Sanity and In Between

by phoenixreal

AU: Ichigo has recently come out to his family as gay and interested in drag. With his family supporting him, he goes to work at Las Noches as a drag performer. Things are great, until he starts getting frightening phone calls and things start happening around him. Enter a blue haired bounty hunter chasing serial sadistic killers. GrimXIchi CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED

1. Las Noches

Chapter One - Las Noches Cabaret and Lounge

Perhaps Isshin Kurosaki should have known his son Ichigo was different than his schoolmates. Of course, he did know, but he didn't acknowledge it because it was just his son. He had no desire or designs on making his son conform to his own definition of what he should be. Isshin wasn't like some other fathers he had encountered in his day. He was an educated man, a doctor, and he had seen a lot in his time. Besides, he also had a pair of twin daughters, Karin and Yuzu, who were four years younger than their older brother. Isshin was a single dad, his wife having died eleven years before. Masaki had been the center, the very heart of their family, and Isshin couldn't look at another woman anymore without seeing her face. Thus, he'd resigned himself to a long, lonely life as an old single widower. Until then, though, he had three children he loved more than words could ever express. He had thought that they could never really surprise him. He'd seen it all, after all. Still, it had been Ichigo that had surprised him the most.

Looking back, perhaps his girls saw their brother much more clearly than their father because neither of the girls were the least bit surprised. The announcement came almost exactly a month after Ichigo turned twenty. It wasn't that Isshin was upset, of course not, he loved his son beyond all else, and he knew that his mother would be proud of him no matter what he did in his lifetime. He was simply surprised; that was all. Truth be told, he was surprised at himself for not seeing it more than anything. After all, the boy had lived in his house for twenty years. Shouldn't he have realized something this important?

He had to give his boy credit; he had a flair for the dramatic. That should have been a clue. He'd always been so close to his mother as a little boy, clinging to her like some sort of lifeline. When she was killed in a mugging when he was nine, he was destroyed, and spent weeks mourning for her. Eventually, he came out of it for his sisters. He could see that they were hurting too, so he wanted to help and be a good big brother. He was always a tearful child though. After her death, though, he didn't cry openly anymore, he only cried when no one was looking. As a father Isshin knew. He caught the tearstained pillowcases in the wash now and then, and more than one morning he saw that Ichigo awoke with puffy eyes that indicated he'd fallen asleep crying. Isshin figured that Ichigo should know that he could talk to him. He thought he knew that, at least.

Then there were the times he had been helping with the wash and he'd walk by and see him holding one of the Yuzu's outfits against himself. Of course, it was Yuzu's outfits; Karin hated anything that looked remotely like it belonged on a girl. He thought at the time he was simply folding, but now, he realized what he was doing. And in twenty years, he brought many girls home. Yet he dated none of them. In fact, his closest friends were Orihime, a beautiful girl who was a little spacy, Arisawa, who he met as a child in martial arts, and Uryū, his cousin and an aspiring fashion designer. The four spent hours together watching movies and talking about other boys and girls. Perhaps he should have listened to who was speaking about boys, and who was speaking about girls. Because apparently, Arisawa and Orihime were dating each other, and Uryū was dating a boy named Szayel. And then there was his son.

He had other friends, of course. A tall Spanish boy named Sado, a couple other boys from his class, Mizuiro and Keigo, and there were a couple other girls that came for study group now and then. Mizuiro and Keigo were constantly talking about girls and everyone teased Mizuiro because he looked so young, and seemed to get dates with all the girls he wanted, while Keigo was constantly falling flat with the girls. But there was still something that told Isshin that they all were quite aware of his son's preferences. Of course, as a father, it made him feel entirely stupid for not seeing what was in front of him. Masaki would have known; he was certain of that fact. She certainly wouldn't have missed something so enormous as the fact that their only son was definitely not straight and probably had never been.

It was as normal as most days go in the Kurosaki household when Isshin would realize his blindness. It was a rare day that everyone was off and out of school. Summer break was going on for the girls, now fourteen, and Ichigo wouldn't be starting college for a few more weeks when he'd move to the dorms. They had determined to enjoy themselves over the summer since Ichigo would move out soon and head toward his future. And the future was the topic of discussion. Ichigo had spent the last couple of years taking classes at a local school remotely, filling in basic requirements before he decided to go on to the major he wanted to choose. He, despite all appearances, was still very much attached to his family and very reluctant to leave. The end of this year, however, had seen the end of the basics he had been taking and it was time to decide what classes he would enroll in next year. He also could no longer avoid attending class in person.

"So, my wonderful son, what is it that you will do in school? Doctor? Lawyer?" Isshin asked, smiling at his only son.

"Um, I dunno, pop," he said, and Isshin noticed that he was playing with his food more than eating it.

Isshin frowned briefly. He never seemed so unwilling to speak out. He started to say something but instead dropped the subject. If he wanted to talk, he would talk. At least, that was the way he thought it should work. He'd done a good job teaching his kids that they could tell him anything and that he was open an accepting. However, as he glanced up and saw the way his eldest was avoiding his gaze, he knew that he perhaps had not been as clear as he thought on this subject.

"Ichigo, eat!" Karin said, popping him on the back of the head from her position at the table beside him.

He gave his little sister a deathly glare. "Ichigo?" Isshin asked with a sigh and put his own chopsticks down slowly staring at the boy. "What is it?"

"It's just, I kinda have something I need to tell you…and…I don't know what you'll say," he said finally, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest nervously.

Isshin frowned and watched his son. He was avoiding eye contact, his back was stiff and he was covering a tremble in his hands. In that moment he couldn't have looked more like a child if he had still been one. Isshin gave a sad smiled and saw that little boy with big teary brown eyes staring up at him, his wild orange hair sopping wet from the rain in the hospital room asking why mom didn't wake up again.

"Son, I love you, no matter what you are about to say. Tell me, please, what's going on?" Maybe he didn't want to go to school? Maybe he had a different life in mind that he hadn't discussed with him before? Maybe he'd chosen to drop out and not finish? Maybe he'd found a secret lover and they were going to elope? Maybe he got someone pregnant?

"I'm…it's just that, I know you expect a lot out of me and I don't want to disappoint you and I don't know if you'll still see me the same way because I need to tell you that I'm actually and always have been gay and I'm getting into cross-dressing because I feel more comfortable dressing in feminine things than I do dressing as a guy but I don't know if I'm even a guy really or what I am and I can't seem to get all this straight in my head and I know…"

Isshin blinked. "Whoa!" he said, stemming the tide of words tumbling after his son's mouth.

Ichigo looked up at him, face turning several shades of pink and red. "Sorry."

Isshin blinked. Okay, so his only son was gay and wanted to dress as a girl. Of all the things that could have come out of his son's mouth he thought that this was perhaps the most unexpected thing in a long time. "Son, slow down. I already told you I would love you no matter what you do in life, didn't I?"

Ichigo lifted his eyes from his hands which were twisted with each other in his lap. "Yeah, but this is…this isn't just choosing not to be a doctor…or just going down a different path…I'm…I'm different in a lot of ways…"

"Nope, son, this is what you are, and I'll love you always no matter what, though I admit, I'm surprised…" he said, and glanced at both his daughters who were giving him their patented "you are such an idiot dad" look meaning that they knew already.

"But surprised doesn't mean it changes anything, you're still my child, and your mother would be proud of you too for being yourself and not pretending to be something you're not," he said with a sigh.

So his image of Ichigo having a wife and kids was probably dashed but he'd get over it. That was his image, not his son's image, so he had to remember that. And there was always adoptions, after all…so he would still have grandkids one day to spoil, he was sure. Ichigo loved children, and always had. He shook his head out of that. He had to stop laying expectations on him even if he only did it in his own head. He had no idea what Ichigo wanted anymore. He'd always agreed with Isshin and went along with what he said. Had it all just been to make him happy? He swallowed and tried to smile at his son. Tugging at his brain, though, was the self doubt that perhaps he hadn't been as good of a father as he thought.

Yuzu clapped. "Yay, we get to dress up Ichi-nii! And I get to go clothes shopping with him!"

Karin rolled her eyes. "Out of all this, you're looking forward to clothes shopping with our brother…" she said with a sigh. "Looks like I'm the boy outta this family now!" she said with a grin.

Ichigo snorted, cutting his eyes at her and sighing. "Karin, you always were…"

So Isshin had been surprised. And now he was surprised again, holding an invitation to a club downtown in Karakura Town named Las Noches where his only son was giving his first performance on stage with a local drag troupe called the Dangai. It wasn't that he was embarrassed or that he thought it was weird, it was just strange since this was the first time he'd see Ichigo dressed completely as an actual drag queen. Since he'd told them at lunch three weeks ago, he'd changed his regular attire a bit, his clothes had definitely taken on a more feminine feel, and when he went out, he often wore jewelry and make-up now. But he hadn't really started wearing skirts or dresses or anything at home yet. He'd gotten his ears pierced a few times in each ear and he'd noticed the influx of new clothing, no doubt courtesy of Uryū's tailoring skills. And a lot of shoes. Way too many shoes. He honestly didn't think Masaki had had that many shoes.

He supposed that if he was going to be dressing as a woman in life, his body type was to his advantage. Ichigo had always been slender rather than strong, built like a swimmer rather than a weight lifter or anything. His hands were long fingered and slender, and his face was softer than most. He had large brown eyes and a set of unusually full lips for boy, and a set of eyelashes that most girls would die for. He definitely had the legs for the occupation of a drag performer, having again, long slender limbs. He'd done a stint in track in high school, and of course, he was a third degree karate black belt, had taken classes in both Tae Kwon Do and Kung Fu at various times, and had a good knowledge of Hap-ki-do and Aikido, though no formal training in those, Isshin had taught him those himself. He'd always been balanced and graceful, so the first time he'd run down the stairs at home in a pair of six inch stiletto heels to show the girls, he hadn't been too surprised. Because he had actually run down the stairs, and all Isshin could think was how the hell could he run in those without falling since he'd never really worn them before… He stopped himself. He'd never seen him wear them before. There was no reason to think his son had never worn them before.

The phone rang in his pocket and he pulled it out. It was his cousin, Ryuken Ishida, Uryū's father.

"Isshin," came the always serious voice of the fellow doctor.

"Ryuken, what can I do for you?" he said. Calls from the stoic fellow doctor were always terse and filled with tension. Isshin had never approved of the way Ryuken had treated his own son, which was perhaps one of the reasons the boy spent so much time at his house. Sometimes he wondered if the kid was actually his because he saw him so much…

"Uryū says you'll be attending Las Noches tonight," he said flatly.

Isshin started. He didn't think Uryū even participated in the shows, but he could have changed his mind, he supposed. "Um, yes, is Uryū performing?"

"No, Uryū made Ichigo's outfit and some of the other performers' outfits as well, so I'm going to view his work with a colleague of mine in design. Sort of scouting him, so to speak. And his current love interest is performing as well," Ryuken said, still so stiffly, even though he was discussing his son's future. "Shall I pick you up around six? No reason to go separately. The boys are going earlier of course."

"Of course, that would be fine. I forgot to ask if the girls would be allowed to go?" he asked.

"Yes, as long as you are there. They do have a full bar, but since they are Ichigo's sisters, I can't imagine them not allowing it as long as they leave before the later shows begin. It is a cabaret lounge after all. But when the burlesque group goes on, I would imagine they should be home in bed."

"Okay, well, see you at six then," he said, hanging up. He was glad, because the girls were excited to see their brother on stage for the first time…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Three Weeks Ago

"You told him?" Uryū said with hands clasped in front of him excitedly as they sat in the ice cream shop.

Ichigo nodded, fingers fiddling with the hairs at the base of his neck. He'd stopped getting his hair cut a couple weeks before and it was really a challenge not to relent and just cut it again. He was finding that growing out his hair was going to be one of the more annoying parts of this lifestyle he'd chosen to come into. He smiled at Uryū and for a moment was jealous of him. He looked so normal, sitting there with his smartly cut straight black hair, his simple glasses, and his very male appearance. He wore polo shirts, button up shirts, and rarely did anything outlandish with his looks. He was so simple and for a moment Ichigo felt the gut wrenching desire to be "normal" just like him. He shook it away. He had to stop thinking like that. Uryū was just as gay as he was, but he dressed like a man, and he was a man, and unlike Ichigo, he knew he was a man. He wasn't struggling to understand his identity.

"Yeah, I did," Ichigo said, smiling down at his ice crea. "Finally, last night. I just couldn't do it anymore. I felt like I was being fake all the time, you know? Every time I went out I'd look at myself and think that it was someone else looking back, I just couldn't do it anymore. Karin and Yuzu have known forever, I think. Yuzu can't wait to go clothes shopping… I swear she's more excited about it than I am."

"And? How'd he take it?" Uryū said, leaning forward and pushing his glasses up again.

He was remembering his own revelation to his father about his sexuality. It hadn't gone as well. There had been a lot of swearing and telling him he was too young to know that sort of thing. Of course, Uryū had been twelve at the time. Uryū, like his father, was very seriously minded and knew flat out from the time he was eight he didn't have any interest in girls at all, and by the time he was twelve had confirmed that he was only interested in other boys. His father didn't take the news well.

"Well, surprised, but said mom would be proud I wasn't hiding what I was," Ichigo said, taking another bite of his sundae, hot fudge with marshmallow cream and drizzles of strawberry sauce.

"Uryū-kun!" came a singsong voice from the entrance. Both looked up to see a flamboyantly dressed man with long pink hair coming their way.

Uryū smiled and shook his head with a sigh at the man. He wore tight stone washed blue jeans and a light blue frilled shirt and a pair of black stiletto heeled boots. Everyone glanced up as he came in; he was certainly not hard to notice. There were a few odd looks at his seemingly girlish façade and his masculine voice.

"Oh!" he said as he sat down beside Uryū and looked at Ichigo. "Is this your cousin you told me about?"

"Yeah, Ichigo, you've heard enough about him, here's Szayel in all his flaming, out of the closet glory," he said with a smile at the slightly older boy with the golden eyes and ready grin. "I don't think he so much as came out of the closet as burned it up from the inside out," he muttered.

Szayel reached out, took Ichigo's hand lightly, and grinned at him. "Oh my goodness, you are a doll!"

Ichigo blushed to his roots. "Ah, yeah, thanks," he stammered.

"Uryū, how have you kept this gem hidden so well? There wasn't any kissing cousin action I missed was there?" Szayel said with a lifted sculpted brow. If nothing else, Szayel had the perhaps most immaculately manicured nails and waxed brows of anyone Ichigo had ever seen.

Ichigo's eyes went wide, he shook his head, and he looked at Uryū who was making a disgusted face. "No, Szayel, no way. We're like brothers," Uryū said with a firm headshake.

Szayel sighed. "Ah, well, a boy can hope, kissing cousins are pretty hot…" He looked at them. "Well, so are kissing brothers but that's another thing."

"Szayel, you are such a pervert!" Uryū said, sighing in obvious exasperation.

"And you love it, Uryū-kun, you're just as dirty in bed…" he said, letting go of Ichigo's hand and sliding one under the table, making Uryū wince and glare daggers at his boyfriend.

"Ew, no details," Ichigo said, wincing. "Thank you very much."

Both the others laughed at the red orangette. "Anyway, so Uryū says you're interested in going drag, possibly become a transvestite in life as well as on the stage, and he suggested that you might be more like me, genderfluid or trans of some sort. Says you've been a bit questioning of your gender identity lately, its an adventure, love. You wanna come down to the club tonight? I'm on stage; we do a show most nights, two on weekends. Tonight we've got a big one, though; the burlesque group is performing after us and we have a special guest coming in from American that's performing with them."

Ichigo nodded, excited to finally be around other people that were similar to himself. "But…I don't have anything really to wear to a club…" he said, gesturing to the jeans and t-shirt he wore. He didn't want to admit that he did have some "guy" clothes, but nothing that he wanted to wear on his first night out in public out of the closet. He wondered thoughtfully if the reason the phrase out of the closet was used was because gay guys tended to dress really well and had a lot of clothes.

"Sweetheart, you are coming to raid my closet," Szayel said, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him out the door, leaving Uryū to catch up. Luckily, both had managed to finish their ice cream before Ichigo was summarily kidnapped by the pink haired vixen.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Szayel lived relatively close to the ice cream shop they'd been in, and before long Ichigo found himself in a lavishly decorated bedroom. Apparently, he liked leopard print because everything in his bedroom had it. The rest of the apartment had been stylishly decorated, though minimalistic in style choices. The bedroom, however, was another story. A huge canopied king bed with black curtains around it, a beautiful antique dresser and nightstand with intricate carvings, and an enormous wardrobe were only the beginning of what made the room impressive.

"Here, this," Szayel said, emerging from the walk in wardrobe with an outfit. "Try this one, sweetie!"

Ichigo blushed but was shoved into the en suite bath and slipped out of his jeans and t-shirt and gaped at the outfit he'd been handed. He debated leaving the room and saying he'd declined to even think that he could dress like this. Nope, he was going to try it. He shimmied into the dark denim pants. They were embellished with embroidery down the sides of the legs and there was a subtle sheen to the denim. He realized they were impossible to wear with his boxers on, however, so he removed them and tried again, finally getting into them. He wondered if they were supposed to be this tight…

He picked up the corset style top, obviously tailored for a man to wear, and put it on, and followed it up with the jacket that matched the pants he'd put on. It left the front of his midriff open, but he thought he looked good in it. He smiled because it was incredibly feminine, if not completely his style. He liked the embroidered jeans though. He emerged from the bath and saw he was being stared at hard by his cousin and his new friend.

"Holy fuck me sideways, aren't you a hot little thing," Szayel muttered, clapping his hands together. "Here, wear these," he said, handing him a pair of platform heels. They weren't very high, but added an inch or two, and certainly did amazing things to his ass.

"I am so introducing your sweet little ass to Shinji," Szayel muttered, turning him around once the outfit was complete. "If he doesn't invite you on stage, there is something wrong with him…"

"On stage?" Ichigo asked, his brow crinkling.

"Oh yes, on stage, honey. Uryū-kun here agrees, I can tell he's dying to put you in drag. You would kill honey. Well, we can make that happen. Come on, we'll get there before they open and you can meet Shinji, Uryū likes to fret endlessly over the outfits before the big shows like tonight so he'll want to leave soon anyway."

Before long, Szayel had disappeared into the closet and emerged again with an outfit in a black garment bag and grinned. "Let's go!"

They made their way to the waiting car and Ichigo was beside himself. He was going to meet people that liked to dress like he did, people that didn't think it was weird. He wouldn't be the odd one anymore. The thought itself was exciting beyond belief. Most of his friends from school were so very normal. And by normal he meant they fit the established societal norms. He was coming to realize that normal was indeed a thing relative to where one was in their life. He blinked and they were outside a rather plain looking building with an unlit sign at the top that read Las Noches.

He smiled to himself as he got out, stumbling a bit in the heeled shoes. He supposed he should get used to that. Szayel grabbed him by the hand and practically drug him into the club. The inside was simply beautiful; it was the only way to describe it. The stage, of course, took up the majority of the front, replete with rich, velvet curtains of deep red tied back with vibrant gold tassels. The back was lined with black velvet. The stage jutted out in a semi-circle and had steps going down either side and a pathway around it and down the middle of the front area that led all the way to a door on the opposite side. All around the stage there were tables with lush comfortable chairs trimmed in red and black velvet. The tables were gold and ornate pedestal tables with cloths of red and a single red rose in a black vase in the center of each. Around the outside, the tables were pub height, and against the opposite wall there was a large, ornate bar of the same wood the stage was made of. Against the far walls out of sight of the stage were a series of booths against the wall opposite a large screen, no doubt to have the stage show on it as people sat there.

There were no interior windows, but the walls were heavily draped with thick velour and velvet drapes of black, giving the whole place a soft and warm feeling to it. In the center, right above the semi-circular protrusion of the stage, a bright replica of the moon hung from the ceiling. Szayel smiled.

"When the lights go down, there are holes in those black drapes. They flip the lights behind and it looks like the whole room is filled with millions of stars," he said with a wink. "The moon up there changes its light according to the real moon phase too. It glows softly, and from down here, with the lights out, you would swear you were outside under the real thing."

"Holy hell, who is this angel?" came a voice from the back.

"Shinji, I don't think holy, hell and angel belong in the same sentence," Uryū said, shifting his glasses on his nose. "But this is my cousin, Ichigo."

Ichigo turned to see a beautiful man in drag. He had long, perfectly straight blonde hair that cascaded down his back with straight across bangs framing his pale face. He had a wide smile, and wore a generous amount of jewelry. His outfit was relatively simple, a long black pleated skirt and red kitten heels. His blouse was a simple button down, with a modest chest built underneath. If Ichigo hadn't known he was going to be meeting Shinji, a drag performer, he would have thought that it was indeed a woman. He was gorgeous, honestly.

Shinji came forward and looked him over and then shook his hand in a decidedly manly grip, in complete opposition to his appearance. "Look at you, son of a bitch, you are hot."

"Don't mind Shinji, he's got a mouth like a sailor," Szayel said, flicking his pink hair over his shoulder with a huff.

"Ah, screw you, bitch," he said, grinning. "Just because I'm not prissy like you bunch," he said, laying a hand on his hip.

"You look prissy enough in that, honey," Szayel retorted.

Shinji sighed. "Ichigo, see, there's two types of drag performers around here, you've got the divas, full time transvestites, like Szayel here, who prefer to dress in women's clothes the rest of the time too, and then you've got the boys like me. I dress like this to perform; but otherwise, I dress in men's clothes. I see you got attacked by Szayel's closet…I take it you're new to this?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, I just came out to my pop last night, and…um…I guess I'm more like Szayel…because I like women's clothes more…"

Shinji smiled. "Honey, nothing wrong with that! I'm more comfortable dressing in men's clothes most of the time. If you want to wear a dress every day, you go for it. Decide you're a woman, and go all the way and your bits given the reversal of fortune, go ahead, though I think that would be so much less fun… I'd miss my dick. Anyway, my point is, you dress how you want and how you feel comfortable. We got all kinds here, transvestites, drag queens, straight folks, transgender folks. And don't mind me, I pick on the femmes. You'll see the same thing with some of the others, the butch girls pick on the lipsticks, and vice versa. Did they tell you what we do here?"

Ichigo nodded. "A bit, you run the drag troupe, um, the…uh…Dangai, right?"

"Yup, that's us. We have both women and men in the troupe, and we switch roles sometimes, we do singing, lip syncing, dancing, strip teases, though we aren't strippers, don't make that mistake, small skits, whatever we have on line for the night. And then we have the Hainekos, they're a Burlesque group that goes on after we're done on the weekends and mid-week. Sometimes we'll join in with them if we're feeling particularly frisky. All in good fun. My god, the more I look at you, the more you need to be on my stage. Are you interested?" Shinji said, spinning him around.

"Um well, I don't know, I…could try out?" he said, with a soft smile, wobbling a bit at the head rush.

Shinji nodded. "Alright, well, come on back, I think Uryū wants to check on the clothes for tonight, make sure nothing fell apart…"

Ichigo followed them through a door that led to the behind the stage area again and heard a booming voice. "I told you we need that forward camera on! I'm not losing track of the performers midway through the change up tonight!"

Up ahead, there was what could only be described as an enormous man. He perhaps stood seven foot in height, and was wearing a black T-shirt with white on the back that read "SECURITY". He had spiked black hair and when he turned, he had an eye patch on his right eye. He looked very imposing. Ichigo started as he set eyes on him.

"New pretty boy?" he said throatily.

"Maybe, he's going to try out for us, Ichi, this is Kenny, Kenpachi Zaraki, our head of security. Looks like he's having camera issues again," Shinji said. Ichigo stepped up and shook the man's mammoth hand firmly.

He looked him over. "This one's gay, ain't he? Great, and he's another diva," he muttered, turning back. Shinji snickered. Ichigo looked confused.

"Not all our drag performers are strictly gay, Ichi. Some of them are bi, even have one that's engaged to a gal to be married soon. He still performs and wears women's clothes on a daily basis, but he prefers women," he said with a smile. "You're going to find all kinds of people here tonight. We've got about every orientation of sex and gender expression running round here that you can imagine!"

Ichigo nodded. "I'm just overwhelmed…I always felt like such a freak because I wanted to wear my sisters' clothes…"

Szayel draped an arm around his back. "Honey, you will so fit in around here, don't you worry that pretty orange head. Hrm."

Szayel suddenly reached out and grabbed Ichigo's pants by the button and yanked, pulling them open enough to look down the front. "I'll be damned, your hair is that color naturally, the curtains match the drapes!"

Ichigo wasn't sure what to do; he stared down his pants at his own pubic area and then flushed deep red. Szayel giggled and let go of his pants. Uryū, meanwhile had buried his head into his hands with a groan. Szayel grinned and shrugged. "What? I was curious. I mean, I dye mine pink, so the lowers are blonde…"

Shinji was laughing heartily beside him and Kenny was sighing. "I swear, tact, Szay, tact," muttered Uryū weakly through his hands.

"Shinji, there you are!" came a voice as a short and demure man with vivid green eyes came walking down the hall toward them with his hands in his suit jacket's pockets.

"Hey, what's up, Ulqie?" Shinji said with a nod.

"Newbie?" he said, glancing at Ichigo.

Shinji nodded. "Maybe. He's Uryū's cousin."

"Oh, nice to meet you, then, Ulquiorra Cifer. I manage the Burlesque troupe, the Hainekos. I'm not always around, but I do drop in nights the group performs," he said extending a hand.

Ichigo shook with him and smiled. He was an attractive man, straight black hair, serious face, almost white skinned, and quite petite, but somehow in the business suit he was imposing at the same time. "Good to meet you."

Shinji nodded. "So what's going on?"

"I just wanted to check in on the times. When will my group be going on tonight?" he asked with a nod.

Shinji pulled a folded paper from his skirt's pocket. "Um, let's see, we hit the stage at six, we've got a three hour show, so any time after nine that you are here and ready."

The raven haired man nodded. "Awesome. Ten sound good? Two hours show for us. A couple of the girls are wanting to go pick up dinner with our special guest before we hit the stage, so we'll be here right after. See you then, Shinji."

He turned and left and Ichigo wondered at how normal all this felt. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see Uryū looking at him. "Okay, Ichi?" he asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, it just feels weird, I mean, to feel like I'm a part of the place and not just standing outside looking in, you know?"

Shinji smiled at him. "Come on, I'll show you the clothes area. It is simply stunning, and Uryū does some fantastic work."

He led him to the back and showed off closets and closets of amazing clothes in about every size imaginable. He practically drooled at the sight. He'd never seen so many things that he would love to wear. Shinji elbowed Uryū in the side as he walked in to look about the area.

"You weren't kidding, boy's a natural diva. He's got the grace and you said this is the first time he's had on heels?" Shinji said, watching as Ichigo moved around the area looking at the various outfits. Even with two inch heels, he moved naturally.

"First time, we gave him two inch heels to start with, and as you can see, he's got amazing legs and…assets," Uryū said, rolling his eyes. "He's practically a twink. He's never had a stitch of chest hair, and I don't think he's got any on his legs either, lucky bastard. And he's got the cinched waist that will suit corseting for the stage well. Thirty minutes with make-up, a good set of falsies, and he'll turn into one hell of a queen…"

Shinji nodded, watching how he moved, his trained eye seeing thing things he wanted to see as he moved around. "Does he dance?"

"No, but he's done martial arts since he was five years old. He's got a black belt in something, I forget what it is, Karate or Tae Kwon Do or something, and that's not counting what his dad has taught him on the side. He's flexible as hell too. He was in gymnastics when he was younger, but he got teased when he was the last boy in the class, so he quit," Uryū said.

"Hey Ichi!" Uryū yelled out suddenly.

Ichigo looked back. "Can you still do the splits?"

Ichigo snorted. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be able to do it? I know I'm not in gymnastics anymore, but we do that sort of thing at the dojo too."

"Wanna show off a bit?" Uryū said, crossing his arms. Szayel arched a brow, and his eyes lit up at the possibility of seeing Ichigo do something erotic in his eyes.

"Uryū, these pants are so tight that would rip them if I tried splits right now," he said with a roll of his eyes.

Shinji clapped. "Oh, wait, here," he said, rummaging through a rack for a second and shoving a plastic coated bag at him. "Put this on."

Ichigo nodded and disappeared into the change room and emerged plucking at the outfit. It was a leotard, a female one with room for boobs or falsies, and had a skirt attached to it. It was bright green. He grimaced.

"This…is hideous," Ichigo said, looking up at them.

"Honey, no one here is looking at the leotard," Szayel said.

Ichigo frowned. "What?"

"You have the fuckin' legs of a goddess, honey," Shinji said, simply stunned by how shapely he looked even barefooted. "Damn. Women would want those legs. Now, shake that gay ass and show me what you're capable of."

Ichigo shrugged. "Um, okay, splits? I gotta stretch first."

He sat down and spent some time stretching out his legs and then stood up and slipped down to the floor in a right split easily. Shinji nodded. "Can you do a straddle split?"

Ichigo nodded and complied, taking a minute to settle down into it. He winced a bit. "Damn, been a while since I've done this…"

"Well, that's damn impressive," Shinji said. "What else you got?"

Ichigo stood easily. "Um, well, I know a lot of gymnastics and all the martial arts stuff…and I know a little bit of dance, just from taking my sister to dance classes."

Shinji nodded and shoved another plastic bag at him. "Try this on."

Ichigo disappeared again and this time emerged with a frown as he pulled at the leather miniskirt and the mid-drift baring cut off t-shirt with a stylized skull on the front. He'd put on the black and white striped stockings that went up under the skirt with the garter belt. There was a tight panty in it that ensured good coverage of his male bits. It felt weird, but he'd done his research about what to do with that bit of biology while in drag.

Shinji was grinning. "Stunning, here, wear these," he said, shoving a set of heels at him. They were three inches, so not much more than the others, so he slipped into them and stood and glanced at them. "Not too bad. You've got the moves, got the look, you interested in playing on stage this weekend? We do an amateur night on Friday before the main show starts. So you'd have to be here at say, five o'clock, and go out, maybe do a dance, something, about six or seven."

Ichigo nodded with a grin. At first he was wondering if he was going to go for it…but then the more he thought the more he liked the idea. Shinji gave him a wide smile and looked at Szayel and Uryū who were both grinning ear to ear.