I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.

The Recluse

Chapter 4

Orihime nestled closer to her pillow and squeezed it. Feeling warm and comfortable on her bed, she smiled at the feeling of pleasantness that swept through her. She honestly couldn't remember the last time a smile appeared on her face during her transition from dream to reality. Her dreams must have been sweet yet she really couldn't remember. Opening her eyes slowly, they focused on her small clock next to her bed. She had woken up fifteen minutes before she was supposed to and with that thought, Orihime's smile got wider. It seemed as if it was going to be a very good day. She felt it. In the distance she could hear the songs of birds chirping. Using that as inspiration, she rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Once she was done brushing her teeth and washing her face, she opened the door and was heading toward her bedroom then she paused. Glancing to her left, there on the couch was the body of a sleeping man. He had his left arm over his face, while his other dangled off the couch.

Frozen, Orihime glanced around her apartment trying to locate something to protect herself with. Not having much luck, she quietly ran into her kitchen and frantically glanced around to see if she could find anything; her knives were still packed in the boxes. She quickly grabbed the broom and her cell phone and quickly dialed 911 but held off on the pressing the 'talk' button. Taking the broom and holding it out like a lance, she got closer to the sleeping intruder and was trying to decide where to poke him and just how hard. She looked on and found that the figure looked very familiar but she didn't want to take any chances, she was not going to end up chopped up into little pieces and then be fed to unknowing people in a restaurant. The very idea made her more determined to stand her ground. Yet, if she was going to be chopped up, wouldn't it make sense to do so while she had been asleep? And why was he sleeping on her couch? What a lazy executioner! Nothing made sense to her.

She stepped closer to the sleeping figure and she heard him groan. Startled by the noise, without thinking she jabbed the man below the ribs with a little more force than she intended, causing the man to rapidly shoot up and yell while grabbing the side of his body. Orihime stood back quickly in case she needed to run.

"Damn it, woman! What the hell is wrong with you?" he threw the question at her, still grasping his side as he slowly slid off the couch grimacing in pain.

"U-Ulquiorra?" she asked in surprise. He glared at her and tried to respond but what words formed from his mouth was unintelligible. The bewildered girl gasped and covered her mouth with her hands after dropping the broom as if it had burned her. Her ears burned at the fuming words he mumbled.

"What are you doing here? Oh! I am so sorry! B-b-but what are you doing here?" she said as she ran to his aid.

"What does it look like I am doing, woman?" he said as he gasped for breath, "do you not remember anything that happened last night?" She looked at him in bewilderment for a moment and she shook her head.

Orihime responded in confusion, "I am sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about."

As the pain subsided as he hovered over. He lifted his head toward the ceiling and tried to hold back a growl of exasperation. He looked over at her, "You really have no idea, huh?" She shook her head again. Ulquiorra let out a sigh and he tried to lean back yet the pain increased when he did so. He opted to remain exactly where he was.

"You were sleepwalking. I think…I hope." He said to her.

"Oh." She forced a grin as if she had been caught stealing. After a moment, she dropped her head down a little and she lowered her voice and Ulquiorra could barely make out what she was asking. "I didn't do anything…uh…questionable? I mean, you were sleeping on my couch."

He let out a small chuckle and he attempted to stretch his side a little. "No. You did not do anything questionable; bizarre…yes, questionable…no."

"Bizarre? What did I do now?"

"Hmm, I see that this is a frequent occurrence for you?"

"It doesn't happen very often, but yes, I tend to sleepwalk. Not often though, but I have been known to walk around a bit?" she said sheepishly.

Ulquiorra took a deep breath and he slowly lifted himself from the couch taking care to not stretch a muscle or hurt his injured area any more than it was. Orihime tried to assist him but he only waved her assistance away, not in an offending manner.

"I shall be heading home now, I have much work to do and I run on a tight schedule." He said as he started walking away with his arm holding his side.

"Wait!"

Ulquiorra stopped; he wondered if he should tell her the truth. He looked back at her without fully turning around. "If you must know, the cat got into my yard and was scratching at my door, so I came to return it to the responsible party currently taking care of it. You felt uneasy and scared sleeping alone for some reason, so you asked me to sleep on your couch. What kind of heartless man would I be if I had declined to protect someone?"

Orihime looked slightly relieved that she had not made a fool of herself yet a new emotion appeared on her face. She was completely embarrassed.

"I'm sorry. It seems as if I keep causing nothing but trouble for you, I promise not to bother you again."

"You may do as you like," was his only reply.

Once again, her turned around and headed out the door. He was unsure as if her last words were meant for him or for herself but it made him feel sudden warmth inside.

"Ulquiorra…you are not heartless."

XXX

Ulquiorra stood in the shower feeling dazed. The fact that he had been up all night like a vigilante making sure that the woman did not escape to cause any more trouble had drained him of energy. Irritated at the fact that she had poked the hell out his side, Ulquiorra robotically rubbed where the broom had made contact; there was no possible way that he would be able to write a single line today. The entire time he had laid on her couch, he had been repeating the strange sleepwalking episode over and over again in his mind. He was still trying to comprehend just what had he been thinking when he kissed her. He was not the type of man to disrespect a woman, yet he had somehow let himself fall for her seduction too eagerly. What made the matter even more absurd was that the entire time…she had been asleep. The tired man had to admit, that was a first for him.

Sleep was his priority at the moment, not his deadlines or work for that matter. He needed to rest so he would be able to think with a clear mind. Once he was done with his shower and changed into some pajamas, Ulquiorra headed directly to bed. He wanted to be away from the waking world and without much effort; he had fallen asleep in no time.

XXX

Orihime dressed quickly and headed to work. The morning had started out great until she ended up with some random person in her house and well, basically that person was the one having a bad day; all because of her. She just couldn't understand why she caused so much trouble for this man. Orihime racked her brain trying to remember exactly when she had let him in her apartment. Sometimes she could remember bits and pieces of random sleep-walking incidents but not all the time. She did find it strange that the bottom of her feet had been incredibly dirty when she began putting on her heels. She had taken a shower the evening before and if she had only opened the door for Ulquiorra when he had brought in Shilo, then…she just couldn't put two and two together.

The car pulled up to its new parking spot and she headed into the office. Everyone was already busy and buzzing around the office.

"Hey, Orihime!" said Mizuiro.

"Good morning!" Orihime waved at him and said her hellos to everyone in the office. She rested her purse on her desk and began to prepare for her daily activities.

Orihime looked at knock on her door. It was Mizuiro, "Hey, just wanted to let you know that you might have to continue with your data entry since the receptionist apparently quit, I hope that's okay."

"Oh, yeah, no problem," she replied. Orihime looked back to where her co-worker was still standing, "is there something else, Mizuiro?"

"Yes, we've moved your appointment with Yuki to nine this morning. Due the lack of organization this week, we've had to move people around."

"Oh, well, I suppose that is okay. Nine you say? I hope I can have all his information up by the time he gets here," she said thoughtfully.

"Thanks, Orihime. I knew you would understand!" She smiled at him and nodded her head confirming that it was okay.

Orihime prepared what she could until her appointment. She opened Yuki's file and read his information:

"Client is highly intelligent, does well at home, does chores, and is obedient. He does not engage in conversation with foster parents much and remains in his bedroom doing homework, listening to music or watching TV. Does well in school and has a great attendance record yet is not very sociable. He has mentioned that he does speak with a "friend", but only during lunch but they mainly speak about books. He is in good health, does not smoke or drink. Overall he is a model teenager but he chooses to remain unsociable, as he has so stated. Girls also have interest in him yet he has mentioned that he has never met anyone that was worth his interest. He is undecided about where he will attend college or what he would like to do once he graduates."

Orihime leaned back in her chair and sighed. She had to think of a strategy about how she would get him to talk. So he liked books, she wondered what kind? Grabbing her notepad, she began to write a list of questions that she would be asking and prepared the forms for when he would be arriving. She stood up to head to the rest room when she heard a knock on the door. Orihime turned the knob and found the tall young man with a surprised look on his face.

"Yuki! I didn't mean to startle you. Please come in and sit down, I will be back in just one moment." She moved aside and he walked in and sat down. She rushed to do her business and came back feeling relaxed.

"Sorry, about that! I am sorry about the scheduling switch that they have done here. We are sort of scrambling since the secretary is gone." She glanced and smiled at him. He was dressed very neatly and sharp. He had khaki pants, white shirt underneath a chocolate brown vest, his hair was nicely combed and his shoes were shining brightly. Orihime noted that he was wearing an expensive watch.

"No need to worry, Mrs. Inoue. I understand that sometimes these things happen." he replied with a smile.

"Well, thank you for being understanding. By the way, it's Ms. Inoue, not Mrs."

"Ah, sorry about that..."

She waved it off and smiled. "It's okay. So…I do hope that you bear with me, I know you have spoken to many workers and you must be familiar with the whole procedure here. You can humor me today, if that's okay?"

"That's okay, ask away."

"Well, I wanted to speak to you about your living arrangements, your foster parents? Are you getting along with them okay?" she brought her clipboard that held the forms closer to her.

Yuki sat and gazed at her, "I think they are nice people, who have provided a lot for not only myself but for the other foster children as well. They seem genuine about wanting to help kids."

"I am glad that you can appreciate what they are trying to accomplish, we hope that all foster parents are like that. I see that you are great in school? That is great, Yuki! What classes do you seem to enjoy most?"

Yuki looked up from his shoes to look at her again; he looked up at the ceiling thinking about what to respond to her. "I like science; biology to be exact."

The questions continued for the remainder of the hour, Orihime noticed that Yuki seemed relaxed and comfortable and toward the end, he became a bit more talkative, especially when she brought up the subject of books. He read all sorts of book, not falling into a particular category yet he enjoyed science fiction a bit more. "Books are a great way to escape reality, Ms. Inoue. I love to read."

Orihime smiled at his comment. "Yuki that is a great thing-oh look at the time! I lost track a little bit, you need to head to school now."

"Actually summer school was this morning at 7:30AM is just for an hour, I am taking some advance college classes," he said.

"Oh, okay. Well, then, we will see each other not this Thursday but the following Thursday, then. Yuki it was really nice speaking with you today and I hope that we can learn to work together for your future okay?" she stood up and headed to the door and opened it for him. Yuki stood and somewhat towered over her and he nodded his head at her. Orihime noted that he had quickly glanced at her chest but she was somehow used to that already. After he left, she closed the door and made sure that the buttons on her blouse were done…yes, they were.

The woman sat down and continued her take on the day's meeting with her first client. He was polite, bright and he didn't seem to be bothered by anything, he seemed pretty well put together. She just hoped that he wasn't keeping all his emotions all bottled up inside, she knew how hard losing someone could be. If he felt remorse about what happened to his parents, then she would be there to help him out. Orihime wanted that young man to be successful even after having a horrible childhood.

The minutes passed and her stomach began to announce to her that she was hungry. She had been lost in work that she had not noticed that time. It was one o'clock. Orihime decided to head to the café down the street and eat lunch there while she worked on more of her files. She grabbed her purse and other paper work and headed out the door.

XXX

Orihime stood in line as she looked at the menu of options. Mostly sandwiches, she thought to herself. A sandwich with lots of ketchup and some sauerkraut sounded good. When it was her turn, she ordered the regular sandwich with a side of condiments, while adding other ingredients as well with a cup of soup to dip her sandwich in. The man behind the counter stared at her for a moment and then asked if that was all she wanted. Orihime didn't miss that sarcastic tone of his but decided to ignore it; she didn't understand why people didn't like to experiment with their food. Eating the same thing every day was boring. She opened her purse and began to rummage through it, she glanced at the man who looked at her expectantly and she looked down at her purse in confusion. What the heck? I know I had it in here! Great he's looking at me like I am crazy now. She glanced at the café employee as she raised her index finger signaling him to wait. He sighed and rolled his eyes at her, then looking behind her at the long line of people waiting.

"I am not sure what happened, I know I had my walled this morning, or at least I think I did." She was starting to feel embarrassed and she nervously giggled. She felt an arm brush past her and saw that it handed money to the man waiting to be paid. She followed the arm and saw that it was attached to Yuki.

"Yuki, no! You can't do that, I am sorry but I can't accept!" she said even more embarrassed and was unsure of the odd situation that just arose.

"Ms. Inoue, there are other people waiting behind you. It's okay; I am just helping out and being a Good Samaritan."

Orihime glanced back at the long line of people standing behind her, who obviously looked very annoyed with her for taking so much time. She felt uncomfortable accepting his money but she reluctantly agreed.

Moving aside she looked at Yuki and said, "I am going to pay you back okay? I am just not sure what happened, I know I had my wallet this morning, at least I think I did. But thank you so much for saving me."

He grabbed her shoulders and moved her aside to make room for the other individuals who also wanted to order. She grabbed her tray when they called her number and she looked around unsure as to where to sit. She felt Yuki's hand guiding her toward one of the few empty tables; it looked like he had already been sitting there. Taking one last glance around the café, she found that indeed most seats were taken. As a social worker, she was not supposed to have this sort of contact with her clients; it was an opening for much misinterpretation and something that she wanted to avoid like the plague. Yet at the moment, she really had no choice.


School is literally taking most of my time. I do not have time for anything unfortunately. I am slowly working on the next chapter. Thank you all for sticking with me and all who fav'd and put me on alert! Your support is awesome! Thank you! Reviews are helpful as well! This is sort of a shorter chapter than I wanted to post but I wanted to put something out there instead of waiting for a long time, so I cropped it. Thanks again!