The demon snuck carefully through the half-open window. It wasn't easy. For some reason it wouldn't open any further, and she was having to contort her body in ways that would have made an acrobat proud. Hissing in irritation she slid in, landing quietly on the floor.

This was the room she had finally identified as belonging to the white hollow. His body was sitting at a table and drawing on something, making peculiar boing sounds. The demon carefully slipped up behind him and tapped him on the back of the head.

The soul candy popped out and the body went limp, slumping onto the table. The demon examined the soul candy for a moment before crushing it in her fist, then lifted the body and returned it to the bed. It would look like the soul candy had dissipated early, which was rare but did happen. Quickly riffling through his clothing, she found the soul candy dispenser. Smiling wickedly, the young demon emptied it and replaced the contents with marbles.

Her task would be infinitely easier if the white hollow was trapped in a mortal body, and the young demon did not believe in fighting fair.

"Are you sure about this, Shiro?" Ichigo asked as he slipped into the room behind his hollow. He was in his human body again and it was late, but not ridiculously so. Shiro nodded.

"Yeah. You should take them now." The paintings were done. And after thinking about it, Shiro had decided that Isshin should have the painting of Masaki. It would mean more to him than it possibly could to anyone else, so Shiro wanted Ichigo to take the paintings now. Just in case. "Hey what?" Shiro frowned at his body, which was tucked into the bed as if he was sleeping. But the body wasn't breathing. "What happened to my soul candy?" He muttered as he settled into the body, sitting up and stretching.

"It probably dissipated early. They can do that sometimes." Ichigo spoke from experience and Shiro scowled. He didn't like that much at all. "We had a problem with Rukia's gigai once, but it was nothing that a lot of memory modifiers couldn't cure."

"Lovely, that must have been before my time." He'd have remembered something like that. And he'd probably have been giggling his ass off. "Here, let me pack these up for you." He'd gotten some wrapping paper, twine and heavy tape just for this. It took a while before Shiro was satisfied with his packing of the Masaki picture. Then he realized. "Hah! I never even showed you the picture I made for you." Grinning, he flipped on the light so Ichigo could see it more clearly. There was a brief pause as the teen gazed at his masterpiece.

"What the… a hamster? What is wrong with you?" He demanded as Shiro's grin widened. "A fat hamster… is this some kind of joke?"

"Of course it is. Remember how I said that watching you think is like watching an obese hamster getting the wheel started? And you asked how I would know what that looked like?" Shiro gestured to the painting. "Meet Hermes the hamster. But I call him Ichigo." The teen gave him a seriously pissed off look for a moment then blinked.

"Hermes? Like, the Greek god of messengers and speed?" He questioned and Shiro nodded with a grin. "Who the hell named him?"

"Nakao, it's his hamster. Apparently, he was a lot smaller when he was younger." It was still a terribly ironic name, though. "Makes Ichigo sound good, doesn't it?"

"Oi! Stop making fun of my name, Shiro Akuma." Ichigo retorted and Shiro laughed. "You've got nothing to brag about, white demon." The hollow just smiled and began to package up the second painting.

"Yeah, well, if I'd known there was a real demon in Karakura town I wouldn't have let them call me that." He said absently as he snipped the twine, tying it neatly. "There. It's not exactly a masterpiece, but it's yours." Ichigo just shook his head with a smile, then gently touched his shoulder. Shiro looked at him, surprised.

"Shiro, I wanted to tell you. I broke up with Inoue yesterday." Ichigo said quietly and Shiro blinked, almost shocked. He honestly hadn't expected Ichigo to take his advice. The teen had never listened to him before. "You were right. I… hurt her. I made her cry." Shiro shivered slightly at the pain in his voice. He understood how much that would hurt Ichigo, after what Ulquiorra had put Orihime through.

"Hey." Acting more on instinct than anything, Shiro turned and put his arms around his former King. "It's better this way, King." He murmured in Ichigo's ear. "It's better to make her cry now then twenty years down the road, when you've got two kids and finally realize you can't keep up the lie anymore. That'd just be fucking tragic." And he knew that lies often ended in things like that. Lies were destructive beyond measure. Ichigo leaned against him, resting his head against his shoulder and Shiro bit his lip as he felt something hot and wet against his skin. Was his King crying? "Ichigo." He hesitated a moment before gently cupping the teen's cheek. Drawing his face up, Shiro looked into big brown eyes that were lightly brushed with held back tears. Desire suddenly hit him and before he could think about it or reconsider, he placed his pale lips over pink.

It was an odd kiss. At first, Ichigo was completely still, not reacting at all to the warmth and passion in Shiro's kiss. The inner hollow interpreted that as rejection and began to pull away when the teen suddenly responded. Ichigo gripped the back of his head and mashed their lips together desperately, making the hollow squeak. Shiro quickly took back control of the kiss, smoothing the rough edges. One thing he knew how to do well was kiss.

That was as far as his knowledge went, though. There wasn't any gay porn in Ichigo's inner world, no surprise given how much he'd been denying the truth. If he'd been in his hollow form that wouldn't have worried Shiro much, but he knew his human body was far more fragile. And did he even want to make love with Ichigo?

That question was answered easily as they ended up on the bed together, desperately pulling off each other's clothing. Yes, he wanted this. The teen was finally being honest with himself and he'd always been the stronger of the two. Then Ichigo rubbed against him and Shiro reacted with a hoarse gasp. They were down to their boxers, and the feeling of the teen's clothed erection rubbing against his was maddening.

"Tch." Shiro muttered at himself and reached up, gripping Ichigo's hair and pulling the teen away a bit painfully. Then he grinned up into his face. "So, King, do you think you're strong enough to ride this Horse?" He made his voice a dark purr. Ichigo stared at him for a moment before yanking his head free of the hollow's grip and kissing him again, forcefully.

"I can take anything you can give me, Shiro." He said as they parted, which only made the hollow's grin widen. Then there was the tearing sound of fabric giving way and a mild pain along his side. Shiro's eyes widened as he saw Ichigo had just torn his boxers away, literally.

"Turning into a beast King… mph." His voice was silenced with another kiss and Shiro returned the favor, yanking off the other teen's boxers. Annoyingly, they were better made than his ones and Ichigo had to kick them off. But then they were naked and grinding against each other, which was pure heaven to the hollow. He wanted this, more than he could say.

It hurt though. It really did, when Ichigo started easing inside him. Shiro whimpered and buried his face against his King's neck, trying to relax and accept the invasion of his body. There was no lube because neither one of them knew it was necessary and the pain burned through his pelvis like bitter fire. Was it supposed to feel like this, for a human? Shiro felt almost dizzy at the thought. Surely there had to be more…

"Oh god, Shiro." Ichigo thought it was the best thing he'd ever felt, though. The hollow held back a snarl, his lips peeling back from his teeth. "You… okay…?" His King had just noticed that the Horse wasn't enjoying the ride.

"Not… really… ow." Shiro hissed as the teen couldn't hold back and began thrusting into him. He felt something wet on his leg and the stinging inside him increased. His softening cock rubbed against his belly and that helped a bit but not enough. This hurt. Maybe trying to distract him from the pain, Ichigo leaned down and kissed him again.

The slight change in position altered the angle the teen was using and Shiro gasped in his mouth as a sudden burst of pleasure hit his groin. The sensations made him tense and jerk his hips, causing Ichigo to groan into the kiss. Shiro gripped orange locks, forcing Ichigo to stay put and exploring his mouth greedily. The kiss only ended when they were both gasping for air. The thrusts hadn't stopped for a moment and Shiro moaned softly, letting his head fall back as Ichigo kept finding that good spot, probably by accident. His cock was hard as a rock, now, and Shiro gasped as Ichigo licked and nuzzled his throat, finding a good spot right under his adam's apple. The teen sucked the sensitive skin for a moment before speaking.

"Call me King." Normally, that demand would have pissed Shiro off. But right now, with Ichigo's cock firmly in his ass and the teen's reckless, heartfelt desire in his voice, it only inflamed him further. Shiro shuddered and dug his fingers into his partner's shoulders as he obeyed.

"King." He gasped the word out as his insides were tormented with pleasure. Ichigo bit his throat, making him arch at the pain. "Ah!"

"Louder." The teen demanded and the hollow whimpered, vaguely aware that there were other people here. They shouldn't be that loud… but then Ichigo sucked the wound on his neck, drinking a bit of the blood and driving Shiro wild. "Louder!"

"King!" All the passion inside him came out in that wild cry. Shiro whined softly as Ichigo went into him harder, the thrusts stinging his abused flesh. The combination of pain and pleasure was perfectly familiar to him, though. This was how hollow's mated. His instincts knew that and Shiro tried to bite Ichigo, tried to mark him but got shoved down, hard, for his troubles. Ichigo's teeth scraped across his throat in a primitive, warning gesture and Shiro cried out as his body betrayed him. The climax was dizzyingly powerful and the hollow's body tensed sharply. Shiro felt Ichigo come over the edge with him and winced at the sting of hot cum on his torn insides. But the pain was a minor thing, hardly worthy of consideration. Shiro sighed and let himself relax, nuzzling his partner's neck as Ichigo whispered sweet nothings in his ear. His body ached in some very strange ways but he still felt good, full and content –

"Shiro?" There was a knock at the door. The hollow stiffened in horror as Ichigo's eyes went wide. "Are you okay? I thought you shouted?" That was Tataki. He had a room right across from Shiro's.

"Say it was a nightmare." Ichigo hissed in his ear as Shiro tried to think of something that wasn't a lie. Lying would certainly be a lot easier right now…

"No, I'm fine! I, uh, hurt myself." That passed the truth muster, if just barely. He hadn't said how he'd hurt himself, after all.

"Oh, I can help – " Shiro was really astonished he could move that fast. But he managed to yank himself out of Ichigo's embrace and reach the door just as the doorknob was turning. Slamming his body against it, he forced the door shut. "Shiro?"

"No, I'm fine! I just – had a nightmare and fell out of bed. I'm naked." He said quickly and there was a pause, then a laugh from the other side.

"You sleep naked? You're so weird. Well, try to keep it down, it's getting late and I was trying to go to sleep." Tataki sounded more amused than anything, though, and Shiro relaxed a bit as he heard the other novice going back to his room. Carefully locking the door – he should have thought of that earlier – he went back to the bed. Ichigo was looking at him with an amused expression on his face.

"I notice you lied there." He said and Shiro hissed in irritation before limping back to the bed. His ass hurt badly and his legs were sticky with blood and cum, but he ignored it as he climbed back into bed.

"Yeah, well… okay, you've got a point about some lies. The truth sure as hell wouldn't have gone over well." He'd just flagrantly violated the rules for novices. And honestly, he didn't really care. Shiro was still pretty sure that this wasn't going to last forever and he refused to die a virgin. Not that that was a problem, anymore.

"Are you okay?" Ichigo asked in concern as he gently stroked back an errant lock of white hair. Shiro huffed a laugh before cuddling up against him.

"I feel like I've had the shit beaten out of me." He said, a little too frankly and frowned as Ichigo looked stricken. "Ah, don't look like that. It was good." And it had been good, once they'd gotten past the first part. "I'm just sore is all. I'll be fine." He was sure of that. Ichigo gave him a searching look then nodded, pressing a gentle kiss against his forehead.

"I wish I could stay, but I really need to go." He said reluctantly and Shiro nodded. If Ichigo stayed until morning, it would be a problem for them both. His family would freak out and the monks would freak out too.

"Yeah. Try not to get caught on the way out." Shiro said with a yawn. Ichigo was in his human body and had to carry two paintings, so he'd be going out the front door. Then Shiro frowned to himself. There was a possibility his lie would be caught out, someone could easily have seen Ichigo going with him into his room. "…Che." Lying was hard. Shaking aside the thought, Shiro watched as Ichigo slipped out of the bed and got dressed. He really was pleasant to look at… a rather odd thought, when you considered that they looked exactly the same. But then, Shiro thought his own looks were rather good.

"Good night, Shiro." There was warmth in the teen's voice that hadn't been there before. Black and gold eyes flicked up and Shiro smiled, feeling more than a touch of that warmth himself.

"Good night, Ichigo." He pulled the blanket over himself as the other boy left his room, and quickly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Shiro was painting in his room when it happened.

His newest painting was another try at a vase of flowers. But this time he was using brushes and sketching it out ahead of time. Sketching was turning out to be a tremendously useful thing. Being able to fix flaws before he put any paint on the page was really quite amazing.

"Uh, Shiro?" Tataki stuck his head into the room, gripping the door, and Shiro looked up with a frown. The other novice sounded unnerved. "There's… there's a woman in the courtyard. She's asking for you. Uh… she's… strange…" Now he sounded scared. Shiro's eyes narrowed then suddenly widened.

"She wouldn't have." But as he spread his senses he immediately touched a deep feeling of wrongness. "Oh shit! Tataki, stay right here." He snapped at his friend and grabbed his soul candy. "Stay with my body – mph?" He knew instantly as he swallowed the candy that something was wrong. "What the hell?" Tearing open the dispenser, he looked at the contents in astonishment and dawning horror. "Fuck!" The balls in his hands were not the slightly rough, matte surfaces he associated with soul candy. Instead he was holding smooth little balls swirled with colors. Cursing violently, he threw the dispenser against the wall, scattering the marbles across the floor. "Just stay here!" He rushed out, running for the kitchen. He had to get to the demon before it decided to kill someone but he couldn't go completely unarmed. Ignoring any odd looks and questions, he grabbed a nice sized butcher's knife and ran back out.

How the hell am I going to fight it like this? But I don't have any choice – Shiro burst out into the courtyard to see the demon conversing with a very apprehensive old monk. The man was holding his broom in front of him, clearly trying to keep some distance. Not that it would help.

"RUN!" Shiro shouted as he threw the knife at the demon. She turned and caught the blade between her fingers and the hollow swallowed hard. Oh shit. There was no way he could match her speed in his human body. She grinned at him and he barely managed to duck as she threw the knife back. It slammed into the wall over his head, almost parting his hair, and Shiro grasped the hilt.

"You like to play with knives? So do I!" He yanked the knife out just in time to clash it against her blade. But she had two knives, one in either hand and he frantically dodged as she struck at him with the other. She had him too close to the wall, and he ducked and rolled, trying to give himself room to maneuver.

The butcher knife clashed against daggers, and the hollow had to use every bit of his skill to keep the demon away. Shiro was frantically tugging on Zangetsu, but he thought the odds of Ichigo getting here in time to help him were almost nil. Then something happened that made his blood freeze.

"KEN! NO!" The other monk didn't know what was happening but he could feel the absolute wrongness of the demon as clearly as anyone. He was wearing his monk's robes and didn't have a weapon, but he still tried to attack the woman in white. She lashed out at him with the black and gold tendrils she'd shown Shiro before, punching Ken in the stomach and sending the monk flying. "NO!" Shiro shouted again as she went after him with her daggers. Acting more on instinct than logic and ran after her, intending to stop her from –

Then the demon abruptly turned and Shiro knew he'd been tricked. She grinned widely as her blade caught him in the belly. Blood exploded from his mouth as pain, nearly unbearable pain lanced through him. The knife in his hand went flying as she slammed him back against a wall, laughing wildly. The demon rammed the knife in her left hand through his shoulder, pinning him to the wall, then stabbed him with her right. The blade went into his lung and Shiro coughed up blood, bright red, arterial blood. He could hear screams, people shouting, but the demon didn't seem to care. The blade rose and fell, and bright red blood splattered over the white kimono and across the girl's face.

Shiro had lost count of how many times he'd been stabbed when the demon finally dropped her knife and jammed her fingers through one of the wounds on his chest. Black and gold eyes blinked slowly, the world going hazy as hideous pain invaded his body. Not just his body, his very essence. She was trying to eat him and Shiro felt it as she found Ichigo and Zangetsu as well. He whimpered softly as he realized the teen and the zanpakuto were both being sucked out through their connection to him. Then an idea came to his fading mind. It was a longshot… but maybe…

King, be my Horse. Shiro whispered to Ichigo, feeling the other boy's panic and pain. Ichigo was seeing through his eyes, now, the way he'd always been able to look through the teenager's. Just this once, be my Horse. Give me your power, I need it. Just for a moment… It required trust, though. Could Ichigo trust him?

There was a feeling like a hand meeting his, a trust given and taken. Shiro's eyes cleared just enough to look into the demon's grinning face and he lifted his hands. It was the hardest thing he'd ever done – they felt like lead weights – but he did it. And then he unleashed their combined power.

If Byakuya had been there to see it, he would have said it was a very crude form of kido. Shiro had always been better at managing power flows than Ichigo, but he had no actual training in the shinigami arts. So he did what he could do, and pulsed the power back and forth between his hands, with the demon caught in the middle. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream, green and pink eyes going impossibly wide as the pure white power seared her. Shiro pumped everything he had into it, everything Ichigo had. He could only hope it would be enough.

It was enough. When he released the power the demon fell back, limp as a rag doll, and hit the ground hard. To Shiro's mild surprise, her body shattered like a piece of china. Bits and pieces of it rolled away but his attention was on the blue fire that rose from the shattered remains. The humans around him couldn't see it but Shiro smiled as he watched the souls vanish, finding their way to whatever awaited them in the next life. One of those souls would be Grimmjow.

"Good luck." He wished the fallen arrancar, then coughed again. "…Ugh." Shiro gasped softly as he looked down at his body, slumping and feeling the dagger in his shoulder tearing his flesh. It didn't matter though. Blood was pooling under him and Shiro knew combat injuries enough to know that what he was looking at was fatal.

"Shiro!" Ken was there, pulling the blade out of his shoulder and Shiro whimpered as big hands eased him to the ground. "Oh my god… stay with me Shiro. An ambulance is coming, just stay with me and you'll be fine."

"Liar." The hollow whispered, but without any strength. His strength was fleeing rapidly and he could feel Ichigo. The teen was still inside him, still seeing this. "Shit." If he died, Ichigo would too. That meant there was only one thing to do. Take me back King. I can't let us both die. Take me back. If he could only abandon this body, return to Ichigo's inner world, then the teen would survive. His body and his life as a human would be gone, but that was happening anyway. Hurry.

Shiro had that feeling of a hand in his again, and then a gentle tug. The ties to his body unraveled in a feeling like silk on his face and Shiro let himself go, let himself be pulled away. Abandoned and empty, the body left behind stopped breathing. Ken began trying to save it, forcing air into the lungs and making the heart beat. He couldn't know that it was pointless.

There was no soul left to save.