This is, for my liking, Ulquiorra's life, before his death. I have put a lot of effort and research into this very first submission, and I hope you all like. I've been procrastinating any submissions because I've been so nervous about it and have, honestly, had no idea where to start. I hope this way was the right way. Enjoy. ^w^
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[[Childhood]]
"We'll give it to you… if you let us play with you." The older boy winked, looking down at the smaller Ulquiorra with his friends. Ulquiorra knew what they meant, he knew very well what they meant. He was shorter, a year or two younger than most of them, but those hormones were surely making themselves known to him, slowly. These boys were marinating in them, they were no longer tender, but overcooked. Men were wise to keep their daughters safe with their mothers, but these boys were trouble.
"So? Come on, what's it gonna be?" The boy snickered, reaching his arm around Uqluiorra's waist. One of them had come up from behind Ulquiorra trapping him between them all, rubbing himself into the young Ulquiorra's back.
He could feel his cheeks burn, his head swoon lightly and he nodded. He felt that same hand suddenly loosen the tie about his waist, the fine gold string slipping and his chiton falling loose, hanging from his small shoulders.
"Gods, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a woman!" The boy laughed, while several hands played over Ulquiorra's body, his hips and his chest, he hadn't hit any growth spurts yet, his little boy fat had yet to evenly distribute itself across his body. They played with his pseudo-breasts and nipples, flicking them, squeezing what little fat and muscle there was up into cleavage and then letting it fall flat again "You see? If it weren't for this, you'd be a woman!" The boy pulled at him, small though he was, he'd long since grown stiff.
"Come on, make some sounds!" Another boy nagged, wetting his finger and then crudely sliding it between Uqluiorra's ass cheeks and up inside him. This registered as new to the boy, he yelped and leaned on the one in front of him, the oldest one, then gasping once he felt his erection brush over another stronger one.
The scene that Ichigo witnessed was, to say the least, unpleasant, but satisfying. Seeing Ulquiorra at a much more vulnerable age, seeing him when he was not in control, new and inexperienced. It helped him to understand though, the understanding that Ulquiorra learned early on that he could have anything, if he only paid the price.
The Ulquiorra afterwards was tired, but pleased, he had a satisfied grin on his face, holding a piece of Jewelry close to himself. Bulla. The word suddenly fell into Ichigo's mind, like he'd known it all along, but obviously he hadn't. He only seemed to recognize the unspoken word though, he didn't find anything of his knowledge about what a bulla was.
This bulla, that Ulquiorra was holding, was a blackened locket that hung from the finest gold chain Ichigo had ever seen. The boy pulled it away from his embrace and out in front of him while his smile faded, examining it. At first he made sure that there were no smudges on it's blackened gold surface, then he smiled again, opening the locket, nothing was inside.
The boy stopped on the corner of a small road before turning down into an alleyway. He wrapped the gold chain around his neck four times. Obviously, for his small boyish body, it was too long to simply wear once around his neck, he had to wrap it four times before fastening it. Although in doing this, Ichigo noted, the locket was pulled tightly up into his collar bone, it sat, nestled against the hard lumps, a black mass. It was an eerie sight.
Once he was satisfied, he continued down into the alley way. At the end, a small home sat in the middle of its path, the door to this small home opened, and for a second Ichigo felt the desire to withdraw his hand, he felt the need to look around in his room back in the present to make sure Inoue hadn't just wandered into Ulquiorra's vision. For in the doorway, before the young Ulquiorra, stood a short woman, with a warm smile on her face, which was framed by long strands of hair. Her hair, was a brilliant red, but the sun had licked every dark strand from it, and added its own vibrancy and glow. She stood on the step and held her hands out to him, her smile saying "Welcome home" and the already cheery Ulquiorra dashed towards her feet and buried his face in her food stained chiton, laughing and hugging her.
Once inside the home, before any sort of meal or prayer, Ulquiorra and his mother made their way towards the back of the home, into a small room filled with steam. Inside, there was a small pale of warm water. Next to the pale there stood a stool, linens, small vials of oils and cheap perfumes. Ulquiorra's mother turned him towards the stool and began undoing his chiton. She frowned when she found his skin under the chiton bruised, but paid it no mind. She continued to undress him and directed him to sit upon the stool, taking a cloth and dipping it in the warm water.
Ulquiorra looked far more uneasy than usual, the look on her face said that as he turned from her discretely, hiding himself from view. His mother frowned, leaning forward with the towel and soothing its warm surface over the goose bumps on his arms and shoulder.
"My angel, what is it?" Ichigo felt his physical self gasp. Her voice was soft and rich with love, it was a chocolate strum of her vocal chords, soothing over the boy, comforting him, yet in no way sounding fragile.
He shivered, pointing to his locket. "They took it from me." He snapped, feeling his anger flare up again towards those boys, but he didn't show it, it was a simple gesture of his emotions, nothing more.
"Ah, but you see, you have it back. It is yours again. Your father's locket." She smiled, examining the piece of jewelry with the fondest smile, her fingers stroking across it, and then up into Ulquiorra's long locks. "Don't worry, you got it back didn't you, you're so resourceful." She was pleased with him, for now.
As she continued to bath the boy, Ichigo could see Ulquiorra growing more concerned. As his mother proceeded down through his legs, so noticed the chafed redness of the boy's penis, realizing just what may have happened. She didn't seem to say anything, but once she'd started to clean his rear, she stood up and away from him. That soft demeanor dissolving instantly.
Ulquiorra wouldn't look at her. "How did you get it back from them?" She demanded, her hands placed low on her plump hips. "What did you give them in return?!" She gasped, holding the back of her hand across her mouth.
Ulquiorra turned towards her finally and pointed at his necklace. "They wouldn't give it back! I couldn't let them just take it!" He argued but was hissed quiet by her seething glare.
"So you gave yourself to them? Why? You're a man."
"I'm smaller than them-"
"You're a man!! Men have the power to rectify themselves in this world! You should know better! You shouldn't have to resort to such a disgusting deed!"
"Mother!"
"No, you'll have no meal, you'll wash yourself, ALL of yourself. I don't want you behaving like a woman, you're stronger than that! You're better than that!" She fumed.
Ulquiorra dropped a blank stare down to the tile floor as she left, slamming the door behind her. He flinched, and then sat back a bit, sniffling softly by himself. He reached for the linen, and continued to remove the filth of those boys.
A rattle ran through the house. The front door had shut and Ulquiorra jumped up, his mother had left the house. He donned a dirty chiton immediately, not bothering to tie it and rushed out after her. She was fast. He didn't really have a clue where she was going, but he could guess. The boy had been a bully to him for years now, she was headed for his home, he knew it.
Once he'd caught up with her, he heard her angry accusations and the laughing of onlookers in the streets, most of which men, or men accompanying women.
"Rape? Rape?! How dare you accuse my son of such a thing!" The boy's father was red, his turnip face swelling and jutting out at her.
"You should hold your tongue woman, I would watch yourself in this city! With no husband to protect you, you're awfully vulnerable to be throwing around such accusations! Only the words of a barbarian!" he growled at her, at that moment Ulquiorra had rushed up and was tugging at her arms.
"Mother enough." He gasped, wishing she would stop.
She turned on him, and without warning lifted the back of his chiton, showing his bruised rump to the father of his enemy. "Look at what they did to him! He's all red and bruised, bite marks, scratches. What kind of a monster did you raise?" Her body Jolted against Ulquiorra as he slapped her, the force throwing her to the ground, when Ulquiorra turned to see his face, he felt the danger being emitted from him. The man was angry, and eyeing the boy's rear. He quickly tugged his chiton down helped his mother to her feet, steadying her as best he could.
"Come on…" He told her, she wept. She cradled the side of her face as they left the man's doorstep.
On their way home, only his mother's soft sobs were heard, he was quiet, he was thinking, planning. She had started something terrible, and Ulquiorra was thinking up a way to stop it, if he could. That man was, as far as he could tell, now interested in him, that was useful. Ulquiorra thought of what she had told him in their bathing room but he pushed it aside. This would work, he would do whatever it took to keep them from coming after her.
As Ichigo withdrew his hand, the slight brush of his fingers against Ulquiorra's hollows hole roused a small gasp from the Espada's lips, and then he was still. Ichigo sighed, he hadn't seen that far into Ulquiorra's past before, and yet, as he did, he was glad, understanding just a little more of this creature's clouded personality.
He leaned back against the wall at that moment, shaking his head as he heard Urahara snort suddenly from his own room down the shop hall. "Orihime" he whispered softly, wondering, if, by chance, it wasn't simply an order for Ulquiorra to capture her.
He shook the thought from his mind as he realized just then how horribly exhausted he was. The strawberry haired boy pulled the white sleeping shirt over his head, it was hot inside, even with the window open. He laid himself down on the tatami mat and closed his eyes, almost instantly falling into a deep slumber.
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This will be an ongoing project of mine, I'm doing all kinds of nerdy research, and I don't mean Bleach Research. I'm doing a ton of research on Greece, which is actually really fun. XD This is my first extensive story, I hope you like it, and if you have suggestions or even just comments, that would be VERY helpful! You have no idea how long I've been working on this, trying to make it as decent as possible. So seriously, comments and reviews would be AWESOME! And yes, there is plenty more to come. Thanks for reading you guys! ^w^
