One Moment
Chapter 4: Answers Unasked, Questions Unanswered

Characters/Pairings: Starrk, Gin, Lilynette, Shunsui, Ukitake. Cameo by Nanao and Rangiku. Implied Aizen/Starrk, and Shunsui/Starrk pre-slash.
Rating: PG again.
Words: ~6500
Chapter Summary: Starrk pays a visit to a prisoner. Then he and Lilynette test out their new swords. Shunsui makes an offer on behalf of Ukitake.

The chairs at the Fourth Division holding cells were made of flimsy wood, made less for comfort than to make sure that they couldn't be used as weapons. Starrk grabbed one of them, the thin wood clacking loud against the heavy stone restraints at his wrists, before he walked down the hallway to his destination.

He placed the chair down near the metal bars, facing away from the prisoner inside. Then he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and staring through the bars with half-lidded eyes.

The rail-thin man inside wore heavy stone cuffs on his forearms, binding them, and on his ankles. Thick metal links went from the wall to the ankle cuffs, making sure that he could barely move, much less escape.

"Now this is surprising, Starrk-chan," Ichimaru Gin drawled. "Didn't think you'd want to visit."

Starrk made a noncommittal sound.

"Where's Lilynette-chan?"

"Not here."

Ichimaru's shoulders shook slightly as he laughed, the sound softly cackling. "What a pity. She's so much cuter than you are."

Starrk stepped forward, talking a seat on the chair with his back to Ichimaru. Closing his eyes, he waited Ichimaru out. The Shinigami might be a snake when hunting, but this was no hunt, and Ichimaru would be bored of the silence soon enough. Starrk wouldn't be surprised if he already was.

It took only five minutes before Ichimaru broke.

"So what are you here for, Starrk-chan?"

Opening his eyes, the Arrancar turned his head. Ichimaru's face was barely inches from his own, lips stretched wide into his usual smile as he leaned against the bars of his cage. The chain around his ankle was stretched tight, hovering above the ground, but there was no discomfort on that narrow face.

"I wanted to ask you a question," Starrk murmured. He watched as Ichimaru strain forward even further to catch his voice.

"Don't leave me in suspense here," Ichimaru said, smile curving up even further.

Starrk stood up. Grabbing the chair, he turned it the other way around, facing the prisoner. As he moved, his eyes caught sight of glass gleaming at the corner of his eyes: cameras. He expected nothing less from the Shinigami, really, so he only sighed, dragging a hand through his hair before he sat down again.

"When did you figure him out?" he asked.

There was only one person they could be discussing. Ichimaru cocked his head, his slit-like eyes opening a bare fraction. It was blue, the colour of ice, and Starrk couldn't help but think that there was beauty in the colour: so alive, despite the lack of light.

The lids fell shut again. Ichimaru's smile widened even further, nearly bisecting his face.

"When did you?"

Starrk shrugged; he expected this. "Very early, and too late," he said.

Once, he thought he had no illusions about Aizen; thought that he knew that the man cared about them as nothing as tools. Yet the aching disappointment he felt when Aizen said nothing about Barragan's destruction still lingered; yet the rot-like heat in his chest when he saw Aizen try to cut Harribel down refused to go away, no matter how much he tried to push it out of his mind.

He might have fooled himself that he knew, but it didn't mean that he believed. Not until the very last moment. If the roof hadn't fallen in…

"Early enough to try to kill him," Ichimaru pointed out cheerfully. "That's quite a trick you pulled there, Starrk-chan."

Rolling his shoulders in another half-hearted shrug, Starrk stifled a wince. Showing weakness in front of Ichimaru was like holding out a mouse in front of a snake with his bare hands.

"But that's not really an answer," the man continued.

"I suppose not," Starrk admitted easily. "But you haven't answered mine either; a question isn't an answer."

Ichimaru hummed thoughtfully under his breath. "I suppose not," he said, his words a mocking repetition. "But then again, your question isn't one I can answer."

A long-fingered, skeletal hand reached out. Starrk's breath hitched in his throat as the callused tips brushed over the very edge of his jaw.

He was moving even before he realised it, grabbing onto the skinny wrist and shoving it back through the bars, far away from him. His eyes narrowed, lips thinning, and he didn't resist the urge to dig his nails between Ichimaru's wrist bones, forcing the hand to twitch open, like a spider caught in its own web.

"You see," Ichimaru said airily, completely ignoring the flare of angry reiatsu in the air or the pain Starrk's grip was surely causing, "I was never fooled in the first place."

Slowly, blue eyes opened again. "The very first time I met him, he had already shown himself to be a monster," he said, lips drawing back into a sharp smile, full of teeth. "I can't really forget that face, you see."

Ichimaru cocked his head. "But then… I knew how to recognise a man from a monster," he said. "You didn't, did you?"

Starrk let go of the wrist as if it was burning; burning like how sometimes Aizen's skin burned. His hand fell back to his side, half-curled.

It was a mistake to come here. But he couldn't bring himself to leave.

"I knew," he said quietly. It wasn't a lie.

He just didn't want to acknowledge it.

Starrk had longed for companionship for so long, but he had never thought that being around people could hurt so much. The past few days had been a crash course in the deep-rending pain that living creatures could deal him, and Starrk ached for ignorance again. If he hadn't known about the truth… if he didn't know anything about the way people could lie and hurt with just their words, then…

Then what would he have done, really? Could he have lived for an eternity carefully moving around layers of layers of lies, trying his best to not break any of them? He knew he couldn't; his mind was far too sharp for that.

His body folded back into the chair, falling like a house of cards. He couldn't even wish to return to that empty loneliness of the desert; not when his ears had gotten used to the constant noise of chatter and breaths, when his eyes had gotten used to the sight of looking outwards and seeing movement more than the wisps of dust in the wind.

"That's kind of hard to believe," Ichimaru drawled. His chains clanked against the metal bars as he leaned against them.

"I don't need you to believe me," Starrk said, looking away.

"Then what are you here for?"

Starrk sighed. "Answers," he said, heaving himself up from the chair. "But you don't have any that I want. Besides…"

He hesitated. Although his pesquisa wasn't nearly as powerful as Lilynette's, it was likely still better than any kind of reiatsu-sensing ability Ichimaru had with those chains on him.

"You have another visitor."

Leaving the chair behind him, Starrk headed for the door. As he walked back up the steps, he saw a woman with strawberry-blond hair rushing down. The pink scarf draped around her shoulder caught his gaze with its brightness, and the blue of her eyes were of a far warmer shade than Ichimaru's. He didn't know her name, but he thought he might recognise her from the battle.

She stopped suddenly at the sight of him. Starrk stepped aside to allow her to pass, but she only stood there, staring.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. Though her tone was polite, there was a slight hint of a threat, and her hands by his side seemed to reach for her sword.

He shrugged. "Visiting," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. His lips curled up into a wry smile.

She opened her mouth, but he raised a hand first. "You really should check on him first before accusing me of anything," he glanced towards the badge on her arm, "fukutaichou-san."

Giving him another distrustful glance, she rushed past him towards the cells. Starrk watched her, staying at the top of the steps until he could hear the indistinct sounds of their voices as they greeted each other.

The hidden warmth in them made his skin prickle.

It's not fair, a small voice spoke up within him. Starrk sighed, and started to walk out again. He noticed how the Shinigami he met in the hallways did their best to avoid him. He fixed his eyes above their head, walking out towards the sunshine.

Standing out there at the gates, Starrk allowed himself a moment of bitterness. He wasn't a bad person; not worse than Ichimaru, at any rate. Yet he was still feared for the power he held, feared for the thing that the Shinigami saw him as, while Ichimaru had someone who was clearly willing to put her own life in danger to protect him.

His chest hurt. He rubbed against it, at the edges of the gaping hole.

Perhaps all he could do was to wait for the pain to abate, to become a lingering, constant ache like loneliness had once been. Like a lost eye, tugging and pulling with every movement of his face, but which he could – perhaps – get used to and work around.

He could wait. He was used to waiting.

He had done nothing but for decades.

"Sometimes I really wonder if you make yourself sad on purpose."

Starrk cracked an eye open. Lillynette stood in front of him, hands on her hips. She was still wearing another yukata, this time maroon with light green flowers at the bottom; she had reached what Starrk mentally named as her 'yukata phase', and honestly, he liked it much better than when she thought it fun to go around practically naked. Though he probably should figure out where she had gotten the things.

He hoped she wasn't stealing again. It had taken him awhile to convince her that she couldn't just take whatever she liked, whenever she liked.

"I'm not sad," he yawned, sitting up.

Lilynette snorted, clearly disbelieving. "Yeah, right. You can't fool me."

She started pulling at his clothes, trying to force him to stand up. "Look, get up and stop sleeping already. The pink bastard told us that we can practice with our swords today."

"Stop calling him a bastard," Starrk protested mildly. "He's one of our sponsors."

"Doesn't mean he's not a bastard," Lilynette countered.

"I'm hurt," a voice said on the doorway. "My parents were married before I was born, you know."

Kyouraku's spiritual pressure felt like the first drop of water Starrk had ever felt on his skin. Cool and wet; he closed his eyes and listened deep, trying to find the soft bubbling of the brook that at times teased at his ears whenever he was in Kyouraku's presence. Sometimes, he was tempted to dart out his tongue to taste, to see if the reiatsu would taste like the chilled water it felt like.

Or perhaps it would taste of bitter salt instead, and the bubbling of the water was not that of a clean mountain spring but an ocean, full of teeth and aching for blood. Starrk had learned his lesson about assumptions: the warmth he was once drawn to ended up being a searing-hot poker that nearly ripped his flesh from the bones.

Lilynette kicked him.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," he yawned, exposing his fangs even as he dodged the next kick. "And taichou-san, I have no idea what you're talking about.

"Yeah!" Lillynette chimed in, determined not to be left out. "What do your parents have to do with anything?"

An odd look came over in Kyouraku's eyes, and Starrk nearly winced. He had said something unexpected again.

"Say," the Captain cocked his head. "How did you learn that insult, Lilynette-chan?"

She snorted. "Grimmjow and Nnoitra used it all the time on each other," she told him carelessly. "And far as I know, they don't have parents."

"Well, in the past, 'bastard' used to be a far worse insult than it is now," Kyouraku said. "To call someone a bastard is to imply that their parents were unmarried when they were born; that they are an illegitimate child."

"… Hah," Starrk said, because there was nothing else that could be said.

"I don't get it," Lilynette complained, far more vocal and easier with her displeasure than Starrk could ever be. "Why is being an illegi… illegitima… illegitimate child a bad thing?"

"For many reasons, really," Kyouraku shrugged. "It was supposedly because adultery is bad, but I've always thought that it had more to do with property laws and inheritance than anything else."

Starrk blinked slowly. "Taichou-san," he said after a long moment. "I honestly have no idea what you just said."

Kyouraku tapped his lip. "I suppose there aren't any laws in Hueco Mundo," he said slowly. "But what about property? How do you deal with things that belong to you?"

Lilynette laughed, a sharp little giggle. "We don't have things," she said, plopping down to sit next to Starrk. "And I think, from the fights I've overheard, either you guard what's yours or someone will take it from you."

"Is that considered a law?" Starrk asked. He found himself truly curious, and more than a little confused. He still didn't understand what the word 'illegitimate' meant – though he could guess that it had something to do with adultery, but that wasn't helpful because he didn't know what that meant either – or what it had to do with having things.

"That's the definition of lawlessness, actually," Kyouraku chuckled. He looked at the two of them for a moment before he shook his head.

"Ah, I don't really know how to explain, and if I don't get you out to the training field soon, Nanao-chan will be coming along to get me to do paperwork," he grimaced at the word, and Starrk blinked. He knew what 'paper' was, at least, and he knew that there was generally lots of it on Kyouraku's desk.

Did 'paperwork' meant working with paper? What could working with paper mean? Did they have to fold it?

"How about I get you two some books to read?" Kyouraku offered, breaking Starrk out of his thoughts. "They can explain better than I can, and you'll be less bored here."

Starrk stared at him. Slowly, he rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. Beside him, Lilynette smacked a hand over her face.

"You should be 'stupid bastard' instead of 'pink bastard'," she scoffed. "We can't read."

"There are no books in Hueco Mundo," Starrk said softly. He lifted his eyes, meeting grey eyes with his own.

"There is no wood for paper, no water for ink, no resin for glue… Tell me, taichou-san, why would you think that any of us know how to read?"

Kyouraku walked towards them, half-kneeling until he was eye-level with Starrk.

"Because you would say things like these, Starrk-san," the Captain said quietly. "Who taught you about how books were made?"

Starrk looked away. "Aizen," he answered, and found it somewhat easier to swallow back the instinctive honourific. "He had a few books in Las Noches. And I asked about them once, because I have never seen them before."

"Then there are books in Hueco Mundo," Kyouraku pointed out. "So why is it that you don't know how to read?"

Why indeed.

Starrk pushed himself away from the Shinigami, standing up and walking away. Stopping at the doorframe, he glanced at Kyouraku for a brief moment. "You ask questions that you already know the answer to," he said softly. "You might have sponsored our stay here, but I am not obliged to play your games."

And Kyouraku was definitely an ocean full of sharks. All Starrk had done so far was to make his entire body into a raw, open wound, waiting to be devoured.

Starrk was like a warzone, full of hidden landmines. Except that instead of exploding outwards, however, he seemed to have a habit of keeping the blast inwards. Shunsui tugged down the straw hat, letting shadows fall over his eyes as he looked at the lean figure of the ex-Espada walk out of the room.

He blinked, rather surprised when his vision was suddenly covered with blood and gore. He blinked again, and told his imagination to not be so terribly literal with his metaphors.

"Are you doing it on purpose?"

Shunsui blinked, turning to the little girl who was still seated next to him. Except… the single pink eye was levelling a gaze on him that didn't look youthful at all.

"I don't know what you mean, Lilynette-chan," he tried for lightness.

Lilynette turned towards him, and the look she gave him was almost exactly like the calculating one Starrk had given him, just after his first sneak attack, eerie due to the youthfulness of her face.

"I can see what you're doing by prodding him like this, over and over," she said, her voice oddly serious. "And Starrk sees it too, even though he's too nice to ever say it."

She looked away for a moment before shaking his head. "Wait until he tells you."

"So you know about it, then?"

Lilynette snorted, giving him a scornful look. "You really have this shitty habit of forcing people to tell you what you already know," she shook her head. "If you already figured out that we could feel each other in our heads, then the answer to that is obvious."

Before Shunsui could reply, she was already standing up and stretching her arms over her head.

"Any more stupid questions?"

"Just one more," Shunsui grinned. "Would you like to learn to read? And write?"

She looked at him before her eye narrowed, suspicion practically vibrating off of her body. "What do we have to pay for it?"

"Nothing," Shunsui replied honestly. He folded his arms inside his sleeves to hide the way they were clenching.

Lilynette didn't look as if she believed him. Her eye narrowed further.

"Don't worry, I won't be the one teaching the two of you," he said, smiling slightly. "Ukitake would be, and I know him well enough to say that he would definitely be willing to teach you, and wouldn't even think of charging you anything."

"Keh," she folded her arms, looking away. "We'll think about it."

Shunsui watched her as she left through the door, wondering what had made a child – for, despite all her protestations about her age, she was one – so distrustful.

His hands twitched inside his sleeves, nails biting into his palms.

Honestly, he thought himself too old for such things.

The sun's heat was pouring down even more when Starrk stepped outside the barracks into the training grounds. Wincing, he raised a hand to shadow his eyes before looking around. Oddly enough, the place was deserted; shouldn't be some kind of training drill happening at this very moment?

A woman walked towards him. She wore glasses that glinted brightly in the sunlight, and her hair was pulled back tightly into a bun. Starrk had seen her around the Division a few times, and he knew that she was Kyouraku's Lieutenant. He blinked as she thrust two swords towards him, taking them automatically.

"Most of the Division have headed to the Thirteenth for a joint exercise," she told him crisply, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Kyouraku-taichou and Ukitake-taichou have made the arrangements so that our unseated members will not be affected by your release."

"Uh," Starrk said. He blinked again, nearly wincing at the clear dislike and distrust shining through her eyes. "Thank you, fukutaichou-san."

She nodded, business-like. "Ukitake-taichou will be here shortly," she said before she hesitated for a moment. "My name is Ise Nanao."

Starrk cocked his head to the side. "Coyote Starrk," he offered, because she seemed to expect something in return. She opened her mouth, but before she could reply, a weight slammed straight into his back.

Nearly falling over, Starrk reached back and grabbed the collar of his smaller half's yukata. Lilynette frowned at him, trying to kick his face, and he dropped her immediately.

"And this is Lilynette Gingerbuck," he said.

"I already know your names," Ise said. Before Starrk could say anything else, she was already walking away. He stared at her back for a moment before rubbing the back of his neck; what was it that he had said wrongly this time?

"What's up with her?" Lilynette huffed.

"Don't mind Nanao-chan," Kyouraku said, and Starrk nearly jumped. The Shinigami had a tendency to walk silently, and his control over his own reiatsu was powerful enough to hide his presence entirely.

"She didn't see the two of you fighting, you see," Kyouraku continued, shrugging. "So she doesn't trust you just yet. But she'll warm up to you both eventually, don't worry about that."

Starrk nodded even though he didn't quite believe those words. How could he, really, when he seemed to have moved from having a manipulative bastard as Lord and Master to have another for his supposed sponsor?

Beside him, Lilynette made a disdainful sound. "Whatever," she declared. Looking up to Starrk, she held out a demanding hand. "Give me my sword."

Starrk tossed it to her. She immediately drew it, looking at the blade in her hand a little doubtfully, turning it over and over and staring at the reflection of herself within the metal. There was uncertainty shining in her eye, and Starrk wanted to ask what was wrong; it wasn't like her.

But he was interrupted by Ukitake's sudden arrival.

"I'm glad that I'm on time," the Shinigami said the moment he saw them. His smile was warm and sincere. "Hello, Starrk-san, Lilynette-chan."

"Keh," Lilynette said. She obviously still held some sort of strange grudge towards the Shinigami, though Starrk couldn't tell what it was. She didn't feel the same towards Kyouraku, and he was the one who had nearly killed her.

Lilynette was his other half, part of his soul even though he couldn't hear her in his head anymore. But sometimes, she was a complete mystery to him.

Turning his attention to the white-haired Captain, Starrk inclined his head. "Taichou-san," he greeted.

He held out his hands.

Both Captains came towards him. Ukitake took his left wrist, Kyouraku his right, their fingers pressing right above the engraved insignias of their respective Divisions. They exchanged a glance before simultaneously sending a small pulse of reiatsu outwards. The stone absorbed the power, and Starrk watched, a little curious, as two identical lines appeared, bisecting the engravings, before the restraints broke open, falling onto the ground.

Power rushed through his body, making his skin itch as if his body was suddenly far too small. The air grew much heavier suddenly, thick and oppressive, as his ridiculous power exploded outwards when it couldn't find enough space within his skin. Blue surrounded him, bright and glaring, and Starrk hissed a breath in through his teeth as he pulled it all back within himself. The itching grew even worse, making him want to scratch long lines all over his skin until he bled.

He forced the urge from his mind.

Kyouraku was right to send his unseated Shinigami away. If there were any of them in the vicinity, the first rush would have sent all of them to their knees.

Starrk slowly opened his eyes. Lilynette was looking at him solemnly – she didn't have to wear any reiatsu-suppressing restraints, because the Shinigami thought whatever she had was far too weak. He was considered the far bigger threat.

He released that thought with the next breath. There was no point in thinking of such things now.

"Let's go, Starrk," Lilynette said. There was the barest trace of impatience in her voice.

Shaking his head, he nudged her lightly on the shoulder. "Go first," he said.

She gave him another look, full of uncertainty, before she nodded. Holding the wakizashi in front of her, she stared at the gleaming metal again.

Lilynette swallowed. She raised the sword and said, clearly, "Kick about, Los Lobos."

Blue light and smoke exploded from her form. Starrk's eyes widened at the sudden power that rushed from her, and his entire body twitched as he tried his best to not rush towards her. Until this very moment, Starrk wasn't even sure if it would work. Lilynette and he had always been one, and she was his zanpaktou. For her to have a release of her own…

He wasn't sure what it meant. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what it meant.

Slowly, the light cleared. Lilynette stood in front of him… though, at the moment, she didn't look much like Lilynette at all.

She was taller. Instead of reaching his chest, she now reached his shoulders. Her helmet was gone, replaced by a ring of teeth around her neck almost identical to his own, except the teeth reached went all around. Her hair started as light green at the roots before darkening until the colour of leaves at the roots. Instead of the yukata she was wearing, she wore a black tunic and pants along with knee-length boots with small heels. Her arms were covered by gloves that went from her elbow to the middle of her hands, leaving her fingers free.

Starrk stared at her. Lilynette stared at him.

"… You're shorter," she said eventually. She blinked at him. Starrk's lips parted, surprised, because instead of green, her eyes – two – were now red.

"You're taller," he corrected absentmindedly, still staring at her. She even felt different – Lilynette's reiatsu had never been much – on level with an average Lieutenant at most – but now power was wrapped around her. Not as much as Starrk's own, but definitely… definitely on level with some of the less powerful Captains.

He opened his mouth. Closed it.

"Well, this is unexpected," Kyouraku spoke up next to him. Starrk's eyes widened – he had almost forgotten about Kyouraku's presence. The Captain took a step forward – Starrk's hand twitched by his side – but he only cocked his head instead of touching Lilynette.

"You look like your combined form now, Lilynette-chan."

"She does?"

"I do?"

Their voices chorused together. Kyouraku looked surprised for a moment.

"You didn't know what your combined form looks like?"

Starrk shook his head. Lilynette snorted.

"Of course we don't!" she said, kicking lightly at Kyouraku's shin. The gesture was so purely Lilynette that Starrk felt himself breathing easier immediately, ignoring the Captain's muttered 'ow'.

"We only went back to that form during that one battle, and there weren't any mirrors around then!"

"This is…" Ukitake murmured. "This is unexpected, Lilynette-chan." His hand was drifting towards the sword on his hip.

"This is weird," Lilynette corrected. She dragged a hand through her own hair. "I have two eyes now. It's weird."

Starrk dragged a hand through his hair, barely listening. There was something nagging at the back of his mind. If Kyouraku was right and Lilynette looked like their original form now, then…

"You were the original Hollow," he breathed.

All three pairs of eyes turned to stare at him.

"Eh?" Kyouraku asked eloquently. Starrk ignored him, his entire attention focused on his other half.

Lilynette didn't answer – she only looked at him with too-old eyes. She knew, he realised. She had always known that she was the original.

He was the only one who didn't know.

"You were the one who made me," the words tumbled out of him. "You hated the power, you hated the loneliness… and you pushed it all out and made me."

Lilynette shook her head immediately. "I didn't!" she cried, rushing towards him. Starrk felt the air rush out of his lungs as her body slammed into him, her arms wrapping around his waist. Despite her newly-gained height, she was hugging him as she always had.

"I didn't, I swear! You were already there! You had always been there!"

She was starting to sob, and Starrk's arms tightened around her immediately. His head spun with the new knowledge. She remembered. He barely remembered anything before they broke their mask because… because he was only part of her soul collection until she pushed him out and gave him form.

He had always thought it was odd that he had so much power and she had so little. But if she was the original and hated her power so much that she didn't want it all, then it made sense that he was the one with all the strength; all the strength that she didn't want to have.

In the past, he had wondered why Lilynette didn't simply leave him. She could have found friends – a pack, even. It wasn't Lilynette who was killing everything around them; it was him, and yet she had never left.

Her tears were soaking into his clothes. Starrk dropped to his knees, looking up at her – and wasn't that odd – before he held her tightly.

"I was so alone, Starrk," she was still sobbing. "I was so alone and I didn't want to be alone anymore! Please don't leave me!"

"Lilynette," Starrk murmured. He buried his hand into her hair, pulling her close. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched as the Captains averted their eyes, giving the two of them their privacy. "I'm not going to leave you."

She sniffed, pulling back to stare hard at him. "Promise?"

"I promise," he said, stroking a hand through her hair. "I can't even imagine living without you, so you're stuck with me."

Her lips trembled. "I wasn't lying, you know," she said. "You were always there. I didn't make you up."

Starrk couldn't help it: he buried his face in her hair, smiling against her skin. "I know," he murmured. He really did. "You get annoyed with me often enough that I know you couldn't have made me up."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Shaking his head, he rubbed her back soothingly. "It's okay."

That was true too. What could have knowing about this done? It wouldn't have changed a single thing. Whether she was part of him or he a part of her… they were still part of a single being, and the bond between them could never be broken. He was sure about that now. Even though part of him still ached to feel her presence in his mind, this was just fine too.

She pulled away from him fully, looking at him. Whatever she saw there seemed to placate her, because she nodded and wiped away the tears on her face with the back of her hand.

"It's your turn," she nudged him on the shoulder.

Starrk sighed under his breath. "It's not going to be exciting as yours," he said wryly.

Lilynette crossed her arms. "Stop being lazy and just do it already," she said, kicking him lightly on the back of his knee.

Nothing had changed between them because of this. The relief he felt nearly knocked him off of his feet, and it gave him enough strength to fully step away from her.

Drawing his own sword, he looked at it for a long moment before holding it in front of him.

"Kick about, Los Lobos."

The light and smoke that burst around him made him wince just as much as the power rush that rocked through his entire body. The itching that he had ignored came back with full force before fading abruptly. Half of his sight suddenly disappeared.

Starrk blinked when the smoke dissipated and the world returned. His hand reached up. The eyepatch was still there, and he could still feel the edges of the flame marking. His hands and clothes looked the same. The only thing that had changed was…

The power around him had… lessened. He couldn't tell by how much, but it was definitely less.

He didn't mind; definitely not.

Ukitake stepped closer to him, peering. Starrk blinked.

"Well," the Shinigami said. "As impressive as it is the last time, Starrk-san."

"Though, I can't help but notice…" Kyouraku joined in, looking between Starrk and Lilynette. "Neither of you carry weapons of any sort."

He stared at his hands – there were nothing in them. Actually, now that he thought about it… Lilynette wasn't holding anything either. The Captain was right.

Meeting Lilynette's eyes, he frowned slightly. "Can you call on the wolves?"

"I don't know," she said, then closed her eyes, brows creasing with concentration. After a moment, a whole pack of wolves appeared around her.

Kyouraku scrambled back immediately, dragging Ukitake with him. The sound of their footsteps made Lilynette open her eyes.

"Woah!" she blinked, looking around her. "That is so cool! Wait, wait, let me try…"

One of the wolves disappeared, and her hands shimmered. Blue light coalesced into a gun – smaller than the ones from their original resurreccion forms, resembling more of a revolver than a pistol – in her left hand, and a sickle-like blade in her right.

"Oh, this is really cool!" she grinned, bouncing on the balls of her feet. The wolves, Starrk noticed, stayed where they were.

"Starrk, Starrk, you try!"

Starrk didn't need to concentrate as hard, but he still blinked when he saw his own pack appear around him. They were virtually indistinguishable from Lilynette's – ice-blue with red eyes – and they stood around him. The training grounds were now filled with their wolves.

He nudged at his power a little more, calling for weapons to fill his hands… and stared at the familiar gun and sword that appeared.

The sword wasn't made of pure reishi like the one he used to wield. It was solid, gleaming metal in his hand. Starrk tightened his grip on the hilt, shivering slightly as he looked at the sharp blade. Suddenly, the sword completely disappeared.

"… Hah," he said.

"You two are going to be something to be reckoned with for any opponent," Ukitake stated cheerfully. Starrk looked at him, and immediately tore his eyes away at the calculating look in those brown eyes, hidden beneath the warmth.

"I'm really glad that I won't have to fight both of you now," Kyouraku picked up the thread.

Starrk looked between them two of them before he sighed. "You nearly killed me with just your shikai, taichou-san," he stated. "There's no way I can win if you use your bankai. Much less the both of you."

"You might be giving yourself too little credit, Starrk-san," Ukitake pointed out.

He shrugged in reply. "Talking about this is useless," he said. "I don't want to fight. I never did."

The tension within the Captains – surely imperceptible to anyone else – suddenly relaxed. Starrk rubbed the back of his neck, exchanging a bone-tired glance with Lilynette. The both of them should know better than to think that they weren't being treated as threats, but somehow, they couldn't help themselves.

Their desperation for acceptance was probably pathetic.

Lilynette heaved an exaggerated sigh. They looked at each other again before simultaneously reverting to their sealed forms. Starrk watched, a little amused, as Lilynette stumbled around a little, as if unused to being shorter and having one eyeagain.

Reaching down, he picked up the wrist restraints. He knew his every movement was being watched, so he immediately held them out towards the two Captains.

"You two haven't trained using those forms yet," Ukitake commented, but Starrk noticed that he took the cuff without protest.

"This is enough for today," Starrk shrugged. "We're tired."

"He's just being lazy again," Lilynette snorted, but she didn't deny his words. Instead, she came towards him, tucking herself by his side. His hand brushed over the hair beneath her mask fragment.

"Besides, there isn't a point," he continued evenly. "Since we won't be fighting anyone here, right?"

Kyouraku's hat was pulled down over his eyes again; he was starting to really hate it when the other man did that.

"Right!" Ukitake said, smiling widely. "You two will have plenty of time to practice."

Starrk cocked his head, looking at the man for a long moment. Ukitake's words and the gentle sincerity beneath them were both genuine, but it didn't mean that the man wasn't somewhat manipulative. He knew that if he agreed, he was basically signing him and Lilynette up for a more permanent stay here.

He glanced down at her, and she shrugged. Well, what else did they have, really? There wasn't anywhere else for them to go.

And he was sure the Captains knew that too.

"Yeah," he said, looking away. "We will."

Lilynette stepped back, giving the Shinigami room. They placed the restraints back on his wrists, sealing the stone with their power.

Then Starrk turned away, Lilynette in perfect tandem by his side as the two of them started to head towards the guest quarters given for their use. Kyouraku explained yesterday that the Division guest quarters were usually meant for visitors from the Kido corps or visiting family of the Division's Shinigami. They were neither, but there was nowhere else in the barracks to house them, so there they stayed.

"Wait," Kyouraku said suddenly. Starrk turned around, looking at the man through half-lidded eyes.

"Ukitake," the man turned to his friend. "I told Lilynette-chan here that you would be willing to teach them how to read. Would you?"

The white-haired Shinigami blinked. One black eyebrow rose at Kyouraku before he turned towards the two of them with a smile.

"I would love to."

Lilynette shook her head. "I said that we would think about it," she said, sighing heavily. "We haven't thought about it yet."

Starrk blinked at her. When did this conversation occur? He thought back, and realised that it must be during the time before Kyouraku and Lilynette joined him in the training grounds. And he resolved, right at the moment, to talk to Lilynette about what that particular conversation had been about; it surely was about more than just reading.

There were other things they would have to talk about too, he knew.

"Alright, alright," Kyouraku held up both hands, smiling at them. "I'm just making sure. It won't do if you agreed and then Ukitake here didn't."

"We haven't agreed yet," Lilynette snapped. "And if you keep bugging us about it, we won't ever."

She tugged on Starrk's hand. "Let's go back," she said, clearly irritated.

"Yes, yes," he sighed. Turning, he nodded at the two Captains. "See you later, taichou-san."

As Lilynette practically dragged him back into the shade, Starrk wondered if the two Captains heard the slight insecurity in his words.

"See you soon!" Ukitake waved. Beside him, Kyouraku waggled his fingers.

… It seemed like they did.

Starrk didn't know what to think about that either.

Notes: I have nothing to say except that I feel like I should apologise for the slow-as-molasses pace of both the plot and Shunsui and Starrk's relationship. Honestly, I didn't plan for things to go this slow, or for the story to be this long. This is supposed to be a fling-fic – as in, I have a fling with this fic before I go back to what I was supposed to be writing – but now it seems that I'm in a committed relationship without me knowing.

In other words, this is going to be an epic, and the plot details are building up to something. I wrote something like 30k words of this fic in less than a week. (I've finished Chapter 5; it just needs editing.) And we're nowhere near the end. I have plans to bring this all the way to the Wandenreich arc. So… I am guessing that this would be novel-length, at least. This is what happens when I haven't written any fic for a really long time. Still, updates will be slower now that I no longer have time to write, and edit, every day.

I'll try for weekly, though I make no promises.