I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.

Chapter 11

He was unsure of how long he stood outside in the chilly air waiting for his grandmother to come for him. His relief from earlier had giving way to an uneasy feeling in his stomach. The old woman was rough and in his young experience the cruelest person he had ever met, yet he had left his mother at her mercy. His fear over his mother's safety finally spurned him into action. He made his way back to the house, and was just about to open the door when his grandmother forcefully pushed the screen aside. Her displeasure at seeing him was clear on her face.

"Your mother is ready to see you boy." She spat at him.

She stepped aside and he ran into the room. His mother knelt beside the fire pit in the center of the room. Her hair had been brushed and pulled back gently from her face, and the disheveled and dirty kimono was replaced by a clean one. She looked up at him and giving a weak smile, opened her arms wide. He quickly made his way over to her. Reaching out she grabbed him and pulled him into a fierce hug.

"I am so sorry Daisuke." She crooned. "I have let you down my son."

Suddenly all the pain from his father's death and his mother's unresponsive behavior came flooding in on him. Returning her hug with equal vigor he began to sob uncontrollably.

"It's ok Daisuke, you are safe now. I'm not going to let you go. You just let it all out." She whispered gently in his ear.

Her stood in her arms and cried. He cried for the father that he had so loved and had cruelly been taken from him at such a young age. He cried for his mother who was lost and broken because of his death. And he cried for himself. The reality of the future that lay ahead of them was terrifying. Hunger, cold, and disappointment were things that he had become very accustomed to in the past year. He had tried to be brave in the face of everything, but he found he could no longer do that.

His mother continued to hold him, rocking gently, soothing away the pain. "I will be stronger from now on my son. I will protect you and make sure that you are always provided for."

"Just don't go away." He pleaded. "Don't leave me alone."

He felt her stiffen slightly at his remark and then squeeze him even tighter.

"I will never abandon you Daisuke. You are my life." She replied. Her voice cracked and he knew that she too was crying just as hard as he was.

She held him until his tears eased. He stood limply in her arms. He was physically spent form the crying.

After a while she pushed him back gently and smiling wistfully said, "Your father loved you so much. Everything he ever did was for you and your future. He was a very intelligent man and very shrewd as well."

Daisuke only stared at her not quite sure of what she was saying.

"He knew he was going to die," she said softly. "He also understood that we would never survive the upcoming year without help. That is why he contacted my mother."

His eyes went wide as he thought about the letter that his father had asked him to deliver. It all made sense now as to why he had asked him to keep it secret from his mother, especially now that he had met his grandmother.

"He asked her to find it in her heart to forgive me and take me back into her home." She stared at him intently and continued, "You know that I have not seen or spoken to my mother in all of the years that I have been married to your father. She is a very absolute person. Once you cross her she never forgives you, but your father felt he had to try.

"It would seem that fate was on his side. My brother was killed unexpectedly last year and my mother has been left with no children to pass on the family home and lands. She is a very prideful woman and the thought of having the lands that have been in her family for centuries being divided up and given to strangers, is unacceptable.

"She came to see me with a proposition. She will take us in and provide for us, food, shelter, and an education for you Daisuke," she said quickly. "I in turn will learn to manage the family lands, so that when she dies it will continue on in her family."

He stood speechless at all that she had revealed to him.

Placing her hands on his shoulders she said gently, "You will never want for anything again Daisuke. All your needs will be met and you will become an educated man. The world has opened up for you. You can follow any road you choose."

He looked into her eyes and said solemnly, "There are conditions I suppose."

She drew back silently at his words. "You are very much like your father. He always saw the truth of any situation we were in." She looked down and then gathering her courage looked back into his eyes. "You will never be allowed to inherit the lands and property. My mother was adamant about that. She hated Hiromasa and she claimed she would never pass on peacefully when she died if she knew that his son was the new head of her family's house."

Her words did not surprise him. It was obvious that his grandmother despised him, but still he found the conditions made little sense.

"Then what will happen when you die?" he asked. "How would everything stay within the family?"

She looked away from him and stared into the fire. After a moment she said, "I must remarry. My mother has given this quite some thought and has already selected a few men from good families as prospects."

"But my father has barely been dead a week!" he yelled as he stepped away from her. "How can she speak such disrespectful words?"

His outburst brought a fresh trail of tears from her eyes down her cheeks.

"I will never love another as I loved your father." She turned and stared at him. "But I will not let you die from starvation either. I accepted my mother's proposition to spare you that fate. You may not inherit the riches of my family, but you will benefit from them."

"I don't want it. I would rather starve than see you married to some other man. You are my mother and I will take care of you."

She got up and walked over to him. Reaching out her hand to comfort him she said, "As your mother it is my duty to provide for you."

He pushed her hand away and turned his back on her.

"I will not let you do this!"

"You have no choice." She stated firmly. "I have already agreed. We leave as soon as this conversation is over."

He clenched his fists at his side. The anger that rushed through him was overwhelming. He hated being so powerless. His father had asked him to take care of her, but in the end he took that away from him by contacting his grandmother. Now he was at her mercy. His mother would eventually marry another man and start a new family, leaving him alone.

She reached out again to him. Resting her hand gently on his shoulder she said, "I did this because I love you. My choice today will give you the chance to grow into an adult and marry. When you have a child someday you will understand."

He moved away from her touch.

"I will never marry. I don't ever want to love someone if it means hurting them like this."

With that he stormed out of the house. He walked by his grandmother without sparing her a glance. He continued on until he came to the oak in the middle of their farm. His heart that had earlier been so filled with sorrow was now consumed by a deep, burning anger towards the old woman who had given his mother such a horrid ultimatum.

Worse though was the anger he felt towards his parents. How could his father turn to his grandmother for help when he knew what kind of a person she was, and worse how could his mother agree to her terms?

He loved her and she was going to abandon him. No matter how she felt towards her new husband, she would never withhold her love from a new child. One day he would be replaced by another.

He stood silently thinking through all that had happened. After some time he heard approaching footsteps.

"It's time to go Daisuke." His mother said.

He turned and stared at her for a moment. Silently he began to walk back towards the house. He couldn't bring himself to speak to her right now. His chest hurt and it was hard to breathe.

Suddenly he was struck by a sharp, jarring pain in his side. He closed his eyes and let out a moan.

When he opened his eyes he wasn't on his family farm any longer. The pain in his side was caused when he startled awake from his dream. His past was now a lingering memory. His chest still hurt, but he knew that was from the bruised ribs he had received during his fight with Tatsuki. He concentrated on calming his breathing. Tessai had told him that the best cure for bruised ribs was rest, but after the disturbing memories that he had just relived it was hard to relax.

It was difficult to separate himself from the young child that he had been. The pain was as fresh as the day it had happened. The feelings of loss and the fear of being abandoned by his mother were just as overwhelming now as they had been centuries ago.

He lay on his bed trying to understand what was happening to him. Orihime had mentioned Sora regaining his memories for a brief time when had regained his humanity. It would seem that by rejecting his existence as a hollow she had managed to unlock the places in his brain where his memories had retreated to when he had lost his heart.

He was unsure what good it did for him to remember his past. The people that he had loved and hated all lived long ago. They had all moved on. Reliving all the pain was serving no purpose as far as he could see. All it was doing was leaving him feeling unsettled. He desired something to ease this burden, but he couldn't quite name it.

Suddenly the image of Orihime crying as Tatsuki held her flashed into his mind. Comfort was what the girl needed. Just to have someone hold her and let her release all those pent up, painful feelings. He had not understood it in Hueco Mundo and had openly mocked her. Now it was starting to make sense.

This bond that humans had, the need for relationships that Uryu had talked about, it gave them the strength to continue on even in the worst of conditions. As long as they had someone to confide in, someone to unburden themselves upon, they could persevere.

He thought back to his mother. In her arms he felt safe and secure. He knew that no harm would come to him. She never had to say a word, her presence alone was enough.

Remembering her embrace made him long for human contact, something he hadn't desired in a long time. His thoughts turned once again to Orihime. His resolve to build a friendship with her was as strong as earlier, yet he felt uncertainty as well. What if she no longer wanted to have anything to do with him? Reliving all those horrible events from her time in Hueco Mundo could have changed her mind.

The agitation caused by these thoughts made it hard for him to rest. Looking at his clock he saw that it was three in the morning. He would have to rise for school soon anyways, might as well get up now and finish the homework that he had neglected the previous evening.

Engrossing himself in his studies helped to distract him somewhat, but every now and then his mind would steer towards Orihime. He glanced at the clock wishing that time would go quickly. He was anxious to get to school and see for himself how she truly felt.

Orihime lay on her futon. The night had passed painfully slow for her. She had tossed and turned, but never really got any quality sleep. Her thoughts kept drifting back to the fight between Tatsuki and Ulquiorra. She hated to see them at odds like that. She should have expected that it would go as it had though. Both were strong willed and hated to back down from a confrontation. She had never seen her friend in such bad shape after a fight, and she imagined that Ulquiorra hadn't faired much better.

It had seemed pretty natural for her to use her powers to reject her friend's injuries. Tatsuki had been full of questions after that, and Orihime spent much of the night explaining everything about her powers and the incidents that she had been involved with over the past year.

She tried to avoid many of the details about Hueco Mundo, but in the end her friend had managed to get everything out of her, including Ulquiorra's refusal to carry through on Aizen's order to kill her. Tatsuki had been shocked by most of her account, but Orihime couldn't tell if she had made things better or worse for Ulquiorra.

One thing that bothered Tatsuki was how Orihime could just forget about all the nasty things Ulquiorra had done to her. It hadn't been a conscious effort on her part. It just seemed that when she rejected his existence as a hollow she had somehow rejected all of her bad memories too. It wasn't as if they were gone, she hadn't forgotten any of it, but she had been able to put them from her mind. She supposed if she was truly going to give him a fresh start than she should let him start with a fresh slate.

Maybe it was a carry over from her childhood. Living with abusive parents, even for such a short time had caused her to see things differently. She needed to feel useful and loved, and sometimes that need caused her to forget all the terrible times.

Sora had told her that if he spent his life dwelling on the past and all the anger he felt, he would never have been able to take her away from their parents' house and provide her with a happier life. He had never forgiven them for how they treated him, but he had let it go.

She guessed that that was how she saw Ulquiorra. He had done terrible things and had said very cruel things to her, but she knew that deep down there was something redeemable about him. When he reached for her in the end, she knew that he could change. She knew that she had to give him that chance and so she had. And part of that chance was cleaning the slate for him.

She tried to make it a game. She pretended that he really was a new boy at school. It didn't always work, but sometimes she could forget. Sometimes though the subtle changes that she saw in him made her smile, and when she would think about the past it wouldn't hurt so much.

He was changing. He may not want to admit it, but she could see it. The tiny smiles and the teasing were a side of him that she had never seen before, and she liked it. He wasn't very obvious about things like some boys, and she thought that maybe it was because he didn't realize that he was a human boy that he could be so indifferent.

That thought made her think of the character Pinocchio from the children's story that Sora used to read to her when she was young. Suddenly an image of Ulquiorra as a wooden puppet freed of his strings that tied him to Aizen began to form in her mind. She could see him getting into all kinds of mischief. And Uryu would be like the little cricket that was his conscience.

"Ulquiorra you didn't just blast Ichigo with a cero did you?" Uryu would ask in a teeny, tiny voice.

Ulquiorra would shake his head and stare solemnly as he always did. Suddenly his nose would begin to grow revealing his lie.

This image made Orihime laugh out loud. Poor little Ulquiorra; would he ever become a real live boy? Maybe just like the little puppet he would need the help of his friends, and of course the Blue Fairy, to actually make the change.

Her nose scrunched up at that thought. For some reason the thought of Ulquiorra becoming a real boy with the help of some other girl made her feel jealous. She imagined herself in a fancy blue dress with sparkles in her hair, a beautiful crown on her head, and lacy wings coming from her back. In her hand was a magical wand that she would wave over him to make him real.

But hadn't she already done that? Back in Hueco Mundo she had made him a real boy, but honestly something was still missing. She couldn't put her finger on it. He was definitely changing more each day, but something wasn't quite as it should be. She realized that she would have to work hard to find out what it was and help him.

Once again she imagined herself dressed in blue. Her wand in her hand poised over a sleeping Ulquiorra. She waved the wand and he awoke. Catching sight of her he smiled, and not just one of those sneaky, little smiles he was doing right now, but a genuine smile that lit up his whole face.

"I'm a real live boy!" he would exclaim.

"You always had it in you." She would say warmly. "You just needed someone to believe in you."

This train of thought helped her relax. The clock beside her bed told her that it was three in the morning. Just a few more hours before she would have to get ready for school. She rolled over and with a smile on her face fell into a deep sleep.

A.N. This chapter started out completely different. It sat on my computer for a few days partially complete, but it wasn't working. So this morning I scrapped it and started again. This is the result. It kept to the main idea I had for the chapter, but it was a little lighter and included Orihime's musings.

The part with Pinnochio came out of the blue, but I liked it so it stayed. I'm going from Disney memories so I apologize to any book readers who may have differences.

I have to say that when I submitted the last chapter I went to bed and didn't check my emails until the morning. What a pleasant surprise to find so many reviews, alerts, and favs. I was smiling all day, and believe me this week I needed that boost! Thank you all.

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter. From here on (for awhile) there will be fluff on a pretty consistent and shameful basis.