Title: Pity Versus Love
Pairings: UlquiHime
Rating: K
Spoilers: The whole of Weber's Phantom of the Opera…kind of.
Word count: 567
I tried to make this one more UlquiHime than the last one was. I apologize in advance for the really weird/crappy summary of POTO.
Please remember to review! Enjoy!
" Have you ever seen The Phantom of the Opera before, Ulquiorra-san?" Orihime asked, looking up at her guard expectantly. He stared at her blankly.
" What?"
She smiled and replied, " The Phantom of the Opera. It's a musical…well…. Actually, now that I think about it, it was a book before it was a musical. And there are a lot of movies that are based off the book and then there was that movie that was based off of the musical…"
" Please get to the point," Ulquiorra demanded. She had only been in Las Noches for a few days and her incessant chatter was already driving him to the edge of what little sanity he possessed.
' How is it that she is able to irritate me with such little effort on her part?' he wondered.
She let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head. " Sorry. My friends told me I tended to babble a lot and go off topic and such."
" I would have never guessed," Ulquiora replied in a somewhat sarcastic tone, although Orihime didn't notice it.
" Well," she started, "the story is about a girl named Christine and she's a great singer, but no one really expects her to be a great singer, but one person, the Phantom can see the potential she has and decides to train her and make her a big star and all, which he does. However, her childhood sweetheart, Raoul, sees her when she is becoming famous and, remembering her, kinda wants to start where they left off…"
He closed his eyes, hoping that she would finish with her "summary" soon.
" Anyway, Christine is happy that he remembers her and she falls even more in love with Raoul, but she feels obligated to the Phantom and the Phantom has already fallen in love with her and he kidnaps her…"
Ulquiorra opened his eyes at this part and turned his attention to what she was saying.
" And, well, to make a long story short, there's a big confrontation at the end of the story between the three, Christine, Raoul, and the Phantom. Either she has to stay with the Phantom and be his wife or not be his wife and have the Phantom kill the one she loves. In the end, she kisses the Phantom and he lets the two of them go off to be happy, even though he's in love with her."
" Hm," he replied.
She let out a soft sigh, her eyes becoming softer. " As much as I'm glad that the two got to be together in the end, I can't help but feel bad for the Phantom. He loved her too! Sometimes, I think she should have stayed with him instead. Don't you think so, Ulquiorra-san?"
Orihime saw that his face was the slightest bit softer than usual. Looking directly into her eyes, he answered, " No."
" Eh? Why not?" she asked, her eyes widening.
There was a moment of silence in the room, the two just staring at the other. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Ulquiorra finally answered.
" The Phantom loved her and desired for her to love him in return, correct? She would have stayed with him only because she pitied him. Pity…" he said, his eyes looking downward, " is not the same as love."