Sweet Dreams

Viva la Viveca

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach... well... I own a bottle of bleach, as in the smelly chemical that doesn't do a very good job at keeping my whites very white at all... so if we wanted to get technical, I do own Bleach... just not this Bleach... Meaning I don't own Ichi or Ken-chan... ... ... This is your local KenIchi-crazed Authoress, and this has been your Disclaimer of the Month.

Summary: Ichigo Kurosaki has come of age, and with his birthday come strange dreams of a mysterious man who claims to be a demon king and his soul mate. Who is this strange person, and is Ichigo really what the man claims him to be? AU, Yaoi, KenIchi, mansmex, not for under 18's.

Chapter 1 :: Of Age

Ichigo hated birthdays. It was the one day of the year where every bit of attention was on him, something he hated more than he hated the cake and the presents. Actually, the cake he could tolerate as long as it was his younger sister Yuzu baking it, but he didn't need a birthday to get a cake from her; all he had to do was ask and normally she'd bake him one. She claimed he was too skinny, so she often baked him cakes and pies in order to get him to eat more than he normally did. Some days he felt like she was trying to fatten a pig up for Christmas dinner.

It was even worse because this was his 18th birthday. This meant more attention and a huge birthday party he had no intention of attending, even if he was the guest of honor.

Mostly because, being part demon, he was now starting to get the urge to mate. And that was just something he didn't want to deal with. Especially considering the way his interests went.

In the past he had tried kissing girls, dating a couple of his friends before losing interest. Especially since his eye kept tending toward certain guys. He hated it. It made him feel weird to be attracted to his best (guy) friends instead of the cute girl that sat two seats in front of him during class. Especially since if they ever found out things would get very awkward.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it. When his parents had found out they had sat down and explained all about 'his place in the demon circle of life'. He didn't like it one bit at all. Why, of all things was a GUY able to bare children?

His mother had given him a reasonable enough answer: "Because there's only a handful of female demons in the world, Ichigo. Because of that demons adapted so that some males are carriers, so to speak."

While her words hadn't made him any less frustrated, they made him feel a bit bad about his emotional position on the subject. He didn't want to be a 'mother'. He just wanted to be a normal teenage boy with normal teenage hormones. But that, of course, wasn't an option.

Long ago a war had torn apart the demon's world, which was just a mirror world of the human world really, and the demons were forced to live amongst the humans forevermore. What few females that the demons had in the first place were killed off, leaving only five according to the books. This of course caused inter breeding with humans just to survive.

Ichigo's own father was only 3/4 demon, and Ichigo was somewhere close to half, his human was almost pure human with just a taint of demon blood in her. Ichigo really didn't mind; he was stronger that most humans his age, and was an effective fighter because of it, something that was very much useful when fighting off bullies that hated half-breeds or just liked picking on him because of his weird hair color.

All this was once again playing through the orange-haired boy's- no, he was technically a man now, though he didn't feel so- mind as he showered and prepared for the day. As usual he suffered through the indignity of his mother picking out his clothes on this day, and fussing over his hair and telling him how beautiful he was. It was like a birthday ritual, it had been since he was actually able to dress himself.

The next two hours of the ritual wasn't so bad; he was forced to be locked in his room while Yuzu and his parents decorated. It was boring, yes, but that's the reason why Rukia and Renji broke into his room to entertain him.

"Yo birthday brat," Renji crawled through the half open window. It was the middle of the summer, but far too nice outside for air conditioners yet, so Ichigo just left his window open. Normally people popped in and out anyways, and though he found it irritating on most occasions, today he was glad for the minor distraction from having nothing to do.

"Birthday brat my ass," Ichigo replied, grinning as Renji fell to the floor when Rukia pushed him the rest of the way in and hopped through the window.

"Thank you for your haste, Renji," Rukia said in a formal tone she only used around her family or to irritate the hell out of the red head. Ichigo grinned even wider.

"So yeah, we heard you're under lock and key for a couple hours, so we figured we'd pop in and disappear before your mom realizes it," Renji flopped on his bed as if he owned the place. Ichigo narrowed his eyes slightly but said nothing, too used to it by now to let it actually bother him.

"Yeah... was getting kinda bored without something to do anyways," he stretched a bit, watching Rukia sit down next to her boyfriend. Everyone knew Rukia and Renji were an item. Everyone but one specific older brother of Rukia, who most likely would have had Renji executed in some feudal fashion if he ever found out. Especially if he ever found out that the two demons were already mated. Then Renji would be dead and dickless.

They sat there and chit chatted for a bit before pulling out Monopoly to waste the time away. Ichigo didn't play board games too often, but he had to admit he liked Renji's rules better than the originals anyways. Sure it was cheating, but it was a blast to watch Rukia get pissed and beat the shit out of Renji for cheating. It seemed all too soon that Misaki peeked her head in the room.

While most mothers would have been surprised, even infuriated that her son had friends sneaking in his room, Misaki smiled brightly. "Ah, Rukia-chan, Renji-kun, how nice to see you!" she said in her usual cheerful tone, giggling a bit when she saw there game and the mess that Rukia and Renji had made using the fake money. "Everything's ready and guests are starting to arrive, Ichigo, honey."

"Thanks mom," Ichigo stretched and with a defeated sigh, followed his mom downstairs, Rukia and Renji behind him to guarantee he didn't run off.

The first guests were friends of his father: Jyuushiro Ukitake and Shunsui Kyoraku. He looked at them as favorite uncles. While Ukitake was always sick, he was still pretty fun to be around, and he always gave entertaining, if not useful, presents. Shunsui was more likely to give him booze that he would never drink. Or get drunk and provide the night's entertainment. Either way, they were cool.

The next guests consisted of friends from school: Grimmjow Jaegerjacques, local irritation and one of the many that was trying to get in Ichigo's pants. He couldn't blame his blue-haired friend. They had been friends longer than he cared to remember, and Grimmjow came from a higher family of demons. Meaning not only did he had the urge to mate, he was under family pressure to find a mate and create and heir. Among the friends was Orihime Inoue, the girl he had tried dating and kissing a while back, Ishida Uryu, not exactly a friend as much as an acquaintance and Starkk Coyote. Another annoyance, mostly because he was so lazy.

Ichigo greeted them one-by-one and accepted their presents, setting them on the table that was designated for such things. Everyone cooed over the cake in turn, congratulated his parents on raising a fine young man, and then started to talk, challenge to a fight or other such stuff. Meaning, Ichigo was pretty much being left to his own devices, meaning he wasn't the complete center of attention. He appreciated this greatly from all of his friends.

The day went by pretty quickly, and the more he mingled the more fun he realized he was having. He managed to avoid Grimmjow's advances pretty well, though he gave his friend partial credit for trying to control himself in front of everyone. The snacks and cake were delicious, the presents were either practical for someone of his age (except for the sexy lingerie Renji gave him as a gag gift, though it was entertaining to watch Rukia smack him around when she realized they were things that she bought that went missing before she could even try them on), or they were at least memorable.

His mom's gift was a beautifully made scrap book of his eighteen years of life, roughly about four inches thick and jam packed with everything that he had ever done. There was a page for each birthday, for each school program, for his first fight, even baby pictures that Ichigo had sworn he had hidden years ago.

His sister Yuzu made him a pretty bracelet out of string, sort of like a friendship bracelet only with his name in little lettered beads on it. Even though normally he would have scoffed at something like that, the knots and uneven braiding told him that Yuzu had worked really hard on it for him, and he couldn't help but put it on.

His other sister Karin gave him a pack of gum. That's all. Nothing more. Just a pack of his favorite gum. Simple and useful. At least for 15 pieces.

Other gifts included candy and money and other such things.

Overall it was a good haul, especially since he had a chance to restock the candy stash he kept under his bed that he knew Karin was stealing from.

Finally after hours of eating cake and talking about the good ol' days (he was starting to feel as old as his dad just talking like that), people were sent off with left over snacks and he was allowed to go to bed while his mom did the cleaning up. He flopped face first into bed, groaning and giving an yawn. It had been a long day for him, although for once he had enjoyed himself.

Little did he know that he still had one more unexpected, and not necessarily welcome, present that was yet to come.

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AN: So this is sort of inspired by a few fanfics I've read dealing with Ichigo being a demon and mating and all this. Only instead of being like... GrimmIchi or ByaIchi or something random like that I'm using KenIchi because honestly... I'm obsessed with Kenpachi in general. Plus KenIchi is teh SMEX. And teh smut... and a little bit of rapeage, if we're honest with ourselves. Don't worry Kenpachi fangirls, he'll make his appearance next chapter!!!! 333 Read and Review and Receive Teh Love of teh Vive!!!!

Another Note: this is violently unbeta'd. Meaning there was no beta reader for this one, until I can find a new beta. If someone's available and interested, please PM me!!! 3 Forgive any mistakes because of this.