Springtime in Karakura

Spring, that wonderfully magical time of year when the air became warmer and the days became brighter, a time of flowers blooming and birds singing merrily throughout the day. Spring, that magical time of year when it suddenly became unusual to spend your weekends shut up inside of your home.

Starrk decided that he hated spring.

The first Saturday of spring and if the golden rays of sunlight filtering in through the window directly into his face were any indication, it was going to be a bright, beautiful day.

Starrk rolled over away from the window and shut his eyes tightly, trying desperately to go back to sleep.

But the glorious day wasn't willing to let the arrancar sleep in peace until he had gotten up and experienced it all and it countered by having a quartet of birds perch just outside his window and begin to sing incessantly.

Starrk strained to keep his eyes shut and tune out the noise, wondering how to best combat the situation.

Grimmjow would probably fling the window open and kill them while screaming every profane word in his limited vocabulary to the world. Tyn, he figured, would probably try and eat them. The emotionless cuarto would most likely be unfazed by their presence and would resign himself to getting up to face the day while Halibel would probably just rap her knuckles against the window hard in an attempt to drive them off…

For himself, Starrk was considering buying some earplugs.

It wasn't that he was against the idea of spring or of other living things enjoying the nice weather…he just didn't want any part of it for himself.

Mercifully, the chirping of the birds ceased and he could just barely hear the flapping of their wings as they left to go find someone else to annoy and Starrk smiled as he snuggled into his pillow once more and yawned. He didn't particularly mean to sleep the entire day away but as he understood it, it was a God-given right of all creatures great and small to sleep in on weekends and he was determined to do just that; after all, eleven A.M. was way too early for any reasonable person to crawl out of bed if they didn't have to.

"Jesus, Starrk, you're still not up?" came a voice from the doorway.

"Go away, Lilynette," he groaned from underneath the covers. "I don't want to hear about it."

"You can't sleep all day! Look outside! Get up and let's go do something!" exclaimed his young 'sister' as she walked around to the side of the bed and starting poking him in the forehead with her index finger.

"I have an idea; go do your homework," he growled in annoyance as he rolled over again, putting his back to her.

"It's Saturday, Starrk! Get up!" cried his younger half as she yanked the covers off the bed, and Starrk groaned again as he covered his head with the pillow.

"Please go away," came his muffled plea.

"I'm not going anywhere until you get upi"

With that declaration, Lilynette walked around to the foot of the bed and grabbed her elder "brother" by his ankles, trying with all her might to yank him out of bed.

"Just go out and play or something! It's not like you need me to hold your hand," Starrk bargained, but Lilynette shook her head adamantly.

"Nope; you're my 'big brother,' and as my legal guardian you have to take care of me; it might look suspicious if you let your innocent baby sister wander out all by herself after just moving to a new city…"

A string of muffled swear words could be heard from beneath the pillow before Starrk finally surrendered and sat up.

"Fine…let's just get this over with."

Lilynette cheered and ran to get ready as Starrk slowly and reluctantlycrawled his way out of bed, scowling at the window and the cheery blue sky outside that seemed to be beckoning his younger half to go out and enjoy what the world had to offer.

"I hate spring."

Lilynette had begun babbling enthusiastically about a spring festival in another part of town since the moment they had set foot outside of their apartment, leaving Starrk feeling even more miserable; after all, who wanted to spend their weekend surrounded by a bunch of humans if they didn't have to? Didn't he suffer enough through the work week as it was?

Lilynette, however, was entranced by all the idea of a festival and all the food, music, and games, and she wasn't willing to listen to reason or negotiate.

Starrk silently prayed for a miracle, hoping that something, anything, would happen that would distract her from the festival, but miracles were reserved for "good" souls and not monsters from a moral abyss.

Or so he thought.

Lilynette paused in her quest to get to the festival on the other side of town, watching a group of human children about her own size and supposed "age" run back and forth across a field kicking a ball around. Starrk could see that her resolve to attend the festival was beginning to break and he could also see bleachers on either side of the field for spectators and tired 'brothers' who simply didn't want to go do anything…

"They look like they're having a lot of fun, don't they?" he baited her, playing Devil's Advocate. "Odd number of players, too; I bet they'd love someone to even out the teams…"

"But the festival…" said Lilynette slowly, unsure.

"…will be there next year," finished Starrk. "But today, those kids need another player."

The words were barely out of his mouth before Lilynette was off running towards the children and asking if she could join their game and Starrk allowed himself a tight grin of victory as he sauntered over to the bleachers and made himself as comfortable as possible. Screw the festival; this was a hell of a lot less-bothersome and maybe, just maybe, Lilynette could make some friends here and if she had friends to hang around with, then she wouldn't need to bother him as much…

Yes, this was definitely much more important than some silly festival.

He leaned back in his seat lazily as he watched the children play, the ghost of a smile on his lips. It was good for Lilynette to make friends, and not just because it would remove her from his hair; it would help them blend in with the humans better and maybe it would help her develop the social skills that the other arrancar were so desperately lacking in.

He yawned and wondered if it would be safe to doze off here in the bleachers for just a moment before realizing that if Lilynette saw him sleeping, she'd kick the ball up into the stands and into his face…

Of course, it wasn't really that bad sitting there watching Lilynette enjoy herself; Starrk wasn't an emotional void like Ulquiorra and so long as Lilynette was happy, he was happy. The primera wasn't entirely sure how many hours passed by as he just sat there, simply watching his younger half laugh and play and simply be a kid, something she had never been able to do back in Los Noches.

"Hey, Karin, hurry it up; we're supposed to be at home for dinner in twenty minutes!" called an all-too familiar voice from the other end of the bleachers and Starrk felt his blood freeze.

He didn't dare turn to look at the other male as he approached, instead turning away to keep his face hidden as he heard the footsteps coming across the bleachers in his direction, with the newcomer sitting down just outside of arm's length.

Ichigo Kurosaki had found him.

Wonderful.

"One of them your kid?" asked the teen conversationally as he leaned back against the bleachers himself, seeming to be completely oblivious to who Starrk was.

"My younger sister," he corrected, hoping everything would end there.

"Ah… My sister's out there, too; she's the captain of the little 'team' in red there. I don't recognize the tall girl; she must be new. She your sister?"

At least the shinigami didn't recognize who and what he was, and for that, Starrk was grateful. He also recognized that the boy was trying to be sociable and unfortunately, the 'proper human thing' to do was to talk with him and hope that Kurosaki didn't eventually realize the truth.

"Yeah…we just moved to the area about four months ago," said Starrk as he noticed from the corner of his eye that Kurosaki was scrutinizing him.

"You know, you look really familiar…"

"I get that a lot…" said Starrk, shifting his position again to look away from the inquiring teen. "I just have one of those faces, I suppose."

It was a lame answer, one that the shinigami wouldn't buy in a thousand years, and Starrk just knew their cover was about to be blown—

"Yeah, that must be it; my dad has a face like that, too. Everywhere he goes, someone either knows him or think they know him.

"It's a curse," Starrk agreed readily. "You should be glad you didn't inherit that from him."

"Very glad; I get enough crap from the people who really do know me as it is," said Kurosaki, standing to leave as his younger sister finally came over with the ball tucked under her arm, but Kurosaki motioned for her to go on ahead of him for a second before he turned to address Starrk once more.

"Anyway, I need to get going. Was good talking to you, though," said Kurosaki, pausing just a moment before adding, "Everybody deserves a second chance, Starrk… Welcome to Karakura."

Coyote Starrk turned to face the teen fully now, his face going pale at having been identified but Kurosaki was already walking away with his littler sister. Kurosaki knew, damn it, he knew… Did that mean the Soul Society also knew? Did Urahara tell him, or perhaps Orihime? Had the teen simply recognized him after all? Did he know about the others, too, or just Starrk?

Forcing himself to calm down and think rationally, the primera reasoned that the boy had indeed recognized him after all; Urahara enjoyed secrets too much to tell him and Ulquiorra had no doubt stressed the importance of secrecy to Orihime multiple times. Starrk has only crossed paths with Kurosaki once for a brief second, which would explain why the teen hadn't seemed to recognize him immediately and perhaps because they had never fought each other was the very reason why the shinigami seemed inclined to offer him a "second chance" as it were.

Still, whatever the explanation, it would be wise to inform the others, sans the overly-confrontational Grimmjow, of this new and unwelcome development.

The other children began to disperse to go home now and Lilynette came jogging over to the bleachers to sit down with Starrk.

"That was really fun!" she gushed. "The dark-haired girl, Karin, she said I was pretty good and could join her team any time! Starrk, can we go buy a soccer ball? I want one of my own so I can practice and get better!"

The color returning to his face slowly, Starrk managed an easy smile at his "sister" and nodded silently, allowing Lilynette to grab him by the arm and enthusiastically lead him to the nearest sports store. He briefly considered telling her about what had just happened but decided it was better that Lilynette not know, he thought; she had made friends, with a shinigami's sister no less, and he wasn't willing to risk ruining that little miracle for anything in this world.

"See? That's it right there, that's what I want. Can I buy it? Please?"

"That's what you're wanting to waste four paychecks on? Forget it," Halibel responded disdainfully.

He'd known that would be her response, of course; contrary to popular belief, Tyn Tethis was not a complete idiot.

Still, that didn't mean he was actually willing to accept her refusal.

"Be reasonable, Tia; it's my money after all!" he argued.

"And it will clean you out completely; what happens if you become unable to work for a couple of weeks? How will you pay for your half of the rent? What if you break another television? How will you buy a new one with no money?" Halibel replied, arms folded across her chest as she waited for him to try and formulate a response.

"Actually, the price has gone up since last time you were here, sir," corrected the clerk as he watched the exchange and Tyn nearly fell over.

"But three weeks ago…"

"Was three weeks ago," finished the clerk for him. "It's a handmade piece, one of a kind, and the smith who forged it passed away almost two weeks ago, so…"

"So you're capitalizing on his death by marking up the price of his works and taking advantage of idiots like him," said Halibel as she gestured to Tyn, and the clerk only shrugged.

"That's business; you want it or not?"

"I think we'll take our business elsewhere," countered Tia coldly, literally dragging Tyn out of the store by his shirt collar as he began to reach for his wallet regardless of the price.

"But—" Tyn tried to argue, but Tia clamped a hand over his mouth as she forced him out the door roughly.

They were at the spring festival, which took up almost the entire length of the street before them, and Tyn had brought Halibel to the collectibles store to plead his case for the katana.

Well, that was a waste of time… he thought bitterly as he sullenly followed Halibel through the crowds of humans that choked the street.

Trying to convince her to let him buy the sword had been his sole purpose for coming to this god-forsaken festival and now that he'd failed to accomplish that, he was trapped here, surrounded by humans and their ridiculously-gaudy decorations, disgustingly-sweet smelling foods, and silly carnival games.

Halibel, however, had been curious to check out the festival and experience it and then had stated it was the "human" thing to do.

As if either of them really wanted to be human…

They walked by one of the stupid carnival games in question, something involving softballs and stacked bottles, when the proprietor called out to them.

"You! Yes, you! Why don't you come over here and win the beautiful lady a prize? It's only three yen for a throw!"

"What beautiful lady?" asked Tyn sarcastically, making a show of looking around as if he were confused and Tia slapped him in the back of his head, scowling the entire time.

"Stop being a smartass," she growled before angrily stalking off deeper into the sea of people.

Scowling and muttering a few colorful names for the Shark Queen under his breath, Tyn rubbed the back of his head for a brief moment before hurrying to catch up, mentally adding another item to his ever-growing list of grievances against the tercera. The sky began to darken as the afternoon gave way to night, but the festival didn't end despite the loss of light and the cooler evening wind blowing about as brightly-colored lights strung up and down the street began to turn on and the crowds began to thin out, with those who remained donning light jackets against the chill.

Even Tyn's earlier anger had begun to fade along with the sunlight.

He still wasn't exactly happy to be in a festival surrounded by humans and their pointless decorations and games and god-awful foods; seriously, who wanted candy that was made out of cotton, anyway? It made no sense! Regardless, he'd kept quiet for the past hour and a quick glance to his right showed him that his silence had at least made Tia happy as something that almost resembled a smile graced her lips as she wandered through the street from booth to booth.

…and then they turned a corner and found a small child with a plush teddy bear being pushed around by a couple of older boys.

Halibel did the "responsible, human thing" and chased the two bullies away and Tyn bit back a disapproving scowl at her interference; really, what right did they have to interfere in the social interactions of a bunch of human brats?

"One day, I'm going to be big and strong, and then I'm going to beat them up!" declared the smaller whelp as he rubbed at his teary-eyes with one hand.

"You should say something…" whispered Halibel to Tyn. "From what I've gathered by watching television, you're supposed to tell him that fighting isn't the answer."

"You want me to lie to him?" asked Tyn incredulously, not believing his ears.

"It's different for humans than it is for us!" she hissed, shoving him towards the child. "Just pretend to be human for ten seconds and don't screw this up!"

Tyn nervously approached the child as if it were a bomb of some sort, unsure of what to say or do. Tell him fighting was wrong? That seemed like horrible advice to give someone who was being harassed by others and Tyn didn't want to encourage anyone to just stand by and be a victim…and then a thought occurred to him.

Television was right after all, fighting wasn't the answer! Of course, it was so simple! Really, it was just like back in Hueco Mundo!

"Fighting will only make you feel good in the short-term…" he began sagely, crouching down next to the boy, "but it's not the right answer. Fighting won't actually solve anything; it never does."

"It doesn't?" asked the child, sniffling, and from the corner of his eye, Tyn could see that for once Halibel was nodding her head in approval.

"No, it doesn't," Tyn confirmed, feeling pride and an odd sense of joy at having earned the Shark Queen's approval for once. Seizing on this rare opportunity to prove himself while doing a good deed, he gently plucked the plush toy from the child's hands as he continued his lesson, "The way to solve all your problems permanently is to disembowel them!"

"What's that mean?" asked the confused child and Tyn was so focused on answering that he missed the look of horror that crossed Tia's face.

"It's when you take your claws, or since you're human, a knife, and stab them in the belly and rip them open like this!" Tyn explained, demonstrating on the teddy bear as he tore it open savagely. "Then, you rip out all of their insides like this, and after you've cleared out their stomach and intestines, you shove your hand up inside like this and go for the heart and lungs!"

Halibel was too stunned to react in time to stop her idiotic roommate but her shock quickly wore off and she reached down and grabbed Tyn by the ear, yanking him to his feet and forcing him to drop the now-ruined toy and its soft, cottony innards.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she demanded angrily. "I told you to give the kid advice, not traumatize him for life!"

"You said to help him, so I'm helping!" Tyn defended himself. "Fighting doesn't solve anything, but killing your enemies will! It's just like in Hueco Mundo!"

"This isn't Hueco Mundo, you moron, and he's not one of us!" Halibel shouted in his face as she grabbed him by his shirt collar with both hands and shook him violently.

Meanwhile, the child simply stood in shock as he started down at the butchered remains of his plushy and as his lower lip began to tremble, Halibel knew it was time to make a hasty retreat before he began crying and attracting unwanted attention. She released Tyn's collar and grabbed a handful of his red hair as she dragged him away, quickly disappearing into the crowd just before the child finally lost control of himself.

The only thing that could be heard over the screaming and crying was a single voice further down the street, yelling.

"But I was helping!"