The beginnings of love are always fun.

Everything is exciting, you are forever curious, and your heart beats to its own unique song.
Except this time the song is so fast and so loud it feels like your heart may parade right out of your chest and give itself away.

Wait, no, that's silly. In actual fact, by the time your heart carries on in such ways, it's already half gone.
And of course you're scared, what if they don't accept your heart? What if they find its song to be out of tune?
The beginnings of love are fun, but torturous.

Not knowing how the other feels, being worried that anything you say or do could ruin the fragile groundwork which can bring two hearts together.

Well I used to think that. Now I know not all beginnings of love are joyous occasions. I can't even place where mine for you began. My heart did beat; oh it beat rather quickly, but from fear. First because of a strange situation, then from what I knew you could (and what you did) do to my friends, and finally for you. That must be where my love began, between the fear of what you could do and the fear of what could happen to you.

You were not my envisioned prince. You are not heroic, you have such little warmth, and you care for none. That's what I thought at first, which was the real beginning. Not a very good one, but I guess all stories must have a beginning, ours is just more interesting. I now know that your actions can be beyond heroic. Your warmth can reach me even when I think I will forever be cold. You care for me more than I could ever realize.

If a normal love is torturous I don't think there is a word to describe ours. Perhaps there is, but I would bet a great deal I would rather not know what that word is. It is hard to be worried about whether or not another heart will accept yours, but imagine trying to give your heart to someone who questions its very existence. That was rather difficult and the fact that you're incredibly stubborn doesn't help very much. When I threw myself and my shield in front of you, I didn't know what I was doing. I knew I was protecting you of course (the why was very unclear at the time), but I couldn't have imagined that my action had begun the rebuilding process of the most vital organ.

Our love is strange, but it is strong. It was strong enough to pull two beings from the polar opposites of the universe and fuse them together. It was also strong enough to weather wars and a great deal of opposition (a great great GREAT deal). It is still makes my heart beat its favourite tune, and it will continue to do so always.

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Orihime smiled as she finished the letter. She sealed it and placed it with the cake she knew Ulquiorra would choke down just to please her, and his face would never give away his stomach's brave battle. Ten years already, she sighed, and then her smile grew.

Anniversaries are always fun.