"E-excuse me?!" I demanded, burning the color red. Ulquiorra took this moment to step closer to me so close that I could feel the heat coming off his body. I looked directly into his jade eyes which wasn't a very good idea because he soon got me entranced in them.

"I had prepared this for you before you had gotten the call from your parents, but it had to be postponed until now." UIquiorra explained, "Though, I suppose in a way that encounter with your parents only fuelled my drive to do this for you. I told you that you had changed my life for the better during the ride to the store… and I still don't know whether or not that's a good thing for me. Yet, right now the only thing I know is that I want you to trust me."

If I was red before, I was probably now redder than a beet, "Wh-why do you want me to… trust you? And how is dancing with me at all gaining my trust?"

"Also in the magazine, it said that the way to gain a woman's affections, one needed to do something that would cause them to be excited; and I guessed right when I thought dancing with you would get you intrigued." Ulquiorra looked down at my face which I soon hid from him with my hands. He continued on as if nothing was going on, "And as for the reason I need you to trust me… let's just say, that it's a personal reason."

"P-personal?!" I exclaimed, getting my face out from my hands to stare at him incredulously. He grabbed onto my wrists and placed them down to my sides gently as he once more stared at my eyes. Darn it, he wasn't being fair at all! How dare he use that charm of his to make me want to kiss him right then and there!

"Mistress Fukui, answer me this one question: If I dance with you, will you promise to trust me?" Ulquiorra asked me, bringing his face closer to mine. I shyly moved my eyes away from his green ones, biting my lip. Inside, I wanted to scream so loud that I would break my already-broken window. This was invasive! This wasn't at all a part of his man servant duties – then why was he doing this? There was no reason behind it; but it was making me feel so good… Ack! Seriously, what was he trying to do to me?!

"Um… sure…," I answered.

He grabbed my chin and made me face him, "Look me in the eyes and say that again." I got so flushed that I could feel the tips of my ears begin to get really warm. Here he was, one hand in mine and the other settled on my chin gingerly. Did I make him so comfortable that he wanted to flirt with me? Was he… was this his way of showing his affections for me? Had he… really grown fond of me during his time here as I had for him? Did that conversation with my parents calling ourselves a couple to them cause him to overreact and think that we were already a couple? My head was spinning.

"Y-yes… yes, I will trust you… Ulquiorra." I responded, feeling as though I was in a romance novel and was having that first moment with my Prince Charming. Yet, this Prince Charming never wore a smile, nor a frown on his face; which was kind of a disappointment – but I soon found myself being quite all right with that.

As soon as I said those words, Ulquiorra released my chin and placed his hand around my waist. I jumped a little in surprise from the sudden touch – I never danced with someone like this before so the feeling was new to me. Ulquiorra must have picked up on this because he said, "Relax."

"I-I'm trying…," I murmured, but it didn't come out quite like I planned. It sounded more like I was ashamed of myself for getting so twitchy when he touched me rather than complaining about him telling me to calm myself when the situation made it impossible to.

Taking a deep breath, I settled into Ulquiorra's arms when he took his other hand and laced it through my fingers. I allowed him to sail me across the floor in a dance; I was clumsy at first, stumbling over my feet for the first few steps but then got the hang of it quickly. Ulquiorra didn't mind me messing up as he just causally waltzed around the room like it was nothing. My heart pounded in my chest as I stared up at him, wondering where he learned to dance like that. Certainly I didn't own any 'How to Waltz' books around here, nor any magazines. Perhaps this was just something he knew for no reason. There was so many things I wanted to ask him, but they were all things I didn't know how to say at that moment. It was just too perfect – us just dancing in the middle of my apartment – that I didn't want to interrupt it by speaking.

The music in the background was so perfect to the mood that I nearly cried. The soft flow of the instruments and the silky vocals just blew me away. Ulquiorra really knew how to plan a surprise – but all this just to get me to trust him? Wasn't this a little much? I mean, I trusted him in my apartment alone and I trusted him with my chores – what more did he want from me and why? I couldn't help but think that perhaps this was all a ploy of some kind. Maybe not to get out of the duties I placed on him as my man servant, but maybe something else… something more convoluted…

That thought immediately was thrown out of my head when he pressed himself up against me even closer than I thought was humanly possible before twirling me around. Was this all a dream? I thought as I came back to him and pressed my chest against his. Am I still asleep and my childish dreams of Ulquiorra and I being together coming to me during my sleep? Ulquiorra must have saw the curiosity in my eyes because he took me by my waist and lifted me up above his head, my feet dangling in the air. Well, if this is a dream, don't wake me up!

When Ulquiorra brought me back down to the floor, he finally broke the silence, "In the magazine, it also said that to catch a woman's affections, one also needed to know more about them. I suggest this applies to trust as well."

"Are you saying you want to know more about me?" I asked, butterflies in my stomach.

"Indeed I am." Ulquiorra replied.

"Um… well… I, um… I really don't know where to begin." I shrugged.

"Start with something simple. For example, what your likes and dislikes are." Ulquiorra pressed, which caused me to pause before saying anything. This sudden surprise… and this sudden want for me to trust him… and now wanting to get to know me… did he really like me? More than being a friend? No, Keiko, he's just doing something nice for you. That's all; for goodness sake, don't get ahead of yourself, foolish girl!

"Well… I like the color red. I like cats better than dogs…," I continued on with a list of things that I liked and disliked until I pretty much exhausted every category… save for one. I looked up at Ulquiorra who seemed to be paying close attention to me. Finally, I blurted out, "And I like you."

His eyes widened a little when I said that, "You… like me?"

"Yeah, I mean… um… god…," I blushed again, "I don't mean that I like like you – just, I guess, I appreciate you. Yes, that's it. I really appreciate you keeping your word to be my man servant." I felt like kicking myself for saying something so stupid like 'I like you' – way to give the wrong impression, wow! Way to go, Keiko! You probably scared the poor boy off!

"I see." Ulquiorra stopped the dance short, suddenly just standing before me with my hands in his. I stared at him curiously, noticing that his eyes were looking very distant so suddenly. Finally, when the song changed, Ulquiorra seemed to snap out of his trance. He looked at me, "I…,"

His sudden loss of words caused me to cock my head to the side, "Yes?"

"I have somewhere to take you." Ulquiorra said forcefully. My eyes widened as his hands clenched tightly over mine, almost to the point where it hurt me. I didn't protest though because I was too nervous about what he meant by 'somewhere to take' me. Did he want to take me out… as in a date? All his actions had been pointing to something like this. Yet, was the reason he was hesitant because I told him I just appreciated his services? Was he able to feel something romantic after all and I just squelched his desire to take me somewhere?

"Like where?" I wondered, but he just took my hand and dragged me to the door.

"…you'll see." He simply said. With that, Ulquiorra allowed me to grab my coat and my shoes while he waited somewhat distractedly. I couldn't help but keep my eye on him because of his strange behaviour, but I decided not to say anything. I had told him that I would trust him if he danced with me and, since he kept his word about being my man servant, I decided to keep mine.

When we had made it out of the apartment, Ulquiorra skipped by the car which made me wonder if where he wanted to take me was nearby. Hopefully within walking distance because I didn't want to walk for too long in this winter weather. I decided to get it out of my system and ask, "Hey, is this place that you want to take me far?" It took him awhile to answer, like his thoughts right now where overpowering his mind and my words didn't register right away.

"No, it's only a few more minutes." Ulquiorra replied. Suddenly, he stopped so short that I bumped right into his back. He turned around halfway to face me, "Mistress Fukui, you do trust me, don't you?"

I stared at him blankly for a moment, but then replied with, "I said I would, didn't I?" Ulquiorra didn't say anything to that when he quietly looked down at the gravel underneath our feet and only nodded once. We pressed on in silence.

Finally, we made it to the spot where Ulquiorra wanted to take me – which was an empty snow-covered football field. The area was so quiet that I could probably make an echo easily; there was no cars around, only a school that was empty because all the children were on winter break. I looked up at the grey sky and saw that it was beginning to snow gently. I caught one of the snowflakes and was suddenly reminded of that day when Ulquiorra and I shared our philosophical thoughts.

"Hey, doesn't this make you think of–," I began, turning back to Ulquiorra who was sullen. Well, more sullen than usual. I furrowed my brows when I looked at him, "Ulquiorra… what's going on? You've been acting strange all day."

He turned to me, tight-lipped when a giant black tear in the air appeared behind him. It scared me so bad that I fell down on my bottom just as a man came out of the black thing. My heart was racing… that brown hair and that calmly menacing demeanor… there was no mistaking it – that was Aizen! The big man looked triumphantly at my quivering form, "Good work, Ulquiorra; you successfully led her here without arousing her suspicions."

Breathing heavily, I looked at Ulquiorra in disbelief, "What…?"

Ulquiorra enlightened me, "Soon after I arrived at your apartment and I became your 'man-servant', Lord Aizen had figured out where I was. Though, the state of my health had intrigued him, so he sent Grimmjow to get some more insight on the situation. After Grimmjow's confirmation of how I couldn't use my Cero or my Resurrección, Lord Aizen figured that it had to do something with you."

"And I was right." Aizen stepped in, coming closer to me, "I dug a little into your background history that was in the archives of Soul Society which I was able to easily infiltrate. I found that you had an accident nine years ago, which caused you to be close to death. That near-death experience caused you to develop the power to disrupt the flow of reishi within an unidentified radius of you – thus making spiritual beings like us unable to use our powers. I figured that if I could get a hold of such powers and harness it for our use, then no adversary would be able to defy me, no matter how powerful they are."

Even though I didn't understand a lot of what Aizen just said, I understood enough to turn to Ulquiorra with hurt plainly written in my eyes, "You mean… all that stuff about trusting you was…?"

"It was all a ploy created by Lord Aizen to get you away from everyone and get you to follow me here." Ulquiorra finished for me. It was as if I could hear my heart shatter inside my chest. Holding my hand… hugging me… telling me all those things about growing comfortable around me… the dance we just shared… it was all a lie? He just wanted me to trust him to hand me over to Aizen so he could use whatever 'powers' I might have for his own purposes? How could he? How could he be so heartless?

Aizen pulled me out of my thoughts by tugging on my arm roughly, "Indeed. Therefore, your powers are now mine to use – don't even think of resisting, little girl." Tears burned in my eyes and the will to fight Aizen disappeared before even appearing.

Aizen pulled me to my feet and dragged me toward the large black hole in the air, but just before we entered it, I turned over to Ulquiorra who refused to meet with my eyes. All this time… it was nothing but an act. I couldn't believe this – he disgusted me; but even more than that, I was disgusted with myself. I couldn't believe that I actually was beginning to like him… I couldn't believe that I actually trusted him. I should have known that he had something planned, but why didn't I listen to my instincts? Why didn't I see this coming? It was so obvious now that I thought about it – the sudden wanting me to trust him, the sudden compliments and the sudden niceness: It all occurred after he had saved me from Grimmjow – the exact same time Aizen made his first appearance. It was probably during that time when Aizen told Ulquiorra about what he was planning. After all, he did say 'keep observing' to Ulquiorra – which was probably his orders to have Ulquiorra spy on me and the development of my so-called 'powers'.

Soon, I chose to stare at the ground instead of the man who had betrayed me. Ulquiorra was right about one thing and one thing alone: If you are alone, no one is there to threaten your life; or, in this case if you are alone, there is no one around to crush your heart in an instant.

And in that moment, I wished I hadn't even met Ulquiorra that night those few days ago.