Short snippet from the Bleach I Knew You AU.
But before I begin. *Insert deep sigh here.*
Secretlypansexualmango, if you see this, it was supposed to be a response to your ask. Unfortunately, it took a hard left-turn and ended up in. Uraichi shipping territory? Look, IDK, I'm asexual, I don't get it either. Anyway, since I don't know your shipping preferences and don't want to accidentally respond to your ask with something that squiks you, I will be officially responding to your ask in another post that is less likely to be unexpectedly unpalatable. Thank you for your patience, and, uh, I hope this doesn't turn you off the au! (*laughs nervously*)
Without further ado, the snippet:
Breaking into the Shiba family grounds is easy. By sheer comparison, breaking into Shiba Ichigoās room specifically is almost a challenge, but itās not anything that Kisuke hasnāt planned for.
The strange, modified kido, and the odd wards Ichigo has placed, are simple to bypass with a bit of fancy footwork and precisely-timed counter-kido. Itās practically childās play to get past them, now that he's roughly figured out how they work and where they all are.
His job is made even easier by the fact that, for some reason, Kisukeās spiritual pressure doesnāt wake Ichigo up. Quite the opposite, in fact. He seems to sleep deeper when Kisuke is nearby and has let Benihime out a little.
He has theories about that.
Heās tired of them being theories.
Heās here to get evidence.
Kisuke bypasses the final seal and slides Ichigoās window open, slipping into his room. He lets his spiritual pressure permeate the air a little thicker than he would in normal company, and as expected, Ichigoās spiritual pressure slows down as he falls further into slumber.
ā¦ And Kisuke is supposed to believe that the first time they met was two months ago? When this is Ichigoās reaction to his presence? When Ichigo is one of the most paranoid people Kisuke, an ex-onmi agent, has ever encountered?
Kisuke is a genius. He doesnāt need to be in order to see the flaw in that logic.
Kisuke steps further into the room, gliding softly over the old wood floorboards. He pauses in the middle, taking a moment to debate where to start.
Well. Why not with the simplest?
Heās caught it a few times, the barest trace of his own power lingering around Ichigo. A fascinating phenomenon, when he canāt recall a single time heās drawn shikai around him, let alone used enough power to leave a long-lasting trace.
He draws closer to Ichigoās bed, until he could reach out and touch him if he wished.
Ichigo breathes deeply, evenly, no sign of waking up. At some point, his covers ended up half kicked-off. Possibly from the heat, probably from nightmares. Regardless of the reason, Kisuke canāt help but think that he looks strangely fragile this way, surrounded by the evidence of his restlessness.
He puts a hand on the the hilt of his soul-partner. āAwaken, Benihime,ā he murmurs.
She stirs within him, gently, in a way that is oh so rare. Like the softest, most gradual of ocean tides, she rises, her fragrance of wet iron washing through the air around them.
And together, channeling her power through his eyes, they see.
Glowing crimson threads that they have no recollection of weaving wrap protectively, lovingly, around Ichigo. A thin but strong filament, sewn through the skin from just below Ichigoās ear all the way to his opposite shoulder, sutures closed what must have once been a deadly throat wound. Another one, obviously originally meant to keep shut a gash down the length of Ichigoās forearm, keeps it companion.
And beyond the battlefield sutures there are more threads. Hundreds of intangible and deceptively thin and absolutely unbreakable strands of Benihimeās power wrap around Ichigo, crisscrossing over themselves ā around his throat and across his face and down his torso and up his arms, visible wherever his bare flesh is exposed ā seemingly serving no purpose.
Benihimeās power surges at the sight, a hot delight running through her as she sees Ichigo so thoroughly caught in her webs. Kisukeās fingers suddenly, urgently ache with the urge to touch, to tighten, to add more.
No purpose other than, it seems, to satiate their own possessiveness.
Kisuke exhales a shaking breath. Closes his eyes for a brief moment. Gets the heat in his blood under control.
No purpose other than to alert themselves, perhaps? Did they know that one day they wouldn't recognize Ichigo anymore, and left this as a clue?
(And oh, what a clue. What a clue it is.)
He lets Benihimeās power fade, taking his hand away from her hilt. Heās self-aware enough to know when he needs to stop tempting himself, and heās gotten the evidence he came for ā far better proof than he could have ever anticipated.
He takes a step back, and the motion is the most unnatural thing heās done in a long, long time.
He has questions. He has a few theories, too. Amnesia, caused by a very specific type of parasitic hollow. Dimension travel. Time travel. He doesnāt have enough information yet to figure out which is most likely, but he has finally confirmed beyond doubt that Ichigo is his, has been his, and something tried to steal that from him.
Fury flares within him, burning through his veins, and he canāt do this right here.
He takes another step back, this one just as unnatural as the last.
He canāt ask, yet. He canāt get closer, canāt wake Ichigo up with a soft hand on his cheek, canāt tell him that heās there now, canāt promise him to take care of it all if he would just let him in again.
Shiba Ichigo is in the middle of a chess game ā a dangerous one, a complicated one ā and Kisuke canāt see the whole board yet. Tipping his own hand might trigger a whole plethora of traps, including another round of amnesia, and he refuses to risk the knowledge heās regained.
He will have to be careful. He will have to move cautiously.
He casts one last look at Ichigo, lets his eyes trace over that delicate throat that he now knows almost bled out. That delicate throat that had to be held together with Benihimeās webs. That delicate throat that he doesnāt remember stitching back together, despite the fact that he used his bankai to do it.
He was made to unknow a person he loves. He was made to unknow a war. He was made to unknow the fact that danger lurks still in the shadows of Soul Society.
He will know the end of this game. And Ichigo will learn that there is no universe in which Kisuke does not protect whatās his.
Kisuke turns. Takes another unnatural step away from his favorite, infuriating puzzle. And then he wrenches himself out of the room, out into the night, closing the window behind him and leaving as unnoticed as he had come.
