Pairing: Ulquiorra/Orihime (UlquiHime) fanfic. Chapter Two - here
Rated T
Summery: Orihime has an imaginary friend, who happens to be a terrifying creature living in the woods behind her summer home.
For Ulquihime Week 2019 Day 4: Haunting/Touch Starved.
AN: This one is a little...weird. Think of it like a fairy tale/ horror /friendship /eventual romance?
Eldritch
At six years old little girls still believe in many things: Magic, ghosts, monsters, Santa, unicorns, the tooth fairy. Yet their beliefs are usually rooted in what they've already been told is possible. Santa lives at the North Pole and visits on Christmas. Unicorns can be found in forests. Tooth fairies only visit if you lose a tooth. The evil spirits in bathrooms usually resided in the last cubical.
Orihime Inoue had the profound ability to believe in almost anything. To give imperfect things palpable form inside her mind as something new. If Sora held up a sock puppet because her parents couldn't afford to buy a doll, she'd willingly suspend her disbelief and see it as a fierce cupcake dragon. If she ate red-bean paste on bread because they were low on groceries, she'd taste honey on pancakes or strawberries and cream. Dust came from magic spiders who liked to throw salt shakers of grey specs everywhere. The gloomy, faded lights of their dingy neighbourhood weren't half dead lightbulbs, but winking fairies or playful spirits. Graffiti was a technicolour, ancient language she didn't understand. The rivers and skies was a playground for the Gods. Sora could be her Mama and Papa in place of their actual parents.
So it surprised absolutely no one when Orihime claimed one day that Batman was her best friend.
---
He had been born from nothingness.
The only indicators that he was even alive were from the sharp, broken twigs on the forest floor tickling his hard, pale skin, and the solid earth supporting his back. That and consciousness.
He had no visible features, lacking a mouth with which to eat, or eyes with which to see. No hearing with which to listen, fingernails to claw and pry, fur or hair with which to shelter, and no heart.
Essentially, he had been born to experience nothing. A worthless, meaningless birth. He felt the absences of what he lacked with a keen, visceral emptiness.
The creature lay in a pale heap, content to die.
But something disturbed the clear nothingness surrounding him. Raising a hand, long fingers flexed wide, searching for the thin sensation in the breeze. The slightest, barely-there touch had him snatching something out of the air. Pressing it instinctively to his face, his form shuddered and convulsed.
Twin slits cracked on the creature's face. Muscle started to move and fix itself together. Skin crumpled as paper-mache lids pried themselves open. Long black lashes grew forth and the creature blinked the dust from his newly formed grey eyes. Muddy colours and blurry forms assaulted him, until he looked directly into an orb of something harsh and bright. Shielding his eyes, he looked down. Focusing on the dirt felt safer as he took a moment to practice blinking, seeing an afterimage of that burning light.
His sight cleared, shapes coming into focus.
Lifting his head and glancing around at the forest, slit pupils shifted. Sunlight filtered through the leaves. Blue skies could be glimpsed further still above. Hundreds of countless trees surrounded him.
Green. So much green.
His grey eyes let the colour leak into the canvas of his irises, making them give way to lush emerald. Touching his black lashes gingerly, the creature instinctively pried out one that didn't fit quite right with the rest. A small, single sun-kissed orange eyelash lay in his palm.
He found the colour acceptable.
Muffled, quiet vibrations thudded on the ground not too away then, like footsteps. Somehow, he could feel it. Lifting his gaze upon seeing movement in his peripheral vision, the creature stilled.
A little girl stopped in unison with him, tilting her head. The hair spilling out from under her sunhat blazed the same bright, fiery colour.
Deaf to her words, he could only watch as her mouth moved. She then hesitantly shifted forward, silver eyes bright and filled with nebulous flecks of brown. Gesturing to the orange lash in his palm, her lips curved, and the girl beamed.
For some reason, he then heard her words clearly, blessed with sound. "Are you my new friend? You can keep that eyelash in exchange!"
He stared uncomprehendingly, seeing a reflection of his image in her eyes. Proof of his existence. Distant tweeting could be heard in the trees. The scampering of strange, tiny creatures raced up tree trunks.
Something ran down his face from his eyes. Her expression crumpled and became alarmed, taking out a tissue from her pocket. "Oh no, don't cry! I promise I'll be a good friend!"
Racing over, she knelt and pressed the soft white thing against his dry cheeks. No matter how much she fussed and rubbed, the teal lines that made him look like he was constantly in mourning remained.
---
The girl had spent a few hours with him every day from then on, jabbering. Now that he'd received both sight and sound, the creature drank in all the newness surrounding him. He did not understand why his form was grown, with longer limbs than the girl, or why she saw fit to blush and remove her coat, telling him to cover his lower half with it. He did not understand much about himself at all, but everything she talked about, his frayed knowledge pieced together. The more books she read to him, the more his mind caught on until he became impatient with her slowness to describe the words.
'Sora' was her older brother, she said. A brother was a sibling. Her parents were poor. Parents raised their young. Being poor meant having no money with which to buy things.
The girl was called 'Orihime Inoue.'
When he gestured to himself, she blinked at him. "Oh, you're Batman!"
'Batman' did not sound right. But he supposed she was his God, his maker, despite not having palpable proof of such a thing. It felt correct to assume she knew best.
When she returned into the woods that bordered her back garden again, this time Orihime chewed an apple. She took out another from her red frilly dress, handing it to him.
"Oh...can you eat without a mouth?" She frowned.
Mouth?
Eat?
She tilted her head, saddened. "You must be really hungry," her tiny hand patted her stomach.
Hungry.
His stomach felt empty then, twisting into knots. Perhaps that was what she meant.
Yes, hunger.
He supposed he was.
'Batman' did not expect much to come from it, but the next day, Orihime trotted out through the bushes, giving him a gap-toothed smile.
She presented her baby tooth to him with all the flourish of a magician. "For you! This way, you can have a mouth! I could have saved it for the tooth fairy, but I'm giving it to you instead. I wrote her a letter explaining that eating food is one of the best things in the world, and my friend needs to know what it's like more than I need yen," she nodded happily. Her exuberance faltered slightly then. "Um, I think this will work. I hope. When you got that eyelash you got eyes, right?"
The creature reached out and took it between bone-thin forefinger and thumb. Instinctively he pressed the tooth to the appropriate place on his face.
A natural slit curved open, spreading wider as he stared at her, mentally mapping the look of her mouth. Behind the lips that formed came other intricacies of the mouth, muscles and such- that allowed him to open his jaw, accepting the tooth inside. Others formed an upper and lower row of the same bone-white teeth, strengthening until they were adult molars, canines and the like.
When finished, he parted his lips, plucking out the baby tooth and handing it back to her, a new tooth instantly regenerating within his mouth.
Orihime blinked, not thrown by witnessing the somewhat gruesome creation. "Your upper lip is all dark," she patted her top lip.
He mimicked the action but obviously could not see. Without fear, she casually pried her thumb into his lips to flash his new teeth at her.
"Wow! So many!"
Batman did not like this so he shied away from her touch.
"I guess you still can't talk though," small shoulders fell. "You probably need a tongue for that."
Tongue?
She stuck out her own, grinning. "You can't have mine! But I will go fetch you some food. I hear that ice-cream and soup are good if you struggle to eat. Please stay here!" The little ball of sunshine turned, bounding away without another word.
Green eyes stared after her, before mismatched lips opened. Touching inside, he indeed felt an absence inside the wet, hot space. His finger traced over the bumps and edges of his new teeth with fascination.
When she eventually returned, Orihime fed him peanut butter ice-cream and soup. He couldn't taste it, so the texture was all he had to go on as he swallowed. It was fine. He opened his mouth for more, and she giggled, calling him a glutton. He frowned at her tone and took the spoon off her, feeding himself.
She told him about her abusive parents, a drunk of a father and prostitute mother whom her brother, Sora, had saved her from. Ulquiorra understood some of the intricacies of what she said without fathoming her sadness or happiness. He did want to learn specifically, what the term 'glutton,' 'drunk' and 'prostitute' meant, but could not ask. Gesturing to her summer holidays homework in her backpack, he was rewarded with her teaching him how to read at her level. He caught on quickly, adapting, thirsty for knowledge.
Orihime gripped his large hand in both of her small ones and his curled long, pale fingers around a pen. She then grinned and taught him how to write in large sprawling characters.
She left him with a strand of her hair, which looked as though it had been kissed by the sun. He'd dutifully touched it to his head, where long, flowing dark tresses grew and fell to his shoulders, sprawling unevenly and wild.
----
From one of her broken fingernails came his long sharp talons.
With them, the creature felt that he now had the right tools to hunt, which she explained was what he'd need to do in her absence.
It was just as well, because a week later, Orihime had to leave. She'd made him a house of twigs and branches, a poor attempt at shelter, while explaining that she'd been staying with Sora at a cheap 'holiday home' they visited every year and rented for two weeks. They were now leaving for their city home. Batman felt no emotion at her departure but frowned slightly when water leaked from her eyes, running down chubby cheeks.
It smelled sharp and strange.
She'd scrubbed at her eyes and waved, promising to see him next year. Ulquiorra had nodded. With all the caprice and carelessness of a child, she'd then left her creation in the woods alone.
Orihime wanted him to have a tongue and it felt imperative to get one immediately. Legs shook as he stood, and he glanced down at the new blanket he'd tied around his waist at her behest.
He set down the advanced dictionary in his hand and tried talking a few steps, mimicking her walk, but soon panted. Sweat dotted his brow from the effort of walking the expanse of his clearing. He'd need to build strength. Eventually he'd get the hang of it.
---
"That's horrible."
Orihime looked up from her doodles to glance at Sora in the driver's seat, who listened to the radio.
"This attack was random and unprecedented in this town. Kenta Yano remains in hospital and has been unable to communicate to authorities who exactly is responsible for viciously severing his tongue from his mou-" the dial was snapped to the side, turning it off. Sora glanced at Orihime in the rearview mirror and gave a smile.
"Who wants pancakes with broccoli when we get home?"
"Ohhh I do, I do!" Orihime raised her hand, the distraction working its magic as they left the woods and summer home behind them.
----
The creature found that without her, the days blurred into one. He kept himself busy by reading the books she'd left him but they were quickly committed to memory. Rain poured heavy and endless sometimes. It had forced him from the usual clearing where they talked, finding a small cave and clawing at the earth to carve a space deeper for himself. He then lay down, suspending any and all thought; sleeping.
A year later, when she came hurrying through the woods again, clad in a summer dress and skirts flitting about her knees, Orihime found him exactly where she'd left him, but he now stood upright on two legs. More books were stacked atop each other, carefully stored in the shelter of a tree. They appeared to have been stolen from the library, but since the collection wasn't out of control, it could only be assured that he'd been putting the books back after reading them. The trunk had been carved out into shelves, keeping them safe. Orihime felt kind of proud. She'd told him not to steal.
His form had changed. Black fur now coated his arms up to his elbows, feathers sprouting from his shoulder-blades, yet more dark fur on his legs and lower-half, ending at his waist. She supposed he must have gotten cold in the woods. It only occurred to her then that she could have given him a pair of Sora's pants, and felt a degree of guilt. Maybe she'd been a bad friend.
He glanced at her, eyes wilder than she remembered, but he spoke eloquently, in steady, clipped tones.
"You are late, Orihime Inoue."
She burst into a wide smile.
---
"Murciélago," he said one day on her 8th birthday.
"Hm?"
"My name."
Orihime scrunched up her nose with concentration. "Mercy-"
"Murciélago."
"Merci...lego."
Flat green eyes told her he was not amused.
She huffed, looking apologetic. "Can I not call you Batman?"
"If you want to be incorrect, yes."
Seeing her state of furrowed brows and continual struggle to say it, he bit back a sigh, glancing up at the branches. "...Ulquiorra, then."
"Ulqui...orra," she murmured, before brightening. "Ulquiorra! That's a nice name."
He did not need her opinion on the matter but nonetheless felt assured and proud.
---
"I think it would be fun if you could fly," she mused one day, wading through a stream at the bright young age of 9. She claimed to be searching for stardust, because gold didn't satisfy ogres, apparently.
Since he was used to her random outbursts, he took it in stride, watching her from the bank. "Do you want me to fly?" He asked, gaze gliding over the bruises on her arms. He did not ask what they were from.
Orihime laughed softly, "maybe. Sure!" She then tapped her bottom lip. "But my brother says it's good to have a tail if you want to fly."
He blinked as she gasped and clapped her hands, dropping the bucket of precious stones she'd found into the water. "Ohh! Imagine if you had a lion's tail!"
----
She heard about the local zoo's break-in and subsequent attack on its male Barbary lion. She didn't think much of it even as she hugged Ulquiorra's newfound tail, which was thin, black and long. She had a wonderful time playing skip-rope with it.
Her laughter always resounded- not in his ears- but in the hollow of his chest which lay hidden beneath a surface of skin and muscle. The sound echoed and bounced off the walls long after she'd left him alone. In those times, he resented her presence in his life. The echos left a pulsing, aching thing. When his chest was silent, there was no sensation. An absence. A nothing. Nothingness did not hurt, so Ulquiorra came to the conclusion that nothingness was happiness.
----
"Your hair is shorter."
That smile he always noticed wobbled and shrank, before finally disappearing altogether. She curled her arms tighter around her knees, "some...girls cut it at the playground."
"Without permission?"
"Mhm," she scrubbed at her cheek, shoulders shaking a little. "I didn't tell Sora. I just said I felt like a change," her voice became thin and fragile. Ulquiorra watched as she struggled with something, holding back tears. She blinked rapidly and raised her head, exhaling. Not one fell.
His slit pupils dilated slightly. Even at ten years old, she was a strong girl. Different from the brats he'd glimpsed sometimes playing in the woods.
"It's just that...they made me feel like I was nothing," Orihime scuffed her shoes on the forest floor, disturbing leaves. "Just trash to be discarded. Girls always do stuff like this at school, but I didn't think it would happen while I was here. I like coming to the summer house... to be happy for a little while."
Happy? He blinked. Was she not usually? She smiled so often, indicating happiness. "There isn't anything wrong with being nothing," his tail thumped and slid over the forest floor. "But you are not trash."
She turned to look at him, brows furrowing. "I'm not?"
Ulquiorra stared at her, face as expressionless as ever, but a firmness crept into his tone. "No."
----
The next day, Orihime wandered to the playground cautiously, only to blink at the sight of the girls there. They sat, hands curled in their short locks that ended above their shoulders.
Frowning slightly, she made to approach. They hadn't looked like that yesterday. Their hair had been long and lush. The girls immediately noticed her and squeaked, hurrying away with frightened wails. One of them, the girl who Orihime remembered holding her down as the others had snipped at her orange locks- tripped and fell.
Orihime wandered closer, "what happened to you all?"
"Stay back!" The girl cried, dragging herself backwards on the mud to try and scramble away. "Keep away from me! You're a witch! A-a witch who summons demons or something! You sliced off my hair! I know it was you!"
Flabbergasted, Orihime could only watch as she turned and clawed at the ground to pick herself up and bolt away.
Naturally she'd visited Ulquiorra soon after. "Did you cut their hair?"
Vivid green eyes slid away. A rare thing. He always stared, like he were burning the image of her into his retinas. "You'll have to be specific."
Small hands drew into fists, "those girls. Did you...hurt them?"
"They hurt you," he pointed out evenly. The creature shifted and blurred, appearing much closer than she'd anticipated and causing her to startle. Long, sharp talons slid into her hair, gliding nails through the locks briefly, before drawing away.
Orihime swallowed, experiencing a brief flash of wariness for the first time. She then shook it away, putting her small fingers over the sharp tips of his claws. "You can't do that again."
"Why not?"
She frowned, trying to explain. For once, she felt out of her depth, "because it's wrong. Sora says it's bad to get revenge...to be w-wrathful."
He considered this, having no use for her human concerns. "Are you ordering me?"
"U-um..." the girl faltered. "Will it stop you from doing it again?"
"Yes."
"Then don't hurt any humans again," Orihime nodded with satisfaction.
Ulquiorra bit back a sigh, inclining his head. The ensuing pensive, thoughtful silence was soon broken by him slowly verbalising what had bothered him all night. "They were frightened of me. Even before I did anything to them."
"I suppose that's normal," she mused. "You're not like them."
His usual melancholic expression didn't change, but a kind of weight settled into his next words. Like a soft demand to know. Ulquiorra had never demanded anything of her before. "Are you afraid of me?"
And as usual, honesty stared him right back in the face. She visibly gentled and smiled. "No, I'm not."
---
The next year, she did not come.
Orihime did not visit the year after that or the year following that either.
Ulquiorra eventually plucked a bat from a tree and ripped its wings clean off its squirming body. He then pressed them to his shoulder blades and forced the leathery appendages to lengthen and grow, attaching them into his body and weaving the muscles and bone together. They soon towered over him in height, enough to support his weight in the air.
Theoretically.
It took a few attempts, but soon it took jumping and freefalling from a tree to actually work the wings enough to glide. A few more days and he was leaping into the night sky, flying.
He did not find her right away. Actually it took two more years to track the girl down, as he moved only at night and kept to himself. Ulquiorra observed as he went, becoming used to crawling down alley walls to peer into windows and observe humans. He'd scared away a homeless man who'd been squatting in an attic of a warehouse, watching television. Ulquiorra had promptly seated himself before the square of moving images and bright lights, learning.
They were all so similar and yet different, humans. They all wanted things, be it money, relationships, security or fame. They spouted ridiculous things about emotions and 'the heart.' He found that his assessment of them kept changing. Their books had taught him so much- and yet not enough. Orihime had been something unnamed and yet he wanted to name it. Was she special to him only because she'd given him what every creature usually possessed? That of the five senses? That sounded logical.
And yet it felt incorrect. It was not just that.
Ulquiorra eventually tracked the girl down by closing his eyes and feeling for something invisible. That same pull in the air that had happened when they'd first met. Energy he couldn't name or find a word for it with the language she'd taught him.
He soon pushed a window to an apartment open, tail sliding into the dark room and feeling for the floor before the creature followed.
The light in the bedroom switched on, causing him to freeze, eyes widening.
"Ulquiorra?"
Bedcovers rustled and sounded like they were being pushed back. Ulquiorra shifted, turning slowly to look at the woman.
She blinked, sitting on her bed, eyes looking wet but cheeks remaining dry. "I-it's you..."
He stared, transfixed. Orihime had changed.
His mental image of her shifted; bones growing, hips curving, body filling out, hair lengthening. She was a woman now. The child that had taught him what 2+2 meant was dead and gone.
He didn't react to the change, merely updating his information on her appearance and assumed maturity.
She stood, walking toward him with vague confusion. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders, sliding down in waves to end at her mid-back. Ulquiorra blinked, his foot drawing back slightly, instinctively. Something pooled in his stomach. Similar to hunger, but illogical, since he'd already eaten.
"I thought...I don't-" her voice wobbled, uncertain. "What are you doing here?"
"You didn't return."
She bit her lip, tugging it between her teeth. The sensation in his stomach tightened into liquid heat. Ulquiorra shook it away.
Finally, her grey eyes slid away, like she were ashamed. "Sora died."
He processed this, picturing the brother he'd glimpsed beyond the treeline sometimes, waiting for her. A tall, dark-haired man. "I see. Do you expect me to comfort you?"
She flinched, holding her arms. Slowly, slim fingers glided over the tanned skin, nails biting in. "No," she murmured. "After he died, my aunt began giving me money so that I could keep myself afloat here. On my own," grey eyes slid to the window, guilty. "I wanted to see you but I didn't have enough to come-"
"You're poor. It's to be expected."
The words didn't upset her. Ulquiorra was always painfully blunt. She decided to be equally straightforward, looking at him.
"But...I'd like to give another order. If that's okay?"
Ulquiorra mulled it over, wondering if her teenage years and impending adulthood had rendered her as selfish and shallow as the other humans he'd glimpsed. Perhaps the qualities he'd admired in her had vanished.
Taking his silence as reluctance, Orihime stepped closer and lay gentle, warm hands on his arm. Ulquiorra tensed, breath hitching.
"Is there anything you'd like in exchange?" Her breath fanned over the exposed skin of his chest. The hollowness beneath the surface opened wider.
"I'm not sure as of right now," he quietly admitted. "I'll do as you ask, and then we can discuss what I want afterwards."
She nodded, firey hair bouncing with the motion. The heat from her body felt alluring, in a way no hearth had ever beckoned to him previously. "Alright, I want..." Orihime took a breath. "I wish you would bring Sora back."
Ulquiorra thought of the bat he'd killed. How its eyes had turned glassy and vacant. "I'm not certain that power is within my reach," he admitted, slit pupils dilating slightly at her tense, rigid expression. Like she straddled the line between a collected facade and despair. Strong as ever. "...But I will try," he added.
Her eyes lit up like they used to, lashes falling shut. Orihime's fingers brushed over the black fur of his arm.
"Thank you," she breathed, giggling slightly. Her arms wrapped around his middle then. The warmth and softness of her body pressed against his bare chest and torso, trapping him in a tight grip that he oddly didn't find restricting yet caused his eyes to widen anyway. The thudding coming from her chest resounded in his own. He set his hands on the curve of her hips, counting the thuds of her heartbeat. Without realising, he smelled her hair and brought her closer.
"You're the best imaginary friend I've ever had."
Tilting his head a touch caused black strands to dip and brush over her cheek. Did she mean that she'd initially assessed him as a friend but now felt that their bond had been imaginary? Or...
Orihime released him and turned towards the kitchen, asking whether he wanted something to eat or drink. He barely heard her.
She was incorrect. He'd left proof of his existence via that man, that bat, that lion, those girls in the park. Their tongues, wings, tails and hair had been cut by his talons. The things he'd assumed were his lungs constricted, sensations assaulting- spouting cold fire from the depths of his stomach and into his throat, burning.
His hand rose, digits pressing against the surface of his chest. The feeling of it being nothing but an empty container doubled. He was only vaguely alarmed when his fingers dipped inwards. The brittle surface of skin over his chest crumbled away where his heart should have been. A hollow hole was revealed in its place.
Ulquiorra realised then, he didn't care if he had actually interacted with the world. If he had actually scared that homeless man, harmed those creatures or cut those girls hair. What he desired, coveted, craved, needed lay in Orihime's tired eyes that seemed just a touch out of reality as she glanced at him and he found no sign of his reflection staring back at him.
Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I was able to finish this before the day was out orz
A little contribution for Ulquihime Week Day 1: Birthday/Kiss
There are a couple things I would like to change, but overall, I think it turned out pretty nice! (I was originally gonna go more risque and draw a smooch, but I just had this image in my head and had to drawn it.)
Happy Birthday to my favorite character in the history of characters, Ulquiorra <3
Oh, and long live ULQUIHIME
Link to my Ulquihime Week 2019 Playlist below--
Time to start working on fanart, fanfics, edits, moodboards, headcanons, AMV, and any other content you can imagine to celebrate the Ulquiorra and Orihime shipweek! Please make sure to tag @ulquihimeweek and #uhweek2019
Prompt List!
There will be two prompts per day, one a little safer than the other. You can chose one or both or skip days, whatever you want. The goal is that as many of you contribute as much as you’re comfortable with!
Day 1: Happy Birthday/Kiss
Day 2: First Glance/Desire
Day 3: Reunion/Caught
Day 4: Haunting/Touch Starved
Day 5: Protect/Blood
Day 6: Sacrifice/Possession
Day 7: Rain/Love Bites
Any questions, feel free to ask here or @jkrobertson, and Happy UlquiHime Week preparations! Also, consider joining the UlquiHime Discord server.
Ah, the angsty theme. I'll be honest I've never been fond of sad stories, but I'd be lying if I said Ulquihime dosen't have potential for really tragic stories, be it a one shot or a full length fic. Plus they're the only ship I would ever use this song with. Fits so well with them 😢
Special thanks to @vikowolf for letting me use her gif. Go give this talented bean some love!
I hope you all like!
@ulquihimeweek
Ulquihime Week- Day 4- Haunting/Touch Starved
Ghost
"Are you afraid of me, woman?"
She remembered his voice clearly, along with his empty emerald eyes.
Ulquiorra was turning into ash, but he did not despair, instead he reached out for her.
"No, I'm not afraid. I've never been afraid." Orihime tried to hold his hand but his fingers turned to ash under her touch.
"No! Ulquiorra please don't go! Don't die!"
She wanted to run. To heal him, to keep him from falling apart, but her feet didn't move. All she could do was beg him to stay alive.
The result was the same every night, he'd turn to ashes before her eyes and she would wake up screaming his name.
"Ulquiorra!" she called. There was no response, for her apartment was empty.
'Thats right. I'm home...' she remembered. It was getting harder to tell the difference.
'Goddamn it not again!' Orihime felt a headache coming on. She pushed her covers and walked over to the kitchen.
She had run out of medicine, much to her chagrin. The kit was empty save for a bottle of sleeping pills.
'I forgot to go shopping again.' Ever since she got back home she was forgetting things more often than usual. To her luck, both Rangiku and Toshiro had stocked up the fridge before going back to the Soul Society, so she still had some food. Orihime grabbed a box of doughnuts and scarfed them down on the dinning room table.
She glanced at the clock. It read 1 a.m.
'I have school tomorrow, I can't fall asleep in class again! C'mon Inoue get it together!'
Last week she had fallen asleep during class and had the same dream. Not only had it been embarrassing to scream his name upon waking, but this time she'd been crying when she said it, and all her friends saw it.
They all looked concerned and tried to talk to her about it, yet she didn't want them near at all, especially not Ichigo.
"Staying mad at Kurosaki because of me?"
That voice again. She lifted her gaze and saw Ulquiorra sitting across from her.
"Can't you leave me alone for one night?!" she screamed, throwing a glass at him. The glass shattered after hitting the wall.
"Woman, please don't break the utensils. We both know I'm not really here."
"I wish you were."
"Why? Why do you miss me? I was a monster. I took you away from your friends, I kept you locked up and even killed the man you loved. Yet you miss me. It's not logical."
"I know."
"You'd be better off forgetting me."
"No. I refuse to forget you." Tears began streaming down her cheeks. Orihime gripped the edge of her nightgown trying to keep from sobbing. "I know we were never close, or even friends, but I did care for you.
It wasn't clear to me until you were nearing the end. You told me you were curious about us humans. And then I understood.
You wanted emotions, companionship, understanding, a heart...I was willing to give all of that to you. Had you lived."
Talking felt like having glass shoved down her throat, but she continued.
"Instead of welcoming you into my life as a dear friend all I had left of you was a pile of ash and a torn dress!
I should have tried harder to save you! Aizen said my powers rivaled those of the gods, and I yet when I had the chance to use them I froze like an idiot! I should've put myself between you and Kurosaki! I should've tried to escape on my own and come back for you when the war ended! There were so many ways for me to keep you safe. And I did nothing! I'll never forgive myself for letting you die."
Ulquiorra stood up and walked over to her. Then he hugged her, laying his head on her shoulder.
Orihime knew it wasn't real, but she didn't care. It felt real. His touch was cold yet comforting. She leaned into it.
"I could only hold your hand for a few seconds before it turned to ash, still, I could feel it. It was cold, it was gentle, it was electric...I'd give anything to hold you again, properly this time."
"We both know that's not possible, nor is it ideal.
My demise was no one's fault but my own, woman. I was the one who engaged Kurosaki un battle. Had I surrender you to him I would still be alive."
"No. He had forgiven his enemies before. Enemies that wouldn't have hesitated to cut him down if they could. What made you any different?"
"I do not know. Maybe the fact that I tried to kill him twice, or the fact that I took you away."
She scoffed. "Kurosaki dosen't care that much about me. He went to Hueco Mundo to fight Grimmjow, not for me."
"That's a narrow way to look at it. Kurosaki Does care for you, even if he dosen't show it."
"That's not enough for me. It'll never be enough for me, anymore."
She stood up, feeling slightly cold as Ulquiorra let go of her. The clock read 1:30 a.m
'I'm not going to fall asleep at this rate.'
Opening up the fridge again, taking a bottle from the very back. It has half empty, and the scent from it filled the whole apartment.
'Sora wouldn't be too proud seeing me like this.' she winced. 'Then again, we both inherited things from our parents that we didn't want. I wonder how those two lowlives are doing these days...'
The first glass always burned her throat but by the second the sting subsided and she got used to it.
"So now, you're just going to drink away and ignore me?"
Ulquiorra's voice startled her. "You usually don't stay this long. Even in my dreams you fade away after the first touch."
"My apologies. I cannot change the past."
"I know, you're only in my mind after all."
Again he walked over to where she was, this time she was the one who tried to hold him, but her hands went right through him.
Orihime began to cry again, not caring if she was being too loud. Ulquiorra sat beside her, holding her hand.
"Woman, what did you mean before by 'not enough'?"
"Exactly that. Empty gestures and fake concerns are not enough. They should've never been.'"
"Then what would be enough? What do you want?"
"You." she whispered. "I want you. Not your spirit, not in my dreams or in my mind. I want you here in the flesh. I want to hold you, to truly speak with you. To be with you."
"You shouldn't want that. You should move on. Everything's alright now, you're back home with your friends, this is what you should want."
"Well I don't!" she yelled. "I don't want any of this, if I can't have you by my side! It all feels so..."
"Empty." He finished for her.
"Yes. It's all so very empty."
Ulquiorra stayed silent for a moment, then he looked at her. "If that is your final answer, then I just have one last piece of advice."
"What would that be?"
"Go to sleep."
"I can't. You won't be there when I wake-"
He put a finger over her lips to silence her. "Yes. Yes I will. I'll even lay down with you."
Orihime didn't expect him to inch closer towards her and kiss her. His touch wasn't cold anymore, or maybe she was the one radiating warm. It didn't matter, this was what she'd been wanting for weeks now.
"Now please woman, go to sleep."
Orihime nodded, grabbing a couple sleeping pills from the kit and taking them with what was left of the liquor. The effect was immediate, as drowsiness began to take over.
She walked over to her bed, and settled in. Ulquiorra was lying beside her over the covers.
"I need you to promise me you'll be here when I wake up. I'm getting tired of seeing you disappear."
"I'll be here. I promise."
With that in mind she closed her eyes and let sleep take over. Ulquiorra would be there to greet when she woke up.
