One month earlier...

‘ A whole month of no missions, huh?’ Szayel contemplated. ‘ I wonder what Ulquiorra offered in exchange for that little arrangement.’

“ Szayel Aporro-sama!” Lumina cried out, Verona following closely. “ The materials you required. We obtained them for you!” They stopped a few feet in front of him, pride shining in their eyes at having completed their task.

Szayel smirked. “ Is that so? You got everything, right?” They nodded enthusiastically. “ So, where are they?”

“ In the spare room you told us to put them in, although we’re still not sure why they’re so necessary for your experiment. Hey! Stop that!” Verona said pointedly to Lumina, who was poking him in the side.

The Octava Espada moved past them, ignoring their antics and making his way to the room where his next experiment would take place. Opening the door, he found his fraccion did indeed complete everything he ordered them to do. Looking at the floor, he noticed they had even opened it up so that the natural sandy ground of the desert was exposed.

‘ Now, where did they place the- Ah! There they are,” the pink haired Espada thought, switching the light on and walking to the far corner of the room where all his supplies stood, waiting to be used. He smirked at the wide variety. He picked one up and started moving it to the center of the room.

“Plants? What, are you going to change professions and become the gardener of Las Noches?” a voice from behind him mocked. Szayel clenched his teeth together at the sound and turned around. “ How the hell did you get in here, Nnoitra?”

The Quinta Espada leaned on the door frame and snorted. “Those idiot fraccion of yours let me in, obviously. It wasn’t that hard to convince ‘em, ‘ Oh, but I need to talk to him. It’s a matter of the utmost urgency. Blah blah blah.’ You really should train ‘em better, scientist-san.”

Szayel resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “ Utmost urgency, huh? I didn’t realize you knew such big words.”

Nnoitra glared, pushing himself from the door frame, and started walking toward him. “ You’re avoiding the issue at hand here. What the hell are you doing with all these plants?” He crinkled his nose distastefully at the tree Szayel was dragging to the center of the room.

“ It’s for an experiment, of course. What else could it be for?” the pink haired Espada asked, kneeling down and starting to dig a hole in the sand. After a few seconds of silence and no response from the tall, lanky Espada, he looked up and saw a large, knowing grin plastered on the other’s face.

‘ That’s not a good sign.’

“ For Pet-sama, right? Why Szayel, I never knew you were such a romantic.” He pointed to the flowers that were still in the corner. “ I’m sure you’ll give me some bullshit reason why you’re doing all this, though.”

Szayel ignored the first part of his comment, placing the tree in the hole and covering it with the sand. He took out a device from his pocket and pushed a button. “ ‘Pet-sama’, as you call her, became upset when she was taken outside of Las Noches and came to the realization she was the only living thing in Hueco Mundo. While she was outside, she created drawings in the sand of a sun and flowers and trees. As a result, it is my belief, my hypothesis, that if she were exposed to these things here in Las Noches, she would exhibit a happy or elated response.”

Nnoitra raised an eyebrow. “ You couldn’t just take her to the human world and let her see plants that way? And, more importantly, why do you care if she’s happy or not?”

“ No, for two reasons: Aizen-sama would never allow it, and there are too many extraneous variables that would have to be considered in that situation. At least in here it’s in a controlled environment.”

After a few minutes, the tree wilted completely, the leaves turning brown and forming a pile around the bark skeleton. “ Hmm, that was a lot shorter than I thought it would last,” Szayel noted, returning the device to his pocket and taking the plant out from the ground.

“ What did you do?” the Quinta Espada asked, folding his arms as he watched the other Espada toss the now-dead plant to the side.

Szayel wiped his hands clean. “ Nothing.”

“ Nothing my ass! The plant died minutes after you pushed the button on that device of yours. You obviously did something.”

Szayel took the device out and tossed it to him. “ I seriously doubt a stopwatch could’ve killed a plant. As I said, I did nothing. Plants from the human world cannot survive in Hueco Mundo, most likely because of the reiastu-laced environment.” He sighed heavily, noticing the other plants were starting to wilt as well. “ I suppose that means I have my work cut out for me.”

Szayel took a small flowering plant in his hands and made his way to the door. “ Hey! You never answered my question!” Nnoitra pointed out, following the other Espada out into the hall.

“ I know. I was ignoring you,” the Octava Espada said, holding the plant in one hand while closing the door behind them with the other. “ It’s not a need to see her happy that drives me to do all this; I don’t care if she’s happy or not. It’s the need to know why she reacts the way she does. Her reactions are...abnormal.”

He turned on his heel and started walking to his main laboratory. “ I think you can find the way out on your own, Nnoitra. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”

“ Finally, I’m done!” Szayel exclaimed, rubbing his eyes as he patted himself on the back, metaphorically speaking. “ It only took about four weeks to find the weak spots in all the plants’ DNA and genetically modify them so they would only need reiatsu and artificial lighting to survive, as well as altering their maturation cycle so they would all blossom at the same time.”

As it turned out, altering the DNA of grass and the flowers only took about two weeks total. The trees, on the other hand, were not as easy, but the Octava Espada knew he would break through eventually. It did, however, require his fraccion to make a few trips to the human world to obtain more materials.

‘ Now, all I need to do is plant them and I’ll be set,’ he thought, taking off his gloves and putting on a lab apron. He called to his many fraccion, placing the plants in their hands and threatening them with a severe punishment if a plant was so much as bent. Taking the last one, he walked into the room, nodding as he saw the trees and flowers placed in a corner of the room.

‘And just in time, too,’ Szayel realized, taking the first unsuccessful tree experiment from a few weeks ago and tossing it out a side door into the barren environment of Hueco Mundo. He looked out one of the windows and noticed a couple of small hollow-lizards looking at the tree curiously. ‘ Ulquiorra’s mission-free month is coming to an end. Oh! And before I forget...’

He walked to the room with his clipboard in it and started writing:

Experiment 3: Exposure to other living organisms

Methods: An environment was created to replicate the natural environment of the participant, using various flora and fauna. The different types are listed on the next page. The plants were genetically modified in order for them to survive the harsh environment of Hueco Mundo and so that their maturation cycles were synchronized, but no other changes were made.
Hypothesis: The participant will exhibit behavior characteristic of happiness and/or elation.
Null hypothesis: There will be no change in the participant’s behavior.

When he finished, the Octava Espada took an orange handkerchief from his pocket, tying it in such a fashion as to keep his hair from getting in his face while he worked. He planted the trees first and then the flowers, taking his time to consider which plant would go where, so as to achieve the most naturalistic-looking environment. After a few hours, it was nearly complete; the pink haired Espada added a few finishing touches.

“ Um, Szayel-sama?” Verona called from the door frame, looking very nervous. “ I hate to interrupt you, but there is an Espada meeting you need to attend.”

Szayel looked up, brushing some soil from his hands onto the apron. “ Fine. When is it?

Verona looked at the ground, scuffing the floor with his shoe before muttering,” Now...”

“ What!? Why didn’t you tell me this earlier, you idiot?” the Octava Espada yelled, pushing the fraccion from the door and kicking him down the hall.

A “ But we told you two weeks ago!” came from the Arrancar who was skidding down the hall, not that Szayel made any notice of it. He sonidoed from his domain to the Espada meeting room in under 10 seconds, relieved to see that both Aizen and Ulquiorra were not yet present. He walked to his seat and sat down, ignoring the stares and snickering of the other Espada.

“ Oi, Szayel. Nice headgear. I never knew orange would be a good color for you,” Grimmjow called to him, a small snort coming out while the other Espada burst out into laughter. Even Halibel’s face relaxed in such a way that was different from her usual stony expression.

The Octava Espada’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Suddenly, the realization hit him. ‘ The handkerchief.’ He pulled it from his head and placed it on the table, the pink strands of hair framing his face. Yami leaned over, a few seats away, to get a better look at the bright piece of cloth while Nnoitra put his elbows on the table and leaned forward.

“ So, I guess everything is going well with your little gard-HEY!” he grunted as he was swiftly kicked in the shin. “ What the hell was that for, dammit?!”

“ Oh dear! Was that your leg, Nnoitra?” Szayel said slyly, pushing up his glasses with his middle finger. “ I really must be more careful, shouldn’t I?”

Nnoitra slammed his hands to the table. “ Szayel, you...”

“ Whatever it is you two are bickering about can wait,” Aizen said calmly, entering the room and garnering the attention of all the Espada present. “ Aizen-sama,” Yami bellowed, standing up. “ Ulquiorra said he’ll be a little late because he’s returning the woman to her room. He told me to tell you.”

“ Thank you, Yami,” the ex-Shinigami captain replied, sitting down and motioning for him to do the same. A few seconds later, the door opened and Ulquiorra made his way to his seat next to Aizen. “ Now that everyone is here, we can begin our meeting.”

After about an hour, the meeting concluded and everyone headed back to their respective domains. Walking up to the Cuatra Espada with his hands behind his back, Szayel started, “ Did you have fun spending quality time with our precious Hime?”

Ulquiorra said nothing, choosing to glare at the other Espada coldly. “ Aizen-sama already assigned me a mission, starting tomorrow,” he said, standing up and left, leaving Szayel alone in the room. He grinned widely.

He wasn’t sure how she’d react after a month. His hand rested on the door handle, contemplating all the possible reactions he would get, from none at all to relieved to...

‘ That’s ridiculous,’ he thought, stopping himself and pushing the thought far from his mind. The Octava Espada opened the door with a slight creak. Orihime called out his name, her face lighting up as she dashed to the door, and commented on their long absence from each other’s presence; he agreed.

‘ But it was worth it,’ he decided as they exited the room and walked to his domain. She told him of how Ulquiorra let her out of her room for a while, which was a bit of a shock to him, especially considering how adamant he’d been on keeping her in her room only a little over a month ago.

‘ It’s probably because he wants her to know which Espada are particularly dangerous. Ulquiorra’s motivations are easy too figure out, in this case,’ Szayel thought, telling her so as they passed a few Arrancar.

There was a long pause of silence before she blurted out, “ I missed you, Szayel-san.” His brain paused for a moment as he tried to take in what she had just said. “ I-I meant, I missed talking with you,” she corrected herself as her face turned a bright shade of red.

“ That’s very kind of you to say,” he said, ignoring the foreign feeling of regret that passed through him. He decided to turn the conversation in another, more comfortable, direction. “ Do you not enjoy the company of the Cuatra Espada?”

Of course, he had no idea that one little question would lead to an extremely weird, somewhat convoluted conversation involving boats and lifebuoys and other unusual things that only Orihime would think of and how they compared to reaching out for someone. As odd as it was, though, he understood what she was trying to say.

“ You can only throw them that life preserver so many times before you realize that if you keep doing it, you’re just going to get hurt. So, in the end, you have to pull away in order to save yourself from more pain,” she finished, a melancholic smile on her face and a distant look in her eyes.

‘ Unfortunately, in this case, her powers of deduction are a bit off,’ he contemplated, thinking of the change in Ulquiorra’s reactions since he’d been assigned her guard. ’In his own way, I believe he is reaching out to her. It’s just not as apparent as she would prefer.’

“ Are we talking about the lifeboat metaphor still or real life?” he asked jokingly, noticing the change of demeanor from sadness to mock-irritation. She pointed her finger at him, as though it could do him any damage, and let out a small laugh.

“ I don’t know,” Orihime answered honestly. “ You’re the only one who has reached out, you know. I mean, I haven’t spent any time with the other Espada, not really, but you actually ask me questions and seem interested in what I have to say. It’s...a nice feeling.” Szayel looked at her curiously, noting the small, content smile on her face.

‘ If she only knew...’

He was about to change the subject when she interrupted him, asking what he’d been doing for the last month. It was a rather nice segue, if he thought about it, as he teased her imagination with the possibilities of what he could have been working on. “ I was working on something very important.”

Her face brightened up for a second time as she exclaimed her desire to see it. He smirked at her enthusiasm, taking her into the room that’d taken him the whole month to finish.

“ Here we are,” he said, opening the door. Placing a hand on the small of her back, Szayel lightly nudged her into the room. “ Enjoy, Orihime-san.”

Looking at it again, the pink haired Espada was rather proud of the work he’d done to the room. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought they’d found a rip in the fabric of time and space itself, one that opened up into some unimaginable paradise.

Orihime gasped softly, placing a hand over her mouth as she took everything in. The place was so bright that, when she looked up, she half expected to see the sun shining down on her. She didn’t, of course, but there was a bright blue sky scattered with a few white clouds. She would have sworn the sky above her was real if she didn’t know any better.

On the ground was a carpet of green grass; she was half-tempted to pull off her boots just to feel the lushness of it beneath her feet. There were a few trees scattered around the place, and she couldn’t help feel a swell of happiness when she saw a couple of cherry blossom trees, even though she knew back home they wouldn’t be in bloom.

The air was sweet with the blossoming flowers of varying sizes and colors, although most of them were some shade of red, orange or purple. Some of the flowers were foreign to her. In the very back, she could see a group of roses of varying shades, from red, intertwined with some white, to a pale pink and even some that were yellow with pale pink tips.

She took a few more steps into the room before she turned around to face the Espada behind her. “ How? How were you able to...?” Orihime couldn’t even finish the sentence.

Szayel smiled, his hands behind his back. “ It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that for certain,” he responded, following her as she walked around the room.

“ I’m just a bit confused,” Orihime stated, minding the plants so as not to step on any of them, “ I thought there were no plants in Hueco Mundo, not any that are alive, anyway. And, even if you did bring some plants from the human world, how is it they are able to survive?”

He had expected her questions. “ I genetically modified the plants so they would rely on the reiatsu in the environment and the artificial lighting for their source of energy instead of water and sunlight, both of which are rather scarce as you are well aware of.”

Orihime nodded, her gaze moving between the tall trees surrounding them and the wide variety of flowers. “ Which were the hardest?”

“ The grass was easiest. The trees were the most difficult,” he said, warily eyeing an oak and willow tree closest to them. “ The flowers, for the most part, weren’t too difficult, although there were about a dozen or so varieties that proved to be more problematic than the rest.”

She tilted her head slightly. “ Really? Which ones?”

“ Well, for example,” Szayel started, placing a hand on her back and moving her to a red flower, “ the dianthus caryophyllus, more commonly know as the carnation, was a bit of a challenge. Likewise,” he continued, walking a few steps until they were in front of a sweet-smelling white flower, “ it took me a fair amount of tries to get the gardenia jasminoides to take root...in a manner of speaking.”

She laughed softly at his attempt at a pun, a smirk plastered on his face. “ The hardest were the roses by far,” the Octava Espada finished as they walked to the back of the room to get a closer look at them. “ Especially the pink and white one. I never figured out why.”

She took a step closer to the roses and knelt down, feeling the velvety soft texture of their petals between her fingers. It felt like such a long time had passed since Orihime had seen something alive, let alone such a great variety. The feeling inside threatened to overwhelm her.

Szayel watched her with a careful eye, taking note of her body posture, the way her fingers lingered over the delicate rose in her hand, and anything else that could possibly be relevant.

‘ Any moment now,’ he thought as he saw her pull her hand close to her chest, ‘ She’ll turn around and there’ll be a huge grin on her face or some other reaction that is normally associated with happiness, and my curiosity for this facet of her personage will be quelled.’

He heard a small sniffle from the girl kneeling on the ground. After a moment of silence, he brushed it off as his imagination until the pink haired Espada heard it again, much louder than the first time. Confused, he knelt beside her.

“ Are you crying?” he asked, but she didn’t respond. “ It wasn’t my intention to upset you, Orihime-san.”

Szayel placed his hand on her shoulder. She turned around and looked at him, unshed tears shining in her eyes. Before he knew what was going on, he felt Orihime’s arms wrap around his neck, her head resting in the crook of his neck. He stiffened at the foreign feeling of her warm body flush against him as his arms hung limply by his sides. His brain tried to process what was going on, trying to take note of things that could be added later to her file, and yet he found himself unable to do so. He was too distracted by the sudden sensory overload.

“ I’m not sad. I’m not,” Orihime replied shakily, small trails of tears running down her face. After about a minute, his arms moved up to pat her back awkwardly. The light patting was almost hypnotic but she forced herself to pull away, breaking contact and looking up at him in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Szayel-san. I didn’t mean to do that. It’s just...sometimes when you’re so happy, that feeling wells up inside you so much that it just...overwhelms you. And then the only thing you can do is cry.” She laughed sheepishly, wiping the fallen tears from her cheeks.

“ No need to apologize,” Szayel said softly, offering his hand and pulling her to a standing position. “ I was just worried and...confused.” ‘

‘ Because, yet again, you exhibited a reaction I was definitely not expecting.’

Orihime nodded, a soft smile on her face as she stood next to him. Pulling his sleeve lightly, he turned his head to see what she was looking at. “ Hey, that tree over there. What is it? I’ve never seen it before.”

The Octava Espada knew what she was trying to do. “ That plant?” He walked over to the tree in question, the young woman at his side. “ I believe that is delonix regia, the royal poinciana.”

“ Really? Tell me more.”