Four beings inhabited the dark, lonely room, and four emotions were felt: amusement, contemplation, protection, and fear. Cold brown eyes were busy making a plan for this little… situation. A large grin with closed eyes could only laugh mentally at what was before him. Bright cerulean eyes quickly looked down at the one clutching onto his arm, then back up to the Lord sitting atop his throne. And lastly, chocolate brown eyes looked up at blue, and also followed his sight path to the man deciding his make-shift family's fate.
"Now, what is this? Grimmjow, my Sexta Espada, claiming responsibility for Kurosaki Ichigo? I find this odd. Would either of you two care to explain this situation a little more clearly?" Aizen had his smug, all-knowing grin dominating his features. Gin merely chuckled behind him. 'What do we have here, eh?'.
Ichigo ever-so-slightly tightened his grip on Grimmjow's arm. Grimmjow responded with a reassuring arm around Ichigo's shoulders. "Well, Aizen…sama, I think that I've got myself a family in the works," was Grimmjow's unsure response. He had never cared for Aizen, but this was one situation he was not too careless with. Grimmjow looked down again to look at Ichigo's enlarged belly. Ichigo placed his arms across his stomach protectively. 'As if it'll help…' Ichigo thought.
Ichigo's increase in size had begun a little over four months ago. Grimmjow visited almost nightly; he and Ichigo had routine activities to keep up. But almost a month after their last activity, Ichigo could feel something beginning to change. He used the bathroom a lot more, he felt tired almost constantly even though he hadn't done any exercise out of the normal (fighting Hollows was a daily routine anyway). He tried sleeping more, but that didn't really help. Along the way, he found himself in an emotional turmoil will everyone: Rukia, Urahara, and even a little more than normal aggression towards his father.
Rukia had also noticed the slight abnormality; she confronted Renji about it. "What do you think is wrong with Ichigo?" her voice was puzzled and she seemed to be talking more to herself than Renji. Renji had remained ignorant.
"Something's wrong? I didn't even notice..." his blank facial expression backed up his story.
"I know there's something wrong; hasn't he yelled at you more lately? You should've seem him at Urahara's, he was crazy!" Rukia's attention still seemed like she wasn't paying attention to Renji.
"Have you asked him about it?" Renji's mind seemed to click; he vaguely remember Ichigo's almost random outburst in Urahara's face.
"No... maybe he doesn't even realize himself? If it goes on, I'll definitely confront him about it," were her last thoughts on the situation. Little did they know, Ichigo had noticed these changes...
They had begun to scare him; was something going wrong? Ichigo and Grimmjow managed to keep up their nightly fun, but Grimmjow often became a magnet for attracting Ichigo's mood swings. Grimmjow only had a sense of calm when they were in the middle of sex, and he really couldn't consider that calm, but hey, Ichigo wasn't screaming at him, or crying on his shoulder for almost no reason at all. Grimmjow often gave him a more than slightly confused look, but that only caused Ichigo to burst into tears.
It had been about a month and a half since his change in behavior, and Ichigo's belly now started to stick out farther than before; Ichigo had to try to keep his bulge a secret from his friends, but it was getting harder and harder. Ichigo stared at himself in the mirror in the bathroom while in his shinigami form. The loose fitting outfit was really the only thing that gave him comfort around his belly lately, but despite the roomy outfit, his stomach was visibly larger. Thoughts like: "What if they ask questions?" or "What is this?" and even "Am I just a freak?" came flooding in.
Rukia had picked up on his sudden absence from a fight and merely got an "It's nothing" from Ichigo. As time went on, he was rarely seen during a fight.
Ichigo quickly made his way to Urahara's shop; he had to know what was wrong immediately. After a private talk and an ultrasound machine that Urahara just so happened to have hiding in his shop, Urahara's words weren't making any sense: "Ichigo-san, you're… well, you're a mother." Ichigo merely stared at his trusted friend with utter confusion.
"Eh, Urahara, I can't have a baby, remember? I'm not a woman," Ichigo's facial expression of 'are you an idiot?' made Urahara feel more than slightly uncomfortable.
"Ah, I know Ichigo-san, but I really don't have a witty retort for this one. You're just… a mother." Urahara whipped out his fan and began to blow cool wind across his face. "I'll study it, but… for now just go home and rest. By the way… who's the father?" Urahara finished with an annoying obvious teasing voice.
It was that night that Ichigo told Grimmjow about his situation. Grimmjow was just as dumbfounded as he was. Ichigo thought quietly as he lay next to Grimmjow: What if Soul Society got involved? Would they consider him an enemy? Would they try to kill his baby? Ichigo hadn't thought of these things before, but now he knew he had to get him and his baby away from Karakura, away from his friends, away from Soul Society…
And this is where Ichigo found himself standing, in front of the very man he was trying to defeat only a few days ago, pleading for safety.
Aizen looked at Ichigo with calculating eyes; this boy, and that's what he was, just a boy who had gotten into a little more than he bargained for, had the ability to harbor children? This could prove useful somewhere along his plan, but right now, he had Soul Society's best chance at victory standing right in front of him asking for a place to stay. Oh is this irony? Aizen had made a decision. He looked to Gin only to receive one of his usual creepy grins.
Aizen looked back at this little group, "Kurosaki Ichigo, you tried to defeat me and my army only yesterday, now you come asking for my sympathy? How do I know you're not just playing a game?"
Ichigo opened his mouth to answer but faltered. He tried again: "Aizen, I wouldn't play a game with something this… important. I won't ask you to give me anything but a place to stay and a small grant of protection for my child…" Ichigo felt weird speaking these words, he had obviously never planned on living in Las Noches, let alone being pregnant during it all.
Aizen grinned. "Well Kurosaki, I'll let you stay here on a few conditions: you will go to weekly checkups with Szayel, you will wear my uniforms, along with behaving as Grimmjow's Fraccion; however, for the time being, you will not be allowed to fight against anyone, but once you are able, you will, without any hesitation or question, become a true Espada and fight against Soul Society."
Ichigo felt his heart drop at these requirements. He was going to go against all he had been fighting for so long. Ichigo swallowed hard and looked up at Grimmjow, then to Aizen. "I accept your terms, and I want to stay with Grimmjow as much as possible, can he… he come with me to see Szayel?"
Aizen couldn't help but stare at this boy with wonder; he came here asking for shelter and now he's trying to make negotiations? 'Whatever,' he thought. "That's fine, now Grimmjow, show Ichigo to your quarters. A servant will be along in a short while to bring you your meal and a change of attire."
Ichigo gulped as he turned with Grimmjow to face his new life and all the problems that came with it.