Hey guys, sorry this took a while in coming, trying to work out what to write. I thought I'd clear some stuff up in this particular chapter. Thanks so much for all the reviews, especially the ever lovely Lilarin and Smylealong for your awesome help and amazing constructive critisicm that helped me to realise what I'd done wrong. I hope everything's cleared up here and that it makes more sense!


Byakuya Kuchiki sat in the lounge-room, reading the paper while his sister, Rukia, did her homework at the corner table, occasionally asking for his help on a particularly difficult problem when it came to science or geography. Well, it looked like he was reading it, but his mind was very far away from the monochrome letters and pictures that adorned the sheets of information.

His mind was on Ulquiorra Cifer, the most well-behaved student in his class, mainly because he did not talk, although he was very aware that he helped Grimmjow and Nnoitra with maths and passed notes around. However he pretended he did not see it, as he still got his work done in a quarter of the time everyone else did, well he, Uryu Ishida and Orihime Inoue. He knew perfectly well that he was friends with the school delinquents and that he spent most evenings at the skate park, although sometimes Byakuya swore he saw him heading off to the music department for reasons completely unknown to him.

And he always turned up to school injured, at least once a week if not more. He had to admit though, this week's had been one of the worst he had seen in a while, since the incident with the paint and eggs at the school dance two years ago, which had caused his friends to be suspended, although he had not been found to have a single bit of connection to the prank, Byakuya had no doubt in his mind that he had been a part of it. His suspicions had been confirmed when he had come to school the next day with a broken wrist and a neck brace on. It always amazed him how he could always look so calm and confident while covered in bandages. And yet, he had never been absent from school, never! It boggled the teacher's mind to think where he could have gotten such serious wounds, but had not been taken to the hospital, or at least the doctor's.

He had his suspicions about the issues, namely that it could be Ulquiorra's own family. He had met his mother at a parent-teacher evening two years ago; she was very timid and barely asked any questions, always with her eyes down, bringing doubts to his theory. The father, or step-father as he had found out from the school council, had never shown up. People had rarely seen the man, although it was said he was a very high-ranking business CEO, there was a possibility he had something to do it.

He had talked to the school counsellor, Mr Zommari, about it, but he had claimed there was nothing to ask the boy, he was a delinquent who most likely took drugs and got into fights all the time. Byakuya was much more sceptical; he certainly showed no signs of being under drug influence, so he had taken it upon himself to question the emerald-eyed teen. Not too hard, just every now and again he would ask how he had gotten his injuries. The answer had always been the same: he had fallen down a staircase; the oldest excuse in the book.

Byakuya grumbled to himself as he turned a page in the newspaper, so Rukia did not get suspicious of the silence; she was far too observant for his liking. If only he could find out what went on in that boy's life, he was too empty, too emotionless, something must have happened. And if it had gone against the law, he was determined to find out what, he would not let a great mishap happen right under his nose without him getting wind of it, it would tarnish his reputation and his pride. And he was a man of pride.

Ulquiorra lay on his bed, staring at the black ceiling with the glow-in-the-dark stars, planets and bats stuck on it. When he had gone through his "Batman" stage he had had a dream that if he just grew wings he could fly away from this world into the sky and never return. He closed his eyes at the memory of his innocence; it was useless to dwell on the past when he had had ridiculous notions. They had always been squashed by Aizen, he knew now that dreams were futile, his dream to be a pianist could never be reality, his dream to be free could not be either. Aizen always reminded him that he would take over the family business when Aizen was no longer capable, which pretty much meant he would be stuck in this house until Aizen died, or he turned a very considerable age where he retired. Both seemed an extremely long time in coming, at least until Ulquiorra was 40, he did not look forward to waiting that long just to destroy a company and move on, it would be too late for him to try to be a pianist, or anything else for that matter. Leaving the company was completely out of the question, people did not simply leave the company, they were either killed in action, or by Aizen himself. Ulquiorra had seen it done, far too many times to count, and he had once been the one to do it.

"Ulquiorra," said Aizen, looking at the 11 year old from beneath lidded eyes. "I believe it is time you learn exactly what happens when someone disobeys me. You have seen it done before, but now I think you are old enough to carry out the judgement yourself."

Ulquiorra looked down at the old man shivering on the floor, his head raised to look at them, a plea for mercy escaping from him lips.

"Please, I meant no harm," he whispered hoarsely. "I only wanted to leave this job, I'm old, and I've lived my life. My wife and children asked me to retire, the doctors advise it. I'm only trying to support them."

"Sneaking into the police office to try and tattle on my company is not the way to do it," stated Aizen icily. "No doubt you thought that if you told on me you would be let out of the company and it will be my downfall?"

The older man shook his head quickly.

"It is just a good thing that Starrk was there at the time handing in a fake report, Barragan."

He opened his mouth but Aizen interrupted and turned to look at Ulquiorra, handing him a gun.

"Aim for the heart, it's the least messy and takes the shortest amount of time."

"Souske!" exclaimed Cirucci, standing up from the couch, hands clenched. "You cannot make Ulquiorra kill someone! He hasn't even started high-school yet!"

Aizen turned to look at her, his eyes narrowing. She made a little gasping noise and sat back down, folding her clenched hands in her lap. He turned back to Ulquiorra, who was holding the foreign metal instrument in his hands, turning it over in his palm. It was so cold and hard, it felt…wrong to be holding it, he had seen what it could do, seen the pain it could cause.

"Come on Ulquiorra!" Aizen snapped. "We haven't got all day, unless of course, you're too weak to do it," he added threateningly.

"No please!" pleaded Barragan, raising himself up onto his knees in a begging position. "My wife will be all alone, my children and grandchildren need me to support them."

Aizen looked up at Tosen standing in the corner, who nodded, walked over, and slammed his foot into the man's back, causing him to cough haggardly.

"Where is your sense of justice?" hissed Tosen.

"Ulquiorra?" murmured Aizen menacingly.

Ulquiorra looked over at his mother in the corner, her face deathly pale as she stared down at the man in horror. He clenched his fingers around the gun and pointed his shaking arm at the old man on the floor.

"NO!" he screamed. "At least let me call my wife and children, let me say goodbye!"

"But that would give us away," sneered Aizen. He nodded to Ulquiorra, who took a shaking breathe and began to pull the trigger.

"Grandpa?" asked a small voice.

Everyone turned around to see a black-haired boy with luminescent blue eyes, peering through the doorway, expression wide.

"Grimmjow!" exclaimed Barragan. "No Grimmjow, go away, leave! Go back to the car, no, go home!"

"What's going on, why are you taking so long, you promised we could go get ice-cream?" Grimmjow's eyes widened as he took in the small, black-haired boy pointing a gun at his grandfather on the floor, the dark man standing over him, and the tall, brown-haired man standing at the desk, looking down at him imperiously.

"You didn't tell me your grandson was here?" said Aizen with mild interest.

"I was picking him up from school, I didn't know I would be coming here to die!" cried Barragan.

Aizen sighed and turned to Ulquiorra, "Change of plans, kill the boy first and let Barragan watch him die, then kill him."

Ulquiorra looked at the boy; his eyes wide as he stared straight back at him, green against blue. Then with a grimace he put the gun down and stared up at Aizen defiantly.

"I won't," he said quietly.

"What was that?" asked Aizen his hand going to the metal bat on the desk behind him.

"I won't!" he stated loudly. He clenched the gun, and did the most reckless thing he had ever done: he threw it out the open window, which sat over the edge of the cliff, causing it to splash into the rocky sea below.

Aizen turned to him, his face still perfectly calm, his eyes dark. He grabbed the front of Ulquiorra's shirt and pulled him a metre up in the air.

Turning to Tosen he said, "Let him up," and raised the metal bat, cracking it into the younger child's head. Tosen released his foot and Barragan sat up and ran to Grimmjow, shielding him from Aizen, glancing fervently at the screaming, green-eyed boy.

"Get out," stated Aizen, calmly throwing Ulquiorra into the wall. "And take the boy with you, if I see either of you within 10 miles of the Police Station, your entire family will be eliminated."

Barragan nodded and pushed Grimmjow out of the room, "Let's go son."

"What's happening, were they trying to hurt you, what's he doing to that boy?" asked Grimmjow, blue eyes wide as he stared through the door, catching a glimpse of Aizen raising a white-hot poker from the burning fireplace and viciously slapping Cirucci as she grabbed his arm. The screams followed him down the hallway as his grandfather ushered him out of the mansion, panic deep in his eyes.

Ulquiorra looked up at the blurred image of his step-father, standing cool-as-you-please by the desk throwing the poker back at the fire, ignoring the whimpering woman at his feet, and the small child, huddled by the wall. He turned to Tosen, who had been watching calmly.

"Kill them," he murmured quietly.

Ulquiorra rolled over as the painful memory hit him; he had met Grimmjow a year later, when he had started Middle School. Amazingly enough, the black-haired boy did not blame him for what happened, but actually apologised for causing him so much pain. He had told him how the two had left and gone to get ice-cream, although neither really enjoyed it. While driving home they had been hit by a car, causing them both severe injuries, although he had lived, while his grandfather had died. The two became friends after that, they were the only ones they could talk to and keep each other's backs when Ulquiorra came in with injuries, and Grimmjow was often targeted by men in black suits trying to kill him: it appeared Aizen still wanted him dead, although Ulquiorra could not tell why. Grimmjow seemed to be made of luck though and had managed to avoid all eight attempts on his life since Ulquiorra had known him. While they never showed it, they were best friends, and while they're favourite pastime was to beat the crap out of each other, they really actually liked each other, in a way two boys going through a very tough adolescence could. Soon after becoming friends, Nnoitra and Tesla had followed, having shown they liked rebellion, and also having bad pasts they did not like to talk about. Szayel had come in high school, after turning Grimmjow's hair blue in a prank, which the erratic teen had actually liked and kept going, although it had become a lot less…baby blue and more "macho blue" as he liked to call it. Ulquiorra called it "the colour of someone who wanted to look cool but really was not".

His mind turned back to the event that haunted him every time he looked at his best friends: He had been reckless that day, reckless for him anyway, but his natural protective instinct had jumped in, he could not kill a child, let alone someone his age, whose own grandfather was watching. He had been severely punished because of it; he still had burn marks on his arm from that time. He rubbed the said arm absently and stopped suddenly, the scars were no longer there, the skin was as smooth and pale as marble with none of the markings it should have. His brow furrowed, was it to do with his rapidly healing injuries, and what was causing them? Was it her? The girl with the beautiful voice who had captured his soul? Could she really do that?

Orihime sat in front of her brother's shrine, hands clamped on her skirt over her knees as she looked at the portrait of Sora, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"I feel so guilty about this brother," she sniffed. "I know I should always be thinking of you, but…my thoughts are full of…him. I've never felt this way before, even about Ichigo. The way he looks at me, his eyes, they're so beautiful, but so sad. They're the colour of…ummm," she put her finger to her chin and looked around, spying her leftover dinner she turned back to the shrine happily. "Like Broccoli! Yeah like reeeeally green Broccoli, or bean sprouts!" she shook her head quickly.

"Sorry Sora, I'm digressing. Anyways, they're really sad, filled with so much pain, and he comes in with injuries all the time. These were probably the worst I've seen of them, they're usually minor cuts and burns, but his arm was broken this time. I felt so sorry for him, he didn't show the pain he must be feeling, but his eyes did. But I don't think it was just his injuries, it was an internal pain, and he looked so lonely," she clutched her skirt even tighter. "I wanted to ask him how he gets hurt so often, but I just," she looked down, the tears falling out of her eyes. "I just…couldn't, I couldn't bring it up. I feel like such a coward, but I don't want to hurt his feelings again, I don't want him to leave me again I-I really like him Sora, and it's funny," she added with a wet chuckle, "I've only talked to him twice, but the way he plays the piano, I don't know if I'm being selfish, which I think I am, but I want to keep hearing him play, and not just because it's so beautiful, but because I can connect with him. When I was singing with him today I felt so…happy, I felt like I could unite with him, and his inner feelings."

She sighed and put her hands to the blue hairclips in her hair and pulled them out gently, looking at them with swimming eyes.

"I wanted him to be happy too, so…I helped him a little," she smiled sadly at her brother's portrait. "Ever since you died, these have helped me to heal people, I don't know what it is, is it the sacrifices you made for me? I don't get it Sora, but I know it manifests through my singing. And I know I want to help people with it, but I can't tell anyone about it or they'll think I'm crazy, not to mention they'll find out about me living on my own, and I can't risk that. But," she looked around nervously. "He's going to become suspicious, I think I may have overdone it a little, he's bound to realise its centred around me, then what do I do? What do I tell him? Oh I want to tell him so bad, I want to connect with him, I want to sing with him again, but I'm so…I'm so confused, what if I forget about you while being with him? And what if he doesn't return my affections, what if he completely rejects me?"

She shuddered and put her head in her hands for a moment, trying to shake it out of her head.

She stood up and went to clean her dinner in an effort to clear her mind. When she had finished that she wandered around the room, neatening cushions, closing the blinds and centring table ornaments and pot plants. Finally she asserted that there was nothing left to do, she walked over to the shrine and took the photo in her hands, kissing it lightly.

"Goodnight brother, I love you, and miss you every day," sighing she put it back down and blew out the candles, then stood up to take one last look at the room.

"Time to live my feelings in bed, the place you can't hide," she murmured, switching off the lights and going down the hallway to her bedroom.


Hope that cleared up stuff and was OK :) Just so you all know, I'll be going away from tomorrow until Friday, that's Thursday for people in America (I think). I'll be going a lot of writing while I'm away so hopefully, I'll have two or three new chapters by Saturday (Friday) and a bunch of other stories! Yaay! So until then, enjoy your Summer (for those in the southern hemisphere like mineself, enjoy your Winter) and see you in a week! *hugs* yes I like hugs :p