AN - I hope you guys enjoy my crazy AUs, because I sure do. If you'd like to know more about this particular story, you can do so by reading my most recent profile update, where I talk about how this story idea got kind of warped.

Warning: TRIGGER WARNING - This story contains dubious consent/borderline rape, along with interspecies 'mating'

Draconem!Ikkaku, Elf!Yumichika

One last thing - I illustrated this story and you can view the pictures on the archive of our own website~

Please enjoy!

Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see,
A love between their people was a love that could not be,

The elf knew well his only option here was fold his hand
For he was deeply lost inside the fire kingdom's land.

He knew escape was futile, now an 'it' and not a 'he',
He took the dragon's deal, the only way he'd be set free.

To bargain with a dragon is to bargain with the devil,
But as long as the elf agrees the terms, the playing field is level.

. 1 .~ Carpe Diem ~. 1 .

"Step lively. The males of this wretched species are extremely hostile."

Those were the last elvish words Yumichika would ever hear.

Or so he thought, because here he was being gagged, dragged along, and beaten viciously by the very creatures of which his companions had spoken of. Dracuni. The odds of his escape were slim to none, now that he'd been seperated and captured by the horrible mountain serpent's kin.

They were fearsome loathsome beasts of filth and violence; Bastard, mutant children of dragons that had been banished to the mountains and volcanos, and were cursed to live in wretched winglessness. Yumichika had also heard that they were kin of raptors and sea serpents, and maybe lamia or troll or even goblin. They were horrid, half-bred, brutish abominations that should never have come into being, and they lived without a shred of mercy in their dark souls, that of which may not even exist.

Yumichika had outlived the wretched birth of their bastardized race, and he had hated them from the very beginning, along with the rest of his elven brethren. They'd been the result of lustful roll-abouts of creatures that were never meant to breed, and were as stupid and violent and hellish as any an enlightened soul could imagine.

The dracuni race were tall, all taller than him by at least a foot and a half, all much too strong and too scaly and too hard and rough and mean. All with tails and spines and spikes and fangs and too many sharp unforgiving edges. They were hairless, like reptiles, but some had fine spikes or needles on their heads like porcupines, and it almost resembled hair. Some had precious gems or gold jammed into their bodies as armor or to replace lost scales or even fangs. Their claws and their teeth were like knives, and their eyes like lava, and their mouths like a furnace of foul language and intense heat. Reptilian tails that were much too long and powerful trailed behind them, and their faces and bodies had unique tribal markings or slits like gills to let some heat out of their wretched burning souls.

They had soul-flames like dragons and other hell-bound creatures, which made them extremely powerful, but laughably easy to kill. Should the beasts ever be tricked into taking a drink, a large enough drink to put out the flame, they would quickly perish, going cold, sick, weak. Similarly, if they were ever to fall into the sea, or if they were foolish enough to open their mouths to the rain, they could quite easily be sent back to hell.

But here, in fire country, the chances were still slim to none, and Yumichika was losing hope.

Yumichika didn't like it here; he didn't like it at all. Their camp was too hot – too hot to even see through what with the waves of heat rising from the very living mountain. It was stifling, without a breeze to be had, and their touch was burning him all over, as if their collective rage had filled the air and charged it with hatred until it was too thick to breathe through.

If only he'd run faster, if only he'd jumped into the river and escaped, for dracuni disliked descending too far from their mountain into the woods when they weren't hunting.

They were all so big and scaly and loud; it was like an entire village full of violent criminals, and it was so hot here, much too hot for his delicate elvish skin and lungs. The smell of smoke was everywhere, and he could hardly open his eyes there was so much ash floating around.

He could see them fighting each other in the distance – he could see them roasting animals on spits, some still alive as they were burned alive or eaten half-cooked. The big brutes fought amongst each other, swearing up a storm and hissing, circling each other as the argued over treasure. Yumichika knew he was in serious trouble.

Surely they would eat him alive like in their elven storybooks, like he'd heard when he was a child long ago. A draconem warrior would crunch his bones and munch his meat, it would tear him apart and floss its teeth with his intestines. They would brutally tease him and torture him and rape him and sell him as a slave. The dracunihated elves, and the elves felt similarily towards the uncouth beasts.

Stupid violent ruffians. At least their ancestors, the dragons, were smart. Dragons could read, speak in rhyme, tell riddles, and fly, while all these heathens were good for was destroying villages, stealing sheep and gold, and killing each other better than anyone else could. It wasn't any wonder that the dragons had cast out these freaks centuries ago. Who would want them around? Hell, the dracuni didn't even really like each other.

They kicked him and beat him; they trampled him underfoot, cursing him with their hatefulness and sneers. Their language was thick and sharp, full of heat and malice, and it grated against Yumichika's ears like rusty nails; he was accustomed to beautiful smooth voices that were perfect for singing. Everything was wrong. He was going to die here; his life was over, and he was still so young too, even though he'd lived far longer than any human could ever dream. By elvish standards, he had a lot of life left to live, for he was immortal if left to his own devices.

He hated the way his captor gripped his hair close to the scalp, shaking him violently, and he hated how passersby would hit him with rocks or spit boiling oil onto him, and he hated the rough, burnt ground underneath his bare feet. He hated knowing that he was going to die, and that there was no chance that any of them would show him mercy. Most of all, he hated that the hateful, repressive, heated air here had seeped into him and made him bitter and spiteful, just like his enemies.

Yumichika shed tears of despair, never even imagining that these fiends would be foolish enough to give him a chance to escape.

But his chance came just the same, and he took it.

"Gotcha! Hah!" Ikkaku laughed, nabbing the thing he'd heard rustling in the bushes, hoping for a deer.

"Let me go, you filthy brute!" came a shriek, and a few flicks against his ruby-heart as the elf beat its fists against his chest. Little weakling; he'd hardly even felt that.

"Oh," Ikkaku hissed, crouching down to look into his find's face, powerful tail lashing against a tree, "It's just an ugly little elf… Hey, you're that one they captured earlier, aren't you," he said in latin, or 'all-speak', the universal language of all creatures, sans humankind.

The dirty weak little thing tugged against his grip desperately, panting, eyes crazed and terrified. The elf cursed him in the elegant, eloquent, rather beautiful elven language. This must be the one. He'd never seen an elf so grubby and bashed up; it had obviously escaped from their camp. Renji had been really excited earlier, telling him that they'd captured an elf, but Ikkaku hadn't gone to check, because he'd thought that the weakling would die before he got there, already caving under the others' torture.

"Tch', I have no earthly idea of what Renji sees in your craven types anyways," he lied, in denial of how curious and intrigued he felt that he had captured such a beautiful defiant little thing.

It wasn't the lack of Ikkaku's grip that allowed the elf to escape, it was the slippery smooth flesh that the elf had in place of rough scales. Ikkaku suddenly realized what he was touching and how soft and squishy it was. Oh gross, it was like its tissue parts were on the outside. Was it inside out? Oh yuck, it was like touching something's guts.

Ikkaku grimaced, even though the elf was beautiful; he hadn't expected it to feel like that. He'd never touched an elf before, or a human for that matter, and they seemed to have the same fleshy weakness with its armor on the inside. He supposed that the feeling wasn't that disgusting; it had just surprised him.

He only needed to walk after it as it ran from him frantically through the thick woods, dodging tree branches and tearing ass like the devil was after it, and perhaps it was.

Ikkaku nabbed it again around its middle, picking it up by its clothes to dangle it in front of his face. It must've thought he was going to bite its head off, because it started kicking and screaming at the top of its lungs, nearly causing him to drop it as he hit it in the face to make it stop. "Where are you trying to go in such a hurry? Your family abandoned you," he hissed, flicking his tongue at the elf, who tried to punch him, scowling as it was held too far out of range. "You live with our family now, see? So ungrateful,"

"Don't speak to me, you arrant fool," the elf hissed at him, maintaining its pride, not begging for mercy like Ikkaku had expected it to. "You are a filthy piece of-" it panted as Ikkaku set it down on its feet with a scowl, grabbing its arm in a bone-crushing grip. Ikkaku was impressed that the stupid weakling hadn't resorted to blubbering or bribery; sneaky bastards, elves were. "You demonic… blasphemous… Let go!" it shouted as it wrenched its arm in Ikkaku's grip, hitting him on the chest.

"What are you, huh? I can't seem to tell what you are." Ikkaku sniffed at it as it beat on his chest, intrigued by its flowery, woodsy smell. Not even a hint of ash or slate from the mountain's heart. He'd never gotten this close to an elf before. He felt like playing with it, because it obviously couldn't escape or hurt him, "You can't be an elf, can you? Elves are smug, arrogant, selfish, tricky-"

"What are you talking about, you big, stupid, ugly-"

Ikkaku grabbed it by the soft spines it had on its head, and it immediately cried out in pain. Again, he was surprised by the feel of its body. This part wasn't soft and fleshy like the inside of a deer, however. This was soft and smooth, similar to how water felt, but not as deadly. These spikes were even finer and thinner than the ones on Renji's head. Wow, it was so silky. It was even softer than the spikes on a deer's pelt.

It whined in pain, trying to get free. Such a fragile little weakling. "Who are you calling ugly, you fleshy weirdo? You're in fire country!" The elf hissed that it was dragon's country, but that just pissed Ikkaku off. Those bastard dragons. Big jerks.

"I am considered extraordinarily beautiful by my people's standards," the elf hissed haughtily, "and by my own." Of course, Ikkaku agreed with it, God did he agree with it, but he hated that entitled snobby attitude that was characteristic of elves. Know-it-all, cheating, magic-stealing snobs. That's what they were. Even thiself probably.

Ikkaku laughed cruelly, shaking it by its water-like spines, "Heh. Look at'cha'. No scales. Flimsy claws. Yer' fangs are dull. No markings? Your outside is the color of clouds, and you're so fleshy that you are a walking target. Your people look naked ta' me, even under your stupid clothing. Your soft parts are on the outside; disgusting weak things, elves."

The elf gave a high laugh, giving him that haughty elven arrogance that Ikkaku hated with a passion, but oh, how he loved how brave this elf was to stand up to him. Some part of his black heart admired it and wanted it in his treasure collection. "The dracuni charging into battle are about as subtle as a boulder tumbling down a mountainside. You all only hate us, because you wish you had our treasu-"

Ikkaku dragged it through the woods by the hair, having to stoop a little, being much bigger and taller than the bratty little thing. "C'mon now, back into your cage, you piece of meat, and we'll see how brave you can talk then." Truth be told, he was impressed by the little thing's bravery. It really had some nerve, talking back to him, and he kind of liked its spirit.

"No, no," it cried, digging its heels in, efforts to escape its impending disembowelment futile, "Don't take me back there, please, spare me! I'll do anything!"

Ikkaku stopped, looking down at it, large molten eyes blinking at its white fleshy face and its long soft spines. Suddenly he felt something akin to compassion for the craven little fucker. It reminded him of when he had been young, a little broodling, looking to the elders for help or food, looking to them with hope for kindness. They had sneered and chased him away. The elf was giving him that same look, filled with hope for escape, filled with a want for a life that was being taken away.

"Are you trying to bargain with me? You want to make a deal?" He didn't really want to take it back there and watch the pretty thing get torn apart like many before. Like with precious gems and gold, dracuni were extremely selfish, and Ikkaku didn't even want anyone to look at his treasure, which now extended to the elf he'd just caught. This was his find, and he didn't want to share a single bit of it.

He could protect it out here in the woods, prove his strength and ability, and maybe the elf would like him and stay with him. They could have an egg together. Ikkaku had always wanted an egg. They could find a cave to put treasure in and live in, and he could leave this wretched hellhole and all the jerks in his tribe. Surely the elf was mad at its tribe or family too, for abandoning it here to be captured?

Perhaps this was just Ikkaku's desperation to escape his brutish, violent kin. Perhaps it was just his want for something other than hatefulness, but he felt a strong desire to take the elf somewhere and do things that he'd rather not speak aloud. It was that wretched elven magic surely, making him feel this heat where he wasn't supposed to be. He was a freak, a perverted freak among his kind, to feel such impure thoughts towards what should look ugly to his golden eyes. But being an outcast meant that they wouldn't miss him, and he could be happy – it wasn't as if the elf could say no either. No, he wouldn't let it run away now.

"Would you like to make a deal?" he hated how much he sounded like a dragon, like a dragon spinning riddles and weaving lies, acting like they were giving their prey a fighting chance, when really they were flying circles around them like a vulture.

"What… Kind of deal," it asked warily, seeming to be pleased that he had stopped dragging it.

"Let me lie with you," Ikkaku said, tail swiping behind him. Surely the elf could see he was suitable and strong. Of course it would agree. "I always thought elves were pretty. Our egg will be golden like treasure, probably," he said eagerly, hoping the elf would agree to let him mount it. It gave him a horrified look of pure disgust and revulsion, and as he tried to convince it, it threw up in the grass. Perhaps he had been too brutish in his approach, or maybe it thought he wouldn't be a suitable mate, so he tried again, trying to make it see reason.

"Something's wrong with you," it coughed out as it wretched, little body shaking, convulsing still. "You should think me ugly, like you said before. Spare me your cruel taunts and your lies that you would ever carry out the terms of a deal. I am ugly to your eyes."

"No, no, you'll be perfect, you'll make a strong beautiful egg," Ikkaku said, trying to reassure it that this was a good idea.

It was a shame that the elf knew as few facts about dracuni as Ikkaku knew about elves; maybe then, they could have come to an understanding. "You dracuni are just like they say. Lustful, and evil, and merciless-" The elf didn't know that as a draconem, Ikkaku was far from a lustful creature, and likewise, Ikkaku didn't understand the ways of elves when it came to mating. Hell, he didn't even understand the mating ways of hisown people, really.

"I'll let you go free," he bribed, and eventually the elf agreed, skin having turned grey and clammy. Ikkaku grinned, baring his fangs and picking it up as carefully as he could, not wanting to squish it now that he was going to get a chance to mate with it and have an egg. He knew elves were supposed to be fragile.

He was still rather young, and had never mated before, something that was only accomplished by the biggest and strongest males of his kind. His people hated copulation – for it was said to be extremely painful – and they only mated to continue their race, not for love or pleasure. For this reason, their women were quite vicious in defending themselves, and not many of the men attempted to woo them, because nobody liked their young: small and annoying and disobedient, and particularly chewy. The only particular time they would engage in coitus, would be after a war when their numbers were down.

He knew it was strange, as his people despised the elvish, having a long-held grudge against them just as the elvish held likewise. Elves were ugly by his people's standards, but he and his friend Renji found them exotically beautiful, with a certain intelligent charm. They'd always been strange; Ikkaku had yet to actually admit to Renji that he agreed with him and his odd way of wanting to know about elves.

Perhaps it was jealousy that caused their race to hate elves. They hated that they knew things, they hated their good fortune and happiness and singing. They hated that they were wealthy and prosperous, and they hated that they were immortal.

Their people didn't want offspring, didn't even want each other, and they disliked the elves way of acting as if they knew everything; Haughty, sneaky, conniving things with little resilience in the face of adversity, which draconem bore with.

It wasn't strange to see little corpses littering their nomadic campsites. Children were not cherished or celebrated, but cursed and loathed, cast out from the groups and forced to get food for themselves, so that only the strongest would survive.

However, Ikkaku had always wanted an egg.

He put his arm around its middle and pulled it towards his armpit as he walked through the woods to find a suitable spot to copulate. Its frail skinny limbs just hung down, and the creature just moped to itself for a while.

They came to a river, which obviously a child of fire such as he could not simply wade through, so as a feat of strength, which was sometimes part of the dracuni courting ritual, Ikkaku knocked a tree down to make a bridge for him and his new mate to cross.

"What do elvish eggs look like," he wondered aloud to himself, but the creature didn't answer him and just let it drag him around, looking pitiful. "You look fertile to me. Our egg will be beautiful," he mumbled, already thinking about guarding it and making it a nest out of his hoard of treasure. Their egg would have the best of both of them; it would be beautiful and strong.

"You dracuni mate like monsters," the elf said, grey in the face again, looking like it was about to vomit once more, "You'll crush me,"

"I will take care," Ikkaku hissed, tail taking a swipe behind him as he searched for a spot with grass and sunlight, perhaps surrounded with brambles. "That would hurt the egg, wouldn't it," he mumbled, finally releasing his small mate. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to mate with such a scrawny being; their offspring might be weak and small like its elven ancestors. But then again, he'd seen that most elves were about this size. He was the giant, because elves were taller than humans were.

"Do you think our egg will be immortal?" he inquired curiously, pushing the elf down in the grass. It didn't seem to know what he was trying to make it do, so he had to bend it around and try to manipulate its fragile body into how he'd seen his kind copulate.

He could feel heat boiling in his gut, his lust mode causing his breath to grow dry and hot, sparks leaving his mouth as his inner flame was set ablaze. Eventually he got his mate to push its chest on the ground with its rear in the air. He consciously tried to be gentle, knowing from Renji that elves were immortal, but they were also fragile and rather ethereal.

He hadn't realized how rough he was being until he heard his elf's whimpers and hisses of pain as he touched it. He had thought he was being gentle, not realizing how much brute strength his people possessed in comparison to the elvish. So he dialed what he considered gentle back about twenty ticks, trying again.

"You're going to be my mate, so tell me your name," he tried to ask nicely, being overcome by heat, want, and a desire to orgasm, but he tried to keep a modicum of control. He'd seen dragons mate, those cruel wicked bastards, and it didn't want to descend into the mindless lust that he, as a draconem, had also been cursed with. If dragons got too out of control, they could destroy vast areas of land with fire and violence. He hated dragons, just as dragons hated them, and he didn't want to turn into a bully and hurt his mate and his baby.

"Hm? What name have you?" he gasped out, more sparks passing his teeth as the dormant hatch in his throat opened up. Dragons held this too, to breathe fire. The dracuni couldn't breathe fire, but they could set them in a sense by breathing the heat of the flames rather than the flames themselves. Now, in his lust mode, he could feel the intense heat creeping up his throat, begging to be released along with the fertilization process.

"Yumichika," the pretty thing whispered, sounding terrified, but it did not move from the position he'd put it in, keeping its word and not trying to run away. He tried to pat its back as he hulked over its little body, getting on top of it to ready himself.

"That is a pretty name. I am Ikkaku. I'll protect our egg very well," he promised, hoping that would sweeten the deal for his little mate. A draconic-elven hybrid would likely be quite a handful to take care of, so Ikkaku would be kind and hatch the egg and take care of their fledgling.

Yumichika began to cry and shake as he got into position behind it.

"What is that noise you're making? Hh, oh no, you're leaking!" Ikkaku then recognized that those were tears, just like how humans wept, "Why do you cry this way? What is the matter?"

"I'm afraid," Yumichika hiccupped, beginning to cry harder. Ikkaku began growling deeply, opening the hatch in his throat to give a threatening hiss that dracuni used to guard territory. They couldn't breathe fire or fly like dragons, but they had a flame within them as creatures of hell do, and could still set fires with the boiling hot vapor of their inner furnace. He'd burn his opponent, making sure that it would leave and not come to lay eyes on his spoils.

"What has frightened you?" he asked, still growling deep in his throat, circling his mate menacingly as he looked around for any wolves or anything that might scare an elf. All the while, he was fighting urges to completely go into heat and fertilize their egg; he couldn't wait much longer.

Yumichika just sniffled pathetically, hiding his face. When Ikkaku concluded that there was no threat near, he approached his mate again, biting at its neck with a happy noise.

"Do not fear; I will take care not to hurt our egg. I know how to mate," Ikkaku said eagerly, even if that wasn't quite true. He didn't realize that the elf meant that it was afraid that he would harm it and not the 'egg' during their mating, but then again, Ikkaku didn't realize a lot of other things here either, one being the fact that he didn't realize that elves didn't lay eggs, and that fully-formed eggs themselves didn't just reside in the host's body before the fertilization. "I will take care not to crush you and damage our egg, Yumichika," he reassured again, trying to mount the elf that was too small for him, intense heat returning, driving rational thought from his mind. "You are very small, aren't you?"

The delirious lust that occurred when dracuni go into heat was taking him over, and he began rutting awkwardly against his small mate like how he'd seen others in his tribe do, not really knowing what he was doing, as it was his first time trying to mate. Oh, but it felt good, it felt so nice, and he wondered why mating was said to be so painful. He held his elf's upper body to the ground with a scaled and spiked arm, getting an intense urge to bite the scruff of its neck. He exhaled sparks, making noises of pleasure, listening to the elf-

He slowed down, some rational thought returning. It sounded like it was in pain, and it was still crying. "Shall I go slowlier? Am I hurting the egg?" he asked, head woozy from the intense heat, tongue going molten from the fire traveling up his throat.

Yumichika was limp under him, panting feverishly, whining in pain. Elves were said to have incredible pain tolerance despite their fragility, so Ikkaku frowned, wondering if he was hurting it that badly. Ikkaku noted red patches on the fleshy scale and spine free back of his mate, wondering if it was breaking out in a rash or something. If Yumichika was hurting then it might not work – didn't they both have to be in lust? He didn't know much about elves like Renji did, so he didn't know what to do to help it feel good for Yumichika. Maybe elves needed to be touched with more care – he knew more about humans than elves, and humans seemed to be more like elves than dracuni were at any rate. When they were out pillaging towns and stealing sheep, he'd seen humans do this thing with their mouths, touching each other's faces and mouths.

He tried this in the middle of the elf's back, and it made a noise. Ikkaku saw that another red spot had been left behind. He panted, bucking his hips, trying to rut to fill the intense urges that were going through him. He awkwardly curled his body over his small mate, taking a protective stance above it, trying to push deep so he could get closer to the egg. Ikkaku wondered why his people disliked mating; it felt so amazing, so cool and smooth inside. Yumichika was so soft and pliant and sweet-smelling beneath him, and everything spoken with that elven voice was music in his ears. It was wonderful, giving him surges of affection for his new mate; he began to feel attached, and he knew that that was not normal for a draconem either.

He touched his mate all over, loving the glossy, soft feeling of its vulnerable skin. The elf seemed to revile in his touch, for it cried out and shuddered, begging him to stop.

"Please take it out," Yumichika pleaded, begging for mercy, crying to him that it was burning, that it was on fire.

Ikkaku couldn't control his movements, every instinct telling him to keep rutting until he fertilized his new egg. He staggered, gasping, biting the back of Yumichika's neck as he shoved deep inside to release his semen as close to his egg as possible. Immediately, Yumichika screamed at the top of its lungs, limp body gaining new strength as it writhed and wailed in pain. Still in the grips of satisfaction and bliss, Ikkaku released it with an awe-filled moan, stumbling a little as he withdrew, covering himself up.

It was rolling around in the dirt, scrabbling at its backside, saying that there was fire and begging him to put it out. Yumichika then stiffened up in absolute pain, muscles locked and frozen, screaming at the top of his lungs, shaking all over.

Ikkaku panicked a little, thinking that he'd been too rough – he hadn't thought he was being rough, but maybe it was too much for an elf – maybe he was too big and heavy. Maybe he'd broken the egg and the dead child of fire was burning Yumichika from the inside out. He grabbed Yumichika by the arms and rushed with it over to the river they had crossed, dangling its legs and lower body down into the water, trying not to let much of it touch his own skin.

Yumichika sobbed, going completely boneless other than struggling to push out his sperm. It begged him to let go and let it drown, but Ikkaku wouldn't let go. He wanted his egg, and he still wanted his new mate even if the egg had been destroyed; he hoped they were okay, he really hadn't meant to hurt them.

Ikkaku realized, as he dragged Yumichika out of the river, that there was something red and wet on his hands. He freaked out a little, not accustomed to liquids touching his scales. It made him skittish. He would die if his fire was put out.

But this was not the cool, clear water; this liquid was red and warm and thick, and it was coming from Yumichika. Oh no, oh no, he had broken the egg; his egg must have been damaged and his baby had died. Maybe he'd lain on Yumichika too much and crushed it against the ground.

Yumichika was limp in the grass, not moving or responding to any further stimulus. Its eyes were open, but they were frozen and dark, clouded with grief and despair. Ikkaku decided that he should take it back to elven lands, so that maybe they could fix it up and maybe still save their egg.

He treaded far into forbidden territory, guiltily laying his broken mate down underneath a nice shady tree, covering it with some long grass and some nice leaves. Hopefully someone would find it and fix it up with their loathsome, sneaky, elven magic.

He pressed his mouth on Yumichika's face one last time, not realizing that the red marks left behind were burns, and that he'd made a terrible mistake in trying to mate with an elf, especially this elf.

"I'll come back to check on you, sweetling. And we can try again maybe," he promised, caressing its smooth skin one last time, folding its blood-sticky silken clothing over its soft parts. He hoped it wouldn't be sad that their baby had died – Renji had told him that elves could die from being too sad for too long.

He smelled his mate for a few minutes, sniffing at its sweet hair, trying to commit the scent to memory so he could find it again tomorrow. Hopefully Yumichika would come back to him now that they were mates.

It was a shame Ikkaku was so naïve, that he hadn't been more careful, or even that he hadn't brought Yumichika straight to Renji for help. It was a shame that any of this had ever happened.

The last reason draconem despised mating, besides the pain and the annoying offspring it produced, was because they were incredibly vain and selfish creatures, and mating awoke care and emotion within them.

~ Semper Fidelis ~

The prince's desperate gamble left it lifeless, torn asunder,
and his only hope for life now was the beast who'd held him under.
His lucky star decreed the dragon saw him as its plunder,
and that things still get worse from here, it isn't any wonder.