Chapter 4: Envy
A/N: I will probably never double my word count in one chapter ever again (after the second chapter, of course). That was insane.
Changing the subject, I've noticed that my writing style has evolved from epic poems of meaningless drivel to short, focused paragraphs. I'm not sure I like the length, but I think the more focused part is helping me tell the story properly.
Also, this story is getting ridiculous in reference to the amount of crazy that's going to explode when the epic finale hits. Just thought I would point that out. Not to mention, I might be able to include almost every known character in the series if I keep this up. Geez. Not even kidding.
And now, after typing all of this non-stop in the course of one day, I give you chapter four!
Two days had passed, and Byakuya still hadn't come downstairs to check on any of us. I was still waiting, still furious with anger, but more strategic because of all the time I'd had to plan. There was no sign of anything out of the ordinary, lulling us all into a false sense of security.
Then there was the problem of Grimmjow and Ichigo. While I had nothing in the way of romance, they showed off their abundance. It was starting to really piss me off. After their third makeout session today, I was starting to contemplate beating my head against the bars, sitting on Ichigo, or maybe just twisting Grimmjow's nipples again. No matter what Grimmjow says, the squeal he makes when you twist them hard enough would always be funny.
Hitsugaya had put in an appearance yesterday, but only a short and silent one. He was probably sent to do a head count or something. I'm still here! I wanted to shout. I'm still waiting for you, Byakuya. I'm sure he didn't care, though.
Pessimism was great. If the situation turned out worse than normal, you wouldn't be disappointed; if it turned out better, well, then it was better than expected. But the process of being pessimistic sucked horribly. I would know.
Byakuya had spent the day after Renji had returned late from Shunsui's manor getting ready to confront the drunkard about the tea delivery. While the manor was a long walk away, it didn't take several hours to drop off a few bags of tea, and yet, Renji had been gone for almost the entire day.
The weather was horrible. Sickly little clouds vomited out sprays of insignificant drizzle, and refused to either clear up or rain properly. The sun failed to show up for work today, and so did the wind. It was muggy with misty rain, stale from lack of a breeze, and oppressively warm. Also, the mosquitoes loved it.
Byakuya refused to walk in this weather. Hitsugaya saddled up a steel-colored mare for the aristocrat, and a white filly for himself.
It took them nearly an hour to traverse the swampy forest and muddy roads to Shunsui's manor. Byakuya's hakamas were soaked with stagnant mud, his hair was plastered to his forehead, and the mosquitoes loved his ankles.
Byakuya was livid by the time he handed Hitsugaya the reigns, giving him a strict order not to let either horse run wild. Hitsugaya nodded in fear as the vampire's eyes flashed crimson. Both horses were tied to a post outside the back door, which was propped open with an old boot. Byakuya noticed this, and let himself in. The door swung open easily, letting the vampire enter unannounced.
Hitsugaya didn't dare follow, or even peek around the corner. He balanced carefully on top of the post, watching the horses graze.
Ukitake was feeling a little better the day after Renji had delivered the tea leaves. He remembered a bit of their new red-headed friend, and asked Shunsui about him.
"He's one of the few people I feel I can actually trust," Shunsui remarked in answer. Nanao sketched an accurate picture of Renji in her thick notebook, helping Ukitake's memory fill in the holes.
Nanao sipped her coffee; Shunsui, his sake; Ukitake, his tea. What was supposed to be a three-month supply of leaves had soon dwindled to a three-week supply at the rate Ukitake had to guzzle it down to keep his health.
The little family knelt at the tea table, populated with beverages, breakfast, and a fishbowl with one small koi goldfish lazily drifting in circles. The fish was in front of Ukitake's decimated breakfast platter, looking quite droopy in comparison with his larger brethren. Ukitake swirled a finger in his teacup, and let a stray drop of the powerful tea drip into the fishbowl.
"Why is there a fish at the table?" Shunsui asked, goggling as if he was seeing it for the first time.
"He's the smallest one, and some of the other fish were ramming him. I think he's blind in his left eye," the fish thunked against the glass as he said this, "and I think he might be sick."
"But, why is it at the table?"
Ukitake let another drop of tea fall into the tank, and smiled as the fish perked up a bit. He sipped at his tea a bit more, and rose to put another pot on the flame.
"Ukitake knows what it's like to be sick," Nanao explained cautiously, "and he wouldn't even wish it on the lowest of animals." She rose, clearing the plates from the table. She put the fish on the end table, and got to work cleaning the breakfast dishes. Shunsui fluffed up Ukitake's pillow and put it on the couch, positioned so Ukitake could watch over his fish.
Ukitake poured himself another cup of tea, holding it close to warm himself up. Shunsui swept Ukitake into a big hug, so glad he was feeling better, and kissed Ukitake on the cheek as he took a mouthful of tea.
Byakuya walked in just at that very moment.
It took him three seconds to register what was happening, and another three to recover. His mouth stretched into a deep frown, and he clenched his fists to keep himself from shouting -- a very un-Byakuya-like thing to do.
"Uh-oh," was Nanao's only prognosis.
Ukitake froze, the teacup still touching his upper lip, and Shunsui stared in horror. Byakuya glowered, quickly putting two and two together.
"A human?" Byakuya growled. "My tea is not to be wasted on that sort of filth, Shunsui." He turned to leave. "Don't ever bother me again, Shunsui." He reached for the door handle.
"You wouldn't understand why I go through all the things I do, Byakuya."
Byakuya turned the handle. He would not be talked to like that.
"I watch as his health deteriorates, I listen when the fever takes his mind, I even beg the likes of you for his sake, Kuchiki! But you wouldn't understand. You can't even see love when it stares you in the face." Shunsui held Ukitake tighter, as if afraid his outburst would make the sick man break. "You see it as weakness. How can you be so insulting to the one person with the capacity to love you even as you break him?" Shunsui ground his teeth.
Byakuya opened the door fully, fed up with the insults and excuses.
"Fine," Shunsui shouted. "Don't ever bother me again, Kuchiki."
The door slammed closed after Shunsui's brave, idiotic defiance. Never again would insulting someone feel so fulfilling, or have such grave consequences.
Shunsui laid Ukitake on the couch, ready to make the next three weeks the best of Ukitake's life.
Hitsugaya didn't hear any of what had happened inside Shunsui's manor, but reasoned that it had stressed out his master. He led the horses back to the stablehand, a big fellow named Ganju, and hurried inside to draw the pissed aristocrat a hot bath.
Byakuya let his kimono drop to the floor as he stepped into the fragrant water. Love? What had that Shunsui idiot been babbling about back there? He pondered over the confrontation as he sank into the blissful heat.
Love was an emotion; he knew that much. But so were anger and sadness and joy. What made love any different? Shunsui seemed to think it was a more powerful force than anger.
Maybe love made you do foolish things?
Then what was the point? Why was love sought after so widely? He'd seen the bond between Ichigo and Grimmjow. It had boosted Ichigo's confidence, but it had tamed Grimmjow, the only slave Byakuya had ever had a reason to fear. He might have to promote them both to slave's quarters soon on good behavior.
Renji, on the other hand, was...different. Byakuya had expected a wild werewolf to be a homicidal psychopath from the start. Werewolves had a reputation of being berserkers, throwing emotion and logic to the wind for the sake of killing. The best known werewolf was the infamous Zaraki Kenpachi, part unstoppable force and part recurring nightmare. His legacy was still being told to children of all races to keep them in line -- "Stop whining or Kenpachi will eat you."
Renji was anything but a nightmare. He was young, strong, and utterly confusing.
On the one hand, he was infuriating. He refused to break, he was ruled by emotions Byakuya didn't understand, and nothing he did made any sense. Any other were would have flatly refused to be a pack mule, but Renji had bowed to his wishes. There was something wrong with that, but Byakuya couldn't put his finger on what it was.
On the other hand, he was fiercely loyal, kind to his friends, and would do anything, no matter how insulting, if Byakuya asked him to. Byakuya was sure that Renji had to hate him for everything the wolf had been put through, but he still did everything Byakuya asked him to without a complaint.
...What if he was selectively servile to the vampire lord alone? Not even his friends could get him to stoop as low as Byakuya could.
It was almost as puzzling as this love thing. There was one thing Byakuya knew for sure about both love and Renji. He knew that Renji could not love him, and he could not love Renji. The two most confusing concepts in Byakuya's life just wouldn't go together, like pieces of an ill-fitting puzzle.
But the little wriggling feeling in the back of his mind wouldn't go away.
The seeds of doubt had been planted.
It was the evening of the second day before I saw Byakuya again. I hoped he would at least acknowledge me, but he refused to even look in my direction. He was just down here to steal more of Ichigo's blood. How fitting. He sucked the life out of anyone who got close to him: Ichigo, Shunsui, Grimmjow, Ukitake.
Me.
I watched the way his lips pressed against Ichigo's skin, the way his throat moved as he drew forth liquid life, the way his fingers carefully held Ichigo's chin.
I had memorized the way his neck arched, the way his eyes dilated as he finished his meal. I couldn't help it. I had to keep staring.
It hurt. I wanted to be human so badly; I wanted to be Ichigo! I didn't want to watch what my mind was turning into an erotic display and not be a part of it! There was something about it that made me want to be in Ichigo's place with every fiber of my being. I theorized that it had something to do with knowing he was so powerful in comparison with human weakness. He could kill me, in the hypothetical situation where I was miraculously human, with the ease of a venus fly trap sucking down its prey. But, in this imaginitive world of mine, he would love me enough to be careful with my life. That's what I wanted.
Love was trusting another person with your life. Yes, I was taking it to a morbid level, but it was hard not to.
Besides, the way Byakuya was so careful not to hurt Ichigo unnecessarily was making me crazy.
Ivory fangs against tender skin... Pale lips touching Ichigo's tan throat... And that pink tongue, carefully sealing the two pinpricks.
I pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them in a death grip. I could feel the red blush from hell burning from my shoulders to the tips of my ears.
Byakuya cradled the anemic, barely-concious Ichigo to his chest, and carefully handed him off to a fuming Grimmjow.
I hid my face in my knees, wishing the obvious arousal away.
I felt Byakuya's gaze on me briefly. I was huddling in the fetal position in the corner. He probably thought I was going to be sick. I guess I'd rather he thought I was sick than unimaginably horny.
He finally left, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn't been caught yet.
Grimmjow leered at me. "Need some help with that boner, wolf-boy?"
I made a garbled sound like "Aaack." Crap. Grimmjow.
"Shut up, Grimmjow. It's hard enough without you making snide comments," I countered.
"I'm sure it's hard enough!" Grimmjow cackled. Ichigo weakly bopped him in the ear.
"Shut up!" I snarled back.
It was going to be a long, hard night. And I wish I hadn't put it quite like that; I could already hear Grimmjow giggling in my head.
It had been almost a week since the...incident. The one where I ended up in the fetal position, being mercilessly teased by Grimmjow. I was so bored! Nothing interesting had happened since that night, and the monotony was beginning to drill into my skull. I didn't really care what happened as long as something happened before I died from lack of mental stimulation. Seriously. The sewers could back up for all I cared. Light my hair on fire! Something happen!
You know what they say about being careful what you wish for? Something finally happened. I'm starting to wish it hadn't.
Hitsugaya came down the stairs, and opened the cage door. Byakuya appeared from the stairway as well, looking emotionless as always.
"You two, come with me," he ordered Grimmjow and Ichigo.
"What about me?" I asked as Hitsugaya was closing the door again.
"You stay here, mutt."
Grimmjow and Ichigo looked apologetic, Grimmjow shrugging to say he didn't know what was going on either.
Suddenly, I was alone in the dank cell, wishing I had never wished at all.
Half an hour passed, and neither of them had returned. I tried to pass the time, pacing the length of the cell in human and wolf forms, alternately. It was good exercise; I needed practice switching forms as it was.
Two hours, and I had dinner alone. I thought it was strange that no dinner had showed up for either of them. It was almost as if they weren't coming back, but I wouldn't let myself think that way.
Five hours after they had left with Byakuya, I was getting lonely. The sun was setting, and it was cold even with all three blankets.
Eight hours had passed...where could they be?! I was worried and panicky now, without my two friends to comfort me.
Twelve hours had passed, and I knew they weren't coming back. I curled up in a little furry ball and puppy-cried myself to sleep. I told myself they would show up in the morning.
I awoke to the sound of dry dog food rattling as it hit the bottom of my plastic dish. The kitty dish had been removed, along with two of the cups, pillows, and blankets.
I was alone for good.
Byakuya was known for his ability to grow miraculously healing herbal teas, and for his black, ethereal passenger pigeons. Some claimed they were part hummingbird because they were smaller, lighter, and quieter than any other pigeon. Usually, they were the bearers of bad news, so one of Byakuya's less-than-happy correspondents started calling the feathered harbingers "hell butterflies".
The name stuck, and the pigeons had since been bred to be even quieter than their predecessors. They could fly completely undetected at night, making them even more mysterious.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi was not surprised when one of Byakuya's smallest hell butterflies alit softly on his chandelier, cooing to alert Kurotsuchi that she had a message for him. He stretched a pale hand up, letting the bird onto his hand, and unrolled the cylinder of paper from her leg. He scrawled a brief note on the backside of the paper, and tied it back on the bird's leg. She was sent back to Byakuya, and met two of her siblings back at his passenger pigeon aviary. A third arrived half an hour later, having made a longer trip than the rest. He shook sand out of his feathers and threw himself at the water dish as soon as Byakuya had removed the reply from his leg.
All four messages were affirmative; Soi Fon wanted to know if she should bring a fruit salad or a meat platter.
Byakuya shook his head. He knew she would bring an entire smoked pig no matter what he said, so he sent another bird back with a simple "Do as you will."
All of Byakuya's parties consisted of two events: a feast and a meeting. The guests were all important and influential aristocrats or higher, each of which would bring their best slaves to show off in hopes of selling or trading them. The feast was made and enjoyed by the slaves, as all but one of Byakuya's guests were strictly blood-drinkers. Soi Fon was actually part faerie, but she would slaughter anyone who mentioned it.
Sometimes the Demon Lord would partake in the feast, but he really enjoyed souls more than solid food. To each their own, Byakuya sighed. He wasn't sure where he could get any more souls for the Demon Lord this year. He'd have to see if Mayuri could conjure up some false souls again.
Another hell butterfly was sent to Mayuri. The mad scientist claimed that, because he was so good at what he did, he had found a way to create a more filling and flavorful false soul, but it would cost Byakuya a fair bit of gold.
Figuring the Demon Lord's continuing support was worth much more than a stack of shiny metal, he agreed after they both compromised on the price.
So, it was settled. The date was finally set for this meeting. They'd all known it would have to be soon, but the only day all five could agree on was two days from now.
It was time to get busy.
A/N: I want to thank everybody who thinks I'm not actually making this up as I go. You give me too much credit. Seriously, the idea of hell butterflies being passenger pigeons hit me suddenly, and was too good to pass up. And that's the least of the things I made up as I was writing this chapter.
Well, now we have quite a few conflicts to resolve. What is Shiro's deal? What happens when Ukitake runs out of tea? What happened to Grimmjow and Ichigo? How will this feast thing go? Who is the Demon Lord and the mysterious fifth member of the party? Will Byakuya ever figure out what love is? Tune in to the next compelling chapter of SabreWolf to find out!
Oh, and if you can guess both the Demon Lord and the mysterious fifth member of the party's identities, You get a cyber-cookie! C: