Rukia hadn't failed to come up with an escape plan every day since her two-month long captivity. There was safety in being in the Primera's care, well relative safety. None of her plans were ever viable including a number of human world references. She doubted very much looking over her sketch pad of ideas (all done in signature cartoon style) whether or not Dorothy's shoes from the Wizard of OZ could possibly find their way to Las Noches and fit her feet - remember, Cinderella, if the shoe fits.

Needless to say, her spirits plummeted exponentially on this abrupt realization. She was hopelessly a prisoner of Las Noches with no apparent end in sight. Moping didn't suit her, but Rukia could think of nothing better to do than thumb through Lilinette's collection of SWA magazines - although how she had gotten a hold of so many (including the current issue is a story for another day)

Now during this period of inactivity, Lilinette hadn't failed to notice Rukia's lethargy. She immediately attributed to Stark's laziness leaching off onto the woman. After all, Rukia had three square meals to eat, wasn't expected to do battle with anyone and was generally given the comforts of the pillow palace. In Lilinette's limited world perspective, she couldn't see anything lacking in Las Noches. She thought and thought a good deal about it in between daring Sun Sun to take sneak pictures of Ulquiorra.

Finally, she decided to take action after the second day of moping.

"Stark." Lilinette prodded him with her foot. From her vantage point on the bed, she had a bird's eye view of the thoroughly shut bathroom door. The sound of water running led her to assume Rukia was drowning her sorrows by belting out Daughtry's Home in terrible Engrish.

"Stark!" A little more insistent.

"Mmmm….Rukia?" One thick arm wrapped around her suddenly, pulling her down to the fluffy pillows.

"Nooo, stupid!" Lilinette shoved at any part of him she could reach, resorting to tickle torture.

"C-Cut it out!" Stark came awake with a yell, rolling over to try and escape her expert fingers. After a few minutes of gleeful cackling, she subsided into a sigh. "Stark." It was time for seriousness. He glanced up at her, blinking sluggishly in the overhead light.

"What is it?"

"She's depressed."

"Who?" Crudely, he screwed his finger in his ear, rotating a few times.

"Rukia. What are you going to do about it?" Lilinette sprawled on his chest, frowning.

"Nothing."

"Nothing." She echoed, pondering the hopelessness of the single word. How could a stupid word make her feel like the battle had already been decided? Stark sounded resigned. She could feel it through their linked souls.

"She's a captive. There isn't anything else for her to do but wait for the inevitable."

So that's all it boiled down to was waiting to win or lose the one person who she thought of as her friend.

Lilinette was angry for all the wrong reasons. Still, it felt better to be screaming mad about something than wallowing in the unfairness of it.

"Well! If you're not going to do something about it, then I will!" She said furiously, bounding off him. Stark shrugged his massive shoulders. He had turned over on his side, facing the wall when she looked to see if he was going to go along with her.

"Rukia is the first non-Hollow to not die around us. If you're going to deny your loneliness then maybe forever is overrated!" She wanted a parting shot, stumbling in her haste to get them out. She rubbed her one eye vigorously, smearing tears with the back of her knotted fist. Lilinette had half a mind to march back and show Stark just what she thought of him doing nothing, but time was of the essence. It was penultimate or of penultimate importance to convince Rukia to stay. Lilinette thought she might need to enlist Nel's help this time around…,

…

Rukia had metaphorically drowned her sorrows in the spacious white-tiled shower stall large enough to fit Stark's lanky frame. She felt very queenly indeed swaddled in a huge fluffy white towel switching to the comforting Rie Fu's Life is Like a Boat which sometimes life is kind of like a boat…somehow, she didn't get the point of the song, but it was comforting nonetheless.

She dressed in due time in a pair of (more) white hakama and a short-sleeved kosode with a black under-kimono. Somewhere there was either a space age replicator machine churning out white clothes constantly or the washers of Las Noches used ten million gallons of bleach. Whatever the case, Rukia was dang-tired of it.

"At least add some purples or the occasional yellow sun dress." She muttered to herself, thinking about petitioning Aizen. If she had to be a prisoner, at least let there be a change in wardrobe - for pity's sake for her execution at least!

On her way back to the main bedroom, she counted at least fifteen large chambered rooms with countless green pillows between them. No wonder Stark never did anything…there wasn't anything for him to do, Rukia drifted closer to the sound of Lilinette's one-sided argument.

"-kia is the first non-Hollow thing to not die around us. If you're going to deny your loneliness, then maybe forever is overrated!"

A few minutes later the door banged open and Rukia was nowhere to be seen. She held her hand to her heart in a familiar heart-racing scene out of shojo manga lineart- from behind one of the doors of the pillow rooms.

Stark…need anyone? The idea was laughable. She subsided into a muffled silent giggle as she considered the rest of Lilinette's words. What had she meant…things died around them? Rukia knew very little about the Arrancars beyond their quirks (neck fetish anyone?) maybe there was something she could learn - some weakness she could carry back and tell Soul Society. Then, again, as she decided the coast was clear, Stark's snores reached her.

Or…scratch that. If they were all as lazy as Coyote Stark, then maybe her friends didn't need help. Rukia yawned widely and returned to the room for a much-needed nap.

…

Lilinette found Nel in the massive kitchens poring over a cookbook. Masked kitchen slaves scuttled in and out of the way, some bearing large white platters of cut root vegetables. Lilinette had visited the greenhouse kept somewhere in the Octava's lab - it had been a lot of fun being chased around by his pill bug-like fraccion, needless to say he didn't encourage a second visit.

"I need your help to convince Rukia to stay." She burst out without preamble. Nel tucked her finger in her cookbook, keeping her place on the page with the recipe for fried jalapeno Hollows.

"Kuchiki-san is a prisoner, Lilinette. Either they rescue her or Soul Society falls. There isn't any other options for her."

Somehow she knew Nel was right. Slumping down on a stool at the end of the counter, Lilinette struggled to suck her tears back in. "It's just... we've had so much fun. I never knew wha-what it was like to have somebody else other than dumb old Stark around!" Rukia was so alive, so funny and to see her get mad at Stark was also great fun.

Nel hurried to her side, patting her back soothingly. "Don't cry! If we win the war, there's going to be lots of Shinigami captives to choose from!"

"B-But they're not Rukia!" Lilinette blubbered, her skinny shoulders trembled.

"How about one last picnic in the cave of the moonflowers?"

…

Stark didn't care…much. He told himself that several times, tossing and turning restlessly.

The bed dipped on one side. The icy bite of her reiatsu bit into him. He closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the kiss of ice brushing against his body. Unfortunately, a sneeze ruined the moment. If it was possible for his kind to get colds, he thought he was coming down with one.

It was true about what Lilinette had said.

War was imminent.

Rukia knew the time of dying was coming for her friends. He had little hope of her giving a thought to him. He was her enemy and she was his captive. Stark thought back to the day when he had gone looking for Aizen's newspaper and met her...

He could almost say it was a stroke of prodigious misfortune that caused them to cross paths.

He could almost hate her if he didn't...

...didn't... what?

Stark was an Arrancar of few words.

Sitting up abruptly, he voiced his thoughts aloud.

"Stay with me."

-TBC

AN: entering the final chapters of Rukia's crackpot adventures in Hueco Mundo. Life got in the way of a much earlier release of this chapter. Honestly, I would really like to finish this story soon. Thanks for reading

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