Chapter 33: Pomp & Circumstance

"So you and the barista, huh?" Zara asked, smiling and making suggestive eyes at Orihime. "I can see it. I bet you have wild sex all the time."

Orihime bit her lips and tried not to smile, blushing and shaking her head. "No, actually, we've been taking it slow… For reasons. Anyway, how is Madison?"

They continued their friendly catching up as they had lunch at Coffee & Sadness. Orihime had done as she had suggested she might and wore a tight day dress just to tease her boyfriend, and she kept catching him glancing at her, which pleased her.

When lunch was over, she gave Zara a hug goodbye and got into line for some coffee. She had another meeting with Renji after this, and she wanted some coffee to go.

Ulquiorra was at the register taking orders. Today had been really busy so far. It had been nothing but rush, rush, rush. Sometimes running this business was maddening to him. He called out to the next customer, only glancing up before he did a double take. "Hey Woman," he said to Orihime. "Need more caffeine?"

She smiled at him. "Hey Handsome. Yes. I think I told you about that meeting with Kuchiki's assistant this afternoon. He is… He is a nice person and I imagine he could be fun, given the opportunity, but at work he is as dry as paper."

His brow furrowed for a moment as he thought back to all the people who worked at RBM. "Uh, the eyebrow guy? He seems spastic, but that's my observation. Do you want your regular?"

"Yes, and yes, please," she replied. "I have yet to see Renji as anything but all business. He can be kind of scary, to be honest."

"There was the year before you came along and he was a spaz. Things had to be perfect for Kuchiki, and Renji went out of his way to make sure he gave himself premature grays to get it done for his boss." Ulquiorra shrugged and then ran Orihime's other coffee gift card that he kept under the counter. She had one for use when he wasn't there and the other everyone on the morning shift knew about. "One large coffee with a splash of skim milk coming up."

"Thank you," she said after laughing at his commentary about Renji. To be honest, she was anxious to get the meeting over with. Tomorrow was her graduation ceremony, and while she was looking forward to it, she wanted to get it over with just as much. She was ready to leave school behind her and move on to her next phase of life, whatever that might be.

The man behind the counter put an underling on to take more orders while he personally got his girlfriend's coffee. Ulquiorra didn't mind this. It was a gesture of care for him to make her order and hand it off to her. As he finished, he walked to the pick-up area. "So, what time is your graduation thing? I've got to pick up a gift for you," Ulquiorra said.

She shook her head. "You know you don't have to do that," she said with a gentle smile. She knew he would anyway. "Well, commencement is at nine-thirty and convocation is at eleven. You don't have to come for all the dry speeches," she said and chuckled.

"Nonsense. I want to see how proud or bored you look during the ceremony. I'll be easy to spot, by the way. I'll have flowers with me," he replied, handing the coffee over to her.

She narrowed her eyes at him slightly and let her fingers brush over his as she took it from him. "I'll be watching for you, then. I'll text you later?"

He nodded. "I'll be waiting."

"So your tour will be ten days, all in a row. Then it'll be time to start thinking of the next phase, Orihime," Renji said. "Kuchiki wants you to write another book. He doesn't want you to misunderstand; we all love you here at Rotten and want you to stay, but if this isn't what you dream of, we don't want to hold you back, either. Kuchiki says you should capitalize on your popularity and release another book by the end of summer."

Orihime's brows rose slowly. "He really thinks so? I mean, I thought The Perfect Cup was a fluke," she joked. She wasn't only joking, though. Surely success like that only came once in a lifetime.

"He does. He also wanted me to give you this," he said, passing a small package to her. "He won't be able to go to your graduation, since he's still down in Naples, but he wanted to give this to you."

Orihime nodded, took the small package, and then stood up. "That's all, right?"

Renji nodded and left the room with her. "Good luck tomorrow."

"Thanks, Renji."

Orihime waited until she got home to open her boss' gift. In fact, she was a little nervous to open it, and decided to text Ulquiorra first.

- Just got home. Lots of news. I'll tell you later.

When his phone chimed, Ulquiorra looked down at the device and smiled. After reading her text, he became a bit worried. Orihime had lots of news? What could she possibly tell him? He sent her a quick reply of a thumbs up and then put the phone back into his pocket.

She got his return text and exhaled slowly to calm herself. He was probably swamped right now. She looked at the box wrapped in plain silver paper. There was a little card affixed to the top that was not sealed, which simply read, "Congratulations. Very proud. All the best, Byakuya".

She was being silly. It wasn't like it would be a hand grenade or something. She tore one corner of the paper off and the rest followed. A white box with the name of a popular personalization store found in malls across the country embossed on the top was revealed, and her shoulders slumped in relief. A tiny part of her brain had been holding on to fears for months that her boss' kindness had come at a price. All signs here were pointing to this not being expensive jewelry or something like that.

When she finally got the actual gift out of the box, she smiled. It was a compass. A compass with a quote about following her dreams engraved inside. She was so moved that she began to cry, and didn't stop until she fell asleep on her couch, still holding the gift.

After Ulquiorra was done with his shift, he went upstairs and got cleaned up. Then he went to the local Chinese place and picked up several take out boxes of food, which he drove over to Orihime's apartment. He sent her a text before he walked up to the building's door.

- I'm outside. I have food.

The text woke her from a dead sleep. She had drool on one side of her face. She got up on wobbly legs and buzzed him in.

The door unlocked and Ulquiorra let himself in before he went to his girlfriend's door. He knocked gently on the surface. "Delivery for Inoue," he stated.

She opened the door, still dressed in her sexy business dress with her hair a rumpled mess and sleepy eyes. She grinned at him. "I hope it's a hot baristo," she said, her voice still raspy with fatigue.

"Baristo? Where did you learn your coffee house culture? I am a barista," he said, kissing her forehead and holding up the bag. "There's no suffix change just because I am male."

"For real? You mean people have been letting me say it wrong all this time? I must be cuter than I think," she said, kissing his cheek and taking the bag from him. "Follow me." She led him through the kitchen and to her coffee table, where the gift wrap and card and Kuchiki's gift still sat.

Ulquiorra followed her and as soon as he saw the package, his brow rose. "Got an admirer?" he asked, gesturing to the stuff sitting on the surface.

"Nope, not really," she said as she set down the bag and left him in the living room to go get plates and forks. "It's a graduation gift from Mr. Kuchiki. Take a look, it is very motivational."

He picked up the item and took a look at it. In Kuchiki's fashion, the gift was well made and heavy. The compass turned as he rotated the object. Hmmm, it was an actual compass. Nice. Then he saw the inscription that was engraved on the lid. "Go confidently in the directions of your dreams and live the life you imagined," he murmured as he read it. "Nice, Kuchiki."

Orihime smiled at him as she returned to the room. "Right? I was all worried when I got a present. Turns out some people are just good people. Renji gave it to me as we concluded our meeting."

"Kuchiki is a good person; strict, but kind," Ulquiorra said, putting down the compass. "I didn't know what you liked, so I just got a sampling of my favorite things."

Her eyes took on a mischievous glint. "Ooh, I wonder what I can divine about your personality from this," she growled playfully. "What's first?"

"Well, we have spring rolls, crab rangoon, and a couple of egg rolls. Then I have sesame noodles and some garlic chicken. There's rice too."

She raised a single brow as she sat down next to him and passed him a plate, napkin and fork. "I see. Huh. Interesting…" she said, tapping her bottom lip with her fork.

Ulquiorra mimicked the expression. "What?" he asked. "What is interesting?"

She straightened her spine and looked at him, tilting her chin up and holding her fork at shoulder height like a wand. "I would say you are heavy on the appetizers. You take awhile to get to the good stuff. But once you're there, you like conventional things that keep away the people who might not. Garlic breath and all," she explained with a nod and then turned toward the boxes he had taken out and arranged on the table.

Hmph. He huffed. "I usually pick one appetizer. It depends what I'm feeling that day. Sometimes I get chicken and mushrooms, but I was feeling a bit on the spicy side tonight, so I had them add extra peppers to the garlic chicken. I also did not know what you would like, so I just picked an assortment."

She nudged him with her shoulder and laughed. Her attempt at flirting with him had fallen utterly flat, as usual. "I love garlic chicken."

"Good. There's nothing wrong with garlic breath. If we both have it, it cancels out," Ulquiorra replied and then smiled at her. "At least that's my logical thinking."

"One of the many things I love about you. Let's eat before it gets cold, shall we?"

The next morning, Ulquiorra sat in the crowd with a gift box and a dozen roses. He listened to the head of the school drone on about achievements. He listened to their guest speaker and whatever they talked about.

Orihime was right; this entire pomp and circumstance was dry.

Still, she had done something amazing. Going through everything she had been through was rough, and managing to keep up with her studies and deal with it all had been a feat. When the person called her name he politely clapped and smiled.

His girlfriend made him proud.

Orihime had not been prepared for the feelings that came over her during the ceremony. Of course, she had expected to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, but she hadn't expect it to be so profound.

Those dry, trite speeches that would normally send her mind wandering through daydreams now had her rapt attention. She hung onto each word of wisdom and inspiration spoken by the guest speaker. She dabbed the corners of her eyes at the parts that particularly resonated with her, bits about overcoming adversity and grinding along even when it felt like no progress was being made.

She thought of her mom, Nnoitra, and Grimmjow; of Lucy, Brady, and Rangiku; and of Aunt Kathy, Byakuya, and Ulquiorra when the speaker described instances and people which would touch lives and change them forever, some for better, others for worse, but all of them contributed something to her character. She nodded along when the speaker said the graduating class would not be the individuals they were today without each of those influences.

When her name was called to walk across that stage, her heart swelled in her chest. Was this what it was supposed to feel like? She couldn't dampen the grin threatening to burst her cheeks. Pride was not a feeling she was used to.

She stepped off the side of the stage after shaking the dean's hand and looked around the sea of people. She spotted Ulquiorra quickly, and held up her degree, pointed to it with a cheesy smile, and blew him a kiss before she went to go sit back down and watch her classmates do the same.

After the closing speech, she joined her class once more to toss caps and high five one another, even though they were all strangers. She didn't linger, though. She had someone to find.

"Ulquiorra!" she shouted through a smaller crowd of people when she finally found him again.

"Woman!" he called back. Ulquiorra shouldered his way through the crowd until he reached Orihime. He gave her a hug with his free arm and then handed her the flowers and the box. He bit his bottom lip as he watched her. "You did it."

She glanced at his gifts and smiled at them briefly, then held them out to her sides and pressed her body to his, tipping her chin up. "I did! Thank you! Now kiss me!" she squealed.

Ulquiorra pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her waist. He brought his mouth down to Orihime's lips, brushing them across the surface. "You did do it. I have a surprise for you… later tonight."

"Oh?" she blushed and smiled up into his face after that. "More than these?" she asked, stepping back and holding his gifts between them again. "Should I wait until then to open this?"

He shook his head. "Open the box," he replied. Ulquiorra had spent weeks looking for the perfect bracelet for Orihime to mark this occasion in her life. He hoped she would like it.

She smiled down at the box and slid a finger under a fold in the wrapping, pulling away the paper and opening the box slowly. When she saw what was inside, her eyes widened. It was sparkly and had stones in it… clear stones… She looked up at his face to see if his expression would give away anything, because if she wasn't mistaken, she was looking at a silver bracelet with diamonds on it. Not only diamonds, but the links were fashioned into infinity symbols. "This is… This is beautiful," she stammered.

"It's for you. You deserve it for all the hard work you've done since I've met you," Ulquiorra said to her before he kissed her properly this time. "What are you doing after this?"

"I'm free as a bird. Are you going back to work?"

Ulquiorra shook his head. "No, today is about you, and I plan on spending every moment I can with you."

She beamed a grin at him and smushed it into his lips. When she backed off, she sighed and said, "Wanna get some lunch and show off my pretty new bracelet?"

A small smile played over his mouth. "Absolutely," he replied. "Ladies' choice."

She nodded. "Okay. Oh! Do you think we can get brunch at Dorrie's? They're still serving, right? I just don't want to go anyplace where I'll feel overdressed," she said, taking his hand and pulling. She stopped after a few steps. "I have no idea where I'm going. Did you drive here?"

"I did drive myself here," he replied. Ulquiorra took her hand and started leading Orihime towards the parking lot.

After he opened the door for her, she unzipped her graduation gown, shrugged out of it, and folded it before setting it, her cap, and flowers on the floor of the backseat. When she stood back up, she shook out her hair and smiled at him before folding herself into the car. The dress she wore was fitted and made her take some care to do it. She was proud of the dress though, and was happy to be showing it off, despite the cold making her skin raise in small bumps on her exposed shoulder.

"Wow," Ulquiorra stated as he stared at Orihime. She looked absolutely gorgeous in the form-fitting dress. "You look amazing. I'm glad that you had that gown on. Otherwise I would have had to sneer at someone to get them to leave you alone."

She narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head with a disbelieving smile. "You're funny."

"Why do you say that? You are an amazing person. You're beautiful. Any man who had a brain would want you."

"Well, too bad for them. I love you and there is nothing they can do about it," she replied with a tinkling laugh. "Thank you for being there today."

Ulquiorra looked at his girlfriend for a moment. He studied her face before he took a deep breath. He was feeling all kinds of emotions. Most of them were good. "Where else would I be? I wouldn't have missed this for the world."

She watched his face and took a few slow breaths, then nodded. "Nowhere," she sighed, smiling, as she leaned back into her seat and strapped herself in. She fiddled with the bracelet in the box and put it onto her wrist as he started the car.

He started driving toward the place she wanted to go. "What are your plans now that you've graduated?"

"Well, that's something I've been wanting to talk to you about. Next month I'm going away for ten days for my book tour. After I come back, Mr. Kuchiki has asked me to write another book. Renji told me he is happy to have me stay at RBM, and even let me do both, but he thinks I should focus on my books. I think, for now, it's a good idea. Since he sent me away, I've been getting full time benefits like insurance and stuff, and it seems like it is a good idea to hang onto those," she said with a little chuckle.

"You never know if your next book will be successful. It's smart to keep a steady job though, unless you want to make writing childrens' books a full time thing," Ulquiorra replied as he drove. He glanced at her. "A book tour for ten days?"

She puckered her lips a moment, then replied, "Yeah. I don't suppose you want to, or feasibly can, take some time off and come with me?" she suggested half-heartedly. "It's only ten days, but it will be lonely without you. I'll survive, though."

He took a deep breath and then exhaled. "As much as I would want to do that, it's my responsibility to help run Coffee & Sadness. We can talk and text while you're away. Maybe video calls?"

She hummed and nodded. It was the answer she expected. "I know. That will work. And Renji says I'll be pretty busy. Apparently he's coming along this time instead of Julie. I think he's trying to get promoted to account manager or something. He's getting kind of old to be a glorified gofer."

This made Ulquiorra chuckle. "He's not that old, is he? What? Late twenties?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, he's staring down thirty and he's feeling the pressure I think. He's been seeing Kuchiki's baby sister for awhile. I think he feels like he needs to be in a more respectable position before he can get more serious with her, though. At least that's what Susan says."

He was silent as he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and then turned the car off. "I'm never going to change my profession. I think mysterious barista fits me well," he said.

She looked at him and smiled. "Good. I can't imagine a world in which you do not make my coffee. I don't want to live in such a world," she said with a chuckle, although her eyes were serious.

"It would be a bleak existence," Ulquiorra replied. "Let's go get brunch."

They ended up staying at brunch for a few hours. They had mimosas to toast her achievement and bandied about silly ideas for her new book. They talked about the ceremony and how his own graduation compared.

Orihime had not had the chance before to really appreciate how easy it was to talk to him. When they hung out alone, they often spent long stretches of time in comfortable silence, happy to just be near each other or snuggle. And although she knew they had an easy time making banter and chatting in the shop, they had never had a long time to talk like this since that night she had invited him to Starrk's over a year ago.

As she listened to him explain his ideas for February's menu and hand the check back to their waiter, she found herself falling into his eyes, mesmerized by the sound of his voice and the subdued excitement in his features. Man, she had it bad for him. She probably had stars in her eyes. She didn't care.

It was her accomplishment and the idea he was knocking around that caused him to be in such a good mood. Ulquiorra normally didn't drone on about things, but he was in a rare chatty mood, so he probably dominated the conversation while they dined. It didn't matter. Orihime would need to get used to these spells. After they exited the building and got back into the car, he turned towards her. "Where would you like to go next? Home to change?"

She smiled at him. She was in such a great mood. "I think that is a good idea. As nice as it feels to look fancy, it feels nicer to be in clothes made for wrinkling. I need some Ulquiorra snuggle time, I think. Does that work?"

"We can snuggle after we arrive at our destination." He smiled at her. Ulquiorra was planning on showing Orihime his home in Highland Park. Maybe it would give her some perspective on his life.

"Oooh! Intrigue, how fun," she purred. "Do I need adventure shoes, or will these do?"

Ulquiorra looked down at her feet and then raised an eyebrow. "Do you think you'll be able to walk through eight-thousand square feet of space with those on?"

She had no idea how to visualize that much space. "Maybe I should stop at home for something a little more practical?" she asked. Was he taking her to a convention? A park? It seemed kind of cold for that.

"Comfortable clothing and shoes-well, you can wear any shoes you want up there. You may not need them once we get there." Ulquiorra didn't say anything more as he headed towards Orihime's apartment.

She was getting a little nervous now, but in an excited way. She was glad that she kept a bag half-packed at her place at all times, these days. She spent the night at Ulquiorra's enough to make it a practical thing to do. It wouldn't take more than three minutes to throw some clothes and essentials in there, just in case, and change her clothes. "Alright. Well, you'll have to come up and help me out of this dress if you want to get going soon; it is tricky."

Ulquiorra bit his lip and then looked at Orihime. She was tempting him in a good way. He gave a nod. "I don't see how pulling a zipper down can be tricky, but I can lend a helping hand," he stated.

They arrived a moment later, Orihime leading the way to her apartment. After the door was shut, she had him take a seat for a moment as she got her bag together and chose some comfortable clothing for the secret adventure, then called to him, "I'm ready, can you lend me a hand now?"

He stood and wiped his hands on his trousers. He made his way to Orihime's bedroom and opened the door. "Are you ready?"

She stood with her back to him and looked over her shoulder. "I am."

Ulquiorra walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders before he brushed her hair to the side. His head lowered to where her shoulder met her neck and he placed his mouth on the spot. "I am taking you to my childhood home today," he murmured against her neck.

Her mouth formed a small circle and she drew soft, audible breath through it. "Wow, this is… This is exciting," she said as she exhaled. "Am I going to get an inside track into who you are? Will mysteries be revealed?" She wasn't teasing him with these questions; she meant them.

His hands roamed down her back and he found the zipper, pulling on it gently. "I don't know. I will never reveal everything about myself, just the bigger things."

"No?" she asked, turning around in his hands after the zipper was undone. "You like to keep me guessing?"

Ulquiorra shook his head. "I just don't have a lot to tell," he said quietly before kissing her shoulder again. "I don't like remembering my past."

She reached up and cradled his head into the crook of her neck and kissed his in return, her other hand smoothing out the fabric of his sleeve. "It may not be pleasant to think about your past, but it made you the man you are now, and I am grateful for you," she murmured into his skin. "I hope we can build memories together that you want to remember. Maybe one day we'll have enough that it will make those bad memories feel small and insignificant in comparison."

He straightened up after a moment and gazed at Orihime. "You accept the good and the bad then?" He asked. "Woman, I love you. Get your stuff and let's go."

She nodded, both in answer to his question and to his suggestion. "I just need to slap some jeans and a sweater on," she said, turning around again and shrugging out of her dress. She laid it on her bed to breathe before unstrapping her heels and turning to her dresser. She didn't even blink an eye that Ulquiorra was still in the room as she pushed her feet through the legs of her jeans and pulled on a sweater. She sat on her bed to put some socks on and looked over at him as she finished. "I'm ready," she announced.

Ulquiorra swallowed and tried calming himself. He looked up and down Orihime's body with a wanting expression. He craved her touch badly. He wanted to make love to her all night. He wanted to be with her. "Good. I'm ready to show you a part of myself."

She hopped up and grinned at him, noticing a somewhat suffering look on his face. She could guess why. "I'm looking forward to it," she said, grabbing her bag off of the floor before approaching him, letting a hand trail down his chest as she passed by to lead the way to the front door.

Orihime hadn't really known what to expect after Ulquiorra pressed a button inside of his car that opened the automatic gate and drove onto his property. Her mouth opened slightly and a soft breath came out before she was able to formulate words. "Wow… this is, um… Big."

"It's where I grew up," Ulquiorra said as he came to a stop in front of the house. He looked at the place through the windshield, trying to remember the details about the dwelling. "Intimidating?"

"Um, well, I'm not afraid of it. I'm sure it's not sentient," she said with a nervous chuckle. "I may get lost, though," she joked, the sass trailing off as her eyes swept over the pale stone exterior up to the slate-shingle roof. It looked like someone still lived there; the windows sparkled and the seasonally dormant garden looked neat and well-cared for.

"It has six bedrooms and six baths. There are too many rooms and too much space," Ulquiorra replied. He patted his girlfriend's leg before he turned the car off and then opened the door. "We're only spending the night here and maybe most of tomorrow. There's not really a point to hang around longer since we can't use the beach."

She nodded, still looking at the house, and then her vision drifted down to his hand on her leg. "Sounds good to me," she said.

Ulquiorra smiled at her before he exited the car. Then he went to the back of the car and opened the trunk to get their bags out. "What else sounds good to you?" he asked.

"Lots of things. A tour, perhaps? Food? Your voice? Um…" she trailed off as she closed the car door behind her. She looked back up at him with a mild blush on her cheeks. "Let's start with going inside? It's pretty cold."

It was freezing outside, so pretty cold was just an understatement. Ulquiorra was glad he had enough brains to call Maggie, the housekeeper, to inform her that he would be up there for a couple of days. The woman had been knocking around in this house for years. She practically raised Ulquiorra, with Aizen checking in whenever he came back from a business trip.

The green-eyed man took Orihime's hand then led her to the front door. It was unlocked and he turned the knob, opening it effortlessly. "Welcome to my childhood home, Orihime."

To say she was impressed would be an understatement. She actually gasped when she stepped through the threshold and saw the large winding staircase and the deep open space beyond it leading to a pristine living room, bright sunlight filtering through the large paned windows which lined the entire rear of the house. "Thank you. Um… You really lived here?"

"Until I left for college. I'm sure Maggie is around here. She was my parent's maid and my nanny and I just kept her on," Ulquiorra said as he closed the front door. He watched Orihime carefully. He knew this was a big adjustment.

"Ah, I hear a voice!" came a motherly tone. "It's the master of the house!"

Ulquiorra turned to see an overweight woman with bright red hair come through one of the doors that were off the main entryway. "Maggie. Orihime this is Maggie. Maggie, this is Orihime, my girlfriend."

Orihime didn't mean to step halfway behind Ulquiorra, but she did. She didn't even realize she did it. She briefly let her eyes flicker to Maggie's and her cheeks turned bright red. "Hello," she said quietly and then smiled at the ground, wishing it might swallow her up. Her experience with motherly figures had, until this point, been about seventy percent awful.

She took a slow breath then, and realized she wasn't being fair. Maybe this woman was more like Kathy. She looked back up and offered her smile to the older woman, stepping out of Ulquiorra's shadow. "It's nice to meet you," she said.

The woman's eyes widened in surprise and then a smile came over her face. "She's a redhead! Ha! I knew it! You always did have a soft spot for people with outrageous hair colors, Ulquiorra. Welcome to the Cifer estate, Orihime. It'll be a pleasure to have you two here for a couple of days. I'll be done with supper around six, if you find yourselves hungry."

Orihime's smile widened. "Oh, that sounds great," she said cheerfully. She smiled at Ulquiorra and wrapped her hand around the inside of his elbow. "Six is good, right?" They still had a few hours before then.

Ulquiorra looked at the maid and then at the woman at his side before nodding. "I'm going to show Orihime around. We'll be in the kitchen at six," he replied.

The older woman smiled brightly and then nodded as she disappeared through the doorway, leaving the two alone.

"Well? So far so good?"

"So far? It feels like I'm in a movie. And she seems great," she said, following his lead as he moved from the spot.

Ulquiorra nodded. Maggie was great, but there were times she was a terror; like when he got in trouble and such. "She's a good woman. Knowing Maggie, she's likely stocked everything for us to be here." He led her through a door and gestured around the room. "This is the entertaining room or formal living room. There's a library through the door over there. There's a bath off of the library. There's a servant's hallway that connects to the foyer. The other side of the foyer leads to the family room, kitchen and dining area. The basement has an entertainment room with a bar, a theater, and an exercise room."

Orihime took a step back from him, and then another. She tilted her head to the side as she compared the man that she loved to the space around him. It seemed so weird. It was almost unbelievable. A small smile pulled at one side of her lips as her eyes kept drifting around the elegant space and back to him, and finally she chuckled softly and took his hand, the one with the word LUST tattooed on the knuckles, and let her fingertips ghost over them.

He glanced at her and then turned his head to fully look at Orihime. A small smile played over his mouth. "What?" he asked. "What's funny?"

She shook her head and chuckled a bit more loudly. "It's not funny-funny, it's just… It's hard to imagine you, a little mouse in this huge house, and see you now. You are like this… Like now you are this grown man with this mysterious expression and tough-looking style. Like, how does this go together? It does, though. You don't look out of place, but I don't know how that is possible. Your apartment is more you. This place… It's beautiful, but I think this is more your parents and you, than just you? Am I expressing myself clearly? I don't know. I am barely thinking clearly."

"You're right about this being more of my parents and less of me. I've not changed much since I inherited this place. I updated appliances and some furniture, but a lot of it is things my mother picked out," Ulquiorra said. He grabbed Orihime's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Would you like to see the upstairs and my childhood room?"

Her eyes gleamed. "Yes! Take me up there!" she cheered. This is what had her more excited than anything, although she had been blown away by everything else, so far.

He shook his head and chuckled before he walked with Orihime to where the staircase sat. He took her up the winding flight of stairs. "This place is much easier on the knees than my apartment building, so that has to be a plus," he joked.

She agreed. "Yeah, it is. Though I must say, my butt looks better in my leggings these days, so there are its own pluses," she joked. Then he opened the door to his room and she became quiet. She stood in the doorway as he entered, her gaze taking in a bookshelf full of trophies, baseballs, a basketball, and a football full of autographs and a framed, signed Bulls jersey hanging on the wall beside his bed. After he turned to look at her, she asked, "Sports? I wouldn't have expected that."

"Aizen." Ulquiorra walked into the room and turned around to look at Orihime. This was just a room he slept in. There were no fond memories of this room and there was nothing personal that screamed it belonged to him. "He tried to influence me to go into sports and I always did things like golf, tennis, and lacrosse. You know, sports that were boring. I do believe my uncle has courtside season Bulls tickets. I know he does, because whenever I see him, he talks about the games. When I was little and couldn't make decisions for myself he put me into those sports. "

"Well, apparently you were good at them," she muttered as she crossed into the room to examine the trophies. "It's impressive. Do you still sleep in this room when you come up here?" She left the question of whether they would be sleeping in this room unasked.

Ulquiorra shook his head. "I have not slept in this room since I left. I am the master of this place and I sleep in the master bedroom."

"The master, eh?" she said in a mock challenge. "I'll be the judge of that."

His eyebrow rose and Ulquiorra tilted his head slightly. "Oh will you?" he asked, almost sauntering over to where she stood. "My patience with myself is wearing thin and I could very well take you now or tonight."

"Hmmm," she hummed to herself. She thought he was talking big. Underneath it all, past the cold exterior and the layers of armor that guarded his true feelings, she was pretty convinced that he was a sentimental guy who had his heart set on what he was waiting for. "We'll see, I guess," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder and raising up to kiss his cheek.

What he said was true. Ulquiorra was getting fed up with himself and his boundaries and hangups. He was driving himself crazy with lust and desire concerning her. He pulled her closer to him, his hands reaching down to grab her ass. "We will see, because we are sleeping in the same room and in the same bed tonight."

"Show me," she purred, enjoying the way his hands felt on her. She wouldn't be hard to convince, she knew, if he decided to change his mind and have sex with her before Christmas. "I want to put my stuff away."

"Or you want to drive me crazy," he mused before he kissed her. When Ulquiorra broke the kiss he intertwined their hands and walked out of the room he used as a child before he walked and stopped at the door at the end of the hall. Without any fanfare, he opened only one of the double doors and stepped aside to let Orihime into the room first.

"Wow, nice," she commented, looking around the space as she walked toward the dresser to the left of the large bed and set her backpack beside it, glancing at the oversized fireplace across the room. Then, following an impulse, she jumped up and let her body flop onto the fluffy white down comforter atop the bed. When her body stopped bouncing, she said, slightly muffled as she sank into the bedclothes, "Fancy!"

His smirk turned into a full fledged grin, showing teeth. "You're adorable when you do dorky things like that," he remarked.

"I'm glad you like it, because I am dorky," she said with a giggle. She was grinning, too, not that he could see much of it.

Ulquiorra walked over to the bed and grabbed Orihime's ankle before dragging her over to him. The bed made her the perfect height to match his. "You are irresistible. You are gorgeous. You are brilliant. You are my girlfriend and I'm glad that we're finally going to be spending time together; making our own memories."

Her grin softened and her chest felt tight. "I love you," she said softly, looking up at him as she felt the emotion press into her.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Only 3 more chapters to go! Let us know what you think... Is anybody still reading this one? Feels like a lot of folks fell off the wagon. LOL