Orihime stumbled back into her rooms at some point. She had no idea what time it was, but she was pretty sure it was early. Her stomach hurt and she felt flu-ish, so she knew she and Grimmjow had definitely had too much to drink.
Quietly, she pushed the door open. She tiptoed inside, gently shutting the door behind her. She let out a sigh.
"Where were you?"
Barely containing a scream, Orihime leapt around, staring at Ulquiorra.
"Ulquiorra!" She put a hand on her chest. "You scared me."
"You were not given permission to leave this room. Where were you?"
"I couldn't sleep," she said. It wasn't technically a lie. "So I went for a stroll."
He narrowed his eyes at her.
She waited, holding her expression, to see if he would call her out on her BS.
He didn't. "I thought humans needed sleep."
"Well." Involuntarily, a yawn forced its way from her mouth. "That's true. Don't worry, I'll go to bed now."
"You will not." He turned around and started towards the table, where a breakfast of a fried egg on natto and rice with a side of miso soup was waiting for her. It looked rather good, actually, but the thought of eating made Orihime's stomach turn.
What was his line again? 'You'll eat it all or I'll strap you down and force you to?'
"Fine," she said. She sat down and turned to the soup, the least offensive of the presented breakfast foods. "I'll eat, I'll sleep–"
"You will eat quickly, and then you will collect yourself. We are due for a mission."
She looked up at him in surprise. "A mission?"
He nodded sharply, once.
Orihime swallowed a gulp of soup. "What kind of mission?"
"Scouting," he said. "In the human world."
"Isn't that sort of… I don't know." She shrugged. "A great chance for me to escape?"
"Escape?" He scoffed. "You came here of your own free will. Did you not?"
She looked back down at her food. "Huh. I guess I did."
"Be quick," he said. "And change. Your stench is unpalatable."
She probably smelled like Grimmjow's room and booze. Not a great combo. "You really know how to talk to a gal, don't you Ulquiorra?" She shook her head, but forced herself to finish her breakfast and get ready for the mission.
While she was in the bathroom, Ulquiorra spoke through the door. "There is a hair fastening on the counter," he said. "Use it. Your hair is bothersome."
She looked down at the counter and found a small bone crown and pins. With a sigh, she gathered her hair into a bun and secured the bone crown around it. She regarded herself in the mirror. She really did look like one of them. For some reason, that raised goosebumps on her upper arms.
Feeling a little more put together after washing up and changing, Orihime strode out of the bathroom with her chin raised. She found Ulquiorra waiting for her at the door, expectant and impatient. She crossed the room to him in long strides, keeping her face cooly unimpressed.
They did not leave through the door. Rather, Ulquiorra moved his painted nails through the air, and a garganta appeared before them. She was still taken off guard by just how inexorable the darkness within a garganta was. She lifted her hand and put it into the cool of the garganta; her fingers were hard to make out in the dim.
"Come," Ulquiorra said, and strode into the abyss.
"Well," she muttered behind him, "I guess I can't say no, can I?"
She went in after him. Loath as she was to do so, she stuck close, afraid of getting lost if she staggered behind. She didn't doubt he'd leave her if she dawdled, and who was to say when he would return? As fond as she had been of him in the end, there was no denying he had been cold in the beginning.
"Where are we going?"
He declined to respond.
Orihime crossed her arms. She felt the sheer of her cape fluttering behind her and shivered; it felt as though there were someone breathing down her back. She hurried closer to Ulquiorra.
The garganta ended very suddenly. Blue sky appeared first, and then green. Orihime smelled the fresh air and felt her heart ache. Even though she'd been gone for barely twenty four hours, she had still missed the life that the living world carried.
They stepped out onto the top of a building. At first, Orihime thought she was simply making false connections, but after a moment she realized she couldn't be anything but right; they were in Karakura.
"What…?" She turned and regarded Ulquiorra with furrowed brows. "What are we doing here?"
"As I said," he approached the edge of the roof, hands linked neatly behind his back. "Surveillance."
It is times like these Orihime is reminded of why it was she came back alone. Many nights she'd stayed up wondering what would have happened if she could have brought the others to the past-Ichigo, especially. Ichigo had always been the leader of their group, and he'd grown wise and battle-hardened after everything… why not him? But there were moments he would not have been able to handle. Moments that would have reached between his ribs and pulled out his soul. Ichigo knew grief, too much grief, and Orihime was the one between the two of them who knew how to handle it.
Her friends were training in the street below. Rukia was directing from the sidelines, still healing after Grimmjow's attack. Orihime had pushed them all in her subtle ways, to get better. They might not have her forever, like the time before, and there would be battles and wounds to come that would mean death without her. They had to be better than before. Stronger. Tougher. Smarter.
They were laughing and Rukia was using a water gun to shoot them with streams of cold water. They deserved a break. They probably knew she was missing. This was their way of de-stressing. But they weren't adults yet. They didn't know what it meant to be in a war. And as things stood, any one of them could die.
"Why did you bring me here?" Orihime felt like the words took all the breath from her lungs. She didn't want to be reminded of the life she wasn't a part of. She didn't want to know that she was on the outside, just like always. It hurt. She was used to it, but it hurt.
"They are your friends, are they not?"
She looked back at him. The garganta had closed, and he stood idly, hands in his pockets. Relaxed.
"Together, the six of you could defeat me," he added.
"You keep reminding me," she said, "That I came to you of my own free will."
"Then you are completely loyal to Lord Aizen?"
"Of course not," she said. "I'd love to watch him choke on his own tongue."
"So then, you would betray me, if given the chance."
She just stared at him, not sure where he was going with his little speech.
He raised his hand and pointed his index finger down into the street below. "Our spiritual pressure is completely suppressed," he told her. "They would not even know before it hit them. I have noticed you and I share an ability to mask our attacks and abilities." A tiny black orb formed a hair's width away from his nail.
"Stop," she whispered.
"Who do you belong to?"
"Lord Aizen," she said, quickly. "Body, mind, soul, everything! Just stop!"
"Would you save them?" He asked. "Would you step in the way?"
"This isn't part of Aizen's plan!"
"How would you know?" He kept eye contact with her.
Her heart pounded. Still, twitchy, and ready, she watched him. She waited.
"Warn them," he told her. "And it will not harm them." He stepped back a pace.
"What?" She asked.
He let the cero go.
Orihime unleashed her spiritual pressure all at once. She turned, reaching out with her arm. She made to jump from the roof, summoning her shields both beneath her and around her friends. They caught her, but did not deploy further down. Orihime felt a burning sensation in her arm, and as she made to try and jump down again, the pain grew stronger and more acute. It spread down her arm and into her fingers, so intensely painful that she recoiled, as though she'd been touching an invisible barrier.
The group below looked up just in time to dodge Ulquiorra's singular cero. Orihime looked back at him, but he'd gone-probably out of view to open up another garganta. She looked back down below. Her friends were all staring up at her in shock.
"Wait–" she tried to say.
The pain pulled her back, step by step, sweating in agony. She clenched her teeth and dug her nails into her shoulder as the burning sensation swept up into her jaw and face, and down into her legs. She felt as though her bones were being pulled on by hands of fire. Back, back, back, up onto the roof. Away from her shouting friends.
"Inoue!" Ichigo yelled. She felt him release his shinigami form.
It was too late for him to attempt to help her, even with flash-step. She tumbled out of his view and into Ulquiorra's grasp. The espada pulled her back into the garganta, and just like that it was closed, leaving them encased entirely in darkness.
Instantly, the burning sensation began to fade. Orihime jerked out of Ulquiorra's grasp, fumbling with her shoulder armor. "Shun shun rika," she summoned the light of her fairies so that she could see.
The tattoo that Aizen had placed on her shoulder-the one of her flower pins-was fading from red back to black. The pain disappeared as though it had never been there to begin with. Moments ago, she felt as though someone had been sawing her arm off with a molten blade.
"What did you do?" She hissed.
He eyed her and then turned away, walking with an even stride.
"Ulquiorra!" She hated that she could feel tears rolling down her cheeks. "What was that?"
"The kido Lord Aizen sewed onto you," he said. "We all have it."
"The tattoos-they're to keep you from acting out?" Had it been so the last time? Surely not. He'd used his spiritual pressure to cow them all into obedience. Grimmjow would just rip his skin off to get away with whatever he wanted.
"They are our contracts with Aizen," he said, simply. "And a marker of our placement."
She followed after him. "Why did you fire that cero at them?"
"They did not see me fire it at them," he said. "Only you."
"What?"
"You released your spiritual pressure as it was fired."
"Wh-to warn them, of course." She squinted at him. "Wait. Do you-are you trying to set me up?" She thought about what had happened and then shook her head. "They're never going to believe–"
"That you, the most distant and oddly powerful one of the group, who knows too much and keeps secrets, the one who left a note telling them she'd gone over to the enemy's side, would truly defect?"
She didn't buy it. "They know better."
"Do they?"
She pressed her lips together. "How would making them think I'm on your side possibly benefit you?"
"You are on our side."
"Sure," she said. "Again. How does it benefit you to have them know that?"
He stopped walking entirely and turned to face her, so quickly that she almost ran into him. "Orihime Inoue," he said. "Seventeen years old. Friendly, spacey. An airhead. Lives alone. Spends most of her time alone. Longest term friendship-Tatsuki Arasawa, of four years, recently less closely intermingled."
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"You have no family. Your friends neglect you. You have been rejected and ignored your entire life. You are only human, despite your powers. Powers that, while godlike, only separate you further from your peers. It is only human nature to want to be part of something. To be needed. To be loyal, and to be rewarded with loyalty in turn."
"I'm not alone," she said. "Not anymore."
"That is correct," he said. "You are part of the Espada, now."
"No, I mean–"
"How long will you wait for them to come?" He asked. "How many more times do you think I will have to 'set you up,' so to speak? Years? Months? Weeks?"
"They wouldn't think that of me."
"And why wouldn't they?" He stepped closer to her. "How long, woman?"
"Stop it," she muttered.
"How long until you realize this is your place, now?"
"I'd never join Aizen."
"You already have," he said. "You wear your loyalty on your very skin."
"I had to–"
"You did not have to do anything. Do you think you will remain so against us when they do not rescue you in a month? What about two months? Three?"
"They'll come for me," she said. "And when they do, Aizen will die."
"That is just the thing, Orihime Inoue. They will not come for you. Aizen will not die. And you will either perish, emotionally dependent as you are human, or you will fulfill your need for comradery with the Espada."
She blinked. Tears began to fall from her lashes again, but this time it was not from pain. She was angry. "Emotions," she said, and her voice trembled with anger. "What would you know about emotions, Ulquiorra?"
"Enough," he said, "To know they will be your downfall."
She did not hit him. It would have been childish. She simply swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Open the garganta," she commanded. "And get the hell out of my way."
He did open the garganta, but he didn't move out of her path. She shouldered passed him and into their room, where she paused briefly at the door to angrily wipe her face with the heels of her palms.
"Do not leave this room," Ulquiorra commanded behind her.
She didn't reply. She stepped boldly out in to the hall and stomped away, down, down, down the palace halls, until she found that one little room she was so familiar with. She locked herself inside and curled up on the white couch where she could cry it out in peace, cursing Ulquiorra the whole while.
~(o0o)~
Orihime woke up in Ulquiorra's bed. She didn't know when she'd fallen asleep in her old room, or when someone had come to collect her, but she'd been there moping all the day before.
It was hard to imagine Ulquiorra carrying her back to her bed, but the thought of anyone else doing it was too creepy. Except Grimmjow. Grimmjow would have sooner drop-kicked her up the stairs, though.
Her face felt dry from being tear-streaked. She poked her head out into the main room, but Ulquiorra wasn't about. There was a platter on the table, which she went to invesitgate. Grapes, cheese, crackers, and whine. An odd spread for breakfast, of for anyone in Los Noches, but she understood now that they were truly trying to woo her to their side.
Like hell.
… But she'd take the fancy food, anyway.
Still gross from the night at Grimmjow's, and from the night of crying added on top, she was well overdue for a shower. Orihime took the platter of food into the bathroom, thinking at first she'd sip her wine in the shower, but then eyed the tub.
Moments later, the tub was filled to the brim with soapy water. Orihime dragged a chair into the bathroom and set it besides the tub to serve as her table, and with everything merrily in order, had taken to reclining in nearly-too-hot-water as she fed herself a decadent breakfast. She lounged in the soapy water, poking her toes out on the other end to see how the paint on her nails was holding up. It still looked stellar, though she wasn't sure how she felt about electric blue…
At some point she noticed that she'd left the door cracked open. She half-expected Ulquiorra to barge in on her at any moment, but the thought didn't really bother her. He was cold, remote. He'd regard her naked the same way he would if she covered every inch of her skin. In fact, he'd probably not even notice she wasn't wearing any clothes.
She could just imagine him giving her a mission report while she did a strip tease in front of him. He wouldn't stutter over a single word. Hell, he probably wouldn't even blink.
Not that I'd give him a strip-tease, she thought to herself, After he was such an asshole yesterday.
Now there was a thought she'd been sure she wouldn't have again. Huh.
Was this version of him even capable of the end-self that her previous Ulquiorra had achieved? He seemed meaner. In fact, they all kind of did. Aizen's Hogyoku had always been so… Angry. And now, without Urahara's to balance it out… Maybe they were all worse. Or maybe they'd always been this bad, and she'd been too young to notice it.
Either way, she had to say she wasn't really all that excited about what was going on.
Eventually the water did grow cold, and she finished her platter. Flushed from the steam and the wine, she wrapped herself in a towel and strode out of the bathroom. She didn't care if Ulquiorra saw her.
"Hey, what the fuck?"
She did, however, care if Grimmjow saw her.
She glared at the sexta espada, pulling her towel a little tighter around herself. "What are you doing in my room?"
"Your room? Bitch, this is Ulquiorra's room."
"My room now," she said. "Don't you knock?"
"No?"
She sighed. "Do you need something, or did you just come to catch me out of my clothes?" When he just dragged his eyes up her legs and grinned, she rolled her eyes and continued into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
A moment later, his voice came at the door. "You said for me to make sure Bat-boy didn't chop your head off!" He yelled. "I was coming to make sure you were still in one piece!"
"Again," she said. "Knocking!"
"If he was in the process of killing you he wouldn't have answered a knock."
"You'd have heard that."
"You think?" He challenged. "He's a quiet son of a bitch."
She considered his statement and then nodded to herself. Yeah, that was true.
"I heard he took you out on a field trip. Did you see my fuck-boy?"
"Where did you even learn that term?"
"What term?"
"Fuckboy."
"I made it up. He's a boy I'm gonna fuck."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I saw him. Ulquiorra tried to make him think I tried to kill him."
"Hands off, he's mine."
"Are you gonna kill him or have sex with him?" She called. She was trying to figure out the shoulder armor clasps with the cape. It was a struggle. "I'm getting mixed signals."
"I can have sex with him and kill him, you know. I don't have to choose one or the other."
"I mean. You have to at least choose an order, right?"
"Not really," he said. "I'll fuck his spirit if I kill him. Then I'll kill his spirit. Or fuck him again. Who knows?"
She finished dressing and threw the door back open. "Okay," she said. "What do you really want?"
He was holding his hands behind his back. "Bitch. Can't I just check up on your stupid ass to make sure that bitch didn't kill you? I'm being a friend or whatever the fuck."
"No you're not. Your being shady."
"I'm always shady." His eyes skipped to the side.
"Shadier," she muttered. She crossed her arms. "I need to put my hair up. You're in my way."
He stared at her.
Orihime sighed. "Are you going to show me what you're hiding behind your back or do I have to stand here for another twenty minutes argueing with you?"
He revealed a bottle of liquor from behind himself, almost reluctantly. "Wanna day drink?"
"All that, just for this? I thought you were going to proposition me."
"I mean. If you wanna suck my–"
"I don't have time to drink," she said. She slipped past him and walked back towards the bathroom, aware of him tailing her.
"What? What the hell could you possibly have to do? Bitch, you're a hostage."
"They're trying to make me more than that," she said. "I need to scope some stuff out."
"Like what?"
"Stuff," she said.
"Princessa is shifty," he purred. "What sort of bad things are you up to?"
"Nothing sexy, that's for sure."
"Well if you want–"
"Go be horny somewhere else. You have plenty of lower arrancar just dying for you to hook up with them and kill them and whatever the hell it is you do." She found the bone crown and began to arrange her hair into a bun again.
"I see what this is," he said. "You're going to follow Ulquiorra to his meeting."
Orihime paused. She regarded her reflection, looking to be sure that she wasn't giving anything away with her expression. "What meeting?"
Grimmjow appeared behind her in the mirror. His grin stretched unnaturally far. "Oh," he drawled. "You didn't know."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Out with it."
"What do I get in return?"
She sighed and turned away from the mirror to face him. "I'll day drink with you tomorrow. On the roof. I'll watch you piss off the side."
His eyes lit up. "Fuckin' deal."
She was regretting it already.
"So Ulquiorra's supposed to go see Ichimaru or something outside of Los Noches. Soon."
"How do you know?"
"I was following Gin."
Her brows furrowed. "What? Why?"
"Trying to spit on his coat without him knowing. Freaky fuck."
"You know I can't bring you back from the dead, right?" I think.
He shrugged. "Already dead."
"Okay. Well you're gonna get a lot deader if you mess with Gin."
"If he can catch me."
"Trust me, he can." She started out of the room. Grimmjow followed her. "I'm going to see what he's up to."
"Ichimaru?"
"Ulquiorra."
He sighed. "Why do you even care? I told you, I won't let him kill you."
"That's not what I'm concerned about. I just… want to know what he's up to."
"Why?"
"I just do." She knew the way out of Los Noches, even though she'd never actually tried to escape in the old days. She'd been sure to know where it was she was being held captive. No one had told her she couldn't leave the castle this time around, so…
"Why? You hoping he'll be your friend, too? Forget about it. Doesn't matter how much healing you offer him. Not even healing, any offer. Sex, drinking, healing, none of it. He won't care, and he won't be your friend. He doesn't have emotions to appeal to, princessa."
"That's your opinion." She took another sharp turn.
"Oh great," he groaned. He walked close to her, practically breathing down her neck. "He's not faking, human. He doesn't feel anything. Rumor has it that Aizen found his ass impaled on a goddamn tree. Just lyin' there. And he was Vasto Lordes! Not like the tree was doing anything to him. He coulda got up and walked away any time. But he didn't. He's fucked, okay?"
She ignored him.
"Is that your thing?" He fell into step directly beside her, leaning in to jear at her. "I thought it was your carrot-top friend that had the god complex. You trying to save the unsavable?"
She stopped and whirled on him. "He's no unsavable." She recalled her to-do-list, crumbled up in the bottom of her sock drawer. Save Ulquiorra. "And he's not emotionless."
"You're right," Grimmjow said. "He does feel an emotion! Mope. He can mope."
She glared at him.
"Look." Grimmjow rubbed the back of his neck, squinting at her. "I don't get why you care so much. I mean, he's done nothing but be an ass since you got her. Since before you got her. What do you care what he's up to?"
"It might concern my plans."
"Your plans to save him, or your plans to betray Aizen?"
She pressed her lips into a thin line.
"Both, huh?"
She stayed silent.
"I'm not gonna rat on you. Chill out." He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "I told you I'd keep you alive. And listen, getting involved with Batsy is the opposite of helping me. He's a hundred percent loyal to Aizen. You'd have better luck getting the sun to rise."
"No one is a hundred percent anything," she said.
"Sure they are. I'm a hundred percent asshole."
"Ninety nine," she argued.
"No, Princessa. A hundred. You know so much about us hollows, but there's one thing you seem to be forgetting. We look human. Or shinigami. Whatever. We look like you. But we ain't you. Not in the least."
"You're wrong," she told him.
He lurched forward. She went stiff as he loomed over her, bringing her face down into the crook of her neck. She felt the hair on the back of her neck rise as he pressed his nose into her jaw and took a deep breath in.
"I can smell your soul, you know." His breath against her skin made her shiver and break out into goosebumps. "High power. Tasty. It wasn't so long ago that if I'd been out on the streets and spotted you, I wouldn't have hesitated to kill you and eat your heart."
She put her hand against his chest and shoved him away, rubbing the goosebumps out of her arms. "That was then," she said. "And you wouldn't kill me now, because we're friends. I don't care if you eat souls, or whatever. It's not your fault. You're a hollow. I don't hate cats for eating birds, you know."
"Tweet-tweet," he mocked her.
She shook her head. "Look, what do you care? So what if I'm on a mission doomed to failure? It's not any of your business."
"Forgive me if I don't see it that way, but I want my one-stop-doc in working order."
"Then stay out of my way," she muttered. She turned sharply on her heel and began a fast pace away from him. She could feel that he was still following her, hands jabbed angrily into the pockets of his jacket. "You're going to give me away."
"They'll expect me to be stalking around out there," he said. "If anything, I'm a good cover. I told you, I'm not letting your stupid ass die. I've got plans, princessa, and I need you to patch me up for them."
"Fine," she said. She finally came to the exit, pulling her spiritual pressure into herself. "But if you give me away, you won't have to worry about Gin or Ulquiorra killing you. I'll do it myself."
"I'd love to see you try, woman."
She ignored him and pushed out into the desert, where it was cold and still. It wasn't hard to find Ulquiorra. She knew what to look for, and he wasn't trying to hide.
"This is stupid," Grimmjow whispered as they snuck out through the sands.
"Shh."
He grumpily flash-stepped through the dunes behind her, sulking whenever they stopped to hide and assess Ulquiorra's position. When they finally found Gin and Ulquiorra, Orihime felt like turning and hitting Grimmjow. Thanks to his interference, they seemed to be a good way through their conversation. But then, she wouldn't have known about it at all if not for him.
"Idiot," she whispered.
"I know, but why?"
She ignored him, straining to hear the words of the espada and shinigami standing out in the sands.
"-that she's not onta' ya. Ya' see the crack in 'er clevage an yer too close."
"I understand."
"Not that it's easy to miss the cleavage," he said. "Miles away. Miles, and miles–"
"I understand," Ulquiorra cut in. "When?"
Gin didn't answer for a moment. Orihime chanced a peek and saw him finish a careless shrug. "Whenever it hits yer fancy. She thinks she knows me, so don't let 'er catch on. Her or Aizen."
"I am loyal to–"
"He won't ask, so just don't tell," she could hear Gin's threatening grin in his voice. "You're one loyal little hollow, aincha?" When Ulquiorra didn't answer, he said, "I can have ya' disposed of the second you say a damn thing. So keep in line. It won't hurt Aizen none, ya' know."
"... I understand," Ulquiorra said. "I will report tomorrow evening."
"Tha's more like it," Gin chimed. "Good boy. Now go 'long. Continue with yer' damned trainin'. I'm sure you don't need more of it."
For a moment, they remained in the sands. Orihime let the conversation play through her head. The hell did Gin want Ulquiorra to spy on her for? It sounded like spying. But why? Ulquiorra was around her all the time. What did it matter if she knew he was watching her?"
"Well that was stupid," Grimmjow said.
"At least I know he's plotting something."
"You already knew that! This was fucking useless."
"No. I know Gin is involved. That means something."
"Something?" He groaned. "Ichimaru is involved with everything, idiot!"
"You're the idiot," she snapped. "Thinking this doesn't mean anything."
"Hey! Fuck you for–" His eyes widened suddenly. "Oh shi–"
He was gone in a flurry of sand, just as Ulquiorra appeared right before where he'd been crouching. His eyes were narrowed in thinly contained fury. "Woman," he snipped. "What is it that you are doing here?"
"Following you," she said. "I'm supposed to stay close to you, remember?"
He narrowed his eyes at her.
She tried to shake her nerves off by standing and dusting the sand from her clothes. "But hey, if you want to be alone–"
"You will remain."
She swallowed.
"I have come here to train," he said.
"Oh." She wasn't sure if he knew that she'd been spying.
"Why was Grimmjow with you?" He demanded.
"He followed me," she said. "He still wants me to sleep with him."
"Why would he want you to sleep– Ah. You mean have intercourse with."
God, he was weird. "Yep." She popped the 'p' at the end and tried not to fidget under his hardened stare. He was so intimidating sometimes. He looked like he knew everything and nothing and, really, that was probably true. Had he really impaled himself on a tree and just… left himself like that to die? She couldn't imagine him giving up like that. But then, what if it was a really nice tree? Like, he'd just kinda… laid down in what was as close to a bed as Hueco Mundo would offer and just… hit the snooze button too many times? That brought to mind her cellphone with its alarm. She needed to start using that instead of her clock. If hollows had cell phones, what would they look like? Would Ulquiorra have little skull-charms attached to the ends? Or maybe little skull stickers? Maybe he'd just have bats. Did he even like bats? Like, that was his fursona or whatever. But he didn't really get to choose it, right? Because Ichigo didn't get to choose his weird lizard one or any of the ones that came after, so it would stand to reason that–
"-you."
Shit. He'd totally been giving her a speech. And she'd missed all of it; too spaced out to pay attention.
"Right," she said, hoping to fake it out.
He narrowed his eyes. "Do you understand, then?"
"Yeah," she lied. "I gotcha."
"Good," he said, and drew his sword.
Orihime had just enough time to throw her shields up, eyes wide, before his blade slammed down against her defences. While she was not the type to really talk in battle, in order to concentrate, she let out a very un-Orihime-like, "Shit!" as she fell back into the sands.
Great! He was trying to kill her! Just when Grimmjow had left!
She threw her senses out for him, to call out to him with her spiritual pressure. He wasn't far. In fact, she could see him as she turned her head, sitting up on top of a corroding pillar. Just. Watching.
Asshole! She thought furiously at him. Get over here and defend me!
But he just watched, satisfied, it seemed, to watch her get thrown back into the sands. Orihime stumbled to her feet just in time to block another attack, and then another. She looked back at Grimmjow again, wondering what the hell was keeping him.
"Focus," Ulquiorra said. "Or I will kill you where you stand."
Isn't that what you're trying to do already?
She squared up with focus. He always lead with his sword, keeping his body just out of reach. But she had long-range attack. If she could keep him at bay with Tsubaki, she could block his cero attacks with her other fairies. Shit. Shit! He was going to kill her before she did anything she'd meant to fix! Goddamn it!
She leapt back, summoning her attack sheild. It formed, protecting her head from another strike, and then launched Tsubaki from the center. Ulquiorra barely had time to pary with his sword, throwing himself away from her.
Good. She had a little bit of space. She navigated Tsubaki. Pary, attack, pary, attack. Ulquiorra threw a cero at her. She formed a sheild to stop it, momentarily calling tsubaki back to launch him again. Ulquiorra was fast, though. He was on her before Tsubaki had even made it back. She had time to form to sheilds as bracers along her arms before he was upon her.
Already she was panting heavily, sweating hard. The sand bogged her down, making every move tenuous. She felt the wind from his sword on her cheek as she blocked a particularly close attack.
She didn't want to kill him or anything, but what the hell was she supposed to do? Grimmjow was still just watching!
Had this been their plan all along? Where this version of Grimmjow and Ulquiorra actually working together? But why? Either one of them could have attacked her at any moment. Hell, Grimmjow could have demolished her while she was in a bath towel.
It didn't make any sense!
"Focus," Ulquiorra commanded. His sword scraped loudly against her sheild, showering her face with hot sparks. She closed her eyes against the blinding spray, an involuntary whimper making its way from her mouth.
Tsubaki was ready. She sent him out the exact second his sword made contact, knowing she had a very short window where he wasn't defending himself. Tsubaki hit him in the gut, solidly. She opened her eyes.
She had no killing intent. Ulquiorra wasn't even bleeding.
No!
And yet… he'd stopped.
"Good," Ulquiorra said. "You are able to at least meagerly defend yourself." He sheathed his sword.
Orihime lowered her arms. "Wh. What?"
"I would not launch a full attack against you. However, your defence could hold off a lesser arrancar. With practice–"
"You tried to kill me!" She yelled. She felt her eyes welling with tears again. Great, just great. He was going to think she just cried all the time. And it was his fault she was always crying, too! She pointed at him, angry. "What kinda guy just calls off his attack like that? Are you going to kill me or not?"
From far off: the sound of Grimmjow laughing his ass off.
She whipped around to glare at him. Traitor!
Ulquiorra stood across from her, head tilted in what seemed to be confusion. "I do not understand," he said.
"What is there to understand?" She huffed. "You just attacked me out of nowhere!"
His brows came together. "You said you understood."
…
Shit.
"If you so desire to see me train, you will be part of it. Any fraccion of mine should be able to defeat the fraccion of the lesser espada. You are a human; fragile, weak. We will change this. You will be as strong as your station implies; in the coming war, you will bring glory to Lord Aizen and to myself. I will not have you be an embarrassment. As my skill grows, so too will yours. Eventually, even your so-called 'friends' will fear you."
La la la, trees beds cellphones stickers, hmm hmm hmm, I'm not listening.
"Right?"
"Do you understand, then?"
"Yeah. I gotcha."
"Good."
Orihime shook herself. She was not only pissed off, she was embarrassed. And Grimmjow was still laughing, the only between the three of them likely to know exactly what had just happened.
"I'm going home!" She yelled, and turned away from him in a flurry of skirts and white sand. She recalled her fairies to her hairpins.
"That is good," Ulquiorra said, following her. "It is time for you to lunch."
"Alone!" She yelled at him. She flashed away before he could answer.
Grimmjow's raucous laughter followed her, even into her rooms.
~(o0o)~
That night, Orihime lay in Ulquiorra's bed again, trying to go to sleep. She felt cold, even wrapped up in the sheets and blankets alike. She pulled her knees to her chest and held her arms about herself, feeling alone and disheartened.
She was doing this all for her friends. But she'd sort of thought that a re-do of the past would mean she wasn't so lonely anymore. Somehow, though, she'd felt more lonely than ever since warping back in time.
Especially alone in a bedroom that wasn't hers, knowing that Ulquiorra was off doing who-knew-what, just like all the rest of the espada. She knew they slept, but they needed less of it. It made for an even lonelier night, knowing he wasn't just beyond the door.
And it didn't help that she was in a teenager's body, with teenage hormones. Not just the sad hormones; the horny hormones, too. Wanting to get rawed only made her feel sadder. It had in the future, too, when she'd been Ichigo's wife, but still. That had been a different kind of sad. A I-wish-you-and-I-wanted-each-other sad.
Anyway.
There was no way she could go to sleep. And she wasn't going to masturbate in Ulquiorra's bed. It felt weird, somehow, and she wasn't that desperate yet. All she needed was a walk.
She stepped out of bed and pulled on a pair of socks. She was wearing a set of pajamas Ulquiorra had provided her-white full length pants with black hemming, and a button-up top to match. There were not likely to be many people out and about, so she didn't mind the outfit.
She crept to the door and carefully pushing it open, peeking through the crack for any signs of Ulqiuorra. Like she had suspected, he was gone. Such a shady character; why did he even have his own room if he was never going to be in it?
She shook her head. She didn't care what Ulquiorra did.
Silently, Orihime took out into the night. The lights had been turned out for the night, and the hallways were washed gray with moonlight. She wrapped her arms around herself, sure it was colder without the artificial light, and moved noiselessly down the corridors.
She watched through windows as she passed them. Hollow creatures roamed the sands; some alone, some in droves. They were so far from the castle walls that they appeared tiny to her. Ants, milling about the grains.
She stopped to watch a bear-like hollow lumber past a tree. She wondered if Nelliel was out there, alone and in a child's body, with no memory of who she'd once been. Orihime knew that it would be right to go out looking for the girl, but she feared what it would mean to bring her back to Hueco Mundo. No one was safe in the castle, and the child was no exception. Ichigo should not have brought her when he did–-he'd been lucky that she had been the person she was, or it was very likely he would have had a little girl's death on his hands.
She moved on.
The windows cast long boxes of glowing white on the ground. Between the boxes were long strips of darkness. She skipped over the dark and tip-toed through the light, careful not to slip on her socks. It was surprising to her that the floors were always so clean. Why wasn't there sand all over the halls? Did Aizen make the lower arrancar clean the place?
As silly as these things were, there was still so much she just didn't know.
"You."
She turned. The voice was familiar, and the woman addressing her was distantly familiar as well. Orihime had never spent that much time with Tier Hallibel, but she'd found the woman to at least appear to be loyal to her fraccion; more than she could say for most of the espada.
"Oh. Hi." Orihime turned and gave a little wave, suddenly feeling a little silly about wandering around in her pajamas. Especially when Hallibel was in full armor.
She no longer covered her mouth with her coat. The terror of her bones was on full display; the mouth and jaws of a shark covering her lower face. She had two scars on her forehead; one just above her right brow, and the other interrupting her left. Her eyes were shockingly aqua, and her blond hair was pulled into a collection of afro curls just barely brushing her forehead. Her armor made two large fins out of her shoulders, and another bone plate protruded from her back. Of all the espada, she looked most fierce.
"What is it you are doing outside of your rooms?"
Orihime blinked at her. This was not how she would have preferred to meet Halibel. There was little to be done about it, though. "Walking," she said. "What about you?"
Halibel raised a brow.
"Oh." Orihime frowned. "You meant. Why was I allowed to leave. Right. Well, I mean, aren't your fraccion allowed to leave whenever they feel like it?"
"My fraccion are not like you," Tier said. Her real message came across loud and clear: they're real fraccion.
"Right," Orihime said. She turned to look back out the window. It was chilly, and she was beginning to regret her late night walk. "Of course."
For a moment, Tier simply watched her. Orihime wondered if she was being sized up, and then realized she didn't really care. She'd sort of wanted to be Tier's friend, at one point, just to have another girl to talk to, but the Espada weren't exactly a socialisation club.
"They talk about you."
Orihime looked back up. "Who?"
"My fraccion." She turned and looked outside, too. "They're insulted by you. We all fought and met challenge for our positions. You're a mockery of that. You are just a human pet, given to Ulquiorra out of spite. That you would bear their title irks them."
"They like to gossip, huh?"
"Grimmjow's fraccion are equally upset, from what I have heard. Doubly so now that he has seemingly taken an interest in you. You should be wary. They do not like that you make them look bad."
Orihime shrugged. "If they want revenge or something," she said, "They can get in line."
Tier looked over at her. "You are not afraid?"
"I stopped being afraid years ago."
"I can't tell if you're admirable or foolish."
"Oh, definitely foolish," she said. She leaned into the window and let out a long sigh. "But not afraid. Not yet."
She stepped into the asiel, legs shaking underneath her dress. She wasn't going to throw up while Ichigo's friends and family were all staring at her. She could do this. She could do this. She could do this.
This was forever, she realized.
She was very afraid.
"... Not yet," she said again.
Tier looked at her. "You should have been given to me," she decided. "We are the women of Los Noches. We should stick together."
"I can't tell if this is a trap of some sort or not."
Tier's brow ticked up. A laugh, perhaps? "Not this time," she said. "My girls would love to meet you. Come around some time." She turned and wandered off without further commentary, leaving Orihime to gape after her. The white of her fin bones shone in the dark as she swayed off, appearing almost to swim through the black.
Orihime wasn't sure if she'd been propositioned, threatened, or both.
I guess I don't care either way, huh?
She decided that she'd had enough adventuring for the night and started back to her rooms, feet growing cold the longer she was devoid of blankets. When she finally made it back, she cracked the door open and discovered Ulquiorra asleep on the couch, a white blanket thrown limply over his legs. He was perfectly still in sleep; hands clasped over his belly. White as he was, he looked like a corpse.
She moved into the room. She wondered if he'd been the one to move her back to bed, before. Had he pondered her sleeping self like she did his? Had he been silent enough, gentle enough, to carry her without her waking? And if so, why? Why would he bother?
Tiptoeing, she silently crept towards the couch, and then stood still over Ulquiorra.
He really was beautiful, she thought. Pale like china, painted like a doll. His hair was silky and inky against the couch, his chest rose and fell with each breath. His hollow hole moved, too. She wanted to touch it. To feel the skin inside. Was it a scar? Was it like limbo; just darkness and nothing? Was it him, somehow?
She didn't dare reach out and touch him for fear of waking him and getting a cero in the face. But she watched him, for a moment, feeling conflicted over her feelings. She had been quick to dismiss him as an ass. And he'd been an ass, but…
She knelt next to the couch, leaning her head on the cushion near his hip. "You don't know anything else, do you?" She reached out, flicking a stray hair away from his closed eyes. "How could you, anyway?"
By some miracle, he did not wake-or, if he did, he did not show it.
She stayed like that for a moment longer, bent over his sleeping form. She wanted to pet his hair, hold his face. Tell him that there was more beyond what those eyes of his saw. He'd never listen to her. Not until it was too late.
"How am I going to get you out of this alive?" She sighed. He was loyal to a fault. He would never stop. Never.
Eventually, her legs grew numb from being curled under her, pressed into the cold, too-hard ground. She rose unsteadily and very quietly she slipped back into bed, hoping he hadn't checked up on her before and would be pleased only to find her in the morning.
She dreamed about a window in the dark; her apartment window. Nothing else, no sensation, no smell, no sight. Just a window, and outside, rain. Rain, rain, rain.