Hello, I'm Manga. Welcome to 'Sublimation'. This is going to be my first Bleach fanfic, so go easy on me. The main focus for this story is UlquiHime but there will be other pairings as the story progresses, but I think I'm gonna keep that a little secret for now. ^^ ((I think IchiHime is just plain wrong!)) If there is any problem with spelling or grammar, please forgive me… I'm studying for my Afrikaans cycle test. Anywho carrying on now. This entire story is also dedicated to my bestest buddy, BosBaBe. Hope you enjoy this B-day present Mitchie; sorry I can't give you one in person! (I know this is a little on the late side… sorry.) I hope everyone else enjoys reading this too. (The following is almost like a whole plot summery for the story and I know that it's a sort of weird place to find inspiration for a story, but when I read it, it inspired me none the less. But please don't shoot me about it! I get enough of that from the fanatics in my class.)

"Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have set a man against his father … And a person's enemies will be those of his own household…"

Matthew 10:34-36

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach … It belongs to Tite Kubo.

Enjoy the prologue:

We All Are

Orihime sat still in her chair, holding her head up in her palm while her other hand dashed across the paper, writing all the methods and formulae she had memorized for her maths exam. She put the pen down and rested her throbbing hand for a moment, looking over her answer. Satisfied, she picked up the pen and started with the next equation. She finished her long eight question paper, but still had another seventeen minutes left before the teacher would take in the exams. She pulled her clean scrap page -that she was supposed to use for scribbling possible math solutions on- out from under her exam and started mindlessly gliding the pen along the page. She traced the over the same pattern over and over again, until the teacher hit a small siren and told the students to stop writing.

She heard someone still desperately trying to squeeze in a few extra points before the teacher reached them. Orihime lifted her head and looked over her shoulder at Ichigo, who seemed to be concentrating fiercely as he dashed down the final equation. A waving hand drew her attention away from Kurosaki-kun. Rukia somehow sat directly in front of Ichigo and right across Orihime to the left. The petite blue-eyed girl gave Orihime a big thumbs-up when the teacher collected her paper and went to Ichigo.

"Mr Kurosaki, I believe I said that you should stop writing, didn't I?" The teacher asked him sarcastically, with a large smile on her face. She snatched the paper out from under his hands, but he quickly grabbed the very edge of the paper and tried to get it back from her. "Just 'gimme another minute, teach!" he begged as the two fought for the paper, but she was stronger than he thought she would be and yanked it out of his hands.

Ichigo wined and slammed his orange-haired head onto the desk. Rukia leaned backwards in her chair, balancing on its hind legs, and gave him a few mocking pats on his head and withdrew before he could hit her hand away.

Orihime suppressed a giggle and looked down at her page. She felt her heart sink. On it was an eye, drawn with rough dark blue lines, and a single tear streak sliding down its cheek. She heard the teacher moving down her row, so she clenched the paper in her fist, crumbling it into a tight ball. She put it to one side on her desk and happily gave her exam to the teacher, who was grateful not to have to wrestle with another student for their exam.

The teacher went to her desk in the front of the class and banged a ruler against the chalkboard to get everyone's attention. "Now, I know today was your last exam, and that after I let you go, you start with you holiday. So," Orihime shut her mind down. It was the same speech term after term! Always going along the line of enjoy your vacation and don't break an arm or something so that you can stay at home for another week. Students started laughing and cheering, storming towards the door, their door to freedom for a whole four weeks. The teacher went out after her students and thanked whatever god there was that someone invented school holidays.

Orihime waited patiently for the latter of the crowd to push and heave their way to and out the door. A firm hand rested on her should. Ichigo was standing by her, smiling. "That was some exam! I'm just glad we now have some freedom at last!" Rukia sat on the desk in front of Orihime and looked at Ichigo with an evil glint in her eye.

"What do you mean 'some freedom at last'?" She asked. "You and I are gonna help over at Soul Society for a few weeks while they try to sort out all their new recruits."

"What!" He balled his hands at his sides and then shot them out at Rukia to strangle her. Luckily she was more agile and ducked under his arms and stepped in on the other side of Orihime. She stuck her small pink tongue out at him. "I'm gonna kill you midget! How can you just go and put up my name for volunteer work over a school holiday!"

"Would you two stop, or at least get a room," the pair looked back to the corner of the classroom and saw Uryu sitting calmly with one leg crossed over the other. The two stopped their arguing and glared at the Quincy with anger. Chad was just standing next to his own desk near the centre of the classroom and looked out the windows. Tatsuki had her back against the wall by the door, with a smug grin on her face.

"Everything's still on for tomorrow, right?" Keigo asked from the doorway.

"Well of course, unless you all wanna chicken out because I'm gonna beat all your sorry asses at that competition!" Ichigo mimicked some chicken sounds just for extra effect.

Tatsuki's smile on grew wider. "It's more likely that you'll find Keigo with a girlfriend than see me back down." She was as competitive as ever. Keigo blew his top. "How do you know I don't have a girlfriend already?" Tatsuki snorted. "Well, then I think we better arrange a funeral for the poor girl then." Everyone laughed. "So, you in Orihime?"

"Yup." She was rather looking forward to it, not the competition as much, but she was looking forward to getting out of the city for a while. The whole gang started making bets about which team was going to win; the boys or the girls. She didn't care who won, she just wanted to have a fun, carefree time with her friends for the first time in what seemed like years. Sure, after her and the two Shinigami's return from Hueco Mundo, they all hung out at the mall and met at the park, but there was never any real relaxation or peaceful silence there, just the constant haggard breath of the city.

Orihime stood up from her chair and walked casually to the door while the others continued joking. "Hey, where are you goin'?" Tatsuki leaned over and stretched her arm all the way over to the other door post and blocked her way. "I just realized that I still need to pack and we're going tomorrow. I don't even know if I even have everything." Orihime gave a small smile and rubbed the back of her neck.

"All right then," Tatsuki pushed herself out of the way. "Then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at Ichigo's?"

"Sure thing." Orihime said her goodbyes and left the classroom.

"Hey, is it just me or has she been acting, I don't know… different lately?" Keigo asked loudly after the auburn haired teenager had left. Orihime still laughed, cried, told jokes and made her horrible food, but… everyone just picked up a different vibe from her since she got back from Hueco Mundo.

Ichigo and Rukia looked grimly at each other. Besides Uryu, and the two Shinigami, no one actually knew what the Espada had done to her, but then again not even the Quincy and Shinigami actually knew. Grimmjow had stated that they had screwed around in her mind and that she was one of them now, but that didn't really explain why she shielded Ichigo from one of Ulquiorra's attacks.

"I dunno, maybe her food is starting to get to her or… something." Ichigo said, thinking it was a good way to change the subject.

"You know, I'm surprised she hasn't given herself food poisoning yet," Uryu said from his little corner in the classroom. "She once put tuna with cream and pickles on crackers." All their stomachs churned at the mental sight of it.

They all talked about their different encounters with Orihime's cooking when the walked out of the classroom and through the corridors and to the exit. Half way there, Ichigo said he forgot something and ran back to class. He strode over to Orihime's desk and picked up her crumpled piece of paper and gingerly unfolded it.

The dark, rough blue lines that formed the blank eyes and the tear marks were traced over so many times that another round would have torn the paper. Ichigo knew exactly who those eyes belonged to but he didn't understand why she still thought of him. Did they really mess her mind so much, did they even mess with her mind in the first place?

The substitute shinigami crushed the paper in his hand and threw it in the bin on his way out the classroom.

Orihime took her time going home, looking through the windows of various shops as she went along. She went in the corner grocery store and stopped in front of the aisle of freshly baked bread, not able to decide what she should purchase.

"Lets see…" she said out loud to herself. "Oh, how about some Portuguese rolls and some, tuna, spinach, just for some flavour, some lemon zests." She grabbed a packet of flour sprinkled rolls and skipped off to find the rest of her ingredients. At the till, she waited almost impatiently for the clerk to finish dialing up her foods. She paid him hurriedly and left the store with the plastic bag firm in hand. She hurried to her apartment, but once at the door, she had to dig around in her school sweater's pocket for the keys.

Closing the door behind her, she slid her small feet out of her shoes and walked to the kitchen. She laid the packet down on the brown countertop. She hummed to herself while she opened the fringe and grabbed a can of cool-drink and poured it into a glass.

On her way up the stairs she sipped the cool, refreshing liquid. She burst though the door of her room. "Hello, everyone!" She announced her arrival to the three stuffed animals that occupied her bed. There was a grey hippo was called Mr Snuggums, Orihime had won him during a festival, then there was Snowball, a bunny rabbit that was given to her by Tatsuki for her eighth birthday and last but not least there was Button, a big, brown teddy bear with big, blue eyes that Ichigo gave her when she had her tonsils removed. Putting down the glass on her bedside table she cheerfully trotted over to her closet and swung the doors wide open.

Orihime eyed the suitcase that was on the top shelf, the shelf that happened to be out of her reach. She placed a hand against the frame work –for some support– and jumped up as high as she could manage. Her fingers didn't even come near the handle when she got to the highest point of her jump. She landed back on her feet, huffed out a hot breath, her impatience wearing thin even after her first attempt. She tried a second time, alas she failed. Getting highly annoyed now, she placed a foot on the bottom shelf. She placed all her weight on that one foot, to test if the wooden sheet hold and not shatter into fragments under her. It was still in one piece after a moment, so Orihime put her other foot on the shelf above and gingerly climbed up. When her fingers finally curled around the handle of the bag she yanked it out, sending both her and the bag crashing to the carpeted floor. She moaned and rubbed her lower back, hoping that there wouldn't be a bruise in the morning. She bounced off the floor like nothing happened and put the large travel bag on her purple bed. She raided her through her wardrobe, tossing garments out and soon her floor was littered with discarded clothing. She made sure to pack extra of everything, from her undies to her khaki shorts. She set aside a lose, purple, spaghetti-strap top that's frilly hem that went past her hips, she also added a pair of white beach shorts to wear, and completed it with white wedge sandals. Orihime placed all those items on top of her bag. By late afternoon she was done folding the clothes she had tossed out of her cupboard and had put them back in place neatly.

Orihime stepped into her bathroom with a vanity case in hand and put it down on the counter. The bathroom wasn't big, it had a bath that doubled as a shower with a yellow curtain, and there was a toilet and sink on a white granite counter. She opened the warm water tap of the bath and put the plug in. As the hot water streamed into the bath she removed her school uniform and threw it in the laundry basket beside the door. She took a fluffy brown towel from the railing and wrapped it around herself. She opened the mirror cabinet that was above the sink and took a pink hair band and tied her long auburn hair in a loose, low bun. When the water was the right temperature for her to get in, she unwrapped the towel from her body and put it back on the railing. Cautiously, she dipped her toe in first and a small smile splayed across her face as she got in.

Thick, white steam hung around in the bathroom, dampening everything. Long stray auburn strands plated to the side of her face as she relaxed into the bath. Her half lidded eyes looked straight up to the ceiling. Her mind wondered, sliding in and out of memories, in the end all of them faded into a pair of emerald eyes staring down at her. She tried to keep her mind busy, but she just ended up seeing them again.

She got out of the bath, putting the brown towel over her wet body and slowly dried herself. She put on a night gown that was hanging behind the door and went back to her room. She pulled on a short, white cotton nightdress and took the hair band out of her hair. With her hair brush in hand, she sat on her bed and combed out all the knots she had accumulated in such a short amount of time. Standing up, Orihime had to bend down to the floor to get her tent and sleeping bag out from under her bed and then put them next to her bag.

She made herself some food, using the tuna, bread rolls, and spinach, cream and lemon zests. She thought it had a good sweet and savory flavour to it. She washed all the dishes afterwards, and when that was done she made her way up stairs when the phone in the kitchen rang. She picked up the ringing phone handle and put it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Oh… Hey Orihime!" Ichigo was on the other end of the line.

"Hey, Kurosaki-kun," she chimed happily into the phone, "What are you doing, calling at this time?"

"I was just worried about you; you seemed sortta out of it today."

Orihime held her breath. Was she that obvious? "I was? … Oh, I was, wasn't I? I guess um, I was just really tired, it was the last day of school and our maths examination after all." She heard his breathing over the phone while she waited for him to say something.

"You're still gonna come with all of us tomorrow, or have you forgotten?"

"N-no, I haven't forgotten, I just finished packing an hour ago, so you can count on me being there."

"Good 'cause you could use the break. Well, see ya tomorrow, Orihime."

"Good-night!" She waited for him to put the phone down first before she did. She was very excited about going with everyone to camping trip tomorrow.

Uryu's dad was paying for the camping space and food, while Ichigo's dad was responsible for the transportation and supervision of the gang of teenagers. It was a nice quiet place that was at the foot of a mountain, but within short walking distance of the beach, plus there was a small town nearby, so there would be more than enough activities for them to do while they would be there for three days. It was going to be a good three days, no freak events, no Hollows and no Shinigami, well, sort of.

Orihime went back upstairs and crawled into bed, wanting to sleep as soon as possible to that she could get to Ichigo's house quicker the next morning.

She woke up the next morning and jumped out of bed, already filled with hyper energy. She brushed her teeth and smiled at herself in the mirror. She dressed in her purple top, her white beach shorts and white wedges. She ran the brush through her hair and put it in the vanity case, zipping it closed, taking it in hand she slung her bag over her shoulder and her tent and sleeping bag over the other shoulder and went downstairs. She placed her bags at the door and quickly ate breakfast which consisted of cereal, with milk, banana slices, and drenched in syrup.

She took her small sling bag that was just big enough for her purse and phone and carried it on her shoulder. She did a quick check of the apartment to see it everything was in place and set off with her bags in hand to Ichigo's.

By the time she got there, almost everyone was already, with their things loaded into Mr Kurosaki's old Volkswagen kombi. Orihime put her bags down next to the white vehicle and skipped over to Tatsuki, who as usual was leaning against the wall, waiting for something to happen. Her face immediately brightened upon seeing Orihime and gave her a deadly bear hug. Orihime gently returned the hug and smiled widely. She then noticed that they were the only ones there.

"Um-"

"Their inside, Yuzu is doing a quick cleanup of the house, and Karin might be in the backyard, Mr Kurosaki is putting up the 'closed' in the clinic and I guess Ichigo and Rukia are trying to kill each other somewhere right now." Tatsuki filled her in and put her back up against the wall again. She was casually dressed in a grey hoodie, black shorts, and white sneakers and as usual, she was wearing brightly coloured sweat bands on her wrist.

Yuzu and Karin were the first to join them. Yuzu greeted Orihime warmly and gave her a hug while Karin just said hello and gave her a curt nod. A girlish shriek came from the Kurosaki house and everyone looked in that general direction of the door with wide eyes. Ichigo was walking down the pathway to the gate with Rukia over his shoulder. He was wearing beige khaki shorts, a baby blue unbuttoned short sleeved shirt, and underneath that a white cotton t-shirt, and black sandals on his feet. Rukia was wearing a yellow sundress with white flowers printed on it and white strap sandals.

The petite Shinigami was wriggling around like a fish out of water on his shoulder. She started beating her fists onto his back and kicking her feet frantically into the air. Her actions were so violent that he had to wrap his arm around her waist to keep her from falling off.

"Geez, would you stop squirming already, your only making yourself heavier, plus your practically flashing to the entire world right now" Ichigo said calmly, but turned his face the other way so that he wouldn't have to look at her white underwear.

"What are you talking about you big buffoon?" She stopped wriggling, but continued to beat at his back.

"I'm talking about your underwear being completely visible to the entire world right now." Rukia blushed and beat her fists harder onto his back "Put me down, put me down!"

"Okay." Ichigo unceremoniously slid her off his shoulder and dumped her onto the grass. "Why did you do that!" Rukia yelled at him. Ichigo gave her a toothy grin. "Well, you told me to put you down, so I did." Rukia crouched onto her knees and then in a split second, Ichigo was on the ground with Rukia sitting on top of him.

"What the hell? Why'd you go and do that?" He yelled back at, but she stuck out her small pink tongue at him. He stretched out his arms, trying to strangle her, but she locked her smaller hands with his. As they two were busy wrestling with each other, Uryu, Keigo, and Chad had arrived and were now watching the two Shinigami fight each other on the ground.

"Is someone going to tell them to stop or should be the one to ruin their fun?" The Quincy asked and when no one gave him an answer, he took it as a 'yes please do' and cleared his throat. "Oi," the two stopped fighting, but they had changed positions, with Ichigo on top of Rukia. Both of them blushed with an intense pink on their cheeks and got off the ground.

"I should start recording this stuff and make like a show or something," Keigo said, scratching the back of his head. "And I'll put it on Youtube and make millions!"

"Youtube's for free, you idiot," Ichigo snapped at him, hating the idea of millions of people watching him fight a girl and getting beaten most of the time. Keigo threw himself to the pavement in despair upon hearing his master plan was reduced to nothing.

Mr Kurosaki came along trotting down the pathway, wearing a hideously green colored Hawaiian shirt. "Right, lets get all this loaded and then we came set off, so, Ichigo, put your back into it, we want to get there before sundown!" He shouted at his son who immediately started arguing with him. "Why do I have to put all that in?" he pointed to the mountain of bags that had formed next to the kombi. "Because I said so and if you don't, you'll have to find someone else to drive you around from now on!" Mr Kurosaki shouted dramatically and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're a real pain, you know that?" It was more of a statement than a question. Ichigo began stuffing the bags into the back and slammed the boot shut.

Yuzu and Karin said their good-byes to everyone and went back into the house.

Chad sat in the back, and with Chad being large, Tatsuki had squeeze in to her seat next to him, with Keigo on her left. Orihime sat next to the window, directly behind the driver's seat on the right, while Rukia jumped in next to her, with Ichigo sitting at the door. It was only natural that Uryu sat in front; he was the best out of all of them when it came to reading a map. Mr Kurosaki did a quick head count to check if everyone was there and then started the engine.

"And off we go!"

Ichigo wondered how he ended up with a father like him. "Why do you always have to be so dramatic, Dad?"

He looked back at his son with a smile on his face. "Because, it's a new adventure, Ichigo, so lighten up!" Ichigo couldn't believe his own father had just said that, talk about a total fail.

As they exited the town it was the news on the radio and no one, save Uryu had any interest in listening to that. "I know," Mr Kurosaki shouted, looking at everyone through the rear view mirror. "Let's sing a song!" He sucked in some air before he started.

"The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round.

The wheels on the bus go round and round all day long-"

"Stop! Do you want to torture us?" Ichigo was the first to crack upon hearing the childish song. "We aren't toddlers ya know." He dung around in his pocket for his MP 4 player and passed it to Uryu.

Soon Vanilla Sky's version of 'Umbrella' was playing and everyone seemed happy about it, even Mr Kurosaki, who was tapping his hands on the wheel in tune with the song.

They reached the campsite a little after lunch time. Rukia shoved Ichigo out of the kombi before he could even get the door fully open and landed flat on his face on the tar. The petite Shinigami jumped over him and landed lightly on her feet.

"Show off," he muttered and got off of the ground.

Everyone else got out in a rather orderly fashion, while Ichigo had to unload the kombi. Mr Kurosaki skipped over to the reception and got confirmation to allow them set up their camping gear. With all their bags in hand they set off into the camping grounds that were a little further up the mountain.

Once they got there everyone was starving. A black butterfly fluttered by unseen and rested on the leaf of a small shrub nearby. A gate formatted and once the door opened, a loud voice erupted.

Renji stormed through, dropping his bags in the process and tackled Ichigo head-on. "How's it going, Strawberry?" He ruffled the substitute Shinigami's head roughly before releasing him. Ichigo was surprised to see he was dressed right. Red baggy shorts, black sandals, and an unbuttoned orange shirt that openly displayed his tattooed chest and abdomen; he didn't look too bad.

Rangiku came through next –also tossing her bags aside– and ran straight at Orihime, giving her a hug, but her overly large breasts were suffocating the poor girl. She was also so dressed appropriately with a pink tank-top that did nothing to cover up her cleavage one bit and a beige miniskirt that hiked up high on her thighs.

"Matsumoto, release the girl, unless you want to suffocate her with your obese assets." A cool, calm voice spoke from the gate. Hitsugaya Toshiro [A/N: there may be some spelling variations out there regarding his first name but I'm gonna stick with this one.] stood before the closing gate, coldly glaring at everyone. His blue eyes stood in bright contrast with his snow white hair, making him stick out like a sore thumb. To make the matter worse he was dressed in dark skinny jeans, with white sneakers and a black long-sleeved top.

Rangiku let go of Orihime, asking if she did hurt her, of course the auburn haired teenager lied and said she was unharmed.

"Hey, Toshiro," Ichigo called out. "I was wondering if you'd come along, you being such a stick-in-the-mud and all."

Toshiro flashed an angry gaze at the substitute Shinigami. "That's Captain Hitsugaya. Soul Society wouldn't just let two lieutenants run off into the World of the Living for three days without the overseeing of a captain, so in truth I have no choice but to be here."

Ichigo laughed and shoved Renji off. "See, such a stick-in-the-mud!"

After everyone had all the latest gossip, they grabbed their towels and headed down to the beach. Naturally the girls had their bikinis on underneath their clothes so that didn't need to lag the boys so that could change.

Rukia had a white and blue stripped bikini with a matching bottom, and wrapped a fairly transparent black sarong around her waist. Orihime wore a baby pink bikini with a little heart shaped silver charm hanging from her cleavage, but she left her beach shorts on. Rangiku wore a white boob tube bikini that barely held her breasts in place and a boy-cut bottom, elongating her legs. Tatsuki surprisingly also had a bikini on, but her top was cut like a tank top and her shorts were also a boy-cut, both gun-metal grey in colour.

"Captain, you're not gonna go to the beach dressed like that are you?" Rangiku asked Toshiro, hugging him closely to her.

"What is wrong with the way I'm dressed, Matsumoto?"

Ichigo plied Rangiku off of Toshiro before she would have smothered her own captain. Ichigo couldn't help but smile. "Well, for one we're going to the beach, and two, its summer, people dress in shorts and you know, not in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt." His efforts seemed to be in vein when Toshiro just stared at him. "Yo, Renji, Ishida! Come help me over here!" The red-haired Shinigami and the Quincy knew what Ichigo wanted to do, and so each of them grabbed Toshiro's arms and dragged him away while Ichigo raided his bags and took out a white t-shirt and blue swimming trunks.

They returned with triumphant grins on their faces.

"Hey, what did you guys do with Captain Hitsugaya?" Rukia asked, but all three boys just shrugged their shoulders in response.

Not too long after, the white-haired Shinigami captain came along kicking the dirt in frustration. Ichigo, Uryu, and Renji and forced him into the t-shirt, and swimming trunks and stole his other clothes, and he was angry to say the least. If he wasn't in his pathetic Gigai, he would've froze them into new lawn ornaments the moment they laid a finger on him.

Rangiku stood with her mouth open. He looked like a totally different person. "How'd you guys do it?" No one bothered to answer her question. "Don't you just feel better?"

"No." He didn't feel better. He just wanted to get this beach fiasco over with.

"Hey, can we get a move on?" Tatsuki shouted all the way from the other side of camp. "We're killing some serious daylight here!"

They all hurried down and walked to the beach. Even a few yards away they could smell the salty sea water. They looked down onto the white sand and crystal blue water; it was paradise. Orihime and Tatsuki ran down and jumped down onto the soft, warm sand. The others soon joined them, forming a big puppy pile on top of the two girls. The beach wasn't too busy, but there were a lot of teenagers and young adults on the beach, enjoying their school break.

Ichigo and the other boys, save Uryu and Toshiro, broke into a straight sprint for the water, splashing through the waves. Tatsuki and Rukia soon joined them, splashing water at each other. Orihime and Rangiku laid their towels onto the sand and sat down watching the others play in the water.

"Put some sun lotion on first before you tan, Rangiku," Orihime put her tote bag next to her and took out a blue bottle of sun lotion. She squeezed some of it onto Rangiku's hands before she took some herself. She rubbed it in on her arms, leg, stomach and finally her face. She looked over to Rangiku who had finished before and was now lying on her stomach, enjoying the sun.

Uryu was sitting a little away from them, reading a book he had brought along. Toshiro was sitting by himself on a bolder by the sea and he seemed to be enjoying the cold water that misted onto his face when the waves crashed against the bolder.

Orihime lay down on her stomach and enjoyed the warm sun. She used her arms as a pillow and rested her head on them. She lay there for minutes on end before she finally opened her eyes again. Her grey eyes settled on the white sand that stretched out before her.

"…Looks just like their sand in a way." She whispered to herself. Orihime sighed and rolled over onto her back. She shielded her eyes from the sharp rays of the sun, remembering the cold, dark nights lit by the reversed silver crescent moon. It was such a lifeless place. It was all that bad though, she told herself. At least she had some company, well once every hour for about five minutes, though there were times during her time at Las Noches that she didn't want to see or speak to anyone. All the sunlight made her feel uncomfortable; she needed to cool off.

Orihime got up and unbuttoned her beach shorts, revealing her baby pink bikini bottom. She tossed the shorts down onto her towel and ran off to the water. The water was cold as first but once she was waist deep it was rather refreshing. She swam a bit further away from the others and floated on her back. She watched the white clouds sail across the sky and the seagulls glide through the air above her.

"Hey, Orihime!" Rangiku called out from the beach. "Come on back! We're all gonna go get lunch!"

Food was all the motivation Orihime needed to get out of the water and rush to dry herself. She was starving. She dabbed the towel on her wet skin and put her shorts back on. Rolling up the towel she stuffed it into her tote bag and skipped off to Rangiku who was waiting patiently for Orihime and the others to get to the road that led to the small town nearby.

They went to a place called the 'Octopus on Rocks'. It was a small place, and it had a little balcony that was overlooking the sea so the group got two tables together and sat there.

A waiter gave them their menus and then left to attend to the other customers inside.

"No way!" Ichigo shouted. "Th-these prices are-"

"Ridiculously cheap," Uryu completed the sentence for him. "But that doesn't mean you can go completely over board, I'll be the one to get a scolding if you use up all the money." Uryu's father even offered to pay for all their food, and so he gave his son his bank card.

"Ooooh, this lozenge sounds delicious!" Rangiku said from behind her menu.

"Um, Rangiku, do you even know what lozenge is?" Orihime asked, hoping that the strawberry-blonde Shinigami wasn't allergic to anything.

"No, I have absolutely idea, but I'm gonna eat it anyway… I think I'll also have some dumplings too, and then an extra-large bowl of rice!" She seemed genuinely happy.

"So much for not going over board, Uryu!" Renji laughed, finding Rangiku's large appetite both weird and amusing. The comment earned him a rough pull by his hair that pulled him completely off of his chair.

They ordered their food and ate with loud conversation and laughter. Uryu paid and left with everyone hot on his trail.

"Hey, where are we going, you know that camp is the other way, right?" Renji asked, afraid the Quincy had some other plan in store for them.

"Well, unless you brought food with, I suggest we go to the supermarket." He stated frankly. Renji pulled a face behind the Quincy's back. "How about you all stay outside while, Ichigo, Keigo and I get some food for tonight and breakfast. Is that okay with you?"

Everyone nodded and not ten minutes later the three shoppers were back and on the way back to camp. Uryu set the food down by his bags, getting Chad to help him with the tent. It was a big tent, big enough to get three people and their luggage inside. Uryu, Chad and Keigo were sharing a tent, while Ichigo had to share a tent with Renji and Toshiro. Uryu and Chad were finished with their tent before Ichigo even began with theirs.

"Hey, that's not fair! You got Chad, who actually knows how to set this stuff up, while I'm stuck with them!" Ichigo ranted and raved. "And their just sitting there, I gotta do this all by myself…"

"Okay, we're done!" Orihime called out in triumph.

"This isn't fair, even the girls are done before me." Ichigo pouted. "Well, have you ever considered asking fore help?" The Quincy asked. "Well, I… uh… no." He admitted. Uryu backed away from the fire he was building over by the brick kennel and helped Ichigo set up his tent.

Orihime stood by the bundle of firewood, wondering what they were going to eat. Maybe she could make something for them sometime during their stay. The sun was beginning to sink down into the bowls of the mountain.

Uryu continued with his little fire until it looked like a bonfire. "Okay, you got a choice between chicken, or beef everybody."

"Chicken or beef what? Legs, fillets, patties-" Orihime was just starting with her list when Uryu stopped her. "Kebabs, Hawaiian style."

Renji popped up behind Uryu, eyeing the food. "It sounds like some other plant to me."

The Quincy forgot that the Shinigami knew almost nothing about the food that was in the World of the Living. "It chunks of meat put on a stick with either some vegetables or fruit put in-between the meat. In this case it's some pineapple. You grill it over an open fire." He took one from the packet, and put it in front of the red-haired Shinigami's face.

Ichigo was in charge of getting everyone a paper plate and a serviette. He just tossed both items at them, almost hitting them square in the face.

With the moon up and the stars shinning, they all sat by the fire kennel, watching Uryu cook the kebabs and talk. After they ate and disposed of their paper plates, they sat by the fire again, this time talking about thing that had happened the past year.

"I'm just glad that all those Arrancar are gone. Geez were they a hand full." Ichigo commented thinking about all the Arrancar he had fought.

"Yeah, all they did was cause trouble for everyone," Renji said. "All they did was fight, fight, fight, like they never had anything else to do."

Orihime had curled herself up in her camping chair. "Well, they didn't know anything else… So I guess that was all they knew how to do."

"You're actually defending them?" Rukia shouted out. "Even after they made you look like a traitor, and held you captive?" All the Shinigami in the group didn't take her comment lightly; even Ichigo seemed upset about it.

"Well, think about it: Shinigami, Quincy, Human, Vizard, we are all born free to make our own decisions. We were taught to think for ourselves, the Arrancar, they weren't given that opportunity. They were brought into existence by Aizen, who just had them fight, and do what he wanted them to do." Orihime paused to look around; they were all listening to her intently. "From what I saw in Hueco Mundo, they didn't know what friendship was, all they knew about was pain. Their very lives are filled with it, and Aizen promised to make it stop, but he didn't, he used it as a type leverage to make them bend to his will; they didn't know that what they were doing was wrong. They did it because he could take the pain away if they did as he pleased."

Orihime let out a weary breath after her long speech.

Ichigo looked at her grimly. "Inoue, tell me, did they do anything to you, you know mess with you?"

"What are you talking about? They never touched me; no one besides Ulquiorra ever came near me." Orihime did remember Grimmjow talking to her once or twice but it wasn't worth mentioning. An aching silence followed.

Rangiku was the first one to speak. "Were they really like that, really in some much pain?"

Orihime was surprised at the amount of pity and concern in Rangiku's voice. "Yeah, though none of them every admitted to it, because that meant you were weak and if you were weak you got killed. There was one time though, I think his name was Wonderweiss, he asked why Aizen didn't stop the pain when he promised he would…"

"I thought they just killed everyone for sport, but what you just said, I think it makes some sort of sense." Renji also admitted to feeling sorry for the Arrancar.

Everyone else was deep in thought, after a long session of saying good night to everyone; they went off to bed, one by one. Orihime was the only one left sitting by the dying fire.

She couldn't help but think over her time at Hueco Mundo, her time with the Espada there, especially him. Sure he was cold, to the point, didn't understand emotion or their point of existence, but he looked after her. She kept on thinking over one thing Ulquiorra said before he disappeared. "Just as I was getting interested in you people." What did he mean by that?

When she found that thinking was becoming too much, she slouched her way to her tent, taking care not to step on any of the girls on her way in. She unzipped her sleeping bag and tucked herself in under its thick cover.

"Uhhn… Night Ulquiorra…"

Gotta stop there. What do you guys think: Hate it, love it, it needs work? Well, I hope you guys enjoyed it, especially you, Mitchie! More will be coming but I fear it will take a while, I just started my senior year of school, soooooo it's study, sleep, eat, school, study, ect for about another three weeks. Review if you want, I won't hold it against you if you don't wanna.

Until next time… ^^