Hello All! First off, I want to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who have submitted a review. They are extremely helpful to me, and I do love them so so so much, so, Domo arigatogozaimashita! ^^

Secondly I have some insights for you... I know that we don't really know much about Hanataro's familly, so I took some liberties, and may do so yet with Ikkaku also... I do mention Hana's brother, who is in the real storyline, but there isn't much info on him so I'm not really going to get into him too much, suffice to say he is not in the picture. Also, I would like you all to keep in mind that none of my characters are ever mean for the sake of being mean... they're mostly just misguided or upset... that having been said, enjoy!

Hanataro had been home for a full day. After the fight with Ikkaku, the man had left the health center, and without him there, Hana felt little reason to stay. He would still need to go in for checkups and such, but for the time being he would be fine. Having been taken off duty, he found himself with quite a lot of time on his hands, but the nausea he felt kept him from doing too much, so mostly he just wandered around the apartment, trying not to think about Ikkaku. Currently he was having little success. It seemed that everything made him think of the man. When he made tea, he thought of Ikkaku smiling as he made them lunch. When he tidied up, he thought of the messy apartment that Ikkaku was now back living in. When he lay down to rest, he thought of lying in the man's arms... Sighing as he rested his aching back against a cushion, he looked out the window at the warmth of the day and considered going out for a bit. Perhaps he would go for a walk and see who was out and about or-

A sudden knock at the door cut into his thoughts. Hoping it was Ikkaku, but expecting it to be either Isane or another squad four member, he was shocked to be met by a stern looking woman with short black hair mixed with strands of grey and cutting brown eyes. She gave him a nod and walked in, her violet kimono trailing behind her as she passed the man.

"So then! Tell me why you aren't at work, Hanataro." He closed the door behind her, turning to face the woman who had always managed to make him feel inadequate. "I was down by your office and a girl there told me you'd been taken off duty."

"It's nice to see you too, Mother." She was already giving the apartment a disapproving stare and when he sat back down on his sofa, she huffed loudly.

"You're not even going to offer your poor old mother a cup of tea?" Hana stood up with a slight groan and went about making more tea without so much as a sigh as his mother took his seat after fluffing the cushions.

"What brings you here mother?" He tried to keep his tone light, but he really was not in the mood to have her around. "I would have thought you and father would be too busy treating ill nobility to pay me a visit." She gave a disapproving sniff.

"Well yes, we are, but seeing as we hadn't heard form you in nearly two months we thought it best to make sure you hadn't gotten yourself killed... or worse." She gave him a sideways look and he knew this would not be an easy visit. He had never lived up to the expectations of his family. His brother had been the favorite, and with Seinosuke now gone, there was a lot of pressure on Hanataro to fill his shoes. His mother had always been especially harsh, not accepting the fact that without combat abilities, even in the fourth division, he was unlikely to get much higher in rank.

"Well, as you can see, mother, I am not dead." She huffed again at this as she watched him make the tea.

"Perhaps not, but you have been removed from duty," she stressed, refusing to drop the subject,"and they refused to tell me anything about it at the health center." Staring at him expectantly, she watched his slow and careful movements as he brought her drink and sat beside her on the sofa. He paused a moment in contemplation of what to tell her. There would be trouble, no doubt. The question now became whether he was willing to risk putting off the news further. Ultimately the decision was made for him, as it would only get worse the longer he waited.

"Mother, I have something to tell you. It will be a bit of a shock, but please don't take it too hard." She simply blinked back at him.

"I will take it however it is appropriate to take it. What is it Hanataro?" Her voice was stern as always and though he wished for her to be compassionate, he knew she would not be and braced himself.

"Well, mother, do you remember the hollow that bit me all those years ago?" She nodded and he went on with the story, telling her about the reiatsu cage that had been left inside him and going on to tell her about the pregnancy while skirting around mentioning Ikkaku by name, or the rape. He didn't need her getting up in arms about that. This was bad enough.

"Pregnant? Oh Hanataro, how could you let this happen!" She was on her feet, yelling and highly distraught. "Of all the things that could have happened, Hanataro! What were you thinking?"

"It isn't as though I planned this, mother! I didn't even know I could get pregnant until it was too late." He was about go on to say how he could have been killed and nearly had been, but she cut him off, completely inconsolable.

"That isn't the point Hanataro! How many times have your father and I told you that nothing good could come of this insistence of yours; this perversion you have with... men! We told you time and time again to stop this, that they were using you and you would end up in some sort of bad situation!" Hana shook his head in disbelief. She thought this was his fault!

"I doubt very much that you meant I could become pregnant, mother! Really!"

"It doesn't matter what we thought would happen, the fact is something has happened and surely now you must admit that we were right about this." The man shook his head. His mother had never liked the fact that he was attracted to men even though he had openly admitted to being gay his entire adult life. She had continued to insist it was a phase he would grow out of, or that he was simply doing it to make her hair grey. Despite his insistence that this was not the case, there was no convincing her, and as he listened to her continue to lecture him, he thought, why should now be any different?

"...And even if you could, Hanataro, it wouldn ft do to-"

"Enough Mother! Why are you doing this? Why must you be perpetually against me? It isn't as if I wanted this! It isn't enough that I'll be raising this child without being ready for it at all? You need to make things more difficult for me?" The woman balked at that. She stared at her normally meek son as if he had grown an extra head. Who was this yelling at her? Her son had certainly never raised his voice to her before.

"Hanataro! What has gotten into you?" she was shocked, visibly so, but the man wasn't about to take it back. He had sat idly by for far too long as she had vocalized her discontent and he had had enough.

"What's gotten into me, mother, is what I wish I had had this entire time! Some courage! You have no right, mother; no right!"

"And tell me Hanataro, do you just intend to disgrace our family and your own name by having this illegitimate child? What will I tell the nobility we work for? Your father and I will be ruined, and the legacy you would stand to inherit would be destroyed. Is that what you want? To ruin everything for us? Is that the sort of person your child should look up to?" Her cheeks were pink and she was breathing hard. The look in her eyes was pained, and even though Hana wished he could hold strong, he felt his resolve waver. His eyes dropped to the floor and as she stood to leave he felt the shame she always seemed to leave him with.

"I hope you consider that there is more than just yourself to think about in all this Hanataro. Your family, your name, and even the potential future of this child are all at stake here. Remember this." As she left the small apartment, her gaze didn't even attempt to meet that of her son, and as abruptly as she had come, she left, without so much as a goodbye.

Hana sat there for a time, watching his mother's untouched tea grow cold. There had never been a thought to how this might affect his family's business or the child itself. When he had been growing up there had always been that pressure to behave according to the nobility's standards, but he had escaped it somewhat since joining the 13 Court Guard. His family was not noble by far, however they were exemplary healers. They had been healers to the royal family for generations and had trained healers for the noble families for even longer, something that was a greatly coveted honor. The basis of the continued success of this was showings of extraordinary breeding, and as a Yamada he was supposed to uphold such standards. To be cavorting with men in the first place, he supposed, had been a slap to his mother's face, which is why he had never really pushed the point until now. Of course, there had never been a real reason to push the point until now. The fact was, the situation had changed, and there was no good way to resolve it. Now it would just be a matter of trying to save face and after the fight with Ikkaku the other day, he wasn't even sure he had the means to that. Even though he wanted very much to uphold the honor of his family name, he had always struggled with the fact that to do that he would have to deny who he was, and with this baby on the way, things were going to get a lot more complicated.

oooooo

Ikkaku had spent the afternoon doing paperwork. When he had first gotten back from the health center he hadn't bothered with work, sticking instead to what the healers had made him promise to do, but after a day of excruciating boredom he had decided that as long as he stayed away from anything physical he'd be fine. He had been pissed, but not entirely surprised at the stack of unfiled reports waiting on the captain's desk when he had come in, and had been signing his life away ever since.

"Damn, Yumi, would it 'a killed ya to pick up a pen?" He mumbled to himself as he signed another incident report and stacked it among the others he had finished. The pile didn't seem to be going down, and with each form he filled out the boredom which had originally been the drive of his efforts crept closer and closer in. He was beginning to wish for some sort of distraction. He couldn't just go back to his room; everything in that apartment reminded him too much of his former not quite boyfriend. There just seemed to be something missing when he looked around and knew that his Hana wouldn't be back, and he was fairly sure he wouldn't be.

Ikkaku had never had a relationship with anyone quite like the little healer. He seemed so weak and helpless most of the time but so strong and determined other times. He knew there was a power waiting to be unleashed in that petite frame, if only the man would gain some confidence. He had seen it happen before. The problem now was that the situation had changed for them. The pregnancy had thrown a wrench in the gears. He had wanted to be there for the guy, but when he had intended to simply quell the fears the other obviously had, he had instead let his temper get the better of him and more than likely destroyed any hope of a future with the man. Maybe it was better for everyone this way though. It would have only been a matter of time before he had done something to ruin it all and this way at least there were no expectations built up yet.

He sighed and ran a softening hand over his freshly shaven scalp, noting that when he did get back into combat he would be blistering from lack of calluses on his hands. A knock on the door was an unexpected and welcome disturbance then. It was a light rap and didn't sound like anyone from his squad, so when he called out for the person to enter and was greeted coolly by an older woman in a purple kimono he wasn't terribly surprised.

"I assume by your lack of haori that you are not in fact the captain of this division," she said dryly, moving to the center of the room, "though your position behind that desk would suggest otherwise." She paused afterwards, as if she were waiting for a response, though no part of what she had said was a question, nor had it been stated as one. Nonetheless, she stared down the third seat until he spoke in the belittling tone he used on subordinates.

"No, I ain't the captain, but I'm as good as you're about ta get. What's it to ya?" He met her gaze with his best no nonsense glare, and whether she was satisfied with the answer or she simply thought it a waste of time to argue, she did go on with what she had come for.

"Well, in any case, I am not here to question the tactics of a rather backward and brutish division. I am, however, looking for the one who has impregnated my son. I understand he is a member of your squad." The fighter did a double take at that, standing.

"You're Hanataro's mum?" The woman sniffed loudly.

"I am his mother, yes. It's so nice that the entirety of the seretai is aware of the situation." The sarcasm dripped thickly from her words, and Ikkaku frowned. This woman was nothing like her son. How such a nice kid could come from this... person, the man would never know. He made a quick decision without hesitation.

"Well the entire seretai don't know 'bout it, but it just so happens I'm the one you're lookin' for." He snapped back at her. "You keep goin' around announcin' it ta strangers though, and the whole Soul Society's about ta catch on." The look he received at that could have taken a year off Kenpachi's life and he did his best not to let her catch on, though he had a feeling she knew, as she chose that moment to attack, her words flying viciously at him.

"The whole Soul Society is not my concern. What is my concern is that my son has become involved with a menacing brute from a combat division, whose sole accomplishments in life have most likely been how many souls he can defeat in battle, without a care of whether they were Hollow, Human, or Shinigami, and whose goal in this world is ultimately to die in battle. You've probably never had a real long-term relationship in your life, nor have you cared to, and now my son is stuck raising your violent progeny while you go get yourself killed in combat just so you can have honor in the next life according to some misplaced sense of duty." The sideways glare down her nose seemed an impossibility to Ikkaku, who was about a foot and a half taller than this woman, but she did it somehow, and he felt the desire to smack the look off her face rising in his gut.

"What d'you want from me then, if I'm so terrible, eh?" She closed he eyes and shook her head as if it were the most stupid question she had ever heard.

"I came to tell you what's really going on here." She was suddenly calm and took the seat opposite the one Ikkaku had previously occupied. He frowned in confusion, but took the seat behind the desk once more.

"What the hell's that supposed ta mean?" She turned red in the face in an instant.

"It means," she spat, "that my son has been abused by you for long enough!" Her features returned to calm with visible effort and she went on. "He is a meek little child, and never was one to stand up for himself even against severe abuse. As a child, the other children would call him names and pull his hair and he continued to refer to them as friends, even when they hit him hard enough to make him bleed." She sighed and looked up at Ikkaku, her eyes now full and round like Hanataro's always seemed to be and suddenly the resemblance was uncanny. Those eyes were not the same blue color as the deep oceans of Hana's, but the effect they had on the woman's face, the softening of her features and empathy that now showed through, was so much like that of her son it was eerie.

"Don't you see?" she pleaded, "You're doing nothing but hurting him, and you don't even realize it. He hasn't said so, and I'm certain he never would, but that doesn't change the truth. He doesn't love you; doesn't care for you. Oh he might like you well enough; might even tell you that he wants this, but let me assure you, he doesn't. He is acting like this for some other purpose. Maybe it's because he didn't want to upset you and simply let it go too far. Perhaps he believes he owes you something, or that he now needs to remain with you for the sake of this child." Her eyes went cold and the switch was like shutting off a tap - instant. "Believe me - he doesn't. His family will support him just fine without you in it."

She bore into Ikkaku's red-tipped onyx eyes with the intensity of a laser beam once more, and as he processed the information, things she had said began to ring true. Hanataro had never truly committed to their partnership. He had never been the one to start anything; that had always been the fighter. Though the two hadn't gotten very far, he was sure that if they had, it would have been to his own insistence and not the healer's. The fact was, he had been taking things slow so as not to scare off the other man, expecting him to be hesitant after the rape, and the smaller man had never indicated that he ever wanted anything more than what they already had. Ikkaku had assumed at the time that eventually there would be more to it and that he simply needed to be patient, but now he wasn't so sure. This woman was the guy's mother after all. Who would know the healer better?

"So," he said, after a long minute, "I'll ask again. What do ya want from me?" He leaned back in his chair, feeling defeated and slightly confused. She tilted her head and judging by the expression on her face you might have thought she asked for a cup of tea, but when she spoke Ikkaku's blood ran cold.

"He doesn't wish to have you remain in his life. I have come to ask you not to see him again." She met his gaze uninterestedly, and he stared back hard. After a moment he spoke.

"I ain't about ta abandon him, but you tell him, if that's what he wants, I'll stay outa his way."

As she rose and silently left the 11th division barracks, a sad smile crossed her lips as she nearly heard the man's heart breaking behind her. It was too bad; it had to be done.

Gah! Meddlesome Mother! WHY? Oh well, don't worry, the next chapter is reeeeeaaallly nice. ^^

~Andromeda

P.S. only maybe 2 or three chapters left. I might do an epilogue too, but I'm not planning on getting into the baby's life too much... let me know what you think.