11/27/08—This chapter was severely edited.
Disclaimer: Bleach is not owned by Aishiteru Aizen. It is owned by Kubo Tite.
A/N: Hi guys! This isn't going to be a very long a/n, considering I only have a few things to say. I've been busy, but I have received your PMs and your contributions. Don't worry, none of them have gone unnoticed! I have considered them greatly, and I will respond to each of your reviews shortly.
Once again, thanks so much for sending me your reviews! I can't deny the invigoration I feel every time I get one. ^^ Thanks to:
St. Kitsune, Brighit R. Gauthier, Lady Kaliska, fan, frostedheavens, DoodleNoodle-no-baka, WesternMistress, HK-Revan, and Raven Alabaster.
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Chapter Eight Blood Stained RobesPt. I
Aizen stood, his lazy gaze applying a generous amount of attention to the kneeling Loly. "Come to Aizen-sama."
She unfolded herself and stood militantly, her eyes burning straight ahead. Her blood was pounding like a lead drill, practically painful in its potent intensity. Two steps. Three, four. It seemed like forever until she was finally before him, her face turned away from Menoly's anchoring gaze. The entire room was statue-like, their eyes placed upon their master and the girl that was about to receive her accolade.
She waited. Aizen waited…and then he lifted one anointing hand, placing it on the mass of black hair upon her head. Her legs, at that very moment, felt like jelly.
"I will personally discharge you of your duties."
She tensed, speech hovering mutedly out of her lips. Discharge her of her duties? But hadn't he just said, as plain as day, that she would be granted with a highest honor? "Aizen-sama," She choked out, drowning beneath the descending weight of her horror, " I wish to—"
"Silence."
And it became so. Tremulous reiatsu swarmed her consciousness. Her legs gave way; the pressure was of a magnitude so suffocating that she began to bleed from the pores—
"Loly!! No!!"
His fingers, large as they were, dug into her scalp as they clenched a mound of tangled hair. He could feel the blood springing beneath his fingernails.
"Aizen-sama!!" Loly shrieked. "T—To—u--se—"
Words exchanged for blood. His blade punched through her esophagus. She coughed, bled…spluttered to her very last breath.
And his robes were stained with blood.
But he turned his eyes upon Menoly anyway.
--
"Oooh, Hime-chaa~n! It's your friends; Menoly and Loly come to play!"
"Shh!!"
"Itai! Don't hit me!"
Menoly threw the misfit an unpleasant glare, hell bent on making the encounter as incognito as possible. Ulquiorra wasn't around; they'd been tracing his visitation patterns for days now. Well…at least Loly had been. When she wasn't pulling duty in the sands, she was roughly equating the times when Ulquiorra was elsewhere. And now that they were inching around the corner to Orihime's room, Loly was deciding to get cocky. Hadn't the run in with Grimmjow been enough? Obviously not, since Loly still wanted to hopscotch around trouble like a dame in heat.
"You go." Menoly hissed impatiently, gesticulating towards Orihime's door.
Loly nodded, gladly orchestrating their grandeur entrance. She wedged around the wall, placing both palms and one ear upon the door. "Hime-chan!" She sang again, "Mind if we come in??" She waited for a millisecond, hardly enough time to get a reasonable answer. "Guess that means okay!"
Then she let out an Amazonian cry, shouldering the door like a beast of rage. "Hime-ch—"
It fell with an ominous clatter, making way for the erratic intruders.
But Inoue Orihime was not awaiting them at the barred windows.
Ichimaru Gin was.
"My, my…ain't this something?" Gin turned around to face the two women, crimson eyes contoured into deep crescents. "I wasn't really expectin' visitors."
Loly and Menoly staggered backwards, abashed. Clearly they had not been expecting an encounter from their superior. But of course, it was impossible to foresee anything when it came to Ichimaru Gin.
"Gi…Gin-sama!" Loly spluttered incoherently, eyes spanning multiple proportions, "We thought—"
"Aw! Don't act so surprised! An' I really thought ya had come to see me." Gin actually frowned. "That ain't very polite."
"Gomen, it was all Loly's idea." Menoly hurriedly appointed, attempting to steer the fault into her friend's lane. But Loly's eyes narrowed with fiery derision, for she was having none of it.
"What?" She barked incredulously, "Don't act as if you didn't go along with it!"
"It was your idea!" Menoly squeezed out apprehensively.
"Bitch, this is all your fault! If you hadn't suggested that we—"
"Well you're the one who brought it up!"
"What?!"
"I just wanted to say something to get you to shut up! That's all you talk about is Hime-chan." Menoly ranted pointedly. "Hime-chan, Hime-chan, Hime-chan—"
"Damn." Gin mused, his immense presence cutting the argument like a katana. "An' here I thought we were gonna have polite conversation. Guess that ain't happenin', huh?"
Both girls locked into place, as if the mere sound of his voice had suddenly stripped them of all mobility. "We—"
"You'd think ya learn," Gin paced forward, like an undaunted fox, "'Specially since ya got it bad from Grimmy, but I suppose all of that is behind ya."
"Grimmjow-sama…h-how did you…?"
"Don't tell me ya didn't know? I know about everything that goes on around here!"
Their throats tightened. If Gin knew about everything…that mean that Gin had possibly reported their actions to Aizen-sama. And that meant—if Aizen-sama knew—
"But don't worry about it. I ain't told 'im." He started past them, grinning. "I ain't told him anything. After all, he's been too busy seeing that Hime-chan is all nice and cozy in his quarters."
And he left the room, but not without the flourishing afterthought, "Oh and, I hope ya don't mind sending Hime-chan a hello from me."
--
I know…I know…
Orihime could not diagnose the situation. For reality had a face that held many many deviances. And she could not decide, or despair, on whether she had folded beneath another pattern of his deception…or whether he had simply changed his mind about her…
But really, what was there to change?
That Aizen liked her?
Really…could she possibly be so haughty? He could she fool herself into thinking that Aizen had warped into someone loveable…
She may have…enjoyed his affections, his confectionary kisses, his miniscule gropes and the deliciously poisonous looks he gave her from afar. But really, could his lazy bedroom finger wiggles cue to something more delicate? More meditative? Like love.
Impossible. To say that Aizen Sousuke had fallen in love with her was utterly ridiculous. She did not even hope that it was true. She just knew, with every ounce of her languidly beating heart, that it was impossible.
So he must have been after something else…and this is what she feared, as she strolled through the seemingly endless kingdom that was Aizen.
No…what she truly feared was that she would not hesitate to deny him anything, if only for her pleasure alone…she pondered on how her neediness had matured into something…as Aizen had worded it, monstrous.
It was only right to assume that he was taking advantage of her powerful interests…aka, her ruling weaknesses.
Orihime may not have been the brightest crayon in the box, but she could certainly sense the obtuseness of her current situation…
Still, however, there was something that counteracted the very base of Aizen's invitation. And it was the fact that simply at will, she could invade every square foot of Aizen's privacy and not think twice about it. Especially since, currently, he was not around. He had left for a meeting with his Espada, saying that he would return in the wee hours of the morning. Leaving her to freely explore his dynasty.
"I wonder…" She thought aloud, as she scaled a spiraling staircase. "If he thought about that."
And that was when she came across a library; a plethora of white shelves stacked side by side to form thinly ventilated isles. Rolling ladders and step ladders lined various shelves, tri-toned books of all sizes, and even a few scrolls here or there. The entire area spanned for what seemed like a mile…and it was eerie, because she seemed to be the only one regarding its space. She decided that she was not too intrigued by its emptiness and sped her way down another hall.
This one led to an impasse; she walked into the mouth of a railed balcony and looked down; the sand seemed thousands of feet below. So far was it, that she could no longer distinguish the decorative grooves of the dunes. She was higher up in Las Noches than she could have ever expected…and this too, disturbed her.
All in all, by the time her explorative interests had grown lax, she had discovered multiple balconies, an expansive kitchen, a luminous spa area, tea rooms, several gardening areas, and a vividly accented room that held various objects of entertainment. Yet everything was white, plain, empty, largely spaced out, and unsubtle. You'd think there would be more elegance.
However, the one thing she hadn't found…
Was Aizen's bedroom.
She had etched and invaded every door that was to go through and still…nothing.
It had been hours since she had set out in the miniature mansion and she was tired. So when she could not mark her way into the very living space that Aizen slept, she settled for napping on a couch in a living room.
Strange.
It was very similar to the one in her old prison square.
--
Initially, it was stupidity that sparked the suicidal juices in Loly's brain. Loly may have been the one for excellent perseverance, but that didn't make her any less stupid. Like a fool, Loly had taken Gin's parting speech for permission to meddle… but alas, some females only hear what they want to hear and must use it to their advantage.
Menoly thought that even if Gin had not said a word about saying something to Hime-chan, Loly still would have found a reason to cause damage.
There was only one word to describe Loly.
And that was, trigger happy. Or Aizen happy…either would describe the suicidal tramp adequately.
So they were snooping around yet another corner, preparing to quickly dance their way up the grand steps that led down to the garden of Japanese Irises. And they would have…if someone wasn't already heading there first.
"Tousen-sama!!" Loly bleated. Menoly pressed her hand against the other girl's motor mouth and they both glared.
"What's he doing here?!"
Loly pried Menoly's fingers away from her lips, "I don't know…but he knows how to get into that door. If we hurry we can—"
"Christ Loly, are you fuckin' crazy?? I'm not dying here tonight. If you're still going to go through that door just to give Hime-chan another—"
But Loly had shot upward, tracing after Kaname Tousen as he disappeared through the blinding white light. Menoly frowned in mental torment. Maybe she would have lived a little longer had she decided to turn around.
--
He counted them; her breaths, as she breathed. Anyone could see that they were unsteadied; anxiety ridden, clustered, and uneven. It was almost as if, even in her sleep, she was apprehensive.
"Wake up."
The simple command jolted her frame to life. He felt the intense movements, the rustle of clothe, the indentions of her balled up fists into the surface of the couch.
"Nani…?! Tousen?…Kaname Tousen…?"
"I have…yet another proposition for you. Actually, if you do not follow through, I will kill you."
She was silent…he heard her breathing escalate into shaky intervals. Through the darkness, he sensed her fear. It was rising without restraint.
"What do you mean?" She bleated fearfully, "I—"
"You will return my sight…"
She was silent, once again, as she accepted the magnitude of the situation. "I can't do that."
"You want to die?"
"No--" She said quickly, "I must ask permission from Aizen-sama before I can do something like that…"
"Aizen-sama…" Tousen rumbled slowly, "Needn't know a thing about this current meeting…"
Silence. A shifting of clothe, audible breathing…he almost felt the moist opening and closure of her lips…
"Do you agree to cooperate?"
"I do not…have a choice, do I?" The question lapsed off languidly, signifying her defeat.
He angled his head a bit, to better clarify the submission in her voice. "I suppose you do not. But you will not heal my eyes now…you will wait until Aizen Sousuke's intentions have inverted. You will come to me then…when you have fully gained his trust. Even if it means having your dignity at stake."
She shifted again, and he turned away, content with the speech that he had just allowed her ears. He was going to leave now. And he was going to wait…going to wait on the final moment. The moment where justice would be served.
--
"Oh…shit…"
When Kaname began to walk away from the girl, he stopped just mere feet away from the very bookcase that Menoly and Loly where kneeling behind. They froze…awaiting the blow…but nothing came. The blind swordsman merely continued on and did not reframe from his forward pace.
"Did he see us?? Do you think he saw us?!"
Menoly sighed, "Dipshit, he's blind!"
"Who's there??"
Hime-chan's hesitant voice brought them back to earth. And Loly grinned, finally unearthing her skinny frame from their well-spotted hiding spot.
"Konbon wa, Hime-chan!" She grinned heartily. "Long time no see!"