"Alright lazy bones, time to get up."

Hiyori squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to get up. It turned out that healing from getting your body sliced ENTIRELY IN HALF was a lot more draining than she thought it would be. Not that she had ever really thought about it.

Shinji came and poked her. "I know you're not really asleep," he said. She should have known that he would be able to tell that she wasn't really sleeping.

She made a face at him. "Do I have to?"

"Gotta get that body moving." He reached out a hand to help her up. "Let's take a walk."

Hiyori took his hand and stood up. The truth was she didn't really need his help to get up. She was strong enough now to do it on her own, but she kind of enjoyed the attention.

The last thing she remembered after being cut down was Shinji cradling her head, looking sadder than she had ever seen. She hadn't really expected that. She thought that surely he would be angry, and he was. Just not at her. Seeing that look in his eyes, feeling the warmth of his body, she decided that there were worse ways to die.

Only she hadn't died. She didn't remember anything from the healing. She found out later that Unohana had fixed her up. No, the first thing she remembered was opening her eyes in the Visored warehouse. Honestly, she was confused at first. Everything was so hazy. The only thing that made sense was Shinji. He was there, asleep on the ground a slight distance away. Somehow she wasn't surprised to see him there. He has always been with her.

Lisa told Hiyori that she had been asleep for several days at that point, and that Shinji had refused to leave her side. Not even Kisuke could convince him to take a break. Shinji wanted to make sure he was there when she woke up. She tried to say his name, but her mouth was so dry that the only thing that has come out was a noise. He immediately popped up and looked at her.

"Hiyori?"

Again, she couldn't quite make a word come out. It didn't seem to matter though. Shinji just sat there, grinning at her like an idiot. Hiyori tried to wet her tongue, until finally she managed to get one word out.

"Baldy."

Shinji just laughed.

This was the start of her recovery process. Even though she had been healed by the best healer around, everything felt a little off. Her muscles didn't seem to want to cooperate fully. So they kept to a slow and steady pace. First sitting up, then sitting up for a sustained period, followed by crawling, then standing, and finally walking. Hiyori was ready to start training to fight again, but Shinji was vehemently against it. Frankly Hiyori didn't have the energy to fight him on it, or anything else for that matter.

It was actually a bit surprising how well they got along when she didn't have the energy to argue. It turned out that Shinji had interesting things to say sometimes. He still drove her crazy of course; it would take the patience of a saint to tolerate his crazy for too long. She definitely didn't have that. Whatever else had happened in their lives though, they had always been friends after a fashion. Not many people had understood their particular brand of friendship, but that didn't matter. Nor did it change anything. It turned out that a near death experience did though. And so Hiyori discovered that sometimes an eyeroll was just as good as a punch and that sometimes just calling him one bad name would suffice.

The better she was feeling, the more time they spent out of the warehouse, usually walking. Shinji said it was good for her to keep moving. They walked over Karakura, seeing things that she had never seen (or maybe just not noticed) before, always just the two of them. Hiyori didn't really mind this, but she did find it a bit odd. She tried to ask the other Visored about it. Mashiro just looked confused. Kensei growled and asked why it mattered. Rose just gave a dramatic sigh. Love laughed and said, "Don't worry about it." Hachi looked uncomfortable and said he didn't know what she was talking about. Once again it was Lisa who provided the only straight answer.

"I think we were just trying to give you guys some space."

Hiyori made a face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lisa paused. "Hiyori, you don't know know what is was like after Aizen was sealed. We were all worried about you, but not like Shinji. He's wanted to be there beside you, and we let him."

"So you all just sat around and decided this?"

"Nothing like that," Lisa shrugged. "It just happened. You should appreciate the attention really. He's probably the only person who could deal with you for that long anyway, injured or not."

So Hiyori kept walking with him. The walks got longer, sometimes turning into all day affairs. Sometimes they walked to Kisuke's shop, where she would demand a proper sugary treat for having to deal with two crazy blondes. Every now and then she would catch Kisuke giving that look where you could tell he was thinking something, but she refused to ask him what he it was. Nothing good ever came from that.

"So where do you want to go today?" Shinji asked as they set out.

"Oh, I get a choice today? That's unusual," Hiyori replied with an elbow to his side.

Shinji gave her a gentle push back. "You always have a choice dummy. You've just never bothered to offer an opinion."

"As if you'd listen." Shinji just gave a shrug in response. "Fine," Hiyori said, "I want a cream puff."

They set off towards the pastry shop at a leisurely pace. The weather was not too cold, which was good because the cold tended to make Hiyori's still tender muscles ache. As if reading her mind, Shinji asked, "How are you feeling today?"

Hiyori sighed. "Fine. I'd be even better if I got to fight some."

Shinji made a face. "Why are you so determined to fight?"

"Why are you so insistent that I shouldn't?" Hiyori countered.

They walked in silence for a bit before Shinji answered. "I'm just tired of seeing people get hurt fighting."

Hiyori balked. "So you're scared?"

He gave a light sigh. "I'm scared for you."

Hiyori glanced at the man walking beside her. She had known Shinji for almost as long as she could remember, so she shouldn't feel surprised by this statement. He had always looked out for her in his way. However he had never tried to hold her back from anything. She should probably feel flattered, but instead she was just annoyed. "I'm not some glass doll you have to protect!"

"I know that," Shinji said with a slight grimace. "I'm not trying to protect you I'm just…" He cut himself off.

"You just think you know better than me. You always have," she huffed

Shinji just gave her a look. "No, I don't think that Hiyori, and you know it. Don't try to make me out to be some bad guy."

Hiyori gave a slight growl. "Then what is your problem? And don't tell me your scared again. You've never been scared of anything. You held me right by your side even while I was turning into a hollow. You were the one who spent the most time helping me while I was fighting my inner hollow. You know what I can do."

"Oh come on," Shinji groaned. "Aizen is sealed away now. What does it matter what you can do if you don't need to do it?"

"Sure because Aizen is the only threat there will ever be," Hiyori replied. "The only person with some really big but really evil ideas. The only person who could hurt me."

Shinji gave a bitter laugh. "Hurt you? You were cut clean in half."

"So? I got better didn't I?"

"You know what, I'm not going to argue with you about this Hiyori. Do whatever you want."

"I will do what I want. What I want to do right now is talk about why you're being so stupid about this," Hiyori said.

Shinji threw up his hands. "Fine, you want to talk about it? Let's talk about it. Let's talk about what is like to see another person split into two pieces. Let's talk about what it's like to be so blinded with terror and rage that you can't see. Or what it's like to hold exactly half of someone in your arms and be reminded of every bad thing you've ever said to them. Every nice thing you wish you could say. And then let's talk about how you have to put all that aside because there's still a battle going on."

"You seem to be forgetting that I was there. In two pieces. Seeing everything for what I thought was the last time," Hiyori said with a shudder. "I spent my last breath apologizing to you! You should feel grateful!"

"Grateful that you're a hot headed brat who never thinks anything through? "

"Better than being an overprotective know-it-all who tries to fix problems that don't even exist." Hiyori cringed as her abdomen started to hurt. "Look what you've made me do. Ow."

Shinji immediately put his arm around her for support. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine," Hiyori scoffed, but she didn't make him move his arm.

They walked like this for a bit before Shinji broke the silence. "I'm sorry Hiyori. Maybe I am overprotective. I just don't want to be in that position where I think I'm losing you again. Twice in one century is enough."

Hiyori rolled her eyes. "I guess I can forgive you. But you owe me two cream puffs now."

"Man, you are the most demanding date ever," Shinji said with a laugh.

Hiyori's eyes widened as she stopped. "Date?"

Shinji stuttered for a second. "I...I just meant date in the 'I'm buying you things' sense, not the romantic sense."

"Oh...I see…"

"Unless you want it to be a date date?" Shinji said, sounding unsure.

Hiyori paused. "I mean, I guess it wouldn't be the worst thing ever. Plus you've already got your arm around me like some perv."

Shinji gave a chuckle as they started walking forward again. "So this is what's it's like to go on a date with Hiyori Sarugaki, huh? Somehow it involves slightly less yelling than I thought it would."

"Yeah, well, don't get any ideas. I'm just here for the pastry," she said with a huff.

"Of course you are," Shinji nodded.

They spent the rest of the day out, which wasn't terribly unusual for them. If Hiyori had thought defining it as a date would make things weird, she would have been wrong. Nothing seemed to change, but maybe that was because little by little things had changed already anyway. In the back of her mind she knew it had, but she hasn't openly admitted it to herself. Hiyori found that she kind of liked it actually.

When they finally started back home Shinji asked, "So how was your date? Did I do a good job?"

She gave a slight cringe. "Ugh, you're not going to let this go are you? It was fine. You were fine. Whatever. Now can we drop it?"

"Nope. Not until you agree to go out with me again."

Hiyori balked. "Are you serious?"

"Absolutely," Shinji said.

"I don't understand."

Shinji made a face. "What's to understand? I want to go out with you on a properly defined date."

"Why?" Hiyori asked incredulously.

"Does it really matter?" Shinji asked with raised eyebrows. "You get free food, and you get to spend time with yours truly. It's your dream come true."

"You're so funny. I'm glad this is such a great joke to you. Forget it, I can buy my own food,." Hiyori said as she began to walk away from Shinji.

He grabbed her arm to stop her. "Awww c'mon Hiyori. I'm not making a joke. Well, I mean I was making a joke, but not the one you're thinking of. Look, I like you, you like me, so why are we wasting time here?"

"Why are you so sure I like you?: Hiyori said as she curled her lips. "I'm pretty sure I've hit you and called you names on a regular basis for at least 200 years."

Shinji nodded. "Exactly. If you didn't like me you'd have stopped 199 years ago."

Hiyori gave a giant roll of her eyes. "Or maybe I just can't get rid of you."

"No, you can't," Shinji agreed and took a step closer. "When you got...hurt...I realized something. I like having you around. I've always liked having you around. I will continue to like having you around. We're good partners...some of the time...we're friends...mostly...it just makes sense, ok?"

Hiyori squinted up into his face. As usual it was fairly unreadable, but there was a certain glint in his eyes that she hadn't quite seen there before. It made her feel...happy.

"Fine," she said. "I guess you can take me out."

"Yeah?" Shinji asked with a smile.

"Yeah. Just try not to act like an idiot and embarrass me."

"I think I can handle that."

"Don't be so sure," Hiyori said with a shake of her head. Shinji just laughed.

When they got back to the warehouse, Shinji went off to "take care of some business" he said, so Hiyori stopped to get a drink of water. Lisa was standing nearby and asked, "How was your walk?"

Hiyori shrugged. "It was good I guess."

Lisa's eyes narrowed as she quickly pulled Hiyori to where they couldn't be easily overheard by the others.

"What happened?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Hiyori asked, confused.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Lisa studied Hiyori's face carefully, then her eyes widened slightly. "Did he finally ask you out?"

"Uh, why would you say that?"

"Because you actually look happy for once," Lisa replied.

Hiyori scowled. "No, I don't. I mean, I always look happy."

"Ha! He did, didn't he?" Lisa almost smiled. "It's about time."

"Right, I'm sure you all have been sitting around placing bets," Hiyori said with a scowl . "You're so ridiculous."

"No, we're just able to see what's been obvious for about 100 years. Oh and speaking of bets," Lisa turned her head toward the rest of the Visored. "Love, you owe me 1000 yen."

Love looked over at Lisa confused. "Huh?" As he took notice of Hiyori he groaned. "Are you kidding me? He couldn't wait 3 days?"

Hiyori let out a strangled yell. She looked over and saw Shinji coming back into the room. "SHINJI. TRAINING ROOM. NOW."

Shinji looked very surprised. "What?"

"I NEED TO HIT SOMETHING WITH YOUR FACE ON IT. COME ON."

Shinji looked over to see Love doubled over with laughter.

"Go on, let your girlfriend beat you up," Lisa drawled.

"LAUGH NOW, YOU'RE NEXT ON MY LIST. BOTH OF YOU," Hiyori roared.

As she pulled Shinji to the training room, Lisa called out to her. "Hey Hiyori!"

"WHAT?"

"I'm glad you're feeling better."

This seemed to soothe Hiyori just a bit. "Thanks," she said.

"Enjoy your training," Lisa sang.

"Oh she will," Shinji smirked.

"I HOPE YOU ENJOY DYING BALDY!" Hiyori fumed.

Shinji just laughed. "By your hand? Always."