Hiya!

Yay! Update! :D

A/N: Yesss I know it's been a really long time since the last chap.

And finally some questions and some answers too! Yaaayyyy~~~! I've been waiting for some of those for a while now but you guys are just lazily reading eh? haha! But I will try to provide some answers though you know how I do it...I do it slooooowwwllyyy...*smirks evilly*

Jap words of the day!:

nobori- those little flags that's carried at the back with a pole printed with a clan crest.

wakadanna- young master

Disclaimer: Kubo-sensei is awesome! So don't go trolling on us! o.O

Thyself thy foe,

to thy sweet self too cruel;

-Shakespeare-

Thirteen: Crescent Moon

†ˣ†•†ˣ†

She couldn't believe it. It had been a week, an entire week since she last saw him face to face. She had not taken a single patron since then and tonight he still did not come instead he sent a messenger to deliver a letter to her.

When she saw the nobori outside she thought that he must've come for her at last but there was no orange haired, scowling Wakadanna to be found among the small retinue outside the Okiya. It was only this grim faced man, formally presenting her a letter from his master. She accepted it with lightly trembling fingers, half afraid of what it contained and suddenly fearing the worst.

But when she browsed through the letter she could not help but let her eyes widen in surprise and embarrassment for some reason she could not comprehend. She recognized his handwriting and there was no denying that he had indeed penned this letter. He had signed it with a little teasing haiku making her flush at their implication. She pressed her lips together with a soft chuckle as she folded the letter and tucked it into her collar.

"Does your master expect a written reply?" she asked with a delicately raised eyebrow.

"Yes, if it pleases Oiran to do so." The man replied in a most reverential tone as he bowed slightly.

"Very well I shall write a reply…" she was about to call on one of the Kamuro she knew was waiting outside her door when the messenger simply spread out a piece of paper and a brush with a bottle of ready made ink on the table before her with another bow. Efficient.

With her reply she also answered his haiku, a little smile on her lips with every stroke of the brush. She folded the paper and handed it to the messenger who received it with much ceremony and with a deep bow he finally excused himself.

After the messenger left Rukia stared out off the window moodily for the rest of the night, still refusing to entertain any of the patrons already lining up outside the Okiya. Okami-san was shaking her head as she laughed out loud at the men already begging her on their knees so they could spend time with the Oiran. Some even offering huge sums of money and promising to give more just so they could meet with the Oiran.

"I am terribly sorry. But the Oiran's Danna is not here tonight…it will not be possible for her to entertain anybody else until he himself says so. Please choose from our other pretty girls so your coming here won't be wasted…" Okami-san gestured with her arm towards the hari-mise with her practiced all-business smile.

They were all miserably disappointed as Okami-san kept refusing to grant them audience even for just a round of sake until they just gave up and started to take their pick from the other girls though they still hoped that the Oiran might change her mind and indulge them with her company even without the explicit permission of her Danna.

But the night wore on and the sake had kept on flowing but the Oiran did not come down. She was cooped up in her room still staring out the window until the morning light finally drove away the shadows in her dark room. In her hand, she held the letter. Re-reading it so many times that she memorized every word, every crease in the paper and the neat calligraphy she had seen many times with her own eyes as they were being written. As she read she can see in her mind's eye his hand and wrist coordinating in perfect rhythm to form the graceful characters, his arm steady and firm—a mark of a fine swordsman. Even now she could feel the same smile spreading on her lips as she had then watching him writing haiku for her in between finishing letters of business to the Okiya.

And what was this aching in her chest? Her smile faltered as she felt her heartbeat speeding up the more she thought of him, her Danna who had not come to see her even once for an entire week! She felt angry as her thoughts strayed to his whereabouts and what he might be doing and why he had not come for so long. She tried not to be selfish but the urge had come so suddenly like reflex. Ever since that first morning when they had to part ways she dreaded the coming of the very next morning and looked forward to the night when he would come for her.

He did not talk much about himself, almost as if he did not need to and she finds herself not bothering to ask at all as if she herself understood his silence. But now that she thought about it she had always wondered who he was or even what kind of a man he is. But all she knew about him was that he is a well-respected Daimyo and by far the youngest one she had ever met through the years in her trade and occasionally being in the presence of such important men. And that he liked to be always near her. Sometimes she gets this feeling that he couldn't bear to be away from her and then the next moment he would just look at her, his eyes distant and it would always make her nervous for some reason. She just couldn't seem to get through to him whenever he was like that.

His presence alone always seem to overpower any kind of reasoning she might have started from the moment he stepped inside her door. He had an aura of secrecy that would now and then manifest itself and this curious little oddity she have been noticing for some time. He sometimes talks to her differently, say things that echoed in her mind that left her off balance, affecting even her grasp in reality. She would have these…visions but they come so quickly that they just do not register no matter how she might try to hold on to a single one. The threads connecting them to her would vanish without a trace as if they were never there. These episodes would always leave her feeling weak and dizzy. It would leave her this acute feeling that there was some sort of lapse in her memory and that it was something of utmost importance.

But try as she might she couldn't bring back the things she had seen in flashes, like scenes of some distant dream or even a memory that were so blurred she could not make out a single thing. Every face was distorted but it was the emotions that drew her in and this nagging sense of purpose. Maybe she had once lived as someone with greater calling than just siphoning money off wealthy merchants or emptying noble men's silk purses just for the pleasure of her company.

In her dreams, whenever the shadows came they always say and want the same thing from her. For her to remember. But what exactly it was that they wanted her to remember she had no idea. That voice in her dream that spoke to her as though they knew each other very well wanted her to remember. But back then his voice was unfamiliar to her until she had met him, her Danna…Ichigo-sama.

She did not want to believe it at first but then the lapses in her memory had started to filter in much clearer. She was seeing more and more, almost remembering as the voice inside her head had once said to her.

That voice that sounded so dauntingly like her own.

The red eyes, her own eyes glowing red…the voices so very much like the other and yet there was something so very off. Just like Ichigo-sama's voice and his yellow eyes. Yes, she remembered it so very clearly. He was him and yet he was not him. Something inside her could almost understand, could almost grasp how come it was like that.

And then that voice in her head would start talking to her again and sometimes she would forget. But when they came back she was always left paralyzed and shaking with fear. And in one of these times the voice had said something that haunted Rukia more than any of her nightmares.

I will make you remember…only if you want to Rukia…

But what exactly was it that she had to remember?

She had often wondered why it was her, why she was being plagued by all these dark things, those shadow beings and the blood. Everytime they would appear she would always think of blood, she would feel it calling to her. Something about the ecstasy of slaughtering a living being and taking its life and then finally the blood.

A life in exchange not to preserve a life but the need to satiate the need to be domineering.

She found it horrifying that she could ever have such thoughts! It wasn't her and yet the voice in her head was laughing and the sound of her laughter was more than enough to tell her that she was not as innocent as she had always believed herself to be.

Flashes of blood coating her hands, her arms. She could feel it trickling down her chin, the sweet coppery taste filling her mouth. It was all to satisfy the beast in her but that had been then and it was different now. Even without the voice showing her bits and pieces she could feel it in her gut that something was going to happen. Something that would decide her faith once and for all.

Rukia closed her eyes for a moment, still not feeling the need to sleep even though the sun had already risen so high. She was just about to stand up when her door slammed open with a force that rattled the frame as Okami-san hurriedly stepped inside her room half doing the knots on her obi as she knelt before her then paused with a deep frown. "You have not slept?"

"Why? Do I look that horrible?..." Rukia replied with a weak smirk, her eyes staring hollowly at the woman before her who had finally managed to tie her obi properly.

"I know you Rukia…I can always tell when you have not slept." Okami-san said in a firm scolding tone as she clucked her tongue most disapprovingly.

"Why have you come here so suddenly? Did something happen?" Rukia massaged her neck lightly, relishing the creaking sounds it made as she finally moved it from being held rigidly straight for a few hours.

"I just got a message from the O-mon gatekeeper saying that the retinue for you is arriving in midday. You better get ready if you want to be presentable when it arrives."

Rukia's entire face suddenly brightened at the news and she hastened to her feet but Okami-san's next words made her stop dead in her tracks.

"Your Danna is not part of the retinue, Rukia…" the woman was looking at her but she had quickly turned her back. She did not want anyone to ever see a look of disappointment cross her face and she was not about to slip up now.

"Of course it would be ridiculous for him to do that! Isn't that why he sent me a letter of invitation instead?..." Rukia turned her head midway to the kneeling woman behind her with her smile firmly in place. But she couldn't keep the dejection from showing in her voice making Okami-san chuckle mirthlessly at finally catching her.

"Ah, Rukia-chan…you will have to trust the sincerity of the man in your life at some point. This is a good start as ever. You should not be ashamed of showing your weakness about it…there is no shame in love." Okami-san muttered sagaciously as she went out the door leaving Rukia nodding her head in ascent until she finally noticed what she was doing and her eyes widened in horror as she heard Okami-san laughing merrily on her way down the stairs.

"Stupid hag…" Rukia mumbled under her breath as she closed her door but not before she heard the hag calling to her from downstairs.

"Rukia! Go to the bath house now or you'll be late for the hairdresser!"

Grumbling darkly she slammed her door shut and huffed towards her futon with the intent of getting some sleep. But even as she eased her body into a comfortable position she could not lie still. In the next moment she was sitting up, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright.

Today finally she'll be able to see him again. If only she could just keep her doubts to herself and be perfectly civil when they meet. She could already feel her disappointment and anger bubbling up fighting off her contentment when she received the letter asking her to come to him.

Yes, she had been very worried when she received no word for a week and she had began to entertain dark thoughts involving his health and each one more gruesome than the next. She found things around her bland and uninteresting that she had taken to just staying up in her room and playing the koto to herself.

She actually worried and to think that she had not even bothered writing to him but shut herself in. No she actually wanted him to come to her first. She wanted…oh, she wanted him to be near her! For whatever drove her to feel like this was slowly warping her mind.

She had this overwhelming feeling to be held tightly in his arms, to feel that peace she could only have in his presence. When her heart would stop pounding in fear for what she could not explain and why she was slowly becoming one with the voice in her head. Why she felt this utter hatred towards the man she was longing for.

As always...Thanks for reading! :)

Do tell me what ya think of this chap. Questions, violent reactions. Did ya like it? Are ya confused? Please do leave a REVIEW! One person can't do the tango by themselves...*grins*

Salamat!

A/N2: I've written another story! It's called Untouchable Ones...some of you have already checked it out and I'm grateful for your support and for liking it too. :) If you like my smutty stories then maybe you'll like it too! It's AU cause I just love putting our beloved bleach characters out there and playing with them. hehehe! :D

See ya all soon!

-kimchi-