WARNING: MATURE CONTENT

Chapter 38:

Their new lifestyle was not easy on any of them. Orihime had read every book in the house. She had done all the sewing. She had done all the jobs she could do with her feet up. She took walks around the garden. She planned meals she couldn't shop for or cook. She was getting stir-crazy.

Yuzu came over a couple times a week to keep her company and get her mind off of her confinement, but by the time she and her three young children left, the house was a mess and there was nothing she could do but look at it until one of the kids came home. Then she felt sorry for the kids. They still had school and studying to do, and they helped out at the shop. They didn't need extra chores on top of the ones they had already been allocated.

Ulquiorra was out late every night, staying at least an hour after close to make sure the cafe was ready to run as smoothly as possible the next day. He was looking worn-down. Orihime did not blame him for being tired and untalkative when he got home most nights. Plus, after he finally ate and sat down, he had lessons to plan and assignments to grade. It was wearing on him.

She finally had enough about ten days after Shinzo's ultrasound, and decided to enlist some help.

"Halcyon Cafe and Gifts, this is Kitajima, how can I help you?"

"Oh, just the person I wanted to talk to," Orihime said sweetly. "Listen, uh, Ichiro-kun, I was wondering if you were running any deliveries into Naruki City today?"

The young man smiled. He liked Kurosaki-san. She was pretty and sweet and made him feel warm and confused, in a good way. "Um, yeah, I am going into Naruki City later this morning to deliver some cakes to the Hotel Gloria."

"Oh, wonderful, that's just near here. I don't suppose I could send you on an errand since you're in town? You could stop at my house and I could give you a list and some cash and you could do my shopping and bring it back here before you go back into Karakura. You'd get back well before Cifer-san or the kids get there. Unless you have a lot of other deliveries..."

"Oh, no, that should be fine," the young man interrupted. "Whatever you want me to do, Kurosaki-san!"

"Thank you, Ichiro-kun. I'll text you the address. What's your cell phone number?"

The former Arrancar was exhausted. Between work and the cafe, his kids and the employees, Orihime and the baby… It was too much for him. All he wanted to do was rewind time to months ago before he had gotten Orihime pregnant.

It wasn't her fault.

She still wasn't sleeping, which was disrupting his sleep schedule. She would huff and complain sometimes about being stuck in bed or on the sofa. She was bored. As much as Ulquiorra loved Orihime, she was quickly grating on his last nerve.

He didn't get any free time to himself. He couldn't take any time out of his day to just space out for a moment or two. He was constantly around people. It didn't help that the two new employees in the shop thought he was a pushover. The two giggling women quickly learned how stern and strict Ulquiorra could be. Satomi had raised an eyebrow at his words to the newbies. Endo-san had laughed.

The old lady reminded him of Sato-san, laughing like a nut at gossip and drama.

That Kitajima guy seemed like a pain in his ass. The shock of orange hair, the brown eyes that sparkled with mischief, the skinny body… The guy looked too much like Ichigo Kurosaki. It made Ulquiorra uncomfortable. The man was a flirt, too; Kitajima was constantly smiling at the females around the cafe.

He even smiled at Eriko, who would then blush and giggle. It made Ulquiorra roll his eyes.

After a trying day at school, where he had spent a long time in the teacher's room scolding two boys after a fist fight, Ulquiorra just wanted to go home and relax. He called Satomi and told her that he wasn't coming in. Satomi told him that Endo-san would be running the cafe because she had class.

It figured.

He didn't care. He needed a day off. Ulquiorra needed to relax for just one damn day. He got into his car, and instead of driving to Halcyon, the man headed towards Naruki City and his home. The kids were with Isshin. He always offered to take them one day a week, stating he'd bring them back later.

That was usually when Eriko and Kazui arrived home hopped up on sugar and less-than-healthy food.

Ulquiorra wasn't one to deny the older man anything, though. He had accepted them into his family as if it were nothing.

Thirty minutes passed by, and Ulquiorra found himself pulling into the driveway of his house. It took him about three minutes to sit there and take a deep breath and exhale all the bullshit of the day. It didn't help. He was still keyed up.

In addition to the complaining that Orihime was sprinkling through the few hours he got at home, they weren't having sex. Normally this wouldn't bother Ulquiorra, but the emergency room doctor had told them what would happen if Orihime went on full bed rest.

No sex.

They tried. Her blood pressure would rise. She would be tired. She'd feel faint. On and on the excuses went until Ulquiorra had just pushed the activities from his mind. He had to cater to Orihime. Her health was more important. She was carrying his son.

After two more minutes, he left the car and walked to the house, letting himself inside. The same thing happened as it did every night he came home; shoes off, set the bag down, strip off his coat and then walk down the hall to the kitchen. Usually he'd see Orihime on the couch, but today was different.

Orihime was standing at the sink and there was water running. "What are you doing?" he asked, giving her a concerned look. "Are you doing dishes? You're not supposed to be up, Orihime!"

She hadn't heard him come in and he startled her, causing her to whoop and turn around quickly, hand on her chest. "You scared me! What were you thinking sneaking up on me like that!? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Her other hand, the one not on her chest, held a glass of water. "I was thirsty."

"I didn't sneak up on you. I made the same noise I usually make when coming home," Ulquiorra stated. His ire was rising. It was a simple explanation, but it irritated him. "Do I need to leave more water bottles by you before I leave for work?"

Orihime groaned. "No! I'm allowed to get up from time to time. It's not good for me or the baby to just stay in one spot all day. I could get blood clots. Ulquiorra, I appreciate everything you are doing for me and Shinzo and our family but you have got to give me a little room to breathe."

He scowled. "What do you mean exactly? How much room do you need? From what I understood, you're not supposed to be on your feet for sustained periods of time. Had you just listened to the doctors the first time, it wouldn't have come to this."

Another groan. "I'm sorry, Ulquiorra. I'm sorry. I'll apologize until the end of time, but I can't change what I did. And I wasn't on my feet for a sustained period of time. I just got up right before you spooked me." She sighed. She could see the dark circles under his eyes and the way his posture was slacking. He was exhausted. "I think you need to rest more than I do right now."

"Thanks for noticing. If you would actually sleep at night, I would sleep too." He pulled out one of the stools that sat around the kitchen island and sat down. "I need a lot of things but I'm not going to get them."

"Like what?" she asked, coming to stand on the opposite side of the island.

"I don't know. Maybe five minutes to myself? A night of uninterrupted sleep?" He scoffed at himself. Ulquiorra was whining. That's all he was doing. If he was whining he might as well go big. "A woman who would listen to medical officials about her health and the status of her baby."

Orihime was rubbed the wrong way. "Oh, I'm sorry, Ichigo. Do you need to find some dead guy to come change my memories so I would shut the hell up and sleep through the night? Because I think I might still have his card somewhere," she scoffed. "Seriously? I am taking their advice. I'll go stay at my apartment if it bothers you so much."

For a moment, Ulquiorra had a flash of anger go through him. How dare she compare him to her late husband. "I am a dead guy," he said after opening his eyes and staring at her. "Just in case you've forgotten." He stood up and walked out of the kitchen and to the stairs. If she wanted to go to her apartment, fine. Ulquiorra wasn't going to stop her.

Orihime stood in the kitchen and drank her water slowly. She already regretted her words, but she needed to calm down before going to face Ulquiorra again. She could hear her heartbeat in her own ears and that feeling of pressure around her temples was back. She knew that if she took her blood pressure reading right now it would be high. She went to sit down on the sofa and got her phone out.

She had taken to playing turn-based word games on her phone. It started with Yuzu, and she had roped Satomi and Tatsuki and Isshin into it, but they weren't very quick to take their turns. Her newest opponent was much more responsive. Ichiro Kitajima seemed to have lots of free time to do idle things like this. She played her turn, and he played his a couple minutes later, and she played one more before turning her phone off and looking at the stairs. After about twenty minutes had passed, it was time to go apologize.

She made her way up the stairs and opened the bedroom door silently, going into the room and sitting on the foot of the bed before saying quietly, "I'm sorry. I know this is hard for you. It's hard for all of us, but especially you; you are taking on all the responsibility and it's not fair."

Ulquiorra had been laying there staring at the ceiling when she came in. He shifted his gaze towards the woman and sighed. "What else am I supposed to do? Hire more people? Quit teaching?"

"Don't quit teaching. If it's too much, we can decrease the hours of operation at the shop. They seem to be running things alright without either of us there during the daytime. Maybe we close at five instead of seven. It would get you home earlier," she offered, her hand finding its way to his ankle and rubbing up to his knee and back down in a soothing way.

"That solves nothing. Are you going to sleep at night if we do that?" Ulquiorra asked. "Is it going to somehow fix what has happened to you?"

Her hand stopped moving and she sighed. "I don't know." She took a deep breath and decided to tell him what she could. She wasn't protecting him anymore by keeping what little she knew from him. "I have nightmares. I don't know how to stop them. I don't know what they are showing me. All I know is I wake up terrified that something bad is going to happen to you and I don't know what it is. I always feel like I'm forgetting something. It's causing me anxiety."

A heavy sigh left Ulquiorra. He knew about the nightmares. He could hear her cry out and whimper at night. He could feel her thrashing around. It needed to be fixed, but he wasn't even sure if he could remedy this situation. With a huff, he pushed himself up until he was sitting on the bed. "Something bad did happen to me. Your late husband caused that to happen to me. Your late husband caused you to forget about me."

She knew he was right, and despite his irritated tone, it touched a sympathetic place inside of her. "It was a cheap shot, what I said before. I'm ashamed of myself. You're doing your best and I… I'm sorry I said it. You'd never-" she sighed. She didn't want to put it into words. Instead, she crawled up the bed and laid her head in his lap, facing his belly. "I know you'd never harm me like he did."

Orihime took a deep breath before she continued. "I don't want to sleep without you, but if you need a night or two to catch up on sleep, I can ask Kazui to do a sleepover at Halcyon with me for old time's sake." She put her hand on his side and stroked his ribs. She missed being physical with him. It hadn't really been that long; only about two weeks, but they had been making love at least every other day, usually every day, since they moved in together, up until Eriko was taken.

It was a comforting thing to feel her hands on him. She was right. She had used cheap words to try and hurt him. "I would never say anything like that to you, Orihime."

"I'm sorry. It's not an excuse, but I am spending too much time alone and unoccupied; it's making me feel unlike myself. And…" she sighed, her hand coming down to rest on his hip, "I miss you. It's making me irritable."

"You think I'm not irritated by the circumstances? There was a reason why I wanted you to take care of this problem. I miss you. I miss making love to you. I miss the hours we would spend together," Ulquiorra said. He brought a hand up and ran it through her hair. "Why do you think I came home today instead of working at the cafe?"

"Honestly?" She smiled up at his face. "I thought you needed a nap," she said with a soft chuckle.

His mouth formed a thin line and he shook his head. "Are you saying I'm cranky?"

"No." She shook her head and brought her hand around the front of his pants, running a nail along the seam on his fly gently. "I think you're stressed. You need some relief, I think."

A sharp breath was inhaled through his mouth before Ulquiorra swallowed. "You think? Woman, I do not want relief by myself. I want to share it with you."

"Well, I'll have to settle for closeness, but that doesn't mean you do," she said, unzipping his fly. "Just hold me and I'll take care of you." She pulled his cock out of the fly of his underwear and began to stroke it slowly.

A low and quiet moan left Ulquiorra. This was a first for him. Sure he had felt Orihime's hands on him before, but she had never brought him to orgasm this way. "I miss being inside you, hearing you cry out for me."

"Me too," she whispered. "There is no greater pleasure for me; but hearing you say my name and watching your face as you come is a close second."

The shocks of pleasure going up and down his body were helping him relax. He gave a content sigh as her fingers slipped over the head of his dick, the thumb brushing the underside. Ulquiorra had to bite his lip from moaning louder. "I want to make love to you. Badly. I hate that I can't. I love seeing you come undone just as much," he murmured.

"Me too. If you want, you can finish inside; it's the orgasm and exertion I have to avoid, not you," she explained, licking her thumb and bringing it back to the head of his dick, rubbing in small circles. "You look so hot like this."

"It's not fair," he breathed. His head fell back and a groan left his throat. "Orihime."

A pleased sigh. "That's what I like to hear. Don't hold back. Be selfish this time. This is for you. I love you," she purred, stroking him more quickly now.

His hips moved on their own, establishing a rhythm with her hand. Ulquiorra brought his head up to look down at what his girlfriend was doing to him. He swallowed at her words. If he wanted to be selfish, he would already be inside of her, burying himself so deep and hard into her core that she wouldn't be able to avoid the impending orgasm. "I'm going to come," he said, glancing at her face.

She had an idea, since she hadn't planned ahead and had nothing to catch his ejaculate with besides herself. She quickly slid off the side of the bed and knelt between his legs, pulling her shirt and bra over her head and looking up at him. "Is this okay?" she asked breathlessly as she brought her chest up to his cock, engulfing it between her tits and pressing them together as she kept manipulating the head of his dick.

Ulquiorra stopped breathing for a second as he watched her. Never had he imagined something like this happening. He let out a choked moan before he nodded. It didn't take him long before he was whimpering as his skin moved against her chest. "Oh—" He didn't even get to warn her before he was coming.

She felt something hot hit her in the chin, then again on the cheek and the lips, then felt it drip down to her chest to meet the rest of his come that landed there in less powerful bursts. When the tension left his body and he seemed to slump back, she released him from her breasts and leaned back. "Thanks for the decoration," she said with a sly smile. "I think it looks good on me," she added, standing so he could see how his come had strung itself from her face to her body. Orihime seemed surprisingly pleased by this.

Another groan. Ulquiorra looked at the woman with heavy eyes. She looked obscene, but he wouldn't say a word about it. "Thank you for the stress relief. I apologize that medical necessity keeps me from reciprocating," he replied. "If it's okay with you, I may take a nap. Everything that's happened in the past month has caught up to me, I think."

She pulled her shirt the rest of the way off and wiped herself off with it before leaning over and kissing his forehead. "Of course it's okay. You've been busting your butt for us. You deserve it." She smiled at him and squeezed his shoulders. "I'm serious about letting you catch up on sleep. If you don't want me staying in the apartment, I could stay at Isshin's for a day or two. I'm sorry I can't control the nightmares."

Ulquiorra grabbed her wrist and stared at Orihime. "Do not apologize. You cannot demand that your brain stop. I know humans have malfunctions in their brains all the time. I love you. I just wish..." He sighed. What did he wish exactly? "I wish you would rest more than you do."

She sighed and kissed him again, this time on the lips. "I do… I do my best, anyway. I've been enlisting some help on the side, so that should please you," she smiled at him. "I've been having the groceries delivered so the kids don't have to go and can help more at home." She turned to her dresser and took out a t-shirt and put it on. "I'll let you rest. I love you."

The green-eyed man smiled at her before he removed all of his clothes except the boxers he wore. Then Ulquiorra crawled into bed and under the covers. "I'm glad that you're utilizing the delivery services," he mumbled before drifting off to sleep.

It seemed that over the course of a week, the last of late summer gave way to a blustery autumn. It made it more attractive for Orihime to get under a blanket and be lazy. She was keeping off her feet much more to Ulquiorra's satisfaction, and her nightly blood pressure readings were showing improvement as a result. Still, she was bored.

Her word game partners were a lifesaver to her, but it got dull. She found herself chatting with Kitajima more and more when he would deliver the groceries. She would have him put them all away for her and take down the dry laundry from the lines and bring them to her so she could fold them on the couch. Any excuse to keep him there, and keep her company, she seemed to use. He was easy to talk to.

Still, he had a job to do, and always found aa reason to leave sooner than she would like. This week was the lead up to Eriko, Kazui, and Ulquiorra's school culture festival, and they were all staying at school later and consumed with preparations. She was lonelier than ever. And despite Isshin's promise to lend her a wheelchair so she could come and enjoy the festival, she was bummed out that she would not be able to participate like a normal mother.

The Thursday evening before the festival, she found herself without much of an appetite, only picking at the pasta that Kazui had prepared, not looking at anyone, and mumbling noncommittal responses to any questions sent her way.

"Mom, are you okay?" the boy finally asked. "Is the carbonara no good?"

"Huh? What? No, it's fine, Monkey," Orihime answered, taking a bite to prove her point.

Ulquiorra had watched Orihime throughout the week. He noticed she had become… restless. He sighed before huffing in annoyance. "Really? You seem distracted Orihime."

"I am distracted, sorry," she admitted. "The pasta is delicious, though. I'm just jealous that you all get to work on the culture festival and I'm just a bump on a log," she said with a smile, playing it off as something silly to be concerned with. "I remember my school culture festivals; I always loved them. Oh well. Next year I can go with Shinzo and see what you are doing on my own two feet!"

The man shook his head. "You've been a bump on a log since you've been on bed rest," he muttered. Ulquiorra grabbed his plate and stood, his appetite gone. "I have papers and lessons to look over."

Orihime scowled at him. Would he make up his damn mind? One day he wants her off her feet 24/7 and now he thinks she's been too lazy? What the hell?

At that moment, her phone chimed, and her expression lifted into one of anticipation. "Could you pass me that, Eriko?" she asked cheerfully.

Eriko nodded and got up from the table to get Orihime's phone. She saw the phone screen and glared slightly. She was talking to Kitajima-san? "Here you go," the girl said. "Tell Ichiro I said hi."

"What?" Ulquiorra snapped, turning to look at his daughter.

Orihime sighed. He was so dramatic sometimes. "I will next time I see him; this is just that word game everyone is playing. It's my turn."

Ulquiorra scowled. "Eriko and Kazui, go upstairs and do your homework."

Eriko looked at her dad and didn't say anything. She nodded and left her plate on the table before running upstairs. Kazui followed.

"What's with you?" Orihime asked, genuinely surprised that he was reacting this way.

"What's with me?" He asked. Ulquiorra shook his head in disgust. "I'm busting my ass and you're sitting at home texting Ichiro Kitajima? He's been distracted all week. He's been practically absent from Halcyon. He constantly has a smile on his face and is on his phone when I see him."

Orihime furrowed her brows. "I'm not texting him. I'm playing WordWise with him, and with Yuzu, and with Isshin, and with Satomi. I'm sorry he's distracted. I'll cut down the grocery deliveries to twice a week. I didn't realize it was affecting his work; sorry." She was balancing feeling bad that Ulquiorra was having a hard time and offended that he was insinuating something. "You seem pleased that I was having him help out last week."

Ulquiorra sputtered with indignance. "He's the one who has been delivering groceries? You told him my address? You let him into the house?" With each word, Ulquiorra's voice got louder.

Orihime leaned back in response. "You knew that! I told you! And what's the big deal that he knows the address? He's our employee. I gave him a task; a task that I have been ordered not to do on my own. I thought I was helping by delegating to him."

"Our employees shouldn't know our address! Had you listened to the doctor the first fucking time, you wouldn't be relegated to the fucking couch all day." Ulquiorra knew he was angry. He was cursing and irritated. This wasn't supposed to happen. It was the lack of sleep. It was the lack of sex. It was the lack of everything and having too much bullshit pushed onto his plate. "I thought you were using the store delivery service, not our delivery van."

She tried to keep all the pressure he was under in perspective, but being shouted at scared her, and before she knew it, hot tears were streaking down her cheeks. "I don't think our store has a delivery service," she said in a small voice. She had other arguments to make, but they would have to wait until her reaction to his outburst died down; there was a large lump in her throat.

Ulquiorra sighed as he watched his girlfriend start crying. He hated shows of emotion like this. Orihime wasn't sobbing or being frantic. It was just big tears rolling down her cheeks. She had done this to herself. She was the one that had invited a man that looked like her dead husband into his house. "You accused me of playing into Ai Yamada's little tricks. What the fuck am I supposed to think when you invite someone who looks like Ichigo Kurosaki into my house?"

She looked around like she had lost something and then returned her eyes to his. "He doesn't look like Ichigo, what are you talking about? Besides, he's not pulling any tricks. He stops by for cash and a list, does the shopping, brings them back and puts them away. Then he goes back to Halcyon. I will make sure he understands not to play WordWise while he's on the clock."

"Really? We are their bosses, not their friends, Orihime. There should be no socialization beyond what is at work. You're not working," Ulquiorra stated.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "What is this, Las Noches? You're going to keep me locked up in a tower with no one to talk to? Besides, I hope you don't tell Satomi she's not my friend. Yeah, it's not the same as a normal friendship, but it's more than just boss and worker with her. I trust her. And I play WordWise with her, too!"

Ulquiorra huffed again. "Perhaps I should be friends with our new employees who think I'm handsome. It would be different if Ichiro was a female. And don't you dare bring up Las Noches! You don't even remember that time. You don't even remember me!"

That shut her up. She stood, staring at him, as her feeling of righteousness faltered. He could see it in her face as her brows twitched and her lip wobbled. Her posture became smaller and she finally looked away from him. "Okay," she finally conceded. "I won't ask him to do it anymore and I'll tell him to play WordWise with Satomi."

Ulquiorra rubbed his forehead. He was feeling angry and irritated. "That doesn't excuse this, Orihime. You're so wrapped up in this woe is me bullshit about being on bedrest and not being able to do anything that you're missing the point. You shouldn't have even started whatever this is with Kitajima!" He turned away from the woman. He needed to calm down.

"Are you insinuating that I'm carrying on something… Something… Do you think I like Kitajima-kun? That's ridiculous. I have not "started" anything with him! He's my employee. That's all. He is friendly and easy to talk to but so is Endo-san. That's all there is to it. I don't appreciate your mistrust; I haven't earned it."

"Says the woman who accused me of the same thing of carrying on with an employee that I had no interest in. I will be speaking to Kitajima about this."

"Fine, do it. But bear in mind, the situation is totally different. I watched her, on camera, put her hands all over you. Kitajima respects boundaries. He wouldn't even be interested in me, I'm much too old, pregnant, and attached to you for him."

Ulquiorra scoffed and then walked down the hall to get his bag that had his things in it. When he came back he practically threw it on the kitchen island. "I don't know if he's putting his hands on you. Perhaps he's the reason why you're not interested in having sex. I trust you completely, but this is unacceptable."

Oh, that was unfair. She stormed over to him, fists balled at her sides, and hissed, "That's not fair! You know I want it but can't have it. I'm trying my best not to think about it. What, do you want me to have a brain aneurysm and die? Because that's a fun possibility!" She scoffed and stomped up the stairs, slamming the bedroom door behind her, avoiding eye contact with the kids as they peeked through their door cracks.

He stayed there for one minute before storming after Orihime. Those bedroom doors down the hall were shut tight as he opened his bedroom door. "We are not finished with this discussion, Woman."

She sat on the side of the bed and stared at the floor. "What?"

"This is your fault. You did not listen to the doctor after he told you this could be a possibility. You had to keep going and going. Heaven forbid you take a break and think about yourself once in a while. Now this is affecting our entire family." Ulquiorra had a severe expression on his face. His mouth was pulled into a frown. His brows were drawn together.

She turned her face to him. "What do you want me to do, apologize for saving Eriko? Because I won't. I would never regret doing that. I'm sorry about what's happening, but we've talked about this over and over. I can't change what's already happened. All we can do is get through it. I know it's my fault."

He had been expecting her to refute his claims, but when she admitted she was wrong, all the wind left his sails. His anger and rage at the subject drained out of him. "I'm not asking you to apologize for saving her. You should have asked for help instead of doing it alone. You should have recognized that you shouldn't have done that by yourself. You almost killed yourself, Orihime. You almost killed our child. Had you taken a moment to think, you know I would have been there. What happens if we can't get through this? Do I need to invade Soul Society and find this Tsukishima to help you find your memories so you can get a decent night's sleep?"

She shook her head. He had it all wrong. "You think I just dove in without thinking? I thought about it. I thought about it hard. I thought it would be bad to let you take care of Yuko. You'd either burn through your gigai in a fit of rage or straight up murder her and potentially get caught. Humans are not allowed to kill other humans, no matter how bad the other one is. I thought about it. I decided to do it alone. I thought I could handle it. I miscalculated. Clearly I was wrong and made a mistake." She sighed and looked at him again. "I don't know anything about finding Tsukishima. Maybe it would help, but you can't go and you know it."

"I would go. I will go. I'm tired of all of this. I'm tired of the sleepless nights. I'm tired of hearing you cry out when you do sleep. You have no clue what you say when you're asleep do you? How you plead with Ichigo to stop, or you beg me not to die." Ulquiorra sighed and went to sit on the bed beside her. "I would have murdered Yuko, you're absolutely right, but I would not have left any trace of her to find."

"And you would have had to live with the strange guilt of killing your daughter's mother. As much as she deserved it, it was something I didn't want you to have to bear," she admitted, tapping her index fingers together.

Ulquiorra shook his head at her words. "You didn't need to bear it either, Orihime. I've killed before, it's nothing to me."

"This would be different. You're partially human now; maybe not how I am, but you are. Things are different." She sighed and leaned against his arm, tired of being at odds with him. "You know I adore you, right? Even now that you- Especially now that you are tired and cranky and working yourself to the bone? I'm sorry. I'm trying to do my best."

He turned his head to look at Orihime, taking in how tired she looked. Defeated would be a good word for it. Maybe it was just her voice that sounded like that. He turned his body towards her, and lifted his hand to her face, making her look up at him. "I'm sorry. I love you. You have to know that."

Before she could respond to him, Ulquiorra kissed her hard, pulling Orihime into his lap. "I'm sorry. If you remembered anything about Hueco Mundo, you'd know that I just want to eliminate anything that threatens my bond to you."

"No one could," she said, staring into his eyes. She really wished she could remember at that moment, but as she focused on the stunning green irises that looked down on her, all she could think about was how much he meant to her. It made her shudder, the idea that her actions could push him away from her, and the idea that Kitajima's questionable resemblance to Ichigo could cause such a reaction from him. He needed to know. "I'm bonded to you for life, Ulquiorra. No one could take me away from you. Yours, remember?"

He gave her a nod before kissing her again. He pulled her even closer to him. "I know you don't understand. I know you say that, but you were so in love with Kurosaki. He was going to take you from me."

"That was then. Now you are the one I'm in love with. And even if Ichigo came back, I would remain in love with you. You are my now and my future. You are," she paused and took his face in her hands. "You are the love of my life. Not him. Not anyone else. You."

It was those words that broke his normally emotionless mask. He turned his head slightly to kiss the inside of Orihime's wrist and then kissed her again. "Okay, I understand. I apologize for upsetting you."

"I wish you knew. If you had any idea how much you mean to me, how much I need you…" She took a deep breath. "Do you want to get married? Would that help? I know we talked about it a bit, but we could just do it."

"You still want to be eternally tied to me although I'm an asshole?"

She pursed her lips and laughed through her nostrils as she nodded, her eyes barely able to see with how her cheeks pressed the lids together. Of course he would ask something like that. It was comical to her. "I'm already eternally tied to you, doofus," she said, pointing to her belly. "This would just be like, getting your license after you already bought the car." She grinned then, breathing away the tension that had filled her earlier. "It's more than that, though. We didn't exactly choose the baby, but we did choose each other. I want that to be forever," she said, scratching the back of his neck gently.

"Mmmhmm," he hummed enjoying the feel of her hands on him. It seemed like forever ago since they had been alone. "We need a holiday."

"Oh? I'm interested in that idea. Where to?"

He didn't answer as he buried his face into her neck. Ulquiorra was silent for a while. "Where do you want to go? Without the kids, by the way."

She smoothed her hand against his hair, enjoying the intimate moment they'd created. "Hmm, maybe somewhere exotic. Okinawa? Guam? Oooh, or we could go somewhere cold and just stay inside most of the time. Go watch the cranes in Hokkaido or something. Or maybe just the inside of a hotel room in the next town over. Do you have any ideas?"

"Woman, I've barely have traveled in my entire human existence. You need the vacation, you pick." Ulquiorra looked at her with a soft expression. "I apologize again, Orihime. I'm sorry I yelled at you."

She kissed him. "Let's not make it a habit, but I understand your frustration." She put her arms around his neck and pulled him down with her onto the bed. "Now I understand why your students never step out of line. You can be scary," she giggled.

Ulquiorra smirked before he stroked her pregnant abdomen. "It's still a shame that we can't… you know," he said. "I feel like I'm neglecting you."

"Uh," she said in a cautious tone, "I feel like I'm in a sexual time out. It sucks. After Shinzo is born and I get the all-clear from my doctor I'm going to kidnap you and lock you in a sex dungeon and make you pleasure me until I can't see straight," she chuckled, letting one of her hands trail down his back until she could reach his ass, then gave it a soft swat. "You'll enjoy it, too, of course."

"Woman, the moment you get the all clear from a doctor, I'm going to make you scream my name over and over. I'm going to make it so you cannot walk the next day."

She purred out a low chuckle. "Something to look forward to. In the meantime, though, I need to make sure you don't get out of practice," she said as her hand dipped inside of the back of his pants and slid toward his front.

Ulquiorra chuckled before he pinned Orihime's wrist down on the mattress. He moved so that he was between her legs. "What if you get out of practice?" he asked, dipping his head down and kissing her neck.

After he raised his head back up she looked at him with lowered eyelids and said, "I suppose you'll have to train me back up to your satisfaction. Do you think you could do that, Cifer-sensei?"

A/N: Thanks for reading? What did you think of their conflict resolution skills?