Orihime stared up at the ceiling of her living room. She was laying down on her couch. Hands clasped together beneath her breasts. Red hair splayed across the cream throw pillows. Creating a bloody halo around her head. Grey eyes vacant as memories of battles past replayed in her mind on repeat. Never ending. The screams of the dying and the wounded haunt her nightmares. Insane laughter of ones gone mad. The glint in the eyes of the truly drunk with battle lust. Orihime shuddered.
She closed her eyes. Bone desert and an endless black sky with a lonely crescent moon greeted her. Withered trees, cracked and burnt, dotted the empty landscape. Pristine ivory pillars held up the unnatural sky from falling of the desert inhabitants below. A man with death pale skin and eyes of emerald. Murcielago sheathed at his hip. Ulquiorra.
Orihime opened her eyes. Ulquiorra's last words haunted her constantly.
"I see… so this is the heart... Just when I finally took an interest in you humans... Are you afraid Woman? "
Orihime ground her teeth together in frustration. Her breath left her lungs with a huff, rolling over on her side to face the t.v. The news anchor droning on about Arial disturbances. Oh well, it doesn't matter. Uliquorra died two years ago. Her heart still hurt.
Orihime tapped her pen against her notebook as she watched Ichigo sprint out the school gates, his zanpakuto thumping against his back as he ran off to hunt another hollow. After they returned from Hueco Mundo, Ichigo made it clear to her that he did not want her involved in the Soul Society any longer. He didn't want her to be held hostage and put in danger again. A pit dropped in her stomach when he said those words. She was considered useless. Only good enough to heal wounds.
Orihime didn't love Ichigo anymore. In fact, she gave up on her feelings ever being returned in full when they rescued Rukia from the Soul Society's execution block. The look on Ichigo's face when he learned that Rukia was going to die told her everything. He never looked at her like that. Orihime didn't regret not kissing Ichigo the night Uliquorra came to take her away. It made her realize that she no longer loved him. Ichigo and Rukia made a cute couple anyway. Even if they didn't know it yet.
When Ichigo disappeared from sight, Orihime turned back to the trigonometry lesson. The teacher droning on and on about complex formulas that Orihime had no interest in learning. The shapes drawn on the board blurring as she squinted at the math. Attempting to make sense of it. Giving up, her mind wandered back to Uliquorra.
With her pen still in hand she began to draw a large gothic fourall over her trigonometry notebook. Black ink slowly filling in the outline of the four, adding delicate curls to the end. Uliquorra, she decided, was quite handsome. For a hollow of course. Flustered, she started pressing deeper into the paper, nearly causing a tear. Tatsuki turned around in her chair to face Orihime, giving her friend an inquiring look, taking in her flushed cheeks. Orihime shook her head and looked pointedly at the board. Tatsuki rolled her eyes and turned to face the board. Orihime took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her racing heart.
Well it's not like he knew what love or affection was anyway, he's a nihilist after all….. Her train of thought froze, but…. But… before he died, didn't he call his hand his heart? Her eyes widened, mouth opened slightly at her own realization. Did Uliquorra….. Did she… give the most powerful espada a heart?
