"Let's begin, shall we?" Szayel's cheerful tone washed over her as he indicated the same operating table, meaning she should lie upon it. Rukia did so without struggle, clambering atop the bulky old-fashioned operatus.
Two round pill-bug like specimens of Arrancars hopped excitedly around. "Shinigami! Shinigami!" They chanted which intensified her feeling of being nothing more than a rare specimen to study. The pink-haired scientist clapped his hands, shaking his head slightly, "no-no, Lumina, Verona. Kuchiki-san isn't for experimentation."
So, she had been right.
"What exactly are you going to do to me?" Her eyes narrowed, her chin tilted up, arms straight at her sides though ready to let loose her fists should he try anything. Szayel picked up a clipboard from the counter, making little tut-tut sounds like before.
"I told you, Ms. Kuchiki. I am to examine you to ensure that there is no internal or external damage to your fragile frame." He finished with a hint of mockery.
Rukia's brows drew together, her lips parting. "Y-You mean a physical?"
Setting aside his white gloves, he soon had donned a pair of plastic latex ones. "I suppose the term- Physical is correct in human speak. So, yes." He smiled reassuringly, advancing again, hands upraised. "Now, please do not struggle, Kuchiki-san. It'll all be over...soon." From the corner of her eye, she caught movement.
Sonido. A slender flash of silver.
No! The sharp sting of the needle lanced her arm, the plunger shooting something she didn't know, directly into her veins.
"..you'll relax. Relax. Just something to take the edge off your nervousness."
Szayel's voice drifted through her fading consciousness. The blackness overcoming even her fierce desire to remain awake. Soon, she had gone under.
(*)*)*)
"What are the odds?"
Szayel had never cared for standing in the man's presence. Weak knees, sweat standing out on his brow. The sooner this was done, the quicker he could return to the patient. "Very high, my Lord." The Octava clasped his hands behind his back. Aizen didn't face him and for that he was glad. "The subject has undergone supreme mental duress however her constitution is such that no ill effect will stem from it."
"Ah." The imposing man faced the screens. The trace of a bemused smile in his quiet voice. "Yes, it always seemed like she was of their line..." The sentence trailed off, distance was in the pose as if he were glancing into a vista of ages past. "..It can be accelerated, correct?"
"My Lord-?" Szayel questioned politely, his mouth pursing into a moue of some discontent.
"You heard the boss-man." Gin's silvery voice chimed in from the shadows.
"-Ah, Ichimaru-san. Please pardon me, I did not know you were there." The scientist said apologetically. The fox-faced Shinigami nodded vigorously, stepping out from his hiding place, "perfectly understandable." A gleam of red flickered from the slit eyes. "Now, 'bout Rukia-chan-"
"My patient is to remain under observation for twenty-four hours." Szayel said a little louder than before. "My fraccion are guarding her and none save for myself and the Cuatro may have access."
One of Gin's pencil thin eyebrows arched delicately, "you're saying I'm barred from visiting little Ru-"
"Not barred." He was sure to make the difference known, understanding the fine line of walking on the edge of the man's wrath. All the time, Szayel was perceptive of the fact that Aizen was watchful of everything that passed on. "Simply. I gave her a mild sedative in order to complete my analysis and gain samples of the ovum."
"-so, she's asleep?" The man's grin was sicklier than before.
"I am returning after this to my laboratory. My work is of the most sensitive kind, so please, Ichi-"
"Can't I stop in real quick, Szayel-san?" Gin persisted, his long thin fingers interlocking as he mimicked a child's pleading for a treat. "I swear I'll be good!"
Nervousness twisted in the solar plexus of the Espada, raising a finger, he pushed up his white bone frames higher on his nose, clearing his throat noisily. "-I'm afraid-"
"Gin." Aizen's baritone voice cut like a knife through the tense air. The Lord of Hueco Mundo half-turned. "There are other things to amuse you. Kuchiki Rukia has become-" The slant of the dark brown eyes gleamed with malevolent cruelty. Szayel's body stiffened under the weight of the subtle increase of the former Taichou's spirit pressure.
"..something of minor importance to our plans."
The scientist wished for nothing but to be dismissed, his knees threatening to buckle under the onslaught.
"Oh, and Octava." Aizen glanced back to the image of the green-eyed Cuatro. The pressure didn't lift.
"Y-Yes my Lord?" Szayel fought hard not to stutter.
"Two weeks." Aizen's voice was a mirror of perfect yet deadly calm. "That is all you have."
"..I understand my Lord."
(*)*)*)
Green.
Quiet words.
A slight touch.
The blankets tucked in tighter.
Drifting in the delirium of the drug, Rukia's hazy consciousness took note of these things.
The blinding white edged by messy black.
Two cyan lines staining porcelain cheeks.
She knew she had to be imagining it. Ulquiorra never would've touched her so gently, because he didn't have a reason to unless it was under Aizen's orders. Always an order; she was sure otherwise he'd have snapped her neck, she was trash just like all the rest. It was easy in her comatose mind to remember her old life.
Not that pain. Certainly not the blackest of shames that seeped into her heart, poisoning her mind.
There it was. That touch again. Cool skin brushing across her brow, disturbing the stubborn bang hanging between her closed eyes. It was...soothing. Even though her mind could barely formulate the coherency of how she could find something pleasant in the midst of the enemy's territory; she accepted it regardless of the source.
She even thought for a moment in the space of the next heartbeat, that she had heard her name whispered in a familiar voice.
But, now that had to have been her imagination truly.
(*)*)*)
She will be yours.
Szayel's Fraccion let him in, their shrill cries grating on his ears.
"Lord Ulquiorra! Lord Ulquiorra! Lord Szayel isn't present at the moment!"
"Silence, trash." He murmured, already knowing what they had communicated. Their Lord was to be informed of Rukia's condition. His eyes slanted to the plain nondescript room within the complex labyrinth of the Octava's quarters. A white-sheeted bed was in the center, facing the door. He looked upon the figure lying in it, noting the pallor of her skin.
The examination had been finished hours before.
He hadn't thought she would prove problematic for something so vital to her physical condition.
Yet on the chart, a dosage of an anesthetic was administered. Szayel hadn't written much else save for tearing in the rectal passage and other minor details that while passing beneath Ulquiorra's observational eye hadn't lead him to anything conclusive about the heart.
Foolish woman.
His eyes dwelled on her face, the impulse setting a strange tingling to the nerve endings of the hand residing in his pocket. He wanted to touch her. The awareness was unfamiliar to the green-eyed Espada whom rarely ever instigated nor desired physical contact before.
Before Aizen-sama's order.
His depth of perception had altered slightly. While acknowledging the lust he held, it couldn't be defined as love. Love was a human ideology, the concept of which held no meaning. Physical intimacy was of an entirely different nature, gratification . . but, ah. The quiet voice in the back of his mind spoke now. Careful, sly. Intimating.
'..but that anger you felt was real.'
It was. The rational part agreed on this. Yes, for the briefest of moments, he had wanted to Cero Ichimaru's face off. But, then, the rationality interceded, pointing out this wouldn't be a wise course as it amounted to treason.
'Treason for a man whom fancies himself a God?'
The sarcastic intonation was unlike his perfect clipped tones. Yet it was his voice. But, the thought was entirely foreign in its rebelliousness. Ulquiorra moved around the side of the bed, his hand running along the side, atop the crisp blanket. Expressionlessly, he took in the faintest shiver from the body outlined beneath the covering. One-handed he drew the mantle upward, placing it around her shoulders.
'...why the gesture?'
Shinigami are fragile. It would be detrimental were she to catch cold. Ulquiorra thought, his rational side approving this as the most logical course.
'You just don't want her to be cold.'
He ignored the voice, finding its reasoning flawed. Why should he be disturbed if she was cold or not and seek to remedy it? Brushing the contemplation aside as trivial, he laid his hand upon her brow, feeling her temperature. Mildly warm. Her hair was still slightly damp however.
A frown touched his face. The difference in temperatures might lead to- but, he stopped this line of thinking. It was a groundless fear. Rukia wouldn't become unwell simply by that. The human woman- Inoue, had been much more fragile as she couldn't take a simple Balas and survive. The Shinigami before him however, had survived a battle with the Noventa Espada though being wounded, she had recovered perfectly.
Which proved she wasn't as fragile as thought.
Her eyelids flickered suddenly, for the briefest moment, the unfocused sliver of violet-blue tilted up. "Rest..." Ulquiorra murmured, his hand seemingly of its own accord, passing back and forth across her forehead. Why was he doing this? The eyes slid shut, her breathing evening out to indicate she had fallen asleep naturally.
He watched her a moment longer, making sure that she was truly at rest. What was this sensation in his chest-? The Arrancar's gaze narrowed; the indefinable spreading of warmth inside a body that knew neither heat nor cold.
Was it..because of..?
"Rukia." The Shinigami's name vibrated in the still atmosphere. The woman was changing him in such ways as to make her presence not one of forced physical contact by order he was bound to obey, but one of necessity.
-TBC..
AN: not much happened. :( sorry. But there was some subtle UlquiRukiness. Wasn't Gin just creepy here? *Shudders* anyway, thanks for reading! In case anyone missed the note in moi's profile, this fic is updated in the beginning of each month C:
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