Chapter Text
Tatsuki can feel it, the same way she can feel autumn sink beneath the weight of winter; the same way she can feel the afternoon become evening as the shadows shift and lengthen.
Orihime is not the same girl who left.
Tatsuki tries to bring her back. Tries to get back to that place they used to be, somehow. Tries to get back to passing notes in class and sleepovers and watching terrible television shows and laughing about it. Tries to get back to cafe visits and casual asides and Orihime’s endless chattiness and bright-eyed stories. Tries to get back to Remember when...? and What if we...? and Tell me all about…
But it’s all gone. Swept away like crushed glass, the shards glittering at Orihime’s feet.
Nobody else seems to notice. Oh, something's certainly happened - certainly changed - Ichigo and Ishida swap looks sometimes, and they both speak a little more carefully around Orihime, a little more gently. In the same way people might speak to a patient recovering from a troublesome broken bone, or to a student receiving a failed grade on an assignment. As though whatever happened will pass, and everything will go back to normal. A temporary setback; a fleeting state of mind.
But Tatsuki can feel it. The whole lay of the land has shifted beneath Orihime's feet. She stands on different earth now, far away from familiar places, spaces, faces.
And Tatsuki can only gaze helplessly across the chasm.