Requested by rainy-lullaby- thank you
Nel x Ulquiorra
Unusual
There was something slightly off about the fourth Espada, although it took everyone a while to realise just what it was. His walk was just a little bit quicker, his elegant glide a little less so than normal. His eyes were stretched wider, so the whites of them looked all the more startling against his pupils, and his face was stretched taut, like he was thinking too hard.
It was Aizen, in the end, who put his finger on it, clearing contemplating it as, for the first time, the fourth Espada was late to a meeting.
"There is something unusual about our Ulquiorra's recent behaviour, isn't there?"
A murmur of assent, a few nods.
"It looks like he has been taking too much of a stimulant."
From her place around the table, Nel's fists tightened. So that was it. He was the culprit. She kept her face impassive as Ulquiorra entered, and the meeting passed. She said little, but then she rarely contributed anyway, and as soon as she could she slipped quickly back to her rooms, where she laid her traps, and prepared to wait.
Hours passed, and just as she was beginning to give up, she felt the line tug, and stepped into the next room.
Ulquiorra appeared to be trapped in a tangle of wires made from something so incredibly insubstantial that they had been invisible, almost like spider webs or, she thought in her head, like very fine hair. He looked at her from where he was snared, his face revealing no emotions.
There was a pause, and then she smirked.
"Well, now I see who has been stealing my coffee."
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and in an act of incredible agility and speed he shed the hairs as if they had never been an issue. Which, she suspected, they hadn't been.
She stalked up to him, grabbing the glass jar of instant coffee that she had bought the last time that she had snuck out to the human world. She hit him in the chest with it, and met his gaze.
There was a twist to his lips for just a moment, before they smoothed out again.
"It is forbidden to bring products back from the human world."
"Doesn't stop you drinking it, does it?"
He glanced down at the jar, pressed against him so hard that, had he been made of weaker stuff, it would have left a large bruise. He said nothing, but she doubted that it was because he had no response to give- rather, that he did not feel the need to explain himself to her.
She tossed her hair, and kissed him.
He tasted of coffee, and it made her smile.
"You know that if you asked, I would have just given you some? Why bother stealing it?"
She supposed, in his own twisted way, that stealing it was half the fun. And although it had been a subject of great debate whether or not the Fourth even knew what fun was, she knew for a fact that he did.
The rope-burns on her wrists were a testament to that.