We were once again sitting around the table in the piercing shop. Hatchi was using kido to heal the worst of Hiyori's wounds. I'd passed on the healing, settling instead for some good old fashioned soap and water and some less old fashioned wound sealing goop from Captain Clownface. The rest of the visards were ranged around on the other side of the table from me and Hitsugaya.

The captain was still a little on the flaky side. Since the battle was over, he'd wavered back and forth between seeming all right to downright goofy again. He'd managed not to say anything incredibly embarrassing or crawl in my lap, but I was still nominally leading this whole thing.

Did Vice Captains get a class in diplomacy and negotiation? Had I attended or just grabbed snacks and left? In any case, I was trying to bluff my way through this and hoped the visards didn't notice that I was making this up as I went along.

"You can't pass out gigai to arrancar." I said, tilting my arm back to glue shut a long gash in the back of my forearm.

"Even ones that were never aligned with Aizen to being with?" Hiraku was rolling a bottle of beer between his hands and looking like that would make a difference to me.

"Arrancar. Bad. No." Sometimes, you had to use little words.

"But..."

I moved my hand to rest on the zanpakuto resting across my lap. "No. We can do this one of two ways. You can agree, and we can take that information back to the seireitei and deal with it from there, or I can call and tell them you won't agree and we can rain on your parade big time. Ken-chan is itching for a big fight."

The visards shared a look among themselves and there was an undercurrent of them coming to some sort of agreement among themselves.

"What's to keep central 46 from sending you right back to wipe us out anyway?"

Damn good question, because I couldn't see any reason why they wouldn't. Arrancar made everyone pretty jumpy where there were arrancar, eventually there were Espada and everyone knew what happened when they showed up.

I turned to confer with Hitsugaya, who was inspecting a donut with a look on his face. "Why do these things have holes in the middle like a hollow?" He looked at Hiraku, demanding an answer.

The blond visard rubbed the back of his neck, creeped out by the fact that the actual captain here was not paying attention to the matters at hand. "I don't know."

"My donut is a hollow... RAWR!" He made menacing gestures with it toward Kensei who was sitting on his other side.

I reached over, grabbed the possible evil baked good and took a bite out of it. I hoped that would put us back on track. "Honestly, Hiraku-san, what other choices do you have?

"Hey, kids, " Urahara said strolling in as if he owned the place. "You were late for dinner. I was getting worried and Tessai was fussy because his spare ribs aren't nearly as good reheated." He eyed the visards. "I should have known if there was trouble to check on you lot first."

Hiyori growled from her end of the room, shrugging off Hatchi's hands and jumping to her feet. "It's your fault. It's always your fault that there is trouble to start with, you dumbass!"

Urahara's eyes widened in surprise as he noticed Hiyori's generally beaten down appearance and the hair she still hadn't had a chance to do anything with. Then he turned to look at me where I was dabbing glue stuff on my busted knuckles. "Have you girls been scuffling?"

I put all my first aid supplies back in my purse and shrugged. "She started it, but I finished it."

"Hiyori, I'm ashamed, my vice captain getting rubbed in what looks like considerable dirt by anything less than a full unit?"

That brought Hiyori to a complete stop. "I... wait, I'm not your vice captain anymore! I never wanted to be! You can't order me around!"

"I can tell you to get out of my basement!"

"Make me!"

Ken-chan would have whapped me with the flat of his sword for talking like that. I nudged Hiraku with my toe. "Hey, so what about that piercing?"

"Huh?" The blond replied, dragging his eyes away from Urahara and Hiyori who looked like they were just getting warmed up.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "I did come here for a piercing."

"I thought you came here to kick our asses for the gigai and bring about justice for the Soul Society."

I made a face. When he put it that way, it sounded so very drab and serious. Not at all the way I would have described it. "The ass kicking was just for fun. We decided you're going to stop selling the gigai to avoid the justice and I want my piercing now."

He smiled again, without the forced aggressiveness from before. "All right." He got to his feet and offered me a hand up. "C'mon, those two will be at it for a while. They can do this for hours."

My attention strayed to Hitsugaya, who was methodically destroying the remaining donuts before eating the pieces.

"Lise and Kensei will keep an eye on him. Promise."

I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. Right, I was accepting the word of a visard. I'm the first to admit that my judgment of people seems completely random and arbitrary at times. Just ask anyone in eleventh though, how often I've been wrong. There are only two people that have ever offered me edibles that I have refused. Captain Ichimaru and Captain Aizen. Coincidence? I think not.

We went back through the front of the shop and into a tiny room off one side. I sat where Hiraku pointed. On the vaguely sinister looking medical table. I laid back, watching him carefully gather his supplies and instruments.

"So why are you doing this?" He asked.

Why was I? It had been a whim and a cover story for entering the shop. When that need had vanished, it should have been forgotten. Was I just a plain rebellious adolescent after all? Was this going to be my physical manifestation of my desire to do something that no one would approve of? I hoped not. I hoped it was more along the lines of something individually mine. Probably more of the other but dammit, pretty! Mine.

"What do you think when you see one on a girl?"

He smiled, gesturing for me to raise my shirt. "I think I see a girl who's sexy and I know she's not afraid of a little pain to get what she wants."

I couldn't help but laugh. I was pretty much the walking poster girl for not afraid of pain.

"You won't lose this, you know." He pulled on his gloves with a decisive snap and picked up a marking pen, uncapping it with his teeth. "You lose the gigai and go home, this little ring will go with. You sure you want that?"

"You can do that?"

He winked at me again and meticulously put a dot on the skin just above my belly button. "I can."

Silence fell while he poked around my belly button, making sure the placement was just so and then putting a clamp over the spot. "So," he asked casually. "You and the tenth captain. What is that?"

I blushed again, but not with nosebleed intensity. "Not sure yet."

"'Cause you know, if you have a thing for captains, I was a captain." He paused, picking up the curved needle and regarding it for a moment. "I had a thing for other people's Vice Captains, too."

The visard with a needle, about to poke me was hitting on me. Was that weird? I thought it was weird. Maybe I wasn't as immune to whatever drugs they had slipped me as I had thought.

"Deep breath now, and let it out slowly."

I did as told, though why, I have no idea. getting stabbed with a little bitty needle wasn't likely to freak me out. It didn't. Barely registered and then when I looked down, there was already a gold hoop slipped through the hole, bead fastened into place.

Hiraku was shucking off his gloves and placing them in the trash. "Simple rules. Keep it clean, don't touch it too much. Don't let anyone else touch it and keep anything tight off it. Oh and lastly, don't take the damn thing out."

Sounded simple. I sat up and dropped my shirt back over it again. "Thanks."

He still had his back to me, tidying up all his things. "No prob. Though, if the shinigami do come knocking on our door to kill us, I'm sending you a bill."

"Deal."

Lisa and Hitsugaya were waiting for us in the front of the shop. Hitsugaya was carrying my backpack and zanpakuto looking anxious until he saw me, then he relaxed, a fraction anyway.

"I told you she was fine," Lisa said exasperated.

"Vice Captain Kusajishi?" Hitsugaya waited for my affirmation.

We were back to titles? The happy drug trip must have been over. "I'm fine, Captain Hitsugaya."

Hiraku smirked at the exchange and then turned to address Lisa. "And I'm in love."

She rolled her eyes. "You're always in love."

"Doesn't make it any less true." He sighed. "Hiyori and Urahara still at it?"

"Every time they lay eyes on each other."

"Some things never change." Hiraku turned to bow properly to me and the captain. "Thank you so much for visiting our humble shop. We appreciate your business and hope you recommend our sterling reputation and fine work to your friends... seeing as how we must abandon our very lucrative side venture on your say so."

I inclined my head in return and smiled. "Thank you, Hiraku-san and I will."

He looked up at me through his bangs, still bowed at the waist. "And don't forget what I said."

"Clean, no touchie. I remember."

Hiraku chucked. "I meant the other, but that too." He gave me another wink and then was gone back through the curtain.

"Make your getaway now, while Hiyori is still distracted and doesn't have time to plan an ambush in the alley," Lisa suggested.

I nodded, grabbed Hitsugaya and made the getaway. It sounded like the perfect idea to me.

"What the hell was all that, Kusajishi-kun?" Hitsugaya asked as soon as we were clear. Yup, everything was back to normal there.

Bizarre, that's what it had been, but 'what the hell' covered the whole thing quite nicely. "Hey, we got a fight, they're quitting and I'm pretty sure you murdered an entire box of donuts. I call it an over all victory."

A/N: Gah, this was a really cluttered but I got through it with a minimum of damage, I hope. Next is a scene I've been looking forward to from the very beginning of the story. If you want the soundtrack ahead of time, go find the song 'Pressed Against the Sky' by The Toadies. If you already have it or know it, I love you.