UlquiHime Drabble: Buried Memories
Sighing deeply, Orihime shoved her tired feet into slippers instead and entered the room, glancing at the uniform she threw over the back of the couch in a rush to leave after school. A slight frown puckering her lips, she vaguely wondered if she should hang the uniform up properly, it might get creased where it was.
As Orihime’s stomach rumbled loudly, she decided the uniform could wait as she pulled her hair back haphazardly so it wouldn’t get in her way as she cooked. She picked up the first pair of bobby-pins she could find and shoved her bangs back, before rummaging around the cupboards, pulling things out at random as she decided what she was going to eat. Humming her life’s theme as she worked, Orihime tossed the vegetables in a pot to boil while she cut up the meat.
Then her steady hand slipped and grated against her skin, leaving a small red line where it had slipped. Orihime hardly even noticed she’d cut herself - her entire body was quaking. She could feel a large reiatsu, nothing like the reiatsu’s that Ishida-normally went after. This was much larger than that.
Hurriedly turning the flame under the pot off, Orihime dropped the knife in the sink and ran over to the window, looking outside anxiously. Had Aizen broken free of his entrapment then? Is that why a large reiatsu was in Kakura town again? Or was it the Shinigami? Have they come to claim Kurosaki, or her, or have they realised Ishida was still hunting down hollows?
Orihime’s eyes were drawn to her brother’s shrine of their own accord, and there, in front of the picture frame … was her Shun Shun Rikka hair pins.
If it were possible, looking at those clips caused Orihime’s body to shake even more than the reiatsu had. What had once been a treasured gift from her brother, had turned into a reminder of the person she couldn’t save.
Before she was able to stop herself, Orihime had fallen to her knees, clutching at her head, trying to fight the onslaught of the memories that assaulted her, memories that had sought so hard to smother.
“Are you afraid of me woman?” No. She wasn’t afraid, it didn’t matter what he’d done. As he looked at her, his arm outstretched and eyes pleading, the last thing Orihime felt towards him was fear. And she had absolutely no hesitation in telling him precisely that.
The last thing she’d wanted as she stretched her own arm out, fully intending to take hold of his hand and find a way to stop him from fading away, was for his fingers to break into dust the second they’d brushed against his. But that was exactly what had happened, and an overwhelming feeling of horror had taken her over then. Her mind just kept repeating No, no, no! as she ran forward a few steps to try again.
Don’t go! she wanted to yell at him, but her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth as she watched him fade to nothing. And she could feel the tears burning at her eyes, tears that began to roll as he simply watched her with an indulgent look. One that almost seemed tender in light of every other expression she’d seen on his face that day.
“I see.” Ulquiorra said, and in that last moment before he completely burst into ash, Orihime could have sworn she’d seen his lips curve into a smile.
“Ulquiorra!” the cry ripped it’s way through her throat, breaking into three syllables as it tore through her mouth, the tears gushing down her face unchecked now, and her hands clutched at her chest, as if they were trying to hold the pain she felt within.
“Inoue…” Ichigo whispered, his voice belying his confusion and uncertainty, and then Orihime heard the crunch of gravel as he walked in the opposite direction. “Please, heal Ishida,” he said, and Orihime barely had time to look over her shoulder before Ichigo had jumped over it, presumably to where she could feel the last large reiatsu left.
Mechanically, Orihime walked over to where Ishida lay, slumped, his face a grimace of pain he was trying not to give voice to, despite the whistling pants coming through his clenched teeth. Closing her eyes, trying to fight back the emotions she could feel threatening to overwhelm, Orihime asked the Shun Shun Rikka to heal Ishida.
As soon as the healing shield surrounded Ishida’s arm and began re-knitting his arm back together out of nothing, Ishida looked up at Orihime, his mouth in a thankful smile. Orihime tried to return the smile with a reassuring one of her own, but it felt fake and tight, even to her own senses.
Slowly, she rose and turned her back on Ishida, allowing the Shun Shun Rikka to heal him in peace. Her eyes instantly drew themselves to the place Ulquiorra had stood not moments before.
Unable to fight it anymore, Orihime fell to her knees and beat her fist against the rocky ground, tears rolling hard and fast. She heard Ishida’s surprised “Inoue- what-?” but she didn’t care, she couldn’t bring herself to care. They had come here to save her, and it was only now that it was too late she realised that the one they’d tried to save her from, was the last person she’d needed rescuing from.
Orihime looked up at the moon before her slowly, her breath coming out in short gasps, the Shun Shun Rikka clutched tight in her hand, and the fleetingly large reiatsu forgotten. She couldn’t even remember picking the hairclips up. She was still months away, re-living her biggest regret.
Her entire body trembling as she rose, her sobs slowly diminishing into sobs, Orihime stumbled over to where Ulquiorra had faded away. Maybe, just maybe if there was something left - a hair of his release, a shred of his wing, maybe the part of his horn that Ichigo had cut off? - just maybe she could bring him back. And then, if she were able to that, everything would be alright.
This hole in her chest would go away.
There was nothing though - Nothing! No matter how many times Orihime scoured the area, feeling Ishida’s concerned eyes following her - restrained within the healing shield as he was, unable to follow her. She couldn’t even see the smallest sign of the black ash he’d turned into, not even underneath her fingernails where they’d passed through his arm.
Growling with frustration, Orihime looked over at Ishida to see if he’d been healed yet. Hachi had told her it didn’t matter the way things were, it was the way she wanted them to be that mattered, right? And she wanted Ulquiorra whole and before her, able to scold her and call her Woman once more.
Almost impatiently, Orihime wandered back over to Ishida, and noticed with frustration that he’d barely even recovered back to his wrist yet.
“Inoue,” he asked, and Orihime could sense the quiet determination in his voice. “Are you alright?”
“Of course Ishida-kun!” the lie fell from her mouth before she’d meant it to, “Why on earth wouldn’t I be?”
Ishida continued looking at her, clearly trying to decide whether he should push the issue or not. After a few minutes, in which Orihime forced a smile on her face and refused too meet Ishida’s eye, he nodded as though he were accepting her words as truth. Ulquiorra would have known better though, Orihime mentally sighed, rising to her feet once more, her eyes still scanning the area. Hoping, wishing, that she could find a trace of him aside from the scars the ground now bore.
Finally, she felt the Shun Shun Rikka return, and a glance over her shoulder revealed Ishida wriggling his fingers, as though testing out the quality of Orihime’s regeneration.
“Amazing,” he breathed, before jumping up to his feet, his expression clouded, “Inoue-san! We should hurry to join Kurosaki and the others!” Orihime hardly paid him any heed as she walked over to where Ulquiorra had faded once more.
Ignoring Ishida’s confused “Inoue-san?”, Orihime evoked her healing barrier once more, closing her eyes and willing with all that she had within her that Ulquiorra could be recovered. Please, please, work, she repeated over and over again like a mantra, biting her lip with her concentration.
Just when she thought she was able to feel a hint of warmth fill the barrier, a jerk on her shoulder destroyed Orihime’s concentration and the barrier fell. Firing an exasperated, and infuriated, look at Ishida, fulling intending to demand what the hell he thought he was doing, Orihime stopped dead at the look of regret he had on his face though.
“You can’t bring him back Inoue-san.” Ishida said, his tone firm and completely sure, leaving no room for complaints. Nevertheless, Orihime looked in front of her, where her barrier had been moments before, hoping against hope.
There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a toe.
The tears sprung to her eyes once more, and Ishida directed her to his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, though Orihime had a feeling he didn’t understand why he was comforting her.
Silently, Ishida gathered a reiatsu platform just like the one that had brought them to the dome, and slowly took them to where he could feel the strongest Reiatsu, Orihime trying to choke back sobs as she looked over his shoulder to the dome, her heart feeling heavier and heavier with every foot further towards the ground Ishida directed them, unable to escape the feeling she was leaving something vital behind her.
Quite suddenly, Orihime jerked the window open, feeling the cool air brush against her face and highlight the water that was streaking down from her eyes. Her eyebrows drew together and her eyes narrowed as she thought, over and over again, how she failed to bring him back. Why did these stupid hairpins work whenever she was compelled to heal, instead of when she needed to heal?
Anger, frustration, and hurt getting the better of her, Orihime threw the pins out the window and slammed it shut seconds later. Looking down at her now empty hands, Orihime thought she probably should feel something … But all she felt was hollow in that moment. She was sure she was meant to feel regret for having thrown the pins her brother gave her away like that.
But there was nothing. Just like there’d been nothing in that barrier.
The next day at school, Orihime was smiling and humming her life’s song as always, but underneath that façade she’d perfected over the last couple of months, she could feel it. Worry.
That morning, she’d searched for the pins, feeling a little childish at having thrown her only defence against hollows away, but they were no where to be found and, though she hadn’t worn them since returning from Huenco Mundo, Orihime felt quite exposed without them.
Chewing at her nail as she sat in class, her eyes outside and not paying attention to the teacher at all, Orihime couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to them. Had they broken from the force of the throw, and was that why she hadn’t been able to find them? Or had someone picked them up? Were they in the trash? After finding out that those hairpins were the key to her power, Orihime would have thought she’d feel a connection to them, be able to summon the pins the same way Ichigo summoned his Zanpakuto.
No matter how many times she tried to call them though, even trying to call the Shun Shun Rikka by their names, the pins did not magically appear in her hair, or in her hands, or on her desk or … anywhere!
By the end of the day, Orihime realised she might have to come to terms with the fact that, not only she had just lost her one defence against hollows, she had also lost the last thing she had as a memento of her brother.
The thought had a frown breaking through her façade as she walked to work, sniffling slightly as she went. How could she have been so stupid?
After her shift at the café, Orihime searched around the outside of her apartment once more, looking as best she could in the dim moonlight for even a hint of the green she was searching for.
As she walked around, and around in circles, her head bowed and her eyes focused on the ground, Orihime bumped into someone she hadn’t even seen standing there.
“Sorry,” she muttered, not paying attention to the person she’d bumped into at all as she continued looking for the pins. Where were they, it was really beginning to bother her.
Orihime was brought up short as she suddenly sensed a reiatsu, quite possibly the same one from the night before, and it was right behind her. Swallowing the lump in her throat harshly, Orihime slowly turned around to look at whoever was there, knowing full well that if it was a hollow, she was dead already.
What she saw there was quite possibly worse than a hollow however, and in so many ways, better than she could have anticipated for.
Standing, with his hands in his pockets as always, looking up at the stars as though he found them fascinating, was Ulquiorra. Hesitantly, Orihime took a step forward, and then another, and another, until she was standing foot to foot with him, looking up into those emerald eyes with wonder.
He didn’t utter a word as she hesitantly, disbelievingly, raised her shaking hand, touching two fingertips to the teal tear stains running down his cheeks. Her hand didn’t go through him as she’d half expected, and Orihime could feel her mouth fall open with shock, she felt the tears stinging at the back of her eyes, but she refused to let the tears fall. She’d done enough of that lately.
With slow, deliberate movements as though he were gauging her reaction, Ulquiorra brought his hand up and laid it atop Orihime’s, his eyes closing momentarily at the touch.
“Woman, you look utterly foolish out here. What are you looking for, a mouse?” he asked, and Orihime was utterly astounded to see the corners of his mouth twitch at his own joke.
Swallowing once again, Orihime asked in an unsteady voice, “Ul-quiorra?”
Before her, he rolled his eyes in a barely discernable movement, “Has my absence addled with your ability to remember, Woman?”
Orihime didn’t reply to that, she simply brought her other hand up to rest on the other cheek. And then, the tears burst forth with a force she wasn’t able to control, and Ulquiorra looked thoroughly alarmed at her sudden display of emotion.
“Woman, what on earth is wrong with you?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow as he looked down at her, curious eyes taking in her new hairstyle before his mouth tightened disapprovingly.
“I-I tried!” Orihime gasped, removing her hands from Ulquiorra’s cheek to wrap them around herself as if she were trying to hold herself together, a move that Ulquiorra found disconcerting to say the slightest.
“I tried to bring you back!” she continued, the tears still rolling down her cheeks though she wiped at them impatiently, “But nothing happened! I couldn’t find anything to bring you back with so I thought,” she hiccupped, “I thought if I could just will you back it would work, and it didn’t and -” she paused then, and Orihime looked up at Ulquiorra, suddenly bewildered. “and - how are you here?” she asked, rubbing her sleeve at the stray tears still running down her cheeks.
Ulquiorra frowned at the woman before him, he couldn’t remember seeing her so … defeated. But, as he continued to stare at her, just as she stared at him, he thought he could see a spark of the Woman he remembered in those eyes of hers.
“You didn’t fail,” he told her. “I’m here.”
“But! It couldn’t have been me! I haven’t been able to use my powers since -” As she thought about it … Orihime realised she hadn’t even tried to use her Shun Shun Rikka since she’d come back from Huenco Mundo. She’d simply pulled them out the instant she’d walked in that door and left them sitting in front of her brother’s shrine. Was it possible …
Frowning as she began to pace back and forth Orihime wondered … Was it possible that the Shun Shun Rikka had stayed behind, finishing the job she’d set them? Could they do that? She hadn’t felt a hint of life in those hair pins since returning …
Orihime sighed as she ran a hand through her loose bangs, but did it matter if she’d lost the pins? Instinctively, her eyes ran across the cobbled foot path once more, as if she would suddenly see a spark of green.
Uncertainly, Orihime looked back up at the Espada standing in front of her. Now that she was paying the proper amount of attention, Orihime realised he no longer had remnants of his mask. Curiosity getting the better of her, she raised a hand and ran a hand through the inky locks there. Seconds later, she pulled her hand back as though she’d been shocked, Ulquiorra’s eyes never leaving hers. Always watching, watching to see her reaction, watching her as though she were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
“Are you … Where are you staying?” Orihime asked, her voice a little breathless under Ulquiorra’s constant stare. And then, it hit her. Ulquiorra was back. She hadn’t failed at all! He was back and real and - How was she going to tell this to Ichigo and the others?
Ulquiorra scoffed at her question as though he thought the answer was obvious. “Woman, do you honestly believe there is somewhere in this world I would choose to reside save for here?”
Orihime’s heartbeat began to race at the thought - Ulquiorra, staying with her? It was more than a little scandalous, and the thought had her heart racing. But then she remembered the last time she’d looked into those eyes, he had been fading away, and for a moment, Orihime thought he was about to explode into Ash again.
Suspecting he would find the question impertinent, Orihime asked, needing to clarify it to herself more, needing to know more than she’d ever anticipated, “And … you’re not … leaving again?” Oh, how it frustrated her, the way her voice trembled as she forced the words out, but she continued to look at Ulquiorra nevertheless, searching, pleading, hoping.
As she’d thought, Ulquiorra didn’t answer the question, evidently feeling that the answer was obvious, or not worth the time it would take to answer. Slowly, he raised a hand, and Orihime was mildly startled as she noticed two silver barbs in his hand - until she reminded herself that this was Ulquiorra and he wasn’t about to hurt her - and then, her concern, turned into curiosity.
Tentatively, as if he’d sensed her sudden, irrational fear, Ulquiorra pushed something into her hair, and then, with an unexpected barely-there smile, moved his hand away and replaced it in his pocket as though it had been burnt. Her eyes wide and wondering at Ulquiorra’s strange behaviour, Orihime raised a hand to the place he had just touched, curious at the way she could feel a lingering warmth there. And then, she jumped at the feel two familiar hibiscus-shaped pins there.
A relieved smile stretching her mouth wide, and in a truer smile than she’d worn in months, Orihime looked at Ulquiorra, meaning to ask him how?, but before she’d had a chance to so much as open her mouth, Ulquiorra sighed deeply, took hold of Orihime’s wrist, and pulled her towards him, his other arm wrapping around her waist and holding her as close to him as was possible, albeit awkwardly.
Finding a chest in her face suddenly, and arms wrapped tightly around her, Orihime was a little bewildered, and a little embarrassed for she hadn’t been held like this before - and the last person she’d expected to do so, had been Ulquiorra. But then she heard it, light and unexpected - She could hear a beating of a heart besides her own, fluttering beneath her ear, and the sound made Orihime’s own heart pause for a second, before it sped up at the implication.
Wriggling against Ulquiorra’s hold until he released her, his eyes clouded over with doubt and confusion, Orihime didn’t even try to explain herself, though she felt a twinge of guilt at having made him look like that. Instead, she took hold of the zip of his coat and pulled, impatient to know as she held her breath, the cloth parting to reveal…
There was nothing. No hollow hole, just unmarred flesh. Orihime brushed her fingertips against the skin with wonder - what did that make Ulquiorra then? And then she felt the rush of pleasure, her palm resting fully on the unmarked skin now, her fingertips resting above the thrumming she could feel coming from within him.
“You’re … You …” Orihime didn’t even know what she was trying to say. Ulquiorra was alive. Ulquiorra was no longer a hollow. Ulquiorra had a heart.
The tears broke through her control once more, and looking up at Ulquiorra through her watery eyes, she couldn’t help but laugh at the bewildered scowl that was on his face, a scowl that only deepened as he took in the smile on her face.
“You’re an anomaly Woman,” he sighed, a hint of amusement behind his seemingly harsh words.
“Come on then,” Orihime laughed, taking hold of Ulquiorra’s hand as she began to lead him inside the house. “I’d better find you a spare set of blankets,” she hummed as she walked up the stairs.
A glance over her shoulder showed Ulquiorra frowning with distaste as he looked up at her, his hand still firm in her own. “What is it?” Orihime asked, a little worried. Had she offended the ex-hollow, somehow?
“Woman, that colour does not suit you in the least,” he told her, his lips still pulled into a frown as he continued to stare at the Woman before him.
Mildly confused, Orihime looked at her clothes and realised she was still in the pink-uniform of her café. She couldn’t hold back her laugh as she opened the door, tugging Ulquiorra’s hand behind her.
A hand that wasn’t turning to ash as she weaved their fingers together.
~X~
Awwws. It's so Fluffy!... ... Yeah.
Well, anyway, like I said, just a drabble. I had this thought that maybe Orihime doesn't wear the pins anymore because they remind her of Ulquiorra - and I'd like to believe she tried to bring him back at least. And so, this spawned... Okay, and I wanted to write a reunion fic. I don't think I've done one yet ... Or if I have, it's been a while XDD
I do hope you guys like it =D
And now ... I'd better go to bed XD Darn work! Interfering with my fan-writings >C
As Orihime’s stomach rumbled loudly, she decided the uniform could wait as she pulled her hair back haphazardly so it wouldn’t get in her way as she cooked. She picked up the first pair of bobby-pins she could find and shoved her bangs back, before rummaging around the cupboards, pulling things out at random as she decided what she was going to eat. Humming her life’s theme as she worked, Orihime tossed the vegetables in a pot to boil while she cut up the meat.
Then her steady hand slipped and grated against her skin, leaving a small red line where it had slipped. Orihime hardly even noticed she’d cut herself - her entire body was quaking. She could feel a large reiatsu, nothing like the reiatsu’s that Ishida-normally went after. This was much larger than that.
Hurriedly turning the flame under the pot off, Orihime dropped the knife in the sink and ran over to the window, looking outside anxiously. Had Aizen broken free of his entrapment then? Is that why a large reiatsu was in Kakura town again? Or was it the Shinigami? Have they come to claim Kurosaki, or her, or have they realised Ishida was still hunting down hollows?
Orihime’s eyes were drawn to her brother’s shrine of their own accord, and there, in front of the picture frame … was her Shun Shun Rikka hair pins.
If it were possible, looking at those clips caused Orihime’s body to shake even more than the reiatsu had. What had once been a treasured gift from her brother, had turned into a reminder of the person she couldn’t save.
Before she was able to stop herself, Orihime had fallen to her knees, clutching at her head, trying to fight the onslaught of the memories that assaulted her, memories that had sought so hard to smother.
“Are you afraid of me woman?” No. She wasn’t afraid, it didn’t matter what he’d done. As he looked at her, his arm outstretched and eyes pleading, the last thing Orihime felt towards him was fear. And she had absolutely no hesitation in telling him precisely that.
The last thing she’d wanted as she stretched her own arm out, fully intending to take hold of his hand and find a way to stop him from fading away, was for his fingers to break into dust the second they’d brushed against his. But that was exactly what had happened, and an overwhelming feeling of horror had taken her over then. Her mind just kept repeating No, no, no! as she ran forward a few steps to try again.
Don’t go! she wanted to yell at him, but her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth as she watched him fade to nothing. And she could feel the tears burning at her eyes, tears that began to roll as he simply watched her with an indulgent look. One that almost seemed tender in light of every other expression she’d seen on his face that day.
“I see.” Ulquiorra said, and in that last moment before he completely burst into ash, Orihime could have sworn she’d seen his lips curve into a smile.
“Ulquiorra!” the cry ripped it’s way through her throat, breaking into three syllables as it tore through her mouth, the tears gushing down her face unchecked now, and her hands clutched at her chest, as if they were trying to hold the pain she felt within.
“Inoue…” Ichigo whispered, his voice belying his confusion and uncertainty, and then Orihime heard the crunch of gravel as he walked in the opposite direction. “Please, heal Ishida,” he said, and Orihime barely had time to look over her shoulder before Ichigo had jumped over it, presumably to where she could feel the last large reiatsu left.
Mechanically, Orihime walked over to where Ishida lay, slumped, his face a grimace of pain he was trying not to give voice to, despite the whistling pants coming through his clenched teeth. Closing her eyes, trying to fight back the emotions she could feel threatening to overwhelm, Orihime asked the Shun Shun Rikka to heal Ishida.
As soon as the healing shield surrounded Ishida’s arm and began re-knitting his arm back together out of nothing, Ishida looked up at Orihime, his mouth in a thankful smile. Orihime tried to return the smile with a reassuring one of her own, but it felt fake and tight, even to her own senses.
Slowly, she rose and turned her back on Ishida, allowing the Shun Shun Rikka to heal him in peace. Her eyes instantly drew themselves to the place Ulquiorra had stood not moments before.
Unable to fight it anymore, Orihime fell to her knees and beat her fist against the rocky ground, tears rolling hard and fast. She heard Ishida’s surprised “Inoue- what-?” but she didn’t care, she couldn’t bring herself to care. They had come here to save her, and it was only now that it was too late she realised that the one they’d tried to save her from, was the last person she’d needed rescuing from.
Orihime looked up at the moon before her slowly, her breath coming out in short gasps, the Shun Shun Rikka clutched tight in her hand, and the fleetingly large reiatsu forgotten. She couldn’t even remember picking the hairclips up. She was still months away, re-living her biggest regret.
Her entire body trembling as she rose, her sobs slowly diminishing into sobs, Orihime stumbled over to where Ulquiorra had faded away. Maybe, just maybe if there was something left - a hair of his release, a shred of his wing, maybe the part of his horn that Ichigo had cut off? - just maybe she could bring him back. And then, if she were able to that, everything would be alright.
This hole in her chest would go away.
There was nothing though - Nothing! No matter how many times Orihime scoured the area, feeling Ishida’s concerned eyes following her - restrained within the healing shield as he was, unable to follow her. She couldn’t even see the smallest sign of the black ash he’d turned into, not even underneath her fingernails where they’d passed through his arm.
Growling with frustration, Orihime looked over at Ishida to see if he’d been healed yet. Hachi had told her it didn’t matter the way things were, it was the way she wanted them to be that mattered, right? And she wanted Ulquiorra whole and before her, able to scold her and call her Woman once more.
Almost impatiently, Orihime wandered back over to Ishida, and noticed with frustration that he’d barely even recovered back to his wrist yet.
“Inoue,” he asked, and Orihime could sense the quiet determination in his voice. “Are you alright?”
“Of course Ishida-kun!” the lie fell from her mouth before she’d meant it to, “Why on earth wouldn’t I be?”
Ishida continued looking at her, clearly trying to decide whether he should push the issue or not. After a few minutes, in which Orihime forced a smile on her face and refused too meet Ishida’s eye, he nodded as though he were accepting her words as truth. Ulquiorra would have known better though, Orihime mentally sighed, rising to her feet once more, her eyes still scanning the area. Hoping, wishing, that she could find a trace of him aside from the scars the ground now bore.
Finally, she felt the Shun Shun Rikka return, and a glance over her shoulder revealed Ishida wriggling his fingers, as though testing out the quality of Orihime’s regeneration.
“Amazing,” he breathed, before jumping up to his feet, his expression clouded, “Inoue-san! We should hurry to join Kurosaki and the others!” Orihime hardly paid him any heed as she walked over to where Ulquiorra had faded once more.
Ignoring Ishida’s confused “Inoue-san?”, Orihime evoked her healing barrier once more, closing her eyes and willing with all that she had within her that Ulquiorra could be recovered. Please, please, work, she repeated over and over again like a mantra, biting her lip with her concentration.
Just when she thought she was able to feel a hint of warmth fill the barrier, a jerk on her shoulder destroyed Orihime’s concentration and the barrier fell. Firing an exasperated, and infuriated, look at Ishida, fulling intending to demand what the hell he thought he was doing, Orihime stopped dead at the look of regret he had on his face though.
“You can’t bring him back Inoue-san.” Ishida said, his tone firm and completely sure, leaving no room for complaints. Nevertheless, Orihime looked in front of her, where her barrier had been moments before, hoping against hope.
There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a toe.
The tears sprung to her eyes once more, and Ishida directed her to his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, though Orihime had a feeling he didn’t understand why he was comforting her.
Silently, Ishida gathered a reiatsu platform just like the one that had brought them to the dome, and slowly took them to where he could feel the strongest Reiatsu, Orihime trying to choke back sobs as she looked over his shoulder to the dome, her heart feeling heavier and heavier with every foot further towards the ground Ishida directed them, unable to escape the feeling she was leaving something vital behind her.
Quite suddenly, Orihime jerked the window open, feeling the cool air brush against her face and highlight the water that was streaking down from her eyes. Her eyebrows drew together and her eyes narrowed as she thought, over and over again, how she failed to bring him back. Why did these stupid hairpins work whenever she was compelled to heal, instead of when she needed to heal?
Anger, frustration, and hurt getting the better of her, Orihime threw the pins out the window and slammed it shut seconds later. Looking down at her now empty hands, Orihime thought she probably should feel something … But all she felt was hollow in that moment. She was sure she was meant to feel regret for having thrown the pins her brother gave her away like that.
But there was nothing. Just like there’d been nothing in that barrier.
The next day at school, Orihime was smiling and humming her life’s song as always, but underneath that façade she’d perfected over the last couple of months, she could feel it. Worry.
That morning, she’d searched for the pins, feeling a little childish at having thrown her only defence against hollows away, but they were no where to be found and, though she hadn’t worn them since returning from Huenco Mundo, Orihime felt quite exposed without them.
Chewing at her nail as she sat in class, her eyes outside and not paying attention to the teacher at all, Orihime couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to them. Had they broken from the force of the throw, and was that why she hadn’t been able to find them? Or had someone picked them up? Were they in the trash? After finding out that those hairpins were the key to her power, Orihime would have thought she’d feel a connection to them, be able to summon the pins the same way Ichigo summoned his Zanpakuto.
No matter how many times she tried to call them though, even trying to call the Shun Shun Rikka by their names, the pins did not magically appear in her hair, or in her hands, or on her desk or … anywhere!
By the end of the day, Orihime realised she might have to come to terms with the fact that, not only she had just lost her one defence against hollows, she had also lost the last thing she had as a memento of her brother.
The thought had a frown breaking through her façade as she walked to work, sniffling slightly as she went. How could she have been so stupid?
After her shift at the café, Orihime searched around the outside of her apartment once more, looking as best she could in the dim moonlight for even a hint of the green she was searching for.
As she walked around, and around in circles, her head bowed and her eyes focused on the ground, Orihime bumped into someone she hadn’t even seen standing there.
“Sorry,” she muttered, not paying attention to the person she’d bumped into at all as she continued looking for the pins. Where were they, it was really beginning to bother her.
Orihime was brought up short as she suddenly sensed a reiatsu, quite possibly the same one from the night before, and it was right behind her. Swallowing the lump in her throat harshly, Orihime slowly turned around to look at whoever was there, knowing full well that if it was a hollow, she was dead already.
What she saw there was quite possibly worse than a hollow however, and in so many ways, better than she could have anticipated for.
Standing, with his hands in his pockets as always, looking up at the stars as though he found them fascinating, was Ulquiorra. Hesitantly, Orihime took a step forward, and then another, and another, until she was standing foot to foot with him, looking up into those emerald eyes with wonder.
He didn’t utter a word as she hesitantly, disbelievingly, raised her shaking hand, touching two fingertips to the teal tear stains running down his cheeks. Her hand didn’t go through him as she’d half expected, and Orihime could feel her mouth fall open with shock, she felt the tears stinging at the back of her eyes, but she refused to let the tears fall. She’d done enough of that lately.
With slow, deliberate movements as though he were gauging her reaction, Ulquiorra brought his hand up and laid it atop Orihime’s, his eyes closing momentarily at the touch.
“Woman, you look utterly foolish out here. What are you looking for, a mouse?” he asked, and Orihime was utterly astounded to see the corners of his mouth twitch at his own joke.
Swallowing once again, Orihime asked in an unsteady voice, “Ul-quiorra?”
Before her, he rolled his eyes in a barely discernable movement, “Has my absence addled with your ability to remember, Woman?”
Orihime didn’t reply to that, she simply brought her other hand up to rest on the other cheek. And then, the tears burst forth with a force she wasn’t able to control, and Ulquiorra looked thoroughly alarmed at her sudden display of emotion.
“Woman, what on earth is wrong with you?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow as he looked down at her, curious eyes taking in her new hairstyle before his mouth tightened disapprovingly.
“I-I tried!” Orihime gasped, removing her hands from Ulquiorra’s cheek to wrap them around herself as if she were trying to hold herself together, a move that Ulquiorra found disconcerting to say the slightest.
“I tried to bring you back!” she continued, the tears still rolling down her cheeks though she wiped at them impatiently, “But nothing happened! I couldn’t find anything to bring you back with so I thought,” she hiccupped, “I thought if I could just will you back it would work, and it didn’t and -” she paused then, and Orihime looked up at Ulquiorra, suddenly bewildered. “and - how are you here?” she asked, rubbing her sleeve at the stray tears still running down her cheeks.
Ulquiorra frowned at the woman before him, he couldn’t remember seeing her so … defeated. But, as he continued to stare at her, just as she stared at him, he thought he could see a spark of the Woman he remembered in those eyes of hers.
“You didn’t fail,” he told her. “I’m here.”
“But! It couldn’t have been me! I haven’t been able to use my powers since -” As she thought about it … Orihime realised she hadn’t even tried to use her Shun Shun Rikka since she’d come back from Huenco Mundo. She’d simply pulled them out the instant she’d walked in that door and left them sitting in front of her brother’s shrine. Was it possible …
Frowning as she began to pace back and forth Orihime wondered … Was it possible that the Shun Shun Rikka had stayed behind, finishing the job she’d set them? Could they do that? She hadn’t felt a hint of life in those hair pins since returning …
Orihime sighed as she ran a hand through her loose bangs, but did it matter if she’d lost the pins? Instinctively, her eyes ran across the cobbled foot path once more, as if she would suddenly see a spark of green.
Uncertainly, Orihime looked back up at the Espada standing in front of her. Now that she was paying the proper amount of attention, Orihime realised he no longer had remnants of his mask. Curiosity getting the better of her, she raised a hand and ran a hand through the inky locks there. Seconds later, she pulled her hand back as though she’d been shocked, Ulquiorra’s eyes never leaving hers. Always watching, watching to see her reaction, watching her as though she were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
“Are you … Where are you staying?” Orihime asked, her voice a little breathless under Ulquiorra’s constant stare. And then, it hit her. Ulquiorra was back. She hadn’t failed at all! He was back and real and - How was she going to tell this to Ichigo and the others?
Ulquiorra scoffed at her question as though he thought the answer was obvious. “Woman, do you honestly believe there is somewhere in this world I would choose to reside save for here?”
Orihime’s heartbeat began to race at the thought - Ulquiorra, staying with her? It was more than a little scandalous, and the thought had her heart racing. But then she remembered the last time she’d looked into those eyes, he had been fading away, and for a moment, Orihime thought he was about to explode into Ash again.
Suspecting he would find the question impertinent, Orihime asked, needing to clarify it to herself more, needing to know more than she’d ever anticipated, “And … you’re not … leaving again?” Oh, how it frustrated her, the way her voice trembled as she forced the words out, but she continued to look at Ulquiorra nevertheless, searching, pleading, hoping.
As she’d thought, Ulquiorra didn’t answer the question, evidently feeling that the answer was obvious, or not worth the time it would take to answer. Slowly, he raised a hand, and Orihime was mildly startled as she noticed two silver barbs in his hand - until she reminded herself that this was Ulquiorra and he wasn’t about to hurt her - and then, her concern, turned into curiosity.
Tentatively, as if he’d sensed her sudden, irrational fear, Ulquiorra pushed something into her hair, and then, with an unexpected barely-there smile, moved his hand away and replaced it in his pocket as though it had been burnt. Her eyes wide and wondering at Ulquiorra’s strange behaviour, Orihime raised a hand to the place he had just touched, curious at the way she could feel a lingering warmth there. And then, she jumped at the feel two familiar hibiscus-shaped pins there.
A relieved smile stretching her mouth wide, and in a truer smile than she’d worn in months, Orihime looked at Ulquiorra, meaning to ask him how?, but before she’d had a chance to so much as open her mouth, Ulquiorra sighed deeply, took hold of Orihime’s wrist, and pulled her towards him, his other arm wrapping around her waist and holding her as close to him as was possible, albeit awkwardly.
Finding a chest in her face suddenly, and arms wrapped tightly around her, Orihime was a little bewildered, and a little embarrassed for she hadn’t been held like this before - and the last person she’d expected to do so, had been Ulquiorra. But then she heard it, light and unexpected - She could hear a beating of a heart besides her own, fluttering beneath her ear, and the sound made Orihime’s own heart pause for a second, before it sped up at the implication.
Wriggling against Ulquiorra’s hold until he released her, his eyes clouded over with doubt and confusion, Orihime didn’t even try to explain herself, though she felt a twinge of guilt at having made him look like that. Instead, she took hold of the zip of his coat and pulled, impatient to know as she held her breath, the cloth parting to reveal…
There was nothing. No hollow hole, just unmarred flesh. Orihime brushed her fingertips against the skin with wonder - what did that make Ulquiorra then? And then she felt the rush of pleasure, her palm resting fully on the unmarked skin now, her fingertips resting above the thrumming she could feel coming from within him.
“You’re … You …” Orihime didn’t even know what she was trying to say. Ulquiorra was alive. Ulquiorra was no longer a hollow. Ulquiorra had a heart.
The tears broke through her control once more, and looking up at Ulquiorra through her watery eyes, she couldn’t help but laugh at the bewildered scowl that was on his face, a scowl that only deepened as he took in the smile on her face.
“You’re an anomaly Woman,” he sighed, a hint of amusement behind his seemingly harsh words.
“Come on then,” Orihime laughed, taking hold of Ulquiorra’s hand as she began to lead him inside the house. “I’d better find you a spare set of blankets,” she hummed as she walked up the stairs.
A glance over her shoulder showed Ulquiorra frowning with distaste as he looked up at her, his hand still firm in her own. “What is it?” Orihime asked, a little worried. Had she offended the ex-hollow, somehow?
“Woman, that colour does not suit you in the least,” he told her, his lips still pulled into a frown as he continued to stare at the Woman before him.
Mildly confused, Orihime looked at her clothes and realised she was still in the pink-uniform of her café. She couldn’t hold back her laugh as she opened the door, tugging Ulquiorra’s hand behind her.
A hand that wasn’t turning to ash as she weaved their fingers together.
~X~
Awwws. It's so Fluffy!... ... Yeah.
Well, anyway, like I said, just a drabble. I had this thought that maybe Orihime doesn't wear the pins anymore because they remind her of Ulquiorra - and I'd like to believe she tried to bring him back at least. And so, this spawned... Okay, and I wanted to write a reunion fic. I don't think I've done one yet ... Or if I have, it's been a while XDD
I do hope you guys like it =D
And now ... I'd better go to bed XD Darn work! Interfering with my fan-writings >C