femslashficlets | [200] Remainder: Scar (Bleach)

Title: Memories
Fandom: Bleach
Pairing: Inoue Orihime/Loly Aivirrne
Rating: Teen & Up Audiences
Warnings: None
Prompt: Remainder (Scar)
Word Count: 650 words
Summary: Loly asks about Orihime's scar.

“Where did that come from?” The hand is on her shoulder in an instant, the shoulder revealed by the rip of fabric. Loly’s hateful grip, a moment ago vicious and trying to wound her, feels strangely warm and uncertain on her skin now. “What is this scar?”

Orihime is afraid. Afraid may be putting it lightly given the circumstances, a powerful Arrancar standing in front of where she kneels trembling on the stone floor of Las Noches while Kurosaki-kun clashes with the Espada Ulquiorra Cifer just a short distance away. The metallic scrape of blade clashing against blade is something she should be used to; instead, it makes her feel vile and sick in the pit of her stomach. It serves as a memory that her dear friend could die at any moment in the gaze of those blank viridian eyes.

But immediately in front of her is Loly, holding her by the shoulder and demanding answers, her eye narrowed as her thumb swipes over the scars. “Is this a Hollow’s bite?”

“Yes?” It comes out sounding like a question, her voice quivering on the single syllable as she trembles on the floor. “Yes. My… My brother, he was a Hollow. He… He bit me.”

The memory is a terrible one to be certain. She always loved her brother. Sora was a guiding force in her life, and she was cruel to him the day he died. When he appeared before her and wanted to take her away with him, she thinks she might have willingly gone for as tired as she was, as sad as she was, how much it hurt to see him in such a condition. How much of it was her fault? She still wonders that to this day.

The scar never healed. Even inflicted on her spiritual body, she did not let Kuchiki Rukia completely heal it before she returned to her true body. She wanted the memory. She still does. It serves as a testament to her love for Sora and her memory of their bond, forged by fire though it were. She would never want to remove the memory from her skin.

Loly’s face does something complicated, the muscles in her skin twitching and pulling in several directions at once as if no single expression would do her reaction justice. “Why?”

“He wanted to kill me.” Like you do, she thinks but doesn’t say.

“Oh.” Loly’s hand lingers still, tracing the shape of Sora’s teeth still on her skin. The shape of that treacherous Hollow mask. “You must hate him for what he did to you.”

Orihime shakes her head immediately. “I could never hate my brother.” She steels her resolve and lifts her chin, trying to appear defiant and brave in the face of probably death. “I could never hate anyone. Not even you.”

Loly wrenches her hand away at that, magenta eye flashing wide as she takes a step away from where Orihime kneels. Her mouth opens, but no sound comes out. Her face does another one fo those complicated things before she lunges forward, taking Orihime by her scarred shoulder and wrenching her to her feet. When a powerful Cero destroys the beam immediately behind him, Loly drags her away from the scene, her own steps quick and clicking against the tiled floor while Orihime twists around to see Kurosaki-kun still fighting, still putting everything he has into an unwinnable battle.

“If we stay here, they’ll kill us,” Loly says, almost conversational now. The vitriol with which she spoke only a moment ago seems absent as her grip on Orihime’s shoulder tightens, yanking her closer, forcing her to run to keep up. “Do you want him to be responsible for your death? He’d probably fall on his sword in answer to that.”

Orihime shakes her head and thinks that something in Loly’s voice sounds dishonest, though she doesn’t know what.