He was a cold, collected, half-masked being with glowing emerald eyes and lines of green going down his face, forming the shape of tears that had never had fallen.

She was an innocent, day-dreaming, orange-haired girl whose light of happiness was slowing being dwindled by her captivity in the white palace surrounded by nothing but darkness.

The hearts intertwine...

--

When Ulquiorra first had been ordered to take care of the Inoue Orihime, he was purely apathetic. There would be no use worrying about it, an order from Aizen-sama was absolute. It would be carried out, even if he had to die for it. He never questioned his loyalty. It was his duty. He didn't have to think or question. Thinking and questioning only caused confusion and weakness. He knew exactly what he had to do, and stayed on a stable ground mentally. And this pleased him.

Little did he know that Inoue Orihime would start to make him start to question and think. The only way he could deflect it would be to shun and cut off any sort of understandment between her. But some underlying force made her words sink deeply inside of him. The walls he worked so hard to build up crumbled before him as he stared into her blue-grey eyes. So he began to question, began to think, and began to sink into a state of confusion and guilt. And that would displease him. At first.

Chapter one: Faint Smiles, Opened Eyes.

Ulquiorra walked down the cold hallway silently. As his long coat-tails trailed behind him, he was wondering how he would approach the woman next. He soon found out that taking care of her was one of the hardest tasks he had ever been given by Aizen-sama. He could understand the other espada. They longed for power, they were competitive and focused. And of course, they were completely devoted to Aizen-sama. Like himself. But this Inoue Orihime girl was completely different. He never did understand humans very well. She was so concerned over her friends living and dying that she had stopped eating, and felt the need for living become less and less. Why? They would all die sooner or later, whether it was in battle or from natural causes. Besides, weren't their friendships also harmful to her? He remembered her leaning over the orange haired boy, crying as she said farewell. All relationships would eventually end up hurting you, whether it was self-doubt, or betrayal. So why even bother getting close to people?

… …"Why am I thinking about this?" he said out loud, and continued to walk along the corridor to Inoue Orihime's room.

He paused in front of her room's entrance, composed his thoughts, and began to open the door. "I'm coming in," he said in his usual listless tone. She was in her usual position, near the back of the room staring out the high window. He wondered if she always stayed there, if the thoughts of being free kept her standing there for hours on end. She turned to him, a look of quiet uneasiness.



He looked over at the table which he set her food on just two hours ago. Some pieces of the meal were gone, but some still remained. He looked back at her slowly.

"Why have you not finished all of your meal?" She flinched at this, and he assumed that she remembered his threat about restraining her and forcing it down her throat.

"I'm sorry, sir" she softly answered. "I… felt that I would be sick if I ate anymore."

He looked at her and tried to read her expression to a full extent. Was she lying? Probably not. By her face he could tell that she looked a little sickly. But he also knew the dietary habits of humans, and understood that she was getting a below average amount of how much a human should eat a day.

"And I… didn't feel like I was worthy enough to eat it." he looked up, vaguely surprised. She normally didn't talk to him any more then necessary. Her first explanation was enough, so why was she telling him more?

"You didn't feel as if you were worthy?" He questioned. Could it be that she felt guilty because she felt her friends dying in front of her? But why would she… no. He wouldn't ask about that again. He had spoken his opinion and gotten a slap on the cheek for that. He remembered looking back at her slowly, trying to understand why she had hit someone so much more powerful than her, just for the sake of her friends. But as he left her room and paused outside the door, only to her the sounds of her cries, he felt a strange tightness in his stomach….

As he reminisced on this, he noticed out of the corner of his eye, that the woman turned away from him and looked back up at the crescent moon out of the window. And then, she said something that he truly didn't expect.

"I'm sorry," she said reluctantly "for slapping you earlier." His eyes widened. Why had she apologized? He remembered looking into her eyes and seeing such a pained and resented look in her them. Was she trying to win him over so he wouldn't try to pressure her to eat anymore? Or did she truly feel… guilty? This woman was making less and less sense the more time he spent time with her. But something inside of him felt suddenly… lighter. Could he being feeling…. relief?

He suddenly found that the captive was staring at his surprised and confused expression, and thought he saw the faintest hint of a smile on her face. Then he realized… it was the first time he'd see her smile since he'd met her.

He turned abruptly, not sure what to say, even though he had planned out five different conversation paths on his way there. "I'll return in 4 hours with your dinner." He said in an unusually staggered voice, and quickly walked out the door.