Ichigo was reading his kido book in the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. Looking up, he frowned slightly. Grimmjow hadn't let him leave the house today but he hadn't mentioned anything about a delivery. But who else would knock on the door of an Espada? Curious, he got up to answer.

"Renji!" He exclaimed as he opened the door and saw a very familiar face, grinning at him. "What are you doing here? Come in!" Grimmjow was out for the day doing something. "I don't know when Grimm will be back." He said, a touch worried as Renji stepped inside. The redhead just laughed.

"Don't worry about him! He gave me permission to come see you. It was supposed to be a surprise." He said cheerfully and Ichigo blinked, then smiled as he realized why Grimmjow hadn't given him permission to leave the house today. He'd wanted Ichigo to be there when Renji showed up. "Are your sisters around?" He asked, glancing around and Ichigo noticed there was something odd about his eyes. But he was too happy to care.

"No, they've gone to play basketball in the park." There was a nearby park that had a nice little basketball court. It wasn't her game of choice, but Karin was missing soccer. "Hey, how'd you know about my sisters? Oh, did Grimmjow tell you?" That was the only thing that made sense. Renji nodded.

"He's a jackass but he's talkative. How's he been treating you?" Renji sounded concerned and Ichigo shrugged. He really didn't want to talk about it.

"It could be worse. How have you been?" He asked, noticing that strange white dust on Renji's eyes again. "Are you okay?" He asked and Renji grimaced, reaching up to rub his eyes.

"I'm a hell of a lot better now that Szayel can't do things to me." He said frankly and Ichigo winced. "Unohana says I should get my eyesight back, though. So it could be worse. Uryu's fine, he's that freaks personal lab assistant along with Nemu."

"That's good anyway." Ichigo was relieved to hear that. Grimmjow had a few things to say about Szayel and they weren't nice. But if Uryu was a lab assistant he'd probably be fine.

They chatted for a while, which was very pleasant, then went out to look at the garden. Ichigo smiled as he raided the fridge and brought out some tea cakes Yuzu had made. Renji tucked into them with good appetite and he was reminded of how his friend had always been starving, when he'd been staying in the Living world. The memory was bittersweet now but he was still enjoying the visit. Then they got to a slightly touchy subject.

"What! No way! You, learning kido?!" Renji laughed and Ichigo glowered at him. He sounded like he couldn't believe it.

"I'm not all brute force, you know." He groused good naturedly and Renji shook his head with a grin. "Oi! Do you think I'll blow up the house?"

"Not if Ukitake got you the books. But how are they training you? People with as much power as you have… well…" Renji shrugged then grinned again. "Yeah, you'd blow up the house." Ichigo groaned and fished out the bracelets. He had them in his pocket.

"Grimmjow had these made for me, they're reiatsu limiters. Why don't I show you how they work?" He was actually pretty eager to show off his new skills to Renji. "I bet I'm better than you, red nose." That reminder of his mistake in Hueco Mundo made his friend scowl.

"You're on strawberry! Bring it!" He jumped up and took a spot on the lawn as Ichigo pulled on the bracelets. But he forgot to check them and didn't notice that three of the lights were dark, when it was usually just one.

Grimmjow was hanging out on a nearby wall, eating an ice cream comb when he heard a loud thwump.

Hanging out with Starrk had proved to be impossible. To his shock, the Coyote wasn't home. Apparently he was visiting the 4th for something and Grimmjow had a fairly good idea of what. It made him a little depressed. If Aizen tried to pull that shit on him, well, he wasn't sure what he would do.

So instead he'd gone wandering, using his chit to sample all kinds of random stuff. The chocolate covered eels on a stick had been peculiar. The wasabi flavored peas had been pretty good, but very hot. His favorite, though, had been the beef bowl. That thing had come with a savory but not spicy sauce that he'd really appreciated.

Now, though, he was close to home and something weird had just happened. Glancing around with a frown he saw a rising cloud of smoke. Had there been another bombing? Then he stiffened as something occurred to him. His house was the only thing worth bombing in this section of the Seireitei. Leaping off the wall he used sonido, reaching through his Claim as he did. All he got from Ichigo was a sense of shock but at least that meant the teen was alive.

To his relief, the house was standing when he arrived. Yet, the smoke was definitely coming from somewhere close. Grimmjow vaulted over the gate to the garden and stopped dead as he saw the backyard.

"Holy shit." The Espada said mildly as he looked over the rubble. There was a gigantic crater and most of the flower beds had been obliterated, along with the water feature. That had been reduced to kindling and was scattered everywhere. Some of the bits were still on fire. "I liked that fountain thing." He complained to no one. The two shinigami in the crater were in no condition to hear him. "What the fuck happened?" He didn't get an answer, not that he'd been expecting one. Shrugging to himself, Grimmjow went to retrieve the two idiots.

They were both a bit scorched around the edges but otherwise unharmed. Apparently, whatever kido had exploded had spent most of its power on the surroundings, rendering the two of them unconscious. Grimmjow carried in Red first, putting him onto the couch. Then he went back for Ichigo. When he lifted the teen up he quickly spotted the problem. Three of the crystals on his bracelets were dark. He'd been at a quarter power.

"Idiot! When you wake up I'm gonna make fun of your sorry ass." Grimmjow told the shinigami he had slung over his shoulder. "And stop drooling on me!" Ichigo was really out of it and Grimmjow batted at him with a growl, hoping to stop the line of drool going down his back. It didn't help much. "Shit!" Huffing to himself he got his pet inside and into bed, stripping off the badly tattered shinigami robes. Searching around, he found a spare blanket and covered up Renji. Chuckling to himself, he went to go take another look at the backyard. Some of the wreckage was still smoldering so Grimmjow grunted and went inside, getting a bit pitcher of water and filling it. A hose would have been better but that was toast. A little girl from the neighboring house was peeking over the fence, her eyes wide. Grimmjow favored her with a grin and she vanished with a squeak. Laughing, he began to gather up the wood splinters and threw them into a pile.

Cleaning this up would be Ichigo's job, but he'd help out a bit.

"Nnngh." Ichigo stirred, feeling very tired. "Unh, what happened?" He was in bed. When had he gone to bed? There was sunlight on his face, it wasn't that late. His head was hurting, though. Why did he have such a headache?

"Oi, shinigami!" Ichigo winced and put a hand to his head as Grimmjow barged into the room. The door hit the wall with a bang and aggravated his head. "How are you feeling? Still alive?"

"Please, can you keep it down?" He pleaded as Grimmjow grinned at him. The Espada seemed very amused about something. "Did you get me drunk?" Ichigo asked, suddenly suspicious. Grimmjow laughed.

"Are you kidding? It's two in the afternoon! What's the last thing you remember?" He asked and Ichigo blinked as he tried to recall. What had he been doing…?

"I… was talking to Renji." He said slowly as the recent past slowly came back to him. "We talked… wait… we went to the backyard to try our kido?!" He tried to sit up and groaned as his head whirled. There was a hand on his shoulder then, steadying him.

"Yeah, you redecorated the backyard really good. Your sisters got home and Karin just about pissed herself, she was laughing so hard. Yuzu's kinda upset though, she liked that fountain thing. So did I." Grimmjow said but he seemed more amused than upset. Ichigo stared at him, trying to comprehend what he was saying. "C'mon, want to see?" Ichigo swallowed hard and nodded.

"Please." He needed to see what he'd done. Grimmjow grinned, taking his arm and helping him up. Ichigo leaned on him, feeling completely drained. Was this normal after using kido?

Then he got to see the backyard and stared, his eyes going wide. It was… impressive. Very, very impressive. His sisters were out there, cleaning up some of the scattered bits and pieces. Ichigo felt faint as he thought about how much hard work he'd destroyed in one moment of pure carelessness. And he'd liked the water feature, too. But how had this happened? How had the reiatsu limiters failed?

"You had the bracelets on the wrong setting, dumbass." Grimmjow said and his gaze snapped over to the Espada. He was still grinning. "Three stones off is too much for you right now. Nice work though, I'm looking forward to fighting you when you have a grip on this." He glanced over the wreckage and laughed. "Right now, you're just a goddamned menace."

"You're not upset?" Ichigo said tentatively. If he'd done something like this to his dad's house, well… of course he would have been upset. He would probably have been working in the clinic for months, trying to 'pay back' the damages. So why wasn't the tempermental Espada angry about this? Grimmjow shrugged.

"All the new shit will cost a bit, but whatever, we can replace it slowly." He said, then grinned. "And you get to do all the work, shinigami. I might help out a little but the gardening? That's all yours." He said and Karin suddenly noticed them standing there.

"Oi, Ichi-nii! You and Red can't hang out anymore, you're too destructive!" She called and Ichigo couldn't help but smile. "Is he awake yet? I want to yell at him!"

"Nah, he's asleep, lazy bastard!" Grimmjow called back and Karin actually smiled at him. That honestly made Ichigo feel good. It was hard when there was so much tension in the house, even if it was all directed at the Espada.

"Can we get another water wheel Grimmjow-kun? I really liked it!" Yuzu sounded very saddened by the loss and Grimmjow nodded.

"Yeah, we can get another one. If we can find one anyway. And if we can't I'm sure we can find some good shit. Maybe we could have a pond put in?" He said and soon the girls were discussing what they could do with the garden, since it had been reduced to a blank slate. "You want to go back to bed?" Grimmjow asked him in a low tone and Ichigo shook his head, letting go of the arrancar.

"No, I'm fine." His head was clearing and there was a lot of work to be done. Fortunately, the fences and part of the furthest bit of the garden had survived, but there was still torn up flower beds everywhere. "Could you check on Renji?" Ichigo said, suddenly worried. "He's okay, isn't he?" He hadn't hurt Renji, had he? Although Karin and Yuzu seemed too upbeat for that. Grimmjow snorted.

"Hell no! He's snoring like a lumberjack. I'll go kick him awake, he's slept enough." He said before going inside. Ichigo was just going to work as he heard a far off yelp and he snorted as he began adding garbage to the already huge pile.

It seemed Grimmjow had meant that literally.

"What do you mean, not tonight?" Grimmjow growled, his hand on Ichigo's knee. The teen swallowed hard at the anger in that rough, sexy voice. But no matter how sexy it was, he really didn't want to do this tonight.

"I mean not tonight." Ichigo said more bravely than he felt. But he couldn't do this tonight, he just couldn't. "Not penetration. We can do something else." He added, a touch desperately. That made Grimmjow go from pissed to pissed but slightly curious.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you want my dick in your ass, shinigami? What seems to be the problem?" Grimmjow asked and Ichigo couldn't help but blush as he looked down.

"I – I have diarrhea, okay?!" He burst out and Grimmjow's eyebrows shot for his hairline. The arrancar looked stumped for a moment before he slowly began to chuckle. "It's not funny!"

"It's fucking hilarious." Grimmjow purred before gently touching his chin and Ichigo felt a stirring of desire as the arrancar lifted his chin, their eyes meeting. "Okay. I wouldn't want you to dump on load on the bed, that would just be shitty." He said it so completely deadpan that Ichigo almost missed what he'd done there. Then his eyes went wide as he got the joke and he choked.

"Grimm!" He burst into laughter as the Espada grinned. "That is awful." He said severely when he'd regained his breath and the grin widened.

"Ya think? I thought it was pretty good. Love to hear you laugh…" Grimmjow was on him then, their lips meeting in a warm, searching kiss. A heavy hand encircled his cock, teasing him erect and Ichigo closed his eyes, just enjoying it as Grimmjow stroked them together. "You don't mind if we're face to face for this? I want to feel your dick." Grimmjow purred and Ichigo gasped as he became almost painfully hard. He was really starting to get off on this dirty talk.

"That's fine." He murmured and Grimmjow nodded. For this kind of contact, face to face was sort of a grey area for hollows. They weren't going all the way so it didn't really count as the mating position but Grimmjow still felt that he needed permission. It was kind of strange… the only control a 'pet' really had was if they would or would not permit the mate position. Of course, for real hollows it never came up. Taking the mate position invited a return Claim, but shinigami couldn't do that. For them, it was different.

Ichigo lost any thoughts of mating customs as Grimmjow pulled back for a moment. He groaned softly, opening his eyes to see that the arrancar was getting out a bottle of scented oil. He squirted it onto his hands, rubbing them together for a moment to warm it. Then he was back on the bed and Ichigo's breath speeded in anticipation as Grimmjow took his cock in his hand a second time. The friction was better with the oil, slick and easy and delicious. He arched slightly, biting his lip as Grimmjow bit his throat. The mild pain made the sensations better and Ichigo let himself surrender to it.

He still held back any sounds, but he was starting to wonder why. What good did it do, trying to hide how Grimmjow was affecting him? The arrancar knew. Even when he was taken from behind, Grimmjow saw a bit of his face, saw his struggle not to reveal the pleasure he was feeling. He liked it, he wanted it, so why was Ichigo giving him what he wanted? For his pride? As the pleasure mounted he let out a breathy moan before controlling himself. But Grimmjow heard and laughed.

"Are you giving up, Ichigo? Admitting you like my cock?" That sinful voice spoke in his ear and Ichigo blushed, unable to stop it. "Aw, you're turning red, how cute."

"Sh-shut it you asshole!" Ichigo snapped back then gasped as that warm hand kept jerking them both off. The feeling of that hard length beside his, the throbbing pleasure and the tension that was building in his balls… it was really good. He couldn't deny it. "Unh…" He let his head fall back, swallowing hard. Grimmjow growled and Ichigo looked up, meeting those feral blue eyes.

"Shit that is so sexy." Grimmjow sounded like he was losing his mind and Ichigo wasn't far behind. That tone sent a jolt of heat to his groin and he gasped, gripping Grimmjow's arms and digging his fingers into the hierro hardened skin. The arrancar wouldn't feel much but it helped ground him, held him back. "Cum for me, Ichigo." That warm purr took him over the end and Ichigo jerked, his body spasming as he coated the arrancar's hand with streams of creamy cum. Then Grimmjow released with a roar, his release joining Ichigo's on his belly. For a moment, he felt tired and comfortable despite the sticky mess. Then his stomach grumbled and Ichigo grimaced.

"I need to go to the bathroom." He said and Grimmjow nodded before sliding away. Ichigo pushed himself up as the arrancar watched him. Ichigo could feel those warm eyes examining his body but for some reason, it didn't bother him too much. Maybe it was because Grimmjow had listened to him and respected his needs.

Of course, maybe he'd just been concerned about the sheets. Dumping a load in them would be shitty. That thought brought a smile to his face and Ichigo went to the bathroom to clean up and take care of his problem with good cheer.

Hopefully this intestinal upset would be over soon.

"You okay?" Grimmjow gently stroked his pets' forehead, frowning at the sweat in that orange hair. Ichigo nodded slightly, those brown eyes closed.

"Yeah… feeling a little better…" He murmured as Grimmjow snuggled up against his side. There was nothing sexual in it. No, this was the kind of thing a pack did, sharing body heat and comfort in the cold desert. Hollows very rarely got sick but it did happen and when it did, it was usually pretty damned serious. So he was worried.

It had started with that diarrhea but it hadn't ended there. No, things had quickly gotten worse and Ichigo was feeling like complete shit now. Grimmjow had been worried enough to take him to the 4th today and they'd diagnosed a bacterial infection, probably from bad food. Ichigo had eaten some crap at a festival and they were all pretty sure that was where he'd gotten it. Karin hadn't caught anything but Yuzu had come down with a milder case. They had shared stuff back and forth so maybe Ichigo had given her a piece of something unsavory.

Whatever it was, it was lingering and Ichigo had a fever now. He was also throwing up very regularly and his sisters were doing everything they could to keep liquids in him. If it got much worse, he might have to go back to the 4th for dehydration. But everyone thought he would pull through just fine. There was nothing life threatening yet, just very unpleasant. The nausea in particular was making Ichigo wish for death. Grimmjow would have called him a pussy, but he could vividly remember a similar attack he'd suffered through as a living man. He'd been tough, but puking and shitting all the time had made him long for death a few times.

"Want some broth?" He asked and it took a while, but Ichigo finally nodded slightly. "I'll go get you some." Yuzu had homemade chicken broth in the fridge. She'd started it as soon as she'd realized Ichigo was sick. Now it was ready to be reheated at any time and it was easy to keep down. Grimmjow slid out of bed and went to see what the girls were up to.

"Oh Grimmjow-kun, how is Ichi-nii?" Yuzu immediately asked when she saw him and he grunted, making a see-saw gesture with his hand.

"Not great. He's willing to try to eat, though." He said and she nodded, a bit of relief flashing through her eyes. Karin was sitting at the kitchen table and sipping on her tea, looking quietly depressed. "Got some more of that broth?"

"Of course Grimmjow-kun!" Yuzu said and quickly went to get it. Karin sighed and Grimmjow had a feeling that her sister's effort to be cheerful was starting to wear on her. Things just weren't that cheerful at the moment.

"You're going to work tomorrow, right?" She asked and Grimmjow nodded. He'd taken three days off already. He couldn't spare anymore and Renji really did need him. His eyesight was almost back but he still had that huge backlog of paperwork and he'd finally decided that the tragic fire idea wasn't the way to go. Instead he'd asked Grimmjow if there was any way he could get more help, until things were fully up to date. He'd taken it to Gin and he'd stolen a couple shinigami from Szayel and Unohana. They had the Divisions that were doing best, they could afford to hand over a few seated officers for a while. Grimmjow's effort was still required, though. Some things had to be filled out by a taichou or fukutaichou and Grimmjow was effectively filling the fukutaichou spot since Rangiku kept losing the paperwork. Only for paperwork, though. Rangiku definitely knew how to lead the troops although Grimmjow suspected they were following her to watch her hips.

"Can't stay any longer, Red needs me." He said and Karin nodded, giving him a small frown before she sipped her tea again. "You take care of him good, got it?"

"Of course. We're his sisters, you fucking rapist." She growled and there was a horrified gasp from the kitchen. Grimmjow just laughed.

"You keep saying that like it's an insult. Even female hollows can and do force each other, girl." He said and she blinked, her expression going blank as she tried to figure that out. Grimmjow wasn't about to explain the technicalities of it so he took the bowl of soup from a pale, unhappy Yuzu. Going back to the room he saw Ichigo was dozing. He woke him up with a gentle hand on his shoulder and Ichigo sat up, taking the bowl with shaking hands. Grimmjow gently put an arm around him, watching as he slowly spooned in the soup. It was very plain and bland, which suited Ichigo just fine at the moment. He had to pause several times to swallow hard and Grimmjow gently rubbed his lower back, trying to lend comfort. Ichigo looked up from his food with a small smile and to Grimmjow, it was dazzling. Why was Ichigo so captivating when he smiled?

He still didn't know. It was all a mystery to him.

The summons came through the Claim completely unexpectedly.

It had been over a week since Starrk had started his treatment with Unohana and it was really going quite well. Probably because hollows were rather dulled to trauma, or maybe because of the Coyote's easygoing disposition, but either way he was recovering quickly. They had made love as a threesome just the previous night and Starrk had allowed Shunsui to take him from the front. Juushiro had been so happy to see them both enjoying themselves, and Starrk's tears afterwards had been of relief and happiness.

The last thing he was expecting in the middle of his day, when Starrk should be completely asleep, was a hard jerk on his Claim. Juushiro gasped and his 3rd seat looked at him questioningly before he flash stepped away. The urgency behind the pull didn't allow him time to explain and Juushiro didn't even want to. Something was very badly wrong.

When he got back to his house he was shocked and horrified to find there was a large amount of wreckage and the building was on fire. Starrk had stumbled out and was only mildly singed. Juushiro stopped in front of him and the Claim immediately eased.

"Your bankai – " The Coyote started and Juushiro nodded, immediately understanding why he'd been called. He quickly released his sword and used the waters to douse the fire. "Why?" Starrk sounded perplexed and Juushiro blinked at him before asking what was on his mind.

"What happened?" He asked as arrancar and shinigami began to converge on the devastation. Mostly shinigami from his unit, including his third seat. She looked at the devastation in shock as Starrk reached up and rubbed his forehead.

"I was asleep. A strange man suddenly came into the room and screamed something about arrancar before he… why?" Starrk sounded lost and a bit sad. "I find it rather hurtful that someone would try to kill me without even knowing my name." He said and Juushiro couldn't help but smile, although it wasn't the least bit funny.

"I'm sure he knew your name. Everyone does." The Coyote was well known… but so was his reputation for being a mild, gentle sort for an arrancar. Juushiro doubted that had come into play for the victim selection, though. "…My house was too open." He'd known that but had ignored it, trusting in the fact that he and Shunsui were still respected to protect Starrk. "We should move." Juushiro muttered before sighing softly. He really didn't want to do that. This had been his family home and his sisters really couldn't come back. The Rukongai was actually safer, so he would either have to rent it out or sell it. Then he tossed aside those concerns as something occurred to him. "Mia, Lilinette and Kinomi. Were they…?" He asked but Starrk shook his head.

"No, Mia took them all to a museum. I wonder. Was he waiting for them to leave?" Starrk asked and sighed, looking over the damage. "I can almost respect that. But maybe it was just chance. We'll never know." He ran a hand through his hair again, raising little puffs of soot. "All I have is a few blisters and what will Aizen do?" He asked and Juushiro's stomach clenched at the thought. An attack on his Primera… Aizen wouldn't be able to ignore that. "What was the point?" The Coyote sounded so sad. Juushiro just looked at the smoldering remains of his family home and closed his eyes for a moment.

"I don't know Starrk. I really don't know." He said softly. They all wished the arrancar would go away, but they couldn't. Even if they wanted to, Aizen would hold them there. The resistance was as useless as it was futile. But the hatred and pain were too much and the people would strike back anyway they could… and in so doing invite more retaliation. It seemed like an endless cycle. Juushiro almost wished they could give up just so it would end. A hand gently touched his shoulder and Juushiro looked into concerned grey eyes.

"We should go report to Barragan and Ulquiorra." Starrk suggested and Juushiro nodded sadly. They were in charge of the secret forces, now, and helped Aizen rule the Seireitei with an iron fist. He could see several of their arrancar combing through the damage already but a report would be necessary. And it was better to do it quickly. Tardiness could look suspicious. They both left the scene of the crime and Juushiro hoped, violently, that this time there would be no massacres. Starrk had come through perfectly fine so there was at least a chance.

They would just have to see.