Rukia was panting by the time she reached the massive bedroom she shared with her eleven sisters. Her father, angered by the mystery of his daughters' nighttime activities, had converted the largest of their bedrooms into a shared space for them all. Unfortunately for him – the trap door was in that room.
"Rukia! What's the matter?" Rangiku asked from where she was lounging on a plush, silky futon. "You look like you've seen a ghost. And is that blood on your hands?"
Rukia took a deep breath but her hands began to shake before she could say anything. She sank into a low armchair as Rangiku and Nanao hurried over to her, the latter's eyes glinting seriously behind her spectacles. "I went to the orphanage this afternoon," she explained haltingly. "I've never needed more than a single guard. But we were attacked on the way back to the palace."
Rangiku and Nanao exchanged a look over her head. "Were you injured? Was the guard injured?" Nanao asked solemnly.
She shook her head quickly. "No – no, I'm fine. Ichigo is fine." At the use of the guard's first name her younger sisters exchanged another look. "But I – I stabbed one of the people who attacked us, and killed him." Rukia swallowed heavily as her stomach churned again.
"Good," Rangiku said severely, and when Rukia stared up at her, she said, "You were being attacked. You didn't learn how to use those little daggers of yours just to look pretty."
Rukia swayed in the chair, and Nanao frowned at her. "You need a bath, a nap, and something to eat, in that order," she said severely. "I'll summon one of our maids to draw a bath for you. Just sit there and breathe deeply."
"Ah – that's what he said to do. Ichigo, I mean," Rukia murmured.
"Is this Ichigo a handsome man?" Rangiku asked teasingly. When Rukia glowered at her she just laughed and said, "You usually don't bother to learn the names of the guards."
"He has hair like a…a flame," Rukia finally told her, as heat crept into her cheeks.
"Hmmm, I'll be sure to look for him," Rangiku said, and laughed again at Rukia's expression.
It didn't take long for a maid to escort Rukia to the bathing room near the princess' bedroom. Cisterns provided running water and a fire stoked by the maid heated the water flowing into the ofuro. Rukia scrubbed herself so thoroughly that her skin was pink and nearly raw, especially around her hands, and then sunk herself into the ofuro up to her neck. The water was almost too hot, but she stayed under until water began to cool and her fingers and toes were wrinkled.
Between the loss of adrenaline and the hot bath, Rukia was stumbling with fatigue when the maid helped her into a yukata, and she practically crawled onto her futon. Then she slept, expecting that her dreams would be full of blood. Instead, they were full of amber-brown eyes and flame-bright hair.
When she woke, it was to the bustling of her sisters around her. Rangiku grinned when she saw her and pulled the blankets from Rukia's hands. "Get ready," she ordered. "It's nearly time."
Rukia sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Rangiku and Nanao were already dressed in elegant gowns of pale pink and aquamarine silk. Sui-Feng was half-dressed in bright yellow and chasing Yachiru around the room to put up the younger girl's hair. Rukia shook her head and stood, then rolled her futon to get it out of the way. She pulled an elegant, shimmering lavender gown from their shared wardrobe. Her slippers were white silk and she hurried to pull her gown on before she pulled the slippers onto her small feet.
"Here, I'll fix your hair," Orihime volunteered softly. She looked lovely as always in an ice-blue gown that showed off her generous bosom. A silk belt woven with floral patterns wrapped around her waist and the chiffon of her skirt swished enchantingly around her legs. Elegant, sheer sleeves in a blue so pale it was almost white draped around her arms, and silver embroidery sparkled throughout the fabric. Her auburn hair was done up in a series of soft curls, and snowflake-shaped pins sparkled in her hair.
"Thank you," Rukia murmured, and leaned back so that Orihime could begin to pin up her hair. Rukia's dark hair was so long it reached the small of her back, although a lock consistently fell into her face, between her eyes. Orihime worked quickly to bring it up into a soft bun that allowed locks of hair to drift down in front, framing her face.
Rukia was the last to be ready, but it was she who moved to the hidden trap door as if compelled. The faces of her sisters were expectant; they held their breaths as Rukia pried up the wood panels and Tatsuki, elegant in a close-cut dress of navy blue, lifted the heavy door that lay beneath. Rukia stepped down into the underground world first, and her sisters followed in a long trail of silk dresses and sparkling hair ornaments.
Yachiru and Ururu were last, and they followed silently behind their older sisters. Rukia led them through the grove of silver trees, dresses whispering in an unseen breeze. They passed through the golden trees and then the trees of gemstones, leaves clicking oddly in the air. Finally, they arrived at the shore of the lake, where twelve small boats waited. A man stood beside each of the boats; each one was as different as the last, though they all wore elegant white kimonos and hakama belted with black obi and decorated with geometric embroidery.
Rukia stepped into first boat and sat carefully on the bench. Her escort for the evening stepped in after her and pushed off with a long oar. He was tall and well-built, with wavy brown hair. One lock of hair fell into his eyes. "Are you well this evening, Princess?" he asked in that deep voice of his.
She'd grown to hate that voice, though she smiled outwardly and said, "Yes, I am well, Prince Sosuke. I am looking forward to dancing."
Behind them the other boats followed. For months they had each been paired with the same man: Rangiku was paired with the tall, fox-faced man named Gin, and Nanao with a gangly, tall man named Nnoitra who always seemed borderline contemptuous of her sisters. Orihime sat in the boat of an extraordinarily solemn man named Ulquiorra who nevertheless seemed to dote on her. On it went: Isane with a prince named Coyote and Kiyone with a blond man named Findorr; Tatsuki with a tall, blue-haired man named Grimmjow. Sui-Feng was paired with a man named Tousen who did not see but guided his boat unerringly despite that.
Hinamori partnered with a young blond man named Tesla, Nemu was paired with a tousled man named Ggio. Yachiru and Ururu were both in boats with redheaded boys close to their age, Menis and Jinta. Rukia could never remember which was which.
The palace came into view, once again lit up as though for a celebration. The boat Rukia was in docked first, and Sosuke stepped onto the stone platform. His hand reached out but Rukia stood and climbed out of the boat on her own. The other boats docked one by one, and the princes helped their companions out of the little boats.
Rukia watched quietly as it happened. Rangiku seemed to genuinely enjoy her time with Gin, and they were well-matched in their dancing. Orihime, likewise, seemed entranced by her prince. Yachiru just wanted to have fun, young as she was, and she and Ururu always spent more time playing tag with their princes than dancing.
Finally, Rukia had to place her hand on Sosuke's arm so that he could escort her inside. Her sisters fell in line behind her and they walked into the brightly lit palace slowly. Music wafted from the ballroom as they walked in.
The ballroom itself, as always, took Rukia's breath away. She'd seen it every night for nearly a year, but it was still even more elegant than the ballroom in her father's palace. The elaborately carved ceiling loomed twenty feet overhead and the walls were covered alternately in gilt and tall, painted silk panels of flowers and birds. The floor was made of some unknown material that looked like gold but felt like wood under her feet as she danced.
When all twelve of the princesses were in the ballroom, Sosuke raised a hand and the music stopped. He lowered it, and a waltz began. Quickly he pulled her onto the floor and the other pairs followed, sweeping into the first dance of the night. It would be the first of many: often the dancing did not stop until three or even four in the morning.
Rukia knew the steps to this dance by heart, and she let her mind wander even as her feet followed Sosuke's. She couldn't stop thinking about what she'd done: how she'd stabbed someone without even thinking about it at the first sign that a trained guard – and a veteran of war – was in danger. She couldn't stop thinking about the way Ichigo had fought, and the way he had been so happy, so soft when she'd inadvertently reunited him with his younger sister.
She certainly couldn't explain the little jolt of upset she'd felt just before Ichigo had explained that Yuzu was his sister.
"You seem distracted this evening, your highness," Sosuke said suddenly as he spun her. His brown eyes bored into hers and Rukia glanced away, watching Orihime dancing with Ulquiorra. Her younger sister was chattering away, a beaming smile on her face. "Rukia?"
She drew her attention back to her dance partner. "I had a more exciting day than usual," she said mildly. "Someone tried to rob me."
Those eyes widened in sympathy, but as always there was something behind them that gave Rukia a chill. "How awful," Sosuke said gently. "I'm glad you weren't injured."
She still had no idea how it was possible that an entire world lay beneath her father's palace and the capital city without anyone knowing; it was magic, she was sure of that much. Nor could she stop dancing. Even as the music came to a stop and she curtsied to her brunet partner, she walked away only to find another: Grimmjow this time, his face set in a scowl not entirely dissimilar to Ichigo's. Put that guard out of your mind, you little fool, she told herself, and curtsied to the blue-haired man before her.
"Princess," he drawled in greeting, and swept her into the dance as the music began again at a faster tempo. Yachiru ran by, chasing Ururu and nearly knocking Rukia over on the way. Grimmjow just rolled his eyes as the redheaded boys chased after them both.
The night went on like that: Rukia changed partners several times throughout the night, even dancing with the pale, dark-haired Ulquiorra. She was so petite that nearly every prince was taller than her. Though she'd slept for a few hours that afternoon Rukia grew tired as the night wore on, and frequently had to stifle her yawns. There was a banquet laid out against one wall and wine seemed to appear out of nowhere, but Rukia's stomach churned at the thought of eating or drinking anything.
Finally, the music stopped. Rukia stepped away from Sosuke, whom she'd partnered for the last dance, and curtsied politely. They enacted the final part of what had become nearly a ritual over the last months: the princes led Rukia and her sisters back to the boats and rowed them back across the lake. When the boats reached the opposite shore Rukia and her sisters bid goodnight to their dancing partners. Exhausted as she was, she still noticed that Rangiku and Orihime gave particularly affectionate goodbyes to their princes.
They trailed back through the groves of jeweled, gold, and silver trees, and up the steps to the open trap door. Tatsuki shut the door with a low thud when they were all through, and together she and Rukia replaced the wooden panels that hid the trap door.
Yachiru and Ururu sprawled on their futons with twin groans, but Tatsuki chivvied them up with an urgent, "You need to change out of those clothes." Around the room, the twelve dancing princesses pulled their slippers from their feet and changed into their nightclothes.
Rukia examined the soles of her slippers; they might last another night, but no more than that. She changed out of her lavender gown and put it away. Her eyes met Nanao's across the room and she jerked her head lightly toward the bathing room. "This has to stop," she said quietly when they were behind the closed door.
Nanao just shook her head. "That's what you said three weeks ago," she reminded her oldest sister. "But tomorrow night it will be the same."
Rukia bit her lower lip. "I know," she whispered.
Ichigo was being watched. Not by the younger guards – he knew they were watching him, observing the way he sparred with one of their number in a demonstration match of hand to hand fighting. No, he was being watched by three of the princesses. That's who he thought they were, at least: they wore kimonos far too expensive-looking for most women to afford. The tallest one, an extremely busty woman with strawberry-blonde hair, was leaning on her forearms as she pressed against the fence. The other two were a little shorter and looked very different; one was auburn-haired and just as busty as her older sister, while the other was dark-haired and looked studious in her spectacles, almost like Rukia without those incredible amethyst eyes. All three seemed exhausted.
Since when do you think anyone's eyes are incredible? Ichigo asked himself and changed his stance to block an attack from his opponent. His retaliating blow sent the younger man sprawling several feet away on his back, and Ichigo scowled.
"Do you see the flaw in Koroku's defense?" he asked as he walked over and held out a hand to help the scrawny man up.
"Ah – he should have dodged or used your weight against you," one of the other guards said.
Ichigo nodded shortly. "Exactly." He held a hand out and gestured the speaker forward. "Your turn – show me what you would have done differently."
When Ichigo turned again, Rukia was there, watching silently. He nearly lost his footing when he caught her amethyst eyes watching him and she blushed. Or maybe it was because of the heat – it was a warm day, after all. His shirt was soaked through with sweat and sticking to him, and after he sent the next recruit sprawling, he called a halt so that he could strip the shirt off and hang it on the fence. It left him bare to the waist, and Ichigo waited as a few of the other men did the same.
There was giggling from the other side of the fence, and Ichigo sighed as several of the men turned their attention toward the sound. "Don't pay attention to them," he ordered. "Unless you want to chop wood for the next three days."
"Sir!" There was a note of protest in the tone of a few of the men, but Ichigo ignored them. He shook his hair out of his face and ordered them to pair off. And if in the very back of his head he wondered why the crown princess was watching again and whether it was just that she didn't have anything better to do, well – that was his own business.
Still, he felt her eyes on him for the next hour. When the sun was at its zenith he called a halt to training. "Walk, don't run back to the barracks," he ordered. "And drink a full canteen of water, each of you. Slowly." Ichigo walked to the fence and picked his shirt back up. The usual spectators were drifting away, but Rukia and the strawberry-blonde princess were still there. And they were both staring at him.
"Did you come down to train, your highnesses?" he asked roughly when the blonde pulled her sister closer to him.
"Oh, not me. But Rukia could use a lesson," she said, grinning.
Rukia's cheeks immediately flushed hotly and Ichigo could feel his cheeks doing the same. Which was ridiculous – he was thirty, after all. "What Princess Rangiku means to say is that I need an escort again." The words were a little strained, Ichigo thought.
"I need to wash up, but then I'd be happy to escort you," Ichigo said, although he could hardly believe the words had come out of his mouth.
Both women blushed then, but Rangiku recovered faster, and she fanned herself with one hand as she grinned at him. "She'll wait."
Ichigo ducked his head in an abbreviated bow to hide another blush, and walked off toward the barracks. They were still watching him, he could tell. "No wonder you were talking about him," he heard as he walked away. "He's very attractive. Much more attractive than…well, you know."
Ichigo didn't know what the last part of that meant, but he covered his face with one hand as he hurried away. When he left the barracks again, bathed and wearing a fresh uniform, he stopped in to see Renji. "The Crown Princess has requested that I escort her into the city," he told the sergeant.
"Hn. Try not to be late for evening training," was all the crimson-haired man said.
Rukia was waiting for him at the gate, her finery intact but coronet missing. "We're going to the shopping district today," she told him, and Ichigo blinked down at her, but held the side gate open so that she could go ahead of him.
"I thought merchants came to the palace with their goods," he said when they were away from the gate and walking west from the palace.
"They do," Rukia acknowledged.
"So then this trip is for…?"
"For the Crown Princess, whom you serve," she retorted. The words coming from someone as short as her made Ichigo laugh out loud. He half expected her to smack him; he didn't expect her to kick him in the shin, and he hopped away from her, grunting in pain.
"I serve the Emperor," Ichigo reminded her as he rubbed his shin. "And I'm not going to drag you back into the palace, little princess. I'm just curious." About you, he finished silently.
Somewhat mollified, Rukia started walking again. "Ribbons and a few other things. I don't need enough to justify asking someone taking a full day from their business just so I can da—to sell me a meter of ribbon."
Ichigo blinked at the slip but hurried to keep pace with her. "I see," he said. He didn't, but suddenly he wanted to know about the princesses' secret as much as the emperor did.
When they reached the shopping district it was bustling and loud, and Ichigo hovered close to Rukia as she went first to one stall and then into a shop filled with a thousand spools of ribbons in every color Ichigo had ever heard of, and quite a few he hadn't. He watched, hands clasped behind his back as Rukia selected ribbon in a dozen different colors. She bought only a meter or so of each color and Ichigo wondered what she could want with such small amounts.
Finally, coin exchanged hands and he led her from the shop, keeping close to her. They stopped at a stall for hair pins, and then Rukia stopped at the leather worker's stall. Ichigo put a hand to his nose to keep out the smell, but he watched suspiciously as Rukia paid for a length of very thin, supple leather.
There were two more stops, and the sun was just beginning to lower in the sky as they turned back toward the palace. He carried a large bag in his off hand. Ichigo waited until there were very few people around them before he said quietly, "You're trying to repair your dancing slippers, aren't you."
But rather than answer him directly, Rukia stopped dead and her eyes looked up into his. "Don't," she whispered. "Don't ask questions like that." There was a note of desperation in her tone, and Ichigo's brow furrowed as he heard it.
"But Rukia—"
"You can't."
"Alright, alright. Don't get upset," Ichigo drawled. "It was just a question. I didn't think a princess would be good at repairing things," he added, and tried to inject a note of teasing into his voice.
It worked – sort of. Rukia's face lost some of its strain and she smirked up at him. "My sisters and I are multitalented," she assured him. "Have you visited your family?" she asked, transparently changing the subject.
"Hn. Tomorrow afternoon," Ichigo affirmed. "I have the day off. We're supposed to have dinner together."
"Your parents must have missed you. Did you really not see them for ten years?" Rukia asked.
Ichigo rubbed awkwardly at his chest. "Mom's been gone for twenty years, but yeah – I haven't seen my father or sisters since I was conscripted."
Rukia ducked her head and said quietly, "My mother's been gone for a very long time as well."
The hand holding her bag drifted over and bumped against the back of hers lightly. "I thought you had eleven sisters?"
"I do. Nanao and I are full sisters. Everyone else is a half-sister. Don't you know that the Emperor has been married five times?"
Ichigo blinked. "Ah – no. I didn't realize it was that many," he admitted. "So wait – how old is your youngest sister?"
They turned into the nobles' quarter, the palace not far into the distance, as Rukia answered, "Yachiru is twelve and Ururu is nine. When Ururu's mother died the Emperor decided that he'd had enough wives and enough daughters. He was trying to have a son."
Ichigo sniffed. "Should have been happy with daughters," he grumbled quietly, and caught the quick grin on Rukia's lips.
"There have been wise men who told the Emperor he would not have a son," Rukia admitted. "One lost his head for it, but the other told him that when Ururu's mother passed and my father was more…willing to listen. He suggested that my father might turn his attention to marrying us off."
Ichigo snorted. "But he hasn't, has he?"
"No, now he holds us out as prizes if someone can – well, you've heard the rumors," Rukia finished.
"Why don't you just say it out loud?" Ichigo asked. He stopped and turned to look at her, and every hair on the back of his neck stood on end. "I've buried two men because of whatever is going on and I've only been here a month. So why don't you just say it?"
But Rukia's eyes filled as they looked into his, before she took off, running back toward the palace. He heaved a sigh and followed, using his much longer legs to catch up to her easily. "Stop it, little princess," he said, and grabbed her arm gently to stop her from running off a second time.
"You keep – you keep asking questions," Rukia said, and again there was a tone of desperation in her voice. Once again Ichigo felt – something – off and wrong about the situation. She didn't sound like a bored woman rebelling against her father. She sounded – scared. Even terrified.
"I won't ask any more questions today," he promised, as his eyes met hers. "And I'm sorry for upsetting you. But it's my job to protect you, remember? I can't do that if you rush off."
She stared at him for a long moment, before nodding briefly and turning back toward the palace. She didn't shake off his hand, which Ichigo counted as a good thing. They walked the rest of the way to the palace gate in silence, and Ichigo handed Rukia's bag of purchases to her before bowing to her. She walked away, but looked back over her shoulder at him – twice. Ichigo shook his head and walked into Renji's office again.
"Nearly late," the redhead told him, and Ichigo scrubbed a hand through his hair.
"Sorry. Her Highness took a long time deciding what ribbons and hairpins she wanted," Ichigo rumbled. But he was distracted during evening training and one of the newest recruits nearly got the best of him.