A/N: Hi there. So this is my second shot in anime fic and of course, it's Bleach since its the only anime I've devoted my life with. Ever since Mayuri 'dezombified' our dearest Shiro-chan I started rereading some of the stories I've written for him and here's one of it. Let me know what you think of it and do respond to the notes at the end. :)

A Different Ending

"Go, Toushirou." Ichigo's words barely reached the young captain's ears as his gaze was fixed on his long-lost friend. No usual reprimand was shot back at the substitute Shinigami, giving the situation no less tense at all. Toushirou had his blade- long, proud and lustrous pointed at Kusaka.

"Toushirou…" Kusaka gasped between his breaths.

"Let's finish this." Toushirou whispered through the cold winds and Kusaka raised his zanpakutou as well.

"Yeah… let's…"

As the haze calmed and the two got their stances, they charged; each sword extended in their hands. Roars of rage, shame, determination, betrayal and loneliness rose from their throats as they struck each other with the same zanpakutou. When the blades collided, flashes occurred in Kusaka's mind and his eyes widened as he recalled the unfairness of the past that wasn't his choice.

From the distance, the sky began to clear and a few dews of blue particles were rising to the air. Kusaka's soul was disintegrating as Toushirou's Hyourinmaru struck deep in the other's chest and through him. Kusaka's blade was broken in half and the white colour of the small captain's haori turned crimson on his side.

"You're a genius…after all…" Kusaka's choked words were all that existed to Toushirou at that moment. He could hear laughter from the past and a voice that had always sounded so keen into calling his name.

"You've tried to kill me twice…But I won't die…My existence will continue…" A strangled sound came from within Kusaka as he fought death for the second time.

"Kusaka…" Toushirou spoke softly. "We'll always be friends."

"What…if I'd…" Kusaka struggled out. For a moment, Toushirou was perplexed. But only for a moment.

"It's okay. I know." With his right hand on his Hyourinmaru, Toushirou lifted his left hand and pulled the other Hyourinmaru out of his side. The blade was broken; all that was left was five to six inches of crystal azure ice dragon. Without hesitation, Toushirou guided the hilt and aimed the twin blade to his heart.

He groaned. The blade pierced his own chest while Kusaka stared gaping, shocked in his last minutes of existence. Toushirou's small hands and body were trembling, could no longer take the torment that sliced his very soul since everything started.

"Why…Toushirou, why?" Kusaka was almost completely gone but the two Shinigami were looking at each other. All the flashbacks came at once, suffocating both of the friends that hadn't been given a fair chance. Central 46 took everything from them and they were victims of a higher power that were supposed to ponder every good reason that could come to Soul Society. Heartbreakingly, Kusaka wasn't one of it.

Toushirou understood what this was all about; the King's Seal, the fight, everything that Kusaka had put out was for one thing and one thing only.

"It's okay, Kusaka. Now we both get to keep Hyourinmaru. And we'll always be friends, ne?" Toushirou muttered in his low voice, his breathes coming out in gasps. No pretence or cold superiority was detected in the Tenth Squad Captain's speech, only tender and amity.

As Kusaka vanished in front of him, Toushirou felt himself slipping and let his mind succumbed to the pain. Before Kusaka entirely disappeared, the taller guy gave him a smile. Toushirou returned it.

He remembered saying something to Ichigo who'd came closer towards him but then seconds later, he felt himself welcoming the everlasting darkness.

I feel light already.

Ichigo stood by the side; his eyes never left the figure of the white-haired captain. He watched as Kusaka's spirit particles flew through the sky and dematerialized from view. The King's Seal took his place and came into view as it landed a few feet away from Ichigo. He walked towards it and picked it up.

"Something so small…" He muttered. His eyes travelled back to Toushirou as he stood straight up once again. The substitute Shinigami took a few steps forward towards the smaller soul reaper when the latter spoke,

"Thank you, Kurosaki." That clearly took Ichigo by surprised. Could the ice really be melting after all?

"Oi, Toushirou-" His words were cut off when he saw the seemingly younger guy stumbled on his feet and fell to the ground unceremoniously, void of his usual grace.

"Toushirou!" shouted Ichigo as he closed their distance. He was about to put his hand on the small taichou when a number of figures clad in black appeared, encircling around them.

"You guys…?" A tall silhouette then came into view and the Secret Mobile Corps members move aside, revealing the Captain-Commander of Gotei 13, looking unfazed and emotionless as ever.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, hand us the King's Seal." The old man instructed him. Ichigo looked down at the object just for a split second before throwing it to one of the unit force whom he knew to be under Soi Fon's command but the said captain was still below at the battle ground.

"We will return this to the Royal Guards, Yamamoto-soutaichou." The man holding the King's Seal said and then he nodded to the rest of his members signalling their departure. They were gone in a flash step and Ichigo was left with the two captains on the bare-icy-covered-frost land.

Only when he glanced at the said azure crystal did he remember the boy that had fallen from his gravity. He scrambled over to the young prodigy and scooped the lithe body up; one arm under the crook of Toushirou's knees and the other on the small of his back, his head conveniently resting on Ichigo's chest. Ichigo looked over to the Captain-Commander but he was cut off his words when the old man beat him to it.

"Unohana-taichou will be waiting for him in the Squad Four barracks. I suggest you take him quickly to her." Yamamoto said. If Ichigo didn't know better, he'd thought he heard a little tint of worrisome and concern in the old captain's speech which would betray his usual demeanour.

"Hai..." Ichigo simply said and he rushed off from the tall cliff and down to the Squad Four.

Waiting wasn't always hard for Ichigo. He was used to being told to wait and sit tight while people around him moved frantically about and on with their lives. It wasn't any different in the waiting hall of Squad Four areas where he was leaning on the wall next to the door of Toushirou's operation room.

What made it tough for him was the other shinigamis waiting along with him but with entirely different manner.

Rangiku was standing opposite him, leaning as well on the wall and her head was down, covered by her orange curls. She had been quiet for a while after she'd asked Ichigo of her captain.

On his right, Hinamori Momo was on the floor with her elbow propped on her knees. She'd slide down the wall when she figured that they weren't going to hear any news from the inside in a short while.

Renji and Rukia had come in the earlier hours of waiting but they had left when duty called. There weren't many casualties that had been done; the line of captains that had been involved in the small war prevented it from spreading afar. And yet the one who was making people worry and fighting for his life was just a small form in Ichigo's eyes.

"Yare yare…I guess we won't get to enter his room with this long queue, ne Ukitake?" The voice of a certain laidback captain brought all three heads in the hall up and looked at him. Kyouraku gave a small dip in his head while Ukitake flashed his kind smile. It was weird for Ichigo to see the usually unperturbed taichou being void of his flowery-pink kimono and was held up by his white-haired companion.

"Kyoraku-taichou! Ukitake-taichou!" greeted Hinamori. "What are you doing here?" She asked, already on her feet.

"How's Hitsugaya-kun faring?" Ukitake inquired with Hinamori when he saw that Matsumoto was somewhat lost in her own thoughts. The said lieutenant hadn't even made a move to acknowledge the other two captains in the hall. Ukitake couldn't blame her really; any fuku-taichou would fight to ensure their captain's safety at the optimum. Waiting like that was nowhere near to that implication.

"Rangiku-san?" Ichigo called her. It took Matsumoto more than a couple of seconds to realize that her name was called and when she brought her head up, she was even more surprised to see Ukitake and Kyouraku. Before she could uttered any words, the door to the room they had been loyally waiting for opened and came Unohana-taichou with her lieutenant trailing behind her.

"Unohana Taichou!"

Exclamations from both fuku-taichous and unexpectedly even the white-haired taichou took Ichigo by surprise and evidently, so did Isane.

"U-Ukitake Taichou." Hearing the Squad Four's fuku-taichou voice, Ukitake bloom spots of crimson on his cheeks, realizing how he'd acted. The other female taichou however was still smiling genuinely at them all.

"My, my… I'm glad that you're all worried of Hitsugaya Taichou's wellbeing and I can assure you that he's all right and fine. He just needs some rest." She explained. And then her head turned and she locked eyes with Ichigo.

"He requested to see you, Kurosaki-kun."

All eyes were on him when he'd finally translated Unohana's words. He managed himself to ask,

"He's awake?"

Unohana nodded. "For a short while. He wanted to make sure that everyone was alright before going down under himself. I did make him promise me that he would rest so he'd be wise not to break it." She said, all the while letting her thin smile crept along her spotless face and not knowing how it affected those who heard her. She failed to notice that Ukitake-taichou and Kyouraku-taichou were already taking a few steps back.

Ichigo hesitated however, when he remembered a certain orange-haired lady not too far away from him. She must've felt his eyes on her because Matsumoto quietly said,

"It's okay. Go on."

Ichigo nodded his head although the Tenth Squad-fukutaichou wasn't looking at him. Unohana moved aside to let him through the door and he barely heard them shut behind him as his eyes settled on the small form in the room.

Toushirou had his upper half covered in bandages and he was sitting upright on his bed. His zanpakutou was rested against the wall by his side, looking loyal as ever. His head turned to Ichigo's direction and the substitute Shinigami took his place in the empty chair by the bed.

"You're all right, Toushirou?"

"Oh… And you?"

"I'm fine."

"And the others?"

"They're fine too."

Toushirou sighed.

Ichigo let him took his time as he wasn't rushing to go anywhere else. He had after all been waiting for the young captain to regain his consciousness and then there he was, staring and looking for words.

"They killed him because he delivered the first blow." Toushirou began to speak softly, his voice sounding hoarse and Ichigo allow himself to listen attentively.

"They thought that his urge to fight even a fellow of his was his undoing. I agree."

"Why do you say so?"

"Because I was reminded of you." Toushirou stated, his eyes moving towards the window and gazing up at the clear sky outside. "You'd throw yourself in front of a blade before you let it touch any of your friends."

"Toushirou, you can't still possibly think that what you have around you will only bring you down." Ichigo said, his fingers unknowingly forming a fist.

"Isn't that obvious enough already?" The white-haired captain answered him, still looking at the window. "And to think I'd let Matsumoto get on the list as well…"

That made Ichigo winced slightly. He shook his head even though he knew Toushirou wasn't looking and he tried to keep his calm but it was faltering the more he listened to the words that were sprouting out innocently from the captain's lips.

"If only I weren't too weak with myself…"

"That's not true, Toushirou. You'll only be weak if you let yourself believe that you're alone. You're weak if you convinced yourself that you have no one else. And by then you'll be so much like Aizen."

That made Toushirou spun his head around and Ichigo thought he was going to get cursed at but then the small captain was still speaking in whispers.

"I'm nothing like Aizen."

Ichigo smirked.

"I know. You're so much more."

Toushirou's teal eyes widened partially for a slight second, just a slight before they droop down again and Ichigo took note of the bruises under his eyes. He looked tired, Ichigo mused.

"I'm not going to pull rational with you, not when you're in this state." Ichigo finally said after a whole minute of silence.

"I'll let you see for yourself what others see in you." He quietly got up and walked to the door and his hands were reaching out but then he stopped. Ichigo glanced behind his shoulder.

"I don't want to meet with anyone right now." Toushirou's voice was barely above whispers before he spoke softly again. "I can't. I'm not ready."

The substitute Shinigami turned to face the captain but he didn't move from his spot.

"You're not allowed too anyway. Unohana wants you rested as you promised her."

Toushirou frowned at him.

"Then what did you mean-"

"Forget what I said." Ichigo waved his hand lazily as if trying to scare a fly or two. "I'll visit you again before I go back. Try and get some rest, Toushirou."

He faced the door and was about to exit the second time when the young captain stopped him this time.

"Kurosaki?"

"What is it?" Ichigo asked, his eyes blinking at the other Shinigami.

"It's Hitsugaya Taichou."

Ichigo did say he would visit before he returned to Karakura Town. If anyone wish to reads more, you know where to go! :)