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A New Window	By : Platinumsabr Category: Bleach > Het - Male/Female Views: 13905 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. Any Original Characters are mine however, as is the story itself, and if you see it or any part of it posted elsewhere please report it

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
No
Shaking Throne

Kaien Kurosaki and frustration
were old friends. Over five years, not to mention that they were the years
where a male�s hormones are at their highest, had him well acquainted with the
emotion. There wasn�t a day that had gone by where he hadn�t thought of his and
Kin�s first kiss, or fantasized about her in one way or another. Most of the
time he hadn�t even needed to do it consciously, his own dreams betrayed him to
his hormonal teenage body and more than a few times had he woken up with an
unpleasant stickiness between his boxers and him.

Now he was back, but the
circumstances didn�t seem right. His partly Hollow blood boiled for her, it
wanted her more every time they kissed, but the man wanted her love more than
her body, so he fought down the carnal desires and allowed himself
to stay at simply kissing. It went without saying that it affected him though.
Even if he tried not to acknowledge it while he was awake, when he was asleep
his dreams were tormented with images of the grown young woman his childhood
friend had turned into and he found himself back in the situation he had
thought he had outgrew. Had he not known how to clean his scent, his sisters
would no doubt be alerted to what had happened if they ever came into his room.
He would never live that down.

At least they had an excuse,
because once a month there was no stopping their scent. When they had hit
puberty he hadn�t known how to deal with it, but his parents found out very
quickly that their daughters should stay in their rooms until they found a way
to mask the scent of their monthly cycles. To Hollows that was like an
aphrodisiac; a sick, twisted aphrodisiac, but an aphrodisiac nonetheless. It
was easy for him though, because though he was part Hollow, that instinct also
recognized their scents as ones of its own, in other words: its family. Even
Hollows didn�t dare tread in that territory, and for that he was extremely
thankful.

If he could
only last three more weeks. Christmas was in three weeks, and he had the
perfect plan. If all went well, like he hoped it would, he would be able to put
to rest one of the greatest desires of his heart and body. True, they were only
eighteen, but his parents had just turned nineteen when they did, so he found
nothing wrong with it.

Three weeks. The words
rolled around in his mind like the daunting challenge it was. He just had to
manage three more weeks, but three weeks seemed like so long to his repressed
body.

He groaned and flopped back onto
his bed, content to stare up at the ceiling and will his sexually-frustrated
body to calmness. He had absolute control of his body, mind, and reiatsu, but
it was still hard to repress such base and normal urges. He was eternally glad
for his training, where attaining those things had been necessary was he to
grow more powerful, because they came in infinitely handy in situations like
the one he found himself in.

The doorbell rang unexpectedly
and he sat up and prepared to greet the welcome distraction from his fantasies.
He didn�t want to be around her every second of every day�well, he did�because
if he did than he was afraid he wasn�t going to be able to control himself. He
wanted to be with her forever, to take her in his arms and never let her go
again, but his rational side told him that was expecting too much from a young
woman like Kin Urahara-Shihouin. It was in her blood to want to
roam around and be free, just as it was in his blood to want to keep her
forever.

Damn Hollow possessiveness.

It was for that reason that he
hoped Tsukiyomi found an Arrancar
male she wanted to be with, because that was the only species that would
understand what she would go through if she found someone she deemed worthy to
love. Masaki had a Hollow aspect too, but that was a separate entity that actually
loved her host, and with Masaki�s unusual abilities it wasn�t quite the
same.

He shook his head to rid his mind
of his thoughts as walked to the door to find it already closed, and his mother
was in the doorway talking to none other than who he had been thinking of
previously.

Just my luck, he groaned
inwardly. He was trying to stop thinking about her and yet she had to show up
on his doorstep, looking as damn gorgeous as she always did. He sighed. Three
weeks was going to be hell.

She spotted him and waved as he
approached, and she gave him a light peck on the lips when he reached them. He
returned it gratefully and nearly groaned when he felt his heartbeat already
accelerate. He stopped confusedly. Even though that always happened around her,
this time it had happened way too quickly.

What�s going on?

�How are you today huh? Trying to
avoid me all day or something?� she asked sarcastically, completely missing the
way his pupils were gradually dilating.

�I�m�fine�� he responded as he
tried to figure out what was happening to him. His Hollow blood was burning
inside him now, clawing at the steel control he held over it with a savage
vengeance.

Tatsuki cocked her head to the
side as she looked at him just as confusedly as her son looked. This wasn�t
something she had dealt with before, and that surprised her. She knew
everything there was to know about her children, at least so she had thought,
so she was wondering why she had never encountered this before. Then she saw
the way his pupils were gradually widening like under the influence of a drug
overdose.

Oh. Shit.

Kaien was thinking the same
thing. He could barely remember where he was. All he could feel were his senses
thrumming at an extreme level, like they were trying to absorb everything of
something. He could smell something in the air, something strangely metallic
but oddly appealing, like there was something else mixed in. In fact, if he
didn�t know any better, he would have thought it was Kin�

If Kaien was one to use curses,
every four letter word in as many languages as he knew would have come flying out of his mouth. Since this wasn�t the case, he
simply froze on the spot and tried desperately to beat down those rising
desires even though it had already started affecting his own thoughts. His body
felt like it was on fire, and he stared at Kin in horror as he realized what it
was.

With great difficulty, he forced
his trembling hands in fists and smiled nicely at her. �I�m sorry�Kin, could
you�come back�later?� he strained out as evenly as he could with the fake smile
still plastered on his face as he tried to keep the blood in his head that
wanted so badly to be redirected elsewhere. �Now�s�really not the�best time��
Like his body was rejecting his control, he took a deep inhalation of the air
and sighed almost drunkenly as to his terror, a Hollow�s classic smoke came
wafting from his mouth. He quickly slapped his hand over his mouth and started
backing away, completely aware of the way she was looking at him oddly.

�What�s wrong?� she asked
innocently.

His heart was thundering against
his ribcage now, as if it wanted to break out of his bones� confines. His
breath was leaving him faster and faster with each breath he took in and the
strange steam usually followed, though it was covered by his hand. He couldn�t
tell her what was happening to him. It would be like five years earlier, only
five times worse. Worse yet, his mother was right
beside her too.

�Uhhh,
Mom, why don�t you and Kin�catch up�I�ve been hogging�.her all to myself�I�m
sure you�d like�to know about her training�� It was getting worse. He
was not only losing his ability to string words together, but his voice was
changing accordingly like his father�s. He knew if he didn�t cool his blood
down soon his reiatsu would break free of his control and so would his own more
Hollow-like nature. His now glowing eyes were getting frantic now, and his
desperation was practically visible in them.

�But I came here to see you!� she
whined playfully, but there was an edge of annoyance that signaled a very quick
mood change if anything else went awry. A sign usually present when a woman
goes through a certain time.

Oh god. She really didn�t
know what she did to him just by being around him while in that state. Before
he could stop his body, his hand had struck out and smacked against the side of
the wall he was near loudly, loud enough that she backed away from him just out
of surprise. His vision was blurring, and his hand was clawing into the wall
now. He looked once more over at his mother and saw that her eyes had Hollowized, and he briefly saw her
take in a sniff through her nose before her eyes widened in the same horror
that was coursing through him. She naturally wasn�t affected, she was a woman
too. But now she knew.

Tatsuki quickly ran in front of
Kin and smiled brightly as she tried to hide the sweat breaking out on her
forehead. �Yeah Kin! It�s been way too long! Let�s go
outside for a chat shall we?� Her hand tightened inadvertently on Kin�s bicep
and the young woman winced.

�S-Sure, Mrs.
Kurosaki.�

�Oh, you can call me Tatsuki now!
Let�s go!!� With that, she quickly ushered the mocha-skinned young woman out
the door she had entered just a few minutes earlier.

The second they were out the
door, Kaien had bolted from where he was standing and practically destroyed the
bathroom door to get into one of the many spacious bathrooms of the house. He
threw himself into the shower, clothes and all, and quickly turned the water as
cold as it could possibly go. He gasped hoarsely as the ice cold water fell
over his burning body and he could have sworn he saw some of it start to
evaporate the second it hit his boiling skin.

It had to be her. It had be that time. She just had to come here, knowing how
well he could smell, right smack dab in the middle of her monthly cycle. His
fingers scraped at the tile flooring as the water fell over him and he tried to
fight down the urges ripping through him with the finesse of�well, a Hollow.
His muscles were all as tense as springs coiled to the maximum degree and even
the cold water couldn�t get rid of the throbbing need pulsing between his legs
and straining against his wet pants.

Three weeks wasn�t going to be
hell, it was going to be far, far worse.

He tore his clothing off, unmindful to whether or not they were ones he liked. He
needed to be closer to the icy water, maybe then it would work. His body
shivered in the cold but still his insides burned.

Ashamed and humiliated that he
couldn�t control his own body, Kaien succumbed to what his body wanted and
started stroking himself even as the water that should have been making it go
away wasn�t succeeding. Most, if not all, teenage boys have done this at one
time or another, but he didn�t like to because he knew his fantasies weren�t
anything compared to the real thing. The empty nights in Hueco
Mundo were far more suffocating when his resistance
failed and afterwards he would remember she was still nowhere near him. Empty fantasies, that was all they were. Now though, he was home.
He was with her.

For all he knew she could be in
the courtyard of his house right now, and here he was fighting for his sanity
while his mind played every erotic image he had ever had of her over and over,
including the feel of her lips on his, the feel of her velvety soft skin under
her clothes as his hands wandered over it lovingly. Against his mind�s will,
his body finally broke in sweet self-inflicted rapture and he exploded over the
shower floor, panting for breath as his body started returning to normal as the
cold water was finally able to do something now that he had helped it out. He
fell back against the tiled wall and slid down until he was seated naked on the
tiles, still allowing the cold water to fall over him as his clothes lay in
torn disarray in various places of the stall, just as
wet as he was while the water washed away the evidence of what he had just
done.

He couldn�t believe what had just
happened to him. He had almost lost control without his sister even being
involved in prodding his partly-Hollow blood to the surface. Worse than that,
if his mother hadn�t been there and he hadn�t made it away in time, he knew he
wouldn�t have been able to control himself. Kin hadn�t known what she was doing
to him, of course she hadn�t, he hadn�t told her about
that aspect of Arrancars. Truthfully he had thought
he was immune to that particular aspect of Hollows, it had never affected him
before. Maybe it just hadn�t responded because it would only respond to one
person.

Nevertheless, he knew.

If�if circumstances had been
different�I�I might have�

Disgusted with himself, he broke
into tears mixed with sick laughter as he covered his eyes with his forearm and
stayed under the water that was cold enough to induce hypothermia. He was fine
with that. He deserved this cold, he wanted this cold. He could never
punish himself enough for what had almost happened, almost or not. It was
unthinkable in his mind that he was even capable of such a thing, and
yet it had almost happened. The disgusted laughter echoed the state of his
heart, but his body was unmoved to the emotional turmoil inside him now that
the cold water was making it focus only on keeping its remaining heat. Not nearly
satisfied with that, he stood and turned around, then started viciously slamming
his forehead into the tile wall, not satisfied until some of the tile was in
pieces on the floor at his feet and his blood was flowing down his face.

Five years. He had spent five
years training himself to have absolute control
over his body and his powers. He had thought he had gone through every possible
circumstance that had even the mildest chance of him losing control. He had
even forced his own body into his submission so he could gain more power, and
yet he had almost lost control. I almost lost control!!! Around Kin!! I
could have hurt Kin!!!

He fell to his knees, indifferent
to the fact that the shards were digging into his flesh, and he buried his face
in his hands and started crying again. They weren�t from the physical pain he
had just put himself through, but the emotional turmoil and disgust roiling
inside him, the things he was trying to get rid of through the physical pain.

He knew.

He might have� forced himself on
her.

~~~~~~~~~

Souken
and Asuka broke through the Garganta
and looked down on what should be where they had hoped to go. Sure enough, they
were right above it, and they saw Kin and Kaien�s
mother talking casually on one of the benches in the vast backyard. It was
December, but it wasn�t very cold yet. They had spent another solid week celebrating
before they realized they should probably tell their friends, not to mention
the King and Queen. Two of them were right under their feet now.

They jumped down from where they
had broken through the realms and landed hand-in-hand in front of Tatsuki and
Kin. The two women had been so caught up in conversation they jumped when the
two landed in front of them and Asuka instantly noticed that though her Queen seemed
fine, her sweat reeked of worry.

�Asuka! Souken! Long time
no see!�

Since Souken
didn�t have her senses, he wasn�t able to tell what his �mate� was sensing, and
he smiled down on his longtime friend. �Yeah, it has been a while. I heard you
and Kurosaki finally got together,� he said lamely as he rubbed the back of his
head, for some reason unable to say that he had just �married� the girl of his
dreams.

He didn�t need to, for Kin noted
their joined hands with interest. �I can tell we aren�t the only ones. When did
you two get together?�

Souken
and Asuka both blushed, much to Tatsuki�s
bewilderment, that was until the inner Queen decided to pipe up rather
unexpectedly.

Well hot damn, those two
finally got down! Their reiatsu is all over each other!! The White
Queen sensed amusedly, which she took great joy in announcing to her host.
Tatsuki smiled like a happy parent at the two teens that had been friends with
her son for the longest time over their time in Hueco
Mundo.

�He claimed you, didn�t he?� she
asked amusedly, and Souken nearly choked on the air
he was breathing while Asuka beamed.

�Something like
that,� she said proudly and leaned into her what would be called husband in the
Living World.

�Huh?� Kin asked tactlessly.

Tatsuki looked over at the clueless
teen with a smile. �It basically means they�ve gotten married.�

She hadn�t known Kin�s eyes could
get that big.

�What!?
Congratulations!!� She screeched excitedly as she jumped up, and Asuka quickly hugged her like she knew she wanted to as
they started bouncing together like any pair of excited girls. It was almost a
wet dream waiting to happen.

With Kin in her arms, the
supersensitive nose of Asuka quickly picked up on
what her body was going through. Her blood ran cold and she instantly stopped
jumping up and down with her old friend. Kaien�s
reiatsu was on her, but she knew the scent of a virgin was different than that
of a claimed female. That means�oh god, they haven�t done anything yet!! She
came here like this!?

Asuka
quickly tore herself out of her friend�s arms and looked over at her Queen with
alarm written all over her face. �He hasn�t claimed her yet, has he!?� she
shouted, her worry gradually escalating.

Tatsuki nodded. �I was surprised
too.�

Asuka
couldn�t comprehend this. She ran her hands through her bright blue hair to try
and dry her suddenly sweaty palms. �And�you let her come here like this!? Are
you out of your goddamn mind!?� It didn�t matter that she was speaking to her Queen, she was also talking to her best friend�s mother.

Souken
knew �like this� could only mean a few things when it came to the residents of Hueco Mundo, and his intelligent
mind was able to put two and two together rather quickly. Oh no. He knew
his friend, and he had to congratulate him inwardly on the fact that he had
more self-control than even he, the vaunted Quincy, had. He knew his friend
obviously wanted to make it special, it was Kaien after all, and the
woman he loved had been his friend since he was four.

He could only imagine what he was
going through right now. No wonder he never reacted all those years up in Hueco Mundo. His body already had
someone it wanted.

He sighed. �Oh no,� he muttered
aloud.

�What do you mean, �oh no?�� Kin
asked innocently. She was taken aback when Asuka cast
wide, disbelieving eyes on her.

�Oh you�ve gotta
be kidding me!� Asuka roared as she stomped back to
her friend. �You mean to tell me you didn�t learn a damn thing about Arrancars or Hollows over five years!?!?�

Kin cocked an eyebrow confusedly.
�Sure, I learned a whole lot about their weaknesses and the best techniques for
beating them.�

Asuka
looked like she was seriously restraining herself from punching her old friend
right in the face. �You moron!! You never, ever
come near one you�re emotionally close to in your state if you�re unclaimed!!�

Kin�s eyebrow never lowered, and
she looked over at Tatsuki. �What on earth is she so worried about?�

Tatsuki looked too downcast to
answer her, but Souken cleared his throat softly to
gain her attention. �Kin, you should know that Kaien is all three spiritual
entities by now, right?� She nodded wordlessly. �And you have been told that
his senses are above average even by Arrancar
standards, right?� Again, another nod. �So naturally
you know that though he leans more to the element of the zanpakutou, he does
have Hollow blood, right?�

Her eyes widened. She had never
thought of it that way before, but now that she thought about it, the way he
had been so concerned about losing control before finally made sense.

�That blood doesn�t act up very
often, but if he ever loses himself to it he becomes the most frightening
Hollow in existence, one whose purest instincts are on the surface without the
normal mask to shield them from the outside world. Basically, he loses all
respect for his actions, and becomes more mindless than even the lowest level
of Hollow. Tsukiyomi keeps a twisted sense of her
personality when she loses it, but since Kaien is more the zanpakutou than the
inner Hollow, the only way his body knows how to deal
with it is by hiding his rationale in the deepest part of his being to protect
it from the pure instincts that take over. When that happens, he isn�t Kaien
anymore, and would do anything indiscriminately. Only the King or Queen can
fight it down once it fully surfaces, but until that happens Kaien can try and keep
his sanity on his own.�

He watched as Kin�s eyes
continued to get wider and wider.

�That�s even worse than what I�ve
learned about the Vizards. He really goes through
that?� she mumbled softly.

Souken
sighed. �Only if the stimulus is strong enough. It
doesn�t happen very often, not unless Tsukiyomi does
anything to him.�

She gulped and looked over at Asuka, who hadn�t moved from her spot right in front of
her, glaring at her. �Now, Arrancar
Life 101. First question: do you know what sets an Arrancar�s
blood to a boil more than any other thing?� she asked venomously, glaring all
through her question.

Kin gulped again. For some reason
she didn�t like where this was going. �N-No, what?�

Asuka
nearly hit her. �Blood. A
certain kind of blood.�

Kin�s eyebrow stayed cocked. �Wha�?�

�Question two,� Asuka growled. �What do you think that boiling blood would
want to do if in the presence of a potential claim?�

Now Kin was far beyond confused,
but she was still as bright as ever. She learned to read between the lines even
if she didn�t know the answer. �Uh, claim?� she answered hesitantly.

Asuka
threw her arms up into the air and started clapping sarcastically. �Give the
lady a cigar! Question three!� She stalked up until she was right in front of
the frightened teen. �Are you bleeding?� She snarled in an
accusing whisper.

Without even waiting for her to
answer, Asuka twirled around and looked at her
husband concernedly. �I�m going to look for him. Who knows what he�s done to
himself by now.�

Souken
nodded his approval and she took off running into the house, leaving the three
behind. He turned back to Kin, who was still looking as innocent as ever. �What
does she mean? I�m not cut anywhere.� She scratched the side of her head as she
continued to ponder the question.

Tatsuki couldn�t let the game of
guilt Asuka had been trying to play on Kin go on any
longer, even though the questions had been really simple to anyone who had
lived in Hueco Mundo at any
period of time. She put her hand on Kin�s shoulder and the young woman turned
to look at her with her bright gold eyes still blissfully oblivious. �Kin, she
didn�t say just blood. She said a certain kind of blood. You are bleeding somewhere, in fact you�ve probably already tried to hide it
today. You can�t fool Hollow senses, I smelled it the
second I tried. Kaien doesn�t even need to try; he�s been attuned to your scent
since he�s come back, and he doesn�t need to tap into a Hollow first to gain those
enhanced senses, he has them all the time.�

Kin�s heart nearly skipped a
beat. �You can�t be serious��

�She�s dead serious,� Souken asserted. �No matter how strange it sounds, its menstrual
blood: the blood mixed with the unique essence of a female is like a drug to Arrancars if the woman is emotionally close to them. Other
than promising themselves to each other, the other way for lasting
relationships to be made in Hueco Mundo
is for that female to be around the male she likes in that state. The�um�menstrual
cycle, has different effects on female Arrancars too,
so it�s basically like walking up to someone nude and asking where the bedroom
is. Believe me, certain days of the month you learn to stay away from some
parts of Hueco Mundo.� He
walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder too. �He never responded
once throughout all the years in Hueco Mundo. I think that�s because he had already given you his
heart, so he would only respond to you. Judging from the situation, not even he
knew about it, so that means he�s been waiting.�

Kin smiled sadly. �The sap. Knowing him he�s trying to find the perfect
setting, wouldn�t he?� She wondered why that hadn�t occurred to her earlier.

Tatsuki didn�t like the fact that
they were talking about her son�s potential love life, but in this case it was
deadly serious. That, and she knew he was like his
father. If he ever wanted to go all the way it was because he had already made
up his mind on where he wanted their relationship to end up. �I�m sorry Kin, if
I had known I wouldn�t have even let you in the door.�

�But why is everyone so worried?
If he lost himself to his Hollow nature than wouldn�t you just be able to beat
it down?�

Tatsuki looked at the ground
sadly. �I can, but not in the way you think. I�m not powerful enough to make
him submit, only Ichigo�s
able to do that. All I can do is sing him the lullaby I made him while he was a
baby, and that calms him down gradually, not instantly. I couldn�t risk
fighting him, because he could seriously hurt me in that state,
and I can�t risk hurting my baby�� she trailed off as she looked down and
rubbed her belly softly.

Kin understood right away. �I�m
sorry, I forgot about that.�

�Kin, if you were Kaien, waiting
for the perfect setting, and suddenly you were exposed to something that would
make you lose all value for your actions and do anything without any regard for
anyone, if that would cause you to lose that perfect setting, what would you
fear?� Souken asked matter-of-factly.

�If I were a mindless beast that�s
first instinct would be to�claim, right?� Souken
nodded. �Okay. To claim an unclaimed person.
Wait what does that mean anyway? What�s an unclaimed?�

Souken
blushed brightly. �Um, that�s a�that is to say, I guess you could say an unmarried
Arrancar or person that�s attractive to you.
Though�virgin, is about the same thing.�

Kin nodded in embarrassed
understanding. �Okay, so my first instinct would be to claim this unclaimed
person, and if he was the one that had made this reaction, my first target
would be�� she stopped dead. �Oh god. My first target would be him, so that
means his first target would be me! If he knows he wouldn�t have any regard for
his actions, then that means he would probably fear��

What they meant was finally
dawning on her. Heavy tears were falling from her eyes now. She should have
caught on sooner. He had been doing everything in his power to get her as far
away from him as humanly possible and she had been so oblivious she had wanted
to stay even though she could tell he wasn�t acting normal.

�Let me guess,� Souken said, �he tried to get you away,
and you were none the wiser?�

�Does�does this mean he�s in the
house somewhere, on a rampage?�

Tatsuki shook her head. �If he
had lost control he would have been out that door right after us. He just
needed you to get away from him. I�ll walk you home Kin. Come back in a couple
of days.�

She nodded wordlessly and allowed
the older Soul Reaper to put her arm over her shoulders comfortingly as they
walked away from the house.

~~~~~~~~~~

A sickening sense of foreboding
had blanketed over Asuka the second she had set foot
in the house. She knew instinctively he had done something. Hoping beyond hope,
the first place she checked was his room. She stopped in front of the closed
door as she smelled a familiar metallic liquid and looked down to see bloody
footprints leading into the room.

Oh god Kaien, what did you do?

She didn�t even bother knocking, she just opened the door and gently crept inside,
following the trail of bloody footprints. They ended at his bed and she looked
up in shock to see Kaien, wearing nothing but a towel, shivering and staring
off into space with tears falling from his tattooed eyes as blood flowed from
vicious gashes in his forehead while the same life-giving liquid flowed down
his legs from where there were shards of sharp tile stuck in his knees. He
seemed oblivious to everything but his tears, and his
usually bright yellow eyes were dull and lifeless as he sat limply against his
wall on his bed. It had been a long time since she had seen his tattooed arm
fully exposed like it was now, but that was the last thing on her mind.

�Kaien!!� she shouted concernedly
and rushed to his side.

He looked over at her slowly,
like he hadn�t heard her until then, and more tears fell from his face. �I
would have�I would have�I know I would have�I�m sorry�I�m sorry�� he mumbled
incoherently, as if he didn�t even recognize who it was as his head lulled back
to the side.

Asuka
felt herself choking up. She knew what he meant. He was shivering, but his face
looked unusually flushed, never mind the fact that he was losing a lot of blood
from his forehead. She quickly set her hand against his cheek, uncaring of the
blood on his face, and her eyes widened when they felt the unnatural heat of his
body. Oh shit, he has a fever!! He must have tried to use a cold shower to
calm himself down then� She didn�t even want to finish the thought. She
could see the effects of what he had done to himself as surely as she could
feel his blood on her hand.

She quickly ran out the door to
find anyone who could help.

�Souken!! Queen Tatsuki!!! I NEED SOME HELP OVER
HERE!!!�

~~~~~~~~~

Kaien awoke groggily, and the
first thing his eyes focused in on was the bright head of orange hair on the
person leaning over his legs. The second thing was, he
was clad in only a pair of boxer shorts. As his eyes focused in more, he saw the
orange head he had noticed previously was his father, removing the bandages on
his knees.

Wait, why did he have bandages on
his knees?

His memories came flooding back
to him and he gave a mirthless laugh. He was a moron. He didn�t deserve her. He
couldn�t even keep his own body under control. He saw his father turn at the
noise, and he smiled down on him.

�Hey there Squirt, you had us
pretty worried for a little while there. Your fever only broke last night. It
took you longer than normal to recover this time, but that was to be expected
with all the blood you lost. If not for your zanpakutou self-regeneration
ability you would have been a lot worse off.� He could hear the worry and
relief in his father�s voice, and he tried to lean up, only for Ichigo to push
him back down. �Whoa there Squirt, you�re not going anywhere. Here, have some
water.�

He held the cup he had grabbed
from the nightstand to his son�s lips and he swallowed it eagerly, suddenly
realizing how parched his throat was. With that knowledge, his body also told
him it was not feeling like moving anytime soon, despite what he wanted it to
do. He flopped back to the bed with a soft groan. �How long was I out?� He
rasped weakly.

Ichigo returned to his work of
removing the bandages, and was relieved when he saw perfectly healed flesh
underneath. That meant the bandages around his forehead could be removed too. �About
two days. Like I said, you lost a lot of blood. Your body was in no condition
to fight off the fever you gave yourself.�

He laughed weakly. �I�m sorry.�

Ichigo nodded. �It�s okay, I
understand your fear. Believe it or not, at one time my Hollow and I didn�t get
along the greatest either. I know that kind of fear personally.�

Kaien nodded feebly. He knew his
father understood, he always understood. He was freaky like
Hat-and-Clogs in that respect. �Where�s Mom?�

�I sent her to bed. She wouldn�t
leave your side for the first day and a half. Going that long without sleep
isn�t good for the baby.�

In an instant
Kaien felt like a bigger idiot than he had before. The worry he must
have put his mother through wouldn�t be good for the baby either, especially
not this early into the pregnancy. He really was a selfish tool.� �I�m sorry Dad. I didn�t��

�Shh,
none of that,� Ichigo cut him off instantly. �I know you didn�t mean to put her
through that. You weren�t yourself, we all know that.� He motioned to the
floor, and with as much strength as he could muster, Kaien looked over and saw
three bodies sleeping on the floor beside his bed. Tsukiyomi, Masaki, and lastly�Kin.
�She hasn�t left your side since. You gave her quite the scare.�

Kaien laughed bitterly. �Was that
when I gave myself a fever, or when I was about two seconds away from forcing
myself on her?� His voice dripped with self-loathing, and his father�s
expression darkened.

�Stop that right now,� Ichigo
hissed lowly, and Kaien looked away like a rebellious child. �Look at me.�
The tone of his voice said it was non-negotiable, and since he couldn�t move
anyway, the only choice he had was to look back at his father�s eerily deadly
form. �None of us blame you, and nothing happened. That should be what you
remember. No matter the circumstances, you still stopped yourself in time, and
it�s not a lie in any way to say you weren�t yourself. I know it�s hard to
take, but believe me I know what its like to know you�re going to do something
and not be in control of your own body. I watched as my Hollow tore into
Byakuya and I could feel him pushing at my control
every day after, knowing that if he broke loose he would kill everyone I
held dear, and all I would be able to do would be to watch. To be absolutely
honest, I�m glad you can�t remember anything when you go berserk, because
that�s much better than seeing it with your own eyes and not being able to do
anything about it.�

Once again, his father had torn
to the heart of the matter in seconds, and made sure he knew he understood.

�You�ve beaten it before, we both
know that. You�re my son Kaien, and I know you can become strong enough to
fight it off even when it�s that that it senses. You did it this time
too. You still managed to get her away from you so you could fight it off by
yourself. I know you won�t let it take over Kaien, so don�t be afraid. That
blood is a part of who you are, so don�t be afraid of
it. Don�t be afraid of it, but don�t let it rule you either. You�ve controlled
it for this long, and I don�t think you�re going to fail anytime soon.�

Kaien felt tears sting his eyes.
His father still had so much faith in him, even after what had almost happened.
He wanted him to dwell on the almost, what almost happened, but
it hadn�t happened. He had fought it off eventually. His father
learned his lessons in pep talks from Rukia well.

He looked down again, and he saw
Kin�s bright golden eyes looking at him, as if she couldn�t believe he was
awake. She instantly jumped to her feet and ran over to him, planting desperate
kisses that tasted like the tears that had instantly started falling from her
eyes on his lips.

�Don�t you ever scare me like
that again! Don�t you ever scare me like that again!!�
she pleaded in the breaks between her kisses, but Kaien didn�t respond.

No matter what had happened and
the talk his father had given him, one fact remained: he didn�t deserve her. He
felt her lips on his but he couldn�t bring himself to respond. If it ever
happened again, he didn�t know what he�d do.

Finally, it seemed to dawn on her
that she was kissing a wall, and she moved up to look down on him with
tear-streaked eyes bathed in confusion. �What�s wrong?�

He looked away from her.
�I�m�sorry. I don�t deserve you, you or your love anymore.�

Both Ichigo�s and Kin�s eyes widened.

SLAP!!

Kaien stared in shock over at the
young woman he still loved with his entire being as he held his stinging red
cheek�as he cursed that he didn�t have Ierro with his
human body�while she leaned over him in a completed slap position. �You idiot,�
she said as she looked at him with hurt radiating from her golden eyes. �Do you
know what you kept saying all throughout your fever? You kept repeating them
like it was the only thing that mattered if Death took you.� Her eyes turned
soft, and he wanted to reach out and hug her, but he kept himself in place.
�You kept saying you were sorry. Over and over for two days as we tried to get
your fever down, those were the only words you said.�

He couldn�t look at her anymore.
She looked so sad and it was all because of him. He forgot his body was still
weak, so when she cupped his chin and forced him to look back at her, he had no
choice but to comply.

�Now you listen and you listen good. Love isn�t something you deserve, love is something
given freely and unconditionally. I love you Kaien, and I believe in you, just
like your family does. I wasn�t expecting it to be a bed of roses, I did expect
there to be some rough patches. That�s what a relationship is all about, though
I�ll admit ours is a bit stranger than some.� She laughed lightly, and before
he could stop himself he found he had joined her. �I�m willing to accept you, all
of you, can you do the same?�

Ichigo smiled as he left the
room. What she had just said sounded almost identical to what Tatsuki had once
told him so many years ago after sneaking into his room in the dead of night
and punching him in the chest. He knew things were going to be just fine.

Kaien stared wordlessly at his
girlfriend. Had she been a resident of Hueco Mundo, he would have thought she had just proposed to him.
Being that she wasn�t, he understood what she meant nonetheless. �Dammit, have I ever told you how much I love you?�

She gave him a toothy smile that
showed her more feline incisors. �Many times. I
promise I�ll keep your heart safe Kaien, but only if you promise me you�ll do
the same to mine.�

He smiled back at her with wet
eyes. �I think I can do that.�

�Good,� she replied sweetly.

Then she leaned back down to kiss
him again, and Kaien appreciatively returned the favor. When Tsukiyomi and Masaki woke up, they found the two snuggled
together on the bed, sleeping soundly.

Maybe three weeks wouldn�t be
that long after all.

He was going to make sure it was
well worth the wait.

~~~~~~~~

Author�s Notes: This is one of those chapters I really need
feedback on. Other than that, just want to remind all you people that have
found it fit to give my story your time, that I would
really appreciate it if you left a review for each chapter (I know it sounds
like groveling, but I really need the feedback because I�ve been writing
without any for a good month and some now. I�m sorry for the long wait by the
way).
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