BLEACH: 10 Minutes in Heaven {Shinigami Heaven *Part One*} Shuhei Hisagi

 69

 “Uhm, Rangiku, I don’t know if you know this, but 69 isn’t a word.”

“It works just as well,” Shuhei Hisagi says from where he’s sitting. “You got me, _______.” He stands up, and you find yourself admiring deliciously bare arms from where you’re standing. Shuhei blushes faintly and rubs the back of his head when he realizes you’re practically salivating.

“Sorry about that…” You say, trying to laugh it off. “What can I say? You’re fun to look at!”

“That’s my girl!” Gran yells from the floor.

You glare at her, blush yourself, and run for the closet like you’ve been set on fire. The Lieutenant of the 9^th Division has been your crush practically since you were old enough to know what a boy was. Shuhei had even helped Gran train you when you’d first become aware of your spiritual powers. Of course, being seventeen and stuck for ten hours a day with a handsome, often shirtless, instructor hadn’t been the best for your sanity, but you’d pummeled quite a few dummies while trying not to stare.

Shuhei steps through the door and shuts it behind himself. “Rangiku just would have slammed it.” He moves in front of you and you reach out a hand to shake. It had been a while since you’d been alone long enough to talk.

Unfortunately, due to height difference, the proffered hand hit a certain portion of Shuhei’s anatomy that you had had no intention of going anywhere near. Shuhei, however, didn’t know that, and couldn’t care less, since he was crouched on the floor cursing.

“Oh my God, Shuhei, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize I was so much shorter, oh crap, I’m sorry!”

“I’m fine,” Shuhei grunts, gritting his teeth. “That really hurt.”

“I’m sorry! Oh geez, I’d better go get some ice…”

“That’s an even worse idea!” When he whispered to you why, your face just about spontaneously combusted.

After a shaky start, you kneel in front of Shuhei (who, in turn, is kneeling in front of you) and rub the back of your neck sheepishly. “I’m really sorry. If I’d been thinking…”

He shakes his head. “You probably still would have figured out a way to cause me physical torment. You’re good at that.”

“What do you mean?” You ask, an eyebrow raised.

“While I was training you. Do you know how hard it was not to just go over and hold you? You were my student, for God’s sake, but that didn’t seem to matter. You were seventeen. I was robbing a cradle.”

“Well, you’re not now!” You answer, much faster than you’d intended.

Shuhei’s head shot up. “You mean you actually… I wasn’t imagining that you were staring at me?”

You want to kick yourself, but seeing as it is anatomically impossible, you content yourself with a few choice swear words. “Yes, I stared at you. All the time. I couldn’t stop. Everything about you… I was totally hooked. I still am. Why do you think I spend so much time here, rather than the human world?”

“I… I can’t. You were my student, and you’re young. I can’t expect you to pick one world over another or to even know what love is.”

“Don’t act like you’re a bazillion years older than me, Shuhei. You don’t want to get involved because you don’t love me.”

“What kind of stupid idea is that? I love you more than anything—“ he bit his lip.

“I see you found your answer.” You say, unable to keep the triumph out of your voice.

Shuhei growls with frustration and drags a hand through his spiky black hair. “You’re infuriating.” With that, his mouth captures yours.

His arms sweep around your back, riding low on your hips, his fingers slipping gently beneath your top to brush your skin. His hot breath fans your ear as his lips press yours open, as his tongue slides over yours, teaching, like he always does. “I need you. I need you to be waiting when I come back from a long day. I need you to help me lead the 9^th Division. I just… I need you.”

“And I love you,” you answer, wily hands rubbing his muscular arms and stroking the tattoo on his neck. Your tongue darts out to touch the “69” on his cheek. He closes his mouth over yours again, fingers caressingly sliding around to your back as his lips heat. His body, all angles and hard planes, presses hard to yours, every square inch locked with pent-up need.

Your own fingers are tangled in his hair, gripping tight, and Shuhei grunts, his mouth running down your throat. His lips brush one perfect spot, one tiny area of ultra sensitive skin, and you tug on his hair. His teeth find your sweet spot, nipping, until a faint red mark appears. “There,” he growls, his kisses growing more urgent. “Everyone will know who loves you.”

You return the gesture, although you bite quite a bit harder than necessary just to get Shuhei to cry out. He doesn’t disappoint, but you didn’t count on his stumble that carried you both to the wall, kissing and touching and loving. His heart and yours gallop, beat for beat, as the burning in your souls connects, twines.

Shuhei nuzzles your neck. “I’ve never lost control like that before. Did I hurt you?”

“No… But I gave you a serious hickey.”

“Huh?” Shuhei touches it just as the door opens; Renji laughs out loud. “Man, take a look at your neck! Looks like she bit you pretty good.”

Shuhei narrows his eyes and Renji, still laughing, pats him on the back. “Hey, at least you finally got with her. Eh, Rangiku, pony up the money—he told her he loves her!”

“You pony up,” Gran says, grinning. “I bet they’d finally get together and make out. Eat that, red!” She snatches the wad of bills from Renji, who just scowls.

BLEACH: 10 Minutes in Heaven {Shinigami Headquarters *Part One*} Shusuke Amagai

Flame

 

“Flame,” you read aloud, and immediately see Shusuke Amagai, former captain of the 3^rd Division, get to his feet. Surprisingly, he seems to have recovered from the sip of alcohol he’d had earlier. It’s pretty well known that Amagai is nearly incapable of drinking and remaining conscious.

He eyes you from across the room, walking towards the closet. His gaze brings you back to the moment—

Captain Amagai realized his foolishness, his stupidity. He hated himself. His gut burned with it. He’d manipulated good people, destroyed the happiness of others, and now he was kneeling before Yamamoto, despising the very air he drew. He would kill himself.

As he raised the blade to summon the purifying fire, you ran. Your heart raced, and you crested the hill, and suddenly you crashed into him. “No!”

Gazing down at him, you cried, tears coursing down your face like rain. “Stop! Please…”

He steps into the open doorway and offers his hand. You take it.

The door shuts and Rangiku announces the time left. “Ten minutes, starting now!”

“_________, how are you?” Shusuke asks, his thumb brushing your cheekbone. He smiles at you, and you smile back.

“I’m fine,” you manage, rubbing a shoulder nervously. You loved this man; that was why you had stopped him on the hill that day. His brown eyes are soft and considering.

“You’re thinking about that day.”

You don’t like being so transparent, but you nod. “I… I couldn’t let you do it.” You swipe at your eyes. The memory by itself aches.

“I think about it a lot, myself,” Shusuke says, taking your hand and leading you to the wall to sit. “I had to stop—I couldn’t let you get hurt. Not you,” he murmured, seemingly to himself—“Never you.”

You slide your fingers between his. They fit perfectly, and Shusuke studies your hand in his. “That damn grudge almost lost me everything. If you hadn’t arrived just then, I would be a pile of ashes.”

You wince. “Shusuke, don’t.”

“It’s the truth.” He sighs again. “The point is, because you came barreling up that hill to save the day I’m alive. I have a chance to make up for my mistakes—and a chance to be with you.”

“I want to be with you too.” The fumblings of first love are vacant for both of you; at the hill you had acknowledged your deep feelings and Shusuke had accepted them. They had become his reason for living.

There was no uneasy stutter, no quiet blush. There was no need. On the hill, on the verge, there had been no time for fear, and now it was just a question of where and when these precious emotions were realized.

That time was now, and the place was here.

Shusuke guides you into his arms, waiting until you are completely enfolded in his captain’s haori before he dips his head. “I love you, ________.”

At the moment your lips meet, Shusuke pulls you close, his heart matching yours, beat for beat. His mouth is warm, like the haori he’d stripped from his shoulders and wrapped around you. Contentment spills into your blood as Shusuke lifts you into his arms and carries you from the room. Rangiku, about to protest, is silenced by a look from Captain Hitsugaya, and Shusuke, with a chuckle, shuts the door behind you as you make your way down to his desk.

Once there, he begins in earnest.

Quaking with want, you kiss him, steadying yourself as his strong arms brace on either side of you. Sweeping everything off the desk, Shusuke presses you down, lacing the fingers of both hands with your own and stretching them up above your head. The metal is cold against your back, but the warm haori protects you.

His kisses are sweet and light, morsels of paradise. Then he kisses you fiercely, his need overriding the desire to be tender. His tongue paints your lips with deliberate firmness as his hands pin yours to the desk top; then his tongue is inside, caressing, touching, bringing your mouth alive. Your senses hum with overload as Shusuke’s lips brush the side of your neck. His tongue touches, much like it did in your mouth, but this time it is accompanied by his teeth. The nip is gentle, but you still squeak.

He lifts you entirely up onto the desk, freeing your hands so his can trail down your back. Your fingers quickly begin kneading his scalp as his lips worship every inch of bare skin, and you lay your burning cheek on his shoulder as he begins working his shirt off, never once taking his lips from your neck.

“I love you, Shusuke,” you whisper in his ear, your fingers tangled up in his unkempt hair.

He pauses mid-caress and looks up at you. He smiles. “Good. I’m glad I’m not alone.”

Sometime the next morning Shusuke brings you awake with a few gentle kisses. “Hey.” He drops another kiss on your waiting lips. “It’ll be time to start work soon—we should get out of here before somebody finds us.”

“Shusuke, wait.” You catch his shoulder as he moves to sit up, his robes shrugging down over sculpted abs.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. I just… Er… Will you marry me?” You take his hand. You’d just popped the question—go you.

Shusuke’s eyes glitter and he spends the next few moments turning your brain into a quivering puddle of adoration, running his lips and hands over you. “How’s that for an answer?”

“Yes would have worked too,” you all but sigh.

“Yes isn’t as much fun. Now what do you say we go celebrate somewhere private…?”

 

BLEACH: 10 Minutes in Heaven {Shinigami Headquarters *Part One*} Izuru Kira

 Gloom

“Gloom,” you say, tucking a chunk of hair behind your ear.

Izuru Kira stands up, putting aside his zanpakuto. The handsome lieutenant of the 3^rd Division rarely smiles, and you definitely don’t see him smiling now. Rangiku probably put a card in for him as a joke.

When you reach the closet he steps in front of you and opens the door, letting you walk in first. The gentlemanly gesture is not lost on you, and you smile at him, although he doesn’t smile back.

“Uhm, Izuru—is it alright if I call you Izuru?”

He nods and shuts the door behind you.

“Izuru, I’m sorry you have to play this stupid game. I… I know you hate stuff like this, so I’ll just… shut up… now…” You slide down the wall into a sitting position. Damn.

You hear him moving around, maybe getting settled, and finally he speaks. “It isn’t your fault. We threw this party to thank you for helping us; this is just part of the thank-you.”

It’s cold in the closet, but asking Izuru—no, Kira, calling him by his first name seems too familiar—to warm you would be beyond embarrassing. “Kira-san, during the battle… You fought the man named Redder. The way you killed him… It made my blood run cold.” You’re not even sure what made you mention this, but it seems like the room is suddenly ten degrees colder. Are you some kind of masochist, doing this to yourself?

“War always cools the blood. It’s brutal business.” His indifferent voice is the equivalent of a stab.

“It was just so… cruel.” And before you know it, your hot face is wet with salt water. Not tears. There’s no way you’re crying.

“It’s the way of the world. You’re lucky nothing bad has ever happened to you. Your life is just one gigantic ray of sunshine, isn’t it?” Bitterness creeps into his tone.

“Shut up, Kira!” You shout, cheeks stinging. You are crying, you are hurting, and…

“You’re crying.” He moves across the closet, ducking the hanging light (which is still off, because nobody knows where the switch is), and sits beside you, turning your face into the sleeve of his robe. “There’s no need. I’m sorry I sounded cruel. I suppose a person must get like this when the people they care for betray them.”

You lay your head on his shoulder, pulling his arm around your shoulders.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s Ten Minutes in Heaven. I’ve already been through hell. You owe me.”

He laughs. Pain clenches your heart until his lips meet your brow. “I guess I do. Can you forgive me for being so dark?”

“Only if you kiss me,” you say, looking up into his face.

“A kiss to be forgiven… A small price for hurting your feelings.”

Your eyes narrow. “Izuru, you’re an idiot!” You whack him over the head.

“Ouch!”

“I love you, you dope! I want to be your ray of sunshine! I want to make you smile and I want you to love me too! Argh!”

Izuru is still rubbing the top of his head when laughter seems to bubble up from inside him. “You want… me?” He asks wonderingly. “Hang on—you wanted a kiss in exchange for forgiveness, but you really want the kiss because you love me.” He says it slowly, as if he’s trying to understand entirely. “Is that about right?”

You drag both hands through your hair. “Yes! Finally!”

He sighs and shakes his head, chuckling. “Life can’t be all bad if I managed to make a wonderful woman fall in love with me, huh?”

You punch him. “You still owe me that stupid kiss.”

“Good point.” He kisses you quietly, just a bare touch of lips, then melds them to yours, firmer than before, learning the shape of your mouth with his. “Do you like this?”

“Mmhmm,” you mumble, reluctant to separate as you cuddle yourself into his side.

“My ray of sunshine. You said that was what you wanted to be.” He teases your head up and plants a chaste kiss on your chin. His lips meet yours again with almost painful tenderness. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“You’re forgiven, Izuru. I love you, remember?”

He pulls you in closer, sliding you into his until-then vacant lap. His arms slip around your waist, holding you tight against him as he speaks into your hair, his hot breath touching your scalp. “After everything that’s happened, after all the people who turned on me… You’re right. I’ve become gloomy, and I do need some sun in my life.”

You turn to face him, straddling his lap. “But do you need me?”

“Absolutely. Now come here…” Tickling, teasing, Izuru drags you close, his lips sealing over yours with sweet certainty, even as the door opens and a camera clicks. Izuru rubs your back and nudges your mouth open to accept his tongue, which lazily strokes the inside of your mouth.

Three more clicks, and now Rangiku is gushing and laughing in an overloud voice.

Izuru glances over your head at the audience, his eyes icy.

It shuts discreetly.

“What was that for?”

“I want you to myself, at least for a little while longer.” His smile is slow and calm, but it’s a smile, and you rest your forehead on his. He’ll heal.

BLEACH: 10 Minutes in Heaven {Shinigami Headquarters *Part One} Ikkaku Madarame

 Pachinko-Head

“Pachinko-Head? Does that count? It’s two words.”

“Pachinko—I’ll kill that pink-haired brat! I said I didn’t feel like playing!” Ikkaku Madarame’s indignant voice instantly signals you as to who you got. Working up your courage, you smile at him.

“Come on, Ikkaku—will you please play? Otherwise I have to sit out.” You pout as best you can, channeling Rangiku.

Ikkaku flushes to the top of his head. “Uh—________, you’re playing? I, uh, didn’t know.”

Yachiru pounces to his side. “I knew you wanted to get Miss Pretty-Magic alone, so I put a card in for you!”

Ikkaku is so red by this point that you can’t even discern the two crimson markings on his face. “Captain Zaraki, why do you let her do this?” He looks appealingly at his captain, who, with a booming laugh, just sends him on his way.

You wait by the door, watching him navigate the other Shinigami. Having somewhat regained his composure, he reaches for the knob. You reach at the same moment, and his hand closes over yours.

You gawk at each other.

“Oh, hurry up and get in there already!” Gran, semi-recovered from her alcohol-induced stupor, slaps your linked hands off the knob, rips the door open, and shoves you both in. The next moment, a resounding bang and sudden, violent blackness announce that the ten minutes have begun.

You manage to get up onto hands and knees, leaning over Ikkaku, who is calling your grandmother every foul name he can think of. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m okay! That old broad and that pink-haired menace are gonna die when I get out of here!” He slams his fist against the floor. “Sorry.”

“Can I ask you another question?”

“Hmph.”

“What’s pachinko?”

Ikkaku growls. “You’d better not be teasing me.”

You glower down at him. You doubt he can see your face in the dark, but glowering makes you feel slightly better. “I’m serious. What’s pachinko, and what does it have to do with your head?”

Sighing loudly, Ikkaku all but shoves you off him. “Pachinko. It’s a betting game, sort of like pinball. Yachiru thinks it’s funny that my head’s shaved, so she calls me Pachinko-Head to piss me off.”

Something hits your leg as he gets up. “Did you bring your zanpakuto in here?”

“What? You know I never go anywhere without it.”

You sigh heavily, as loud as, if not louder, than Ikkaku had before. “Madarame-san, I swear…” You search out his form in the darkness and find him, a crouching shadow across from you. Ikkaku, while violent, fight-mongering, and slightly unstable, is also loyal, brave, and stronger than anyone you know besides Kenpachi himself.

During the battle with Aizen, Ikkaku had tried to help you—he’d even ended up getting slashed shielding you from one of the Espada. “I never got to thank you for saving my life,” you say, rubbing your upper arms.

“Pah, I don’t need to be thanked. You just happened to be behind me when that guy got me, that’s all.”

You flush. He hadn’t meant to save you. He was only fighting, and you’d gotten in the way. “Thank you… anyway.” A kiss on the cheek—that’s all you want to give him—and you crawl to him and press your lips to the side of his face.

Well, you would have, if he hadn’t turned his head at just that moment. Your lips brush and Ikkaku’s eyes widen, then close, as he cups the back of your neck and kisses you back. The calluses on his hands are rough but pleasant on your skin as his tongue searches out the seam of your lips. When you won’t open your mouth, Ikkaku tweaks your backside, and, when you squeak in surprise, plunges his tongue in. Yours and his tangle, stroking, as you slide your arms around his neck and Ikkaku loosens his belt. Suddenly he is naked to the waist, all hard muscle and incredibly smooth skin.

His stomach is completely, marvelously, flat and firm, as discovered by your curious fingers, guided by Ikkaku’s free hand. His other is tight on the back of your neck, pressing you more firmly to him. Sweeping your fingertips up his chest to dance across his powerful arms, you tilt your head, allowing his tongue to slip even deeper, to plunge again and again.

Propping himself with one arm, Ikkaku keeps the other on your neck, teasing the hair of your nape, as he scatters nipping kisses down the side of your throat. You arch your neck into the contact, and Ikkaku, pleased, bites down on your shoulder and begins to suck. Balancing himself carefully, his second hand comes into play, sliding under your top and lingering on your belly. Your palms push against the hard wall of his upper body, nails scraping gently, as your mouths savage each other.

Ikkaku catches your wrists. “That was an accident.”

“It didn’t feel like one.”

“Let me finish,” he growls. “That wasn’t supposed to happen, but I’m glad it did. Don’t expect romance…” His eyes dart to the side, then back to yours—“often, but I’ll make you happy.”

“What do you mean?”

He kisses you ferociously. “I mean I want you, I need you, I—I—love you, and you’re coming home with me tonight.” He smirks, and you catch the smugness.

“You’re lucky I’m not mean,” you laugh. “I could say no just to spite you.”

He nuzzles your chin. “I’m going to wipe that grin right off that pretty face of yours when we get back to my place.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” you say, as you get up and walk out, tossing a saucy smile over your shoulder.