~New chapter! Because I got AWESOME reviews that made me very happy, which motivated me to start updating this as I sit here typing at 4:07 AM. Special thinks to those who've reviewed; Mika, venG, and The Form Of True Despair. venG was amazing enough to actually PM me with some errors in my last chapter! :D The Form Of True Despair, I was using enter to space my paragraphs out a bit in the edit/preview document thing here on FF net, but when I saved it it was right back the way it was. Help? I don't know how to make it be more separated ;-; (but your review was gladly acknowledged! I tried, but it didn't work. I just need a little help ^^;) Mika, although no critique (which is 100% ok!), made me feel super happy because they reviewed at all, which is definitely something! :) So even if its a "Your story is cool", that's good enough because it lets me know there are people out there who enjoyed it, which motivates me to write more of it. But of course I don't know unless you tell me ;P So if you want me to improve/change my writing, you'll have to critique a little and tell me what to change. Thank you!~
Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach. If I did, awesome characters would stop dropping like flies : /
Ulquiorra paced angrily in short lengths across the linoleum, and although he was in his full Espada uniform (freshly washed and mended, thankfully) he made no sound. He was healed, dammit! Why was he still here, still locked to this stupid bed? He'd start getting ulcers if he continued to sit for one second more.
"Oh, stop pacing! They promised you they'd let you out today, remember? They don't want you hurting yourself again." The voice drifted over to him from a chair in the corner of the room; Orihime reclined on it and shuffled around with an odd multicolored block-shaped object. He ignored the cube in favor of reprimanding her.
"I'm… was, an Espada. I possess the ability to quickly regenerate; going on a walk to get out of here for even an hour won't kill me." He mumbled pointedly, tripping over the fact that he wasn't an Espada- not any more.
"Just….. mess with this in the meantime. I'll go and see what's taking them so long to get the ok to let you out." Orihime said exasperatedly.
She tossed the block at Ulquiorra, studying him as he smoothly caught it with three long, spindly fingers as though any more than that was a waste of energy to use. She stood, chair dragging across the floor with a grating noise. She cringed visibly at the sound and whispered "Any longer in here and I'll be crawling the walls too." before plodding towards the door. She opened it and kept it open for him, knowing some of the outside air would blow in and keep him from going stir crazy for a time. Ulquiorra watched her go and his eyes flicked down to the cube she'd tossed him. What in the world was this thing's purpose?
He turned it over and scrutinized it, before noticing one of the sides was sticking out a bit unevenly. He pushed it, and it slid around to leave a whole new set of colors in its place. Intrigued, Ulquiorra tried pulling another section, elated to find it slid around same as the last. Being locked up in a hospital room for a day or so would render any form of entertainment, no matter how simple, a welcome relief. He knew if someone had told him he'd be sitting chained to a bed in a hospital room in Soul Society playing with a square days ago, he'd have done nothing more than stare at them, and consider the stability of their mentality.
But now? If he wasn't so eager for something, anything to do, he'd be horrified with himself. In Las Noches there had always been something to pass the time with- go on some mission, kill some Adjuchas, something. Being confined to a mostly small room with little range of movement allowed to him had near bored him to death- Orihime surely would have been upset to have him die of boredom so soon after saving him. Absentmindedly pushing and rotating rows and columns of colors, he knew what the objective had to be- get all the same colors to match on the same face. He strode over to the closest wall the bindings would allow him to and leaned against it, engrossed in his new toy. Who knew this "Made in China" cube could be so entertaining?
Orihime walked past shinigami, some still on the mend and others fully healed- few had escaped completely unscathed. Reaching the doors that she knew behind which the captain commander would be seated at his desk, she hesitated. Dragging back some of the courage that had fled screaming she knocked on the big wooden slab, with simple, yet elegant designs carved upon it.
"Enter."
That one word made Orihime want to do the exact opposite all the more, but it was too late now. Pushing her weight against the stone-heavy door, she budged it open enough to squeeze through. Letting her slate-gray gaze wander across the room, she saw General Yamamoto leaning over a rail on the balcony nearby, an ancient sentinel looking out over soul society. Orihime opened her mouth to speak, but the captain commander beat her to it.
"The ex Espada. He is becoming impatient with this captivity, is he not? But were I to set him free, who is to guarantee he wouldn't launch an immediate assault upon Soul Society?" The commander's voice rumbled, rough with age.
"I-I….. I've spoken with him, and am…. Well acquainted with him. He doesn't lie, and when I asked him if he intended to seek revenge, all he did was scoff and say there wasn't any point in it- he didn't feel any remorse that Aizen was dead in the slightest. It's not right to keep Ulquiorra here when he's been given another chance like this." Orihime's voice trembled, but gained confidence as she pressed on bravely.
"Not right? Not right to keep detained a potential threat to the balance of our entire world?"
Orihime was caught off guard by this but knew, despite the risks of freeing Ulquiorra that nobody, ex Espada or otherwise, deserved to spend their days in a sealed room. "N….No. No, it isn't. Two wrongs don't make a right."
"Even when the lives of thousands hang in the balance? Are you personally willing to take responsibility for any regrettable actions he may take?" The commander turned towards her, lifting an eyebrow in question.
"Yes." Orihime said solidly. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she ended up saving Ulquiorra only to have him waste away in a cell- just like she would have, had someone not come for her; everyone needed a savior at times.
"Hrmph… child, I do not trust this arrancar. I cannot fathom how you are able to. But I won't allow him complete freedom until he has truly proven his intentions of peace. Urahara created the Hōgyoku…. I suppose then that I will have him deal with a result of that accursed object. Take this….Ulquiorra back with you to the world of the living. If he displays adverse behavior, then he will be eradicated immediately. Now go. I am sure he wishes to break out of those cuffs at long last." The commander waved a hand dismissively, turning back to his perusal of Soul Society.
"Y-yes, thank you commander! I'll keep him in line, I promise!" Orihime cried gratefully.
She skittered from the room, a bundle of emotions that were savagely fighting each other to take over as the dominant one. Fear fought with dread, relief with worry, but anxiousness destroyed them all. Ulquiorra, blending with humans? …Well, if he really did want to live, he'd better find a way to deal with it that didn't involve killing or otherwise maiming anything.
Upon approaching the open door to his room, Orihime made her steps a bit more profound- she couldn't knock on an open door after all. Surmising he couldn't have possibly not heard her, she stepped through the doorway and found….nobody. Panic tore through her for an instant, and she whipped her head around searching for him, her bright orange hair arcing around behind her like dyed water kicked up from a pond side by an exuberant dog. Through her alarm, she heard an insistent "click. Clickclickclick. Click-chak." And felt her heart skip a beat, then relax as she saw him sitting against the wall, his attention so focused on the Rubik's cube he hadn't heard her even though she'd purposely made extra noise.
"You must be REALLY bored if you're that into the Rubik's cube." Orihime taunted, fighting to keep the grin off her face.
Ulquiorra's head snapped up, almost impaling the protruding pointed piece of his mask into the wall. Realizing there was no way to claim he in fact HAD NOT been interested in the confounding little square, he merely frowned and muttered forlornly "Well? May I leave?"
"Yeah, but on …on a few conditions, of course…" Orihime grew serious again, fidgeting with her orange hair, nervously tugging on the ends. Ulquiorra immediately squashed the desire to groan and instead nodded, prompting her to continue.
"You've got to come back to the material world with me and live with Urahara while blending in with humans peacefully to prove that you won't betray Soul Society or go around killing stuff or anything, but really I don't think it'll be that bad, I mean how bad could it be…..." She babbled. The ex Espada blinked. The slew of words had been rushed, but once he made sense of the run-on sentence he wanted to kill something. The feeling of anger made him all the more affronted with himself- he shouldn't be galled, he should be just what he'd always been; Nothing. Nothingness had been his personal little piece of death. Perhaps that piece had been lost when he'd been given another chance at "life". Orihime's voice poked his off-on-a-tangent-conscious back to attention and he refocused on what she was saying.
"…and you can keep the cube. So grab your sword…er… Murciélago, was it?" Orihime stuttered glancing at the blade, fitted in a light green, lacquered sheath. Orihime couldn't resist as she watched as the ex Espada seemed to give the bracelets a mere tug and they shattered. Ulquiorra pocketed the cube as inconspicuously as he could, trying to preserve what little dignity he had left (he wasn't through with the device yet) and stepped across the floor, sandals crunching on the shards of seki seki as he practically hugged his sword, tucking it at his side. He and his sword weren't close as companions, but more as comrades. For the most part he trusted the sword to serve him to its fullest capabilities, and the sword in turn expected him to use its power appropriately. They spoke little, but it wasn't accurate to say they were indifferent to one another- merely not as close as others were with their blades.
Murciélago was simply adorned, but its simplicity complemented its elegance- the tsuka had the typical diamond pattern most Zanpakutō did on the hilt, but still somehow created the impression of having a personality of its own. Sinisterly, wickedly sharp looking despite being sheathed, Murciélago's presence made Orihime uneasy- there hovered a cloud of despair, engulfing the sword, threatening to draw in any nearby life and mercilessly crush it. Was the sword always this gloomy? She should ask Ulquiorra to materialize it sometime- company would do it good. Tearing her gaze from the blade, her eyes met Ulquiorra's.
Quickly breaking the stare and turning to leave, knowing he would follow (sadly, he had little choice) Orihime traveled towards the area of Soul Society that housed the enormous Senkaimon gates leading between worlds. Orihime never heard the arrancar move behind her, but she would always see the sweep of his white coat out of her peripheral vision. The few shinigami who she passed began to raise their hands and form a greeting in their throats but then they'd see the stoic, pale arrancar behind her close to glaring daggers at the whole of Soul Society, and their hands would falter, performing a weak, jittery wave before they hurried in the opposite direction of the two as fast as possible.
Ulquiorra followed after her in his typical way of being silent, occasionally brushing his hand along the hilt of Murciélago. Being parted from the katana, even if the distance was but a few feet, had left him feeling rather defenseless. Having it back was comforting, to say the least. The buildings of Soul Society were elegant in a simple way and if he weren't so irked, he'd have acknowledged how well Murciélago would have fit in with this place had things turned out differently, with him as a soul reaper rather than an Espada. The notion was a staggering one; something for thinking over in one's spare time- now wasn't the proper time or place. The building's tiled roofs accommodated the lesser experienced shinigami, providing footing for those who hadn't yet mastered Shunpo while, likely for the purpose of confusing enemies, doors barely stood out from the surrounding wall.
But between the buildings and the sky- seeing the sun was incredibly out of place and even a bit disconcerting for him, considering the never-ending night of Hueco Mundo- the only other thing to look at was Orihime; not a bad thing at all, his mind teasingly supplied, much to his chagrin. Unlike the form-fitting dress she'd worn in Las Noches the shinigami robes did her body little justice, and it was suggested she consciously agreed, pulling the overly large sleeves up occasionally. Also, he noted, her hand would drift up to toy with the ends of her sunset hair, only to gingerly move up to the now fading bruise under her eye (which luckily she still had.) At this Ulquiorra felt regret, just as acutely as back in the hospital room, and had to stop himself from reaching out to take the woman's hand away from her eye, if only to alleviate the acknowledgement of his mistake through her movements. This impulse bothered him- he'd never felt it before. How much was a simple realization going to continue to change him?
At last the gates loomed overhead before them, and Orihime finished exchanging pleasantries and permissions with the guards of the Senkaimon before looking away as the blinding light spilled forth from the parting doors. Orihime practically trotted through, but Ulquiorra hesitated a moment- would he go blind? It was so unnecessarily bright…..he chided himself for his hesitation, and peeved at himself for acting so…so human, he strode forward. Arrancar or no, he still needed to hold a hand up to shield his eyes against the incredibly intense light as he entered the Dangai, where it thankfully dimmed to a pallor, mucky purple. They were giving the two of them a private passage? Ulquiorra looked at the gooey purple walls warily- this passage was private, perhaps to prevent any complications Ulquiorra could cause in the widely used one, but that didn't mean it was safe; far from it, he saw, as the walls writhed in apparent anger at the intruders. The floor rippled, and the walls groaned and screamed viciously as they began sealing up behind them, in an attempt to destroy the unknown entities. Ulquiorra made an annoyed noise in the back of his throat; apparently, the first test of his loyalty was to get the woman and himself safely out of this little scrape. Hm. Clever of Soul Society. Reckless, but clever.
Orihime whipped around, hearing the clamor and having time for a quick "Oh no, not again." before there was a slight boom, the purple around her became blurred, and an arm tightly wrapped around her waist and dragged her along. Making no effort to lose precious time to conceal the sound a sonido would normally make had a high-ranking Espada not been the one using it, Ulquiorra had grabbed Orihime as carefully as one could whilst being chased by an undulating wall of something for which he had no name. The light far off at the end of the tunnel struck him as being ironic, almost mockingly symbolizing mortal's portrayal of death as the tunnel roared with rage and slammed closed faster and faster behind them.
"There is no time for this. I don't have a choice." Ulquiorra thought, and drew Murciélago, ordering the command to release as quickly as was possible. The katana complied, vanishing as it instead integrated its power into the first form of Resurrección. Sparing no time to care if Orihime would faint from being crushed by his spiritual pressure, being crushed by the arm he kept wrapped tightly around her waist, or simply out of fear, he sprang up lithely, wings slicing through the diminishing air space in the closing tunnel. The tunnel's roar grew louder, as though howling in frustration as it gained on them, but more slowly than it had been.
The end of the dimensional twist in space drew closer, and Ulquiorra pumped his wings harder. This irksome tunnel- It was infuriatingly persistent. Ulquiorra was again struck with nostalgia; the end of the tunnel never looked like it got any closer to you no matter how much you traveled, and the same was so for Las Noches. The wall of whatever it was panted behind them, almost in a satisfied manner. Did it truly think it had won? But as it continued to bite at their heels, Ulquiorra was forced to consider if he could get out of this dammed place without releasing his second form. It was a tunnel for chrissakes! He shouldn't need to bother releasing all the way over a tunnel! It aggravated him, but the added weight had slowed him down considerably and made flying more awkward- it's not like he'd made a habit of carrying people, and wasn't used to the feeling. Ulquiorra bared his teeth in rage, and parted his lips to fully release, but was interrupted by Orihime breathlessly shouting "Don't! If your tail gets caught it'll pull us in, then were both doomed!"
Well that was all nice and fine, but if he didn't release all the way, they'd be doomed anyways. "Then you will heal the severed remains when we end up wherever this ridiculous thing leads." Ulquiorra had had his leg, arm, wing, and entire lower body lopped off recently- a more minor extremity like his tail wouldn't be as bad. Shifting into a creature of nightmares Ulquiorra exploded easily out of the tunnel, leaving only the end of his tail in the clutches of the gurgling mass of goo. Punching through the barrier of light, the Dangai behind him screamed in fury at its prey's escape.
The ground rushed up to meet the two as Ulquiorra was thrown off balance due to the Dangai having practically spit them out in indignation, and he managed to twist in midair so he slammed back-first into a rock, Orihime clutched out of harm's way. The cracking of the rock echoed, telling Ulquiorra two things. One, this was an enclosed space and two, these rocks were pathetically weak. He hadn't made a sound, for he'd been thrown at harder surfaces with far more force than this before. Pulling himself out of the Ulquiorra-shaped hole that had been made as the dust settled, he drifted easily to the ground. Even a short look at Orihime implied her being a little shell shocked from the sudden adrenaline, and she swayed a bit when the ex Espada's arm released its bruising grip from around her stomach and set her carefully on the ground.
Orihime dimly found herself glad that she hadn't eaten anything before they'd left. She pieced her thoughts back together enough to remember the arrancar standing beside her who'd just slammed into a rock and had his tail partially severed. Finally her brain caught up to her eyes, and Orihime gaped up at the massive boulder. Ulquiorra had hurt the boulder more than it had him she realized, noting how he tried to brush off the painful discomfort of missing a limb by sweeping the crumbled rock fragments out of his hair and fur. Well, luckily he hadn't had the two trails of fur that swept down from his lower back clipped- that would definitely look awkward.
"Aah! Le- let me take care of that!" Orihime floundered and swiftly called for the her healing shield, the light that was being used too much on injured people recently flashing into existence. Ulquiorra merely folded his arms across his chest and watched with a morbid sort of interest as first the bone was regenerated, and then the blood, muscles, and skin. Watching the blood had been the most interesting by far though- it had coated the bone and stayed suspended there, waiting for the vessels, muscle, and skin that would keep it contained. His tail reformed quickly- obviously the woman's powers were far more potent whenever the situation was serious and she was well rested.
Stretching the newly restored limb, satisfied, Ulquiorra took stock of the location. It was obviously an underground room, immensely large; so large that whoever had built it had painted it to resemble the outdoors, presumably to give it a more "natural" atmosphere. Ulquiorra heard the "clunk" of an opening of a hatch and the "fwsh" of a Shunpo, and before he had time to react, a blade was pressed against his throat and a palm dug into the space between his wings- the person behind him obviously knew enough hand to hand combat to not require a sword.
The person in front of him immediately struck Ulquiorra as entirely odd- blond hair was crammed down under a ludicrous striped hat, and a haori far too big for him and more like sleeping wear hung from his shoulders. Ulquiorra had to suppress the ghost of a smile as he glanced at the amusing choice in footwear. One hand held the end of the sword. The other held a lollipop, of all things. But the only thing about this man that indicated any amount of seriousness at all were his eyes; his eyes spoke of years of experience and knowledge and proved that despite his appearance, he wasn't one to be dubbed a pushover by any stretch of the imagination. Ulquiorra was abruptly struck with a memory he'd long since filed away as completely unimportant- he knew this odd man, if vaguely; he was the one who'd severed Yammy's arm.
Again Orihime's train of thought struggled to keep up with the all-too-quickly unfolding events, and she stuttered out a desperate "W-wait!", wedging herself between Ulquiorra and Urahara. Yoruichi was still in a defensive stance behind the arrancar, and although Urahara had lowered his Zanpakutō, he still kept It drawn and raised up, now closer to Orihime than it was to the ex Espada- it was likely he didn't realize this though, startled at Orihime's defense of the nightmarish looking arrancar- this was inferred from the mouth being opened in a slight "o" and widened eyes. Snarling lightly Ulquiorra pulled Orihime a bit closer to his side and away from the blade, daring either of them to attack.
Orihime's mind blanked for a moment when she felt herself tugged against Ulquiorra's side protectively, but after her brain had clawed its way up out of the mental hole it had fallen into, it picked back up double-time. Her brain had been failing her at critical moments a lot recently, it seemed. "He can't possibly care about my well being- It's not like I'm his responsibility any longer. And yet, why is he….?" Unexpectedly, the fur covering Ulquiorra's lower half and arms was soft- not coarse, like she'd expect would fit a terrifying form like this. But Orihime's attention was drawn back to the matter at hand as she realized Ulquiorra was snarling. This certainly wasn't off to the best start. "Ssh!" Orihime hissed and, just as Ulquiorra had done, brought the back of her hand to his mouth to silence him. Again she was blown away at the fact that she could do this and not have her hand chopped off. Apparently, upon finding a heart, human emotions had been dragged out of him with it. All the better for her hand, she supposed.
Before Ulquiorra could find the time to be miffed, Orihime jumped in to stop the situation from coming to blows. "Urahara-san! Yoruichi-san! He's not an enemy!" Ulquiorra doubted Orihime heard it, but his ears easily picked up the sharp inhalations from the two shinigami. His snarling had been effectively stopped, he realized belatedly, and he was now reduced to glowering at the odd one- "Urahara". He could still feel the warmness on his lips left behind from when the woman had removed her hand, and it confused him. He should have been enraged that a human dare touch him, but everything recently- allowing her to wash his hair, forcing him to lay down while she healed him, and now shushing him without reprimand- none of it bothered him.
"…But…..Why?"
The shinigami faltered but at length, Urahara lowered his sword and the hand between Ulquiorra's wings disappeared. The one who had been behind him flash-stepped beside Urahara, and critically regarded him. Ulquiorra returned her stare with his peculiar, yellow-set-in-black-eyes. He vaguely knew this one as well, from the same time and place as he knew the man wearing the ridiculous hat. He rapped a clawed foot along the dirt ground, making no more than a quiet "Ffff. Ffff. Ffff." in the sediment. Ulquiorra's tail swung around to his front, winding its length around his leg a few times before it relaxed, the tip swaying side to side slowly. No reason to kick up all the dust down here and need to suffer through taking a bath and peeling away the bandages still glued into his healing wounds, after all. His wings drew in slowly, he not wanting to instigate another attack; with his wings folded, the ex Espada looked more normally sized, and certainly less threatening. He found, not at all to his displeasure, that he hadn't yet relinquished his hold on Orihime, and decided until these two death gods relaxed enough to put their weapons away he wouldn't let her budge.
Orihime tried not to squirm- but the sheer closeness of the arrancar had her head spinning. He smelled almost like sun-warmed stone; a scent not known unless previously experienced for oneself. But past the stone, there was something dark- some dark, sharp scent like…like crushed mint leaves. Tearing her focus away from the way-too-close ex Espada, she looked pointedly at Urahara's sword and Yoruichi's still slightly raised hands. Orihime had quickly figured out that she wouldn't be let go, unless the danger level in the area dropped until Ulquiorra was satisfied she would be fine. Appearing to comprehend Orihime's look Urahara sheathed his sword, and playfully smacked Yoruichi's hands to her sides. The purple haired woman hissed at Urahara, but it was so fast it had Ulquiorra wondering whether he'd been hearing things.
"Did soul society never inform you of our departure for here, Urahara-san?" Orihime questioned hat-and-clogs.
The shopkeeper looked pensive for a bit, and then his face lit up as he remembered; "Ah yes! Perhaps that was what that hell butterfly had wanted. I shooed it away; I'd been busy eating." Orihime nodded and twittered out a nervous laugh.
"Well, speaking of eating, I do believe my noodles are getting cold." With this said, Urahara decided that warm noodles trumped a dangerous arrancar in his basement and turned and flash -stepped up and out the hatch. Shaking her head with a sigh, Yoruichi followed.
"Er….that went well?" Orihime tried, still held against Ulquiorra's side. Snorting, Ulquiorra jumped up and leisurely soared towards the exit, carting Orihime along with almost no extra effort. Holding in her yelp of pain as her new bruises were pressed on again, Orihime watched as the rocks littering the ground grew smaller and less defined, and the ceiling came closer with every beat of the arrancar's powerful wings.
Why was he bothering to carry her when he could have been up the hatch in less than a second?
Hmph. Why WAS he bothering to carry the woman when she could have made it up the hatch herself? Why did he want to prolong holding her as long as possible? He finally understood what a heart was, but that didn't mean he himself had one….did it?
Why, why, why. Recently that one small, three letter word was all either of them were asking.
Reaching the upper end of the ladder, his wings thumped the air rhythmically to keep him hovering in mostly one place. Perhaps true bats couldn't hover, but a modified Espada could improvise well enough. Placing Orihime on the ladder somewhat reluctantly, he gave a murmured command of "Go. I'll be up shortly." and peeled off in a gradual dive, for once not wanting to land. Orihime was about to duck through the opening in the ceiling, but stopped long enough to see the contemplative look on Ulquiorra's face as he performed a loose spiral; as though he'd reached some sort of "Huh. This is different, but I kinda like it." realization.
Watching as the woman pulled herself through the hatch, Ulquiorra turned his dive into a loop, feeling oddly…satisfied..? as he performed a movement that used to have no effect on him whatsoever. When he'd discovered his heart, thanks to that woman, he'd obviously broken a boundary never crossed for arrancar- his shinigami side had been pulled into the limelight where it quivered, begging to be allowed to return to the shadows once more. But, once known, always known- Ulquiorra could try to stuff the human emotions into a corner, and although he sure as hell would try, he knew that inevitably those human feelings would eventually stop shaking and start to grow more and more bold. He wouldn't be able to shove them aside forever, but he'd definitely stifle them for as long as he could. He was still the 4th Espada, emotions awakened or no- a mistake such as letting his emotions get the best of him was inconceivable. He cursed them for managing to be this dominant over him already, and it had barely been the span of a few days. He almost wished he could go back to being ignorant- it had been impossible for emotions to even exist within him before he'd found his heart. Hadn't it? Or had they been there, but he'd ignored them then too?
Completing the loop, Ulquiorra landed on the ladder and, without bothering to reseal his resurrection form, climbed lithely through the hole. His claws made sharp, even clicks as he walked down the hall, his wings brushed against the walls, and his tail still snaking out of the hatch even though he was more than a yard from it. Following the smell of noodles, he emerged in the sitting room. Yoruichi was stretched lazily over two pillows and Urahara was sucking down noodles faster than he could swallow. Orihime sat at the opposite end of the table, watching the two with a soft, familiar smile. Shuffling his wings on purpose so he wouldn't scare the woman shitless when he suddenly sat on the cushion next to her without a sound, he too watched as the shopkeeper downed chopstickfull after chopstickfull of noodles.
Catching Orihime's eye, he found her normally fair colored cheeks to be splashed with a slight red the longer he maintained eye contact. This only caused him to unconsciously lean forward and study her even more intently- what a curious reaction. Did it have significance? Obviously the reaction involved him, considering she quickly broke the gaze and flushed even more. Interesting. He'd have to find out more about this strange reaction. The brief exchange of eye contact had luckily gone unnoticed by the two shinigami, the female having fallen asleep while the other continued to gorge himself. Smirking, Ulquiorra leaned over to Orihime and whispered "Do you suppose he takes the time to breathe in between bites?" Again the red blossomed delicately across her face, but this time it was accompanied by a smothered laugh; Ulquiorra had a point- she hadn't seen him take a breath since he'd started eating about a minute ago.
Orihime had deigned no mention that one of the trails of fur sweeping behind Ulquiorra that began at his lower back was currently against her leg, soft and warm. It was tempting as hell to touch, and Orihime simply couldn't resist, so she did. Ulquiorra felt the hand furtively thread itself through the swath of black fur, and he held in a sharp intake of breath. He'd never been petted before, for obvious reasons, but found that it was rather nice to have someone absently running their hand across your fur. He distantly realized that sentence would sound peculiar coming from anyone else's mouth. At last the nail grating sound of slurping echoed inside the confines of the Styrofoam cup, and with a bloated "Bwaaah…" noise, Urahara set the cup down and lurched up and into the kitchen again. Returning with a tray stained with an unidentifiable grayish substance, he set the holder down, three teas sitting innocently upon their enigmatic perch. Often procuring abnormal foods herself, Orihime pulled the mystery tea towards her with a bright "Thanks!" before taking a sip.
Although Orihime had been a scapegoat for the abhorrent looking tea, Ulquiorra hadn't known she'd be so complacent with tossing it back. What did she eat on a daily basis that would let her see this ghastly mixture as nonthreatening? Suspiciously eyeing the tea, Ulquiorra dared a sip. Well…ok, it wasn't half bad. Urahara, pleased that his two mostly uninvited guests had at least sampled the brew, took a sip of his own. To a person on the outside looking in, this would be an incredibly strange picture; a woman with shocking purple sprawled out sleeping, while an unusually dressed man sat sipping a cup of tea. To the left of him, a girl with equally shocking orange hair sat also sipping tea. But the strangest was the demonic looking figure, who sampled the brew contemplatively rather than doing something more befitting one of his form, such as going on a killing spree or bringing about the end of the world. As Urahara continued to drain his cup of tea, Orihime chose this bad moment to break the news to him.
"So, Urahara-san, Ulquiorra here will be staying in the shop as per orders from Commander General Yamamoto-sama."
A spew of tea was launched up into Urahara's face as he snuffed into the cup in shock. Simultaneously, although much more well concealed, Ulquiorra resisted the urge to hack up the bit of tea that he'd inhaled when he heard the Orihime speak his name with a lack of a suffix, honorific, or anything. But he could hardly be hypocritical- he'd only ever called her "woman", for the no-longer-used reason of not considering her worth an honorific. When had his opinion of her changed? As Ulquiorra watched her smile sheepishly with a strange intentness, it looked as though things were still changing.
Regaining composure, Urahara glanced between the two. "I'm being forced to put up an ex Espada in my shop?"
"Well, the commander general's argument towards that was you having sort of caused it by-"
"Creating the Hōgyoku that started all this crap in the beginning, right?" Urahara cut in, now analyzing the arrancar more thoroughly.
Deliberately bringing the end of his tail curling up into his hands to be absently wiped clean of any dirt, Ulquiorra never broke eye contact with the shopkeeper. He also shifted his silky black wings around a little, to add to the impression of not being human. Urahara's eyed dropped to the tail, and then to Ulquiorra's midnight colored wings, finally speaking.
"Well, as long as he doesn't frolic through town looking like that, I suppose I don't mind anyways; the commander general's going to have to do better than this to get me back. You can take the spare room down that hall there Ulquiorra-san, but it might smell a tad funny. I'd suggest buying an air freshener or something." Standing, Urahara leisurely swung his cane in the direction of the aforementioned hall. Both of his guests tried to contain abhorred looks- exactly what was Urahara's definition of "funny", and why did it smell as such in the first place? Satisfied that one snippet of instructions was enough to get Ulquiorra by for a day or so until he had the motivation to deal with more in depth rules, the scientist poked Yoruichi. Not even bothering to twitch, the purple-haired shinigami merely rolled over and continued to sleep. Shrugging, Urahara started down another hallway, leaving the healer and the bat by themselves. "I've got research that needs tending to now, so you two enjoy yourselves or whatever."
The silence was palpable as the two watched the scientist retreat, stop suddenly, dash into the kitchen, and run back out and down the hallway carrying some package of food or another. "How is he not a million pounds?" Orihime mumbled. Ulquiorra could only agree. Deciding he'd remained in his released state for long enough, he gave the silent command for Murciélago to reform as a blade. He felt his wings seem to fall off; his tail ceased to exist, rejoining with his spine as a normal tailbone, and the horn on the left side of his head moved over and merged with the right to reform the half-bone skull. The fur shed and disappeared, replaced by the usual espada robes. The entire process was rather unremarkable and took only a second or two. There were no dramatic booms, no bright lights, nothing. Everything simply reverted, and Murciélago materialized into his patiently waiting open palm. Orihime had watched the entire transformation, a mixture of awe and respect, it looked like, in her stormy eyes. But there was no fear.
Realizing she'd been so openly staring, Orihime flailed around for an excuse to leave. "Well uhhh….. I should be getting home; the celery leek pie probably went really bad while I was gone. I can help with air fresheners since I doubt Urahara has any here, but you'll have to wait until I can go shopping for them. Oh! And Tessai is a good cook- but if Jinta delivers the food be careful- he likely put something in it." With these few pointers on life in the Urahara shop, Orihime stood and padded over to the sliding door. "I'll….see you at school I suppose? That sounded so weird to say…." Orihime offered, trailing off at the end. His face unchanging, Ulquiorra gave the barest of nods and an even "Yes." Smiling, Orihime skipped out of the store and even down the street from what Ulquiorra could hear. Heaving a ragged sigh born purely from stress and confusion Ulquiorra trudged to the "funny" smelling room, but still somehow retained the dignified, measured steps he constantly used.
From her place sprawled across the cool shop floor, a black cat's lips twitched into a knowing smile.
Not as long as the last one, but I had to break it off here or else it would be weird. (this wasn't meant to be a chapter story actually) Reviews are welcome and will be showered with love, unless you ask me not to, but I don't know why you'd do that. :3 Critique makes me happy because it improves my writing ability and your reading experience, as I've said before, and I look forward to hearing all your thoughts, good or bad. Flames will be used to set my final exams on fire :3