Starrk wakes the moment he senses Ukitake approaching; the man is… focused, intent in a way that Starrk’s never felt him be outside of combat, and it’s…

Well, he’d say it’s concerning, but really it’s just expected.

(Who ever heard of a Shinigami nursing a Hollow back to health?)

(Much less doing so inside Seireitei itself?)

(No, he’s been expecting his time here to end sooner rather than later.)

(Now the only question is… does he have time to escape or not?)

(And does he really care…?)

The door slips open a tiny amount and Ukitake’s reiatsu slips in, a gentle brush of question-concern-need that makes Starrk sigh; whatever the man wants, he’s not going to give Starrk the kindness of just killing him.

“Starrk-san?” Ukitake murmurs, nudging the door open a bit more. “I apologize for waking you, but there’s been a development that we need to speak of.”

Starrk grunts and carefully untangles himself from Lilynette’s clinging limbs; no matter how this conversation goes, she needs the rest more than she needs to be aware. Weeks later and she’s still not back to herself, still not as strong as she should be, and if Ukitake is here to kill them, at least she’ll go peacefully.

Ukitake settles on the floor just beyond the tatami mats, his back straight and his hands folded carefully upon his thighs. “The Soutaicho has informed me that he’s aware of your presence,” the man says, gaze steady and reiatsu even in a way that Starrk distrusts. “He’s given me an ultimatum; kill you both or send you back to Hueco Mundo.”

“Where he expects us to die,” Starrk says without hesitation.

Ukitake inclines his head. “Where he expects you to die.”

Starrk grimaces and looks away. There’s a chance they could survive being sent back to Hueco Mundo, but… does he really want to? Returning to Hueco Mundo means returning to solitude, returning to a lonely, friendless existence where he kills lesser Hollows just by existing and… and he…

He can’t do that again.

(He can’t!)

Starrk swallows. Braces himself. Says, “I think I’d prefer—”

“There are other options,” Ukitake interrupts before Starrk can finish his sentence. “I’m not about to condemn you to death after weeks of nursing you back to health.”

Starrk stills and casts a wary look at Ukitake, taken aback by the conviction in his voice. He’d known the man was soft — the entire fight with Lilynette was more than enough evidence of that, not to mention said nursing a Hollow back to health — but to willfully disobey an order? For a former enemy?

(How had this Shinigami survived so long?)

“I’ve only thought of two other options so far, but I’m sure we can come up with others if you don’t like either of them,” Ukitake continues when it becomes clear that Starrk is waiting to hear more. “I could send you to the Living World with a letter for Urahara-san. He’s kept himself and several others safe for a century, I’m certain he could do the same for you.”

The name is mostly unfamiliar, but Starrk suspects he knows who Ukitake means; he doesn’t remember much beyond his defeat, but watching Aizen go up in a pillar of his own reiatsu is… memorable. “And the other option?” he asks warily, uncertain what else the man would offer when his first choice was ‘send a former enemy to the man who made Aizen self-immolate’.

“Marry me.”

Starrk blinks. Rubs at one ear. Tries to make sense of a world in which… in which… “What?”

A tiny smile curls the corners of Ukitake’s lips, a spark of amusement in his reiatsu, and he repeats, “Marry me. I’m nobility, albeit minor, and anyone married to me gains the protection of centuries of tradition and law. The Soutaicho can’t say a thing about it, not without calling other marriages into question as well, and no noble will stand for that.”

“I’m a Hollow,” Starrk attempts to remind the man, tipping his chin up enough to make his mask fragment more obvious. “I’d think that would be plenty of reason to call just this marriage into question.”

“You’d think so,” Ukitake agrees, expression serene but reiatsu rippling with smugness. “Except you’re a very powerful soul, and marriages to bring powerful souls into a family are explicitly exempt from question no matter the partner’s origin.”

Starrk stares at Ukitake in disbelief. “No one will ever fall for that,” he tries. “You’re proposing to marry a Hollow that your leader just told you to dispose of. No one will believe you feel a damn thing for me.”

Ukitake shrugs and shades his expression towards an innocence that Starrk refuses to believe. “Weeks of close proximity, nursing the two of you back to health… why wouldn’t I come to appreciate you?” The innocent expression fades with a short, almost harsh bark of humorless laughter, and he continues, “Besides, noble marriages aren’t about love, Starrk-san. They’re about power and prestige and potential offspring. You bring the potential for two out of three of those, and given that my line is down to me and a handful of nearly powerless relatives, no one will question it.”

“Unless I’m mistaken, we’re both male. Doesn’t seem like that has much potential for offspring,” Starrk says with a glance towards Lilynette, wondering how she’s going to fit into this scheme. He refuses to let Ukitake use her like that, even if she is a part of him—

“Well, since I’m going to declare Lilynette our child, seems like you’ve already fulfilled that portion of it,” Ukitake says, as if the idea makes perfect sense and…

It doesn’t. It really doesn’t.

“I don’t understand you,” Starrk bites out with a groan, then buries his face in his hands. This whole idea is absurd, and he has no idea why Ukitake is so… so adamant about this; going so far out of his way for a former enemy doesn’t make sense, even if the man is soft.

(Or maybe… maybe it does make sense.)

(‘Weeks in close proximity’ Ukitake had said, and it’s certainly true.)

(It’s been mostly the three of them the entire time, and he’d thought it was because of his presence, but… what if it isn’t?)

(What if… what if Ukitake is lonely like Starrk had once been?)

“You don’t have to accept,” Ukitake tells him, soft-kind-understanding in a way that makes Starrk’s teeth ache. “We have until tomorrow morning to sort something out, so there’s still time to think of alternatives.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” Starrk asks, unable to believe that the other Captains of Seireitei would simply accept a Hollow amongst them. Everything he knows about Shinigami indicates that the Soutaicho’s reaction is the accurate one, which means that Ukitake choosing this action won’t do anything except… “What if they just decide that you need to be killed, too?”

“Then we’ll run to the Living World,” Ukitake answers easily, though there’s an edge of sadness to his reiatsu that Starrk dislikes. “Kyoraku-san will come with us, of course, since he’ll be implicated as well. And between Urahara-san’s assistance and all of our skills, I’m certain we’ll be able to live quite well.”

Starrk sighs in exasperation, disliking how all of these plans cycle back around to asking for help from the man who made Aizen self-immolate, but honestly… Ukitake’s words are… nice. Even if it’s just self-preservation talking, the fact that Ukitake is willing to stay with them…

(Shinigami are different, he knows they are, but…)

(It’s still strange to think that Ukitake would choose him over almost everyone else.)

(It’s… nice.)

“If you’re sure… very well. We can try it.” Starrk rubs at his chin and glances again at Lilynette; he knows she’ll have things to say about this decision, and especially about the fact that he didn’t ask her, but… she likes it here, he knows she does. It’s not… a terrible place to live, if he’s being honest, and he’s pretty certain he’s figured out Ukitake’s motives. If it means being able to stay in a place where he can be around people without having expectations heaped upon him, a little pretense isn’t too difficult. If Ukitake had said they needed to pretend to be in love — whatever love was, exactly — it would be different, but… power, prestige, and potential offspring?

He understands that well enough.

(Though hopefully the offspring part stays as only a potential.)

(Lilynette is difficult enough as it is, and she’s part of him!)

(The idea of some sort of… of… miniature being relying on him is terrifying.)

Ukitake pauses, shock-surprise-pleasure briefly rippling through his reiatsu, then smiles at Starrk like… like he cares. Like he’s pleased by the decision and…

Maybe he’s not too far off with his suspicion of loneliness, because what other reason could a Shinigami have to be pleased at marrying a Hollow?

“Thank you for your trust, Starrk-san,” Ukitake murmurs as he inclines his head. “Kyoraku-san should be back soon with everything we need to formalize it, so how about we spend this time going over what people will expect to see once news of our marriage gets out?”

Starrk nods sharply, pleased that he’s not going to be thrown into a new situation without at least an idea of what to expect. Whether or not he’ll have any time to use that knowledge he has no idea, but… it can’t hurt to have.

Ukitake is putting his neck on the line for Starrk and Lilynette, for no reason beyond loneliness that Starrk can discern.

Listening is the least he can do to repay that.

(Maybe this time will turn out better than the last…)

(Well… he’ll enjoy it while it lasts.)

(However long that may be.)