Title: Esperanza Falsifique

Summary: In another life this wouldn't have happened… if this were another life… he wouldn't be the only one that she saw as an escape from reality… but once the war ended… was he the only one who could help her? UlquiHime IchiRuki

Shalan's Chatter: Hey there! I am on an UlquiHime binge... read and review or nothing else will be posted.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach… but I wish I did…

Chapter: El Curación

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The crowd parted as she walked through, her eyes scanning the wide pathway. She nodded to a couple of people but then looked away. It was as if everything was moving in slow motion. The beautiful silks and satins of the kimonos around her faded away into black and white, the sparkling stars in the deep purple sky above her stopped twinkling. Her grey eyes had lost their sparkle. She made her way through the crowd and walked past a food seller.

"Congratulations Orihime!" Ichigo cheered from near her and for the first time since she could remember, her heart didn't leap when he was near her. She just looked at him and forced a smile. The replacement shinigami was too busy celebrating his win against Aizen to notice her. She watched his orange hair retreat and grabbed her earring nervously before being shoved down a dark alley. She walked slowly, carefully, tentatively. As though if she stepped on the wrong stone the entire floor would fall out beneath her.

"¿Y porque estas triste princesa(1)?" She stopped dead in her tracks but dared not to look behind her for fear she was dreaming.

"Because… I don't know… where to go from here…" she turned around but saw no one. Her grey eyes darkened, like a silk cloth wet with water her eyes became the color of soot as she pressed her hands into her face. Why was she hearing things?

"Orihime-san?" She turned around only to run into him.

"S-Sorry Uryu…" she turned her gaze to the ground.

"You shouldn't be so sad on a night like tonight…" he reached out to touch her cheek and she smiled softly. "It's a celebration…"

"You always cheer me up Uryu…" her voice was soft. "Where's Kazumi?"

"I have no clue… she said she had something to do… the captains are doing something up at the great hall…" he took her hands and squeezed. "You'll find them…" she lifted her eyes to meet his and he smiled.

"You think so…" her grey eyes were hopeful.

"Whoever it is that you've been looking for… you'll find them…" her heart lifted with those words. "I know… it looks bleak right now… but keep holding on to the edge of life… because soon you'll have someone to help you onto solid ground…"

"Solid ground huh?" She heard crumbling rock beneath her feet and a hand reaching out to grasp hers. For a moment all of Hueco Mundo disappeared and there he stood, protecting her like he had been told you even when it took all of his strength to keep her from dying. "I reject…" she whispered and watched the memory dissipate.

"Do not lose faith Orihime…" he smiled as she buried her face in his chest. The tears came, dripping onto his shihakusho. "Because… it will heal in time…" he wrapped his arms around her tightly and let her sob into his shoulder. "It will heal in time…" he whispered in her ear.

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"In time it will heal…" she whispered to herself as she walked down the street from Urahara's Shop. "I wonder what… that is… in Spanish…" she slid her hand along the wall of the subway station.

"Next stop… Harajuku…" she sat down on the subway seat and curled her fingers through her hair. Her hairpins brushed against her palms and she closed her eyes.

"En tiempo… si curará…(2)" she heard that voice again.

Are you here? Or am I hearing things? She thought to herself. Who was she kidding? He couldn't possibly be there… at her stop she stood up and walked off the train and onto the streets of Tokyo.

The darkness of her apartment overwhelmed her as she shut the door behind her. It was never this dark in Hueco Mundo… it was almost always bright because of that crescent moon that hung in the violet sky. Her room had been white, almost everything was white in Hueco Mundo… but Las Noches had been different… for some reason… there… she had felt as though she were… not being shunned… though she knew it was a farce… for some reason… she had come to find that Stockholm Syndrome really existed because as she found herself now feeling, she missed Las Noches.

She dropped her house keys on the counter and pulled off her coat, tossing it on the couch and walking towards her bedroom. "I reject…" she whispered softly but again… nothing happened.

"Your powers are controlled by your emotions… I understand now… the more strongly you feel about what you are doing the more powerful your abilities are… I suppose that when you are fighting for someone you love your powers really are like a god in power…" He looked ahead, his elbow on his knee. "In the meantime… your friend Kurosaki has such wide fluctuations in his power that I assume he will eventually destroy himself…"

"Like a god in power…" she walked towards her bed, pulling off her polo. "Too bad really… that you were wrong…" she dropped back onto the bed as she stepped out of her jeans. "Were do I go from here?" The ringing in her ears shattered the would-be silence. And she swore she could hear fireworks in the distance… and the soft whistling sound that used to call to her in Hueco Mundo…

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Translations:

Title: Fake Hope

Chapter: The Cure

(1) ¿Y porque estas triste princesa?: And why are you sad princess?

(2) En tiempo… si curará…: in time it will heal