Hi! As a slight warning – I am human and I do make mistakes – so please if you see any – spelling or grammatical mistakes –write them down and point them out – I will gladly correct them.

Of course I do not own Bleach :P

Hope you like it :) I promise not to flood you with author's notes (I dislike that when reading) – so what you see is what you get - simply my story. Hope you leave a review after reading – even if it won't be positive I would still like to know how many people liked it and disliked it :) Without criticism it's hard to develop – and that's my main goal to develop my writing style. So if you write something good or bad please state your reason – It would really help me to avoid those mistakes in future writings.

Thank you very much for taking your time and reading!

Yours,

Lady Bardock

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8

„You should eat." He told her again in his emotionless voice.

She just looked away towards a white wall. She always liked white, and she had many clothes in that color, but even since coming to Las Noches she hated it. Everything was white, the rooms, furniture, clothes, even the food they gave her was white!

"You will eat." He told her again. "Even if I have to force it down your throat."

She shivered hearing the threat.

"I wouldn't do that…" She replied. "Unless you want to get your clothes dirty…"

He did not reply to that provocation, instead he said his last line "I'll be back in an hour and I expect all the food to be eaten." He turned around and closed the door. As soon as she heard the door close she got up picked up the tray with food went to the bathroom and flushed it all in the toilet.

"Good riddance." She murmured to herself as she put the tray back and sat in the pure white huge sofa.

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He came back and collected the tray. He did not say anything about the food's disappearance but she somehow knew he suspected her. She did not even look at him. She was too busy starring at the white wall in front of her fighting the impulse to look at the only colorful element in the room… his eyes…

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After several days he noticed she was losing weight despite having eaten her meals. At first he did not comment or react, but after the fifth day he became worried. Not worried for her sake, but for his… He didn't care a bit about her wellbeing and life… but as long as his wellbeing and existence depended on her wellbeing than he had to make sure she was alright.

This time instead of leaving her, he stayed and watched. She did not look at him but he noticed her hands were trembling more than usual. How amusing he thought. Looks like she was really trying to trick me that she was eating.

Orihime had no idea how to get out of this problem without eating the food. She sat and contemplated on various solutions, but she had no way of disposing the food with him sitting there. She looked at the tray again. A glass of probably water, and some soup. This can't be that bad she thought and slowly began eating. After eating half of her meal she said she had enough and he got up to call the servants to take away the tray. She thought that later he would go as always but instead he came back and sat opposite to her and observed her. How much does he suspect? She contemplated. Maybe if I would go to the bathroom and throw up he won't notice… She glanced at him slightly only to notice that his eyes were piercing her as if daring that she tried to do something against the rules… That might not be a good idea after all… she sighed inwardly at the possibility of him catching her red handed throwing up the food he just made sure she ate…. Some little devil on her arm was whispering that it might work after all and that even if he caught her it might be worthwhile to see if the Arrancar could lose his temper after all… She gently shook her head at that thought.

He was watching her with amusement. He could almost hear her thoughts trying to find a way to get rid of his presence to remove the nutrition from her stomach. First time as an arrancar he felt like laughing, which he of course did not do despite the inward need. I was right… he thought looking at her as she gently shook her head so that her beautiful golden hair moved in twirls around her ...

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Every day the same ceremony, he would come with food, she would eat and he would sit there for at least two-three hours making sure she couldn't throw up the food. Every day she just looked at the white wall and did not say a word. He would just watch her. A ritual of silence and unpleasantly. She hated his presence there and what it meant to her. And he hated to be there considering that it was a total waist of his time. He kept wondering why Aizen gave him this ungrateful duty, but he could not deny the fact that no other Espada would be able of taking care of it without killing or seriously hurting the girl. Observing her the last several days he noticed that she stopped losing weight, but her psychological condition was getting worse. She shook more often, her hands were trembling and her eyes were slightly red indicating she probably spent most of the time crying. If he asked for a transfer of duties at that time, and she would get for example Grimmjow, she would most probably die within several days either from his brutality and his insistent interest in her femininity, or due to the stress such acts might cause. Such an event would mean he would fail his duties and that was a scenario he was not willing to risk.

He noticed more and more Espada would wander around this part of the castle as if drawn towards this place by this girl. Nnoitra seemed to be extremely interested and he even dared to ask him several questions about how their beloved "Pet-sama" was doing. Grimmjow kept making stupid jokes about what he would do if he were her caretaker… And most had clear sexual connotations which would explain why he kept glancing at her at any occasion. The females were even worst. They kept glaring at her angrily and murmuring threats. He as her caretaker could not ignore those signals. He didn't mind her getting hurt… Not at all… But he minded that someone else then him hurt her. She was his duty and he would be the only one to punish her or cause her pain.

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"Sado-kun isn't dead…" She whispered as he came in with her dinner.

"Here's your meal… Eat." He commanded breaking his usual silence.

"I don't need it." She replied looking out the window. He was a bit surprised he thought the problems with eating were solved, but it seemed the arrival of her friends changed her psychological condition well enough for her to stand her ground. He had to change that back. He told her about her duties, about her friends' probable death, about the only path these events could take. At first he thought his idea to bring her down was working but then suddenly she ran up to him and hit him hard. He did not react. He just glanced at her and her hurting hand. Her eyes were full of tears and she was in pain. His plan worked after all, he noticed gladly. Something inside of him did not fail to notice that she looked more beautiful then always with that expression of hurt in her eyes, and something deep preferred to see her smiling, how strange he thought.

"I will come back in one hour." He said and walked away. "If you haven't eaten by then I will restrain you and force you to. That is a promise." He closed the door. But he did not walk away, instead he stayed there and listened to her crying… And with disgust he noticed that those sounds caused him to feel something… and emotions were not things he would welcome in his life. He preferred being hollow inside without a heart, than to feel both a strange kind of pleasure and pain when hearing her laments.

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"Yes she is doing well." He stated as always reporting to Aizen about her condition.

"But I have noticed the Espada and Arrancars are very interested in her." He said.

"What do you imply?" Aizen asked with a slight smirk.

"I imply that they doubt her usefulness which places great danger on her…"

"And you fear you will not be there when they decide to express such doubts?" Aizen interrupted him.

"Correct Aizen-sama." He replied.

"Very well what exactly are you asking?" His master inquired.

"I would suggest a change of location. Staying in the most distant part of the castle it is hard to supervise her all the time." He explained.

"Very well, do as you wish…" Aizen replied even before the final request was made. Then he dismissed his most loyal fourth Espada.

"That was interesting…." Gin commented coming out from behind a column. "I wonder what exactly does he think he is doing…." Aizen did not reply but smirked again.

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After being granted the permission to relocate the captive he decided to place her as close to him as possible. The rooms of the former third Espada were still unoccupied, so he ordered them to be cleaned and he also ordered a slight change. The previous door leading to those cambers had been sealed and instead a new door was placed in between his apartment and this special cell. If she wanted to go out she would have to go by him, and conversely if anyone wanted to get in they would first have to go by him…

She was surprised with the news of the transfer but did not say a word. She silently collected all her belongings and followed the deadly Espada around the castle.

When they entered the first room she was surprised with how it looked. Instead of one couch there were two and a nice table. There were shelves with many books and some papers laying around. In comparison to her old cell this place was colorful, some of the books had colorful covers, the table was an ordinary wooden one, not at all white. And there was a nice thick white carpet with green ornaments. She looked around with amazement, this was totally different then her old room.

"Your room is over here." He told her opening a door to the left. She followed him. The first room was a dayroom, with a couch, and also some shelves and books, in the back of the room there was a door leading to a bedroom and one more door leading to a bathroom.

"You will find some clothes in the closet belonging to the previous owner of these quarters. They should fit. You can walk around these rooms freely but I insist you do not interrupt me when I'm working." He told her and walked towards the door linking the apartments and closed it shut.

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Finally she had something to do. The choice of books was not one she would approve but it was better than sitting and looking at the wall all day. She quickly learned that going too much into his rooms was not approved. So she usually just sneaked in grabbed some new books are went back. She had much more freedom than before, and she liked it. The only time she had to spend with him were meals which now they ate together, and afterwards she could return to her quarters.

He observed her carefully. She finally seemed to have gone out of the depression she had before. Books kept her occupied enough not to think of cheating with meals and escaping. It seemed she got used to being there, which meant he could finally relax a bit. Having her just next door meant he could do whatever he wanted and keep an eye on her at the same time. It was timesaving. And Ulquiorra liked to spend his time fruitfully.