Darkest Blue

Chapter 13: Hotel Aquarium

"Now I know that I'm alive

All the loneliness is filled by you inside

And as I finally breathe the air

You open up my eyes

Now I'm alive.

(To the heights, to the heights, there is hope

It's been waiting all along)"

- Falling Up

The darkness seemed to fall quicker than usual upon the Urahara Shoten that night. Urahara had been locked in his makeshift laboratory since the end of his meeting with Soul Society, not even coming out for dinner. The lack of his presence and Ichigo's brooding (made worse by the shopkeeper's absence) had not gone unnoticed, and a general gloomy mood hung over the shop. Even the children were affected by it and had gone off to bed early without a fuss, something that was almost unheard of. Tessai had attempted to cheer Ichigo up, but after dinner the boy had retired to his room with a wan smile. He'd made a phone call to his house and wished with all his heart that he could be there with his bright, beautiful family. He even missed goat face. But of course he wasn't allowed out of the shop, not even accompanied, something that he was sorely jealous of Orihime for, and he didn't want his family hanging around the shop, just in case the worst would happen in the form of an attack. He spoke to them for what seemed like hours, until the sleepy yawns of his little sisters made him shoo them away to bed. After that he sat wrapped in his bed sheets, staring out of the window at the rain which had suddenly begun to fall. He knew that it would be raining in his inner world too, but even the thought of the hollow soaking and drenched like a damp cat barely elicited a smile.

Eventually, after all the lights had dimmed inside and out, and the rain had increased to beat a steady rhythm against the roof, Ichigo heard soft but unmistakable footsteps padding down the corridor. He heard the steps stop outside of his room, and he hoped for a moment that the owner of the footsteps would step inside, but instead there was only a silent pause, followed by the soft click and swish of Urahara's bedroom door across the hall. He sat there for a minute, torn between indignation and curiosity, between fear and love, before he swallowed his dread and tumbled from his bed, following those footsteps across the hall, pausing briefly before his door as the footsteps had done before his.

There was a soft chap on the bedroom door, and Urahara felt his heart sink before he even spoke to invite the inquiring visitor in.

'Come in Ichigo.' He murmured. He knew without looking that it was Ichigo and he knew without asking the reason for his visit. The panel door slid open and Ichigo squinted through the dim light at him. He was dressed in a set of borrowed, too-large pyjamas that hung from his skinny frame and, Urahara thought with a stab of guilt, made him look even younger.

'How'd you know it was me?' He asked. Urahara smiled as he lit a couple of well used candles to bring more light into the room.

'You're still not great at the reiatsu control.' He shrugged. 'Besides, who else would be knocking on my bedroom door at this time?' Ichigo took a hesitant step into the room and slid the door shut behind him, pausing in the candlelight as he tried to build up the courage to ask about what he had overheard.

'Kisuke…' He began, but was gently cut off as Urahara began to speak.

'I know,' Urahara nodded softly and Ichigo thought that he suddenly looked very tired in the soft glare. 'You overheard our meeting.'

'Oh.' For a moment Ichigo didn't even know what to say. 'My reiatsu, right?'

'Bingo.' The shopkeeper smiled wearily as he hung up his hat on the corner of a messy wardrobe and motioned for Ichigo to come closer.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop.' He felt like he was being chastised for being a naughty child and felt a stab of guilt at his slyness. 'I was just passing by and -'

'It's alright.' Urahara waved his concerns away with a weary hand. 'You have a right to know what we were discussing.' Ichigo moved further into the room to face the blonde. Silence hung in the air for a moment as Urahara waited for Ichigo to respond.

'They want me to fight him.' The shinigami's voice was barely a whisper as he stared helplessly into Urahara's eyes, and the blonde felt like his heart was breaking.

'Yes…' He sighed, not wanting to admit the terrible truth. 'I'm against it; it's far too much to put on your shoulders in the first place, nevermind after everything that's happened.' Ichigo looked away at that, he couldn't stand to be looked at like he was broken, even though he was well aware that he was.

'Why me?' The look of the lost little child was back in his averted eyes and Urahara though that his heart really would break just from looking at him.

'It's because of his zanpakutō.' Ichigo looked back at him, confused, waiting for an explanation. 'You know about its power.'

'Illusions.' Ichigo shuddered at the memories that crowded his mind, illusions of pain and suffering and death.

'Correct… but you know these aren't just any illusions. They're incredibly powerful, and by all accounts infallible.' Urahara paused in his explanation for a moment to tilt his head towards Ichigo. 'Except when they're used on you.'

'What?' The redhead's brow furrowed, he thought that they sure seemed to work the last time he'd checked.

'You said that when you were in Las Noches…' Urahara bit his lip, trying not to push the issue too much. 'That even though… he used kyōka suigetsu on you, that the illusions created by it were not absolute.'

'Yeah, at first they were but then it was like, I dunno, like they lost their power or something… The first ones I saw were really solid, totally indistinguishable from reality…' He shuddered violently as he remembered the vividness of Orihime's blood splashing on the floor, but then he felt Urahara's hand on his own and he breathed again. 'But as time passed… It was like they lost substance. They looked real, they smelt real and if I touched them they would've felt real to the touch, but they didn't feel real, like a spirit without reiatsu I guess. I don't really know how to describe it.'

'It doesn't matter if you can articulate it, that's it; you're the only one who can tell the difference.' And oh Gods how I wish that you weren't. 'We don't know why, it might have something to do with the fact that you're human or the fact that you're a vizard, maybe you haven't had enough exposure to it, or maybe you've had too much… but for some reason Aizen's sword loses its potency when it is used on you.' Urahara saw light shining in Ichigo's eyes for a moment, the light of hope perhaps; smouldering softly in the candlelight, but it was quickly extinguished as that panic crept back in.

'But I can't fight him Kisuke.' Ichigo sounded scared again, after all the damage was only hidden just beneath the surface.

'You will get stronger, Ichigo.' Urahara tried to reassure him, taking his hand and squeezing ever so gently, but he could feel the boy slipping away.

'It's not just a matter of physical strength!' Ichigo pulled his hand from Urahara's grasp as though he was burned. 'He took something from me and I can't ever face him again, nevermind fight him.'

'Ichigo…' Urahara murmured, low and steady. He was worried that the boy was bordering on hysteria.

'He took it, don't you get it?' Ichigo caught himself suddenly, and the frenzied edge to his voice dropped away as his shoulders slumped. 'He took everything from me… Everything I wanted to give to you…' All the frenzy and anxiety seemed to leave his body, as though the admission had lifted a great weight from his chest. Almost breathlessly he pressed on, as though afraid the words would escape him if he did not capture that moment, 'But he could never take away the way I feel...'

Urahara swallowed hard. He closed the distance between them with one step, never taking his timeworn, grey eyes from Ichigo's bright, burning orbs. He reached out to him, running the rough pads of his fingers along the curve of the redhead's cheekbone.

'Ichigo…' his voice was nearly a whisper as it caught in his throat, Ichigo's eyes fluttered shut at his touch before he spoke again.

'I still feel him. Everything I do, Kisuke, I feel him in everything I do…' With his eyes still shut Ichigo reached up to place his hand over the one caressing his face. 'It's like, when I open my eyes', he opened his eyes, 'I'm going to see him there, and this will all just be one of his illusions.' He leant forward, so close that their lips were almost touching, his ochre eyes staring into Urahara's as though nothing else in the world existed. 'Everything I feel, I feel him in. Every time I'm touched…' His eyes slid shut again in a grimace of some remembered pain. 'It's his touch I feel, his cold hands…' Urahara felt a shiver pass through Ichigo and into his own body. 'I need to feel something else.' Those golden eyes half opened for a moment as he summoned his courage and pressed his lips against Urahara's. Without parting, and with his eyes tight shut he whispered, 'Kisuke, I need to feel you.'

If Urahara's heart could've broken any further, it would have in that moment. Ichigo was so marked by the haunting memory of what Aizen had done to him that the only way he could consider dealing with it was by replacing those horrific sensations with something, somebody else.

'He took from me everything I wanted to give to you.'

'No. No, Ichigo I… I can't.' He dropped his hand from Ichigo's face and took a step back as he stammered; suddenly he was the one at a loss for words. 'You're not in a good place right now… You're not yourself, you're not thinking straight.'

'Kisuke,' the raw emotion, the need in his voice almost overwhelmed the older man. 'You told me, right there in front of him, you told me that you needed me. Well right now I need you.' He took his hand again. 'More than anything I need to feel something, someone that isn't him. I need to feel you. Just you.' Urahara couldn't stand it any longer, and he pulled the boy towards him in a warm embrace, hugging him tightly to his chest.

'You're always on the attack…' He murmured. 'Always taking the most dangerous route, using the most insane methods. You never think about what it's going to cost you...' Or the people around you. Ichigo could feel Urahara's soft voice reverberating in his chest. He released his grasp as Ichigo pulled back, and looked deep into those burning irises as he pleaded with him, 'Please don't beg me to do this, because I will. You know I will. I'd do anything for you…Anything to save you.' The light thrown by the candles danced over their faces, lighting up Ichigo's unusually pale features. And he smiled, a weary, genuine smile that lit his face from the inside.

'I know.'

The rain still battered against the roof above them, and the wind howled outside like a wolf, but neither of them noticed as Urahara held Ichigo tighter in the candlelight.

'You're so delicate right now.' He whispered as he ran his nose along the curve of Ichigo's jaw. 'It feels as though you'd break if I so much as kissed you...'

Ichigo inhaled sharply and his eyes snapped open as he spoke.

'Then break me, break me until there's nothing left of me. Because you can put me back together, make me new, make me stronger... Just make me a different person from who I am right now.' Urahara could feel what little was left of his restraint slipping. 'You're the only one who can do it. Kisuke, I need you to do it. You're the only one who can make me feel whole again'

'We should take this slowly…' The shopkeeper hummed as he pressed gentle, fleeting kisses to Ichigo's neck. He could already feel him squirming in his arms.

'N - no. It's all or nothing. It has to be. That's the way it always has to be.' Ichigo muttered, and Urahara knew that there was no point in arguing with him. There was never any point in arguing with him.

'I know.'

The candles began to flicker as Urahara raised his head to catch Ichigo's lips in a kiss as gentle as he could manage with that all that heat burning in his chest. The panic only lasted for an instant, flashing in Ichigo's eyes for the briefest of moments before dissipating, his fears settling. They moved their mouths slowly, testing and tasting each other until Ichigo relaxed, getting used to the pleasant sensations. Urahara softly ran his fingers up and down the trembling boy's back, coaxing him with tender movements, and it was Ichigo who deepened the kiss, pressing harder against the older man's lips in a demanding movement. He responded by running his tongue along Ichigo's full lower lip, lightly prising apart his lips to slip inside.

Ichigo gasped into his mouth, and Urahara gave him a moment to relax before sliding his tongue against Ichigo's. This time he did not falter, but replied with cautious exploration into Urahara's mouth, tongues moving against each other in a way that was not unfamiliar to Ichigo yet completely different from anything that he had experienced before. Urahara felt the tension drain from the body that he held in his arms as they remained locked in the passionate gentleness of the embrace.

Ichigo started tugging softly at the collar of Urahara's shirt, and he took that as a sign that they should move. Taking Ichigo's hand in his own, he pulled away from the kiss and encouraged him to move with him to the bed. Ichigo sat down upon the mattress with a soft thump, and Urahara pulled him into the centre of the bed. Leaning over the younger man he pressed soft, sweet kisses to his lips and along his jawline, moving his mouth curiously to the bared skin of his neck. He felt Ichigo flinch beneath the slight pressure of his lips, his skin flushed and trembling. Brushing aside the collar of Ichigo's nightshirt, he traced the lines of his collarbone with gentle fingers. He drew a line down his chest, carefully unbuttoning his shirt with nimble fingers as he went, turning his attention back to the boy's trembling mouth to stifle the soft noises that began to spill from his lips.

'Kisuke…' Ichigo shifted below the older man. His skin was on fire, he'd never experienced anything this like before. He was burning up beneath the touch of calloused fingers and soft lips and he'd never felt such a yearning for contact before.

(skin on skin)

But every time that mouth pressed against his and his eyes flickered shut and darkness took his vision for even the tiniest of moments, he was back in the hollow blackness that never ended, and he could feel the cold fingers closing in around him, on his wrists, on his neck, forcing their way into his most private places, ripping apart his soul.

'Don't shut your eyes.' Eyelids flickered, and Urahara could see the rising panic in his eyes, sense it in his reiatsu. 'Don't look away.' He murmured, rubbing his nose softly against Ichigo's, brushing bright locks of hair back from his damp forehead. 'Focus on me.' Ichigo shifted himself into a sitting position, finding it strange that he felt only a little fear when the soft cloth of his nightshirt slipped from his shoulders. But the air that brushed his skin was not as cold as the night. And the lips that pressed against his were soft and warm and unobtrusive. And the eyes that stared into his were pale and grey and full of warmth. And when Urahara pulled his own shirt over his head, he was not afraid to reach out and touch his hot skin, running his fingers down the lean body of the older man. And he was not ashamed to be pulled close, to be kissed and caressed until he lost his mind. The candlelight lit up the warm room, and in those moments nothing could have been further from his nightmare world.

Warm fingers trailed down Ichigo's torso, brushing gently against skin growing damp with sweat. Dancing across his chest, the fingers sought out and skimmed against the raised bud of his nipple, applying gentle pressure with the rough finger pads until he gasped and squirmed against the touch. The fingers trailed lower, circling his navel, dripping into the grooves of his hipbones.

'Look at me. Ichigo.' Their foreheads pressed together, Urahara whispered almost breathlessly as he slipped his fingers beneath the waistband of Ichigo's pyjama trousers. 'Feel me.' It was all that Ichigo could do to keep from crying out when those fingers brushed his growing erection, stroking him so gently that he thought he might just go insane from the slight pressure. Urahara continued to caress him while nuzzling his ears and pressing kisses to his lips, muffling the gasps from the boy beneath him.

'I will never hurt you.' He whispered in Ichigo's ear, flicking a tongue against his lobe and sucking ever so gently. 'The nightmare will come to an end, because I'll always protect you.'

Urahara turned his attention to Ichigo's chest again as he laid a trail of gentle kisses down the lines of bone and muscle, feeling the boy shift beneath him as his skin blushed with arousal. He flicked his tongue against the curve of the shinigami's hipbone and smiled against the skin when he felt Ichigo flinch. Slowly, he tugged on the waistband of his trousers until they slid down his legs and were discarded in a heap on the floor, along with his underwear. Ichigo blushed madly as the cold air was replaced with warm breath against his most sensitive skin. Then the hot breath covered him as he felt soft lips against the head of his member. He threw his head back against the pillow as that first lightning bolt of pleasure shot through his body. When he felt himself being taken in to the damp warmth of Urahara's mouth it was all he could do to keep from crying out, and when he felt his tongue run along him he had to make an effort not to thrust into his mouth. Those warm fingers splayed across his hips, dipping into the curve of his hipbones as Urahara built a rhythm, taking him in and out of his mouth. He ran his fingers through soft blonde hair as the pleasure shot through his body. His body moved to the rhythm of Urahara's tongue as sensations that he'd never experienced before danced along his skin, inside his veins, from the tips of his toes to the hair on his head, coaxing soft sounds, gasps and moans, from between his lips.

'K-Kisuke.' He gasped. 'If you keep doing that I'm going to…' He blushed harder as the words caught in his throat.

Urahara wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Ichigo had only ever been made to feel terrible, wrong, dirty and guilty about his orgasms, to the point where he couldn't even articulate the words. He lifted his head and crawled back up the bed to where Ichigo lay.

'That's sort of the point.' The corners of his mouth curled gently as he ran his nose along the curve of Ichigo's jawline. 'Are you sure that you want to do this?'

'Yes…' His breath came in shaky, unsteady gasps but his voice was firm and sure. His golden eyes were clear of any haze and fixated upon Urahara's grey irises. 'Don't stop.'

Urahara gently shifted the boy's light body against his own, rolling him so that he lay upon the older man's chest. He claimed Ichigo's mouth again with his own as he fumbled in the drawer of the bedside table for something to take the edge off Ichigo's discomfort. He retrieved a small bottle from the drawer, and Ichigo blushed at the sight of it, knowing full well what it was. Urahara hummed and distracted him with another kiss as he coated his fingers and ran his prepared hand down Ichigo's back to cup his rear.

Ichigo gasped and squirmed uncomfortably when he felt the too familiar sensation of digits pushing inside of him, though the pain and discomfort was much lessened with the gentle pressure of Urahara's slim fingers and the slipperiness of the lubricant coating them. As they moved inside Ichigo tried to relax into the intrusion, trying to focus entirely on the blonde hair and soft lips that brushed against his skin. Taking his time, Urahara tested the water, moving slowly so as not to hurt or frighten the boy.

'Kisuke…' Ichigo moaned 'I can't stand it, hurry…'

Urahara bit his lip. Despite everything Ichigo was still so tight and he didn't want to rush but the intoxicating sight and smell of the redhead was pushing him close to the edge. But he kept control, knowing full well the importance of care in his current actions. Any rough play would push Ichigo back into that dark abyss, and if he was the one who hurt him he know that there would be no coming back for the boy. Not if he was hurt by the only one he trusted

Once he was satisfied that Ichigo was ready, Urahara removed his fingers and rolled the redhead onto his back again. He pressed kisses to the hot skin of Ichigo's neck as he deftly removed his own remaining clothing, feeling the shudder of Ichigo's skin as it moved against his own. He leaned down to taste his lips once again as he coated his member with lubricant, and made one last attempt at reassurance.

'Ready?' he breathed; his breath and heartbeat steady despite what he was about to do. Ichigo started up at him out of those pleading golden eyes and nodded, unwilling to trust his voice to speak for him. Urahara leant in for one final, deep kiss as he held Ichigo's legs apart, slowly pushing and beginning to slide into him. Ichigo's eyes snapped shut and he shuddered again, his mind reacting to the sickeningly familiar sensation as his body tried to adjust to the intrusion.

With his eyes shut the darkness crept in again, the smell and taste of blood hung in the air around him as he was violently violated over and over. He was back in the eternal night, chained to a bed with stained sheets in a room lit only by a few slivers of moonlight. The sadistic lord pinned him down, biting and scratching and forcing his disgusting body inside of Ichigo's. He tried to scream but his mouth was covered, smothered with rough lips and a forceful tongue while hands tormented him, forcing masochistic pleasure in the intrusion. Cold hands covered his face

(except they weren't cold, not anymore. The hands were gentle and the lips were soft and warm.)

Eyelids flickered, and then there were those warm hands on his face, bringing him back to reality, opening his eyes.

'Ichigo!' Urahara almost panicked when he saw Ichigo's eyes cloud over and slip shut, but he had brought him back again, back into the warm glow of the candlelight. He held Ichigo in his arms as his shudders subsisted, breathing deeply as their skin burned against each other. He knew that they should stop, but he also knew that they were both too far gone.

'Just focus on my voice…' he murmured into Ichigo's ear as he started to move slowly inside of him. He felt the redhead gasp and squirm against him and he had to bite his lip to keep himself from moaning at the feeling of his tight warmth. 'Focus on me, on my image, my smell… the way I feel inside you...'

Ichigo fought the urge to clench his eyelids shut as his heart fluttered in his chest. Urahara's grey eyes burned into his own as they worked up a steady rhythm. Warm fingers slipped in-between his own and their foreheads pressed together. Urahara was moving slowly, letting Ichigo adjust to the feeling, trying not to scare him but the pace was frustratingly slow and neither of them could stand it much longer.

'Kisuke please…' Ichigo groaned and his hips twitched with impatience. His body was as tense as a coiled spring and he was about to snap.

'I don't want to hurt you.' Urahara murmured as he pressed kisses against Ichigo's neck and chest, fighting the urge to move harder and faster against the boy.

'I… I don't care. If it's you, I don't even care if you hurt me.' Ichigo swallowed the lump in his throat as he reached up to cup Urahara's face in his hands. 'I just need you to make me feel again.' His eyes were misty with love and lust and need and a thousand other unspoken feelings and emotions, and Urahara realised in those moments that Ichigo was stronger than he had ever imagined.

'Oh fuck…' He gave in, burying those pleading lips in a deep, breathless kiss as he began to move faster, pushing deeper inside of the redhead. Ichigo cried out, his spine arching as a burst of pleasure ruptured the discomfort, his head falling back against the pillow. Urahara took his face in his hands and brought him back to look back into his eyes. 'It's me Ichigo.' He ran the pad of his thumb along Ichigo's lip as he thrust inside of him; his other hand ran down his neck, along the curve of his collarbone and played across his chest, lazily teasing the raised buds of his nipples. 'Look at me, feel me.' He was having difficulty formulating words in the bolts of ecstasy that shot through his body at the taut warmth that enveloped him but he had to let to Ichigo hear his promises. 'I'll never hurt you. I'll never let anyone hurt you.'

'Aah..!' Ichigo found it impossible to stop the lewd noises slipping from his lips. He'd never imagined that his body could feel so good. It was no longer the painful, masochistic pleasure that he'd experienced in hell, and even when Urahara was rough with him it was nothing like being with Aizen. Every time he jerked his hips Ichigo cried out as pleasure shot through his body, he was being taken over by the heat and the pressure and he could feel something building up deep inside of him that he'd never felt before.

'Gods Ichigo… You're so tight.' When Urahara growled in his ear he was not afraid nor disgusted, and even when he shut his eyes now the candlelight still shone through his eyelids, warming him, filling him with light. He was drowning in the warmth of the light, of the body pressed against his own and the sparks coming from his insides. He was no longer afraid as he pressed his lips against those of his partner and felt his gasp as he moved inside of him.

Urahara's body was on fire, and he couldn't hold in it much longer as he moved inside of the younger man. When Ichigo pulled him close and captured his lips, their tongues clashing in frenzied ecstasy, he couldn't stop the massive gush of pleasure that swept through his body.

'Ichigo, I'm going to…' He gasped as his orgasm ripped through him, pouring out into the redhead that squirmed below him.

Ichigo had expected that the feeling of hot fluid flooding his insides would be every bit as dirty and unpleasant as it had always been, but the sight and feel of Urahara was enough to tip him over the edge when he felt his insides gush warm with his seed.

'Aah, Kisuke! Fuck!' His back arched off of the bedcover and his damp skin was pressed against Urahara's again as the pressure spiked and released suddenly inside of him, sticky fluid covering his stomach and splashing onto the blonde's chest as he came.

Ichigo's vision swam as he tried to get his heartbeat under control from the massive rush of endorphins that he'd just experienced. He winced as he felt Urahara pull out and flop down next to him on the bed, his own chest rising and falling as quickly as Ichigo's was.

'Are you alright?' The shopkeeper breathed heavily, his warm breath tickling Ichigo's ear as he spoke.

'Yeah…' Ichigo breathed deep and hard. 'Just let me… catch my breath.' Urahara couldn't help but laugh at the look of flushed contentment on the younger man's face as he pulled him near and pressed weary kisses to his lips. Ichigo smiled at his laughter, he too was experiencing for the first time the afterglow of mutual lovemaking. 'That was… incredible.' He muttered as his eyes began to slip shut in the hazy warmth of the room as he relaxed into the feelings still buzzing through his skin.

'Hey wake up sleepy head.' Urahara gave him a playful nudge. 'We need to get cleaned up before you fall asleep like this.' He smiled softly as he kissed the redhead's damp forehead.

'Nngh.' Ichigo muttered and yawned as he sat up, feeling the post-sex lethargy set in. Urahara grudgingly moved from the bed, and disappeared for a moment into the bathroom attached to his room, reappearing to throw a clean towel at Ichigo's head.

'You'd better clean yourself off, unless you'd rather I did it for you?' Joviality flashed in Urahara's grey orbs as he wriggled his eyebrows at the redhead on his bed. Ichigo snorted and made a face at him.

'I'm sure I can cope.' He replied as he began to dab at the sticky fluid on his legs.

'Oh well, suit yourself.' Urahara shrugged as he went back into the bathroom to clean himself off.

When he returned Ichigo was already curled up beneath the bed sheets, dressed in his night trousers once more, his chest rising and falling softly as though he was already asleep. Urahara retrieved his underwear from where they had fallen on the floor and slipped in next to him. He slid his arms around the smaller body that inhabited his bed and smiled softly as Ichigo cuddled in closer to the warmth of his body, yawning as his eyes fluttered open to gaze into his own. Urahara wanted to speak but it felt as though Ichigo was gathering his words to say something important, something that needed to be said.

'You know what…' The redhead mumbled after a moment of silence, '…he didn't take everything.' He paused again to collect himself. 'Because, this is the first, the only, time I've done this in my flesh and blood body.' And it was true, and somehow this lifted a great weight from each of their hearts. Urahara chuckled.

'Are you telling me I just took your virginity?' He murmured as he nuzzled Ichigo's face.

'Yes…' He felt the younger man smile as he spoke. 'At least there is one thing that is sacred. You're the only one who's ever known me as a human.'

'I'm glad.' Urahara whispered as his eyelids began to slip shut in the warmth that covered them both.

'I'm still real, right Kisuke?' Ichigo's hesitant question made his eyes snap open again.

'What?' He furrowed his brow, not quite sure what Ichigo was getting at.

'I'm still human, right?' His golden eyes were wide and staring, but no longer full of that pain and fear that had become so commonplace in their brightness.

'Unfortunately so.' Urahara smirked and was relieved to see Ichigo smile back at him. 'Just remember that I meant what I said to you Ichigo; I'll always look after you…'

'Thank you Kisuke…' Ichigo whispered as fatigue stole over his body once again. Urahara pressed his lips to the boy's forehead as he drifted off to sleep in his arms, their bare skin smouldering comfortably against each other as the candles burned out and moonlight began to creep in through the slats of the window, strands falling upon the bed and illuminating the lovers in their embrace. But the darkness and moonlight had no place in Ichigo's dreams any longer, and he slept on through the night without fear of what the darkness might hold, with the warmth of his lover surrounding him, protecting him, as he had sworn to do forever.

But, unseen and unnoticed by everybody in the shop, something was stirring in the night. And as the last candle burned out, for a moment the moonlight flashed upon a pair of hellish brown eyes burning in the darkness. Ichigo shivered in his sleep but did not awaken, for his mind was far from the cold hand that brushed against the flushed skin of his face. And when morning came there would be no trace of anything amiss in the sleepy morning sun, but for the cold itch upon his cheek...