Hello friends. Here is the new Ulquihime that I had promised. I am still effectively on the hiatus but I decided to publish the prologue of this story because I was missing you all. Also because I wanted to get this out of the way. The basic concept of Shinigamis and Hollows will stay fairly close to cannon, however, this being an AU, I am going to change a few things here and there to suit the story. Also, Orihime is going to be stronger than her manga/anime counterpart. Hope you all will enjoy the story. I am uncertain when the next update would be.

I haven't had the time to work on the next chapter of Trust to Hope and I cannot say when I will find time. My hands are a little full at the moment and hence, I cannot say for certain when I will get time to write.

Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.

White Flag by Dido.

Beta'd by Cerice Belle.

Prologue

Orihime swayed her hips slightly, dancing to the tune playing in her Ipod as she sorted the laundry into whites and colours.

I know I left too much mess and destruction,

To come back again.

The coloured clothes were dumped into the washing machine.

And I caused nothing but trouble,

I understand if you can't talk to me again.

The white ones were thrown unceremoniously back into the basket.

And if you live by the rules of it's over,

Then I'm sure that that makes sense.

She turned the knob and water gushed into the machine. She added a cup of liquid detergent and closed the lid of the washing machine. The timer on her oven started beeping indicating that the cup-cakes were ready to be taken out. She crooned and danced to Dido as she made her way to the oven. She shut the annoying beep of the timer, took out a toothpick from a box and inserted it into one of the cupcakes just to be 100% sure. The toothpick came out clean. She nodded happily and put on a pair of blue oven mitts.

I will go down with this ship.

She sang as she pulled the tray out of the oven and inhaled deeply.

And I won't put my hands up and surrender.

One of her own hands was up in the air as she twirled with the tray, making her way to the counter. She set the hot tray on the counter, pulled off her mitts and looked at the clock. He would be here any minute. Still humming, she quickly ran into her room. Orihime loved this three bedroom house in which she had lived from the age of nine. After walking out on their parents, Sora had worked very hard and after a few years he managed to get a housing loan at an affordable rate of interest and therefore the siblings moved into this house which was truly their own.

She stopped in front of a full length mirror, checked herself and pouted. While she liked the dark blue denim jeans and the baby-pink ruffled halter top that she had on, her hair was messy. She yanked the Ipod's headphones from her ears and let them dangle as she quickly ran a brush through her waist length ginger hair and tied it into a pony-tail. She picked up a lip gloss and with quick, confident strokes, applied them on her lips. Her eyes fell on that small red pimple that had somehow managed to erupt on her cheek and she scowled. Normally, she almost never had pimples but on every major occasion of her life, her body broke the cardinal rule. Her sixteenth birthday, her prom, her graduation - all the occasions marred by at least one if not more, bright red angry pimple smack on her face for the world to see. And now, when her brother was coming home after fourteen days, the pimple simply HAD to show up. She picked up the concealer and carefully applied it on her face, blotting out the nasty red spot.

Just as she closed the box her eyes fell on her hair and she figured that something was off. Frowning she turned to face her right and stared. It took her a few seconds to realize what was off: one of her blue hibiscus hairpins were missing. They were a gift from her brother when she was a young girl and she wore them all the time. But now, one of them was missing from their usual perch on top of her ears pulling her bangs from her face. Where could it have fallen? She turned a full circle where she was standing, her eyes on the floor, but she couldn't discern anything shiny on it. She bit her delicate pink lower lip trying to remember when was the last time she had seen the hairpin on her head. She remembered seeing it in the shower so she whipped the Ipod out of her pocket, dropped it on the counter next to the mirror and walked over to the shower booth. Looking around she couldn't find it anywhere. After the shower, she had spent her mid-morning reading while lounging on the porch. Later she had vacuumed the house, made the cup-cakes and finally put on the laundry load.

She ran to the porch and looked carefully - nothing. She hadn't cleaned the dirt pouch of the vacuum and for once she was thankful that she had put it off it later. Quickly putting on a pair of rubber gloves, she spread a newspaper on the floor and emptied the dirt pouch. She fingered through the lint from the carpet in the hopes of finding anything, but all she got was a greyish tinge on her gloves from the lint. The hairpin was not to be found. Crumpling the newspaper, she chucked it in the trash can. She peeled off her gloves, threw them in the utility closet and walked over to the counter where she had left the oven mitts and the cup-cakes. She picked up the mitts and started shaking them with the hope that the hairpin was somehow stuck in there, but she knew it wasn't. A frightening thought was beginning to form in her mind. The more she thought about it, the more she was certain that it was true.

What if the hairpin had fallen in the cup-cake batter when she was beating it? She had probably spooned the hairpin into one of the cups unknowingly and now it was baked and concealed within one of the cupcakes. Her vivid imagination showed her scenarios in which either she, her brother or some unsuspecting guest broke a tooth on the hairpin while trying to eat a cup-cake. The guest then sued the two of them and they had to pay huge dental bill and legal charges. Sora had to take another loan to pay off the expenses and she too started working as a waitress. She could almost see herself dressed in the maid outfit, struggling through the orders placed by various customers.

Shaking her head, she reigned in her thoughts. She debated on whether she should cut the cakes to search for the pin or let them be. She decided that cutting them was the best option and therefore rushed to the kitchen and pulled out a knife. She went back to the counter and was poised to cut her first cupcake when the phone in the foyer rang. Sighing she put the knife on the island, cursing whoever it was who had decided to call. Didn't they know how much of a resolve it took to finally convince herself to cut those adorable little cakes?

"Hello?" She said pleased to have masked the irritation in her voice.

"May I talk to Miss Orihime Inoue?" An unknown voice said from the other side.

"Speaking. May I know who this is?"

"My name is Hachiro, I work with the Karakura police."

Police? She wondered. Aloud she said, "Hello officer, how may I help you?"

"Miss Inoue, I am afraid I have called you to give some very bad news, could you perhaps sit down somewhere?"

Her heart dropped somewhere in the pit of her stomach as she whispered, "What happened?"

"Miss Inoue, your brother has met with an accident."

"Oh my God! Is he alright? What happened? Where is he, officer?"

"Mam, I am very sorry to say this but he is no more."

It felt like someone had punched her in her gut. She could hear the officer say something to her over the phone but it no longer registered. All she knew was that the world in front of her was fading as if she was looking at everything from under water. And soon, everything was black.

A/N: As usual, Read & Review.