In Love's Shadows
By Spunky0ne
Chapter 1: Wicked Concoctions
"Nemu!" Kurotsuchi Mayuri snapped from where he leaned over the body of a naked and recently deceased quincy, "Have you gotten the readings from the laboratory study on that sample we took from this subject?"
"It just came back, sir," Nemu answered calmly, "I have it here."
"Well, don't keep it to yourself," the twelfth division taichou said, snatching the file, "I want to know why that compound he secreted had the effect it did on those two technicians he attacked. Oh, and have they done anything else surprising?"
"No sir. After they...after the event we witnessed, the compound faded from their systems. They are back to normal, except..."
"Except what?"
"Except the female technician is showing signs of impregnation."
"What? How?" Mayuri mused, "Usually, even after copulation, conception takes somewhat longer."
"This compound seems to quicken the bonding and heighten the fertility of the ones touched by it."
"Augh! I am not interested in stupid love potions!" the scientist complained, "What kind of power is this? And what was it that exploded and killed his victims? There must be more to this. I want some answers, not some silly love potion!"
"It appears that the secretion, while not deadly in and of itself, is highly reactive. The pheromones in it are powerful, so they overcome the victims, making them oblivious to all but a desperate need for sexual release. Then, while they are occupied with that, the compound destabilizes and becomes combustive."
"It explodes?" Kurotsuchi said, his eyes widening with interest, "Now, that is more like it! Take more samples from this barrel of secretion I extracted from him. Hurry it down to the laboratory and begin additional testing to confirm the results. Just take that barrel with you."
"Sir, I don't know if moving..."
"I didn't ask you to think, you imbecile!" Kurotsuchi steamed, kicking the barrel over and watching it roll in her direction, "Get out of here and stop bothering me!"
"Neither of you are to do anything further with that quincy or the contents of that barrel," said a deep, commanding voice.
Mayuri turned, preparing to unleash a seething retort, but found himself under the dark gazes of the sixth division taichou and the newly confirmed Shiba heir.
"What're you up to, you freak?" Ichigo asked, scowling warningly, "I know that your soutaichou ordered all quincy bodies destroyed and all of the living were locked up in Muken."
"We have been sent to retrieve this unregistered quincy and to confiscate any research you have done, by order of Central 46," Byakuya added
"This is preposterous!" Mayuri railed, moving forward and slamming a hand down on the barrel.
He started to say more, but paused, staring as the barrel rumbled fitfully under his palm and the reiatsu around them began to rise swiftly.
"You ignorant fools! Now look what you've done!" Mayuri said scathingly, flash stepping away alongside Nemu, "Get out before it...!"
The rest of his words were drowned out as the barrel rumbled again so hard that it rattled against the floor, then exploded. Ichigo caught a flash image of a barely visible male form and the fierce rise of another reiatsu as a huge wall of ice rose up against the swelling eruption of reiatsu, fire and debris. He wrapped an arm around Byakuya's slender waist, taking the two of them to the floor and under cover as the ice wall shattered, and the person behind it was thrown back violently, then swallowed up by the reiatsu and flame.
A second heavy eruption nearly tore Byakuya from his grasp and sent the two tumbling out of control, then sent debris flying at them. A flash of pink petal blades deflected the incoming projectiles, then flickered and disappeared. Ichigo found his singed body collapsed partially on top of Byakuya's better protected, but now unconscious form.
"Byakuya! Byakuya, are you okay?" the shinigami substitute cried, leaning over the motionless taichou and patting his face gently, "Hey, Byakuya!"
He verified swiftly that the noble had a steady pulse and that he was breathing, then lifted him carefully and began to work his way cautiously forward. Small fires burned all around him, the smoke making him cough and blink his stinging eyes as he carried the unconscious taichou towards an area that looked less damaged. He emerged through a broken section of wall just as a flurry of flash steps sounded and a group of shinigamis arrived.
"Renji!" Ichigo called, picking out the tall redhead in the group.
"Taichou!" Renji yelled, flash stepping to Ichigo as the Shiba heir laid the noble on the ground, and Byakuya stirred and groaned, "Taichou, are you okay?"
"F-fine...I am all right," Byakuya whispered unsteadily.
"I'm not so sure about that," Ichigo said, smiling down at his battered friend, "You got knocked around a bit."
"I'll be fine," Byakuya said stubbornly.
He grabbed Renji's sleeve and glared up at his fukutaichou.
"Renji, my cousin is inside."
"Your cousin?" Renji queried, frowning.
"H-he is my bodyguard and healer. His name is Tetsuya. He protected Ichigo and me from the explosion."
"Are you sure he's still gonna be alive?" Ichigo asked, remembering the nearly invisible form that had protected them, "He took that blast head on. He disappeared into it."
"He used a waterform."
"A waterform?" Renji repeated curiously.
"He was in a waterform, an almost invisible copy of himself. He uses them frequently to shadow me. He may have been injured in the explosion, but he probably had a waterform nearby to shift into so that he could escape the worst of the blast, but then still be close enough to evacuate me. I need you to find him."
"That's going to be impossible," Mayuri's mocking voice snapped, "Even if he did survive the initial blast, that area is unstable. It could all come down at any time. Sending anyone in there before it's stabilized is going to just going to make more victims."
The building behind him groaned ominously, as though to punctuate the words.
"I can't leave him in there," Byakuya insisted, trying to sit up, only to be pushed gently down again by Ichigo.
"You're hurt," the Shiba heir scolded him affectionately, "Stay down and let me take care of it."
"Well, don't blame me if you die in there...although, I would love to examine your corpse if you do die, so don't stop on my account," Mayuri snickered.
"Stay here," Ichigo repeated, "I'll go and find your cousin, okay?"
"I think you should stay with Taichou until the healers get here," Renji suggested, "You do that and I'll go in and look for Tetsuya."
"You shouldn't go in there alone," Ichigo objected, "It's really unstable!"
"Heh, you're the one who's unstable," Renji chuckled dismissively, "Just shut up and take care of Taichou, okay? Zabimaru can protect me if the building comes down."
"They'll still have to take hours to dig you out," Ichigo said, scowling, "Just be careful, okay?"
With another unconcerned chuckle, Renji flash stepped forward, then paused and carefully picked out a path into the damaged section of the twelfth division laboratory. He skirted around piles of smoking debris, flash stepping to avoid more that fell from above or that shifted suddenly around him. The smoke still stung his eyes and throat, but had dissipated enough to allow him to peer into the areas around him and search for the missing noble. Ominous creaks and groans issued around him, and he heard panicked voices in the distance. After a bit of searching, Renji paused and took a sip of water, then moved forward again. A metallic shriek sounded above him and he flash stepped wildly to avoid that falling debris, then tripped and tumbled forward, landing almost on top of a collapsed person half buried in a pile of broken boards and tumbled rock.
"Crap!" he muttered, starting to turn towards the unconscious person.
A sound of dismay escaped him as more creaks and groans sounded, then the remaining hulk of wood, metal and rock began to tumble down on them.
"Bankai!" the redhead shouted, making the hulking body of his skeletal snake wrap around the two of them, protecting them as the rest of the building collapsed.
He coughed several times on the soot and dust that seeped into the protected area, then settled and turned his attention to the collapsed shinigami he had found.
"Ugh!" he muttered, grimacing at the gooey muck that was splashed all over the young man's skin, "I don't think I wanna know what that stuff is. I hope it's not one of his creepy poisons, cause it's all over me now, too. I hope you appreciate this," he went on, pulling the shingami free and briefly examining the man's bruised and smudged, but still very lovely face.
He searched the unconscious man's body for serious wounds and found none, so turned his attention to cleaning some of the sticky muck off their skin. He removed a washcloth from a small pack he carried and dampened it with water from his flask, then he used it to clean and cool his unconscious charge's face. The young man stirred and groaned unhappily, his eyes cracking open and freezing Renji for a moment with how large, blue and completely enchanting they were.
"You've gotta be the cousin Taichou was talking about right?" Renji surmised, "You're Kuchiki Tetsuya?"
"Yes," the blue-eyed man confirmed, sitting up slowly, then reeling and leaning heavily against Renji's kneeling form, "S-sorry!"
"It's okay," Renji said amiably, "Looks like you got knocked for a loop."
"I'll be fine," Tetsuya answered, trying to straighten slightly, then flinching and clenching his teeth as his hand sought his midsection.
"I think you might have cracked a couple of ribs," Renji said, easing him down onto his back again, then beginning to infuse the area with healing reiatsu, "Don't try to get up again, all right?"
"Hmmm," the noble managed, nodding briefly, "It's not like I could go anywhere."
He looked around and frowned at the serpentine body that enclosed them.
"This your snake. Zabimaru."
"Yeah," Renji confirmed, following the path of the other man's eyes, then smiling as Tetsuya's blue eyes found him again, "The building gave way, so we're under a pile of crap and probably will be for a bit while they dig us out. Unless...Taichou said you use waterforms. Could you get us out of here?"
"Unfortunately, my waterforms must be set in advance," Tetsuya explained, "But the concussion from the explosion shattered all but the one I used to escape death. I am afraid we will have to wait."
"That's a pain in the ass," the redhead commented, shaking his head, "but it doesn't look like you're hurt too bad and I'm fine, so we can just wait it out. And I have to admit I'm pretty curious. Are you the person I've sometimes sensed around Taichou? I think I might have seen you once or something."
"I'm not meant to be seen," Tetsuya answered, "It gives me the element of surprise if my protection is ever needed by Byakuya-sama."
"Well, that makes sense. So, you use waterforms as cover? They hide you?"
"I use the waterforms for moving about with stealth," Tetsuya went on, "But they are also useful when set on the battlefield. I can shift between them to position myself to attack, or to escape injury."
"Doesn't look like you completely escaped injury this time," Renji chuckled.
"I can escape without injury if hit once," the noble explained, "But if hit twice in quick succession or with a concussive blast that strikes in a sudden, sustained burst of power, I will be damaged even if I do escape into another waterform. It is a complex power."
"Looks like you couldn't escape the gunk you got covered with either," Renji said, smiling and wiping more of the mess from Tetsuya's pale throat and partially bared shoulder.
He started to go on, then realized all at once that Tetsuya was blushing.
"Sorry," Renji said, handing the washcloth to the noble, then sitting down in front of him as he continued to wash the offending fluid away.
"It's fine," Tetsuya assured him, "I am just...not used to being touched by anyone but Byakuya-sama, by my attendant, or our clan healer."
"Sorry," the redhead said again.
"You were just being kind," Tetsuya said, smiling back at him, "And you were probably honoring my leader's request for you to find and evacuate me, ne?"
"Yeah, he did ask me to come after you," Renji confirmed.
"Was he hurt?" Tetsuya asked, looking concerned.
"He was out cold for a little bit, but he's okay," the redhead answered, feeling a warmth inside at the concern in the young noble's pretty eyes.
"That's good," Tetsuya sighed, relaxing slightly, "Thank you, Abarai-san, both for protecting me and for the reassurance."
"No problem."
Tetsuya studied himself unhappily for a moment, then concluded he probably couldn't remove any more of the fluid that had splashed onto him, and he set the washcloth down. He tried to think of something to say to the redhead, but found his mind suddenly blank. The redhead, too, seemed somewhat at a loss for words.
"You got a deck of cards?" Renji joked, making Tetsuya smile shyly again.
"No, I am afraid not," the noble replied, the blush on his face deepening.
"I guess we'll just have to entertain ourselves," Renji sighed, smirking, "Know any good show tunes?"
"Not really, no. It's all right, Abarai-san, you don't need to..."
"My name's Renji," the redhead corrected him affably, "and I feel like we should already be a little familiar with each other, because we both protect Taichou. Just relax a little, okay? We're gonna be here for a while."
"So it seems," Tetsuya agreed.
"Sorry I don't have a pack or anything to use as a pillow, but you can lean against me if it's more comfortable."
"I don't want to impose," Tetsuya said, the blush returning to his face and throat.
"Well, everything else around here is hard as a rock, so you won't be able to rest probably," the redhead replied, biting at his lips as he realized what he had said.
He was tactful enough not to exacerbate the situation by apologizing.
"Come here," he offered, slipping an arm carefully around the injured noble and coaxing Tetsuya into leaning against his side, and resting his head wearily on the redhead's shoulder.
He slid his hand down and continued to infuse Tetsuya's damaged ribs with healing reiatsu. The noble remained slightly stiffened for a few moments, then relaxed, lulled by the redhead's warmth and pleasant, masculine scent. Renji found himself likewise attracted to the lightly mingled scents of sakura and leather that lingered around Tetsuya's tumbled waves of black hair and partially hidden face. Not one to usually spend much time holding still or being quiet, Renji began to nod off, and soon he and the exhausted noble were asleep.
Outside the collapsed building, a large team of shinigamis worked tirelessly, digging their way through the tangle of cracked and broken boards, pieces of tables, chairs and computer equipment and tumbles of stone and shattered glass. They honed in on the steady throb of Renji's reiatsu that held Zabimaru's snake form around the trapped fukutaichou, while within the snake's coil, something odd began to happen.
Flickers of strange white light rose on Tetsuya's resting form, emerging from the traces of the quincy's secretion that remained on his skin. Likewise, where Renji had come into contact with the fluid, his flesh glinted and pulsated, the flashes of light falling into the cadence of each man's heart and altering them until the two were paced together. Their eyes opened, but remained unfocused and blank as Tetsuya's head turned and his lips were claimed roughly by the senseless redhead's. Their hands hastily worked to loosen their clothing, then strong, tattooed arm dragged Tetsuya onto Renji's lap.
Renji's amorous mouth swallowed the cry of pain the noble made as his body was claimed, then not waiting, the two gave in to the overwhelming urge to seek completion. Clenching at the redhead's shoulders, Tetsuya's body rose and fell and he emitted heated moans and sighs that were immediately and luxuriantly consumed by the other man as the two writhed against each other. One of Renji's hands wrapped around the noble's white back, encouraging the continuation of his powerful undulating movements, while the fingers of his other hand sank into Tetsuya's silken black hair, the softness of it making the redhead's heart pound wildly. Their mouths bit almost violently at each other as the pleasant friction between them brought them to the edges of bliss.
Groans of intense pleasure filled the small, protected space the two occupied as hot seed erupted onto their bodies and Renji's scathing heat filled Tetsuya. They remained joined and resting against each other until sleep overtook them again and they collapsed into a tangled heap.
Tetsuya sucked in a surprised breath as he woke some time later to find the redhead still asleep on top of him. His face pale and his eyes wide, he extracted himself carefully, then sat for a moment, panting with shock and watching Renji closely. The redhead remained in a deep sleep, seemingly oblivious.
I don't know how this happened! I wonder if he does.
Swallowing hard, the noble set his clothing back in place, then moved to Renji's side and tried to rouse him. The redhead snorted in his sleep, but failed to respond.
What should I do?
He considered for several minutes, then moved forward and cleaned away the traces of their unplanned joining. He fastened Renji's cloths back in place, then withdrew to the far side of the protected area, watching as the redhead snored and turned uncomfortably on the hard floor. When his eyes finally opened, they looked around for Tetsuya and found him sitting on the other side of the enclosure.
"What are you doing all of the way over there?" Renji asked, smiling at him, "Were you scared away by my snoring?"
"No," Tetsuya answered tentatively, "I am just...uncomfortable in close spaces."
He doesn't remember what happened either?
"Yeah, I don't like them much either," the redhead agreed, "And even if not, they'd better get me out of here. I have a date tonight."
That's right. When I investigated Abarai-san, I did find that he is popular and doesn't commit himself to anyone. If anything does come of...of what happened because of my being a breeder, I doubt that he would be interested in finding himself encumbered with a permanent partner and a family.
I will just hope that I don't conceive.
I don't know if I can after my injury and losing Naoki's baby before. It's probably fine, and there is no reason to say anything. Obviously, we weren't in control of ourselves, but we seem fine now. I will just see Michio when I get home to be sure.
"You okay?" Renji asked suddenly, stealing Tetsuya out of his thoughts.
"I am fine," he assured the redhead, "And I am grateful to you for rescuing me, Abarai-san. I couldn't have protected myself from the collapsing building while I was trapped. I would have been crushed."
"Naw, you would've found a way to survive," Renji laughed, "Taichou wouldn't entrust himself to you if you weren't savvy enough to do that."
He has that same loving kindness as Naoki, but he is relaxed in a way that Naoki couldn't be, because of us being locked up in the prison.
"Hey, I think I hear something."
It's probably better that he doesn't suspect anything happened. He seems quite content with his life as it is.
"Renji!" called a familiar male voice, "You okay down there?"
"I'm fine!" Renji called back, "But I'd be a hell of a lot better if you guys would give us a hand outta here!"
"You found Tetsuya?" called Byakuya's deeper voice.
"Yeah, he's okay. We're both fine," the redhead said, standing and sealing his power.
Tetsuya came to his feet, watching silently as the great snake retracted, then gazing upward to where stars lit the dark sky overhead and black forms surrounded the edges of the opening their rescuers had made for them.
"Tetsuya," Byakuya sighed in relief at seeing his cousin, "I am glad you are all right."
"I am glad you are all right too, watashi no itoko," Tetsuya responded wearily, "I want to go home."
"You should be able to escape now," Byakuya said, extending a hand and waiting as Tetsuya backed up slightly, then engaged his flash step, carrying him upward to where the clan leader the clan leader helped him scramble to safety, while behind him, Renji positioned himself, then followed behind him. They stood at the top, looking back down in the place they had been trapped.
"Thank you, Abarai-san," Tetsuya said, smiling at the redhead, "I know I said it before, but I really am grateful to you for rescuing me."
"I appreciate you doing that as well," Byakuya added, "But why don't you go on now. I know you had plans for tonight."
"But there's going to be a debriefing and reports, and..."
"Go, Renji," Byakuya snapped sternly, "I will see to it."
"I think you'd better do what he says," Ichigo laughed, earning a soft glare out of the corner of the clan leader's dark eye, "He looks pretty serious."
"Are you really all right, Tetsuya?" Byakuya asked, still sounding concerned.
"I am fine," Tetsuya assured him, "And I will see the clan healer as soon as we arrive at the manor."
He climbed onto the back of a tall black stallion that had appeared near them and watched as Renji disappeared into the distance.
Why do I feel so very warm inside...
Yet my heart feels like ice?