Log; Complete

[boobsorbust.livejournal.com]

When; Last night, after this.
Rating; PG for drinking. :D
Characters; Kurotsuchi Nemu [sciencedaughter] and Matsumoto Rangiku [boobsorbust]
Summary; Rangiku teaches Nemu the fine art of cards and Girl Talk. Except... Nemu kind of sucks at Girl Talk. Not the cards. She's good at cards. It's the poker face.
Log;

Kurotsuchi Nemu had never in her life played cards.

Of course, she had seen other people do it. Lots of things she knew about she only knew about because other people did them, because Kurotsuchi Nemu did not often do anything that wasn't "what Mayuri-sama wished".

Mayuri-sama, surely, was not about to tell her to play cards.

But one thing she knew about cards, simply from observation, was that it "passed the time". And she wanted the time to pass. The creation was confined to bed rest, and even if she weren't, she doubted she could get far, what with the healing still aching in her stomach, a ravaged womb and belly from the unnatural birthing of the Octava Espada. She didn't have a problem rationalizing she had been used as a tool by the Arrancar to revive himself, just as she had no problem rationalizing how her creator used her.

She was a tool. But... idly, a tool that hoped Rangiku would remember to bring cards.


Rangiku did remember to bring cards, thank you! But remembering to bring them wasn’t so hard as remembering where she had put them in the first place, though, and after a few minutes of turning her pig sty of a room upside down and over, she finally came up triumphant, deck of cards in hand. (Rangiku wasn’t sure when she’d bought that deck of cards, or if she’d even bought it at all, but that was beside the point.) It was then a simple matter of walking down the hallway to find Nemu, which suited Rangiku’s tastes perfectly. None of that “walking to other buildings” nonsense; no! She could get some girl time just down the hall.

Add to that one deck of cards, a stash of booze in the cabinet, and a recent holiday (the better excuse to drink, of course!), and Rangiku was in hog heaven.

“So~” she said, plopping down beside Nemu’s bed, a wicked grin stretching across her face, “looks like I get to teach you to play cards!”


"I apologize for my lack of knowledge." Nemu promptly said, making sure to get the apology out before anything. She'd been lying down, as instructed, but now she slowly pulled herself up, a small wince that she was careful not to try and draw attention to as she gingerly sat up, aggravated the ache in her belly but she didn't mind, propping her shoulders against pillows to smile a little.

"I had a feeling ou would bring alcohol." She murmured. Honestly, though she seemed uneasy, she had been... pleased, when Abarai-fukutaichou, then Hinamori-fukutaichou, had extended the invitation of living with them and the others. Surely she had not been lonely, living by herself for almost a year in this place, but...

Living without the ticking was something... nice.


Rangiku tsked her immediately, waving a hand in Nemu’s direction. It was just like Nemu to apologize for everything, even if she didn’t necessarily have a say in the matter.

“Don’t worry about it! It’ll be fun!” she said with her usual buoyancy, ignoring the way Nemu winced as she sat up. The whole point of this exercise was to get Nemu-chan to not think of her injuries. And, perhaps, have a little fun. God knew the girl needed to have fun. Rangiku couldn’t imagine serving under Kurotsuchi-taichou; she was lucky Hitsugaya-taichou was so lenient with her, no matter how much he pretended he wasn’t.

“Of course! It wouldn’t be a card game without alcohol. Actually, I don’t think I know any games that don’t involve alcohol,” she added as an afterthought, index finger to her lips, before giving a small shrug and popping open the deck of cards. “Hmmm, what shall we play…”


"... Whatever you would like would be fine?" Nemu suggested, hands demurely folded in her lap.

Honestly, she was glad for Rangiku not drawing attention to her pain. She didn't want to be reminded of it, however much she could rationalize it. She didn't want to remember the pain of it, of the Arrancar's infected egg activated at his need, swelling and growing inside her even as it sapped ever nutrient, every bit of life from her. It was not a pleasant memory.

"Poker? Blackjack? Craps?" She merely began to list off those she had heard of, her voice somewhat flat.


Rangiku considered the options with a thoughtful frown, head tilting idly from side to side as she expertly shuffled the deck, cards whizzing and cracking in her fingers. One didn’t frequent bars as often as Rangiku did without picking up a few things, after all.

“Poker!” she declared finally, shifting to fold her legs underneath her. The most basic of all card games. Well, perhaps not basic, but certainly the most popular. Besides, Nemu was smart; she would catch on quickly.

“Alright,” Rangiku began, dealing out cards as she explained, “the point of poker is to get the best combination of cards as you can out of five cards. Simple, ne?”


"Of course." She replied automatically, dark eyes falling to watch her fingers, her own twitching as she worked over in her mind how the other shinigami made her fingers move like that. She watched the cards, and followed each rule and explanation. It was not the simplest of games, but she was not the simplest of minds, and each rule and regulation was as easy as breathing to her, rules and orders always were.

Pale fingers held the cards, kept count, kept trach, and it could be said she had quite the poker face, with that steadily blank expression as she appraised the other and moved her hand accordingly.

It was between the three of a kind and the straight flush, and her ninth drink, that she noticed.

"Matsumoto-fukutaichou..." Her voice was just beginning to slur, her usual resistence to the drink tampered with by 4th division medications. "... Maybe you should stop?"


Rangiku knew Nemu would take easily to poker, just like she would take well to go or chess or any game with an ungodly set of rules. Rangiku also knew that she would lose sorely, since Nemu would take well to poker (her poker face was perfect! It really wasn’t fair) and she had a very, very high tolerance for alcohol. Rangiku hadn’t given it much thought, since drinking games weren’t so much about winning and losing as they were about getting obscenely drunk, and besides, wasn’t the whole point to get Nemu to stop fretting about getting bed rest?

Right. Yes. That was the point. Or so Rangiku told herself after her… well, she had lost count of however many drinks she’d had, and that was never a good sign. It had to be in the double digits. Hmm. Rangiku thought hard on this, almost forgetting to listen to Nemu when she spoke.

“Wha? Of coursh not, Nemu-chan!” she enthused in a voice that was far more slurred than Nemu’s, thrusting a finger in the air triumphantly. “’M not even drunk yet,” she added with a soft hiccup, and squinted at her cards.

Two kings, a seven, a three, and a two. That was… “One pair! Yosh!” Rangiku splayed her cards on the floor with a wide smile. “What di’ you get?”


Nemu blinked.

"You appear quite impaired." It didn't help she herself felt somewhat... odd. She'd been drunk once in her life, of course, but that had been a curse day and twenty seven twelve ounce drinks, in successsion, followed by a detox of her systems. ... For experimentation, of course. Nothing else.

The creation looked down with the same face, carefully blank, and slowly, ever so slowly, shifted her body weight, drew long legs up and under, to better appraise her cards.

"... flush." She murmured regretfully, laying them down in view. Was it really fair to win like this? Surely not?


Rangiku stared long and hard at Nemu’s cards, blinking once, then twice. Maybe she was a little drunk.

“Alright, maybe I’m a little drunk,” she conceded, holding out her thumb and forefinger to demonstrate exactly how little.

… Oh well! With a shrug, Rangiku picked up her shot glass and knocking back the drink, wobbling slightly in her seat. After all, the whole point of this was… well, now she’d forgotten, but drinking was always good. And by the looks of things (she could hardly believe her own eyes), Nemu appeared to be a little tipsy too, one of the things Rangiku looked forward most to seeing. She would take full advantage of the situation!

“I shink you’re a little drunk too~” she said with a Cheshire grin, shakily pouring out another pair of glasses, the cards all but forgotten for the moment. “Now! Tell me about Ulku—Ulli—that arrancar guy.”


"Perhaps my blood alcohol level is not ideal, no." Nemu admitted uneasily. Perhaps it was not the best idea to consume alcohol and medication, however... Unohana-taichou had not specifically cautioned against it, so she had not been ordered not to do it, and so, she could think of it as somewhat acceptable by omission.

At the last bit, Nemu blinked again, looking up in surprise even as she obediantly forgot her cards, still laid out in front of her knees, took the drink provided and sipped a moment before downing it. To be honest, she didn't like the taste. She did not dislike it, but she did not like it, either.

"... What about him?" She queried softly, eyes softening only slightly.


If she had to, Rangiku would admit that this was one of the proudest moments of her life, watching Nemu down drinks like a pro, semi-drunk and engaging in Girl Talk. Girl Talk! Amazing!

Her next thought was that Nemu kind of missed the point of Girl Talk, which was to gossip relentlessly and not ask silly questions like what about him? since, obviously, the answer was everything!. Rangiku blinked at the rather broad question, pausing to mull this over in her alcohol-saturated brain. There were a lot of ways she could go with that, and had she been sober, she might’ve asked any number of them. But at the moment, all she could think to say was…

“So you liiiiiiiike him?”


Now that was a question.

Nemu had spent a lot of time on the answer to that question. Over the year she had been in the City many things had happened to her. She had lived, as she had never lived before, lived free from orders, from Mayuri-sama, lived dead, lived cursed, slept with an Arrancar, developed 'friendships', and ever so recently, been forced into birthing an Espada.

It was fair to say, then, that Nemu had, over time, begun to change, in little ways.

"I..." She began tentative, the quiet sound of her voice holding something of a politically correct confidance.

"Through my interaction with the Arrancar, beginning during curse days and slowly evolving beyond that to, perhaps, a somewhat understanding of circumstances and natures, and from their, a somewhat uneasy relationship something like mutural comradeship but, yet, decidedly not. It... would not be too brazen to say that I, while I do not lay claim on... love, or any such thing, did come to greatly enjoy his company, yes."

And then she took a breath.


Rangiku blinked. Blinked again. The cogs in her mind turned.

“So you do like him,” she concluded smugly, her expression suddenly thoughtful, albeit drunkenly so. How strange, that Nemu would have a crush on an arrancar. Rangiku didn’t know anything about this Ulquiorra character personally, aside from what she read (or didn’t read) of in reports and dossiers, but she couldn’t help but imagine him as being somewhat… stiff. Impassive. Sort of like the male version of Nemu.

She giggled.

The fact that he was an arrancar didn’t bother Rangiku so much, barely entering her thoughts, because, honestly, would Nemu like him if he was all that bad?

… Alright, bad example, but that was why she didn’t think on it overmuch.

“So why didn’t you two get together, ne?” she asked, eyes wide and glassy. “Because he left?”


"I did not dislike him." Nemu corrected quickly to the inference that she would like anyone, let alone an Arrancar, let alone... anyone.

"... And-" Her mouth opened, and stayed that way for a few whole moments pause, as her fingers twitched over nothing and the twinge in her gut reminded her of far too unpleasant things. What had she done? She'd betrayed everything that mattered, surely, because she had betrayed Mayuri-sama, for surely- And she knew this, from his brief stint in the City, that he would never allow her to belong to anyone else in any way, shape, or form.

She settled quiet for another moment, her eyes lowering. Another drink was poured, how rude of her to take the bottle, and she sipped at it briefly.

"Our sexual relations were limited to curse days." She began. "Our other interactions were cordial, and usually limited to intellectual discussion." Her voice seemed too hesistant for her usual straight statements. "And then he left."

She'd been sad, when he left. She missed him, and denied it wholly.

"... And I then had no desire to think to, if and when he returned, try and recreate the strange order of circumstances that led to our uneasy... social relationship."


Didn’t dislike him, hmph. Rangiku dismissed that instantly with a wave of her hand. Nemu liked this Ulquiorra and there was nothing that would change her mind about that. Nemu was just too calculating about her relationships and emotions when there was no need to be, and that, Rangiku supposed, would never change.

Quietly, she listened, strangely still despite the fact that she should be wobbling all over the place. It took a while for what Nemu said to sink in fully, but there was something about the timbre of her voice that resonated in Rangiku. Love lost. Wistfulness. The like. She could definitely relate, and for a moment, her mind was halfway away, back in Rukongai with Gin, as she murmured, “I see.”

Tsk, she obviously wasn’t drunk enough, if her mind was still straying there. “Well!” she added with an overwide smile, pouring a couple more drinks and gulping hers down. “Shurely there’re other men here you like, ne~?”


"..." Nemu blinked again. "No." The idea that she would like anyone sexually, and specifically for that reason, was entirely foreign to her.

She could understand how Rangiku would perhaps think this, she knew, but did not try and speculate, that she and Ichimaru Gin had been involved. Perhaps this had sometime to do with it, she as unsure, and she refused to speculate on certainties.

"Why would you have that idea?"


“Psh,” Rangiku scoffed, holding out a drink for Nemu to take before pouring another for herself. Nemu was still missing the point! Gossiping! Speculating! Talking about handsome men and wondering how good in bed they were! The fact that Rangiku was a little surprised at all proved how drunk she was. This was Nemu, after all.

There was something to be said for her persistence, though. She hadn’t given up on Nemu in… well, a very long time, and she certainly wasn’t going to stop.

“There aren’t any guys at all who you think are cute~?” Maybe she just needed to put it in Nemuspeak. “Guys who you ‘don’t dislike’?”


"... I think something positive could be said for the physical appearence of all the males I know." Not that it wouldn't be hard, for some. But she would be polite. "I have never in my memory thought someone was... "cute"."

At the continuation of the question, she downed the drink offered, the same confused, blank, look, and she offered back her cup.

"I do not dislike any shinigami I work with." It was not her place to.


Sigh. Rangiku rolled her eyes with a groan, leaning back in her seat and nearly falling. Nemu really was horrible at this. She needed more alcohol. As of yet, Rangiku hadn’t gotten her even close to hammered, but tonight looked like her best shot so far. Maybe then Nemu would open up a little. Or at least do something that wasn’t so… Nemuish.

Rangiku handed over another drink, before downing her own. “Come on, Nemu-chan~! There has to be shome people you like more than others! Or… someshing,” she finished lamely, shooting Nemu an incredulous look. “You don’t hafta be polite or anything! It’s just us!”


She down the cup offered, would take most anything if offered, if given by a fellow shinigami, offered the empty cup back obediently.

"I think about Mayuri-sama most." The creation answered honestly. What he was doing, if he had replaced her, if he had promoted someone else, if they had finished the experiments on A267 yet, if-

Nemu stopped herself.

"... And." A bit of a slur. "Perhaps I miss him." Not Mayuri-sama.


Of course. Kurotsuchi-taichou. Rangiku shook her head, then stopped when it made her dizzy. Just as obediently, she filled Nemu’s glass again, tilting her head from side to side thoughtfully. Then stopped that too. Wow, she was pretty drunk.

“Uli—the arrancar?” she asked a bit unnecessarily, since, of course, he was the only man she could be talking about. Rangiku almost wished she had been here, to see how their relationship unfolded. Maybe take a few notes. Was he somehow special, or were the circumstances just right? Or both, maybe.

“I know how that goes,” she continued with a wistful sigh, blowing her hair out of her face. “But that’s why we have alcohol, ne? So keep drinking!” On cue, she gulped down her drink.


"Ichimaru Gin." Nemu repeated softly, just a statement. She looked down at her cup, blinking. Her own reflection, the meds dulled the lines of pain in her face, the alcohol dulled her wits. It wasn't quite so bad, with no duties to fulfill, no paperwork to complete, and no... anything. Nothing but recovery, and bedrest.

"... I suppose that's why." The creation spoke just as quietely, but she smiled a little wanely.

Perhaps it wasn't so bad.