Nearly Gone*

I don't own bleach.
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Hitsugaya Toshiro had always tried to be like a big brother for his best friend, Hinamori Momo. He always wanted to protect her and defend her from everything so when she told him she liked her captain, Aizen Souske, why did it bother him so much? The minute she told him, it was as if someone had lit his icy insides on fire.

He knew deep down that Aizen was truly a wretched being but something inside him kept him from telling Momo. He felt like he should always protect her and something inside of him told him that if he was to tell her, she would hate him and she would be hurt. There was no way he would ever want to hurt her.

Toshiro always knew he had hated Aizen and his creepy accomplice, Gin. The day that Aizen "died", he got a terrible feeling deep in his chest and it hurt him to think that he couldn't tell Momo. She was in too much pain as it was. All he could do was comfort her and tell her everything would be ok when really, the very world they knew and lived in was crashing down into oblivion.

When the news came that Aizen was not dead, Toshiro vowed to himself that for Momo and the rest of Soul Society, he would kill Aizen Souske and end all of the pain that he had caused his dearest Hinamori. All of this time, he never realized that he truly loved her.

It wasn't until the day that Toshiro himself nearly ended Hinamori's life that he realized that he didn't want to be an older brother figure for her. He wanted to be the man that she could love and be protected by. But he had just shattered everything that he had worked for and done for her. The light that was always in her wonderful chocolate brown eyes was nearly gone and it was all his fault.

Aizen had injured him as well but he wouldn't let that stop him from holding his newfound love in quite possibly her last moments.

He hadn't realized how close they had grown together in the years they had known each other. They shared so many nights and days together and he had never realized how much he really loved her. Now that her life was fading, he noticed that a part of him was growing numb. She laid so helpless in his arms. Her eyes looked up to him, still so open and faithful to him. She begged for him not to cry. He could hardly see through his own tears.

Looking back on that day and all the years that had come before it, he wished he had noticed his own feelings for her. Even though they were both still alive and well (which he thanked the gods for every day), things weren't the same with her. Her mind always seemed to roam along aimlessly and he would constantly find her crying until she didn't have any more tears to shed. All he could do was give her a shoulder to cry on and tell her he was there and that it was all over, that those days wouldn't come back again. He still loved her just the same and he still swore to protect her from any harm but he found he couldn't keep her from herself.