One and one makes three

Eyelids suddenly snapped open which caused pale orange hues to look up at a high ceiling. His whole frame was stiff as a board as he laid on top of the bed. With arms at his side and and too long legs stretched out. He was awake and therefore had no reason to remain like this. With quick but fluid movements the tall man stood up and without bothering to stretch or even yawn he headed into the bathroom. When one was awake they had things to do - learn and gain, but not lay around or waste precious time on unneeded things.

Yet, while not bothering with stretching or yawning, he certainly took his time within the bathroom. A throughout shower that even left his long crimson hair wet. Then he brushed his teeth, washed his eyes and at long last headed back into his small room. It was spartan even. A bed in one corner and a desk in the other. The only sign of life were the bookshelves that lined the walls which were overfilled with books.

Of course, there was also one cupboard which he immediately headed to. His slim fingers wrapped around golden handles and then pulled the dark wooden doors apart to peek within. He would go for a suit today, for you never can do wrong with a suit.

First, and probably even more importantly, he picked out pink Hello Kitty panties. Because how could any man really ever resist that cuteness? It was acceptable that he fell for it. He was forgiving himself that small trace of humanity that seemed to cling to him. Therefore those panties were pulled up his long, smooth legs and then snapped into place before he reached for black dress pants. Those found their way up also before he closed the button at his hips, simply to keep them up as he reached for a black dress shirt.

The silky material was slipped up his arms until it rested against broad shoulders before the burnt tips of his fingers closed the buttons up to his collarbones. The first three buttons remained open while the sleeves were pulled up towards his elbows. He neatly pushed the hem of the shirt into his pants, closed them completely and then reached for crimson suspenders. Once they were snapped into place and his hair swept backwards he slipped into black dress shoes - he did not bother with socks, but took hold of his unguarded zanpakuto before he slipped out from within his room.

Zeraphin was not really expecting any form of noise coming from within his brothel. It was in the middle of the day - his patrons were pretending not to be kinky little fuckers and his staff members were sleeping. Good. It at least meant he did not have to waste his time with a conversation he was not interested in. Did he really look like somebody who cared how you were feeling?

Society would never make sense to him, however he did not feel like going back to those thoughts. He had business to do after all.

As he headed up the narrow staircase that lead onto the street his slim fingers pushed into the left pocket of his dress pants. A silver cigarette case and zippo were quickly pulled out before the case was snapped open. A black cigarette found its way between his lips, then it was lit and both items pushed back into the pocket of his pants.

The huge, red metal door was pushed out of the way and closed quietly behind him again before he stepped out onto a busy pathway. Of course people were on and about. His hand reached back up again, removing the black cigarette even though his lungs did not bother to give away the black smoke that swirled within them. His pale orange hues instead took a look around, the man not even having to shield them from the bright sunlight. His eyes did not know how to blink or that they should close from such bright attacks. His body did not feel it.

The black smoke finally exhaled from between slim lips and trailed upwards, brushing his bright crimson hair which seemed to shine within the sunlight. Then he turned on his heels and headed down the pathway, against the ongoing stream of busy people.

The world slowly came into view as a hazy fog of beige and white, slowly growing definition and space as Nadia slowly regained consciousness. She was hanging upside down halfway off of a chair. Needless to say, her head was throbbing. She immediately tried to retreat back into unconsciousness, but found she was on a one way road to painful wakefulness. She sat up, clutching her head and groaning. God, this was awful. She'd never fallen asleep upside down like that. Not drunk anyway.

She looked around. The place was a mess, with a pair of pants flung over a chair and her shoes... somewhere... Okay, so just how she'd left it... Where was Nyssa? Shit, she should... Okay, she was at school... Took herself today probably... Awesome sistering as usual. Nadia got up and glared at everything around her. Only one good cure for a hangover like this. She trudged over to the fridge and squatted down to open it.... Empty.... At least of booze anyway.... Awesome...

She dug around in the cabinets to find some painkillers and took a handful. It was probably too many but it wasn't like her liver was going to last a full lifetime anyway. She collapsed over the kitchen sink and un-ingested some of whatever she'd had last night before turning on the faucet to wash it down. Once the sink was clean she placed her head under the cool running tap and sighed. Okay... That was much better....

Once her head was only a functional level of hurting, she finally looked at her phone. Okay... She didn't work today. So it was just a trip to the liquor store and then she could come back and rest till her head stopped hating her. She put on pants, got her boots on and slipped the navy jacket hanging from the handle of the freezer over the tank top she'd woken up in. She needed to do laundry. Nyssa USUALLY did laundry but she'd been busy with schoolwork... She headed to her room and applied a liberal coating of deodorant before looking in a mirror and doing something with her hair.

Okay, good enough.

She stepped outside, before turning and walking right back in. No. No no, fuck all that. Way too bright. She reached around and slapped at her back, grunting a little. Dart sprung forth and transformed into a pair of sunglasses, already knowing the drill. The lenses turned as dark as they could without blinding Nadia and she headed back outside.

Once out, she headed down the street. One or two of her spirits popped loose. Their resting spots were covered by clothes so it wasn't like she could get too mad at them, but she would scold them if she had the ability right now. Lucia and Zephyr floated around, chittering soothingly, trying to help her relax a little. She appreciated the effort and she might even give them some praise for it...

After she had some whiskey in her.

Another person was quick to sidestep him, however by now it was such a given that he did not even notice it anymore. They all sidestepped him. They all feared him. Even now in this century. With his tall size, wild flaming hair, the suit and the katana being tied without a sheath to his hip was certainly something that had them wary. Nowadays they thought of him as a yakuza. A gangster. Murderer even. Back then he had been the devil.

He was not certain if he had taken a step forward or backwards.
He knew however that he could not care less about the opinion of others.

All it granted him was peace and quiet and nobody within his way as he walked down the street. His back was rigid and stiff, his chin almost arrogantly tilted upwards and his pale orange hues calculating even though he only stared straight ahead. He certainly was not lost in his thoughts.

Therefore it was quite easy for him to detect the difference in... His pale eyes shifted, staring down at the passing girl out of the corner of them. It was not her he saw however, he could not care less what she looked like. Or how she reeked of chemicals which were used to hide another scent. What caught his attention were those spirits which seemed, as for now, completely unaware of him.

Their whole attention lingered on the girl with who they seemed to communicate. He could not tell if she saw them or not, the too dark glasses made it unclear and the sight of her front had been far too short.

Well, what really mattered were those animals. He could not recall ever having seen spirits of animals. The zanpakuto ones yes, but she harbored no signs of one. Neither was she dead. Or even close to dying.

It immediately caught his attention and with a quick but graceful turn he was behind her and followed. Gaining knowledge was of utter importance. Was the only thing that kept him alive and not completely empty. He had no reason not to give into his curiosity. Neither had he any kind of reason to care about her opinion. What she had to say about that.

His long, slim fingers reached out, the tall man really not taking long to move up to her, and then lowered down onto her shoulder. Orange hues were not on her however, instead they were fixed on the guardians following her.

Nadia had noticed the katana attached to the overly tall man out of the corner of an eye, but paid little attention. Didn't apply to her what sort of weirdos were living around here. She might have had further suspicions, but her head was killing her and the only cure was to further herself into the state that had caused this pain to start with.

She didn't make a habit of thinking about her life choices at length. She just channeled her energy into walking and not punching anyone who bumped into her a little too hard.

She honestly would not have even noticed someone coming up behind her if Zephyr hadn't chittered nervously at them. She ducked down and darted forward with surprising agility for someone who'd been shambling like a zombie, spinning on her heel to see who exactly the hell was behind her. Her eyes had to travel some distance up to find their face however. She was thankful for her sunglasses. Even in her state of near stupor, she was ever so slightly awed at the sheer size of the man.

"Can I help you?" She spat rather roughly at him. Lucia and Zephyr hid behind her shoulders.

Neither blinked nor reacted in any other way as the small girl suddenly pulled away and turned swiftly around. His pale orange hues however never even looked at her. They were settled on those guardians so close. It was them who had his full attention right now while Nadia could have fallen dead without him even realizing so.

Zeraphin would always only pay attention to one thing after the other - for paying attention to two things was simply disgusting.

Therefore, as the female suddenly spoke up, his eyes finally shifted and settled onto her covered ones instead.

"This is illogical." he finally spoke up. His voice was deep and rough, filled with a strong German accent. Can I help you? Oh yes, a truly illogical question. "How should a stranger know what you are capable of or not." So in other words - how should he know if she could help him or not? That was something she had to answer.

Society and its many useless phrases.
How confusing.

Nadia looked him up and down for a moment behind her sunglasses, her eyes narrowing. What the hell? Illogical? What a dick thing to say. Not to mention wrong. After all, if there was nothing he needed help with, then it would be impossible to help him. So asking if she could help him was essentially asking if there was anything he needed help with.

She crossed her arms, her body language giving away her annoyance. Behind her, the little spirits slowly sank out of the man's field of view, frightened at the chain of events and sensing their master's rising hostility.

"CAN...I...HELP YOU...?" She repeated through gritted teeth. Her voice was calm but strained, clearly growing upset, if the body language cues hadn't given that away.

Was fluent in quite a lot of languages. Even though he was eccentric enough to always keep a heavy German accent in any language he spoke. After all, he wanted people to know. However, one language he had never understood, did not understand and will never do was body language. Therefore her annoyance was completely and utterly lost to him. She has switched position of muscles, bones and yeah- Why should he care about that?

What he cared about however was that she repeated the question. Once more and as illogical as earlier. For she would have to rephrase it if she wanted to know if there was anything to help him with. Like "Do you need help?" instead of the "can" which describes an ability he had no clue if she had it or not.

Twice however. Twice the same question. "Repeat this." Oh god please make it into a three. Otherwise he'd have to vomit on her, and neither of them wanted that.

Nadia raised an eyebrow. He seemed... suddenly off kilter. He'd heard her the first time.. But something about saying it the second time... Seemed to upset him. He looked almost desperate to her, despite no significant outward change of expression. Something about this guy... Seemed sort of off to her. A growing sense of anxiety was slowly replacing her annoyance. A few more spirits pulled themselves off of her, floating out from under her clothes and prepared to take action at a moment's notice.

She backed away, then glanced up at him and backed up a few steps more. He was a big son of a bitch. If he made a grab for her, she wanted to be out of arm's reach. And considering HOW big of a son of a bitch he was, she didn't want to underestimate that. "The hell is the matter with you? Is there something you want from me or not?" She asked, her anxiety only MOSTLY replacing her misanthropy.

She did not repeat it. Why did she not do it? Why did she leave it at two? His eyes, which usually were unblinking except if he actually forced himself to blink, closed for a few moments and he took a deep breath. As they opened again they immediately fixed on the petite girl which took a few steps backwards. What was she doing now? Attacking? Running?

Ah, whatever it was in the end she was curious enough to actually linger. That was actually something he treasured, even though nothing showed on his always blank expression. Somebody else who was curious, who was eager to know. A welcome change.

"You reek of alcohol." he finally spoke up while his head turned enough for his pale eyes to stare at the spirits that appeared. How utterly, utterly adorable. A step forward while his right arm lifted up, his hand reaching out to touch, but did not touch yet. "We have a drink." Because he really, really was in need of scotch by now. "And you explain those to me." Nothing about her seemed to be Shinigami. Which meant she had a different power - he just did not know which yet.

And he always wanted to know.

She glared at him with increased hesitancy, prepared more than ever to run as he took a long slow breath. The second he closed his eyes it crossed her mind that she could drop him if she acted now instead of trusting him any further. Once he opened his eyes and informed her that she smelled of booze, she blinked a few times, confused. Had he followed her just to harass her about how she smelled?

Oh. Oh, he wanted to get a drink. Well... That was a different thing. Her glare did not lessen in intensity, but it did soften ever so slightly. "I don't..." But then he started reaching for... Oh. Oh he could see them. Her head flared with a bit of pain as she realized her day had just become more complicated. Her eye darted from him to the people walking around him. They seemed to be reacting to him. So if he was a shinigami or an arrancar he was in a gigai... The spirits floating around all darted back to her, mostly disappearing under her clothes as they returned to their positions as tattoos on her.

She crossed her arms and gave him a dubious snort. "Alright. I think it's fair to ask how I can trust you though."

That her eyes softened was lost on him. What he noticed however was that her sentence stopped shrot quite aprubtly. What had changed? His head tilted ever so slightly and for once blank eyes gained a hint of curiosity.

Whatever it was however caused her to break the moment. And what was worse - the spirits around her hid away from him. Now, he was often used to many people hiding away from him, or turning their back, or simply running but in this moment it was quite unwelcome.

He wanted them close - not gone.

"What is really fair in this world." he murmured as his pale orange eyes met hers. What indeed. "Fairness is like good and bad. It depends at the angle you look at it." He reached back up with his hand again and brought his black cigarette one last time towards his lips. A deep drag of it, the orange bud flaring up before he lowered his hand once more. The smoke did not escape his lungs anymore however. Instead he brought his left hand up to press already burnt fingertips down against the orange glow to put the cigarette out with an angry hiss of his skin.

"Neither can you trust me." He flickered the cigarete away, never once taking his eyes away from her. "Actually, you cannot trust anybody at all." It was human nature after all, to betray and use and then throw away. "Trust."

A shake of his head. "I want to know more about you and your adorable friends." His eyes shifted back to them. "Which means you currently have information I want." Then he looked back down at her again. "You have me in your hand, not the other way around." As much as it hurt admitting that. He disliked others having a hold over him. However, if everything worked out fine, he soon would have that information also and then, well then nobody could blackmail him by withholding this knowledge.

"We will have a drink then." And to show that it actually was no question but a command he took a step to the side and then moved forward again. "Come."

Nadia's eyes narrowed, noticing the slight changes in his face, the interest he had in her spirits... Her, really, though she suspected... Well it was possible he didn't realize the spirits were a part of her. If he wasn't human, well. She knew shinigami's zanpakuto spirits were, in some way she was sort of confused on, a separate being from them. With the curiosity he'd shone though. She waited till he had started moving past her to shudder. If he was this curious about them, it made her anxious, and a little creeped out, to wonder if that curiosity would remain when he discovered they were part of her skin...

She quietly turned to follow him, marching along sullen. She didn't like speeches about trust. She knew better than anybody, she felt, just how poorly you could trust anybody. But she'd learned, if only because of her sister, that there were... levels... You couldn't trust anybody with your life, but you could trust someone not to start frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog. With how curious he was being... she needed to be sure he wouldn't start doing the latter.

"Fair's got nothing to do with it." She said, quickly matching his pace and giving a small shrug. "You scare the shit out of them. They're not going to talk to you if they think you might attack them. Or me, for that matter."

He decided that it was quite unfortunate that he needed information of her. She mentioned one thing, he actually bothered to answer - simply because he was polite enough when he wanted knowlege, and then she brushed the topic off as if he had mentioned it. Fair has nothing to do with it? SHE had been the one who had brought it into this conversation.

The crimson haired man had no care for fairness. He did what appealed to him - no matter how others judged it. He had no care for good or bad. For wrong or right. Neither for trust. Or any of the other pathetic things she seemed to cling to.

What he had however was curiosity. And patience. And so no feeling took hold of his being that was usually neutral, if not blank, to anything going on. His expression neither shifted - not to annoyance for he did not feel it. Nor to smugness - for she indeed followed him just how he wanted.

Merely his hands moved again, reaching into the pocket of his pants to pull out his silver cigarette case and zippo.

"I suggest you stop being emotional and see this from the logical side." he murmured, his German accent still thick as he slowly headed down the street. She really was a highly emotional one, was she not? Why did they all always cling to something so bothersome? "It would be illogical for me to attack or harm somebody who willingly gives me information."

His steps finally slowed down as he turned his head just enough for a pale orange eye to take a look at her. "I suggest you give me information." He lifted his right hand, one black cigarette back between index and middle finger to place it between his lips. Indeed. He had absolutely no joy in killing.

Nadia glanced over at the unreasonably tall man she now found herself walking next to. Off to get a drink or wherever her life was taking her now. Ugh. This day was already turning into a big pile of shit. But whatever. He'd probably be buying. That was something at least. Her head throbbed particularly hard for a moment and she winced. What was he going on about. Being logical? How was what she said not logical?

"I am being logical." She grumbled, her head too on fire to muster up much more of a response than that. "I can command them, but outside of battle, they behave somewhat autonomously. All I was saying was that if you want to interact with them, you should make an effort to stop scaring the shit out of them." He seemed to have mistaken her suggestion for a demand. Whatever.

"And you want information? Start asking questions. I'm too fucking hungover to give every curious prick a dissertation on these things." She was being more ornery than usual but he was rubbing her the wrong way and she could REALLY use a drink.

He had suggested that she should see it from the logical side. Not that she was not logical. It was true however, if she knew how much he wanted to know of them she would also know that he would not attack, kill or harm.

Well, the harming part might not be all that true. It really depeneded on her reactions.

However he was not fond of guessing - guessing was nto knowing after all - and therefore would only bother about the here and now.

Now meant that she was following him. Now meant also that she was babbling something he could care about less and therefore he did not even bother to answer her. Or even pretend she was still here.

Only as she mentioned information did he actually return his attention on her. "First of all." he murmured and brought his cigarette back up towards his lips. "I am human." Seriously, he was no prick. Was she blind? "And thirdly I have no problems asking you questions here." His head finally turned and he took a look at her while the thick, black smoke escaped his thin lips. "However I had thought you would prefer privacy when we talk. At least not a conversation out here in the open."

In the end he did not care. If she wanted to give away information in the middle of a street she could do that too.

All that mattered was that he found out more about them.
....
And how to get one of those cute things.

Nadia looked over, giving him a dull glare, her brow lowered some. She was squinting slightly because of the sun. He didn't seem to be particularly listening to her. Could he make up his mind? Was he interested in her powers or not? She took a long slow breath. Alright. She was... absolutely done here.

"First of all. No you're not. You're a shinigami, or an arrancar, or... fucking who knows what." If she had to guess, she'd have put her money on arrancar. Shinigami were biologically human and humans didn't get that big, the last time she'd checked. "Second, for someone who seems particularly interested in my powers, you keep blowing me off. The only reason I'm going to a bar with you is because I'm hung right the fuck over."

Nadia was not particularly in touch with her emotions... Except anger. She was pretty good at anger.

"Now start asking questions or go away."

Another outburst. It did not even cause him to blink. Instead, with his expression as blank as always, he looked back down at her. He did not even bother to answer her right away. He had eternity after all, so why hurry the fuck up? Another drag of his cigarette, this time the smoke remaining within his lungs, and then he finally spoke up. Just as calm as always.

"Fucking who knows what is not very precise." he informed her, because he was jus THAT merciful. What she did with that information was up to her however. Instead he continued. "Who are they." His pale orange eyes drifted back towards those adorable beings that seemed to cower from him still. He was used to everybody being spooked out to him. To nobody even giving him a chance. "What are they." He lifted his arm back up towards his face. "And how can I get them." Then another drag of his cigarette, his eyes once more fixing her.

She couldn't even get upset at his response. Just gave him a deadpan glare as they approached the bar. Ugh. She wasn't even looking forward to the bar, really. That's how terrible this guy was. He made her not want to drink. That was a fucking crime against humanity. She should declare war on whatever he was. Ugh. Terrible.

She sighed, placing a hand on her head, still in pain. "Well, gonna answer those out of order. You can't get them, because they're part of me. They're the living manifestation of my power and they're sort of physically part of me." She was going to leave it at that, but... this guy seemed to get weird about details... Maybe she should...

She sighed. "Their names are Lumia, Raijin, Nightcap, Ulysses, Dart and Zephyr. Satisfied?" She suspected he wouldn't be, but...

"No."

Well, he at least was being honest!

"I shall remember their names." Names were important after all. "However they are not what I asked for." He opened the door while taking another drag of his cigarette. Then he stepped into the bar, letting go of the door again without caring if it smacked her in the head or stayed open. He had passed - that was all that mattered after all.

However upon hearing her footsteps behind him he continued. "Your power. What is your power then. What caused it. What species are you."

She paused at the door, seriously considering just leaving... She really didn't want to get a drink with this guy... but if she just left, he might follow her. She glanced at her ankles... She could outrun him, she was fairly sure of that, but... Ugggh, her head hurt so bad... She'd get a few drinks in her, THEN leave.

What the fuck did he want? He wanted little souls he could own or something? Those didn't exist. They didn't sell her spirits in a toy store. She kicked the door as it came close, nearly slamming it open, earning a glare from the rest of the bar. She walked past him and took a seat at the bar.

"I'm human. Just human. And I can just summon them from the tattoos on my skin." She glanced at the bartender to make sure he was busy before tugging down at her tank top, revealing the upper half of the excalibur tattoo, which quickly peeled itself loose from her skin in a shimmering light, turning into a small golden tiger, which took one look at Zeraphin and promptly hid behind Nadia.

That she was throwing an inner tantrum like a five year old he did not realize. Not that it mattered, for even if he did he could not care less how like a spoiled little brat she actually wanted to act. He followed her calmly still, his expression once more utterly blank while not even realizing how roughly she was handling the door.

The only thing of interest was that so many could stare at her - a bar this full at this hour? How unusual. After all these years he still had to get used to Japan it seemed.

Nevertheless, he fluidly sat down on one of the bar stools while taking another deep drag of his black cigarette. Again he did not bother to exhale the thick smoke, but instead kept it locked within his lungs while staring at the bartender.

One thing after the other. His attention was currenly on the men - so whatever she had to say would have to wait.

"Scotch. One glass. One bottle. No ice." Never, ever any ice. However he had to make sure the man understood. Only once the bartender gave him a hasty nod and turned to do his job did Zeraphin actually bother to glance down at her out of the corner of his eyes.

".... where did you get those tattoos then."
The tiger, as cute as it was, was being ignored for the sake of their conversation.

Nadia looked around, getting an increasing vibe from the man that just read "fuck you" to her every time she looked at him. She sat down on the stool and sighed, looking around. Whatever, it was a bar. Worse places to spend her time. And the big ass was overbearingly dickish but at least he didn't look too bad. She needed a smoke... Maybe she could bum one off of him. She wasn't sure why he kept holding it in like that. Couldn't be too relaxing.

"I'll have just.... Just whatever the strongest thing you have that comes in a bottle is." She said dismissively. "It's on this guy's tab." She said. He gave a quick nod. She didn't particularly care if he agreed to that or not. This wasn't a bar she frequented. She sighed, relaxing a little. It wasn't so bright in here...

The second he asked his little followup question, her head felt like it was gonna split open again. Oh, that was not a good question to ask. Only the briefest memories of how, in fact, she got these tattoos, began to surface before she shut that down completely. She gave him a look that crossed a little between disgust and derision before the bartender came back. "Thanks for the drink." She grumbled, picking up the bottle and immediately slipping off the barstool to head towards the door. She wasted no time summoning Zephyr, her boots becoming taller mid stride as the spirit attached to her heels, already prepared to zip off by the time she got out the door.