Weakness

"You know, you're not improving much... right?"

He dodged another swipe that I took at him, which seemed to be the only thing I was doing lately in training. I swung again, and he dodged again, of course. I gave a sharp glare at him as I tried to hit him in vain.

"Well it's nothing but the truth," he spoke again, his face calm and collect.

My face on the other hand was strained and sweating profusely. Energy was draining from me quite quickly and I felt my legs get heavy underneath me. I then stopped my vain attacks on my opponent, Arceniio, who was arrancar #51 while I was a pathetic #84. Giving in to my tired body, my body collapsed and I fell onto my back, my zanpaktou clattering to the ground.

"Why?" I questioned, sighing and sitting up.

"Why are you still weak after all this training?" he asked back.

Arceniio had a tendency to be a bit... what's the word, blunt and cold hearted. Though he wasn't as bad as others, so I won't complain. There's plenty others I can name, so I just gave a small frown and stated: "Yes. I mean, I train everyday so..." my eyes finished the rest of my sentence for me.

"Well, it's simple." He commented, sheathing his zanpaktou.

"It is?"

"Yes. The answer is that you're not pushing yourself hard enough." Arceniio gave me a stern look that screamed disappointment.

I frowned and looked down, not wanting to meet his gaze any longer. It was true, at first I would try my hardest, pushed myself until my legs started to tingle. But that wasn't enough, far from it. Arceniio wanted me to push myself until I couldn't feel my legs anymore, only the fire that burned in my muscles. But I was too weak, physically and mentally to push myself that hard. So I just gave up when that tingling sensation rang throughout my legs.

"Naracia..." Arceniio's voice pulled me out of my self-pitying session which dragged my brown eyes to his.

"If you can't really learn to push yourself in training in the next three days..." I gulped at his sentence as he paused, unknown fear swelling inside me. "Then our training will stop. You'll have to find another person to waste your time on."

I winced, there's that cold hearted part I was telling you about. Inside of me felt shame, I didn't deserve to be called an arrancar. But I didn't want to stop training with Arceniio either, I did want to get stronger. Though inside I felt like I didn't have the capacity to do so, I would have to, I would have to learn how to push myself. Arceniio was the only one who I knew who would actually train with me without actually trying to kill me. So in three days time... I would have to find that strength in me.

:: Next day ::

My eyes felt tired, I barely got any sleep last night due to the thoughts in my head running around ecstatically, despite my body tired and sore. I couldn't stop thinking about what Arceniio said yesterday, and it annoyed me to no end. Though I would just have to blow it off, I had an important meeting to attend to. Well, everyone did actually, all arrancar, including the Espada, who were the 10 strongest arrancar in Heuco Mundo. When I arrived, almost everyone was already there and I quickly spotted Arceniio who was surrounded by other arrancar who were around the same rank as him. I sighed and closed my eyes, going into self-pitying mode again like yesterday. I felt lonely, to say the least, I had no one who I could just spend my time with idly, just talking and walking around. It's not like I was asking for a friend, no, here in Heuco Mundo among the arrancar's, there was no such thing as 'friends' only comrades and undisputed loyalty to him, Aizen-sama. Though I was yanked roughly from my thoughts as I was abruptly pushed forward followed by a "Move it pipsqueak!"

My eyes shot open as I bumped into the back of a tall brooding arrancar who looked strong, not to mention pissed off. His hair was a purplish color and his eyes were pitch black and had the wild tinge to it. "Ah! G-gomenasai!" I stuttered, raising my hands in front of me in an apologetic manner.

"Watch where you're going wench!" he shouted at me, a vein popped out of his forehead.

He then pushed me back into the first guy, my face taking on a horror-struck look. "What did I just say pipsqueak!" the other arrancar yelled as I tried to inch away from the scene.

And from there, things just got worse. "Who you callin' pipsqueak dickhead?" the second arrancar with the purple hair shrieked back, mistaking the first ones comment to be directed at him.

"I wasn't talking to you asshole!"

"What was that you little shit?"

Managing to creep away some distance from the two now brawling arrancar, I thought I had made it, well, thought anyways. The purple-haired arrancar threw a punch at the other one but he stepped to the side, dodging it. This also sent it in my direction, square center of my face. I gave out a cry and blocked my face with my arms and awaited the swift contact of a bony fist... but none came. Gasps and whispers erupted around me and in curiosity I opened my eyes slowly and put down my arms. This revealed a somewhat shocking site, the fist only centimetres away from my face but with a hand tightly gripping the wrist. And there he was, in all his intimidating glory, Primera Espada Coyote Starrk. My mouth was agape as Starrk gave the now fear-ridden arrancar a lazy yet annoyed look. "St-Starrk..." the arrancar mumbled, his hands now trembling.

"Could we get through this meeting without any troubles?" he questioned, in his low enticing voice.

My eyes still gazed at him in awe as the arrancar's nodded slowly. Starrk let go of his hand and sighed, his hand resting behind his head. "Good."

He then turned to look at me with his deep brown eyes and my breathing hitched. Being around Starrk was almost unbearable; my heart beat would increase like crazy! But now looking at him with his gaze back on me as well everything seemed to be going so fast and in a blur, like a dream. Starrk's eyes still held their lazy manner but also a sense of curiosity. "Are you alright?" his words came out clear and reverberated in my ears as I began to feel lightheaded.

"H-hai." I whispered almost inaudibly.

So I nodded yes to him and he nodded back and before I knew it, he disappeared. Everything seemed to go back to normal then; my heart rate returned to normal and my vision was completely regular now. The two arrancar's both looked bewildered and the one who had almost hit me stumbled backwards and fell onto his butt. I gave a sigh of relief and hurriedly walked into the thick crowd, trying to pry away from the stares. Abruptly my wrist was grabbed by someone and I froze, my gaze then meetings none other than Arceniio's. "Arceniio...?"

He gave me a look that I myself couldn't quite read and so my eyes gave question to his actions. His grip on my wrist lessened until he fully let go. "What happened?" he asked, a tone in his voice taking me back a little, was it... concern?

"Uh..." my cheeks took on a dark shade of crimson, my gaze then directed to Starrk who stood on top of a high platform with the other Espada.

In all honesty I barely could remember. But what I do remember is Starrk appearing and asking if I was alright then disappearing; as quickly as he had showed up he was gone. "No matter," Arceniio's spoke, my view of site now directed to him. "You're alright so it's fine."

"O-Okay then." I stuttered, so he was concerned!

And with that he walked away, back to the group of arrancar's he often associated with. My face gave off an uneasy look, I felt so alienated presently, like none of this was real. But it was, obviously, though the crowd then fell eerily quiet and I looked up. There on the highest platform was Aizen-sama, who sat down on his throne, and Gin and Tousen standing on both sides of him. "I have some news, though it isn't very pleasant." Aizen gave a smile, like he usually did, when he spoke.

I gave a frown as he finished his sentence; no doubt this involved those irritating shinigami from Soul Society. Though Aizen-sama's voice seemed to die as I noticed Starrk, whose gaze was set upon me. Blinking a few times, I thought I was imagining it but I wasn't, he really was staring at me. Again my cheeks turned red, my head saying to look away, to look anywhere but at him, though my eyes never left his. The brown-haired Espada had a look in his eyes that made my curiosity reach a high quantity, but also made my heart beat anomalously, like it would jump out of my throat. "...so I hope none of you let me down, otherwise, consequences will be carried out."

Blinking I returned to the task at hand as Aizen-sama's voice interrupted our eccentric staring contest. Aizen had a threatening smirk on his face while every arrancar in the room seemed tense, but exited the room all the while signally that the oh-so important meeting I had just missed was adjourned. I quickly looked back to where Starrk was to see that he was now gone, again. My feet trudged along the stone floor, the room now nearly empty. Thoughts of Stark raced through my head as I absent-mindedly walked out of the room, completely unaware of the girls who were standing in the hall. I, unfortunately, bumped into one and had the dismay of being the victim of her temper. "Hey! Watch where you're going bitch!" the girl shouted as I jumped back at the anger in her voice.

The girl's hair was up in high pigtails while she wore a skimpy looking white dress that showed the middle of her upper body. "I-I'm sorry. I d-didn't mean to." I whimpered lightly.

Of course, the girl's rage didn't die down, not one bit. "Well how about we teach you a lesson so it won't happen again?" the other girl who looked quite tomboyish replied, a wicked grin on her face.

My heart jumped in fear because I knew these girls were stronger than me, pretty much everyone was. But that feeling quickly vanished as I felt a strong familiar reiatsu behind me. I gasped as a hand was placed on my shoulder and two girls quickly backed away, "Loly, Menoly, Aizen-sama wants to see you two now." Starrk spoke, emphasizing on the word 'now' harshly.

The girl with the pigtails looked to the other one and nodded and they both turned to walk away, but not without giving me a cold hard glare. Shuddering momentarily, I bit the bottom of my lip; not to self: do not go near those two again. I then remembered Starrk, who was behind me, and immediately tensed up. "You weren't paying attention."

"N-nani?" I backed away from Starrk, fighting away a furious blush that threatened to appear on my face.

"In the meeting." He simply stated.

"Oh." I paused for a second, not knowing what else to say. "W-wait! You weren't paying attention either. You were..."

My voice faded as my blush appeared, not wanting to finish the sentence. "I was. It might not have looked like it, but I was." He spoke, taking a few steps toward me. "You know, you're pretty cute."

"W-w-w-w-what?!" I yelped, my face immediately burning up.

"No wonder Arceniio wants to train you."

Shock overcame me; I was surprised he knew that Arceniio trained me, or that he even knew who I was. Though I can't really say that Arceniio trains me anymore, or will ever again if I don't learn to push myself. Wait... what does he mean by that? "Wait it's not like that!" I shouted in protest.

"Oh really... would you like to prove that?" he asked, tilting my head to face him with his finger underneath my chin.

Was he hitting on me?! "What? What do you mean?" my question sounded naive to say the least.

"I'm sure you can figure it out."

Starrk's face inched closer to mine, his breathe washing over my lips and then... I freaked. "Noo!"

I pushed Starrk away from me, my fingers trembling as my heart beat danced. Then looking to him I saw a disappointed look on him. "What... what were you doing?"

"Well..." he started, giving me an unfamiliar look with his eyes. "I could have sworn you loved me."

Could've sworn what? "Oh well..." he sighed, walking past me.

"W-wait!" I turned around and Starrk looked back to me, my heart beat starting to skip faster and faster. "I do love you but-"

Wait... did I just say what I think I said? Giving a gasp, I clamped my hands over my mouth, my eyes wide. Starrk just smiled and turned around. "Well then come on." he waved his hand in a gesture for me to follow him.

Should I trust him? What would happen if I followed him? Biting my lip again, I knew that this might be my only chance to be with him. The man that I felt proscribed feelings for so badly that it made me ache inside. "Coming..." I smiled, running up beside him.

Total Number of Words (excluding title): 2,312
Series Basis: Bleach
Requested/Prize: Seorie (Quizilla)
Time: A LONG TIME!
Date Finished: November 21st/09
Notes: OMG IT'S DONE! YAY! I'm SOOO sorry if Starrk seems OOC, I TRIED! Dx And I'm also sorry if the story just seems.... blah. T.T