Title: Aura's Ballad
Anime: Bleach
Chars: Hitsugaya, Rukia
Rating: Teen for teenager stuff!
Summery; Its the night before chrisms and the shinigami have been sent into the real world once more to clean up after the Winter War and give one death berry a break for once. Two Ice wielders get paired up on the night and walk around and watch the humans do this called Christmas. Along with one grumpy captain and his birthday forgotten....
Songs Listened when writing:
Song:Gone
Artist:Jessica
Song: Riddle I Don't Care
Artist: Apocalyptica featuring Adam Gontier
Song: Lady Stardust
Lisa Miskovsky (check this one out)

Snow was fresh and white as a swan's feather as it feel on the twinkling lights of the aura from the trees that held the dancing colors for a moment and caught in the light. Voices of cheer from a father to his wife and the laughter of a child mixed into the beat of the harmony this night brought on all the world to share for a moment. It spread across like a ripple from one nation to the other but the root of the meaning of the night held true for many of the faiths and those not just for one day peace could be on the earth for a moment. To those who were older than many on this peace was just an illusion cast for the moment on the world while the real war went on through the decades of time once more to them.

Peace was a rough definition of a state of tranquility or serenity; in which this night seemed to hold the trues as the snow feel in silver bells sounds if you could listen to it in natures greatest sympathy. Maybe one soul found tranquility in this gentle air as she stood still under the midnight sky, being kissed by winter's tears. Ebony locks that fell cultivated down her youthful and girlish face in a frame of ink that was hidden from normal humans eyes. Lushes eyes were closed as they peered into the depths of sky as if waiting for something to happen from the long eyelashes with a gentle curve. She seemed doll like with the heart shaped face, pale as procline in her skin tone that many late geisha tried to copy poorly. Maybe she looked even smaller in the loose robes that covered her body in black and a belt of white. This tiny looking child who seemed no older then sixteen was what they called a shinigami or death god who bore the lost souls to the after life. Duty always came first to those like her in their derive to the human world and the gods that looked over them. No questions of why or how they came to be were asked by these ferrymen of the after world. At least not until now had there been any questions of why.

She could be scold at for pausing to stand under the merry lights in the middle of the snow fall. She could be scorn by her fellow shinigami for not sending a soul tonight to the after world. She could be punished for a number of things this night but it seemed not a care could touch this petite shinigami at this moment. Perhaps she did not care on such a night for any of them. Only taking a moment for her selfish desire to bath in the chill of the December air and feel the peace this one brought with it. How could that be selfish?

One pair of eyes could see her, cold and calculation and deeper then any ocean bottom of the purest jade. These eyes were as sharp as a samurai's blade forged and just as dangerous in the reflections they held of the world of both living and dead. Watching in a spark of disaprovement of this girl's pause from her world but also showing a mix of understanding maybe. Framed in much the same robes save the white jacket that set him apart by rank from all others. He was a person of few words and held his actions to tell his meaning to the world. Boy was the only word that he was called but he was more then thrice the age of a so called boy that promised to grew into a man of power and grace once it was called for. Above all this for the time, he was a captain and lived the label every waking hour on his adolescent shoulders.

Coughing only lightly in a pale mist of breath in the chilled air to seek the attention of the other for the moment. "Ahem."

Amaranthine eyes opened and blinked for a moment, trying to get a sense of where she was. Who could see her? Sensing a gaze most found icy, she turned to met the harden gaze of tealed ice that showed a passing of humor in the colors from the lights on the tress of evergreen."Hitsugaya-taicho?" she smiled sheepishly at him and blushed a faint pink on her cheeks for being caught like this by the captain of the tenth. Getting ready for the scolding from his sharp tongue as he was known for by many who worked under the genius.

Huffing as his lips faded to a more gracescultivationgraces smile as she only blinked at him in the confusion of the change. How could she scold her for what he was doing himself for a few moments. Getting away from the noise of the city and turning off his cell phone as in just for a moment of serenity. Even he would break his mold for a few moments on such a night in the snow fall. "Rukia Kuchiki, what are you doing?"

Smiling as she only rubbed the back of her neck for a moment in the steady gaze of the young teen captain. "Well Sir, I was thinking on a few things.."

Thinking on a few things in the middle of a portal? Sounding like something his own Matsumoto would do while in the middle of paper work to avoid the subject all together. "So what was so import for you think on Kuckiki?"

Turning to look at the lights for a moment in a frown of ponder on how to frame her answers to him. It seemed a little out of character for the labeled "ice prince" to ask her something in a conversation or small talk. Ichigo or Renji would have just laughed at her for thinking on such weird things or little notes she made of the human world. "I was thinking the lights looked like the aura as the snow fell and the wind made the branches move and mix the colors if you switched your eyes just a bit."

Surprised a bit by the childish out look of the woman all the more. Was this her only reason for skipping portal and standing in the open under a tree with colorful lights? It was absolutely childish and simple minded for a shinigami of her age and noble background to even think such things and act! Hitsugya only frowned as she looked at the snow at her feet in discomfort by his silent reaction. Many of the shinigami did that to her save Renji or Ichigo now. Was that all they saw of her? A woman who had to act like a doll all the time? Couldn't she ever be herself for once and not pay a price for it like this? He saw those thoughts so openly on her face he felt guilt for his actions and understood somewhat of how she felt..

"What else?" he asked, pushing for more from the petite shinigami.

Rukia only gave him a delicate smile that his eyes captured in the snow. "I was also thinking how the snow looks like falling stars from the sky. The ones not beautiful enough for the sky to keep."

So she could peer deeper into things, seems there was more to her strange thought trails then he thought. "Why makes you think that? It seems depressing for someone like you a bit."

Huffing a little as she only crossed her arms at him. How could the tenth captain know anything about her at all? They barely shared words save at meetings or being sent into the real world like this. Rukia glared a little at him or looked down a little but there was not much of a difference in the height of two ice wielders much to the amusement of one dragon.

"They each are different from the other, maybe shining brighter then the ones who made them so they got jealous and sent them to earth as a punishment." she shot back gruffly like at him or that damn smile now small on his face but amused by her answers all the more. "Yet together they shine brighter then once single star under the lights and the moon and blind out those who sent them down."

Different then what he thought might come out from her lips but it seemed to revile a deeper meaning to him. Why was she thinking like that? Was there a reason? He knew the young lady had a hard time in the ranks and her family but now she seemed shattered in front of him and raw in the light. "Maybe those stars also choose to fall from being lonely?"

Pausing with a graces smile at him in understanding, Rukia caught a tint of something she also understood in a unspoken expression on her face. "Maybe they also fell to find someone and not be so lonely."

Both fell into a uncomfortable silence as she kicked at the snow on her toe as he in turn only scowled once more as he normally did. Hitsugaya was wondering what had sprung this change of his mood towards the other shinigami. He was seen as a loner by most but a few treated him "normally" as Ichigo and Matsumoto did. It was both refreshing and irritable to the captain and maybe wondered if that why she had gotten so close to the human boy in the first place. To be treated like a friend and picked on and to share laughter and memories with for down the line in such nights like this. Was he jealous of her? Bitterly he realized he might be right..everyone treated with a animosity of fear and respect for most of life from his looks to his powers and personality.

Rukia only saw something pass deep in the depths of those, resounding that feeling she held to her heart every waking day. Renji and Ichigo had helped to ease that feeling but it was always there when she by herself. Maybe she could help him? "Um Hitsugaya-taicho, are you free right now? Renji and Ichigo I think can cover a few weak hollows sir."

Eying the pint size girl, he studied her closer a bit by her question. What was her game? "Yes I am, why do you ask?"

"I was wondering if you might want to get some warm tea and food? I know I am getting hungry and a bit chilled from being outside all day like this sir." she reply

For a man of few facial expressions, he blinked in a surprise or shock she was asking him out in a friendly nature. Rukia was known for this also in reaching out to the loners and strangers in the Court. He had heard she welcomed the new recruits warming into her squad so this made sense for her personally. What did he have loose in this but kill a few hours of watching snow flakes fall and kill weak hollows.

"Why not Kuchiki. Its not like I have much to do for once." his answer was dry as normal but he got a bright smile from the girl.

The two shunpoed to their giga's and slip into the fake bodies they used on earth missions. He always felt a bit heavy and shorter for some reason in his a bit as he flexed his hands a little with a grimace. Hitsugaya hated being in these things when he came to earth but it was needed to blend into and hide their powers. Rukia only yawned as she streaked out the muscles of thing for a bit of warmth. Having gotten use to it from her long stay with Ichigo just a few years ago. Finding it a bit more comfortably then it use to be and enjoying her time in the human world more and more.

Set in warm jackets and scarfs, the pair once more set in the world to see what they might find. Rukia loved the decorations that was used for Christmas on each street of the lights and cheery colors. The world here was full of colors of each kind and new textures she lived to explore while back home things were so black and white. Which was quit boring now that she thought of it with a thin lipped line on her face for the moment. Life was not just black and white or good and evil as they seemed to hold as a sacred law to the shinigami. It was much more shades and spices if you dared to step outside those alabaster walls. Rukia only silently agreed with herself with a nod while someone watched a conversation that was one sided in her head it seems. Or maybe she was talking to her soul blade as he did on many occasions now. Best to leave some things alone for his own sanity.

"How about this little cafe Hitsugaya-sama?" she pipped out, looking into the frosted windows a little.

He was going to correction to call him taicho but realized it mind sound strange in a normal setting of this world. At least she used -sama as a show of rank and respect unlike one death berry. "Alright Kuchiki-san."

Smiling brightly, she walked into the warmth and carols being played over the speakers not to loudly. Hitsugaya only followed the bouncing rabbit for the moment with a long pent up sign and wondered why he was doing this again. Both sitting near the back of the room near a fire that was merrily sparking away and adding a homey feeling to the cafe that many seemed to hold in the light chatter of merry making conversation from couple to high school girls.

A waiter came up with a smile that seemed a young man, collage age and a name tag of Masa on it. "What can I get you?"

Rukia thought for a moment, "Chai tea please with whip cream and?" her finger taped her chin for the moment, over looking the menu, "a bowl of cream of wild rice soup."

"I'll just have green tea and the same soup she ordered." Hitsugaya gruffly said to the waiter.

A cold shiver ran up the spine of the poor waiter as he speedily walked away from the cold gaze of the boy.

Huffing at him, Rukia pouted a little at the smaller of two for the moment. "You don't have to be so cold Hitsugaya-sama. He was just doing his job like we do."

"He was lingering to long for my taste." yet those sharp eyes had not missed how the waiter had let his gaze slip on the petite shinigami, very male. It had ticked him off that this man would so openly look at her like she was some peace of meat. "He had other things on his mind more then our order."

Blinking as native as she was it seems, Rukia only let it go as he crossed his arms and pouted. Now to see the Ice Taicho pout like a middle schooler was a sight that only made her start giggling playfully into her hand for the moment. He in turn only blinked a bit bewilder by this sudden change of attitude from the girl and rolled his eyes but a wisp of a smirk replaced the scowl. With the mood lighting up a bit between the two was relaxing for once as their drinks came and food soon after. Her lips blew on the hot chai and sipped it, loving the warmth chasing the cold away to her nerves and to the ends of her little toes. Hitsugaya only smiled once he looked up as she put down the drink, whip cream had ended at the end of her nose. Thinking not much, his finger reached out to tap it away and place it in his tongue of the sweetness mixing in the bitter green tea. Pink bloomed on her cheeks by his actions as she watched him suck his finger of the cream. It was the first time she had seen this relax in his features and could study the boy captain closer.

"Hes kinda cute without the scowl but you can tell once he starts to grow up a lot of hearts are going to be broken by him." dreamily picturing a older Hitsugaya-taicho. Eyes were her one true weakness in a man and she was falling in love with the clear jaded color of his eyes. There so much depth in them it was as if drowning in the color and never wanting to turn from them. They peeled back the layers of the person and could freeze them on the spot or whisper protection in a message of expression. Someone to have such deep eyes seemed also wrong for his age but it only added to his character and mystery of who he was. "He seems always hiding his true feelings from the world as well. What is he thinking right now?"

'What are you thinking about?" her face was held by her hands as she leaned in on her elbows on the table to peer closer into his eyes without fear for once.

Hitsugaya only was taken back by the blunt question from the Kuchiki girl. Noble's did not place their elbows on the table or be so blunt but he recalled Renji telling Ichigo how they grown up in the streets so her actions now made more sense to him. "Thinking? What is there to think on?"

Boy, he needed some time to daydream if you asked her. "Lots of things! Like...why is the sky blue? Or how the clouds take different shapes on a clear day! Why do men have nipples or why do shinigami always have to wear our uniforms while other's don't? Even if their are aliens!"

Rambling on, his expression was a dead pan as his month hung open at the list of pointless things to think on. How much free time did this girl have to let her mind wonder so like this? He was always thinking of paper work and his duties but not this pointless crap but it seemed also nice to be with some so care free at the same time and not worry on keeping his title on everyone's mind all the time. So Hitsugaya did one thing he had never done before around other people.

Laugh

Rich and full of texture that piled from his chest and rolled out warm as honey. It seeped into the listener and danced around in her ears like a fine Cello piece. Touching a deeper level that most laughter did not, it made her only smile at him warmly and add in her silvery bell Soprano to his rich altos tones and carry on over the shop.

A world in all their own from the rest of the pacing one seemed to en lope the young shinigami as they eat and Rukia mussed the taicho of the tenth while he would make a comment now and then with a smirk. He didn't laugh again like he had before, but something seemed softer in his movement's and face, relaxed around this petite girl and her bright smile and rambles of nonsense. Hitsugaya at last was pulled away by the chimes of the grandfather clock at how late it had become for the pair. They should have left an hour ago but he let it go in his mind for once as she to heard the clock and paid for the food and drinks as they paced out the door into the fall of white snow.

No more speaking came for a few blocks of the pair, enjoying the quit night for once. How often did and would they get this kind of peace? Even if just a false sense it was a strange comfort both welcomed on the heavy thoughts of also what the snow meant. Both were connected by a single event that had taken something from their lives and that could never be returned or healed perhaps. Now they could only hope to let it scar and move on.

"Hitsugaya-sama," Rukia bit her lower lip. "Do you think we can win the war against Aizen?"

Pausing in his step, his teal orbs locked onto this girl as she bite her lower lip till it was red from tension. How could he answer her? He was trying to find that out himself. "We can only try Rukia Kuchiki, much rides on this coming battle and we will suffer losses. People we know and friends we grew up with will be the price paid for this war and one man's greed for power. Yet we can only bare our teeth and fight and try to win for their sake of both the living and the dead."

It was a hard truth to hear from him, Rukia swallowed down the pain that build from his words. We can only try was his one simple answer to the war that drew closer with each snow flake falling all round in a blanket of pure white. Casting her purple eyes down, one single tear fell free for the moment of her heart. Those friends she had made in both worlds could be killed and lost to her. They were her reason to fight now and without them? What then?

Now he was making a girl cry for kami's sake! What kind of man made a girl cry? Pulling in the cold air to refresh his mind a little from the grave thoughts. He simple walked over and gently touched her shoulder in a show of understand somewhat on his part. "I am sure we will win, it will take more then Aizen to bring down all the shinigami and we have our allies in this world now. They could be the one thing to turn this War around." It was a lie on his part in his beliefs a few humans could make a different but it brought back the light to her purple eyes as she smiled and nodded.

"Your right Hitsugaya-taicho! We can only try our best and kick his butt!" Rukia was once more the hyper rabbit as before. Fire dancing in her eyes as his words renewed her vigor for the best. "

Smiling a bit in a loosing battle with her energy, it was catching it seems like a cold. Hitsugaya followed in her tracks in the snow to the lights and even he paused as she gasped in shock of what they saw or had found. Christmas trees covered in millions of lights and bulbs moved in the gentle wind as the lights changed and caught in the ice sheets that had been put round them to capture the reflections of the lights. It was a man made northern light to the eyes of the on lookers.

"Its beautiful!"

"Your right Kuchiki,," he replayed, smiling.

Hitsugaya stood by the awe stuck shinigami and over looked the clearing cast in rainbow lights that danced and waltzed over the snow and ice. It was as if they had captured the lights from the sky some how and made them here.

"Can you hear that?" she whispered, closing her eyes for the moment. "The snow sounds like silver bells almost when it lands on the ground."

Peering at her, he closed his own eyes and stood still as he manged for the moment. It was a tickle on the wind, a giggle almost in playful cheer of being here but he heard it. Maybe it was because they both held ice based zanpakuto that let them into this secret world. Letting them hear this song of December no one else could.

"Its an Aura Ballad." she whispered with a gentle smile to him as he opened his eyes.

What better to call it? "Your right, it is a Aurua Ballad." Hitsugaya echoed her smile and felt warmer then he had in a long time around this girl.

"We have to head back Rukia." he said, brushing off the snow from his shoulders for the moment.

Rukia stopped and looked at him. "You called me Rukia!"

He had? Puzzlement seemed to freeze his mind for the moment. "I am sorry then."

"No its ok! All my friends call me Rukia!" she sheepishly smiled and blew at a snow flake dancing down.

"Friend? You think of me as friend now?" Hitsugaya only stared at her for moment all the more in a puzzlement of the situation.

"Yep Hitsugaya-taicho, were friends now!" Rukia giggled at the blank look on his face at such a odd thing.

Friends? He didn't have friends save from Momo but that had ended it seemed. Could he be friends Rukia like this? It was a odd feeling settling into his mind for the moment. Maybe he could? Mayne he needed a friend? Hitsugaya looked over at this ebony haired girl who was laughing at him and smiled a little. He could be friends with her.

"Alright Kickcie, you win but I am still your captain no matter." he shot back, walking away with a smile hidden from her.

"Yes Sir!" she yelled back and running to catch him to the ice captain, still hearing their Aura's balled in her ears.