*Everyone groaning in union as they realize I'm starting yet another on-going chapter story* Haha, whoops.
Orihime stared out the barred window of her cell. It was something that hadn't changed in all her time in Los Noches- one constant in a sea of ever changing rooms and furnishing. No matter what room she had, what couch or bed or table, there was always one lone window, staring out at the never-waning crescent moon.
In two years she'd gone through a lot of rooms. As the palace was filled and remolded, so too was her routine. A new prisoner of war was put in her first room, and so she'd been moved up a level, and then that wing of the castle had to be re-done after Nnoitora had an episode of particular destructive violence, and so on and so forth.
Eventually they put her up with Ulquiorra, in the room just down the hall from his, like she was officially the plus one to the espada. It wouldn't be too far a stretch. After so long in Hueco Mundo she'd gotten to know most of the highest-ranking arancar rather well, and as of late was invited to their tea meetings.
Still staring out the window, she smiled, listening as Ulquiorra quietly entered the room with her lunch. "Let me guess," She happily intoned. "Today is Tuesday, and so you've brought me the little octopus and salad, right?"
"You are correct, as usual."
He set her meal down on her table, sitting himself. She liked her new-new-new-new-new table. It was glass but for the frame and legs which where- surprise- white. Ulquiorra had secured a flower vase and a carved black crystal rose as the centerpiece for her.
Orihime turned and sat down across from her warden, eagerly digging into her food. She was allowed to change the menu as often as she liked, so long as her requests were not outside of Ulquiorra's capability to secure. (She had yet to find anything that was, of course.) She liked to keep her schedule fairly consistent for him, though. It'd be a shame if he pulled all his hair out in frustration.
"Say, Ulquiorra," She said around her food. "What do you say you and I take a walk to the garden later today?"
"I cannot. I have a mission in the human realm."
She froze, chopsticks hovering before her mouth. It had been a long time since anyone had mentioned the world of the living to her.
She swallowed. "Oh, really?"
He nodded.
"That's unusual," she commented. The last time he'd been out in the human realm was almost an entire year ago.
"Indeed. Do you still hold your request for my visitings?"
A very long time ago, he'd often been sent out to observe her friends. She'd used to ask him to tell her how they were all doing: Chad, Uyruu, Rukia… Kurosaki. But as the months went by and he continued to report that all were in good health and did not seem to have changed routine since her disappearance, she'd slowly stopped asking.
There was only one person she'd asked him to check up on in his last couple of missions.
"Yes… If it's not too much trouble, Ulquiorra, I… I haven't heard about Tatsuki in a long time. Miss Halibel checked on her about five months ago and said that she still prays for me and seems sad, sort of unhealthy. I hope she's doing better now."
In the beginning, he's always answered with long speeches about how stupid Tatsuki's depression was, going on and on about how the girl should have been able to forget about Orihime once she was no longer a constant in her life. But then things had begun to change. Hell, with a little bit of time, everything had changed- Ulquiorra, Orihime, and the rest of them.
"It is not likely. You are one to be sorely missed."
It was sort of funny, looking back on how detached he had used to be. In the first month of her stay she'd been assaulted in the halls once, and he'd stepped in like he had all the time in the world, almost bored, and he had let the guy live, too. Last time a jealous arancar had made an attempt at her he'd stepped in front of her body the moment he felt their ill-meaning spiritual pressure, and with a deep black rage has cut the man in half.
She'd once been the ninth pawn on the chest board- just an extra that wasn't supposed to be on the board. She'd been completely useless and irrelevant- not worth protecting to a knight like him. But now the tides had changed. She was something more than a pawn, and weather she admitted it or not, she had become the black queen on the board. She'd taken control of the rooks and the knights unintentionally.