Onna

Chapter 8

"Ah! Everything's all steamy!" Orihime giggled as she stepped out of the shower, seeing that the mirror was extremely fogged up. "I guess the shower was hot." The bright headed girl hummed happily to herself as she dressed in her nightgown and other sleepwear.

She had needed that shower. Now Orihime felt more relaxed and her headache was gone.

After wiping off the steamed glass and putting her wet towels in the hamper by the door, the girl stepped out of the bathroom and headed over to the bed. Only to stop mid step.

Two little black sandals were sprawled out on the floor at the foot of her bed. Her eyes trailed up the mattress to discover a small lump underneath her blankets that was rhythmically rising and falling. Hesitantly, Orihime tip-toed over the foreign entity and slowly pulled back the covers.

Ulquiorra?

She looked down at the little boy in confusion. What was Ulquiorra doing in her bed? Not that the young women was upset or angry about him being there… It was just… odd. 'Should I wake him…?' She thought, staring at the unconscious boy. Then again, if she let him be, where would she sleep, the couch?

"Nnnh…" Ulquiorra's eyebrows frowned and the corners of his lips descended a bit. "N…No…" He mumbled. 'A nightmare?' She wondered, 'Well, then I diffidently should wake him.' Orihime reached out a hand to gently shake his shoulder. "Onna…!" The child cried out in his sleep. The teen let her hand hover in the air above him. Why would he call out to her if he was having a nightmare? Ulquiorra was practically folded into himself but still he drew his body into an even small ball. The red head gently sat down on the edge of the bed and tenderly shook the tear-streaked boy's arm, "Ulquiorra." His face scrunched up slightly before he sleepily opened his eyes, "Mmm Hm…?"

"U-Ulquiorra… Why are you… In my bed?"

The arrancar-child's eyes completely snapped open.

Her bed. He was in her bed. He had ran to her room, and fell asleep in her bed. Even just waking from his nightmare, Ulquiorra realized his major error. In his haste to get away from his problems, the boy'd lost track of his surroundings and involuntarily gone to the onna's room.

"Oh, there's no real reason I am in your bed. I was simply running away from the conversation your comrades had that I over heard and accidentally fell asleep in your room. Also, while I was asleep I had a wonderful talk with the voice in my head. Would you like to hear what he told me?"

Yes, because that didn't make him sound like a lune.

Ulquiorra straightened himself into a sitting position before swinging his legs over the edge of the mattress and quickly slipping on his shoes, "I… wasn't aware this was your room. I was not able find Grimmjow on the arrancars' side, so I decided to look for him in this region. Still unable to locate him, and being very exhausted, I decided to sleep on the Soul Society's side instead of walking all the way back to mine and Grimmjow's room. I was wondering the halls in search of him so long I must have lost track of where I was, for I assumed that this room was… unoccupied…"

Once he'd finished, Orihime smile and nodded, "Okay, I see how something like that could happen."

'You are lucky she is so clueless, for that was an awful lie, boy…'

'I know…'

"I will be leaving now. My apologies for intruding…" Ulquiorra said softly, before getting up.

"W-wait!" He paused at Orihime's call, "I mean, you couldn't have been here too long, so Grimmjow's probably still not back… so… Why don't you stay here for tonight?" For some reason she didn't like the idea of the little boy walking all the way back and sleeping in his and Grimmjow's room without someone with him.

Plus it made her feel better to know that she wouldn't be completely alone in her room.

The young arrancar stared at her as if she's just asked him to say "I love you." to Grimmjow. The idea of sleeping in the same room as her gave him the same feeling. Wrong.

But…. It did sound better then sharing a space with his blue haired companion.

"I assume I'll be sleeping on the couch, then?" Orihime grinned happily, "Yeah! I can just go find an extra blanket and…" She trailed off. Ulquiorra'd already crawled up onto the couch, kicked off his shoes, and curled himself into his previous position. "I do not want a blanket." He stated, closing his eyes. "You sure?" She asked. Taking his silence as a "yes" she smiled, "Well then… 'Night, Ulquiorra!"

"Goodnight, Onna…"

Orihime grinned happily as she clambered into bed. Why was she so happy about having Ulquiorra in the same room as her though…? Sighing a bit, she allowed herself to look back at the boy. The raven haired child shivered slightly.

'"I don't want a blanket", my butt.' The girl thought, sitting up, "Um, Ulquiorra?" He flicked and eye open to show that he was listening. "Uhm… If you're cold, we could share my bed." Ulquiorra pushed himself up on an elbow and gave her a wide eyed look. "Oh, that sounded weird didn't it! Um, what I meant was that there only seems to be one blanket for this room, so it'd just be easier to share my bed and blanket instead of you freezing."

"I am not cold-"

"You're shivering over there!"

"…"

Orihime scooted over to one side as far as she could as Ulquiorra awkwardly slipped under the covers. "See, you get that side and I'll get this side." She stated, drawing an imaginary line down the middle of the sheet. The boy said nothing as he rolled over onto his side facing away from her. "Okay, now goodnight for real this time." The red head giggled slightly as she too laid her head down.

When she had been younger, Orihime would almost always share a bed with her older brother whenever the house got too cold for her to sleep alone. So really, she didn't see anything wrong with sharing a bed. He was just a little kid after all.

'…!'

'She insisted.'

Ulquiorra sighed. His original self was not happy with the sleeping arrangements at all.

It wasn't five minutes later that Orihime's deep sleep filled breathing occupied the room. Ulquiorra couldn't seem to get to sleep, so he decided to lye still and pretend he was else where.

And he was doing pretty well at that until something warm wrapped itself around his waist and drug him a crossed to bed.

Ulquiorra let out a surprised gasp as Orihime pulled him against her. "Mmmh…" she sighed in her sleep. Every nerve and muscle within the little boy's body was completely on edge. Very slowly, her reached down to her death grip and plucked at the hand binding him. The arrancar groaned softly for he couldn't get her off of him (without breaking her fingers that was).

After a few moments, the child's lids suddenly became heavy, and drooped over his line of vision. Letting his muscles relax in Orihime hold, he felt sleep tugging at him.

It was only ironic that he fell asleep in her arms.
_

Somewhere in the middle of the Hueco Mundo desert, a child gasped excitedly. "We gotta go! We gotta go to Lush Nochas!" She squawked at her two comrades. "Why would ya wanna go back there? Don'tcha remember how scary it was the last time we were there?" One of them asked her as he moved his arms to show emphasis. "Yeah, that place was scary!" The other agreed. "And? We have ta go 'cause he's there!" She retorted. "Who?" The other two asked in unison. The little girl smiled widely,

"Itsigo!"

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I'm sorry this is so short, but it's a very meaningful chapter :)

Lol, this chapter is so fluffy you could stuff an Ulquiorra plushie with it!

Hmmm... and who do we know that says "Itsigo" ;)

(Pssssst! See that little blue "REVIEW" button? Everytime you press that Ulquiorra gets thiiiiiiiiiis much closer to smiling) lol, jk. but really. Reviews motivate me to keep writing.