Stand in the Rain

Shadow of an Echo

Chapter Twenty-Eight

How Did You Love

Ichigo touching his slight baby bump so gently and the relieved words themselves seemed to break the spell of shock the announcement had thrown his friends into and he found himself wrapped up in an almost too-tight hug from Rukia as she threw her arms around him. "Oh god Ichigo, why didn't you tell me?!" She scolded, smacking the back of his shoulder at the same time as she burrowed her face into his neck, squeezing tightly while clinging to him.

He smiled at the rare moment of physical affection, especially in front of others, but just hugged her back and answered her question patiently. "I wanted to, but any time I was around you there was always other people I didn't trust close by. I couldn't even hint, especially after I started showing. I don't want anyone to hurt her."

"I understand," She assured while pulling away from him far enough to get a good look at the carefully wrapped swell, realizing there was more they couldn't see. "Hold on a second, now that I know what I'm looking at I can tell she's bigger than it looks, just how pregnant are you?"

"Almost five months," He admitted ruefully, his face flaming with a blush while he opened his Shihakusho so he could loosen and remove the cloth concealing his daughter feeling a bit self-conscious since the only ones who had really seen her since she'd been growing so much were his loves, Isshin, and Retsu.

Once the bandage was out of the way he heard Rukia gasp and her hands immediately found their way to the curved skin over the baby while he elaborated more, "I found out about her while I was at home -thank Kami- it gave me some time to deal with it before I had to really start acting." Ichigo had ducked his head when he'd uncovered his daughter, so now when he looked upwards he saw that the whole group of Shinigami had drawn closer to him to get a better look.

Rukia saw this too and stepped back to give Ichigo the chance to cover his daughter up if he wanted to. The young Visored just turned towards the observing group and brought his hand up to cradle as much of the little bump just peeking out of his Shihakusho as he could, face burning even hotter, letting these few trusted people see her too. "So, yeah, now you know." He said weakly, fidgeting where he stood, feeling his daughter kick restlessly again.

There was a short silence before a very concerned voice spoke, "That cloth is not going to harm the child is it?" Sajin asked after seeing the impression the fabric had left on Ichigo's skin.

Of all questions that could have possibly been asked, from who her father was to what he was going to name her; Ichigo felt a warm rush of gratitude that someone else held her safety as the first priority. "No, I have it on very good authority that she will be just fine with hiding her like that as long as I do it right and I'm not too far along. It's starting to get harder to breathe for me but she's okay." He assured with a grateful smile and nod in Retsu's direction. Every single check-up included a lesson on how to adjust the bandage and make sure he was doing it right to cover his growing baby safely.

It hit Renji then, about the extras in the group and the stipulation to who could come to this particular meeting, and he couldn't stop himself from breaking in. "Wait, what do the Espada have to do with this?" His eyes widened and he rounded on Grimmjow, "She's yours, isn't she?" He accused, ignoring the chorus of several voices calling his name in a scandalized tone at his complete and utter lack of tact.

Grimmjow was more than willing to meet his belligerence head-on, plus, it wasn't like Ichigo was leaping to answer, "So what if she is? You got a problem with that?" Baiting Shinigami had become a fond pastime of his since the restrictions were lifted.

"I'll kill you!" Renji snapped, rising to the challenge, reaching for his Zanpakuto.

Only to be brought to heel by a low, but all too chilling voice. "Lieutenant, should you so much as touch your weapon I'll assign you nothing but desk work for a month." Byakuya threatened with crossed arms and hard eyes directed at his subordinate.

"Captain, you can't be okay with this!" Renji protested, using Byakuya's title since the elder Shinigami had decided to pull rank on him first.

The glare just got frostier, "First of all, it is not your place to object unless you are asked to assist with the situation by the disadvantaged party; and secondly, I suggest using an ounce of common sense before drawing arms against an ally when not in a spar."

Seeing his friend about to be roasted by his superior, Ichigo decided to save him, "Renji, do a little math, it will save you some grief. I said almost five months." Renji had found out about his loves while working to train Rikichi and Hanataro, he should have at least some clue that Grimmjow was not the only option.

That brought the hot-headed Lieutenant up short while he did as told, but he soon sent a scowl at the now very smug Arrancar, "Oh you bastard, why did you claim the baby if she isn't yours?"

"Because she very nearly was," Grimmjow admitted with a shrug that told of a nonchalance that was in complete opposition to his tone of voice. "Wanted to see what would have happened had that been the case. You pretty much proved my point. So my cub would have been shunned. Good to know."

Now Renji's face was the same color as his hair and he sounded utterly offended, "Oh hell no, you don't say that shit about me. I wouldn't have done anything to hurt or ignore a kid. I know what it's like considering I was a friggin street rat. Every person gets a chance with me. My problem would have been with you, not your kid, and definitely not when she's my friend's baby too."

A single aqua eyebrow rose, "So why the death threat?"

"Because you have been a thorn in his side for a long time and you have done nothing but make Ichigo's life harder since you got here, and if that baby really was yours then you don't deserve her." The simple honesty had everyone gathered look at Renji with a bit more respect, even if they did still think he had no tact.

Ichigo couldn't keep quiet though, "That isn't true." He spoke softly, not looking up so the group couldn't see his face, and he kept his hand over his softly shifting baby; this time more for his own comfort than hers. "She isn't his Renji, and I'm happy about that because I love her fathers, but I would not have been angry if she was Grimmjow's daughter." It was still weird and a little hard to admit, but Grimmjow had cemented himself a place in their lives the moment he helped free Ichigo in a way none of the other Arrancar had done; he'd made it personal. Taking an interest in the baby and choosing to protect her even after knowing she wasn't of his blood was another plus in their books.

Ichigo did not love Grimmjow, there were far too many memories of pain and misery for that to be in any way healthy, but he could not stand to hear Renji say the other hybrid did not deserve the baby if she were his. "He does more than people see, they all do, everyone that came here from the Living World knows about her including every single hybrid. I needed enough people to know about her that if I ended up in a tight spot they could help get us out of it."

That brought both Grimmjow and Starrk under inspection, while Shinji slid into the background since no one was real surprised the Visoreds were covering for one of their own.

"You trust them that much?" Izuru asked outright, eyeing the blue-haired former Espada he'd taken as a teacher from behind the fall of blonde hair covering half his face.

Ichigo's lips twitched up into a wry smile, "Well considering it was Starrk who discovered her in the first place, and both her and I are still safe from Aizen, I'd say he earned it. As for the others well, Grimmjow had an active role in freeing me from Aizen -openly defying that bastard is not easy- so I had no reason not to trust him. I knew Szayel had been involved in the plot at least a little; so I was willing to give him a chance. The one I was most concerned about was Nnoitra, but Starrk kept him in line until I got used to him. Nnoitra is a beast, at least as bad if not worse than Grimmjow, but he is willingly protecting my daughter of his own free will by this point; he just likes riling me up because he can."

Nanao was the one to make a useful realization, "Does your kind not have any taboos against relations of this nature then, or the bearing of children by males?" She was questioning Starrk as the more approachable of the two Arrancar despite the higher rank.

"Hollows have no reason to have any such taboos -especially after reaching Menos status- we are beings created from many sources, and because of that we don't really have an exact gender the way you do." He responded with a shrug. "It is hard to describe, but each and every one of us is both male and female to a certain extent and that ratio is decided by the gender of the souls that filled the gaps of our true selves." And if Starrk noticed he and Grimmjow were now being surrounded by young Shinigami all looking at them with rampant curiosity he didn't mention it. The elder ones found it kind of adorable actually, and were hiding laughter at the cluster of Officers acting like children at story time. Plus, it helped cover up that they were drawing closer and settling in to listen too.

The next question didn't come from one of the younger one's though as the natural curiosity inherent to healers reared its head in Retsu at hearing Starrk's lazy explanation, "Interesting, so essentially your whole race is to some degree intersexed?"

Starrk thought about it for a moment, "I haven't heard that term before, but judging by the word itself, I'm guessing you're right." He paused and the group thought he would just leave it there, but to their amazement he delved fully into the mechanics of it. "I know of the two types of Shinigami, and while we are somewhat similar to your born kind, there is one very large difference. In your case the souls brought together to form your spiritual bodies are a clean slate, with no prior life information involved, in Hollows it's the opposite. When we hunt souls and the fragments join our spirits, some of what they were in life stays with them and it gets incorporated into who we are. Each Hollow is made up of a dominant soul that gives us our appearance, but also many lesser souls that contribute to our overall personality and mental traits. This is the true reason driving the hunger that plagues all Hollows. It is a need we have to stabilize our core selves. We are filling the gaps in our souls until we once again feel whole, and it is only when we've achieved enough of these patches that higher order emotions such as lust become possible again. When we are drawn to someone -typically this is purely lust as that is not too far a feeling from hunger if I can be blunt- it is more for whether they have a dominating or submissive presence. You'd probably describe those traits as the closest equivalent we have to masculine and feminine, but even then it isn't so cut and dried that we would care if two dominating or two submissive Hollows were drawn together. Children can be produced from any mating regardless, though there is a slightly higher likelihood with a dominant/submissive partnership, but it still incredibly rare no matter what."

Shinji spoke up, a second before Ichigo would have broken in himself, "What about a Visored's Hollow? Is there anything you could tell us about it from what you felt?"

"The only one I have seen fully shifted to his other form is Ichigo, so this is going just off him and Junichi but they are like us. I do not know how though. You did not have to go through the cycle of hunting and feeding the way we did to acquire your soul fragments to turn you into what we are, nor were you born with them like a Hollow child would have been, so I'm at a loss." Starrk admitted, sending a little shock through Ichigo at the new bit of information. Lilynette had mentioned that Hollows weren't quite male or female before, but he had honestly never really applied that to himself before.

He pulled himself together relatively quickly though. Compared to some of the other life altering news he'd gotten recently -one of which was currently stretching out his belly- it didn't change much, he was still Ichigo, but there was a new facet to his identity that he hadn't acknowledged before.

There was an observation he could make though, "When I fought off the Hollowfication process and gained my Hollow, he was already a fully formed Menos. Is it possible Junichi and the others had all the fragments they needed when they first got to us? We wouldn't have to hunt for what we already had." Ichigo mused, feeling Junichi's interest grow at the question too.

"I think that might be the only explanation, it would almost be as if you were born as one of us, but I really don't know." Starrk responded slowly, thinking it over. "I had a lot of time to figure out the process of developing through the Hollow levels even up to the point of becoming an Arrancar, but until I learned of Aizen's plans I did not even know the opposite was possible much less that any Visoreds existed."

Shinji stepped in, "That sounds like something we should have Kisuke look into. He could possibly find out since it was his research Aizen stole to make the first Visoreds."

"Szayel may be able to track down what you're looking for without hopping between worlds, never forget what he used to be, he was Aizen's top researcher and is very good at finding answers." Starrk reminded. "In his case the arrogance is entirely justified."

"You really think he would be interested enough to do it though?" Ichigo thought to ask, having a fairly good read of the Octava's personality after all this time.

"Depends on who asks, and how you ask him," Starrk admitted. "If all else fails tell him you will all owe him a favor; that will get his attention. He prefers it when people are in his debt and not the other way around."

"Which of the Visoreds would be the best to ask Szayel?" Shuuhei asked curiously, he was braver than Izuru but more tactful than Renji; enabling him to ask good questions just like Nanao. Most of the current captains felt the two of them had the potential to join their ranks in time while the other two were likely destined to stay as Lieutenants.

Starrk, Grimmjow, and to the other's slight surprise Shinji, all instantly pointed to Ichigo. Grimmjow was the one to explain this one though, "If you haven't figured it out yet I pity your squad; their leader is an idiot. If it is an order coming from our own kind, Starrk has control, if it is coming from your side Ichigo does."

"I thought you were asking him, not ordering. Of course I know what happens when you guys have to do something, I figured this might be different." Shuuhei defended himself, angry at the slam against his leadership skill.

"Asking, ordering; with us there really isn't much difference." Grimmjow pointed out. "You're still attempting to get him to do something he probably wouldn't have done on his own. If you want Pinky to go along with the idea, then you'd better use someone that already has authority over him."

It was in that moment that the older Shinigami in the group realized that as abrasive as Grimmjow was being, he was actually a half-decent teacher. He was explaining the point anyway instead of just insulting the young Lieutenant and leaving him to stew in it. Considering they had a certain rough around the edges Captain themselves; they were certainly no novices to the brash teaching style.

"He really wouldn't do it if someone else asked?" Izuru this time, not understanding what made the difference between one person asking and another, if you were willing to do something it shouldn't matter who made the request in his opinion.

This question was a bit unexpected, and it showed in the length of time it took to get an answer; and when it did come it was in the form of a question from Grimmjow. "Let me ask you this, do you know why Starrk is the only Espada we ALL call by last name?"

"Because he is the Primera, he outranks you." Izuru responded slowly, just knowing the answer was far too obvious to be right, but not knowing what else it could be.

"Yeah, well Nnoitra outranks me, and so does that bastard Ulquiorra, I still call them by first name. Our rankings are based on our spiritual power and all that is, is our potential strength; not necessarily how well we use it. We all call him Starrk because he is the only one to have never lost a fight, ever, to any one of us. We can only use the first names of the Arrancar we've bested in battle in other words. If we ignore that rule we are fair game as target practice for either that Espada or their Fraccion in the case of Barragan since he hates getting his hands dirty but no one really has much respect for him anymore." Grimmjow explained bluntly. "Now if we can't even use each other's first name without spilling blood, can you imagine what we would need to do to ask for a favor?"

Izuru lost what little color there was to his already pale skin, "Yeah, that would be bad."

"Don't look so afraid," Starrk spoke up languidly, eyeing the Lieutenant calmly. "It's not as horrific as Grimmjow is making it sound. He has a penchant for dramatics. What he is basically getting at is it would be better to approach Szayel from a position of authority as high as we can get just to be safe, even if a lower person asked he won't come to blows as he is relatively hard to provoke, but he might not agree to do what you've requested for the simple reason that he doesn't have to. It would be his way of exercising power when the vast majority of the time he is on a very low rung of authority. He's the lowest Espada to come, the only Arrancar lower are Lilynette and Tesra, and we are an egotistical race by nature. It is a little easier on him because he tends towards the submissive side, but in some cases that only serves to make a Hollow more driven to prove themselves."

"What makes the difference between a dominant and a submissive Hollow? Is it just a personality thing?" Shuuhei asked, not sure whether he would get an answer, but genuinely curious.

"Outwardly it shows in our personality for the most part, for example Nnoitra and Grimmjow are without a doubt dominant, while Szayel and Tesra are more submissive. Internally it hints at what proportion of female to male our souls are, traditionally Hollows with more masculine souls are dominant and feminine souls are submissive, but it is not a hard and fast rule because it can be broken. I prove that point as I have a majority feminine soul with a dominant personality, which is why Lilynette manifested as female." Starrk was not at all embarrassed to admit that one. "That's also why it is a bit easier for a submissive hollow to get pregnant, they typically have a higher proportion of feminine spirit fragments. We breed more like Shinigami than humans, but because our spirits have some traits left over from life unlike Shinigami we must wait however long it takes for those fragments to essentially 'forget' what was once impossible for them. The less masculine fragments there are the less time it takes, and the more likely it is the Hollow will have a child."

"What about Ichigo's baby?" This one came from Izuru, who'd been watching Ichigo do nothing but rub soothing circles over his little girl since he'd felt safe enough to do so. The Visored had come to sit in the ring of people surrounding the two Arrancar as well, and it gave him a great opportunity just to observe him. The pure love was impossible to miss. "If Ichigo is both Hollow and Shinigami, how is she here so quickly?"

"I might be able to answer that one myself," Ichigo interrupted before Starrk could respond, "You could look at it this way, if Junichi is half of my soul, and I am a born Shinigami, wouldn't that give him the traits of a born Hollow?"

"It does give the argument more weight," Starrk realized, "And is definitely something worth saying to Szayel when he tests the other Visoreds."

Ichigo looked to Shinji, "Do you know what kind of Shinigami the others are?"

"Not all of us, but I'm born, so are Kensei and Rose; Hiyori and Mashiro are natural." Shinji informed, "Those are the only ones I'm sure of though."

"I know Lisa is born," Shunsui added in with interest, coming to stand with them, dropping a hand to Ichigo's shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. It had been a long day. To his surprise he was tugged down to sit so Ichigo could rest against him; and Ichigo wasted no time in reaching out for Jyuushiro too. Now that they were safe and calm all he wanted was his loves close to him.

With Ichigo burrowed into one side, Jyuushiro laying against the other, Shunsui felt a smile creeping on his lips as he laid a broad hand next to Jyuushiro's slimmer one over their curled up baby, hearing a quiet sigh of relief spill out from the youngest of trio at the much needed contact. Ichigo threw all caution and modesty to the wind and kissed each in turn deeply, needing to rid himself of the stress and anxiety of the day, losing himself in their presence for a few moments.

They were not interrupted until they'd pulled away and were once again resting comfortably against each other, but once settled they were met with a simple statement. "This seems to explain the plural on fathers earlier, I had wondered about that, it looks as if multiple congratulations are in order here." The dry completely matter-of-fact tone was unexpected, though maybe not so much when considering the source was the Squad Six Captain.

Jyuushiro was the first to laugh, with Shunsui and then Ichigo not far behind, but the white-haired captain responded for the trio, "Thank you Byakuya. Yes, the baby is also mine and Shun's, she was a bit of a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. We were leaving it up to Ichigo whether he wanted to make this relationship known or not, the particulars can be, well, rather difficult."

They didn't think Ichigo was up to speaking any longer, but being with his loves always gave him strength, so it was his voice that took up the explanation, "Well, everyone here already knows so much, what could this hurt? They should know she's your baby too. Everyone cares so much about the both of you, why wouldn't I tell them you're finally getting the chance to be parents? And it's all thanks to Byakuya that you both get to be there for her as much as you want."

"We can't be more grateful to you by the way," Jyuushiro told the raven haired man strongly. "We've been doing nothing but bang our heads against the wall trying to come up with a way to all stay together, and you just handed us the future on a platter. There aren't words for the amount of relief I'm feeling, so I can only imagine what this means to Ichigo who's always been the one carrying the largest burden through this. Thank you so much for taking some of that weight off him when we couldn't."

"Yes, everything Jyuu said and more," Shunsui agreed, "You've given us our family. We don't have to run or hide anything more than we would normally have to. She is going to grow up loved so much because of you, not hated and feared. You've given our daughter hope."

Was it just Ichigo, or was the normally aloof noble actually blushing?

"It was nothing, I didn't do anything that someone else wouldn't have done. It was the right thing to do." The same matter-of-fact tone, but the rosy tint to his cheeks gave him away.

Ichigo, with a lot of effort because he really was comfortable, pulled away from his loves and walked over to Byakuya before abruptly pulling the startled captain into a sudden hug. "Don't you dare say that when you've done something we couldn't. You might think it was nothing, but we don't." He grabbed the wide-eyed man's hand and put it squarely over the baby. "We owe you, big time, for keeping this little girl safe. So take our gratitude, please."

At first, all Byakuya showed was surprise, then curiosity, finally after a gentle probe of spiritual pressure got sent back to him just as curiously; pure awe.

Ichigo smiled at him, "See what I mean? Don't you dare say what you did was nothing."