up his glasses and smiled gently, "You should wake him up before Rukia and Renji get here, otherwise he'll never hear the end of it."

"I think that just this once they'll leave him be. He's fought hard, he deserves some rest," Orihime smiled as she brushed a strand of hair out of Ichigo's eyes.

Orihime turned to stare at the ever present crescent moon in the dark sky of Hueco Mundo. The war was winding down now. She could feel the captains in the distance wrapping up the final battles in the realm of the hollows. At long last Orihime could say everything would be alright, especially as the man she loved slept safely in her arms, changed, yet still alive.