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I see the bad moon arising.

I see trouble on the way.

I see earthquakes and lightnin'.

I see bad times today.

Don't go around tonight,

Well, it's bound to take your life,

There's a bad moon on the rise.

Bad Moon Rising

Orihime was tired of crying. It seemed like all she was doing nowadays and she hated it. She thought she'd gone numb to tears while in Hueco Mundo, but, after everything that had just happened with Ichigo and Nell, she clearly wasn't.

She cried silently the entire time Grimmjow carried her, and only stopped when her eyes went dry and her energy to express her sorrow was spent. When they finally reached a tiny, hillside cave, she was numb.

After checking to see if there were any uninvited residents, which was slim to none considering the space was barely larger than Orihime's bathroom in her apartment, Grimmjow coldly tossed her on the ground like a sack of potatoes and left her there to go stand guard at the entrance. She didn't react to the pain of hitting the rocky ground and merely rolled to a seat and wrapped her arms around her legs, only turning her eyes to look at the wicked Sixth Espada who stole her away from everything she cared about.

He had leaned attentively against the rock with a forearm, body poised to run if necessary and head flicking around as he watched and listened around them. If she wasn't so terrified of him she would have thought it reminded her of an excited kitten at a window, however, with him being him, it seemed more like a rabid panther trying to turn everything into meat, not really a surprise after one saw his Resurreccion.

Apart from the obvious similarities in his actions to a creature of the feline genus, he looked quite human, a very tired human actually, minus the hole through his stomach. The obvious signs of fatigue were everywhere, from the way his shoulders moved as he took in short breaths, to the drops of sweat reflecting off his skin from the light of the moon outside. He was exhausted.

They must be a long way from Hueco Mundo for him to be as out of breath as he was. She wasn't surprised. With how long she had been crying and how often Grimmjow sonidoed, she suspected at least thirty or more miles lay between them and everyone that still remained in the fortress now. Anyone would be exhausted after a run like that, even an Espada, at least that's what she assumed at first.

After about five minutes of watching him, concern started to peek its head around Orihime's numb wall.

His breathing had never slowed down and he was still sweating like he was in the middle of a marathon. Not looking away from his vigil outside, he sniffed shortly and made a move with the back of his hand like he was wiping something away. When he returned it to his side, a smudge of red was streaked across the skin. The small glimpse of blood made her concern cease its questioning look and run out in the open. He was bleeding…again.

"Grimm…" she started.

"Shut up,"

"But…"

"You'll speak when I want you to. Now shut up!" he glared over his shoulder before turning back just as quickly.

Though the voice in the back of her head told her he deserved every ounce of pain he was having, the rest of her urged her to erase it. Pain was her Achilles heel, and if someone was in pain, she had to fix it, no matter who they were.

She sighed back into her blank face and raised her hands, "Soten Kisshun, I reject," she whispered mutely, sending her Rikka around the Espada in front of her.

Grimmjow flinched at the change around him, "What are you doing, woman?"

She looked down at her knees knowing that his petrifying blue eyes were on her, "I never finished healing you before we left. You pushed yourself too hard again and…"

"No I didn't!"

She continued as if he hadn't spoken, "and now the internal injuries that didn't fully heal have opened back up."

He growled, "Well it's your own damn fault! If you hadn't stopped healing me earlier, then…"

"I know," her eyes furrowed, "I know it's my fault. I'm sorry."

He was oddly silent for a few seconds, "Damn right you're sorry," his voice had venom in it but the volume failed to back it up.

Puzzled, she looked back up at him. He had turned his eyes to the entrance again but had leaned against the wall and stuffed his hands into his pockets, head hunched down in a less attentive way. Was that supposed to be sympathy? It wasn't really a, "don't worry about it," but it sounded like it. No. Maybe he just sounded sympathetic because he was tired. That was the more logical answer.

Putting curiosity in the back of her mind, she took his relaxed stature as a que to try and raise her mood with conversation. Talking about nothing in particular always cheered her up and she was in dire need of something positive. However, even with her need for a drastic change to lighter subject, she couldn't keep herself from returning to the most recent events.

"Can you still sense them?" she asked.

"Ya know, you may fail to remember this, but I never gave you permission to talk,"

"I was talking just a sec…"

"SHUT! UP!"

She recoiled and dropped her head back down like a scolded child, a movement she was regrettably getting used to around this Espada. It remained downturned like this for a few minutes until her Soten Kisshun reached the end of their healing. She was just about to expel them when Grimmjow's bass broke the silence.

"Barely," he said, unusually quiet for him.

All she could manage was a squeaky, "Huh?"

"You heard me," he snarled, voice instantly back to normal, then rolled his eyes and continued, "We're pretty far from 'em now so their reiatsu is weak, and nobody's set off to look for us yet, so fat chance we'll be seeing anything other than the normal trash for a good while."

The surprise of him answering her earlier question wasn't near as great as the way her heart lit up like a rocket when she heard that her friends were still alive. Nevertheless, the need for control seemed like a big deal around the short tempered Espada, so she decided to better not set him off with a crazy shift in mood. Instead, she sat her head on her knees and sighed, "Good."

"'Good'? Just 'good'?!" she jumped at his change in tone and flashed her eyes up, both confused and frightened at the look he was giving her, "You whine and beg for me to take you to them like it's the end of the world, and now I tell you they're alive and all you gotta say is 'good'!? What the fucking hell?!"

What? Does he want me to leap with joy? She thought as she stared. Does he want me to dance around like I just won a lifetime supply of bean paste ice-cream? I don't get it. First he orders me to be quiet, and then he gets mad when I do. Why does making him happy have to be so complicated?!

Frustrated at her obvious lack of knowledge about arrancar behavior, she sighed and dropped her healing shield, returning Ayame and Shuno to her hairpin.

As expected, Grimmjow growled in protest, "Hey! Who said you…"

"You're completely healed," she said stiffly, annoyance slowly taking concern's place, "No need for them now."

When she didn't get an immediate response, she glanced back up at him.

Though it was harder to see now that the light from her Soten Kisshun was gone, she could have sworn he was pouting. It was actually rather funny seeing that expression on a guy so large and terrifying, and she felt a weird need to hold back a giggle. So much for being annoyed at him.

"So," he finally grumbled, uninterested, "You gonna heal yourself or are you just gonna sit there and bleed?"

She caught his narrowed, aggressive eyes and what humor she had instantly vanished, those eyes got her every time. "M…myself?" she stuttered.

He raised an eyebrow, "I nicked your shoulder when I stuck that loser, Tesra. If your damned sleeves weren't so big I'd've had a better target."

Orihime looked over to the shoulder in question. True to his word, the fabric was scrunched and sagging with absorbed, dried blood. Funny, she remembered getting cut when Grimmjow had attacked, yet she never remembered feeling the pain from it. Maybe she had been too emotional at the time to notice.

Unable to see the cut underneath the heap of fabric, she elected to try and take off her jacket and hope it wasn't stuck to the wound too bad.

"What the hell are you doing now?" Grimmjow asked as she unzipped the short jacket, slid one arm out, and started messing with the other, only to find the fabric stuck a good deal more to skin than she thought.

She winced as she reached a piece that was stuck to the injury, "I'm…ow…trying to…owow…see how bad…owowow…it is."

"And why don't you just heal yourself like I told you to, stupid?"

She stopped mid-pull, "Well if it's not that bad then all I have to do is wra…AAAAAHHHH!"

The only warning she got was an annoyed growl before he stomped over, took a handful of jacket, and tore it off, earning a scream of pain as the scab fused to the cloth was ripped away. Her hand rushed to stop the now seeping wound on her bare shoulder, the moisture around her eyes telling her that there were definitely tears left to cry. Nevertheless, even though she now knew she still had the ability to cry, she wouldn't give him that pleasure. Instead, she gave him as good a glare as she could through a bit lip.

He simply glared down his nose at her and tossed her ruined jacket to the side, "I don't give a royal fuck if it's bad or not! Heal!"

Unable to keep eye contact yet again, she broke it off and gripped her shoulder tighter. "Soten Kisshun, I reject," she said, sending Ayame and Shuno in a small shield around her shoulder.

After her ire had dissipated and the healing was done, she dismissed her Rikka and turned back to Grimmjow. "Um…Grimmjow," she said softly.

His lip curled, "What is it now?"

She pulled her legs under her, fiddling with her fingers, "Why did you…um…" she met his ice-colored eyes hesitantly, "Why did you care…that I was hurt?"

His eyes widened ever so slightly before he snarled, crossed his arms, and looked away from her with that suspected pout of his, "Ha, I don't give a shit that you're hurt! I just can't stand anything filthy and pathetic in my presence. That cut made you look more pitiful than you already are, and ya just looked extra stupid bleeding when you have that healing ability of yours."

It was incredibly strange and unexpected, but she suddenly felt herself smiling. Grimmjow didn't like it.

His growl really did sound panther-like now, "What…the hell…are you smiling at?"

Her smile widened unconsciously again. Why am I smiling?! She screamed to herself. He looks about ready to rip my arms off! Don't blow up. Don't blow up. Don't blow up.

"Oh, nothing," she said with a wave and a little laugh, then gave an innocent, stretched out yawn, "Well, it's been a really long and eventful day for both of us, so I think I'll turn in for the night, even though it's kind of always night here hehehe. Oh, and you better get some sleep to or you'll get baggies under your eyes!"

That got him. Her drastic change into "normal" Orihime threw him for a loop, leaving him completely dumbfounded and unable to respond. Acting quickly before he could snap out of it, she rolled up her torn jacket and curled up facing the back wall.

"Good night, Grimmjow," she made sure to keep her bubbly tone even though her heart was beating ten million miles an hour.

After receiving no response for a good while, her panicked trembling started to slow and she tried to relax. Maybe I should've done that sooner, she thought with a small smile, then frowned and closed her eyes, Please don't have that come back to bite me too bad.

All Grimmjow could do was stare and gape like a flabbergasted idiot while fury rose under his skin…

If you can't tell, I ended it with a flash to the next chapter ;) ;)

Till next,

jerica

FYI - in comment to Orihime healing herself. A lot of people think she can't, but if you look at her when Menoly and Loli beat her up, then when Grimmjow takes her to heal Ichigo, she's completely healed. Only possibility...she healed herself...TADA!