Chapter Ten

I was in that weird in between place when sleep crosses with the waking world, where you're only somewhat aware of your surroundings and your limbs are heavier than death. I was covered with a blanket, all of the blood washed away from my face and my hands. Still wasn't sure where I was, though. He hadn't answered that question. He'd just told me to shut up and go to sleep.

"What is she doing in here?" It was Usagi and she was shouting, but I didn't quite have the strength to get up. I liked being in the in-between place where nothing had to be real or false.

"Will you keep your voice down, bitch? She's sleeping." And that was Grimmjow, without a doubt.

"But why here? Why isn't she in her own room, where she should be?" I could practically hear her frowning. She always tended to frown where Grimmjow was involved, though I couldn't quite be sure why.

"Because she was attacked?" A silence seemed to descend on the other room; I decided to try to wake up and be amiable.

"What do you mean "attacked"?" Usagi's voice was deadly low. I wasn't sure how she could stand to contend with Grimmjow—the man was temperamental, albeit somewhat predictable.

"Uh, well..."

"He punched me!" I shouted, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. My nose was sore and most likely swollen, and it felt like someone had smashed my face in with a brick instead of a fist.

"He what."

There was a loud crash in the other room; I sprang to my feet immediately.

"FUCKING HELL, BITCH. DAMMIT, KAORI!" My posture relaxed a little as I realized that it was probably just Usagi; my pace wasn't as hurried as I went into the other room.

Okay, so maybe I hadn't thought out my sentence enough.

Usagi had Grimmjow pinned to the floor, one knee in his chest and her sword at his throat. He wasn't struggling to get out from beneath her, but that was likely due to the fact that even a small movement like that would cause her to rent a deep cut through his jugular.

I still couldn't figure out why everyone seemed to have medieval weapons, though. It was the strangest thing. After all, there were much better weapons people could use—swords were outdated, crude things. But from the way Grimmjow and Usagi seemed to be capable of wielding them, they were far from "outdated"; I doubted they could do much better with guns.

"No, no, no, Usagi! It was in self-defense, I promise. I punched him first."

"And that makes it okay?" She looked at me over her shoulder, yellow-orange eyes narrowed in a glare, sword still pressed lightly into Grimmjow's throat. Although he would likely be loathe to know it, he looked absolutely defeated.

"Sure?" I didn't really like the look on her face. If I spoke wrong, her sword would likely be at my neck next and I did not want that; I had had a butt full of sharp objects all up in my face. "I mean, you know, it wasn't the nicest way to retaliate, but my actions were uncalled for to begin with." I punctuated the end of my sentence with a sharp nod, but regretted it as it brought on a monster of a headache.

"Then why did you punch him?" She stood up and sheathed her weapon in a quick, graceful movement. It was predatory and quite honestly frightening.

"I had a meltdown." That I don't seem to recall.

I took a step back, though, somewhat afraid of Usagi. She was generally quite sweet from what I had seen, but she also seemed like a ferocious woman.

"A voice in the head kind of meltdown? Or a 'he tried to touch me in an inappropriate manner' kind of meltdown?" From behind her, I could see Grimmjow getting up off of the floor, rubbing at his neck. Usagi hadn't cut him from what I could see, but having a sharp edge pushed into your throat would be far from comfortable.

"Uh..." What did she mean by the second one? I didn't really understand. "I'm not sure?"

"What do-"

"She doesn't remember punching me," Grimmjow cut in quickly, apparently getting the gist of what she was saying when I couldn't. "Or even me punching her, bitch. So I think we're done here."

"But why is she in here, Grimmjow? Why not back in her own room, where Aizen-sama fully expects her to be?" Usagi had yet to turn and face him; she was still staring intently at me, eyes narrowed in a thoughtful manner.

"Because you really, really weren't supposed to find out about this. The lock on your door was supposed to hold longer than it fucking did."

"And I was supposed to be back in my room by now," I piped in. It was a simple guess, but from the way Grimmjow seemed to couch his words, that was exactly where I was supposed to be. But with a more than likely swollen nose and the blood that had been all over my face, of course Usagi would know something had happened, even if I was in my room when she found me.

Either way, the truth would have come out eventually.

Usagi frowned, biting down on her lip with her upper row of freaky-sharp teeth. I flinched, expecting her to bite straight through the flesh, even though she never did. Her teeth didn't even draw blood, which lead me to believe that they were duller than they looked. I would have to ask her about that, I decided.

Finally, after what could have passed as a lifetime of an intense staring contest between her and I, she sighed and her shoulder's relaxed.

"Alright, fine. Whatever." She turned to leave, but thought better of it before glaring pointedly at Grimmjow. "We'll talk later."

When she had turned around again, he rolled his eyes and flipped her off. She left, and a hushed silence descended on the room after the door closed.

"So you locked her in her room?" I was trying to hold back the wave of laughter I could feel coming on. My nose was still throbbing, and it took away a large portion of the urge.

"Not my brightest idea," he replied. "I uh, I might have broken your nose? It looks bad. Really bad."

I sighed. That was great. "At least I'm well rested." I was trying to find the positive side of things, which was hard to do in this situation. I had been kidnapped, and I was being held against my will for reasons yet unknown to me; I was quickly running out of medication and had had a relapse, and my nose might have been broken.

Being well rested after sleeping in a real bed was a small blessing, even if it had been his.

"But why'd you lock her in her room? I mean, she could have brought me my food faster than you did." He shrugged in response, picking at his teeth and pointedly looking everywhere but me. Yawning, I ran a hand through my frizzy hair, unsurprised to find that it was a mess of tangles. I supposed that I could ask Usagi to find me a brush at some point—she'd taken me to bathe a couple of times, but I had no access to anything to style my hair with.

Maybe I could get her to cut it, too.

"So, what now?" This is the most excitement I've had in days. I didn't want to go back to my prison cell; I wanted to be anywhere but there. It was a wonder that Usagi didn't take me with her when she left; she seemed mad enough that I was in Grimmjow's room to begin with.

"Who cares? Usagi was only pissed because I locked in her room and you weren't in yours by the time she got out. It's not like that fucker Aizen cares—you can't escape from here, and you'll get lost if you even try."

"And where, exactly, is here supposed to be? All I've seen is a moon and bits of a desert." He looked at me then, sky-blue eyes coming down to meet my green ones.

"Las Noches; Hueco Mundo. Take your pick." He had moved his hand from picking at his teeth to tracing over the weird affliction on his face. I still wasn't sure why it was there, let alone how he had managed to keep it on his face.

Dried flakes of my blood still clung to his knuckles.

Okay! New chapter up (obviously, gosh). I think I'm going to post new chapters on Fridays and Mondays? Is that cool with you guys? I feel like I could be a mite more productive that way.

Anywhoodle, thank you all so much for the reviews and alerts/faves! I was pretty unsure about the last chapter, but I'm amazed you all seemed to like it so much. They mean a lot to me and tend to urge me along with writing!