Literally?
Here she was reminiscing about the past, and Muten Natsu was over here talking about size.
If Rukia Kuchiki were the bigger one, that would be one thing.
But she was the smaller one.
Which only made Rukia Kuchiki angrier. She grabbed Muten Natsu by the collar and bit down on his shoulder. "Awoo!"
"Hiss..." Caught completely off guard, Muten Natsu sucked in a breath.
Was he really supposed to just take that?
He was all grown up now.
His arm around Rukia Kuchiki lifted upward with force, and before she could react, Muten Natsu immediately bit back.
"Mmh~" Rukia Kuchiki's voice bent out of shape on its own. The instant she realized how strange that sound had been, her little face turned bright red.
Rukia Kuchiki had already been pulling up hard on Muten Natsu's collar, and Muten Natsu's arm was pushing upward too. With both forces acting at once, Rukia Kuchiki's body moved up much farther than Muten Natsu had expected.
So the mouth that had been aiming for Rukia Kuchiki's shoulder landed somewhere else.
Realizing something had gone wrong, Muten Natsu quickly let go. His slightly flustered eyes swept over the mark left on Rukia Kuchiki's nightgown. "Um..."
Rukia Kuchiki crossed her arms in front of herself and glared at him with watery, embarrassed eyes.
"That was an accident..." Muten Natsu's mind raced, trying to figure out what to do.
In moments of crisis, people could think surprisingly fast.
A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Muten Natsu. He instantly understood why Rukia Kuchiki had gotten angry earlier, and decided this was the perfect chance to change the subject. "Ah, so that is the size you meant just now. I was talking about growing physically, like build... height..."
This really did not seem like the right time to be talking about that, and the subject had not changed at all... Muten Natsu's voice grew weaker.
"And you are still talking!" Rukia Kuchiki ground her little white teeth.
"I will stop." Muten Natsu pulled Rukia Kuchiki into his arms to keep her from attacking again. "Sleep."
Rukia Kuchiki wriggled twice in token protest, then her small body nestled into Muten Natsu's arms once more. "If you dare to do that again... again..." She said it twice, but could not bring herself to finish. "I will... I will... hmph!"
There was nothing specific in it, but the threatening intent had probably been conveyed well enough.
Probably.
Muten Natsu protested, "You bit first."
"You bit and used your hands too." Rukia Kuchiki argued back. She tugged open her collar and looked down. "It is all red."
"There is no way I used that much force." Muten Natsu did not believe it. "Let me see..."
"Do not even think about it." Rukia Kuchiki raised a hand and pressed it against Muten Natsu's chin, stopping him from lowering his head. "I am asking..." A possibility occurred to her, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Did you bully Orihime like this last night?"
Muten Natsu answered openly, "She did not bite me."
Rukia Kuchiki puffed out her cheeks slightly. "So now this is my fault?"
Muten Natsu was very magnanimous. "I forgive you."
Rukia Kuchiki withdrew the hand that had been pressing against his chin and snapped, "Why, thank you!"
"You are welcome." Muten Natsu adjusted the blanket. "No more messing around. We still have class tomorrow."
Rukia Kuchiki shifted around. "I want to hear a lullaby."
"Okay~" Muten Natsu reached out and gently patted the blanket. "Sleep now, sleep now, my dear little one..."
In his warm embrace, listening to Muten Natsu's slightly off key lullaby and the steady beat of his heart, Rukia Kuchiki slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
...
"You are not going to Muten's room?" Rangiku Matsumoto lay elegantly on her side on the bed, her full figure curved softly against the sheets. One pale arm propped up her head while her wavy golden hair spilled lazily across the blanket. "You slept together last night, so today you should strike while the iron is hot and turn an accident into a habit."
Orihime Inoue smiled. "Rukia is sleeping with Muten tonight."
"Huh?" Rangiku Matsumoto froze for a moment. "What is this... one, three, five and two, four, six?"
"Huh?" Orihime Inoue's big eyes were full of confusion. "What do you mean?"
"No wonder Muten does not want to stay in Soul Society. If it were me, I would stay in the World of the Living too." The corners of Rangiku Matsumoto's lips curved up, and the delicate beauty mark by her mouth added a strangely seductive touch to her smile. "Orihime, guess what they are doing right now."
"Sleeping." Orihime Inoue looked a little puzzled. "What else would they be doing?"
"There are a lot of things you can do before falling asleep..." Rangiku Matsumoto drawled. "For example~~~"
"Talking things out!" Orihime Inoue suddenly thought of it, and a happy smile appeared on her face. "When I slept with Muten before, we talked first too."
She looked at Rangiku Matsumoto with gratitude. "If Rangiku-san had not helped me, I do not know how much longer I would have kept sulking by myself. After I told Muten about what was bothering me, he solved it right away. Turns out I had been making things way too complicated all along."
Rangiku Matsumoto was a little surprised that it had been resolved that quickly... but after thinking about it, that really was just like Muten Natsu. Quiet until it mattered, and then suddenly astonishing.
Most of the time he looked lazy and laid back, but when a problem appeared in front of him, Muten Natsu always found a way to solve it as quickly and effectively as possible.
Sometimes his methods were a little extreme, but they worked.
Still, that was not the important part right now. Rangiku Matsumoto pressed on, "Besides talking?"
"Besides talking... a lullaby!" Orihime Inoue scratched her head and gave a sheepish laugh. "But Muten had only just started singing when I fell asleep, so I did not get to hear the whole thing."
"...That is good." Rangiku Matsumoto patted Orihime Inoue on the head. "You are just fine the way you are."
Orihime Inoue blinked, not really understanding the complicated emotion in Rangiku Matsumoto's eyes.
But not understanding was fine. Rangiku Matsumoto felt that with Muten Natsu there to protect her, there was nothing wrong with Orihime Inoue being a little innocent.
Sometimes knowing less was not a bad thing.
If Orihime Inoue knew a little more, and if her imagination were any more vivid, she probably would not be smiling right now.
"Rukia and Muten are sleeping together because they want to test whether sleeping together can make someone stronger." Orihime Inoue suddenly realized something important. "If it does not work... will I still be able to sleep with Muten in the future?"
Orihime Inoue really liked that comforting feeling of being in Muten Natsu's arms.
Rangiku Matsumoto nodded. "Of course you can."
"But what if it does work?" Orihime Inoue thought about it seriously. "Then how are the three of us supposed to sleep?"
Rangiku Matsumoto: "...Huh?"