El Corazon es Solo y Desconocido
The Heart is Lonesome and Unfamiliar.
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Ulquiorra stretches out his hand, examining the lean muscles of his arm and the milky color of his skin underneath the bright sunlight of Earth. It feels strange and foreign without a sword nowadays. He clenches his fist, feels the steady flow of what seems to be blood going through what looks like veins. It can never be human, though, and this he knows all too well.
"You're here again?" It's Orihime. She's loud and smiling, fresh and out of breath from another day of going to university classes, learning things that she'll never need as an adult. He stares at her windswept hair, the way she pushes it behind her ear and looks away shyly, a smile lingering on her rosy lips. He can tell that she was expecting to see him.
"…Is it causing problems for you?"
Orihime blinks and shakes her head twice, climbing to the top of the stairs where he stands, unmoving. He opens his mouth to say something, but it doesn't comes out when she gingerly takes his hands in hers, fingers sliding to lock into place like puzzle pieces and like how they should be. It feels warm, so warm that he doesn't know if he'd be able to stand it.
The bedroom door closes slowly with no sound.
Ulquiorra knows how she doesn't get many visitors anymore. He's always watching from what remains of Hueco Mundo, maybe out of habit, maybe because he enjoys it in some sick way. He's there when Orihime's friends graduate with her from high school, so full of an emotion that he just can't place (Is it called adrenaline? Anticipation?), ready to go out into the world. He saw, as clear as day, the expression on her face when Ichigo moved in with her, and he also saw her expression when he disappeared back to Soul Society.
He never took his eyes off her.
Still, he promised himself that he would never bother with humans again. Despite his slowly growing interest in them, they just weren't worth the time and effort that was needed in order to learn more about them. However, it was only after he found himself in her bedroom, that first time, when he realized what he had done. He had grown… Accustomed to her.
"Are you going back now?"
She props herself up on her elbows, demurely covering herself with the covers that smell just like her. Ulquiorra opens his eyes – It's morning. He has nowhere to be. No one else to see. Nothing in front of him, and nothing in back of him. And yet…
"That's what I usually do."
"But…" Her face was unreadable.
"What?"
She knows he's waiting for it, but doesn't answer, instead using a long forefinger to gently trace the outline of his Hollow hole, making him shudder on the inside. Her trembling mouth by his ear, she licks her lips tentatively before speaking.
"Stay, Ulquiorra-san."
And like the dog he is for her, he obeys.