Ok wow- OkamixInu, you are way right. Ukitake never lived in the 72nd district. hehehe… that is a very stupid mistake for a huge Ukitake fan like me… I changed that to something a bit more reasonable. For some reason I had I it in my head that he died in the real world or something. Thanks for correcting me!
Btw, yoru no futago means night twins. :)
thank you
OkamixInu (what would I do without you to correct my stupid mistakes)
LupiLupus
For reviewing again, u guys are my bffls!
llsnowbirdll- you rock as well, thanks 4 commenting!
Chapter Two
The door squeaked loudly as Sunny and Ukitake walked through it- Ukitake winced at the sound, and Sunny sighed; she had always hated that stupid door and its rusty hinges. The house itself was arranged around a short central hallway, with doors along it. At the end of the hall was an open door that led to the kitchen- as the two walked through the door, a happy cry came from inside the room, though they could not see the source of the voice.
"Sunny! You're back!" it exclaimed. A small figure came running out through the door; it was a young girl, about the equivalent of six or seven in the real world, wearing a blue kimono much too long for her. She tripped over it as she ran into Sunny, wrapping her arms around her stomach and leaning on her. Sunny gave a defeated look as her knees began to shake under the added weight.
The world hates me. She thought miserably, but then sighed. There was no changing the fact that she was supporting approximately two hundred twenty five pounds on her one hundred and forty pound figure; she bore with it and patted Aiko's head with her free hand, the hand that was not supporting Ukitake.
"Aiko, darling, I love you to death, but I am going to collapse in a few seconds if you don't stop leaning on me." Aiko gasped, jumping backwards immediately.
"Sorry!" she exclaimed as her long black hair fell into her wide blue eyes. Ukitake let out a hacking cough, though only a trickle of blood came from his mouth this time. Still, Sunny's face was painted with disgust, and she shuddered. She had never been good with blood.
"Oh, who's that?" Aiko asked, only now seeming to notice the large man draped over Sunny's shoulder.
"It's a shinigami captain named Jushiro Ukitake." Ukitake waved weakly, taking some of his weight off of her. He had all but stopped coughing, though the loss of blood had left him weakened. Sunny sighed in relief.
"Oh." Aiko said, completely unfazed. "That reminds me, I lit the toast on fire."
"Wait, what? How did you get lighting the toast on fire from that?" Sunny asked, baffled; then Aiko's comment hit her. "You lit food on fire again? Have I told you how hopeless you are recently?" She asked, exasperated. Letting go of Ukitake, she ran into the kitchen to put out the fire with the calmness of one used to such a scene. As she walked forward, Ukitake stumbled backwards, surprised by the loss of her support. Left behind leaning on the front door, Ukitake laughed quietly. The two girls were quite a combination.
After a few minutes, they emerged from the kitchen, talking heatedly.
"How do you manage to light everything on fire? Is it some strange curse or something?"
"Who knows. It could be a blessing."
"How would that be considered a blessing? You are absolutely dangerous to be around, you know. My brain hurts from trying to have a conversation with you. And you are going to burn the house down someday."
Aiko giggled, then caught sight of Ukitake. "What should we do with him?" she asked.
"I suppose it's too late to make him go home, isn't it? Plus, he'd get lost." Sunny sighed. "I suppose we have to let captain freeloader stay here for a night." she said, talking as if Ukitake wasn't there.
Ukitake sighed, taking what he could get. Even if Kioko was calling him names, at least she was letting him stay.
"You can sleep over there." Sunny pointed to a room on Ukitake's left. "There's a futon in the closet."
"Um… Thanks, Kioko." he said awkwardly.
"Yeah, yeah." she paused, considering. "Call me Sunny, captain freeloader." She said before disappearing into a room on her left and collapsing onto a messy futon. Aiko followed her, the two apparently sharing a room. Left abruptly behind in the hallway, Ukitake smiled; Sunny was quite an enigma. He slept deeply and comfortably that night, strangely content despite his unfamiliar surroundings.
Sunny, however, did not sleep as well as she would have liked.
The dream came again, the recurring dream she had been having consistently for the last few months. It started with her standing in a cloud of white smoke; then it cleared and she was standing on a slightly slanting hill with black grass beneath her feet. Dew sparkled on the grass in the light from the magnificent full moon and sparkling stars above; the sky captured her attention, and made her unable to look away. Altogether, the scene was a pleasant one; that was, until they came, as they did each time.
They came together, walking over the hill hand-in-hand. They were mirror images of each other, both wearing the same long, formal kimonos in the same pale white. Their white hair hung down their backs heavily, shining in the light from the heavens. Their skin was pale as the stars above; the only part of them that was anything other than white were their narrow, ice-blue eyes that stared Sunny down intensely. Sunny, as always, was afraid of them, but was unable to run. She might be intrepid in her waking hours, but here she was nothing more than a scared child. She was rooted to where she stood, but wanted to run with all her might from those two and their unearthly paleness.
She wanted to run because they offered her a power she was afraid of.
"Kioko." they addressed her formally. When she, as usual, didn't answer, they continued, speaking together. "Only you have the power to set us free. Call our names, Kioko, and bring us into your world. We can give you power, power you want whether you know it or not. You just have to call us, and we will come."
"No… No, I don't want it…" She replied weakly, uncharacteristically inarticulate.
"Call us when you are ready, child. Call us by our name.." they said together. "Call us by our name, yoru no futago."
Then the world faded into white smoke, and Sunny found herself back in her room, Aiko's arms wrapped around her neck and in the dark more comfortable than the eerie light of the stars, unable to sleep until dawn.
