A/N:So this is more set up I guess.

Chapter One: Strangers

He transferred to Karakura high school right as the school year began. His appearance got him a lot of attention, as people who he never even introduced himself to called out his name in the halls and invite themselves to sit by him at lunch.

But his silence and passive face was only entertaining for so long. After three weeks, he could walk peacefully down the hall ways and didn't have to listen to pointless gossip as he struggled to swallow the so called food the school served.

Being the loner was just his way. He didn't mind it at all. When he was younger, all attempts to make friends all ended in disaster until middle school. Then he moved to Hueco Mundo and joined a gang of pranksters who called themselves the Espada.

But that was history. His father received a promotion and they had to move about a hundred miles away so the only way to keep up contact was phoning and the internet. And he really disliked both forms of communication. He was a man of few words and types of communication where only words where involved were filled with moments that were very long and awkward. So that is to say, he didn't talk to anyone anymore.

Since he didn't have anyone pass the time with, he often just stared at the passing people during the school day and categorized them, then went to the library to make returns and check things out and return home to pass the time reading. He was very much a bookworm. Sometimes he'd go to the basement of the apartment complex to hit the punching bag. His parents kept trophies from when he was a little kid in Martial arts in the living room.

Otherwise, there wasn't much to say on Ulquiorra Cifer. He was just a fit, nerdish loner. He didn't do anything exciting. It was like there was no depth to him at all.

She lived in this town her whole life. She hated it all with a passion. It was her inescapable hellhole of broken dreams and forgotten promises.

When she was four, she lived alone with her brother. He technically kidnapped her when he turned 18 but their drug abusing parents didn't care enough to report it.

In the next year, her father supposedly was killed in an accidental fight outside the bar, but neither Orihime nor Sora heard of this, or the way their mother hopped around the room her living room happily because the life insurance policy she had on her husband and the monthly payments had finally paid off. Within the next half year, their mother over dosed on some of the drugs she bought in back alley ways with her new fortune.

And that's how the runaway got custody of his kidnappie and a half million dollars to boot.

It didn't bother Orihime at all to find out she was an orphan though. She didn't even mind that—in legal terms—Sora had kidnapped her from her parents. She could remember how her mother beat her and how her father touched her, and felt no remorse when the police knocked on the crappy apartment door, a little after she turn five years old.

They first asked if Orihime was currently at the staying residence and she immediately ran for the bathroom and locked the door, thinking they were there to take her back to her parent's house. But after fifteen minutes of not getting pulled out of the bathroom by men in uniform and a slammed door, she peaked out at Sora who stared dumbfounded at the spot where she assumed the policemen must have just stood.

Later some lawyers took care of transferring the money to Sora's bank account and he was able to quit his job and apply for college. The interest got them around twenty thousand a year, less then what Sora's previous job got them but they pulled through. Everything was going to be alright.

That is until Sora got hit by a car while walking to his campus when Orihime was eight. After Orihime figured out how to pay the funeral costs, the land lady decided to take her in and only took half of what the original rent was from the interest on the inheritance.

So Orihime lived alone with a valuable piece of plastic and no family. No Sora to pull her out from the closet when her childhood haunted her or crawl onto bed with when she had a nightmare. No one to help her with homework, to walk her to school, to tell her the bullies were just trying to get attention.

She just promised herself she was leaving the minute she turned eighteen. Somewhere where she'd forget about her parents, her brother's tragedy and the person she pretended to be to get friends. But that seemed impossible now, too. Because Orihime knew she didn't have much longer.

The first encounter was a complete coincidence.

Since Orihime's friend had just turned 16, they'd partied the previous night and she forgot to finish her lab analysis for chemistry. She pinned the sheet against a purple folder as she tried to simultaneously walk down the hall and read the second question.

"So… What is the percent—"

Orihime, being the oblivious as she is, did not think to pay attention as she rounded corners. Orihime, being as slow as she is, didn't understand why she was on the ground so suddenly. Orihime, being as bad at puzzles as anyone could be, didn't understand why there was another boy on the ground. And Orihime, paying as much attention to gossip as she did, had no idea who the pale, dark haired, brightly emerald eye boy was in front of her.

After a few seconds of processing all this new information and letting the boy's expression turn from one of shock to one of annoyance, she placed the pieces together.

"Did I just run into you?"

He went from an annoyed look to a 'you-could-not-possibly-be-that-stupid' look.

Smooth, said a voice in the back of her head and she pushed it away, then got up and brushed off her pants, she reached a hand out toward the guy. He didn't even look at it, before he kicked out his legs and landed on his feet. He brushed off and walked right past her, leaving her a little bewildered as she gathered her stuff together.

As she sat in her desk and the bell rang, she remembered that she still didn't do her homework.

The second encounter was another complete coincidence.

At exam time, Orihime had done well enough in two classes to be exempt, giving her a free period everyday of exam week when you included her study period.

She had a special spot in the school where she spent her free periods, completely undisturbed. There was a stairwell that had a nice window ledge at the top of the stairs. She'd often sit there and study for the next exam while drawing pictures of what world domination by teddy bears would be like. No one ever stayed inside the school during their free periods so she always had it to herself.

…except, on the second day of first semester exams, she opened the door to the stair well and saw someone vaguely familiar sitting on her window ledge.

She stared blankly for a few seconds, and then tried to blink the image away, and when she realized that he was a real person in her window ledge, she couldn't help but help but over-dramatically pointing at him.

"You're in my spot!"

His gaze lifted up to her and he stared for a second before lowering it back to the small stack of papers in his hands.

"Hello!" Orihime's hands waved around in a frenzy of gestures to windowsill, "My spot! Been coming here since freshman year! Pretty, quiet, tranquil, mine!"

His gaze lifted up again, "I was unaware that anyone besides the school district owned parts of the school."

Orihime deflated and gave him a desperate, pleading look, "Come on… this is supposed to be my secret place away from my friends and worries…"

He looked down again, "I never said I was stopping you from being here."

And in a huff, Orihime sat next to the odd boy and wiped her papers out of her backpack. But after twenty minutes of awkwardness and getting absolutely nothing done, she walked out the stairwell exit to lay down in the middle of the soccer field.

The third encounter bound them together for the rest of the school year.

After exam periods ended, Orihime went up to the guidance office with Tatsuki to get her new schedule. After a comparison of classes, they were depressed to see that they didn't have a single class or even lunch together this semester.

After bidding each other Farewell, Orihime walked to her first hour class, Chemistry, which had a different time and teacher then last semester. Listed in the teacher box was 'Kanonji', which made Orihime groan a little because she had never heard anything good about a class that was taught by Mr. Kanonji.

She was early and took a random seat toward the middle, stretched and decided to take a nap until class started.

Mr. Kanonji rolled into the room as the bell rang, waking Orihime up and startling the rest of the class.

"My name is Misaomaru KANONJI!" he wrote it up on the board in red chalk, with big letters that almost seemed to glitter, "But as a sign of your respect for me as a teacher, you will just call me," he erased his first name with a swipe of his hand and wrote 'Mr.' there instead, "MR. KANONJI!"

"Is it really necessary to do this every semester?" a student whined.

"We have new students class! Why of course it's necessary! What kinda man would I be if I didn't even introduce myself?"

Orihime didn't actually mind the theatrics though. She found it quite entertaining.

"Okay!" Mr. Kanonji struck a pose, "This should be a class of 26, so we'll have groups of two!" He said the next part with much more emphasis, "Remember your number!" He counted off all the students and Orihime was the second seven, "Now find your partner class! They will be your partner for," he paused and did a little funny dance, "the rest of the year! You have been bonded together by destiny!" he struck another odd pose.

Students held up their number on their fingers and quickly paired up. All too quickly, everyone was sitting down and the only person left alone stood the side of the room.

Orihime immediately remembered the dark haired spot stealer and hesitantly walked over to him. She held up three fingers on one hand and four on the other. He looked at it, nodded and went to sit down in one of the empty chairs and Orihime followed quickly behind and managed to sit next to him.

Mr. Kanonji seemed more thrilled, if that were at all possible, "Now your partner is your lab partner and project partner! I know some of you are going 'But I don't like my partner!' but you got to get along because we got a busy year and I don't want to stop to reassign anyone!" He started handing slips down the rows of students, "Now these are your Safety contracts! They are due next Wednesday so we can get started as soon as possible!"

Orihime got her slip and shoved it in her folder before grabbing a pen and writing 'permission slip' on her left palm.

"Tomorrow we go over the syllabus! Please spend this time getting to know your partner!" Mr. Kanonji announced before taking note of the lab partners then locking himself in the backroom and leaving the students alone like the responsible teacher he is.

Orihime turned her head to inspect her partner, and giggled nervously, "I'm Orihime."

Nothing was said back and she felt her anxiety spike.

"Sorry for yelling at you during exam period…"

Silence.

"Umm… so…"

"Ulquiorra."

Orihime paused. Was this some secret code? Or maybe 'Ulquiorra' was his name? Was he introducing himself?

"Is that your name?"

He gave her a sideways glace that made her feel utterly foolish.

Ulquiorra glanced at the girl next to him again. He supposed it could be worse. Last semester he was paired with a guy named Keigo, and had to do all of the work.

She seemed a bit too annoying though… and innocent. He assumed she must have been a sheltered as a child, and by her clothes, her family was well off. He immediately marked her as someone he'd never get along with.

"So I guess we should exchange addressed and contact information…"

Well that was obvious. She rustled so papers in her backpack around before a tearing sound was heard and she pulled a shred of paper out and wrote on it. After a minute, she handed it to him. It was neatly labeled 'Orihime' at the top with the information squeezed into the space and nicely organized.

He took the business card that he was using as a bookmark and quickly wrote a number and a street address on the back and handed it to her.

"West Harrington… Oh! That's a really nice neighborhood."

Ulquiorra had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He stared at the address she gave him, but since he only lived in the city for half a year, it meant nothing to him.

The bell finally rang, but not before many more failed attempt at conversation starters. He would just have to bear first hour for the rest of the year.