Archive of Our Own ^beta

Shinji thinks they’ve managed to do well keeping the eyeball monsters away from the lab with their combined abilities. Momo is giving him a smile over her shoulder after a particularly successful use of some Kido. He’s about to return it with his own smile and a thumbs up when he feels it.

A sickening sense of familiarity as reiatsu he knows all too well washes over the area. Shinji knows he’s felt it before Momo, and watches as her expression falls from one of joy into one of barely held back nausea.

He’s at her side in an instant, holding her to him and pressing her face into his robes. Her hands come up to weakly grasp the back of his haori and he can hear her whimper. She had come so far in the past couple years, they both had really, but this is one of the last things they need in the middle of a war.

“No…” Momo whispers. “Why here? Why now?”

Shinji is glaring over his shoulder at the lab, as if his gaze could burn a hole through it and into Aizen. Wishful thinking, huh? He caresses a hand over Momo’s hair and murmurs back, “I don’t know.” He’s not one to mince words and even if he can guess at the twisted logic of whoever’s idea this was, he knows that isn’t what Momo needs to hear right now.

He feels her hands shake more as she grips him tighter and sniffles. He rubs his hand up and down her back, trying to comfort her the same way he does after nightmares. If only that’s all this was.

He shushes her gently. “I’ve got you, Momo. Everything will be alright. Please don’t cry.” He holds her firmly, definitely verging on too tight. Whoever did this would be answering to him as soon as everything was resolved.

This had to have been Kyoraku. Shinji can't think of any other person with the authority and the balls to do something like this. He'd better know what he was getting into, because it needs to be worth getting ripped a new one by Shinji.