Thank you for your review, ArcsneFist. That cheered me up a great bit~ ^-^~ I'm so happy! Although I'm not sure how well I can do with making the chapters longer, I can try my best to make more updates, would that be OK? o.o
This writer block... It will be the death of me one day I swear. Sorry for the rather unreliable updates, I have an idea for the ending but I'm trying hard to develop all the characters the way I want them to go.
So, uh, I wasn't able to finish the chapter when I wanted, and some family emergencies came up and manage to put me out of reach of a laptop for around two weeks... I'm sorry...
Though during my absence I seem to have gained a couple of favorites. So yay! I love you guys so much I wish I can give you all chocolates.
Sola staggered into her room, barely having time to close her door before collapsing to the ground. The espada put her hand to her lips as she heaved, and her pale fingers came away scarlet. The redhead licked the coppery liquid off her lips and leans on the wall behind her. Sola close her eyes and sigh, trying to ward off another heave as her body tried to cope.
A low laugh rumbled from his throat. The brown haired man stared at her with a falsely kind smile. Sola stares back coldly.
"All I am asking is a bit of help with this project of mine." the shinigami had cold eyes as he looked at her. "You won't refuse," he paused and he smirks. "Would you?" The silence hung like a curtain. The espada seem to think about something, and then lift her eyes to his.
"And if I do?" Her defiance, the scheming man smiled inwardly. How naive and amusing this vaste lorde is. However, he has many moves up his sleeve. Her thought that he did not know about her intentions or feelings is ridiculous. Though they might not be able to force her to take part, for the woman is more stubborn then a dragon, and even Tousen and Gin together might have a hard time taking her. No, the man thought, even with the three former captains present, there was no amount of pain that could force her to her knees. The tenth/zero was titanium wrapped in velvet, no exotic torture would be enough to make her bend to his will.
He knows, however, one way to make her bow her head to him, the one that made her pledge her loyalty in the first place. Aizen strides slowly back to his chair and takes his time lowering himself into the throne. He crosses his legs and stare at her with an amused expression with one hand resting on his cheek. To see her submit to him would be a pleasure.
"Cause if you do not." The man on the throne paused for effect, "I will just have to ask the bat to do it." Her eyes widened and returned to normal almost too quickly for him to see.
Got her. Aizen thought with a glowing pleasure.
"He's loyal, you know." Aizen shifts, relaxed in his seat. "He will agree without a second thought, even when he knows it will kill him." He utters those deadly words and watches as she becomes ensnared into his trap. Yes, she would comply to him now. "No matter, he would be given to a great cause, and I could replace him, even if an espada of his caliber might be hard to find."
"So make your choice, zero." His eyes sparked with cruel pleasure. "What do you say to helping? There's no rush, and you can refuse if you like." Her fists clenches.
"It's only recreational. This project of mine."
The redheaded vaste lorde looks up, mute for a moment. Her eyes burned with hatred for him to see before she bows her head.
"As you wish, my lord..."
"Let us begin." Aizen's smile is cruel as he nods at Gin. The white haired man bore his usual smile as he went forward and pressed a crystalline, glowing cube into her hand.
"Please, let out a bit of your reiatsu." Her red aura flared like a fire, greedily, it stretches and tries to tangle around Gin, who backed almost hastily away. The red flared brighter and brighter until, suddenly, the cube seems to dye itself black as its glow collapsed onto itself. The red of her aura begins to rapidly shrink, just like the light of the cube. Like smoke, the aura curls around her figure, desperately clinging before being sucked into the cube. Sola gasps, the spiritual power she released was gone, sucked into the cube. The espada's slender fingers tried to uncurl around it, but couldn't. The cube is shaking, or her hands are, she can't tell at this point.
"Don't let go of it yet, Sola." Aizen said her name like a charm. His eyes expectant, locked on the woman before him. The experiment was going well.
However, Sola was less happy with the ongoing situation. Horror, never in her existence had she felt like this. Sola could only watch as the cube drawn more of her delectable red reiatsu out from within her body into the cube. In a single minute it manage to drain her considerably, 40 percent. She thought with a start, it had taken 40 percent of her stored power in only a moment.
It kept going for another minute...
80 percent... A rising panic begun, but there was no way she would let him know that. So she held on to it firmly.
Slowly, more seconds ticked by. Black spots are dancing in her vision. 95 Percent, sweat beads her brow, she was going over her limit at this point. She blinks and held back a gasp, vision darkening and she sways dizzily on her feet. Sola could feel her presence ! Suddenly, the shaking ends and the cube glows with a fierce blood red as it dropped out of her hands with a clear, high pitched sound. The woman shakes, holding back a cough before she bowed to the man before her.
"The experiment is finished." The man looked at her with an amused expression. "Go." The redhead turns and walked away with blurry vision.
Sola leans back and lets her eyes close, allowing her brain to process the latest events. Her door opens and footsteps echoed through the hallway and into her room. Listening, the redhead pulled herself weakly to her feet and came face to face with Grimmjow. He gave her a long look.
"As the mortals would say, a penny for your thoughts?" The voice jested with a smirk.
"That would be a penny wasted." Her eyes are shielded, shaded from the world, only a shadow of red sneaked across the surface. The room is dark, only a silver of her silhouette register in his vision, a ghostly version of the woman. Even the bright red of her hair seem to dull, and her eyes are tamed. She looks dead tired.
"Why?" His body moved with predatory grace as he glides across the space between them. "Is it so wrong to want to know?"
Blue like ice, burns like fire, she shivers. "I'm a waste of time, Grim."
His eyes are steadily glowing as he stared at her. "No to me."
There's no need to speak, the implied words are hanging in the air. They both knew what it meant. Her silence is his reply. A firm yet gentle rejection. Friends is as far as she will ever let him go.
Whether or not he was willing to accept that decision was his choice.
And right now, high off a hunt and drunk in her scent, his brain is spinning too fast to work. His hurt ego and pride along with his lust compelled him, and so he obeyed.
Hence why he wrapped one arm possessively around the redhead's waist and tilts her chin up with the other. "I don't want to." He said lazily, drawling out the sounds in his deep voice. With her response on the tip of her tongue, he bent his head and silenced her. In seconds, his tongue flicked over her soft lips, savoring the taste and than sliding his tongue in her mouth. The dizzying sweetness of having her flush against his body is a pleasure. He wants to kiss her and taste her forever. Sola's hands pushed at the panther's shoulders and chest. Grimmjow didn't budge.
Lost in her taste, lost in her scent, lost in the softness of her skin and silk of her hair. There was no way he could stop, even the weight of her hand on his shoulder couldn't stop Grimmjow from taking it as far as he liked. The sixth espada ran his hand from the redhead's knee up her thigh, the addictive feeling of having someone he loved to him only was getting to his head. Her arms flailed as he carried her across the room and laid her across the bed, hair splayed across the pillow. Her jacket become a white backdrop against red hair and the black velvet sheets under her body.
"Please Sola." He said in between kisses, "I love you more then he does."
"Grim... Stop." Her breathing is heavy and labored. Grimmjow took it as a good sign and dips his head down to her lips again. She made a muffled sound.
A cool hand lands on the panther's shoulder and drags him off roughly. The panther lands on the ground with a growl, ready to spring.
"What the hell Ulquiorra!" He yelled at the figure before him.
"..." The bat gingerly held the girl up and tilts her chin, starring at her pupils. A cough finally broke out from Sola's lips, a drop of blood colors her now pale lips. A rattled breath and her iris is cloudy. "Get out." The edge under his baritone voice gave Grimmjow a start.
"..." The panther did not say anything, only stared at the blood the redhead's lips, slowly dripping.
"I'm sorry." The sixth opened his mouth to say something else but thought better of it.
The bat crossed the room and shut the door, locking it. Turning around, the green eyed man rushed to the woman's side. His fingers wipes away the blood on her lips and cupped her face with both of his hands. His eyes are burning like emerald fire.
"You're hurt."
Cool hands are soothing on her cheeks, so familiar and sweet. The patch of moonlight they occupy seem to help her as they illuminate his features. The black dots in front of her eyes flared, demanding the woman's attention. Her head sunk to his chest, eyes closing. The warmth of her body made the fourth pause with shock. Yet it felt so intimate and right, Ulquiorra put his arms around the woman. In the silence of the night, he listens to her breathing and feel it warming his chest.
After the panic of seeing her reiatsu blinking in and out recedes, the bat sunk deep into confusion.
Why had he been so angry at the sight of the panther carrying Sola to her bed? Even recalling that moment brings an ugly, violent feeling to his chest. The emerald eyed man had wanted badly to tear the sixth to shreds when he saw the man kiss her. When the raven haired man saw the other pull her into his arms, the stabbing pain assaulted him, it rooted him to the spot and mocked him. Yet not even that pain could compare to the overwhelming worry when he shifted his senses and feel the weakness within her.
The blood on her lips, it reminds him of other times. Suddenly he's ashamed that he wasn't able to protect her, again. Whatever happened nearly killed her.
He wasn't able to protect her from harm.
Why does he even feel the need to protect her? The bat frowns, he never had any of those feelings before she came crashing into his life. The espada stares down at the woman's sleeping face. She looks less guarded in sleep, almost fragile with her delicate features. Her pale lips seem to demand his attention. Her lovely cheeks have lost its usual color, the bat thought with a worried pang. Her eyes are closed, the long lashes were a dark red that stood out against her pale face. Even sick and pale, she was beautiful. Sola inspired something he didn't know he have. She drives him crazy. Somehow with her around, he seems to be feeling things that wasn't suppose to exist. Yet while he's going insane with his own thoughts, there she is. With every look, gesture and step she manage to drive him farther from his usual comfort zone, out into things he never knew before. Insanely, the bat wandered in the muddled confusion she had made of his brain. Seeing Sola is as if Ulquiorra was sinking into quick sand, the more he resists, the faster he sinks. Yet the deeper he goes, he seems to mind it less and less, even if she's knocking the breath right out of him. The espada sighs, he's truly in stranger's territory. The pale espada never felt like this before. Where just a look at her face seems to calm him down. With one look, all of his raging emotions seem to scatter and dissolve, leaving a warm, sweet feeling traveling through his whole body and back. Suddenly, Ulquiorra is content to hold her, to simply stay like this forever.
Perhaps this is what a heart is. A voice in the back of Ulquiorra's mind whispers teasingly, and the bat scrawled at the treasonous thought from his mind.
This is simply a phase, and it will pass. There is no such thing is a heart. Unconsciously, he held her tighter and swallows. It has to be, because there's no such thing.
And because there was no way the bat can take much more of this fluttering in his heart, but of course, there was no way he would even admit that to himself.
A slight murmur that escaped her lips sounded suspiciously like his name. The redhead's body squirmed in his gasp and, impossible as it seems, got closer to him then ever. Something pulsed in his chest. For the first time in his existence, cuatro took a shuddered breath.
Damn.
A sudden flash of heat vibrated through him. The bat feels strange. As gently as he could, Ulquiorra laid Sola across the bed. Standing to leave, he pauses as he sneaked a peak at the girl. Her blood red hair splayed brightly against the black velvet sheets and tangles around her left wrist. She looks like a doll as she laid there, resting against the soft bed. Her long legs were smooth and creamy. She looks so peaceful yet so open and vulnerable. Ulquiorra pauses, something about her simply stirred foreign and alien things in him. Yet she looks so wonderful that he couldn't help himself as he bent down and put his dark lips against her forehead like a promise.
The blue eyed walked down the hallway, looking utterly defeated. The image of Ulquiorra tilting Sola's chin upwards surfaces again and again in his mind. They looked like they belonged together, heaven made match. Her red, passionate fire against his dark elegance, Grimmjow felt like he had no place there, no business. In that moment, the panther had been an outsider, unwanted and discarded.
Grimmjow hated it. It wasn't fair that the bat got to have her when he couldn't even show any emotions. The bastard was about as warm as a block of polar ice cap. Yet in that room, it was clear who had Sola's heart, even if the bat would break it, even if he, Grimmjow Jaggerjack, would have treated her far better and loved her far more then the fourth could even imagine. Yet his defeat came so easily when the damned cuatro peeled him away from the woman he loves like an unwanted piece of dirt.
It wasn't fair. The panther turns and punches a hole through the nearest wall.
He won't give up, not yet. Sixta isn't one to give up without putting a fight in any situation, certainly not when it concerned the affection of his heart. The man stared at a near by window, and the moon glowed at him mockingly. His fist clenches and then loosens, once, twice. Jaggerjack bites his lips and glared at the chaste goddess Artemis above him. He's not giving up, not yet. Even if the bat doesn't realize it, the two will be fighting for the dragon's heart. Even Stark seem to be around her more then needed lately. But Grimmjow is going to give it his all to convince Sola that he's the right one for her. Either way, one thing is for certain in his mind.
It hurts too much to leave the situation as it is.
