Title: Little White Lie
Author: Gypsy Dancing Girl
Fandom: Bleach
Pairion or Characters: No pairing intended. Yachiru, Hitsugaya Toshiro, Matsumoto Rangiku, Zaraki Kenpachi, Hinamori Momo, minor/nameless shinigami/patients/civillians
Rating: T
Genres: Angst, Hurt/Comfort . . . and I'm making up my own category. "Growing Up." I think growing up is an important thing and Yachiru does her own bit of growing up here.
Warnings: Character Death, War
A/N: I got the idea when looking at the 30kisses lj prompt lists. "Little White Lie" is prompt number 17 under List Eta/Battle. And I am not current with either the manga or the anime. I'm so not current that it's not remotely funny. But, sometimes you don't have to be current for a stroke of brilliance to hit you. This fic operates on the assumption that the arrancar eventually invade Seretai in the future.
"They're attacking the 4th Division!" Ikkaku bellowed. "Those barbarians!"
Zaraki Kenpachi threw his blade across the room in rage. "They're what?!" Ikkaku repeated his angry cry, and Zaraki snatched Yachiru off the desk, tossing her onto his back. "Come on, Yachiru! We've got enemies to kill."
"Yay! Come on, Ken-chan! We'll show them! Only we're allowed to pick on the 4th Division!" Yachiru shouted. This was common belief in the 11th Division. They may have been the 4th Division's greatest tormentors, but they were also the other division's staunchest defenders in time of need. "Hurry up, Ken-chan! They need us to save them!"
They touched down lightly on the roof of the main infirmary. "Where's Unohana-taicho?" Zaraki bellowed through a large hole down into the chaos of panicking medics and patients.
A man crawled out from under the desk. "She's treating the wounded by the gate with Hanatarou-kun. All the upper seats except for me are in the field!"
"Then what are you doing under a desk?!" Zaraki bellowed. "You're a leader! Act like it! Get them out!"
Yachiru dropped down into the hole and grabbed the arm of a large burly man. "You gotta get out. Go that way!" He started the stampede and Zaraki had to wade through the masses to pluck her off the ground so she didn't get stepped on.
"Come on, Yachiru, this whole place is gonna cave in!"
"Ken-chan! Look out!"
The man toppled over as a section of roof pinned him to the ground. He pushed Yachiru away and shoved the whole tile off of him, staggering to his feet.
"By order of Aizen-taicho."
Yachiru looked up to see the sick vice captain standing in the doorway to the long term wing with an arrancar on either side. She carried in her arms the biggest firework that Yachiru had ever seen, cradled to her like a baby. Zaraki suddenly snatched Yachiru by the back of her shirt and flung her as far as he could. "Go, Yachiru!"
"Ken-chan!"
"I'll be right behind you."
Yachiru ran as fast as she could, and was still sent flying with the explosion. Ken-chan had not followed her. He had lied to her. Again. She hated when adults lied to her. They were always the good-for-you lies, but Yachiru was not a child.
Yachiru summoned a hell butterfly angrily. "She killed Ken-chan," she shrieked in outrage. "She exploded him along with the whole 4th Division!"
She heard a very vile swear word. One that made even Ken-chan blush when she repeated Ikkaku last year. Then there was static and a woman's voice. "Yachiru-chan! Stop my taicho! Don't let him get there!"
The panic startled Yachiru. She blinked at the hell butterfly. "Alright."
She sprinted towards the 10th Division and started waving her arms as the white haired little boy captain came towards her. "Little Taicho! Taicho-chan!" She was almost knocked off her feet as he passed her. She growled and took off after him. "Taicho-chan!" He was going to see the sick vice captain. The one who blew up Yachiru's Ken-chan. What did the sick vice captain call the Little Taicho? Yachiru never remembered other people's nicknames. It had something to do with his hair and his real name though. She finally remembered.
"Shiro-chan!"
Hitsugaya Toshiro wouldn't have stopped for any other name. Yachiru used his hesitation to launch herself at his back. Her deadweight hopefully would slow him down enough to let a senior officer intervene. Except there were no senior officers to intervene and Hitsugaya Toshiro was stronger than he looked.
"The Fourth Division was attacked," he snarled, continuing on.
Yachiru clung to him like a leech. She finally got both arms around his neck and tightened her grip. "Taicho-chan, slow down!" She cut off his air entirely with one small hand across his nose and mouth and her other arm hooked across his throat.
The small captain stopped short and flung her over his head, but Yachiru was used to being thrown aside. She regained her footing and charged him directly, locking her arms around his waist. "Taicho-chan!"
"Let go of me!" he shouted, but Yachiru was stubborn.
"There ain't nothing left! One of Aizen's flunkies exploded the whole place!"
The older boy stilled, one hand still on her head but no longer trying to push her away. "Hinamori? Hinamori's in there," his voice cracked. That was the sick vice captain's name, Yachiru finally remembered.
"She's dead, Taicho-chan! Don't you die too!" Yachiru suddenly was holding him up instead of holding him back. "Taicho-chan, you're squishing me," she protested, finally letting him go. The boy wasn't going anywhere.
"Momo," he whispered, tears filling his eyes. "Bed-wetter Momo." He sank to his knees and Yachiru hugged him. This wasn't the time to mourn, but it was as close as they were going to get until after the arrancar invasion was over. And they might not be alive to do so by then. So she cried too.
That's how Matsumoto found them. The Vice Captain had looked terrified as she raced towards the smoky ruins of Fourth Division, and Yachiru started crying harder when relief took the place of fear on Matsumoto's face. At least the 10th Division Vice Captain could reunite with her Captain. Yachiru would never have her Ken-chan again.
The buxom woman skidded to her knees next to them, folding the Taicho-chan in her arms. "Taicho," she murmured comfortingly. Yachiru stood next to them, wiping her eyes and sending out such a venomous look that the civilian crowd made a hasty detour around them. Taicho-chan seemed to be returning to normal, calming in the presence of his vice captain.
"Who?" he finally gasped out, turning away from Matsumoto. "Who?"
Yachiru could have told him the truth. The old Yachiru would have. She could have shrieked in outrage that he was mourning the teenager who had killed her most precious person. But the sick vice captain was Hitsugaya Toshiro's most precious person and she was too sick to know any better.
"Sometimes adults have to tell little white lies to children. It's better that way, Yachiru. Especially when the children aren't ready for the truth."
"I'm not a child!"
Zaraki enclosed her in one of his rare affectionate embraces. "Enjoy being a child. It's not much fun telling little white lies as an adult."
Yachiru looked straight up into the teal eyes of Taicho-chan. He was a captain. He was very responsible and strict. He demanded respect. And Yachiru lied to him.
"It was an arrancar. The sick vice captain helped my Ken-chan try to stop it and didn't have enough time to get out of the way. But at least they kept the arrancar from getting away too, and I'm glad it's dead!"
Matsumoto looked at her strangely over Taicho-chan's head, but Yachiru stared back steadily. She could be an adult too.
Yachiru had a division to look after, enemy forces to repel, people to inform, funeral arrangements to make, and bankai to master so she could keep her division as a captain like Ken-chan. Telling a little white lie was nothing.
She could be an adult too.
The End.