Pieces Chapter 8:

Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't own anyone in it but Hanatarou's crazies lol and not even really that

Warnings: Cursing, and people I hadn't planned on taking part in this....are taking part in this ^^;;;

A/N: Sorry for the long delay, and Thank you all for the comments. Thank you Phoniex as well I really don't know what to say to that I'm glad you like my work XD. Well I hope this is a better chapter. I have to go get ready for work now.

"Interesting, very very interesting. It's amazing that so much of his brain is in use. Look see all of those bright spots, those are all places where there has been activity recently. Lots of it by the looks of things--sit still please." Mayuri snapped absently at Pakku as he tried to squirm off the table for the fifth time in so many minutes. At this point no one could really blame him for misbehaving (except Mayuri) he'd been poked and prodded, told to pee on this, spit on that, give me blood. Be quiet and sit still all day and most of the night. As any child would be he was tired, sore and cranky.

Hell Kenpachi was ready to do some damn squirming too, and despite what many people believed he was an adult. Unohana had returned to her squad rather unwillingly a few hours ago to handle an urgent matter there, leaving Kenpachi and the eternal slacker Shunsui to keep an eye on Mayuri.

Kenpachi looked at the older man leaning against the wall furtherest from Pakku and Mayuri, artfully faking sleeping. He'd been doing it since Pakku's last fit. Despite the older man's nonchalance Kenpachi knew he'd been freaked out by what he'd seen. Kenpachi had been disturbed, it was worse than the previous ones, but what he would say afterward was always the same. Secret and bad thing.

"Oi! Are you going to check him out, or let him keep gnawing on your arm like a rodent....matter of fact get that out of your mouth right now brat you don't know where it's been."

Pakku looked up at Kenpachi teary eyed and released Mayuri's arm, "Hurted."

Mayuri rolled his eyes, " Right. Always with the complaints about pain--" he sighed, and pulled a blue flower from the inside of his lab coat, and handed it to Pakku.

Pakku took it cautiously and glared at him before taking a careful sniff. Kenpachi wasn't exactly sure how the flower ended up attached to Pakku's face, or why he wasn't beating the shit out of Mayuri right then either.

Nemu entered the room again at this point and impassively informed the room that Kuchiki taichou and Abarai-Fukutaichou were in the waiting room, and would not leave per first division orders. Also they were refusing refreshments. Which for some reason seemed to almost upset up.

Mayuri put down the scalpel that Kenpachi hadn't noticed he'd had, by Shunsui's shifted position he'd apparently had been on top of that one which was good. " Hm. I hate it when other people feel they have the right to interfere with my work. Show them around the second labortory. The one working on that rubber thing."

"He asked specifically about Hanatarou."

Mayuri frowned, then did that weird eye rolling thing that secretly creeped Kenpachi the fuck out. Then made a vague bring them in gesture at Nemu and went back to Pakku with that fuckin' scalpel. Luckily for Mayuri all he did was slice off the outer petals of the flower.

Shunsui relaxed slightly in his corner again, shit how fuckin' drunk had he been to bring Hanatarou to this fuckin' lunatic? Well nothing for it now, and with that prickly fucker Byakuya coming around this was turning into a real pain in his ass.

Renji waited until Nemu was out of earshot, before turning towards his Captain. "I didn't know we were coming on official business Taichou."

Byakuya didn't even bother to look at him, just closed his eyes and said, " Neither does the First Division."

Renji stared at him flatly, "You lied?"

"No. I am certain that the Yamamoto-taichou would be very interested in experiments being performed on seated officers."

"Yea..but it's Hanatarou..."

"Yes?"

Renji knew why they were there, and it had fuck all to do with seated officers, and duty to soul society. It had everything to do with the nearest thing Renji had ever seen his Captain have to a crush, and good old fashioned nosiness. Most people thought he was thick, and couldn't tell tact from a tackle box but he knew when he keep his trap shut, especially when dealing with matters of his Captain's pride. "Nothing."

It wasn't a long wait before Nemu returned to bring them to the lab, where Kenpachi and Shunsui both looked like they had taken root there. Seriously didn't anybody do any actual work around here any-

Byakuya had come up short at the sight of Hanatarou flat on his back with a flower attached to his face, and Mayuri with a scalpel was never a fun thing to see.

Renji looked over to his former Captain just in time to see the tail end of his assessing the situation face, and the blooming of it's follow up picking a fight with a tightass grin.

"Oi since when does his lordship run petty errands?"

And just like that Renji knew that Kenpachi knew if no one else did that Byakuya was lying. Fuck they didn't give that man enough credit.

Byakuya spared him a bored glance before turning his attention to Mayuri. " A quick assessment of the situation please."

Mayuri stared at him for a long moment before waving a hand at Nemu. Who proceeded to give a calm, cool, listing of complete and utter bullshit that had only the most basic connection to what they were actually doing and at the same time being as informatively uninformative as she could possibly get away with. Renji knew that move now he'd attended meeting with the Noble houses with his taichou. (Been forcefully dragged, and quietly blackmailed into going) It was a popular tactic that they wielded like a weapon.

Byakuya didn't even twitch, "Very well." and took a seat as far away from the other Captains as he could and still remain in the room. Renji sighed and took a seat beside him, damn. This was a lot of fucking trouble over a crush.

Snowflakes, he liked the cold. He liked the cold, his fingers were blue by now he was sure, but he liked it. They were numb, numb was better than the cold biting pain that came before. Besides...he liked the snow. Didn't he say that already?

Yes he was certain that he had, but he had to be diligent. He had to make sure he remembered that he liked the snow...and snowflakes. Otherwise, otherwise the darkness might come back, or he'd remember why he was standing naked outside buried to his ankles in the snow he was desperately trying to like...No that wasn't true he liked the snow, really he liked the snow. Snow was pretty, and it only hurt for a little while.

He tilted his head back and smiled up at the falling sky. It was pretty, just like the snow...he liked the snow...

Hanatarou pulled his knees to his chest, and stared as the snowflakes danced across the panels of the room, overtaking the dragons. These things that Secretkeeper were showing him, they were from a place he had never been. Yet he felt the moist stinging cold of it seeping into his skin. He felt the pathetic desperate optimism as if it were an infected wound.

"What is this place?"

Secretkeeper settled beside him shoulder to shoulder, the smell of rot seemed to have lifted a little from him, or he'd simply gotten used to it. "Perhaps I took you to fast, perhaps you are not ready, but forgive me for desiring that you be. This home, this palace you have created, it is run and controlled by the rules of the one who created it. This is the place you have always come to hide, to rest, the place to escape a most horrible reality. A place that festers with all of those horrors, that want to be seen as desperately as you desire to forget. Have forgotten."

Hanatarou's head came up suddenly, "Those things that happened, they happened while I was still...alive? When I was a human?" he stood abruptly, and winced at the sound of Secretkeeper's broken neck sliding up to look at him.

"Yes. When you were alive."

"How—how is it possible no one remembers when they come to the soul society! No one, much less make." Hanatarou gestured around the room.

Secretkeeper continued to stare at him, " I am the keeper of your secrets, made to your desire. Created by your design, hidden by your will. I exist to protect your pain, and to protect you."

Hanatarou shook his head and covered his eyes, "I don't understand! I-I don't! Why am I here? I want to go home!"

He heard the creak and slide of bone as Secretkeeper stood as well, he winced despite himself when a cold hand was placed on his wrist. "Hanatarou...you are not ready yet...I am so very sorry, and so very disappointed. There is no choice and no time now, not with the treatments, there are so many secrets...so very many secrets I keep for you."

"I don't understand! I don't have any--" Hanatarou squatted and covered his head with his arms as a loud steady booming filled the room. Like the heartbeat of God. "What-what is that?!"

Secretkeeper had not let go of his arm, and had sunken to the floor beside him. " You should go back to sleep Hanatarou."

Hanatarou looked up at the suddenly gentle voice Secretkeeper was using, the gold mask looked down at him impassively. "Sleep?"

He nodded, "Yes, sleep...you are not ready to know, and you are not ready to meet him."

"Meet who?"

Secretkeeper lead him back to the futon in the center of the room, he tucked him in like a child, "When the time comes, you will meet him. Go to sleep Hanatarou..."

Hanatarou closed his eyes, and despite his desire not to, he drifted off to sleep.

"This is not good Secretkeeper."

"This is for the best old mother."

Chiyo-san frowned down at the peacefully sleeping Hanatarou. She watched as he faded out of existence, and continued as Pakku faded in his former place. Asleep for once sucking his thumb.

"This will kill us all."

"Likely." he said evenly, then more loudly. "Ku. Is restless. Someone should do something about that."

Chiyo-san bowed deeply, and silently left the room.

Hanatarou was looking up a nostril. It was a nostril that he knew and was very happy to see, which was why he was currently draped around Kenpachi's neck enthusiastically half sobbing the story of his dream, and the Secretkeeper and snowflakes.

He really wasn't sure who initiated the kiss but he was certain that choking sound was Renji gagging...and why was Renji in their bedroom in the first...this wasn't their bedroom...that was Captain Kur – smiling in that creepy weird way of his, and Captain Kyouraku pretending he wasn't there, and why did life hate him enough for his own taichou to be standing there blushing politely?

He abruptly let go of Kenpachi's neck and landed on the bed with a thump, he was sure his own face was on fire, he wasn't brave enough to look up at Kenpachi for his reaction yet—possibly never. Regardless there was a long heavy silence before the previously unnoticed Kuchiki-taichou said blandly, "I see, this situation does not require our interference...Renji we're going now." Byakuya stood and headed for the door without so much as a backwards glance. Renji lingered a moment then followed.

He really needed to work on being more observant of his surrounding, this day was just getting worse and worse!

Shunsui cleared his throat and was rubbing his forehead in a way usually reserved for one of his really bad hangovers. "Ne, it's good to see you feeling better Hana-chan you gave everyone a scare..."

"What? Oh I am so sorry! I-"

"Shut up." Kenpachi placed a hand on his head and pushed his head back. Feral eyes raked his face that he just knew was beet red, he just knew it! "Tell us what the fuck happened? "

Hanatarou blinked, the dream still fresh in his mind, the person with the gold mask, the old woman, the shinigami....the bad images he'd seen. The things that the masked one had called his memories...snow...an image as clear as sunlight a man's set cold face and a wooden cup, a hand around his neck choking... and pain...and fear and stars. Someone pleading...someone crying someone screaming! Screaming and screaming and-- stinging.

"Kenpachi!"

"What he stopped didn't he?" his voice was gruff and annoyed.

Hanatarou looked up at him again, and tried to smile. That only seemed to make him more annoyed. "I'm so-"

"Don't fucking apologize. Just shut the fuck up, I don't want to hear shit out of you until tomorrow, we'll figure this out then." Kenpachi picked him up off the table and put him on his feet. "Let's go home."

"I'm not done with him-"

"You're fuckin' done for now." Kenpachi snapped, and all but pushed Hanatarou out of the door. Clearly something had not gone the way he'd planned.

Yamamoto looked over the carefully color coded files in front of him. Soi Fong had brought them from the 11th division's Captain's office. Made copies and returned them, Yamada Hanatarou, a completely unremarkable 7th seat of the 4th division. Seemingly, yet somehow he was currently the lover of his most unruly Captain, the source of mild pining for his 6th, cared for by his 4th, and fascinating to his 12th. That was a lot of attention from a lot of very powerful men, his 8th was hanging around for reasons still known only to himself...and now. Yamamoto picked up a red folder and began reading, now it was up to him to decide what to do with him if anything at all.

A/N: * Peeks out from behind a brick wall * Hi don't kill me! I have a very good reason, school, work, and Sarah Monette I was in need of my Mildmay fix in order to write Kenpachi XD I hope it didn't suck to bad, but I have not abandoned this story...or any of my stories it just takes a while sometimes with RL, and my own book that hates me right now.