"You can check, now," Orihime said, watching Ulquiorra pace her kitchen.

His head snapped up and he was brought to the present. Where had he set that stick? Why was it on her table? When had he set it down? Ulquiorra slowly walked over to the surface and looked at the white stick. "Orihime? What does two lines mean?"

"Um…" She wasn't sure. "Doesn't it say on the stick?" She began to walk back to the bathroom where she had left the instructions.

Ulquiorra had to sit down so he plopped down into one of the chairs with a heavy thunk. If he was reading this right, Orihime was pregnant. Fuck. FUCK. F U C K. What the hell was he to do? He managed to squeak out the words, "Um… Positive?"

She stopped in her tracks and froze. She took three slow, shallow breaths before she turned around, then nearly ran to the table to look down at the test.

Positive.

It was fucking positive.

She held her body up by the palms of her hands on the table and breathed heavily. Pregnant. She was pregnant. She turned her face toward Ulquiorra's and chuckled silently at the look of suspended animation on his face. Then she looked back down at the test. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. She was pregnant. Once again, out of wedlock. She had to huff out another small chuckle at the irony. It was just her luck that this would happen.

Still… She turned her face to look at her frozen boyfriend again and down at the test, and before she knew it, a seed of hope began sprouting in her heart. A baby. Their baby. A piece of her and a piece of him in a new life to bind them together for always. A beautiful infant with her eyes and his features. Or his eyes and her features. Or looking like one or the other but their child that they could love and raise together with its older brother and sister. It had been a dead dream until this moment. She looked down at the test again. Positive. "I always wanted another one…" she said at the softest volume her voice was able to carry.

He heard her mumble something, which caused him to look at her. She didn't look displeased, but Ulquiorra's mind was flipping between panic and blankness.. "You are not upset?"

She slowly turned her face to his. She regarded him silently for a moment. He looked terrified. She could sympathize. She wasn't exactly unscared. But… "No. I'm surprised. I'm shocked. I'm kind of in denial. But I'm not upset."

Oh. Okay. He understood that. He had been in denial several times in his life. He couldn't shut down to process this news. There were two big factors staring him in the face. "I was angry and threatened Urahara. I don't know what to do Orihime. I don't know what we're supposed to do. How are we going to keep this from Kazui and Eriko? How are we supposed to hide our relationship?"

She finally smiled at him. They no longer had the luxury of coming together as a family in their own time. They were all family now, despite their intentions. Not that Orihime disliked it; she liked it more than she knew she should. "We don't. We can't. We're a family now, whether they like it or not. The kids will just have to deal with it," she replied in a darkly amused tone.

"I don't know what to do. Are we going to tell them now? Are we going to let them find out eventually? I wasn't around for Yuko's pregnancy. We had sex and she left and I didn't hear anything from her almost a year later." Ulquiorra sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I wasn't planning on this."

She shook her head, still smiling. "Neither of us were planning on this. We can wait a few more weeks until we have a doctor's confirmation and we're past the danger period to tell the kids. We don't want to break their hearts if something happens." She sighed and found his eyes. She couldn't help but feel a little giddy, and she gave another voiceless chuckle. "Wow."

"This is sound advice," Ulquiorra said and his voice wavered. "Is there some possibility that this positive could be false? A fluke?"

"It's really, really unlikely. You bought a good test and I am in good health." She let her breath go quickly and glanced at the calendar again. "My period is due in three days. If it comes, we'll know it's a false positive."

If it was a false test, what would happen after that? Would Ulquiorra use those condoms he had in his bedside table? He wouldn't want to. He knew how Orihime felt against him and didn't want to put a barrier between them. "I'm sure tomorrow this all will sink in," Ulquiorra said.

Orihime nodded. "Yeah. Wow. There is so much to decide. So much to do," she walked over to the couch and sat down, looking down at her flat belly. "Hello? Are you in there?" she joked, poking at it. "Are you going to give us trouble like your brother and sister?" She snickered. This wasn't a joke, but her emotions were high frequency and funneling them into humor was helping her not to get bogged down in worry.

"I have to get back to Eriko. She's not feeling well today," Ulquiorra said, standing. He walked over to Orihime and then bent down to kiss her. "I will stop by everyday after school to see how you are doing. Friday, after you close the cafe, will you and Kazui come to my house?"

Orihime's face fell. She didn't want him to leave, but Eriko needed him. It couldn't be helped. She nodded. "Yes. We'll come. I'll tell him we're staying the weekend. The time has come to introduce him to the idea of us together," she said, grabbing his hand and looking up at him with big puppy eyes. "I love you, Ulquiorra."

"I love you too, Woman."

"I know we didn't mean for this to happen, but…" she wasn't sure how he felt, apart from scared and surprised, and her words died in her throat as that fact sapped her confidence. She swallowed hard and her eyes became wet. "Tell Eriko that I hope she feels better soon."

Ulquiorra pulled Orihime up and kissed her, backing her up against the wall. He made sure she understood how he felt about her and this news. "I will, Orihime. Get some rest, okay?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him for a few moments, stealing as much closeness as she could. "I will," she whispered into his neck, before squeezing and kissing him back. She did not want to let go. It physically hurt when she did a moment later.

"Call me later," Ulquiorra said. He did not want to leave her, but his other obligation was at home. He lingered for a few seconds before stepping away from her. "Do you want me to send Kaz back up?"

"No, I'd like some time to come to terms without him here. Otherwise he'll worry," she answered, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "He'll know something is up for sure if he came up right now."

He nodded. Ulquiorra was worrying himself, right now. Soon they would need to figure things out and hash out ideas. He turned and walked towards the door, knowing if he stayed any longer he wouldn't leave. That was the one thing he hated the most, was leaving Orihime.

Eriko rode the train to Karakura Town about three days later. She was supposed to be in school but decided that she had something else to do that day. She would get in trouble, but it needed to be done; it needed to be addressed. So, she was going to enjoy her day off. When she got to the town, she walked to Halcyon Cafe and Gifts, going inside the cool interior.

"Eriko! What are you doing here? Don't you have school? Oh! would you like some shaved ice? It's so hot outside," Orihime asked in a breezy voice, smiling as she sailed through the cafe. It was odd that she seemed unconcerned with Eriko's absence from school.

"I need to talk to someone, and I didn't want to do it while Dad was around. I told him I was sick today. As soon as he left, I walked to the train station," Eriko said. It was the truth. She couldn't talk to Orihime when her father was around.

Orihime paused, her dazed happiness set aside for a moment. "What did you want to talk about, honey? We can go upstairs if you want."

The girl shook her head. "Can I have some cake and tea?"

Orihime's grin returned as she nodded, walking back behind the display. "We have a sweet cherry mousse cake today. Would you like to try that?"

"Cherry mousse cake? Absolutely! That sounds delicious," Eriko said, clapping her hands together a couple of times. She went to sit down at one of the small tables and waited for her goodies and her best friend's mom.

Orihime started a small pot of tea for them to share and brought the cake and tea set out, serving Eriko before sitting down across the table from her and bringing her own steaming cup to her lips, blowing across the surface before asking, "What is the matter, Eri-chan?"

"Dad seems really preoccupied since last week. He seems annoyed and his temper has been short," Eriko said as she added sugar to her own tea cup. She bit her lip before she answered. "It sounds like he's threatening people when talking on the phone."

Orihime's brows furrowed and her eyes found the girl's from over the rim of her cup. "Do you know who he is talking to?"

Eriko shook her head and dug into the cake taking a bite before saying, "Not really. I think it's Urahara. He keeps calling the person a bastard and saying he'll shove a zanpakuto up his bum but he said a different word. He said ass."

Orihime lifted one brow. "Do you know what a zanpakuto is?"

"No but I don't imagine it's pleasant. This cake is really good."

"It's just a fancy name for a kind of sword," Orihime said, then took a sip of her tea. It wouldn't do to have Eriko worry about things she didn't understand, and if something was easily explainable, then it would be better to just tell her the truth, even if it was only partial. "Thank you, I really like this cake, too. Cherries are only in season for such a short amount of time that I wanted to make the most of it. Plus, it seems like these days all I want to eat are cherries," Orihime chuckled. She took another sip and decided to tell Eriko a bit more. "Your father doesn't like Urahara-san, as I'm sure you know. Urahara-san is… Well, he's a weirdo. He isn't a bad guy. He isn't a good guy, either, but he's not a bad guy."

"Well, I heard dad say something to whoever is on the phone about how he owes him a trip to the Soul Society? I'm not really sure. I was supposed to be sleeping but he kept pacing up and down the hall, talking. Dad also said something about a baby. I think he was talking about me. I'm not a baby anymore. I'm almost twelve."

"Twelve? I thought you were ten, like Kazui. When is your birthday, Eriko?" Redirection seemed in order, here. The girl was getting too close to things that she shouldn't know about yet.

"No, I turned eleven last year. My birthday is September twenty-fourth. Why? Is that bad that I'm that old?"

Orihime smiled and shook her head. "No, not at all. Kazui is on the young end of your grade. You are on the old end of it. There's nothing wrong with that. It actually makes me feel a bit better, you know, about the period stuff. I thought ten was too young, you poor thing. I was twelve when I got mine." She shook her head and let that topic die. "Anyway, my birthday is in September, too!"

Eriko smiled but blushed. The period thing was still new to her. The girl still didn't like it. She scooped another bite of cake into her mouth before taking a swallow of tea. "Anyway, I'm also feeling sad. I feel left out sometimes. I have no friends at school except Kazui and..."

"And?"

The girl lifted up her hair to reveal a piece of hair shorter than the others. "Some girls cut off a piece of my hair."

Orihime growled before she could stop herself. She gently put a fist on the table. Eriko was a big girl. She could handle seeing an adult show some appropriate emotions. "Eriko, when I was your age, the same thing happened to me, except those mean girls cut off all of my hair. Do you know what I did?"

"What?"

"I trusted my best friend. She stood up for me until I had the confidence to stand up for myself. She's the reason I wear my hair this long. I promised her I would never cut it short again, because I trusted her to protect me if I felt too weak to protect myself. That friendship made me strong, and when I was stronger, I found more friends. You can trust Kazui. I know he doesn't seem like it, but he can be very sensitive and caring. He will be loyal to you and stick up for you. You might have to tell him what's going on though, because he's not very observant," Orihime wrinkled her nose at that and looked at the girl apologetically. "Boys," she muttered after that, as if it explained everything.

"Kazui… He's a boy, yes. He's my best friend. He makes me have butterflies in my stomach. It's annoying," Eriko said. She sighed and laid her forehead on the table. "I know if I say something to him about my hair, then it will get back to my dad and then the girls will get into trouble."

"And you don't want that?" Orihime asked, looking at her with a questioning eye.

Eriko shook her head as much as she could. "No, I don't want to cause a scene. I don't want my dad to get all bent out of shape because someone threatened me. I don't want him to yell at them."

Orihime nodded. "So, what do you want to do? I can give you advice, but I need to know what you want the result of your efforts to be, first. I can instruct Kazui to be discreet, but it's not easy when your dad is his teacher."

"I want more friends. I want people to like me. I want to get contacts so that my eyes look like everyone else's. I want to be normal. I feel things all the time. Sometimes it feels like pressure on my head or shoulders; that's a part of growing up right? Feeling weird? It's almost like I can tell where other people are in the town. That's silly though."

Orihime narrowed her eyes. A thought occurred to her. "Ayane, Shun-o," she murmured, letting the two of her Shun Shun Rikka responsible for rejecting damage come out to form a small dome over Eriko's head. Orihime didn't try to hide what she was saying or doing; she was just testing to see if there was any reaction from the girl.

The girl's green eyes widened. "What are-You have fireflies near you. They weren't there before," Eriko said quietly. "Are they fireflies?"

"No, they aren't. Eriko, you are special. You were born special," she said with an affectionate smile. "Like me. Like your father. Like Kazui. There are a lot of us," Orihime cupped her hand over the side of her mouth, and pointed with her thumb to her business partner before whispering, "Even Riruka." She sat up then and smiled at the girl. "Some people are sensitive to what is called spiritual pressure. What you see is part of my soul, not fireflies. Maybe now that you've been spending more time with us, or now that you're older, you've become more spiritually aware. That pressure you've been feeling from time to time is the force of someone else's soul invading your awareness. It's probably mostly Kazui's. He's not good at controlling it."

"How do I stop it?" Eriko asked, her expression turning from wonder to frightened. Did this have anything to do with puberty?

"You can block it out, if you want to. You can deny it and decide to not believe… I think if you do that long enough, you won't be able to detect spiritual pressure anymore. But look, Eriko," she said with a wondrous grin, releasing all six of her Shun Shun Rikka, which took perch on her arms and shoulders. "There are things in the world beyond normal perception. These things will be attracted to you because of who you are." Orihime exhaled a bit heavily. She was probably overstepping her boundaries. Still, the girl needed to know. "We love you, Eriko. Your father and I, and Kazui. We want you to be safe and happy. I think it would be best if we had a-" she almost said family meeting. "A talk, all four of us. You can tell us what worries you and we can answer all your questions and take it from there. But I want you to promise me something first, okay?"

Eriko frowned. She didn't like the idea she was special. It made her seem freakier than she already was. With her green eyes and weird looking father, seeing these soul things did not make her seem like she was normal. She stood out even more. "What?"

"I'm going to ask you to make me a promise like the one I made to my best friend. I will always be on your side, but please never cover up those beautiful eyes of yours."

"Okay."

Orihime waited for Ulquiorra to come by that evening before talking to him about what went on with Eriko. Besides, she had other news for him. She made dinner. She had sent food home with Eriko so that he wouldn't have to worry about her eating. This conversation might take some time.

In the meantime, as soon as Kazui came home, she asked him to go upstairs for a chat.

"What's up, Mom," the boy asked as he helped himself to a snack.

"I wanted to ask how you would feel about… About me dating."

The boy made a disgusted face. "Ew, why would you want to do that?"

Orihime couldn't help but laugh. "Because, believe it or not, grown-ups like that kind of thing. Besides, as much as I love you, one day you'll grow up, move out, and start a family of your own. I don't want to be a lonely old grandma," she said in a teasing way.

Kazui rolled his eyes. "Yeah right…" he trailed off. He was a kid. He didn't think about things like actually growing up. He knew it would happen but he never visualized it. Still, he couldn't comprehend why his mother would need companionship. "Well, I guess it would be okay, but, like…" Again he trailed off, his eyes finding his dad's shrine near the TV. The boy sighed. "It's been a whole two years now."

Orihime nodded, letting him take the time he needed to process this idea.

The boy sighed again. "He's not coming back, is he?"

Orihime shook her head. "Even if he did, he wouldn't remember us. The konso-"

"I know." His grandfather had explained the process to him several times. So had Hiyori and the other Vizards. "It's weird, Mom."

"I know." She got him a glass of milk and sat down. "I want to be honest with you, Kazui. I want to tell you the truth all the time, but I also want to protect you." She paused and took his hand. "Baby boy. I love you so much." She gave it a squeeze.

"What is it, Mom?" Kazui looked up at her with a milk moustache and a worried expression.

"I like Cifer-sensei."

"You what?" The boy's mouth fell open. "Wait, you what?" He did it again. He looked like a fish.

Orihime squeezed his hand again and nodded. "I like Ulquiorra. Eriko's dad. Cifer-sensei. I like him a lot. And he likes me, too."

The boy scoffed. "Of course he does. Everybody does. Jesus, Mom. I thought Eri's dad was safe! Do I have to give the stink eye to everyone ?"

Orihime couldn't help herself. She laughed, tears coming to her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry for laughing, Monkey, it's just- The stink eye?!"

Kazui scowled and took his hand back, crossing his arms over his chest and giving his mother the stink eye.

"Ooh, very scary, Kurosaki-kun," she teased, then sighed. "I love you so much, Kazui. You are the best parts of me and your father."

The boy's face fell from its tense position and he exhaled, still looking displeased but not so angry. "I guess."

"Honey?"

"What?"

"We're going to have a sleepover at the Cifer's this weekend. Friday to Sunday."

"Why, so you can make him fall in love with you? He's going to, you know." The boy looked away now, pursing his lips. What would happen if that happened? Would they get married? What would happen if they did? His mom wouldn't love him as much anymore. He wouldn't be important anymore. He started to cry, although he tried to hide it.

"Sweetheart-"

"No!" the boy said in a sharp, pouty voice. He got up and stomped toward his room.

Orihime sighed, sitting back and wishing she could have a drink. That went better than she expected, to be honest.

Ulquiorra had been in the stairwell, listening to the conversation. Eavesdropping was rude, but he thought it would be more of a slight to barge in on the middle of a conversation. Besides, Orihime and Kazui needed to talk about this. It was important. He waited several moments before knocking on the door of the apartment.

Orihime's head turned quickly, and her body followed as she went to the door. She opened it to see worried green eyes. She was relieved, regardless. "Hi," she sighed, wrapping her arms around his body.

"Hello Woman. You seem tired," Ulquiorra replied, returning the gesture and hugging her tightly.

"Did you happen to catch any of that?" she asked, her cheek squished into his shoulder.

"I did. I didn't mean to overhear, but I didn't want to interrupt. How was your day besides that?"

"Uh, let's go up to the roof to talk about that. I'm going to bring some iced tea. Do you want anything stronger?"

Ulquiorra shook his head. "I'm fine. I don't want you to stress yourself out," he said, looking at her with concern on his face.

She blushed and gave him a small smile before grabbing a bottle of tea and a couple cups and leading the way upstairs. Once they were on the roof, she shook her hair out, letting the still warm breeze go through it before she sat down. "Eriko came by today. She was pretending to be sick so she could talk to me."

"Eriko did what?" Ulquiorra asked, his concern morphing into bewilderment. His brow furrowed and he stared at Orihime. Eriko had never done anything like this! "What could she possibly need to talk to you about that she wouldn't tell me? Is it more women stuff?"

Orihime nodded a bit. "Somewhat. You were right. She has a little crush on Kazui. She doesn't seem to understand it, yet, but what she explained to me made it sound that way. But that was the least of her concerns. She wants to be normal. She wants to fit in. She's not satisfied with his friendship alone, anymore, and I had to tell her that she'll always be special." Orihime paused and took a deep breath before continuing in a cautious voice. "She can see my Shun Shun Rikka, Ulquiorra. Not clearly, but she saw them. She told me she's been feeling spiritual pressure. I explained that she was spiritually aware. I told her that many people are; that we were, and Kazui and Riruka are. That's all. She didn't seem happy about it, though." Orihime sighed and took a sip of her tea. It had been a day, and it wasn't even close to being over yet.

This was not the conversation he wanted to be having. He didn't want to hear that his child could see spirits. He did not want to hear that she had a crush on the orange-headed boy. Ulquiorra sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before rubbing the area. "Okay, so she lied to me. She has a crush on your son. She can see spirits… Anything else to add to that?"

"I'm late."

Of course. Ulquiorra nodded. This was to be expected. "We were prepared for this, were we not?"

Orihime nodded back, then smiled. "Congratulations. You're going to be a dad. Again."

"Congratulations to you too. You're going to be a Mom again." Ulquiorra stood up and started pacing. "What happens now? What do we do?"

She watched him, an uneasy feeling settling over her. He was not pleased about this at all. "Well, what do you want to discuss first? Eriko? The baby? Us? Your question is too open-ended."

"Everything. What do we do for the baby? I have no clue how pregnancy goes except for what I've read online. What do we do about us?"

"About us? We can do whatever we want. For the baby, we need to choose a doctor, first. I can only think of two options, and I don't especially like either of them. But you're you and I'm me, so… I don't know, maybe we could pick a normal doctor."

"Kurosaki's father is a doctor, isn't he? Is that one of your options?"

She nodded.

"Who else?"

"Ishida-kun."

"Absolutely not," Ulquiorra replied, unhappy that he didn't remember that piece of information. "Who was your doctor when you were pregnant with Kazui?"

"Isshin was. Ishida-kun was still just starting medical school when I was pregnant last time. But after Isshin confirmed that everything was going along normally, I visited a regular doctor. Just in case something were to go wrong, Ichigo insisted on having someone who was a specialist. He was very protective of Kazui, even before he was born."

Ulquiorra felt overwhelmed. "If you go to Kurosaki, then he will know. If you go to Ishida, then he will know. I don't like the prospect of anyone examining you, but I know it needs to be done. Who else specializes in Hollow babies?"

"Ha, I don't think there are hollow babies, Babe. Eriko is the first born of a pure hollow, if that's even what you are anymore. You said you weren't exactly sure. Regardless, I think Isshin is most knowledgeable. He bound his soul to his wife's because she was infected with Aizen's pet hollow. She was a Quincy; she would have died without his intervention. That is how Ichigo was born with all those powers. But like Eriko, nothing was especially evident for Ichigo until he was pushed into Shinigami duties in high school. The only thing before that was that he could see spirits."

What if Eriko was part hollow? What if this child was part hollow? What if he had been so powerful that he had given a part of his powers to his daughter and there needed to be a catalyst to set it off? "What do we do concerning us? Do we continue these weekend sleepovers and stealing moments away from the kids?"

"You heard what I told Kazui. I plan on giving him the rest of this week to brood, and then this weekend we can explain that we are a couple, if that's what you want to do. When we decide to tell them about the baby, we should have a plan for the long term, though."

"I am open to ideas. I have no clue what to do. I have not the slightest idea how to handle all of this, Orihime." Ulquiorra stopped pacing and stared at her. "We should have been safe. I should have used my head. I should have courted you properly instead of throwing myself at you."

Orihime stood up and put her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to kiss him. After she pulled back, she said, "You and I… We would have ended up here eventually, I'm sure of it. It's not worth your time thinking about the should-haves. All we have is the present, although I think it's awfully cute that you would have considered courting me." She kissed him again. "You love me, right? Do you want to be with me?"

Ulquiorra stared at Orihime with a raised brow. How could she ask a question like that? Did she not see how much he cared for her? Could she not see how much he loved her? "You know I do. We wouldn't be having this conversation if I did not."

"I love you too. I want to raise this baby with you, as part of a joint household. We have some decisions to make."

His head bobbed up and down. "We should talk about it on Saturday. Maybe instead of practicing, we can go to a park, or maybe take the kids to do something fun as a family?"

The grin that blossomed on her face unfurled slowly. As a family. "Yes. Yes, that's what we are. It's time for them to start getting used to the idea."

"Good. You think of something to do and I'll write down some points that I think are urgent matters to discuss. We should have the kids make lists too… You know, of what they're worried about."

She nodded. "Yes. I'll tell Kazui later when he comes out of his room. Did you still want to talk to him alone, though?"

Ulquiorra nodded too. "I will talk to him on Saturday and you can discuss things with Eriko after we talk to them. He doesn't sound very happy at the moment."

"No, but he took it better than I expected. He takes after his dad, spazzing out sometimes."

He had to refrain from rolling his eyes. Of course Kazui took after his father. It was to be expected. "Is there anything else we need to discuss? I think I should go home to scold my daughter."

"Go easy on her. She's scared."

"What could she possibly be scared of?"

"Being different. Learning about our world."

A/N SURPRISE! So, what do you think? How about Eriko's new development? Thanks for reading!