This story has a second part, and probably a third part too, so watch out for those in future!
You can be a princess
Put you in a party dress
You can make your smile wide
You can party up all night
Put Your Lips Together - Lana Del Rey
How to Whistle
"I have a question for you," she asked after he had stopped acting quite so apprehensive when he came in to her cell. He waited a fraction too long to look at her in response, and Orihime figured that was the best indicator she was going to get of his emotions…or whatever hollows felt. He was afraid, a tiny part of him was worried about himself and confused about her, she was sure of it. Well then, now was the best time to act on this request.
"You like books, right? Well, at least I think you do, you seem like the scholarly type." He didn't say anything. Of course. Well, she supposed it didn't matter if he had some demon-learning power that didn't require reading, she only asked to segue into her request. "I know you don't care if I'm bored, but even human prisons let their inmates read." She was going to continue her piece, but Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes and she realised he wanted to say something.
"This is not a human prison. Have you forgotten where you are, woman?" Was he asking rhetorical questions, or was he actually worried about her mental health? His constant monotone made it difficult to tell. Well, he had reason to be concerned, Orihime supposed, and she leapt on his words to make her point.
"No, but this is a prison with a human in it," she said. "Arrancars seem to work just fine when crazy, but humans don't. If Aizen-sama needs me for something, I will probably need to be sane to help."
"Your theory is boredom and sanity are not co-existing human states," he said. Orihime sighed and rolled her eyes - she could tell even if she was successful she was only going to get the driest scientific textbooks.
"It's a fact, not a theory," Orihime ventured, figuring couching her request in scientific terms might sway him in her favour. She drummed her fingers on her plate and looked at him hopefully. "You can check with someone else if you want! Please?" Dammit, Orihime silently cursed - she hadn't meant to say anything that would alert him this was a request he could grant if he was feeling slightly less monstrous today.
There was a long pause. He used to be so talkative (and horrible), but recently he had mostly been giving her the silent treatment. Perhaps he thought he had said too much? Although all Orihime had learned from his tedious talks was that he thought a lot of himself and not much of her.
"I'll consider it," he said, and then his hands were in his pockets and he was slouching out, and that was it, she wasn't going to be able to talk to anyone else until tomorrow at best. Another empty 24 hours of staving off bad thoughts. "O-ok," she called out and then he was gone.
She closed her eyes rather than stare around at her empty prison and laid her head on the table, giving in to the wave of hopelessness Ulquiorra had caused with his departure.