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Pure white drops fall sweet from grey,
Soaking the land in their soft touch,
Cleansing the silent hissing sands
You once wandered upon.
Lightly they fall, and lightly they
Kiss your lips.
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Hueco Mundo saw its first snow since its birth eons ago. The change had begun when the cold night sky had suddenly clouded with pulsing dark shadows that smothered the moon, and remained thus for several hours. The lesser Hollows barely paid attention, but the last remaining Espada certainly did.
Ulquiorra was the first to notice. The temperature had dropped significantly over a short period of time that night, to the point where he had begun to register a distinct anomaly. Wandering aimlessly through the silent wasteland, the former Quarto Espada stopped in his tracks and lifted his eyes up to the swollen grey heavens.
What was going to happen?
A hazy blur of a memory from a time long since faded from his thoughts wafted hesitantly at the surface of his mind, and with it the emotions he had long since banished. But Ulquiorra suppressed the vague interference and continued to stare at the sky, waiting.
Then, it happened.
Little white drops began to float gently down from the clouds. Ulquiorra's jade orbs widened. He had never before seen such a phenomena. It was so bluntly against the norm of the dark night that it froze his thoughts into temporary immobility.
He couldn't think, he couldn't speak. He could just stand and stare, dumbstruck, as the little white flakes came drifting down to the desert earth.
He twitched as one flake gently fell upon his cheek, its cold touch snapping him out of his shock.
It was just like that time...
That time...where all he could do was stand and stare, mystified, at this silent, cold void of a phenomena, overwhelmed by the pure nothingness radiated from it. Now these pure flakes surrounded him just as the 'void' had done, all those centuries ago.
Awash in a flood of memories, the wave of relief at discovering that another's existence equally meaningless and futile as his own pulsing through his veins, heaven and earth connected with thousands upon thousands of dancing little snowflakes, Ulquiorra Shiffer closed his eyes and sank to his knees, feeling the little white voids caress his body and kiss his skin with their sweet icy touch, and trickle down his cheeks like silent tears.
Ah...this sensation...this warmth...
Happiness.
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Orihime Inoue stared in awe. She had not been expecting much, but this was extraordinary. Standing alone in her long flowery skirt, warm beige jumper and soft material slip-ons, she felt an alien amidst this mystifying landscape. The desert was white, but now it was a soft, shimmering white of snow. The flakes still fell, but softer now, and did not disturb the habitual silence that reigned here. But now it was not so much a mournful, despairing silence as a calm, tranquil one.
The snow, crisp and illuminated in the moon's soft glow that parted the soft grey clouds, and only the soft crunch of her feet upon it broke the quiet.
Eyes wide, she looked around for a familiar white-clad, black-haired man. He always dressed in his old Espada uniform when he came here. Perhaps to ease the confusion of being back so drastically altered from his former self when his former home remained unchanged.
Or perhaps to contemplate memories of days lost since lost in the sand...
Then she saw something that broke the soft, smooth rise and fall of the dunes.
A shape half-buried amongst the white—a white shape with hints of black—a jagged horn mask...
She gasped, horror freezing her entire body, and ran through the thick powdery substance towards the figure.
As Orihime approached, hot and panting, she saw what she feared.
Ulquiorra, kneeling quietly in the snow, arms loose by his sides, and his lower body almost completely submerged in it. He completed the silence of his surroundings, and simply knelt there, his still expression calm and serene, as if he were floating in exultation.
His eyes were closed.
Snapping out of her trance, Orihime dove forwards and threw her arms around him. Her cheek touched his, and her eyes filled with tears.
It was icy cold. He knelt there, motionless, as if asleep.
She stared, stricken and numb.
No...No, not again...Oh, Ulquiorra, why? Why?...Weren't you happy being with me? Being with us?...Why...why did you think...death was the answer?...
Why?...
Overcome by the quiet and peace in which Ulquiorra had sank himself into his blessed white void, alone in the dark and snow, Orihime Inoue wept on his shoulder amongst the mourning snowflakes and hollow silence.
'...Woman?' a low voice whispered.
The auburn-haired girl gasped as she felt his breath on her cheek.
'Ul-Ulquiorra...?' she murmured, her mind numb with disbelief. She squeezed him tightly. Could it be?...
An annoyed huff sounded from the Espada, clearly miffed at being disturbed.
'Do you plan on throttling me, woman?' Ulquiorra questioned, glancing sideways at her pointedly.
Orihime realised what she was doing and jumped back.
'Oh...I'm...I'm sorry!' she babbled. 'I came to fetch you a few moments ago, and then I saw you and...and...'
Ulquiorra's expression softened.
'You thought I had ended my life?' he finished quietly. The silence was so profound, it was as if they were the only two beings in the whole empty world.
Orihime nodded tearfully.
Ulquiorra closed his eyes.
'...Foolish woman.' he said, though not as reprovingly as the words would suggest. 'I was merely re-living a moment from my past, that is all. Although, I was so immersed in the memory, I suppose I must have lost all sense of what I was doing.'
Orihime stared, her azure-blue eyes shining.
'What were you remembering?' she whispered.
When Ulquiorra opened his jade-green eyes and looked at her, the ancient crescent moon was reflected in them.
'My search for happiness,' he replied, 'within this dead world.'
The snow fell silently around them.
'Since the day I was born into this world, I wandered for centuries, searching always. One day, I came across a vast bush of quartz trees, glowing, as I did amongst the pitch darkness. I finally stopped walking at that moment, believing I had found what I was looking for. I remember thinking that its existence, its sheer meaninglessness yet undeniable presence mirrored my own, and I thought...'
He paused. Orihime squeezed his hand gently, and Ulquiorra continued.
'I thought that by immersing myself into this great 'void', I would end not my life, but the pain of searching endlessly only to find nothing...So I did.'
Suddenly, he lent forwards and rested his body against hers, whispering in her ear as her heart pounded furiously against his chest.
'But instead of feeling 'void', I was overwhelmed by the sensation of being alive. For while the void was pure nothingness, it was clear I was not. I breathed. I was alive. And still, as I lay amongst the glowing branches at the hollow sky, I still found nothing. No peace. No fulfilment. No meaning...'
Orihime bit her lip as welling tears spilled down her cream-coloured skin.
Ulquiorra blinked back to the present, and lent back to survey her tears. His eyes softening, he wiped away her tears with his pale fingers.
'What is this nonsense, woman?' he scolded gently, as she stared at him, curious. 'After all...It was through you I found the 'heart'. I found meaning in the void; within the dark abyss of nothingness...I found the light.'
The snowflakes suddenly stopped falling.
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A small smile crept across Ulquiorra's lips, a smile that mirrored Orihime's blissful one, and gently lent forwards into a kiss which she all too gladly returned, and remained thus, quietly enjoying this beautiful intimacy in the silence and the crisp white snow, bathed in the hoary light of the eternal crescent moon.
When they broke away, Ulquiorra closed his eyes for a moment, enthralled in the intense sensation of life coursing through him. But it was so different from then...it was a warm, gratifying feeling. Since he had been permitted to live with Orihime in the human world he had felt this, but only now could Ulquiorra fully condense those alien feelings to a single, wonderful conclusion:
He was glad to be alive. This woman...Orihime Inoue...had shone the light at the end of that dark, dark tunnel of despair he had been wandering down for so long, and brought meaning to his very existence in the fabric of time.
She had denied everything he believed in, rejected all of his nihilistic thoughts and feelings...and he had never been so glad she had done so.
Smiling, Ulquiorra opened his eyes and brushed the snowflakes from her auburn locks. Giggling, Orihime blushed and did the same to him. With some clumsy almost-trip-ups on Orihime's part, they helped each-other on their feet and brushed the remaining snow from their clothes, and stood together amidst the vast white landscape.
White earth, black sky. Yin and Yang.
Connected, just as they were as they joined hands, looking out at the shimmering whiteness in silence.
Orihime could not stop smiling. She was so happy. She was happy to be here, here with Ulquiorra, the man she loved, together. It filled her with an overwhelming peace and joy.
Hello, halcyon days...
A sudden realisation made her gasp.
Ulquiorra looked down at her curiously.
'Oh no!' she cried. 'I forgot I'd invited everyone over for tea! We've gotta hurry!' In her panic she rushed forwards and tripped over her own feet, landing on her face with a soft fwump! in the snow.
Ulquiorra let slip a small chuckle.
Flushing, Orihime picked herself up and glared at him in comical embarrassment.
'Hey, stop that, or I'll push you over and see how you like it!'
Ulquiorra just smiled.
Orihime huffed, and beamed. It just filled her heart with so much gladness to see him so happy. So happy to be alive. Alive with her.
She reached out a hand to him, her eyes bright and her face glowing with joy.
'Come on, everyone's waiting for us!' she said. 'I won't start the party without you!'
Ulquiorra looked at her delicate hand, smiling as the gesture through which he had been able to smile like this today once again presented itself before him, and took it, bowing slightly.
'Lead on, my lady,' he bode, smiling.
Laughing, Orihime drew him to her, and they enfolded themselves in each other's arms.
Ulquiorra Shiffer looked deep into her sparkling blue eyes, her wonderful heart and soul; the heart and soul now intertwined, like spirit threads, with his.
Ah... he murmured silently, This feeling...this warmth...
The couple drew close and kissed again, their lips connecting in the sweet paradise of love that bound their souls together, and vanished from the dazzling white land of Hueco Mundo, to the home where warm smiles and other wonderful things would be there to greet them.
...Happiness.
End.
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I hope you enjoyed this fic! Please comment and review! :D