家族　Kazoku

Author's Note: The title means 'family' in Jap. Inspiration came from the Bleach official bootleg about Hitsugaya, and I was resisting the urge to clutch my stomach and roll around the ground laughing since my mom was in the room too XP And yes, to confirm with your suspicions – my HIRS is acting up again! Woot!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything concerning Bleach. If I did, I wouldn't be here in the first place. However, the old grandmother in this part has not been shown in the anime, and I'm not sure about the manga either, so let's just say that I own her appearance and her personality in here.

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Strands of silvery white hair came down and covered a bit of her warm ocean blue eyes. She 'tsk'ed in a murmur to herself and untied her bun before combing her hair back up, tying it back into a small bun once more. After making sure that her hairstyle was neat and tidy, the old grandmother carried on with what she was doing: making her best and favorite dish, the sugared nattou, otherwise known as fermented beans. She eyed the plate of dried persimmons on the dining table, knowing exactly how much he hated dried persimmons, and thus she carefully packed the completed package of sugared nattou in a box. Looking around, she picked up a new piece of cloth she purchased from her last visit to the market and lightly placed the box of sugared nattou inside before wrapping it up in a ribbon knot. Writing the only address she bothered to remember after writing it all these years every now and then, she then walked out of her lonely house and into the busy streets of Junrinan, ready to post her gift.

Hitsugaya Toushirou grumbled a complaint under his breath, signing yet one more sheet of the paperwork. The winter war was coming up soon; he couldn't afford to slack on the paperwork, unlike his carefree big-busted sow of a fukutaichou who seemed to have a talent in pissing him off easily, what with her excuses to visit other divisions when it turned out that she just plain rushed to the bar to meet her drinking buddies. Typical. The day's stack was on the verge of completion which was a very good thing in Hitsugaya's case, for it would mean he would have a lot of free time. Perhaps waking up at 2 am in the morning wasn't such a bad idea after all. He should wake up early more often.

Just as he was about to sign the last sheet of paperwork, a hell butterfly came fluttering into the office. Hitsugaya rolled his eyes to the left; oh right, Matsumoto wasn't here to receive whatever message was embedded into the hell butterfly. Sighing a little, he put down the brush and stretched out a thin bony finger for the butterfly to gently perch on. The wings flapped up and down continuously and slowly as the message got delivered into Hitsugaya's mind. The young captain blinked a few times when the message ended and the butterfly awaited him to give a reply. "Tell him that I'll be there as soon as possible," Hitsugaya simply stated and the hell butterfly fluttered out of the office, ready to deliver the message. He stared at the unholy paper, ready to shred it to pieces if anyone else were to interrupt his moment of silence and went on with making one last signature for the day…

…when the door came banging open. "Oi, Toushirou! Man…You really like waking up early in the morning, don't you?"

He vowed to tear the paper up, but he couldn't bring himself to. Calmly, he took a deep breath and went on with the signing as if nothing happened. "What do you want, Kurosaki?"

Ichigo shrugged casually. "Nothing much. I just wanted to drop by and say hi."

"Well, you've said hi. Now get out."

Keeping his crush on the icy captain a secret from everyone else excluding the party involved (since they had bravely declared their love for each other not too long ago Author gets smacked by Hitsugaya), the strawberry leaned in, his elbows on the working table and looked at the tuft of white hair expectantly. "Aww. Is little Toushi-chan being cold and cranky?" When he saw the trademark twitch from said white-haired prodigy, he smirked. "You know, you should really stop waking up so early. It's not like the paperwork's gonna fly away and leave you early in the morning."

"…What makes you think I'll actually listen to your idiocy, Kurosaki?" Hitsugaya retorted coldly, placing the whole stack of completed paperwork to one side. He stood up from his seat. "Get your stupid ass out of here. I'm busy."

"With what?" Ichigo asked curiously. "And where are you going, Toushirou?" Inwardly, the orange strawberry's smirk widened. Wherever his lil' Shiro goes, he will follow. Oh yes, he will follow…

"A place where I will be far away from the likes of you."

"…That's cold."

"Good. It'll keep your baka germs away from me." Without saying as much as a good bye, Hitsugaya shunpo-ed out of the office in a flash and for a moment there, Ichigo thought that Hitsugaya was never in the office to begin with until he noticed the completed stack of paperwork. Desiring to give chase, the strawberry made a futile attempt to sense wherever his secret crush went and stood on his heels before picking up speed and dashed out using shunpo. He felt a hint of iciness somewhere and followed it, and as much as everyone said that he sucked at controlling his own reiatsu and following others', if Ishida were to see him now he'd bet that the Quincy would compliment on how much he had improved. Which wasn't much. He still sucked at anything concerning reiatsu. When he arrived, he saw his favorite little captain taking a small obentou (box lunch) from someone he could easily recognize as Seireitei's postman by looking at the bag chock full of letters of all sorts (A/N: Frankly speaking, I have no idea how posting letters in Soul Society goes about so I made a lot of things up by looking at how our daily lives go by).

"So this is from her?" Ichigo heard Hitsugaya ask the postman.

The postman bowed. "Hai, Hitsugaya-taichou." When he got up from his crouching position, his hand dug into the bag of letters and pulled out one certain letter that was in an ice blue envelope with a white chop on the upper right hand corner. It could be easily concluded as the Hitsugaya family chop; the kanji was very apparent. "She also asked me to pass this letter to you," the postman continued as he stretched out both arms to give the letter before bowing again.

Hitsugaya took the letter carefully, his fingers running by the edges of the envelope gently and tenderly, as if unwilling to let any damage come to it. "…Arigatou. You may leave now."

"Hai." The postman, who wasn't a shinigami, walked normally like any other soul and headed towards other divisions to deliver the mails. Hitsugaya stared at the envelope intently, realizing that he had the rest of the day of free time to himself. For a workaholic taichou like him, training was a must, but for some odd reason (in Ichigo's opinion) Hitsugaya didn't feel like doing any training for the day. The strawberry noticed that Hitsugaya's actions seemed a little strange and different from the usual times; he was suddenly very gentle to a little piece of paper. Was it from a very important person? Ichigo cringed and scowled. He then followed his favorite little captain to the gate where Jidanbou was working, cautious about his leaking reiatsu that was hard for him to rein.

"Ah, Hitsugaya-taichou!" Jidanbou acknowledged, a bright smile dawning upon his features. "You're an early riser. Got a lot of free time on your hands if you're visiting me, eh?"

"…Ah."

Jidanbou noticed a blue envelope clutched tightly in both of Hitsugaya's hands, even though the captain was somewhat worried about even making a tiny scratch on it. "So," Jidanbou spoke, sitting down next to his friend. It was alright, he guessed; with his captain-class friend around, it should be safe to leave the gate unattended for just a little while. "She finally wrote to you." Noticing that Hitsugaya was unwilling to take his eyes off the letter, the west gate guard suggested, "Well, open it, Hitsugaya-san."

Hitsugaya ignored the use of informalities and went on with the suggestion. It had been months – three months, to be exact – since his grandmother wrote to him. He never wrote back. Well, he never found the time to write back, what with the upcoming winter war and his own personal war; him versus the evil paperwork that threatened to carry out their plan for world domination. Of course, she would send him obentou-s more often than she would letters, but that was mainly because she made a lot of sugared nattou to share with the citizens of Junrinan every now and then. Not that Hitsugaya could blame her. His grandmother was getting on her years (but she was still younger than Yamamoto) and as much as she appeared strong on the outside, she had been battling sicknesses for a long time now. Being old, she was more prone to easy-to-defeat illnesses such as the common cold and the usual coughs, but Hitsugaya knew that his grandmother would usually take a longer time to recuperate before falling sick again. As his fingers curled themselves around the edges of the flop of paper which sealed the envelope altogether, he prayed silently that his grandmother was fine.

My dear Toushirou-chan

How are you? It has been some time since you last came over to visit. How time flies. I still remember the last time you came over to Junrinan…Was it early in the year? Oh well. I miss you, Toushirou. And Momo-chan. Oh yes, how is she? There has been news circulating around Junrinan that she is currently suffering from delusions after the betrayal of her beloved captain. Have you the time to pay her a visit? I hope you have, Toushirou-kun. You know exactly how close you two were during your childhood days.

I've packed another obentou box for you. If I remember correctly, you love eating the sugared nattou made by me. Please enjoy all of the care packages I'll be sending you. It'll be your birthday soon, won't it? I'll be sure to send you all of your favorite dishes, Toushirou-kun.

Sleep tight, eat well and be happy always.

Your beloved obaa-san

Hitsugaya folded the delicate paper back and placed it into the envelope, sighing softly to himself. Jidanbou noticed the worried and near sorrowful expression on his friend's face, knowing exactly how much Hitsugaya missed his grandmother having not been able to see her for months and months. He knew exactly how hard it would be to just let Hitsugaya walk through the gate into the states of Rukongai; being a captain and all, Hitsugaya needed to seek the permission from the soutaichou first and wait for his request to be approved before he could enter Junrinan. This new stupid law was enforced when Aizen's betrayal shook the whole of Soul Society and Yamamoto decided that it was time to be stricter on everyone else to prepare them for the winter war. Captains couldn't just leave as and when they wanted to when it wasn't their turn to patrol the states of Rukongai. Anytime now, Aizen would launch a perfect sneak attack, and it'd probably be the end of them if they weren't prepared.

Jidanbou looked around at the surroundings. No one else was there except for him and Hitsugaya. Good. The giant stood up and looked around again to make sure before he unlocked the gate. The creaking of the gates opening up snapped Hitsugaya out of his daze, causing a startled white-haired captain to look up at his friend. "Jidanbou…What…?"

"Now's your chance, Hitsugaya-taichou. I won't tell anyone, but leave your haori behind just in case someone recognizes you as a captain," Jidanbou whispered, eyeing the surroundings carefully. "No one's here. Go!"

Hitsugaya sucked in a deep breath to calm himself down. It wasn't everyday that he would break the rules, but whenever he did, it was necessary. This was definitely necessary. "Arigatou, Jidanbou." He pulled the sleeves of his haori down, removing it from his usual attire and left it lying beside Jidanbou before dashing through the large opening of the gate.

Grabbing the chance, Ichigo ran out from his hiding spot faraway to follow, but Jidanbou closed the gate by the time he reached there and looked at Ichigo suspiciously. "Now what are you doing here?" (A/N: Did I mention that Jidanbou is way OOC? I made him act the way I want)

"C'mon Jidanbou, open the damn gate! I need to talk to Toushirou about something!"

"…You saw?"

"Oi, it was damn obvious from there," Ichigo stubbornly insisted, pointing towards his hiding spot. "Just open the damned thing and I won't tell anyone!"

"First off, why are you looking for Hitsugaya-taichou?"

"I told you, I need to talk to him about something!" Ichigo half-lied.

"Talk to him when he returns."

"No way in hell I'll wait that long…It's really really damn fucking important! Lemme go through!"

"…Where have I heard that from?" Jidanbou muttered to himself. Remembering the fight he had with Ichigo, making fun of the protector's name, getting his ass kicked…Jidanbou stood up and lifted the gate. "Alright, alright, go through."

"Thanks, Jidanbou!" Ichigo thanked as he shunpo-ed out of the gate and into the states of Rukongai. A wave of nostalgia hit both of the spiky-haired shinigamis upon landing their feet on the grounds of Rukongai, Hitsugaya being a whole lot faster than the orange-haired vaizard. For Hitsugaya, the memories of playing with Hinamori began flashing in his mind. Watermelons seemed to be perfect at the moments, and he would remember giving a yell of triumph whenever he won at a top-spinning match. For Ichigo, it was the memories of Orihime healing Jidanbou when he was hurt and all of the other souls gathering around. He didn't spend much time in Rukongai and he most definitely didn't spend much time in the lonely (but huge) house that had a garden growing all sorts of plants and fruits, and a little fish pond plus a swing for decorative purposes too. He had no idea how, but he figured out that Hitsugaya had most probably come to this house. It was an odd feeling tugging at his mind, eating him up, telling him that Toushirou had definitely come to this house.

"Hey! Who do you think you are? Barging on people's property like that!" an old grandmother shouted, coming into Ichigo's view. She had come out from the house with a really pissed look that reminded Ichigo of Hitsugaya. Speaking of whom, where was the shortie anyway?

Ichigo raised his hands to block his face from getting hit by the broom that the old grandmother chose as a weapon and opened his mouth to protest, "O-oi! Wait! I ain't intruding or anything! I just want to look for Toushirou!"

Grandma Hitsugaya instantly stopped at the mentioning of her grandson. "Oh, you're an acquaintance of my grandson's?"

"…Grandson?" Ichigo was baffled at first. Did that mean that Hitsugaya was born in Soul Society to begin with? But he thought all humans had to die in the material world first before they got sent to Soul Society…? "Toushirou's your grandson?"

"Yes," Grandma replied. "Oh, do come in, do come in. We can't have anyone looking at a shinigami such as yourself." Note: It's a hundred and eighty degrees turn in personality.

Ichigo followed the old grandmother up the steps and into the warm, comfy house that was void of any other living beings. There was a wooden table in the living room, and a few cushions on the floor as chairs. No electrical devices could be spotted, not even a telephone. There weren't that many doors either. As described by Grandma Hitsugaya, one led to the kitchen, another led to the main bedroom that consisted of three beds on the floor, the third leading to the world outside, and one last one led to the garden at the back. The white-haired grandmother went into the kitchen to prepare some hot green tea for her guest and returned to the living room with a welcoming smile and a tray in hand. Ichigo mumbled an uneasy thanks to her and took a sip. He was one who never liked tea.

"How are you in any way connected to my dear Toushirou-chan?"

Grandma's smooth voice snapped Ichigo out of his trance-like state. "Oh! Eh…I'm just someone Toushirou happened to know." Of course he wasn't going to let the grandmother of his favorite icy captain know about their relationship just yet…

Grandma Hitsugaya took a sip of her tea. "Hmm. I see. I understand for a fact that Toushirou-kun left Seireitei without permission. I hope that you won't tell anyone about the matter. He could get seriously punished for it."

Ichigo held up both hands as if in protest. "I won't do anything that stupid to Toushirou, I swear!"

She sighed, "I hold you to that promise then. I don't wish for any harm to come to him. He's my only next-of-kin left."

Ichigo blinked. "Only?"

The old obaa-san nodded sadly. When she eyed the orange-haired strawberry, she couldn't help but feel that this guy, as idiotic as he looked, could be trusted wholly, so she began the story, "I was born in the human world and I was betrothed to the heir of the Hitsugaya family when I grew up. My husband and I then raised our bubbly son together, the next heir of the Hitsugayas. Our son grew up healthy and strong, and when he began dating, we were over the moon. But…"

The young raven-haired man held the two feminine hands into his own and gazed into the dazzling aquamarine eyes of his wife-to-be. They were to be married in a few weeks' time and their families held no objection to their wedding. They planned out the wedding organization carefully and it was to be one of the grandest weddings that the Hitsugaya family would ever live to see. But there was a certain secret that only the two of them held deep in their hearts; a secret that would spell doom for both families if it were to be leaked out. She was pregnant, carrying his child. And already the child's existence was kept a secret for three months long. There was a catch to it: doctors could already tell that the child would not live for long in the womb of his mother. Yes, the terrifying fact was that the child was developing much faster than any other ordinary baby and even at three months old in the womb, his gender could already be identified. It was a boy.

By right, the couple should be happy, but mainly because of the baby, the couple often complained of these monsters they would see at night after they go to sleep. Monsters that could only be seen by them and no one else. Monsters that they only saw in their dreams. They knew they were dreaming; when they opened their eyes, everything was normal. But the monsters spoke of words that they knew and understood: Japanese. Monsters speaking in Japanese was an absurd thing, something uncalled for! But it was true. At least, to them. And their nightmares started ever since she found out she was pregnant. It couldn't be all coincidence; the baby she was carrying was the target of the monsters that plagued them every night of their lives thereafter. They didn't know if they should keep the baby or not.

He had a life; it would be wrong of them to just take it away like that all because of some stupid monsters in their nightmares threatening to kill them to get their baby. But if they were to keep him, who knew what would happen to them? Disasters might befall upon them for all they knew. But thus, they reached a consensus together. They would keep the baby and raise him. At least let the child have a glimpse of the world before any disasters fell upon the families.

On the day of their wedding, they saw the monsters which came attacking them once more. And they never saw the light of day again.

Ichigo listened intently, his elbow resting on the edge of the table. So where did Hitsugaya come in? As if she had read his mind, Grandma Hitsugaya continued, "When I woke up, I found myself here in Junrinan. I tried looking for any other members of my family, hoping that at least my son and his wife were alive. The girl was carrying the child, after all. But after searching high and low, I found that I was the only one who survived the trip to Soul Society. I was devastated by the news." Bead-like drops of salty tears streamed down her wrinkles as she smiled sadly. "That was when I heard from someone in Junrinan that someone else was taking care of a couple of which one of them was heavy with child and I immediately thought of my son and his wife. I found the kind soul who was taking care of the said couple but by the time I reached there, they had already been reincarnated back to the realm of the living."

Ichigo was deeply saddened by the tragedy that had befallen upon the Hitsugayas, when he instantly thought of his own little Hitsugaya. "Wait, so Toushirou…?"

"It was a miracle. He survived. His parents were still deeply wounded when they came here and Toushirou was still about six months old in his mother's womb. When I reached the home in which my son and daughter-in-law were said to be staying in, they had already passed on. But Toushirou was still alive, clinging onto that tiny flame of the afterlife. He was born here in Rukongai and grew up to be the Toushirou he is now," she ended, smiling widely at last. Even after explaining the history of her family, she found the courage to smile more and her broadened smile gave Ichigo a chance to smile too.

"Ah, so where's Toushirou now?"

Grandma Hitsugaya stood up. "Come with me, but promise that you'll be quiet." She led the silent strawberry over to the door leading to the bedroom and slid the door open slowly and quietly. She gave a small peek and went in, sitting down on the floor next to a curled up blanket that looked like a ball. Ichigo entered the room and closed the door behind him, staring down intently. The tuft of marshmallow-like hair…Was that really who he thought it was? When Hitsugaya Toushirou turned over, moaning a little out of drowsiness in his sleep, Ichigo nearly freaked out. He had never, never, seen a sleeping Toushirou before. Nu-uh. Not once in his entire life. And he had to admit, a sleeping Toushirou looked…cute. Really, really, reeeally cute.

Ichigo took a seat near the sleeping figure of his favorite little captain and smiled warmly at the sight. Hitsugaya was sleeping so soundly, so adorably, that he didn't even notice the high reiatsu belonging to a certain idiot. Sigh…He should really stop waking up so early; it'd totally drain his energy, dammit. That was when he noticed it. A small beautifully packed obentou situated nicely next to Hitsugaya's body. He picked it up, cautious about waking his dear Toushirou up, and stared at it. He unwrapped the cloth and opened the box, the fragrance of hot sugared nattou filling his nostrils. It was either just fermented like five minutes ago or Hitsugaya kept the box shut tight to keep the nostalgic smell inside the box. Ichigo opted for the second option. "Toushirou really likes sugared nattou, doesn't he?"

Grandma Hitsugaya gave a soft sigh as she smiled. "He does." She picked the box from Ichigo's big burly hands and wrapped it back tenderly. "He loved eating it when he was young since I made it nearly every day. I think he just loved the taste of sugared nattou that until now, he still misses the taste. So I occasionally send him care packages. Maybe that's why some of his colleagues comment that he smells of sugared nattou every now and then," she giggled softly. Ichigo blinked. Now that she mentioned it…he did smell of sugared nattou that time when he got so close to the captain that they were merely a breath away. He could practically smell the scent of sugared nattou.

Ichigo noted down in his head that there was an old, dirty, rough-around-the-edges top lying in the corner of the room. "Is that like, something Toushirou loved playing too?" he asked, pointing in the direction of the top.

"Hmm? Oh yes," Grandma Hitsugaya replied with a happy smile. "Toushi-Toushi always has had this special talent of spinning tops. There wasn't anyone in Junrinan who could beat him at spinning tops. It was funny seeing my little grandson boasting about him being the undefeated champion of top-spinning nearly every time someone gets beaten. My grandson is really a talented child. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh yeah, he's talented, alright. Really talented…" Ichigo spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. Who would've thought that the stoic icy captain of the 10th Division was such a proud brat in his early days? It was hilarious just thinking about it.

"Come. We shan't disturb his nap," the old grandmother whispered, standing up from her seat and moving towards the door. "Toushirou doesn't want to remain so small all his life. Sleeping boys are growing boys, as I always say."

So now he thinks his stumpy height's a bother to him? How hilariously interesting. Ichigo nodded and stood up. He was about to leave when he heard someone call his name. It was a soft murmur, but it could be heard. He turned around and looked at his surroundings before he looked down at the sleeping child, finally realizing that it was coming from him. "Mmnn…Ichigo…"

Hell? Was the white-haired genius sleep talking?

Ichigo smiled delicately and knelt down. He leaned in and pressed his lips soothingly against the captain's so as to not disturb the young taichou's beautiful slumber. Smiling in his kiss, Ichigo broke it and stroked Hitsugaya's fluffy white hair, a symbol of the winter snow that was drifting peacefully outside. "Oyasuminasai, Toushirou."

Just as the orange-haired vaizard stood up and turned, a somewhat pissed grandmother stood before him, tapping a foot impatiently as if waiting for an answer. Her arms folded, a silvery white eyebrow raised, her ocean blue eyes staring cold and hard into his, it was like as if she was the total splitting image of Hitsugaya, except much older, wrinklier and totally smelled of soap. Yup, this was Hitsugaya Toushirou's grandmother for sure, no doubt about it…and let's not forget the fact that the orange-haired substitute shinigami mentally labeled his secret crush as a granny's boy; a complete granny's boy, most definitely. As much as indulging in his own perverted thoughts about having intimate contact with the white-haired granny's boy was something that he wanted to dream about, Grandma Hitsugaya was pissed. And you know exactly just how bad it was if a member of the Hitsugaya family got pissed…

"…Ichigo, is it?"

"Eh…Yeah?"

The grandmother went nearer to the frightened strawberry, her expectant look scaring the shit out of the poor trembling protector. Hell, Ichigo thought, she's a whole lot scarier than Toushirou! "My grandson has been talking about you in his sleep."

"Ehehe…And so?"

"And I caught you stealing his virginity."

"Um…If kissing someone briefly is stealing someone's virginity, then the entire world's a rapist, dear grandmama…"

"Oh, so I assume you've raped my dear grandchild many times?"

"Yes. Ah, no no no! No. Of course not."

Grandma Hitsugaya's eyebrow twitched in a very Toushirou-like manner. Perhaps the eyebrow twitching thing was a family gene. Whatever it was, Hitsugaya took after his grandmother in many different aspects, and whenever Hitsugaya twitched, it meant that he had a bad feeling. Oh yes, Grandma Hitsugaya had a really bad feeling about Ichigo, alright… "Ichigo-san."

"Yes?" Ichigo whimpered, sweat dropping a little. His hollow was laughing and rolling about the ground at his expense at the moment. Old Man Zangetsu was moping in his anti-social corner.

"…Exactly who are you to my grandson?"

"Erm…Hehehe…His, um, boyfriend?"

Pause.

"…WTF?"

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A/N: I liked that ending. Don't ask me why; I just liked that ending.

HIRS is acting up…must…control…HIRS…Gah. Two more oneshots coming along soon, and yes I realized that the characters are way OOC. That's why when it comes to humorous HitsuIchi fics that I write, I call it crack. -snickers-

Reflect the truth of which you see

Tsuki-no-Kurokage