Chapter Twenty Six

"What, now?" I managed to ask—even the thought of seeing Aizen after what Hideki had chosen to reveal to me made me panic. "Like, right this instant now? Or we can dick around for a few hours and he won't notice right now?"

"Uh, right this instant right now," Usagi answered, waiting only a moment to process my words completely before she answered. And then she held her hand out to me, waiting for me to take it.

I looked at her hand for a moment, frowning, before looking at Grimmjow, who was also frowning.

"And I take it Aizen just wants me alone?" I asked, looking back at the green haired woman.

"Uh, yeah. His words were pretty much just deliver Kaori, leave Grimmjow. Though, you know, more eloquent. Flowery. Maybe not as warm concerning Grimmjow, but you get the gist of it." My frown intensified, and I tilted my head to the side to look at her, my eyes narrowed.

Why would Aizen want me alone? Grimmjow and Usagi had been there every other time he had summoned me, so why would he change his mind now?

Could it have had anything to do with our meeting in the hallway?

I hoped not.

"All right then," I acquiesced, taking a step toward Usagi with every intent to follow her. "Let's go."

Except when I went to take the second step, Grimmjow's hand landed on my shoulder and nearly knocked me off of my balance and back down into the sand.

"Is that really such a good idea, Usagi?" he asked. As far as I knew, this was the first time either of them had had face to face contact since Grimmjow had lost his arm and Usagi had freaked out.

I watched Usagi's throat bob up and down as she swallowed and then shrugged her shoulders. "Orders are orders, Grimmjow. You know first hand what happens when orders aren't followed to a 't'." Her eyes shot to his stump for a moment, before she looked back at me, forced smile on her face.

"Come on, Kaori—appointments to keep and the like." This time she held her hand out to me. I looked up at Grimmjow for a moment, my mouth twisted up with confusion—from the look on his face, I could assume that he hadn't missed Usagi glancing at his missing appendage for a moment when she had spoken.

His grip on my shoulder tightened for a moment before he let go; I looked toward Usagi again, who had held her hand out to me when I wasn't looking. Hesitantly I took it-

And then we were moving, traveling like Gin had made me travel on the one day I had spent in his company. Except, when Usagi did it, it felt . . . different, somehow. Not in a way that I could name, but it just felt different. Everything else was the same from the blurry scenery to the twisting feeling in my stomach.

By the time I managed to blink, we were standing in front of the large double doors that led to the room Aizen had typically been brooding in the first few times he had requested my presence.

Usagi only let go of my hand when I had found my feet, sucking in giant gulps of air. "You could have at least warned me," I hissed, hand going over my heart in a foolish attempt to slow the furious beat it had worked itself into.

She smiled apologetically, hands reaching for the door. Not a single strand of her green hair was out of place, but my hood had fallen off at some point in our sudden, fast paced travel. Huffing, I tried my best to get my hair in a somewhat presentable order, but gave up quickly—it was far too tangled to do anything with, and the fact that it still frizzed mercilessly didn't help matters at all.

When she had one of them open far enough for me to squeeze through without any trouble, she motioned for me to enter. She had schooled her face into a cool mask when I hadn't been looking; I couldn't read what she was thinking at all, and I didn't quite think I wanted to.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, I started to walk into the room. My hands had balled at my sides in preparation for my meeting with Aizen, and I could still feel them shaking as I did my best to not look outwardly nervous.

This is a dangerous game we're playing, Ka-chan. Tread lightly. I gulped, nodding my head just a bit, and then I smiled brightly at Usagi. She simply dipped her chin a little, as if to show that she had seen me, that she knew I was trying to put on a front—but something in her nod told me that I wasn't doing too good of a job.

Confidence wasn't something I could fake as easily as other people, apparently.

The door shut behind me as I entered the room, and I felt colder immediately. I was completely alone—I had always had either Usagi or Grimmjow with me when I had been in the room, always had someone within grabbing distance. Now I was alone, in the massive room.

At the opposite end sat Aizen—he was up on his throne, eyes closed, hand holding up his head. There was a smirk on his face that I could see even from the distance I was at, and it only grew wider as my footsteps started echoing through the room as I walked toward him.

My feet felt heavy with every step I took, and I wasn't sure if it was from the fear of what Aizen could possibly want or whether Hideki was simply trying to make this harder for me.

I stopped walking when I was at least ten feet away from the dais, head titled up so I could watch Aizen from the lower ground I stood on.

I didn't say anything as I stood there, limbs trembling, stomach feeling like it was lined with lead.

Just stay calm, Ka-chan.

It was silent for five minutes as I stood before Aizen, doing my best to appear outwardly calm. I felt like I wasn't doing a very good job, but I was doing the best I could. He had to be doing this just to freak me out, get me panicked and jumpy before speaking to me—like about the voice in my head. That was what our conversations typically revolved around, so why would this be any different?

Finally, Aizen opened his eyes into slits, and the whole feel of the room around me changed—I had thought it cold and empty earlier, and now it felt like it was pushing in on me from all sides. It felt like the walls were closing in on me, moving closer closer closer.

"Hello, Kaori."

I gulped and bobbed my head in acknowledgment, ducking my head just enough to lick my lips nervously. "Hello," I croaked; silently I cursed my nerves.

Aizen surveyed me coolly; I could feel the gooseflesh rising on my arms and the back of my neck, and I only hoped he wouldn't be able to see it. My lungs felt like they were filled with concrete, every shallow breath I took a labor. It felt like there was something pushing down on me, trying to suffocate me and bend me.

"And hello to Hideki too, of course."

It felt like the air had been knocked out of me, all of it whooshing out of my lungs at once as I stared up at Aizen. "I-I don't—who?" It made sense that Aizen would know the name of the voice in my head, oddly enough—Hideki had said that he had used to work for Aizen, that that was the reason I had been abducted in the first place.

But if I could act like I had no idea who he was talking about, then it would save me a whole lot of confusion at trying to answer anything he wanted to know from the voice in my head.

The smirk on Aizen's face seemed to freeze for just a moment, solidifying for one terrible second before it became more fluid and relaxed again. It was decidedly more dangerous this time.

"You know exactly who I'm talking about, Kaori."

Well fuck.

Without meaning to, I wrapped my hands around the strap of my messenger bag, the scabs trying to grow over my knuckles pulling at the flesh around them, a tugging sensation that was almost welcome in that instant.

"No I don't." I tried to gulp, to gasp, to say no, no, no, but I couldn't-

Because it was my voice coming out of my mouth, but it wasn't me talking.

"I have no possible idea as to who this Hideki person could possibly be. But, I mean, if he treats me better than some of the people in this forsaken place, then please feel free to sign me up and let me sign the transfer paperwork because really, I feel like your hospitality could probably be, like, six thousand percent better."

Well. He was probably going to get me killed in five minutes flat.

What happened to not talking to Aizen? I wondered mutely.

No, Ka-chan. I just said I wouldn't tell him what he wanted to know. I didn't say I wouldn't talk to him.

Aizen frowned at the sudden change in my attitude.

Okay, make that three minutes flat, likely less with Hideki blabbering out of my mouth.

"And, God, just give me a hairbrush or a pair of scissors or something, because the state of my hair is actually atrocious! And please tell me where to find the complaint department because, oh my god, there are at least seven of you people I would like to report immediately. And, yeah, you're one of them—you don't go around telling a girl she isn't crazy when you have no actual evidence. And then you go around giving the voice in my head a name! A NAME! Do you know what that means?

"Giving it a name means it's real. And I don't need that sort of negativity in my life, thank you very much. I will never need that kind of negativity in my life, so you and your negative butt can just dismiss me right now. Thank you."

I felt my body twist on my heel-

And then I was on the floor, no air in my lungs, limbs heavy. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't move. My cheek felt like it was being pushed into the cold floor, a foot on the back of my head holding me there.

"Did you really think I was that stupid, Hideki?" Aizen was calm, but his voice sounded distant and distorted, almost like I was stuck deep down underwater.

"Actually," my body croaked. "Yeah. I was hoping so. What-" My body took a long, shuddering, wheezing breath, trying to get my lungs working again, even though I still felt like I was being pushed down into the floor, but there was nothing there. "What gave me away?"

"Your spiritual pressure."

"What." My voice sounds muffled to my own ears, creaky and sore.

"Kaori has two of them—her own, and yours. You may no longer have a body, Hideki, but your reiatsu still exists. I'm surprised you haven't noticed it by now."

My forearms had moved to push against the slick, cold floor, pushing my body up, up, up, trying to get off of the floor, trying to fight against the weight that felt like it was pressing down on me less and less.

"I'm not going to tell you anything," my body huffed as I struggled to my knees; I could feel a sheen of sweat starting to form on my back, pooling in the small of it and rolling down my face from the energy it took to complete the simple task.

"Why would you? I already know everything I need to know."

"Then what is Kaori even here for?" Hideki demanded using my voice; my hands were on the floor, fingers half curled, nails trying to dig into the marble floor. "If you know everything you need to know, then why bring her here?"

"Because you needed to know that you got away with nothing, Hideki."

And then Aizen stood up and left, taking the strangling pressure with him, almost like he was never there in the first place. It was liberating to be able to breathe easily again, to suck down giant gulps of air like I had never actually used my lungs before.

We gulped down air for what seemed like ages, trying to get our heartbeat under control, trying to get our body to stop from shaking so much. Trying to get back to a semblance of normal.

Our heartbeat plateaued and our breathing slowed enough for us to stand—I couldn't tell who was in control at that point, whose idea it was to start moving to the door on shaky legs, who told who to pull it together.

I wasn't entirely sure what was going on until suddenly I had to make the conscious decision to put my foot down, and follow it up with the other one and repeat the process.

Well. That was pointless, Hideki finally said when we reached the door. He sounded almost defeated, voice muted. I huffed, a quick release of my breath as I reached toward the door and hauled it open, arms shaking.

Usagi was leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed over her chest, contemplative look on her face. She smiled at me when I came out, though the smile

"What happened in there?" she asked, pretty much running at me. She sounded worried, one hand on my shoulder; she ducked down to look at my face, but I pointedly looked down the hall in the opposite direction to avoid her gaze.

"I-I just—I would really like to go lay down for a bit, if that's okay."

Usagi frowned at me for a moment before nodding—I only saw the action out of the corner of my eyes; I was trying my damndest not to look at her, to give away how shaken I was.

"All right, Kaori."

Something told me it was a failed attempt from the start.

Grimmjow found me later, curled up in a ball on the bed. I was freezing, arms wrapped around my sides, blanket pulled up over the top of me.

He probably would have missed me entirely if it weren't for the me sized shape in the bed.

I hadn't even been aware of his presence in the room—I had been busy trying to calm myself down, breathing in and out and focusing solely on the movement in my chest as I did so.

It wasn't until he laid down directly on top of me that I was aware he had even came back.

"Urgh," I groaned, curling up into my ball even tighter than I had been before, not letting the added weight stop me. Sure, he made it a little harder to breathe, but it was no where near as bad as it had been earlier in Aizen's party room. "Get off'a me."

Except, I didn't really mean it—Grimmjow was warm in a way that the blanket was not. The chill slackened a bit, but then returned in full force when he actually did what I asked and rolled off of the top of me; I heard his shoulder knock into the wall as he did so.

So, like the almost adult I was, I scooted across the bed until I was touching him again, blanket still over the top of me, though the ball I had curled myself into had loosened somewhat.

"What, are you cold?"

"Freezing," I answered half heartedly, trying to burrow farther into the mattress. I felt my face bump into his chest with the blanket, felt him shift his weight on the mattress to accommodate my inclusion. Briefly I wondered what he thought about the way he woke up in the morning, completely tangled up in me.

I doubted it bothered him.

Yeah, well, it bothers me a little, Ka-chan. It was the first time Hideki had bothered to say anything since our run in with Aizen; since he had swooped control away from me and abruptly thrust it back when all of the drama had gotten out of the way. I did not sign up for snuggling with men.

You didn't sign up for any of this, remember? I reminded him mercilessly, sighing in content as I began to feel myself warming up.

Remind me of that the next time I find it necessary to save your ass, he sniped.

Go away.

I felt Grimmjow drape his arm over me, the weight of it familiar and comforting. His breathing started to slow, and he fell asleep in minutes.

I followed suit soon after.

Y'all are hysterical; I love it so much ;-;. The next one is (mostly) written, but it's kind of. Out of control. Like 5K words and counting out of control. But it will be up at some point on Friday!

Also, quick side note: I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month, so hopefully I'll have the rest of this written in, like, three days? That's what I'm aiming for anyway. Maybe five.

And that box down there is lonely. You should write something in it and hit the 'post' button (・∀・).