Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.
Credit to Kubo-sensei and Unmasked.
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This is (probably) the last chapter of My Love, My Sacrifice.
Orihime never felt this content in her whole life. Currently, she was in the arms of her most special someone.
"Kurosaki-kun," she sighed happily.
"Orihime," a baritone voice responded.
Wait, that sounded wrong. Kurosaki-kun never called her Orihime, it's always Inoue-san. Besides, the voice who had just called her name was slightly deeper than Kurosaki-kun's.
Orihime peeked at the man's face.
Instead of brown eyes which she expected to see, she found herself stared at emerald eyes.
Ulquiorra's.
Orihime immediately released herself from the man's embrace.
"U-ulquiora, w-what happen? Why are you here?" she stuttered.
The man in question didn't answer her, but cupped her cheek in his palm.
"I love you," he said softly.
Orihime stepped back.
"Don't, Ulquiorra," she warned.
The emerald-eyed man managed a sad smile.
"I see."
Orihime watched as Ulquiorra walked away from her.
"No, w-wait. Where are you going?! Don't leave me here!" she cried.
She tried to seize his figure, but he was starting to fade away.
"Ulquiorra!"
She's late. He's gone.
To say that Orihime was worried was an understatement. The young woman was pacing restlessly in her living room while biting her lower lip occasionally. The reason for her current state was because she couldn't contact the certain pale man since their date, and that was more than a week ago. She was annoyed at Ulquiorra because the young man didn't have initiative to contact her back. Was he that busy? Even a simple text would do. Everytime she called him, it just went into his mailbox, which she believed he still hadn't checked. Ulquiorra didn't even reply her email. It was hopeless. She couldn't reach him.
Her mind wandered to her dream. She had dreamt the same dream every night for three days straight. Strangely, she never remembered clearly what she had dreamt when she woke up in the morning. But it seemed the dream was kind of a nightmare because she always woke up crying and her top soaked by her perspiration. She only remembered she called Ulquiorra's name desperately in her dream, but what made her so upset she didn't know.
By now, Orihime was in panic mode. What if something happened to her bestfriend? What if Ulquiorra was in a condition that he even wasn't able to contact anyone? With those thoughts in mind, Orihime swallowed her pride and decided to visit her emerald-eyed bestfriend.
Here she was, standing in front of Ulquiorra's apartment. Ulquiorra actually lived in a nice apartment complex. She was initially reluctant to pay a visit, but since her thoughts jumbled in her mind, she considered it wouldn't hurt.
Orihime had been here only a few times. It's usually Ulquiorra who came to her apartment, not the other way around. Sometimes Ulquiorra even stayed over when she had difficult times, usually triggered by her feeling to Kurosaki-kun.
She admitted her relationship with Ulquiorra was abnormal in most people's point of view. They were more than bestfriends, but less than lovers. It was intricate.
Most of her time she spent with Ulquiorra, but she always tried to stay away from his apartment because she didn't want him to get wrong signal. Coming over to some opposite sex's personal apartment frequently was a bit inappropriate in her opinion. It showed some intimate relationship, which exactly what she had been avoided all these years.
Well, Ulquiorra did that to her, she knew, but that was because he loved her. In her case it was a bit different because whatever feeling she held for Ulquiorra, she was sure it's not love. She wasn't able to describe it but she was just sure it's not.
Orihime couldn't give him more, even if she knew Ulquiorra would never be satisfied with this arrangement.
She wanted to be loved, without being obligated to love back.
Orihime was still busy with her musing when someone approached her. She recognized him as the landlord.
"Excuse me Miss, are you by any chance Orihime Inoue?"
Orihime blinked.
"U-um, yeah, that's me," she replied hesitantly.
"Ah, I know you. You've been here once, with Schiffer-kun. You're his girlfriend, right?" the old man asked her delightfully.
'Girlfriend?!'
"Yes, I've been here several times, and no, I'm not his girlfriend. By the way, why were you asking for me, Sir?" she inquired.
"Oh, so you're not his girlfriend. I really thought you are since you're the only woman that has ever come over," the landlord said dejectedly, "Oh, yes. Schiffer-kun asked me to give this to you."
The old man reached for his pocket and brought out a key. She recognized it as Ulquiorra's.
"This is Schiffer-kun apartment's key," the landlord put it on Orihime's hand.
Orihime fisted the key confusedly. She gave the landlord questioning stares.
"Schiffer-kun told me maybe you'll need it. You should check his apartment. Maybe he left something behind for you and wanted you to collect it yourself. Didn't he tell you anything?"
'Left behind? What's he talking about?'
"I don't understand, Sir. What do you mean by leave something behind? Could you please elaborate?"
By now, Orihime's heart was beating faster. She was puzzled. Did she miss something here? She felt like something bad was coming.
"Don't you know? Schiffer-kun has moved out from Karakura. He didn't tell me to where, though. I thought you've already known about it?" the man replied.
Orihime felt like she had been struck by lightning. Had the old man just said that basically Ulquiorra had left her?
The gray-eyed woman found herself hard to breath. Everything didn't make sense to her.
It was a joke, wasn't it?
Ulquiorra didn't just leave her, did he?
He couldn't abandon her, could he?
Her eyes prickled with tears. Her whole body was shaking.
Orihime put her hand against wall because she didn't know if she could stand up on her own.
"Miss?!" the landlord shouted in panicky, "Are you alright?"
She just shook her head in distress. No, she was completely not alright.
"I'm fine. I'm just a bit tired and shocked. Don't worry, Sir," she managed to choke out.
The landlord watched her in pity.
"Well, you can rest in Schiffer-kun's apartment. Give me the key," he offered kindly.
After Orihime gave the old man the apartment's key, he used it to open the door and ushered Orihime in. The woman simply didn't have enough power to walk in herself so the old man helped her.
Orihime sat on a white sofa while the landlord was babbling about how Ulquiorra always kept the apartment tidy and spotless.
"Okay, here's the key. Return it to me after you finish your business here. Good day, Miss."
With that, the landlord was out of Ulquiorra's apartment, leaving the key on the coffee table.
Orihime looked around the apartment. It was almost empty and spotless, as if no one had ever lived there. Not even a single trace about Ulquiorra. It seemed he didn't even bother to leave one.
The orange-haired woman entered the bedroom. She rested herself on the bed. Orihime cuddled the pillow into her chest. She inhaled deeply the scent the pillow emitted, hoping to get even just a breeze of Ulquiorra's unique scent. But it only smelled like detergent, the one Ulquiorra used.
At that time, she couldn't hold her tears anymore. Her heart wrenched painfully inside her chest. Her biggest fear had just come true; Ulquiorra left her. She drove him away. She continuously broke his heart and he finally was fed up with her.
Orihime sobbed uncontrollably. Her cry echoed in the vacant room.
God, how she wanted to be in his arms right now.
How she wanted to breathe in his scent.
To hear his beautiful baritone voice.
To listen to his heartbeat that always successful in lulling her to sleep.
To stare at those brilliant emerald eyes.
She would do anything to have him stayed with her for eternity.
Her eyes caught something on the nightstand. It was a paper, a folded one at that. She reached for it.
'To: Orihime' was written on the front.
It was a letter, from Ulquiorra.
Orihime eagerly unfolded the letter. Maybe her Ulquiorra didn't really leave for good. Maybe he just had something to do and he would be back in no time. Her eyes scanned the first sentence.
Orihime,
It said.
I believe you've already known the implication of this letter.
Orihime's eyes widened in disbelief. No, she refused to know.
I used to believe if such a thing called happiness existed; it should be something which resembled the limitless nothingness.
Nihilism is having nothing, therefore having nothing to lose.
If that was not happiness then what was?
She shook her head in denial.
The things that couldn't be reflected in my eyes didn't exist.
A lone tear dropped.
What is heart?
She remembered Ulquiorra asked her the same question years ago.
Such a thing called 'heart' was not even tangible, but you spoke a lot about it.
Should I believe it even when it couldn't even be reflected in my eyes?
Should I believe its existence?
That's why I constantly denied there was something between you and I.
She muffled her sobs with her hand.
But when you reached my hand for the first time,
When something warm seeped into me,
I started believing that maybe invisible things really existed and held so much power.
She remembered how they accidentally met for the first time.
That's the first time I had something I wanted to protect,
Something that even brighter than sun itself,
Your smile.
Orihime sobbed quietly.
I have waited for you for six years.
I will even wait for you forever if possible.
But maybe this time I should accept something that always lingers in my head,
She feared reading the next sentence because she got feeling that it would shatter her heart.
That we're not meant to be together.
Tears cascaded on her cheeks. Her breath halted, her heart stopped beating, she was sure of it. Because there was no way she could still alive after having her heart broken like this.
You don't need to feel sorry about me, Orihime.
I should do this long time ago, but I was always being stubborn.
I'm sorry if my love ever hurt your feeling.
'No, you didn't,' she thought, 'Your love always give me strength.'
Don't doubt my love for you.
'I never. Not even once.'
I set you free, Orihime.
This way, we both have chance to find our own happiness.
'What happiness? Do you really think I can ever be happy without you?'
I won't say goodbye because I hope to see you again someday, even just for once.
To see that I've made the right decision.
That we've found what we seek.
'No, Ulquiorra, please. Please come back to me. I would do anything, but just please come back.'
Her heart hurt so much. She had suffered heartbroken feeling because of Kurosaki-kun these past years, but this was completely on a different level.
It was like someone just ripped her heart from her chest and crushed it in front of her eyes.
It was so painful that she couldn't breathe.
It was so painful that she couldn't think.
She could hear pitter patter of the rain outside.
Rain.
Just like rain connected sky and earth.
'Can you connect our heart?'
London.
Ulquiorra breathed in the fresh scent of sunny autumn day. His lips twitched slightly. For the first time in years, he believed he just made the right decision. Leaving Karakura to stay here with his cousin and her family was wonderful. At least this time he was surrounded by people who loved him.
"There you are. I thought you are still suffering of jet lag, but you seem perfectly fine, which I am grateful of."
A feminine voice startled him from his musing.
"Sorry for making you worried."
The pale man offered his companion a smile. He stared at her companion's beautiful amethyst eyes.
"Nah, don't sweat it. We're family. Family helps each other."
Family. That one word gave him warm feeling.
"By the way, you haven't told me the reason of your moving here. You even change your phone number and close your previous email account. What happen now? It's like you want to cut ties with anyone except us," she ranted, "Well, and Grimmjow and his fiancé," she added.
Ulquiorra raised his eyebrow.
"You and your imagination."
His cousin just puffed her cheek.
"I just want to start over. And I think here will be the right place. You said it yourself, family helps each other."
His cousin smiled warmly.
"If you say so. Our place will always be opened for you. Come on, let's get inside. You must be hungry."
He followed her cousin to his new resident. This was his new life, and he felt satisfied.
Because my love will always be unrequited.
So let this be my last sacrifice for you…
My love.
Finished.
What do you think?
I feel relieved.
Like I've said, this is probably the last chapter because actually I'm considering about making an epilogue. I'm not sure, though because I'm perfectly fine with the current ending.
Please let me know your opinion by leaving reviews.
Oh yeah, please visit my other fanfictions: The Fragment of Memory and The Red Thread.
God bless you.