Hey everyone! Glad to see everyone has been enjoying the last few chapters! My laptop broke so I've been doing all my writing on my phone for the past few weeks so I'm sorry that it's taking me a little longer to update but I appreciate your patience!

Some if you might have noticed the beautiful new cover for this story! It's our badass Orihime Inoue, Heir to the Golden Throne! Drawn by talented Yuuto!

DISCLAIMER: I don't NOT own Bleach or any of its characters

lets hop in—

"Have you thought this through?" Sam stressed on my right, seeming to have trouble keeping up with me, though his legs where half the height of my entire body.

"I think everything through,"

"Yes, I'm aware. It's usually very annoying." He rested a hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it off. He scoffed, "Devon isn't going to tell you anything, you know that. I'm surprised he didn't walk out of his mother spewing speeches of loyalty and obedience."

I was nearing "I'm his general, and his Heir, he will tell me what I need to know." I didn't care what I had to say, or do.

"Perhaps he will," Sam agreed, "but what then? What happens when Devon runs to Clark? What happens when your father starts to wonder where your curiosity is sprouting from? What will the answers you receive cost us?"

I continue walking, though my pace slowed.

Sam spoke carefully, as if reasoning with a child coming down from a tantrum. "We must tread lightly, for now. We will get information in bits, as our training has taught us." He reached for me again and this time, I halted. "I get it. I'm pissed too. But the ground beneath our feet is unsteady and our heads are easily detached."

I turned toward him, hands shaking, "We do not have time. I leave in only two days, and I will not leave the capitol with that woman slithering through its foundation."

Fear. That's what it was that set my heart unsteady and flipped my stomach. Was it fear for my people, my companions, or for myself? I didn't know. All I knew was that I was fighting the urge to bury my head in the sand and let the witch have the world.

Rutting coward.

Sam was speaking, somewhere in a far away land of courage. "I'll speak to Devon. See what I can get out of him." He shrugged. "He won't think anything of me asking about the pretty girl on the king's arm."

I swallowed past the lump in my throat and nodded. I opened my mouth, to thank him but I suddenly felt a chill creep up the back of my neck.

I grabbed a hold of his collar and yanked him down. "I need a moment alone."

His brow furrowed, then he glanced over my head, his eyes turning cruel, his jaw going taunt. I felt his chin tap the top of my head as he nodded, just once.

I could see the tension in Sam's entire body as he passed Grimmjow. And even a blind man could see the restraint in his body as he kept his instinct to marr and protect at bay.

I took a deep, clearing breath as Grimmjow threw a backwards glance at my friend. I relaxed my posture with my exhale, letting my face slide into a look of pure indifference as Grimmjow turned his gaze to me. It worked down my body, and I swallowed down the disgust.

"Your control over him is baffling. But admirable." He said coming to a stop in front of me. A casual, respectable distance. That wouldn't do.

A smile lifted the corner of my mouth, "Every Heir must have a loyal watchdog." The words were ash in my mouth, "it only helps he's so pleasing in other ways."

Grimmjows teeth clinked, but he pushed passed the possessive pulse in his body, "Is that all it takes to conquer you?"

"Warrior men are admirable in their own right. Their stamina…" I let him take what he wanted as I trailed off. I gave a shake of my head, seeming to think better of finishing it.

His feet shuffled only an inch closer, maybe even two, "I wonder if warrior women can say the same."

Looking up under my lashes I breathed, "Haven't come across many of those, have you?"

That smirk was suppose to give me sultry thoughts, "Only the one."

It was spoken as a compliment. Meant to inform me of my uniqueness. But it made my chest burn with repressed anger. How many future soldiers had he pushed into dresses and sewing and motherhood. How many women had tried to join his armies, how many had been willing to give their lives only to feel the rush of swinging steel and iron.

It wasn't right that I was the only one. It did not make me different or special. It made me angry.

And just like every other emotion I've ever felt, I pushed it down. Shoving it down between my ribs to be called up when I was alone. When I could rage and break things in my fury.

All the while, the smile had never left my face.

"Men," I scoff, "Always craving the unknown. It's a thirst that brings them to war and devastation. I wonder which you'd be willing to face for a taste of my flesh."

I could feel his breath on my forehead now. Could nearly feel his chest against my own. I lifted my face higher, giving him access, shall he work up the courage.

Do not clench your teeth. Do not cringe.

"I've faced war before, and for far less. Let your pretty fiancé come. He was a fool for thinking you belonged only to him, and in battle the fool is always the first to fall." He brushed his nose against my skin, "But you should know that, Heir of gold."

My blood chilled. Perhaps bringing war into this had been a mistake, it was hard to keep a clear head with swarming memories of blood drenched ground and screams for mercy that were silenced with a flash of steel.

I let it bleed into me; the fire and the numbness. This was a battle as well. And I would not lose to him.

My tongue grazed the back of my jaw.

"All think they are eternal, General. And our world has been built on the ruins of cities who'd forgotten that Morta comes for us all." I brought my hand up, slowly working my fingers up his arm. "When my death comes, I intend to deserve it."

The capsule broke free from my gums.

His breathing had gone haggard as I pressed myself against him. Running on pure male instinct, he pushed me roughly against the wall, and I nearly growled with that show of dominance. But I allowed it. His mouth rushed toward mine, but I pulled back. Not yet.

"Tell me you want it," I gasp against his throat, "The blood and the ruin; tell me you accept it."

Come on. Say the words.

I could feel Grimmjows heart hammering in his chest, and could hear his arousal in his hard tone, "I accept it all."

Smiling, I broke the capsule between my teeth, gripped him by the face and slammed our mouths together.

Grimmjow was wild and ravenous. His hands were on my hips, in my hair. They were groping me through my uniform, pressing me to him in a rush of mouths and hands and bodies.

I endured it all, focusing my entire attention to our lips. Ignoring that I could still feel Ryleys soft show of affection. I didn't let myself think about what kind of person this made me.

I brought my tongue into Grimmjows mouth, and he moaned. I wondered if he noticed the wicked taste of apple on my tongue as I gave him as much of the tonic as I could.

I wonder if he noticed my hand on his throat, making sure he swallowed. I wonder if his complex male mind detected even a hint of something amiss.

Judging by the increasing hardness against my abdomen, I was assuming not.

When I could no longer taste the tonic, when all it was between us was tongues and lips and roaming hands, I shoved his chest away.

Grimmjows eyes were hooded but confused. His hands still outreached towards me. I dipped under his arm, and walked down the hall.

"Where are you going?" He called over to me.

I let an evil laugh escape, "Back to my pretty fiancé. It seems all I can think of is Northern hands and fur lined sheets." I threw him a look over my shoulder, his hand rested on the wall I had just inhabited, the other clenched into a fist at his side as he breathed deep. "Thanks for clarifying my curiosity. Now if you excuse me, I need to go make myself one with the North."

He cursed after me. I threw my head back and laughed.

Men were so easy.

There was a part of me, perhaps young and nearly forgotten, that remembered what it was like to be blissfully unburdened. To sit in a room, uninterrupted, for hours at a time.

Such a small luxury to crave. Yet one that also seemed so undeniably selfish. To find time for yourself as the world collapsed around you. Though I suppose the world had ended and began again numerous times, so what difference did a few hours make, really?

Six hours and forty-seven minutes to be exact.

I simply sat in the silence for a while, just savoring the distinct noise that came from the world below the High Court. I breathed in the air that drifting through my open windows and let myself enjoy the breeze.

I sat on the ground just before my open balcony doors, feeling the sun on my skin. With a book in my lap and a lightness in my chest.

I thought of things I hadn't in a very long time. Some good and some not. Of the things that were a part of me and the things I'd had forced upon me. They had melted together over time, and I found that I could not pry the pieces apart- not that I tried very hard.

The only things I didn't allow myself to remember where the things waiting outside my bedroom door.

The world and problems that I'd shut behind the old oak were not welcome in here. In my safe spot of sunlight and literature.

Yet, the sun, eventually, slipped over the horizon. And the city below become nothing but spots of light from lanterns and candles.

I missed the warmth of the sun right away. I missed the sense of safeness it gave me, false as it was. But I found that I enjoyed the quiet the moon brought in. The eerie feeling that time had somehow stopped and the sun would never come again.

It was beautiful in its own way.

I was lighting the candles, spewed around the room, my back turned to the night sky, when he came.

"A man shouldn't come to a ladies room in the dark. What will the people think?" I quipped, not bothering to turn.

Ichigo's laugh tumbled through the quiet, seeming to slip right through it as if it belonged. "If they were to think anything, it would be that I've come to assassinate you. No man would ever slip through your window expecting anything else but violence."

I ignored the sting enough to say, "Then should I be worried that I'm unarmed?"

"As if you'd need a weapon,"

I blew out the match, turning to him. Ichigo leaned against the doorframe, the moon illuminating behind him like a beacon. "You held your own well enough to make even me worry."

I couldn't tell through the glow but I heard something like a smile in his voice, as he shook his head slightly. "Luck rarely strikes twice. You've calculated my technique now. If we were to dance again, well, perhaps it's best we don't find out."

I circled the room, drawing closer. "I didn't know you could be modest."

Ichigo crossed his arms over his chest, an act of deflection, or to protect his vulnerable heart within, I wasn't sure. "Modesty is for Kings and Tailors, for which I am neither. It's no insult to say I would lose to someone who's trained their entire life in combat."

"Have you considered that those who believe themselves untouchable are usually the most exposed of them all?"

"Of course I have." I opened my mouth, but he pressed on, "Though, you, Princess, are hyper aware of everything and everyone around you. No one reaches for the wolf whose teeth are bared and bloody."

A flash of marble and blood and a handkerchief of cotton. "Is that what's kept you away?"

It hadn't escaped my notice. That within the past few days Ichigo's eyes had vanished and the shadows surrounding me had been uninhabited.

He pushed off the doorframe, his arms going slack at his sides, "A little blood never scared me any." He looked over his shoulder, out at the dark sky, before bringing his eyes back to me. "I figured you deserved some time. To sort through it all."

I remembered, very vividly, the darkness I'd felt. The anger and the hatred and the immense need for…

I sat myself on the edge of the bed, back rigid. "Why now, then?"

"You made the transfer."

I blinked, "How did you," The witch. I forgot he wasn't alone in there. Inside his head. "It had to be done."

Ichigo stepped into the room, "I know,"

Surprised, I could only stare at him. While he ran a hand over the wall as he neared.

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

"An inside man to watch the king's movements while your away? It was always the wise choice." I glared up at him, and he chuckled. "I was only trying to protect you."

I glared harder, "All you men. Always looking down on me from your white horses." Insufferable. Truly.

"It was never about that." Ichigo argued. He dropped to a knee before me, and I nearly withdrew. Not liking the sudden sense of familiarity. I forced my body still, letting him look deep into my eyes. "Sam can protect your body just fine on his own. He can watch your back far better than I ever could." Ichigo reached his hand up. Slowly, giving me time to pull away, he ran a solitary finger over my forehead. Drawing a path to my temple, tapping it gently. "I'm more concerned about protecting this. You've done a very poor job of it all these years, and so I've taken the responsibility onto myself."

The pad of his finger was soft as it slide down my temple to my cheek, it traced the bone there. "She can see it now. Your thoughts and your memories. I asked her not to look- you've earned your privacy- but Rukia is young by her people's standards. She doesn't always have control of what she sees- or takes."

I gulped. "And what has she taken from you?"

Ichigo's eyes were bright in the darkness. "We all have our demons, Princess. And I know you guard yours as trusted allies. I didn't want you to ever have to worry about looking one day and finding claw marks down their backs."

I took a deep breath, and he withdrew his touch. "Let her see them. I do not feel ashamed."

He nodded, adamant. "Good. You never had any reason to be."

I thought of his mother and her drunken acts of aggression, and wondered if that was when he developed a love for broken things.

"I leave for the North soon." I tell him. "I don't know exactly how long I will be gone, or if I will even return." It seemed Sam and Cuyler's fears had rubbed off on me. "You and Bronze need to stay far away from this place. Stay inside the lower rim and, by the Gods, don't do anything stupid."

I didn't appreciate the wicked grin he gave me, "Afraid I'll rummage through your drawers?"

"I don't know, do you have a death wish?" He rolled his eyes, "There's something else I need you to do for me." His face instantly sobered.

I'd been trying not to think about Hisagi. Had tried to pretend he didn't walk the halls of the court's every morning, pretended he didn't still show up to his training in the Center twice a day.

Sam had been sure to avoid the topic. I did not know whether or not that meant he agreed with me.

All I knew for sure was that I didn't want Hisagi anywhere near the woman in black, or the Southerners. Especially not after today's events.

Ichigo agreed too quickly when I asked for him to keep an ear to the ground, and his eyes on Hisagi's back. I was about to comment on it when Ichigo said, "Will you follow me somewhere?"

I hesitated, if only for a moment before standing.

Ichigo near his way around the High Court's by now. He maneuvered through the maze like halls effortlessly. I would have felt some sort of respect if not for the fact that he'd learned the routes due to following my every step for weeks.

"Are you excited for your trip?"

I was instantly suspicious at the attempt at small talk, yet still I answered slowly, "Not particularly,"

"I hear the mountains are beautiful this time of year,"

I scoffed, "Yes because stone changes with the climate."

Ichigo shook his head at me, seeming disappointed, "Always the cynic."

We were nearing our destination now, and I already knew where we were before we reached the doors. Ichigo entered the Center a few steps before me, and an excited voice rose up to meet him.

"Bought time you showed up,"

I knew the voice. Knew it like I knew my own. It began to speak again, taunting Ichigo in a weird tone of comfort. The words trailed off as I stepped up to the railing.

Looking over it I peered down into the fighting ring, where Hisagi stood holding a long spear, his head tilted back to look up at us.

He smiled crookedly, and gave me a slight wave with his spear, "General,"

.

.

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finally Ichigo is back! It's been killing me- literally killing me- to keep my ichihime babies away from each other but Ichigo just had to go and be all protective and give our Hime time to heal a little before throwing his love attack on her. I couldn't talk him out of it.

Till next time—