Characters: Tesla, Orihime
Summary: There's a dangerous game being played.
Pairings: Tesla x Orihime
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Hueco Mundo arc
Timeline: Hueco Mundo arc
Author's Note: I know, crack upon crack upon crack, and has absolutely no plot. I just had to write it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
"Hold still and I won't have a reason to hurt you."
But I might anyway.
That's what he doesn't say, and they can both hear it as plain as the sounds of blood being shed just feet from them.
Tesla says what he says and leaves the other words out for the express purpose of frightening the girl, and when she doesn't, Tesla decides he was right about her.
Inoue Orihime is braver, and probably less fragile as well, then she looks. Then again, he supposes she would have to be to survive on Hueco Mundo; the weak are devoured here, swallowed up by any who chooses to. Whatever fragility the girl possesses, she has most likely shed, in order to survive.
Las Noches changes everyone who steps inside. She's no doubt discovered that.
But she's still frail. Brittle enough to break in his hands if he grips hard enough. They both know that and Orihime's suddenly playing a dangerous game, just like all the others she's been playing since arriving on Hueco Mundo.
Good. She knows what she's gotten herself into.
Tesla may seem a more mild Arrancar than his fellows, but he is nothing less than a predator. He could never survive being anything less.
Inoue Orihime isn't exactly prey, but they're now playing a dangerous game now, in the seconds that have her heart beating out of her chest while he holds her still and the others fight just beyond.
They're both fully aware of how easy it is to slip and fall.