While tyrants close the doors.

[theedgeofreason]

The past few weeks had, for Aizen at least, been somewhat trying.

The publicity he had been expected to deal with following the fall of Midgar had been an inevitable chore. Due to his position in the Gotei 13, pledges had to be made to help Bancour during its time of crisis. Wholesale destruction could quite easily breed scores of Hollows and it was Aizen's sworn duty, and that of his men, to eradicate them whenever they reared their bone-masked heads. Bancour was far, far out of his jurisdiction that was true, but there was no harm in proving that the Gotei 13 recognised no borders when it came to its collective dedication to its work. At the same time, he had been obligated to sit in on meetings with Archadian political giants concerning the delicate state of peace in the aftermath. To nobody's great surprise, and certainly not to Aizen's, The Archadian Empire had been the first to come under suspicion. Accusations, both the plausible and the far-fetched, had come thick and fast in the wake of the collapse. Even weeks after the incident some tempers were still running high, but nothing could be proved until Midgar was safe to examine.

Aizen's privileged position gave him access to Midgar's status reports and, while Bancouri officials had lobbied to keep them out of Archadian hands, Aizen's insistence that he have them when he was to be sending in his own men in to a potential Necrohol to aid Captain Komamura's already thinly stretched forces eventually resulted in the necessary papers crossing his desk. That all lands in the vicinity of the inner-city were considered too heavily poisoned by high concentrations of leaked Mako was certainly encouraging.

All in all, it had been an interesting change from the curious state of limbo that had reigned ever since Nabudis had accidentally been reduced to a blasted ruin and the Greenlands around it, now known as the Deadlands, to a smoking wasteland. Even so, dealing with manpower allocation and sitting on a council made of members trying by turns to and not to affix the word 'war' to the fore of it had taken their toll. After many packed days and what felt like even more sleepless nights, Aizen had been obvious about growing weary of it all and openly yielded to exhaustion. At the first opportunity, he had taken a few days leave and bid his Lieutenant deal with his duties in his stead. With no rest for the wicked, a phrase that had turned out to be truer than he had thought possible, Aizen clandestinely returned to the Desert Palace of Clan Khamja to deal with unfinished matters there.

The atmosphere in the Palace was much as it had been when he had left. Some things remained unchanged others ... well, they were quite different. Zexion, the Ryoka Alchemist, had made a full recovery where his exhaustion was concerned, but Aizen had been informed that the boy had not said a single word since waking and had spent most of his time holed up in his quarters. He had dealt with very few matters across phonelines, but he had sent word to ensure that Zexion was not to be informed of the new faces on the side of their enemies ahead of his return. He had made it clear that any Arrancar found breaking this order would find themselves dealing with the consequences. Nnoitra had, from what he had been told, kept himself well out of the way. Aizen was glad of this -- it minimised the chances of one of his more unruly Arrancar coming face to face with the subordinates of the man he had helped murder. Grimmjow and Neliel were doing as well as could be expected, her more than him. Luppi, to nobody's great surprise, was slow to recover from the injuries he had sustained at the hands of the Ryoka Berserker. He was considered to be out of danger, but he was still currently immobile and his moments of conscious lucidity were few and brief.

What had really nettled Aizen upon his return were whispers, whispers all too soon confirmed, that another of his Arrancar had struck out at a full-member of the Clan. He would have expected such of the rash, hot-headed members of his mismatched band of underlings, people like Nnoitra, who had already proved he could, Grimmjow who had as well, the Fracción Apache who was, as far as he was concerned, only biding her time. Even Szayel, albeit in a fashion less ... traditional than those, was not above suspicion. The name he had been given was a surprise to him. It shouldn't have been, especially not given past behaviour or the current state of affairs, but it had nonetheless given him pause.

Ulquiorra had attacked L and, from what he had been told, the preceding argument had taken place entirely in Old Rozarrian -- a language none of the witnesses could profess to speak. L had recovered, for a given value of recovery, and was up and about contrary to recommendation. He maintained that the altercation was one that concerned only blood, not the Clan, and Aizen had not been brought before Illua to answer for the crimes of his subordinate. In the end, Aizen only found himself disappointed that Ulquiorra had shown mercy. He, like Nnoitra, had been unsurprisingly absent following the incident.

Aizen resolved to speak to him on the matter, but it would have to wait until more pressing affairs had been attended to. The meeting, the debriefing put off following the mission itself, was still to be conducted. All of his Arrancar were expected to attend, even those in disgrace, though Luppi was to be the notable exception. L would undoubtedly be there regardless of the inevitable friction between him and his nephew, the presence of Zexion was assured and Gin Ichimaru had said, with his characteristic smile, that he wouldn't miss it for the world. He had even gone so far as to suggest that Marluxia, one of Khamja's older Ryoka recruits, also be present. The unknowns allied with the Berserker could easily be Ryoka, Gin had pointed out. Some of the files L had recovered from Midgar had certainly suggested such. With Zexion having been deliberately kept in the dark and Marluxia not yet up to date with the situation, they were unlikely to both be able to stifle reactions as to conceal a truth, should they attempt to do so. There was wisdom in the suggestion, and so Aizen had consented to it.

With the attendees decided, orders in the guise of invites had been sent out.

Comments

[tozasemurcielago]

Since his fight with L, Ulquiorra had remained sequestered away in his room. He hadn't come out much, partly because of a desire to stay out of the way of gossips such as Szayel, who would inevitably press him with questions that Ulquiorra did not wish to answer, and partly to avoid running into L again. Ulquiorra did not wish to have another altercation with him right now.

His Hollow, Murciélago, had given him enough to occupy his time, regardless. The Hollow had requested his attention, over and over, until Ulquiorra had finally given it, and then it had mocked and needled at him. Ulquiorra was used to that, just as he was used to the Hollow knowing things Ulquiorra wished it didn't, and it had asked questions he had not wished to answer until it had finally got answers and then....

And then.

Ulquiorra trusted Murciélago less than he trusted Gin, less than he trusted L any more, and when it had offered something new, Ulquiorra had been wary. An offer, it had said, nothing more, a taster, temporary, the next time Ulquiorra faced something alone it would let him try it, and Ulquiorra, wary of the Hollow's tricks, more familiar with Murciélago's ways than anyone else on the whole of Spira, had agreed.

And then it had given him something else, for now. A token of faith. Something that could be useful; something he didn't have to be released to use. Ulquiorra could not trust other's words, couldn't trust the things he felt, but, the Hollow promised, he would always be able to trust the things he could see with his own eyes.

Then, because nothing Murciélago ever gave came without a trick, it had asked, in the privacy of Ulquiorra's own head, in the loneliness of his own room, if he trusted Aizen, and Ulquiorra had decided that he did not, with this.

The Hollow had laughed, because Ulquiorra was completely alone again now, in a way he hadn't been for a while. Just the two of them, it had said, for the rest of Ulquiorra's life.

When the summons to the debriefing had arrived, Ulquiorra was where he had been for most of his time since; sat in his room, reading a book he'd read before, quiet and unobtrusive. There'd be questions, he knew, about his behaviour. He'd be forced to explain, at least to Aizen-sama, but his altercation with L was not something he had any reason to hide.

He was one of the first to arrive in the parlour selected for the meeting, though that wasn't much of a surprise, and hands in his pockets, he quickly scanned the room, and then chose a spot to stand in, away from the centre of the room, and, he hoped, away from the centre of attention.

[lilinette]

Lilinette had been the first to arrive. The very first, and had chosen a spot, draped over the back of one of the chairs, balancing on her midriff so that her feet didn't touch the floor, and holding her balance so that she didn't have to hold herself up on her arms either.

She could feel Ulquiorra's presence before he'd got to the room, but she ignored him at first, watching him scan the room while she tried to hold her balance, and then slipping back to put her feet on the floor and watch him while he went to hide.

That's what he was doing. She knew it, and she folded her hands behind her back and strolled towards him, clambering onto one of the chairs nearer to him, and perching herself on the back of that one, looking at him.

"Why are you hiding over here?" She asked. "Worried about getting in trouble?"

[declaregamuza]

Nel had recovered from the fight with the Ryoka. She'd fared better than anyone that wasn't Ulquiorra in it and had recovered about as well. Still, she might have recovered, but things weren't the same. Midgar had left its imprint on the mood of everyone, and some of them had been worse affected than others.

Had Aizen made a mistake taking Ulquiorra with them? Would he have been able to keep his temper in the face of whatever the argument with L had been if he hadn't witnessed that so soon before?

She could guess what the argument had been about, but she hadn't asked. She'd only understood Ulquiorra's parting comment, his answer to L's final question, and L's question itself. But that was all she'd needed to hear to be able to guess at the subject matter of the rest of the argument.

L was lucky to be alive. According to Szayel, who had delighted in telling everyone exactly how badly beaten L had been, he was lucky to be alive. Szayel had wanted L to stay in the infirmary after he'd come to, and L had been forced to for the first day since he couldn't stand up without keeling right back over, but after one night he'd left, against advice, and gone and holed up in his own quarters. It had been another week before anyone had seen him, although Nel had delivered the potions and painkillers Szayel had prescribed every night for that first week.

Even now, L wasn't fit, his arm in a sling to stop him aggravating the broken collarbone while it healed, and the bruises, so many bruises, were fading but still present. He was still under very strict instructions not to work, and still flouted those instructions, as far as Nel could make out, but he wasn't permanently fixed to his computer like he had been.

Then there was Zexion, the young Ryoka boy who'd been held to commit Midgar with the rest of them. He hadn't spoken; not one word, although Nel had tried talking to him a couple of times, and she knew Szayel had pressed him in his own inimitable way. Zexion hadn't relented; he'd maintained his silence, and Nel had quietly told him that they hadn't all agreed with what they'd been told to do, and that, when he was ready to talk to someone again, there'd always be someone there. Then she'd backed off, and let him get on with it, and had smacked Szayel around the ear and told him to stop pestering the boy the next time she'd caught him wittering incessantly at the poor lad.

The mood in the Palace had changed; sadness permeated it. Even Grimmjow and Yylfordt, and their little group, were feeling the absence of Kadaj, and the aftermath of his altercation with Orochimaru.

Gods she hoped this mood passed soon.

"Lilinette," she said, from her chair, and without looking up from the magazine, "leave him alone. And get off the furniture."

[prayingmantis]

It was the first time Nnoitra had really left his room after what had happened with his uncle. For him, at least, the past three weeks had crawled by. He had avoided Aizen's ire by not being present in the hall following his return and he hadn't seen him yet, either. He'd stayed out of the way of Grimmjow because he'd hate to get into trouble for breaking his face for starting shit because of Tayuya, he'd avoided Szayel because he didn't want to be held accountable for what he'd do to that little freak the moment he opened his mouth out of turn and he'd made a point to thoroughly ignore Neliel. He was in no mood for fielding whatever sympathy she might think he was due. The order to attend the meeting had come from Stark and the higher-ranked Arrancar had been sure to inform him that, yes, it was an order and not a suggestion.

Unenthusiastic though he was -- he had been passed over for the mission itself -- he sauntered down from his room and to the parlour that Aizen had commandeered for the purpose of the debriefing in a timely fashion. He had heard nothing about what had gone on during the mission, nor had he heard about Ulquiorra's little spat with L. He had felt the flare of Ulquiorra's reiatsu, but he thought little of it then and certainly didn't care now.

He pushed the door of the meeting room open and scanned those already present. Nel, Lilinette and Ulquiorra. It could be worse, he thought, and he didn't say a word as he crossed the floor and took a seat.

[theschemer]

Zexion had not wanted to attend the meeting.

When he had first woken in the infirmary he'd been mired in a sort of haze. Every time he closed his eyes he could see the souls of those he'd been forced to ... to ... it wasn't even murder. They weren't even dead and that made it worse, made him feel so much more empty. He told himself that it wasn't his fault, that he'd been given no choice, but it still sickened him and he'd withdrawn to hide from the reality of it. He'd had to force himself to accept it, to accept what he'd done, what he'd been made to do. Slowly, he'd crawled out of the miserable rut he'd found himself in and, while he was sure he'd probably never come to terms with having done what he did, he had to get on with things. He'd done it once, and he'd made it through that. He could do it again. Even with a heart, he could do it again. This time, at least, not that it softened the pain, he hadn't destroyed a world. Just a city. Just a city. That he could think of it in those terms was almost laughable.

He was no longer running on auto-pilot and the things that had happened after he'd woken were starting to return to him. He had a vague recollection of people trying to talk to him in the early days of his recovery but the memories were distant and dreamlike. Things were growing clearer now. The fog was lifting. He had to carry on. He didn't have much of a choice.

He'd accepted the call to join them and, when the time of the meeting neared, he put in his appearance like everyone else.

[lilinette]

Lilinette threw Nel a sour glance, complete with pout, and sank down to perch on the chair in much the same way that L usually sat. She wrapped her arms around her knees, and, when Nel wasn't looking, stuck her tongue out at Nel, pushing the tip of her nose up with one finger.

Then she proceeded to ignore her, watching the two new entrants to the room with interest.

Nnoitra had been hiding too, for even longer than Ulquiorra had, but Zexion was still an unknown quantity to Lilinette. Their paths hadn't crossed much, so she hadn't had a chance to weigh him up.

She watched him intently.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel sashayed in some way behind Nnoitra, looking like a shark that had smelled blood in the water. Ulquiorra was here, Nnoitra was here, the Ryoka boy was here and Szayel knew what information was going to come up and wanted to see if that got a reaction where nothing else had, as yet.

This promised to be an interesting meeting, and Szayel didn't plan on missing it for all the world.

He kept his eyes, and his attention, for the moment, subtly focused on Ulquiorra. Szayel knew who was on his way, and he wanted to witness the reaction when it happened.

"How nice to see you're still alive," he commented, as he passed near Nnoitra on his way to a seat. "Anyone would think you'd been hiding," he said, airily.

[declaregamuza]

"I know it runs counter to every instinct you have, Szayel," Nel said, interrupting before anyone else got a chance, "but try to still be alive when the meeting starts, won't you?"

She didn't look up from her magazine, because if she did, she knew she'd get annoyed. Lilinette hadn't slipped the face pulling past her, and Szayel was already opening his big mouth. This meeting couldn't start soon enough.

[prayingmantis]

The look Nnoitra gave Szayel was one of pure loathing. He was certainly still in a foul mood, that was only compounded by the fact that he hated the sight of Szayel anyway. The way he spoke always made him feel as though he was being either licked or patronised and both of those options pissed him off. He leaned his head back as he got comfortable, silently cursing the chair's dimensions. When Nel attempted to prevent an argument before it started he sneered, and then responded to Szayel anyway, looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Fuckin' disappointing to see you still are," he snapped back.

[theschemer]

Zexion scanned the room's occupants as he crossed the room to find a seat. He opted for one a little out of the way, as to deter any unwanted attempts at conversation.

He didn't know many of the Arrancar particularly well, but he know of them, mostly by reputation. The ones who tended to make the most noise were the ones he liked to avoid. Nnoitra was well known for being violent, and Grimmjow wasn't much different. Szayel was one to avoid for an entirely different reason and Lilinette, he'd heard, made deliberate attempts to annoy those she set her sights on. Neliel was one of the ones he did know, but he didn't bother to greet her while her eyes were fixed on her magazine.

He sat stiffly in his chosen chair and maintained his silence.

[shoottokill]

Gin had opted to arrive ... not early, but before the main bulk of attendees. He had no great love of meetings, but he did so enjoy watching people, and the information that was sure to be told during the course of this one promised plenty to see on that front. He had been busy in the days following Ulquiorra's unfortunate outburst, busy shooting down little birds and dealing with the Midgar situation, so he was rather happy for the break.

Aizen had deliberately withheld the news of the red-haired Fire Elemental from the Alchemist boy and his subordinates had been forbidden to speak of it on pain of ... oh, Gin shuddered to think. He, of course, knew already that the man was a Ryoka, Shinra's files had told him that much, but only L and Aizen, besides himself, were privy to such information. He could hardly wait to see what Zexion and Marluxia, him invited by Gin's own suggestion, would make of the news.

He grinned as he pushed open the door and quickly marked who had already turned up. "Afternoon," he said brightly and to nobody in particular. "Nice to see some of you here all nice an' early."

[declaregamuza]

Nel looked up from her magazine when Gin walked in and flashed him a smile. "Someone has to stop troublemakers getting themselves murdered," she told him, conversationally, and explained, "Kuja'd be really annoyed if someone got their gore all over the furniture."

She liked Gin, he was fun. Trouble with a capital T, but fun, and while he might be one of the full fledged members and trickier than a street conjurer, Nel trusted him not to hurt anyone unless he had reason, and that went a long way with Nel. She didn't trust Gin, exactly, she just trusted him to have a reason for everything he did, and Nel was in the fortunate position of not having to worry much about Gin's reasons for things.

Of course, Aizen had reasons for everything he did, too, which Nel also trusted, but Aizen's reasons and actions tended to have more of an effect on her.

Zexion still wasn't talking, it seemed. Although no one could blame him, in current company. She flashed the boy a gentle smile, trying to gauge how he was feeling today. Probably not on top of his game, and here he was going to be penned in a room with Szayel, and Aizen, and Gin, and tested.

A part of her wanted to go over and hug the poor mite.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

"So hostile," Szayel said, with distinct amusement, and chose to completely ignore every word that came out of Neliel's mouth since it was most certainly directed at him, in its roundabout way.

"Tell me," he said, pushing his glasses up with one finger and rounding a chair to plant himself in it, "was it worth it, killing a person you hated and had built your life around getting revenge upon, or did you wake up the next day to realise your existence has no purpose any more?"

Szayel knew that Nnoitra had put up with everything since arriving here, had gone through the Arrancar project to begin with to get stronger, for a shot at being able to beat Orochimaru once and for all. And now that he had, what did he have left? Some fool notion of fighting the world until he finds someone strong enough to kill him?

If he really wanted that, he should take up his weapon against Aizen, or Gin. Szayel would be interested to see the result.

[lilinette]

Lilinette, from her perch on the edge of a chair, had turned her attention to Szayel like a lantern in the darkness. She stole off the chair like a cat and moved over towards Nel, pinching a corner of Nel's magazine while she spoke to Gin, and putting it in her mouth.

She chewed it while she lined up a shot, making sure she was near enough, and when the little wad of paper was nicely balled up and soggy, she spat it, with surprising accuracy and speed, at Szayel.

And then grinned brightly.

[lawlietschiffer]

L had a headache, and he only expected this to get worse as the meeting progressed. It had been aggravating in the extreme to find that his injuries were affecting his ability to think. He slept more, got headaches while he was reading, could only type with one hand, even sitting on a chair the way he usually did made things worse. He couldn't hold his balance as effectively, had to keep one arm up in a sling, and he ached, even now, all over.

He'd deserved every hit. He knew that. He'd deserved it long ago, and no one had the right to issue it more than Ulquiorra. It was the failure that had plagued him, and usually he moved on so easily to do things another way, but with that one, he couldn't.

He'd never ever meant Ulquiorra to know the pain he had.

His time since that altercation had been spent doing what little work he could manage while he could, and then wondering what reasons Gin had for setting things up like that. Gin did not do idle conversation, regardless of what he claimed; he'd gone to L for a purpose that day, and had directed the conversation towards Midgar, and with it Gongaga, for a purpose that day, and it was no coincidence that Ulquiorra had overheard. L knew coincidences happened, but coincidences like that didn't happen around people like Gin.

Was it to drive a wedge between the two of them? There hadn't been a close bond, but there had been a bond, and Ulquiorra was the only person still alive who knew L's real name, so was it to split that, to separate Ulquiorra from influences outside of those of Aizen, or was it to stop L from learning too much about Aizen's activities because while Ulquiorra would never deliberately divulge them, L knew Ulquiorra better than Aizen did.

Or had, once.

Thinking about all of that only made L's headaches worse, and Szayel's scolding and complaining about L ignoring his medical advice didn't help.

L had to attend the meeting. Gin would be there, but L hadn't told anyone about Gin's instrumental part in causing the altercation, and L, in any case, only remembered bits and pieces of their conversation anyway.

He walked into the room slowly, barefoot and still bruised, and looked immediately over at Ulquiorra. He was standing, near a wall, out of the way, as if to separate himself from everyone else in the room.

L had the grace to look away before he picked an empty chair near the door and perched on it, having to lean against the back of it to hold his balance.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra felt the reiatsu as L entered the room, but he didn't look up, and he didn't look over. There was a wobble in his own reiatsu for a second, a split second, before he forced total control of himself. He couldn't show outward signs of anything; Szayel would pick up on it in a heartbeat, Nel would notice and then be her motherly self, Gin, Aizen-sama.... He could not bare a moment of weakness to them. His argument with L could not happen again, he would not become a liability that way.

He pushed the emotion away, and kept a strict control of his reiatsu, and his expressions, and after a moment of being acutely aware of L's reiatsu in the room, frayed and weakened as it was, he pushed that away, and ignored that, too.

[shoottokill]

Gin smiled broadly at Nel's comment and bobbed his head to the side, amused beyond the scope of his usual fixed expression. Well, somebody did have to save them from themselves and it may as well be Nel. She would, at least, be nice about it, not that any of them deserved it.

He half listened to what Szayel was saying and slid his narrow eyes to focus on Nnoitra, to gauge his reaction to Szayel's deliberate needling, but one never came. Not after Lilinette's little missile hit him in the face, anyway.

"Good shot," he said, for he could appreciate such accuracy.

L's entrance caught his attention, but he didn't spare him more than a brief glance before moving to take a more comfortable position away from the centre of the room. He certainly looked pitiful but he was alive at least. What more could he want?

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra's single eye narrowed to a slit at Szayel's words and his lips, thin already, went tight as he gritted his teeth behind them. Nnoitra had a not-unfounded reputation for being virtually incapable of self control when it came to picking fights and his foul temper was almost legendary. Szayel seemed to enjoy testing him, trying to get a rise out of him, like a child poking a snake with a stick to see how long it took it to strike out in retaliation. His hand tightened on the arm of his chair as his anger rose, but the grip slackened as Lilinette's unexpected little projectile hit its target and his expression changed to one of surprise.

He looked from her to Szayel and held off on both spitting back a response and getting up and rearranging Szayel's face for him.

[theschemer]

Zexion ignored all of the nonsense going on around him and sat, utterly wordlessly, in the chair. Immature behaviour from the girl wasn't unexpected and Szayel deserved everything he got anyway. He lived to infuriate, from what Zexion knew of him, and people tended to react accordingly to his behaviour.

He didn't, however, miss the split-second shake in a reiatsu that was, in his limited experience, usually very solid. Usually, anyway. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have picked up on the tremor -- he didn't know the owner personally -- but a flare of the same a week or so earlier had brought it into prominence in his mind's eye. He had noticed it around prior to that, dark and heavy, more the scent than the pressure, but that had been ... something else.

He looked up when it happened and fixed his eyes on L. He was clearly the victim of the incident, and his presence was obviously the cause of the waver, but Zexion didn't pass judgement without knowing the cause.

[extinguir]

Wonderweiss, determined not to be late, arrived next. Like Nnoitra, he had been passed over for the mission itself but had, like him, been instructed to attend the meeting anyway. Aizen had cited Nnoitra's unpredictable nature as the reason for not allowing him to be part of it, but Wonderweiss had been left behind because of his gentle one. He was sensitive to reiatsu, moreso than most, and to more species than most. There weren't just going to be people within Midgar, Aizen knew, so he had done the boy a kindness and left him at the Palace.

Nonetheless, Wonderweiss knew it was important that he arrive for the debriefing. He had hardly been told anything about the mission, but he knew, at least, what it was for and that they had, to the surprise of some, achieved the goal. That wasn't what the meeting was about, though. Not the entire story. What had happened with Nel and her party in the hours following promised to come up as well, but Wonderweiss, given the same instruction as the rest when it came to telling non-Arrancar about it, had not asked lest he be overheard. He had filled the time between their return and now with time in the garden, either by spending time with his little herd of Dreamhares or making the effort to get in some battle practice.

The room was tense when he entered and he looked around, unsure of what to make of it.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel was halted in the tracks of his thoughts as something wet and sticky hit the side of his face. He brushed it off with one hand, and then made a quietly disgusted noise as he realised it was a spitwad. No one had spat one of those at him for years.

He turned his attention towards the source, and then glowered at Lilinette.

"The next time I have to dismember something for experimental purposes, child, I will find you."

For the moment, Nnoitra was no longer the centre of his attention, and Lilinette's interruption meant he only just caught the tiny flicker of Ulquiorra's reiatsu when L entered the room.

[lilinette]

Lilinette had grinned broadly at Gin's comment on her aim, and, maturely, responded to Szayel by pulling her lower eyelid down with one finer, and sticking her tongue out at him before she answered, "You won't because I'll hide in a strip club and everyone knows you're too afraid of boobs to go in one."

[declaregamuza]

Nel almost made to scold Lilinette, but stopped herself when she remembered it was only Szayel, and in some weird, twisted sort of way, Lilinette had probably just stopped him getting horribly murdered by Nnoitra, at least for the next five minutes.

Sometimes she wondered if there was deliberate intelligence going into Lilinette's childishness, or if it was just coincidence.

But that didn't stop her turning to Gin and telling him, "Don't encourage her."

She shook her head and settled into her seat more comfortably, and then smiled at Wonderweiss as he came in. She'd been more than glad that he hadn't been required to attend Midgar. There were some things Wonderweiss should never have to witness, let alone participate in.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia had not expected an invite to a meeting that concerned the Arrancar. He hadn't been informed of why he'd been invited, simply that he had been. He knew a little about what their mission had been; Zexion's newfound skill with an art that wasn't practiced on any other world Marluxia was familiar with had been of significance, and the majority of the Arrancar had gone along.

He knew a little, but not as much as those who had been involved in the mission, so he'd accepted the invitation warily.

Aizen was a man who put him in mind of Xemnas, except these days he wasn't sure who the more dangerous one would be. Xemnas had been single minded to the point of insanity, and Marluxia, and a significant number of the rest of them, trusted the madman about as far as they trusted Xigbar these days.

Aizen, however, seemed relatively sane. Marluxia wasn't sure which one was the more dangerous to associate with, but Marluxia never had been one to dissociate himself from dangerous people just because they were risky.

The Arrancar were interesting, too. There were perhaps three of them he didn't mind, and five whose company he didn't object to, but the rest were the sort of gung-ho troublecausers that were more effort than they were worth.

He wasn't overly surprised to enter the room and find two of them arguing.

L was there too. Marluxia hadn't seen L in a while, but he'd heard there'd been some sort of altercation and L had definitely come off the worse for it. He looked it, too; he looked like Larxene had played with him, and enjoyed herself.

He spotted Zexion, seated quietly. He hadn't crossed paths with him overmuch either, in the last few weeks.

This meeting would prove to be interesting, if for no other reason than finding out why Marluxia himself had been invited along, despite having played no part in the Arrancar's mission.

He chose a seat, and occupied it in silence.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra watched the exchange between Lilinette and Szayel with only mild interest. They would only bicker until Aizen turned up, then a single look from him would be enough to silence at least Lilinette. Szayel would probably need more encouragement, but seeing him get threatened was always good for a laugh.

It was almost time for the meeting to start and they were still a fair few people short. No surprise who the majority of them were. Those too important and high-ranked to turn up and wait with the rest and those who didn't give half a toss about keeping people waiting for them.