"Come on, Maaya," Kisuke poked my forehead. He saw me and Ulquiorra kissing and now won't leave me alone. 

"Can I just eat my lunch in peace?" I asked as I tried to shove my food in my mouth.

"Cake isn't lunch, where did you even find that?" He asked me and I smirked to myself. I raided his fridge after he told Ulquiorra to get out of my room. 

"I'm just trying to make sure you understand what is going on. He's an espada, odds are he will go back to Aizen," Kisuke said and my eye twitched. 

I shoved my chocolate cake into my mouth. My eyes were drifting back to Ulquiorra's room as I ate.

"He's not like that, he disobeyed Aizen to save me. He was supposed to kill me," I mumbled. 

"Well of course I'm glad that he didn't, but I'm not letting you get hurt. You've already been taken away from me and I am not letting you go again," Kisuke said. 

My eyes softened and my eyes met his.

"I'm not going anywhere. No matter, what, but I also want to make choices on my own. Ulquiorra is not the same, and for him to even admit he has feelings shows he is different," I defended him. 

Kisuke said nothing as I ate my last bite of cake. 

"Be careful," Kisuke warned me and patted my shoulder and kissed the top of my head before leaving the room. 

I stood up and put my dishes in the dishwasher before grabbing a piece of cake for Ulquiorra. He probably won't eat it, but I figured I would.

I walked back to his room and I knocked before opening the door. 

"Hey," I smiled as I came in. He was laying in his bed staring at the ceiling.

"Why do you defend me?" Ulquiorra asked me. I sat on the bottom of the bed and handed him the piece of cake.

"What is this?" He asked me.

"It's cake. You eat it, I know you probably don't want it, but if you're going to be in the human realm, you have to appear normal," I explained.

He gave the cake a really weird look before using the fork and taking a piece of cake off and putting it in his mouth.

He scrunched up his face as he ate it, and I chuckled.

"This is terrible, it's way too sweet," Ulquiorra complained.

"It's delicious, give it here, I'll eat the rest," I told him and took the cake back.

"Why do you defend me?" He asked me again. 

"Because I don't think you're a bad person," I told him. 

"I hurt you. I kidnapped you and put you into the situation that put you in danger. You died Maaya. Aizen killed you, if Orihime hadn't been there you would have stayed dead. I couldn't protect you, he's right to tell you to stay away from me," Ulquiorra said.

I glared at the green-eyed boy. 

"You did what you could, I'm not angry at you. While at first, I thought that you were a huge danger to me, but you really aren't as bad as I thought. You're not the same as when we first met, you're different now." 

"What if I go back to the way I used to be?" Ulquiorra asked and I sat the cake down on the nightstand. 

"I guess I never thought of that," I pondered. The Ulquiorra that I had started to fall for would be gone, even the one that barely was capable of understanding emotions at the beginning would be gone. The Ulquiorra that had no problem killing me would be back. 

"Maybe it would be best if I just was taken to the Soul Society and killed. As much as I thought I would want to go back to the emotionless state I was in, I don't want to think of myself putting you in danger."

"I'd rather enjoy my time with you and be happy instead of hating not having you here," I told him angrily. 

He sighed and stared at the ceiling. I watched him, and a part of me missed seeing him with his mask on. 

"You're going to be training tomorrow. Are you feeling well enough for it?" He asked me, dodging the topic. I glared at him, and he looked up at me. 

"If you were in my position, what would you do? If you could easily kill me without even trying, how would you go about it? Would you think that somehow it can work, when knowing that even just hugging me could crush every bone in your body, or would you put yourself away from me to protect me?" He asked me. 

My glare elicited him to explain himself, but I didn't stop glaring.

"And if you were in my shoes, would you just let me go to die?" I countered and his cold expression didn't change.

He didn't answer me, and I knew that if the positions were reversed we would be acting like the other. 

"What do we do?" I asked him.

"Train. We must beat Aizen. Having these emotions made me realize what he truly is, and I won't allow him to get away with it," Ulquiorra said as his fists tightened. 

He sounded human, he didn't sound like an espada. Ulquiorra truly has a heart in there and it made my heart flutter. 

Stop it, as much as you like him, relationships are not the best time right now. 

********

*The next day*

"I told you to focus," Ulquiorra growled at me, as he shot another cero at me. I wasn't up to par in my dodging and counters, almost getting hit multiple times.

I put up my shield and fell backwards. The force was too much. 

Ulquiorra ran over to me and helped me up. He was going hard on me, but if at any point he thought he hurt me, he was over in an instant. 

"I'm fine," I reassured him and shooed him away. 

"You've been focusing on defense enough today," Kisuke walked over to us. He wrapped his one arm around my shoulder. 

"We could focus on offense tomorrow?" Ulquiorra suggested. It seemed that Ulquiorra didn't want to actually do any offensive training 

"I would like to focus on all aspects every training day. You must train as well Ulqiuiorra. Do you plan on fighting with us?" Kisuke asked him and eyed him curiously.

"I'll do whatever it takes to make sure Aizen gets what is coming to him," he said in his cold voice. Ulquiorra didn't have his gigi on, and I was thrilled when I saw him without it. Maybe that's a part of the reason I'm distracted.

"Good. You'll train with me," Kisuke smirked before lightly pushing me out of the way.

"Maaya, I would back up a bit. You can take a break, you can't handle as much as we can," Kisuke explained. I was about to argue with him, but I said nothing and walked back to where Orihime was. 

"Too focused on checking Ulquiorra out to focus on fighting, huh?" Orihime teased me and I glared at her before chuckling.

"Only you," I giggled. Ulquiorra and Kisuke were staring the other down, both having their hands on their swords.

Kisuke and Ulquiorra were fighting it out, frankly I wasn't going to watch. 

"Are you and Ulquiorra going to date yet?" Orihime asked me and I rolled my eyes at her. It won't work between Ulquiorra and I, and that thought crushed me more than I would like to admit. 

Focusing on fighting was more important, Aizen was going to pay for everything he has done and everything he is planning on doing.