Title: Two Hearts Beat as One
Rating: PG
Summary:Post ch 354. As he lies in between, Ulquiorra receives two unexpected visitors. Or, in which Orihime does the right thing and Soten Kisshun's Ulquiorra.
Word Count: 1187
Author's Note: Pennance fic for elliot-san over at the capslock_ulori community on LJ. She requested a fic with Ulquiorra meeting the Shun Shun Rikka for the first time. Written while listening to Lena Park's live rendition of Fall in Love. Credit to misora's post (also on LJ) on Ch 354 The Heart too. Concrit is much appreciated. I also changed Orihime's line in Ch 317 to the title of that chapter.
Started: 27 Dec 2009
Completed: 5 Jan 2010
Posted: 07 Sept 2010 on FF.n. 12 Jan 2010 on my LJ.
Last Edited: 07 Sept 2010
Where am I?
"You are neither here nor there - "
" - somewhere you deserve to rot the rest of your life."
The two voices came at once, echoing from every point imaginable: above, behind. . . Where were those directions? There was nothing to use as a point of reference, nothing but a darkness that extended endlessly, pressing down on him.
"Well, if you opened your eyes – "
" – opening your eyes would help, idiot!"
The same voices again. He didn't understand how they were hearing him.
"You are talking, you know – "
" – we ain't dumb, thank you."
"Maybe he's wounded worse than we anticipated."
"Wouldn't be surprised; that Kurosaki kid did a number on him. Good riddance I say."
"Tsubaki, really now."
" – what! His buddy smashed me to bits and you want me to save him?"
Kurosaki. . . He recognized that name. He opened his eyes and blackness still pervaded everything. Somewhere, though, there was a dull throbbing that was neither feeling nor sound.
The voices continued to squabble. Out of the rattle of voices he could hear the first voice sigh, the second's rising louder, " – guess your eyes haven't been healed yet."
He concentrated on reiatsu this time, trying to find some way of orienting himself. The colors settled into a whirling path of white extending all the way before him, and he felt the same path extending behind him. He could feel the ripples his presence was making, but still he could not feel his body; he couldn't even see himself or his reiatsu. There were two baubles of burning reiatsu vibrating in the darkness, and as he examined them closer, he suspected those were the sources of the voices.
"To answer your first question, you're in between."
" - where are you going is the better question. And don't say heaven or hell."
He concentrated on the dim recollection of a mouth and tongue and teeth. "There is no heaven or hell," he said, "there is only life, and even that is pointless and futile." He paused, considering it. "I am dead." The word fell off his tongue.
"Yes."
" – well, yeah."
"My existence is over. This conversation is meaningless. Leave."
Their colors vibrated and sparked as one spoke to the other, " – see, he doesn't want to be saved. Let's go."
"I," he said, "have no desired to be saved, nor do I have any desire to be bothered. Leave." The colors changed, but always remained bright, vivid points against the blackness and the white river.
He was able to make out the first murmur, "Tsubaki, play nice," before the pocket of reiatsu folded in on itself and disappeared in an explosion of sparks. The remaining light sparked in what he assumed was irritation.
"Will you not leave as your companion already did?"
"Listen here. Me and him? We both got a job to do. His is to heal you - he was just here to show me the way - and mine's to show it to you since it looked like you weren't going to come on your own, and the rest were too chicken - "
He let the voice fade away as he felt the pull of the white reiatsu strengthen. He was met with resistance as he tried to move against it, so he relinquished himself to it. The pulse from that distant place diminished.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing! That's the wrong way!"
The voice jostled him from that delicate point of control and release. He tried to further let himself go with the river, but the light shot quickly in front of him. "Leave," he said.
He thought the light would explode, it was throwing off so many sparks, each one causing a small ripple that pricked at him in the reiatsu stream.
"Shut up! That foolish strumpet – by the way, quit calling her woman, I'm the only one allowed to do that – is already pouring everything's she got into healing you, and so is Shun'o and Ayame. I don't know what you're thinking rejecting something like that!"
Something stirred in his memory. There was someone. . . something left unfinished, a reason. . .
The light started to fly away, and he followed it, not knowing why, other than that vague feeling, the curious and utterly foreign thought there could be a reason. He wanted to know what it was. He followed, even though it was against the current, unsure how he was doing so since he couldn't feel his body. The far off throbbing resumed, and as he continued, he began to feel each part of his body return and settle into place, each piece beating in time to it.
The light pulsed forward, and he saw that the reiatsu flowed backwards in certain spots. The small point led him through the gentler places where the pull of the reiatsu eased, but still, there were places where he was almost swept away. There, its voice would call out again and circle around him until he was dizzy with words and names.
The thing finally stopped, and after hovering for a moment, it changed shapes, skimming the whirling path and then suddenly climbed high on two sharp wings. The reiatsu followed its sharp turn, and split upward, widening as it went. It broke through, a gaping rip left in its wake. The beating loud in his ears, he followed it through.
He opened his eyes, truly this time, the edging glow of reiatsu ebbing away. The profile of a woman dressed in white, her skin stained with blood and dust came into focus. Eyes narrowed, her face hovered over her raised hands. Her hands retreated, and the barrier disappeared, its existence defined and realized by its absence. The golden glow around the world receded, and there was only a black sky with a white moon hanging above the white edifices. Stark in appearance, harsh in edges.
He heard her knees scrape against the gravel and her clothing moving.
"Welcome back, Ulquiorra."
The last of the coldness of the in between place disappeared – he hadn't known he'd been cold - when his gaze rested on the spot between her left breast and her collarbone.
His hand touched that place again, and he felt it beat. In return, she placed her own hand over his chest. He knew what was there this time, because he'd felt its absence for such a very long time.
"Woman, what are you doing?"
Her mouth made a strange shape, and emitted an even odder sound. Her eyes shone wetly. She was smiling – he could see that, even if it wasn't a conventional smile her friends would recognize – for the first time since coming to this place. His limbs were too weak, and his fingertips slid away from her. She withdrew her hand from his chest and caught his falling hand with both of hers. She folded his stiff fingers until they formed a fist between her clasped hands.
"I told you," she said. "My heart, and my friends', they all beat as one."