Nemu had expected him to bring up her position in the Soul Society, since he made no secret of his feelings about it, but she was grateful he phrased it the way he did, instead of insulting her captain. However, she was totally unprepared for his bringing her culinary skills into it. "You...don't like my cooking? Then why did you eat it? You did lie to me after all?"
"No!" Uryu exclaimed. "I never said I liked it. And if you spent as much time traveling with Orihime as I have, you learn to make the best of it." Realizing that wasn't helping her hurt feelings, he tried a different tactic. "Do you think I have any flaws?"
"Yes, but..." Nemu futilely hoped he wouldn't ask.
"Tell me what they are." he ordered her.
She bowed her head before answering. "You hate my father."
"Your father?" Uryu was confused for a moment. "Oh. Yes I do."
"If you forgave me, why can't you forgive him?" she asked.
"You know the answer to that." he told her, but he couldn't leave it at that, knowing he still needed to make amends for his earlier behavior. "He is a brilliant man." Uryu managed to say with difficulty.
Nemu brightened a little. "Do you really mean that?"
"Yes. He created the woman I love."
"What?" For the first time, Nemu raised her voice as the word burst out of her.
"I'm...I..." Uryu floundered, unsure what to do next. He was just as surprised as she was by his revelation, but it was too late now. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
"Why not?" she asked.
"You're the one who said we have no future." he replied flatly. "So it doesn't matter, does it?"
Nemu bowed her head again. "I'm sorry I said that."
"So am I, but you were right." Uryu admitted unwillingly, and when she lifted up her head again, the pain in her eyes echoed his own. He only meant to comfort her with a kiss, but they were already too close, and when Nemu felt his body react, she responded with an eagerness that surprised and stimulated him even more. Before he knew it, they were naked in each other's arms and he was trying to catch his breath in the aftermath. Every time they were together, it was more intense than the last.
"What...what does love feel like?" Nemu asked, breaking the tender silence that had enveloped them.
"I'm not sure how to describe it. People have their own views on it." Uryu said carefully.
"Are you saying it's confusing?" she asked hopefully, thinking of the odd mix of joy and despair she felt sometimes.
"Yes." he answered with an almost vehement certainty. He never felt as powerful or as powerless as he did when he was with her. "It changes how you look at things." he added, thinking of how he changed with her in his life in such a short time. None of his classmates would believe he would ever engage in an act of passion like he just had, they thought him as too uptight. The thought brought a self-satisfied smirk to his face, and gave him an idea on how to help answer her question. "Think of how you feel when we make love and multiply that by a hundred times."
It took Nemu a moment to remember that he referred to sex as making love. "I...I don't feel anything." she said quietly.
"What? What do you mean?" he asked.
"I'm defective somehow." she continued in a quieter than usual voice for her. "I don't have the same reactions as you do."
"Why didn't you tell me that you didn't enjoy it? I wouldn't have..." He didn't get to finish, since Nemu interrupted him this time.
"I enjoy making you happy." she told him. "Does that count?"
"I swore on my honor as a Quincy that you wouldn't be abused in my presence, using you for my own gratification certainly doesn't count." he replied stiffly.
"I know how important your Quincy honor is to you. That's why you mention it all the time when we...make love, isn't it?" Nemu asked him.
Uryu turned beet red and pushed up his glasses again. "I...we...I'm..." he stammered, before remembering her earlier answer. "Enjoying making someone happy is generally accepted as one way people experience love though."
"Then I think I love you too." she told him.
Uryu didn't reply, he just tightened his arms around her, grateful she really did care for him after all. Though it disgusted him, he meant what he said about Kurotsuchi. Only a genius could have created a work of art like Nemu. The same genius who cared so little for her welfare that he used her as bait. Uryu knew he was trapped where she was concerned, but he didn't regret it, and he wasn't out of options yet. "I think we should get dressed now." he finally said.
"Do you want to make your own dinner now?" Nemu stood up and brushed some dirt off her before picking her shihakoshu and his Quincy robe up, shaking them both out before getting dressed.
Uryu did the same with his school clothes. "No, we're going out. It's time to get some answers."
"Urahara doesn't know what's wrong with me either." she told him, not wanting him to waste his time asking again.
Uryu looked up sharply from putting his shoes back on. "You told him about us?"
"No, I just asked him why I experienced nothing during sex." she replied.
Uryu groaned inwardly. Nemu might not have brought his name up when she asked Urahara, but the man was too smart to not figure it out, especially since he knew Uryu had been helping her out when he retrieved her shihakoshu from Urahara's shop. "We better hurry then, before the whole world finds out. We'll have to each go our own way to get there unobserved."
"We need to get there as fast as possible?" she asked. When he nodded, she picked him up in her arms and leaped up in the tree.
"Hey Renji, I need you to deliver a message for me." Urahara told his boarder.
"What? I'm a Lieutenant in Squad 6, I'm not a messenger boy!" Renji protested.
"Yes, I know. But this important, and there's second helpings for a week if you do it." Urahara waved his fan at him. "It won't take long."
"A week? Well...I don't think anything serious could happen that everyone couldn't handle if I'm only gone for a short time...what's the message?" Renji asked.
"This is for Squad 12. Captain's eyes only." Urahara handed him a scroll.
"You mean I have to go back to the Soul Society and find Captain Kurotsuchi? But..." Renji frowned, he wasn't a fan of Squad 12's leader.
"Extra helpings." Urahara reminded him.
"Oh alright. But I'm holding you personally responsible if anyone gets hurts while I'm gone. And I'll take it out of your fridge!" Renji exclaimed as he headed out the door.
Once he was gone, Urahara knocked on Ururu's door. "Come in." he heard her say. He entered her room, finding her reading a book in bed. "What's wrong, Mr. Urahara?" she asked.
"Nothing's wrong, but we've got guests coming and I need you to go make tea for them, that's all. I know it's late, but this is important." he told her.
Nemu landed delicately in front of the shop and put a very disheveled Uryu carefully down as well. "We're here."
"Please don't do that again without asking first." he told her. Traveling with her was not the pleasant experience he had expected, the way she leapt between rooftops and treetops or utility poles, whatever was handy.
"I won't." she promised him. She hadn't expected him to be able to reach such a high pitch as he tried to talk to her during the trip, it was more distracting than she liked when she needed to concentrate.
Pausing just before they entered, Uryu took her hand in his. "Since he already knows about us, there's no point in hiding it." he said.
"You're earlier than I was expecting." Urahara told them when they entered his shop. "Come this way." He led them to his dining room and they all sat down. "The tea will be here soon. Shall I assume that since you came at night that this is some sort of clandestine meeting? The happy couple is not going to ask for my help planning a special event?"
"Actually, that's exactly why I'm...I mean we're here." Uryu said just as Ururu arrived with the tea. "But it's not the special event you think. I want to go back to the Soul Society so I need you to open the gate again."
Nemu's free hand trembled with shock, the hot tea splashing over the rim of her cup and burning her fingers, but she didn't notice. "You...you can't fight him! You don't have your abilities anymore!"
"No, I can't fight him, you're right." Uryu squeezed her hand he still held on to reassuringly. "You were also right that I shouldn't have been asking you the questions, he's the one with all the answers."
"You intend to approach Kurotsuchi on his own turf as a mere human?" Urahara frowned. "This situation is more serious than I had anticipated. I'm afraid the only answer I can give you is No."
"What? Why not?" Uryu demanded to know.
"I'm not interested in helping you effectively commit suicide." he replied.
"It's not suicide!" Uryu exclaimed. "He has no reason to kill me if I don't have my Quincy abilities anymore and I'm not trying to kill him."
"Are you sure about that?" Urahara asked him as he glanced over at Nemu.
"Leave her out of it!" Uryu snapped. "This is between Kurotsuchi and I."
"Not anymore it's not." Urahara stated. "Drink your tea, Ururu stayed up past her bedtime to make it for you, it would be rude for a Quincy to ignore such hospitality, wouldn't it?" Uryu sulked as the three of them drank the tea, Urahara seeming to be the only one unaffected by the tense atmosphere. Suddenly Uryu collapsed headfirst onto the table, Urahara barely able to clear a space in time. 'Well, that took longer than I expected. You should take him home now, Miss Kurotsuchi."
"You drugged him?" she asked after reassuring herself by checking Uryu's pulse. "Why?"
"You know how much he cares for you, don't you?" When she nodded, Urahara continued his explanation. "He wouldn't accept my refusal, and I meant it when I won't help him commit suicide. Just take him home and things will work themselves out soon, trust me."
Nemu wasn't sure about that, but she did want Uryu where he would be safe. Carefully picking him up in her arms again, she headed outside and leapt up into the night. Ururu watched them disappear, then turned to her guardian. "That was them, wasn't it, Mr. Urahara?" she asked.
"Yes. Didn't I promise you that you'd see them someday?" he reminded her. "Just like you promised to never tell them."
"Thank you, Mr. Urahara." she said. "But you didn't tell me they loved each other."
"It's an added bonus." he replied, then noticed she was starting to cry. "Hey, what's wrong? I thought you'd be happy." He bent down and hugged her when she shook her head. "You wish things were different, don't you?" This time she nodded as she wept on his shoulder. "So do I little one, so do I."
Uryu regained consciousness just as Nemu arrived back at the tree they had left from. "Are you alright?" she asked him as she sat him down on the ground.
"I'm fine." he said and tried to stand up. He would have fallen if she hadn't been quick enough to support him. "What happened?"
"Kisuke Urahara drugged your tea to stop you from trying to get to the Soul Society." Nemu told him as she helped him walk to his house.
"Damn him!" Uryu's anger helped dispel some of the grogginess he still felt. "That was my only chance."
"You could have asked me. I have free access to the Soul Society." she reminded him.
"Would you have taken me?" he asked as they reached the front door.
"No, he was right. It's not safe for you. I don't want anything to happen to you." she told him.
Uryu leaned against the wall to support himself and smiled at her. "It won't." Seeing the doubt in her eyes, he put his hand on her cheek. "I...I almost wish I wasn't a Quincy." he said before kissing her.
Nemu's eyes widened. Did he really mean that or was it the after effects of being drugged? Everything she knew about him indicated he was serious, but...how could he want to give up so much for her? She found it hard to think with his lips on hers, and in that moment, something changed inside her. Pulling away, she looked into his eyes and smiled. "I almost wish I was human." she said before kissing him back.
"And I wish you were both dead." a new voice said, startling them. Uryu recognized the voice first, stunned as he turned to see his father only a few yards away, materializing the Quincy bow with an arrow pointed right at Nemu's heart.