NEW Chapter…

With Ichigo…

He was now four months pregnant and showing every bit of it. Sitting by the window drinking a cup of Raspberry tea. As he looked out the window unto the bustling city, he thought of byakuya and their relationship. He smiled sadly as he remembered the day that he had confronted him of his feelings.

flashback

He head realized during the war just how much byakuya meant to him and that he truly loved the cold man. The older man would also stare at him with lust -filled eyes when he thought that ichigo wasn't looking but otherwise avoided him like the plague. It had been that way for almost a month until ichigo decided that he couldn't take it anymore and decided to confront him about it.

One morning he walked into the 6th squad office and found byakuya sitting alone doing paperwork. Byakuya looked up and saw him and his eyes widened in surprise and… fear before his eyes became neutral again.

"is there something I can do for you kurosaki-taicho?" the nobleman asked in his usual stoic voice.

Ichigo inwardly snickered at the double entendre in that innocent line before regaining focus on his goal.

"I don't know byakuya, why don't you tell me." he said calmly. "you're the one that has been avoiding me." he gave the kenseikan wearing captain a sultry once over.

The noble man gulped but frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about ." he denied vehemently .

Ichigo instantly felt his temper rising. "I'm talking about the way you look at me byakuya. As if you want to bend me over your desk and fuck me raw so stop fucking around and just admit it already." he said angrily.

"I don't know what you mean by that . You must obviously be under some misconceptions." the nobleman said and was about to continue but decided to shut up from the heated glare ichigo gave him.

"since you don't seem to want to admit it , then I'll show you what I mean even if it means taking matters into my own hands." ichigo said as he removed his zanpakto and placed it next to byakuyas. Then he shunpod over to byakuya and kissed him.

Byakuya froze for a minute before eagerly kissing him back needily. Byakuya finally broke the kiss for air a few minutes later and a ravaged looking ichigo said with kiss swollen lips. "do you get it now?"

Byakuya smirked. "actually ichigo, I think you're going to be the one to get it . Or should I say take it." he said evilly.

Ichigo blushed but smiled. "well you know me , I never back down so show me what you've got byakuya-sama." he purred.

They werent heard from for the rest of the day.

end flashback

Ichigo smiled as he remembered that. Things had finally become a bit simpler then. Sighing he decided to stop dwelling on the past and got on the with his day. He had already finished shopping for his baby for now and was all packed and ready to return to the soul society. He would be returning in a week since he felt that he had been here long enough. He now knew what he had to do. He heard a knock at the door and waddled over to answer it.

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Meanwhile….

It had been a stroke of genius that hanatarou had noticed the unusual request for prenatal vitamins from the souls society through a merchant near ichigo and put two and tow together before informing his captain. Unohana had then informed the other of the captains and they had immediately sent someone out to investigate. Three days later it was confirmed and a team consisting of Byakuya, Unohana, ukitake and a few unseated shinigami arrived at his door. Byakuya was on the team for obvious reasons , unohana to check on the mother and unborn child, ukitake was there as a peacemaker. The others were just there to protect the pregnant captain.

Knocking on the door they were unsurprised to see a very pregnant ichigo open it. The berry paled a bit when he saw a scowling Byakuya he knew that it would have been inevitable but still… it was hard to face him. He sighed tiredly as all his energy seemed to have suddenly evaporate as he opened the door wider. Silently inviting them in.

"hi guys." he said in greeting. "please come in and make yourself at home. Tea?" he asked .

They all entered but declined the tea since it would be a bit cruel to let a pregnant man do all that work.

When everyone except for Byakuya who was practically vibrating with rage, was seated he said. "sorry for all the trouble guys. I just needed some time alone. I was actually planning to return next week with a little help from my squad. it's a bit hard to carry bags when you cant see your feet." he said with a sad smile.

Everyone except Byakuya nodded in understanding.

"its alright ichigo , we understand." said Unohana with a serene smile. "now I need to check you over to make sure you and the baby is doing okay."

He nodded. "sure, we can do it in my bedroom.." he agreed and the two of them left, followed closely by Byakuya.

Ichigo nervously took off his shirt as he now knew the procedure before picking up a file from the desk nearby.

"here is a copy of my medical files from the doctor I had here. I was planning to bring it back with me for you to take a look at." he explained.

Unhand smiled and nodded her approval at his thoughtfulness. She read through it quickly and saw that he had been getting the proper treatment. For the next few minutes she gave him a full check -up under Byakuya's watchful eye. When she was finished she got up and left the room after reassuring them that everything was fine. Walking out the bedroom door , she found ukitake standing there waiting for her.

"is everything alright?" he asked worriedly.

"yes, ichigo is in perfect health and so is his offspring." she confirmed.

"and what about the two of them, are they alright?" he asked referring to byakuya and ichigo.

Before unohana could reply, they heard the sound of a hand hitting bare flesh and her eyes widened as she wondered what had just happened. She immediately hurried in with ukitake hot on her tail.

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With ichigo…

As soon as unohana left he slid off the bed and picked up his shirt and began to put it on as he walked to byakuya.

"byakuya I hmph!" he was cut off by a resounding slap across his face, causing his head to snap to the side.

His face stinging and his lip bruised and bleeding from the force of the slap , he turned to look at the angry noble.

"how dare you leave the soul society with my child!" Byakuya hissed angrily. "do you know how much danger you put our unborn child in ? we have spent the last few months looking for you while you stayed here and sulked like a spoilt brat. If you ever bring such shame upon me and my family again you will not live to regret it! As of now you will behave in a manner that is befitting of that of a noble consort or I will punish you severely you little brat. Do you understand? I will take our child away if you don't!" he growled , grabbing his arm and squeezing until it hurt.

"byakuya stop it!" ukitake said angrily. "cant you see that you're hurting him?"

Byakuya who was still enraged glared before turning to look at ichigo.

"is that true ichigo, am I hurting you?" he hissed, the warning in his voice daring ichigo to disagree.

For the first time since he ran away, ichigo felt fear once again. The way he had that day when they were in his office. His mind kept echoing the warning that byakuya had given him about taking away his child and he knew that the nobles had all the power in the soul society and would all support byakuya even if he was a captain. He would need some kind of leverage before he challenged him. Aggravating byakuya right now would only put him in more danger.

"n-no Byakuya-sama, I-im fine." he stuttered , unable to hide his fear no matter how hard he tried.

Byakuya frowned but nodded, still angry . Ukitake frowned in disapproval as he took in the boy's frightened state and rapidly swelling cheek. He would definitely be having a talk with byakuya about that. Unohana looked over at the boy with sympathy and understanding. It must be really hard to be in his position.

"are you all ready to leave now?" she asked gently.

He nodded. "y-yes, everything is already packed to go. I just need to make a call before we leave. All my bags are already packed as you saw earlier." he said placing a protective hand over his swollen belly and stared at the floor.

"alright, we'll have the others carry it for you."said ukitake gently.

Unohana checked over ichigos face as he replied. " t-thanks ukitake, I'm gonna go make that call now." he said softly.

Ukitake nodded and he and unohana left the room so that ichigo could make his call. Byakuya refused to leave and as soon as they left , he removed ichigo from his gigai and laid it out on the bed.

"that's enough of you wearing that wretched thing." said the noble disapprovingly.

Ichigo didn't reply, he just walked over to the phone and quickly made his call to the shop to have them pick up the body and inform his friends in code. The merchant understood what he was saying and agreed since he knew that ichigo didn't want them to find out about the vizards.

Meanwhile byakuya stood behind him and as he watched the nervous boy make his call and saw the tensing of the boy's body, his rage finally left him and he realized what he had just done. Shame, anger and guilt at himself immediately flooded him as he continued to watch him. He had told himself that he would try to treat the boy better the minute that they found him but instead he had hit, threatened and promised to take the child away as soon as it was born from his pregnant lover. He suddenly felt at a loss of what to do to make up for his behavior towards the boy. He was about to begin apologizing but one look at the boys swollen face stopped him. It was a look of disillusionment, pain, humiliation and betrayal.

"I-im finished now Byakuya-sama." he said softly, his head down. "I-if its alright with you c-can we please go?"

Byakuya frowned but knew that it was his fault. Unlike all the other times when ichigo would playfully call him that, or in a moment of intense passion, this time he said it out of fear and byakuya felt saddened by that. Still, he said nothing about it but nodded his consent and the two of them left the room and rejoined the others. The unseated shinigami saw the bruises but knew better than to say anything . They also didn't want to embarrass the orange haired captain who had always treated them as equals and a friend. They would however be telling everyone they knew about it to see what could be done to help him. Picking up his things for him, they all left and made their way to an open field nearby. Once the gate was opening, they went threw the gate and into soul society.

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They found the other captains including his father and sisters waiting for him. They all greeted him and he returned it hesitantly and apologized for all of the trouble. They all noticed that he kept shooting nervous glances at Byakuya and saw his swollen face and was upset by it. They all chose to say nothing however since there were so many spectators. Isshin was fuming mad and was planning to have a serious conversation with Byakuya with his zanpakto as the opening act.

Meanwhile ichigo just stood nervously, unsure of what to do. He was fortunately rescued by Unohana.

"due to his condition, ichigo needs to ret for now since he has had such a busy day." she told them.

They all nodded in agreement and his father and sisters along with Byakuya escorted him to the kuchiki estate and gave him some time to change into a yukata before allowing him to settle into the bed. Once there his sisters hugged him and told him how happy they were that he was back. The two of them avoided asking about his face since they knew that it would further humiliate him . They left with byakuya a few minutes later since his father wanted to speak with him alone.

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With isshin…

He looked at his soon and felt angry at the obvious sign of abuse on his face. He noticed that his son had yet to look at him and frowned.

"ichigo what is going on with you two?" he asked seriously.

Ichigo flushed in embarrassment as he finally looked up at his father. "its alright dad, I'll handle it in my own way so don't worry." he said sadly. "I'm in a dangerous situation right now and I have no leverage to use against him. If you get involved now it will not only further discredit me after I ran away and I don't need that right now. Right now all I can do is find a way to get the laws here on my side. He has already threatened to take away my child and with him being who he is , he can. Right now I need to find a way to bring the law on my side regardless of his status and you getting involved will only make things worse. Any wrong move from me will make me seem incompetent and cause me to lose my child to these assholes. I have to play it cool so you will have to let me deal with this. Just be on standby in case i need your help."

Isshin nodded sadly. "okay son I will but this is gonna be hard for me to do." he told him.

Ichigo nodded . "yes dad I understand and I'm sorry about this. Thanks for taking care of my squad by the way." he said gratefully.

Isshin nodded again. "it wasn't a problem son. Other than paperwork I hardly had to do anything. I'm really proud of how far you've brought your squad son, its better than every other squad in the whole division in their workmanship and efficiency. They also act more like a family than a squad. Even my squad wasnt that well run when I used to be a captain." he said proudly.

Ichigo nodded , pleased that his father was impressed with his squad. "thanks dad, I'm proud of them too." he agreed.

They talked a bit more until isshin got up and got ready to leave after checking him over. "dad please don't get into another fight with Byakuya again." he pleaded. "because of how close we are and how enmeshed our reiatsu has become, I felt as if it were happening to me too. Now that we have been apart it is separating and the bracelet I'm wearing is absorbing all of my residual energy and storing it away. I am gonna keep it that way so it doesn't mesh again . That way we are not so connected anymore. Until then do not try to harm him or I will be affected too."

Ishhin nodded, understanding exactly what he meant. "alright ichigo I promise not to do anything to that bastard for now." he told him. "now I need to know, do you still love him?" he asked seriously.

Ichigo looked at him with his heart in his eyes and his father knew that it had been broken. " a part of me will always love him dad because its obvious that he is my soul-mate but I don't think that I can ever forgive him for what he's doing to me. Every time he hurts me a little bit more of my love for him is chipped away and it fades. Maybe one day we can be together again and go back to the way things were, but right now I just cant deal with it." he confessed.

Isshin nodded in understanding. " it will all work out son, just have fate in yourself. I told you before, the dark and somber look doesn't go well with you." he said smiling sadly.

Ichigo nodded and then relaxed down unto the bed to take a nap. It didn't take very long for him to fall asleep.

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Meanwhile…

With byakuya…

As soon as he escorted the girls out of his bedroom , they left with rukia after telling him off. He then shunpod over to the 13th squad and walked in since he knew that he had to apologize to his mentor. Ukitake was sitting down with his lover Kyoraku drinking tea. The white haired man frowned as soon as he saw him and Byakuya knew that it would be harder than he had originally thought.

"aah come in Byakuya." said the white haired captain coldly. "you are just the person I wanted to see."

Byakuya sighed and sat down. Although he knew that he had brought this onto himself, it still didn't ease his mind.

"I wanted to apologize for the way I acted this morning." he began. "I have no idea why I reacted that way. The stress from worrying about his safety for so long , perhaps it finally got to me."

"that has been happening a lot lately Byakuya!" said Ukitaki annoyed. "did you even give him a chance to explain before you hit him?"

It was unusual for the gentle white haired man to be so upset. That fact alone made kyoraku become unusually serious, a sure indication that he was mad.

"just what is going on with you Byakuya?" Kyoraku asked. "it is not like you to react this way."

Byakuya looked down in shame. "I don't know. Unlike with Hisana, he is my soul-mate and its making me react strangely . Knowing that he's mine completely has made me so possessive, so uncontrolled that I don't know what to do anymore. The last few months that we spent apart , it felt like I was slowly dying. I didn't even feel this alone when Hisana died. I hit him today and I regret it deeply. The way he looked at me today really hurt me. He is losing his love for me and I don't know how to regain it." he said sadly.

"he's your soul mate?" Kyoraku said surprised. "I see."

Ukitake frowned at this but said nothing.

"listen byakuya, the bond between soul-mates are unique and different from your relationship with others, even Hisana. Ukitake and I are soul mates as well to be honest. That alone should explain why we both have double blades instead of one like most people. Both your swords complement each other like ours do. Yours is delicate and refined, holding all of the qualities of a noble , while his is brash , bold and arrogant yet powerful, all the qualities of both him and his hollow. Although they are opposite in styles, they are both carrying the qualities that bring you two together. As the seme in your relationship , you are meant to protect and cherish him. Because of the bond you two share, you will feel even more possessive of him than you would a normal spouse but you cant let it control you. Take better care of him Byakuya or he will find a way to leave you. Treat him with love and respect as you would senbonsakura or even a delicate woman." Kyoraku explained.

Ukitake glared at his lover. "are you saying that I'm a woman?" he asked a bit annoyed.

Kyoraku immediately gave him a charming smile. "of course not Jyu-chan, I'm merrily saying that you and Ichigo should be treated the way you would treat your most precious person, like a delicate rose." he explained.

Ukitake blushed prettily and smiled before turning back to Byakuya. "pull yourself together Byakuya, before you break his spirit." he counseled wisely.

Byakuya nodded, then he left. He decided to return to his office to do some paperwork before going home. He couldn't face Ichigo right now. A few minutes later an annoyed isshin stormed into his office.

"lets make one thing clear Byakuya. I really don't approve of your relationship with my son and from the way that your treating him I don't think that I ever will. I may have promised my son that I wouldn't kill you but if I come back and find my son hurt, you will wish that I had killed you." he snarled angrily and stormed back out.

He knew that he would never have been able to keep his promise if he had stayed in there any longer. Byakuya sighed tiredly, knowing that he had lost the respect of the one of the few people that had always been there for him as a child.

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With Ichigo….

He was so emotionally stressed out that he didn't wake up until Byakuya shook him awake a few hours later. He looked up at the person who had dared to interrupt his peaceful sleep and could not stop his body from tensing when he saw Byakuya standing there. He sat up in the bed , maneuvering around his swollen abdomen but said nothing, nor did he look at the older man.

"dinner will be served in half an hour, we'll be eating with my family." Byakuya told him. "after dinner we can finally talk . As for my hitting you, please forgive me . I don't know what came over me."

Ichigo nodded, not buying it for a minute. "understood, I will prepare for it then. My apologies for over sleeping Byakuya-sama." he said softly as he slid out of bed.

Byakuya watched him go but said nothing, he knew that they truly had a lot to work out. He had decided on a family dinner because of Ichigo's running away. He felt that by doing this he would not only be showing that he had full control of his fiance , but that he was still worthy of their respect. He only hoped that things would go well.