Soul Butterfly Daycare: Hide 'n Seek
Hide 'n Seek: Ulquiorra and Orihime along with the rest of their classmates play a refreshing game of Hide 'n Seek. Guess who's 'it'?
Orihime crouched down and giggled. Hide 'n Seek was one of her favorite games. With a little convincing, her classmates had agreed to let Ulquiorra be 'it'. Ulquiorra had been even more reluctant, but with a promise from her to share her old chocolate candies from Valentines Day, he had agreed.
“Six, seven, eight, nine, ten - ready or not, here I come.” Ulquiorra called out in monotone.
Orihime felt a sudden pang in her chest that left her breathless. Something had changed in Ulquiorra since he had gone to the hospital. That wasn't to say that Orihime didn't like the new Ulquiorra, but sometimes she wondered what happened to the old one.
He insisted he was fine, but Orihime and Grimmjow had both noticed his behavior. He was quieter than before, more orderly and withdrawn. Aside from her, he did not like to be touched. Some of the games they had played in the past he refused to participate in. For an entire week he forgot that he liked Batman and chocolate; that is until Orihime reminded him. He was now vigorously engrossed in the Batman Universe and once more a devoted chocolate consumer.
“I found you.” Ulquiorra's voice cut through Orihime's musings. She could not help the surprised squeal that escaped her lips when Ulquiorra's cold hand wrapped itself around her wrist and gently pulled her out from underneath the art table.
“Aw, why do you always find me first? It takes me forever to find you.” She pouted as his hand slipped from her wrist and found her own hand.
“It is no contest Woman. You burn so brightly that even the darkest of rooms will awaken to your presence.” Orihime's cheeks flushed in embarrassment. She had no idea what he had said, but whatever it meant - she liked it.
There were some nice things that had changed in him too. Ulquiorra's words had become much fancier. His movements became much more graceful and his brain must have grown because he was a lot smarter all of a sudden.
Orihime was sure that al of it was credited to his tonsils being removed, even if Ulquiorra insisted that it was his heart. That explanation baffled her though, because Ulquiorra had always had a heart and even if he meant it differently - like from her Valentine to him - she didn't think it had enough magic to change him so drastically... The only other explanation she could think of was that strange place he had mentioned back at the hospital, Whacko Muno, but the one time she had brought it up and asked him if he had ever gone to such a place, he had denied ever mentioning it.
“What's the matter 'Quiorra? Aren't you going to look for the rest of our friends?” Orihime asked when it looked like the five year old was going to walk away from the Hide 'n Seek game.
Orihime watched as Ulquiorra rolled his eyes.
“They are not my friends - they are my peers; and the only reason they agreed to this game with me was so that they could be entertained by my social awkwardness.” Orihime's brow furrowed. She did not know all of the words he had used, but she understood the gist of it.
“Thagt's not true 'Quiorra. Everyone here is your friend.” Orihime gently tugged on his hand.
“Come on. We can find the others together.” The four year od flashed him a smile and silently sighed in relief when he did not argue the point. Sometimes he could be very stubborn.
Together they made their way around the classroom.
“Rukia Kuchiki, you are hiding under the rug.” Ulquiorra called out to the lump in the middle of the carpet.
A moment later, Rukia poked her head out.
“You're very fast at counting to ten.” She complimented. Then her voice lowerered to a whisper.
“Ichigo and Chappy are hiding in the cubby-holes.” Ulquiorra smirked and Orihime could tell that he was happy to hear Rukia's words.
“I'll go and get Ichigo and Chappy,” Orihime volunteered.
“I'll help you find Renji,” Rukia offered.
Orihime raced off and wasted no time calling out to Ichigo and the stuffed rabbit and exposing their hiding place. Across the room a high pitched squeal alerted Orihime that Nel had been caught. The girl had the same banshee scream that she did.
Looking over, she saw Nel jump on Ulquiorra's back and give him a hug, exclaiming that he had found her. Behind them stood Renji and Rukia who both laughed and snickered at Ulquiorra's expression that kept changing from disgust to bafflement.
Tatsuki was a little harder to find as she had hidden under old man Yamamoto's desk. The little tomboy gave Ulquiorra quite the chase and refused to relent until he 'caught' and tagged her. After her, the only two that remained were Uryu and Grimmjow.
The latter hid behind the classroom's big, heavy yellow door. He was only found when Ulquiorra 'accidentally' pushed the door against the wall and smooshed his best friend into grunting and giving away his location. The others all thought it was hilarious and started to cheer Ulquiorra on.
Orihimebeamed and watched as Ulquiorra subtly basked in the attention and encouragement. He had plenty of friends...
Orihime's smile grew ten-fold when he reached out a hand expectantly to her. She may have liked Ichigo, but Ulquiorra would always be her best boyfriend. Happily, she placed her hand in his.
They spent the rest of the afternoon looking for Uryu who had fallen asleep behind the yellow bookshelf in the corner of the room; and even when the thrill of the game faded and the rest of the class gave up searching, Orihime did not let go of Ulquiorra's hand.
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