A/N - Okay, I know this chapter is super late and for that I apologize. This was my last week of classes for the semester, so I had to spend the time I usually designate for writing doing some last minute assignments and studying for final exams. Now that I'm on vacation for a while I should have more time to write. :) As usual, I want to thank everyone for reading and reviewing, especially to those who left suggestions, you're awesome.
That night, Orihime woke up and turned her head to squint at her alarm clock on the bedside table. The angry, red numbers 12:17 glared back at her. She closed her eyes and attempted to go back to sleep, but after a couple of minutes had passed and she was still awake, she decided to get a drink instead.
For this reason, she got out of bed and quietly made her way into the kitchen. While she was standing in front of the sink drinking her water, she tried to recall the strange dream that had awoken her.
Hmm, I think I remember something about Nel-chan and I eating ice cream, topped with noodles? Oh well, it wasn't important anyway.
At this point, Orihime yawned quietly and took it as a sign that she was ready to go back to sleep. She placed her empty cup into the sink, and made her way back to bed. As she was passing Nel's room, she peeked in quick, expecting to see the other girl sleeping soundly.
However, her futon was empty which startled Orihime wide awake, so she stepped into the room.
"Nel-chan?" She crept over to check the closet and came up with nothing.
Accordingly, she checked the bathroom next, but there was no sign of Nel anywhere. As it finally sunk in that she was all alone in the apartment, Orihime's blood ran cold. She turned around, and bolted over to the front door, threw on her shoes, and ran out into the night.
When she reached the steps that lead down from her apartment, she noticed it was beginning to snow. At that moment, her concern for Nel's safety was so overwhelming, that it never even crossed her mind to go back and grab a jacket.
As soon as she took the last step off the stairs, she paused for a moment to consider where the other girl could have gone.
If I was Nel-chan, where would I go in the middle of the night? Maybe she thought of something she saw today and went back to look at it?
With this in mind, she decided to retrace their steps from earlier, and rushed down the sidewalk, hoping that she would run into her friend along the way.
A little while later, after she had run through the quiet city softly calling Nel's name, she ended up at the park. She wandered over to the little bridge they had stood on that afternoon and scanned the surrounding area.
"Nel-chan!"
She paused for a moment, noting that the snow was falling much faster now, and began to rub her hands up and down her arms for warmth.
"Nel-chan!" She waited again, listening for a response.
"Such a noisy, little human," came a deep, scratchy voice from behind her.
Suddenly, Orihime spun around to see a giant, black hollow towering over her. At that instant, it stretched out one of its massive hands to grab her, and she called for Tsubaki.
"Koten Zanshun! I reject!" Tsubaki came flying out of her hairpin and dove straight toward the hollow's hand, effectively slicing it.
The hollow let a roar and pulled its hand back. "Stupid human! Did you think such a small cut would stop me?"
At that moment, Tsubaki was coming back around for another hit, but the hollow saw it out of the corner of its eye, and took an offensive position. Tsubaki noticed the change in its stance, and quickly altered his direction, thinking he could outsmart the hollow.
Before Orihime could react, the hollow backhanded her across the bridge, where she landed on the sidewalk, forcing Tsubaki to return to her pin.
The hollow let out an eerie laugh, "I told you that wouldn't stop me." It said as it began to cross the bridge over to where she was lying unconscious, when unexpectedly, a green flash of light enveloped it.
"Trash," came a voice from above where the hollow had been just a second ago. Ulquiorra stood there, with an indifferent expression on his face, and his hands in the pockets of his Espada uniform.
He took a few steps in Orihime's direction and noticed a small pool of blood gathering around her head. Without hesitation, he landed beside her, and scooped her up into his arms, as a light dust of snowflakes fell off her.
He glanced down at the freezing, bloody girl in his arms. "What were you doing out here, woman?" Not expecting an answer, he held onto her tightly and used sonido to return to Urahara's.
Meanwhile, the girl that Orihime was out looking for sat across from Grimmjow, in her new pink pajamas, having one of their usual late night 'meetings' in his room.
"See, Grimmy? Today worked out great, my plan was a complete success!" Nel declared with a proud smile on her face.
"You promised me this afternoon that you would leave me alone for the rest of the day, or did you forget?" He grumbled in return and ran a hand through his sleep tousled hair.
Her smile grew wider. "No, I remember, but now it's nighttime."
"You know, you're a real pain in my a-"
Suddenly, they heard a loud bang from the front of the shop. Grimmjow glanced at Nel, placed his finger over his lips, and jumped up. He rushed over to the bedroom door, grabbing his ZanpakutÅ along the way, and cracked it open just enough to peer out.
A few seconds passed and he saw no movement, so he quietly slid his door open, and crept through the living room. Upon reaching the now open front door, he took a couple of steps outside and glanced around.
At that moment, he noticed the small trail of blood starting at the entrance and leading back into the shop. He shut the door and proceeded to follow it through the living room and down the hall, where it seemed to turn into Ulquiorra's room.
Instantly, he flung the door open to a shocking sight, Ulquiorra was kneeling on the floor beside someone on his futon. At the sound of the door being opened, the other man turned to glare at him. That's when he noticed the crimson stain on the right side of Ulquiorra's white uniform.
Grimmjow took a couple of steps toward the dark haired man and realized it was Orihime lying there in her blue pajamas, covered in blood. "What the fuck happened?!"
"Keep your voice down." He turned back to the injured woman, gently lifted her head, and placed a towel underneath it.
"Grimmy? There's blood everywhere are you-" Nel stepped into the room and caught sight of Orihime. "Oh, Hime! What happened?"
Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes at the teal haired girl. "You're here again. Does she know that you've been sneaking out at night?"
Grimmjow interrupted. "I'm going to get Urahara, she looks like shit," with that he took off to wake the shopkeeper.
Nel sat down on the other side of the redhead and took her hand, "Hime, please wake up." She glanced up at the man seated across from her. "Her hands are like ice."
Ulquiorra continued to glare at her, "You didn't answer my question."
Nel opened her mouth to reply, but never got the chance as Urahara, Tessai, and Grimmjow entered the room.
"I heard our Orihime-chan's injured." Urahara said in a sleep filled voice.
"Please move aside," Tessai told him as Ulquiorra stood up and he took the younger man's place to kneel beside her. "Someone run and grab more blankets for her."
Grimmjow turned and left the room to do as the other man asked. A few seconds later, he returned with a stack of blankets and handed them to Tessai, who spread them over Orihime.
"How about we go into the living room to sort this whole thing out and give Tessai some space?" The blonde haired man suggested to the others as he turned and walked out the door.
Nel got up from her spot on the floor and followed behind Grimmjow as he exited the room. Ulquiorra stayed behind for a moment, his eyes fixated on the woman lying on his futon, before he turned and left the room.
He entered the living room to see the others already seated around the table. Suddenly, the front door flew open and Ichigo marched in, followed by Rukia, who shut the door behind them, and walked over to stand alongside of him.
The orange haired Shinigami glanced down at Nel, then he raised his eyes to glare at Ulquiorra. "Where the hell is Inoue, you bastard?!"
"Kurosaki-san, Kuchiki-san, please have a seat. Inoue-san will be fine, if you will give Ulquiorra a moment to explain what happened." Urahara interjected as he waved them over toward the table.
Ulquiorra walked over to take a seat beside Grimmjow, while Ichigo and Rukia made their way over and sat across from them.
Ichigo, with a hostile expression on his face, pointed at Ulquiorra. "I know you did something to her. I felt her reiatsu fade right before we saw your cero, and when we got to the park, there was a puddle of blood. Her blood, which is all over your jacket."
Ulquiorra closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, they locked onto the other man's. "You saw my cero because I destroyed a hollow that had attacked her."
"You didn't protect her? If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be here right now. What was she doing out there in the middle of the night anyway?" Ichigo demanded.
"By the time I got there she was already unconscious, and if you're so concerned with her safety, why weren't you there to save her?" His voice grew colder. "You're her savior after all, always running to her rescue."
"Savior? No, I'm her friend, and I care about the safety of all my friends, something you would never understand." He growled in return.
At that moment Tessai entered the room, glanced over at their new guests, and then looked at Urahara. "I've healed her as much as I'm able, but she hit her head pretty hard. All we can do now is wait for her to wake up."
Urahara nodded at the man in return, with that Tessai rotated around and left the room. The shopkeeper turned to the orange haired man with a large grin on his face.
"See Kurosaki-san? There's no reason to get all worked up, it's just as I said, Inoue-san will be fine. Now I think it's safe to say that we should all get some sleep." Urahara announced as he eased himself up.
Ichigo and Rukia stood, and headed for the front door, as he stepped out Ichigo turned, and gave one last glare toward Ulquiorra. "We'll be back tomorrow to check on Inoue," with that he closed the door behind them.
"Um, Urahara-san? Can I please stay here with Hime? I don't want to stay in her apartment all by myself," Nel asked as she stared down at the table.
Urahara gazed down at her with a soft smile on his face. "Of course you can Nel-chan, although, I don't think it'd be a good idea to move Orihime-chan tonight."
"Thank you, Urahara-san," Nel stood up and gave him a slight bow.
"And we don't want to wake the children, so I'll grab a couple of extra futons and you'll stay in Grimmjow's room." He turned and walked toward the doorway leading back to the bedrooms.
Grimmjow bolted up. "Hey, why do I get stuck with her?"
Urahara paused for a moment, and turned to face them with a thoughtful expression as he rubbed his chin.
"Well, since she is in Ulquiorra's room, it wouldn't be fair to kick him out, also it's not like it'll kill you to share your room with a beautiful, young woman for one night." With this comment, he gave them his usual smile and left the room.
"Tch, whatever, you better not bother me, cause I'm going to sleep," Grimmjow scowled down at her as she sat on the floor and chewed her lip with a distant look in her eyes. " Are you listening to me?"
Nel cocked her head to the side and stared back at him. "Huh? No, I was thinking about Hime. What was she doing out there? It's snowing outside, and she went out in her pajamas without a jacket or something? I don't get it." She shook her head and stood up.
At that moment, Ulquiorra stood up, drifted over to the doorway and stopped when he reached it to give her a sideways glance. "That woman was looking for someone," he answered her and continued back to his room.
Nel gave a Grimmjow a puzzled look and he shrugged his shoulders in return. "C'mon, let's get some sleep," he spun around and headed off to his own bedroom, not waiting for her as she got up and trailed slowly behind him.
Ulquiorra shut the door behind him, unzipped his bloody jacket, and folded it neatly to drop it in the hamper. Then, he walked over to his gigai and reentered it. He stretched for a moment, before he walked over to the new futon laid out on the floor for him, a couple of feet from Orihime.
He regarded her for a moment before he bent down, grabbed the futon, and slid it over alongside hers. Then, he sat down on it and continued to stare at her sleeping face.
"I always believed that if I couldn't see something, then it didn't exist." He lifted his eyes to gaze at the wall and frowned slightly.
"When you spoke to me about the heart, I didn't understand what you were saying at the time."
He let out a soft sigh, laid down and gave her a sideways glance. "But now I think I'm beginning to." With that, he rolled over, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
At the same time, down the hall in the other room, Grimmjow and Nel were lying on their futons having a quiet discussion.
"Why the hell are you laying so close to me?" He whispered hostilely.
"So we can talk of course," she whispered back.
"We should be sleeping not talking," he rolled over facing away from her and closed his eyes.
"Did you see how upset Ulquiorra looked?" She scooted closer to him. "I've never seen him show so much emotion, have you?"
"No, now shh," he replied without opening his eyes.
Nel frowned and shook him. "What do you think he meant when he said she was looking for someone? Who would she be looking for in the middle of the night?"
Grimmjow cracked one eye and glanced at her. "Obviously you, since you keep sneaking out at night to pester me."
Suddenly Nel sat up, grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back, and leaned closer to his face. "Me? It's my fault that Hime got hurt?"
"Shh! Keep it down!" He snapped.
She turned away from him to get up. "I have to go apologize to her."
Quickly, he reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. "She's unconscious, how are you going to apologize? Besides, Ulquiorra could've been wrong." He let go of her arm and rolled over again. "We'll figure it out when she wakes up, now shut up and go to sleep."
She nodded at him and laid back down. "You're right, thanks Grimmy." Although he couldn't see it, she smiled at him before she shut her eyes and went to sleep.