Characters: Harribel, her three daughters, Apache, Mila-Rose, Sun-Sun
Summary: She had three daughters once. Now, all that is left are her fracción.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Timeline: None in particular
Author's Note: Speculative stuff, mostly.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
When she was alive, she had three daughters.
The youngest of her daughters was a small girl whose mouth at times was bigger than she was. She bit off more than she could chew, getting into arguments with the sibling of hers closest in age, who happened to be much older and bigger and stronger than her.
"Mila-Rose, you bitch!" Apache shrieked after coming out of the shower, flinging the shampoo bottle at the green-eyed Arrancar. The shampoo bottle, unfortunately for the towel-clad Apache, hit Mila-Rose square across the top of the head.
Sun-Sun, sitting in an armchair in the living room, near the couch, where Harribel and Mila-Rose had been sitting on opposite ends, said it best. She focused her pink eyes on Apache, murmuring, "You're in trouble now."
Harribel's second child wasn't as easy to move to anger, but she was still, like her youngest, possessed of a hot temper. She was strong and prideful, and when her temper bubbled over, she was given to displays of icy anger, wintry blasts that left everyone standing shivering. The middle child, the one who suffered the most with her self-esteem, was the one no one wanted to stand in the way of when her wrath was aroused.
Mila-Rose stood, fists clenched, and Apache flinched just a little bit, remaining defiant in the face of danger, lip curled. Mila-Rose towered at least half a foot over her fellow fracción.
"May I ask—" her voice was dangerously quiet "—why the hell you've decided to start throwing things, Apache?"
Apache snarled and, in response and without any real reason, plucked up a saucer and hurled it at the bigger Arrancar.
Which, of course, meant war.
And finally, her eldest child was utterly unlike the younger two. Quiet and observant and utterly detached and composed, she removed herself from the quarrels and petty fights of her younger sisters, while producing, out of thin air, sarcastic commentary that often inflamed her siblings even more.
Meanwhile, she had influence over them but chose not to use it.
Harribel cast her eyes over to Sun-Sun, who continued to read her latest horror novel with as much relish as the apathetic girl could muster.
"You know," the Espada half-murmured, casting an eye to the feuding Apache and Mila-Rose, the latter of whom had drawn her zanpakuto and the former of whom was in the process of getting dressed, running, modesty forgotten, half-naked across the living room, "you could stop them, if you really wanted to."
Rose pink eyes turned on Harribel. "So could you."
Harribel nodded, watching Apache jump on Mila-Rose from behind and grab one hank of long, curling brown hair. "Yes. But I know it won't solve anything not to let them get it out of their system."
Behind her concealing sleeve, Harribel was quite certain that Sun-Sun was smiling. "That is where we differ, Harribel-sama. You allow Mila-Rose and Apache to fight because separating them would only heighten tensions and bitterness. I do not separate them because I enjoy watching them fight."
They—for the most part—stood as one against all outside threats, though they were often fractious themselves and especially prone to in-fighting. There was not a moment when one would not pick at the other and, if it got to the point of drawing blood, only then would Harribel intervene.
Her eldest would say that she had warned them not to fight, despite having been conspicuously silent all throughout the skirmish. Harribel's youngest would point indignantly to her older sister and say she started it, while the middle child would simply stand silent and meet her mother's gaze squarely.
Despite all of this, however, they, as sisters, would always pull through for each other, never forsaking each other, fighting together like little soldiers against the onset of all things.
Harribel didn't have them anymore.
While she had gone on to become a Vasto Lorde after her death, her three daughters were nowhere to be found. Spirits gone to Soul Society or eaten by Hollows themselves, they were lost to their mother, unreachable.
No longer did Harribel have three daughters.
Instead, she now had three fracción.