"I think I was wrong about Uryu." Orihime confided in Chad after school. "I don't think he's in love, I think he's possessed. Or he's been kidnapped and replaced with a fake like you were."

"Uh, what makes you think that?" he asked her.

"Because at lunch, every time I started talking about food, he'd just stare at me with this weird smile on his face. Do Hollows ever kidnap people to cook for them?"

"Just smile and nod." Noba whispered in Chad's ear.

Uryu found Nemu in the library, so engrossed in the book she was reading that she didn't notice him. "You'll go blind if you keep that up." he said teasingly.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, slamming the book shut and putting it away, then standing up in front of it so he couldn't see what it was. Urahara had given her a list of titles to read, but she had only found one in the Quincy library. Uryu felt she was perfect, she didn't want him finding out she might be defective. "How was school today?" she asked to distract him.

"Nothing to get excited about it." he replied, deciding not to mention that when Orihime started talking about her homemade lunch, he almost called her Nemu by mistake. "What about you, how was your day?" he asked her, finding their exchange a bit like a typical husband and wife's conversation, except his daily routine consisted of school, not a job. The feeling continued with her response.

"Oh, it was fine. Would you mind going to the store and getting a few things so I can make dinner?" Nemu handed him a list.

"Uh, sure." Uryu was nonplussed as he took it from her. On his way to the grocery store, he chided himself for his reaction. She couldn't safely leave the house, what else was she supposed to do but ask him? Looking at the list, he wondered if Orihime and Nemu were indeed somehow related. When he returned, she was still in the library reading the same book again. "I put the groceries in the kitchen, I need to go take care of my homework now." he told her, not surprised when she took the book with her to go start cooking, and he found himself getting curious about it.

It was his nose that alerted him when dinner was ready, and he plastered a smile on his face as he entered the dining room. "I'm afraid it didn't turn out like the recipe said." Nemu explained as she put the main dish on the table.

Uryu had no idea what he was supposed to be looking at even if it had turned out right, but he didn't want to hurt Nemu's feelings. "It's nothing we can't eat." he eventually said. As he forced himself to take a bite, he was beset by troubling thoughts. He was sure Nemu wasn't trying to poison him, but he had let his guard down with her. Even though he would swear on the honor of the Quincy that she herself was innocent of any ill intent towards him, the one controlling her wasn't, and he was a fool to have ever forgotten that. If Nemu was the bait, what was the trap?

"Uryu?" she asked to get his attention.

"Oh, what is it?" he responded, realizing he hadn't been listening to her.

"I asked if you would like seconds." she told him.

"No, thank you." he answered, putting his chopsticks down. "Nemu, I never asked you this and I should have when you first arrived. What were your exact orders in regards to me?"

"Just what I told you. I was to serve and protect you as penance." she replied, wondering why he wanted to know.

"Do you really believe that was why he sent you to me?" he asked her sharply.

"He is my Captain." Nemu said, unsure why she started feeling sick to her stomach. Food poisoning shouldn't be possible for her.

"Precisely. You know what he's like, so I'll ask you again, do you really believe he ordered you here for benevolent reasons?"

"It...it doesn't matter what I think. I have my orders." she said, her voice becoming even quieter than usual.

"Yes it does matter!" Uryu exclaimed, but his determination to pursue his interrogation stopped when he saw the pain in her eyes. He couldn't force her to betray her loyalties, so he changed topics slightly to something else that had been troubling him. "Just like it matters if our relationship exists only because of your orders."

"Relationship?" Nemu was surprised by that. "You consider us a couple?"

"You don't?" Uryu frowned angrily. "So you seduced me as part of your orders after all?"

"No, that's not what I meant!" Nemu protested, her sick feeling getting worse as she tried to explain things. "I thought relationships were for people who had a future together."

A deathly silence filled the room as her words cut Uryu to the core, and he opened his mouth to refute her statement, but he couldn't find the words. She was right, and that was the real problem. He stood up and tried to compose himself. "You didn't answer my question, did you seduce me as part of your orders?"

"I did it because you needed me to." she told him, unsure why he was upset now about it. He had needed her assistance, and she willingly gave it. Wasn't that the right thing to do?

"So it had nothing to do with your own desires? You didn't really want to be with me?" he demanded to know.

"I...I don't understand." Nemu said, feeling sicker by the moment. Uryu first tried to attack her Captain, now he was angry at her. "I was ordered to serve you, but you're a good man and I enjoy being with you. What did I do wrong?"

Uryu was angry, but not at her. And the only thing that would help would be if he left before he said something to make things worse than he already had. Without another word, he stormed out of the dining room, leaving Nemu sitting alone, thinking she must have indeed poisoned herself with dinner, why else wouldn't the tears stop?