A.C.: Wow it has been a looooong time. I wasn't planning to update but this happened to be sitting there... written... all by its lonesome so... I hope it was worth the wait?
Disclaimer: I do not, never have and never will own Bleach
Warnings: nothing in particular as of now.
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Shadow Fox777- o.o hobbits... I tend to be fickle? ...Which really does not explain anything anyways? xD
phppsmss- sorry no action here;; kinda slow going, just kinda -grins-
kingleby- thanks for the review-
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She had lied.
She had lied to him when she said that he was free. Only now, in her brother's rooms watching the flames lick the scented wax of a violet-hued candle stick, did she see the fallacy of the situation. An elaborate illusion created by her mind to give her a sense of peace against the turmoil of politics and lies to pit one house against another.
The door slid open to admit one wildly tattooed man with red hair. He looked grim as he knelt down by Rukia's side. Dawn had broken over the horizon a long time ago but the room was dark. The servants had fled into the darker recess of the thirteenth house and the ancient instincts screamed at her, to all of rest, to do the same. Only the majestic presence of her lord brother and the ridicule she would suffer (even if it was only in jest) under her redhead friend's gaze kept her grounded on the floor. She poured tea for the both of them and kept her cup empty to the last.
Finding the silence unbearable the redhead began to speak. He started with what the scouts had reported, clans within the broken house found dead. Stragglers within the woods patterned with burn marks. He calmly stepped over the difficulty in requiring much of the supplies for the winter solstice celebration as well as the upcoming New Years. He thanked whatever deities that were listening that Lord Ukitake's health was holding and mentioned in a brief passing that Sentarou and Kiyone should stop beating around the bush and marry each other.
Rukia had to admire her usually hotheaded friend for tact. He had learned within the ten years she had not been by his side. It was strange to see him so reserved, but she thought it was appropriate and kept silent until the end.
"And sir, there is a rumor going around regarding Hitsugaya Toushiro."
Rukia almost dropped her cup in surprise. Byakuya raised an elegant eyebrow before setting his cup down on the table.
"Oh?"
"Yessir..." Renji fidgeted under his lord's cold gaze. "They say that the kid's... unmarked."
Byakuya turned his solemn gaze to his adopted sister, a frown marring his otherwise flawless features.
"Has Miyako never touched him?"
"He was forbidden from her from his birth. It was to keep him a secret from Masuyo-sama, the first lady of the tenth house. She saw him once a year on his birthday. One day before the Dongzi celebration."
"Like a fairy tale." She blinked and slowly nodded in agreement. Yes, that's what it had been. A fairy tale, for both the mother and the son who had no other life they could claim. She bit her lips as he continued. "Why was she not able to mark him? It is tradition for at least one of the parents to mark their child as their own." Byakuya gave her a grim smile, "Even if he is not a Shiba." She bit down harder though she was afraid that the two men in the room would pick up the coppery scent. At once the Kuchiki lord's expression softened and with a slight tilt of his head, urged her to go on.
"She said she did it to protect us. She said that he would know if she left a mark, I am not quite sure what she meant by that. No one knew about Toushiro's existence save a select few and the old man who guarded the door. The midwives who had attended the birthing were killed, Kuro-sama saw to them himself."
Renji started slightly,
"But why keep him alive for so long?"
"He is a feeder." Byakuya cut in, "he would have been a valuable asset to the tenth house clans. But I am somewhat surprised that Hitsugaya Kuro did not kill him..." the end of his lips curled briefly at the thought. He shook his head as if remembering something and waved one hand languidly at them. "You two are dismissed."
The two, one redhead and one dark-haired, bowed to their chosen lord and left the room. Kuchiki Byakuya sat there for a long time, even as the few human and hybrid servants used the daylight hours to clean the thirteenth house. He slowly blew his breath between his teeth and left, disappearing into the shadowed abyss of the thirteenth house.
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Toushiro did not dream. Feeders never dreamed, blessed by the sun, they were denied the reprieve by the moon. Doomed to walk their days forever without dreaming, they had developed another way of entertaining themselves in the realm of sleep. To put it simply, they remembered.
"My child... my beautiful, pitiful child..."
"Haha-ue..."
"Please forgive this foolish mother of yours..."
Toushiro woke up but did not struggle to get up. He saw that the gray walls of his memories had been replaced by bamboo panels. He raised a hand and brought it to his forehead. Stumbling, he groped his way across the smooth expanse of the forehead when he reached the center, right above where the bridge of his nose tapered into the skull and where the fine points of his two eye brows separated. The spot was soft and slightly tingling. When he touched it, he felt warmth slowly rewind itself throughout his body.
It was morning; somewhat surprised Toushiro sat up and came face to face with eleventh house's lady-to-be, Kusanagi Yachiru. Toushiro stifled a shout of surprise. The girl however, had no such qualms and squealed out her delight as a possible playmate opened his eyes. She (once she was done making sure that he would not fall back asleep again) clamp her coral-painted hands around her mouth when she heard the scurrying feet of a servant outside. Giggly but quiet, her glowing pink eyes remained mischievous as she tugged at his hands and ordered him to follow.
He tried to hastily get to his feet when he saw the girl's hand grapple his wrist tightly and began to drag him towards the shaded windows. But his legs were weak with his recent excursions and had not sufficiently recovered. He was dumped unceremoniously over the now open window when the pink-haired heiress had decided that he was not moving fast enough for her tastes.
He flailed and landed on his back. He bit down hard on his lips as to not scream. Spreading his palms across the cool earth, he slowly opened his eyes to a breathtaking sunrise. The rosy fingers of dawn passed over his face, warm and comforting. For a moment his eyes took on amber and rustic shades as he stood up to get a better view.
Yachiru, displeased that she had lost her playmate's attention so easily, snuck behind him and pulled him back into the shadows when he raised a hand to marvel at the display of colors reflected upon his moony skin. With a wag of her finger she prevented him from going back out into the glowing twilight and led him towards a small window on the parallel wall. She boosted him up into the room, possessing extraordinary strength for someone seemingly so young. Slamming the heavy windows shut she gave a cute curtsy and said perkily,
"Kusajishi Yachiru of the Eleventh house, nice to meetcha!"
Toushiro blinked. He hadn't been hallucinating when he thought that her hair was pink after all. Parting his mouth slightly before closing it, he lowered his head into a bow, deeper than the curtsy she had given him. He kneeled and folded his hands over his knees.
"Hitsugaya Toushiro, yoroshiku."
He was surprised when he raised his head back up to find a pair of cat-like pink eyes. Yachiru peered into his face and Toushiro looked away, suddenly feeling self-conscious as a tiny fist tugged at the lock of white hair over his left eye.
"Your hair's so white..." Yachiru whispered in awe. Then she backed off, the pitter-patter of her feet against the tatami floor as she threw herself against the line of headless plushy and dolls. She dragged a wooden table in front of him before setting down a cracked but obviously well-loved tea set. She poured in a cup of water into the pot and two table spoons of sugar before pouring it back out into the cup and pushing it towards the subdued child. "You don't look dangerous."
Toushiro regarded the cup silently while circling the rim with a thin finger. Seeing the pink-haired heiress drink, he mimicked the move and nearly spat out the contents as the sugary concoction overloaded his taste buds. But with the girl smiling so cheerfully at him he couldn't help but smile back. It was nice in a way, it reminded him of before. Brief seconds in his life that he was allowed to brush up against the soft-edged happiness and pleasure.
He smiled bitterly knowing that he would never again experience the simplicity of joy. Already he had begun to grasp, knowledge was a painful thing. He could be normal, he could be 'great', but he would be used by others on creating someone else great.
Yachiru poured him more 'tea' when he had emptied his cup. She filled his silence with her unceasing chatter and bombarded him with questions that she had never expected him to answer. But for politeness' sake he nodded and agreed every once in a while to show that while it was a rather one-sided conversation, he was there and he was listening.
"Yachiru!" Kenpachi Zaraki had arrived with a hoard of other eleventh house members behind him. Though his voice was more irritated than afraid for his charge, he had a rustic katana out and was swinging it restlessly as an effeminate man coaxed the girl into his awaiting arms.
"Aww Ken-chan, I just wanted to play with Shirou!"
"You can't just play with prisoners of war!" Zaraki looked like he had a headache while a group of three went ahead and secured the white-haired child. Toushiro looked calm, almost as if he had expected it and did not protest to the manhandling he was subjected to as a burly man wearing sunglasses tossed him over his shoulders.
"But you let me play with them back home!" Yachiru protested as she blew a raspberry at her guardian from her perch in Yumichika's arms.
"Ya usually don't serve them tea! That's why!"
There was a sudden rumbling sound. The door burst open to admit two new faces into the room. Yumichika and the others were able to get out of the way but Zaraki was flattened beneath the oriental doors as the dynamic duo of the thirteenth house made their entry.
"What's going on here?!"
"Lord Ukitake cannot sleep because of this racket."
"He is ill, he needs his rest!"
"Why the hell do you keep following me?!"
"Me follow you! Hah! You're following me!"
"Copycat!"
"Liar!"
"ENOUGH!"
The two stared wide-eyed as the murderous looking captain of the eleventh house made himself known beneath them. With a growl of frustration, Zaraki stood up and threw the two captains off his back. At first he had thought to do the world a favor by getting rid of them. But then he remembered that the two were so hopelessly devoted to each other that any insult, save those from each other, they took personally and the only thing worse than the two arguing was when they were working together.
Using the one eyed captain's dilemma as a distraction, Yachiru jumped on Iba's head, freed Toushiro from the said man's arms and jumped out the window with the boy in tow. Panicking, Yumichika stuck his head out the window.
"Wait, Kusajishi-chan, it's still light out!"
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"Kusajishi-san... you should go back in. They seemed worried about you and it is unwise for you to be seen with me..." but the bubblegum haired girl wasn't paying least bit of attention as she blew furiously onto her fisted hands. Rashes had broken out over her skin, enveloping her wrists and fading at her arms. Desperate for relief the girl licked at her scarlet digits while Toushiro sat next to her, head twisted and staring askew at the sunlit grounds.
They hid beneath the thirteenth house as various foreign voices called out for the lady-to-be of the eleventh house and the last surviving member of the tenth house. Every once in a while the bare feet of a human servant scurried by under daylight as most of the eleventh house could not participate in their search. Zaraki Kenpachi swaggered up and down the yard bellowing out the heiress' name.
Yachiru giggled under her breath. Both jumped when a hand started searching for them beneath the house. As if deciding something important, Yachiru put on a determined face uncovered a small hole in the wood above them. Toushiro's eyes widened slightly when the girl began to push him upwards into the hole even as a hand caught a hold of her ankles and began to pull her out from beneath the thirteenth house. With a last burst of strength, both children climbed up the whole in the flooring and burst through the gold-woven tatami mats. An amused chuckled captured their attention as men and women alike voice their dismay outside.
And that was how he first met the sickly lord of the thirteenth house.