Gah! Finally! I wrote the next chapter and it's longer to make up for the wait. Warnings-Hitsugaya permanently pmsing, Urahara being a crazy cat lover, Soi Fon throwing pointy objects, and boys kissing boys. I do not own Bleach.

Ichigo straightened the tie on his suit as he wandered down towards the address Gin had given him. He didn't want to appear the slacker on his first day working on a government job. The building was tall, Ichigo guessed about thirty or more floors. He was surprised when he saw Gin waiting for him in the main lobby.

"Kurosaki-kun. It's a pleasure to have you here today. Now if you would follow me," Gin ordered, leading him across the marble floors to an elevator nearest the lobby desk.

He pressed the down button and shoved Ichigo inside, pressing the closed button and then pulling out a key from his pocket. He raised a small plastic case off a keyhole and turned the key within it. Ichigo watched as a small button appeared above the plastic case. Gin pressed it and then removed the key, closing the case. The smooth edge of the wall closed over the button and the elevator lurched into motion, taking them down.

"Now Kurosaki-kun. We are working on a way to get into other dimensions, which we fully believe exist. But unfortunately, we need fresh ideas coming through and on top of that our team is small. We will be experimenting with equations and the like to try and open a portal," Gin explained, stopping when the doors opened and they stepped out.

A long black table was displayed in front of him, all the seats taken except for two. Gin indicated for him to a seat on the left side of the table in between a short boy who appeared to be thirteen and a sickly looking man with long silver colored hair.

"Team, this is Ichigo Kurosaki, the newest member of our team. The one to your left in Ukitake, a brilliant calculus mastermind. The boy to your right is Hitsugaya. He graduated from college at age thirteen," Gin told him. "And of course if you travel around towards your left we have Byakuya, Soi Fon, and Urahara."

"Greeting Kurosaki-kun. Tousen tells me a lot about you," the last one said, tipping his green and white striped hat up to look at Ichigo with dark eyes that sparkled with mirth.

In his lap sat a black cat which was fixating Ichigo with a cold green stare as its tale lashed back and forth.

"Our lab is just in the back but first, Hitsugaya and Ukitake have somethings they need to show us," Gin said, motioning for Ukitake and Hitsugaya to speak.

"Well," Hitsugaya started, standing up. "We have several new probable calculations that might help us."

The young boy ran a hand through snow white hair as he fished a remote out of his pocket and pointed it towards the ceiling. Two panels opened and a screen dropped down as one by one, ten long formulas lanced across it.

Ichigo scanned them over quickly before turning to Gin. "What's the number of volts we'll be passing through whatever medium you'll be using?"

Gin quickly rattled off a number, expression questioning.

"If that's true then you need to change the fifth number in the seventh equation. You'd need to lower it by at least four," Ichigo told him.

Hitsugaya's eyes narrowed as he reached under the table for his bag, pulling out a laptop and quickly loading it up.

"And if you don't mind me asking, what will you be using?" Ichigo asked.

"We'll get to that later. Until then, Hitsugaya-kun, fix the equation. Everyone else, let us move on to examine the rest of them."

An hour passed as the group debated back and forth, changing something here, changing it back and changing something somewhere else. In that time, Ichigo quickly learned that Hitsugaya hated being corrected and that Soi Fon seemed even more knowledgeable then Gin himself.

"Alright. We'll use these formulas and input them into the machine. I'll leave that to Urahara and Yoruichi," Gin said, standing up.

"Yoruichi?" Ichigo asked.

"My cat!" Urahara said brightly as he picked the cat up and showed her to Ichigo. "Let's go Yoruichi-san!"

He set the cat down and walked through a door, the cat padding quietly after him.

"He's insane," Soi Fon stated when the door shut behind the pair. "He believes his cat is really a human trapped in cat form."

The door suddenly opened and Urahara peeked his head out, smirking. "I heard that Soi Fon!"

Soi Fon glowered at him, pulling out an object and throwing it at him abruptly. A black steak suddenly leapt up, catching whatever it was in her mouth and landing gracefully. Ichigo's eyes widened when he realized it was a small shuriken. No one used those anymore! It was a weapon from the agent past! So what was Soi Fon doing, flinging it around?

Before he could ask however, he was ushered into a different room with the others. This room was huge with a concrete floor and dim lights dangling from a ceiling high above them. To the front of the room was a huge archway, wires coiling over every inch of the stone.

"This is our method of transportation, should we finally come across the correct formula," Gin informed him. He gestured to the left, displaying a tinted window taking up the entire left hand wall. "Urahara and Yoruichi are in there, inputting the first formula."

As he spoke, a low hum began and the wires sparked. Ichigo realized a huge bulky wire was coming from a space in the wall beneath the window and then connected to all the tiny thin wires. The hum grew louder to the point of near deafening and Hitsugaya chewed his lip in anticipation as the wires began lighting up to the point of blinding.

Suddenly the hum stopped and the lights died down before the wires suddenly short circuited and burst into flames. Byakuya already had a fire extinguisher on hand and quickly put the flames out. Soi Fon had slipped into an electrician's suit by that point and quickly proceeded to dismantle all the wires, unwinding them and hauling them out of the room.

"God! I was so sure we got it right this time!" Hitsugaya growled.

"We still have nine other ones to try, Toshiro-kun," Ukitake told him gently.

Urahara suddenly entered the room holding several hundreds of carefully wound wires. "Hitsugaya-kun, Kurosaki-kun, a little help please!"

Ichigo and Hitsugaya sighed at the same time, following Urahara over to the archway which was charred but not damaged at all. Yoruichi clambered up the archway like it was nothing, sitting down at the top.

"Throw this up to her," Urahara ordered, unraveling a black cord and passing it to Ichigo.

Ichigo did as he ordered, surprised when Yoruichi snatched it in her teeth delicately before slowly clawing her way down the edge of the arch, making her way beneath it and clawing back up, slowly working all the way down to the ground and trotting over to another wall where there was a small cat flap. She pawed it open dropping the wire through and a hand quickly tugged it further into the other room. Ichigo guessed it was Soi Fon. That cat was truly amazing.

The day continued like this and all ten formulas had ended the same way. Hitsugaya was frustrated beyond belief and close to punching a wall, or so it seemed. Ukitake remained as patient as ever and Byakuya remained emotionless, expressing no disappointment when formula after formula failed.

By the time Ichigo left the building, the sun was setting and the cool night air was wrapping tightly around him. Gin was trailing behind him.

"Kurosaki-kun. I'm sure you realize this but because of your new project, you cannot continue playing soccer," Gin told him.

"Yes, I realize that. Which means I have no way to pay for tuition," Ichigo ground out.

"Yes you do. You forget, I work on the inside Kurosaki-kun. Your tuition is paid for," Gin said, grinning his ever creepy grin.

"R-really?" Ichigo stuttered, eyes widening.

"Of course Kurosaki-kun. Now if you excuse me, I have dinner to attend to."

With that, Gin walked away. When Ichigo arrived back at his dorm, Shinji was waiting outside the door, leaning against the wall with his head sets on and a stack of sheet music.

"Shinji," Ichigo said. "You're here."

Shinji tugged the headphones off. "Hey Ichigo. How did it go?"

"It was insane," Ichigo sighed, opening the door and letting Shinji inside. "There's a 13 year old brainiac, a crazy chick who uses ninja weapons, an emotionless man, some guy who believes his cat is actually a human, and Ukitake, the only normal one."

"Sounds like a creative bunch," Shinji laughed.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and shrugged out of his jacket. "Oh yeah. Do you want anything to eat? I've got left over macaroni and cheese in the mini fridge. Just put it in the microwave."

Shinji nodded. "Thanks. I'll get you some too."

Shinji easily located the mini fridge which sat on a counter. The microwave was on the same counter with a two shelves filled with miscellaneous things for food.

"So…how tired are you?" Shinji asked as he started the microwave.

Ichigo was already laying down on the bed, looking at him with a sleepy gaze. "I am exhausted. But…I can't do soccer anymore. But…Gin is paying for my tuition."

Shinji gaped at him. "Are you serious!"

"My reaction exactly. Can't say I'm complaining but I feel bad about it," Ichigo said as the microwave beeped that it was done. "Paper plates are on the top shelf."

Shinji quickly got their meals and came over to the bed, handing Ichigo his as well as a plastic fork. Ichigo sat up to allow Shinji to sit down.

"So what do you guys do?"

"Hitsugaya and Ukitake develop equations, as a team we go over them and see if anything seems wrong with the numbers, and then we test them. We did ten today but the reason it takes so long is well…if it doesn't work right the wires fizzle out and we have to rewire everything."

"That sucks," Shinji said. "And all I did today was write music."

"Do you have a recording?"

"Yeah. I wrote it on the computer though so the instruments are just the computer imitating them. It isn't as good," Shinji told him, looping the headphones off his neck and handing them to Ichigo.

Ichigo put them on and Shinji started the song, watching Ichigo's face anxiously. Ichigo's eyes widened as he listened.

"This is really good Shinji. Like…oh my god. I could never write anything like this," Ichigo said.

"But-"

"Shh! I'm listening!" Ichigo scolded.

Several minutes passed and finally, Ichigo took off the headphones.

"So?"

"It was great Shinji. I really liked the middle with that awesome solo…what instrument was that?" Ichigo asked.

"Cello," Shinji answered.

"I have no musical knowledge so sorry that I didn't know the name," Ichigo said, blushing.

"It's fine. Are you done?" Shinji asked.

"Yeah."

Ichigo handed his plate to Shinji and Shinji took them both and threw them away, sitting back down beside Ichigo. "So do your shoulders hurt?"

"Immensely, how'd you know?" Ichigo asked.

"Just a guess. That and you keep rolling your shoulders," Shinji said, smirking. "I can give you a massage."

"Are you coming on to me?" Ichigo teased, turning around nonetheless.

Shinji blushed, gripping Ichigo's shoulders and rubbing. Ichigo's head slumped forward at the pressure.

"You have a hell of a lot of knots back here Ichigo," Shinji told him, surprised by how tense the muscles were.

"Can't help it," Ichigo muttered. "But that feels really good."

Shinji smirked. "I'm a master."

Once Shinji was satisfied that he had gotten the majority of the knots out, he let go of Ichigo. Ichigo turned to face him then.

"Good job Shinji. That felt good."

Ichigo blushed when he thought of how good Shinji's hands had felt as they roamed over his back and shoulders, slowly working each and every muscle into relaxation.

"You're blushing Ichigo," Shinji stated.

Ichigo glanced up. "So are you. For what reason?"

"Um…"

"I like you…a lot," Ichigo blurted. "There."

"So do I."

"Glad we came to an understanding," Ichigo said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah…"

Shinji leaned forward then, easily capturing Ichigo's lips in his. Ichigo didn't move, too shocked at first. Shinji started to pull back but Ichigo entwined a hand in his blond hair, deepening the kiss and slipping his tongue in. Shinji shuddered, pressing himself closer to Ichigo and running his hands up Ichigo's chest before resting them on his shoulders. Eventually, the need to breath caught up with them and they drew away.

"I think I'm gonna go," Shinji breathed.

"You can't go. Who will protect me from the crazy ninja assassins come?" Ichigo joked.

Shinji pulled out of Ichigo's grasp, looking down. "Fine. This one time. Move over."

Ichigo complied, not caring that he was still dressed in his dress shirt and grey pants, instead tugging Shinji close to him and falling asleep.