I was blocked from Fanfiction by my parents for the last month or so, but I finally found a way around my dad's blocking thing!

SO, I'M NOW BACK!

Please tell me what you think of this!

A Bump on the Head

"Taichou, you've been sitting there for three days…"

Rangiku Matsumoto stared at her captain's stiff form seated near the window. The glare of the sunlight prevented her from seeing the number ten written on his back, but she knew him well enough to figure out that it was him. She inched forward, one decided step at a time, until she towered over Hitsugaya Toushirou's figure. Out came her zanpakuto, and down onto his head it went. The small captain's body crumpled to the floor.

"Taichou!" shouted Rangiku as kneeled to the floor besides the now unconscious Hitsugaya.

'Crap, he didn't block me!'

Rangiku ran towards the 4th Division headquarters with the limp body of the her captain dangling dangerously from her shoulder.

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"Well, he seems to be fine, besides lacking nourishment. After his encounter with Aizen previously, he refused stay and rest after receiving treatment, so his body wasn't quite recovered when he went back to his duties as captain. But refusing to eat…"

Hitsugaya was barely conscious, but conscious enough for him to hear the soft-voice of the 4th Division captain, Unohana Retsu, carry through the slightly open door. His head hurt. A lot. All he remembered was sitting beside his office window, staring out into Soul Society, hearing Rangiku's voice, and suddenly going blank. For some reason, he felt that Rangiku must have been some part of him blacking out and the pain on the back of his head, but all that was forgotten as he opened his eyes and looked towards his right.

Hinamori Momo reclined in the infirmary bed next to his. Her eyes closed, breathing slow and deliberate. The paleness of her skin was the only clue to her comatose state.

"Hinamori…"

It all came back. The waves of pain and guilt came back. The reason for him sitting by his desk came back. He'd promised that he'd protect her. He'd broken that promise to himself.

Aizen Sousuke, captain of the 5th Division, had betrayed them. He betrayed her. Hinamori, the one who had trusted him the most, his own vice-captain. No one had known. But there were warning signs, Hitsugaya told himself. You were just too slow to pick up on them.

He laughed bitterly to himself. He was the youngest shinigami to ever reach captain rank, and his intelligence was said to be genius. And yet, it still wasn't enough for him to be able to figure out that Aizen was a traitor until it was already too late.

Hitsugaya was convinced the Ichimaru Gin, the captain of the 3rd Division, was the power-hungry one who was fully capable to betraying Soul Society. He thought he had it all figured out. He thought that the whole execution by using the Soukyoku was part of Gin's plan to take the power of the blade for himself. He thought Gin had killed Aizen, that morning when he found Aizen's body crucified on the wall. But he had been wrong. The whole thing was a decoy. Aizen had created the illusion of his own death, and had Gin act suspiciously in order to distract the rest of Soul Society from his own true goal. Aizen then wrote a letter to Hinamori, telling her that Hitsugaya had betrayed them, forcing Hinamori to hate him. But he'd long forgiven her for that. Right now, Hitsugaya would rather have a living, well Hinamori that hated him than this cold, unfeeling body in the bed next to his.

After everything that had happened, Aizen revealed himself to Hinamori, but wounded her fatally. Hitsugaya had been too late. He figured it out too late. He arrived to see the expression of shock on her face, and the grin on Aizen's. He arrived only after she'd been hurt, and even then wasn't able to even compare to Aizen's power. Aizen's was able to defeat him in a single stroke, and he had collapsed beside Hinamori.

"I'm such a fool, you know that, Hinamori?"

But she didn't respond.

He sighed and leaned back against the pillow.

He had failed to protect the one he loved.

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Rangiku walked back to her captain's office.

'Have to go clean up that pool of blood. Still can't believe he's still beating himself up over that though,' she thought to herself.

She looked back up at the sky. Aizen had disappeared with the Menos Grande through the expanding blue before her after throwing Soul Society into utter chaos. No one blamed Hinamori's wounds and condition on Hitsugaya but himself.

'That's what you get for always being so serious.'

Rangiku sighed. She'd have to go back later and check up on him later. Now she really wished that Hinamori would wake up and somehow break Hitsugaya's silence.

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Unohana peeked through the crack in the door, and saw Hitsugaya still glancing at Hinamori now and then from where he rested. The emotions that reflected off the young captain's face were mixed, ranging from anger, to pain, to compassion. Unohana stood up, and began to walk away, when she felt a tug on her sleeve.

"Hey, it that Hitsugaya kid still in there and awake?"

She turned her head and met the sight of the orange-haired shinigami who had broken into Soul Society and attempted to stop Aizen. The trademark scowl still rested on the face of Kurosaki Ichigo asked he waited for an answer.

"Yes, he is right in there. Do you need something?"

"Just need to have a little talk." 'And beat some sense into that idiot,' though Ichigo to himself.

"Sure, just go right in. But don't wake anyone else. I'll come back to check later." Unohana walked down the corridor and disappeared behind the corner.

Ichigo opened the door hurriedly. All Hitsugaya heard was a slam, and suddenly he found Ichigo blocking his view of Hinamori.

Hitsugaya's hand went to his zanpakuto.

"Look, I don't know you too well, but I can already tell that you're being really stupid right now," growled Ichigo.

"What do you want?" Hitsugaya demanded, hand still clutching the zanpakuto.

"Why have you been just sitting like this for the last few weeks?"

"Is there something wrong with meditating?"

"Sane people don't go meditating for days on end!"

"Sane people don't yell at people they barely know," Hitsugaya emphatically stated.

Ichigo fell silent, face fuming from his flaring temper, and looked away.

"I'm only here 'cuz I wanted to help. I kind of know what you're going through right now."

"How can you know what I am going through right now? You have no idea! I broke a promise I made with myself! She could have died, and it would have been my fault. Every day I'm hoping that she wakes up, but then I realize that I don't even know I can face her if she does when I can't even face myself right now…"

Hitsugaya trailed off as he turned away.

"So you do have some emotion."

Hitsugaya's head whipped back to glare at Ichigo.

Ichigo scratched his head, and looked out the window.

"You know, when I came into Soul Society, I was kinda in the same situation as you. Rukia was taken back here, and if you really think about it, it was because of me. If she hadn't given me my shinigami powers that night, she wouldn't have broken any rules of Soul Society, and she wouldn't have been given the death penalty. I thought about it a lot. I felt that I owed her, and that her dying would become my fault. And that was the last thing I wanted. I came here to save her and right a wrong. All you need to do is actually move on from just blaming yourself and do something about it. Hinamori isn't going to wake up to greet a Hitsugaya who's mulling over his own guilt and stupidity. She'd want to see the Hitsugaya that she's known since childhood."

Hitsugaya didn't answer.

"Well, I'm done here. If you change for the better, then great, but if you don't I can't say I didn't try."

And with that, Ichigo swept out of the room, this time gently closing the door behind him.

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Rukia stared at the window below her.

'Was that really Ichigo talking there?'

She crept to the roof of the building and saw Ichigo's receding figure into the sunset.

'No, that couldn't have been him! I have to get him back here and get an explanation from both of them.'

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Hitsugaya slid off of the bed and made his way towards the chair at the other side of the room. He grabbed it and positioned it next to Hinamori's bed.

Sitting down, he waited as he nervously knitted his brows, letting only half of his emerald orbs peek out at Hinamori who was still breathing peacefully. He slowly reached out for the small hand that hung over the side of the bed.

'Someone's holding my hand. It feels so warm…'

Hinamori had just enough to open her eyelids, but she thought better of it and kept them closed. She had a faint idea of who it might be, so just waited until she finally heard the low timbre of Hitsugaya's voice to confirm her assumption.

"I'm so sorry, Hinamori. I told you I'd always be there for you. Even after you became vice-captain of another division and I became captain of the tenth division. Aizen betrayed us, and I wasn't able to stop him. But I'll train harder. I'll get better, so that I'll be able to protect you next time. I won't fail you again. I'll always be there because I love you."

Hinamori's heart skipped a beat, and she felt her breathing quicken. She forced herself to revert back to the composed breathing she had before. She had to make sure.

But Hitsugaya now fell silent. Hinamori couldn't see but she felt a tug as Hitsugaya moved closer towards her. She could feel his breath over her face. Hinamori opened her eyes, and saw his lips beginning to close in on hers…

The door slammed open.

"That's it, Hitsugaya-taichou, you're not gonna mope around anymore, not if I can help it. This dense cycle ends right here, right…" Rangiku trailed off as the sight before her eyes fully registered in her mind. Hitsugaya was now completely red-faced and had turned away. Hinamori had sat up, and also had a beet-red face.

"Oh my…" Unohana said as she walked in on the scene.

"No, you're NOT getting away until you explain what you were talking to Hitsugaya-taichou about and why you mentioned my name. Hey, COME HERE!" yelled Rukia and she dragged Ichigo into the room by an earlobe. She scanned the scene and rested her eyes on the still shocked Hinamori.

"Oh, Hinamori-chan, your awake again!"

Hitsugaya whipped his head back at those words, only to hit his head on the bed-post. Within seconds, the captain was sprawled spread-eagle on the ground.

"Taichou!"

"Hitsugaya-san!"

"Shiro-chan!"