Our Destiny, Our Heart

Author's notes/summary/warnings: Ulquihime oneshot.

It was a dark place. You couldn't just reach down and stroke the petal of a fragile flower or tilt your head up to kiss the gentle rain as it would nourish you and cool you. Why would anyone want to stay here? Before anything, it was not a place for her. The bright flower of the daylight had no place in harsh darkness. It couldn't be happy.

"Come with me..." Pale hands were held towards her, drawing her on more than ever, "Help me bring life to this place..."

What once seemed like a threat seemed like an offer that could be taken up on. Every thought, every painful, unbearable thought ran circles through her mind- "I'm not scared..."

"Don't do it Kurosaki-kun!" And yet again, her voice goes unheard. Oh what she would've given to have touched his slowly disintegrating black hand before it turned to dust. All the pain flooded back into her face when she realized it was to late to regain what had to be hers. There was no way that it was anyone elses.

Now, she faced all of her resentments as if given a second chance and looks into his green eyes glowing in the moonlight. She'd come back, this time with a full resolve, and all by herself. And there he was, turning his back on her, not daring to look into those soft grey eyes that might bring the emotion fleeing out of his stoic and frozen nonexisting heart.

"Go back. This place is no where for you to be. There's no water here to quench the thirst of a flower like you," his voice, hard, unmoving, resembled a stone wall that said Do not pass.

There was only so far that someone could go before it was too late and they had to crumble back to the very things that they came from. Who knows when your next step may end up being the last. But something kept him going.

He'd feel a petal touch his skin, or a small laugh that would reach his ears and remember her sweet memories. When the moon got too bright or the tears wouldn't come out, he'd remember those eyes that would constrict them in her stare.

It was a thought, a small light as if the star flickered somewhere in his mind; that one day, she'll be standing under the moonlight in front of him and...

"U-Ulquiorra, I want to stay. I want to stay."

In that instant, he'd never pictured her saying that. It was as if the gap between the two had finally closed up. What made her want to come back? Was it him? Was it a plan with the Shinigami to erradicate the rest of the Espada. Of course he wasn't scared of them.

Can I stay? Please Ulquiorra... Let me stay with you...

Ulquiorra shut his eyes for a moment before walking towards Orihime and interlocked the two of their hands together. First the index finger, then their middle fingers went down to show no harsh feelings, then the ring finger bringing them together for life, and finally their pinkies and thumbs pressed together in a hold that is never meant to be broken.

A bond that was never broken in the first place... they knew what this meant. Ulquiorra had just figured it out. It was like Orihime's shun shun rikka had creating a force field around then that can't be penetrated no matter who tried to break it.

"Let me just stay this way..." The hints of saddness couldn't be hidden any longer from his breaking voice. It was like the moon of Hueco Mundo became real and started pulling the roaring tides of life over the two. Her hands pulled Ulquiorra's head closer while it hung limply over her shoulder like he didn't have the energy to move on anymore.

Orihime's heart thumped. She wasn't blushing, or excited. It wasn't lust that held these two together. It was fate. Fate that they were one day to meet, be separated, and conjoin as one, sharing one heart, and living with whatever they had been thrown.

My destiny... Is by her beating heart...

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