Music to my Heart (A Bleach/Ulquihime fic)

Chapter 22

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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Orihime skipped happily into school, repeating the words, "Today's the day!" over and over again in a sing-song voice. Today was the day when she and Ulquiorra would perform their piece for Mr Kyoraku, and, if it was good enough, be allowed to perform it in front of the entire town at the Christmas Concert!

Continuing her jovial tune, she turned into the locker area, scanning it for any sign of the ruffled black hair she knew so well. Shrugging when she could not see him, she turned to put her things in her locker and was instantly accosted by a pair of arms that encircled her neck.

"Guess who-o-o-o?" came the melodious voice behind her. Orihime laughed and turned to face her captor.

"Good morning Rangiku, how are you today?" she asked as her friend released her.

"I'm so nervous!" Raniku exclaimed, bouncing on her toes. "What if my voice breaks? Do you have any idea how many of these throat lozenges I've been downing in the past 24 hours?"

Rukia slid in beside her, "You know that's really bad for you?"

"Hey, as long as I can sound like an angel, I'll even take steroids!" Rukia glared at her. "Kidding!"

Orihime laughed, slamming her locker door shut, "I'm sure we'll all do amazing. We're talented young ladies, we'll get through it."

Rukia smiled and linked her arm through Orihime's while Rangiku took her other side, "Well spoken, we just have to stay strong." The girls laughed as they walked into class together. Orihime looked around the classroom, frowning slightly. Ulquiorra was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was just late. Pushing her anxiety away she joined in her friend's conversation about getting ice-cream after school. Her worries were almost forgotten, at least until Mr Kuchiki entered the classroom and began to call the roll.

"Mr Schiffer? Absent again hmm," he mused, crossing off the name on his roll. Orihime looked over at where Grimmjow, Nnoitra and Szayel were lounging at the back of the classroom. None of them seemed the slightest bit worried about his absence. "Now, for all you music students who have examinations today before recess, you are allowed to rehearse in the music rooms instead of staying here for class. I have made sure that we are only doing revision for the upcoming exams which you will be able to catch up on later." There was a chorus of excitement from the music students and groans from everyone else who had to stay. Orihime stood up with the others, gathered her things, and left the classroom, glad that she would be able to wait in the corridor for when Ulquiorra hopefully arrived.

"Excellent!" exclaimed Rangiku, jumping up next to her friend. "Do you want to come rehearse with me? I need to find Shinji first; he's my pianist, but I've got my exam at 9:30 so we have an hour to practice."

Orihime shook her head, "Sorry, Ran, I think I'm going to rehearse on my own for a bit."

Rangiku pouted but gave her a one-armed hug and walked off with a call of "Good luck!"

Orihime put her things in her locker and got out her sheet music, humming it out loud twice. Well she knew it at least. But where was her pianist?

She paced in from of her locker nervously; there was no way he would miss today intentionally. What really worried her was if something had happened to him because of Aizen. What if he was hurt? What if they had found out about her and he had gotten into serious trouble? When 9:30 rolled around she knew she had to do something. The long hour of waiting had been torture, and after sending various texts and ringing him so many times she could memorise his voicemail, though admittedly, it wasn't all that hard ("My phone isn't on right now. Call later."), she was getting very, very panicked.