Rekindling [Closed]

The sun had gone down hours prior and Lilith lay along her couch with a book in her hands. She had a lamp over her shoulder to light up her reading area while everywhere else was dark. This included her bedroom, where she allowed Kei and Yua to sleep with one another, on the condition that they would do nothing risque. Lilith made sure to tell Kei that in private one day, though figured Kei wouldn't in the first place. Anyways, Lilith did not feel him approach and for a while she did not feel him out her door. However, he stood there pacing for so damn long, it was hard to ignore the lingering layer of reiatsu that slowly crept its way into her apartment. If he had just left or knocked, this would have been more of a surprise. Instead, he stayed out there for reasons that Lilith just could not fathom.

"He knows I can sense him now, right?" she asked herself and closed her book. She sighed and then stared at the door, wondering if that knock would ever come. Finally, she gave up and began walking toward the door, but Tsubine apparently decided to drop that large sack between his legs and collected some courage. The knock came and Lilith counted to five before she answered it. When she opened the door, she was dressed in a white tank top and black shorts that she had planned to fall asleep in. "Can I help you, Commander?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. He asked to come in and Lilith glanced back into her apartment. Tsubine didn't know Kei was staying here yet. Lilith grabbed her haori and wrapped it around herself before stepping out into the cool air. "No, but we can talk out here."

The only thing these two hadn't seen of each other was what was between their legs, on their backside, and what was under Lilith's shirt. That was about it. Neither of them were shy in front of each other anymore, as if Lilith had ever been, so she didn't care what she was wearing. She had only grabbed the haori to keep herself warm. It was a cool night as the seasons shifted. Once the door was closed behind her, she walked over to the wooden railing that made up her balcony and looked over the Seireitei. "I'm doing as well as I can be." Lilith replied with a cold tone, sighed, and raised an eyebrow at him. "I take it Captain Hayashi explained what happened? That's why you're here, right?"

So Midori had told him nothing? Lilith's face soured. "You too, huh? That woman needs to understand that I don't like anyone looking up a hole on my own body that even I can't see." Lilith shuddered at the thought. She hated physical exams, but Midori was hella determined about making sure she got one. Her appointment had already been made, along with extra threats if she did not show up for it. Midori knew exactly what to say to make sure every Captain and Lieutenant was going to make their appointment come hell or high water. Lilith had pushed off his question with a bit of humor, but her face soured. She wasn't going to be able to hold that off for too much longer. "With me? Yeah, but..."

Lilith looked up over the Seireitei again and then back to him. "Something happened to Kei... Uhm, Lieutenant Makabe." Lilith turned around to face her door, her eyes lowered to the floor and narrowed in anger. "Lieutenant Hidan of the Seventh attacked her. He quite violently and brutally beat and raped her. I found her Zanpakutō lying on the ground when I left the meeting with you and Captain K. I tracked her into the sewers and by the time I got there..." Lilith brought her hand up to her face and covered her eyes. Her jaw was clenched tightly from the anger, shame, and  guilt. "I should have walked her home. I knew she hated the dark, but I was distracted and... I'm going to fucking kill him."

"I can. Who exactly is going to stop me?" Lilith turned to Tsubine with her eyes darkened into a threat that not many have seen. She wasn't threatening anyone in particular, but if she wanted to go on a rampage and slaughter the man that harmed her little girl, there wasn't a single person in this world or the next who had the ability to stop her. However, she knew what he meant and the darkness faded from her eyes. Lilith listened in silence to Tsubine's plan and he did indeed get a glare when he implied Kei might have been wrong. Kei had spoken with complete honesty. There was no lie, confusion, and wariness in her tone. For Tsubine to even suggest that Kei would have been mislead was angering.

Lilith held her tongue for both their sakes, and because Kei and Yua were both asleep. She had a habit of getting loud when she was angry and waking those two up were not part of her plan. Lilith nodded to confirm Tsubine's question about the two she was close to. "I've already informed Gen." she nodded and then turned back out toward the Seireitei, holding her haori tightly around her. She took note of the pause and was glad he didn't use the word. Each time she heard it, it made her feel worse and worse. And then he told her to look at him. The guilt in her eyes must have been strong because he knew what she was thinking. Lilith sighed. "You aren't the only one who has said that... I don't know how else to feel. She's like my daughter. I am supposed to protect her, and I didn't."

"Excuse me?" Lilith raised an irritated eyebrow at him. That question seemed highly condescending. "Obviously not." Lilith's eyes narrowed as he continued on. She didn't answer the rest of his questions because he knew the answer to them. He went on with his explanation to make her feel better, but it didn't work. Lilith sighed. "Except it isn't something that I can fix, nor is it something she can. Time Kidō is illegal and I can't kill Hidan. It's just something that should never have happened and she's gonna have to get through it somehow. How does someone get through something like that?" Lilith ran her hands through her hair and stopped them at her neck, "You didn't see her, Tsubine. It isn't an image I can even describe. We are all supposed to be these powerful people who can do unimaginable things.. except protect those weaker than us from something as dark and human as rape..."

Lilith turned to fully face him for the first time. "I know I'm going to have to get over it, okay?" she assured him, "I'm not stupid, and I know I can't protect her from everything, but this? This is too much. What if he's doing it to someone else, Tsubine? He was powerful enough to grab Kei. What if Midori is next? I doubt it, but what if? What if it's Kaminari? Keiko? Jillian? Reina? Haruka? Sakuya?" Lilith went quiet for a moment. She hated this conversation. It could be happening to someone else right as they spoke, but there was nothing they could do about it. "Let's get off of that..." Lilith crossed her arms and raised a curious eyebrow at him, "So why exactly were you pacing outside my front door?"

Pink. Lilith raised an eyebrow at the change of color in his cheeks. What the living hell? He better have been drunk or high. Or maybe he just imagined some random chicks naked bust in front of his face. Who knows? But what? Since when does Tsubine blush!? The moment he spoke up, Lilith turned away from him. So that is what this was about? "Mm." She stayed silent as he talked. She glanced over momentarily as he motioned between the two of them, but then looked away again. She had been so mad at him when Kenshin died that their friendship had been greatly damaged. She avoided him as much as he avoided her. It was a sad realization, and Lilith knew she couldn't stay angry with him.

"Oh, how cute." Lilith spoke up after probably ten seconds of silence. She looked at him with a smirk and a hand on her hip. "Did the big bad Tsubine miss me? That's what's going on here?" Lilith giggled and hurried up behind him, wrapping her arms around him and swinging him back and forth, cause she can do that. "You came all this way so late at night because you couldn't be away from me any longer? Just couldn't stand the idea of losing me, hm? Oh how sweet! Just oh so sweet of you!"

Lilith didn't keep him in her grip for too long. "Yes. Why you can't just get to the point, I don't know." Lilith put him down and walked back in front of him, "I would say it's a man's thing, but I know quite a few women that do it too." Lilith raised a playful eyebrow at him. He was saying she was more entertaining than paperwork? Of course, who the hell wasn't? "Yeah..." Lilith was being stubborn. She wasn't going to admit to missing him, at least not yet. "I can't blame you for missing me. I am pretty cool and fun... aaand sexy, smart, strong, funny, and one hell of a conversationalist. And that's at all times." Lilith pressed lightly on his forehead, "Not just when I want to be. I'm fun when I'm kicking your ass too. I've also got the best fucking hair in the Gotei whether K and J like it or not."

Lilith chuckled. So he thought she was sexy? Ha. "I knew it." Even Tsubine couldn't hide the fact that Lilith was hot as hell. She knew it, her Division knew it, and Tsubine now admitted to knowing it too. When Tsubine went on to calling their last match a draw, which it was, Lilith raised an eyebrow. "They've changed, hm?" Lilith's expression became a bit more serious in that moment. Tsubine just challenged her. "You know I don't take challenges with a grain of salt, Tsubine." Lilith stepped up close to him and crossed her arms, "You wanna do thi-..." Lilith was ready to fight it out right here and now, but Tsubine completely defused the atmosphere by changing the subject. Lilith blinked in surprised and then pouted with a light stomp of her foot. She wanted to fight and he just went and changed things!

"Wait, really?" Lilith was even more surprised by that. She grabbed onto her hair and a rubbed it against her cheeks. She had been joking, but Tsubine agreed in his own way. "Huh. I didn't think it actually was. Maybe the color?" Lilith looked from her hair and back to Tsubine with a rather cute and curious look in her eyes that was usually only caught on the "cutesy" type girls. When he nodded, she smiled and just played with her hair until Tsubine asked his question. She set her hands on the railing to the balcony and blinked at him as if it should have been obvious. "Well, of course I did, silly." she said and nodded, her face saddened, "I know things were hard after... Kenshin died. It just affected us more than it probably should have. I am sorry it took both of us this long to snap out of it."

With someone like Lilith, it's easy to forget that she is a woman. It wasn't like you forgot that she hard breasts or a vagina, but forgot that she too had the emotions normal women have. Her tough outward demeanor constantly outshined the soft feminine side of her that does need that confirmation. It's one of the reasons why she calls herself sexy. Even if they agree, there aren't many people in the Seireitei that have the guts to tell her. Sometimes a woman just needs to be told she's beautiful.

As Tsubine told the story of his year, Lilith was shocked that had had tried this so many times. Was she that unapproachable to him? Even if there was something bad between them, she figured he had more courage than that. He wasn't usually one to back down. Lilith reached out as he finished and set a hand on his shoulder. She gave a light smile and went to speak when three reiatsu suddenly reverberated through the air of the Seireitei. Lilith's arm dropped as she looked out over the Seireitei. "Shit."