A/n: I own nothing. Please checkout my pack mates fics Sesshomarufreak, TheDrunkenWerewolf and Ganymede Lullaby. Also read Totoromo's comedy pieces she(?) is hilarious. Set from when Yammy and Ulquiorra meet to the ulq/ichigo fight anime 270-3
When Ulquiorra first arrived at las Noches he was still just a vasto lorde. After wandering the halls for a bit he came across a huge arrancar standing in front of a presumably locked door, repeatedly trying to get a key to work. After watching in vague amusement for a while it simply got pathetic and he approached the arrancar. He was weaker than most everyone else here and an ally would be useful.
"What is the problem?" he asked.
"Key's bad," the huge arrancar replied trying the key again to demonstrate. Okay so obviously not a member of Aizen-sama's think tank. Ulquioraa sighed.
"Let me see?" he offered. The arrancar handed him the key-ring and he proceeded to try different ones.
"It's that one," the arrancar said pointing.
"That one is obviously not working," he replied. Thankfully the key he was currently trying did, he could feel murderous anger building in the arrancar's reiatsu.
"But…It's that one," he said confused.
Ulquiorra shrugged, "Maybe you accidentally moved them," it didn't seem outside of the realm of possibility.
"No!" he snapped. Ulquiorra let the conversation drop, as he turned to walk away he saw a flash of electric blue hair and frowned.
X
The blue haired arrancar approached him that evening. He learned later that the arrancar's name was Grimmjow. In hindsight this was obvious, who else was that juvenile?
"You ruined my fun," he snarled.
"What?" Ulquiorra asked.
"You gave Yammy his key. I wanted to see how long it was going to take," he replied. Ulquioraa considered enlightening the man as to the definition of 'fun' but, decided that it wasn't worth the effort.
"I think you would have been waiting awhile," he replied. Grimmjow barked a laugh.
"I guess I'm jus' gonna have to let you entertain me instead," he said. "Run!" Ulquioraa did just that but, a vasto lorde no matter how powerful is no match for an arrancar and he quickly found himself becoming acquainted with a wall. For the next ten minutes Grimmjow playfully beat him half to death. He lay dazed on the floor waiting for the next blow to fall when suddenly his assailant went flying into the wall next to him sliding into a heap a few feet away. He raised his head slowly expecting to see Aizen-sama, only to be greeted by the huge arrancar again.
"The fuck are you doing," Grimmjow snarled rising to his feet. Yammy didn't answer, merely stood there radiating malice, Grimmjow made as graceful a retreat as he could mumbling something about having Shinigami to kill.
"You're called Yammy right?" Ulquiorra asked.
"Yes,"
"Why did you help?"
"Fuck Grimjoww," well at least this Yammy was succinct.
He contemplated it for a moment and decided that it was a perfectly reasonable explanation,"Well thank you regardless, I'm Ulquioraa."
x
When he became an Espada they found…he wouldn't deign to call it friendship it was more symbiosis. Yammy took advantage of his intellect and in exchange gave him a ridiculous amount of loyalty and obedience despite his power and shifting status. It was an…acceptable situation.
x
Ulquiorra was of value to Aizen-sama because he was different from the other arrancar. He did not cause any infighting outside of Grimjoww's jealousy of him, followed orders to the letter not seeking his own glory, in short he had no ambition,. He didn't care where he stood. His only desire was to make others feel as empty as he. In a world where everyone was like him, with that hole in their chest he wouldn't be alone. He couldn't understand the passion others felt, striving for what? Why? It made no sense, caused nothing but trouble and was extremely annoying besides.
Then he met her, a simple job acquire and break the god-girl. No matter how hard he tried though he could not break her, she kept talking about her damn friends like they were some sort of tailisman. He began to think that maybe that this was why people had passion, there was utterly illogical strength in it. He didn't understand this thing, wanted to toy and experiment with it but, orders were orders. Then the day came that he realized he'd never break her. He'd left the room more abruptly than he should have, returning to his quarters. For the first time in memory he wished he could weep, yet no tears came.
x
He preferred midnight, the hour of despair, his hour. As he fought Ichigo under the Hueco Mundo night sky he felt the closest thing to alive that he could feel. He watched the demonic form before him, so similar yet so different, fueled by rage and helplessness rather then pure emptiness. He realized that he was seeing his opponent's darkest moment. Perhaps if he defeated Ichigo his opponent would despair. Maybe they could stay together in the pitch black forever and he wouldn't be alone any more.
That old fool Barragan had one thing right: everything with awareness of itself be it human, Shinigami or even arrancar needed something to believe in…a leader, a god, a cause. He had nothing, his death aspect was emptiness, nihilism then Aizen-sama had come. What he wanted, his ambition didn't matter to Ulquiorra. It was enough that the man had a mission and he could help. He had a purpose now even if it wasn't his own.
As the contest wore on and blood dripped from both his and his opponant's accumulating wounds he wondered if perhaps he'd misunderstood the godgirl's speeches about her 'heart'. Perhaps she had been talking about a sort of belief, the belief that her friends would save her. He saw the strength that Kurosaki drew from his 'need' to do so. He had seen the archer fight him, completely aware that he couldn't win just to give the godgirl time to heal Kurosaki. It could be argued that the boy guessed his friend being healed was the only way he himself could survive, but he likely would have had a better shot just running and he wasn't stupid. He fought because he believed that he could save Kurosaki who would in turn stay to save him and the godgirl. It was an incredible case study.
Enlightened self-interest was what drove Ulquiorra to move his broken body and strike the white demon, if Kurosaki killed the archer, he would then finish off Ulquiorra himself. It had absolutely nothing to do with the godgirl's tearful begging. What difference did it make to him if one of her people killed the other when they were all going to die anyway? Her shrieking was hurting his ears though, he did wish she'd stop.
x
As her captor faded away Orihime knew. He had kept asking if she was scared because he genuinely didn't understand. He knew that he'd die alone, in his mind everyone would. Of course the fact that she wasn't scared wouldn't make sense to him. He wouldn't be able to grasp how she knew that she'd be remembered, that her friends would fight on and carry her memory with them. He wasn't so lucky and in that moment she could see the terror in his eyes. She reached out to him and saw the change when he figured out that she had grown to care a little despite herself, in this one moment he wasn't alone. She saw the look— as close to peace as she'd seen—cross his face as he disappeared.