Valentines day. The day for giving your loved ones that little something to show how much you truly care for them. It was a day Gwen could not help but wake up to with a spring in her step and a goofy grin on her face. A human event. A day for annoying the hell out of the fourth Espada for little to no reason just to show how stupid humans truly were. Emotions, what a ridiculous concept, especially to base a celebration on. It was yet another day where Ulquiorra could not help but wake up with a hunch in his strides and a gloomier expression than usual.
As expected he stepped into the kitchen and was bombarded by a flowery atmosphere, Gwen was stood by the oven pulling out cookies, chocolates and other confectionaries when she was not making up cards that were cut into hearts. The heart, yet another ridiculous concept made by humans to explain their weaknesses.
Upon spotting Ulquiorra the young woman smiled brightly.
"Good morning, Ulquiorra. It's valentines day!" she chirped, showing him the card she made for Grimmjow.
"I had not guessed." he responded dryly, almost sitting on a pin cushion. When he picked it up he found it was attached by frayed thread to a small bear.
"Isn't he cute? I spent all night making him." she stated, picking it up to show it to him. "I made it look just like Grimmjow. I bet he'll like it. I know he'll rip it up, so its stuffing is candy." the woman uttered, getting her cheeks grow a puffy pink.
"What did you use as fabric?" he asked, examining the white teddy.
"I used my uniform, since I wasn't using it." she replied cheerfully, while Ulquiorra seemed to grow even more tense than before.
"You should be wearing your uniform." he stated firmly, but Gwen simply shrugged and twirled about putting sweets in small bags.
"I'm so excited to give these sweets to everyone." she uttered, practically wagging her imaginary tail with glee. Only Gwen could get this excited over such an unimportant event that the Arrancar had never heard about up until yesterday, since the woman would not shut up about it. Prepared to depart Gwen picked everything up and began to dart off.
"See you later, Ulquiorra!" she called, scuttling off out the door.
It was not until the late afternoon that she finally came back, exhausted and quiter than usual.
"You're back." the Espada uttered, slowly following Gwen as she traipsed across the living room floor.
"Yeah." she spoke, pushing open her door to wander inside. "I'm really tired, so I'm going to bed early." Gwen stated, shutting the door behind her having waved gingerly at Ulquiorra.
For a few minutes the fourth stared at the door, he had an inkling at the back of his mind that it had not all gone according to plan. He had expected as much though, only a suicidal Arrancar would want to eat anything she had made. He felt he should at least speak to her however, even if it was only to hear who, or what, ruined her little event.
Knocking on the door Ulquiorra waited for half a second before intruding, Gwen was far too slow at answering the door for his liking.
"I'd have thought you would be annoying me until at least eleven." the fourth uttered, looking at Gwen, who was peering out the window aimlessly.
"I'm just tired. Running around does that to you." Gwen mumbled, drawing her elbow away from the ledge.
"Did that trash, Grimmjow, not accept your chocolates?" the Espada asked, watching her as she finally made eye contact with him.
"No, everyone took their chocolates. The whole celebration actually made some of the guys go out of their way to ask a few of the girls out. I thought it was quite cute." Gwen replied, smiling a little.
"Then why are you not throwing yourself about?" Ulquiorra questioned, while Gwen simply lowered her smile into a pout.
"I told you, I'm exhausted." she stated firmly, getting off of her bed.
"You can't fool my eyes." he responded calmly, slipping his hands into his pockets.
"Oh fine, if it makes your day." Gwen grumbled, turning him around to push him out. "I'm a little gloomy because I don't have a my own valentines day partner, but you would be to if you worked hard and got nothing in return." the woman huffed, going to shut her door.
"That isn't something you believe. You said it yourself, 'it's a time of giving and being grateful for what you've got'." the Espada quoted, but Gwen merely muttered and shut the door.
Ulquiorra did not stay outside for very long though, as he entered again to continue to pursue the reason for the sudden flop in her day.
"Will you leave me alone? Are you annoyed because you didn't get anything, or because I'm idealising emotions? Is that why you're bugging me?" Gwen asked, knitting her eyebrows together.
"I don't accept a liar's reasoning, even if I've no interest in your 'valentines day' ideals." the fourth spoke, only making the woman groan further. "Your cooking is also terrible." Ulquiorra added as an after thought.
"Then what do you want?" Gwen enquired, dropping her arms to her sides weakly.
"The truth as to why you're back so early." the fourth uttered.
"What does it matter to you?" she asked, hitching her brow slightly.
"It's not that I care, I'm simply curious as to if you have perhaps realised how ridiculous your idea of the 'heart' is." the Espada explained, examining her.
"So you just want me to prove to you that you're right, and I'm wrong?" she asked, furrowing her brow. "Well, for one, you can stick your perception of emotion up your ass." the woman hissed, pushing him back out into the corridor. "Second, you're not always right. Especially right now." she spoke sharply, keeping herself from slapping him. "And last but not least, no, I've not been converted. I still believe in emotion, and I always will." the green haired woman spat.
Catching her breath and calming herself down momentarily Gwen then straightened herself and composed her expression once more.
"And if it excites your sadistic side, the reason I'm not as 'happy' as I usually am is because Grimmjow made Loly his valentines girl, and not me. So, yes, maybe I'm a little irritated by that, maybe even a little jealous." she stated, crinkling up the bridge of her nose. "And yeah, maybe I'm a bit annoyed that all I got was a forced 'thanks' from him, and a tiny bit angry about him putting them in the bin after I spent who knows how long making them, but that's okay. I shouldn't have set myself up so high, so I've only myself to blame anyway." Gwen ranted, more to herself than him as she continued. "Are you happy now? Is that a good enough synopses of my day so far?" Gwen asked, glaring at him venomously as tears streamed down her face having wound herself up.
"Are you quite done yelling in my face?" Ulquiorra asked, not quite prepared to take the whip-crack slap to his face. His head did not move however, she did not have it in her to hit that hard.
"Normally I'd apologise, but you deserved that. Now leave me alone." the woman growled, slamming her bedroom door shut again. Staring at the door Ulquiorra mulled over the idea of punishing Gwen, but let it slide for now, he had another thought in mind that seemed more appealing at the time.
In the early hours of the next day Gwen had been awoken to go to a meeting, the tension around herself and Ulquiorra still enveloping them from last night. Ulquiorra had attempted to speak to her a few times, though they tended to be complaints, and she simply brushed him off, or gave him short answers to avoid having to socialise with him. In the meeting room everyone had been discussing the mysterious rumours circulating the castle at the time, all eyes then going straight to Gwen and Ulquiorra as they entered. Had they all heard them both arguing last night? Feeling somewhat ashamed by the thought Gwen attempted to stand by the wall where a tall chair hid her, while Ulquiorra had went to greet Aizen as normal.
Having been staring at her toes, while twitching them the entire time, Gwen slowly raised her head when she spotted a pair of feet stop in front of her.
"Oh, hello Luppi." Gwen greeted him, examining the shorter effeminate Arrancar.
"Is it true?" he asked in a low tone, glancing over at Ulquiorra.
"What?" she enquired hesitantly, nervously pressing her fingers against the cold wall behind her.
"That Grimmjow isn't attending this meeting because he throttled him?" he questioned, while Gwen simply gave the fourth a confused glance.
"He did? Why?" she asked.
"It's not been established yet, but someone, fitting Ulquiorra's description perfectly, was seen entering and leaving the Sexta's domain last night. Apparently the medical staff were called to help Grimmjow after a candy filled bear was found shoved down his throat." he whispered, while the woman simply gasped at the thought.
"That's awful." she stated, holding her lips. "Are they sure it was him? He's the least violent person here." the woman added, looking over at him only to find he was already examining her from across the room.
"Dunno, it's just a rumour right now. Grimmjow can't speak, since he's still coughing up chocolate truffles." Luppi stated, leaving as soon as Ulquiorra had began to come over. He had decided he was not pleased with Gwen and him whispering to one another while looking over in his direction.
Going back to staring at her feet Gwen pondered the sheer idea of Ulquiorra going out of his way to do something like that, but it did not seem like a realistic rumour. Ulquiorra was hard to read at the best of times, and did a lot of weird things from time to time, but unnecessary and unprovoked violence was not particularly down his alley.
"What were you discussing?" he asked, turning to stand beside her at the wall and face the table and chairs.
"He was thanking me for yesterday." she uttered quietly. "Apparently someone stuffed my chocolate teddy down Grimmjow's throat." Gwen spoke after a few minutes of silence.
"I see." he stated in his usual drawl monotone.
"Did you know anything about that?" she asked, raising her head ever so slightly.
"No. I'm not interested in rumours." he responded dryly, observing Aizen motion for everyone to sit down and prepare for the meeting to come to a start.
Later that day Ulquiorra had been sitting on the sofa, though he was simply staring at the white wall in front of him with the usual vacant expression he kept plastered on his face. His narrow pupils coming into focus when he felt Gwen wrap her arms around his neck and press her forehead to the back of his hollow bone.
"You shouldn't stare at the wall like that, you'll end up snow-blind." the woman murmured, letting a shallow breath trail out across the skin at the back of his neck.
"What are you doing?" he asked, examining her elbow having only been able to turn his head slightly.
"I'm sorry I slapped you. I know I was stressed from you winding me up, but that's no excuse." she stated firmly, giving his neck a gentle squeeze.
Pulling her arm away Gwen opened her hand and showed him a small, narrow box. "I was going to give it to you yesterday, but Aizen couldn't get it sent to me until this morning." the woman mumbled, handing it to him. Staring at the black box Ulquiorra opened it calmly and stared at the pen.
"It's a calligraphy pen, I thought you'd like it since you're always writing reports for Aizen." the woman explained, pulling away from him.
"Thanks." he uttered calmly, while Gwen simply smiled and kissed the back of his head.
"I thought you'd like it, you pretentious dick." she mumbled playfully, nuzzling her nose into his tufted ebony hair. "Happy belated valentines day." she murmured, blowing hot air against his scalp. "And thanks for dealing with Grimmjow, even if it was a little harsh." she chuckled.