"Fuck." Ichigo cursed, looking around. "We have a lot of shit to do."

"Then maybe you should quite complaining and get to work." Rukia said sweetly, leaning over and batting her eyes at him.

He glared. "I don't think anyone is fooled by that act."

"Oh please, Ichigo." She grinned, looking down at her nails. "I've been working on that act for almost a year now. You're not fooled by it because you know it's an act. But everyone else thinks I'm a sweet little girl."

He stared at her, bored. "Yeah. Great."

"Now hurry up. We need to have all of this cleaned up soon. Your sister is making curry, and I don't want to be late."

"Then maybe," He growled, pushing another pin into the door hinge, "You should get off your midget butt and help me."

"I did help. I swept, washed the sheets, and I even washed Orihime's bloody clothes. Not only that, but I called Urahara and had him make some fake hospital records for Inoue. I'm the one who did all the work, Ichigo."

Ichigo pushed the last pin in, standing back to admire his work. "There. It looks like we never broke it down in the first place." Then he turned back to Rukia. "And you did all the easy stuff. Fixing that door wasn't a walk in the park, ya' know."

"Yeah, yeah. Now come on." She opened the door, smiling a little when she found it worked just fine. "Let's go home."

"Already missing your closet?"

"In case you weren't listening, I'll repeat myself. I, Ichigo Kurosaki, am hungry. On top of that, I am no longer living in your closet. So there." She smiled triumphantly at him, crossing her arms, as they began to walk back to Ichigo's house.

"You think you're real smart, don't you shorty?"

"So I'm shorty now, am I?"

Ichigo resisted the urge to laugh upon seeing her fierce, forced, smile, a vein near her temple throbbing. He knew that if anything upset her, it was being called short.

And there as just something about a pissed-off Rukia he was addicted to. Who knows? It could have been his hollow, who was attached to the darkness in Rukia's soul from the time she had been invaded by a parasite hollow, turning her against him. That hollow inside of Rukia's mind always falred when she was angry. Rukia wasn't a visord, no, but there was that darkness inside of her, and his hollow… well, for a lack of a better term, his hollow was extremely likened to that darkness.

For Ichigo himself? Well, maybe it was that he liked the way her eyes lit up when they got into a fight. It could have been that she just looked so… attractive when she was angry. He wasn't really sure. He just knew he liked it. A lot.

"Hey."

He was pulled from his musings when Rukia calmly called out to him.

"Yeah?" He asked, looking down at her suddenly shadowed face.

Rukia sighed, and then looked back up at him, worried. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

His good mode was gone, then, too. He knew what she was talking about. Sighing, he folded his hands behind his head, looking up at the sky. "I don't know." He answered honestly.

"She's strong." Rukia said suddenly. "She'll be okay."

"What if she's not strong enough?" Ichigo asked quietly, looking down at the woman who had snatched up his heart and run with it.

"Well… she'll just have to endure. Besides. I think that the espada…" She stopped. "I think that Cifer will take care of her."

He was a little startled to hear the name on her lips. But then he realized why she had said it. She was trying to adjust to him, make him more of an ally than an enemy. So she was referring to him not as what he was, but by his name.

"Yeah." Ichigo agreed, for once deciding to agree instead of going with his own dense ideas. "I guess he will, huh?"

"After all," Rukia continued, "He brought her back from the dead."

"Yeah." Ichigo's eyes darkened a little bit, remembering seeing the pictures of her mangled body that some sick kid had taken before running down with the others to see if she was alright. First thing it had been put up on the internet someone had sent it to him, since he was gone, obviously believing that Ichigo wouldn't think Inoue had really fallen out of a window unless he saw for himself. Her body had been so mangled… "I guess that they both have a thing for repeating the past."

~o0o~

The desert was endless.

Black and white, black and white, black and white.

When had it become so welcome to her eyes?

The moon had not changed. There it hung in the endless black expanse, the only white in the sky. The sands blew on the chilled wind, stirring up the land in an attempt to keep it from ever resting. The trees looked like the bones of a hand sticking up out of the desert ground, clawing at the sky before death took away the ability to move.

It looked bleak. Empty. Hopeless.

And yet, it wasn't all that unwelcome.

"Do you feel a little better?"

Orihime looked up at Ulquiorra, his eyes startling her. She was frozen, staring into them for some time, unable to speak.

They had just stepped out of the garganta. She had to take a moment to drink in Hueco Mundo once more, as it was such a rabid change. A bit like culture shock, in a way, though not nearly as bad as the first time.

"A… a little. It's not so hot anymore."

"You are still fevered." He informed her, a cool hand touching her forehead lightly. "I will take you to Los Noches to rest." He must have seen the slight spark of panic in her eyes, because he quickly reassure her. "I will not take you to your prison. You will come to my own chambers and sleep there. You, of course, are free to come and go as you please. Though I ask you do not leave without alerting me before hand, as it can be very dangerous alone. You are strong, but there are some things not meant to be done alone."

She wondered if he was a mind reader, or if he was just being himself. Unknowingly, he had answered almost every single one of her questions.

Almost.

"Where will you sleep?"

He dropped his hand from her face, but did not remove it when she lifted it back up to rest on her flaming cheeks. "I am no longer in that pathetic human form. I am durable in my true state. You will not inconvenience me."

She nodded a little bit, but then looked at he castle so far of in the distance. She could see many parts of it were crumbling, still damaged from the winter war. The great white palace Los Noches was falling apart.

"It will take us days to get there…" She murmured to herself, staring off into the distance. She turned her gaze back to the tear-streaked man at her arm. "Would it be okay if I took a nap right here?"

"That is unacceptable." He deadpanned, looking down at the sand they were standing upon as if the sight insulted him.

"Oh."

"I will carry you. We will arrive at the palace within moments."

She had no doubt that what he said was true. But… "I'm heavy!"

He seemed to doubt it. "You will be no burden."
"But I-"

He had heard enough, apparently. Without saying anything he stooped down and put a hand behind her knees, the other on her back. He swept her up off her feet, literally, and held her up without so much as a puff of breath leaving his mouth. He held her as if she was made out of cotton, as light as a stuffed animal.

She felt a blush quickly rushing up to paint her cheeks red. "I, uh, um."

"Do not babble." With that he shot off, concerned for her health. He knew she could not tell it yet, but he knew that her new hollow nature was trying to surface. Soon she would crave the souls of humans, and he wanted to be in Los Noches when that happened.

Orihime was starting to feel a little sick, her stomach churning as the flew over the white sands. Everything felt hot, even though the desert was so cold. She was starting to feel almost as sick as she had in the world of the living.

They got to the palace at a speed that would have made any normal human feint, Ulquiorra quickly entering through one of the many fallen sections of the castle.

He rushed her through the halls, ignoring the startled sounds many remaining arrancar made, quickly walking into his still intact room.

Orihime was starting to shiver, holding her hands against the scarred section of her chest.

He carefully lay her on his bed, grabbing the covered and sliding her underneath them. The white sheets made her hair look blazing red, contrasting brightly with the girl who looked like the sun.

"I'm hungry." She complained, curling up on her side. "Really, really hungry…" She closed her eyes, not wanting to look at the too-bright room for the time being. "I feel sick. And I don't want to be a burden, but I don't know what's happening. I feel… I feel like I'm not me anymore. I'm no sure-"

"You are still very much yourself." He interrupted her. "Your hunger is your craving human souls."

"What?! But I can't eat someone! I don't want to hurt anyone or-"

"Reashea will keep you fulfilled. Aizen could not have his finest warriors constantly going to the world of the living to feed, so he created a formula of reashea that suffices. It tastes terrible, but it will keep you alive."

"… Alright. Can I please have some of that?"

He nodded, and then walked over to the left side of the room.

The room was square, and large. It had two doors, one leading to a living space, the other a bathroom. Everything in the room was ether black or white, but she had come to expect as much. The bed took up almost all of one wall, the headboard all that touched the wall while the rest of the bed took up a bit of the room. He had a dresser and a mirror, as every room did, posted against the right wall, next to the bathroom door, and a bookshelf against the other wall, next to the door that led to his living quarters. The wall across from the bed had an elaborately detailed map of Heuco Mundo, which took up almost the whole entire wall.

Orihime watched as he plucked a white canister from the bookshelf, coming over to her with it and twisting off the lid. He made sure she was watching, and then dipped his hand inside. He pulled out a string of flouting blue, the thing almost looking like a see-through spirit ribbon. He then barely opened his mouth and placed it on his tongue, closed his mouth, and swallowed.

He offered the can to her. "Eat."

She looked up at him, then back at the can, and tentatively reached inside. The food was cold, and felt like mist, but she was somehow able to grab one of the strands and place it in her mouth, all under the watchful eye of Ulquiorra. With a small blush she tasted it, and then smiled as she swallowed.

"It's great!" She declared, grabbing another ribbon. "It tastes like beef and broccoli, mixed with tuna and honey!"

"Yes. Most find the taste repulsing."

"I like it. I've never had anything like this before. It's delicious."

He carefully put the lid back on the can, walking back over to put it on the shelf. "I should have known that you would like it."
She gave him no answer, which surprised him a little. He turned, wondering what was wrong, and found that Orihime had fallen asleep.

He didn't blame her. The day he had been resurrected by her Shun Shun Rika, he had felt exhausted. It was admirable she had stayed awake for so long.

He appeared at her side, pulling the sheets up over her shoulder, knowing how cold it could get. With that he left the room, going to sit in his living area and read while he waited for her to rise.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought that maybe things weren't so bad.

Because somewhere deep in his heart, he may have been a little happy.

.

So... cute? I think? I don't know. In my mind, this chapter was pointless. :p I'm going to keep this up, though. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all you lovely reviewers! I really love the feedback. I hope everyone has been enjoying so far. Leave me a review if you have a request, and I'll try to write it for you. :) Thanks again!