Title: The Pain That Binds Us
Author: disnaly
Main Pairing: Inoue Orihime x Cifer Ulquiorra.
Minor Pairings: Mentions of Kuchiki Rukia x Kurosaki Ichigo, Matsumoto Rangiku x Ichimaru Gin, Urahara Kisuke x Shihoun Yoruichi, Aizen Sosuke x Hinamori Momo.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Bleach characters or the Bleach franchise.
Warning: Mentions and mild descriptions of violence. Hints at mature themes.
A/N: Each chapter will contain ten snippets, all in varying lengths. These take place before and throughout Orihime's captivity. The events are written in chronological order and do not follow the events of the anime.
Summary: In a world where Soulmates can feel each other's pain, Orihime was born with a Numb heart.
The Pain That Binds Us
Snippet Story
There isnothing worse in the world than a Soulmate who doesn't care.
(CXXI)
Uryuu lost an arm trying to shield Ichigo from Ulquiorra's blade. Chad took more than a few cuts and bruises. It took the both of them shouting at him, the former curses and the latter encouragement, for the substitute soul reaper to snap out of it.
(CXXII)
"Thank you, Uryuu, Chad. I'll finish this fight quickly. I'll avenge Orihime."
(CXXIII)
This time, his attacks were calculated. He didn't charge head on as he was doing before and instead, tried to push his sorrow aside. Now was no time to grieve.
(CXXIV)
Ulquiorra watched the male in front of him indifferently. He took note of the change in his stance, realizing that Kurosaki Ichigo was different than he was a second ago.
And yet when he attacked, the soul reaper still continued spouting his nonsense.
"She was your Soulmate, you bastard! How could you betray her?!"
(CXXV)
The surprise was first: had Orihime told her friends about who he was before he had taken her to Hueco Mundo? If so, then it made sense why her friends hadn't come for her.
Unsurprisingly, they didn't have the heart to separate them, even though he was an enemy.
(CXXVI)
The bitterness was next, sudden and surprising in its arrival.
She betrayed me first, but that's not a conversation you want to have, do you?
(CXXVII)
Their fight continued, both of them attacking but not quite hitting the other. Just when Ulquiorra had had enough, something broke their concentration from each other.
At a distance, amidst Nnoitora's maniac laughter, a petite figure whipped through the air, blood flying around it like a cloak.
A second later, Kuchiki Rukia's reitsu fell drastically, reduced to almost nothing.
(CXXVIII)
"Rukia!" Ichigo screamed and something seemed to hold everyone in place as they registered the horror and desperateness echoing in his tone.
Many held their breath as they watched him flash through the air towards his Other Half, his fight long abandoned.
(CXXIX)
Ulquiorra watched him silently before looking away. Though Aizen looked at him with a raised eyebrow, Ulquiorra didn't step in.
(CXXX)
Instead, he stood back, thinking of the woman he had handcuffed in the basement of one of the prisons, not very far away from here.
The woman whose reitsu was so depleted that no one could ever to know whether she was alive or not except me for I will always know where she is and how she is, no matter which corner of the three worlds she is in.
The woman who had begged him not to leave, her tears still wet against his palm and the warmth of her lips still lingering against his own.
He thought of her as he faced his once master and raised his blade.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading!! Be sure to tell me what you think!!