Archive of Our Own ^beta

     In the depths of Hueco Mundo, a singular lean, angular man was cold. Understanding that it is always nighttime there; Nnoitra Gilga would inescapably be a little chilly from the air. It wasn’t his fault that his master, Sōsuke Aizen, wouldn’t provide them with any sort of heating. At least he had a blanket, which was a nice gesture from previously mentioned Aizen if you ignore the fact that it didn’t fully fit over a 7'1 Arrancar. Despite all that, he was cold and couldn’t focus on anything. The mantis-like man shivered and curled, looked around to see if he was alone, then wrapped himself up more.

     His eye slowly closed and reopened itself, his pupil horizontally spread out across his sclera; appearing similar to a bug’s eye. His blanket was carefully placed over his shoulders and covered around to hold a good amount of his torso, his teeth were clenched and he was rocking back and forth. “It’s fucking cold.” Nnoitra spit out before lightly ducking lower underneath his sheet of cloth, knowing no one was around him but hoping Tesra or somebody was in hearing range. Looking strained, he stood up and began pacing around, just to get heat into his body by moving.

     Stepping into the room his master was currently inhabiting, Tesra watched a shaking Nnoitra pace around in circles, too frosty to give knowledge to his Fracción. “Master Nnoitra, are you alright?” The Cincuenta questioned softly, the superior’s gaze met Tesra’s. He scowled and let the blanket slide down a little to resemble a cape, giving a visual example of how he could handle the temperature. Nnoitra turned his whole body to face his underling, “Would you quit worrying about me? I’m fine. You’re acting like I’d die from a slight change in the weather.” His eye sharpened its gaze and the flesh where his eyebrow would be slanted downwards.

     “Apologies, of course, Master Nnoitra; I don’t know why I thought to ask.” Tesra let his iris slip to the left, trying to ignore his master’s glare. “May I bring you something to drink at least?” He shifted his hands behind his back and stared at Nnoitra with something considerable to an awe. “Somethin’ to drink? Fine, whatever.” The Quinto dismissed Tesra with a hand motion then quickly tucked it back under his blanket as soon as he was out of sight. He sighed a bit of relief from Tesra’s appearance, it’s not like he wanted his Fracción’s help but not having to go get something himself was a bit helpful. Nnoitra knew he could survive in the cold effortlessly, he was an Espada after all, but when he’s not in battle, he should at least let himself rest.

     After around 15 minutes of waiting, Tesra returned with a cup in his head, and there was steam flowing above it in the air. Nnoitra peaked his head up, and got closer to the Fracción; “Gimme,” Nnoitra paused, “what is it?” Tesra eyed him for his confident approach of action then smiled. “It’s, as humans call it, ‘hot chocolate’.” He placed a piece of cloth in Nnoitra’s hands then began to give him the drink “Be careful, it’s hot.” “I assumed that, dipshit.” Nnoitra held it in his hands and let the warm sensation spill throughout his body, he shook a little but not enough to spill the contents of the cup and gave Tesra a nod before turning around and sitting down somewhere he considered comfortable.

     “Enjoy, sir.” Tesra smiled as he stepped away into a different room, leaving Nnoitra to his drink. The Quinto peered down at it, watching the steam rise up in front of him like a burning fire; he let himself watch as it slowly cooled down in his hands, envisioning the cold atmosphere sinking its teeth into anything that could even be known as warm. Once it finally felt cool enough to drink, he brought it to his lips and sipped it quietly, it calmed him down from the cold and he felt a little more warm than before, but it was still freezing. Disturbing his silence with a huff of air he could see drift away from him, Nnoitra stood up with a half drunken cup of hot chocolate. He didn’t originally think to wonder where Tesra got the materials for this drink from, perhaps he just found something that was close enough, or he asked Gin to fetch him some.

     As he pondered, Nnoitra heard a slurping noise come from himself, then looked down to see his drink had vanished. He liked the rich taste of the chocolate but couldn’t think to ask for more, that wouldn’t be like him. So he looked for somewhere reasonable to place his cup down then thought about his next plan of action to get warm, since the comfort of being warm was starting to disappear throughout his hull. He thought about just trying to sleep through the cold, to ignore the temperature creeping against any part of his heirro that decided to show itself but he decided against it. Then he came up with something, that freak scientist had got to have something to keep himself warm, other than his full-body uniform.

     The shivering mantis stepped out of his palace into the long corridors and barren rooms of Las Noches; he hoped no one saw him like this, especially another Espada. If someone like Grimmjow or even Yammy saw him wrapped up like he was in a cocoon too small for him, they’d never let him live it down, even though he knows he can defeat those two, he ranks higher than both of them. Fortunately though, the only ones who did see him were either scared Fracciónes or low ranking Arrancars. Entering the palace which belongs to the Octava Espada, Nnoitra watched as inhumanly looking Fracciónes bounced around the place and he was unable to tell if they were playing or training.

     One of the little things approached Nnoitra, a round one with two black pigtails named Lumina. “What do you need, Mr. Nnoitra?” She spoke in an almost distorted tone, as she danced around happily in front of him. He was hesitant to speak, unsure on what she was, but he buried the unnerve she gave him and spoke. “Where is your master, y’know, the weird one?” His tone was collected, with him making hand movements as he spoke, “I only have one master, Szayelaporro Granz!” As soon as she mentioned his name, the other malformed Fracciónes began jumping around and cheering, as if Szayelaporro was some sort of deity to them. What kinda fucked up is Szayel to make these things worship him like this? Nnoitra thought with an almost pitied expression, then he remembered that these weren’t any of his business and what works for this freak is even less of his business.

     Unsuspectedly, Lumina snatched Nnoitra’s wrist and began to drag him, he slumped after her with a twitch in his eye. He preferred to be warned before being dragged along, especially by whatever she was, but nonetheless, he followed. Lumina led him through long hallways of various damaged areas and rooms with things in containers, vials, tubes, and even fish tanks and cages. There was also a room full of chemicals only, behind glass with locks on every compartment, there were so many chemicals in there that it frightened Nnoitra. He ignored the rest of the path, despite it all looking a bit questionable to finally end up in the most normal looking room. A medium sized bedroom, withs walls coated in black paint. There were dressers in there, probably full of a variety of clothing, there were lamps too but they were unplugged. Then finally, in the middle pressed against the back wall, was a bedframe, with curtains covering the contents inside.

     Nnoitra looked around and felt a calming presence in the dark, which is unusual, not because he’s scared of the dark, but because why would someone feel comforted by it? He looked around and then felt Lumina tug him down to a point where she could whisper into his ear. “Please don’t disturb my master, but here he is! He’s resting because he just finished conducting a few experiments. Goodbye, Mr. Nnoitra!” She smiled at him before running off as Nnoitra thanked her, nervously. Once she was gone, he stepped forward towards the covered frame. He leaned down and pulled the curtain back slightly, viewing the inside of the bed. At first, the Quinto saw a nice silk blanket shift around at the foot of the bed, so he closed the curtain and moved closer to the wall to get a look at the head of it.

     Holding the curtain ever so gently, Nnoitra drew it back slowly. Inside, he witnessed as a sleeping Szayelaporro held his head with his arms in a cradle position and had both his knees bent forward to shape himself into a little ball of sorts. His eyes were shut and he looked…Peaceful. The most beautiful state you could see him in, as vulnerable as it was, it was a gorgeous sight to be held, as he is pretty. It made Nnoitra stand there for a second, his face turned a warmer color but it wasn’t because of the temperature this time. He did like the sight, despite him calling Szayelaporro ‘weird’ and a ‘freak’, it still didn’t undermine his beauty. Nnoitra did think he was nice to look at, but he would never admit that.

     He decided that instead of waking the Octava, he would find a different way to get warm. Nnoitra unsheathed the curtain enough to crawl onto the bed, then closed it back. Sliding under the blanket, the mantis scooted closer to his lower ranking colleague; his hands encapsulating Szayelaporro, in an almost perfect way. It was natural and was a good feeling, a warm feeling. Pink hair fell onto Nnoitra’s shoulder, mixing in with his contrasting black hair, a nice color combination. The scientist was still sound asleep, his arms did wrap themselves around Nnoitra, but he didn’t do it consciously; it made the other snicker at how unguarded he could be, Nnoitra could kill him right now and Szayelaporro wouldn’t do anything to stop it, but he didn’t.

     Instead, he rested his head up on top of Szayelaporro’s, the higher ranking Arrancar brought his legs to wrap around the Octava, holding him completely. The warmth made Nnoitra weak to his consciousness , his eye began to flutter and close but he wouldn’t fall asleep, he couldn’t. What if Szayelaporro found him like this? Cuddled up with him and asleep? The man wouldn’t leave him alone if that was the case, and Nnoitra wouldn’t stand for it. So instead of standing for it, he told himself he wouldn’t go to bed in small whispers before they drowned out into a small purring noise that matched the sound omitting from Szayelaporro.

     Nnoitra Gilga had fallen asleep, his will was defeated by the comfort of the mattress, which Nnoitra didn’t even have enough strength to question how Szayelaporro obtained such a comfortable bed. His originally closed mouth drooped open and a bit of drool leaked out onto the other's head, he hadn’t slept in so long, and it wasn’t like Szayelaporro wasn’t drooling either. He came here to get heated up by some random drug, Nnoitra did, but he ended up huddling up next to the scientist; the blanket was much larger than the ones handed out by Sōsuke so there was a chance that Szayelaporro sown it himself. Nnoitra purred and hummed in his sleep, snuggling against the pillow and against Szayelaporro too. The other somehow hadn’t woken up yet, all his previous attempts to guard himself had been whisked away by his slumber.

     The two slept soundly and let anything that could frighten them awake leave their minds for now. It was time to rest, and rest they would, they shuffled and turned slightly but nothing disturbed them. They lied there for hours upon hours, not wanting or caring for anything. Who cares if someone is looking for them or if Tesra is scrambling around for his master? Nnoitra and Szayelaporro wanted to sleep, let them have some time to do so. But of course, there was always a chance one of them would awaken and freak out at being in the same bed as the other, then waking both of them and watch them argue and argue. Despite that, it was peaceful now. Until Nnoitra rolled a little too close to Szayelaporro and woke the bastard up.

     Slowly opening his eyes and closing his mouth, the Octava looked to see the one and only, Nnoitra Gilga, hibernating next to him. Obviously his first reaction was to push the damn bug out of his bed, that man didn’t belong here, but said man had his arms and legs closed tightly around him, leaving him paralyzed due to the shock of it and because he simply couldn’t move. “Nnoitra?” A raspy tone slipped out of his mouth as he asked for the other’s attention but to no avail, he was dead asleep with no chance of him waking up soon. Szayelaporro began to writhe and struggle to either escape the grasp or at least wake Nnoitra up, but he eventually gave up. The damn mantis wasn’t the only tired one, y’know?

     What the hell is he doing in my bed? Did he climb in himself or…Did someone leave him here?! Szayelaporro thought to himself as Nnoitra’s chest vibrated from his purring, leaving Szayelaporro’s head to be the recipient of it. He didn’t mind it, gave him something to rest on since his pillows had been overtaken, but it was a bit embarrassing to say the least. Oh well, whatever, Nnoitra was in his bed anyway, might as well get benefitted a little bit. Szayelaporro softly placed the side of his head on Nnoitra’s chest, letting the sound and vibration ring throughout his ear. He already knew the sound, he already knew what Nnoitra was like when he slept, which was a rare occurrence but he managed to observe his slumber at least once.

     Nnoitra wasn’t the only one who purred, in fact, all of the hollows did, but the Espada had the loudest ones. Szayelaporro purred gently, with coos sprinkled throughout, it sounded sweet and almost as catlike as Grimmjow’s. His purr was higher pitched than his voice, it seemed like his voice was cracking in his slumber, but he didn’t let anyone see him sleeping. Well, except for now, Nnoitra had seen him rest, maybe. Szayelaporro sighed out of defeat and closed his eyes, if he went back to sleep, maybe it’d clear his mind of imagining Nnoitra see him sleep. He wrapped his arms back around the other and pressed his body closer to him, ignoring the voice in his head telling him to get out of the bed. With a final noise to settle him in, Szayelaporro let a soft tone ring throughout the room once more before falling asleep in the arms of the Fifth Espada,

     “Goodnight, Nnoitra.”