Hello everyone!

Welcome to my second story here^^ Just a heads up: English is not my native tongue but I tired my best to avoid mistakes as best as I could! I hope you enjoy my little tale of the tiny Lizard with the orange fluffy fur *cough, totally not Ichigo, cough* and Shirosaki who loves his little friend to death. Enjoy!

BTW: I am searching for a CO-Autor^^ (First posted on AO3)

„And that's why.. my fellow friends we have to ..." …

Boring. So god damn boring. That's all Shirosaki could think about as he blinked slowly and had to suppress a yawn. He was well aware Aizen loved his long speeches. His long and boring speeches. This guy never shut up when he started talking. He probably loved hearing himself talk. Shirosaki wouldn't be surprised if this over-confident ass talked to himself in the mirror and loved every single second of it.

Looking around, it was more entertaining looking at the other Espada than listening to "Aizen-sama's important speeches you must attend". He almost wanted to bust into his insane laughter, the other Espada looked as bored as he was. The only three listening were Ulquiorra, Tosen and maybe Halibel. He wasn't 100 % sure about Halibel, but if she wasn't listening, she as at least looked like she was.

Yammy was just poking in his ear and flipping the dirt somewhere... ew. Yammy was always a gross bastard, that could only eat the whole day.

Syzael was shaking some weird liquid in a little glass container, grinning like mad, and Shirosaki was sure, this shit could explode anytime. He actually kinda hoped it would. That would at least lift up the mood.

He honestly couldn't remember the names of the weird Espada, that could eat other Hollows to gain their power, or the weird one with the many eyes. They were both boring and stupid anyways.

He snickered quietly as he saw Grimmjow and Nnoitria bickering. Those two always caused the most trouble. Well Shiro wasn't innocent himself, but being number Zero gave him basically a free pass to do whatever he pleased. He could see how Nnoitria and Grimmjow pissed each other off more and more, he couldn't wait till one really snapped and caused havoc. Those two were always fun to watch and fight. Grimmjow was just stubborn, violent and hold himself up very high. Not like Nnoitria or himself were any better to be honest.

Well like he mentioned before Ulquiorra was listing very closely to Aizen's words. This stick in the mud emo always listened to every single word "Aizen-sama" said. Because Aizen-sama was so amazing, and every word he said was more worth than gold. Tz! One day he would slip on his own slime path.

Halibel seemed to listen but he really wasn't sure as her hands were under the table, he wouldn't be surprised if she painted her nails or something. And he couldn't blame her, any distraction was welcome when Aizen wouldn't shut up.

Barragan, the former King, looked at Aizen very calculated. Shirosaki was sure he wasn't listening to what the Shinigami had to tell. He rather waited for a moment to kill him and reclaim his position as king. But could you really blame him for wanting that title back? Not really if you asked him.

And well number one Starrk was sleeping – what a surprise. He even snored lightly! Lilynette was draped over his lap snoring with him. They looked very comfortable together. Lilynette was normally a very energetic child but even she fell asleep after 3 hours of Aizen's "bed time story".

While Tosen was exactly like Ulquiorra, Gin on the other hand was pretty much as much bored as everyone else. Gin was a funny one, always being ready to cause trouble and pull pranks. Shirosaki was sure the white snake was entertaining himself by thinking up new pranks he could try out. Probably on Grimmjow or Nnoitria as those two always reacted the strongest towards such things. The happy glint in his mischievous eyes told him that Gin came up with something amazing this time.

Shirosaki almost fell asleep himself when he suddenly heard the word "Dismissed". He jumped up from his chair faster than anyone could watch and run out of the room. God! Even his ass hurt like mad from sitting 3 hours in this horrible lecture no-one cared about. Why did Aizen even bother? He just wanted to hear himself talk.

After sitting for so long the Arrancar was in need of some movement. So he set out for a stroll in the desert of Huneco Mundo. After walking under the ever shining moon he sat down on a rock. He was still kinda bored and – even though he would never admit it – a little lonely.

Every Espada had a Fractioné. Everyone but him. He never saw anyone worthy enough to be, and those that were already had an Espada to serve. Most of the Fractioné came from the time before the Espada existed. For instance Grimmjow's Fractioné. They were well.. friends (?) or team mates from his time as Vasto Lorde. Or something like that, it's not like he was interested in everyone's story of life.

He sat there for a while, just observing the desert, watching the tiny Hollows slithering around. Watching the wind whirl around the silver sand.

That's when he set his yellow eyes on a small lizard Hollow. Those weren't uncommon. Quiet the opposite actually. Those little fellas were like hmm... if he wanted to explain it to a human he would compare them so ants that walk around. OK, there probably were more ants in the word of the living but you know what he meant.

When another of the little ones slithered in the sand, doing whatever those little Hollows did, he saw a mini puff of orange fur on this one. Now that was something new. He wasn't a biologist or well... Hollowlogist (?) but that was something he hadn't seen before. It wasn't something big, but it was new and different. And that was exciting enough to follow the little guy.

Trotting slowly behind the little Hollow, watching what he was up to, wasn't hard for the Zero. Considering the size difference Shirosaki needed one step while the little guy needed many slithering steps, if you could call it that.

After a good minute or two of following the little lizard Shirosaki actually noticed that the little guy started to speed up. Maybe the brain of the little orange haired one wasn't even the size of a peanut, but he was smart enough to notice he was being followed. And not just followed by some random Hollow, no by a very big (at least for him) one that oozed of Reiatsu. And that was reason enough to slither for his life.

After all those poor little Hollows where the ones that mostly got stepped one and squashed. Or they got picked up and eaten without anyone caring. There was this one big guy, he was rather ugly and fat that always looked around for them. Some higher level Hollows had always screamed something like "Run, it's Yammy!".

And since he had orange hair, fur... whatever it was, he was one of the first beings to be spotted, so he always was one of the fastest one to bury himself in the sand when Yammy appeared.

Despite the little masked face being not really capable of showing emotions you could still somewhat see that the Lizard was very distressed. This big Hollow wasn't the size of Yammy, but the Reiatsu was 100 times worse. And that was reason enough to slither as fast as he could. Not that it was really fast for anyone being bigger than a mouse.

Hearing a little snicker from the bigger Hollow the little guy flinched as the white haired one suddenly was in front of him. He could have used Sonido or just made a big step, but that wasn't really important anyways.

Quickly turning around and slithering in the opposite direction Shirosaki decided to fuck around with the little guy and smirked as the Lizard tried to change directions all the time, only to see the the black socks and white shoes of the bigger male.

That's when the mini Hollow decided his best bet was to just bury himself and he quickly started to push away sand. Shirosaki looked confused for a second before he realized this guy's little plan. "Oh no ya won't." and just grabbed him with his white hand and lifted him to the height of his grinning face.

But the little thing wouldn't have survived for so long if he hadn't had at least the spirit to escape. If you ever had a hamster or mouse in your hand you would basically be in Shirosaki's situation as the little guy tried to jump off his hand and get everywhere. But the Arrancar just handled him from hand to hand and watched amused the little guy's struggle.

After realizing it was pointless running the little lizard Hollow was sure that was it for him. He had tried his hardest to escape but this was just pointless. The Espada seemed to notice it as well as the little Hollow stopped struggling all together and just looked him in the eyes with its tiny raised head.

Grinning Shirosaki decided to poke its little head with his black nailed pointer finger. But before he reached the head, the little lizard bit him, well tried to. With such a tiny mouth and Shirosaki being protected by a strong armor like skin he didn't even feel the bite. With all its might the little guy chopped down with his mini teeth, not going down without a fight. But all Shiro could do was snorting softly and tried to pull his finger out. He had to admit the lizard had a strong bite for his size, considering he had to shake him off softly.

"Ain't ya a strong little boy." He said grinning.

After proclaiming that he just lifted the tiny feet with its finger and turned him around, tripping it and making it fall on its back. The poor guy struggled like a bug and hissed angrily and frightened. Not knowing how to defend itself anymore the orange head just decided to curl itself in a little ball, hoping the big Hollow would lose interest and just throw him back in the sand.

With curious and slightly widened eyes the Espada looked at the little ball in his hand, now what was he supposed to do? He had no interest in eating it. He rarely ate nowadays and when he did he always made sure to hunt down a worthy opponent. Sometimes he sneaked in the world of the living to snatch some things, he actually enjoyed something the humans called candy quite a lot.

Without thinking too much about it he walked back to Las Noches with the little ball still in his hand. Lazily he dragged his feet to his room and settled down on his bed. Looking down at the palm of his hand the little guy still hadn't uncurled and didn't seem to plan it anytime soon.

He was kinda curious about the orange tuft of fur the Lizard had, he hadn't seen that before, not that he paid too much attention to these little Hollows but anyways...

Since the ball didn't move he softly touched the orange patch of fur making the little Lizard flinch but still not uncurling either. It was really soft and reminded him of his own fur he had at his ankles of his sleeves, only that his was black. Poking and petting it softly he enjoyed the feeling on his finger, wishing there was more he could tangle his finger in. Too bad the guy wasn't even the size of his hand but it was kinda cute.

Being lost in his thoughts he continued to pat the little patch of fur while staring at the wall without paying attention to his hand. He didn't realize when the orange head decided to actually uncurl itself and look at the bigger Hollow. He hadn't eaten him so far and wasn't squashing him in his hand either, he was actually petting him what felt very nice if the little Hollow was honest. Since he felt kinda save he decided to take a look at his surroundings. He had absolutely no clue were he was and how to get out but since the big white haired one didn't pay attention right now he saw it as his cue to quickly leave.

Carefully climbing down his hand he landed on the bed with a soft noise. Too bad that this woke the bigger one out of his mindless trance and his precise hearing picked up the tiniest noise. Quickly he grabbed the Lizard again and hold him close.

"Nu-uh, lil' one. Yer ain't gonna escape that easily from me." Now the little lizard started to actually get angry. An angry hiss was heard and he tried to bite Shirosaki's hand again. If he didn't plan on eating him then why was he torturing him like that? He was quite busy hiding himself and not dying thank you very much!

"Ain't ya aggressive? How cute, hehe. I like ya, so adorable. Almost like Grimmjow minus the adorable part." He snicked about his own joke. Grimmjow would be fuming if someone compared him to a simple desert lizard Hollow.

Apparently the guy wasn't harming him and he didn't understand what Shirosaki was talking about either. So he decided to do what he always did: eating. Now he wasn't hunting other Hollows. He was at the end of the food chain, there was no way he would hunt. No, normally he searched for a comfy place to stay and tonguing the air, sucking the Reiatsu out of it and being happy about it. That was basically his whole day.

So not thinking about the situation any further the little guy started to tongue the air and actually licking on Shirosaki's thumb. He was amazed! One lick at the air around this guy was more power than he could collect in a whole year with the normally dense air! Hissing contently he continued to lick at him and getting all the power he could get.

It took Shirosaki around one minute to understand what the little guy was doing. Grinning madly he grabbed the lizard at its tail and lifted him to his face. "Are yer trying ta eat me now? Rather bolt fer such a lil' Hollow. But I understand ya too well, I am so sexy everyone just wanna eat me."

Flaring with his little limps the orange head was really not found of being hold by his tail if the trashing and angry noises were anything to go by. You could almost see his panic as the Espada lifted him to his mouth. All the little guy saw were sharp teeth and he started to panic. So he would get eaten! Maybe with all the absorbed power from the tall guy he would be able to form a Cero. But it was too late and he already knew: that was it.

What he didn't expect was the soft press of lips against his head and a close press to the Arrancar's cheek. The little guy was confused, the Arrancar looked so... sad? Very quietly Shirosaki muttered more or less to himself. "Do ya wanna be my friend little guy. I am so lonely all the time. I ain't got a Fractioné like the others. Nobody likes me. They are only afraid of the 'power-hungry monster'. And I don't like them either. Ya can't even talk but still. I … I am lonely."

Shirosaki didn't know why he voiced his biggest weakness to a little desert Hollow, he was sure he probably couldn't even understand him. But it felt good saying this out loud for once, he really just wanted someone to turn to, someone to protect. And now he would protect this small guy, the little random lizard with the adorable orange tuft.

He laughed as the little guy just seemed to not get anything and went back to tonguing him, now his cheek. If the big guy wasn't going to hurt him he would collect all the power he could and run at the first chance he could. For the little lizard, this was a great idea and was probably one of the smartest thing he had come up within his short Hollow life.

"Guess that means yes." He smiled, a real smile. Patting his new little friend and scratching it under its fur he started thinking. "So lil' buddy, are yer a him or a her? And what's yer name?" The nameless lizard just stopped his tonguing for a second and looked questioning in his new owner's eyes for a second. Only to go back to licking at his cheek a second later.

Sighing Shirosaki chuckled at the cheek licking and looked around. He needed a name for him... or her. Looking around is gaze fell on something he hat stolen from the world of the living: candy. His eyes were glued to the brightly red warping paper of a bonbon: Strawberry. With a devious little smirk he lifted his new friend up and proclaimed proudly: "Ne, little one, yer name is Ichigo. As fer yer gender, you look kinda male ta me, and if not... Ichigo is an unisex name anyways."

Again the newly named Ichigo didn't really mind whatever Shiro was saying, as long as he was able to suck away the delicious Reiatsu he was happy.

From that day on Shirosaki never went anywhere without having Ichigo around him, most of the time he kept him in his palm, petting his orange fur. Funnily enough Ichigo seemed to enjoy being scratched or petted there as he always would hiss quite happily which bought a smile to his owner's face. And since Ichigo always happily tongued at the Espada he actually did get some sort of power boost from it. Well, not really a power boost but his little patch of fur covered his whole head now and really looked like some spiky hair tips. The Arrancar was quite found of it actually.

It didn't take long before the others noticed Shirosaki's mood change, that he most of the time looked quite pleased with himself and the word. At first everyone was quite surprised and kinda scared as to what would make the Zero so happy. But soon they found out when Aizen decided it was time for another one of his great speeches. As he announced it you could hear one big grown going through the whole palace. Nobody was interested, but since when did Mr. single hair curl care?

As they waited for Aizen to arrive the other Espada looked at Shirosaki, as he played with something in his hands with a pleasant smile on his face. As everyone was curious about what he had there the first one to act out on his curiosity was actually Yammy. "What ya smiling about Whitey? What ya got there?"

Growling in his direction Shiro pulled his hands close to his chest and snarled quite angrily: " That's non of yer damn business!" Now everyone just had to know what the Zero was hiding and after a short tug of war something fell out of out Shirosaki's hand. Ichigo landed on the cold floor with a small thud. Before Zero could react Grimmjow picked the object up from the ground. After three seconds of looking at it he looked confused at the white haired male.

"The fuck yer carrying around some lizard with you Shirosaki? Didn't Aizen say no snacks in the conference room?" Grinning madly number six spoke with a bittersweet voice. "But no worries I will get rid of it for ya." And his fist started to close around the little guy who was hissing and snarling at Grimmjow. Slowly his fist closed very tightly around the little creature and gave out a tiny cracking sound. Boiling full of rage Shirosaki screamed at him: "Don't ya fucker dare! Give him back. Now!"

Some Espada started laughing as Grimmjow decided to play with fire today and slowly applied more pressure to his fist, making gross bone cracking sounds that could only mean one thing: He was cracking Ichigo's tiny lizard armor and with that, him to pieces.

Shiro's eyes became unreadable and dark Reiatsu swirled around him. Suddenly the air got very heavy in the room, giving you a feeling of dread as if you drowned in your own despair. He forced some chocked from everyone in the room, reminding them all that they just pissed of number Zero. The strongest of them, the monster.

"If ya don't wanna get every bone crushed in yer body... I would quickly open up yer hand now... and hope fer yer own good... that Ichigo is still alive... I will skin you alive if he isn't..."

His voice was low, dark and cunning. Everyone knew that this was no joke, he was dead serious and would make his treats reality. Before Grimmjow could even act out on anything Shirosaki sonidoed in front of him and grabbed the hand that was holding Ichigo. With a sickening crunch he wrenched his little lizard out of Grimmjow's hand, breaking every single bone in the blue haired Arrancar's hand in the process. The painful cry that the blue haired Espada screamed was answered with dead silence.

Quickly opening his hand, Zero checked on his little friend, concern burning in his eyes. A little tear formed in his left eye as he saw the totally cracked mask and little bone body armor the lizard used to have. Even one of his little feed was totally wrenched and was bleeding quite strongly. He wasn't moving either.

"I-Ichi? Ichigo? Ichigo are yer still there?" That's when everyone in the room saw Shirosaki, the heartless monster, actually showing real concern for something for the first time in his life. Everyone just looked shocked at him. How could he care so much at something like that?

Full of anger Shiro punched Grimmjow in his face, faster than anyone could look. And with a sickening crunch he wrenched Grimmjow's masked side of the face in the next wall, breaking it in the process.

Not paying anymore attention to the bastard Shirosaki run into his room, putting Ichigo down on his blanket. Close to tears he poked at his little friend, begging whatever god was out there that he wasn't dead. He couldn't bear to loose his only friend, his little buddy. When he suddenly felt a small tongue licking at his finger he cried a single tear of relive.

Quickly ripping off some small pieces of his clothing he tried his best to bind it around Ichigo's tiny limps and head. Softly he grabbed him in his hand and laid down with him on his bed, putting his little lizard on his chest and petting the fur. "I am so sorry Ichi, I should have watched out better fer ya. I promise ya I will never ever let ya get hurt again. I am so sorry."

And as if his little friend understood him, Ichigo slowly curled his little tail around Shirosaki's finger and tongued his finger. That made the bigger male smile. He petted him again and scratched him extra long that night, waiting till the little guy was sleeping save and sound, making little hissing sounds now and then. This night he made sure to pump out extra strong Reiatsu to make sure his little friend would heal up as quickly as possible.