Ichigo x Ishida, NC17

This was written for LJ's Live Long n Marry comm, which tried to help defeat Prop 8 in CA.

Warnings: swearing, fighting, boysmex and reiatsu kink

Disclaimer: Bleach and all characters belong to Kubo-san.

1. Ishida Uryuu. Quincy. I hate Shinigami.

From the night he sat straight up in bed, startled awake by a burst of reiatsu so powerful he felt it halfway across Karakura, Ishida Uryuu had been waiting.

Waiting for Kurosaki Ichigo to notice him.

He'd known there was something odd about the other boy the first time he'd seen him, but it wasn't until that night that he understood what it was. That astounding explosion of reiatsu told him everything he needed to know. Kurosaki had become a Shinigami.

Ishida watched him in class the next day – the strange boy with the angry eyebrows and the ridiculous hair that everyone said was dyed. He sat slumped at his desk, just like he did every other day, as if nothing at all had happened the night before, now and then shooting a glare at the tiny female Shinigami who sat beside him pretending to be a new transfer student. Every time Kurosaki's head turned, Ishida expected those squinting eyes to glide past the petite Shinigami and seek him out. He had to know the Quincy was there, after all, didn't he?

Ishida waited impatiently to feel the tingle of Kurosaki's spirit force focusing on him. He imagined the way it would happen; how the Shinigami would straighten from his slump and slowly turn his head, how their eyes would meet over the heads of their classmates, how Kurosaki's expression would darken, and how each would incline his head just slightly, acknowledging the other's presence with the promise of a challenge.

It didn't happen. Not that day, or the next, or even the next. Ishida's impatience grew as Kurosaki remained as bored and blind and stupid as he'd always been. The only difference was his spirit force. Instead of being honed and restrained – a sharpened sword waiting in its scabbard, as Ishida's was – Kurosaki's reiatsu was wild and unstable, broadcasting static like a radio stuck between channels. It grated on his every nerve, and Ishida wanted to clutch his head and scream at the Shinigami to stop it. He wanted to demand what kind of an idiot couldn't control his own reiatsu, but instead he gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore it, refusing to let a Shinigami think he'd gotten the best of a Quincy.

The days became weeks, and, impossible as it seemed, Ishida was forced to conclude that Kurosaki simply couldn't detect his spiritual presence. Since Kurosaki also seemed completely oblivious to his physical presence, Ishida decided that something had to be done. The pride of the Quincy demanded it.

He started stealing Kurosaki's prey. Not difficult to do considering that Ishida could sense the Hollows before Kurosaki and even Kuchiki-san were aware of them, and destroy them at long range. It will be soon, he smirked, privately noting the two Shinigami's growing frustration, as well as their heated conversations in the hallways and school yard. Soon, he assured himself, even while Kurosaki's glare skated over him as if he wasn't there.

It was when they touched that Ishida Uryuu knew this game had to end. He had perceived a new Hollow and was making his way to the stairs when Kuchiki-san had gone tearing by with a protesting Ichigo in tow. Their shoulders bumped. "Sorry!" Kurosaki called out as he pelted by, or maybe it was "Excuse me!", or perhaps he said nothing at all. Ishida couldn't be sure, because the surge of reiatsu that went through him when they touched numbed all his other senses. Like lightning, it momentarily blinded him to everything but the feel of that raw power shocking into him, and it was only through sheer force of will – through stubborn Quincy pride – that Ishida brushed his shoulder off as if nothing had happened and kept walking. He only stopped when the two of them were out of sight. He could still feel the echo of Kurosaki's spiritual pressure.

Yes, it was definitely time to end this game. A new contest was about to begin, and this one, Ishida Uryuu knew, would be in earnest.