A/N: There is lemon in this chapter! I apologize to those that want it because it's so short, and for those that don't want it, the sections are marked by a bold warning. Enjoy. =)
Chapter 2 - Mating
Across town from the Urahara Shoten the sky split apart, a large black rip tearing the atmosphere. The figure that emerged was tall, well built, and sported a head full of sky blue hair, currently darkened by the state of night. He scoffed scanning the area, looking for the tell-tale reiatsu of one orange-haired Shinigami brat, while standing in midair. His hands shoved into the pockets of his white hakama. Scowling at the inability to sense his prey, he sniffed the air, pulling in the scents of the Human World. If his berry was here, he'd find him. Once he set his eyes on a particular prey, he always caught it.
Back at the Shoten the party had begun to disperse. Most of the Shinigami returning to the Soul Society, and taking Yoruichi and Orihime with them as liaison for the ex-Espada, who was forbidden from entering Seireitei. At a glance from both Nel and Shinji, Uryuu and Chad went home as well, a shared apartment with Ulquiorra and Orihime not far from where the Xcution had their headquarters for a while. Though the other Fullbringers had never shown back up again, Chad was kept on their payroll for courtesy purposes. In fact the rumor was that Jackie had been in Mexico with Chad, but the large man would neither confirm nor deny it.
This left Kisuke, Shinji, Ulquiorra, Rukia, and Nell with Ichigo, who was now able to sit in the room without seriously affecting the three males too badly. He was currently looking down at floor, trying to bore a hole in it with his glare. He hated the way he felt. He hated the way it affected the others. He hated everything about what was going on at the moment, but the only solution that had been provided was not an option.
"So, explain this to me again?" Rukia asked, frowning at her notebook, which was covered with Chappies in an attempt to illustrate the points they were making.
Shinji and Ulquiorra exchanged glances, and Ichigo spoke up, "Haven't you picked my sex life apart enough, Midget?"
"Ichigo, I'm just trying to understand what you need." She glared, letting the 'midget' comment slide for now. "Hirako-Taicho and Ulquiorra-san have told me that all Arrancar and Visoreds are of the same bloodline, simply coming from two different paths, and that there are three types, but what I can't understand is how you could be anything but an Alpha?"
Ichigo's face was flushed quite red, and his temper only getting worse as the conversation drifted closer and closer to his deepest secret. "What is there to understand? My reiatsu is too strong to be an Alpha."
"But that makes no sense!" Rukia was clearly frustrated. If Alphas Arrancar ruled over Betas, the way that they did with wolf packs and lion prides, how could a Beta Arrancar be more powerful than an Alpha? She dug her fingers into her choppy hair in frustration.
Kisuke grinned behind his fan, and twittered when the others in the room all opened their mouths to try to explain it again to the poor confused Shinigami, who was beginning to regret volunteering to collect the information on the subject. "My dear Kuchiki-Fukutaicho, it is quite simple. To put it in Living World terms, who truly has the power in a relationship, the male or the female?"
Affronted at the question, Rukia huffed, "The female, of course! Everyone knows that. The males are there for protection and breeding." She flushed, knowing that she was bordering on quoting Soi-Fon and Yoruichi.
"Exactly!" Shinji grinned his signature piano-toothed smile.
"Arrancar Betas are female, regardless of physical gender. As such they are more powerful than most Alphas like to admit. It is why so many are killed, and why Nature has manipulated things such that Betas get progressively weaker until they either die or are claimed by an Alpha that can subdue them." Ulquiorra said thoughtfully.
Nel shifted a bit closer to Ichigo, "It's why we Betas have to stick together. So we can defend each other from unwanted attention from Alphas. Especially at this time of the year."
"This time of the year?" Rukia mimicked searching each of the faces of the people around her in turn. Seeing the shame on Ichigo's face, and the embarrassment on the others', she gasped. "Wait! You don't mean!" She stammered around for a short while, "You-you're saying that-that Ichigo is—he's not just a Beta, he's—" She was trying her hardest to say it but her mouth just wouldn't form the words her mind was screaming.
So, Ichigo said it for her, deliberately not looking at anyone in the room and trying desperately to control the blush that painted his cheeks, "I'm in heat." A thud across the room told him that Rukia had passed out.
The sun dawned on Karakura Town, bright and semi-painful for a creature designed to live in a world of perpetual night. He adjusted quickly and stretched with a very feline style yawn. Rolling his shoulders and neck with a satisfying series of pops as he stood on the roof of the latest building he checked last night, he scowled out over the town. His prey's scent was everywhere. It infuriated him to no end that he couldn't sense his prey's reiatsu, though thinking about it in logical terms he wasn't all that surprised. A Beta's first instinct during Mating Season is to hide, so the idea that even though the berry never could mask his reiatsu before, for him to be able to eliminate it completely during this time of the year was normal for an Alpha-beta like him.
Following his nose the pursuer hopped down to the street level not caring if some of the Humans around him could see the hole and piece of bone that made it obvious he wasn't one of them. Inhaling deeply he took off in a methodical semi-run, zoning in on a house down a remote street. Several hours of searching later he approached his target. The glass paneled clinic opened on a street that could hardly be classified as more than an alley, but the house connected to it was quaint and smelled heavily of his prey.
"Oi! What do you want prowling around my house?" The 18-year-old grey-eyed tomboy had come up out of nowhere, though not completely taking the Arrancar by surprise. She blew a bubble with the gum she was chewing and deliberately popped it impatiently. When all the response she received was a quick glance, she drop-kicked the soccer ball she was carrying into his head.
"Hey!" He growled, catching the ball and puncturing it with his claws.
"I said, what are you doing prowling around my house?" She put her hands on her hips and tossed her head to trying futilely get her sweaty bangs out of her face.
"I'm lookin' fer someone. Not that you really need to know." He snorted throwing the partially deflated ball back at the girl harder than he thought she could catch it.
To his surprise not only did she catch it, upon touching her chest it was repaired in a flash of reiatsu without the girl ever touching the ball with her hands. "Ichi-nii's not here." She leveled him with a glare that made him connect the dots mentally.
"You're one of his brat sisters, ain't ya?" He crossed his arms over his chest, suspicious of this apparently talented Human—no, half-Shinigami. One of Aizen's spybots during the Winter War had recorded that bit of conversation. "Which one?"
At that moment, a blonde 16-yr-old copy of the dark haired Kurosaki standing in the road next to the Arrancar. "Karin-chan! Dinner's ready and Otousan said that your boyfriend can join us if he wants to." She was so clueless.
Fuming at the thought of dating the man that was obviously much too old to be her boyfriend, Karin stomped into the house, shouting and berating their father for his assumptions, and a flicker of concern at the sound of the man inside wailing at the abuse his daughter was piling on him crossed the other's features. Then he noticed that the other Kurosaki daughter was smiling at him and waiting for his response. "Uh, no thanks, I was just looking for someone."
"Nii-chan lives across town these days. He said it was because he needed to get away from Otousan, but I think it was because he was looking for someone too and didn't want his other friends to know about it." Ok, maybe she wasn't so clueless. "Sayonara, Arrancar-san, I hope you find him soon." She bowed lightly and went back inside leaving the ex-Espada staring after her dumbfounded. It almost sounded like she wanted him to find the berry-Beta.
He scoffed, scratching the back of his head, and he started off in the direction the blonde girl had pointed at a leisurely walk. He didn't really have time to waste, as every day he didn't find the delicious Beta was one more day where one of the other Alphas looking for him could mark him as their own. However, the sound of worry in the pacifist Kurosaki-twin gave him something to think about that he hadn't before—the possibility that he wouldn't have to fight Berry-Beta's friends and family for his right as Alpha.
It took most of the day for the Arrancar Alpha to cross the town distracted as he was by the thoughts the blonde Kurosaki had triggered, and as such, when he unconsciously followed the scent of his intended, yes, he'd decided that much already, it was something of a surprise when Ulquiorra was waiting for him on the front steps of the building. Taking in the sight of the pale ex-Cuatro, for the moment outside of his gigai, the Sexta grunted.
"He is currently holed up at the Urahara Shoten. The other Alphas in the area and I felt it best if he was protected until either you showed up or he was driven to the point of settling for second best." Without further words the Demonic Arrancar left, he pace unhurried and his face unreadable.
"Oi! Whadya mean 'til I showed up?" He tried to call after his 'brother', but all he received was a dismissive wave of the other's hand.
Growling at needing to once again cross the confounded town, almost back to where he had first left the Garganta, the panther took off at top speed, hoping to reach his target before moonrise and the onslaught of what the full moon would bring. He was almost too late.
As he arrived at the window of the Shoten, he found the berry lay curled around his pillow, unconsciously rutting it, and groaning in a fever that had only gotten worse as the sun set. Instantly he crossed the threshold and stood over the suffering Beta.
Honey-turned-gold eyes, soaked in lust and pain, bore into his own with a flash of disbelief. "Y-yer a fever dream…n-not r-real." The voice was raspy and panting, strained by the weight of having put off the heat for so long.
"No, Kitten, I'm real, and I'm so sorry." He knelt down, stroking his clawed fingers over the fevered skin that had begun to show the red stripes of the death berry's first Hollow mask under his left eye.
"Gr-Grimm!" Ichigo growled out, the touch dissolving the last threads of his self-control and pride. He no longer cared who heard, who felt, or who was affected by his condition as his immensely powerful reiatsu exploded out from the tortured body, shredding his clothes.
Grimmjow was rocked back onto his heels from the force. Shit! He'd known the berry was strong, but even in this advanced stage of the heat he still had enough to flatten even some of the weaker Arrancar. This discovery made his normally icy-blue eyes glint with pride and lust, and his signature grin split his face. This powerful Beta had chosen Him! Had waited for Him! Had endured the agony of heat unfulfilled, all for Him! The panther wasn't sure which twitched bigger, his pride or his cock.
~*~Here there be smut!~*~
Taking the moment that Grimmjow had rocked back as an assent, Ichigo climbed quickly into the slightly larger framed male's lap. He purred deeply, his reiatsu wrapping, mingling and invading the other's as his lips began mapping the planes of the Sexta's chest. As he fully laid himself out on top of the other, he unconsciously ground his painfully hard erection against the bulge in Grimmjow's hakama, earning a groan of pleasure as a reward.
Instinct was completely flooding the Visored's mind, as the three beings within his mindscape merged into the true hybrid that they were. As much Shinigami as Hollow as Zanpakutou, and somehow still able to be seen and interact with Humans on their level that could only be truly traced back to his episodes with the Fullbringers. His nails were short claws, teasing and pricking at Grimmjow's hierro. His hair, brushing his neck had translucent and dark brown strands in it, making it glitter and shift in a way that had the panther's claws entwined in the alluring tresses before he even knew what he was doing. And his eyes! Amber and honey with flecks of liquid gold, darkened at the moment and half lidded as he continued his rut against his chosen Alpha.
Just as Grimmjow thought he'd drown in those liquid metal flecks, something snapped as his own instincts were triggered by his Beta's incredible reiatsu. He Released without speaking, the white plating appearing as white fur, and leaving his hakama and jacket behind.
The panther knew the hybrid was female, and that the female had initiated the Mating Ritual. That was all that mattered. Foreplay was something that was ignored in situations like this, and before either could breathe another moan the hybrid found himself on his back, his legs spread wide and the shreds of his human clothing stripped from him. The panther only took a moment to admire his mate-to-be before diving in with teeth and arousal. No preparation was needed at this time of the year, and both instinctual beasts knew it as the tip of the panther's barbed cock pressed against the hybrid's twitching entrance. A sinful moan tore from the hybrid's lips and he ground his entrance further against his Alpha.
The head slipped in and both panted out a growl as the penetration began the second phase of the Ritual. Any semblance of Humanity was now gone, and the two rutted, moaning and growling like the animals they were. All too quickly their reiatsu meshed fully, and brought both to a shattering climax that affected all of the Hollow-tainted in the area; Hollows, Fullbringers, and Visoreds alike. Even a few of the Humans and Shinigami were struck by the wave of ecstasy.
Phase Three came on the peak of the reiatsu wave, as Grimmjow, finally beginning to come back to himself, sank his fangs into the side of Ichigo's neck, where the pulse pounded, and the subsequent pain brought another, more gentle, release between them. Blood spilled over the former-Shinigami's blankets, and stained the white whiskers of the Pantera.
~*~Here ends smut (for the moment)~*~
Panting, moaning, and shivering in aftershocks, Ichigo clung so tightly to Grimmjow that his claws actually pierced the Alpha's hide to make ten pin prick beads of blood further stain his fur. The horrible, mind-numbing fever had ebbed. It wasn't fully gone, but it was relieved for the moment. Somewhere within him the thought occurred that it would take more than one mating session to fully eliminate his heat because of how long he'd waited.
He blinked his eyes, not able to focus on the room around him, but the muted sunlight no longer burned his vision as badly. He was vaguely aware that he'd passed out for a while, because the body above him was still passed out. His voice croaked, as his screaming and moaning had abused the chords, "G-Grimm?" He nuzzled the tan cheek buried next to his own, and the strong, well-muscled arms held him tightly in response.
The ex-Espada nuzzled him back and he hissed in pain as the feline's nose bumped his Mark. The sound brought the blunette back to reality and the sight of the rapidly darkening Mark right in front of his nose triggered the other set of instincts he carried as a feline. He gently licked the wound, his saliva easing the pain like a cool salve. "I know it hurts, Kitten, but only for a little while. Then it'll be much, much better." Each word was punctuated with a lick of his sandpaper-like tongue.
"Mmmm." Ichigo closed his eyes, tilting his head to the opposite side to allow Grimmjow more access. It was already feeling like Heaven to have his Alpha…HIS Alpha! His eyes went wide at the thought. His body tensed as the all-too-Human trains of thought returned.
The Sexta smirked and nuzzled him, purring. "Yah! You're mine! Yah never hafta run anymore." His voice was like crushed velvet and it immediately had a soothing effect on Ichigo that Shiro quickly encouraged. The closer and more thoroughly the Alpha and Beta connected after the Ritual, the longer and more powerful the bond between the two could get.
Shiro, inside of Ichigo's head, and the first of the personalities to be released into his own consciousness again, quickly got to the task of feeding the bond between the mates by encasing his own personal reiatsu around and through the bond. To the outside world, they would be Two, but in here? The four of them would be One! Wait! What was that?
The twisted albino stalked down the side of a building towards a desert oasis that had cropped up next to and around the Lake of Grief. Lush jungle partially hid the water form view, symbolically showing that the water would never be the focus of the mindscape ever again, but that was not what had drawn the almost Demonic-like Hollow to the place of green growth and life.
There! A streak of blue and white! It couldn't be! Only the strongest of the strongest Arrancar had Zanpakutou that were more than just swords, holding reiatsu, but as suddenly as that thought crossed the bleached soul, he knew there could be no other explanation. This was Pantera!
Crooning lightly to his Alpha's counterpart, he almost lay down submissively before SHE appeared on her back and radiating a light he'd never seen before up at him. He took a deep breath and came closer, slowly, in case the show of submission was simply a peace-offering. The blue and white panther never moved. She was in a word; stunning. Covered from neko-style ears to tail in soft, silky fur, dotted with faint spots as the feral versions often were. She was naturally bare of fur on her face and surprisingly down her front, though modestly covered by an obi sash wrapped around her chest, and hakama similar to Grimmjow's on her well-formed hips.
"You're…you're female!" Shiro finally choked out. His gold-on-black eyes going wide as the female before him squirmed up to him to bump and rub her cheek against his leg.
"I am not the only Zanpakutou to be the opposing gender for their Master. What would the others say if they knew that you were so weak, my Alpha?" She purred, snaking her delicate paw up the leg of his hakama to caress his calf.
"Al-Alpha?" Shiro squeaked. He knew he wasn't a Beta, but it was rather off-putting right after mind-blowing sex that he was to be given the opportunity to take the sword spirit as his Beta. It made the analytical portion of his consciousness that often resided solely in Zangetsu wonder if that meant that the Mating would work both ways. If so, that could become extremely interesting for his King and the King's Alpha.
~*~Here there be more smut!~*~
The panther, emulating her Master's Beta quite well, slipped over onto her belly and crawled up the white hybrid's body, dragging her breasts along his exposed skin, and purring the whole time. Unconsciously, he wrapped his arms around her and drank in her reiatsu like fresh air after a year in space. He fluttered, uncharacteristically soft kisses along her jaw. In this world the actual act of rutting could be hazardous to their Masters' bodies, but also cause complications with the previously formed bond. Both could wait, now that the heat had been abated. They would be more aggressive when it returned. So, for the time being, Pantera resolved herself to jacking her Alpha off, and giving into a pleasure neither had known he was able to give, using her tail and his thumb dipped into her hakama. It was gentle, full of the emotion Humans call love, and both came softly, sending a minor pleasure spike through the physical bodies of their Masters. This was sealed with a heated kiss on both levels.
~*~Thus end the smut (sorry it's so short)~*~
Both couples held tight to their counterparts, purring and nuzzling, enjoying the falling twilight and the contentment that comes of fully being satiated. Even Zangetsu was quite satisfied, though he had merely been an observer in both sessions.