Author's Note: Slight M-Rated scene in the beginning here, but nothing too heavy or in depth. However, if you really don't want to read it, just skip past the italics.

Chapter Nine-Morning Problems

"You're gonna kill me here, Ren."

"Stop being such a big baby, Shinji. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. I promise, I'll take care of ya'."

"I just…I just wanna touch you, Ren."

"Fine," Ren finally conceded. She reached down beside her and took Shinji's hands from where he had twisted them in the sheets and brought them up so they rested on her waist. Right off the bat, his grip on her was tight, and she had barely just begun her torture on him. With a devilish smirk on her face, Ren quickly finished undoing Shinji's tie and practically ripped his button-up shirt open.

"I kind of liked that shirt," Shinji commented, and Ren could have sworn that she heard some kind of beeping in her head.

"Is that really your main concern right now?" Ren asked him. Before he could answer her, Ren continued her assault on his neck, making anything he was about to say come out as a groan instead. She had been working on the juncture that was right between his neck and inner shoulder, and she already had a nice little bruise forming there. In an attempt to torture him even more, Ren arched her back a little, causing her exposed breasts to lightly pass over Shinji's bare chest. Just as another moan was about to come out of his mouth, Ren lightly bit into the spot that she had marked, causing Shinji to buck his hips up into hers. Ren couldn't help the little moan that escaped her as her hips seemed to react on their own volition and grind down against his in response, which caused a lovely little friction between them. His grip tightened on her waist while another groan went across his lips, but Ren was caught off guard when she heard that sudden beeping again.

"Ah, Ren, you've got to stop doing this to me," Shinji begged her, his voice laden with the overwhelming desire that she had filled him with. He should have known as soon as he walked into their room and saw that she was in nothing but her lace panties and waiting for him, that she would do something like this. She was always such a tease with him, although he couldn't deny that he encouraged her sometimes. But, when she told him that she wouldn't let him touch her this time, Shinji knew that Ren was out to torture him, and while being tortured by his beautiful wife was something straight out of his greatest fantasies, Shinji knew that he wouldn't be able to last much longer. She always held back just enough to make him want more, but she never gave him enough to satiate him for even a small moment, and he felt like he might explode at any point.

"Are you sure you want that, Shinji?" Ren teased, lightly tracing her fingers over his belt.

"I might actually die if you don't," he grunted.

"Oh, well, if that's the case…" Just as Ren was trying to unfasten his belt, she heard that damn beeping again. It just kept getting louder and louder, until finally everything in front of Ren started to slowly fade away…


Ren smacked that damn alarm clock as hard as she could and it slammed into the wall, causing the annoying device to crumble to pieces. Who in the world would invent something like that, something that could cut into such a wonderful dream and stop it right before the good part started? Ren couldn't help but picture Aizen sitting at a desk with some tools in front of him, trying to put together something sinister, something so evil that it could hit Ren right where it hurt the most: in her dirty subconscious mind. She knew that wasn't the truth, but she wouldn't put it past him.

Ren let out a deep sigh and looked on the bed beside her, which only caused her to roll her eyes and let out another sigh. How he could sleep through all of that damn racket still amazed her to no end. Ren gently crawled over closer to Shinji, sitting up and throwing one of her legs over him so she was straddling him. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, like he didn't have a care in the world, and while Ren loved seeing her dear husband at ease, it was time for him to get his ass up.

"Oi, wake up," Ren demanded, poking him in the forehead. When he didn't budge, Ren got mildly irritated.

"Wake up," she repeated, nudging his shoulder a bit. He still didn't respond. If Ren wasn't able to keep her morning temper under control, she was going to end up choking him in his sleep. This happened every time that she tried to wake him up early in the morning; he stayed asleep no matter what she did, and she tended to get rather peeved at that. If he wasn't awake after her third try, things were going to get pretty rough for him.

"You are being such a little bitch," Ren muttered.

"Heeeey! Wake up!" Ren called, using her legs so she could lift up and bounce on him, which also shook the bed under them. This time, he actually responded, letting out a groan of disapproval and reaching up to rub his eyes.

"Ren, you know I love it when you wake me up like this, but why do you have to do it so damn early sometimes?" Shinji grumbled.

"Shut it, you know you love it," Ren scoffed. "This is your fault anyways."

"How's that?" he asked her, opening his eyes and looking up at her. He couldn't understand how she managed to look so damn good right after she woke up. Her hair had gotten wonderfully disheveled over the night, and her eyes looked dazed and deceivingly innocent in their tired state. He couldn't complain, though, because it was definitely nice to wake up to such a stunning sight.

"I don't know, you tell me. Since when do I have to wake my husband up so he can get ready to go to high school?" Ren countered, putting an emphasis on high school.

"Did my alarm not go off?" Shinji wondered.

"Tch, like that damn thing could ever wake you up," Ren scoffed. "You have to get a new one, by the way."

"Did you break another one, Ren?" Shinji asked her incredulously.

"I apologize. I can't help it if my husband has the uncanny ability to sleep through a bomb going off under his ass," Ren replied, rolling off of him and back over to her side of the bed.

"Please, that's an exaggeration and you know it," Shinji scoffed, following her lead and rolling over to where he was hovering on top of her.

"How much you wanna bet on it?" Ren asked him, raising an eyebrow as she did so.

"Aren't you just adorable," Shinji cooed, leaning down and placing a soft kiss on her lips that she returned rather enthusiastically. He had a feeling that he knew why she was so cranky that she had been woken up, and he was usually able to have a lot of fun with her when situations like these popped up. He was torn between actually being responsible and getting dressed for school, or spending some good quality alone time with his 'frazzled' wife.

"Get ready for school Shinji," Ren muttered against his lips, pulling herself away from him a bit so she wouldn't get carried away.

"But why? This is so much more fun," he replied. "You know, as of today, you are officially with a substantially younger man, who also happens to be a high school student."

"What are you saying, Shinji?" Ren asked him, pushing him away a little so she could look him in the eyes.

"Nothin'," he chortled. "My little cougar."

"Oh, Shinji, you are such an ass!" Ren laughed, frantically pushing him away.

"What? It's true!" Shinji laughed, returning to his side of the bed.

"It is not! You are older than me by a decade!" Ren reminded him. "Now go get ready! You're going to be late!"

"Fine, fine," Shinji conceded, finally getting out of bed. Ren snuggled back under the cover, burying her face in her pillow and breathing in deeply. She could hear Shinji changing in the background, and she was surprised that he wasn't commenting on how she should have been watching him to make sure he didn't "mess anything up", which he tended to do because he thought it was 'adorable' of him to do so.

"Oh Ren," Shinji called.

"I'm not watching you change clothes, Shinji," she cut him off.

"Haha, very funny," Shinji commented. "I need you to tie this for me." Ren sat up and gave him a look that could have frightened any man out of the room, but then she let out a deep sigh and crawled across his side of the bed and got up on her knees in front of him.

"You know, you would think that you would learn to do this since you wear these so much," Ren commented, delicately tying Shinji's tie for him.

"What, and not need you to do it for me?" Shinji retorted.

"That would be the goal," Ren muttered. Once she got done she quickly eased up and gave Shinji one more kiss before she plopped back down on his side of the bed and snuggled into his pillows.

"Adorable," Shinji cooed.

"Go to school, damn it," Ren grumbled.

"Will ya tutor me later on if I need it?" he asked her suggestively.

"No, in fact, I hope you fail miserably. Now go!"

"Fine." Shinji walked to the door of the room, but told her one more thing before he left: "I love you, cougar."

"And I love you, too, soon to be failing student."


Things were on high alert in the Visored warehouse. A week ago, they had been milling about their usual business of training and not doing too much else otherwise, when Kisuke had decided to call them up. Apparently, he had found this kid, and that statement itself was enough to let Ren know that something big was up. This kid, Ichigo Kurosaki to be more specific, had been given a Shinigami's powers, or had taken them (the details were a little fuzzy, really, because it was a complicated situation), and when Soul Society wanted the Shinigami that had given him her powers back, he had obviously had a disagreement with whoever had come to get her and ended up losing his powers and almost his life.

Being the ever so helpful sort that he is, Kisuke decided to help the kid save his friend. That was when Kisuke had dropped one of the bombshells on them: he had apparently helped the kid get his Shinigami powers back, but as it turned out, there may have been a small situation with a Hollow in the process, and Kisuke was now under the impression that Ichigo Kurosaki was in fact a Visored just like them. Hiyori didn't take too well to his assumption, obviously, and claimed that she would believe it when she saw it, a statement which everybody ignored so they could finish hearing what Kisuke had to say, because he was nowhere near done.

He had sent Ichigo into Soul Society after he got his powers back, and the kid had ended up sending a whole shit-fest back instead of just being a normal person and sending a postcard or something. This is the point in Kisuke's story that the Visored got real interested in. Kisuke, in a very not-so-straightforward manner, explained that he had put the Shinigami that had given her powers to Ichigo (whose name was Rukia Kuchiki, although Ren was the only one who picked up on her name) into a gigai that might have just contained the Hōgyoku, the disastrous little object that had caused them loads of problems already. And who else would stumble upon that little object than Sōsuke Aizen himself, who also separated it from the gigai, and escaped from Soul Society with his little posse.

Ren was probably the only one who felt a little bit of relief at the end of Kisuke's story. With Aizen taking the Hōgyoku and explaining some parts of his betrayal, Kisuke and Tessai were pretty much off the hook; now granted Kisuke did have some sort of business relationship with Soul Society going on, he was no longer considered a guilty man. As for the Visored, however, they would still have to watch their backs. It was obvious that they hadn't exactly agreed for Aizen to turn them into what they were, but whether they did it voluntarily or not, they still had Hollow-like abilities. There was no telling how the Shinigami would react to them, so they decided to stay hidden until it was absolutely necessary for them to show themselves, which would be sooner than they had expected.

Aizen had fled to Hueco Mundo, bringing Gin and Tōsen with him, and he was now preparing an army of Arrancar, which were Hollows with the abilities of Soul Reapers. They didn't know exactly what Aizen was planning, or when he would decide to show his face again, but they knew it would be soon, and whenever he did show up, he wasn't going to just have the Gotei 13 to deal with. The Visored were going to be there to greet him, as well, and whether he wanted it or not, he was going to get a war.

They had been training for nearly a century, but the Visored were still going to have to make a ton of preparations for this battle. And the first thing that they were going to have to do was train Ichigo Kurosaki to control his inner Hollow. That kid was something special; his abilities and how he came about them were unheard of. He was going to be a key factor in the war, not only because of his strength in battle, but also because he hadn't seen Aizen's Shikai. Kyōka Suigetsu, the zanpakutō that had been used to deceive them all; once you had seen it for the first time, you were in its grasps for good, and Ichigo was one of the few who had been fortunate enough to avoid meeting this blade's Shikai.

Ren couldn't quite comprehend the plan that they had for this kid. They apparently wanted him to seek them out, instead of just doing the easy thing by being direct with him. She also couldn't understand why Shinji had to be the one to convince Ichigo, either. Sure, he probably had more finesse than the majority of the rest of the Visored, but how long would that finesse last him in a HIGH SCHOOL, a building full of HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS? Ren loved her husband to death, but dealing with teenagers was not his greatest talent, especially when it came to the females.

The poor boy couldn't even give an innocent compliment to a girl; he always ended up saying that they were his first love or something, and whether Ren was around to hear it or not, he always, without a doubt, begged her to forgive him, claiming that she was in fact his first love and not any of those other 'skanks', as he put it. And the thing was, Ren didn't care what he said to them! She knew the truth, because at the end of the day, he was coming home to her, not anyone else! And the sad part was, she had tried telling him that, but he didn't listen! She knew that the man was a smooth little player by heart, and she also knew that he loved her more than life itself, so she wasn't worried about it! But did he listen to that? Of course he didn't, and even though there were no actions to follow his compliments, he still felt awful about the whole thing, and all Ren could do at this point was laugh at him. Some things would never change, and she wouldn't change them for the world anyways.


"Are you lost without him, Ren?" Lisa cooed.

"Who?" Ren asked her, looking up from the manga that she had been reading. Her abrupt reply had caused a few of the other Visored to snicker, but Lisa would not be deterred.

"You know who," Lisa suggested, elongating the statement for added effect. Ren looked over at Rose, someone that she had grown rather attached to over the years just because he was so laid back, and she knew that he'd be able to back her up against Lisa's new assault.

"Am I missing something here, Rose?" she asked him, and the oblivious look in her eyes just made him chuckle.

"You probably are, Ren-chan," he shrugged.

"I'm talking about your husband, Ren, you know, the one you had to send to high school this morning?" Lisa reminded her.

"Oh, him? Why would I be lost without him right now? He'll be back in another hour or so," Ren replied, looking back down at her manga and starting to read it again.

"Sure, that's what you say, but I'm sure you're dying on the inside," Lisa commented.

"Shouldn't you be looking at pictures of half-naked women, or something?" Ren asked her.

"I am," Lisa informed her.

"Then why do find it necessary to aggravate Ren and the rest of us when you should already be preoccupied?" Kensei berated her.

"I like to double task," Lisa mused.

"Sure you do, pervert," Kensei mumbled.

"I am not a pervert!" Lisa shouted.

"Haven't we heard this before?" Rose wondered out loud.

"Plenty of times," Ren commented.

"Mhm," Love agreed.

"Forget this. I'm going to go see what's taking the asshole so long," Hiyori scoffed, stomping her way out of the warehouse.

"Be careful," Hachigen called to her. She merely let out a grunt as she exited the building.

"What's wrong with Hiyori-chan?" Mashiro asked.

"She's just antsy…And impatient," Ren told her.

"So she's not worried about Shinji?" Mashiro innocently asked.

"Why the hell would she be worried about him? If anyone should be worried, it's Ren," Kensei pointed out.

"And why should I be worried?" Ren incredulously asked him.

"He's your husband," Kensei pointed out.

"And a grown ass man. If he can't figure his way around a high school, then we've got some serious issues around here," Ren commented.

"You're really not worried?" Rose asked her.

"Nope," she stated.

"Not even with all those girls there?" Lisa challenged.

"I don't think he wants to be castrated, so no, I'm not worried about those girls," Ren told her.

"Ouch. That word is just painful to even hear," Love commented.

"Tch, he's too whipped to try anything with another girl," Kensei scoffed.

"And that's a bad thing?" Ren asked him.

"Whipped?" Mashiro repeated. Everyone just stared at her for a moment, but she was just as oblivious as ever.

"Ha! Have fun with that, Kensei-baka! I'm going to go get us some food to cook tonight!" Ren laughed, closing her manga novel and handing it over to Rose.

"Oh, I think I've read that one! Is that the one with-" Love started.

"Stop! Don't spoil anything for me," Rose berated him, causing Ren to snicker a little.

"Like he does every time?" Lisa commented.

"I do not," Love countered, trying to defend himself.

"Yes you do," Ren mumbled, making her way out of the warehouse.

"Since when?" she heard Love demand. She could only chuckle to herself as she walked down the road. Things may have been a little quieter without Shinji there, but they weren't any more peaceful.


Well, this was interesting. Ren had gotten the food just like she intended to, but on her way back, she just so happened to stumble across a certain teenager, namely, Ichigo Kurosaki. The poor kid looked a little lost, not physically, but mentally, like he couldn't quite wrap his head around something. If she had to take a guess, she would say that it was probably Shinji's fault. Sometimes the man was too blunt, but at other times, he wasn't blunt or straightforward enough, and that was when things got confusing. Plus, he had an uncanny ability to want to mess with the wrong people, like Hiyori, for example. Ren had to make a decision: get involved in Shinji's mission, or just leave everything to Shinji…There really was no contest between the two choices.

"Oh!" Ren yipped, pretending to trip and drop her grocery bags, and she just so happened to be right in front of Ichigo as she did it.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, hurrying over to the spot that she had fallen.

"Oh, yeah, silly me just tripped, that's all," Ren assured him, taking his outstretched hand so he could help her up. As soon as she was back on her feet, Ichigo immediately knelt down and started to pick up her groceries.

"Thank you, Ichigo! I'm glad some people still have manners around here," Ren commented.

"It's no prob- what did you say?" he asked her, immediately stopping what he was doing.

"Sorry, you don't know me, but I know you. I believe you met one of my comrades earlier today," Ren told him.

"You mean, Hirako?" Ichigo suspiciously asked her.

"Yeah. He was an ass, wasn't he?" Ren laughed. "Yes, I'm a Visored. I actually did not plan this, but when I saw you, I figured that I should probably apologize for that idiot."

"Oh," Ichigo muttered, continuing to pick up the fallen groceries.

"Don't let him give you the wrong idea about us, Ichigo. We really aren't that bad," Ren assured him. He stood up as he finally finished picking up her groceries, and he handed her bags back to her, which she graciously took from him.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't need you guys," Ichigo told her.

"I figured you'd say that. But, if you ever change your mind, we'll be here. Take care of yourself, alright?" Ren replied.

"Sure," Ichigo muttered.

"And cheer up! Thanks for picking up my groceries!" Ren added, leaning on her tiptoes so she could reach up and give him a small, innocent kiss on the cheek. She grinned as she saw the blush cut across his face, and with one last wave she went on her way.

"I'm Ren, by the way!" she called back. She didn't know what Shinji had said to the kid, but Ren was sure that he didn't do it very pleasantly. She didn't want Ichigo to get the wrong idea about the Visored, and hopefully she had convinced him that they weren't too bad. She figured that she had at least convinced him that she wasn't so bad, and she would be sure to tell Shinji about it later…

Author's Note: Thank you to smackie, LITTLE RED FOXX, swimmingintears, followtheblackstar, shikaboo, imagination-the drug, Friggatriskaidekaphobia, DormantInTheBloodOfMyEnemies, Jane of Arc, and Kyōka kumo for all of the love! Thank you and enjoy!