Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
A/N: I apologize to all my readers for the long and horrible wait. Unfortunately, my computer has decided to go into early retirement and so until I get a new computer updates will be slow (even more than usual) for all of my stories. No, I haven't stopped writing or anything of the sort. In fact, I'm fill with a bunch of new ideas. Sadly, though, my computer doesn't give a shit.
One shot of Black Blood for Valentine's Day! Featuring Nora/Ulquiorra. Is it a foreshadowing of the story? Don't have a clue yet. Enjoy!
"Without a family, man alone in the world, trembles with the cold." - Andre Maurois
"No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible." -George Chakiris
"Please. Promise me. Should anything happen to me, you will protect Nora. Take her away from this place, away from Aizen's grasp. Protect her… in my place."
"Ulquiorra-sama! Over here!"
Blinking his teal colored eyes, Ulquiorra noticed the girl waving her arms, drawing him to her position.
Dressed simply in a black sleeveless short black dress, red knee high socks, and simple shoes, Nora looked like a simple little human girl, who was near bursting with excitement. She had the pair of tickets in her hand as she waved at him hurriedly.
Quickly, he reached up and covered her hand with his, securing the pieces of paper before they were blown away. "Let's go," he said simply, pulling her along to the ticket stand where the entrance was.
He waited while Nora handed the male human their tickets and stamp the back of their hands.
"Look, Ulquiorra-sama. It's a heart." Nora held her hand next to his, the two hearts being a near mirror image of each other.
"Hn." He glanced at them with a mild curiosity, before his eyes flickered to the decorative scenery around them. "You and I have both seen what a heart looks like," he said, in a way of disagreeing.
"Hai." In this, Nora did not object. "Demo, to the humans, a heart is more than an organ that pumps blood. It is a symbol to represent emotion, like love, passion, companionship, and even sadness. Today is a day to celebrate those emotions. St. Valentine's Day."
Love. It was an emotion, he understood, that birthed from like. Like was a form of tolerance that Ulquiorra never fully understood. Emotion, in its entirety, was foreign to him. As an Espada, he had no need for them. But now…
Ulquiorra glanced at the girl beside him. Love was increasingly beginning to stir his curiosity.
Nora smiled up to him, noticing his stare. "Shall we be off?" she asked.
The ex-Espada walked forward instead of answering, leaving the former fraccion to scurry after him.
--
The amusement park had been the human's idea. Orihime had wanted Nora to experience the festivities, to celebrate the day of love. Later, there would be a more somber ceremony, so the auburn haired beauty wanted her friend to at least have one happy memory of this day.
Ulquiorra could only agree. The past events were starting to weaken the girl, now the only remaining Kurosaki in the world. For her sake, she need a task to keep her mind off the reality and the loneliness, lest she be crushed by the weight of her burden.
He let Nora take the lead, following as her curiosity took her from different stands, awed by the challenging games and entranced by most of the prizes. One in particular had her gold brown eyes straying back to it, a large white rabbit hanging over head of a ball tower stand. It had a resemblance to a certain rabbit mod soul loved by a certain Shinigami.
Ulquiorra followed her gaze and briefly wondered what either of them, the fraccion and the ice Shinigami, could see in such a revolting creature. It's beady eyes, tiny smirking mouth, and fluffy body made him curl in his lip in distaste.
But instead, he walked forward, simply picked up a heavy white ball and threw it towards the target. It hit perfectly in the middle, within a spot that that knocked all the glass empty bottles down. He continued this way with the rest, throwing the obviously tampered balls in the same spot, sending all the bottle towers to the floor.
He glanced at the man in charge of the stand, his green eyes boring into the weaker man's. "The point was to send them all down, correct? Well?" he inquired.
Stammering, the man asked, "Yes, of course, sir. Which prize would you like?"
Ulquiorra pointed to the white, ugly rabbit. "That one."
The man handed over the large prize quickly while Ulquiorra left the three dollar fee needed to play in the game. He turned and held out the rabbit to a bewildered Nora.
"Here," he said. "It's yours. Take it."
"Ulquiorra-sama," she breathed, looking at him with awe. "Doushite?"
He became annoyed when she made no move to take it and pushed it into her arms, needing to be free of the offensive creature.
Ulquiorra passed Nora by, giving her no choice but to catch Chappy, the huge prize he had suddenly won for her. His whisper was soft and easily lost in t he chatter of the crowd, but she heard it clearly and it brought a faint blush to her cheeks and caused her to give her first, genuine smile.
"Because you wanted it."
---
The place was large and full of fascinating things.
Nora gave a try of her own at playing at several stands and the two arrancar quickly realized that they needed to hold back a measure of their strength. The gigai they wore worked very much like a mod soul does; it hid their reiatsu from the patrolling Shinigami, but their immense strength was not affected, left as a resort to protect themselves if needed.
If not careful with their abilities, they would appear as super-humans if they weren't careful and already the humans that watched them were growing suspicious.
Nevertheless, Nora won several prizes, one being an amulet with a large green gem that matched the color of Ulquiorra's eyes. The ex-Cuarta had seemed confused by the gift, but accepted it and now wore it underneath the green hoodie he wore. It slapped against his chest as they walked, the cool gem striking the very spot where his Hollow hole would be, replaced by the warm skin of his gigai.
"Ulquiorra-sama?" Nora's quiet voice turned his attention back to her. She pointed at a series of large cups, similar to the ones he'd once drunk tea from back in Las Noches, only more colorful and rounded, that twisted and turn within an area as two people rode inside. "Could we ride those?" she asked carefully, almost hesitant.
Ulquiorra watched the way it went. It seemed harmless. The humans entered a cup in pairs. Once all was clear, the cups would spin around all over the place at random intervals. It seemed simple.
"Come," he said, walking to the line at the ride's entrance.
Nora followed, unable to stop smiling with excitement. She had gotten a rundown of sorts from Orihime, who told her all about this ride and of many others. She was glad that Ulquiorra had agreed, that he had not dismissed the idea as childish.
They waited five minutes in the line until it was their turn. Together, they followed the man in charge of the ride as he led them into a pink and white teacup with red hearts all over it.
"Perfect for the love birds," the man in charge of the ride winked knowingly at the two of them.
"Hn." Ulquiorra gave nothing in response but a grunt, while Nora laughed nervously and tried to explain that they were, at the least, friends.
The human, of course, did not buy it and closed the door and latched it tight. "Have fun you too and keep it PG."
Nora flushed in embarrassment while Ulquiorra simply ignored such lewdness.
It was a tight fit, with her crushed against the ex-Espada. He gave her a look while she gave him an apologetic smile, unable to do much about their situation. It wasn't like she could make the teacup expand though it would help with the embarrassment.
It got worse when the ride eventually started. Either from years of observing the sonido in battle against an arrancar or miscalculation on their part, the ride had seemed a slow and steady one. Neither of them had expected all the jostling, turning, and whirling that the cup made as it went all around the square arena.
Nora tried to keep steady by holding onto the rim, apologizing every time a bump would throw her against Ulquiorra's side.
Eventually, he dropped an arm around her waist, holding her flush against him as he provided the stability she had been trying to maintain.
"U-Ulquiorra-sama, gomen, for imposing on you like this," Nora apologized, holding herself still the best she could even as the ride continued to drive her body forward into his embrace. She was starting to think it was a deliberate move of the teacup, as if it were alive and bent on embarrassing her in front of her superior the whole time.
Ulquiorra sighed against her hair, the ride more than annoying him and yet felt awarding to him. "Iie. Daijobou," he assured her, unable to stop himself from tightening his arm further, keeping her even closer.
Thankfully, Nora had not followed all the advice the busty fuktaichou of the Tenth had given her for this outing. While he understood the outfit was her idea (tailored by Orihime as the dress was a lot shorter than it is now and originally showed a lot of bust), he also knew she had brought Nora many fragrances known as perfume.
He hated those, smelling too strong and disgustingly artificially sweet for him. It made no sense why women would wear such smells when attracting a mate. Since she was not interested in such ideas, Nora had declined to wear any of it. quite sure.
No, Nora smelled as she always had smelled; innocence and lavender, her natural scent. He breathed it in, enjoying the feel of her in his arms a little too much than was proper.
But Ulquiorra could not bring himself to let go.
--
After the teacup ride, they went on others. This time, Nora made sure they weren't too close-fitting, that they could actually have space between them.
They went on several roller coasters, the mild ones of the park since the more reckless ones did not meet Ulquiorra's approval, despite they being safe for a human to ride. Around noon, they stopped to buy a quick lunch from one of the vendors, a strange pastry called a funnel cake.
Nora thoroughly enjoyed the treat, especially when it gave Ulquiorra some trouble to eat as his hands kept getting messy with the powder.
"Here. Allow me." She fed him a piece from her own cake, wiping excess sugary powder from his soft lips. "Do you like it, Ulquiorra-sama?"
He chewed on the sweet carefully, tasting all its flavor. As he swallowed, he figured it was a little too sweet for him. But his mouth was silent as he watched the happy glow on her face, as she fed herself another piece from the treat, enjoying every bite.
No doubt she had dreamed to enjoy this human pleasure with someone else, someone who was closest to her heart, her soul.
Someone who no longer existed in this world.
In the end, he told her this. "It's sweet."
And it was worth lying when it made her smile.
---
It grew to that time so they had to pick a final ride. Nora search everywhere, for that one she had desperately wanted to go on, one that had piqued her interests the most when Orihime had told her about it. It had sound so beautiful that she wished to see it.
After asking a park employee, Nora tugged Ulquiorra along, forgetting their social status in the heat of the moment. She took him further into a mostly deserted area, seeing as there was barely any humans around. Of course, it could be since it was getting dark, but Ulquiorra made a silent note to keep an eye out for any trouble that might occur.
"Here it is!" Letting go, the former fraccion ran forward, jumping on the stand just as the lights turned on, lighting up the carousel.
Stepping back, Ulquiorra examined the ride, with its display of flashing lights, of greens and yellows and reds. Connected by stills were different animals found in the Living World. The ex-Espada recognized some of them after his brief lecture from the human female during the first weeks of his stay here.
Horses, of different shades. Blue, green, red, yellow, orange, green. They were carved in different stages of galloping, giving off a majestic appearance combined with the glowing lights and faint glimmer of music.
"Ulquiorra-sama, this one. Can we ride this one last?" Like a small child, Nora asked the ex-Espada, smiling so widely in a way he had never seen before.
His feet moved before he realized what he was doing.
They stood by the blue horse, holding together the pole that impaled the animal below its heavy neck. They waited at first, wondering what else was suppose to happen. According to Orihime, the carousel was suppose to-
With a new note, the whole instrument began to move gently. Beneath their adjourned hands, the near life-sized horse began to gently go up and down in a soft motion.
"Wow!" Nora exclaimed. "It's even better than I'd imagined."
Ulquiorra stayed silent. As the carousel grew faster, changing the many colors into flashes and blurs, as the song grew into the background, all he really paid attention to was her.
It was no mistake that Nora was known as the "human" arrancar. Ichigo had seen it that she became that way. She gave expressions that most arrancars forgot to show, felt emotions that even he had trouble imagining.
She was purity in a humane form, and Ichigo gave up everything so that she would stay that way.
Even his own life.
"Please. Promise me. Should anything happen to me, you will protect Nora. Take her away from this place, away from Aizen's grasp. Protect her… in my place."
At the last battle, when he had forced Ulquiorra to submit to his will, to change sides and abandoned a master he had known for too long, he made La Cuarta swear this pledge to him. El Cero somehow knew he wouldn't be returning, so he struggled to tie his loose ends. But one thing was certain. Nora would never let go of his memory.
A fraccion was a subordinate, who served under an Espada lord and received his or her protection. Now that her foolish master was gone, who, Ulquiorra wondered, would Nora find protection from?
His hand lowered itself until it covered her own. Startled, Nora looked up to find him watching her intently, in a way she had never seen him use.
The music grew slower, the lights grew blurrier, as the world finally grew still at the moment their lips touched gently.
Love. It was an emotion he had no real experience of. But somehow, for this imperfect fraccion, Ulquiorra felt it inside a place he had sincerely believed no longer lied a heart.