Prologue- The Favor

"So, my beloved Cuarta how does that sound?" "Yeah, mon chere Ulqui, whadaya think?"

Ulquiorra Cifer was suddenly very grateful he wasn't a fool like Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, who would blurt out exactly what was going through that dysfunctional mind of his. Ulquiorra had a feeling that if Lord Sosuke Aizen or Gin Ichimaru had even an inkling of what he was thinking, it would spell certain doom for a certain green-eyed Espada who had a reputation to upkeep. So, instead, Ulquiorra bowed at the waist and told his lords,

"I would be honored to go on this all-expenses paid vacation you are sending me on."

Gin's smile, if possible, grew bigger.

"Aww, that's great, Ulqui, but that's not where our generosity ends."

Ulquiorra was extremely gratuitous of the fact that he couldn't possibly get any paler. Gin continued.

"We don' think it would be any fun ta send ya off ta the Caribbean wi'out any buddies, so you getta bring someone with ya!"

Aizen's smirk turned sinister. "Now, we know that you are not the most social of the Espada, so we will give you until you leave in an hour to decide. Is that satisfactory, Ulquiorra?"

Ulquiorra was silent, and then said,

"I may bring anyone in Las Noches with me, correct?"

"Or Hueco Mundo! Ya know, in case ya wanna take tha' pretty Rukia girl, although Tentacles migh' be disappointed. Oh, well. We like ya better. Ain't it grand?" Gin chuckled.

Aizen nodded and affirmed, "Gin speaks the truth. You are excused, Cuarta." Ulquiorra nodded, turned on his heel, and left.

The First Intermission- The Reason

In the throne room, empty for all but Gin and Aizen, Aizen asked, softly tapping his index finger with his mouth,

"Are you sure about this, Gin?"

Gin beamed and said,

"Of course. Tousen's aware of the chemistry between the two, an' he's blind. Ulqui will choose 'er, 'cause what other logical choice is there? She'll agree, 'cause she won' know wha' else ta do. An', when they get back, ya got a completely devoted traitor an' a power-boosted garbage disposal. An' they're both happy an' madly in luv. Wha' more couldja want?"

Chapter One- The Thoughts

On the other side of the castle, Orihime Inoue sat, blissfully unaware of the problem creeping up on her with a frightening pace. Instead, she was comparing and contrasting the three most prominent men in her life. Her brother, Sora Inoue, her love, Ichigo Kurosaki, and her captor, Ulquiorra Cifer, were all intensely loyal. Sora and Ichigo were both good. Sora and Ulquiorra were/are hollows. Ulquiorra and Ichigo were both appallingly lost and confused. She loved Sora and Ichigo. She... Ulquiorra. There were no adjectives that could describe their relationship that sounded true, at least that she could think of at the moment. Ulquiorra had the most beautiful, and the deadliest, eyes. Ichigo had the warmest and most protective eyes. Sora had the most loving and accepting eyes. Sora always knew what he was, and where he was going. Ichigo knew what others wanted him to do and be, and knew what he wanted to do, even if he didn't know who he was trying to be. Ulquiorra knew what Aizen wanted of him. That's about all the self-discovery he had and seemed to need.

And the comparison that confused her most of all. Sora wanted her, but didn't need her. Ichigo didn't need her or want her, but nor did he notwant her. But Ulquiorra, he didn't want her, not even a little bit, she assumed, but he needed her. She knew it. So she was lucky Sora was at peace, so that the part of her that belonged to him was content and relaxed. She knew why he owned that piece. He had saved her, and loved her, when her parents hadn't. The part of her that Ichigo unknowingly had was in terrible shape, and she had a feeling it always would be. Luckily, every day she thought about it, it hurt less. She knew he owned it for a pathetic reason. He was nice to her, and she had fallen hard. The piece of her heart that Ulquiorra had forcibly taken possession of the day he spirited her away was harder to explain, both what shape it was in and why it even existed.

She didn't love him, but he was as set in her heart as Ichigo and Sora. When he had kidnapped her, he had barged into her personal mind space and taken over her emotions, and she knew for the rest of her life, his threatening shadow would loom over her. With a few words, he had her soul lying naked on a table, ready for him to poke and prod and figure out how to work, which he figured out certain pieces of extraordinarily quickly. Within a week of his thorough psychological exams, he could predict her actions almost before she even considered the notion, and to her great frustration, he remained completely blank and unreadable. However, he did have a weak point.

He had no clue what to make of her heart. He didn't understand why she gave herself up for her friends. Oh, he knew that she would; even before he met her, he knew her mind. But that didn't change the fact that he couldn't understand why, and this irritated him to the extent his aloofness bothered her. So he made it his personal mission in life to figure out what made her tick, and he obsessed over it to the point that she would have dreams of his pale white fingers plucking her brains apart and fitting them together again like a puzzle, of monochrome predators relentlessly stalking, but never attacking, terrified orange prey.

It was to the point where he was almost a god to her, despite his attempts to make Aizen her god. It seemed to her that no regular being could possibly have such control over her, could have such thorns ensnaring her instincts, such thick fog clouding her brain. It was horrifying, yet she never felt inclined to stop it, courtesy of his mind-games. When she was alone, she could confidently plot ways to finally triumph over him, her thoughts were together. But as soon as he came, her thoughts scrambled, and all she could do was bow and agree, hating her weakness and helpless to his power.

Yet she wanted to help him. Ulquiorra knew this, and assumed it was through his own doing, but Orihime knew the truth. It was because beneath his mask, he was good. She had very little proof. Just intuition she would freely admit was being at least slightly controlled by him and little things. Things like he knew how much power he held over her, but he didn't abuse it. He wouldn't manipulate her into doing anything that could physically harm her. When he saw her shivering one night, she woke up the next morning with an honest-to-god blanket. One day he commented on her bleeding lips, and when she explained the cause, she found chapstick clenched in her hand one morning. He never touched her, and he wouldn't allow others to touch her. One day, when Grimmjow briefly tried kidnapping her just to 'give that old stick in the mud a scare', Ulquiorra had reacted very oddly. Grimmjow had persuaded Gin to help them, so the three of them had been watching Ulquiorra's reactions on the monitor.

When he had first walked in and saw her gone, his eyes had widened almost imperceptibly, and he had shoved a fraccion that was in his way through several walls. Next he had nearly killed Nnoitra before Nnoitra admitted he had seen Orihime with Grimmjow. At that, Ulquiorra had thrown Nnoitra aside, and Nnoitra swore up and down he had heard Ulquiorra mumble he was going to show Grimmjow what happened when you messed with other people, specifically pissed off Cuarta Espadas' things. When he finally found them, Gin had prevented Ulquiorra from destroying Grimmjow permanently, but he did wait a few minutes before saying melodramatically, "Oh, noes! Ya can't kill 'im! Tousen would be uber jealous!"

It was just little things like that that made Orihime determined to do anything she could to help him and make him happy, despite the mental torment he inflicted on her. This was why she was so nice to him, and had even made an oath to never give up on him.

Back on the other side of the castle, Ulquiorra was also engrossed in thoughts of him and Orihime. Aizen was sending him on a three-day-four-night vacation to the Caribbean, and he had to bring someone with him. His thoughts had immediately jumped to the prisoner. She was the only one he could bring, in all actuality. He couldn't invite any of his higher-ups; he wasn't nearly social enough. He didn't have any Fraccion, nor would he invite any random Arrancar. He refused to bring along anyone of a lesser status than he. Nnoitra and Grimmjow would try and kill him while he was sleeping in the hopes they would get promoted. Zommari would try and kill him because Zommari loved Aizen, who shunned him in favor of Ulquiorra. Szayel would try and do unpleasant things like collect DNA samples. Aaroniero was just weird, and Ulquiorra was smart enough to know it wasn't wise to bring him to the human world. Lastly, Yammy wouldn't try and kill him, but would instead irritate him beyond rational belief. That left, simultaneously to his disgust and contentment, Orihime Inoue.

He knew why he wasn't totally against it. Not only would he be able to experience and discover her reactions in entirely different situations, but he was oddly peaceful in her presence, and he didn't want her to hate him. Oh, he never showed it, at least, obviously, but surely she had noticed by now. After all, he hadn't abused her mentally or emotionally for a while now, and she had to have realized it wasn't some random Arrancar that had gotten her human things to add to her comfort, or who had cooked extravagant human meals. She was intuitive like that.

He also knew why it was distasteful. Just because he didn't want her to hate him didn't mean he wanted her to like him. If he asked her to go on this trip with him, he knew it was highly probable that she would construe it as something meaningful rather than convenience. Even if he explained it, she would just nod along, trying not to smile. He knew her well enough by now to know she wouldn't be scared, even if he didn't exactly know why. He assumed it had something to do with the fact that she knew by now he did notsee her as a potential mate, unlike the other brutish Espada. It didn't occur to him to question himself why he refused to even consider that he liked her, even a little bit.

Another thing nagged at his conscious. Surely Lord Aizen knew all of this, knew that Ulquiorra would choose Orihime. Lord Aizen knew everything. Well, everything but his second release. And that Ulquiorra could see through his complete hypnotism. Somehow, he still didn't know about that. If Lord Aizen knew that Ulquiorra would choose Orihime, did that mean he wanted Ulquiorra to pick her? If so, why? And why was Gin even more giddy than usual? Ulquiorra was unaware if Gin knew that when he was plotting a prank or trick of some sort, his fingers twitched. The more excited he was about it, the faster his fingers twitched, and in the throne room, they had been reaching warp speed. What was Gin conspiring, and should Ulquiorra be afraid? As soon as he thought that, he internally snorted. It was Gin Ichimaru. He should be terrified.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Ulquiorra headed for the prisoner's room.

The Second Intermission- The Idea

"'As he asked 'er yet?" Gin asked, bouncing impatiently on the balls of his feet. Aizen sighed.

"Gin, you are watching the security cameras with me, so you tell me. Has he asked her yet?"

Gin pouted. "No. Wha's takin' ' 'im so lo- Oh! He's headin' ta her room righ' now! I'm so excited! Ya know, they kinda remind me of me and Ran..."

Aizen sighed again. "Tell me, Gin. How do they possibly remind you of your girlfriend?"

Gin coughed. "Ya mean, ex-girlfriend."

Aizen chuckled and informed Gin, "I am smarter than you give me credit for. You think I don't know that you to regularly meet in the human world?"

Instantly, Gin adopted an innocent face. "I have no clue what you're talking about, my lord."

Aizen chuckled again. "Gin, you used proper grammar. You're lying. That's okay with me. As long as you know what side you're on, you can bring her here and screw her on the throne room table, for all I care."

Gin's smirk grew. "Why, thank ya, ma lord. I migh' just do that."

Aizen shook his head. "Just make sure none of the Espada get traumatized."

"Heh heh."

A.N.

Yes. A new story. Because 'Here In your Arms' fails. Anyway, this one is about two thirds done, fairly long, at a bit of a block, so I'm hoping this will help get rid of it. I will probably update about every week or so, just to give an idea. And, on a sidenote, if anyone is annoyed by Gin's grammar, please, pretty PLEASE tell me now!