Warning: Some sexual innuendo, cursing.
Happiness and Pain
"Dream Discussion"
By Nessie
"You dream of a woman, King."
The sickeningly familiar voice of his inner Hollow goaded him in the ever-blank darkness of his mind. Ichigo's hand went to his hip, but in this reality he realized that he had been left weaponless.
"Don't misunderstand," the Hollow said, his voice slicker than an ice floe. "I don't want to fight you. I want to discuss something with you."
"If you have something to discuss," Ichigo ground out, "then stick to your topic, not what I might be dreaming about."
The Hollow's phantom imitation of him gave a broad grin. "That is my topic. I've been peeping in on your dreams quite a bit lately, and what do I continually find? Only that you have yearnings for that woman who sleeps in your room but not in your bed. Whose face you see before you sleep. Whether she smiles or glares, you still want her."
Using his power, he replayed the images of Kuchiki Rukia that had spread in Ichigo's unconsciousness; coal-dark hair splayed over his pillow, her small hands clenching at the sheets, her legs wrapping unrelentingly around his, calls of his name ripping from her throat as she writhes beneath him—
"Get the hell out!" Ichigo shrieked, reaching out and seizing the Hollow by the throat. The Hollow laughed in high-pitched giggles. "Stay the fuck out of my—"
"King, don't you feel it?" The Hollow did not shy away from his master's threats. "We share the need. I have asked you to allow me to take over, and here again I do so. I could procure from that pretty Rukia what you have always failed to."
Ichigo's breath came raggedly with his fury as the Hollow's next words came out in a hissing whisper.
"Make her ours."
Ichigo found he wasn't as weaponless as he'd thought. Drawing back, he gifted the insane Hollow with a bone-cracking punch to the jaw. The Hollow spat and snarled, but Ichigo stood firm in his own mind.
"She isn't ours," he corrected his worse side dutifully. "She's Rukia, and if she wants…maybe one day she'll be mine." This last came out more uncertainly but the Hollow only disappeared into the shadowy corners of Ichigo's consciousness.
He woke up with a start to see Rukia's face hovering over his, worry shading her plum-colored eyes. "You were muttering," she explained. "Are you all right?"
His breathing returned to normal, and he nodded slowly. "Yeah. Go back to sleep."
Rukia makes her way back to the closet, and Ichigo watches as the door slides shut, hoping his next dream will leave her alone.