A.N. Sorry it's so short! I was just feeling totally uninspired...
Why can't they understand
the way we feel
They just don't trust
what they can't explain
I know we're different but,
deep inside us
We're not that different at all
And you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more
Chapter Four
"First things first," Tatsuki announced. "Orihime, are you in trouble?" Orihime shook her head no, hiding how sick to her stomach she felt. How could she have attacked that girl so ruthlessly? Biting back a moan, her hand subconsciously fluttered towards her stomach. "Then what the hell were you thinking! Attacking that girl with a chair, I don't even know her name!" Tatsuki exploded. Then, calming considerably, she added, "Although, that was an awesome move, where you simultaneously stabbed her in the gut and hit her chin in an uppercut with the chair at the same time." Orihime smiled and muttered a demure thanks. Uryu shook his head and pushed up his glasses. "Inoue, do you think you could tell us what was going through your mind when you brutally savaged that girl?" "Yeah," Renji interjected. "You're like a total peace Nazi, so why'd you go all insane on that girl?" "No," Yumichika argued. "It was a very beautiful attack. Not at all psychotic." "Are you kidding?" Ikkaku laughed. "She looked like she had just escaped from a madhouse. It made me wonder if Captain Unohana would be willing to let her come to our division when she dies."
Ichigo hit them both on the back of their heads, much to Yumichika's annoyance. "Shut up," he told them, ignoring Yumichika, who was frantically fixing his hair. "She'd going to explain." "They were saying bad things about Ulquiorra," she said, eyes flashing with remembered anger. "They had no right to say the things they did!" "Woman, you did not need to risk your reputation to defend me," Ulquiorra chided, coming from between Shinji and Chad. "If what they were saying bothered me, I would have said something." Orihime looked down, embarrassed. "Sorry. I really didn't mean to hurt her that bad. In fact, I actually want to go heal her, but that would raise questions." Ulquiorra eyed her critically, and then said, "You are hiding your guilt considerably. Apologize to the girl after school. I doubt you will feel quite so queasy then." Orihime looked down, her hair hiding her smile. "Yes, Ulquiorra," she whispered happily, trying not to show touched she was by his perceptiveness. After dipping his head in agreement to her acknowledgment of her guilt, he turned and walked off, calling, "Come with me, woman." Orihime let out a burst of laughter, remembering the first time he said it, and chased after him, yelling, "Hey, Ulquiorra do you remember when..."
Everyone looked at each other in shock. Then, Renji burst out, "How the hell did he know she was feeling guilty?" "I know!" Tatsuki agreed, her own guilt flashing across her face. "Even I didn't pick up on how guilty she felt, which is obvious, now that I think about it, but Ulquiorra caught it in a heartbeat!" "What I want to know," Ichigo picked up, "is how he figured out her body language so well. I mean, her hand barely twitched, now that I think about it!" "Isn't it obvious?" Uryu sighed. "What's obvious?" Shinji asked. "He was her guard; of course he has all of her body language down to pat," Uryu explained with irritation. "He probably had to know when she was lying and when she wasn't. And wasn't he always talking about his eye seeing everything?"
"Oh yeah," Ichigo said, with dawning realization. "And now I also realize why she likes him so much. Ugh, my dad was talking about it really loudly last night, what was it...? Oh yeah! Stockton Syndrome!" "No," Rukia argued. "He said Stockholm Syndrome, dimwit. I think your orange hair sucked up any intelligence you might have had. By the way, you still haven't explained what Inoue said today. When I asked you about it you just screamed you had to go and ran off." Ichigo blushed and mumbled, "I'll talk about it later. Like, maybe after I'm already in Soul Society."
Everyone else turned away, ignoring the bickering that already started. Sighing, Tatsuki said, "C'mon, guys. Let's get back to class. We have Creative Writing next." Everyone groaned as they started trekking to class. The teacher, Miss Samini, was beyond hyper active. As soon as they slid in their seats, waving to the already present Orihime and Ulquiorra, Miss Samini started.
"All right, class!" she trilled. "Today we are working on our rhyming! Now, I know you're natural instinct is to groan, but I shall make a compromise with you! You're free to write whatever you like, so long as it rhymes!" Ichigo moaned loudly and started explaining to his oblivious friends what rhyming was. Tatsuki started banging her head on the desk, Chad patting her shoulder consolingly, Uryu already excitedly working along-side Shinji, who was just as psyched.
Ulquiorra turned to Orihime and stated blandly, "I do not understand the meaning of this assignment." Orihime smiled and responded eagerly, "Oh, that's okay, Ulquiorra! I've had this idea I've been mulling over for a while now, so I can show you and you can make your own, okay?" Ulquiorra nodded and watched, his interest piqued as she struggled to come up with things that rhymed. After about fifteen minutes, he started on his own, words flowing instinctively out of his pen.
Half an hour later, Miss Samini wandered over to where Orihime and Ulquiorra were working. Reading the two pages interestedly over their shoulders, she gasped and clapped her hands gleefully. Grabbing the two of them, she shoved them up to the front of the room and sang, "Orihime, please, grace us with the honor of reading us your beautiful poem?" Blushing, Orihime read from her paper, her voice smooth and fluid, hypnotic to all in the class.
"Hidden in walls of white
That paint a darkness so bright
Shadow and Day dance in eternal night.
Virtue twines with Sin
Protective armor wearing thin
Playing a game neither can win.
The time the Moon stole the Sun,
When natural boundaries were not yet done,
The Princess and the Dragon's tale was begun.
Their hatred for each other was clear
But for the day she shed a tear
Not knowing her captor was standing near.
The Hollow asked of the Heart
What it was that set them apart
Desire stemmed from curiosity's start.
Her soft words changed what he knew
On what was real and on what was true
They talked often and closer they grew.
One day the Demon realized she was his light
And the Angel discovered he consumed her sight
They'd fight to be together, together they'd fight.
Now you can find them one and the same
Him her dark knight, her his light dame
Together forever and the heart is to blame."
There was a stunned silence at her words, the last stanza echoing slightly in everyone's brains. Ulquiorra stared at her, envy-colored eyes filled with silent amazement and approval. After a while, an applause built up, Orihime's friends smiling and whooping with approval. After the applause died down, Miss Samini cleared her throat for attention. "Now, you, if you would, Ulquiorra." Ulquiorra looked at her and nodded. Opening his mouth, words poured out, words that one would not expect to come from the 'emotionless' Espada.
"My tender, my child,
You know it pains me to watch you cry.
My honey, my sweet,
You know; so why do you ask me why?
My beautiful, my dear,
You know it's not fair.
My love, my precious,
You know they don't care.
My soul, my heart,
You know that I love you.
My life, my death,
You know I speak true.
You know you would love to keep up all the pretending
But, darling, you know;
We don't get a happy ending."
For the second time in five minutes, all sounds in the room ceased to exist. The quiet resignation and bittersweet words had shocked everybody, as well as the many terms of endearment. Once more, the sounds built up again in wild approval. When they were finished, Miss Samini said, strangely serious, "That was pretty amazing, you two. And not only what you wrote, but the way you spoke, you could have been addressing the same subject, just with different endings. It's too bad that the demon of Orihime's fairytale is so set in his belief of unworthiness, isn't it? Although, he doesn't even seem to be aware of it."
After school finished, Orihime found a strange spurt of energy and raced off from her lethargic friends, dragging a semi-annoyed Ulquiorra with her. Shaking her head, Rukia turned to say something to Ichigo when a loud scream interrupted her. Tatsuki was off like a shot, the others barely behind her.
Orihime looked up at the sky, a broad grin stretched across her face. She really didn't know why, but she'd grown a strange attachment to him. Luckily, her joyous shriek had caught his attention, and, grinning, he was descending down like one would a winding staircase- on thin air. "Ah, Princess. Why am I not surprised to see you again? Although, it does surprise me Ulquiorra is at your side. Ha! Nnoitra did see it coming!" Grimmjow laughed as he stepped in front of Orihime. She looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean? Nnoitra saw what coming?" Grimmjow scowled. "Don't tell me. You two haven't figured it out yet? Wow. That's a blow to the intelligence of Espada and weird demi-goddess beings everywhere."
"That's too bad," Ulquiorra returned. "I mean, seeing as your intelligence couldn't possibly survive anymore hits. Speaking of, how are you alive?" Grimmjow smirked and hugged Orihime, speaking over her shoulder to Ulquiorra. "I'm choosing to ignore the last part of your statement. I'm doing freaking amazing, how are you?" As he said that, he lowered his hands slightly, grinning when Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. "I was doing a lot better until I saw your god-awful hair, thank you." Grimmjow jumped back, feigned irritation on his face. "Ulquiorra! Since when do you swear?" Ulquiorra closed his eyes and took Orihime's wrist, dragging her back to him. "Apparently, your nasty habits rub off on me, seeing as I only use such vulgar language when you're in the vicinity."
Just then, Tatsuki came into the picture. Using her Tatsuki-Patented-Target-Seeker, virtual cross-hairs immediately landed on the oblivious Grimmjow. So, it was to Ulquiorra's amusement, Orihime's distress, and Grimmjow's shock when Grimmjow was suddenly pinned to the ground, his cheek pressed into the concrete and his arms in a position that meant the slightest move would cause them to snap. "Who the hell are you and why did you make Orihime scream?" Tatsuki snarled, fire practically pouring out of her mouth to the overactive imagination of everyone there. "Abuse! ABUSE! STRANGER DANGER!" was Grimmjow's infuriating bellowed response. Ichigo laughed, coming on the scene. "Who exactly do you want to save you, Grimmjow? No normal people can see you, and all the abnormal people are having too much fun watching you get your ass kicked by a human," Ichigo mocked. "Are you kidding me!" Grimmjow hissed. "She's not human! I'm Sexta Espada; a human can't hold me down! She's part fucking dragon, I swear!"
Tatsuki yanked his arm, causing a sickening crack. "Why did Orihime scream?" she growled again. "'Cause she was so damned overjoyed to see me, now get off my back, you insane freak!" Grimmjow hollered back. Orihime interrupted with, "Umm, he's right Tatsuki. Could you move, so I can heal him?" Tatsuki sniffed and went to stand by her princess, her arms folded. Orihime moved over the cussing Grimmjow and started her fairies' work while Ulquiorra told Tatsuki, "That was very well done. Trust me, he deserved every second of that." Tatsuki smiled devilishly.
"So, Grimmjow, why are you here?" Orihime asked as she vanished scar after scar from Grimmjow's mauled and healed body. "Because Hueco Mundo is boring and the strawberry promised he'd fight me, no matter what condition we're both in. Also, because I got dared by some weird guy in a hat to come eat your food." Orihime frowned. A guy in a hat? Why would Kisuke send Grimmjow to her? Shrugging, she called back her Shun Shun Rikka, seeing her work was done. Grimmjow stood and muttered, "Thanks, Princess," before charging at Ichigo. Ichigo's eyes widened as he mumbled helplessly, "Oh, shit, no! Grimmjow, not so soon!" Before Grimmjow could hit Ichigo, however, a blade stopped him. Frowning, Shinji said, "Huh. I could have sworn I kicked your ass before."
A.N Okay, because I couldn't get it to work, their poems' stanzas are, for Orihime, every three lines, and for Ulquiorra, every four lines and the last three lines.
