Someone pointed out to me, that at times, Ulquiorra seems slightly OOC. To anyone else who feels so, Ulquiorra is human; therefore I am giving more emotions than his Arrancar version. However, if it's troubling you (God knows I get very troubled when I see his pics that have him grinning like an idiot) please feel free to let me know. I'll put in all the more effort to make him seem as close as is "humanly" possible (pun intended) for him to be to his Arrancar personality.

Now that that's out of the way, enjoy the story.

Oh and I love George Clooney. No it's not random, as you'll see in the chapter.

Update: So I finally have reworked parts of this chapter. I was unhappy with the last effort, and have done what I could do to improve on this chapter. It's a little more fluid than the last time.


Chapter 6- A Dream and Interaction

She was running across a vast sandy desert. There was sand everywhere she saw. It was a starless sky with a crescent moon. A large white domed structure was the only feature in an otherwise barren, colourless and desolate landscape. She wasn't sure if she was running towards it or away from it, because no matter what she did, it still loomed large, straight ahead of her. Slowly something else started to come into her field of vision, a silhouette. Whoever it was, the person was too far from her to hear her. She had to get closer or something bad would happen. She ran as if her life depended on it. She ran till she could run no more. She could now make out that the person was a male. She screamed but her voice had betrayed her. Somehow the man sensed her and turned around. Seeing his face, she screamed again. This man was not who she thought he was. She needed to get away, get away before this man harmed her even more. As she turned around to run away, the man was found to be standing right in front of her. Screaming she backed away, turning to her right. He was there too as well as to her left. Soon he was everywhere and closing in. She had no escape route. A cry escaped her lips. Suddenly another figure landed in front of her. A pale man with large tear like black markings down his face, his black hair long and wild. He had two white horns on his head and his irises were yellow surrounded by green. His chest, while human had a large hole right in the centre from which a blackish blood like substance was dripping. His arms, waist and legs were covered in thick black fur that formed a coat-tail like shape at his waist. His limbs ended in claws. He even had large bat-like wings and a long black tail. He was a beast straight out of someone's nightmares. The beast turned around and asked her,

"Are you scared, woman?"

"No, I am not scared." she replied truthfully. On some level she knew she was supposed to be scared of the beast, but she wasn't. She was scared of the man who was all around her.

The bat-like creature extended a clawed hand at her, and she gripped it. He immediately wound his other hand around her waist, and flew. The man and his twenty or so replicas let out a scream. They couldn't follow her there. She had wings. She could fly...

She sat up with a jolt only to realise she had had an extra vivid dream. She was panting, her considerable bosom heaving. The details of the dream were already slipping away from her grasp but she desperately tried to hold on. The dream was telling her something, she knew it, but what was it saying? The beast had seemed oddly familiar, but now, with the details fading faster than sand from a closed fist, she was no longer sure. All she knew that the dream had disturbed her greatly. She sighed and reached out for the glass of water kept on her bedside table. The digital clock on it said, 3:30am. She let out a small groan, what a time to wake up!

She looked over to the couch-bed where Ulquiorra lay sleeping. His hair looked dishevelled, a strand falling across his face. His skin was slightly pale, as though he hadn't seen enough sun. His eyelashes formed two perfect half-moons on his cheeks. One of his hands was under his head as a pillow and the other lay in front of him, closed into a loose fist. Sometime in the night, he had kicked off his sheet that lay in a tangle between his feet. His frame, much too large for the couch-bed was curled slightly, with one of his legs jutting out of the couch bed. In his sleep, his face didn't have his near perpetual frown, and it somehow made him look vulnerable. She imagined looking into those startlingly green eyes, the most fascinating aspect of his face. She had never seen anyone whose eyes were that shade of green. They were slightly unnerving, but very beautiful. She reluctantly admitted to herself that he was a very attractive man.

She continued looking at him for a little while, unsure of what to think about this man who'd become a fixture in her life. She no longer hated him, of that she was certain. In fact she found him likable. He was not what she had initially expected him to be. He was actually a very easy person to be with. Given what his job was, he could easily have been nosy and interfering in everything, and yet, he somehow managed to give her a sense of privacy. How he managed that, she had no idea. Like this evening, she knew he had figured out that something was wrong. He had figured it out the day he stopped her from cutting herself, and yet, never once had he asked her why she did what she did. When she had revealed that she did indeed remember him from that day, he hadn't asked her why she pretended otherwise. He was letting her be herself, no questions asked. He had even let her cry when she needed to. He didn't offer her shallow words of comforts. Instead he had diverted her mind with a simple act. She thought back to their impromptu dance. It was actually a very simple and friendly gesture from him, but since the dance, she had been toying with a thought. A thought that before now, she was reluctant to put words to. But something about the time and the unguarded moment made her do what she was trying not to do. Admit to herself that somewhere during the past few days, she had developed a small school-girl crush on this man.

That also explained the disturbing thought about kissing him that she had during the dance. She smiled and hugged her knees. How had things come to this? Till some time ago, she believed herself to be in love with Ichigo, then how had she developed a crush on Ulquiorra? Was it possible to love someone and yet have a crush on another?

Why not? She justified, Many married women have a crush on George Clooney, that doesn't make them love their husbands any less.

She almost giggled at her own analogy. Across her Ulquiorra turned in his sleep.

Yeah well, whatever. She thought, I just need to be normal around him, and I'll grow out of it eventually.

Deciding on that, she fell back on the bed and fell back to sleep, her dream forgotten. Across her, lying on his couch bed, Ulquiorra let out the breath he was holding. He had woken up the moment he'd heard her frightened gasp. He was scared she would try to cut herself again. He pretended to continue to sleep, his ears trained on her. She merely drank a glass of water and sat on the bed for a while, unmoving. Muttered something to herself and fallen back to sleep. He waited for her breathing to grow slow and even before he let sleep take him over.


Ulquiorra woke up later than usual, only to find Orihime stepping out of the bathroom. He was annoyed at himself. This was the first time in a long while that he had overslept.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You told me never to approach a sleeping Espada." She said, looking at him with large innocent eyes.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and she couldn't keep up the act. She burst out laughing. He felt the corners of his mouth twitch slightly, but he maintained the scowl as he walked into the bathroom past her.

At school Orihime was totally distracted but with pleasant thoughts. She was vaguely aware of Ulquiorra throwing her a couple of strange looks, but he, predictably stayed silent. Tatsuki and Rukia however, were not so easily fooled. At lunch, Tatsuki snapped her fingers in front of her face to bring her out of her daydream.

"Really Orihime, this is heights." She said sounding both amused and annoyed. "I have seen you getting lost in daydream several times, but what's with this idiotic grin you have on your face?"

"Have you ever seen a meteor shower, Tatsuki?"

So that was what the woman was daydreaming about all day? Ulquiorra thought.

"No, why?"

"Oh then you must. It's absolutely beautiful. And so romantic."

"Romantic?" A new voice cut across. Renji was striding across the room to meet them all up. "I never knew you even had any inkling as to what romance was."

"How mean!" Orihime chided laughing.

"Hi Ulquiorra, am I right?"

Ulquiorra nodded.

"Oh the famous nod!" Renji said, a wide grin spreading across his face. "I have heard so much about this nod of yours. Tell me, do you ever talk."

"Renji! You are being rude." Orihime cut in.

"Hey come on, I was just curious. All this while and most people haven't even heard his voice."

"Maybe because not everyone wants to blare out every single thought, or lack thereof, that crosses their puny brains, unlike a certain tattooed red-head that we all know?" Ishida ventured joining in the banter, Ichigo following him with a wide grin on his face.

The girls all burst out laughing while Renji promised to pummel Ishida within an inch of his life.

"Make sure you don't ruin that precious hair-style of his." Ichigo said, getting murderous glares from Ishida.

"Or that preciously ridiculous white cape of his." Renji said smirking.

"Hey that's my uniform."

"It looks stupid." Rukia said.

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does," Tatsuki joined in, "I mean white pants, really Uryuu, white pants?"

"Don't forget the white shoes." Orihime chimed in.

"Oh!" Renji said covering his eyes, "I am getting the mental picture of that awful outfit. Oh the agony!"

"You all will die painful deaths!" Ishida muttered.

Everyone collapsed into uncontrollable laughter, with tears rolling off their eyes. Ishida joined in after a while.

Ulquiorra watched the entire scene with a detached amusement, a feeling akin to a strange loneliness settling in him. Before he could stop it, a thought crossed his mind.

I was never laughed at with so much affection.

Before he could dwell further on it, Renji wiped his tears and looked at him.

"Hey, don't mind us. We can get a little carried away at times. What was I asking you?"

To his own surprise, Ulquiorra found himself replying, "You were asking if I talk or not."

"Aah yes, but that question is now moot, isn't it? Given that you actually said a whole sentence."

"Don't mind him," Ishida said smiling, "He can be a jerk at times. You know you remind me of our friend Sado. He talks very little too."

"Speaking of which, where is Sado?" Rukia asked.

"He found an injured bird. He's taken it to the infirmary." Ichigo replied.

"Say Orihime," Renji said, looking like he was doing some serious thinking, "Aren't you glad Chizuru isn't around?"

"Hey, not nice!" Orihime said, but she was laughing.

As were everyone else around her. All in all, it was a very happy group of teens. A group in which Ulquiorra didn't belong. He decided to let them some privacy and was about to walk away, when a hand held his. Startled he turned around to find Orihime looking at him with a smile. She shook her head slightly, asking him to stay where he was. No one except Ichigo noticed the small interaction. His brow furrowed.

Orihime spend the rest of the day, smiling and laughing genuinely. She had no idea that her recurring nightmare would creep up on her by the end of the day.