What if…

Chapter 4

A/N: I present you chapter 4.

Disclaimer: Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo, I only own this fanfiction.

Chapter 4: Urahara's device

Rangiku gasped when she saw the Jacuzzi. Gin had definitely claimed the best room for himself. "So… Wanna use it?", he asked.

Rangiku was about to say yes, when she remembered something. "Shouldn't you check on the Espada and Chad and Orihime first? It's been a while since we left them to their own devices and I don't know whether I should have left Orihime alone with that Espada…"

Gin chuckled. "It's rare for you to worry about such things. But don't worry. Ulquiorra won't hurt Orihime and if anyone tries to do so, they will be obliterated by the fourth himself. Chad has Nel with him, so he should be fine when it comes to Noitora, Grimmjow is busy not getting killed by Szayel's traps -and believe me when I say that this is going to take a lot of time- and Harribel and Stark are quiet people. They won't cause anything unnecessary. So, are you convinced now?"

Rangiku pretended to think for a second. "Yeah, I think I am… She stripped slowly and entered the Jacuzzi waiting for Gin to join her."

Gin smiled at her with his eyes open. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

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Noitora had taken Chad, Nel and Tesla to the ruins he used to spar with Nelliel. He seemed excited. Nel sighed and smiled at Chad. "I'll demonstrate you exactly how you fight an opponent like him and I'll make sure to be slow and give brief explanations as to why I do what I do."

Chad nodded, while Noitora took his fighting stance. "Oi! Nelliel, we ain't using our Resurrections. I ain't fighting you in your fat cow form, you got that?"

Both Tesla and Chad turned slowly to look at Nel, realizing that what Noitora had just said was definitely the worst thing to say to her. Nel was still smiling, but her eyes had a deadly glint in them. "I'm sorry Chad. Apparently this will be a very quick fight, to the point you won't manage to see much other than dear Noitora over there down and apologizing for daring to call a lady fat…" The more she spoke, the angrier she sounded.

Noitota snorted, oblivious to the danger. " Yeah, right. As I said before, I see no lady around-OOF"

Apparently that was the last straw, because Nel had sonidoed in front of him and punched him near his abdomen. Noitora had flown away a few meters, before landing with a loud crushing sound.

Tesla and Chad stared at each other in disbelief. "Is that a common thing between them…?", asked Chad.

"You could say that… Though Miss Nelliel is far more expressive now and she got provoked a little too easily…", replied Tesla, his eye never leaving Nel's back.

"Well, not to speak badly about your Master, but he talked about a sensitive subject, especially to a lady…", said Chad.

Tesla sighed. "He sometimes speaks before he thinks… and that rarely ends well."

Noitora stood up and coughed, he turned around to stare at Nel, but she was already in his face, delivering another punch that sent him flying. Getting over his surprise, he moved as fast as he could –after all he was known as the Espada with the strongest Hierro, not as the fastest- and tried his best to avoid Nelliel's barrage of attacks. His eye was wide with shock. He always tried to provoke her but he never really managed to do it, except maybe from their fight where he broke her mask. She had been very upset when she learned about her fraccion. He guessed that he shouldn't really talk about her weight like that. If he remembered correctly, back in the day he had eavesdropped her fraccion that she wanted to start a diet. "Oi! Nelliel! Maybe-Oof- I shouldn't have said that…"

Nel looked furious. "So you are considering my feelings now, huh?" Nel jumped high and was about land a very powerful blow to him when suddenly Urahara's device started making a beeping sound.

All of them froze and Nel stared at the device in her hand. "Oh, no…" She transformed midair, quite high for a child to fall from.

Noitora's eye widened. "Shit!", he shouted forgetting completely Harribel's rule. He ran towards her falling form and so did both Tesla and Chad. What they didn't notice was that since now she was a child her pants and boots fell off and as they tried to catch her, Nel's boots hit Noitora straight in the face and her pants fell on Chad, disabling him from seeing where Nel was going to fall.

The result was that Noitora and Chad crushed on each other, while Tesla managed to catch Nel before she hit the ground. Nel giggled. "Thank you, Tesla. You saved Nel."

"You're welcome, Miss Nelliel.", replied the fraccion.

Noitora rubbed his forehead, groaning in annoyance. He hadn't really felt pain, but he hadn't expected the sudden blow to his face and he was really wary of anything approaching his lone eye. He looked at Chad with a frown. "Oi! You ok? You fell on my Hierro after all…"

Chad nodded while getting Nel's pants out of the way. "I'm fine. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would."

"Good.", replied Noitora and turned to Tesla. "Good catch, Tesla."

Tesla beamed at the praise and handed Nel to Noitora, much to the latter's confusion. "Why are you giving her to me?", he asked while holding her at arm's length, which for Noitora was quite far.

"I want to grab Miss Nelliel's clothing. I'm sure she would appreciate it.", he said while folding her pants.

Noitora blinked but didn't question his fraccion. He stared annoyed at Nel and it was obvious from the way he was holding her that he had never before in his life held children. Nel glared back at him. "You called Nel fat!"

Noitora scowled. "I called your resurrection fat, you dumbass."

"It's the same thing!", shouted Nel.

"No, it's not! You have a cow's body in your resurrection and I have six arms! Besides, I apologized!"

Nel pouted but then her eyes lit up. Obviously she had an idea. "In order for Nel to forgive you, you'll have to apologize to both Orihime and Chad for your behavior in the war."

Noitora gaped at her and Nel grinned at him. "What the…?!"

"You heard Nel. Go ahead or Nel won't battle with you ever again."

"Tsk! Fine!" Noitora turned at Chad and the human backed away a little. "Sorry for hurting you, even though you were an enemy at the time." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Chad blinked. "You're forgiven…. I guess…"

Noitora stared at Nel expectantly. Nel had a smug look on her face. "Nel doesn't mind the apology to Chad as much as Nel minds the one to Orihime. You were unnecessarily harsh and perverted with her."

Noitora growled. "Fine! Let's go find our dear pet! She is probably fucking with Ulquiorra as we speak…", he mumbled the last part to himself.

Tesla smiled apologetically to Chad. Chad was really confused about what on earth had just happened. "Why is he actually listening to her?", he asked.

Tesla's smile softened. "Master Noitora actually felt terrible guilt about what he did to Miss Nelliel, even though he'll never admit it, not even to himself. He lost his best sparring partner when he got rid of her and it had him bothered for quite a long time. I think that by actually listening to her, he is making up to her and curing his own guilt.", explained Tesla.

Chad nodded in understanding. Noitora had put Nel on his shoulders and was moving towards the main building. Tesla smiled and whispered something to Chad. "Master Noitora never hated Miss Nelliel… He just wanted her acknowledgement…"

Chad didn't answer and Tesla started following Noitora. Chad didn't know the whole story between the two arrancar, but for some reason everything Teslad had trusted him with had made sense.

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Grimmjow definitely had the weirdest day. First of all, his rival had mocked him by gifting him catnip. After that, Harribel had instructed him to try and destroy the first traps of Szayel's castle and that had gone very well… If you considered a good outcome that he had managed to escape the traps with his life. He had almost been burned to a crisp by the first trap and then, much to his horror, he had made the discovery that Szayel had created traps for each of the Espada, depending on their weaknesses. Thus he had come across the worst trap that could be created for him. The floor had split in two underneath his feet and he had fallen in some sort of water trap. There was an artificial river underneath and the water had been moving extremely fast. He of course didn't dislike water that much (he was no cat despite Kurosaki's foolish attempts to make him look like one), but water wasn't his favorite terrain when it came to battle and he definitely was at a disadvantage. Hell, only Harribell had a chance to fight in water.

When he finally was carried somewhere by the water (and that took too long for his liking), he realized that he wasn't alone. He had been carried to the Menos forest they had and even though he could literally eat Menos for breakfast, having been carried all this way by water with no control of his movements had definitely put a strain on his body. Thus, he had spent the last few hours fighting the Menos and trying to get back to his castle. He reached the main halls in the end, feeling completely exhausted and he had come across the weirdest sight he had probably ever seen. He blinked and rubbed his eyes furiously, thinking that maybe he was more tired than he initially thought and he was seeing things or that maybe he had hurt his head somehow in the battle. Either way, there was no way that Ulquiorra Cifer was sitting in front of him wearing green cargo pants, a black t-shirt with a blue haired anime girl print and sneakers.

Orihime who was with Ulquiorra, smiled at him. "Hey, Grimmjow! What do you think of Ulquiorra's new clothes?"

Oh, that made sense. He wasn't seeing things. The human girl had dressed him up. Grimmjow stared at the other Espada from head to toe and he couldn't stop himself from bursting out laughing. The clothes as a whole weren't bad, but with Ulquiorra's hollow mask and deadpan expression, the image as a whole was ridiculous.

Ulquiorra gave him the equivalent of a glare when it came to his expressions. Orihime frowned. "Is it that bad?"

Grimmjow tried to calm himself down, because his sides were starting to hurt and because of how he spent the rest of his day, the last thing he wanted was to be blasted by the quatro Espada's Cero. "The clothes are ok… It's just… his hollow mask… and his face!", he said between laughs.

Orihime sighed. "I guess I should find something more like your usual uniform."

Ulquiorra nodded. "I don't mind the clothes. They are comfortable.", he said, being as honest as possible. In truth, he would prefer his uniform, but if Orihime wanted to find better clothes for him, he owed to accept her help.

Orihime smiled at him and before she could reply, one of the doors opened and Harribel, Stark, Lilynette and Harribel's fraccion entered the room. They all stopped and stared at Ulquiorra dumbfounded. What made the whole scene even more ridiculous was that Stark hadn't washed his face from Lilynette's drawings and had black goggles and a black moustache drawn to his face. Stark stared at Harribel. "You see it too, right? I didn't drink that much…"

Harribel nodded, her eyes wide. Orihime smiled at them. "So, what do you think? Grimmjow likes the clothes, but he thinks they don't suit Ulquiorra. What's your opinion?"

"They're certainly different from what he usually wears…", said Harribel with an awkward expression while her fraccion were giggling behind her.

"I think they're cool.", said Stark yawning and seeming to have overcome his initial shock.

Lillinete on the other hand started laughing, something that triggered another fit of laughs from Grimmjow, much to Ulquiorra's annoyance. Orihime sighed. "I guess I'll have to create more combinations for you to try on. I am confident though that eventually we'll find what suits you."

Ulquiorra nodded. It was at this moment that a smiling Gin and Rangiku decided to join them. They didn't seem bothered by Ulquiorra's change in wardrobe. In fact, they seemed to be lost in their little cloud of happiness, though from what Orihime had heard from Rangiku, she thought they totally deserved it. "Hello! Ulquiorra, nice outfit.", it was all that Gin said.

Rangiku smiled at Orihime. "We only have one hour left before our visit is over, so I decided to get to know everyone."

Orihime pouted. "Only one hour?"

Rangiku smirked. "Don't worry. We'll visit again next week." She winked at Gin at that last part and the man smirked back.

Orihime beamed. "Great! I'll find better clothes for Ulquiorra!"

Ulquiorra wasn't exactly excited about having to model Orihime's choice of clothes, but he certainly wanted to meet again with the human girl. He couldn't understand exactly why but he felt that he actually did something new and interesting today and he wanted to do more things that he usually didn't do.

"So, do you guys want to try the food I brought?", asked Orihime.

Rangiku beamed at her while the others simply nodded. Suddenly another door burst open to reveal Noitora, Nel, Chad and Tesla. "We are back…." Noitora started with his usual tone but when his eye fell on Ulquiorra he started talking more quietly and slowly. They gaped at Ulquiorra and Noitora closed the door. He opened it again, this time slowly peeking and Nel's head could be seen right above his.

She also seemed dumbfounded. "He's still wearing the weird clothing.", whispered Nel to Noitora, though not so quietly.

"Yeah, I can see it.", replied Noitora in the same tone.

"You two know that I can hear you, right?', said Ulquiorra.

Noitora sighed and opened the door to reveal two equally shocked Chad and Tesla. "Ulquiorra what the-" "Language!" "What on earth are you wearing?"

Orihime groaned. "I brought him some new clothes but apparently they don't suit him that much. Now can we go try the food? I'm starving!"

Chad's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait!", he shouted. Everyone looked at him confused. "Orihime's cooking is quite... peculiar…"

Rangiku waved her hand dismissively. "I enjoy her cooking a lot.", she said.

Gin suddenly frowned. "The thing is both I and Rangiku have grown up in the Rukongai districts and we've learnt to appreciate every kind of food. That doesn't mean that it is necessarily good food."

Orihime frowned. "Oh, come on! You need to try it before you dismiss it."

They all approached the kitchen area, the Espada seeming more alert now that Chad had told them the truth about Orihime's cooking skills. They soon enough came across some weird looking cinnamon rolls and normal looking bread. "I've brought some freshly baked bread from a bakery down the street I live in and I've made the cinnamon rolls myself."

They all grabbed some bread and started eating with more confidence knowing that Orihime hadn't baked it. They then stared at the cinnamon rolls. "Orihime, what have you put in these?", asked Chad.

Orihime grinned at him. "I've put some tuna in it, added some mayo and I decided to add popcorn in it to give it a crunchier texture."

Everyone, except Gin, who simply seemed surprised, Rangiku, who seemed excited and Ulquiorra, who looked the same as usual, turned green in the face. Noitora glared at Ulquiorra. "I didn't realize you managed to knock her up while she was here. Didn't realize you actually got deflowered."

Ulquiorra glared at him. "Nothing like that happened between me and Orihime. Watch your tongue, Quinto."

"Oh, I see. She is pregnant due to that Kurosaki guy.", Noitora said smirking at Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra seemed more shaken than before after that, if you knew how to read the stoic Espada's expressions. "Makes more sense. What a pity, you lost a good chance to get rid of your virginity-"

Ulquiorra had pushed Noitora to a wall, much to the others' surprise since they hadn't paid attention to what the two Espada had been saying. "Apologize immediately, trash. ", said Ulquiorra.

Orihime stared at him with a worried expression. "What's going on, Ulquiorra?"

"He said something that he shouldn't have said.", said Ulquiorra.

"Not that surprising.", said Harribel with a raised eyebrow. She was expecting Noitora's apology. After all she had taken it upon herself to help Nel fix Noitora's attitude.

Nel then smirked at Noitora's predicament. "Why don't you apologize to Orihime as well, Noitora? Unless you don't want Nel to forgive you about the fact that you called Nel fat."

Harribel raised an eyebrow. "You called her fat?"

"For the last damn time, I called her resurrection fat, not her!", shouted Noitora exasperated, but flinched when Ulquiorra pushed him a little harder. "Fine! I apologize for what I said. I also apologize to…", he turned to Ulquiorra and whispered "What was the Pet's name again?"

"Orihime Inoue.", said Ulquiorra in a warning tone.

"Ok, I apologize to Orihime for how I treated her when we were still enemies. I apologize for both insulting and harming her and for what I did to that Kurosaki kid.", said Noitora in a very serious and actually believable tone.

Ulquiorra released him with wide eyes. He didn't expect the other Espada to actually apologize for his actions. Orihime seemed even more shocked at the Quinto Espada's apology. She regained her composure after a while and smiled. "Apology accepted. "

Ulquiorra was staring at her, once again amazed that she was so forgiving and kind to everyone. He really wanted to learn more from someone with such ability. A weird ability that to his eyes was a form of strength worthy of achievement.

Noitora rubbed his head and frowned at Nel. "Are you happy Nelliel?"

"More than happy.", she said giggling. "Nel also forgives you for calling her fat."

Noitora growled annoyed but decided not to correct her again about what he had said.

Ulquiorra suddenly approached the cinnamon rolls and took a bite from one of them. They all stared at him surprised. Orihime was waiting with visible anticipation as to what he would think about her cooking.

Ulquiorra didn't seem bothered. "I believe I like it. I understand what you were trying to do with the different flavors."

Everyone gaped at him. "Maybe she was the one to get 'im knocked up…", whispered Noitora to Grimmjow, who nodded despite not having really paid attention to their previous conversation.

Orihime grinned. "Yay, Ulquiorra likes it!" In the end, Orihime, Rangiku and Ulquiorra were the ones to finish off the cinnamon rolls.

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It was time for Orihime, Chad and Rangiku to leave. They had all gathered again to the Garganta room, this time to say their goodbyes. "I had a lot of fun! I'll try to visit again next week!", said Orihime. "I promise that I'll get you better clothing, Ulquiorra."

Ulquiorra, who was till wearing the clothes Orihime gave him, much to the others' amusement, nodded at her. "Thank you. I believe I enjoyed your visit as well."

Orihime grinned. "I will try to get to know the others as well. I will ask Uryu to join us as well! He might be able to repair your uniform too, Noitora!"

That got Noitora's attention and his eye sparked with excitement. "Really?!"

Nel frowned at him. "You'll be like a spoon again…"

"Oh, shut up…"

Orihime giggled at them. Chad waved at everyone and Rangiku winked at Gin and then they all jumped in the Garganta.

Ulquiorra kept on staring at the spot that Orihime was before she disappeared. He was pretty sure that he was satisfied with having her here and he also believed he felt excitement about her next visit. In his face though, only his usual indifference was written.

End of Chapter 4

A/N: And I finally finished it! I'm really sorry everyone for taking this long but I would come back home from work exhausted and I would just go to bed at times without doing anything else. At least my university project is finally over and I won't have to go there as well, so I'll have more time home to write. Don't worry guys, I won't drop the story, it just might take longer than I originally planned for me to update, but I'll do my best to update as soon as I can. I want to thank Ellieness and Bellaswan120 for reviewing the previous chapter and I'm glad that I managed to keep Ulquiorra in character. (Also the shirt he is wearing in this chapter supposedly has Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion on it. It's that one Bershka shirt XD). Anyway, sorry for the delay and I'll soon start writing Chapter 5. Till next time!