For wing prompt- symbiotic wings! Perhaps something from Benihime, or maybe something more like the Venom symbiote.

alpharaposa

Kisuke claws his way back to consciousness, fighting through the nausea and pain to force his eyes open. He can’t— he can’t stay unconscious. He needs to help, needs to fight, this is his first real test as a Captain and he can’t just— he can’t just be knocked out for it!

He shoves himself to his feet. Sways dangerously because— because his balance is off. There’s something wrong with him, something more than just the pain, just the nausea, but he shoves it all aside. He can worry about it later. Can figure out what’s wrong when he has time but right now he doesn’t— he doesn’t have time, he doesn’t remember what happened, needs to assess the situation, needs to plan—

The area is ruined, covered in chunks of broken buildings and smoking rubble, and blood is everywhere. He spots a few members of the strike team scattered about like discarded toys, none of them moving and he— he swallows at the sight. Tries to remember—

(The scene had been chaos from the start, dominated by a hulking metal thing and the thousands of Hollows it had attracted.)

(He’d been deployed with Ukitake-taicho and Kyoraku-taicho, the three of them leading a mixed team to try and suppress the event, but… but what had happened?!)

Kisuke coughs, choking on the dust-laden air, and staggers as something shifts on his back and destroys his balance. His right leg buckles. Sends him tumbling back to the broken ground—

Something reaches through him and forces his arms to move. Catches him before his disoriented mind can do so. Adjusts the things attached to his back so they’re not dragging awkwardly at his balance anymore.

::Sorry about that,:: a soft, apologetic voice — a voice that isn’t Benihime’s — says in his head as the control fades away. ::Didn’t mean to leave you to handle it all alone.::

Terror spikes through Kisuke’s mind and he frantically reaches for Benihime’s blade at his side. Wraps a hand around her hilt. Sends a pulse of question-concern-pleading at the space she usually occupies in his soul and—

Fury-frustration-indignation answers his pulse, the unmistakable sense of Benihime rising from the depths of his soul and clawing at the strange presence in his mind.

::Ow, hey! I said I’m sorry already!:: the unknown voice complains as it bats at Benihime’s presence. ::We already talked about this while he was unconscious!::

(*That was before you terrified him!*) Benihime hisses back, her voice clearer than ever before.

Kisuke winces as pain spikes through his head, then reaches up to press the heels of his hands into his eyes. It doesn’t really help, but at least the sensation temporarily distracts him from the migraine threatening to take hold. “Can you two fight it out later?” he can’t help but whine, then winces at the sound of his own voice. “And who even are you, stranger-san, and why are you in my head?”

Benihime sighs and grudgingly backs off. (*Fine, he can stay for now,*) she grumbles, then hisses at the stranger, (*But if you even think about harming my Kisuke, I will rip your awareness to shreds and make sure you can never reform!*)

::I understand,:: the stranger says gravely. ::I am Erich, a Quincy. We’re a symbiotic people who need a host to remain alive. I’m afraid that between the crash and the unexpected… things—::

(*Hollows,*) Benihime supplies a touch grimly. (*I don’t know what you Quincies are made of, but you were certainly bait. We’ve never seen so many of them in one place before.*)

Erich flinches at Benihime’s words, the sensation translating to the things on Kisuke’s back twitching and pressing close. ::I don’t know what about us was so interesting either,:: he whispers sadly, then takes a moment to gather himself and continues, ::As I was saying, between… between the crash and the Hollows, we were all left vulnerable and unmoored. When your group arrived, we had initially planned to wait in hiding before revealing ourselves but…::

“We were overwhelmed,” Kisuke finishes for him, certain of his words even if he can’t quite remember the events themselves. It’s really the only thing that makes sense. “So you… what, leapt to us? What happened after?”

::We didn’t expect to be able to bond, really,:: Erich says almost apologetically. ::We’ve never seen your kind before, so we had no idea if it was even possible, but we weren’t about to just… let you die when we were the cause of the danger. Your Benihime was most helpful as soon as she understood I meant to help you live, and together we managed to drive the Hollows off.::

(*At the cost of driving all of us to exhaustion,*) Benihime rumbles in annoyance, though Kisuke can tell it isn’t really aimed at Erich.

::Bonding is not usually followed by heavy combat for a reason,:: Erich says dryly.

Kisuke snorts at the comment, then winces as it makes his headache spike worse. “Right. Okay. So you’re… in me, or something.” And doesn’t that sound like a thousand nightmare scenarios shoved into one? Fuck, he’s never going to live this down, is he?

(As if he wasn’t already the awkward outlier amongst the Captains, now he has someone — something — else in him?)

::Or something,:: Erich agrees as his presence reaches forward, brushing soft-gentle-cool against Kisuke’s aching head. The pain begins to ebb away, fading with each brush of Erich’s presence, until Kisuke feels the tension in his shoulders finally loosen and the migraine dim to a manageable level. ::I am… integrated into your body, though once I regain my strength I’ll be able to leave if you wish. I’ll need to find someone else to carry me, but I won’t force myself upon you if you find my presence objectionable.::

Kisuke swallows and reaches up to rub at his temple, trying to ignore the confusing tangle of emotions that dig sharp-vicious-greedy into his chest. He doesn’t know how he feels, doesn’t know what he feels, doesn’t even know if he likes the feeling, but the idea of giving Erich up is…

He doesn’t know. It should be a relief to know that he can become just himself again, but at the same time…

“Can we discuss it later?” Kisuke tentatively asks, then bites back a wince at the presumption. Surely Erich would prefer to know immediately—

::Of course we can,:: Erich agrees easily, then nudges Kisuke lightly and asks, ::Ah… can we… check on the others? My mates were with me when we crashed, and I think they found hosts, but…::

“Right, yes, that’s… something I should be doing anyway,” Kisuke admits with another wince. He’s a terrible Captain, a terrible Shinigami, and he’ll never understand why Yoruichi shoved him out of the Onmitsukido and into the Gotei Thirteen proper; at least in the Onmitsukido he knew what was expected of him!

(He’s just going to ignore the ‘mates’ comment for the moment.)

(He doesn’t want to know what that means for him, not in the slightest.)

With a grimace, Kisuke shoves himself back to his feet, body swaying as the things on his back twitch and shift with the movement. He should look, should see what’s there, but he… he can’t. He can’t right now. If he looks he has to deal with it, and he doesn’t think he has enough anything left to deal with… with whatever it is attached to his back.

(Part of him already knows.)

(The rest of him doesn’t want to know.)

::Here, let me,:: Erich murmurs gentle-kind-considerate, and then the things on Kisuke’s back settle into place, letting him finally regain something approximating his normal balance.

“Thanks,” Kisuke forces out as he picks his way across the shattered ground. There’s small craters everywhere, some nearly as deep as he is tall, and where there aren’t craters there are piles of unstable debris. It’s a mess no matter how he looks at it, and he really doesn’t envy the people on cleanup duty. “What the hell happened, anyway?” he murmurs as he clambers over a pile of debris and slides down the other side. “This is worse than anything I’ve ever heard of.”

::Ahh… that’s probably my fault,:: Erich says sheepishly.

(*Bait here took to our reiryoku like a kid to candy,*) Benihime adds with a sniff. (*It’s why we’re so tired right now, because someone used it all up.*)

Erich grumbles wordlessly and sinks a bit further back from Kisuke’s awareness, radiating embarrassment the whole way.

Kisuke blinks at the exchange, lets out a quiet, “Huh,” of disbelief, then shakes his head and focuses back on his task. He wants to find Ukitake-taicho and Kyoraku-taicho, but with the ground so battered and the air still swirling with dust, his only reliable sense is his reiatsu sense. Even then, he can barely feel the signatures of the two Captains, which is concerning on a whole other level.

Of course, if other Quincy chose Ukitake-taicho and Kyoraku-taicho like Erich chose him, and if they reacted the same way Erich did when encountering reiryoku… well, that would explain at least some of it.

Still, they seem to be not too far away, and Kyoraku-taicho’s reiatsu at least feels like the man is awake, so— so maybe everything will be okay. Maybe Kyoraku-taicho will know what to do. He’s old-powerful-cunning, so surely— surely he has an idea…

Kisuke reaches the top of another pile of rubble and glances down, breathing a sigh of relief at seeing Kyoraku-taicho sitting on the ground next to Ukitake-taicho.

(He’s found them.)

(Everything will be okay.)

(Everything will—)

Kisuke freezes as his mind finally catches up with what his eyes are seeing.

Kyoraku-taicho has gigantic, sun-gold wings attached to his back, held awkwardly aloft to prevent the feathers from trailing in the dirt and debris. Ukitake-taicho also has gigantic wings attached to his back, though his are a deep sky blue color and are splayed across the ground like… like the wings of a dead bird.

In fact, Ukitake-taicho still seems to be completely unconscious, which is more concerning than Kisuke can put into words.

Kisuke swallows and hastily slides down to where the two Captains are sitting, relief blooming in his chest as he does.

(At least he’s not alone anymore.)

(Wait, no, that’s… that’s not something he’s supposed to care about.)

(Onmitsukido work alone—)

(He’s not Onmitsukido anymore.)

Kisuke takes a ragged breath and hastily shoves aside the familiar panic trying to scrabble its way into his mind.

(Not now, not now, not now!)

“Urahara-taicho,” Kyoraku-taicho greets him with obvious relief, before giving him a brief once-over. “I see you have a new guest as well,” he adds, mouth twisted into a wry not-smile and gaze fixed on the things attached to Kisuke’s back.

(The wings.)

(Wings attached to his back.)

(He has wings, and oh, he doesn’t want to think about it right now, because if he stops to think he’s going to fall apart and he can’t— he can’t, he can’t, he can’t— he doesn’t have time to fall apart, not now, not yet—)

“Hey, take a breath for me, Urahara-taicho,” Kyoraku’s deep voice orders, slicing through the whirling chaos in Kisuke’s head.

He obeys. Sucks in a breath. Chokes on the dust-laden air. Curls forward to bury his head in his hands and feels his wings shift to cover him and chokes again, this time on the growing empty-helpless-lost feeling digging its way deeper into his chest with every breath he takes.

Movement in front of him makes him jerk his head up, teeth bared and one hand curled into a claw—

“Easy, easy now,” Kyoraku-taicho says as he freezes in place, his hands raised and palms open, sun-gold wings tucked down towards the ground so he’s not quite looming anymore. “Just me. Can I approach you?”

Kisuke nods jerkily, then watches as Kyoraku-taicho slowly inches closer until his knees are almost touching Kisuke’s.

“Here,” Kyoraku-taicho says gently as he offers his hands to Kisuke. “I know I’m not your usual ground, but I don’t mind if you want to try.”

Kisuke takes a shuddering breath and cautiously reaches out to grip Kyoraku-taicho’s right wrist, gaze flickering up to the man’s face every so often, just to check, just to be sure— but the man doesn’t flinch, doesn’t try to pull away, just lets Kisuke pull his arm closer and turn his hand so his wrist is up. Lets Kisuke press trembling fingers to his calm-steady-even pulse. Lets Kisuke feel the ebb-and-flow of his reiatsu, lets him cling, lets him fixate—

Kisuke comes back to himself with a gasp and immediately releases Kyoraku-taicho’s wrist, feeling shame clawing its way up his spine. He hasn’t needed a ground in… in years, and whenever he does he usually turns to Tessai or Yoruichi, not… not one of the oldest Captains in the Gotei Thirteen!

(He would never dare ask it of the man!)

“Better?” Kyoraku-taicho asks as he pulls back enough to give Kisuke space again. When Kisuke nods, Kyoraku-taicho hums a bit and says, “Good. Let me know if you need me to ground you again,” as if the offer isn’t completely absurd.

(The man doesn’t really know Kisuke and he’s offering himself as a ground so easily?)

(If Kisuke wanted, he could— he could—)

(No, he’s not Onmitsukido anymore, don’t think about it!)

It’s only then that Kisuke becomes aware of Erich’s presence again, as the being tears himself free of Benihime’s mental grip and demands, ::Why the hell are you trying to smother me?! I thought we had an agreement!::

(*You were going to make his panic worse,*) Benihime scoffs before turning her focus onto Kisuke. (*I apologize for not being of assistance, I needed to make sure someone didn’t get in the way.*)

“It’s fine,” Kisuke breathes out, his words a bare murmur.

He’s going to need to figure out how to speak with Erich and Benihime in his head if this is going to be his new life, and hopefully well before his already shaky reputation plummets further. Though it’s… it’s nice, actually, to be able to hear Benihime so clearly outside of jinzen, especially with how protective of him she’s being.

(It’s almost enough to make this current catastrophe bearable.)

(Almost.)

Kisuke takes a careful breath. Tucks away as many of his jagged-rough-awkward edges as he can. Tries to force his mind into mission mode, tries to force himself to think, and straightens up.

He has no time for panicking. Not now. Not as one of the three Captains in charge of this catastrophe of a mission.

(He has his duty, and now it’s time to fulfill it.)

(And that’s all that matters.)