Characters: Ichigo, Neliel
Summary: In a way, she reminds him of his mother.
Pairings: No pairings
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Hueco Mundo arc
Timeline: Hueco Mundo arc
Author's Note: Neliel does seem somewhat similar to Masaki, doesn't she? Also, this is officially my 200th Bleach oneshot.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Long green hair cascades down her back and Ichigo has a hard time of thinking of Nel—Neliel, Nel, what's he supposed to call her?—as anything but a tiny little girl with a disturbing vocabulary.
Nel's a little girl.
She's not a grown woman.
She's not, except she is.
Tall and straight-backed. Long hair, and definitely, he's more than a little abashed to notice, a grown woman.
Ichigo tries not to sigh. He's sure he doesn't want to know how this all happened. Judging from the words Nel and Nnoitra are passing, it's probably something that makes sense only to them. Nnoitra becomes more and more distracted, angrier by the second; he's losing it. Nel is only just as calm as she's ever been.
She's much calmer as an adult, he notices, than she ever was as a child.
Then, Nel turns one hazel eye back on Ichigo and tells him she's going to handle everything. She says that everything will be alright.
And, oddly, Ichigo remembers his mother, swears he could almost be looking at her now.
Nel's hair ripples down her back the same way Masaki's did, though Masaki's hair was brown and not green. They have the same sweet, honey-smooth voices, clear and melodious.
And they have the same calm serenity, the assuredness that all would be well.
When Nel looks at him with one hazel eye and says that she will take care of everything, that all will be right again, Ichigo remembers his mother's brown eyes, warm and kind as she said the same thing.
And as with Masaki, Ichigo finds he can believe her.