Parts and Pieces Chapter 3: Self Preservation and A Lot, a bleach fanfic

Part 3

Coupling: Kenpachi X Ichigo

Rating: Teen (swearing)

Warnings: None.

AN: This chapter is being brought to you from Chicago, Illinois! I was on a week long freezing vacation/ business trip there. It was pretty dull, but at least you get to profit from it.

I'm going to do 30 of these, so have patience. Thank you.

(5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5)

Theme: Self Preservation

Ichigo glanced up from his desk as his sliding doors were thrown open violently. His breath caught at the site that was before him. Vice Captain Hinamori jumped away from Ichigo's desk dropping documents that she was holding to quickly flatten herself against the wall. She couldn't help but stare at the new comer in horror.

Kenpachi drew himself to his full height with a wide lopsided smirk tugging his scarred face. Blood rained with each heavy step he took on the polished wooden floor. His sword trailed behind him like a paint brush held loosely in his right hand until he let it clatter to the ground. The much larger captain ignored the squeak of surprise from the girl in the corner and claimed the still stunned Ichigo's lips hungrily. Completely mesmerized Ichigo didn't notice when Kenpachi brought his bloody hands to draw red lines in his orange hair, on his jaw and cheeks. Then once the kiss was broken, with a satisfied sigh the blood soaked mass collected his sword and left the fifth division.

Annoyed with himself for being so easily seduced he didn't bother to go visit when it had been reported to him that the eleventh company captain collapsed due to blood loss and fatigue. That bastard would be okay, and besides Ichigo wanted to take another try at removing the resilient dye from his hair.

Ichigo did take steps for the future though. Kenpachi's blatant disregard for self preservation was nothing if not irrational and dangerous. That is, how Ichigo could be described if idiocy were his nonsensical (for a lack of a better term) lover's undoing. A safety net if you will.

The red head jumped in alarm when his cell phone began vibrating against his thigh and ringing obnoxiously. He quickly retrieved it from his pocket causing the other captains attention to deter from the captain general and to gaze uncertainly at their newest addition. Ichigo stood hastily returning the phone to his kimono before excusing himself hurriedly as he flash-stepped out the door.

Mere minutes later, Ichigo stumbled upon one of the bloodiest battle scenes he had ever witnessed. Shinigami from the eleventh company were scattered around the clearing fighting as best they could against a large number of impressive looking Hollows. The loss on both sides seemed about even. Blood pooled around collapsed shinigami and evidence of destroyed hollows could be seen everywhere. At the forefront was Kenpachi single handedly taking on at least a dozen hollows while also protecting some terrified and weak looking shinigami hiding at his back.

These death gods were wearing strange uniforms that did not match those that were in any of the companies. Ichigo then knew what had happened. These death gods were amateurs, like the ones from the 'Shinigami School' that he had only heard about.

The eleventh division captain was obviously hindered. He was moving far more carefully than usual holding the small body of Yachiru to his chest. The both of them were covered in blood, and Ichigo took a second to hope that the majority of it didn't belong to the small girl.

"Move!" Ichigo yelled to the group of high level company five and four shinigami that he had brought with him to fight. They fanned out, collecting bodies and trying to help in the battle. The red head quickly found his place at Zaraki's side, his blade clashing against a large white claw meant to impale the other captain. Their eyes met and Ichigo could easily gauge the exhaustion, surprise and relief in the taller mans face. A smirk suddenly grew wide and Ichigo could feel the newly found confidence that flooded through his scarred body.

Yachiru clutched tighter on the small pink cell phone in her hands and smiled softly as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Ken-chan will be okay now.

(6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6) (6)

Theme: A lot

Rumors and gossip are not at all uncommon in the afterlife; in fact they are some what necessary. Stories of outrageous things like Hitsugaya trying to court some human and Gin sneaking into soul society to see his vice captain in the dead of night to do forbidden things to him are the kinds of things that make being dead more… livable.

The eleventh company are not excluded from wanting a piece of the gossip cake. Despite the fact that their captain looks down upon it as ignorant they have the biggest and most direct relationship to the most interesting topic in soul society. They feel no obligation to protect their captain's privacy. That's what he gets for sleeping with the legendary outsider.

Kenpachi never let it bother him. The same thing happened when he entered soul society, and then again when he appointed Yachiru as his second in command. Ichigo wasn't cooping as well with it.

"Did you tell some one that we are the reincarnation of Romeo and Juliet?" Ichigo yelled red faced as he stormed Zaraki's office. He looked awfully cute when he was pissed.

"No," he replied highly amused, "Who are 'Romeo and Juliet'?"

With a huff Ichigo turned on his heel and left without bothering to answer.

Kenpachi wandered the halls of the fourth company idlely. Yachiru clung to his shoulder giving him instructions to where Ichigo most probably is. The halls were mostly clear because it was around lunch time and people were out on break. They turned another corner, right, left, right again and then at the sight of a white over cloak at the end of the hall they stopped short.

"Bya-kun! Hey Bya-kun!" Yachiru yelled excitedly dropping down to the ground with a tap. Clearly he didn't hear her, because he continued to sit on the porch over looking an herb garden munching on something contently. Yachiru was about to yell again when a smaller shinigami came and kneeled in front of him speaking softly to him. Byakuya smiled and pulled the boy into his lap and started to hand feed him what ever he was eating, much to the boy's surprise.

"Why is Bya-kun feeding Hana-Banana-chan?" Yachiru asked pointing at them and looking to Kenpachi for an explanation. "Are they in love like you and Itchi?"

"Who did you say the other kid was?" he asked brushing off her question.

She looked up at him in surprise. "Silly, that's Hanatarou-chan. Remember we met him when you first fought with Itchi." When he didn't seem to remember, she made a dead fish face to elaborate further. "He was all droolly, 'cause he was scared, remember?"

Vaguely Kenpachi remembered a small dark haired shinigami from the fourth company who was trailing behind Ichigo. They took off pretty quickly though, it could have been anyone.

"Hey! They probably know where Itchi is! Hana-chan is Itchi's friend!" Because of her lack of boundaries Yachiru had no problem breaking up their touching moment to bombard them with questions. Zaraki strolled leisurely after her watching the strange couple and how they reacted to being found out. Clearly this 'Hana' person was skittish and shy by the way he couldn't decide to shrink into Byakuya or push him away and pretend nothing happened. Based on how he viewed Byakuya, arrogant, pure bred, and narrow minded they were indeed very strange. Probably even stranger then the sight that Ichigo and he made. ((Probably not )) Soul society would eat this up like no tomorrow. Ichigo is going to be thrilled.

"Yachiru," Kenpachi said firmly to silence the girl, who was just asking, 'if they had sex a lot.' The pink haired vice captain fell quiet immediately, but stood by watching curiously nonetheless. Kenpachi gazed down at the two death gods asking, "Do either of you know where Ichigo is?"

"N-no sir, sorry." The tiny healer said timidly from within Byakuya's embrace. The sixth division captain regarded the large man calmly.

"Did you lose him?" he asked sarcastically.

Zaraki chuckled lightly. "Unfortunately, he won't fit in my pocket."

His silver eyes narrowed. "What a shame, maybe then he'd stop running away from you."

"The chase is where all the fun is anyway." They stood in silence for a minute before Kenpachi asked softly, "How many people know?" When he got no response he turned and started back down the hall from wince he came. "Good luck then. Let's go, Yachiru."

The pink haired girl obediently ran up behind him and jumped on his shoulder. Once they were out of ear shot she leaned close to his ear and whispered, "I think they're in love, too."

KenIchi

AN: Yah! So much for drabble, this is twice as long as my last one. Six down twenty-four to go! Thank you all of my reviewers. You guys are really the driving force behind this train to hell. Choo-Choooo

I'm sure you noticed the ByaHana in this chapter. I'm thinking about writing another drabble series for them, because they are so cute. Don't worry though, because you guys come first!

Can you tell that the fight/talk that Kenpachi and Byakuya are having are actually about Hanatarou and Ichigo. I tried to make it clear that they were being competitive and insulting each other. Hmmm.

In the fifth drabble I gave Yachiru and Ichigo cell phones. They wouldn't be able to talk on them, but they would still make good pagers. These ones were specially made by Urahara-kun. Thank you for they plot devices!

Urahara: No problem. : )

He's so sweet. Anyhow, I still have a few more ideas for the next few drabbles, but I am still taking suggestions. Even if they aren't used straight away, that doesn't mean that I won't pull from them in the future. Thanks again.