A one-shot from Hideaki's point of view. I'll be writing two other one-shots that tie into this, one from Tensa's perspective and another from Ichigo's.
For an understanding on why exactly I refer to Ichigo's hollow as Hideaki I've explained that on my profile.
He's always been trying to reach out for the boy in his own way. He was a Hollow and therefore he didn't understand the concept of courting, or at least anything other than the Hollow perspective of it. And he doesn't believe his King would appreciate it if his Hollow were to suddenly pin him down and fuck him raw.
No, he thinks as his King looks at him in disgust when he once again challenges him for the throne. He doesn't think the human would appreciate it at all. He hardly appreciates the attention Hideaki bestows upon him every day as it is, let alone the warm feelings his Hollow hides for him.
As he's trounced once again and disappears into thin black sparkles, he muses over what he must be doing wrong. What he must always be doing wrong. Not even a minute after he's defeated he's already reformed on a building far away from the one where his King has defeated him.
The boy can't sense him from here and Hideaki is grateful for that. Being 'killed' always hurts after all, though it was far more emotional pain than physical. Hollows are used to physical pain; it's how they were created in the first place.
Hideaki can do nothing but sit on the building and watch glumly as Ichigo talks with Tensa who has appeared at his side. That was another thing Hideaki couldn't stand.
That stupid zanpakutou had gotten very friendly with their King after he had regained his powers with the Xcution shit. The Hollow wasn't going to lie, he far preferred it when the zanpakutou was an old man and hardly showed any interest in anything but being a buttfuck on his stupid stick.
At least then he'd had something to taunt the zanpakutou with, something to lord over him and jeer at him about. And back then that's all that had happened, the older zanpakutou hadn't even responded to his taunts. This new Zangetsu would respond and trounce him as badly as his King would.
And then the little snot would lord it over him just as his King did, calling him weak and pathetic. Hideaki is a cruel creature but he doesn't have the heart to tell the zanpakutou the only reason he existed in the first place was because Hideaki had been kind enough to separate from the zanpakutou that had rested inside him when Ichigo had nearly become a full Hollow.
Hideaki isn't even sure why he's content to leave the zanpakutou believing he was almighty over the Hollow, because he knows he wouldn't care if he obliterated the stupid smug sword and he was the only thing left for his King.
It's the thought that his King would be upset to lose the sword that he's had for so long that would bother him, and so he leaves the little snot to his business. Leaves him to get buddy buddy with the boy, jealousy biting and gnawing at the heart he didn't even know he had. Seethes that it should be him the boy was so attached to.
Kurosaki Ichigo would be nothing but a stain on the floor of Soul Society if he had never protected him when he went to get that little shit brat Kuchiki. Yet the boy seems blissfully uncaring towards that fact, maybe hadn't even put it together yet in that stupid mind of his that seemed more like a rodent's than even a human's.
}-{
Hideaki hasn't tried to usurp his King in months now. He can tell Ichigo's starting to get nervous and is trying to figure out what trick his inner Hollow is playing, but he's too weary to care enough about it.
Being 'killed' over and over is wearisome to someone's being and he can feel he's not as stable in this world as he once was. He hadn't even known he could be ousted from the world he had created in the boy in the first place and the idea scares him so badly he doesn't want to give his King the satisfaction of believing he's once more defeated the darkness in him.
The last time Hideaki had seen Tensa Zangetsu the little snot was looking at him with slight worry, trying to gauge what was wrong with the Hollow that he was just floating around in their fishbowl inside a shitty boy. That the Hollow hadn't had an outburst for so long must have worried the zanpakutou, or perhaps he was only worried that Hideaki might have been biding his time to overpower Ichigo.
He almost laughed in Tensa's face when he asked him as much, almost wanted to tell him if he had truly wanted to beat them both he could have done so without a single problem. He was the strongest of the three and neither of the two seemed to understand that, it was almost laughable.
But instead of answering the zanpakutou he had simply smirked at him and swam away, leaving the zanpakutou staring after him thoughtfully.
Seeing that little shit again eats at him more than he thought it would, because he knows that the little zanpakutou is so very friendly with the King he still wants to have to himself.
He'd been trying to get on his King's good side; oh Hueco Mundo knew how much he'd tried. Offering little tidbits of help when the boy was working on his homework or helping him struggle with a concept he didn't understand while he was reading his schoolbooks.
That he had done so while mocking the boy's lack of intelligence was just what he did, if he had straight-up offered help without mocking him his King would have gotten suspicious immediately. Instead the boy grudgingly accepted his help until the mocking grated his nerves enough that he told him to get away.
Hideaki had tried reading some of the books that had been stored in Ichigo's inner world, remnants of all the things Ichigo has read in his life, but they all had their ink stolen out of them from the water. That had been a misery when he'd found them, because they had been his only real hope that he would somehow be able to understand how humans courted each other.
Instead he'd taken to watching things from his King's eyes, something he has told neither Tensa or Ichigo he can do although he thinks Tensa can do it from what the boy seems to know of Ichigo's normal life.
It was from this perspective that Hideaki had gotten to know of human television and movies, something that was meant to be a representation of regular human life and the struggles within it. While most of the programs and movies bored him or made him laugh, outside of horror movies as those were his absolute favorite despite the fact they horrified his King, he did pay attention to the romantic aspects of the moving picture screen.
Maybe he could apply them to his relationship, if one could call a continuing one-sided 'murder spree' on him from his King a relationship.
}-{
His attempts to use the screen romantic gestures had failed so utterly he almost laughed at how ridiculous it had been. Apparently calling his King pet names and trying to pester him about every part of his life and the people in it, along with references to potentially going places with him, had horrified his King to the point that this time he had been the one to attack Hideaki and finish him off without the Hollow even being able to defend himself.
He supposed it was his own fault though; he'd made so many references to the power he had to kill or torture Ichigo's friends that Ichigo had most certainly misinterpreted his words as a threat against them. And Hueco Mundo knew his King would not stand for threats against his friends, no matter how little stock he put in threats toward his own life.
This time he waited another month before trying again. He'd waited until Ichigo was in the inner world to see Tensa, something he's been doing a lot more often in the last few months, and was alone once the zanpakutou had taken off to do who-knows-what he normally did.
Ichigo is instantly on alert as soon as he shows up but he doesn't attack the boy again. Instead he simply asks the boy if he wanted to hang out with him, to which his King responded negatively and immediately made himself scarce in the inner world.
It was something Hideaki should have expected and yet it still leaves the space where his heart is heavier, heavier than it's been since this had all started.
Tensa is there now; watching him with a look in his eye that Hideaki is sure isn't good. The zanpakutou doesn't speak to him though and simply watches as he turns and leaves to his own part of the underwater world.
They had never talked at length before and whatever the zanpakutou had wanted to say to him he hadn't spoken up about and Hideaki didn't want to start being friendly with the snot as it was.
Sitting on his favorite building he looks down at his hands and is surprised to see they're faded against the backdrop of the sidewalk. He can hardly see them at all. It takes several hours before they're fully there again and Hideaki puts the event in the back of his mind. After all it wasn't important for now, weird shit always happened when he was involved.
}-{
The next time his King visits is when Hideaki is playing with several of the not-real fish in the fishbowl. He hadn't known Ichigo was in the inner world until the boy is standing behind him and coughing to get his attention.
That of course ruins his attention on the fish and they escape from the reiatsu net he'd had them in, leaving him cursing and letting the net fade away back into himself. He turns to the boy who was his king and scowled at him, for once not at all pleased to see the boy here.
Perhaps it's the nervousness that came from him actively seeking him out that puts him on edge like this, perhaps it's something else.
"Will you stop trying to kill everything you can get your hands on, Hollow," Ichigo spits at him, looking angry as he watches the fish scatter and leave behind a building.
Hideaki throws his hands up into the air and gives his King his favorite twisted grin, reserved only for when his King was angry with him. It only served to make the boy scowl more at him.
"Tensa says that you're being strange," is the next thing out of his King's mouth and Hideaki simply raises his brows at him and doesn't answer.
So what if the shitty zanpakutou thinks he's strange? He thinks the shitty boy is strange too, doesn't mean he's going to go tattling to Ichigo about it.
The thought that his King would listen to him tattling on the zanpakutou's strange behavior and pestering him about it makes him throw his head back and laugh loud and high.
The orange-haired boy in front of him flinches at the sound, hand going to rest on the hilt of his sword as though to pull it out and defend himself. Or attack, either one is possible when it came to Hideaki himself.
"What are you doing here anyway?"
Hideaki blinks and looks around himself, not having expected that question. So his favorite building just so happened to be the Kurosaki household itself, was that really something necessary to question? Although now that he thought about it perhaps Ichigo was taking it as a challenge or threat against himself and his family.
Ha, as if. If he wanted to threaten the boy's family he'd do it to his face, not hang around their house in his inner world.
He notices something strange in Ichigo's hand, it looks a bit like his substitute badge yet it seemed to have what looked like… Hideaki's hollow mask inside it? It even feels like his own reiatsu is inside it as well, just what was that thing?
His King must have noticed his looks because he holds it up and smirks at him, eyes flashing with an inner triumph that puts Hideaki further on guard, if that is even possible.
"Yeah, you see this thing?" Ichigo says, taunting him. As if Hideaki hadn't seen it, they both knew he had.
"So what about it? Aw do you like me so much you had to get your own badge that reminds you of me?" he teases him with a sharp laugh, pointing at the thing with his grin back on his face.
Ichigo doesn't respond to his teasing though and instead keeps that smug smirk on his face.
"No, I hate you so much I can't wait to get rid of you with this," is what his King replies with, so smug and sure of what's he's saying that Hideaki can't help but be afraid he was telling the truth.
What was this thing that Ichigo is so sure can "get rid of him"?
He doesn't intend to let his King get the best of him though and so he's drawing his own Zangetsu before the teen can even move and lunges at him, slashing at the stupid badge in the boy's hands.
Ichigo must have anticipated that though- had he really gotten so predictable?- and had already moved out of the way, not even drawing his sword to defend himself.
Instead he only held the badge out towards Hideaki in a self-assured gesture that wasn't even defensive at all.
He laughs at the foolish gesture, raising his sword above himself. "If you want to lose your arm so badly, you only need to ask!" he cackles as he swings the sword down and the gravity of the heavy blade adds to the speed. The sword hits the badge hard.
And that's when everything goes south. The badge doesn't crack at all; instead it only catches the blade's attack and sends the force back into the blade, shattering it in his hand. Hideaki stares in disbelief, unable to comprehend how something as small as that thing could so utterly wreck his sword.
But with horror he realizes that's not the only thing the badge has done, instead he can see the reiatsu leaking out of the badge- his own reiatsu- forming into a net like he'd been using on the fish earlier.
That net wraps tight around him, the reiatsu within it so close to his own yet at the same time not his just enough that he can't stop it from digging into his skin and trapping him so tightly he can't even move an inch.
It knocks him straight off his feet and he can't do anything but struggle against the net that's getting tighter around him, almost cutting off his air and digging so tight into his skin he's sure he's bleeding from it.
Ichigo seems to find this amusing as he's crouched beside him and smirking that smug smirk that makes Hideaki want to lash out and smack it off his face. At any other time he might think the smirk is hot, fuck he knows he'd think it was hot, but right now when his life seems in danger it's nothing but infuriating.
"Can't break out of it, can you?" Ichigo says above him, taunting him in a way that reminds Hideaki of his own taunts against the boy.
Hideaki does nothing but snarl back at his King. "Release me and I won't snap your neck, King."
Ichigo doesn't even laugh at the bluffed threat; instead he only pats Hideaki's head through the net as he would a pet. With a sinking feeling he realizes it's how you would pet an animal you were about to put down, an animal that had bit you.
"Why are you doing this?" he hisses instead, not allowing himself to show the fear that's curling in his stomach. He can see his own body and his hands are once again fading, again they're hardly seen and it looks like most of his arms have gone with them this time.
"Because you're a threat, you're a horrible thing to keep around and I can't allow you to hurt those close to me," Ichigo says simply.
There isn't anything but anger in his tone, no feeling of remorse for bringing down someone as strong as Hideaki. Someone as loyal as Hideaki, who has done nothing but protect his King and those close to his King ever since he first woke within the boy.
Not that his King can figure that out for himself, too focused on the bluffed threats Hideaki had always given him. His bloodlust for taking the throne, even though he'd never put in enough effort to succeed.
Hideaki closes his eyes and he can feel his reiatsu leaking through him into that net. From the net into the badge, whatever that goddamn badge was. It was eating him alive and the thought horrified him more than anything else ever had.
His King has made sure he would still be able to use his powers, he thinks bitterly. Because that's all he's ever wanted of his loyal Horse, he's only ever wanted to be able to use his mask without Hideaki being there.
And Ichigo wasn't even going to stay to watch. He hears the boy stand up and doesn't even have the energy to ask him to at least have enough respect to stay and watch as he truly kills his loyal horse this time.
The boy is gone as quickly as he came and Hideaki is left alone to fade into that badge.
The bitterness eats at him more than that stupid badge ever can and he breaks into broken laughter, body wracked with pain and spasming through it all from his laughter.
He's been trying for so long now to get his King's attention, to get him to like him and maybe reciprocate his feelings for the boy. Now he can see his goal was never going to turn out how he wanted, Ichigo had hated him from the very beginning.
Just the fact he was a Hollow was enough to make the human hate him and anything Hideaki did after that was just bundled into what he was, further fueling Ichigo's hatred for him.
Any attempts to get on the boy's good side, any claims he actually cared for Ichigo would have been treated as a trap.
His King's horse is loyal until the end though and Hideaki doesn't fight the badge's hunger. Instead he simply lies down and continues to laugh and let it do what it was obviously intended to do. At least in his death he'd still be able to help his King.