Surprise visit~

[sfigato_quarto]

Who: Ichimaru Gin volpe_grigia, Ulquiorra Schiffer sfigato_quarto, and Robert Chase cacciare
When: Sunday afternoon
Where: Ulquiorra's Apartment
What: Chase comes to pay a visit to Ulquiorra at his request, and brings someone else along...

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[cacciare]

With his own clinic-as oppose to working in a hospital-Chase didn't get many emergencies anymore. Apparently he didn't say his blessings for small miracles often enough, because today he had found himself with an emergency in his lap.

Not literally, thank god.

But it had meant that he hadn't gotten to Ulquiorra's apartment in the morning like he had said. He didn't think that the young man's situation was dire-unless he was far sicker than the message he'd left on Chase's phone had led the doctor to believe-so Chase hadn't worried too much about it. He'd grumbled about it-out of earshot of the worried mothers and the sneezing patients-but he hadn't worried.

When he finally pulled up at Ulquiorra's apartment and go out of his car it was well into the afternoon. Pulling his medical case out of the backseat, Chase looked up at the apartment building.

[volpe_grigia]

To say that Gin was irritated was perhaps an understatement. He had planned to spend the afternoon drinking tea and pouring over a shipment of books he'd received from Japan -- most of which focused on traditional fan painting, but still. The call had come from Chase earlier that morning; apparently Ulquiorra had met with more injury, despite reassurances from the soldier that his previous failures would not be repeated.

He tore down the small side street with the screeching of wheels, and upon realizing he had overshot his destination, quickly threw the car into the reverse before wedging it somewhat haphazardly between two scooters. Rebuttoning the jacket of his suit, he alighted from the car, keys jingling softly in his hand. "Ara, Chase-han," he said with a small bow, the smallest gesture of respect towards a man he felt had yet to prove himself to the Monacello name. "You were right to call me, naa

[sfigato_quarto]

Ulquiorra heard the knock, but still did not have the energy to rise. He had kept his promise to Gin: on the outside he was relatively unhurt if you did not count the bleeding in his leg. But that was from strain...not from anything Grimmjow had directly done to him. On the inside he wasn't as good. Physically from the several times Grimmjow had made his head bounce off the wall, and emotionally for reasons he would certainly not share.

"It is open!" he called after a pause. It even took unwanted effort to raise his voice. How annoying. How pointless it all was. He figured it was Chase finally coming to see him about his leg. If he had known Gin was also there, he would not have said anything...he might have even run away. For the man that he was trying to prove himself to in order to move up in the Monacello ranks...the last thing he wanted was for Gin to see him like this. He was completely and utterly defeated. All he felt was weak. All he felt was flawed

[cacciare]

Gin pushed the door open and the two men filed into the small apartment. Chase noticed the sword-as well as a dent in the wall there and a bullet hole in the floor there-but decided against making a comment on it. To be honest, he was just a little bit uncomfortable with Ichimaru, though he could never exactly put his finger on why.

Chase looked around, looking for his patient. No seeing him immediately, Chase moved towards the bedroom, figuring that the young man must be smart enough to lie down if he wasn't feeling well.

His concern skyrocketed when he saw Ulquiorra curled up the way he was. He moved quickly into the room and set his case down. "If you were feeling this poorly, you should have called me again."

[volpe_grigia]

Gin frowned when he saw the sword notched deep into the wall of Ulquiorra's apartment. Shinsou, after all, was the greatest gift he'd ever received, and though he did not imagine all men to share his reverence for their weapons, there was something to be said of respecting one's blade. He treated his wakizashi as if it were an extension of his own body, and had hoped that he'd instilled a similiar mindset in his soldiers. But with Ulquiorra, at least in this instance, perhaps he had failed

[sfigato_quarto]

Ulquiorra has been taught by Gin about the importance of his weapon, yes. But that night his blade had failed him, and his own body had failed him, and so had his heart, it seemed. At that point he had simply been drowning in his own weakness. Frustration had drove him to drive his sword in the wall. It had been Grimmjow who had first done it to the blade, and there was no doubt that it had been Grimmjow that had damaged the sword while either trying to get a hold of it or when he finally did get it and dig it into the wall

[cacciare]

Chase frowned at the sudden plummet in his patient's condition-though he suspected that it was mostly emotional and mental rather than physical. He could already tell that doing a physical while Ichimaru was there was going to prove emotionally unsettling for the patient. Chase stifled a sigh.

"Mr. Ichimaru, it would be best if Ulquiorra could tell me where it hurts-so to speak-so that I can work while the two of you continue your conversation." He glanced over his shoulder at the man in the door way. He didn't want to undermine the man's authority over his patient-because the other man clearly had it-but he did need to work, and the caporegime's presence was obviously not going to make his job any easier.

"I hope this doesn't interfere with anything you had planned to say or do."

...not to mention the fact that he didn't think it was a good idea to antagonize one of the family's high ranked commanders. After all, he was new to the city and new to the family, and such ties could be severed as easily as a... well, as an artery.

[volpe_grigia]

"Ara," Gin said, a feigned sheepishness to his tone and the short bow that he gave. "You are quite right, Chase-han, forgive my intrusion, naa?" Quietly he moved to the far side of the room, his eyes still pointedly trained on Ulquiorra. "I am unused to dealing with doctors myself," he said casually. "And my men usually do not find themselves in such a condition, naa? They know how much seeing them like this..." He paused to find the right word. "...Displeases me

[sfigato_quarto]

Ulquiorra kept his eyes shut tightly, his mouth closing to a thin displeased line. He wanted to melt into the sheets to save himself from being seen. Gin's gaze on his hurt even more than Chase's. He had been physically more wounded the last time Chase had come to visit, but that had no hurt half as much as now. All his wounds were minor-his re-enforced skin had seen to that. But it could do nothing for the pressure that had been put on his wrists, or the force with which his head had been slammed into the wall. The scratches were the only thing he was really protected from

[cacciare]

Chase didn't respond to Gin, feeling that though the man was technically speaking to him, the words were intended to have an effect on Ulquiorra, not him. He wondered, for a brief moment, what circumstances had led the caporegime and the young soldier to their current relationship. He had a feeling that particular story was one he didn't need to hear. He knew-because the lower ranked soldiers still talked about them in hushed tones-that Gin had some particularly gruesome bodies in the wake of his quick rise to the top. He pushed the thoughts from his mind and concentrated on his job

[volpe_grigia]

Disinterested, Gin made a dismissive gesture with his hand, as if shooing would do anything to improve Ulquiorra's mood. Perhaps it couldn't be helped, at least, not with the doctor here doting on him. Besides, Gin thought, there was only so much prodding and poking he could do. It was true, he was not the most sympathetic of caporegimes, but he had ascended to his position with purpose and more than a fair share of cruelty. There were certain things he would let slide in the other soldiers, but not his own. Complacency lead to weakness, and any weakness on the part of his soldiers could quickly become his own. And that, he decided, he would not allow. Not for Ulquiorra or for anyone else.

Instead, he decided to leave Dr. Chase to his work, and in removing himself from the room, voiced his ultimatum with casual air of nonchalance. "Tch. This mood of yours will not do, naa? When the doctor has finished, we'll talk, but only if you've pulled yourself out of this stupor of yours. Ara, you are better than this, Ulquiorra-kun

[sfigato_quarto]

Ulquiorra figured that the worst Grimmjow had done was sprain one of his wrists, but even that needed to be treated. He needed his hands to be working or else he would not be able to fight or do his job. But it seemed that even his job might be out of his reach at this point if Gin was really upset. Would he ever get a normal hit job again? Just a mundane one, even? It was all up in the air now

[cacciare]

Long years of practice enabled Chase to ignore the conversations around him, to focus on just the doctoring at hand no matter what might be going on around him, letting Gin and Ulquiorra talk now that he knew what he was doing. He was more than a little bit concerned about the leg, and he would either leave instructions for it to be checked once a day, or he would come over and do it himself when he had the time-assuming, of course, that another emergency didn't land in his hands

[volpe_grigia]

Once in the living room, Gin had more time to think -- to breathe -- free from the almost stifling presence of Ulquiorra's self-loathing in the bedroom. As he picked his way through the rooms and debris, Gin tried his best to formulate exactly what had happened there

[sfigato_quarto]

Ulquiorra's expression dropped, if even a thing was possible in his present low state. Two weeks? He would be useless for another two weeks? He could barely stand it. He hadn't been given a job from Gin or otherwise in a month! It frustrated him. His fingers twitched, but his wrists ached too much to let him clench his hands into fists. Grimmjow would pay for this. Ulquiorra would make sure of it.

"Hn, I will try," Ulquiorra said to Chase's comment. As it stood, Grimmjow had decided he never wanted to speak to Ulquiorra again. So another surprise attack was slim for the time being. But Ulquiorra did have to deal with the problem, whether Gin ordered to him to or not. He couldn't just let his disgrace go. He had to improve, he had to be stronger. This weak state of his made him feel sick with his own failure