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When Harribel stepped into the room, the muffled sound of a fight that she had heard from down the hall turned into a loud cacophony of voices, and the first thing she heart was,
“No, Harribel is the strongest, you flea-ridden pile of—”
“Stop that right now.”
Harribel didn’t really believe in raising her voice. There was little that shouting could accomplish except make her waste her energy.
And if she needed a little more emphasis, her spiritual pressure worked well enough for that.
Which was why the second she walked into the room, it didn’t matter that her voice could barely be heard over the argument that was happening; immediately the collection of Fraccion, more than she had ever seen tolerate being in the same room together before, became quiet and all looked towards her.
She looked around at all of them. They were all completely silent. Some of them looked scared, others looked annoyed that she had interrupted whatever argument they had been having, and still others didn’t look bothered at all— they were just smart enough not to go out of their way to annoy her.
And at the center of the crowd (and presumably the center of whatever argument had been going on) were her Fraccion.
It didn’t surprise her that Apacci had been the one about to start cursing out one of the other Fraccion (nor did it surprise her that the Arrancar she had been about to get into an actual fight with was Ggio, who always seemed eager to prove that size wasn’t everything, especially when he was the smallest of Baraggan’s Fraccion but a good margin), but she still fixed her with a look as she stepped further into the room amidst the chaos.
“Whatever is going on in here stops now,” she said, firmly, and most of the Fraccion had the good grace to look at least a little ashamed. “If Lord Aizen knew that this was what you were all getting up to when he was away, his judgement would be severe.”
In truth, she didn’t know if that was actually the case; Aizen varied from moment to moment as to whether he wanted complete control over Las Noches and everything in it or whether he didn’t care what the Espada and their companion Arrancar did so long as it didn’t interfere with his goals.
But whether it was true or not, it did a good job of scaring all of them, because some of them already started to wander of trying to look innocent and acting like they weren’t just involved in a ‘disagreement’ that was loud enough that Harribel heard it all the way from the other end of one of Las Noches’ massive halls.
The only ones that remained were the ones who were just as stubborn as her own Fraccion— in particular, Baraggan’s gaggle of followers, none of whom wanted to leave, probably for fear it would equal admitting defeat.
Fortunately Harribel had a solution for that.
She grabbed Apacci by the back of her shirt with one hand, grabbed Franceska’s wrist with another, and gave Cyan a harsh look that told her she had better follow or else.
And then she promptly dragged them off.
The doors had barely closed behind the four of them before Harribel let Franceska and Apacci go. It wasn’t like she was going to drag them all the way back to her quarters or anything like that; she just wanted to defuse the situation.
“Those idiots were the ones who started it,” was the first thing Apacci said. She refused to look Harribel in the eye when she said it, almost like she knew it was just an excuse and that it wasn’t a good one.
“They were saying how Baraggan is the greatest Hollow of all and how he deserves to be in charge,” Cyan continued on her behalf. “We couldn’t just let them continue being that ridiculous.”
“I don’t care who started it,” Harribel said firmly as she started to walk off. “I just ended it. And I don’t want to see the three of you getting into such ridiculous arguments again.”
No, Harribel never needed to raise her voice.
Not when regular volume worked just as effectively, leaving her Fraccion looking stunned and ashamed by being told off and soon had them scurrying after her in silence.
“Why did you stop us?”
Unfortunately, shame was only a deterrent for so long when it came to her Bestias. They all had too much pride to be ashamed of themselves for long— especially when it came to her.
“We weren’t planning on breaking into a fist fight or anything of that sort,” Cyan added on, as she sat and made herself comfortable on Harribel’s bed— Franceska was lounging on it already while Apacci had chosen a place leaning against the door frame, looking angry or at the very least frustrated.
Harribel knew she should be more stern with the three of them, try to discourage such actions, but seeing such a severe frown on Apacci’s face she couldn’t help but stop to brush a lock of her hair back over her ear— something that instantly made her anger turn to surprise and seemed to calm her down a bit.
“Why does it even matter to you what the other Fraccion think about that sort of thing?” she asked, because it was easier to answer their question with another question.
“Why don’t you? Doesn’t it bother you when everyone else— even Aizen— seems to think you’re only the third best of the Espada?”
“Not in the least.”
It was an honest answer. Harribel had never cared about their ranking. She understood the purpose of it, to ensure that some semblance of order was kept and there was some sort of rank and file and understanding of who was in charge of what, but it had never bothered her that she wasn’t in charge.
Even if her Bestias thought she was the greatest of the Espada, Harribel wouldn’t want to challenge Starrk or Baraggan to single combat to try and earn the title; she was smarter than that.
But since the three of them weren’t likely to accept that as an answer…
“After all… The only opinion I care about is what the three of you think of me. So long as you believe I’m the greatest, then why do I need to worry about anyone else?”
Were the three of them likely to buy something like that?
…Well, Harribel knew the three of them well enough to know that the answer was yes.
She also knew that a bit of extra tenderness could hardly hurt her case.
In this instance, that involved walking over to her bed and sitting down next to Cyan, reaching out to run her hand down her arm while at the same time she reached behind her to run her hand through Franceska’s hair.
Just like with Apacci, their energy seemed to change in an instance; both of them sort of curled towards her, instantly relaxing and melting into her touch, which made it seem like all three of them were cats instead of just Franceska.
Franceska moved over to make room on the bed— which was a bit of a squeeze for four but large enough that they could make it work— and Harribel crawled in next to her, with Cyan curling up on her other side. Apacci, not one to be left out, came over and crawled on top of the three of them, heedless of concepts like ‘personal space’... Although they were all well past that stage, at any rate.
“We do think you’re the greatest,” Apacci said, as though Harribel would ever have any doubts about that.
“...We’re sorry for embarrassing you.”
“You didn’t embarrass me. I just don’t want to give Lord Aizen any reason to have an issue with your behaviour.”
The three of them, obviously appeased by her answer, relaxed into her and practically buried her under a pile of Fraccion— something she was more than used to by now.
…Just like she was used to knowing how to handle the three of them when they got into one of these particular moods.
But then, that was just one of the things she loved about them, even if it ended up frustrating her from time to time.
She certainly never had to worry about not having someone in her corner— not when the three of them, with all of their pride in themselves and in her, would always be by her side.