"Yes."
Ichigo blinked. "Is it really you?" he whispered, still not able to believe it.
Ulquiorra nodded slightly. Orihime shoved him forward, causing the arrancar to stumble and land on his knees by Ichigo. "See Ichigo! He's alive! So please don't be depressed anymore….." Orihime said, looking at him.
"Yeah…." Ichigo looked at Ulquiorra. "Thanks….."he said, smiling.
Orihime smiled softly as Urahara silently ushered the group out of the room.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Ulquiorra looked at Ichigo. 'What do I say?...I finally found him….Aizen's dead…What now?...Where do I go from here?...'
"I'm glad you're ok," Ichigo said, grinning. Ulquiorra blinked, pulled from his thoughts. "What happened when you were taken back?"
"He did what he always did…."Ulquiorra said, trailing off to think again. Ichigo closed his mouth, letting it stand. He didn't want to bring up any bad memories now that he escaped Aizen's reign. Ichigo stared at Ulquiorra, who had an expression of concentration on his features.
"What now?"
"Huh?"
"What now? What are you going to do? Aizen's dead, right?" Ulquiorra nodded. "So now what? Where will you go? What will happen to you?" Ichigo looked down. "We can find you a job….maybe you can stay here in the Human World…Maybe at my place…what will I tell Dad?"
"Then how about he works here?" Urahara exclaimed as he threw open the door. Ichigo stared at him in disbelief, as Ulquiorra blinked in surprise. "I need a new hand around her," he continued, fanning himself. "He and Tessai can do the heavy lifting. What do you say, Ulquiorra? Don't worry I'll pay you handsomely!"
"That's a lie," Ichigo mumbled.
"Don't be so mean Ichigo! Of course I will pay him the same amount I pay my other employees! How can you say such a thing?" Urahara pouted behind his fan. "So what do you say?"
Ulquiorra looked to Ichigo, then back to the man. "Yeah."
"Then it's settled! Now I must introduce you to your coworkers! Ginta! Tessai! Ururu! You have a new-!" the door closing cut off his sentence as Urahara dragged poor Ulquiorra with him to meet his coworkers.
"What….just happened?"
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"And that summarizes your job and stay," Urahara finished. Ulquiorra nodded. "First things first, YOU need a gigai," Urahara said, poking the arrancar in the chest with his closed fan. "Hmmm, til I finish your gigai, you can roam free. Your work starts when I finish," he said smiling. Ulquiorra blinked and nodded, not really understanding.
Ichigo opened the door, limping into the room. "Ichigo, go back and lay down. Your wounds aren't healed enough for you to walk around," Ulquiorra said, walking up to the orange haired boy. He grinned. Ulquiorra looked at him confused.
"Come on."
"Huh?"
"Hat and Clogs said you're free til he finishes your gigai. I think those things take a while to make, so let's do something," Ichigo said, still grinning. "No one, well most, can't see us in this form. Let's have some fun." Ulquiorra let out a small smile.
"Yeah."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Some how the two ended up by the river, sitting side by side.
"He really did that?" Ichigo asked, throwing a stone into the running water. "It….I never thought it was that bad. I would of ran away too if I had to go through that every day." They sat in silence, with the weight of Ulquiorra's abuse bringing them down.
"Ichigo?"
"Yeah?" he answered tossing another stone into the river.
"What will you do now? Are you still going to be a soul reaper?" Ulquiorra asked, resting his head on his knees.
Ichigo laughed, startling Ulquiorra. "Hell yeah! There are hollows that are still going to attack Karakura Town. I think there are going to be more cuz Aizen's dead. I still want to protect this town. After all I live here." Ichigo laughed again.
Ulquiorra glanced over to him, and threw a stone into to the river. Silence.
"Say, are you ok working for Hat and Clogs? He's sketchy character…" Now it was Ulquiorra's turn to laugh, well quietly chuckle.
"It's ok. I don't mind. He seems interesting to be around."
"I was just saying," Ichigo said, scratching the back of his head.
The sun was still in the sky, not even close to setting. Ichigo was hoping to watch the sun set with Ulquiorra, but that wasn't gonna happen anytime soon. He sighed and looked over towards the pale arrancar. Ulquiorra was staring out at the river, seeming lost in thought. Ichigo looked at the running water and sighed again. He really wanted to replay the incident when the arrancar first woke up in his room. Ichigo smiled to himself, remembering the kiss.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"The outer cast is finished," Urahara stepped back admiring his handy work. The gigai looked almost exactly like the arrancar. The only differences were it didn't have the signature half hollow mask over the left side of his head and the skin was not as pale. Urahara smiled to himself, "Now to make it function properly. I don't think Ichigo would like it if he, say, couldn't finish…." Urahara laughed to himself as he got back to work.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Ichigo and Ulquiorra got up and walked back up the bank. "Hey, any place you wanna to go?" Ulquiorra shook his head. "Then I guess I'm giving you a tour of this place," Ichigo sighed, grabbing Ulquiorra's wrist. "Come on." Ichigo pulled him around pointing out places and giving a brief history of each.
After a little while the couple ran into Chad and Orihime.
"Hey! What are you guys doing? Ichigo, did your wounds heal?" Orihime asked.
"Yeah, they did. I can get up and walk around. I decided to give Ulquiorra a short tour of the town. After all he is gonna stay here," Ichigo said.
"Oh! He is? Where is he going to stay?"
"At Urahara's shop," Ulquiorra answered.
"You're going to stay with Urahara?"
"It was included with the job."
"Good for you Ulquiorra. I'm glad you found a place to stay," she smiled.
"You're going to work at Urahara's shop?" Chad asked. Ulquiorra nodded. "But don't you need to be seen by people to do the job?"
"Urahara's working on his gigai thing now," Ichigo said. "Hat and Clogs says he doesn't have to work til he finished the thing."
"So you don't have anything to do right now?" Orihime asked, smiling. Ulquiorra nodded. "How about we go to the park? All of us?" she proposed, looking around.
"I don't mind, what bout you?" Ichigo said looking at Ulquiorra shook his head. "You?" looking at Chad. He shook his head. "I guess we're going to the park."
"Yeah!" Orihime said.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"We're here!" Orihime said, turning towards the group. Some where along the way they picked up Uryu, who didn't mind joining the group for some reason.
"Orihime, it's just a park, you don't need to get so excited," Uryu said, pushing up his glasses. Orihime didn't say anything, but just turned and smiled.
"Hey, let's go on the swings," she said, after spotting the playground.
"Ori-!" Uryu said but she was all ready hurrying away. "We better go watch her. I worry bout her sometimes." Chad nodded. They left, leaving Ichigo and Ulquiorra looking at each other.
The two were about to follow the rest of the gang when they felt a Garganta open allowing a large spiritual pressure through. Orihime stopped running and looked towards the source with Uryu and Chad. Ulquiorra looked at Ichigo, then to the person.
"Crap. I thought they would leave us alone," Ichigo said, gritting his teeth. The spiritual pressure started their way. Ichigo got into his fighting stance, waiting for the intruder. Orihime touched her hair pins. Ulquiorra touched his zanpakuto.
Finally the spiritual pressure appeared above the group.
"I found you."
Kyo: Just when things were finally settling down an unknown person with a high spiritual pressure shows up! Who was he looking for? And why? Haha! You, my reader, have to wait until the next chapter. I'm going make sure I say this. Sorry for any OOCness and that for sure, I don't own Bleach. *nods* Please review! I think I said that enough, maybe on the next chapter just to make sure. But would really like to hear what you think.