Thanks to Ami, who has been the best gift a writer could hope for. You rock!
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Orihime woke up and stretched, yawning. She pushed away her covers, swinging to the side of her bed and blinked at the alarm clock beeping noisily on her nightstand. She turned it off with a slap, realized that she had yet to make her lunch, and jumped out of bed in a rush.
She got dressed as quickly as she could, smoothing out her bright orange skirt and walking briskly out of her bedroom. She ran her brush through her hair a couple of times until her bed head finally straightened, brushed her teeth in the bathroom and smiling brightly in the mirror, she skipped down the stairs to make her breakfast and lunch.
Orihime was determined to ignore the solid block of dread that had settled in her gut overnight. Determined to shoo it away with her smiles even though she knew that no smile could bail her out.
She knew that the day had come – the day she had been silently dreading all week. Her sixth sense was screaming, screaming that something… something bad was going to happen. Today.
Terrified. Frightened. Anxious. Mix them all up in a cauldron, add some salt and that was how Orihime felt.
But even so, she couldn't quite fight the smile and blush from her face when she came into the living room to find that Ulquiorra had fallen asleep on her couch. The book he had started the night before was more than halfway finished, lying open on his lap.
His face wasn't as tense and guarded as usual, and he looked strangely at peace with his head tilted back, breathing quietly through barely parted lips.
She tiptoed over to his side and lightly shook his shoulder. "Ulquiorra?"
His body instantly stiffened as his eyes flickered over to hers. "It is morning," he deadpanned. "I am not prepared to leave for school." He shot off of her couch, ghosting out of her living room. "I will be along momentarily."
"O-okay." She giggled a little bit, despite the trepidation whispering at the back of her mind, and then went to prepare her lunch.
When she was done, she carefully placed her peanut butter pickle sardine sandwich in her lunchbox, added it to her bag, and went outside.
Ulquiorra was there, waiting for her, just as he was every day.
"How did you get ready so fast?" She asked in amazement.
"I am able to do many things in a timely manner."
"Oh."
They started walking to school then, as was routine, their arms just barely brushing with each step.
It's not that odd, Orihime thought to herself, sneaking a glance at the man at her side, being in love with Ulquiorra.
"You are staring."
Her cheeks reddened. "S-sorry."
They continued on, him acting as if the little incident had never happened. She was still trying to fight down her blush.
When they reached school they went directly to class, a little later than usual. They arrived in the classroom without anything happening, though they were a little early to class, despite the lag in time. Orihime put her back at her desk's hook, then sat down, her mouth turned down in a slight frown.
In her mind, she was absolutely frantic.
We made it here fine. Everything is going to be okay. He's not going to disappear again. He won't! He promised. And nothing can happen at school, anyway. It's school! Nothing bad ever happens when someone is in class. It's not going to happen. He's going to be fine.
Ulquiorra sat down beside her, his face searching her own.
She pretended not to notice.
The bell rang, making her jump. Her heart was beating frantically, her eyes searching all around the room for any signs of danger. She was just waiting for a hollow to appear in the class and swallow up the tear-streaked man next to her.
Students filed in, everyone taking their seat as the teacher called roll. When she got to Orihime's name, the girl's 'here' came out slightly strangled, but it seemed that only Tatsuki – who was across the room – and Ulquiorra noticed.
"Ichigo, Rukia, Uryuu, and Chad are gone. But they'll probably show up soon, so we'll just excuse them."
The students in the class dreamed of being Ichigo's friend and getting excused without so much as a second thought.
Orihime bit her lip, worried about why they were gone. She had been very spaced out that morning. She kind of remembered passing them while Ulquiorra and her were walking to school. They'd been on their way to Urahara's shop, she thought, talking about doing some… Some report? She wasn't very sure as to what they were up to, but she couldn't sense a hollow anywhere, so she guessed it was normal soul reaper business that didn't involve fighting.
Class was let loose all of the sudden, the students standing and mingling, as they were being given a free hour since the teacher had to go speak with the principle about budget cuts. While it was a little stupid to do in the middle of class, no one was complaining.
Orihime forced a smile as Tatsuki came over to her desk, looking bored. The girl leaned against the window next to Orihime, her hands braced behind her on the windowsill.
"You seem a little distressed," Tatsuki started concernedly. "Is something wrong?"
"U-uh, no, no!" She waved her hands, still pushing forward her smile. It was getting harder to keep her lips lifted like that when all she wanted was to panic. "Nothing's wrong!"
Tatsuki narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure?"
Beside them, two boys were goofing off, throwing kicks and karate chops at each other as they traded childish insults. Behind her, Ulquiorra looked on uninterested.
"Yep. Everything is A-okay!" Orihime cheered, still smiling.
"Well… if you say so. Anyway, I was wondering, have you-"
The teacher suddenly threw the door open, walking in, surprising the two boys next to Orihime. One of them froze as the other one tried to take back a kick. In the end the boy flew forward, smashing into Tatsuki, and falling to the side.
Everything happened in slow motion.
Tatsuki's head hit the glass behind her, shattering the window as the girl's eyes went wide. The boy's force pushed her back even more, sending her into open space.
Orihime realized in that split second that the other girl was about to fall to her death.
She jumped to her feet, throwing her arms out, and pulled Tatsuki to the side by the front of the tomboy's shirt. Orihime's momentum carried her forward, throwing Tatsuki back into the safety of the class room and suddenly Orihime was falling. Falling, falling, falling…
Falling from the fifth level of the building all the way down to the concrete below.
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Students watched in horror as Orihime Inoue pulled her friend back into the classroom, her own body flying out the window in her hurry. They stared in amazement as Ulquiorra Cifer, the tear-streaked transfer who never showed any emotion, leapt up from his seat.
"Orihime!"
It was the first time anyone had heard him speak her name. It was the first time anyone had heard genuine emotion – fear – in his voice. It was also the first time anyone had ever seen him looked panicked.
Everybody watched in shocked terror as Ulquiorra Cifer threw himself over his desk and dove out the window.
Screams were let loose and suddenly everyone was in motion, running to the look outside, clamoring for a spot near the glass panes.
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Orihime was terrified. She didn't have time to scream.
The ground was getting closer, and closer, and closer…
"Shun Shun Rika!" She screamed for her fairies, much too late, and twisted in the air so that she couldn't see the ground closing in. She caught sight of Ulquiorra flinging himself from the class above her, his gigai letting him go. He was suddenly an Arrancar, his head shielded on one side with his bone skull, white robes billowing in the wind.
Déjà vu and an odd sense of reversal, twisted in her stomach when his face lit up in pure panic, his hand reaching out to her as her own had to him.
Then the pain came.
Her whole body hit the ground, head cracking on the cement, things snapping and bursting. She coughed up one last breath in complete agony, blood spewing from her mouth. Everything went black.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump, thump. Thump. Thump… thump…
By the time Ulquiorra was at her side, Orihime Inoue was dead.
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Ulquiorra looked at her crumbled body.
Blood was pooling around her head, and bones were protruding from the side of her right arm. Her breath had stopped, blood leaking from her mouth. One of her ribs had pierced her skin and shirt, and was now sticking up in the air like a bloody flag. Her neck was at an odd angle, her leg twisted in a way it wasn't supposed to.
And her heart. Her wonderful, angelic, beating heart.
It was silent.
He could only stare in silence.
He had never thought he would see something that would still bother him. He thought he had witnessed everything terrible the world had to offer. He had been wrong.
Up until now, he had never seen an angel lying dead, fallen from the sky, her wings stripped away and her skin slowly, but definitely, growing cold. He had never thought that anything in the world could kill an angel's heart. But Orihime's had stopped beating before he had gotten to the ground.
Students above him were screaming in hysteria.
He vaguely noted that a bit over to the left, he could see that his own gigai had landed, somehow not bleeding, but instead oddly jumbled and lifeless.
He could feel that there was an expression of agony on his face. He, the one who couldn't feel emotion.
Damn his useless heart.
He dropped to his knees, lost, suddenly not understanding just why he was alive. He couldn't really seem to understand anything.
It had to be a nightmare. Let him wake up. Let him wake!
Then, in the midst of death, there were suddenly tiny winged people appearing before his eyes. Ulquiorra looked at the angel's hair. Her hairpins were gone. The little fluttering people looked grim, but determined.
"We'll need a lot of your spiritual pressure." The blond one, with green wings and a red dress, was addressing him. "I'm not sure of the affects, but it doesn't matter."
He couldn't speak.
"Please, we must hurry. I'm not sure how long it will be until she's really gone. Please!"
He managed to somehow choke a reply out through his grief, his hand finding the cooling one of the woman before him.
"Do what you must."
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So. Uh, yeah. I um... I killed Orihime. *hides* Don't kill me!
Please, leave a review. Tell me how angry you are for me killing her, or how horrible this was. Anything. But please, review. *smirks* After all... I control what happens next. And I am so review hungry! Mwahahaha! (Just kidding, I will continue even if I get no reviews, and will not make the plot suffer. Though I will cry...) Thanks for reading!