Chapter Three:

Good Clothes are Hard to Find

It was morning. Seren sat up in bed. The sunlight streaming through her windows irritated her. She wanted it to be night again. Perky sunlight was ridiculous in Hueco Mundo, and plus it pissed her off.

"Ah, you're awake."

Seren's heart quickened again at the voice. She turned around, to find Apache there. "Uh… where's Halibel?"

"She has better things to do than look after you," Apache replied nastily.

Seren sighed. She fell back on her pillow. "Why am I alive?" She wondered out loud.

"I don't know. If I had just had enough time to kill you, you wouldn't be wondering about that." Ah. So Apache was still sore over that.

Seren rubbed her eyes. "Listen, Apache, I'm sorry about your sword and the fight and the intro and whatnot. But I didn't come here to make enemies. I came here because I was forced- not just dragged, carried- by Ulquiorra and Nnoitra. And something tells me you can understand how hard it is to resist them."

Apache's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe it. This Seren girl was apologizing! Nobody did that, not in Las Noches. Nobody admitted they were wrong. Being wrong was weakness, and weakness meant death here.

"You're an idiot."

"Let me guess. I'm violating some Arrancar code of conduct right? I'm sorry for that also."

Apache then noticed just how tired the girl looked. Her left lower arm had a healing black burn on it. "Where'd you get the burn?"

Seren looked at her arm. "Oh yeah. Ulquiorra shot a cero at me when I tried to use Fuerda to get out of there."

"Wow. I bet that hurt."

"Yeah. That Ulquiorra guy is a son of a bitch."

Apache couldn't help it. She started chuckling, which then bloomed into giggling, and then all out laughter. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed. She started wiping tears from her eyes. "Oh, oh," she cried, "I'd love to see the look on Ulquiorra's face if you told him that!"

"I should," muttered Seren. "it's not like I have anything better to do."

Apache smiled. "You know what? I like you today."

"Good. I like you too."

"Oh yeah!" She turned around her and pulled out a package. "Here's some clothes to wear for today. You only have that torn up… thing…"

"Oh yeah… my former kimono… not anymore." She sighed. "So, what do they look like?"

"They're Mila Rose's."

Serena looked up, took one look at the skimpy outfit, and shrieked.

"HELL NO!"

"Pleeeaaasssee! Please Sunsun, PLEASE!" Seren was down on her knees begging. Sunsun was shrieking.

"What? After yesterday, you want to borrow my CLOTHES?!" She shook her foot, which Seren was grabbing.

"There's just no way I can wear Mila Rose's clothes, pleeeeaase!" Seren hung onto Sunsun's foot, despite how fiercely she shook her leg.

"Well, SHEESH, you should be lucky I was nice enough to offer!" Said Mila Rose. "How ungrateful!"

"I'm sorry, but I just won't. And pleasee Sunsun!"

"NO! and let go!"

"Pleasse!! I'm sorryyyy for yesterdaaayyy! I'm desperate!"

Sunsun by then was extremely angry. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. She decided to give up. "FINE!" She shrieked. "Just LET GO!"

"THANK YOU!!" Seren kissed her hand breathlessly, then ran to go find some of Sunsun's clothes.

"Hmph. I wonder what's wrong with my outfit?" Mila Rose asked.

"Oh. Nothing." Sunsun and Apache said quickly.

"Umm… I don't think this is gonna work…" Seren looked down, staring depressed at the sight of her in Sunsun's clothes. In case nobody realized this, Sunsun is a small, thin girl. Seren was not quite so thin or small.

"Umm.. No." Mila Rose said. "You're about to explode out of that."

"Gee thanks, way to make me feel FAT!" Huffed Seren.

Sunsun laughed softly behind one of her long sleeves.

"Hmm…" Apache said. "What about my clothes?"

"Did you forget why this isn't working in the first place?" Seren asked. "YOU'RE JUST AS SMALL AS SUNSUN!" She furiously threw off Sunsun's clothes and huffed.

"Hmm… well, we could BORROW some…" Apache suggested.

"From who?"

"There's always the other Arrancars…"

"Um… how about this? Can I borrow Halibel's?"

"Um, hon, her top is probably just as bad as mine," informed Mila Rose.

"Yeah, but I'm smaller than her. It'll cover more. Besides, I can probably fit into Sunsun's pants."

"Hm, I don't know…" Apache said.

"Then it's good."

"Wait! What if Halibel gets mad?"

"Oh yeah…" Everyone frowned, trying to figure this out.

"All right um.. Who seems about my size?" Asked Seren.

"… Ulquiorra."

"LIKE HELL. I'M SCREWED!"

"It's all right," smiled Sunsun, smiling suddenly. She winked at Mila Rose. "There's always other fraccion…" They smiled evilly. "We'll be right back…"

A little while later, they came back with a pair of good hakatama pants and a nice fitting, decent top.

"Ooh goody, thanks you guys!" Seren quickly changed into them.

"Anything for a good friend!" Then they smirked at each other. Seren immediately stopped.

"I know what. You stole this from somebody strong, so they'd come and beat my ass, right?" Seren frowned.

"What?" Sunsun and Mila Rose stopped laughing.

"I know it! I knew it!" Seren threw the outfit off and handed it back to them.

"Um… how'd you know?" Mila Rose blurted.

"Stupid!" Sunsun elbowed her.

"Because it makes no sense that you'd risk trouble with other Arrancar for someone you don't even like." Seren said it matter-of-factly. "Well, I guess I'm going back to bed now." She walked away, to her bedroom down the hall.

"Wow… she's sharp." Sunsun said.

"Awww… I wanted to see her fight Aori so bad!" Mila pouted.

Just then they heard the distinctive yell of an Arrancar missing her clothes.

"Oops."

There was a knock on the door a little while later. Mila Rose rushed up to get the door. "I got it!" She called out cheerily. She opened the door and…

"I'm here to get Seren."

The speaker, Ulquiorra stood in the doorway, hands in his pockets, in his typical dark fashion.

"Oh-oh. I'll go get her." Mila turned around and ran as fast away from him as she could. Ulquiorra gave more than just Seren the creepy crawlies.

"Seren!" She called. "Come on, Seren!" Seren opened her door, bleary-eyed as if she'd just woken up from a nap.

"Seren! Ulquiorra's here to get you." Mila reported.

Seren blinked twice. "Wait… WHAT?! He's here?!"

"Yep."

"Are you kidding me?! I have NOTHING TO WEAR!"

"You still need to come." Mila jumped.

"EEEk!" She shrieked. She turned around to find Ulquiorra there. She hadn't even noticed his silent, creeping strides following her.

"What, do you want me to go naked?! Or worse, in Mila's stuff?!" Seren was hiding in her bed, nightgown still on and with the blankets wrapped around her.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Mila huffed.

"It means your outfits are extremely skimpy and like hell I'm wearing them in public!" Seren yelled.

"HEY! You are suuuuuuch a bitch! I'm never offering you my clothes again! Ungrateful wench!" Mila called back.

"Stop it." Ulquiorra had finally spoken. Mila and Seren stopped. "Seren, you may borrow my clothes for now. But Aizen wants to see you." His voice brooked no room for argument.

Seren's jaw dropped. Mila Rose's jaw dropped. Seren stood there. "Umm… what?"

"Hurry up and follow me." Ulquiorra turned around and walked out the door, coattails fluttering behind him.

Seren looked at Mila and Mila looked at Seren. "Oh!" Seren tumbled out of bed and dashed after Ulquiorra.

"Oh my…" Mila Rose said. "I almost feel bad for her."

Almost.

Once they were outside, Ulquiorra once again picked Seren up without warning, and used sonido to speed to his room. Seren shrieked and grabbed his neck for a hold- for just a second. She let go right away.

She might as well get used to this, until she could sonido. She was going to bother Apache about that. She wasn't as bad as the other two.

They reached Ulquiorra's quarters and Ulquiorra set Seren down. For the first time, Seren felt a pang of nervousness in her stomach. Ulquiorra was… scary. And now she was going alone with him, into his rooms, to wear his stuff.

Umm… awkward much?

She curled her arms around herself protectively. She was pretty sure he might try to add a sibling to the burn mark on her left arm. If Aizen wasn't protecting her, she was certain she would have been dead already. But then again, if it weren't for Aizen, he never would have gone after her in the first place…

Okay, enough going in circles. Ulquiorra opened his door and walked into his room.

It was actually clean, Seren noted. Calm. Quiet. Serene. She actually liked it. It was like a calming night wind.

Mostly bare of furnishings, there was nonetheless a room leading to a bathroom, a chair, and a couch from what she could see. There was one small window, high up in the corner, where a small square of sunlight streamed in.

"Here." While she had been busy observing the room, Ulquiorra had already gotten her a pair of pants and a jacket.

"Um… yeah… I'll just… go to the… place…" Seren muttered and walked away as fast as she could without running. She didn't want him to know that his gaze terrified her, or that his very presence made her want to run and hide under the couch. He must never know.

Changing in the bathroom, she quickly got dressed. The pants were very baggy, luckily, and fit fine. The jacket covered everything nicely, and though a little tight around the chest and lower body, was otherwise also fine. She came out of the bathroom after looking herself over in the mirror, making sure that even if Nnoitra were to come, she wouldn't feel she was flashing anything. It was good.

She walked out. Ulquiorra simply took one look, then set off. She struggled to keep up.

Seren was finally done. Ulquiorra found it an annoyance that Seren was wearing his clothes. But it had to be done. She was absolutely not going to wear anything else… but he also didn't want to see her in one of the other female Arrancar things either.

Her long hair was loosely braided with a white ribbon; it was the darkest shade of black brown, and reached all the way down to below her hips. It waved loosely behind her. Seren herself, of moderate height, reached up to about his throat. She had silver lavendar eyes that always seemed to be following him. Whenever he looked at her, her eyes were always looking at his. Then there was a slight streak of emotion in them, and then she would look at the ground, pretending she hadn't been looking at him.

What a strange girl.

Seren hugged herself tightly, as if to shield herself from the clothes she was wearing. This was just so… awkward. And she'd bet anything that Ulquiorra was pissed about it. He seemed to be the territorial type.

Although she had to admit, it wasn't the clothes themselves. They were just fine. They were clean and though they were cold, her body heat would warm them up. She supposed that she shouldn't be surprised Ulquiorra was as cold as he looked.

She bet they looked like a hilarious couple walking together. They even had matching outfits (seriously, what the hell?!?). She almost felt bad for Ulquiorra. This had to be just as bad for him as it was for her.

Almost.

That's what he gets for being an ass.

That's justice.

She nodded to herself. That's definitely it. Justice does exist after all!

She drifted for a minute, then found her thoughts returning to Ulquiorra. Well, he was hard to forget. She was wearing his things, for goodness's sake. Really.

Well, he wasn't even that much of an ass. Just… creepy. Well, not creepy like that Nnoitra guy. He seemed like the type who would rape you in a dark alleyway in the night. Scary. She shivered, thinking about him. That guy made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle painfully. Ulquiorra was just… silent. And gloomy. And he never SAID ANYTHING, dammit! This wouldn't be so awkward if he would just SAY SOMETHING!

"Umm… so… do you like it here?" She miserably attempted to talk to him.

"It is where I live." Ulquiorra replied curtly, not even bothering to look behind him.

Seren winced. Well, that hadn't quite worked. What else could she talk about? Did he maybe like… to cero things or slice things open with his sword more?

Honestly. This was awkward.

She shivered again. She didn't like awkwardness.

"Are you cold?" The voice from up ahead came.

"No."

"Then why are you shivering?"

"Why are you watching so closely?" Seren retorted. The she gasped. WHY! WHY HAD SHE SAID THAT?!?! She mentally berated herself. "Um… sorry… I didn't mean it like that…" She muttered to herself.

No answer. Oh great, now she'd pissed him off. Dammit!

For part of the way, Ulquiorra had decided to try sonidoing; apparently he wasn't used to how slow Seren walked. However, after a minute or two of feeling sick, Seren had shrieked for him to let her down, she could just run the rest of the way.