Undertones
By: WhisperedSilvers
X
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Get it, say it, I'm your type
I know you been all this time
So get it right
To get around me
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make it look like it's magic
Rukia had Byakuya order them a car, it was part of the ambiance. Even with the Kuchiki mask placed firmly on her face, Toushiro's hand gripped her thigh securely and it caused her to tense up all the same. Renji, who was physically uncomfortable at the sight of Hitsugaya's physical display of affection, shifted in his seat and scratched the back of his head.
"Are you nervous, Renji?" Rukia asked with amusement.
"No," Renji snorted and crossed his arm, "I'm still waiting to hear about this plan of yours."
"She's going to offer herself up as bait," Hitsugaya answered flatly, blunt fingernails pushed half-moons into the soft skin of her upper thigh, and then he soothed them apologetically with a whisper of healing reiatsu.
"You're—" Renji sputtered, "You're going to do what?"
Rukia sighed, "It's fine. Ichigo will be with me," then paused, "That isn't against the rules, right?"
"Technically, no," Rangiku said, she crossed her legs over and explained, "Ichigo isn't technically a soul reaper, because he's still human and isn't part of Thirteenth Court Guard Squad. You do have to lead a team as part of your second assignment – remember the bit about leadership skills – but that is after you lure out the hollow, according to your verbal explanation, so you're pretty much good to go."
Rukia gave a nod.
"So after you," Renji twitched, "Lure out the hollow, you're going to—what?"
"Once I lured out the hollow, Ichigo and I will have to isolate said hollow. Outside of the club, away from the humans and with fewer buildings. Ideally, it would be better for us to minimize the fallout and or casualties should say a disaster," she eyes Ichigo pointedly, "Take place. It's easier to take care of a purification when there are fewer obstacles in the way."
"You mean you want to overload on your ice shikai and freeze up the whole damn place," Ichigo snorted and rested his head on the back of the seat.
"Hey! It's effective," Rukia scowled and then grinned, "And it makes for a pretty slippery runaway."
"Puns! I knew that manga gave you was a bad idea," he almost laughed.
Hitsugaya's hand traveled skated higher up her thigh and the muscles in her legs just twitched to snap shut. Her lips trembled imperceptibly and the ache inside her hadn't disappeared, it stayed, a dull, aching thud. A reminder of what has yet to come.
And then the car came to a stop, she inhaled shakily and opened the door.
The club, much to her surprise, did not look like the clubs she saw on the television – at least the films she was allowed to look at while Ichigo was unavailable – it looked almost normal. A small, gray, brick door in between the alleyway of a small takeout place – ramen by the looks over it – and lit up with red lights.
"This is it?" Rukia asked dubiously.
Ichigo handed her, her I.D card and shrugged, "Looks can be deceiving."
Hitsugaya chuckled and pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder, "I'll say."
Matsumoto flushed at the intensity of her Captain's stare. She blinked profusely and turned to stare at Renji with widened eyes. Renji, who was still uncomfortable with PDA – especially to his childhood best friend – snapped his head to the side and glared at the crack in the sidewalk.
Rukia led the group with Ichigo on her three and Hitsugaya on her six. She smiled sweetly and handed the bouncer – strange human names these people give – a card. He glanced at the card and then at the indent in her breasts before allowing her inside. Rukia almost scowled at the man's lack of finesse, but Hitsugaya's furious crackle of reiatsu hummed in the air and the bouncer's upper lip beaded with sweat.
From the front door to the main entrance, a small hallway lay in between, Rukia made sure to memorize the layout for future reference and when they passed what looked like a bathroom, she could hear the beginning sounds of thumping, the familiar crackle of music and the bass started to echo throughout the thin walls of the establishment.
"Are human clubs," Hitsugaya said the word with thinly veiled disgust, "Always so loud?"
"Yes," Ichigo snorted, "And it's going to get louder."
Matsumoto grinned at the sudden flicker in lights, "Oh, it looks pretty."
Once they reached the main entrance to the actual club, another bouncer opened the door and let them in.
Rukia's eyes widened at the debauchery.
Her Nii-sama would not be caught dead in an establishment as raunchy as this one. With skin on skin touching, hands groping, smoke, and the occasional tongue-in-the-throat movement—Rukia almost winced at the graphic display. To the left of the room lay the bar – alcohol that is what she needs to get through this – and she nudged Ichigo to that side of the room.
Hitsugaya's hands squeezed her hips warningly.
"We'll be in the corner if you need us," Matsumoto supplied with a yell over the bouncing beat and threaded a hand in the space between Renji's rib and arm, "What do you want to be our signal?"
Rukia almost laughed in glee – which was not a very good response, at least to Ichigo – and rolled her shoulders back, "You'll know when you see it."
Hitsugaya turned to look at Matsumoto in question.
She shrugged.
"Be careful," Hitsugaya murmured into her ear, he gave her another squeeze and took a few step backs.
Rukia nodded.
Matsumoto gave a thumbs up, "And your timer starts now."
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Pick up the phone, come on, let's talk all about
That thing you do, the way you move, hell on my mouth
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"Tell me," Ichigo took a seat next to her and she ordered two drinks. She watched the bartender pour her sake and motioned for Ichigo to take a sip.
"I think I need alcohol, to you know," Rukia paused, trying to find the words to explain her nerves, "Calm down."
"You're starting to sound like Rangiku, Rukia," Ichigo laughed and took a sip, "Also no one really drinks sake at bars."
Rukia frowned, "There's a first time for everything."
"Sake is more sophisticated than, say, a beer," he pointed out.
"Humans are such strange creatures," she sniffed and downed the cup in one go.
"What the hell, woman?" Ichigo stared at her in disbelief, "The sake didn't burn a hole in your throat?"
"Ichigo," Rukia started, her voice slow and steady, almost as if she were speaking to a toddler, "I am older than you, therefore have more experience drinking then you will ever have."
"If you say so, obaa-chan,"
Rukia snapped her foot back and thrust it until the base of her heel snapped against hard bone.
Ichigo gritted his teeth to keep the yell and his profanity down to a minimum. He hissed into his cup and demanded another, then he turned to look at her with mutiny. She smiled sweetly at him and patted his arm gently, "Smile, he's looking at us."
He smiled – it was slightly terrifying and amusing if anything – and leaned in, "Are you going to tell me about the target?"
"Didn't we have this conversation, earlier?" Rukia said.
"Remind me,"
"Takashi Hyuuga," her voice only loud enough for him to hear, "Thirty-eight. Blonde hair, grey eyes, beard, a scar on his left wrist from an accident gone wrong, earring in his right ear and tattoo on the back of his neck—a sword if my calculations are correct."
"He's wearing the leather jacket," Ichigo added in hesitantly and then narrowed his eyes, "He doesn't look like a criminal mastermind."
"I agree," Rukia gave point, "But we need to scout first. Gather all the information before we subdue the target. I can't afford any mistakes because this is still an exam."
"You're going to fine, Rukia," he assured her with a dry huff, "I've got your back."
"I know," she grinned at that and then looked at her cup, "Another one?"
"I'm fine," he stared at her.
Rukia tapped for another, "Well, I'm not. I don't know why," violet orbs searched the people in the club, eyes lingering over Toushiro's bright hair and whirled her gaze back to Ichigo, "But something doesn't feel right."
"A hollow?"
"Not that," she pursed her lips together and her hand grabbed onto his elbow, "Something familiar. I can't put my finger on it," she huffed with frustration, "There is something, bigger going on, I think."
"No sense in driving yourself mad," Ichigo stood up, passed his card to the bartender, and rang up their drinks, "C'mon."
Rukia blinked at him rapidly, downed the rest of her drink and stood next to him, "Where are we going?"
"How are you going to grab Hyuuga's attention?" he asked boldly and took her hand.
"I was working on it," Rukia grumbled but went along with his advances.
"That's my tactic," Ichigo said teasingly, pulling her deeper into the dance floor, surrounded by bodies and bodies of people, the beat slowing, and the lights twinkled even faster, "We're going to dance."
She stared at him and stiffened as he pulled her against him, "What?"
"It's the fastest way to gain ground without making yourself look like a spectacle," Ichigo answered into her ear, the music gaining volume as the song melted into the next. "You do know how to dance, right?"
"You know how to dance?"
"My mom taught me some things," he sniffed and spun her around, "This isn't the first time going to a club."
"Oh?" Rukia's eyes sparkled at that, "You're going to have to tell me that story sometime."
"Later," Ichigo brushed it off, "Now, try to look sexy."
"In light of my very serious and difficult lieutenant's exam, instead of killing you for your that statement tonight, I will put off committing murder for another day."
"Thanks, Rukia."
From across the floor, nestled deep in the cushions of the club, sat Captain Hitsugaya, Lieutenant Abarai, and Matsumoto, who watched the couple sway in the club like a pair of birds in the sky. Hitsugaya's foot developed a twitch beneath the table, the sudden rapid movements shook their glasses full of alcohol and chips – potatoes he's sure – all the while monitoring the establishment for foreign reiatsu.
"Captain, you're going to put a hole in the floor," Rangiku chided softly and took a sip of her drink.
"I can't help it," Hitsugaya hissed and ignored the sultry glance of the waitress. "Ichigo has his hands all over her."
"First of all, Ichigo has his hands on her waist," Matsumoto corrected and crossed her arms underneath her breasts, "And it's for her exam. It's not she like wants his hands on her."
"You couldn't have picked another assignment?" he scowled furiously and his fingers gripped the table; reiatsu seeping over the wood like frost.
"The others were not very suitable to someone who's uncle is currently hunting her," she said uncharacteristically flatly.
Even Renji flinched.
That seemed to calm Hitsugaya down, the tapping stopped, but his shoulders were still tense with anticipation. He inhaled slowly, a finger running the rim of his glass slowly and his eyes softened into teal, "She hasn't had it easy, has she?"
And if Renji was satisfied with the sudden surge of attention and protectiveness that Hitsugaya revealed to his best friend, he didn't show it.
But a smile did crack at the corner of his lips.
"No," Rangiku agreed, "She hasn't and I wouldn't have given her this assignment if I wasn't one hundred percent sure she wouldn't be able to handle it."
"A seduction mission, though?" Renji wrinkled his nose, "I hate going on those types of assignments."
"It's just less messy," Matsumoto shrugged and then pointed at the lights that seemed to glitter off her nails, "And Rukia looks like she's got the hang of it anyway."
Ichigo's hands slipped around her waist, his head pressing into the nape of her neck and her hips are slower as the beat churns.
"That doesn't mean I have to like it," Hitsugaya exhaled through clenched teeth, the protectiveness and possessiveness blended into one, unidentifiable emotion. A swing in mood, that left the heat of his blood searing and the ice in his veins trembling.
"Since when do you call Ichigo, Ichigo, er, Captain Hitsugaya," Renji tripped over his manners – Captain Kuchiki would've had his head if he heard anything less than respectful, especially when addressing others – and grabbed his cup.
"Since I found out that Captain Shiba is his father," he sighed at that and then looked over to his Lieutenant who just downed another cup of alcohol, "Should you even be drinking? You're supposed to be administering the exam."
"It's water, Captain."
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Got my attention on the prize
Was always something that I want though
And I can see it in your eyes, yeah
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"How do people even do this?" Rukia asked rhetorically, the back of her hair – the pieces that weren't up – plastered the base of her neck, sweat tingling the fine tips there and the heat of her skin made her clammy, "I never get warm."
"There's a first time for everything," Ichigo mumbled into her ear and moved her subtly to the right, "The target – who says that? – is going back to the bar, he keeps glancing back at you. I think you've gotten his attention."
"It'll look suspicious if you don't go with me to the bar," Rukia tried to connect the pieces and then whispered into his neck, "Drop me off at the counter and say you're going to wait at the table."
Ichigo squeezed her waist in comprehension, subtly, he maneuvered them back to the bar. His hand rested on the back of her lower back, and said once they reached back at their checkpoint, "I'll wait for you at the table."
Rukia rolled her eyes at his acting, took a seat on the barstool, and asked for a shochu.
"Interesting drink," a man slid up to her right – she felt him though – but she blinked to show her surprise, "Most people go for a cocktail or a beer in this place."
"I prefer my drinks unmixed," Rukia smiled sweetly when her drink was placed in front of her, she swirled it before sipping delicately, "Without sugar preferably."
"Straight then?" he asked and tilted until his blonde hair fall to the sides of his shoulders, "My type of girl. Your boyfriend left you?"
"My friend," she corrected him and took another sip, "Went back to the table. He's a regular at this place."
"Any you're not?"
"I don't really go to these types of places," her violet orbs twinkled and she leaned into the counter, "It's not really to my taste."
"Yet, here you are," he pointed out and inched closer.
"Yes," she confirmed, "Here, I am."
"What changed?" he asked curiously and swirled his own poison.
Rukia looked at him, dead in the eye, frost-colored amethyst a siren's call, and then fluttered dark lashes, her lips tilted upwards, "I guess, I just need a change in scenery."
He smiled then and extended his hand, "Takashi. Takashi Hyuuga."
"Rangiku Abarai," she extended her hand and swallowed her tongue when his teeth grazed her wrist.
From across the room, Hitsugaya's nose flared and he tensed.
"You have to calm down, Toushiro," Ichigo rolled his eyes, "I know you want to gut him – we all want to gut him – but Rukia can take care of herself," then he looked at him with amber and cinnamon, "Can't she?"
It was a question and a taunt all rolled in one.
"Of course she can," he scoffed and crossed his arms underneath this chest.
"Then why do you have a stick—"
"—Toushiro?" Rukia's voice came hushed and calm.
Hitsugaya pressed his finger into his earpiece and asked hastily, "Is everything alright, Rukia?"
"I'm fine," she huffed, "But you need to calm down. I can feel you."
Ichigo snorted into his drink and roared in laughter with Renji. The both of them prompted Matsumoto to laugh with them and Ichigo was the one who coughed out, "Whipped."
Hitsugaya's furious flush threatened the tip of his ears, he sat back into his chair and almost pouted.
He hated waiting.
Hitsugaya has confidence in Rukia, that hasn't changed, but what has changed was the urge to protect and remove all-male species from Rukia's path. Hyorinmaru had supplied, while in the car, that it was the Dragon's instinct and nature to hoard what is precious to him, even though it is both childish and bordering on neurotic. That included his mate and those close to him.
Rukia mostly chatted with Hyuuga, there were sly touches and the occasional twist of the hair, but nothing worth the full brunt of his anger.
Then the signal came.
A glass shattering.
"My, oh my," Rukia laughed with too much sugar and loudly, "How clumsy of me."
"Oh god," Ichigo groaned into his cup, "Nothing much has changed; she is still a terrible actress."
Rangiku actually winced.
"Yes, yes, terrible actress," Hitsugaya replied flippantly and stood up immediately, "Follow her."
His eyes glowed in the dark; aqua and ice.
Heaven and hell.
Day and night.
—
Rukia stumbled down the hallway, she gave a fake laugh at something stupid the man said, her fingers grasping onto the rough material of his leather jacket and she smiled sweetly at his slimy grin. Once she tasted the dank, wet air of the outside, instead of the warm and musky smell of inside, she inhaled deeply.
She pushed him – still all stupid and giggly – up against the wall, her heels in between the soles of his feet and felt his hand dip over her bottom. She whispered closer to him, "Should we go somewhere, private?"
Much to her surprise, it wasn't very difficult to maneuver Hyuuga out of the club and deeper into the city. She stumbled, tripped clumsy on rocks and smiled sweetly at him – always out of his grasp when he tried to cop a field – almost like a tease, though, she suspected from the way his fingers began to breach the line of frustration and desperation, she probably was a tease.
"Wait—" Hyuuga blinked at his surroundings, the alcohol made his brain fuzzy, "Where are we?"
Rukia whispered into his ear, "Does it matter?"
Hyuuga grabbed the back of her neck – she flinched in surprise – pulled her closer to him and just as about he was about to swallow her lips, a hand, furious and threatening grabbed the back of his wrist and tugged.
He went flying backward.
"Captain," Rukia heard Matsumoto hiss, "This is Rukia's fight!"
Hitsugaya cupped her cheek and breathed into her mouth just as quickly as she blinked, he warned with a cluck of his tongue, "I told you not to let him get too close."
Rukia scowled, "I didn't."
Ichigo was the one who grabbed Hitsugaya and yanked him backward. He shot him a glare and asked, "What do you want to—"
And Hyuuga metamorphized into a zenpo.
Renji's mouth dropped in surprise, "A zenpo! They can do that now?"
"They're still evolving," Rukia murmured in surprise and then turned to look at Hitsugaya, "If we don't get Koga soon, we can only assume it's going to get worse."
"Your brother is working on it," he revealed, hesitating only once, he stepped back with Rangiku and Renji, "This is your exam, Rukia," he smiled then, "Do your best."
Rukia blinked at the sudden brightness in his smile, but there was a swell of elation that rose in her chest like a curling wave at his trust and belief in her skill. She beamed back at him, taking out her Chappy pop and swallowed the pill.
Her gigai fell back with the sway of the wind.
"What are these shoes?" Chappy stumbled on the grass and Rukia leaped toward a tree.
Rukia unsealed her zanpakuto, ice flickered underneath the moonlight, silvers stars and moonbeams. When the zenpo pulled his mouth into a cero, she released, "Hakuren!"
A beam of ice, lavender and gray, intermingled with sparks of silver, shot from the tip of her zanpakuto. It swallowed the cero in the white of its reiatsu and the cold of its ice. It trailed upwards, grasped over the mask of the zenpo, and then shattered.
Rukia jumped backward, her back facing Ichigo her zanpakuto against her hip and then another crack filled the earth.
"What's going on?" Renji yelled when another zenpo crawled upwards, the screech was familiar.
"They're coming from Hueco Mundo!" Hitsugaya yelled from across the forested area, he used shunpo to reach Renji's side.
"What are your orders, Rukia?" Rangiku prompted quickly before her Captain could call the shots. The power struggle was always prominent, even though her Captain was learning to share the power, it was a habit that he had to learn to curb—this was her exam, so, imagine Matsumoto's surprise when Hitsugaya gave Rukia his undivided attention.
Maybe she didn't need to throw in a tossing point.
"Destroy the zenpo," she said evenly and threw ice daggers into a now forming cero, "Before they start getting aggressive."
"Sit upon the Frosted Heavens: Hyorinmaru!" Hitsugaya bellowed, his zanpakuto burned blue and he sent a slice of ice toward a zenpo already in the crack of the earth. Ice crackled like lightning, blue into aqua and it froze the entirety of the menos and slid back. His spiritual pressure was crushing in its own right, but he blended the reiatsu itself with his shinsei sainou and pushed the ice further into the crack until it sealed with silver ice.
"Growl: Haineko!" Rangiku released her shikai, a flurry of ash in her wake as she leaped upwards to the sky and slammed the drags of burnt flames down on a zenpo's head. The zenpo's mask cracked straight down the middle, the ash, tiny pinpricks of needles as it stabbed and pricked the remaining pieces of hollow.
Renji dodged another ceros and slammed his unsealed zanpakuto on a nose, "Is it me or are these things getting harder and harder to destroy?"
"It looks like if you don't use your shikai, they won't purify at all!" Ichigo growled as he slammed another wave of reiatsu down on a zenpo, "And they just keep coming!"
"Stop complaining, Ichigo!" Rukia scolded, leaping upwards, she pulled out her shikai into the first dance, "Tsukishiro!"
Another zenpo froze in the beam of ice.
"We need to at least minimize the amount of zenpo appearing! That way we can figure out how to stop them," she continued and dodged another cero.
"How are we going to do that?" Ichigo scowled and used shunpo to reach her side, "The last time we did something like this we—"
He paused and stared at her incredulously, "No."
"I can't keep hiding like this," Rukia snapped, "I can't keep running from my uncle and we can't keep putting off this zenpo. What will happen when the next invasion comes? How many lives will be lost then?"
"When we see an opening, we're going to take it," she finished when he had no answer, "And we're going to—"
Byakuya appeared in a flurry of sakura petals and knives. He glanced at her gigai that was currently strangling Ichigo's gigai with a narrowed eyes, "We will speak about…your mannerisms later."
Renji choked on his snicker, even as he moved away from another cero.
"You're just in time for Rukia to invoke the leadership part of her assignment, Captain Kuchiki!" Rangiku yelled from above, she slammed a zenpo with her zanpakuto.
"I am not allowed to intervene in her exam, Lieutenant Matsumoto," Byakuya doesn't even bat an eyelash when a zenpo heads toward him.
"That may be true, but that doesn't mean as a spectator and," she yelped when a cero blasted past her, "A captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squad, you should stand by idly when the zenpo are attacking in the World of The Living."
"Control your Lieutenant, Hitsugaya," Byakuya said sternly and released his shikai, "I understand."
"Let me know when you've figured out how to," Hitsugaya snorted and blasted another shot of ice, "Shinku no Kori no Yaiba!"
A blast of ice, ocean-colored and silver, poured into the landscape, violent in nature and it swallowed the rest of the zenpo within the area. It burned, frost covering the treetops and sprinkling over the landscape, then it shattered like a shower.
Then the opening appeared, running headfirst into the rip in the sky, and Rukia called out, "Hurry!"
Sode no Shirayuki whispered into her ear, "It's almost time."
And six into the fray.
"I really hoped we wouldn't be back here so soon," Renji groaned into his hand when he finally landed on the ground, then sat on the sand in defeat.
Hyorinmaru was restless. The dragon in him, it curled around his blood like a living thing, ice seeped from his fingers and he had to crack it before it grew sharper, heavier. Hitsugaya felt a crack of irritation at his uneasiness, but he said nothing otherwise. He leaned into Rukia's hair and murmured, "Something is strange."
"I know," Rukia whispered back and she grabbed his hand. Ice melting into water, "I feel it too."
"So," Ichigo cleared his throat, "Can you explain, what exactly we're supposed to be doing, Rukia?"
She might as well get it over it.
"The zenpo were created by Koga Kuchiki because of the hogyoku, if my assignment turned into a zenpo, we can only speculate that this Koga's doing as well," Rukia explained as her hand trailed up to Hitsugaya's elbow, "So both of these presumably isolated conflicts coincide."
"Go on," Byakuya nodded his head in acceptance.
"As I continued to gather intelligence from the club, I noticed that this Hyuuga person was taking orders from someone else. He kept checking his phone, putting his hand on his head, and touching his watch. I assumed that there was another player in check. It was familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it," Rukia tilted her head, "Once he materialized into a zenpo I knew that the two were connected."
"So this entry into Hueco Mundo?" Renji questioned with narrowed eyes.
"Koga is hiding because he's been injured during the invasion," Rukia looked at her brother for confirmation, once he nodded, she continued, "Instead of waiting for him to come to us, why not we go to him?"
Hitsugaya nodded proudly, a small smile played on his lips and nodded satisfied, "Two birds, one stone."
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Oh, you're mine to take
I wanna hear the sounds that you'll make
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"So why are we going through here again?" Rangiku yelped when a vine found itself in her hair.
"The spiritual pressure," Hitsugaya noted with surprise, "It's stronger here. You're following—"
"—the trail, yes," Rukia nodded with a small smile, "It's been calling me since we got here, if I, somehow still am attracted to the hogyoku, it wouldn't be difficult to pull myself to the person who holds it."
"This bait thing, again," Ichigo grumbled and sliced through a rotted branch.
"Time," Byakuya started suddenly, "It's the easiest way to finish the assignment without being penalized for tardiness."
"I'm being timed?" Rukia blurted out, violet orbs wide in disbelief as she looked over to Matsumoto.
"Yes," Rangiku shrugged, "But it doesn't matter. You're doing well on time anyway. You have five days-worth left."
"But time moves differently here," Renji emphasized with surprise and then looked at his childhood friend with a frown, "You have to end this quickly, or you're not going to pass!"
Hitsugaya scowled at Renji, "Quiet Abarai! Rukia will finish with time left to spare! You should have more confidence in your friend, she's going to be fine."
Rukia turned her head to hide the smile that started to bloom against her cheeks.
"It's not like I'm telling her she's going to fail," Renji tried to defend himself, "I'm just warning her what's at stake—"
"Lieutenant Abarai," Byakuya cut him off, "Are you trying to say my pride will fail me?"
Rukia could feel the sweat map the back of her neck.
"You Kuchiki siblings are so strange," Ichigo snorted and walked passed an irritated Byakuya, "Who calls their sibling their pride? And you," he looked at Rukia, "What are we supposed to be looking for?"
"The zenpo, you fool!"
"There aren't any, you midget! What then?" Ichigo argued back, with his hands on his hip.
"Then we look for Koga," she said a matter-of-factly, then frowned with faux innocence, "The zenpo didn't hit you on the head, did it?"
Maybe it was the sickeningly sweet way Rukia said it or the terrible acting she displayed, but Hitsugaya had to cough to hide his chuckle, his fingers brushed the small of her back and ushered her forwards.
"I will get you for that, Rukia!" Ichigo growled and dodged Byakuya's glare.
"You're so noisy," Another voice appeared from high above the scolded moon, it was humid in the forest, the smog thick and suffocating as they looked upward. Rukia squinted her eyes and tried to make sense of the very, very familiar voice.
"Soul Reapers tend to come in squads," A voice – Koga, she noticed – came from the left, his reiatsu vibrated, birds squeaking and hollows groaning. He rested on another branch, half his body covered in bandages and his left hand held his unsealed zanpakuto, "Don't you remember?"
The other man stepped forward, his bloody red hair is crimson underneath the sky, and gave her a smile, "It's been a while, hasn't it, Rukia?"
"Ashido," Rukia's eyes widened, she took a step back until her head touched Hitsugaya's clavicle and then hissed a barrage of questions in outrage, "What are you doing? Do you know what he's done? What he tried to do to me? Why are you helping him? How can you do this?"
He looked at her with disinterest, his smile melted into one more sad than sinister and answered all her questions with a bigger one, "Why didn't you come back for me?"
Hitsugaya stilled behind her.
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Gimme, gimme, what I want, what I deserve
Gimme, gimme it
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note1: this chapter was like pulling teeth.
note2: thank you deni for pressuring me to write u the real mvp
note3: where has ashido been hiding is the real q.
note4: more notes but I can't remember.
note5: songs used— Banks: Gimme' (if you haven't heard of her, you do now) LOL.
As always, please review.