It's the best way of living

[tozasemurcielago]

Ienzo-san had been allowed out of the infirmary, and free from Szayel's persistent presence, a few days after he'd come round. He'd returned to his own room, in silence, and had stayed that way. Szayel required him back daily for observations, measurements of his stump, temperature checks, and a visual check on his stitches to ensure there was no brewing infection or oedema to complicate matters.

Despite what Ulquiorra thought of Szayel as an individual, he was, nonetheless, effective as a surgeon. His work had been neat, and thorough. The scars began to heal, the stitches came out. Ienzo-san was provided with a compression stocking for his stump, and advised to wear it through the day, though it required Ulquiorra's assistance to put on.

Ulquiorra spoke to Ienzo-san, sometimes in Standard, often in Rozarrian, and Ienzo-san had yet to speak back. Anyone else would have been concerned, Nel certainly wore a worried frown between her supportive smiles, but Ulquiorra gave no indication that it was a concern. Ienzo-san may not speak, but he still communicated, and Ulquiorra was content to allow him to attempt things without intervention no matter how difficult the task appeared. If Ienzo-san truly wanted assistance, he would ask, one way or another.

The number of tasks that required Ulquiorra's aid, however, was distressing. Ienzo-san would struggle to button a shirt, to pull up trousers. He could not lace shoes, or tie a cravat. They were simple tasks he had always done without a thought, and now, performing them disabled as he was, required monumental effort.

Yet Ulquiorra did not automatically step in each time. The only intervention Ulquiorra offered without request was the same he had always given. He spoke bluntly, as he always had. He tied Ienzo-san's shoes for him, and aided with buttons when Ienzo-san just could not get a particular one through a particular hole one handed, but he did not, as others would have, step in to take over the task automatically. Ienzo-san needed to get accustomed to doing things, and Ulquiorra allowed him to struggle where he must.

Ienzo-san's silence concerned him less than the increasingly tenuous position Ienzo-san held within the clan. As much as Ulquiorra eschewed the political games played between the members of Khamja, his explicit loyalty being to Aizen-sama alone, he was not unaware that Ienzo-san's standing had shifted. He could no longer perform his alchemy quickly, and while Even was content to remain an ally, Marluxia and Lumi, Ulquiorra knew, would not.

The loss of his arm and his silence made him appear weak, and weakness was vulnerability, and vulnerability was deadly. Others would not shield him forever.

It had been hard for Ienzo-san to learn how to move again. He still tried to use his absent arm, and Ulquiorra saw the anger this caused in him, the frustration. Tasks that were once so simple as writing were now difficult. Picking up two books at once required logistical planning. Things as simple as turning a page while reading required multiple frustrating movements. Nel prepared Ienzo-san's meals pre sliced where food required both a knife and a fork at once to cut.

"Imagine having your food cut up like you're three," Yylfordt had said, his tone sneering as Nel had sliced a simple sandwich into portions manageable with one hand ready for Ulquiorra to take to Ienzo-san.

"Yes," Nel had bit back, "imagine living with one arm for the rest of your life."

Yylfordt had snorted, his upper lip curled. "I'd just get some vilgehk automail," he'd replied.

Ulquiorra had ignored the exchange. Had Ienzo-san been present he may have been more concerned, but instead he had called Yylfordt trash, and taken the sandwich to him. Then he'd thought. He'd watched Ienzo-san manage, unable to eat and read at the same time as he was once accustomed. Now he required a stand for the book, and a clamp to hold the book open, which he had to adjust every time he wished to turn a page.

"Is Ienzo-san a candidate for automail?" he'd asked, two days later, in the infirmary. Szayel had looked at him with a raised eyebrow and followed it up with a devilish smirk that Ulquiorra wished to cero right back off his face.

"He may be," Szayel had answered. "If he's strong enough to take further surgery. Has he asked?"

"No," Ulquiorra had replied, bluntly.

Szayel hadn't seemed put off by the firmness of Ulquiorra's answer. Instead he'd cocked his hip and adjusted his glasses, and then said, "Well, if he does, Yylfordt and I trained to produce and fit it."

That conversation had taken Ulquiorra back to Yylfordt.

"He said that, did he?" Yylfordt had asked, when Ulquiorra had put to him what Szayel had said. Then he'd shrugged. "He skipped the bit where ten minutes trying to work together makes us want to kill each other."

"Another mechanic, then," Ulquiorra had said.

Yylfordt had snorted and shook his head. "Automail? For a Ryoka? Are you nuts, bro?" He huffed, his shoulders deflating. "Look," he said, "I was pretty good, but my interest was airships, and Szayel? Do not tell the pycdynt I said this, but he was the best there was at Home. You want someone fitting automail to a Ryoka, you want it to be Szayel."

"If you will not work together you are of no use," Ulquiorra replied.

Yylfordt had scowled. "I didn't say I wouldn't, I said it'll make me wanna kill him. More than normal."

Ulquiorra had looked at him, his expression level and his mouth a grim line. "Would you do it?"

Yylfordt had looked shifty, under pressure. He'd all but squirmed before he said, "You know automail's expensive, right? And time consuming to build?"

"You would be adequately compensated."

Yylfordt had looked at him, highly sceptical. "With what?" he'd asked. "He's got nothing."

"Ienzo-san will not be the one providing funding."

He'd spoken to Szayel again afterwards, getting his confirmation that Szayel would be both willing and able to install automail once it was built. Ulquiorra didn't like how this would result in his having a vested interest in Szayel's continued existence, and he liked even less the way that Szayel seemed to know this, and enthusiastically agreed to the idea.

"If," he'd stipulated, "Ienzo agrees, he'll need to speak to us both. He'll need measurements taking, for one, and he'll need to pick his materials."

Which was how Ulquiorra found himself in Ienzo-san's company, the conversations with Szayel and Yylfordt playing in his head. They had tea, though Nel had made it for them both as Ulquiorra bore some quality which led to his making truly terrible tea no matter how he tried. They had cake too, although it was untouched as yet. The simple act of moving between a book and a cup required Ienzo-san to change from one task to the other. Cake as well would mean juggling three actions at once.