The next chap after this one will be back to canon. Woo-hoo!

To say that Opera was startled by the fact that he was looking at a Hollow, would be an understatement. But to see one with the same face and features of his mistress was...beyond shocking to him.

Especially since mere moments ago he had been exchanging blood with his chosen- who was now his bride. The elation that he was feeling was slowly draining away because of his displacement from where he had been moments prior.

"Where am I?" He asked, wondering what the Hollow was planning. After all, it wasn't exactly often that a demon came across a Hollow that seemed to be sentient. And a sentient Hollow was an incredibly dangerous one.

"You're in Ichigo's inner world."

Opera's ears twitched at the mention of his bride's name and stared at the Hollow, hard. Obviously expecting more than just that for an explanation.

"I'm Shiro, by the way." The Hollow said as he moved forward and extended a hand as if he wanted Opera to shake hands with it. Opera made no move to do so though, and the Hollow simply dropped its hand as he said. "I guess that you can say that I'm Ichigo's inner demon."

That had Opera cocking his head at the creature. That bizarre friendliness and warmth of his was disarming. But Opera wasn't fooled one little bit. He knew that Hollows were monsters, and this one was in some way bound to his bride. And now it was also bound to him as well.

He would get to the bottom of things and find some way to rid himself and Ichigo of the monster.

"What do you mean by you are her inner demon?" He asked.

"Just as I said," The Hollow said with a shrug. "I'm Ichigo's inner demon. She gets her demonic abilities from me."

Opera took a moment to let the monster's words sink in as he thought things over carefully. If it was being honest with him, genuinely honest- that is, then it was entirely possible that the monster was an actual part of his bride's very soul.

"Are you a ghost of some kind?"

The Hollow blinked at him and didn't seem to know how to answer his question. Instead, it simply scratched its head and made a funny face before finally saying, "I'm not sure. I mean, the only time that I have a physical form is when Ichigo lets me out. That aside, I just sort of...exist here."

"My wife lets you out?" Opera asked in an incredulous tone. Wondering just how Ichigo could let this being out. The way the Hollow spoke was as if his bride was a container of some sort. Something that carried its power and consciousness and used them at will. It was peculiar.

"Sometimes, yeah." The Hollow said awkwardly. "I mean, her life is usually hanging by a thread at the time, but yeah."

Opera thought of the ramifications of this particular revelation. After all, it was one thing for his bride to associate with Soul Reapers, but Hollows were the natural enemies of many creatures.

Demons, humans, Soul Reapers, even the damned in Hell itself... Hollows didn't discriminate when it came to their prey. Everything was fair game to them.

"So, I have a question for you kitty cat,"

"Don't call me that." Opera snapped in displeasure.

"Fair enough, but here is my question. How come you aren't removing Ichigo's clothes with your teeth yet?"

Opera felt as if his mind just short circuited on him thanks entirely to the mental images the Hollow's words conjured up. His heart slammed against his ribs; his body trembled ever so slightly at the thought of his bride spread out across his bed-

The Hollow started laughing so hard that he doubled over clutching his stomach, causing Opera to immediately remember where he was and flush with shame.

There was no time for such indecent thoughts, even if they were terribly thrilling. Right now, he needed to focus.

"Man, you are an eager one! Who knew that Ichigo had it in her to elicit such a response from the opposite sex."

Opera blushed and scowled at the creature for his rude comment. His bride was beyond breathtaking and entirely too desirable for her own good. How dare this bastard imply otherwise!

"Shut up."

"You even sound just like Ichigo!" The Hollow howled.

Opera bared his teeth at the thing and growled, warningly. Not that the thing was even listening to him, it was too busy crying and wheezing for breath from laughing so hard at his expense.

Opera's fingers flexed, his claws lengthening a bit. "You will be silent, or I will silence you wretch!" The Hollow merely paused it's laughing to look at him with teary eyes, and then started sniggering. Causing Opera to snarl at it seconds before he lunged.

The Hollow didn't laugh for long after that since it was caught off guard by Opera's body hitting it hard enough to send them both sprawling.

Ichigo could hear Shiro laughing in her head and sighed as she glanced over at Opera with a slightly worried look. The second that their blood exchange had been completed, the cat demon had more or less sank to the floor in her grasp, scaring the hell out of her.

But since Shiro was having so much fun laughing about something, she was betting that she already knew where Opera was. Mentally, anyways. And she was absolutely dreading having the cat demon meet her other half.

Especially since Shiro tended to be a bit much for first timers.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and willed herself into her inner world to get Opera before something happened. And once in her inner world, she opened her eyes again and yelped in surprise when she saw Opera and Shiro rolling around punching each other and screaming obscenities at one another.

Hanging her head for a moment, she took several deep breaths in an effort to calm her already fraying nerves and then went to separate the two.

She grabbed Opera by the collar of his shirt and pulled, hard. But he merely growled and kept hitting Shiro while her poor inner Hollow tried, repeatedly to defuse the situation by shouting, "I was just kidding!"

Ichigo kept trying to pull Opera off of him but only succeeded when she leaned down and used one of her hands to force Opera's head to turn towards her so that she could press a kiss to his lips in the hopes of distracting him.

The cat demon was so startled by the action that he went completely and utterly still for a moment and then leaned into the kiss. Ichigo hummed, softly when she felt Opera's hands come up to grab her face so that he could deepen the kiss.

She could count on one hand just how many times she'd ever been kissed so hungrily before that it left her feeling dizzy, shaky, and breathless. And that was right now.

Finally, her lungs began to burn, and she couldn't take anymore. She needed air!

She broke the kiss and leaned her forehead against Opera's shoulder as he let out a soft rumbling sound when she heard Shiro squawk out, "Holy shit, Ichigo. What the hell was that?"

She sighed as she and Opera turned their heads to glare at him for disrupting their moment.

"It was a kiss." Ichigo replied with an are-you-fucking-dumb look on her face.

"I know what a kiss is, Ichi. What I mean is...the two of you have some pretty good chemistry. How is it that neither of you has resorted to ripping each other's clothes off yet? Or ducking into closets for quickies?"

Ichigo made a weird sound that was half snort and half laugh as she hid her face in her hands. While Opera continued to stare at Shiro as if he wanted his head to explode. And considering how she had found the two of them, she was betting that she wasn't far from the mark.

"Come on, Opera. Let's let the pervert wonder." She said, though her tone wasn't unkind as she stood up and held her hand out to the cat demon. Opera took hold of her hand and within seconds the two of them were gone.

Leaving Shiro lying where he had been grumbling, "What the hell is wrong with those two? Someone should cave in and strip the other with their teeth already."

He was totally going to give Ichigo as many dirty, filthy, and sexy ideas as he could to help make the cat demon less inclined to hitting him the next time they met.

Yeah, maybe the demon would even want to be friends after that.

The second that they had returned to the real word, Ichigo and Opera both found themselves besieged by Shichiro, Az, and Clara. All of whom were looking both incredibly panicked and also incredibly relieved.

"Are you two, okay? What happened?" Shichiro asked as he took several moments to fret over them.

Ichigo merely tried to smile and reassure him that they were just fine. But Opera outright refused to co-operate with her lie and mentioned having an out of body experience that sent the gentle demon into an absolute fit.

He snatched the two of them up and ran over to the bed across the room and tossed them both onto it and then started to check their vitals and fire questions at them in a rapid pace. While Az and Clara both hovered nearby just in case they were needed.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Shichiro seemed to calm down. And once he was calmer, Az and Clara became calmer too.

"Well, the two of you seem to be okay now." He said as he slowly moved back from them a bit.

"I'm tired." Opera muttered sullenly.

"I'm not surprised." Ichigo said. "You've been up and moving around for days. As far as I know you haven't slept a wink since this entire fiasco started. So, maybe you should take this chance to rest for a while." She suggested as she started to sit up, but was stopped when Shichiro put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back down.

"It's fine if Opera needs to take a nap for a bit. But you were in the same state that he was, and for all we know whatever happened could have adversely affected you as well. So, if he sleeps, then so do you."

"What? But I'm not tired!" Ichigo argued in dismay. But Shichiro was firm in his belief that she should rest to. And nothing that she said was going to make him back down.

Not that she could escape the bed anyway at that point. Opera had made himself comfortable half lying on top of her, His head and shoulders resting on her chest and partially across her stomach. Thus preventing her from moving around too much. And to make matters worse, the cat demon was also refusing to move even an inch even when she tried to push him off of her.

She tired herself out trying to move Opera off of her, and after that, she flopped back onto the bed with a little growl and tried to make herself comfortable for someone being lain on by an oversized cat.

She didn't recall dozing off. But she must have done so at some point. And since that was the case, she was unaware of the fact that Opera lifted himself up off of her and then moved to stretch out beside her, then pulled her close to his chest and stayed that way until she woke up a couple of hours later.

The moment that she was awake again, she could tell that something had happened by the fact that her grandfather was present in the room, speaking to Shichiro in low tones.

Opera was watching them from where he reclined on the bed next to her, looking unconcerned about the fact that her grandpa was even there.

"What's going on?" She asked, as she pushed herself up a bit to see what was going on.

"The mate hunt has finally ended." Opera said as he glanced at her. "Did you sleep well, Miss?"

"We exchanged blood, Opera. And considering how that's viewed by others- you should really start using my name."

Opera merely hummed and reached out to brush some of her hair out of her face since lying down for so long had resulted in it being tousled. He tucked a few stray strands behind one of her ears and then said softly, "I would like to use your name, Miss. But unfortunately, until we are married on paper, I cannot. It simply isn't proper."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"No, I suppose not."

"If you can't use my name, then maybe you can give me a nickname. That way, you can use it instead of my real name or Miss."

The way that Opera's face lit up would have alarmed many. However, Ichigo supposed that she was growing used to how his face lit up when certain things were suggested. So naturally, she didn't question him.

"Lilith." He said after a second or so of silence. "I will nickname you Lilith. Though I suppose that it is a bit much to say at once. So, in honor of the name, I will call you Lily instead. Does that please you?"

Ichigo giggled. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Good, because I will use it often enough for your grandfather to pick up on and use it as well." Opera said with a slight smile. Ichigo groaned and buried her face in her hands at the mere thought of her grandpa calling her Lily.

For god's sake the demon would wear the name out using it so much!

Finally, Shichiro and her grandpa seemed to realize that she was awake and broke apart. Causing Ichigo to call out jokingly, "Ya'll don't have to break up your little pow-wow for us."

Her dad, if he were there right then, would shake his head at her appalling impression of a southern accent if he heard it.

As it was, Opera, her grandpa, and Shichiro all seemed to go weirdly still. Their expressions were all strangely blank, and to be honest, Ichigo begun to sort of worry if appalling southern speak was kind of like 'yo momma' jokes to demons.

Either way, she was starting to get nervous with how the three were acting when Opera suddenly started sniggering. Then her grandpa laughed. And Shichiro...looked sort of baffled.

"Did you have a good rest, dearest?" Her grandpa asked as he reached the bed and then started to sit down on it, only for Opera to firmly plant his foot in his back and push him off.

Ichigo bristled as her grandpa hit the floor and looked back at the cat demon with wide, startled eyes. Opera didn't seem to care though. He just smiled at his master and then said that he was resting where the demon had intended to sit. So of course, he wasn't going to allow him to sit down there. The spot was taken.

Ichigo shot the cat demon a funny look and then started to climb over Opera so that she could get out of the bed but said demon apparently didn't like that either since he grabbed her and pulled her over so that she was lying across his lap. And once she was there, he wrapped his legs around her and refused to let her up.

It was literally just like before all over again.

Wow, Opera really is just like an actual cat. Ichigo thought to herself as she growled and contemplated sinking her teeth into his calf just for funsies just so see how he would react.

"Grandpa, maybe you should dock Opera's pay for kicking you off the bed." She suggested out of spite, once her grandpa was standing up again.

"What?!" Opera said as he turned his wide feline eyes to her.

"Hn? Oh, don't worry about that, Ichigo. Opera was just playing with me." Her grandpa said with a fond smile.

Ichigo didn't say it out loud, but that was such a disrespectful way for Opera to try playing with him. Especially after everything that had happened the past few days. Then again, actual cats were similar in nature, weren't they?

"Now, you didn't answer me before. Did you rest well?" Her grandpa said.

"Oh, y-yeah sure." She said before then asking, "Is it true? Is the mate hunting really over?"

"Yes. It's finally over."

"I'm so glad. Now things can go back to normal."

Her grandpa smiled warmly down at her.

From his place, wrapped around her, Opera couldn't help but smile as well. They had survived his mistress's cycle and the mate hunting. Now things could return to how it was before...except, that things were very different now.

He and his Lily were married in every way but paper and deed. But that was of little consequence since he could feel their bond thrumming with happiness within him and knew that it was only a matter of time before she caved in to his lust and matched it with her own.

Until then, he would be patient and continue teasing her because it pleased him to see her flustered and blushing. She was adorable when she was like that.

"Hey! Where's Az and Clara? I didn't notice before, but they're gone." Ichigo asked as she somehow managed to summon the strength needed to force Opera to release her by prying him off of her.

"They're fine, Ichigo. They've been missing for the past few days thanks to being trapped here with all of us. So, when I came in, I handed them both my hell cell so that they could contact their families and alert them to their whereabouts. They'll likely be going home very soon."

"I hope that they're families aren't too upset with them. Or us." Ichigo said with a slight cringe. She could already imagine both kids no longer being able to speak to her because of this. And it actually stung.

"It couldn't be helped, Lily." Opera said. "All of us were far too distracted the past few days to even think of contacting their kin to let them know that they were safe. So, if their families are upset- it will be more at the situation that the two were caught up in. It is unlikely that either of them will be punished. Just as it's unlikely that they're kin will be upset with us for the circumstances since they were beyond our control."

"I see. That's good then." Ichigo said with a relived sigh before turning to Shichiro and asking, "What are you going to do now that you're a free man?"

"Hn? Oh, I'll probably fly back to the school and report in with the others. After that, I'll get some rest so that I'll be good to teach my classes."

"Why don't you just crash her for now?" Ichigo suggested. "You could use one of the guest rooms to get some sleep until you're feeling a bit better and then you could leave. I mean, if it's okay with grandpa and Opera." She said awkwardly as both Opera and her grandpa looked at her with strangely warm expressions.

She blushed and fidgeted a little bit while Shichiro mulled over the offer as her grandpa said, "That's a good idea Shichiro. You should do it. I don't mind."

"Nor do I." Opera said as he moved to the edge of the bed and stood up. "I will go now and find you a comfortable room to rest in."

"O-Okay," Shichiro said hesitantly. "Sorry for the trouble."

"It's no trouble." Sullivan said kindly. Opera nodded his head in agreement and then quickly left the room to go and find a room for his old friend to rest in for a while.

"Grandpa, when Opera returns- I want the two of you to plant yourselves somewhere and rest. I'll take care of the cleanup and body disposal and make dinner for everyone too."

Sullivan looked startled for a moment and tried to argue with her.

After all, just because the mate hunting was over didn't necessarily mean that her cycle was over. Not just yet anyway despite the fact that it could be pretty close to ending.

He thought that she should rest a bit more and eat some nutritious meals to get her strength back.

But Ichigo was different from other demonesses because of both her human and Soul Reaper blood. And as such, she knew what was best. At least for the moment.

Which was why, he caved in to her demand so easily.

He figured that if she wanted to take care of things so that he and Opera could rest after the past five days straight of no sleep or relaxation whatsoever- then he would let her. At least until she tired herself out, that is.

Though he didn't have to like it any.

"Oh, very well. We'll do as you wish." Sullivan grumbled in agreement, albeit reluctantly.

Ichigo merely smiled at him. "Thank you, grandpa."

Once Opera returned, Az, and Clara returned as well since they had finally finished up their calls to their families. Ichigo waited with her breath held as the two let her know that they would be leaving soon.

She was assured that their families had understood why they hadn't contacted them sooner- but that didn't stop their kin from worrying that the two may get themselves into further mischief if they were allowed to stay there for much longer. So, both kids had been ordered to wait for someone to come and pick them up and take them home.

Ichigo was a bit relieved, and sad too. But understood their family's concern. So, she didn't say anything.

Instead, she simply stepped up to the two kids and wrapped an arm around both of their shoulders and ran her fingers through their hair while thanking them for hanging out with her.

Even if it had been dangerous for them to do so, she was grateful for their presence since it had helped to keep her grounded these past few days.

Az blushed and floundered for some sort of response. While Clara just wrapped her thin arms around Ichigo's middle and hugged her. Though the girl didn't squeeze her like she usually did.

After that, everyone decided to make their way closer to the room that had been partially destroyed, days earlier. Since it would be easier for Az and Clara to see when their families arrived.

The second that they reached the room- Ichigo took a second to look around and see what all she would need to clean up. But did a double take when she saw that not only had everything been fixed up- but the wall that had also been destroyed, the furniture, the carpet, and all of the other things- were all completely devoid of bodies, or blood. In fact, everything looked and smelled as if it had been scrubbed clean already.

She could even see where the carpeting on the floor had been vacuumed recently!

"Whoa! Pretty!" Clara said as she let go of her so that she could run around the room randomly touching things and cooing.

"Goodness, this is surprising." Az said as he looked around the room in disbelief.

Ichigo knew how the kid felt. She was in a state of disbelief too. Especially since the last time she'd seen the room there had been piles upon piles of dead demons, blood, guts and absolute carnage everywhere. She hadn't expected it to be scrubbed spotless after everything that had happened.

"Uh..." Was all that she could think to say even as her grandpa brushed by her to go into the room and sit down in one of the chairs. Shichiro made a trilling sound as he passed by her.

While Opera took a second to look the room over before saying, "I see that you cleaned up the place as I told you to. Very good, master Sullivan." As he walked over to where her grandpa and Shichiro were sitting and joined them.