Phantom Bride

By Spunky0ne

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(After going missing for over a year, Ichigo staggers into Kuchiki Manor and collapses. As Byakuya nurses the tormented young man back to health, he learns slowly the chilling details of exactly what happened to the Shiba heir. But knowing too much may just spell the end for both of them. Main Pairing is Byakuya/Ichigo. Warnings...yaoi, angst, mpreg.)

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Chapter 1: Storm

Kneeling quietly at his low work table, Byakuya pored over a set of pages, pausing now and again to renew his ink and add notes to the papers. He was vaguely aware that the sky had darkened outside and that the forecast storm was likely to arrive soon. He sighed softly as a thunderclap sounded and the rushing sound of falling rain began beyond the open garden doors. He looked up as his attendant entered the room, carrying a tray bearing fresh hot green tea.

"Torio," he greeted the young man, "have Tetsuya and Shima Kurushimi returned?"

"Not yet, sir," the attendant reported, "I imagine they are still out searching."

"Hmmm."

Torio looked out into the coming storm and sighed.

"Kuri-kuri-sama has never gotten over Shiba Ichigo's disappearance and Tetsuya-san cannot bear to see his sadness, so he always accompanies him in looking for clues. Still, it has been over a year and there has been no sign of him."

Byakuya looked up at Torio with dark unreadable eyes.

"Even so," the Kuchiki heir said with certainty, "if there is one thing that I know about Ichigo, it is that he will never fail to return to us. Whatever has happened and whatever happens next, we should believe in him. That is why I approve of Tetsuya assisting in Kurushimi's continued searching, and it is why I look as well. We will learn the truth of where he has gone if we just keep looking. If we never give up looking, then...we will find him."

"Or he will find us again," Torio sighed, yielding a sad smile.

"Yes," Byakuya agreed.

The two looked up as a large, dark shape appeared outside in the steadily falling rain. Lightning lit the form of a younger, pale skinned, sapphire-eyed man and a taller latino man seated behind him on a black Arabian stallion. The taller man slid down and offered a hand to his slighter friend, who accepted and slid down to join him. The horse whickered softly and nuzzled the blue-eyed man questioningly.

"Go on," Tetsuya urged his mount, "Go to the barn and let Makoto take care of you, Arashi."

The stallion disappeared in a flash step as the two drenched men stepped up onto the walkway. Byakuya left his study and met them as Torio appeared alongside his younger brother, the two bearing towels they used to dry some of the dripping wetness off the two men.

"Thank you Torio, Koji," Tetsuya said gratefully.

Byakuya regarded the two quietly.

"Did you find any signs of his passing?" he asked the two.

Kurushimi's turquoise eyes only looked back at him wearily.

"No, Byakuya-sama," Tetsuya reported, "but... I am sure that next time we will find something."

"Of course," Byakuya agreed, "I am sure that you will. Why don't you and Shima taichou go and let Torio and Koji warm you up with a hot shower in the bathing chamber?"

Tetsuya nodded and slipped a slender hand into Kuri's. The turquoise-eyed man shook his head tiredly and sighed defeatedly.

"Byakurai, why don't you just admit that you don't believe we'll find him? I know that you only say what you do to allow Tetsu-hana to comfort me. But there must come a point, don't you think, when we must be honest with ourselves and admit that he is just gone?"

Byakuya regarded Kuri with understanding eyes.

"If you truly believed that, then you would not be out there searching as often as you can," the Kuchiki leader said simply, "That you are, means that you hold out hope, and as long as you do, you must continue to look for him. Tetsuya and I will support you in the search as well as we can. It is the least that we can do, considering the debt that we owe Ichigo."

He shook his head gently.

"Go now. Let Tetsuya make you comfortable. The storm has come in, so I will plan for you to remain here for the night as it would be unseemly to send you out in this."

"How kind of you," Kuri said, recovering a bit of a smirk, "You are a true gentleman, Byakurai."

"As long as you show my favored cousin the utmost respect," Byakuya said with a stern edge to his voice.

"Of course, of course," Kuri chuckled, putting up his hands defensively, "I would never dream of disrespecting the lovely and deadly beauty, Tetsu-hana."

"I am glad we understand each other," Byakuya said, smirking at the blush that had overtaken Tetsuya's comely face.

"We should go and warm up," Tetsuya urged the Shima leader, "I may be somewhat protected from the cold and damp, but it can make me uncomfortable and it can make us both more susceptible to catching an illness."

"Very well," Kuri said, moving along with Tetsuya as he started down the walkway.

Byakuya watched as the two attendants followed them down to the end of the building and out to the elegant bathing chamber, then he turned his dark grey eyes to the stormy skies as though to search for the missing Shiba heir in the black, swirling clouds.

Ichigo, he mused inwardly, what happened to you? For over a year, your reiatsu has not shown itself. You were simply here one moment and gone the next, with no trace of you since. Your father and sisters have been beside themselves. Rukia and Renji have made hundreds of forays into the Rukongai and Hueco Mundo. Tetsuya and your cousin, Kurushimi have been to those places and all over the living world as well. What will it take to bring you home again?

Thunder rumbled, as though in answer and Byakuya watched as lightning flashed and more thunder sounded. The rain thickened even more, until everything around Byakuya seemed coated in the somber mist and droplets appeared on his clothes and skin, even where he stood on the protected walkway. He looked out into the gardens, trying to remember the last time that Ichigo had been there.

"Don't tell me," Ichigo groaned, "I think I have this figured out. You're gonna tell me that now that I'm well again, I don't belong here and I should go home, right?"

"What good would that do?" Byakuya said sedately, "You would only go to Shiba Manor anyway. There is nearly here, so it matters little here or there."

"Is that your way of telling me that I can annoy you, even when you can't see me?" Ichigo laughed.

"You have a rebellious reiatsu that seems to unsettle the very air around you," Byakuya replied coolly, "I don't think it would matter in which world you stood now, I would still know exactly where you were...but...for whatever reason, that becomes a reassurance rather than an annoyance."

Ichigo's grin widened.

"Did Kuchiki Byakuya just tell me that he's glad to feel that I'm around?"

"Did I say that?" Byakuya asked, turning away, "I don't recall saying any such thing."

"Hah!" Ichigo huffed, giving Byakuya's back a cocky smirk, "Don't think I don't know what's going on in your head, Byakuya. We've become friends...and that's what we'll always be from now on."

"You're quite arrogant, aren't you?" Byakuya said, without turning back.

"Yeah," Ichigo fired back, "I must've learned it from you."

Byakuya shivered as the cold finally seemed to seep through even his warm robe, seeming to not even emanate from the weather, but from someplace inside where he kept his emotions carefully locked away. But he continued to stare out into the falling rain, remembering and not sure if he dared to wish that he could forget the man who had changed their world.

Our world was nearly destroyed, but yours was the will that stopped the danger that stalked us...that almost brought us to complete destruction. And amidst the desperate struggle, you came to me when I thought that I was lost. You said what I needed to hear...that Rukia and Renji were all right. You made my heart calm so that I could enter death without worries or regrets. You showed grace and compassion that I did not deserve, and I will be always be grateful for that. I am glad that I survived to have a chance to repay you. But now, you have gone and I don't know that I will ever...

Ichigo.

You need to give us some sign.

You need to come home.

Lightning flashed and the thunder sounded again. Further down the walkway, Tetsuya and Kurushimi's footsteps sounded as they left the bathing chamber and entered Tetsuya's bedroom together. Byakuya sighed and frowned more deeply as he felt the privacy barrier rise around the two where they were settling in for the night. He glanced back at his own room, but lacked the desire to return to it.

All of the comforts do not relieve the feeling of emptiness there.

Yes, my heart still aches to be relieved of it's loneliness.

I wonder if that's even possible.

Byakuya wasn't certain what touched him at that moment, but whatever the impetus, he turned his eyes back to the depths of the misted gardens, and as he did, a pale shape appeared in the distance. Shaky and thin as a specter, it stumbled blindly forward, white arms wrapped around its midsection and it's head bowed. A thin white yukata billowed fitfully on the wind around the tormented figure giving it a ghostly radiance.

A hard chill ran down the Kuchiki heir's spine as he spotted the being's starkly bright ginger hair.

"Ichigo!" he gasped, flash stepping forward to catch the Shiba heir in his arms as Ichigo finally collapsed, "Ichigo, where in kami's name have you been? What happened to you?"

Without waiting for an answer, he shouted to the returning attendants, sending one after the clan healer and the other down the walkway to bring Tetsuya and Kurushimi to join them. Byakuya carried Ichigo's limp body to his own bed and let him down gently, stripping away the thin, soaked yukata.

His blood went cold as he spotted the extreme pallor of the flesh underneath, but he grabbed towels from the additional attendants' hands and dried the Shiba heir off, then dressed him in fresh, dry clothing and buried him in the warm blankets. He remained at Ichigo's side as Tetsuya and Kurushimi ran into the room, followed by the clan healer.

"What happened to him?" Kuri gasped, "Dios mìo, he is deathly pale!"

"What is his condition?" Byakuya asked the clan healer, who leaned over Ichigo's unconscious form, examining him carefully.

The look on the healer's face made the others go silent and stare.

"He is alive, and he is not in danger of dying, but...I can sense nothing inside him."

"What?" Kuri mused dazedly, "What are you saying? What does that mean?"

"What it means is that his spirit centers show no signs of activity. His power has been completely drained and there is no way to restore it because his spirit centers will not be able to use what I infuse him with. I am going to have to fit him with a special mod soul to give him reiatsu enough to remain here without being suffocated by the reiatsu around him. Otherwise, it will eventually overwhelm him."

"But what is wrong with him? Why is he like this?" Tetsuya exclaimed, "Is there no sign of how he came to be this way?"

The old healer gave the group a meaningful look.

"This did not happen naturally. It was done to him," Michio said firmly.

"But who would dare?" Kuri asked in a deadly voice, "Who would dare to take such action against him, of all people? What kind of monster? What manner of animal?"

"Michio," Byakuya interjected, "what can we do for him?"

The old man shook his head in frustration.

"There is nothing we can do to cure him."

He leaned over Ichigo and produced a soul candy that he coaxed into the unconscious man's mouth and pushed down into his throat, rubbing the area gently to make him swallow it. At first, nothing happened, but after a few minutes, some of the whiteness left the young man's skin and he regained more of his natural color.

"This should stabilize him," Michio explained, "And then, you can nurse him back to health. But I can't say what will happen with his spirit centers or his powers. And you know that the mod soul is only a temporary treatment. It will sustain him for six months to a year, but then if we cannot cure him, we will be forced to send him to the human world to stay."

The others went silent, their eyes fixed on the unconscious Shiba heir and their minds trying to make sense of what they had been told. Michio tucked the blankets more firmly around Ichigo, then rose and left the room. Byakuya looked back at the other two men and sighed softly.

"The two of you are weary from your searching. Allow me to sit with him for the night. I will watch over him while you rest."

"How am I supposed to rest?" Kuri argued, "He has been gone from us for over a year, Byakurai! If he should wake...or need me..."

"I promise you that I will have the attendants bring you if he wakes or if his condition changes. Please go and rest. You will have plenty of time when you are rested to worry over him."

"Byakuya-sama is right," Tetsuya said gently, "He is more rested than we are. Come, we will be just a few doors away."

"Ah, perhaps you are right," Kuri said, accepting Tetsuya's hand in his and turning out of the room.

Byakuya settled quietly at Ichigo's bedside, his solemn eyes fixed on the Shiba heir's deeply tormented expression. Ichigo breathed slowly, in and out, so softly that it was hard to guess he was still breathing at times. He did not move at all other than his slow respiration as Byakuya watched steadily.

Outside, the rain continued to come down hard, lightning flickered outside the doors and thunder cracked loudly as the storm reached its height. Yet through the tempest, Ichigo remained completely relaxed, detached and silent. Byakuya's dark, worried eyes watched for any sign of returning cognizance, but none appeared. Hour after hour, the Kuchiki heir patiently waited and watched over him.

Still, nothing changed.

Well past midnight, the storm began to pass. The rain lightened into more gentle showers and the thunder and lightning ceased. Byakuya listened to the calmer sounds of the rain and whispering wind, his own breathing as slow as Ichigo's and his mind firmly entrenched in making sense of what he was seeing. But as the hours passed and still no answers came, he felt his energy flagging and his eyes began to blink sleepily. He remained lucid enough to respond if there was a change in the young man's state, but his body relaxed and entered a more removed state.

He remained that way until near morning when without the slightest sign to say why, the young man's body suddenly stiffened, his mouth opened, and he loosed a terrified scream that shocked Byakuya back into awareness and brought Tetsuya and Kurushimi awake.

Ichigo's golden brown eyes opened and found Byakuya's, tearing into the elder shinigami's mind and making clear that whatever had happened to Ichigo was an agonizing thing. Ichigo loosed another ear shattering scream and reached out blindly with his arms, wrapping them around the first thing within reach. Byakuya stared in surprise and dismay as the younger man grabbed onto him and hugged him tightly. The Kuchiki heir's slender arms shakily returned Ichigo's embrace and he held the distraught young man to his chest and shoulder, breathing reassurances into his ear.

"It will be all right now, I promise you. You've come home to us, Ichigo. We will care for you now. Don't worry, we won't let anyone or anything hurt you anymore."

Ichigo's body shook fiercely and Byakuya felt dampness against the skin of his throat where the younger man's face rested. He breathed in soft, sobbing gasps and gripped Byakuya's clothing desperately. His voice began to sound softly as he cried tears that seemed like relief. And when the tears lessened and he began to relax again, he managed only one faint word.

"Byakuya."

"I am here," Byakuya whispered softly in reply.