Wow, it has been 5 months since I last posted. I didn't expect the absence to be this long and nothing can be an excuse for it. But, life took over. A lot of life changing things happened, some good and some bad. But also, I lost a very very dear pet in a painful way. It all left me so drained I seriously couldn't write. Not a word. And I did not want to post this chapter when I wasn't even able to comprehend it at that time. Usually I thank all my reviewers. But this time I also wanted to especially thank and dedicate this chapter to Pheecat, who reached out to me and made me realize, I need to get out of this funk! This story is in my head and heart, completed. I need to put it in words, and do it well. And so I am back. I dont know if I will update as quickly as I did before, simply because a LOT is still happening in my life. But please know that now finishing this story has joined the list of those other things too.

Here is the next chapter of All Kinds of Love. Please do leave me your thoughts. They are the biggest reason I have stuck with this story through life changing events. :)

Discliamer: TK wrote these characters. The plot and everything else are mine. :)

Chapter 14: Changing tides

Orihime woke up with a splitting headache and instantly regretted it. As soon as she opened her eyes, memories of the previous night came unbeckoned. The games with her friends, the fall out with Ichigo, the dazed trek to Ulquiorra's place she didn't remember making the night before, her pathetic demands that Ulquiorra take her and how he had refused and then held her as she had fallen into a heap in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably before falling asleep.

Orihime looked around and realized that Ulquiorra had put her to bed and wiped her face so that it was clean of tear tracks and make up. However her cheekbones hurt and she was sure that if she looked in the mirror, her eyes would be swollen from all the crying. Orihime didn't remember what she had told Ulquiorra after her initial outburst, but she remembered that he had thankfully not pressed for any details.

She felt miserable, and angry at herself for loosing it so completely. Worse, she couldn't believe that she had seeked out the one person she had treated unfairly due to her involvement with Ichigo. Deciding that she couldn't overstay Ulquiorra's kindness for another minute, Orihime got up, brushing my her clothes and searching for the bathroom.

After she had freshened up, she checked her phone. She saw that she had a message, but her heart sank when she realized that it was from Ulquiorra who had told her to make herself at home and stay in as long as she needed to. Although she appreciated his kindness, his distant and business like tone, and the fact that he had still addressed her as Inoue san; stung more than the fact that Ichigo had not contacted her at all.

You can do this Orihime. One day at a time. Taking a deep breath, Orihime walked out of Ulquiorra's apartment, into the sunlight streets of Tokyo.

Ulquiorra stared at his phone. He realized that this was becoming a habit with him since he had come back to Tokyo with the woman. To say that he had been shocked about the events of last night would be an understatement.

The woman had shown up on his doorstep, looking absolutely haggard, demanded that he "fuck" her, and almost forced herself on him before bursting into uncontrollable sobs. Ulquiorra knew himself well enough to know that he would never take advantage of a vulnerable woman, even if she was throwing herself at him. However he was shocked by his own reaction to the woman's distress.

It took him a while to make out what she was sobbing about, mostly because she kept repeating "what have I done" and "I messed up" most of the time. However brief snippets of "we moved too soon" " he hates me now" "why didn't I want it" made the scenario fairly clear. Ulquiorra didn't know what had transpired between the woman and the orange haired man, but he could tell that something had gone horribly wrong, wrong enough to almost break the woman in front of him.

And then it had hit him. Anger and rage such as one he had never known. Anger that Orihime was seeking him out when she had declared just a few weeks ago that she was ending their physical relationship in lieu of her dating that ape of a man she called the love of her life. Anger at that man who had somehow managed to crumble the self esteem of a woman who had once had the courage to stand up to the sternest of wizened old businessmen. But more than anything else, anger that something had hurt the woman so badly and he felt utterly helpless to do anything about it.

When Orihime had finally collapsed into a fitful sleep, Ulquiorra had taken the couch. But sleep wouldn't come no matter how hard he tried. He felt genuinely tired. Not a moment in his life had been peaceful since the woman had knocked into him a fateful few months ago. Not that Ulquiorra could tell what peace was.

No, as long as he could remember, he had felt nothing but emptiness. He had accepted that he was neither prone to displaying nor feeling extreme emotions. He rarely knew what to say when asked about the happiest or saddest moments of his life. While the attendants at his orphanage always showed remorse and pity, he never felt anything when he was constantly passed up for younger kids. He didn't feel any strong sense of elation when he had gotten a scholarship to Keio, in stark contrast to the staff at the orphanage that felt he was finally getting his due. Even when Aizen had taken him under his wing, an opportunity most people would have killed for, he did not feel much excitement. And so Ulquiorra had associated this state of emptiness with peace.

Yet, all that had ended when that cursed woman came into his life. Suddenly he could feel condescension, then anger, then mild curiosity at the way she carried herself and responded to things around her. Ulquiorra had always been perceptive which meant that few things surprised him. He had people and groups marked down as having certain traits. Yet that woman simply defied logic. She was like no one he had ever met. Even Nel and Grimmjow, weirdoes by all normal human standards, were easier to figure out compared to Orihime Inoue. She seemed air headed yet smart, emotional yet strangely capable of thinking through things rationally, kind yet selfish and self-conscious yet brave. It just didn't add up. And just when he had deduced that she was just inconsistent, she would come back and act in such predictable ways, it was almost cute.

But worse than the woman was the way he behaved around her. Confusion, anger, elation, curiosity, passion; Ulquiorra had never felt this way before. It was almost as if he wanted to understand her as if doing that would enable him to crack some unsaid code of life that had evaded him till date. He either liked or hated her company, but at the bottom of it all, he lusted for it.

When the woman had ignored him for a week and then officially put an end to their "fling", Ulquiorra had told himself that the only reason he felt so distraught was because he had lost an interesting specimen to study. But in the past few days it had become especially hard for him to convince himself of that reason. For loosing an interesting specimen did not cause so much pain and suffering. And not only had he felt a great deal of pain when the woman had ended their fling, but he had also been unable to focus on his work, something that had never happened to Ulquiorra. Ever. That disturbed him more than the pain. The pain he could ignore because it was a mere emotion and Ulquiorra had never placed much weight in emotions. But the fact that he, who had worked with inhuman efficiency and mechanical precision all his life was struggling to finish day to day work was reason enough for Ulquiorra to admit that somehow Orihime mattered to him.

A ring interrupted Ulquiorra's thoughts. Thinking it to be Orihime, he quickly picked up the call.

"Hey.."

" Good afternoon Ulquiorra"

"Byakuya senpai..." Ulquiorra settled into his chair, slightly disappointed.

" I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my place this weekend for dinner? I had something I wanted to tell you."

After walking around aimlessly for hours, Orihime felt slightly better. The emotions and questions that had been hounding her since her tryst with Ichigo were finally disappearing from her mind. Even though last night's events and her reactions had surprised her at first, in retrospect it wasn't all that shocking. After all, she had been putting off any physical intimacy between the two of them for some time now. In the few weeks they had dated, they had seen each other every day. Given the fact that they were both sexually active adults, and had waited far less in the past to jump their partners, it was odd that they had never progressed beyond a kiss.

But Orihime now knew why they hadn't. Every time Ichigo had tried to go slightly further, Orihime had frozen out of nervousness, which Ichigo had taken as a sign of her not being ready, likely because he still thought her to be a virgin. After hearing what had transpired between her and Ulquiorra, this myth was obviously broken. Combined with jealousy that was normal, Ichigo had probably thought about pushing his luck.

Orihime felt a strong and painful tugging in her chest. She couldn't believe that just a few months ago, she had despaired over the lack of romance in her life. Now she just felt worn out by the men in her life. The fall out with Ichigo and the increasing distance with Ulquiorra had left her feeling tired and wary.

Why did people talk about this love as if it were a necessary drug? Or maybe that's what it was. A drug. After all, hadn't she seeked out Ulquiorra after her fall out with Ichigo? What happened to eternal love? Whatever happened to the crush she had harboured for more than a decade? It seemed to her that Ichigo had creeped out of her heart just as quickly as he had creeped in all those years ago.

Orihime tried crying, but she had used up all her tears last night in Ulquiorra's arms. She felt wary of romance, angry at her naïveté and cynical about life. But more than anything else, she felt lonely. Really, really lonely. She had been alone since her brother died, and even before then, she would wait for hours till her brother came back home. However never once had she thought of herself as a lonely person. She had always thought that she even enjoyed being alone. Living in Tokyo with nothing but friends who all had relationships of their own to keep them busy, she had never felt that she needed someone.

But now she felt it. For the first time in her life, Orihime felt mind numbingly alone. Walking through the crowded streets of Shibuya, she felt as if she were the only person on the streets. The millions milling around her seemed like creatures belonging to another dimension. A dimension she could see, but couldn't touch or reach. This only made her feel lonelier.

Lonely and sick. Sick of the way things kept messing up with Ichigo. Sick of the growing distance between her and Ulquiorra. Sick of love or whatever the hell it was that people sang songs about and craved for.

A deep longing for stability and any human contact overtook her. She briefly contemplated seeking out Rukia, but she really didn't want to tell the one person who had "told her so" that she had messed up with Ichigo. Orihime knew that even if Rukia had warned her, she would never rub it in that way. But how could she expect Rukia to understand when Rukia already knew exactly what was wrong? She contemplated calling Tatsuki but she was just too far away in Kyoto. She missed Sora dearly. Even though he would have probably punched the day lights out of both Ichigo and Ulquiorra just for being a cause of distress for Orihime.

Sighing, Orihime realized that she might have to grow up and deal with this all by herself. As a lone tear slid down her cheek she heard her phone ring. She picked it up without thinking.

"Hello?"

"Orihime.."

"B..Byakuya?"

"What was the reason for this invitation senpai?" Ulquiorra sipped on his wine, as Byakuya brought out the poached pears for dessert. Although the men had shared some general banter about work (Admiral Seaweed was expanding and Ulquiorra had suggested a bat plushie that had piqued Byakuya's interest) over main course, Ulquiorra knew Byakuya too well to know that this wasn't an ordinary dinner. Byakuya must have had a reason to invite him so suddenly, and now that the dinner was almost ending he might as well cut to the chase.

"I wanted to chat with you about Inoue san." Byakuya said calmly, still amused at how much Ulquiorra got him. If only he had scouted Ulquiorra before Aizen got his paws on him…

"Inoue san?" Ulquiorra was perplexed by this reason, until he realized that Orihime had been out with Byakuya the time they had bumped into each other. Was the woman really dating Kuchiki Byakuya? All this time that he had pegged her as a clueless virgin, could it be that the woman was actually a serial man-eater?! Ridiculous! My assumptions are rarely this off the chart!

"Ahem." Byakuya broke Ulquiorra's chain of thought.

"Ah, yes senpai. Umm, I am not sure how I can help though. I only know Inoue san in a professional capacity." Ulquiorra said smoothly. He had an intuition that Byakuya knew they were more than colleagues, but why admit to it without there being concrete proof?

Byakuya gave Ulquiorra a long stare. Then, taking a sip from his glass of wine, he sighed.

"It's been more than five years since Hisana passed away. Worried about me not having any heirs and already approaching late thirties, my family has asked me to find a suitable partner, give the family heirs and move to Hokkaido to take care of the family estate."

Ulquiorra looked at Byakuya with a hint of confusion, but waited patiently anyways. Byakuya wasn't one for beating around the bush so this must all have a point.

" After Hisana, I didn't think I would love anyone. So I agreed to this arrangement and being set up for omiai. That's how I met Inoue san a few months ago."

Ulquiorra's eyes widened. So the woman was meeting Byakuya before they had even met.

As if reading his thoughts Byakuya stated, " I was seeing other, umm, candidates too. So I assumed that Inoue san was free to date as she wished. After all I had no business tying her down if I wasn't just seeing her."

Unbeknownst to him, Ulquiorra's face eased a little.

" Anyways, over these few months, I have felt that I should find someone to help Rukia take care of Tokyo operations of Seaweed Admiral and move back to Hokkaido with a wife to start a family. However, the idea never seemed very appealing to me."

"Senpai, ano.."

"That is, until I started getting to know Orihime."

Time started moving at an absurdly slow pace. Ulquiorra noticed that funnily enough the second hand on an ancient clock behind Byakuya was barely moving.

Why isn't it moving? Maybe the clock doesn't work? Maybe I should ask senpai about the clock.

"In the last few months, I have actually not met a single omiai candidate, and rejected everyone that I was seeing."

Why does his voice sound so distant and slow? And his mouth, its moving slowly. That clocks really bothering me now!

"Although what may have transpired between you and Inoue san is none of my business, I thought it polite to tell you first."

I really need to tell him that that clock is busted.

"I am planning to ask Orihime to marry me and move with me to Hokkaido. I believe this would be best for both her and me. I hope you will understand."

Ulquiorra felt every syllable of the last sentence ring in his ears. Then suddenly, all he saw was darkness.