Plot © Emo-Shukun
Bleach © Kubo Tite (Noriaki)
Chapter 01
Winters Warm Breath
- Now -
(Note: A little AU, but not much, and I changed the season because it suits the mood of the story. It's taking placing in the arrancar arc.)
Ichigo laid on his bed in pure silence as the sun slowly continued to rise higher into the morning sky. When his two friends came by, he sat up and waved to let them know that he was dressed and that he was coming down stairs. He could only hope that this would be a normal day without being dragged into shinigami nonsense that could never be put off. Did the shinigami really come to the human world to fight the arrancar because that Captain Aizen or whatever was involved? Or was it because they wanted to investigate the city just a little, or worse, investigate him?
There has been a lot of trouble going on lately…
"Oi Ichigo, what's that in your bag?" Mizuiro asked curiously.
Ichigo looked at him blankly, then at his bag, "oh… this…?"
Keigo then bursted into laughter, "w-w-what is that?! HAHA!!"
He sighed and made something up, "Yuzu wanted me to take it."
Mizuiro pondered on this information, "why would she want that?"
"As good luck." His lies managed to be undetected. "Let's go."
…so Ichigo had to take Kon with him during school.
They arrived at school ten minutes later, just as it was starting to snow ever so lightly to where it melted on contact. Yasutora was actually at school today which caught him by surprise and so the orange-haired teen waved. Keigo whined at the bond that the two had and flailed himself at Mizuiro who simply stepped to the side. Uryuu then walked into the classroom a little later than he usual would, but came towards the substitute shinigami and the human before shifting his glasses a little.
Before the three could even talk—let alone properly greet one another, the so-called substitute shinigami combat license began to cause a ruckus. They tensed at this for a brief moment, that was, until Ichigo brought out the stuffed lion which had them falter. Wasting no time, he grabbed the modified soul and placed it in his mouth before being released into his shinigami form, causing Keigo to gape in confusion.
"Kon, behave or I'll have these two kick you out of my body!" The shinigami roared.
"Roger!" Kon saluted in Ichigo's body proudly as he stretched his body out.
With that accomplished, Ichigo hopped out of an open window to go find the creature that was terrorizing the city. As he grew closer to Rangiku's riatsu, he heard her give out a high pitch scream, which made him hurry even more. Once he arrive, he saw that Toushirou was on the ground wounded in his gigai while Rangiku was fighting. Ichigo looked at the opponent which happened to be an arrancar, but he waited to see if she really needed help. After a few seconds passed, Rangiku finally felt the riatsu of another shinigami and looked at the ground to see the substitute shinigami.
"Ichigo! Take taichou somewhere safe!" Rangiku demanded, fighting off the arrancar.
He looked baffled for the moment, "do you want me to help you this guy?!"
"Go!" The lieutenant called out, swiping at the creature who blocked.
Not hearing it a third time to leave he picked up the unconscious captain, "sorry."
Ichigo then hurried off to a safer spot; beneath the bridge by the river, it was good enough until someone told him what was going on. Ikkaku and Yumichika were passing by him as he was leaving and so he told them where he was going before telling them to help Rangiku. Nothing else had to be said from thereon, so he hurried to the river and settled the captain down, he was still bleeding. He didn't even have his body to take him home—it would be completely suspicious; a kid floating to a clinic, even if it was going to be the one that belonged to his family.
Letting time pass by them, he ripped a piece of his sleeve off and dipped it in water and returned to the knocked out captain. It looked like he damaged his shoulder pretty good; most likely from being impaled into the tree he was next to. Only after he just barely inspecting his shoulder a little more thoroughly did he find out that it was dislocated. Not only that, but his forearm was broken on the same side which meant he was probably trying to catch himself before crashing into the tree so badly. With the small captain unconscious right now… it would be the best time to relocate it, so he shifted over and harshly yanked his arm and positioned it. At least watching his fathers' work little by little let him help with the minor things, so after that he wiped the feverish sweat from his face with the damped treads from his sleeve. His eyes landed on his hands, one of them was closed in a tight fist, so Ichigo pried it open to see the soul candy in the palm of his hand.
"Ambush, huh?" Ichigo thought out loud. "Taking the stronger one off guard, smart."
"Ichigo!" Rangiku called out as she came to his side with the other two behind her.
"Wow, he looks thrashed." Ikkaku muttered out quietly to himself.
"I thought he was bloodier earlier." Yumichika thought curiously.
Ichigo spoke out, "I cleaned him up a little and fixed his shoulder."
"It was a trap," Rangiku called out. "Our cell phones went of and just as taichou was grabbing his soul candy, an arrancar attacked him." She frowned. "The only moment when our guard was down was when he attacked, and taichou was knocked out."
"He's still bleeding, I just relocated his shoulder, he has a broken forearm." The substitute stated. "We don't have a fourth squad officer with us, so the best place I can think of is my place; my dad has his clinic there and all, but I need to get Kon."
"I'll carry him," Ikkaku offered as he came forth.
He nodded and placed Toushirou's arms against his chest before handing him over to Ikkaku, "keep his arm there, I think I saw a piece of wood a while ago."
"Wood? Are you going to knock on it?" Yumichika teased.
After finding the good sized wood and broke it in half, he replied, "it'll make a cast."
"You know your medical supplies." Ikkaku was somewhat impressed.
"You can use your medicine on him later." He called out, ripping his other sleeve.
The three watched as the shinigami place the hand-crafted cast on the small captain, it would do for now. But none of them were really sure how big the damage was for the little one, so they wanted to hurry up. Ichigo hurried to school, yelled at Kon from outside and forced him to jump outside the window and fused with him before taking out the modified soul and putting it in the stuffed animal that Kon brought.
X-
Ichigo sighed tiredly as he sat on the ground by the foot of his bed while Rangiku occupied his desk chair and Toushirou occupied his bed. Turns out that he broke his left ulna bone, dislocated his shoulder which was fixed, and broke to other bones. It seemed that his left scapula was broken at the tip by the scapular acromion, and a few inches away was a broken a clavicle. There was a chance that there was some internal bleeding in his ribs judging by the pattern, so he had to be watched. Rangiku worriedly watched Toushirou lay motionless on the bed; his chest barely raised with air in his lungs, so the substitute shinigami quietly spoke out.
"Rangiku-san," Ichigo called quietly, and she looked at him, "just curious, but aren't you guys supposed to report things like this to Soul Society? Like his condition…?"
"I know, but I'm so worried, I don't want to leave." She replied sadly. "With his gigai being hit so badly like this, there's no doubt that it hurt his real form beneath it."
Trying to lighten the mood, he smiled, "I have Toushirou's phone," he raised it just as his own proof, "if something happens, I'll let you know, I promise."
Rangiku couldn't help but smile back, "you're such a nice guy."
"Yeah… well I'm already cutting school for what seems to be a month or two." The substitute looked at the captain. "It better to have him here instead of at Inoue's since she's over in Soul Society with Rukia. I'll have my dad fix you a bed in my sisters room if you want to stay, ya know, since he shouldn't move for a while."
Her head nodded and stood up, "I'll be back within two hours then, I don't know just how long it will take to contact them." She opened his door, "take good care of him."
"Don't worry, I will." Ichigo called out as she closed the door, and he sighed.
"What happened to him?" Kon asked, spying at the wounded captain.
"Leave Toushirou alone Kon," the teen stood up and stretched. "What did you do?"
"You're body was so stiff, so I ran a lot in gym." The stuffed animal replied.
"Well, I might as well do some homework for now." He came to the chair to sit down.
After a long hour of doing Japanese and History, Ichigo was getting tired of all the homework he had, so he started to make doodles. Eventually he went on to doing math work and then a bit of chemistry as he occasionally glanced at Toushirou. The captain didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon, and this kind worried him just a little. He glanced over at the cell phone in silence, wondering if he should call Rangiku, but he didn't. Both the badge and cell phone went off in unison which cause the shinigami to jump in surprise before putting the technology on vibrate.
'Gonna give me a heart attack…' Ichigo sighed, and the cell phone flashed with a vibrate, so he opened up to see that Rangiku was calling, so he answered, "yeah?"
"I'm going to go fight, so don't leave taichou's side." She stated, then heard him give out a light chuckle, so she asked. "Did… I say something funny Ichigo?"
"No, only I didn't have any intention of leaving Toushirou unattended." He replied.
"Good. Also, sotaichou says taichou is off duty till he fully recovers, no matter how much he dislikes it. You're in charge of him." The call was then immediately ended.
"Tch. So much for second opinions." He huffed in annoyance.
"Ah, Ichigo, he's waking up!" Kon called out.
He glanced at the small captain laying beneath the covers of his bed, cringing as he began to stir awake. The substitute shinigami kept an eye on the wounded one just in case he over reacts saying 'where's the arrancar' or whatnot. Ichigo watching as his eyes widened as if remembering something and started to rise, but he placed his hand carefully on his chest. Wincing at the touch, Toushirou turned to glare at who it was that would dare touch him, but was surprised and confused when he saw Ichigo.
"It took a hell of a long time to bandage and cast you up." The orange-haired teen stated just before adding, "just think about that before you start to get up alone."
Toushirou continued to glare at him loosely before looking at the bandages as he tried to remember what happened. It seemed that he had hit the tree a lot more harder that he would expect, but he was in his gigai. Remembering that he had his soul candy in his hand the last time he remembered, he looked for it, only to find it gone. A light tap hit the desk next to him which drove his attention to look over to see it right there. He sighed before trying to sit himself up, but it was too painful on his left side that he did not want to try it again anytime soon.
Ichigo looked at the captain curiously, wondering what was going through his mind, but decided to not be nosy and leaned back in the chair. "You'll be uncomfortable for about three days, once the throbbing dies down you can sit up without any help. But you'll be here until you recover, Toushirou."
The wounded captain sighed, "it's Hitsugaya taichou," he turned to look upwards, "just because I'm lightly wounded, doesn't mean you can order me around Kurosaki."
"You wake up in a grouchy mood don't you?" Ichigo asked before hearing a knock on the door, so he came to open the door to see Rangiku, "Oi, he just woke up."
"What?! And you didn't bother to call me?!" She whined and came in the room to see Toushirou staring at the ceiling, "taichou! How are you doing?!"
"Rangiku-san, please keep your voice down, he has a head injury too." Ichigo sighed.
Frowning, Rangiku walked over to the chair and sat down, "okay."
Toushirou had a minor gash on his head where the impact against the tree came, and so his forehead was bandaged since it wasn't that high. Rangiku sat there in silence as she continued to gaze down worriedly at the small captain whom was getting annoyed. Ichigo decided that he should probably leave for just a little while, so he thought of a good excuse of how to get out of there.
"I'm going to get a soda, do you guys want some?" He offered rather cheerfully.
Perking at the offer, the female shinigami looked to him. "Do you have root beer?"
"Yeah," then he looked at Toushirou, "what about you? Want something?"
The captain turned his head away in annoyance at his happiness. "Tch."
Ichigo shrugged and left the room, "alright, be back in a minute."
After he left, Rangiku turned to her captain with a frown, "taichou, you're so mean to him, he took a lot of trouble to bring you to safety and fix you up." She sighed as she sounded depressed, "his father was so busy that he had to do almost everything all by himself too." Her head slumped, "he wouldn't let me help bandage you up."
"Why didn't you send for someone to heal me?" Toushirou growled.
"You're in your gigai, so it's not all that easy," she replied sadly, then beamed, "but sotaichou said that your off duty until you fully heal! So you're in Ichigo's care!"
"Matsumoto…" he growled out angrily, only to wince in pain even more.
"Ah! Taichou, what's wrong!!" Rangiku panicked with worry. "Do you need some-"
"Oi, I said keep your voice down." Ichigo sighed as he closed the door behind him after coming inside with a bag. He grabbed a bottle of root beer and gave it to the woman. "He'll be uncomfortable for a while, so try not to rile him up."
"But I didn't! I just told him that he had to rest and that your taking care of him!"
"I think that pretty much does it though." He scratched his head and looked to the captain, "oi Toushirou, do you have a headache right now? I have some medicine-"
"It's Hitsugaya taichou you moron." Toushirou interrupted sternly.
The substitute shinigami sighed and placed the medication on the desk next to him along with a bottle of water. "Here's some pain killers when you want them, kid."
Rangiku watched back and forth between the two as the tension began to grow, so she tried to reason with them, "can't you two be nice to each other?"
Ichigo's eyes averted from the captain, taking a lot into consideration and then gave a decent offer to the woman, "do you want to take a bath Rangiku-san?"
"A bath?!" She squealed. "Of course! Can I have bubbles in it too?"
"Sure," he pointed behind him, "I'll go get it started for ya."
Toushirou noted the bandages on the substitutes hands, after the teen was gone, he asked, "when did he receive those bandages on his hands? They weren't there last-"
"I don't know, I asked him already." She sighed as she recalled earlier events, "he said that his hands were really sore from bandaging you up and stuff." Immediately the female shinigami frowned, "I know he's lying, but I don't know why he would."
After a few moments, Ichigo came walking in and called out, "Rangiku-san, the water is ready for you, Yuzu said she'll show you the way. You got extra clothes right?"
"Yes! I brought our belongings here after talking to sotaichou and beating up the hollows in the way." She smiled happily. "You're such a nice guy Ichigo!"
"Nee-san!! Let me take a bath with you!!" Kon whined, but was grabbed by Ichigo.
"You're becoming a pest." Stated the orange-haired teen and threw him in the closet.
"Rangiku-san, the water is going to get cold!" Yuzu's voice called out.
"Coming, coming!" Rangiku cheered and walked out happily.
Ichigo sighed again after who knows how many times, and just came to his desk to do some more math as he leaned into the palm of his left hand. He was really bored because he couldn't go to school or go fight off some steam against a hollow just for fun. It was actually a pain to think of it like that even though it just really couldn't be helped out. Hearing a little shifting on the bed made him curious, but he forced himself to ignore what the wounded captain may be trying to do. The captain was reaching out for the painkillers—was he going to try opening it with one hand?
He waited for a while as if he never noticed what the captain was doing, waiting to see if he would ask for help. It's possible that this little guy was filled with too much pride like Byakuya was during his last visit to Soul Society. Hearing the a faint grunt had him turn to look at the captain who was trying to open the container. Ichigo had no choice but to get up and offer his hand for the container so that he could help him out. There was a long unnerving silence between them until Toushirou finally gave up and just handed him the container. The teen opened it and placed one in his hand before closing the container and opening the water bottle for him, which he took.
After Ichigo set the container of painkillers down and capped the water bottle, he asked as if it was nothing, "why are both of your hands bandaged so badly?"
"Eh?" He looked at the bandages on his hands, "their nothing really, their just stiff and sore from bandaging you up." Then remembered, "did she tell you your status?"
One of his eyebrows raised at this. Your status. What the hell? "No, she didn't."
"You had a dislocated shoulder to start off, even though it's in place now it might not help the two upper bones you cracked. Then you have a broken arm, and a gash on your head, but nothing was entirely serious." He then added, "you'll be out for two months in the least though. Your sotaichou even said you have to stay put here."
Toushirou growled lowly at this, "I suppose a 'thank you' is in order."
"Not really," he replied, "I helped whether you wanted me to or not."
"Kurosaki," his eyes became heavy from the medicine, "thank you."
The teen replied after the captain fell asleep, "yeah, you're welcome."
X-
He looked around the icy plain and how it brought back so many memories as he continued on his path. It wasn't like he was confused as to where he was, just really confused as to why he was there though. A roar emitted from his companion as a loud clashing thunder, so he turned around to look. Hyorinmaru was now in his presence which was not very surprising, so he had to ask the zanpakuto."Why did you bring me here?" Toushirou questioned wearily.
It growled at the question, "are you well young one?"
"I'm fine," he retorted, "now what's this about?""A zanpakuto cannot worry about its' wielder?" Rumbles of irritation came from his icy throat, still remaining somewhat calm. "You asked the human about his hands."As if the statement clicked in his mind, he looked back up at the dragon, "Kurosaki?"
"I was the one who harmed him for harming you." Hyorinmaru retorted.
"Harmed me…" the captain thought about it; Rangiku said that the teen didn't have bandage on his hands until after bandaging him up. "What do you mean by this?"
He let out a furious roar and a flap of his wings, "exactly as I said!"Toushirou thought about it a little more, the substitute wasn't one to just harm anyone just for no reason. So was it possible that shifting his arm into place and casting his arm was what made Hyorinmaru think otherwise? He remembered how the pain was hard to bear with when he woke up, so tending to his wounds; he must've hurt even more than he could imagine if there were broken bones, a gashes, and dislocation."What was it," the small captain started to ask, "what was it you did to Kurosaki?"The thundering growl of the zanpakuto grew, "each time his hands touched your body, I allowed him to feel how cold we are. To him, it may have felt like a thousand needles piercing through his hands. Unfortunately this did not stop him." It stated.Toushirou only smirked at this while commenting, "that sounds like Kurosaki."
Determined.
X-
"He was such a brat when a bet him, but he was so cute and full of spunk." Came the voice of the captain's lieutenant. "Did you know that he didn't want to become a shinigami? But he had strong riatsu that he had to leave his grandmother to do so."
'Matsumoto…' Toushirou mentally sighed. Why did she do this to him?
There was a long silence, making the captain wondering is she was just talking to herself, but then he finally heard the teen speak out, "at first, becoming a shinigami was just a hassle for me, I didn't like it much. But then Byakuya and Renji came to take Rukia away, so I had to go after her. Who knew I would have so much fun?"
Rangiku replied cheerfully, "that would be great if taichou can have fun."
He chuckled, "what, you mean filling out reports isn't fun?"
"He never loosens up," she then whined, "he holds back on everything."
'I'm going to kill you Matsumoto…' Toushirou thought to himself.
"Can't blame him." Ichigo retorted.
"Huh?" Rangiku looked confused.
"Well, if you put two and two together, he's great for being a taichou," the substitute shinigami called out, "the fact that he puts everyone's well being before his own is great, but no one really thinks of how he's feeling if he tends to everyone else." He thought that sounded sappy, so he laughed, "I don't know, like he's hurting himself."
"Hmm…" she hummed in thought, "can I have another root beer Ichigo?"
"Yeah," the teen got up from the floor, "I need to get something downstairs anyway."
"Kurosaki." Toushirou called out with his eyes closed, scaring the crap out of the two.
"Y-Yeah?" He stuttered for a reply, a little shaken up at the call of his name.
"Do you have kiwifruit ramune?" He asked tiredly with his eyes still closed.
"Ramune, huh?" Ichigo scratched his head, "I think so. I'll be back in a minute."
Rangiku smiled sheepishly at the drowsy captain, "t-taichou… how… how long have you been up?" She could hear him yelling his name any moment now.
"Since you've called me a brat." Toushirou answered as he slowly opened his eyes.
"I-I-I didn't mean it taichou!" She pleaded for mercy from the wounded captain.
He ignored it, for now at least. "It's been a while," painfully he lifted his body to sit.
"Hmm? Taichou, were you dreaming?" Rangiku asked in amazement.
"Hah! I knew it was you two that Ichi-nii said he brought home." A voice called out.
The two looked at her and Rangiku smiled, "it's Ichigo's other sister! Um… Karin?"
"Kurosaki Karin," she said with a grin and crossed her arms. "Dad said it's funny that he'd bring funny that he'd bring home an adult and elementary student."
Toushirou twitched, "again… with the elementary student…"
"What the heck are you doing in here," Ichigo blinked at his sister.
Karin looked at him, "I was saying hi to Toushirou and Rangiku."
"How do you even know them?" He glared at her lightly.
"She wanted taichou to play soccer with her!" Rangiku smiled.
"Soccer?" The substitute blinked with surprise.
"She knows that we're shinigami." Toushirou stated.
"…" Karin flinched visibly when he said that.
"Tch." Ichigo gave the root beer and ramune to Rangiku. "Guess that's my fault for spreading my spiritual power around," he mumbled and hoisted his little sister over his shoulder, "what do you think your doing without a knee brace anyway ya brat?"
"Ichi-nii! I'm fine! Put me down! I can walk you know!" Karin yiped in surprise.
"Not very well," he retorted and walked outside the room with her.
Rangiku looked at her captain, "I think you got her in trouble taichou."
Toushirou looked at his subordinate, "really?"
"You didn't see her flinch? I don't think Ichigo knew she knew!"
He shrugged, "it's too late to change things now."
After a few minutes, Ichigo came walking in and closed the door, "sorry about that."
"It's okay, taichou used to stalk her for a week when you disappeared." Rangiku smiled cheerfully. "Don't they make the cutest couple ever?!"
"Matsumoto…" Toushirou growled, despite the pain in his left side.
"Yeah, their so similar that I wonder if their kids would have gray hair." Ichigo replied sarcastically before scratching his head, "now I'll have nightmares."
Something buzzed in the room just as his badge sounded it's alarm, and he brought out the cell phone to see the location of the hollow, then looked at Rangiku who frowned with the utmost disappointment.
Rangiku brought out her silent phone and sighed, "okay, I'll go slay the hollow."
"I can go to give you a break if you want, you took a couple down today." He stated.
"Oh come now Ichigo, I can take on hollows." She swayed the offer away without a care and left through the door, "bye-bye! Take good care of taichou for me!"
Kon stepped on the desk and whined, "nee-san!! Take me with you!!"
"Shut up or I'll hand you to Yuzu," Ichigo stated.
He paused, then fell on the desk, "I'm dead."
Sighing with a little annoyance, he averted his attention to elsewhere, only to see that Rangiku didn't give Toushirou his ramune, so he grabbed it and looked at the captain quietly as if he was bored, "did you want me to open it Toushirou?"
"It's Hitsugaya taichou to you." The wounded captain growled.
"Hmm," he took it as a yes, so he popped it open and handed it to him. "Here."
"Thank you," Toushirou spoke with reluctance and took it in his right hand.
"No problem." His attention went to the math homework that he had out.
However, Toushirou couldn't help but notice that the teen had flinched a little when pressing his thumb against the plunger to shove the marble down. It was a little bit annoying that it was his fault for not having better control over Hyorinmaru when he was unconscious. Supposedly though, an apology should be in order for the lack of dominance over his zanpakuto, even if it was protecting him.
"The reason why your hands are so bandaged is because I was unable to subside Hyorinmaru while I was unconscious." Toushirou spoke. "For that, I apologize."
What could be a good way to lighten his mood just a little? Oh, "oi Toushirou-"
"It's Hitsugaya taichou to you!" He yelled, immediately flinching in pain.
"For one thing, you're off duty till you're healed, so one way or the other I don't have to pretend to be at your command, besides that—I don't even belong to Soul Society like you guys do." Ichigo then passed off a cool smile. "And about my hands, who cares? One way or the other I was going to bandage you up," he then shrugged, "unless you wanted Rangiku-san to do that for you, then next time I'll let her."
The captain mentally snorted and took a sip of the ramune, "so who's in charge?"
"You're still the one that can call the shots, but you can't do anything unless I can give the permission you need. Rangiku-san said so herself." He replied casually.
This irritated the wounded shinigami, "what makes you think I'll listen to you?"
"Because your higher-up said so, and being a taichou, that's practically the law."
"Tch." Toushirou set the ramune up on the windowsill before bringing his hand to the bandages on his other hand, then grimaced on how much it still had hurt.
"Oh yeah," the substitute shinigami then remembered, "life up your shirt."
He raised a suspicious eyebrow towards the teens' request, "excuse me?"
It was easy to explain though, "you're bound to suffer some internal bleeding."
Toushirou sighed in annoyance, but he too wondered if he was suffering from some internal bleeding, so he lifted his shirt, only to cringe at the discoloration that was bigger than his hand. He glanced at the teen to see him frown at this, so obviously it had only occurred after he was bandaged. It was in his own interest though to see just how sore his minor internal bleeding was, so he lowered his hand to touch it. A hand grasped his wrist lightly—practically startling him, so he looked up at the teen.
"Touching it will just hurt more." Ichigo stood up and went to the small refrigerator that was on the ground against the wall. "Here," he gave him an ice pack for it.
"When did you have that in here?" He scowled as he took the ice pack from him.
"I carried you in here and Ikkaku brought it up here while Yumichika stared at himself in the mirror while Rangiku-san raided our real fridge." The teen replied.
Sighing, the captain placed the ice pack at his side, "then why did you leave your room to get sodas if you have some in there." He had seen the just now.
"It was a little obvious that you didn't want to talk in front of me," he replied rather plainly, "and it's actually hard to keep thinking of excuses to keep leaving…"
'Perhaps he's not as stupid as he looks.' Toushirou thought to himself.
Kon made himself noticed to the substitute shinigami, causing them to argue for just a brief moment before the stuffed animal was thrown out. Toushirou watched as the teen his at his hand—there was no doubt that he obviously was over using them. It caught the wounded captain by surprise though that the orange-haired idiot clenched his fists. Was this substitute shinigami really that stupid as to try clenching his fists tightly as if he could stretch out the pain within him?
"You're probably hungry, aren't you?" Ichigo brought the captain out of thoughts.
"No, not really," but his stomach says otherwise as it growls lowly.
Trying so hard as to resist grinning widely at the little liar, he offered, "how about some watermelon as a snack then? Later I'll ask Yuzu what the heck is dinner."
"You're persistent, both in and out of battle." The captain sighed in annoyance.
"You're a guest here, and you're really need to loosen up or else your wounds will just hurt a lot longer than I would expect." With that said, he locked the window and walked out of the room, "Rangiku-san should be getting back soon, I'll call and ask."
