Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck
an unexpected encounter
—Thump —-Thump—
Ah—!! There it had been again, the noise that had frightened her so suddenly! —Though it had happened so much, that Orihime had a difficult time trying to differentiate from the eerie sound coming from her bedroom closet, and the anxious, erratic pace her heart had taken up from the sheer fright of it. It had been going on for almost an entire hour now, ever since she’d turned out the lights in her room and settled in for bed. At first, she’d simply thought it had been one of the neighbors making a ruckus late at night, not that she necessarily minded much, as they were usually very quiet people. But around the third time it had happened, Orihime started to notice how close by the sound had been, and eventually realized that it was indeed originating from her very own closet just across the small room.
Surely it was unreasonable for her to be so frightened. After all, she’d faced much worse than anything that went bump in the night, and then some. And yet still… perhaps it was the child in her that made her so scared. Though she could easily protect herself, Orihime wasn’t going to discount the fact that she still was a young teenage girl living on her own. Aside from another human, or even a ghost, the number of possibilities of what could possibly be instilling such a fear in her were endless.
And yet, here she was, now standing in front of her closet, hand placed upon the door with care not to throw it open too soon.
—-THUMP—
“AUGH!” she cried, jumping back from the door. After a moment of shock, Orihime smacked herself in the forehead for making a noise. Now it knows I’m here, so I should probably just—
She threw the door open, and instantly something small, warm, and —hard fell onto the top of her head, effectively knocking her to the ground. Orihime scrambled up to her feet, clutching her head as she moved to quickly flick on the light. Once the lamp turned on, she whirled around to see the face of her attacker, hands positioned in front of her on the chance that she might need to summon her shield.
The panic-stricken expression left her face immediately, quickly followed by a mixture of confusion and relief.
“N-Nel-chan?”
Nel had awoken in complete and utter darkness. Any and all memories of where she was or how she had come to be there were absent. She sits back on her haunches, gazing around, searching for a clue to her location. There is a faint odor surrounding her, an odor that seemed extremely familiar, but Nel could not seem to remember to whom or to what it belonged. It takes several seconds for a dim, vertical strip of light only feet away, perhaps, indicating a possible exit. With a faint hope swelling in her heart, she crawls towards the light, reaching what appeared to be (by her standards) an enormous door. A large hazel eye presses itself to the crack, only for the illuminating source behind the door to disappear.
Under normal circumstances, “normal” being Nel in her newly revived adult form, she would have been capable of properly assessing the situation at hand. Unfortunately, these circumstances were anything but normal.
Nel begins to knock on the door, softly at first, but increasing in tandem with her rising anxiety.
-bang- —Bang —Bang—
She continues to hit the obstacle, beating with as much force as her small fist would allow. The actions seemed pointless in hindsight, the chances were that she was locked in isolation. At least it seemed that way until a muffled noise on the opposite side of the wall proved her otherwise.
She whimpers, rubbing her bruised knuckles, gathering the last ounce of her hope and strength she beat the door a final time.
—BA—
Not a millisecond before her hand touched the wood, the door flew open. The force of her intended blow sent her tumbling out of whatever holding room she was in. Her head smacking against something soft, and a cry of pain indicates that her cushion was in fact another person.
Wait! Nel recognizes that voice!
She bolts up, whipping her head around in the darkness, begging silently that her hunch was correct. A little to her left, a lamp clicks on, revealing her savior, hearing her own name only proving what she could already see.
Nel’s large hazel eye widen, and her voice cracks with a mixture of fear and relief,
”’H-‘Hime-chan?”
The tiny arracar bursts immediately into tears, clambering over to Orihime and burying her face into the shocked red-head’s knees, clinging to her old friend like a toddler would it’s mother after a night terror.Which is more or less the situation at hand.
“Nel-chan?!” she repeated, still in a bit of shock from what she’d just witnessed. The little Arrancar had just… fallen out of her closet… and must have been terribly frightened since she must have been the one making the noise, and—
Oh goodness, she’d left her in there, hadn’t she?
Overcome with guilt, the redhead quickly scooped the little girl into her arms, patting her back soothingly as she tried to comfort her.
“There, there, Nel-chan— it’s all right now!” she cooed. Orihime still had her own share of questions for Nel, like what was she doing here? And why was she back in her child form?
Nel continues to sob into Orihime’s shoulder, releasing all of her fear into the soft fabric until there was nothing left.
After several minutes and one final sniffle, she leans back, wiping her face with the green sleeve of her little tunic.
“Nel’s sorry, Hime-chan, I was just scared.”
She manages a goofy grin, tugging on a lock of her friend’s red hair, ”But everything’s ok now, cuz you saved Nel~!”
