"Hey Orihime! You wanna go to Karaoke after school, or something?" asked the long time friend Tatsuki. Tatsuki had felt that ever since the whole ordeal with the Espada's and Aizen she has been secrectly mopping when she's left alone. Its been 6 months since the incident, and Orihime has been obviously upset about something that maybe had scarred her while in Las Noches. Orihime looked towards the directions of her friends' voice, smiled politely and said in her usual happy tone of voice "Oh thanks Tatsuki, but I have a lot of homework to do over the weekend. Maybe next time." Tatsuki looked at her questionly "We didn't get any homework this weekend." she thought to herself. But despite that fact she responded "Alright, I'll see you next week then." and with that she walked off in the opposite hallway of the one Orihime had taken. Leaving Orihime to herself and to her usual sorrowful train of thought.
Since she and her friends returned to the World of the Living and defeated Aizen and the Espadas', she hasn't been the same. She knew quite well that it was over, there was nothing to worry about as her friends told her many times these past five months. But she couldn't help but think of nothing, dream of nothing, but the Espada that captured her and took her into the abyss of Hueco Mundo-Ulquiorra Schiffer. Why? She did not know. She could not even explain the pain she felt from just the thought of him and his sudden death. Those petrifying green eyes, the streaks that ran down his face like fresh tears, the smoothness of his alabaster skin, his long shaggy black hair, and the white horned helmet-like hollow mask that covered the left side of his head.
It was all real, she was there to witness it all happen-his death, that is-but she felt otherwise. She walked towards the front of the empty school building and began her departure to her small, lonely apartment. As she walked through the streets, feeling the liveliness of her home town: The neighboring children laughing and playing carefree, the wind chimming in her ear, the birds chripping, everything was the same as always. Her life continued and his didn't. "He deserved to experience life through new eye's. And someone to show him what life with a heart could bring him," she thought to herself-as she did almost everyday since then-as she reached her apartment building and began climbing the stairs to reach her floor to her apartment. "But then again why should I care?" she mumbled softly to herself reaching in the depths of her school bag to retrieve the keys as she came closer to her door; she felt a different object. Orihime gasped as she pulled out an item she had not seen since her time in Hueco Mundo.
The object in her hand was the silver bracelet that Ulquiorra had given her before he took her away from her friends and home. But she was sure she had misplaced it back in her time in Las Noches. How can it be? She certainly would have noticed it months ago, nevertheless, she didn't care after the realization came to her that the bracelet she held tightly in her grasp now would be the only thing left of Ulquiorra-a reminder that he was real and that now he was gone forever. Orihime stood outside her apartment door clutching the bracelet close to her chest and slowly the saddness of it all over came her body and mind bringing her to her knees as she weeped silently. She hadn't cried for him not once since her return-why would she?- even with all the sad thoughts and agonizing surreal dreams of him; not once did she shed a single tear for the hollow. That is until she had real proof that he had been a part of her life. It was when she felt the sun dimming that she looked up and slowly stood on her feet and slipped the bracelet on her left wrist. "I'll wear it always," she said whispering to the setting sun and opened the door to her apartment.
That night she had another dream about him. But this one was different than the usual replay of his death or the one of Ulquiorra walking away as Orihime ran towards him even with all her strength she could not reach him. No...this one was happy and blissful to Orihime. She was with the Espada walking the streets of Kurakara town hand in hand wearing the school uniform, as she smiled full-heartedly and he looked down towards her with the same indifferent expression he always had worn. He appeared as the same Arrancar with all its works-the mask, the tear streaks, and the same intense green eyes she unconsicously became so fond of at some point. And just as his lips moved to speak, her alarm began buzzing.
"No, no, no!" she moaned softly into her pillow and as if she was hit by lightning she became still. And just as quickly as she did she shot up from the bed and looked at her left wrist desperately. The bracelet was right where she left it but looking wasn't enough, she clasp the the object as if it were an illusion and would soon fade into ash as Ulquiorra did. But it sustained it's solid form and with that Orihime began to question herself about how she, in actuality as a matter of her feelings and her heart; did she feel about the bracelet, about that dream, and how she truly felt about, Ulquiorra overall. No, she wouldnt think of Ulquiorra in any other way, besides a friend or maybe just an acquintance or someone along those lines.
Afterall He was the one that kidnapped her and tried to kill her friends, so these feelings she felt are mutual as to say she sympathized with Ulquiorra and his death as a fellow being and that was all, right? But then again would she feel all this pain from the thought of a dead acquintance? Would she think about this acquitance so often that it obscured her from both her daily life and time with her friends? Or would she feel this flustered over a pleasant dream about any ol' acquintance? Would she have grieved the death of any ol' acquintance for as long as 6 months as she has been?
The dream was a coincedence and so were the last several dozens of dreams she's had over the past 6 months. She brushed the thought of it all and decided to get up and to go out to run some errands. She quickly washed her face and got dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. She came to the door slipping on some shoes as she said "But I wonder what he wanted to say," she sighed in wonder as she walked out her apartment, locking the door behind her as she did.