It was decided.

Las Noches now was their home.

They lived quite well there and had some fun playing catch with using flash steps, time by time.

At the end of one of these games, Zero was pinned to the floor by Shiro.

His wrists fixed beside his head.

Shiro panted heavily, stating.

"Got'cha."

Than he lay down on Zero, all exhausted.

Zero could feel the warmth of the other man and started to feel strange.

"Sh-Shiro. You're crushing me."

Shiro rolled off of him.

"Sorry."

Zeros face felt hot, he hoped that the pale one wouldn't notice his nervousness.

Lately, he always felt like this around the Hollow.

It was like a fever.

"I'm tired. Lets go and sleep."

The albino said out of the blue and came back to his feet, pulling Zero on his own ones.

They shared one room, sleeping together in one bed for the past days, because Zero had bad dreams lately.

And this night they wouldn't spare him.

Everything was dark around him.

Slowly a scene evolved out of the darkness.

Trees stood around a clearing, in which he lay.

Soft grass tickled his nose.

He raised up to sit.

Something was odd, why was he in such a place?

He looked over to his right.

There lay something.

Black cloth.

A body clothed in a black uniform.

He took a closer look, crawled to the body.

Around it the grass was wet, Zero raised his hands to dry them on his clothes.

His white pantaloons turned red where he brushed of the wet.

Blood.

Shocked he looked back at the body, dead eyes stared at him.

No.

Did he do this?

No!

What happened here?

"NO!"

Zero sat straight in the bed he had slept in.

He gasped, and looked at his hands.

They were clean.

He dropped back on the mattress, covering his face with a hand.

"Oi. Did you dream again?"

"Yeah."

Rustling and displacing of weight.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"No."

Zero raised again and looked at Shiro, who was shined on by the ever lasting moon.

"Could you hold me? Just until I fall asleep."

Shiro smiled at him and opened his arms to welcome him into them.

"Sure. Come here."

Zero snuggled against the others chest, and soon fell back into a dreamless sleep.

The next time he woke up, he still lay in Shiros arms.

The Hollow, calmly breathed into his hair.

Zero felt good, like it should be always like this.

Shiro moved, his golden eyes hit Zeros.

"Morning. Are you better?"

"Mhh. Thanks."

The albino loosened the embrace and stood up.

He stretched his muscles and stroked through his long white hair.

In the middle of the movement he stopped.

Without looking at Zero he ordered him.

"Stay here. There is something I need to take care of."

He dressed and flash stepped away, leaving a confused Zero behind.

Hichigo, noticed a reiatsu, one he knew to well.

He met with the owner of it.

"What business do you have here? Abarai."

"I could ask you the same."

"None of your concern. So what about you?"
"We look for Ichigo. He's gone missing after you left."

"Than look somewhere else. He's not here, nor was he."

"Why did you leave him?"

"It doesn't matter."

"What happened the night you left?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Than why do you have these scars? You broke the seal didn't you? Hichigo, tell me if you know anything that could have happened to Ichigo!"

The albino grabbed Renji on his uniform and pointed with two fingers of his right hand at the Shinigamis temple.

"You should leave, before I lose my nerves and blow up your head."

He hissed in Renjis face.

Shock and fear spread in this, and Renji made a surrendering gesture.

"Fine. I leave."

"And tell the Gotei, they shall keep their asses out of here. This is my place now and I don't like unwanted guests here."

Renji nodded and Hichigo pushed him through a Garganta Gate.

Hichigo went back to Las Noches, where Zero sat on a wall and looked at the wide area.

"I'm back."

"Mhh."

The man looked at Shiro.

"Who was this, with this strange presence? Was he from this Soul Society place?"

"Yeah. Sometimes they come and want to check if everything is ok."

"So you report them?"

"Yes. I don't like it when they sniff around here, so I take care they leave as fast as they came."

"Your...reiatsu, suddenly raised. Did he anger you?"

"They always do. The Gotei 13 are difficult to deal with."

Silence spread, until Zero talked again.

"I remembered something else. I think it were people I've been friends with when I lived.

And I remembered something about Las Noches.

A little man, with black hair and green eyes. There was no emotion in his face and his skin was as pale as yours. I also remember his name. Ulquiorra Shifer."

"Ah, the fourth Espada. Despise his rank he seemed to be the strongest of them, to me."

Shiro answered, making Zero look at him surprised.

"You know him?"

"I met with most of them in the past. They were frightening soldiers."

"I wonder why they have lost than."

"Because their enemies were stronger, ne? Soul Society fought to stop Aizens evil plans."

"What plans?"

"He wanted to destroy the world as we know it and rebuilt it to his likings, with him as its king."

"Guess it's a good thing that they stopped him."

"Yeah."

Shiro sat next to Zero.

"I wondered for some time about this now. I don't want to sound rude, but these scars under your left eye. How did you get them? They don't look like they are caused from claws or a weapon."

Shiro looked in Zeros eyes, sighs and moves his gaze toward the wide desert.

"These were a seal. The Gotei tried to tame me, with draining most of my powers. I let them do, but got fed up with this one day. I broke it and came here."

"Do they ache?"

"Sometimes. When I remember things."

Shiro sighs once again, before raising from his seat and offering Zero a hand to get onto his own ones.

"Ah, come on. I don't want to spread a gloomy mood around you. Let's look for something fun."

Zero smiled and blushed a bit at the same time, laying his hand into the others.

"Ok."

Time passed fast and Zero got back piece by piece of his memories.

Most of all he remembered things about Las Noches and a town in the living world.

Sadly he didn't remember the important things, like his name and the reason he ended up in Hueco Mundo.

Shiro and him played the giddy goat to avoid a bad mood around him, which made the man feel more and more comfortable in the Hollows presence.

Chapter 4

End