Onna

Chapter 10

"Booooorrrreeeddd~ Nel's so boooorrreeeddd!" The green headed toddler swung her legs back and forth over the edge of the table. For the last half hour she's made sure everyone present was aware of her boredom, and it was fraying the last strands of their patience. "Nel is Bor-" Rukia sighed in frustration as she swiftly dug in her pocket, retrieving a box of crayons and a small notepad.

"Here," She said, slamming the objects onto the table top, "Why don't you draw while we finish this?"

Nel's eyes lit up as she poured out the contents within the box given to her. "Oh! These are so pretteh, Ruk-ya!" Orihime and Uryu both gave the female soul reaper a "We-owe-you-one" kind of look. The once noisy girl began to hum quietly as she sprawled herself atop the table, happily scribbling away.

After about a minute or so, Ulquiorra asked, "What are those… colored sticks you gave her?"

Rukia gave the boy an odd look, "Those are crayons. People use them for making art." He was just about to comment on what an odd name "crayon" was when Nel interrupted him.

"Loui-orra, you wanna color with Nel?" The boy gave the paper and crayons a look of distaste.

"No. I am assisting with shelving books... and it looks very unentertaining."

The girl's bottom lip pushed out in a pout, "You're so mean Loui-orra! Mean, meanie, mean, mean, meanie, mean, meanie, meanie-"

"Ulquiorra, would it really kill you to entertain her for a little bit? We're almost done with these books, and it would keep her quiet until we're finished." Uryu sighed. The boy roughly shoved the book in his hands upon the shelf and hopped down from the stool he'd been standing upon.

Loudly, Ulquiorra drug a chair over to the table Nel was lying on. Huffing, he flopped down upon the seat as Nel quickly laid out several crayons before him along with a poorly ripped-out piece of paper. The green-haired toddler babbled quietly about nonsense he really didn't care about as he looked down at the blank paper and colorful wax sticks.

Nel paused several times to tell him to draw something, but he had no idea what to draw. Peopleusethemformakingart,Rukia had told him, but what was art? He recalled hearing somewhere that art was in the eye of the beholder… or maybe that was beauty… Either way, Ulquiorra felt odd being unable to perform such a simple task as putting color upon a blank canvas.

He craned his neck to see what Nel was scribbling. It looked like a very deformed picture of the two arrancars that had accompanied her here along with an odd, worm-like thing.

"That's Nel's fam-ly," She exclaimed, "Oh Nel knows! You can draw your fam-ly, Loui-orra!" Ulquiorra said nothing as she continued to ramble. Well, that was one option on what he could draw, but…

What was a family? From what he saw of Nel and her comrades, in their own annoying way, they cared for her. Was that a family? Was it someone who cared for you, and enjoyed being with you? And if that were the case, did Ulquiorra even have a family? The little boy tried to think of who cared for him, someone he could consider his family.

The first person to come to mind was Grimmjow, but Ulquiorra quickly crossed him from the list. The Ex-Espada "cared" for him about as far as he could throw a menos, as did the other arrancars. All of the Soul Reapers who had showed some sympathy towards the child had done so simply because their Captain had ordered them to. The humans and substitute shinigami weren't unkind to him, but made no effort to be overly nice either. That left only the onna…

She was kind to him. She offered him assistance when others did not. The human woman even went as far as to offer him her bed for the night. That meant she cared for him, didn't it?

Orihime and the others finally finished their work just as Lieutenant Kotetsu arrived to relieve them for the night. As they went to gather the two children though they realized there was a slight dilemma. Both kids were fast asleep. Nel was sprawled acrossed the table drooling slightly in her slumber, while Ulquiorra's head rested on his arms.

"I guess you can't blame them," Uryu sighed, "It's been a fairly long day for the two."

Deciding not to wake them, Rukia pulled Nel off the table and cradled her awkwardly as Orihime tried her best not to wake Ulquiorra as she gently lifted him from the chair. He mumbled something incoherent about garbage as she let his head rest on her shoulder. To Orihime's surprise, he was much lighter then she expected him to be.

Their Quincy companion quietly gathered the papers they'd been drawing on along with Rukia's sketch pad and crayons, following silently behind them.

"I guess we could just let them sleep in our rooms until they wake up since we can't exactly take these two acrossed to the other side." Rukia finally whispered. Once the three of them arrived, Rukia quietly went and to lay Nel on her bed while Orihime did the same for Ulquiorra.

Just as the young woman went to lay the little arrancar down, however, he clung to her. After several attempts to remove Ulquiorra's death grip on her shirt without waking him, she huffed, blowing stray hair out of her face.

You'resodifficul-Her frustrated thought was cut off as the boy's hands slowly unclenched. Sighing with relief, she finally set him upon the mattress and silently pulled the covers over him.

He looked so… innocent. Orihime knew who the child before her really was and what the true Ulquiorra had done in his lifetime. Now though, as she stared down at the unconscious boy in her bed, she didn't see that. Orihime didn't see a cold, staunch Espada, but instead a helpless little kid.

It made her sad, actually. That he was a child living in this world. Hueco Mundo in itself wasn't a place for most adults, let alone someone so young. Ulquiorra was growing-up (even if he didn't physicallygrow) in a world where one was forced to fight or die.

Even though he was still, technically, Ulquiorra Cifer, that didn't give anyone the right to treat him like he was grown. To throw things, that he didn't even recall doing, in his face. Everyone should hold the true Ulquiorra Cifer accountable for his own actions, not this boy.

And to make it all worse, he had no one to go. At the end of the day, he was virtually alone, save for Grimmjow, who didn't seem like one to give much support. No one to tell him it would be alright after he woke from a nightmare. No one there to hold him when he was cold. Not a single soul to ask if he was okay when he was too stubborn to speak up even though something was obviously wrong.

Just when Orihime was positive she was going to burst into tears as her head swarmed with this realization, Uryu knocked on the door frame. She quickly put on a cheerful mask before turning to face her friend standing in the doorway.

"Here," he said, holding out a piece of paper, "This is Ulquiorra's… I think." She smiled and thanked him as he left muttering about needing to ask Ichigo something. Sighing quietly, she closed her door and examined Ulquiorra's picture.

With shaky lines, the arrancar boy had drawn a miniature portrayed of himself at the bottom. Next to the crayon-Ulquiorra was a picture of her. Every detail of her outfit, she noticed, had been captured (even if it was slightly deformed). Then, as if an after thought, scrawled acrossed the top Ulquiorra'd wrote, "My family?"

His small drawing caused her to finally realize what had been tugging at he mind and heart since she'd first encountered Ulquiorra. She cared for this boy. It wasn't the same as how she felt towards her friends, but different. Stronger maybe?

"…nna…" Ulquiorra curled into himself like he had before, his little hands gripping the blankets like a lifeline. Orihime went to his side and sat on the bed. She gently rubbed his back as if to knead out the bad dreams. It seemed that this boy'd become attached to her. Oddly enough, Orihime didn't mind. In fact, she was starting to become attached too.

Yes, Orihime did feel oddly about Ulquiorra, and now she could point a finger at those specific emotions.

It was a mixture of pity... and affection.

Oh, goodness it's been a while. Life's gotten in the way, so I've kinda been on hiatus... But, I am back now. :)

(And to those who left such helpful feedback a while back, please know that I am trying my best to take what you said into consideration when I write. I am still learning, so I do ask that you bear with me ^^")

Favorites and reviews are greatly appreciated. :) :) :) :)