Music to my Heart (A Bleach/Ulquihime fic)

Chapter 4

This story belongs to Cerice Belle at FanFiction.net. I am only publishing it in order to share it with more people. All credits go to her.
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Byakuya Kuchiki sat in the lounge-room, reading the paper while his sister, Rukia, did her homework at the corner table, occasionally asking for his help on a particularly difficult problem when it came to science or geography. Well, it looked like he was reading it, but his mind was very far away from the monochrome letters and pictures that adorned the sheets of information.

His mind was on Ulquiorra Cifer, the most well-behaved student in his class, mainly because he did not talk, although he was very aware that he helped Grimmjow and Nnoitra with maths and passed notes around. However he pretended he did not see it, as he still got his work done in a quarter of the time everyone else did, well he, Uryu Ishida and Orihime Inoue. He knew perfectly well that he was friends with the school delinquents and that he spent most evenings at the skate park, although sometimes Byakuya swore he saw him heading off to the music department for reasons completely unknown to him.

And he always turned up to school injured, at least once a week if not more. He had to admit though, this week's had been one of the worst he had seen in a while, since the incident with the paint and eggs at the school dance two years ago, which had caused his friends to be suspended, although he had not been found to have a single bit of connection to the prank, Byakuya had no doubt in his mind that he had been a part of it. His suspicions had been confirmed when he had come to school the next day with a broken wrist and a neck brace on. It always amazed him how he could always look so calm and confident while covered in bandages. And yet, he had never been absent from school, never! It boggled the teacher's mind to think where he could have gotten such serious wounds, but had not been taken to the hospital, or at least the doctor's.

He had his suspicions about the issues, namely that it could be Ulquiorra's own family. He had met his mother at a parent-teacher evening two years ago; she was very timid and barely asked any questions, always with her eyes down, bringing doubts to his theory. The father, or step-father as he had found out from the school council, had never shown up. People had rarely seen the man, although it was said he was a very high-ranking business CEO, there was a possibility he had something to do it.

He had talked to the school counsellor, Mr Zommari, about it, but he had claimed there was nothing to ask the boy, he was a delinquent who most likely took drugs and got into fights all the time. Byakuya was much more sceptical; he certainly showed no signs of being under drug influence, so he had taken it upon himself to question the emerald-eyed teen. Not too hard, just every now and again he would ask how he had gotten his injuries. The answer had always been the same: he had fallen down a staircase; the oldest excuse in the book.

Byakuya grumbled to himself as he turned a page in the newspaper, so Rukia did not get suspicious of the silence; she was far too observant for his liking. If only he could find out what went on in that boy's life, he was too empty, too emotionless, something must have happened. And if it had gone against the law, he was determined to find out what, he would not let a great mishap happen right under his nose without him getting wind of it, it would tarnish his reputation and his pride. And he was a man of pride.

Ulquiorra lay on his bed, staring at the black ceiling with the glow-in-the-dark stars, planets and bats stuck on it. When he had gone through his "Batman" stage he had had a dream that if he just grew wings he could fly away from this world into the sky and never return. He closed his eyes at the memory of his innocence; it was useless to dwell on the past when he had had ridiculous notions. They had always been squashed by Aizen, he knew now that dreams were futile, his dream to be a pianist could never be reality, his dream to be free could not be either. Aizen always reminded him that he would take over the family business when Aizen was no longer capable, which pretty much meant he would be stuck in this house until Aizen died, or he turned a very considerable age where he retired. Both seemed an extremely long time in coming, at least until Ulquiorra was 40, he did not look forward to waiting that long just to destroy a company and move on, it would be too late for him to try to be a pianist, or anything else for that matter. Leaving the company was completely out of the question, people did not simply leave the company, they were either killed in action, or by Aizen himself. Ulquiorra had seen it done, far too many times to count, and he had once been the one to do it.