I don't own Bleach. I'm sure you're shocked.

AN: This is the first fanfic I've published, so any constructive criticism is always helpful. Thanks again to my friend and editor Ryaku for all of her help.

And without further ado, please enjoy my first chapter of What Turns Up in the Dark

The white-coated body slams into the wall, sending spiderweb cracks out from the point of impact. A cloud of dust rises as the figure falls to the dirt.
Broken glasses askew, the Quincy tilts his head up from the sand, blood trickling from his mouth.
"Good...shot...Kurosaki."

He wakes up (When did he pass out? It must have been- ) on one of the cots in the lab. He tries to sit up, realizing, that, as usual, Orihime had healed his wounds. Tilting his head, he sees her standing, golden shield in front of her, two low level arrancar hovering behind her. She must be healing Uryu, he can see her brow furrowed in concentration, but otherwise she looks as well as she usually does.
He glances down to see the white clad Quincy. His face and torso are still covered in blood, and he's lying completely still, limbs slightly akimbo.
Very still.
"Uryu?" He glances up at Orihime for signs of concern, but her eyes are closed. "Hey, Uryu!"
The dark haired boy tilts his head and opens his eyes a fraction. "Quit shouting, Kurosaki. You'll reopen your wounds."
Quickly slipping back into normalcy, he shoots back immediately. "Wounds? You mean these little scratches you managed to get me with?"
"Hah," Uryu snorts, and turns his head back, closing his eyes.

Black blade.
Red blood. White cloth.
"Did I do that?"
No - no - I couldn't have - I can't have -
Dust.
Water. So much. And the shark -
- No - I can't let him die.
But its his arm that stabs him, the black blade, over and over -
- He cuts off the scream with his fist as he jolts upright.
He pushes himself up against the wall, catching his breath, slowing it down, gradually unclenching his hands, finding no black blade in them.
Ichigo closes his eyes, feeling sweat drip down his nose. Opening them, he finds his gaze resting on Uryu, sleeping on the other side of the cell. His cape has been primly folded into a rectangular pillow, his shoes, glasses tucked safely inside, in a neat pair by his feet, hands clasped across his chest. He's done this, a little ritual, every night, and Ichigo finds himself smiling for a moment, before hastily turning away.
He stares at the wall instead, not wanting to fall into sleep. The wall is gritty and dirty, like the bars that form the door, and in the silence he can almost hear them slamming for the first time.
"Uryu?"
"Yes, Kurosaki?"
"Why are we still alive?"
Uryu's face turned away from him, adjusting his glasses. "Well, there are several possible reasons..."
He almost grins. ("I fell down the stairs.")
Ishida's a terrible liar.
The image, in his head again.
Black blade through Uryu through through straight through -
The perfect soldier. The perfect weapon.
That's why they're still alive.
Always on the edge - always there. Whenever he gets too desperate, too close to dead -
He turns again, almost reflex, to look at Uryu, breathing evenly, face relaxed.
Oxygen returns to his lungs.
Eventually, he gets back to sleep.

Uryu is jarred awake by the sound of Ichigo tossing back and forth.
He doesn't move, doesn't open his eyes, just listens to Ichigo's thrashing. His arms tense, uncertain, wary of going to wake him, crossing the invisible line in the middle of the room.
A gasp, almost a whimper, Uryu shifts, resolved -
A jolt of sudden motion, and then all noise is cut off. He freezes, opening his eyes a fraction to see Ichigo's silhouette, sitting upright against the wall. His hands reach up, covering his eyes, and Uryu steels himself to stay lying down.
Ichigo's breathing steadies itself, and Uryu's stomach unclenches, he closes his eyes.
He takes moment of indulgence, trying to imagine he is back home, tries to construct the walls of his room, every crack -
- splashing water on his face, How do I know this isn't an illusion-? nightmares of Kyoka Suigetsu, perfect hypnosis, memorizing every crack, every bump in the paint - this has to be real, it has to, has to -
He shakes his head, frustrated at the obvious question rising again from that memory.
Why let us see each other?
Wouldn't Ichigo fight harder, when they put both of them into the arena, fight more desperately if he thought he was fighting an enemy? Thought he was fighting to save someone, perhaps? (Orihime, of course. Always Orihime.)
Maybe, he puzzles out, mind turning in the same ruts, Kyoka Suigetsu can't work at long distances, separated between worlds. Maybe it can't create multiple illusions at once, Aizen is too occupied with the war. Maybe Aizen was too busy to ever come back to Hueco Mundo and show them the release.
Maybe he thought it must be itching for another chance to kill you.
He shoves the thought down, buries it deep, letting his eyes open again, make out Ichigo's nodding head in sleep.
He smiles faintly, and lets out a breath.

Kurosaki is the one that starts it, much to his annoyance.
"C'mon Ishida, what's the problem? Your glasses broken?" he shouts as he speeds away from another barrage of arrows.
Uryu reaches up, adjusts his glasses."Says the one who was just brought to his knees by a clown."
Uryu hears the clown-like arrancar make a noise that might have been defensive. It's hard to distinguish expressions, he notes, when the speakers head is in the dirt. Ichigo smirks slightly, and Uryu finds himself mirroring the expression.
"So what does that make you, then?" Kurosaki yells after him as Uryu leaps out of reach of another Getsuga Tensho. "One of the clown's troupe?"
Ishida flies behind the shinigami, pulling out Selle Schneider. Kurosaki swings around and blocks the attack with his blade.
Uryu grins, feeling spiritual energy pulled off of Zangetsu There is a hint of a snarl on the shinigami's face as he twists Zangetsu to throw the blade aside, but it shifts suddenly, forceably to a grin as Ishida skids away."It all makes sense now. You left home to join the circus." He turns around to parry an Arrancar that has risen from the dust for a last charge, and sends it flying. "What are you, then, a trapezee artist?"
"You certainly aren't," He braces himself, launches another barrage of arrows. Kurosaki dodges, only to trip backwards over another defeated opponent. "You have all the coordination of a dancing bear. Who taught you to fight?"
Ichigo straightens quickly and parries his next volley. Uryu dodges the returning bolts and continues as he speeds away. "Although, you would certainly make a good clown. You have the goofy hair already."
"You wanna talk about goofy?" The shinigami yells as he launches himself back into the fight. "What about that cape of yours? What are you going to do, fly around with it like some cartoon hero?"
"Oh, as if you can talk about uniforms. The shihakusho has enough fabric to make your own circus tent." The Quincy smirks as he twists the shinigami's blade away with his bow.
"As long as you don't try to sew it into a dress, like you did for Kon." Kurosaki retorts, launching a Getsuga Tensho through Uryu's bow.
The blast hits him, throwing him backwards into the wall, clawing at his insides. He lands, gasping, his bow fading away.
He sees Ichigo's feet through half open eyes, feels the thump as he sits down beside him.
"You still with it?"
Uryu looks up. "Of course," He says, biting back a hiss of pain at the wound in his side. "that shot was weak, even for you."
Ichigo huffs, half heartedly, looking around at the cratered ceiling. "Well," he states finally. "That was fun."
"Hah," Uryu snorts, but he can't argue. The barren room could almost have been Urahara's underground lair, if you threw in a few dead trees, and this just a training match, nothing to it.
The arrival of the retrieving arrancar, spiritual binders in hand, shatters the illusion, but Ichigo ignores them, standing up and proffering a hand.
There is a split second of indecision, but he reaches up and takes Ichigo's hand, hauling himself to his feet, grinding his teeth together to keep a straight face.
"C'mon," Ichigo says, grabbing his shoulder to steady him, looking around at the arrancar. "Let's go see Orihime."

Uryu darts to the left as one of the arrancar charges Ichigo, skidding through the sand. He watches, bow frozen, as their blades lock for a moment, then Ichigo flings the creature aside with a Getsuga. He sees Ichigo's face, in a lopsided grin, as the shinigami spins around to face him. Uryu raises his bow before glimpsing second Arrancar leaping out of the dust behind Ichigo. Uryu yells a warning without thinking, only to see Ichigo stumble, eyes wide.
He bites his lip, then lifts his bow higher to shoot the arrancar, hurling the creature to the ground. An arrow launched, hollows dissolving, back to back with Ichigo - As the shinigami turns on the rising arrancar, he feels his face twitch into something like a smile.
He clings to this semblance of happiness as he is carried through the halls to the lab, Ichigo shuffling beside him on a wounded leg. When Orihime enters, the smile slips away from the tear tracks on her swollen, bruised face. She is limping nearly as badly as Ichigo, but still offers up a uneven smile when she walks over to heal them.
His stomach twists. He glances over at Ichigo, whose face is tight, and whose returning smile to Orihime looks more like a grimace. Ichigo looks back at him, and jerks his head in something that might have been a nod.
Neither of them will hold back again.

Pain -
- Black blade
That has to be Ichigo (He has to be alive)
That can't be Ichigo (He can't have -
alive alive he's alive -
- no - don't -
Shark.
"You cannot fight me. Surrender, or the Quincy will die first."
- my bow - I can't -
Drowning.
crushed by an ocean -
"Whatever,"
Collapse.
"Kill him. It's not like I care."
(This is wrong)
"I didn't even want him here. I'm just here to win."
(This isn't what happened)
"Why don't I do it for you?"
(He wouldn't -
Cold blade - blood -
"Uryu."
Ichigo's face swallowed by a smirk, black pits of eyes meeting his own -
"Uryu!"
He shoves outward, arms colliding with Ichigo as he gasps for air.
As he regains himself, he feels Ichigo's fingers relax from his arm before he can think about the impulse to pull away.
"You alright?"
"Yes, of course." He reaches up to adjust his glasses before realizing that he took them off. Coughing, he flicks hair out of his eyes to cover. "You didn't need to get up."
"Eh, I was still awake. You're too noisy to sleep."
"Well, that does explain why I was able to get to sleep, you weren't snoring."
"Heh. Better than you pacing."
It is dark. They sit in silence, he can't see Ichigo's face clearly.
"Uryu?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you think is going on? With the others, you know?"

"Uryu?"
"I'm thinking, Kurosaki. Regardless of how foreign a concept that may be to you..."
"Alright, I get it."
"...Well... let's see." A sigh. "Sado, Renji, and Kuchiki-san are probably all fighting their way across the Menos forest to get here, unless the shinigami dragged them back to fight Aizen, in which case they probably had to wall them in with Hollows to keep them from leaving." A faint chuckle. "Let's see - well, you left Kon in control of your body and school's back in session, which means that he's probably groped half the female population." A groan. "I imagine there'll be a few lawsuits waiting for you when you get back. It's a pity your father is a doctor and not a lawyer."
"Hah. Between that and Tatsuki already being pissed at me, I'm screwed when I get home. Maybe I should just camp out at your place."
"Pfft. Arisawa-san will forgive you when you bring back Inoue-san. Besides, there's no way I'd let you demolish my apartment. Bad enough I have to share living space with you here."
"So it bothers you to share living space, eh...?"
"What? Hey! Kurosaki, get your feet off me!"
"Make me."
"Kurosaki! Hey! My glasses are in there, you dolt!"

...
"Uryu?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
He sleeps soundly.