80. Reviewer Prompt #5
Original Prompt: Someone comes in to talk to Starrk, they see him snoring, they feel sleepy, and they fall asleep. Someone goes to find them, falls asleep. Repeat until something happens, possibly involving a blowhorn.
It was the type of day that made Starrk believe life (Unlife. Death. Whatever.) was worth living: the false sun was high in the sky, Aizen was locked up in the video room spying on the humans, and the other espada were…well, he didn't know or care what they were doing so long as they were quiet about it. Even Lilynette was off on the upper levels of the building playing quietly with something she'd found in the human world.
For once, Las Noches was quiet, peaceful, and the perfect place to take a nap. And he had every intention of taking advantage of that fact.
Without further ado, Starrk reclined on his favorite pile of pillows and slipped into a deep, restful sleep.
Gin was BORED. No fights, tension, drama, strife…not even a conveniently placed arrancar to torment. Just peace and quiet.
Dull…dull…DULL…DULL.
It was the sort of day that, in Seireitei, made him want to kill someone just to break up the monotony. Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea…
Before he could follow through and find an expendable target, his wandering brought him to the room of the tres espada and her fraccion.
Wonder of wonders, the door was UNLOCKED.
Ooh, the mischief gods were smiling on him today!
After their first disastrous encounter (he couldn't help it! They reminded him of Rangiku!) Harribel forbade him from entering her domain and made sure to keep the entrance sealed at all times. Except, apparently, today. Eyes slitted closed and grin deviously wide, the silver haired shinigami slipped into forbidden territory.
"GET BACK HERE!"
"PERVERT!"
"BASTARD!"
"SICK FREAK!"
Gin tore down the hallway at the fastest shunpo he could manage in the labyrinth of corridors, pursued closely by the enraged forms of Apacci, Mila Rose, and SungSun.
"Now, now, ladies…"
One of the scantily clad female arrancar snarled and another plunged right through the wall in her path. Gin tittered and dodged a cero from the third.
"Well that's not-."
He dodged another cero.
"If ya can't see reason, then-"
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
When he barely managed to dodge three simultaneous ceros, Gin decided it would be a good idea to find somewhere to hide.
For the second time in less than thirty minutes, Gin slipped stealthily into an espada's quarters. This time it was Coyote Starrk, a much mellower customer than Harribel and far less likely to react with violence. Also apparently (and characteristically) asleep if the deep breathing and dark room were any indication.
Perfect.
"Hope ya don't mind, Starrky. I'm just gonna wait here awhile, yeah?" He whispered, pulling back against the wall as his pursuers ran past, still out for blood.
Starrk grunted and rolled over, still asleep.
Gin smirked and plopped down on a pillow to hide for a few minutes. He was surprised by just how comfortable it was and sank further down into a reclining position. Maybe he could steal a few for his own bed…
Lulled by Starrk's rhythmic breathing and the comfortable atmosphere, Ichimaru found his eyelids growing heavy. And what could it hurt? He was stuck here for a while anyway…
"The fuck is he doin'?"
"Sleeping."
"Sh!"
"What?!"
"This is Starrk-sama's bedroom, imbeciles. We don't want to wake him up."
The three fraccion peered around the primera's door, angry eyes fixed upon Gin's slumbering form. It had taken embarrassingly long to find him, but now that they had him cornered they couldn't even get to him without risking the ire of a much more powerful hollow. They weren't angry enough to risk that.
"Hmph. We'll get him next time."
"You do what you want. I'm not leaving."
"What, you're just going to wait in Starrk's bedroom?"
"Why not? Gin did it."
"I believe Starrk-sama will understand. He doesn't like Gin any more than we do."
The three of them stole quietly into the chamber, nervously watching Starrk for any sign of disturbance. None came.
But Gin didn't wake up either.
They waited. And waited. And waited. In the dark, quiet room with only the sound of rhythmic breathing to keep them focused.
Apacci yawned first and it quickly spread to the other two. Soon they were fast asleep, curled up together on top of a pile of pillows in front of the door.
Ggio lived for his master's approval. He had dedicated his very existence to Barragan and his greatest goal was to receive the pride (maybe even praise!) of the God King of Hueco Mundo. As such, he was always on the lookout for anything that might interest his Majesty.
Therefore, when the three fraccion of that Shark Bitch who dared challenge the King ran past yelling for blood, he followed. Any information about his master's enemies (and they were enemies, regardless of Aizen's words. The shinigami was an enemy too.) could be important. And when their rampage ended at Starrk's door, one of his master's other rivals, he thought he'd hit gold.
He tried to eavesdrop at the door, but nothing filtered through. After a long fifteen minutes, he cautiously turned the knob and pushed it open, expecting to be attacked at any minute and ready with an arrogant response if anyone questioned his presence through less lethal means. But the door swung open silently and he took in the sight of the slumbering arrancar with surprise and contempt.
Lazy fools were not even fit to kneel at Master Barragan's feet…
But he didn't have enough information to report back to his espada yet and he knew he would be rebuked if he left so many powerful enemies together without making sure nothing underhanded was going on. Reluctantly, he crouched in a corner and watched the group with keen, disapproving eyes.
Within half an hour, he'd fallen prey to the same trap that snared the others.
Harribel had been present when Gin broke into her tower and ready to cero him into oblivion until her fraccion took his punishment into their own hands. She knew that whatever they came up with would be suitable and left them to their task. Until, that is, they were gone far longer than expected and when she went looking, she realized one of Barragan's bloodthirsty fraccion had followed them.
With a deep frown hidden behind her mask, she followed the scent trails as the five of them – Gin, Mila Rose, Sungsun, Apacci, and Ggio – intertwined and was confused when they came to a halt at Starrk's door. She had no feelings about the superior espada; he'd always treated her civilly but she didn't know him well enough to consider him a friend and she was always wary of more powerful hollows, especially males. When a firm knock on the door went unanswered, she pushed it open and stepped inside.
At the sight of the slumber party within (Starrk lay sprawled on his stomach on a mountain of pillows at the back of the room, Gin on his side against the right wall, her fraccion in a pile in the middle of the room, and Ggio slouched in the corner closest to the door), she arched an eyebrow and shook her head, expression somewhere between disgusted and amused.
After a moment of thought, her eyes strayed to Gin and an idea entered her head. She left the room, closing the door with a quiet click behind her, and went to find Lilynette.
While she was gone, the 'slumber party' grew in size. Szayel followed her in an attempt to track the movements of higher espada and set up monitoring equipment so he could observe remotely when everyone woke up. Two of his fraccion came with him and fell asleep while working. Zommari followed him and decided the silent darkness was a good place to meditate. Ulquiorra poked his head in then moved on, uninterested. Tousen came looking for Gin and stepped on a few hands and limbs on his way in and out but no one paid him any mind other than Wonderweiss, who followed and happily fell asleep across from Gin.
And those were only the most affluent participants…arrancar after arrancar investigated the destruction left by Gin and Harribel's fraccion out of curiosity and stayed to see how Starrk would react when everyone woke up, only to fall asleep and add one more person to the sleepers.
In the meantime, Harribel searched through the upper floors slowly and methodically, looking for the primera's fraccion. She was surprisingly difficult to find but eventually the tercera discovered her playing with a beaten up soccer ball on the roof of the tower, kicking it back and forth while using sonido to keep it from falling off to the sand below. The little girl was startled to see her and refused to come close without her guardian's presence but she listened with wide eyes and a rapidly growing smirk as Harribel explained the situation.
The blow horn was unexpected.
When Gin stumbled into his throne room with his hair mussed and obvious clawmarks decorating his coat, Aizen raised an eyebrow but refrained from commenting. It was hardly an isolated occurrence.
Author's Notes: (Originally prompted in 11/5/12 and written in 2013, but only finished last year and edited recently)
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