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Ulquiorra didn't know why she was there. It was an uneasy feeling for someone who generally refused to venture beyond where he was ordered to be. But no one had told him to be here. No one even merely suggested it, no, her legs had simply moved of their own accord. Blasted things.
The room she found herself standing in was small. He'd even describe it as cramped, though perhaps that was simply because he was leaving a wide area around the other occupant, choosing to lean against the wall in the opposite corner bathed in shadows.
On the other end of the room, an open window bathed the rest of the space in a moonlight still far too bright for Ulquiorra's eyes. Despite the offending glow, Ulquiorra kept her gaze squarely on the arrancar lying on one of the few pieces of furniture in the room.
The 'bed' was a makeshift one, after all most of the ones in Las Noches were little more than glorified benches. They served their purpose though, so Ulquiorra saw little meaning in piling comforters and blankets onto them. When he expressed this to that awful Privaron they gave Ulquiorra an amused look and flicked his forehead hard enough to leave her head spinning. "If we're gonna be using em why not make it more comfortable? What other reason do you need?"
The memory of the encounter left Ulquiorra with a restless agitation that wouldn't disappear even as he left his spot in the far corner of the room to approach the bed.
Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez... the light of Hueco Mundo's moon served only to highlight the stark white bandages covering his body. His eyes were closed and though his expression was uncharacteristically calm his breath came in shallow, strained gasps that would have made Ulquiorra's chest turn if there hadn't been a hole situated where any organs that could feel a 'turning' would be.
The injuries were from a recent battle, one Ulquiorra hadn't been present for. All she saw was the aftermath lying before her, which he supposed was all that mattered.
"Foolish man... were you being reckless yet again?" he murmured, the question directed at no one in particular. It's not as if anyone was around to actually respond.
Against his better judgment, Ulquiorra reached out and let his hand rest lightly against the bare skin of Grimmjow's chest. The other arrancar barely stirred in reaction to the touch. His skin was feverish, the unexpected sensation making Ulquiorra want to recoil. But she didn't. And the surprise soon gave way to something else, something Ulquiorra couldn't— or didn't— want to identify. Something as disgustingly human as the steady beat beneath his palm.
His expression soured and she finally drew her hand back, clutching it to her chest, "What on earth are you doing to me..."
Turning to leave, to quiet the strange something that made him want to crawl out of his skin just to escape the sensation, a tug on the back of her coat made her freeze. She lowered her hand, shoving it into her pocket and assuming a pose he hoped made him seem more unbothered than he was. "Lay back down, trash. Surely even you know better than to move around in that condition," Ulquiorra said, glancing back when the grip on her coat didn't disappear and immediately regretting it.
Grimmjow had indeed bolted up to stop Ulquiorra from walking away, the sudden movement leaving the arrancar breathing in uneven, ragged intervals. Ulquiorra already saw new splotches of red blooming across the bandages from reopened wounds.
She gritted her teeth, aggravating fresh injuries would only extend the recovery time... it was simply inconvenient for the rest of them. That was the only reason why his voice came out harsher than she intended, "Did you hear me? Let go—"
"Don't—" Grimmjow muttered, so quietly that even Ulquiorra struggled to make out what was said. His head was lowered, expression hidden by messy blue hair.
"What?"
Ulquiorra immediately missed being unable to see the other's face when Grimmjow raised his head, repeating what he'd tried to say earlier.
"Don't go."
The blue-haired arrancar's eyes were glazed over and Ulquiorra realized Grimmjow was barely clinging to consciousness. The serene expression he'd had while passed out replaced with one that Ulquiorra thinks she may have called 'pathetic' in the past. Even now, he opened his mouth to call Grimmjow a fool, or disgusting, or even just to reiterate the order to lie down.
Instead, in a voice so gentle he almost didn't recognize it as her own, "...okay. I'll stay."
A relieved smile breaks across Grimmjow's face and in the moment the only comparable thing, to Ulquiorra, was the breaking of dawn. She was never particularly fond of the sun or its harsh light but she thinks this may be what humans love so much about feeling the warmth of daybreak. It was...pleasant. A childish thought crosses her mind that if she was to go blind right now this would be a marvelous final sight.
Ah, perhaps Grimmjow wasn't the only foolish one.
The bright, bright smile fades away as Grimmjow slumps forward, the effort of moving finally catching up to him. Ulquiorra takes frustratingly long to snap from her thoughts and barely manages to keep him upright. With a hand planted on Grimmjow's shoulder and the other over his chest, she could feel the beating of his heart once more.
She lowered Grimmjow back onto the bed, startled when he spoke again. Ulquiorra had thought he'd passed out. A pair of electric blue eyes were staring holes into her, only glancing away when their gazes met.
"This's embarassin... needing help just 'cause I sat up or whatever."
"You fool, most people wouldn't be able to move at all," Ulquiorra replied curtly, having pulled up a nearby chair so she could sit near the bed. "You're a freak of nature even among arrancar."
Grimmjow had closed his eyes, but a twitch of his lips into an amused smirk indicated he'd still heard the jab. It was nothing like the smile from earlier but it was enough for Ulquiorra anyways.
It was only a few minutes before Grimmjow's breathing evened out into a predictable rhythm once more and Ulquiorra wondered if she should leave. Staying served no purpose, Grimmjow wouldn't know the difference while unconscious.
"If it makes things more comfortable, what other reason do you need," Ulquiorra murmurs, scrunching up his nose in disgust realizing what he was saying. Of all the people... But if it gave him an excuse to stick around for just a little longer, she guessed it didn't matter whose reasoning he used. Anything to assign meaning to otherwise useless sentimentality.