A/N: Thank you to the wonderful guest who left me a review! It kind of is "poor Natsu" but she does deserve it. She can be such a bum! The zanpakuto will be explained later, and as for her relationship with Ukitake... Well, Natsu finds his straightforward caring attitude to be odd, for lack of a better word. It's kind of like when a cat or dog rubs its fur against you and your skin prickles. She finds him a bit irritable but she doesn't think he's necessarily fake, though there is something in her that makes her question he's attitude. I can't say too much more without giving away more. I loved reading your comment. It's much appreciated.
As always, leave comments/questions/reviews whenever you feel like it!
Natsu made herself scarce, stowing away in a nearby sanctuary, and only woke up again when the hell butterfly landed on her shoulder with the newest update about Rukia's execution. Her eyes had snapped open immediately and she took in the stars above her that were wrapped up in their own dark, forever dreary blanket. They beamed down at her and sent her a few winks as if they were nothing more than the contents of a cheesy message from a lover; never to be outdone by the endless black around them. The plummet in her chest and the urgency that coursed through her blood was the stark reminder that there was no lover and that the reality was in fact flying off on the fluttering, black wings of a hell butterfly to be sent over to someone else which was disappearing from her view quickly as it meshed in with the dark surroundings.
She would receive punishment no matter how late she returned to the captain, Natsu conferred, and the darkness was calling to her with that push against her eyes. She had wandered onto the roofs at the blasts of reiatsu going around, and they acted like the words of someone trying to soothe her into dreams. Her body felt heavy against the tiles. She was drifting after only a few minutes of her lounge. Her body sinking deeper onto the tiles and no longer able to make out the slates of the individual ceramics pressing awkwardly against her spine and her muscles.
Slowly she came until she was sitting up, with her head being the last thing to bash up against the air and stand up straight. She raked her fingers through her hair and then wiped over her face a few times before slumping back down against her hands. Her face fell back into its normal position with her eyes half lidded and her mouth opened, until she let out another yawn which was only a small disruption to her mask.
Looks like I ain't sleepin' 'til later on.
Last minute training… Really Natsu?
Las' minute prep mor' like it.
You'll forego getting to your captain then?
I trust 'er to figure it out 'erself. She's smart.
Natsu squashed up against the tiles and her mouth pulled up into a grimace. A small bead of sweat fell along her cheek and she slowly ticked her head towards the side. "Whatta ya want?"
"Want? Oh I'm sure you already know Natsu."
A small flicker of Natsu's eyes took in the steamed line across the other woman's face and the sharpness of her eyes which were directed straight at Natsu's attempt to be innocuous and bland. When the woman's arms were crossing, Natsu responded, "No idea."
The woman let out a sigh before coming to a squat in front of her. "At least look at me when you're trying to play off you're insubordination."
Natsu turned to look at the noble face of one Tachibana Ayako. Ayako was branded a bit more of a dark beauty, than someone like Rangiku. Her eyes were a cool, slated blue that edged more along the tone of dark purple, and had incredibly pronounced lashes which enlarged the normally smaller eye shape. Her face was a bit more square than ovular, but it was caught somewhere in the middle of the two with a strong jaw and chin, and thin cheeks. Part of her right eyebrow had been cut away with a lightly colored scar that traveled somewhere from the hairline, through the eyebrow, and then a bit onto her cheek. It cut along her eyeball but it had been shallow enough that it didn't disrupt too much. Only a small section of her eye sight, which was about an inch in length, was just gone.
Her hair was a light purple and was jerkily cut at the top in an untamed sort of way, with two long strips that went along her back. They were much more pronounced than Natsu's with them coming more over each shoulder blade rather than running down the center of her back. She tied each on off with an elastic and then a charm that dangled from each one; the one on the right side was her family crest which had existed for over two hundred years, and the one on the left was the symbol of a circle that had the swirls of the light spectrum which had to do with her zanpakuto.
Ayako had been aptly named. It was not just her zanpakuto which had to do with colors, but her outlook on life and her appearance. The woman carried different sashes, or other wrist and hand apparel with different colors and would deliberately pick which one in the morning to signify how she felt the day would go. She'd even do it if it was a feeling that the day would go terribly wrong. Today was no exception seeing as she wearing black cuffs around her wrists which also had a small flap over the back of her hands and looped around her middle finger to stay put.
"I ain't doin' nothin'."
"Of course you're not." Ayako returned as she lifted her two eyebrows at her. "You just have Ukitake-taicho coming up and asking me if there was something wrong with you and then Unohana-taicho telling me about how you seemed to be helping the ryoka."
Ayako was not stoned face. Ayako was not animated either. Ayako was somewhere in between since when she was angry or disappointed she could create an impenetrable mask of calmness that probably had more to do with age than her actual attitude. When the situations weren't serious, she was calm but joyful. She always had her ears perked if Natsu went to her, and was good for advice when the time called for it. Unfortunately in this meeting her face was set and that thin line on her face would allow Natsu no excuses.
"They worry too easily. I ain't doin' anythin' wrong."
Ayako let out a strong sigh before grabbing onto Natsu's torso and flinging the girl over her shoulder. Natsu could only groan as she felt the barricade of her arm and the press of the woman's shoulder in her stomach. She was another one of those deceptively strong women, which made Natsu scowl at the passing ground that was quickly becoming a blur in the speed they were moving at. Ayako stood somewhere between Yumichika's height and Yoruichi's. However, even with Natsu being much taller than her, the older woman could easily tote her around like she was a bag.
Natsu only looked up when she was put down onto her feet, and then immediately sagged in the spot. Her eyes slowly trailed over the building that they were near and then turned back over to the woman in front of her. Still the impregnatable face was there, with her arms loosely crossed so that she was holding onto her biceps, and there was a slow tap of her foot to count down the seconds that Natsu wasn't saying a word. Yet she had brought them to a safer area, surrounded by nothing but the strong barricades of the sixth division walls.
"Wha?"
Ayako let out a rough sigh which had her head moving down in frustration and disbelief. Her blue eyes turned up at her and sparked a small fire. "What? I should be asking you that."
"I sai—"
"I know what you said, but I don't belief you so start talking."
That hand that she was holding up was enough for Natsu to eye warily. It was the hand that made the simple stop gesture but with Ayako it was how she dealt with Natsu's more petulant states and it was another unstoppable wall that Natsu never knew how to deal with. Her own red-brown eyes could only eye it warily and with disdain at the power of a simple palm and extended fingers in the air.
"Let me ask a more accurate question, Natsu." Natsu turned back to the woman that was tucking the arm back into its original place across her chest. "Why have you been helping the ryoka?"
"I ha—"
"Only a few people have kido that can cut through the Shakonmaku. You're one them."
"Wel—"
"Ukitake-taicho also told me about the confrontation on the bridge and Shihoin Yoruichi appearing out of the blue." Ayako paused to rake a hand through her fringe and land a net over Natsu who was grimacing more and more. "Unohana-taicho also told me about your near negligence to your duties, but somehow arriving at the scene of Aizen's death."
"Ya accusin' me?"
"Do I have to accuse you of something, Natsu?"
"Wouldn't be tha firs' time i's happened in Seireitei." Ayako pulled back slightly and Natsu pushed out a breath as she came to her fully height. "Accusin' tha innocen' o' somethin' seems ta be tha motto o' tha place."
Ayako stared at the shallow look of boredom on her young mentee's face and the indignant flash that came across her features. There were those wrinkles in her chin as Natsu formed the tiniest of pouts on her lips, an act of sheer frustration Ayako was sure, and Natsu's eyes were swept over to the side. If her fringe were just a bit longer it would have cut at Ayako's vision of the well of spite that sat there finally coming to light.
The older woman sighed slightly and pressed her eyebrows closer together as she tried took in the look of shattered innocence and the angry spitting of an already reprimanded child. For the forty years that they had known each other, the only person that Ayako was certain the girl was herself around was her and that was only when she tugged enough until the whole mask was completely wrecked and ended up splintered glass on the floor.
Forty years ago she had gotten injured on a mission and Natsu had only been a new transferee and trainee under the watchful eye of Unohana that had taken in the girl as a strong hopeful. Still there had been the harsh spark of boredom in her eyes and the never weary look of untarnished deadpan along her face. Ayako had been immediately put off by the sight of the long haired girl that had the bronzed tresses against her back in a loose ponytail and a straight fringe that cut through the half way point of her forehead awkwardly, because of that look on her face.
Yet in the short moment where Unohana was explaining what she wanted Natsu to do there was dominance that the wise captain must have caught on to. Natsu's eyes had steeled over and came back to center in that intense amount of scrutiny and assessment. It had nothing to do for personality, although Ayako was certain that the younger could pinpoint anyone's darkest secrets with that look, but for the injury. It was the look of a nurse with that much needed hardened attitude that would probably prevent her from letting anyone die on her bed.
Ayako had chosen to befriend the much younger girl. She herself had stopped counting her age, although she knew it to be way over two hundred, and age mattered little to her. She decided later on that it came down to the strange coloring of the girl's hair and the freckled eyes that had a buttered toffee base and a rusted red splattering. Natsu was unique and there was something Ayako quite liked about the look of the girl that somehow inspired confidence as oddly as she tried to thrust it away.
"What does that mean, Natsu?" Ayako answered back and slipped her arms down to her sides.
Natsu cradled the image of her mentor's face in her eyes before flicking off to the sky again where she could make out the moon and then its outer ring which was the cascade of its light. Her mouth pulled down into a frown and there was that bitter acidic tang on her tongue that tingled as the saliva reacted with it. Her head flung down with a sharp breath that pushed out the beat of her heart. She tugged slightly at the blue sash with a small smile gracing her face that no one but her knew she was doing.
"Ayako ya been 'round a while yeah?" Her head raged with the tug of war about whether she was really going to spill after forty years. She huffed out another breath and closed her eyes to ward off the look of shame that she'd probably receive. "Then ya know I didn't come fer the Gotei 13."
"I assumed that, yes…. But –"
"I'm followin' Urahara Kisuke."
Ayako morphed from the stringent mentor that she was to something else. Natsu couldn't quite name the transitions as her eyes widened and her mouth opened and then shut again only to screw itself into a blended mash. Her face had become devoid of color, making her eyes strike out from the pallidness of her suddenly cold face. There was the absence of the warm near lavender feel of comfort in her eyes as they too shifted to the color of a drowning sun that was eclipsed by its own sunset in the dark fusion of purple. Her fists clenched up and few times and Natsu could make out the rotations of her breathing that were powering up the cycles in her head to process the words.
Natsu felt herself yanked down by the collar of her shirt until they were face to face. Now closer to the spitting features, there was the ever present pillar of concern in the woman's eyes and Natsu had to look away from it as she had always done. Sometimes when she looked too long she'd forget which set of eyes she was staring into and her heart would start to clatter. It created a mess in her brain.
"What," Ayako shook her by the collar a bit as she impounded every word, "do you think you're doing?"
Natsu stayed still within her grips but the woman allowed her no time to speak. The lid of the pot was humping up and down trying to let go of the steam that had built up underneath it from the boiling water. Ayako was good at keeping a lid on it though until the woman was barking down her ear again. "Why are you following someone like him? When did you even meet him?"
"There's more ta it than ya think."
"I don't care." There was the furious bite that Natsu had been more prepared for than the twist of concern and pleading. "He's an exile and a criminal. What has gotten into your head?"
Natsu pulled away with a sharp tug and clung onto the woman's wrist so that she wouldn't go running off. There was nothing in her countenance that gave that impression with the firmness of her jaw and the tauntness of her body. Additionally, Ayako was just not the type to run from confrontation.
Ayako had worked steadily for years under the watchful eyes of Kuchiki Ginrei, until she was promoted to fukutaicho after the misfortune of losing his son. She stepped down from the position as the captain's grandson was coming in as replacement. She became fourth seat to allow a new wind to change the sixth division. She was trained to uphold the peace and stability as was the sixth division's creed and she followed it pretty steadily. There was nothing in her body that would allow her to run away from a "criminal" when she had the ability to capture the interloper, help settle the situation, and bring peace back to the Seireitei.
Natsu, however, was hoping that she'd be able to plead to her more sensitive side and the forty years of relationship between the two of them, before the woman could run her through with a sword. Ayako would not do something so crude, but Natsu wanted to prevent even the knock unconscious that was more likely to happen.
She swallowed and then turned her gaze of to the woman who stuttered just a bit. Her own voice paused at the look of confusion in her mentor's face and wondered briefly what her own face was reflecting to get such a reaction. "There's history tha's been forgotten, Ayako."
"What are you talking about?"
"Nobody been 'earin' tha story fer one 'undred 'ears." The two women slightly parted at the olive branch wrapped in that small whisper. Ayako's eyes shifted between the two of her own and Natsu knew then that she was listening. "Ya hold out ya can 'ear it soon 'nough."
Officially it was silent, as the space sucked their throats dry of any words. Unofficially it was a muffled quiet with the wind howling, the crickets chirping, and the leaves shuddering somewhere off in the background. Ambient noises which deftly drowned out the smoldering looks between mentor and mentee which would have set the open space on fire as they tried to pin one another down. Natsu could already feel the way the lion was parading in her head, the swipe of its claws into the air around it, and the hairs on her body slowly rose as she stiffed up her legs underneath the cloud of disrupted serenity. Her feet shifted slightly and the two broke eye contact.
The lion raged loudly in her head, and her body began to lean away. Suddenly, Natsu's hand was taken into the two hands of her mentor and she felt the small presses of the pads of fingers against her knuckles. She stared down at the clean sheet of bandages that the woman was trying to wrap around her hand and then back up to the woman who was still staring intently at her, trying to decipher what was not said and said in the hush of the silence between them. Their two eyes looked at each other as if it would transmit radio signals, until Natsu's fell back down to the ground. Those purple-blue eyes were like suction cups and a pair of tweezers all at the same time.
"Alright." Natsu heard the ring of clarity around the woman's voice. "Let's say I believe you. What does that have to do with Urahara Kisuke and the situation right now?"
"I's all endin' Ayako, and ya'll see it tomorra."
"The execution?"
Natsu lifted her head at the pulse on her hand which was Ayako squeezing down firmly, and then shifted a bit further up to see the scowl along the woman's lips. "I can't tell ya." Natsu lifted up a bit more at the dread that was slowly swamping over the woman. "I's somethin' big."
"And you're preventing me from getting hurt to soon? Don't you think the anticipation will kill me more?"
Natsu huffed slightly and then settled on a smirk. She slowly waggled up a finger and then tossed her head to the side to impede the attempt at Ayako's teaching side coming through, and switch up the board again. "Now, now. Curiosity killed tha cat."
"Just tell me, Natsu."
"Would cha actually believe me?" Her finger became a straight hand, palm side up to the sky, and out to the side to help her shrug. "No one else 'as believed it 'cept fo' those tha' died."
Ayako pulled back further and took in the zipper that seemed to be running along Natsu's face. It was only those brown-red freckles in her eyes that somehow moved slightly to uncover the deep seated mistrust and isolation from whatever the information was. The girl looked simply exhausted at the prospect of having to even open her mouth, which was something new; for as much as she complained about speaking, the girl was always up for a quip or a joke.
Ayako had to abandon her hands because the sort of aura the girl sent was nothing but serious and dark like the black sash around her own waist. She knew there was nothing to stop Natsu from fulfilling whatever it was that had to be done; not even reiatsu inhibiting handcuffs and a jail cell. The older woman's eyebrows dropped slightly just after detaching from the younger girl and she knew that a frown was painting her face at the moment.
Her heart was screaming at her for making the girl feel abandoned. There was a clear weight on the younger one and if what Natsu was saying then it was about something she had toted around like chain and ball for forty years, only knowing that sometime in the future she might be able to take it off. Her eyes closed off to shut down the feeling of her heart and came up with a resolute pad lock not to be broken until the mid-day sun tomorrow, which hopefully brought along that key for the young girl.
"I'll wait for tomorrow then." Ayako looked at Natsu with cleared eyes and there was an instant shudder of the form so that all jokes were dropping away and there was nothing but the serious eye and the drained physique. "I believe in you, although I don't like the circumstances."
Natsu swallowed a few times to prevent her voice from cracking as she looked at the near shy smile on her mentor's face. Her voice came out slightly breathless from the tension that was receding, "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet." Ayako shook out as she gathered up the rest of her energy. "I'm going to have to tell Unohana-taicho something."
"Bah." Natsu dropped her head back and let out a long sigh before going back to the image of Ayake's raised eyebrows and the eternal patience she seemed to have for childish fits. "Make somethin' up."
"I will not do that."
"Why not? Not like ya even know wha's goin' on." Natsu put her two hands out as if the words were a physical present to hand over to the woman. "O' ya can tell 'er ya jus' didn't see me."
"I will not do that either."
"Sucks."
Ayako let out a snort of a laugh before stating calmly again, "I'm sure it does."
Natsu stuck her tongue at that and the woman shook her head in denial at the act, but Natsu only pulled down at one of her eye lids until the woman was telling her to stop. Natsu only proceeded along with the messy taunt by waggling her tongue up and down, to which she got a blanched face and then a hand over her lips to forcibly shut them. Only then did Natsu stop the face and go back to her regular slouch with a small grin painted along her face.
"If you want to go running around then tell me something to give your captain." Ayako had a smile of her own on her face and patted slightly at the cheek beneath her fingers before drawing away again. "But to see you doing actual work is a hysterical notion."
"Meanie."
"It's deserved. - How many times have you staved off working for trying to distract me from my own?"
Natsu turned her head over to the side with a forced grin on her face whilst Ayako put on that reprimand and nearly went down on a rant about how she had to take on more actual responsibilities when all this was over. The woman was always clucking about the same and Natsu only turned them into periods of listening so that it would soothe her into a sleep. Unfortunately Ayako had caught on very quickly to it and would stop at random intervals to make sure she was really listening, but Natsu would only shrug.
"Fine." Natsu cut through and looked back over at the blinking woman who was slowly closing her mouth. "Tell 'er tha' she's probably thinkin' wha' I was…. An' she'll need ta take a walk ta clear 'er head."
"Being cryptic won't put her at ease."
"Nah… I'll leave tha' fer ya ta do, Ayako."
Ayako watched as the girl made a slow slink away from the scene with a smile burgeoning on her face. Natsu was back to normal and the dedication in the footsteps moving away from her was enough to put her at ease, although it left her with more of a work load. Her brows furrowed slightly again and she ran a finger through the top of her head at the encoded messages that remained ever faithful to not only Unohana-taicho's intellect but also to the root cause of her mission. There was a small flare going off in her heart that there was something she had missed to help take care of her young mentee but she'd have to just trust her on this one, Ayako supposed.
