Things That Occur in the Dark
Glancing across the room Kirio found herself smiling softly as she took in the reflective image of her captain in his younger days, crumpled over a series of bound and loose literature, a candle burning to the quick as the boy slept exhaustively on an open page, his mouth slightly a gap.
She found herself drawing a blanket around the man gingerly, her arms wrapping around his model-like frame before pressing her thick lips to his forehead. It occurred to her that this boy was not her brother but his son, as the soft black tendrils beneath her lips turned a gentle orange in her delusion and the frame seemed slighter in her hold.
Shaking the sense of loss from her bones, she blew out the flickering flame before pattering out of the room once again, making quick time back to her own bedroom.
Settling into her bed, she slid down until her ankles curved the edge of the mattress. Her hand settled on the uneven scar that spread over abdomen, reveling in the sense of loss it represented.
Finding difficulty in succumbing to sleep, she rolled to her side, pulling her legs into a fetal position. There she fell asleep quickly, falling into a slumber that left her crawling in remorse.
xoxoxoxoxo
The gentle echoing noise of knuckles on thin wood woke Rukia prematurely from her sleep. She rose tiredly, wiping at her face to get the sleep from her eyes.
When she finally addressed the intruder in her room, she had readied herself mentally for a fight, only to find the saddened eyes of her oldest friend gazing back at her, the furrowing of his brows shortening his long tattooed forehead.
"Renji, what's wrong?" Rukia asked, sliding off her bed and edging towards the man she had considered her best friend for the better part of her lifetime.
"I've received direct orders from Soutaichou," Renji began uneasily, "to inform you of your upcoming position in life."
She approached warily, coming short of arms length as she looked up at him uncomfortably.
He glanced at her uneasily as he gauged her reaction thus far to his news, "It's been decided that, as a member of the noble Kuchiki clan, you will be gifted to the eldest heir of the Spirit King. Word is he'll be here in three days in time for the new moon cycle."
Looking up, Rukia's voice caught in her throat, before throwing her thin arms around Renji's neck, shocking her best friend beyond words.
"I won't….I won't do it….I'll refuse." Her hands tightened at the neck of Renji's shihakashou, "I'm not a noble- I was just adopted into the Kuchiki clan… I'll run away, I can defect like Urahara-san and Yoruichi-sama."
"You don't have a choice, Rukia. It doesn't matter if you're a noble or a slummed up street rat back in Rukongai. When the Royal Family makes a declaration of this magnitude, they follow through with their decision. Besides," he paused, drawing Rukia from her tight grip on his neck, "how do you think you could hide from gods?"
The breath she hadn't known she was holding hissed passed her full lips creakily, and she found herself clinging harder to Renji, "Please, don't let this happen. Please, Renji….help me…"
A gentle hand curved around her skull, petting her gently as he contemplated all he would have to do. "I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll try.'
Xoxoxoxoxo
(Kirio's dreamland)
The two had sat quiet and content for quite some time, curled before the fire in sprawled cuddling positions of relaxation, the girl leaning against his stronger form for support as they went about their duties on their own in comfortable companionship. Kirio knew better than to break her captain's concentration, and so after her paperwork had been completed she took to readying herself for bed. It wasn't long before Isshin shut his book and glanced down at the young woman pointedly.
"That boy still doting on you left and right, Kirio?" Isshin asked bluntly, glancing at the young girl who busied herself with her hairbrush.
She nodded softly, her green hair jostling slightly at her accent. "He's been particularly persistent in his devotions recently," her hand tucked itself into her obi before pulling out a long coil of gold before the bottom of a fan poked its head out of the thick material. "And that's the cheapest of his little gifts for me. I can't walk into any room in this place anymore without finding something he's left behind."
Nodding his dark head, the man took the initiative to broach the subject entirely, "and how long would you suppose that you will string him along before his interests in you tire and he grows bored?"
Shaking his head, Isshin lowered his palm to rest on her unruly hair, "You ought to consent while you still can negotiate your own terms. Someday it won't be your choice and someday I won't be around to protect you from the consequences of your slowness."
He was leaving her. She knew exactly what she would have to do, despite any promises she had made to herself. In order to protect them both, she would have to consent to the Prince. Something about that made her uneasy but she had no choice but to agree to her captain's terms.
"Ai, Isshin-sama. First thing tomorrow I'll go to him."
But it was her fear that kept that from occurring. She had waited nine days until suddenly she realized it was less then a week until the prince's birthday. As was tradition, he would be granted his heart's desire despite the impossibility of the wish and she had no doubt in her mind that what he would request was her.
She had six days to change that wish by offering him what had always alluded him. Time was not her friend either, as this night was the only one she had access to find him alone and make good her plans. And so that very night she had readied herself for bed the same as she did when she rose before going to the prince's private wing.
The air in the hall chilled her bare feet as she padded towards her fate, her breath heavy as she rapped three times at the door which would otherwise change her life.
"I've decided the fate of my heart." The girl called, tucking a loose strand behind her ear. Her grey eyes glanced down at the trembling hand that held her yukata closed for now.
Her heart echoed in her ears and she could feel her chest tightening as her breathing rate increased. Weeks ago the young man would have flung the door open upon her entering his family's private wings, word of her trespassing on the air so swift that he seemed to be everywhere at once. Perhaps he had lost interest as Isshin had foretold?
Just as she began to gain up the nerve to knock a second time, the thick door slid open to reveal a slightly disheveled man in chocolaty satin pajamas which brought out his pale complexion and his golden eyes behind his dark glasses. The young prince allowed his eyes to scan over her softly shaking form before settling his gaze on the pale knuckles that held her entirety from him.
"And what would that decision be?"
"I'm willing to accept your proposition. Under MY circumstantial conditions of course." She said determinedly, glancing at the man as she stood her ground. "A gift that would show your undying faith to me."
"And that would be?"
Glancing around the hall she took in the guards that eyed her warily despite her ranking in the royal guard, "Let me in and we'll discuss it"
He glanced at the few faithful men to him and nodded them off as he stepped back and offered the girl entrance to his room.
Despite the roaring fire, a chill filled her colder than standing outside of the room as she glanced anywhere but at the man, taking in the rich browns and greens around the expanse.
Stepping over the threshold, Kirio pushed the door tight before shifting the lock. Her hand relinquished its grip on the cloth, allowing it to crumple at her feet before she stepped out of it and stood for the precise inspection of her prince. Her body was her leverage, the only one she could manage on a would-be god, so she used it regretlessly. "Promise me the long life any traitors against the crown."
Seeming to contemplate the request, the boy went to a glass bottle of rum before pouring two generous glasses before offering the nearly naked girl one. She took it with thanks before downing it in one fast go, fighting the urge to surge the fiery liquid back out. Taking his own sip, he seemed to contemplate the request of his would be queen.
"Do you know of any conspiracies worth protecting the vermin behind it, or are you looking out for your own hide, Hikifune-chan?"
Glancing at him fearlessly, she countered his inquiry with one of her own, "Would it change your decision if my answer was either? I'm offering you all I am, all you've wanted, for the leniency of those whom would be brought to death. You can either take it and my willingness or deny it, and drag me to your bed, the choice is yours."
"Show me your devotion." The man said, sitting down elegantly onto his bed before patting the spot beside him. "And you will receive the world, there will be naught that you will want that won't be besought to you."
"What would you have me do?" she drew nearer to the man warily, offering up her pale body as a sacrifice.
"Whatever you would do to please me," A smile passed his lips, a challenge in his voice."But I will have it now, not later once your clarity wavers." His hand reached out and appreciatively touched her full breast, cupping the bottom of the globe experimentally, "ye gad my father made you perfectly…"
She hesitated as she realized exactly what would befall her this night before she threw her worry away for now, coming up to the boy and kneeling at his feet. She licked her lips before letting them brush the tip of his head warmly, feeling the warm velvet caress her waiting mouth before she opened her lips and took him in inch by inch, taking care to touch the tip as she went.
He swept his hand over the woman's soft green hair, taking its short length in its entirety in his hand before he let it drift strand by strand like grains of sand in a time turner. "I've told you many time's that I loved you, Kirio. Must you continuously deny that?"
Pushing him even deeper into her oral cavity, she purred, licking the shaft as she bobbed her head, like she had done a great many times in the Rukongai. Shamelessly, she took him, taking her time with her work. Her prince choked on his own tongue as she swallowed him deeply before a cry left his lips and he coursed thick milky fluid over her mouth. She looked up at him with wet, unblinking eyes, letting the young prince see precisely what he was doing to her. He seemed to hardly care as he pushed her face back down, forcing her to take his load. She felt dirty and exposed only momentarily before he pulled her up by his hand fisted angrily in her hair, "I showed you nothing but reverence and love, and yet you resisted. I had thought that our love would have been a beautiful, untaintable thing."
She knew in her heart of hearts what would happen next. Never before had she sexually pleased a man, but that didn't mean she was ignorant to courting ritual. When she had roamed the Rukon her elder sisters had offered up their own bodies to save her own- Isshin himself had taken a few here and there when it was just them on their own.
His free hand took its chance to stroke the length of her face down over her chin to her mouth where the fingertips paused to feel the dull pulse that her swollen lips had taken as they turned a tart cherry, "How can I destroy something so perfect, something I've yearned for for years like it was meaningless? I apologize, Hikifune-chan, but you must wait your deflowering for some time. I won't have you tainted, only beautiful and pure."
At this, he grew distant, his face growing colder like porcelain in its perfection as he closed off the emotion he and Kirio had been sharing. His soft lips pecked her on her flushed cheek, pulling her closer as he laid down, pulling her to lay beside him as he fell asleep for the night, but in the early morning when she awoke she was on her own once again, the sheets beside her as if no one had laid with her the night before.
xoxoxoxoxo
The young prince's birth celebration came and went without circumstance. Very few were in attendance, but that did little to dispirit the prince, for the woman he had chased and lusted after had agreed to share his bed.
He had been fairly certain that she had been on a plot for disastrous things since she requested his birthday wish to save any traitors to the crown, but he knew she could never be so deep in deception that he would not already know of her deeds, for he knew of every move she made with his obsession.
And so he had been able to come to the realization that her wish was not for her but for someone she cared so deeply about. It did not surprise him when his elder sister Masaki escaped with Kirio's brother Isshin, nor did it truly bother him. He simply rose to the occasion, dodging questions about the two; when asked about their location he simply put it that they were "round somewhere" and would disperse the conversation onto the plans he had for the day and how the servants shouldn't worry themselves about things outside of their control.
The king, so wrapped up in his own duties, had little time to realize the disappearance. It wasn't until the third Sunday's family lunch under the weeping Sakura trees that he noticed something was awry. It was almost the end of the third month when he was infuriated enough to search out his daughter on his own. What he found left him confused and furious all at once, but unable to change what had occurred.
xoxoxoxoxo
It didn't take long for the prince to formally introduce her to the court, showing her off at every chance he could. She was quickly accepted as a fixture at most family occurrences, the brown haired prince quick at her hip at all times. It became almost like she had taken the role of his wife, except for the peculiarities that only she knew of, and the official title bestowed upon her from said man.
But she was his now, no one could deny that fact now.
Her belly had grown swollen and heavy and she often found herself hugging the child within her womb despite the recklessness in the action. To many she was simply horridly ill, but to the Prince she was late with his child.
The man made sure that none would know of the illegitimate child the girl carried, worried it might lose him the chance he had at the throne. Kirio understood that with Masaki defected from their dimension that he had the best chance, and had allowed him to what he would to protect himself, to protect the child within her.
A long slash of a sword's edge was his motion against any that might hold it over him, leaving Kirio's early pregnancy crippling, forcing her to bed rest as the wound on her stomach healed enough for her to limp around.
She had conceived their first time they had been intimate, and while she didn't exactly love the man as he loved her, the child within her was the brightest part of her life. She would protect the man with her life if it would save the child she bore.
A soft smile passed her lips as she looked up from her reverie, thanking Yosei, the oldest prince, for the cup of tea he had poured her.
xoxoxoxoxo
Kirio's heart was racing hurriedly as she escaped from the palace and their world much like how she had imagined Masaki and Isshin had.
Her life had shattered before her eyes, and no one could save her from her fate. She would be damned to see her newborn daughter destroyed, however, so she dared the impossible to save her.
A man stepped out of a black car a few blocks down, and the court guard member dedicated all her reserves to following him, knowing he would be able to help her find the house if nothing else. She followed at his heels, tracking and spotting him as she went. Rounding a corner onto a darker street, Kirio paused to tuck her child within the folds of her kimono, hoping that the rain would not touch the girl as she dove in and out of the torrential downpour. An arrow pulled taught on an unseen bow, and Kirio found herself crying out in fear as a man much larger than she was herself slammed her against the stone wall.
"What business do you have hunting my acquaintance, Soul Reaper?"
xoxoxoxoxo
The look in her silver eyes had the white haired man sighing in exasperation. He knew he couldn't cut down the poor woman after the tale she had told him.
The child did look like his friend's wife, the face and eyes were her mother's but there was an unearthly beauty that made the babe's soft cheeks glow and her hair shine under the gentle moonlight.
Opening his car door for her, he watched as she struggled with herself and the decision to trust him, "Come on, I'll drive you to his house. Its at least better than risking the child's health."
Silently, she nodded, slipping into the seat softly, letting the artificial heat surround her deeply. The man joined her quickly and began turning the dials and adjusting the fans towards the middle and the passenger's seat.
"Thank you for believing me. You have no reason to trust my tales." Her hair was plastered to her face and she found herself wringing out the edges of her clothes.
"Its rather hard not to believe knowing the history of my own people. It actually makes a lot more sense this way." The tall man extended his hand as he watched the woman wring the bell of her sleeves out with both hands over his previously clean car, "I'm Ryuuken Ishida, by the way. I'm the last of the Quincy."
"I'm Kirio Hikifune. And I'm not a soul reaper, at least not anymore. I'm not even certain if I can be considered a soul. Not now…"
"And her?" he nodded towards the child resting in the folds of her haori, "What have you named her?"
At that Kirio withdrew, looking out the down pouring window, as her arms tightened in defense of the child, "I haven't seen the point in naming what ought to be dead."
xoxoxoxoxo
"You said to kill any Shinigami on sight. I apologize if I was wrong in this assertion, but this one seemed to be keen on aiding her child, and I couldn't cut the head from a mother and her child so determined to get to your doorstep, calling out your name." Ryuuken stated as he nodded out of respect to his coworker. The woman had halted her malicious attempts at freedom upon sight of her brother and she began crying anew.
"Isshin-sama, please! Help me!" she cried, clutching the child to her breast like she had the power to absorb the being back within her, "I've done something terrible! Please hide her- please save her!"
Isshin took the small baby from his strained sister and gazed down into the still baby's blank silver gaze and curly red hair that so resembled his wife's. It wasn't until the baby smiled that she began to look like his sister. He looked from mother to child helplessly, unsure of what path to take.
Helping his baby sister could destroy the life he had created with Masaki here, and no matter how much he loved his baby sister, "Kirio, I-"
"If it must be I never lay eyes on her again, so be it! She must never return to soul society, they'll kill her. He he-he's killing me, I can't let him do the same to her! Please, brother, save her!"
"Isshin-anata?" a soft voice called as the front door opened. The two were disrupted when a woman with short wavy red hair stepped out onto the front porch. It was an instant acknowledgement between the two that Masaki held her husband's child on her hip, the boy had a similar sleepY look to his father and a small pout pushed his lips in a trembling way.
Masaki looked between the two, pulling her son closer as if to protect him from the world, internally knowing that seeing the girl was no good news. "Neechan?"
Kirio couldn't break her gaze, looking from her child to her brother's longingly. In a healthy world these two would grow together, they would love. Perhaps one day would find a path in life that would bring them ecstasy. She wanted that, not only for the child in her arms but the child in Masaki's as well
Dropping her gaze from her family, Kirio shook her head, pulling her daughter even closer to her breast, "Gomen nasai, I should not have intruded on your peaceful life here. I will find another path to protect those I love."
"Kaaa~!"
Just as she turned to make her way a soft call made her hesitate and she glanced at the softly scrunched face of her daughter. The gaze was so serious that it made the woman smile, knowing she would have to make it somehow. And somehow she knew that her child was much too young
"What's her name, neechan?" Masaki's sweet voice carried on the wind, "My Ichigo seems to have a liking to his cousin. Perhaps I can hold her for a while, while you take care of whatever business has you so unkempt."
Pausing, Kirio smiled, feeling the deep relief wash over her at last. She knew that this house would help her protect her child. "I've been calling her Hime for some time but I haven't chosen a name for her yet."
Masaki handed her small son to his father and took the babe into her arms to gaze upon her in her entirety, "She is beautiful, so soft and pretty, but what a serious face. She so resembles me, Kirio…."
Glancing at the girl distrustfully for but a moment, realization settled upon her, "She's been caged since birth as well, has she not? You bloodied yourself and your hands getting her here, making me think you left under certain hostile discretion."
The golden haired woman smiled at the child then, brushing away a soft wayward lock as the girl latched onto it, a soft smile catching at the corners of her eyes. "You love silky things, don't you my little Ori~hime?"
Xoxoxoxoxo
Yaaaaayyy. End chapter. Any opinions?
Was inspired by the literally breakdowns of Orihime's name. In shortened terms it's a literary connection to the weaver woman tale, a Japanese myth, but it also translates to Caged Princess, Ori meaning cage or entrapment, and Hime of course meaning Princess.
I know I must be killing some of you by intentionally not giving the Prince's name, but at this point I want it to be a guessing game. I hope you're all inspired to inquire about a great many things in this chapter. I try to answer all questions.
Either way read and review. Cookies for Sarra makes her write.
Love and Kisses.