Warnings: Ugh, this chapter. It practically gave me diabetes just writing it. Lots of profanity being thrown around, though. And yes, the title is a Grease reference.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any other copyrighted material.

Muse

By: Princess Kitty1

You're the One That I Want

Of course, Ulquiorra was mad at her. No Nelliel meant no Thanksgiving turkey, which Orihime was beginning to learn that Ulquiorra was more than a little fond of. Never mind the fact that his best friend was in such a state of distress that, after two days of searching, Grimmjow could do nothing but lay on the couch and wallow in despair. No Thanksgiving turkey. Ulquiorra may as well have thrown himself off of the roof of Las Noches.

But Orihime was stubborn and firm in her belief that Grimmjow deserved nothing less than losing Nel forever. However, that didn't even seem to be what was bothering him the most, and when she tried to ask he would roll over and turn his back to her, grumbling and telling her to go to hell. Needless to say, the Schiffer apartment was borderline insufferable. Between Ulquiorra and Grimmjow's death glares and moping, Orihime decided that she would rather chill at Rangiku's place. She could use a happy person to counteract all the negativity.

"Where are you going?" Ulquiorra asked her as she extracted her coat from the closet.

"Rangiku invited me over for supper. I'll be back later tonight," Orihime replied, not even bothering to look at him. "Besides, it's not like I'm wanted around here, anyway." In her refusal to turn her head, she completely missed the slightly pained expression that briefly flickered across his face before being smothered by his usual impassive mask. He watched her as she slipped on her jacket, snatched up her purse and left, the air in the apartment somehow feeling significantly more stagnant without her.

Grimmjow sat up on the sofa and looked back at him. "So, is there any particular reason why you haven't told her how much you pine for her at night?"

"I do no such thing," Ulquiorra replied swiftly, still staring at the door. "As for everything else… certainly, for the very same reason that you don't chase after Nelliel." He turned away, getting the creeping sensation that the day was soon coming when he would see Orihime walk out for the last time. "I don't deserve her."

…

Orihime was quite surprised that Rangiku hadn't immediately moved in with Gin, but as the older woman had explained, jumping blindly into a relationship with a man she hadn't spoken to in years, no matter how much she loved him, wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do. As Orihime understood it, the two were getting back into the swing of being friends first. From there they could appropriately act on any impulses that they may or may not still have.

She knocked on the door and patiently waited for it to open, wondering if she should stop by and see Chizuru on the way home. The last time she'd spoken to her, Chizuru had seemed genuinely happy that everything was going well, though she had threatened to kill Ulquiorra if he tried any funny business.

Oh, if only she knew.

The front door opened a fraction, a sliver of Rangiku's body – one eye, part of her nose and mouth, a bunch of hair, and a slice of her chest – appearing in the space. Orihime lifted her hand in a wave. "Hey. What was so urgent?" she asked, then cried out when the older woman reached forward, grabbed a fistful of her shirt, and yanked her inside. The door slammed shut behind Orihime. "What the hell…?" Her demand died on her lips when she saw who else was in the living room. "Nel?"

The French girl looked up, blinking. She was wearing a pair of Rangiku's pajamas, her green hair wet and wrapped up in a towel, a textbook thicker than the Bible sitting open on her lap. Rangiku jabbed a thumb in her direction. "Found her."

"Oh my God, Nel!" Orihime ran forward and took the girl's shoulders in her hands, shaking her. "Do you know how worried we've been? Holy crap! You were here this entire time?"

"N-No, I have not!" Nel replied, tearing away from her menacing grip. "Yesterday I stayed in building. Grimmjow always look everywhere before he begin to ask neighbors." She put a sticky note in the textbook to mark her page and closed it.

Orihime had a good million questions to ask, so she started with the one that came to mind first. "Who did you stay with?"

"Mr. Nnoitra. He saw me in stairs and offered to let me spend the night."

"Oh, no! You didn't sleep with that guy, did you?"

Nel blinked, confused. "No… Mr. Nnoitra has never even hit on me." She took up the towel and began dabbing at her hair. "Anyway, I stay with him, and then left and came to Ms. Matsumoto for help. I would have gone to you, Hime, but Ulquiorra would have ratted me out."

Orihime could definitely see that happening; the pianist and the Frenchman had some weird way of communicating without actually saying anything. It was a little disgusting. "But I thought you were going back to France," she said, noticing the other school things scattered around the living room.

"Oh, I am," Nel twisted the towel around her hair and sighed in dismay. "Perhaps over Thanksgiving I can go and beg my family to reconsider disowning me. Otherwise, I am out of place to live for the time being." She smiled. "At least Ms. Matsumoto is nice enough to take me in."

"Hey, don't sweat it, girly," Rangiku said with a grin, marching into the kitchen to check on dinner. "I love the company."

Orihime allowed her brain to process all of this incoming information, moving to sit on the sofa next to Nel. Okay, so she wanted to go home, but she couldn't because she and her family were at odds. She couldn't stay in Las Noches because Grimmjow would find her eventually, but she had spent the night with Nnoitra, who may or may not have been in love with her. Orihime felt a headache coming on. She could have texted Ulquiorra right now to tell him Nel's location. She could have prevented Nel from going back to France, but not only would that bring all of the drama on poor Rangiku's head, it would have given Grimmjow room to apologize, and there was no way in hell she was going to let him get away with that. The fact of the matter was that he had still broken Nel's heart. He'd run out of chances to repair things a long time ago.

Still, Orihime couldn't help but feel like there was a huge, missing piece to this jigsaw puzzle; probably Grimmjow's side of the story. There had to be a reason that he was fine with Nel leaving him, but went nuts when he read the letter she had written. Maybe he was just pretending to be alright with it. This whole thing could have been a game, just another down in the rollercoaster of their relationship, and he figured that she would return eventually.

Orihime frowned and crossed her arms. She didn't want Nel to go; who would she complain to when she'd had a bad day, or go to zumba with, or eat an entire pint of ice cream in front of without fear of being judged? Not Ulquiorra; he tended to blame her for whatever she was frustrated about, though more than half the time he was right in doing so; there was no way in hell he was stepping foot in Luppi's home; and last time she had devoured that much ice cream he had made some snide comment about the slight pudge visible over the rim of her jeans. This, of course, had started up her exercise regiment again, and the pudge was no longer there. Orihime lifted her shirt, smirking at her flat tummy. Ha! Now he would have nothing to criticize.

Either way, she had to find a way to keep Nel from leaving; one that didn't involve the bad-tempered man who had all but moved into Ulquiorra's apartment in the last two days – he had claimed that his place was full of too many memories or something like that. There was a week left until Thanksgiving as well, and she was sure that if Nel wasn't back to her turkey-making self by then, Ulquiorra would never speak to her again.

Not that she cared or anything.

…

By the time Orihime returned to Las Noches, Grimmjow had passed out on the couch with the TV on, leaving her without a bed. She sighed, irritated. If this was the way things were going to be, maybe he and Nel would have been better off together after all. She looked to Ulquiorra, who was seated at the dining table with his laptop. He was staring at the screen, but seemed to be dozing off, his eyes barely open. "Hey," her voice snapped him awake, "if you're tired, go to bed."

Ulquiorra lifted his hands to his face, yawning. "Can't," he said, leaning back in his chair, "I've just about completed this composition."

"It's all in your head, right? Just finish it tomorrow," Orihime spoke quietly so as not to wake Grimmjow, despite wanting her bed back, and walked over to the table, taking the open seat next to Ulquiorra. She watched him work for a while, putting notes and articulations into their places. It never ceased to amaze her, how fast he managed to put these things together. "Is this still Substance, or did you finish that one already?"

Ulquiorra's gaze shifted onto her. "You looked at them?" He didn't seem particularly angry, so she nodded her affirmation. "What did you think?"

"They're amazing," Orihime answered honestly. "Then again, it's you, so I wasn't expecting anything less." She threw in the compliment in the hopes that it would stroke his ego just enough for him to forgive her for breaking up Grimmjow and Nel. He shrugged, and she could have sworn that he looked mildly embarrassed, but that was probably just the light from the screen playing tricks with his features. Ah, there it was again; the stray observation that he was actually quite handsome for a scrawny guy. Her cheeks warmed up a bit as she forced herself to look away from him.

"Ms. Inoue," he said, breaking from his work to address her. He'd spent the entire evening taking unwarranted advice from Grimmjow, and to both of their surprise, had actually considered some of it. But as she lifted her gaze to meet his, a section of her thin hair falling over her face, which seemed to glow in the light coming from his laptop screen, everything he had been about to say was halted on his tongue. Besides, was this really the best time to talk about such embarrassing things? Grimmjow was technically in the room, whether asleep or not. "You didn't tell me you were thinking of taking online courses," he said finally, deciding to save the other conversation for a better time.

Orihime's eyes widened. "How did you…?"

"Internet browsers keep records of visited pages, you know."

Now she definitely felt the heat rising to her face. "I'm not, really," she said. The other day, while using his computer she had seen an ad for one of those online colleges and had ended up doing a full two hours of research on subjects and cost. She didn't even know what she wanted to study, but all the course names and summaries had sounded interesting. "I was just curious."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about." He saved his progress on the composition and pushed the laptop aside. "Wanting to pursue an education is a good thing."

"Exactly."

The two glanced in the direction of the living room, finding Grimmjow sitting upright on the couch. When he had woken up, they couldn't be sure, but he now stared off into space, running a hand through his short hair. "In this life, education is what separates the winners like Nel from the losers like me."

Orihime frowned. "What are you babbling about?"

Grimmjow thought for a moment, his brows furrowing in concentration. "You ever see the movie Grease?" he asked, wrinkling his nose as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. "Nel forced me to watch it with her, before you say anything. I had no choice." Ulquiorra snorted. "Shut up!"

"Did you have a point somewhere or were you just taking a general survey?" Orihime cut in before they could start arguing.

"Right." He scowled. "End of the movie comes around and the uptight virgin Sandy becomes this smokin' hot babe," he lifted his arms and made curving motions, "tight leather pants showing off that perky little white girl ass… uh…" his mouth stretched into a grin, "anyway, Sandy changes, and she and Danny Zuko live happily ever after. At least, that's what they tell us." Grimmjow's frown returned, deeper than before. "Do you honestly think that a smart girl like Sandy could ever be happy with a greaser like Danny for more than a month or two? That flying car lands right in his messy room, and after a night of crazed, passionate sex, Sandy wakes up in his apartment above the local garage and realizes that she's looking at the rest of her life, sans the dirty little runts that she'll probably shoot out of her vagina like a machine gun." He glared at the television as if it the people on the screen had offended him. "Poor Sandy, huh? I bet when she's elbow-deep in dish water at the local burger joint she'll think, I gave up Harvard for this? Why, oh why did I ever let myself marry Danny Zuko? I could have done so much better with my life."

Orihime looked at Ulquiorra. He shrugged, as if to say that this was the explanation that she had been waiting for.

"When I met Nel, that's exactly what she was doing. Seventeen, washing dishes in her family's run-down little store in France. The only thing she was looking forward to was inheriting that place and wasting the rest of her life. But she was so fucking smart. You have no idea how brilliant she is. And she wants to be a geneticist! A geneticist!" Grimmjow cried as if they hadn't heard him the first time. "She wants to find cures for all of these crazy mutations! She wants to win a Nobel fucking Prize! Sure, she may seem like a complete bubble-head sometimes, but she can do these complex math equations off the top of her head. And she's crafty too, like… fucking MacGyver's got nothing on her. She once broke into her house with a paperclip and some moss. I still can't wrap my brain around how she did it!" He swiped a hand over his face. "I just had to be the nice guy. She told me her troubles, and I told her I was going to America. I never wanted to be in a relationship with her, I just offered her a chance to do something with her life! I made it perfectly clear to her that I wasn't interested, but she fell in love with me anyway. Then I had to be stupid and fall for her because she was so damn cute and innocent and sweet and trusting. Son of a bitch, why me? I'm the biggest fucking idiot on the planet! I made it no secret that I slept around, that I was this horrible person but she found something to like about me anyway!" He buried his face in his hands. "And I knew that she had no future with me, so I cheated on her. I treated her like utter shit. I tried my damndest to get her to wake up and smell the coffee and leave. And now that she finally has, she's going back to France? I don't want her to go home! I don't care if she never forgives me so long as she just stays in school and accomplishes her dream…"

Ulquiorra blinked slowly, having heard this all before, and focused on Orihime. He could practically see the wheels of her mind turning behind her ashy gray eyes. Hopefully this would teach her a lesson about meddling that she wouldn't soon forget.

"You're fucking stupid," she stated, as if it were the most obvious fact in the world. "Here you are, going on and on about how smart Nel is, but do you really think that? You must not." Ulquiorra tensed as Orihime stood from the table, ready to intervene in the event that fists started swinging. "Because if you know how smart she is, then you would have been able to guess that she probably knows everything you've just told us. Why else would a smart girl give you twenty-six chances, right?" She approached Grimmjow, her arms crossed. "I think you're the one who needs to wake up and smell the coffee, Frenchy. This whole time, Nel's been waiting for you to realize that it didn't mean shit to her that you think you don't deserve her. She loves you. Enough to sit there and take all the emotional abuse, enough to hang around until you get it through your thick skull that she isn't going to change her mind."

Grimmjow shook his head. "I can't take care of her. I'm a mechanic! I can hardly put my thoughts on paper, let alone carry on a conversation with her about anything she might find interesting!"

"Nel finds puppies and food interesting! You're treating her like she's some kind of alien just because she's smarter than you! Though, to be completely honest, I'm beginning to think that a toddler could be smarter than you!" Orihime cried. "Know what? You're right, you don't deserve her. I don't think you're right for at all, which is why I'm not going to tell you that she's staying at Rangiku's apartment, two blocks out of the Hueco Mundo district, past Urahara's Convenience Store, third floor, room 302!" She gave him a pointed look, then turned on her heel and walked briskly towards Ulquiorra's room. Well, she'd done her good deed for the day. Now she'd wake up the next morning and everything would be right with the world… maybe. In the mean time, since it was too late for Grimmjow to go knocking on anyone's door, she would commandeer the bed.

Back at the dining table, Ulquiorra smirked, bringing his laptop closer again. So she wasn't completely heartless, which was good. Still, those had been pretty big words coming from someone who claimed not to believe in love.

…

Orihime went to work as usual the next day, walking with a bit of a spring in her step. Grimmjow hadn't been in the apartment when she'd woken up, which had left poor Ulquiorra to take the sofa bed, and he'd made sure to complain about it thoroughly before he went out to teach. However, he must have forgiven her. For breakfast he'd spoiled her rotten with pancakes, toasted English muffins, and scrambled eggs, and when she'd asked him what the occasion was he'd merely shrugged and given her one of those, "don't ask, just take it" looks.

Rangiku was out and about that morning, making sure her customers were completely satisfied before she went to greet Orihime. "You're in a good mood," she observed.

"So are you," Orihime replied as she took up her place at the podium. "How's Nel doing?"

"Oh, she's as cheerful as someone in her position can be." Rangiku leaned over the bar, smiling at one of the customers sitting nearby. "Told me she had classes until later this afternoon. I offered to pick her up after work. You want to come?" She did a little dance in her place. "We were thinking of going out to party tonight, it being Friday and all that."

"I would, but I think my wife would be mad at me if I did. Promised her I'd kick the booze," Orihime commented dryly, imagining Ulquiorra's annoyance already. His mood always soured when she mentioned drinking. But now that she thought about it, she hadn't had a lick of alcohol since… wow, had it really been an entire month? She'd made major progress without even realizing it! The thought brought a smile to her face. She would have to find him a decent gift for his birthday to thank him.

It was a slow day, probably because a lot of the childless households were leaving the city ahead of time to visit family for Thanksgiving. Orihime had always wanted to sit in the airport on those three hectic days before the holiday, just to see how congested it would be. Hopefully there wouldn't be any crazy snowstorms; she'd hate to think of the thousands of people sleeping on the airport floor, waiting for the weather to clear so that they could get to where they needed to go. But for once she would be too busy to do that. Ulquiorra was becoming increasingly sensitive to stress as the day drew closer. He hadn't said or done anything, but she could tell simply by the way he carried himself – which was creepy. She'd been around him way too long.

As the hours dragged on, Orihime found herself gripped with anxiety. Sure she'd given Grimmjow that grandiose lecture the day before, but it was up to him to go fix things with Nel, and she couldn't imagine how he would manage to convince her to come back to his side. Hopefully she wasn't angrier than she had let on during dinner.

Her only distraction came in the form of Momo, who came in once school had let out for the day. She looked much better than she had immediately following the Halloween incident, a healthy color having returned to her skin, and she seemed a bit more animated. Apparently she had been asked to testify against Aizen and, after some positive self-talk, had agreed to do so. "There's no way I'm letting that man get to anybody else," she said sternly, "I want him put away until he's too old to wipe his own butt."

Orihime frowned a bit. She hadn't said until he died, but it was to be expected. The poor girl had been so deeply in love with him. "You and Toshiro are hanging out more often, right?"

"Well, sure. We used to hang out a lot before I started dating that man." She made a face. "And now that I'm single I have a lot more free time. He really likes the winter, so we're going ice skating at the Karakura Town rink on the first."

"Really? Gin and I were thinking of going." Rangiku turned to Orihime. "Isn't the first Batman's birthday? Bring him, too!"

"He can't skate," Orihime answered dismally, "though maybe if we can convince everyone to go, he'll come along. Unwillingly, of course, but I doubt he wants to spend his twenty-fourth birthday alone." She grinned. "We can go at night, when they switch on all those pretty lights that they put on every tree in the vicinity."

"That sounds so romantic!" Momo cooed, her face flushing. "For you and Ulquiorra, I mean."

Orihime's eyebrow arched. "Since when have Ulquiorra and I been synonymous with romance?"

Rangiku and Momo looked at each other, then shook their heads sadly and departed to do their jobs. "She's a slow one," Orihime heard Rangiku mutter under her breath. What the hell! Had they been pairing her with Ulquiorra behind her back? Those traitors! There was absolutely nothing going on between them! He'd just kissed her twice… oh, and the refrigerator thing, which she still couldn't think about without getting a little lightheaded. But that was a product of lust; a man and a woman living in close proximity were bound to consider jumping each others' bones eventually. It was completely normal! There was no relationship, no acknowledgement of feelings, and no feelings to even speak of.

She just thought he was good-looking from time to time. And he had his sweet moments, which always caught her by surprise. And she was more comfortable around him than most other guys. She could trust him not to take advantage of her, even though he was clearly a sadist. She thought he was ridiculously talented, but plenty of other people were. And then there was the fact that he'd saved her from both a messy suicide and a messy homicide…

A menu hit her in the back of the head. She turned and found Rangiku grinning at her. She motioned towards her office. "Time to go!"

Upon leaving, they drove out of the Hueco Mundo district, coming to the university in the heart of the downtown area. Nel was waiting for them by one of the libraries, looking a little down. But she cheered the instant she saw them and ran over, climbing into the backseat of Rangiku's car. "So, I was searching for plane tickets on my computer between classes. Roundtrips are all so expensive!"

"What did you expect? You're flying to a foreign country," Orihime said casually, trying not to spill the beans about Grimmjow and his idiotic reasoning.

Nel sighed. "I had no idea. Grimmjow bought my plane ticket when we came to America." She stared out the window sadly, her temple resting against the cold glass as they made their way off of the campus. "I guess I am not as independent as I thought."

"Hey, if you need a job, I could always use another waitress," Rangiku offered helpfully.

"I will think about it. My major is very demanding, so I don't know if I could work." Nel pursed her lips. "Maybe I could find job as teacher's assistant? There are plenty of openings in the university," she trailed off, her green eyes pinched with concern. Orihime glanced at her through the side-mirror. Damn it, she wanted to say something so bad! But so far her meddling had done nothing but make things worse, so she kept her mouth shut.

As they neared Rangiku's building, Nel suddenly sat upright. "What is he doing here?"

"Who?" Orihime looked ahead. Parked on the curb in front of the complex was Grimmjow's beat up old pickup truck, which was probably the only vehicle in Las Noches that was in worse shape than Ulquiorra's. They even had that in common, those freaks. But Orihime contained her smile when she saw that the blue-haired Frenchman was sitting in the bed of the truck, looking quite disgruntled. Had he been waiting there all afternoon?

"Did you tell him where I was?" Nel demanded, her voice high and squeaky. "Tell him to go away! I don't want to talk to him!"

Orihime turned in her seat to look at her. "Calm down. Maybe he has something important to say?"

"No." Nel sunk lower. "I don't want to see him. Send him away."

Rangiku parked the car and glanced at Orihime. Guess we're going to have to do this the hard way, her narrowed eyes seemed to say. "I'll talk to him, girly," she promised, then stepped out onto the street. Orihime did the same, but she stood by Nel's door as Rangiku approached the shivering Grimmjow, placed her hands on her hips to appear angry, then winked at him and said, "She's all yours." He looked at Orihime, who inclined her head in a subtle nod, and took that as what little approval he would get. Climbing out of the truck, Rangiku made sure to stalk after him, dramatically threatening to call the police if he didn't leave them alone. Orihime hid her amused smile and clasped the door handle, pulling it open as she stepped away.

Nel's head whipped up in surprise. "What-!"

"Nel," Grimmjow had to stoop over to get a better look at her, especially when she whipped off her seatbelt and scrambled to the other end of the backseat. She glared fiercely at Orihime, who merely shrugged and mouthed 'sorry' before going to join Rangiku nearby.

"I have nothing to say to you," Nel told Grimmjow sternly.

He sighed and, mindful of the two standing behind him, began speaking in hushed French. Judging by the guarded expression on Nel's face, this was his attempt at an apology. The girl stared at him, then snapped, spouting what Orihime could only assume were hateful words before bursting into tears. He flinched, reaching out for her, but she slapped his hand away and resumed her violent rant, making very sharp hand gestures. Then Grimmjow started yelling back at her, causing her to recoil in shock. He broke off, sighed, then reached into his pocket and held something out to her that Orihime and Rangiku couldn't see. Whatever it was only made Nel cry even harder, clasping a hand over her mouth. But through the car's windshield they saw her nod several times, and Grimmjow sighed with relief before he was tackled onto the pavement and covered in very enthusiastic kisses.

"Oh my!" Rangiku laughed and looked away politely.

But Orihime's attention was drawn to what had fallen out of Grimmjow's hand, landing a foot or so away from where he had been pinned to the cold sidewalk by his green-haired lover: a small velvet box containing a diamond ring that had probably cost him a fortune. A broad smile stretched across her face.

"Looks like he finally got it right," she said, slinging an arm around Rangiku's shoulder. "Come on. Let's leave them to their, uh, privacy."

To Be Continued

A/N: Didn't that just give you a horde of warm and fuzzy feelings?

FAQs

Why did you write Orihime this way? Muse is one huge what-if situation.When I read that in canon, her parents were abusive, I thought, what if she hadn't been able to get out of the house until much later? What if she'd been unable to cope, and rather than becoming bubbly cheerful Orihime she'd had a downward spiral into depression? What would that Orihime look like? And so this incarnation of her was born.

Why did you write Ulquiorra this way? Well, simple answer is simple: he's human. Canon Ulquiorra had a bit of a selfish streak before he died, doing everything he could to keep Orihime in Las Noches despite the fact that Aizen clearly stated that he no longer needed her. What, then, were his motives? To keep her as his caged bird so that she could croon her pretty words to him all day? I'd like to think so. What were Muse Ulquiorra's motives for keeping Orihime in Las Noches? He may have lost his original purpose, but that is still something that Orihime does not know. Remember, he is only letting her go along with her assumptions about his personality. We'll see more of smart, canon Ulquiorra before the story ends.

Does the GrimmNel drama have anything to do with Nel's masochism? Why yes, indeed it does! I saw that in the manga, laughed hysterically and thought, "Ah, it's perfect!" But, as you saw in this chapter, that masochism isn't everything. :3

Next on The Final Five: It's Thanksgiving Day, and the ensuing chaos couldn't possibly be good for Ulquiorra's fragile psyche.