A Promise at the Water's Edge
Chapter Four
DISCLAIMER: I own only my ideas.
…Sadly, those ideas seem to be hiding behind the cobwebs in my brain…
This Is My New Line Break 'Cause FFNet Doesn't Like Parentheses and Hyphens
That's just to let you guys know because I'm tired of FFNet messing up the flow of my fanfics with that silly crap!
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Link sighed softly as he stood outside in the silent, midnight air.
"You think Ichigo's gonna be alright?" Zyne wondered as he stepped up beside his light, looking out at the stars that could only be seen when the city was asleep.
The blonde tilted his head toward the purplette with a soft grin curving his lips as he answered, "Come on, Zi… Ichigo's got us, doesn't he? We'll back him up come Hell or high water, ne?" He turned ethereal-crystal eyes back to the sky as the expression fell from his face. "It's what Ichigo might have to face that worries me…"
"You're right, Hikari," the darker warrior agreed. "We only know that he's been through some rapids in the 'high water' part… I just don't get it, though…"
Blinking in curiosity, Link turned to face his lover. "What do you mean?" he questioned slowly, not liking the pensive look on his darkness's face.
"He's saved Soul Society's ass how many times now? Aizen tried to overthrow them and ended up taking the Hogyoku, Kariya tried to blow them up, a gang of old guys wanted to destroy both worlds, a couple of whack-jobs wanted to take out all of them just to have Rukia, some weird Zanpakutou wanted to free his sealed master, and some other dude wanted to kill the old fart for revenge... I mean… Who else is gonna come along and try to make this place a colorful smear on the map? Some fuck-up that wants revenge for something else? Or is Aizen gonna eventually work up the balls to come and take care of this shit himself?"
Link dropped his gaze and ran a hand over the back of his uncovered head, ruffling the slowly-lengthening blonde hair into a mild mess. "I really don't know, Zi…" he finally answered then added, "But I can tell you this: Ichigo won't be alone. Even if everyone else leaves him, he'll always have us at his back."
"Oh, I get what you're saying, Hikari, and I couldn't agree more. My point, though… When are these selfish bastards gonna be thankful for what a sixteen-year-old kid has sweated, bled, and nearly died for?" Zyne bit out harshly, glaring up at the sky as though chastising all of Soul Society. "Yeah, Ichigo saw it as saving his friends' lives, but that's not the point! It may have been for his friends in his mind, but he still kept that place from getting blown out of its happy little dimension!"
Link smirked, unable to resist saying, "Preaching to the choir, Zyne." The sharp upturn of the corner of his lips softened into a smile as he rested his head against Zyne's. "I don't know if we'll ever be able to do something about that… We'll just have to focus on what we can do in the 'here and now'."
Zyne pulled a strange expression before grinning. "For the 'here and now', I say we get rid of some sexual frustration that's been plaguing us sense we sealed up ol' green bean." He turned his becoming-seductive grin on his lover and pressed a kiss to tanned lips. "It feels like it's been years since we first did the dirty…and I'm itching to have you writhing as you ride my cock again."
The blonde's smirk returned, but it had an absolutely-devilish manner about it. "Maybe it'll be you writhing as I tease you until you're begging me to fill you so deep, hard, and fast that you won't be walking right for days," the supposedly-lighter of the two retorted.
Zyne turned his head to catch his light's slightly-tanned bottom lip between his lips, suckling on it as he ran his tongue across the tender flesh. "Talking like that… Mmm, I might start begging you right now…" he whispered, his lips brushing the blonde's before Link grew tired of the mutual teasing and captured the purplette's lips in a rough kiss.
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Ichigo sighed as he woke slowly, giving a languid stretch before leaping out of his bed just in time to miss his father's flying kick. Ugh, what is wrong with this guy? he snarled to himself, Shiro hearing it, too, if the laughter was any indication. "Oyaji, I'm really not-…!" He growled, interrupting himself as he slammed the man into the floor. "I'm not in the mood!"
Isshin looked at his son for a moment before darkly questioning, "Did those boys who visited the other day do something to my darling son?" He jumped up and struck a pose as he yelled, "Daddy will protect his beautiful son's innocence!"
Ichigo felt as though his eyebrows had become one with his hairline as his jaw fell slack, his mouth hanging open. "My-my innocence! The hell's the matter with you! Get out of my room!" he yelled, grabbing the back of his father's shirt and slinging him out the window with one arm in an impressive show of strength for a human body.
"Why do you treat your father this way?" Isshin whined as he flew over the neighbor's house.
A crash with a feline shriek sounded as Ichigo stomped his way downstairs to the breakfast table. He threw on the brakes and stared at the people sitting there before simply stating, "Oh hell no," and turning back around.
"Kurosaki-san! Why do you treat your dear friends this way?"
Ichigo gave a deadpan stare as he looked over his shoulder and said, "My 'dear friends' usually call before coming to my house," then waved as he started toward the stairs but a cane handle caught his shoulder.
"Kurosaki-san… You're being unbelievably mean-spirited this morning…"
"I don't care. Go bother a believably mean-spirited person-"
"Ne, Ichigo…what's got you so worked up this morning?"
"Take a wild guess. Actually, I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count," Ichigo retorted, facing the people gathered in his home again with his arms crossed. "What is it, geta-boushi-san?"
"Something strange is going on, Ichigo… What are you hiding?"
Ichigo shifted his eyes from Urahara's to Tessai's then Zyne's and finally resting on Link's, the sunkissed-blonde having been the one to speak and gain his interest. "What're you talking about?" he wondered, his eyes widening when Link's closed slowly. "What? What is it, Link?" He shifted his gaze to Zyne, the only other person who he trusted on the same level as Link. "Zyne…?"
Link's eyes snapped open, and he stood. Zi, we've gotta talk to him alone. We're the only ones who know…and I won't let everyone else pressure him like this, he sent to his darkness as he gazed into the fresh-blood-colored eyes.
Zyne sighed, standing beside his light. Alright… Well, at least we'll help the kid keep a cool head, he replied, following the blonde as he stepped in front of the orange-haired teenager. Then again…we're not much older… Still teenagers ourselves, ne, Hikari?
Aa… We are…but just like Ichigo, we've faced too much to still be thought of as such, Link answered with a smirk in his mental voice. "Ichigo," he whispered so quietly that the orange-head had to strain to hear, "Urahara doesn't know… Zyne and I would never reveal the secrets you've trusted us with…but we do need to talk to you…"
"Link…Zyne… You're gonna have to tell me what's going on. I can't read minds," Ichigo muttered before the lighter of the two took a gentle hold of his arm.
"Hope you know what you're doin', Hikari," Zyne mumbled as he wrapped an arm around his lover.
The trio disappeared in a swirl of green light, making those at the table jump up with a shout of surprise.
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When the whirlwind of green reappeared, Ichigo would have dropped to his knees and vomited if not for the arms that steadied him and his skipping breakfast. "Holy…shit…" he choked, "Why's…six of you…?"
"Six of…" Link blinked before it clicked, and he chuckled quietly. "Sorry, I guess I should've warned you…"
"Would've…been nice…" the younger teen gasped, trying to force down the need to expel anything and everything that may have been in his stomach. "Just…what the hell…?"
"You're hiding your power, Ichigo…" Link muttered, shocking the teen to the point of forgetting about his stomach declaring mutiny. "People are starting to realize it… At one point, you're weak as a newborn kitten, then the next, you're as powerful as a tiger-"
"So? That doesn't mean anything-" Ichigo tried to interrupt but was spoken over by Zyne.
"Everyone else who knows thought it was Shiro…but we're starting to realize that it's all you – not Zangetsu, not Shiro, but you, Ichigo. …If it's so easy for Link and I to see it, how long do you think it's gonna take everyone else to start catching on?" the purplette questioned rhetorically. "If you want everyone to think it's your lover granting you all of this power, maybe you should hide it much better."
"I don't need you telling me how to-"
"Shh..." Link hushed gently, laying his index finger against the younger warrior's lips. He smiled softly as he carefully sat the orange-head down. "We're not trying to tell you how to run your own show, Ichigo; we're trying to help you. Eh…Zi just has a major lack of tact," he informed, adding the last part with a grin. "Ack!" he yelled when a moonlight-pale, black-gauntlet-covered fist slammed into his jaw. "That hurt, you asshole!"
"It was supposed to, Hikari," Zyne grumbled, crossing his arms and looking pointedly away from his lover.
"Hey," Link shrugged, "Not my fault you have a bad connection between your brain and your mouth." He ducked the incoming punch that time. "Anyway," he continued, dropping to sit on his bum beside his and his lover's first and greatest friend in the strange world they found themselves in, "We're just warning you to be extra careful. It's a good idea to hide your true power, Ichigo. I agree wholeheartedly with holding back for underestimation purposes, but you have to be extremely careful with it…"
"And your inability to mask your reiatsu is about as dangerous as a sack of bricks in a tornado," the darker of the two Hylians added as he sat on Ichigo's other side.
Ichigo sighed, leaning back to lie down and stare up at the clouds – or he would have if not for his head landing on something mildly soft and looking up at his lover's death-white face, gold-on-black eyes, and a blue tongue sticking out at him childishly.
"Told ya so, aibou," Shiro muttered, leaning down to press an upside-down kiss to his Shinigami's lips. "Yer gonna have ta listen ta me more often. This shit wouldn't happen."
"Nah," Zyne cut in before an argument could start up. "Link and I just know what to look for… We're so used to Ichigo's reiryoku and reiatsu that we can tell when yours is mixing with his and when it isn't."
"Exactly. Neither of you are at fault…" Link smiled softly as he looked at the two – so different, yet so alike…like his lover and himself – and said, "We're just worried. We care about you two, and we're going to try to prevent anything bad that might happen to you."
"Care about us, huh?" Shiro asked with a grin.
"Shiro…" Ichigo growled warningly at his Hollow's thoughts. "Shiro, don't you dare-!"
"How deep's that care go? Wanna try an orgy?"
Link blushed five shades of red.
Ichigo blushed from his collar to his hairline and groaned while covering his face.
Zyne looked at his lover and grinned like the cat that caught the canary.
A few more shades of crimson attacked the sunkissed features of the blonde's face.
Shiro cackled as he filled the silence with, "Ne, aibou… They didn't say 'no'!"
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Ichigo sighed as he showed up at the Urahara Shouten, the man having called him about having something new for him to try out. Stepping into the shop, he found Ururu there to lead him further inside.
"This way, Ichigo-san," she said, motioning with her arm before walking down the hallway. "Link-san and Zyne-san had something they wanted you for, too," she added, not seeing the fierce blush that he had to fight down at the thought of them.
"Kurosaki-san!" Urahara greeted happily, two cups of tea already sitting on the low table with the pot between them. "I have something brand new that I've tweaked, and I'm going to need your help testing it," he continued, reaching into his sleeve.
"…Why don't I like the sound of that?" Ichigo grumbled as he sat across from the man who had taught him so much and in so short a time.
"Well, you should like it very much. It was Link's idea, actually, and I'm shocked that I never thought of it," the flaxen-blonde answered, putting something on the table before sliding it across to rest in front of Ichigo.
"…" The orange-head picked it up and mumbled, "A phone? You tweaked a phone?"
"A Soul Phone, actually," the exiled Shinigami corrected.
"Okay, a Soul Phone…whatever. That still doesn't answer my question."
"You'll be able to get in contact with people and find Hollows easier. Plus, it also helps mask your reiatsu…since you're not worth beans at it!"
Ichigo glared at the last part, which, to him, Urahara sounded just a bit too cheerful when pointing it out. "I can't help that. I have too much reiryoku to hide the feel of it, and you know it."
"That is because it isn't mature, Kurosaki-san," the shopkeeper replied, his tone serious. "You're only sixteen years old. Take Yamamoto for example; he's well over two thousand years old, Ichigo… His power is vast, like yours, but he can control it because he's had centuries to do so." Urahara gave a smile to the teen as he added, "Until a time when you can do the same, use this phone. I'll upgrade it whenever you get stronger so that you don't overload it."
"Okay…" Ichigo sighed before continuing with, "I'm guessing you've figured out what Link and Zyne already have, right?"
"You're not as stupid as you look, Kurosaki-san!" came the cheerful retort as the trademark fan opened to hide the other half of Urahara's gleeful face.
"Oi! What's that- Never mind. What do you need me to do with this thing?" the orange-head asked, letting the insult slide.
"Come with me," Urahara said as he stood and moved to where the trapdoor that led to his underground training area was hidden. "I need you in your Shinigami form," he began as they touched the dusty ground and used Benihime to eject the teen's soul from his body. "Remember Kukaku's cannon?"
"You want me to focus my reiryoku into this phone?" Ichigo asked after getting up and resituating his human body into a more comfortable position.
"You got it, but I want you to call up every last ounce of power you have before doing it – all of your power, Shinigami and Hollow."
"Alright… Shiro? Let's do this," Ichigo muttered, his Hollow appearing in front of him and clasping a hand over his that was holding the phone.
"Ready, aibou?" the albino questioned, both ignoring Urahara's shocked gasp.
"Aa," the more colorful teen assured before power flooded the underground training area, cracks spreading through the ground from where they were standing.
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Twin gasps sounded.
"What the hell is Urahara-san doing?"
"Better yet: what the hell is he thinking?"
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"My, my… You were hiding more than I thought you were, Kurosaki-san!" Urahara complimented before a foot connected with the back of his head and drove his face into the ground.
"What the fuck were you thinkin', you crazy bastard?"
Ichigo and Shiro blinked, looking over to see Link standing with one foot on the shopkeeper's head and Zyne trying to pull him away while trying to hold in his laughter and failing miserably on both accounts.
"Hikari! I'm supposed to be the impulsive one, remember? Get your damn foot off his head and let him explain!"
"I should kick his ass into next week!"
"Ya know, aibou… I think they've been around you too much," Shiro mentioned as he and his Shinigami pulled all their power back inside themselves. "Their speech didn't used ta be so…so…"
"Vulgar?" Ichigo filled in with a grin curving his lips. "Yeah… I think the air's about to turn blue around them if they carry on like this."
"-you ignorant dumbass! Soul Society will kill Ichigo if you keep this up! What crossed your mind, Urahara? Better yet, do you even have a mind?"
"BARRIER! I PUT UP A BARRIER! MERCY, LINK-SAN! MERCY!"
Link growled but allowed the flaxen-blonde to get up. "That still doesn't tell me what the fuck you were thinkin'! Having Ichigo and Shiro blast their power like that… You're lucky Zyne and I were here to keep your barrier from breaking!" he scolded, feeling like a teacher with a misbehaving student.
Urahara blinked, not having been chastised in such a way in over a century.
"Yo! S'alright," Shiro assured, standing beside Zyne with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Yeah. Geta-boushi was just workin' with this phone idea you had," Ichigo explained as he stepped up beside Link, blushing when he caught crystalline eyes and nervously smiling when the honey-blonde's cheeks flushed as well. "Er…ah… See?" he stuttered before holding the phone out for the Hylian to look at.
"Hmm…" Link picked it up by the chain that dangled from the back and smiled a bit at the colors of it. He chuckled when he realized it had the color of Ichigo's reiryoku from Bankai – mainly black, but it had a bloody-red around the mini-screen with white accents through the black from Shiro. It wouldn't surprise him if the number pad glowed a sky-blue color, though. "It still doesn't excuse Urahara's horrible underestimation of your and Shiro's power, Ichigo," he stated, his eyes hardening into icy chips as he glared at the shopkeeper.
Urahara raised his hands to ward away whatever harm was going to befall him as he nervously said, "I didn't expect a child in Shinigami standards to be able to hide his strength so…so impressively!"
Ichigo scowled at the flaxen-blonde and muttered, "I'm not a kid."
"I've already told you about this, Kurosaki-san. You are a child compared to many powerful Shinigami. It's why you can't control your reiatsu or how your reiryoku oozes out," the exiled Shinigami replied.
The orange-head gave him a deadpan glare. "Don't say 'ooze'. It makes me feel dirty," he grumbled.
"Oh...? Ya wanna feel dirty, aibou? Why didn't ya just say so?" Shiro asked, wrapping one arm around the teen from behind as he slid his other arm across his Shinigami's shoulder and traced his fingertips down a peachy-tan-skinned cheek. He pressed his cool lips on the sensitive skin of his lover's throat and smirked at the shiver he received. "Wanna find out how dirty I can make ya feel?" he breathed against the soft flesh.
Ichigo gasped softly, barely stopping himself from moaning though his mouth fell open as his head fell back to rest on Shiro's shoulder and gave his Hollow more flesh to work with.
Urahara blinked in shock before politely averting his eyes, though that action caused his eyes to fall on Link and Zyne. He hid a smirk when he noticed both Hylians' eyes were dilated and soft-pink flushes were on their cheeks. Someone has a crush… he realized, a scheme cooking up in his head without giving thought to how the subjects of that scheme would react.
Ah… Zi? Link murmured, not even noticing the shopkeeper disappearing from the underground training area.
What is it, Hikari? the purplette questioned, watching with rapt attention as Shiro's hand slid inside Ichigo's shihakushou while the orange-head buried a hand in snow-white hair.
Why are we both enjoying this so much? Well…you're supposed to be the less moral of the two of us, but… That doesn't explain why I want to watch as Shiro ravishes Ichigo… the blonde wondered, totally baffled at his own feelings.
Well… Insults aside, Hikari, Zyne grumbled as both he and his light shivered at the whimpering cry that escaped Ichigo when Shiro bit into his throat somehow-gently. I really don't know… Maybe we should have that orgy that Shiro mentioned, ya think?
No, I don't… Link was quick to answer but trailed off with his mouth hanging open as their orange-headed friend pulled their bleached friend's head up and kissed him roughly, almost desperately. I…I really don't…
Zyne reached over with a fingertip, pushing his fellow hero's chin up as he replied, I understand… I don't wanna ruin any of our relationships that we have with each other, either... He bit his lip and looked over at his light as he added hesitantly, But I'm…I'm not so sure I can hold out, Link…
I…I know, Zi… It's hard on me, too… And in more ways than just one, the blonde assured, adding the last part when Shiro's white shihakushou was parted and a rough bite was administered to the muscle between his neck and shoulder that caused the Hollow to moan throatily. Let's… he trailed off with a harsh swallow as Ichigo's obi was deftly untied and tossed behind Shiro. Let's go…before we both do something we'll regret, he was able to finish once his scattered wits came back together.
Yeah... Zyne agreed softly, quickly taking hold of Link before the lighter of the two whisked them away with Farore's Wind.
Ichigo and Shiro barely took notice when their audience hastily departed.
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End Chapter Four
LOL! I have no idea what kind of turn this fic is taking, honestly! :P
Reviews make me happy!