Pairing: Rukia Kuchiki x Orihime Inoue
Music: Hope, by Jack Johnson
Word count: ~ 3800
Rating: T
A/N: I feel like this one mugged me. No, really, it jumped me from behind and beat me. Weird plot from nowhere? Uh, okay. My Rukia-muse hijacking my fingers yet again? I can live with that. Keeping me up until the wee hours of the morning when I have a presentation on body language in applied psychology first thing in the morning? So not cool…
Prompt 50: Murmur
Rukia leaned on the railing that overlooked the dark sea, staring up at the stars above her. She had never been able to resist their pull, but at times—like tonight—theirs was a cold and mocking radiance. It seemed to taunt her, showing her the barest glimpse of what the day would be like, how beautiful dawn would look over the sea.
Small, rolling waves lapped gently against the cement of the path that bordered the edge of the bay, the edge dropping straight down several feet until it reached the water. The scent of salt and cold air moved over the water, even though the night was warm. The ocean reflected the stars, making a second vast, glittering expanse that mimicked the first, albeit dimmer and gentler than the other.
"Dawn will be here soon," a voice said from behind her, calm and without inflection.
Rukia didn't need to turn to see the tattooed man standing behind her, watching her with reddish-brown eyes that held an ever-aggravating mixture of familial fondness and forced distance. Instead, she sighed and turned her gaze to the eastern horizon, where the faintest traces of blue were coloring the black sky.
"Already?" she asked wistfully, a trace of heartbreaking longing coloring her voice. "But it seems like the night just started."
"We should go, Rukia," the man said quietly, but his gaze softened slightly as he looked at the dark-haired girl in front of him.
She ignored his words as though she had been born doing so. "Renji, can I ask you something?"
He bit back what might have been a sigh of frustration. "Fine. I might even answer it, if we can leave."
Rukia tilted her head to one side as she watched the lightening sky. "Have you ever wanted to just…stay here, Renji?" she wanted to know. "To just…greet the dawn, and let it all end? I've thought about it a lot, even though Byakuya would be mad at me if I did. I would like to see the sky, just once, as the humans do, though," she added sadly.
Renji said nothing. He just turned and walked away.
Rukia heard his retreating footsteps and looked up in surprise. She turned away from the sea and quickly ran to catch up with him, then hooked her hand though his arm as she fell into step beside him.
"I'm sorry, Renji," she said quietly. "It was only a thought. I wouldn't actually do it."
Renji looked down at his little sister and let out a slow breath. "Don't scare me like that," he said, a hint of bite to his usually even voice. "Byakuya would kill you if he knew what you were even just thinking about. He doesn't take that kind of thing very lightly, not after what happened to Kaien last year."
Rukia winced at the mention of the older brother who had been killed by Hunters, tied to a post out in the middle of an open area with no shade and left to the merciless sun. Such a death she wouldn't wish on anyone, much less one of the few family members she had loved with all of her heart.
"I wouldn't do that, Renji, don't worry."
Renji sighed and folded one of his hands over hers. "It's all right, Rukia, I believe you. Just…don't say anything about this, ever again, okay?" He glanced up at the sky and the scattered clouds that were just becoming visible. A very soft breath escaped him—almost a sigh, but it was too weary for that, too torn. "Let's go home."
Together, they turned away from the ocean and the rising sun, heading back towards the darkness that covered the foot of the mountains.
No one saw them go.
She stood at the very edge of the shadows, staring down at the floor of the building, where a spill of sunlight cut across it like a golden knife. Even being in this near-darkness, her eyes burned with a fiery pain that she secretly relished.
Slowly, she crouched down and laid one hand on the very edge of the light, the side of her palm almost touching the brilliance that came through the crack in one of the boarded-up windows. It was so close to coming into contact with the daylight that she closed her eyes, wondering if she had the strength of will to move it even a fraction more, as much as she would need to end everything.
"Rukia!" a voice snapped from the doorway, and she started so hard she almost went into the sun after all. But inhumanly strong hands grabbed her and dragged her away from the danger, sending her tumbling back into the darkness. Rukia looked down to see her older sister sprawled under her, looking worried, somewhat put out, and a bit scared.
Rangiku saw the expression on her little sister's face and sighed, shaking her head. "You shouldn't do that," she scolded. "What if you slip? You could die of sun poison, even if it only touched the very edge of your skin. It's a terrible way to go. I only felt it secondhand, and even that was almost too much to bear. I don't want my little sister to go the same way as my brother." She sat up slowly, bringing Rukia with her, though she still didn't relinquish her grip on Rukia's arms.
Rukia smiled up at her reassuringly. "I wasn't going to fall into it, Rangiku," she said soothingly, wrapping one hand around her older sister's elbow and squeezing tightly. "I was actually just fine until you startled me. You shouldn't be so worried; I'm not truly suicidal."
Rangiku sighed and shook her head briskly, letting go of Rukia as they climbed to their feet. "If you say so, but I reserve the right to smack you! Come on, Byakuya wants to see us. He's in the main sitting room."
"Where else would he be?" Rukia asked with a laugh. "He never uses any other room if he wants to say something important."
Rangiku chuckled softly as she started up the stairs. "And lucky for you he didn't come out today. That means he hasn't seen your room yet." She looked pointedly at a door on their right as they passed it.
Rukia laughed, pushing open the door to reveal a world completely removed from the dark one she normally stood in. Every square inch of the walls and ceiling was covered by photographs and paintings of the sky, the clouds, the sun, making her feel as though she were standing in midair whenever she stepped into the space.
"Isn't it beautiful?" she asked admiringly. "It looks like the sky. Or at least I think it does," she added with a slight frown. "I've never seen the daytime sky before."
"And hopefully you never will," Rangiku said firmly, tugging Rukia along with her. "Once you're Blooded, you won't want to see it any more either, believe me. Come on, little one, you don't want to make Big Brother wait much longer."
Rukia stumbled after her obediently. "Of course not. But isn't he supposed to have as much patience as a marble statue weathering the ages? So he doesn't have a reason to complain if we're late."
Rangiku snorted. "Somehow, I don't think that excuse would work with him. Here we are." She pushed open the door and nodded for Rukia to proceed her.
The younger girl did as she was bidden, stepping into the warm darkness and easily making her way over to one of the three overstuffed couches the room held. Her eldest brother sat in one of the armchairs across from it, looking like the marble statue of which he purportedly had the patience. On his other side was Unohana, who acted as mother to all of them. Rukia sat neatly, drawing her feet back beside her and bending her knees so that she was sitting as her sister Hisana had taught her. Rangiku sat next to her, and Renji was on the couch to the right. Rukia's other sister and brother, Momo and Toshiro, were to her left, waiting for the head of the clan to speak.
As soon as Rangiku was seated, Unohana in the armchair moved, smiling and leaning slightly forward to gaze at each of the six remaining descendants. Her smile turned sad as she took in the empty spots where Kaien, the second-eldest son, and Hisana, the eldest daughter, would have sat.
"This has been a time of losses for us," she murmured. "A time of great losses, indeed."
"That is one of the reasons we have called you here," Byakuya said, a little sharply. Rukia looked at him and felt a twinge of worry. The normally clear brow, the firm mouth and focused eyes, had vanished, to be replaced by lines of tension and well-concealed worry that made Byakuya look much older than she had ever seen him look before.
Renji stirred, sitting up straighter. "What do you mean?" he asked quietly.
Instead of answering immediately, Byakuya turned to look at Unohana, as though seeking her approval—which in and of itself was cause for worry. Byakuya was never hesitant, never unsure. But this…
Rukia felt a knot of tension coiling in her gut. This would not be good.
After a moment's hesitation, Unohana nodded. Byakuya turned back, and anyone else would have looked weary. "We have been contacted by another Clan," he said. "Shinji Hirako and his people. He is the head of a large family, and one of the thirteen Lords. He and his family are very powerful and influential in our community, and I thought to ask them for help in leaving the country."
At those words, Renji leapt to his feet, the expression on his face making it all too clear what he was feeling, as it always did.
"Leave?" he demanded sharply. "But we've been living here for centuries! Why should we leave? This is our home!"
"Our home it might be, but no longer safe," Unohana countered with the quiet steel that made her so fearsome. "What if someone notices that the house isn't empty? Or that they've seen the same faces in the market since they were children, and though they are now old, the others have not aged a day past thirty?"
Rangiku seemed to have caught something the others had missed. Her mouth tightened, and she asked quietly, "What did they ask for in return, Byakuya?"
Unohana smiled slightly at her. "Your wits are sharp as ever, my dear, as long as you avoid the sake," she approved sadly. "It seems that the Vizards want us to tie the families together. A blood bonding, to show we're united against Lord Aizen. The youngest of our girls to the youngest man in their court."
Complete silence fell in the room, unbroken as each of the daughters struggled with her own thoughts. Rukia's mind was racing, unable to comprehend what had been done. In return for safety, Byakuya had bartered…one of them? It was impossible, untrue. It had to be a joke, a trick. She couldn't believe it, but the proof was written on her brother's grim face, Unohana's blank one. They were telling the truth, not playing some horrible practical joke.
"Which one of us will it be?" Momo asked with a soft voice, a bare murmur of nerves and buried horror. "Who did you choose…blood bond to a stranger?"
Byakuya shook his head, but again it was Unohana who answered. "Hirako said that he would choose for the young man, and that we were to do nothing but get to his estate safely. He will take care of the details for us. We will have new identities, so that we can escape human notice."
Rukia swallowed, trying to fight off the despair that was slowly converging on her. She didn't want to. It would be so easy to just give in, to curl up in a ball and let herself cry.
Then an arm slipped around her shoulders, and she glanced up to see Rangiku still beside her. Momo settled down at her other side, also putting an arm around her younger sister. They both leaned in to her, comforting and seeking comfort. Rukia resisted the urge to turn and bury her face in Rangiku's long hair like she had as a child, her hand instead finding Momo's and gripping it tightly.
"Don't worry, Rukia," Rangiku said soothingly. "If the son's older, Hirako will probably pick one of us, since he won't want his son to have a child bride who hasn't become fully Blooded yet. You don't have to worry." She shot a poisonous glare at Byakuya.
"And to think," Rukia murmured in a muffled voice, "I was always complaining about not being full vampire. Now I'm lucky not to be." She wasn't even sure she ever wanted to be. She might have been born to the Clan, but Turning was still a choice, and a small part of her was forever whispering, 'What if I just became fully human? Wouldn't that be better?'
Momo and Rangiku exchanged looks over their sister's head, full of quiet anxiety. They didn't say that if the son were younger, it would be Rukia who was chosen, Blooding or no.
Rukia planted her feet on the wet sidewalk, turning her face up to the dark sky as the rain poured down on her. She raised her arms to the bruised clouds and smiled slightly, then turned to face her siblings. "Wasn't the plane ride wonderful?" she asked, smiling at the four people behind her. It was a good mask, she thought, for all that it felt like it would crack at any moment.
Toshiro's frown deepened and sort of twitched on one side—his version of a smile in return—and he gently tugged her oversized cap lower on her head in a fond gesture. "How would you know? You were asleep for most of it," he reminded her. "The rest could have been terrible."
Ignoring his words, Rukia grabbed Renji's hand and dragged him with her down the cobbled street. "Come on, Renji! Something this way smells like summer. Let's go look."
Renji watched her indulgently, letting her lead him along. Rangiku laughed and ran to catch up with them. Momo followed, smiling sweetly, her own hat bouncing from its ties around her neck as it slipped from its precarious perch on top of her already-wet hair. They left Byakuya behind, all focused on following Rukia down the street. But there was something slightly forced about the joy in the voices of the older children. Only Rukia sounded truly happy, and her smile hurt most of all.
Byakuya restrained a flinch as it cut through the strange, cold air, so different from that of their homeland. He regretted this, more than anything else he had done in his long life, but it was necessary. To save all the rest, he had to sacrifice one. Duty and honor before love and kindness. He had made a promise to the Clan Elders that he would keep as many safe as possible, and he would.
He caught up with his siblings in front of a small florist's shop, the outside displays covered with a red awning that stood out starkly against the surrounding darkness. Renji was handing the young woman in the doorway a pair of bills, and the three girls were laughing and picking out flowers from among the many on display.
As he came up to them, Rukia turned with a brilliant smile and handed him a beautiful purple iris. "Here, Byakuya," she said. "For you. Do you like it?"
Automatically, his fingers closed around the delicate stem. Does she know? he wondered. Does she know what the purple iris means to our kind? Is she trying to remind me of family ties? He stared into his youngest sister's sweet, pretty face and wondered at the sharp, stabbing guilt that abruptly overwhelmed him.
Did it work? Rukia wondered silently, watching Byakuya's hooded eyes and weary face. Will you forget what family means, or will you remember that there's more than just your duties in time?
But there was no reaction in her brother's grey eyes.
Turning away in despair, she picked up a bouquet of cream-colored lilies and deeply crimson roses that had caught her eye from the very first moment.
The shopkeeper, a pretty girl with long brown hair, saw what she held and lifted it from her hands with a noise of delight. "Oh, how perfect for you!" she exclaimed. "You're both so pretty, it's fitting!"
It was a simple compliments, simple words, but Rukia felt something loosen slightly in her heart to hear it. She smiled back at the girl, and murmured, "Thank you."
"Oh!" Looking flustered, the girl waved her hands and retreated a few steps, blushing. "It's nothing, just the truth, because you're really very pretty and I wish I looked like you!"
For the first time in what felt like ages beyond count, Rukia laughed. She caught the other girl's flailing hands between her own and smiled up at her. "Really. You're very sweet. I'm Rukia Kuchiki."
"O-Orihime Inoue," she stuttered after a second, then seemed to recover and beamed. "Pleased to meet you, Rukia!"
Feeling a trifle wicked and much more thankful—because no one had ever eased her nerves so simply and completely as this girl—Rukia brought one of Orihime's hands up to her mouth and kissed the back of it. Blood thrummed below her lips, but it didn't draw her the way it would have one of her siblings. Rukia wasn't Blooded yet, wouldn't be until another vampire bit her and turned her all the way. As she was, there was still a chance to go back, to leave her Clan, even though no one had done so in living memory.
But as wide brown eyes caught and held hers, as sparks of heat and want and admiration-turned-something-else cascaded between them, Rukia almost thought that she wouldn't mind doing so for this girl.
Amazing, Rukia realized with no little awe, as her heart thundered in her ears and her breathing sped up, fingers all but shaking in Orihime's. I woke up this morning and didn't believe in love at first sight. And now…
Now was what made all the difference. And judging by the way Orihime was watching her, cheeks flushed and lips just a little bit parted, she felt it, too.
"Would you like to have lunch?" Orihime blurted suddenly, then slapped a hand over her mouth, face crimson.
Rukia blinked, caught off guard, and then smiled, taking the bouquet back. "Yes," she said sincerely, locking away all thoughts of maybe-possibly-husbands and having to start new lives here. "I'd love to, Orihime. Tomorrow?" On a whim, she pulled one of the roses from the bunch and reached up to tuck it behind Orihime's ear. It looked perfect against the red-brown, making her skin seem even smoother and brighter, her face just that bit more lovely.
Yes, Rukia thought. For her, I'll make my choice.
"Y-yes!" Orihime beamed at her again, wide and bright and so utterly guileless. "I'll cook, if you want to come here!"
"All right." Rukia squeezed her hands gently and then let go, stepping back as her elder sister descended on her and swept them all up like a rose-bearing whirlwind.
"Never mind that now," Rangiku told her, and Rukia wondered if she had any idea what they'd been talking about. "We need to go. Come, Toshiro." She grabbed his wrist and began to pull him down the street. As they went, Toshiro shot his younger sisters a glance. For anyone else, it would have been only the barest hint of emotion. Coming from him, it was utterly aggrieved. Seeing it, Rukia giggled, buried her nose in the bouquet, taking a deep breath of the heady floral scent as she smiled at the still-beaming Orihime.
Momo shook her head and pulled at Rukia's sleeve. "Come on, Rukia. Off we go."
Rukia kept looking back long after the flower shop was out of sight. She had a feeling that Orihime was doing the same.
The supposed would-be husband's name was Ichigo. He was handsome, short-tempered, scowled far too much, and had absolutely no interest in marrying anyone, as far as Rukia could tell—and as he informed Hirako very loudly and at length, when Hirako tried to make him pick one of them as a bride. There was something inordinately satisfying about seeing a Lord and the head of a Clan getting his ass kicked by a younger sibling that Rukia couldn't even bring herself to feel offended at the way he dismissed them all out of hand.
If anything, the sharp, assessing once-over he gave Renji was more than explanation enough for that.
They walked out of the Vizards' Clan Hall in exactly the state they had entered, though Renji carried a slip of paper with Ichigo's mobile number and looked well-pleased about it, and Rangiku was still wheezing out laughs at the memory of Hirako being hit from one side by a viciously wielded sandal—courtesy of Hirako's partner Hiyori—and one of Ichigo's flying kicks on the other. Byakuya looked slightly shell-shocked from the shouted reprimand Ichigo had given him for not growing a pair and standing up for his family, and Toshirou and Momo just looked dazed.
Rukia looked up at the grey, overcast sky, then back down the street to where she knew a bright awning stood out amongst the shadows, and made her choice.
As she walked away, Rangiku watched her go, but didn't call her back.
Orihime was waiting at the edge of the sidewalk, though Rukia couldn't have said how she had known Rukia would be coming back. She didn't question it, either, but let the taller girl draw her into the store, chattering happily as she went.
Rukia looked down at their linked hands and smiled.
For as long as she could remember, she had ignored what her heart told her, but now, its murmur as clear as a bell, she was listening.