Plush

Ichigo was nervous. He couldn't read the two women watching him, and in truth he wasn't sure that he wanted to. Their faces were partially hidden in the shadows and all Ichigo thought was, 'at least if I'm hired this means that I won't have to see everyone ogling me.'

The place was called 'Plush', and Ichigo had wanted to get in to see how things worked but it seemed that the place had a guest list and only members were allowed in, so he was doing his audition cold turkey. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was back at Shiro's place, practicing. He could never get the albino's snaky movements down, but he had come up with something that was a little more suited to his style. Ichigo only had two outfits so far, one a school boy's outfit and one business attire; he figured he could flesh out his wardrobe when he figured out what they wanted. Shiro had tried to convince him to wear a school girl's outfit instead, but Ichigo refused to wear a skirt (Shiro promised him he's change his tune later on, but Ichigo wasn't sure).

Ichigo had groaned at the inevitable "stripper name" he'd have to pick. Strawberry? Seriously? The name that he'd been fighting ever since he entered school? He had to admit though, with his darker red hair and blazing green eyes, he looked more 'strawberry' than ever. All of his fake ids, the lease agreement for his apartment, credit cards, etc. (even a fake facebook account) were set up under his temporary fake name "Ichiro Kobayashi". Everyone figured that with his stage name being Strawberry that if someone accidentally called him "Ichigo" it wouldn't be that bad since it meant strawberry and was close to his new fake name. In general though, Grimmjow would be calling him by his dancing name. If they could get Shiro in they were planning on only changing his last name since it was the same as Masaki's maiden name and might be recognized.

"Have you ever danced before?" the larger and darker of the women asked him when he was finished, the music trailing off and the lights flickering back on.

"Not…in public," Ichigo admitted.

"That's actually good," the woman said. "A lot of the men who come here have danced before but for women. Women and men want different things from their dancers. You move more like a woman than a man when you dance."

Ichigo tried to take that as a compliment.

"I like the fact that you're not completely without body hair. Just the pop of color in the armpits and some leading down to your shorts let's everyone know that you are a natural redhead," the small woman said threw the long sleeves she was covering her mouth with.

"Don't get any more bulky though," the taller woman said. "You look muscular and fit without being meaty. We already have a couple of meaty looking guys, we need more feminine ones."

Ichigo once again tried to take the idea that he was "feminine" as a compliment.

"It says here that you're pre-med?" she continued.

"I'm just taking a break from school to make some money," Ichigo stated.

"Will you quit once you go back to school?" she asked.

"Well, I guess that depends on how often I have to work. Since I would be going to school in the morning and working in the evening, it would probably be fine until I start my internship," Ichigo answered.

"We need a redhead," the smaller woman said.

"Yeah…alright, we'll give you a shot. It's the same shot as anyone has. You have two weeks to prove yourself an asset to our establishment. I'm Mila-Rose and this is Sung-sun," the amazon like woman introduced herself and her assistant manager. "I'm handing you over to a couple of pros for the rules and some advice."

"Thanks so much!" Ichigo enthused, beginning to get his clothes back on.

"Leave it off for now," Mila-Rose suggested. "They'll want to see what they're working with."

Ichigo regretfully stopped getting dressed, happy that he at least was wearing tiny tight briefs as opposed to the tiny red thong that Shiro tried to get him into. He knew he'd have to eventually do it, but he was already nervous enough without having to flash butt cheek.

Ichigo was handed over to two men, one fairly short, with a sharp bob and purple eyes sporting a couple of feathers over one of them, and the other larger was buff with a shaved head.

"I'm Yumichika, and this is Ikkaku," Yumichika greeted Ichigo. "I'm so excited to have some more guys around."

"This place used to be mostly girls and a couple of guys but now it's becoming known among the gay and bisexual high rollers of the town so we've been having more men come on the team," Ikkaku explained. "You'll run into all of them sooner or later."

"So uh, what do I need to know? I've never done anything like this before?" Ichigo said.

"Are you shy?" Ikkaku asked.

"I…"

Yumichika grabbed his ass and Ichigo shot up in the air. "Yes," Yumichika confirmed.

"That's actually good, until it wears off you'll probably have lots of people trying to make you blush and jump," Ikkaku relayed.

"Uh…good?" Ichigo was unsure about that.

"Ok, so the rules basically are; no sleeping with the clients for money, no sex acts for money, and they pay for everything. You need to let them paw at you a little, but let them know what your limits are. We have private room to the left of the stage for lap dances and private time, but remember, no sex acts…oh, or nakedness, at least wear a g-string or something," Yumichika outlined.

"What if a client is interested in me? Is it ok to date?" Ichigo asked.

"Looking for a sugar daddy?" Yumichika smiled. "That's fine too as long as you make sure that they keep coming into the club and paying for drinks and over priced dinners and flowers, etc. for you."

"Flowers?"

"Yeah, they can buy gifts from the gift store to give to you," Ikkaku explained. "It'll be sent to your locker. If you want it, keep it, otherwise you can trade it back in for cash. Not the flowers of course, but watches or jewelry."

"Unless the person wants you to wear it, then you should really keep it and flash it around a lot," Yumichika pointed out. The petite man paused. "One more thing, a lot of the people that come in here are movers and shakers. If you happen to get any information or tips off them, go to Sung-Sun and let her know, and you can get a bonus. The amount of bonus is decided by how juicy the information is."

'Bingo,' Ichigo thought to himself. "So, can I get dressed yet?" Ichigo asked out loud.

"One sec," Yumichika put out a delicate hand.

The two men inspect him.

"No tattoos," Ikkaku stated.

"Nice body," Yumichika mentioned. "Love the hair too."

"I've never danced before, so I don't have a…gimmick or whatever," Ichigo told them.

"I like the straight collar worker/student look you have going now," Yumichika considered, looking over the pile of clothes that Ichigo had brought with him.

"I'm going to be a doctor," Ichigo said.

"Oh, nice. How about a nurse's uniform?" Yumichika asked.

"Er, how about a doctor's one?" asked Ichigo.

"I say both, switch it up. You can get a rise out of the crowd when you show up in the nurse's uniform instead of the doctor's," Ikkaku suggested.

"Good idea," Yumichika agreed.

"You can get dressed now, and we'll introduce you to the rest of the crew and show you where you can keep your stuff. Stay tonight and watch everyone perform to get a good idea of how things roll," Ikkaku told Ichigo.

Ichigo nodded and followed the pair.

"Oh yeah, and don't lay a finger on Yumichika or I'll rip you in half," Ikkaku called over his shoulder. "He's mine!"

"Er…won't be a problem!" Ichigo said with a small awkward laugh. He had almost said he already had a boyfriend, but that would cause problems later on when he eventually hooked up with the "drug dealer" Grimmjow was going to be playing.

"Ya got the gig?" Shiro asked, waiting by the car.

"Yeah, but I'm suppose to hang out all night and watch how they do things," Ichigo told his cousin.

"Am I invited?"

"I'm sure you can come in if you're with me," Ichigo said.

"I wonder if I should order a lap dance?" Shiro wondered.

"Only if you want Nnoi…er…someone to smash your face in," Ichigo replied.

They both were under strict orders to not use any real names of the people that they really knew.

"Hey, I'm temporarily single; I get ta party, right?" Shiro grinned.

"I sincerely doubt it," Ichigo rolled his eyes.

Shiro put an arm around him with a laugh and they both headed towards the entrance of Ichigo's new workplace.

The team had been prepared to move in and assist Ichigo if he wasn't attracting clients, but they preferred to wait to not make it seem like a set up. Luckily, Ichigo getting attention wasn't a problem.

"I didn't know that women sometimes come too," Ichigo complained to Hanataro, another one of the male dancers.

"They come with business associates, or sometimes in groups. They don't normally come regular like the guys do," Hanataro explained.

Ichigo didn't like have to smile and give fake laughs, so he had mostly remained sullen. Somehow that had worked. The more he pouted, the more the men tried to get him drunk and get on his good side. Having the women's bachelor party or whatever it had been come in that night had been above and beyond as far as Ichigo was concerned. He wasn't uncomfortable around women, but he was uncomfortable around women who grabbed his ass and called him sweetie. He supposed it was sexist of him, it's not like he liked it when men did it either, it was just easier to deal with because he could slap their hands away and scowl at them. The women just thought the whole thing was a scream.

Dancing wasn't actually that hard, once Ichigo worked out a couple of routine rotations he was more or less fine. Because of the dim lights he could ignore everyone, and during the sets the music was loud enough that he couldn't hear any jeers (assuming that there were any). The dancing sets came only at certain times, the rest of the time the performers wandered around being friendly to patrons, having dinner and drinks with them, listening to their work problems, and cuddling with them depending on the relationship they had.

Ichigo had refused all lap dances so far. He wasn't ready for it, and he imagined that Grimmjow would gut anyone that he grinded against.

He knew that Plush was still looking for more male dancers, but he was waiting until he was off probation to recommend Shiro. As far as he could tell, no one looked remotely like Shiro on staff, so hopefully they'd want to get someone different.

It was Sunday night and Ichigo was washing his face to cool off in the bathroom.

"Congratulations," Ikkaku said as he walked in. "You're in."

"Really?" Ichigo smiled.

"Yeah, you already got a lot of guys on the line; don't mess it up, newbie," Ikkaku told him.

"I won't," Ichigo promised.

Ichigo had been working a month before he tentatively floated the idea of his cousin joining the team. "He's the one who taught me to dance," Ichigo mentioned.

"Does he look like you?" Sung-Sun against.

"You can definitely see the family resemblance but he's an albino. He has black sclera, golden eyes, and white hair; all natural," Ichigo described Shiro. "Also, he has a lot of tattoos and piercings."

"Interesting," Mila-Rose mused. "I'll take a look at him."

Shiro's dancing was erotic, lewd, and kinky. Unlike Ichigo's very flexible but kind of "you can't have me" vibe, Shiro's dancing was more along the lines of "you couldn't handle me, but if you could, I'd do things that have never been done to you before". Sung-Sun and Mila-Rose loved him.

"Good thing I'm all stocked up on vinyl, PVC, and leather already," Shiro said with a grin as he joined Ichigo in the changing room for the first time.

"Isn't that hard to get off quickly though?" Ichigo wondered.

"Naw, this stuff is all tied and snapped on," Shiro pointed out.

That night, Ichigo got a tidbit of information from a businessman who didn't know when to stop drinking. He passed it on to his manager and made an extra $500 that night.

"Do I look good?" Nnoitra asked.

"You look sleazy," Grimmjow replied.

"Yeah, 'cuz drug dealers are such upstanding citizens," Nnoitra paused. "Ya think they'll let us take our guns?"

"They don't check," Grimmjow told him.

"Here we go then."

"Don't mess up and call me by my real name."

"Yer the stupid one, asshole," Nnoitra said.

"Whatever," Grimmjow grunted, getting out of their all black BMV with heavily tinted windows. "Remembers, we're high class drug dealers."

"I'm all about class," Nnoitra answered with a grin.

"You're wearing silver tipped snakeskin boots."

"Snakeskin boots are awesome," Nnoitra explained, adjusting his very expensive but a little too shiny suit.

They had actually gotten a referral so their names were on the guest list. They got in with no problem.

"You came just in time," their waitress gushed. "We have a dancing set start in just fifteen minutes."

"Male or female?" Grimmjow asked.

"All male tonight. You have to come on a different day if you want to see the ladies."

"Naw, male is definitely what we're here for," Grimmjow replied.

"Can I start you off with some drinks?" she asked.

Shiro was on first, and Nnoitra watched with a big grin on his face. Until he noticed everyone else watching that is. He tried to keep his scowl to himself and enjoy the show.

"War and anger shall reign
The clash of iron can be heard
by blindness you're driven insane
I'm lost in anguish and grief
Sorrow won't wane 'til you die
A shattered body deeply hurt
and darkness will cover the light
It's gone forevermore"

"Really? Metal? Blind Guardian?" Grimmjow laughed.

"Shut up, ya know I love this stuff," Nnoitra said, hitting him in the shoulder. "Besides, look at him."

They had been given the rules by the waitress. People did pay tips to the dancers, but no one threw money on stage. It wasn't that kind of place. Men who were happy with the performances sent money and checks in envelopes with their name and table number on it, so that the dancers could thank them in person after their sets. Nnoitra tucked an outrageous amount of money into an envelope and sent it to Shiro after his dance. What did he care, it wasn't his money. Besides, Shiro had to give back most of it anyways.

Ichigo was up immediately afterward.

Grimmjow hadn't actually seen Ichigo dance before, and he was definitely into the surgeon look that Ichigo was wearing. Practically his whole body and face were covered, and the crowd started cheering as he revealed his face and hair.

"All this pressures building up
And there's a chance its gonna explode
And I can't promise how, when, or where,
But I can tell you it'll happen for sure
It's a crazy world, Its spinning fast
Round and round and round we go.
Just keep your eyes on me now love
Never stray, never let go, NO!"

"It's Kenna, he's kind of alternative/electronic," Grimmjow told Nnoitra, who was looking at him questioningly.

"And yer making fun of Shiro for his metal?" Nnoitra scoffed.

Grimmjow loved the way that Ichigo moved. He had been uncomfortable aware of Ichigo's cousin flaunting his body and all but fucking the floor and making out with the pole, but now he felt he was on fire as Ichigo strutted around on stage barely clad.

"He's nice and flexible, right?" Nnoitra grinned.

"I already knew that," Grimmjow smiled. 'Although I haven't gotten to enjoy it for over a month, fucking stupid job', Grimmjow thought to himself.

His unwanted celibacy might have had some play in how much he was drooling over Ichigo's straining muscles as he finally stripped down to a tiny thong. Ichigo was glistening with sweat and Grimmjow was seriously tempted to pull him off the stage and lick him.

He also sent a large amount of money to Ichigo via envelope, as well as some flowers for good measure.

It was about fifteen minutes later when the two came out, fully dressed again, this time in slightly less sexy outfits, but still in their characters.

"Hey," Ichigo greeted to the two men.

"My name is Guntam Jager, and this is my friend Neomonni Garza," Grimmjow introduced himself and Nnoitra.

"I'm Strawberry and this is Shiro. We're actually cousins," Ichigo mentioned.

"The names suit you, Strawberry," Grimmjow said, his eyes glittering.

Ichigo groaned inwardly but knew he was just going to have to get used to it. "What kind of name is Guntam anyways?" he asked.

"It mean 'war raven' in German."

"Kind of a grim name, don't you think?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm a grim person…sometimes."

"Well, Grimm…feel like some dinner?" Ichigo said with a smile.

The two dancers sat next to their respective clients.

"I ain't gonna even try with yer name," Shiro admitted. "Can I just call ya Neo?"

"How about Nnoi?" Nnoitra said with a smirk.

"Works for me as long as ya buy some booze; I'm feeling a bit dry."

"Of course," Nnoitra said, motioning for the waitress to come.

"You were fucking sexy," Grimmjow whispered into Ichigo's ear.

"I got a lot more envelopes than just yours. I'll have to make the rounds," Ichigo told him.

Grimmjow frowned.

"Better luck on another night," Ichigo said. "Maybe I'll be all free just for you. We do do that for regular clients you know."

"Well then, I guess we should become members," Grimmjow smiled.

"I'm in," Nnoitra agreed.

Sung-Sun watched from the corner. 'Good, a couple of new people,' she thought to herself. 'And they look a little shady, exactly the type of person we need to know more about. I'll make sure that Strawberry and Shiro stay on those two and help them have a good time.'