My Best Worst Friend

By Spunky0ne

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Bazz-B rescues a nearly dead Haschwald from the shinigamis in the soul king's palace and flees with him into the living world. Aided by a few surprising allies, he struggles to help his former love regain his mind from the madness Ywach plunged it into. But whose will controls their destiny now? Bazz-B/Haschwald, Ichigo/Tetsuya, Byakuya/Renji...mpreg

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Chapter 1: Broken Promises

Bazz-B felt the ground underneath him shake and little bits of the broken stone buildings around him rained down, striking his badly abused body and making him groan and shift, trying to force his stinging eyes open. His dry throat ached when he swallowed and he could smell the heavy, coppery scent of his escaped blood that had pooled on the ground beneath him. He tried to lift himself, only to topple awkwardly to one side. In the edges of his bleary mind, he remembered.

Fuck, that's right. I'm missing an arm.

He tried again to move, but froze suddenly as his king's reiatsu, which had been pulsing and throbbing all around the palace grounds, suddenly roared all around the area, rife with the angry screams of the quincy leader's deadly fury. The reiatsu became almost suffocating, making Bazz-B gasp and writhe on the ground, reeling as his connection with Ywach burned and stung him, then very slowly, began to fade with the decline of his leader's reiatsu.

I want to feel happy that the bastard who killed my family is gone, but...

Jugram's face flashed in his clouded mind, shifting eerily between the visage of the youth who had been his friend and the monstrous beauty that had belonged to Ywach.

...but first of all, I wasn't strong enough to kill him, and second...

...I lost you, Jugo...

Damn.

The meager light around him faded and Bazz-B wasn't sure how long he drifted in semi-consciousness, feeling like letting go completely, but haunted by a horrible question.

Are you still alive?

And a second.

If you are still alive, do you still look down on me and hate me, Jugo?

He wasn't sure which question hurt more.

"Over there!" a male voice called out, "It's one of them. See if he's still alive."

Bazz-B couldn't have moved if he had wanted to. He tried to force his eyes open and managed to crack the heavy lids apart just barely, enough to catch a glimpse of a young female shinigami's face.

I remember her. She was with the bunch that came up with me. She's a healer. I guess she won't finish me off then.

And indeed, he felt the gentle touch of her healing spell wrap around him and send him into a deep, restorative sleep. When he woke again, he laid in a comfortable bed in the quincy palace infirmary, hooked up to monitors and a machine that seemed to be giving him intermittent infusions of more healing reiatsu.

Bazz-B turned his head slightly and looked where his arm had been. He managed a weak smile at seeing it had been healed, but at the same time, suffered haunting memories of how it had flown off when Jugram's sword had sliced through his burner attack as though it hadn't been there.

He worked real hard to get good with that sword. I didn't know whether to feel happy for him or pissed because he surpassed me. I guess in the end I just respected him for being able to own me like that. He was so different before...so helpless and cute. He couldn't manifest a bow or do anything we quincies are supposed to be able to do. But he was good with a sword, so he trained on that, so that he wouldn't be a burden.

Turns out I was the one with lesser talent. I was mad about that before, but I couldn't be mad after seeing what Ywach made him into. That cute, good hearted kid cut me down without even a thought, and he walked away and left me, who was his friend, in a puddle of blood, like he didn't give a shit I was probably going to die.

We'll both probably die now, if he isn't dead already.

I don't know what to feel about him dying. If he was the kid I remember, I would feel bad for him. I'd think he didn't deserve it. I might want to save him. But with him having changed like he did, being poisoned with Ywach's influence, I don't know. Maybe it would be better if he was dead. He'd probably even be okay with that.

But I miss the kid that was my friend.

He turned his head back to look up at the white ceiling, his mind replaying the events of the five years they'd spent training together.

We wanted to kill Ywach...to get close to him and then cut him down. That was always the plan. At least, it was always my plan. I don't know anymore what was really going through Jugo's head then. He always just kind of went along with me. I was the leader and he followed. When he got hurt or was in danger, I took care of him. I felt so close to him, I even fell in love with him. But training together, dreaming of defeating Ywach, even being lovers wasn't enough, you know?

Gods, I miss my Jugo!

He heard the monitor next to him complain, then footsteps marking the return of the lady healer who had helped him before. He looked up at her quietly, his eyes questioning.

"You'll be all right, sir. I'll give you something to help you sleep."

"J-Jugo?" he croaked, wincing at how the effort made little pains rocket through his body.

"I don't understand," the healer said, looking sympathetic, "Is that someone you know?"

Bazz-B groaned and closed his eyes, feeling relieved at the cool flow of liquid that entered his vein and sent his mind tumbling away into sleep again.

The next time he woke, it appeared to be nighttime. The room had been darkened and he heard soft voices off in the distance.

"Do you think we should put the rest of them in restraints?" a youthful male voice asked, "They are quincies."

"We haven't been told to do so," the lady healer's voice answered, "Some of them helped us get up here and we have restraints on the blonde man because he could be dangerous." Blonde man?

Jugo?

Bazz-B turned his head one way and spotted the healers standing at the healer's station outside of the larger treatment room. He turned his head the other way and found several other quincies lying in other beds around the room. One held Liltotto's unconscious body and Giselle looked to be curled up on another. The one farthest back held a young man with long blonde hair, who was hooked up to a sea of monitors, wrapped heavily in bandages and carefully set in restraints.

"It is you," Bazz whispered, "You're alive, Jugo."

He won't be for long if he stays here, Bazz-B reasoned, He was revealed to the shinigamis to be Ywach's right hand. They'll execute him, if he doesn't die from his wounds.

I have to...

He moved experimentally and found that the pain medication had eased his discomfort sufficiently that he could sit up. He carefully detached himself from the monitors, watching the healers carefully, then he slid out of the bed and onto shaky legs. He staggered across the room to his comrade's side and swiftly freed Jugram from the bindings, and then the machines. Almost immediately, he heard sounds of dismay, and the healers called out to him to stop. Knowing better than to obey, Bazz-B wrapped an arm around Jugram and launched the two of them through the nearby window. They crashed down outside, and Bazz-B was on his feet again at once, with his unconscious charge thrown over a shoulder. He ran in the direction of the sun gate, silently praying that it hadn't been sealed off. To his surprise and relief, it didn't appear as though the shinigamis had found it yet. He opened the gate and ran inside, still carrying Jugram over his shoulder and mumbling a few reassuring words as his comrade groaned and shifted uncomfortably.

"Hang in there. I'll get you somewhere safe."

He headed away from the royal realm, avoiding the badly damaged Soul Society and fleeing into the living world. He remembered the location of a watching post that had been used to watch Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryu Ishida, prior to the war, and ran towards it, cautiously looking around to make sure they weren't seen or followed. He reached the outpost and came to a stop in front of it, a seemingly normal looking little house in a quiet neighborhood. Sighing in relief, he carried Jugram inside and deposited him in a comfortable bed. Ignoring his own wounds, Bazz-B first turned his attention to Jugram's injuries, frowning at the heavy damage he had taken and noting sadly that there were some that had clearly been made by Ywach, himself.

I wonder what happened in the end...whether Jugo turned on Ywach or the bastard betrayed him like he betrayed the rest of us when he decided he didn't need us anymore.

Bastard!

"You probably would have been better off if I hadn't stolen you away and dragged you here," he sighed, slipping a warm hand into Jugram's limp, cold one, "but you know that as soon as the shinigamis finished digging themselves out and taking stock, they would have put both of us on trial and at least executed you...if your wounds didn't kill you. I still don't know if they will or not. But...despite everything, I hope you don't die, Jugo. I know you've forgotten all about you and me, the plans we made together and the love we had before Ywach took you away. But even though you forgot me, I remembered you. You were my friend. Yeah, before he ruined everything, we were friends. Maybe, now that he's gone, we can be..."

He looked down at his friend's hauntingly beautiful face and couldn't finish. Instead, he swallowed hard and released Jugram's hand, turning aside to pick up a fresh set of bandages. He carefully removed the ones bound around Jugram, then cleaned his wounds and applied the fresh ones. Finishing that, he studied his friend's resting form for several minutes, then with regretful eyes, he set Jugram in strong restraints before lying down in the bed, at his side. His body aching more and more fiercely as the pain block he had been given wore off, Bazz-B closed his eyes and dropped off into a deep sleep.

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Jugram remained unconscious, his mind far removed from whatever might be happening around him, whatever the enemy might be doing to his devastated body. And even if they did kill him, the quincy commander wouldn't have blamed them.

We did try to destroy them.

We failed.

Now, they will probably finish what they started a thousand years ago. I wonder if any of us will survive. I'm surprised they're healing me. But...with Ywach gone, they have to hold someone accountable. There needs to be someone for them to focus their revenge on, doesn't there?

For some reason, the question haunted him. He tried to just let his mind sink into the haze around him, so that he wouldn't think too much about what had happened, and what might still happen.

With his majesty's death, everything disappeared...everything that mattered. I never entertained for a moment that we would lose...that he would die. What a failure that makes me.

A dark, sick feeling passed through him as he recalled his last time sharing the quincy king's bed.

"Come here," Ywach invited him, curling an arm around him and drawing him in.

His heart quickened, and as always happened when the king was with him sexually, Jugram flashed back to the awful memories of the old weathered cabin in the woods, where his lecherous uncle had abused him.

"Come here," Ywach said again, pulling him close and touching his face with gentle fingers.

At his touch, Jugram's mind moved forward to the day that fire had swept through the forest, and before his stunned eyes, it had burned the old cabin, and his horrid uncle. He could remember well, standing and watching as his uncle screamed and caught fire, then swiftly died in front of him.

"That's better, isn't it?" Ywach asked, his lips curling into a wicked smile, "He paid for the hurt he caused you. I did that for you."

The words rang false somehow, but he didn't have time to think too deeply about them as Ywach pushed him down and gently spread his thighs, looking down into his widened eyes as he prepared, then quickly claimed him.

"It's different this time..."

Ywach's smile warmed.

"Yes, it is different. I have seen that there is a threat to me. Since it involves another transcendent, I can't say how it will end. I only know that it is best I take steps to make sure I am protected. And what better protection is there than in you, Jugram?"

He looked back at the king wearing a look of confusion.

"Your majesty?"

"This is a trust I will give you," Ywach purred into his ear, lacing their fingers together as he moved his hips at a steady, unrelenting pace, "If things go badly, you will carry this forward and know that I will come back to you."

"What are you doing, my lord?" Jugram panted, sweat breaking out on his forehead and his insides roiling as the king's passion grew intense, then almost violent, "Your majesty!"

Ywach's mouth clamped down on his forcefully and the king's undulations intensified until the reiatsu in the room they were in shook hard enough to knock the pictures off the shelves and walls. Jugram looked up into the quincy king's dark eyes and felt as though the blackness there had seeped for down inside him and planted itself within him. Ywach made a sound of deep contentment, loosing his release into Jugram's pale body, then lying on top of him and licking lazily at his soft, frowning lips and vulnerable white throat.

"That's better," the king said, withdrawing slowly from Jugram's body and standing.

He wrapped a black yukata around himself and turned away, heading towards the throne room.

"It's almost dark."

Jugram sighed and closed his eyes as the last of the light faded and he felt the weight of the king's power settle over him. And as often happened, his transcendent eyes opened and showed him a little piece of the future. He saw himself standing at the top of a long, wide staircase, turning his back on the crumpled body of a familiar red haired man, and walking away, coldly leaving his former friend to die.

If not for the king's power, tears might have been able to come into his eyes, but as it was, his heart felt cold, as it always did when the king's power rested with him.

Jugram realized very suddenly that the power that had been there before was no longer holding him back, and something was leaking onto his face. He tried to move a hand to brush away the offending moisture, but found he couldn't move.

"Let me," said an achingly familiar voice.

Bazz...

He felt the moisture being wiped away and a cool, wet cloth washing his face gently.

"L-let me go," he ordered Bazz-B in an angry voice, "Untie me now!"

"I don't think so," Bazz-B said in a low voice, "You might kill me or you might go out there and someone else could kill you. You're staying here and I'm going to take care of you."

"I d-dont...!" he began, but broke off as swelters of horrid pain tore at his insides.

"Take it easy," Bazz-B said sternly, "You're mostly dead, you know. Something almost tore you in half."

Jugram suffered a hard, terrified jolt of memory that made him gasp and loose a pained sob.

"Whoa, it's okay. I'm going to give you another pain block. You'll sleep for a while."

He doesn't understand. It wasn't physical hurt that tormented me just now. It was...

"Hey, Jugo, it's gonna be okay now. He's gone...dead. You don't have to worry about him taking you back and forcing you to stay with him. I'm here now. I'm going to help you get well, and then we'll...I don't know, we'll think of something to do."

Bazz-B froze as Jugram's fingers touched his hand and their eyes locked together.

"You should have let me die."

Bazz-B stared down at him for a breathless moment, sending the two back through the years to the thick, lovely forests that had once been their home.

"You fucking bet I should have let you die," Bazz said haughtily, "Got too big for your britches and got slapped down, didn't you? Maybe next time, you won't run off and just abandon your best friend and lover!"

Jugram blinked dizzily as Bazz-B's face flickered between the younger teen he had known and the man who now rested beside him.

"I thought I killed you," he mumbled dazedly.

"Hell no, you didn't kill me," Bazz assured him, smirking at him, "I helped out some of the shinigamis and they healed me up. I'm good. You're a mess, though...a fucking shame!"

"You are ridiculous."

"Hey, shut up and get some rest, all right? As soon as you can see straight and you agree not to kill me this time, I'll let you up. The king's dead and the war is over. We can just...do what we want now, okay Jugo?"

Jugram sighed and closed his stinging eyes.

If only it was that simple...