PART 2!

Ok so now you will know if the kid is alive or not! And once again, having sex after giving birth is most likely not possible! Sorry for that! But, yah, I have no idea why I felt the need to add it in there…maybe cause I needed a bigger reason for why the fiction was rated M…

MAJOR STORY REGRET: adding in a sex scene too early (in my opinion anyway)

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Byakuya sniffed and looked down at the tiny infant. It looked back, but just barley, big greyish eyes blinking from the light of the room but somehow managing to sneak in a nonchalant look that was abnormal for any newborn. Byakuya blinked and the child blinked. Hinamori was grinning madly, stroking it's soft, supple face with cautions fingers. None of the other shinigamis stopped her. Hisagi even bent down and smiled warmly at the tired thing. Renji merely raised an eyebrow at this all.

"I suppose I have some explaining to do," Unohana admitted, her hands cupped in front of her and her head bowed respectively. Deep black eyes fluttered dangerously at Byakuya. Hitsugaya was leaning on the opposite side of the room and shot both captains a small look. Hanataro had disappeared after Retsu had whispered some instructions in his ear.

"Please do," the sixth division captain answered in an unwavering manner.

"So cute!" Momo squealed, apparently unfazed that this was a product of an arrancar, as the baby opened it's mouth and closed it again, then re-opened it, squeezing it's eyes shut and relaxing every few seconds. The lieutenant was jumping up and down, her excitement evident in her gleaming brown eyes.

"Careful!" Shuuhei exclaimed, panicking slightly.

"I am!" Hinamori answered in a huffy manner. Hitsugaya smiled, recalling a memory where Momo was much younger and taking care of the abandoned kids around their old neighbourhood. Hisagi stuck out one shy finger and traced it over the child's revealing arm, flushing at the comforting way it gestured.

"It's just a kid," Renji scratched his head but silenced after Momo gave him a darkened look.

Kuchiki ignored their bantering and met with Unohana at a corner of the room. The people who had helped the fourth division captain stood idly by, shy and a bit scared at the prescience of two captains and three lieutenants. They made no move to do anything and simply trust Unohana in her explanation.

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Inoue squinted her eyes and reached with her hand out towards her lover's abdomn. Grimmjow, whom she thought may have been dozing off, suddenly reawakened and caught her skinny arm in a death grip. Turning from his side, he glared down at her. She blinked and blushed, having been caught. The two had laid on the bed after their love-making, still partially nude. Orihime and pulled her night gown back on but did not make an effort to fix it up when it rode over her thighs. Grimmjow had slid on his pants without his belt, and his hair was all over the place. When Orihime had pointed this out and laughed, he has snapped at her but did nothing more.

And now Inoue had thought of this, being so happy and warm with Grimmjow's body next to her, as a great opportunity to feed her now curious mind about something.

"What are you doing, chick?" Grimmjow asked, dubiously.

"Eh…" Inoue made an 'o' shape with her mouth then pressed her lips together again. "I've just always wondered about…erm…"

"My hole?"

She nodded and her eyes lay on the Espada's stomach again, where said gaping hole allowed her to see past his body to the white sheets below.

"Don't touch it," he scowled.

Not taking his harsh words, Orihime pouted and let her other hand fall, quickly, into the space. Grimmjow cursed at her colourfully.

"Does it hurt or something?" Inoue asked, raising an eyebrow in humour.

"I just don't like anyone touching it," Grimmjow's other hand grabbed the woman's wrist and he began to try to pry her hand out. "What the hell bitch!"

"Does it feel good?" Orihime continued to ask, her eyes still on the hole, even though both her hands were held in a tight grip and out in front of her. She took this next opportunity and lunged at Grimmjow, wrapping her arms around his chest with a child-like giggle. The sixth narrowed his eyes meanly at her, and did nothing, even putting a hand across her back to hold her there.

"It just feels strange," he answered honestly.

"See! Now that wasn't so hard to answer!"

"Cunt."

"Let it go," she giggled again and cuddled herself closer to his body. She knew he wasn't a very cuddle-after-sex kind of guy, but she certainly was that type of female lover and imposed the rule of hugging just at that moment. Before, back in Las Noches, she had been more then usually afraid to tell Grimmjow anything. She really wondered now about how she could have ever fallen for the rough and cruel Espada. Something must have happened and she didn't remember it, but it didn't matter.

A soft knock alerted the couple. Orihime spun away, unwrapping herself from Grimmjow's embrace, much to the dislike of the arrancar who was enjoying his woman's warmth, and both looked at the door. Inoue pushed herself off the bed, fixed her dress and strutted to the door. Grimmjow pulled the white covers over his lower body but made no move to retrieve his jacket. When the woman pushed the door open, she was silent. Grimmjow couldn't quite see from where he was sitting, so he shifted and managed to spot who was at the door.

"Miss Orihime!" the weak, straggly kid from before exclaimed. He wasn't smiling though and Grimmjow took himself off the bed, following Orihime's actions.

"Oh hello," she smiled kindly, remembering him obviously. "Is it Hanataro-san?"

The male nodded quickly. "Please, you must get out of here" he said in a bit of a lower voice. She now gave him a confused look, and her smile dropped. The Espada loomed behind her, staring down at the shinigami male who looked flustered at the sight of the shirtless arrancar.

"Get out?" Grimmjow questioned, jeering slightly. In any other case, he would laugh and make fun of such a weak-looking boy. But not this time and Grimmjow hoped that he wasn't getting soft on himself.

"Hurry! I don't think the Captain can stall for long!" the boy jittered on, using hand gestures now.

"Why? What's going on?" Inoue now sounded a bit frantic.

"Others have come! You must leave! I will get you out of here!"

Grimmjow did nothing, looking down at the top of Inoue's head, where strands of auburn hair stuck out messily. She was very still and her lips were stuck together for an instant, her eyes a bit blank.

"And what about my child?"

Hanataro's breath hitched and he gave her an unpredictable look, eyes much more animated then hers at that moment. Grimmjow's large hand lay on the small of her back but she didn't move, eyelids now crunching up.

"I'm not leaving without my baby."

The shinigami could say nothing, and the arrancar had nothing to add. If his woman wasn't leaving, he sure as hell wasn't either. Yamada knew he was in a bit of a slump and searched his mind for something to fix this. The smile he tried was awkward.

"I-I'll try my best…b-but first we need to find you a safe place to hid," he gulped and shifted in his uniform. "I'm sorry. This is for the best."

There was one heartbeat of silence where the two lovers looked at each other and came to the same conclusion. Grimmjow turned and grabbed his jacket off the floor and Orihime grabbed the only thing she'd brought: her hairclips, which Unohana had taken off her hair when they were delivering the baby. She slid them onto her bangs and nodded ditheringly at the scrawny shinigami. In the next minute, the room was empty, Grimmjow slamming the door behind.

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"I know this may be much, but I was wondering if you two have any practice in masking your energy levels in any way?" Hanataro had asked this the minute they had entered the hallway. Orihime shook her head. She'd never had, had a reason to. But Grimmjow tapped his chin and thought.

"Well, I sort'a have something that does that for us. Though strictly speaking I don't know if the thing will work all to well…"

"What thing?" Inoue asked.

"It's called an ocultado. One of Aizen's new toys. A bit of it's energy remains with someone who uses it. But I don't know if it's enough to hide our reisitsu."

"If it's enough to mask just Inoue's and your's that's fine," Hanataro interrupted, not looking directly at the Espada. "I-I can do it for myself only."

Grimmjow grabbed Inoue's shoulder then, and she let him grip her as hard as he needed to let a small prick of warmth enter her body before letting go. With the transfer done, a slight feeling of being pushed downwards running through her veins, Inoue gave one short look down the hallway, her eyes dazed and worried.

"They couldn't be following us so soon, Miss Inoue" Hanataro noted, when he noticed the female looking back. The two men had already started moving, and Orihime had to snap out of her revenue to follow their brisk walk.

"Oh yes but…that wasn't what I was looking for…" In actuality, Orihime wondered where Rangiku was. The shinigami woman would probably be in dire trouble if Soul Society found out she had something to do with the dilemma about the arrancar. Orihime was going to ask but it just didn't seem right at that time. Grimmjow placed a hand on her shoulder and this made the female go faster, with more anticipation.

It was a smooth escape. There was no one in the glistening, hollow hallway and the only sound came from the breathing of the shinigami and Inoue. Grimmjow didn't seem like he was getting tired at all, and that only seemed right as he must have gone through faster speeds then the way the other two were going. Also, he was taller with longer legs, and made great distances easy. The trio made there way out of the building and into the garden yard. Everywhere, flowers bloomed and shimmered, their petals wet from a watering not too long ago. Orihime gasped at the colours and Grimmjow was blinded, feeling annoyed by their sweet scent. The shinigami walked past and ran towards the fence.

"It won't be easy from here on…" he whispered to the other two, which wasn't needed as no one was around at all. "I don't know how we will get past any more shinigamis."

"That's easy," Grimmjow shrugged, and placed his hands on his hips. "I'll just rip them apart."

The male shinigami paled but Orihime merely nudge her lover, shaking her head. "We run if they try to attack us." Grimmjow looked at her as if she were crazy but she held his gaze. "It will be less messy."

Grimmjow had to agree, though grumbling under his breath. The three took their time to quietly get over the fence (Grimmjow jumped nosily, sparking a frustrated look from his lover) and muddled along the pathway, covered in blown dirt.

"Where are we headed to anyways?" Grimmjow chose to inquire half-way across a field of healthy green grass and weeds.

"Do you remember, Miss Inoue, the senkaimon?" Hanataro answered though not to the arrancar whom he was too nervous to refer to. looking ahead so as not to trip on the few roots that extended from aging trees.

"Oh, wasn't that the gate that we went into after rescuing Rukia?" Orihime questioned.

Grimmjow raised an eyebrow at being ignored but chose, for the sake of his position, to stay silent. Hanataro nodded at Orihime's reply.

"You'll be going through that."

"So we're heading to the Human World?" Orihime worried over this. Her friends would be able to sense her reisitsu in a heartbeat, and if they didn't get suspicious over that, they would once they sensed Grimmjow.

"You'll have to." Hanataro came to a stop near a platform and ushered the two behind a thick blue wall. A couple of low class shinigami with items like looked like blank pitchforks in their hands walk by closely near them. Orihime squeezed her eyes shut, hoping whatever Grimmjow had done masker her energy properly.

"Don't stress, or it won't work," Grimmjow whispered harshly in her ear. She tried relaxing her muscles after that. When the two shinigami passed, slowing down a little at one point out of curiosity but picking up speed after a second, the three tiptoed around the area and came to another, much high platform. A ring of dark yellow arches encircled the area and Inoue had nostalgic feelings rush towards her. Memories of first arriving to Soul Society, with her friends, and then training with Rukia for the war. Which only sprung up more memories of being kidnapped, living in Hueco Mundo and, of course, finally meeting Grimmjow.

In one fleet, Inoue finally wondered about the things that had led up to this moment. What if she hadn't let Grimmjow take her, have her for himself. What if she hadn't fallen for him. What if she hadn't had the baby. In her short time, though, she had unconsciously chosen not to care about the 'what if's anymore. She was here and this was happening. She was going to leave behind her friends, family, her entire life, for one man, one creature, and her child. If anyone were to have told her she would end up her one the first day she came to Las Noches, she would have laughed in complete disbelief.

Making sure that no others were approaching the platform, Hanataro stepped to face the largest arc, the space under strangely unoccupied, and slid out his skinny sword. Grimmjow watched with curiosity while Orihime took the whole regular routine with patience.

"Damn, wish we had something like that in Hueco Mundo…" Grimmjow trailed over as Hanataro turned his sword like it was a key and suddenly the whole awkward space lit up brightly. He stepped away quickly and turned to the two.

"Please hurry! I can only keep it for a little while and this will surely attract attention!"

Grimmjow huffed, still wanting a little bit more action (where was the fun in escaping if you didn't fight off someone trying to stop you?). But Orihime rushed up to Hanataro and gave him a curt hug.

"Thank you! And please come and find us when you can!" she exclaimed before going into the senkaimon. Hanataro had stood stiffly in her grasp, blushing a little, and Grimmjow had fruitlessly shaken his head, chasing after the woman with a little more ease.

"Also, kid, when you do come to find us, I got some interesting information about what Aizen has cooked up for you all," he murmured with a glint in his eyes. Hanataro took this comment to heart, duly noting it in his mind. After all, he was still a shinigami, though a shaky one.

The boy stood stoic for a moment, idly watching the arrancar disappear into the light, before snapping out of his train of thought, hearing hard footsteps and scowls along the bottom of the platform. In a clumsy effort, he sealed the gate and erased the tracking signal in it just as one of the shinigamis that had passed the trio beforehand came running up, grabbing the boy by the shoulders and spinning him around.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Hanataro's small smile, something he hadn't even realized he was wearing, dropped suddenly and he mumbled under his breath in anxiety, thinking over an excuse.

He crash landed on: "I-I came to inspect why the gate was open!"

The guard clearly didn't believe him. But noting his low ranking by the badge on his arm, and probably also based the fact that he was apart of the Fourth Division, home to a captain just as scary as Kenpachi, the guard let the scared boy go with a huff.

On the other side of the gate, Grimmjow and Orihime made there way through the dangai, both silent, both thinking hard, wondering what they will have to do for their child, for each other, as they stepped into the Real World.

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Another year would pass before a second war was waged between Aizen's army of new, more zombie-like arrancars, his former, living Espadas having been sacrificed unknowingly, and Soul Society, who still reeled from the losses of the first war. The battle would come to a closing very quickly this time. Aizen, however, put up more of a fight. Kurosaki Ichigo would drum up his strength, a power he never knew existed inside of him, to defeat the overlord and finally bring an end to Aizen's treachery, Soul Society finally locking the crazy man up for a very long time.

It would be a few more years later when such an incident brushed past a 16-year-old girl who crept around a worn out porch with an angry scowl plastered on her peachy face.

"Get the hell of the steps!" the teenager scoffed, sliding loose strands of deep auburn hair that had gotten out of her bun behind her ear with annoyance. She held her pale broom threateningly upwards, her dark sea blue eyes glaring daggers at the little boys that bickered amongst themselves, lying lazily on the wooden porch steps leading up to the Urahara Shop. They looked at her with smiling, mocking faces and stuck their tongues out before racing away, her broom coming down on the steps where they had been just a second ago with a sudden thud.

Urahara Kisuke himself sat quietly with a sly smile of his own, fanning himself with his hat despite the fan sitting at his side as another heat wave set in.

"Don't get too violent there, Kotori-chan! You'll scare away my customers!"

The woman blinked at the man, looked to her right slowly, than to her left even slower and then back to him, snarling. "What customers?"

Jinta, who'd been by the side of the shop, practicing his swings with a worn-out wooden baseball bat, snickered silently to himself. Ururu, perched on the very top of the porch steps, gave no sudden reaction, braiding a set of bending branches into a crown.

"Besides, you hired me to scare off these brats. That's what I'm doing, right?" she huffed, brushing some plaits of dirt of the porch in a flurry.

"Right, right, but you don't need to scare them out of their wits!" Kisuke continued.

Tessai emerged from the front door, carrying a few popsicles which he handed to Urahara, Ururu, Kotori and Jinta. The teenager accepted her treat with a quiet thank you and ravished it, completely tired and piercingly hot from the labour she found herself in.

"Good morning," Rukia Kuchiki piped in, strutting over from pretty much out of no where, grinning broadly at the company.

"Oh Rukia-chan! Brought me something interesting today?" Kisuke chirped, getting up from his comfortable position. Kotori on the other hand simply eyed the short woman from where she stood with the usual curiosity. It wasn't every day a shinigami came to visit, even Rukia who fell to the Earth more times than was probably allowed.

Kisuke came to step beside the shorter woman who dug into her pocket and produced a spherical item that glowed a pale purple in the light of the ever-enduring sun.

"Don't know what it is. We can't exactly figure it out."

The shopkeeper picked it up, gave it a once-over and slid it into his breast pocket.

"I'll take a look at it! I certainly hope you've all figured out the rest of Aizen's little contraptions…" Kotori could see the blonde man eye her and she took the notice, getting back to work sweeping the porch as loudly as possible so as not to hear what the two at the bottom were saying. It was always like this, though she never minded. She was never much into the going-on of Soul Society's world. The secrecy annoyed her just a bit but she was never mad enough to ask.

The most that she knew about was that her mother was once an ally to the shinigamis and her father, a hated enemy. An arrancar, Kisuke was quick to explain. Her heritage was really the only thing he talked to her about. Kotori herself hadn't seen her parents much. They tended to come and go, usually when she was asleep or away from the shop, leaving little messages or even gifts, especially on every birthday she'd had. Urahara told her they were in another dimension, away from the Human World, Soul Society or even Hueco Mundo. That it wasn't time yet for them to come stay with her. But this was a point in her life where Kotori didn't feel a need to go after them anyways. She felt like they were always with her anyways, beside her, taking care of her at every sharp turn of her life. She didn't need to physically see or touch them to know they exist, and she was, above all else, proud of them and proud of who she was.

There was just one other things though. Kotori peeked through her work at Rukia again, who stared intently at Urahara, nodding a few times as he spoke. That woman, and another shinigami, were once her mother's dearest friends. They probably still are friends, though, just like Kotori, they rely on that special bond they have to validate their friendship. But that friendship didn't evidently validate them knowing that Kotori was Inoue Orihime's daughter. That went for the rest of her friends, too: Ichigo Kurosaki, Ishida Uryuu, Sado Yatsudo and Tatsuki Arisawa, as well as her other school mates from what now felt like a long time ago.

The only ones who knew the truth where Kisuke, another beautiful shinigami named Rangiku Matsumoto, two shinigami captain named Toshiro Hitsugaya and Unohana Retsu, a lieutenant named Isane Kotetsu and a shaky shinigami named Hanataro Yamada. How they had managed to hid her from the rest, she wasn't sure. Rangiku was the only one out of them all that dared to leave Soul Society to see her, though her visits were rationally few and far in between. Kotori saw the woman as a mother figure even so.

However for Inoue's closer friends, it was kind of awkward to know them, see them, be friendly, but having them not know the truth about her. They were bound to run into each other a lot, considering she roomed in Kisuke's shop and was somehow tied into Soul Society. And then there was that friendship bond again, now stringed to Kotori, where they couldn't help but treat her like their own daughter or little sister because of her mother's will in her. Even Ishida, who'd moved to Paris a few months back, took time off his schedule to come see her on her birthday. Ichigo Kurosaki especially was like a father figure and, much to her amusement, when she told Urahara this, he'd been quick to note that Kotori's real father as a lot like Ichigo in their stubbornness and thick-headedness. Tatsuki was her closest female friend, a sister where Rangiku was a mother, and a boxing champion now with lots of endorsement but plenty of time to spend chatting and shopping.

It was hard, really, for Kotori to contain herself. She really truly wanted to tell the close-knitted group, who still to that very day ask about Orihime's presence, that she was her mother's child. But thinking on it, she believed it would make little difference. She knew as much about her mother's whereabouts as them and besides, they loved her either way and she loved them.

"Hey working girl!" Rukia blustered in, snapping Kotori out of her train of thought. She looked down to see the shinigami smirking up at her, a lollipop in her hand. The young woman smiled and took the treat.

"Thanks, Kuchiki-san!"

Rukia paused then, her large eyes staring intently at the teenager, before smiling warmly. Kotori remembered then that, that had been what Inoue used to call her. "Working hard?"

"It's the labour I have to go through to even be living here," she shrugged. Rukia, like many others, still wondered what the teenager's connection to their world was. But she wasn't one to pry, thank goodness, and pressed her lips in silence.

"In any case, I'll let you get back to work!" Rukia stepped back and shrugged. "Oh, and I heard there's a festival coming up? Renji wants to see it so we'll be coming around when it arrives. Come with?"

"'Course!"

After one curt nod, Rukia fluttered away, disappearing to her world once more.

Kotori shot a look at Urahara who looked back with that familiar expression that said nothing and everything at the same time. Every day, Kotori knew, every day she would somehow be subjected to her mother's past, her father's past and the future she wasn't exactly ready for. One day, maybe the Soul Society would realize the truth about her somehow. One day, maybe her parents will come for her and she'll go with them to wherever they are. One day, maybe she'll finally dive headlong into the troubles that still spike up here and there in the Real World and the shinigamis' world.

One day, but not now.

In some far off land, detached from all existences, sat two people, a good distance away from each other but locked by their intertwining fingers. One hand big, thick and rough, the other short, delicate and soft. They both gazed out into a clear white sky, or what appeared to be sky-like, seeing nothing.

"So I heard from Kisuke that Kotori-chan's got a piano recital in the next week or so…" Orihime Inoue commented with a little laugh.

Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez scoffed in exaggerated annoyance. "Piano is seriously for wusses."

"You should have ushered her to tai-kwon-do or fencing or something, then" she titled her head, light auburn hair brushing his shoulder. "It worked for me."

"Whatever, woman, I'm letting her do what she wants, unlike some favouring mother…" he stated with a wrinkle of his eyebrows and a tight grip on her hand.

"I've always wanted to know how to play the piano!" she exclaimed with a pout. "It's only natural a mother would want her child to achieve all that she didn't."

While it came out with a childish tone, that last line spoke reverting volumes between the two.

Grimmjow let go of his woman's hand in favour of encircling his arm around her thin shoulders. She leaned right into the man she loved with a relieved sigh.

I was 17, and completely responsible for the best mistake of my life.

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THE END

Er…yeah, cheesy ending…but I didn't know how to really end it…Anyways, once again, thank you to all my reviewers and readers! It was a pleasure writing for all of you, and I hope my writing technique gets better and my storylines more rigid. Also for those confused why their child turned out to be a woman that looked nothing like the boy in Inoue's earlier dream…failed plot twist attempt? I don't really have much of an answer other than I changed my mind! And if you're wondering why the girl's name is Kotori, the name means 'bird of luck' which I felt fit her character, considering she was expected to be dead and wasn't.

Anyways, don't know why this was so late, really I actually don't…lack of inspiration? But either way I needed to end this story for you all, and for me, too, so hope this was a (somewhat?) satisfying end!

Any questions, feel free to ask!