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CHAPTER 6: EPILOGUE: "Clarity"

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The battle went on. Orihime did her part, and they ultimately defeated Aizen, but her heart was not in any of it. She was not allowed to mourn, because no one had known of her forbidden love with the defeated Espada. She knew no one could understand. She was forced to stuff her sadness down, numbing the pain, to keep her secret.

Finally, they returned to the World of the Living.

Her first night back in her apartment, as she was locking the front door, she lost her composure, and everything came flooding out all at once. She collapsed against the door, sobbing relentlessly, shaking and calling out his name. She lay there, wishing he were there to scoop her up as he had done so many times before, wipe her tears, kiss her cheeks dry. But she was alone now.

She cried herself to sleep that night. It had been weeks since she had slept beside him, but somehow, back here in her apartment, it felt wrong. She had never really pondered what would come of their affair. She must have known in some way that it could not have lasted, because she had never once imagined him there with her in her apartment in the world of the living. But at the same time, she thought they would never be apart.

As she lay there on her tear-soaked pillow, she felt as empty and broken as Ulquiorra's side had been after the blast from Ichigo's Cero.

She dreamed that night of the final battle between Ichigo and Ulquiorra. She dreamed things had ended differently. She had thrown herself between them before Ichigo sliced through Ulquiorra's body, screaming, "Santenkesshun!" as a triangular shield of golden light flew up between them, protecting them both from the slash. Orihime was knocked back into Ulquiorra, who caught her in his arms. She felt herself fading out.

When she opened her eyes and looked up, she was gazing into Ulquiorra's unmistakable green irises. Orihime smiled. "You're ok," she whispered, reaching up and laying her hand on his cheek. She noticed instantly though that his skin, while still paler than her own, was not nearly as white as usual. And the tear-stain marks of his Estigma were gone from his cheeks as well.

Come to think of it, his pupils were round now, not the cat-like slits they had always been. Orihime stroked his cheek and cocked her head curiously to the side. "You're different," she mused. She looked around the room. "Am I dreaming? This must be a dream… You're… gone…" she whispered the last two words painfully.

"If it is a dream, then it is a good dream. Let neither of us ever wake from it again." Ulquiorra took her hand and held it to his chest. "I am alive," he assured her.

The underlying meaning of his words sank in, and she pressed her hand against him, feeling the firmness of his pectoral muscles where they attached to his sternum. Orihime grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled down at it. Unsatisfied, she reached instead for the hem of the t-shirt, and lifted it to his throat, revealing only skin. No tattoo. And…

"No hole," she quavered, lowering the shirt slowly, her eyes full of questions. "But… How?"

Ulquiorra stroked her hair, his fingertips brushing one of the snowflake clips at her temple. "Your power. You reject fate. While you slept last night, you rejected my fate."

"My dream!" Orihime gasped, remembering. "But, how are you human?" she puzzled.

Ulquiorra smiled softly. "I was not able to overcome my Hollow self. Spawned of emptiness, lacking a heart, I could never have found a way to reconcile my growing love for you with that form. But you filled me, Orihime. You filled the emptiness. You rejected my fate completely- even my fate to become a Hollow." Orihime could see tears glinting in his liquid, green eyes as he clutched her hand to his chest. "I have a heart now, Orihime. It beats in my chest because of you. And it beats for you."

They held each other, and laughed and cried. They had a lifetime now, to spend together in the sunlight of the world of the living. Ulquiorra closed his eyes, and saw the face of the young man from his dream so long ago. "To love again," he whispered, holding his woman tightly to him, inhaling her scent deeply. "It is better. Arigato."

WWWWWWWWW

A/N: Thank you for reading. It's been a trial, but it feels good to have it finished. I tried hard to keep Ulquiorra as in-character as possible, but as you know now, some degree of his OOC-ness was part of my plot development. Let me know if you thought it was too much. Now that the path has been paved and the foundation properly laid, I will be writing some one-shots and other stories, involving the Espada as friends of the Shinigami and humans, living alongside them in Karakura Town. (Please remember to leave a review, and let me know what you thought about this story.)

This story is continued in my next piece, Urahara's Arrancar Rehabilitation Center.