"I really hate you."

"You say that now, but you'll love me later." Ichigo said drowsily, lying in the sun. He felt loose and happy, unlike Renji, who was still traumatized by yesterday's needles. "I want to put my legs around you and take you to paradise. Come on, violate me." He was kidding, sort of. They were in the peace gardens and sex right then and there would probably get them arrested. Not that he actually cared, but it was something to keep in mind. Just to mess with Renji, he rested a foot on his thigh and gently massaged the muscle with his toes.

"Damn it, Ichigo!" His foot was shoved away and Ichigo opened his eyes, feeling vaguely offended as Renji glared at him. "I'm serious here. Why do you always have to be such a dick?"

"Huh? What did I do?" He asked, a bit baffled. "You think I should have disobeyed Byakuya?" That was just not going to happen, ever. He liked Renji but he really respected the Byakuya Kuchiki. And besides, he was Renji's taichou.

"You should have warned me. And you shouldn't have got me hard in front of Unohana!" Ichigo laughed then gasped as a hard hand grabbed his collar and yanked him upright so surprised brown eyes were looking into angry cinnamon. "And it's not fucking funny!"

"Okay, it's not funny." Ichigo said, mostly to placate the redhead. He'd lost all sense of shame a long time ago, when the dreams started and everyone in the cave had gotten to marvel at his manhood. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again." He said that more sincerely, while making a mental note to try not to embarrass Renji quite so much. If it bothered the redhead, he'd try to change a bit.

"You better not." Renji said, a bit mollified by his acceptance. Ichigo smiled and slid a hand behind his head, pulling the redhead into a gentle, chaste kiss. Or at least, it started that way. It turned pretty hot a moment later.

"Ahem." They both looked up, startled, and Ichigo blushed as he met calm grey eyes. Byakuya again, which made him wonder. It seemed like the noble interrupted him and Renji quite a bit. Was that a coincidence, or were they just doing way too many PDA's? He couldn't imagine Byakuya wanted to interrupt them. "Ichigo, have you forgotten your dance recital?"

"Oh, shit!" Ichigo sat bolt upright and checked his watch. The recital was due to start in ten minutes. "Thanks Byakuya gottagorightnowbye!" He hollow stepped away so fast that the trees rattled. He missed Byakuya's frown after him.

"That was not a flash step." He said to himself. He'd seen Ichigo use it before, of course, but it was still alarming. Renji shrugged.

"Yeah, but it does the same thing. Right taichou?" He said hopefully and Byakuya shook his head.

"Renji, you will escort Ichigo to the 12th Division tomorrow." He said formally as Renji winced. "You will stay with him at all times and make certain he is not harmed in any way." Byakuya trusted Mayuri considerably less far than he could throw him. With Senbonzakura, he might be able to throw the man a fair distance.

"Ah, right." Renji sounded glum. "He won't be sticking any needles into me, will he?"

"No. Make sure he doesn't inject anything into Ichigo." Byakuya said and Renji nodded again.

"He'll want to. But I'll do my best, taichou." Renji glanced after Ichigo, wondering how his dance recital was going. But he wasn't going to follow to find out.

Love had its limits.


"Oh yeah!" Ichigo was really enjoying himself. Sure, the electrodes and monitoring crap were annoying, but being able to spar with all kinds of guys from the Divisions was fun. Byakuya had been continuing his training, of course, but it had still been focused on kido. His solo practices were fun but he wanted more.

"Oh, you're having fun are you?" The bald guy across from him was grinning. Ichigo wasn't the least bit surprised. Renji had already introduced them, and he knew Ikkaku loved fighting even more than drinking, and he loved drinking quite a bit. "Tell me, who is your master?"

"I don't have a master. I don't even have a superior." Ichigo answered flippantly then had to back up as Ikkaku attacked strongly.

"You have excellent reaction times. Your hits are violently strong. You tell me you learned this on your own? Who taught you?" He asked as they continued to spar and Ichigo grinned, giving himself over to the pleasure of combat.

"The sword, Byakuya and Zangetsu. Fighting? No one! Or rather, hundreds, maybe even thousands of hollows." Ichigo began to push forward, his blows coming fast and furious and forcing Ikkaku back. "An Adjuchas there… a Menos Grande there… did you know you can strangle a hollow with your bare hands? I know. I did it, and watched him die." Ichigo grinned, knowing his voice had taken on the echoing tone of his inner hollow. A bead of sweat traced down Ikkaku's face and some bizarre impulse made him want to lick it up.

"Bullshit! You can't kill a hollow by strangling them! You need a zanpakuto!" He snarled back and Ichigo laughed as his eyes turned black and gold.

"Nah, you just need other hollows hanging around, waiting for the scraps. They never turn down a free meal. Hiya! Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo called on the power of his zanpakuto, and augmented it with the power of his hollow. Ikkaku's eyes went wide for a moment before he was blasted back. "Aw, don't tell me that's all you've got. I will be ever so disappointed." Ichigo glanced down at himself and was pleased to see his body was still flesh colored. If he'd been bleeding to white, that would have been too much.

"Uragh! Extend, Hozukimaru!" Ikkaku called and Ichigo blinked as his sword and scabbard turned into a spear. "Don't misjudge, Ichigo!"

"Misjudge what? Your breath?" Ichigo jibed before dodging a few strikes from the spear. "The length of a spear? I think I can figure that out!" Ikkaku left himself vulnerable and Ichigo naturally tried to take advantage. "Eh?" Instinct screamed a warning and he got his hand up to protect his face just in time. "Argh!" He leapt back, blood streaming freely from a deep cut in his hand.

Haha, he tricked you King! The hollow within him laughed, and Ichigo sent Hiro a mental finger salute. Then he closed his eyes for a moment and reached deep.

"Huh?" Ikkaku watched as skin bled to white, and hair bleached from orange to bone. Ichigo lifted his injured hand and flicked the blood off, opening his black and gold eyes.

"Isn't high speed regeneration cool?" He flipped his hand over so Ikkaku could see the quickly closing wound. "I wasn't going to show you this, but since Mayuri said to go all out, why the hell not? You'll have to do a lot better than that to put me away." Ichigo knew he sounded just like Hiro, but couldn't bring himself to care. This fight was just too much fun!

"You bastard! That's cheating!" Ikkaku charged and his eyes went wide as Ichigo was no longer there. "Wh – AH!" He leapt forward and whirled around. "You jerk! Did you just slap me on the ass?!"

"Could be. Did you like it?" Ichigo grinned, letting Hiro have his way. His inner hollow was in a mischievous mood, and he shared the feeling. "I could grab your cock next time." Ikkaku's eyes narrowed as he looked at the white version of his sparring partner.

"Ichigo, is that you?" He moved Hozukimaru to the ready position as Ichigo lost his grin. "Are you in control?" Ichigo scowled and deliberately pulled Hiro back, letting his skin go back to the shade of flesh.

"Yeah, it's me. I was just letting Hiro play a bit. Sorry for the ass slapping, he's horny all the damn time." He said lightly and felt Hiro's disgruntlement.

You're seriously blaming it all on me? You wanted to do it too! He complained and Ichigo laughed to himself.

"Hush, you. You exist to take the blame." He said softly before Ikkaku growled and attacked again. Without going that deep, meeting his new range and flexibility was challenging. He took another good slash on his arm before he started to get the hang of it. "Heh, I hope you have some more tricks up your sleeves, because this is getting easy!" He decided to go with the old and tested, and pulled a rock out of his pocket. "Eat hot stone!"

"What – OW!" Ikkaku had to duck and still got nipped by the edge of blue power. "What the hell is that?"

"Just something I cooked up in my crazy pot – eh?" They both stopped as reiatsu flooded the room. Ichigo felt frozen by the feeling of bloodlust, and Ikkaku was looking utterly appalled. "Oh… crap. I am actually scared now." The golden reiatsu was absolutely overwhelming and he was surprised to hear a muffled sound of fury.

"Zaraki! Get out of here! Your reiatsu is disrupting my research!" Kurotsuchi, of course. Ichigo had almost forgotten that the scientist was evaluating his powers. Then suddenly Hiro surged up and Ichigo yelped as he was almost unseated as head of his body. He couldn't stop the hollow from grabbing control of his mouth as Zaraki walked into the room, grinning his usual, homicidal grin.

"I am in lust. Please, take me now, you fucking monster." Ichigo immediately mounted a counter assault and his flesh began rapidly changing from white to flesh as his body staggered. "I'm just telling him how you really feel, you whore! Don't blame the fucking messenger!" Everyone was staring at him and Ichigo tried to stop Hiro's next act, but couldn't. Zaraki glanced around, wrinkling his nose.

"What the hell is that smell?" He said, rubbing his nose. Ichigo groaned as his body became painfully hard and he rained down a thousand curses on Hiro's head. Ikkaku was whimpering and Kurotsuchi sounded like he was having a nerd orgasm.

"Amazing! An incredibly potent sexual pheromone! I must bottle this!" The doors to the training room opened and Kurostuchi walked in, holding a vial and an empty syringe. "Samples, I must have samples! Come over here Kurosaki!"

"Get away from me you freak! Hey, you're not hard, what gives?" Hiro sounded confused and Ichigo managed to throttle him into submission, his body finally going back to flesh color. Bitch! I was having fun. What the hell do you have against fun?

"For starters, I don't fuck around! For second, have some fucking pride! He hasn't even beaten us in battle yet!" Ichigo snarled, and he could tell Hiro was completely unimpressed by that argument. Ikkaku was hunched over, holding his groin. It was impossible to see Zaraki's reaction, but Ichigo's sense of smell told him the taichou was affected, just ignoring it well. Then Ichigo dodged as Mayuri went after him with the needle. "No! Come on, it's just stupid Hiro and his stupid – AWK!" Someone small and agile smashed him to the ground and Ichigo tried desperately to get unpinned. "Nemu, let go of me!"

"He's just taking a sample Kurosaki-kun. He won't inject you with anything. Please be still." She assured him and Ichigo hesitated being lying still. He was supposed to let Kurotsuchi take samples, even if he really didn't want to give up his pheromones. He shuddered to think what use the lunatic would put it to. Muttering curses, he let Mayuri extract a vial of some strange, dark green liquid. It was shockingly viscous and Ichigo was dismayed to find the best place to get it was glands under his armpits.

"I will have to examine you more thoroughly! Get out of here, Kenpachi. Science calls!" Ichigo whimpered and looked at Zaraki and Ikkaku pleadingly as he was dragged out of the room, but they both just watched the unwilling youth getting pulled away.

"What a downer. I'll have to look him up some other time." Zaraki shrugged and turned away. "I wonder if he was serious about that? Eh. Not my thing." He muttered as he briefly considered Hiro's offer. It was intriguing, in a way, but he wasn't much into fucking hollows.

He vastly preferred killing them.


"Ugggh." Ichigo lay on his bed, an arm thrown over his face. He was absolutely, completely exhausted. "Fuck you Hiro. Fuck Mayuri, fuck Nemu, fuck my life." After his little pheromone display, the scientist had found all kinds of additional tests to run. It hadn't hurt but it hadn't been fun. He felt unbelievably drained.

Suck it up, you pussy. It's for science! Hiro said with false enthusiasm and Ichigo cursed him soundly in several different languages.

Calm down, Ichigo. Zangetsu was calm as always. Truthfully, it was as much your fault as his. And you have a visitor.

"Huh? …Oh." Ichigo looked up as the door opened. Then he lifted a hand for a weak wave. "Hi taichou. I'm going to die, just ignore me." Then he let his head flop back down. He was very surprised when cool hands touched his head. "Huh?" He opened his eyes to meet concerned grey ones.

"Are you well, Kurosaki Ichigo?" Ichigo blinked at the concern in Byakuya's eyes. "Renji was supposed to watch over you." He said with a faint frown and Ichigo hesitated a moment before deciding he wasn't going to lie. If Renji got into trouble, that was Renji's problem.

"He was there at first, but then he asked Ikkaku to sub in for him. Then Mayuri had us spar, and Ikkaku got distracted when Kenpachi showed up. So I was alone with him for a while." He admitted. Byakuya's expression was superficially calm but Ichigo had the feeling he was anything but amused. "He didn't inject me with anything though. He just took a ton of blood, tissue samples, the works. He did keep muttering something about bottling me, but I tried to ignore it." He would have been happier if he'd thought Mayuri was joking, but Ichigo rather thought he wasn't. Byakuya's frown boded ill for his fukutaichou. "I'm fine really. Just so tired… too much blood loss, and Hiro refuses to patch me up." His hollow was sulking a bit over the whole thing.

"I see. I will see that you have some food, it is good for blood loss." Byakuya stood, and Ichigo nodded before giving him a smile.

"Thank you for checking on me." He murmured, feeling a surprising warmth to the taichou. Maybe Zangetsu had a point. Renji had abandoned him, although it had been very, very boring. Still… did Renji really care about him? Ichigo sighed to himself and closed his eyes. He was shocked as a different hand touched his shoulder and he looked up into blue eyes.

"Nii-san asked me to bring you some supper." Rukia said softly and Ichigo blinked woozily.

"But it's not that… time…?" Ichigo glanced out the window and saw, to his shock, that the sun was beginning to set. "Oh. Uh, I must have slept." Although he actually thought he'd passed out. That wasn't good. "Rukia… thank you." He took the tray with trembling hands and set it on his knees.

"It is nothing." She said, her tone neutral and she frowned as he watched him carefully cutting the meat. His hands really did not want to cooperate. "Will you be okay? You seem very shaky." Ichigo managed to get a piece of meat into his mouth and nodded. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until now. A short chew and swallow later, he replied.

"I think I'll be fine. I just feel weak. How much blood did he take out of me?" Ichigo wondered. He'd lost some in the sparring, too, come to think of it. Eyes narrowing, he tried to figure it out. He was medically trained so he had some idea of how much blood a body could use, although it might differ for shinigami. "Shit, I think he might have taken almost thirty percent." He muttered, looking at his hands. No wonder he was shaky. "If I were human I'd probably be in shock." Fortunately, he was much tougher than any human. Rukia gently patted his shoulder.

"You're recover. Shinigami are much stronger than other souls, and you are a shinigami in everything but name." Ichigo swallowed, without any food in his mouth, as he heard that. Shinigami were forbidden to have powers like his. Rukia seemed to sense his unease. "Don't worry, nii-san will take care of you."

"Yeah. I'm grateful to him, Rukia." He said and was surprised to see tears in her eyes. "Rukia?" He reached out to her and she caught his large hand in both of her smaller ones.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo. When you first came, I thought you didn't appreciate my brother and the things he was doing for you. I was wrong, and I'm sorry." She said softly and Ichigo stared at her for a moment before resting his other hand on top of hers and giving her a gentle squeeze.

"There's nothing to be sorry about. You did your duty and helped teach me. I would like it if we could be friends, though." He said with a smile and Rukia smiled back. The smile made her blue eyes shine, and he found them oddly entrancing.

"We'll have to see, Ichigo." Was all she said, but Ichigo had a feeling this might be the beginning of something good. He was about to start eating again when his door slammed open.

"Ichigo! Why did you tell him I – uh." An infuriated Renji ground to a halt as he saw Rukia giving him a scorching glare. "Rukia! What are you doing here?"

"I am feeding him. He's cold and pale from blood loss." She said frigidly and Ichigo was amused to see that coldness turned on someone else. "And where were you when he was being drained by that lunatic, Renji?" She demanded and Renji made a small choking sound.

"I was – I just – I had to finish the paperwork! I have duties, Rukia!" He exclaimed and Ichigo shook his head, just continuing with his meal. The food was already making him feel a bit better.

"Idiot! Looking after him was your duty!" Ichigo winced. Rukia had a very carrying voice. "And now you come in here to criticize him for telling the truth? In case you hadn't noticed, Renji, Ichigo always tells the truth!" Ichigo blinked. He was a bit surprised Rukia would give him that much credit, although she was correct. He didn't much believe in lying although he would do it if necessary. As in, life and death necessary. "Now either behave, or go away and let him eat in peace!"

"Y-Yes, Rukia." Renji bowed his head and Rukia sniffed before walking past him, her head held high. Ichigo was impressed with the noble demeanor. Maybe there was a point to her lessons after all. Renji hesitated before taking a seat beside him. "Was it that bad? I asked Ikkaku to look after you." He said softly after a moment. Ichigo sighed.

"Ikkaku lost interest, and Kurotsuchi had me alone in his lab for a while. But as far as I could tell, he just took a lot of samples. It's mostly the blood loss that's bothering me." He finished his meat and started on the rice and vegetables. "I'll be fine, I think." Hiro and Zangetsu both silently agreed. Renji bowed his head for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo. I'm still mad at you, though. You didn't have to tell him." Renji said and Ichigo's eyes narrowed. That… was pretty damn unattractive.

"And you didn't have to leave me alone. Dishonors are about even, don't you think?" He finished the food, putting the tray on his nightstand. "You can sleep with me if you want, but it will be nothing but sleep. I'm too tired for sex." He lay down on the bed, facing away from the redhead. He honestly expected Renji to curl up behind him. They'd slept together, nothing but sleep, many times. He looked up in surprise as Renji flash stepped out of the room, gently shutting the door.

"Renji…" He said softly, then shook his head before closing his eyes and trying to sleep. That hurt, but he really needed to sleep.

He could worry about Renji tomorrow.