Title: Switching Tactics
Author: Celeste
Universe: Bleach
Theme/Topic: Parallel piece to "Switching Teams"
Rating: PG
Pairing: light IkkakuxKira undertones, barely-there ShuuheixYumichika and really, could be read as gen if you so choose to.
Spoilers: Whole Soul Society Arc
Word Count: 2,346
Time: TOTALLY lost count. Er.
Warnings: Spoilers for the Soul Society Arc.
Summary: Sequel to "How in the Hell Did I Get Stuck With You?"- The third division's reconstruction continues. Ikkaku gets an idea.
Dedication: Ann- because I'm procrastinating AGAIN. And I'm sorry. I am.
A/N: Yes, I realize that this isn't a really exciting story arc or anything, but it's just an idea I really wanted to get out of my head. So, I know it's kind of subpar or something like that, but such is the nature of the beast with me sometimes. I'm definitely a two steps forward one step back kind of writer. Or maybe one step forward and two steps back, who knows? ;; Anyway, this whole arc is just one of those backward steps. I'm sure I'll be slightly less stupid once this is over and done with. --;; crosses fingers Anyway, I'm just indulging myself here, because the plot bunny still won't leave me alone and I need to just be random for a while, I think. O.o
Disclaimer: Not mine, though I wish constantly.
Distribution: Just lemme know.

---

During the first week under what would later be termed "Madarame-fukutaichou's reign of terror," the third division was rudely shoved awake two hours before dawn every day for no other reason than the fact the Ikkaku was the new vice-captain and he could wake his subordinates at any hour of the day he so chose to as long as they were on active duty.

The members of a division previously terrorized by Ichimaru Gin's quiet personality quirks were once again placed under the yoke of a fearsome leader, save for the fact that Ikkaku Madarame didn't care that the bruises he left behind were physical where Ichimaru's had been mental.

The tyrannized third division personnel hoped that it wouldn't last and that their new captain would somehow find a way to contain Ikkaku's hot-headed temper so that things could get back to normal as soon as possible. However, their hopes were dashed when they remembered how easy it had been for them to manipulate Kira's kindness in the first place, and Ikkaku's overwhelming personality was definitely more difficult to say no to than any of their wheedling had been.

Before long, Izuru was one of the few in the division that hadn't come to be completely overwhelmed by Madarame's take-no-prisoners style. However, while the blonde remained even-tempered and even at times, shyly quiet, Ikkaku's influence soon began to make itself known in the new third division captain in little ways. And while some reasoned that it was an inevitable metamorphosis that could only go so far given Kira's lenient personality, others feared it was only a matter of time before he became exactly like Ikkaku.

It forced the question of whether one could play "good cop, bad cop" without the good cop.

They could only stay alert and wait anxiously for the ultimate outcome.

"Your new assignments were handed out last week. After all the preparatory protocol is dealt with, the third division will be officially reinstated as a division in good standing with the Gotei-13. For those of you with assignment concerns, please schedule an appointment to meet with Madarame-fukutaichou at his earliest convenience. Um…are there any questions?" Kira asked, looking out over the gathered ranks of his division, all of whom had, surprisingly, listened to his early morning announcement without a word of complaint.

Behind him, Madarame stood with arms crossed, chewing on a stalk of wheat as he looked out challengingly amongst the rows of lower ranking shinigami.

No one had any questions.

Or complaints, as Kira would later observe.

Afterwards in his office, he sighed and collapsed into his chair, glancing up at Ikkaku tiredly, but with an air of satisfaction. "This was the first time they've ever looked at me like that," he admitted with a wan smile.

"Like what?"

"A leader."

Ikkaku grinned and put a hand on Kira's shoulder, squeezing firmly. Kira only flinched a little, and out of habit rather than it actually hurting. "And it's only been a week. I think things are lookin' up," Madarame posed with a satisfactory grunt. "Ain't where we want to be exactly, but we're gettin' there. Need to push a little more and the men'll be respecting you like they should soon, I think."

Kira looked back hopefully. "Everything's so different now," he mused aloud. "Before, with um…with Ichimaru-taichou, I used to think vice-captains were only around for two things."

"Mmm? And what was that?"

"Paperwork and stress relief."

Ikkaku snorted. "Well, the paperwork bit's right. Don't tell me Ichimaru used you for a punching bag or somethin'."

"No, no, of course not," Kira recanted quickly, face turning a bit pink.

Ikkaku thought that captains shouldn't do that, because it made them much more cute than intimidating, which was a trait better suited for the likes of Yachiru or Hinamori than to guys. But he let it slide because as much as Ikkaku didn't want him to be, Kira was still Kira no matter how much Ikkaku pushed, and he was convinced there were just some things about the other man that would never change regardless of what came to pass in the future.

"Sorry if it was somethin' personal or somethin'," Ikkaku said instead, eyeing the blonde's sudden pinkness carefully to gauge his next step. "Er… I'm sure he didn't smack you around, not his style anyway, the foxy bastard."

Kira shook his head. "No, taichou never hit me. Though I think maybe if he did that it would have been better."

Ikkaku quirked a brow. "What makes you say that?"

"Nothing," Kira responded wistfully, looking purposefully away and making Ikkaku feel like they just took two steps forward and three steps back. Instinctively the new vice-captain reached forward and gently tipped the blonde's chin back up so they were looking eye to eye again.

Kira was so startled he didn't really react save for a slight widening of those big, sad eyes.

Ikkaku took his hand away and looked sheepish. "Sorry, just hate it when you're always lookin' at the ground," he admitted quietly. "Makes me wanna go find that silver freak and pound him into the floor. No one with your kinda power should be walkin' around with his eyes facin' the dirt."

Kira looked apologetic. "It's just how taichou was," he murmured thoughtfully. "I think he did a lot of things that would make it very hard for me to live without him."

Ikkaku snorted. "Yeah, well, we'll show him," he said with a confidence that made Kira really believe it.

"Now… lemme show ya somethin' that'll make it hard for you to live without me…" Ikkaku suggested after a moment, rolling up his sleeves and flexing his arms.

Kira was almost alarmed by the sudden declaration, but before he knew what was happening, two strong hands were placed on each of his shoulders. "Ikkaku…what…"

"One super-useful vice-captain massage comin' up, sir!" the bald shinigami announced, before setting to work. "Ya can't walk around here as tense and jumpy as you are and expect to get any respect," he continued to explain, expertly seeking out the inevitable nest of tension knots guys like Kira tended to accumulate from working too hard and caring too much. "How's that feel?"

"Nnngh…"

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Heh. This is the kind of stress relief vice-captains should be performin'."

"Mmmmhn," Kira replied, and meaning it.

"So…uh… before I forget or anythin'… just wanted to let ya know, Zaraki-taichou wants ta meet you sometime next week," Madarame began conversationally, hands never ceasing their rolling movements.

"Mmm…what?"

The bald shinigami cleared his throat after only a moment of hesitation. "Er, what I said was…Zaraki-taichou wants to meet with ya. He does this, sorta his thing when someone from the eleventh transfers," Ikkaku explained. "Er, that ain't gonna be a problem is it?"

Kira blinked, tensing up under his vice-captain's hands again. "Z-zaraki….t-taichou?"

"Yeah. Hey, relax… ain't anything official or anything, totally off the record, I promise. Just a meetin' between captains, you see?"

The look Kira graced him with was absolutely more pathetic than any one any sort of half-starved, rain-soaked, kicked puppy could have come up with.

It gave the bald death god the instant urge to comfort. "Hey, relax, alright? You'll be fine. You especially will be fine."

Kira frowned slightly, skeptical of Ikkaku's soothing. "What makes you say that?"

"Way you are, you got nothin' to worry about," Ikkaku insisted, squeezing the blonde's shoulders comfortingly. "Probably invite you for tea and interrogate me 'bout how the div is doin,' really."

"But um…I mean, I heard the story about senpai and when he went to visit Zaraki-taichou and…"

Ikkaku snorted. "That was different. Taichou wouldn't do that to you, trust me."

Kira's brow furrowed and he squirmed out from under Ikkaku's probing hands, turning in his chair. "What um, what makes you think t-that he'd treat me differently than senpai?" the blonde asked, curious enough now that he'd temporarily forgotten his fear at the prospect of having to meet with, one-on-one, Zaraki Kenpachi.

Madarame blinked upon realizing his slip, and turned away, a little embarrassed. "'s nothin' really," he dismissed with a little shake of his head. "Just sayin'."

"Ikkaku…"

"Aw, don't look at me like that, taichou, that ain't fair."

"Is it…because I'm um…a wimp?"

Ikkaku scowled. "Ain't nothin' like that! It's just um… well ya see, Zaraki-taichou… he um… he won't admit it or nothin' if you ask him… but most of us know that he's uh, well, always been a little sweet on the cute ones," Ikkaku admitted with a sheepish laugh. "Which is why I figured you'd be fine."

Kira looked at him a little incredulously.

"Shit. Um… don't uh, don't ever, ever tell him I told ya that right? He'd kill me in a heartbeat," the new vice-captain added hastily, looking around the room to make sure Kenpachi hadn't been eavesdropping and wouldn't pop out from around any corners with his sword drawn to hack Madarame to pieces and string his body up in to a tree like paper lanterns for festival time or anything like that. He'd seen it happen once or twice before, and that'd only been after an ambiguous comment some guy made about how cute Yachiru was and that he could just eat her all up. It hadn't been pretty, and Kenpachi established right then and there that Yachiru was never to be eaten and she wasn't cute, 'cuz tough guys like Zaraki absolutely, absolutely didn't like cute things.

Swallowing nervously at the memory, Ikkaku craned his neck to peek out the window with the hopes that Zaraki was nowhere in site (or hearing range).

One could never be too careful when it concerned Zaraki and what were possible "fighting words" after all, especially now since Ikkaku wasn't in the division any more and…

… and Kira was laughing.

Madarame glared indignantly at his captain upon discovering that the blonde's shoulders were indeed, chuckling with unchecked mirth. "Hey! It ain't funny I…"

But his protests died off when he realized, belatedly, that Kira was laughing.

Kira was laughing.

And kind of a lot, at that.

Confounded, all he could ask was, "er…taichou?"

"Sorry! Sorry, I just…" the blonde chuckled quietly into his hand; big eyes shining mirth back up at the other death god. "The look on your face just now… it was like you were expecting him to cross all of seireitei and kill you in the next minute."

Ikkaku grinned back down at his captain a little sheepishly because he couldn't not given the circumstances. "Oi… you laughin' at me, taichou?"

"Sorry. I… sorry." The new captain looked up at him apologetically, trying to regain his faculties but failing to hide his amusement with his eyes crinkled just so and his lips quirked upward in what might have been the first real, genuinely pleased smile his vice-captain had ever seen out of him.

And Ikkaku Madarame couldn't help but marvel a little.

When it wasn't sad or uncertain or bogged down by unpleasant memories, it seemed that his new taichou had one heck of a smile.

Just… an amazing one, really.

The kind men would die for, even.

And all of a sudden, he could see maybe a little, why Ichimaru Gin had decided to lock up that smile and keep it all to himself for so long.

Well, screw that.

"You should do that more often."

Kira blinked at the sudden shift in mood. "Eh?"

"Smile, I mean," Ikkaku clarified with a lopsided grin of his own. "It suits you."

Izuru turned slightly pink and he looked away reflexively. "Um…i-is that so?"

Ikkaku sighed, tipping his captain's chin with his index finger so that he could look him right in the eye. "Yeah, really. No need to be afraid of it either, eh?" he asked levelly. "I'm sure I'm not the only one in the division that would mind seein' somethin' so nice every now and again."

"Ah…I…I see."

"Say… ya know what? This gives me an idea."

Kira blinked large, confused eyes up at his subordinate. "Really? For what?"

Ikkaku grinned evilly. "Oh, just somethin'."

Much to the horror of the rest of the third division, Madarame-fukutaichou's reign of terror seemed to only worsen after that day. Eventually, they got used to the early mornings and frequent abuse, though they vowed to never like it. But they found that the harder they worked, the less they got kicked around, so they began (after some time) to put all of their effort into their duties to avoid the abuse that would inevitably follow if they didn't. It wasn't an ideal tradeoff maybe, but working hard didn't hurt nearly half as much as having a foot up their ass at the end of the day, and those were acceptable terms if any.

Kira, unsurprisingly, was deemed the permanent good cop in the strange relationship the division had with its leaders, the one who would see reason when tyrannical Madarame wouldn't, the one to go to when the members needed some reprieve from the endless drilling and battle preparations and physical tests. It was a welcome and expected place for Izuru, and the division was infinitely glad that Ikkaku hadn't managed to mold their vice-captain cum captain into another version of himself.

What was surprising about all the changes however, was that before long, the shinigami under Izuru's care came to know and appreciate how pretty their captain could be when he really smiled, the intimidated shadows beginning to drain from his eyes a little bit more every day with proof of their effort and dedication.

Some began to suspect that even more than Madarame-fukutaichou's threats, the promise of seeing that stunning smile upon returning to seireitei after a job well done was motivation enough to work their hardest.

And thus the unique style of leadership in the third division took shape, under the watchful eye of one beauty and one beast.

Back in the ninth division headquarters, Hisagi Shuuhei and Ayasekawa Yumichika congratulated themselves on a job well done.

END