Title: The Return

By: Metamorcy

Rating: M

Pairing: Hitsugaya x Ichimaru, Ichigo x Hichigo, Grimmjow x Ulquiorra

Summary: Hitsugaya's dark past in placed dreams; a deep love for a person he can no longer remember the name to haunts him in the present. But his problems with the past are catching up and Ichimaru isn't helping. AU

Disclaimer: don't own Bleach

N/A: Ah, I'm so busy and sleepy… and have decided to do the sex scene at the near last chapters. Sorry for that everyone. Also I've found this yaoi site called meiwangetsu where people can post up their original stories; I've joined so my time here with these fanfics will be split in half.

Heres a little sidenote. For some odd reason, whenever I upload a new chapter some of the spaces get deleted so if any of you guys find any, tell me so I can go back and fix it!

Beta'd by the lovely sidhechaos!

Chapter 11

Hitsugaya cracked open his eyes but then closed them, the sunlight shining through the window made a direct hit onto them. He squinted and snuggled into the warmth, shifting around in the blankets. An arm was draped over his body with a head nuzzled into his hair. The ice prince twisted over to the face, staring at Ichimaru with a soft smile. It was warm, that was all he cared about, this fluffy bubbly sensation that surrounded him.

Suddenly, the older man smiled, squeezing on the small body in his arms. His eyes were still closed and it was hard to tell whether he was truly awake or not. Hitsugaya was only able to tell when the other spoke softly. "Good morning, Snowy.

"It's Hitsugaya." He instantly replied, the right eye twitching with the eyebrows narrowing.

"Ah, you're so cute you know that." Ichimaru cuddled deeper, smelling the sweet scent of the white locks. He received a soft nudge at the stomach, pushing him back. "Hey, that not very nice."

"Your fault." Hitsugaya huffed, turning over to his side of the bed and flinched. The wounds from yesterday still haven't recovered all the way, not only that, the lower half of his body was still sore from…last night's…activity…

The arms that still held him slipped off, the fingernails traveling down to the wounds. Ichimaru shifted closer, bending his back so he could rest his head on the ice prince's shoulder. His boney fingers glided over the bandages and pressed tenderly into it with the tip of his nails. Hitsugaya hissed and by reflex, yanked it away. Ichimaru chucked. "I don't think you should go anywhere for today until they've healed a little bit more. You can stay in the shop and wonder around."

"Fine, whatever…hey wait, Ichimaru, can I ask you something?" Hitsugaya twisted around onto his back, facing the ceiling. Ichimaru was on his stomach, looking straight at him. "I've quit my old job and well…" He droned off, unable to finish the sentence and stared hopefully at the older man.

"Of course, you can work here and you can even live with me too. It'll be like we're married!" Ichimaru instantly replied, he had said it so fast that it made the younger albino's eyes widen. "But!" He exclaimed, rising up a finger. "You'll have to ask Fuse first. She'll decide on what to do since she's also an employee here."

"I…understand." Suddenly Hitsugaya sat up, the covers sliding off his bare chest and to his thighs. He yanked the arms off, tugging on his shirt and stretched. Ichimaru was a little shocked by the twist of fate and didn't exactly like that. He wrapped his arms around the chibi's waist, teasingly kissing along the right back shoulder with his light feather touches making Hitsugaya squirm. The ice prince growled threateningly, gaining back control of the situation and yanked himself away, taking a deep breath. When he stood up from the bed, he almost tumbled, his legs not yet ready to support his weight. Ichimaru reacted faster, catching the younger in his arms.

"You all right?" He asked carefully and lifted the boy into his lap. "Here, let me see." The owner checked the leg, raising it up for a better view. The knee cap was already being to turn black and blue. It would be horrible looking when it was done bruising, they both knew that. "Well, if you want to get up that badly, I'll just have to help you." He reached down, grabbing their clothes with a smirk as he thought of something. Separating his own from Hitsugaya's, he bundled the younger albino's clothes into a ball and threw it into the ice prince's face. "Tada!"

"Ichimaru!!" The shorter albino cried out as the mass of clothes fell down, his expression clearly burning in anger. The other just laughed if off before picking Hitsugaya up, ignoring the threats and punches that came his way.

"Yes? What do you want?" Fuse asked. She was still at her regular seat in the shop with a different book in her hands. She flipped a page, her eyes moving across the paper. She didn't even glance up from her novel to look at Hitsugaya.

The ice prince examined the store; it didn't look any different than before. "Well I was wondering if it'll be okay for me to work here."

This finally made her stop, her head coming up to stare. The female's expression didn't even budge as she closed the book and tossed it to the side with a heavy clatter. Hitsugaya blinked at the violent response he had gotten, wondering if it was necessary to throw the book. "You want to work here?" Her voice was thick and heavy as if she was scolding someone. The right arm lifted up, the sleeves drooping down further. Hitsugaya had a single thought on the sleeves but went straight back to the woman at hand. He watched her as if she calculating something and then as she leaned forward. "You're Hitsugaya, correct?"

"Yes, that's right."

Fuse snorted then backed up, folding her arms. "You're fine. I think you'll be able to keep up with his type of place. And also, Boss, please stop hiding when I know you're there." She called out, rotating to retrieve for her fallen book, re-opening it back to her page. A light laughter came from the door which opened to reveal Ichimaru. Hitsugaya didn't know what to say, well at least, he got the job…he hoped he did.

"Well, that's that. Welcome aboard, Snowy, glad to have you." Ichimaru cheered with his hands in the sleeves again, hiding them from view. He skipped over to the ice prince and nudged him forward. "Alright, allow me to show you around."

"I think I already know how this place works."

"But you haven't seen the back rooms. You see, this place has three main areas. The house part, this one, and the back rooms though those are usually sealed away since I'd rather not have any of the dangerous things in there running about. I have a few animals too; I pretty sure they'll like you." Ichimaru dragged the younger albino to the area he was talking about and opened the door. It was quiet and dark, too calm for the store, it was creepy. Hitsugaya glanced around; the place was split in two with a door on each side. "This side is off limits." Ichimaru pointed to the right and then to the left. "This area you can go into at any time. Come on."

They entered the room, the ice prince trailing behind, not sure if this was a good idea to be following this crazy person. Inside, there were rows of shelves, many of them filled with objects of all kinds. A few dolls here and there with a sword or two hanging on the wall. A couple of them were larger than he was and probably weighted a ton. Now how were people able to pick those up?

"What are these?" The ice prince asked, reaching over to touch one. The surface was sharp and cold.

"Ah, those are some old swords I'm keeping for Silrin. She asked me to put them here since she moves her shop so often that she can't keep up with everything. She even has to change her employees every so often too, about every hundred years. I think she has a group of people she's usually around though I don't think I've met any of them. I'm pretty sure they don't live in this world or dimension." Ichimaru chuckled, nearing the albino with a sly smile.

Hitsugaya noted something instantly with that exchange of words. "Wait a minute, just how old is she? It's as if you're saying that she's been alive for a long period of time."

"It's hard to say, I meet her long ago after I got caught in a church fire. She was the one that broke in and saved me. I went under her like Grimmjow and Ulquiorra for a couple of years before going on my own and meeting up with the Midnight Moon." The older albino sighed, bringing a sleeve close to his mouth, hiding it. "But that was sooo long ago. I hardly remember it now a days."

"I see…"

As they went deeper into the room, four beasts came running up from behind some shelves. They were all cats, meowing out to Ichimaru, purring and rubbing against his legs as if demanding to be scratched. Hitsugaya stared at the animals and kneeled down with the other, reaching out to pet them. One of the cats was pure white, other black, the third brown, and the last one had a mixture of all three colors.

"Oh…There you are. Is this where you guys been hiding?" The onmyouji smiled, rubbing a head, earning a purr from the white one. The black-colored cat glanced over to the ice prince and wiggled around the group, jumping onto his shoulder. It meowed again, rubbing against his cheek, the fur soft and smooth, obvious that it had been well kept. "Seems he's taken a liking to you, Snowy." Ichimaru chuckled, shifting closer, cradling the white, brown and multi-colored one in his arms. "The white one's name is Snow, the other Spect, the brown one, Mana, and the last one that's with you is Gate."

"And my name is Hitsugaya for the last time." The younger albino growled, it was starting to become a habit now in correcting the man whenever he called him that ridiculous nickname. He lifted up the cat from his shoulder and held him in his arms, high above his head to get a good stare at the eyes. Slowly, he cradled the beast, scratching the back of the ears and smiled when Gate nuzzled into his touch.

"Ichimaru." Fuse called out from the main room with a bored voice. She opened the door quietly and yawned, her fingers inside the book, keeping her page, and spotted the two albinos easily on the ground. "Hey, you two, there's some people from the Midnight Moon here to see you two."

"For both of us?" Hitsugaya stopped what he was doing and stared at the woman in curiosity. The two glanced at each other and followed out, the four cats trailing behind, their tails wagging. They went into the lounging area where three people sat in the seats, one of them Ichigo and the last two, both dressed in black. Hitsugaya gave a slightly friendly wave to the orange-haired man. "So you're here too?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, Shirosaki is here too but he's decided to remain in my soul."

Ichimaru sighed, motioning his hand for Fuse to come over. "You're here for the attack last night, correct?" The older albino stared at the two females that were sitting on his sofa comfortably. The taller of the two had long black hair that came down to the back of her knees, the bangs covering up half or more of her face. Her skin was white; really white like their hair and the blackness of everything else only made it appear paler. She was wearing revealing clothes, shorts and a tank top but her figure was divine. But what made her stand out was the chest. Now they were extremely large, able to compete with Matsumoto but Hitsugaya wasn't interested in such things, he was already pinned to someone. And he didn't like the looks he was getting from the woman; they were both harsh and demanding.

The other was in a black dress with frills as hems and a fishnet casting over the material. She had multiple piercings in her ears, each one different. The sleeves were like Ichimaru's, going down and extending to the hands while the skin was covered with a fishnet as gloves. The black hair was short, only going to the neck with two strands of red at the sides, standing out. The crimson eyes were emotionless and appeared more like a pool of blood then an eye. The edges of the dress only stopped at the knee, revealing the legs that were also covered by those nets and she wore black dress shoes. She spoke up first with a soft voice. "Yes, that's right."

Ichimaru's expression changed instantly, settling down on the opposite side. He was no longer smiling. "I see." They quickly introduced themselves to each other, Hitsugaya learning that the leader of the Midnight Moon was the taller female, Rin, and her right-hand man--or woman in this case-- was Raven.

Rin spoke up next, legs crossed. "I know that both of you and Ichigo are from the Asylum. There's a rumor that the same place is being created again and they're starting to re-collect their escapees. I've been growing a bit wary of this and Silrin has informed me of very little, telling me to come here instead. So do any of you know anything about it, or at least in better detail?"

Hitsugaya tensed up, his remembrance of last night was coming back as well as something else. He blushed at the image/memory of yesterday and coughed, trying to drive it away. "I…do."

The leader's black eyes targeted him. "Explain."

"I thought so, it's just as they said." Rin growled, curling up her fingers, looking ready to punch anything that neared her. Her eyebrows narrowed but she didn't move from her spot, just sitting on the couch. Raven glanced over from the side but didn't do anything, remaining ever so still like a doll, or a gothic one perhaps.

Ichimaru perked his head up. "They?"

Even Ichigo gazed over, curious as to whom she had meant.

Rin sighed, rising up an arm to hold up her head, the long black strands gliding down her shoulders, collecting at the base. Her expression showed that of boredom. "My younger sister and cousin. I asked them to check things out for me since I had a bad feeling, guess I was right."

Raven remained still, hands in her lap, neat and orderly. It appeared as if nothing could disturb her, the red eyes staring at the table. When she moved, no one else was and spoke clearly. "I guess we should keep a more watchful eye on the area. With our abilities, it should be an easy thing to do."

"Yeah, that's true. It's just a pain to get everyone together and inform them of what's going on." Rin groaned. "No matter, it has to go out." She gazed at the two albinos and then to the orange-haired man. "We'll try and keep a watch out for you three but I'm not sure we can prevent everything that happens so just in case, you should keep your guard up until we find their hideout and destroy it. This time, let's kill that bastard; I really don't want to go through this again."

Hitsugaya decided to break into the conversation with a clearing of his throat. All eyes turned to him and he glanced around the room, examining them closely. Fuse was at a corner, reading her book, not really paying any attention. Ichigo looked slightly distracted with a faint blush on his cheeks; the ice prince just figured that Shirosaki was trying something, something he would rather not find out about. "I have a request." Rin nodded, wanting to hear it. "There's another person I'd like you to keep watch of too. A man by the name of Byakuya Kuchiki, he works at my old job. He's also like the rest of us, though I don't know what he can do." Hitsugaya paused for a moment and glanced to Ichimaru with a stern gaze. "Now that I mention it, I don't really know what your abilities are either."

The older albino grinned, waving lightly, completely carefree. "Oh, really? I didn't know that."

"Yes you do, don't lie to me!"

Raven stood up and interrupted the argument, her black dress fluttering at the movement. "That request can be done; however, that man no longer works there anymore."

Hitsugaya blinked. "What?"

"Byakuya quit earlier today in the morning. It was quite a ruckus considering how much he meant for that place that even our sources managed to catch a wind of it." She spoke with a soft yet strong tone. The red strands of her hair shifted a little as she turned, strolling to the side. Her body glided gracefully along the floor, the hems of fabric dancing. Rin followed, her expression hidden away. "I already know what to do with him though so there's no need to worry."

"Thank you." Hitsugaya suddenly felt like asking one last thing that has been on his mind for all his life. "I have a question."

All eyes came back to him.

"Who was the one that destroyed the asylum in the first place?"

Rin scrunched her nose. "My younger sister, Semera. She's the one that did it but I don't know how, just that she's the one responsible."

The silence that flooded into the area felt heavy until the other female spoke.

"Lady Rin, we should get going." Raven nudged the woman without actually touching her. Rin sighed and twisted to the two men on the couch while standing up, towering above them. She nodded her head and followed Raven but they didn't go to the door, instead, they stood behind the couch as if waiting for something to happen. Ichigo was right behind, still trying to calm his face from the deep blush that was threatening to engulf his normal color. Hitsugaya made a sound, about to say something else when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Gazing over, he stared at Ichimaru for a second before turning back. Two profound feelings grew in his chest and they grew larger as a black portal opened up next to the Midnight Moon members. Rin's long black hair spread apart at the invisible wind, the strands appearing like wings, flapping up and down at the current. He thought for a second that she had glanced towards him and whisper something but he didn't hear it. The group headed in and disappeared inside, black feathers floating out of the hole. Once they were completely gone, the portal closed back up and the first sensation disappeared, however, something else remained. Along with that, the wind stopped and a loud huff came from behind him. Ichimaru's bangs had been tossed along his skin, tickling them slightly and was trying to straighten them out.

"You sure about this?" The ice prince asked, still worried about the asylum.

"Yep, going against the Midnight Moon literally means war in their sense." The owner reassured, continuing to flatten his messed up hair. "And don't worry; we've got a very powerful resources and people behind us."

Hitsugaya didn't feel better; he just had a bad feeling, one that was clawing the back of his mind. His stomach felt sick and groaned. A hand started to ruffle his white locks and slowly, the ice prince slipped into a comfortable sensation. He leaned into it, the strong thin arms wrapping around his waist. Fuse disappeared back into the shop, probably to start reading again. 'We'll just have to wait and see.'

Okay, I finished this one up, I've forgotten how many chapters I have left but I'm getting closer to finishing this thingy at long last. Well, not really since this isn't really that that long unlike some fanfics I read, a couple of them are up to 50 chapters of more. I think I would lose myself sooner or later just trying to type all of that…

Sorry rambling. Anyway, thanks for reading, now review.