Hey Interwebbers! Wow, this one took a while for me to actually get to, I've been crazy busy, but it all came out at once in a flow of mysterious wonder! Like I said, it basically wrote itself... I love it when that happens.
All of you may remember and/or notice that I was planning to add Mpreg to this story, and this is the chapter where we see it. Love it or hate it, I think it will work in this story quite well, though personally I typically dislike it.
Lastly, I would just like to send out LOVE and virtual pancakes to all of you for the wonderful response I am getting! It has been quite encouraging, and I look forward to hearing what you think of this one, too. Love you all!
Hanataro sat up in the hospital bed with a groan. After so many days, he was still in pain, and his reiatsu had yet to stabilize, but he didn't care anymore. He was eager to see Ikkaku, who he had been told was in a coma down the hall. He got to his feet slowly, his head spinning as he did, not used to being upright anymore, just as his lieutenant walked through the door.
"Hana! What are you doing? Get back in bed!" she took his arm and forced him back down, easily overpowering the small man in his weakened state.
"I want to see Ikkaku, Lieutenant," he answered insistently, "I'm feeling fine, really!" The lie came easily and though he never would have lied to Isane normally, he was certain they would keep him in bed until the end of time if they thought there was anything wrong. She gave him a stern look, unbelieving, and pushed him back into bed.
"He isn't going anywhere yet Hana, and neither are you." She tucked him in firmly, a worried look dancing in her big grey eyes.
"Besides, Hana, I need to talk to you." She sat down gently beside him, laying a hand on his, and looking him in the eye. "We got your test results." Hanataro was confused at this. She looked worried, and that was not a good sign, but if there was any trace of the hollow left in his system surely he would have been locked up already.
"I need to ask, Hana, as your friend, and a concerned one at that," Isane continued, her intense gaze worrying Hanataro further, "Did Ikkaku hurt you?" The small man frowned in uncertainty.
"Isane, we've been over this before…"
"I know, I know, but..." she hesitated, but found the words, "If something happened, I need you to know you can trust me, and if he's threatening you or-"
"He wouldn't! Isane, I've told you, Ikkaku wouldn't do something like that." The silver haired girl was slightly shocked that the man had interrupted her, but continued.
"Ok, Hanataro. It's just that you can tell me if something's… going on." She didn't let him protest again before continuing.
"Look, we got your results back, and they just paint a certain picture that doesn't quite match what you've been telling us." The raven-haired healer frowned again and Isane couldn't help think he was picking up some bad habits from the eleventh division fighter as she went on. "Now that we had a sample of the hollow to compare to, we were able to confirm that there's no trace of it left in your system, which is good, but we also found out more about how it most likely behaved.
"It looks like it created a reiatsu cage inside of you to hide its presence. The cage itself is made of your own energy, and is still inside of you, but we did deep scans of it, and the hollow is gone. From what we can tell, every time you were in pain, the hollow would transmit some of your energy using the piece of itself it left in that cage. When it had enough, it abandoned the cage, made itself whole again and searched for you." Hanataro's blue eyes had dropped to his lap, and he nodded slowly, listening.
"So, I'll be ok then." He said softly, relieved. "But then why are you so worried, Isane?" He looked back up at her with his ocean orbs and she thought she could see to his soul through them.
"Hana, your body found another use for the reiatsu cage." She grasped his hand in both of hers, speaking in a gentle voice. "You're pregnant."
At first Hanataro thought he had misheard, then he realized there was no way he could have, and thought maybe he was just dreaming. There was no way he could be… afflicted as such; he was male after all. Even a reiatsu cage wouldn't cause… that. But the more the healer thought about it, the more he realized it could be possible. He knew, after all, that pregnancy for those in soul society was different than human women in the real world. Here, pregnancy was mostly in reiatsu form anyway, though not entirely, and that may prove to be problematic later on, but there would be a good amount of time before they would have to worry about that. The more he thought about it, in fact, the more possible it seemed.
"But, I only…" He stopped. He had been about to tell Isane that he hadn't had sex since his academy years, but then realized the horrible truth of the situation. He could feel all the blood run away from his face, and suddenly felt dizzy and nauseated. "Isane, I'm gonna…" she was already there with the trash bin, having seen him grow pale, and as he retched she rubbed his back and held back his hair. When he had emptied his stomach, he lay back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, his head spinning again.
He had been raped. That's how he was pregnant. He put a hand to his abdomen, thinking about it, and closed his eyes. There had been four of them, three of whom could be the father, and none of which he wanted to have anything to do with. There was nothing else to do. He was on his own in this.
"We did tests," The lieutenant spoke up again, "and the baby isn't hollow, it's definitely shinigami. We didn't do a paternity test; we would need a more invasive test for that, and you would need to consent." She took a long pause, while Hanataro seemed to gather his thoughts, "It's Ikkaku's isn't it, Hana?"
The seventh seat met his lieutenant's gaze, then looked back at the ceiling in contemplation. They thought Ikkaku had raped him, and that it was his child. That's what everyone would think, wasn't it? As much as it pained him to think of people thinking of the fighter that way, he couldn't bring himself to reveal the truth. Meanwhile, Isane had taken the healer's silence as confirmation.
"If he forced himself on you, Hana –"
"No," he cut her off forcefully, sitting up in the bed once more, "I told you, Isane, Ikkaku wouldn't hurt me! I know he would never hurt me. I know that more now than even I did before this whole thing with the hollow. I was being controlled by that thing and he still tried to help me, he still risked his life to save me. I would be dead now if not for him, so please Isane, stop saying these things about him." By the time he had stopped talking, between the shock of finding out he was pregnant, thinking back to the night he was raped and the day he had almost caused Ikkaku to die, and the fact that he was passionately defending the man who had saved his life twice, Hanataro was crying, tears sliding gently down his cheeks.
"Oh, Hana, I'm sorry." Isane hugged the small man who continued to cry quietly in her arms for a few minutes. He felt completely overwhelmed all of a sudden. He wasn't ready to have a baby, certainly not by himself, and certainly not one that was conceived in such a terrible manner. He felt ashamed that he had been so weak and continued to be weak by not telling anyone about what had happened, but at the same time he was terrified that someone would find out. His lieutenant was still mumbling comforting words of apology, but he barely heard her. All of a sudden, all he wanted was to feel safe.
"I want to see Ikkaku, Lieutenant." As he rubbed his eyes, he looked up at Isane, who gave him a pitying expression.
"He's unconscious, Hana."
"I know. Please." He just wanted to be near the man again; to see his face, and smell his scent. Since that first night, he had felt so much better just being close to the third seat, and he craved his presence now more than ever. Hanataro had developed deep feelings for the bald man, and though he didn't quite understand how it had happened, he knew that he wanted to be closer to him. The man had not abandoned him, even when it was near certain that he would die because of it, and the healer knew he wouldn't abandon him because of this child either. What was more, Hana felt as though he owed it to the other to return the favor and stand by him while the man recovered. Even if Ikkaku was in a coma, the healer needed to be there for him.
Isane nodded, still looking worried, but less so now, and helped her friend to his feet. She had rarely seen the man before her so determined about anything. Though she really wanted him to rest, she had a feeling that he wouldn't really relax until he had seen Ikkaku if he was so decided on it. Besides, she thought, if Ikkaku had hurt him, he wouldn't be so eager to see him.
The two of them made their way down the hall, Hanataro hanging onto the girl for support as he shuffled with difficulty forward. When they made their way to Ikkaku's room, Isane paused at the door and turned to her companion.
"He was burned quite badly by the cero, if you remember. He looks bad, but most of that is superficial. His skin is growing back quickly; it's his reiatsu that we're still concerned with, but I don't want you taking it upon yourself to try to heal him. You're still too weak yourself, and everything that can be done is being done, alright?" He nodded gently, staring at the door, and when the silver haired girl was sure she would get no answer, she helped him into the room.
Though it was mid-day, the room was dark. The curtains were drawn and the room was bathed in a dim light which gave everything a feel of unease which Hanataro had never known could exist within the walls of the fourth division. There was room for two patients in the room, though at the moment Ikkaku was the only one, and as Hana looked, he saw what his lieutenant had meant. The fighter looked much worse than he remembered. The healers had needed to cut away all his dead flesh and re-grow it, and though it was well on its way, there were still patches where there were chunks simply missing from the man's body. He looked as if he could have been asleep, though Hana knew there was no time that the man ever slept so peacefully and it just made him look as if he were dead. A shiver ran down his spine at the thought, and he tried to focus on the positive; Ikkaku was alive.
He sat down in a chair next to the bed, beside a morose Yumichika who hadn't even looked up as the other two had entered. The two sat in silence for some time, not even realizing when Isane finally left.
"This is my fault." Tears welled up behind the healer's eyes as he spoke, "The hollow was after me, he shouldn't have gotten hurt like this." Yumichika didn't look up still, but at the other's words he took the smaller man's hand in his and spoke in turn.
"Ikkaku is a fighter, Hana. He would have gone after that hollow no matter what. That's his nature. Telling him to be safe is like telling the sun to be dark. It can't. He never went into a fight with anything but all his heart and soul, and he would be glad to know you came out alright. I know he would." The man's voice started to break then and he closed his eyes. As the two sat quietly once more, waiting and worrying, time moved gently on as Ikkaku's reiatsu steadily declined.
Don't worry, like in George of the Jungle, "No one dies in this [story], they just get really big boo-boos."
Next one should be up soon. Thanks in advance for the reviews!
~Andromeda