Chapter 20

Eyyyy It's finally reached 20. Just so you guys know… I absolutely hate this chapter. It also hates me… so there you go.

Fight

"Yes. Bring Inoue immediately."

"Of course."

Ulquiorra immediately left the way he came with a quicker step than before.

"Kurosaki-kun, you've grown," Aizen said softly, gazing intently at his friend after the doors were shut. "I'm sure your father would be proud."

Oh, right. Isshin-san was actually a shinigami. He kept forgetting that fact.

The ragtag group turned their questioning gazes back onto the throned shinigami.

"What do you mean," Ichigo asked, his frown more prominent than it had been in a while (since he'd found out about Infra actually but he tried not to think about it).

"Oh? Have you not yet learned? Your father was a shinigami. A captain at that and a friend of mine before he got caught in that awful mission."

Oh man… here came the mind games. Ichigo did not look at all happy to hear that and Infra couldn't blame him. He'd already been hit with the fact that Infra had lied and now his father had too? Yea there was gonna need to be a major therapy session sometime in the future.

"What are you talking about," the orangette growled.

"Oh my. How remiss of him not to tell you. Before marrying your mother and taking the Kurosaki name your father was known as Isshin Shiba, Captain of the 10th division." The smug little smirk on Aizen's face was not helping his friend's temper at all and Infra had to lay a restraining hand on Ichigo's wrist to prevent him from possibly drawing his Zanpaktou. "Oh yes. I'm sure he also neglected to tell you your mother was a quincy."

Ishida started choking in the background and Infra couldn't quite stop the crushing grip he now had on Ichigo's wrist. It was probably the only thing that kept the substitute shinigami from actually doing anything which was good but seriously…. Way to drop a bombshell.

Of course as a master manipulator there was obviously some reason behind giving up the information freely…

"Ah, that seemed to get your attention." Aizen shifted on his throne, bringing his elbows to his knees, fingers steepling together, and stared down at them. "There are many things you do not know, Kurosaki-kun. While you are here I will offer the information that I do know for a cost." When there was no response, the shinigami leaned back and smirked again. "Think on it."

Yup there it was. Info to keep his friend on a leash.

Before any thinking could actually be done, the large doors behind them creaked open and they all turned to look at the newcomers (and wow that was fast! What the hell?). Hime-chan was following meekly behind Ulquiorra, eyes on the ground and clasped hands held up to her chest. The absolute sorrowful air that surrounded her was wrong. Orihime Inoue should have a smile on her face, not this despondent melancholy. Infra needed to fix it. Now.

He launched across the few feet separating them with a gleeful 'Hime-chan!' and knocked her to the floor (being extra careful not to hurt her in the process) with an extra big hug. She squeaked, hands instinctively coming up to wrap around him.

"I-Infra-Kun! W-what-"

She never got to finish as Ichigo was already standing above them with a relieved, "Inoue-san, are you alright?"

Ishida was next, not saying anything but pushing up his glasses as he offered a hand. Chad stood a little farther back with the hollow trio but there was a smile on his lips as he gently dropped… oh right he still had the gigai. Oops.

Her chocolate brown eyes filled with tears as she clutched desperately onto Infra's white jacket.

"Why are you all- how- AH! Infra-san what happened to you!?"

Har gaze had come to rest on him last and it wasn't a surprise that she was shocked at his appearance. But the slight fear in her eyes was a bit disheartening. He pulled away before she had a chance to (and break his heart just a little bit more), rolling over and hopping to his feet. He turned to Ulquiorra (fat lot of help he was) before turning to Aizen.

"She… doesn't know?"

"Inoue was not informed of anything," the man said, waving his hand as if to ward away a bug.

Ishida, who had helped pull her to her feet, hissed, "You said she was safe."

Infra held up his hands. He had thought so too, okay!

"She was well protected," Ulquiorra announced. If he wasn't an emotionless bat he'd almost think the green eyed arrancar was offended.

"Of course. I did not want harm to befall her. Inoue was merely undergoing a test."

A test? What the hell? Ichigo and Chad and co. were just as confused.

Ishida on the other hand seemed to understand as he relaxed a bit. "A character assessment."

"Correct. You are as smart as Viento-san suggested, Quincy."

Infra blinked as he watched the boy puff up a bit in pride. Aizen sure was laying on the manipulations rather thickly today.

Hime-chan just looked plain confused as she gazed around at all of them, her eyes resting on his ears and clothes more often than not. "Don't worry, Hime-chan! We'll get it all explained soon," he whispered reassuringly.

With a final glance at Ichigo for reassurance, she nodded and faced Aizen when he addressed her.

"As you now know, my intent in your capture was not as nefarious as you might have liked to believe. Your friends are here among you and safe as was promised. Now will you eat?"

Everyone glanced at her in surprise (Sans Ulquiorra who stood like a statue). Her lips trembled briefly, face flushing as tears threatened to fall again, and she nodded. Infra could not believe that she'd been starving herself! Actually. it was the most passive form of fighting back she could have done so… it was rather believable. Poor thing was super embarrassed to have it outed in front of her friends, though.

"Good. Then food will be brought to your new residencies soon enough. First, Inoue, there is someone in need of your healing."

"Eh?"

"Neliel tu Oderschvank step forward." Pesche and Dondochakka gently pushed the shivering chibi forward a few steps after a second of surprise. "With your abilities it should be able to fix the crack in her mask."

"O-Oh!" Orihime gazed upon the smaller girl with something like pity in her eyes as she hesitantly stepped forward and called her fairies. The glowing healing shield popped up and everyone watched a the crack hissed before slowly closing. Then a large white cloud of smoke filled the room and a loud POP.

Infra coughed and stumbled into Ichigo in surprise, barely keeping on his feet. A summoned gust of wind forced the smoke to dissipate into the hallway and revealed the now very mature and barely covered form of Nel. Infra yelped and leapt forward, tearing off his jacket and throwing it over his shoulders. No matter how much his guy friends were gentlemen it didn't negate the fact that he didn't want his mother figure to be near naked in the throne room (especially in front of Aizen. The man was just creepy okay!).

"Nel! You're okay," he yipped excitedly, bouncing on his feet as she pulled the jacket closer and gave him a soft smile.

"I am. Thanks to you, Ichigo, and Inoue-san."

"A-ah It was no trouble", Orihime squeaked waving her arms in front of her beet red face. Her hands finally settled over her eyes as she turned away.

Pesche and Dondochakka cheered, coming forward and dancing around their newly revived lady. The others just looked away, uncomfortable at her state of undress being barely covered by rags and Infra's jacket. Ichigo's face was turning as red as a Strawberry and the husky hollow could barely refrain from teasing him.

"It is good to have you back, though your position has been taken over by another already."

Nel turned her smile onto their leader. "That is fine Aizen-sama. I have no issues being a former Espada-"

"No way, Nel! There are some assholes (*coughlikennoitracough*) that have power when they shouldn't! If you fight to get back in the ranks then you can kick some of the lower ones out! You should definitely stay an Espada."

"Your enthusiasm hasn't changed much, Puppy," she giggled. "But I suppose you are right. There are some that are undeserved of their power."

"You think I cannot tell when my followers do not deserve their power?" Aizen's tone was absolutely menacing and Infra winced at his mistake. He really needed to watch his mouth in front of this man.

"Oh, it is not that Aizen-sama," Nel uttered softly, ever the brave one even in the face of their leaders ire. "It is their attitudes that leave much to be desired."

The King of Los Noches gazed upon them with such ice in his eyes that the husky hollow wouldn't be surprised if the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. Then he smiled. A very not nice smile. "You are correct but I need strong fighters and as long as they follow me faithfully I will not correct their behavioral issues."

Nel bowed in acknowledgement.

But Infra wasn't satisfied. "What about Nnoitra who almost killed one of your soldiers! One of your rules is no killing other Arrancar."

"Yes," the brunette purred his fingers caressing the arm of the throne. "Nnoitra will find out exactly why you do not defy me. He is also hereby stripped of his status as fifth Espada. For now, Neliel you will be instated as the Quinto Espada until such a time as a ranking match can be held."

Infra let out a relieved breath. Thank merlin for cameras and idiots announcing their misdeeds out loud. And Aizen's God Complex. Can't forget that too.

"Now that everything has been handled, Viento-san will take you to your rooms in the tower. Neliel your previous accommodations are still there as your predecessor chose a different building."

Oh good! They got to stay in the Pack tower! He was grateful his slight worry of them rooming elsewhere was for naught! And he knew exactly where Nel was gonna be, too!

"Wait," Ichigo ground out behind his teeth. "What about Rukia and Renji?"

"They have already been shown to their accommodations, Kurosaki-kun. Not to worry, they will be residing in the tower as well for the length of their stay."

"Great," Infra cheered, herding his tense friends together (Chad once again bearing the burden of the gigai silently) and out the door leaving Ulquiorra and Aizen all by their lonesome. As soon as they were about five hallways away from the throne room, he relaxed, slumping near bonelessly into Ichigo's surprised arms.

"What the heck, Infra!"

"Just hold me," he moaned dramatically. "Let me die in your arms!"

Ichigo deadpanned and dropped him on the floor. Rude! He stuck his tongue out in retaliation and tossed his nose in the air. The giggles and snorts were well worth it.

Nel spoke up, still giggling, "This is where I leave you for now, friends. I thank you for all you have done and look forward to working with you in the future. Come, Pesche, Dondochakka, we have many things still to do."

"Yes, My Lady," they cried stumbling after her as she turned down another identical white hallway.

"How do you even find your way around in these hallways?"

Infra grinned at Ichigo from the ground. "I don't! I just follow reiatsu signatures and they usually lead me in the right direction."

"Well, so much for Sado-san and Kurosaki finding their way around," Ishida snorted.

Orihime giggled again as Ichigo turned and yelled, "Oi! Like you're any better!"

"Of course I am," the Quincy said shoving his glasses up again. He really should look into getting new ones if they keep sliding down his nose. "I have a mental map of all the hallways we've been down. The one Neliel-san left should connect to a loop that leads to the entrance we came in through."

Infra couldn't help but be slightly impressed. He lived here for years and he only barely knew that.

"We should continue."

"Ah, right as always, Chad," Infra sighed, hoisting himself off the ground. "I'm just really glad that everything is turning out okay," he mumbled.

The orangette clapped a hand to his shoulder before walking forward.

"Ah… Strawberry you're going the wrong way."

It took a full hour of walking and catching Orihime up to speed before they came upon the entrance doors to the tower (he didn't lead them to a few dead ends… not at all.). It was the only Espada residence actually attached to the main building and the largest out of all of them. The grey door with a giant 1 emblazoned on the middle warned off any hollows not invited. Before the arrancar could open the doors however they opened on their own letting out a mini heat seaking missile. Infra barely avoided crashing into Chad behind him as Lilinette tackled him in a hug. He swung her in a circle to lower her momentum before fiercely hugging back and rubbing nose along the top of her head to take in her scent and that of Starrk's. Then she jumped back before zooming into Ichigo's surprised arms.

"You're here! We've been waiting forever since inducting you to the pack. Now you can see the den and finally complete the initiation and ooo~ you must be Chad and Hime-san and glasses guy!"

"Glasses guys," Ishida sputtered, though he was ignored.

"I-It's good to see you again Lili… though your clothes…"

She backed away staring up at Ichigo indignantly. "You got a problem?"

Infra snickered. He'd long since gotten used to her lack of modesty and just enjoyed watching his packmate get chewed out. Orihime was the one to finally come to the rescue, inserting herself into the conversation with a timid introduction. Lilinette immediately latched onto her in a hug sending a significant look his way. Good. If Lili already liked her then Starrk would have very little issue including her in the pack as well. See? He was a great judge of character.

"Lilinette, I'd also like to introduce you to Chad. Chad this is Lilinette Gingerbuck, my little sister."

"Nice to meet you," the giant rumbled. Lili squealed again in happiness, rushing over to give him a hug as well.

"And this is Uryu Ishida, the quincy."

The reaction this time was so much better. She looked him up and down before turning away with a sniff, arms still wrapped around as much as Chad as she could reach. Ishida looked annoyed at the attitude and was going to say something before Infra interrupted.

"Now! Time to meet Starrk and find some rooms for you~ Aizen-san already said the shinigami were somewhere in the tower so we can find them too while we're at it. Onwards!"

And he marched through the doors, Lilinette happily falling into step behind him dragging an amused Chad by the wrist. Ichigo and Orihime were next to follow with Ishida pulling up the rear and muttering under his breath. He really should quit that habit considering some of the hollows around her had amazing hearing. Case in point the BAT Espada Ulquiorra.

It only took a few minutes of whistling a jaunty tune and going up a few flights of stairs before he sensed ice bitch and monkey boy which meant they were on this floor. With a grin he skipped forward and pounded on the door that had their signatures all over it. Abarai opened it, a vein already ticking on his forehead. Kuchiki was right behind him with an amused smirk lingering on her lips.

"Finally! It took you forev-"

"Oh be quiet Renji. We've only been here about thirty minutes," she commented as her fingers jammed into the larger shinigami's ribs. Well it made him feel a smidge better knowing her constant abuse was not just heaped on Ichigo and seeing the fiery haired man hunched over was pretty funny...

Ichigo stepped forward, presenting Orihime and there was a small happy reunion between the girls. Another thirty minutes was spent talking about what the shinigami had learned (basically a little more detail about the corruption of Soul Society and the goals of Aizen). Lili was starting to get bored at this point, tugging insistently on his hand.

"C'mon," she whined, "Starrk is waiting!"

Infra was ready to move on too. He finally had all his packmates and potentials in one place and he was itching to see what his mate would say but… Rushing things along just seemed like a bad idea. They'd all gone through some life altering changes already. Time to adjust was always a good thing right? It was probably good no one had said a word about Strawberry's parentage yet either...

"Iiinfraaaa~ C'mon." Another tug and Ichigo shifted his attention over recognizing the impatient tone of a little sister.

"Guys we still have a few things to do," The orangette chimed in.

Orihime whirled around with a surprised 'Oh!' still hesitating the smallest bit at the sight of him. (Can anyone say 'ouch'?) The others also gathered outside the room, Kuchiki shutting the door behind them, and the march resumed. After another few flights of stairs (seven to be exact), monkey boy piped up with a small huff, "How tall is this place?"

"About 40 floors," Infra chirped in response. The resulting groans were music to his ears. "This is the tallest tower in Los Noches and Starrk's room is all the way at the top." Cue more groans and some grumbling. "Ha! Don't worry. We aren't going all the way. There's a vistors' floor on the twentieth we're gonna use. We're only nine floors away~!"

The rest of the walk was spent with Orihime, Ishida, and Chad panting up a storm while all the shinigami (substitute included this time) were starting to break a sweat. Lilinette and Infra were just fine, completely used to the stairs and even treating them like a game.

"Tada! We're here," Lilinette barked in excitement. She flung open the doors and everyone, sans Ichigo froze. Infra started forward prompting his best friend to do the same until he noticed no one was following.

"Hey, what's wrong with you guys?"

"K-Kurosaki-kun," Orihime chattered, shivering.

"You can't feel that," Abari burst out in surprise. His hands had a barely noticeable tremble.

Ishid was using the wall to keep him up and Chad was already starting to hunch over. Kuchiki was shivering as well and he had to admit the group was a pathetic sight. Starrk didn't have visitors often and the ones that did could usually stand his latent spiritual pressure. He'd forgotten that it could be absolutely crushing even when he was asleep. Argh! How stupid was he to forget about that?

In the background he could hear Lilinette start in on his mate and Infra quickly ushered Ichigo out a few steps before closing the door just as the crushing pressure spiked. Everyone was surprised and even a few sent to their knees (Hime-chan, Chad, and Ishida) before the doors sealed and cut off the spiritual pressure.

"Are you guys, okay? I forget how strong his spiritual pressure is when you're not expecting it," he said, itching the side of his cheek to stop his embarrassment from bleeding through.

"I barely felt anything," Ichigo said, his frown just a tad more prominent than normal.

"Ichigo, you idiot! Your spiritual pressure is really high so of course you barely felt it," Kuchiki grunted trying to shake herself of the oppressive feeling.

"But if my spiritual pressure matches his-"

"It doesn't match it, it's just super close," Infra interrupted. Well, close to his sleeping and watered down spiritual pressure anyway.

Ichigo shot him a surly frown. "Then why do these guys not get crushed under my spiritual pressure, in that case?"

"Hm," the husky hollow brought a hand to his lips in thought. "There could be several reasons. One, your aura while really strong is also super light unless you're deliberately raising it. Two, Starrk has a naturally suppressive 'Alpha' aura and thus it has a heavier quality to it. Three, they weren't expecting the suddenness of it and had no time to adjust. Four-"

The doors opened inwards with a bang and Infra was unceremoniously dragged in with a yelp. He landed on a bed/couch with a bounce and a very heavy body fell on top of him.

"MMPH," he protested into the warm chest, flailing his arms and the one free leg to try and force his mate off. The heavy body didn't even budge an inch and slowly his alpha's scent settled around him and he relaxed. Completely and totally relaxed, his own body going boneless, limbs flopping to the couch as tears gathered in his eyes. He hadn't realised exactly how tense he'd been since leaving Karakura town until he was back with his mate. His shoulder unknotted, the small headache he hadn't even noticed stopped throbbing, and his aching heart started to fill with warmth. It was great, so great, in fact, that he'd forgotten about the company until someone cleared their throat.

A flush grew on his face (not that they could see considering he was buried under a much bigger person) and his struggling resumed. This time Starrk was pushed off with a protesting groan as Lili helped from the other side. The number one Espada flopped next to him as Infra gasped in some fresh air (slightly missing the musky scent that had just been there).

"Sorry guys," he grumbled, pushing himself into a sitting position. "You're welcome to take a seat instead of staring at me."

He gestured around to the myriads of chairs and couches that spotted the extra large room. The visitor's hall, as he liked to call it (It was the only room on this floor which meant it was freaking gigantic) was not often used but Lili and Infra had fun raiding the living world for comfortable couches. Most of them were bed/couches courtesy of Starrk but there were a few armchairs and loveseats. The best thing about the place was that it was not all white, the couches being a variety of colors ranging from bright vivid red to a dull leathery brown. The one he was currently on was a smaller blue version of the bright vivid red one that sat proudly in the middle of the room.

Kuchiki and Abarai chose a sectional green one a few feet away, sitting flush to the corner of the room. Lilinette dropped right next to infra dropping her feet in his lap, to his annoyed amusement. Hime-chan perched herself on the edge of a battered green bed/couch with Ishida sitting on the other end of it. Chad chose to sit on a leather armchair next to the sectional after gently setting the gigai on the end of the couch the shinigami were on. Ichigo picked the comfortable beige armchair that was right next to the blue couch, facing him towards the rest of the group instead of towards Infra like everyone else had chosen.

"Right, well, everyone this is Starrk. The Primera Espada."

Lilinette casually reached above her head that was lying on Starrk's bare chest, smacking the man in the face. "Get up to introduce yourself," she snorted, already anticipating his laziness.

The older man huffed but sat up with a yawn (ignoring Lili who yelped as she rolled into his lap).

"A pleasure to meet you. And it's good to finally have you here Ichigo."

The orangette blinked but nodded.

"Good. Starrk you already know Ichigo. This is Hime-chan," he turned his curious grey eyes on her likely already smelling his and Lili's claim, "and Ishida Uryu. That over there is Chad," another curious look over, "and sitting on the couch next to him is Rukia Kuchiki and Renji Abarai."

Everyone politely nodded and mumbled a greeting at their names and finally introductions were finished.

AN: Argh! This chapter fought me every step of the way and I'm so sorry that it's terrible. Well, filler chapters are just not my thing, man. Next one should have a few good things in it! Like always, leave a review please! They do actually help motivate me during my long periods of lack of motivation to do anything.