Who Are You?
Part 9
Ulquiorra's head rested nicely against the headboard as he sat on the right side of his bed with Yanagi on his lap and still in his arms, Orihime sleeping on the left. Yanagi's head was nestled even more nicely in the crook of his neck. Her fists unconsciously gripped the front of his shirt as her even breathing ghosted across his neck.
Ulquiorra never thought that he could be so at peace. It was amazing how this creature could infuriate him beyond all rationality with her words and then cause him to feel completely relaxed within the next five minute. How could she do it?
Grimmjow had left—finally—after about Yanagi's fifth song. The only good things Ulquiorra saw in that was that he got to listen to the music too, and that Grimmjow received quite a few jibes from Yanagi about his insistence.
But one of the bad things about their little "pow-wow", as Yanagi called it, was the strange and unpleasant emotion that played across Orihime's face every time she looked at Yanagi.
Was something wrong with her?
Was something upsetting her?
Apparently so.
Ulquiorra sighed aloud. There wasn't much he could do about it now. He played with Yanagi's charcoal locks for what must have been the hundredth time that hour.
As Ulquiorra absently played with the sleeping Yanagi, Orihime was not in a good place. It seemed that even in her dreams she could not find rest. First she had loved Ichigo. Before Rukia came, it had simply been shyness that had kept her from stating her feelings to him. Then afterward, it seemed that it wouldn't matter if she told Ichigo or not because he had fallen in love with Rukia.
Orihime had been devastated. Not that she would ever show it willingly.
And then here…she had hated Ulquiorra at first. She had hated him with a burning passion. Then when Yanagi woke up her hatred had been pushed to the back of her mind as she connected to the younger girl. The way Yanagi had—and still did—mocked Ulquiorra constantly gave Orihime the gifts of confidence and humor.
Her hatred had all but been forgotten. In fact, if she was being honest with herself, she was overjoyed when their captor had walked in at the middle of the night to check up on them. Now instead of fantasizing about Ichigo and how he would look when he came to rescue her from this god-forsaken-place, she fantasized about Ulquiorra coming in and sweeping her off her feet.
She just couldn't get away from love, could she?
But now—for the second time—it didn't seem to matter what she felt. It was getting quite obvious that Ulquiorra had feelings for Yanagi—though Orihime was unsure if Yanagi felt the same or if Ulquiorra would actually state his feelings out loud.
Orihime's mind continued to spin in painful spirals as she dreamed of her second love head-over-heels for someone she considered a sister.
If there is a god, goddess, or anything else like that, they are very cruel…Orihime thought in her sleep.
As Ulquiorra's wondering thoughts circled Yanagi and Orihime's dreams painted picture after picture of Ulquiorra, Yanagi's consciousness was I blissful space as she fantasized about jelly doe-nuts and chocolate brownies.
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Yanagi blinked her heavy eyes. Her hand was grabbing something dark, soft but shaggy, and kinda long…
"If you're awake, would you please let go of my hair now?" Ulquiorra said, his breath ruffling her hair.
Yanagi yelped.
Faster than you could say "shut-up, you stupid monkey" [Me: I know it's stupid, but I'm bored.] Yanagi was out of Ulquiorra's embrace and on the other side of the room.
Ulquiorra just blinked at her. What did he say? He frowned; though he would never admit it, he rather did like having Yanagi in his arms.
Apparently Yanagi's yelp was loud enough to wake Orihime. The older girl shifted in her sleep before groaning and sitting up. There was no point in trying to sleep now.
"What's going on?" Orihime asked, her voice thick with sleep. She looked over to where Yanagi had run—her cheeks were now tomato red—and then back at Ulquiorra—he was looking at Yanagi with a slightly stunned look on his face and his arms halfway reaching out; like he was about to hug air.
"What's going on?" Orihime asked again.
Yanagi pointed a shaky finger at Ulquiorra and shouted—rather loudly—"He was hugging me!"
Ulquiorra blinked again, "Yes, but by doing that I was keeping you from rolling off me and falling on the hard floor," he said without emotion.
Yanagi's cheeks got redder, "Well sorry if I freaked because I woke up with someone's hair in my face!" Yanagi knew she was making a fool of herself, but didn't know what else to do. How do you recover from embarrassment like this?
Luckily for Yanagi, at that moment, Orihime's stomach growled. Yanagi's followed suit within thirty seconds.
"I suppose I should go get you two some food." Ulquiorra said, still a little hesitant to leave the room for a reason he couldn't describe. Perhaps he was fond of Yanagi? No, he wasn't supposed to feel. Well, it was a little late for that; he already was feeling things he could never remember feeling. And the odd thing was that he enjoyed it.
Ulquiorra shuck the thoughts away. He would have time to ponder this later.
Ulquiorra made his way to his door in three long strides and down the hall with five more.
That was when the problems started happening.
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Yanagi and Orihime were sitting on the bed telling stories again. Yanagi had just finished telling the story of creation according to Greek mythology. Now it was Orihime's turn.
"Oh, there was that time when Ichigo got angry at the gym teacher and challenged him to a wrestling match in middle school. He beat him and the whole class laughed for days. We still do whenever someone brings it up."
"I'll bet."
"Yep! For the rest of the year people brought it up as often as they could and the gym teacher would blush super red every time!"
Yanagi was about to respond but was cut off as Ulquiorra walked in—his was blasted to shreds and smoking in some places—followed by a cart of food pushed by another Arrancar servant.
"What the hell happened to you?" Yanagi asked, trying to keep the concern out of her voice but failing miserably.
Oh no, she thought, I'm actually starting to like him! How the hell am I supposed to escape when I like—maybe even like-like, though I hope not—the person I'm escaping from?!
Because of Yanagi's morbid monologue she didn't hear Ulquiorra's response. But Orihime did.
The next thing Yanagi knew Orihime was in the floor balling her eyes out and clutching her head with her hands.
"Orihime!" Yanagi shouted while rushing to her sister's side, "What the hell did he say?! What's wrong?!"
Orihime just shook her head and made incoherent noises. Ulquiorra sighed and tried to lift Orihime back on the bed, but as soon as he got close enough Orihime slapped him and shouted at him not to come near her ever again.
Yanagi sat next to Orihime, clueless about what was going on and scrambling for ways to help. She had none.
Ulquiorra turned to dismiss the Arrancar who had brought in the food with him, but found that he had already left. Normally Ulquiorra would have gone after the Arrancar to punish him for leaving without permission, but right now he had bigger things to worry about.
How was supposed to calm Orihime down? He looked over at Yanagi to see that she had just as clueless look on her face that he probably did. Now he was really screwed.
Ulquiorra and Yanagi waited helplessly as Orihime cried herself out and went back to sleep. Once Yanagi had finished tucking Orihime in she turned to face Ulquiorra and fearlessly said, "Alright spill; what the fuck happened?"