spira_rp | It used to be so easy...

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It used to be so easy...

They'd got back late the night before.

It had been a long sojourn out into the world, but not a bad one. They'd been gone for over a month, and hadn't got into too much trouble, considering. Okay, so they'd met the Ryoka berserker and his fiends again, and failed to take them out, again, and Grimmjow had been scarred for his troubles, but that was pretty good going, for them. Technically, they were supposed to be out for Grimmjow's rehabilitation anyway. Grimmjow was only supposed to be getting back to fitness from the injuries he'd received when they'd met the Ryoka with Nel in tow, but he'd acquired another injury to work off. Not that anyone had explained that to Aizen, yet. That was going to be a fun job for Grimmjow and Yylfordt, later.

They'd also caught up with Kadaj, and ironed things out with him, and he'd met up with them a few times since. His hair had got too long, since he'd neglected to get it cut, but it wasn't as long as his bankai made his hair, now, and he'd matured a lot. It was a little bit frightening, really. Kadaj had been gone ever since the Midgar thing, and he'd grown up in that timespan, which at once felt like it had been forever, and like it had been barely weeks ago.

When they'd figured they probably couldn't, or shouldn't, put off going back any longer, they'd told Kadaj over the phone. They couldn't make him come back, but their employers could definitely demand their own returns. Plus they'd left Apache behind, because taking her was pushing it, and Tayuya missed her, even if Yylfordt pretended he didn't.

It had been too late for reunions when they had got back. Tayuya, Grimmjow, and Yylfordt had simply waltzed in, grabbed something to eat, and gone to bed.

It hadn't been early when Tayuya had woken up. She wasn't a morning person anyway, but she'd got up, showered, ended up sleeping for another hour, and then got dressed and made her way to the kitchen.

Now she was paying attention, the Palace felt different. There were new people here, again. They'd known someone was coming to take over the laboratories because Szayel had been told he couldn't have them. Tayuya was interested in who it was, only because they'd taken over her old home.

She hadn't reported to Kuja yet, either. She wasn't in a hurry. He'd know she was back, and the only information she had to give him consisted of 'Met Kadaj, he's okay, needs a haircut when you see him again though'. The important shit, naturally. She'd let Kadaj tell him about his bankai in his own time, and on his own terms. Kuja might want to know about the fights, but Kuja was less invested in the performance of the Ryoka versus Arrancar than Orochimaru had been, so he probably wouldn't want details of power levels and specific movesets employed.

She entered the kitchen looking freshly laundered and grumpy, because she needed caffeine to live, and something to eat. The room wasn't empty, and Tayuya waved at Apache as she schlepped her way to the kettle for caffeine.

Apache must have been so fucking bored, Tayuya thought. She knew she was when the Arrancar all fucked off on missions and she got left behind. At least she had Nel, though.

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Tayuya snarled at Yylfordt, livid. "Chill out?" She repeated, her voice flaring with anger. "Don't fucking tell me to chill out," she snapped, "that's the blue haired bastard berserker's fucking boyfriend, dickhead."

She looked like she might swing for someone. Right now, it was a fifty/fifty shot as to whether it would be the Ryoka, or Yylfordt that got hit.

"Why the fuck is he here?" She asked again, this time directed at Apache. It seemed to be a genuine question. "He should be fucking dead." He'd nearly killed her the first time he'd met. "You still fucking could be," she added, this time directed at Vexen.

Apache winced at Tayuya's yelling, but it all became clear when she mentioned exactly how she knew him.

Ah. Shit.

She had heard that there was an Ice Elemental with the Berserker, but she didn't realise that this was the guy. In truth, she hadn't paid that much attention. Having not met him and being vaguely aware that there were enough Ryoka for him to be nothing to do with the Berserker's little team, she hadn't thought about it.

When she directed the question at her, she shrugged. "Aizen made Nel go and get him," she answered quickly. "She took the three other Ryoka and Ulquiorra and came back with him. That's all I know."

Even continued to glare at the girl. He gritted his teeth when she mentioned Saix, but noted that she must, as yet, be unaware of their parting and his defection. Regardless, the room's temperature dropped another few degrees when she started making threats.

"Is that so?" he said in a sniffy, sharp fashion, but calmly enough. He was not about to get into a shouting match while bickering with a little girl. "Because that course of action went so well for you the last few times we met."

She had been soundly defeated in their first encounter and, during their second, she hadn't been able to get past Noir and himself, though one of her other team mates had injured Saix badly enough to force a retreat.

Tayuya growled, her teeth gritted at the Ryoka's response.

So Aizen and the other ryoka had brought him in, had they? That only made things worse. Why had Aizen brought in someone that had fought with his Arrancar?

"Cocky little fuckstain, aren't you?" She spat at him. It was worse because he had a point. Even through the red haze of anger she could tell he was leagues beyond her abilities in terms of reiatsu. Even if she released, even if she summoned, she'd be little more than inconvenience.

"I remember it being a different story when Grimmjow beat the shit out of you." Remembered wasn't entirely accurate, but she remembered being told about it later.

Fuck, Grimmjow was gonna flip his lid when he found out this asshole was here.

Yylfordt was doing his best to rally from the surprise. He hadn't taken this guy for a Ryoka; he just looked Al Bhed to Yylfordt. Sure, so he had Ice chakra, which was basically like finding a unicorn, but there were any number of ways that could have happened, including the fact that he's a scientist by his own admission. Khamja collecting an ice elemental Al Bhed scientist was exactly the sort of shit they'd do.

And instead, this was the fucker they hadn't been able to get past. He'd been there when Grimmjow had been hurt, and when Kadaj had taken down his boyfriend in response....

He scratched his head, awkwardly, and took a couple of unconscious steps back away from the Ryoka. Even Yylfordt knew he was winding Tayuya up, whether he meant to or not, and Yylfordt didn't fancy staying in the line of fire.

Literally, in Tayuya's case. The new dude might be stronger, but Tayuya could still hurt him if she wanted to.

Not that she should. Kuja'd be pissed, and less inclined to make excuses than her old boss might have been.

"The way I remember it," he said, shortly, and with narrowed eyes, "was that he needed a Limit Break and the element of surprise to manage it."

It was true that Even had been beaten senseless by Grimmjow -- it was part of what had started the ongoing feud between him and Saix in the first place -- but had circumstances been different, he didn't doubt for a second that he would be able to weather the same attack with minimal damage. He would know, in future, to bolster his defences with magic and he was, it had to be noted, a particularly good Sentinel.

Tayuya seethed. This guy was an infuriating asshole, on top of everything else. She hadn't liked any of the Ryoka she'd met so far, and this guy was actually beating out the fire elemental for how personal her dislike was.

"I'll give you the element of fucking surprise," she hissed. She sorely regretted not having brought her flute, but it was the Palace, and there was no one here to murder. Or so she'd thought.

Why had they brought this dickhead here? He was with the berserker! Was that asshole moving in next? This guy could be leaking information to the other Ryoka for all they knew, or maybe all the Ryoka were, or maybe it was a staged fucking coup. Infiltrate member by member, like boiling a frog in a pot.

"Oh good," Nel's amiable voice emanated from the back door into the garden, where she stood with an empty laundry basket in one hand, and the other resting on her hip. "You're back. I'm so glad this isn't an awkward reunion for everyone," she said, drily.

She walked into the kitchen, dropping the laundry basket to one side, and eyed everyone in the room, lingering longest on Tayuya. It was a look that said 'you know what happens if you do what you're thinking of doing'. It did not, however, seem to be calming Tayuya down.

Nel's voice was enough to make Apache relax.

She would never deny being up for a fight, but in the palace, in the kitchen, and with a full-member of Clan Khamja, even if it was the new Ryoka, would not be her choice of how to go about it.

Aizen, for a start, would lose his rag. She was pretty sure he'd had quite enough of his Arrancar pulling that shit by now.

She turned and looked at Nel, giving her a subtle but pointed look that suggested that she was grateful for her interruption.

Even, facing the back door, saw Nel before Tayuya did. As such, he didn't narrow his eyes again, glare, or go to do anything rash at her threat, not that he was intending to do so anyway.

He smiled thinly at the level-headed Arrancar, looking weary at the situation. This sort of thing happening had been a foregone conclusion, they all knew it, but Neliel's arrival on the scene would hopefully be enough to head it off before any real violence broke out. He didn't want to have to defend himself against somebody else's subordinate. He had been warned against entering the dicey territory that course of action stood on.

"Good afternoon," he said, almost pleasantly, though the tightness in his voice due to the argument made him sound stiffer than he had been for most of his stay at the palace.

The temperature in the kitchen remained uncomfortably low, even in spite of Tayuya's flaring anger.

Yylfordt relaxed at seeing Nel step in. Sure, technically, he was strong enough to subdue Tayuya if it came to it. But she was also technically somebody else's problem, and less technically, Grimmjow might have a bone to pick with him if he hurt her, even accidentally.

Nel was welcome to the role of mediator.

"So uh," he said, one eye still on Tayuya, who still looked like she wanted to knock someone's block off, and he didn't want it to be his, "no one thought to warn us about Grimmjow's best mate's boyfriend moving in?"

And Yylfordt had taken him for an Al Bhed. That annoyed him, now, but the guy could pass for one. He even spoke it pretty well.

"Grimmjow's gonna fucking flip when he sees him," Tayuya growled, directing this at Nel. "What the fuck is he doing here? He's not even a prisoner!"

That part still didn't make sense to her. The little bookish one wasn't a prisoner exactly, in the sense that he was a clan member but everyone knew he'd joined unwillingly, and he got treated like a special prisoner instead of a full member. This guy, though, had the wrong attitude for being here against his will.

Tayuya didn't trust him.

Nel acknowledged Even's greeting with a helpless smile and a nod. This had been somewhat inevitable, they'd all known, but it was still inconvenient that it had gone down quite like this.

"He's here," she said, "because he left them." That was as much concrete information as they'd had; he'd split from the Order, there had been tension, and so Marluxia and the other ryoka had wanted to bring him into the fold before the Order went to retrieve him. "That's as much as you need to know," she added, a touch bluntly. She wasn't up for gossiping about Even's reasons for leaving, and how much he was trusted, in part because she wasn't privy to any more information than Even had told her himself anyway. "He's a full member, he has to be treated as such."

Yylfordt had a point, though. No one had warned them, which was why it had gone down quite like this.

"I suggest someone goes to catch Grimmjow up before he walks in as well and we have an incident," she said, directing this mainly at Yylfordt.

Apache, who hadn't known that this Ryoka had history with them, said, a little lamely, "we hadn't known when you were getting back."

Well, they hadn't. She was sure that Aizen, or Nel, or somebody else who knew, would have told them if they had known in advance when they were getting home, before they had chance to run into him.

She looked at him, scowling a little, her loyalty to her friends coming though, but even she had do admit that he hadn't been any trouble since he'd moved in. Not that she'd heard, anyway.

Even watched Tayuya seethe and, with Nel around to stop any fights breaking out, he walked into the kitchen properly and made his way to the sink to wash his flask.

"I have severed ties with the Order," he said, slightly huffily, as he swilled the flask out and turned on the kettle. He had to make a conscious effort to tone down the effects of his reiatsu to stop it frosting the casing. "Feel free to quarrel with," he hesitated, wrinkling his nose, "the Berserker all you like."

He hadn't yet stopped being bitter. He probably never would.

Yylfordt looked around the room, felt the tense as hell atmosphere, and figured Nel was giving him the easy job right now.

"Yeah," he said, "that's probably a good idea."

Go and tell Grimmjow. Because Grimmjow would probably react like Tayuya, except with more fists, so forewarning him was a good idea. Unlike Tayuya, Grimmjow would probably hit first and ask questions later, if he bothered to ask questions at all.

His coffee could wait. Having that kind of start to the day had eliminated his need for it anyway.

Tayuya narrowed her eyes at the Ryoka. She hadn't met him as many times as she'd met the berserker, but since him hurting her, and then Grimmjow hurting him in retaliation was basically the whole reason those two went for each other every time they crossed paths, it was an odd thing to say.

"Don't need your permission to do that," she said, haughtily.

Then she remembered the berserker using the fire elemental's chakra to attack Grimmjow, and she snorted. That kind of thing happened in fairy tales. You had to be close to someone for a long, long time to even be exposed to enough of their reiatsu for something like that. That's why it only happened in fairy stories; it showed two people were basically in each others pockets.

And the berserker hadn't used ice, had he?

"Did he fucking dump you, is that why you're here?" She sneered. "You couldn't compete with that red headed asshole he's hanging around with now?"

Nel had, carefully, put herself in a good position to grab Tayuya if she decided to throw self preservation to the window and go for Even. Hopefully Grimmjow wouldn't decide to storm down here and confront Even himself when Yylfordt got the words out.

"Tayuya," she said, as a warning when Tayuya tried needling Even about his reasons for defecting to Khamja.

Even gritted his teeth.

He knew that the girl was trying to wind him up, as if that was the reason for his defection, but knowing did little to curb the sharp spike of irritation he felt at her words. Frost spread from his hands, crawled across the flask and, sparkling, coated the inside of the sink, the taps and started to creep up across the draining board as far as the moisture would allow.

He managed not to snap anything at her, which was lucky because there was nothing he could have said that wouldn't have looked like a weak denial and justification, but his silence spoke volumes. Likely the wrong ones, but volumes nonetheless.

Tayuya had been all set to laugh, and mock, but seeing frost form and spread across the kitchen sink made her rear back and think twice. Maybe continuing to needle the ryoka wasn't the best course of action right now. He seemed to be on the edge of losing it, and she knew from experience that he could fling an ice spell powerful enough to take her down in one.

There were a lot of reasons he shouldn't. It'd cause him a lot of trouble if he did, but that would be little comfort to Tayuya if she got seriously hurt or worse.

Clearly this guy was still pissy about getting dumped. It probably was why he'd joined Khamja, but that just made him pathetic. She sneered at him instead of saying anything.

Nel felt a pang of sympathy for Even. Break ups, whatever the circumstances, were an ugly business, and he hadn't exactly joined Khamja willingly, not that she was about to tell everyone that. She liked Even, he was a bit up himself, a bit snotty, but he wasn't actually bad as far as she'd been able to tell. He didn't deserve this right now.

"Why don't you two," she said, her voice soft, but her expression pointed as she looked from Apache to Tayuya, "go and find Grimmjow and Yylfordt?" It sounded like a suggestion, but she didn't really intend for it to be. It was really a polite dismissal, getting the Arrancar and the other underling out of the way of a full clan member that was a bit riled with one of them right now.

She didn't know exactly what had passed between Even and Saix, but she did know from Marluxia and Ienzo that the fire elemental, Axel, was considered a traitor, and that they were wary of the berserker associating with him because they were supposed to have fallen out. Marluxia had said that Axel had 'chronic backstabbing disorder', which Marluxia made quite clear had also happened to Saix.

Now, Even was here, and Saix was out there, with someone who had betrayed him once. It was bound to be a sore subject.

Apache stared as she saw frost crawl up the edges of the sink, crystalline and sparkling, until it starred the draining board. It was like watching a time lapse movie, except live.

More than that, the temperature in the room had plummeted. She scowled as her breath rose as steam in front of her eyes.

"Uh, yeah," she said, pushing her chair out and getting up. "Right."

She didn't mind abandoning her coffee. It had been lukewarm a moment ago, but now it was rather colder.

Tayuya looked from the ryoka, to Nel. She wasn't in the mood to back down, but she knew that was the smart thing to do right now.

"Whatever," she growled, standing up, with a sideways glance at Apache.

She wasn't retreating, she was just going because Nel had told her to, and she liked Nel. Most of the time she liked Nel. Right now, Nel seemed to be taking the ryoka's side, and Tayuya liked that a bit less.

She made for the door with little more than a derisive snort in the ryoka's direction.

Nel sighed once the other two had cleared the room.

She approached Even a little cautiously, and asked, gently, "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Nel was Archadian, and some habits died hard. Bad day? Tea. Run into old enemies? Tea. Get needled about the end of your last relationship by some uppity foul mouthed brat? Tea.

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It used to be so easy...

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