Forever yours

A/N: I couldn't help it ^^' I wrote this out of impulse, and a sudden urge to write, so I'm not sure if the content is that good. However, I have some 'sad' news… Yes, I'm gonna take a short break from fan fiction . I'll be back sooner or later, don't worry about that, but I simply don't have the time to keep updating long on-going stories at the moment. However, if I get inspiration, I'll perhaps post a one-shot once in a while… Just to honor Ulquiorra's memory and the passion that is 'Ulquihime' ^^ Keep happy, have a great day, and I hope I'll be back to updating regularly very soon x)

This one-shot is dedicated to the lovely 'GabrielManga'

She's a very dear friend of mine and since she's going through some harsh times at the moment, I wanted to cheer her up.

Stay cheerful and don't let the world get you down – life sucks, but you have to stand up when someone decides to push you down x) I'm here for you.

Enjoy ^^

And in the endless darkness he heard a voice.

It was very soft and almost none existing; as if the resounding sound didn't even exist in the first place, but was simply a product of his imagination.

Perhaps he wanted to hear the voice so badly; so badly that his rationality had broken like a piece of fragile glass and the everlasting hope for foolish dreams began to shroud his mind. He was a broken man, he knew that much, but even so he had a hard time accepting it.

He focused on that voice; that beautiful echoing sound of her voice. She didn't speak any words and she didn't even address him, but he was sure that whatever she was doing, it was for him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to feel the warm feeling of her reiatsu enveloping him in the endless darkness. It was like a small sun in him; the warmth spreading from his claw-like fingers and feet, down his black thin arms until it slowly faded at his chest… at that the deep dark hole that still seemed to mark him as a hollow even in death.

As he dwelled in that warm sensation, dwelled in her, he didn't feel any regret. "What is done cannot be undone" – he constantly reminded himself that. No matter how much he would wish for it, and no matter how many times he would beg and ask for redemption, he knew that the world didn't look kindly at his kind. He didn't deserve it; a selfish monster that only did things out of his own interest shouldn't be given the breath of life back, when it would only bring more despair to an already broken world.

"So why did he still feel her?"

He took a deep breath; filled his lungs with air and his mind with the broken pieces of his rationality. Even in death he couldn't find peace. No matter how many times he tried to think, to rationalize his situation, and explain to himself what had just happened, she immediately entered his mind.

She was the truth; the holder of the things he had never been able to understand or accept until now. She was his executioner; righteous and merciless when she had unleashed death upon him with her mere presence. She was the light; the bright smiles in the otherwise unemotional hallways of Las Noches and she was, before anything else, his light.

He had a hard time accepting that it was all gone; that she had slipped from his fingers, just as he had realized that it was okay for him to hold her.

"So why did he still live in denial?"

He remembered their conversations down to every small detail; vividly recalling every light frown he had been able to provoke onto her features and the few smiles she had blessed him with. He missed those moments dearly. It made his death even more painful when he knew that he would never be able to see her like that again.

He felt the soft sensation of wind against his face; the cold yet refreshing feeling, washing over his skin as if the wind had a will of its own and wanted to comfort him. However, he didn't need comfort. He simply needed answers.

He had discovered the heart, the fictional thing that she had always been talking about, but what now? What was he supposed to do with the heart now where he had found it? He clenched his claw-like fingers into a fist. He didn't feel any substance in his grip; no liquid, no hard object, no organ - nothing. But even so, he knew that her heart was there and that no one would ever be able to take it from him again.

"So why did he still…

He would forever cherish it.

…Love her?"

The wind got stronger and so did the warm feeling in his chest. Instead of warmth similar to that of a candle next to his skin, it had intensified massively; growing into something that he couldn't possibly comprehend. He knew that it was her. She had come for him in order to send him to the afterlife.

The thought made him feel oddly content. If it meant vanishing completely; and his current thought process would be disappearing like simple fragments in the wind as well, he would prefer if it was by her hands; those beautiful hands that he had never held before.

He opened his eyes; ready to accept his second encounter with the afterlife. However, instead of darkness, despair and death he was met by completely different things - Light, relief and life.

He felt the hard stone under his back, he sensed the soft orange glow embracing his shattered body, and he saw her face.

She was crying; crying as if his meaningless life meant the world to her now where he was back. He tried to sit up, and even when she urged him to lie down, he kept going.

He asked her;

"May I hold your hand?"