Music to my Heart (A Bleach/Ulquihime fic)

Chapter 10

This story belongs to Cerice Belle at FanFiction.net. I am only publishing it in order to share it with more people. All credits go to her.
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Ulquiorra lay on his bed, hands behind his head, staring up at the harsh light on the ceiling and listening to the sounds of rain pattering against the window pane as he tried to understand what he had seen. Maybe he hadn't really seen it; it could have been his imagination, however feeble it was. He was so sure it was her, but then the rain had been very heavy, it could have been a trick of the light. He grumbled to himself and rolled over onto his stomach, feeling the soft blue quilt press into his eyes and obscure his vision. He took a deep breath and revisited the scenario in his head:

He got into his black car, threw the soaking umbrella into the backseat, started the engine and reversed out of the space. He pulled out of the car-park and drove past the library and the bus shelter, expecting to see Orihime, but seeing no one. The windscreen wipers were waving furiously to push away the blinding rain, making it impossible to see more than 50 metres in front of him. The lights were on full beam and the street lamps were glowing down onto the pavement, the heavy downpour obscuring them as well. He turned a corner and drove down a small backstreet when he passed a figure, hunched over in the downpour. From the reflection of the fluorescent street lamp just above, he could see bright, flaming hair, glowing in the rainy gloom, over the distinctive yellow of the school jumper.

There was only one other person he knew with hair that shade, and that was Ichigo Kurosaki. And as much as he tried to convince himself that it must have been him, there was no way that figure had been as tall and lean. Besides, Ichigo didn't huddle, he strutted, no matter what the weather, rain, hail or shine. Perhaps there was someone else with that hair, but as much as he tried racking his brains, he could not for the life of him think of anyone else in the 9th grade or above that had orange hair. Only those in high school were allowed in the library, and very few had been in there at the time they had, So why would there have been someone walking from that direction, wearing a school uniform, hunched over in the rain, and looking thoroughly miserable? He tried to convince himself that it could not possibly be her, but there was no other explanation for it. That wretched, cold, wet, depressed, and utterly alone figure, was Orihime Inoue.

There could be many explanations for it of course: Tatsuki may not have been able to pick her up, her phone could have run out of battery, her brother wasn't picking up his own phone, no one else was in a position to take her home. So many scenarios, and yet, what worried him the most was not the fact that he had seen her walking home through the pouring rain in a flimsy school uniform for God-only-knew-how-far. But that she had looked so desolate and abandoned, and that he, Ulquiorra Cifer, who knew that feeling like it was his closest friend, had not even pulled over to see if it was her, and to offer her a lift.

Why? Why had he been so utterly selfish? Of course it was completely natural; she hadn't wanted him to take her home. It might not have even been that woman. But if it had indeed been her, she would be embarrassed to see him. Her brother may not be that enthusiastic about a strange man driving her home. Maybe she liked walking home in the pouring rain late at night. She might have thought he was going to assault her, for crying out loud! All these excuses were prying their way into his mind in an attempt to blind him from the truth. But what was the truth? Was he afraid of what would happen if somehow Aizen found out about him taking her home?

No. He knew what it was. It was the thought of seeing - no matter how small a glimpse - her personal life that terrified him. He hated to associate himself with people too closely for fear of what he would get them into. The reason he distanced himself from Nnoitra and Szayel. Grimmjow had gotten dragged into it whether he liked it or not, and he refused to let the same thing happen to her. It was not as if he had feelings for the woman, he didn't, but he had his humanity. And it was the one thing that kept him from running away and leaving Loly and Cirucci to Aizen's wrath. The one thing that stopped him from trying to fit in with everyone else, for getting involved with his class like everyone else. He had strategic walls built up around him that let no one in. No matter how much people like Grimmjow - or that annoying bastard of a teacher, Mr Kuchiki, or the stupid school counsellor, Mr Zommari, or Aizen, or Loly, or Cirucci, or a girl with hair that blazed like the sun and eyes that shined like stars - tried, they couldn't break them down. They were there, and they were there to stay, and the only thing that could cause the tops of them to crumble, was the piano. The only thing that could cause the walls to fall down and pull him out of his sodden shit of a life for just a few minutes. And he was not going to let that change, not now, not ever. Oh dear God what if she had gotten raped? NO! There was no use thinking like that! She was fine, he knew it.