And here's another chappie from my friend Arei. At this point we all need to thank her for the one shots! Especially me! We've talked and there are a few in the works...including one from me that is necessary for the Third Story finale. And that's all I'm saying...

Chapter 8

Puppy-love

Thestrals.

A breed of winged horse with a skeletal body, face with reptilian features, and wide, leathery wings that resemble a bat's.

The description didn't do them much justice.

A better description was that it looked like someone mated a horse with a deer and then mated that result with a dragon... and then took away every ounce of fat and left them looking emaciated.

In a word, they looked 'creepy' to most people who could see them.

In Ichigo's case... well, the most polite way to explain how they affected him was that they made him 'twitchy'...

A better explanation? They were Nightmare inducing...

If he had to actually explain it, he would say that it was the wings primarily; they reminded him of Ulquiorra's final form, which in turn reminded him of taking a Cero to the chest and then THAT of course reminded him of how his Hollow had taken over as he lost consciousness. Neither Orihime nor Uryu liked to talk about how Ichigo had gone a bit... well, insane was putting it mildly... and had driven his sword into Uryu's stomach when his friend had tried to talk some sense into him. In all honesty if it hadn't been for Ulquiorra cutting off the horn of his Hollow mask, causing the Cero he'd been forming to explode in his face and damage his mask enough for it to break, he might very well have killed his friends...

Thestrals reminded him of all of that, all at once. He hated it and to be honest, he hated himself for having been so weak that he'd lost control after having lost the battle with the Fourth Espada.

His control was of course much, much better now. Hichigo understood he was the 'Horse' and knew better then to try to ever take control of him again. It helped that he could threaten to turn his inner-hollow into a rabbit to shut him up. Hichigo hated rabbits as much as Ichigo did and only tolerated them for Rukia's sake. But just looking at a Thestral brought all those memories back and made him break out into a cold sweat.

Now the Soul Society had a frickin' HERD of the things.

However, Captain Unohana had come up with an idea. A good idea; he even admitted that it might actually work but Ichigo had no intention of trying it out any time soon. His mother, however, had other ideas on the subject. He'd managed to avoid her for a while now using various excuses: Paperwork; Training; Visiting with Harry and the others; 'Important' meetings with Hat-and-Clogs. Masaki had finally ambushed him this morning, grabbed him by the ear while he was in the middle of talking to Urahara and dragged him back to the Soul Society and into a small enclosure with a single full grown, female Thestral and a small colt that looked like it was only recently born within the past week with the way it stumbled about.

She then proceeded to take his wand, take Zangetsu ('What the hell Mom!? Give him back!'), handed him a small bag and then summoned a ball and chain which latched onto his ankle with the ball right in the middle of the fence enclosure. He had about ten feet of give, which allowed him to reach the edge of the enclosure and no further. He couldn't even begin to budge the small ball no matter how much Reitsu he used.

At this point (after about an hour trying to move the damned ball) he was sitting down, sulking and pissed at his Mom for the cruel and unusual punishment, as far as he could from the blasted horse-lizards.

The Mother Thestral was carefully nudging the young colt back to his... her? feet with her nose. The colt would stand for a few moments at a time, hopping about with its wings spread out all askew as it tried to keep its balance only for it to stumble to the ground and lay panting with its wings and limbs laying in all directions as it looked around with wide, happy, carefree and trusting eyes.

Ichigo had to admit... it was kind of cute watching the little one stumble about on shaky legs.

He avoided looking at the Mother Thestral as much as he could when he realized that he wasn't as twitchy in watching the colt as he was the mom and focused on the youngster's antics.

The foal finally noticed Ichigo sitting on the other side of the enclosure and started making its way over toward him on shaky limbs. The Mother seemed to sense Ichigo's mental state and held back as the colt approached, though she watched them warily. Gangly limbs wobbled as the colt approached, wings twitching out to try to maintain its balance as it stumbled toward him curiously. Ichigo winced slightly as it stumbled and fell a few feet away from him, and it looked around it, stunned as if it was surprised at its fall. Ichigo held out his hand, fingers down and curled to hide his 'claws' (fingers) in an unthreatening gesture.

The colt snuffled at his hand lightly, forcing him to turn his hand and show that he wasn't holding anything. It sneezed suddenly and then scooted itself closer as it sniffed at him. He realized a few moments later that the colt was looking for the bag his Mother had handed him. He opened the bag and reached in, pulling out a ball of hamburger meat wrapped in saran wrap. The colt started letting out a noise half-way between a neigh and a chirp that repeated every few moments when it saw the ground meat.

Ichigo sighed softly, and unwrapped the ball of meat and then broke off a small chuck of the raw meat and carefully held it out, being mindful of the youngster's sharp teeth. The hamburger meat was gone minutes later and the young colt managed to get itself back on its feet and started to snuffle at Ichigo's pockets for several minutes trying to find more meat before flopping down next to him and resting its head on his knee. Ichigo reached down slowly to pet the small thing and was rewarded with the cutest chirping sigh as it closed its eyes at the gentle touch.

"I suppose... you're not too bad little guy... girl?" Ichigo bent his head to look. "Ah, guy. And...you fell asleep didn't you?"

And indeed the colt had fallen asleep using Ichigo's leg as a pillow.

After another hour Ichigo's Mother had shown back up, freed him from the ball and chain and given him back his wand and zanpakuto with a kiss to his cheek for 'being a good boy'. This repeated for three weeks. Ichigo would do his damnedest to avoid his Mother, she would eventually pin him down (sometimes with the help of Yoruichi and Urahara) grab him by the ear, take his things and then trap him in the enclosure again for at least an hour to 'play' with the colt.

The fourth week though, Ichigo had finally had enough of the ear pulling and caught his Mother's hand before her fingers could latch onto his ear.

"Mom, I know you're trying to do right by me and I know I can be bullheaded about things," he stated in a firm voice, "but this needs to stop. I really do have a ton of things I need to take care of, the blasted paperwork just being the start of it. I promise though I will make the time to visit the colt once a week at least while school's out and try to visit on the weekends if I can. Just stop yanking me around by the ear, will ya?"

His Mom had relaxed at that and patted him lightly on the head. He didn't make promises often, but when he did, he did his damnedest to keep those promises.

He actually started to visit the young colt more than the once a week during vacation when the youngster was able to be on his own in the enclosure without his Mother. Starting up that year of school cut back on visits but he still tried to pop in when he could on the weekends. Ichigo was finding that it was quite fun playing with the youngster, especially when he used flash step to dart around the circular enclosure with the colt giving chase letting out happy chirruping neighs, but he still had to take several minutes to gather his courage in order to enter the enclosure and approach the young colt.

That changed...

One day during winter vacation, while Ichigo was working up the courage to climb the fence as the Mother was again inside with the colt, a hand clamped down roughly on his shoulder and a strong Reitsu flared at his back. Ichigo bit back a groan as he recognized Kenpachi's and Yachiru's energies.

"Yo, Kurosaki, you're not busy right now. Fight me."

"Ichi-chan and Kenny-chan!" Yachiru cheered. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"I AM busy Kenpachi," Ichigo said firmly as he pushed the taller man's hand away and tried to hide his nerves, "and I don't want to fight right now."

"Busy? You're starin' at a frickin' PONY," a glance over his shoulder showed that Kenpachi was frowning at him. "How the hell are you busy?"

"None of your business," Ichigo said, trying to keep his voice firm. "We can fight later."

"We can fight NOW," Kenpachi growled suddenly as he spun Ichigo around and leaned down to get nose to nose with him. "I OWE you for that damned RABBIT incident."

"Kenny was soooo cute~!" Yachiru crowed, causing both men to roll their eyes before focusing on each other again.

"We can fight later," Ichigo said again. "In a controlled match."

"Where the hell's the fun in that?" Kenpachi asked with a manic grin as his Reitsu flared.

Ichigo could FEEL the sweat drop building at his brow at that. He really DIDN'T want to fight Kenpachi, even if he was stronger (he thought... he HOPED). Any time they fought there was a huge amount of collateral damage simply because the larger man sometimes just DIDN'T AIM HIS STRIKES. The man was wild, uncontrolled, untamed. Only two people could keep him in line, Gramps and Unohana... and from what Ichigo could sense, NEITHER of them were close enough to rein the battle-hungry warrior in.

Kenpachi drew his sword suddenly, causing Ichigo to leap back to avoid the swing as the older man laughed wildly.

"Come on! FIGHT ME!"

Suddenly there was the sound of wings beating furiously as the young colt leapt the fence and barreled into Kenpachi's side like a black blur of wind. The blow offset Yachiru from Kenpachi's shoulder and Ichigo darted forward to catch her before she could land on her head. Sharp teeth clamped onto Kenpachi's arm and the next thing the two Shinigami knew both Thestral and Kenpachi were gone. Ichigo and Yachiru shared a confused look before shouting drew their attention.

"Ichigo!"

Chad, Orihime and Uryu approached at a run, all looking ready for a fight.

"Uh... hey guys, why are you here?"

"We were visiting the school when we felt Kenpachi's Reitsu spike," Uryu said as he pushed his glasses up. "We thought you might need help."

"But, umm..." Orihime was looking around confused, her little sprites flying around her head. "Where is he?"

"I... don't know actually," Ichigo said with a shrug, still holding Yachiru. "The Thestral colt suddenly charged him after he attacked me, latched onto his arm and then disappeared."

"Thestrals can jump between the Soul Society and the Living world," Chad said drily.

"I've never seen the Colt jump though... oh!" Ichigo turned as the Colt appeared next to Orihime, causing the red-head to jump and stumble into Chad who caught her easily enough. "There you are! Where did you go?"

Of course the Thestral couldn't answer him but the way he was strutting about with his head held high meant that he was VERY happy with himself for some reason. The Mother Thestral moved over to the edge of the fence to nuzzle him lightly and let out a noise that sounded very… proud. Yachiru climbed onto Ichigo's shoulder as he reached out with one hand to pet the young Thestral on the head.

"What DID you do to him?" A whickering chirp was his reply.

"You seem more comfortable around them now," Uryu said after a few moments.

"Yeah..." Ichigo stayed silent for several minutes before speaking. "I never did apologize."

"For what?" Orihime asked, a baffled expression on her face.

"...losing it the way I did," Ichigo kept his gaze on the young Thestral, checking him over for any injuries. "I hurt Uryu... could have ended up killing you both. If it wasn't for Ulquiorra... Ya know, I'm still surprised he stopped me."

"His mission..." Orihime said softly as she reached out to pet the Thestral as well. "His mission was to keep me safe and keep me in Hueco Mundo. When you lost it you became a potential threat to my safety so he tried to keep your attention on him to fulfill his orders."

"Cold-hearted bastard," Ichigo said with a shake of his head.

"I don't think he was," Orihime said with a shake of her head, disagreeing with him. "He just didn't understand emotion any more. He didn't understand what 'feelings' or the 'heart' was but he would talk to me a lot in order to try to understand." She scratched behind the colt's ears lightly. "I think... as he faded away he started to understand again and since he wasn't killed by a Quincy arrow… and no Hell Gate appeared... well… I hope he gets reborn into a good home and can know joy. He always looked so sad..."

Ichigo shared a look with the others before lightly bumping Orihime on the head. "You constantly amaze me with how forgiving you are Orihime."

She stuck her tongue out at him and then smiled and Ichigo felt his somber mood start to fade away.

"You're the one who's silly. Why wouldn't we forgive you? I forgave you a long time ago, right Uryu?"

"Indeed," Uryu pushed his glasses up again, the reflected light blocking his eyes for a moment before he looked up again. "I understood the risk I was taking in getting your attention when you were like that, so do not concern yourself with it any longer."

Chad simply nodded his head once to agree with the other two and Ichigo smiled slightly. Orihime suddenly bounced in place, drawing unintentional attention to her... assets with caused all three men to groan in annoyance/amusement and avert their eyes upward for a moment before issuing glares at a group of chatty males walking by who were suddenly staring at Orihime's bouncing form.

"So did you name him?" she asked, unaware of the attention she was getting from passing Shinigami and the subtle aura spikes of the three men around her as they switched suddenly into 'big brother' mode.

"Nah, not yet," Ichigo responded.

"Oh...! How about Twilight?" she asked with another bounce.

"Eh," The colt let out a grumble and shook his head violently. "Don't think he likes it."

"Daisuke?" Uryu offered, "It means 'great help'."

Another negative reaction from the colt.

"Kurokaze," Chad said after a few moments of silence from the group, "That means 'Black wind'."

"Maybe? He was a black blur when he hit Kenpachi," Ichigo said. He was a little hesitant about giving the colt a name so similar to his own, but…

The colt seemed to like that and started bouncing around happily.

"Kurokaze it is then," Ichigo said with a resigned laugh.

A hell-butterfly sudden caught their attention and Ichigo held out his hand for it to land. Unohana's voice echoed in his mind.

-Ichigo, as you were the last one near Kenpachi... do you know why he was just brought in by Professor Dumbledore? He is suffering from hypothermia from being dropped in the frozen lake by Hogwarts.-

Ichigo really couldn't help it. He burst into laughter and fell against the fence of the enclosure, one hand around his stomach.

"You clever boy!" he crowed to Kurokaze, which caused the young Thestral to puff up his chest even more in pride.

Oh, and there's a little bit of a reference in here, see if you can find it...