Drowning in Sand (Tier/Ichigo)

It seemed like Hueco Mundo was changing. People hadn't ever bothered to come to this far off corner of the realm, but suddenly it seemed Ichigo was being forced to face those he'd assumed he would never see again. Maybe people were growing restless, or maybe the realm itself was just shifting. Ichigo certainly couldn't say, nor did he care enough to think about it.

"I'm amazed you're still alive."

Ichigo spoke those words plainly, almost emptily, as he felt a familiar energy come into his little domain. He didn't have any reason to react beyond simply speaking, and were it not for his own power, he likely wouldn't have even made much of an impression. Just a lone man laying on the desert floor, watching the empty sky with listless eyes. It was only the fact that he'd known this woman that he even mustered the energy to speak.

"I guess you were."

Ichigo laughed quietly, humorlessly, at the memory of the words Tier had spoken to her so long ago. Maybe she hadn't actually been correct at the time, but the last thing he cared about anymore was how things used to be. Here, now, was what mattered. Even if it wasn't something he much cared about.

"What brought you out here? I doubt you were looking for me."

It was strange, speaking to her as if he was even particularly close to him. Tier Harribel was far from a dear friend to him, but she was still closer to him than the world of today. That was good enough.

"Hueco Mundo seems different. You do that?"

It wasn't disagreeable to have Tier take a seat next to him here, though it wasn't really agreeable, either. She was just there, though if nothing else, it made things much easier for Ichigo to talk with her if she was right next to him. He had to admit that was an improvement.

"A lot of things shouldn't happen, you know. But they do anyway. Sounds like that's what got us both here."

Ichigo glanced over at her only briefly, the presence of someone else nearby a different experience from what he was used to. Not that he minded one way or another. Not like he had anything to do.

"I haven't seen them around. I'm surprised you got separated."

"Ha. You've lightened up."

The singular chuckle that left Ichigo's lips was wholly humorless, though he didn't actually seem bothered by her mockery in the slightest. If anything, he did find it genuinely funny, it just wasn't really in him to laugh at something like that. Still, he hadn't been expecting it. It was almost a nice change of pace.

"I've been here for centuries. I don't have much else to do but stay here, anyway. I can't say I'd be too upset about someone finishing me off, but I don't think anyone's trying. I wouldn't ask them to, either."

There was no survival instinct, no sense that he needed to fight. Ichigo had long since lost the will to do much of anything but simply exist. It was almost strange to hear someone tell him that he ought to try and avoid such a fate, as if the very idea of keeping oneself alive had become alien to him.

"There's not much left to give me reason. I'm sure people would tell me I could just try again, pick myself back up like always."

Ichigo certainly understood that her words were an insult, and while he felt as though he shouldn't care, there was something about it that grated on him. He shouldn't have been bothered by it, but he didn't think he'd made the incorrect choice. If anything, this had felt like the only right choice.

"Infinite possibilities? I don't think there are. There are some things you can't fix, some things you can't change. No matter how many possibilities there are, you can't change that they're all built off what's already happened."

No matter what he did, it wouldn't bring her back. But he wouldn't say that. Even thinking it had been more than he tended to allow himself to do.