Shuuhei sat and stared for a moment, unsure what exactly he was supposed to do now. He'd just kissed him, and he had felt a spark unlike anything he'd ever felt before pass between them. He could tell that there was confusion in Ichigo's eyes.

"So, this isn't awkward or anything," he said with a smile.

Ichigo looked at him, closing his eyes for a second then opening them with a scowl. He appeared to have tried to go into his inner world. Shuuhei smiled. "I don't think Shiro is going to let you run away again."

Ichigo frowned and shook his head with a sigh. "So, still don't want to talk?" Shuuhei asked gently.

Ichigo shrugged his shoulders a bit and winced. Shuuhei imagined he was sore after what Shiro had put his body through. "Shiro can drink like a fish, you know. I don't know if you saw, but damn, I think he could drink Kyōraku-taichou under the table…"

He looked up and saw that Ichigo was smiling at him. So perhaps treating him like he was fine was the answer, treating him normal. "Urahara-san said that you had to deal with him all the time. He's a dirty pervert, did you know that? Man…but that's okay, a little perversion is okay," he said with a smile at Ichigo.

Shuuhei could read the questions on his face. There were so many there. So, he nodded slowly. "Hey, I know things are messed up right now. And that's okay, you know, things don't have to be easy, but I just…I want you to know that I'm confused, too okay. But that's okay. I'll figure it out, and you'll figure it out, and then…well, we'll go from there."

Ichigo's head, on the other hand was a complete mess. He couldn't sort through the thoughts running through his mind fast enough. He had been warm and comfortable and fine, and then Yumichika forced him to the surface. He heard his words, and it had affected him to know that maybe, just maybe Yumichika could understand what was going on. Then he was close to the surface when Shiro started in telling every single embarrassing fact of his life to everyone he gave a damn about. It hadn't even been conscious on his part, he just wanted to make him shut up. And then he was waking here, considering Shūhei's dark eyes that had become a part of his life so much since he came to Soul Society.

Out of everyone, Shuuhei, who he hadn't known that well to start with, was the only one who let him simply be and didn't treat him like fragile glass. Everyone, Rukia and Renji included, were careful around him, making sure not to say anything to disturb him. It was annoying, to be honest.

Not Shuuhei, though. He let him simply be. He didn't ask him to speak, he didn't ask him for anything. He talked to him like he was another normal person, and didn't censor himself in the least. Ichigo respected that in him. However, the amount of shock to find his lips pressed against him was indeed great and set his heart to beating faster than he thought possible. What was this odd thing he felt when Shuuhei was near? It began so simply, he looked forward to Shūhei's days to see him. Then, slowly, when he was gone, he missed him and thought of the things he said. When he saw him, his heart was lighter, and he would smile now and then.

His eyes roved the lieutenant's face for any sign that he was false, or not telling the complete truth. There was nothing but open honesty written in his face. Ichigo nodded to him and smiled, making Shuuhei start. He reached out to him and Shuuhei took his hand in a very loose grip.

Shūhei's heart fluttered at the touch. It was the first time since he'd come back that Ichigo had reached for anyone. He swallowed a rising amount of fear in his throat. He knew he was treading on delicate waters now. He was trusting him, allowing him close enough to touch him like this. It wasn't an intimate touch by any means, it was simply grasping his hand gently. Yet, that single touch seemed to mean the world to him.

Shuuhei heard someone clear their throat behind him. He looked up and saw Unohana standing there. She was just quietly watching him as he held onto Ichigo. She had that look on her face that brokered no arguments.

"I'll…I'll just go, Unohana-taichou…" he said with a smile as he stood and put down Ichigo's hand.

He jumped though when Ichigo's hand grasped his wrist like a vice. Shūhei turned to see him starting at the captain of the fourth with a terrified look on his face. He frowned and turned to him. "Ichigo, what is it?" Ichigo's eyes were wide and he was stock still.

He looked up to see Rukia had come in as well. "Ah there, Rukia can stay with you, okay?" he said and Ichigo's grip only tightened even further. Shuuhei winced and saw that he was staring with that same terrified look at Rukia. Why in the world...

"Don't worry, Hisagi-fukutaichou," came Unohana's soothing voice, moving forward and placing two fingers on Ichigo's forehead. There was a flash and he slumped backward, not entirely unconscious but definitely not anywhere near awake. "It is expected for him to have panic attacks right now, a change in people around him will trigger them," Unohana said with a smile.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking down to see Ichigo's eyes were half lidded now.

"Oh, he is physically fine, so Kuchiki-taichou and Kuchiki-san will take him back to the manor to rest. No doubt he will recover much faster there," Unohana said, and Shuuhei nodded. Certainly made sense to him.

"Where's Kuchiki-taichou?" he asked, heading toward the door.

"He will arrive shortly," came Rukia's answer. He frowned and looked at her. That was an awfully strange response from her… He shook his head and headed out the doorway to find Renji and Izuru standing nearby talking.

"Yo!" he called and approached.

"Hey, how's Ichigo?" Renji asked. "Rukia's going out of her mind with worry."

Shuuhei frowned. "Well, she was just at the fourth with Unohana-taichou," he said, glancing behind him.

Renji started to nod, then stopped and frowned. "Wait, what? I just left her at the sixth with Kuchiki-taichou. Like not five minutes ago."

Shuuhei shrugged. "I guess she got here already, said they were taking him back to the manor to rest…" he said, starting to worry a little bit, though he tried to dismiss it. There was a growing thought in the back of his mind.

Renji shook his head. "No, when I left the sixth, she was telling Kuchiki-taichou that Unohana-taichou wanted him to spend at least the next week in the fourth so she could monitor him. She said that Shiro had done quite a bit of damage to his body, weakening his reiatsu to the point she wasn't sure if he could even summon Zangetsu, let alone do anything else."

Shuuhei blinked. "What…then who…" Shuuhei took off back to the fourth with both the other lieutenants right on his heels. He opened the door and rushed into Ichigo's room to find him gone. He ran into the front and found Isane speaking with another fourth member.

"Where's Ichigo?" he asked, eyes wide, glancing around for any sign that he was out in the front area somewhere. He had gripped the tall woman by the front of her kusodo.

She shook her head. "In his room?"

Shuuhei shook his head again. "Where's the taichou?"

Isane looked a little worried. "Ah, she went to the eleventh earlier this morning, there was an incident…"

Shuuhei let go of her kusodo and stepped back. "But…but if she's not here…then who…"

Renji came in and shook his head. "Kuchiki-taichou knew nothing about it and Rukia hasn't left the sixth…"

There was a bustle and everyone started moving at once. Eventually, Byakuya, Unohana and Ukitake had all met up at the fourth with Kurotsuchi. After a few minutes, the captain of the twelfth came out and looked at them.

"Arrancar," he said, looking at them. "The only explanation I have is the perfect hypnosis. You saw what you were supposed to see."

"But…but that means…" Shuuhei stammered, looking at the others.

"That means that Aizen has him," Renji said, turning to Shuuhei with wide eyes.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Waking up was difficult. It seemed to take forever, like swimming through thick mud or glue or something equally thick and annoying. He tried to focus. Shūhei's eyes, he thought. If he could just swim through the thick stuff and come awake, he'd be there, he was sure he would. So, he struggled madly and finally managed to get his eyes open. He winced because it was bright, terribly bright, and he didn't remember the lights being so bright in the fourth. He felt strange.

"Good morning, sunshine," he heard in his ear and his eyes went wide. He knew that voice. That voice didn't belong to Shuuhei or anyone else he wanted to hear from, ever.

He turned to find himself staring into a pair of cerulean blue eyes that had haunted every dark point of his life recently. He tried to move, anything, get away from him, but he couldn't. His hands were bound over his head to something and he couldn't move his legs either. To his horror, he realized he was almost naked, wearing only some sort of covering over his lower body that was tied around his waist. He shook his head and tried to scream but his mouth was fixed closed in some sort of metal clamp that wrapped around his mouth.

"Sorry, forgot to tell you when I was done with ya the first time, we weren't done yet," he said smiling at him and reaching out and running a rough hand over his hair. "And you did exactly what we were hoping you'd do. Let the hollow take control. Now, you are going to do that again. It is up to you how much we must put you through before you give him up to us. If you go ahead and let him take over now, we won't hurt you at all," he said as his fingers traced down his face to his throat where there was some sort of collar.

Ichigo shook his head. He couldn't let the hollow out just like that. He had blocked him from retreating again. He couldn't even get to his inner world, let alone let Shiro take control.

"Oh, you won't do it?" Grimmjow asked, smirking.

Ichigo shook his head viciously with wide eyes. Grimmjow nodded. "You can't do it."

Ichigo nodded then, hoping beyond hope they'd understand that it didn't work that way. "Good," Grimmjow said with another grin. "I was hoping you'd say that," he said.

Ichigo watched shocked into silence as he climbed up onto the bed and placed his hands on his knees. He glanced down to realize that his knees had some sort of bar between them attached to straps, and his ankles were both chained to the sides of the bed.

"See, you'll get to be our…distraction until you do what we want. So, please, don't try and get out of here because you can't. If you do, you'll be punished severely. Don't worry, Szayel can heal you if you get hurt too badly. After he's done playing with you, I'm sure. We've been such good Espada; Aizen-sama decided we needed a reward. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it," Grimmjow said with a grin as he moved forward and forced himself onto the bound Shinigami.

Ichigo honestly thought it should probably hurt less the second time. He was incredibly wrong in that assumption. When he finished with him Grimmjow just left, leaving him bound and dirty, and Ichigo wanted to scrub every inch of his skin off his body again. He felt blood trickling down from his wrists already, and the metal of the collar was biting into his chin and collarbone wickedly.

He didn't have much time before the door opened again and an Arrancar he didn't know entered the room with a lecherous grin if he'd ever seen one. He was tall and dark skinned, and he didn't look any kinder than Grimmjow. He tried to scream and he yanked against the bindings.

"Aw, pretty thing, you are," the new Arrancar said coming over and sitting beside him, reaching out and running a hand over his damp hair. "I see Grimmjow wasn't so nice to you. He's a beastly thing, isn't he?" he said in a calming voice.

Ichigo's head was spinning as he felt the release of the latches on his ankles and the bar on his knees. Something was wrong, he felt drunk and out of it as he felt his body turn and hands trailed over his back with deceptive softness.

"There, now, listen to my voice, isn't that better?" he asked, stroking his back and head.

There was a clink and the shackles holding his hands released but he just let them fall above his head. He couldn't move them, he didn't know why. He felt the metal piece on his mouth slip away and nothing emerged but a sigh. He felt sleepy as his head was wrenched painfully back and his mouth invaded by the dark Arrancar's tongue. He didn't care, though. He didn't respond, either, but he was somewhere between awake and asleep and just…couldn't care.

He barely flinched when he roughly breeched his body; tears were the only indication of the pain he was in. He couldn't even move as he let his mind go. It was kind of nice, almost like he was somewhere else and not in this horrible place that he wasn't even sure where it was. He let his mind focus on Shūhei's face. Would he come save him? No, why would he do that. He wasn't even fighting anymore. Who would want someone that just let this happen to them?

"Ah," he heard breathed into his ear as the Arrancar stiffened against him, and nearly crushed the breath from him as he clutched him against his chest. How'd he end up sitting up on him like this? He wasn't even sure. "There, now, that's a good little slut," he said. "Please, I'm hoping you don't let Aizen have his way. I'd enjoy coming to see you again."

The world spun and he was on his back staring at his face as his hands were shackled again, as were his legs. He at least left off the gag and the bar. His eyes fluttered and the bigger Arrancar was gone and he was staring up at the ceiling again. Some time passed and he heard a voice he recognized speaking. Aizen, he thought, turning his head toward the white clad traitor as he spoke to Gin who stood beside him.

"Seems Zommari's influence was quite strong, Aizen-sama, been out of it since he left three hours ago…" Gin said, glancing at him.

Aizen nodded, moving closer and kneeling beside his head. Ichigo tried to focus on him, but his face kept moving. Aizen pushed open one of his eyelids all the way.

"Might have Szayel look at him. I can't get what I want if he dies like this," he said, standing up and glancing at Gin. "The collar has his power sealed completely, correct?"

"Yah," Gin said with one of his creepy smiles. "It does. He's as weak as a lil' kitten. Szayel said he was weak when he got here, something about the hollow taking his reiatsu while it was in control."

Aizen nodded. "Continue with the plan. Any word on Soul Society?"

Gin nodded. "They've mobilized already, seems that of all people, Hisagi-san is coming to Heuco Mundo after him. I would think taking the chance on encountering his taichou would be enough to keep him away."

"Interesting development. However, Hisagi was close to Abarai, so it may be cause of that connection that he comes to retrieve him. Abarai and Kuchiki are no doubt coming," he said, looking around.

"Hai, of course, and a few others, but we should have Szayel look at him. Dead doesn't help us in our plans," Gin said with a nod of his head.

Aizen left with him and time seemed to do something funny because he closed his eyes and when he opened them he was looking up into a man's face with gold eyes and bright, cotton candy pink hair.

"There you are," he commented, grinning madly. "Was wondering if you were going to come back to me."

Ichigo groaned as stabbing pain shot through his back. The man patted his arm. "Stay still. Zommari shouldn't have been in here so early. Grimmjow's bad enough," he muttered, moving to grab a syringe. "Zommari is twice his size though. No wonder you're out of it, just from damned blood loss," he muttered almost to himself as he stabbed the syringe into his thigh. He winced and then the pain started to ebb away a little bit.

"This should get you back to somewhat normal," he said, taking another syringe and injecting him in a vein this time in his arm. "You're going to have to stop fighting them, okay? They could hurt you a lot worse than this if they wanted to with you having no access to your powers. Let them do what they want, for Kami's sake. I'll help with the pain when I can, but honestly, I'm not sure how much. If you give them what they want, Aizen-sama will have them stop," he said, eyes narrowing as he looked at him.

Ichigo shook his head as tears started to well, mostly out of sheer frustration. "I…can't…make him…come out…will kill me…if I do…" he said in low and quiet voice.

Szayel frowned and looked at him. "Why would it kill you?"

"Burn up the body…not a hollow…like him…" he said, eyes fluttering from the pain medication Szayel had given him as he slipped into sleep. Szayel sat back and thought. He sighed and took a quick blood sample and headed back to the lab to run some extensive tests on it. If what he said was true, then the whole plan was for nothing, and what they were doing to him had no reason.