Disclaimer: You know the drill.

Title: In which Orihime talks about her crush.

Prompt: Crush

Rating: T for suggestive themes and a drunk Rangiku.

Warnings: Nothing much, I suppose.

"So Ori-hi-me-chaaan! Ready for your question?"

Orihime blushed wildly. Why she had agreed to a Truth or Dare session with Rangiku Matsumoto of all people, she would never know. She supposed she could blame the spiked fruit juice. Not that she'd known it was spiked when she'd drunk it. In retrospect, she should've been suspicious when Renji and Rangiku began giggling like school children as soon as her lips touched the glass.

"Orihime-chan!"

She came down to reality with a jarring thud. Her very precarious reality, she realised.

They were camped out in her place, to keep her company when Ulquiorra visited Soul Society. That's what they said, atleast. Orihime was pretty sure it was just to dump all their illegal alcohol in one place without spending a dime.

Renji and Rukia were sitting on Ulquiorra's couch bed, Toshiro was on the table (he claimed that someone needed to supervise them), Ikkaku, Yumichika, Tatsuki, Rangiku and Orihime were on the floor.

And now they were playing Truth or Dare. Which never ended well.

For anyone.

She supposed she should be glad they weren't playing 7 Minutes in Heaven or something.

She shuddered at the thought of being locked in a closet with Renji. Or God forbid, Ikkaku.

"You don't have to answer if you don't feel comfortable, Orihime. And you guys! Don't pressure her, alright?"

She looked at Tatsuki's concerned face. "It'll be alright, Tatsuki-chan! We will face our battles valiantly and die defending our territory!" She said with her fist up in the air.

Tatsuki gave her a small smile. "Yes." She bumped her fist with Orihime.

"So now that you've all deigned to pay attention," Rangiku sounded distinctly annoyed, before her tone morphed into something devious, "Who's your current crush?"

Orihime blushed. She knew this was a bad idea! Rangiku-san knew who her crush was, why would she-

"Orihime?"

"Umm," she blushed again, staring around the room taking in its occupants. Renji was looking at her curiously. She shook her head wildly, mumbling, "No crush."

Rangiku looked startled. "No one?"

"Not at the moment," she told them even as her face burned with the lie. She blushed some more before she completely gave up and covered her face with her hands.

"Are you lying, Orihime?" Rukia sounded amused. Oh God, if she was to hear about her crush, she'd tell Kurosaki-kun and he'd get to know and-

"Alright people. That's enough. No means no. Back off."

She sent Tatsuki mental waves of gratitude.

"But with that handsome hunk rooming at your place, I thou-"

Orihime looked up at Rangiku incredulously, forgetting to be embarrassed in her surprise.

"What?"

"What? He's hot, isn't he? I mean, he's not Shuuhei hot or Kuchiki-taichou hot-"

"Rangiku!"

Rangiku ignored Rukia's indignant protest as she rambled on, "-but in a brooding, male model kind of way, he is hot. Definitely hot. Don't tell me, you haven't noticed?"

Orihime's eyes widened.

There was a beat of silence in which everyone stared at her with bated breath wondering if she would acknowledge some secret crush, waiting for the realisation to kick in-

She laughed.

Now it was every one else's turn to stare at her wide eyed.

"Ulquiorra-kun!" She laughed some more, "I've never seen him that way! Maybe he's pleasing to look at-" Rangiku raised an eyebrow at the distinctly impersonal adjective, that did not convey any sort of red-hot, molten passion at all, "-but he's Ulquiorra-kun!"

Everyone stared at her blankly.

"Is this because he was a hollow?" Toshiro blurted. He was curious of the dynamics between the two and often wondered what endeared the dispassionate former Espada to the sweet girl in front of him.

Orihime looked indignant. "No it's not! That has nothing to do with anything. There should be a spark, Toshiro-kun! I mean I've seen him shirtless-" she shrugged carelessly, as everyone around her gasped, "and not felt anything at all. He's just not my type. He's like.. like a brother to me."

Rangiku nodded sagely.

"Ah yes. Not your type. That can be problematic. I suppose your type is a certain spiky haired shinigami?"

Orihime was mortified. "Rangiku-san!"

Rangiku grinned at her unrepentantly. Renji looked appalled. "You mean you've got a crush on Hisagi?"

"Renji-kun, no!"

"Denial is a river in Egypt, Orihime-chan."

"Yumichika-san, no! I've never even seen him properly!"

"Oooohhhhhh! Seen him how, Orihime?"

"RANGIKU-SAN!"

Don't worry she won't be seeing him as a brother for long. ;-)

I quickly did this because I thought you guys would suffer from all that wangst of the previous chapter but you guys blew me away with responses to the previous chapter. Apparently people like good ol' fashioned Angst. Who'da thunk it?

People keep asking me to write AUs where they're human. I've some ideas, I'm in the process of writing one, but it's difficult maneuver human!Ulquiorra. Atleast a non former Espada human!Ulquiorra. I've this idea for an Itazura na kiss type thing for these two, cause Ulquiorra would rock that aloof character. So, thoughts?

EDIT - so sorry for all you people who got alerts! Ffnet decided to delete my update w/o any warning! I've no idea what's wrong, so I reupdated. Such a pain. Sorry guys!