Ichigo, on the other hand, was not so quick to recover. He was curled up, still with his head resting against Shiro's stomach, with a hand clenched around the link that fused the soul chain into his chest. Trembling. Nauseated. With a cold sweat broken out between his shoulderblades.

His eyes hadn't altered back to human brown, either. They were still just as black as Shiro's, for all that they were squinted at a world that Ichigo wasn't seeing right now. He'd almost forgotten how...how angry he felt like this. Like something had ignited inside him, and the slow burn was searing his insides, but somehow he wasn't burning alive, yet.

Blinking once. Twice. The black and gold eyes stay, but glance up at Shiro all the same. Something dark, and predatory sat in those eyes. As pure a mirror image as they had ever been.