After all that happened, Orihime just could not sleep, having all these thoughts of what had just happened that late morning. Still her mind-bending questions were not answered: Where did that reiatsu come from? Certainly it was not the man that now laid on her bed...naked-she just did not have the courage to do change him into clothes or under garmets for that matter, without his knowledge at that-she simply covered his body as best she could. Also, had this man been laying in that hole since the day before when that hollow had appeared? And most mind blowing question of all, how is it that this man looks remarkably like Ulquiorra? Minus the face markings, dark lip, deathly pale skin, hollow mask and hole, this man could pass for him. And surprisingly did not scare her in the slightest.
She shook off her train of thought as she sat in a chair next to the man that occupied her bed. She looked at the clock that sat on the corner of her nightstand that read a-quarter-passed-5 a.m. She looked back at the stranger; he looked so peaceful and vulnerable almost beautiful to watch. As she gazed at his face her mind began to drift in and out of consciousness, clearly her adrenaline had began to falter taking its toll on her physically. Her eyes as result weighed heavy, fluttering as she rested her head back on the chair and fell asleep shortly coming to dream a dream she had before. The one she had after the Winter War had ended and many nights after.
"Are you afraid of me women?" he asked reaching his hand out to her as his body slowly turned to ash and blew into the wind.
"I'm not afraid," she replied staring into his eyes with sympathy for her dying captor.
"I see," pulling away his reach. What compelled her to do what came next was beyond her.
She reach out to him as he began to drift further away and just when she was certain she reached him. His hand crumpled as she tried to grasped it.
And just like that he was gone. And at that moment she had wished to call out her powers to restore his body before it inevitably drifted into the wind. As she did every time she dreamed that same dream she desired to restore him, unquestionably. At that moment she didn't see him as the enemy that killed Ichigo just moments before then. She saw him not as a friend either, but just a being that needed her assistance.
But in this dream she had many times before was different, the way she felt as he disappeared. He was a person, whom she wanted to stay alive, a helpless soulless being that needed guidance, to find the true meaning of the concept of having a heart and having friends to lean back on. And she wanted to be that friend. His friend...
Bum-bum, Bum-bum, Bum-bum...
Suddenly she was awaken slowly to a light knocking-like noise and a steady rise and fall motion that came beneath her head. Warmth seemed to be emminating from it as well. "What could that be?" she thought to herself as she came to. Slowly her eyes fluttered open, her stormy grey eyes coming to as she did. The knocking and motion never subsided, and despite the uncertainty, she stayed as she was; however she was, enjoying the feel it gave her. How natural it felt that it relaxed her. Beneath her a soft moaning-like noise arose, in that instant she knew what it was. She shot up from her position still sitting in the chair she sat in this morning. To find out that she had been resting her head on the strangers bare chest. Her face felt flustered and increasingly warm as she continued staring down to find the blankets that covered the man's naked body just barely drapped over him as the cloak he was found in did.
"Oh my goodness," she whispered to herself arising from the chair, walking towards the bedroom door.
"I should make breakfast for when he wakes up," looking at the clock as the words came. It read that it was almost noon.
"Maybe lunch would be better."
The doorbell rang as she walked towards her small cramped kitchen. "Oh no! That must be Tatsuki."
"Orihime!"
"Oh um coming," she shouted towards the door. And suddenly heard more moaning and stirring from the bedroom. "Oh my gosh, not now," she said to herself not aware that it was loud enough for Tatsuki to hear from behind the door.
"You don't want me here?" questioned, Orihime's best friend.
"Oh I didn't mean you-I mean-I was talking to myself." Dashing to open the door for her friend. Hoping she would not come inside when she did. She wasn't sure how she would take to finding a man in her bed-naked! Orihime adjusted herself hoping she looked decent and opened the door, to find Tatsuki leaning against the frame, her brows scrunched together in confusion it seemed.
"Hey, Uryu called me and told me about yesterday. Are you doing okay?" she said pushing herself up and brushed passed Orihime into the apartment.
"NO! WHAT AM I GONNA DO?" she thought loudly to herself. Tatsuki is a dear friend but if she knew about the stranger in her bedroom she would jump to conclusion and all the while protect Orihime. Possibly beat the poor stranger to his death. She nodded in response, continuing to her kitchen, pulling out pots and pans and utinscles. Hoping to make enough noise to drown the soft noises that came from the room just feet away from Tatsuki.
"Um, Tatsuki would you like to join me for lunch?" all the while hoping silently that she would decline. "I'm making something I've been trying to try-" she started.
"Oh Orihime um I just had a big lunch, and I'm on a special diet for the tornament coming up!" Tatsuki stated cutting off Orihime. Orihime's creations were never the most delictable, or edible. Shuddering as Tatsuki thought about the last thing Orihime had shoved playfully into her mouth unwillingly.
"I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay," she continued.
"Oh alright. That's to bad I was gonna add bean paste to the reciepe," Orihime said nervously glad Tatsuki had turned down the offer.
"Your face is flushed though," her friend said as she placed her hand against Orihime's forehead, testing it with her own. She continued to diagnose her, "Hm, your warm but it doesn't feel like a fever..."
"Oh don't be silly Tatsuki I just woke up and it gets pretty warm in here around the time it gets to summer, you know that," she said smiling timidly to her worried friend. "Don't worry I'll be fine, so you don't have to go through the trouble of checking up on me-not that I don't love having you-"
"Its ok, I understand. You don't like to be a burden. But your not, and we know you can take care of yourself, but its just since the whole thing thats happened with the Soul Society thing-well you've been...not yourself."
"I-" Orhime started to apologize for her behavior but Tatsuki would not allow it.
"Don't. You need your space, I get it. But just know I'm here if you ever wanna talk about it, okay?" She never realized that she worried her friends so much.
"Thanks Tatsuki, I promise."
"Okay, well I have to go to my part-time job I got at the sporting goods store," Tatsuki stated as she made her way to the door, excusing herself from Orihime's horrible inedible meal. "Call me later," she stated as she opened the door and walked out closing the door behind her not waiting for a response fearing that she might insist on that meal offer.
"PHEW!" she sighed loudly as soon as she was sure Tatsuki was far away from the door to hear. But her worries were not yet solved, there was still the matter of the naked man in her bed, who would soon awake.
"I'd better look for some clothes for him. I guess it would be okay to spare a few of Sora's clothes," she said in a low kind voice. "He wouldn't mind. Would you big brother?" she asked as she looked at his portrait towards the small shrine.
She left the kitchen heading towards the bedroom closet, forgetting all about cooking as she thought clothes should be the main priorty at this point. She looked down at the stranger, blushing as she witnessed that the blanket was even further from providing coverage. He was still sleeping as she marveled at the flesh that was visible. He was certainly fairly built with such a slim body frame. She dared her eyes to look just under his abs to his V-shape. Her face flared in heat as she tore her eyes away, continuing towards the small closet.
"Clothes," she reminded herself as she reach towards the back of the closet searching for a box that was filled with her deceased brother's belonging. Finally she dragged the box out and opened it, reaching carefully not to ruin the way the items were neatly stacked. Satisfied to part with a grey T-shirt, black jeans, checked boxers, pair of socks, and sneakers; she closed the box and shoved it back into the depths of the closet.
"These might be a little to big, but I'm sure when he wakes up he'll go home and give these back later," she said as she turned towards the nightstand to set the clothes for when he awoke, trying her hardest not to look towards the bed-to see God knows as she set the clothes down in a neat pile atop of the table that was-just inches from where he laid-she could hear his slow deep breathing becoming more quicker, as low moans escaped his parted lips. She froze. To find a pair of familiar piercing green eyes, staring into hers.
"It can't be..." she whispered.
"But his reiatsu was...is not his reiatsu," she thought to herself.
He continued to stared into her grey stormy eyes but said nothing. His expressions did not register that he was either surprised, nor aware of the situation. He remained expressionless as he had the moment she met him, and the moment of his death. "There is no way this man could look exactly like Ulquiorra. With the same expressions and those eyes...those same piercing green eyes," she thought to herself as he held her gaze the same way the Ulquiorra she knew did. Petrifying her entire being yet she dared to ask him-
"Ul-Ulquiorra?"
Author Note: First off thanks for my first two reviews. Its nice to know someone is reading, and so far enjoying what I have wrote.
The story is going kinda slow, but I promise you it will develop. I LOVE ULQUIHIME!
That said there will-I repeat-WILL be lemon moments, just not yet, of course.
So again thank you for reading.