"Cease this asinine behavior at once."

The Sexta's bloodied hands swung back to his sides, the Hollow whose jaw he had been ripping apart, fell lifeless to the ground. "Shut up!"

Ulquiorra surveyed the blue-haired male's state. "It is ridiculous and unseemly for you to be acting in such a manner." Cold green eyes lifted to his face. "Like an animal in heat."

In seconds Grimmjow had closed the distance between them, grabbing tight fistfuls of his superior's white uniform, bringing their faces only inches apart. "What the fuck do you know about it?" while his reiatsu spiked dangerously, the other's remained infuriatingly placid.

"Ichigo is our Lord's son." Ulquiorra calmly stared up into the Sexta's mask of rage. "We serve as his guardians and mentors in place of Aizen-sama." He stumbled back as Grimmjow shoved him aside, releasing the grip he had maintained on the Cuatro's jacket.

"Tch! An ass-kisser like you would never understand..." Grimmjow's teal eyes focused somewhere in the distance of the colorless world. Within Las Noches they had a fake sun, but its brilliance had never failed to be outshone by Ichigo's childish smile. What was this sensation...this thing he felt..? Did Ulquiorra not feel it? Grimmjow watched Ulquiorra from the corner of his eye. The Cuatro was looking toward Las Noches in the far distance, an inscrutable expression on his face, but there was something..some tiny trace of emotion in the viridian depths. Something Grimmjow couldn't place. Wistfulness perhaps?

It was gone a moment later, leaving him to doubt he had ever seen it there to begin with.

"Come, or I will use force." The Cuatro met his defiant stare with a hardness that made Grimmjow's hackles rise. There was mercilessness shimmering in the green orbs, yet Grimmjow liked to fight and seeing this much emotion evoked in his superior made his blood boil in another way then the thought of Ichigo's small body writhing in pleasure beneath his own.

"What's got you so worked up, 'Kyorra? Can't be worry over me, now could it?"

The emerald Cero beam lanced the ground where Grimmjow had been standing. Landing a few feet away from his original location, he leered provocatively to the Cuatro's impassive expression and still upraised hand.

"Do not mistake my purpose for coming after you..." the air crackled where Ulquiorra had been standing. He reappeared behind Grimmjow, his hand folding around the thick upper bicep. "Ichigo..." at the note present in the Cuatro's words, Grimm hesitated from ripping the pale bastard's arm off. Green eyes closed to the searching teal ones. Could it be...?

"Mustn't be made to worry. Now come."

(*~*)

"Is something weighing on your mind?" Sosuke watched him from over the fine glass rim. A glass of the same rested beside his untouched plate. The servants had served them a delicious meal of all of Ichigo's favorites, yet he couldn't find the heart to enjoy any of it.

"It's..nothing." he made a meager attempt to appear interested in the food, half-heartedly taking a bite here and there. Sosuke's frown deepened, "You know you can always come to me if you have a problem. Is perhaps Nnoitora bothering you again?" Ichigo thought of the lanky Espada leering at him as they passed in the halls, making lewd covert remarks about 'that scrumptious ass.'

The Quinta kept it up until Ulquiorra threatened to Cero his face off. But of course Sosuke didn't know about that, having been kept from Las Noches for an extended amount of time. It had given Ichigo mixed feelings over being protected in such a way. Even if his father had known the extent of the improper advances the Quinta Espada had made...Ichigo still would've asked that punishment be reduced. Surely the fault lay in him, some action done thoughtlessly had produced the reaction in the deviant.

"He hasn't..." Ichigo chewed on the bite he had taken, feeling all the while Sosuke's concerned gaze on him. "But..." the claret-colored liquid in his goblet shimmered beneath the light. The symbol of his passage to maturity, this was the first time he was given a matching glass like Sosuke's. He knew he should've been proud yet felt nothing but his insecurities growing. "Are there...different kinds of love?"

The room went deathly quiet. Sosuke regarded the wine swirling in his glass at length before answering. "There are...and yet there aren't." The eyes that had rested on him so gently, darkened, the look in them becoming something more than fatherly concern. "You see, Ichigo, humans often mistake the concept of non-physical love as love of the spirit, not having desire for the particular person. Then, there are those who claim to be in-love. Or rather longing physically for that person while not knowing them from the depths of their soul."

Two kinds..? Loving someone without..desire? Ichigo puzzled over the meaning of the word. Were the things that Nnoitora whispered about, things having to do with desire? Did that mean he himself harbored desires for his father?

"They are incorrect of course, the fools." Sosuke's smile aroused the faintest thrill of electricity to dance on his skin. "What do they know about...emotions?" Sosuke tipped his glass in encouragement, "drink, Ichigo. The time of your chrysalis is ending..."

He knew all about the chrysalis stage of certain Pupa from Szayel. Coming from anyone but Sosuke, Ichigo immediately would've flown into a rage, being compared to a butterfly. There was nothing delicate about him, at least he maintained that there wasn't. However this comparison falling from his most favorite person in the worlds' lips, quite pleased him. It meant that he was finally becoming something, not a child to be coddled but..someone whom could gain his father's favor, his love.

Ichigo lifted the glass to mouth, the rim was smooth like Ulquiorra's skin. Briefly as his lips parted to the fine wine cooled to a tepid sweetness, Ichigo imagined it to be his guardian beneath his mouth. The first swallow burned his throat, the second was less intense, like a warm rush easing the thirst of a parched traveler. The third drained the glass and left his head pleasantly spinning, from across the table, Sosuke's smile looked smeary, blissful.

"Come..." Ichigo slipped from his chair, going to his father's side. The arms that enveloped him, pulled him down into the lap he knew, into the embrace of the God-like man in white robes. "Ichigo..." Sosuke caressed the side of his face; Ichigo leaned closer, keening for his touch.

"Soon you will reach full maturity..." the baritone voice was a silken purr in his ear. "I cannot wait for that day, Ichigo..."

"Why is that?" Eagerness colored his tone; Sosuke's breaths heated up his skin. Their lips were mere inches apart. "A year from now..."

Unable to bear the light teasing nips and flicks of the older man's tongue, Ichigo slanted his mouth against Sosuke's, grinding hard on his teeth, until his father's playful resistance gave way. Unhindered then, Ichigo explored the warm, wet orifice; their tongues tangling, fighting for dominance. Sosuke would always win of course, clasping Ichigo by the shorter locks at the back of his neck, turning the tables on him, by roughly running his free hand between Ichigo's spread legs.

Breaking off from the kiss with a quiet moan, Ichigo rubbed himself against the large hand pressed against his groin. "Ah-ah-ah, yes.." he hissed as his penis began to swell. Sosuke cradled him while continuing to fondle the boy's hardening manhood, on his bruised lips a sneer that Ichigo couldn't see. If only you could see your son now, Isshin.

Sosuke pressed a soft kiss to his throat, closing his coffee brown eyes contentedly, "I will make you mine."

~To be continued~

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