"Pretending to be cold,
You are passionate above all others.
You're not someone I can hate.
In the palm of this hand,
Is a gathering of memory fragments,
All I'm sure of is I'm searching for myself."
...
"Go-Chaaan~!" You sang, happily skipping through the living room straight towards the tall, orange haired brooding teenager. At the sound of your voice, the berry's cinnamon eyes widened, landing on your small bouncing frame. "Go-Chan's finally back~!"
"[N-Nickname]..?" Kurosaki Ichigo stuttered, eyes wide and blinking as you threw yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his lean (but still muscular) frame. "What are you talking about? I've been here the whole summer. You just chose to spend it with Karin and Yuzu, not me."
Pulling away from the strawberry, your head tilted up so you could stare down the teen before you. "Kurosaki Ichigo, that's a poor lie."
"[Nickname]-Chan!" Yuzu's voice called out, breaking your intense staring match with her brother. "I didn't know you were coming over!"
"I just stopped by to say hi to Go-Chan. It feels like I haven't seen him all summer long~!" You chirped, wishing that you were tall enough to reach up and ruffle his orange locks; which, you noted, looked a bit longer than usual. More proof that he was actually gone all summer. "Rin-Kun and I were going to go to the park and kick the ball around for a bit. Did you want to come too, Zu-Chan?"
"Of course I'll come! But I'm just watching, okay?"
"That's fine." You grinned. "But maybe you should go change. I don't think you'd wanna wear an apron to the park, ne, Zu-Chan?"
Kurosaki Yuzu flushed, waving her hands in the air as she looked down at her apron. "Y-You're right, [Nickname]-Chan! I'll go change real fast, and tell Karin-Chan that you're here!"
With that, the youngest Kurosaki rushed up the stairs and to the room that she shared with her darker haired twin. Ichigo shrugged at nothing, making his way to the front door to leave.
"Go-Chan, you need to lighten up a bit. Everyone's safe and sound. Nothing bad happened while you were away. I saw to that myself."
Cinnamon eyes widened at your words, as he quickly whipped his head around to stare down at your small frame. "Wh-What..?!"
"You heard me the first time, Go-Chan." You whined, running your hands through your [color] hair. Big, innocent [color] eyes turned up to meet his cinnamon orbs. "While Go-Chan was away, I looked after Rin-Kun and Zu-Chan. You don't need to worry; I'll look after them whenever I can, 'cause they're my friends."
"Err, thanks..?" Ichigo hedged, looking a bit confused. When you first spoke, his mind immediately darted to Hollows. But you were small and innocent, like his two sisters, and obviously you wouldn't know about Hollows. Besides, he reasoned with himself, you couldn't possibly be a Shinigami.
"Mm, no problem!" You cheerfully replied, holding your hands behind your back as you rocked back on the balls of your socked feet. "But, like I said earlier, you need to lighten up, Go-Chan!"
"I'll try, [Nickname]." Ichigo replied, rolling his eyes as he left the house.
"Mou," You lightly whined to yourself aloud, looking at the closed front door of the Kurosaki household. "Thing's will turn around soon, Go-Chan. Especially when you learn how to control it…"
"[Nickname]!" Karin called appearing at the top of the stairs and waving down at you. Under her arm was her black and white soccer ball. "Were you waiting long?"
"Nope," You grinned, turning around to slip your shoes back on. "But I have been waiting to take out my frustrations on your soccer teammates."
Karin grinned, laughing. "Great! Last time you said that you ended up breaking someone's nose!"
...
Feeling your muscles freeze up, your chopsticks dropped from your hand as yet another unfamiliar burst of reiatsu surged.
"[Nickname]-Chan," Mashiro whined as she leaned over to ruffle your [color] locks and steal a treat from your bento, "It's just another Arrancar. No need to freeze up every time you feel their reiatsu."
"Ma-Chan..!" You pouted; spotting one of your favorite treats now hanging from her mouth. "That's my food!"
"That's what you get for staying out so late and only eating now." Kensei muttered, rolling his dark eyes.
"Ken-Kun's a meanie!" You whined, turning towards Shinji and throwing your arms around his waist as you fake cried to try and gain some sympathy. "Get him, Shi-Chan!"
"Kensei does have a point," Shinji pointed out, lightly petting the top of your head and sighing. "Besides, what were you doin' out so late anyway? Does it have anything to do with you flinchin' every time you sense a new reiatsu?"
"[Name]'s been hanging around a bunch of humans lately." Hiyori sneered, crossing her arms over her chest and sending a heated glare your way. It was clear that she still held a grudge against people; whether they be human or spirit.
Shinji raised a blonde eyebrow in surprise as he turned his brown eyes down towards you. "Is that so? I knew you'd been sneakin' off, but I didn't know you were hangin' around humans."
"…They're not normal humans, anyway." You muttered, burying your face in Shinji's black dress shirt and playing with his tie. "Rin-Kun is very aware of what's going on around her. Her sister, not so much, but she's been around everything and is still a target. Their older brother's got a wicked huge amount of reiatsu; I know he's a Shinigami or something. It's Go-Chan, that human that you're thinking about recruiting."
"Kurosaki?" Shinji questioned.
"Mhm, but I prefer to call him Go-Chan." You chuckled, angling your head up so you could stare up and smile at Shinji. "He's really dense. He doesn't even know what I am. He didn't know that I'd been watching him the whole time since I met his sisters a few months ago. While he was gone, I was watching out for them. Go-Chan is back now, so he can take care of Rin-Kun and Zu-Chan."
"Cut the guy some slack; when you don't wanna be found, no one can find ya." Shinji lazily rolled his eyes. "You're the best at hiding your reiatsu."
"I suppose so," You grinned. "Anyways, I can tell that Go-Chan's been stressing lately. It must be his inner Hollow."
"He'll come callin' soon enough." The blonde shrugged, "The dice have been cast, and all that jazz."
"But now that there are other Shinigami here, do you think he'll seek us out?"
"I'm sure he will. 'Specially after he gets his ass kicked by these Arrancar. He's not strong enough to handle 'em yet." Shinji muttered.
"I hope he comes soon. It'll be good to have another Vizard around…"
...
"It's getting late, [Nickname]." Karin noted, pushing some of the shorter strands of her dark hair behind her ear as her foot came to rest on top of her soccer ball. "I guess I should be heading home. Don't want Ichi-Nii to worry."
"Got it," You nodded, stretching your muscles a bit. "That was a good game though. You're getting much better. Your kicks are getting freakishly strong."
"Thanks," Karin grinned, kicking the ball up and swiftly catching it so she could hold it under her arm. "It's my weapon. Bad guys will get a concussion before they know what's hit 'em."
Laughing, you shot her a sly grin. "At least I know not to get on your bad side when you have a soccer ball."
"Got that right." The dark haired twin nodded. "So I'll see you later?"
"Of course; just give me a call whenever you're free." You said, shrugging.
"Got it..!" Karin grinned, waving at you before running off.
Heaving a sigh of relief, you folded your arms behind your head and began heading in the opposite direction.
You were always glad that Karin wasn't the type of person to pry into someone else's life. She never really asked any questions that would be considered too personal. Come to think of it, Karin never even asked why she'd never seen you around at school or anything. It's not like you could tell her that you were hundreds of years old, a Vizard, and had no need for school.
Karin didn't know hardly anything about the outside of her normal human views. It was true that she did have some reiatsu, and that she could sense and see Hollows and other spirits, but she didn't know what exactly everything was. For now it was better to keep her in the dark. You didn't want to tell her about your tainted past.
She had no right to have that innocence stripped from her.
Karin didn't need to know that your own comrades had experimented on you and your other friends, almost killing you. If it wasn't for Urahara, then you surely would have been dead; whether it would have been from the experiment, Aizen, or the rest of the Soul Society for knowing that you all were no longer normal Shinigami.
How you wished that you could go back to the old days; the days before you were aware that Aizen was a horrible person and enjoyed playing with people's lives. Back to the days when you were still the Fukutaicho of the Tenth Division, before Taicho was killed while trying to stop a rebellion.
You were brought out of your musings of the past when you collided with another person. Falling back, your bottom collided with the ground, causing you to wince. Blinking open your [color] eyes, you were met with the sight of bright turquoise and a flash of white.
Both of you were on the ground, sitting and looking across at one another. What shocked you the most wasn't how bright his eyes shone, or how white his hair was, or even how mature he looked for his age, it was the fact that you were both pretty close to eye level. You'd never really met anyone close to your height besides Hiyori; but she was too mean and you didn't really get along with her well enough for her to count.
"Hey," You grinned, hopping up and quickly offering a hand to the guy before you. "I'm sorry I didn't see you there. I was too lost in thought. You're okay, right?"
Accepting your help up, the white haired boy reached for your hand. You had to hold back a gasp at how cool his hand felt when it wrapped around your own.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't looking where I was going either." He replied, dusting off his pants and looking around the ground for something. When his eyes landed on a cell phone, he bent over to pick it up. "But normally I can sense people; I couldn't really sense you…"
"Hm, you don't say?" You grinned. "Well, I'm [Nickname]. It's nice to meet you..?"
"Hitsugaya. Hitsugaya Toshiro."
"Shiro-Chan, it's nice to meet you!"
"Don't call me that!"
"Don't call you what?"
"Shiro-Chan!"
"Well, what do you want me to call you?" You asked, blinking innocently.
"Anything but Shiro-Chan!"
"Okay, then I'll call you To-Kun?"
"No."
"Toshi-Kun?"
"No."
"Fine. Hitsu-Kun it is then." You crossed your arms, nodding with a solemn look on your face for a moment before your lips twitched up into a smile.
Hitsugaya tried to suppress a groan, face deadpan; you were worse than Matsumoto, Momo, and Ukitake combined. "Not that either."
"So, Hitsu-Kun," You chirped, grinning at him, "What brings you out to the park so late?"
"None of your business." Hitsugaya answered in a cold, clipped tone.
You blinked, feeling your eyes widen and fill with childish crocodile tears. "S-So cold..!"
The white haired teen froze, eyes widening once they locked with your [color] watering eyes. He opened his mouth to respond, but no words seemed to form other than stutters. "Uh-I-I-Um…"
Meanwhile, you tried to widen your eyes even further, trying to appear as innocent as you could; this was your specialty. You lived to trick and play with people.
Hitsugaya cleared his throat, adverting his piercing gaze as his cheeks heated up. "I was going to watch the sunset and escape from the chaos around for a bit."
"Really?" You questioned, your crocodile tears instantly vanishing as a smile tugged at your lips once more. "Watching the sunset is very calming! Especially if you want to get away from chaos and stuff!"
"…That was kind of the whole point…" Hitsugaya muttered, bringing his hand up to push through his spiky white locks.
"But you're heading the wrong way if you wanna get a good view." You informed him, beaming. Feeling an adventurous streak pass through you, you reached forward and grabbed his hand once more. "C'mon! I'll show you the best place to watch sunsets at!"
Sputtering in protest, Hitsugaya let you drag him along behind you. His stuttering was silenced when you shot him an impish grin before looking back in front of you; you didn't wanna crash into another stranger today, even if there were good results from the first time it happened…
You couldn't stop thinking about how cool his hand felt; it was almost like you were holding onto ice. Shaking you head to dispel those thoughts, your fingers tightened around his hand as your speed increased.
"Ta-daaah~!" You sang, skidding to a halt. Hitsugaya almost rammed into you once more, but managed to catch himself before it happened. After all, he had to have some nice reflexed if he was the Taicho of the Tenth Division.
Sitting down on the short wooden fence that separated the hill from a nearby street, you softly smiled once you saw the orange, red, and pink tinted clouds from the sun setting. Wordlessly, Hitsugaya joined you and sat down beside you.
"I like coming here when I need time to think. There are tons of times when I need to escape the chaos of my own life." You softly spoke resting your chin in the palms of your hands. Feeling his incredulous stare you briefly chuckled before rolling your [color] eyes. "My life is more chaotic than you may think."
"I never said it wasn't." Hitsugaya simply replied, shrugging his shoulders for a moment before moving his gaze from you. Of course, he didn't know anything about your life; you were a complete stranger to him. However, something about you felt different to him, but he couldn't place what. It was like he couldn't sense you. When he closed his eyes and cleared his mind, he couldn't sense you sitting beside him. Irrationalized fear struck his chest for a moment; would you still be there, beside him, when he opened his eyes again?
"I can't help but feel like things are going to get more chaotic. Life is moving forward and things are changing." Your voice met his ears, soothing away the fear that shouldn't have been there to begin with. "It's almost as if I can sense a new horizon being carried over by the wind. If only it were that simple…"
"Things change because we make things change," Hitsugaya exhaled, opening his turquoise orbs to stare at the setting sun. "We're the ones who are responsible for bringing change to the world. We have to try and change it for the better."
"Mm, wise words."
"Hn," Hitsugaya lightly scoffed, feeling your [color] gaze on him.
A serene quiet filled the space around you two. You didn't feel the need to uselessly chatter; this was a silence of understanding. It was almost as if fate had brought the two of you together today to bring comfort through the chaos.
As the two of you were walking home, a flare of reiatsu caught your attention. It was nearby; you couldn't tell if it belonged to a regular Hollow or a weaker Arrancar from this distance. Hitsugaya froze up as well, jumping when a loud beeping emerged from the cellphone that was placed in the pocket of his jeans. As quickly as he could, he pulled the electronic from his pocket, flipping it open and cursing under his breath.
"Did you stay out after curfew?" You teased, knowing that he needed an excuse to escape. After all, he was probably unaware that you had sensed the enemy's presence.
Bright turquoise eyes snapped up, slightly narrowed in anger. "Che, I don't have a curfew!"
"Fine, fine." You giggled, waving you hand back and forth. Your eyes focused in the direction of the new presence, narrowing just a fraction once you realized that it was near the soccer field that you and Karin usually practiced at. Whatever it was, you weren't going to let it just destroy the area. "Well, I should be going. I guess I'll see you around when I'll see you around."
"Wait..!" Hitsugaya exclaimed, his cool hand flying out to land on your shoulder as you turned towards the enemy's direction.
"Don't worry. I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself. I don't need you to walk me home." You grinned, shrugging his hand from your shoulder and running ahead. Glancing back, you sent a wave over your shoulder towards Hitsugaya, who stood there looking frozen.
Balling his hands into fists, the white haired Taicho mentally cursed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his Soul Candy. Popping it into his mouth, his soul was forcibly extracted from his faux body. In the blink of an eye, he darted off towards your direction, hoping that he'd catch whatever it was that had appeared before they could catch you instead.
You, however, could feel the faint burst of his reiatsu when he left his gigai. So he was a Shinigami, like you had been thinking. Hitsugaya was good at disguising his reiatsu while he was in a gigai, but he wasn't able to hide every bit of his reiatsu.
Blinking in surprise, you watched as a black and white blur sped past your still running form. Flash stepping, you idly thought to yourself before grinning and pushing reiatsu to your feet as well. Hitsugaya's head snapped back towards you when he felt the faint burst of your reiatsu, his jaw dropping when he saw you easily keeping up with his fast pace.
"You…how…what..?"
"I told you I was a big girl and could take care of myself. Measly little Hollow and Arrancar don't scare me." You grinned, your hand grabbing at your side and your fingers curling around the hilt of your summoned Zanpakuto. Before he could open his mouth to retaliate, you had smoothly withdrawn the blade of your wakizashi from its sheath, and with another burst of reiatsu, overcome the white haired Shinigami (Taicho, you noted, due to the presence of a white haori over his standard black Shihakusho uniform) and raced ahead of him.
It was nothing to worry about; just a small fry regular Hollow. It might have been a bit larger than the usual Hollows that had appeared in the past few months, but the level of its reiatsu was nowhere on par with the countless other Hollow that you had slain recently while Ichigo had vanished during the summer.
When Hitsugaya approached the scene, you were sheathing your Zanpakuto and the Hollow was vanishing. He was rendered speechless once more as your Zanpakuto vanished back to wherever you kept it, and the feel of your reiatsu leveled out before dropping away and became untraceable once more.
"Let's keep this our little secret, ne, Hitsu-Kun?" You asked, winking at him and grinning as you crossed your arms across your chest. "'Cause I have a feeling that we'll be seeing lots more of each other soon."
"You… Are you a Shinigami?" He questioned, turquoise orbs shining in confusion.
"Hm, I guess you could say that. I was a long time ago. That's pretty much all you need to know, Taicho-Kun." Your grinned widened, eyeing his uniform. Times like these made you wonder how different your life would have been if Aizen hadn't interfered and made you a Vizard. You had a strong feeling that you would have gotten to know Hitsugaya really well if none of that would have happened. Even now, you feel like this is only the beginning.
Grinning, you walked up to the white haired captain and paused in front of him for a moment. Feeling confident once more, you quickly pressed your lips to his cool cheek. Pulling back you were satisficed once you saw the blush spread across his cheeks.
"Let's meet again soon, Hitsu-Kun."
With that, and a small burst of reiatsu to power your flash steps, you vanished from the young Taicho's sight.
Hitsugaya was left standing here, hand placed on his cheek holding the spot where you had kissed him. He could feel his face burning in embarrassment.
He knew one thing; he was no longer as cool as ice.
...
Authoress' Note: Thank you so much for reading! This One-Shot was written for iamyourdismise from Quizilla back in the day. Just on another note, I do not own Bleach or the lyrics from the Bleach Musical used above, "Silent Wish."