Bleach 1. Chapter 1

_Grey rain falling from grey clouds onto grey streets...the whole world washed in shades of grey_._ Where did all the color in my life go?_ Orihime idly wondered as she slowly traced a rain drop trail with her finger as she looked out the window. _Where did all the green go_? _Was it all stolen away from me along with the green of his eyes?_

Orihime saw a small figure struggling it's way through the rain to her front door, grey umbrella keeping the grey rain at bay. When she heard her doorbell ring, she slowly slid down from the window and made her way to the door. She opened the door onto a shivering Rukia.

"Kuchiki-san." Orihime tonelessly said as she opened the door wide to admit the shinigami in. Rukia shook out her umbrella and then closing it, stepped into the apartment. "You didn't have to come see me on such a cold and wet day."

"I wanted to see how you were doing, Inoue." Rukia said as she quickly hugged the red-haired girl, not wanting to get her too wet.

"Sit down, Kuchiki-san and I will get you some hot tea." Orihime said as she hung Rukia's coat and umbrella up for her. Orihime then went into the kitchen and put the tea kettle onto boil. Then she looked in her cupboard for the tea bags. She searched each cabinet three times before she realized that she must have forgotten to buy some tea the last time she went to the store. When was the last time she had gone to the store? It must have been before she was kidnapped. Ever since then she had just eaten whatever food her friends brought her. When she felt like eating that was. But now Rukia was sitting cold in her living room and Orihime had nothing to give her to warm her up. What a pathetic hostess and friend she was. At that thought, her tears started falling and Orihime leaned back against the counter trying to cry silently so Rukia wouldn't hear. She must not have been as silent as she wanted to though because here came Rukia now with a concerned expression on her face.

"Inoue..." was all she was able to get out before Orihime threw herself into her friend's arms and wept.

"I...I...I'm so s...sorry, K...Kuchiki-san. I wanted to be a proper friend this time and take care of you. I need to g...get myself back together. I can't rely on you guys to care of me forever. I...I need to get a hold of myself, b...but it's really hard!" Orihime sobbed against the dark-haired Soul Reaper.

Rukia patted her back and said, "There, there, Inoue. You have been under a lot of stress lately. Most people probably wouldn't have survived what you did with their mind intact. You are incredibly strong. Did you know that?" Rukia pulled away and looked into her eyes. Then she gave her one last squeeze and said, "I have no doubt you will pull through this."

"I don't know, Kuchiki-san. I...I haven't really told anyone this, but I don't think I can be well again until I go back there and get him." Orihime said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"Inoue! What are you talking about?!" Rukia asked, her expression filled with worry.

"I've been thinking a lot lately, well in truth that is all I have been doing this past week. And...and I want to go back to Hueco Mundo and get Ulquiorra and bring him back here."

Rukia just shook her head in complete disbelief, unable to speak at such lunacy.

"I've even thought it through. I'll go to Urahara-san and ask him if he can help me get to the hollow world the way he helped Kurosaki-kun. And then once there I'll...I'll just look for him, bring back here and heal him."

"That's...that's your plan?!" Rukia asked, incredulous. "You can't do that, Inoue! You'll be caught! What made you think that such an idea would even work?! Besides Urahara will say no for sure!"

"Oh, I am not so sure about that, Kuchiki-san." Orihime said with a queer look in her eye. "If there is one thing I know about Urahara-san, it is that he will do the craziest things and often for reasons no one can even begin to fathom."

"Inoue...please. Don't do this." Rukia begged, grabbing her friend's hands.

"Kuchiki-san. What would you do, if you were me? If you had the power to bring back the person you loved, would you not do it?" Orihime asked earnestly. Then quieter, "How could I not bring him back?" Orihime then noticed that Rukia had gotten very quiet and looked up at her. There were tears in the shinigami's eyes too.

"I...I don't know what I would do, Inoue. And I...think...I am glad that is a choice I never will have the opportunity to make." Rukia sadly sighed, eyes distant and pained. "But Inoue, you need think this through more carefully. Even if there is some way to bring Ulquiorra back, and that is a huge "if", what will you do with him? Where will he live? Have you forgotten what he is? How could you knowingly bring a hollow here and put all of Karakura in danger?!"

"You speak of him as if he was some kind of wild animal. He isn't, you know. Besides, none of that matters. My mind is made up. I...I was thinking about asking you to come with me, Kuchiki-san. But I totally understand if you don't want to." Orihime said. "I'm not going to tell any of the others though. I don't think they would understand...they haven't loved and lost the way you have." Orihime searched Rukia's face trying to see some hint of what she was thinking written there.

"I can't stop you short of imprisoning you in your own house, can I? I would do it too, if it wasn't for the fact that we just freed you from a prison. I don't want to lock you up again, even if it would be for your own good." Rukia said, eyes glittering with a touch of mischievousness.

"Oh Kuchiki-san! I knew you were understand!" Orihime said, squeezing her tight.

"I...wouldn't really...call it understanding, Inoue." Rukia gasped in her embrace. "Just an intent to see you through this as safely as possible."

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Orihime knocked on the shop's door and then stood back and waited nervously. Her eyes shifted over to Rukia a couple of times, but she couldn't read whether Rukia was nervous or not under her calm exterior. After a moment the door opened onto a huge man in dark glasses.

"Is...is Urahara-san in today, Tessai-san?" Orihime asked gripping the edge of her skirt in her sweaty hands.

Tessai looked over Orihime and Rukia impassively and then said, "Yes he is. Come on in. Just wait here and I will get him."

Orihime stepped out of the sun into the dark and cool interior of the shop. As she waited, she curiously eyed a shelf lined with jars filled with what appeared to be bright candy. She tried to imagine what each one would do if she sucked on it. "I bet that red one there would suck my spirit out and allow me to run free without my body." she whispered to herself lightly touching the glass with her finger.

"Naw! That one really is just candy!" a small but loud voice piped up right behind her. Orihime let out a little scream and turned around to find a small red-haired boy with both a broom and a scowl. "You want to try it?" he asked her, scowl brightening into a wicked grin.

"Now Jinta, you know if she even so much as licked that one, she wouldn't be able to leave the bathroom for a week." came a musical voice from the end of the aisle. Orihime turned to it and saw a disheveled blond-haired man coming towards them adjusting his hat. Once he reached her side he cupped his hand over his mouth and whispered confidentially in her ear, "I know that from experience." Then he winked and turned to Rukia. "Ah! Kuchiki-san! A pleasant surprise as always!" he grinned at her. "What brings you two lovely ladies into my humble store this bright morning?"

Orihime nervously looked at Rukia and saw the Soul Reaper slightly nod at her. "Um...uh...Urahara-san? Is there someplace a little more private we can talk?" she asked, eyes darting to Jinta and Tessai.

"Of course! Of course!" Urahara said, lazily waving at them to follow him into the back. Orihime followed him into the storeroom which was even darker than the store had been. She heard Urahara shuffle some boxes around for them to sit on and she did so with a murmured thank you. She waited for her eyes to adjust a little and then looked at Urahara who had a weird gleam in his eye as he looked back at her. "This wouldn't have anything to do with your recent little "trip" to Hueco Mundo and your escape there of, now would it?" he asked her, his intent unreadable.

"Uh...why yes it does, sir." she said and then began her story. It took longer and was more difficult to tell than she thought it would be since she felt it necessary to add in the parts about falling in love, so he could see just how determined she was to save Ulquiorra. She had to pause and look to Rukia for encouragement quite a few times, especially at the end where she got to the part where Ulquiorra sacrificed himself so that she and her friends could get out safely. "And that is why I am going to go back and get him, but I need your help to make it possible." she finished, trying to sound determined.

"I see..." Urahara quietly said and then fell silent. Orihime squirmed on the box trying to wait for his answer with patience. Then when he spoke again what he said was so unexpected that it took her a moment to figure out what he was saying. "Invisibility. Yes, that is the key! Not only in body, but in reiatsu as well." he said getting up and shifting boxes around clearly looking for something. Orihime's eyes darted to Rukia, but the Soul Reaper just shrugged and shook her head slightly. "Here it is!" came the shopkeeper's gleeful voice after a moment. He came back to them and gave each a small wrapped bundle. "Now don't open it yet. Come back here tonight...let's say...oh...midnightish and I will open the portal to Hueco Mundo. I'm not going to give you long though. So more than likely this little mission of yours is going to fail." Urahara said looking straight at Orihime. "_Las Noches_ is huge as I am sure you remember, Inoue. I doubt you'll be able to find him (or what is left of him, more like), but I will give you your chance."

Tears started falling before Orihime could stop them and she tightly hugged Urahara and said, "Thank you so much! You don't know what this means to me."

She pulled away and saw that weird glint in his eye again and he answered her, "Oh, I do know. Now be here tonight and bring those bundles with you!"


	2. Chapter 2

Orihime quietly closed her door behind her and stepped out into the cool night. She wrapped her sweater tighter around her and protectively cradled the wrapped bundle close to her chest. She glanced around the dark street, looking for Rukia. She spotted the black-haired shinigami dressed all in black and without her gigai standing next to the streetlight. She walked up to Orihime and said, "Are you ready to do this?" Orihime nodded and the two walked into the night.

Urahara was waiting for them when they got to his shop. He silently motioned them to follow him and they walked into his store. Urahara led them to the back and opened a small door that looked like it lead to a broom closet, only when Urahara opened it Orihime saw narrow stairs descending into the dark. Urahara promptly started down with Rukia behind him and Orihime last. "Please close the door behind you, Inoue-san." Orihime heard Urahara's voice call out from below. Orihime wasn't sure about the wisdom of cutting off their only light source, but as the door clicked shut she saw that she didn't need to worry, because Urarhara who was already at the bottom opened the door at the foot of the stairs and suddenly the entire stairwell was filled with bright sunshine. She descended into it, blinking.

Once she was inside (or outside, maybe...it was all quite confusing to Orihime) the huge underground training room Urahara turned to her and said, "I will open the portal and allow you to go through and then I am going to shut it, because I will not risk anyone from the other side coming through. I will open it again in precisely one hour from when you go through and leave it open for five minutes. If you have not come through in that time, you will have to find your own way home. Do you understand?" he asked her, looking at her gravely. Orihime nodded trying to swallow past the hard lump that had formed in her throat. "Ok, because I also want you to realize that if you need to get back sooner, the door won't be open. I want you to understand how dangerous this is. Are you sure you want to proceed?" Orihime thought back to the last time she saw Ulquiorra, determinedly walking away from her with the intent to save her and she nodded at Urahara. "OK, then. Open the package you have in your hands."

Orihime did as he ordered and found a small glass bottle with a single pill inside. She glanced over at Rukia and saw that she held the same in her hands. She looked up at Urahara, questioning. "Is...is this going to do what I think it will?" she asked.

"Only if you are thinking that it will make you totally unseen by the enemy, then yes. Go ahead and eat it."

Orihime opened the bottle and shook the pill out onto her hand and then popped it into her mouth and chewed it. It tasted sweet like she figured most everything at Urahara's store must. She looked over to where Rukia was and a small scream was startled out of her. She could no longer see her at all. She looked down at herself and could see own body, but evidently no one else could because Urahara was no longer looking directly into her eyes as he spoke. "You will be utterly defenseless like this though, because it doesn't just hide your reiatsu, it cuts it off completely. I'm still working on a better concoction, but this will do for what you want to accomplish."

"So that is why you didn't give this to Kurosaki-kun when he came to rescue me?" Orihime asked the shopkeeper.

"That is correct. I wanted those boys to get you out of there, but I also wanted them to test their strength and develop against the enemies that they will undoubtedly face again this winter." Urahara said, eyes searching for her face. "Of course, that didn't go quite as planned due to the unforeseen actions of your little hollow friend." Orihime shifted, suddenly impatient to get to Hueco Mundo and get Ulquiorra. "Are you ready then?" Urahara asked.

"Just a second! Kuchiki-san? Where are you? We will have to link arms or something since we can't see each other." Orihime said. She heard the sand shifting under the other woman's feet as she approached and then Orihime reached out, feeling for her arm.

"I'm right here, Inoue." came Rukia's voice right next to Orihime now and then she felt the fabric of her shinigami uniform and then slipped her arm through Rukia's.

"OK. We're ready now." Orihime said and then suddenly a rip in the fabric of space appeared right before her. She stepped towards the monochromatic landscape that it revealed with determination.

"Remember, you have one hour exactly from now. Keep an eye on your watch. Good luck." Urahara's voice came to her ears, already fading because now they were through and the rip was closing behind them.

Orihime noticed that Urahara had let them through right next the huge and imposing wall of _Las Noches_. The cold wind of Hueco Mundo stirred through her hair and clothes. She shivered. Suddenly though she could still feel the soul reaper's warm arm, Orihime needed reassurance that Rukia was still there. "Kuchiki-san?" she whispered.

"I'm here, Inoue." came the whispered reply.

"Where should we start?"

"We should find a way in first, Inoue." Rukia answered, starting to move down the wall.

"OK." Orihime whispered back, for the first time realizing how little time an hour really was. She started to feel panic flutter in her chest at that thought, but she squashed it down. She would do this. She had to. So she walked arm in arm with Rukia eyes scanning the seemingly unbroken wall of the palace. Suddenly she stopped. "How did you get in when you came to get me?" she asked.

"We broke through the wall, but with no spiritual energy at our disposal this time that isn't going to work."

"No, but maybe they haven't got to repair the hole you made yet...it's only been a few days. It's worth a shot at least." Orihime whispered hopefully.

"Good thinking, Inoue. I don't remember where it is though. Let's hope that Urahara let us into a place close to it and we are walking in the right direction." Rukia said, trying to keep the doubt out of her voice.

"OK." Orihime said, refusing to let doubt fill her own soul.

They walked a little more looking at the unchanging wall, then suddenly Rukia softly cried out, "I remember that tree. We ARE close. Ha! Urahara did it...either accidently or not, he brought us to the right place."

Orihime stared at the twisted piece of barren whiteness that passed for a tree in Hueco Mundo, trying to discern what made it different from all the other trees. "Are you sure, Kuchiki-san?" she asked as the shinigami pulled her along.

"Yes. The last time we were here, I took notice of it because it looks like Chappy."

Orihime squinted and stared and tried to make a rabbit shape come out of the mass and failing that, she was about to ask Rukia again if maybe she was mistaken when she heard a soft and happy cry and then saw the opening herself. Repairs had been started on it, but there was still more than enough space for Rukia and Orihime to slip through.

"OK. Now where to start..." Orihime whispered next to Rukia's ear, trying to be as silent as possible. "Do you suppose _Las Noches_ has a graveyard?" she asked suppressing a little shudder at the thought of grave digging in such a dead place as the hollow world.

"I doubt it and even if it did, I doubt Ulquiorra was buried there seeing as how he died."

Orihime wanted to cry at that, but told herself that the tears would have to wait until later. She would be strong until they were out of this place. Though she noticed that _Las Noches_ had a strange way of sapping what little strength she could muster right out of her soul. "Well, then where?"

"I think...I think we should try near the kitchens." Rukia answered hesitantly. And then started pulling her along again.

"Why the kitchens?" Orihime asked and then comprehension dawned on her. "You...you don't think they ate him do you?" she whispered, horrified.

"I don't know, Orihime." Rukia said, squeezing her arm to comfort her. "Whether they did or not, I have a feeling he was thrown out with the trash."

Orihime couldn't stop her tears at that thought and silently cried as she followed Rukia. They softly traipsed down each hall they came to, not knowing where they were going exactly, but trying to keep to the outside edge of the palace. Orihime figured Rukia was doing this for two reasons. The kitchens were more likely to be on the edge where they would be able to throw the garbage out and it would be easier to get out when their time was up. Orihime kept compulsively checking her watch every minute, watching time slip away from them. Then she noticed that for the first time since they arrived, she could see arrancar in the halls. Rukia suddenly stopped and pressed Orhime back against the wall and both tried to stay as still and quiet as possible as two hollows passed right in front of them talking excitedly about something. Then they were gone, but before Orihime and Rukia got another five steps down the hall another arrancar strode past them as they once more had to shrink against the wall in silence. When he was gone Rukia whispered in Orihime's ear, "We must be getting close to something with this many hollows around."

Then Orihime saw something that made her want to cry out excitedly, but she just flattened herself against the wall again knowing that Rukia understood what it meant too. A servant quickly strode past them pushing an oh so familiar cart of food. Once he was gone it was all Orihime could do to not run to in the direction he came from, but they were forced to stop a few more times before they actually came to a huge stone door, smells of cooking wafting out from behind it. Niether one said anything but the moment the door opened to let another servant out, Rukia and Orihime dashed in before it had a chance to close. It was blazingly hot inside the cavernous room...the only hot place in all of _Las Noches_ Orihime figured. She could feel sweat pop out on her body and she checked her watch and saw that they had fifteen minutes left. If he wasn't here, they would have no more time to search anywhere else. Then she could feel Rukia tugging her again towards the back wall. As they silently slunk past cooks slaving away in front of pots and ovens, Orihime refused to look in to see what was cooking. Though what she had been given to eat had all seemed perfectly edible to Orihime, she had forgotten that the hollows who lived here had a different idea as to what was edible and Rukia's comment earlier had brought that slamming back home.

Finally they were at the back wall and Orihime turned and looked at found herself staring at a small and grease-laden door. She could smell the stench behind it and knew that Rukia had brought them to the right place. Orihime looked behind her to see if anyone was looking and seeing that no one was turned back to the door intending to open it, Rukia must have noticed the same thing because the door silently swung open in front of her and she was being pulled into the stench. Once inside Orihime looked around and noticed that they were in a fairly large room filled with rotting garbage. "Hueco Mundo must not have trash pick-up." she slightly giggled to herself and tried not to notice that it sounded more like a small scream than a giggle.

"OK, let's start looking through everything. We don't have much time left." came Rukia's whispered voice on her left.

Orihime nodded and then realizing Rukia couldn't see a nod, whispered her affirmation. They picked through the trash as quickly as they could and Orihime tried her best to not think too much about what exactly it was she was picking up and casting aside.

"Please, please...let me find you." Orihime whispered to herself like some sort of mantra as she worked. Then her hand came upon something sharp and she cried out in pain and pulled it out. Then she cried out again when she saw what it was. "Rukia!" she gasped in a strange and unpalatable mixture of horror and wonder. She held Ulquiorra's mask in her hand. "Is there anything else?" she said hurriedly pawing through the same area his mask was in. Between them both they were able to find his zanpaktou and uniform too. And that was it.

"I don't think there is anything else, Inoue." Rukia sadly sighed, handing what she found to Orihime.

Orihime clasped the small bundle to her chest trying desperately not to think about how light and insubstantial it was. She closed her eyes and with complete concentration felt out for whatever tiny wisps of his reiatsu she could find. At first there was nothing, and then...yes...so small that it was hardly there she could feel it in his mask and his zanpaktou. She knew that she had come not a moment too soon because she figured than in a couple more days that even that tiny thread of him would have disappeared. That didn't matter now though. She could still find him and that is all she needed. She turned to her left and said, "I can do it, Rukia. I can bring him back." She felt Rukia shudder at that and Orihime thought that was strange. Why would that be a scary thought? She didn't have time to dwell on it too much though because suddenly she felt herself being pulled back to the door and after tucking her small burden close to her heart, she quickly followed aware of how close time had gotten for them.


	3. Chapter 3

Once back in the hot kitchen, Rukia and Orihime ran to the huge door and waited for someone to go through so they could follow. Orihime started to feel panic rise up into her throat again thinking that no one was going to come and that they would have to open it themselves and risk being seen. Then just when she was ready to bolt through the door, servant or no servant, it was suddenly opened from the other side and Orihime felt Rukia tug her back just in time, saving her a good wallop from the door. As soon as the arrancar was through, they darted through the door. Once back in the halls Orihime and Rukia quickly ran down them as silently as they could. Suddenly they heard someone coming and Orhime cursed silently to herself and pressed up against the wall. When she saw the arrancar come into view she had to suppress a cry, because it was the same huge and bald Espada that came to Karakura with Ulquiorra all those long weeks ago. He stopped right in front of them and Orihime could have cried with frustration and dismay. He stood there scratching his head a moment and then started to turn around and go back the way he came, but when he turned he squarely stepped down on Orihime's foot. Before she could even try to stop it, a cry of pain flew from her lips. She could hear Rukia sucking in her breath next to her ear a moment before the big hollow yelled out, "Who's there?!" Then he started pawing the air around her and Orihime had to unlink arms with Rukia and duck out of the way before his huge hand could come down on her head.

"Inoue, you know the way back. Run." came Rukia's voice somewhere ahead of the arrancar.

She then heard a slide of a zanpaktou being drawn and she asked, "What are you doing, Kuchiki-san? You don't have the power to use your zanpaktou, remember?" Orihime had to dodge as another huge fist was thrust at her as she spoke.

"It still cuts, doesn't it?" And as if to prove her point the Espada cried out and stuck his fist into his mouth, bellowing. "Now run."

"No, I am not going to leave you. Besides you have forgotten that I have a zanpaktou too!" And with that she tucked Ulquiorra's clothes and mask into her sweater and pulled his zanpaktou from it's sheath. As soon as Yammy aimed at her again with his unhurt hand she sliced at it.

With both of his hands stinging and with his inability to see whatever it was that was attacking him, the fight went out of him quickly and he started yelling, "There's ghosts in the halls! There's ghosts in the halls of _Las Noches_ and they're attacking me!!"

With that Rukia and Orihime made ready to run again, but before they could a tall arrancar with long black hair strode up to Yammy with a look of annoyance on his face. They both shrank against the walls again not wanting to test their luck just yet with the much stronger arrancar.

"What in the hell are you babbling about, Yammy?" the higher ranked Espada asked him with irritation.

"There's ghosts, Noitora! And they're attackin' me!" Yammy shouted, eyes darting all over the hall.

Noitora grabbed him by the jacket and seethed, "You idiot! If there were ghosts here, you would be able to freakin' see them!" He paused, considering a moment and then went on, "Yet still, something does seem a little off here doesn't it?" Noitora asked softer, dropping Yammy's collar. He walked slowly around the hall, passing so close to Orihime once that she didn't even dare breath. Then he started sniffing the air. "That's it! Why does it smell like garbage out here in the hall?" he asked, eyes darting to Yammy accusingly.

"What?! Don't look at me!" Yammy whined defensively. "I didn't do nothin'."

"Well I can't see who else it could have been since there is no one here but me and you." He considered Yammy for a moment and then decided, went on, "Still it wouldn't hurt to report this to Aizen." And with that he started back down the hall. Yammy stayed on a moment more and then Noitora yelled back, "You too, Yammy! It's your incident to report!" And with that Yammy ran after Noitora and then followed behind him periodically sniffing his armpits as if to test whether they still smelled fresh or not.

Once they were out of sight and their footfalls died away, Orihime let out a sigh of relief. Rukia's voice came to her from across the hall. "How much time do we have now, Inoue?"

Orihime checked her watch and then said, "It's three minutes until Urahara opens the door again and then he said he'll leave it open for five. So eight minutes all together."

"Let's run."

And they did.  
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Orihime looked around the bright sunshine of Urahara's training ground at first unable to quite believe that they had made it back and in one piece. She looked up as Urahara whistled and then tucked a pocket watch back into his coat. "Well, you ladies sure know how to make an old man's ticker skip a beat or two." he winked at them. "So did you succeed?" he asked her.

Orihime just nodded, but didn't show Urahara what was left of Ulquiorra. She didn't want anyone else to see him like that. "Urahara-san? W...would you not tell anyone else about this? I'm not really sure that I want word to get out yet about what I did. I don't think very many people would be very understanding."

"And they sure wouldn't be understanding of me enabling you to work this madness either, Inoue-san. So, you have nothing to worry about from me. Now if you ladies would excuse me, it is getting late and my beauty rest awaits." he said, already walking back towards the staircase.

Orihime started to follow, but then she looked over and realized she could see Rukia again. _When did that happen?_ she wondered. Rukia saw the question on her face and answered, "I noticed you started to reappear when we were back outside the palace wall. What he gave us must only last an hour. Come, Inoue. I'll walk you home."

Once they were back in front of her apartment, Orihime turned to Rukia and said, "You can go on home now, Kuchiki-san. It's really late and I don't want Kurosaki-kun to worry about you."

"If that idiot even so much as thinks about worrying about me, I'll have to show him what real worry is all about!" Rukia said, a wicked grin on her face. Then she yawned and said, "But I do think I am going to take you up on that offer, Inoue. It is late." She hugged Orihime goodbye and said, "I will come check on you first thing in the morning though and I would suggest you not do anything with him until I am here tomorrow, but I know you aren't going to listen to me." And with that she quickly darted down the steps and out into the night. Orihime followed her with her eyes for as long as she could and then turned and let herself into her apartment.

Though she was desperately tired herself, Rukia was right. She wouldn't be able to do anything else until she had brought Ulquiorra back. She laid his clothes out on the floor and then put his mask above them and his sheathed zanpaktou at his side. Then she placed her shield over it all and held it there and waited. And waited. For a long time it didn't look like any change was taking place at all and then she started to see that his uniform wasn't lying flat on the ground anymore. So she waited some more. Every once in a while she would doze off and then jerk back awake, afraid she had broke off the shield in her sleep, but it was always still there. Then for a while it was hard to look at him, because his insides formed before his outsides did. She didn't doze off then, irrationally afraid that the corpse-like thing on the floor would get up and attack her while she slept. She breathed an audible sigh of relief when she saw that his skin was starting to reform over his muscle structure. Then she did doze off again and it must have been for a while, because she was awakened by the sound of shifting underneath her bright shield. Her first horrified thought was that he still didn't have his skin and he was going to awaken like that. Then she looked down and was amazed. There he was laying before her, looking just as she had last remembered him. She had forgotten how beautifully sad his face always looked. It was wonderful to see it again. Then suddenly his eyes opened, but they didn't look at her just yet.

"Where...am...I? What...happened?" she heard him ask, more to himself she supposed since he hadn't seen her yet.

Then he was struggling to sit up and Orihime cried out, "I don't think you should be moving just yet." Then he looked at her and her breath stopped.

"Orihime..." he said. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you, like you did me." she replied trying to gently push him back down on the ground, but he just took her hand and moved it out of the way and then stood up.

"Saving me?" he asked tonelessly and then walked to her window and looked out. He then turned to her and asked, "Why are we in your apartment, Orihime?"

"I brought you here." Orihime answered getting up and joining him at the window. She looked over at him and found him deep in thought.

"The last thing I remember was that idiot Szayel trying to impress Aizen with his execution skills." he mumbled bitterly. Suddenly he looked up at Orihime and asked, "Did I die?"

Orihime couldn't meet his eyes at that and just looked down at the floor instead and noticed that they weren't able to find his boots and so now he was barefoot. I'll have to remedy that, Orihime thought to herself.

"I'll take your silence as affimation to my question." Ulquiorra intoned.

Orihime looked up at him. This wasn't quite the reunion she had imagined, she had imagined him being more...grateful. "Aren't you happy?" she whispered.

"Though happiness is one of the emotions I have forgotten, I doubt it feels like this." He then turned back to the window and said, "You shouldn't have done it, Orihime."

At that, Orihime started crying and asked, "Why do you say that? Are you not glad to see me again?"

"It isn't that Orihime, but bringing me here was not a wise decision. You would have been better off leaving me dead in Hueco Mundo."

"B...but...I wouldn't have been happy...I couldn't be...n...not without you..."

Ulquiorra turned to look at her, his expression as unreadable as always. "Yet I suppose that there is no use reprimanding you about it now. What is done, is done."

"Does that mean you'll stay here with me?" Orihime asked, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"Well it seems I don't have much choice in the matter at this point in time. I really have no where else to go."


	4. Chapter 4

Ulquiorra looked at Orhime thinking about what she must have done to bring him back here and...and to bring him back to life. An unsettling thought, that. He figured that she must have had help to do it. It wasn't something she could have accomplished on her own. "Who else knows I am here?" he asked her.

"J...just Urahara-san and K...Kuchiki-san." Orihime nervously answered him.

"If Rukia Kuchiki knows it won't be long until all of Soul Society knows." he told her.

"No! Kuchiki-san...she won't tell and I don't think anyone else will find out. If anyone senses your reiatsu, they more than likely will just think that Matsumoto-san and Captain Hitsugaya are staying with me again." Orihime said, trying to reassure him. "Why...why aren't you happy like I thought you would be?" Orihime asked him, placing a gentle hand on his arm.

He looked down at her hand and then back into her eyes. "It is dangerous for you to have me here. What will you do if Soul Society does find out, or even worse, Aizen?"

Orihime just shook her head at him, tears in her eyes.

"You didn't think about that, Orihime. You have to think things through carefully, especially with the type of power you have over life and death." He looked at her gravely, trying to make her understand just what kind of a problem she had taken upon herself. Yet when he saw her beautiful face (and he was glad to see it again, despite all of his other worries) and how her eyes were filled with tears, he could bring himself to say no more. "What time is it here, Orihime?" he asked her noticing how the sky was lighter than it had been when he first looked out the window.

Orihime checked her watch and said, "Oh wow! It's almost 5 am! No wonder I am so sleepy! I have been up almost 24 hours straight now."

"Then you should go to bed." Ulquiorra told her.

"W...what about you?" she asked him, already heading for her room.

"I'll be fine. I'm not tired at this time."

"Ah...well...ok. If you do get tired you can sleep on the couch, I'll just go get some blankets and..."

"Don't worry about me, Orihime. Just go to bed." he cut her off.

"Ok, if you're sure..." she said doubtfully and then went into her room and closed the door.

Ulquiorra turned from the window and sat down in a chair and put his head in his hands. Why couldn't people just leave him be? First Aizen and now Orihime...it seemed like he was always waking up to some else's will. If it was up to him all of this would just stop. He would lay down and never wake up again. Still, he had to admit that it was good to see her face again. He was worried about her though. He had spoken the truth when he told her that it wasn't wise for her to bring him here. He only hoped that Orihime was right and no one would discover that her house guest was of a lot more interest than a couple of soul reaper officers. He hoped, but he didn't believe.

Then suddenly he sat up and put a hand to his stomach. He was ravenously hungry, even more so than just being in the human world would account for. He figured it was probably being resurrected that had made his hunger this great. His eyes stole to her room. He wondered if she was already asleep. He wouldn't want her to come out here and find him gone and think that he had abandoned her. He got up and walked over to her room listening at the door, but he couldn't hear any sounds coming from her room. He then walked back to the living room and stood in the middle, undecided for a moment. Then he went to her window and with one last look at her bedroom door, leapt out into the dawn.

His bare feet landed softly on the ground outside her apartment and he closed his eyes searching out something with a high level of reiatsu to eat. It took him awhile, because while he could feel hundreds of souls around him, most were not strong enough to make a satisfying meal. He could feel a tiny handful of souls around him that had high reiatsu, but he also recognized them all as the girl's friends and he wasn't about to eat one of them. What he needed to find was another hollow, they were made of high spirit energy and in fact were all he had subsisted on after becoming a _Menos Grande_. He started walking down the street, still searching as the sun rose and slowly painted the world with color. Ulquiorra tried to pay it no mind, what point did so much color have anyway? Hueco Mundo was proof that a world could be perfectly serviceable with no trace of color in it whatsoever. Still he found his eyes drawn to certain objects as he walked...a flower here...a store sign there...a child's ball forgotten on a lawn. And then he realized that everything that he noticed was the same orangey-red as her hair. He shook his head and mumbled, "Foolishness..." though a part of him knew it wasn't foolishness at all.

Then suddenly he detected a large reiatsu appearing at the edge of town. He gracefully leapt into the air and strode through the clouds to the place where he felt it. He found the hollow at a school playground stalking a child that was sitting on a swing, oblivious. Then on closer inspection, Ulquiorra realized that the child was actually a spirit and she wasn't oblivious, but frozen with terror. She needn't worry much longer though because the hunter was about to be the hunted. He dropped down to the playground right in front of the hollow. The hollow swung out with a hairy fist, but Ulquiorra just grabbed it by the sides of its head and placed his small mouth over the hollow's huge one, closed his eyes and sucked his breath in. The hollow went still and when Ulquiorra was done consuming it's spirit energy, he then went to work on its body. He ate everything except for the bones and skull-like mask and when he was done he sat back, satisfied. He scrubbed the back of his hand over his mouth and hoped that Orihime would never see him like this.

He suddenly sat up, alert, he could feel someone coming this way. Someone with a large reiatsu, but who had it tempered and honed like a knife...no...like an arrow. Ulquiorra stood up and turned to face the newcomer. He saw a teen dressed in school clothes approach him, Ulquiorra recognized him as one of Orihime's friends though he had never seen him personally before. He started to speak, but the boy shot an arrow right at his heart. Ulquiorra calmly put up his hand and the arrow shattered against it.

"What are you doing here?" the boy asked him.

"I don't have to answer any inquiries from you, boy." Ulquiorra told him coldly.

"I think you do! I think you are a part of another trap to take Inoue-san back to Hueco Mundo." he said as he strung another bright blue arrow on his bow of blue fire.

"I am not." Ulquiorra informed him and realizing that this was going no where, he turned to leave.

"Where are you going? Are you going to Inoue-san now? To kidnap her again?"

Back still turned towards the boy, Ulquiorra answered. "Yes, I am going to Orihime's apartment. No, I am not going to kidnap her." He turned towards the boy again. "You can follow me if you want. I won't stop you."

The boy dropped his bow a bit, but didn't release the arrow yet. "And how do I know you aren't going to trap me somewhere along the way, or at her house? You may be looking for dessert for all I know!" he spat, looking at the remains of the hollow on the ground and shuddering.

"Follow me or don't. I care not either way." And with that Ulquiorra took to the air again, not looking back to see if the human had followed.

Once he was back at Orihime's apartment he sat down and waited to see it the boy would show up. He did and Ulquiorra went out to meet him. "I remember your name now. It's Uruyu Ishida. The Quincy."

Ishida just ignored that and said, "I want to see that Inoue-san is all right. Where is she?"

"She's sleeping now and you shouldn't wake her." Ulquiorra told him, but Ishida was already heading up the stairs to her apartment. Ulquiorra followed him and saw him open her bedroom door and peek inside.

Ishida nodded, satisfied and softly shut the door. "Then what are you doing here?" he asked, turning to the arrancar.

"Orihime brought me here. For what reasons, I have my suspicions, but I will never claim to understand fully." he said as he looked back at the boy impassively.

"She is fool! I don't why she didn't just let by-gones be by-gones." Ishida muttered looking over Ulquiorra unhappily. "Don't think you are off the hook though. I will have Inoue-san's and your reiatsu in my senses 24/7! If I sense even a hint of any funny business, I will be back here in an instant and you will see what dealing with a Quincy is really like. You might be quite surprised seeing as all you have ever dealt with are those soul reapers." And with that he turned and left the apartment.

Ulquiorra sighed and sat back down on the couch and waited for Orihime to wake up.


	5. Chapter 5

Orihime turned over and sleepily blinked at the clock. It was still morning. She had only slept a few hours, but still she felt refreshed and ready to wake up. She was excited by the fact that Ulquiorra was with her and she wanted to go see him again. So she got out of the bed and made it up. Then she put on some clothes and brushed her hair. Then she slowly opened the door, not quite sure what she would see in her living room this morning. She could see the back of Ulquiorra while he sat on her couch. She came out and then slowly walked to him, suddenly nervous, though she wasn't entirely sure why. As she stepped into the living room, she nervously put her hand on the back of her neck and said, "Uh...g...good morning..."

Ulquiorra looked up at her. "You didn't sleep long." he said.

"Ah...yeah...I guess I was too excited to. What have you been doing?" she asked him, sitting down in the chair opposite him and tucking her feet under her.

"Just sitting here, waiting for you to wake up." he said without expression.

"Oh...uh...that doesn't sound like very much fun...I'm sorry I didn't think to give you something to do before I went to bed. I guess I was more tired than I thought." she said, abashed.

"It didn't bother me." he told her.

Orihime thought back to how he was in Hueco Mundo. How it seemed that he could stand in one place for all eternity if need be. "Uh...don't you like to have fun?" she asked him.

"I've never considered that question...at least I haven't in a very long while."

"Ah...well having fun is one of the highlights of living!" she told him happily.

"But I'm not living." he said.

"You are alive enough to have fun!" she said, excitedly getting up and going to her coat closet.

"What are you doing, woman?" he asked her, a touch of apprehension in his voice.

Orihime rummaged through some stuff on top of her closet shelf. "I'm looking for some board games for us to play." she called out to him.

Suddenly he spoke right behind her and she jumped a bit. "Can it wait? I was going to ask you if there was someplace to wash my clothes. I see a sink, but I didn't want to look in your drawers for a wash board without your permission."

"A...a...wash board?" she asked him, incredulous.

"Yes. Though by your reaction, I assume that some other means of washing clothes has been implemented since I was alive."

"Uh...yeah, it has." Orhime told him closing the closet door. "Didn't _Las Noches_ have washing machines?"

"I don't know. Servants did the washing."

"Ah well...we have washing machines here. Um...go into the bathroom and you can take a bath if you want...and...a...just put your clothes outside the door and I'll wash them." Orihime told him while running a hand through her hair and pointing to the bathroom.

"I see." he said and went to the bathroom and shut the door. A moment later she saw the door open a crack and then his clothes were tossed out. She gathered them up and noticed that though they still smelled like garbage, they also now smelled like him too and she took comfort in that fact.

Ulquiorra stayed in the bathroom the whole time his clothes were washing and drying, refusing to come out until he had something to wear. While Orihime waited, she went to her coat closet again and got out all of her board games for them to play later that day. When his clothes were dry she took them out and then knocked on the bathroom door. "Here is your uniform." she said and the door opened a crack and she handed it through. After a few minutes he came out looking as clean and composed as he always did in Las Noches. Except for his bare feet..._I still need to do something abou_t_ that_ she thought, looking at his black toenails.

"Would you show me this contraption you call a washing machine?" he asked her. "I want to see what it looks like."

"Ah! Sure! Right this way!" Orihime led him to her tiny washing room next to the kitchen. "There it is." she told him gesturing. "And this here is the dryer."

"I see." he said looking them over. Then he looked up and she saw him pull something white off the shelf above the washer and dryer. He held her arrancar uniform in his hands for a moment, looking at it and then he turned to her. "Why did you keep this?" he asked her.

"Uh...well...because you said I looked nice in it." she told him in a whisper, looking at the floor. When he didn't answer her, she looked up and noticed he had a strange and unreadable expression on his face. "What's the matter, Ulquiorra?" she asked him.

"I...I don't like it anymore." was all he said and then put it back on the shelf.

Orihime didn't know what to make of that, or why it made her sad. Then her stomach growled, protesting that she hadn't eaten since...well since before she went to Urahara's to go to Hueco Mundo. "Uh...I'm going to cook some lunch...would you like any?" she asked him.

"I'm not hungry." he told her.

"Oh...ah...do you ever get hungry?" she asked him, going to her cupboard to get soup fixings.

"I don't wish to discuss it, Orihime." he told her.

"Oh..." she said pausing with a package of noodles halfway out of the cabinet. With him here in her house, in an everyday setting as it were, it was easy for her to forget what he was. She supposed loving someone did that to you. "Uh...I'm sorry." she whispered and then quietly prepared her soup while he stood there watching her impassively, hands in his pockets. Once the soup was done she took her bowl to her small table and asked, "Would you at least join me?" He stood there looking at her a moment more and then he came and sat on the floor across from her. As she ate she tried to make small talk with him. "I'll have to start going to school again, now that I have recovered sufficiently."

"Ok." he said, watching her eat.

"Uh...you seem better today than you did last night..." she said looking up at him hopefully.

"I still think it was an unwise decision, but...but I...like...being with you. I won't deny that. It is good to be here with you, without the restrictions we had in _Las Noches_." he said, still looking at her with his vivid green eyes.

She could feel her cheeks color at that look and she dropped her eyes to her bowl. Then she looked back up at him and whispered, "I like being with you too." Then she gently put down her bowl and scooted over to his side. He looked over at her and shifted uncomfortably. "What's the matter?" she asked him searching his eyes with her own.

"Uh...it's just that I am not use to the emotions that you stir in me." he said quietly, looking down at her hands.

"They are good emotions though, aren't they?" she asked him taking his white hands in hers. She sucked her breath in as she touched them, she had forgotten just how cold they were.

He looked down at her hands a moment more and then into her eyes. "Yes."

She placed one of her hands on his face and pressed her lips to his cheek, right near the blue-green line that made it look like he was always crying. Then she felt his hand turn in hers and then he clasped her hand, intertwining his fingers in hers. She brought his hand up to her lips and kissed that too. He brought his face close to hers and she closed her eyes, expecting him to kiss her, but instead he brushed his lips over her cheeks causing her to tremble. "I...I'm scared to kiss you." she heard him whisper next to her ear and his breath was like ice on her skin making goose-bumps break out on her arms.

"Why?" she asked him trailing her own kisses down his cheek warming the skin there, even if just for a split moment.

"Because I am afraid that I wouldn't be able to stop...and I can't kiss you like I want to." he said pulling away from her face to look at her.

Still clasping his hand, Orihime looked at him and said, "I want to thank you again. For saving me."

Ulquiorra shifted and then looked into her eyes and said, "Orihime...I know I shouldn't be thankful that you saved me. I shouldn't be thankful of anything that puts you in danger...but...I am thankful to see you again."


	6. Chapter 6

"So which game would you like to play?" Orihime asked Ulquiorra after she had finished eating and had cleaned up.

Ulquiorra looked over the boxes on the table carefully. "The only one that I recognize is Chess, so if we have to play a game then that is the one."

"OK!" Orihime exclaimed happily, setting up the board. "I'll warn you though, I'm a pretty good chess player! And I bet you haven't played in hundreds of years, huh?! I bet I'll beat you!"

Ulquiorra didn't say anything and just sat down across from her. Soon they were deep in a game, Ulquiorra determined not to lose to a human girl, Orihime happy to see that she was holding her own against Ulquiorra. They were both startled out of the game by a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" Orihime yelled getting up. "Now don't you cheat and move any pieces while I am not looking!" she grinned down at him before going to the door.

"I do not cheat. My grasp of logic is superior to yours and I will be able to win without stooping to such lowly means." Orihime heard him say to her back as she opened the door.

"Ah! Kuchiki-san! I was wondering when you were going to show up!" Orihime said while motioning Rukia into the room.

"I'm sorry, Inoue. I had to come over during lunch break at school. I...a...kind of overslept this morning." she said looking at Orihime with a faint blush.

"Oh! Well we did have a busy night last night, didn't we!" Orihime smiled at her.

Rukia smiled back and then her eyes fell on the arrancar sitting on the floor, still intently studying the chessboard. "I...a...see that I was right about you not listening to me and that it worked." She then dropped her voice and whispered in Orihime's ear, "I wasn't sure if it would, after I saw what was left of him last night." At that Ulquiorra looked up at the soul reaper, expression unreadable.

"Ah...well...yeah... Um...I guess you two haven't been properly introduced yet." Orihime said, nervously rubbing the back of her neck. "Kuchiki-san, Ulquiorra and Ulquiorra this is..."

"I know who it is." Ulquiorra said coldly, standing to his feet.

"Ah...yeah..." Orihime said, all too aware of the tension that had suddenly filled the room.

"What are you doing here?" Ulquiorra asked Rukia.

"I'm here checking up on my friend." Rukia said, glaring at him. "Besides it is really none of your business why I am here anyway. This is Inoue's house, not yours."

"I am making sure that you are not sent here by the Soul Society to interrogate me, because you are wasting your time here if that is your purpose." he told her.

"Ulquiorra, I already told you that Kuchiki-san is the only shinigami that knows you are here. And she wouldn't..." Orihime began.

Rukia put up a hand to stop her and then said, "Don't try to defend me, Inoue. He obviously doesn't understand things like trust and friendship." She then turned away from the hollow and said to Orihime, "I am beginning to think this was probably not the best idea though. He's still hostile and that makes him dangerous to everyone, but most of all to you."

"Don't insinuate such falsities about me, shinigami." Uquiorra said, voice dripping ice.

Rukia turned back to him with a look of skepticism on her face. "Oh? So you are saying that of the myriad of ways that you could hurt Inoue, you will do none of them? You won't take her back to Aizen? You won't take her hostage yourself? You won't eat her one night when you are hungry and there is no one else around?"

At that, Ulquiorra spun on his heel and left the room, seething with anger.

Orihime turned to Rukia and said, "I told you he isn't like that. He...he would never hurt me..."

"Inoue, how do you know that? Even if he doesn't want to hurt you, no one can change what he is at heart." Rukia said and then she turned away from her and slammed her fist into her hand. "I was a fool to let you talk me into this. I let my worry for you cloud my better judgement. I blame no one but myself though."

Orihime grabbed her friend's hands, scared. "You did the right thing, Kuchiki-san. I...I love him and he loves me...and..."

Rukia freed herself from Orihime's grip and said, "What makes you think that he loves you, or that he even can love you? Ok...maybe he does in his own way...he helped you escape...but I...I just have a bad feeling about this. Now that I see him alive and here in the human world and...and can you feel his reiatsu? Do you know how hard it would be for us to stop him if he did take it in his head to do anything against you?"

"P...please, Kuchiki-san...please...don't tell the Soul Society that he is here..." Orihime begged Rukia.

Rukia studied her carefully before replying. "Inoue. Do you know what you are asking of me? To stand aside and do nothing while one of my nakama could be in serious danger?"

"Please..." Orihime whispered looking at the floor.

"I am going to at least discuss this with Urarhara. He may have more of an idea about what to do about this situation." Rukia said. "Now If you will excuse me, I need to get back to class. It is time for it to start again."

"OK! I'll be there tomorrow! I feel so much better than I did!" Orihime smiled brightly at Rukia, opening the door for her.

Rukia just shook her head and mumbled to herself, "Yes, I need to talk to Urahara tonight." And then she left the apartment.

"Uh...you can come out now, Ulquiorra. Kuchiki-san is gone." Orihime called walking to her bedroom.

She entered and saw him standing in the middle of her room, seemingly calm, but she could feel his reiatsu envelope her and smother her though she wasn't even trying to feel for it. "Ul...Ulquiorra." she said trying to make her way to his side. "What's wrong?"

"For her to think she knows anything about me...it's ludicrous. I hate soul reapers." Then he looked down and noticing that Orihime could barely move, he released his hold on his spirit pressure.

Orihime straightened up and said, "You look like you could do with a walk. I know a walk always makes me feel better when I am angry!"

Ulquiorra just looked at her.

"Come on." she said and then took his hand in her own. "Um...maybe you could even talk about it on the way." She led him out of her apartment and down her steps out into the fresh spring air. "Now, just tell me all about it!"

Ulquiorra turned and looked at her. "Where are we going?"

"Um...nowhere really. The point isn't the destination, but the fact that we are together and it is such a beautiful day and...and isn't it just great to be alive?!" she smiled at him.

Ulquiorra didn't say anything, but just followed as she led him, exclaiming over every small thing she saw. She pointed out shops, people, and scenery with equal abandon trying to get Ulquiorra to see the wonder in everything that she did.

"And that there is my school. I really miss Tatsuki! I can't wait to see her there tomorrow! Won't she be surprised to see me again! I know she has been worried, but she doesn't need to worry anymore. And there under that huge tree is where we girls eat our lunch if the weather is nice enough."

Ulquiorra looked at the school, then the tree, and then back at Orihime. "They think they know everything, but they can't even do their job properly."

Orihime stopped for a moment, surprised that he had spoke, but then she immediately started walking again, not wanting him to stop.

"Have you ever wondered why there are so many hollows in the world?" Ulquiorra asked...Orihime guessed that he was asking her so she answered.

"Ummm...because a lot of people are sad and lonely after they die?"

Ulquiorra quickly stopped and looked at her. "It hurts. Did you know that?"

Orihime shook her head and said, "What hurts?"

"Becoming a hollow. And the pain and fear never really go away though consuming others can dull it for awhile."

"W...why are you telling me this?" Orihime asked quietly.

"Because in one respect that shinigami was right. I may look human, but I'm not. And though I may feel some things like humans do, the pain is always right behind it waiting to consume me. So I...I try not to feel at all."

Orihime just looked at him not sure exactly what he was trying to say to her. She just stood there looking at him and the way his eyes matched the spring green of the bushes behind him.

He then suddenly started walking again, hand still in hers. Orihime let him lead her and she asked, "What are you trying to say?"

"Just...just that you should heed the warning from your shinigami friend."


	7. Chapter 7

Rukia couldn't find her coat. She knew she would need it because the warm spring day had sunk into chilly night. It wasn't hanging up on the coat stand where she had left it. It wasn't in the drawers she had use of in Yuzu's and Karin's room. It wasn't under her bed. It wasn't in the...wait...Rukia looked closer at dark bundle that was laying next to the hamper in the bathroom. _Now how did my coat get in here? _she wondered as she picked it up off the tiled floor. She shook it out and a soft orange mass fell out with a scream.

"Kon! W...what were you doing with my coat!" Rukia demanded of the lion plushie that was now standing up and rubbing his backside indignantly.

"Well, ever since that time I got thrown in the washing machine by mistake when I was sleeping in your dirty clothes, I have been sleeping in things of yours that won't get washed." he told her, nonchalantly leaning against the bathroom wall and ignoring her seething look.

"Why you little pervert!" Rukia yelled picking up the loudly protesting stuffed animal. "Too bad that washing didn't clean your mind!" she said turning on scalding hot bath water while holding Kon in a death grip as he struggled to get free.

"Hey! Hey now, Rukia! I didn't sleep in your panties TOO often! I swear it was mostly an innocent want to be close to you!" Kon tried reasoning with her as Rukia turned off the tap and threw him in the bath water. Kon struggled to the surface completely water-logged and spat out water. "Hey! Where are you going this late at night?!" he asked her.

"That is none of your concern." Rukia told him and then grinning wickedly she grabbed the soap off of the sink and threw it at the plushie knocking him back into the water.

She put on her coat and quietly peeked in Ichigo's room. She saw him at work at his desk, so she closed his door silently and slipped out into the night. As she walked to Urahara's store, she silently thought over the events that had transpired the past two days. At first she had seen the danger inherent in Orihime's plan. She had instantly felt ill at ease with the thought of bringing one of Aizen's top ranking Espada into the human world. Every fiber in her being had warned her against it. Yet when she had seen how earnest Orihime had been and how in love... Just what had happened between them when Orihime had been locked away? Whatever it was it was enough to make the arrancar give his life to help Orihime escape...to help them all escape. She wondered again for what must have been the hundredth time since being told the story of their escape.._can hollows love? _And even if they could, does that make them any less dangerous? Rukia thought not and yet...yet she didn't want to bring the Soul Society into this, not just yet anyway. She needed more time to figure things out. And for that she needed to talk to Urahara. And speaking of which, here she stood now in front of his door.

She carefully knocked on the worn wood of the door, suddenly aware of just how late it was and how quiet it was in this run down part of town. Then something soft and warm entwined itself between her ankles and stifling a scream, Rukia looked down to see what it was.

"Yourichi." she breathed a sigh of relief at the black cat now standing before her.

"Yes. I'm glad you have come. I just came back from checking on the girl."

"R...really?! I'm so glad! Is she OK?" Rukia said, relieved that Urahara and Yourichi were watching Orihime and the arrancar.

"Yes, she is. She is sleeping." Yourichi told her.

"Where is Ulquiorra?"

"He's with her now, though he did leave earlier in the night." Yourichi answered her. "Here let me get Urahara. He must not have heard you knock." the cat said as she gracefully leapt through the swinging pet door. Rukia waited a moment on the front step, aware of how chilly it was and wondering about Yourichi's last comment.

When the door opened again, it opened on a tired and scruffy looking Urarhara. "Come in, come in. I'm pleased as always to see you, Kuchiki-san." he yawned.

Rukia stepped in. She wanted to inquire about why the shop-keeper looked so tired, even more tired than usual. She said nothing though, knowing it would be impolite. Instead she waited for whatever it was Urahara was waiting for, because waiting he clearly was. Then Yourichi lightly stepped into the front of the shop in the form of a beautiful and lithe woman, adjusting her shirt. "Are we ready?" Yourichi asked, looking at Urahara.

"Yes, we are." he smiled at her and then motioned Rukia into their living quarters at the back of the store. Rukia stepped into a warm and nicely appointed living room with steaming tea already set out on the table. "Come, sit down. I know you have a lot on your mind, Kuchiki-san." Urahara said motioning to the tea table.

Rukia primly sat down and took a cup in her hands thanking her hosts. It's warmth felt good on her cold skin. She took a sip and then said, "I'm worried about Inoue. We shouldn't have let her bring that hollow back here." she said getting right to the point.

Urahara exchanged a look with Yourichi and then picked up his own tea. "And I bet you are wondering why I let her do it, though you are too polite to ask that." he said, softly blowing on his tea.

Rukia shifted uncomfortably and said, "Well, yes, that...that was on my mind."

"Well I admit that it was with entirely selfish motives that I did so. We know so little about hollows in general, and these arrancar in particular that I just couldn't pass up the chance of studying one in person." he grinned at her.

"And...and what about Inoue's safety? Did you think nothing of that?" Rukia asked, incredulous.

"Of course, of course." Urahara said waving a hand at her. "Youichi and I have the place under constant surveillance."

"Then who is there now?" Rukia asked through gritted teeth, looking at them.

"Ah...well it is my turn." Urahara grinned at her sheepishly. "But then you showed up, wanting an audience with me, and I can never deny a pretty lady a wish and so..." he trailed off gesturing into the air.

"I've been watching them most of the day." Yourichi spoke up for the first time since they had sat down. "I'm not sure exactly what I am seeing. He seems really conflicted. I don't know if he is going to do well here, I'm suspecting no. Yet, I don't think he will harm the girl."

"You think? You are doing nothing about this situation, based on thoughts?" she asked her angrily.

"Kuchiki-san." Rukia turned towards Urahara's voice. He looked straight into her eyes and said, "We won't let him hurt her."

Rukia looked at him a moment more and then nodded, satisfied.

"Now you have to admit Kuchiki-san, this is all very fascinating! Who knew that hollows had the ability to love?" Urahara smiled at her, gulping down the rest of his tea.

----------------------

Ulquiorra shifted uncomfortably on Orihime's couch, unable to fall asleep. Orihime had been asleep for hours already, preparing for her first day back at school he supposed. He had went out to feed shortly after he had known she was asleep. Then he had come back here and had tried to go sleep too, but his mind was too filled with conflicting thoughts to settle down. At first he had thought that maybe sleeping with Orihime in her bed would help, but after his first day spent in the human world with her he wasn't so sure anymore. He was more sure than ever that he loved her, but...that thought brought different emotions with it than it had at _Las Noches. _There he had spent a lot of time figuring just what exactly it was he felt towards her and once he had figured it out, he had died shortly afterward. Also in _Las Noches _he had an anchor in Aizen. He supposed all the arrancar that served him did. Around Aizen it never felt like his fear was going to overwhelm him the way it did here. He had taken comfort in the fact that Aizen was fearless and it had given him strength. Now though, he was cast adrift in his sea of emotion. The more he thought about how he loved Orihime, the more scared he was of losing her. To the point of wanting to ensure that she would be a part of him forever...no he mustn't think like that.

He sat up and ran his hand through his hair. Then he quietly stole to Orihime's room and slowly opened the door on her sleeping form. He softly walked over to her bed and looked down at her. He had never seen anything so beautful before. And it hurt to look at her. He kneeled down next to her bed and buried his head in his arms. _Why does it hurt? Why can't I love her without being scared or it hurting? _He looked up at her and softly stroked the few strands of red that lay on her white pillow. He gently brought those few strands to his lips and kissed them. Then he laid them back down and stood up, preparing to leave her room. Suddenly he felt a huge reiatsu appear on the street just in front of Orihime's apartment. He went to look out the living room window, but before he could he suddenly found himself face to face with the pink-haired Octava Espada.

Szayel looked Ulquiorra over and tittered. "You certainly are the last person I expected here." Then he dodged to the right trying to get around Ulquiorra and to Orihime, but Ulquiorra calmly stepped in front of him. Szayel looked up at him and said, "What the hell are you doing? More importantly, what the hell are you doing alive? If I remember correctly we had you for supper one night and I find the fact that you are now standing before me again quite...unsettling. Not to mention disgusting!"

Ulquiorra just looked at him.

"Well regardless of why I am looking at last week's soup restored and alive and trying to stop me from getting the human girl, I have a mission to complete." Szayel told him trying to get around him again, but Ulquiorra was faster.

"So Aizen wants her again." Ulquiorra intoned. "He must really need her to be so persistent."

"He does and he promised me once he was done with her, she was all mine to do with as I wished!" the arrancar giggled wickedly. "Noitora was quite upset that he lost out yet again. Now get out of my way."

Ulquiorra quickly stepped to Orihime and picked her up in his arms. "You aren't going to be able to complete your mission." he told Szayel and then he opened a _garganta_ in her room though he knew it would cut into her walls. He figured she would forgive him for that. She stirred sleepily in his arms and he stepped through, closing it on the irate Espada.


	8. Chapter 8

Szayel squealed in anger and threw the needle he had in his hand at the place the rip in space had been. It shattered against the wall, dripping glass and liquid anesthesia into the cream carpet. He spun around , hands itching for more destruction to wreak. He grabbed a china doll down from a high shelf and slammed that into the wall too, wishing it was Ulquiorra's head instead. Where in the hell had he come from?! He sure hadn't been here two days ago when Szayel had scoped out the premises and planned how he was going to take the girl. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to get himself under control. Aizen was going to be pissed though. Szayel frowned at that thought. Maybe he could get Aizen to see that it wasn't his fault. Who could have foreseen the little wrench of the arrancar coming back from the dead thrown into the plans? He doubted even Aizen would have. Knowing that he couldn't stall forever, Szayel took a deep breath and opened his own _garganta _where Ulquiorra had opened his. Though instead of leading to where ever the hell Ulquiorra and the girl had gone (Szayel had got but a green glimpse of their destination), his portal opened into _Las Noches. _

As he walked down the sterile corridors he heard a few snickers and calls of "Where's the girl? Don't tell me you got your ass kicked by a human!" He held his head up high and refused to even glance in the direction of his detractors. As he reached Aizen's throne room, he raised a very sweaty hand to knock on the marble door. Yet before his hand even touched cold stone, he heard Aizen call, "Come in Szayel and tell me why you have failed."

_Shit, _Szayel thought to himself. _How can he even know such things? I bet he has some lackey that came and told him the second I entered Hueco Mundo. _Szayel sneered to himself at that thought and pushed open the door.

"Aizen-sama." Szayel said as he approached the dais. "Please forgive my incompetence. I_ will _rectify this grievance against you, if you would only give me another chance."

"I first need to know why you failed, Numero Octava. Let us hope for your sake it is a reason that I deem valid." Aizen intoned from above his head.

Szayel compulsively wiped his sweaty hands on the front of his hakama, staining the crisp white fabric. "It wasn't my fault, Aizen-sama! I swear!" he said in a rush. "It was that damn Ulquiorra! I go in, just as planned and..."

"What did you just say?" Aizen spoke above him.

"Um...when I tried to get the girl, Ulquiorra was there with her and he took her away. I have no idea where!" Szayel told him, now twisting the cloth of his uniform with his nervous hands.

"I thought I heard you correctly." Aizen spoke in that deadly calm way that he used when something bad was about to happen and at his hand.

Szayel's eyes darted around the pristine white room looking for a way out, though he knew he could not move until Aizen gave the word. So Szayel just waited, with his head bowed for what seemed like an eternal moment, and then Aizen spoke again.

"She raised him from the dead. I _knew _that her power extended to that unspeakable length." he said thoughtfully and Szayel carefully raised his head to look at him. Aizen had a far away look in his eyes. He stayed that way on his throne for what seemed to Szayel a long time. Looking into the eyes of God it seemed, and why not? He had already made his throne in heaven. What more sacrilege would he dare commit and yet still stand here untouched with his demonic minions?

"I want her." Aizen finally spoke again and the lust and desire that filled his voice scared Szayel. He finally spared a glance down on his trembling servant. "They can't stay away for ever. They _will _be back and when they are, you will be there waiting for them. You will not wait alone though. You will take Noitora and one other Espada of your choosing with you. And by your own choosing, I mean that you are going to choose from the top three. Even Ulquiorra can't stand against three of his own kind. None of you will come back without the girl. You do understand what I am saying, right Numero Octava?" Aizen asked him, menace mostly concealed by his false concern.

"Y...yes, sir." Szayel answered him.

"Good. Then go. Get the others and leave immediately." Aizen said, leaning back into his chair comfortably.

Szayel practically ran out of the throne room. He went to Noitora's quarters first. He knocked on the door and was greeted with a disgruntled, "What?"

Szayel snickered, already at ease now that he was out of Aizen's presence. "Well you know how you have always wanted to get your hands on that red-haired brat?"

The door suddenly opened on the tall dark-haired Espada. "Yeah..." he said, glaring at Szayel with slitted eyes.

"Well, I think today is your lucky day." Szayel told him and tittered.

--------------------

Ulquiorra gently laid Orihime down on a spongy bed of fresh spring moss. She ever so slightly stirred and then was asleep again. Ulquiorra sat down next to her and rested his head on his arms watching the forest around them. It was full day here and many creatures rustled and crunched their way through the clearing. Ulquiorra's sharp eyes saw most of them and he again sighed and wondered why the human world was so full of life. What purpose did its abundance serve? Was there any reason for such creatures to exist except to be preyed on by stronger ones_? That is the way of things in Hueco Mundo and it seems to be the way of things here, _Ulquiorra thought as he watched a long-legged spider busily wrap a beetle that had the misfortune of falling into it's web. Ulquiorra quickly reached out and grabbed the spider in his fingers. He looked at it, undisturbed by the tiny bites that it inflicted on his dead skin.

"Why do you bother to survive when the bird will eat you next week?" he asked. Then he closed his fingers on it, feeling the spider pop in his grasp. He wiped his hand on the ground and looked again at Orihime. "Why do I bother to love you when I know all it will bring us is pain? He whispered to her slumbering form. Then he laid down next to her in the sun and drifted off to troubled dreams.

--------------------

Orihime woke up dazzled by bright sun and throughly confused. There was springiness under her back and stirring movement all around her, caught by the corner of her eye. She sat up to get a better look at why it seemed her bedroom had grown leaves and animals in the night, when her hand brushed against the one bit of iciness in all of that warm sunshine. She gasped and looked down to see that her pink hand was on Ulquiorra's white one. She smiled at him sleeping next to her on the moss...wait...moss? Orihime stood up and slowly took in her surroundings. Though all of her senses were telling her that she was in forest clearing, she just couldn't compute it all and have it make sense. Suddenly she heard a large...something...crunching its way to the clearing. She sat back down and shook Ulquiorra awake.

"Ul...Ulquiorra." she whispered, with a touch of panic. "Ulquiorra! There is something coming and it is big and I don't quite understand why I was sleeping someplace where big things are."

Ulquiorra blinked awake and looked at her and then at the approaching animal. "What are you making such a fuss about?" he asked her, annoyed.

"Awww! Look! It's a deer!" Orihime said with wonder as the graceful animal stepped into the clearing to get to a stream. "Do you see her?!" Orihime asked , shaking Ulquiorra's arm.

"Yes, Orihime. I don't need to be shaken and bombarded with asinine questions to see the three hundred pound animal right in from of my face." he stated tonelessly.

"Oh..." she replied crestfallen and dropped her hand. Then she remembered what she wanted to ask him earlier. "Why are we in a forest in the middle of the day?"

"I had to take you from your home because Aizen is trying to kidnap you again." he said. "I don't know when we can go back. I will observe your apartment everyday, but I have my doubts it will be unoccupied."

"Oh! Ulquiorra! What are we going to do?! I mean, we can't stay here...wherever "here" is for long. Where are we anyway?"

"Someplace in the United States. As far away as I could get you. And I know we can't stay. Let me think. I will think of a solution." he said starting to stand up.

Orihime grabbed his sleeve and asked, "Where are you going?"

"No where far." he answered, looking at her hand on his sleeve.

"Can't you think here?" she asked him, pulling him down to her.

He looked her over as he sat back down. "I suppose."

"I'm scared." she said. "And yet, I'm not as scared as I should be. I think because you are here with me." she said, looking at him.

He looked back at her and said, "Orihime. Do you remember what I said to you yesterday?"

"I...I think so..." she said hesitantly.

"Do you ever stop to wonder why you are scared of the other arrancar, but not me?" he asked her.

"Well...uh...because they want to hurt me and you don't." She picked up a bit of moss in her hands and played with it.

"You shouldn't base your fear on intent. You are dead either way, whether the man who shot you did it on accident or on purpose." He looked at her a moment and then went on, "After I know you are safe from Aizen, I...I don't think I should stay with you. Because you are right, I don't want to hurt you."

She could feel tears trickle down her cheeks and she put her arms around his rigid frame and pressed her face against his chest. She felt his arms slip around her back and press her close. She pulled back and reached up to touch his mask. She ran her hand over the ridges and she reached up higher to lightly touch the horn. Then she looked at him in the eyes and oh so slowly reached out to unzip his collar so to expose his hollow hole. He didn't stop her, but he looked at her with a kind of desperation.

"What are you trying to do, Orihime?" he asked her, looking at her hands as they lay the lapels of his jacket wide.

She very carefully traced her finger around the hole in his breastbone and answered, "I...I'm not really sure, but...but I know I love you even though you have this." she said as she continued to gently touch the place that as a full hollow had replaced his heart. She placed her lips on his and breathed in winter. He kissed her back, but wouldn't open his mouth for hers. She pulled back and saw desire in his eyes. The same desire that she knew he must see in hers.

She slowly started unbuttoning her pajama top and he only asked once, "Are you sure?"

She nodded and laid back onto the soft moss removing the rest of her pajamas. She watched as he looked over her body and then gently trailed his finger down her length..chin to abdomen traced in frost. She shivered in the warm sun and reached up to help him out of his clothes. Then the sun was stolen away and spring day turned to ice because he was on her and then in her. She gasped and put her arms around him as he buried his head in her hair. He was as quiet and reserved in his love-making as he was in every other aspect of his life and he made no noise until the very end. As he came he whispered her name over and over again in her hair as he trembled in her arms. When he was finished he got off of her and sat back staring at her intently for a moment. She was about to ask what was the matter when he spoke.

"Why didn't it happen to you?"

She was about to ask him what he meant (though she mostly knew), when he looked her over thoughtfully and then his hand was there. On the soft place between her legs and he started gently pressing. She cried out as pleasure suddenly bloomed there. Getting the hint, he touched her until she came and she moaned his name. Then he reached out and stroked her face and though it just might have been the sun, she thought she saw tears in his eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

Ishida carefully laid out his text books and neatly stacked his paper and checked the ink levels in his pens. Once satisfied that all was properly prepared and ready for him to start his home work, he pulled his first book towards him and began reading. As most of his mind was taken up with integers and isosceles, he kept a corner of it focused on Orihime's reiatsu. He could feel it's steady and comforting pressure as he opened up his notebook and began writing his answers in his small and exceedingly neat print. He was just about finished with his first page of work when her spirit energy suddenly winked out of existence. It didn't flicker, it didn't slowly die, it was just here one second and gone the next. He put his pen down on his desk and looked out his window to the dark street below. He felt for Ulquiorra's reiatsu and came up with nothing. He silently cursed to himself and stood up and walked to his window. He closed his eyes and sent his thought out into the town. He tried to feel anything out of the ordinary. At first there was nothing. Just the usual slight pressure of ordinary souls living out their lives and deaths around him. Then as he searched farther he felt it. Someone with the same intense spiritual pressure and black spirit ribbon as an arrancar. As he prepared to leave his room to find its source the reiatsu disappeared the same way that Orihime's had. Ishida cursed again and then grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair.

"Where are you going, young man?" Ishida's father sternly asked him as Ishida opened the front door.

"I forgot my calculus text book at school, Ryuken. I need it to study for the exam tomorrow." Ishida said not even stopping to look at him. He barely heard the reply as he swung the door shut and donned his jacket. His breath frosted in the chilly night air as he quickly walked to Orihime's apartment.

As he approached her street he formed his reiatsu into a coldly burning bow and strung a bright arrow on it. He wasn't the first to get here. "Who is there?" he called out into the night.

"I would ask the same of you, but seeing as how you advertised yourself as brightly as you did, I have no need to." came a lilting voice from the dark a moment before a figure stepped into a streetlight.

Ishida let his arrow dissipate back into formless energy at the sight of Urahara. He kept hold of the bow though. "So you sensed it too." he said to the shopkeeper joining him in the light.

"No. I was actually here when it happened." Urahara replied leaning against the lamppost.

"When what happened?! Where is Orihime and the hollow?!" he asked angrily.

"That I can't tell you. I can tell you though that at precisely 10:38 pm, a strong arrancar appeared in the street...just about where you are standing actually...strode into Inoue-san's apartment like he owned the place and a moment later...POOF...they were gone. Well Ulquiorra and Inoue-san was. The other arrancar left a moment later." Urahara explained as he brought out a file and started filing his nails.

"Why the hell didn't you stop them?" Ishida demanded of him.

Urahra stopped filing at his nails and looked up at him. "Because Ulquiorra did the best thing that could have been done at that point. I doubt that you would have like the alternative of a couple of arrancar blasting away at each other in such close proximity to Inoue-san."

"So what are you going to do now?" Ishida asked.

"I'm going to wait. I think he is going to bring her back when he deems it safe."

"When it is safe? When will that be? I doubt it will be safe until Aizen is defeated. Besides how do you know Ulquiorra wasn't in on it? How do you..." Ishida began.

Urahara put up a hand to hush him a moment before Ishida felt it too. He let Urahara drag him into the shadows as he felt three beings with huge spiritual pressure appear in Orihime's apartment. He sought out their spiritual ribbons and saw them all to be the dead black that all arrancar possessed. Suddenly he heard Urahara whisper next to his ear. "I think it is time you and I beat tracks." Ishida agreed.

--------------------

"This is so lame." Noitora sighed as he laid down on the girl's bed. "The way you were talking, I thought we were going to get her tonight. Not have to lay up in her apartment, for God only knows how long waiting for her to show up." He lazily tuned on his side and looked up at Szayel.

Szayel just ignored his whining and walked to the bedroom window. He could feel people out there, but they were all ready leaving. Wise move on their parts. He turned away from the window and looked at Halibel standing quietly in the corner. She looked back at him with her cool blue eyes, but said nothing. _Great, _Szayel thought to himself. _I'm stuck in a tiny apartment with Miss Ice For Blood and Mr. Whiny Hornypants. Ulquiorra is SO dead when I see him again. _Szayel made his own sigh and slumped into a chair. "Try to look alert, Noitora. You never know when Ulquiorra could show back up here and take advantage of our distraction." Szayel said as he watched Noitora bury his head in Orihime's pillows.

"Speak for yourself, Szayel." Noitora replied, voice muffled. "As for me, I could take that wuss out with one hand and my eye closed." He suddenly sat up. "Hey, did his face ever get on any body else's nerves? I mean...that cry baby face just screams, "Punch me!" Noitora giggled.

Szayel laughed in spite of himself. "You should have seen him when I was ripping his skin off! Who could have known that he could scream so loud! My freakin' ears were ringing for a week."

Noitora laughed and then laid back down on the pillows with his hands behind his head. "Just think! When you catch him, you get to have fun with him again! It's not too often that you get to torture the same wuss twice! What do you think you will do to him this time?"

Szayel pondered that thought for a moment. He had recently developed a new serum that liquidfied the insides of whomever was given it. He had quite a bit of fun testing it out on his _fraccion. _It would be even more fun to use on Ulquiorra. He was about to say so when Noitora suddenly got off the bed and strode to the window. Szayel glanced at him, annoyed that he would ask a question and then ignore the answer.

"Is anyone else starving?" he asked.

Halibel didn't say anything. Szayel focused on his stomach for the first time since arriving. He noticed that he was indeed ravished. He tittered, "Yeah. It sure feels different than being in Hueco Mundo."

"I wonder what there is to eat around here?" Noitora asked and then jumped from the window.

Szayel stood up and ran to the window just in time to see him land on his feet in the grass below. "I'd like to put an order in for one of the little brat's buddies! And don't eat all the fries on the way back!" he yelled at Noitora's retreating form, laughing.

--------------------

Ulquiorra sat in the gaudy and uncomfortable booth and watched Orihime eat...something. He wasn't even sure she knew exactly what it was, but she seemed to be enjoying it.

"You know...this Po-Boy thing is pretty good!" she said as she happily took another bite of the huge sandwich stuffed with things Ulquiorra had been unable to identify. He watched as gravy dripped down her chin and he suppressed an urge to reach out and wipe it away. Luckily she noticed it a second later and wiped her mouth on the paper napkin emblazoned with the legend, "Pirate's Cove". "Do you want to try a bite?" she asked holding the fried and dripping thing perilously close to his white uniform. He sunk back in the hot and sticky booth shaking his head. "Well, what about this root beer? It's sweet!" she said taking the sandwich away and replacing it with a tall bottle of brown liquid.

"Orihime." he intoned. "I am not interested in what ever it is you are consuming and you shouldn't try to talk to me here. Have you forgotten that the other patrons can't see me? Some are looking at you askance."

He watched her face fall and he cursed himself yet again for making it do that. "I...I guess I didn't notice." she whispered, replacing her drink on the table. "I...I'm just worried that you are hungry is all. You haven't eaten since we have got here and the day is almost over."

Ulquiorra was hungry, famished in fact, but he had brought them to some place secluded and there was nothing around to eat. There were very few human souls here, much less anything like hollows or soul reapers. Plus it was unbearably hot. He wasn't use to the sticky heat that had infected the day like a rising fever. For the first time he missed the cold white desert of Hueco Mundo.

"I think we go can go back to Kurakara soon." he told her. "I thought things over and I believe you will be safe enough with Urahara Kisuke and Yourichi Shiouin."

"You mean "we" right?" she asked, biting into her sandwich and trying to look unconcerned.

"Orihime, as I have attempted to explain to you countless times before, I can not stay with you." Though he desired to, oh yes he desired. He looked at her and thought again of her sighing in the sun this morning as he loved her. And he wanted her again. He quickly looked down at the table. He didn't want her to see that desire again. Not when he was trying to tell her that they could never be together. He felt her warm soft hand on his and he looked up into her warm eyes again.

"Can't you stay...just for a bit? Maybe...maybe between you and I and Urahara we can think of a solution." she said voiced filled with hope.

"It is foolishness to hope for such things, Orihime. It only brings pain and despair. You can't change what I am." he told her.

"Well...I don't know...maybe I can..." she smiled at him.

It was Ulquiorra's turn to ask her, "What are you trying to say?"

She just smiled at him mysteriously and shook her head. "I don't quite know yet, but let me talk it over with Urahara. So will you come?" she asked squeezing his hand.

He looked her over carefully and wondered how long he actually could stave off the consuming fear that he could feel looming over all of his thoughts and emotions. He thought that as long as he kept that at bay, he would be alright. Yet if he started to dwell on it at all...(he WOULD have Orihime for himself forever and ever)...well he just couldn't think on it at all. He would try to at least (don't leave me, Orihime...don't leave me alone in my despair again)...

"I will. For a little while." he told her (because I am afraid to be without you).


	10. Chapter 10

Orihime started squirming in her seat. "Um...I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back!" she called to Ulquiorra as she got out of the booth. He just looked back at her and she wondered if he even understood what she meant. Did hollows use the bathroom? She would have to ask him that when she got back.

After she was finished and washing her hands in the cracked and rust stained sink, she again thought about the idea she had this morning as she laid in Ulquiorra's arms. Would it be possible to use her powers to reject the fact that Ulquiorra became a hollow? That he had even died? She didn't know. She definitely had to discuss it with Urarhara though. She wondered what he would be like when he was human again. What would he look like? What would he act like? It was all really quite fascinating to think about. She hoped he wasn't _too _different though. She still wanted to be able to recognize the person she had fallen in love with after he was changed. She dried her hands off and walked back into the dining room. She wasn't but three feet from the door when Ulquiorra came up and grabbed her arm.

"We need to go now." he stated, directing her towards the door.

"W...What about paying for the food?" she asked glancing at the table they sat warily.

"It's taken care of."

"H...How did you do that? I didn't have any money on me and even if I did it wouldn't have been American and I doubt..." she stopped as comprehension dawned on her. "You didn't steal it did you?"

"Orihime. You needed to eat." he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.

"But...but...it's wrong to steal!" she yelled trying to stop again, but he was pulling her with determination and he was much stronger.

"Must you attract the notice of every customer with your boisterous accusations?" he asked her bitterly as he finally dragged her out of the door and into the blistering heat.

"Ul...Ulquiorra."she said sadly as she looked at him.

"I'm going to take you to Urahara Kisuke's shop now." he told her, opening a _garganta_ in the middle of the parking lot.

As the rip opened, Orihime could see the front of Urahara's store and a cool spring breeze blew through, softly stirring her hair. She stepped through and reached out for Ulquiorra's hand. He took it (gently this time) and they walked to the front of the shop together. As she carefully knocked on the door, she thought back to the last time she was here. A time when Ulquiorra was dead and she was filled with despair. Had that only been two days ago? She looked at his profile and smiled as she waited for the door to open. She was about to knock again when the it was finally opened by Tessai.

"Um...good morning, Tessai-san." she said, hoping she got the time of day right. It certainly felt like morning to her, but after jumping back and forth to America today she was somewhat confused. "May we speak to Urahara-san?" she asked politely as she saw Tessai eye Ulquiorra carefully.

"Just a moment. The boss has been expecting you." he said as he motioned them into the shop and let the door close behind them. _Expecting us? _she wondered. How could he know we were going to show up here? She glanced at Ulquiorra but he was just standing in his impassive way, staring straight ahead. She gently squeezed his hand to see if that would get a reaction out of him. He glanced down at her hand and then at her.

"I wonder what Urahara-san wants us for?" she nervously asked him.

"You will soon know the reason." he told her and then went back to staring at the back of the store.

"Ah, Inoue-san! A pleasure as always!" Urahara smiled at her, then he turned to Ulquiorra. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Ulquiorra-san." he said.

Ulquiorra just looked at him and then said, "Orihime needs to stay here. Her house is no longer safe."

"I know." Urahara said. "We will discuss housing arrangements later, though." He turned to Orihime. "Inoue-san. There is something I need to tell you. Last night Kurosaki-san was attacked by an extremely strong arrancar. He managed to subdue him and escape, but was gravely injured in the process. Yourichi is with him now and doing what she can, but he needs your help. Otherwise..." he trailed off, looking at her gravely.

Orihime nodded and felt tears form in her eyes. "Of course I'll go to him and heal him."

Urahara nodded at that and then said, "Wait here just a moment. I want to go with you." Then he whisked off towards the back of the store to where his living quarters were.

Orihime let go of Ulquiorra's hand and rubbed the tears from her eyes. Then suddenly she felt Ulquiorra move on her right and then she was pinned to the wall behind her. She looked up at Ulquiorra and fearfully whispered, "What are you doing?"

"You will not go to him. I forbid it." he said, menace snaking through his words.

"W...what are you talking about? I...I have to go...Kurosaki-kun...he needs me." she answered, for the first time in weeks reminded of why she was so scared of Ulquiorra at first.

"You will make some excuse as to why you have to disincline Urahara's request. You will not heal him."

"W...what has gotten into you? Why...why are you doing this?" she asked tearfully looking his hands pinning her shoulders to the wall.

"You are mine, Orihime. I will not share you with trash." he said and then bent down to kiss her lips, but she turned her head.

"Please..." she whispered as his lips brushed her hair instead. "I can't let him die. I...I..."

"You what? Love him? Still?" he asked and she felt his reiatsu flare and envelope her. "No! I won't let you." Then he took her shoulders and brought her face close to his and she started crying loudly now, not knowing what exactly he was going to do to her.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" came Urahara's voice from behind Ulquiorra. "Let her go!" Urahara started towards them pulling his zanpaktou from it's sheath. Ulquiorra suddenly dropped her and then disappeared from her sight. Urahara followed him, but even as Orihime turned to watch she saw a tear open in the scenery in front of the store and then he was gone. She slumped down to the cool wooden floor and started sobbing uncontrollably. Urahara came back into the store sheathing his zanpaktou and Orihime looked up at him through her tears.

"Inoue-san." he said gently. He reached out his hands and she allowed herself to be brought to her feet. "Would you please join me?" he said motioning out the door.

Orihime nodded and wiped her eyes. "W...What about Ulquiorra?" she asked.

"I don't know Inoue-san, but I think Kurosaki-san should be your first priority at this point in time." he said opening the door for her. She thanked him and they walked through the cool sun to the Kurosaki clinic.

Once there, Isshin opened the door for them and motioned them in, not to the clinic like Orihime expected, but upstairs to Ichigo's room. She trailed behind Urahara and Isshin and listened to them mumbling quietly to themselves. As she approached Ichigo's room she felt a strange mixture of fear and shy anticipation grip her stomach. Isshin opened the door and nodded for Orihime to go through. As she did so she saw Yourichi and Rukia already at his bedside, looking on Ichigo's still form with concern. Orihime nervously tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and walked to the trio.

"Um...um...I'm here." she said as she looked down on Ichigo gasping and bleeding on the bed. She placed her shield above him and then sat down on the floor by his bed. She placed her head in her arms and quietly cried. Rukia and Yourichi came to her side, but she just waved them away. She heard Yourichi mumble something about her being upset at seeing Ichigo so badly hurt and she heard Rukia reply that they should leave her be for a bit. Then she heard the bedroom door open and click shut. Once they were gone, she raised her head and looked at Ichigo lying in the golden light of her shield. His gasping had already ceased and he looked peaceful again. She reached out and wanted to brush his hair from his face, but couldn't. Why? Why was it so easy to touch Ulquiorra, but not Ichigo? She put her hand back in her lap and bowed her head, wondering if she would ever see Ulquiorra again. She stayed that way for a long while as the light morning sun deepened into rich afternoon gold around her.


	11. Chapter 11

Szayel watched as the little brat and the shopkeeper left the store. He saw Urahara's eyes flick to his location almost imperceptively and then he looked again in the direction he was leading the girl. The girl didn't look so well, Szayel thought to himself and smiled. _Now that wouldn't have anything to do with Ulquiorra's all too recent departure now would it? _After the two figures drifted from view, Szayel stood up and brushed leaves and dirt from the front of his hakama. Well this was certainly a nice change of events. Not only was the girl back in town, but she just lost one of her protectors. Taking the girl from the shop would be a breeze now. Szayel looked into the sunshine and then shook his head. No, today he wanted to stroll back to the apartment on the ground and take in all the delicious sights and smells of the world around him. It was shaping up to be a very good day.

Once back in the girl's apartment, he saw that her bedroom door was closed and he could hear slight snatches of whispering coming from under it. He straightened himself up and opened the door without knocking. He was after all the one in charge here. Whatever Noitora and Halibel had to say to each other could be said in his presence. As he entered the room he saw the two other arrancar sitting close together on the bed. Noitora, still bloody after his attack on Ichigo. Halibel as cool and serene as a queen. At the sight of him they quickly scooted apart and Halibel stood up and resumed standing in her preferred place by the dresser, arms crossed under her breasts. She glared at him and Noitora cleared his throat and said, "You are back early."

Szayel smiled at him and said, "There is good news. The girl is back and is staying at Urahara's store. Ulquiorra is no longer with her and the other three there that can actually fight are no threat."

Halibel looked him over disgusted and muttered, "I see you have celebrated."

Szayel looked down at his soiled and bloody uniform. He had indulged on the way back to Orihime's house and who could blame him. He felt like a guillotine blade had been lifted from his neck. He just decided to ignore that comment and announced, "We will attack tonight. Halibel, you and Noitora will vanquish whatever resistance we come up against and I will take the girl back to Azien."

Noitora stood up and walked over to him glaring. "Why the hell do you get the good job? Basically you are saying that Halibel and I get to do the dirty work, while you claim all the glory! No way!" He was now inches away from Szayel's face. "It seems you have forgotten that you are the weakest one here."

Szayel stared right back into his fuming face and said, "I haven't forgotten. That is why I have left the job of enemy dispatching to you two. You have a much better chance than I would with them. Besides, Aizen did leave me in charge and I will note every time that you disobeyed my orders, so that when you two do return he will be waiting for you."

Noitora turned around and slammed his fist into the wall, cursing. "And I want to know why the hell he did that!" He then turned back to Szayel. "It makes no sense putting a weaker Espada in charge of higher ones!" Noitora yelled in his face.

"Well, then that is something you are going to want to take up with Aizen-sama." Szayel giggled. "Have fun with that." he said patting the huge Espada on the chest. Noitora's eyes looked at him and promised murder and Szayel slowly withdrew his hand.

He then sat back in his favorite chair, satisfied. "Besides, I'm sure there will be perks for you also if we get the girl. I had never seen Aizen want something so much." He watched as Noitora and Halibel exchanged a look.

"Tonight then."

Szayel's eyes swung to Halibel surprised that she had been the one to speak. Then he nodded at her in acquiescence and enjoyed the power. He thought that this must be what Aizen felt as he sat on his cold throne. It was a feeling he could get used to.

---------------------

Ulquiorra wasn't even sure where he had opened a _garganta _to. He looked around the unfamiliar surroundings and then sat on the edge of the road he was now on. He didn't even know what country he was in, nor did he care. The pain consuming his soul was a fresh and raw thing. It was throbbing like a gaping wound in his chest. He wondered what Orihime was doing now. More than likely the boy had already been healed and was now showing his appreciation to Orihime. In ways that Ulquiorra tried not to imagine, but came unbidden to his thoughts anyway. He again thought of her the night he had kidnapped her and the love that had shown on her face as she whispered her goodbyes to the boy. She never was his. She never was. She just played with his newfound emotions, probably so he would protect her from Aizen. He wouldn't let her get away with it though. He wouldn't let her play him for a fool.

He clenched his fists and tried to will the soul splitting pain to stop. There was only one way to stop such pain though. He quickly stood up and strode to the cluster of buildings he could see cradled in the valley below. When he reached the first tidy little house, he walked right in and ate the the young woman he found washing dishes inside. He didn't care that she had no spiritual power to speak of. He went through the town and none of them even knew what hit them. He just ate and ate and ate. He had to stop the pain, it was so close to consuming him this time. When he was done he just sat on the floor of his last victim's house and laid his head in his arms.

"Orihime. Orihime." he whispered.

--------------------

Orihime watched as Ichigo's eyes opened and she let her shield dissipate. He looked over at her with his gorgeous brown eyes and said, "Inoue?"

She nodded and smiled at him. "Let me get Kuchiki-san and the others. I know they are all want to know that you are awake." She stood up and started for the door and then she felt his hand grab her arm. She tried not to feel the chill that went through her body at his touch and turned back to him.

"Inoue. It isn't safe for you here. The guy that attacked me...I don't think it was an accident that he was here. I think they are looking for you again."

"I...I know that. I'm staying at Urahara's for now." she said looking at him as he dropped his hand to his side and sat up on the edge of his bed.

"Renji is still with him, isn't he? That still isn't enough though. Who knows how many are out there. I doubt it is just the one that I saw." He stood to his feet and said, "Come Inoue. Let's see if Urahara will let me stay with him too for now. At least til we know more about the situation." He then walked out of his room and she followed.

--------------------

"No way! You aren't going there alone! Not after what just happened to you!" Rukia shouted at Ichigo.

"I won't be there alone, Rukia. Obviously Mr. Hat and Clogs and his various bunch of ruffians will be there too." he said smiling at her. He turned to Urahara. "Hey isn't Chad still there most of the day as well?" he asked the blond-haired man. At Urahara's tired nod, Ichigo turned back to Rukia and said, "See? Mr. Hat and Clogs has a regular army hidden away in his shop!"

"Still, it can't hurt to have me there too." Rukia insisted and before he could speak again and protest (which he wanted to do, Rukia could just feel it in every fiber of her being), she continued. "AND I don't think it would hurt to ask Ishida if he wants to come as well. It is always wise to be thorough in these sorts of situations." She watched Ichigo sputter at the suggestion that he couldn't take on half of Aizen's elite on his own and inwardly smiled.

"So I don't think you have anything at all to worry about, Inoue." she said turning to the girl who was looking out the window intently. "Especially with Ulquiorra too."

"Ulquiorra?! What the hell are you talking about!?" Ichigo yelled at her. "Why am I the last to ever be told about events of this importance?!!"

Rukia smiled at him, but then turned again to Orihime and worried. "Inoue? Where is Ulquiorra, by the way?" Orihime turned her face to Rukia and her heart fell.

"I...I...don't know, Kuchiki-san." Orihime answered sadly and then turned her face to the window again.

Rukia glanced up at Urahara and saw him mouth the words, "I'll tell you later." And she felt her insides sink. Just what we need, she thought to herself. One more arrancar on the loose and God only knows where.


	12. Chapter 12

Now it is time for the waiting game, Rukia thought to herself as she sipped tea in Urahara's sitting room and looked around the table. Urahara had his head back against the wall and his eyes closed...whether asleep or just thinking, Rukia couldn't tell. Yourichi was next to him, her alert eyes giving lie to her calm demeanor. Rukia smiled at the next friend her eyes fell upon. Renji was quickly stuffing his face with a large bowl of rice, as though worried it might be the last he ever tasted. Next to Renji were the little souls that looked like children but weren't. Red-haired Jinta was scowling at Renji and mumbling freeloader under his breath while Ururu nervously glanced to Urahara's face from time to time as though looking for reassurance. Her eyes then found Ichigo, Ishida and Chad on the other side of the table. Chad was calm and quiet, while Ishida angrily scowled at just about everyone in the room as though he blamed them all for Orihime's earlier disappearance and now danger. Rukia thought that he need not waste his anger and accusation on her. She already felt guilt for her part in bringing about the current situation quite keenly. Ichigo often got up to nervously pace the room or look out the window...waiting patiently was not one of his strong points. Even Tessai was here, waiting behind Urahara in case his boss needed anything. In fact only one friend was absent from the little table and that was Orihime herself.

Rukia's eyes stole to the closed door that led to the bedrooms in the back. Though it was tempting to believe that Orihime was safe back there, Rukia knew that was unlikely the case. Sadly, no place was probably safe for her now. Rukia hoped she stayed in place and didn't get any wild ideas about coming out to fight too. Rukia was all for Orihime fighting when the time was right, but a battle where she was the target was not the time.

"Come on...come on! What is taking these idiots so long!" Ichigo mumbled to himself, pacing the room again. His hand reached for his zanpaktou strapped to his back in anticipation and then was lowered again. "I want to give that long-haired freak what's coming to him!"

"Sit down, Ichigo. You flopping about like a fish out of water isn't going to make them come any faster." Rukia told him quietly.

"Yeah...I know, but it makes me feel better." he responded looking out the window once again.

Rukia wonder if they would appear on the street outside before coming in, or if they would all just appear in a heap right here in the sitting room...or Orihime's room. Rukia nervously glanced at the back door again. They could be in there right now for all they knew, though Rukia thought that was unlikely given they would feel their reiatsu. Unless they had some way to mask it the way she and Orihime had when they had gone to Hueco Mundo. Why oh why didn't they leave someone in Orihime's room too? Why were they convinced that the arrancar would enter through the front door like polite guests come for tea? Rukia suddenly stood up and strode to the door.

"I am going to check on Inoue. Someone needs to be with her." she informed the others as she opened the door. "Just wait here...they WILL more than likely to show up at the front like the guests they aren't." she said as she closed the door on the others.

She lightly stepped down the hall past a couple of other doors until she reached the one she wanted at the end. She softly rapped on the door with her knuckles and opened to the quiet, "Come in."

She found Orihime sitting on the guest bed and twirling a strand of her red hair in her fingers. Rukia noticed she looked more sad than nervous, and wasn't comforted by that fact. She sat down next to her and said, "Would you mind if I sat in here with you? Waiting is lonely enough business with friends surrounding you. It is unbearably so when it is faced alone."

"OK, Kuchiki-san." Orihime replied, despondently. Suddenly there came a cry from the front room and an influx of spiritual pressure in the small shop at the same time. Rukia stood up and drew her zanpaktou. She was torn...she wanted to go to the sounds of conflict that were already reaching her ears from the sitting room and yet she knew she couldn't leave Orihime alone either. A moment later she was glad of her decision to stay because a _garganta _opened in the room in front of her and an arrancar stepped out. His eyes fell on Rukia and he giggled.

"So THIS is what they call protection in the human world! Quite laughable really. I'd say nice knowing you shinigami, but then I really didn't, did I?"

Rukia twirled her zanpaktou and recited, "_First dance, white moon..._" and the black and white sword in her hand started to glow and become the pure white of snow. The temperature of the room dropped suddenly and Rukia heard Orihime suck in her breath behind her. Ice crystals started to form on everything...the walls and furnishings sparkled with new-given brilliance, but most of the ice formed around the pink-haired hollow in front of her. He slowly raised an ice-encrusted hand to her throat but it stopped short as it became completely encased like the rest of his body. The last thing Rukia saw move on him was his lips...trying to form words, but soon they stopped moving and his breath stopped frosting in front of him. Rukia then sheathed her zanpaktou and turned to Orihime. The girl was still sitting on the bed shivering and blue, seeming unaware of her surroundings. Rukia didn't like it. She grabbed Orihime's arm and said, "Let's get out of here." Then suddenly Rukia heard a huge crack behind her back and she was quickly and cruelly grabbed by the neck from behind. She was forcefully brought around to stare at the Espada's face and she gagged at his rancid breath as he spoke, inches from her face.

"What I was attempting to explain to you peon before you so rudely cut me off with your little ice show, was that you are way to weak to take me down using an attack like that. Don't get all uppity just because you defeated our number nine. He was a weakling! You are not dealing with a weakling this time! Kiss your life goodbye! I hope it was a pleasant one. No actually I don't hope that for you." And with that, his hand closed on Rukia's throat and her world started swimming in washes of grey. She heard Orihime cry out behind her, but that was starting to become unimportant now. Everything was unimportant...

--------------------

Ulquiorra paced the streets of the now empty village, unsure of where to go. Of all the places he could go there was only one that he desperately desired too and yet at the same time dreaded it. He wanted more than anything else to look upon Orihime again, even if it was just from outside her window. Yet he was afraid of what he might see in her room...Orihime entwined in the boy's arms, face shining and thoughts far from him. He stopped into one of the dark and quiet houses, trying to ignore the family laying dead on the floor of their living room. He walked into the kitchen and washed his hands at the sink and splashed cold water on his face trying to rid himself of the flushed feeling he had felt ever since his binge.

His head was far from clear, but the pain had ebbed back into his subconscious again. It was once again waiting darkly to spring upon him at the next opportune moment, crouching like a feral animal in it's dank cave. Still, with it beaten back for now Ulquiorra was able to think more clearly. And suddenly he needed to know how much of his thoughts from earlier had been true thoughts and how much had been the thoughts of that beast waiting in it's cave. Decided, he smoothed out his uniform front and then took a deep breath. He ripped open space and saw mayhem in progress.

He heard the cries and saw the struggles in the windows of the small store in the street before him. He knew what they meant even before he saw the tell-tale spoon-like collar of the Quinta Espada flash by the window in a whir of white. His hands clenched into fists in his pockets and he felt for the only thing that mattered, Orihime's reiatsu. He felt it towards the back of the building and instantly opened a new rip to travel there, by-passing the battle in the front of the shop.

This time his _garganta _opened on a room that was in a state of thaw and the black-haired shinigami lying on the floor in a heap in front of a tittering Szayel. Orihime was at the soul reaper's side, already attempting to place her shield on the dying woman as Ulquiorra stepped into the room. Szayel froze in the act of grabbing for her as he felt Ulquiorra appear.

"Don't touch her." Ulquiorra told him.

"You again!" Szayel loudly whined as he stood up from the girl. "Can't you take it into your mind to either stay dead or stay gone? Either one would work for me as long as you stopped interfering!"

Ulquiorra watched as Orihime finally placed her shield on the soul reaper and then looked up at him with tears in her eyes. Surely he didn't cause those tears, he hoped as he felt his insides sink. Then his thought was mostly torn away from her (but not completely, never completely) as he saw Szayel move from the corner of his eye. This time the lower ranked Espada seemed to realize that just trying to take Orihime with Ulquiorra in the room was not going to work and attempted to attack Ulquiorra instead. Ulquiorra calmly brought his hand up in front of his face and felt the heat of the _cero _absorb into it.

"Why are you bothering here anymore. You cannot defeat me. Go back to Aizen with your tail between your legs like the dog you are." Ulquiorra said as he replaced his hand in his pocket.

Amazingly Szayel started laughing. "You are right, Ulquiorra. I cannot defeat you, but you can! _Sip, Fornicaras." _With that command on his lips, Szayel whipped out his zanpaktou from the sheath hanging by his side and jammed the huge sword down his throat, gagging and drooling around it. As black viscous liquid burst from his body, Orihime screamed and threw her body over Rukia's to protect her. Ulquiorra quickly stepped in front of Orihime's huddled form to keep the muck from striking her. He knew it was a bad idea and he cursed the instincts of love. As the liquid struck him instead, burning each place it splattered on him, he felt his reiatsu begin to split and reform as entities separate from himself. He heard Orihime cry out in dismay as five other clones of himself formed around them. Each possessing his reiatsu and his appearance save for one small difference. Each clone was marked with a red X over each of their green eyes as though death had already taken them. Ulquiorra quickly threw aside the idea of releasing himself because then he would be facing five of him released and the odds weren't on his side in that scenario. No he had to think logically through this coward's trick. There had to be some weakness, some loophole.

He looked back at Orihime and opened a _garganta. _"I want you to leave, Orihime." he said.

She spoke to him for the first time since he had come back to her and it was a negative. "No! I won't leave Kuchiki-san!"

"Then drag the unconscious shinigami with you, but you are going to leave. I'll come to you, after I deal with this." he said as the clones approached him and Szayel darted towards the girl. He cursed and hoped she got through, because he no longer had time to look or to even think because suddenly all the death-marked clones raised their hands towards him and intoned, "_Cero._"


	13. Chapter 13

Though he put up both hands to block the onslaught, his world caught white fire and he could smell his flesh searing. He was able to stand his ground but for a moment and then he flew back and crashed through the wall behind him. He distantly heard Orihime cry out and he cursed again that she had stayed. The bright light of the room turned to instant night and he skidded along the ground outside on his knees, slowly coming to a halt. Once his momentum had slowed enough for him to stand again he instantly stepped back into the bedroom bypassing all the intervening yard in a flash. He had to get to Szayel. If he could kill him, then all of the apparitions brought about by his release should disappear. As soon as he was back in the room, all of his dead-eyed clones again pointed at him, preparing to fire a second_ cero _blast. He tried to echo-step to the side around their tight semi-circle, but they just as easily matched his speed and were in front of him again. He let his reiatsu build up in him until the room was wavering and tingling with electricity and shot it all at Szayel. What he hoped would happen did. The clones stepped in closer to protect their creator and Ulquiorra's_ cero _caught the two in the middle dead on. He had a moment to savor the sound of them crashing into the hallway and then the remaining three fired back at him. He again raised his hands to block it. This time he was able to keep his footing longer, but he could see the white skin of his hands and upper arms blackening. He tried to think of a way to get to Szayel when he suddenly heard a shout.

"_Souten Kisshun!_"

The three clones in front of him were enveloped in golden light. They began to dissipate back into unformed reiatsu, but Ulquiorra didn't keep his gaze on them for long.

"You little bitch!" Szayel grabbed Orihime by the hair and started violently shaking her head back and forth in his rage. Some of her hair tore out in clumps as he pulled and Ulquiorra quickly stepped to him and grabbed the hand that was tangled in Orihime's red hair.

"I told you not to touch her." he told the pink-haired hollow with deadly calmness. Then he thrust his hand through the base of Szayel's throat, nearly decapitating him in the process. As the light drained from his red eyes, he lost his released form and morphed back into his original, sealed form. Ulquiorra looked at him impassively and then let him fall to the ground. He then looked at Orihime and, though he saw that she had replaced her shield on Rukia, she was staring at Ulquiorra with huge and frightened eyes. Even though he had told her that it was wise for her to be frightened of him, her look pained him and he averted his eyes.

"Kurosaki-kun! And the others! They need our help!" he heard her say next to him and he felt her grab his arm. He hissed in air and looked down at the damage on his forearms. He took in the blackened and charred skin and then looked at Orihime who was looking down at his arms as well. "I'll heal you, b...but I think we should help the others first."

"I think you should leave Orhime. Nnoitra and Halibel are both much more formidable opponents than Szayel was." he told her.

"All the more reason for us to go to the others instead of running away." she told him, looking at him levelly.

"Aren't you scared? Don't you know that you could very well end up dead or back in Hueco Mundo?" he asked her, trying to make her see reason.

She dropped her eyes and whispered, "Yeah...I'm scared. But I am going to help my friends anyway." She looked down at her shield covering the black-haired soul reaper and then bent down to touch her neck. "Kuchiki-san will be OK now, though if you want you can stay here and watch over her to make sure she is safe while she is sleeping." Orihime informed him standing back up and taking her shield off the other woman.

"Why would I want that?" he asked her. "You said so yourself, she is going to be fine. A lot better than we are going to be in about one minute."

"Oh! Ulquiorra! I knew you would see it was the right thing to do to help our friends!" she cried as she threw her arms around him and hugged him close.

He gently stroked her hair where Szayel had so cruelly pulled it out and answered, "Don't be foolish. I could care less about your friends, but you seem bound and determined to plunge head first into folly and I won't allow you to do it alone." He pulled away from her and carefully stepping over the rubble that littered the floor, they made their way to the hallway. Once inside the small corridor, he noticed that there was more damage out here than their small battle could account for. He carefully lifted Orihime over the worst of it and then they climbed as quickly as they could over the rest to the front sitting room. He could plainly see the room from the hall because the delicate sliding door that led to the front was completely gone. He saw one of Orihime's friends sprawled out on the floor up against the wall, bleeding and struggling for breath

"Sado-kun!"Orihime cried out and ran to him, heedless of the mayhem around her. Ulquiorra cursed and followed her.

Suddenly he was met by a hand to his chest and a laugh, " I KNEW that Szayel was too cocky in thinking that you wouldn't come back." Nnoitra's eyes flicked over to Orihime healing Chad and then back to Ulquiorra. "Ah well. It seems he payed for his error. Good riddance!"

As Nnoitra blabbered on Ulquiorra took in his condition. He didn't look too well. He had been injured in several places and Ulquiorra figured it was nothing but blind pride that kept Nnoitra from releasing. "I see you are taking in my battle scratches." Nnoitra went on looking down on Ulquiorra. "Don't let them worry you. I can still kick your ass." And with that Nnoitra pushed with the hand on his chest trying to drive Ulquiorra back. Ulquiorra looked down and then pulled his hand from his pocket and grabbed the other arrancar's hand.

"No. I don't believe you can." Ulquiorra said as he pulled his other hand from his pocket and pointing it at Nnoitra's chest intoned, "_Cero."_ He let go and Nnoitra flew backwards and crashed through the front wall into the business part of the little building. He saw the orange-haired boy run through the newly formed hole after Nnoitra, and Ulquiorra followed. He reached the fallen arrancar at the same time as the boy and he pushed him out of the way.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Ichigo yelled incredulous, trying to get to Nnoitra. "Let me at him!"

Ulquiorra quickly opened a _garganta _into Aizen's throne room and pushed the unconscious Nnoitra through. He then closed it the second Nnoitra cleared the opening, praying that Azien didn't see where Nnoitra had appeared from. He leaned back for a moment thinking that was two down, one more to go.

"Why did you give him back to Aizen?" Ichigo demanded of him. "He'll just send him back!"

"I doubt it." Ulquiorra quietly responded. "Aizen hates to have his plans thwarted more than anything. Nnoitra will be the first to feel his wrath." He then stood up and asked, "Halibel? Have any of you managed to inflict damage on her?"

"I'm not sure. I was battling Nnoitra most of the time til he saw you and ran off to confront you. Let's go see!" Ichigo cried and then was off and running back into the fray. Ulquiorra calmly walked back into the sitting room (which now resembled a construction site more than anything in a proper house) and saw that Halibel was surrounded. He saw her start to slide her zanpaktou from it sheath on her back and knew if she was allowed to release it would all be over. She was then hit with reiatsu from all sides and in as many different forms as their were opponents. It was enough to knock her hand off her soul slayer and to drive her back though she didn't lose her feet. Ulquiorra added his own _cero _and then opened a rip right behind her. Not to Aizen's throne room this time, it would be foolish to do that twice...to someplace else where he hoped she wouldn't go unnoticed and quickly come right back. As she realized where she was going she redoubled her efforts to block all the reiatsu that was being fired at her, but Ulquiorra pushed all that he had at her driving her back into a huge boiling vat in the the hot stickiness of the _Las Noches _kitchens. He closed the gap on her scream, cutting it cleanly off. Ulquiorra breathed a sigh of relief with everyone else in the room. He put his hands back in his pockets and was then suddenly tackled by Orihime.

"I knew you would do it! I knew you could help! I knew!" she happily cried as she covered his face with kisses and hugged him to her, blissfully unaware that everyone in the room was turning embarrassedly away. She then ran from him and hugged and happily squealed at everyone else in the room at turn. She then suddenly stopped hugging a smiling Urahara and said, "Kuchiki-san! I should go make sure she is all right! All the rest of you just wait here and I will heal you all! Think of it as a hospital waiting room or something! That should get you in the mood to be healed!" And with that she happily dashed over the broken rubble to the back room to finish healing her friend.


	14. Chapter 14

The stiff woolen fabric of Ulquiorra's uniform slightly scratched Orihime's cheek as she settled closer against his chest. Violet morning rose around them and the symphony of birds met it with a crescendo. The small and shabby yard was given fleeting beauty as dew glistened in the cool morning air. Orihime's body was sore from helping to pick up the worse of the mess in the store and her reiatsu felt dull from all the healing she had undertaken in the dark hours of the morning. Yet it was her heart that she felt most keenly this morning. She tried to decipher its strange and yet not entirely unpleasant ache. She looked down at Ulquiorra's again white and unmarked hand entwined with her own.

"I suppose everyone else is asleep," she said, still looking at their hands. When he didn't respond, she went on. "How long do you think they will stay here?"

"I don't know. They are not sure you are out of danger yet, so they stay on. Yet if no more attacks are attempted within the next couple of days, I believe that they will go on home."

"Well at least we all will have time to help Urahara clean up his shop. I feel really bad about what a mess it is," Orihime said softly, not wanting to say what was really on her mind. They stayed that way as the violet burned away to blue and the yard lost it's dewy sparkle. She stalled and tried to memorize the way he smelled. The mundane smell of soap mixed strangely with his own smell of winter. She closed her eyes and tried to envision what his cold scent reminded her of. It was like walking through winter woods, but a woods where the brown deadness was not yet covered and cleaned by snowfall. She imagined herself in those dead trees, bundled against the frosty air as ice crusty leaves crunched underfoot. She raised her eyes to the cruel blue sky in her daydream and felt wetness on her cheeks. _Has it begun to snow at last? s_he wondered. Yet the blue sky stayed and the cold wetness on her cheeks were her own tears.

She came back to green spring with a start and could stall no more. "I...I talked with Urahara some last night as I helped him clean up." she began. Ulquiorra said nothing, but she could feel a shift in his demeanor as though he was listening closely. "I asked him if I could h...heal you...I mean to a state where you would no longer be a hollow...or maybe even dead." She listened a moment and then went on in the silence, "He said he thought it was possible, and that the only way to know was to try. B...but he said if I did, that I would have to be prepared for the possibility that you wouldn't remember anything. T...that to you, everything that has happened since your death wouldn't exist anymore." She stopped there and kept her gaze on his black nails, not wanting to see his expression. She laughed nervously at that...what expression? Why would he look at her any different than with the dead-eyed gaze he usually had?

"Orihime." She buried her head deeper in his clothes, at first not wanting to know what he was going to say. "I want to show you something, Orihime." he stated, intent as unreadable as always in his emotionless voice.

"O...ok..." she whispered and looked up at him. He took his cold hand from hers and brought it to his left eye. She clasped her hands together and looked at his face, not yet knowing what he was going to show her. Suddenly he sunk his fingers deep into his eye socket and pulled. She screamed and turned her face away.

"What are you doing?" she cried at the grass.

"Don't worry, Orihime. I'm alright. Now look here."

She slowly turned to the eye he now held in his hand. She tried not see the way it was wet and glistening in the sun. She didn't want to be sick in front of him. Then she was afraid she was going to be sick anyway cause suddenly he closed his hand on the eye and crushed it. Yet it didn't squish and bleed the way she thought it would. Instead it shattered like glass and the shards formed images in the air in front of them. At first she wasn't sure what exactly she was seeing, or why he was showing her some pretty and quaint little village nestled in a green valley, surrounded by misty mountains. Then the village approached as she watched and soon she was walking it's cobbled roads. Then as she entered the first little house, she got her first stirring of unease. It grew as she took in the neat living room and then the lace curtains hanging in the kitchen windows. There was a young woman under those curtains, washing her dishes. Orihime didn't want to see anymore, but at first was unable to turn away.

"No. Please...don't show me this!" she sobbed as she finally wrenched her gaze from the dying woman and looked back at the ground instead. "Why do you want me to see such things?" she whispered.

"That could have been you, Orihime. It almost was you." she heard him whisper in response. Then she felt him wave his hand into the air. "You can look again. The images are gone."

She looked up at his face, but almost immediately turned away from his one-eyed gaze. "You...you want me to give you your eye back?" she asked him, praying the answer would be yes.

"You don't need to. I can tell you are already tired out and my eye will grow back on its own."

"Oh." Orihime replied, wondering what else about him she didn't know. He didn't say anything else, but Orihime figured he said all he wanted to on the subject. "Um...well Urahara said he would like to talk to you if you are willing to try." she told him softly, wondering if he would still smell like winter.

--------------------

Ulquiorra stood outside Urahara's door unable to decide if he should take his hands out of his pockets or not. He finally decided that the former soul reaper wasn't worthy of his respect and kept his hands where they were. Then the door slid open and Ulquiorra quickly took his hands out and clasped them behind his back instead.

"Come in, come in." Urahara told him motioning to the rubble-strewn sitting room. "I would tell you to forgive the mess, but since you were partner in creating it, I'm sure you already understand." he smiled at him, motioning to a dusty chair.

"I prefer to stand." Ulquiorra told him.

"Then I hope you don't mind if I take a seat then," Urahara said and then sat at Ulquiorra's slight shake of his head. "Now then, I'm sure Inoue-san told you what I said to her so I don't need to rehash that bit. Do you want to have her try to heal you? To reject the fact that you ever became a hollow?"

Ulquiorra stood a moment, considering. His life as a hollow was driven by pain, but had his life as a human really been much different? He couldn't remember anymore. He could remember the humiliation he had suffered and the hate he felt for his tormentors, but that was about it. Yet he didn't really feel any particular affection for his current form either. He supposed in the end, he really didn't care either way and was about to say so, when he thought of Orihime. He saw her turning away from him in fear and then answered, "I'd like for her to try."

"I'm glad to hear that." Urahara said. "Though I lose my research subject, I think the exchange is a good and fair one, " he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Alright...on to what I wanted to ask you. First of all if this fails and you are rejected back to a_ Menos Grande _or lower hollow, we are going to purify you. Do you understand and still want to proceed?

"Yes."

"OK, now as I am sure Inoue told you, there is a good chance you are going to forget everything if she rejects you back far enough. To the human you, none of us would have existed yet, including Inoue-san. There may be a way be a way to counter that, but I just don't know. We are treading on undiscovered ground here. Can you reach your human self that is buried deep within your soul?"

Ulquiorra was surprised at the question. How long ago had he felt that small and seemingly insubstantial part of his soul? Eons ago it seemed...it was a part that felt everything too keenly and thus was allowed to be quickly eradicated by the hollow. He doubted he could bring it back up even if he tried. "I don't believe so," he answered.

"Ah...well keep trying today. We'll begin the process at sunset tonight. Try not to go running off on us again in the meantime, ok?" Urahara told him standing up and stretching out his back. "Now if you would be so kind as to excuse me, my store is looking a little worse for the wear today and I need to get it ready again for the hoards of customers that are always banging down my door."

Ulquiorra followed him out of the sitting room and then turned down the hall to the room Orihime was staying in. He found her alone on the bed, clearly waiting nervously and sat down next to her. He could tell that she wanted to ask him what he had discussed with Urahara, but was scared of his answer. He looked at her and saw her slightly flinch at his missing eye. He looked away and told her, "I don't want to forget you."

He waited for her answer and began to worry that it would never come. Then he felt her warm hand softly cup his face and turn it towards her. "Please be with me on more time. Everyone else is gone or asleep. It's just us." Ulquiorra nodded and gently kissed her mouth, laying her back down on the bed. He tried to memorized everything about the moment. The way the sun glinted in her hair, turning it orangey-gold. It looked that way in the park when he first saw her, didn't it? The way her warm body arched against his own, her small hands tangled in his black hair. The slightly salty taste of her sweat on his lips as he kissed her face. The sound of his name softy sighed in her sweet voice. Her...her...always her. "I love you, Orihime," he sighed back to her. "I'll try not to forget it."


	15. Chapter 15

Orihime looked around her white cell and vaguely wondered why she was back in _Las Noches. _She looked down at her hands daintily clasped in front of her crisp white princess dress. _Am I a princess waiting to be rescued by my dashing prince? s_he wondered to herself as her confusion cleared into acceptance of her surroundings. She slowly walked to the tiny window that seemed to retreat before her. _Was my window really that small? s_he asked as the window darted away from her, refusing to show her eyes the freedom they hungered for. She heard the door open behind her and she froze in terror because she had forgotten what monster was holding her captive. It had to be a monster, right? Weren't all princesses in need of saving held in the thrall of some evil ogre or scaly dragon?

"Orihime..." she heard whispered behind her in a voice so softly emotionless that it chilled her to the marrow of her bones. "Why are turned away from me?" the voice softly snaked around her as she heard lightly approaching footsteps echoing in the huge chamber. She gripped her skirt, terrified to turn to that deceptively tender voice.

"I have something for you." the voice spoke right behind her now...disappointment hiding deep in its emotionless tone. She almost turned at that and she heard breath caught in anticipation and then stood her ground instead, not wanting to give the monster satisfaction. She could almost feel the disappointment coming off of him now...disappointment and something else? Sadness? Yet in what fairy tale did the monster ever feel anything but hunger? She heard shifting behind her and then she saw a hand reach out in front of her, holding something in a fist. Blood dripped onto the front of her stark white dress and she tried not to think of what act that bit of bright red on white symbolized. Then the hand before her opened and she saw the remains of a bright green eye crushed there. And then it was brought to her lips. "An eye for an eye." she heard the voice softly giggle behind her and the fact that the voice was able to produce anything close to a laugh was the most frightening thing of all.

She backed away from the smashed and bleeding mess in the hand before her and almost instantly backed into unyielding cold behind her. She could feel her body begin to freeze and looked down at her frosted hands in wonderment. "What do you mean by that?" she asked the cold behind her.

"Everyone knows that the princess gets eaten in the end," came the reply and then the hand in front of her dropped the eye and cruelly grabbed her arm instead preparing to spin her around. She closed her eyes and screamed not wanting to see, not wanting to know, but she could see anyway, and she knew anyway...and it was all her fault. She gave the monster permission to eat her, she brought him here, she...

--------------------

Orihime jerked awake, covered in sweat and alone in bed. She hadn't been alone when she laid down to sleep, blissful and calm in Ulquiorra's arms. Why was she alone now? Where had Ulquiorra gone? She tried to shake the shreds of unease that clung to her along with the remains of her dream as she climbed out of bed and walked into the hall. It was silent out here and for the first time she noticed that it was darker than she expected it to be. Just how long had she slept? She rubbed her eyes and walked into the sitting room. It was much cleaner here than it had been the last she saw it, but it was also empty. _Where is everyone? s_he asked herself, unease starting to deepen into something else. She started to hurry a little now...first into the small candy-filled shop and finding it deserted too, she started to head outside. Suddenly a hand grabbed her from behind and she screamed a little, her dream still fresh in her mind. Then she realized that the hand was warm instead of ice and it was gentle. She turned and found herself face to face with Urahara.

"We are all ready for you now, Inoue-san," he told her gently. "In fact I was coming to wake you just now. Do you feel well enough to go through with the healing?" he asked her quietly.

Orihime nodded and he led her into the back and down the stairs into bright sun. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light and saw that everyone was down in the training room waiting for her. Everyone was armed and she felt fear and hurt at that, knowing what it meant and she glanced at Urahara accusingly for not telling her this part.

"It is good to be prepared for any outcome, Inoue-san." Urahara told her. "Something like this has never been attempted before."

She turned from him and then her eyes found Ulquiorra for the first time. It _was_ like seeing him for the first time, she mused. Was that because she knew it was for the last time? Her eyes tried to memorize every little detail about him, so she would never forget. She saw hunger in his eyes and at first thought back to the end of her dream and flinched a bit. Then she realized it was a hunger of a different sort and that he was trying to memorize her the way she was him.

"Are you ready, Ulquiorra-san?" Urahara asked him. At the arrancar's nod, Urahara turned to Orhime and asked, "Are you ready, Inoue-san?"

She wiped tears from her eyes and nodded as well. Ulquiorra approached her. Before he laid down in front of her though he placed his face next to her ear and whispered, "No matter what happens, I am satisfied. Thank you, Orihime." And then he laid down and she knelt down next to him and placed her shield. Urahara walked back to the others and joined them in their solemn semi-circle. Orihime bent down to the bright shield and whispered into it, "I love you," though she wasn't sure if he could even hear her anymore. Then she shut her eyes and concentrated, not intending to open them once until it was all over. She didn't want to see him as he was as a full hollow and if she couldn't reject him past that, she didn't want to see what would happen next. As she stayed next to him in darkness, her inner world blossomed for her and came alive. She lived and lived and loved and lost in so many different ways and times that soon all the tears became rain, rain, just rain. At some points she could hear the others talk softly among themselves and sometimes leave for a bit and then come back and in the back of her mind she knew that hours must be passing for the others, though they weren't for herself. It wasn't hours passing, it was lifetimes.

Then she faintly felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking her and a voice coming to her ears. And the rain blessedly stopped. She didn't open her eyes at first, but she forced herself to form the words, "Is it done?"

"Yes. You did it, Inoue. You did it." And whoever was saying it had the rain caught in their voice. No, not the rain...tears.

Orihime slowly opened her eyes and looked up at a smiling and shiny-eyed Rukia. "Look, Inoue. You did it." Rukia said and then looked down at Orihime's shield. Orihime slowly turned to look and then started crying.

"You...you think it is OK to take the shield off now?" she asked Rukia. "I mean is he alive?"

"Yes, yes he is." Rukia responded. "I saw him...as things I'm glad you didn't see, Inoue...and I also saw him as a plus and he isn't even that anymore. He's human and alive."

Orihime removed the bright warmth of her shield and saw him clearly for the first time. His eyes were still closed, their greeness hidden from view, but the rest of him...oh the rest of him. His hair was still the same, except now she could see it fully. He no longer had the broken bit of bone on his head that had been a visual reminder of the fact he wasn't human for so long. His skin was light peach like hers and his arrancar uniform now contrasted strangely against it. She noticed his nails were no longer black and felt a bit of disappointment at that. She then looked at his face, his beautiful face and saw that it was no longer marked by tears. She had often wondered why he had them in the first place and the fact that they were now gone wasn't exactly puzzling (she didn't expect his human form to be marked so), but it was like a question that would never be answered. She didn't mind it though...she was glad the tears were gone and hoped whatever heartache they symbolized was gone as well. His black brows were still thick but no longer strangely defined and shaped. She reached out to touch him and his eyes opened. They were still brilliantly green, but now sparkled with life instead of being dead and flat with slitted pupils like he had as a hollow. She looked into them and he looked back at her and she saw recognition in them and then it was gone.

"I'm sorry, miss. I don't mean to stare. It's just that this all seems vaguely familiar to me. I seem to somehow remember waking up and you above me." He looked at her a bit more, as though trying to remember her and then continued softy, "It must have been a dream I had long ago though. I don't think I would have forgotten someone like you."

Orihime wiped at the tears that were making their slow trails down her face and turned away. She stood up and Rukia hugged her as the others slowly made their way out of the room to give Orihime her privacy.

She heard Ulquiorra stand up behind her and say, "I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong, Miss... I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."

Orihime turned back to him and whispered to the ground, "My name is Orihime Inoue."

"I don't think I have ever heard such a name before. It's very lovely though, Miss Inoue. My name is..."

"I already know your name, Ulquiorra." Orihime whispered to him, trying not to cry again.

"I'm afraid you have mistaken me for someone else. My name isn't Ulquiorra," he said to her in his soft voice.

Of course his name would be different, Orihime thought to herself. He was named Ulquiorra as a hollow. Did she know anything about this person that now stood before her? She turned away from him again and saw that Rukia had respectfully left too. She was all alone here with a stranger.

"Please don't cry, Miss Inoue. I'm not sure why, but it really hurts to see you sad. I must admit that I am very confused as to where I am and who you are, yet the way you are acting makes me suspect that maybe we do know each other and I have forgotten it. Is that the truth of it?" he asked her.

Orihime nodded, still not wanting to look at him.

"Were we close?" he asked her again and when she couldn't answer that he went on. "It seems we must have been though I can't imagine what a lovely young lady such as yourself would want with me."

"Oh...Ulquiorra." Orihime sadly cried. "Don't say that. How could I not love you?" She looked up and saw the shock plain on his face at that statement and mumbled, "I'm sorry. That was wrong of me. I know this is all really new to you...it's just that...it's not new to me. I guess I need to tell you everything. Would you like to hear what I have to tell you?" She asked him looking at his face.

"Yes, I would."

"Then come. Let's get you some different clothes for one. Those don't fit you anymore...I mean they aren't fitting for who you have become. And then I suppose we should go on a walk. Talking about such things are always easier on a walk." Orihime said, hope stirring in her heart again.

She started towards the stairs and Ulquiorra caught up to her and placed his hand on his hip with an opening for her to slide her arm through. "Would you allow me to escort you?" he asked her and when she smiled and slipped her arm through his, he smiled back at her. And at that moment Orihime knew that even if he never did remember her and if he went on his own way after hearing her story, it was all worth it. He had a smile that never, ever should be buried beneath pain again.

The End


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