She didn't need to look up to know he was there.
Ulquiorra's steps were near-silent as he approached her from behind, fingertips cold like moonlight as they slid through her hair. The intense green of his eyes stared back at her reflection in the window, her face tired but calm. There was no emotion in the line of his lips, no softness to his unrelenting gaze. But there was a question resting just on its edge.
"Why don't you fear me?"
His fingertips tasted the texture and quality of her hair before letting each strand fall onto her shoulders. Where hers was the color of eventide, his was like the starless night sky. Ulquiorra would never divulge it truly, but the sheer enormity of their contrasting traits fascinated, allured, and ultimately frustrated him. Frustrated him far more than the insipid, pubescent boy she so pined after. Frustrated him more than anything he thought possible.
Orihime permitted herself to breathe only when his hands left her hair. No sooner had she taken a breath did he begin again, the slow, ticklish inspection of his hands leaving a punch of warmth deep in her belly.
"That boy – Kurosaki – do you think he fears me?"
The wintry threat in his voice slithered up her spine to settle somewhere in her chest. Orhime closed pale gray eyes and merely lowered her head. Silence beat heavily against her back, the warmth of his body and spiritual energy surging around her form.
The cold press of his lips against her nape evoked a startled gasp. She watched through the reflection as his fingers came slowly over her throat, across one collarbone and finally beneath her chin. "You haven't answered me," Ulquiorra whispered, firm, slender fingers remaining where they were, the others tangled in her hair to hold it over one shoulder.
Orhime's voice was parched, as she finally spoke. "Whether he fears you or not doesn't matter. He will rescue me..and kill you." Their reflected gazes locked, and whether it was the moonlight in her eyes or something else, Ulquiorra could swear there was a tracery of sadness in her eyes.
As quickly as they came, his hands withdrew and slipped, casually, back into the pockets of his uniform. Orihime watched him turn, still near-silent, a sigh of relief escaping her lips as he opened the door –
"You stupid girl."
-And closed it, as if he was never there at all.