From Ghoulies And Beasties pt6

From Ghoulies And Beasties
File Six: Megalodon
The plan for getting through airport security was simple but unique, they hoped it would be effective, Draco would hide in Rukia's backpack just until it was her turn to give her backpack to the security guard, at wich point Ichigo would hug her thus concealing the backpack and he would then unzip it and allow Draco to leap out and crawl down Rukia's leg, wile the two were going through security Draco would, hopefully, stay hidden under a nearby bench... though this was the most difficult part because neither were sure how well he was trained... considering they only had a day to teach him..... afterwards, provided that went well Ichigo would hug Rukia again and Draco would climb back into her backpack and allow Ichigo to zip it nearly closed, leaving a gap just wide enough for Draco to stick his nose out of and breathe if he needed to, it was a good thing Ichigo and Rukia were pretending to be married.... they just hoped this woulf work or else they'd have to pull out the memory modifyer...

"Our next mission is getting him to act like a stuffed animal," Ichigo muttered as he saw the line in front of them get gradually shorter, "Agreed, but let's hope this works first," Rukia replied quietly, nodding slightly at him to instruct Ichigo to begin the mission, he stepped up behind her in line and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pressing against her back and dropping one arm to discreetly unzip the backpack and tap Draco on the head, reminding him to jump out of the bag, wich he did, and much to their surprise he did exactly as they had instructed him to do, Ichigo immediatly let go and Rukia handed her backpack to the security guard, all the wile hoping that Draco would stay hidden long enough for the plan to work, wich, thankfully he did, "He's so smart!" Ichigo praised happily, wistling quietly as a signal for Draco to climb back into Rukia's bag, "I told you dragons are smart," she said with a light laugh

"I have to admit it Ichigo, you sure know how to pick a hotel," Rukia mused as she leaned back in her seat on the plane, slipping peices of trail mix to Draco through her backpack as she did so, therefor keeping him quiet and entertained, Ichigo had printed a few pictures of the hotel they'd be in the night before since he had reserved the room online instead of over the phone, Rukia was going through them now, "Yeah well it isn't so hard when you're paying for it out of someone else's pocket so you don't have to worry about prices so much," he said with a chuckle, "I could have figured as much," she replied back, "Hey Rukia.. I'm pretty sure you don't but .. you don't happen to speak Arabic do you?" "Um no... why?" "...We're going to Egypt?" "....Oh... yeah.... that could be a problum..." "'Could' be?" he muttered, she sighed and handed Draco to Ichigo, "I'll contact Soul Society..." she muttered, opening her laptop and pressing the on switch, "I hope they have a solution..." he muttered as the green light came on, "I have intercepted your laptop calls!" Urahara said with a chuckle as he appeared on the laptop, "What are you doing Hat N' Clogs?" Ichigo groaned, "Hoping you've called to give up the dragon," "No, and get us connected with Soul Society," "Fine fine, I'll drop my connection... but out of curiosity why were you calling in on a plane?" "I don't speak Arabic and we're going to Egypt, so we don't know how we'll communicate," Rukia replied, "Ohhhh~~ I have an invention for that! In your set you should have a little headset type thing only it's really small," he said, Ichigo sighed and rolled his eyes, putting the backpack in his seat and standing up to get one of Rukia's dufflebags to look in her kit, "The instructions are simple, put the ear peice in your ear and the mouth peice near your mouth, then switch the dial onto the languege you're needing to have translated," he replied, "Sounds TOO easy," Rukia muttered as Ichigo tossed her what he could only assume to be the device, she put a small peice in her ear and the other peice ran close to her mouth so she could speak into it, "Now set the dial to something you both speak," Urahrara instructed, she moved the weel until the pointer hit "English" and turned to Ichigo, "Well, say something in Japanese," Ichigo instructed, sitting back down and putting the backpack, with Draco in it, in his lap, "Umm..... I like rabbits?" she answered, Ichigo smirked, "PERFECT English," "Ok now you say something," she said, he thought for a moment, "You have too much attention set on rabbits," he said with a smirk, she huffed and took the device off, "I do not..." "See?! My invention works!" Urahara says, "Yeah but if you intercept our calls one more time I'll tell you an organ that WON'T work by the time I'm done with you," Ichigo threatened, Urahara shook slightly, muttered that he had to go do something, and turned the screen off, "Well that was pleasently simple," "Yeah so far... how much do you want to bet it stops working after an hour if it lasts that long?" he replied with a smirk, she shivered, "PLEASE don't jinx that..."

~+~

Once again Ichigo was left in the dark completely as Rukia checked into the hotel, despite the little device she was waring translating Arabic it only had one ear peice, wich Rukia was wearing, so Ichigo was forced to stand around the lobby looking like a moron wile Rukia conversed happily with the woman behind the desk, it made him a little sore that she was always the one getting things done, she was the one who always checked in and out of the hotel, who read the maps and directions and instucted the cabs, buses, and even flight attendents, she was always the one who had the files and the tools and told him what they were hunting, where it was, and how to get it, she always had everything in order and he felt like he was just there to observe her in her almighty power... it was frustrating, he was the man, at the very least he felt like he should be the one directing them around the towns and cities they went to, checking in and out and reading maps and ordering drinks, he admitted that she was more intellegent, or atleast that she had an edge on this creature thing given that he knew about as much about that as she did about juice boxes, wich clearly wasn't much, so he felt alright letting her take the lead there, still, it was a little immasculating that she did EVERYTHING and all he ever seemed to do was get in the way, he just wished he could have a little more control over something... anything.. just something... "Come on Ichigo, it's this way," Rukia called as she dangled the room key in front of him like a peice of meat in front of a dog, he huffed and snatched it from her, "Ooh someone is in a snotty mood; did you not get much sleep last night?" she asked, half sarcastically and half seriously as they walked into the elevator, "I'm fine," he grumbeled, hearing it ding as the doors closed and feeling it rise, "Please, you are NOT fine, what's the matter?" she asked, he sighed and looked over at the wall, "I'm just.... fine..." he muttered back, "Hm.... alright then," she replied, surprising him completely, "I guess I'll have to force it out of you," she replied with a smirk, he frowned at her and she walked over to him, "I should warn you that I can be very convincing," she said with a smirk as she pinched his arm, "Ouch! What was that for?!" he grumbeled as the elevator arrived at their floor, she didn't answer him, she just picked up her bags and waited for him to start talking, sighing, he looked down and picked up his own bags, "I just feel kind of useless.... that's all..." he muttered, "I mean if I'm not cutting things open or organizing a break in I'm not good for much of anything," he said quietly as they walked to their room and Rukia opened the door, "That isn't true Ichigo," she replied quietly, "Yes it is," he muttered back, dropping his bags in the floor as the door shut behind him, "I don't think Draco agrees with you," she said as she opened her backpack and the little dragon chirped at him and pawed to get to him, he stared at the little bundel of scales for a moment before picking him up and letting the little dragon perch himself on Ichigo's shoulder, "Great, I'm a Dragon Daddy, just what I always aspired to be," she narrowed her eyebrows and grabbed his arm, "Hey," she said quietly, "I couldn't have figured out how to pick out a hotel or get plane tickets... and there's no way I could do this alone, I need you Ichigo," she said quietly, he looked at her for a moment, her eyes were so sincere... he couldn't help but believe her, "Thanks..." he wispered, she huffed at him and smiled, "Why are you thanking me?" she replied, he rubbed the back of his neck and took the fold-out basinet out of one of Rukia's bags, "So what are we doing here? Hunting wild pig people?" he asked as he started to set it up, "No, actually we're going after our first sea creature! I'm pretty excited!" she said with a hum of happiness, "Oh great... you hear that Draco? We're hunting your brother the Sea Monster.... how lovely..." he muttered, grabbing a blue baby blanket out of the bag and unfolding it, "I didn't say 'Sea Monster' Ichigo, I said 'Sea Creature'," "Oh right I'm sorry, I meant 'Reptillian Sea Creature That Looks Like A Monster'," he replied sarcastically, setting Draco down in the basinet and wrapping him in the baby blanket, "It really isn't a sea monster, it's one of my FAVIROTE animals," she replied with a smile, ".....A sea rabbit....?" "No, ONE of, not my 'favirote', ONE of my favirotes," "....A.... dolphin...?" "It's a shark species!" "Oh... like..?" "Have you ever heard of a Megalodon?" "....No....." "How could you not have heard of the greatest fish to ever live?! Megalodon is believed to be the great ancestor of the Great Wite Shark, it was the biggest thing to ever live, even bigger than T-Rex, it ruled the oceans and made snacks out of Blue Wales, it's bigger than a school bus, and is said to have gone 'extinct', atleast to scientists, a few million years ago," "Wait... so why are we looking for a dead fish?" "Because I don't believe it's actually extinct," she replied with a smirk, "I guess Soul Society doesn't either~" she hummed, he blinked, "But even if that's the case why would we be responsable for it? I mean it isn't like we're discovering a new species," "Because there's such little information on them and because it's vital that we know if it's alive or not, it could explain an entirely new part of the ecosystem," she replied, "Uh-huh... and how do we go about hunting Sharkzilla?" "WELL I'm glad you asked; you see Soul Society already has a boat for us, we just ride out into the sea, put some underwater cameras on all sides of the boat, and wait until we see it, then we'll dive down and take the neciciairy samples," she replied with a smile, he blinked, "But.... what if it attacks? And what if we don't find it? And what if it's so deep that our air tanks implode from the water pressure? And what about Draco?" "Wow you worry alot," she said with a light laugh, "I'm sure we'll be able to collect some samples without an attack, we'll go all over the red sea and if we find nothing we'll have to go to another location just like everything else, and we won't dive down that deep, I don't think Megalodon lives THAT far under, and as for Draco, he'll stay here, he's only two days old remember? Infants sleep ALOT, remember? He'll most likely sleep right through our trip and if we're gone more than a few hours one of us will exit our gigais and come check on him, see? I have it all worked out," she said with a smile, "I guess...." he muttered, "Now we better get going Ichigo, we'll need to start looking in the day time,"

~+~

"And I see Soul Society's amazing ability to put us in the crappiest, most life-threatening situations has not faded in the least," Ichigo muttered with his eye twitching as he stared at the wreckage of a boat that sat ahead of him, Rukia sighed and shook her head, "Yeah... I have to agree that this isn't the best boat they could've gotten us..." she muttered, it was an old fishing boat that barely could stay afloat... it was dameged and wrecked and the paint was coming off... Ichigo was more afraid to board that thing than he had been to plunge into Hueco Mundo.... "Don't we have any other options?" he muttered, "Not really..." she replied, he sighed, closing his eyes breifly before very cautiously boarding the little rickity fishing boat... "So what's our plan exactly?" he asked Rukia, who was still on land, "Well, I have four underwater cameras you see," she said, handing up four small cameras, "I'll simply put these on the ends of the boat and then it'll be caught on camera if anything passes by, furthermore if anything larger than a few feet long passes by the cameras an alarm will go off," she replied as she stepped into the water and started to hook up the cameras, "I've hooked them up to my laptop so that all we'll have to do is watch my laptop for information," "And in the mean time?" she shrugged, "I guess we'll just hang out, play some cards, watch some clouds, Renji said there's some food on board if we get hungry and every few hours one of us will go back to the hotel and check on Draco, animals can sense spirits so he shouldn't get too freaked out," she replied, he sighed and looked over the side of the boat, "I see... well it's a good thing we're not hunting Jaws because then we'd need a bigger boat- oh wait, oh wait, we ARE hutning Jaws, no no I'm sorry, MEGA JAWS," he grumbeled, shaking his head, Rukia sighed and rolled her eyes at him, "I cannot BELIEVE Soul Society is sending us after Super Shark in a DINGY..... I mean it's like they WANT us to die!" he grumbeled, Ichigo did not like boats, he never had, and maybe that was because of how often his mom used to watch Titanic and how often his dad watched Jaws when he was a kid but it never ceased to bother him, especially since they were hunting a giant shark on a fishing boat.... had Soul Society NEVER seen "Jaws"? "Well Ichigo you seem to be forgetting how many high-ranking officials don't like us so if I had to bet on it I'd say one of those people picked out the boat," she replied, "Still..." "I'm not saying it makes it better Ichigo but there isn't much we can do," she replied, finally boarding the boat herself and starting the motor, "Hey Rukia, do you know how to DRIVE a boat?" "...No... but how hard can it be?" he slapped himself in the head and groaned as she brought her laptop onto the deck and turned it on, "Now, all we have to do is monitor the cameras, and when we see somthing substantial we'll go from there," she said, "Uh-huh.... question, what if we happen to get side tracked and see a giant squid or the Loch Ness Monster? Will we go after that and save Mega Jaws for another day?" he asked, somewhat serious, "First of all the Loch Ness monster lives in Loch Ness, in Scottland, no where near Egypt, you need a map... second of all we already know Giant Squids are out there, there are carcasses all over the place so we have no reason to scout one, and third of all it's Me-ga-lo-don," "I. Don't. Care. What it's called," he replied with a huff, she sighed, "So what are you going to do wile we wait?" he asked, she brought her backpack over to her and took out a small box, "Well, I'm going to do a puzzle," she replied, he glanced at the box and rolled his eyes, "Bunnies.... why am I not surprised?" he asked, the image depicted was of two bunnies in a feild of daises.... how lovely.... "You want to help?" she asked as she dumped the peices out in front of her, he shrugged, "Sure, I have nothing better to do," he replied, sitting down beside her, "I've never been too good at puzzles though," he warned, "That's ok, it's one of the few things I actually am good at so I'll teach you," ".....You don't give yourself alot of credit do you?" he muttered, she didn't answer him, assuming his question was rhetorical, "Look here, the key is to put together the border first and then sort the remaining peices by color," she replied, seperating the edge peices into one pile and the rest into seperate piles according to color, "Organization is the key after all,"

~+~

"Do you want to put in the last peice?" Rukia asked with a smile, Ichigo nodded slowly and put the last peice of the puzzle into the actual puzzle, they had gone through three in the last so many hours, each a few hundred peices on their own, so it had taken up quite a bit of time, "Do you think one of us should go check up on Draco?" he asked as she put the complete puzzle back in the box, being very carefull not to let the peices break apart, "Mm yeah, he may be getting hungry," she replied, "You know now that you mention it I could use a bite myself.." "The baby comes first Ichigo, you get ready to leave and I'll go make something," she offered, he huffed and stood up, "'The baby comes first Ichigo', jeez is that how it's gonna be when you get married?" he grumbeled as he stretched, "Yes, my babies will always come first, not that it's any of your buisness," he rubbed his neck lightly and she stood up as well, walking down into the little cabin where he had earlier seen a few cabinets and a microwave, her backpack was down there too, "Just... out of curiosity.... where would your husband come on your list?" "Oh I don't know.... let's see my children are always above anything else.... then my pets and freinds are second.... well, what kind of guy is he?" "Excuse me?" "Is he a genuienly decent male or just some shmoe I had the misfourtane of being charmed by?" "A good guy," he grunted, "Hm, probbably third, maybe second if he's REALLY on my good side, but nothing will EVER come before my children," "I understand that I-" "After him is probbably my career... no .. maybe religion and then career..." "You have a religion?!!" ".....Yes...." she replied as she came back up with her red glvoe, "YOU...?!" "Why is that so shocking? And why do you care?!" "Well you're a Soul Reaper for one thing and for another you never mention it," she rolled her eyes, "I'm sorry do I look like the kind of person who randomly brings up my beleifs?" "...Er.... no..." "And didn't I JUST say my religion is not even in the top three important things to me?" "Well yes-" "Then why do you think I would've mentioned it?" she asked as she popped him out of his body, "Jeez you're touchy! Either you're really devoute or not too sure of yourself..." "LEAVE Ichigo, Draco may be STARVING to death wile you stand here yammering," she huffed, he turned to leave but paused a moment, "My children will always come first too," he said quietly, "I'd put my wife second though," she huffed, "So what? You aren't one of those shovanistic pigs who thinks a woman HAS to put her husband befor anything else are you?" "No, do what you want, I'm just saying.... why are you so touchy about all of this anyway?" he asked, turning back around and crossing his arms over his chest, "Ichigo, the drago-" "Has been alone for a few measly hours, he won't starve in another five minutes if he's even awake," he replied, walking closer to her, "So, talk, what has you so wound up?" she sighed and slid down against the wall of the boat, looking at the floor instead of him, "I just... I've never really been allowed to make those choices... I've always had them but everyone has ignored them... it didn't matter much when I was a kid and since becoming a Kuchiki all that's ever mattered was rank and being polite to other nobles.... I guess I'm a little afraid that finally telling someone how I feel about these things... that maybe you'll change your opinion of me," she wispered, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, he sat down next to her and put one arm around her waist, "Oh PLEASE, nothing you ever say or do will change how I think about you, I think we crossed that bridge when you blurted out that I seriously needed some deoderent a few months ago," she laughed lightly at him as he grinned at her, "True enough... but alot of people get so uppity about it, like my brother or-" "You? You bit my head off for asking you one little question," she sighed lightly, "Yeah I guess so.... I just don't want people nagging at me that my opinions are wrong...." he shook his head and lightly started to rub her arm with the hand that had been resting on her waist, "I won't let that happen," he promised with a smile, she smiled back, "Thanks," "Mm, so you gonna tell me what your religion is then?" she giggled lightly and tapped him on the back of the head, "Nope," "Why not?" "I don't really have one that fits a specific category, let's just say that there are few things in this world I don't believe in and when it comes to the after life I think alot of people exagerate the 'rules'," she said with a smile, "Alright I'll settle for that," he said, standing up and walking towards the edge of the ship, "Oh and Ichigo?" "Hm?" "If it matters... you're pretty high up on the list too," he smirked at her, "Thanks, so are you,"

~+~

"So how's Draco?" Rukia asked as Ichigo came back to the boat and got in his body, "Fine, he was awake so I opened a bag of trail mix and put it on the floor for him," "You gave the baby trail mix for a meal?" "Sorry I must have forgotten that EVERYONE gives free food to people they can't see," he replied, she rolled her eyes, "Well sadly we don't have much better," she said, handing him a cup of ramen, "Ramen isn't so bad-" "We have to share it," "What?!" "There was only one pack, sorry," she replied, grabbing a pair of chopsticks, "Only one set of these too but suspeciously the trash is FULL of empty instant food containers and chopsticks," she said as she sat down beside him, "Renji...." he muttered as she dug into the cup, "Exactly," she said, shoving a pile of noodles in her mouth and handing Ichigo the chopsticks, "Stupid ape..." he muttered, taking a long awaited bite himself, "Why do they taste burned?" he muttered between bites, "Because the microwave short-circuted," "Oh.... well that's just perfect," he muttered, "Do we atleast have some water or something on this wreckage of a boat?" "Yeah there are two water bottles in the cabin and I have one in my backpack," "Great, this stuff is really drying my mouth out," he muttered, she reached beside her and handed him her water bottle, "Thanks.. again.." he muttered, taking a drink of it, "Don't mention it, especially since you've now ingested my spit.... I meant for you to wait until I gave you a straw...." "Oh.. well it isn't like you have cooties or anything else that could hurt me, if you did my blood would've been contaminated a long time ago considering how often your little red cells find their way in my stream," he chuckled, she smiled, "You sure are more laid back than you used to be, remember when Kon kissed Orihime's hand? You practically had heart failure," he shivered slightly, "Yeah don't bring that up.... that creep..." he grumbeled, she tilted her head, 'I wonder why he doesn't mind sharing food and water with me but Kon using his body to kiss Orihime's hand bothers him so much... maybe because we're sharing FOOD.... men seem to only think with their stomachs and their crotches so it would figure....' she mused to herself, but decided not to bring it up, "Hey Rukia! Is that it!? I think I've found!" Ichigo shouted, putting the ramen down and pointing to her laptop, wich had just sounded the alarm signaling a large creature had swum by, she looked over at it and leaned in a little closer so she could see it better, "Mm no, sorry, that's just a Basking Shark," she replied with a shrug, he frowned, "Oh.. and I guess that's not what we're looking for?" he asked as he too leaned back, "No, they're rare but not nearly rare enough," she replied, he picked up the cup of ramen again and huffed, "We've been out here for hours.... nothing has ever taken this long before..." he muttered, musing that they had been out here since early afternoon and now the sky was starting to get dark, "Hey Rukia... where do we sleep? If, by some unholy force, we have to sleep out here," she shrugged, "On deck I guess," she replied, he sighed lightly, "...Perfect...." he muttered

~+~

"So, Megalodon really had no rival at all?" Ichigo asked as he yawned and looked up at the stars, one arm supporting his head and the other supporting Rukia's, "Mm, yeah, it was THE apex predator of it's time," "So not even one of those dinasour-reptile things could kill it?" "What kind of dinasour-reptile thing?" she asked with a slight chuckle as she stared up at the stars, "Um... the ones that are fat but have long necks and big teeth?" "Lots of dinasours like that," "Uh... some people speculate that the Loch Ness Monster is one..?" "I think you mean a Plesiosaur, and wile yes that would be a good guess both in the case of the Loch Ness Monster and in the case of Megalodon, in the case of the Loch Ness Monster it would be pretty hard for one to lift it's head above the water as so many sightings say, ofcourse there could also be some evolution that enabled it to do so," she said, "Uh-huh... so that thing couldn't take on Sharkasourus huh?" "Well it depends, there are tons of diffrent Plasiosaurs, just like any other animal," "...What's the kind with the big teeth and the black stripes that I see on video game covers battling a shark?" she stared at him for a moment, "You humans really get kicks from the oddest things..." she muttered, "Oh please like you Soul Reapers are any better...." "Well regardless you're probbably referring to a Liopleurodon since you mentioned stripes, although Metriorhynchus had stripes too but it was more of a faded green... so I don't think that's it... then there's Mosasaurs but that isn't a type of Plesiosaur at all, Mosasaurs are their own species but they do look alot like Liopleurodons in artistic illustrations so it really could be either... I don't think it's an Elasmosaurus because they look so diffrent but they COULD be the Loch Ness Monster..." "Yeah uh-huh, so could any of those take on the brother of Jaws or not?" "Well, for one thing, Plesisosaurs went extinct long before Megalodon ever came around, although... Mosasaurs DID come along at around the same time... they COULD have had an encounter I guess but-" "Could it win or not?" he asked with an exasperated sigh, she rolled her eyes, "Well it's really never been theorized.... I mean techinically I suppose it COULD, though it is smaller than Megalodon it's a fast swimmer and has sharp teeth.. but then again there's also a slight chance that a poodle could kill a hippo too if you know, the hippo had a pre-existing heart condition and the poodle barked and surprised him," she replied, he looked over at her and just... stared... for a long moment, "You are SUCH a know-it-all, do you know that?" "I'm vaguely aware of it yes," she said with a large grin, he just sighed, "Smart alec..." "I never did understand that term... what's an alec?" before Ichigo could answer the sound of a small alarm going off brought their attention away from eachother and towards the laptop screen, they both sat up and Rukia leaned forward, "Ichigo... it's here! Get into your dive gear!" she demanded as she stood up and ran down to the bottum floor to get their scuba gear, "Rukia wait a minute," he said, she huffed as she pulled out a wetsuit from the little closet, "We don't have time to wait! If we don't hurry we may not catch it!" "Yeah I know," "..What?" she muttered, he put one hand on her shoulder and looked down, "Rukia ... I don't want you to go down," "What?!" "I said that I don't want you to go diving!" "Why not!?" "This thing is HUGE Rukia! It could use you as a TOOTH PICK, I won't risk you getting eaten!" "Ichigo this is rediculous-!" "No it isn't! Look... Rukia... we've been in danger before but don't you think it'd be a little hard to get out of a gigai and get your sword drawn in case it turns on you in an instant when you're underwater? Scuba diving? Please just... we have it on camera, isn't that enough?" "No!" "Please Rukia! I'm really.... I'm really scared that something will happen, just please don't..." she sighed, watching the computer screen as the massive beast swam by, "I won't get hurt..." "I can't be sure of that! How do you even plan on juggling all your sample stuff and keeping away from it's jaws at the same time!?" she didn't answer, "If it was just the size or just that it's underwater or just that it's vicious... I wouldn't be so apprehinsive... but the fact that it's all three...." she stared at him for a moment, for most of the mission he had been following her orders by the line, but now that he was asking this one thing of her... "What if the readings are wrong Ichigo?" "Readings shmeedings! They have the DNA and stuff don't they? They just need proof that it's still being a nuisence don't they? Well you can't get more proof than a video!" she sighed, "But... it'll be my only chance to ever swim with a Megalodon..." he stared at her for a long moment in irritation, "Are you KIDDING me? You're CRAZY if you want to go swimming with that THING!" "But I've always wanted to swim with sharks... the bigger the better...." "Rukia, I will go back to the hotel, run you a cold bath, and put a sqweaky shark in it, then you can put on a wetsuit and splash around as much as you want, but PLEASE don't do this, besides... what if your air tank malfunctions at that depth?" she had already decided in the back of her mind that she wouldn't, she didn't want Ichigo to worry so much and she certainly didn't want him down there too if he was so nervous, "Alright.... that's true.... something could go very wrong...." she wispered, he sighed in releif and smiled at her, "Thank you," he wispered, wrapping his arms around her shoulders loosely, she smiled back and hugged him tightly as well, "Alright but you're explaining it to the Soul Society," "Deal," he chuckled

~+~

"Ichigo, you go and say hi to Draco, I know he misses you," Rukia said as they walked into the hotel room, "You always talk about him as if he doesn't love you," Ichigo said with a huff, "Well I'm sure he thinks I'm just fine but he bonded with you first, he bonded with you the longest, and let's not forget that he thinks of you as 'Mommy'," he sighed, "I mean after all, infants automatically respond more to 'Mommy' than they do to-" "'Daddy'?" he asked with a snicker, she frowned, "Shut up and go get your newborn," she muttered as she walked over to the desk and turned on the laptop, sending out a signal to Soul Society, "Man am I gonna sleep good tonight," Ichigo grunted as he picked up Draco from the basinet and craddled him, "Yeah, we need to feed Draco first though," "I can't wait to get some real food," he muttered as laid on the bed and picked up the phone, "Hey Rukia where's the translator?" "In my backpack," she muttered back, digging through her bag and finding the little cord that translated langueges, "How are you going to know what you're ordering anyway?" she asked, "Oh I'll just ask the receptionist what kinds of things they have," he replied as she tossed him the cord and he put it on, "What?" Rukia heard, turning back to the computer screen, "O-Oh hello Captain Zaraki," she said, hearing Ichigo gulp from the other side of the room, "Oh, hey," he muttered, "I'm just calling in to tell you we found the shark," she said, "Good, sooner you send me that information sooner you both get back here and I can beat Ichigo to a bloody pulp," he chuckled, Rukia heard Ichigo speaking on the phone and turned down her computer volume, "Well about that Sir... you see.... we sort of didn't get the samples... we only have video," "What? WHY? Ichigo too chicken to wrestle a shark?" "No, he was just... well...." she had to make a decision, have Ichigo tormented by telling the truth or sucking it up and looking like a wimp herself.... but then again.... Kenpachi never cared for fighting women, he always went after men, Ichigo in paticular, he wouldn't care would he? "I... got scared Sir, it was dark and I was afraid something with my gear would go wrong, and I could barely see anything much less what I was doing deep underwater with a 60 foot shark in front of me," "Why couldn't Ichigo do it himself?" "Um... he isn't smart enough to collect the propper samples..." ok, yeah, that wasn't a complete lie.... "Hey Rukia, what do you want to eat?" Ichigo asked, coming up behind her and apparently having forgotten Kenpachi was on the screen due to Rukia's quiet talking and low volume, "Uh I don't know... just get me what you think I'd like, I trust you," she replied, waving him off, he nodded and turned around, walking back across the room and talking on the phone, she turned back around and saw Kenpachi stare at her in absolute disgust, "Um... what?" she asked with raised eyebrows as Ichigo hung up and happened to walk by when Kenpachi noticed, "What are you? A stinkin' pansy?" Kenpachi grumbeled, Ichigo blinked, "W-What? H-Hi Kenpachi..." he muttered nervously, "What's that?" Kenpachi asked, pointing to Ichigo, who was holding Draco... and a teddy bear... "Ummm.... a teddy bear?" "No the thing with scales!" "A dragon......" "Breathes fire?" "....Going to...." "Ah, ok, carry on," he muttered, Ichigo breathed a sigh of releif and ran off, "Um, well, if you could send us our next file...." "Right right, just send in the video later," "Yes Sir," "I gotta tell ya', Ichigo should get some exercise on this one," "Why do you say that?" "You're going to Australlia, lots o' sports there,"