Drabblememe for girl_starfish, Bleach, Orihime and Tatsuki.

"You look good," Tatsuki says, and by good she means "Good", but she knows she also means "different" and "tougher" and "older".

"Thank you!" Orihime flexes her arms. "Look at my muscles!" She puts her elbow on the table. "Let's arm-wrestle."

Tatsuki could probably circle Orihime's arm with her fingers. She rolls her eyes. "Forget it. I'm hungry. Did you get any of those little purin things from that bakery?"

Orihime nods and sets out tea. She talks about school, about the people she saw over the summer, mostly familiar names and some not, and Tatsuki is used to Orihime's style of speech enough to construct a reasonable understanding of it. She met people, who might have been friends of Ichigo or not, and she spent time with people, and possibly did some charity work, and Ishida-kun helped with that and also made her an outfit, which means that he likes Rukia, probably, and...

Orihime gestures as she talks and when she raises her arms, Tatsuki can see that her waist is thinner, pared down of it's normal slight softness, and there are the faint lines of stomach muscles. Whatever she did -and Tatsuki knows Orihime's style of speech well enough to know when she's deliberately concealing things, skipping over and jumping past bits- it was work. Tatsuki knows the product of physical labour.

She waits until Orihime's stopped speaking long enough for Tatsuki to ask, "Was it a good holiday, then?"

Orihime frowns a little, thinking about it. "Yes. It was a good summer." A sharp little nod that makes her hair fall forward and Tatsuki pushes it back for her.

"But I'm happy to be back," Orihime says, smiling brightly.

Tatsuki smiles back and talks about her summer.