Within seconds my arms were wrapped around his neck, moving so fast that I was sure I watched a few strands of the captain's hair shift to the breeze. "Ulquiorra!" Suddenly everything was the coldness of his chest, his light struggle within my bear hug and my heart hammering like a woodpecker's beak. I realised he was shivering, and took a scalding mother-like step back. I was just about to say something...when I blushed like a lunatic. His chest was bare.

"Erm...we need to...er...get you...a erm..."

"Coat," he answered sharply.

"Yes!" I grabbed his hand and led him into the empty shop, leaving the extremely proper captain in the front yard. I led him to mine and Rukia's room. "Wrap yourself in that," I said, motioning to the blanket on my mattress, and disappeared in pursuit of the dining room. I located and pushed the newly installed button next to the door, and raced down the steps as they formed. "Coat! I need a coat!"

Somehow I lost my footing, and only caught a short glimpse of the forthcoming steps before my vision went black.

Something grabbed me suddenly, holding me close, and I was snapped out of my slow motion fall.

"You'll break your neck saving me, one day," the familiar, ghost like voice commented. I snapped my eyes open to the pale white of ulquiorra's chest, and giggled myself back into reality.

"Orihime! Are you alright?" Rukia shouted, and shot up the steps as I turned my head to locate her. I nodded insecurely, face searing hot with embaressment and fear and happiness. "Yes! I'm fine!" Ulquiorra let me down, but kept his arms poised for capture incase I was as weak as I felt. "He needs a coat. Has Ichigo got one?" I asked, trying to find him within the training grounds.

"Erm, he's elsewhere. Come on, ill show you to the clothes and ill be out of your hair." She made eye contact with Ulquiorra. "Thanks...for saving her. That was pretty quick moving..." I looked to him for a reaction, which was a simple furrow between his thick eyebrows.

I looked back to her, and we both smiled. I felt our friendship grow by the second as I saw the understanding in her eyes.

...

"These should fit," I commented, throwing the grey jeans on top of the crushing pile of clothing, balanced weakly on top of the chair, next to which was Ulquiorra, looking like the classic boyfriendwaitingwhilegirlshopsforclothes, but patient all the same. I felt so giddy, both by his presence and his trust in my judgement for clothes for him. I made my way carefully around the large walk in wardrobe, holding his trust and regarding it like a delicate bird in my hand. "So, where did you get to?"

I hadn't heard him talk since he saved me from death, and I missed his voice. I waited for his response, wondering if he'd heard at all.

"Nowhere, I just walked."

"Oh."

A few moments later, "Then it rained...and realised I was cold."

I stopped midway a clothes rail, the words triggering something within my brain that actions simply didn't. I saw him shivering, felt his cold skin...but he felt it, too.

"You were...cold?" I turned to see him watching me with bright green eyes, so different and yet so familiar. His eyes alone should have been telling me he was changing.

"Yes. For the first time in...a long time."

Instead of carrying through with my task, I took the clothes pile and placed it on the floor so I could take the chair. This was much more important, and I could hear the thudthudthud in my ears. "How...how did you know?"

For a moment it became clear to me what was happening. Here we were, in a shop, back in my old life with faces I should know and yet didn't, faces I only recognised from an old school photograph, and yet all that mattered to me was that this man was sat here, in a simple white shirt and black pants, coming back to life before my eyes, talking about the cold like a child. It made my chest ache with something unidentifiable.

"I identified the symptoms, how the rain felt on my skin, my response to how you reacted to the cold back in the school...and then I realised that I needed those matches."

I felt my lips tug into the smile for the millionth time in the past half hour. "That doesn't make much sense," I breathed. He frowned again.

"I felt cold based on how you...acted. You shivered, and I...shivered."

"Because you were cold."

He nodded.

I looked down momentarily to his neck, and it seemed of very little importance that the wound was smaller now. I knew what was happening, and that was just a piece of the puzzle. It was a little sad, seeing the evidence of how we met disappear like that.

"So...how did Captain Kuchiki find you?"

Instead of frowning, his face became a little colder, and his eyes a little more distant. "I was looking for shelter...and he found me. He knew who I was, and that was when we came here."

"You don't seem happy about it," I reasoned, hoping that wasn't the case.

He found my eyes again, and the coldness thawed. "I wanted to find my own way back. I didn't want to appear...pitiful."

It was my turn to frown, and the idea of him thinking that way made me angry. "No! Never say that. You're never pitiful. Never say that again-"

"Woman, you're changing colour again."

His eyes had widened slightly in a variation of his brand of mild distress, and my face simmered down again. I still hated the idea of him thinking that way. "I wanted to go out and find you, but I didn't know where to start. And with you leaving...I thought you didn't want to...be...that you didn't want to be with me..." my voice began to shake in a pathetic way that made me realise I was panicking. His hands found mine in my lap, and his grip was surprisingly warm.

"Stop."

I stopped. Not for his ordering me to do so, or for his hands around mine, or even the look in his eyes. I stopped because of how close his face was now, as though he'd moved instantly in response to my emotional reaction to a flash back. We were so close that I could see the flecks of black in his irises, and he could probably feel the nerves in my breath.

"Don't do that again," he whispered.

"Why?" I asked, my voice small and high and raspy.

He never broke eye contact as he said, "Because you're terrifying when you do that."