Snow In The Desert
By
Godell
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, just this plot. The title "Snow In The Desert" belongs to the J-Pop singer MELL.
Door Number Two
--
Rukia tore through the halls of Las Noches, Ichigo at her side.
They had arrived in Hueco Mundo three days before, thanks to Urahara's handy "in case something came up" portal to the world of the Hollows. It was a grey, dismal place—Rukia knew that if either Ichigo or herself had gone alone their various grievances would have eaten them alive. Together they could at least hold each other up above their grief, and march forward.
That was how they had entered Aizen's fortress—aptly named Las Noches, or "The Night" according to Urahara. A rather ironic name since the large fortress itself was pure white.
The millions of passages were confusing even to Rukia, and soon the bleached-white walls became dull and were only given cursory glances. She stopped checking for traps after the twenty-fifth empty passage. She knew she would regret that later.
--
"Rukia, we're not lost, are we?" Ichigo's deadpan voice brought Rukia back to her senses as she stood staring at three open doors, each one equally innocent-looking.
"Possibly."
Ichigo's curse was politely washed away from Rukia's Noble Etiquette mind, and she smirked. Ichigo was never one for being subtle.
She paced between the three doors, peering into the darkness within them and the identical stairways that led down into what looked like brightly lit rooms. From what she could see of them, the rooms looked identical as well—meaning that whatever stairway they took, the outcome would be the same. There was no aura of powerful traps, not even a mouse trap.
Possibly.
Rukia turned to Ichigo, who was scowling down at the stairway on the left. "Ichigo, why don't we each take a door? That way, we can figure out which one is which."
"What if there's traps down them?" Ichigo asked, looking bored instead of worried.
Rukia cast a protective Kido spell on them both to ward off that possibility. "There. Now there's nothing to worry about."
Ichigo grinned and gave her the thumbs up as she settled on the middle door. "Okay, on the count of three!"
"One…" Rukia said calmly, as she felt a rush of gratitude for her friend's willingness to follow her into enemy territory.
"Two…" Ichigo was grinning even wider than before, Rukia noted with an inward chuckle—perhaps he was also there for the fight as well.
"Three!" Ichigo shouted, and they both rushed down the stairs, grasping the railings tightly as they went…
…And seconds later, they were greeted by a burst of confetti and a mocking "Welcome, Rukia dear, and Strawberry, to our humble abode…"