Ok, so this is something that sprang up in my mind suddenly while I was bored to death. It's kinda really short, drabble-ish, whatever you wanna call it. And kinda depressing too. Ah, well. Set around before the time skip, after the events of the winter war, Orihime looking back to her time in Hueco Mundo.

Disclaimer: Bleach isn't mine. Wish it was though. *sigh*

PS: I've recently learned how to draw Ulquiorra! Yays!

Realizations

.

It took a while for Orihime to realize that her captor was beautiful. Frightening, but beautiful. It was a peaceful afternoon, or as peaceful as Las Noches could get anyway, and he had been bringing in her food tray. As she watched him stride into the room with perfect, measured steps, the realization crashed on her with the force of a horde of stampeding bulls. She did not understand why it affected her so, for she had seen many other beautiful things. Like the laces on the yellow dress she bought last week, or the sky just before the sun sets, or the buttons Ishida-kun sewn on her coat, or how Kurosaki-kun's warm amber eyes would twinkle in contentment.

She felt it was rather wrong of her to think of the enemy as something like beautiful, but he could always captivate her, especially his forest green eyes. They were empty, yet at the same time full. Full of questions, questions about the heart and all that comes with it. She always took a liking to his eyes, even since the first time they had met.

Yet he was frightening. That was something she couldn't deny. The menacing edge to his colorless voice as he threatened her when she wouldn't eat was frightening. How his vivid green eyes would narrow and harden when she mentioned her friends was frightening too. But she was never afraid of him. He strikes fear within others, plants doubt and terror to other creatures, but he could not scare her. Not her, never her.

He had been beautiful even in death, she thought with a pang and a dull ache to her chest, as she held out her hand, and touched nothing but empty air. Tears streamed down her face, and she didn't know why, but they kept coming anyway in large droplets while an unexplainable grief coursed through her. Looking back, she supposed she was crying for him. His great, black wings that looked so much like a raven's disintegrated into ash and were followed by the rest of his body. She saw his emerald eyes flash dully as he stared at her, unmoving as the wind carried away his form. He looked sad and lonely too.

And another realization washed over her, making her ache to her very core. That no matter how much power he yielded, no matter how great his fighting prowess was, no matter how perfect he could put on that expressionless mask on his face, at that moment she could see he was exactly just that. A sad and lonely man, searching for salvation from the insecurities of the world.

She felt the grains of ash brush her fingertips before being blown away by the wind.

END

Mind to review? :)

Akane