Chapter 17:

Returning to his office, Shinji found Momo doing paperwork before her meeting with the Women's Association. She looked up at him and looked back down, pressing her lips together tightly.

Shinji sighed, knowing he had unintentionally upset her and came over. "Listen, about before…"

"It's nothing. It's silly to be upset about it."

"But you are."

Her lips formed a straight line.

Shinji slumped, letting his arms dangle in front of his torso. "It wasn't your fault. I wasn't feeling well and wanted to wrap it up. I didn't say anything because I didn't want people to make a fuss about it."

She looked up. "Really?"

He nodded. "I thought I could get through the demo but I started to feel weird and that's why I stopped early."

She looked him over but didn't see any signs of a fever and started to wonder if it was another type of ailment.

"It's not a big deal," said Shinji. "See, I knew if I said anything, people would make a fuss about it. Now you're gonna be asking me if I'm ok and bring me chicken soup. I don't want that kind of attention. Though buxom ladies feeding me grapes wouldn't be so bad. That attention I could go for."

Momo looked away. "You seem fine to me."

"That's because it's not that bad a thing. Maybe I ate something funny or didn't sleep well last night. That kind of ailment. Nothing for you to worry about. Moving around just agitated it. As long as I don't exert myself, I'm fine."

"Well, ok."

Shinji wasn't sure if he was convincing or not. He suspected that Momo still believed he was making excuses to cover his disappointment in her abilities. Shinji came over to where she sat and patted her on the head. "Stop worrying about it."

She nodded under his hand, not saying anything.

He needed to comfort her. He didn't like her being upset.

Shinji licked the side of her face.

Momo shrieked and jumped away from him. "What are you doing?!" She frantically wiped her cheek with her sleeve.

Shinji recoiled. "I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." He just wanted to make her feel better. She probably thought he was trying something else. "I… I gotta go." Shinji ran from the room before he could mess up anything else.

Momo watched him leave with wide eyes. "Maybe he is sick after all…"

Out in the hall, Shinji almost ran into Rose who was entering the hall from another corridor. He stopped, spun and ran around him before he could say anything.

Rose raised his brow at Shinji. "That's odd… He's never that flustered."

He passed the office where Momo was gathering her things on the desk and preparing to leave for her meeting. She seemed upset, too. When he asked about it, she told him Shinji was acting strangely and she wanted to keep her distance from him. She didn't tell him the details but she said it was uncharacteristic of him and he ran off soon after.

She did, however, mention that he had developed a habit of running off abruptly. She mentioned the training demo from earlier that day and how she didn't buy his excuse. She wasn't sure if it was her or not but she knew it wasn't what Shinji said it was, believing he was covering up something.

That was odd and Rose took note of it. Shinji was acting very unusual lately and now he was starting to take more of an interest.

Hisagi finished his work and left to deliver the other containers of garlic laced food. Kensei stayed in the office, the two remaining rice balls on the edge of his desk. He ate one so Hisagi felt better about leaving without reminding his Captain those rice balls were there for him.

He finally finished distributing the food to the different departments and Divisions and was on his way back when he found Kira walking unsteadily down the hall, files under his arm. More than once he had to stop to shove the papers back into the files tilting towards the floor and he'd stagger into the wall.

Hisagi came over to him. "Are you ok?" he asked, worried. Kira would overwork himself but usually not this much.

As it turned out, Kira never made it to the sickbay. Becoming more alert, Ikkaku put him down before drawing too much attention to themselves. One Soul Reaper already asked why Ikkaku was carrying Kira over his shoulder and made up an excuse while Kira insisted he was fine. He allowed Kira to do as he wished. Since all the files were still on the floor of Byakuya's office, Ikkaku shoved new ones into his arms and sent him on his way.

Kira ended up following Ikkaku back to the office, vigilant enough to notice these weren't the correct files and vaguely remembering going to Byakuya's office. Ikkaku allowed him to return to the office just to get rid of the papers, knowing people were bound to knock on the door looking for them and disturbing Byakuya's sleep.

Once at the office, Kira looked around, beginning to remember. Ikkaku gathered the files and handed them to Kira but he was looking elsewhere. Byakuya was preparing for his nap, appraising the couch which his servants had altered for his comfort. It had plenty of pillows and blankets, the coffee table being brought closer to extend the width of the couch so it would feel more like a bed and covered it in blankets to make it soft.

Byakuya looked different somehow.

He glanced his way momentarily and Kira's heart skipped a beat. He was in awe of him. Byakuya was incredible in his eyes and he was willing to do anything for him. Anything.

"Are you ok?" Hisagi asked again when Kira didn't answer right away.

Kira looked up and nodded. "Yup. Just a little woozy. I think I skipped a meal or something. A little food and I'll be fine."

Hisagi knew he had given Kira the rice balls. The box wasn't here. Had Kira given them away or eaten them? When he asked Kira what happened to them, he claimed to have eaten them. If that were the case, Kira shouldn't have been this lightheaded. Maybe he was having a reaction to the garlic in them.

"I'm fine," Kira insisted. "I don't have time to rest. I got to get these things done."

"Maybe you should lie down. I think you're working too hard."

Kira declined. "Once I get these done, I can do that."

"I really think your energy would be better spent doing something else, don't you think?"

Kira stared off into space, smiling dreamily. "Yeah, I guess… I'd rather spend it on him…"

Kira rubbed his neck, the telltale sign of a vampire bite.

Hisagi shuddered in horror. "No…"

"Huh?" Kira looked at him, pulled out of his daydream.

"Uh…" Hisagi tried to play it off so Kira wouldn't get suspicious. "No… way you should waste your energy on this trivial stuff. I think you should rest up so you have more energy to do the important stuff later."

Kira smiled, thinking about Byakuya and how he could better serve him.

"Why don't you go have a snack, drink some orange juice and I'll take care of this. My Captain was on me earlier for not pulling my weight so I might as well show him, right?" Hisagi forced a smile onto his face. "You go rest up and take care of yourself, ok?"

Kira nodded. "Sure. Thanks, Hisagi."

"Uh-huh."

He made sure Kira got to a place that had food and left him there, but not to take care of the files like he said he would. He ran to tell Hitsugaya what had happened.

"You said eating garlic would protect him," Hisagi complained to Hitsugaya. "Byakuya bit Kira and now he's one of them."

Hitsugaya pushed his work aside, giving the matter his full attention. "In my dream, you were the one bitten. Here, it's Kira. Since you spend so much time together, I guess it had to be one of you and if it wasn't you…"

"You're saying Kira was the alternative?"

"Stretching, Captain," Shinji said from the couch, hiding out in Hitsugaya's office.

"I'm not saying that. In my dream, I saved Kira from Byakuya without biting him."

"Again, thanks for that," Shinji said snidely from the couch.

"But Byakuya got to Hisagi before I knew what was going on."

"The garlic was supposed to protect him," Hisagi complained again. "Isn't that what you said?"

"He might not be aware of that yet," argued Hitsugaya. "In my dream, Byakuya only found out about it after feeding off someone with a lot of garlic in their blood."

"You mean the same dream that's deviated several times?" Shinji looked over the back of the couch at him. "I keep telling you, that dream was not a premonition."

"I never said it was."

"Then why are you taking actions based off a dream you had?"

"Because they're so similar. I know things aren't happening the same and not because of our actions. I've noticed that."

"Then why are you still comparing reality to your dream?"

"Because I need to base it off something," said Hitsugaya. "In my dream, I had nothing to go on. Using the dream, I feel more prepared. I know things are happening differently but some things are the same. I figured we can avoid making the same mistakes in the dream to better our chances here and now. I know it wasn't a premonition and I know I can't account for everything, but knowing the actions one might take can help, even if they are baseless."

Shinji rested his chin on the backrest of the couch. "Whatever you say…"

"I'm sure Kira ate the garlic. He said he did and I smelled it on him," said Hisagi, redirecting the conversation. "If he ate them before being bitten, that means Byakuya took blood tainted with garlic. What does that mean for him and Kira?"

"Kira, nothing. Byakuya…" Hitsugaya was still using his dream as a springboard but knew there was the chance of it deviating again. The effect of garlic on a vampire could be different outside of his dream. "In my dream, it weakened him and made him sick. But…"

"We didn't poison him, did we?" Hisagi asked fearfully.

"If you take the lore seriously, garlic will do minor harm to a vampire but it's never enough to kill them. People in movies hang garlic around the house to ward off vampires because of their aversion to it," said Shinji. "Byakuya drinking blood laced with garlic will probably make him sick but not kill him."

"Can we be sure of that?"

"You want to go there and check it out?"

Hisagi shook his head.

"Byakuya's servants will tend to him," said Hitsugaya. "We've got little to worry about."

Although, if it did weaken Byakuya, he would need more blood to help heal himself. If his servants couldn't suffice, he would look for an alternative. If that was unavailable, there was the risk of him draining his servants dry.

Byakuya's sleep was anything but restful. He couldn't get comfortable and his stomach was bothering him. He didn't feel well at all. He felt sick. His limbs were numb. He got off the couch and staggered to the other side of the room, needing relief. There was nothing available to him to ease the discomfort.

He looked at the paperwork on his desk. The words swirled together and blurred. His head was spinning. The room was blurring and tilting. Byakuya grabbed the wastebasket by his desk and vomited into it. Long thread of blood and saliva ran from his bottom lip to the splatter of blood at the bottom of the basket. He felt a little better but was still weak. The pain in his stomach must have been hunger.

The blood packs. He crawled to the bottom drawer of his desk and uncovered the hidden transfusion bags inside. He grabbed one and bit into it, sucking out the room-temperature blood.

This tasted so much better and he was starting to mend. He sucked on the plastic noisily until every drop was gone and punctured the next one to get his fix. He drank three transfusions bags, leaving just one left in his desk for an emergency. He covered it up with papers and his plush Seaweed Ambassador and closed the drawer.

He smelled something coming from the waste basket. It smelled faintly of garlic. It was revolting.

Byakuya had to dispose of it but couldn't go near it without gaging. He wasn't willing to leave his office either. Thankfully, there wasn't much regurgitated blood in the bin so it was easily hidden.

He lumbered back to the couch and flopped down, ready to sleep. Feeling more comfortable, sleep came easily to him and was out like a light in seconds.

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