A significant amount of blood trailed behind the maimed Espada as he stumbled through the unknowns of the world of the living. His body was beginning to fail him, and his regenerative powers had run short. There were too many slashes, cuts, broken bones, and gashes for him to attend to all at once. The broken man hadn't the slightest idea where he was going anyways, but when he was put in that fatal situation, his only endeavor was to survive. His legs began to quiver and he was brought to both knees as he huffed in frustration. Damnit, I can't move my body.

Ulquiorra began to feel his dull eyes become heavy from exhaustion, and the fresh sheet of snow that spread over the ground and the dead trees were now perceived as colorful blurs. Maybe this was the end. He never imagined he would be replaced. How could he have lost his rank as the 4th Espada, and what exactly did he have to live for now anyways? His purpose was to serve Aizen, now Aizen wanted him dead.

Perhaps dying was the best and only thing he could do.

The pale-man let his arms clumsily crumble underneath his body as he fell face-first into a heap of snow. The chilled fluff bit his face as he slipped further into a deep sleep, but he couldn't resist the inevitable. He was going to die, alone.

...

Ulquiorra felt his body being encompassed in a plush-like material. He weakly lifted his slender arms, but a heavy comforter kept them pinned by his sides. Something soft cupped his weary head as he struggled to open his eyes. Blurred at first, a plain room came into sight.

"Where am I?" Ulquiorra quietly croaked and slowly brought a hand to his shoulder. He noticed some fresh rapping in numerous parts of his body. For an instant he had forgotten what had happened to him in the first place, then he felt momentarily felt nauseas when he did recall. An aching pain reverberated in his arm as he attempted to sit up; he still didn't possess that kind of energy, so he let the soft mattress take in his body. He frantically let his eyes dart around the room. There where shelves with numerous books, a desk, a chair-. Ulquiorra's eyes widened a fraction.

This was certainly the residence of a human. Only a few moments had passed before he heard loud footsteps followed by light footsteps.

"Brother, are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" Yuzu inquired in a concerned, sweet tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I have a lot of studying to do, so please don't disturb me for the rest of the night." Ichigo called over his shoulder.

Ulquiorra's eyes widened. He was in his house. But why? The door solemnly creeked open as the red-head hesisitantly peeked inside the chilly room.

"You're awake?" Ichigo quietly asked.

Ulquiorra's lifeless eyes shifted to the Soul Reaper and he sneered in disgust. He would have preferred to die on the cold street then to be some charity case to a Shinigami. Ichigo waved his hand at the dazed Arrancar attempting to get his attention.

"Here, I brought this for you." Ichigo leant over beside the bed and handed the wounded man a small cup of tea. "It's already cold outside, so I thought this would be refreshing."

Ulquiorra's stare hardened at the gesture as he refused the cup. If he was some sort of prisoner, then he wasn't going to be a cooperative one, that's for sure. "Why did you bring me here?"

Ichigo's frown deepened. He wasn't really sure. But one thing he did know was that it would have been impossible to just leave him in the condition he found him in. It was pitiful, and strange to witness an individual so powerful at such a low point. Ichigo avoided the question and sat the full cup on the oak side table and sighed.

"What happened?"

Ulquiorra remained silent.

"There were gashes and cuts all over your body. Your left arm had a compound fracture, and your right ankle suffered a complete dislocation which seemed like you tried to alieve on your own. How did you go on like that? What happened to you?"

Ulquiorra closed his eyes and let his slowly chest rise as he inhaled. The series of questions were extremely irritating, and at the moment he only wanted to sleep. He held in a moan as he rolled on his side, away from Ichigo and closed his eyes.

Ichigo ran an anxious hand through his hair as he plopped in a roller chair near his desk. He began to dig around in a rucksack for some miscellaneous paperwork, but glanced over at the pale-man one more time before he began his homework. Ichigo decided it would be in both of their best interests if he left him alone for a while, he supposed being rescued by the enemy could be a little much to take in all at once.

Perhaps if Ulquiorra was allowed to sleep a little longer, then he would be more willing to talk. Kisukue had already loaned Ichigo one of his latest gigai versions, and he was sure he would pay for that later, but something told him he may need it for the fallen enemy. Only Aizen could have hurt him like this.

"Damn. What a way to start the week." Ichigo whispered to himself as he dug around aimlessly for a pencil.

During the course of his homework, Ichigo consistently let his eyes wander back to the seemingly sleeping Arrancar. He seemed pained, and the troubled teenager wished he could do more to help, but Ulquiorra was so unwilling. Ichigo chewed on the tip of his pen wondering what to do with him while he went to school the next day.

"I guess I will skip school tomorrow." Ichigo mumbled aloud.

"Talking to yourself?" Ulquiorra called out.

Ichigo's posture shot up at the voice. "Um. Yeah, I suppose I was." he was slightly surprised that Ulquiorra decided to actually speak to him. Maybe they were making progress. Ulquiorra began to shift uncomfortably in the blankets as he tried to set up. Ichigo instantly rushed over to help the process and placed a hand over his back.

A low growl bubbled in Ulquiorra's throat. What right does he think he has by touching me? Ichigo got the hint and quickly stepped back. Even in a severely wounded state, Ulquiorra was extremely daunting and he didn't desire to set him off.

"I'll be right back." Ichigo assured.

Ichigo speedily darted out of the room and took the cold cup of tea with him. Ulquiorra tried to peer out the door and see where he was going, but the red-head slammed it shut on his way out.

"Damn." the immediate urge he had was to jump out the window. Ulquiorra reluctantly bent his ankle back and forth to get an idea of how bad his broken leg was. If he was in his released state, he could fix it in a matter of seconds, but he was too physically and mentally drained to even consider that.

It appeared that he had been healed by some kido-his deep wounds were mended together and were tightly wrapped with soft, inviting cotton. He juggled some thoughts in his head, and concluded that Kisuke was the only competant human in this world responsible for that, or possibly that tangerine-haired woman. Regardless, he wouldn't get very far in his current condition so he crossed his arms and let his eyes scan the room in detail.

Tiny traces of other spiritual pressures lingered in the room. Ulquiorra rattled around all the spiritual pressures he was familiar with and quickly identified two as Renji Abari and Rukia Kuchiki. It slightly disturbed him that several Shinigami were hanging around him while he was unconscious; if he was found by the wrong person then his situation could be much, much worse. He supposed at least.

Ulquiorra recalled that when he was slipping into unconsciousness that he only wanted to be dead because he no longer had a purpose; it sickened him to think that his only reason to sustain life was to serve Aizen. He deserved freedom too. Right?

"Hey." Ichigo felt like he was going to try this again. "Here's some tea." Ulquiorra lightly shook his head and held his arm out. Ichigo carefully transferred the cup over and watched with ease as Ulquiorra sipped it.

A low roar was heard as Ichigo pulled a roller-chair to the bed-side. He had a cup in his hand for himself and sighed after he took a longer sip.

"What's up?" the voice seemed much more cheerful, as if he were talking to an old friend. Ulquiorra assumed that he was probably practicing the way he would approach him the second time. Making tea didn't take fifteen minutes.

Ulquiorra's expression became blank. So now he was just trying to spark a leisure-like conversation to get him to talk about what really happened.

"Come on. This won't work if you're just quiet the whole time. Is anything bothering you?" Ichigo motioned at his wounded leg which was poked out from the blankets.

"Yes, you." Ichigo appeared slightly astonished, but soon anger flushed over his body in a massive wave and he wanted to tell him to go to hell, and that he shouldn't have saved him in the first place. But, Ichigo had earlier promised himself that he wouldn't lose his temper, and he knew from the start that this was going to be a difficult task.

"Don't think I'm enjoying this." Ichigo couldn't help but have some anger seep through his reply.

"Then why did you bring me here?" Ulquiorra's fists started to clench and some of the comforter was enraveled in his tightening grasp.

"Well I just can't stand to see someone suffering." the corners of Ulquiorra's thin lips twitched as he fought a smile. Was Ichigo really serious? It gave most people pleasure to watch their enemy suffer a slow, painful death, so what made this Shinigami any different?

Ulquiorra's eyes widened when he figured out the answer. Ichigo's face turned alert, thinking the pale-man was in some sort of pain.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo placed a hand on his shoulder.

Ulquiorra shrugged away from the touch and shot another hateful look at the teenager. "Nothing, I forgot that you were human is all." a smile enlarged on Ichigo's face at the comment.

"I'm hungry, how about you?" Ulquiorra didn't reply, he could tell that Ichigo was trying to veer away from conversating about human emotions. That would only lead to a never-ending debate, and at the moment, Ichigo had little patience to deal with something like that.

"It's pretty late, so I'm sure my sisters are asleep." Ichigo quietly opened the door to where only a low creek was audible. Ulquiorra listened carefully and couldn't hear Ichigo's footsteps; it was a little strange that he was sneaking around in his own house, but Ulquiorra couldn't even fathom what would happen if one of Ichigo's sisters saw him.

A thought followed. "Wait. I'm not in a gigai."Ulquiorra ran a pale hand through his shaggy raven hair and sighed-what a situation he was in. He wondered if Aizen and all the other Espada thought he was dead. Aizen's power was immense, and if it weren't for his regenerative powers, he wouldn't have lasted more than a few minutes in the heat of that battle. He shook his head trying to wash away the thoughts. For an instant, he wished Ichigo was with him because at least the company kept his thoughts from straying. He felt like he had failed Aizen somehow, and the feeling was horrendous.

Countless scenarios played through his head and he analyzed in each one how Aizen might have been displeased by his actions. He couldn't come up with an answer, which was odd, he always knew the answers. He brought a face to his palm and sighed, he couldn't let Ichigo see him like this, it would only give the teenager more questions to ask. He let his head rest against the wall and closed his eyes, at least sleeping would take his mind of things for a little while.

"I brought what was left from dinner." Ichigo barged in right before Ulquiorra was verging on the luxury of sleep. The red-head sat the full plate beside Ulquiorra and settled in the roller chair across from the bed. Ulquiorra's emerald eyes shifted to the plate and intently examined the food. It looked nothing like the rubbish that was served in Heuco Mundo, this actually appeared edible. Ulquiorra recalled only eating the questionable food to sustain life; he most certainly never took pleasure out of eating. That was a human trait. He slowly grasped the chopsticks and brought some to his mouth; he lightly chewed and noticed that Ichigo was staring.

"What?" a low grumble formed in his throat. He at least wanted to eat in piece. Ichigo quickly diverted his gaze and tilted his head down at his own food.

"Nothing." Ulquiorra got a panicked look in his face "What's wrong?"

"Where's my zanpaktou?" he placed the food aside and a more deadly aura surrounded him, silently warning Ichigo that his life was at stake if he didn't fork it up. Ichigo placed his plate on the ground and held both hands up and motioned for him to stay put.

"Calm down. It's not like you need it right now anywa-." Ichigo was cut short as a hand constricted around his throat.

"Get off!" The red-head fruitlessly clawed at the pale hand and struggled to pull it away. To be as wounded as Ulquiorra was, he was still godly strong. Ichigo had the immediate regret of not putting him in a gigai when he had the chance; another regret that struck him was that he was so naïve to not be in his Shinigami form. Shit, that was so stupid. Ichigo managed to jerk his head to the right, and recalled that the tiny, teal pill was in a secret zipper-compartment in his backpack. There was an absolute zero chance of him being able to fish it out before he was strangled to death.

With a quick kick of his leg, Ichigo impacted Ulquiorra's broken ankle, making it pop back out of place. The Arrancar winced in pain as he leg began to throb uncontrollably, the pain was immense and he immediately released his grasp on Ichigo. The red-head rolled over and his hands and knees and gasped uncontrollably. It was incredible how weak he was in his human form. Any longer, and he probably would have been a goner.

"What the hell is your problem!" Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes as he cradled his ill-positioned leg. What a cheap shot.

"Kisuke has your zanpaktou. He was concerned you may draw your sword out of fear. You should lie down, I'm going to call Kisuke, he needs to do some more work on your leg, it's obviously not sturdy."

Ulquiorra sighed in disbelief. Was he truly going to let some human get the best of him? And out of fear? Ulquiorra couldn't believe what he was hearing, there was no way he would be intimidated by the likes of a human, or a Shinigami! Ulquiorra's hateful thoughts were interuppted as Ichigo hesitantly scooped the pale man up and laid him on the bed. His head bobbed back in forth as he bounced back on the bed. He might as well had dropped him, what an asshole.

Ichigo shook his head at the Arrancar. He had already pissed him off to the point of violently attacking in a couple hours. He also knew he would have to call Kisuke back to re-set Ulquiorra's ankle and somehow manage to not wake his sisters or father. Ichigo sighed and glanced at his watch. Only 8:30? It's going to be a long night.

A/N: I have several ways that I can let this go, I also take suggestions. So if you have any ideas, please let me know. Reviews help me see what I need to improve on, so if you guys have time, tell me what you liked, disliked, or give some input on what I can improve on. I hope everyone had a good weekend, and enjoyed the story.