Graduation Day

A/N: Hi guys, its Nae. I'm experiencing writer's block, and therefore, I am unable to continue The Assassin right now, sorry =(. But, I decided to try a one-shot, maybe one-shot series, to stay active. It seemed like a good idea. =)

"Woman, you left your cap on the counter," Ulquiorra irritably reminded Orihime. He was used to her being tardy for everything; school, appointments, dates with her friends, etc. But he expected at least some sort of organization in her for a day she considered so important. She bugged him to no end for the last month about this day.

"Oh right!" Orihime stopped midway to the door, almost skidding, and made a u-turn back into the kitchen. She grabbed her velvet-colored cap that matched the flowing gown that she was given the other day. She really liked it, but her roommate believed it was rather simplistic compared to her usual attire.

With her cap in her hand, she dashed back towards the door at full speed, not wanting to be late for her event.

"Woman, I believe your shoes are still in your room," came another irritated reminder. He sighed and sat down on the sofa. He just didn't understand how she could have passed every single one of her classes with A's and B's, when she only made it to school for her 3rd period every day.

"Oh my goodness," Orihime slapped her forehead, and dashed into her room, and into her closet. "Ulquiorra, what would I ever do without you!" She yelled from the closet. While she searched, he thought of anything else she might forget, and vowed to himself that as long a drive as they had to go, coming back was not an option.

She came out of the room with some velvet-colored heels, and slipped them onto her size-7 feet. She stood in front of the door, with her whole cap and gown, hair flowing down her back in long, bouncy curls. She looked great, if Ulquiorra would say so himself. He just felt it was too plain for her.

"Woman, I've been waiting for-"

Orihime opened the front door, and stepped out.

"I'm waiting on you, now!"

They drove for hours until they finally reached the Hiroshima Auditorium, where Orihime's graduation ceremony was to take place. The building was astonishingly large. It was a large glass dome, with black chairs seated all around it that they could see from the outside.

When they finally pulled into the driveway, Orihime stepped out of the passenger's side of the car, and with a loud gasp, sat back down in her seat. Ulquiorra got out of the car, and when he realized that she wasn't out, he sat back down in the driver's seat, where he found her in tears.

"Woman, what is the matter?" He asked, in an annoyed tone.

"Ulqui-qui-qui-quiorra!" She grabbed his shirt, and began bawling into the sleeve, which was silk, and he did not appreciate her 'marring' it with her tears. He sighed heavily.

"I understand that this is such a moving, and emotional experience for you, but there is no reason for you to cry."

Slowly, crying became quiet and soon silent sobs. She lifted her head and wiped her eyes, then looked up at Ulquiorra, with her shoulders still hitching.

"It's not the graduation that I'm crying about, Ulquiorra. I- I. . ."

"Out with it," he urged impatiently.

"I left my camera!" She then burst out into a new set of tears, and replaced her head back into its spot on his sleeve.

"Absolutely not."

"Pleeeaaaassssssssssse!" Orihime begged all the way towards the reception, causing quite a scene. Ulquiorra had already stated that they would not return to the house for anything, and Orihime couldn't take it.

The woman at the reception desk looked at the pair with disgust. A pale man and one of the graduating students; the man obviously not tending to the student's need, and they were causing quite a commotion at such a professional event.

When Ulquiorra approached the desk, he was polite and respectful with the woman at the desk, and he ignored Orihime's background pleas.

"You're not listening to me!"

"Inoue, Orihime," he told the woman, whose tag said Jun Hiiro.

"Ulquiorra, I need to take pictures, you don't understand!"

"Inoue, Orihime . . . yes she's number 569 on the roll list, and she's supposed to already be seated. They've just called up number 152," Jun replied in an aggravated tone. Apparently, she didn't favor tardiness either. Something we have in common.

"I'm going to hate you forever!"

"Thank you."

They both made it into the main auditorium, where all of Orihime's graduating class was already seated, silent, and waiting to receive their diplomas. Orihime made her way to her seat as quiet as possible, while Ulquiorra took a different route, to where Orihime believed was the bleachers. She received quite a few stares and glares because of how late she was, and the fact that her appearance was slightly disheveled from all the crying. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her bottom lip poked out. She was glad that she decided not to wear make-up.

Luckily for Orihime, her seat was right next to Uryu Ishida. He, too, stared at her as she approached her seat.

"Orihime, one would think that you'd be on time for your graduation in the least!" He whispered next to her. That's when he noticed her face. "Were you crying? Was it that Ulquiorra son of a-"

"No, no everything's fine! Let's just enjoy this!" Orihime whispered back with a bright smile.

Uryu didn't look convinced, but he turned his attention back to the stage nonetheless. Orihime looked around the room for Ulquiorra, but couldn't find him. She found Kisuke and his employees in the front row at the bottom next to Kurosaki's family. She found Renji and his captain at the top row in the back. She even found Soi Fon next to Yoruichi, but no sign of Ulquiorra.

"Fuji Kaname." Fuji got up from his seat and walked up the stage for his diploma. Everyone clapped as he shook the principal's hand and walked off the stage. They were going to be there for a while.

The woman had really outdone herself this time. Her constant tears, and puffy eyes and poked out lip had finally gotten to Ulquiorra, and he couldn't stand to see her cry anymore. So as soon as she had found her seat beside the Quincy trash, he made his move. He made his way through the crowd of families that had come to watch their children graduate, until he made it back to his car, in which as soon as he got in and started it, he took off. He had hours of road to cover, and he didn't want to miss Orihime walking across the stage.

He knew he was going way over the speed limit, but who was a police officer to stop him? All Ulquiorra would have to do was impale him with a Cero, and the problem would be solved. No one would ever know who did it, or how it happened.

Then the car began to slow down gradually, and eventually, it stopped. Ulquiorra mentally slapped himself for forgetting to put gas into the car before they left the house. If the woman hadn't been so slow and forgetful in her preparation, he wouldn't even have been in this situation.

Ulquiorra got out of the car and waited for a car to pass by that might be able to assist him. But the road was empty, and void of life. Ulquiorra didn't want to do this, in fear of damaging his beautiful Mercedes, but it seemed he had no choice is the matter. He lifted up the car with both hands and began down the street, searching for signs of a gas station. While he still had his Espada strength, his gigai weakened him down to so many levels, and as soon as he sensed a gas station, he would sonido his way in that direction.

Since the universe wasn't on his side, he was out of luck when a police car pulled up beside him, cruising next to him as he held the car above his head.

"Wow son, you're pretty strong for a twig!" The officer in the passenger seat and the driver seat began laughing hysterically. They dared mock his size, and sarcastically deemed him weak-looking. "Sir, I'm going to give you a ticket. You're walking on the road with the car above your head, and you're moving way below the speed limit."

Ulquiorra put the car down, ready to obliterate them with a Cero, but then thought of the woman and what she would think of him if he did that. So he snatched the ticket from the officer and tossed it somewhere in the car. Then he bent down to pick the car back up.

"Sir, we need your license and registration."

It annoyed him to no end, how neither of the unprofessional even exited their vehicle to administer the ticket, or inspect his license and registration. But Ulquiorra decided to play by their rules, and reached in the glove compartment for his things to hand them to the officers through their passenger window.

"He's legit," said the officer on the passenger side, after checking it out. "Okay, you're free to go." Then they pulled off.

"Trash."

Two hours later, Ulquiorra had finally reached home, and found the stupid camera that the woman had made such a fuss over. He didn't know long it would be before it was the woman's turn to walk across the stage but he didn't want to miss it, so he hurried out of the house as fast as he could. He contemplated on whether or not he should sonido with the car, but decided against it, because he had no insurance. Speeding was the best option.

Two hours onto the road, he reached the same road in which he had run out of gas, and warily, he looked at the gas meter; he had a whole half-tank left. But then again, the universe was never on his side. He heard the sirens behind him, and with a heavy sigh, he pulled over.

This time, the officer got out of the car. It was the same officer from earlier.

"Sir, do you know just how fast you were going?"

Orihime was getting nervous. It had been four hours and they were getting awfully close to her name, but she still couldn't find any sign of Ulquiorra. Was he mad at her? Did he hate her for crying because she left her camera? Did he leave her there alone because he was so mad he didn't want to watch her graduate? All these thoughts threatened to bring tears to her eyes, and if Uryu noticed, he didn't say anything about it.

"Jin Imura." Jin got up from her seat beside Orihime, and walked onto the stage for her diploma and picture because she was the Valedictorian. Orihime's stomach began to drop as they went over all of Jin's hundreds of achievements, and soon enough Jin walked off the stage and back to her seat beside her.

"Orihime Inoue." Slowly, Orihime rose, her face red, stomach doing flip flops. She slowly walked from her seat around to the stage. She smiled at her principal and shook his hand as he handed her the high school diploma she'd worked 13 years of her life for. Thinking about that helped her take her mind off of the problem at hand, and she was able to truly smile at her graduating class, who smiled back, forgetting that she was late in the first place. After the principal had read off her achievements, she exited the stage, not even hearing all of the cheers she was receiving because her mind was on the one person she didn't see, or receive a cheer from, the one person who really mattered.

Ulquiorra thought of how angry the woman would be when she got into the car and found that he had brought two tickets with him in all the trouble to get that camera. She'd be okay, he resolved.

Ulquiorra watched the woman get off the stage and back to her seat. Perhaps he didn't realize the corners of his mouth had turned up ever so slightly at the sight of her beautiful smile when she received her diploma. He had raised the camera and captured that moment, knowing she'd be ecstatic to see that picture when she got it developed. He felt warm knowing that he could put a smile on the woman's face and make her truly happy.

However, as she walked down the steps, her smile slowly faded. Was the woman not happy to have finally graduated with such high achievements? (He inwardly coughed with a smirk knowing he had 'nothing' to do with those achievements.) Was she not satisfied? Or was she perhaps still worried over the camera? He watched as she returned to her seat beside the Quincy, who smiled at her, making Ulquiorra frown when she smiled back.

Several hours later, the graduation was over. Everyone stood, graduates included, and gave one last round of applause. Ulquiorra pushed his way through the crowd and made his way toward the woman, camera in hand. Did she even notice he had left? As oblivious as she was, he decided probably not. He pushed through the combined families and graduates, feeling quite annoyed, until he found the woman leaning against the wall with the most pitiful expression on her face.

"Orihime."

Her eyes shot up at her name in Ulquiorra's mouth. She was absolutely stunned and surprised to find a stoic Ulquiorra approaching her, with her camera in his hand, and her name in his mouth.

"Ulquiorra . . ." Orihime jumped off the wall and through her arms around Ulquiorra's neck with a tight hug, and the brightest smile on her face. Better than the smile she gave the Quincy, Ulquiorra thought with pride. "I thought you had left me because you were angry with me. I'm so sorry. Thank you!"

Ulquiorra would usually find this position uncomfortable, but he was surprised to find himself instinctively wrapping his own arms around her lower back, and slightly disappointed when she finally let go. She took the camera from his hand smiling from ear-to-ear and opening it to see the pictures he had taken. Her smile was wiped off her face in seconds, and Ulquiorra didn't miss it.

"Ulquiorra . . .?" Orihime's voice trailed off.

"What is it woman?"

"Where is the film?"