Disclaimer: do not own bleach
Orihime decided to do some exploring since everyone was away that afternoon. The only ones left in the house were Lucifer and Temper, and due to temperatures, they both stayed home. According to Orihime, she saw the house as an enchanted house, well, more like a haunted house. Sometimes he thought Ulquiorra was the ghost of the house since he grew warily attached to the house. Orihime imagined Ulquiorra as a ghost, carrying a metal ball attached with chains to his body, walking through the walls of the mansion.
She reached to a room Ulquiorra left to frequently. It was the most remote room from the mansion, and it was quite chilly inside. The huge piano rested in the middle of the room, while a row of tall windows illuminated the inside of the house. Orihime walked up to the piano and opened the cover. She sat her hands on the keys and played an alien note. She giggled at the sound, and made a mental note to ask Ulquiorra to teach her piano.
She lurked around the room curiously, until she bumped against one of the coffee table, knocking off a bunch of papers from it. Alarmed, Orihime picked them up rapidly and placed them in order. Curiously, she looked at the cover.
"Lux… Aeterna…" Orihime read the title warily.
The windows opened, and with a chill wind, the ash coming from the outside filtered inside. She quickly closed the windows. The temperature in the room severely dropped, making Orihime to tighten her purple shawl across her chest. She could see the little vapor clouds float on the air.
"Hello?" Orihime crossed her arms over her chest.
The sudden footstep made her spin on her heels.
"Hello…" The ash started to materialize into a skull, and then it was covered by muscles and tissues, slowly forming a figure resembling a body.
The man stopped two paces away from her. He held out his hand and clench into a fist, while he stared at his clenched fist carefully.
"Who… What are you?" Orihime was scared; her voice was a thin thread of noise, barely audible.
"Who am I?" The man chuckled at the girl, while her silver eyes widened in fear.
"Don't do anything to me… Please!" Orihime pleaded.
"Who said I was going to do anything? After all, you touched my private property." The man smiled with a wicked grin.
Orihime stared at the man getting nearer to him, every inch he moved, seemed like an eternity. The endless wait of the fear struck in her. What was he going to do to her? Was he going to kill her? After all, he came into the form of ash; he could only mean bad news. The man laid a hand on her forehead and smiled. He had a tenebrous smile; it was ugly, yet Orihime couldn't get what was so bad about that smile, it was warming, but it burned her inside, like a constant burning star was implanted in her brain.
"What… are you doing… to me?" Orihime shook in fear, her shoulders contracting in fear while she fell on her knees, unable to keep her legs straight.
"Oh! Don't worry my dear; after all… you shouldn't touch things that don't belong to you." The man smiled widely, with a macabre smile.
Orihime opened her eyes widely, realizing what he was doing. She screamed in pain, as the inside of her brain burned into ash. All kinds of images flashed on her eyes, she couldn't catch what it was but she felt as someone opened her brain and tried to stuff seven books about advanced arithmetic, calculus, and the truth about the world. Her eyes burned. They sting. Orihime screamed in pain and fell on the floor gasping for air.
The man was already gone.
Ulquiorra stared at out the window. He wandered how Orihime was doing, and if he made him some pastries. Ulquiorra stared back at Grimmjow who was delivering the birth certificate from Nel. Grimmjow held the baby against his side while he gave the mountain of papers to the clerk. They both spoke with the clerk in a rather frenetic and exited way. When they were done, they all got onto the carriage and Ulquiorra drove everyone home.
"Orihime? Orihime! Where are you?" Nelliel shouted through the hallways of the house.
"Hey? Where is Orihime?" Grimmjow asked to Ulquiorra while he cradled the baby in his arms.
"I don't know… I was expecting warm pastries…" Ulquiorra tucked his hands inside the pockets of his jacket, and walked out the room that belonged to Grimmjow and Nelliel.
Two months already passed. But they felt like an eternity.
Ulquiorra was going crazy. He missed her. His mind was an ocean of tears, which he was too afraid to shed. He felt empty, and afraid. What if she was dead? Like, dead for good? He haunted himself of the idea she didn't want him anymore, that she ran away from him because she hated him, but he was sure that was wrong. Aizen had something to do about it.
He stared at the pile of paper lying on the floor. The papers formed part of the composition he was almost done finishing. Something was wrong, and he knew, Aizen was behind this. Ulquiorra felt frustrated and mad. He wanted to throw a tantrum. But instead, he gathered all the papers, and one by one, carefully, he started ripping each paper in half, until the only thing left of the manuscript was small confetti sized papers. It felt good, as if a weight was lifted from his back, but he felt guilty. The remorse feeling he felt came back, as well as the pressure in his head.
Orihime is gone.
Ulquiorra felt the need to open a window and throw himself out of it. He longed for Orihime, not only for her cookies and unusual tasting pastries, but because he loved her. He loved her. Ulquiorra's eyes widened when he realized it. After six months, he finally accepted what he felt for the French orphan prostitute. He expected to fall in love with an aristocrat woman, with more breasts than brains, but he preferred Orihime. Even though Orihime wasn't able to neither read nor write, or didn't have the most minimal idea about arithmetic, nor alchemy, she was smart, and craved for knowledge. She had morals, and a sense of justice of what was right, or wrong. She was compassionate with everyone, and had mercy with those who hurt her. She made Ulquiorra feel complete, and every time he was with her, Ulquiorra felt his hole in his chest fill. But she was gone, and he saw how his mind fell apart. Like a stack of cards or a sand castle eaten by the sea.
Orihime was not here.
Ulquiorra sat on a corner in his room. What was he doing there? No one knew. He wanted to disappear from the world. One month passed and still no news from his petite gateau du cherrie. He already ripped everything that attached him to her. He didn't go to work for a week, claiming he was sick, he mixed chocolate into this meat, and in his vegetable stew, he would add sugar, only because it reminded him of her. Ulquiorra would spend hours on her room, smell the sheets and look at the dresses for endless hours.
He was going mad.
And no one could do anything about it.
Except only one person.
"Ulquiorra!" Grimmjow busted in the room, making Ulquiorra to fall from the bed where he smelled the sheets.
"Oh… This smell is a little off…" Ulquiorra patted the bed.
"What the fuck?" Grimmjow looked disgusted at Ulquiorra.
"She smells like strawberries and grass… and honey, and vinegar, and sugar, and dew drops..." Ulquiorra begun to mumble at the sheet.
"I'm leaving this room..." Grimmjow sighted.
Hello! so... poor Orihime, right?
well either ways, maybe she appears again next chapter, right? bah! what am I talking about! she will die! (jk)
okay, so I'm in time for update, to be exact, one day earlier to what I expected. it took me forever to write this chapter!
read and review! I know, it sounds like a command, but I actually love reading every review I get, it makes me feel giddy inside (*.*)
next saturday, or tomorrow there will be another chapter!
Au revoir mon amics~!