"Ichigo," Orihime looked at his amber eyes, "what's wrong?"

"What's going on?" he asked, looking between the two of them, his expression guarded, almost angry.

Almost worried.

Orihime looked at him, hating the expression on his face. She knew he was upset, that he was worried. Out of all of them, it was ichigo who had his entire world ripped away. A family that didn't remember what he had finally confessed to them, an entire world that he had become a true part of suddenly didn't exist for him. There was no Zangetsu, no Rukia, no Renji or Byakuya. Not anywhere that he could reach anyway. Even his Hollow was gone. All that remained was them, them and the Arrancar he had almost died to kill. The Arrancar Soul Society had left, in some sick mockery of a parting gift. This was not a battle he could fight, not a physical one anyway. And without that, without the enemy he had to defeat, without the potential to be a hero, Ichigo Kurosaki had lost something that no-one could ever bring back.

"I could ask you the same thing," Ichigo said.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to worry you."

Ichigo continued to look at her. His eyes slowly moved from her to Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra had been watching Orihime's reaction but when he felt Ichigo's gaze on him, he immediately dragged his gaze from her to Ichigo. Ichigo's eyes narrowed as amber met emerald. Ulquiorra returned the glare evenly, looking at the hotheaded, angry teenager with the same cool, icy gaze that he had become notorious for. He might have been slimmer, he might have been fractionally shorter as well but Ulquiorra had made far more intimidating men than Ichigo Kurosaki shuffle off with their tails between their legs.

Orihime looked between them anxiously, feeling more and more like she was back in that first fight. Except that neither of them had started to hit the other--not yet anyway. The venue had changed, they were in their high school, not on the top of a palace but the emotion was the same. Orihime was sure if they had Spiritual Power it would be raging right now. Her fingers that had been toying with the edge of her bag suddenly tightened on it, gripping it hard. Neither of them seemed to notice her death grip on the bag or the way her eyes moved quickly between the two of them as she wondered what she should do if they started to fight for real.

Everyone had warmed up to the idea of Ulquiorra being there, though it was far more one of those cases where he was always there than they actually wanted him to be. But slowly they became accustom to him. Everyone except Ichigo. He tolerated Ulquiorra, of course, but he did not like him. Despite his shouting on the top of Las Noches that he hadn't wanted to win the way they said, Ichigo definitely did not want Ulquiorra to be there, especially not living at Urahara's shop and attending Karakura High School. Unfortunately it seemed that he had no choice in the matter. If he had complained to Soul Society, they had turned a deaf ear to it--as they seemed to be doing a lot lately. They were stuck with Ulquiorra and Ichigo was not happy about that.

Ulquiorra held his gaze, refusing to back down. It was like watching the personification of good and evil. To the passing eye it was clear who was good and who was evil. But not to Orihime. She saw the good in Ichigo, she saw the way he always tried to protect his friends, the way he always fought for what he believed was good and right. But she knew there was darkness in him as well. Darkness in his ruthlessness, darkness now in his hopelessness. And Ulquiorra, it was impossible to deny what he was, not just what he had been. Even now sometimes Orihime was with him and most of her was screaming to run in the other direction. But it wasn't as simple as that. Not when she saw him with his ipod or when he played the piano. Not when she saw the way he always tried to protect her, even when it was from himself.

"Stop it!" Orhime cried looking between them.

Both their eyes went immediately to her. Orihime's own widened as emerald and amber met her violet grey orbs. Suddenly she felt bare, exposed to their gaze. But once again there was such a difference. She knew when Ichigo looked at her, he saw the Princess. He saw her as someone he could protect but someone who could take care of themselves. He saw what he wanted to see--he saw what he needed to see. But Ulquiorra looked at her and she felt like he could see past that, past whatever front she put up, past whatever everyone else thought she was. He looked at her like Tatsuki looked at her, that look that told her they weren't buying the brave face she was putting up, but if she needed to lie then they would go along with it--but only for her.

"I-I'm sorry," she said looking between the two of them, "I have to go," she said pushing past them and hurrying down the hallway.

"What the hell did you do?!" Tatsuki demanded coming over and looking at Ulquiorra.

"I did nothing," Ulquiorra said, knowing damn well she wasn't even going to acknowledge Ichigo's presence. What he didn't know was going to happen was the obvious anger on her face as she looked at him.

"Yeah," Tatsuki said, "that's the problem," she turned and hurried after her friend.

Ulquiorra turned to look at Ichigo who was glaring at some far off entity, his arms crossed over his chest. After a moment his gaze went to Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra looked at him, waiting for him to go after Orihime. It was clear that was what he was supposed to do. Go and make it all better. He knew it, Ichigo knew it but when Ichigo moved it was in the opposite direction. Ulquiorra watched him walk down the hallway, away from him and, more importantly, away from Orihime. Ulquiorra stared as he stormed down the corridor and vanished among the crowd of students milling back to class.

Ulquiorra looked over at the classroom, knowing that was where he should go. But his feet took him to the hallway she had disappeared down. He approached slowly, cautiously, more like he approached a bomb or a sneak fight than two girls. He saw the two of them on the stairs, his eyes moving over the scene as if he were surveying a battlefield. Orihime was bent over, her shoulders shaking. Tatsuki was sitting next to her, her arm over Orihime's shoulders as she spoke to her. Next to them both, their schoolbags were propped on the stairs. He could see Orihime's brightly colored notebooks and Tatsuki's darker ones. Ulquiorra looked down at the ground in front of him and stopped, staring at the sight.

One of Orihime's hairpins was near his foot.

Slowly he bent down and picked it up, the small ornament glinting in the fluorescent lighting overhead. They were trinkets now, more than they were actually the key to her power. But the blue flowers were familiar to him, more familiar than most things in the world anyway. Slowly Ulquiorra curled his hand around the ornament and looked back to where the two of them were sitting. Tatsuki looked at him over Orihime's shoulder and quickly shook her head, her eyes clearly stating that he should be gone. Ulquiorra looked at Orihime's shoulders, hating the sense he saw in her words.

Quickly he turned and silently left the stairwell, slipping the hairpin back into his pocket, his fingers curled around the ornament as he arrived late to class.

"You seem troubled," Uryuu spoke.

Tatsuki looked over at the glasses wearing man as they walked home from school before looking ahead with a sigh of frustration. She was troubled. Orihime breaking down was bad enough but the fact Ulquiorra had come and not Ichigo was even more troubling. She didn't know why. She knew that Ulquiorra liked Orihime and Orihime liked him but it just seemed wrong that that orange haired idiot wasn't even going to come check up on his girlfriend.

"Orihime's just upset," she said, "I think she and Ichigo had a fight."

"Ah," Uryuu nodded, knowing there was no elaboration needed.

"So how was archery today?" Tatsuki asked.

Uryuu looked down at the martial artist. Their walking home together had become something commonplace now, considering the fact they were actually neighbors now. Though she was probably one of, if not the single most practical, tough and tomboyish person Uryuu knew, the fact was Tatsuki's parents were wealthy. Very wealthy. As was his father. He had not known Tatsuki as a child but it turned out the two of them had spent the main part of their childhood together in the same house. By the time they really met, he had long since moved out of his father's house, choosing being a Quincy over being an Ishida.

Of course that changed when he showed up again.

Now as they walked through one of the most expensive districts of Karakura Town, they were both heading home. They had started walking together after two days of heading in the same general direction when Tatsuki got out of martial arts practice and he left the archery club. Two days was the longest Tatsuki could respect his distance before she turned around when he was walking behind her and waited for him to catch up. Now they usually met at the corner in between school and the dojo and headed home from there.

"I suppose Ichigo did not perform to your standards?" Uryuu asked, looking right past her attempt to change the subject.

"Like I care what that orange haired idiot does," she said with a snort, looking away.

Uryuu said nothing to that, knowing that it was a loosing battle. Tatsuki was too hurt to forgive him anytime soon and Ichigo was too broken to even try for her forgiveness. He knew that Ichgio needed his friends now more than ever, but it was hard to be friends with a man who had essentially given up on the world around him. They had all come back from the war broken and Uryuu knew that healing was a process--just as he knew he wished that it would be over much more quickly. He looked at Tatsuki who kept her eyes ahead before they darted to him and then ahead.

"I don't want to talk about him," she said.

"Very well," Uryuu agree, reaching up and pushing his glasses back up on his nose.

"I keep telling you you should get them adjusted!" Tatsuki burst out, "you're gonna break them."

Uryuu paused, knowing exactly what she meant as their eyes went at the exact same time to the prosthesis pressing his glasses higher on his nose.

Uryuu slowly lowered his hand as Tatsuki looked down.

"Sorry, I didn't mean--"

"Its alright," he said, cutting her apology off.

Soul Society had stripped the rest of them of their Shinigami powers and dropped them on the earth. They had done what they could to Sado and Orihime to make sure their powers were contained but Uryuu hadn't let them touch his power. He had a feeling they let him stay the way he was for the same reason they left Ulquiorra alone. They were valuable specimens, the last of their races. But no touching and restrictive powers for the others meant Uryuu was out of luck when it came to his hand. Thanks to his father he had the best prosthetics that money could buy but it was impossible to miss the fact his hand was gone, even when he wore the one that looked like a hand. At the moment he was wearing a dark metal one, specially designed for archery--designed for archery but not for glasses.

They came to a stop outside his house. His house was on one side of the street, she was on the other. They stopped outside his house before Tatsuki looked up at him.

"Right, so, I'm gonna go," she said jerking her thumb over her shoulder, "but I'll see you tomorrow Uryuu."

"Good night Tatsuki," he said.

True to form, Uryuu remained in front of his house and watched as she crossed the street. She made it to her door and turned around, waving at him. Uryuu slowly raised his hand and waved back before she walked inside. Only once she was safely inside did Uryuu turn and walk up the path to his own house.

Across town, Ulquiorra was walking with his hands shoved in his pockets. Urahara had taken the day for data analysis so Ulquiorra was off for the night. He should have been happy that he wasn't having to transform or do any of the other stupid things Urahara made him do but he was anything but. He felt troubled, deeply trouble.

Something had changed.

He couldn't pin point when the dark thoughts about her came more and more frequently anymore than he could say what had drove him to go to that piano for the first time in a lifetime. But the worst part was her tears. He did not like seeing her cry, not at all. It was more than that though. When he saw her crying he wanted nothing more than to make it stop. When he saw her crying he felt helpless. Obedience to Aizen had made him her protector but something kept him there, even after the man who gave the order died. He had to protect her, from every and anything and when he couldn't do that, it made him feel sick.

Deep in his pocket his fingers tightened on the hairpin. Either she hadn't noticed it was gone or she didn't think he was the one who picked it up. He had saw her leave with one of them still in her hair, the other tucked in his pocket. He had tried to approach her and give it back but one look at her red rimmed eyes and he had fallen silent, words failing him. She had been gone before he found his voice again and Ulquiorra, if possible, felt even more useless than he had before. So now he was walking towards her house, intent on returning the ornament and making sure she was alright.

As he approached her house, Ulquiorra realized that someone else had a similar idea. He stopped, still concealed in the tree line and feeling sicker and sicker at the sight of the mop of orange hair adorning the body in her doorway. Orihime was nodding at something Ichigo was saying, her head moving up and down as he motioned with his hands. Orihime smiled and moved forward, her arms going easily around him. Ulquiorra watched from the trees, his eyes moving over their forms pressed together. They looked perfect, perfect and it made him want to do nothing more than throw himself under the nearest moving vehicle. But she looked happy, happy that she was in his arms again.

So Ulquiorra turned and went home.

Orihime closed her eyes and tightened her grip on Ichigo's shoulders, burying her face in his shoulder. His heartbeat was strong and steady and alive under her cheek. He smelled like sun and earth and things that were living. Orihime squeezed her eyes, praying her tears wouldn't come, not while he could see anyway. It felt so right to be in his arms, as if she had been made especially to fit against him. Like they were two puzzle pieces that interlocked. There were no voices that shouted for her to run, no desire to throw him off. But for some reason, it seemed that there should be. Shouldn't she feel doubt? Or hesitance? But she didn't and that was the problem. Because under the rightness, under the perfection, Orihime knew that there was one more thing.

And that was that she felt nothing.

SO Ichigo's broken and is there something brewing between Tatsuki and Uryuu? Maybe.......

So Ulquiorra's got her hairpin. Lets see him give it back!

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