Fancy seeing you here *awkward cyber wink*

Yet another, fairly quick, update for you guys! Hopefully, the next chapter will flow out quickly too!

And guess what, it is official! I got my first negative review, and let me tell you I felt super empowered by it. I mean passion is passion right?

So thank you guest reviewer for your candor, guess it's true; you really can't please everyone.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its characters.

Let's hop in!-

"Sam seems like a really cool guy." Ichigo babbled out, for the tenth time. "I mean some guys his size have this aura about them, you know? Like a 'I am the strongest man ever' swagger, but he doesn't. Super cool."

Deep calming breaths, Orihime.

"I understand now, why you like him."

Head snapping sideways, I gawked at him. "I don't like him."

Ichigo's hands flew up in defense, as if he were worried I'd pounce at any given moment. "I didn't mean like that... but now I'm definitely wondering." His eyes were wide and there was just a ghost of a smile on his lips.

I just kept walking with a vigorous shake of my head, but then there he was strolling beside me that same damn smile on his face. "I mean, I'd get it. A guy like Sam? Hell, I liked him for a second." I glared straight ahead. "Okay, maybe it was two."

"Sam is like a brother to me, I've known him ever since- I've just known him for a long time."

Ichigo was nodding, letting it drop. "So, what's next on the agenda?"

As if called from whatever corner of the world all of my annoyances hid until the worst moment, Ryley appeared at the end of the hall. He was talking with a small balding man, not yet noticing me. Or Ichigo.

I could not survive another 'men in my life' introduction.

I was not proud of the amount of force I used to shove Ichigo into the closest open door, slamming it in his face when he shouted a protest. The door barely having time to close completely when Ryley looked up, a giant grin appearing on his handsome face. I leaned back against the wooden frame as he approached.

"I was just coming to find you! Am I late?" He looked to the man on his right with expectation, as if the man could explain how the very theory of time worked.

"No, we let out early." I said, saving the little man who seemed ready to faint from my attention. There was a soft thud within the room behind me, and before Ryley could even wonder what could have caused it, I rushed out. "Are you hungry? I really worked up an appetite today."

Ryley looked slightly taken back. And I realized this was the first time I had gone out of my way to ask him a direct question... and now I was wondering, with me standing alone in the hallway, leaning casually against a door, if it looked like I had been waiting for him.

Judging by the way his eyes lit up, I was going to say he had been wondering about that too.

"I'm starved. Let's go to the dining hall." He held out a hand hesitantly. Obviously, thinking I'd wanted to eat with him had given him a little bit of self confidence. Cursing Ichigo softly, I took Ryley's clammy hand, and let him lead me through the court. Our hands never breaking contact.

"So, I was thinking." Ryley began as we neared the hall. "What do you think of me taking a few training lessons with you? The last time we trained together we were just kids, I thought it would be fun to see how much we each have changed."

Remembering how he was all those years ago, and looking at him now- seeing his limbs move awkwardly just by walking- I couldn't imagine he had changed much. But still, I nodded, trying my best to appease him. I was suppose to be his entertainment, after all.

"I mean, I realize that I'm not at all ready to take on someone like you but I think I can really..." His words trailed off as we entered the hall, finding the room already occupied. "Father..?" Ryley asked, a great big grin forming on his mouth.

He rushed to the table where the two leaders sat, not at all noticing the strangled tension that was engulfing the room. I proceeded hesitantly towards the table, while Ryley merely plopped himself down across from his father.

Clark caught my eye. A calculated move. Making sure Lucas was distracted by the rambling questions from his son.

My king did not have to say a word, or even alter the blank expression on his face for me to understand. I could smell the stench and Lucas had yet to say anything. "Ryley," I cut in. "why don't we find another place to have our date? And let our fathers continue their conversation privately."

I had crafted the sentence to catch his attention. Perfecting my tone to be slightly nervous yet assertive. A suggestion and an order. I knew I had done well when Ryley looked up, his father otherwise forgotten, and I tried my best to look carefree, to appear as young as I should have been.

To trick a person, first you must understand how they see you. If you play into the roll they already have crafted of you, it is far easier to convert those thoughts of you into fact. I'd only had a week to read Ryley's reactions to me, his words and facial expressions. Normally I would take my time, to more expertly craft my persona, but I just simply did not have the time.

On day one he had seen me as I truly am. Hard, calculating and perhaps a bit cruel. He had seen me as General and Heir. I had not been prepared for him then, I had not had time to craft a specific mask for him to see. I had been trying to remedy that ever since.

Only two days ago did I feel I had been beginning to succeed. Now, Ryley youngest heir to the North, saw me as a fragile girl hidden beneath a shield of glass. He believed that with the proper force, my glass barrier would shatter for him. And it would, I would just have to wait for the correct time for it to do so.

Now, when the broken glass cleared, he would see a mask he will believe to be my true face. And I will wear that mask for the rest of my life.

I allowed just one crack to form, a splinter in my false shield, and I allowed him to see it. If I had aligned the pieces to fall correctly, Ryley will rise for the table in three, two...

"Yes, of course." My betrothed said, shooting up. He placed a hand on his fathers shoulder. "But please, come see me when your meeting is finished. I wish to hear all news from home."

Ryley would need more training. He should have already pieced it together by now. If he had been paying any sort of attention- if his true father had given him the tools he most desperately needed. He would have known that it takes two weeks to arrive in the Northern Capitol. And two more to return.

And his father had left only six days ago.

Something was brewing. I could feel it coursing over my skin, like lightning. Messy and wild and untamable. My father did not look at me again, otherwise I could have tried to form the question in my eyes. Lucas was slumped, he did not look at his son.

I didn't have the luxury of brainstorming the reasoning. Not as Ryley made his way over to me, his face light up in a smile. "Shall we?" I took his offered arm, and had to use all of my will power not to look over my shoulder as we exited.

Darkness. Darker than pitch black. Thicker than death.

And the girl wanted death. Craved it. She knew, even through the thumping in her head and the blood loss nausia, she knew no part of her would survive this. Her body, maybe. But her soul, every thing that made her who she was, every human like feature she'd always taken for granted, they would be gone. Lost in the black pit of this place.

Because she could feel it. Feel the fangs breaking through her gums, the sharp claws growing in the place of her old fingernails.

The girl would leave this place. But it would merely be a monster nestled into her skin, wearing her body like an empty shell.

Tossing and turning that night my body felt like it was one hundred degrees. My hair stuck to my forehead and to the nape of my neck, and no matter how many layers I took off, it did nothing to cool my heated body.

I was in between dreams when I heard the softest of knocks on my bedroom door. I shot up, my hair flying over my shoulder in knotted clumps. I stared across the room, thinking perhaps in my sweaty sleep deprived state I had imagined it.

But it sounded again, slightly louder this time. And I cursed as I dragged myself out of bed. And swore to every God I knew, that if I opened that door to find Ichigo with a smirk on his face and a blanket in his hand like last week I would kill him very, very slowly.

Right before the knob was in my hand, I suddenly realized that it could be Ryley waiting outside. Coming to my bedroom late in the night...

I looked down to my attire, and wondered if I should get more decent. For if I opened the door for Ryley standing in nothing but my undergarments I can only imagine the implications that would come with it.

Then, I remembered that he was the uninvited guest, appearing at my door late in the night, and I had nothing to apologize for. So I gripped the knob and threw back the door, only to find Hisagi standing there, knuckles raised in a near knock.

He took me in, and then raised his eyes quickly to the ceiling. "Hisagi, what are you doing here?"

"Uh." He began. "I was thinking - You know, I'm sorry, I just realized how inappropriate this is. To show up here- now. In the middle of-"

"Get on with it, Hisagi."

"Okay. Right." Hands placed on hips, deep inhale through the nose and then he met my eyes quickly. "Train me." Quick confusion flashed over my face, a true emotion. And I began to shake my head in that same confusion. "I need you to train me. Not Sam, not within a group, just you and me. One on one. I know that if I just have that extra attention I can really improve."

I can say with a rare honesty, that was not what I'd expected. I could see the look of hope in his face and it was hard to force out the words that would crush that hope. "I can't do that, it would show a high amount of favoritism over the others. And that is not honorable."

Hisagi opened his mouth and then closed it, his hands both gripping the baggy end of his tunic, wringing the fabric. "Look, I know you think I can't do this, that I'm going to fail." I crossed my arms across my chest, as he continued. "You saved my life, Orihime. You didn't even know me, and you certainly had no reason to put your neck on the line for me, but you did... And now, I can see your disappointment in me grow day by day and I don't think I can see that look again."

Suddenly, I was no longer at the courts. I was in the rebel warehouse, and Bronze was standing before me instead of Hisagi. Such similar words, such admiration hidden within them. If only I actually deserved it.

Hisagi believed that I saved his life, but had I? Or had I just prolonged it, in the worst, most traumatic way? Every terrible thing he had endured this past year was because of me. Every fallen comrade, every scar and bruise- they were on me. And now, if he fails his next task, his death will only be a beginning of an eternity with Morta.

I should have let him die all that time ago.

But I hadn't and now... now he was my responsibility. "Fine." Hisagi beamed. "But you will need to keep it from the others." I added quickly.

"Yes! I can do that! When do we start? Should we do it late or early? Would the Center work or is that too public?" His voice gained more and more optimism.

I patted him on the head, and he quieted down instantly. "Tomorrow night. In the Center; it's closed to all but my officers after dusk so we will have privacy. Now, go."

With a slight blush in his cheeks, Hisagi nodded before running down the hall, his feet sloppy and loud. Something we would have to remedy immediately.

I was barely four steps from the door when another knock sounded. I flung it open, ready to chastise Hisagi more harshly, but it was not him standing in the doorway.

Ichigo yawned long and hard before slightly pushing me out of his way and made his way into the room. "I wish I'd known you were so open to night visitors, I've always been more of a night owl myself. So, it'll be nice to have someone else up with me." He stretched, stepping over the discarded bedding, before falling face first onto the smooth sheets.

Figuring that protesting would get me no where, I picked up my long baggy sweater off the floor and quickly pulled it over my head, though I suppose it made no difference to him. I made myself comfortable in my reading chair, cuddling up against the back cushion, eyes heavy.

"How many battles have you fought in?" Ichigo asked, his words muffled against the sheets.

My eyes creaked open, but he remained face down, his feet dangling off of the end of the large mattress. "That number depends on circumstances."

"Okay, so before you became General, then."

I made a mental tally, "I wasn't prepared for a battle field until I was nearly sixteen, and I did not rise to my position until I was eighteen so I'd say I fought in six or seven before I was General, roughly, of course."

"And all of those scars, they are from your time in battle?"

I was quiet for a minute and he looked over his shoulder at me as I rose, striding to the balcony doors; Throwing open the dark curtains, letting the moonlight stream in. "Most are from my training." My voice was soft as I stared out into the dark city below.

Push out the thoughts, I reminded myself. Memories are nothing but fragments.

"Man, you Goldies sure take training military recruits very seriously." His voice was clearer, and steady in its obvious disapproval.

"It was not military training," I clarified. "The path to becoming Heir is not an easy one."

"Huh." Ichigo huffed and then was silent. Neither of us said a word, I just stayed out on my balcony, and he continued to lay comfortably.

But soon, I made my way back inside. Lighting every candle- even bringing out those from the bathroom and finding them a new home throughout the room; the room that suddenly seemed far too dark. I picked a happy book off the bookcase, and sat down to read. Ichigo soon found his way over as well, still not saying anything. He himself picked a novel, and lounged in the chair across from mine and opened carefully to page one.

And if anyone had come looking for me, that is where they would have found me. Sitting in a nice alluring silence, with a book in my lap. Reading with Ichigo until the sun rose and chased the darkness away.

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Till next time-