DarknessGryphon, once again unable to do anything but produce fics that aren't my main fics...
Waaaaaaaa!!! I'm supposed to be doing homework and I have two chapters of psychology to go and I can't concentrate!!!! Whhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?!
Oh well...
WARNINGS: This fic involves yaoi, slash M/M whatever you so choose to call it. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, this fic involves GUYS in relationships with OTHER GUYS. Don't like, don't read.
PLEASE no flaming! It's pointless rude and it burns me and my muses, which hurts quite a bit. So, please have the courtesy to not make me very unhappy with you over a silly thing like flaming.
Once again, I'm going into the realm of Hitsuichi. I don't know what it is to this pairing. There is no real basis for this pairing, but my brain made the instant connection of putting them together in a super cute pairing!
I apologize in advance for any OOC-ness and inaccuracies. This takes place... whenever. I don't really know or care. It's non-canon.
I'm Sorry
Ichigo stood at the door of one of the emergency wards in the fourth division building. He looked in on the operation taking place before him, stomach churning and tears sneaking their way past his rapidly fraying control. He was covered in the blood of the person who was in that room. The person for whom a barrier kido was set up to prevent damage from leaking reiatsu, even though the once-strong reiatsu was significatly weakened and still diminishing.
And even though Ichigo hadn't actually summoned the Hollows and he didn't ask for his help, the orange-haired shinigami wouldn't accept the remarks that none of this had been his fault.
After all, if he hadn't argued with the shorter boy, Hitsugaya wouldn't have had to save him.
-X3-
Hitsugaya had come to the real world four months before under the pretense of gathering intelligence for future missions, but Ichigo had known that there was something more to it than that.
He prodded and pestered the genius taichou for a month until he had finally gotten a confession. To the substitute shinigami's surprise, the confession came in the form of a kiss. It was hesitant, frustrated, and quick, but it was a kiss all the same. To Hitsugaya's great surprise, he was not only not rejected, he was kissed back in response. As they lay out that night under the stars on the roof of the Kurosaki household, the white-haired boy explained how he had come to the real world, unable at that time to explain why Ichigo kept floating around in his thoughts until he had seen the orange-haired teen a month before. Ichigo just ruffled the taichou's hair and laughed at how cute his new boyfriend was.
Hitsugaya blushed and smiled in a little self-contained satisfaction at the word boyfriend before gaining his composure again and sat up to throw a mock glare at Ichigo, "Hn. Boyfriend or otherwise, don't get any ideas about calling me Toushiro or something. It's still Hitsugaya-taichou to you and you better not forget it."
Ichigo leveled him a wicked grin and sat up, "Oh, so Tou-chan's got a flare for dominance does he?"
Hitsugaya's raised an eyebrow, "Tou-chan?"
"It's better than Shiro-chan, isn't it?" Ichigo then launched himself at the other shinigami tickling the other boy where he could reach him.
That night, under the stars, Ichigo discovered that the sound of his Tou-chan giggling like the child he appeared to be was the best sound in the world.
-
Over the next three months, Hitsugaya lightened up to the point where he scared the living daylights out of Matsumoto when she came to visit by pulling a prank on her. She had fainted, muttering about somebody having replaced her taichou.
Ichigo had lightened up as well, he'd stopped frowning and actually gave his father a hug on one occassion at which his father had been so moved, he didn't stop crying for a week.
The girls at school all cooed over how cute they were as a couple and the boys didn't dare pick on either shinigami for fear of the other's vengence. Keigo had even proudly dubbed them HitsuIchi one fateful lunch hour and earned himself a glare from the two of them, which sent him into a dramatic fit. Of course, neither boy was paying attention to him at that point, because Ichigo had decided that it was a very good time to tickle the petit taichou.
He would never get tired of that giggle.
-
Like any other couple, Ichigo and Hitsugaya were not immune to arguing, but nobody argued quite like they did.
"Would you stop checking in on Soul Society? They're obviously doing fine without you!" Ichigo growled, his frown firmly back in place.
"Kurosaki, stop complaining. I'm here with you. Don't be mad that I have responsibilities to keep!" Hitsugaya barked back, the temperature in the room going haywire.
"Responsibility? You talk to them more than you talk to me, Toushiro! I wouldn't even be able to get a call through if I needed to!"
"Why would you need to call me, Kurosaki?! I can handle myself quite well with out you to mother me! Besides, believe it or not, Soul Society needs me more than you do sometimes!" The temperature of the entire house was going decidedly southward.
"Really? So you'd leave me if your precious Soul Society told you to?!"
Hitsugaya seemed to be struggling for an answer and made his decision fueled by his anger, "Yes."
"Then I don't see what you even came here for... Hitsugaya-taichou," Ichigo whispered leadenly. Hitsugaya opened his mouth to retort, but stopped when the full force of Ichigo's words hit him. The genius captain suddenly looked very small and lost and exactly like a child.
"...I see. Goodbye then, Kurosaki." Hitsugaya hopped over to the window, sliding the pane of glass open slowly, as if hoping that Ichigo would say something and call him back. When no words came, the young taichou hovered in the open frame like he wanted to say something, but he just lowered his head and jumped out into the night, disappearing.
Ichigo crumpled to the ground, hurt beyond words because he had hurt Hitsugaya. He'd hurt his Tou-chan and that hurt more than anything. Every barrier Ichigo might have had crumbled and he began to cry.
Outside, Hyourinmaru was crying with him.
-
Hitsugaya did not appear back at school, nor was his reiatsu anywhere to be found. According to Matsumoto, who had come back to visit, the genius taichou was not back in Soul Society.
Ichigo could not stop thinking about the white-haired shinigami.
He hoped that he was safe.
On the way home from school, his substitute shinigami badge went crazy, but it seemed to be malfunctioning. His body was acting like one of Urahara's crappy gigai.
Ichigo was panicking, his body wasn't separating and the Hollows were practically on top of him.
A particularly nasty one was about to strike, but the blow never reached him. A spray of blood washed over him and in one terrible, moment, he realized that Hitsugaya, his Tou-chan, had taken a blow for him.
The petit shinigami had never seemed so worse for wear. His hair drooped, his robes had faded to an ashen grey and his zanpaktou was lying on the ground, unreachable from where they were standing, unreachable except unless he used shunpo, which didn't look like any sort of option at the moment. Ichigo was staring, gawking more like it, and something in him stirred.
The Hollows behind Hitsugaya roared in delight as the taichou's reiatsu flared up, enveloping the shinigami in blue light and casting a shadow over his face. His hakama and haori flared to black and his hands curled into fists.
"Don't just stand there, Ichigo!" Hitsugaya roared before charging into the thick of the mob of Hollows, blasting them with weak kido. The white-haired boy disappeared in the crowed of negative souls and Ichigo, spurred on by fear and concern, sprang out of his body, cutting the Hollows down until there were no more to be seen.
Forgetting about his body, the orange-haired teen rushed to his Tou-chan's side. Hitsugaya's eyes were closed, but he opened them when he felt Ichigo kneel next to him.
"Good. You aren't hurt." The young taichou attempted a smiled, but only managed a grimace of pain.
"Toushiro, you idiot. Where have you been?" the substitute shinigami admonished, despairing at the amount of blood that the other had lost.
"Urahara Shoten, trying to figure out how to same I'm sorry. I love you, Ichigo." The words were more breathed than spoken.
Ichigo, blinded by tears, grabbed Hitsugaya's spirit communicator and dialed the first number in the listed contacts.
"Hitsugaya-taichou! Where have you been?! We're all worried sick about you and that damned Urahara won't tell us anything!!" Matsumoto scolded from the end.
"Matsumoto. It's Ichigo. There's been an accident involving a mob of Hollows. I need you to open the gate for me."
"Wha- Ichigo! An accident?! What happene-"
"MATSUMOTO. OPEN THE GATE NOW. I DON'T WANT HIM TO DIE!" Ichigo yelled into the mouthpiece.
Rangiku was obviously panicked on the other end, but as any good fukutaichou should, she kept her head and ordered the gate to be opened.
Ichigo picked up Hyourinmaru, putting it between Zangetsu and his own back. Carefully collecting himself, he picked up the now unconscious tenth division taichou and waited calmly for the gate with his eyes squeezed shut.
'Don't die Toushiro. Please, hold on.'
-X3-
Ichigo looked down, unable to watch his Toushiro suffer, his fingernails drawing blood from his palms. He wished that anything he said would fix the situation. He wished that he could go back and stop himself from arguing with the irritable tenth division taichou. He wished that his words could reach the unconscious boy in the next room.
"I'M SORRY TOUSHIRO! I LOVE YOU!"
The words spilled out of him before he could even think of stopping them. On some plane, he reached for Hitsugaya and held on tight. On some plane, he found the white-haired taichou of the gotei 13 and merged with him.
In the current plane that they occupied, his reiatsu surged across the wards and fused with the weakening reiatsu of a certain boy genius.
Unohana and her fellow fourth division officers were stunned. And unmediated reiatsu transfusion was almost unheard of. Isane moved to her taichou's side.
"Unohana-taichou! Hitsugaya has stabilized!"
The peaceful fourth division stayed stunned for a moment, but nodded her head and let a smile spread across her gentle features, "Yes, of course. Please release the wards and let Kurosaki-san in to see Hitsugaya-taichou. If Matsumoto-fukutaichou comes you may let her in as well. Kindly remind her that she is not allowed to manhandle Hitsugaya-taichou until he has recovered. Come, let's go, Isane."
The healer marched out of the room, her fukutaichou at her heels.
Ichigo waited until most of the fourth division shinigami had left before entering the room himself. The young taichou had been cleaned up and he looked every bit a child as he slept. The orange-haired shinigami smiled fondly at the sight, heart relieved.
"Thanks for not dying, Hitsugaya-taichou."
To Ichigo's surprise, a heavy voice answered him, "Thts... To... shwro... to you... Kuro...sakey..."
The orange-teen laughed a little, "Sorry, I almost forgot... Tou-chan."
Whew! Glad that's over. It's like, 5:22 in the morning, central time, now and I haven't slept a wink yet. Please review? I know it's not that good, but i'd like feedback. I'ma gonna nap now. Gryphie out.