The sky of Hueco Mundo was always a dusky twilight, the moon high and white. The five exhausted invaders and their arrancar companions took a break from racing toward Los Noches to camp under a grove of quartz trees for the time being. Ishida lay on his back, staring up into the stars. Nel and her posse were a few yards away, already sound asleep. That was a blessing as far as Ishida was concerned.
"We're never going to get there like this!" exclaimed Kurosaki from the other side of Chad. "It feels like we've been going for days!" We have been going for days, idiot. Ishida kept his mouth shut; he didn't feel like arguing, especially not with Kursaki, especially not now.
"Hush." Rukia always knew how to calm him. "We'll get there, and we'll get Inoue, and we'll make it back in time for the Winter War." She used a little kidou to try and light a small pile of quartz branches on fire. It didn't work, but she didn't look surprised. "Oh, well. I didn't think they would burn, but it was worth a try." she said, and plopped down on her knees in the sand.
"Maybe we should have thought to bring more supplies than this." said Chad, who was sitting up against one of the trees. "I'm sure Urahara would have sold us a couple of tents and some blankets."
"Ah, you guys are just prisses. Me and Rukia used to sleep outdoors every night!" Renji kicked off his sandals and stretched out on the other side of Rukia's quartz wood pile. "Now's a good time for campfire songs and ghost stories!"
Kurosaki and Chad immediately launched into a round of "The Legend of Sailcat." Ishida decided it didn't quite have the same ring to it without the guitar part.
"Well..." said Rukia politely when they were done, "It was nothing if not... interesting."
Renji then told a legend from Rukongai about how an old couple had ridden their carriage into a lake and drowned, but still appeared at their granddaughter's wedding the next afternoon. Rukia made spooky sound effects in the background.
"Your vocal skills are as bad as your artwork." Kurosaki told her, earning himself an icy blue stare and an elbow in his ribs.
Chad, who was clearly feeling unusually talkative, offered the story of the Frog Prince. Renji and Rukia were fascinated. "It's crazy! Are there really people who can turn other people into animals in the real world?" asked Renji with excitement.
"Of course not, it's just a story." Rukia chided him sensibly.
"Well, doesn't Yoruichi turn into a cat? Is that normal in Soul Society?" Kurosaki stretched on his stomach in the sand, and the five of them together made a star shape around the little quartz wood pile.
"No, that's not normal at all." said Renji. "I'd never heard of it until I met her."
"Got any stories, Ishida?" Kurosaki nudged him from across the pretend fire with a stick.
"No. I have no patience for fairy tales."
"Jeez, don't be so uptight."
"Shut up."
"You shut up."
"Shut up shuttin' up."
"Huh?"
"Stop that." said Rukia. "Let's just try to sleep. We're going to have to move faster tomorrow if we want to feel like we're getting anywhere." She lay on her stomach, pulled her cloak over her head and was silent. Ichigo and Renji both settled down on their backs on each side of her. Chad stretched out under his tree. Soon their breaths slowed as they fell into sleep, one by one.
Ishida had always had trouble sleeping so he gazed up into the night sky and contemplated the moon, and told himself the story of Wynken, Blynken and Nod. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night set sail in a wooden shoe, sailed on a river of crystal light and into a sea of dew. He could almost see the old moon laughing down at them, the twinkling stars evading the fishermen's nets of silver and gold.
Damn. It must be the loneliness of this place and the exhaustion making him feel so melancholy.
Did Ishida know any stories? What a ridiculous question, Kurosaki! Of course he knew stories. He could have told them about the Beauty and the Beast, or the one about the cinder-girl, or the mermaid, or the ice queen. He could have told about how Red Riding Hood had kicked Jack in the crotch and called him a liar over the beanstalk and the goose that laid golden eggs.
Hell, they were almost living Peter Pan right now. They were the lost boys, and Rukia was their own Wendy. Urahara had sprinkled them all with pixie dust and sent them off to the Never-Never Land, and now they were going to save Tiger Lilly in the guise of Inoue. Nel was tiny Tinkerbell, leading the way. No doubt when they got there they'd have to face Captain Hook and his crew (or, in this version of the tale, Captain Glasses and his Espada).
Ishida almost laughed before he remembered the gravity of the situation, and stopped. He rolled over so that he could see the others, fast asleep in the moonlight. Rukia looked different in sleep, her straight features slackened so that she looked even younger than she did normally. Renji's hair had come down and was all over the place. Kurosaki had curled up in an almost fetal position against the cool night air, and Chad lay flat on his back, stiff and wary as he ever was during waking hours.
Ishida shut his eyes. When they all awoke in a few hours they would stand and brush the sand from their hair. No doubt Kurosaki would say some lame morning greetings like "Rise and shine!" Rukia would hit him for being so cheerful so early (even though they had no clue what the time actually was). Nel and her bunch would likely cause some commotion. Renji would laugh, Ishida would straighten his glasses indignantly, and finally they would all take off again toward Los Noches. Toward Inoue.
And they would find her. Past the second star on the right, and straight on 'till morning.
A/N: Credit for the poem "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" goes, of course, to Eugene Fields.
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