Disclaimer: I do not own Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Bleach.
Chapter Two
The following morning at breakfast, Aizen announced to Ulquiorra that Yammy would take him out to the forest to pick berries. So once Ulquiorra had gotten dressed into his white princely clothing (Aizen's orders of course) the two set out on foot.
Ulquiorra had only spoken to Yammy once before so there wasn't much to say during their trip. He noticed the large huntsman wasn't directly looking at him, and he appeared to be nervous. But Ulquiorra didn't pay too much attention to him beyond that. He crouched over a bush of wild berries and began to pick as he was instructed to do so.
"I've never seen this color of berries before…." He murmured as he examined the fruit. He couldn't name the color, but it reminded him of the color of Prince Grimmjow's hair. He blushed at remembrance of Grimmjow. He looked forward to seeing him again today, as promised.
Just then, a small bluebird came flying out of the bush and startled him so he flinched backwards. Ulquiorra watched as it tried to start flight once more. But alas the little blue bird could not do so. Ulquiorra picked the bird up gently and held it in his open palms.
"You appear to be lost, am I correct?" The bird chirped up at him. He replied, "And you're parents? You mustn't have any, right?" He felt empathy for the bluebird and petted his head softly. "You are lucky to have such beautiful wings though. You should put them to use." He raised his hands higher and gave a gentle push, so the bird flew up into the air and disappeared.
Ulquiorra resumed back to his berry picking, but stopped when he felt an ominous presence upon him. A dark shadow covered most of the place in which he sat. He said as he turned around, "Yammy, I would appreciate if y-" and he stopped when he saw Yammy with an ax raised at him. Ulquiorra backed up in fear. Yammy made a lunge for him- Ulquiorra shut his eyes waiting for the impact, but all he heard next was the giant's blubbering and wailing. He opened his eyes and saw him crouched on the ground.
"I'm sorry, I can't do it!" Yammy cried.
Ulquiorra watched him in fear, confusion. "I don't understand. Why were you trying to kill me, trash?"
"It was King Aizen's orders- he wants you dead your highness!"
"My father?" His shoulders drooped and he bit his lip. He had always known Aizen hated him but to have him killed was simply too much.
"He won't rest until you're dead, boy! You need to run while you can."
Ulquiorra glared at him. "I thank you for saving me Yammy but the fact that you waited until now-"
"Run!"
Ulquiorra shook his head and advanced into the forest, still hearing Yammy's constant shouting. Trash, he thought, must he be so dramatic. He had gotten far enough that he couldn't hear the huntsman anymore and paid more attention on his surroundings.
It was dark, very dark. And Ulquiorra had never been out in the wilderness before. There were all kinds of creepy sounds and ghastly looking shapes. He quickened his pace, only to trip over something hard and thick, a branch possibly. He quickly picked himself back up and started to run now. Things flew at him, trees tried to grab him with their long arms. He tripped and fell again but didn't get up. Ulquiorra covered his eyes and cowered there. He kept wishing of a safe place where no one and nothing could harm him.
When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by forest creatures; rabbits, squirrels, doe and birds. He gasped. They watched him in puzzlement. Ulquiorra felt better now that he realized he wasn't alone, or surrounded by goblins and ghouls. He wanted to laugh at how he had acted just then. It was only a forest, nothing more. "More importantly, why does it seem that I always attract cute little animals?" he pondered this out loud and received only the cooing of birds as an answer.
"If you want me to sing, I'm not going to do it."
They looked at him as if to say, "it'll make you feel better! And the little animals were being so nice, looking up at him with their big eyes. He gave in with a sigh.
"With a smile and a song, life is just like a bright sunny day…"
He finished the song with most of the animals cuddling around him. He said, "I guess I do feel better now. Maybe things won't be so bad. But I will need somewhere I can sleep. If I'm going to live in this filthy forest, I cannot possibly rest in a log or birds nest like you animals. Do you know of such a place?"
The little animals nodded and jumped up in down.
"Could you take me there?"
They began to push him and led him through the forest. He thought at least there is an advantage to having all of these animals around him. They took him to a small but cozy cottage in the forests clearing, right across from a small river. Ulquiorra marveled at how quaint it was, much better than the pale white walls of Aizen's castle. He walked over the little bridge on the river and approached the house.
"It doesn't look like anyone lives here…" he said as he knocked. When there was no answer from inside the house, he opened the door cautiously.
Inside he gasped at the uncleanliness of the place. "The people that live here must be filthy little children, considering the mess," he figured this as well from the tiny furniture. He wondered if they wouldn't mind him staying there as long as he cleaned for them. He set to work to clean the filthy home.
Once he was done, Ulquiorra looked at the improvement in satisfaction. He went upstairs to see what else needed cleaning. There was just one room which held an array of several small little beds. He read the names aloud curiously. "There's; Doc, Happy, Sneezy and Dopey, Grumpy, Bashful and Sleepy. What strange names…." Noticing the comfy beds, he began to realize how tired he was. "I suppose they wouldn't mind if I fell asleep here," he yawned and rested along the beds.
...
Seven tiny Espada anxiously made their way out of the diamond mines to go home for the day. They marched in a straight line all through the forest until they got to their little cottage. But Aaroneiro, who was at the head of the group, stopped and noticed something off.
"Stop- there's someone in the house," he told them all.
Behind him, Barragan pushed him out of the way. "What do you mean there's somebody in our house! It's our house, isn't it?"
"The lights are on," he said with a shrug.
Syzael said, "Maybe we should go greet them!" with a smile.
Barragan pounded him on the head with his fist and remarked, "you idiot- why would we greet intruders? They might be ghouls or worse- witches!"
"W-witches!" Nel exclaimed as she hid behind Harribel who was blushing.
Behind her, Nnoitra sneezed, thus waking up Stark who had been snoozing on his shoulder.
"More or less, we should confront them," Aaroneiro commanded. He led the line of Espada toward the cottage quietly. He opened the door and they walked in. "Check every nook and nanny- I mean nook and cranny before we go upstairs." They nodded and crept around the house, pulling out drawers, looking under tables and opening cupboards.
"Hey! Everything is clean!" Syzael exclaimed happily.
"Even the windows are washed- I can finally see myself through the glass," Harribel murmured. She blushed at her image in the window.
Nnoitra came up behind her and grinned, "and yer looken pretty good too." He tried to wink at her, but his attempt only made him sneeze. Harribel didn't even have to hit him- his failure was enough.
Nel also decided to check out the place. She went underneath the table and gasped, "the witches swept the floor!" When she made to get up she hit her head on the wood and hissed in pain.
Szyael was jumping around with a silly smile, but some didn't appreciate the newly cleaned room like he did. Barragan for example just grumbled and folded his big hairy arms across his chest. "I don't like this," he said. "I can smell trouble in the air."
Aarroneiro said, "no matter what, today- I mean okay- I mean I have to say, that the cleanliness is quite an improvement." He smiled at everything.
"And there's no more dishes on this table. It's clean enough to sleep on now..." Starrk drawled out as he climbed onto it and laid down. Barragan hit him over the head, thus waking him out of his semi-slumber.
"This is no time to sleep you fool! Whoever the intruder is, is still here!"
They nodded in unison. Aaroneiro pointed to the staircase. "We should go up there now. It's the only place left to check."
The seven espada crept upstairs quietly and when Nnoitra showed signs of a sneeze, he received a large thunk on the head from Barragan. He hissed at them to be quiet as they ascended the top of the stairs. Suddenly they heard a loud groaning sound.
Syzael screamed and jumped into Nnoitra's arms, Nel hid behind Harribel and Stark woke up from his nap on Nel's shoulder.
"What was that!" Syzael shrieked. Nnoitra took one look in his arms and made a face of disgust before dropping the pink-haired espada.
"It was a ghoul, I think," Harribel stated. The more she tried to look serious the more she blushed.
Barragan fumed. "Not in my house it isn't!" he hissed. "Alright I'm going up there right now to take care of this. And I don't want any of you shrieking Sally's to follow me!" He looked back directly at Syzael who pouted. Nnoitra hissed in laughter.
Aaroneiro said, "I'm going too ol man, you can't expect to fight off that thing by yourself."
When the two leaders of the group left, more of the Espada followed after as well, some of them not wanting to be left alone, like Syzael who shrieked again and ran after the group.
Barragan kicked in the door, walked to the bed and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Alright you monster- you have exactly three seconds before I pound the living daylight into you!" Aaroneiro chuckled, while the rest of the Espada were tense and ready for an attack as they circled the intruder lying on their beds. "1…. 2…. 3!" He was about to attack just when the thing under the sheets rose as if yawning and came out from underneath the bedspread. Everyone gasped.
Harribel blushed; a very pretty man was lying on her bed! However much she wanted to hurt this strange man for lying in her bed, she couldn't fight the blush or thought that she was flattered by this beautiful man.
Nel gasped in awe, and Nnoitra, ever the pervert, licked his lips, and then sneezed. Even Barragan couldn't hold back his gasp. Coyote Starrk had never seen such a pretty boy before, but he really wanted to take a nap on that nice soft bed that called to him. And while everyone else was in shock, Aaroneiro was the only one who kept his cool. He smiled charmingly at the boy in the bed.
Now, Ulquiorra who had just woken up, was a bit shocked to see seven tiny people by his- or theirs, for that matter- bedside. He wanted to laugh at how ridiculous these people looked. But they didn't seem to be a threat, so Ulquiorra decided he'd better his chances. Overall, he knew these seven people were most likely wondering why he was in their bed.
"You're a pretty boy!" Nel exclaimed.
Barragan returned back to his grumbling self and decided against hitting the teal-haired espada on the head. He folded his arms against his chest and glared at the 'pretty boy.'
Ulquiorra responded, "Thank you."
"Well it's nice to meet you…." Aaroneiro left off.
"Ulquiorra, and you must be the owners of this, correct?" he inquired with a tilt of his pretty little head.
"Yeah we are," he said with a raw smile that would have made Ulquiorra blush if the man was taller, and not freakishly small.
"What are you doing in our house!" Baragan demanded. He was tired of Aaroneiro beating around the bush. Who made him the leader anyways? It was Barragan who was much older and stronger than any of the espada.
Ulqiuorra wasn't surprised at the angry little man's response. He was wondering why it was taking them so long to ask him. He answered, "I came across this place while I was lost in the woods. I have nowhere to go you see… and I was wondering-"
"The answer is no! You can't live with us!"
Aaroneiro chuckled, "Ol man, he has nowhere to go. Isn't it only or duty to offer hospitality to a lost little boy in the woods?"
Syzael grinned, not that he was no longer afraid of what he thought Ulquiorra was. He said, "it would be nice to have a pretty face around here other than mine too!"
Nnoittra almost barfed at hearing Syzael call himself pretty. But there was no doubt that Ulquiorra was indeed pretty. He said, "the only pretty one I see here is Ulquiorra."
"Are you trying to say Nel and I aren't pretty?" Harribel demanded. Beside her, Nel nodded her head with a pout.
Nnoitra was about to respond until Barragan filled the room with his loud voice again. "Stop the jibber-jabbing you fools! He's not stayen here and that's final!"
Ulquiorra thought he'd say something to improve his case before the seven tiny people erupted into a brawl again. "I don't mean to be a burden. If not for the King I wouldn't be here at all…"
"The King!" The seven espada exclaimed at once.
"What does the ring-I mean the King have to do with you?" Aaroneiro asked.
Ulqiorra felt he could trust them enough not to turn him in. He said, "I am the prince, and the King wants me dead. So I cannot go back there, at all. If so… I will be killed."
They gasped and looked at Barragan who still refused the idea. "He definitely can't stay here now!"
"Barragan-"
"Don't you understand- if the King wants him dead he'll come looking for him. I don't want to feel Lord Aizen's wrath if we go against him!"
"Why Barragan, don't be such a grouch. Ulqi-Ulquiorra needs our help, and I don't see any reason not to help him. What Aizen doesn't know won't hurt him." Barragan grumbled, but he had no other comebacks that he hadn't used already. He still didn't like the idea. "Everyone who wants Ulquiorra to stay, raise your hand," Aaroneiro told them. And in fact, everyone who was there did raise their hand, except for Barragan of course.
Ulquiorra felt like smiling. He said, "Thank you very much." He kept his straight face. "I promise you all I won't be a burden. I'll cook and clean, and do all the housework to make up for it."
"Well that's settled then, he's staying. As long as you make delicious meals for us everyday," Aaroneiro said with a smile. The fellow espada nodded.
"It'll be nice to have edible food for a change…" Harribel mumbled.
Syzael gasped, "my food is edible!"
Nnoitra chuckled, "you mean your experiments…"
"May I ask, what all of your names are? Actually I might have an idea to all of your names." He looked at Aaroneiro, who appeared to be the leader of the group. He was devilishly handsome, and had a great smile, for being so short. He looked the most confident of the group, and yet Ulquirra noticed he stuttered a whole lot. "You are doc," he said.
Aaroneiro laughed. "The name's Aaroneiro, that's just a nick-nack, nickel- I mean nickname."
"I don't mean to be rude, but why on earth do you keep talking like that?"
He shrugged. "It started out of nowhere last week."
"And all of you have these silly nicknames?"
"Why yes, I'm sure you can see why they were given to us. That's Syzael, otherwise known as-"
"Happy," the prince interrupted. Syzael, who was a silly looking man with pink hair and odd spectacles over his eyes, was smiling widely for no reason at all really. When Ulquiorra guessed his nickname he started laughing.
"Very good, prince," Aaroneiro said. "Can you guess the rest?"
"Well, next to Syzael must be…." He studied the scantily dressed women. She had tan skin and blond hair. She seemed really shy when Ulquiorra fixed his gaze on her, and her cheeks turned an unmistakable bright red. "Bashful."
"Tia Harribel," she told him roughly, despite her timid appearance.
"And you are…." The one next to Harribel gave Ulquiorra the shivers; he had this grin that went up to his ears and a shocking set of large white teeth.
"Nnoitra-" the snake like espada tried to finish but was interrupted by himself sneezing. Harribel and Syzael held him back so as not to sneeze on Ulquiorra.
"Aah, sneezy then. Although you should have been named creepy..." the espada laughed at that, except for Nnoitra himself. "Now who do we have left…. You must be dopey." The girl he said that to was very dopey looking indeed. She clumsily swayed on her feet, and looked at him with her big teal eyes. "Nel!" she said cutely.
Next was Sleepy, Ulqiorra deducted from the lean, yawning man with long brain hair and tired eyes. "Sleepy of course." "Coyote Starrk," he yawned. And the last, of course was the biggest one yet, the one with the temper who absolutely did not like Ulquiorra. "Your name is Barragan, and you must also be grumpy."
The rest of the espada laughed. "That's him alright!" Syzael hooted with laughter.
Ulquiorra watched with amusement. It was sure going to be odd staying here, he thought. But he wouldn't mind living with these seven curious people. As he sat there, something struck in his mind. He just realized! He wouldn't be able to see Grimmjow anymore!
A/N: As far as the Espada go, Aaroneiro is using Kaien's form so he doesn't have that huge cylinder for a head. The rest of the Espada have their normal appearance, except, ALL of the Espada are miniature versions of themselves. They are the size of the dwarfs in the Disney Classic, but cuter :)