A/N – Oh man. I don't even know where to start. First off, I'm SO sorry for taking so long to update. I know that it's my own story, and I can update as little or as much as I want, but I still feel so bad when you guys have offered me so much support in the past. I've had a whirlwind of a summer, with plays, drama, and some no-so-acting type drama as well. Basically, due to some circumstances, I'm now homeschooling, so it's been a weird summer.
I got some inspiration to write tonight after helping with a new Bleach story that just came around, called Defying Fate, written by David Knight. It's worth checking out, and it has a lot of potential!
Anyways, I'll let you read some more and then whine a bit once you finish, so I hope you enjoy, and I want to say again that I thank you all for your constant support and reviews even after months of no updates. Those are the things that really got me to start writing tonight, and I probably would've waited a lot longer without them. Thanks!
Disclaimer : I do not own Bleach, or anything regarding Bleach! They all belong to Kubo Tite!
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Orihime sat, huddled in a corner trying to bring some warmth into her body. Had it always been this cold in this small little moonlit room? She tried to tell herself that she wasn't as vulnerable as she seemed at the moment, but all that played in her mind was the frightening vision of Grimmjow, that haughty smirk lining every inch of his face, only hidden by the sharp jaws of his mask.
She hated to admit it, but compared to that beast, she almost preferred Ulquiorra.
No. That wasn't true.
Was it?
She shook her head, strands of orange falling out from behind her shoulders. Orange. Kurosaki-kun. Orihime let out a sigh of desperation, trying to figure out why everything she had to think about was so depressing! She raised her head, taking a deep breath before placing a hard-fought for smile on her round face.
"In a minute, Kurosaki-kun, Rukia-san, Ishida-kun, Abarai-kun, and anyone else who came here will burst through this door and rescue me!" she grinned, letting out a forced laugh, attempting to make herself feel better.
Those laughs soon quieted out, as she had to bite on her lower lip to stop herself from crying. She wouldn't cry. Crying meant that she was weak, and this was no place to be weak.
Not now at least.
Taking one more look up at the moon, she remembered that one night when she had been standing there, admiring it's beauty when Ulquiorra walked in, alerting her that her friends were in Hueco Mundo. That was the moment that her heart stopped beating, if only for a minute. All of this fighting and bloodshed, for her? No... This couldn't only be about her.
Orihime placed her head back on her knees, closing her eyes for a moment before drifting off into unintentional slumber.
---
She hated when the hallways were this empty. It was too boring. Nothing fun ever happened when there was only her to cause trouble. That way, she had no one else to blame it on. Mind you, she had something very specific to blame at this point of time.
Twirling her curly black hair around her finger, Chirucchi strode through the hallways, partially trying to remember where she was going, and partially trying to remember why she was going in the first place. It really wasn't her style to be doing this.. but it just made her so damn pissed!
Finding the location she was looking for, she burst through the doorway, not even concerned about interrupting anything. It wasn't a secret that Ulquiorra was AWOL.
"HIME! GET YOUR ASS OFF THAT FLOOR AND STOP MOPING AROUND!" she shouted, once again, not concerned in the slightest about who heard her. They could all suck it and die for all she cared.
The woman visibly jumped at her welcome, giving Chirucchi a small grin of happiness and knowing that she hadn't lost her thunder after getting beaten by that pansy Quincy.
"C-Chirucchi-san!" she spoke in alarm, as if expecting someone else. Her high pitched voice seemed minuscule in comparison to the volume that she usually admitted, but that was probably one of the reasons that she could stand being around the woman. "What are you doing here?!"
She gave a light scoff, feeling that she probably shouldn't have come in the first place, "I heard what happened, and I wondered if..." she took a pause, really hating these sort of things. "I wanted to know if you needed someone's ass kicked?"
The hime's face was priceless, a perfect mixture of astonishment, depression, laughter and fright all at the same time. Chirucchi wasn't even aware that there were so many emotions that could run through someone's head at one time. Then again, she was never a very emotive person in the first place.
"Uh... h-huh?" she returned, obviously unsure about how she should respond. "H-how did you know?"
"Are you serious?"
"Um.. maybe?"
She rolled her eyes, bringing a fist out in front of her, quite obviously angry. "I'm surprised you don't have every arrancar in Las Noches knocking on your door considering how that bastard Grimmjow just won't shut up about how you "threw" yourself at him." She saw the woman's eyes open wider, and a sharp intake of breath. She knew it couldn't be true. "Well, at least nobody believes him."
"They don't?"
"Nah, nobody here's too fond of Grimmjow. Too much hot air." Chirucchi gave out a small laugh as if thinking about some sort of inside joke. "Besides, you'd be surprised with how many arrancar have respect for you here. I mean, not like the entire group, but more then a handful think that you're too good for him."
Orihime gave a weak smile at her attempt at a joke before standing, giving a small, formal bow to t he pixie-like girl. "Thank you Chirucchi-san."
"Ugh, would you stop that? Chirucchi is good enough if you're letting me call you by nicknames!" she protested, placing both of her hands on her small hips, leaning forward while sticking out a tongue. Orihime gave a small laugh, sitting back down on the ground.
There was silence for a few moment until she decided to speak up again, "so what happened anyways?"
"With Grimmjow?"
"Yeah." She let out a small sigh, biting down on her bottom lip. It wasn't until then that I noticed the small bruise just below her bottom lip.
Oh.
"He was laughing at me for not listening to him or being afraid of him, then he pinned me up against the wall and... kissed me." a small involuntary blush rose to her cheeks simply at the thought of someone kissing her. "It was a surprise..."
"No kidding," Chirucchi sympathized, sitting down in front of the woman with her legs spread out in front of her. "What a jerk."
They were talking for a few moments, simply enjoying someone else's company when a loud bell echoed through the halls, reaching even the solitude of the espada's private quarters where they were sitting.
"Oh crap, I've gotta go," Chirucchi growled, angry at being interrupted when she was actually having a decent time.
Orihime gave a curt nod in response, "I understand."
"Alright, now you listen! If Grimmjow gives you any more trouble, let me know! He may be number 6, but I'll still give him something to be sorry about!" she almost screamed as she ran out of the room, making her point clear that she wasn't afraid of him. She gave the pixie-like arrancar a small wave before sitting herself down in the middle of the room, staring up at the window. It was nice to have some decent company for a change. Decent, as in someone who didn't have the sole purpose of either torturing her, or having their way with her.
Yeah, she really missed decent company.
---
Groggy, he awoke, feeling the blaring heat of lamps surrounding him, blinding him right as he opened his eyes. He never did like too much light. Sitting up, Ulquiorra was hit with a terrible wave of dizziness, finding it difficult to even think straight as he looked around, taking in his surroundings.
His head hurt like crazy, as if it had been slammed into cement several times over. He lifted his hand, running it over his hair to check for any large bumps to signify just that. Finding nothing, he moved to his mask fragment, his hand stopping, rigid, when he came across something he hoped he would never have to deal with.
A crack.
Dear lord, anything but that. Sure it may seem like it was nothing more then a fault or a crack in a building, or a wall, but it was an entirely different thing when it came to an arrancar's mask.
The mask symbolized their existence, their lives. If that were to be cracked in half, there was nothing left of the arrancar. They would truly die.
Ulquiorra cursed under his breath for being so foolish as to let this happen. It was nothing major right now, but if that crack deepened, he wasn't sure what would happen, but he didn't want to find out. Surely he would be the talk of many once he returned to the rest of the espada. Hopefully it wasn't too bad. He didn't want to be as well known as Neliell had been for her mask cracking. That was not the sort of fame he wanted to acquire.
His panicking thoughts where interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming from his right. Jumping off the examination table, he turned his whole body towards the intruder, ignoring the piercing pain coming from every single bone in his body.
"Good to see that you've recovered," the man laughed, coming into the light. Aizen looked the same as always, an amused expression covering his eyes as he held his arms to his side.
Ulquiorra gave a curt bow, almost out of habit, "thank you for your concern, Aizen-sama. I hope to be assistance to you in a short time after I heal completely."
"Ah yes, we'll have Orihime-san fix you up completely once you return. It'd be no good to have you limping around when you're needed." His eyes flickered for a moment, his expression changing as he feigned innocence, "Speaking of which..."
"Forgive me Aizen-sama, it will not happen again," Ulquiorra burst in immediately, knowing what was coming due to his foolish impulsive actions. He couldn't even recall now what had made him decide to kiss the woman, but he knew it had been a bad human-like impulse that he refused to give into again.
"Please let me finish," Aizen noted politely, and the 4th espada cringed, realizing that he had just interrupted the man who ruled his existance.
"I'm sorry, Aizen-sama."
"What I was going to say, was that I'm not going to stop you from doing whatever you want with that woman, only that it's not something you will get freely." Amusement etched every inch of his face as he watched for Ulquiorra's reaction to his words.
"Pardon me?" he responded, unsure of his leader's words.
Aizen walked a few steps closer, raising his head to inspect the espada's mask fragment, "You must have noticed that you have a considerable crack in your mask. What I'm saying, is that if you want to have any sort of relationship with this woman, it's going to cost you."
Ulquiorra's eyes widened, finally understanding what Aizen was meaning. If he were to have a relationship with Orihime, then his mask would crack. It was a frightening thought, but was was even more frightening, was the fact that he felt something in his stomach. Fear? No... Dissapointment.
"You have no reason to worry about that Aizen-sama, for I have no intention of getting friendly with that woman ever again." Aizen Sousuke gave a small smirk before nodding, as if calculating something in his head.
"I understand. Good luck then. You're free to return."
Aizen turned his back, walking back down the hallway that he had come in, leaving Ulquiorra standing there, unsure of his next actions.
Never again.
Whew, and there you go! Didn't take me too long, but I've really got to do to the bathroom now after drinking I don't know how much cranberry juice. Uugh, I think I might be getting sick.
How about I whine a little MORE now! Haha, sorry, I've sort of been in that sort of mood lately, but it's all good. I'm just happy that I now know where this story is headed, thanks to my awesome sister!!! Yay! It feels great to know where something is going after fumbling around in the dark for so long.
So.. I'm going to just say 10 updates, please, but I mean, I understand after being so unfaithful to my update schedule. If you do have a minute to spare though, please just press that periwinkle button and write what you thought, as it will make me bring out the next chapter quicker. Oh yes! And I plan to update my other 2 stories shortly as well, for those that read them. Yes, that means Regret too! The long awaited GinxRangiku fanfiction that I've been procrastinating writing. Anyways, too much talking for me. It's getting pretty late, so I'm gonna plan my next chapters and head off to bed! Thanks again so much and I hope I can update prettty soon!
See you soon! 3 huggles Ulquiorra plushie"