Erich closed the door to his bedroom and sat on his bed, stripping his outer shirt away and pulling off his boots and socks. His clothing was tossed into the hamper, boots by the side of his bed, and his glasses set on the side table.

Having done the bare minimum to prepare for bed, he flopped over and buried his face in his pillow, trying to will away the last of his blush. He couldn’t believe Urahara would suggest such a thing. He’d considered it as an option but… but it was different for Urahara to stand there and suggest sharing him with Alexis with a straight face.

Urahara was such a shameless man. He’d probably said it just to get a rise out of him and Erich had played into his hands immediately. Now he’d never hear the end of it and his last few days in Urahara’s guild would be torture.

Maybe he could just… not leave his room for a while. Or sneak out at night and make his way to the Quincy on his own. He had enough stealth to make it alone. Probably.

(Or he could just get ‘conveniently lost’ and never be heard from again.)

(That was an option.)

Large claws scraped against his windowsill and Erich bit back a petulant noise, burying his head deeper into his pillow. He wanted nothing to do with Benihime right now, not with her partner’s words still echoing in his mind.

Aer rippled against his senses, alerting him to her movements as she ghosted across the space between window and bed. “Whatever did my dear Kisuke do this time?” she asked as she sat, the bed dipping under her weight. Her fingers combed through his hair, sharp nails scraping against his scalp just enough to sting. “Did he finally stop pulling pigtails and propose to you?”

“He’s just being a jerk,” Erich muttered into his pillow, then twitched when Benihime’s fingers gripped his earlobe and tugged. He lifted his head just enough so he could speak clearly and said, “I said, he’s just being a jerk. Like usual.”

Benihime hummed and released his ear to continue petting him. “That is his ground state in regards to you,” she agreed. “It’s almost like he’s interested in you or something.”

Erich scoffed and turned his head to the side so he could lay back down without Benihime constantly being annoyed by his ‘mumbling’. “He’s interested in what I am, not who I am. And I don’t like him!”

She trailed a cool finger over his cheek, voice amused as she said, “Of course you don’t. He’s such a frustrating man to get along with, isn’t he? Always nose-deep in his research, always forgetting his manners…”

“He suggested I get out of being Quincy guild leader by marrying him,” Erich complained. He might have thought of the idea first, but he’d discarded it just as quickly; he was engaged after all, and no amount of freedom was worth tying himself to Urahara.

(‘I’m sure we could work out a way to share you’—)

He groaned and shoved his face back in his pillow. Sometimes he really hated his mind.

Benihime laughed and ruffled his hair. “Yes, such a terrible man my partner is, suggesting that you marry him in such an unromantic way! Pah, I’ll need to have words with him. I know you humans are always so interested in your romance.”

“That’s not the point!” Erich sighed and rolled onto his back, squinting blearily up at Benihime. He ignored the way she cooed and stroked his heated cheeks, accustomed to her habits from long exposure. “It wouldn’t be a real relationship anyway, just a way to escape the Quincy guild, but I just… I don’t want to cheat on Alexis, even if it is fake.”

“Well, if you don’t want to do that, I could always change you,” Benihime suggested, her hand trailing down his neck and coming to rest on his sternum. Her nails dug into his skin through his undershirt, flame-affinity aer wisping out of her hand and tinting the air a shimmering crimson. “The change that Brave Vesperia made to our world… there’s more than enough free aer for me to help your evolution along now,” she purred, leaning over his body. “Just let that little apatheia of yours grow and grow until you’re no longer human… that would solve your problem, wouldn’t it? Who’d want an Entelexia for a guildmaster anyway?”

“No. I have no desire to become an Entelexia, I’ve told you this.” Erich narrowed his eyes and frowned up at Benihime, hoping that she took the hint and backed off. “I’ll just… I’ll figure something out.”

“Figure something out?” she repeated incredulously, fingers twitching against his chest as she restrained herself. “You’ve told me about that guild of yours and the elders who meddle with its running, and I know you don’t want to lead them! If you won’t consent to either marrying Kisuke or becoming an Entelexia, then what remains an option for you?”

“I could fake my death?”

“And go where?”

Erich shrugged and gave her a wan smile. “Hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

Benihime made a frustrated noise and dug her nails into his chest. “You haven’t, have you?” she grit out. “What about your fiance then, how will this plan affect her? And if you honestly think you can pull one over on Kisuke without making a plan, I think I need to rethink how much I like you.”

He gave a bark of mirthless laughter and tugged at Benihime’s wrist, prying her nails from his chest and frowning at the spots of red he could see staining his undershirt. “That’s why I stopped trying to make that plan work,” he agreed absently, lifting his undershirt up and squinting at his chest in an attempt to assess the damage. He couldn’t see much without his glasses, but it didn’t seem very bad; he’d need to clean it up before he went to sleep just to be sure, though. “I just… I don’t know if there is a way out—”

“So help me, if the next words out of your mouth are ‘maybe I should just give in and lead them’, then whatever harebrained scheme those elders of yours have produced is going to be the least of your worries!”

“Then what do you want me to say?!” Erich snapped, hating how helpless he was. If the Adephagos had arrived even half a year later… but it hadn’t. It hadn’t, and the destruction of all blastia had destroyed Erich’s hope of peacefully stepping down as heir. “What do you want me to do?! Give me an option, Benihime! Give me something other than death, losing my humanity, or cheating on my love and I’ll consider it!”

“I want to you put yourself first for once, you self-sacrificing asshole!” she snarled in his face. “They don’t deserve you or your life and we both know it.”

“There are good people there and I will not let them die because of this,” Erich hissed, pushing himself up so Benihime was forced back. He couldn’t see much more than a blur at this distance, but the aer echoed with her deadly fury. Most humans would miss it — hell, even Urahara was probably unaware of the rage Erich had worked Benihime into — but this close, with his senses…

She felt like a grass fire, fast and deadly and lingering.

(No Quincy would survive her rage if he let her go.)

(Not even the innocent.)

(He couldn’t let her..!)

“‘Good people’?” she repeated with a scoff. “If they were so good—”

“Children, Benihime! The Quincy are an extended family first and a Guild second!”

Benihime jerked back from his rage, her own fury banked as quickly as it had risen. A strained silence settled over them as they stared at one another warily, trying to wait each other out.

“So… leaving the Quincy is not an option for you, and both this argument and Kisuke’s own attempts are in vain,” she said after a few minutes, starting to rise from the bed. “You could have led with that instead of implying we might find a way—”

“I didn’t mean— it’s not in vain,” Erich said with a sigh, his own rage draining away and leaving him feeling empty inside. He pinched the bridge of his nose and slumped back on the bed, propping himself up on one elbow and staring down at the sheets in front of him. “There is… was, I suppose, a plan that Alexis and I had. From… before the world went to hell.”

Benihime made a curious noise and sat back down. “A plan?”

“Mmm. We’d figured out the trick to keeping our Guild’s unique blastia from activating when we held it. So we were going to both pretend to fail the next Inheritance Trial and then leave the Guild out of shame.” Erich gave an awkward, one-shoulder shrug and then gestured around them. “But with all the blastia gone, that won’t work. We have to prove our inability to be upstanding Quincy some other way.”

“Like marrying an outsider,” Benihime mused, leaning in and prodding his cheek. “If both of you want out, then why is it so troublesome to accept Kisuke’s offer?”

Erich scowled at her. “Alexis hasn’t agreed.”

“And the children you so passionately defend?”

“The next two in line, Rainer and Maris, are constantly at odds and also technically tied for inheritance rights. A few well placed comments and the Guild will be split between them. And in the chaos-”

“You snatch them up and herd them away. How positively ruthless of you,” she purred, nuzzling his face. “Are you sure I can’t convince you to—”

Erich pushed Benihime back before she could start crawling on top of him. “I’ve no interest in being an Entelexia.”

“Pity.” She heaved a dramatic sigh and sprawled across his legs, propping her chin on her crossed arms. “But if Alexis’ agreement is all that stands between you and marrying Kisuke… why don’t you just ask her?”

“That’s not— I can’t just— How am I supposed to ask her that?! ‘Hey, love, I know you’ve barely met the man, but if we both fake a relationship with him we can get out of being Guild Leaders!’”

“That sounds like a perfect way to ask her that,” Benihime said primly. “What’s the issue?”

Erich groaned and fell back, dragging his spare pillow over his face and pressing down just enough to muffle the world. “I’m not talking about this with you anymore. Go away. I want to sleep and forget this evening ever happened.”

Benihime laughed and levered herself up enough to rub her chin against his stomach before she rolled off the bed. “Good luck with that. Tell me how it works out for you, will you?”

He refused to dignify her words with a response, just turned his head to the side and ignored the sound of Benihime leaving the way she’d come.

(He really hoped she didn’t tell Urahara everything he’d said…)

(If only his luck was that good…)