A/N: Just a little One-shot for Memorial Day. I thought it would be nice, so I just wrote a little drabble of some sort from my story Fractured Hesitation. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor its character. Just the ones made up in this labyrinth called my mind.

.Memorandum.

- Have a placid Memorial Day.

"Whadya say, sis? You know you need to get out more… what better way than to treat me to some of Karakura's infamous ice cream~!"

"You've used 'infamous' out of context, bonehead."

"Hazumi-nee-chaaaan~! Why don't you love me so?"

"Why are you so obnoxious?"

Patting my hand over my mouth, I yawned something awful, eyes watering from sleep-deprivation. My hand started to move again, and my gaze flew down to the stack of paperwork I had been stuck with prior to Hosyu's welcomed arrival.

From the other side of the room an annoyed voice reached my ears, "Why don't you both get out of my room?"

I didn't respond, only continued with my single-minded task of finishing off this draining paperwork that I had retrieved from Seireitei earlier this week. Being the Fuku Kidocho really was irritating; I had yet to discover the quirks to my job.

Quite frankly, I just wanted a fucking lollipop.

"Nee-chan~! You are so mean~"

Thunk.

My brother uttered a particularly girlish scream as he fell out of the windowsill, landing down below with the utmost clumsiness. I didn't look up from my work, "Thanks, Ichigo."

A noncommittal grunt was just thrown in my general direction, so I glanced at the irritable boy from the desk- his desk, actually- from which I was working. Ichigo Kurosaki, tall kid with a mop of disheveled orange hair and these intense tawny eyes, always having a scowl printed on his handsome face. I had become accustomed to his scowling face for quite some time now.

"Who crapped in your cornflakes this morning, Kurosaki?"

"Tch. You really need to learn how to communicate like a normal person, Hazumi."

I sighed, placing my pen on the desk and turning in my chair, following Ichigo's form, who had gone to lie on his bed. He stretched his arms and put them behind his head, closing his eyes. God I wish I could do that right now.

"Shouldn't you be at school…?"

"It's Saturday."

"Fuckin' slacker."

"It's Saturday!"

And a beautiful Saturday at that. The sky was cloudless, glowing that beautiful blue that even beat the summer days in Seireitei.

"Go make friends. You shouldn't be lazing around on a charming day like this."

"What are you doing, then?"

"Work."

"I'll go when you go."

"That'll be never. You'll get fat."

"What're you sayin then, you don't eat?"

"I have an abnormally high metabolism. You, obviously, work for your bod, you lazy shit."

A pause, and then his deadpan voice, "That made absolutely no sense…"

I didn't answer; I was back to work, hunched over at the wooden desk before the window. The only sounds you could hear in the room were Ichigo's steady breathing and the scribble of my pen, signature after signature.

Letter after letter.

Heartfelt apologies and smooth praisings after another.

I felt hands on my shoulders, a face right beside mine. "What are you even signing, anyway?"

"Letters."

His hands were moving slowly, massaging the taut lines of my shoulder blades.

Closing my eyes slowly, I sighed in delight, letting my neck go limp and my head to fall forward.

But my pen was still in my hand. "Take a break."

"I can't."

"You gotta have that in by a deadline or something?"

His hands moved lower to my back, hitting just the spot. "You could say that."

"Why are you always so indirect?"

"Because I talk to you eighty percent of the time. Gotta keep you interested somehow."

He chuckled lightly in my ear, causing me to still for a few moments.

A chaste kiss on my cheek, and then the warmth was gone. I didn't turn as I heard him walking around the room.

"Where are you off to?"

"My old man wanted me to run to the store for groceries. Want anything while I'm there?"

I shook my head, eyes narrowing on this particular letter I had just finished.

Hearing the door shut from behind me, I sighed, placing my head in my hands. This last letter, and I was done. Grabbing my cardigan from the back of my chair, I went for the assortment of memorandums on my desk, shoving them into a tote bag Ichigo had gotten for me for my birthday.

Five hundred eighteen years old, baby.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I still felt the tingling sensation of where Ichigo's hands had soothed my muscles.

I sighed, going for the door. Shutting it quietly behind me.

-X-

"Hazumi-chan! I didn't know you were here!"

Stopping mid-stride, my head rotated slowly, spotting Ichigo's kid sister Yuzu staring at me with her big brown eyes. She was setting the table in the kitchen, and had intercepted me right as I stepped in.

Drat, foiled again.

My lips quirked, "Sorry, Yuzu-chan. Your brother's been holdin' me captive in his closet upstairs."

The small girl blinked slowly, hand freezing as she leaned over to grab a cup from the counter. "Ah…?"

I mentally snickered to myself as I watched her face pale; her big eyes blink at me.

"Ichi-nii…?"

Sighing with mock sadness, I was about to comment on Ichigo's rude make-believe behavior, but a dull voice cut me off.

"It's the norm for Ichi-nii, Yuzu."

Karin stood in the threshold, leaning against the wooden framing with her arms crossed, a line where her lips belonged. Her face was neutral, but if I didn't know any better I would say her black orbs had a glint of mischief concealed quite professionally. I had to admit, the girl had skill with facial expressions.

A light chuckle escaped my lips as I saw Yuzu still at a loss for words, and I found my feet moving towards the door.

"Will you be eating lunch with us, Hazumi-chan?"

My hand was on the doorknob, and I glanced back, seeing Yuzu going for an extra plate. There were now five chairs at the dinner table- the Kurosaki's official acknowledgement that I frequented their house quite often.

"No, Yuzu-chan. Not today."

I opened the door, receiving a bright welcome from the glowing ball of fire in the sky. My eyes closed in content, and before I stepped out, I called back to the two girls. "You don't have to worry about my dinner either. I'll be out for awhile."

"Do you want me to tell Ichi-nii where you are?"

Yuzu was a sweet kid. Karin was a perceptive one.

I liked them both.

My back was still facing the girls as I heaved my tote to hang over my shoulder with comfort.

"Nah, he'll find me if he wants to. Just tell him I'll be gone all day."

-X-

Only one foot inside the doorway, "I'm home…"

It was too quiet.

Sudden movement.

"YOU'RE LATE!"

Quite suddenly a foot crashed straight into the wall, Ichigo having ducked not a second too soon. He managed to pull a tuck and roll- a skill in which Hazumi was too practiced in. She was rubbing off on him.

"What time do you think it is, YOU DELINQUENT SON?"

The substitute shinigami pulled an annoyed grimace, scoffing at his crazy father.

Juggling the brown grocery bag in his hand, "It's six…"

"AND WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? I SENT YOU OUT AT ALMOST TEN THIS MORNING!"

This was true. Ichigo had gone out earlier this morning, and had returned from a normal grocery trip hours than it usually took. But Keigo was one hell of a persistent guy, chasing him around like that all afternoon. He really needed to get out more…

And then there were a few hollows who insisted on foiling Ichigo's attempt to get home with the watermelon intact, and the eggs un-cracked. And the pluses that needed to have performed a Soul Burial. A busy afternoon for the teenager who tried to live a normal human life and play the shinigami role of Karakura.

Setting the groceries on the table, he took a look around the kitchen, seeing Yuzu washing some kind of food under the faucet, his father gathering himself and brushing off, and Karin reading a magazine at the table. One was missing.

Noting her absence, "Where's Hazumi?"

Karin sighed from the table, pulling the sucker out of her mouth- a gift from Hazumi. Twirling it in her fingers, another habit picked up from the Kidoshu Lt, "She went out around lunchtime."

"She's not back yet?"

"What are you, her keeper?"

Rolling his brown eyes, the sub shinigami moved to put the groceries away, stepping beside Yuzu. The sandy-haired girl asked for some fruit, which he gave to her, and she proceeded to wash it off, "She just said she'd be gone all day. Hazumi-chan told me not to fix her plate for dinner, but I will anyways. I'll wrap it up for her so when she comes back she can have a good meal. Even though she eats with us all the time, it looks like she doesn't eat a thing."

Yuzu continued to contemplate about the girl's health, while Ichigo stayed silent, wondering where the hell the blonde could have gone.

"And her Ojii-san works her nonstop… I wonder if she ever eats at home…"

Here the ginger sweat-dropped, only imagining what stories Hazumi could have concocted and spoon-fed his unsuspecting sister.

"Hazumi-chan is a part of this family~! She works so hard and comes over here to keep your brother in place, girls! She deserves a good family!"

Scratch that, Ichigo thought with a tick mark, what stories she hatched up for his whole family to buy. His father practically had fat crocodile tears running down his cheeks.

"And she evens cleans Ichi-nii's room…"

"Not you too, Karin!" Incredulous, Ichigo had whirled on his sister, seeing her staring back at him with her black eyes. Deadpan. With a tinge of horror blooming in his gut, the boy realized he had seen that look before, just given with ten times the dullness.

Hazumi was rubbing off on his sister as well.

Muttering under his breath, the shinigami moved towards the stairs, setting to find where Hazumi had gone off to.

"Where are you going, Ichi? Dinner's almost ready!"

"Yuzu, do you know where Hazumi keeps her planner…?"

Blinking, the small girl tapped her finger to her chin. "It should be in your desk…"

"Why do you know that?"

Karin flipped the page of her magazine, "Why do you need her planner, Ichigo?"

But the boy didn't respond, just heading up the stairs, taking two at a time. It wasn't like Hazumi to be all cryptic and not send word. She usually didn't just up and disappear without first telling him where she went. She didn't really hide anything from him anymore.

Not after all that they had been through.

Striding into his room, the boy yanked the drawer of his desk open, searching for her little black book. Hazumi had opted to using a planner when she started coming to the Real World more often. Ichigo didn't know how she had done it, but somehow she had bargained with her captain to let her stay here for extended periods of time.

Knowing her though, she probably abused her privileges as Fuku Kidocho and the power that came with it.

Yeah, that sounded more like her.

"There you are…" The book was in his hands, and he opened the black cover, furrowing his brows. With his eyes glued to the page, he made his way back into the kitchen, walking down the stairs quite hazardously.

"What's the date…?"

"My delinquent son doesn't even stay in the present-!"

Speaking over her crazed father, Karin drawled on, "May 31st, Ichi."

The boy took a seat at the table, flipping to the date. Scribbled in Hazumi's small script were the words, 'Memorial Day.'

Hazumi had many weird habits. One of them was adopting random holidays from all sorts of foreign nations. Seeing as how old she was, she had seen many things in the world and had come to appreciate the small things. Holidays were just one of those small things she made sure to never miss.

"Memorial Day…"

"Is that what is written?"

Glancing up, Ichigo's gaze met his father's. He nodded slightly, and that had Isshin clapping his hands, beaming. "I knew that girl had a heart of gold~!"

Ignoring his father's normal outburst, Ichigo glanced back down at the small calendar. Then he saw something else.

More writing, this time reading, 'Letters & Memorandums.' And a small check beside said wording.

Flashing back to that morning, Ichigo furrowed his brows.

"What are you even signing, anyway?"

"Letters."

"A deadline?"

"You could say something like that."

And he even saw a peak of her scribbled writing on one of those letters that morning.

The one she had not taken with her. It just didn't occur to him then.

"I read in a book once, 'A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.' Unnamed soldier or not, I respect you in total confidence. I would put my life in your hands once again with the utmost certainty that I would come out alive. Because that's what soldiers do when at war. We form bonds and grow together. We all lose a piece of ourselves together out there. And when one dies, that little piece of each one of us dies. A piece of me died with you that day."

He hadn't even thought about it until now, actually. It just went through one ear and out the other- figuratively speaking, of course.

But now he knew where Hazumi was.

-X-

It was late by the time I walked in the door. The moon was shining brightly throughout the thick black of the night, and I tiptoed through the kitchen as to not wake any occupants in the Kurosaki household.

Gaze trailing to the kitchen table, I stopped, blinking.

Set right there at my seat was a wrapped up meal, with a little sticky note on top. My lips curling, I picked up the note silently, smile broadening when I saw Yuzu's neat scrawl printed on the yellow posted. She was such a sweet kid…

Though I wasn't hungry.

So I opened the fridge, placing the plate on the shelf and closed it, turning to the stairs. Today was a long day; all I really wanted to do was sleep. I'd sleep on Kurosaki's floor if I had to- I just wanted some shut-eye.

Creeping up the stairs, I silently made my way to Ichigo's room, sighing quietly as I opened the door and closed it. No problems tonight. All was quiet. The moonlight filtered in through the light curtain's of Ichigo's room, causing a sliver of illumination to cast a small glow- just enough for me to see. I wouldn't trip over anything tonight.

But I stopped when my eyes landed on Ichigo's desk- the one in which I usually occupied these days. Because stationed on his desk was a piece that hadn't been there this morning, when I had left. It brightened up the room considerably, through my eyes.

A simple sunflower had been placed in a vase, right by the memorandum I had written and not taken with me.

A small smile creeped onto my face, curling my lips.

He always knows the right thing to do.

And here I had thought Ichigo was an idiot all along. My eyes strayed to where said shinigami laid, his back to me.

He was sleeping like a baby.

Or so I had thought.

"You coming to bed anytime soon, or are you going to creep around like a burglar all night…?"

An unladylike snort emitted from my chest at his words, and I slowly stepped towards Ichigo's bed, plopping down on his mattress as he made room. I had used to think his bed was a rock, but as time passed I soon came to like it- most days kicking him to the floor and hogging the mattress all to myself. Too many times had I booted him to the floor, taking his bed for my own.

"Thanks," I whispered, grabbing for the blanket I had come to call my own.

Ichigo uttered a noncommittal grunt. "Memorial Day, huh."

"Yeah," I yawned, closing my eyes.

"You subject yourself to that sadness each year?"

"It just feels as they deserve it, you know?"

Silence. I felt the boy roll over, stretching his arm over me, bringing me closer.

Then, "Yeah."

Memorial Day.

"Night, Ichigo."

But the boy was already sleeping.

Sunflowers are my favorite.

-X-

In the next room, Yuzu rolled over in her sleep, her brows knitted tightly. Dreaming, it only consisted of one thought. It was as if she were lucid, thinking something so trivial.

Why would Ichigo keep Hazumi-chan captive in his closet...?

So there you are. Something simple and sweet. Just takes some pressure away from the events in Fractured Hesitation, slows things down a bit. I thought that would be nice for you faithful readers.

You know what to do. You click that button. Empower yourself!