In The Air Tonight (Shinku X Drake X Sora)[CLOSED]

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Shinku was not at her home, much to Ichigo's discontent. Instead, her meeting with the Arrancar known as Drake the other day somewhat emboldened her to the point of wanting to leave her home to acquire extra supplies. So far, no one had bothered her. The whole two people she had actually talked to had seen how timid she was and immediately left her alone. Now that she was safely within the forest, she had come across a glade that had many indigenous berries in it, making her rather happy.

So she began collecting with the basket she had brought. She had wanted to go to a store of some kind, but she wasn't ready for that. Far too many people that could harm her. For now, she was just collected the berries, humming softly and quite enjoying the silence of her solitude. She sighed softly after a while, her basket nearly full, and her thoughts flew to that of the Arrancar once more. She was wondering if he was okay, and if there hadn't been something stronger than him out there. She shivered with the thought of Drake being hurt, and her instincts to help those she loved cause her unused reiatsu to spike gently. It wasn't much, but it would be a dead giveaway to anything around where she was.

"You seem to very nearly have them now, at least." So the Arrancar offered in some attempted consolation, a thing that he wasn't experienced at in the very slightest. If things weren't bad enough with the woman fully breaking out into tears, even he was visibly depressed, and didn't waste much time in shifting lightly against Shinku, quite barely nuzzling against her. Suffice it to say, Drake was far out of his natural element, but at least he was trying, inclusive of spreading one wing and wrapping it partly around the woman and raising his head up to attempt an emulation of her earlier touch against his cheek but only succeeding at a little tap of the end of his snout against hers. Needless to say, his facial structure wasn't cut out for the action, but the thought was there and it hadn't felt bad to him, whatever it actually meant, so... 'twas something.

"Just... know that I won't really let anything happen to you as long as I'm still around, alright? I can promise that much," he offered with a slight grin.

Sora stood up in shock. Tears? He'd felt awful enough already. He sighed for a moment, exasperated. "It... it was the only thing I could think of on such short notice!" He exclaimed; not angrily, but rather in a defensive tone, as if he was trying to justify his actions. "I mean, we needed something to evoke an emotional response, and I couldn't think of anything else." He said, as he shoved crouched down a few feet away from her, in front of her. "Please don't hate us? We did it for your benefit..." He said, his tone sounding guilty, as if he knew what he had done was wrong.

He stood up once more, walking over to Lilly. By now, the sludge should have stopped flowing, making her safe to touch once more. Sora gingerly grabbed Lilly, making sure to keep Nikolai's coat wrapped around her, so she wouldn't lose any sludge if it WAS still flowing, and also so she could keep warm.

Shinku wiped the tears from her eyes and sighed softly. "I... I suppose I must... You did do what you said you were going to, at any rate..." She slowly got to her feet and rubbed her eyes again. She looked to Drake softly, snuggling into him like one would a lover for support. She whimpered against him, holding herself up using his body. Still sniffling a bit, she shakes her head and bows to Sora. "I... I apologize for making such a spectacle of myself, Sora... I didn't mean to..." Wait, she was the one tricked, and she was apologizing? What an odd girl... She continued clinging to Drake, not wanting the Arrancar to leave her arms at the moment.

She looked to Lilly in Sora's arms and tilted her head. "Ahh... Did you break a doll? I can fix those, you know..." A soft snore and budge from Lilly caused her to jump onto Drake's back and gasp in fright. Her grip on the Arrancar's neck only got tighter as she was frightened so easily. "She... She's alive? How in the world can she be with such wounds? She looks as if she could fall apart at any moment!"

If there were ever a time the Arrancar was glad enough he was relatively tall (despite being shorter than most other such beings he'd seen; curse whatever oddity or poor luck made him stay in a bestial form when he'd seen a few do the opposite when they activated their power), it was now. Sure, it was only a little over four feet, but it was fairly tall for his form, if anything. Like that he was only too willing to support the woman and stay close to her, his eyes glancing over in curiosity at the mention of some broken doll. Oh, right... the one he'd agreed not to eat as one part of a bargain. "She'd already been hurt pretty badly when I found her, but he told me not to eat her, so I guess it's alright," Drake commented with a slight shrug, shifting his still slightly hurting wings down so they wouldn't be in Shinku's way after he suddenly found her on his back. "I'm no healer or anything of the sort, so there's not really anything I could do for her except transfer over a bit of my energy, for whatever that did."

Sora chuckled, as he held the bundle tighter to his chest. "Not a doll, my fri-...sister." He said, rethinking the last word, as that was how he had truly come to see her in the short time they had known each other. He looked down at her, sighing. "I don't know how she does it, but thankfully, she's still alive. She seems to be a Comeback Kid." he said, as he looked down at her. Again, he only heard bits and pieces of what Drake had said, straining his ears to try and make it out, to no avail. From the few words he heard, however, it seemed Drake was explaining the whole thing to Shinku. Or at least part of it.

He looked up to Drake, the smile on his face replaced with a serious look. "Now, I'm going to tell you exactly what being in The Family entails." He said, as he shifted his weight to another leg. "As I told you, our primary objective is to protect Karakura, Naruki, and Kagamino from any threats; Arrancar, Hollow's, Rogue Shinigami, or anything else that wishes for it to be hurt. Aside from Member's, we have two ranks. Care-Taker, and Aide. You will be an Aide. You don't have any special duties in particular; rather, you're more of a guardian of the family, whereas Care-Taker's watch over a group of three member's, and are in charge of them. As an Aide, you have no responsibilities as of yet, but once we gain more people, you and the other aide's will each need to take at least one branch of member's and their Care-Taker out to help season them, and teach them how to fight." He explained. Obviously, there were some things he hadn't said, that shouldn't need to be explained. No killing the other members, no attacking other members... basically, don't do another member wrong.

"But I need to get Lilly home soon. She needs to rest. We can pick up where we left off in a few days. Know it or not, she might need to rest a little bit to recover emotionally, and spiritually. She used some technique on my arm, I know not what yet, but it felt as if it were on fire." He said.

Shinku nodded, smiling softly, but staying on Drake's back. He had a sister as well. The scene was really cute, and it made her remember fond memories of her and her sister. Particularly, while Ichigo was sick, Shinku taking care of her by making her food and not letting her out of bed. Snuggling into Drake's back, she looks to Sora. "I can attempt first aid on her, if you want... I've been rather good at that..." She gives Lilly another look, before looking to Drake. "Maybe we should go to Sora's home..."

Lilly moved slightly, then flicked out her tongue, licking Sora's shirt. "Nyeehhh... More ice cream? Ahhhhnnnn.... Perfect..." Seemed she was having another of her eating dreams. She certainly wouldn't object to being taken back to her room... With lots of sweets when she awakens...

The Arrancar gave a little nod as Sora finished his explanation, admittedly not completely getting it but understanding enough; basically, just keep doing what he'd already put his life toward doing, it was sounding like. For him, that was no problem at all, which was somewhat of a relief, if truth be told. This he didn't show, however; rather, he was just content to let things go as they would.

Another little nod was granted upon Shinku's suggestion (as if he could deny a request in the first place) and he considered, only for a moment, taking everyone there the same way he'd taken Lilly and Sora here. The thought was quickly dismissed when he couldn't work out a way to do so comfortably on the part of all three, so he'd content himself to just walk with his lone current passenger. "Can't really take three people very easily, especially when one's injured and my wings are slightly sore from that wind earlier, so I guess we can just go this way," he spoke, making sure in the meantime not to shift too much as he moved so he wouldn't likely risk jarring the woman on his back or otherwise making her uncomfortable; an easy enough task, fortunately.

Sora sighed, as she began licking his shirt. "Yes, I wouldn't mind some guests. It's been a while since I've had visitor's, anyway. Plus it would help her to get some actual bed-rest, I'm sure." Sora said, as he shifted Lilly in his arms, keeping sure that the coat did not fall away to reveal her to the rather temperate air. He listened to what Lance said, trying to make sense, but also to no avail. "As I told you before, I've got my own means of travel. If you would like to fly the lady here, I can carry Lilly." He said, believing Drake couldn't carry them since he decided to walk with Shinku on his back.