Geek Fashionista

Originally posted 1/6/2014

Whoops more Muse high school AU. Music for atmosphere: “Closer” by The Tiny.

~

His bedroom both was and wasn’t what she’d expected: clean, decorated with various trophies and classical music awards, a whole wall featuring framed originals of his compositions; but it didn’t feel very lived in. It was like a themed hotel room, designed down to the last detail to make whoever stayed there feel welcome, but not too welcome.

Maybe that was why he was sick, she thought, staring at the hospital bracelet on his too thin wrist. Maybe if he threw some clothes on the floor or tracked dirt on the carpet or ate food in there every once in a while, he wouldn’t have ended up in the emergency room.

He hadn’t stirred when she came in a few minutes ago. He’d probably be mad at her if he found her in his room - or in his house for that matter - without his godly permission, so she didn’t plan on staying. She wasn’t even sure why she was there in the first place. Guilt, or something. She ate lunch with the guy every day and hadn’t said a word about the food he never touched. She just assumed he was eating at home.

But that was it, wasn’t it? She was always assuming. He had money and talent, his life was so easy, he was loved by so many people. He couldn’t possibly have problems, and if he did, they weren’t real problems. The privileged couldn’t have real problems. It was all in their head.

His eyes opened. Orihime’s heart jumped into her throat, followed by a myriad of excuses. Homework delivery? They didn’t have any classes together. Sarah invited her? She wasn’t home, fuck. It was on the way? She lived in Lakewood, the exact opposite direction of Steilacoom. “Err…”

“Ms. Inoue,” he said groggily, “what a surprise.”

Orihime’s string of excuses fell apart like a worn out bead necklace. A surprise? He was surprised? What the hell did he think of her? That she was only pretending to be his friend to get something from him? That she’d heard about him passing out in class and laughed? She’d faked period cramps and humiliated herself to get to the nurse’s office to see him before Matthew took him to the ER, and quite frankly, she never wanted to see him like that again.

She stood from his desk chair and sat on the edge of his bed. “Move over.”

Ulquiorra stared at her, cloudy-eyed and rumpled, unsure if he’d heard her right. “Huh?”

“Move,” she snapped, and he was so bewildered that he obeyed. Orihime flopped over beside him, slid her arms around his torso, and buried her face in his chest. His shoulder blades were more pronounced than they should have been. His shirt didn’t fit him quite right. There was so little to hold onto, and yet, she felt his heart beating hard against her forehead and a flood of tears rushed to her eyes. “You’re an idiot,” she whispered, her voice catching.

Ulquiorra stared past her shoulder at the clock on his nightstand. It was 11:52am. She’d ditched school to come see him.

He lifted her head, brushed away the tear that rolled down her cheek with his lips, followed the path the others had left, to her trembling mouth. He’d never kissed her before. He’d never even thought of kissing her, not once. But there in the darkness, as he sank into the depths of a vast and silent ocean with no strength left to swim, it was all he wanted to do.

Originally posted 9/9/2014

Today’s feature is the Muse High School AU! In other words, AU-ception!!! Because I feel like writing about the Muse brats, but the story timeline is sealed and I need all the crossover stuff for the actual fic. Eeeeyy.

~

Ulquiorra sat in his usual practice room, his fingers sliding over the upright piano’s weathered keys, pressing them at random. It was a broken, discordant tune. Not much of a song. He couldn’t tell whether it was coming or going, beginning or ending; thus, he knew he would not be composing anything that morning. He’d have gone to the band director’s office and told her he was leaving, had the snatches of gossip he’d heard before first period not alerted him to the fact that Orihime was back after a week-long absence. And if she was at school, it was only a matter of time before…

He felt more than heard the muted thud of the door at the end of the hall that connected the band hall to the choir room. Every practice room was somewhat soundproofed, so he didn’t hear Orihime’s footsteps until her face appeared in the little window. She pulled the door open without knocking, one hand tightly clutching the strap of her backpack, and let it slam shut against its frame. Luckily there were no classes in the building that period.

“You haven’t called me.” Straight to the point. She was definitely pissed off if she hadn’t bothered to build up to the declaration. “I’m gone for five days and not even a ‘Hey, how ya doin’ dragon girl? Suck any dicks this weekend?’ text message.”

Ulquiorra let his hand fall away from the piano keys, staring hard at the girl looming threateningly above him. “Did you?”

“Fuck you!” she cried, ripping off her backpack and throwing it against the wall. “I thought we were friends! But I guess being used for inspiration o-or whatever it is you want me for doesn’t automatically make me worth your time, does it?”

He averted his eyes. “I didn’t know what to say.”

“Really?!” she said, her voice shrill. “Nothing at all? No welcome package to the wonderful world of orphanhood? You couldn’t even take two minutes to come up to me at the funeral and give your condolences? Your father did, by the way, and according to you he’s the shittiest human being on the planet!”

“Orihime.”

“What?!”

“I don’t think it was cruel of you not to cry at the funeral,” he said, covering the piano keys. “Your brother is too dead to care, one way or another. The only person in that church who would have to live with the shame of being weak in front of people who don’t care about them, is you.”

Orihime looked at him for a long time. Her breathing gradually became unsteady, and in the light from the hallway he could see that her eyes had become like glass, and her jaw quivered every few seconds. “What do I do?” she whispered. “He was my whole world, Ulquiorra. What am I going to do now?” She collapsed onto the piano bench beside him, wrapped her arms around his torso, pressed her face into his shirt, and began to sob. Loud, uninhibited sobs. Tears that she had hidden deep within her heart until she could find a place to let them out.

Ulquiorra held her tightly, wishing he knew of something, anything that would make this easier for her. But he’d been too young when he’d lost his mother. He didn’t know how to mourn for family. He hardly knew what family was.

And it was frightening, because he’d never had a thought for anyone other than himself before he’d seen her staring blankly at her brother’s casket - still in shock, not registering what was happening because he’d been alive just a few days ago.

In that moment, standing in the midst of his adoptive parents and siblings like a black chess piece on the white side of the board, Ulquiorra had been overwhelmed by the desire to become Orihime’s family. Someone who would keep her safe, happy. Someone who would care for her no matter what she did.

But he had no right, because if there was one thing he could say he knew for sure, it was that family wasn’t supposed to use you.