Life Before Death

Chapter X "Y-you're not loud enough..." Ichigo complained. Ulquiorra chuckled uncharacteristically. "You wish it that I should be louder?" He gasped softly, sitting up a bit. "I just..." the boy began. He was standing next to the doorframe to Urahara's room. He had planned on walking through it, but instead he turned from view of the room and stood just outside, holding his arms close to himself, bowing his head to keep the blush hidden. "I don't know when you're..." Having sex... "Uh, Kurosaki-kun, would you mind waiting?" Urahara's voice sounded a tad exhausted, but he could tell the shopkeeper was trying to speak normally. "It's your shipment." He began. "Just leave it for now, take a break." The boy left the room, irritated. Now he needed the chore Urahara had given him to distract himself. What was he going to do with himself without it? Well for starters, he could take care of the hard on growing between his thighs. The teen escaped to his shared room and sat down in a corner. Now he could still hear them, which he actually welcomed. He listened as the creaking of the futon sped up, Ulquiorra was beginning to pant softly, letting soft moans slip now and then. Heavy fabric hit the floorboards, they were probably mostly naked now. Ulquiorra was bent far over when Ichigo had walked in on them. Admittedly, he felt jealous of the shopkeeper, or he thought he did, he couldn't be sure. Ichigo heard a loud gasp, and the creaking changed. He didn't know what that meant, but he imagined Urahara standing the hollow up more, maybe hitting him in a more tender area, deeper. The boy slid his hand down between his legs, and then back up. The other hand joined in and they worked to undo his fly, and then he was free to wrap tightly around the erection. It was Ulquiorra, he told himself. He was leaning forward and whispering something in his ear. No, maybe it was Urahara. The older man breathed over Ichigo's neck, a musk tobacco and tea smell covering him. Ichigo's cock was hard, the tip glistened. He stopped stroking it momentarily to watch it jump as Ulquiorra warned Urahara in the other room. He knew it was for show, the hollow could hold out forever. That's what Ichigo assumed. Experimentally, he took one hand and slid it underneath himself, his middle finger seeking out and playing with his anus. It was still a new thing to him, but Renji hadn't made it feel half bad. "Having fun there?" He heard. "Ah! Renji." Ichigo panicked, rushing to pull his pants up. "I've seen you like that already, remember?" He reminded the boy. "Oh, yeah, I know... I just..." He didn't know how to finish that. "Not used to it?" Renji teased. "No." He pouted. "Can I?" Renji offered, or perhaps requested. "Uh, yeah.." Ichigo smirked. He was expecting head but the red head slumped right down and began kissing him. He got the idea that Renji liked kissing. At least his hands were skilled. Ichigo was moaning into the kiss, shivering at the strong grasp Renji had of him. "more..." he moaned against the other's lips. They both heard Ulquiorra in the other room and paused. "This is like... some weird... I dunno." Renji laughed. "I know, I won't complain though." And with that Ichigo sat up a bit, pushing Renji over on his back. "You said you wanted to help, right?" he was a bit out of breath, and straddled the shinigami so that he could grind into his tented fly. "Hey, I said can I not oh please, allow me to help you out there right?"" Renji teased. "Means nothing to me." Ichigo groaned, almost painfully pinning his balls between their bodies. "Undo your pants." He told the red head. "No, undo them for me." Renji shot back. The boy growled at him, but he didn't want to stall this any longer. He went to work and pulled his and Renji's pants off. He was relieved when he felt their bare skin grinding against each other. It was so good. The two tried to be quiet enough to hear Ulquiorra, Urahara was becoming more vocal too, they were close. They both tried to move quickly, hoping to finish at the same time. Ichigo was panting finally and Renji pulled him close enough to ravage the boy's neck. It was a little too much, Ichigo was wining at the harsh bites, but he didn't stop Renji, eventually he grew used to them and began to moan again. Ulquiorra's voice cried out suddenly, stopped by a hand clapping over his mouth. "I know that move." Renji joked, he didn't really, but Urahara had plenty of tricks up his sleeve in the bedroom, so he could only imagine. "You.. really?" Ichigo asked. "He's curved." It was a little too much for Ichigo, but he moaned against Renji's ear. "So he can really get in there and hit you in the right spot." Ichigo shut his eyes tightly. He wasn't disgusted, but he was, embarrassed? It made him harder though, so he did at least find it arousing. Urahara let a groan slip, followed by Ulquiorra gasping loudly several times, and the creaking stopped shortly thereafter. "God..." Ichigo panted, that alone helped him come. He spilled over Renji's stomach, and shortly after, with his help, Renji came over his own stomach as well, his hands gripping tightly at Ichigo's arms, his hips thrusting up against him. "Ha, shit..." he gasped, his body going limp, just as Ichigo's. "Ulquiorra's gonna complain about it smelling in here." Ichigo panted. "Let him, who the hell cares." Renji laughed. "We'll have him join us." "No, he likes to tease me and it's... just kind of awkward." Ichigo growled, sitting up in Renji's lap. "Is it awkward? Or does he get under your skin in just the right way that it makes you wanna-" "Are you trying to be discrete?" Ulquiorra asked them both. He was missing his kimono and now just had a sheet wrapped up around his shoulders. "No, I get it you can hear us." Ichigo snapped at him. "You two weren't quiet either!" He pointed out stubbornly. "We weren't trying to be particularly quiet." "What happens if Ururu and Jinta hear you guys?" Renji asked him cautiously. "He hasn't brought that up yet. Although I would argue that they too are not human, and in fact, older than you, Kurosaki Ichigo." Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Still seems kinda weird." He pointed out. Renji nodded in agreement to him. "Hey," Ichigo sat up and pulled himself away from Renji, pulling his shirt down over his crotch. "Has your uh... has it bled at all today?" He asked the hollow. "No." Ulquiorra reached his hand up to check, sliding his fingers inside. Ichigo wished he could have done that, although he's proven that it only works when the hollow is unconscious. "I still don't understand why it happened in the first place." He looked curiously at his clean fingertips. "But it didn't hurt?" Ichigo sounded concerned. The hollow was clearly amused by that. "Are you so worried about my well being?" He teased. "Gah! Ya see?" He turned to Renji. "Why can't you be normal?" He growled at Ulquiorra. "Why do you keep trying to piss me off?" "Because it is an easy thing to do, and your reactions are interesting." Renji laughed at that, he agreed, Ichigo was easy to piss off. The strawberry only blushed. "Like when we had sex last week." Ulquiorra pointed out. The boy's face was beet red and Renji turned on him. "You two had sex?" He sounded shocked. "I thought Yumichika told you!" "He said you didn't tell him!" "I... oh... Damnit!" Ichigo cursed to himself. "You should have denied it." Ulquiorra said over his shoulder, leaving. Now the red head knew for sure, and it was entirely Ichigo's reckless fault. "God, he pisses me off." Ichigo growled. A soft, monotone "I can still hear you." Came from the hallway. "I know" Ichigo yelled at him. Renji laughed at them both. At that Ichigo launched himself at Renji, gaining a fist full of red hair while Renji's hand tried repeatedly punching at Ichigo's jaw. "What are you two...." Rukia sat on the window sill, watching the fight, but noticing almost straight away that both of them had their pants undone. "Huh?" she giggled. Renji blushed and easily pushed Ichigo off of himself. "You said you would be a while." He yelled accusingly. "I was a while, I guess I wasn't long enough." She teased them both. Ichigo simply groaned and rushed out of the room and into the bathroom. When he emerged later, Renji was some how clean, and he and Rukia were going over some readings that Mayuri had sent them. They looked utterly lost still. Urahara and Ulquiorra were standing over a new gigai he'd made for the hollow. It was to be his normal gigai, it didn't have any weird markings on its face or anything, it was possibly even tanner than Ulquiorra. "I'm still rather new at creating gigai for hollows. Would you mind testing it out now?" He asked the espada. Ulquiorra nodded silently. He seemed lost in how normal it looked. Ichigo was positive that Ulquiorra had some aspiration to be human again, no matter how uninteresting they all seemed to him. Ichigo wandered passed them and into the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water and turning around just in time to see the hollow falling backwards into the gigai. After a moment, the gigai's eyes opened. He sat up stiffly and lifted his hand in the air to examine it. "Will I be able to fight in this?" Ulquiorra asked him. "You could, but since we haven't really tested it properly, I'd rather you step out of it to fight." Ulquiorra helped the hollow stand and then began examining his body to make sure it felt right. Ichigo noticed Ulquiorra's face. It was smoother. For one thing, the tear streaks were gone, the rings around his eyes were gone, his eyebrows were thinner, and of course the hollow's hole was gone. "Does something interest you?" Ulquiorra asked him. The teen pouted and averted his gaze. "If you like this one better, I might just trash the first one I made for you." Urahara noted to himself. "Does it feel ok?" He asked Ulquiorra. "Actually." The hollow began. He slumped against Urahara and his eyes closed for a moment. "Ah, that's a no." Urahara held onto him, Renji and Ichigo both rushed over to take him from the shopkeeper as he readied a mod-soul capsule. Ichigo noticed that Ulquiorra's eyes weren't focused, he seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness. "O-oi... what's happening?" He asked Urahara. "I didn't sync his reiatsu with the gigai correctly. It's unstable now that his mask is broken, so it's hard to get a good reading. "Why can't you just change the first one you made for him?" He asked the old man. "Actually, that one does the same thing, I was researching it this time around. Since I've tweaked the other one so much and nothing was working, I thought I should just start from scratch." Urahara kneeled down to push the small capsule passed Uqluiorra's lips. This caused Ulquiorra's real self to fall towards the floor, caught by Ichigo while Renji lifted the gigai up, sitting it in a chair. He was clearly exhausted, the thing had sucked him dry it seemed. "Take him in to rest, I'm going to reconfigure this." Urahara told him. "Ooooh, what's wrong with him?" They all looked up as a more normal looking Ulquiorra stared at the scene. It was a good thing the mod-soul's voice didn't match Ulquiorra's, it would have floored them all. The somewhat brighter more curious look on his face though stunned them. Ulquiorra woke up enough to see a pair of brilliant green eyes staring at him, his own eyes. "What's this?" He asked. "Ah! He can talk at least!" The thing said excitedly. "He probably hasn't been eating properly, I mean look at him!" "Well... he only eats souls really, I think." Ichigo told the other Ulquiorra. "Souls? Why... why would he eat souls?" It took a while, but the mod-soul finally noticed the hole in Ulquiorra's neck. "Ah! A Hollow?!" It reeled back and away from Ulquiorra, crouching up on the table top in a way that contradicted Ulquiorra's perfect posture. "What... is it?" Ulquiorra asked irritably, overwhelmed by the pitch and energy of the mod-soul's voice. "What is he doing here? Is he a prisoner?" "No, and you're his mod-soul, once we get his gigai fixed." Urahara told the thing. "What?! No! I'm not modding for a hollow! What is this?" It roared at the shopkeeper. Urahara uncorked a small soul candy container, which seemed to quiet the thing. "He's on our side, and we're not feeding him souls, he's managed to survive thus far on hollows." The shopkeeper sounded pleased with this, smiling at him. "That makes me sound like a domestic house pet." Ulquiorra pointed out, sitting up a bit more. "Yeah, got a problem?" The mod-soul teased him. "This one, does not interest me. It's trash." Ulquiorra sighed, standing slowly. He stumbled on his way to the door and managed to make it down the hall way and into Urahara's bed. "So we still need to fix this thing by tomorrow, right?" Ichigo clarified, poking the gigai body. "Hey, watch it!" The mod-soul spun around and glared down at Ichigo. "This is a pretty rotten thing you've stuck me with." It growled at him. "Me? I didn't pick you, he did!" He pointed at Urahara. "And may I point out that it was random, we didn't know who they would send." He reminded the thing. The Ulquiorra look-a-like pouted and slouched down into a chair. He reminds me of Kon... great. Ichigo thought. He stood and looked back to them all, making sure they had all the help they needed. He wasn't too concerned. Ichigo made his way back to Urahara's room, finding an already passed out Ulquiorra. It looked like he hadn't even made it onto the bed completely. "Jeez." Ichigo sighed, stooping down to fix that. He sat next to Ulquiorra, remembering his warning, The boy had taken it the wrong way. How is it unhealthy? I'm not obsessing over it or anything. He thought. He listened, made sure that Ulquiorra was really out, and then leaned forward a bit. The journey into that void was, admittedly, something he missed. The scene that the void opened up to was bright. It was the inside of a well lit building, with sun filtering in, and young boys rushing back and forth while older ones sat and studied scrolls of papyrus. One boy tripped right in front of Ichigo, dropping a small wooden tablet. "Oh no!" He cried. He picked it up and saw his notes that were carved into wax had been dented, and were now illegible. The boy pouted and tried not to cry. "Give it here." Ichigo heard. The boy and him both turned to see Ulquiorra sitting with his legs crossed and tucked under his left hip by a column. The boy walked over and gave the wooden tablet to him along with a small pick he was using to carve in the wax. "You don't remember what you wrote?" He asked the boy, who shook his head. Ulquiorra squinted at the boy's writing, biting his lip while he tried to make out what had been there. "You were writing about Aeneas, right?" He asked, and the boy nodded. "Alright. And you have the word Romans in there... So... the Trojan hero gave rise to the Romans... This is what I would say." He looked at the boy. "Does that sound right to you?" "... I think so." The boy said bashfully. "Ok then, you're fine." Ulquiorra smiled softly at him and handed the tablet back, having carved the phrase into one of the dented lines. "Treat it with care." He warned the boy, who only smiled with him and rushed off again. The hollow returned to the scrolls he had in front of him, pulling his shawl tighter around his shoulders as a breeze came through the columns he was seated before. A wrinkled hand was placed on his shoulder and he turned to see an aged face. "That was kind of you." The man told him. Ulquiorra smiled at him, moving over so that the man could sit down on the step he was on, which took some effort on the old man's part. "He would have been beaten, it would be a waste of his time." Ulquiorra pointed out. "I see, so what is it you're studying?" the man asked. "Right now, I'm actually looking over your work." Ulquiorra handed the piece of papyrus to him. "Ohh, the *study of life, it's interesting, is it not?" He smiled at the hollow, rereading his own work. "This has gotten a lot of criticism. *Plato for one never appreciated my interests. But I think, this is something that will really take off soon." He sounded so excited about. "It's something new. New things are criticized, and eventually recognized for their greatness. Your teacher would have come to appreciate it." Ulquiorra agreed. "Yes, something new. I seek out new things, but I worry about losing the old things, like him." The man sighed. "Those will never leave us." Ulquiorra reassured him. "Like, Aeneas?" The hollow smiled. "Your father is Roman, is he not?" Ulquiorra nodded to him. "But my mother was Greek." He smiled. "That's right." He smiled at the hollow. "The blood of Aeneas." He joked. "The *ichor of Aphrodite herself." He spoke softly. Ulquiorra closed his eyes softly, "I see." He chuckled. "Did I go to far?" "No, It's not the first time my looks have been compared to that of a Goddess." That sounded conceited of him, but he didn't mind obviously. "I'm flattered." "I hope so, but also remember that you're much more than that." He warned the hollow. "Now, this school is about to..." "I know, I should leave. Forgive me." Ulquiorra stood. "Unless, you wish it that I stay..." He said softly. Normally, he would offer up his body in exchange for knowledge, and education, but this man knew better. The hollow sat up a bit, placing his hands on the old man's shoulder, pulling up his foreign robe so that he could straddle the man's lap intimately. "No no, please my boy, I'm much too old for you." The man smiled at him, pushing him away gently. "Since when has age been an issue in this world." The rejected Ulquiorra readjusted his kimono, embarrassed if possible. "Since I dreamed of having a son your age, who will become a great man." He laughed warmly. "just... be careful, please." He said as he handed the papyrus sheets to Ulquiorra, giving them to him to keep it seemed. They were on *botany it looked like. "Don't walk blind with this power of yours, I fear you may fall. *Satraps are not to be taken lightly." "You..." Ulquiorra looked surprised, for once, he genuinely looked surprised. "You know of-" "Oh, of what?" The man laughed, waving for him to leave. "I'm just the silly old man who ignores the giant universe looming over our heads. I don't know anything." He joked, giving Ulquiorra a friendly pat on the back before he left. Ulquiorra stared after him. He looked worried. He rolled the papyrus up and stuffed them into a pouch that hung from his waist. The morning was slowly turning into noon and he took off to get a head start in the market place. Ichigo wondered what the significance of this was. It wasn't until Ulquiorra had made it to the market place that he began to understand. Ichigo couldn't read Greek, but he somehow understood what the papyrus had on it. It was a study of poisonous plants, and their affects. The hollow examined several fresh grown flowers decorating the many stalls along the road. He was focused in what it was he was searching for. Ulquiorra's face softened when he found a grouping of purple flowers, caressing their stems gently with his hand.. "Ah, devils helmet, I see we have a member of *Hekate here causing trouble." A joyous voice sounded beside him. The espada went pale when he turned to see its source. A tall man with sunken eyes and a long rounded nose stood before him. This man had two guards with him, a deep purple chiton with white fringe along the bottom. A heavy metal chest piece covered his chiton. He was a military man. Ulquiorra recovered quickly and smiled at the man, his body slumping into a more seductive pose. Was this him? Ichigo wondered, or the memory seemed to wonder for him. "Lysimachos?" Ulquiorra inquired, and the man nodded to him formally. "What business brings you here?" He asked the hetaera. "It's not far from where I usually do business." He laughed softly. "Although, hopefully more business." Ulquiorra joked, looking around. "Athens is far from Thrace though, is it not?" Ulquiorra asked him. "Oh, I get to travel when ever I want, so why not?" He laughed softly. "Now, I have to ask, what is this that you're wearing?" He asked Ulquiorra. The hollow smiled and stepped back to show off his new garment. "It's called a kimono, it's foreign, from the east." "I see, you're one of those people." Lysimachos drawled. "And this is a bad thing, I take it?" "No, no." the war commander laughed. "I'm teasing you, they just seem to be so popular, with foreign trade picking up now. There's a lot coming through the port in the *Hospitable Sea and the Aegean. "There is. Isn't it beneficial for us?" He asked the man. "It is, I'm just worried about being lost as far as culture and tradition goes." This time Ulquiorra let a laugh slip. "We're Greek, we're noisy. I doubt we'd lose it if we were blind." He joked and the man laughed, nodding in agreement. "Well, how shall we part ways?" He asked Ulquiorra. "May I expect to see you again?" He inquired, leaning close enough to slip his hand around the hollow's waist, his strong hands groping a firm cheek. Ulquiorra leaned in close to the man, standing on his tip toes to reach his ear as he whispered. "Oh, I'm sure you will." And with that the Hetaera turned from him teasingly and continued on down the row of market stalls, the bundle of devils helmet in hand. The vision blurred quickly before Ichigo, and instinctively, as though he was about to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he withdrew it from Ulquiorra's neck, looking down just as the hollow began to wake up. "O-oi." He said, at a loss for what else to say. "What is it?" Ulquiorra asked. "What do you want?" "I was.... checking in on you." Ichigo said safely. "I see." Ulquiorra sounded exhausted still. "Is that thing still out there?" He sounded irritated. "Yeah... Um, don't worry about it. Kon usually takes my body for me and he's a pain in the ass too." "And he's a mod soul?" "Yeah." "Fine, if it aides us in any way, I will have no choice in the matter." Ulquiorra reasoned. He lifted his hand to his head, focusing on something it seemed and winced. "You ok?" Ichigo asked, standing up from the bedside. "I am..." He paused though. "I wonder if living in this world has reminded me of things that happened here..." it sounded like he'd said it more to himself than to Ichigo. "Huh?" "It's nothing, never mind." The Hollow yawned, and rolled over onto his side and away from Ichigo. The boy stared down at him for a moment, but he knew he wasn't asleep yet. In fact, it dawned on Ichigo that he was testing the boy. Was he waiting for him to try and slip his fingers into his memories again? Yeah right, he was too smart for that. Ichigo grinned at his cleaver thinking and left the room. "Oi, Ichigo!" He heard, turning to see Ikkaku and Yumichika standing in the door. He waved and smiled at them both, but that faded quickly. "Hey! Yumichika! What's the big idea?!" He growled at him. The frumpy shinigami only giggled in response and rushed out the front door to escape Ichigo. Ikkaku stared after them both and looked in at Renji, both of them sniggering at the scene. Author's notes: * The study of life is Biology. * The old man is supposed to be Aristotle. His teacher was Plato. I wanted to include him because, while Plato studied the universe and what it signified (a little more religious), Aristotle studied tangible things, which he believed were the key to the universe. I don't know if that makes sense, but Ulquiorra always seems to doubt things that he can't see or touch, so Aristotle seemed like a better match to me. Also, I wanted Aristotle to be the only one in this entire fanfic (besides Orihime maybe) who understood Ulquiorra, in a way that seemed cautious. I like to think that Ulquiorra is always in control and can manipulate people, all except Aristotle. I wrote a lot, I'm sorry. * Ichor: Aristotle compared Ulquiorra to Aeneas because he's part Roman, and Aeneas was said to give rise to the Romans. Aeneas was also said to be the son of Aphrodite, and the God's have ichor in their blood, it's a mineral. So he's referring to Ulquiorra having special mineral blood in him from the Gods. I also wanted to compare him to Aphrodite as this even more beautiful and enchanting thing. I know, I'm silly. XD * Botany is the study of plants. * They called Ptolemy of Egypt a satrap, and Antigonos was a Satrap, it's basically someone who rules over a region. * Hekate was a Greek Goddess around which cults formed. They used devil's helmet (Aconitum) in ceremonies. It's also known as wolfsbane and monkshood, but I chose devils helmet for obvious reasons relating to Ulquiorra. :) * At that time, the Black Sea was called the Hospitable Sea. Author's Comments: * At the start of this Ichigo reminded me of Ta-kun from Fooly Cooly, Ulquiorra is Haruko and Urahara is his pervy dad. XD Fun times. * I did a lot of looking around, and it seems that nobody really knows what Jinta and Ururu are. I'm gonna go with not human, that takes care of their innocent little eyes and ears. XD * OH NO! I did something bad. Ulquiorra's mod-soul is... a little more eccentric than he is. I've always wondered how to make him seem more excited about things, but that would be way to hard and out of character. I think this works just fine. XD I hope it didn't bug anyone. XD