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-- ByakuyaXIchigo --
Ichigo wavered as he pulled in what spiritual power he could. It felt so good to remember the two people around him, and this garden…he's sat with…Renji! He'd sat with Renji as Rukia recovered once.
He wanted to run around the whole of this town and let the rest of his memories fall back into their allotted slots. He wanted see everyone he ever knew and shout their names at them in glee.
He felt the weight of his sword in his hand and realised that it felt damn heavy. As heavy as it did after a huge battle. It swung back onto his back, wrapping itself snugly into the bandages and nestling on his shoulders like another long lost friend.
"How do you feel?" Byakuya watched tentatively as Rukia cheerful hit a playful punch into his arm.
"Whoa. Like a train ran me over." He said at the pounding that has settled in for the night on the top of his skull. His grabbed a handful of orange hair and wished he hadn't remembered that headache. Ichigo stumbled, his legs giving into the tiredness he'd felt. Byakuya's arms were there supporting him and Ichigo looked into the calm steel eyes. "So tired." He confessed his eyes closing as his body slackened against the nobles form.
-- ByakuyaXIchigo --
Hichigo, stood on leaning against the wall as Nell, in her child form, crept out of the kitchen.
"Oh." She looked at him and quickly hid something behind her back.
"What have you got?" he asked knelling to his haunches in front of her.
"Nofing Hwitcigo." She gave him her best grin. He placed a hand on her head and turned her entire body like a screw cap.
"Cookie?"
"Huwungreeee" She looked at him with those huge endless pools of pity and he tutted.
"I want one too!" He grinned raising his eyebrows at her. "Only…I wanna play a joke on old pinky in his labs."
"Nelly hewp woo!" She bounded enthusiastically up and down.
"You're my diversion then."
Hichigo, crept in as the loud crash that was once the cookie storage fell to the floor and all the Hollow staff in the kitchen screamed at the child Hollow. It was easy to find the labs allocation of food, kept separate as the snide pink man feared any kind of interference with his experiments. Their food was weighed and measured out exactly as he wanted it. Hichigo poured the valuable bottle of sake into the cooking pot and grinned. The labs and rat cages of his experiments were in for a good night tonight. He looked at the other high proof bottle he'd brought and shrugged. Ahh what the hell, they'd have a really good night.
-- ByakuyaXIchigo --
Byakuya retired early. The meal had been eaten quietly, but timely it seemed. As he slid his uniform off, turning to the bed hearing Ichigo in the throws of a nightmare.
"You know Kurosaki, you're my first LIVE human in my rat cages! I was just wondering how you differ from a normal soul." Ichigo looked at the range of instruments beside the metal bed he was restrained on and his eyes opened wide towards the grin on the evil man's face. Ichigo watched the man pull out his Szayel's zanpakutō,' Fornicarás' was released. "sip" Fell from his lips. A pair of wings grew on his back as his lower body transformed into a flock of long tentacles, and a blood-like liquid dripped from all over his body. The scream from Ichigo that echoed around the labs…
…echoed around the guest room and Ichigo jerked awake. His breathing was rapid and he shook.
"Ichigo." The concerned voice drifted into his ears and he looked with frightened eyes up at Byakuya as he tied his obi around the white sleep yakata.
Ichigo sat and slid his knees up resting his elbows on them to scrub at his over active mind. Tonight wasn't really any different to any other before, but it felt different. Where Byakuya would have just slid in beside him and held him before, he didn't feel that was appropriate anymore. Ichigo was no longer that helpless child as far as he knew. He sat himself on the single futon watching the teen holding his head and trying to shake off the images his dream had left him with.
"Byakuya." The eyes looked up from the knees.
"Yes?"
"Would you…I… please." He couldn't form the words, but the pleading for comfort in this misted chocolate eyes said everything else. They spoke of his need for some physical contact that could remind him, all of the things that happened with Aizen were in the past now.
Obliging the teens request, Byakuya slid into his bed and pulled the teen into his chest. Ichigo let himself settle on the firm torso, his body be wrapped into the arms he had felt every night so far. It was this comfort that had got him this far in his recovery. This comfort that gave him the strength to rise above the dreams that tried to break him in the absence of his tormentors.
He unwrapped his arms from between them and slid them around the nobles waist. There was a difference tonight. A difference for them both. Ichigo was making a choice for his future again, trusting the messages of his inner world; the last traces of his brother who guided him towards his sanctuary.
He closed his eyes as deft fingers dragged gently through his hair and stroked his neck. He relished the breath that fell with a soft repetitive flow across his bare shoulders. The smell of the now recognisable scent, came with its own set of calming influences.
Ichigo looked up at the warm features and searching eyes that wondered if being more intimate would be allowed. He smiled a small grateful smile and slid himself up higher to look at the embodiment of his sanctuary and let his lips touch against the others. It was a simple soft lingering peck of thanks. A sharing of the knowledge that in time it could be more.
Byakuya swelled out his chest with a sigh of contentment as Ichigo settled his head on his shoulder. The older man felt the arms that wrapped around him and gave a quick squeeze. He smiled to himself, tipped his head to fall on the ginger mop and gave a silent prayer of thanks to any god that had the heart to listen.
-- ByakuyaXIchigo --
Hichigo stifled a laugh as Aizen sat with the pink haired Espada and shared a meal. How damn fucking lucky was he! Oh what a night this promised to be!
Gin slid an arm around Aizen, wondering what on earth the man was thinking, getting himself into this state and with the others watching him indeed!
"Come on, time for ya to go to bed ai?" He sighed at the giggle that erupted. The man of dignity was a total wreck. Even Gin in his heart of hearts couldn't take advantage of such a pathetic creature. His night of passion would have to be postponed.
The rat cages were defiantly having a better night than they'd had in a long time. It must have been the first night he'd ever visited that they were all snoring peacefully, drowned in a sea of potent sake laced supper. Their suffering and pains drifted away on respite.
The man he was looking for sat hunched over his desk murmuring to himself.
"Oh Ulquiorra…kiss me…" Hichigo smiled and tapped the man on the shoulder. "Oh…ermmm…yeeess?" The dozey eyes looked up at the innocent face of Ichigo's past Hollow. "You're…Now don't tell me… You're…."
"In a hurry. Aizen wants to separate another Vizard. We caught one earlier!"
"We did! OOOOhhhhh…." He grinned. "Can I play with it?"
"Later. He wants me to have the two injections?"
"Oh…ahhhh…of course…." The Pink Hollow struggled to his feet and wobbled dangerously across the room. "Here." He pointed in a wide arching loose direction that could have been one of three cabinets. Hichigo looked inside each until the almost dozing Hollow finally nodded approval. He looked at the row of needles and suddenly felt quite evil. He grabbed them all and darted out of the room, reserving two inside his pocket.
-- ByakuyaXIchigo --
Aizen woke slowly. He frowned before he even had chance to open his eyes.
"Morning." The cheery sound was very unlike anyone in this place, but the sodden lilt of Hichigo was unmistakable.
Aizen's mind cast along his body, something was wrong…slowly he opened his eyes and looked at the grinning white haired youth. Hichigo leapt onto the side of the bed and Aizen felt the bed rise and fall with his movements. "You don't look too happy." Hichigo smirked.
"No…I…" His eyes cast over the Hollow and shot open as he realised he was tied to the bed. He tugged at the restrains. He focused his energy on the bindings and even tried vainly a few spells but none seemed to be working.
"Tsk. Those collars hey. They really do drain you of your retsui don't they?" Hichigo flicked his fingers around the collar gracing the man's neck.
"Get me out of this now!" The voice was overly controlled and direct. The order was not one that any one in their right mind would ignore normally, but then Hichigo wasn't in his right mind was he.
Szayel's groaned at the pounding headache and dry rasping throat. He opened his eyes, squinting at the bright lab lights and looking hungrily at the glass of water placed in front of him. Just what he needed.
Nell woke that morning too, she looked at the whole bowl of cookies that sat waiting for her and grinned. Hichigo was so naughty! She giggled and tucked into her breakfast. The one thing she hated was the push and shove in the dining room that often left her at the bottom of the food chain if Hichigo wasn't there to hoist her up and grab her a breakfast.
Aizen a man of composure and preplanning paused in his struggle for freedom as he heard the screams of pain that echoed around the castle. His subordinates! The pain filled retsui thundered around him and vanished almost as instantaneously as it arrived.
"What did you do!"
"Ahh me?" Hichigo looked innocently at the ex-captains sword discarded by the bed before sliding it into the side of his hakama. "Nothing that a little Hollow separation serum couldn't fix in their breakfast." He grinned. "Or glass of water."
"You bastard!"
"Yep." He grinned. "But if I was as much of a bastard as you, I would have raped you by now. Your guts would be half hanging out and I'd be leaving you half dead to waste away in your own misery." Hichigo shrugged. "I guess I'll have to satisfy myself with this instead." He opened a rip to Soul Society and looked to the powerless leader. "I think Gin and Tousen are busy seeing to your useless army, I guess they'll come in here eventually. At least you should hope its before this reaches the bed." He bent and flicked a kido spell on a pair of ornate draped curtains and smiled as they burst into flames. "Bye!"