She felt different.
Lying beneath the thin, starched white sheet, the feeling was vague yet undeniably there. His skin was cold against her back, in the arm that lay across her ribs. It was a sharp contrast between the heat radiating from her own body and the coolness of his.
But, it wasn't unpleasant.
The coldness.
He wasn't cold.
She knew, treasuring those glimpses of a slip in his perfect mask, those she'd seen within the past hour- or how many hours had passed since then. Time was meaningless in the desert world and more so for she had never seen the sun once steal into the massive compound.
But, yes.
His mind ever analytical, ever finding fault or flaw in everything, possessed a keeness to it. He was the perfect soldier, telling her of the lack of desire he held for his task of breaking her.
Then, he was also the one who lay there, breathing so quietly. Pressing closer against his firm, slightly muscled chest, she pretended for a time to feel the thumping of a heart beneath his breast. Some part of her rejected the notion as foolish.
Hollows didn't have hearts.
It was only hers beating solitarily
Alone.
She ignored the rationality for a time longer, closing her eyes to feed the illusion.
His breath stirred the mussed strands of her hair, lifting them...
Lifting.
And then, she drifted off, lulled by the faint echo of a nonexistent heart.
...
There was a moment of cursory confusion in the Espada's mind as he awoke.
His mind struggled to define it-yet failed.
The sensation was unrecognizable.
Shifting some, he found himself pulling away from the source of warmth radiating from a slim, nude form lying beside him. The woman's dark hair was mussed, her eyelids resting peacefully over her violet orbs, her lips were compressed in a tiny contented line and-
He forced his gaze away from imprinting her face to memory.
...there was the want to.
The need to-
He cut off his thoughts.
It was irrational. Without consciously meaning it, his hand curved up, thin white fingers trailing through her dark, raven strands. He smoothed her hair back from her brow, feeling her stir, a tiny murmur in her throat. He waited, still for a moment, to see if she would wake.
Then, after a time she became still, once he had stopped moving.
Most peculiar.
...
A knock sounded at the door, effectively ending anything else he might've thought. Straightening from a leaning posture he had the inclination to position the pillow against her. He did not want her to awaken so soon, the reasoning being that she could become difficult...the deviant voice inside remarking instead that she would be more comfortable that way.
Ulquiorra refused to give quarter to those thoughts. Arranging himself upright, he coldly intoned, "enter."
The door swung open soundlessly, the pink-haired Octava's lanky form filled the doorway. "Goodness, you've been in here quite so long, I was beginning to-"
Green eyes narrowed subtly on the other's face.
Szayel flushed, clearing his throat several times, "yes, yes of course." The scientist muttered, busily pushing his glasses up his nose and fidgeting with the clipboard under his arm. Ulquiorra waited in silence, his patience wearing thin.
At last Szayel seemed to recollect himself. "A message was sent for you from Aizen-sama. He requests your immediate presence in the throne room..." Szayel's expression twisted as though he found something distasteful passing beneath his gaze. "I believe this concerns...her."
Silence reigned.
Rukia slept on.
Ulquiorra kept his expression unreadable. He finally assented with a brief nod. Szayel looked as though he were about to say something else, his pinkish eyes lingered almost sympathetically on the small form curled up beneath the sheets.
"Very well then." The Octava left, unable to voice his support.
Ulquiorra listened to the quiet snap of the door and the receding echo of footsteps. Only when they were gone completely, did he turn his gaze down to the slumbering Shinigami.
He permitted himself one brush of fingertips against her cheek.
A faint smile curved her mouth.
He silently left her side, redressing perfunctorily, without haste. In time he had finished, the tiny half-moon cuts from her nails not quite faded yet hidden by the white cloth. Little curiosity asserted itself in his mind for the suddennes of the summons.
A mission- the notion would've been plausible had Szayel not admitted it had something to do with the Shinigami. He refused to contemplate further on what such summons could entail in regard to her.
...
Szayel returned to the Zanpaku-to. The words he had nearly spoken, dying on his tongue. With the Noventa, Aaroniero deceased, it stood to reason that Aizen would choose to fill the position before the outbreak of the war; he could not say he entirely approved.
But, dwelling on an unchangeable thing was not productive.
Szayel ran a gloved finger down the ice cold tang, smiling a little as an electrical charge repulsed him.
The tests he had been running before being interrupted by the messenger, had proved to be conclusive in as far as confirming his suspicions. He could only assume neither Ulquiorra nor the woman were aware of had passed between them...
An effusion of power into one another.
With a smile, he began detaching the electrodes connected to the sword.
It was almost time to return Kuchiki Rukia's blade.
...
Leaving the maze-like palace of the Octava, he didn't look back. Szayel lurked somewhere in one of the observation rooms, Ulquiorra could sense caged reiatsu flickering inside. He didn't bother with a warning to keep Rukia safe, Szayel knew better already than to try and harm her.
His one thought of concern was Ichimaru. Surely the man wouldn't...but even he knew there was no way of telling what went on under that veneer of that happy smile. Soon enough he came to the great double doors, the halls had been devoid of anyone and he had passed the time in rumination.
"Ulquiorra entering." He announced in flat tones.
The doors swung open on some silent command from inside. As always the room was shrouded in darkness, white columns rose up on the sides, pedestals for the Espada, a centermost one highest, contained a single empty chair.
Aizen stood, a formidable figure in pure white, his coolly mocking brown eyes surveying Ulquiorra, lingering. "Thank you for answering my summons so promptly, Ulquiorra." He smiled slightly, meaning implied in the gesture. "I understand you were engaged in other pursuits."
He didn't rise to the subtle baiting.
A soft chuckle resounded from the space to the left of Aizen. Ichimaru's leering face hovered briefly, a grin tugging his thin lips apart.
"Be it as it may, war is nearly upon us." Aizen went on as though he had never paused. "One more should be added to the number...a replacement perhaps for the Espada lost during the recent assault by Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends."
Ulquiorra listened, yet did not at the same time. A growing numbness spread outward from the pit in his chest to the empty cavern of his being. Suspicion flickered, the pieces falling into place as Aizen with a sly, all-knowing look penetrated the heart of the matter.
"I've decided Ms. Kuchiki's usefulness has ended as a pleasant diversion."
Ichimaru smiled even wider.
"Your orders have changed. Begin training Kuchiki Rukia for a period of seven days. At the end of which, the conditional offer of the Noventa Espada shall be made."
He couldn't think of ...anything.
Nothing to oppose the smugness in his master's tone; nothing but acquiescence.
"It shall be done." He bowed, sensing innately that Aizen had nothing else.
...if she refuses. The thought lingered in the air, unspoken as a question in which everything hung in the balance. Her faith was shattered, but Rukia's stubbornness was unbreakable.
Moments passed, his steps echoed quietly back toward the doors.
Aizen spoke once more. "Oh, and remember, Ulquiorra. If Ms. Kuchiki refuses, you must destroy her."
-TBC-
Note: this was the chapter I was to post the night before we lost internet. I have rendered it here for all you readers by breaking it up into pieces in a notebook (by hand, urgh) then going to a public library and retyping it out. I apologize for the lack of updates, but there isn't much I can do. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I have started work on the new one already.
:)
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Reviews and kind thoughts appreciated!