Contrary to how she seemed at time, Ichigo knew better than most just how emotional she could get at times. Though she tended to waffle back and forth between placid and angry most times. It didn't mean that she wasn't capable of feeling other things too. She just tended to be better at hiding much of what she felt.

Jealousy wasn't an emotion that she was used too. She'd never really thought that she'd feel it for any reason since she wasn't typically a jealous person.

She was, however, possessive as hell. It was something that she blamed her inner hollow for more than she should since it was an emotion that she felt pretty easily too. But there was a reason for that. Shiro was technically a demon of some sort.

(That was what she very firmly believed the soul devouring Hollows to be, and nothing would ever change her mind.)

And because of this fact as well as what she knew of Shiro and his darker nature... She firmly believed that many of her more negative emotions tended to be amplified a bit by him. Whether it was consciously or subconsciously- she honestly couldn't say.

Which was why she had been scowling at the door of Shuichi's company for the past five minutes now. Wondering if being here was really a good idea or not.

Don't get her wrong, she was still upset that some slut was trying to sink her claws into her Shuichi. But she wasn't entirely sure what she could do about it aside from show up, put on a little show, and then kick the bitches' ass out his office so that she could tend to him.

She just worried a bit about what Shuichi may think of her if she lost her patience with the woman and beat the hell out of her. Sure, she knew she would likely be arrested for it. And that may look...bad to him and a multitude of other people that worked with him.

But dammit she was possessive!

As far as she was concerned someone was trying to steal someone from her. And she wasn't just going to stand by and let them! She couldn't! And as much as she liked to blame a lot of her negative emotions on Shiro she knew that they were both predatory creatures.

The only differences between them were the fact that he liked blood and death. And she only liked them in certain situations.

Though she couldn't help but wonder what he and Shuichi both would say to her if she ripped the slut's heart out and ate it.

Finally deciding to go inside, she pushed the door open and stepped into the building and nearly jumped out of her skin when her cell phone rang. Fumbling so that she didn't drop the bento while reaching for her cell, she finally managed to grab both of them and then answered her cell.

"Hello?"

"Dearest?" She heard Shuichi say questioningly. No doubt wondering why she was a little bit late getting there.

"I'm here. I was just...lost in thought for a few minutes."

"Are you on your way up?"

"Ah, no. I'll head up right now-" She said as she spotted the elevator across the lobby and began to walk towards it.

"No, not yet." He said firmly, causing her to pause.

"Huh?" She said unintelligibly, having trouble understanding why he was stopping her now of all times. Was he worried that she and the other woman might get physical or something?

"I'm coming down to get you." He said after a brief lag, where she could hear him beginning to stand up from his desk.

"W-What? You don't have to do that! I can find my way up there."

"I'm coming down anyways," He said a bit more gently this time. "I don't want anyone possibly hassling you in the halls. Or calling security on you. Besides...I want to see you."

She blushed at the last few words that he uttered. How could she not? That had to be one of the sweetest things that any man could say to their woman.

And she for one was incredibly flattered.

He told her that he would be down in two minutes and then hung up. Leaving her standing there feeling oddly flustered while she awkwardly greeted some of the nice people that passed by her. She was beginning to become uncomfortable when the elevator finally opened up and Shuichi stepped out of it and took a moment to scan the area for her.

She lifted a hand and gave him a slight wave to help him along and noticed the visible stress in his features vanish the second that he spotted her. Moving to meet him halfway, she was slightly startled when he walked up to her and practically attached himself to her via a hug.

She squeaked as he all but crushed her to him and nearly made her drop the bento that was wedged between them as he muttered, "I've missed you." into her hair.

"Are you okay?" She finally managed to ask him despite the fact that her face was all but smushed into his shoulder. She wound up with some of his shirt in her mouth for her effort- not to mention some of his hair. But at least he heard her.

It just took him a moment or so to answer her. "I'm genuinely beginning to hate that woman," He growled out as he reluctantly let her go. "She's been cursing and calling you names- and she even threw one of my poor potted plants at my head!"

"Why haven't you fired her yet then?" She asked, bewildered. After all, that was what most other people would have done long before now.

"The woman may be a pain in the ass but replacing her would be even more so." Shuichi said mulishly before then going on to explain/rant. "The sheer number of hours it takes to train someone to do her job is- is nothing short of...hellish! I could barely stand to be in her presence long enough to get it done the first time. Why would I want to do that to myself again?"

Ichigo merely blinked at him before then asking why he'd been the one to train her for her job to begin with. He was a CEO, he had more important things to do than train someone else for their job. Right?

He merely gave her a pained look and gritted out from between clenched teeth, "I'm a perfectionist." As he took hold of her hand and tugged her along to the elevator and pushed the button for floor forty.

The second that the door closed them inside of the elevator and they were alone, he then reached out and pressed the red button to stop the elevator and then wrapped his arms around her again.

She might have laughed a bit and gotten pinched by him for it as he growled at her that the situation wasn't funny.

And while she did agree with him there- the way that he was acting sort of reminded her of a pouting four-year-old seeking comfort. So, she couldn't help but laugh a little bit. Especially since she had never seen him like this before.

Finally, he seemed to relax a little bit. But only enough to let her go again and shift his attention to the bento box that she had been trying to keep from dropping due to his antics.

"What's this?" He asked curiously as he tapped the lid of the box with one of his fingertips.

"Your lunch."

"Did you make it for me?" He asked as he took a moment to steal the bento from her hands and pop the lid on it to see what she had made him. Though he could already tell from the smell of it that she had made him something good.

"Yes." She finally replied with a frown.

"No one's made me any bento lunches since my first year of Junior High," He said with a smile as he grabbed something from the box and quickly popped it into his mouth and groaned in-between chews. "Oh god, it's good." He muttered as he licked his lips and then stole another piece of his lunch and popped it into his mouth and then put the lid back onto the box and took a moment to lick his fingers clean as she reached out and pressed the button to restart the elevator's movement.

After that they sent the next few moments making idle chit-chat.

He asked her if she was alright- considering the previous night's events- and what she had been doing with herself so far today aside from cooking him a nice and delicious lunch.

She answered his questions honestly, telling him that up until now she'd felt like crap, cleaned his already immaculate home a bit and then cooked his lunch... So, she didn't feel so...bleh anymore. Being able to see him had helped with that despite the situation.

He'd smiled and stolen a kiss from her and then began to tell her that the woman that she would be facing was beyond unpleasant. And then swore that if she felt overwhelmed at any point in time while trying to put the woman in her place- he'd grab the evil witch and chuck her out of the nearest window.

Apparently, he didn't care anymore if he lost the woman as an employee. He would only put up with so much more of her nonsense before he tired of her completely.

And while she didn't really think that he'd actually chuck the woman out of a window for her. It was still nice of him to offer anyways.

The second that they stepped off of the elevator they were greeted by screaming and a small crowd of people standing around his office door looking deeply concerned.

The two of them exchanged a glance, his worried and hers...bemused as she asked him. "Who did you leave in there with that unhinged lunatic?"

He groaned. "My secretary."

"You'll owe he or she a good bit of hazard pay for getting them involved in this mess." She pointed out as she started to walk towards the crowd of people while he let out a small, pitiful sounding whimper as it occurred to him that he just might be looking for a new secretary after today- and then quickly moved to join her.

He wound up being held back a little bit by the crowd because he wasn't able to push himself through the small throng of his employees gathered around his office door the same way that Ichigo had.

His darling had literally pushed a few of the men aside and walked right on into the room. And now she was circling his employee like a shark. The previous screaming, and other things had momentarily ceased upon her entry and the two women were now glaring at each other with barely concealed hostility.

Though Ichigo seemed able to hide her hostility fairly well. Keeping a smirk on her face while the other woman outright sneered at her.

Sensing that things were about to get...bad, he quickly pushed the rest of his way into his office and then made a beeline for the far side of his office after casting a quick glance around the room, and absently noted that his office had been trashed. And his secretary was nowhere to be seen.

The woman had apparently abandoned her post once things had escalated to property damage. Not that he blamed the woman any. He'd basically done the same thing once Ichigo had arrived.

Turning his attention back to the women, he found a nice spot- not too far away, but not terribly close either. The spot was both ideal to observe from and move quickly away from if he felt the need to step in before Ichigo mangled the other woman.

"Who the hell are you?" His employee demanded. Ichigo merely smirked at her a little bit more and then lifted her hand to show the woman the matching engagement ring on her finger.

He leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest as he watched his employee all but lunge for his darling. Ichigo merely side stepped the enraged woman and then kicked her legs out from under her.

And he winced a bit in sympathy as the other woman hit the floor hard enough to daze her and kept his eyes on Ichigo. He had the feeling that she was toying with the woman. Testing to see just how far she was going to take things.

He couldn't blame her for wanting to know such a thing, but at the same time he was almost terrified that something completely horrible was going to happen.

Turned out, he wasn't exactly wrong.

He wasn't really sure about how his employee had managed it- but he could only chalk it up to the little bit of time she'd been alone in his office without any sort of supervision. But when the woman got up off of the floor, she had a large shard of broken glass clutched in her hand and slashed at Ichigo with it.

Of course, after what he had learned of her past; he didn't doubt that Ichigo could handle herself even when she was against a furious, and armed opponent. But it didn't stop him from moving away from the wall to stop the fight before it escalated any further.

"Stay back Shuichi!" Ichigo snapped at him, making him pause as she dodged another slash. "If she's this far gone, then let me handle the bitch."

"I can-" He started to say that he could help her, but she cut him off with a frigid sounding.

"No."

Feeling helpless because he knew that he could help end this as well as feeling guilty for not just firing the obviously deranged woman to begin with. He didn't quite know what to do here.

He had always been the protector. So, it was fair to say that right that moment he was hating how he was being treated as helpless by his darling. Even if she didn't quite know that he knew how to fight.

And that, it dawned on him, was the crux of the matter.

Ichigo didn't know that he could fight so she was taking on the role of protector to keep him safe. The moment that he realized this, his eyes widened in fear as the woman got lucky and finally managed to score his darling's cheek with the piece of glass.

He gritted his teeth to keep from shouting in alarm, knowing that Ichigo had only gotten hurt to begin with because he had distracted her by trying to argue with her. So, he held his tongue while silently trying to will the idiot woman's head to explode before she could harm Ichigo again.

Thankfully, the fight ended rather quickly after that since he didn't distract his darling any further. And not long after she'd gotten the cut on her cheek, she'd disarmed the woman and grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into his wall repeatedly until she lost consciousness, and then dragged her outside of his office. Where some of his security guards were finally present to do their jobs.

He instructed the guards to take the unconscious woman to the hospital to have her injuries checked since he was fairly certain that if she wasn't concussed, then she likely had some serious bruises and such along her back and shoulders. He also told a few of them to clean out the woman's office. He wanted her dismissed immediately, without severance pay.

He would also be pressing charges against her for harassment, destruction of his personal property, and attacking Ichigo. Once that was done and the woman was dragged off, the rest of his employee's all scattered due to receiving a displeased glare from him.

Leaving him alone with Ichigo. The second that they were alone, he walked over to her and grabbed her. Using his fingertips to tilt her head so that he could examine her injury.

The cut was deeper than he had initially thought it was since Ichigo wasn't crying or acting as if she felt any pain. But even he knew that she had to be hiding how much it hurt her.

It would have been crazy for her not to feel her face being split open almost to the bone.

"I should take you to the hospital. This is going to need stitches." He said after a moment or so of careful contemplation.

"There's no need for that."

"Your face has been laid open, Ichigo." He growled out, suddenly feeling very upset. Though he wasn't exactly sure whom he was upset with the most. Himself, her, or his former employee.

"So?"

"I can see bone, you daft woman!" He snapped at her, watching as she recoiled from him a bit. Shock flitting across her pretty face for a second before she winced and reached up to lay a hand over the injury as she muttered.

"Oh. Sorry."

He gave her an exasperated look. Not knowing why she was apologizing to him when she was the one bleeding. If anything he should be on his knees groveling at her feet for his part in this mess.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" He finally asked.

"Because you're upset again."

He had never been rendered so utterly speechless by such simple words before. But he was now. He took a moment to flounder and sputter- attempting to regain control of his emotions and his voice so that he could tell her that it wasn't her fault he was upset. However, since she was still bleeding he decided to simply grab her hand and drag her from his office so that he could get her face fixed up.

He would have more than enough time while she was getting stitches to sort himself out and think of something to say later.