"Ul-Ulquiorra?"

He shot up from the bed to his feet at the mention of his name. Still no emotion smeared his face, but his actions said otherwise, he was unaware of how he got here or where he was. Or how he could even be alive for that matter. He had died what felt like just moments ago; yet he stood here in front of this woman who he once had to care for under Aizen's orders. The woman who once irritated him to no end with her constant ranting of her friends assured victory and her talk of "The heart."

"Orihime Inoue," he stated as he held Orihime's gaze in place.

"Ex-excuse me?" she asked as she stared; half concious to what he just said. Surprised that this man knew her name and spoke in the same monotone Ulquiorra always did.

"You called my name, did you not?" he questioned her.

Still in a state of shock Orihime only continued to stare blankly into his eyes clutchinig the silver bracelet she had slipped into her left wrist just two days ago, trying to registering that this human man responed to the name Ulquiorra. He knew her name as well, so it could only mean that he was him. The hollow she had just dreamed of only a few minutes ago. The person who she thought and dreamed of almost everyday since the war with Aizen had ended, was here, in her room, alive, and naked. To this realization and his current state she reacted.

"Oh my gosh!" she squeked as she noticed herself still staring, her face burning reaching to her ears. "I'm sorry, I didn't see anything a swear-oh um," she said as she reach around her back for the clothes she had just placed on the night stand. "I'm sorry," she squeled as she walked up to him, eyes closed, and shoved the clothes into his chest, only peaking to find her way towards the door and ran passed him to it. But before she passed through the threshold of the door he grabbed her wrist, but she did not turn to find him there standing without a stitch of chothes.

"Woman, where am I? How did-" he started to ask in a calm manner but was soon interrupted. "I'm sorry put your clothes on first, PLEASE!" Orihime said in a voice of panic her face flushed a violent shade of red as she snatched her arm from his firm grasp and ran out the door slamming it behind her.

She staggered towards the kitchen table in a daze, still mesmerized by the Ulquiorra she once feared, and in the end no longer feared but pittied was alive and well in her room. This most be a dream, she thought as she recalled the past six months thinking and dreaming of only him. "Did I-?" shaking the thought of it as she started to say in a low timid voice but stopped her self in mid-sentence knowing all to well that she could never have done that since she did not call forth her powers both his demise.

Nevertheless, isn't this what she wanted? She had said just two days ago that she thought Ulquiorra deserved to have a second chance at life and that she desired just this morning in her dream that she would be the one to help him to find the meaning of a heart, and the opportunity came knocking at the door just as she had wished.

But something is wrong...the reiatsu from last night and the day before...they was unmistakenly his, I'd know it better than anyone expect maybe Ichigo or Uryu. But still, Ichigo didn't notice it. It might have been gone before he got to the park but he should have felt it even before than. Anyway, this Ulquiorra has no traces of having any such reiatsu he once had, she trailed off as she wondered through her memories of her time in Las Noches with Ulquiorra.

"I'll ask him about that later but right now," she said as the sound of her hungry stomach, "I gotta cook something yummy for lunch. I bet Ulquiorra most be really hungry."

She stood from the kitchen table and made her way to begin cooking on her tiny stove, making a loud ruckous with the pots and pans she pulled out from the cabnets.

He stood there moments after she disappeared where he stood alone and looked down to find that he was indeed nude, yet he felt no embarrassment from it, why would he? In his mind, it was nothing to feel nervous or embarrassed about, it was his body and he was not self-conscious in the slightest. But as he further analyzed his body he gasped in soft tone that no one would have heard even in close range. Where was his hollow hole? Where was his number four tattoo that once was just above his left pectoral? Searching the outline of his skull, feeling for a horned-bone-like helmet, but his hands only grasped locks of his black hair. Where was it? These questions roamed his mind in utter disbelief of the things he knew he once had but now he found nothing of the sort.

As he stood there trying to recollect would he could remember before his death in Hueco Mundo and before he felt the darkness engolf his being. But remembered nothing that would have brought him back and in a mortal form...a human body; the very thing he once despised with his whole exsistence.

"Trash," he spat at the very thought of himself.

He reached for the clothes the woman had provided for him. As he looked them over he felt even more so, disgusted with himself. "Human," he thought. How? When? Why? He did not know the answer to and he doubted anyone in this world would ever know. But he would start with the girl with god-like healing powers, the one quality that was of use to Lord Aizen and his plans for conquest. But why would she, if she had indeed restored him? He had been her captor and caretaker under Lord Aizen's order's, but as he logically thought it over in his mind he came to realize if the girl was alive then that would mean he had lost and everything was for nothing. As for the time it has been since then, was also a mystery to him...

(Metal clashing and banging beyond the door)

"What hidious and uncomfortable clothing, these human's wear," he thought to himself as he dressed in what was provided by the woman. And walked out to see her seating at the table surround by what appeared like to be food but smelled of something else all together.

"Ah, good to see you nak-I mean I'm glad to see your wel-l-I made us some lunch. I wasn't sure what you liked so I made-" she was babbling when Ulquiorra interjected.

"I will only ask you once and I want a straight answer. Where am I? And how did I get here?"

She looked up into his face about to answer to his demands but suddenly thought he was in no position to make demands. They were no longer in Las Noches, he was no longer an Arrancar, and she was no longer under his or anybody elses control. But those questions were exactly what she sought to find the answers to and apparently he did not have the answers to either, but she would make it clear to him how the stood. Or at least timidly attempt.

"Uh you can't order me to do anything anymore," she said studdering trying to look him in the eye but she could not. His gaze was to intense to bare. "But just so you know I don't really know the answers to your questions. But your in the World of the Living in my apartment," she began as she attempted to retell how she found him in the trench in the park. "I found you last night-at the park where you first arrived. And I brought you back but as to you being a human, I do not know," she said finishing her explaination looking up to see how he took what she just said. But his face was as unreadable as the day she met him. She sighed to this and continued to say smiling "But you still seem the same except you have a heart now-" he gasped cutting her off.

He had not realized it till he heard her say it "Heart you say?"

Orihime got up from the table and made her way around it to where he stood and lifted her hand and rested it on his chest-he made no attempt to stop her-and said "Yes Ulquiorra Schiffer, you have a heart now," feeling the soft warm rhythm of his beating heart. A rhythm that said it all, he was human and now he obtained what humans can not live without. The one thing he could never understand as a hollow before and the one thing he can not see. And now it beat so he could live as a human in this world. But having a heart wasn't enough to understand it, especial for one who's lived without one for who knows how long.

Several moments passed and her hand hand was still rested on his chest, and finally she let her hand drop and she continued to stare into his eyes. "Did he not realize that?" she thought to herself when a grumbling noise errupted from both their stomachs as if in sync. "Well let's eat first, I'm sure your hungry," she said as she made her way to her seat but he made no move to follow her.

"Why are you not as intimated by all this? Are you not afraid of my being here, as a human?" he asked blankly as he watched her fill her plate.

She never questioned her actions as to why to any of those things he asked. First it was only to shelter the man she found last night. But now that she knew it was Ulquiorra it made no difference. Orihime always felt intimated by him in Las Noches but despite that now she felt comfortable in his presence-more or less. Was it because he was human and less powerful? Was it because it just the kind thing to do for someone in need? Or was it something all togehter? She had just dreamed of Ulquiorra and reaching out to him to show him what it was to posses a heart and now the opportunity presented itself, and she was up to some him exactly that. She didn't know how she was going to go about it but she wasn't going to back down now, not now, because who knew if his being human is temperary. She had to-no she wanted to help him. Just as she desired in countless dreams.

She smiled gingerly as she gestured towards the chair beside her and waited waited for him to sit. He made his way to the chair and once seated he looked her way for her to continue. She did blushing slightly as she continued; "This morning I dreamed of the moment you died" pausing momentarily to graze his facial muscle for any slight twitch or any movement she might have spotted at the mention of his death and her dream-it did no such thing. She continued "and wished that I had called out my powers to restore your body because I wanted to help, guide you so that you may understand what it was to have a heart. And now I have-no-you have that chance and I'm going to show you," she said and then blushed softly as she finished her sentence in surprise of herself. Never had she thought in her wildest dreams she would speak to Ulquiorra in such a way. A kind gentle way, he has never been spoken to in that manner: It stirred something inside him...curiousity, disbelief?

She placed a plate full of unidentified substance in front of him.

"What is the substance?" he said as he looked at the plate; near disgust in his eyes.

"Uh, it-it's your meal, of course. Dig in! Its delicious," she said staring at him in confusion.

She continued, "It's sort of ironic isn't it?" no response on his part. "You provided me with clothes and food once a time ago, and now I'm doing it for you."

"Don't misunderstand girl, I will not stay in this world of yours for long. I never wished to be brought back much less as a human. I will consume this sustanence and be on my way," he said in a firm, determined voice, yet it remain as dull in tone as ever.

'Not stay in this world? Be on his way? Where? He had no real home here? Did he plan on returning to Hueco Mundo as a human? These questions ran through the mind of Orihime as she tried to make sense of his words?

"Wh-what do u mean? Your welcome to sta-" she stopped at the clatter of his spoon to his finished meal.

"I do not belong in your world. This is an obstruction of the Fates design. And I am of no use in this fibble fragile body. This human body, is trash," he said as he wiped his mouth gracefully with his napkin. "Repulsive," he said insultingly towards the meal he had just consumed. But although that may be he was not about to pass over a meal when he felt as hungry as he did. Humans need to be tentive to their needs. What weakness! he thought.

What did he just say?, she thought. She dropped the fork in mid air just before it made her mouth. Does this mean...

Orihime felt numb as she fully digesting what he just said, basically declaring...his death. Was being human that horrible to him? Does he not see this as another opportunity at life? And he was just going to waste it just because a human body is not as powerful of that of his hollow existence? No, no I will not allow that, she thought fiercly. She promised herself and unofficially to Ulquiorra also that she will help him live a better life than that of his past. Maybe if I tell him about the reiatsu I felt before he'll think twice before doing anything to...end himself, she thought as she gloped mentally at her last two words.

"I-I felt your reiatsu yesterday afternoon and again when I found you. If-if its any consulation-"

"No it is not. That was possibly the last of it since I don't feel any remenants of my reiatsu any longer except the meager, inferior spiritual pressure of any other worthless human."

That was possible but yet...

"Well the first time I felt it, I knew it was yours and it was strong and dark as when you were an Arrancar. And I ran to it the moment I did," she said and then blushed realizing how her words sounded after she already had spoke them. She continued in almost hast, "B-but when I got there, at the park that is, it was gone and there was a Menos there after your reiatsu was gone or during I don't really remember. And Ichigo came just after your reiatsu was gone to distroy the Menos-but he didn't kill it it only got pushed back into the Garganta-" she gasped for air as she nearly finished. And after a few more gulps of air she continued a little more calmly as she panted, "So Ichigo should have felt it before he even got there but he didn't seem to have noticed. Not one bit. Only me."

She roamed his face to find the slightest infracuture in his flawless front but came to nothing.

"Why only me?" she asked almost regretting it. "Ichigo should have felt it-he might be dense to recognize most reiatsu's-but I'm positive he still knows yours and as well as I do but he didn't. He should have felt it long before he arrived because as I said before it was strong..."

Wait am I praising his strength? No, I'm only trying to make a point that maybe he still has some sort of abilities to his use...But should I have told him that? Maybe he'll try to kill Ichigo again if he does have some power left, she thought as she continued to look over his face for any signs of acknowledgement that he would try to gain power, but there was none.

She sighed heavily at this and thought to herself, I thought since he was human now he'd be a little easier to read, but not Ulquiorra...

Ulquiorra thought over what Orihime had just suggested for a breif second and after he spoke. "If what you say about Kurosaki is correct, that he should have noticed my reiatsu the moment it leaked then that would mean he would have if it was. That would mean you only imagined it."

She gasped. But- I didn't...I admit to myself that I have been...keeping Ulquiorra's memory alive. But I did feel him. It was real.

Ulquiorra continued to only stare at the dazed girl in front of him and as he did he thought over what he had just said asking himself: But why would she even want to? He pushed the question aside as it was irrelevant to yet it flamed his curiousity as she always had in Las Noches, but did nothing to indulge it.

He arised from the table looked towards the still dazed girl and said solemly "Do not misunderstand me, woman. Even if there was a chance that he did have some of my power languished within me, I would not pursue it."

Orihime snapped out her trance and bolted to her feet as she had heard him say those words. "Why wouldn't you?"

Ulquiorra turned his torso to face the front door and brought his body to it as he did and walked eliquently towards it, hand hand stuffed in his pant pockets in such a familiar way, as he reached for the knob with his free hand he turned his eye to look at her before opening the door and declared "I have nothing I wish to fight for," and walked out of the door closing behind him as Orihime only stood there to stare blankly at the door, as she gave up to herself ambitions to wanting to help him.

I can't help someone...

who doesn't want my help...

A/N: HELLO! Sorry it took so look. I had to sign up for my classes last minute, then I felt under the weather, my brother and future wife were in town...

UGH! And it goes on and on. But anyway I'd like to say a couple things about this chapter, and also an alternative plot I thought of while I was in the bath, that I'm thinking of writing after this one if time and classes will allow me in the future.

Ok well, first off I did take me a while to put this crucial moment of this fanfic together. And also as to HOW Ulquiorra got ressurected is still unknown to both characters but it will be in the next couple chapters to come so don't fret. ALSO, as to Ulquiorra being unhappy or "disgusted" with his present self as a human and wants to kill himself (or so Orihime thinks); well I just thought it went with his previous life as an Arrancar since he remembers it and all, that said he didn't like humans and thought of them as weak and garbage [am I wrong? -please comment if so] So would he want to remain human himself?

Anyway, um yeah so please comment/review this chapter. It help to stay motivated to know that there are some readers that enjoy this. If not there would be no purpose for it.

Thanks for reading.

PS Classes might interfer with updates so just bare with me.