“ Eh? What did you say, Ulquiorra?” Orihime questioned, looking up from the book she held in her hand. He sighed a bit, irritated; Ulquiorra did not like repeating himself.

“ Woman, put the book down for one minute and pay attention,” he demanded, watching as she marked her place and set the book on the table. “ Good. As I was saying, I will not have any missions for this next month, so it will not be necessary for you to be under the Octava Espada’s...care.” He grimaced internally at his choice of words.

She looked at him curiously. “ Really? Why?” The green eyed Espada stared at her blankly, unsure of what she was asking. “ What I mean is, why are you not going on any missions for a month?” she clarified.

He was tempted to shrug, the same way he saw her shrug from time to time when she didn’t know the answer to one of Szayel’s or Aizen’s questions, but crushed the urge before it came to fruition. “ It’s not important for us to understand Aizen-sama’s reasoning, only to accept it.”  

‘ Of course,’ Orihime thought, watching him stare at her with his usual blank stare. ‘ Aizen’s word is law to him, isn’t it?’

She glanced at the book on the table, reading the title in her head, and smiled a bit in an attempt to lighten the mood. “ Well, if that’s the case then, I guess that means we have some time to get to know each other better, huh?”

Her question was met with silence. “ Ulquiorra?” she asked, looking at him curiously.

“ Hm,” he said finally, closing his eyes in an almost weary fashion, although Orihime couldn’t really understand why. “ If you will not be needing anything else, then I will leave you until dinner.”

Orihime nodded, feeling somehow that his words were not negotiable in any way. “ Okay. Um,” she started, seeing that he was headed for the door. “ N-nothing. Forget it.” He nodded lightly and exited the room. As soon as the door was shut, Ulquiorra let out a deep sigh.

‘ This is going to be a long month,’ he thought wearily.

--------------------

If it weren’t for the fact that the pink haired Espada was obviously up to something devious in his newfound fascination with Orihime, Ulquiorra would have applauded him for the amount of patience he possessed to deal with her.

‘ How many questions can one human possibly think of?’ he pondered, half irritably and half in awe. ‘ And why exactly is it important for her to know why I keep my hands in my pockets all the time? It’s not something I spend copious amounts of time considering. It’s just an action I do.’

The questions started the day he announced he didn’t have any missions for a month and they hadn’t let up since that time. All sorts of questions; a select handful of them were, arguably, very deep and profound, and Ulquiorra allowed himself to indulge her in an elaborate answer. Other questions, though...were not quite as deep.

“ Ulquiorra, are there make up stores in Hueco Mundo or is it some Arrancar’s mission to go and buy it in the human world?” Orihime asked one day as she ate her meal.

“ What?” He stood next to her table, his hands out of his pockets for once and folded across his chest.

Orihime shrugged. “ I was just wondering because of your makeup. I mean, it’s a really nice shade of green, after all, and I just wanted to know where you got it because if it was from the human word, that means there’s a chance that I could find that shade of green and, personally, I think it would look really ni-”

Ulquiorra put his hand up to stop her. “ You are not making any sense.”

“ Your tear marks, of course,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

He blinked once. “ No,” he responded, glaring at her.

“ No...what?”

Ulquiorra let out a soft sigh and, taking her wrist, brought her hands to his face. He positioned her fingers, letting them gently trace the outline of the marks, and then released his grip on her arm. Orihime looked down at her pointer finger. “ As you can see,” he stated, “ They are not make up.”

After about a week of her inane questions, eventually he started to answer all her questions with either a “yes” or “no”, which, for some of them, didn't really make sense.

“ Ulquiorra, why is the moon here in Hueco Mundo reversed from the moon in my world?”

“ Yes.”

“ Ummmm, it wasn’t really a yes or no question, you know.”

At this point, Ulquiorra couldn’t care less. The most frequent question he received, though, was:

“ Can we go out of this room for a little bit? Please?”

Orihime asked that question at least once a day and his answer never changed:

“ No.”

He had to admit, though, a small part of him did admire her perseverance. A very small part; overall, it was only another source of irritation to him that she refused to drop the issue of leaving her room. Ulquiorra couldn't help but feel that it was the Octava Espada’s fault.

‘ If he did not let her leave the room to begin with...’ he trailed off, thinking of what he could do to Szayel to “thank” him the next time he met up with him.

It was the last day of his month break from missions and, as much as he didn’t like to admit it, some part of him was almost...disheartened that his time with her would come to an end. Ulquiorra was confused, to say the least.

‘ I should be relieved that I won’t have to deal with her incessant chatter, but, for some reason, I’m...not.’ He frowned deeply. ‘Perhaps it’s because I know where she will be returning once I start my missions again. No point in dwelling on it,’ the Cuatra Espada decided, his hand on the door handle. ‘ The reason I feel unnerved is because I know Szayel is up to something. That’s all.’

Opening the door, he was not surprised to see her at the table reading a large book; she’d been reading it since the beginning of the month-off time period, and Orihime was still only half-way finished.

“ Hi, Ulquiorra,” she said, marking her place and turning to face him. “ What’s up?”

The green eyed Espada just “hmphed” lightly. There was a brief moment of silence which Ulquiorra relished and Orihime despised. She looked down at her hands nervously, clearing her throat. “ Um, so, this is your last day before Aizen...-san will be sending you on missions again, huh? Do you have one assigned to you already?”

“ Yes,” he responded, still standing in the doorframe, the light from outside the room pouring in.

Orihime nodded. “ Oh. I see. Well, at least you won’t have to deal with me and my crazy questions anymore, huh? Actually,” she said quickly, laughing nervously, “ don’t answer that. Um, look. I know I’ve asked you this every day for a month and your answer never changed, but I figured I’d ask you anyway, you know, just so we have a perfect record of you telling me no.” She smiled, although her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, and said, “ Can we go outside this room for a bit?”

“ Yes,” he stated, opening the door wider.
She blinked once, tilting her head in confusion. “Huh? Wait, did you say...yes? But, I thought you didn’t want me to go-”

“ If you want to leave your room, you’d better do so before I change my mind,” Ulquiorra said monotonously. Orihime jumped up from the chair and quickly walked over to his side, smiling brightly.

“ So, where are we going?” she asked as he closed the door behind them, “ Can we go see Szayel-san? It’s been so long since I’ve seen him! I can’t help but wonder how he’s-”

“ No. He is preoccupied with something at the present time,” Ulquiorra interupted.

“ Oh,” Orihime said softly, deflating a bit at his words. “ So, where are we going, exactly?”

They started walking in the opposite direction of Szayel’s domain, Ulquiorra a step or two ahead of Orihime. “ We are headed for a room the Espada congregate when they are not on missions and do not feel like being in their own domains.”

Orihime perked up a bit. “ So, kind of like a common room of sorts, right?” He nodded. “ Wow. So, how many of the Espada do you think will be there? Oh, they wouldn’t do anything...harmful to me, would they?”

‘ Does she have to ask multiple questions at once?’ Ulquiorra thought, looking back at her as she half-walked, half-ran to keep up with him. “ I do not know. I’m almost certain Stark will be there with his fraccion, if he returned from his mission already. There’s a good chance that Barrangan and Halibel will also be there. No matter who is there, they will not do anything to harm you. If they did, they would have to deal with Aizen-sama’s wrath.”

‘ Hopefully, Zommari will not be present,’ the Cuatra Espada thought distastefully, ‘ All his ‘amor’ talk gets infuriating. I can only imagine what would happen if the two of them ever met.’ He shuddered inwardly at the thought of Orihime ranting about ‘amor’ this and ‘amor’ that.

Orihime nodded as they rounded a corner and walked into the third room on the right. Much to her and Ulquiorra’s surprise, all the Espada, minus Szayel and Zomari, were in the room, chatting with each other. Their talking ceased the moment the two stepped into the room, and they all stared at the pair with suspicious and/or amused looks.

“ Hey, Ulquiorra! What have you got there?” Nnoitra asked, breaking the silence as he stood up. “ So, ya finally let Pet-sama outta her cage for a bit, huh?”

The green eyed Espada glared at his comment, noticing the way Orihime stiffened uncomfortably. “ Nnoitra Jiruga, Quinta Espada.” He turned to her turn. “ If you ever encounter him by yourself, do not hesitate to destroy him.”

“ Hey! What the hell kind of an introduction is that?!” the tall Espada protested. Halibel grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down into the seat. “ Quiet. As if yours was any better.”

Aaroniero stood up, the odd gurgling behind his mask getting louder. The other Espada’s eyes follow him curiously as he made his way to the doorframe. “ Too bright,” the deeper voice of the two muttered as he made his way past Orihime and Ulquiorra. “ It’s like sunlight. It hurts!” the high pitched voice moaned as they exited and started walking down the halls.

“ Aaronniro Arruruerie, Novena Espada. You probably will not encounter him again. He tends to remain in his own domain,” Ulquiorra explained, walking into the room and sitting down on one of the couches. Orihime stared at the other Espada warily, most of whom already resumed their conversations, and sat down next to him. “ I see,” she nodded. “ What did he mean exactly? I mean, what was ‘too bright’?”

Ulquiorra shook his head. “ Perhaps the light in the room was too much for him. His domain is not as well lit as most areas in Las Noches,” he replied, even though he had a sneaking suspicion it had nothing to do with the lighting and everything to do with the young woman sitting next to him.

After a few moments of watching the Espada talking and glancing back at the pair, Orihime started, “ So, are we just going to sit here and watch them all day, or...”

“ No,” he answered, his eyes narrowing as his gaze fell on the Sexta Espada, who was currently talking with Nnoitra about something, most likely about fighting or some nonsense like that. “ I brought you here so you would know, in the event that you were to meet up with any of the Espada by yourself, which you should be particularly wary of.”

“ Why would I be seeing any of them by myself?” Orihime questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“ You never know,” Ulquiorra replied cryptically. He knew there were some that were more likely to arrange for the two to meet ‘accidently’. “ I’ll start from the highest rank and work my way down from there. Stark is the Primera Espada.” He looked to the brown haired male taking up one of the lounges and the young girl sitting next to him.

She turned to see at what the green eyed Espada next to her was looking at. “ Wow, I didn’t know Arrancar could sleep,”Orihime replied, watching the even rise and fall of his chest.

“ It’s not necessary. Next is Barrangan, the Segunda Espada.” He turned his gaze to the old looking Arrancar, who was currently staring at the others almost like a grumpy grandfather who was stuck babysitting his grandchildren. “ Halibel is the Tercer Espada.”

“ Wow! There’s a female Espada and that high ranked?” Orihime said in awe, taking in the beautiful dark-skinned woman sitting next to Nnoitra. “ Amazing!  Say, is she and that other Espada, you know, together?”

Ulquiorra’s train of thought crashed momentarily. “ There have been rumors, but not that I am aware of, “ he reponded in a clipped manner, resisting the urge to shudder at thought of Nnoitra with anyone. “ These three will not harm you.”

The Cuatra Espada was already feeling uncomfortable being there for as long as they’d been, so he quickly finished, “ Grimmjow Jagerjacques you are already somewhat acquainted with. You healed his arm,” he said a bit accusingly. “ He’s the Sexta Espada. The Septima Espada, Zommari Leroux, is not present. The Decima Espada is Yami.” He turned his gaze to the larger man who was guffawing about some asinine thing with Nnoitra and Grimmjow.

“ I remember him,” Orihime recalled, scratching the back of her head nervously. “ He’s the one you ordered to kill me...that one...time.”

There was a long pause of awkward silence before Ulquiorra cleared his throat. “ You should avoid Nnoitra, Grimmjow, and Zommari at all costs. As I told you earlier with Nnoitra, do not hesitate to destroy them.”

She nodded, although her eyebrows were furrowed slightly. “ I know you said that, but...I’m not sure how likely it is that I could destroy someone as high ranked as Nnoitra-san. I’m not even sure I could handle-”

“ Oi, Ulquiorra!” Yami called out, walking over to the two. “ Aizen-sama is calling a meeting. We need to get going. You know how he ‘rewards’ us when we’re late.”

He nodded in thanks and stood up. “ Yes. Let Aizen-sama know that I will be late a few minutes as I am returning the woman to her room.” Orihime frowned at his title for her but said nothing.

They returned to her room in record time. Orihime was out of breath, having to keep up with the fast pace of the green eyed Espada in front of her. “ Thank you for letting me  out and allowing me to meet the other Espada, Ulquiorra,” she said when she finally caught her breath.

“ It served its purpose. Now, if you will excuse me,” Ulquiorra replied, his hand on the doorknob.

“Hey Ulquiorra?” He responded to her question with a light “hm”. He knew Aizen-sama would be less than pleased that he would be this late to a meeting.

‘ I already let him know through Yami that I would be late,’ he rationalized. ‘ That is, if that idiot relayed the message to him.’

“ I really meant it, the ‘thank you’,” she said, a small smile on her face. “ It’s kind of weird to be saying it, but it was almost like you brought me over to meet your family.”

Ulquiorra stared at her blankly for a moment. “ Anyway, you should probably go on to that meeting, huh?” Orihime asked, sweatdropping. “I’ll see you after, then?”

“ Yes,” he replied after a beat, shutting the door behind him.

---------------------

It was a day later that Ulquiorra announced that he would be leaving for a mission.
Orihime nodded, not sure what else to say. After a moment, the door creaked open and she saw the familiar face of a certain pink haired Espada. “ Szayel-san!” she exclaimed, a bright smile on her face as she stood up and made her way to the door. “ It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“ Indeed, it has,” he agreed, smirking. “ Shall we, then? I’m sure you must be sick of being cooped up in this room for that whole time.” He closed the door behind them and they started walking toward his domain.

“ Actually,” she started off, walking next Szayel at a steady pace, “ Ulquiorra did let me out of the room that one day.”

“Really?” he asked, genuine curiosity lacing his voice. “ That’s...unusual for him.”

“ I know, but he did. He took me to your, um, well, he didn’t really have a name for it, but I guess it would be like a break room or common room of sorts, and I got to meet the other Esapda,” Orihime explained, thinking back to that day.

The Octava Espada nodded. “ I see. It was so you would know which Espada to avoid and which would be...’safer’, for lack of a better term, if you were to meet up with them on your own.”

Orihime’s eyes widened. “ That’s right!” she replied in surprise, causing one of the Arrancar in the hall to jump slightly. “ How did you know?”

“ Ulquiorra’s motivations are easy to figure out,” he chuckled, running his fingers through his hair.

There were a few minutes of silence, the only noise in the hall being the reverberating of their clicking heels and the low mutterings of the sparse Arrancar. “ I missed you, Szayel-san,” Orihime said out-of-the-blue, startling the Espada beside her. Noticing this, she clarified, “ I-I meant, I missed talking to you.” She blushed a bit as the realization of her first statement sank in.

“ That’s very kind of you to say,” Szayel remarked, noticing the way she wrung her hands together. Grinning, he asked, “ Do you not enjoy the company of the Cuatra Espada?”

“It’s not that I don’t, really,” she started, her eyes glancing to the side, “It’s just that...you can only reach out to someone for so long before you realize they’re not going to reach back.”

Szayel raised an eyebrow. “ What do you mean, Orihime-san? Ulquiorra answers all your questions...well, for the most part, anyway.”

“ It’s not the same.” Orihime said, shaking her head. “ It’s like Ulquiorra is out at sea and I’m in the lifeboat trying to save him. Me asking him a question is like...throwing one of those life saver rings to him.”

“ Okay,” he replied, although he wasn’t quite sure where she was going with her analogy,” That would mean that him answering your questions would be analogous  to grabbing onto the lifebuoy.”

“ But it wouldn’t,” she pointed out, looking at him with a melancholic look in her eyes. “ Him answering my questions is the same as him acknowledging the life saver’s presence.”

Szayel frowned lightly, folding his arms over his chest. “ If that’s the case, then what action would be similar to grabbing out for the life saver?”

“ Asking me a question. A real one, not a rhetorical one, and not one to ask for clarification. Something that let’s him know more about me, even if its something silly like “What’s your favorite color?” or whatever,” she explained, noticing that the Octava Espada was about to say something. “ Everything he says to me sounds like an order.”

“ And that’s not reaching out,” he finished for her, noticing her nod. “ Using your analogy then, Ulquiorra recognizes the lifebuoy, but would rather drown than take hold of it.”

Orihime smiled sadly. “ 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.”

A slight pause. “Are we talking about the lifeboat metaphor still or real life?”

“ Hey! I was being serious, you know,” she replied, pointing a finger at him. He chuckled, amused by her slight irritation. “ So was I.”

Orihime laughed lightly, shaking her head. “ I don’t know,” she answered, looking down at her feet. “ 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. He was about to comment when she started, “ Anyway, this conversation is getting a bit too depressing, don’t you think? What about you, Szayel-san? What have you been up to since the last time we’ve seen each other? I wanted to visit you when Ulquiorra and I went to the common room, but he told me you were very busy with something.”

The Octava Espada nodded slightly, opening the door to his domain. “ Yes, he was correct. I was working on something very important.” The two walked into his domain, the door shutting behind them.

“ Really? Wow! I wish I could see it!” Orihime exclaimed before she could stop herself. “ Oh, but if it’s something important, then I guess that means I can’t. It’s probably something for Aizen...-san, right?”

“ Actually, no,” the pink haired Espada responded, although to which statement she wasn’t sure. He motioned for her to follow. Catching up to him, the two walked down one of the halls and turned the corner to stand in front of a random door that looked no different from any of the others.

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