Prompt: Heartbreak.
Pumpkin Power
In the days following Tousen's betrayal and departure Hisagi Shuuhei found himself travelling through his waking hours as if dreaming; even the investigation into his possible traitorous affiliations seemed barely to affect him.
He honestly didn't know how to react, at unexpected moments he would find himself raging with anger and at others sagging with the sheer weight of grief that his beloved and trusted captain would betray him this way.
Nobody else seemed to know what to say to him either; it was worse for him than either Kira or Hinamori, they had both proven themselves as loyal in the days before the betrayal – poor Hinamori brutally wounded and brave Kira picking up the pieces of his squad, nobody doubted them.
Slowly the days bled into one, weeks became months and still Hisagi seemed cut off from the rest of Seireitei, branded with an invisible mark that seemed to precede him into every room making the atmosphere strained and tense.
He barely noticed that the summer of his deception had passed, giving way to the reds and golden hue of autumn; the wind turned colder and the seasons marched onwards towards winter.
Hisagi walked slowly through the streets of Seireitei, he had just delivered a batch of paperwork to the Soutaichou's offices and was taking his time returning to his own squad headquarters.
As ever he was lost in his own bleak thoughts, ignoring those who passed him by unless courtesy required a polite greeting, until he suddenly jerked forwards – struck by an unexpected missile.
Whirling around he gripped the hilt of his zanpakuto automatically, mouth falling open and hand dropping back to his side when he came face to face with a grinning Yachiru flanked on either side by Ikkaku and Yumichika. They were standing on the front steps of 11th Squad each holding eggs; a cold trickle of sticky fluid slowly inching its way down his neck told Hisagi that was what had hit him.
Anger began to rise in him, banishing any self-pitying or depressed thoughts for the first time in weeks; furiously wiping the back of his head clean he stalked over to the laughing trio and planted himself firmly in front of them.
"Explain." He said firmly, allowing his gaze to slide from one to the next.
"It's Mischief Night, silly Numbers-face," Yachiru piped up enthusiastically, holding up another egg for his inspection.
Seeing that Hisagi still looked nonplussed Yumichika sighed prettily and plucked the egg from the outstretched hand of his fukutaichou.
"Mischief Night is a tradition from the Living World," he began, smirking slightly at Hisagi's now egg drenched clothes. "It's commonly celebrated in the West."
Hisagi still didn't understand why he had been pelted with a foul smelling missile and was beginning to get the feeling he was somehow being mocked; angrily he grabbed the egg from Yumichika.
"I don't know what you think you are doing, but it could be dangerous." Hisagi began, voice rising as he continued until he was shouting at them. "Don't you realise you could hurt somebody?"
"Calm down, would ya?" A gruff voice said from behind him. "She's just havin' a bit of fun, you should try it sometime."
All the fury drained out of Hisagi as swiftly as it had risen as he turned slowly to face the behemoth that was the 11th Squad Captain.
"Z-Zaraki Taichou," Hisagi stuttered, feeling suddenly like he was the one in the wrong. Many years under Tousen had deeply ingrained the need for propriety and utter respect to one's superiors, even so Hisagi couldn't quash the little voice of indignation that rose inside him.
"I do know how to have fun.." he muttered, before he even realised he was speaking aloud.
"Heh, sure you do," Kenpachi said sarcastically, his one eye fixing on Hisagi – who was perfectly snapped to attention – in amusement.
Hisagi blushed, furious at himself for doing so, how dare this man mock him this way? Of course he was a captain but even so the prejudices of Tousen had seeped into him; his captain had always considered Zaraki to be barely more than a monster capable only of dull-witted destruction.
Kenpachi had already turned away from Hisagi, disinterested in the 9th squad lieutenant, and was disappearing up the steps of his own headquarters; a sudden mad urge to prove he could be something other than what people saw him as overcame Hisagi and, on that impulse, he threw the egg he had taken from Yumichika with all his might at the retreating captain.
The missile flew straight and true and, with a crack that reverberated around the street, smashed over Kenpachi's head, the stick innards of the egg sliding down over the spikes of Kenpachi's hair.
Hisagi stood frozen, his mind unable to process the idiocy of what he had just done; his arm was still outstretched and his eyes wide as Kenpachi turned very deliberately and walked back over to him. For a long moment the two men stared at each other and Hisagi was sure this would be the end for him, until suddenly Kenpachi threw back his head and laughed.
"Good on ya, kid." Kenpachi smiled, a hand larger than Hisagi's head clapping him on the shoulder. "Perhaps there's hope for ya yet."
A little dazed still Hisagi was barely aware of Yachiru asking something about him staying to play a while and only realised what was going on when he was inside the corridors of 11th squad itself.
He had never been inside this squad before as his captain had always deplored it saying it was a hive of chaos where violence reigned and any sane man would not want to go; so it was with interested eyes that he looked around and saw, not the hell that Tousen wanted him to believe, but something else entirely.
It was still the polar opposite of the dignified and silent 9th but the comaderie between the men here seemed almost palpable; there were still fights breaking out all over but it was clear that far from being stemmed from violence they were good-natured and buzzing with life.
A few minutes later Hisagi found himself sat in the main dining hall of the squad with Yachiru, Kenpachi, Ikkkaku, Yumichika and some strange orange vegetables; picking one up he was surprised at the weight of it.
Watching as the others picked up various implements from an ornate knife (Yumichika) to their zanpakuto (Kenpachi) and began to carve into the vegetables; raising an eyebrow in question Hisagi picked up one of the spare knives and began to follow suit.
"It's Halloween," explained Kenpachi, voice a deep rumble as he carved a wicked fanged smile into his pumpkin. "A festival of the devil in the Real World, these are pumpkins and we carve 'em to look scary."
Hisagi was about to ask why they were celebrating all these Real World holiday traditions but then he saw the fond look Kenpachi was giving an excited Yachiru and kept his mouth shut; surprised at the gentleness of the large war-like man.
Many hours later Hisagi Shuuhei found himself covered from head to foot in sticky pumpkin juice, pulpy innards smeared all over the floor and a distinctly wonky face smiling up at him from his carved pumpkin; never had he behaved less like the prim and proper 9th squad lieutenant he was supposed to be and, in all the weeks since Tousen had left, never had he felt so at peace.
Hisagi felt a lump rise in his throat as he realized this is what he had been missing, something he had never had with his own captain and had never expected to find here amongst the 'monsters' of 11th – a family – and finally his heartbreak began to heal.