Title: The Rain that Binds: The Side Stories
Chapter title: The Definition of Friendship
Characters: Yami, with a little Noitora, Ulquiorra and Aizen
Rating: K+
Spoilers: Up to chapter 282 of the manga
Word Count: 1,007
I know I know! I put up a side story and it's not UlquiHime? Blasphemy, I tell you! (sweatdrop) The next one will be, I promise! Please enjoy this chapter!
Yami trudged through the halls of Las Noches, his destination clear in his mind. He was headed for Ulquiorra's domain, intent on asking him a few questions about his mission; he failed to understand when Aizen had given him his orders. With any luck, he might even get the cuatra Espada to go with him on his mission. He stopped in front of the huge door with a gothic 4 imprinted on it and began to bang on it, the sound echoing off the walls and making his knocks sound louder than they actually were.
" Oi! Ulquiora! I got a mission from Aizen-sama and there are some things I don't understand! OPEN THIS DOOR SO I CAN COME IN, DAMN IT!" Yami yelled while he continued to pound on the door.
" What the hell is all this rukus for?" Noitra demanded, a hand covering his left ear and wincing at the noise slightly. He noticed Yami standing outside Ulquiorra's door and his grin widened, causing Yami to frown. He knew that a happy or amused Noitora was never a good thing.
" Yami, why are you doing here, you idiot?" Noitora started, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning in menacingly.
" None of your damn business, Noitora," Yami stated, turning away from the quinta Espada and returning his gaze to the door.
The taller Espada let out a condescending chuckle.
" You do remember that Ulquiorra has betrayed us, right Yami?" he said slyly, noticing the other Espada's eyes widen, " Even a slovenly idiot like yourself wouldn't forget that he was the bastard who helped those ryoka and Pet-sama escape from Hueco Mundo…"
"O-of course I wouldn't forget something like that," Yami replied, scratching his head nervously, " As you said, only an idiot would forget something like that."
Noitora nodded slightly, taking pleasure in the other Espada's discomfort.
" As long as we have that straightened out," he agreed, walking around Yami to get to his own domain, adjacent to Ulquiorra's. Yami could hear his chuckling echo off the walls for a few seconds before they disappeared altogether, and he let out a heavy sigh.
" Stupid Noitora," he mumbled as he walked towards his own domain, heavy steps echoing around him, " Even though he's only the quinta Espada, the bastard acts as though he is one of the top Espada."
After a few minutes of walking, he reached his own domain and pushed the heavy door open with ease. He walked in, taking in his surroundings, and walked over to a large chair in a corner of the room. As soon as he sat down, he heard a knock on his door and groaned loudly.
" What the hell is it?" he demanded, seeing the door open slowly and two smaller arrancar poke their heads in. His Fraccion. He didn't really feel the need to have any, but, seeing that everyone else had at least one, decided that having a couple could prove to be useful. At the moment, he was beginning to regret this decision.
" Um…Yami-sama," the one began shakily, not wanting to envoke the Espada's wrath, " Aizen-sama wishes to speak to you again."
"It seems he left out a critical detail pertaining to the mission you received earlier," the other finished cheerfully.
Yami grunted in affirmation and the two closed the door as quietly as possible.
' So that's why I didn't understand that mission,' he thought, happy that, for once, it was not because of his own incompetence.
Standing up, he made his way over to Aizen's throne room. On the way, he passed by Ulquiorra's old domain and stared at the door for a few seconds before he continued on to his destination. Being in the former cuatra Espada's domain made him remember the first few hours after Ulquiorra had brought the human girl to Las Noches.
" Oi, Ulquiorra!" he yelled, seeing the head of the significantly shorter Espada turn, "That human girl sure is a weird one, ain't she?"
Ulquiorra said nothing. The two were sitting at the table that most of the Espada meetings were held, although no one else was there at that particular moment because they were early.
" She talks about all these weird things, like televisions and hamburgers and stuff. But she seems to go on and on about her 'friends' and their 'friendship' the most," Yami noted, scratching his head, " What exactly does that mean, anyway?"
" Which?" Ulquiorra asked, a tone of disinterest tainting his voice.
" Both."
" A 'friend' is a person whom one knows, likes, and trusts," he recited, as though he were reading from a dictionary, " It can also be a person whom one knows, or one whom is allied in a struggle or cause, a comrade. 'Friendship' is the quality or condition of being friends."
Yami looked at him blankly for a few minutes, trying to process everything that Ulquiorra had told him.
"…Does that make us 'friends'?" he asked uncertainly, pointing towards himself and the cuatra Espada.
" Of course not," he answered turning away from him as Szayel and Stark entered the room, " Hollows have no need for such foolishness as 'friends' and 'friendship'. In any case, only trash would think that something like 'friends' and 'friendship' exist."
Yami nodded, although he wasn't entirely sure he really agreed with all that Ulquiorra had said.
He sighed heavily at the memory. It confused him, but…it just wasn't the same without Ulquiorra there.
' He was always the more perceptive of the two of us,' he noted as he neared Aizen's domain, ' Even now, I don't think that he was entirely correct about 'friends' and 'friendship' not existing.'
The door to Aizen's throne room opened with a slight creak and he walked inside. Yami looked up and saw him sitting in the throne high above the ground.
' Maybe whatever association we had was the closest that Hollows can have to friendship,' he decided resolutely.