Well this is obviously an early post for me. That's because the family and I are going to Washington D.C. for the next week and I felt that an early post for this chapter and a late post for the next one would be far, far better recieved than the alternative: Hiatus. The next several chapters will hopefully slow down the story and help progress the pregnancies, rather than what is going on with Aizen(which will be adressed again, don't worry). As I don't feel that they are so tightly intertwined, I haven't re-posted the previous chapter here.


The months slowly passed with Ichigo continuing to meet up with either Starrk or Grimmjow, or on rare occasions both, whenever he was able to slip away from Aizen's increasingly possesive grasp. He was aided in this by Szayel and, surprisingly, Gin. Szayel would allow the three of them to meet up in his laboratory during the times that Aizen would drop Ichigo off for the weekly exams that Aizen insisted were neccesary, although there were many times that fell through due to Aizen's insistence on remaining behind to monitor everything that Szayel did. When the three of them absolutely needed to meet up to discuss some new, puzzling aspect of Aizen's behavior or what needed to be done in regards to several of Aizen's created Espada, Gin would step up with some new tidbit of information or some trivial matters regarding the running of Los Noches that would allow the three conspiritors a chance to exchange knowledge. Not that they were able to meet up all that often, or Aizen would become rightfully suspicious.

Ichigo still laughed hysterically to himself in private whenever he would recall one memorable occasion when Gin couldn't think of any other way to get Aizen to leave the scheduled appointment so he staged something that backfired on him in a spectactular manner.

It was during Ichigo's second month and he had some information in regards to Aizen that he absolutely had to get passed along to Starrk. He had noticed that whenever Aizen had a seemingly reasonable idea, he would fondle the handle of his zanpakuto and what had been a brilliant idea, if implemented the way originally envisioned, would become slightly more twisted and, somehow...harsher the longer Aizen was in contact with his zanpakuto. It was quite disturbing to watch and he wasn't sure if it had been noticed by anyone other than himself, but he rather thought not, mainly because he was the only one that was almost permanently at the side of the ex-Taicho.

So giving the signal to Szayel that he had important information that had to be delivered, one that they had agreed on at their first unsupervised meeting, Ichigo was able to lean back on the exam table secure in the knowledge that at some point before the exam would be finished it would find itself interupted in some manner that would require Aizen to leave Ichigo behind, allowing him to have some form of discussion with his fellow conspirators. So Ichigo simply rested on the table and allowed Szayel to get on with the examination. Not that it was a hardship.

For all that getting kidnapped, basically raped with the full cooperation of his Hollow's approval, and knocked up with the spawn of the Seireitei's number one enemy wasn't part of Ichigo's envisioned future plans, he couldn't possibly bring himself to hold the little one that he was expecting to blame for any of it and he had rapidily found himself to be excited by the weekly update's regarding the cub's progress. It had quickly become the highlight of Ichigo's week when Szayel would use one of his odd machines to magnify the miniscule trickle of reiatsu that the cub produced into a visible glow concentrated in his abdomen. Ichigo would focus on the pulsing glow as Szayel spouted off various bits of information. It was in this way that Ichigo learned that the average male Beta's pregnancy lasted for about 8 months, he would begin to show at about the third month and it would be very obvious by his fourth month which is when the cub or cubs would start to be able to be felt moving about.

Szayel also explained that it was impossible to tell how many offspring Ichigo could be carrying because the reiatsu the feotus produced would interfere with any and all methods of extracting the information. Even ultrasounds would be blurry and useless Szayel had explained when Ichigo brought up that question. The only thing that could be done was what they were doing: weekly check-ups on the bearer to determine his, in this case, health and to monitor the reiatsu pulses. From what Ichigo could gather of Szayel's underbreath mutterings, the pulses were similar to a human infant's heartbeat and could be used to track fetal distress.

So that was what they were doing. Ichigo was laying back against a slightly reclined table, Aizen was holding onto him firmly by the hand as the taller male pratically loomed over the proceedings, and Szayel was inputting the information into one of his many devices when the familiar chiming notes that heralded Gin's impending entry into the room were heard. The next thing heard was the door crashing open which was followed by the sound of Gin...giggling!

Ichigo was stunned as Gin came into sight. The man was wearing something that wouldn't have been out of place at Woodstock and was giggling insanely as he attempted to draw flowers on his hand. Seeing that he had the attention of the three people in the room, Gin flashed them a bright, happy smile before skipping over to stand beside Aizen.

"Look what I've found Taicho!" Gin chirped as he held up what looked like a tattoo. One that he quickly licked and stuck to Aizen's cheek. "It's one of the party favors that Mayuri was giving out at the last Seireitei mixer! I was cleaning out my drawers when I spilled some water on my hand while it was holding it and now I feel great!"

"OH LOOK! A FLYING SQUID!" Gin called out and ran out of the room, jumping up and trying to catch something that only he could see.

"Excuse me," Aizen said in a controlled manner, but Ichigo could clearly see his pupils had completely dilated as whatever was in that Mayuri issued tattoo flooded his system almost immediately. "I think I have a squid, er...associate, to find and kill. Please watch over my Ichigo for me Szayel-san."

And Aizen quickly released Ichigo's hand and stalked out of the room. His exit was a bit ruined when Ichigo was able to make out a hint of a skip in his step. Ichigo couldn't hold back, and didn't want to, as a deep laugh spilled out from his lips at the realization that he had just watched Aizen get drugged. With something that had been given out by Mayuri. And did who-knew-what.

Gin. Was. Brilliant.