Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, just Lilandra and her story
"BAD NEWS! CHAD'S NOT IN HIS ROOM!" Lilly woke to yelling about Chad not being there. She rushed out.
"Ichigo. I'll help you look for him!"
"Alright. But put a shirt on first." Lilly sprinted out the door in the skirt from the night before and buttoning up her black blouse with splashes of red. Ichigo took off in the direction of his school and Lilly in the opposite direction with an apple in her mouth, her eyes constantly searching for signs of trouble and Chad. Rukia's close. A loud explosion rang in the air as Lilly turned down an alley and beheld the ugliest Hollow she'd ever seen staring down at Rukia's struggling form.
"OI! 'Ey YOU! You with the gaping hole in your chest! Yeah I'm talking to you!"
"Lilly! Get out of here!" Rukia shook with pain and exhaustion as she stood.
"Oh keep your skirt on. I know these things." She turned back to the Hollow. "Your kind has been nothing but trouble for me!"
"Lilly?" Chad's voice came from behind her. She made the fatal mistake of looking back at him. The Hollow spat leaches all over her upper body.
"Well that's gross." She said looking down at the slimy slugs attached to her body.
"These are not only gross my dear…" The Hollow made raspberry sounds with his tongue and the leaches exploded, leaving bloody, gaping wounds on her stomach and chest. "That didn't feel so good." The Hollow grabbed Rukia by the neck and tried choking her, but Chad ran past Lilly and landed a solid punch on the Hollow.
"He punched a Hollow…can he see it?" Lilly watched Chad punch thin air looking for the Hollow. "Obviously not." The Hollow got cocky and then Chad punched him again in the face. Lilly sauntered over to Rukia's weakening form. "Ichigo won't be here in time….You already knocked his soul out of him right? Yes I know all about you all."
Rukia nodded. "We could work with Chad." Rukia and Lilly informed Chad that the Hollow had taken to the sky.
"You guys can see ghosts?"
"No time to talk now." Rukia responded. Chad stood in thought for a moment before he took an electric pole out of the ground.
"Wow…didn't realize he was that strong…" Lilly watched in amazement as Rukia was catapulted by Chad into the air at the Hollow. She was close but couldn't make it due to the Hollow spitting his exploding leaches onto Rukia as well. "Not good."
"What happened? I can't see."
"You're lucky. This thing is uuuuuuglyyy." Lilly offered a half smile before she was sent flying into the wall behind them by a jagged wooden pole that launched itself into her stomach. Lilly screamed in agony for a split second before Chad started to move towards her.
"LILLY!" Both Rukia and Chad started sprinting towards her.
"Don't move." She forced through gritted teeth. They looked in the direction Lilly was staring. Chad saw his bird. "One of the exploding leaches is on his cage Chad. If you move it will explode."
"But—"
"It's not a normal bird Chad. Just don't move. Rukia, you can buy us some time if you run." Rukia nodded and without another word sprinted off down the alley, closely followed by the Hollow. "Now the question is what would a Hollow want with that soul?"
Chad looked up quizzically at Lilly's paling face. "How are you still alive?"
"I'm just lucky like that." Lilly gritted her teeth in anger at the thought that she wouldn't just die.
Rukia returned and showed that the spirit inside of the bird was a little boy. When Ichigo showed up he released the boy's spirit to the after life and Chad looked as though he would cry.
"It's ok Chad. I'm sure you'll see him again sooner than you think…" Chad offered a sad, small smile. Lilly turned to Ichigo. "You need to call your father and tell him that soon he is going to have a patient that needs a bed and some tea."
"Wha—" Ichigo stopped short of his word and watched in horror as Lilly started to walk forward on the pole lodged in her body. With every step more blood spilled from her body and made a gushing sound.
As she stepped off she turned to Chad slightly. "Chad…you're going to have….to catch…me…" Lilly started to crumble to the ground when Chad's strong arms caught her bridal style. Ichigo yelled at his father on the phone as they ran in the direction of his house.
"Well I don't have time to! No I didn't do it! Just be prepared!" As he hung up they turned onto his street. Chad looked down at his arms to see Lilly clutching his shirt and crying silently with her eyes closed.
"Hold on." He whispered to himself. Ichigo's father met them at the door and immediately tried to work on her but she protested.
"I'll be fine. I'm getting better already. I just need some place to rest for a little bit." Everyone stared at her like she was insane. "Really. I just need a bed and rest…and maybe some good tea. And some bandages again. Trust me this isn't the worst wound I've gotten." Lilly walked away to the room she was going to stay in and sat on the bed heavily.
"Chad." Ichigo took Chad to a corner after his father was done wrapping her wounds. "Stay with her for a bit? I don't know if she's telling the truth or just as stubborn as you are." Chad nodded and grunted then left Ichigo to go sit by Lilly's bed. Ichigo left the room and went to make some tea.
"I miss my babies." Lilly smiled gently. "Did you feed them?"
"And cuddled." Chad semi-smiled at her weak form.
"I really am fine."
"I know."
"Then why stay?"
"Because Ichigo asked me to. That's all the reason that I need. "
"You two are really close huh?" Chad grunted in response and the night dragged on as he watched her sleep gently.
The next morning Chad, Ichigo and Lilly walked to school together in something close to content silence except for the bird's squawking. "The bird's vocabulary has crashed. What happened Chad?" Mizuiro stared, wide-eyed at the bird.
"Huh? Beats me…It was just like that when I woke up today."
"Well that's weird." Lilly stared off into space, thinking about what had taken place with Yuichi only yesterday. She remembered Chad's sad face and wished there was something she could do for him. When the bell rang for the gang to head to class they all reluctantly left the roof of the school.
Somewhere in the course of the day Ichigo disappeared and was replaced with someone else in his body. The class was roaming around when Ichigo's body jumped through the third story window and kissed Orihime's hand. Tatsuki became infuriated and began thrashing and throwing desks around the room trying to hit "Ichigo". Lilly pressed her body against the wall as much as she could when Chad, Mizuiro and Keigo entered the room and stared aghast. A desk came hurtling towards the four of them, Keigo and Mizuiro screamed like girls and Lilly let out a small 'eep' and waited for impact but it never came. Chad stepped in front of her and caught the desk easily.
"You might want to stay behind me until she's through with her tirade."
"Yeah…good idea." While Lilly stared at Chad's back she remembered his wound. Without being fully aware of what she was doing, Lilly slid her hand up Chad's shirt and rested on his wound. She felt him tense up and immediately snapped at him "Oh just relax. I'm not feelin' you up, just checking your wound. It hasn't scabbed over yet. Walk me home after school and I'll give you some of my salve, it works a lot better than theirs. It'll most likely be healed by tomorrow." Chad slowly let his shoulders relax and nodded at her instruction. Reluctantly, Lilly let her hand back down to her side. He's so warm. STOP! Don't even think about it! Don't even start caring…he'll die, just like the rest of them…. Without warning Lilly took off out the door and ran out the hall.
Mizuiro watched her sprint out the doors and pointed it out to Chad. "You seem to know her best…" Chad nodded and ran out the door trying desperately to catch up to her but failing miserably in the end.
Lilly ran all the way home as she saw "Ichigo" jump all over town. When she finally reached her living room all three of her cats were there to greet her. "Hey babies. You're the only ones who always escape with me." She fell asleep on her cozy couch with Snow in her arms, Midnight at her head and Autumn laying on her bare skin on the small of her back. "Chad…" She whispered softly. "Don't….go…."
"Lilly?" A strong male voice broke through her dreams. "You home?" Chad…
"Yeah…come in!" Lilly didn't even attempt to move to greet Chad seeing as she was so comfortable and warm with her cats.
"Where are…oh." Chad looked down and smiled at the sight of all her cats cuddling with her.
"What? Oh yeah…ointment. Hold on a sec." As Lilly got off her stomach and onto her knees she stretched like a sunbathing cat. After skipping off down the hall into a smaller room she tried to pull a cloth out of the over crowded closet, but everything got off balance and fell.
Chad heard a loud bang and poked his head into the room to find Lilly sitting in the middle of a mountain of overturned boxes and containers. "You alright?"
"Yeah…if I can figure out how to get out of here." With some difficulty Lilly jumped over a pile of boxes and fell into Chad's waiting arms. "Uh…thanks." She smiled up at him and told him to follow her as she went into the door at the end of the hall. It opened up into a large room with a huge bed in the middle. "Just…sit on the bed and take your shirt off." Lilly stopped short. "Whoa did that sound weird." Lilly disappeared into what appeared to be a bathroom. Chad heard her rummaging around when a shrill scream blasted his eardrums and made him cringe. "Shelly! Don't do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Chad faced the bathroom and saw Lilly skipping out with a large white rat under her arm. "Sorry about the screaming…Shelly decided to hide in my cupboards." Chad found himself amused and took the rat from her. He put it in his lap and stroked its head gently. "Relax your shoulders." He did so and Lilly began humming in her melodic voice as she rubbed in cool salve to his burning skin. The ointment she had was soothing and cool, unlike that at the clinic.
"So, how many pets do you have?"
"A lot…I lost count…I should count them. Let's see….well, I'll just how them to you. But, this is going to sound weird again; don't put your shirt back on for another five minutes. The wound and the ointment need to air out, so just walk around the house with your shirt off." Lilly turned a little pink as she walked away from Chad and down the hallway into her den. "Okay, let's see. This is Buster." Lilly held up a very large brown bunny that closed his eyes slowly on Chad. "You already know the queens of the castle." She said as she glided through the living room to the pantry in her kitchen. "They are Cheetoh, Wizard and Alakazam." She pointed out three more rats as she put Shelly back in her cage. Cheetoh was an orange rat, Wizard was white and black and Alakazam was brown with one white splash on his back. "They are all very fond of Shelly." She walked down the hall some more to a large aquatic looking tank. "This beauty is Sheelah." She pet the large snake in her cage. "These three darlings," she hopped over the baby gate in her kitchen, "are Flopsy, Mopsy, and Hufflepuff." Three tiny white dogs with large faces jumped at Chad's shoe which was just as big as them. "In the back I have a few more." Lilly opened a door that led from the kitchen into the serenity of her backyard. Grass covered every inch of it, and lush trees sprouted out naturally all over. Beautiful white, yellow, and purple tulips covered the hill in the back of her yard next to a pond with giant gold and black fish. "That's Summer," a golden retriever, "Angel," A white mop dog, "Lance, and Blueberry," two dogs that were as tall as Chad's waist ran towards them. "Blueberry's pregnant. She and Lance make such a cute couple." Lilly smiled proudly. All the big dogs reached her and jumped up to lick her; she laughed and played with them. She looked so at home in the middle of this chaos it made Chad's heart leap.
"Where did you get them all?" Chad asked as they sat down in her living room, the back door open and all her animals there. He put his shirt on and sat across from her on the loveseat while she sat on the couch.
"I find them. They're all animals that I've found wandering around. Or sometimes they find me." Lilly looked fondly at the three rambunctious puppies playing with Chad's shoe. "Hufflepuff and her brothers were left on my doorstep in a box during a rainstorm. There were three others, but they didn't make it. Poor babies." Chad smiled outwardly but had a war raging inside of him. Why did he have this weird sensation in his stomach? And why only when she was around? "Oh!" Lilly shouted, startled and laughing as a white dove landed on her head, ruffling her beautiful, multi-colored hair. "And this is Crystal." She held out a finger for Crystal to sit on and took her off of her head. "She landed in my pond with a broken wing. I fixed her up, but she's never fully left. She loves people." Crystal flew to Chad and landed on his shoulder rubbing its head on his jaw.
"Cute bird."
"I hear you like cute things." Lilly smiled and Chad nodded. "You know, if you ever need a place to just escape or something....you can come here and chill." Lilly blushed slightly and Chad nodded in appreciation. "I hope Ichigo got his body back." Lilly broke the silence that had accumulated in her house.
"Yeah." Chad and Lilly sat in silence until dark. "I should go." His mouth said the words but his brain shrieked at him to take them back.
"You wanna stay for dinner?" Chad gazed at her from the doorway. "Even though I'm surrounded by my babies it gets lonely here every now and again, it's nice to have a human friend. You could help me feed the animals. And I should check your wound, see how it's doing." Chad nodded and took his shirt off. "Man….getting you to take your shirt off must just be one of my talents." Lilly laughed as she ran a hand over what was now just a scrape on the side of his back. "Well, you'll be happy to know it's nothing more than a scrape now." Lilly and Chad ate dinner full of conversation and fed the animals with laughter before reluctantly saying goodnight at her door. I'm so sorry Chad….you have no chance now….I really really like you….