Bleach fanfic - Waiting For Him

[akuni]

HAPPY (almost) BIRTHDAY, Looky! ♥

Title: Waiting For Him
Author: Akuni
Genre: Drama, Romance, Angst
Rating: R (for mature themes)
Pairing: Ulquiorra/Orihime
Spoilers: Massive spoilers through manga chapter 316.
Warnings: This is a touch darker than my normal fare. It’s still not actually dark, because I am a wuss, but there are fewer fluffy rainbows and

Comments

[vayshti]

I like how strong you made Orihime here - tied in knots and unable to enact that strength, but this doesn't diminish her in any way.

I loved the little fantasy she tripped away to momentarily.

I especially loved the emphasis you gave to the Grimm/Ulquiorra fight:

They weren’t even fighting for the same thing. Grimmjow was fighting for her to heal Kurosaki-kun, and Ulquiorra was fighting for… for what?

For her. “Give her to me,” he’d said. Ulquiorra was fighting to protect her, against one of his fellow espada.

Just gorgeous.

[akuni]

I think this arc could show some good development of Orihime's inner strength. We know she's strong, she just needs to learn how and when to use her strength. I just don't know whether KT will bother to focus on that part or skip on to other things. We shall see.

Orihime without a bit of fantasizing is just not Orihime. :) Even in her darkest hour, her mind is quirky and fun, and I think her unique outlook on the world is one of the things that will help keep her from losing herself in all this chaos she's had to endure.

I'm so glad you liked it, thanks! :)

[vayshti]

Yes, I really hope KT addresses the 'but she was waiting to give the others time to prepare before she unleashed her Shun Shun Rikka - so what's she waiting for now???' question that's burning a hole in my head.

Orihime needs/deserves some more panels devoted to her development.

But in the meantime, there's always classy fan-fic ;-)

[2metaldog]

I wouldn't normally read something with this pairing (as we discussed) but this was really good. I like that you kept Orihime in character yet made her strong. The small touches of using actual scenes from the manga were wonderful and really lent an air of... this is what's gonna happen to the piece.

Excellent work *thumbs up*

[akuni]

I wouldn't normally write something with this pairing, and I certainly don't expect my flist to read it just because I wrote it, but I am very happy that you gave this a try. :)

The HM arc is well and truly refreshed in my mind, after writing this. I spent an entire day re-reading it before outlining this fic, making notes on the timeline of events. It was... I have to say it was a neat exercise to stretch the themes already in place a little farther, and add a few new ones, and then tie all the scenes together with a focus on Orihime. I wanted to keep it as close to canon as I could, to enhance that sense of possibility.

Thank you. ^_^

[2metaldog]

*nods* Going over canon material and tweaking here and there to make a fic work is fun. I did that with one of the songfics I wrote (during the Bount arc) and it was a fun challenge.

Orihime isn't one of my favourite characters but I like her better than Rukia. I don't know why, but I've pretty much hated Rukia right from the very first episode. I think I like Orihime better because of those flights of fancy she sometimes goes off on.

[akuni]

Aww. Sometimes I feel like the only one who likes them both. :)

*points and laughs* Hahaha, songfics, dooooooooomed! :P :P :P
(Of course, if it ever happens to me, I fully expect you to gloat and rub my nose in it. *grin*)

[hu3long2]

Thanks for this fic. I'm not an UlquiOri shipper at all-- smacks too much of Stockholm Syndrome to me, but I like how you've charted not only Orihime's changes but also Ulquoirra's changes in this fic so smoothly and so beautifully

[akuni]

Oh yes, that's a very big point with this pairing. I actually intended this fic to have a very Stockholm Syndrome feel to it, if the reader didn't want to see it as traditionally shippy.

It was pretty tricky to show how Ulquiorra was feeling when I wanted to keep this strictly in Orihime's PoV, but I think I did an ok job and I'm glad you thought it was smoothly done. :)

I have noticed that KT's lead women have a tendency to end up as damsels in distress. I'm hoping Orihime will help save herself in this arc, but I won't hold my breath. ;)

That's how I see Ulquiorra as well. He's new, and young, and he's got a lot to learn. I see him launching verbal probes at her just to see what she'll do, so he can learn more. It's arguably a nicer way than, say, Szayel or Mayuri would do, but I wonder if he realizes the pain he causes her sometimes.

It's not truly dark, but I wanted to put fair warning because I generally write happier, often fluffier things. :) I'm really pleased you enjoyed it, thank you for the detailed comment!

[akuni]

♥ I'm happy about the additions, actually. I was banging my head on the desk when Shelagh told me that maybe I'd better bend the rules this one time and read the spoilers instead of waiting for the scanlation (you know me and spoilers!). When I saw the new scene between them, I was a bit disgruntled at first, but we thought about it and realized that it could actually help if I put the right spin on it.

You're still a doll for agreeing to do this. ^_^

[only_in_silence]

Ooh, definitely a good thing you looked at the spoilers, in that case. For some reason, I thought perhaps you'd seen the actual chapter before you amended this, but I must have misheard you (when you mentioned it in email). Anyway, either way, it's fantastic!

[akuni]

I think I was moaning before and after the chapter came out, so you probably heard right, haha! I had a few days after the scanlation came out, and after that I went out and got three different versions. But I wasn't completely satisfied because the translations of Ulquiorra's dialogue were different, so I did my own translation and had a friend (whose Japanese skills are not as rusty as mine) figure out which ones seemed more accurate.

[captainrosie]

Ooh, I love Ulquiorra, and this was just so heart-wrenchingly sorrowful and perfect in places...

Bravo on an excellent (as always) first attempt at a difficult pairing! ^_^

- rosie

[akuni]

Ulquiorra has the potential to be so wonderful, and because I fear for him in canon, I like to write him somewhat sympathetically.

*^_^* You flatter me, you really do.