Author's Note: I would have updated this four days sooner, but FF was being a screw-chan. Sorry! In other news: this drabble and the next are my favorites of the series.
VIII. "Health"
Ulquiorra could see that after five weeks in Las Noches, Orihime's health was dwindling quickly. Not only was she physically sick with grief, but the mental torture she underwent each day (due to afternoon visits from Gin) was wearing her sanity thin.
"Do you want to be saved?" Gin asked her during their most recent session. "Do you want to die?"
"Yes," she said in response to the first. "No," she said in response to the second.
"Ah, ah, ah," he told her, wagging a finger and grinning. "You can't have one without the other, Hime-chan."
"They will come for me," she replied with conviction, though her knuckles were white on the seat of the chair.
"Do you want them to save you?" Gin asked in the same tone. "Do you want them to die?"
Orihime felt like she was going in circles. "Yes," she said in response to the first. "No," she said in response to the second.
Gin leaned down, face inches away from her own, and poked her nose playfully. "Ah, ah, ah, caught you again! Remember, you can't have one without the other, Hime-chan."
"They won't die," she told him, her nails digging into the mahogany. "Kurosaki-kun won't die."
"He won't," trailed Gin airily, "if you will." He paced around her lightly, like a cunning vulture circling its prey. "And if you won't, then he will. It's very simple, no?"
"That isn't true," she said, her voice like steel but her glistening eyes betraying her. "It's not that black and white."
Placing thin hands on her shoulders, he massaged the nape of her neck without permission. "Look around you, Hime-chan." His fingers suddenly grasped her chin gently yet firmly, directing her gaze around the room. "What here isn't black and white?"
She wanted to respond with something cutting, something so sure that it left him breathless. She opened her mouth, but not even a meek sputtering was heard.
"Do you want to be saved?" Gin whispered a final time, his lips lightly brushing her ear. "Do you want to die?"
"Yes," she said in response to the first, feeling her body shake involuntarily. "Yes," she said in response to the second as tears cascaded down her cheeks.